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278 Credibilily of the Gospel History.
cernino: the time of Auoustine's beino- in the Manichaean
scheme, because he himself speaks differently : sometimes his
expression is that he was with them^*" almost nine years, at
another time^ full nine years : sometimes he says that when
the difficulties of their scheme perplexed him, he wasy in
the twenty-eighth, at other times ^ in the twenty-ninth year
of his age ; nay, he speaks of his beings in the thirtieth year
of his age, or almost thirty years old, before his eyes were
opened.
The reason of this different way of speaking- seems to be
that his change was gradual: for the space of nine years,
or very near it, from the nineteenth year of his life, he was
entirely*^ theirs; in the twenty-eighth or twenty-ninth year
of his ag-e doubts arose in his mind ; about the end of which
last year"^ he seems to have determined to be no longer a
Manichee ; in the next year, the thirtieth of his life, when
his mother came to him at Milan, he was only'^ not a Manichee
; nay, in his thirty-first year he had not a*" clear notion
of the origin of natural and moral evil ; and it was not till
the thirty-third year of his age that he was baptized.
^' Nam novem ferme anni seculi
tenebris falsitatis,— volutatus sum.
sunt, quibus ego in illo limo profundi ac
Confess. 1. 3. c. xi. n. 20. Et per annos
ferme novem, quibus eos animo vagabundus audivi, nimis extento desiderio
expectabam istum Faustum. ib. 1. 5. c. vi. n. 10. Quid enim me aliud coge-
bat, annos fere novem,—homines lUos sequi ac diligenter audire— ?
De Util.
Cred. cap. i. n. 2. " Novem annos totos magna cura et diligentia
vos audivi. De Mor. Manich. c. 19. n. 68.
y Per idem tempus annorum novem, ab undevicesimo anno setatis meae,
usque ad duodetricesimum seducebamur et seducebamus. Confess. 1. 4. c. i.
'^ Proloquar in conspectu Dei mci annum ilium undetrigesimum aetatis meae.
Jam venerat Carthaginem quidam Manichaeorum episcopus, Faustus nomine,
&c. Confess. 1. 5. c. 3.
* Et ecce jam tricenarium setatem gerebam, in eodem luto haesitans,—dum
dico, Cras inveniam. Ecce manifestum apparebit, et tenebo. Ecce Faustus
veniet, et exponet omnia. Confess. 1. 6. c. xi. n. 18.
*• Audite doctos ecclesiae catholicae viros tania pace animi, et eo voto quo
ego vos audivi-. nihil 0])us erit novem annis, quibus me ludificastis. Longe
omnino, longe breviore tempore, ()uid intersit inter veritatem vanitatemque,
cernetis. De M. E. C. cap 18. n. 34.
•^ Dubitans de omnibus, atque inter omnia fluctuans, Manichaeos quidem
relinqucndos esse decrevi ; non arbitrans eo tempore dubitationis meae in ilia
secta mihi permanendum esse Statui ergo tamdiu esse catechumenus in catholica
ecclesia, mihi a parentibus commendata, donee aliquid certi eluceret, quo
cursum dirigerem. Confess. 1. 5. c. ult. n. 25.
^ Et invenit me periclitantem quidem graviter desperatione indagandae
verilatis. Sed tamen cum ei indicassem, non me ([uidem jam esse Manichaeum,
sed neque catholicum christianum.—Ih. 1. 6. c. i. n. 1.
" Etmtendebam ut ccrnerem quod audiebam, libcrum voluntatis arbitrium
caasam csseut male faceremus, et rectum judicium tuum ut paterenuir, et earn
liquide cernere non valebam. lb. I. 7. c. 3. n. 5.