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Augustine of Hippo. Confessions

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Augustine of Hippo

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Thus, at that time, I “believed” along with my mother and the whole household, except my father. But he did not overcome the influence of my mother’s piety in me, nor did he prevent my believing in Christ, although he had not yet believed in him. For it was her desire, O my God, that I should acknowledge you as my Father rather than him. In this you aided her to overcome her husband, to whom, though his superior, she yielded obedience. In this way she also yielded obedience to you, who so command.

18. I ask you, O my God, for I would gladly know if it be your will, to what good end my Baptism was deferred at that time? Was it indeed for my good that the reins were slackened, as it were, to encourage me in sin? Or, were they not slackened? If not, then why is it still dinned into our ears on all sides, “Let him alone, let him do as he pleases, for he is not yet baptized”? In the matter of bodily health, no one says, “Let him alone; let him be worse wounded; for he is not yet cured”! How much better, then, would it have been for me to have been cured at once — and if thereafter, through the diligent care of friends and myself, my soul’s restored health had been kept safe in your keeping, who gave it in the first place! This would have been far better, in truth. But how many and great the waves of temptation that appeared to hang over me as I grew out of childhood! These were foreseen by my mother, and she preferred that the unformed clay should be risked to them rather than the clay molded after Christ’s image.2

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