Concerning the Nature of Good, Against the Manichæans 48
48 Augustin Prays that the Manichæans May Be Restored to Their Senses PL 42, 571
O great is Thy patience, Lord, full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy, and true; who makest Thy sun to rise upon the good and the evil, and who sendest rain upon the just and the unjust; who willest not the death of the sinner, so much as that he return and live; who reproving in parts, dost give place to repentance, that wickedness having been abandoned, they may believe on Thee, O Lord; who by Thy patience dost lead to repentance, although many according to the hardness of their heart and their impenitent heart treasure up for themselves wrath against the day of wrath and of the revelation of Thy righteous judgment, who wilt render to every man according to his works; who in the day when a man shall have turned from his iniquity to Thy mercy and truth, wilt forget all his iniquities: stand before us, grant unto us that through our ministry, by which Thou hast been pleased to refute this execrable and too horrible error, as many have already been liberated, many also may be liberated, and whether through the sacrament of Thy holy baptism, or through the sacrifice of a broken spirit and a contrite and humbled heart, in the sorrow of repentance, they may deserve to receive the remission of their sins and blasphemies, by which through ignorance they have offended Thee. For nothing is of any avail, save Thy surpassing mercy and power, and the truth of Thy baptism, and the keys of the kingdom of heaven in Thy holy Church; so that we must not despair of men as long as by Thy patience they live on this earth, who even knowing how great an evil it is to think or to say such things about Thee, are detained in that malign profession on account of the use or the attainment of temporal or earthly convenience, if rebuked by Thy reproaches they in any way flee to Thy ineffable goodness, and prefer to all the enticements of the carnal life, the heavenly and eternal life.
Orat Augustinus pro Manichaeorum resipiscentia. O magna patientia tua, Domine misericors et miserator, longanimis et multum misericors, et verax ; qui facis oriri solem tuum super bonos et malos, pluis super justos et injustos ; qui non vis mortem peccatoris, quantum ut revertatur et vivat ; qui partibus corripiens, das locum poenitentiae, ut relicta malitia credant in te, Domine ; qui patientia tua ad poenitentiam adducis, quamvis multi secundum duritiam cordis sui et cor impoenitens thesaurizent sibi iram in die irae et revelationis justi judicii tui, qui reddis unicuique secundum opera sua ; qui in qua die conversus fuerit homo a nequitia sua ad misericordiam et veritatem tuam, omnes iniquitates ejus oblivisceris : praesta nobis, dona nobis, ut per nostrum ministerium, quo exsecrabilem et nimis horribilem hunc errorem redargui voluisti, sicut jam multi liberati sunt, et alii liberentur, et sive per sacramentum sancti Baptismi tui, sive per sacrificium contribulati spiritus et cordis contriti et humiliati , in dolore poenitentiae, remissionem peccatorum et blasphemiarum suarum, quibus per ignorantiam te offenderunt, accipere mereantur. Tantum enim valet praepollens misericordia et potestas tua et veritas Baptismi tui, clavesque regni coelorum in sancta Ecclesia tua, ut nec de illis desperandum sit, quamdiu in hac terra per tuam patientiam vivunt, qui etiam scientes quantum malum sit talia de te sentire vel dicere, propter aliquam temporalis et terrenae commoditatis consuetudinem vel adeptionem in illa maligna professione detinentur, si ad tuam ineffabilem bonitatem saltem increpati tuis correptionibus fugiant, et omnibus carnalis vitae illecebris coelestem vitam aeternamque praeponant.