If the Manichees were willing to discuss the hidden meaning of these words in a spirit of reverent inquiry rather than of captious fault-finding, then they would of course not be Manichees, but as they asked it would be given them, as they sought they would find, as they knocked it would be opened up to them. The fact is, you see, people who have a genuine religious interest in learning put far more questions about this text than these irrelegious wretches; but the difference between them is that the former seek in order to find, while the latter are at no pains at all to do anything except not to find what they are seeking.You know, I've had Augustine's Confessions and, I think, The City of God on my shelves for some few years, but have never found time to read them. I'll have to work harder on that.
- Augustine, On Genesis: A Refutation of the Manichees, Book II, Chapter 2, Section 3
The Importance of Baptism as Christ's Ordinance
9 months ago
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