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| To Felix and Hilarinus
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Letter LXXVII.
(a.d. 404.)
To Felix and Hilarinus, My Lords
most Beloved, and Brethren Worthy of All Honour, Augustin Sends
Greeting in the Lord.
1. I do not wonder to see the minds of believers
disturbed by Satan, whom resist, continuing in the hope which rests
on the promises of God, who cannot lie, who has not only
condescended to promise in eternity rewards to us who believe and
hope in Him, and who persevere in love unto the end, but has also
foretold that in time offences by which our faith must be tried and
proved shall not be wanting; for He said, “Because iniquity shall
abound, the love of many shall wax cold;” but He added
immediately, “and he that shall endure to the end, the same shall
be saved.”1969
Why,
therefore, should it seem strange that men bring calumnies against
the servants of God, and being unable to turn them aside from an
upright life, endeavour to blacken their reputation, seeing that
they do not cease uttering blasphemies daily against God, the Lord
of these servants, if they are displeased by anything in which the
execution of His righteous and secret counsel is contrary to their
desire? Wherefore I appeal to your wisdom, my lords most beloved,
and brethren worthy of all honour, and exhort you to exercise your
minds in the way which best becomes Christians, setting over
against the empty calumnies and groundless suspicions of men the
written word of God, which has foretold that these things should
come, and has warned us to meet them with fortitude.
2. Let me therefore say in a few words to your
Charity, that the presbyter Boniface has not been discovered by me
to be guilty of any crime, and that I have never believed, and do
not yet believe, any charge brought against him. How, then, could I
order his name to be deleted from the roll of presbyters, when
filled with alarm by that word of our Lord in the gospel: “With
what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged”?1970
For, seeing that the dispute which
has arisen between him and Spes has by their consent been submitted
to divine arbitration in a way which, if you desire it, can be made
known to you,1971
| 1971 He refers to their visiting the tomb of Felix of
Nola, in the hope that by some miracle there the innocent and the
guilty would be distinguished. See Letter LXXVIII. sec. 3, p.
346. | who am I,
that I should presume to anticipate the divine award by deleting or
passing over his name? As a bishop, I ought not rashly to suspect
him; and as being only a man, I cannot decide infallibly concerning
things which are hidden from me. Even in secular matters, when an
appeal has been made to a higher authority, all procedure is sisted
while the case awaits the decision from which there is no appeal;
because if anything were changed while the matter is depending on
his arbitration, this would be an insult to the higher tribunal.
And how great the distance between even the highest human authority
and the divine!
May the mercy of the Lord our God never forsake you,
my lords most beloved, and brethren worthy of all honour.
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