from their doctrines, has yet good reason to say to themselves, in the spirit of St. Augustine's address to the Manichæans, "Let them rail bitterly against you who know not with what labour truth is discovered, how hard "it is to avoid error; let them rail bit 66 66 aIlli sæviant in vos qui nesciunt quo cum "labore verum inveniatur, et quam difficillime "caveantur errores. Illi in vos sæviant qui "nesciunt quam rarum et arduum sit carnalia 66 phantasmata piæ mentis serenitate superare. "Illi in vos sæviant qui nesciunt quanta diffi"cultate sanetur oculus interioris hominis, ut pos"sit intueri solem suum. Illi in vos sæviant, "qui nesciunt quantis gemitibus et suspiriis fiat "ut ex quantulacunque parte possit intelligi "Deus. Postremo illi in vos sæviant qui nullo "tali errore decepti sunt, quali vos deceptos "vident. Ego autem sævire in vos omnino non 66 possum, quos sicut me ipsum illo tempore, "ita nunc debeo sustinere, et tanta patientia "vobiscum agere, quanta mecum egerunt proximi "mei, cum in vestro dogmate rabiosus et cæcus "errarem." terly against you who know not how "rare, how difficult it is to overpower "the imaginations of the flesh, and to 66 acquire in their stead the tranquillity "of a devout state of mind; let them "rail bitterly against you, who know "not by what a toilsome process the eye " of the inner man must be healed, for "it to behold its proper light, the Sun "of Righteousness;' let them rail bit terly against you who know not by "what sighs and groanings that study "must be accompanied, which should "lead to any degree whatsoever of the knowledge of God; lastly, let them "rail bitterly against you who have never themselves been deluded by an "error like that which they perceive in 66 66 66 you. For myself, I can in no wise "rail against you; but rather must "I now bear with you as once of old "with myself, and now treat you with "the same mildness and patience 66 "which, in the days of my own blind wanderings into the very same opi"nions, I experienced from my friends." CONTENTS. |