The life of S. Augustine. The first part: Written by himself in the first ten books of his Confessions faithfully translated.

CHAP. IV.

Why more joy in the conversion of men eminent, or noble.

INspire (O Lord,) and operate; excite and restrain; enflame and elevate, us; breath forth thy fragrant odour, and lustill thy delicate tast; make us in love with thee, and let us run after thee. How many are there, who do, out of a more profound hell of darkness, than Victorinus, return toward thee and come to thee, and are illuminated by thee, and receive that thy light, which who so receive, have power also given them to become thy sons? But yet, as such happen to be lesse known a∣broad, so even those, who know them, joy less for them. For, where more men rejoyce, there every one hath more joy, because they hear, and are enflamed from, one another. Again those Converts, known by more, are guides to more in the way to salvation, and go before many others, that will follow; and therefore men re∣joyce also more for these that go before, because they rejoyce not for them single. Otherwise farre be it, that in thy tabernacle the persons of the rich should be ac∣cepted before the poor; or the noble before the igno∣ble; when as rather; Thou hast chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty, and base things of the world, and things that are despised hast thou chosen, yea, and things which are not, that thou mightest bring to nought things that are. And yet the same least of thine Apostles, by whose tongue thou spakest these words, when as the Proconful Paul, being conquered of his pride and great∣ness by his arms, and being brought under the gentle

yoke of thy Christ, became now a Subject of the great King, he himself, from his former name, Saul, delighted to be called Paul, in memory of so great a Victory. For the enemy is much more conquered in such a one, whom he more possesseth, and by whom he possesseth more; and the proud are by him more possessed, from the title of their nobility and by them many more others, from the name of their authority. By how much higher, therefore, * the breast of Victorinus was esteemed, in which the Devil had held and fortified himself, as an im∣pregnable fort, and * the tongue of Victorinus, with which great and keen weapon so many souls had been slain; so much greater must needs be the exultation of thy chil∣dren, when our King had thus bound the strong man, and when they saw his vessels, taken from his service, and made clean and fitted for thy honour, and serviceable un∣to to the Lord for every good work.]

Notes

• John 1.12.
• 1 Cor. 1.27, 28, 1 Cor. 15 9. Acts 13.9.
• Mat. 12.29. 2 Tim. 2.21.