_S. Augustine:_ Fly, then, by unwavering faith and holy habits, fly,
brethren, from those torments where the torturers never desist, and
where the tortured never die; whose death is unending, and where in
their anguish they cannot die. But burn with love for and desire of the
eternal life of the Saints where there is no longer the life of toil nor
yet wearisome repose. For the praises of God will beget no disgust,
neither will they ever cease. There will there be no weariness of the
soul, no bodily fatigue; there will there be no wants: neither wants of
your own which will call for succour, nor wants of your neighbour
demanding your speedy help. God will be all your delight; there will ye
find the abundance of that Holy City that from Him draws life and
happily and wisely lives in Him. For there, according to that promise of
His for which we hope and wait, we shall be made equal to the Angels of
God; and equally with them shall we then enjoy that vision of the Holy
Trinity in which we now but walk by faith. For we now believe what we do
not see, that so by the merits of that same faith we then may merit to
see what we believe, and may so hold fast to it that the Equality of
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and the Unity of the Trinity, may no longer
come to us under the garb of faith, nor be the subject of contentious
talk, but may rather be what we may drink in in purest and deepest
contemplation amid the silence of Eternity (_De Catechizandis Rudibus_,
xxv. 47).
_S. Augustine:_ O Lord, my God, give me what Thou biddest and then bid
what Thou wilt! Thou biddest us be continent. _And I knew_, as a certain
one says, _that I could not otherwise be continent save God gave it, and
this also was a point of wisdom to know Whose gift it was_. Now by
continence we are knit together and brought back into union with that
One from Whom we have wandered away after many things. For he loves Thee
but little who loves other things with Thee, and loves them not for
Thee! O Love that ever burnest and wilt never be extinguished! O
Charity! O Lord, my God, set me on fire! Thou dost bid continence? Then
give me what Thou biddest and bid what Thou wilt! (_Confessions_, X.
xxix.).
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