Instructing In Trials

Tum vero instruenda et animanda est infirmitas hominis adversus tentationes et scandala, sive foris sive in ipsa intus Ecclesia: foris adversus gentiles vel Iudaeos vel haereticos, intus autem adversus areae dominicae paleam. Non ut contra singula perversorum genera disputetur omnesque illorum pravae opiniones propositis quaestionibus refellantur: sed pro tempore brevi demonstrandum est, ita esse praedictum, et quae sit utilitas tentationum erudiendis fidelibus, et quae medicina in exemplo patientiae Dei, qui statuit usque in finem ista permittere. Cum vero adversus eos instruitur, quorum perversae turbae corporaliter implent ecclesias, simul etiam praecepta breviter et decenter commemorentur christianae atque honestae conversationis ne ab ebriosis, avaris, fraudatoribus, aleatoribus, adulteris, fornicatoribus, spectaculorum amatoribus, remediorum sacrilegorum alligatoribus, praecantatoribus, mathematicis, vel quarumlibet artium vanarum et malarum divinatoribus, atque huiusmodi ceteris ita facile seducatur et impunitum sibi fore arbitretur, quia videt multos qui christiani appellantur, haec amare et agere et defendere et suadere et persuadere. Quis enim finis praestitutus sit in tali vita perseverantibus, et quam sint in ipsa Ecclesia tolerandi, ex qua in fine separandi sunt, divinorum Librorum testimoniis edocendum est. Praenuntiandum est etiam inventurum eum in Ecclesia multos christianos bonos, verissimos cives caelestis Ierusalem, si esse ipse coeperit. Ad extremum ne spes eius in homine ponatur, sedulo monendus est: quia neque facile ab homine iudicari potest quis homo sit iustus, et si facile posset, non ideo nobis proponi exempla iustorum, ut ab eis iustificemur, sed ut eos imitantes ab eorum iustificatore nos quoque iustificari sciamus. Hinc enim fiet quod maxime commendandum est, ut cum ille qui nos audit, immo per nos audit Deum, moribus et scientia proficere coeperit et viam Christi alacriter ingredi, nec nobis id audeat assignare nec sibi; sed et seipsum et nos et quoscumque alios diligit amicos, in illo et propter illum, diligat qui eum dilexit inimicum, ut iustificans faceret amicum. Sanctus Augustinus Hippoensis, De Catechizandis Rudibus Source: Migne PL 40.317-318

Then, however, we should equip and animate the weakness of man against temptations and scandals, whether outside or inside the Church. Outside, against the Gentiles, or Jews, or heretics; inside against the chaff of the Lord's threshing-floor. 1 Not that we must dispute against every single type of perverse man, and that all their erroneus opinions are to be refuted by prearranged arguments, but it should be shown, according to the brief time allowed, that this was foretold, and how temptations are useful for the education of the faithful, and what medicine there is in the example of the patience of God, who permits them even to the end. 2 But, then, while he is being established against these, whose perverse multitudes fill the churches with their bodies, at the same time, the precepts of a Christian and honorable way of life should also be briefly and befittingly be enumerated, lest he be easily seduced by drunkards, and the covetous, and deceivers, and gamblers, and adulterers, and fornicators, and lovers of public spectacles, and those bound up with unholy charms, and sorcerers, and astrologers, or diviners practising any sort of vain and wicked art, and all others a similar character, and he think himself not worthy of punishment because he sees many called Christians who love these things and do them and defend them and encourage them. And the end appointed for those who persist in such a life, and how they are to be endured within the Church, from which they will be separated in the end, these are to be taught by the testimonies of the Divine books. But let it be foretold that he will indeed find many good Christians in the Church, most genuine citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, 3 if he begins to be one himself. And, finally, he must be sedulously warned against placing his hope in man. 4 For it is not easy for man to judge what man is righteous, and if it were easy, yet the examples of the righteous are not given that we be justified by them, but that as we imitate them we come to know how we might be justified by Him who justifies them. For thus shall be that which must have the greatest approval, that when he who hears us, or rather God through us, has begun to advance in morals and knowledge and has eagerly entered on the way of Christ, he will not boldly ascribe this to us or himself, but he will love himself and us and others as friends in Him and for the sake of Him who loved him while an enemy, who justifying him He made him a friend. 5 Saint Augustine of Hippo, On The Catechising Of The Uninstructed 1  cf Mt 3.12, Lk 3.17 2 cf Mt 13.30 3 cf Cf. Hebr 12.22 4 cf Jer 17.5 5 Rom 5.9-10