Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume I/Confessions/Book X/Chapter 1

by Philip Schaff et al.

Chapter I.—In God Alone is the Hope and Joy of Man.

1. Let me know Thee, O Thou who knowest me; let me know Thee, as I am known.^[1] O Thou strength of my soul, enter into it, and prepare it for Thyself, that Thou mayest have and hold it without “spot or wrinkle.”^[2] This is my hope, “therefore have I spoken;”^[3] and in this hope do I rejoice, when I rejoice soberly. Other things of this life ought the less to be sorrowed for, the more they are sorrowed for; and ought the more to be sorrowed for, the less men do sorrow for them. For behold, “Thou desirest truth,”^[4] seeing that he who does it “cometh to the light.”^[5] This wish I to do in confession in my heart before Thee, and in my writing before many witnesses.

Footnotes

1. 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
2. Eph. v. 27.
3. Ps. cxvi. 10.
4. Ps. 1i. 6.
5. John iii. 20.