Lash pisze:1) Augustyn wyrywany z kontekstu - podaj cały kontekst
Kontekst, in English, ale myślę, że większość osób nie ma z tym problemu:
W rozdziale 4 Augustyn pisze o Kościele:
CHAP. 4.--PROOFS OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH.
5. For in the Catholic Church, not to speak of the purest
wisdom, to the knowledge of which a few spiritual, men attain in this
life, so as to know it, in the scantiest measure, deed, because they
are but men, still without any uncertainty (since the rest of the
multitude derive their entire security not from acuteness of
intellect, but from simplicity of faith,)--not to speak of this
wisdom, which you do not believe to be in the Catholic Church, there
are many other things which most justly keep me in her bosom. The
consent of peoples and nations keeps me in the Church; so does her
authority, inaugurated by miracles, nourished by hope, enlarged by
love, established by age. The succession of priests keeps me,
beginning from the very seat of the Apostle Peter, to whom the Lord,
after His resurrection, gave it in charge to feed His sheep, down to
the present episcopate. And so, lastly, does the name itself of
Catholic, which, not without reason, amid so many heresies, the
Church has thus retained; so that, though all heretics wish to be
called Catholics, yet when a stranger asks where the Catholic Church
meets, no heretic will venture to point to his own chapel or house.
Such then in number and importance are the precious ties belonging to
the Christian name which keep a believer in the Catholic Church, as
it is right they should, though from the slowness of our
understanding, or the small attainment of our life, the truth may not
yet fully disclose itself. But with you, where there is none of these
things to attract or keep me, the promise of truth is the only thing
that comes into play. Now if the truth is so clearly proved as to
leave no possibility of doubt, it must be set before all the things
that keep me in the Catholic Church; but if there is only a promise
without any fulfillment, no one shall move me from the faith which
binds my mind with ties so many and so strong to the Christian
religion.
A w rozdziale 5 sprzeciwia się nazywaniu apostołem Manicheusza:
"(...) Perhaps you will read the gospel to me, and will
attempt to find there a testimony to Manichaeus. But should you meet
with a person not yet believing the gospel, how would you reply to
him were he to say, I do not believe? For my part, I should not
believe the gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic
Church. (1) So when those on whose authority I have consented to
believe in the gospel tell me not to believe in Manichaeus, how can I
but consent?"
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