Letter 234: Longinianus answers Augustine about pagan purification and the path to God.

To the venerable lord, the holy father Augustine, truly and deservedly to be honored: Longinianus. I am blessed, and greatly illumined by the shining pure light of your virtue, because you judged me worthy to be honored with the gift of your divine address. But you lay upon me a heavy burden and a very difficult province of reply, venerable lord, especially by your questions, and at this time, in explaining such matters, through the judgment of my own opinion, that is, from a pagan man. There is abundant room for questions about what has already in part long been agreed between us, or is now again more and more agreed by letters and teachings. I do not mean only Socratic teachings, nor your prophetic teachings, best of Romans, nor a few teachings from Jerusalem, but also Orphic, Agathic, and Trismegistic teachings, which sprang up by divine authors long before those others, in ages still almost primitive, and were shown by fixed boundaries to the whole earth, divided by divine arrangement into three parts, before Europe had taken, Asia received, or Libya possessed the name of a good man. And you, by my faith, both are and have been such a man. Within human memory, unless you grant the pattern of a story woven from Xenophon's inventions, I have heard, read, or seen no one, or certainly after one man no other, except you, and with God as witness I would say this with good and sure risk: you always acknowledge God and strive toward him, you can follow him very easily by purity of mind once the body's weight is cast off, and you hold him with the hope of a perfected conscience, not with doubtful belief. But by what way this can be accomplished, it is more fitting that you should not be ignorant of it, and should explain it to me without something introduced from outside, than that you should learn it from me, honorable lord. I confess that I am not yet sufficiently equipped to set out for the seat of this good, as my priestly rites require, though if I can, I gather provisions for the journey. Still, I will set out briefly, as far as I can, what I hold and keep as handed down in a holy and ancient way. There is a better way toward God: a good man, proved by reverent, pure, just, chaste, and true words and deeds, without grasping at any boast from changing times, and surrounded by the company of the gods, having earned the powers of God, that is, having fulfilled the virtues of that one, universal, incomprehensible, ineffable, and untiring Creator, whom you call angels, or whatever other reality after God, or with God, or from God, hastens by the intention of soul and mind toward God. This is the way, I say, by which those purified by the pious precepts of ancient rites, by the purest expiations, and by sober disciplines, hasten on, steadfast in soul and body. But concerning Christ, whom your belief already holds as God in flesh and spirit, through whom you are secure in going to that highest, blessed, true Father of all, honorable father, I do not dare and am not able to express what I think, because I believe it is very difficult to define what I do not know. Since you long ago deigned to tell me, one who already knew, that you love me as a cultivator of your virtues, I have enough testimony for a good life, which I guard so as not to displease you, you who daily commend yourself and your soul to God. You surely understand that I too love you with delight, since I have received and held the rule and line of your judgment about me. But above all, I ask you to grant pardon to my very slight opinion, to forgive a speech to you that you compelled, perhaps relaxed and easily unsuitable, and to deign to teach me, if I deserve it, what you think about these things, or what you yourself believe, by your holy writings, sweeter now, as the poet says, not than honey but than nectar. May you enjoy the kindness of God, honorable father, and please God by perpetual holiness, as you must.

EPISTOLA 234 Scripta post a. 395. Longinianus Augustino, respondens iuxta Trimegisti et Platonicorum placita per deos perveniri ad summum Deum sed non sine sacris purificationibus (nn. 1-2), sententiam suam de Christo non aperiens veniamque poscens si quid minus Augustino probetur (n. 3). DOMINO VENERANDO, ET VERE AC MERITO PERCOLENDO SANCTO PATRI AUGUSTINO, LONGINIANUS. Ambagibus declarat quomodo Deus colendus sit. 1. Beatus sum, et relucentis puro virtutis tuae lumine admodum illustratus, qui dignum me divini tui affaminis honore cumulandum esse duxisti. Sed grave mihi onus et difficillimam respondendi provinciam, domine venerande, satis imponis, praecipue tuis percontationibus, et sub hoc tempore in talibus explicandis, per meae opinionis sententiam, id est, a pagano homine. Quaestionibus siquidem abundet quod ex parte vel iamdudum inter nos convenerit, vel nunc identidem litteris magis magisque conveniat praeceptis, non dicam tantum Socraticis, nec tuis, Romanorum vir vere optime, propheticis, aut paucis Ierosolymiticis; sed etiam Orpheicis atque Ageticis, et Trimegisticis, longe ante illis antiquioribus, et pene rudibus adhuc saeculis diis auctoribus enatis, et toti orbi terrae certis limitibus partitae trifariam divinitus ostensis, priusquam nomen aut Europa caperet, aut Asia acciperet, aut Libya possideret virum bonum, ut tu, medius fidius, et eris et fuisti. Siquidem adhuc post hominum memoriam nisi Xenophontis figmentis compositae fabulae schema concedas, adhuc audierim, legerim, viderim neminem, aut certe post unum, nullum, quod, Deo teste, bono periculo certoque dixerim, nisi te, Deum et conniti semper agnoscere, et posse puritate animi, corporisque proiecta gravedine sectari facillime, et spe perfectae conscientiae, non dubia credulitate tenere. Qua via ad Deum perveniatur Gentilium placitis. 2. Verum qua via effici possit, magis est ut tu non nescias, et mihi non insinuato extrinsecus aliquo dissertes, quam ut a me, domine percolende, scias. Quia tunc, fateor, huius boni in sedem profecturus sufficiens, ut mea expetunt sacerdotia, minime necdum, et si tamen potuero, viaticum colligo. Verum quid traditum sancte atque antiquitus teneam atque custodiam, ut potuero paucis edicam. Via est in Deum melior, qua vir bonus, piis, puris, iustis, castis, veris dictis factisque, sine ulla temporum mutatorum captata iactatione probatus, et deorum comitatu vallatus, Dei utique potestatibus emeritus; id est, eius unius, et universi, et incomprehensibilis, et ineffabilis, infatigabilisque Creatoris impletis virtutibus, quod, ut vestrum est Angelos dicitis, vel quid alterum post Deum vel cum Deo, aut a Deo, aut in Deum intentione animi mentisque ire festinat. Via est, inquam, qua purgati antiquorum sacrorum piis praeceptis expiationibusque purissimis, et abstemiis observationibus decocti, anima et corpore constantes deproperant. De Christo quid dicat nescit. 3. De Christo autem tuae iam credulitatis carnali et spiritu Deo, per quem in illum summum, beatum, verum, et patrem omnium ire securus es, domine pater percolende, non audeo nec valeo quid sentiam exprimere; quia quod nescio, difficillimum credo definire. Ut autem me cultorem tuarum virtutum dignatus es iam olim scienti insinuare quod diligas, satis ad bonae vitae testimonium habeo, quam cum ne tibi displiceam, qui Deo te animamque tuam quotidie insinuas, custodio: intellegis procul dubio quod et ego te delectabiliter diligam, cum tui iudicii de me habiti normam lineamque accipiens teneam. Sed ante omnia, quaeso te, ut exiguissimae opinioni meae veniam concedas, et sermoni meo ad te, quia coegisti, remisso forte, incongruo facile indulgeas, et me quid de his existimes, vel tu quid sentias, sanctis scriptis tuis, ut ille ait, iam non melle, sed nectare dulcioribus 1, si mereor, informare digneris. Dei pietate perfruaris, domine pater, ac perpetua sanctitate Deo placeas, quod necesse est.