忏悔录 第一卷 第二章 作者：奥古斯丁 翻译：邹光

第二章

我怎么向我的神求告呢？我的神，我的主。因为当我求他请他进入我里面，那我的神能进入我里面的什么地方呢？那创天造地的神怎么能进入我里面呢？主啊，我的神，在我里面有什么地方能装下你？你所创天地及生存其间的我怎能装下你？没有你，万有则不存在，因此是不是万有都含有你？因为我已经存在，我为什么还要祈求你进入我里面？因为没有你，我就不存在？因为“我下了阴间，你在那里”（诗篇138：8），即使我未下阴间，你也还在那里。因此除非在你里面，我将不存在，绝对不存在。因为万有都是本于你，倚靠你，在你里面。虽然如此，主啊，即便如此，因我已在你里面了，我还能去哪里求告你呢？你又能从哪里进入我里面呢？你曾说：“我充满天地”（耶23：24）。在天地以外，我又能去哪里，能让我的神进入我里面呢？

CHAPTER II

   2. And how shall I call upon my God--my God and my Lord? For when I

   call on him I ask him to come into me. And what place is there in me

   into which my God can come? How could God, the God who made both heaven

   and earth, come into me? Is there anything in me, O Lord my God, that

   can contain thee? Do even the heaven and the earth, which thou hast

   made, and in which thou didst make me, contain thee? Is it possible

   that, since without thee nothing would be which does exist, thou didst

   make it so that whatever exists has some capacity to receive thee? Why,

   then, do I ask thee to come into me, since I also am and could not be

   if thou wert not in me? For I am not, after all, in hell--and yet thou

   art there too, for "if I go down into hell, thou art there." [11]

   Therefore I would not exist--I would simply not be at all--unless I

   exist in thee, from whom and by whom and in whom all things are. Even

   so, Lord; even so. Where do I call thee to, when I am already in thee?

   Or from whence wouldst thou come into me? Where, beyond heaven and

   earth, could I go that there my God might come to me--he who hath said,

   "I fill heaven and earth"? [12]

忏悔录 第一卷 第一章 作者:奥古斯丁 翻译：邹光

奥古斯丁：忏悔录

第一卷 第一章

翻译：邹光

“主啊，你真伟大，我们赞美你；你有无上的大能、无限的智慧。”
人渴望赞美你，因他是你所创万有的一部份，他必要死亡，因他是有偏差的，这是您拒绝骄傲的明证。尽管如此，他依然渴望赞美你，这人是您所创万有中渺小的一分子。您鼓励他，让他在对您的赞美中得喜乐。因为我们是为您而造，至到进入您的安息，我们的心才能安宁。主啊，请让我知道和了解是该先向您祈求还是先向您赞美，是先认识您还是先求告您。但谁能不认识您，就祈求您呢？因为不认识你而求告，可能并不是向你求告。或许向你求告是为了认识你？“ 然而人未曾信他，怎能求他呢。未曾听见他，怎能信他呢。没有传道的，怎能听见呢。”（罗10:14）现在，“寻求耶和华的人必赞美他”（诗22:26）因为“那些寻找的，就寻见他”（太7:7）寻到主的人必赞美主。主啊，我要寻找您，呼唤您，我向您求。主啊，以您给我的信心向您求，以您通过您爱子的人性启迪我而得的信心向您求，以通过传道人的事工而得的信心向您求。


AUGUSTINE: CONFESSIONS

BOOK 1

CHAPTER I

1. "Great art thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is thy

power, and infinite is thy wisdom." [6] And man desires to praise thee,

for he is a part of thy creation; he bears his mortality about with him

and carries the evidence of his sin and the proof that thou dost resist

the proud. Still he desires to praise thee, this man who is only a

small part of thy creation. Thou hast prompted him, that he should

delight to praise thee, for thou hast made us for thyself and restless

is our heart until it comes to rest in thee. Grant me, O Lord, to know

and understand whether first to invoke thee or to praise thee; whether

first to know thee or call upon thee. But who can invoke thee, knowing

thee not? For he who knows thee not may invoke thee as another than

thou art. It may be that we should invoke thee in order that we may

come to know thee. But "how shall they call on him in whom they have

not believed? Or how shall they believe without a preacher?" [7] Now,

"they shall praise the Lord who seek him," [8] for "those who seek

shall find him," [9] and, finding him, shall praise him. I will seek

thee, O Lord, and call upon thee. I call upon thee, O Lord, in my faith

which thou hast given me, which thou hast inspired in me through the

humanity of thy Son, and through the ministry of thy preacher.