Category Archives: Augustine

Cause of the blessedness…

Posted on May 10, 2015 by Tom Brainerd

The cause…of the blessedness of the good is adherence to God. Augustine, CoG, XII:1

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A good man…

Posted on March 22, 2015 by Tom Brainerd

…he is not justly called a good man who knows what is good, but who loves it. Augustine, CoG, XI.28  

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Neither any author more excellent…

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Tom Brainerd

Neither is there any author more excellent than God, nor any skill more efficacious than the word of God, nor any cause better than that good might be created by the good God. Augustine, CoG, XI.21

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Profoundly remote from our way of thinking…

Posted on February 26, 2015 by Tom Brainerd

For not in our fashion does He look forward to what is future, nor at what is present, nor back upon what is past; but in a manner quite different and far and profoundly remote from our way of thinking.  … Continue reading →

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Oppositions of contraries…

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Tom Brainerd

As, then, these oppositions of contraries lend beauty to the language, so the beauty of the course of this world is achieved by the opposition of contraries, arranged, as it were, by an eloquence not of words, but of things.  … Continue reading →

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As elegant as antitheses…

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Tom Brainerd

For God would never have created any, I do not say angel, but even man, whose future wickedness He foreknew, unless He had equally known to what uses in behalf of thegood He could turn him, thus embellishing, the course … Continue reading →

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Good use of evil wills…

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Tom Brainerd

…God, as He is the supremely good Creator of good natures, so is He of evil wills the most just Ruler; so that, while they make an ill use of good natures, He makes a good use even of evil … Continue reading →

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It would be difficult for me to express how great comfort I take in this…

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Tom Brainerd

For He does not pass from this to that by transition of thought, but beholds all things with absolute unchangeableness; so that of those things which emerge in time, the future, indeed, are not yet, and the present are now, … Continue reading →

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A state of things that does not exist…

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Tom Brainerd

[T]he dominion of the Almighty cannot be eluded; and he who will not piously submit himself to things as they are, proudly feigns, and mocks himself with a state of things that does not exist… Augustine, CoG, XI.13

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Unless known by God…

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Tom Brainerd

…this world could not be known to us unless it existed, but could not have existed unless it had been known to God. Augustine, CoG, XI.10

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