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STANFORD UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

THE WOKKS

AUEELIUS AUGUSTINE,

BISHOP OF HIPPO.

A NEW TRANSLATION.
REV. MARCUS DODS, M.A.

VOL. II.
THE CITY OF GOD,

VOLUIIE II.

EDINBUEGH:
T. & T. CLAEK, 38, GEOEGE STEEET.

HDOOOLXXL

PRINTED BV HtTRRAY AND OIBEt,

roK
T. * T. CLAKK, EDINBURGH.

IX>NI>05» .... HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.
DVBLIN, .... JOHK BOBKBTSOK AND CO.
NEW TOBK, ... 0. 60BIBNZB AND CO.

THE

1^1

) I T Y OF GOD.

Crantflatrti bp ti^r

REV. MARCUS DODS, M.A

VOLUME 11.

EDINBUEGH:
T. & T. CLAEK, 38, GEORGE STREET.

HD0G0L2XL

<L.2J

e7^7^T

Op the foHowing Work, Books IV. XYII. and XVIII. have been translated
by the Rev. George Wilson, Glenluce; Books V. VI. VII. and VIII. by
the Rer. J. J. Smith.

CONTENTS.

BOOK XIV.

rxnm
Of the punishment and resnits of nian*s first sin, and of the propaga-
tion of nun withoat lust 1

BOOK XV.

^e prepress of the earthly and heavenly cities traced by the sacred

historyi 49

BOOK XVI.

The history of the city of God from Noah to the time of the kings of

Isiael, 104

BOOK XVII.

The history of the city of Ood from the times of the prophets to

Christ, 166

BOOK XVIIl.

A parallel history of the earthly and hearenly cities from the time of

Abraham to the end of the world, 217

BOOK XIX

A reriew of the philosophical opinions regarding the Supreme Good,
and a comparison of these opinions with the Christian belief re-
garding happiness, 298

BOOK XX.

Of the last judgment, and the declarations regarding it in the Old and

Kew Tesitaments, 845

VI CONTENTS.

BOOK XXI.

FAGR

Of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and of the varions

objections vged against it, 413

BOOK XXII.

Of the eternal happiness of the saints, the resurrection of the l>ody,

and the miraclefl of the early Church, 472

THE CITY OF GOD.

■ I.

BOOK FOURTEENTH.'

ARGUMEKT.

AOAIX TREATS OF THE SIN OP THE FIRST VAX, AKD TEACIllffl THAT
IT tS THE CAUSE OF THE CARXAL LIFE AND VlCIOrS AFFECTIONS OF MAN.
JCSPECIALLT HE PROVES THAT TKESBAME WHICH ACCOMrANIKa LUST IS THE
JUST PUNISHMENT OF THAT DIKOBEDJENL'E, ANIJ INyriKEfi HOW MAN, IF KB
HAD 50T SINNED, WOULD HAVE SEEK AHLE WITUOITT LUST TO FROPADATK
Hia KUn).

1. T^at the disoht^enee of thfjirst man would have, plunged all men into tlie
t»dlt** mittry o/the second deaths hud nut iJte yvace oj God rescued many.

WE have already stated in tlie preceding books tliat God,
desiiing not only that the human race might be able
by tlieir similarity of nature to associate with one another,
Lut also tliat they might be bound together in haimony and
peace by the ties of relationship, was pleased to derive all
men from one individual, and created man with such a
nature that tlie niend)ei'S of the race sliould not have died,
had not the two fu-st (of whom the one was created out of
nothing, and the oilier out of him) merited this by their dis-
bedience ; for by them so gre^it a sin was committed, that by
it the human nature was altered for the worse, and was trans-
mitted also to their posterity, liable to sin and subject to
death. And the kingdom of death so reigned over men, that
the deserved penalty of sin would have hurled all headlong
even into the second death, of which there is no end, had not
e nndeser\'ed grace of God saved some therefrom. And

> TTiis took is referred to in Another work of Ati;^stine*8 {contra Advert
Letjlt et Prophet, i. 18), which wes written about the year 4S0.

rOL. IX. A

TUE CITY OF GOD.

[book XIV.

thus it has come to pass, that though there are very many
and great nations all over the earth, whose rites and customs,
speech, arms, and diess, are distinguislif^d by marked tlitfer-
ences, yet there are no more than two kinds of human society,
which we may justly call two cities, according to tlie language
of our Scriptures. The one consists of those who wish to live
after the flesh, the other of those "who wish to live after the
spirit ; and when they severally achieve wliat they wish, they
live in peace, each after their kind.

2. 0/ carnal K/e, ichlch m to he understood not only of Uvhtff in lodUj/ indulgence^
but also ofliwing in Me vices of the inner man.

First, we must see what it is to live after the fiesh, and what
to live after the spirit For any one who either does not
recollect, or does not sufficiently weigh, the language of sacre4
Scripture, may, on first hearing what we have said, suppose
that the Epicurean philosophers live after the flesh, because
tliey place man's highest good in bodily pleasui-o ; and that
those others do so who have been of opinion that in some
fonii or other bodily good is man's supreme good ; and that
the mass of men do so who, without dogmatizing or philoso-
phizing on the subject, are so prone to lust that thoy cannot
delight in any pleasure save such as they receive from bodily
sensations : and he may suppose that the Stoics, who place
the supreme good of men in the soul, hve after the spirit ; for
what is man's soul, if not spirit? But in the sense of the
divine Scripture both are proved to live after the flesh. For
by flesh it means not only the body of a terrestrial and mortal
animal, as when it says, " All flesh is not the same flesh,
but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of
beasts, another of fishes, another of birds," ^ but it uses this
word in many other significations; and among these various
usages, a frequent one is to use flc.^h for man himself, the
nature of man taking the part for the whole, as in the words,
** By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified;"'
for what does he mean here by " no flesli " but " no man ? "
And this, indeed, be shortly after says more plainly: "No man
shall be justified by the law;''^ and in the Epistle to tlie
Galatians, "Knowing that a man is not justified by the

' 1 Cor. XV. 39. » Rom. iii. 20, » GaL iiL 11.

»K XIV.]

WIUT THE FLESH IS.

works of the law." And so we understand the words, " And
the Woixl was made fleah,"' — that is, man, which some not
accepting in its right sense, have supposed that Christ had not
a human soul.^ Per as the whole is used for the part in the
words of Mary Magdalene in the Gospel, " They have taken
away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him/' '
by which she meant only the flesh of Christ, which she sup-
posed had been taken from tlie tomb where it had been
buried, so the part is used for the whole, flesh being named,
while man is referred to, as in the quotations above cited.

Since, then. Scripture uses the word flesh in many ways,
which there is not time to collect and investigate, if we are to
ascertain what it is to live after the flesh (which is certainly
evil, though the nature of flesh is not itself evil), we must
carefully examine that possof^c of the epistle which the
Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians, in which he says, " Now
the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these : adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft,
hatred, variance, emulations, wiath, strife, seditions, heresies,
envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like : of
the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in tune
past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the
kingdom of God." * This whole ptissage of the apostolic
epistle being considered, so far as it bears on the matter in
hand, will be suflicient to answer the question, what it is to
live after the flesh. For among the works of the flesh which
he said were manifest, and which he cited for condemnation,
we find not only those which concern the pleasure of the
flesh, as fornications, uncleanness, lasciviousness, drunkenness,
revellings, but also those which, though they be remote from
fleshly pleasure, reveal the vices of the soul. For who does
not see tlmt idolatries, witchcrafts, hatreds, variance, emula-
tions, wrath, strife, heresies, envyings, are vices rather of the
soul than of the flesh ? For it is quite possible tor a man to
abstain from flesWy pleasures for the sake of idolatry or some
heretical error; and yet, even when he does so, ho is proved by
this ^)ostolic authority to be living after the flesh ; and in

' John. i. 14.
'John XX. 13.

' Tlie ApolIinarUna.
* Gal. y. lB-21.

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xtv.

abstaining from flesldy pleasure, he is proved to be practising
damnable works of the flesh. Who that has enmity has it
not in his soul ? or who would say to his enemy, or to the
man he thinks liis enemy, You have a bad fiesh towards me,
and not rather, You have a bad spirit towards me ? In fine,
if any one lieard of wliat I may call " carnalities," he would
not fail to attribute them to the carnal part of man ; so no
one doubts that " animosities " belong to the soul of man.
Why then does the doctor of the Gentiles in faith and verity
call all these and similar things works of the flesh, unless
because, by that mode of speech w^hereby the part is used for
the whole, he means us to understund by the word flesh tlie
man himself?

3. That tin ia caiu«2 not hy thcjlesli, but hy the taul^ and tliat the eomtjition
corUracted from sin in not gin^ but «m*jt puuishvtfiU.

But if any one says that the flesh la the cause of all vices
and ill conduct, inasmuch as the soul lives wickedly only
because it is moved by the flesh, it is certain he has not
carefully considered the whole nature of man. For " tht.'
corruptible body, indeed, wcigheth down the soul."^ Whence,
too, the apostle, speaking of tlus corruptible body, of which
he had shortly before said, " though our outward man perish,"^
says, " We know that if our eartldy house of this tabernacle
were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made
with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan,
earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is
from heaven : if so be that being clothed we shall not be found
naked. For we that aro in this tabernacle do gman, being
burdened : not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed
upon, that mortality might be swallowed up in life." * We
are then burdened with this coiTuptible body ; but knowing
that the cause of this burdensomeness is not the nature and
substance of the body, but its corruption, we do not desire to
be deprived of the body, but to be clothed with its immor-
tality. For then, also, there will be a body, but it sliall no
longer be a burden, being no longer corruptible. At present,
then, " tlie corruptible body presseth down the soul, and the
earthly tabernacle wei^heth down the mind that museth upon

» "Wiad. ix. 15. » 2 Cor. iv. 16. " 2 Cor. v. 1-4.

BOOK XIV.]

THE SOUL AND THE FLESH.

many tilings/* nevertheless they are in error Vfho suppose that
aH the evils of the soul proceed from the body.

Virgil, indeed, seems to expi-ess the sentiments of Plato in
the beautiful lines, v?here he says, —

"A fiery strength inspires their lircs.
An essence that from hearen derives,
Though closed in port by limbs of clay,
And the dull 'vesture of decuy ;' "^

hut though he goes on to mention the four most common.
roeutal emotions, — desire, fear, joy, sorrow, — with the inten-
tion of showing that the body is the origin of all sins and
rices, saj^ng, —

^** Hence wild desires and grovelling fears.
And hnmnn langhter, human tears,
Immured in dungeon -seeming night,
They look obroad, yet see no light,"'

yet we believe quite otherwise. For the corruption of the
body, which weighs down the soul, is not the cause but tlie
puniahnient of the first sin ; and it was not llie con-uptible
flesh that made the soid sinful, but the sinfvd soul that made
the flesli corruptible. And thuiigli from this corruption of
the flesh there arise certain incitements to vice, and indeed
vicious desires, yet we must not attribute to the ilesli all
the vices of a wicked life, in case we tliereby clear the devil
of all these, for he lias no llasli. For though we cannot call
the de\'il a fornicator or drunkard, or ascribe to him any
aenffoal indulgence (though he is the secret instigator and
prompter of those who sin in these ways), yet he is exceed-
ingly proad and envious. And tliis viciousness has so pos-
aessed him, that on account of it lie is i-eserved in chains of
«<a>lmAflg to .everlasting punishment.^ Now these vices, which
bare dominion over the devil, the apostle attributes to the
flesh, which certainly the devil has not For he says
"hatred, variance, emulations, strife, env^'ing" are the works
of the flesh; and of all these evils pride is the origin and
head, and it rules in the devil though lie has no flesh. For
vho shows more hatred to the saints i who is more at

» ^iitid, tL 730-32. • 76. 788, 734.

> Ob the puniihmcnt of the deril, see the De Affcne ChriaO, 3-6, and Vt

THE CITY OF COD.

[book XIV.

variance with them ? who more envious, bitter, and jealous ?
And since he exhibita all these works, though he has no flesh,
how are they works of the flesh, unless becaiiae they are the
works of man, who is, as I said, spoken of under the name of
flesh ? For it is not by having flesh, whicii the devil has not,
but by living according to himself, — that is, according to
man, — that man became like the devil. For the devil too,
wished to live according to himself when he did not abide in
the truth ; so that when he lied, this was not of God, but of
him5?elf, who is not only a liar^ but the father of lies, he being
the first who lied, and the originator of lying as of sin.

4. What U U to Uoe accordui^ to man, atid what Co live according to Ood.

When, therefore, man lives according to man, not accord-
ing to God, he is like the doviL Because not even an angel
might live according to an angel, but only according to God,
if he was to abide in the truth, and speak God's truth and
not his own lie. And of man, too, the same apostle says in
another place, " If the truth of God hath more abounded
through my lie;"^ — "my lie," he said, and '* God's Lrutk"
When, then, a man lives according to the trutli, he lives not
according to himself, but according to God ; for He was
God who said, " I am the tnith."'' When, therefore, man
lives according to himself, — that is, according to man, not
according to God, — assuredly he lives according to a lie ; not
that man himself is a lie, for God is his author and creator,
who is certainly not the author and creator of a lie, but
because man was made upright, that he might not live accord-
ing to himself, but according to Him that made him, — in other
words, that he might do His will and not his own ; and not to
live as he was made to live, that is a lie. For he certainly
desired to be blessed even by not living so that he may be
blessed. And what is a lie if this desire be not ? Where-
fore it is not without meaning said that all sin is a lie. For
no sin is committed aave by that desire or will by which we
desire that it be well with us, and shrink from it being ill
■with U3. Tliat, therefore, is a lie which we do iu order tliat
it may be well with us, but which makes us more miserable

' Bom. iii. 7. ' John xit, 6.

BOOK xrv.] ECRirruRAL USE OF THE "woKD rf.Ksn.

tlian we were. And why is this, but because the source of
's happiness lies only in God, whom he abandons when
e sins, and not in himself, by living according to whom he

^^&an

In enunciating this proposition of ours, then, that because
some live according to the flesh and others according to the
Spirit there have arisen two diverse and conflicting cities,
"^e might equally well have said, " because some live accord-
iiig to man, others according to God." For Paul says very
plainly to tlie Corinthians, " For whereas there is among you
envying and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk according to
2nan ?"^ So that to walk according to man and to be carnal
are the same ; for by jlcsli, that is, by a part of man, man
is meant. For before he said that those same persons were
animal whom afterwards he calls carnal, saying, " For what
man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man
which is in him ? even so the things of God knoweth no
man, but tlie Spirit of God Now we have received not the
spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is of God ; that we
might know the things which are freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's
wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth ; com-
paring spiritual things with spiritual. But the animal man
perceiveth not the things of tlie Spirit of God ; for they are
foolishness unto him."' It is to men of tliis kiud, then, that
is, to animal men, he shortly after says, " And I, brethren, could
not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto camaL" '
And this is to be interpreted by the same usage, a part being
taken for the whole. For both the soul and the flesh, the
component parts of man, can be used to signify the whole
man ; and so the animal man and the carnal man are not two
different things, but one and the same thing, viz, man living
according to man. In the same way it is nothing else than
men that are meant either in the words, " By the deeds of
e law tliere shall no JUsJi be justified;"* or in the words,
Seventy-five sotds went down into Egypt with Jacob." * In
e one passage, " no flesh" signifies " no man f and in the

1 Cor. iiL 3.
* Rom. iii, 20.

no flesh" signifies
nCor. it n-H.

'Gen. xlvi. 27.

» 1 Cor. iii. 1,

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xiy

Other, by "seventy-five souls" seventy-five men are meant.
And the expression, " not in woitI.s which man's wisdom
teacheth/' might equally be " not in words which fleshly
wisdom teacheth;" and the expression, "ye walk accoixiing to
man," might be " according to the flesh." And this is still
more apparent in the wonls which followed : " For while one
saith, I am of Paul, and another I am of ApoUos, are ye not
men 1 " The same thing which he had before expressed by
" ye are animal," '* ye are carnal," he now expresses by " ye
are men;" that is, ye live accordinc; to man, not according to
God, for if you lived accoi-ding to llini, you shoidd be goda

5. That the opinion of (he Piatonlsts rtgar<Uug tJiC nature ofhoihj and foul U
not so censurable as thai o/Uie Manlcfiwaii^, hut thai even it u objectUmablff
because it ascribes the origin of vices to ti\e nature of thefksh.

Tlicre is no need» therefore^ that in our sins and vices we
accuse the nature of the flesh to the injury of the Creator, for
in its own Icind and degree the flesh is good ; but to desert the
Creator good, and live according to the created good, is not good,
wliether a man choose to live according to the flesh, or accord-
ing to the soul, or according to the whole human nature, wliich
is composed of flesh and soul, and which is therefore spoken of
either by the name flesh alone, or by the name soul alone. For
he who extols tlie nature of the soul as the cliicf good, and con-
demns the nature of the flesh as if it were evil, assuredly is
fleshly both in liis love of the soul and hatred of the flesh ; for
these his feelings arise from human fancy, not from divine
trutk The Platonists, indeed, are not so foolish as, with the
Manichteans, to detest our present bodies as an evil natui'e ;*
for they attribute all the elements of which this visible and
tangible world is compacted, with all their qualities, to God
their Creator. Nevertheless, from the death-infected members
and earthly construction of tlie body they believe the soul is so
affected, tliat there are thus originated in it the diseases of
desires, and fears, and joy, and sorrow, under wliich four per-
turbations, as Cicero^ calls them, or passions, as most prefer
to name them with the Greeks, ia included the whole vicious-
ness of human life. But if this be so, how is it that .-Eneas
in Virgil, when he Iiad heaitl from his father in Hades that
* 8«e Augtistine, Bt HtxrtM, 46, • Tiue, Quast. iv. fl.

-BOO^ XIV.] FLESn NOT THE CAUSE OF ALL SIX. 9

tlie souls should return to bodies, expresses surprise at tliis
^claration, and exclaims :

•' 0 father ! And can thought conceive
That happy 80ul8 this realm would leave,

And seek the upper sky,
With sluggish cl&y to reunite f
This direful longing for the light.

Whence comes it, say, and why I *' '

This direful longing, then, does it still exist even in that

boasted purity of the disembodied spirits, and does it still

proceed from the death-infected membera and eartlily limbs ?

Does he not assert that, when they begin to long to return

to the body, they have already been delivered from uU these

80-called pestilences of thu body ? Ti-om which -we gather

that, wej-e this endlessly alternating purification and defilemeDt

of departing and returning suula as true us it is most certainly

false, yet it could not be averred that all culpable and vicious

lions of the soul originate in the earthly body; for, on their

own showing, " this direful longing," to use the words of their

noble exponent, is so extraneous to the tiody, that it moves

the soul that is purged of all bodily taint, and is existing

apart from any body whatever, and moves it, moreover, to be

«nibodied again. So that even they themselves acknowledge

that the soul is not only moved to desire, fear, joy, sorrow, by

tte flesh, but that it can also be agitated with these emotions

at its own instance.

(• O/Oie character (^ the human wiil ivhich makes (fie n^tctiont of the toul
right or ivronrj,

Bnt the character of the Imman will is of moment ; because,
if it is wrong, these motions of the soul will be wrong, but if
It h right, they will be not merely blameless, but even praise-
worthy. For the will is in Uiem all ; yea, none of them is
anything else than will For what are desire and joy but a
rohtion of consent to the things we wish ? And what are
fear and sadness but a volition of aversion from tlie thinirs
'Lich we do not wish ? But when consent takes the form of

iking to possess the things we wish, this is called desire ;
when consent takes the form of enjoying the things we
^ ^neW, vL 719-21.

THE CITY OF GOD

wish, this is called joy. In like manner, -when we turn with
aversion from that which we do not wish to liappen, this
volition is termed fear ; and when we turn away from that
which has happened against our will, this act of will is called
sorrow. And generally in respect of all that we seek or shun, as
a man*3 will is attracted or repelled, so it is changed and tia-ned
into these different affections. "Wherefore the man who lives
according to God, and not according to man, ought to he a lover
of good, and therefore a liater of evil. And since no one is
evil by nature, but whoever is evil is evil by vice, he who
lives according to God ought to cherish towards evil men a
perfect hatred, so that he shall neither hate the man because
of his "vice, nor love the vice because of the man, but hate
the vice and love the man. For the vice being cursed, all
that ought to be luved, and nothing that ought to be hated,
will remain.

7. That iAe words Itrvf Of?rf regard (amor and Jilectio) are in Scripture tued
indijirrentlif of good and evil affection.

He who resolves to love God, and to love his neighbour as
himself, not according to man but according to Grod, is on
account of this love said to be of a good will; and this is in
Scripture more commonly called charit)', but it is also, even
in the same books, called love. For the apostle says that the
man to be elected as a ruler of the people must be a lover of
good' And when the Lord Himself had asked Peter. " Hast
thou a regard for me (diligis) more than these ? " Peter re-
plied, " Lord, Thou knowest that I love (cmo) Thee." And
again a second time the Lord asked not whether Peter loved
(amarci) Him, but whether he had a regard {diligtrei) for Him,
and he again answei-ed, " Lord, Thou knowest that I love {amo)
Thee." But on the tJiird interrogation the Lord Himself no
longer says, " Hast thou a regard {diligis) for me," but " Lovest
thou [amas) me ? " And then the evangelist adds, " Peter was
grieved becaiise He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou
(amas) me ?" though tlie Lord had not said three times but only
once, "Lovest thou (amas) me?** and twice " Diligis Tnfl" from
which we gather that, even when the Lord said "diligis^* He used
an equivalent for " amas" Peter, too. throughout used one word
' Tit. L 8, according to Greek uid VulgaU-.

BOOK XIV.]

AMOR AND DILKCnO.

far the one thing, and the third time also replied, " Lord, Thou
kiKyirest all things, Thou knowest that I love {amo) Thee." ^

I have judged it right to mention this, because some are
of opinion that charity or regard (dUcctio) is one thing, love
fjonor) another. They say tliat diUctio is used of a good affec-
tkm, atnor of an evil love. But it is very certain that even
secular literature knows no such distinction. HowevcTj it is
for tbe philosophers to determine whether and how they differ,
thoi^i their own writings sufficiently testify that they make
grett account of love (am^) placed on good objects, and even
on God Himsell But we wished to show that the Scriptures
of our religion, whose authority we prefer to all writings what-
•oever, roako no distinction between amor, dilectio, and caritas ;
and we have already shown that aTtwr is used in a good con-
nBction. And if any one fancy that aTnor is no doubt used
both of good and bad loves, but that dileetio is reserved for
the good only, let him remember what the psalm says, " He
that loveth {diligit) iniquity hateth his own soul ; " ^ and the
worda of the Apostle John, " If any man love (diligere) the
ivorld, the love {dileetio) of the Father is not in him." ' Here
you have in one passage dileetio used both in a good and a bad
•ense. And if any one demands an instance of amor being
oaed in a bad sense (for we have already shoAvn ite use in a
good sense), let him read the words, " For men shall be lovers
(amanUs) of their own selves, lovers (amatores) of money." *

The right will is, therefore, well-directed love, and the
wrong will is ill-directed lova Love, then, yearning to have
what is loved, is desire ; and having and enjoying it, is joy ;
ileeiBg what is opposed to it, it is fear ; and feeling what is
oppoaed to it, when it has befallen it, it is sadness. Now
tfaeee motions are evil if the love is evil ; good if the love is
good. What we assert let us prove from Scripture. Tlie
iq>08tle "desires to depart, and to be with Christ."* And,
•My soul desired to long for Thy judgments;"'' or it it is
Bore appropriate to say, " My soul longed to desire Thy judg-
Aenta" And, " The desire of wisdom bringeth to a kingdom."'

* John xxi. 16-17. On these B)'nomyiiiA see the commentaries m toe

• Pa. li. 5. "1 John ii. 16. * 2 Tim. iil 2.
» Pha i 23. • Pb. cxix. 20. ' Wud. vL 20.

THE CITY OF GOD, [bOOK XIV-

Yet there Las always obtained the usage of understanding desire
and concupiscence in a bad sense if the abject be nob defined.
But joy is used in a good sense: "Be glad in the Lord, and
rejoice, ye righteous." ^ And, ** Thou hast put gladness in my
heart" * And, " Thou wilt fill me with joy with Thy counte-
nance," ' Fear is used in a good sense by the apostle when
he says, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling."*
And, " Be not high-minded, but fear." * And, " I fear, le^t by
any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty,
so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is
in Christ" *" But with respect to sadness, which Cicero pre-
fei-s to call sickness {(rgriiudo)^ and Vir„'il pain (dolor) (as he
says, " Doknt gaudentque" '), but which I prefer to call sorrow,
because sickness and pain are more conunouly used to express
bodily suffering, — with respect to tliis emotion, I say, the ques-
tion whether it can be used in a good sense is more diflicult

8. 0/ tfie three perturhatlow, tchich the Stoics admHttd \n the noul o/ the \ciat
man to thft fxclusion<if ffrifj' or tadneiti, tchich the itutnly mind ought not
io experience.

Those emotions which the Greeks call einraOfuii, and
which Cicero calls consfanticc, the Stoics would restrict to
three ; and, instead of three " perturbations " in the soul of
the wise man, they substituted sevemlly, in place of desire,
will ; in place of joy, contentment ; and for fear, caution ;
and as to sickness or pain, wliich we, to avoid ambiguity,
preferred to call son-ow, they denied that it could exist in the
mind of a wise man. Will, they say, seeks the good, for this
the wise man does. Contentment has its object in good that
is possessed, and this the wise man continually possesses.
Caution avoids evil, and this the wise man ought to avoid.
But sorrow arises from evil that has already happejied ; and
as they suppose that no evil can happen to the wise man,
there can be no representative of son-ow in his mind. Ac-
cording to them, therefore, none but the wise man wills, is
contented, uses caution ; and that the foo! can do no more
than desire, rejoice, fear, be sad The former three affections

1 Ps. ixxil 11. > Pa. iT. 7. * Ps. xvi. U.

* Phil. i:. 12. » Rom. 3ti. 20. * 2 C^jr. xi 3.

y jEneid, yi. 733.

)0K xn\]

THE STOIC PERTURBATIOKS.

icero calls co.istaniicv, the last four pcrturhat tones. Many,
wever, call these last passions ; and, as I have said, the
Greeks call the former exnroBelaij and the latter irdBij. And
vhen I made a careful exanunation of Scripture to find
vhutber this terminology was sanctioned by it, I came upon
this saying of the prophet : " There is no contentment to the
wicked, saith the Lord ; " ^ as if the wicked might more pro-
perly rejoice than be contented regarding evils, for content-
luent is the property ot the good and godly. I found also
at verse in the Gospel : " Whatsoever ye would that men
uld do xmto you, do ye even so unto them;"* which seems
to imply that evil or shameful things may be the object of
I desire, but not of will. Indeed, some interpreters have added
^^"good things" to make the expression more in conformity
^nrith customary usage, and have given this meaning, " "VNTiat-
^K|k>ever good deeds that ye would that mm should do unto
^^tJU.** Por they thought that this would prevent any one
from wishing otlier meu to provide him with unseemly, not to
say shameful, gratifications, — luxurious banquets, for example,
— on the supposition that if he returned the like to them he
would be fuliUling this precept In the Greek Gospel, how-
ever, from which the I^tin is translated, " good " does not
occor, but only, " All things whatsoever ye would that men
should do unto you, do ye even so imto them," and, as I

Iteheve, because " good " is already included in the word
Iwouid;" for He does not say " desire."
\ Yet though we may sometimes avail ourselves of these
Ipecise proprieties of language, we are not to be always
■idled by them ; and when we read those writers against
^bose authority it is unlawful to i-eclaim, we must accept
!he meanings above mentioned in passages where a right
^fijBnse can be educed by no other interpretation, as in those
^BBtances we adduced partly from the prophet, partly from
^Tne Gospel For who does not know that the wicked exult
with joy ? Yet " there is no conlaiiviaii for the wicked,
saitli the Lord." And how so, unless because contentment,
when the woixl is used in its proper and distinctive signifi-
canoe, means something different fi'om joy ? In like manner,

^Im. tvii. 21,

■ Matt Til 12.

14 ' TUE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK XIV"

who would deny that it were wrong to enjoin upon men tha '
whatever they desire others to do to them they should them—-"
selves do to others, lest they should mutually please one
another by shameful and illicit pleasure ? And yet the pre-
cept, " Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do
ye even so to them," is very wholesome and just. And how is M
this, unless because the will is in this place used strictly, and -!
signifies that will wliich cannot have evil for its object ? But
ordinary phraseology would not have allowed the saying, " Be
unwilling to make any manner of lie,'* ^ had there not been
also on evil will, whose wickedness separates it from that
which the an^rels celebrated, " Peace on earth, of good will
to men." ^ For " good " is superfluous if there is no other
kind of will but good will. And why should the apostle have
mentioned it among the praises of charity as a great tiling,
that " it rejoices not in iniquity," unless because wickedness
does so rejoice ? For even with secular writers these words
are used indifferently. For Cicero, that most fertile of
orators, says, "I desire, conscript fathers, to be merciful"*
And who woidd be so pedantic as to say that he should have
said " I will " rather than " I desire," because the word is used
in a good connection ? Again, in Terence, the profligate
youth, burning with wild lust, says, " I will nothing else than
PJiilumena." * That this "will" \vas lust is sufficiently indi-
cated by the answer of his old servant which is there intro-
duced : " How much better were it to tiy and banish that love
from your heart, than to speak so as uselessly to inllame your
passion still more r And that contentment was used by secular
writers in a bad sense, that verse of Yirj^ testifies, in which
he most succinctly comprehends these four perturbations, —

" Hence they I'ear and desire, grieve and arc content." '

The same author had also used the expression, " the evil
contentments of the mind."' So that good and bad men
alike wQl, are cautious, and contented ; or, to say the same
thing in other words, good and bad men alike desire, fear,
rejoice, but the former in a good, the latter in a bad fashion,
according as the will is right or wrong. Sorrow itself, too,

» Ecdm. vii. 13. • Lnke ii. 14. ' Cat. I 2.

* Tcr. Amir. iL 1, 6. * jEntid, vi. 733. « ^neid, v. 278.

THE STOIC APATUT.

the Stoics would not allow to be represented in the
mind of the wise man, is used in a good sense, and especiaUy
in our writings. For the apostle praises the Corinthians
because they had a godly sorrow. But possihly some one
may say that the apostle congratidated them because they
were penitently sorry, and that such sorrow can exist only in
thoBe who have sinned. For these are his words ; " Fox I
j}erc8iTe that the same epistle hath made you soiry, though
3i weane but for a season. !N"ow I rejoice, not that ye were
made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance ; for ye were
made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive
<lamage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh iiipent-
amce to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the
"^JForld worketh deatk For, behold, this selfsame thing that
ye aoxrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in
"you ! " * Consequentl}' the Stoics may defend themselves by
Replying,' that sorrow is indeed useful for repentance of sin,
\]ut that this can have no place in the mind of the wise man,
maamach as no sin attaches to him of which he could
MTTOwfully repent, nor any other evil the endurance or expe-
rience of which could make him sorrowful For they say
that Alcibiades (if my memory does not deceive me), who
believed himself happy^ shed tears when Socrates argued with
him, and demonstrated that he was miserable because he was
foolish. In his case, therefore, folly was the cause of this
useful and desirable sorrow, wherewith a man mourns that he
is what he otight not to be. 'But the Stoics maintain not
tJiat the fool, but that the wise man, cannot be sorrowful

0/ the perturiftuums qf thf soul which appear aa right affictions ui the
i^t qftJu righlieiov$^

Bnt so far as regards this question of mental perturba-
tions, we have aaswere<l these philosophers in the ninth book*
of this work, showing that it is rather a verbal than a real
dispute, and that they seek contention rather than trutL
Among ourselves, according to the sacred Scriptures and
sound doctrine, the citizens of the holy city of God, who live
according to God in the pilgrimage of this life, both fear and
desire, and grieve and rejoice. And because their love ia

> 2 Cor. vii- fi-11. ' Tu«c. Ditip. iii. 32. * C 4, 6.

CITY OF COD. I BOOK XT*^'

rightly placed, all these aOfectiona of thoii's are right The,^'
fear eternal punisliment, they desire eternal life ; they grie\^ •
because they ihemselvea groan within themselves, waiting fo'^
the adoption, the redemption of their body ; ' they rejoice i*^
hope, because there " shall be brought to pass the saying tha^^
Ls written, Death is swallowed up in victory."^ In lik^^
manner they fear to sin, they desire to persevere ; they grieve^
in sin, they rejoice in good works. They fear to sin, because "^
they liear that " because iniquity shall abound, the love of
many shall wax cold."^ They desire to persevere, because
they hear that it is ^nitten, " He that endureth to the end
shall l>e saved." * Tliey grieve lor sin, hearing that " If we say
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is
not in us." * They rejoice in good works, bcc^iuso they hear
that " the Lord loveth a cheerful giver." * In like manner,
according as they are strong or weak, they fear or desire to
be tempted, grieve or rejoice in temptation. They fear to be
tempted, because they bear the injunction, " If a man be over-
taken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one
in the spirit of meekness ; considering thyself, lest thou also
be tempted." ^ Tliey desire to be tempted, because they hear
one of the heroes of the city of God saying, " Examine me,
0 Lord, and tempt me : try my reins and my heart." ** Tliey
grieve iji temptalJLuis, because they see Vetev weeping;' they
rejoice in temptations, because tliey hear James saying, ** My
brethren^ count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations."'*
And not only on their own accoaint do they experience
these emotions, but also on account of those whose deliver-
ance they desire and whose perdition they fear, and whose
loss or salvation affects them witli griel or with joy. For
if we who have come into the Church from among the Gen-
tiles may suitably instance that noble and mighty hei-o who
glories in his infirmities, the teacher (iJoctor) of the nations
in faith and truth, Avho also laboured more than all his fellow-
apostles, and instructed the tribes of God's people liy his

' Rom. viii. 23. * 1 Cor. xv. 64. ' Ifalt, xxiv. 12.

* Matt I. 22. » 1 John i. 8. • 2 Cor. ix. 7.

7 Gttl. vi. 1. « Pg. xxyi 2. » Mntt. xxvi. 76.

Jii3. I 2.

XIV.]

SOME EMOTIONS COMMENDABtE.

which edified not only those of his own time, but
those who were to be gathered in, — tliiit hero, I say, and
of Christ, instructed by Him, anointed of His Spirit,
with Him, glorious in Him, lawfully maintaining
great conflict on the theatre of this world, and being
spectacle to angels and inen,^ and pressing onwards
far the prize of his high calling,* — very joyfuDy do we with
eyes of faith behold him rejoicing with them that re-
5, and weeping vnth them that weep ; ' though hampered
ly %hting8 without and fears within ; * desiring to depait
and to be with Christ;* longing to see the Eomans, that he
ni^ have some fruit among them as among other Gen-
tiles;' being jealous over the Corinthians, and fearing in that
jodooay lest their minds should be corrupted from the chas-
tity that is in Christ;' having great heaviness and continual
aoirow of heart for the Israelites,^ because they, being ignorant
of God's rigliteousne-ss, and going about to establish their
_oim righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the
;;hteot25ncss of God ; * and expressing not only his sorrow,
it bitter lamentation over some who had formally sinned
and had not repented of their uncleanness and fornications.*"

If these emotions and afTections, arising as they do from
the love of what is good and from a holy charity, are to
be called vices, then let us allow these emotions which are
traly vices to pass under the name of virtues. But since
these aLfiFections, when they are exercised in a becoming way,
follow the guidance of right reason, who will dare to say
that they are diseases or vicious passions ? Wherefore even
the Lord Himself, when He condescended to lead a human
life in the form of a slave, had no sin whatever, and yet
exercised these emotions where He judged they should be
exercised. For as there was in Him a tnie human body and
a trae human soul, so was there also a true human emotioiL
When, therefore, we read in the Gospel that the hard-hcarted-
of the Jews moved Him to soiTOwful indignation," that

« 1 Cor. IT. 9.
* 3 Cor, vii. 5.
»lCor. li 1-3.
M S Cor. xiL 21.

TOL. n.

»PhiL ui, 14.

• Pha. i. 23.

• Rom. ix. 2.
» Uuk iii. 6,

* Rom. xii. 15.

« Rom. i. 11-13.

* Bom. X. S.

18 THE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK 3Cl^-

He said, " I am glad for your sakes, to the intent ye in(*:y
believe,"^ that when about to raise Lazarus He even she^
tears,' that He eftmestly desired to eat the passover witi^
His disciples,^ that as His passion drew near His soul \va-^'
sorrowful,* these emotions are certainly not falsely ascribec^
to Htm. But as He becsame man when it pleased Him, w^'J
in the grace of His definite puqiose, when it pleased Him H^
experienced those emotions in His human souL

But we must further make the admission, that even wh
these aflectiona are well regidated, and according to God's
will, tliey are peculiar to this life, not to that future life we
look for, and that often we yield to them against our wHL
And thus sometimes we weep in spite of ourselves, being
carried beyond ourselves, not indeed by culpable desire, but
by praiseworthy charity. In us, therefore, these affections
arise from human infiimity ; but it was not so with the Lord
Jesus, for even His infirmity was the consequence of His
power. But so long as we wear the infirmity of this Ufe, we
are rather worse men than bettor if we have none of these
emotions at all For the apostle vituperated and abominated
some who, as he said, were " without natural affection."*
The sacred Psalmist also found fault with those of whom he
said, '* I looked for some to lament with me, and there was
none."* For to be quite &ee from pain while we are in this
place of misery is only purchased, as one of this world's
literati perceived and remarked,^ at the price of blunted sen-
sibilities both of mind and body. And therefore that which
the Greeks call airdBeta, and what the Latins would call, if
their language would allow them, " impasaibilitas/' if it be
taken to mean an impassibility of spirit and not of body, or,
in other words, a freedom from those emotions which are con-
trary to reason and disturb the mind, then it is obviously a
good and most desirable quality, but it is not one which is
attainable in this life. For the words of the apostle are the
confession, not of the common herd, but of the eminently
pious, just, Eind holy men : " If we say we have no sin, we

^ John XL 16. ' Jolm xi. 35. ^ Luke xxii. 15.

* Matt, xxvl 38. » Horn. I 31. " Vs. ]xix. 20.

T Cr&ntor, an Acadetoic pbaosopher quoted by Cicero, Ttmc. Qwett. HI 6.

ftOOK XIV.] nrOTIOK manifested by CHRIST.

ceive ourselves, and tue trutli is not in us." ^ When tliere
be no sin in a man, tlien there shall be this atrdOeta.
At present it is enough if we live without crime ; and he
vho thinks he lives without sin puts aside not sin, but
on. And if that is to be called apathy, where the inind
the subject of no emotion, then who would not consider
his insensibility to be worse than all vices ? It may, indeed,
reasonably be maintained that the perfect blessedness we
liope for shall be free from all sting of fear or sadness ; but
who that is not quite lost to truth would say that neither
I Xove nor joy shall be expeiienced there ? But if by apathy a
^BDndition be meant in which no fear terrifies nor any pain,
^^nnoys, we must in this life renounce such a state if wb
"Would live according to God's will, but may hope to enjoy
it in that blessedness which is promised as our eternal con-
dition.

For that fear of which the Apostle John says, " There is
no fear in love ; but perfect love casteth out fear, because
fear hath torment He thnt feareth is not made perfect iu
love,"* — that fear is not of the same kind as the Apostle
Paul felt lest the Corinthians should be seduced by the
subtlety of the serpent ; for love is susceptible of this fear,
yea, love alone is capable of it. But the feoi" wluch is not in
love is of tliat kind of which Paul himself says, " For ye
have not received the spirit of bond^e again to fear." ' But
AS for that " clean fear which endureth for ever,"* if it is to
ist in the world to come (and how else can it be said to
ure for ever ?), it is not a fear deterring us from evil
ich may happen, but preserving us in the good which
not be lost For where the love of acquired good is
changeable, there certainly the fear that avoids evil is, if
I may say so, iree from anxiety. For under the name of
" clean fear" David signifies that will by which we shall
necessarily shrink from sin, and guard against it, not with the
anxiety of weakness, which fears that we may strongly sin,
but with the tranquillity of perfect love. Or if no kind of
fear at all shall exist in that most imperturbable security of
tual and blissful delights, then the expression, " The fear
1 John 18. M John iv. 18. > Rom. riil 15. * Pa. xix. 9.

THE err? OF GOD.

BOOK XX

of the Lord is clean, endurinj^ for ever," must be taken in th ^^
same sense as that other, " The patience of the poor shall no '^
perish for ever." ^ For patience, which is necessary onl>^
where ills are to be borae, shall not be eternal, but that which^
patience leads us to will he eternal So perhaps this " cleaiK-
fear" is said to endure for ever, because that to which fear'
leads shall endure.

And since this is so, — since we must live a good life in
order to attain to a blessed life, — a good life has all these
affections right, a bad life has them wrong. But in the
blessed life etoninl there will be love and joy, not only rights
but also assured ; but fear and grief there will be none.
Whence it already appears in some sort what manner of per- ^
sons the citizens of the city of God must be in this their
pilgrimage, who live after the spirit, not after the flesh, — tliat
is to say, according to God, not according to man, — and what
manner of persons they shall be also in that immortality
whither they are journeying. And the city or society of the
wicked, who live not according to God, but according to man,
and who accept the doctrines of men or devils in the worship
of a false and contempt of the true divinity, is shaken with
those wicked emotions as by diseases and disturbances. And
if there be some of its citizens who seem to restrain and, as
it were, temper those passions, they are so elated with un-
godly pride, that their disease is as much greater as their
pain is less. And if some, with a vanity monstrous in pro-
portion to its rarity, have become enamoured of themselves
because they can be stimulated and excited by no emotion,
moved or bent by no affection, such persons rather lose all
humanity than obtain true tranquillity. For a tiling is not
necessarily right because it is inflexible, nor healthy because
it is insensible.

10. Whciher it is to be bdiered tliat our first parents in Paradise^ b^ore Ihty
Hnned, tocre free from all perturb<UioH.

But it is a fair question, wliether our first parent or first

parents (for there was a marriage of two), berore they sinned,

experienced in their animal body such emotions as we shall

not experience in the spiritual body when sin has been

> Pa, ix. 18.

BOOK xrv,]

EMOTIONS OF MAK UNFALLEN.

purged and finally abolished. For if they did, then how
were they blessed in that boasted place of bliss, Punidise ?
For who that is affected by fear or grief can be called abso-
lutely blessed ? And what could those persona fear or suffer
in such affluence of blessings, where neither death nor ill-
health was feared, and where nothing was wanting which a
good will coidd desire, and nothing present which could
int«rrupt man's mental or bodily enjoyment ? Their love to
God was unclouded, and their mutual affection was that of
faithful and sincere marriage ; and from this love flowed a
wonderful delight, because they always enjoyed what was
kved. Their avoidance of sin was tranquil ; and, so long as
it was maintained, no other ill at all could invade them and
Ining sorrow. Or did they perhaps desire to touch and eat
the forbidden fruit, yet feared to die j and thus both fear and
deaire already, even in that blissful place, preyed upon those
fiist of mankind ? Away with the thought that such could
l>e the case where there was no sin I And, indeed, this is
already sin, to desire those things which the law of God
forbids, and to abstain from them through fear of punish-
ment, not through love of righteousness. Away^ I say, with
tlie thought, that before there was any sin, there should
already have been committed regarding that fniit tlie very

sin which our Lord warns us

agamst

regarding a woman

" WTiosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath com-
mitted adultery witli her already in his heart." ^ As happy,
then, as were these our first parents, who were agitated by no
mental perturbations, and annoyed by no bodily discomforts,
happy should the whole human race have been, had they
introduced that evil which they have transmitted t^ their
ity, and had none of tlicir descendants committed
[ility worthy of damnation ; but this original blessedness
itinuing untilj in virtue of that benediction which said,
Increase and multiply/' ^ the number of the predestined
aaints should have been completed, there would then have
been bestowed that higher felicity which is enjoyed by the
most blessed angels,— ^a blessedness in wliich there should
ive been a secure assurance that no one woidd sin, and no

> Matt. T. 28. s Gcn« i. 28.

22 THE CITY OF GOB. [BOOK XrVS]

one die * and so should the saints have lived, after no taste
labour, pain, or death, as now they shall live in the resi
tion, after they have endured all these things.

11. 0/ Oif. fall of the firtt man, m ur/iom naCttre waa crtaied good, and can
restored only by its Author.

But because God foresaw all things, and was therefore
ignorant that man also would fall, we ought to consider tl
holy city in connection with what God foresaw and ordainedj
and not according to our own ideas, which do not embra(
God's ordination. For man, by liis sin, could not disturb tli
divine counsel, nor compel God to change what He ha<
decreed ; for God's foreknowledge had anticipated both, — -tl
is to say, both how evil the man whom He had created go(
should become, and what good He Himself should even thus
derive from him. For though God is said to change His
determinalions (so that in a tix»pical sense the Holy Scripture
says even that God repented ^), this is said with reference to
man's expectation, or the order of natural causes, and not
with reference to that which the Almighty had foreknown
that He would do. Accordingly God, as it is ^\Titten, made
man upright,^ and consequently with a good will For if
he had not had a good will, he could not have been upright.
The good will, then, is the work of God ; for God created
him with it. But the first evil ^\'ill, which preceded all man's
evil acts, was rather a kind of falling away from the work of
Gi3d to its own works than any positive work. And there-
fore the acts resulting were evil, not having God, but the will
itself for their end ; so that the ^\t11 or the man himself, so
far as his will is bad, was as it were the c\']l tree bringing
forth evil fruit Moreover, the bad will, though it be not in
harmony with, but opposed to nature, inasmuch as it is a vice
or blemish, yet it is true of it as of all vice, that it cannot
exist except in a nature, and only in a nature created out of
nothing, and not in that which the Creator has begotten of
Himself, as Ho begot the Word, by wliom all tilings were
made. For though God formed man of the dust of the earth,
yet the earth itself, and every earthly material, is absolutely
created out of nothing ; and man's soxd, too, God created out
^ Gen. tL 6, and 1 Sam. xv. 11. * Ecclea. rii. 20.

BOOK XIV.]

TUB PALL OF MAN.

of nothing, and joined to the body, when He made man. But
evils are so thoroughly overcome by good, that though they
are permitted to exist, for the sake of demonstrating how the
most righteous foresight of God can make a good use even of
them, yet good can exist without evil, as in thu true and
supreme God Himself, and as in every invisible and visible
celestial creature that exists above this murky atmosphere ;
but evil cannot exist without good, because the natures in
which evil exists, in so far as they are natures, are good.
And evil is removed, not by removing any nature, or part of
& nature, which had been introduced by the evil, but by
healing and correcting that which had been vitiated and
depraved. The will, therefore, is then tnily free, when it is
not the slave of vices and sins. Such was it given ns by
God ; and this being lost by its own fault, can only be restored
by Him who was able at first to give it And therefore the
truth says, " K the Son sliall make you free, ye shall be free
indeed;"* which is equivalent to saying, If the Son shall save
you, yc shall be saved indeed. For He is our liberator,
^_ iDo^miuch as He is our Saviour.

^B Man then lived with God for his rule in a paradise at once
^^ physical and spiritual For neithor wns it a panuliso only
^—^hysical for the advantage of the body, and not abo spiritual
^Bbr the advantage of the mind ; nor was it only spii'itual to
' afford enjojinent to man by his internal sensations, and not
I also physical to afford him enjoyment through his external
! aenaefi. But obviously it was both for both ends. But after
■■lat proud and therefore envious angel (of whose fall I have
PVlid as much as I was able in the eleventh and twelfth books
of this work, as well as that of liis fuIlowSj who, fmm being
■■od*s angels, became his angels), preferring to nile with a
P^Dnd of pomp of empire rather Lhiui to be another's subject,
fell from the spiritual Paradise, and essaying to insinuate his
persuasive guile into the mind of man, whose unfallen condi-
tion provoked him to envy now that himself was fallen, he
chose the smpent as his mouthpiece in that bodily Paradise
in which it and all the other earthly animals were living with
rwo human beings, the man and his wife, subject to

^ John Tiii. 30.

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xrv^

them, and harmless ; and he chose the serpent hecause, beinj
slippery, and moving in tortuous windings, it was suitable foi
his pui-pose. And this animal being subdued to his wicke<
ends by the presence and superior force of his angelic natmi
he abused as his instrument, and first tned Iiis deceit upoi
the woman, malcing bis assault upon the weaker part of thai
human alliance, that he might ^^i-adually gain the wliole, am
not supposing that the man would readily give ear to him, oi
bo deceived, hut that he might yield to the error of the wouii
For as Aaron was not induced to agree with the people whci
they blindly wished him to make an idol, and yet yielded
constraint ; and as it is not credible that Solomon was so blind]
as to suppose that idols should be %vorshipped, but was draw]
over to such sacrilege by the blandishments of women ; so w<
cannot believe that Adam was deceived, and supposed tL<
devil's word to be truth, and therefore transgressed God's law,
but that he by the drawings of kindred yielded to the woraau^]
the husband to the wife, the one liuman being to the only]
other human being. For not without significance did th«
apogtle say, "And Adam was not deceived, but the womaai
being deceived was in the transgi-ession;"^ but he speaks
thus, because the woman accepted as tnio what the serpent
told her, but the man could not bear to be severed from his
only companion, even thougli tlus involved a partnership in
sin. He was not on this account less culpable, but sinned
with liis eyes open. And so the apostle does not suy, " He did
not sin," but " He was not deceived." For he shows that he
sinned when be says, " By one man sin entered into the
world," ^ and immediately after more distinctly, " In the like-
ness of Adam's transgression." But he meant that those are
deceived who do not judge that which they do to be sin ; but
he knew. OtheiA\-ise how were it true ** Adam was not de-
ceived 1 " But having as yet no experience of the divine
severity, he was possibly deceived in so far as he thought Ida
ain venial. And consequently he was not deceived as the
woman was deceived, but ho was deceived as to tlie judg-
ment which would be passed on his apologj' : "The woman
whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me, and I did
» 1 Tim. u. 14. • Rom. v. 12.

BOOK XIV.]

NATURE OF MAN S FIRST SIN.

eat" * What need of saying more ? Althoiigli they were
Dot both deceived by credulity, yet both were entangled iu
the snares of the devil, and taken by sin.

18. 0/ the nature qfmaH^$frst tin.

If any one finds a difficulty in understanding why other
do not alter human nature as it was altered by the trans-
don of those first human beings, so that on account of it
lis nature is subject to the great corruption we feel and see,
id to death, and is distracted and tossed with so tnany furious
id contending emotions, and is certainly far different from
"vhat it was before sin, even though it were then lodged in an
aimual body, — if, I say, any one is moved by this, he ought
not to think that that sin was a small and light one because
it viBs committed about food^ and that not bad nor noxious,
except because it was forbidden ; for in that spot of singidar
felicity God couid not have created and planted any evil thing.
13ut by the precept He gave, God commended obedience, which
is, in a sort, the mother and guardian of all the virtiiesi in the
^Jasonabie creaturej which was so created that aubmisaioa is
ftdvaatageous to it, while the fulMnient of its own will in
preference to the Creators is destruction And as this com-
mandment enjoining abstinence from one kind of food in the
inidat of great abundance of other kinds wa.s so easy to keep, —
so light a burden to the memory, — and, above all, found no re-
sistance to its observance in lust, which only afterwards sprung
ap as the penal consequence of siUj the iniquity of violating
it was all the greater in proportion to the ease with which ii
it have been kept.

IS. That in Adarjit sin an evil tctU preceded ifie evil act.

Our first parents fell into open disobedience because already
ley were secretly corrupted ; for the evil act bad never
m done had not an evil will preceded it. And what is the
of our evil will but pride ? For " pride is the begin-
of sin." ' And what is pride but the craving for undue
exaltation ? And this is undue exaltation, when the soul
idons Him to whom it ought to cleave as its end, and
1 Gen. ilL 12. ■ Ecclus. x. 18.

THE CITY OF COD.

[book xiv.

becomes a kind of end to itself. This happens when it be-
comes its own satisfaction. And it does so when it falls
away from that tinchangeable good which ought to satisfy ^^
more than itsel£ This falling away is spontaneous ; for ^
the will had remained stedfast in the love of that higher ar*-^
changeless good by which it was illumined to mteHigQnO^
and kindled into love, it would not have turned away to fiiv^
sati.s faction in itself, and bo become frigid and benighted
the woman woidd not have believed the serpent spoke th.
inith, nor would the man have preferred the request of
wife to the command of God, nor have supposed that it
a venial transgression to cleave to the partner of his life eve
in a partnership of ain. The wicked deed, then, — that is
say, the transgression of eatuig the forLiddwn fruit, — was com
mitted by persons who were already wicked. That " evil J
fruit"* could be brought fortli only by "a corrupt tree." But -^
that the tree was evil was not the result of nature ; for cer-
tainly it could become so only by the vice of the will, and
vice is contrary to nature. Now, nature could not have been
depraved by vice had it not been made out of nothing. Con-
sequently, that it is a nature, this is because it is made by
God; but tliat it faDs away from Him, this is because it is
made out of nothing. But man did not so fall away ' as to
become absolutely nothing ; but being turned towards himself,
his being became more contracted than it was when he clave
to Him who supremely is. Accordingly, to exist in himself,
that is, to bo his own satisfaction after abandoning God. is
not quite to become a nonentity, but to approximate to that.
And therefore the holy Scriptures designate the proud by an-
other name, " self-pleasers," For it is good to have the heart
lifted up, yet not to one's self, for this is proud, but to the
Lord, for this is obedient, and can be the act only of the
humble. There is, therefore, something in humility which,
strangely enough, exalts the heart, and something in pride
which debases it. This seems, indeed, to be contradictory,
that loftiness should debase and lowliness exalt. But pious
humility enables us to submit to what is above us ; and
nothing is more exalted above us than God; and therefore

1 Uatt Til IS. * It^ceit,

T XIV.]

THE WILL EVIL BEFORE THE ACT.

*1 A AU

kunilitj, by makmg us subject to God, exalts ua. But pride,
king a defect ot nature, by the very act of refusing subjection
revolting from Him "who is supreme, falls to a low condi-
»n ; and then comes to pass what is wTitten : " Thou castedst
down when they lifted up themselves." ^ For he does
say, " when they had been lifted up," as if first they were
exalted, and then afterwards cast down ; but " when they lifted
up themselves" even then they were cast down, — that is to say,
ihe veiy lifting up was already a fall. And therefore it is
that humility is specially recommended to the city of God as
it sojourns in this world, and is specially exhibited in the city
of God, and in the person of Christ its Kling ; whOe the con-
trary vice of pride, according to the testimony of the sacred
writings, specially rules his adversary the de\dL And certainly
is the great difference which distinguishes the two cities
which we speak, the one being the society of the godly
inen, the other of the ungodly, each associated with the angels
that adhere to their party, and the one guided and fashioned
\ij love of self, the other by love of Grod.

The devil, then, would not have ensnared man in. the open

and manifest sin of doing what God had forbidden, had man

not already begun to live for himself. It was this that made

liim listen with pleasure to tho words, "Ye shall be as gods,"-

which they would much more readily have accomplished by

obediently adhering to their supreme and true end than by

proudly living to themselves. For created gods are gods not

by virtue of what is in themselves, but by a participation of

the txue God. By craving to be more, man becomes less ; and

by aspiring to be self-sufficing, he fell away from HLm who

^tnxly suffices him. Accordingly, this wicked desire which

^■irompts man to please himself as if he were himself light, and

^Krhich thus turns him away from that light by which, had he

^■bUowed it, he would himself have become light, — this wicked

j desire, I say, already secretly existed in him, and the open

ain was but its consequence. For that is true which is

' written, " Pride goeth before destroctiou, and before honour

is humility ;"' that is to say, secret ruin precedes open ruin,.

while the former is not counted ruin. For who counts exal-

> Pb. Uxiii. 18. * Gen. iii 6, » Pror. xriu. 12.

tation ruin, though no soonei* is the Highest forsaken than a
fall is begun ? But who does not recognise it as niin, when
there occui's an evident aud ijidubitable transgression of the
commandment ? And conseq^uently, Gods prohibition had
reference to such an act as, when committed, could not be
defended on any pretence of doing wliat was righteous.' And
I make bold to say that it is useful for the proud to fall into
an open and indisputable transgression, and so displease them-
selves, aa already, by pleasing themselves, they had fallen.
For Peter was in a healthier condition when he wept and was
dissatisfied with himself, than when he boldly presumed and
satisfied himself. And this is averred by the sacred Psalmist
when he says, " Fill their faces with shame, that they may
seek Thy name, O Lord;"^ tliat is, tlmt they who have pleased
themselves in seeking their own glory may be pleased and
satisfied with. Thee in seeking Thy glory.

li. 0/0i€ pride in the Wn, wJiicJt wa« wone than the tin iUe\f,

But it is a worse and more damnable pride which casts
about for the shelter of an excuse even in manifest sins, as
these oiir first parents did, of whom the woman said, "The
serpent beguiled me, and I did eat ; " and the man said, " The
Avoman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the
tree, and I did eat." ^ Here there is no word of begging
pardon, no word of entreaty for healing. For though they
do not, like Cain, deny that they have perpetrated the deed,
yet their pride seeks to refer its wickedness to another, — the
woman's pride to the serpent, the man's to the woman. But
where there is a plain transgression of a divine command-
ment, this is rather to accuse than to excuse oneself. For
the fact that the woman sinned on the serpent's perauaaion,
and the man at the woman's offer, did not make the trans-
gression less, as if there were any one whom we ought rather
to believe or yield to than God

15, QftheJMtice of the puniahment with which our Jirai parents were wttted for
their d\4ohedience.

Therefore, because the sin was a despising of the authority

> That u to say, il was an obvioui and indisputuMc tranagreaaion,
• P». Ixxjdit 1«. • Oca. ILL 12, 13.

PTNISHMEXT OF MAKS DISOBEDIENCE.

—who had created man; who had made him in His own
who had set him above the other animals ; who had
piaced bim in Paradise ; who had enriched him with abundance
of every kind and of safety ; who had laid upon him neither
many, nor great, nor difficult commandments, but, in order to
nake a wholesome obedience easy to him, had given him a
sb^le very brief and very light precept by which He reminded
that creature whose service was to be free that He was Lord,
— it was just that condemnation followed, and condemnation
sacfa that man, who by keeping the commandments ahuiUd
bave been spiritual even hi his flesh, became fleshly even in
his spirit ; and as in his pride he had sought to be his own
Wtisfaction, God in His justice abandoned him to himself,
aoi to live in the absolute independence he affected, but
iiP«tAftH of the liberty he desired, to live dissatisfied with him-
aeK in a hard and miserable bondage to him to whom by
nnniDg he had jaelded himself, doomed in spite of himself
to die in body as he had willingly become dead in spii-it,
condemned even to eternal death (hod not the grace of God
^■elivered him) because he had forsaken eternal life. "Wlio-
^Hfver tliinks such punishment either excessive or unjust shows
^^us inability to measure the great iniquity of sinning where
'^Ein might so easUy have been avoided. For as Abraham's
obedience is with justice pronounced to be great, because tho
thing commanded, to kill his son, was very difficult, so in
Paradise the disobedience was the greater, because the diffi-
culty of that which was commanded was imperceptible.
And as the obedience of the second Man was the moro
laudable because He became obedient even " unto death," ^ so
the diflobedience of the first man was the more detestable
became he became disobedient even imto death. Por where
the penalty annexed to disobedience is great, and the thing
commanded by the Creator is easy, who can sufficiently esti-
mate how great a wickedness it is, in a matter so easy, not to
obey the authority of so great a power, even when that power
deters with so terrible a penalty ?

la short, to say all in a woni, what hut disobedience was
the ponishment of disobedience in that sin ? For what else

' Phil ii. 8.

TfiB cirr OP god.

is man's misery but bis own disobedience to himself, so UiB^
in consequence of his not being willing to do what he coul^
do, he now wills to do what he cannot ? For though 1^®
could not do all things in Paradise before he sinned, yet J"**
■wished to do only what he could do, and therefore he cou3-*
do all things he wished- But now, as we recognise in h^^
offspring, and as divine Scripture testifies, " Man is like t^-^
vanity." ^ For who can count how many things he wish^^**
which he cannot do, so long as he is disobedient to himseL^^
that ifl^ so long as his mind and his flesh do not obey
will ? For in apite of himself Ids mind is both frequent
disturbed, and his flesh suffers, and grows old, and dies ;
in Bpite of ourselves we suffer whatever else we suffer, an
which we woiild not suffer if our nature absolutely and in
its parts obeyed our wiLL But is it not the in£nnities of the
flesh which hamper it in its service ? Yet what does it
matter how its service is hampered, so long as the fact remai
that by the just retribution of the sovereign God whom
refused to be subject to and serve, our flesh, which was sub-
jected to us, now torments us by insubordination, although
our disobedience brought trouble on ourselves, not upon God ?
For He is not in need of our service as we of our body's ;
and therefore what we did was no punishment to Him, but
what we receive is so to us. And the pains which are called
bodily are pains of the soul in and from the body. For what
pain or desire can the flesh feel by itself and without the
soul ? But when the flesh is said to desire or to suffer, it is
meant, as wo have explained, that the man does so, or some
part of the soul which is affected by the sensation of the
flesh, whether a harsh sensation causing pain, or gentle, causing
pleasure. But pain in the flesh is only a discomfort of the
soul arising from the flesh, and a kind of shrinking from its
suffering, as the pain of the soul which is called sadness is a
shrinking from those things which have happened to us in
apite of ourselves. But sadness is frequently preceded by
fear, which is itself in the soul, not m the flesh ; whQe bodily
pain is not preceded by any kind of fear of the flesh, whicli
can be felt in the flesh before the pain. But pleasure is pre-

^ Pfc cxUf. 4,

XIV.] MAN PUNISHED BY LOSS OF SELF-CONTROL.

ceded by a certniu appetite which is felt in the flesh like a
OBving, as hunger and thirst and that generative appetite
"Which is most commonly identified Arith the name " lust/*
thongh this is the generic word for all desires. For anger
itself was defined by the ancients as nothing else than the
Just of revenge ; ^ although sometimes a man is angry even at

I iuuiimate objects which cannot feel his vengeance, as when
<me breaks a pen, or crushes a quill that vmtes badly. Yet
even this, though less reasonable, is in its way a lust of
Tevenge, aijd iSj so to speak, a mysterious kind of shadow of
{the great law of] retribution, that they who do evil should
suffer evil. There is therefore a lust for revenge, which is
called anger ; there is a lust of money, which goes by the
name of avarice ; there is a lust of conquering, no matter by
'what means, which is called opinionativeness ; there is a lust
of applause, which is named boasting. There are many and

t various lusts, of which some have names of their own, while
others have not For who could readily give a naiue to the

I Inst of ruling, which yet has a powerful influence in the

V 8oul of tyrants, as civil wars bear witness ?

^^ 18. 0/ the evil o/tust, — a xcord whkh^ though applicable to ituxnjf vke$, is
^^M BpeciaXly appropriaitd to aexuai uncUamiest,

^^ Although, therefore, lust may have many objects, yet when

DO object is specified, the word liist usually suggests to the

mind the lustful excitement of the organs of generation.

And tiis lust not only takes possession of tlie whole body

and outward members, but also makes itself felt within, and

moves the whole man with a passion in which mental emotion

is mingled with bodily appetite, so that the pleasure which

lesolts is the greatest of all bodily pleasures. So possessing

indeed is this pleasure, that at tlie moment of time in which

it is consummated, all mental activity is suspended. Wliat

friend of visdom and holy joys, who, being married, but

knowing, as the apostle says, " how to possess his vessel in

aanctification and honoiir, not in the disease of desire, as the

Gentiles who know not God/'^ would not prefer, if this were

possible, to beget children without this lust, so that in this

* Cicero, Tvsc. Qutxit. UL 6 and iv. 9. So Aristotle.

* 1 Theas. ir. 4.

THE CITY OF GOD.

[UOOK Xl\

functioa of begetting offspring the members created for th
purpose should not be stimulated by the heat of lust, bi
should be actuated by Ids volition, in the same way as
other members serve him for their respective ends ? Bi
even those who delight in this pleasure are not moved to
at their own will, whether they confme themselves to lawfi
or transgress to unlawful pleasures ; but sometimes this lust
importunes them in spite of themselves, and sometimes fails
them when they desire to feel it» so that though lust rages in
the mind, it stirs not in the body. Thus, stiungely enough,
this emotion not only fails to obey the legitimate desire to
bt^et ofTsjjring, but also refuses to serve lascivious lust ; and
though it often opposes its whole combined energy to the
soul that resists it, sometimes also it is divided against itself,
and while it moves the soul, leaves the body unmoved.

17. Ofilic J^akedne$9 ofourjirtt parents^ xehich they saw ajlar their ba$e and

shameful sin.

Justly is shame very specially connected with this hist ;
justly, too, these members themselves, being moved and
restrained not at om* will, but by a certain independent
autocracy, so to speak, are called *' shameful" Their condi-
tion was different before sin. For as it is written, " They
■were naked and were not asliamed,"^ — not that their naked-
ness was unknoMTL to them, but because nakedness was not
yet shameful, because not yet did lust move those members
without the will's consent ; not yet did the flesh by its dis-
obedience testify against the disobedience of man. ¥ov they
were not created blinds as the unenlightened "vnilgar fancy ; *
for Adam saw the animals to whom he gave names, and of Eve
we read, " The woman saw that the tree was.good for food, and
that it was pleasant to the eyes."* Their eyes, therefore, were
open, but were not open to this, that is to say, were not
observant so as to recognise wliat was conferred upon them
by the garment of grace, for they had no consciousness of
their members warring against their will But when they

' Gen. iL 25.

"An error which arose from the words, "Theeyesof them both were opened,"
Gen. iii. 7. — Set Ve Oeneti ad lit. ii. 40.
* Geu. iii. 8.

miaht be
veme^it of

JOOK XIY.] NAKEDNESS OF OUR FIRST PARENTS.

Stripped of this grace/ that their disobedience
IBniflhed by fit retribution, there began in the mov

ir bodily members a shameless novelty which made naked-
indeccnt: it at once made them obsen'ant and made
tbem ashamed. And therefore, after they violated Gnd'a
command by open transgression, it is -mitten : " And the eyes
of them botli were opened, and they knew that they were
and they sewed fig leaves together, and made tliem-
ivcs aprons."* " The eyes of tlieni both were opened/' not
to see, for ab^eady they saw, but to discern between the good
tbey had lost and the evil into which they had fallen. And '
therefore also the tree itself which they M'ere forbidden to
touch 'yfsks called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil
from thw circnmstance, that if they ate of it it would impart
lo them this knowledge. For the discomfort of siekiiess
TCTeols the pleasure of health. " Tiiey knew/* therefore,
* tliat they were naked/' — naked of that grace which pre-
vented them from being ashamed of bodily nakedness while
the bkw of sin ofifered no resistance to their mind. And tlius
they obtained a knowledge which they would have lived in
blissful ignorance of, had they, in trustful obedience to God,
decllAed to commit that o£fencc which involved them in the
Axperieace of the hurtful effects of unfaithfulness and dis-
lienca And therefore, being asliamed of the disobedience
their own flesh, which witnessed to their disobeilience
it punished it, " they sewed fig leaves together, and
themselves aprons/' that is, cinctm-es for their privy
jmstm ; for some interpreters have rendered the word by
mmteuuioria. Campcsfria is, indeed, a Latin word, but it
used of the dmwers or aprons used for a similar purpose
the young men who stripped for exercise in the camjms ;
those who were so girt were commonly called campcs-
4- Sham*^ moilestly covered that which lust disobediently
moved in opposition to the will which was thus punished

> Thii doctrine unci phmseoloKV of AnRwstirio being important in connection
TJih hift vliolr theory of the fall, we give some parallel passages to show that
worli ore not tuetl at mndoin : De Oenesi ad fif. xi. 41 ; Dr CotTrpt. tt
xu 31 ; and cspecmlty ConL JvUan, \v. 83.
s Geo. JiL 7.
TOL. U. 0

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xir.

for its own disobedience. Consequently all nations, being
propagated from that one stock, have so atrocg an instinct to
cover the shameful pai*ts, that some barbarians do not un-
cover them even in the bath, but wash with their drawera
on. In the dark solitudes of India also, though some pliilo-
sophers go naked, and are therefore called gj'mnosophists,
yet they make an exception in the case of these membci's,
and cover them.

18. 0/ tht thame which attetuU all stxutU tntfrcoitrge.

Lust requires for its consummation darkness and secrecy;
and this not only when unlawful intercourse is desired, but
even such fornication as the earthly city has legalized.
Where there is no fear of punishment, tlicse permitted
pleasures still shrink from the public eye. Even where pro-
vision is made for this lust, secrecy also is provided ; and while
lust found it easy to remove the prohibitions of law, shameless-
ness found it impossible to lay aside the veil of retirement. For
even shameless men call this shameful ; and thoiigh they love
the pleasure, dare not display it. What ! does not even con-
jugal intercourse, sanctioned as it is by law for the propaga-
tion of children, legitimate and honourable though it be, does
it not seek retirement from every eye ? Before the bridegroom
fondles his bride, does he not exclude the attendants, and even
the paranymphs, and such friends as the closest ties have
admitted to the bridal chamber ? The greatest master of
Roman eloquence says, that all right actions wish to he set in
the light, ie. desire to be known. This right action, however,
lias such a desire to be known, that yet it blushes to be seen.
Who does not know what passes between husband and M'ife
that children may be bom ? Is it not for this puri^ose that
wives nre mairied with such ceremony ? And yet, wlien this
well-understuod act is gone about for the procreation of chil-
dren, not even the children themselves, who may already have
been born to them, are suffered to be witnesses. This right
action seeks the hght, in so far as it seeks to be knoM^n, but
yet dreads being seen. And why so, if not because thai
which is by nature fitting and decent is so done as to be
accompanied with a sliame-begetting penalty of sin ?

!V.]

SHAMEFULNESS OP IT7ST.

^^■19. That il U now necfsgarp^ tu it imm not hefort man »innfd^ to bridle anger

^^M and lust by the rattraininfj iujlttence o/wisdom.

^" Hence it is that even the philosophers who hnve approxi-
[ xcated to the truth have avowed that anger and lust are vicious
xnental emotions, because, even when exercised towards objects
hich wisdom does not prohibit, they are moved in an im-
remed and inordinate manner, and consequently need the
tion of mind and reason And they assert that this third
of the mind is posted as it were in a kind of citadel, to give
e to these other parts, so that, while it rules and they serve,
"mans righteousness is presers'ed without a breach/ These
parts, then, which they acknowledge to be vicious even in a'
wise and temperate man, so that the mind, by its composing!
and restraining influence, must bridle and rpcnll tliem from
tliose objects towards which they are unlawfully moved, and
give them access to those which the law of wisdom sanctions, —
that anger, e.g., may be allowed for the enforcement of a just
authority, and lust for the duty of propagating oflspring, —
these parts, I say, were not vicious in Paradise before sin,
for they were never moved in opposition to a holy will towards
any object from which it was necessary that they should be
'Withheld by the restraining bridle of reason. For though
now they are moved in this way, and are regulated by a
bridling and restraining power, which those who live tempe-
mtely, justly, and godly exercise, sometimes with ease, and
sometimes mth greater difliculty, this is not the sound lieaUh
of nature, but the weakness which results from sin. And how
is it that shame does not hide the acts and words dictated by
anger or other emotions, as it covers the motions of lust,
lUilcBS because the members of the body which we employ for
accomplishing them are moved, not by the emotions them-
selves, but by the authority of the consenting will ? For he
who in his anger rails at or even strikes some one, could not
do 80 were not his tongue and hand moved by the authority
of the wiD, as also they are innved when there is no anger,
ut the oi-gans of generation are so subjected to the rule of
t, that they have no motion but what it communicates.
is this we are ashamed of; it is this which blushingly

' Sec Plato's HepubliCt book ir.

Tins cmr of ooi>.

DOOK XII

hides from the eyes of onlookers. And rather will a ma»
eudure a crowd of witnesses Avhiin he is unjustly venting hi*
anger on some one, than the eye of one man when he inno-
cently copulates with his wife.

30. 0/thf/ooluJi beatUincM of the Ci/nim.

It is this which those canine or cynic ^ philosophers hai
overloulied, when they luive, inviohition of the modest instincts
of men, boastfully proclaimed their unclean and shameles*
opinion, worthy indeed of dogs, viz., that as the matrimonial
net is legitimate, no one should be ashamed to perform it>
o^wnly, ill the street or iu any public place. Instinctive
shame has overboviie tliis wild fancy. For though it is related *
that Dio;^*ene3 once dared to put his opinion in practice, under
the impn'ssion that his sect would be all the more famous if
his egregious shamelessness were deeply graven in the memory
of mankind, yet this example was not afterwai'ds followed.
Shame had more intluence with them, to make them blush
before men, than error to make them affect a resemblance to
dog^ii. And possibly, even in the case of Diogenes, and those
who did imitate him, there was but an appearance and pre-
tence of copulation, and not the reality. Even at this day
there are still Cynic philosophers to be seen ; for these are
Cynics who are not content with being clad iu the pallium,
but also carry a club ; yet no one of them dares to do this
that we speak of. If they did, they would be spat upon, not
to say stoned, by the mob. Human nature, then, is witliout
doubt ashamed of this luat ; and justly so, for the insubordina-
tion of these members, and their defiance of the will, are the
clear testimony of the punishment of man's iii-st sin. jind it
was fitting that this should appear specially Jn those parts
by which is generated that nature which has been altered for
the worse by that iinst and gi*eat sin,-^that aiu from whose evil
connection no one can eacapej unless God's grace expiate in
him individually that w^iicli was perpetnited to the destruc-
tion of all in common, when aE were in one man, and which
was avenged by God's justice.

* TliP one wonl being the Latin fonn, the other the Greek, of the saxna adjoctirc.
■ By Diogenes Laertius, vi. 00, and Cicero, De OJic. i. 41.

BOOK XIV.] LUST NOT FELT BY MAN UNFALLEX,

21. Thai tftaii'ti trnnsyrffiion did not anntf/ thehlenting of freundUy pronounced
vpon man br/orc he «in»c(/, but in/tcitd it Kith the dieeaae 0/ ttut.

Far be it, then, from us to suppose that our first parents in
Paradise felt that lust which caused theui ftftcrwaitls to Lluah
and hide their nakedness, or that by its means they should
have fulfilled the benediction of God, " Increase and multiply
and replenish the earth;"* for it Avas after siji that lust
Irogan. It was after sin tliat our nature, having lost tlxe power,
it had over tlie whole body, but not liaving lost all shame,
j>erceived, noticed, blushed at, aud covered it. But tliat
blessing upon marriage, which encouraged them to increase
and nuUtiply and replenisli the earth, thou^di it continued
even after they had sinned, was yet given before they sinned,
in order that the proerealion of children ruiglit be recognised
as port of the glory of mnmagc, and not of the jinnishnicnt of
sin. But now, men being ignorant of the blessedness of Vara-
dise, suppose tliat children could not have been l>egotten there
in. any other way than tlicy know them to be begotten now,
i.c. by lust, at which even honourable marriage blushes ; some
liot simply rejecting, but sceptically deriding the divine Scrip-
tures, in which we read that our first parents, after tliey sinned,
were ashamed of their nakedness, and coveVed it ; wliile 011161*3,
though they accept and honour Scriitfcure, yet conceive that
this expression, " Increase and multiply," refers not to carnal
fecundity, because a similar expression is used of the soul in
tlie wonls, ** Thou wilt multiply me with strength in my
fKiiil;'" and so, too, in the words which fallow in Genesis,
"And replenish the earth, and subdue it/' they understand by
lh€ earth the Itody which the kouI fills with its presence, and
wliich it rules over when it is multiplied in strength. And
they hold that children could no more then than now be
begotten without lust, which, after sin, was kindled, observed,
blushed for, ami covered ; and oven that children would not
ive been boni in Paradise, but only outside of it, as in fact
turned out Por it was after tliey were expelled from it
flat they came together to beget children, and begot tliem.

* C«o. i. 28.

* Vs. cxjt.WiU. 3.

THF CTTT OF GOV.

[no OK xrv.

22. Of the conjugal union aa it »(M or^iiuzUy in«fi^u/rij and hhtaed by God.

But we, for our part, have no manner of doubt tlint to in-
crease and multiply and replenish the earth in virtue of the
blessing of God, is a gift of marriage as God instituted it
from the beginning before man sinned, when He created them
male and I'emale.^in other words, two sexes manifestly dis-
tinct. And it was this work of God on which His blessing
was pronounced. For no sooner liad Scrijiture said^ " Male
and female created He them," ^ than it immediately continues,
" And God blessed them, and God said unto them. Increase,
and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it," etc.
And though all these things may not iinsuitahly be inter-
preted in a spiritual sense, yet " male and female " cannot be
understood of two things in one man, aa if therii were in him
one thing which rules, another which is ruled ; but it is quite
clear that they were created male and female, with bodies of
different sexes, for the very purpose of begetting ofifspring, and
so increasing, multipljdng, and replenishing the earth ; and it
is great folly to oppose so plain a fact It was not of the
spirit which commands and the body which obeys, nor of the
rational soul which rules and the iiTationol desire .which is
ruled, nor of the contemplative virtue which is supreme and
the active which is subject, nor of the underatanding of the
mind and the sense of the body, but plainly of the matri-
monial ujoion by which the sexes are mutually bound together,
that our Lord, when asked whether it were lawful for any
cause to put away one's wife (for on account of the hardness
of the hearts of the Israelites Moses pennitted a bill of
divorcement to ho given), answered and said, " Have ye not
read that He which made them at the beginning made them
male and female, and said. For this cause shall a man leave
father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they
twain shall be one flc^h ? Wlierefore they are no more twain,
but one flesh. What, therefore, God hath joined together, let
not man put asunder."^ It is certain, then, that from the
first men were created, as we see and know them to be now,
of two sexes, male and female, and that they are called one,
either on account of the matrimonial union, or on account of

> Ccn. i. 27, 28. « ilutt. xix. 4, 6,

>K XIV.]

OF rROCKEATlON WITUOUT LUST.

le origin of the woman, who was created from the side of the
And it is by this original example, which God Himself
instituted, tliat the apostle admonishes all husbands to love
tbeir own wives in particular.*

21 Whether generation should have tttX'CH place even in Paradise had man no<
•Imeti, or ichtlher Oiere ehould have been any eontmtion there hctwren
ehtu^iy and last.

But he who says that there should have been neither copu-
lation nor generation but for sin, virtually says that mans
sin was necessary to complete the niiraber of the saints. For
if these two by not sinning should have continued to live
alone, because, as is supposed, they could not have begotten
children had they not sinned, then cei'tainly sin was necessary
in order that there might be not only two but many righteous
men. And if this cannot be maintained "without absurdity,
*e must rather believe that the number of the saints fit to
plete tliis most blessed city would have been as great

ugh no one had sinm^, as it is now that the grace of God
jnthers its citizens out of the multitude of sinners, so long as
tlie children of this world generate and are generated.'

And therefore that marriage, worthy of the happiness of
Tamdise, should have had desirable fruit without the shame
of lust, bad there been no sin. ]3ut how that coidd be, there
is now no example to teach us. Nevertheless, it ought not to
seem incredible that one member might serve the will without
lost then, since so many serve it now. Do we now move our
feet and hands when M'e will to do the things we would by
tteans of these members? do we meet with no resistance in
ihcm, but perceive that they are ready servants of the >vill,
both in our own case and bi that of others, and especially of

Jsans employed in mechanical operations, by which the

s and clumsiness of nature become, through indus-

e-tercise, wonderfully dexterous? and shall wc not believer

t, like as all those members obediently serve the will, so
should the members have discharged the function of

eration, though lust, the award of disobedience, liad been
Ling? Did not Cicero, in discussing the diflerence of
uments in liis Dc liqmhlica, adopt a simile from human

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XIT.

nature, and say that we command our bodily members as-
children, they are so obedient ; but that the vicious parts of
the soul must be ti-eated as slaves, and be coerced with a more
stringent authority ? And no doubt, in the order of nature^
the soul is more excellent tlian the body ; and yet the soul
commands the body more easily than itself. Nevertheless
this lust, of which we at present speak, is the more shameful
on this account, because the soul is therein neither master of
itseF, so as not to lust at all, nor of the body, so as to keep
the members under the control of the will ; for il' they were
thus mled, there should be no shame. But now the soul is
ashamed that the body, which by nature is inferior and sub-
ject to it, shoidd resist its authority. For in the resistance
experienced by the soul in the other emotions there is less
shame, because the resistance is from itself, and thus, when it
is conquered by itself, itself is the conqueror, although the
nouquest is inordinate and vicious, because accomplished by
those parts of the soul which ought to be subject to reason,
yet, being accomplished by iU own parts and energies, the
conquest is, as I say, its owa For when the soul conquers
itself to a due subordination, bo that its unreasonable motions
are controlled by reason, whOe it again is subject to God, this
is a conquest virtuous and praiseworthy. Yet there is less
shame when the soul is resisted by its own vicious parts than
when its will and order are resisted by the body, which is
distinct fi*om and inferior to it, and dependent on it £or life
itself.

But so long as the will retains under its authority the other
members, without which the members excited by lust to i-esist
the will cannot accomplisli what they seek, chastity is pre-
served, and the delight of sin foregone. And certainly, had
not culpable disobedience been visited with penal disobedience,
the marriage of Paradise shoidd have been ignorant of this
struggle and rebellion, this quarrel between will and lust, that
the wdl may be satislied and lust restrained, but those mem-
bers, like all the rest, sliould have obeyed the will. The field
of genei-ation' should have been sown by the organ created
for this purpose, as the earth is sown by the liaud And
» Stc Virgil, Oeorg. iil 136.

BOOX Xrv.] NATURAL SUPREMACY OF THE WD.L.

whereas now, as we essay to investigate this subject more
exactly, modesty hinders us, and compels us to ask pardon of
chaste ears, there would have been no cause to do so, but we
could have discoui-sed freely, and without fear of seeming
obscene, upon all those points which occur to one who medi-
tates on the subject. There would not have been even words
which could be called obscene, but all tliat might be said of
these members would have been as pure as what is said of
the other parts of the body. Whoever, then, comes to tlie
perosal of these pages with unchaste mind, let him blame liis
disposition, not his nature ; let him brand the actings of his
own impurity, not the words which necessity forces us to use,
and for which every pure and pious reader or hearer will very
readily partion me, while I expose the folly of that scepticism
which argues solely on the ground of its own experience, and
lias no fnitli in anything beyond. He wlio is not srandahxed
i^at the apostle's censure of the horrible wickedness of the women
^■liio " changed the natural use into that wliich is against
^BiHare"^ will read all this without being shocked, especially
^Ptt we are not, like Paul, citing and censuring a damnable un-
<^leaDness, but are explaining, so far as we can, human genera-
tion, while with Paul we avoid all obscenity of language.

Jl- That if ntfn had remained innocent and obedient in Paradise, the fjenerativt.
ofjant shQvid have been in subjection to tlie wiU as the olfier members art.

The man, then, would have sown tlie seed, and the woman
received it, as need required, the generative organs being
moved by the will, not excited by lust. For we move at
will not only those members which are furnished with joints
<>f aohd bone, as the hands, feet, and fingers, but we move also
at will those which are composed of slack and soft nerves: we
can pnt them in motion, or stretch them out, or bend and
twist them, or contract and stiffen tbem, as we do with the
muscles of the month and face. The lungs, which are the
very tenderest of the viscera except the bniin, and are there-
fore carefully sheltered in the cavity of the chcbt, yet for all
purposes of inhaling and exhaling the breath, and of uttering
and modulating the voice, are obedient to the will when wo
kvathe^ exhale, speak, shout, or sing^ just as the bellows obey

^ RotD. i. 38.

THE Cmr OF GOD.

[book XIV.

the smith or the organist I will not press the fact that some
animals have a natural power to move a single spot of the
akin with wliich their whole body is covered, if they liave felt
on it anything they wish to drive off, — a power so great, that
by this shivering tremor of the skin they can not only shake
off flies that liave settled on them, hut even spears that have
fixed in their Hesh. Man, it is true, has not this power ; bat
is this any reason for supposing that God conld not give it to
snch creatures as lie wished to possess it ? And therefore
man himself also might very well have enjoyed absolute
power over his members had he not forfeited it by his dis-
obedience ; for it was not difficidt for God to form him so
that what is now moved in his body only by lust should have
been moved only at will.

We know, too, that some men are differently constituted
from others, and have some rare and i-emarkable faculty of
doing with theii* body what other men can by no effort do,
and, indeed, scarcely believe when they hear of others doing.
There are persons who ciin move their ears, either one at a
time, or both together. There are some who, without moving
tlie head, can bring the hair down upon the forehead, and
move the whole scalp backwards and forwards at pleasure.
Some, by lightly pressing their stomach, bring up an incredible
quantity and variety of things they have swallowed, and pro-
duce wliatever they please, quite whole, as if out of a bag.
Some so accurately mimic the voices of birds and beasts and
otlier men, that, unless they are seen, the difference cannot be
told. Some have such command of theii- bowels, that they
can break wind continuously at pleasure, so as to produce
the effect of singing. I myself have known a man who was
accustomed to sweat whenever he wished. It is well known
that some weep when they please, and shed a flood of tears.
But far more incredible is that which some of our brethren
saw quite recently. There was a presbyter callod Eestitutus,
in the parish of the Calamensian^ Church, who. as often as he
pleased (and ho was asked to do this by those who desired to

* The position of Ciiluuia is cli'scribt'd ty Augustine as between ConstAntine
and HJ]>|>o, but nearer Hippo. — Contra Lit. Petii. ii. 228. A fall description
of It is given in Poujoulut's IJietoin dt S. Avgustin, i. ZiO, who says it wai

BOOK XIV.] EXAMPLES OF THE "Wnj/fi SUPREMA.CY.

itness so remarkable a phenomenon), on some one imitating

wailings of mourners, became so insensible, and lay in n

state so like death, that not only had he no feeling when they

pinched and pricked him, but even when fire was applied to

him, and he was burned by it, he had no sense of pain except

afterwords from the wound. And that his body remained

motionless, not by reason of his self-command, but because

be was insensible, was proved by tlie fact that ho breathed

so more than a dead man ; and yet he said that, when any one

•poke with more than ordinary distinctness, he beard the voice,

but as if it were a long way off. Seeing, then, that even in

this mortal and miserable life the body serves some men by

many remarkable movements and moods beyond the ordinary

course of nature, what reason is tliere for doubting tliat, before

man was involved by his sin in this weak and corruptible

condition, his members might have served his will for the

propagation of offspring without lust ? Man has been given

over to himself because he abandoned God, while he sought

to be self-satisfying ; and disobeying God, he could not obey

even himself. Hence it is that he is involved in the obvioua

aisery of being unable to live as he wishes. For if he lived

M be wished, he would think himself blessed ; but he could

be so if he lived wickedly.

^^M 25. O/lrut hUuediitBSj which thit present life cannot enjoy.

^H^ However, if we look at this a little more closely, we see
^^pit no one lives as he wishes but the blessed, and that no
one is blessed but the righteous. But even the righteous
bimself does not live as he wishes, until he has arrived where
be cannot die, be deceived, or injured, and until he is assiired
that this shall be his eternal condition. For this nature de-
mands; and nature is not fully and perfectly blessed till it
attains what it seeks. But what man is at present able to
live as he wishes, when it is not in bis power so much as to
live? He \vishes to live, he is compelled to die. How, then,
does he live as he wishes who does not live as long as he

atu of the most important towns of Numidiu, eighteen Icogaca south of Hippo^
ad represented by the modem Qhclma. It is to its bishop, Poswdliu, wl* owa
tbfl eootemporaTy Ll/c of A wjuetine.

TUE crry of god.

[book XIV.

wishes ? or if he wishes to die, how can he live as he wishes,
since lie does not wish even to live ? Or if he wishes to die,
not beuatise lie dislikes life, but that after death he may live
better, still he is not yet living as he wishes, but only has the
prospect of so living when, through death, he roaches that
which he wishes. But admit that he lives as he wishes,
because he has done violence to himself, and forced himself
not to wish what he cannot obtain, and to wish only what he
can (as Terence has it, " Since you cannot do what you will,
•will what you can"^), is he therefore blessed because he is
patiently wTCtched ? For a blessed life is possessed only by
the man who loves it. If it is loved and possessed, it must
necessarily be more ardently loved than all besides ; for what-
ever else is loved must be loved for the sake of the blessed
life. And if it is loved as it deserves to be, — and the maa
is not blessed who does not love the blessed life as it deserves,
— then he who so loves it cannot but wish it to be eternal
Therefom it sludl then only be blessed when it is eternaL

20. That ux are to btUece tItcU in Faradige ourfrsi parents be^at offtpring
icxOiOUt bItuJtiny.

In Paradise, then, man lived as he desired so long as he
desired what God liad commanded. He lived in the enjojTnent
of Got!, and was good by God's goodness ; he lived without any
want, and had it iu his power so to live eteraally. He had
food that he might not hunger, drink that he might not thirsty
the tree of life that old age might not waste him. There was
iti lus body no coiTuption, nor seed of comiption, which could
produce in him any unpleasant sensation. He feared no in-
ward disease, no outward accident. Soundest liealth blessed
his body, absolute tranquillity his souL As in Paradise there
was no excessive heat or cold, so its inhabitants were exempt
from the vicissitudes of fear and desire. No sadness of any
kind was there, nor any foolish joy j tnie gladness ceaselessly
flowed from the presence of God^ who was loved " out of a
pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned."^
The honest love of husband and wife made a sure harmony
between them. Body and spirit worked harmoniously to-
getlier, and the commandment was kept without labour. No
^ Andr. iL 1, 5. ■ 1 Tiiii. i, 6.

WOK XIV.] WILL KATtnUATXT RTTimEWE 1^ GENT.HATJON.

linguor made their leisure 'wearisome ; no sleepiness inter-
rupted tlieir desire to labour.^ In tauta facilitate renim et
felicitate hominum, absit nt suspicemur, nan potuisse pTolem
•en sine libidinis morlx) : scd co voluntatis nutu moverentur
ilia membra quo ciutera, et sine ardoria illecebroso stimuln
cum iranquiUitate aninii et coi-poris nulla corruptione intogri-
Utis inl'onderetur gremio maritus uxoris. Neque enim quia
experieutia probari non potest^ ideo credondum nnn list; quando
illas corporis partes non ageret turbidus color, sed spontanea
potestas, sicut opus esset^ adliiberet ; ita tunc potulsso uten>
oonjogis salva integritate feminei genitalis virile semen im-
mittij sicut nunc potest eadeni intej^itate salva ex utero
yirgiais fluxus menstrui cruoris emitti. Eadem quippe via
poaset illud injici, qua hoc potest ejici. Ut enim ad parien-
dnm non doloris gemitus, sed maturitatis impulsus feniinea
-viocera relasaret : sic ad fcetandum et concipiendum non libi-
dinis apj)etitus, sed voluntarius usus naturani utramque con-
jungeretw "NVe sx)eak of things whicii are now shameful, and
althoagb we tiy, as well as we are able, to conceive them as
thej wei-e before they became shameful, yet necessity com-
pels us rather to limit our discussion to the bounds set by
modesty than to extend it as our modemte faculty of dis-
COorae might suggest. For since that which I have been
speaking of was not experienced even by those who might
bave experienced it, — I Inean our first parents (for sin and ita
^ffp'fflgj banishment from Paradise anticipated this passionlej^s
gBDCrfttion on their part), — wlicn sexual intercourse is spoken
of now, it suggests to men's thoughts not such a placid obe-
dleooe to the will as is conceivable in our first parents, but
soch violent acting of lust as they themselves have exi>cnenced.
And dierefore modesty shuts my mouth, although my mind
ooDceives the matter clearly. But Almiglity God, the supreme
aod supremely good Creator of all natures, who aids and re-
Wards good wills, w*hile He abandons and condemns the bad,
aod rules both, was not destitute of a plan by which He
might people His city with the iixed number of citizens which
His wisdom had foreordained even out of the condemned

' Compare Biuil's Homily on Paradittf and John Damascene, Dt Fide
Oniwl. ii. 11.

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XIV.

human race, discriminating tbem not now by merits, since
the whole mass was condemned as if in a vitiated root, but
by grace, and showing, not only in tlie case of the redeemed,
but also in those who were not delivered, how much grace
He has bestowed upon them. For every one acknowledges
that he has been rescued from evil, not by deserved, but by
gratuitous goodness, when he ia singled out from the company
of those with whom he might justly have borne a conmion
punishment, and is allowed to go scathless. Why, then,
should God not have created those whom lie foresaw would
sin, since He was able to show in and by them both what their
guilt merited, and what His grace bestowed, and since, under
His creating and disposing liand, even the perverse disorder
of the mcked could not pervert the right order of things ?

27. 0/thf angtU and ftien vyho nnntd^ and that thrir ttiehednas did not
disturb the tjrder 0/ God's providence.

The sins of men and angels do nothing to impede the
"great works of the Lord wliich accomplish His will." ' For
He who by His providence and omnipotence distributes to
every one his own portion, is able to make good use not only
of the good, but also of the wicked. And thus making a
good use of the wicked angel, who, in punishment of liis first
wicked volition, was doomed to an obduracy that prevents
him now from willing any good, why should not God have
permitted him to tempt the first man, who had been created
upright, that is to say, with a good will ? For he had been
so constituted, that if he looked to God for help, man's good-
ness should defeat the angel's wickedness ; but if by proud
self-pleasing he abandoned God, his Creator and Sustainer,
he should be conquered. If his will remained upright,
through leaning on God's help, he should be rewarded ; if it
became wicked, by forsaking God, he shoidd be punished.
But even this trusting in God's help cotdd not itself be
accomplished without God's help, although man had it in his
own power to relinquish the benefits of divine grace by pleas-
ing himself For as it is not in our power to live in this
world without sustaining ourselves by food, while it is in our
power to refuse this nourishment and cease to live, as those

^ Vb. cxi. 2.

BOOK XIT.] PRlMlXn'E DIVEBGENCE OF TItE TWO ClTiES. 47

'io who kill themselves, so it was not in man's power, even in
Paradise, to live as he ought without God's help ; but it waa
in his power to live wickedly, though thus he should cut
short his happiness, and incur very just punishment Sinc«,
then, God was not ignorant that man would fall, why should

tnot have suffered him to bo tempted by an angel who
d and envied him ? It was not, indeed, that He was
ware that he should be conquered, but because He foresaw
that by the man's seed, aided by divine grace, this same devil
himself should be conquered, to the greater glory of the
saints. All was brought about in such a manner, that neither
did any future event escape God';^ foreknowledge, nor did His
foreknowledge compel any one to sin. and so as to demon-
strate in the experience of the intelligent creation, human
tad angelic, how great a difference 'there is between the
private pi*esumption of the creature and the Creator's protec-
tion. For who will dare to believe or say that it was not in
God's power to prevent both angels and men from sinning ?
But God preferred to leave this in thf^ir power, and thus to
show both what evil could be wrought by their pride, and
what good by His grace.

k28. Of the nature qf the two dtia, the, tartMy and the heacmhj.
Accordingly, two cities have been formed by two loves :
e earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God ;
i^e heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of
wit The former, in a word, glories, in itself, the latter in
the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men ; but the
greatesfc glory of the other is God, the witness of conscience.
The one lifts up its head in its own gloiy; the other
says to its God, "Thou ait my glory, and the lifter up of
mine head." * In the one, the princes and the nations it
subdues are ruled by the love of ruling ; in the other, the
princes and the subjects serve one another in love, the latter
^^)eying, while the former take thought for all. The one
^■blights in its own strength, represented in the persons of its
^tnlers ; the other says to its God, " I will love Thee, 0 Lord,
ly strength."* And therefore the wise men of the one

48 THE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK XIV.

city, living according to man, have sought for profit to their
own hodies or souls, or both, and those who have known
God " glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but
became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was
darkened ; professing themselves to be wise," — that is, glory-
ing in their own wisdom, and being possessed by pride, — " they
became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God
into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and
four-footed beasts, and creeping things," For they were
either leaders or followers of the people in adoring images,
"and worshipped and served the creature more than the
Creator, who is blessed for ever." * But in the other city
there is no human wisdom, but only godliness, which offers
due worship to the true God, and looks for its reward in the
society of the saints,* of holy angels as well as holy men,
" that God may be all in alL" *

1 Rom, i. 21-25, • 1 Cor, xv. 23.

BOOK XV.]

THE TWO COMMCXITTER.

BOOK FIFTEEXTH.

ARGUMENT.

BAVIKO treated in the Four. PnECKDlXO BOOKS OF THE OniGI!? OF THE TWO
CITIES, TUE EAHTHLT A\D THE HEAVENLY, AVCUSTIXE EXPLAINS THEIU
liHOWlfl AND rr.UCKEKS IN THE FOUT. B(K)KS WHICH FOLLOW ; AND, IN
OBDBRTO DO SO, HE EXPLAINS THE CHIEF PAfiSACES OF THE HACUKD HIS-
TOnT WHICH BEAU UPON THIS HUDJECT. IN THIS FIFTEENTH BOOK HE
OPENS THIS PAHT OF HIS WORK BV EXPLAINING THE KVRSTS HKCOUVl'.Ti IN
GENESIS FROM THE TIME UF CAIN AND .UlEL TO THE DELl'GE.

1. 0/ tfiC two lm€4 of the Human race which from fir^ to last dmde U*

Fai-adiso itself, and of the

the bliss of Paradise,

of our first parents tliere, and of their sin and pnnisli-
nientj many have thon;;ht inuchj spoken much, written mucli.
^Vft ourselves, too, have spoken of these t]iin;;s in tliti fore-
J?oing books, and have written either what we read in the
Holy Scriptures, or what we could reasonably deduce from
t-hem. And were we to enter into a more detailed investiga-
tion of these matters, an endless number of endless questions
■^oiild arise, which would involve us in a larger work than tlie
pwsent occasion admits. We caimot be expected to iind
^«»m for replying to every question that may be started by
yaoccupied and captious men, who are ever more ready to a-sk
'lutiitions than capable of imderstanding the answer. Yet I
^^Ust we have already done justice to these great and difficult
inestions reganling the beginning of the world, or of the .soul,
w of tlic human i-ace itself. Thi.s race we liave distrilmtcd
uiUi two parts, tlie one consisting of those who live according
to niun, the other of those who live according to God. And
liiese -we also mystically call the two cities, or the two com-
tonnitics of men, of which tlie one is predestined to reign
«temally with God, and the other to suffer eternal punish-
ianent with the devil. This, however, is their end, and of it
we are to speak afterwards. At present, as we have said
VOL n. D

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XV.

enough about their origin, whether among the angels, whose
numbers we know not, or in the two first human beings, it
seems suitable to attempt an account of their career, from the
time when our two first parents began to propagate the race
until all human generation shall cease. For this whole time
or world-age, in which the dying give place and those who
are born succeed, is the career of these two cities concerning
which we treat

Of these two iirat parents of the human race, then, Cain
was the first-born, and he belonged to the city of men ; after
him was bom Abel, who belonged to the city of God. For
as in the individual the truth of the apostle's statement is
discerned, " that is not first which is spiritual, but that which
is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual," ^ whence
it comes to pass that each man, being derived from a con-
demned stock, is first of all bom of Adam evil and carnal,
and becomes good and spiritual only afterwards, when he is
graffed into Christ by regeneration : so was it in the huiunn
race as a whole. When these two cities began to run their
course by a series of deatha and births, the citizen of this
world was the first-born, and after him the stranger in this
world, the citizen of the city of God, predestinated by grace,
elected by grace, by grace a stranger below, and by grace a
citizen above. By grace, — for so far as regards himself he is
sprung from the same mass, all of which is condemned in its
origin ; but God, like a potter (for this comparison is intro-
duced by the apostle judiciously, and not without thought),
of the same lump made one vessel to honour, another to dis-
honour.* But first the vessel to dishonour was made, and
after it another to honour. For in each individual, as T have
already said, there Is first of all that which is reprobate, that
from which we must begin, but in which wo need not neces-
sarily remain ; afterwards is that which is well-approved, to
which we may by advancing attain, and in which, when we
have reached it, we may abide. Not, indeed, that every
wicked man shall be good, but that no one will be good who
was not first of all wicked ; but the sooner any one becomes
a good man, the more speedily docs he receive tliis title, and
UCor. XV. 46. •Rom. ix. 21.

BOOK XT.] CHILDREN OF TIIK FLESH .V3JD OK THE PHOMHK. r»l

abolish the old name in the new. Accordingly, it is recorded
of Cain that he built a city/ but Abel, being a sojourner,
built none. For the city of the saints is above, although
here below it begets citizenff/ in whom it sojourns till the
time of its reign anives, when it shall gather together all in
the day of the resuiTection ; and then shall the promised
i| kingdom be given to them, in which they shall reign with
^^leir Prince, the King of the ages, time without end.

^^^ 2. Of (he ehUdrfn ofthejksh and tkt children qf the promise.

^™ There was indeed on earth, so long as it was needed, a
symbol and foreshadowing image of this city, which served
the purpose of reminding men that such a city was to be»
rather than of making it present ; and this image was itself
called the holy city, as a symbol of the future city, though
not itself the reality. Of this city which served as an image,
and of that free city it typified, Paul writes to the Galatians
in these tenns : " Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law,
ye not hear the law ? For it is written, that Abraliam
two sons, the one by a bond maid, the other by a free
man- But he who was of the bond woman was born after
flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise. Which
tluDgs are an allegory:* for these are t!ie two covenants;
fte one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage,
which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, an<l
answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is h^Jiiinda^e-^itli
fcw children. But Jenisalem which is above is free, wliich is.
the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou bairen
ihat bearest not ; break forth and cry, thou tliat travailest not :
for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath
4n husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the ehil-
tfren of promise. But as then he that was bom after the
teh persecuted him that was bom after the Spirit, even so it
is now. Neveitheless, what saith the Scripture ? Cast out
the bond woman and her son : for the son of the bond woman
shall not be heir with the son ot the free woman. And
we, brethren, are not children of the bond woman, but ol'
the free, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us frea"*

» Gen. It. 17. ' Comp. De TVm. xr. c. 15. » Gal ir. 21 -SI.

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XV.

This interpretation of the passage, handed down to us with
apostolic authority, shows how we ought to understand the
Scriptures of the two covenants — tlie old and the new. One
portion of the earthly city became an image of the heavenly
tity, not having a significance of its own, but signifying
another city, and therefore sending, or." being in bondage."
For it was founded not for its own sake, but to prefigure
another city ; and this shadow of a city was also itself tore-
sliadowed by another preceding figure. For Sarah*s liandmaid
Agar, and her son^ were an image of thus image. And ns the
shadows were to pass away when the full liglit came. Sarah>
the froG woman, who prefigured the free city (wliich again was
also preligui-ed in another way by that shadow of a city Jeru-
salem), therelurt! said, " Citst out the bond woman and her son ;
for the son of the bond woman shull not be heir with my
son Isaac," or, as the apostle says, "with the son of the free
woman." In the earthly city, then, we find two tilings — its
own obvious presence, and its symbolic presentation of the
heavenly city. Now citizens are begotten to the earthly city
by nature ^Htiated by sin, but to the heavenly city by grace free-
ing nature fi*t>m sin ; whence the former ai-e called " vessels of
wrath,** the latter " vessels of mercy." ^ And tliis was tj'pified
in the two sons of Abmham, — Islimael, the son of Agar the
handmaid, being born according to the flesh, while Isaac was
bom of the fi*ce woman Sarah, according to the promise. Both.
indeed, wei-e ot Abraham's seed ; but the one was begotten by
natiiPiil law, the other was given by gracious promise. In the
one birth, human action is revealed ; in the other, a divine
kindness comes to lifjlit.

3. That A'arah's Utrrenn€S9 was made productive by OofVs ffrace.

Samh, in fact, was barren ; and, despairing of offspring, and
being resolved that she would have at least through her hand-
maid Umt blessing she saw she could nut in her own person
procure, she gave her handmaid to her husband, to whom she
herself had been unable to bear children. From him she re-
quired this conjugal duty, exercising her owm right in another's
womb

* Rom. UL 22, £3.

And thus Ishmael was bom according to the common

W>OK XV,]

SARAUS DARREN'NESS.

W of human generation, by sexual intercourse. Therefore it
is said that he was bom " according to the flesh/'^not because
such births are uot the gifts of God, nor His handiwork, whose
creative wistlom " reaches," as it is WTitteu, " from one end to
another mightily, and sweetly doth she order all things,"*
but Iwcause, in a case iu wliich the gift of God, which was
not due to men and was the gratuitoiw lai^ss of grace, was
to be conspicuous, it was requisite that a sou be given in
a way which no ettbrt of nature could compass. Nature-
denies children to persons of the age which Abraham and
Sarah had now reached ; besides that, in Sarah's case, she was
biirren even in her prime. This nature, so constituted that
offspring could not be looked for, symbolized the nature of
the human race vitiated by sin and by just consequence con-
demned, which deser\'es no future felicity. Fitly, therefore,
does Isaac, the child of promise, typify the children of grace,
the citizens of the free city, who dwell ti»gether in everlasting
peace, in which self-love and seK-will have no place, but a
ministering love tliat rejoices in the conimon joy of all, of
many hearts makes one, that is to say, secures a perfect
concord.

4. Of tite conjlict and pf ace of the airUdy cUtj,

But the earthly city, which shall not be everlnsUng (for it
will no longer be a city when it lias been committed to the
extreme penalty), has its good in this world, and rejoices in
it with such joy as .such things can affonl But as this is

. not a good whirli can discharge its devotees of all distresses,

^HSiis city is often divided against itseli by litigations, wtirs,
^^puarrels, and such victories as are either life-destroying or
^fviort-lived. For each part of it that arms against another
part of it seeks to triumph over the nations through itself in
^^>andage to vice. If, when it has conquered, it is iiiHated with
^^■ride, its victory is life-destroying ; but if it turns its thoughts
^^Bpon the common casualties of our mortal condition, and is
^■mther anxious concerning the disasters that may befall it
^^han elated with the successes ali*eady aclueved, this victory,
^though of a higher kind, is still only short-lived ; for it enu-
abidingly rule over those whom it has victoriously sub-

* WiaJom viii. 1.

THK CITY OF GOP.

[book XV.

JTigated. But the tilings w^faich this city desires cannot justly
be said tx) be evU, for it is itself, in its own kind, better than
nil other human good. For it desires earthly peace for the
sake of enjoying earthly goods, and it makes war in order to
attain to this peace ; since, if it has conquered, and there
remains no one to resist it, it enjoys a peace which it had not
■while there were opposing parties who contested for the en-
jojTnent of those things which were too small to satisfy both.
Tliis peace is purchased by toilsome wars ; it is obtained by
what they stj'le a glorious victory. Now^ when victory re-
mains with the pnrty wliich had the juster cause, who hesitates
to congratulate the victor, and style it a desirable peace ?
These things, then, are good things, and >vithout doubt the
gifts of God. But if they neglect the better things of the
heavenly city, which are secured by eternal victory and peace
never-ending, and so inoi-dinately covet these present good
things that they believe them to be the only desirable tilings,
or love them better than those tilings wliich are believed to
be better, — if this be so, then it is necessary that misery
follow and ever increasa

5. 0/ the fratricidal act oj tke/oundtr qfthe cartMy dty, and Me corre-
sponding crime o/the/ounder of Home.

Thus the founder of the earthly citj^ was a fratricide.
Overcome with t'nvy, he slew his own brother, a citizen of
the eternal city, and a sojourner on earth. So that we cannot
he Burj>rised tlutt this Jirst specimen, or, as the Greeks say,
archet}7je of trime, should, long idlerwards, find a correspond-
ing crime at the foundation of that city which was destined
to reign over so many nations, and be the head of this earthly
city of which we speak. For of tliat city also, aa one of their
poets has mentioned, "the first walls were stained with a
brother's blood,"' or, as Roman histor}' records, Remus was
slain by liis brother Romulus. And thus lhei*e is no diffe-
rence between the foundation of this city and of the earthly
city, iinless it be that Romulus and Remus were both citizens
of the earthly city. Eoth desired to have the glory of found-
ing the Roman republic, but both could not have as much
glory as if one only cLiimed it ; for he who wished to have

' Liican, P/tar. i. 9&.

ROOK XV.]

CAIN AXD ABEL.

the glory of ruling -would certainly rule less if his power were
ilttxed by a living consort In order, therefore, that the
whole glory might be enjoyed by one, his consort was re-
moved ; and by tJiis crime the empire was made larger indeed,
bttt inferior, while otherwise it would have been less, but
better. !N"ow these brothers, Cain and Abel, were not botli
nnnated by the same earthly desires, nor did the murderer
eary the other because he feared that, by both ruling, his own
domiaion would be curtailed, — for Abel was not solicitous to
rale in that city which his brother buOt, — he was moved by
that diabohcal, envious hatred with which the evil regard the
gpod. fur no other reason than because they are good while
ttflDselves are evil For the pos.session of goodness is by no
neans diminished by being shared with a partner either per-
nanent or temporarily assumed ; on the contnuy, the posses-
idon c.if goodness is increased in proportion to the concord and
diarity of each of those who sliare it. In short, he who is
unwilling to share this possession cannot have it ; and he who
is most willing to admit others to a share of it will have the
greatest* abundance to himself. The quarrel, then, between
Bomolus and licmus shows how the earthly city is divided
^jainst itself; that which feU oat between Cain and Abel
ted the hatred that subsists between the two cities, that
and that of men. The -racked war with the wicked ;

good also war with the wicked. But with the good, good
men, or at least perfectly good men, cannot war; though,
while only going on towards perfection, they war to this ex-
lent, that every good man resists others in those points in

ch he i*eHists himself. And in each individual *'the tiesli
th against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh."*
spiritual lusting, thereiore, can be at war wiUi the carnal
of another man; or carnal lust may be at war with tlie

itual desires of another, in some such way as good and
wicked men are at war ; or, still more certainly, the carnal
fante of two men, good but not yet perfect, contend together,
jnai aa the wicked contend with the wicked, until the healtli
of Xhoee who are under the treatment of grace attains hnal

victor}'

> GaL T. 17.

THE CITY OF GOD.

[DOOK XV.

C. Of the wcaJbnfiseg which even the citizent of the city qf Ood nnfftr during thin
earthiy pilgrima'je in punishmeni o/ain, and o/which ihey are heaUd by
Ood'a care.

This sickliness — that is to say, that diisobedience of which
we spoke in the foui-teenth book — is the punishment of the
fet disobedience. It is tlierefore uot nature, but vice ; and
thei*efore it is said to the good who are growing in grace, and
lining in this pilgrimage by faith, " Bear ye one another's
bunlens^ and so fulfil the law of Christ." * In like manner it
is said elsewhere, "Warn them that are nnruly, comfort the
feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.
See that none render evil for evil unto any man." ' And in
another place, " If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which
are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness ;
C(nisidtMin%' thyself, lest thou also be tempted."^ And elsc-
wiiere, "Let not the sun go down npon your WTath."* And
in the Gospel, "If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go
and tell him his fault between thee and him alone."* So too
of sina which may create scandal the apostle says, " Them
tliat sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear."' For
this pnrpose, and that we may keep that peace without which
no man can see the Lord/ many precepts are given which
carefully inculcate mutual forgiveness ; among which we may
number that terrible word in which the servant is ordered to
pay his formerly remitted debt of ten thousand talents, because
ho did not remit to his fellow-seiTant his debt of two hundred
]>ence. To which parable the Lord Jeaua added the woixls, *' So
likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from
yoiu* heai*ts forgive not every ouo bis brother" ^ It is thus
the citizens of the city of God are healed wliile still they so-
journ in this earth and sigh for the peace of their heavenly
country. The Holy Spirit, too, worlcs within, that the medi-
cine externally appUed may have some good result. Other-
wise, even though God Himself make nse of the creatures
that are subject to Him. and in some human fonn address our
human senses, whether we receive those impressions in sleep

> Gal. vi. 2,

* Epb. iv. 26.
7 Ueh. xii. li.

« 1 Thess. V. U. 15.
» Mfttl. xviii. 15.
" MAtt xriii. 36,

' Gal. vi. 1.
• 1 Tim. y. 20.

>K XV.]

cain'.s crime.

^r in some external appearance, still, if He does not by His
own inward grace sway and act upon the mind, no preaching
of the truth is of any avail But this God does, distingiiiah-
ing between the vessels of wn-ath and the vessels of mercy, by
His own very secret but verj' just jjrovidence, Wlien He
Himself aids the soul in His own hiddon and wonderful ways,
and tlie sin which dwcUa in our members, and is, as the
apostle teaches, rather the punishment of sin, does not reign
in our moilal body to ol^y tlic lusts of it, and when we no
longer yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness/
theu the soul is converted from its own evil and selfish de-
sires, and, God possessing it, it possesses itself in peace even
in tliis life, and afterwards, with perfected health and endowed
with immortality, will reign without sin in peace everlasting.

T. 0/ the cause of Cain** crime and hi* ohtttinacij, lehich not even the utord of
God could tulKlue.

Bat though God made wae of this very mode of address
Tphich we have been endeavouring to explain, and spoke to
Cain in that form by which He was wont to accommodaU*
Himself to our first parents and converse with tliem as a
winpanion, what good influence had it on Cain ? Did he not
fuM his wicked intention of killing his brother even after
he was warned by God's voice ? for when God had made a
distinction between tlieir sacrifices, neglecting Cain's, regard-
ing Abel's, wlu'ch was doubtless intimated by some visible
aign to that effect ; and when God had done so because the
TTOrka of the one were evil but those of his brother good, Cain
Was very wroth, and his countenance felL For thus it is
written : "And tlie Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth,
and why is thy countenance lullen ? 11 thou offerest rightly,
but dost not riglitly distinguish, hast thou not sinned ? Fret
not thyself, for unto thee shall be his turning, and thou shalt
wle over him," ^ In tliis ailnionition adniiiustered by God to
Cflin, that claiwe indeed, " If tliou ofi'orest rightly, but dost
Dot rightly distinguish, hast thou nut sinned ? " is obscm-e, in-
asmuch aB it is not apparent for what reason or purpose it was
spoken, and many meanings Iiave been put upon it, as each

who discusses it attempts to interpret it according to the
' nom. vL 12, 13. » Gen. U. 6, 7.

mlc of faitL Tlie truth is, that a sacrifice is " rightly offered ** '
when it is offered to the true God, to whom alone we must
sacrifice. And it is " not rightly distinguished " when we do
not rightly distin^ish the places or seasons or materials of
the offering, or the person offering, or the person to whom it
is presented, or those to wht>m it is distiibuted for food after
the oblation. Distinguishing^ is here used for discriminating, —
whether when an olfering is made in a place where it ought
not or of a material which ought to be offered not there but
elsewhere ; or when an offering is made at a wrong time, or
of a material suitable not then but at some other time ; or when
that is offered which iji ik> place nor any time ought to be
offered ; or when a man keeps to himself choicer specimens
of the same kind than he offei-s to God ; or when he or any
other who ma}- not lawfully pailake profanely eata ol the obla^
tion. In which of these particulars Cain displeased God, it is
difficult to determine. But the Apostle John, speaking of
Lliuse brothers, says, " Not as Cain, who was of that wicked
one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him 1 Be-
cause his own works were evil, and his brother's righteoua" ■
He thus gives us to understand that God did not respect his
offering because it was not rightly " distinguished " in this, that
he gave to God something of his own but kept himself to him-
sell For this all do who follow not God's will but their
own, who live not with an upright but a crooked heart, and
yet offer to God such gifts as they suppose will procure from
Him that He aid them not by healing but by gratifying their
evil passions. And this is the characteristic of the earthly
city, that it worehips God or gods who may aid it in reigning
victoriously and peacefully on earth not through love of doing
good, but through lust nf rule. The good use the world that
tliey may enjoy God : the wicked, on the contrary, that they
may enjoy the world would fain use God,— those of them, at
least, who have attained to the belief that He is and takes an
interest in human afi'oirs. For they who have not yet attained
even to this belief are still at a much lower level Cain, then,
when he saw that God had respect to his brother's sacnfioe,
but not to his own, should have humbly chosen his good

1 Literally, "diviaion." ■ 1 Johu iu. 12.

fiOOK XV.]

CAIS^S CONDEAINATIOS.

brother as his example, and not proudly counted him his

TivaL But he was wroth, and his countenance fell This angry

y regret for another person's goodness, even liis brother's, was

^^^larged upon him by God as a great sin. And Ho accused him

^^ it in the interrogation, " Why art thou viTotb. and why is thy

countenance faDen '{ " For Grod saw that he envied his brother,

ind of this He accused him. For to men, from whom the

beart of their fellow is hid, it might be doubtful and quite

tmoertain whether that sadness bewailed his own wickedness

by which, as he had learned, he had displeased God, or his

brother's goodness, which had pleased God, and won His

faTourable regard to his sacrifice. But God, in giving the

reason why Ho refused to accept Cain's offering and why

Cain should rather have been displeased at liimself than at

hia brother, shows him that though he was unjust in "not

rightly distinguishing," that is, not rightly living and being

unworthy to have his offering received, he was more unjust by

ilar in hating his just brother without a cause.

^^k Yet Ho does not dismiss him without counsel, holy, just,

^Tnd good. " Fret not thyself,'* He says, " for unto thee shall

j be his turning, and thou shalt rule over him." Over his

broUier, does lie mean ? Most certainly not. Over what, then,

bat sin? For He had said, "Thou hast sinned," and then

He added, " Fret not thyself, for to thee shall be its turning,

and thou shalt rule over it," ^ And the " turning " of sin to

i the man can be understood of his conviction that the "wUt of
I

rin can be laid at no other man's door but his own. Fur this
' .

is the health-giving medicine of penitence, and the fit plea

for pardon ; so that, when it is said, "' To thee its turning," we

mnst not supply " shall be," but we must read, " To thee let its

turning be," understanding it as a command, not as a pre-

^^iction. For then shall a man rule over his sin when he does

^Hot prefer it to himself and defend it, but subjects it by re-

^Hentance ; otherwise he that becomes protector of it shall surely

^^ecome its prisoner. But if we understand this sin to be that

canial concupiscence of which the apostle says, " The flesh

i loeteih against the spirit," * among the fruits of which lust he

' Wc alter the pronomi to siiit Augustine's iuter}>rt;tattoii.
•Gal. V. 17.

THE CITY OF COD.

Bcxnc

names envy, by which assuredly Cain was stiuig and exci
to destroy his "brother, then we may properly supply th
words " shall be," and i-ead, " To thee shall be its turning, an
thou sholt rule over it." Per when the carnal part which th^
apostle calls sin, in that place wlioro he says, "It is not I who-
do it, but sin tliat dwelleth in mc/'^ that part which the
philosophers also call vicious, and wliich ought not to lead the
mind, but "flhich the mind ou^ht to rule and i-estmin by reason
from illicit motions, — when, then, this part has been moved U*
perpetrate any wickedness, if it be curbed and if it obey the
wai\l of the. apostle, " Yield not your members instruments of
unrifihteousness unto sin,""* it is turned towards the mind and
subdued and conquered by it, ao that reason rules over it as
a subject. It was this which God enjoined on liini who was
kindled with tbo fu-e of envy agiiinst his bmther, so that he
souglit to put out of tlie way him whom he should have set
as an example " Fret not thyself," or compose thyself, He
says : withhold thy hand from crime ; let not sin reign in
your mortal body to fiiljil it in the lusts thereof, nor yield
your meml>ei"3 instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. " For
to tliee shall be its turning," so long as you do not encouiuge
it by giving it the rein, but bridle it by quenching its fira
" And thiju shalt ride over it ; " for when it is not allowed any
external actings, it yields itself to the rule of the governing
mind and righteous will, and ceases from even internal mo-
tion??. There is something similar said in the same divine
book of the woman, when God questioned and judged them
after their sin, and pronounced sentence on them all, — the devil
in the form of the serpent, the woman and lier husband in
their own persons. For when He had said to her, " I will
greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception ; in sorrow
shalt thou bring forth children," then He added, " and thy
turnin;4 shall be to thy husband, and he shall nde over thee."*
WliaL is said to Cain about his sin, or about the vicious con-
cupiscence of bis flesli, is here said of the woman who had
sinned ; and we art; to understand that thti husband is to rule
his wife as the soul rules the ileah. And therefore, says the
apostle, " He tliat loveth iiis wife, loveth himself; for no man
* Kom. fii. 17. ' llom. vi. 13. > Gra. lit. 16.

CAW S CITY.

ever yet liated bis own flesh."* This Jlesb, then, is to ho
healed» because it belongs to oui*selvos : is not to be abandoned
Jp destruction as if it were alien to our nature. But Cain rc-

red that counsel of God in the spirit ot one who did not
to amend. In fact, the vice nf envy gp-ew stronger in him ;
ud, having entrapped his brother, he slew him. Such was

founder of the earthly city. He was also a figure of the
who slew Christ the Shepherd of the flock of men, pre-
^gued by Abel the shepherd of sheep : but as tliis is an nlle-

ical and proj>hetical matter, I forbear to explain it now ;

ides, I reuieutber that I have made some remarks upon it
i& writing agaijist Faustus the Manicha^an."

$. WfMf Cain't rtMoa wufor bititdhy <t dty to earftf in the hietoi-t/
Hfthe humati race.

At present it is the history which I aim at defending, that

ipture may not be reckoned incxedible when it relates that

in built a city at a time in whieh tluire seem to have

but inur men upon earth, or rather indeed but three,

one brother slew the oUier, — to wit, the first man the

of all. and Cain himself, and his Son Enoch, by M-hose

the city was itself called, iiut they who are moved by

this consideration forgot to take into account that the writer

of the sacred lastory does not necessarily mention idl the

men who might be alive at that time, but those only \vhori>

'•lie Bcope of his work required liini to name. The design of

it writer (who in this matter was the instniracnt of the

jly Ghost) was to descend to Abraham through the succcs-

of ascertained generations propagated from one man,

id then to pass from Abraham^s seed to the people of God,

in whom, sepanited as they were from other nations, was

{mi^;uTed and predicted all that relates to the city whose

i;^ is eternal, and to its king and founder Christ, which

igs were foreseen in the Spirit as destined to come ; yet

ithcr is this nlyect so effected as that nothing is said of the

society of men which we call the earthly city, but

»n is made of it so far as seemed needftil to enhance

tb« glory of the heavenly city by contrast to its opposite.

Accordingly, when the divine Scripture, in mentioning the

' Eph. T. 28, 29, ■ C Faufium. Man. xii. c. 9.

THE CITY OF GOD,

[book

number of years which those men lived, concludes its accoun
of each man of whom it speaks, with the words, " And hi
begat sons and daughters, and all his days were so and so^
and he died/' are we to understand that, because it does not^
name those sons and daughters, therefore, during that long-
term of years over which one lifetime extended in those early
days, there might not have been bom very many men, by
whose united numbers not one but several cities might have
been built ? But it suited the purpose of God, by whose
inspiration these histories were composed, to arrange and dis-
tinguish from the iirst tliese two societies in their several
generations, — that on tlie one side the generations of men,
that is to say, of those who live according to man, and on the
other side the generations of the sons of God, that is to
say. of men living according to God, might bo traced down
together and yet apart from one another as far as the deluge,
at which point their dissociation and association are exhibited :
their dissociation, inasmuch as the generations of both lines
arc recorded in separate tables, the one line descending horn
the fratricide Cain, the other from Soth, who had been bom to
Adam instead of him whom liis brother slew ; their association,
inasmuch as the good so deteriorated that the whole race
became of such a character that it was swept away by the
deluge, ^^'ith the exception of one just man, whose name was
Noah, and his wife and tliree sons and tliree daughters-in-law.
which eight persons were alone deemed worthy to escape
trom that desolating visitation which destroyed all men.

Therefore, although it is written. " And Cain knew his wife,
and she conceived and bare Enoch, and he builded a city and
called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch,"*
it does not follow that we are to believe this to have been
his first-bom ; for we cannot suppose that this is proved by
the expression " he knew his wife/' as if then for the first
time he had had intercourae with her. For in the case of
Adam, the father of all, this expression is used not only when
Cain, who seems to have been his first-born, was conceived,
but also afterwards the same Scripture says, " Adam knew
Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare a son, and

^ Gen. It. 17.

BOOK XV.]

CAJN'3 descenoaxts.

called hifl name Setb.'* * Wheuce it is obvious tliat Scripture
employs this expression neither always whea a birth is re-
corded nor then only when the birth of a first-born is men-
tioned. Neither is it necessary to suppose that Enoch was
Cain's first-born because he named his city after him. For
It ia quite possible that though he had other sona, yet for
BOme reason the father loved him more than the rest. Judah
-wms not the first-bom, though he gives his name to Judaea
and the Jews. But even though Enoch was the first-bom of
the city's founder, that is no reason for supposing that the
father named the city after him as soon as he was bom ; for
at that time he, being but a solitary man, could not have
foxmded a civic community, which is nothing else than a
multitude of men bound together by some associating tie.
Bat when his family increased to such numbers that he had
quite a population, then it became possible to him both to
baild a city, and give it, when founded, the name of his son.
For so long was the life of those antediluvians, that ho who
fived the shortest time of those whose years are mentioned in
Scripture attained to the age of 753 years.' And though no
one attained the age of a thousand years, several exceeded the
age of nine hundred. Who then can doubt that during the
lifetime of one man the human race might be so multiplied that
tbere would be a population to build and occupy not one but
several cities ? And this mi^^ht very readily be conjectured
from the fact tLat from one man, Abraham, in not much more
than four hundred years, the numbers of the Hebrew race so
increased, that in the exodus of that people from Egypt there
are recorded to have been six hundred thousand men capable
of bearing arms,' and this over and above the Idumscons, who,
though not numbered with Israel's descendants, were yet sprung
from, his brother, also a grandson of Abraham ; and over and
above the other nations which were of the same stock of
Abraham, though not through Sarah, — tlrnt is, his descend-
by Ilagar and Keturah^ the Ishmaelites, Midianites, etc.

9. 0/the tanrj S/fc and ffreater Bttdure of the anUdiluvicou.

"Wherefore no one who considerately weighs facts will

" Gen. it. 25. * Lamech, according to the LXX. 'Sx. xH. S7.

fi4

TUE CITY OF GOD,

[cook XV.

doubt that Cain might have built a city, and that a large
une, "when it is observed how prolonged were the lives of
men, unless perhaps some sceptic take exception to this very
length of years vhich our authoi's ascribe to the antedi-
luvians and deny that this is credible. And so, too, they do
not believe that the size of men s bodies was larger then than
now, though the most esteemed of their own poets, VirgiJ,
asserts tlie same, when lie speaks of that huge stone which
had been fixed as a lantbnark, and which a strong man of
tliose ancient times snatched up as he fought, and ran, and
hurledj and cast it, —

" Scarce twelve strong Tnen of later mould
Thtit weight could on their neck<i uphold ; ** '

thus declaring his opinion that the eartli tlicn produced
mightier men. And if in the more recent times, how much
more in the ages before the world-renowned deluge ? But
the large size of the primitive human body is often proved to
the incredidous by tlie exposure of sepulchres, either through
the wear of time or the violence of torrents or some accident,
and in wliich bonea of incredible size have been found or have
rolled out. I myself, along with some others, saw on the
shore at Utica a man's molar tooth of such a size, that if it
were cut down into teeth such as we have, a hundred, I
fancy, could have been made out of it. But that, I believe,
belonged to some giant For though the bodies of ordinary
men wei*e tlieu larger than ours, the giants surpassed all in
stature. And neither in our omti age nor any other have
there been altogether wanting instances of gigantic stature,
though they may be few. The younger Pliny, a most learned
man, maintains that the older the world becomes, tlie smaller
will be the bodies of men.* And he mentions that Homer
in Ids poems often lamented the same decline ; and this he
docs not laugh at as a poetical figment, but in his character
of a recorder of natural wonders accepts it as historically true.
But, as I said, the bones which are from time to time dis-

' Virgil, jEaeid, xii 89&» 900. Conip*rc Uic Itiadf v. 302, and Jiivonal, xv.
65 et icci^.

"Terra molos homines nunc cducot atque poMllos."
» PUiL Hist. Nai. vii. JO.

nooK XV.]

AGE OP THE AKTEDILUVIAXS.

covered prove the size of the bodies of the ancients/ and will
do so to future ages, for they are slow to decay. But the
length of an antediluvian's life cannot now be proved by any
«ich monumental evidence. But we are not on tliis account
to withhold our faith from the sacred history, whose state-
ments of past fact we are the more inexcusable in discreditiurj,
as we see the accuracy of its prediction of what was future.
And even that same Pliny ' tells us that there is still a nation
in wliich men live 200 yeai*s. If, then, in places unknown
to ua, men are believed to have a length of days which is
iiuite beyond our own experience, why should we not belicjve
Ihe same of times distant from our own ? Or are we to
believe that in other places there is what is not here, while
W9 do not believe that in other times there has been anything
but what is now ?

10. O/ Ote dijferait eomputntion of the age$ of the aHUdUuviatiA, ffiven fiy the

liebrtio manuseripU and by our own.^

Wherefore, although there is a discrepancy for which I
cumot account between our manuscripts and the Hebrew, in
the very number of years assigned to the antediluvians, yet
the discrepancy is not so great that they do not ar^^i-ee about
their longevity. For the very first man, Adara^ before he
begot his son Seth, is in our manuscripts found to have lived
230 years, but in the Hebrew mss. 130. But after he begot
Seth, our copies read that he lived 700 years, while the
Hebrew give 800. And thus, when the two periods are taken
together, the sum agrees. And so throughout the succeeding
gjeneradons, the period before the father begets a son is always
■ade shorter by 100 years in the Hebrew, but the period
after his son is begotten is longer by 100 years in the
Hebrew than in oiu copies. And thus, taking the two periods
together, the rcsidt is the same in both. And in the sixth

*Se« the account given by Herodotus (i. fi7) oC the discovery of tho bones of
OntfM, wbieh, iLS the .story goes, gave a Etaturo of aevon cubits.

* Ptioy. HUt. Xat. vii. 49, merely reporta what he had read in Hellanicua
abont the Epirotes of Etolia.

' " Our own MAS.," of wliich Augiistlno here apealca, were the Latin rcrsiona
«f the Septnagint used by the Church Wforc Jerome's was received; the "Hfbri'vv
aa.'* were the Tersions mode from the Hebrew text. Compare De DoeL ChriM,
a. IS «t aeqq.

▼OL U. X

THE CITT OF GOD.

[book xr-

generation there is no discrepancy at alL In the seventh^
however, of wliicli Enocli is the representative, who is re-
corded to have lieen transhiLed without death because he
pleased God, there ia the same discrepancy as in the first
five generations, 100 years more heing ascribed to him by
our MS3. before he begat a son. But still the result agrees ;
for according to both documents he lived before he was
translated 365 years. In the eighth generation the discre-
pancy is less than ia the others, and of a difterent kind For
Methuselah, whom Enoch begat, lived, before he begat his
successor, not 100 years less, but 100 years more, according
to the Hebrew reading ; and in our Mss. again these yeais
are added to the period after he begat his son ; so that in this
case also the sum-total is the same. And it is only in the
ninth genemtion, that is, in the age of Lamech, Methuselah's
son and Noah's father, that there is a discrepancy in the sum-
total ; and even in this case it ia slight For the Hebrew mss.
represent him as living twenty-foiu: years more than ours
assign to him. For before he begat his son, M'ho was called
Noah, six years fewer ai-e given to him by the Hebrew mss.
than by ours ; but after lie begat this sou, they give him thirty
years more than ours ; so that, deducting the former six, there
remains, as we said, a surplus of twenty-four.

II. O/ Mtthmelah't age, which aeema to extend fourlixn years beyond the

From this discrepancy between the Hebrew books and our
own arises the well-known question as to the age of Methu-
selah / for it is computed that he lived for fourteen years
after the deluge, though Scripture relates that of all who
were then upon the earth only the eight souls in the ark
escaped destruction by the flood, and of these Methuselah was
not one. For, according to our books, Methuselah, before ho
Ijegat the son whom lie called Lamech, lived 1 G 7 years ; then
Lamech himself, before his son Noah was bom, lived 188
years, which together make 355 years. Add to these the
age of Noah at the date of the deluge, 600 years, and this
gives a total of 955 &om the birth of Methuselah to the

' Jerome {De Qtttxit, Heb. in Qen.) ssya it
tUarchai. — Vives.

a questioii famoos In all tiie

>0K XV,]

METHUSELAH.

year of the flood. Now all the years of the lil'e of Methu-
selah are computed to be 969 ; for wheu he hiul lived 167
j'ears, and had begotten his son Laniech, he then lived ail^r
"this 802 years, which makes a total, as we said, of 969
^■ears. From this, if wc deduct 955 years from the birth of
Hethuselah to the flood, there remain fourteen years, which
lie is supposed to have lived after the flood. And therefore
some suppose that, though he was not on earth (in which it
xs agreed tliat every living thin^ which could not naturally
Xive in water perished), he was for a time with his father,
^<(nrho had been translated, and that he lived there till the flood
l^ad passed away. Tliis hypothesis they adopt, that they may
not cast a slight on the trustworthiness of versions wliicli the
Church has received into a position of high authority/ and
"because they believe that the Jewish MSS. rather than oar
own are in error. For they do not admit that this is a mis-
take of the translators, but maijitain that there is a falsified
statement in the original, from which, thi'ough the Greek, the
Sciipture has been translated into our own tongue. They say
tbt it is not credible that the seventy translators, who simul-
taneously and unanimously produced one rendering, could
have erred, or, in a case in which no interest of theirs was
involved^ could have falsIHed their ti'anslation ; but that the
Jews, envying us our translation of their Law and Prophets,
Imve made alterations in their texts so as to undermine the
authority of ours. This opinion or suspicion let each man
J adopt according to bis own judgment. Certain it is that
^Hletfaaselah did not survive the flood, but died in the very
^Jear it occurred, if the numbers given in the Hebrew MS3.
are true. My own opinion regarding the seventy trans-

^rs I will, with God's help, state more caiefiUly in its
I place, when I have come dovm (following the order
which this work requires) to that period in which their
translation was executed^ For the present question, it is
enough that, according to our versions, the men. of that age
had lives so long as to make it quite possible that, during
the lifetime of the flrst-bom of the two sole parents then

* ** Qaos in anctoritntem celebrioruia Ecclesia soBcepit."

* Sec below, book x\*iii. c 12-i4.

Cl-n' OF GOD.

[book XV.

on earth, the human race multiplied sufficiently to form a
community.

12. Of tilt opinion of those mho do not htlieve that in these primitice times men
lived 90 long (w w ttaUd.

For they are by no means to be listened to who suppose
thiit in those times years were diflerently reckoned, and were
so short that one of our years may be supposed to 1>e equal
to ten of tlieirs. So that they say, when we read or hear that
some mau lived 900 years, we should understand ninety, —
ten of those years making but one of ours, and ten of ours
equalling lOQ of theirs. Consequently, as they supjwse.
Adam was twenty-tluee years of age when he begat Seth, and
Seth himself was twenty years and six mouths old when liia
son Enos was born, though the Scripture calls these months
205 years. For, on the hypothesis of those whose opinion we
are explaining, it was customaiy to divide one such year as
we have into ten parts, and to call each part a year. And
each of these parts was composed of sL\ days squared ; because
God iinished His works in six days, that He might rest the
seventh. Of this I disputed according to my ability in the
eleventh book.'" 'Now six squared, or six times six, gives
thiiiy-six days; and this multiijlied by ten amounts to 360
days, or twelve lunar months. As for the five i-emaining days
wbicli are needed to complete the solar year, and for the
fourth part of a day, which requires that into every fourth or
leap-year a day be added, the ancients added such days as the
Romans used to coll " intercalary " in order to complete the
number of the years. So that Enos, Seth's son, was nineteen
years old when his son Cainan was born, though Scripture
caUs these vears 190, And so through all the venerations in
which the ages of the antediluvians are given, we find in our
versions that almost no one begat a sou at the age of 100 or
under, or even at the age of 120 or thereabouts; but the
youngest fathers are recorded to have been 160 years old and
upwards. And the reason of this, they say, is that no ono
can beget children when he is ten years old, the age spoken
of by those men aa 100, but that sixteen is tlie age of puberty,
and competent now to propagate offspring ; and this is the age

»0.8.

NOK XV-] ANTEDILITVIAK COMPUTATION OT TWrE.

caUed by them 160. And that it may not be thought in-
credible that in these days the year was differently computed
from our own, they adduce what is recorded by several writers
of liistor^', that the Egyptians had a year of four mouths, the
AcanLanians of six, and the Lavinians of thirteen months.^
The younger Pliny, after ineutioiiing that some A\Titer3 re-
ported that one man had lived 152 years, another ten more,
others 200, others 300, that some had even reiiclied 500 and
600, and a few 800 years of age, gave it as his opinion that
all this must be ascribed to mistaken computation. Fur some,
he says, make summer and winter oac!i a year ; others make
each season a year, like the Arcadians, Avhose years, he says,
were of three months. He added, too, that the Egyptians, of
whose little years of four months we have spoken olreatly,
sometimes teiininated their year at the wane of each moon ;
•o that with them there are produced lifetimes of 1000
jearsL

By tliesc plausible arguments certain persons, with no de-
«pe to weaken the credit of this sacred history, but rather to
facilitate belief in it by removing the dilliculty of such in-
credible longevity, have been themselves persuaded, and think
they act wisely in persuading otliers, that in these days the
year was so brief that ten of their years equal but one of fturs,
vlule ten of ours equal 100 of theirs. Uut there is the
plainest evidence to show tliat this is quite false. Before
pxoducing this evidence, however, it seems right to mention
• conjecture which is yet more plausible. From the Hebrew
manascripLs w^e coidd at once refute this confident statement ;
for in them Adam is found to Imve lived not 230 but 130
years before he begat his third son. If, then, this mean
thirteen years by our ordinary computation, then he must
htve begotten his first son when he was only twelve or there-
abemtSw Who can at this age beget children according to the
inlinaiy and familiar course of nature ? But not to mention
Idm, since it is possible he may have been able to beget his
hke as soon as he was created, — for it is not credible that he wi\s
anted so little as our infants arc, — not to mention him, his

' On tliUsuliject ««e Wilkinson'."* note to the secoud book (appendix} of lUw-
■ fferotIvttt4, whew all avoilaWe references are given.

THE Cnr OF GOD.

[book TV.

son was not 205 years old when he begat Enos, as our ver-
sions have it, but 105, and consequently, according to this
idea, was not eleven years old But what sliall I say of his
son Cainan, who, though bj our version 170 years old, was by
the Hebrew text seventy when he beget Malialaleel ? If
seventy years in those times meant only seven of our years,
what man of seven years old begets children ?

18. Wicker, m comjmfin^ ytcvrti, we ouglU to folltno ihc Hdfrew or tht
Septuagint.

But if I say this, I shall presently be answered, It is one
of the Jews* lies. This, however, we have di.sposed of above,
showing that it cannot be that men of so just a reputation, as
the seventy translators should have falsified their version.
However, if I ask them which of the two is more credible,
that the Je^vish nation, scattered far and wide, could have
unanimously conspired to forge tins he, and so, through envy-
ing others the authority of their Scriptures, have deprived
themselves of their verity ; or that seventy men, who were
also themselves Jews, shut up in one place (for Ptolemy king
of Egypt had got them togetlier for tliis work), sboiild have
envied foreign nations that same truth, and by common con-
sent inserted these errors : who does not see which can be
more naturally and readily believed ? But far be it from any
prudent man to believe either that the Jews, however mali-
cious and wrong-headed, could have tampered with so many
and so widely-dispersed manuscripts ; or that those renowned
seventy individuals had any common purpose to giiidge the
truth to the nations. One must thei-eforo more plausibly
maintain, that when first their laljoui-s began to be transcribed
from the copy in Ptolemy's library, some such misstatement
might find its way into the first copy made, and from it might
be disseminated far and wide ; and that tliis might arise from
uu fraud, but from a mere copyist's error. This is a sufficiently
plausible account of the difficidty regarding Methiiselah's life,
and of that other case in which there is a differeuce in the
total of twenty-four yeai's. But in those cases in which there
is a methodical resemblance in the falsification, so that uni-
formly the one version allots to the period before a son and
successor is born 100 years more than the other, and to the

^^SSk :

XV.]

PITERSm* OF MAKUSCEIPTS.

■ 100

period subsequent 100 years less, and vice versa, so that tho
totals may agree,— and this holds true of the first, second,
third, fourtlij fifth, and seventh generations, — in these cases
error seems to have, if "we may say so, a certain kind of con-
stancy, and savours not of accident, but of design.

Accordingly, that diversity of numbers which distinguishes
the Hebrew from the Greek and Latin copies of Scripture,
and which consists of a uniform addition and deduction of
100 years in each lifetime for several consecutive genera-
, is to be attributed neither to the malice of the Jews
or to men so diligent and prudent as the seventy trans-
lators, but to the error of the cop}'ist who was first allowed
to transcribe the manuscript from the library of the above-
mentioned king. For even now, in cases where numbers
<ontribute nothing to the easier comprehension or more satis-
;£actory knowledge of anything, they are both carelessly
"transcribed, and still more carelessly emended. For who "svill
"trouble himself to learn how many thousand men the neveral
tnibes of Israel contained ? He sees no resulting benefit of
such knowledge. Or how many men are there who are aware
of the vast advantage that lies hid in this knowledge ? Eut in
this case, in which during so many consecutive generations
100 years are added in one manuscript where they are not
reckoned in the other, and then, after the birth of the son
and successor, the years which were wanting are added, it is
obvious that the copyist who contrived tlus arrangement de-
signed to insinuate that the antediluvians lived an excessive
number of years only because each year was excessively brief,
and that he tried to draw the attention to tliis fact by his
statement of their age of puberty at which they became able
to beget children. For, lest the incredulous might stumble
at the difficulty of so long a lifetime, he insinuated that
100 of their years equalled but ten of ours; and this in-
uation he conveyed by adding 100 years whenever
found the age below 160 years or thereabouts, de-
these years again from the period after the son's
birth, that the total might harmonize. By this means he
intended to ascribe the generation of offspring to a fit age,
witliout diminishing the total sum of years ascribed to the

TIIE CITY OF GOD.

[book XV.

lifetime of the individuals. And the very fact that in the
sixth generation he departed from this uniform practice, in-
clines us all the rather to believe that when the circumstance
we have referred to required his alterations, he made them ;
seeing that when this circumstance did not exist, he made no
alteration. For in the same generation he found in the Hehrew
MS, that Jared lived before he begat Enoch 162 years, whicli,
according to the short year computation, is sixteen years and
somewhat less than two months, an age capable of procreation ;
and therefore it was not necessary to add 100 short years^
and 80 make the age twenty-six yeare of the usual length ;
and of course it was not necessary to deduct^ after the son's
birth, years which he had not added before it. And thus it
conies to pass that in this instance there is no variation
between the two manuscripts.

This is corroborated still fnrther by the fact that in the
eighth generation, while the Hebrew books assign 182'
years to Methuselah before Lamech's birth, ouw assign to
liim twenty less, though usually 100 years are added to this
period ; then, after Lamech's birth, the twenty years are re-
stored, so as to equalize the total in the two books. For if
his design was that tliese 170 years be understood as seven-
teen, so as to suit the age of puberty, as there was no need
for him adding anytliing, so there was none for his subtracting
anything; for in this case he found an age fit for the genera^
tion of children, for the sake of which he was in the habit of
adding those 100 years in cases wliere he did not find the
age already sufficient. This difference of twenty years we
might, indeed, Imve supposed had liappcned accidentally, had
he not taken care to restore them afterwards as he had
deducted them from the period before, so that tlicre might
be no deficiency in the total. Or are we perhaps to suppose
that there was the still more astute design of concealing the
delibcmte and uniform addition of 100 years to the first
period and their deduction from the subsequent period,— did
he design to conceal this by doing something similar, that is to

* One hundred nnd eighty-seven is the number giTcn in the Hebrevr, and ono
hundred and sixty-seven in thoSeptiinfrint ; but notwithatondin;; the confusion,
the oTf^ument of Aagustiue is eaidjy followed.

BOOK XV.] LENGTH OF ANTEDILUVIAN TEAR.

say, adding and deducting, not indeed a century^ but some
years, even in a case in wliicii there wns no need for his
doing so ? But whatever may be thought of this, whether
it be believed that he did so or not, whether, in fine, it be
so or not, I would have no manner of doubt that when any
diversity is found in tlie books, since both cannot be true to
fact, "we do well to believe in preference that language out
of which the translation was made into another by translators.
For there are tluree Greek Mss., one Latin, and one S}Tiac,
which agree with one another, and in all of these Methuselah
is said to have died six years before the deluge.

14. yUat the years in those ancient times toert of the same Untfth at ovr own.

Let us now see how it can be plainly made out that in the
coormously protracted lives of those men the years were not
flo short that ten of their years were equal to only one of ours,
bbnt were of as great length as our own, which are measured
the course of the sun. It is proved by this, that Scripture
ites that the flood occurred in the six hundredth year of
Kjah's life. But why in the same place is it also written,
The waters of the flood were upon the earth in the six
itmdredth year of Noah^s life, in the second month, the
hrenty-seventh day of the month/* ^ if that very brief year (of
which it took ten to make one of ours) consisted of thirty-
rii days ? For so scant a year, if the ancient usage dignified
with the name of year, either has not months, or its month
mst be three days, so tliat it may have twelve of them. How
then was it here said, " In the six hundredth year, the second
month, the twenty-seventh day of the mnnth" unless the
months then were of the same length as the months now ?
Pot how else could it be said that the flood begnn on the
rentj'-seventh day of the second month ? Then afterwards,
Uie end of tlie Hood, it is thus wTitteu : " And the. ark rested
in the seventh month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month,
the mountains of Anarat And the waters decreased con-
lually until the eleventh month: on the first day of the
month were the tops of the mountains seen."' But if the

1 G«ii. Ttt. 10, 11 ^in our veruon the seTcnteenth <ky).
* QeD. viii. 4, &.

74 THE CITY Of C30D. [bOOK 2T.

months ■were such as we have, then so were the years, And
certainly months of three days each could not have a twenty-
seventh day. Or if eveiy measure of time was diminished in
proportion, and a thirtieth part of three days was then called
a day, then that great deluge, which is recorded to have lasted
forty days and forty nights, was really over in less than foiK
of our days. Wlio can away with sucli foolisliness and ab-
surdity ? Far be this error from us, — an error which seeks t«
build up our faith in the divine Scriptures on false conjecture-
only to demolish our faith at another point. It is plain th^^
the day then was what it now is, a space of four-and-twent?^
hours, determined by the lapse of day and night ; the mont-^
then equal to the month now, M'hich is defined by the ns
and completion of one moon; the year then equal to the yea
now, which is completed by twelve lunar months, with th
addition of five days and a-fourth to adjust it with the
of the sun. It was a year of this length which was reckon'
the six hunda*edth of Noah's life ; and in the second month,
the twenty-seventh day of the month, the flood b^an, — a
flood which, as is recorded, was caused by heavy rains con-
tinuing for forty days, which days had not only two hours
and a little more, but four-and-twenty hours, completing a
night and a day. And consequently those antediluvians lived
more than 900 years, which were years as long as those
which afterwards Abraham lived 175 of, and after him his
son Isaac 180, and ]us son Jacob nearly 150, and some time
after, Moses 120, and men now seventy or eighty, or not
much longer, of which years it is said, " their strength is
labour and sorrow."^

But that discrepancy of numbers which is found to exist
between our own and the Hebrew text docs not touch the
longe\ity of the ancients ; and if there is any diversity so
great that both versions cannot be tnte, we must take our
ideas of the real facts from timt text out of wliich our own
version has been ti^nslated. However, though any one who
l^leases has it in Ins power to correct this version, yet it is
not unimportant to obsen^e that no one has presumed to
emend the Septuagint from the Hebrew text in the many

» Pa. xc 10.

XV.]

ANTEDttTJVIAy AGE OT FUBEKTY,

plaoes where they seem to diBagree. For this difference has
not been reckoned a falsification ; and for my own part I am
peraaaded it ought not to be reckoned so. But where the
difference is not a mtire copyist's error, and where the sense is
agreeable to truth and illustrative of truth, we must believe
that the divine Spirit prompted them to give a var}ang version,
not in their function of translators, but in the liberty of pro-
piieejring. And therefore we fiiid that the apostles justly
sanction the Septuagint, by quoting it as well as the Hebrew
-when they adduce proofa from the Scriptures. But as I have
promised to treat this subject more carefully, if God help me,
in A more fitting place, I will now go on with the matter in
band. For there can be no doubt that, the lives of men being
aolong, the first-born of the first man could have built a city, —
a city, however, which was earthly, and not that which is
called the city of God, to describe which we have taken in
band this great work

Iff Wheiher it w credible that the men of tlie primitive age abstained from

ft9exual intercourse until ifiat date at which it is recorded tliat they begat
Some one, then, will say. Is it to be believed that a man
fao intended to beget children, and had no intention of con-
■.atence, abstained from sexual intercourse a hundred years and
znare, or even, according to the Hebrew version, only a little
Joa. aay eighty, seventy, or sixty years; or, if he did not
abstain, was unable to beget offspring ? This question admits
of two solutions. For either puberty was so much later as the
•whole life was longer, or, which seems to me more likely, it
ll is not the firstrbom sons that are have mentioned, but those
I wliose names were required to fill up tlie series until Noah
was reached, from whom again we see that the succession is
^Beontinned to Abraham, and after him down to that point of
^Kime until which it was needful to mark by pedigree the
cooTBe of the most glorious city, which sojourns as a stranger
in this world, and seeks the heavenly countiy. That which
is ondeniable is that Cain was the first who was born of man
and woman. For had he not been the first who was added
by birth to the two unborn persons, Adam could not have said
vhat he is recorded to have said, " I have gotten a man by

TriE CITY OF GOD.

[book XV.

tlie Lord.'^ ' He was followed by Abel, whom the elder
bruther slew, and wlio was the first to show, by a kind of
foreshadowing of the sojourning citj' of God, what iniquitous
peraecutions tliat city would suffer at the hands of wicked
and, as it were, earth-bom men, who love their eartlJy origin,
and delif^ht in the earthly happiness of the earthly city. But
how old Adam was wheu be begat these sons does not appear.
After this the generations diverge, tlie one branch deriving
from Cain, the other from him whom Adam begot in the room
of Abel slain by his brother^ and whom he called Seth, saying,
as it is written, " For God hath raised me Tip another seed for
Abel whom Cain slew." ^ These two series of generations
accordingly, the one of Cain, the other of Setli, represent the
two cities in their distinctive ranks, the one the heavenly city,
which sojourns on earth, the other the earthly, which gapes
after earthly joys, and grovels in them as if they were tlie
only joys. But though eight generations, including Adam, are
registered before the flood, no man of Cain's line has his age
recorded at which the son who succeeded him was begotten.
For the Spirit of God refused to mark the times before the
flood in the generations of the eartlUy city, but preferred to do
so in the heavenly line, as if it were more worthy of being
remembered. Fniiher, when Seth was born, ihe age of his
father is mentioned; but already be hail begotten other sons,
and who will presume to say that Cain and Abel were the
only ones previously begotten ? For it does not follow that
tliey alone Iiad been begotten of Adam, because they alone
were named in order to continue the series of generations
which it was desimble to mentioa For though the names of
all the rest are buried in silence, yet it is said that Adam
begot SODS and daughters ; and who that cares to be free from
the chai-ge of temerity will dare to say how many his offspring
numbered ? It was possible enouf;]t that Adam was divinely
prompted to say, after Seth was born, " For God hath raised
up to me another seed for Abel," because that son was to be
capable of representing Abel's holiness, not because he was bom
iirst after hhn in point of tima Then be&iuse it is WTitten,
"And Seth lived 205 years," or, according to the Hebrew read-
1 Gen. iv. 1. * Gca. iv. 25.

BOOK XV.] OF THE AKTEDILUVIAN GENERATIONS.

ix^" 105 years, and begat Enos,"* who but a rash man could
affinn that tiiis was his first-born ? Will any man do so to
excite our wonder, and cause us to inquire bow for so many
years he remained free from sexual intercourse, though without
any purpose of continuing so, or how. if he did not abstain, he
yet had no children ? Will any man do so when it is written
of him, " And he begat sons and daughters, and all the days
i»f Seth were 912 years, and he died ?"* And similarly re-
garding those whose years are afterwards mentioned, it is not
disguised that they begat sons and daughters.

Consequently it does not at all appear wlicther he who is
named as the son was himself the iii*st begotten. Nay, since
it is incredible that those fathers were either so long in attain-
ing puberty, or could not get wives, or could not impregnate
tbeiDy it is also incredible that those sons were their first-bom.
Bat as the writer of the sacred history designed to descend by
ell-inarked intervals through a series of generations to the
h and lifi! of Koah, in whose time the Hood occurred, he
mentioned not those sons who were first begotten, but those
by whom the succession was handed down.

Let me make this cleai'er by here inserting an example, in
legaid to which no one can have any doubt that what I am
ansMting is true. The evangelist I^Iattbew, whore he designs
^to commit to our memories the generation of the Lord's ilesh
^^■y a scries of parents, beginning from Abraham and intending
^^p reach David, says, " Al)raham begat Isaac ; " ^ why did he
PRoi say Ishmael, whom he first begat ? Then " Isaac begat
Jacob;" why did he not say Esau, who was the first-bom ?
Simply because these sons -would not have helped him to
preach David. Then follows, " And Jacob l)egat Judali nnd
^Bis brctliren : " was Judah the fifst begotten ? " Judah/' he
^Bays, " begat Pharez and Zsira ;" yet neitlier w^ere these twiris
^nhe first-bom of Judali^ but before them he had begotten
tiiTBe other sona And so in the order of the generations he
retained those by whom he might reach David, so as to pro-
ceed onwards to the end he Imd in view. And from this we
may understand that the antediluvians who are mentioned
were not the fii-st-bom, but those tlu'ough whom the order of
* CtiL T. 9. ■ Gca. V. 8. . • Mmtt. i

THE crry or god.

[book XT.

the succeeding generations might be carried on to the patriarch
NoaL We need not, therefore, weary ourselves with discussing
the needless and obscure question as to their lateness of reach-
ing puberty.

16. Of marriage bettoten hlood-rfiaiiona^ m regard to wAidL fAi? pretent la/a
couid not bind Uu. men of the earliest ages.

As, therefore, the human race, subsequently to the first
marriage of the man who was made of dust, and his wife who
was made out of his side, required the imion of males and
females in order that it might multiply^ and as there were no
human beings except those who had been bom of these two,
men took their sisters for wives, — an act which was as certainly
dictated hy necessity in these ancient days as afterwards £*•
was condemned by the prohibitions of religion. For it i^
very reasonable and just that men, among whom concord i
honourable and useful, should be bound together by varioi
relationships ; and that onu man should not himself sustain-
many relationships, but that the various relationships should
be distributed among several, and should thus ser\'e to bind
together the greatest nximber in the same social interests.
" lather" and " father-in-law" are the names of two rela-
tionships. When, therefore, a man has one person for his
fether, another for his father-in-law, friendship extends itself
to a larger number. But Adam in his single person was
obliged to hold botli relations to his sons and daughters, for
brothers and sisters were united in marriage. So too Eve
his wife was both moUicr and motlier-in-law to her children
of both sexes ; while, had there been two women, one the
mother, the other the mother-in-law, the family affection
would have had a wider field Then the sister herself by
becoming a wife sustained in her single person two relation-
ships, which, had they been distributed among individuals, one
being sister, and another being wife, the family tie wo\dd have
embraced a greater number of persons. But there was then
no material for effecting this, since there were no human
beings but the brothers and sisters bom of those two first
parents. Therefore, when an abundant popidation made ib
possible, men ought to choose for wives women who were not
already their sisters ; for not only would there then be no

1X)0K XV.] MARniAGE AMONG ^ANTEDILUVIANS,

aeeesaity for marrying sisters, but, were it done, it would be
meet abominable. For if the ^rrundchildren of the first pair,
being now able to choose their cousins for wives, married
their sisters, then it would no longer be only two but three
relationships that were held by one man, while each of these
EBlitiDnships ought to have been held by a separate individual,
90 as to bind together by family affection a larger number.
Far one man would in that case be both father, and fatlitjr-in-
law, and uncle* to his own children (brother and sister now
mtsa and wife) ; and liis wife would be mother, aunt, and
mother-in-law to them ; and they tlieraselves would be not
only brother and sister, and man and wife, but cousins also,
bong the children of brother and sister. Now, all these
relationships, which combined three men into one, would have
eanfanced nine persons had each relationship been held by
ooe individual, so that a man had one person for his sister,
another his wife, another his cousin, another his father, another
his unde, another liis father-in-law, another his mother, another
his tamt, another his mother-in-law ; and thus the social bond
would not have been tightened to bind a few, but loosened to
embrace a larger numbed of relations

And we see that, since the human race has increased and
nutkiplied, this is so strictly obser\'ed even among the pro-
file ^roishippers of many and false gods, that though their
latWB perversely allow a brother to marry his sister,^ yet cus-

with a finer morality, prefers to forego this licence ; and
[h it was quite allowable in tlie earliest ages of the
race to many one's sister, it is now abhorred as a
tlung "which no circumstances could justify. For custom has
\esrj great power either to attract or to shock human feeling.
And in this matter, while it restrains concupiscence within
doe bounds, the man who neglects and disobeys it is justly
V— M^*w< m abominable. For if it is iniquitous to plough
beyond oar own boundaries through the greed of gain, is it
nmch more iniquitous to transgress the recognised boun-
of morals through sexual lust ? And with regard to
in the next degree of consanguinity, marriage be-

' His own chUdren beinf; ihe children of his aister, and therefore hia nephews.
' ThiA WM allowed by the Kg}'pLians and Athenians, never by the Rgmani.

THE CITT OF GOD.

[book XV.

tween cousins, %ve have obsen'ed tliat in our own time the
customary morality has prevented tliia from being frequent,
though the law allows it. It was not prohibited by divine
law, nor as yet had hurarin law pmhibited it ; nevertheless,
though legitimate, people shrank from it, because it lay so
close to what was illegitimate, and in marrying a cousin
seemed almost to marry a sister, — for cousins are so closely
related that they are called brothers and sistex's/ and aro
almost really so. But tlie ancient fatbers, feariug that near
relntionsliip might gradually in the course of generations
diverge, and become distant relationsliip, or cease to be rela-
tionship at allj religiously endeavoured to limit it by the
bond of marriage before it became distant, and thus, as it
wei^, to call it back when it was escaping tltera. And on
this account, even when the world was full of people, though
they did not chooae wives from among their sisters or balf-
elaters^ yet they prefeiTed them to bo of the same stock as
themselves. But who doubta that the modem prohibition of
the marriage even of cousins is the more seemly regulation,
— not merely on account of tlie i-eason ive liave been urging,
the multiplying of relationships, so that one person might not
absorb two, wliich might be distributed to two persona, and
so increase the number of people bound together as a family,
but also because tliere is in human nature I know not what
natural and praiseworthy shamefacedness whicli restrains us
from desirin;:; that connection which, though for propagation,
is yet lustful, and which even conjugal modesty blushes over,
with any one to whom consanguinity bids us render respect ?
The sexual intercourse of man and woman, then, is in the
case of mortals a kind of seed-bed of the city; but while
the earthly city needs for its population only generation, the
heavenly needs also regeneration to rid it of the taint of
generation. Whether before the deluge there was any bodily
or visible sign of regeneration, such as was afterwards enjoined
upon Abraham when he was circumcised, or what kind of
sign it was, the sacred history does not inform us. But it
does inform us that even these earliest of mankind sacrificed

> Both in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, though not uniformly, uor iu Latin
couimouly.

BOOK XV.

OF CAIN ASH) SETtr.

to God, as appeared also in the case of the two first brothel's ;
Xoah. too, is s;ucl to have offered .sacrifices to God when he
had come fortli from the ark after tlie dehige. And concern-
ing this subject we have already said in the foregoing boolcs
that the devnls arrogate to themselves divinity, and require
sacrifice that they may be esteemed gods, and delight in these
honours on no other account than this, because they know
that true sacrifice is due to the true God.

17- Of the two fathers and leaders vho sprang from one progenitor*

Since, then, Adam was the father of both lines, — the father,
'that is to say, both of the line which belonged to the earthly,
Und of that which belonged to the heavenly city, — when Abel
Vas slain, and by his death exhibited a manxllous mystery,
there were henceforth two lines proceeding Irom two fathers,
Cain and Seth, and in those sons ot theirs, whom it behoved
to register, the tolcens of these two cities began to appear
^lore distinctly. For Cain begat Enoch, in whose name he
lioilt a citj% an earthly one, which was not fi*om home in this
"^vorld, but rested satisfied with its temporal peace and hap]n-
xieas. Cain, too, means " possession ; " wherefore at liis birth
either his father or mother said, " I have gotten a man through
God." Then Enoch menns "dedication;" for the earthly city
is dedicated in this world in which it is built, for in this
^rld it finds the end towards which it aims and aspires.
i^urther, Seth signifies "resurrection," and Enos his son sig-
tdfies "man," not as Adam, which also signifies man but is
QBed in Hebrew indifferently for man and woman, as it is
Written, " Male and female created He them, and blessed thera,
and called their name Adam/' * leaving no room to doubt that
though the woman was distinctively called Eve, yet the name
pAdam, meaning man, was common to both. But Enos means
lan in so restricted a sense, that Hebrew linguists tell us it
mot be applied to woman: it is the equivalent of the
child of the resurrection," when they neither many nor are
iven in marriage.' For there shall be no generation in that
plaoe to which regeneration shall have brought us. Where-
fore I tliiok it not immaterial to observe that in those gene-

> Gen. T. 2. • Luke xx. 35, 36.

VOL It P

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XV,

rations which are propagated from him who is called Seth,
although daughters as well as sons are said to have been
begotten, bo woman is expressly registered by name ; but in
those which sprang from Cain at the very termination to
which the line runs, tho last jwrson named as begotten is a
woman. For we read, '* Methusael begat Laraech. And
Lamech took unto him two wives : the name of the one was
Adah, and the name of the other Zillah. And Adah bare
Jabal : he was the father of the shepherds that dwell in tenta
And his brother's name was Jubal : he was the father of all
such as handle the harp and organ. And Zillah, she also
liare Tubal-Cain, an instructor of every artificer in brass and
iron : and the sister ol Tubal-Cain was Naamah."^ Here ter-
minate all the generations of Cain, being eight in niimber,
including Adam, — to wit, seven from Adam to lamech, who
married two wives, and whose children, among whom a woman
also is named, form the eighth generation. "Whereby it is
elegantly signified that the earthly city shaU to its termina-
tion have carnal generations proceeding from the intercourse
of males and females. And therefore the wives themselves
of the man who is the last named father of Cain's line are
registered in their own names, — a practice nowhere followed
before the deluge save in Eve's case. Now as Cain, signify-
ing possession, the founder of the earthly city, and his son
Enoch, meaning dedication, in whose name it was founded,
indicate that this city is earthly both in its beginning and in
its end, — a city in which nothing more is hoped for t!»an can
he seen in tliis world, — so Seth, meaning resurrection, and
being tho father of generations registered apart from the
others, we must consider what this sacred history says of
his son.

18. TV tigniJUatice ofAhd, Sffh, and EnoB to Chnti and. Hi» hodff

Ui^CfMrch.

" And to Seth," it is said, " there was bom a son, and he
called his name Euos : he hoped to call on the name of the
Lord God.*"* Here we have a loud testimony to the truth.
Man, then, the son of the resurrection, hves in hope : he
lives in hope ua long as the city of God, which is begotten

^ Ccn. iT. 13-32. « Gcu. iv. 26.

by faith in the resurrection, sojourns in this world. For in
two men, Abel, signifying " grief," and his brother Seth,
fjdng " resurrection," the deatli of Christ and His life from
the dead are prefigured. And by faith in these is begotten
iu this world the city of God, that is to say, the man who has
hoped to call on the name of the Lrinl. "Tor by hope," says
the apoatle^ " we are saved : but liope tlial is seen is not
bope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
But if we hope for that we see not, Uien do we with
istience wuit for it"* Who can avoid referring this to a
profound mystery ? For did not Abol hope to call upon the
name of the Lord God when his sacrifice is mentioned in
Scripture as having been accepted by God? Did not Seth
liiinself hope to call on the name of the Lord God, of whom
it was said, "For God hath appointed me another seed in-
stead of Abel?" Why then is this which is found to be
common to all the godly specially attributed to £nos, unless
Ijocause it was fit that in him, who is mentioned as llxe
feat-born of the iather of those generations which were sepa-
i-ated to the better part of the heavenly city, there should be
a type of the man, or society ot men, who live not according
to man in contentment with earthly felicity, but according to
God in hope of everlasting felicity ? And it was not said, " He
toped in the Lord God." nor " He called on the name of the
Lord God," but " He hoped to call on the name of the Lord
God." And what does this " lioped to call " mean, unless it
is a prophecy that a people should arise who, according to the
election of grace, would call on the name of the Lord God?
It is this which has been said by another prophet^ and which
the apostle interprets of tlie people who belong to the grace
of GkMl : '* And it shall be that whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord sliall bo saved" ' For these two expres-
sions, "And he called his name Enos, which means man," and
hoped to call on the name of the Lord God," are suffi-
nt proof that man ought not to rest his hopes in hijnself ;
as it is elsewhere written, " Cursed is the man tliat trustetli
in man."' Consequently no one ought to trust in himself
that he shall become a citizen of that other city wliitjh is not
* Eom, riiL 24, 25. * Bom. x. 13. ■ Jcr. xvii. 6.

^fiiona
KHe

^^ent

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XV-

fledicated in tlie name of Cain's son in thia present time, that
is to say, in the fleeting course of tliis mortal world, but in
the immortality of perpetual blessedness.

19. Ttie ^gnijteance of Enodi^a tratulaiioti.

For that line also of which Seth is the father has th&
name " Dedication " in the seventh generation from Adam,
counting Adam. For the seventh from him is Enoch, that
is, Dedication. But this is that man who was translated
because he pleased God, and who held in the order of tho
f^enerationB a remarkable place, being the seventh from Adam,
a number signalized by the consecration of the Sabbatk But,
counting from the diverging point of the two lines, or from
Seth, he was the sixth. Xow it was on the sLtth day God
made man, and consunmiated His works. But the transla-
tion of Enoch prefigured our deferred dedication ; for though
it is indeed already accomplished in Christ our Head, who
so Tose i^in that He shall die no more, and who was Him-
self also translated, 3'et there remains another dedication of
the whole house, of which Christ Himself is the foundation,
and this dedication is deferred till the end, when all shall
rise again to die no more. And whether it is the house of
God, or the tem])le of God, or the city of God, that is said to
be dedicated, it is all the same, and equally in accordance with
the usage of tho I-atin language. For Vii-gil himself calls the
city of widest empire " the house of Assaracus,"^ meaning the
Romans, wlio were descended through the Trojans from As-
saracus. Pic also calls them t!ic house of ..Eneas, because
Rome was built by those Trojans who had come to Italy
under JFmghs? For that poet imitated the sacred writings,
in which the Hebrew nation, though so numerous, is called
the house of Jacob.

20. How it is that Cain*$ tine trrminaUs in the eighth generaium^ yjlule Noah,
tiioiiiih tlifgceitded from Me $ame faUterj Adanif it found to be the tenth
from ftim.

Some one will say. If the writer of tliia liistory intended,
in enumerating the generations from Adam tlirough liis son
(Seth, to descend through them to Noah, in whose time the
' jEneid, i. 288. ' .£neid, m, 97.

BOOK XV.] METHOB m REGISTERING CAJ^LTNE.

deluge occurred, and from him again to trace the connected
generations down to Abraham, with whom Matthew begins
the pedij:^e of Christ the ctenial King of the city of God,
what did he intend by enumerating the generations from Cain,
and to what terminus did he mean to tmce them ? We
reply, To the deluge, by which the whole stock of the earthly
city was destroyed, but repaired by the sons of Koah. For
the earthly city and conuaunity of men who live after the
fleah will never fail until the end of this world, of wliicli our
lord says. " The children of this world generate, and are gene-
rated."^ But the city of God, which sojourns in this world,
ii conducted by regeneration to the world to come, of which
the children neither generate nor are generated In this
^orld generation is common to both cities ; though even now
the city of God has many thousand citizens who abstain from
the act of generation ; yet the other city also has some citizens
^*ho imitate these, though erroneously. For to that city be-
long also those who have eired from the faith, and introduced
livers heresies; for they live according to man, not accord-
[,tO God. And the Indian gymnosophists, who are said to
>phize in the eoUtudes of India in a state of nudity, are
citizens ; and they abstain from mannagc. For continence
not a good thing, except when it is practised in the faith of
the highest good, that is, God. Yet no one is found to have
"practised it before the deluge ; for indeed even Enoch himself,
the seventh from Adam, who is said to have been translated
■without dying, begat sons and daughters before lie was trans-
lated, and among these was Methuselah, by whom the sue-
tession of the recorded generations is maintained.

Why, then, is so small a number of Cain's generations
registered, if it was proper to trace them to the deluge, and
if there was no such delay of the date of puberty as to pre-
clude the hope of oSfspring for a hundred or more years ? For
if the author of this book had not in view some one to whom
he might rigidly trace the series of generations, as lie designed
in those wliich sprang from Seth's seed to descend to Noah,
and thence to start again by a rigid order, what need was
iheire of omitting the first-born sons for tlie sake of descend-

' Lake xx. 34.

THK Cnr OF GOD.

[book XV,

ing to Lamech, in whose sons that line terminates, — that is
to flay, in tlie eighth generation from Adiuu, or the aeventh
from Cain, — as if from this point he had wished to pass on to
another series, by which he might reach either the Israelitish
people, among whom the earthly Jerusalem presented a pro-
phetic figure of the heavenly city, or to Jesiis Christ, " accord-
ing to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed for ever," ^ the
Maker and Ruler of the heaveuly city ? What, I say, was the
need of this, seeing that the whole of Cain's posterity wer«
destroyed in the deluge ? From this it is manifest that they
are the first-bom sons who are registered in this genealogy.
Why, then, are there so few of them 1 Their numbers in the
period before the deluge must have been greater, if the date
of puberty bore no proportion to their longevity, and they had
children before they were a hundred years old. For supposing
they were on an average thirty yeai-s old when they began to
beget children, then, as there are eight generations, inchiding
Adam and Lamech's children, 8 times 30 gives 240 years;
did they then produce no more children in all the rest of the
time before the deluge ? With what intention, then, did he
who wrote this record make no mention of subsequent geue-
mtions ? For from Adam to the deluge there ai-e reckoned,
according to our copies of Scripture, 2262 years,' and accord-
ing to the Hebrew text, 1656 years. Supposing, then, the
smaller number to be the tnie one, and subtracting -from
1656 years 240, is it credible that during the remaining
1400 and odd years until tlie deluge the posterity of Cain
begat no children 7 41

Bub let any one who is moved by this call to mind thft"
wlien I discussed the question, how it is credible that those
primitive men could abstain for so many years from begetting
children, two modes of solution were found, — cither a puberty
lato in proportion to then* longevity, or that the sons registered
in the genealogies were not the first-born, but those through
whom the author of the book intended to reach the point

* Rom. ix. 6.

* KuHobiuH, Jerome, Bede, and otKen, who follow the Scptoagint, reckon
only 2242 yeara, whicli Vires explains by euppoaing Augustine to have made a

copyist u error.

OP OAlH'a POSTERITY.

aimed at^ as he intended to reach Noah by the generations of
Seth. So that, if in the generations of Cain there occura no
one whom the writer could make it his object to reach by
omitting the first-borns and inserting those who would serve
such a purpose, then we must have recourse to the snpposi-
tion of late puberty, and say that only at some age beyond a
hundred years they became capable of begetting children, so
chat the order of the generations ran tlirough the first-borns,
aud tilled up even the whole period betbre the deluge, long
though it was. It is, however, possible that, for some more
&eci-et reason which escapes me, this city, which we say is
earthly, is exliibited in all its generations down to Lamech
d his sons, and that then the writer withholds from record-
ing the rest wliich may have existed before the deluge. And
without supposing so late a puberty in these men, there might
be another reason for tracing the generations by sons who were
not first-boms, viz. that the same city which Cain built, and
named after his son Enoch, may have liad a widely extended
dominion and many kings, not reigning simultaneously, but
successively, the reigning king begetting always his successor.
Cain himself would be the lirst of these kings ; his son
Enoch, in whose name the city in which he reigned was built,
would be the second ; the third Ii-ad, whom Enoch begat ;
the fourth Mehujael, wliom Irad begat ; the fifth Methusael.
whom Mehujael begat ; the sixth Lamech, whom Methusael
begat, and who is the seventh from Adam through Cain.
But it was not necessaiy tliat the lu*st-born should succeed
their fathers in the kingdom, but those would succeed who
were recommended by the possession of some virtue useful to
the earthly city, or who were chosen by lot, or the son who
was best liked by his father would succeed by a kind of
hereditary right to the throne. And the deluge may have
happened during the lifetime and rcigii of Lamech, and may
have dcstroyt^d him along with all other men, save those who
were in the ark. For we cannot be surprised that, during so
long a period from Adam to the deluge, and witli the ages of
individuals varying as they did, there should not be an equal
number of generations in both lines, but seven in Cain's, and
ten in Seth's j for as I have already saidj Lamech is the seventh

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XV.

from Adam, Noah tho tenth ; and in I^mecli's case not one
son only is registered, as in tho former instances, but more.
because it was uncertain which of them would have succeeded
when he died, if there had intervened any time to reign
between his death and the deluge.

But in whatever manner the generations of Cain's line are
traced downwards, whether it be by first-boni sons or by the
heirs to the throne, it seems to nie that I must by no means
omit to notice that, when Laincch hud been sot down as tlie
seventh from Adam, there were named, in addition, as many
of his children as made up tliia number to eleven, which is
the number signifpng sin ; for three sons and one daughter
arc added. The wives ol Lamech have another signification,
different from that which I am now pressing. For at present
I am speaking of the children, and not of those by whom the
children were begotten. Since, then, the law is sj-mbolkcd
by the number ten,— whence that memorable Decalogue^ —
there is no doubt that the nunvber eleven, which goes beyond^
ten, sjrmbolizes the transgression of the law, and consequently
sin. For this reason, eleven veils of goat's skin were ordered
to be hung iu the tabernacle of the t(iatimony, which served
in the wanderings of God's people as an ambulatory temple.
And in that haircloth tliere was a reminder of aiiis, because
the goats were to be set on the left hand of the Judge ; and
theieiore, when we confess our sins, we prostrate ourselves in
haircloth, as if wo were saying what is written hi the psalm,
"My sin is ever before me."' The progeny of Adam, then,
by Cain tho murderer, is completed in the niimber eleven,
which symbolizes sin ; and this number itself is made up by
a woman, as it was by the same sex that beginning was made
of sin by which we all die. And it was committed that the
pleasure of the flesh, wliich resists the spirit, might follow ;
and so Naamah, the daughter of Lamech, means " pleasure.'*
l^ut from Adam to Noah, in the line of Seth, there are ten
genemtions. And to Noah three sons are added, of whom,
while one fell into sin, two were blessed by their fiither; so
that, if you deduct the reprobate and add the gracious sons to
the number, you get tM'elve, — a number signalized in the case
^ Tran^rtiiitur, " P«. IL 3.

BOOK XV.]

CAIN'S UNE.

of the patriarchs and of tlie apoBtJes, and made up of the parts
the number seven toultiplied into one another, — for lliree
les four, or four times three, give twelve. These things
beinj so, I see that I must consider and mention how these
two lines, which by their sepamte genealogies dt^pict the two
cities, one of earth-bom, the otlier of regenerated persons,
became after>vard3 so mixed and confused, that the whole
liuman race, with the exception of eight persona, deserved to
jrifih in the deluge.

Whjf it M thalf as toon <u Cain's son Enoch has hren named, ike genealogy
is forthicith continued as far as the deluge, tchile after tfte tn^ntion of
£iKi», Hfth's ion, tine nar-rative returns atjain to the creittiun of man.

We must first see why, in the enumeration of Cain's pos-
terity after Enoch, in whose name the city was built, has
Iwea first of all mentioned, the rest are at once enumerated
down to that terminus of which I have spoken, and at which
that race and the whole line was destroyed in the deluge ;
"fliilc, after Enos the son of Seth has been mentioned, tlie

t are not at once named down to the deluge, but a clause

inserted to the following effect : " Tins is the book of the
^aerations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in
the likeness of God made He him ; mole and female created
He them; and blessed them, and called tlieir name Adam, in
the day when they were created."^ Tliis seems to me to bo
inserted for this purpose, that here again the reckoning of the
times may stait from Adam himself, — a puiiiosc which the
writer had not in view in speaking of the earthly city, as if
mentioned it, but did not take account of its duration.

t why docs he return to tliis recapitulation after mention-
ing tlie son of Seth, the man who hoped to call on the name
of the Lord God, unless because it was fit thus to present
these two cities, the one beginning with a murderer and
ending in a murderer (for Lamcch, too, acknowledge? to his
two wives that he had committed rauixler), the other built
np by him who hoped to call upon the name of the Lord
God? For the highest and complete terrestrial duty of the
city of God, which is a stranger in tbis world, is that which
as exemplified in the individual who was begotten by Lim

< Cell. V. 1.

I writ
^^But

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XV.

who typified the resurrection of the murdered AbeL That
one man is the unity of the whole heavenly city, not yet
indeed complete, but to be completed, as this prophetic figure
foreshows. The son of Cain, therefore, that is, the son of
possession (and of what but an earthly possession ?), may have
a name in the earthly city which was built in his name. It
is of buch the Psalmist says, " They call their lands after their
own names." ^ Wherefore they incur what is written in another
psalm : " Thou, 0 Lord, in Thy city wilt despise their image."*
But as for the son of Seth, the son of the resurrection, let him
hope to call on the name of the Lord God. For he prefigures
that society of men which says, " But I am like a green olive-
tree in the house of God : I have trusted in the mercy of
God.'" But let him not seek the empty honours of a famous
name upon earth, for " Blessed is the man that maketh the
name of the Lord his trust, and respecteth not vanities nor
lying follies."* After having presented the two cities, the one
founded in the material good of this world, the other in hope
in God, but both starting from a common gate opened in Adam
into this mortal state, and both running on and running out
to their proper and merited ends. Scripture begins to reckon
the times, and in tliis reckoning includes other generations,
making a recapitulation from Adam, out of whose condemned
seed, as out of one mass handed over to merited damnation,
God made some vessels of wrath to dishonour and others
vessels of mercy to honour ; in punishment rendering to the
former what is due^ in grace giving to the latter what is not
due: in order that by the very comparison of itself with the
vessels of wrath, the heavenly city, which sojourns on earth,
may learn not to put confidence in the liberty of its own will,
but may hope to call on the name of the Lord God. For "will,
being a nature which was made good by the good God, but
mutable by the immutable, because it was made out of notliing,
can both decline from good to do evil, which lakes place when
it freely chooses, and can also escape the evil and do good,
which takes place only by divine assistance.

> Ps. :d\x. 11.
« Pb. lii. B.

» Pa. Ixiiii
• Pa. x]. 4.

20.

'K XV.]

OF THE DAUGHTERS OF MEIT.

3. 0/ the fall (^ the sons of Qod who tBtrt captivated hy 0^ daughtera of i»<n,
wherebtf aU, uiith ihe exception oj eight penoM, detervtdly perUhed in
ihedtiuge.

When the hiunan race, in the exercise of this freedom of
will, increased and advanced, there arose a mixture and con-
fosion of the two cities by their participation in a common
iuqoity. And this calamity, as well as the first, was occa^
lioned by woman, tliough not in the samo way ; for these
women were not themselves betrayed, neither did they per-
suade the men to sin, but having belonged to the earthly city
and society of the earthly, they liad been of corrupt manners
from the first, and were loved for their bodily beauty by the
SODS of God. or the citizens of the other city which sojourns
in this world. Beauty is indeed a good gift of God; but
that the good may not think it a great good, God dispenses it
even to the wicked. And thus, when the good that is great
and proper to the good was abandoned by the sons of God,
they fell to a paltry good which is not peculiar to the good,
but common to the good and the evil ; and when they were
captivated by the daughters of men. they adopted the manners
of the earthly to win them as their brides, and forsook the
godly ways they had followed in their own holy society. And
thus beauty, which is indeed God's handiwork, but only a
temporal, carnal, and lower kind of good, is not fitly loved in
prelerence to God, the eternal, spiritual, and unchangeable
good. When the miser prefers his gold to justice, it is through
no fault of the gold, but of the man ; and so with every
created thing. For though it be good, it may be loved with

evil as well as with a good love : it is loved rightly when

is loved ordinately ; evilly, when inordinately. It is this
^hich some one has briefly said in these verses in praise of
tile Creator : ' " These are Thine, they are good, because Thou
■ft good who didst create them. There is in them nothing
of ouis, unless the sin we commit when we forget the order
of things, and instead of Thee love that which Thou hast
made."

But if the Creator is tnily loved, that is, if He Himself is

' Or, according to another reading,
ptiiM of a taper. "

WliidtL I briefly said in these rencs in

THE City OF GOD.

[book XV.

loved and not another thing in His stead, He cannot be
evilly loved ; for love itself is to be ordinately loved, because
-vve do well to love that T\-hich, when we love it, makes us live
well and virtuously. So that it seeius to me that it is a brief
but true definition of virtue to say, it is the order of love ;
and on this account, in the Cuuticles, the bride of Christ, the
city of God, sings, " Order love within me," ^ It was the
order of this love, then, tliis cliarity or attachment^ which the
sous of God distuibed when they forsook God, and were en-
amoured of the daugliters of men.' And by these two names
(sons of God and daughtei-s of men) the two cities arc siilfi-
ciently distinguished. For though the former were by nature
cluldren of men, they had come into possession of another
name by j^ce. For in the same Scripture in which the sons
of God are said to have loved the daughters of men, they are
also called angels of God ; whence many suppose that they
were not men but angels.

2X WhftJicr ire are fc Inlirve that angeis, who are ofatplritualauhMaru^^ fell i«
love vrith tfic beauty of vcomen^ and sought them in marriage^ and (hoi
from thia connection f/ianU were bom.

In the third book of this work (e. 5) we made a passing
leference to this question, but did not decide whether angels,
inasmuch as they are spirits, could Jiave hodQy intercourse with
women. Por it is WTitten, " Who maketli His angels spirits,"*
that is, He makes those who are by nature spirits His angels
by appointing them to the duty o! bearing His messages.
For the Greek word 077^X0?, which iu Latia appears as
" angelus," menus a messenger. But whether the Psalmist
speaks of their bodies when he adds, " and Hia ministers a
flaming fire." or means that God's ministers ought to blaze
with love as with a spiritual fii-e, is doubtful However, the
same trustwoi-thy Scripture testifies that angels have appeared
to men iu such bodies as could not only be seen, but also
touched. Tliere is. too, a very general rumour, which many
have verified by their own experience, oi- which trustworthy
persons who have heartl the experience of otliers corroborate,
that sylvans and fauns, who are commonly called " incubi,"
had often made wicked assaults upon women, and satisfied
* Caat it 4. * Sec £>e Doct. Christ, i. 23. ^ Pa. civ. 4.

BOOK XV.]

"VTHO THE SONS OF COD WEHI!.

their lust upon tliem; and that certain devils, called Buses
by the Gauls, ai'e constnntly attempting and effecting tliia im-
parity is so generally alliruied, that it were impudent to deny
it* From these assertions, indeed, I dare not determine
whether there he some spirits embodied in an aerial substance
(for this element, even wlien agitated by a fan, is sensibly felt
by the body), and who are capable of lust and of mingling
sensibly with wninen ; but certainly T could by no means
believe that God's holy angels could at that time have so
fifdlen, nor can I think that it is of them the Apostle Peter
said, " For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast
them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness,
to be reserved unto judgment." ^ I think he rather speaks of
those "who first apostatized from God, along witli their cliief
the devil, who enviously deceived the firet man under the form
of a serpent But the same holy Scripture affords the most
ample testimony that even godly men have been called angels ;
for of John it is written : '* Behold, I send my messenger (angel)
before Thy face, who shall prepare Thy way." ' And the
prophet Malachi, by a peculiar gi'oce specially communicated
to him, was called an angel*

But some are moved by the fact that we have read that the
fiiiit of the connection between those who are called angels of
God and the women they loved were not men lilcc our own
breed, but giants ; just as if there were not born even in our
own time (as I have mentioned above) men of much greater
size than the ordinary stature. Was there not at Borne a few
jaoB ago, when the destruction of the city now accomplished
by the Goths was drawing near, a woman, with her father and
Bother, who by her gigantic size overtopped all others ? Sur-
prkiiig crowds from all quarters came to see her, and that
which struck them most was the circumstance that uf^itlier
of her parents were quite up to the tallest ordinary stature.
Giants therefore might well be bom, even before the sons of
God, who are also called angels of God, formed a connection

* Ob thp»e kinds of devils, see the note of Vires in lor., or Lecky's ffittt. of
JUHomUum^ i. 26, who quotes from Maury's NUtoire de la Magie, th«t the
Dsvii were Cvltic sjiirits, and are the origiu of our '* Deuce."

•2PetiL 4. «Marki2. « MoL ii. 7.

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XV.

with the daughters of men, or of those living actx)rding to men^
that is to say, before the sons of Seth formed a connection
mth the daughters of Cain. For thus speaks even the
canonical Scripture itself in the book in which we read of
this ; its words are : " And it came to pass, M'hen men began
to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were bom
unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men
that they were fair [good] ; and they took them wives of all
which they chose. And the Lord God said, My Spirit shall
not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh : yet his
days shall be an hundred and twenty years. There were
giants in the earth in those days ; and also after that, when
the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and thoj
bare children to them, the same became the giants, men of
renown." * These words of the divine book sufficiently indicate
that already there were giants in the earth in those days, in
which the sons of God took wives of the children of men,
when they loved them because they were good, that is, fair.
For it is the custom of this Scripture to call those who are
beautiful in appearance "good," But after this connection
liad been formed, then too were giants bom. For tho words
are : " There were giants in the earth in those days, and cdso
after that, when the sons of God came in unto the dauglitera
of men." Therefore there were giants both before. " in those
days," and " also after that." And the words, " they bare
children to them," show plainly enough that before the sons
of God fell in tliis fashion they begat children to God, not to
themselves, — that is to say, not moved by the lust of sexual
intercourse, but discharging the duty of propagation, intending
to produce not a family to gratify their own pride, but citizens
to people the city of God ; and to these they as God*8 angels
would bear the message, that they should place their hope in
God, like him who was bom of Seth the son of resurrection,
and who hoped to call on the name of the Lord God, in which
hope they and their offspring woidd be co-heirs of eternal bless-
ings, and brethren in the family of which God is the Father.

*Otn. vi 1-4. Lactantiua (Itist. it 15), Sttlpiciua Sctctus (fftaL i. 2), uid
others suppose from this passage thjit ang«la hiid commerce mth the dangUters
of men. See further refiTenccs in the Commeatu-y of Pei-eriua in loc

BOOK XV.]

THE SONS OF GOD.

But that those angelB were not angels in the sense of not
1»ing men, as some suppose, Scripture itself decides, which
niiambiguoiisly declares that they were men. For when it had
fiist been stated that " the angels of God saw the daughters of
men that they were fair, and they took them wives of all
which they chose " it was immediately added, " And the Lord
€rod said, My Spirit shall not always strive with these men, for
tint they also are flesh." For by the Spirit of God they had
heea made angels of God, and sons of God ; but declining
towards lower things, they are called men, a name of nature,
not of grace ; and they are called flesh, as deserters of the
Spirit, and by their desertion deserted [by Him]. The Sep-
toflgint indeed calls them both angels of God and sons of
God, though all the copies do not show this, some having
only the name " sons of God." And Aquila, whom the Jews
prefer to the other interpreters/ has translated neither angels
of God nor sons of God, but sons of gods. But both are
conect For they were both sons of God, and thus brothers
of their own fathers, who were children of the same God ; and
they were sons of gods, because begotten by gods, together
with whom tliey themselves also were gods, according to that
expression of the psalm : " I have said. Ye are gods, and all of
jaa are children of the Most High." ' For the Septiiagint
tODslators are justly believed to have received the Spirit of
prophecy; so that, if they made any alterations under His
authority, and did not acihere to a strict translation, we could
not doubt that this was divinely dictated. However, the
Hebrew word may be said to be ambiguous, and to be sus-
o«|Aibl6 of either translation, " sons of God," or " sons of

Let us omit, then, the fables of those scriptures which are
called apocr}'phal, because their obscure origin was unlmown
to the fathers from whom the authority of the true Scriptures
has been transmitted to us by a moat certain and well-ascer-

* Aqoila Ixred in the time of Hadriui, to vliom lie ia esid to have been nUtrd.
Be nrw cxoomznuiLic&ted from the Chnrch for the practice of astrology ; ud is
\mt kaom by his translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek, which he
ffMCttted with great care and accuracy, though he has been charged with falsify-
^yig-ci to lupport the Jews in tiieir opposition to CbtiBtionitj.

'PhLhuziL e.

THE CITT OF COD.

[book XV,

tained succession. For thougli tlieru is some truth in these
apocryphal writings, yet they contain so many false state-
ments, that tliey have no canonical authority. We cannot
deny that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, left some divine
wiitings, for this is assorted by the Apostle Jude in his canoni-
cal epistle. Bat it ia not without reason that these writings
have no place in that canon of Scripture which was preserved
in the temple of the Hebrew people by the diligence of suc-
cessive priests ; for their antiquity brought them under suspi-
cion, and it wa-s impossible to ascertain whether these were
his genuine imtings, and they were not brought forward as
genuine by the persons who were found to have carefully pre-
served the canonical books by a successive trans7iiission. So
that the writmgs wliich arc produced under his name, and
which contain these fables about the giants, saying that their
fathers were not men, are prnpt?rly judged by prudent men to
be not genuine ; just as many writings are produced by
heretics under the names both of other prophets, and, more
ixjccntly, under the names of the apostles, all of wliich, after
careful examination, have l)(^cn set apart fvom eanonic^il autho-
rity under the title of Apocrypha. There is therefore no
doubt that, according to the Hcbix^w and Christian canonical
Scriptures, there were many giants before the deluge, and that
these were citizens of the earthly society of men, and tliat the
softs of God, who wei'e according to the flesh the sons of Seth,
sunk into this community when they forsook rigliteousuess.
Nor need we wonder that giants should be born even from
these. For all of their children were not giants ; but there
were more then tlian in the remaining periods since the
deluge. And it pleased the Creator to produce tbcm, that it
might thus be demonstrated that neither beauty, nor yet size
and strength, are of much moment to the wise man, wljose
blessedness lies iu spiritual and immortal blessings, in far better
and more enduring gifts, in the good things that are the pecu-
liar property of the good, and are not shared by good and bad
alike. It is this which another prophet confirms when he
says, " These were the grants, famous from the beginning,
that were of so great stature, and so expert in war. Those
did not the Lord choose, neither gave He the way of know-

BOOK XV.

OF THE FLOOD.

ledge unto tlieni ; but they were destroyed because they had
no wisdom, aud perished thi'ough their owa fooHahnesa." *

34. /fou ire are to understand this ichich tfte Lord said to those tr/io were
to perisli in thefiood : *' Their dnyt shall bf. 120 years,"

But that which God said, "Their days shall be an liundred
id twenty years," is not to be understood as a prediction that
kceforth men should not live longer than 120 years, — ^for
cren after the deluge we find that they lived more than 500
jears, — but we are to understand that God said this wlieii Notdi
had neai'ly completed his fifth century, that is, had lived 480
}'ears, which Scripture, as it frequently uses the name uf the
whole for the largest part, calla 500 years. Now the deluge
came in the GOOth 3-ear of Noah'a life, the second month ; aud
ihu3 120 years were predicted as being the remaining span of
those who were doomed, which years being spent, tliey should
be destroyed by the deluge. And it is not unreasonably
believed that tlie deluge came as it did, because already there
were not found upon earth any who were not wortliy of
tharing a death so manifestly judicial, — not that a good man,
who must die some time, would be a jot the worse of such a
death after it was past. Nevertheless there died in the deluge
none of those mentioned in the sacred Scripture as descended
from SetL But here is the divine account of the cause of the
deluge : " Tlie Lord God saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the eaith, and that eveiy imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented ^ the
Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it gi'ieved Him
at His heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man, whom I
have created, from tlie face of the earth ; both man and beast,
and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air : for I am
that I have made them."*

SSl 0/ the anger o/Ood, tchkh does not infiamt. flu mindf nor disturb H\n
uncJianfj€<d>le (ranijuiltUy.

The anger of God is not a disturbing emotion of His mind,

but a judgment by which punishment is inflicted upon sin.

thought and reconsideration also are the unchangeable

1 Bnnich iii. 26-28.

* Lit : ** The Lord thought uid recoDsidered."

» Gen. Ti. 5-7.

THE CITY OF GOD.

[BCtOK XV-

reason which clianges things ; for He does not, like man,
repent of anything He has done, because in all matters His
decision is as inflexible as His prescience is certain. Eut if
Scripture were not to use such expressions as the above, it
would not familiarly insinuate itself into the minds of all
classes of men, whom it seeks access to for their good, that it
may alaim the proud, arouse tlie careless, exercise the inqui-
sitive, and satisfy the intelligent ; and this it could not do, did
it not first stoop^ and in a manner descend, to them where they
lie. But its denouncing death on aU the animals of earth and
air is a declai^ation of the vastness of the disaster that was
approaching : not that it threatens destruction to the irrational
animals as if they too had incurred it by sio.

26. That the ark whkh Noah toas ordered to make Jigures in cvtrff reaped
Chri$l and ihe diurch.

Moreover, inasmuch as God commanded Noah, a just man,
and, as the truthful Scripture says, a man perfect in his gene-
ration,— not indeed with the perfection of the citizens of tie
city of God in that immortal condition in which they eq^ual
the angels, but in so far as they can be perfect in their sojourn
in this world, — inasmuch as God comniitnded him, I say, to maka
an ark, in which he might be rescued from the destruction of
the flood, along with his family, i.e. his wife, sons, and daughters-
in-law, and along with the animals who, in obedience to God's
command, came to him into the ark : this is certainly a figure
of the city of God sojourning in this world ; that is to say,
of the church, which is rescued by the wood on wldch. hung
the Mediator of God and men^ the man Christ Jesus.^ For
even its very dimensions, in length, breadth, and height, repre-
sent the human body in which He came, as it had been fore-
told. For the length of the human body, from the crown of
the head to the sole of the foot, is six times its breadth from
side to side, and ten times its depth or thickness, measuring
from back to front : that is to say, if you measure a man aa
ha lies on his back or on lus face, he is six times as long from
hyad to foot as he is broad from side to side, and ten times aa
long as he is high from the ground. And therefore the ark
was made 300 cubits in length, 50 in breadth, and 30 in

* I Tim. ii 6.

BOOK XV,]

OP THE AUK.

lieight And its having a door mode in tlie side of it cer-
tainly signified the wound which was made when the side of
the Crucified was pierced with the spear : for by this those
10 come to Him enter ; for thence flowed the sacraments by
ich those who believe are initiated. And the fact that it
ordered to be made of squared timbers, signifies the im-
iveable steadiness of the life of the saints ; for however you
a cube, it still stands. And the other peculiarities of
ark's construction are signs of features of the church.
But we have not now time to pursue this subject ; and,
leed, we have already dwelt upon it in the work we wrote
against Faustus the Maiuchean, who denies that there is any-
thing prophesied of Christ in the Hebrew books. It may be
that one man's exposition excels another's, and that ours is
not the best ; but all that is said must be referred to this
city of God we speak of, which sojourns in this wicked world
•Bin a deluge, at least if the expositor would not widely miss
the meaning of the autlior. For example, the interpretation
I have given in the work against Faustus, of the words, " with
lower, second, and third storeys shalt thou make it," is, that
because the church is gathered out of all nations, it is said to
have two storeys, to represent the two kinds of men, — the cir-
cumcision, to wit, and the uncircumcision, or, as the apostle
otherwise calls them, Jews and Gentiles ; and to have three
storeys, because all the nations were replenished from the
three sons of Noah. Now any one may object to this inter-
pretation, and may give another which harmonizes with the
tulc of faitk For as the ark was to have rooms not only on
the lower, but also on the upper storeys, which were called
"third storeys," that there might be a habitable space on the
third floor from the basement, some one may interpret these
to mean the three graces commended by the apostle, — faith,
hope, and charity. Or even more suitably they may be anp-
poaed to represent those three harvests in the gospel, thirty-
fold, gixtyfold, an hundredfold, — chaste marriage dwelling in
the ground floor, chaste widowhood in the upper, and chaste
virginity in the top storey. Or any better interpretation may
be given, so long as the reference to this city is maintained.
And the same statement I would make of all the remaining

100

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XV.

paiticulars in this passage "wliich require exposition, viz. that
although diiferent explanations are giveu, yet they must all
agree with the one harmonious catholic faith.

27. 0/ the ark and the delugtj and that we ainnoi agree vilh tko*e teho receive
the bare higtory, hut reject the allegorical interprelation, nor vnlh tkoBe
vjJio maintain tittjijuraiive and not the hisiorical meaning.

Yet no one ought to suppose either that these tilings wore
\mtten for no purpose, or that we should study only the
historical truth, apart from any allegorical meanings; or, on
the contrary, that they are only allegories, and that there were
no such facts at all, or that, whether it be so or no, there
is here no prophecy of the church. For what right-minded
man will contend that books so religiously preserved during
thousands of years, and transmitted by so orderly a succes-
sion, were written without an object, or that only the bare
historical facts are to be considered when we read them ?
For, not to mention other instances, if the number of the
animals entailed the construction of an ark of great size,
whei-e was the necessity of sending into it two unclean and
seven clean animals of each species, when both could have
been presented in equal numbers ? Or could not God, who
ordered them to be preserved in order to replenish the race,
restoi-e them in the same way lie had created them ?

But they who contend that these tilings never happened,
but are only figures setting forth other tilings, in the first
place suppose that there could not be a flood so great that the
water should rise fifteen cubits above the highest mountains,
because it is said that clouds cannot rise above the top of
Moimt Olympus, because it reaches the sky where there is
none of that thicker atmosphere in which winds, clouds, and
ranis have their origin. They do not reflect iliat the densest
element of all, earth, can exist tliere ; or perhaps they deny
that the top of the mountain is earth. Why, then, do these
measurers and weighers of the element-i contend that earth
can be raised to thase aerial altitudes, and that water cannot,
while tliey admit that w^ater is lighter, and liker to ascend
than earth? What reason do they adduce why earth, the
heavier and lower element, has for bo many ages scaled to the
trauq^uil aether, while water, the lighter^ and more likely to

BOOK XV,]

SIZE OF TITE AKK.

101

fiscend, is not suffered to do the same even for a brief space
of time?

They say, too, that the area of that ark could not contain
so many kinds of animals of both sexes, two of the unclean
and seven of the cleaa But they seem to me to reckon only
one area of 300 cubits long and 50 broad, and not to remember
ihttt there was another similar in the storey above, and yet
another as large in the storey above that again ; and that there
was consequently an area of 900 cubits by 150, And if we
accept what Origen^ has with some appropriateness suggested,
that Moses the man of God, being, as it is written, " learned
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," ' who delighted in geo-
metiy, may have meant geometrical cubits, of which they say
that one is equal to six of our cubits, then who does not see
what a capacity these dimensions give to the ark ? For as to
their objection that an ark of such size could not be built, it
is a very silly calumny ; for they are aware that huge cities
have been built, and they should remember that the ark was
an hundred years in building. Or, perhaps, though stone can
adhere to stone when cemented with nothing but lime, so that
a wall of several miles may be constructed, yet plank cannot be
riveted to plank by mortices, bolts, nails, and pitch-glue, so as
to construct an ark which was not made with cun^ed ribs but
■totight timbers, which was not to be launched by its builders
bnt to be lifted by the natural pressure of the water when it
reached it, and which was to be preserved from ship\\Teck as
it floated about ratlier by divine oversight than by human
skill

As to another customary inquiry of the scrupulous about
the very minute creatures, not only such as mice and lizards,
Irat also locusts, bectltis, flies, ilcas, and so forth, whether there
wore not in the ark a larger number of thciu than was deter-
tnined by God in His coumiand, those persons who are moved
by this difficulty are to be reminded that the words " every
creeping thing of the earth" only indicate that it was not
needful to preser\'o in the ark the animals that can live in
the water, whether the fishes that live submerged in it, or the
sea-birds that swim on its surface. Then, when it is said

^ In hU second Komily od GenuiB. ' AcU vu. 22.

102

THE CITT OF GOD.

[book XV.

" male and female " no doubt reference is made to the re-
pairing of the races, and consequently there was no need for
those creatures being in the ark which are bom "without the
union ot the sexes from inanimate tilings, or from their cor-
Tuption ; or if they were in the ark, they might be there as they
commonly are in houses, not in any determinate numbers ;
or if it was necessary that there should he a definite number
of all those animals that cannot naturally live in tlie water,
that 80 the most sacred mystery which was being enacted
might be bodied forth and pertectly figured in actual realities,
still this was not the care of !Noah or his sons, but of God.
For Noah did not catch the animals and put tliem into the
ark, but gave them entrance as they came seeking it. For
this is the force of the words, " They shall come tmto thee," *
— not, that is to say, by man's effort, but by God's will But
certainly we are not required to beheve that those which
have no sex also came ; for it is expressly and definitely said,
"They shall be male and female."^ Por there are some
animals which are born out of corruption, but yet afterwards
they themselves copulate and produce offspring, as flies ; but
others, which have no sex, like bees. Then, as to those animals
which have sex, but without ability to propagate their kind,
like mules and she-mules, it is probable that they were not in
the ark, but that it was counted sufficient to preserve their
parents, to wit, the horse and the ass ; and this applies to all
hybrids. Yet, if it was necessary for the completeness of the
mystery, they were there ; for even this species has " male
and female."

Another question is commonly raised regarding the food of
the carnivorous animals^ — whether, without transgressing the
command which fixed the number to be preserved, there were
necessarily others included in the sirk for their sustenance ;
or, as is more probable, there might be some food which was
not flesh, and which yet suited all Por we know how many
animals whose food is flesh eat also vegetable products and
fruits, especially figs and chestnuts. What wander is it,
therefore, if that wise and Just man was instructed by God
vrhat would suit each, so that without flesh he prepared and

^ Qen. Ti. 1ft, SO.

BOOK XT.]

PT^OYISIDIIIKQ or THB ARK.

Stored provision fit for every species ? And what is there
■which hunger would not make animab eat ? Or what could
not be made sweet and wholesome by God, who, with a
divine facility, might have enabled them to do without food
it all, had it not been requisite to the completeness of so
great a mystery that they should be fed ? But none but a
contentious man can suppose that there was no prefiguring of
the church in so manifold and circumstantial a detail. For
the nations have already so filled the church, and are com-
prehended in the framework of its unity, the clean and un-
clean together, until the appointed end, that tins one very
manifest fulfibnent leaves no doubt how wg sliould interpret
even those others which are somewhat more obscure, and
which cannot so readily be discerued. And since this is so,
if not even the most audacious will presiune to assert that
these things were written without a puri^ose, or tliat though the
events really happened they mean nothing, or that they did not
really happen, but are only allegor}'', or that at all events they
are far from having any figurative reference to the church ;
if it has been made out that, on the other baud, we must
rather believe that there was a wise purpose in their being
canmxitted to memory and to writing, and that they did
happen, and have a significance, and that this significance has
a prophetic reference to the church, then this book, having
served this purpose, may now be closed, that we may go on
to trace in the history subsequent to the deluge the courses
of the two cities, — the earthly, that lives according to men,
Imd the heavenly, that lives according to God

104

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book X\"I,

BOOK SIXTEENTH.

ARGUMENT.

JIt TilRFORHEAPARTOFTUIS BOOK, FROH Til K rii:ST TO TUE TWELFTH CHAPTEIl,
THE PROOaESS OF TilE TWO CITIES, THE EARTHLY AND THE UE-VVENLY,
FROM NOAH TO ABRAHAM, IS EXHIBITED FEOM HOLY SCairTURE : IN THE
I^TTER PART, TUB PR00KES5 OF THE HEAVE>*LT ALONE, FEOK ABBABAU
TO THE KINGS OF 19EAEL, lb THE SUBJECT.

1. WheiheTf c^/Ur Uie dtluyt, frmn Noah to Abrahamj any Jamiltes can be
found ictio Heed nccordinf/ Ut God,

IT is difficidt to discover from Scripture, whether, after the
deluge, traces of the lioly city are coutinuous, or are so
interrupted by intervening: seasons of godlessness, that not a
single worshippt-^r of tlic oiio true God was found among
men ; because from Noah, who, "with his wife, three sons, and
:ia many daughters-in-law, achieved deliverance in the ark
from the destruction of the deluge, down to Abraham, we do
not find in the canoniciil hooks that tlie piety of any one is
celebrated by express divine testimony, unless it be in the
case of Noali, who commends witli a prophetic benediction
his two sons Shem and Japheth, while he beheld and foresaw
what was long afterwards to happen. It was also by tliis
prophetic spirit that, when Ins middle son — that is, the son
wlio was younger than the first and older than the last bom —
had sinned against him, he cursed him not in his own person,
but in his son's (his own grandson's), in the words, " Cursed
be the lad Canaan ; a servant shall he be unto his brethren."*
Now Canaan was bom of Ham, who, so far from covering his
sleeping father's nalccdness, had divrdgod it. For the same
reusou also he subjoins the blessing on lii^ two other sons, the
oldest and yovingcst, saying, " Blessed be the Loixi God of
Shem ; and Canaan shall be his servant God shall gladden
Japhethj and lie shall dwell in the houses of Shem*" ^ And
» Gtn, iju 25. 3 Ocn, U. 2ff, 27.

»K XVl]

OF NOAH'S SONS.

10,

90, too, the planting of the vine hy Noah, and his intoxication
by its fruit, and his nakedness while he slept, and the other
things done at that time, and recorded, are all of them preg-
nant with prophetic meanings, and veOed in mysteries.^

2. What ioas prophetically pr figured in the aoti* of Noah,

The things which then were hidden are now sufficiently
revealed by the actual events which have followed For who
can carefully and intelligently consider these tilings without
feopgnising thcra accomplished in Christ ? Shem, of whom
Christ was born in the flesh, means " named." And what is
of greater name than Christ, the fragrance of whose name is
now everywhere perceived, so that even prophecy aings of it
beforehand, comparing it in tlie Song of Songs ^ to ointment
poured fortli ? Is it not also in the houses of Christ, that is,
in the churches, that the " enlargement " of the nations dwells?
For Japheth means " enlargement." And Ham {ix. hot), who
was the middle son of Noah, and, as it were, separated him-
self from both, and remained between them, neither belonging
tfl the first-fruits of Israel nor to the fidness of the Gentiles,
what does he signify but the tribe of heretics, hot with the
spirit, not of patiencCj but of impatience, with which the
breasts of heretics are wont to blaze, and with which they
disturb the peace of the saints l But even the heretics yiekl

advantage to tliose that make proficiency, according to the
tie's sa;ying, " There must also l>o heresies, tliat they which
we approved may be made manifest among you." * Whence,
loo, it is elsewhere said, " The son that receives instruction
will be wise, and he uses the foolish as his ser\'ant." * For
while the hot restlessness of heretics stirs questions about
many articles of the catholic faith, the necessity of defending
them forces us both to investigate them more accurately, to
understand them more clearly, and to proclaim them more
euziestly ; and the question mooted by an adversaiy becomes
the occasion of instructioa However, not only those who
are openly separated from the cliurch, but also all who glory
in the Christian name, and at the same time lead abandoned

disti

' 8« Contra FawX xiL c. 22 sqq.
• 1 Cor. xi. 19.

' Song of Solomon i. 3.
*Prov. X. fi(LXX.).

106 THE CITY OF GOD.

lives, may without absurdity seem to be figured by Noeh'8
middle son: for the passion of Christ, •which was signified
by that man's nakedness, is at once proclaimed by their pro-
fession, and dishonoured by their wicked conduct Of such,
therefore, it has been said, " By their friiits ye shall know
them." ^ And therefore was Ham cursed in his son, he being
as it were, his fruit So, too, this son of his, Canaan, is fitlj
interpreted " their movement," which is nothing else than their
work. But Shcm and Japheth, that is to say, the circumci-
sion and uncircumcision, or, as the apostle otherwise caUfi
them, the Jews and Greeks, but called and justified, having
somehow discovered the nakedness of their father (which
signifies the Saviour's passion), took a garment and laid it
upon their backs, and entered backwards and covered their
father's nakedness, without their seeing what their reverence
hid. For we both hououi* the passion of Christ as accom-
plished for us, and we hate the crime of the Jews who cruci-
fied Him. The garment signifies the sacrament, their backs
the memory of things past: for the church celebrates the
passion of Christ as already accomplished, and no longer
to be looked forward to, now that Japheth already dwells in
the habitations of Shem, and their wicked brother between
them.

But the wicked brother is, in the person of his son file.
liis work), the boy. or slave, of his good brothers, when good
men make a skilful use of bad men, cither for the exercise of
their patience or for their advancement in wisdom. For the
apostle testifies that there are some wlio preach Christ from
no pure motives ; " but," says ]ip, " whether in pretence or in
truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and
will rejoice."^ For it is Christ Himself who planted the
\'ino of which the prophet says, "The vine of the Loi-d of
hosts is the house of Israel ; " ' and He drinks of its wine,
whether we thus understand that cup of whicli He says, " Can
ye drink of the cup that I shall drink of?"* and, "Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,'* ^ by which He
obviously means His passion. Or, as wine is the fruit of

> Matt. TIL 20. « Phil. i. 18. » Isa. v. 7.

• Matt. II. 22. » MatL xxvi 39.

TOOK XVL] SIGKIHCAITCE OF HAM*S COKDUCT.

107

the vine, we may prefer to understand that from this vine,
that is to say, from the race of Israel, He has assumed flesh
and blood that He might suffer ; " and he was drunken," that
ia, He suffered ; " and was naked/* that is. His weakness
^fpeared in His suffering, as the apostle says, " though He
was crucifie<l through weakncsa" ^ Wherefore the same
apostle says, " The weakness of God is stronger than men ;
and the foolishness of God is wiser than men." ' And when
to the expression " he was naked " Scripture adds " in his
hooBB," it elegantly intimates that Jesus was to suffer the
cross and death at the hands of His own household, His own
kith and kin, the Jews. This passion of Christ is only
externally and verbally professed by the reprobate, for what
y profess they do not understand. But the elect hold in
€ inner man this so great mystery, and honour inwardly in
the heart this weakness and foolishness of God. And of this
there is a figure in Ham going out to proclaim his father s
nakedness ; while Shem and Japheth, to cover or honour it,
went in, that is to say, did it inwardly.

These secrets of divine Scripture wo investigate as well as
ve can. All will not accept our interpretation with equal
ooafidence, but all hold it cei-tain that these things were
neither done nor recorded without some foreshadowing of
future events, and that they are to be referred only to Christ
and His church, which is the city of God, proclaimed from
ihe very beginning of Immau history by figures which we
now see everywhere accomplished. From the blessing of the
two sons of Noali, and the cursing of the middle son, down
tcy Abraham, or for more than a thoiLsand years, there is, as
I have said, no mention of any righteous persons who wor-
shipped God. I do not therefore conclude that there were
aone; but it had been tedious to mention every one^ and
voald have displayed historical accuracy rather than prophetic
foresight The object of the writer of these sacred books, or
nther of the Spirit of God in him, is not only to record the
past, but to depict the future, so far as it regards the city of
God ; for whatever is said of those who are not its citizens,
ia given either for her instruction, or as a foil to enhance her

I S Cor. liiL 4. > 1 Cor. i. 25.

THE CITY OF GOD.

BOOKXVT.

j^lory. Yet we are not to suppose that all that is recorded
has some signification ; but those things "wMch have no signi-
fication of their own ore interwoven for the sake of the things
vhich are significant. It is only the ploughshare that cleaves
the soil; but to effect this» other parts of the plough are
requisite. It is only the strings in haips and other musical
instruments which produce melodious sounds ; but that they
may do so, there are other parts of the instrument which are
not indeed struck by those who sing, but are connected with
the strings which are struck, and produce musical notes. So
in this prophetic history some things are narrated which have
no significance, but arc, as it were, the framework to which tbe
significant things are attached.

3. Of (Jie gcneraiioTU of the tkrte tOM tiflToah,

"We must therefore introduce into this work an explanation

of the generations of the three sons of Noah, in so far as tlftt
may illustrate the progress in time of the two cities. Scripture
first mentions that of the youngest son, who is called Japheth '
lie liad eight sons,^ and by two of these sons seven grand'
cliildren, three by one son, four by the other ; in all, fifteeti
descendants. Ham, Noab's middle son, had four sons, an!
by one of them ^xe gi*andsons, and by one of these two great-
giundsons ; in ail, eleven. After enumerating these, Scripture
returns to the first of the sons, and says, " Cush begat Nimrod ;
ho began to be a giant on the earth. He Avas a giant Imnter
against the Lord God : wherefore they say, As Nimrod the !
giant hunter against the Lord. And the beginning of his |
kingdom was Babylon, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land
of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Assur, and built
Nineveh, and the city Eehoboth, and Calah, and Hesen be-
tween Nineveh and Calah : this was a gi-eat city." Now this
Cush, father of the giant Nimrod, is the first-named among
the sons of Ham, to whom five sous and two grandsons are
ascribed. But he either begat this giant after his grandsons
Avere bom, or, which is more credible, Seriptui-e speaks of him

* Angustine here follows the Oreelc version, wlucli introilnces the name Elisa
among the sons of Japheth, though not found in the Hebrew. It is not found
iu the CompluteiuLan Greek tnmslatioD, uor in the mss. used by Jerome.

)K XVI.]

DESCENDANTS OF NOAH'ft SONS.

109

separately on account of Iiia eminence ; for mention is also
made of his kingdom, which began 'with that magnificent city
Babylon, and the other places, whether cities or districts,
Mentioned along with it. But what is recorded of the land
ft Sliinar whicli belonged to Ninirod's kinc^donx, to wit, that
Assur went forth from it and built Nineveh and the other
cities mentioned with it, happened long after ; but he takes
oecasion to speak of it here on account of the grandeur of
the Assyrian kingdom, which was Avonderfully extended by
Ninus son of Belus, and founder of the great city Nineveh,
which was named after him, Nineveh, from Ninua. But
Assur, father of the Ass}Tian, was not one of the sons of Ham,
Noah's middle son, but is found among the sons of Shem, his
^^klest son. Whence it appears that among Shem's ofTspring
^^pere arose men who afterwards took possession of t}iat giant's
Idngdom, and advancing from it, founded other cities, the first
of which was called Nineveh, from Ninus. From liLm Scrip-
ture returns to Ham's other son, Mizraim ; and his sons are
enumerated, not as seven individuals, but as seven nations.
And from the sixtli, as if from the sixth son, the race called
the Philistines are said to have sprung ; so that there are in
all eight Then it returns again to Canaan, in whose person
^^am was cursed ; and his eleven sons are named. Then the
^Bnitories they occupied, and some of the cities, are named.
And thus, if we count sons and grandsons, there are thirty-
one of Ham's descendants registered.

It remains to mention the sons of Shem, Noah's eldest
son; for to him this genealogical narrative gradually ascends
from the youngest. But in the commencement of the record

I of Shem's sons there is an oliscurity which calls for explana-
■Dn, since it is closely connected with the object of our in-
pstigation. For wc read, " Unto Slien» also, the father of all
|be children of Heberj the brother of Japheth the elder, were
children born." ^ This is the order of tlie words : And to
Shem was born Heber, even to himself, that is, to Shem him-
fclf wasbom Holier, and Shem is tlie father of all bis children.
We are intended to understand that Sliem is the patriarch of oil
his posterity who were to be mentioned, whether sons, grand-

1 Gen. z. 21.

110

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xvr.

sons, great-grandsons, or desceadants at any remove. For ,
Shem did not beget Heber, -who was indeed in the fifth genera-
tion from IduL For Shem begat, among other sons, Arphaxad ;
Arpbaxad begat Cainan, Cainan begat Salah, Salah begat
Heber. And it was with good reason that he was named
first among Shem's offspring, taking precedence even of his
sons, though only a grandchild of the fifth generation ; for
from him, qb tradition says, the Hebrews derived their name.
though the other etymology which derives the name from
Abraham (as if Ahrahcrcs) may possibly be correct But
there can be little doubt that the former is the right etymo-
logy, and that they were called after Heber, Hehcrews, and
then, dropping a letter, Hebrews ; and so was their language
called Hebrew, which was spoken by none but the people of
Israel among whom was the city of God, mysteriously pre-
figured in all the people, and truly present in the saints.
Six of Shem's sons then are fii'st named, then four grandsons
born to one of these sons ; then it mentions another son of
Shem, who begat a grandson ; and his son, again, or Shem's
great-grandson, was Heber. And Heber begat two sons, and
called the one Peleg, which means "dividing;" and Scripture
subjoins the reason of this name, saying, " for in his days was
the earth divided." What this means will afterwards appear.
Heber's other son begat twelve sons ; consequently all Shem's
descendants are twenty-seven. The total number of the pro-
geny of the three sons of Noah is seventy-three, fifteen by
Japheth, thirty-one by Ham, twenty-seven by Shem. Then
Scripture adds, " These are the sons of Shem, after tlieir
families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations."
And so of the whole number : " These are the families of the
sons of Noah after their generations, in their nations ; and
by these were the isles of the nations dispersed tlirough the
earth after the flood." From which we gather that the
seventy-three (or rather, as I shall presently show^ seventy-two)
were not individuals, but nations. For in a former passage,
when the sons of Japheth were enumerated, it is said in con-
clusion, " By these were the isles of the nations divided in
their lands, every one after his language, in their tribes, and

in their nations"

BOOK XVI.]

OF BABEL,

111

But natdous are expressly mentioned among the sons of
Ham, as I showed above. "Mizraim begat those who are
called Ludim j" and so also of the other seven nations. And
after enumerating all of them, it concludes, " These are the
sons of Ham, in their families, according to their languages, in
their territories, and in their nations," The reason, then, why
the children of several of them are not mentioned, is that they
belonged by birth to other nations, and did not themselves
become nations. Why else is it, that though eight sous are
reckoned to Japheth, the sons of only two of these are men-
tioned ; and thougli four are reckoned to Ham, only three are
spoken of as haWng sons ; and though six are reckoned to
I, the descendants of only two of these are traced ? Did
rest remain childless ? We cannot suppose so ; but they
did not produce nations so great as to warrant their being
mentioned, but were absorbed in the nations to which they

longed by birtL

4. Ofiht diversity (^languagttt o^ qf the founding (if Babylon,

But though these nations are said to have been dispersed
wcording to their languages, yet the narrator recurs to that
time when all had but one language, and explains how it
cwne to pass that a diversity of languages was introduced.
"The whole earth," he says, "was of one lip, and all had one
ipeecL And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the
east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and dwelt
there. And they said one to another. Come, and let us make
bricks, and burn them thoroughly. And they had bricks for
stone, and alime for mortar. And they said. Come, and let us
build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top shall reach
the sky ; and let us make us a name, before we be scattered
abroad on the face of all the earth. And the Lord came down
to see the city and the tower, which the children of men
builded. And the Lord God said. Behold, the people is one,
and they have all one language ; and this they begin to do :
and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they
have imagined to do. Come, and let ns go down, and con-
found there their language, that they may not understand one
another's speecL And God scattered them thence on the

112 THE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK XYl

face of all the earth : and they left off to build the city and
the tower. Therefore the uarae of it is called Confusion;
because the Lord did there confound the language of all the
earth : and the Lord God scattered them thence on the face of
all the earth." ' This city, which was called Confusion, is the
same as Babylon, whose wonderful construction Gentile history
also notices. For Babylon means Confusion, "Whence we
conclude that the giant Ninirod was its founder, as had been
hinted a little befoi'c, where Scripture, in speaking of him,
saya that the beginning of lus kingdom was Babylon, that is,
Babylon had a supremacy over the other cities as the metro-
polis and royal residence ; although it did not rise to the
gi-nnd dimensions designed by its proud and impious founder:
The plan was to make it so high that it should reach the sky,
wliether this was meant of one tower which they intended to
build liigher than the others, or of all the towers, which migkt
bo signified by the singular number, as we speak of " tbe
soldier," meaning the army, and of the frog or the locust, when
"we refer to the whole multitude of frogs and locusts in the
plagues with which Moses smote the Egyptians.' But what
did these vain and presumptuous men intend ? How did
they expect to raise this lofty mass against God, when they
had built it almve all the mountains and the clouds of th0
earth's atmosphere ? What injury could any spiritual oT
material elevation do to God ? The safe and trub way to
heaven is made by humility, which lifts up the heart to the
Lord, not against Him ; as this giant is said to have been a
" hunter against the Lord." This has been misunderstood by
some through the ambiguity ot tlie Greek word, and they have
translated it, not " against the Lord," but " before the Lord ;"
for epuvrtov means both "before" and "against" In the
Psalm tliis word is rendered, " Let us weep before the Lord
our Maker."' The same word occurs in the book of Job,
where it is written, " Thou hast broken into fury against the
Lord."* And so this giant is to be recognised as a " hunter
against the Lord." And what is meant by the term " hunter"
but deceiver, oppressor, and destroyer of the animals of the

>Gcn. xi. 1-9. »Ex. x,

» ri. xcT. 6. * Job xr. 18.

BOOK XVI.] OF THE CONFUSIOX OF TONGUES.

113

earth. ? He and his people, therefore, erected this tower

against the Lord, and so gave expression to their impious

pride ; and justly was their wicked intention punished by

Crod, even though it was unsucccssfuL But what was the

nature of the punishment ? As the tongue is the instrument

of domination, in it pride was punished; so that man^ who

vould not understand God when He issued His commands,

should be misunderstood when lie liimself gave orders. Thus

was that conspiracy disbanded, for each man retired from

IliosB ho could not undcratand, and associated with tlioso

whose speech was intelligible ; and the nations were divided

according to their languages, and scatt€red over the earth as

seemed good to God, who accomplished this in ways liidden

&wn and incomprehensible to us.

fi. OfGod't coming down to confound the languafftt oftht hultdert of the city,

|^_ We read, "The Lord came down to see the city and tlie
^Brwer which the sons of men built :^' it was not the sous of
'ood, but that society which lived in a merely human way,
tod wliich we call the eartlily city. Guti, wlio is always
wholly everywhere, does not move locally ; but He is said to
dfiscend when He does anything in the earth out of the usual
course, which, as it were, makes His presence felt. And in
the same way, He dues not by " seeing" learn some new
thing, for He cannot ever be ignorant of anything ; but He is
wid to see and recognise, in time, that which He causes
others to see and recognise. And therefore that city was
fiot previously being seen as God made it be seen when He
«howed how offensive it was to Him. We might, indeed,
interpret God's dusccuding to the city of the descent of His
angels in whom He dwells ; so that the following words,
"And the Lord God said, Behold, they aie all one race and
of one language," and also what follows, " Come, and let us
go down and confound their speech," are a recapitulation, ex-
plaining how the previously intimated *' descent of the Lord"
was accomplished. For if He had already gone down, why
does He say, " Come, and let us go down and confound V —
words which seem to be addressed to the angels, and to inti-
mate that He who was in the angels descended in their de-
VOL IL B

114

THE CITY OP GOD.

[book XVL

scent And the words most appropriately are, not, " Go ye
down and confound," but, "Let us confound their speech ;**
showing that He so works by His servants, that they are
themselves also fellow-labourers with God, as the apostle sayi,
"For we are fellow- labourers with God."*'

6. WfuU we are to nnderstand by CfocTe speaimg to the angtl$.

We might have supposed that the words uttered at &e
creation of man, " Let us," and not Let me, " make man," were
addressed to the angels, had He not added "in our image;"
but as we cannot believe that man was made in the image of
angels^ or that the imag6 of God is the same as that of aiLgels,
it is proper to refer this expression to the plurality of tlw
Trinity. And yet this Trinity, being one God, even after
saying " Let us make," goes on to say, " And God made maa
in His image,"' and not "Gods made," or "in their image."
And were there any difficulty in applying to the angels tha
words, " ComCj and let us go down and confound their speech,''
we might refer the plural to the Trinity, as if the Father werB
addressing the Son and the Holy Spirit ; but it rather belong*
to the angels to approach God by holy movements, that is,
by pious thoughts, and thereby to avail themselves of the im-
changcable truth which rules in the court of heaven as their
eternal law. For they are not themselves the truth ; but par-
taking in the creative truth, they are moved towards it as the
fountain of life, that what they have not in themselves they
may obtain in it. And this movement of theirs is steady,
for they never go back from what they have reached. And
to these angels God does not speak, as we speak to one an-
other, or to God, or to angels, or as the angels speak to us, or
as God speaks to us through them : He speaks to them in an
ineffable manner of His own, and that which He says is con-
veyed to UB in a manner suited to our capacity. For the
speaking of God antecedent and superior to all His works,
is the immutable reason of His work : it has no noisy and
passing sound, but an energy eternally abiding and producing
results in time. Thus He speaks to the holy angels ; but to
us, who are for off, He speaks otherwise. When, however, we
^ 1 Cor. iii. 0. » Gen. L 26.

'book xvl]

DISPERSION OF THE NATIONS.

115

kear "vrith the inner ear some part of the speech of God, we
approximate to the angels. But in this work I need not
labour to give 2(n account of the ways in which God speaks.
For either the unchangeable Truth speaks directly to the mind
of the rational creature in some indescribable way, or speaks
through the cliangeable creature, either presenting spiritual
images to our spirit, or bodily voices to our bodily sense.

The words, " Nothing will be restrained from them which
they have imagined to do,"* are assuredly not meant as an
affirmation, but as an interrogation, such as is used by per-
sons threatening, as, e.g.^ when Dido excl^ms,

** They vill not take arms and pursue T"'

We are to understand the words as if it had been said. Shall
nothing be restrained from them which they have imagined to
do ?* Prom these three men, therefore, the three sons of
Ifoah we mean, 73, or rather, as the catalogue will show, 72
nations and as many languages were dispersed over the earth,
and as they increased filled even the islands. But the na-
tions multiplied much more than the languages* For even in
Africa we know several barbarous nations which have but
one language ; and who can doubt that, as the human race
increased, men contrived to pass to the islands in ships ?

7. WMeAor even the remoicst wlantJU received iheir rxxxvA/rom the animah
which trere prtservtdt through the deluge^ in tJie ark.

There is a question raised about all those kinds of beasts
irhioh are not domesticated, nor are produced like frogs from
tlie esrth, but are propagated by male and female parents,
such as wolves and animals of that kind ; and it is asked how
they could be found in the islands after the deluge, in which
all the flnimflla not in the ark perished, unless the breed was
restored from those which were preser\'ed in pairs in the ark.
1% might, indeed, be said that they crossed to the islands by
summing, but this could only be true of those veiy near the
mainland ; whereas there are soilie so distant, that we fancy
BO animal could swim to them. But if men caught them

* Ges. zi 6. ' Virgil, jEneid, iv. 503.

' Here Aagnstine remarks on the addition of the particle ne to the word turn,
vSicb be }u$ nude to bring out the sonsb

lie

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xn.

and took them across with themselves, and thus propagated
these breeds in their new abodes, this would not imply an
incredible fondness for the chase. At the sarfie time, it can-
not be denied that by the intervention of angels they might
be transfeiTed by God's order or permission. If, however,
they were produced out of the earth as at their first creation,
when God said, " Let the earth bring forth the living crea-
ture,"^ this makes it more evident that all kinds of animals
were preserved in the ark, not so much for the sake of re-
newing the stock, as of prefiguring the various nations which
were to be saved in the church ; this, I say, is more evident,
if the earth brought forth many animals in islands to which
they could not cross over.

8. Whfther ceriain mongtrou^ raw* o/men are dtrivtdfnm th6 Btoei <^Adam
or Noah's sons.

It is also asked whether we are to believe that certain
monstrous races of men, spoken of in secular history,' have
sprung from Noah's sons, or rather, I should say, from that
one man from whom they themselves were descended. For
it is reported that some have one eye in the middle of the
forehead ; some, feet turned backwards from the heel ; some,
a double sex, the right breast like a man, the left like a wo-
man, and that they alternately beget and bring forth : others
are saitl to have no mouth, and to breathe only through the
nostrils ; others are but a cubit high, and are therefore called
by the Greeks "Pigmies:"' they say that in some places the
women conceive in their fifth year, and do not live beyond
their eighth. So, too, they toll of a race who have two feet
but only one leg, and are of marvellous swiftness, though they
do not bend the knee : they are called Skiopodes, because in
the hot weather they lie down on their backs and shade them-
selves with their feet Others ore said to have no head, and
their eyes in their shoulders ; and other human or quasi-
human races are depicted in mosaic in the harbour esplanade
of Carthage, on the faith of histories of rarities. What shall
I say of the Cynocephali^ whose dog-like head and barking

> Gen. L 2i.

' Pliny, HUt. Nat. vii. 2 ; Anlns Gdliiw, Noft. AtU ix^ 4.

• From ■**'>'/<% a cubit.

BOOK XVL]

OF HUMAN MONSTBOSITIES.

proclaim them beasts rather than men ? Bat we are not
bound to believe all we hear of these monstrosities. But
whoever is anywhere bom a man, that is, a rational mortal
no matter what unusual appearance he presents in
>lour, movement, sound, nor how peculiar he is in some
power, part, or quality of his nature, no Christian can doubt
that he springs from that one protoplast. We can distinguish
the common human nature from that which is pecidiar, and
therefore wonderful

The same account which is given of monstrous births in
individual cases can be given of monstrous races. For God,
the Creator of all, knows whore and when each thing ought to
be, or to have been created, because He sees the similarities
and diversities which can contribute to the beauty of the
■whole. But He who cannot see the whole is offended by
the deformity of the part, because he is blind to that which
balances it, and to which it belongs. We know that men are
l>om witli more than four fingers on their hands or toes on
their feet : this is a smaller matter ; but far from us be the
folly of supposing tlrnt the Creator mistook the number of a
man's fingers, though we cannot account for the difference.
And so in cases where the divergence from the rule is greater.
He whose works no man justly finds fault witli, knows what
lie has done. At Hipi>u-l>iurrhytus there is a man whose
hands are crescent-shaped, and have only two fingers each,
and his feet .similarly formed. If there were a race like liiiu,
it would be added to the history of the curious and wonder-
ful Shall we therefore deny that this man is descended
from that one man who was first created ? As for the Andro-
g)'Qi, or Hermaphrodites, as they are called, though they are
lare, yet from time to time there appear persons of sex so
doubtful, that it remains uncertain from wliich sex they take
their name ; though it is customary to give them a masculine
name, as the more worthy. For no one ever called them
Hermaphroditesses. Some years ago, quite within my own
memory, a man was born in the East, double in his upper,
but single in his lower half — having two heads, two chests,
four hands, but one body and two feet like au ordinaiy man ;
and he lived so long that many had an opportujiity of seeing

118

THE Cmr OP GOD.

[book xvl

Mm. But who could enumerate all the human births that have
differed widely H'om their ascertained parents ? As, therefore,
no one will deny that these are all descended &om that one
man, so all the races which are reported to have diverged in
bodily appearance &om the iisual course which nature gene-
rally or almost universally preserves, if they are embraced ia
that definition of man as rational and mortal animalsj un-
questionably trace their pedigree to that one first father of all
We are supposing these stories about various races who differ
from one another and from us to be true ; but possibly they are
not : for if we were not aware that apes, and monkeys, and
sphinxes are not men, but beasts, those historians would pos-
sibly describe them as races of men, and flaunt with impunity
their faLse and vainglorious discoveries. But supposing they
are men of whom these marvels are recorded, what if God has
seen fit to create some races in this way, that we might not
suppose that the monstrous births which appear among our-
selves are the failures of that wisdom whereby He fashions
the human nature, as we speak of the failure of a less perfect
workman ? Accordingly, it ought not to seem absurd to us,
that as in individual races there are monstrous births, so in
the whole race there are monstrous races. Wherefore, to con-
clude this question cautiously and guardedly, either these
tilings which have beun told of some races have no existence
at all ; or if they do exist, they are not human races ; or if
they are human, they are descended from Adam.

0. WheiJier we are to bducR m the Antipodes.

But as to the fable that there are Antipodes, that is to say,
men on the opposite side of the earth, where the sun rises
when it sets to us, men who walk with their feet opposite ours,
that is on no ground credible. And, indeed, it is not affirmed
that this has been learned by historical knowledge, but by
scientific conjecture, on the ground that the earth is suspended
within the concavity of the sky, and tlmt it has as much room
on the one side of it as on the other: liencti Ihey say that
the part which is beneath must also be inhabited. But they
do not remark that, although it be supposed or scientifically
demonstrated th&t the world is of a round and spherical form.

.-A^

OP THE AIHTPOPES.

yet it does not follow that the other side of the earth is baie
of water; nor even, though it be bare, does it immediately
follow that it is peopled. For Scripture, which proves the
tmth of its historical statements by the accomplishment of ita
prophecies, gives no false information ; and it is too absurd to
say, that some men might have taken ship and traversed the
whole wide ocean, and crossed from this side of the world to
the other, and that thus even the inhabitants of that distant
region are descended from that one first man. Wherefore let
us seek if we can find the city of God that sojourns on earth
among those human races who are catalogued as having been
divided into seventy-two nations and as many languages. For
it continued down to the deluge and the ark, and is proved to
have existed still among the sons of Noah by their blessings,
and chiefly in the eldest son Shem ; for Japheth received this
blessing, that he should dwell iu the tents of Shem.

0. Of the fjfiuaiogy of Shem, in whme. line thf city of Ood u preserved AU ike
time qf Abraham.

It IB necessary, therefore, to preserve the series of genera-
tions descending from Shem, for the sake of exhibiting the
city of God after the flood ; as before the flood it was exhibited
in the series of generations descending from Seth. And there-
fore does divine Scripture, after exhibiting the earthly city as
IBabylon or " Confusion," revert to the patriarch Shem, and
Tecapitulate the generations from him to Abraham, specifying
"besides, the year in which each father begat the son that be-
longed to this line, and how long he lived. And imquestion-
ably it is this which fulfils the promise I made, that it should
appear why it is said of the sons of Heber, " The name of the
one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided." * For
what can we imderstand by the division of the earth, if not
the diversity of languages ? And, therefore, omitting the
other sons of Shem, who are not concerned in this matter.
Scripture gives the genealogy of those by whom the line runs
on to Abraham, as before the flood those are given who carried
on the line to Noah from Seth. Accordingly this series of
generations begins thus : " These aro the generations of Shem :
Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two

1 Gen. ac 26.

120 THE cm or god. [dook m

years after the flood. And Sliem lived after he bogMt
Arphaxad five hundred years, and begat sons and daughters"
In like manner it registers the rest, naming the year of his
life in vhich each begat the son who belonged to that line
■which extends to Abraham. It specifies, too, how many years
he lived thereafter, begetting sons and daughters, that we may
not childishly suppose that the men named were the only
men, but may understand how the population increased, and
how regions and kingdoms so vast could be populated by tbe
descendants of Shera ; especially the kingdom of Assyria, fim
which Ninua subdued the surrounding nations, reigning witJi
briUiant prosperity, and ber^ueathing to his descendants a vast
but thoroughly consolidated empire, which held together 6s
many centuries.

But to avoid needless prolixity, we shall mention not the
number of years each member of this series lived, but only
the year of his Life in which he begat his heir, that we maj
thus reckon the number of years fi'om the flood to Abraham,
and may at the same time leave room to touch briefly an<J
cursorily upon some other matters necessary to our argument-
In the second year, then, after tlie flood, Shem when he wa^
a hundred years old begat Arphaxad ; Arphaxad when he wa*
135 years old begat Cainan ; Cainan when ho was 130 years
begat Salah. Salah himself, too, was the same age when ho
begat Eber. Eber lived 134 years, and begat Peleg, in whose
days the earth was divided. Peleg himself lived 130 years,
and begat Beu ; and Eeu lived 132 years, and begat Serug ;
Serug 1 30, and begat Nahor ; and Nahor 79, and begat Terah ;
and Terah 70, and begat Abram, whose name God afterwards
chauged into AbraJiam. There are thus from the flood to
Abraham 1072 years, according to the Vulgate or Septuagint
versions. In the Hebrew copies for fewer years are given ; and
for this either no reason or a not very credible one is given.

When, therefore, we look for the city of God in these
seventy-two nations, we cannot aftlrm that wlxile they had
but one lip, that is, one language, the human race had de-
parted from the worship of the true God, and that genuine
godliness had survived only in those generations which de-
scend from Shem through Arphaxad and reach to Abraham ;

BOOK XVl]

OF THE PRIMITIVE LANGUAGE.

121

but from the time when they proudly built a tower to heaven,
a symbol of godless exaltation, the city or society of the
wicked becomes apparent. Wlietlier it was ooly disguised
before, or non-existent ; whether both cities remained after the
flood. — the godly in the two sons of Noah who were blessed, and
in their posterity, and the ungodly in the cursed son and his
deacendanla, from whom sprang that mighty hunter against
the Lord, — is not easily determined. For possibly — and cer-
tainly this is more credible — there were despisers of God
among the descendants of the two sons, even before Babylon
was founded, and worshippers of God among the desceiidants
of HanL Certainly neither race wag ever obliterated from
ettith. For in both the Psalms in which it is said, " They
Are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy ; there is
none that doeth good, no, not one," we read further, " Have
all the workers of iniquity no knowledge ? wlio eat up my
people as they eat bread, and call not upon the Lord." ^ There
was then a people of God even at llaat time. And therefore
the words, " There is none that doeth good, no, not one," were .
said of the sons of men, not of the sons of God. Far it had
been previously said, " God looked down from lieaven upon
thd sons of men, to see if any understood and sought atTter
God ; " and then follow the words which demonstrate that all
the sons of men, that is, all who belong to the city wliich
lives according to man, not according to God, are reprobate.

Tl. That the original language %n u»t among mm tcaa that tchlcH wo* afUrwarda
<aUed Hebrew, from Hchcr^ in w?u}$e Jamihj it vcom preserved when lAc
conJu*ion, of tongue* occurred.

Wherefore, as the fact of all using one language did not
secure the absence of sin-infected men fi*om the race^ — for even
li^fbrc tlie deluge there was one language, and yet all but the
sii^Le family of just Koah were found worthy of destruction
Ijy the flood, — so when the nations, by a prouder godlessness,
earned the punishment of the dispersion and the confusion of
toogaes, and the city of the godless was called Confusion or
Babylon, there was still the house of Heber in which the pri-
Tnitive language of the race survived- And therefore, as I
tave already mentioned, when an enumeration is made of the

> Pt. liT. 3. 4, liii. 8, 4.

122

FE CITY 0? GOD.

[book XVI.

sons of Shem, who each founded a nation, Heber is first men-
tioned, although he was of the fifth generation from Shem.
And because, when the other races were divided by their own
peculiar languages, his family preserved that language which
is not unreasonably believed to have been the common
langoago of the race, it was on this account thenceforth
named Hebrew. For it then became necessary to distinguish
this language from the rest by a proper name ; though, while
there was only one, it had no other name than the language
of man, or hiiman speech, it alone being spoken by the v^hole
human race. Some one will say : If the earth was divided
by languages in the days of Peleg, Heber's son, that language)
which was formerly common to all, should rather have been
called after Peleg. But we are to understand that Heber
himself gave to his son tliis name Peleg, which means Division ;
because he was bom when the earth was divided, that is, at
the very time of the division, and that this ia the meaning of
the words, " In his days the earth was divided."* For unless
Heber had been still alive when the languages were multiplied,
the language whicli was preserved in his house would not
have been called after him. We are induced to believe that
this was the primitive and common language, because the
multiplication and change of languages was introduced as a
pmiisluneiit, and it is fit to ascribe to the people of God an
immunity from this punishment. Nor is it without signifi-
cance that this is the language which Abraham retained, and
that he could not transmit it to all his descendants, but only
to those of Jacob's line, who distinctively and eminently con-
stituted God's people, and received Hia covenants, and were
Christ's progenitors according to the flesh. In the same way,
Heber himself did not transmit that language to all his pos-
terity, but only to the line from which Abraham sprang. And
thus, although it is not expressly stated, that when the wicked
were building Babylon there was a godly seed remaining, this
indistinctness is intended to stimulate research rather than to
elude it For when we see tliat originally there was one
common language, and that Heber is mentioned before all
Shem's sons, though he belonged to the fifth generation from

^ Gen. X. 25.

BOOK XVI.] HEBREW THE PBnilTlVK LANGUAGE.

123

, and that the language which the patriaxchs and prophets
used, not only in their conversation, hut in the authoritative
age of Scripture, is called Hebrew, when we are asked
that primitive and common langua^ was preserved
-after the confusion of tongues, certainly, as there can be no
abt that those among whom it was preserved were exempt
the punishment it embodied, what other suggestion can
make^ than that it survived in the family of him whose
e it took, and that this is no small proof of the righteous-
of this family^ that the puniahraent with which the other
fiunilies were visited did not fall upon it ?

But yet another question is mooted : How did Heber and
hia son Peleg each found a nation, if they had but one language ?
For no doubt the Hebrew nation propagated from Heber through
Abraham, and becoming through him a great people, is one
nation. How, then, are all the sons of the three branches of
Noah's family enumerated as founding a nation each, if Heber
md Peleg did not so ? It is very probable that the giant
Kimrod founded also his nation, and that Scripture has named
Iiim separately on account of the extraordinary dimensions of
liis empire and of his body, so that the number of seventy-two
nations remains. But Peleg was mentioned, not because he
founded a nation (for his race and language are Hebrew), but
on account of the critical time at which he was bom, all the
•arth being then divided. Nor ought we to be surprised that
the giant Nimrod lived to the time in which Babylon was
foanded and the confusion of tongues occurred, and the con-
sequent division of the earth. For though Heber was in the
fiizth generation from J^oali, and Nimrod in the fourth, it does
not follow that they could not be alive at the same time. For
when the generations are few, they live longer and are bom
Jater ; but when they are many, they live a shorter time, and
come into the world earlier. We arc to understand that, when
the earth was divided, the descendants of Noah who are regis-
tered as founders of nations were not only already horn, but
were of an age to have immense families, worthy to be called
tnbes or nations. And therefore we must by no means
suppose that they were born in the order in which they were
down ; otherwise, how could the twelve sons of Joktan,

TIIE CITY OF GOD.

[nOOK XTL

another son of Heber's, and brother of Peleg, have already
founded nations, if JokUa was born, as he is registered, after
Lis brotlier Peleg, since the earth was divided at Pelegfs birth ?
"We are therefore to understand that, though Peleg is named
first, he 'Was bom long after Joktan, whose twelve sons had
already families so largo as to admit of their being divided by
different languages. There is nothing extraordinary in the
last born being fii-st named : of the sons of Noah, the descend-
ants of Japheth are first named ; then the sons of Ham, who
was the second son ; and last the sons of Shem, who was the
first and oldest. Of these nations tlie names have partly sur-
vived, so that at tliis day we can see from whom they have
sprung, as the Assyrians from Aasur, the Hebrews from Heber,
but partly have been altered in the lapse of time, so tluit the
most learned men, by profound research in ancient records,
have scarcely been able to discover the origin, I do not say of
all, but of some of these nations. There is, for example,
nothing in tlie name Egyptians to sliow that they are descended
from Misraim, Ham's son, nor in the name Ethiopians to show
a connection with Cush, though such is said to be the origin
of these nations. And if wo take a general survey of the
names, we shaE find that more have been changed than have
remained the same.

12. Of iht era in Abraham's life from ir/iicA a new period in the holtf
succession begins.

Let us now survey the progress of the city of God from the
era of the patriarcli Abraham, from whose time it begins to
be more conspicuous, and the divine promises which are now
fidfilled in Ciirist are more fully revealed. We learn, then,
from the intimations of holy Scripture, that Abraham was
born in the country of the Chaldeans, a land belonging to
the Assyrian empire. Now, even at that time impious super-
stitioiis were rife with the Chaldeans, as with other nations.
The famOy of Terah, to which Abraham belonged, was the
only one in wliich the worship of the true God survived, and
the only one, wo may suppose, in which the Hebrew language
was preserved ; although Joshim the son of Nim tells us that
even this family served other gods in Mesopotamia.^ The

* Joih. zziv. 2.

BOOK XVlJ

07 ABRAHAM'S PROGENITORS.

125

other descendants of Heber gradually became absorbed in other
races and other lanpiiiaj^es. And thus^ as the single family of
Xoah was preserved through the deluge of water to renew the
human race, so, in the deluge of superstition that flooded the
whole world, there remained but the one family of Terah in
which the seed of God's city was preserved. And as, when
Scripture has entm;erated the generations prior to Noah, with
their ages, and explained the cause of the flood before God
began to speak to Noah about the building of the ark; it is
said, "These are the generations of Noah;" so also now, after
enumerating the generations from Shem, Noah's son, do^vu to
Abraham, it tlien signalizes an era by saying, "These are the
generations of Terali : Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran ;
and Haran begat Lot. And Haran died before his father
Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. And
Abram and Nahor took them ^vives : the name of Abram's
wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor s wife IMilcah, the
daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of
Iscah."^ This Iscah is supposed to be the same as Sarah,
Abraham's wife.

13. W7iy, in the account of Terah't emi^afion, on Am forsahlng the Chaldeans
ami parting over into Mesopotamia^ no mention is made ofhia tton Nahor.

Next it is related how Terah with his family left the
region of the Chaldeans and came into Mesopotamia, and
dwelt in Haran. But nothing is said about one of his sons
ciUed Nahor, as if he had not taken him along with hini.
For the narrative runs thus : " And Terali took Abram Jus
son, and Lot the son of Haran, liis son^s son, and Sarah his
daaghter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and led them forth
OBt of the region of the Chiddcans to go into the kn*l of
Canaan ; and he came into Haran, and dwelt there,"' Nahor
and Milcah his wife are nowliere named here. But after-
mrds, when Abraliam sent his servant to take a wife for his
son Isaac, we find it thus -written: "And the servant took ten
camels of the camels of his lord, and of all the goods of his
lord, witli hira; and arose, and went into Mesopotaiuia, into the
dty of Nahor."' This and other testimonies of this sacred
Mstoiy show that Nahor, Abi-aham*s brother, had also left the
" Gea. xL 27-29. ' Gcd. xi. 31, » Oeu. xxiv. 10.

126

THE cnr or god.

[book x?i

region of the Chaldeans, and fbced his abode in Mesopotamia,
where Abraham dwelt with his father. Why, then, did the
Scripture not mention him, when Terah with his family went
forth out of the Chaldean nation and dwelt in Haran. since it
uieutions that he took with him not only Abraham bis son,
but also Sarah his daiighter-in-law, and Lot his grandson T
The only reason we can tliink of is, that perhaps he had lapsed
from the piety of his father and brother, and adhered to the
superstition of the Chaldeans, and had aften^-ards emigrated
thence, either through penitence, or because he was persecuted
as a suspected person. For in the book called Judith, when
Holofemes, the enemy of the Israelites, inquired what kind of
nation that might be, and whether war should be made agaiiut
them, Achior, the leader of the Ammonites, answered him thus:
" Let our lord now hear a word from the mouth of thy ser-
vant, and I will declare imto thee the truth concerning the
people which dwelleth near thee in this hill country, and
there shall no lie come out of the mouth of thy servant For
this people is descended from the Chaldeans, and they dwelt
heretofore in Mesopotamia, because they would not follow the
gods of their fathers, which were glorious in the land of the
Chaldeans, but went out of the way of their ancestors, and
adored the God of heaven, whom they knew ; and they cast
them out from the face of their gods, and they fled into MesO'
potamia, and dwelt there many days. And their God said to
them, that they should depart from their habitation, and go
into the land of Canaan ; and they dwelt," ^ etc., as Achior the
Ammonite narrates. Whence it is manifest that the house of
Terah had suffered persecution from the Clialdeans for the
true piety with which they worshipped the one and true God

14. Of the years qf Terah, who ccmpleted his U/etimt in Haram,

On Terah's death in Mesopotamia, where he is said to have
lived 205 years, the promises of God made to Abraliam now
begin to be pointed out ; for thus it is written : " And the days
of Terah in Haran were two hundred and five years, and he
died in Hamn/' ^ This is not to be taken as if he had spent
all his days there, but that he there completed the days of his
* Judith T. 6-0. > GeQ. xi. 32.

XVI.]

THE MIGRATION OF ABRAHAM.

127

life, "wliicli were two hundred and five years : otherwise it
iwrald not be known how many years Terah lived, since it is
not said in what year of his life he came into Haraii ; and it is
■bBiud to suppose that, in this series of generations, where it
Sa carefully recorded how many years each one lived, his age
Was the only one not put on record. For although some
"whom the same Scripture mentions have not their age re-
corded, they are not in this series, in which the reckoning of
time is continuously indicated by the death of the parents and
the succession of the children. For this series, which is given
in order from Adam to Noah, and from him down to Abraham,
contains no one without the number of the years of his life.

15. O/tht txme pfOiit tnxQrafxon of Ahrahafii^ wheyi, according to the. commoncf-
mcnt of Oodf he uraU out from Hanxn,

When, after the record of the death of Terah, the father of

Abraham, we next read, " And the Lord said to Abram, Get

thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy

'Other's house/' * etc., it is not to be supposed, because this

follows in the order of the narrative, that it also followed in

the chronological order of events. For if it were so, there

"Would be an insoluble difficulty. For after these words of

God which were spoken to Abraham, the Scripture says : " And

Ahram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him ; and Lot

■Went with him. Now Abraham was seventy-five years old

vhen he departed out of Haran." ^ How can this be true if he

departed from Haran after his father's death ? For when Terah

Was seventy years old, as is intimated above, he begat Abraham;

and if to this number we add the seventy-five years which

Abraham reckoned when he went out of Haran, we get 145

years. Therefore that was the number of the years of Terah,

when Abraham departed out of that city of Mesopotamia ;

for he had reached the seventy-fifth year of his life, and

thus his father, who begat him in the seventieth year of his

life, had reached, as was said, his 14:5 th. Therefore he did not

depart thence after his lather's death, that is, after the 205

jears his father lived ; but the year of his departure from

ftat place, seeing it was his seventy-fifth, is interred beyond

ubt to have been the 145th of his father, who begat him

^ Gen. xu. 1. * Geo. zii. 4.

12S

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xvr.

in his seventieth year. And thus it is to be understood that
the ScriptTire, according to its custom, has gone back to the
time wiiich had already been passed by the narrative ; just as
above, when it liad mentioned the grandsons of Noah, it said
that they were in their nations and tongues ; and yet after-
wards, as if this also had followed in order of time, it says,
" And the whole eaith was of one lip, and one speech for alL" ^
How, then, could they be said to be in their own nations and
according to their own tongues, if there was one for all ; ex-
cept because the nai*rative goes back to gather up what it had
passed over ? Here, too, in the same way, after saying, '* And
the days of Terah in Haran were 205 years, and Terah died
in Harau," the Scripture, going back to what had been passed
over in order to complete what had been begun about Terah,
says, "And the Lord said to Abram, Get thee out of thy
country," ' etc. After which words of God it is added, '* And *
Abram departed, as the Lord spake unto him ; and Lot Avent
with him. But Abram was seventy-five years old when he
departed out of Haran." Therefui-e it was done when his
father was in the 145tli year of his age; for it was then the
seventy-fifth of his own. But this question is also solved in
another way, that the seventy-five years of Abraham when he
depaited out of Haran are reckoned from the year in wluch
he was delivered from the fire of the Chaldeans, not from that
of liis birth, as if he was rather to be held as having beea
bom then,

Now the blessed Stephen, in narrating these things in the
Acts of the Apostles, says: "The God of glory appeared unto
our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he
(hvtlt in Charran, and said nnto him, Get thee out of thy
country, and from thy kindred, and from thy fathers house,
and come into the land which I will show thee." ^ Accord-
ing to these words of Stephen, God spoke to Abraham, not
after the death of his father, who certainly died in Haran,
where liis son also dwelt with him, but before he dwelt in
tliat city, although he was already in Mesopotamia. There-
fore he had already departed from the Chaldeans. Sd that
ids. "Then Abraham went out of the land of

en Stephei
^6«&,zi. 1.

-GeiL xii 1.

' Acta vii. 2, 3.

XVI,]

THE PRO^riSES MADE TO ABRAHAir.

129

flie Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran/' * this does not point
out what took place after God spoke to Liin (for it wiia not
after these words of God that he went out of the land of
' the Chaldeans, since he says that God spoke to him in Meso-
potomia). but the woi*d 'Ulvcn" whicli he uses refers to that
whole period from his going out of the land of tlic Clialdenns
and dwelling in Haran. Likewise in what follows, " And
theuceforth, when his father was dead, lie settled him in this
land, wherein ye now dwell, and your fathers/' he does not
say, after his father was dead he went out from Haran ; but
thenceforth he settled him here, after his father was dead. It
is to be understood, therefore, tliat God liad spoken to Abra-
ham when ho was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran ;
but that he came to Haran with his father, keeping in mind
the precept of God, and that he went out thence in his own
eeventy-tifth year, which was his father's 145th. But he says
iliat his settlement in the land of Canaan, not his going forth
from Haran, took place after his father's death ; because his
father was already dead when ho purchased the land, and ])er-
aonnlly entered on possession of it. But when, on his having
already settled in Mesopotamia, that is, already gone out of
tlw land of the Chaldeans, God says, " Get thee out of thy
country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house," '^
tliia means, not that he should cast out JiLs body from thence,
for he had already done that, but that lie slaould tear away
las souL For he had not gone out from thence in mind, if
he was held by the hope and desire of returning, — a hope and
desire which was to be cut off by God's command and help,
find by his own obedience. It would indeed be no incredible
supposition that afterwards, when Nahor followed his father,
Abraliam tht^n fulfilled the precept of the Lord, that he should
depart out of Hamn with Sarah Ids wife and Lot his brother's

SOIL

M. Of Utt order and naturt of the promUea qf Qod tchich icfre made to

Abruham.

God's promises made to Abraliam are now to be considered;
I for in these the oracles of our God,^ that is, of the true God,

' Acta vii. 4.

> Gen. xU. 1.

' Various readiu^ " of our Lord JesoB Cluifit.'

TOL. IL

130

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xvl

began to appear more openly coucernixig the gotUy people,
whom prophetic authority foretold. The first of these reads
thus : " And the Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy
country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house,
and go into a land that I will show thee : and I will make of
thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and magnify thy
name ; and thou shalt be blessed: and I will bless them that
bless tliec, and curse them that curse thee : and in thee shall
all tribes of the earth be blessed." ^ N"ow it is to be observed
that two things are promised to Abnihani, the oul', tliat his
seed should possess the land of Canaan, which is intimated
when it is said, " Go into a land that I will show thee, and I
will make of thee a great nation ; " but the other far more
excellent, not about the carnal but the sjnritual seed, through
which, he is the father, not of the one Israelite nation, but of
all nations who follow tlie footprints of his faith, which was
first promised in these words, " And in thee shall all tribes of
the earth be blessed." Eusebius thought this promise was
made in Abraham's seventy-fifth year, as if soon after it was
made Abraham had departed out of Haran ; because tlie Scrip-
ttu^ cannot be contradicted, in which we read, " Abram was
seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran."
But if this promise was made in that year, then of course
Abraham was staging in Haran with his father; for he could
not depart thence unless he had first dwelt there. Does this,
then, contradict what Stephen says, " The God of glory ap-
peared to ouj father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia,
before he dwelt in Cliairan ? "^ But it is to be uiulcrstood that
the whole took place in the some year, — botli the promise of
Grod before Abraham dwelt in Haran, and his dwelling in.
Haran, and his departure thence. — not only because Eusebius
in the Chronicles reckons from tlie year of tins promise, and
shows that after 430 years the exodus from Egj^jt took place,
when the law was given, but because the Apostle Paul also
mentions it.

17. Oftiie three moat famous kinrfdoms of the fra/ionx, of which one, thai is, the

Aisifriatt, tnw <Urtady vcri/ eminent when Abraham teca bom.

During the same period there were three famous kingdoms

' Gcii. lii. 1-3.

" Acts vii. 2.

BOOK Xn.] REPEnXION OF THE PROMISES. 131

of the nations, in which the city of the earth-born, that is, the
society of men living according to man xmder the domination
of the fallen angels, chiefly flourished, namely, the three king-
doms of Sicyon, Egypt, and Ass^Tio. Of these, Assyria was
much the most powerful and eubhme ; for that king Ninus,
son of Belus, had subdued tlie peojile of all Asia except India.
By Asia I now mean not that part which is one province of
this greater Asia, but wliat is called Universal Asia, which
some set down as the half, but most as the third part of the
whole worldj — the tliree being Asia, Europe, and Africa, thereby
making an unequal diWsion. For the part called Asia stretches
from the south through tlie east even to the north ; Europe
from the north even to tlie west ; and Africa from the west
even to the south. Thus we see that t^voJ Europe and Africa,
contain one half of the world, and Asia alone the other half
And these two parts are made by the ciicumstance, that there
entera between them from the ocean all the Mediterranean water,
■which makes thia great sea of ours. So that, if you divide the
world into two parts, the east and the west, Asia will be in the
one, and Europe and Africa in the other. So that of the three
feingdo;u8 then famous, one, namely Sicyon, was not under
the Assyrians, because it was in Europe ; but as for Egypt,
how could it fail to be subject to the empire which ruled all
-Asia with the single exception of India i In Assyria, there-
fore, the dominion of the impious city had the pre-eminence.
Its head was Babylon,— an earth-born city, most fitly named,
lor it means confusion. There Ninus reigned after the death of
liis father Belus, who first bad reigned there sixty-five years.
His son Ninus, who, on his father's death, succeeded to the
Idngdom, reigned tifty-two years, and had been king forty- ,

three years when Abroliam was bora, which was about the j

1200th year before Rome was founded, as it were another
Babylon in the west ,

^■U. 0/the repmUd addreu of God to Abraham, in which HeprvmUed the ^^M

^" land qf Canaan to him and to his seed, ^^1

Abraham, then, having dex^aittid out of Haxan in the

seventy-fifth year of his own age, and in the hundred and

forty-fiftli of his father's, went with Lot, his brother's son,

uid Surah his wifOj into the land of Canaan, and came even to

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XTL

Sichem, where again he received the divine oracle, of vrliicL
it is thus MTitten : " And the Lord appeared unto Abram,
and said unto hira, Unto thy seed will I give this land."'
Notliing is promised here about that seed in which he is
made the father of all nations^ but only about that by which
}ie is the fatlier of the one Israelite nation ; for by this seed
that land was possessed.

19. Of tilt divhie preservation of Sarah's chastity tn Effyptt when Abraham
had called iter not /iw wi/e but hla sUtr-r.

Ha^'ing built an altar there, and called upon God, Abrahaic
proceeded thence and dwelt in the desert, and was compelled by
pressure of famine to go on into Egypt There he called liifl
wife his sister, and told no lie. For she was this also, because
she was near of blood ; just as Lot, on account of the same
nearness, being his brother's son, is called his brother. Xov
he did not deny that she M*as his wife» but held his peace
about it, committing to God the defence of his wife's chastity,
and pTovidin*; as a man against human wiles ; because if I'f
had not provided against the danger as much as he could, he
woidd have been tempting God rather than trusting in Hint
We have said enough about this matter against the colunmie*
of Faustus the Manicha^an. At last what Abraham had ex-
pected the Lord to do took place. For Pharaoh, king o^
Egypt, who had taken her to him as hia wife^ restored her to
her husband on being severely plagued. And far be it fro^>*
US to believe that she was defiled by IjTUg with another i
because it is much more credible that, by these great afiiic-
tions, Pharaoh was not permitted to do this,

20. OfUie parting ofLoi and Abraham, which then agreed to without hreaeh

of charity.

On Abraliam's return out of Egypt to the place he had left,
Lot, his brother's son, departed from him into the land of Sodom»
without breach of charity. For they had grown rich, and ;
began to have many herdmen of cattle, and when these strove
together, they avoided in this way the pugnacious discord of!
their families. Indeed, as human affairs go, this Ciiuse might
even have given rise to some strife between themselves. Con-
sequently these are the words of Abraham to Lot, when taking

* Gun. xii. 7.

BOOK XVL] SEPAILVTION OF ABRAHAM AKD LOT,

133

precaution against this evil, '* Let tliere be no strife between
mo and thee, and between my hcixlmen and thy herdmen ; for
we be "brethren. Behold, is not the whole land before thee ?
Separate thyself from me : if thou wilt go to the left hand, I
go to the right ; or if thou wilt go to the right hand, I
go to the left." * From this, perhaps, has arisen a pacific
custom among men, that when there is any i^artition of earthly
UiLngs, the greater should make the division, the less the
choice.

0/the third promise ofOod, by which fie aosured the land <if Canaan to

AbrnJiam and hU eeed in perpetuUif.

Now, when Abraham and Lot had separated, and dwelt
;, owing to the necessity of supporting their families, and
to vile discord, and AUralnim was in the land of Canaan,
It Lot in Sodom, the Lord said to Abraham in a third oracle.
Life up thine eyes, and look fi*om tlie place where thuu now
to the north, and to Africa, and to the east, and to the
; for all the land which tliou seest, to thee vnR I give it,
aii«l to thy seed for ever, And I will make thy seed as the
dost of the earth ; if B.ny one can number the dust of the earth,
thy seed shall also be numbered. Arise, and walk through
the land, in tlie length of it, and in the breadth of it; for unto
thee will I give it" " It does not clearly appear whether in
this promise that also is contained by which he is made the
latlicr of all nations. For Uie clause, " And 1 will make thy
aced ai3 the dust of the earth," may seem to refer to this, being
^iken by that figure the Greeks call hyperbole, which indeed
is figurative, not literal But no person of understanding can
doubt in what manner the Scripture uses this and other
figures. For that figure (tliat is, way of speaking) is used
when what is said is far larger than what is meant by it ;
fur who does not see how incomparably larger the number of
Uie dust must be than that of all men can be from Adam
himself dowTi to the end of the world ? How much greater,
then, must it be than the seed of Abraham, — not only that
j«rtnining to the nation of Lsracl, but also that which is and
shall be according to tlie imitation of fitith in u.11 nations of the
whole wide world I For that seed is indeed very small in
t Gen. xUi. 8, 9. * Gen. xUi. 14-17.

134

THE CITY OF GOD.

[BOOK XVI.

comparison with tlie multitude of the wicked, although even
those few of themselves make an innumerable multitude,
which by a hv^ierbole is eompared to the dust of the earth.
Truly that midtitude which was promised to Abraham is not
innuinenible to God, althougli to man ; but to God not even
the dust of the earth is so. Fmther, the promise here made
may be understood not only of the nation of Israel, bat of the
whole seed of Abraham, which may be fitly compared to the dust
for multitude, because regarding it also there is the promise*^ of
many children, not according to the flesh, but according to the
spirit. But we have therefore said that this does not clearly
appear, because the multitude even of that one nation, which
was bom according to the flesh of Abraham through his
grandson Jacob, lias increased so much as to fill almost all
parts of the world Consequeutly, eveu it might by hj-perbole
be compared to the dust for multitude, because even it alone
is iuuumerable by man. Certainly uo one q^uestions that only
that land is meant wliich is called Canaan. But that saying,
"To thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever," may move
some, if by " for ever" they understand " to eternity." But if
in this passage they take "for ever" thus, as we firmly hold
it means, that the beginning of the world to come is to be
ordered from the end of the present, there is stUl no difliculty,
because, although the Israelites are expelled from Jerusalem,
they stiE remain in other cities in the land of Canaan, and
shall remain even to the end ; and when that whole land is in-
habited by Christians, tliey also ore the very seed of Abraham.

22. Of Ahraketm^» tivercoming the ^netniei of Sodom, when fte dcHvered LU
from captieiltf and teas IUmciI l»y Meldiiudek the }>rUat.

Having received this oracle of promise, Abraham migrated,
and remained in another place of the same land, that is,
beside the oak of Mamre, which was Hebron. Tlien on
the invasion of Sodom, when five kings carried on war
against four, and Lot was taken captive with the conquered
Sodomites, Abrahfim delivered lum from the enerny, leading
with him to battle three hundred and eigliteen of his home-
bom servants, and won the victory for the kings of Sodom,
but would take nothing of the spoils when offered by the king

* Vikrioua reading, ** the express prontUo."

BOOK XTXj PROMISE OF imrEROTTS POSTKniTT.'

for whom he had won them. He was then openly blessed bjr
Melchizedek, who was priest of God Most High, about whom
many and great things are written in the epistle which is in-
scribed to the Hebrews, which most say is by the Apostle
PttTil, though some deny this. For then first appeared the
sacrifice which is now offered to God by Cliristions in the
■whole wide world, and that is fulfilled which long after the
event was said by the prophet to Clirist, who was yet to come
in the flesh, " Thou art a priest for ever after the order of
Melchizedek," ' — that is to say, not after the order of Aaron,
for tliat order wns to be tiiken away when the things shone
forth which were intimated beforeliand by these shadows.

S3. Of the vjord of the Lord to Ahraham, by tohich ii waa promUed to him thai
Ais poaierity »hould be multiplied according to the multitude of the 8tart;
on beUevtng which he tctu declared justified while yet in uncireuvieinon.

The word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision also.
For when God promised him protection and exceeding great
reward, he, being solicitous about posterity, said that a certain.
Eliezer of Damascus, bom in his house, would be his heir.
Immediately he was promised an heir, not that house-bom
servant, bnt one who was to come forth of Abraham himself;
and again a seed innumerable! not as the dust of the earth,
but as the stars of heaven, — which rather seems to me a pro-
mise of a posterity exalted in celestial felicity. For, so far as
multitude is concerned, what are the stars of heaven to the
dust of the earth, unless one should say the comparison ia like
inasmuch as the stars also cannot be numl^ered ? For it is not
to be believed that all of them can be seen. For the more
keenly one observes them, the more does he see. So that it is
to be supposed some remain concealed from the keenest ob-
senxrs, to say nothing of those stars which are said to rise and
set in another part of the world most remote from us, Finally,
the authority of this book condemns those like Aiatus or
Eudoxus, or any others who boast that they have found out and
written lUnvn the cnui]»lett» number of the stars. Here, indeed,
ia set down tliat sentence whicii the apostle quotes iu order to
commend the gmcti of God, *' Abraham believed God, and it
was counted to him for righteousness ;"^ lest the circumcision.

L» Vs. cj. i. « Kom. iv. 3 ; Oen. XT, 6.

136

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XVI.

should glory, oiui be unwilling to receive the uncii-cumcised
nations to the faith of Christ. For at the time when he be-
lieved, and his faitli was counted to him for righteousness,
Abraliam had not yet been circumcised.

24. 0/the meaning fifthf »ncrifre Abrnhftm tptui commnndM to ofer w2it» Jie
Bvpplicatfd to te iattjjht about those tkitiyi ke had believed.

In the same vision, God in speaking to him also says, *I
am God that brought thee out of the region of the Cbaldees,
to give thee this land to inherit it." ^ And when Abram
asked whei'eby he uiiglit kno^v■ that he shouhl inlierit it, God
said to Idni, " Take me an heifer of three years old, and ft
Bhe-goat of tliree yeai-s old, and a mm of three years old, and
a turtle-dove, and a pigeon. And he took unto him all these,
and divided them in the midst^ and laid each piece one against
another ; bvit the binls divided he not. And tlie fowls came
down/' OS it is written, *' on the carcases, and Abram sat
down by them. But about the going down of the sun, great
fear fell upon Abram ; and, lo, an hoiTor of great darkness fell
upon lum. And He said iinto Abram, Know of a surety tlifl^
thy seed shall be a stranger in a land not their.?, and LheyshflU
reduce them to servitude ; and shall atHict tlicm foiu* hundre*^- j
years : but the nation whom they shall serve will I judge f\
and afterward shall they come out hither with great substance- (
And thou shalt go to thy futliers in peace ; kept in a good olci-^
age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hithe^l
again : for tlie iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full And '
wlien the sun was setting, there was a llimie, and a smoking" '
furnace, and lamps of fire, that passed tlirough between those
pieces. In that day tlie Loixl made a covenant with Abram,
saying. Unto thy seed will I give this land, from tlie river of
Egypt imto the great river Euphrates : the Kenites, and the
Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites. and the Hittites, and the Periz-
zites, and the Kephainis^ ajid the Amorites, and tlie Conaanites,
and the Hivites, and the Girgasldtes, and the Jebusites."'

All these things were said and done in a vision from God ;

but it would take long, and would exceed the scope of this

work, to treat of them exactly in detail It is enough that

we should know that, after it was said Abram believed in

1 Gen, XV, 7. = Gen, iv. &-21.

BOOK XVI,]

OF ABEAHASIS SACBmCE.

137

God. and it was counted to Lim for righteousness, he did not
fiiil in faith in saying, " Lord God, whereby shall I know
that I shall inherit it ? " lor the inheritance of that land
was promised to him. Now he does not say, How shall I
know, as if he did not yet believe ; but he says, " WTiereby
shall I know/* meaning tliat some sign might be given by
which he might know the manner of those tilings which he
had believed, just as it is not for lack of faith the Yii'gin
ilaiy says, " How shall this be, seeing I know not a man ? " *
for she inquired as to the way in which that should take
place which she was certain would come to pass. And when
she asked this, she was told, " The Holy Ghost sliall come
upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow
ibee." * Here also, in fine, a symbol was given, consisting of
three animals, a heifer, a she-goat, and a ram, and two birds,
a turtle-dove and pigeon, that he might know that the things
which he had not doubted should come to ]>ass were to
happen in accordance with this symbol. Whether, therefore,
the heifer was a sign that the people should be put under the
law, the she-goat that the same people was to become sinful,
the ram that they should reigii (and these animals are said to
be of three years old for this reason, that there are three
remarkable divisions of time, from Adam to Koah, and from
him to Abraham, and from him to David, who^ on the rejec-
tion of Saul, was fii-st established by the will of the Lord in
the kingdom of the Israelite nation : in this third division,
which extends from Abmbani to L)a\4d, that people grew up
as if passing through the third age of life), or whether they
had some other more suitable meaning, still I have no doubt
whatever that spiritual things were prefigured by them as
well as by the turtle-dove and pigeon. And it is said, " Lut
birds divided he not," because carnal men are divided
ong themselves, but the spiritual not at all, whether they
hide themselves from the busy conversation of men, like
e turtle-dove, or dwell among them, like the pigeon ; for
both birds are simple and Jiarmless, signifying that even in
the Israelite people, to which that land was to be given, there
would be individuals who were children of the promise, and
> Luke i. 34. * Luke L 35.

138

THE CITT OF GOD.

[book m

heirs of the kingdom that is *■ to remain in eternal felicity.
But the fowls coming down on the divided carcases represent
nothing good, but the spirits of this air, seeking some food for
tJiemselves in the division of carnal men. But that Abraham
sat down with them, signifies that even amid these divisions
of the carnal, true believers shall persevere to the end. And
that about the going down of the STin great fear fell upon
Abraham and a hoiTor of great darkness, signifies tliat about
the end of this world believers shall be in great perturbation.
and tribulation, of wliich the Lord said in the gospel, " For
then shall be great tribulation, such as was not from the
beginning.'* ^

But what is said to Abraham, " Know of a surety that thy
seed shall be a stranger in a land not theirs, and they shall
reduce them to scrNnttide, and shall afflict tliom 400 years,"
is most clearly a prophecy about the people of Israel which
was to be in servitude in Egj'pt. Not that this people was
to be in that senntude under the oppressive Eg}'ptians for
400 years, but it is foretold that this should take place in
the course of those 400 years. For as it is written of
Terah the fatlier of Abraham, "And the days of Terah in
Haran were 205 years." ^ not because they were all spent
there, but because they were completed there, so it is
said here also, "And they shall reduce them to servitude,
and shall afflict them 400 years," for this reason, because
that number was completed, not because it was all spent in
that afllietion. The years are said to be 400 in round
numbers, although they were a little more, — whether you
reckon from this time, when these things were promised to
Abraliam, or from the birth of Isaac, as the seed of Abraham,
of which these things are predicted. For, as we have already
said above, from the sevent}'-fifth year of Abraliam, when the
first promise was made to him, down to the exodus of Israel
from Egypt, there are reckoned 430 years, which the apostle
thus mentions : " And this I say, that the covenant confirmed
by Gud, the law, which was made 430 years after, cannot
disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect" *

* Torioua redding, " wlio ore to remain.'

* Geo. zi. 32.

* Matt xxiv. 21.

* G»L iiu 17.

BOOK XVI.] OF H^VGAB. 139

So then these 430 years might be coDed 400, because
they are not mnch more, especially since part even of that
number had already gone by when these things were shown
and said to Abraham in vision, or when Isaac was bom in
his father's 100th year, twenty-five years after the first
promise, when of these 430 years there now remained 405,
which God was pleased to call 400. No one will doubt that
the other things which follow in the prophetic words of God
pertain to the people of Israel

When it is added, " An([ when the sun was now setting
there was a flame, and lo^ a smoking furnace, and lamp of
fire, which passed through between those pieces," this signifies
that at the end of the world the carnal shall be judged by
fire. For just as the affliction of the city of God, such as
never was before, which is expected to take place under Anti-
christ, was signified by Abraham's horror of great darkness
about the going down of the sun, that is, when the end of
the world draws nigh,— so at the going down of the sun, that
ia, at the very end of the world, there is signified by that fire
the day of judgment, which separates the carnal who arc to
be saved by fire from those who are to be condemned in the
^le. And then the covenant made with Abraham paiticulorly
sets forth the land of Canaan, and names eleven tribes in it
from the river of Egypt even to the great river Euphrates.
II is not then from the great river of Eg}'pt, that is, the Mle,
hut from a small one which sepamtes Eg}"pt from Palestine,
where the city of Ehinocorura is.

35. 0/ Sarah's handmaidf Ba^ar^ w/iom sfie htrsdfmsked to fie Ahraham*a
^^ concubirtf.

" And here follow the times of Abraham's sons, the one by
Hagar the bond maid, the other by Sarah the free woman,
abont whom we have abeady spoken in the previous book.
As regards this transaction, Abraham is in no way to be
branded as guilty concerning this concubine, for he used
her for the begetting of progeny, not for the gratification of
lust ; and not to insult, but mther to obey his wife, who sup-
posed it woidd be a solace of her barrenness if she could
make use of the fmitful womb of ln^r luiudraaid to supply
the defect of her own nature, and by that law of which

140

THE HTY OF GOD.

[dook XVL

the apostle says, " Likewise also the hnsband hath not power
of Uis own body, but the wife," ^ could, as a wife, make use
of him for childbearing by another, when she could not
do so in her o"ftTi person. Here there is no wanton lust,
no filthy lewdness. The handmaid is delivered to tlie hus-
"band by the M-ife for the sake of progeny, and is received
by the husband for the sake of progeny, each seeking, not
guilty excess, but natural fruit And when the pregnant
bond woman des[»ised lier barren mistress, and Sarali, with
womanly jealousy, rather laid the blame of this on her
husband, even then Abraliani showed that he was not a
slavish lover, but a free begetter of children, and that in.
using Hagar he had guarded the chastity of Sarah his wife,
and had gratified her will and not his own, — had received her
without seeking, had gone in to her without being attached,
had impregnated without lovdng her, — for he says, "Behold
thy maid is in thy hands : do to her as it pleaseth thee ; " ^
a man able to use women as a man should, — his wife tem-
perately, his handmaid compHantly, neither intemperately I

20. OfOod'a atteHation to Ahrahanif ?>y whirh Jfe asntrea him, whrn now old,
of a son hif Ute ftarren Sarah, ami appoints him thf fathrr oj the nationv^
€tad gectU his faith in the promise by the sacramaU oJ circumcision,

Aft^r these things Ishmael was born of Hagar ; and Abraham
might think that in him was fulfilled what God had promised
him, saying, when he wished to adopt Lis home-bora servant,
" Tliis shall not be thine heir ; but he tliat shall come forth
of theo, he sluill be thine heir." ^ Therefore, lest he should
tliinlc that what was promised was fulhlled in the handmaid's
son, "when Abram was ninety years old and nine, God
appeared to him, and said unto him, I am God ; bo well-
pleasing in my sight, and be witliout complaint, and I will
make my covenant between me and thee, and will fill thee
exceedingly." *

Hero there are more distinct promises about the calling of
tlie nations in Isaac, that iSj in the son of the promise, by
which gi-ace is signified, and not nature ; for the son is pro-
mised from an old man and a barren old woman. For

* 1 Cor. vii. 4. ' Con. xvi. 6. ' Gen. xv. 4.

• Gfin. xviL 1-22, The passage ia giren in Ml hy Au-jusliue,

kit xn]

TROfinSE OF A SON BY SARAH.

although God eflects even the natural course of procreation,
yet where the agency of God is manifest, through the deci}'-
or failure of nature, grace is more plainly discerned. And
because this was to be brought about, not by generation, but
by regeneration, circumcision was enjoined now, when a son
waa promised of Sarah. And by oixleri ug lJI, not only sons,
but also home-bom and purchased servants to be circumcised,
he testifies that this grace pertains to all. For what else d(Xis
circumcision signify than a nature renewed on the putting oil*
of the old ? And what else does the eighth day mean than
Christ, who rose again whun the week was completed, that is,
after the Sabbath ? The very names of the parents are
ged: all things proclaim newness, and the new covenant
shadowed forth in the old Por what does the terra old
venant imply hut iha conceiding of the new ? And wimt
the term new covenant imply but the revealing of the
T The lau|rhter of Abraham is the exultation of one who
rejoices, not the scornful laughter of one who mistrusts. And
those words of his in his heart, " Shall a son be bom to me
that am an hundred years old ? and shall Sarah, that is ninety
years old, bear ? " are not the words of doubt, but of M'onder.
And when it is said, " And I will give to thee, and to thy
seed after thee, the land in which thou art a stranger, all the
land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession," if it troubles
any one whether tliia is to be held as fulfilled, or whether its
fulfilment may still be looked for, since no kind of eartlily
sion can be everlasting for any nation whatever^ let him
ow that the word translated everlasting by our writers
what the Greeks term cuwviov, which is derived from atwv,
the Greek for scccuIuvl, an nge. But the Latins have not
ventured to translate this by scadar, lost they should change
e meaning into something widely different. For many
are called secular which so happen in tliis world as to
sway even in a short time ; but what is termed alatviov
er has no end, or lasts to the very end of tills world.

27. Of (he maUy who was to lour hi* soul if lie iroa not circumciiid on the
eighth day, bfcauM he had broken OocTt covenant,

"Wlien it is said, " The male who is not circumcised in the
h of his foreskii], that soul shall be cut ofi" from his people,

142

THE CITY OP GOD.

[dookxvl

because he hath broken my covenant/' ^ some may be troubled
how that ouglit to ha understood, Hince it can be no fault of
the infant whose life it is said m\ist perish; nor has tha
covenant of God been broken by him, but by his parents, who
have not taken core to circumcise him. But even the infanta^
not personally in their own life, but according to the common
origin ot" the human race, have all broken God's covenant in
that outj in whom all have sinned.' Now there are many
things called God's covenants besides those two great ones,
the nhl and tlie new, wliich any cue wlio pleases may read
and know. For the fii*st covenant, which was made with the
first man, is just tliis ; " In the day ye eat thereof, ye shall
surely iJAe"^ Wlience it is written in the book called Eccle-
siosticus, '* All llesL waxetli old as dotli a garment For tlie
covenant from the beginning is, Thou shalt die the death."*
Now, as the law was moi-e plaiidy given afterwaj-d, and the
apostle says, " Where no law is, there is no prevarication,"
on what supposition is what is said in the psalm true, " 1
accounted all the sinners of the earth prevaricators,"* except-
that all who are hdd liable for any sin are accused of deal'
ing deceitfully (prevaricating) with some law ? K on thi^
account, tliun,* even tlie infants are, according to the true b©"
lief, bom in sin, not actual but original, so that we confess
they have need of grace for the remission of sins, certainly it/
must be acknowledged that in the same sense in which tliey
are sinners they arc also prevaricators of that law which was
given in Paradise, acconling to the truth of both scriptures,
" I accoimted all the sinners of the earth prevaricatoi*s," and
" Where no law is, there is no prevarication." And thus, be-
cause circumcision was the sign of regeneration, and the in-
fant, on accoimt of the original sin by which God's covenant
was lii-st biokeUj was not undeservedly to lose liis generation
unless delivered by regeneration, these divine words are to be
imderstood as if it had been said. Whoever is not bom again,
that soul shall perish from liis people, because he bath broken
my covenant, since he also has sinned in Adam with all

^ Gbu. xvit 14.

♦ Ecclus. XV. 17.

*Koni. V. 12, ID.

3 Gtn. iL 17.
' Rom. iv. 15*

' Pa. cxix. 119. Augustine and the Vulgate follow the ItXX

BOOK XVI.]

CHANCE OF ABE.VM'S NAME.

143

others. For had He said, Because he hatli brciken this my
covenant, He would have comjxilled us tti understand by it
only this of circumcision ; but since He has not expressly said
•what covenant the infant has broken, we are free to under-
stand Him as speaking of that covenant of which the breach
can be ascribed to an infant Yet if any one contends that
it is said of nothing else than circmncision, that in it the
infant has broken the covenant of God because he is not cip-
comcised, he must seek some method of explanation by which
it may be understood without absurdity (such as this) that
lie has broken the covenant, because it has been broken in
I him although not by him. Yet in this case also it is to be
observed that the soid of the infant, being guilty of no sin of
oeglect against itself, would perish unjustly, unless original
sin rendered it obnoxious to punishment.

, 2&. Of the change of name in Abraham and Sarnfi, ipho nceived the gift of
^_^ fecunditjf ichen th^y xotre incapable of regeneration otcintf to the barren'
^H itrsa qfonet and the old age qfboth.

^ Now -when a promise so great and clear was made to
Abraham, in whicb it was so plainly said to him, " I have made
thee a father of many nations, and I -will increase thee ex-
ceedingly, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall

I go forth of thee. And 1 will give thee a son of Sarah ; and I
"ffill bless him, and he shall become nations, and kings of
nations shall be of him," ^ — a promise which we now see ful-
filled in Christ, — from that time fonwird this couple are not
called in Scripttire, as formerly, Abrnm and Sarai, but Abra-
hm and Sarali, as we have called them from the first, for
every one does so now. The reason wliy the name of
Abrabam was changed is given : " For," He says, " 1 have
loade thee a father of many nations." Tliis, then, is to be
understood to lie the meaning of Ahrahavi ; but Abram, as he
i^as formerly called, means " exalted fatlier." The reason of
the change of Surah's name is not given ; but as those say
vho have written interpretations of the Hebrew names con-
tained in these books, Sanih means " my princess," and Sarai
ingth." "Whence it is written in the Epistle to the
jbrews, " Tlirough faith also Sarah herself received strength

* Cm. xvii. 5, 0, 16.

144

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xvl

to conceive seed."* For both were old^ as the Scriptare
testifies j but she was also barren, and had ceased to men-
struate, 80 that she could no longer bear children even if she
had not been barren. Further, if a woman is advanced in
years, yet still retains tlie c^istom of women, she can l*ear
cliildren to a young man, but not to an old man, although that
same old man can beget, but only of a young woman ; as
after Sarah's death Abraham could of Keturali, because he
met with her in her lively age. This, then, is what the
apostle mentions as wonderful, saying, besides, that Abraliam's
body was now dead ; ^ because at that age he was no longer
able to beget cliildren of any woman who retained now only
a smftll jiurL of her natural vigour. Of com'se we must under-
stand that his body was dead only to some purposes, not to
all ; for ii' it was so to all, it would no longer be the aged
body of a living nian, but tlie corpse of a dead one. Al-
though that question, how Abraham begot children of Keturah,
is usually solved in tliis way, that the gift of begetting which
he received fram the Lonl, remained even after the death of
his wife, yet 1 think that solution of the question which I
liave followed is preferable, because, although in our days an
old man of a hundred years can beget cliildren of no woman,
it was not so then, w heJi men still lived so long tliat a hundred
years did not yet bring on them the decrepitude of old age.

29. Of Hit tJtree men or arifjeU, in whom the Lord is rtlated to have appeared
to Abraham at the oai qfMamre.

God appeared again to Abraham at the oak of Manire in
three men, who it is not to be doubted were angels, although
some think that one of tlicm was Christ, and assert that Ho
was visible before He put on flesh. Now it belongs to the
divine power, and invisildo, incorporeal, and incommutable
nature, without changing itself at all, to appear even to mortal
men, not by what it is, but by what is subject to it. And
what is not subject to it ? Yet if they try to establish that
one of these tliree was Christ by the fact tliat, although he
saw tlu-ee, he addressed the Lord in the singular, as it ia
%mtten, " Aiid, lo, three men stood by liira i and, when he
saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent-door, and wor-

iHeUxi. 11. Mleb. xi. 12.

»0K xvl] appearakce of angels to abram.

shipped toward the ground, and said, Lord, if I have found
rour before thee," * etc. ; why do they not advert to this
», that when two of them came to destroy the So<:lomites,
die Abraham still spoke to one, calling him Lord, and in-
ceding that he would not destroy the righteous along with
wicked in 8odom, Lot received these two in such a way
that he too in his convei'sation with them addressed the Lord
the singular ? For after saying to them in the plural,
lold, my lords^ turn aside into your servant's house,"* etc.,
it is afterwards said, " And the angels laid hold upon his
id, and the hand of his wife, and the hands of his two
daughters, because the Lord was merciful unto him. And it
came to pass, whenever they had led him forth abroad, that
?y said. Save thy life ; look not behind thee, neither stay
in all this region : save thyself in the mountain, lest
be caught. And Lot said nnto them, I pray thee. Lord,
tiij servant hath found grace in thy sight," ^ etc. And
after these words the Loixl nho answered him in the
although He was in two angels, saying, " Sec, I have
accepted thy face,"* etc. This makes it much more credible tliat
Abraham in the three men and Lot in the two recognised
Lord, addressing Him in the singular number, even when
were addressing men ; for they received them as they did
ff no other reason Uian that tlicy might minister Imman refec-
to them as men who needed it. Yet there was about them
lething so excellent, that those who showed them hospi-
Ity as men coidd not doubt tliat God was in them as He
ms wont to be in the prophets, and therefore sometimes
addressed them in the plural, and sometimes God in them in
the singular. But that tlicy were angels the Scripture
testifies, not only in this book of Genesis, in wliich these
transactions are relat<^d, but alHo in the Epistle to the Hebrews,
where in praising hospitality it is said, " For thereby some
have entertained angels unawares."* By these three men,
then, when a son Isaac was again promised to Abraham by
Sarah, such a divine oracle was also given that it was said,
^Abraham shall become a great and numerous nation, and all

3 GoL xht. 16-18.

> Gen. xviii. 2, 3.
*GeiL xix. 21.

you u.

• Gen. xix. 2.

* Ufib. xiii 2.

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XVt

the nationa of the earth shall be blessed in him."^ And here
these t^vo thijigs are promised "with the utmost brevity and
fulness, — the ration of Israel according to the flesh, and all
nations according to faith.

30. Of LoCa deliverance from Sodom, and its consumption hyfirr.from heaven ;

and qfAbimelecht wftose lust could not /larm SarafCt chcutUtf.

After this promise Lot was delivered out of Sodom, and a
fiery rain from heaven turned into ashes that whole region of
the impious city, where custom had made sodomy as prevalent
as laws have elsewhere made other kinds of wickedness. But
this punishment of theii-s was a specimen of the dinne judg-
ment to come. For what is meant by the angels forbidding
those who were delivered to look back, but that we axe not
to look back in heart to the old life which, being regenerated
through grace, we have put off, if we think to escape the last i
judgment ? Lot's wife, indeed, when she looked back, re- |
mained, and, being tiu-ned into salt, furnished to belie^^ng
men a condiment by wJiich to savour somewhat the warning
to be drawn from that example. Then Abraham did again
at Gerar, with Abimelech the king of that city, what he had
done in Egj-pt about his wife, and received her back iin- i
touched in the same way. On this occasion, when the king
rebuked Abraham for not saying she was his wife, and calling
lier his sister, he explained what he had been afraid of, and
added this further, "And yet indeed she is my sister by the
father's side, but not by the mother's ; " ^ for she was Abraham's
sister by his own father, and so near of kin. But her beauty
was so great, that even at that advanced age she could be
fallen in love witL

31. 0/ haaCt toAo wan horn according to tJic promiXf tuJiose name vxta givai on

account ofUie laughter of both paratts.

After these things a son was bom to Abraham, according
to God's promise, of Sarah, and was called Isaac, which means
laughter. For his father had laughed when he was promised I
to him, in wondering delight, and Ms mother, when he was
again promised by those three men, had laughed, doubting for
joy ; yet she was blamed by the angel because that laughter, ,
although it was for joy, yet was not full of faith. Afterwards
^ Gen. xvUi 13. * Gen. xi. 12.

■]

ABRAHAM'S SACRTTICE OF ISAAC.

147

^e was confinned in faith by the same angel From this,
then, the boy got his name. For when Isaac was bom and
called by that name, Sarah showed that her laughter was not
that of scornful reproach, but that of joyful praise; for she
said, " God hath made me to laugh, so that eveiy one who
hears will laugh with me." ^ Then in a little T\hile the
bond maid was caat out of the house with her son ; and, accord-
iog to the apostle, these two women signify the old and new
corenants, — Sarah representing that of the Jerusalem which is
above, that is, the city of God.'

3t Of AhraJtanCa obedience and/aithj lehieh were proved by the offering up of
hU ton in sacrific ; and of Sarah's death.

Among other things, of which it would take too long time
mention the whole, Abraham was tempted about the offer-
ing up of his well-belovcd son Isaac, to prove his pious obedi-
ence, and so make it known to the world, not to God. Now
every temptation is not blameworthy ; it may even be praise-
worthy, because it furnishes probation. And, for the most
ptitv the himion mind cannot attain to self-knowledge other-
vise than by making trial of its powers through temptation,
by some kind of experimental and not merely verbal self-in-
tetrogation ; when, if it has acknowledged the gift of God, it
pious, and is consolidated by stedfast grace aud not puffed
by vain boasting. Of coui-se Abraham could never believe
that God delighted in humnn sacriiices; yet when the divine
commandment thundered, it was to be obeyed, not disputed.
Yet Abraham is worthy of praise, because he all along
believed that his son, on being offered up, would rise again ;
for God had said to him, when he was unwilling to fulfil his
wife*s pleasure by casting out the bond maid and her son, " In
Isaac shall thy seed be called." No doubt He then goes on
say, '* And as for the son of this bond woman, I will make
a great nation, because he is tliy seed." ' How then is
it said, " In Isaac shall thy seed be called," when God calls
Ishmael also his seed ? The apostle, in explaining this, says,
"In Isaac shall thy seed be called, that is, they which are the
children of the flesh, these are not the children of God : but

* Gen. xxi. 6.

■ Gen. xxL 12, 18.

QftL ir. 24^2«.

14S THE cmr 0? GOD. [book xvl

the children of the promise are counted for the seed." ^ In
order, then, that the rhildren of the promise may be the seed
of Abraham, they are called in Isaac, that is, are gathered
togf^ther in Clirist by the call of grace. Therefore Uie father,
holding fast from the fii^st the promise which behoved to be
fulfilled tlirough this son "whom God Iiad cuJered him to slay,
did not doubt that he whom he once thought it hopeless he
should ever receive would he restored to him wlien he had
offered him up. It is in this way the passage in the Epistle
to the Hebrews is also to be ;inderstood and explained. " By
faith," he says, " Abraham overcame, wlien tempted about
Isaac: and he who had received tlie promise ofTared up his
only son, to whom it was said. In Isaac shall thy seed be
called : thinking that God was able to raise him up, even
from tlic dcati ; " therefore he has added, " from whence also
he received him in a similitude." * In whose similitude but
His of whom the apostle says, " He that spared not His o\vn
Son, but delivered Him up for us all ? " ^ And on this
account Isaac also himself carried to the place of sacrifice the
wood on which he was to be ofTored up, just as the Lord
Himself earned His own cross. Finally, since Isaac was not
to be slain, after his father was forbidden to smite him, who
was that ram by the offering of whirli that sacrifice was com-
pleted witli tjq^ical blooil ? For when Abraham saw liim, be
was caught by the horns in a thicket. What, then, did he
represent but Jesus, who, before He was offered up, was
cmwried witli thonis by the Jews ?

But let us ratlier hear the divine words spoken through
the angel For the Scripture says, " And Abraham atret^lied
forth his hand to take the knife, tliat he might slay his son.
And the Angel of the Lord called unto liiui from heaven, and
said, Abraham. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay
not tliine hand upon tiie lad, neither Jo thou anything unto
him : for now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not
spared thy beloved son for my sake," * It is said, " N'ow I
know," that is, Now I have made to be known; for God was not
previously ignorant of this. Then, ha^dng offered up that ram

1 Rom. X3t. 7, 8. » Heb. xi. 17-19.

* Bonu Tiii. 32, * Gen. xiii. 10-12.

HOOK XV J.

OP REBECCA.

149

instead of Isaac his son, " Abraham/' as we read, " called the
name of that place The Lord seeth ; as they say this day, In
the mount the Lord Lath appeared" ^ As it is said, " Now I
know/' for Now I have made to be known, so here, " The
Lord sees," for Tlie Lord hath appeared, that is, made Hunself
to be seen. " And the Angel of tlie Lord culled unto Abraham
from heaven the second Lime, saying, By myself have I sworn,
saith the Lord ; because thou hast done this thing, and hast
not spared thy beloved son for my sake ; that in blessing I
Till bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed
13 the stars of heaven, and as the sand whidi is upon the sea-
re ; and thy seed shall possess by inheritance the cities of
adversaries : and in thy seed shall all the nations of the
Cftrth be blessed ; because thou hast obeyed my voice.'* * In
this manner is that promise concerning the calling of the
nations in the seed of Abraham confirmed even by the oath
uf Gud, after tliat bumt-oHering which typified Christ For
He had often promised, but never sworn. And M*hab is the
oath of God, the true and faithful, but a coniirmation of the
liromiae, and a certain reproof to the unbelieving ?

After tliese tilings Saiuh died, in the 127th year of her life,
and the 137tli of her husband; for he was ten years older
tium she, as he lumself says, when a son is promised to him
her : " Shall a son be born to me that am an Inmdi'ed years
? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear ? " ^ Then
lliraham bought a field, in which he buried his wife. And
then, according to Stephen's account, he was settled in that
knd. entering then on actual possession of it, — that is, after
tlie death of his father, who is inferred to have died two years
"ore.

Sa. O/Rthe^ca, the grand'daughter o/Xalior^ vthooi Jtaac took to vjfe.
Isaac married Eebecca, the grand-daughter of Nahor, his
er'a brother, when he was forty years old, that is, in the
140th year of his father's life, three years after his mother's
death. Now when a servant was sent to Mesopotamia by his
&lher to fetch her. and when Abraham said to that scn*ant,
■ Pat thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear
by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the Lord of the earth,
■ Geo. xxii. li. > Geo. xjcii. 1&-1S. » Gen. xvii 17.

150

THE CITY O? GOD.

[book xn.

that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son Isaac of the
daughters of the Canaanites/' ^ what else was pointed out by
this, but that the Lord, the God of heaven, and the Lord of
the earth, was to come in the fleah which was to be derived
from that thigh ? Are these small tokens of the foretold
truth which we see fulfilled in Christ ?

34. What is meant hy Abraham** marrying Kfturah aflcr SaraICa dtaiJk.

What did Abraham mean by marrying Keturah after
Sarah's death ? Fiu be it from us to suspect him of incon-
tinence, especially when he had reached such an age and such
sanctity of faith. Or was he still seelcing to beget children,
though he held fast, with moat approved faith, the promise
of God that his children shoidd be multiplied out of Isaac as
the stars of heaven and the dust of the earth ? And yet, if
Hagai* and Ishmael, as the apostle teaches us, signified the
carnal people of the old covenant, why may not Keturah and
her sons also signify the carnal people who think they belong
to the new covenant ? For botlt arc called both the wives
and the concubines of Abraham ; but Sarah is never called a
concubine (but only a Mife). For when Hagar is given to
Abraham, it is written, " And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar
the Egyptian, her handmaid, after Abram had dwelt ten years
in the laud of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram
to be his wife." ^ And of Ketiirah, whom he took after
SaralVs departure, we read, " Then again Abraham took a
wife, whose name was Keturah." ^ Lo, both are called wives,
yet both are found to have been concubines ; for the Scrip-
ture aft^irwai'd says, " And Abraham gave his whole estate
unto Isaac his son. But unto the sons of his concubines
Abraham gave gifts, and sent them away from his son Isaac,
(while he yet lived.) eastward, unto the east country." * There-
fore the sons of the concubines, that is, the heretics and the
carnal Jews, have some gifts, but do not attain the promised
kingdom ; " For they wluch ure the children of the flesh, these
are not the children of God : but the children of the promise
are counted lor the seed, of wliom it was said, In Isaac shall
thy seed be called." * For I do not see why Keturah, who

1 Oen. xxiT. 2, 3.
* GexL rxv. 5, 0.

' Gen. ivi. 3.
^ Bom. ix. 7, 8.

* G«n. XXV. 1.

BOOK XVT.]

T53ATT AND JACOB.

was married after the Avife's death, should be called a concu-
bine, except on account of this mystery. But if any one is
unwilling to put such meanings on these tilings, he need not
calumniate Abraham. For what if even this was provided
against the heretics who were to be the opponents of eecond
marriages, so that it might be shown that it was no sin in the
case of the father of many nations himself, when, after his
wife's death, he married again ? And Abraham died when
he was 175 years old, so that he left his son Isaac seventy-
five years old, having begotten him when 100 years old.

35. What i£a« indicated hy ike divine answer ahottt the Itcins still shtU up in the
wovU> qf B^teca their mother.

Let US now see how the times of the city of God run on
)m this point among Abraliam's descendants. In the time
from the first year of Isaac's life to the seventieth, when his
sons were bom, the only memorable thing is, that when he
iyed God that his wife, who was l>arren, might bear, and
Lord granted what he sought, and she conceived, the
twins leapt while still enclosed in her womb. And when she
Was troubled by tliis struggle, and inquired of the Lord, she
loceived this answer : " Two nations are in thy womb, and two
manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the
one people shall overcome the other people, and the elder
shall serve the younger." ' The Apostle Paul would have us
miderstand this as a great instance of grace; * for the children
fceing not yet bom, neither having done any good or evil, the
younger is chosen without any good desert, and the elder is
Injected, when beyond doubt, as regards original sin, both
▼ere alike, and as reganls actual sin, neither had any. But
tile plan of the work on hand does not permit me to speak
itore fully of this matter now, and I have said much about it
to other works. Only that saying, " The elder shall Rerve the
ytonger," is understood by our writers, almost without excep-
tion, to mean that the elder people, the Jews, slmll serve the
ywinger people, the Christinns. And tndy, although this
nught seem to be fulfilled in the Idumaan nation, which was
Wn of the elder (who had two names, being called both Esau
Mid Edom, whence the name Idumeans), because it was nfter-
' Gen. XXV. 23. * Konu ix. 10-13.

152

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XVI.

wards to be overcome by the people which sprang from the
younger, that is, by the Israelites, and was to become sub*
ject to them ; yeb it is mure suitable to believe that, when it
was said, " The one people shall overcome the other people,
and the elder sliall serve the younrrer" that prophecy meant
some greater thing ; and what is that except what is evidently
fidfilled in the Jews and Christians ?

3fl. Oftfit oracU ajtd bk^ting trhich Iitaac received, jutt as hie father did, ht^ff

btlortdfor Aw take.

Isaac also received such an oracle as his father had often
received. Of this oracle it is thus written : " And tliere was
a famine over the land, beside the first famine that was in
the days of Abraham, And Isaac wont unto Abimelech
king of the Philistines unto Gerar. And the Lord ajipeared
uutu him, and saitl, Go not down into Egypt; but dwell in
the land wliich I shall tell thee of And abide in this land.
and I will be with thee, and will bless thee : unto thee and
unto thy seed I will gi\e all tliis land ; and I will establish
miue oath, which I sware unto Abraham thy fatliei* : and I
will nmltiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and will give
unto thy seed till tlus laud ; aud in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed ; because that Abraham thy
father obeyed my voice, and kept my precepts, my conimapd-
juents, my righteousness, and my laws." ^ This patriarch
neither had another wife, nor any concubine, but waa content
with the twin-children begotten by one act of generation.
He also was afraid, when he lived antong 8trangei*3, of bein*^
brought into danger owing to the beauty of his wife, and did
like ids father in calling her his sister, and not telling that
she was his wife ; for she was his near blood-relation by the
father's and mother's side. She also remained untouched by
the strangers, when it was known she was his wife. Yet we
ought not to picfer liim to his father because he kuew no
woman besides Ids one wife. For beyond doubt the merits
of his father's faith aud obedience were gi'eater, inasmuch as
God says it is for his sake He does Isaac good : " In thy seed/'
He says, " shall all the nations of the eoi'tL be blessed, because
that Abraham thy father obeyed my voice, and kept my pre-
* Geu. xxvi, 1-5.

x\t] things t^tified by esau and jacob.

153

^^&

ts, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws." And
ill in another oracle He says, " I am the God of Abraham
thy father : fear not, for I am with thee, and will Mess thee,
and multiply thy seed for my senant Abraliam's sake." " So
Ihat we must imderstand how chastely Abrahani acted, be-
cause imprudent men, who seek some support for their own
•wickedness in the Holy Scriptures, think he acted through
lust We may also learn this, not to compare men by single
good things, but to consider evorytliing in each ; for it may
happen that one man has sometliing in his life and clmracter
in vhich he excels another, and it may be far more excellent
Ihan that in which the other excels him. And thus, accord-
ing to sound and Lruc jud^mient, while continence is prefer-
able to maiTiage, yet a believing mamed man is better than
a continent unbeliever ; for the unbeliever is not only less
praiseworthy, but is even highly detestable. We must con-
clude, then, that both are good ; yet so as to hold that the
ttftiried man who is most faithful and most obedient is cer-
Uinly better than the continent man -whose faith and obedience
are less. But if equal in other things, who would hesitate to
prefer the continent man tu the mai'ried ?

37. Oftlie things mysticaUtj prfjigured in Eiau and Jacob.

Isaac's two sons, Esau and Jacob, grew up together. The
{timacy of the elder was transferred to the younger by a
bargain and agreement between them, when the elder im-
Sioderately lusted after tlic lentiles the younger liad pre-
pared for food, and for that price sold his birthright to him,
confirming it witli an oath. Wc learn from this that a per-
son is to lie blamed, not for the kind of food he eats, but for
immoderate greed. Isaac grew old, and old age deprived him
of his eyesight. He wished to bless the elder sou, and
instead of the elder, who was hairy, unwittingly blessed the
;er, who put himself under his father's hands, having
covered himself with kid-skins, as if bearing the sins of others.
Lest we shoidd think this guile oi Jacob's was fraudulent
guile, instead of seekin^r in it the mystery of a great tlung,
the Scripture has predicted in the words just before, " Esau

1 Gen. xxri. 24.

^insteat
^pbungi
^covere

154 THE CITY OP GOD. [BOOK XTT.

was a cunning hunter, a man of the field ; and Jacob -was a
simple man, dwelling at home." ^ Some of our writers have
interpreted this, " without guile." But whether the Greek
aTrX/wTo? means " without guile," or " simple," or rather
" without feigning," in the receiving of that blessing what is
the guile of the man without guile ? What is the guile of
the simple, what the fiction of the man who does not lie, but
a profound mystery of the truth ? But what is the blessing
itself ? " See," he says, " the smell of my son is as the smell
of a full field which the Lord hath blessed : therefore God
give thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fniitfiilness of the
earth, and plenty of corn and wine : let nations serve thee,
and princes adoro thee: and be lord of thy brethren, and let thy
father's sons adore thee : cursed be he that curseth thee, and
blessed be he that blesseth thee." ' The blessing of Jacob is
therefore a prockmation of Christ to all nations. It is this
which has come to pass, and is now being fulfilled Isaac is
the law and tlie prophecy : even by the moutli of the Jews
Christ is blessed by prophecy as by one who knows not, because
it is itself not understood. The world like a field is fiDed
with the odour of Christ's name ; His is the blessing of the dew
of heaven, that is, of the showers of divine words ; and of
the fruitfulneas of the earth, that is, of the gathering together
of the peoples : His is the plenty of com and wine, that is,
the multitude that gathers bread and wine in the sacrament of
His body and blood. Him the nations serve, Him princes
adore. He is the Lord of His brethren, because His people
rules over the Jews. Him His Father's sons adore, that is,
the sons of Abraham according to faith ; for He Himself is
the son of Abraham according to the flesh. He is cursed
that curseth Hirn, and he that blesseth Him is blessed.
Christ, I say, who is ours is blessed, that is, truly spoken of out
of the mouths of the Jews, when, although erring, they yet
sing the law and the prophets, and thinlv they are blessing
another for whom tliey erringly hope. So, when the elder
son claims the promised blessing, Isaac is greatly afraid, and
wonders when he knows that he has blessed one instead of the
other, and demands who he is ; yet he does not complain that
* Gen. XXV. 27. " Gen. xxvii 27-26.

(OK XVI.] JACOBUS JOUKTEY TO MESOPOTAMIA.

155

lie has been deceived, yea, when the great mystery is re-
vealed to him, in his secret heart he at once eschews anger,
and confirms the blessing. " Who then," lie says, " hath
hunted me venison, and broiight it me, and I have eaten of
all iKifore thou earnest, and hiive blessed him, and he shall be
blessed ? " ^ "Wlio would not rather have expected the curse
of an angry man here, if these things had been done in an
earthly manner, and not by inspiration from above ? 0
things done, yet done propiieticidly ; on the earth, yet celes-
tially ; by men, yet di\'inely ! If everything that is fertOe of
scgreat mysteries should be examined rareiully, many volumes
would be filled ; but the moderate compass fixed for this work
compels us to hasten to other things.

88. of Jacob'* mUftion to MeAopotamia to Qtl a wife, and of the vUion wfdck he
saw m a drram hy the way, and of Jiu gttting four voomexi when he
9ougH (m« vnft.

Jacob was sent by liis parents to Jlesopotamia that he
might take a wife there. These were his father's words on
sending him : " Tliou shalt not take a wife of the daughters
of the Canaanites. Arise, fly to Mesopotamia, to the house of
Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee a wife from thence
of the daughters of Laban thy mother's brother. And my
God bless thee, and increase thee, and multiply thee ; and
thou shalt be an assembly of peoples ; and give to thee the
blessing of Abraham thy father, and to thy seed after thee ;
that thou mayest inherit the land wherein thou dwellest,
which God gave unto Abraham." * Now we understand here
that the seed of Jacob is separated from Isaac's other seed
which came through Esau. For when it is said, " In Isaac
shall thy seed be called," ^ by this seed is meant solely the
city of God ; so that from it is separated Abraham's other
seed, which was in the son of the bond woman, and which was
to be in the sons of Keturah. But until now it had been
uncertain regartling Isaac's twin-sons whether that blessing
belonged to both or only to one of them ; and if to one,
which of them it was. Tliis is now declared when Jacob is
prophetically blessed by his father, and it is said to him,

' Gen. xxriii. 1*4.

> Gen. xxrii. 33.
•Oen. xxi, 12.

156

TTTE Cmr OF COD.

[BOOK XVt.

" Aiid tliou sholt be an assembly of peuplos, and God give to
thee the blessing of Abmhani thy father."

AVhcn Jacob was going to Mesopotamia, he received in a
dream an oracle, of which it is thus written: " And Jacob went
out from the well of the oath,' and went to llaron. And he caine
to a place, and slept there, for the sun was set; and he took of
the stones of the place, and put them at his liead, and slept in
that place, and dreamed. And behold a ladder set up on tie
earth, and the top of it reached to heaven ; and the angels of
God ascended and descended by it. And the Lord, stood
above it, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father, and
the God of Isaac ; fear not : the land wliereon thou slcepest,
to thee will I give it, aud to thy seed ; and thy seed shall be
as the dust of the earth ; and it shall be spread abroad to the
sea, aud to Africa, aud to the norths and to the east : and all
the tribes of the earth shall be blessed in thee and in thy
seed. And, behold, I am with thee, to keep thee in all tliy
way wherever thou goest, aud I will bring thee back into
this land ; for I will not leave thee, until I liave done all
which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awoke out of
his sleep, and said, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I
knew it not. And he M'as afraid, and said. How dreadful is
this place ! this is nouo other but the house of God, aud this
is the gate of heaven. And Jacob arose, and took the stone
that he had put under his head there, and set it up for a
memoria!, and poured oil upon the top of it And Jacob
called the name of that place the house of God." ^ This is
prophetic. For Jacob did not pour oil on the stone in an
idolatrous way, as if making it a god ; neither did he adore
that stone, or sacrifice to it. " But since the name of Chi-ist
comes from the chrism or anointing, something pertiuning to
the great mystery was certainly represented in this. And
the Saviour Himself is understood to bring this latter to
remembrance in the gospelj when lie says of Nathanael,
" Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile ! " ^ because
Israel who saw this vision is no other than Jacob. And in
the same place He says, " Verily, verily, I say unto you. Ye

' BecT-sIiela. * G«]i. zxviii. 10-19.

^ Joha u il, 61.

BOOK XVI.]

.TACOB C.VLLTIT) ISRAEL.

157

sbnll see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and
descending upon the iSon of man;'

Jacob went on to Mesopotamia to take a wife from thenca
And the divine Scripture points out how, without unlaw-
fully desiring any of them, he came to have four women, of
whom he begat twelve sons and one daughter ; for he had
come to take only one. But when one was falsely given liim
in place of the other, he did not send her away after un-
wittingly using her in the uiglit, lest he should seiim to have
ut her to shame ; but as at that time, in order to multiply

terity, no law forbade a ]tlurality of wives, he took her olao

whom alone he had promised marriage. As she was barren,
she gave her handmaid to her husband that she might have
children by her ; and her elder sister did the same thing in
imitation of her, although she had home, because she desired
to multiply progeny. We do not read tliat Jacob sought any
but one, or that he used many, except for the purpose of be-
getting offspring, saving conjugal rights; and he would not

,ve done tliis, had not his wives, who had legitimate power
their own husband's body, urged him to do it. i^o he
t twelve sons and one daughter by four women. Tbtiu
he entei-cd into Egypt by his son Joseph, who was sold by his
brethren for envy, and carried there, and who was there exalted.

Sd. The reaeon why Jacob xoaa also ccUled laraeL

As I said a httle ago. Jacob was also called Israel, the
name which was most prevalent among the people descended
from him- Now this name was given him by the angel
-who wrestled witli liim on tlie way back from Mesopotamia,
find who was most evidently a type of Christ. For wlien
Jacob overcame him, doubtless with his own consent, that the
mystciy might be represented, it signified Christ's pnssion, in
vhich the Jews are seen overcoming Him. And yet he
'besought a blessing from the very angel he had overcome ; and
80 Uic imposition of tins name was the blessing. For Israel
means serint; God} which will at last bo the reward of all the
saints. The angel also touched him on the breadth of the

' Gen. xxxii. 28 : Israel = " a prince of God ; " Tcr. 30 : Peoicl » "the fac«
God."

158

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XTl

thigh when he was overcoming him, and in that waj made
him lame. So that Jacob was at one and the same tine
blessed and lame : blessed in those among that people wlio
believed in Christ, and lame in the unbelieving. For the
breadth of the thigh is the multitude of the family. For there
are many of that race of whom it was prophetically said before-
hand, *' And they have halted in their paths." *

40. How U u said thai Jacob loent into Egypt vsiih seventy-five 40u2i, wXm fooH
of those who are mruthned werr bom at a later period.

Seventy-five men are reported to have entered Egypt nJong
with Jacob, coimting him with his children. In this number
only two women are mentioned, one a daughter, the other a
grand-daughter. But when the thing is carefully considered,
it does not appear that Jacob's offspring was so numerous on the
day or year when he entered Egj^it. There ore also included
among them the great-grondtihildrcu of Joseph, who could not
po3.sibly be bom already. For Jacob was then 130 years old,
and his son Joseph thirty-nine ; and as it is plain tiiat he
took a wife when he was thirty or more, how could he in nine
years have greaL-grandchildren by the children whom he had
by that wife ? Now, since Epliraim and Manasseh, the sons
of Joseph, could not even have children, for Jacob found them
boys under nine years old when he entered Egypt, in what
way are not only their sons but their grandsons reckoned
among those seventy-five who then entered Egj^pt with Jacob ? i
For there is reckoned there Machii* the son of Manasseh, grand-
son of Joseph, and Machir's son, that ia, Gilcad, grandson of
Manasseh, great-grandson of Joseph ; there, too, is he whom
Epliraim, Joseph's other son, begot> that is, Shuthelah, grandson
of Joseph, and Shuthelah's son Ezer, grandson of Ephraim,
and great-grandson of Joseph, who could not possibly be in
existence when Jacob came into Egypt, and there found his
grandsons, the sons of Joseph, their grandsires, stUl boys under
nine years of age.' But doubtless, when the Scripture mentions
Jacob's entrance into Egypt with seventy-five souls, it does

* Ps. xviiL 45.

' Augustine here follows the Sephmgint, whicli mt Gen. xlvi. 20 adds theat
namM to thou of Maaoa&eli and Epbraim, and at vet. 27 gives the whole number
OS seventy •live.

BOOK XTL]

THE BLESSDfG OF JTJDAH.

159

not mean one day, or one year, but tliat "whole time as long as
Joseph lived, who "waa the cause of his entrance. For the
flame Scripture speaks thus of Joseph : " And Joseph dwelt
in E^ypt, he and his brethren, and all his father's house : and
Joseph lived 110 years, and saw Ephi*aim's children of the
third generation." ^ That is, his great-grandson, the third from
Ephraim ; for the third generation means son, grandson^ great-
grandson. Then it is added, " The children also of Machir,
the son of Monaaseh, were boni upon Joseph's knees." ' And
this is that grandson of llonasseh, and great-grandson of
Joseph. But the plural umiiber is employed according to
scriptural usage ; for the one daughter of Jacob is spoken of
48 daughters, just as in the usi^e of the Latin tongue liberi is
lued in the plural for children even when there is only one.
Now, when Joseph's o\vn happiness is proclaimed, because he
could see his great-grandchildren, it is by no means to be
thought they already existed in the thirty-ninth year of their
gpeat-grandsire Joseph, when his father Jacob came to him iu
'Egypt But those who diligently look into these things will
the less easily be mistaken, because it is written, " These are
the names of the sons of Israel who entered into Egypt along
-with Jacob their father." ' For this means that the seventy-
re are reckoned along with him, not that they were all with
when he entered Egj-pt ; for, as I have said, the whole
period during which Joseph, who occasioned his entrance, lived,
is held to be the time of that entrance.

Pcod

41. Of the bUasing tohich Jacob promised in Judah his ttm.

If, on account of the Cliristian people in whom the city of
sojourns in the earth, we look for the flesh of Christ in
the seed of Abraham, setting aside the sons of the concubines,
Tre have Isaac ; if in the seed of Isaac, setting aside Esau,
ho is also Edom, we have Jacob, who also is Israel ; if in
e seed of Israel himself, setting aside the rest, we have
Judah. because Christ sprang of the tribe of Judah. Let us
hear, then, how Israel, when dying in Egypt, in blessing his
sons, prophetically blessed JudaL He says : " Judah, thy
brethren shall praise thee : thy hands shall be on the back of
I GeiL L 22. 23. * Gen. 1. 23. • Gen. zItI 8.

160 TPTE aTY OF GOD. [BOOK XVt

thine enemies ; thy father's children shall adore thee. Judah
is a liou's whelp : from the spixjuting, iny son, thou art gone
up : lying down, tliou hast slept as a Yum, and as a lion's
whelp ; Avho shall awake him ? A prince shall not l»e
lacking out of Judah, and a leader from his thighs, until the
things couie that are laid up for him ; and He shall be the
expectation of the nations. Binding his foal unto the vine;
and his ass's foal to the choice vine ; he shall wash liis robe
in \nne, and his clothes in the blood of the gi*ape : his eyes
are red with wine, and his teeth are whiter than niQk." * I
have expounded tliese words in disputing against Faustus tbe
Mauicliffiiin ; and I think it is enough to make the truth of
this prophecy shine, to remark that the death of Clirist is pre-
dicted by the word about his lying down, and not the neces-
sity, but the voluntary cliamcter of His deatli, in the title d
lion. That power He Himself proclaims in the gospel, saying,
" I have the power of lajnng down my life, and I have ihc
power of taking it again. No man taketh it from me ; but I
lay it down of myself, and take it again." * So the lion roared^
so Ho fuliiUed w4iat He said. For to this power what is addetl
about the resurrection refers, '' Who shall aM'ake him ?" Thi^
means that no man but Himself has raised Him, who also^
said of His own body, " Destroy tliis temple, and in three
days I will I'aise it up." * Aud the very nature of His death,
that is, the height of the cross, is understood by the single
word, " Tliou art gone up," The evangelist explains what is
added, " Lyin;:^ down, thou hast slept," when he says, " He
bowed His liead, and gave up the ghost." * Or at least His *
burial is to be imderstood, in which He lay down sleeping,
and whence no man raised Him, as the prophets did some,
and as He Himself did others ; but He Himself rose up as if
from sleep. As for His robe wbich He washes in wine, that
is, cleanses from sin in His own blood, of which blood those
who ore baptized know the mystery, so that be adds, " And
hia clothes in the blood of the grape," wliat is it but the
Church ? " And his eyes are red with wine," [these are] His
spiritual people drunken with His cup, of which the psalm
sings, " And thy cup that makes drunken, how excellent it is !'*
^ Gen. xluL &-12. * John x. 18. 3 joim ii. 19. * John xix. 80.

Tire BLESsncG OF Joseph's soxs.

161

" And his teeth are whiter than milk," ^ — that is, the nuti-itive
wonb which, according to the apostle, the babes drink, being
as yet nnfit for solid food.' And it is He in whom the pro-
mises of Judah were laid up, so that until they come, princes,
that is, the kings of Israel, shall never be lacking out of Judah.
*" And He is the expectation of the nations." This is too plain
to need exposition.

42. Of the 9ons i^Jostpli, whom Jacob hlcMtd, prophetically changing hu hands.

Now, as Isaac's two sons. Esau and Jacob, furnished a type
of the two people, tlie Jews and tlie Cliristians (although
as pertains to carnal descent it was not the Jews but the
Idumeans who camo of the seed of Esau, nor the Christian
nations but rather the Jews who came of JacoKs ; for the type
holds only as regards Uie saying, " Tlie elder shall sen'e tlie
younger""), so the same thing happened in Joseph's two sons ;
for the elder was a type of the Jews, and the younger of the
Christians. Tor when Jacob was blessing them, and laid his
right hand on the younger, who was at his left^ and his left
hand on the elder, who was at his right, this seemed wrong to
iheir father, and he admonished his father by trying to r.nrrect
liis mistake and show him which was the elder. But he
would not change his hands, but said^ " 1 know, my son, I
know. He nlso shall become a people, and he also shall be
exalted ; but his younger brother shall be gi-eator than he, and
Lis seed shall become a midtitude of nations."* And these
two promises show the same thing. For that one is to become
"' a people ;" this one " a multitude of nations." And what can
be more evident than that these two projnises comprehend the
people of Israel, and the whole world of Abraham's seed, the
one according to tlie flesh, the otlier according to faith ?

43. O/tke tima of Mosat and Joshua the »on o/iVifn, of the judges^ and tharf-

a/ier qf the tiiif/s, 0/ whoiA Saul was tlie Jint^ but' David it to he. rt'
garded a» tJu cJueff botik by tiie oath and by merit.

Jacob being dead, and Joseph also, during the remaining
144 years until they went out of the land of i*^gypt that
nation increased to an incredible degree, even although wasted

»Geii. xlix, 12.
* Gen. xxT. 23.
VOU H.

= 1 Pet. ii. 2 ; 1 Cor. iii 2,
« G«iL xlviiL 19.

JEi

162

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XTT.

hy so great persecutions, that at one time the male cliilch'eii
were murdeied at their birth, because the wonderiug Egyptians
were terrified at the too great increase of that people. Then
Moses, being stealthily kept from the murderers of the infants,
was brought to the royal house, God preparing to do great
things hy him, and was nursed and adopted by the daughter
of Pharaoh (that was the name of all the kings of Egypt), and
became so great a man that he — yea, rather God, who had pro-:
mised this to Abraham, by him^-drew tliat nation, so wonder-
fully multiplied, out of the yoke of hardest and most grievous
ser\'itude it had bomo there. At first, indeed, he fled thence
(we are told he fed into the land of Midian), because, in
defending an Israelite, lie had slain an Egyptian, and was
afraid. Afterward^ being divinely commissioned in the power
of the Spirit of God, he overcame the magi of Pharaoh who
resisted hinu Then, when the Egyptians would not let Cirod's
people go, ten memorable plagues were bi-ought by Hiiu upon
them, — the water turned into blood, the frogs and lice, the flies,
the death of the cattle, the boiLs, the hail, the locusts, the
darkness, the death of the first-bora At last the Egyptians
were destroyed in tlie Red Sea while pursuing the Israelites,
whom they had let go when at length they were broken by
80 many great plagues. The divided sea made a way for the
Israelites who were departing, but, returning on itself, it over-
whelmed their pursuers with its waves. Then for forty years
the people of God went through the desert, under the leader-
ship of Moses, when the tibernacle of testimony Avas dedicated,
in which God was worshipped by sacrifices prophetic of things
to come, and that was after the kw Imd been very tei-ribly
given in the moimt, for its divinity was most plainly attested
by wonderful signs and voices. This took place soon after the
exodus from Egypt, when the people had entered the desert,
on tho fiftieth day after the passover was celebrated by the
offering up of a lamb, which is so completely a t}'pe of Christ,
foretelling that through His sacrificial passion He should go
fr'om this world to the Father (for pasclia in the Hebrew
tongue means tratisit), that when the new covenant was
revealed, after Christ our passover was offered up, the Holy
Spirit came from heaven on the fiftieth day ; and He is called

eookxvl]

MOSES AND JOSHUA.

163

in the gospel the Finger of God, because He recalls to our
lomembtazLce the things done before by way of types, and
becaose the tables of that law are said to Lave been written
by the finger of God.

On the death of Moses, Joshiia the son of Nun mled the
people, and led tliem into the laud of promise, and divided it
among them. By these two wonderful leaders wars were aleo
carried on most prosperously and wonderfully, God calling to
vitness that they had got these victories not so much on
account of the merit of the Hebrew people as on account of
the sins of the nations they subdued. After these leaders
there were judges, when the people were settled in the land of
promise, so that, in the meantime, the first promise made to
Abraham began to be fulMed about the one nation, that is,
the Hebrew, and about the land of Canaan ; but not as yet
the promise about all nations, and the whole wide world, for
that was to be fulfilled, not by the observances of the old law,
but by the advent of Christ iu the flesh, and by the faith of the
gospeL And it was to prefigure this that it was not Moses,
who received the law for the people on Mount Sinai, that led
the people into the land of promise, but Joshua, whose name
also was changed at God's conmiand, so that he was called
Jesus. But in the times of the judges prosperity alternated
with adversity in war, according as the sins of the people and
the mercy of God were displayed.

We come next to the times of the kings. The first who
reigned was Saul ; and when he was rejected and laid low in
battle, and his offspring rejected so that no kings should arise
oat of it, DaWd succeeded to the kingdom, whose son Christ
is chiefly called. He was made a kind of starting-point and
beginning of the advanced youth of God*s people, who had
passed a kind of age of puberty from Abraliam to this David.
And it is not in vain that the evangelist Matthew records the
generations in such a way as to sum up this first period from
Abraham to David in fourteen generations. For from the age
of puberty man begins to be capable of generation ; therefore
he starts the list of generations from Abraham, who also was
made the father of many nations when he got his name
changed. So that previously tlm family of God's people was

164

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book

ill its chiklliood, from Noah to Abraham ; and for that reason
the firafc ]angimgo was then leaniod, that is, the Hebrew. Toi
man begins to speak in childhood, the age succeeding infancy,
which is 80 tunned because then he cannot speak.* And
that first age is quite drowned in oblivion, just as the first age
of the human race was blotted out by the flood ; for who is
there that can remember his infancy ? Wherefore in tlii*
progress of tlio city of God, as the prc\'ion9 book contained
that first age, so this one ouglit to contain the second and
third ages, in which third ngc, as was shown by the heifer of
three years old» the she-goat of tliree years old, and the ram
of three years old, the yoke of the law was imposed, and there
appeared abundance of sins, and the beginning of the earth!)'
kingdom arose, in which there were not lacking spiritual men,
of whom the turtle-dove and pigeon represented the mystery-
* Ir^attt, from in, not. And /ari, to speak.

THE PROPffETS.

EOOK SEVENTEENTH.

ARGUMENT.

IS THIS BOOK TUE UlSTORT OF THE CITY OP GOD la TIUCED DURIKO THE PERIOD
OPTHB KIXGft AND PROPHETS yuOil SAMUEL TO DAVID, KVUN TO CHRIST ;
^H A\D THE PROPnECIKa WHICH ARE RECOEDED I\ TllK BOOKA OF RiKGJt,

^H ItfALMS, AXD THOSE 07 flOLOMOX, AlLE INTERPRJtTED OF CHUIST AKD THE

^H I. Of tht proptvciic agt,

r "DY the favoiir of God we have treated distinctly of His
JLf promises mado to Abraham, that botli the nation of
Israel according to the flesh, and all nations according to faitli,
should be Ills seed, and the City of God, proceeding according
to the order of time, will point * out how they were fulfilled.
Having therefore in the previous book come down t^:* the reign
of David, we shall now treat of what remains, so far as may
seem sufficient for the object of this work, beginning at tlie
same reign. Now, from the time when holy Samuel began to
prophesy, and ever onward until the people of Israel was led
captive into Babylonia, and until, acconltng to the prophecy
of holy Jeremiah, on Israel's return thence after seventy years,
the house of God was built anew, this whole period is the
prophetic age. For although both the patriarch Noah him-
self, in whose days the whtde earth was destroyed by tlie
flixxl, and others before and after him down to this time when
there began to be kings over the people of God, may not un-
deservedly be styled prophets, on account of certain things
pertaining to the city of God and the kingdom of heaven,
which they either predicted or in any way signified should
come to puss, and especially since we i-ead that some of them,
as Abraham and Moses, were expressly so styled, yet those
are most and chiefly called the days of the prophets from tlie
lime when Samuel began to prophesy, who at God's command
first anointed Saul to be king, and, on his rejection, David
himself, whom others of his issue should succeed as long as it

* **Ha.*i poinlcU."

166

THE CITY OP GOD.

[book xvil

waa fitting tbey should do so. If^ therefore, I wished to re-
hearse all that the prophets have predicted concermng Christ,
while the city of God, with iU members dying and being bom
in constant succession, ran its course through those times, this
work w^ould extend beyond all bounds. First, because the
Scripture itself, even when, in treating in order of the kings
and of their deeds and the events of their reigns, it seems to
be occupied in narrating as with historical diligence the affairs
transacted, will be found, if the tilings handled by it are con-
sidered with the aid of the Spirit of God, either more, or
certainly not less, intent on foretelling things to come than on
relating things past. And who that thinks even a little about
it does not know liow laborious and prolix a work it would be,
and how many volumes it would require to search this out by
thorough investigation and demonstrate it by argument ? And
then, because of that which without dispute pertains to pro-
phecy, there are so many things concerning Christ and the
kingdom of heaven, wliich is the city of God, that to explain
these a larger discussion would be necessary than the due pro-
portion of this work admits of. Therefore I shall, if I can, so
limit myself, that in carrjnng through this work, I may, with
Grod's help, neither say what is superfluous nor omit what is
necessary.

fi. At what time the promise of Ood teas fvlJiOfd concrrmnff the land t^ Canaan,
which evt» carnal Israel got in posaesshn.

In the preceding book we said, that in the promise of God
to Abraham two things were promised from the beginning,
the one, namely, that his seed should possess the land of
Canaan, which was intimated when it was said, " Go into a
land that I ^viD show thee, and I will make of thee a great
nation ; " ^ but the other far more excellent, concerning not
the carnal but the spiritual seed, by which he is the father,
not of the one nation of Israel, but of all nations who follow
the footsteps of his faith, which began to be promised in these
words, " And in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."*
And thereafter we showed by yet many other proofs that these
two things were promised. Therefore the seed of Abraham,
that is, the people of Israel according to the flesh, already was

Geii. xil 1, 2.

* Gen. xxi 3.

BOOK XTIT.]

TITE PROSnSED LAKD.

in the land of promise ; and there, not only by holding and
possessing the cities of the enemies, but also by having kings,
had already begtm to reign, the promises of God concerning
that people being already in great part fulfilled : not only
those that were made to those three fatiiers, Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, and whatever others were made in their times, but
those also that were made tlirongh Moses himself, by whom
the same people was set free from servitude in Egypt, and by
whom ail by^ione things were revealed in his-times, when he
led the people through the wilderae^s. But neither by the
illustrious leader Jesus the son of Nun, who led that people
into the land of promise, and, after driving out the nations,
diWded it among the twelve tribes according to God's com-
mand, and died ; nor after him, in the whole time of the
judges, was the promise of God concerning the land of Canaan
fuliiUed, that it should extend from some river of Egypt even
to the great river Euphrates ; nor yet was it still prophesied as
to come, but its fulfilment was expected. And it was fulfilled
through David, and Solomon his son, whose kingdom was ex-
tended over the whole promised space ; for they subdued all
those nations, and made them tributary. And thus, under
those kings, the seed of Abraham was established in tlie land
of promise according to the flesh, that is, in the land of Canaan,
so that nothing yet remained to the complete fulfilment of
that eartldy promise of God, except that, so far as pertains to
temporal prosperity, the Hebrew nation should remain in the
same land by the succeasion of posterity in an imshaken state
even to the end of this mortal age, if it obeyed the laws of the
Lord its God. But since God knew it would not do this. He
used His temporal pumshments also for training His few
faithful ones in it, and for giving needful warning to those
who should afterwards be in all nations, in whom the other
promise, revealed in the New Testament, was about to be
fulfilled through the incarnution of Christ.

8. Of the thrffoM meaniiirj of thf prophfcifjn, u-AJcA arr (o he rt^erreJ now (o
the earViljf, now to the heavathj Jerusalcnh ond now again to both.

Wherefore just as that divine oracle to Abraham, Isaac, and
facob, and all the other prophetic signs or sayings which are
Lven in the eox'lier sacred writings^ so also the other prophe-

168

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XVII.

cies from this time of the kings pertain partly to the nntion
of Abraham's flesh, and partly to that seed of his in which sll
nations are blessed as fellow-heirs of Christ by the New Testft-
ment, to the possessing of eternal life and the kingdom of the
heavens. Therefore they pertain partly to the bond maid who
gendereth to bondage, that is, the eartlily Jerusalem, which is
in bondage with her children; but partly to the free city of
God, that is, the tnie Jerusalem eternal in the heavens, whoso
children are all those that live according to God in the earth:
but there arc some things among them which are understood
ti> pertain to both, — to the bond maid properly, to the free
woman liguratively.^

Therefore prophetic utterances of tliree kinds are to he
found ; forasmuch as there are some relating to the earthly
Jenisttlom, some to the heavenly, and some to boLk I think
it proper to prove what I say by examples. The prophet
Nathan was sent to convict king David of heinous sin, and
l)rcdict to him what future evils should he consequent on it
Who cun cpiestiou that this and the like pertain to the terres-
trial city, whether publicly, that is, for the safety or help ^
tlie people, or privately, when thci-o are given forth for eacl>
onc*3 private good divine utterances whereby something o*
the future muy be known for the use of temporal life ? ^^^
where we read, " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that -^
wUl make for the house of Israel, and for the house of Judah «^
a new testament : not according to the testament that I settlec^
for their fathers in the day when I laid hold of their hand t<F
lead them out of the land of Egypt ; because they continued
not in my testament, and I regarded .them not, saith the
Lord. For this is the testament that I will make for the
house of Ismel : after those days, saith the Lord, I will give
my laws in their mind, and will write them upon their hearts,
and I will see to them ; and I will be to them a God, and
they shall be to me a people;"* — without doubt this is pro-
phesied to the Jerusalem above, whose reward is God Him-
self, and "vvhoge chief and entire good it is to have Him, and
to bo His. But this pertains to both, that the city of
God is called Jerusalem, and that it is prophesied the house
" GaL ir. 22-31. « JUb. v;ii. 8-10.

Xm.] THREEFOLD KEFEKEXCE OF PROPHKCT.

169

of God shall be in it ; and tliis prophecy seems to be fullillecl
when king Solomon buihls that most noble temple. Por
these things both happened in the earthly Jemsalem, as history
shows, and were types of the heavenly Jerusalem, And this
kind of prophecy, as it wore compacted and commingled of
both the others in the ancient canonical books, cuntainint;
historicfiJ narratives, is of very great significance, and has exer-
cised and exercises greatly the wits of those who search holy
writ For example, what we read of historically as predicted
and fulfilled in the seed of Abraham accoixiing to the flesh,
we must also inquire the allegorical meaning of, as it is "to be
fiilfilled ia the seed of Abraliam according to faith. And so
much ia this the case, that some have thought there is nothinj?
in these books either foretold and effected, or effected although
not foretold, that does not insinuate something else which is
to be referred by figurative signification to the city of God on
high, and to her children who are pilgrims in this life. But
if tliis be so, then the utterances of the prophets, or rather the
whole of those Scriptures that are reckoned under the title
of the Old Testament, will be not of three, but of two different
kinds. For there will he nothing there which pertains to the
terrestrial Jerusalem only, if whatever is there said and ful-
filled of or concerning her signifies something which also
refers by allegorical prefiguration to the celestial Jerusalem ;
but there ^vill be only two kinds, one that pertains to the free
Jerusalem, the other to both. But just as, I think, they err
greatly who are of opiniou that none of tlie records of affairs
in that kind of writings mean anj^thing more than that they
ao happened, so I think those very daring who contend that
the whole gist of their contents lies in allegorical significations.
Therefore I have said they are threeft^lJ, not twofold. Yet, in
holding this opinion, I do not blame those who may be able
to draw out of everything there a spiritual nieaaing, only
^hiving, first of all, the historical truth. For the rest, what
^Believer can doubt that those things are spoken vainly which
^Blre such that, whether said to have been done or to be yet to
come^ they do not beseem either human or divine affairs ? Who
woold not recall these to spiritual understanding if he coidd,
or confess that they should be recalled by him who is able ?

170

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xvn.

4. About the prtjigurtd change of thf fsraelitit kingdom and prUatJtood, end
about the things Hamuiii the mothrr of Samuel prophesied, ptraonatmg
Uue Churdu

Therefore the advance of the city of God, where it reached
the times of the kings, yielded a figure, when, on the rejection
of Saul, David first obtained the kingdom on such & footing
that thenceforth liis descendants should reign in the earthly
Jerusalem in continual succassion ; for the course of affairs
signified and foretold, what is not to be passed by in silenoe,
concerning the change of things to come, what belongs to both
Testaments, the Old and the New, — ^where the priesthood and
kingdom are changed by one who is a priest, and at the same
time a king, new and everlasting, even Christ Jesus. For both
the substitution in the ministry of God, on Eli's rejection as
priest, of Samuel, who executed at once the of&ce of priest
and judge, and the establishment of David in the kingdom,
when Saul was rejected, tj'pified this of which I speak And
Hannah herself, the mother of Samuel, who formerly was
barren, and afterwards was gladdened with fertility, does not
seem to prophesy anything else, when she exultingly pours
forth her tlianksgiving to the Lord, on yielding up to God the
same boy she had born and weaned with the same piety with
which she liad vowed him. For she says, " My heart is made
strong in the Lord, and my horn is exalted in my God ; my
mouth is enlarged over mine enemies ; I am made glad in Thy
salvation. Because there is none holy as the Lord ; and none
is righteous as our God : there is none holy save Thee. Do
not glory so proudly, and do not speak lofty tilings, neither
let vaunting talk come out of your mouth : for a God of
knowledge is the Lord, and a God preparing His cnrious
designs. The bow of the mighty hath He made weak, and
the weak ara girded with strength. They that were full of
bread are diminished ; and the hungry have passed beyond the
earth : for the barren hath bom seven ; and she that hath
many chOdren is waxed feeble. The Lord killeth and moketh.
alive : He bringeth down to hell, and bringeth iip again. The
Lord maketh poor and maketh rich ; He bringeth low and
lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and liftetk
up the beggar from the dunghill, that He may set him among

BOOK xvn

FANyAlf S SOITG.

the mighty of [His] j>eople, and moketh them inherit tlie
throne of glory ; giving the vow to him that voweth, and He
hath blessed the years of the just : for man is not mighty in
strengtL The Lord shall make His adversary weak : the Lord
IB holy. Let not the pnident glory in his pnidence ; and let
not the mighty glory in his might ; and let not the rich glory
his richea : but let him that glorieth glory in this, to under-
stand and know the Lord, and to do judgment and justice in
the midst of the earth The Lord hath ascended into the
heavens, and hath thundered : He shall judge the ends of the
earth, for He is righteous : and He giveth strength to our kings,
and shall exalt the horn of His Christ." '

Do you say that these are the words of a single weak
woman giving thanks for the birth of a son ? Can the mind
of men be so much averse to the Lght of truth as not to per-
ceive that the sayings this woman pours forth exceed her
measure ? Moreover, he who is suitably interested in these
things which liave already begun to be fulfilled even in this
«arthly pilgrimage also, does he not apply his mind^ and per-
ceive, and acknowledge, that through this woman — whose
"verj" name, which is Hannali, means "His grace" — the verj-
Christian religion, the very city of God, whose king and
founder is Christ, in fine, the very grace of God, hath thus
spoken by the prophetic Spirit, whereby the proud are cut off
«o that they fall, and the humble axe filled so that they rise,
"\Fhich that hynin chiefly celebrates ? ■ Unless perchance any
one will say that this woman prophesied nothing, but only
Xauded God with exulting praise on account of the son whom
ohe had obtained in answer to prayer. AVliat then does she
mean when she sa)*^, " The bow of the mighty hath He made
'\reak, and the weak are girded witli strength ; they that were

rFiill of bread are diminished, and the hungry have gone
beyond the earth ; for the barren hath born seven, and she
that hath many childjen is waxed feeble ? " Had she hereelf
bom seven, although she had been barren t She had only
one when she said that ; neitlier did she bear seven after-
wards, nor sLx, ■witli whom Samuel himself might be the
seventh, but thi'ee males and two females. And then, when

> 1 Sam. ii 1-10.

172 THE CITY OF GOD. * [BOOK XVIL

as yet no one was king over that people, whence, if she did

not prophesy, did she say "what she puts at the end, "He
giveth strength to our kings, and shall exalt the horn of His
Christ?"

Therefore let the Church of Christ, the city of the great
King/ full of f^ce, prolific of ofispring, let her say what the
prophecy uttered about her so long before by the mouth of
this pious mother confesses, " My heart is made strong ia
the Lord, and my horn is exalted in my God." Her hcait is
truly made strong, and her horn is truly exalted, because not
in herself, but in the Lord her God. " My mouth is enlarged
ovi-T mine enemies;" because even in pressing straits tbi!
word of God is not bound, not even in preachers who are
bauud.' " I am made glad " she says, " in Tliy salvation."
This is Christ Jesus Himself, whom old Simeon, as we read
in the Gospel, embracing as a little one, yet recognising w
great, said, " Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant deport in
peace, for mine eyes have seen Tliy solvation" ** Therefore
may the Church say, "I am made glad in Tliy salvatioa For
there is none holy as the Lord, and none is righteous as our
God ;" as holy and sanctifying, just and justifying.* " Tl;ere
is none holy beside Thee ; " because no one becomes so except
by reason of Thee. And then it follows, " Do not glor>' so
proudly, and do not speak lofty things, neither let vaunting
talk come out of your mouth. For a God of knowledge is
the Lord." He knows you even when no one knows; fof
" he who tliinketh himself to be something when he is nothing
deceiveth himself."* These thinirs are said to the adver*
saries of the city of God who belong to Babylon, who presvinJ^ 1
in their own strength, and glor}' in themselves, not in th^
Lord ; of whom are also the carnal Israelites, the earth-bor<*
inhabitants of the earthly Jerusalem, who, as saith the apostlC-^
" being ignorant of the righteousness of God,"*^ that is, whicl*'
God, who alone is just, and the justifier, gives to man, "ant^;
wishing to esLablish their own," that is, which is as it wer^
procured by their own selves, not bestowed by Him, "are not?"
subject to the righteousness of God," just because they ore

1 rs. xlviii. 2. 2 2 Tim. ii. 9 ; Eph. vl 20. • Lute ii. 25-30.

* Bo:)), iii. 2G I ^ Gal. vt. 3. » Kom. x. 3.

BOOK xvn.

HaSnaH^S SOXG.

proud, and think they are able to please God witli their own,
not with that which is of God, who is the God of knowledge,
and therefore also takes the oversight of consciences, there
beholding the thoughts of men that they are vain,^ if they
are of men, and are not from Him. " And preparing," she
says, " His curious designs." \Vhat curious designs do we
think these are, save that tlie proud must fall, and the liumhle
rise ? These curious designs she recounts, saying, " The bow
of the mighty is made weak, and the weak are giixled with
strength." The bow is made weak, that is, the intention of
those wlio think tliemselves so powerful, that without the -jiift
and help of God they are able by human sufficiency to fuliil
tlie divine commandments ; and those are girded with strengtli
whose inward cry is, " Have mercy upon me, 0 Lord, for I
am weak."'

" Tliey that were full of bread " she says, " are diminished,
and the hungry have gone beyond tlie earth." Who are to
be understood as full of bread except those same who were
as if mighty, that is, the Israeli tes> to whom were committed
tlje oracles of God ?' Eat among that people the children
of the bond maid were diminished, — by wliich word minn.'i,
althougii it is Latin, the idea is well expressed that from
being greater they were made less, — because, e^^en in the
very bread, that is. the divine oracles, which the Jsraclitcs
alone of all nations have received, they savour earthly things.
But the nations to whom that law was not given, after they
have come through the Xcw Testament to these oracles, by
thirsting much have gone beyond the earth, because in them
they have savoured not earthly, but heavenly things. And
the reason why this is done is as it were sought; ^' for the
barren," she says, " liath bom seven, and she tliat hath many
children is waxed feeble." Here all that had been proplicsicd
hath shone forth to those who understood the number seven,
hich signifies the perfection of the universal Church. For
hich reason also tlie Apostle John writes to the seven
churches,* showing in tliat way that Jie writes to the totality
of the one Churcli ; and in the Proverbs of Solomon it is said

* Pa. xciv. n ; 1 Cor. iii. 20.
' Bom. tiL 2.

« Vs. vi. 2.
♦ fiev. i. 4.

174

THE CITY OP GOD.

[book XVU,

aforetime, prefiguring this, " Wisdom hath builded her house,
she hath strengthened her seven pillars.'*^ For the city of
God was barren in all nations before that child arose "whom
we see.' We also see that the temporal Jerusalem, who had
many children, is now waxed fecbla Because, whoever in
her were sons of the free woman were her strength ; but
now, forasmuch as the letter is there, and not the spirit^
having lost her strength, she is waxed feeble.

" The Lord killeth and maketh alive :" He has IdDed her
who had many children, and made this barren, one alive, so
thfit she has born seven. Although it may be more suitably
understood that He has made those same alive whom He has
killed. For she, as it were, repeats that by adding, "He
bringeth down to hell, and bringeth up." To whom truly the
apostle says, " If ye be dead with Christ, seek those things
which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of
God."* Therefore they are killed by the Lord in a salutary
way, so that he adds, " Savour things which are above, not
things on the earth;" so that these are they who^ hungering,
have passed beyond the earth. " For ye are dead," he says -
behold how God savingly kills ! Then there follows, " AdA
your life is hid with Christ in God :" behold how God make^
the same alive! But does He bring them down to hell and brin^
them up again ? It is without controversy among believer^ '
that we best see both parts of this work fulfilled in Him, tc^
wit, our Head, with whom the apostle has said our life is hi^'
in God. " For when He spared not His own Son^ but deUveredL-
Him up for us all,"* in that way, certainly, He has killed
Him. And forasmuch as He raised Him up again from the
dead. He has made Him alive again. And since His voice
is acknowledged in the prophecy, " Thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell,"^ He has brought Him down to hell and brought
Him up again. By this poverty of His we are made rich ;•
for "■ the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich." But that we
may know what this is, let us hear what follows : " He
bringeth low and lifteth up;" and truly He humbles the

> Pror. ii. 1,

3 Col. iil 1-3.

»Ps.i7i 10; Actsii 27, 31,

* " By whom we see lier made fraitful.

* Eom. TJii. S2.
c 2 Cor. viii. 8.

*K XVIL]

HANNAH S SONG.

175

proud and exalts the humbla Wliich ire also read eke-
where, " God resisteth the proud, but givetli grace to the
humble"* ThU is the burden of tlie entire song of this
woman whose name is interpreted " His grace."

Farther, what is added, " He raiseth up the poor from the
earth/* I undeistand of none better than of Hiiu who, as was
said a little ago, " was made poor for ua, when He was rich,
that by His poverty we might be made rich." For He raised
Him from the earth so quickly that Hia flesh did not see
ooniiption. Nor shall I divert from Him what is added, "And
raiseth up the poor froui tlie dunghilL" For indited he who
is the poor man is also the beggar.' But by the dunghill
from which he is lifted up we are with the greatest reason
to understand the persecuting Jews, of whom the apostle says,
when telling that when lie belonged to them he persecuted
ihe Church, " What things were gain to me, those 1 counted
loss for Christ ; and I Lave counted them nut only loss, but
even dung, that I might win Christ."^ Therefore that poor
one is raised up from tlie eaith above all the rich, and that
beggar is lifted up from that dungliill above all the wealthy,
"that he may sit among the miglity of the people," to whom
He Bays, "Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones,"* "and to make
them inherit the throne of glory." For these mighty ones
hid said, " Lo, we have forsaken all and followed Thee."
They had most mightily vowed this vow.

But whence do they receive this, except from Him of whom
it is here immediately said, " Giving the vow to him that
Toweth?" Otherwise they would be of those mighty ones
whose bow is weakened. " Giving," she saith, " the vow to
him that voweth." For no one could vow anything accept-
able to God, unless he received from Him that which he
might vow. There follows, " And He hath blessed the years
nf the just," to wit, that he may live for ever with Him to
idiom it is said, " And Thy years slmll have no end." For
tbore the years abide ; but here they pass away, yea, they
p^ish: for before they come they are not, and when they
shall have come they shall not be, because they bring their

» Ja«. IT. 6 ; 1 Pet t. 6.
jPhihiii. 7,8,

' *• For the poor man is the some ae the bcggir."
< ^UlL 3UX. 27, 28.

176

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book vm

own end with them. Xow of these two, that is, "giving
the vow to liiin that voweth," and " He hath blessed the yeare
of the juat/' the one is what we do, the other what we re-
ceive. But this other is not received from God, the liberal
giver, until He, the helper, Himself has enabled us for the
former ; " for man is not mighty in strength." " TI»e Lord
shall make his adversary weak/' to wit, him who envies the
man that vows, and resists him, lest he should fulfil what he
has vowed. Owing to the ambiguity of the Greek, it may
also be understood " his own adversary." For when God
lias begun to possess us, immediately he who had been our
adversary becomes His, and is conquered by us; but not by
our own strength, "for man is not mighty in strength."
Therefore " the Lord shall make His own adversary weak,
the Lord is holy/' timt ho may be conquered by the saints,
whom the Lord, the Holy of holies, hath made saints. For
this reason, " let not the prudent glory in his prudence, and
let not the mighty glory in his might, and let not the ricli
glory in his riches ; but let him that glorieth glory in
this, — to understand and know the Lord, and to do judg-
ment and justice in the midst of the earth." He in no
small measure understands and knows the Lord who undc^
stands and knows that even thi.s, that ho can understand and
know the Lord, h given to him by the Lord. " For what
hast thou," saith the apostle, "that thou hast not received^
But if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as i^
thou hadst not received it?"^ That is, as if thou hadst of
thine own self whereof thou mightest glory. Now, he does
judgment and justice who lives aright. But he lives aright
who yields obedience to God when He commands. " The end
of the commauJment," that is, to which the commandment
has reference, " is charity out of a pure heart, and a good
conscience, and faith unfeigned." Moreover, this " cliarity,"
as the Apostle John testifies, "is of God."'* Therefore to do
justice and judgment is of God. But what is "in the midst
of the earth ? " For ouglit those who dwell in the ends of
the earth not to do judgment and justice ? Who would say
30 ? Why, then, is it added, " In the midst of the
* 1 Cor. iv. 7. * 1 John iv. 7.

earth?-

rooic xvu.

HANNATTS 80^0.

For if this had not been added, and it had only been said, " To
do judgment and justice," this commandment would ruther
have pertained to both kinds of men, — both those dwelling
inland and those on the sea-coast Eut lest any one should
lliink that, after the end of the life led in this body, there
remains a time for doing judgment and justice which he has
not done ivhile he was in the flesh, and that the divine judg-
ment can thiLS be escaped, "in the midst of tlie earth" ap-
pears to me to be said of the time when every one lives in
the body; for in this life every one carries about his OAvn
earth, which, on a mans dying, the common earth takes back,
to be surely returned to him on his rising again. Therefore
"in the midst of the earth," that is, whOe our soul is shut
up in this earthly body, judgment nnd justice are to be done,
which shall be profitable for us hereafter, when *' every one
shall receive according to that he hath done in the body,
whether good or bad."^ For when the apostle there says "in
the body," he means in the time he has lived iu tlie body.
Yet if any one blaspheme with malicious mind and impious
thought, without any member of his body being cnipl{)yed in
it, he shall not therefore be guOtless because he haa nut done
it with bodily motion, for he will have done it in that time
which he has spent in the body. In the same way we may
suitably understand what we read in the psalm, " But God, our
King before the worlds, hath wrought salvation in the midst
**f the earth ;"' so that the Loi-d Jesus may be understood to bo
o^r God who is before the worlds, because by Him the worlds
*ete made, working our salvation in the midat of the earth,
for the Word was made flesh and dwelt in an earthly body.

Then after Ilannali has prophesied in these words, that
"^B who glorieth oughc to glory not in himself at aU, but in
the Lord, she says, on account of the retribution which is to
^me on the day of judgment, *'The Lord hath ascended into
^ heavens, and hath thundered : He shall judge the ends of
'he earth, for He is righteous." Throughout she holds to the
oHer of the creed of Christians : For the Lord Christ has
Ascended into heaven, and is to come thence to judge the quick
^d dead.' For, as saith the apostle, " Who hath ascended

2 Cor. T. 10. « Pb, btxiv. 12. » Acts x. 42.

»U a M

178

1'HK CITT 0? GOD.

[book ITIL

but He "who hath also descended into the lower parts of the
earth ? He that descended is the same also that ascended
up above all heavens, tliat He might fill all things." "■ There-
fore He hatli thundered through His clouds, which He hath
filled with His Holy Spirit when He ascended up. Concern-
ing which the bond maid Jerusalem — that is, the unfruitfol
vineyard — is threatened in Isaiah the prophet that they
shall rain no showers upon her. But " He shall judge the
ends of the earth" is spoken as if it had been said, 'evoi
the extremes of the eartk" For it does not mean that He
shall not judge the other parts of the earth, who, without
doubt, shall judge all mon. But it is better to understand
by the extremes of the earth the extremes of man, since
those things shall not be judged which, in the middle time,
are changed for the better or the worse, but the ending in
which he shall be found who is judged. For which reason
it is said, " He that shall persevere even unto the end, the
some shall be saved." ^ He, therefore, who perseveringly does
judgment and justice in the midst of the earth shall not be
condemned when the extremes of the earth shall be judgei
" And giveth," she aaith, " strength to our kings," that He may
not condenm them in judging. He giveth them strength
whereby as kings they nile the flesh, and conquer the world
in Him who hath poured out His blood for them. "Aiid
shall exalt the honi of His Christ." How sliaH Christ exJ*
the horn of His Christ ? For He of whom it was said above,
" The Lfml hath ascended into the heavens " meaning the Loid
Christ, Himself, as it is said here, " shall exalt the horn of Hi^
Christ." \Vho, therefore, is the Christ of His Christ ? Doe^
it mean that He shall exalt the horn of each one of His be^
Iio\'ing people, as she says in the beginning of this hyma^
"Mine horn is exalted in my God?" For wc can rightl/^
call all those christa who are anointed with His chrism, foras
much as the whole body with its head is one Christ.' The3&
things hatli Hannah, the mother of Samuel, the holy and
much-praised man, prophesied, in which, indeed, the change
of the ancient priesthood was then figured and is now ftd-
filled, since she that had many children is waxed feeble, that
1 £^ ir. 9, 10. > Uatt zjciv. 13. ■ 1 Cor. xii 12.

BOOK xvn.]

ELT.

179

■bther'

the barren who hath bom seven might have the new priest-
]iood in Christ.

&, 0/ those thinQs which a man of God spate by tlie Spirit to EH tfie prkaf,
signifying that the priettfiood ickich had been appointed according to
Aaron was to be takoi atony.

But this is said more plainly by a man of God sent to Eli
the priest himself, whoso name indeed is not mentioned, but
Those office and ministry show him to have been indubitably
a prophet For it is thus wTitten : " And tliere came a man
of God unto Eli, and said. Thus saith the Lord, I plainly
tevealed myself unto thy father's house, when they were in
land of Eg}'pt slaves in Pharaoh's house ; and I chose thy
's house out of all the sceptces of Israel to fill the ofQce
of priest for me, to go up to my altar, to bum incense and
wear the ephod ; and I gave thy father's house for food all
the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel. Where-
fore then ha3t thou looked at mine incense and at mine offer-
ings with an impudent eye, and hast glorified thy sons above
me, to bless the first-fruits of every sacrifice in Israel before
mel Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I said thy
house and thy father's house should walk before me for ever ;
bat now the Lord saith. Be it far from me ; for them that
hoaour me will I honour, and he that despiseth me shall be
despised. Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thy seed,
fuicl the seed of thy father*s house, and thou shalt never have
Wold man in my house. And I will cut off the man of thine
from mine altar, so that his eyes sliall be consumed, and his
beut shall melt away; and every one of thy house that is
shall fall by the sword of men. And this shall be a sign
I thee that shall come upon these thy two sons, Hophni
Phinehas ; in one day they shall die both of them. And
ill raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to
sil that is in mine heart and in my soul ; and I will build
lam a sure house, and he aludl walk before my Christ for
er. And it shall come to pas3 that he who is left in thine
iise shall come to worship him with a piece of money, saying,
Put me into one part of thy priesthood, that I may eat bread."*
We cannot say that this prophecy, in which the change of
1 1 Sam. IL 27-36.

180

THE CITY or GOD.

[book xvil

the ancient priesthood is foretold with so great plainness, was
fulfilled in Samuel ; for altboxigh Samuel was not of another
tribe than that which had been appointed by God to serve at
the altar, yet he was not of the sona of Aaron, whose offspring
was set apart that the priests mij^ht he taken out of it And
thus by that transaction also the same change which should
come to pass through Christ Jesus is shadowed forth, and the
prophecy itself in deed, not in word, belonged to the Old
Testament properly, but figumtively to the New, signifying'
by the fact just what was said by the word to Eli the priest
through the prophet For there were afterwards priests of
Aaron*s race, such as Zadok and Abiathar during David's
reign, and others in succession, before the time came when
those things which were predicted so long before about the
changing of the priesthood l>ehoved to be fulfilled by Christ
But who tliat now views these tilings with a believing eye
does not see that they are fulfilled ? Since, indeed, no tabc^
nacle, no temple, no altar, no sacrifice, and therefore no priest
either, has remained to the Jews, to whom it was commacded
in the law of God that he should be ordained of the seed of
Aaron ; which ia also mentioned here by the prophet, when
he says, " Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I said thy house
and thy father's house shall walk before me for ever: W
now the Lord saith. That be far from me ; for them that honour
me will I honour, and he that despiseth me shall be despised.
For that in naming his father's house he does not mean that
of his immediate father, but that of Aaron, who iirst v>s
appointed priest, to be succeeded by others descended from
liim, is shown by the preceding words, when he says, " I "fffi*
revealed unto thy father's house, when they were in the land
of Egypt slaves in Pharaoh's house ; and I chose thy father's
house out of all the sceptres of Israel to fill the office of priest
for me." Wliich of the fathers in that Eg}q3tian slavery, bat
Aaron, was his father, who, when they were set free, wa5
chosen to the priesthood ? It was of his lineage^ therefore, h^
has said in this passage it should come to pass that they should
no longer be priests ; which already we see fulfilled. If faitl>
be watchful, the things are before us : they are discerned, thej''
are grasped, and are forced on the eyes of the unwilling, so

xni.]

ELfS FALL TTPiaVL.

181

that they are seen : " Behold the days come," he says, " that
I will cut off thy seed, and the seed of thy father's house, and
thou shalt never liave an old man in niine house. And i will
cut off the man of thine from mine altar, so that his eyes shall
be consumed and his heart shall melt away." Behold the
days which were foretold have already come. There is no
priest after the order of Aaron ; and whoever is a man of his
lineage, when he sees the sacrifice of the Christians prevailing
over the whole world, but tliat great honour taken away from
himself, his eyes fail and his soul melts away consumed with
grief.

But what follows belongs properly to the house of Eli, to
whom these things were said : " And every one of thine house
that is left shall full by the sword of men. And this shall
be a sign unto thee that shall come upon these thy two sons,
Hophni and Phinchas; in one day they shall die both of
them.'' This, therefore, is made a sign of the change of the
priesthood from this man's house, by which it is aij^uified that
the priesthood of Aaron's house is to be changed. For the
death of this man's suns sj^^nitied the death uot of tUu men,
but of the priesthood itself of the sous of Aaron. But what
follows pertains to that Priest whom Samuel typified by suc-
ceeding this one. Therefore the things which follow are said
of Christ Jesus the trua Priest of the ^N'ew Testament : " And
I will raise me up a faithful Priest that shall do according to
all that is in mine heart and in my soul ; and I will build
Him a sure house." The same is the eternal Jerusalem abova
*And He sliall walk," saith He, "before my Christ always."
" He shall walk" means " he shall be conversant with," just as
He had said before of Aaron's house, " I said that tliine house
and thy father's house sliall walk before me for ever." But
what He says, " He slmll walk before my Christ /' is to be
understood entu*ely of the house itself, not of the priest, who
is Christ Himself, the Mediator and Saviour. His house,
therefore, shall walk befoi-c Him, " Shall walk " may also be
understood to mean from death to life, all the time this mor-
tality passes through, even to the end of this world. Eat
where God says, '* "Wlio will do all that is in mine heart and
in my soul," we must not think that God has a soul, for He

182

THE Cmr OF GOB.

[book shl

is the Author of souls ; but this is aaid of God tropically, not
properly, just as He is said to have hands and feet, and other
corporal members. And, lest it should be suppoaed from
such lan^age that man in the form of this flesh is made in
the image of God, wings also are ascribed to Him, which man
has not at all ; and it is said to God, " Hide me under the
shadow of Thy wings," ^ that men may understand that such
things are said of that ineffable nattire not in proper but in
figurative words.

But what is added, " And it shall come to pass that he "who
is left in tliinc house shall come to worship Him," is not said
properly of the house of this Eli, but of that Aaron, the men
of which remained even to the advent of Jesus Christ, of
which race there are not wanting men even to tliia present
For of that house of Eli it bad aL-eady been said above, "And
every one of thine house that is left shall fall by the sword of
men." How, therefore, could it be truly said here, " And it
shall come to pass that every one that is left shall como to
worship him," if that is true, that no one shall escape the
avenging sword, unless he would have it understood of those
who belong to the race of that whole priesthood after the order
of Aaron? Therefore, if it is of these the predestinated
rcnmant, about whom another prophet has said, " The remnant
shall be saved ;"^ whence the apostle also says, "Even so then
at this time also the remnant according to the election of
grace is saved ;"* since it is easily understood to be of suci
a remnant that it is said, " He that is left in thine house,"
assuredly he believes in Christ ; just as in the time of thfi
apostle very many of that nation believed ; nor are there now
wanting those, although very few, who yet believe, and in
them is fulfilled what this man of God has here immediately
added, " He shall come to worship him with a piece of money;"
to worship whom, if not that Chief Priest, who is also God ?
For in that priesthood after the order oi Aaron men did not
come to the temple or altar of God for the purpose of wor-
shipping the priest. But what is that he says, " With a piece
of money," if not the short word of faith, about which the
apostle quotes the saying, " A consummating and shortening
> Fs. xvil 8. * Jao. X. 21. ' Rom. xi. 5.

BOOK Xm] TKTEKPIttCTATIOK OT EL1*S mSTORT.

183

I Aru-bO

word will the Lord make upon the earth ?"^ But that
money is put for the word the psalm is a witness, where it
is sung, " The words of the Lord are pure words, money tried
with the fire."'

Wliat then does he say who comes to worship the priest of
God, even the Priest who is God ? " Put me into one part of
Thy priesthood, to eat bread." I do not wish to be set in the
honour of my fathers, which is none ; put me in a part of Thy
priesthood. For " I have chosen to be mean in Thine house ;"*
I desire to be a member, no matter what, or how small, of Thy
priesthood. By the priesthood he here means the people itself,
of which He is the Priest who is the Mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus.* This people the Apostle Peter
calls "a holy people, a royal priesthood."^ But some have
hited. " Of Thy sacrilice," not " Of Thy priesthood," which
less signifies the same Christian people. Whence the
Apostle Paid says, " We being many are one bread, one body."*
[And again he says, " Present your bodies a living sacrifice."']
What, therefore, he has added, to " eat bread," also elegantly
expresses the very kind of sacrifice of which the Priest Him-
self says, '* The bread which I wilj give is my flesh for the life
of the world."' The same is the sacrifice not after the order
of Aaron, but after the order of Mclchisedec :^ let liim that
readeth understand.*'* Therefore this short and salutarily
bumble confession, in which it is said, " Put me in a part of
ITiy priesthood, to eat bread," is itself the piece of money, for
it is botli brief, and it is the Word of God who dwells in the
beart of one who believes. For because He had said above,
that He had given for food to Aaron's house the sacrificial
victims of the Old Testament, where He says, " I have given
thy father's house for food all tilings which are offered by fire
of the children of Israel " which indeed were the sacrifices of
the Jews ; therefore here He has said, " To eat bread," which
is in the New Testament the sacrifice of the Christians.

> Im. xxriii 22 ; Bom. ix. 26.
• 1 Tim. ii 6.
' Rom. xiL 1.
•He^TiLll, 27-

« Pg. xiL 6.
» 1 Pet ii. 9.

■ Ps. Ixxiiv. 10.

• 1 Cor. I. 17.

• John Yi. 51.
U>KatUzxir. 16.

184

Tire CITT OF GOD.

[dook xnr.

a, O/the Jewuh priesthood and kingdom, loAiVA, aUhovgh promi9cd to be ett^
lushed /or ever, did vot continue j so ihai other thiitffs are to be undir-
ttood io which eternity u auured.

While, therefore, these things now shine foith as cleurly
as they were loftily foretold, still some one may not vainly
be moved to ask. How can we be confident tliat all things
are to come to pass which are predicted in these books as
about to come, if tliis very thinrr which is tliere divinely
spoken, " Thine house and thy father's house sljall M*alk
before me for ever," could not have efiect ? For we see tbat
priesthood has been changed ; and there can be no hope that
what was promised to that house may some time be fulfilled,
because that whicli succeeds on its being rejected and clianged
is rathe.r predicted as eternal. Ho who says this does not
yet understand, or does not recollect^ that this very priest-
hood after the order of Aaron was appointed us the shadow
of a future eternal priesthood ; and therefore, wlien etemity
is promised to it^ it is not promised to tlie mere shadow afid
figure, but to what is shadowed forth and prefigured by it
But lest it should be thought the shadow itself was to reuaain,
therefore its mutation also behoved to be foretold.

In tliis way, too, the kingdom of Saul liimself, who cer-
tainly was reprobated and rejected, was the shadow of a
kinr^^dom yet to comu which shoidd remain to eternity. For,
indeed, the oQ with which he was anointed, and from that
chrism he is called Christ, is to be taken in a mystical sen*?
and is to be undoi'stood as a great mystery; which David
himself venerated so much in liim, that be trembled witli
smitten heart when, being hid in a dark cave, which Saul
also entered when pressed by the necessity of nature, lie had
come secretly behind him and cut off a small piece of his
robe, that he might be able to prove how he had spared him
when he could have killed him, and might thus remove from
his mind tlie suspicion through which he had vehemently '
persecuted the holy David, thinlcing liim his enemy. There-
fore he was much afraid lest he should be accused of Aiolat- «
ing so great a mystery in Saul, because he had thus meddled
even his clothes. For thus it is -wTitten : " And David's
heart smote him because he had taken away the skirt of liis

BOOK XVII.] THE JEWISH KIKGDOM TYPICAL.

135

cloak"* But to tlie men with him. who advised him to destroy
Saul thus delivered up into his haiids» lie saith, *' The Ixird forbid
that I shoiild do this thing to my lord, the Lord*s christ, to lay
my hand upon him, because he is the Lord's christ." There-
fore he showed so great reverence to this shadow of what was
to come, not for its own sake, but for tlie sake of what it
prefigured. "Whence also that which Samuel saya to Saul,
** Since thou hast not kept my commandment which the Lord
commanded thee, whereas now the Lord would liave prepared
thy kingdom over Israel for ever, yet now thy kingdom shall
not continue for thee ; and the Jj:>rd will seek Him a man after
His own heart., and the Lord will command liim to be prince
over His people, because thou hast not kept tliat which the Lord
commanded thee,"* is not to be taken as if God liad settled
that Saul himself should reign for ever, and afterwards, on his
sinning, would not keep this promise ; nor was He ignorant
that he would sin, but He had established liis kingdom tliat
it might be a figure of the eternal kingdom. Therefore he
added, " Yet now tliy kingdom shall not continue for thee.'*
Therefore what it signified has stood and shall stand ; but it
shall not stand for this man, because he himself was not to
reign for ever, nor his offspring ; so that at least that word
" for ever " might seem to be fulfilled through his posterity
one to another. " And the Lord," he saith, " will seek Him
a man," meaning either David or the Mediator of the Kew
Testament,* who was figured in the clirism M'ith which David
also and liis offspring was anointed. Eub it is not iis if He
knew not where he was that God thus seeks Him a man,
hut, speaking through a man, He speaks as a inan, and in tliis
sense seeks us. For not only to God the Father, but also to
His Only-begotten, who come to seek what was lost/ we had
been known already even so far as to be cliosen in Him
before the fouudation of the world.* " He will seek him '*
therefore moans, He will have His own (just as if He had
said, "VVliom He already has known to be His own He will
show to otliers to be His friend). "Whence in Latin this word
(^vccrit) receives a preposition and becomes ac^uirit (acquires),

* 1 Sam. xxiv. fi, 8.

* Luke xix. 10.

' ] Saio. xiiL 13, 14.
» Eph. i. 4.

• Heb. ix. 15.

186

THE CITT OF GOD.

[book xvn.

the meaning of whicli is plain enough ; although even "with-
out the addition of the preposition quwrere is undepstood as
acquircre, whence gains are colled qua:stus,

T.Oftht dUmpiion of the JtJnjyrfom of T»raeJ, fiy which (he perpetual divUum qf
the spiritual from the carnal Israel vxu prefigured.

Again Saul sinned through disobedience, and again Samuel
gays to him in the word of the Lord, " Because thou hast de- .
spised the word of the Lord^ the Lord hath despised thee, that
thou majest not be king over Israel"* And again for the same
sin, when Saul confessed it, and prayed for pardon, and besought
Samuel to return with him to appease the Lord, he said, " I
will not return with thee : for thou liast despised the word of
the Lord, and the Lord will despise thee that thou mayest not
be king over Israel And Samuel turned liis face to go away,
and Saul laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and rent it ,
And Samuel said unto him, The Lord hath rent the kingdom
from Israel out of thine hand this day, and wiU give it to thy
neighbour, who is good above thee^ and will divide Israel in
twain. And He will not be changed, neither will Ho repent :
for He is not as a man, that He should repent ; who threatens
and does not persist."* He to whom it is said. " The Lord
will despise thee that thou mayest not be king over Israel,"
and " The Lord hath rent the kingdom from Israel out of
thine hand this day," reigned forty years over Israel, — that is,
just as long a time as David himself, — yet heard this in the '
first period of his reign, that we may understand it was said
because none of his race was to reign, and that we may look
to the race of David, whence also is sprung, according to the
flesh,' the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ
Jesus.*

But the Scripture has not what is read in most Latin
copies, " The Lord hath rent the Icingdom of Israel out of
thine hand this day," but just as we have set it down it is
found in the Greek copies, " The Lord hath rent the kingdom
from Israel out of thine hand ;" that the words " out of thine
hand " may be understood to mean " from Israel" Therefore
this man figuratively represented the people of Israel, which
was to lose tlie kingdom, Ciirist Jesus our Lord being about

» 1 Sani, XV. 23. » 1 Sam. xv. 2tt-2«. ' Bom. IS. * 1 Tim, ii 6.

BOOK XVIL] disruption OF THE KIXGDOM.

187

to reign, not carnally, but spiritually. And when it is said
of Him, " And will give it to thy neighbour," that is to be re-
ferred to the fleshly kinship, for Christ, according to the flesh,
was of Israel, wlience also Saul sprang. But what is added,
" Good above thee," may iudeed be understood, " Better than
thee," and indeed some have thus translated it ; byt it is
better taken thus, "Good above thee," as meaning that be-
cause He is good, therefore He must be above thee, according
to that other prophetic saying, " Till I put all Thine enemies
under Thy feet"^ And among them is Israel, from whom, as
His persecutor, Christ took away the kingdom ; although the
Israel in whom there was no guile may have been there too,
a sort of grain, as it were, of that chafif. For certainly thence
came the apostles, theuce so many martyrs, of whom Stephen
is the first, thence so many churches, which the Apostle Paul
names, magnifying God in their conversion.

Of which thing I do not doubt what follows is to be nnder-
^stood, " And will divide Israel in twain," to wit, into Israel
srtaining to the bond woman, and Israel pertaining to the
For these two lands were at fii-st together, as Abra-
ham still clave to the bond woman, until the barren, made
fruitful by the grace of God, cried, " Cast out the bond
woman and her son."* "We know, indeed, that on account
of the sin of Solomon, in the reign of his son Rehoboam

■Israel was divided in two, and continued so, the separate parts
" having their o^vn kings, until that whole nation was overthrown
with a great destruction, and carried away by the Chaldeans.
But what was this to Saul, when, if any such thing was
threatened, it would be threatened against David himself,
whose son Solomon was ? Finally, the Hebrew nation is not

^■^w divided internally, but is dispersed through the earth in-
discriminately, in the fellowship of the same error. But that
division Avith which God threatened the kingdom and people
in the person of Saul, who represented them, is shown to be
eternal and unchangeable by this wliich is added, " And He
will not be changed, neither will He repent : for He is not as
ft man, that He should repent ; who threatena and does not per-
sist,"— that is, a man threatens and does not persist, but not
» Pa. ex. 1. » Gen. xxi 10.

stooc
frea

188 THE CITY OF GOI>. [COOK XTH.

God, who does not repent like man. For when we read that
He repents, a change of circunistance is meant, flowing from the
divine immutable foreknowledge. Therefore, when God is said
not to repent, it is to be understood that He does not change.
"We see that this sentence concenung lliis division of the
people of Israel, divinely uttered in these words, has been
altogether irremediable and quite perpetual For whoever
have turned, or are turning, or shall turn thence to Christ, it
has been according to the foreknowledge of God, not accord-
ing to the one and the same nature of the human race. Cer-
tainly none of the Israelites, who, cleaving to Christ, have
continued in Him, shall ever be among those Israelites M'ho
persist in being His enemies even to the end of this life,
but shall for ever remain in the separation which is here
foretold. For the Old Testament, rrom the Mount Sinai,
which gendereth to bondage/ profiteth nothing, unless because
it bears witness to the New Testament. Otherwise, however
long Moses is read» the veil is put over their heart ; but
when any one sliall turn thence to Christ, the veil shall be
taken away.' For the very desire of tliose who turn is
changed from the old to the new, so that each no longer
desires to obtain carnal but spiritual felicity. AVlierefore
that great prophet Samuel himself, before he had anointed
Saul, when he had cried to the Lord for Israel, and He had
heard him, and when he had offered a whole burnt-offering,
as the aliens were coming to battle against the people of God,
and the Lord thundered above them and they were confused,
and fell before Israel and were overcome ; [then] he took one
stone and set it up between the old and new !Massephat
(Mizpeh), and called ita name Ebenezer, which means " the
stone of the helper," and said, " Hitherto hath the Lord helped
us."® Mossephat is interpreted " desire." That stone of the
helper is the mediation of the Savioiu:, by which we go from
the old Massephat to the new, — that is, from the desire with
whicli carnal happiness was expected in the carnal kingdom
to the desire with which the truest spiritual liappincss is ex-
pected in the kingdom of lieaven ; and since nothing is better
than that, the Lord helpeth us hitherto.

» GoL iv. 25. s 2 Cor. iii. 15, 30, » 1 Sam. viL 0-12,

BOOK XVTlJ TnE PROMISES M.VDE TO DAVII).

189

6. 0/ the pronitts made to David in hia aon, vsMch are m no toiu/ulfiUed in
Sotomon, but most/uliy in Christ,

And now I see I must show what^ pertaining to the matter
I treat of, God promised to David himself, who succeeded Saul
in the kingdom, whose change prefigured that final change on
account of which all things were divinely spokenj all things
■were committed to WTiting. "VVlien many things had gone pros-
perously with king David, he thought to make a house for
God, even that temple of most excellent renown which was
aftcnvai'ds built by king Solomon hia son. Wlille he was
thinking of this, the word of the Lord came to Natlian the
prophet, which he brought to the king, in which, after God
tad said that a liouse should not be built unto Him by Da\nd
himself, and that in all that long time Hh had never com-
manded any of His people to build Him a hovise of cedar, he
says, "And now thus shalt thou say imto my ser\'ant David,
Thus saith God Almighty, I took thee from the sheep-cote
that thou mightest be for a ruler over my people in Israel :
and I was with thee whithersoever thou wentest, and have
cut off all thine enemies from before thy face, and have made
thee a name, according to the name of the great ones who are
over the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people
Israel, and will plant him, and he shall dwell apart, and shall
be troubled no more ; and the son of wickedness shall not
humble him any more, as from the beginning, from the days
when I appointed judges over my people Israel Aud I will
give thee rest from all tliine enemies, and the Lord will tell
[hath told] thee, because thou ehalt build an house for Him.
And it shall come to pass when thy days be fulfilled, and
thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, that I ^WIl raise up thy
seed after thee, whi<;h .shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I
will prepare his kingdom. He shall buiUl me an house for
my name ; and I will order his throne even to etemit)-. I
will be liis Father, and he shall be my son. And if he commit
iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with
the stripes of the sons of men : but my mercy I will not take
away from him, as I took it away from those whom I put
away from before my face. And his houso s-haU be faithful,

190 THE CITY OP GOD. [BOOK

and his kingdom even for evermore before me, and his throne
shall be set up even for evermore."^

He who thinks this grand promise was fulfilled in Solomon
greatly errs ; for he attends to the saying, " He shall build
me an house/' but he does not attend to the saying, " His
house shall be faithful, and his kingdom for evermore before
me." Let >iiTn therefore attend and behold the house of
Solomon full of strange women worshipping false gods, and
the king himself, aforetime wise, seduced by them, and cast
down into the same idolatry : and let him not dare to think
that God either promised this falsely, or was unable to fore-
know that Solomon and his house would become what they
did- But wo ought not to be in doubt here, or to see the
fulfilment of these things save in Christ our Lord, who was
made of the seed of David aeconling to the flesh ' lest we
should vainly and uselessly look for some other here, like the
carnal Jews. For even they understand this much, that the
son whom they read of in that place as promised to David
was not Solomon ; so that, with wonderful blindness to Kim
who was promised and is now declared with so great manifes-
tation, they say tliey Lope for another. Indeed, even in Solo-
mon there appeared some im^ of the future event, in that
lie built the temple, and had jxmce according to his name (for
Solomon means " pacific "), and in the beginning of his reign
was wonderfully praiseworthy; but while, as a shadow of Him
that should come, he foreshowed Christ our Lord, he did not
also in his own person resumblc Him. Wlience some things
concerning him are so written as if they were prophesied
of himself, while the Holy Scripture, prophesying even by
events, somehow delineates in him the figure of things to
come. For, besides the books of divine history, in which his
reign is narrated, the '72d Psalm also is inscribed in the title
with his name, in which so many things are said wliich can-
not at all apply to him, but which apply to the Lord Christ
with such evident fitness as maizes it c^uite appai-ent that in
the one the figure is in some way shadowed forth, but in the
other tlie truth itself is presented. For it is known witliin
what bounds the kingdom of Solomon was enclosed; and y^t
1 2 Sun. vtL S-16. * Bom. u S.

BOOK xvn.]

POLOMON A TYPE OF CHKIST.

191

that psalm, not to speak of other things, we read, "He

^iall have doi

from

and from tlie

minion irom sea even

kto the ends of the eartb,"^ which we see fulfilled in Christ
(1*11117 ^^ ^^'^^ ^^^ beginning of His reigning from the river
Where John baptized ; for, when pointed out by him, lie began
fco be acknowledged by the disciples, who called Him not only
Adaster, but also Lord,
|i Nor was it for any other reason that, while hk father David

I '^^as still living, Solomon began to reign, which happened to
Xxone other of their kings, except that from this also it might
I "t>e clearly apparent that it was not himself this prophecy
Spoken to his father signified beforehand, saying, " And it
•oliall come to pass when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt
sleep with thy fathers, thiit I wdl raise up thy seed wliich
Qhall proceed out of thy bowels, and I wiU. prepare His king-
<3oiit." How, therefore, shall it be thought on account of what
follows, " He shall build me an house," that this Solomon is
prophesied, and not rather be understood on account of what
precedes, '* Wlien thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep
■with tliy fathers, I will raise up thy seed after thee," that
another pacific One is promised, who is foretold as about to
be raised up, not before David's death, as he was, but after
it ? For however long the interval of time might be before
Jeaus Christ came, beyond doubt it was after the deiith of
king David, to whom He was so promised, that He behoved
to come, who shoidd build au house of God, not of wood and
stone, but of men, such as we rejoice He does boild. For to
this house, that is, to believers, the apostle saith, " The temple
of God is holy, which temple ye are."'

9. ffow liie the prophecy about Christ in the SOth Psalm is to the things
promiaed in Kathan't prcphecy in iht Book* ofSainwl.

Wherefore also in the 89th Psalm, of which the title is,
"An instruction for himself by Ethan the Israelite," mention
is made of the promises God made to king David, and some
things are there added similar to those found in the Book of
Samuel, such as this, " I have sworn to David my sei-vant
that I will prepare his seed for ever,"* And again, "Then
thou spakest in vision to thy sons, and saidst, I have laid
» Pi. budi, 8. » 1 Cor. iii 17. * Pa. buodx. 8, t

192

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xvn.

help upon the mighty One, and have exalted the chosen One
out of my people. I have found David my servant, and with
my holy oil I have anointed him. For mine hand shall help
him, and mine arm shall strengthen liim. The enemy shall
not prevnil against him, and the sou of ini([uity shall harm
liim no more. And I will beat down his foes from hefore
his face, and those that hate him will I put to flight And
my truth and my mercy shall be with him, and in my name
shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand also in the
sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto me,
Thou art my Father, my God, and the undertaker of my sal^'a-
tion. Also I will make him my iirst-born, high among the
kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him for ever-
more, and my covenant shall be faithful (sure) with him.
His seed also will I set for ever and ever, and his throne as
tlie days of heaven."* Which words, when rightly understood,
are all understood to be about the Lord Jesus Cluist, imder
the nauie of David, on account of the form of a servant, which
the same Mediator assumed ^ from the virgin of the seed of
David.' For immediately something is said about the sins of
his children, such as is set do\^'n in the Book of Samuel, and
is more readily taken as if of Solomon. For there, that is,
in the Book of Samuel, he says, " And if he commit iniquity,
1 will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes
of the sons of men ; but my mercy will I not take away from
him,"* meaning by stripes the strokes of correction. Hence
that saving, "Touch ye not my christs."* For what else is
that than, Do not harm them ? But in the psalm, when
speaking aa if of David, He says something of the same kind
there too. " If his cldldren," saith He, " foreake my law, and
walk not in my judgments ; if they profane my righteous-
nesses, and keep not my commandments ; I will visit their
iniq^uities ■with the rod, and their faults with stripes : but my
mercy I will not make void from him."" He did not say
" from them " although He spoke of his children, not of him-
self; but he said "from him," which means the same thing
if rightly understood. For of Christ Himself, "who is the head

> Ps. IxTxix. 19-29.
* 2 Sam. vii, 14, 15.

• Phil. ii. 7.

* Pi. ov. 1&.

■Matt. i. 3, 18; Luke i. 27.
0 Ps. Ixixix. 30-33.

tOOK XVII.]

SOLOMON A TYPE OF CHniST.

193

of the Cliurch, there could not be found any sins which re-
quired to be divinely restrained by human correction, mercy
l)eing still continued j but tlioy are found in His botly and
embers, which, is His people. Therefore in the Bock of
nmuel it is said, "iniquity of Him." but in the psalm, "of
Hb children," that we niay understand that what is said of
His body is in some way said of Himself. Wliereforc also,
when Saul persecuted His body, that is, His believing people,
He Hiiuself saith from Jie^iven, " Saul, Saul, why persecutest
Ihou me?"* Then in the following words of the psalm He
ya, "Neither will I hurt iii uiy trutli, not profane my cove-
nant, and the things that proceed from my lips 1 will not
disallow. Once have I sworn by my holiness, if I lie unto
i>avid,"' — that is, I will in no wise lie unto David ; for
Scripture is wont to speak thus. But what tluit is iu which
-H^e will not lie, He adds, saying, "His seed shall endure for
^"X^er, and his throne as the sun before me, and as the luoon
F>^rtected for ever, and a faithful witne53 in heaven."^

^ ^- ffow difei-ent tJu acU in the Ungdom of Ote tarthltf Jertaalem are from
^^^ those whicJi God fiaU promised, ao that the truth of the promue shoutd be

^^B vjulerstood to pertain to the glory <f the other Kin'j and kingdom.

That it might not be supposed tliat a promise so strongly
^^>cpressed and confinued was fulfilled in Solomon^ as if he
**'^:>ped for, yet did not liud iL, he says, " But Tlioii hast cast off,
^"*^d hast brought to nothing, 0 Lord."* Tkis truly was done
^^^^^nccmin":; the kiuf^doin of Solomon among his posterity, even
^*^ the overthrow of the earthly Jerusalem itself, which was
^*le seat of tiie kingdom, and especially the destruction of the
'^^ry temple which had been built by Solomon. But lest on
^Viis accuunt God should be thought to have done contrary to
is promise, immediately he adds, " Thou hast delayed Tliy
hrist."* Tlierefure he is not Solomon, nor yet David him-
If, if the Clirist of the Lord is delayed. For whQe all the
ings are called His christSj who were consecrated with that
Mystical chrism, not only from king David downwards, but
^vea from that Saul who first was anointed king of that same
people, David himself indeed calling Mm the Lord's clirist,

I • Acta ix. 4. » Ts. Ixxxix. 3i. 35. * Ps. Ixxxix. 30. 37.

' Acta ix. 4.
* P». Ixxxii. 33.
VOU II.

■Ts. Ixxxix. 3i. 35.
■ ?«. lixxix, 38,

194 THE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK XVTI

yet there was one true Christ, whose figure they bore by the
prophetic unction, who, according to the opinion of men, who
thought he was to be understood as come in David or in
Solomon, was long delayed, but who, according as God had
disposed, waa to come in Hia own tima The following pan
of this psalm goes on to say what in the meantijne, while He
was delayed, was to become of the kingdom of the earthly
Jerusalem, where it was hoped He would certainly reigo:
" Thou hast overthrown the covenant of Thy servant ; Thou
hast profaned in the earth his sanctuary. Thou hast broken
down all his walls ; Thou hast put his strongholds in fear.
All that pass by the way spoil liim ; he is made a reproach
to his neighboura. Thou hast set up the right hand of his
enemies ; Thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice. Then
hast turned aside the help of his sword, and hast not helped
him in war. Tliou hast destroyed him from cleansing ; Thou
hast dashed down his seat to the grounil Thou hast short-
ened the days of his seat ; Thou hast poured confusion over
Ixim."^ All these things camo upon Jerusalem the bond
woman, in which some also reigned who were eliildren of the
free woman, holding that kingdom in temporary stewardship,
but holding the kingdom of the heavenly Jerusalem, whose
children they were, in true faith, and hoping in the tnie
Cliriat. But how these things came upon that kingdom, the
history of its affairs points out if it is read.

11. 0/Uu tulmtatue qf the people o/Ood, whkh through ffis njunttnptitm tf
Jtah U in Ckritt, who cUone had power to deliver IJis own soul from hell.

But after having prophesied these things, the prophet be
takes him to praying to God ; yet even the very prayer i^
prophecy: "How long, Lord, dost Thou turn nway in tb^
end?"' "Thy face" is understood, as it is elsewhere sai(ir.
" How long dost Thou turn away Thy face from me ?" ' Fo^
therefore some copies have here not " dost " but " wilt Thot^
turn away;" although it could be understood, "Thou tume
away Thy mercy, which Thou didst promise to David." BnC^
when he says, " in the end," what does it mean, except even*-
to the end 1 By which end is to be understood the last time,
when even that nation is to believe in Christ Jesus, before
' Pa. Uxxix. 39-i5. > Ft. boxix. 40. * Pi. xiU. I.

which end what He has just sorrowfully bewailed must come
to pass. On account of which it is also added here, " Thy
"Wrath shall burn like fue. Remember what is my sub-
stance."^ This cannot be better understood than of Jesus
Eimself, the substance of Hia people, of whose nature His
fiesh is, " For not in vain," he says, " hast Thou made all the
aons of men."' For unless the one Son of man had been the
substance of Israel, through which Son of man many sons of
luen should be set free^ all the sous of men would have been
made wholly in vain. But now indeed all mankind through
tJie fall of the first man has fallen from the truth into vanity ;
T which reason another psalm says, " Man is like to vanity :
days pass away as a shadow ;"' yet God has not made all
\he sons of men in vain, because He frees many from vanity
throogh the Mediator Jesus, and those whom He did not fore-
know as to be delivered, He made not wholly in vain in the
most beautiful and most just ordination of the whole rational
creation, for the use of those who were to be delivered, and
£or the comparison of the two cities by muttial contrast
Thereafter it follows, " Who is the man that shall live, and
all not see death ? shall he snatch his soul from the hand
liell?"* Who is this but that substance of Israel out of
seed of David, Christ Jesus, of whom the apostle says,
that " rising from the dead He now dieth not, and death shall
no more have dominion over Him ?"* For He shall so live and
not see death, that yet He shall have been dead ; but shall
hax^ delivered His soul from the hand of hell, whither He had
descended in order to loose some from the chains of hell ; but
He hath delivered it by that power of wliich He says in the
Gospel, " I have the power of laying down my life, and I have
the power of taking it again."*

To tpho4e person the entrtaty for the promises is lobe taidersiood to hdonfff
toAoi he saj/s in tfie pMim, ** Whtre are Thine ancient etnnpataionSt
LordTetc.

But the rest of this psalm runs thus : " Where are Thine
tncLent compassions, Lord, which Thou swarest unto David in
Ihy truth ? Kemember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants,

^The

^ Pi. liiMX. 46, 47.
*Pi.lxxxaz.4«.

• Ps. Ixjcxii. 47.

* Bom. -n. 9.

» Ps. cilir. 4.
•JohnjL 18.

196 THE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK XTIL

which I have borne in my bosom of many nations ; where-
with Thine enemies have reproached, 0 l/>rd, wlierewith they
have reproached the change of Thy Christ."^ Now it may
with very good reason be asked whether this is spoken in the
person of those Israelites who desired that the promise made
to David laight be fulfilled to them j or rather of the Chris-
tians, who are Israelites not after the Hesb but after the
Spii'it.^ T!iiy certainly was spoken or written in the time of
Ethan, from whose name this psalm gets its title, and tliflt
was the same as the time of David's reign ; and therefore it
would not have been said, " W^ere are Thine ancient com-
passions, Lord, which Tliou hast sworn unto David in Thy
truth ?" unless the prophet had assumed the person of those
who should come lou^; afterwards, to whom tliat time when
these things were promised to David was ancient But it
may be understood thus, that many nations, when they perse-
cuted the Christians, reproached them with the passion of
Christ, which Scripture calls His chan;;e, because by dying
He is made imniortaL The change of Christ, accordinij tfi
this passage, may also be undei*stood to be repi-onclu^d by the
Israelites, because, when they hoped He would be theiis, He
was made the Saviour of the nations ; and many nations vho
have believed in Him by the New Testament now reproacli
them who remain in tlie old witli this: so that it is said, "He-
member, Lord, the reproach of Thy sewants ;" because through
the Lord's not foi-gettiug, but ratlier pityinj:; tliem, even they
after this reproach are to believe. But wliat I have put first
seems to me the most suitable meaning. For to the enemies
of Christ who are reproached with this, that Christ hath left
them, turning to the Gentiles,' this speech is incongmously
assigned, " Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants,'*
for such Jews are not to be styled the sen-ants of God ; but
these words fit those who, if they suffered great humiliations
tlu*ough persecution for the name of Christ, could call to mind
that an cxfiltcd kingdom had been promised to tlic seed of
David, aud in desire of it, could say not despairingly, but as
asking, seeking, knocking,* " Wliere are Thine ancient compas-

1 Pa. IxxxLY. 49-51. « Rom. iii. 28, 29.

« AcU xiii. 40. * iiatt vii. 7, 8.

BOOK XVn.] CHRIST RKFKRRKD TO IN TITK PSALMS.

sions, Lord, which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth ? Ite-
member, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants, that I have home
in my hosom of many nations ;" that is, have patiently endured
in my inward parts. " That Thine enemies have reproached,
O Lonl, wherewith they have reproached the change of Thy
Christ," not thinldng it a change, but a constiniption.' lint what
does "Iiemember, Lord," mean, but that Thou wonldst have
compassion, and wouldst for my patiently borne humiliation
reward me with the excellency which Thou sM'arest luito David
in Thy truth ? But if we assign these words to Uie Jews,
those servants of God who, on the conquest of the eai-thly
Jerusalem, before Jesus Ciirist was bom after the manner of
men, were led into captivity, could say such things, under-
standing the change of Chi'ist, because indeed through Him
was to be surely expected, not an eartlily and carnal felicity,
such as appeared during the few years of king Solomon, but a
heavenly and spiritual felicity ; and wheii the nations, then
i^orant of this through unbelief, exulted over and insulted
the people of God for being captives, what else was this than
iguomntly to reproach ^vith the change of Clu-isfc those who
understand the change of Christ ? And therefore what fol-
lows when this psalm is concluded, " Let the blessing of the
Lord be for evennore, amen, amen," is suitable enough for
the whole people of God belonging to the heavenly Jerusalem,
whether for those things that lay hid in the Old Testament
before the Kew was revealed, or for those that, being now
revealed in the New Testament, are manifestly discerned to
belong to Christ. Por the blessing of the Lord in the seed of
David docs not belong to any particular time, such as ap-
peared in the days of Solomon, but is for evermore to be
hoped for, in which most certain hope it is said, " Amen,
amen ;" for this repetition of the word is the confinnation of
that hope. Therefore David understanding this, says in the
second Book of Kings, in the passage from which we digressed
to this psalui,^ " Thou Imst spoken also for Thy servant's liouse
for a gi*eat wliile to conie."^ Therefore also a little after he
Bays, " Now begin, and bless the house of Thy servant for ever-

* See above, cluip. riii.

* Another reaiHng, "consummatitm.'*
'2 Sam. vii. 19.

198

THE CITY OF GOD,

[book xvn.

more," etc., because the son was then about to be bom from
whom his posterity should be continued to Clirist, through
whom his house should be eternal, and should also be the
house of God, For it is called the house of David on accoimt
of David's race ; but the selfsame is called the house of God
on account of the temple of God, made of men, not of stones^
where shall dwell for evermore the people with and in their
God, and God with and in His people, so that God may fill
His people, and the people be filled with their God, while God
shall be all in all. Himself their rewai-d in peace who is their
strength in war. Therefore, when it is said in the words of
Nathan, " And the Lord will tell thee what an house thou
shalt build for Him,"* it is afterwards said in the words of
David, " For Thou^ Lord Almighty, God of Israel, hast opened
the ear of Thy servant, saying, I will build thee an house." *
For this house is built both by us through living well, and by
God through helping us to live well ; for " except the Lord
build the house, they labour in vain that build it."* And
when the final dedication of this house shall take place, then
what God here says by Nathan shall be fulfilled, "And I
will appoint a place far my people Israel, and will plant him,
and he shall dwell apart, and shall be troubled no more ; and
the son of iniquity shall not humble him any more, as from
the beginning, from the days when I appointed judges over my
people Israel"*

13. WlKther tfte truth afthU promued peace can he oKribed to thorn

poiKd awfjy undfT Solomon.

Whoever hopes for this so great good in this world, and
in this earth, his wisdom is but folly. Can any one think it
was fidiiUed in the peace of Solomon's reign ? Scripture cer-
tainly commends that peace with excellent praise as a shadow
of that which is to come. But this opinion is to be vigilantly
opposed, since after it is said, " And the son of iniquity shall
not humble him any more/* it is immediately added, " as from
the beginning, from the days in which I appointed judges
over my people Israel/"^ For the judges were appointed over
that people from the time when they received the land of

rer mj i

* 2 Sam. viL 8.
<2Sam. vii. 10, 11.

» 2 Sam. vii. 27.
*2Sani. viL 10, U.

Ps. cxxrii. 1.

BATTT) 3 MKAyrVn m THK PSAI.M3.

199

prom^e, l)efore kings had begun to be there. And certainly
the son of iniquity, that is, the foreign enemy, humbled him
through periods of time in which we read that peace alter-
nated with wars ; and in that period longer times of peace are
found than Solomon had, who reigned forty years. For under
that judge who is called Ehud there were eighty years of
peace.' Be it far from us, therefore, that we shoiUd believe
the times of Solomon arc predicted in this promise, much less
indeed those of any other king whatever. For none other of
them reigned in such great peace as he ; nor did that nation
ever at all hold that kingdom so as to have no anxiety lest it
sliould be subdued by enemies : for in the very great muta-
bility of human affairs such great security is never given to
any people, that it should not dread invasions hostile to this
life. Therefore the place of this promised peacefid and secure
habitation is etenial, and of right belongs eternally to Jeru-
salem the fi'ee mother, where the genuine people of Israel
shall be : for this name is interpreted " Seeing God ; " in the
desire of which reward a pious life is to be led through faith
in this miserable pilgi-image.^

14. 0/David'» concern m the writing of the Paalmn.

In the progress of the city of God tlirough the ages, there-
fore, David first reigned in the eaithly Jerusalem as a sliadow
of that which was to come. Now David was a man skilled
in songs, who dearly loved musical harmony, not with a
vulgar delight, but with a believing disposition, and by it
served his God, who is the true God, by the mystical repre-
sentation of a great thing. For the rational and well-ordered
concord of diverse sounds in harmonious variety suggests the
compact unity of the well-ordered city. Then almost all his
prophecy is in psalms, of which a hundred and fifty are con-
tained in what we call the Book of Psalms, of which some
■will have it those only were made by David which are in-
scribed with his name. But there are also some who think
none of them were made by him except those which are
marked "Of David;" but those which have in the title "For

' Jndg. iiL 30.

« l«»l=."aprmceof6od;" Peuiel=:"th« lace ofOod" (Gen. ixxii. 28-30).

200

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xvn.

David " have been made "by others who assumed his per-
son. Which opinion is refuted by the voice of the Saviour
Himself in the Gospel, when He says that David himself
by the Spii'it said Christ was his Lord ; for the 110th Psalm
begins thus, " The Lord sfiid unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my
right hand, until I juake Thine enemies Tliy footstool"* And
tiaily that very psalm, like many more, has in the title, not
" of David/' but " for David." But those seem to me to hold
the more credible opinion, who ascribe to him the authorship
of all these hundred and fifty psalms, and tliink that he pre-
fixed to some of them the names even of other men, who
prehgured iiomething ptiitineut to the matter, but chose to
have no man's name in the titles of the rest, just as God
inspired him in the management of this variety, wliich,
although dark, is not meaningless. Xeither ought it to mora
one not to believe this, that tlie names of some prophets who
lived long after the times of king David are read in the
inscriptions of certain psalms in that book, and that the
things said there seem to be spoken as it were by them.
Nor was the prophetic Spirit unable to reveal to king David,
when he prophesied, even these names of future prophets, so
that he might prophetically sing something whicli should suit
their jjcrsons ; just as it was revealed to a certain prophet
that king Josiah should arise and reign after moi^ than three
Inmdrcd years, who predicted his future deeds also along with
his name.'*

15. WltWicr all the Uiintja propheMd m tJa Psalms eoneerning Christ and Sit
Church should be t<tken up in the text of Otis tcork.

And now I see it may be expectM of me tliat I shall open
up in this part of this book what David may have prophesied
in the Psal ms concerni ng the Lord Jesn s Christ or His
Church. lint although I have already done so in one in-
stance, I am prevented from doing as that expectation seems
to demand, rather by the abundance than the scarcity of
matter. For the necessity of shunning prolixity forbids my
setting down all things ; yet I fear lest if I select some I shall
appear to many, whu know these things, to have passed by

* Pe. ex. 1, quoted in Malt xxii. ii.

' 1 Kings xuL 2 ; fulfilled 2 Kings SLJuii IS-IT,

K x%ni.] THE FORTY'Frrrn PSAur. 201

the more necessary. Besidea, the proof that is adduced ought
to be supported by the context of tlie whole psalni, so that
at least there may be nothing against it if ever}'thing does
not support it ; lest we should seem, after the fashion of the
centos, to gather for the thing we wish, as it were vorscs out
of a grand poem, what shall be found to have been written
not about it, but about some other and widely different thing.
But ere this could be pointed out- in each psalm, the whole
of it must be expounded ; and liow gi'cat a work that would
be, the volumes of others, as well as our own, in which we
bave done it, show well enough. Let him then who will,
or can, read tliese volumes, and he will find out how many
and great things David, at once king and prophet, has pro-
phesied concerning Christ and His Church, to wit, concerning
the King and the city whicli He has built.

19. Cifth^ things pertaining to Christ ami thf Church, said eitJur opmhj or

■ trupkally m l/ie ICCA Fsaim.

For whatever direct and manifest prophetic utterances there
may be about anything, it is necessary that those which are
tropical should be mingled with tliem ; whichj chiefly on
account of those of slower understanding, thrust upon the
more learned the laborious task of clearing up and expound-
ing them. Some of them, indeed, on the very first blush, as
soon as they are spoken, exliibit Christ and the Church,
although some things in them that are less intelligible remain
to be expounded at leisure. We have an example of this
in tliat same Book of Psalms: "My heart bubbled up a good
matter ; I utter my words to the king. My tongue is the pen
of a scribe, MTiting swiftly. Thy form is beautiful beyond the
sous of men ; grace is i>oured out in Thy lips : therefore God
hath blessed Thee for evermore. Giinl Thy aword about Thy
thigh, 0 Most Mighty. "With Thy goodhness and Thy beauty
go forward, pi*oceed prosperously, and reign, because of Thy
truth, and meekness, and righteousness ; and Thy right hand
shall lead Thee forth wonderfully. Thy sharp arrows are most
powerful The people shall fall under Thee : in the heart of
the King's enemies. Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever :
a rf»d of direction is the rod of Thy kingdom. Thou hast
loved righteousness^ and hast hated initj^uity : therefoi^ God,

202 THE CHY OF GOD. [BOOK XVIJ.

Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of exultation above
Thy fellows. Myrrh and drops, and cassia from Thy vest-
ments, from the houses of ivory : out of which the daughters
of kings have delighted Thee in Thine honour."^ Who is there,
no matter how slow, but must here recognise Christ whom
we preach, and in whom we beUeve, if he hears that He

God, whose throne is for ever and ever, and that He is
inointcd by God, as God indeed anoints, not with a visible,
but with a spiiitual and intelligible chrism ? For who ia so
untaught in this religion, or so deaf to its far and wide spread
fame, as not to know that Christ is named from this chrism,
that is. from this anointing ? But when it is acknowledged
that this King is Christ, let each one who is already subject to
Him who reigns because of truth, meekness, and righteousness,
inquire at his leisure into these other things that are here
said tropically : how His form is beautiful beyond the sons
of men, with a certain beauty that is the more to be loved
and admired the less it is corporeal; and what His sword,
arrows, and other things of that kind may be, which are set
down, not properly, but tropicallv.

Then let him look upon His Church, joined to her so great
Husband in spiritual marriage and divine love, of which it is
said iu these words which follow, "The queen stood upon
Thy right liand in gold-embroidered vestment^, girded abont
with variety. Hearken, O daughter, and look, and incline
tliine ear ; forget also thy people^ and thy father's house.
Becaiise the King hath greatly desired thy beauty ; for He ia
the Loi'd thy God. And the daughters of Tyre shaH worship
Him with gifts ; the rich among the people shall entreat Thy
face. The daughter of the King has all her glory within, iu
golden fringes, girded about with variety. The virgins shall
be brought after her to the King: her neighbours shall be
brought to Thee. They shall be brought with gladness and
exultation : they shall be led into the temple of the King.
Instead of thy fathers, sons shall be bom to thee : thou shalt
establish them as princes over all the earth They shall be
mindful of thy name in every generation and descent. There-
fore shall the people acknowledge thee for evermore, even for

» Pg. xiv, l-».

)0K xvn,]

ff irORTT-nFTH PSALM.

ever and ever."^ I do not think any one is so stupid as to
believe that some poor woman ia here praised and described,
as the spouse, to •wit, of Him to whom it is said, " Thy tlirone,
O God, is for ever and ever : a rod of direction is the rod of
Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated ini-
quity : therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the
oil of exultation above Thy fellows ;'*' that is, plainly, Christ
above Christians. For these are His fellows, out of the unity
and concord of whom in all nations that queen is formed,
sa it is said of her in another psalm, " The city of the great
King,"' The same is Sion spiritually, which name in Latin
is interpreted specnlcUio (discovery) ; for she descries the
great good of the world to come, because her attention is
directed thither. In the same way she is also Jerusalem
spiritually, of which we have already said many things. Her
enemy is the city of the devil, Babylon, which is interj)reted
" confusion." Yet out of this Babylon this queen is in all
nations set free by regeneration, and passes from the worst
to the best King, — that is, from the devil to Christ Where-
fore it is said to her, " Forget thy people and thy father's
house." Of this impious city those also are a portion who
are Israelites only in the Hesh and not by faith, enemies also
of this great King Himself, and of His queen. For Christ,
having come to them, and been slain by them, has the more
become the King of others, whom He did not see in the flesh.
Whence our Kiii^ Himself says tlu*ough the prophecy of a
OCTtain psalm, " Thou wilt deliver me fi-om the contradictions
of the people ; Thou wilt make me head of the nationa A
people whom T have not known hath Rcrved me : in the hear-
ing of the ear it hath obeyed me."* Therefore this people of
the nations, which Christ did not know in His bodily presence,
yet has believed in that Christ as announced to it ; so that it
might be said of it with good reason, " In tho hearing of the
ear it hath obeyed me" for " faith is by hearing."* This
people, I say, added to those who are the true Israelites both
by the flesh and by faith, is the city of God, which has
brought forth Christ Himflelf according to the flesh, since He

* P«. xItUL 2.

' Pa. xlv. 9-17.
« Pi. xriii. 43.

' Pa. xIt. 7.
■ Kom. X. 6,

204:

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XVIL

was in tliese Israelites only. For tlience came the Virgin
Mary, in wliom Christ aasunied flesh that He might be man.
Of which city another psalm says, " Mother Sion, shall a man
eay, and the man is made in her, and the Highest HimscK
hath founded her." * Who is this Highest, save God ? And
thus Christ, who is God, before He became man through Mary
in that city. Himself founded it by the patiiorchs and prophets
As therefore was said by prophecy so long before to this queen,
the city of Cod, what we already can see fulfilled, " Instead
of thy fathers, sous are born to thee ; thou shalt make them
princes over all the earth ;"* so ont of her sons truly are set
up even her fathers [princes] through all the eartli, wlien the
people, coming together to her, confess to her with the con-
fession of eternal praise for ever and ever. Beyond doubt,
whatever interpretation is put on what is here expressed
somewliat darkly in figurative language, ttught to be in agree-
ment with these most manifest things.

17, 0/ those things in tht 3 IOj'A Pgolm which TcUUe to ike priesthood o/Chrittj
and ill the 22d to JJ is passion.

Just as in that psalm also where Clirist is most openly
proclaimed as Tricst, even as He is here as King, *' The Lord
said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my right liand, until I make
Thine enemies Thy footstool."* That Clirist sits on the right
hand of God the Father is believed, not seen ; that His ene-
mies also are put under His feet doth not yet appear ; it is
being done, [therefore] it will appear at last : yea, this is now
believed, afterward it shall be aeeu. But what follows, " Tiie
Lord will send forth the rod of Thy strength out of Sion, ftnd
rulo Thou in the midst of Tliine enemies,"* is so clear, that to
deny it would imply not merely unbelief and mistake, but
downright impudence. And even enemies must certainly
confess that out of Sion has been sent the law of Christ which
we call tlie gospel, and acknowledge as the rod of His strength.
But that He rules in the midst of His enemies, these same
enemies among whom He rules themselves bear witness,
gnasliing their teeth and consuming away, and having power
to do nothing against Him, Thea what he says a httle after,

' Pb. Ixxxvii. 6.
» Pa. ex. 1.

• Ps. xlv. 16
*rs. ex. 2.

THE nUKDEED ANT) TENTH PSALM.

205

*' The I-ord hath sworn and will not repent,"* by which words
He intimates that whnt He adds is immutable, "Thou art a
priest for ever after the order of MelchizeJek/'' who is per-
mitted to doubt of whom these things are said, seeing that
now there is nowhere a priesthood and sacrifice after the
order of Aaron, and everywhere men ofler under Christ as the
Priest, which Melchizedek showed when he blessed Abraham ?
Tlierefore to these manifest thiu^ are to be referred, when
rightly understood, those things in the same psalm tlut are set
down a little more obscurely, and we Lave already made known
in our popular sermons how these things are to be ri^^htly under-
fitood. So also in tliat where Christ utters through jintphecy
tlie humiliation of His passion, saying, " They pierced my
hands and feet ; they counted all my bonea Yea, they looked
end stared at me."^ By wliich woi-ds he certainly meant His
body stretched out on the cross, with the hands and feet pierced
and perforated by the striking through of tlie nails, and that
He had in that way made Himself a spectacle to those who
looked and stared. And he adds, " They parted my garments
among them, and over my vesture they cast lots."* How
this prophecy lias been fulfilled the Gospel history narrates.
Then, indeed, the other things also which are said there less
openly are rightly understood when they agree with those
which shine with so great clearness ; especially because those
things also which we do not believe aa past, but survey as
present, are beheld by the whole world, being now exhibited
just as they arc read of in this very psahn as predicted so
long before. For it is there said a little after, " All the ends
of the earth shnll remoiiiber, and turn unto the T^ord, and all
the kindi'eds of tlie nations shall worship before Him ; for the
kingdom is the Lord's, and He shall rule the nations."

IS. OfOie Zd, ilstj 15/^, and 6Sf/i Pgahiu, in which the death and ruurreetioH
of the Lord are prophesied.

About His resurrection also the oracles of the Psalms are
by no means silent. For what else is it that is sung in His
person in the 3d Psalm, " I laid me down and took a sleep,
[and] I awaked, for the Lord shall sustain me?"* la there

» Ps. ex. 4.

* Pft. xxii. 18, 19.

« Pk ex. 4.
B Ps. iil 5.

» P». xxiL 16, 17.

206

THE CITY OF GOD.

[itOOK XVIL

perchance any one so stupid as to believe that the prophet
chose to point it out to us as something great that He had
slept and risen up. unless that sleep had been death, and that
awaking the resurrection, which behoved to be thus pn>
phesied concerning Christ ? For in the 41st Psalm also it is
shown much more clearly, where in the person of the Mediator,
in the usual way, things are narrated as if past which were
prophesied as yet to come, since these things whicli were yet
to come were in the predestination and foreknowledge of God
as if they were done, because they were certain. He says,
" Mine enemies speak evil of me ; "When shall he die, and his
name perish ? And if he came in to see me, his heart spake
vain things : he gathered iniquity to himself He went out
of doors, and uttered it all at once. Against me all mine
enemies whisper together: against me do they devise evil
They have planned an unjust thing against me. Shall not
he that sleeps also rise again ?"* These words are certainly
so set down here that he may be understood to say nothing
else than if he said. Shall not He that died recover life again ?
The previous words clearly show Uiat His enemies have medi-
tated and planned His death, and that this was executed by
him who came in to see, and went out to betray. But to
whom does not Judas here occur, who, from being His dis-
ciple;, became His betrayer ? Therefore because they were
about to do what they had plotted, — that is, were about to
kiU Him, — he, to show them that with useless malice they
were about to kill Him who should rise again, so adds this
verse, as if he said, What vain thing are you doing ? What
will be your crime will be my sleep. " Shall not He that
sleeps also rise again ?" And yet he indicates in the follow-
ing verses that they should not commit so great an impiety
with impunity, saying, " Yea, the man of my peace in whom
I trusted, who ate ray bread, hath enlarged the heel over
me,
saith,

may requite them."^ Who can now deny this who sees the

Jews, after the passion and resurrection of Christ, utterly

rooted up from their abodes by warlike slaughter and de-

> Pa. xlL 6-fi. 5 Pa. xlL 9, « Pa. ili 10.

"^ that is, hath trampled me under foot " But Thou," he
' 0 Lord, bo merciful unto me, and raise me up, that I

RPRETATION OF THE PSAL51S,

stxuction ? For, being slain bj^ them, He has risen again, and
has requited them meanwhile by temporary discipline, save
that for those who are not corrected He keeps it in store for
the time when He shall judge the quick and the dead.' For
the Lord Jesus Himself, in pointing out that very man to the
apostles as His betrayer, quoted this very verse of this psalm,
and said it was fulfilled in Himself : '* He that ate my bread
eulai^d the heel over me." But what he says, " In whom I
U'usted/* does not suit the liead but the body. For the
Saviour Himself was not ignorant of him concerning whom
He had already said before, " One of you is a devil." ^ But
He is wont to assume the person of His members, and to
ascribe to Himself what should be said of them, because the
head and the body is one Chiist ; ' whence that saying in the
Gospel, "1 was an hungered, and ye gave me to eat."* Ex-
poimding which, He says, " Since ye did it to one of the least
of mine, yc did it to mc." * Therefore He said that He had
trusted, because His disciples then had trusted concerning
Judas ; for he was numbored with the apostles.**

But the Jews do not expect that the Christ whom they
expect wdl die ; therefore they do not think ours to be Him
whom the law and the prophets announced, but feign to
themselves I know not whom of their own, exempt from the
suffering of death. Therefore, with wonderful emptiness and
blindness, they contend that the words we have set down
signify, not death and resurrection, but sleep and awaking
again. But the IGUi PsaLm also cries to them, " Therefore
my heart is jocund, and my tongue hath exulted ; moreover,
my flesh also shall rest in hojie : for Thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell ; neither ^vilt Thou give Thine Holy One to see
corruption;'^ Who but He that rose again the third day
could say His flesh had rested in this hope ; that His soul,
not being left in hell, but speedily returning to it, should
revive it, that it shoiJd not be corrupted as corpses are wont
to be, which they can in no wise say of David the propliet and
king 1 The GSth Psalm also cries out, " Our God is the God

* 2 Tim. iv. 1 ; 2 P«t iv. 5.

* Matt. XXV. 36.
7 Fa. xri. 0, 10.

2 John vi 70.
^ lUtt zxT. 40.

* 1 Cor. xii 12.
< Acta! 17.

20S

THE Cn\- OF GOD.

[book xva

of salvation : even of the Lord the exit was by death."* Wliat
cnuld bo more openly said ? For the God of salvation is the
Lord Jesus, which is interpreted Saviour, or Healing One. for
this reason this name was given^ when it was said before He was
born of tlie viigin : " Tliou shalt bring forth a Son, and shalt
call His name Jeans ; for He shall save His people from tlieir
sins,'"' Because HLa blood was shed for tlie remission of their
sins, it behov^ed Hini to have no other exit from tliis life than
death. Therefore^ when it had been said, " Our God is the God
of salvation," immediately it was added, " Even of the Lord the
exit was by death," in order to show that we were to be saved
by His dyin;]^. But that saying is marvellous, " Even of the
Lord/' as if it was said, Such is that life of mortals, that not
even the Lord Himself could go out of it otherwise save
tlu'ough death.

IB. Of the t%th Pmlfti, in teJiieh the ohetlnate unbeliff of the Jtvs is
declared.

Eut when the Jews will not in the least yield to the testi-
monies of tliis prophecy, which are so manifest, and are also
brought by events to so clear and certain a completion, cer-
tainly that is fulfilled in them which is written in that psalm
which here follows. For when the things wliich pertain to
His passion are prophetically spoken there also in the person
of Christ, that is niuutioned wliich is unfolded in the Gospel:
" Tliey gave me gall for my meat ; and in my thirst they gave
me vinegai* for di'iiiL"* And as it were after such a feast
and dainties in this way given to Himself, presently He
brings in [these woixis] : " Let their table become a trap before
them, and a retribution, and an offence : let their eyes be
dunmed that they see not, and their back be always bowed
down/'* etc. AVliich things are not spoken as wished for,
but arc predicted under the prophetic form of wishing. Wlmt
wonder, then, if those whose eyes are dimmed that they see
not do not see these manifest things ? What wonder if
those do not look up at heavenly things whoso back is always
bowed down that they may grovel among earthly tlungs ?
For these words transferred from the body signify mental

' Pa. Ixriii. 20.

» Pa, Ixix. 21 ; iUtt ixvii. 34, iS,

» Matt i. 21.

* I'a. ixix. 22. 23.

»0K XVII.]

THE BOOKS OF SOLOMOX.

209

faults. Let these things which have been said about the
Psalms, that is, about king David's prophecy, suffice, tliat we
may keep within some bound. But loL tliose readers excuse us
who knew them all before ; and let them not complain about
those perhaps stronger proofs which they know or think I
Lave passed by.

20. Of David'i reiffn and merit ; and of his son Sohmon, and that prophecy
relatmg to CJir'ut which U found eitfier in ihoae hoohs which are joined to
those ierittcn hy him, or in tfioae which arc induhilably hia.

David therefore reigned in the eartlily Jerusalem, a son
of the heavenly Jerusalem, much praised by the divine testi-
mony ; for even his faults are overcome by great piety, through
the most salutary humility of his repentance, that he is alto-
getlier one of those of whom he himself says, " Blessed are
tliey whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered."^
After him Solomon his son reigned over the same wliole people,
who, as was said before, began to reign while his father was
still alive. This man, after good beginnings, made u bad end.
For indeed "prosperity, which wears out the minds of the wise,"'
hurt him more than that wisdom profited him, which even
yet is and shall hereafter be renowned, and was then praised
far and wide. He also is Jound to have prophesied in his
books, of which three are received as of canonical authority.
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs. But it has
been customary to ascribe to Solomon other two, of which one
is called Wisdom, the other Ecclesiasticua, on account of some
resemblance of style, — but the moi*e learned have no doubt
that they are not his ; yet of old the Church, especially
the Western, received them into authority, — in the one of
which, called the Wisdom of Solomon, tlie paaaion of Clirist
is most openly prophesied. For indeed His impious mur-
derers are quoted as sajdng, " Let us lie in wait for the
righteous^ for he is unpleasant to us, and contrary to our
works ; and he upbraideth us with our transgressions of the
law, and ohjccteth to our disgrace the transgressions of our
education. He professeth to have the knowledge of God, and
he calleth hinjself the Son of God. He was made to reprove
our thoughts. He is giievous for us even to behold ; for his

' Ps. xxxii. 1. * Sidlubt, BcL Cat c. xi,

VOL IL 0

210

TBE CITY OF GOD.

[book xm

life is unlike other men's, and his ways are different. We
are esteemed of him as coimterfeits ; and he abstaineth from
our ways as from filthines.s. He extols the latter end of the
righteous ; and glorieth tliat he hath God for his Father. Let
us see, therefore, if his words be true ; and let us try what
shall happen to him, and we shall know what shall be the
end of him. For if the righteous be the Son of God, He will
imdertake for him, and deliver him out of the hand of those
thftt are ugiiinst him. Lfit us put him to the question with
c<M3tumely and torture, that we may know his reverence, and
prove his patience. Let us condemn him to the most shame-
ful death ; for by His own sayings He shall be respected
These things did they ima^rine, and were mistaken ; for their
own malice hath quite blinded them."^ But in Ecclesiasticus
the future faith of tliu nations is predicted in this manner:
" Have mercy upon us, 0 God, Ruler of all, and send Thy fear
upon all the nations : lift up Tliine hand over the strange
nations, and let them see Thy power As Thou wast sancti-
fied in us before them, so be Thou sanctified in them before
us, and let them aclcnowledge Thee, according as we also have
acknowledged Thee ; for there is not a God beside Thee, 0
Lord," ^ We see this prophecy in the form of a wish and
prayer fulfilled througli Jesus Christ. But the things which
are not wrilttin in the canon of the Jews cannot be quoted
against their contradictions with so great validity.

But as regards those three books which it is evident are
Solomon's, and held canonical by the Jews, to show what of
this koad may be found in them pertaining to Christ and the
Church demands a laborious discussion, which, if now entered
on, would lengthen this work unduly. Yet what wc read in ;
the Proverbs of impious men saying, "Let us unrighteously |
liidc in the eai-th the righteous man ; yea, let us s^vaUow him
up alive as hell, and let us take away his memory from the
earth : let ua seize his precious possession," ^ is not so obscure '
that it may not be understood, without laborious exposition,
of Christ and His possession the Church. Indeed, the gospel
parable about the wicked husbandmen shows that our Lord
Jesus Himself said something bke it : " This ia the heir • come,
1 WUd. ii. 12-21. « Eccliia. xxxtL 1-5. » Prov. i. 11-13.

COOK XVII.]

THE BOOKS OP SOLOMON.

211

let 113 Idll him, and the inheritance shall be cuts." ^ In like
manner also that passage in thiB same book, on which vre have
already touched* when we were speaking of the banen woman
who hath bom seven, must soon after it was uttered have
come to be understood of only Christ and the Church by those
who knew that Christ was the Wisdom of God. " Wisdom
hath builded her an house, and hath set up seven pillars ; she
hath sacrificed her victims, she hath mingled her wine in the
bowl ; she hath also furnished her table. She hath sent her
servants summoning to the bowl with excellent proclama-
tion, saying, Who is simple, let him turn aside to me. And
to the void of sense she hath said, Come, eat of my bread,
and drink of the wine which I have mingled for yoiL" ' Here
certainly we perceive that the Wisdom of God, that is, the
Word co-eternal Mith the Father, hath builded Him an house,
even a human body in the virgin womb, and hath subjoined
tlie Church to it as members to a head, hath slain the martyrs
as victims, Imth furnished a table with wine and biead, where
appears also the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, and
hath called the simple and the void of sense, because, as saith
the apostle, " He hath chosen the weak things of this world
that He might confound tho things which are mighty."* Yet
to these weak ones she saith what follows, " Forsake simpli-
city, that ye may live ; and seek prudence, that ye may have
lifa"' But to be made partakers of this table is itself to
begin to have life. For when he says in another book, which
13 called Ecclcsiastes, "There is no good for a man, except
that he should eat and drink," ' what can he be more credibly
understood to say, than what belongs to the participation of
this table which the Mediator of the New Testament Himself,
the Priest after the order of Melchizedek, furnishes witli His
own body and blood ? For that sacrifice has succeeded nil
the sacrifices of the Old Testament, which were slain as a
shadow of that which was to come; wherefore also we re-
cognise the voice in the 40tli Psalm as that of the some
tdiator speaking through prophesy, " Sacrifice and offering

1 Matt ixi. 38. • Ch. 4.

* Prov. ix. 1-5 (ver, 1 is quoted above in oh. i). * 1 Cor. i. 27.

* Prov. ix. 6. ' Eccles. U. 24, liL 13, v. 18, viiL 15.

212 Tire CITY OF GOD. [DOOK XYH.

Thou didst not desire ; hut a body hast Thou perfected for me."*
Because, instead of all these sacrifices and oblations. His body
is offered, and is served up to the partakers of it For that
this Ecclesiastes, in this sentence about eating and drinkiji;:,
which he often repeats, and very much commends, does not
savour the dainties of carnal pleasures, is made phiin enough
wlien he says, " It is better to go into tlie house of mourning
than to go into the house of feasting." * And a little after
He flayg, "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
and the heart of the simple in the house of feasting." ' But
I think that more worthy of quotation from this book whidi
relates to both cities, the one of the devil, the other of Christ,
and to thpir kings, the devil and Christ : " Woe to thee, O land,'
he says, "when thy king is a youth, and thy princes eat in
the morning! Blessed art thou, O Ifind, when tby king is the
son of nobles, and thy princes eat in season, in fortitude, and
not in confusion!"* He has called the devil a youth, because
of the folly and pride, and rashness and unruliness, and other
vices which are wont to abound at that age ; but Christ is the
Son of nobles, that is, of the holy patriarchs, of those belong-
inj^ to the free city, of whom He was begotten in the flesh.
The princes of that and other cities are eaters in the morning,
that is, before the suitable hour, because they do not expect
the seasonable felicity, which is the true, in the world to come,
desiring to bo speedily mada hapjjy with the renown of this
world ; but the princes of the city of Christ patiently wait
fur the time of a blessedness that is not fallacious. This is
expressed by the words, " in fortitude, and not in confusion,"
because hope does not deceive them ; of which the apostle
says, "But hope maketli not ashamed."' A psalm also saith,
" For they that hope in Thee shall not be put to shame."*
But now the Song of Songs is a certain spiritiml pleasure of
holy minds, in the marriage of that ICing and Queen-city, that
is, Christ and the Churclt But this .pleasure is -wrapped up
in allegorical veils, that the Bridegroom may be more ardently
desired, and more joyfully imveiled, and may appear ; to whom
it is said in this same Gong, " Equity hath delighted Thee ; "'

I Ps. xl. «. « Eccl^s. vii. 2, ■ Eccles. vii. 4. * Ecdea, x. 16, IT.

* £oxu. V. 5. B Ts. Ixix. fi. I r Cuit. i. 4.

BOOK xni.]

SOLOMONS succEssons.

and the bnde who those hears, "Charity is in thy delights."'
We pass over many things in silence, in our desire to finish
this work

SI. O/the kinga c{ft^ Sdomont both in Jutlah and Itraei,

The other kings of the Hebrews after Solomon are scarcely
found to have pmpliesiedj through certain enigmatic words or
actions of theirs, what may pertain to Christ and the Church,
cither iii Judah or Israel; for so were the parts of that
people styled, when, on account of Solomon s offence, from the
time of Rehoboara his son, who succeeded him in the kingdom,
it was divided by God as a punishment. The ten tribes,
indeed, which Jeroboam the ser\'ant of Solomon received,
being appointed the king in Samaria, were distinctively called
Israel, although this had been tlie name of that whole people ;
but the two tribes, namely, of Judah and Benjamin, whicli for
David's sake, lest the kingdom should be wholly •\rrenched
from his race, remained subject to the city of Jerusalem,
were called Judah, because that was the tribe whence David
spraDg. But Ikmjnmin, the other tribe which, as was said,
belonged to the same kingdom, was that whence Saul sprang
before David. But these two tribes together, as was said,
were called Judah, and were distinguished by this name from
Israel, which was the distinctive title of the ten tribes under
their own king. For the tribe of Levi, because it was the
priestly one, bound to the servitude of God, not of the kinga,
was reckoned tlie thirteenth. Por Joseph, one of t]ie twelve
sons of Israel, did not, like the others, form one tribe, but two,
Ephraim and Manasseb. Yet the tribe of Levi also belonged
more to tlie kingdom of Jerusalem, where was the temple of
God whom it served. On the division of tlie people, there-
fore, Rehoboam, son of Solomon, reigned in Jerusalem as the
first king of Judah, and Jeroboam, servant of Solomon, in
Samaria as king of Israel. And when Eehoboam wished as
a tyrant to pui-sue that separated part with war, the people
were prohibited irom fighting with their l)rcthren by God, who
told them through a prophet that He had done this ; whence
it appeared that in this matter there had been no sin either
of the king or people of Israel, but the accomplished will of

* Cant. vii. 8.

$14 THE cmr OP GOD. [book xvn.

God the avenger. When this was known, both parts settled
down peaceably^ for the division made was not religious but
political

23. Of Jtrchoam, vho profaned the people put wider kim by the impiety of
idokUriff amid wkiehj however, God d'ul not cetuejo inspire the prophetj',
and to gtusrd many from the crime tf idolatry.

But Jeroboam king of Israel, with perverse mind, not be-
lieving in God, whom he had proved true in promising and
giving ibim the kingdom, was afraid lest, by coming to tlie
temple of God which was in Jerusalem, where, accoi'ding to
the divine law, that whole nation was to come in order to
sacrifice, the people should be seduced from him, and return
to David's Hne as tJie seed royal ; and set up idolatry in
his kingdom, and with horrible impiety beguiled the people,
ensnaring them to the woi*sliip of idols with himself Yet
God did not altogetlier cease to reprove by the prophets, not
only that king, but al^o his successors and imitators in his
impiety, and the people too. For there the great and illus-
trious prophets Elijali and Eliaha his disciple arose, who also
did many wonderful works. Even there, when EHjah said,
" 0 Lord, they have alaiii Thy prophets, they have digged
down Thine altars ; and I am left alone, and they seek my
life," it was answered that seven lljousaud men were there
who had not bowed the knee to Baal ^

us. Of the varying eotuiUion of h(Uh tJie Hebrew kinffdome, ttntU the people of
both were at different times led into captivity, Jndah being afterwards
recaUed into his l^ngdom, which JinaUy passed into Oie power <^ <Ac
Jionuxns.

So also in the kingdom of Judah pertaining to Jerusale
prophets were not lacking even in the times of succeeding
kings, just as it pleased God to send them, either for the
prediction of what was needful, or for con-ection of sin and
instruction in rigliteousness ; ^ for there, too, although far less
than in Israel, kings arose who giievously offended God by
their impieties, and, along with their people, who were like
them, were smitten with moderate scourges. The no small
merits of the pious kings there are praised indeed. But we
read that in Israel the kings were, some more, others less, yet
1 1 KiugH xix. 10, 14, 15, « 2 TijD. iii 16.

HOOK XVn.] THE LAST OF Tta PROPHETS.

all wicked. Each part, therefore, ns the divine providence
either ordered or pennitted, wna both lifted up by prosperity
and weighed down bj adversity of various kiuda ; and it was
afflicted not only by foreign, but also Ly civil wars with each
other, in order that by certain existing cai^ses the mercy or
anger of Ood naight be manifested ; until, by His growing in-
dignation, that whole nation was by tl»e conquering Chaldeans
not only overtluowTi in its abode, but also for the most part
transported to the lands of the Assyrians, — first, that part of
the thirteen tribes called Israel, but afterwards Judali also,
■when Jerusalem and that most noble temple was cast down, —
in which lands it rested seventy years in eaptivitj". Being
nfter that time sent forth thence, they rebuilt the overthrown
temple. And although very many stayed in the lands of the
strangers, yet the kingdom no longer had two separate parts,
with different "kings over each, but in Jerusalem there was
one prince over them ; and at certain times, fmm every direc-
tion wherever they were, and from whatever place they could,
thej"" all came to the temple of God which was there. Yet
not even then were they without foreign enemies and con-
querors ; yea, Christ found them tributaries of the Romans,

24. QfUu prophtUt who tithtr were the lait among the Jrws, or whom the
gospel history reporin about (he time o/Chrht'» yiatlvUij.

But in that whole time after they returned from Babylon,
after Malachi. Haggai, and Zechariah, who then prophesied,
and Ezra, they had no prophets down to the time of the
Saviour's advent except another Zechariah, the father of John,
and Elisabeth his wife, when the nativity of Cluist was already
close at hand ; and when He was already bom, Simeon the
aged, and Anna a widow, and now very old ; and, last of all,
John himself, who, being a young man, did not predict that
Christ, now a young man, was to come, but by prophetic know-
ledge pointed Him out although unloiown ; for which reason
the Lord Himself says, " The law and the prophets were xmtil
John."^ Rut the prophesying of these five is made known to
us in the gospel, where the virgin mother of our Lord her-
self is also found to have prophesied before John. But tliis
prophecy of theirs the wicked Jews do not receive \ but those

> Matt. xi. 13.

•

216 THE cmr of god. [book xtil

innumerable persons received it who from them believed the
gospel For then truly Israel was divided in two, by that
division which was foretold by Samuel the prophet to king
Saul as immutable. But even the reprobate Jews hold
Malachi, Haggai, Zechariah, and Ezra as the last received into
canonical authority. For there are also writings of these, as
of others, who being but a very few in the great multitude
of prophets, have written those books which have obtained
canonical authority, of whose predictions it seems good to me
to put in this work some wliich pertain to Christ and His
Church ; and this, by the Lord's help, shall be done more con-
veniently in the following book, that we may not further
burden this one, which is already too long.

BOOK XVHI.]

RECAPITOXATIOBr,

217

BOOK EIGHTEENTH,

ARGUMENT.

ArOtrSTISE TnACES the TAHALLEL COUirSES OF THE KAHTHLY AND HEAVEXLT
CITIES rnOM TIIK TIME OF ABRAHAM TO THE END OP TUE WORLD ; AND
AJiPDKS TO TDK OnACLES REGARDING CKKIST, DOTH THOSK UTTEIIED UV
THE SIBYLS, AND THOSE OP THE SACKED PROPHETS WHO WROTE AFTER
THE roUKDATJON 07 BOUX, HOSEA, AMOS, ISAIAU, MICAB, AKD THEIU SUC-
CtXUtOhS.

1. 0/tfiOte thing* down to the times of the Saviour teJUcA have been discussed
in tJie utevmteeiy hooks.

IPEOMTSED to ivritc of the rise, progress, and appointed
end of tlie two cities, one oi' which is God's, the other
this world's, in wliich, so far as mankind is concerned, the
former is now a stranger. But first of all I undertook, so far
as His grace should enable me, to refute the enemies of the
city of God, who prefer their gods to Christ its founder, and
fiercely hate Christians with the most dendly malice. And
this I have done in the first ten books. Then, as regards my
threefold jirnniise which I have just uiuntioned, I have treated
distinctly, in the four books which follow the tenth, of the
xise of both cities. After tliafc, I have proceeded from the
lirst man down to the flood in one book, which is tlie fifteentli
cf this work ; and from tliat again down to Abraham oTir
-Nvork has followed both in chronological order. From the
patriarcli Abraham down to the time ot tho Israelite kings, at
"which we close our sLxteenth book, and thence down to the
advent of Chnst Himself in the flesh, to which period the
seventeenth book reaches, the city of God appears from my
^way of writing to have run its course alone ; whereas it did
not run its course alone in this age, for both cities, in their
course amid mankind, certainly experienced chequered times
together just as from the beginning. But I did this in order
that, first of all, from the time when the promises of God
"began to be more clear, down to the virgin birth of Him
iu whom those tilings promised from the first were to be fLd-

['8^ tht: cmr of qod. [book xvm.

lilied, the course of that city which is God^s might be made
more distinctly apparent, without interpolation of foreign
matter from the history of the other city, although down to
the revelation of the new covenant it ran its course, not in
light, but in shadow. Now, therefore, I think fit to do what I
passed by, and show, ao far as seems necessary, how that other
city ran its course from the times of Abraham, so that atten-
tive readers may compare the two.

2. Ofikt kififffi ond tiuujs of the earthly city whidt irvre vynchronout mith the
timet of the 9aitUa, rtckoningfrom the rise qf Ahrafianu

The society of mortals spread abroad through the earth
ever}'where, and in the most diverse places, although bound
together by a certain fellowship of our common nature, is yet
for the most part divided against itself and the strongest
oppress the others, because all follow after their own interest
and lusts, while what is longed for either suffices for none,
or not for all, because it is not the very thing. For the van-
quished succumb to the victorious, preferring any sort of peace
and safety to freedom itself; so that they who chose to die
rather than be slaves have been greatly wondered at. For in
almost all nations the very voice of uatui-e somehow proclaims,
that those who happen to be conquered should choose rather
to be subject to their conquerors than to be killed by all lands
of wai'like destniction. This does not take place without the
providence of God, in whose power it lies that any one either
subdues or is subdued in war ; that some are endowed with
kingdoms, others made subject to kings. Now, among the
very many kingdoms of the earth into which, by earthly in-
terest or lust, society is divided (which we call by the general
name of the city of this world), we see that two, settled and
kept distinct from each other both in time and place, have
grown far more famous than the rest, first that of the Assyrians,
then that of the Romans. First came the one, then the other.
The former arose in the east, and, immediately on its close, the
Latter in the west. I may speak of other kingdoms and other
kings as appendages of these.

Ninus, then, who succeeded his father Belus, the first king
of Assyria, was already the second kin^ of that kingdom when
Abraham was bora in the land of the Chaldees. There was

BOOK XVI 11.]

THE KINGDOM OF ASSTIU.V.

also at that time a very small kingdom of Sicyon, with which,
as from an ancient date, that most universally learned mau
Marcus Varro begins, in writing of the Eoman race. For
from these kings of Sicyon he passes to the Athenians, from
them to the Latins, and from these to the Eomans. Yet vety
little is related about these kingdoms^ before the foundation of
Eome, in comparison with that of Assyria. For although
even Sallust, the Roman historian, admits that the Athenians
were very famous in Greece, yet he thinks they were greuter
in fame than in fEict. For in speaking of them he says,
" The deeds of the Athenians, as I think, were very great and
magnificent, hut yet somewhat less than reported by fame.
Bat because writers of great geniiis arose among them, the
deeds of the Athenians were celebrated thi-oughout the world
as very great Thus the virtue of those who did them was
held to be as great as men of transcendent genius could repre-
sent it to be by the power of laudator}- words."^ This city
also derived no small glory from literatme and philosophy, the
study of which chietly flourished there. But as regardf* em-
pire, none in the earliest times was greater than the Assyrian,
or so widely extended. For when Ninua the son of Belus was
king, he is reported to have subdued the whole of Asia, even
to the boundaries of Libya, which as to number is called the
third part, but as to size is foimd to be the half of the whole
world. The Indians in the eastern regions were the only
people over whom lie did not reign ; but after his death Semi-
ramis his wife made war on them. Thus it came to pass
that all the people and kings in those countries were subject
to the kingdom and autliority of tlie Assyrians, and did what-
ever they were commanded. !N'ow Abraham was born in that
kingdom among the Clialdees, in the time of Ninus. But
since Grecian all[iiirs are much better known to us than
Assyrian, and thuse who have diligently investigated the anti-
quity of the Eoman nation's origin have foUowed the order of
time through the Greeks to the Latins, and from them to the
Romans, who themselves are Latins, we ought on this account,
where it is needful, to mention the Assyrian kings, that it may
appear how Babylon, like a first Eome, ran its course along
» SaUufit, BtU. Cat, c. 8.

220 THE CITY OF COD. [kook xvnr.

with the cit}"- of God, which is a stranger in this world But
the things proper for insertion in this work in comparing the
two cities, tliat is, tlie earthly and heavenly, ought to be taken
mostly from the Greek and Latin kingdoms, where Bome
herself in like a second Babylon.

At Abraham's birth, then, the second kings of Assyria and
Sicyon respectively were Ninus and Europs, the first having
been Belus and iEgialeiis. But when God promised Abraham,
on Ills departure from Babylonia^ that lie should become a
great nation, and that in his seed all nations of the earth
should be blessed, the Assyrians had their seventh king, the
Sicyons their fifth : for the son of Xinus reigned among them
after his mother Semii-amis, who is said to have been put to
death by him for attempting to defile him by incestuously
lying with liim. Some tiiiiik that she founded Babylon, and
indeed she may have founded it anew. But we have told, in
the sixteenth book, when or by whom it was founded. Now
the son of Ninus and Scniiramis, who succeeded his mother
in the kingdom, is also called Ninus by some, but by others
Ninios, a patron}Tnic word. Telexiou then held the kingdom
of the Sicyons. In his reign thues were quiut and joyful to
such a degree, that after his death they worshipped hun as a
god by offering sacrifices and by celebrating games, which are
said to have been first instituted on this occasion.

3. What kinffs reigned in A$ayria and Sicyon wAfn, according to the promise^
Isaac wiis horn to Abraham in his hundredth year, and when Ute twku
j&tati and Jacob were born of Rebecca to Isaac in his sixtieth year.

In his times also, by the promise of God, Isaac, the son of
Abralmni, wn.^ born to his father when he was a hundred
years old, of Sarah his wife, who, being baiTcn and old, had
already lost hope of issue. Andius was then the fifth Idng
of the Assyrians. To Isaac himself, in liis sixtieth year, were
bom twin-sons, Esau and Jacob, whom Rebecca his wife bore
to him, theii" grandfather Abraham, who died on completing
a hundred and seventy years, being still alive, and reckoning
his hundred and sixtieth year,' At that time there reigned
as the seventh kings, — among the Assyrians, that more ancient
Xerxes, who was also called Balaius ; and among the Sicyons,

* In the Hebrew text, Gen. xxv. 7, a huBdrcd and scyeDty-five j'eiu*.

BOOK XVTII.]

ARSYRIAy mSTOKV.

Tliuriachus, or, as some write liis name, Thuriinachug, Tlie
kingdom of Argos, in which Inachus reigned first, arose in
the time of Abraham's grandcliildreiL And I iiuist not
omit what Vairo relates, that the Sicyons were also wont to
sacrifice at the tomb of their seventh king Thuriachua In
the reign of Armamitres in Assyria and Leucippus in Sicyon
as the eighth kings, and of Inachus as the first in Argos, God
spoke to Ismic, and promised tlie same two things to him as
to his father, — namely, the land of Canaan to his seed, and
the blessing of all nations in his seed. These same things
were promised to his son^ Abraham^s grandson, who was at
first called Jacob^ afterwards iHrael, when Eclocns was the
ninth king of Assjo-ia, and Phoroneus, the son of Inachus,
reigned o-s the second king of Argo.s, Leucippus still continu-
ing king of Sicyon. In those times, under the Argive king
Phoroneus, Greece was made more famous by the institution
of certain laws and judges. On the death of Plioroneup, his
younger brother Phegous built a temjjle at his tomb, in which
he was worshipped as God, and oxen were sacrificed to him. I
believe they tliought hiru worthy of so great honour, because
in his part of the kingdom (fur their futher had divided his
territories between them, in which they reigned during his
life) he had founded chapels for the worship of the gods, and
had taught them to measure time by months and years, and
to that extent to keep count and reckoning of events. Men
Btill uncultivated, admiring him for these novelties, either
fancied he was, or resolved that he should be made, a god
after his deatL lo also is said to have been the daughter
of Inachus, who was afterwards called Isis, when she was
worshipped in Egj'pt as a great goddess ; although others
write that she came as a queen out of Ethiopia, and because
she ruled extensively and justly, and instituted for her sub-
jects letters and many useful tilings, such divine honour was
given her there after she died, that if any one said she had
been human, he was charged with a capital crime.

4. Of the lime* of Jacob and his aon Jtyaeph.

In the reign of Baleeus, the ninth king of Assyria, and

Mesappus, the eighth of Sicyon^ who is said by some to have

222

THE cmr of god.

BOOK XVUL

been also called Cephisos (if indeed the same man had both

names, and those who put the other name in their writings
have not rather confounded him with another man), while
Apis was third king of Argos, Isaac died, a hundred and
eighty years old, and left IiLs twin-sons a liundred and twenty
years old. Jacob, the younger of these, belonged to the
city of God about which we write (the elder being wholly
rejected), and had twelve sons, one of whom, called Joseph,
was sold by liis brothers to mercliants going dovm to Egypt,
while his grandfather Isaac was still alive. But when he
was tliirty years of age, Joseph stood before Pharaoh, being
exalted out of the humiliation he endured, because, in divinely
interpreting tJie king's dreams, he foretold that there would
be seven years of plenty, the very rich abundance of which
would be consumed by seven other j'ears of famine that
should follow. On this account the king made liim ruler
over Egypt, liberating him from prison, into which he had
been thrown for keeping his chastity intact ; for he bravely
preserved it from his mistress, who wickedly loved him, and
told lies to his weakly credulous master, and did not consent
to commit adultery with her, but fled from hpr, leaving his
garment in her hands when she laid hold of him. In the
second of the seven years of famine Jacob came down into
Egj'pt to his son with all he had, being a hundred and thirty
years old, as he himself said in answer to the king's questioa
Joseph was thou thirty-nine, if we add seven yeai-s of plenty
and two of famine to the thirty he reckoned when honoured
by the king.

5. O/Apiakittf; o/Argott whom fJie Egyptians called SerapU, and worahipped
ioilh divine honoun.

In these times Apis king of Argos crossed over into

Egypt in ships, and, on dying there, was made Serapis, the

chief god of aU the Egyptians. Now Vari'o gives this veij'

ready reason why, after his death, he was called, not Apis, but

Serapis. The ark in which he was placed when dead, which

every one now calls a sarcophagus, was then called in Greek

<ropb<;, and they began to worship him when buried in it before

his temple was built ; and from Soros and Apis he was called

first [Sorosapis, or] Sorapia, and then Serapis, by changing a

BOOK xvnr.] Assyria in the time of jaoob.

223

letter, as easily happens. It was* decreed r^arding him also.
1 that whoever should say he had been a man should be capi-
I tally punished And since in every temple where Isis and
I Serapis were worshipped there was also an image which, with,
finger pressed on the lips, seemed to warn men to keep silence,
VaiTO thinks thLs sigiiilies that it should be kept aecret that
i they had been human. But that bull which, with wonderful
folly, deluded Egypt nourished with abundant delicacies in
honour of him, was not called Serapis, but Apis, because they
I worshipped him alive without a sarcophagus. On the death
of that bull, when they sought and found a calf of the same
colour, — that is, similarly marked with certain wliite spots, —
they beUeved it was something miraculous, and divinely pro-
vided for them. Yet it was no great thing for the demons,
in order to deceive them, to show to a cow when she was
conceiving and pregnant the image of such a bull, which she
alone could see, and by it attract the breeding passion of the
mother, so that it might appeal" in a bodily shape in her
ymin^, just as Jacob so managed with the spotted rods that
the sheep and goats were bom spotted. For what men can
do with real colours and substances, the demons con very
I 4uily do by showing unreal forms to breeding animals.

I 6. Wlio wtre Idnga qf Argoe, and (ff Assyria, wAen Jacob dud in Egvpi-

Apis, then, who died in Egypt, was not the king of Egypt,
but of Argoa He was succeeded by his son Argus, from
whose name the land was called Argoa and the people Argivcs.
for under the earlier kings neither the place nor the nation
as yet had this name. While he then reigned over Axgos,
and Eratus over Sicyon, and Balteus still remained king of
Assyria, Jacob died in Egypt a hundred and forty-seven yeais
old, after he had, when dying, blessed his sons and Ms grand-
sons by Joseph, and prophesied most plainly of Christ, saying
in the blessing of Judah, "A prince shall not fail out of
Judah, nor a leader from his thighs, until those things come
which are laid up for him ; and He is the expectation of the
nations."^ In the reign of Aigus Greece began to use fruits.
and to have crops of com in cultivated fields, the seed having

.^ Q«XL zHx. 10.

224 THE CITV OF GOa [DOOK XVXtL

"been brought from other countries. Argus also bcgaa to be
nccounted a god after his death, and was honoured with a
temple and sacrifices. This honour was conferred in his reign,
before being given to him, on a private individual for being
the first to yoke oxen in the plough. This was one Houu>-
g^TUS, wlio was struck by lightning.

7. WIio vKre tings wfien Joseph died in EgypL

In the reign of ^famitus, the twelfth king of Assyria, and
Plemna^us, the eleventh of Sicyon, while Argus still reigned
over the Argives, Joseph died in Eg^'pt a hundred and ten
years old. After his death, the people of God, increasing
wonderfully, remained in Egypt a hundred and fortj-fivc
ycai-s, in tranquillity nt first, until those who knew Joseph were
dead. After\vard, through envy of their increase, and the
suspicion that they would at length gain their freedom, they
were o])pressed with persecutions nnd the laboui*s of intoler-
able servitude, amid which, however, they still grew, being
multiplied with God-given fertility. During this period the
same kingdoms continued in Assyria and Greece.

S. Who trcre kiiiQ* when Moses roas born, and wfiat gods began to be tcorsh'i'jtei

titen,

Wlien Saplirus reigned as the fourteenth king of Assyria,
and Orthopolis as the twelfth of Sicyon, and Criasus as the
fifth of Argos, Moses was bom in Egypt, by whom the
people of God were liberated from the Egyi)tian slavery, in
which they behoved to be thus tried tliat they might desire
tlie help of tlieir Creator. Some have thought that Pro-
metheus lived dui'iiig the reign of the kings now named. He
is reported to have fornieil men out of clay, because he was
esteemed the best teacher of wisdoiu ; yet it does not appear
what wise men there wcro in his days. His brother Atlas is
said to have been a great astrologer ; and this gave occasion
for the fable that he held up the sky, although the vulgar '
opinion about his holdinrj up the sky appears rather to have
been suggested by a higli niountaiu named after liim. In-
deed, from those times many other fabulous things began to
be invented in Greece ; yet, down to Ceci-ops king of Athens,
in whose reign that city received its name, and in whose reign

XVm.] E%'ENTS CONTEMPOKARY WITII THE EXODUS. 225

God brought His people out of Ep;ypt by Mosea, only a few
dead heroes are reported to have been deified accoixling to the
vain sujierstition of the Greeks. Among these were llelan-
tomice, the wife of king Criasus, and Phorbas their son, who
cceeded his father as sixth king of the Argives, and lasns,
n of Triopas, their seventh king, and their ninth king,
Sthenelas, or Stheneleus, or StheueluH,— for his name is given
differently by diflerent authors. In those times also, Mer-
cury, the giiindson of Atlas by liis daughter Mala, is said to
have lived, according to the common report in books. He
was famous for his skill in many arts, and taught them to
U)en, for which they resolved to make him, and even believed
that he deserved to be, a god after death. Hercules is
said to have been later, yet belonging to the same period ;
although some, whom I think mistaken, assign him an earlier
date than Mercury. But at whatever time they were born,
it is agreed among grave historians, who have committed these
ancient things to writing, that botJi were men, and that tliey
merited divine honours from mortals because they conferred
on them many bcnelita to make this life more pleasant to
them. Minerva v'as far more ancient than these ; for she
is reported to have appeared in virgin age in the times of
Og>'ges at the lake called Triton, from which she is also
.styled Tritonia, the inventreas truly of many works, an<l the
more readily believed to be a goddess because her origin was
so little known. For what i3 aung about her having sprung
£rom the head of Jupiter belongs to the region of poetry and
fable, and not to that of history and real fact And historical
writers are not agreed when Og}^ges flourished, in whose time
also a great flood occurrt;d,^not that greatest one from which
BO man escaped except those who could get into the ark, for
neither Greek uor Latin history knew of it, yet a greater
flood than that which happened afterward in Deucalion's
time. For Varro begins tlie book I have already mentioned
at this date, and does not propose to himself, as the starting-
point from which he may arrive at Roman affairs, anything
more ancient than the flood of Ogyges, that is, which hap-
pened in the time of Ogyges. Now our writers of chronicles
— first Eusebius, and afterwards Jerome, who entirely follow
TOL. IL 9

226 TDTE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK XYHL

some earlier historians iii this opinion — ^relate that the flood
of Ogyges happened more than three hundred years after,
during the reign of Phoroneus, the second king of Argos.
But whenever he may have lived, Minerva was already wor-
shipped as a goddess when Cecrops reigned in Athens, in
whose reign the city itself is reported to have been rebuilt
or founded.

9. When Uu city ofAthau wis founded^ asnd vhU rteaon Varro aaaignafor Ua

name.

Athens certainly derived its name from Minerva, who in
Greek is called 'AOtjptj, and Varro points out the following
reason why it was so called- ^Vhen an olive-tree suddenly
appeared there, and water hurst forth in another place, these
prodigies moved the king to send to the Delphic Apollo to
inquire Tvhat they meant and what he should do. He an-
swered that the olive signified Miner\'a, the water Neptune,
and that the citizens had it in thuu' power to name their
city as they chose, after either of these two gods whose signs
these were. On receiving tliis oracle, Cecrops convoked rU
the citizens of either sex to give their vote, for it "was then
the custom in those parts for the women also to take part in
public deliberations. "When the multitude was consulted, the
men gave their votes for Neptune, the women for Minerva ;
and as the women had a majority of one, Minerva conquered.
Then Keptune, being enr^ed, laid wost-e the lands of the
Athenians, by casting up tiie waves of the sea; for the
demons have no difiiculty in scattering any waters more
■widely. The same authority said, that to appease his wratli
the women should be visited by the Athenians with the throe-
fold punishment — that they should no longer have any vote;
that none of their children should be named after their
mothers ; and that no one should call them Athenians. Thus
that city, tlie mother and nurse of liberal doctrines, and of
so many and so great philosophers, than whom Greece had
notliing move famous and noble, by the mockery of demons
about the strife of their gods, a male and female, and from
the victory of the female one through the women, received
the name of Athens ; and. on being damaged by the van-
quished god, waa compelled to punish the veiy victory of the

BOOK xvn:.]

OF Tin: AKEOPAGUS.

:27

victress, fearing the waters of Neptune more than the anns
of Jlinerva. For in the women who were thus punishcLl,
Minerva, who had conquered, was conquered too, and could
not even help her votei-s so far that, although the right of
voting was henceforth lost, and the mothers could not give
their names to the children, they might at least be allowed to
be called Athenians, and to merit the name of that goddess
whom they had made victorious over a male j^od by giving
her their votes. "What and how much could be said about
this, if we had not to hasten to other things in our discourse,
is obvious.

10. What Forro reporiB aboiU Vie ttrm Areopagiu, and about DeutaUotCs

fiood,

Marcus Varro, however, is not willing to credit lying fables
against the gods, lest he should find something dishonouring
to their majesty ; and therefore he will not admit that the
Areopagus, the place where the Apostle Paul disputed with
the Athenians, got this name because Mars, who in Greek is
called ^Aprj^, when he was charged with the crime of homi-
cide, and was judged by twelve gods in that iield, was ac-
quitted by the sentence of sbc ; because it was the custom,
when the votes were equal, to acquit rather than condemn.
Against this opinion, which is much most widely pub-
lished, he tries, from the notices of obscure books, to support
another reason for this name, lest the Athenians should be
thought to have called it Areopagus from the words "Mara" and
" field," ^ as if it were the field of Mais, to the dishonour of the
gods, forsooth, from whom he thinks lawsuiU and judgments
far removed. And he asserts that tltis which is said about
Mara is not less false tlian what is said about the three
goddesses, to wit, Juno, Minerva, and Venus, whose contest
for the palm of beauty, before Paris as judge, in order to ob-
tain the golden apple, is not only related, but is celebrated in
songs and dances amid the applause of the theatres, in plays
meant to please the gods who take pleasure in these crimen of
their own, whether real or fabled. Varro does not beheve
these things, because they are incompatible witli the nature
of the gods and of morality ; and yet, in giving not a fabulous

* ^Afm and *«yff.

228 TUE CITT OF GOD. [nooK xvm.

but a historic reason for the name of Athens, he inserts in his

books the strife between Kcptune and Miner\'a as to whose
name sliould be given to that city, which was so great that,
when they contended by the display of prodigies, even Apollo
dared not jnd;^e between tbeiu when consulted ; but, in order to
end tiie strife of the gods, just as Jupiter sent the thi-ee ^-
desses we have named to Paris, so he sent them to men, when
Minerva won by tlie vote, and yet was defeated by the punish-
ment of her own voters, for she was unable to confer the title
of Athenians on the women who were her friends, although she
could impose it on tlie men wlio were lier opponents. In
these times, when Cranaos reined at Athens as the successor
of Cecrops, as Varro writes^ but, according to our Kuscbius and
Jerome, while Cecrops himself still remained, the flood oc-
curred which is called Uciicalion'3. becaiise it ui'curred chiefly
in those parts of the earth in which he reigned. But this
flood did not at all reach Egy|)t or its vicinity.

IK Whrn Moics Ud th^ jtrople oat of Egypt ; and tcko vat klnjs v^ten hii
svccfuor Joshua tJu son 0/ Kun dial.

Moses led the peoi)le out of Egypt in the last time of
Cecrops king of Athena, Avben Ascatades reigned in Assyria,
Marathus in Sicyon, Tnopas in Argos ; and lia\'ing led fortli
the people^ he gave them at Mount Sinai the law he received
from God, which is axUed the Old Testament, bccanse it has
earthly promises, and because, thi-oiigh Jesus Christ, there
was to be a New Testament, in which the kingdom of heaven
should be promised. For the same order behoved to Iw
observed in this as is observed in each man who prospers
in God, according to the saying of the apostle, "That is not
first which is spiritual, but that which is natural," since, as
he says, and that tndy, "The fii:st man of the earth, is earthly;
the second man, from heaven, is heavenly." ^ Kow Mose^
ruled the people for forty years in the wildcmess, and died ft
hundred and twenty years old, after he had prophesied of
Christ by the ty^es of carnal observances in the tabernacle,
priesthood, and sacrifices, and many other mystic ordinance*
Joshua the son of Nun succeeded Moses, and settled in the
land of promise the people he had brought in, having by

1 1 Ccr XV. 4fi. 47.

BOOK xvin.]

IDOLATRY OF TIIIS PEBTOT).

divine authority conquered the people by whom it was
formerly possessed. He also died, after ruling the people
twenty-seven years after the death of Moses, wJien Ainyntas
reigned in Assyria as the eighteenth king, Coracos as the sL\-
teenth in Sicyon, Danaos aa the tenth in Argos, Ericthonius

kas tlie fourth in Athens.
12. Of the rituaia o/faUe gode uutihited by the khff* of Gnfce in the prriod
from JtraeVa txodua from Egypt down to the dtath of Jothua the son
\ During this period, that is, from Israel's exodus from Kgypt
down to the deatli of Joshua the son of Nun, through whom
that people received the laud of promise, rituals were insti-
tuted to the false gods by the kings of Greece, which, by
stated celebration, recalled the memory of the flood, and of
men's deliverance from it, and of tliat troublous life they then
led in migrating to and fro between the heights and the
plains. For even the Luperci,^ when tliey ascend and descend
the sacred path, are said to represent the men who sought
the mountain summits because of the inundation of water,
and returned to the lowlands on its subsidtnice. In those
times, Dionysus, who was also called Father Liber, and was
esteemed a god after death, is said to have shown the vine
to his host in Attica. Then the musical games were insti-
tuted for tliH Dclpliic A[>ollo, to ajtpease liis anger, througli
which they thought the regions of Greece were aiilicted with
barreuneas, because they had not defended Ids temple which
Danaos burnt when he invaded those lands ; for they were
warned by Ixis oiticle to institute these games. But king
Ericthonivis first instituted games to him in Attica, and not to
him only, but also to Minerva, in which games the olive was
given us the prize to the victors, because they relate that
Alincrva was the discoverer of that fruit, as Liber was of the
grape. In tliose years Europa is nlltiged to have been can'ied
off by Xanthus king of Crete (to whom we find sozae
give another name), and to have borne liim lUiadamanthus,
Sarpedon, and Minos, who are more commonly repoited to
have been the sons of »Tuj>iter by the same woman. Now
those who worship such gods regard what we have said about

' The priests who ofUciated &t the Luprrcalia.

230 TTTE crry op god, [book xvul

Xoiithus Icing of Crete as truo history ; but this about
Jupiter, which the poets sing, the theatres applaud^ and the
people celebrate, as empty fable got up as a reason for games
to appease the deities, even with the false ascriptioQ of crimes
to them. In those times Hercules was held in honour in
Tyre, but that wns not the same one as he whom we spoke of
above. In the more secret history there are said to have been
several who were called Father Liber and Hercules. This
Hercules, whose great deeds are reclconed as twelve (not in-
cluding the slaughter of Antceus the African, because that
affair pertains to another Hercules), is declared in their books
to have burned himself on Mount CEta, because he was not
able, by that strength with which he had subdued monstcis,
to endure the disease under which he languished. At that
time the king, or rather tyrant Busiris, who is alleged to have
been the son of Neptune by Libya the daughter of Epaphus,
is said to have offered up his guests in sacrifice to the goda.
Jfow it must not be believed that Neptune committed this
adultery, lest tlie gods should be criminated ; yet such things
must be ascribed to them by the poets and in the theatres,
that they may be pleased with them. Vulcan and Minerra
are said to have been the parents of Ericthonius king of
Athens, in whose last years Joshua the son of Nun is found
to have died. But since tliey will Lave it that Minerva is
a virgin, they say that Vulcan, being disturbed in the struggle
between them, poured out liis seed into the earth, and on that
account the man bom of it received that name ; for in the
Greek language epi^ is " strife," and '^(Owv " earth," of which two
words Ericthonius is a compound. Yet it must be admitted
that the more learned disprove and disown such things con-
cerning their gods, and declare that this fabulous belief origi-
nated in the fact that in the temple at Athens, which Vulcan
and Minerva bad in common, a boy who had been exposed
was found wi-apped up in the coils of a dragon, which signified
that he would become great, and, as hia parents were un-
known, he was called the son of Vulcan and Miuerva, becanse
they had the temple in common. Yet tliat fable accounts for
the origin of hLs name better than this Iiistorj'. But what
does it matter to us ? Let the one in books that sj^eak the

BOOK XVni.] OF THE PEEIOD OF THE JUDGES.

231

truth edify religious men, and the other in lying fables delight
impure demons. Yet these religious men worship them as
gods. Still, while they deny these things concerning them,
they cannot clear them of all crime, because at their demand
they exliibit plays in which the very things tbey wisely deny
are basely done, and the gods are appeased by these false and
base things. Now, even although the play celebrates an unreal
Clime of the gods, yet to delight in the ascription of an unreal
xrime is a i*eal one.

I 13. What fables toere invents at the (itm vhenjudfja htgan to ruie the
I Hebrews,

After the death of Joshua the son of Nun, the people of
God had judges, in whose times they were alternately humbled
by afflictions on account of their sins, and consoled by pro-
sperity through the compassion of God. In those times were
invented the fables about Triptolemus, who, at the command
of Ceres, borne by winged snakes, bestowed com on the needy
lands in flying over them ; about that beast the Minotaur,
which was shut up in the Labyrinth, from which men who
entered its inextricable mazes could find no exit ; about the
Centaurs, whose form w*a3 a compound of horse and man ;
about Cerberus, the three-headed dog of hell ; about Phryxus
and his sister Hellas, who fled, borne by a winged ram ; about
the Gorgon, whose hair was composed of serpents, and who
turned those who looked on her into stone ; about Belle-
rophon, who Avas carried by a wnnged horse called Pegasus ;
about Ampliion, who charmed and attracted the stoues by the
sweetness of his harp ; about the artificer Djedalus and his
son Icarus, wlio flew on wings they had fitted on ; about
(Edipus, who compelled a certain four-footed monster with a
human face, called a sphynx, to destroy herself by casting
herself headlong, having solved the riddle she was wont to
propose as insoluble ; about Antieus, who wiis the son of the
earth, for which reason, on falling on the earth, he was wont
to rise up stronger, whom Hercules slew ; and perhaps there
are others which I have forgotten. These fables, easily found
in histories containing a true account of events, bring us down
to the Trojan wnr, at which Marcus Varro has closed his
BCGond book about the race of the Eoman people ; and they

232 * f Hfi tTWTjWnli^ [dook xvui.

are so skilfully invented by men as to involve no scandal to
the gods. But whoever have pretended as to Jupiter's rape
of GaTi3Tnede, a very beautiful boy, that king Tantalus com-
mitted the crime, and the fable ascribed it to Jupiter ; or as
to Ida iuiprti|j;iiating Daniie as a golden shower, that it means
that the woiniin's virtue was corrupted by gold : whether these
things were really done or only fabled in tliose days, or wero
really done by others and falsely ascribed to Jupiter, it is
impossible to tell how much wickedness must have been taken
for granted in men's hearts that they should be thought able
to listen to such lies with patience. And yet they willingly
accepted them, when, indeed, the more devotedly they wor-
shipped Jupiter, they ought the more severely to have
punished those who durst say such things of him. But they
not only were not angry at those who invented tliese things,
but w^ere afmid that the gods wuiJd be angry at them if they
did not act such fictions even in the theatres. In those times
LaU>na bore ApoDo, not him of whose oracle we have spoken
above as so often consulted, but him who is said, along with
Hercules, to have fed the flocks of king Admctus ; yet he was
so believed to be a god, that very many, indeed almost all, have
believed him to be the selfsame Apollo. Then also Father
Liber made war in India, and led in his army many women
called Baccha!, who were notable not so mucli for valour as for
fury. Some, indeed, write that tliis Liber was both conquered
and bound ; and some that he was slain in Persia, even telling
where he wjis buried ; and yet in his name, as that of a god,
the unclean demons have instituted the sacred, or rather the
sacrilegious, Bacchanalia, of the outrageous vileness of which
the senate, after many years, became so much ashamed as to
prohibit them in the city of Rome. Men behoved that in
those times Perseus and his wife Andromeda were raised inlo
heaven after their death, so that they were not ashamed or
afraid to mark out their images by consLellalionSj and call
them by their names,

14. 0/ tJte fftfohg'ical poets.

During the same period of time arose the poets, who were
also called ihcologncs, because tliey made hymns about the

BOOK XVIII.]

THK KINGDOM OF AKCOS.

233

gods ; yet about such gotls as, although great men, were yet
but men, or the elements of this world which tlie true God
made, or creatures who were ordained as principalities and
powers according to the will of the Creator and their own
merit And if, among much that was vain and false, they
sang anything of the one true God, yet, by worshipping Hini
along with others who are not gods, and showing them the
sen'ice that is due to Him alone, they did not serve Him at
all lightly ; and even such poets as Orplieus, Musjeus, and
Linus, were imable to abstain from dishonouring their gods by
fables. But yet these theologues worshipped the gods, and
were not worshipped ns gods, although the city of tbo ungodly
is wont, I know not liow, to set Orplieus over the sacred, or
rather sacrilegious, riti?s of hell. The wife of king Athamas,
who was called Ino, and her son Melicertes, perished by
throwing themselves into the sea, and M'erc, according to popu-
lar belief, reckoned among the gods, like other men of the same
times, [among whom were] Ciistor and Pollux. The Greeks,
indeed, called her who was the mother of Melicertes, Leucothea,
the Latins Jifatuta ; but both thought her a goddess.

15. Of Uitj'aU of the Htiffdom of Argos, tehen Pieus the son of Saturn Jirst
receivtd his father's kinydom of Laurent um.

During those times the kingdom of Argos came to an end,
being transferred to Mycene, from which Aganiemnnn came,
and the kingdom of Laurentum arose, of which Picus son of
Saturn was the first king, when the woman Deborah judged
the Hebrews ; but it was the Spirit of God who used lier as
His agent, for she was also a prophetess, although her pro-
phecy is so obscure that we could not demonstrate, without a
long discussion, that it w;is uttered concerning Christ. Now
the Laurentes already reigned in Italy, from whom the origin
of the Roman people is quite evidently derived after the

E Greeks ; yet the kingdom of Assyi'ia still lasted, in which
Lampares was the twenty-thii*d king when Picus fii-st began
to reign at Laurentum. The worshippers of such gods may
see what they are to tliink of Saturn the father of Picus, who
deny that he was a man ; of whom some also have written
that he himself reigned in Italy before Picus his son ; and
Virgil in his weU-kiioAvn book says, —

234 THE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK XVIIL

" That mce indocile, and thronglL mountnins high
Pispened, he settled, and endowed with laws,
And named their country Latiam, because
Latent within their caasts he dwelt secure.
TriulitioD says the g>^1den ages pure
Began when he was Idag. " '

But they regard these as poetic fancies, and assert that the
fatlier of Picus was Sterces rather, and relate that, being a
most skilful husbandman, he discovered that the fields could
be fertilized by the dung of animals, which is called stcrcus
from his name. Some say he was called Stercutius. But
for whatever reason they chose to call him Saturn, it is
yet certain they made this Sterces or Stercutius a god for
his merit in agriculture ; and they likewise received into the
number of these gods Picus Ids son, whom they affirm to
have been a famous augur and warrior. Picus begot Paunus,
the second king of Laurentum ; and he too is, or was, a god
with them. These divine honours they gave to dead men
before the Trojan war.

10. OfDlomedtj who after (he dtatructiQn of Troy was placed among lite god*,
vhiie hit cxfmpaniona are said to hare been changed into birds,

Troy was overthrown, and its destruction was everywhere
sung and made well known even to boj-s ; for it was signally
published and spread abroad, both by its own greatness and
by writers of excellent style. And this was done in the
reign of Latinus the son of Faunus, from whom the kingdom
began to be called Latium instead of Laurentum. The vic-
torious Greeks, on leaving Troy destroyed and returning to
their own countries, were torn and crushed by divers and
horrible calamities. Yet even from among them they in-
creased the number of their gods, for they made Diomede a
god. They allege that his return home was prevented by a
divinely imposed punishment, and they prove, not by fabulous
and poetic falsehood, but by historic attestation, tliat his com-
panions were tujned into bii-ds. Yet they think that, even
although he was made a ^od, he could neither restore them
to the human form by his o^ii power, nor yet obtain it from
Jupiter his king, as a favour granted to a new inhabitant of
lieaven. They also say that his temple is in the island of

^ ^neid, viu. 321,

BOOK XVni.] VARRO OX HUWAN TRAXSFOTIMATIOKS.

235

Diomedsea, not far from Mount Garganus in Apulia, and tliat
these birds fly round about tliia temple, and worship in it
•with such ■wonderful obedience, that they fill their beaks with
water and sprinkle it ; and if Greeks, or those born of the
Greek race, come there, they are not only still, but fly to meet
them ; but if they are foreigners, they fly np at their heads,
and wound them with such severe strokes as even to kill
them. For they are said to be well enough armed for these
combats with their hard and lar^e beaks.

17. WJtat Varro tatf» of the ineredibU transformaUons of\

In support of this stoiy, Varro relates others no less in-
credible about tliat most famous sorceress Circe, who changed
the companions of Ulysses into beasts, and about the Arcadians,
who, by lot, swam acixiss a certain pool, and were turned into
I -wolves there, and lived in the deserts of that region with
wild beasts like themselves. But if they never fed on human
flesh for nine years, they were restored to the human form
on swimming back again through the same pool. Finally, he
expressly names one Dema?netus, who, on tasting a boy ofTered
up in sacrifice by the Arcadians to their god Lycieus according
to their custom, was changed into a wolf, and, being restored
to his proper fonu in the tenth year, trained himself as a
pugilist, and was victorious at the OljTupic games. And the
same historian thinks that the epithet Lycaeus was applied
in Arcadia to Pan and Jupiter for no other reason than this
3Betamorphosis of men into wolves, because it was thought it
could not be wrought except by a divine power. For a wolf
ia called in Greek Xv/co<:, from which the name Lycaeus ap-
pears to be formed. He says also that the Roman Luperci
were as it were sprung of the seed of these mysteries.

^^ 18. Wlutt T« ghmt/d helievf concn-ning the iranfformations which seem to
^P happen Co men through the art qf demons.

Perhaps our readers expect us to say something about tins

j so great delusion wrought by the demons ; and what shall we

' say but that men must fly out of the midst of Babylon ? ^ For

this prophetic precept is to be understood apirituaCy in this

[ sense, that by going forward in the living God, by the steps of

i ^ Isa. xlruL 20.

236 TITE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK XWU.

faith, which worketh by love, we must flee out of the city of
this world, which is altogether a society of ungodly aagels and
men. Yea, the greater we see the power of the demons to be
in these depths, so much the more tenaciously must we cleave
to the Mediator through whom we ascend from these lowest
to the highest places. For if we should say tliese things are
not to be credited, there are not wanting even now some
who would afEmi that they had either heard on the best
authority, or even themselves experienced, sometliing of that
kind. Indeed we ourselves, when in Italy, lieard such things
about a certain region there, where landladies of inns, imbued
with these wicked arts, were said to be in the habit of giving
to such travellers as they chose, or could manage, something
in a piece of cheese by which they were changed on the spot
into beasts of burden, and carried whatever was necessaiy,
and were restored to their own form when the work was
done. Yet their miiul did not become l>e.stial, but remained
i*ational and human, just as Apuleius, in the books he wrote
willi the title of The Golden yijw, hna told, or feigned, that it
happened to his own self that, on taking poison, ho became
an nss, while retaining his human mind.

These things are either false, or so extraordinary as to be
with good reason disbelieved. But it is to be most firmly
believed that Almighty God can do whatever He pleases,
whether in punishing or favouring, and that the demons can
accomplish nothing by their natural power (for tht-ir created
being is itseli' angtilic, although made malign by their own
fault), except what He may permit, whose judgments are often
hidden, but never unrighteous. And indecid the demons, if
tliey really do such things as these on which tliis discussion
turns, do not create real substances, but only change the
appearance of things created by the true God so as to make
thein seem to be what they are not, I cannot therefore
believe that even the body, much less the mind, can really be
changed into bestial forms and lineaments by any reason, art,
or power of the demons ; but the phantasm of a man, which
even in thought or di'cams goes through innumerable changes,
may, when the man's senses are laid asleep or overpowered,
be presented to the senses of others in a corporeal form, in

COOK xvin.

irUMAK THAKSFORMATIOKS.

some indescribable way unknown to me, ao that men's bodies
themselves may lie somewhere, alive, indeed, yet with their
senses locked up much more heavily and iinuly than by
sleep, while that phantasm, as it were embodied in the shape
of some animal, may appear to the senses of others, and may
even seem to tlie man himself to be changed, just as he may
seem to himself in sleep to be so changed, and to bear burdens;
antl the.^e buidena, if they are rcal substances, are Itorne by
the demons, that men may be deceived by beholdinj^ at the
same time the real substance of the burdens and tlie simulated
iKxiies of the beasts of burden. Por a certain man called
rrsEstantiua used to tell that it had happened to his futlier in
his own house, that he took that poison in a piece of cheese,
nnd lay in his bed as if sleepin;^, yet coukl by no means be
aroused. But he said that after a few days he as it were
woke up and related tlie tlungs he Imd suffered as if they
Itad been di'canis, namely, that he had been made a sumpter
Jiorse, and, along witli other beasts of burden, had earned
provisions for the soldiers of what is called the Rhcetian
Legion, becjiuse it was sent to Elio'Lia. And all this was
found to have taken place just as he told, yet it had seemed
to him to be hia own dream. And another lUEin declared
that in his own house at night, before he slept, he saw a
certain philosojjher, whom he knew very well, come to liim
and explain to him some thin<,^ in the Platonic philosophy
wliicli he had previously declined to explain when asked.
And when he hatl asked this philosopher why he did in liisi
house what he had refused to do at home, he said, " I did not
do it, but I dreamed I had done it." And thus what the
one saw when sleeping was shown to the other when awake
by a phantasmal image.

These tilings have not come to us from persons we might
deem unworthy of credit, but from informants we could not
suppose to be deceiving us. Therefore what men say and
have committed to writing about the Arcadians being often
changed into wolves by the Arcadian gods, or demons i*ather,
and wiiat is told in song about Circe transforming the com-
panions of Ulysses,' if they were really done, may, in my

* Virgil, Echguft viu, 70.

238 TiiE aiT OF GOD, [BOOK xvm

opinion, have been done in the way I have said. As for
Diomede's "birds, since their race is alleged to have been per-
petuated by constant propagation, I believe they were not
made through the metamorphosis of men, but were slyly
substituted for them on their removal, just as the hind was
for Tphigenia, the daughter of king Agamemnon. For jt^-
gleries of this kind could not be difficult for the demons if
permitted by the judgment of God ; and since that virgin
was afterward found alive, it is easy to see that a hind had
been slyly substituted for her. But because the companions
of Diomede were of a sudden nowhere to be seen, and after-
ward could nowhere be found, being destroyed by bad aveng-
ing angels, they were believed to have been changed into
those birds, which were secretly brought there from other
places where such birds were, and suddenly substituted for
them by fraud. But that they bring water in their beaks
and sprinkle it on the temple of Diomede, and that they
fawn ou men of Greek race and persecute aliens, is no won-
derful thing to be done by the inwaixl influence of the demons,
whose interest it is to persuade men that Diomede was made
a god, and thus to beguile them into worshipping many false
gods, to the great dishonour of the true God ; and to servo
dead men, who even in their lifetime did not triily live,
with temples, altars, sacrifices, and priests, all which, when
of the right kind, are due oiJy to the one living and true
God.

19. That jEncaa came into Italy when Ahdan iht judge nXed over the Hebraee.
After the capture and destruction of Troy, j^Jieas, with
twenty ships laden with the Trojan relics, came into Italy,
when Latinus reigned there, Menestheus in Athens, Poly-
phidos in Sicyon, and Tautanos in Assyria, and Abdon was
judge of the Hebrews. On the death of Latinus, jEneas
reigned three years, the same kings continuing in the above-
named places, except that Pelasgus was now king in Sicyon,
and Sampson was judge of the Hebrews, who is thought to be
Hercules, because of his wonderfid strength. Now tbe Latins
made jEneas one of their gods, because at his death he was
nowhere to be found. The Sabinea also placed among the
gods their first king, Sancus, [Sangus], or Sanctus, as some

xviil] of the kingdom ly Israel.

239

coll Iiiiu. At that time Codrus king of Athens exposed
liimaelf incognito to be slain by the Peloponnesian foes of
that city, and so was slain. In tliis way, they say, he de-
livered his country. For the Peloponnesians had received a
Tesponse from the oracle, that they should overcome the
Atheniaus only on condition that they did not slay their
long. Therefore he deceived them by api^earing in a poor
man's dress, and provoking them, by quan-elling, to murder
iiin. Whence Vii-gil says, " Or the quarrels of Codrus." '
And the Athenians worshipped this man as a god with
sacrificial honours. The fourth king of the Latins was
Silvias the son of .^Eneas, not by Creiisa, of whom Ascanius
the third king was bom, but by laidnia the daughter of
Latinus, and he is said to have been his posthumous eliild.
Oneus was the twcntj^-ninth king of Assyria, Midanthus the
sixteenth of the Athenians, and Eli the priest was judge of the
Hebrews ; and the kingdom of Sicyon then came to ah end,
after lasting, it is said, for nine hundred and fifty-nine years.

so. O/iht auccatiOH qfUie line qfl-ings among the ItratliUi after the tinut
of the judges.

While these kings reigned in the places mentioned, the
period of the judges being ended, the kingdom of Israel next
began with king Saul, when Samuel the prophet lived. At
that date those Latin kings began who were surramed Silvii,
having that surname, in addition to their proper name, from
their pi-edecessor, that son of .^ueas who was called Silvius ;
jizst as, long afterward, the successors of Csesar Augustus
were sumamed Caesars. Saul being rejected, so that none
of his issue should reign, on his death David succeeded him
in the kingdom, after he had reigned forty years. Then the
Athenians ceased to have kings after the death of Codrus,
and began to have a magistracy to rule the republic. After
David, who also reigned forty years, his son Solomon was
king of Israel, who built that most noble temple of God at
Jerusalem. In his time Alba was buOt among the Latins,
from which thereafter the kings began to be styled kings
not of the Latins, but of the Albans, although in the same
I^UBL Solomon was succeeded by his son Eehoboam,
1 Vii^, jEtfoyiK, ▼. n.

:i40 THE CITY OF COD. [DOOK XVIH

under whom that people was divided into two kingdoms, and
its separate parts began to have separate kings.

21 . Of the kinffs of Latiujn, thfjir»t and ticclfth o/vfkom, JSneas ami
Avtntinus, were made godi.

Aftt'.r ^ncas, whom they deified, Latinin had eleven kin^,

none of whom was deified. But Aveutinus, who was the

twelfth after >Eneas, having been laid low in war, and buried

in that hill still called by liis name, was added to the number

of such gods as they made for themselves. Some, indeed,

were unwilling to write that he was slain in battle, but said

Le was nowhere to be found, and that it was not from his

name, but from tlie alighting of birds, that hill was called

Aventiuus.' After this no god was made in Latium except

Eoraulus the founder of Eome. But two kings are fouad

between these two, the first of whom I shall describe in the

Virgilian verse :

*' Next came that Procns, gkiy of the Tntjan wee."'

That greatest of all kingdoms, the Ass3Tian, had its long
duj'ation brought to a close in his time, the time of Eome's
birth drawing nigli. For the Assyrian empu-e was trana-
feiTed to the Medes after nearly thirteen hundred and five
years, if we include the reign of Belus, who begot Ninus,
and, content with a small kingdom, was the fii-st king there.
Now Procas reigned before Amidius. And Amulius had
made his brother Numitor's daughter, Bhea by name, who
was also called Ilia, a vestal virgin, who conceived twin
sons by Mars, as they will Iiave it, in that way honouring
or excusing her adultery, adding as a proof that a she-wolf
nursed the infants when exposed. For they think tliis kiod
of beast belongs to Mars, so that the she-wolf is believed to
have given her teats to the infants, because she knew they
were the sons of Mars her lord ; although there are not want-
ing persons who say that when the crying babes lay exposed,
they were fu^t of all picked up by I know not what harlot,
and sucked her breasts first (now harlots were called lupcc, she-
wolves, from which their vile abodes arc even yet called lupa-
narta), and that afterwards they came into the hands of the
shepherd Faustulus, and wei*e nursed by Acca his wife. Yet

' Yarro, De Lingua Latina, v. 43. ' ^neid, vL 767.

BOOK XVm.1 ITENTS DTnUXn HEZEKTAn'S RETCX.

241

what wonder is it, if, to rebuke the king who had cruelly
ordered them to be throw^i into the water, God was pleased, after
divinely delivering them from the water, to succour, by means
of a wild beast giving railk, these infants by whom so great a
city was to be founded ? Aiiiulius was succeeded in the Latian
kingdom by his brotbur Numitor, the grandlatber of Eomulus ;
and Eome was founded iu the first year of this Kumitor, who
from that time reigned along with Ms grandson liomidus.

22. That Home Wiu/oundtd when the Asfi/r'tan kiiujdom pcrUhcd, at which
time HfzeJdah rdrftted in Judafi.

To be brief, the city of Eome was founded, like another
Babylon, and as it were the daughter of the former Babylon,
by which God was pleased to conquer the whole world, and
subdue it far and wide by bringing it into one fellowship of
government and laws. For there were already powerful and
brave peoples and nations trained to arms, who did not easily
yield, and whose subjugation necessarily involved great danger
and dcstruotion as well as great and horrible labour. For
when the Assyrian kingdom subdued almost all Asia, although
this was done by fighting, yet the wars could not be veiy
fierce or difficult, because the nations were as yet untrained to
resist, and neither so many nor so great as afterward ; for-
asmuch as, after that greatest and indeed universal flood, when
only eight men escaped iu Noah's ark, not much more than a
thousand years had passed when Ninus subdued all Asia with
the exception of India. But Rome did not witli the same
quickness and facility wholly subdue all those nations of the
east and west which we see brought under the Eomau empire,
because, in its gi'adual increase, in whatever direction it was ex-
tended, it found them strong and warlike. At the time when
Rome was founded, then, the people of Israel had been in the
land of promise seven hundred and eighteen years. Of these
years twenty-seven belong to Joshua the son of Nun, and
after that three hundred and twenty-nine to the period of the
judgea But from the time when tlie kings began to reign
there, three hundred and sixty-two years had passed. And
at that time there was a king in Judah called Ahaz, or,
as others compute, Hezekiah his successor, the best and
most pious king, who it is admitted reigned in the times of

YOU XL <i

242

Tin: cmr of god.

fnooK xvth.

Romulus. And in that part of the Hebrew nation called
Israel, Hoshea had begun to reign.

28. Ofihi Srythrtean Ar'^y^ vAa u hxovm to havf tunff many tMngs ahout
Ohritt more plainly than thr other sibyh.

Some say the Eiythrsean sibyl prophesied at this time.
Now Varro declares there were many sibyls, and not merely
one. This sibyl of Erythra; certainly wrote some things
concerning Christ which are quite manifest, and we first read
them in tlie Latin tongue in verses of bad Latin, and unrhyth-
mical, through the unskilfidness, as we afterward learned, of
some interpreter unknown to me. For Flaccianus, a very
famous man, who was also a proconsul, a man of most ready
eloquence and much learning, whon we were speaking about
Christ, produced a Greek manuscript, saying that it was the
prophecies of the Erythraean sibyl, in wliich he |X)inted out a
certain passage which had the initial letters of the lines so
arranged that these words could be read in them : Tt;©-©^^
Xpt<rro^ Beov vm ccari^p^ which mean, " Jesus Christ the Son
of God, the Saviour" And these verses, of which the initial
letters yield that meaning, contain what follows as translated
by some one into Latin in good rhythm :

- Judgment shaH moisten the earth with the sweiit of ita stnndard,
BB Ever enduring, bi^hold the King shall come through the ages,
M Scat to be here in the flesh, and Judge at the last of the vorld.
O O God, tilt? believing and faithless alike shall behold Thee
>S Uplifted with saints, when at last the ages are ended,
u Sisted before Him are soola in the fleah for His judgment.

X Hid in thick yapoura, tlio while desolate lieth the earth.

•0 Rejected by men are the idols and long hidden treasores ;

n £^th is consumed by the fire, and it s^'arelieth the ocean ind hesveB^

« lesuiiig furth, it destroyflh the terrible portals of hell.

M Saints in their body and soul freedom and light shall inherit ;

H Thoiie who are guilty shall bnm in fire nnd brTmstone for erer.

O Occult actions revealing, each one shall publish his seoreta ;

M Secrvts of every niau's heait God ahull reveal in tlie light.

a Thou shall be weeping and wailing, yea, and gnaahing of teeth. ;

M Eclipsed is the sun, and silenced the stars in their chorus.

O Over and gone is the s])Iendour of moonlight, melted the hpaven,

H Uplifted by Him are the valle}^, and cast down the mountains.

H Utterly gone among men are distinctions of lofty and lowly.

— Into the plains rMs\x tlic bills, the skies and oceans are mingled.
O Oh, what Qii end of all tLijigs ! tarth broken in pieces shall peiish ;
H Swelling together at once sihall the waters and flames flow in rivers.

BOOK xrni.]

THE erythr.?:ax sibyl.

243

BtLc

14 bounding the archangel's tmmpet shall peal down from heaven,
s Orer the wicked who gronn in thrir guilt and their manifold ftorrows.
H Trembling, the earth shall be opened, rerealinf; chaos and hell.
S Erer^- king before Qod shall stand in that day to be judged.
'V Bivei? of fixe and of brimstone shall fall from the heaTBOSi

In these Latin verses the meaning of the Greek is correctly
^ven, although not in the exact order of the lines as con-
nected with the initial letters ; for in three of them, the fifth,
eighteenth, and nineteenth, where the G^k letter T occurs,
Latin words could not be found beginning with the corre-
sponding letter, and yielding a suitable meaning. So that, if
we note down together the initial letters of all the lines in
our Latin translation except those three in which we retain
the letter T in the proper place, they will express in five
Greek words this meaning, " Jesus Christ the Son of God, the
Saviour." And the verses are twenty-seven, which is the cube
of threa Por three times throe are nine ; and nine itself, if
tripled, so as to rise from the superficial square to the cube,
mes to twenty-seven. Eut if you join tlie initial letters of
ese five Greek words, Ti^croD? Xpiaro*; Geov vlo': aomjp,
"which mean, " Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Saviour," they
will make the word Ix'^i^, that is, " fish," in which word Christ
is mystically amderstood, because He was able to live, that is,
to exist, without sin in the abyss of this mortality as in the
depth of waters.
^^ But this sibyl, whether she is the Erythrxan, or, as some
^^ rather believe, the Cumrcan, in her whole pncm, of which this
is a very small portion, not only has nothing that can relate
to the worship of the false or feigned gods, but rather speaks
^■against them and their worshippers in such a way that we
^Fmight even think she ought to be reckoned among those who
belong to the city of God. Lactantius also inseitod in his
■work the prophecies about Christ of a certain sibyl, he does
not say which. But I have thought fit to combine in a single
extract^ which may seem long, what he has set down in many
short quotations. She says, " Afterward He shall come into
the injurious Itands of the mibelieving, and they will givo
God buffets with profane hands, and with impure mouth will

......

244

THE CITY OF GOD.

[dOOK XVtlT.

yield Ilia holy back to stripes. And He will hold His peace
when stnick ^vith the fist, that no one may find out what
word, or whence, He comes to speak to hell ; and He shall be
crowned with a crown of thorns. And they gave Uim gall
for meat, and vinegar for His thirst : they vnU spread this
table of iuhospitality. For thou thyself, being foolish, hast not
underst-ood thy God, deluding the minds of mortals, but hast
l>oth crowned Him with thorns and mingled for llim bitter
gall. But the veil of the temple shall bo rent ; and at midday
it shall be darker than night for three hours. And He shall
die the death, taking sleep for tliree days ; and tlien returning
from hell, He first shall come to the light, the beginning of
the resurrection being shown to the reciilled." Lactantius
made use of these sibylline testimonies, introducing them bit
by bit in the course of his discussion as the things he intended
to prove seemed to require, and we have set them down in one
connected series, uninten-upted by comment, only taking caro
to mark them by capitals, if only the transcribers do not neglect
to preserve them hereafter. Some writers, indeed, say that the
Er}'thra,*an sibyl was not in tlie time of Romulus, but of the
Trojan war.

21 Thaf the aeven aagfs JtowisJifd in the reign of RojmtiuA, vfhen tlu ten trtht*
which \cfre cnlM Israfl vmre led into cfiptixnhf hij the Cfialdcans, and
BomuluB^ when dead, had divine honours cellared on him.

While Eomulus reigned, Thales the Milesian is said to have
lived, being one of the seven sages, wlio succeeded the theo-
logical poets, of whom Orpheus was the most renowned, and
were called Sotpoi, that is, sages. During that time the ten
tribes, which on the division of the people were called Israel.
were conquered by the Chaldeans and led captive into tlieir
lands, wliile the two tribes which were called Judah, and had
the seat of their kingdom in Jerusalem, remained in the land
of Judea. As Eomulus, when dead, could nowhere be found,
the Eomans, as is every%vhere notorious, placed him among
the gods, — a thing which by that time had already ceased to
be done, and which was not done afterwards till the time of the
Cajsars, and then not through error, but in flattery ; so that
Cicero ascribes great praises to I^onuilus, because he merited
such honours not in rude and mdeamed times.

nes, when men '

BOOK XVTII.]

HEIGN OF ZEDEKUH,

246

were easily deceived, but in times already polished and learned,
although the subtle and acute loquacity of the philosophers
had not yet culminated- But altliough the later times did
not deify dead men, still they did not cease to hold and wor-
ship as gods those deified of old ; nay, by images, which the
ancients never had, they even increased the allurements of
vain and impious superstition, the unclean demons effecting
this in their heart, and also deceivin^^ them by ly\n^ oracles,
so that even tlie fabulous crimes of the gods, which were not
once imagined by a more polite aj;e, were yet basely acted in
the plays in honour of these same false deities. Numa reigned
after Eomulus ; and althout^h he liad tliought that Rome would
1>€ better defended the more gods there were, yet on his death
lie himself was not counted worthy of a place among them, as
if it were supposed tlmt he had so crowded heaven that a place
could not be found for liini there. They report that the Saraian
sibyl lived while he reigned at Rome, and when Manasseh

I began to reign over the Hebrews, — an impious king, by whom
tlie prophet Isaiali is said to have been slain.
:
J.
til

What phihitophers wtrf famous when Tarfjtiiniiis Pr'iaai* rfignfd orcr the
SomanSt and Ztdtldah ovtr Ut/t Jlibreiog, uken Jertuaiem mu taken ami
thi temple overthroum.

When Zedekiah reigned over the Hebrews, and Tarquinius
Priscus, the successor of Ancus Martius, over the Romans, the
Jewish people was led captive into Babylon, Jerusalem and
the temple built by Solomon being overthrown. For the pro-
phets, iu chiding them for their iniquity and impiety, predicted
that these things should come to pass, especially Jeremiah,
who even stated the number of years Pittacus of Mitylune,
another of the sages, is reported to have lived at that time.
And Eusebius writes that, while the people of God were held
captive in Babylon, the five otlier sages lived, who must be
added to Tbales, whom we mentioned above, and Pittacus, in
order to make up the seven. These are Solon of Athens, Chilo
of Laceda^mon, Periander of Corinth, Cleobulus of Lindus, and
Bias of Priene. These fioiirishcd after the theological poets, and
•were called sages, because they excelled other men in a certain
laudable line of life, and suniiucd up some mural precepts
in epigrammatic sayings. But they left posterity no literary

246

THK CITY OF GOD,

[book xvin.

monuments, except that Solon is alleged to have given certain
laws to the Athenians, and Tlialea was a natural philosopher,
and left books of his doctrine in short proverbs. In that time
of the Jewish captivity, Anaximauder, Anaximenes, and Xcno-
phanes, the natural philosophers^ flourislied Pythagoras also
lived then, and at this time the nanie philosopher was first used.

SS. That at the time when the captivity of the Jews wot brought to an entf^ on (he
compleiion of seventy years,, the Romans aUo were /reed from kingly rule.

At this time, Cyrus king of Persia, who also ruled the Chal-
deans and Assyrians, having somewhat relaxed the captivity
of the Jews, made fifty thousand of them return in order to
lebuiki the temple. They only began the first foundations
and built the altar ; but, owing to hostile invasions, thoy were
unable to go on, and the work was put off to the time of Darius.
During the same time also those things were done which are
wriUeu in the book of Judith, which, indeed, the Jews are
said not to have received into the canon of the Scriptures.
Under Darius king of Persia, then, ou the completion of the
seventy years predicted by Jeremiali the prophet, the captiWty
of th« Jews was brought to an end, and they were restored
to liberty. Tarquin then reigned as tlie seventh king of the
Komans. Ou his expulsion, they also began to be free from
the nile of their kings. Down to this time the people of
Israel bad prophets ; but, although they were numerous, the
canonical writings of only a few of them have been preserved
among the Jews and among us. In closing the previous book,
I promised to set down something in this one about them, and
I shall now do so,

27. 0/tke timea of the propheU whose oracles are contained in boots, and who
sang many Uiings about the call of the Gentiles at the time when the Ronmn
kioffdom began and the Assyrian came to an end.

In order that we may bu able to consider these times, let us
go back a little to earlier times. At the beginning of the book
of the prophet Hosca, who is placed first of twelve, it is written,
" The word of the Lord which came to Unsea in the days of
Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, Idngs of Judah." ' Amos
also writes that he prophesied in the days of Uzziah, and adds
the name of Jeroboam king of Israel, who lived at the same

^ Hob. L 1.

>K xvni.]

OF THE HEBREW PROPirETS.

time.^ Isaiah the son of Amos — either the above-named pro-
phet, or, as is rather affirmed, another who was not a prophet, but
was called by the same name — also puts at the head of his book
these four kings named by Hosea, saying by way of preface
that he prophesied in their days.^ JDcah also names the same
times as those of his prophecy, after the days of Vzziah ; ** for
he names the same three kings as Hosea named, — Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah. We find from their own writings that
these men prophesied contemporaneously. To these are added
Jonah in the reign of Uzziah, and Joel in that of Jotham, who
succeeded Uzziah- But we can iimi the date of these two
prophets in the chronicles,* not in their own wTitings, for they
say nothing about it themselves, iiow these dayB extend from
Procas king of the Latins, or his predecessor Aventinus, down
to Eouiulus king of the Eomans, or eveu to tlie Liiginniiig of
the reign of his successor, Numa Pompilius. Hezekiali king
of Judah certainly reigned till tlien. 80 that thus these foun-
tains of prophecy, as I may call them, burst forth at once during
those times when the Assyrian kingdom failed and the Eoman
began ; so that, just as in the first period of the AssjTian king-
dom Abraham arose, to whom the most distinct promises were
made that all nations should be blessed in his seed, so at the
befflnnin^ of the western Babylon, in the time of whose govem-
nient Chi'ist was to come in whom these promises were to be |^ ^^ __
fulfilled, the oracles of the prophets were given not only in (v*^
spoken but in written words, for a testimony that so great a***i
thing should come to pass. For although the people of Israel
hardly ever lacked prophets from the time when they began to
have kings, these were only for their own use, not for that of
the nations. But when the more manifestly prophetic Scrip-
ture began to be formed, which was to benefit the nations
too, it was fitting that it should begin when this city was
founded which was to rule the nations.

28. 0/ Ihe thinQS perta'tninff to the go^p^l of Christ vhich Bona and Amo9
propktsvid.

The prophet Hosea speaks so very profoundly that it is

laborious work to penetrate his meaning. But, according to

' Amos L 1.
■ Mic. i. 1.

' Isa. L 1. Isaiali's fatlicr was Ainoz, a diiTeTent Dame,
* The chronicleii uf KuaeUua and Jerome

248

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xviil

promise, we must insert something from his book. He sajs,
" And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was
said unto tliem. Ye are not my people, there they shall be
called the sons of the living God." * Even the apostles under-
stood this as a prophetic testimony of the calling of the nations
who did not formerly belong to God ; and because this same
people of the Gentiles is itself spiritually among the children
of Abraham, and for that reason is rightly called Israel, thore-
fore he goes ou to say. " And the children of Judah and the
children of Israel shall be gathered together in one, and shall
appoint themselves one headship, and shall ascend from the
eartL"* We should but weaken the savour of this prophetic
oracle if we set ourselves to expound it. Let the reader but
call to mind that comer-stone and those two walls of partition,
the one of the Jews, the other of the Gentiles,* and he will re-
cognise them, the one under the term sons of Judah, the other
as sons of Israel, supporting themselves by one and the same
headship, and ascending from the earth. But that those carnal
Israelites who are now unwilling to believe in Christ shall
afterward believe, that is, their children shall (for they them-
selves, of course, shall go to their own place by dying), this
aame prophet testifies, saying, " For the children of Israel shall
abide many days witliout a king, without a prince, without a
saciifice, without an altar, without a priesthood, without mani-
festations." * Who does not see that the Jews are now thus ?
But let ns hear what he adds : " And afterward shall the chil-
dren of Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David
their king, and shall he jimazed at the Lord and at His gooil-
neas in the latter days." ° Notliing is clearer than tills pixH
phecy, in which by David, as distinguished by the title of king,
Christ is to be understoodj " who is made,*' as the apostle says,
" of tlie seed of David according to the Hesh." * This prophet
has also foretold the resurrection of Christ on the third day,
as it behoved to be foretold, with prophetic loftiness, when he
says, " He will heal ua after two days, and in tho third day we
shall rise again." ^ In agreement with this the apostle says
to us, " If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are

« Hoa. iii. 4.

1 Hob, i. 10.
■ Hos, iiL 6.

* Hos, i. 11.

• Horn. i. 3.

3 Gal. u. 14-20.
7 Ho8. \L 2.

BOOK XVII L]

PREDICTIONS BY ISAIAH.

249

above." ^ Amos also prophesies thus concerning such things :
" Prepare thee, thnt thou mayst invoke thy God, O Israel ; for
lo, I am binding the thunder, and creatlnj^ the spirit, and an-
nouncing to men their Christ." ' And in auothtir place he
says, " In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that
is fallen, and build up the breaches thereof; and I will raise
up his ruins, and will build them np again as in the days of
old : that the residue of men may inquire for me, and all the
Datious upon whom my name is invoked, saith the Lord tliat
doeth this." '

saj

29. What things are predicted hy haiah concerning Christ and the Cfiureh,

The prophecy of Isaiah is not in the book of the twelve
prophets, who are called the minor from the brevity of their
writings, as compared with those wlio are called the gitater
prophets because they published larger volumes. Isaiali be-
longs to the latter, yet I connect him vdih the two above
named, because he prophesied at the same time. Isaiah, then,
together with his rebukes of wickedness, precepts of righteous-
ness, and predictions of evil, also propliesied much more than
the rest about Christ and the Church, that is, about the King
and that city which he founded ; so that some say he should
be called an evangelist rather than a prophet. But, in order
to finish this work, I quote only one out of many in this
place. Speaking in the person of the Father, he says, " Behold,
my servant shall understand, and shall be exalted and glorified
very much. As many shall be astonished at Thee." * This is
about Christ.

But let us now hear what follows about the Church. He
says, " Rejoice, 0 barren^ thou that barest not ; break forth
d cry, thou that didst not travail with child : for mauy moitj
e the children of the desolate than of her that has an hus-
,nd"* But these must auflice ; and some things in them
ought to be expounded ; yet I think those parts sufficient which
are so plain that even enemies must be compelled against then-
ill to understand them.

» CoL iii 1. « Amos ir. 12. 13. » Amos ii. 11, 12 ; Acta xr. 15-17.

* Ibo. lii. 18-liii. 13. Augustine quotes these piLSSCgcs in fulL
» Isa. Uv. 1-5.

250

THE crry of god.

[book xvia

30. What Mlc<ih, Jonah, ajid Joel prophesied in accordance wiUi the New

Testament.

The prophet Micah, representing Christ under the figure of
a great mountain, speaks thus : " It shall come to pass in the
hist days, that the manifested mountain of the Lord shall be
prepared an the tops of the mountains, and it shall be exalted
above the hills ; and people shall hasten unto it Many nations
shall go, and shall say, Come, let us go up into the mountain of
the Lord, and into the house of the God of Jacob ; and He
will show us His way, and we will go in His paths : for out
of Zion shall proceed the law, and the word of the Lord oat
of Jerusalem. And He shall judge among many people, and
rebuke strong nations afar off." ' This prophet predicts the
very place in which Christ was bom, saying, "And thou,
Bethlehem, of the house of Ephratah, art the least that caa
be reckoned atuong the thousands of Judah ; out of thee shall
come forth unto me a leader, to be the princ-e in Israel ; and His
going forth is from the beginning, even from the days of eter-
nity. Therefore will He give them [up] even until the time
when she that travaileth shall bring forth ; and the remnant
of His brethren shall be converted to the sons of Israel And
Ho shall stand, and see, and feed His flock in the strength of
the Lord, and in the dignity of the name of the Lord His
Grod : for now shall He be magnified even to the utmost of
the eartk" '

The prophet Jonah, not so much by speech as by his own
painful experience, prophesied Christ's death and resurrection
much more clearly than if he had proclaimed them with his
voice. For why was he taken into the whalers belly and re-
stored on the third day, but that he might be a sign that
Christ should retiim from the depths of hell on the third
day?

I should be obliged to nse many words in explaining all
that Joel prophesies in order to make clear those that pertain
to Clirist and the ChurcL But there is one passage I must
not pass by, which the apostles also quoted when the Holy
Spirit came down from above on the assembled believers ac-
cording to Chrisfs promise. He says, "And it shall come to

» Mic. iv. 1-3.

« Mic. V. 2-4.

BOOK XVin.] FHEDICTIOXS BY TUE MINOR PROPHETS.

251

pass after these things, that I will pour out my Spirit upon
all flesh ; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your old men shall dream, and your young men shall see
visions: and even on my servants and mine handmaids in
those days will I pour out my Spirit" ^

31. Of the prtdictione ccnctnung the talvation of the world in Christf in
Obailkth, A^a/rwm, and ffah<ill-uk.

The date of three of the minor prophets, Obadiah, IN'ahum,
and Uabakkuk, is neither mentioned by themselves nor given
in the chronicles of Euscbius and Jerome. For although
they put Obadiah with Micah, yet when Slicali prophesied
does not appear from that part of Uieir writings in wluch the
dates are noted. And this, I think, has happened through
their error in negligently cojjying the works of others. But we
could not find the two othei's now mentioned in the copies of
the chronicles wliich we have ; yet because they are contained
in the canon, we ought not to pass them by.

Obadiah, so far as his \vriting3 are concerned, the briefest
of all the prophets, speaks against Idnmea, that is, the nation
of Esau, that reprobate elder of the twin sons of Isaac and
grandsons of Abraham. Now if, by that form of speech in
which a part is put for the whole, we take Idumea as put
for the nations, we may understand of Christ wliat he says
among other things, " But upon Mount Sion shall be safety,
and there shall be a Holy One."' And a little after, at the
end of the same prophecy, he says, " And those who are saved
again shall come up out of Mount Sion, that they may defend
Blount Esau, and it shall be a kingdom to the Lord." ° It is
quite evident this was fulfilled when those saved again out of
Mount Sion — that is, the believers in Christ from Judca, of
whom the apostles are chiefly to be acknowledged — went up
to defend Mount Esau. How could they defend it except by
making safe, thraugh the preaching of the gospel, those who
believed that they might be " delivered from the power of
darkness and translated into the kingdom of God ? " * This
he expressed as an inference, adding, " And it shall be to the
Lord a kingdom." For Mount Sion signifies Judea, where
it is predicted there shall be safety, and a Holy One, that is,

1 Joel ii. 28, 29. » Obad. 17. » Obad. 21. * CoL i. 18.

252 THE CITY OF COD. {BOOK XTIIl

Christ JcsiiB. But Mount Esau is Iduinea, which signifies
tlie Church of the Gentiles, which, as I have expounded, those
saved again out of Sion have defended that it should be a
kingdom to the Lord. This vas obscure before it took place ;
but what believer does not find it out now that it is done ?

As for the prophet Nahum, through him God says, *' I will
exterminate the graven and the molten thiugs : I will make
thy burial For lo, the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings
and announceth peace are swift upon the mountains ' 0
Jndah, celebrate thy festival days, and perform thy vows ; for
now they shall not go on any more so as to become anti-
quated. It is completed, it is consumed, it is taken away.
He ascendeth who breathes in thy face, delivering thee out of
tribidation." ' Let him that i-emembers the gospel call to
mind who hath ascended from hell nud breathed the Holy
Spirit in the face of Judah, that is, of the Jewish disciples;
for they belong to the New Testament, whose festival days are
so spiritually renewed that they cannot become antiquated
Moreover, we already see the graven and molten things, that
is, the idols of the false gods, exterminated through the
gospel, and given up to oblivion as of the grave, and we
know that this prophecy is fulfilled in this very thing.

Of what else than tlie advent of Clu-ist, who was to come,
is Habakkuk understood to say, " And the Lord answered me,
and said, Write the vision openly on a tablet of boxwood, that
he that readeth these things may understand. For the vision
is yet for a time appointed, and it will arise in tlie end, and
will not become void : il' it tarry, wait for it ; because it will
surely come, and vrill not be delayed ?" *

32. 0/ tlie propltecff thai is contained in the prayer and song oj fTahaJrkuk.

In his prayer, with a soug, to whom but the Loitl Christ
does he say, "0 Lord, I liave heard Thy hoaiing, and was
afraid : 0 Lord, I have considered Thy works, and was greatly
afraid?"^ What is this but the inexpressible admiration of
the foreknown, new, and sudden salvation of men ? " In the
midst oi two living creatui'es thou shalt be recognised." What
is this but cither between the two testaments, or between the

1 NaJi. J. U-IL h > Uab. iL 2, 3. ' Hab. ui 2.

BOOK XVIIl.]

ItAB.VKKrK S PROPH?.CV.

two tliieves, or between Moses anil Elias talking with Him on
the mount ? " While the ye.nvA draw niirh. Thou wilt be re-
cognised ; at the coming of the time Thou ivilt be shown,"
does not even need expasiLion. " Wliile my soul shall be
troubled at Him, in ^Tath Thou wilt be mindful of mercy."
What is this but that He puts Himself for the Jews, of whose
nation He was, who were troubled with great anger and cruci-
fied Christj when He, mindful of mercy, said, "Father, fovj^ive
them, for they know not what tliey do ? " ^ " God sluiU come
from Teman, and the Holy One from the shady and close moun-
tain." ' What is said here, " He shall come from Teman," some
interpret "from the south " or " from the south-west," by which
is signified the noonday, that is, the fervour of charity and the
splendour of truth. ''The shady and close mountain" might be
understood in many ways, yet I prefer to take it as meaning
the depth of the divine Scriptures, in which Christ is pi-ophesied:
for in the Scriptures there are many things shady and close
which exercise the mind of the reader ; and Christ comes
thence when he who has understanding finds Him thera
" His power covereth up the heavens, and the earth is full ot
His praise." What is this but what is also said in the psalm,
" Be Thou exalted, 0 God, above the heavens ; and Thy gloiy
above all the earth ?"^ " His splendour shall be as the light."
What is it but that the fame of Him shall illuminate be-
lievers? "Horns are in His hands." What is this but the
trophy of the cross ? " And He hath placed the fimi charity
of His strength"* needs no exposition. *' Be I ore His face
shall go the word, and it shall go forth into the field after
His feet.** What is this but that He should both be an-
nounced before His coming liither and after His return
hence ? ** He stooil, and the earth was moved." What is
this but that " He stood " for succour, " and the earth was
moved " to believe i " He regartled, and the nations melted ;"
that is. He had compassion, and made the people penitent.
" The mountains are broken with violence ; '* that is, through
the power of those who work miracles the pride of the
haughty is broken. "The everlasting bills flowed down;"

> Lnlce xxiii. 34, • Hab. iii. 3.

Ps. Ivii, &, 11.

* Hab. uL 4.

25-i

Tire CITY OF GOD.

[book XVIZL

that is» they are humbled in time that they may be lifted
up for eternity. " I saw His goings [made] eternal for His
labours;" that is, I beheld His labour of love not left without
the reward of eternity. " The tents of Ethiopia shall be greatly
afraid, and the tents of the. land of Midian;" that is, even
those nations which are not under the Eoman authority, being
suddenly terrified by the news of Thy wonderful works, shall
become a Christian people. " Wert Thou angry at the rivers,
0 Lord ? or was Thy fury against the rivers ? or was Thy rage
against the sea?" This is said because He does not now
come to condenm the world, but that the world through Him
might be saved.^ "Tor Thou shalt mount upon Thy hotses,
and Thy riding shall be salvation ;" that is. Thine evangelists
shall carry Thee, for they are guided by Thee, and Thy
gospel is salvation to them that believe in Thee. " Bending,
Thou wilt bend Thy bow against the sceptres, saith the Lord f
that is, Thou wilt threaten even tlio kings of the earth with
Thy judgment. "The earth shall be cleft with rivers;" that
is, by the sermons of those who preach Thee flowing in upon
them, men's hearts shall be opened to make confession, to
whom it is said, " Rend your hearts and not yoiir gar-
ments." * "What docs " The people shall see Thee and grieve "
mean, but that in mourning they shall be blessed ? ' What
is " Scattering the waters in marching," but that by walking in
those who everywhere proclaim Thee, Tliou wilt scatter hither
and thither the streams of 'Thy doctrine ? What is " The
abyss uttered its voice ? " Is it not that the depth of the
human heart expressed what it perceived ? The words, " The
depth of its phantasy," are an explanation of the previous verse,
for the depth is the abyss ; and " Uttered its voice ** is to be
understood before them, that ia, as we have said, it expressed
what it perceived. Now the phantasy is the vision, which it
did not hold or conceal, but poured forth in confession. " The
sun was raised up, and the moon stood still in her course ;"
that is, Christ ascended into heaven, and the Church was
established under her Xing. " Thy darts shall go in the
light;" that is, Thy words shall not be sent in secret, but
openly. For He had said to His own disciples, " What I tell
1 Johu iii 17. * Joel ii. 13, » ilatt v. 4.

XVUT.]

HABAKKUKS PROPireCT.

u in darkness, that speak ye in the light." ^ " By threaten-
ing thou shalt diminish the earth ;" that is, by that threatening
Thou shalt hiimhle men. " And in fury Thou shalt cast down
the nations ;" for in punishing those who exalt themselves Thou
dashest them one against another. *' Thou wentest forth for
the salvation of Thy people, that Thou mightest save Thy
Christ ; Thou host sent death on the lieads of the wicked."
None of these words require exposition. " Thou hast lifte<l
lip the bonds, even to the neck." This may be understood
even of the good bonds of wisdom, that the feet may be put
into its fetters, and the neck into its collar. "Thou hast
struck off in amazement of mind the bonds " must be under-
stood for. He lifts up the good and strikes off the bad, about
which it is said to Him, "Thou hast broken asunder my
bi)nds," ^ and that " in amazement of mind/' that is, wonder-
fully. "The heads of the mighty shall be moved in it;" to
wit, in that wonder. " Thoy shall open their teeth like a poor
man eating secretly." For some of the mighty among the
Jews shall come to the Lord, admiring His works and woi^ds,
and shall greedily eat the bread of His doctrine in secret for
fear of the Jews, just as the Gospel has shown they did.
" And Thou hast sent into the sea Thy horses, troubling many
waters," which are nothing else than many people ; for iinless
all were troubled, some would not be converted with fear,
others pursued with fury. "I gave heed, and my belly
trembled at the voice of the prayer of my lips ; and trem-
bling entered into my bones, and my habit of body was
troubled under mc." He gave heed to those things which he
aaid, and was himself terrified nt his own prayer, which he
had poured forth prophetically, and in which he discerned
things to come. For when many people are troubled, he saw
the threatening tribulation of the Chin*ch, ond at once acknow-
ledged liimself a member of it, and said, " I shall rest in the

y of tribulation," as being one of those who are rejoicing in
liope, patient in tribitkition.'* " That I may ascend," he says,
" among the people of my pilgriiiiage/' deparling quite from the
xricked people of his carnal kinship, who are not pilgrims in
this earth, and do not seek the country above.* "Although

J iUtt. X. 27. " Ps. cx\-L 16. ■ Rom. xii. 12. * fleb. xi 18, 16.

DOOK xvin.]

ZEPHANIAH'S PREDICTIONS.

257

our sins,' thus briefly showing both that Christ is our Lord
and that He stiifered for us. Also in another place he says.
*■ This is my God, and there shall none other be accounted of
in comparison of Him ; who hath found out ail the way of
prudence, and hath given it to Jacob His servant, and to
Israel His beloved : afterward He was seen on the earth, and
conversed with men."' Some attribute this testimony not to
Jeremiah, but to his secretary, who was called Baruch ; but it
is more commonly ascribed to Jeremiah. Again the same
prophet says concerning Hiin, " Behold the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will raise up unto David a righteous shoot,
and a King shall reign and shall be ^ise, and shall do jinlg-
ment and justice in the earth. In those days Judah shall be
saved, and Israel shall dwell contidently : and tliis is the
name wliich they shall call Him, Our righteous Lord/'' And
of tlie calling of the nations which was to come to pass, and
which we now see fidfilled, he thus spoke : " 0 Lord my God,
and my refuge in the day of evils, to Thee shall the nations
came from the utmost end of the earth, saying, Truly our
fathers have worshipped lying images, wherein there is no
profit."* But that the Jews, by whom He behoved even to be
slain, were not going to acknowledge Him, this prophet thus
intimates : " Heavy is the heart through all ; and He is a man,
and who sliall know Him ? "^ That passage also is his which
I have quoted in the seventeenth book concerning the new
testament, of which Christ is the Mediator. For Jeremiah
himself says, " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I
vriU complete over the house of Jacob a new testament," and
the rest, which may he read tliere.^

For the present 1 shall put down those predictions about
Christ by the prophet Zephaniah, who prophesied with Jere-
m.iah. " Wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, in the day of my
resurrection, in the future ; because it is my determination to
assemble the nations, and gather together the kingdoms.''^
And again he says, "The Lord will be terrible upon them,
and will exterminate all the gods of the earth ; and they shall

> Lain. iv. 20.
♦icr. xvi. 19.
T Zeph. iii {L

VOL. a

* Bar. ui. 35-37.
' Jer. xriL •.

' Jer. xxiii. 5, 0.

' Jer. xxjd. 81 ; see 6k. zvii. 3.

ZEPHAXIAHS PREDICTIONS.

thus briefly showing both that Christ is our JLord

le suffered for us. Also in another place be says,

ly God, and thero shall none other be accounted of

)n of Him ; who hath found out all the way of

and liath given it to Jacob His servant, and to

beloved : afterward He was seen on the earth, and

with mcn."^ Some attribute this testimony not to

but to Lis secretaiy, who was called Bantch ; but it

tmmonly ascribed to Jeremiah. Again the same

lys concerning Him, " Behold the days come, saith

that I will raise up unto David a righteous shoot,

ig shall reign and shall be wise, and shall do judg-

justice in the earth. In tliose days Judali shall be

Israel shall dwell confidently : and this ia the

dch they shall call Him, Our righteovis Loitl/'^ And

ig of the nations which was to come to pass, and

now see fulfilled, he tlms spoke : " 0 Lord my God,

lefoge in the day of evils, to Thee shall the nations

the utmost end of the earth, saying, Truly our

ive worshipped lying images, wherein there is no

But that the Jews, by whom He behoved even to be

not going to acknowledge Hun, this prophet thus

: " Heavy is the heart through all ; and He is a man,

shall know Him ? "^ That passage also is his wliich.

quoted in the seventeenth book concerning the new

it, of which Christ is the Mediator. For Jeremiah

says, " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I

iplete over the house of Jacob a new testament," and

which may be read there.*^

le present I shall put down those predictions about
the prophet Zephaniah, who prophesied with Jere-
••Wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, iu the day of my
don, iu the future ; because it is my determination to
the nations, and gather together the kingdoms."^
ho says, " The Lord will be terrible upon them,
1 exterminate all the gods of the earth; and they shall

SO.

» Bar. iii. 35-37.
* Jer. xvii. 0.

' Jer. xxlii. 5, fl.

' Jer. xxxi. 31 : see Bk. xviL 3.

25G

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XYli:.

the fig-tree," he says, "shall not blossom, neither shall frait
be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall lie, and the fields
shall j^cld no meat; the sheep shall be cut off from the
meat, and there shall be no oxen in the stalls." He sees tliat
nation which was to alay Christ about to lose the abundance
of spiritual supplies, which, in prophetic fashion, he has set
forth by the figure of earthly plenty. And because that
nation was to suffer such wi-ath of God, because, being igno-
rant of the righteousness of God, it wished to establish its
own/ he immediately says, "Yet will I rejoice in the Lord; I
will joy in God my salvatioa The Lord God is my strength,
and He will set my feet in completion ; He will place me
above the heights, that I may conquer in His song," to wit,
in that song of which something similar is said in the psalm,
" He set my feet upon a rock, and directed my goings, and put
in my mouth a new song, a h}Tnn to our God." ' He there-
fore conquci's in the song of tlie Lord, who takes plea.sure in
His praise, not in his own ; that " He that glorieth, let him
glory in the Lord."' Eut some copies have, " I will joy in God
my Jesus," which seems to me better than the version of those
who, wishing to put it in Latin, have not set down that very
name which for us it is dearer and sweeter to name,

33. WIuU Jeremiah and Zephauiah havf^ hj the prophetic Spirit, tpoken
concerning Christ and the caltingt ^ the naiioM,

Jeremiah, like Isaiah, is one of the greater prophets, not of
the minor, like the others from whose writings I have just
given extracts. He prophesied when Josiah reigned in Jeru-
salem, and Ancus Maitius at Eome, when the captivity of the
Jews was already at hand ; and he coiitiuued to prophesy
down to the fifth month of the captivity, as we find from his
writings. Zephaniah, one of the minor prophets, w put along
with liim, because he himself says that he prophesied in the
days of Josiah; but he does not say till wJicn. Jeremiah thus
prophesied not only in the times of Ancus Martius, but also
in those of Tarquinius Priscus, whom the llomans had for
their fifth king. For he had already begun to reign when
that captivity took place, Jeremiah, in prophesying of Christ,
says, " The breath of our mouth, the Lord Christ, was taken in
* Horn. X. 3. * Pa il. 2, 3. » Jer. ix. 23, 24, as in 1 Cor. i. 31.

LDOSe

very

nooK xriiL]

ZEPHAKIAIIS PREDICTIONS.

257

OUT sins," thus brietly showing both that Christ is our Lord
and that He suffered for us. Abo in another place he says»
"This is my God, and tliere shall none other bo accounted of
in comparison of Him ; who liatb found out all the way of
prudence, and liath ^^aven it to Jacob His ser\'ant, and to
Israel His beloved : afterward He was seen on the earth, and
conversed with men."* Some attribute this testimony not to
Jeremiah, but to Ids sccretaiy, who was called Baruch ; but it
is more commonly ascribed to Jeremiah. Again the same
prophet says concerning Him, " Behold the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will raise up unto David a righteous shoot.
land a King sliall reign and shall be wise, and shall do juJg-
lent and justice in the earth. In those days Judah shall be
saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently : and this is the
[name which they shall call Him, Our righteous Lord.*'^ And
[of the calling of the nations which was to come to pass, and
which we now see fulfilled, he thus spoke : " 0 Lord my God,
and my refuge in the day of evils, to Thee slinll the nations
come from the utmost end of the earth, saying, Truly our
fathers have worshipped l>nng images, wherein there is no
profit."* But that the Jews, by is'hom He behoved even to be
slain, were not going to acknowledge Him, this prophet thus
intimates : *' Heavy is the heart through all j and He is a man,
and who shall know Him ? "^ That passage also is hia which
I have quoted in the seventeenth book concerning the new
testament, of which Christ is the Mediator. For Jeremiali
himself says, " Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, tliut I
will complete over the house of Jacob a new testament," and
the rest, which may be read tliere.**

For the present I shall put dowji those predictions about
Christ by the prophet Zephaniah, who prophesied with Jere-
miah. " Wait ye upon me, saith the Lord, in the day of my
resurrection, in the future; because it is my determination to
assemble the nations, and gather together the kingdoms."^
And again he says, " The Lord will be terrible upon them,
and will exterminate all the gods of the earth ; and they shall

» Lam. iv. 20.
* Jer. xvi. 19.
" Zejih. iiL 8,

VOL. II,

" Bar. iii. 35-37.
' Jer. xriL 9.

^ Jer. xxiii. 5, 6,

* Jer. uLxi. 31 ; see 6k. xvii. 3.

23S

THE Cmr OF GOD.

[book xvm.

worship Hiin every luan from liis place, even all the isles of
the nations."^ And a little after he says, "Then will I turn
to the people a tongue, and to His offspring, that they may
call upon the name of the Lord, and serve Him under one
yoke. From the herders of the rivers of Ethiopia shall Uiey
bring sacrifices unto me. In that day thou shalt not be con-
founded for all thy curious inventions, which thou hast done
impiously against nie : for then I will t^ike away from thee
the naughtiness of thy trespass ; ' and thou shalt no more
modify thyself above thy holy mountain. And I will leave
in thee a meek and humble people, and they who shall be left
of Israel shall fear the name of the Lord.''^ These are the
renmant of whom the apostle quotes that which is elsewhere
prophesied : " Though the number ot the children of Israel be
as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved,"' These
are the remnant of that nation who have believed in Christ

84. 0/the prophecy of Darnel and EieHdj oUier tmo qf tht greater propltdi,

Daniel and Ezekiel, other two of the greater prophets, also
first prophesied in the very captivity of Babylon. Daniel even
defined the time when Christ was to come and suffer by the
exact date. It would take too long Lo show tliia by computa-
tion, and it has been done often by others before us. But of
His power and glory he has thus s])oken : " I saw in a night
vision, and, behold, one like the Son of man was coining with
the clouds of heaven, and He came even to the Ancient of
days, and He was brought into His presence. And to Him
there was given dominion, and honour, and a kingdom : and
toll people, tribes, and tongues shall serve Him. Hia power is
an everlasting power, which shall not pass away, and His
kingdom shall not be destroyed."*

Ezekiel also, speaking prophetically in the person of Crod
the Father, thus foretells Christ, speaking of Him in the pro-
phetic manner as DaAdd because He assumed fiesh of the
seed of David, and on account of that form of a servant in
which He was made man, He who is the Son of God is also
called the servant of God, He saySj " And I will set up over

» Zeph. ii. 11.

s l»a. X. 22 : Horn, ix 27.

* Zoph. iii. 9-12.

* Daii. vii 13. 14.

BOOK XVUl]

PROPHECIES OF HAGGAI,

or.

luy slieep one Shepherd, who will feed them, even my servant
David ; and He shall feed them, and He shall be their shep-
herd. And I the Lord will be their God, and lay servant
David a prince in the midst of them. I the Lord have
spoken."* And in another place he says, "And one King
shall be over them all : and they shall no more be two
nations, neither shall they be divided any more into two
kingdoms : neither shall they defile themselves any more with
their idols, and their abominations, and all their iniquities.
And I will save them out of all their dwelling-places wherein
they have sinned, and will cleanse them ; and they shall be
my people, and I will fae their God, And my servant IJand
shall be king over them, and there shall be one Shepherd for
them all."^
35. Of thi prophecy qf the three prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malaelii,

There remain tliree minor prophets, Haggai, Zechariah,
and Malachi, who prophesied at the close of the captivity.
Of these Haggai more openly prophesies of Christ and the
Church thus briefly : " Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Yet one
little while, and I will shake the heaven, and the earth, and
the sea, and the diy land ; and I will move all nation's, and
the desired of all nations sliall come.'*' The fulfilment of
this pi-ophecy is in part already seen, and in part hoped for
in the end. For He moved the heaven by the testimony of
the angels and the stars, when Christ became incarnate. He
moved tlie eaith by the great miracle of His birth of the
virgin. He moved the sea and the dry land, when Christ
was proclaimed both in the iales and in the whole world. So
we see all nations moved to the faith ; and the fullilment of
wliat follows, '■ And the desired of M nations shall come," is
looked for at His last coming. For ere men can desire and
wait for Him, they must believe and love Him.

Zechariah says of Christ and the Church, *' Eejoice greatly,

0 daughter of Sion ; shout joyfully, O daughter of Jerusalem ;
behold, thy King shall come unto thee, just and the Saviour ;
HimseK poor, and mounting an ass, and a colt the foal of an
ass : and His dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the
river even to the ends of the earth."* How tliis was done,

1 Ezek. xxxir. 23. ' £iek. xxxvii. 22-24. > IXaif. ii. 6. * Zedi. ix. 9, 10.

260 THE CITY OP COD. [BOOK XTni.

when the Lord Christ on His journey used a beast of biuden
of this kind, we read in the Gospel, where, also, as much of
this prophecy is quoted as appears sufficient for the context
In another place, speaking in the Spirit of prophecy to Christ
Himself of the remission of sins tlirough His Mood, he tmya,
" Thou also, by the blood of Thy testament, hast sent forth
Thy prisoners from the lake wherein is no water."^ Dif-
ferent opinions may he held, consistently with right belief, as
to what he meant by this lake. Yet it seems to me that no
meaning suits better than that of the depth of human miseiy,
which is, as it were, dry and barren, where there are nv»
streams of righteousness, but only the miio of iiiifjuity. For
it is said of it in the Psalms, " And He led me forth out of
the lako of misery, and from the miry clay."'

Malaciii, foretelling: the Church which we now behold pro-
jja^^^ted through Cluist, says most openly to the Jews, in the
person of God, "I have no pleasure in you, and I will not
accept a gift at your hand. For from the rising even to the
going down of the sun, my name is great among the nations \
and in ever)' place sacrifice shall be made, and a pure oblation
shall be offered unto my name : for my name shall be great
among the nation;?, saith the Lord."^ Since we can already
see this sacrifice offered to God in every place, from the rising
of the sun to his going down, throu^'h Clirist's priesthood after
the order of Melchisedec, while the Jews, to whom it was
said, " I have no pleasure in you, neither will I accept a gift
at your hand," cannot deny that their sacrifice has ceased, why
do they still look for another Christ, when they read this in
the prophecy, and see it fulfilled, which could not bo fulfilled
except through Him ? Aud a little after he says of Him, in
the person of God, " My covenant was with Him of life and
peace ; and I gave to Him that He miglit fear me with fear,
iiiul be afraid before my name. The law of truth was in Hb
mouth : directing in peace ile hath walked with me, and hath
turned mauy away from iniquity. For the Priest's lips shall
keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at His mouth :
for He is the Angel of the Ijord Almighty."* Nor is it to be
wondered at that Christ Jesus is called tho Angel of the
» ZccIl ix- U, ■ Pi 3d. 2. « ilal. L 10, 11. * Mai. u. 5-7.

BOOK XTTir.]

PROPHECIES OF MALACm.

:61

Almighty God. For just as He is called a sen-ant on account
of the form of a servant in which He came to men, so He is
called an angel on account of the evangel which He proclaimed
to men. For if we interpret these Greek words, evajif^d is
" good news " and nngd is "messenger." Again he says of Him,
" Eehold I will send mine angel, and He will look out the
way before my face: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall sud-
denly come into His temple, even the Angel of the testament,
whom ye desire. Behold, He cometh, saith the Loixl Aiiiiighty,
and who shall ahide the day of HLs entry, or who shall stand

at His appearing

^" I

In this place he has foretold both the

i»^'

first and second advent of Christ: the first, to wit, of which he
says, " And He shall come suddenly into His temple ; " that
is, into His flesli, of whicli He said in t!ie Gospel, " Destroy
this temple, and iu three days I will raise it up again"*'* And
of the second advent he says, " Behold, He cometh, saith the
Lord Almighty, and who shall abide the day of His entry, or
who shall stand at His appearing ?" But what he says, " Tlie
Lord whom ye seek, and the Angel of the testament whom ye
desire," just means that even the Jews, according to the Scrip-
tures which they reatl, shall seek and desire Christ. But
many of them did not acknowledge that He whom they
sought and desired had come, being blinded in their hearts,
which were preoccupied with their oM'n merits. Now what
he here calls tlic testament^ either above, where he says, " My
testament had been with Him," or here, where he has called
Him the Angel of the testament, we ought, beyond a doubt, to
take to be the new testament, in which the things promised
are eternal, and not the old, in which they are only temporal.
Yet many who are weak are troubled when they sec the
icked abound in such temporal things, because they value
them greatly, and serve the true God to be rewarded with
theuL On Ibis account, to distinguish the eternal blessedness
of the new testament, which shall be given only to the
good, from the earthly felicity of the old, which for the
est part is given to the bad as well, the same prophet says,
Ye have made your words burdensome to me : yet ye have
said, In what have we spoken ill of Thee ? Ye have said,

1 Mul. i;i. 1, % ' John u. 1».

262 THE cmr of god. [book xvm

Foolish is every one who serves God ; and wLat profit is it
that we have kept His observances, and that we have walked
as suppliants before the face of the Lord Almighty ? And
now we call the aliens blessed ; yea, all that do wicked things
are built up again ; yea, they are opposed to God and are
saved. They that feared the Li*rd uttered these reproaciies
every one to his neighbour : and the Lord hearkened and
heard ; and He vrrote. a bonk of remembmnce before Him, for
them that fear the Lord and that rcvere His name."' By that
book is meant the New Testament. Finally, let us hear wliat
follows: "And they shall be an acquisition for me, saith the
Lord Almighty, in the day which I make j and I will choose
them as a man chooseth his son that serveth him. And ye
shall return, and shall discern between the just and the un-
just; and between him that serveth God and Mm that serveth
Him not. For, behold, the day cometh burning as an oven,
and it shall burn them up ; and all the aliens and all that do
wickedly shall be stubble : and the day that shall come will
set them on fire, snith the Lord Almighty, and shall leave
neither root nor branch. And unto you tliat fuar my name
shall the Sun of Righteousness arise, and health shall be in
His wings ; and ye shall go forth, and exult as calves let loose
from bonds. And ye shall tread down the wicked, and they
shall bo ashes under your feet, in the day in which I shall do
[this], saith the Lord Almighty."' This day is the day of judg-
ment, of which, if God wUl, we shall speak more fully in its
own place.

36. About Eidrcu and the hook$ qf the MarcabfTB.

After these three prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi,
during the same period of the liberation of the people from
the Babylonian servitude Esdras also wrote, who is historical
rather than prophetical, as is also the book called Esther, which
is found to relate, for the praise of God, events not far from
those times ; unless, perhaps, Esdras is to be understood ts
prophesying of ChrLst in that passage where, on a question
having arisen among certain young men as to what is the
strongest thing, when one had said kings, another wine, the
third women, who for the most part rule kings, yet that

> MftL iii. 13-16. = Mai. ui. IT-W. 3.

BOOK xvni]

AWnQUlTY OF PROrHECT.

same third youth demonstrated that the truth is victorious
over ?dL^ For by consulting the Gospel we learn that Christ
is the Truth. From this time, when the temple was rebuilt,
down to the time of Aristobulus, the Jews had not kings but
princes ; and the reckoning of their dates is found, not in the
Holy Scriptures which are called canonical, but in others,
among which are also the books of the Maccabeea These
are held as canonical, not by the Jews, but by the Church, on
account of the extreme and woudciTuI sufferings of certain
martyrs, who. before Christ had come in the flesh, contended
for the law of God even unto deaths and endured most grievous
and horrible evils.

37. That prophetic rtcords are/mmd which are mart ancient than any fountain
o/tht GnUile philosophy.

lu the time of our prophets, then, whose writings had
already come to the knowledge of almost all nations, the
philosophers of the nations liad not yet arisen, — at least, not
those who were called by that name, which originated with
Pythagoras the Samian, who was becoming famous at the
lime when the Jeivish captivity ended. Much more, then,
are the other pliilosophers found to be later than the prophets.
For even Socrates the Athenian, the master of all who were
then most famous, holding the pre-eminence in that depart-
ment that is called the moral or active, is found after Esdras
in the chronicles. Plato also was bom not much later, who
far outwent the other disciples of Socrates. If, besides these,
we take their predecessors, who had not yet been styled
philosophers, to wit, the seven sages, and then the physicists,
who succeeded Thales, and imitated his studious search into
the nature of things, namely, Anaximander, Ana.ximenes, and
Anaxagoras, and some others, before Pythagoras first pro-
fessed himself a philosopher, even these did not precede the
whole of our prophets in antiquity of time, since Thales,
whom the others succeeded, is said to have flourished in the
reign of Eomulus, when the stream of prophecy burst forth
from the fountains of Israel in those writings Avhich spread
over the whole world. So that only those theological poets,

>heus, Linus, and Musa?ua, and, it may be, some others
^ Esdras iii. and iv.

264

THE CITY OF GOD.

[r.00K xxm.

among the Greeks, are found earlier in date than the Hebrew
prophets whose "writiiigs we hold as authoritative. But not
even these preceded in time our true divine, Moses, who
authentically preached the one true God, and whose writings
arc tirst in the authoritative canon; and therefore the Greek?,
in whose tongue the literature of this age chiefly appears, have
no ground for boasting of their wisdom, in which our religion,
wherein is true wisdom, is not evidently more ancient at
least, if not superior. Yet it must be confessed that before
Moses there had already been, not indeed among the Greeks,
but among barbarous nations, as in E;2:ypt, some doctrine
wliich might be called their wisdom, else it would not have
been -ftTitten in the holy books that Moses was learned in all
the wisdom of the Egyptians/ as he was, wlien, being bom
there, and adopted and nursed by Pharaoh's daughter, he was
also liberally educated. Yet not even the wisdom of the
Egyptians could be antecedent in time to the wisdom of our
pTOpliets, because even Abmliam was a prophet And what
wisdom coidd there be in Eg^'pt before Isis had given them
letters, whoai they thought fit to worship as a godde.ss after
her death ? ifl'ow Isis is declared to have been the daughter
of Inachus, who first began to reign in Argos when the grand-
sons of Abraham are known to have been abeady boi-n,

38. That (he t^^denUutkal canon ha» not admlttfd ctrtain wridngs on accomt
oj tfifir too ffreat aniiqultj/^ U^ft tftrouQh them faUe Uiiiiffa nhould be in-
tertnti instead oJ true.

If I may recall far more ancient times, our patriarch Noah
was certainly even before that gi-eat deluge, and I might not
undeservedly call him a prophet, forasmuch as the ark he made,
in which he escaped with his family, was itself a prophecy of
our times,^ Wliat of Enoch, the seventh from Adam ? Does
not tlie canonical epistle of the Apostle Jude declare that he
prophesied ? ^ But the writings of these men could not be
held as authoritative either among the Jews or us, on account
of their too great antiquity, which made it seem needful to
regard them with suspicion, lest fidsc tliiugs should be set
forth instead of true. For some writings wliich are said to
be theirs are quoted by those who, according to their own

» AcU TiL 22. ■ Heb. xi. 7 ; 3 IVt. iii. ZO, 21. * Jude U.

BOOK XVfn] OF THE BOOK OF ENOCH, 265

humour, loosely believe what they please. But the purity of
the canon has not admitted these writings, not Lectiuse the
authority of these men who pleased God is rejected, but be-
cause they are not beUeved to be theirs. Nor ought it to
appear strange if writings for which so great antiquity is
claimed are held in suspicion, seeing that in the very history
of the kings of Judah and Israel containing their acts, which
we believe to belong to the canonical Scripture, very many
things are mentioned which are not explained there, but are
said to be found in other books which the prophets wrote, the
very names of these prophets being sometimes given, and yet
they are not found iu the canon wliich the people of God re-
ceived. Now I confess the reason of this is hidden from me ;
only I think that even those men, to whom certainly tlie Holy
Spirit revealed those things which ought to be held as of re-
ligious authority, might ^\Tite some things as men by historical
diligence, and others as prophets by divine inspiration ; and
these things were so distinct, that it was judged that the
former should be ascribed to themselves, but the latter to
God speaking through them ; and so the one pertained to the
abundance of knowledge, the other to the authoiity of religion.
In that authority the canon is guarded. So that> if any MTit-
ings outside of it arc now brought forwanl under the name of
the ancient prophets, they cannot serve even as an aid to
knowledge, because it is uncertain whether they are genuine ;
and on this account they are not trusted, especially those of
them in which some tilings are found that are even contrary
to the truth of the canonical books, so that it is quite ap-
parent they do not belong to them.

39. About the Hthreto written charactrra vhich that languagr. alvcayt poeteued.

Now we must not believe that Heber, from whose name
the M'ord Hebrew is derived, presen'ed and transmitted the
Hebrew language to Abraham only as a s]>oken language, and
that the Hebrew letters began with the giving of the law
through Moses ; but rather that this language, along with its
letters, was preserved by that succession of fathera Moses,
indeed, appointed some among the people of God to teach
letters, before they could know any letters of the divine law.

The Scripture calls these men ypafifiareta-ayayyd^, who may

be called in Latin ijidndorcs or introdudora of letters, be-
cause they, as it "were, introduce them into the hearts of the
learners, or rather lead those whom they teach into them.
Tlierefore no nation coulii vaunt itself over our patriarchs and
prophets by any wicked vanity for the antiquity of its vrisdom ;
since not even Egypt, which is wont falsely and vainly to
glory in the antiquity of hei doctrines, is found to have pre-
ceded in time the wisdom of our patriarchs in her own wis-
dom, such as it is. Neither will any one dare to say that they
were most skilful in Avonderful sciences before they knew letters,
that is, before Isis came and taught them there. Besides, what,
for the most part, was that memorable doctrine of theirs which
was caUed wisdom but astronomy, and it may be some other
sciences of that kind, which usually have moi-e power to exer-
cise men's wit than to enlighten their minds with true wisdom ?
As regards philosophy, whicli professes to teach men something
which shall make them happy, studies of that kind flourished
in those lands about the times of Mercury whom they called
Trismegistus, long before the sages and philosophers of Greece,
but yet after Abi'aham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and even
after Moses himself. At that time, indeed, when Moses was
bom. Atlas is found to have lived, that great astronomer, the
brother of Prometheus, and maternal grandson of the elder
Mercury, of whom that Mercuiy Trismegistus was the grand-
son.

40. Ahout the mo»t mmdadou* vanity of the EfpjjUiana, m tcheh they ascribe to
their science an antiquity of a hundred thovaand yean.

In vain, then, do some babble witli most empty presump-
tion, saying that Eg)'pt has uuderstood the reckoning of the
stars for more than a hundred thousand years. For in what
books have they collected that number who learned letters
from Isis their mistress, not much more than two thousand
years ago ? Varro, who has declared this, is no small autlio-
rity in history, and it does not disagree with the truth of the
divine books. For as it is not yet six thousand years since
the first man, who is called Adam, are not those to be ridiculed
rather than refuted who try to persuade us of anything re-
garding a space of time so different from, and contrary to, the

BOOK XVni.] 0? TirK CANOKTCAL S0EIPTURE3.

267

■£

ascertained trulJi ? Tor what hi3tOTian of the past should
we credit more than him who has also predicted things to
come which we now see fulfilled ? And the very disagree-
ment of the historians among themselves furnishes a good
reason why we ought rather to believe him who does not
contradict the divine history which we hold. But, on the
otlier hand, the citizens of the impious city, scattered ever>'-
where through the earth, when they read the most learned
writers, none of whom seems to he of contemptible authority,
and find them disagreeing among themselves about affairs
most remote from the memory of our age, cannot find out
whom they ought to trust But we, being sustained by divine
authority in the liistory of our religion, have no doubt that
whatever is opposed to it is most false, whatever may be the
case regarding other things in secular books, which, whether
true or false, yield nothing of moment to our living rightly
and happily.

41. About Uie discord of philomphic opinion, arul the concord of (he Saipturts
that are ktld at caw>n\cal by the Church.

But let US omit further examination of history, and return
to the pliilosophera from whom we digrt^ssp.d to these things.
They seem to have laboured in their studies for no other
end than to find out how to live in a way proper for laying
hold of blessedness. Why, then, have the disciples dis-
sented from their masters, and the fellow-disciples from one
another, except because as men they have sought after these
things by human sense and human reasonings ? Now,
although there might be among them a desire of glory, so
that each wished to be thought wiser and more acute than
another, and in no way addicted to the judgment ol others,
but the inventor of his own dogma and opinion, yet I may
grant that there were some, or even very many of them,
whose love of tnith severed them from their teachers or fel-
low-disciples, that they might strive for what they thought
was the tnith, whether it was so or not. But what can
Jiuman misery do, or how or where can it reach forth, so as
attain blessedness, if divine authority does not lead it ?
Finally, let our authors, among whom the canon of the sacred
books is fixed and bounded, be fax from disagreeing in any

268

THE aTY OF GOD.

[book xvin.

respect It is not without good reason, then, that not merely
a few people prating in the schools and gjTiinasia in captious
disputations, but so many and great people, both learned and
iiulcained, in countries and cities, have believed that God
spoke to them or by them, i.e. the canonical writers, when
they wrote these books. There ought, indeed, to be but few of
them, lest on account of their multitude what ought to be
religiously esteemed should grow cheap ; and yet not so few
that their agreement should not be wonderful. For among
tlie multitude of philosophers, who in their works have left
behind them tho monuments of their dogmas, no one will
easily find any who agi*ee in all their opinions. But to show
this is too long a task for tins work.

But what author of any sect is so approved' in this demon*
worshipping city, that the rest who have differed from or op-
posed him in opinion have been disapproved ? The Epicureans
asserted that human affairs were not under the providence of
the gods ; and the Stoics, holding the opposite opinion, agreed
that they were riiled and defended by favourable and tutelaiy
gods. Yet were not both sects famous among the Athenians ?
I wonder, then, why Anaxagoras was accused of a crime for
saying that the sun was a burning stone, and denying that it
wa3 a god at all ; while in the same city Epicurus flourished
gloriously and lived securely, although he not only did not
believe tliat the sun or any star was a god, but contended
that neither Jupiter nor any of the gods dwelt in the world
at all, so that the pi-aycrs and supplications of men might
reach them 1 Were not both Aristippus and Antisthenes there,
two noble pliilosopiiers and both Socratic ? yet they jilaced the
chief end of life within botmds so diverse and contradictory,
that the first made the delight of the body the chief good,
while the other asserted that man was made happy mainly
by the virtue of the mind. The one also said that the wife
man should flee from the republic ; the other, that he should
administer its affans. Yet did not each gather disciples to
follow his own sect ? Indeed, in the conspicuous and well-
known porch, in gymnasia, in gai-dens, in places public and
private, they openly strove in bands each for his own opinion,
some asserting there was one world, others innumerable worlds;

BOOK XA'III.] OF THE CANONICAL SCniPTDnES.

269

8ome that this world had a beginning, others that it had
not ; some that it would perish, others that it would exist
always ; some that it was governed by the divine mind,
others by chance and accident; some that souls are immortal,
others that they are mortal, — and of those who asserted their
immortality, some said they transmigrated tlirough beasts.
others that it was by no means so, while of those wlio asserted
their mortality, some said they perished immediately after the
body, others that they survived either a little while or a longer
time, but not always ; some fixing supreme good in the body,
some in the mind, some in both ; others adding to the min<l
and body external good things ; some thinking that the bodily
senses ought to be trusted always, some not always, others
never. Now what people, senate, power, or public dignity of
the impious city has ever taken care to judge between all
these and other well-nigh innumerable dissensions of tlie
philosophers, approving and accepting some, and disapproving
and rejecting others ? Has it not held in its bosom at random,
I without any judgment, and confusedl)^ so many controversiua
of men at variance, not about fields, houses, or anything of
a pecuniaiy nature, but about those things which make life
I either miserable or happy ? Even if some true things were
' aaid in it, yet falsehoods were uttered with the same liceuce ;
BO that such a city has not amiss received the title of the
mystic Biibyloa Por Babylon means confusion, as we re-
member we have already explained. Nor does it matter to
the devil, ita king, how they wrangle among themselves in
contradictory errors, since all alike descn'edly belong to him
on account of their gi'eat and varied impiety.

But that nation, that people, that city, that repiiblic, these
Israelites, to whom the oracles of God were entrusted, by no
means confounded with similar licence false prophets with the
true prophets ; but, agreeing together, and differing in nothing,
acknowledged and uplield the autlientiu authors of their sacred
books. These were their philosophers, these M*ere their sages,
divines, prophets, and teachers of probity and piety. Who-
ever was wise and lived acconling to them was wise and lived
Cliug to meu, but according to God who hath spoken
If sacrilege is forbidden there, God hath forbidden

270 THE CITY OF COD. [BOOK XVIIL

it. If it is said, " Honour thy father and thy mother," ' God
hath commanded it If it is said, "Thou shalt not commit
adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal," ^ and otlier
similar commandmcnta, not hiunan lips but the divine oracles
have enounced them. Whatever truth certain philosophen^
amid their falae opinions, were able to see, and strove by
laborious discussions to persuade men of, — such as that God
has made this world, and Himself most providently governs
it, or of the nobility of the virtues, of the love of country, of
fidelity in friendship, of good works and evcr^i-hing pertain-
ing to virtuous manners, although they knew not to what end
and what rule all these things were to be referred, — all these, by
words prophetic, that is, divine, although spoken by men, were
commended to the people in that city, and not inc^ilcated by
contention in arguments, so tliat he who should know them
might be afraid of conteniuing, not the wit of men, but the
oracle of God.

42. By icfiat dispeiucUion of Ood'g providence the aaercd Scriptures of tkt Old
Testament foere transiated out qf Bdtrew into Greek, (hat they vnghi k
made known to ail the nations.

One of the Ptolemies, kings of Egypt, desired to know and
have these sacred books. For after Alexander of Macedon,
who is also styled the Great, had by liis most wonderful, but
by no means enduring power, subdued the wholo of Asia, yea,
almost the whole world, partly by force of nnns, partly by
terror, and, among other kingdoms of the East, had entered ond
obtained Judca also, on his duatlt his generals did not peace-
ably divide that most ample kingdom among them for a pos-
session, but ruther dissipated it, wasting all things by wars.
Then Egypt began to have the Ptolemies as her kings. The
first of them, the son of Lagus, carried many captive out of
Judea into Egypt. But another Ptolemy, ciilled Philadelphus,
who succeeded liim, permitted all whom he liad brought under
the yoke to return free ; and, more than that, sent kingly gifts
to the templo of God, and begged Eleazar, who was the high
priest, to give him tie Scriptui-es, which he had heard by
report were truly divine, and therefore greatly desired to have
in that most noble library he had made. When the high
> £x. XX. 12. * £x. XX. 13-] 5, the order u in Mark z. 19.

BOOK XVm.] ATTTHORITY OP TKE SEPTUAGIKT.

271

priest had seat them to him in Hebrew, he afterwards de-
manded interpreters of Mm, and there were given him seventy-
two, out of each of the twelve tribes six men, most learned in
both languages, to wifc, the Hebrew and Greek; and their
translation is now by custom called the Septuagint. It is
reported, indeed, that there was an agreement in their words
so wonderful, stupendous, and plainly divine, that when tliey
had sat at this work, each one apart (for so it pleased Ptolemy
to test their fidelity), they diflered from each other in no word
which had the same meaning and force, or in the order of the
words ; but, as if the translators had been one, so what all Lad
translated was one, because in very deed the one spirit had
been in them aD. And they received so wonderful a gift of
God, in order that the authority of these Scriptures might be
commended not as human but divine, as indeed it was, for the
beneUt of the nations who should at some time believe, as we
now see them doing.

i3. Of the authority of the ScptitagirU iraiulation, which, waving the honour
<^tM Hebrew ori^jina^, ia to be pr^errtd to aii traiulatioru.

For while there were other interpreters who translated these
sacred oracles out of the Hebrew tongue into Greek, as Aquila,
SjTnmachus, and Theodotion, and also that translation which,
as the name of the author is unknown, is quoted as the fifth
edition, yet the Chui'ch has received this Septuagint txansla-
tdon just as if it were the only one ; and it has been used by
the Greek Christian people, most of whom are not aware that
there is any other. From this translation there has also been
made a translation in the Latin tongue, which the Latin
churches use. Our times, however, have enjoyed the advan-
tage of the presbyter Jerome, a man most learned, and skilltd
in all three languages, who translated these same Scriptures
into the Latin speech, not from the Greek, but from the
Hebrew. But although the Jews acknowledge tliis very
learned labour of his to be faitliful, while they contend that
the Septuagint translators have erred in many places, still the
churches of Christ judge that no one should be preferred to
the authority of so many men, chosen for this very great work
by Eleazar, who was then high priest ; for even if there had
not appeared in them one spirit, without doubt divine, and

272 THE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK XVm

the seventy learned nitjn had, after the manner of men, com-
pared together the words of their tmnslation, that what pleased
them all niight stand, no single translator ought to be pre-
ferred to them ; but since so great a sign of divinity has
appeared in them, certainly, if any other translator of their
Scnplures from the Hebrew into any other tongue is faithful,
in that case he agrees witli these seventy translators, and if
ho ii5 not found to a^^ce with thera, then we ought to believe
that the prophetic gift is with them. For tlie same Spirit
■who was in the prophets when they spoke these things was
also in the seventy men when they translated them, so that
assuredly tliey could also say something else, just as if tlie
prophet himself had said both, because it would be the same
Spirit w]io said both ; and could say the same thing diiferently,
so that, although the words were not the same, yet the same
meaning should sliiue forth to those of good understanding;
and could omit or add something, so that even by this it
lijight be shown that tliere was in that work not liuniaa
bondage, which the translator owed to the words, but rather
divine power, which filled and ruled the mind of the trans-
lator. Some, however, have thought that the Greek copies of
the Septuagiat version should be emended from tlie Hebrew
copies ; yet they did not dare to take away what the Hebrew
lacked and the Septuagint had, but only added what m'os
found in the Hebrew copies and was lacking in the Septua-
gint, and noted them by placing at the beginning of the verses
certain marks in tlie form of stars wliicli they call asterisks.
And thoae things wlucli the Hebrew copies Iiave not, but the
Septuagint have, they have in like mamier marked at the
beginning of the verses by horizontal spit-ahaped marks like
those by which we denote ounces ; and many copies having
these marks are circulated even in Latin-^ But we cannot,
without inspecting both kinds of copies, find out those things
which are neither omitted nor added, but expressed differently,
whether they yield another meaning not in itself unsuitable,
or can be shown to explain the same meaning in another way.
If, then, as it behoves us, we behold nothing else in tliese
Scriptures tlian what tiie Spirit of God has spoken through

^ Vax. readiug, " both in Greek ood IaUo."

BOOK xvm.

SEPTTTAGINT ANT) ITEBnKW OTTTGINAI..

men. if anything is in the Hebrew copies and is not in the
version of the Seventy, tlie Spirit of (_Iod did not choose to
say it through them, but only tlirough the prophets. But
whatever is in the Septuagint and not in the Hebrew copies,
the same Spirit chose rather to say through the latter, thus
showing that both were prophets. For in that manner He
spoke as He chose, some things through Isaiah, some through
Jeremiah, some through several jirophets, or clsrj the same
thing tlirongh this prophet and through that. Further, what-
ever is found in both editions, that one and the same Spirit
^vilIed to say through both, but so as that the former pre-
ceded in prophesying, and the latter followed iu prophetically
interpreting tliem ; because, as the one Spirit of peace was in
the former when they spoke tTue and concordant words, so the
selfsame one Spirit hath appeared in the latter, when, without
mutual conference, they yet interpreted all things as if with
one month.

44, How iht threat of the dtttruction ofth^ yineiuttg U tohe vndmtood, icfuch
in tfte Hebrew extends to forty dafjHy trhxU in the Septuagint U is con-
fc tracUd to thrte.

But some one may say, " How shall 1 know whether the
prophet Jonah said to the Ninevites, *Yet three days and Nineveh
shall be ovcrtlirown/ or forty days ?"^ For who does not see
that the prophet could not say both, when he was sent to
terrify the city by the threat of imminent ruin ? For if its
destniction was to take place on the third day, it certainly
could not be on the fortieth ; but if on the fortieth, then cer-
tainly not on the tliird. K, then, I am asked which of these
Jonah may have said, I rather think what is read in tlie
Hebrew, " Yet forty days and Nineveh sliall be overthrown,"
Yet the Seventy, interpreting long afterwartl, could say what
■was different and yet pertinent to the matter, and agree in
tlic selfsame meaning, althougli under a different siguilicutian.
And this may admonish the reader not to despise the authority
of either, but to raise himself above the history, and search for
those things which the history itself was written to set forth.
These things, indeed, took place in the city of Nineveh, but

ey also signified something else too great to apply to that

^ Jon. iii. 4,

VOL. a B

274

THE CITY OP GOD.

[dock xvin.

city ; just as, when it happened that the prophet himself was
three days in the whale's belly, it signified besides, that He
who is Lord of all the prophets should be three days in the
depths of hell. Wherefore, if that city is rightly held as
prophetically representing the Church of the Gentiles, to wit,
as brought down hy penitence, so as no longer to be what it
had been, since this was done by Christ in the Church of
the Gentiles, which Nineveh represented, Christ Himself was
signified l>uth by the forty and by the three days : by the
forty, because He spent that number of days with His disciples
after the resurrection, and then ascended into heaven, but by
the three days, because He rose on the third day. So that, if
the reader desires nothing else than to adhere to the histoiy
of events, he may be aroused from his sleep by the Septuagint
interpreters, as well as the prophets, to search into the depth
of the prophecy, as if they had said, In the forty days seek
Him in whom thou mayest also find the three days, — the one
thou wilt find in His ascension, the otlier in His resurrectioa
Because that which could be most suitably signified by both
numbers, of which one is used by Jonah the prophet, the other
by the prophecy of the Septuagint version, the one and self-
same Spirit hath spoken. I dread prolixity, so that I must
not demonstrate this by many instances in which the seventy
interpreters may be thought to difler from the Hebrew, and
yet, when well understood, are found to agree. For which
reason I also, accurdijig to my capacity, following the foot-
steps of the apostles, who themselves have quoted prophetic
testimonies from both, that is, from the Hebrew and the
Septuagint, have thought that both should be iLsed as autho*
ritative, since both are one, and divine. But let us now follow
out as we can what remains.

45. Thai the Jews cetutd to have prophets after tlie rebuild iiig of /A« tempk,
and frtym that time until the birth of Christ were ajUieUd with cOTUinw^
adversity, to prove thai the building 0/ another temple had been promised

bif prophetic voices.

The Jewish nation no doubt became worse after it ceased
to have propliets, just at the very time when, on the rebuild-
ing of the temple after the captivity in Babylon, it hoped to
become better. For so, indeed, did that carnal people under-

CLOSE OF PROPHETIC PERIOD.

275

U^ff

stand what was foretold by Haggai the prophet, saying, " The
glory of this latter house shall be greater than that of t!ie
former,"^ Now, that this is said of the new testament, he
showed a little above, where he says, evidently promising
Christ, "And I will move all nations, and the desired One sliall
come to all nations."' lu this passage the Septuagiut tmns-
lators, giving another sense more suitable to the body than
the Head, that is, to the Church than to Christ, have said by
prophetic authority, "The things shall come that are chosen
of the Lord from all nations," that is, men, of whom Jesus
saith in the Gospel, '*Many are called, but few are chosen.'"
Fox" by such chosen ones, of the nations there is buUt, through
the new testament, with living stones, a house of God far
more glorious than that temple w^as which was constructed
by king Solomon, and rebuilt after the captivity. For this
reason, then, that nation had no prophets from that time,
hut was alllicted with many phigues by kings of alien race,
and by the Eomans themselves, lest they should fancy that
this prophecy of Haggai was fulfilled by that rebuilding of

e temple.

For not long after, on the arrival of Alexander, it was sub-
,ued, when, although there was no pillaging, because they dared
not resist him, and thus, being very easily suMued, received
him peaceably, yet the glory of that house was not so great
it was when under the free power of their own kings.
Alexander, indeed, offered up sacrifices in the temple of God,
not as a convert to His worship in true piety, but thinking,

ith impious folly, that He was to be worshipped along with
iSalse gods. Then Ptolemy son of Lagus, whom I have idi-eady
mentioned, after Alexander's death carried them captive into
Egypt. His successor, Ptolemy Phihidelphus, most bene-
olently dismissed them ; and by him it was brought about,
I have narrated a little before, that we should have the
Septuagint version of the Scriptures. Then they were crushed
by the wars which are explained in the books of the Maccabees.
After\vard they were taken captive by Ptolemy king of Alex-
andria, who was called Epiphanes. Then Antiochus king of
Syria compelled them by many and most grievous evils to
^ Hag. iU 9, * Uag. ii. 7. ' Matt. xxii. U.

worship idols, and fiUed the temple itself with the sacrile^^ious
superstitions of the Gentiles. Yet their most vigorous leader
Judus, who is also called Afaccaljicua, after beating the jrcnerals
of Antiophus, cleansed it from all that defilement of idolatry.

But not long after, one AlcimuSj althou^li an alien from the
sacerdotal tribe, was, through ambition, made pontiff, which
was an impious diing. After almost fifty years, during which
they never liad peace, although they prospered in some airaii%
Aiistobulus fii*yt a-ssumed the diadem auiou^' them, and was
made both Idng and pontiff. Before that, indeed, from the
time of their return from the Babylonish captivity and the
rebuilding of the temple, they had not kings, hut generals or
principrs. Altliough a king himself may be called a prince,
from his principality in governing, and a leader, because he
leads the army, but it does not foUow that all who are i»rinces
and leaders may also be called kings, as that Arist^^bulus w.i«.
He was succeeded by Alexander, also both king and pontiO',
who is reported to have reigned over them cruelly. After
him his wife Alexandra was queen of the Jews, and from her
time downwards more grievous cvUs pursued them ; for this
Alexandra's sons, Aristobulus and Hyrcauus, when contend-
ing with each other for the kingdom, called in the Eonian
forces against the nation of Israel. For Ilvrcanus asked
assistance from them against his brother. At that time
Home had already subdued Africa and Greece^ and ruled
extensively in other parts of tlie world also, and yet, as if
unable to bear licr own weight, had, in a manner, broken
herself by her own size. For indeed she had come to grave
domestic seditions, and from that to social wars, and by and
by to civil wars, and had enfeebled and worn herself out so
much, that the changed state of the republic, in wMch she
should be governed by kings, was now imminent. Pompey
then, a most illustrious prince of the Roman people, having
entered Judea witli an ai-my, took the city, threw open the
temple, not with the devotion of a suppliant, but with the
authority of a conqueror, and went, not revcreutl)% but pro-
fanely, into the holy of holies, where it was lawful for none
but the pontiff to enter. Having established HjTcanus in the
pontificate, and set Autipater over the subjugated nation as

BOOK XVIII.]

BIRTH OF OTJR LOnP.

277

guardian or procurator, as they were then called, he led
Aristobulus with him hound. From that time tlit: Jews (ilso
began to be Roman tributaries. Afterward Cassius plundered
the very temple. Then after a few years it was tlieir desert
to have Herod, a king of foreign birth, in whose reign Christ
was honi. For tlie time had now come signified by the
prophetic Spirit tlirough the mouth of the patriarch Jacob,
wtien he says, " There shall not be lacking a prince out of
Judah, nor a teacher from his loins, uiilil He shall come for
wlmm it is reserved; and He is the expectation of the nations,"'
Tliere lacked not tlterefore a Jewish prince of the Jews until
that Herod, who was the first king of a foreign race received
by them. Therefore it was now the time when He should
come for whom that was reser^'ed wliich is promised in tlie
New Testament, that He should be the expectation of the
nations. But it was not possible that the nations should
expect He would come, as we see the}' did, to do judgment in
tlie spleiidom' of power, unless they should ihsl believe in
Him when He came to suffer judgment in the bumOity of
patience.

46. Of thf hirUi of our Saviour, irltfrfhj tJtf. Word tra* nadf /Ugh ; awl of t?te
(iiAptn'moH qf the Jetcn nmoHj all nat'tontt, a* had Acfji jtyojthenieii.

Wliilc Hei'od, therefore, reigned in Judea, and Ca?5ar
Augustus was emperor at Eome, the state of the republic
being already changed, and the world being set at peace by
iiim, Christ was born in Bethlehem of Judah, man manifest out
of a human vii^in, God hidden out of God the Father. For ao
had the prophet foretold: "Behold, a vin;in ahall conceive in
the womb, and bring fortli a Son, and they shall call His name
Immanuel, which, being interjireted, is, God with ua."" He
did many miracles that He might commend Ood in Himself,
some of which, even as many as seemed sufficient to proclaim
Him, are contained in the evangelic Scripture. The lirst of
these is, that He was so wonderfully born, and the last, that
with His body raised up again from the dead He ascended
into heaven. But the Jews who slew Him, and would not
believe in Him, because it behoved Him to die and rise again,
were yet more miserably wasted by the Romans, and utterly

' Gen. xlix. 10.

* Isa. vii. 14, as in Matt. i. 23.

278

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xtto.

rooted out &om their kiugdom, where aliens had already
ruled over them, and were dispersed through the lands (so
that indeed there is no place -where they are not), and are
thus by their own Scriptures a testimony to us that we have
not forged the prophecies about Clirist And very many of
them, considering this, even before His passion, but chiefly
after His resurrection, believed on Him, of whom it was pre-
dicted, "Though the number of the children of Israel be as
the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved.*'* But the
rest are blinded, of -whom it was predicted, " Let their table
be made before them a trap, and a retribution, and a stumbling-
block. Let their eyes be darkened lest they see, and bow
down tlieir back alway."' Therefore, when they do not be-
lieve our Scriptures, their own, wliich they blindly read, are
fullilled in them, lest perchance any one should say that the
Christians have forged these prophecies about Christ which
are quoted un(Jer ilie name of tliR sibyl, or of otliors, if such
there be, who do not belong to the Jewish people. For us,
indeed, those suffice which are quoted from the books of our
enemies, to whom we make our acknowledgment, on account
of this testimony wliicb, in spite of themselves, they contribute
by their possession of these books, while they themselves are
dispersed among all njitions, wherever the Church of Christ
is spread abroad. For a prophecy about this thing was sent
before in the Psalms, which they ulso read, where it is written,
" My God, His mercy shall prevent me. My God hath sliown
me concerning mine nnemies, that Thou shalt nut slay them^
lest they should at last forget Thy law : disperse them in Thy
might."^ Therefore God has shown the Church in her enemies
the Jews the grace of His compassion, since, as saith the
apostle, '' their offence is the salvation of the Gentiles."*
And therefore He has not slain them, that is, He has not let
the knowledge that they are Jews be lost in them, although
they have been conquered by the Romans, lest they should
forget the law of God, and their testimony should be of no
avail in this matter ol whicli we' treat. But it was not
enough that he should say, " Slay them not, lest they should

' Isa. I. 22, na in RonL ix. 27, 28.
» P». Ixix. 10. 11.

* Vs. Ixii. 22, 28 ; Bom. xi. 9, 10.

* Horn. xi. 11.

BOOK kvm.] REVELATlOy XOT COKFINED TO ISRAEL.

279

at last forget Thy law/' unless he bad alflo added, " JJiiiperso
them ;" because if they had only been in their own laud with
that testimony of the Scriptures, and not everywhere, certainly
the Church which is ever^'where could not have had them aa
witnesses among all nations to the prophecies which were
sent before couceniing Christ

47. Whether before Christian timet there toere any ovUide of the ItraeHte
race \cho belonged te ihe feilounfup of the heapadjf city.

AVTierefore il' wo read of any foreigner — that is, one neither
bom of Israel nor received by that people into the canon of
the sacred books — having prophesied something about Christ,
if it has come or shall come to our knowledge, we can refer
to it over and above ; not that this is necessary, even if
wanting, but because it is not incongiiious to believe that
even in other nations there may have been men to whom this
mystery was revealed, and who wer** also impelled to prucLiim
it, whether they were partakers of the same grace or had no
experience of it, but were taught by bad angels, who, as we
know, even confessed the present Christ, whom the Jews did
not acknowledge. Xor do 1 tliink the Jews themselves dare
contend that no one has belonged to God except the Israelites,
since the increase of Israel began on the rejection of his elder
bixither. For in veiy deed there was no other people who
were specially called the people of God ; but tliey cannot
deny that there have been ceitain men even of other nations
rho belonged, not by eaitldy but heavenly fellowship, to the
"^true Israelites, the citizens of the country that is above. Be-
cause, if they deny this, they can be must easily coiil'uted by
the case of the holy and wonderful man Job, who was neither
a native nor a proselyte, that is, a stranger joining the people
of Israel^ but, being bred of the Idumean race, arose there
and died there too, and who is so praised by the divine oracle,
that no man of his times is put on a level with him as regards
justice and piety. And although we do not find Ids date in
the chronicles, yet from his book, wldch for its merit tlie
Israelites have received as of canonical authority, we gather
that he was in the third generation after Israel. And I
doubt not it was divinely provided, tlmt from this one case
we misht know that anions other nations also there mijiht be

230

TITE CtTY OF GOD.

[book xvin.

men pertaiuing ta the spiritual Jerusalem who have lived
accoitlirg to God and have pleased Hiin. And it is not to
be supposed that this was granted to any one, unless the one
Medialur between God and men, the Miiu Christ Jesus/ was
divinely revealed to Jiim ; who was pre-announced to the saints
of old as yet to come in the flesh, e\'eu aa He is announced
to us as having come, that the selfsame faith through Him
may lead all to Gud '^vho are predestinated to be tlie city of
God, the house of God^ and the temple of God. But what-
ever prophecies concerniuf^ the grace of God through Chrisl
Jesus are quoted, they may be thought to have been forged
by the Christians. So that there is nothing of more weight
for confuting all sorts of aliens, if they contend about this
matter, and for supporting om* friends, if tliey are truly wise,
than to quote those divine predictions about Christ which
are "WTiten in the books of the Jews, who have been torn fi*om
their native abode and dispersed over the whole world in
order to bear this testimony, so that the Churcli of Chi-ist has
everywhere increased.

i8. That JfaggdVa propfifcy, hi vrhtch he ^aid that the glory of the hovttof
Ood would be greater tlmn that of the fret Jtad ffem,^ vxu renlftj ful-
filed, not m th» rebuilding qfthc tetnple, but i/t the Church o/ChriM.

This house of God is more glorious tlian that first one
which was constructed of wood and stone, metals, and other
ju'ccious things. Tlierefore the prophecy of Haggai was not
ftilfiUed in tlie rebuilding of that temple. For it can never
be shown to have had so much glory after it was rebuilt as
it had in the time of Solomon ; yea, rather, the glory of that
house is shown to have been dinjinished, first by the ceasing
of prophecy, and then by the nation itself suffering so great
calamities, even to the final destruction made by the Romans,
as the things above-mentioned prove. But tliis house which
pertains to the new testament is just as much more gloriouB
as the living stones, even believing, renewed men, of which it
is constructed are better. But it was t}'pitied by the rebuild-
ing of that temple for this reason, because the very renovation
of that edifice typifies in the prophetic oracle another testa-
ment which is called the new. When, therefore, God said by

* 1 Tim. il. 5.

• Hag. U. ft

BOOK XVUI.] THE INCRE.\SE OF THE CTIURCIT.

231

the prophet just named, "And I will ^ve peace in tliia
place/' ^ He is to be understood who is t}iii[ied by that typifid
place ; for since by that rebuilt place is typified the Church
which was to be built by Christ, nothing else can be accepted
as the meaning of the saying, " I will give peace in this
place," except I will give peace in the place which that place
signifies. For all typical things seem in some way to per-
sonate those wliom they typify, as it is said by the apiwLh'.
"That Eock was Christ"* Therefore the glory of this new
teataTnent liouse is greater than the glory of the old testa-
ment house ; and it will show itself as greater when it shall
bo dedicated. For then " shall come the desired of all na-
ftions,"^ as we read in the Hebrew. For before His advenl
He had not yet been desired by all nations. For they knew
not Him whom they ought to desire, in whom they bad not
believed. Then, also, according to the Septungint interpreta-
tion (for it also is a prophetic meanitig), "shall come those
who are elected of the Lord out of all nations," For then
indeed there shall come only those who are elected, whereof
the apostle saith, "According as He hath chosen iis in Him
l)efore the foundation of the world."* For the Master
Builder who said» "Many are called, but few are chosen/'*
did not say this of those who, on being called, came in such
a way as to be cast out from the feast, but woidd point out
the house built up of the elect, wliich henceforth shall ilnnul
no ruin. Yet because the churches are also full of those whc»
sbaU be separated by the winnowing as in the tbreshing-Hno;-,
the glory of tliis house is not so apparent now as it shall be
when every one who is there shall be there always.

49. Of t/te indiscrhninaie incTfa*/; of the Churcht wfterrin wtany reprobate arr in
tAut tcorld mixed icith tftr rltct.

In this wickeil world, in these evil days, when the Chiircli
measures her future loftiness by her present humility, and is
exercised by goading fears, tormenting sorrows, disquietin^u;
labours, and dangerous temptations, when she soberly rejoices,
rejoicing only in hope, there are many reprobate mingled with
the good, and both are gathered togetlier by the gospel as in

* Hag. iL D.

* Eph. i, 4,

' 1 Cor. X. 4; Ex. xvii. fi.
*Mfttt. ixii.'ll-14.

> Hag. it 7-

282

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xvni

a drag not ;^ and in this worlds as in a sea^ both swim endosed
without distinction in the net, until it is brought ashore, whei*
the wicked must be separated from the good, that in the good,
as in His temple, God may be all in all We acknowledge,
indeed, thafc His word is now fulfilled who spake in the psahn,
and said, " I iiave announced and spoken ; they are multiplied
above number."^ This takes place now, since He has spoken,
first by the mouth of liis forenmner John, and al'terward by
His Own mouth, saying, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand"* He chose disciplea, whom He also called aposdes,*
of lowly birth, unhonoiired, and illiterate, so that whatever
great thing they might be or do. Ho might be and do it in
them. He had one among them whose wickedness He could
use well in order to accomplish His appointed passion, and
fiimish His Cliurch an example of bearing A\ith the wicked.
Having sovra the holy gospel as much as that behoved to be
done by His bodily presence, He suffered, died, and rose again,
showing by His passion what we ought to suffer for the truth,
and by His resurrection what we ought to hope for in adver-
sity ; saving always tlie mystery of the sacrament, by which
Hia blood was shed for the remission of sins. He held con-
verse on the earth forty days with His disciples, and in their
sight ascended into heaven, and after ten days sent the pro-
mised Holy Spirit, It was given as the chief and most neces-
sary sign of His coming on those who had believed, that every
one of them spoke in the tongues of all nations ; thus signify-
ing that the unity of the catholic Chiu'ch would embrace all
nations, and would in like manner speak in all tongues.

60. 0/ tfte jjreaching ofUie govjiel, which is made vwrc/amoiu cmdpoumfli
by Ifit suferingt qf H^ preachera.

Then was fulfdled that prophecy, " Out of Sion shall go
forth the law, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem ;"*
and the prediction of the Lord Christ Himself, when, after the
resurrection, " He opened the understanding " of His amazed
disciples " that they might imderstpnd the Scriptures, and
said unto them that thus it is written, and thus it behoved
Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third d&y. and

'Matt. xlli. 4:

* Luke vL 13.

50.

- Ps. xl. 5.
' Iso. ii. 3.

3 M&tt ilL 3p It. 17.

BOOK XVm.] THE PREACHING OF TITE APOSTLES.

283

that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in
His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."^ And
again, when, in reply to their questioning about the day of
His last coming, He said, " It is not for you to know the
times or the seasons which the Pather hath put in His own
power; but ye shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost
coming upon you, and ye shall Itc witnesses unto mc both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even unto the
ends of the earth."'' First of all, the Church spread herself
abroad from Jerusalem ; and when very many in Judea and
Samaria had believed, she also went into other nations by
those who announced the gospel, whom, as lights. He Himself
liad both prepared by His word and kindled by His Holy
Spirit, For He had said to them, " Fear ye not them which
kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul."*' And that
they might not be frozen with fear, they burned with the fire
of charity. Finally, the gospel of Christ was preached in the
whole world, not only by those who had seen and heard Him
both before His passion and after His resurrection, but also after
their death by their successors, aniid the horrible persecutions,
diverse torments and deaths of the martyre, God also bearing
them witness, both with signs and wonders, and divers miracles
and gifts of the Huly Ghost,* that the people of the nations,
believing in Him who was crucified fur their redemption, might
venerate with Christian love the blood of the martyrs which
they had poured forth with devilish fury, and the very kings
by whose laws the Church liad been laid waste might become
profitably suliject to that name they had cruelly striven to
take away from the earth, and might begin to persecute the
fialse gods for whose sake the worshippers of the true God had
formerly been persecuted.

'•61. TKat the caUtcUe faifJi may he confirmed even by the dissenskme of the

htretiat.

^B But the devil, seeing the temples of the demons deserted,

and the human race running to the name of the liberating
Mediator, has moved the heretics under the Christian name
to resist the Christian doctrine, as if they coidd be kept in

1 Lake xxiv. 45-47.
» Matt. X. 28.

a Acts i. 7, 8.
• Hob. ii, 4.

the city of God indifferently without any correction, just as
the city of confusion indifferejitly held the philosophers who
■were of diverse and adverse opinions. Those, therefore, in
the Church of Clirist who savour anything morbid and de-
praved, and, on being corrected that they may savour what
is ■wliolesonie and riglit, cniiMimaciousIy i*esist, and will not
amend their pestiferous and deadly dogmas, but persist in de-
fending them, become heretics, and, going without, are to be
reckoned as enemies who serve for her discijtline. For even
thus tlicy profit by their wickedness those true catholic mem-
bers of Clirist, since God makes a good use even of the wicked.
and all things work together for gual to thera that love Hiin.'
For all the enemies of the Church, whatever error blinds or
malice depraves them, exercise her patience if they receive
the power to atHict her corporally ; and if they only oppose
her by wicked thought, they exercise her wisdom : but at
the same timCj if these enemies are loved, they exercise her
benevolence, or even her benelicence, whether she deals with
them by persuasive doctrine or by terrible discipline. And
thus the devil, the prince of the impious city, when he stiis
up his own vessels against the city of God that sojourns in
this world, is permitted to do her no harm. For without
doubt the divuie providence procures for her both consolation
through prosperity, that she may not be broken by adversity.
and trial through adversity, that she may not be corrupted by
prosperity ; and thus each is tempered by tlie other, as we
recognise in the Psalms that ^■oice which arises from no other
cause, " According to the nuiltitude of my gi-iefs in my heart,
Thy consolations have delighted my soul."^ Hence also is
that saying of the aposlle, " Eejoicing in hope, patient in
tribulation."^

For it is not to be thought that what the same teacher
says can at any time fjiil, '* Whoever will live piously in
Christ shall suffer persecution."* Because even when those
who are without do not nige, and thus there seems to be, and
really is, tranquillity, wliich brings very much consolation,
especially to the weak, yet there are not wanting, yea, there

' Kom, viiL 23.
' fiom. xii. IZ

' Ps. xcir. 19.
* 2 Tim. iii. 12.

•BOOK xvin.]

rSE OF HEBETICS.

285

are many within who by their abandoned manners torment
the hearts of those who live piansly, since by them the
Christian and catholic name is blasphemed ; and the dearer
that name is to those who will live pioiisly in Christ, the
more do they grieve that through the wicked, who have a
])lace within, it comes to be less loved than pious minds
desire. The heretics themselves also, since they are thought
to have the Christian name and Bacramcnts, Scriptiircs, and
profession, cause great grief in the hearts of tlie pious, both
because many who wish to be Christians are comnelled by
their dissensions to hesitate, and many evil-speakers also find
in them matter for blaspheming tlie Christian name, because
they too are at any rate called Christians. By these and
similur dopmved manners and errors of men, those who will
live piously in Christ suffer persecution, even when no one
molests or vexes their body ; for they sirffer this persecution,
not in their bodies, but in their hearts. Whence is that word,
" According to the midtitude of my griefs in my heart ; " for
he does not say, in my body. Yet, on the other hand, none
I if them can ]jerish, because the immutable divine promises
are thought of. And because the apostle says, " The Lord
knoweth them that are His;^ for whom He did foreknow. He
also predestinated [to bo] conformed to the image of His
Son/"* none of them can perish ; therefore it follows in that
psalm, " Thy consolations have delighted my soul"* But
tliat grief which arises in the hearts of the pious, who are
persecxited by the manners of bad or false Christians, is pro-
titable to the sufferers, because it proceeds from the charity
in which they do not wish them either to perish or to hinder
the salvation of others. Finally, great consolations grow out
of their chastisement, which imbue the souls of the pious
with a fecundity as great as the pains with which they were
troubled concerning their own perdition. Thus in this world,
in these evil days, not only from the time of the bodily pre-
sence of Christ and His apostles, but even from that of Abel,
whom first his M-icked brother slew because he was righteous,*
and thenceforth even to the end of this world, the Church has

» 2 Tim. it 19.
• Ts. iciv. 19.

- TUiia. viu, 29.

* 1 Jolin, iii. 12.

286

THE crrr ov god.

[book x1

gODe forward on pilgrimage amid the persecutions of tbe
world and tlie consolations of God.

52. WkcUier ice should btUeve tohai motju tJiinJc, Iftat, at the ten persecutions whidt
are past have been fulfilled^ there rtmahui no other beyond the eUvtMtk,
which must hajtpen in the vay tivie of Antichrist,

I do not think, indeed, that •what some have thought or
may think is rashly said or believed, that until the time of
Antichrist the Church of Clirial is not to suifer any perseca-
tioas besides those she has already suffered, — that is, ten, —
aud that the eleventh and last shaU be inflicted by Antichrist
They reckon as the iirst that made by Nero, the second bj'
Bomitian, the third by Trajan, the fourth by Antoninus, the
fifth by Severus, the sixth by Maximin, the seventh by Decius,
the eighth by Yalerian, the ninth by Aurelian, the tenth by
Diocletian and Maximian. For as there were ten plagues
in Egypt before the people of God could begin to go oat,
they think this is to be referred to as showing that the last
persecution by Antichrist must be like the eleventh plague,
in which the Egyptians, while following the Hebrews with
hostility, perished in the Eed Sea when the people of God
passed through on dry land. Yet I do not tliink persecutious
were prophetically signified by what was done in Egj'pt, how-
ever nicely and ingeniously those who think so may seem to
have compared the two in detail, not by the prophetic Spirit,
l>ut by the conjecture of the human mind, which sometimes
liits the ti-uth, aud sometimes is deceived. But what can
those who think this say of the persecution in which the
Lord Himself was crucified ? In winch number will thej"
put it ? And if they tliink the reckoning is to be made ex-
clusive of this one, as if those must be counted which pertain
to the body, and not that in which the Head Himself was set
upon and slain, what can they make of that one which, after
Christ ascended into lieaven, took place in Jerusalem, when
the blessed Stephen was stoned ; when James the brother of
John was slaughtered with the sword ; when the Apostle
Peter was imprisoned to be kiDed, and was set free by the
angel; when the brethren were driven away and scattered
from Jerusalem ; when Saul, who afterward became the
Apostle Paul, wasted the Church ; and when he himself, pub-

>K XVIU.]

OF THE TEN PERSECDTIOKS,

287

lishing the glad tidings of the faith he had persecuted, suffered
such things as he had inflicted, either from the Jews or from
other nations, where he most fervently preached Christ every-
where ? Why, then, do they think fit to start with Nero,
when the Church in her growth had reached the times of
Nero amid tlie most cruel persecutions, about which it would
be too long to say anything ? But if they think that only
the persecutions made by kings ought to be reckoned, it was
king Herod who also made a most grievous one after the
ascension of the Lord. And what account do tlicy give of
Julian, whom they do not number in the ten ? Did not he
persecute the Church, who forbade the Christiana to teach or
learn liberal letters 1 Under him, the elder Valentinian, who
was the third emperor after bira, stood forth as a confessor of
the Christian faith, and was dismissed from his command in
the army. I shall say nothing of what he did at Antioch,
except to mention his being struck with wonder at the free-
dom and cheerfulness of one most faithful and stedfast young
man, who, when many were seized to be tortured, was tortured
during a whole day, and sang under the instrument of torture,
iintil the emperor feared lest he should succumb under the
continued cruelties and put him to shame at last, which made
him dread and fear that he would be yet more dishonourably
put to the blush by the rest. Lastly, within our own recol-
lection, did not Vdens the Arian, brother of the foresaid
Valentinian, waste the catholic Church by great persecution
throughout the East ? But how imreasonable it is not to
consider that the Church, which bears fniit and grows through
the whole -world, may suffer persecution from kings in some
nations even when she does not suffer it in others ! Perhaps,
however, it was not to be reckoned a persecution when the
king of the Goths, in Gothia itself, persecuted the Cliristians
with wonderful cruelty, when there were none but catholics
there, of whom very many were crowned with martyrdom, as we
have heard from certain brethren who had been there at that
time as boys, and unhesitatingly called to mind that they had
aeen these things ? And what took place in Persia of late ?
Was not persecution so hot against the Christians (if even yet
it is allayed) that some of the fugitives from it came even to

2SS

THE CITY OF GOD.

[dook xvni

Kaman towns ? "VVhcn I tlnnk nf these and the like thiiis^,
it does aot seem to me tLat the numbex' ot persecutions •with
which the Church is to be tried can be definitely stated. But,
ou the other hand, it is no less rash to affirm that there will
l>e some persecutiona by kings besides that last one, abont
which no Christian is in doubt. Therefore we leave this un-
decided, supporting or refuting neither side of this question,
but oidy restraining men from the audacious presumption of
aJlirmiDg either of them.

53. Of the hidden thne tif the /nal persecution.

Truly Jesus Himself shall extinguish by His presence tltat
last persecution which is to be made by Anticluist For so
it in written, that " He shall slay him with the breath of His
mouth, and empty him with the brightness of His presence.***
It is customary t^o ask, "VVlien shall that be ? But this is
unite unreasonable. For had it been profitable for us to
know this, by whom could it better have been told than by
<iod Himself, the Master, when the disciples questioned Hiip?
I'or they were not silent when with Him, but inquired of
Him, saying, " Lord, wilt Thou at this time present the king-
dom to Israel, or when 'i "^ But He said, " It is not for you
to know the times, which the Father hatli put in His own
])(iwer." "When they got that answer, they luid not at all
questioned Him about the hour, or day, or year, but about the
lime. lu vain, then, do we attempt to compute definitely the
years that may remain to tlxis world, when we may hear from
the mouth of the Truth that it is not for us to know this.
Yet some have said that four hundred, some five hundred,
others a thousand years, may be completed from the ascension
of the Lord up to His final coming. But to point out how
each of them supports las own opinion would take too long,
and is not necessary ; for indeed they use human conjectures,
and bring forward nothing certain from the authority of the
canonical Scriptui'cs. But on this subject He puts aside the
figures of the calculators, and orders eOence, who says, " It is
not for you to know the times, which the Father hath put in
His own power."

> Isa. xL i ; 2 Thess. L 9. * Acta 1^7.

EOOK XA'ITT.] OF TFTE FINAL PEKSECUTIOy.

!S9

But becaase this sentence is in the Gospel, it is no wonder
tlmt the "worshippers of the many and false gods have been
none the less restrained from feigning that by the responses
of the demons, whom they worship as gods, it has been fixed
liow long the Christian religion is to last. For wlien they
saw that it could not be consumed by so many and great per-
secutions, but rather drew from them wondeiful enlargements,
tliey invented I know not what Greek verses, as if ]>oured
forth by a divine oracle to some one consulting it, in which,
indeed, they moke Christ innocent of this, as it were, sacri-
legious crime, but add that Peter by enchantments brought it
about that the name of Christ should be worshipped for tliree
hundred and sixty-five years, and, after the completion of
that number of years, should at once take end. Oh the hearts
of learned men ! Oh, learned wits, meet to believe such things
aboiU Christ as you are not willing to believe in Christ, that
His disciple Tctcr did not learn magic arts from Him, yet
that, although He was innocent. His disciple was an enchanter,
and chose that His name rather than his own should be wor-
shipped through his magic arts, his great labours and perils,
and at last even the shedding of his blood I If Peter tlie
enchanter made the world so love Christ, what did Christ the
innocent do to make Peter so love Him ? Let them nnswer
themselves then, and, if they can, let tliem understand that
the worldj for the sake of eternal life, was made to love Christ
by that same supernal grace which made Peter also love
Christ for, the sake of the eternal life to be received from
Him, and that even to the extent of suifering temporal death
for Him. And then^ what kind of gods are these who are
able to predict such tilings, yet are not able to avert them,
succumbing in such a way to a single enchanter and wicked
magician (who, as they say, having slain a yearling boy and
torn him to pieces, buried him with nefarious rites), that
they permitted the sect hostile to themselves to gain strength
for so great a time, and to surmount the hoirid cruelties of s(»
many great persecutiong, not by resisting but by suffering, and

procure the overthrow of their own images, temples, rituals,
and oracles 1 Finally, what god was it — not ours, certainly,
but one of their own — who was either enticed or compelled

VOL. n. T

290 THE CITY OF GOD. [bOOK XVUL

by 80 great wickedness to perform these things ? For those
verses say that Peter bound, not any demon, but a god to do
these things. Such a god have they who liave not Christ

34. Of the veryfoolUh lie of the pagans, in feigning Uiat the Christian, r^f^ou
was not to Uut bffjond Uiree hundred and aixttf-Jife years,

I might collect these and many similar arguments, if that
year hatl not already passed by which lying divination hai
promised, and deceived vanity has believed. But as a few
years ago tlirce hundi-ed and sixty-five years were completed
since the time %v]ien the woi-ship of tlie name of Christ was
established by His presence in the flesh, and by the aposUe^
what other proof need we seek to refute that falsehood ? For,
not to place the beginning of tliis period at the nativity of
Christ, because as an infant and boy He had no disciples, yet,
when He began to have them, beyond doubt the Christian
doctrine and religion then became known through His bodily
presence, that is, after He was baptized in the river Jordan
by the ministry of John. For on this accoimt that prophecy
went before concerning Him : " He shall reign from sea even
to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth."*
But since, l:)eforB He suffered and rose from the dead, the faith
had not yet been defined to all, but was defined in the resur-
rection of Christ (for so the Apostle Paid speaks to the
Athenians, saying. " But now He announces to men that all
everywhere should repent, because He hath appointed a day
in which to judge the world in equity, by the Man in whom
He hath defined the faith to all men, raising Him from the
dead "'), it is better that, in settling this question, we should
start fiom that point, especially because the Holy Spirit was
then given, just as He behoved to be given after the resurrec-
tion of Chi'ist in that city from which the second law, that
is, the new testament, ought to begin. For the fii*3t, which
is called the old testament, was given from Mount Sinai
through Moses. But concerning this which was to be given
by Christ it was predicted, " Out of Sion shall go forth the
law, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem ; " * whence
He Himself said, that repentance in His name behoved to be
preached among all nations, but yet beginning at JernsalenL*
' Fb. IxxiL a. * Acts xrii. 30, 31. * laa. ii. 3. * Luke xxir. i7.

BOOK XVUI.] DURATION OF THE CHRISTIAN RELICIOX.

291

There, therefore, the worship of this name took its rise, that
Jesus should be believed in, who died and rose again. Tliere
this faith blazed up with such noble beginnings, that several
thousand men, being converted to the naine of Cltrist with
■wonderful alacrity, sold their goods for distribution among the
needy, thus, by a holy resolution and most ardent charity,
coming to voluntary poverty, and prepared themselves, amid
the Jews who raged and thirsted for their blood, to contend
for the tnitli even to death, not with anned power, but with
more powerfid patience. If this was accomplished by no
magic arts, why do they hesitate to believe that the other
could be done Lliroughout the whole world by the same divine
power hy wliich this was done ? But supposing Peter wrought
that enchantment so tliat so great a multitude of men at
Jerusalem was thus kindled to worship the name of Christ,
who had either seized and fastened Him to the cross, or re-
viled Him when fastened there, we must still inr[uirc when
the tlnee hundred and sixty-five years must be completed,
counting from that year. Now Christ died wht-n the Gemini
were consuls, on the eighth day before the kalends ol ApiiL
He rose the third day, as the apostles have proved by the
evidence of their own senses. Then forty days after, He
ascended into heaven. Ten days after, tluit is, on the fiftieth
after His resurrection. He sent the Holy Spirit ; then thi-ee
thousand men believed when the apoatlea pi-eached Him.
Then, tlierefore, arose the worship of that name, as we be-
lieve, and according to the real Lrutli, by the efficacy of the
Holy Spirit, but, as impious vanity has feigned or thought,
ly the magic arts of Peter. A little afterward, too, on a
Tiponderful sign being Avrought, when at Peter's own word a
certain beggar, so lame from his mother's womb that he was
carried by others and laid down at the gate of the temple,
where he begged alms, was made whole in the name of Jesus
Chi-ist, and leaped up, five thousand men believed, and thence-
fortli the Church grew by sundry accessions of believers. Thus
we gatlier the very day with which tliat year began, namely,
thtit on which the Holy Spirit was sent, that is, dmjng the
ides of May. And, on counting the consuls, the three hun-
dred and sL\ty-live years are found completed on the same

^d xl ml

TIIE CITY OF GOD.

[book XVlIt

ides in the consulate of Honorius and Eutycliiauus. Now, in
tlie following year, in the consulate of ilallius Tlieodorus,
"when, according to that oracle of the demons or figment of
men, there ought already to have heen no Christian religion,
it was not necessary to inquire what perchance was done in
other parta of the earth. But, as we know, in the most noted
and eminent city Carthage, in Africa, Gaudentius and Jo\*ius,
officers of the Emperor Hononus, on the fourteenth day hefore
the kalends of April, overthrew the temples and broke the
images of the false "^^ods. And from that time to the present,
during almost thirty years, who does not see how much the
worship of the name of Christ has increased, especially after
many of those became Christians who had been kept back from
the faitli by thinking that divination true, but saw wlieu that
same number of years was completed that it was empty and
ridiculous 1 We, therefore, who are called and arc Cluistiaus,
do not believe in Peter, but in TTim whom Peter believed, —
being editied by Peter s sermons about Cluist, not poisoned by
his incantations ; and not deceived by his enchantments, but
aided by his good deeds. Christ Himself, wlio was Peter's
Master in the doctrine which leads to eternal life, is our
Master too,

Eut let us now at last finish this book, after thus far treat-
ing of, and showing as far as seemed sufficient, wliat is the
mortal course of the two cities, the heavenly and tlie earthly,
wbich are mingled together from the beginning down to the
end. Of these, the earthly one has made to herself of whom
she w^ould, either from any other quarter, or even from among
men, false gods whom she might serve by sacrifice ; but she
which is heavenly, and is a pilgrim on the earth, does not
make false god.s, but is herself njade by the true God, ot
whom she herself must be the true sacrifice. Yet both alike
either enjoy temporal good tilings, or are afHicted with tem-
poral evils, but with diverse faith, diverse hope, and diverse
love, until they must be separated by the last judgment, and
each must receive her own end. of which there is no end.
About these ends of both we must next treat

XL\'.]

THK END OF GOOD AND OF EVIL.

293

BOOK NINETEENTH.

ARGUMEKT.

IN THIS BOOK THE KfD OP THE TWO CITIEK, THE EAETHLT JtXD THE HSAVEKLT,
IS DISCUSSED. AUGUSTINK KEVIEWK HIE OPIMONB OF THE PUILOBOFUERS
HEUARDING THE RUI'REME tiOOD, AND TUCIU VAtN ETFOniS TO HAKE FOR
THEVSELVES A UAPPFNEaS IN TIIIB LIPE ; AND, WHILE KB REFDTEB THEai%
HE TAKES OCCASION TO SHOW WHAT THE PEACE AND HAPPINESS BELONO-
IKG TO TOE HEAVENLY CITY, OE THE PEOPUS OF CitfilST, AHE BOTH NOW
AND HEftEArrEK.

1. Thai Varro hns made out that two hunrtred and eit/httt-rijfht diffrrent xrctg
of yhdosophif might be farmed Oy the carious opinioM rcganiing ths
aupreme good.

AS I see that I have still to discuss the fit destinies of the
two cities, the earthly and tlie heavenly, I nnist first
explain, so far as the limits of this work allow me, the reason-
ings by which men have attempted to make for themselves a
happiness in this unhappy life, in order that it may be evident,
not only from divine autliurity, but also from sucli reasons
as can he adduced to unbelievers, how the empty dreams of
the philosophers differ from the lio])o whioli God gives to ua,
and li-om the substantial fuliilnient of it which He will give
us as our blessedness. Philosupliera have expressed a threat
variety of diverse opinions regarding the ends of goods and of
[evils, and this question they have eagerly canvassed, that they
might, it* possible, discover what makes a man happy. For
the end of our good is that for the sake of wliich other tilings
are to be desired^ while it is to be desired for its own sake ;
and the end of evil is that on account of which other things
ore to be shunned, while it is avoided on its own account
Thus, by the end of t/ood, we at present mean, not that by
■which good is destroyeil, so that it no longer exists, but that
fcy which it is tiuishcd, so that it becomes complete ; and by
[the end of evil we mean^ not that wliich abolishes it, but that
whicli completes its development. These two ends, therefore,
are the supreme good and the supreme evil ; and, as I have

294

Tirc cmr of god.

[book XIX.

said, those who have in this vain life professed the study of
wisdom have been at great pains to discover these ends, and
to obtain the supreme good and avoid the supreme evil in
this life. And although they erred in a variety of ways, yet
natural insight has prevented them from wandering from the
truth so far that they have not placed the supreme good and
evil, some in the soul, some in the body, and some in both.
Prom this tripartite distribution of the sects of phQosophy,
Marcus Vairo, in his hook lit Philosopkia} has drawn so large
a variety of opinions, that, by a subtle and minute anal3*sis of
distinctions, he numbers without difhculty as many as 288
sect5, — not that these have actually existed, but sects which
are possible.

To illustrate briefly what he means, I must begin with his
own introductory statement in the above-mentioned book,
that there are four things which men desire, as it were by
nature without a master, without the help of any instruction,
without industry or the art of living which is called ^'irtoe,
and which is certainly learned:* either pleasure, which is
an agreeable stirring of the bodily sense ; or repose, which
excludes every bodily inconvenience; or both these, which
Epicurus calls by the one name, pleasure; or the primar}*
objects of nature,^ which comprehend the things already named
and other things, either bodily, such as health, and safety, and
integrity of the members, or spiritual, such as the greater and
less mental gifts that are found in men. Now these four
things — pleaaure, repose, the two combined, and the primary
objects of nature — exist in us in such sort that we must either
desire virtue on their account, or tliem for the sake of virtue,
or both for their own sake ; and consequently there arise from
this distinction twelve sects, for each is by this consideration
tripled. I will iDustrate this in one instance, and, having
done so, it will not be difficult to understand the others.
According, then, as bodily i>leasure is subjected, preferred, or
united to virtue, there are three sects. It is subjected to
virtue when it is chosen as subservient to virtua Thus it is

» Kot extant

' vVIluUing to tlie vexed question whether virtne conid

' ThA prima mUungy or «/«» umn fun* of the Stoics.

BOOK XIX.] VJUUIO ON SECTS OF PITn.OSOPUT,

205

a duty of virtue to live for one's country, and for its sake to
beget cliildren, neither of "whicli can be done without bodily
pleasure. For there is pleasure in eatinjr and drinking, plea-
sure also in sexual intercourse. But when it is preferred to
virtue, it is desired for its own sake, and virtue is chosen only
for its sake, and to effect notliing else than the attainment or
preservation of bodily pleasure. And this, indeed, is to make
life hideous ; for where virtue is the slave of pleasure it no
longer deserves the name of virtue. Yet even this disgrace-
ful distortion has found some philosophers to patronize and
defend it. Then virtue is united to pleasure when neither is
desired for the other's sake, but both for their own. And
therefore, as pleasure, according as it is subjected, preferred, or
united to virtue, makes three sects, so also do repose, plea-
sure and repose combined, and the prime natural blessings,
make their three sects each. For as men's opinions vary, and
these four things are sometimes subjected, sometimes prefeired,
and sometimes united to virtue, there are produced twelve
sects. But this number again is doubled by the addition of
one difference, viz. the social life ; for %vhoever attaches him-
seK to any of these sects does so either for lua own sake alone,
or for the sake of a companion, for whom he ought to wish
what he desires for himself. And thus there will be twelve
of those who think some one of these opinions shoidd be held
for their own sakes, and other twelve who decide that they
ought to follow thia or that philosophy not for their own snkes
only, but also for the sake of others whose good they desire as
their own. These twenty-four sects again are doiibled, and
become fort}'-eight by adding a difference taken from the Kew
Academy. For each of these four and twenty sects can hold
and defend their opinion as certain, as the Stoics defended the
position that the supreme good of man consisted solely in
virtue; or they can be held as probable, but not certain, as
the New Academics did. There are, therefore, twenty-four
who hold their philosophy as certainly true, other twenty-
four who hold their opinions as probable, but not certain.
Again, as each person who attaches himself to any of these
sects may adopt the mode of lifo either of the Cynics or of
the other philosophers, this distinction will double the number.

296

THE CITY OF GOD.

[dock xn;

and so make ninety-sLx sects. Then, lastly, as each of these
sects may be adhered to either hy mea who love a life of ease,
as those who have through choice or necessity addicted them-
selves to study, or by men who love a busy life, as those who,
while philosophizing, have been much occupied with state
affairs and public business, or by men who choose a mixed life,
in imit-ation of those who have apportioned their time portly
to erudite leisure, partly to necessary business : by these dif-
ferences the number of the sects is tripled, and becomes 288.
I have thus, as briefly and lucidly as I could, given in my
own words the opinions which Varro expresses in his book.
But how he refutes all the rest of these sects, and cliooses one,
the Old Academy, instituted by Plato, and continuing to
Polemo, the fourth teacher of that school of philosophy which
held that their system was certain ; and how on this ground
he distinguishes it from the New Academy,^ which began with
Polemo's successor Arcesilaus, and held that all things are un-
certain ; and huw lie seeks to esUiblish tliat the Old Academy
was as free from error as from doubt, — all this, I say, were too
long to enter upon in detail, and yet I must not altogether
pEiss it by iu silence. Varro then rejects, as a first step, all
those differences which have multiplied the number of sects ;
and the ground on w^hich he does so is that they are not dif-
ferences about tlie supreme good. He maintains that in
philosophy a sect is created only by its having an opinion of
its own dilVerent from other schools on the point of the ends-
in-chief. Tor man has no other reason for pliilosophizing
than that he may be happy ; but that which makes him happy
is itself the supreme good. In other words, the supreme good
is the reason of philosophising; and therefore that cannot be
called a sect of philosophy which pursues no way of its o-wn
towards the supreme f^ood Thus, when it is asked whether a
wise man will adopt the social life, and desire and be in-
terested ill the supreme good of his friend as in his own, or
will, on the contraiy, do all that he does merely for his own
sake, there is no question licrc about the supreme good, but
only about the propriety of associating or not associating a
friend in its participution : whether the wise man will do this

i Jtre^ueutly called tlw Kiddie Academy ; the New be^iauiiig with C&meuks.

^
N

BOOK XIX.] VAREO'S ELimNATION" OP THB BBCTS. 297

not for his owu sake, but for the sake of his ixiend in %vho&e
good he delights as in his ovm. So, too, when it is asked
whether all things about which philosophy is concerned are
to be considered uncertain, as by the New Academy, or cer-
tain, as the other philosophers maintain, the question here is
not what end should be pursued, but whether or not we are to
believe in the substantial existence of that end ; or, to put it
more pliuuly, whether he who pursues the supreme good must
maintain that it is a true good, or only that it appears to him
to be true, though possibly it may be delusive, — both pursuing
one and the same good. The distinction, too, which is founded
on the dress and manners of the Cynics, does not touch the
question of the chief good, but only the question whether he
who pursues that good which seems to himself true should
live as do the Cynics, There were, in fact, men who, though
they pursued different things as the supreme good, some
choosing pleasure, others virtue, yet adopted that mode of life
which gave the Cynics their name. Tims, whatever it is
which distinguishes the Cynics from other philosophers, this
has no bearing on the choice and pursuit of that good which
constitutes happiness. For if it had any such bearing, then
the same habits of life would necessitate the pursxiit of the
same chief good, and diverse habits would necessitate the pur-
suit of different ends.

2. How VarrOt 6y removing alt tfte diferfneen which do not form *«/*, hut are
iiurdtf tecondary queatioixt, rtathes thrtt d^nitiom of the chi^good, of
vhich toe must choose otu.

Tlie same may be said of those three kinds of life, the hfe
of studious leisure and search after truth, the life of eju>y
engagement in affairs, and the life in which both these are
mingled. When it is asked, which of these should be adopted,
tliis involves no controvei'sy aboiit the end of good, but inquires
which of these three puts a man in the best position for finding
and retaining the supreme good. For this good, as soon as
a man finds it, makes him happy; but lettered leisure, or public
business, or the alternation of these, do not necessarily con-
stitute happiness. Many, in fact, find it possible to adopt one
or other of these modes of life, and yet to miss what
man happy. The question, therefore, regarding the

t makes a J

3 supreme ^J

:93

THE CTTT OF GOD.

[book xnc

good and the supreme evil, and "which distingaishes sects of
pliilosophy, is one ; and these questions concerning the social
life, the doubt of the Academy, the dress and food of the
Cynics, the three modes of life — the active, the contemplative,
and the mixed — these are different questions, into none of
•which the question of the chief good enters. And therefore,
as Marcus VaiTo multiplied the sects to the number of 288
(or wliatevcr larger number he chose) by introducing these
four dilferences derived from the social life, the New Academy,
the Cynics, and the threefold form of life, so, by renioving
these differences as having no bearing on the supreme good,
and as therefore not conatiluting what can properly be called
sects, he returns to those twelve schools which concern them*
selves with inquiring what that good is which makes man
happy, and he shows that one of these is true, the rest false.
In other words, he dismisses the distinction founded on the
threefold mode of life, and so decreases the whole number by
two-thirds, reducing the sects to niuety-six Then, putting
aside the Cyiiic peculiarities, the number decreases by a half,
to forty-eight. Taking away next the distinction occasioned
by the hesitancy of the New Academy, the number is again
halved, and reduced to twenty-four. Treating in a similar
way the diversity introduced by the consideration of the
social life, there are left but twelve, which this difference had
doubled to twenty-four. Eegai-ding these twelve, no reason
can be assigned why they should not be called sects. For in
them the sole inquiry is regarding the supreme good and the
ultimate evil, — that is to say, regarding the supreme good, for
this being found, the opposite evil is thereby found. Now, to
make these twelve sects, he multiplies by three these four
things— pleasure, repose, pleasure and repose combined, and the
primary objects of nature which Yairo calls primigenia. For
as these four things are sometimes subordinated to virtue, so
that they seem to be desiied not for their own sake, but for
virtue's sake ; sometimes preferred to it, so that virtue seems
to be necessary not on its own account, but in order to attain
these things ; sometimes joined with it, so that both they and
virtue are desired for their own sakes, — we must multiply the
four by three, and thus we get twelve sects. But from those

BOOK XIX.] VAimO ADHERES TO TTTE OLD ACADEMY. 299'

four tilings Varro eliminates three — ^pleasure, repose, pleasure
and repose combined — not because he thinks these are not
worthy of the place assigned them, but because they are
included in the primary objects of nature. And what need
is there, at any rate, to make a threefold division out of these
two ends, pleasare and repose, taking them first severally and
then conjunctly, since both they, and many other things besides,
are comprehended in the primary objects of nature ? Which
of the three remaining sects must be chosen ? This is the
question that Vairo dwells upon. For whether one of these
three or some other be chosen, reason forbids that more than
one be true. This we shall afterguards sec ; but meanwhile
let us explain as briefly and distinctly as we can how Varro
makes his selection from these three, that is, from the sects
which severally hold that the primary objects of nature are to
be desired for virtue's sake, that virtue is to be desired for
their sake, and that virtue and these objects are to be desired
each for their own sake.

3. Which of the three leading opinwiB regarding the ehiff good should be pre'
/errtd, according to Varro, who/oltoxot Antiochits and the Old Academy.

Wliich of these tluee is true and to be adopted he attempts
to show in the following manner. As it is the supreme
«if>od, not of a tree, or of a beast, or of a god, but of man,
that pliilosophy is in quest of, he thinks that, first of all,
we must define man. He is of opinion that there are two
parts in human nature, body and soul, and makes no doubt
that of these Uvo the soul is the better and by far the more
worthy part. But whether the soul alone is the man, so that
the body holds the same relation to it as a horse to the
horseman, this he thinks has to be ascertained. The horse-
man is not a horse and a man, but only a man, yet he is
called a horseman, because he is in some relation to the horse.
Again, is the body alone the man, having a relation to the
soul such as the cup has to the drink ? For it is not the cup
and the drink it contains which are called the cup, but the
cup alone ; yet it is so called because it is made to hold tlie
drink. Or, lastly, is it neither the soul alone nor the body
alone, but both together, which are man, the body and the soul
being each a part, but the whole man being both together, as

300

THE CITY OF GOP.

[book xii

we call two horses yoked together a pair, of which pair the
near aud the off horse is each a part, but we do not call either
of them, no matter how connected with the other, a pair, but
only both together ? Of these three alternatives, then, Varro
chooses the tliird, that man is neither the body alone, nor the
soul alone, but both together. And therefore the liighest good,
in which lies the happiness of man, is composed of goods
of both kinds, both bodily and spiritual. And consequently
he thinks that the primary objects of nature are to be sought
for their own sake, and that virtue, which is the art of living,
and can be communicated by instruction, is the most excellent
of spiritual goods. Tliis virtue, then^ or art of regulating life,
■when it has received these primary objects of nature which
existed independently of it, and prior to any instruction,
seeks them all, and itself also, for its own sake ; and it uses
them, as it also iwes itself, that from them all it may derive
profit and enjoyment, trreater or less according as they are
themselves greater or less ; and while it takes pleasure in all
of them, it despises the less that it may obtain or retain tlic
greater when occasion demands. Now, of all goods, spiritual
or bodily, there is none at all to eonqiare with virtue. For
virtue makes a good use both of itself and of all other goods
in which lies man's happiness ; ami wliere it is absent, no
matter how many good things a man has, they are not for his
good, and consequently shoidd not be called good things while
they belong to one who makes them useless by using them
badly. Tlie life of man, tlien, is called happy wlien it enjoys
virtue and these other spiritual and bodily good things "without
which virtue is impossible. It is called happier if it enjoys
some or many other good things which are not essential to
virtue ; and happiest of all, if it lacks not one uf thu good
things which pertain to the body and the souL For life is
not the same thing aa \'irtue, since not every life, but a wisely
regulated life, is virtue ; and yet, while there can be life of
some kind without virtue, there cannot be virtue without life.
This I might apply to memory and reason, and such mental
faculties ; for these exist prior to instruction, and without them
there cannot bo any instniction, and consequently no ^irtue,
since virtue is learned. But bodily advantages, such as swift-

BOOK XTX.

rmilSTlAN IDEA OF THE SUPUEMK GOOD.

ness of foot, beauty, or strengtli, are not essential to virtue,
neither is ■virtue essential to them, and yet they are good
things; and, according to our philosophei-s, even these advan-
tages are desired by virtue for its own sake, and are used and
enjoyed by it in a becoming manner.

They sjiy that this happy life is also social, and loves the
advantages of its friends as its own, and for their sake wishes
for Uieiii Avhat it desires for itself, whether these friends live
in the same family, as a wife, children, domestics ; or in the
locality where ones home is, as the citizens of the same to^vn;
or in the world at large, as the nations bound in common human
hrotherliood ; or in the universe itself, comprehended in tlie
heavens and the earth, as those whom they call gods, and
provide tis friends for the wise man, and whom we more
familiarly call angels. Moreover, they say that, regarding the
supreme good and evD, there is no room for doubt, and that
they therefore differ from the New Academy in tliis respect,
and they are not concerned whether a philosopher pursues
those ends which they think true in the Cynic dress and
manner of life or in some other. And, lastly, in regard to
the three modes of life, the contemplative, the active, and the
composite, they declare in favour of the thu-d, Tliat these
were the opinions and doctrines of the Old Academy, Vanx)
asserts on the authority of Antiochus, Cicero's master and Iiis
>wn, though Cicero makes him out to liavo been more frequently
in accordance w^ith the Stoics than with the Old Academy.
But of what importance is this to us, who ought to judge the
matter on its own merits, rather tlian to understand accurately

what different men have thought about it ?

4. R7ia/ the Chriaiintu Mievt regarding the snpr^mr good and evU^ in oppQiti*
tion to the p/titosojtherr, ic/io have maintaiHtd that the sitprtme good U in
(hnnftetvm*

If, then, we be asked what the city of God has to say
upon these points, and, in the first place, what its opinion
regarding tlie supreme good and evil is, it will reply that life
eternal is the supreme good, death eternal the supreme evil,
and that to obtain the one and escape the other we must live

^txightly. And tlius it is written, " The just lives by faitli," ^ for

H^ ■ Hab. U. 4.

30!

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XIX.

M'e do not as yet see our good, and must therefore live by
faith ; neither have we in ourselves power to live rightly, but
can do so only if He who has given us faith to believe in His
help do help us when we believe and pray. As for those who
have supposed that the sovereign good and evil are to be
found in tliia life, and have placed it either in the soul or the
body, or in both, or, to speak more explicitly, either in plea-
sure or in virtue, or in both; in repose or in virtue, or in
both; in pleasure and repose, or in virtue, or in all combined;
in the primary objects of nature, or in virtue, or in both, — aQ
these have, with a marvellous shallowness, sought to find their
blessedness in this life and in themselves. Contempt hafl
been pouied upon such ideas by the Truth, saying by the pro-
phet, "The Lord knoweth the thouglits of men" (or, as the
Apostle Paul cites the passage, " The Lord knowetli
tlioughts of the wise " ) " that tliey are vain." *

For what flood of eloquence can suffice to detail the miseriiT
of this life ? Cicero, in the Consolation on the death of his
daughter, has spent all his aliility in lamentation : but how
inadequate was even Jus ability here ? For when, whi
how, in this life can these primary objects of nature be
sessed so that they may not be assailed by unforeseen acci-
dents ? Is the body of the wise man exempt Irom any pain
which may disjiel pleasure, from any disqnictude_whieh may
banish repose ? The amputation or decay of the members of
the body puts an end to iU integrity, deformity blights its
beauty, weakness its health, lassitude its yigour, sleepiness or
sluggishness its activity, — and which of these is it that may
not assail the flesh of the wise man ? Comely and fitting atti-
tudes and movements of the body are numbered among the
prime natural blessings ; but what if some sickness makes the
members tremble ? what if a man suffers from curvature of
the spine to such an extent that liis hands reach the ground,
and he goes upon all-fours like a quadruped ? Does not this
destroy all beauty and grace in the body, whether at rest or in
motion ? Wlmt shall I say of the fundamental blessin^3_o£
the soul, sense and intellect, of which the one is given for the
perception, and the other for the compn^hension of truth ?
* Pfi. xciv. 11, and 1 Cor. uL 20.

But what kind of sense is it that remains when a man be-
comes deaf and blind ? where are reason and intellect when
disease makes a man delirious ? We can scarcely^ or not at
all, refrain from tears, when we think of or see the actions and
words of such frantic persons, and consider how different fi*om
and even opposed to their own sober jvidgment and ordinary
conduct their present demeanour is. And what shall I say of
those who sufler from deraaniacal possession ? Where is their
own intelligence hidden and buried while the miilignant spirit
is using their body and soid according to his own will ? And
who is quite sure that no such thing can happen to the -wise
man in this life ? Then, as to the perception of tnith, what
can we hope for even in this way while in the body, as we read
in tlie true hook of Wisdom, " The comiptible body weigheth
down the soul, and tlie earthly tabernacle presseth down the
jEind that uiu.st'ih 'i p^m^iOiOllj^. things ?'' * And eagerness,
or desire of acuun, if this is the right meaning to put npon
the Greek op;*?;, is also reckoned among tlie primary advan-
tages of nature ; and yet is it not this wliich produces those
pitiable movements of the insane, and those actions which we
shudder to se^, when sense is deceived and reason deranged ?

lu fine,,yirtue itself, which is not among the primary objects
of nature, but succeeils to them as t!ie result of learning, though
it holds the highest place among human good things, what is
its occupation save to^roge £erpetual w^ with vices, — not
those that ai*e outside of us, but within ; not other men's, but
our own, — a war which is waged especially by that vii-tue
which the Greeks call aw^poavvr), and we temperance.^ and
which bridles carnal lusts, and prevents them from winning
the consent of the spirit to wicked deeds ? For we must not
fancy that there is no vice in us, when, as the apostle says,
"The flesh lusteth against the spirit;"" for to this vice there is
a contrary virtue, when, as the same writer says, " The spirit
lusteth against the flesh." "For these two," he says, "are con-
trary one to the other, so that you cannot do the things which
you would." But what is it we wish to do when we seek to
attain the supreme good, unless thiit the flesh should cease
to lust against the spirit, and that there be no vice in us

' Wisdom ix. 15, * Cicero, Tusc Quasi iii. S. ■ GaL t. 37,

304

TITK CITY OF GOD.

[book

against which the spirit may lust ? And os we cannot attain
to this in the present life, liowever ardently we desire it,
let U9 by God's liulp accomplisli at least this, to preserve the
soul from succumbing and yielding to the flesh that lusU
against it, and to refuse our consent to the perpetration of
sin. Far be it from us, then, to fancy that while we are still
engaged in this ijitestine war, we have already found the
happiness which we seek to reach by victory. And who is
there so wise that he has no conEict at all to maintain against
his vices ?

Wliat simll I say of that virtue which is called prudence?
Is not all its vigilance spent in the discernment of good from
evil things, ao that no mistake may be admitted about wliat
we should desire and what avoid ? And thus it is itself a
proof that we are in the midst of evils, or tliat evils are in us;
for it teaches us that it is an evil to consent to sin, and a
good to refuse tins consent. And yet this evil, to which pm-
deuce teaches and temperance enables us not to consent, is
removed from this life neither by prudence nor by temper-
auce. And justice, whose ofiice it is to render to every man
his due, wliereby there is in man himself a certain just order
of nature, so that the soul is subjected to God, and the flesh
to the soul, and consequently both soul and flesh to God, —
does not tliis virtue demonstrate that it is as yet rather labour-
ing towards its end than resting in its finished work 1 For
the soul is so much the less subjected to God as it is less
occupied with tlie thougljt of God ; and the flesh is so much J,1io
less subjected to the spirit as it lusts more vehemently against
the spirit. So long, therefore, as we are beset by this weakness,
this plague, tliis disease, how shall we dare to say that we are
safe ? and if not safe, then how can we be already enjoying
our final beatitude? Then tliat virtue which goes by the
name of fortitude is the plainest proof of the ills of life, for
it is these ills which it is compelled to bear patiently. And
this holds good, no matter though the ripest wisdom co-exists
with it. And I am at a loss to understand how the Stoic
philosopher can presume to say that these are no ills, though
at the same time they allow the wise man to commit suicide
and pass out of this life if they become so giievous that he

feOOK XIX.]

TnE MISERY OF THIS LIFE.

305

cannot or ought not to endnre them. But such is the stupid
jpride of these men who fancy that the supreme jiood can be
found in this life, and that they can. become liappy by tbe^Lr
Xivai resources, that their wise man, or at least the man whom
they fancifully depict as such, is always happy, even though
he become blind, deaf, dumb, mutilated, racked with pains,
or suffer any conceivable calamity such as may compel him to
make away with himself ; and they are not ashamed to call
the life_ that ^Jieset with tliese evils happj^ 0 happy life,
which seeks the aid of death to end it I If it is happy, let the
wise man remain in it ; but if these ills drive hiiu out of
it, in what sense is it happy ? Or how can they say that
these are not evils which conq^uer the virtue of fortitude, and
force it not only to yield, but so to rave that it in one
breath calls life happy and recoiumeuds it to be given up ?
For who is so blind as not to see that if it were happy it
would _not^ he fled from? And if they say we shoul<l flee
from it on account of the infirmities that beset it, why then
do they not lower their pride and acknowledge that it is
miserable ? Was it, I would ask, fortitude or weakness which
prompted Cato to kill himself ? for he would not have done
flo had he not been too weak to endure Caesar's victory.
Wliere, then, is his fortitude ? It has yielded, it has suc-
cuTubed, it has been so thoroughly overcome as to abandon,
forsake, flee this happy life. Or was it no longer happy ?
Then it was miserable. How, then, were these not evils
which made life miserable, and a l-Iiing to be escaped from ?

And therefore those who admit that these are evils, as the
Peripatetics do, and the Old Acudemy, the sect Mdiich Van-o
advocates, express a more intelligible doctrine ; i)ut theirs
also is a surprising mistake, for they contend that this is a
happy life which is beset by these evils, even though they be
so great that he who endures them should commit suicide to
escape them. " Pains and anguish of In^dy," says Varro, " are
evils, and so much the worse in proportion to their severity ;
and to escape them you must quit this life." What life, I
pray ? This life, he says, which is oppressed by such evils.
Tlien it is happy in the midst of these very evils on account
of which you say we must ijuit it ? Or do you call it happy

vou IL V

306

THE crrif OF GOD.

[book XIX.

because you are at liberty to escape these evils by death 7
What, then, if by some secret judgment of God you were
held fast and not permitted to die, nor suffered to live with-
out these evils ? In that case, at least, you would say that
such a life waa miserable. It is soon relinquished, no doubt,
but this does not make it not ituserable ; for were it eternal,
you yourself would pronounce it miserable. Its breviW,
therefore, does not clear it of misery ; neitlier ought it to be
called happiness because it is a brief misery. Certainly there
is a nii^t;hty force in these evils which compel a man — acoord-
ing to them, even a wise man — to cease to be a man that he
may escape them, though they say, and say truly, that it is
as it were the first and strongest demand of nature that a
man cherish himself, and naturally therefore avoid death, and
should so stand Ids own friend as to wish and vehemently
aim at continuing to exist as a living creature, and subsisting
in this union of soul and body. There is a mighty force in
these evils to overcome this natural instinct by which death
is by every means and vnih all a man's efforts avoided, and
to overcome it so completely that what was avoided is desired,
sought after, and if it cannot in auy other way be obtained,
is inflicted by the man on himself There is a mighty force
in these evils which make fortitude a homicide. — if, indeed,
that is to be called fortitude which is so thoroughly overcome
by these evils, that it not only cannot preserve by patience
the man whom it undertook to govern and defend, but is
itseli' obliged U^ kill him. The wise man, I admit, ought to
bear death with patience, but when it ia inflicted by another.
Tf, then, as these men maintain, he is obliged to inflict it on
Iiimself, certainly it must be owned that the ills which com-
pel him to this are not only e\'ils, but intolerable evils. The
life, then, which is either subject to accidents, or environed
with evils so considerable and grievous, could never have been
called happy, if the men who give it this name had conde-
scended to yield to the truth, and to be conquered by valid
arguments, when they inquired after the happy life, as they
yield to unhappinesa, and are overcome by overwhelming
evils, when they put themselves to death, and if they had not
fancied that the supreme good was to be found in this mortal

TNCONSTSTE!fCT OP STOICISM.

S07

life; for the very virtues of this life, which are certainly its
best and most useful possessions, are all the more telling
proofs of its miseries in proportion as they are helpful a^ipainst
the violence of its dangers, toils, and woes. For if these are
true ^-i^tues, — and such cannot exist save in those who have
true piety, — they do not profess to be able to deliver the men
who possess them from all miseries; for true virtues tell no
such lies, but they profess that by the hope of the future
world this life, which is miserably involved in the many and
great evils of this world, is happy as it is also safe. For if
not yet safe, how could it be happy ? And therefore the
Apostle Paul, speaking not of men without prudence, temper-
ance, fortitude, and justice, but of those whose lives were
regidated by true jJiety, and whose virtues were therefore true,
says, "For we are saved by hope ; now hope which is seen
is not hope ; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for ?
But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience
wait for it"^ As, therefore, we are saved, so we are made
happy by hope. And as we^ do not _ as yet possess a present^
but look for a future solvation, so is it with our happiness,
and this " with patience ; " for we are encompassed with evils,
which we ought patiently to endure, until we come to the
ineffable enjoyment of immixed good ; for there shall be no
longer anything to endure. Salvation, such as it shall be in
the world to come, shall itself be our final happiness. And
this happiness these philosophers refuse to believe in, becanae
they do not seejt, and attempt to fabricate for _ themselves a
jtaii[))ii* s. In this life, based upon a virtue which is as deceit-
ful as it is proud.

5. Oftht social life, which, tliowjh moat deslrahUt ia/rrqunUly disturhefl b*f
many dutr6»sa.

We give a much more unlimited approval to their idea tlmt
the life of the wise man must be social. For how could the
city of God (concerning which we are already writing no less
tlian the nineteenth hook of this work) either take a begin-
ning or be developed, or attain its proper destiny, if the life
of the saints were not a social life ? But who can enumerate
all the great grievances with which human society abounds in

' £om. viii. 24.

308

TITE CITY OF GOD.

[nooK XIX.

tlio misery of this mortal state ? Who can weigh them ?
Hear how one of their comic writers makes one of his cha-
racters express the common feelinga of a]l men in this matter:
" I am married ; this is one misery. Children are bom to me ;
they are additional cares."^ Whnt shall I say of the miseries
of love whicli Terence also recounts — " slights, suspicions,
quarrels, war to-day, peace to-morrow?"* Is not human life
full of such things ? Do they not often occur even in
honourabie friendships ? On all hands we experience these
slights, suspicions, quarrels, war, all of which are undoubted
evils; while, on the other hand, peace is a doubtful good, be-
cause we do not know the heart of our fiiend, and tliough
we did know it to-day, we should be as ignomnt of what it
might be to-morrow. \^Tio ought to be, or who are more
friendly than those who live in the same family ? And yet
who can rely even upon this friendship, seeing that secret
treachery has often broken it up, and produced enmity as bitter
as the amity was sweet, or seemed sweet by the most perfect
dissimulation ? It is on this account that the words of Cicero
so move the heart of every one, and provoke a sigh : " There
ai'e no snarea more daugtrous than tliosc. whicli lurk under
the guise of duty or the name of relationship. For the man
who i.s your dcclaretl foe you can easily Laflle by precaution ;
but this hidden, intestine, and domestic danger not merely
exists, but overwhelms you before yon can foresee and examine
it."" It is also to this that allusion is made by the divine
saying, " A man's foes are those of his own household/'* — wortls
which one cannot hear without pain ; for though a man have
sufficient fortitude to endure it with equanimity, and sufficient
sagacity to baffle the malice of a pretended friend, yet if he
himself is a good man, he cannot but be greatly pained at the
discovery- of the perfidy of wicked men, whether they have
always been wicked and merely feigned goodness, or have
fallen from a better to a malicioiis disposition. If, then, home,
the natural refuge from tlie ills of life, is itself not safe, what
shall we say of the city, wliich, as it is larger, is so much the
more filled with lawsuits civil and criminal, and is never

^ Tercnt. Adt-iph. v. 4.
' In Verrcin^ ii. 1. 15.

* Eunuch, i. 1

* Matt. X. 8S.

BOOK Xrx] I'XREASOXADLENTSS OF TORTLT.E.

309

free from the fear, if sometimes from the actual outbreak, of
distui'bing and bloody msurrections and civil wars ?

6. 0/tht error qf human JutlfpnaiU taTien the truth u hidJea.

What shall I say of these judgments which men pronounce
on men, aud which are necessary in communities, whatever
outward peace they enjoy ? Melancholy and lamentable
judgments they are, since the judf^ea are men who cannot
discern the consciences of those at their bar, and are therefoi-e
frequently compelled to put innocent witnesses to tlie tortuie
to ascertain the truth regardin;;^ the crimes of other men.
What shall I say of torture applied to the accused himself ?
He is tortured to discover whether he is guilty, so tliat, thougli
innocent, he suffers most undoubted punishment for crime that
is still doubtful, not because it is proved that he committed it,
but because it is not ascertained that he did not commit it
Thais the ignorance of the judge frequently involves an innocent
pei-son in sufi^^ring. And what is still moi-e unendurable — a
thing, indeed, to be bewailed, and, if that were possible, watered
witli fountains of tears — is this, that when the judge puts the
accused to the question, that lie may not imwittingly put an
innocent man to death, the result of this lamentable ignorance
is that tliis very person, whom he tortured that he might nut
condemn him if innocent, is condemned to death both tortured
and innocent. For if he has chosen, in obedience to the
pliilosophical instructions to the wise man, to quit this life
rather than endure any longer such tortures, he declares that
he has committed the crime which in fact he has not com-
mitted. And when he has been condemned and put to
death, tlie judge is still in ignorance whether he has put to
death an innocent or a guilty person, though he put the
accused to the torture for the very purpose of saving himself
from condemning the innocent ; and consequently he has
both tortured an innocent man to discover his innocence, and
has put him to dcatli without discovering it. If such dark-
ness shrouds social life, will a wise judge take his seat on
the bencli or no ? Beyond question he will. Tor human
society, which he thinks it a wickedness to abandon, constrains
him and compels him to this duty. And he thinks it no

310

THE CITY OF GOD.

[DOOK XIX.

wickedness that innocent witnesses ore tortured regarding the
crLmes of which other men are accused ; or that the accused
are put to the torturCj so thafe they are often overcome with
anguish, and, though innocent, make false confessions regard-
ing themselves, and are punLshed ; or that, tliough they be not
condemned to die, they often die during, or in consequence of,
the torture ; or that sometiuies the accusers, who perhaps
have been prompted by a desire to benefit society by bringing
criminals to justice, are themselves condemned through the
ignorance of the judge, because they are unable to prove the
truth of their accusations though they are true, and because
the witnesses lie, and the accused endures the torture without
being moved to confession. These numerous and important
evils he does not consider sins ; for the >vise judge does these
things, not with any intention of doing harm, but because his
ignorance compels him, and because human society claiznfi
him as a judge. But though we therefore acquit the judge
of malice, we must none the leas condemn human life as
miserable. And if he is compelled to torture and punish the
innocent because his office and his ignorance constrain him, is
he a liappy as well its a guiltless man ? Surely it were proof
of more profound considerateness and finer feeling were he to
recognise the misery of these necessities, and shrink from his
own implication in that misery ; and had he any piety about
him, he would cr^-- to God, " From my necessities deliver Thou
me.

7. OfUie diversify of lanffuarjM^ by wKlck the inttrcourge of men is\
and of tfie misery ofwarx^ cvm of thoat called jtut.

After the state or city comes the world, the third circle
human society, — the first being the house, and tlic second the
city. And the world, as it is larger, so it is fuller of dangers,
03 the greater sea is the more dangerous. And here, in the
first place, man is separated from man by the difference of
languages. For if two men, each ignorant of the other's
language, meet, and are not compelled to pass, but, on tlie
contrary, to remain in company, dimib animals, though of
different species, would more easily hold intercourse than
they, human beings tliough they be. For their common

' Pt. XXV, 17.

BOOK XK.] WANT OF CONCORD AMONG JfEN,

311

nature is no help to friendliness wlien they are prevented by
diversity of language from conveying their sentiments to one
another ; so that a man woidd more readily hold intercourse
with his dog than with a foreigner. But the imperial city
has endeavoured to impose on subject nations not only lier
yoke, but her language, as a bond of peace, so that inter-
preters, far from being scarce, are numberless. This is true ;
but how many great wars, how much slaughter and bloodshed,
have provided this unity ! And though these are past, the
end of these miseries has not yet coma For though there
have never been wanting, nor are yet wanting, hostile nations
beyoud the empire, against whom wars have been and are
waged, yet, supposing there were no such nations, tiie very
extent of the empire itself has produced wars of a more ob-
noxious description — social and civil wars — and with these
the whole race lias been agitated, either by the actual conflict
or the fear of a renewed outbreak. H I attenipted to give an
adequate description of these manifold disasters, these stem
and lasting necessities, though I atn qmte unequal to the
task, what limit could I set ? But, say they, the wise man
will wage just wars. As if he would not all the rather
lament the necessity of just wars, if he remembers that he is
a man ; for if they were not just he would not wage them,
and would therefore be delivered from all wars. For it is the
\vrong-doing <:)f the opposing pai-ty which compels the wise
man to wage just wars ; and this wrong-doing, even though it
gave rise to no war, would still be matter of grief to man be-
cause it is man's \vrong-doing. Let every one, then, who
thinks with pain on all these great evils, so horrible, so ruth-
less, acknowledge that tliis is misery. And if any one eitlier
endures or tliinks of them without mental pain, this is a more
miserable plight still, for he thinks himself happy because he
has lost human feeling.

B. That the frifmhhip of good men cannot be tecurel^ re»ud »n, so long <t* lAe
dangerit oj Uiis U/e force ua lo he anxioua.

In our present n-retched condition we frequently mistake a

■friend for an enemy, and an enemy for a friend. And if we

escape this pitiable blindness, is not the unfeigned confidence

and mutual love of true and srood friends our one solace in

312

THE CITY OF COD.

[book XIX.

human society, iiUed as it is with itiisuuderstandings and
calamities ? And yet the more friends we Lave, and the more
widely they are scattered,, tlie more numerous are our fears
tliat some portion of tlie vast masses of the disasters of life
may light upon them. For we are not only anxious lest tliey
suffer from famine, war, disease, captivity, or the inconceiv-
alilc horrors of slavery, but we are also affected with the
much more painfid dread that their friendship may be
changed into perfidy, malice, and injustice. And when these
contingencies actually occur, — as they do the more frequently
the more friends we have, and the more widely they are
scattered, — and when they come to our knowledge, who hut
the man wlio has experienced it can tell with what pangs the
heart is torn ? We would, in fact, prefer to hear that they
were dead, olthoDgh we coidd not without anguish hear of
even this. For if their life has solaced us with the charms of
friendship, can it hi\ tl»at their death should ati'ect us with no
sadness ? He who will have none of this sadness must, if
possible, have no friendly intercourse. Let lum interdict or
extinguish friendly affection ; let him burst with ruthless in-
sensibility the bonds of every human relationship ; or let him
contrive so to use them that no sweetness shall distil into his
spirit But if this is utterly impossible, how shall we con-
trive to feel no bitterness in the death of those whose life has
been sweet to us ? Hence arises tliat grief which affects the
tender heart Kke a wound or a bruise, and which is healed by
the application of kindly consolation. For though the cure
is afl'dcted all the more easily and rapidly the better condition
the soul is in, we must not on this account suppose that there
is nothing at all to heal Although, then, our present life is
afflicted, sometimes in a milder, sometimes in a more painful
degree, by the death of those very dear to us, and especially
of useful public men, yet we would prefer to hear that such
men were dead rather than to hear or perceive that they had
fallen from the faith, or from virtue, — in other wortls, that
they were spiritually dead. Of this vast material for misery
the earth is full, and therefore it is written, " Is not humau
life upon earth a trial ? "^ And with the same reference the

1 Jot vii. 1.

BOOK XIX.] FRIENDSHIP OF AXGELS XOT AVAILADLa

Lord says, "Woe to Uie world because of offences!"* and
again, " Because iniquity abounded, the love of many shall
wax cold."* And hence we enjoy some gratification when
our good friends die ; for though their death leaves us in
sorrow, we have tlie consolatory assurance that they are
beyond the ills by which in this life even the best of men are
broken down or corruptedj or are in danger of both results.

9, Of t?ie friendship of the hofj/ angels^ irftic/i men cannot he sure of in tfiU llff,
omntj to the d«ix\t of the demons who hold in boudaf/e the worshippers of
aplnraiity qf godt.

The philosophers who wished us to have the gods for our
friends rank tlie friendsiiip of the holy angels in the fouilh
circle of society, advancing now from the three circles of
society on earth to the universe, and embracing Leaven itself.
And in tliis friendship we liave indeed no fear that the angels
■will grieve us by their death or deterioration. But as wc
cannot mingle with them as familiarly as with men (which
itself is one of the grievances of tliis life), and as Satan, as
■we read/ sometimes transforms himself into an angel of light,
to tempt those whom it is necessai-y to discipline, or just to
deceive, there is gi'eat need of God's mercy to presence us
from making friends of demons in disguise, while we fancy
we have good angels for our friends ; for the astuteness and
deceitfulness of these wicked spirits is equalled by their hurt-
fulness. And is this not a great misery of human life, that
we are involved in such ignorance as, but for God*s mercy,
makes us a prey to these demons ? And it is very certain
that the pliilosophers of the godless city, who have main-
tained that the gods were their friends, had fallen a prey to
the malignant demons who rule that city, and whose eternal
punishment is to bo shared by it. Por tho nature of these
beings is sufficiently e^nnced by the sacred or rather sacri-
legious observances which fonu their worship, and by the
filthy games in which their crimes are celebrated, and which
they themselves originated and exacted from their worshippers
as a £t propitiation.

» Matt xvii, 7.

» MitL xiiT. 12. • 2 Cor. xi. U.

314

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XIX.

10. 77t€ reward prepared for the 9(Unis ajter they have tndvred the
trial qfthU /j/c.

But not even the saints and faithful worshippera of the
one ti-ue and most high God are safe from the manifold temp-
tations and deceits of the demons. For in this ahode of
weakness, and in these wiclced days, this state of anxiety has
also its use, stirnvdating us to seek with keener longing for
that security where peace is complete and unassailable. There
we sh&n enjoy the gifts of nature, that is to say, all that God
the Creator of all natures has bestowed upon ours, — gifts not
only good, but eternal, — not only of the spirit, healed now by
wisdom, but also of the body renewed by the resurrection.
There the virtues shall no longer be struggling against any
vice or evil, but shall enjoy the reward of victory, the etenud
peace which no adversary shall disturb. This is the final
blessedness, this the ultimate consummation, the unending end-
Here^ indeed, we are said to be blessed when we have such
peace as can be enjoyed in a good life ; but such blessedness
is mere misery compared to that final felicity. When we
mortals possess such pea.ce as this mortal life can afford,
virtue, if we are living rightly, makes a right use of the ad-
vantages of this peaceful condition ; and when we have it not,
virtue makes a good use even of the e\'ils a man suffers.
But this is true virtue, when it refers all the advantages it
makes a good use of, and all that it does in making good use
of good and evil things, and itself also, to that end in which
we shall enjoy the best and greatest peace possibla

11. 0/ the happijiesi qf the eternal peaeey wJdeh eofutUutea tKe end or true
per/ection of tlie sainU.

And thus we may say of peace, as we have said of eternal
life, that it is the end of our good \ and the rather because
the Psalmist says of the city of God, the subject of this labo-
rious work, " Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem ; praise thy God,
0 Zion : for He hath strengthened the bars of thy gates ; He
hath blessed thy children within thee ; who hath made thy
borders peace." ^ For when the bars of her gates shall be
strengthened, none shall go in or come out from her ; conse-
quently we ought to understand the peace of her borders as
» Ps. cxlviL 12-14.

BOOK XIX.]

OF ETKRN.VL PEACE.

315

that final peace we are wishing to declai-e. For even the
mystical name of the city itself, that is, Jerusalem, means, aa I
have abeadj said, " Vision of Peace." But aa the word peace is
employed in connection with things in this world in which
certainly life eternal has no place, we have preferred to call
the end or supreme good of this city life eternal rather thnn
peace. Of this end the apostle says, "But now, beinfT freed
from sin, and become ser\*ants to God, ye have your fruit imtfi
holiness, and the end life eternal"^ But, on the other hand,
as those who are not familiar with Scripture may suppose that
the life of the >vicked is eternal life, either becftuse of the
immortality of the soul, which some of the philosopliers even
have recognised, or because of the endless punishment of the
wicked, which forms a part of our faith, and which seems
impossible unless the wicked live for ever, it may therefore
bo advisable, in order that every one may readily understand
what we mean, to say that the end or supreme good of this
city is either peace in eternal life, or etenml life in peace. For
peace is a good so great, that even in this earthly and mortal
life there is no word wc hear with such pleasure, nothing we
desire with such zest, or find to be more thoroughly gratify-
ing. So that if we dwell for a little longer on this subject,
we shall not, in my opinion, be wearisome to our re^iders, who
will attend both for the sake of understanding wliat is the
end of this city of which we speak, and for the sake of the
sweetness of peace which is dear to all.

12, That even thefiercentsa of war and all Che dUqutftudt o/men maix
Unoards this one end ofpcaet^ which every nature dmren.

Whoever gives even moderate attention to human affairs
and to our common nature, will recognise that if there is
no man who does not wish to be joyful, neither is there
any one who does not wish to have peade. For even they
who make war desire nothing but victory, — desire, that is
to say, to attain to peace with glory. For what else is victory
than the conquest of those who resist us ? and when this is
done there is peace. It is therefore with the desire for peace
that wars are waged, even by those who take pleasure in
exercising their wai'like nature in command and battle. And

> Rom. vi 22.

SIC THE CITY OF COD. [BOOK XEL

hence it is obvioiis that peace is the end sought for by war.
Tot eveiy man seeks peace by "waging Avar, but no man seeks
■war by making; peace. For eveu they who intentionally
interrupt the peace in which they are living have no hatred
of peace, but only vrish it changed into a peace that suite
them bettor. They do not^ therei'ore, wish to have no peace,
but only one more to their mind And in the case of sedition,
■when men have separated thnmselves from the community,
they yet do not eflect what they w*ish, unless they niaintaui
some kind of peace with their fellow -conspirators. And
therefore even robl>ers take care to maintain peace with their
comrades, that they may with greater effect and greater safety
invade the peace of other men. And if an individual happen
to be of such unrivalled strengthj and to be so jealous of part-
nership, that he trusts himself with no comrades, but makes
his own plots, and commits depredations and murders on his
own account, yet he maintains some shadow of peace with
such persons as he is unable to kill, and from whom he
wishes to conceal his deeds. In his own home, too, he makes
it his aim to be at peace with his wife and children, and any
other members of his household ; for imqiiestionably their
prompt obedience to his every look is a source of pleasure to
him. And if this be not rendered, he is angry, he chides and
puniahea ; and even by this storm he secures the calm peace
of his own home, as occasion demands. For he sees that
peace cannot bu maintained uidess all the members of the
same domestic circle be subject to one head, sucli ns he liim-
self is in his o\vn house. And therefore if a city or nation
ofifered to submit itself to him, to serve him in tho same style
as he had made his household serve him, he wo^dd no longer
lurk in a brigand's hiding-places, but lift his head in open
day as a king, though the same covetousness and wickedness
should remain in him. And thus all inen desire to have
peace with their own circle whom they wish to govern as
suits themselves. For even those whom they make war
against they wiah to make their own, and impose on them
the laws of their own peace.

But let \\s suppose a man such as poetry and mythology
speak of, — a man so inaociable and savage as to be called rather

BOOK XIX.]

VTACT. DESIRED BYAir MEN*.

317

a semi-man than a man} Although, then, his kingdom was
the solitiide of a dreary cave, and he himself was so sinj^ularly
had-hearted that he was named Koko^^ wliich is the Greek
word for had ; though he had no wife to soothe him with endear-
ing talk, no children to play with, no sons to do his bidding, no
friend to eidiven liiin with intercourse, not even his father
Vulcan (though in one respect he was happier than his father,
not having begotten a monster like himself) ; although he -^ave
to no man, but took as he wi.^lied whatever he could, from
whomsoever be could, when he could ; yet in that sohtary deu,
the floor of which, as Virgil^ says, was always reeking with
recent slaughter, there was notliing else than peace sought, a
peace in wliich no one should molest him, or disquiet him with
any assault or alanu. "With his own body he desired to T)e at
peace J and he was satisfied only in proportion a3 he had this
peace. For he ruled his members, and they obeyed him ; and
for the sake of pacifying his mortal nature, which rebelled when
it needed an}-thing» and of allaying the sedition of hunger wliich
tlireatened to banish the soul from the body, he made forays,
slew, and devoured, but used the ferocity and savagcness he
displayed in these actions only for the pTC3er\"ation of his own
life's peace. So that, had he been willing to make with other
men the same peace whicli he made with himself in liis own
cave, he would neither have been called bad, nor a monster,
nor a semi-man. Or if the uppearance of his body and his
vomiting smolcy fires frightened men from having any dealings
with him, perha|>s his tierce ways arose not from a desire to
do mischief, but from the necessity of finding a living. But he
may have had no existence, or^ at least, he was not such as the
poets fancifull}^ describe liim, for they bad to exalt Ilercides,
nnd did so at the expense of Cacus. It is better, then, to
believe that such a man or scmi-nian never existed, and that
this, in cuiamoii with numy other fancies of the poet-?, is mere
fiction. For the most savage animals (and he is said to have
been almost a wUd beast) encompass their own species with a
ring of protecting peace. They cohabit, beget, produce, suckle,
and bring up their young, though very many of them are not
gregarious, but solitary, — not like sheep, deer, pigeons, starlings,

* He refers to the giant Cacua. * j£neidt viiL 1&5,

318

THE CITY or GOD.

BOOK XTX

bees, but such as lions, foxes, eagles, bats. For what tigress
does not gently pniT over her cubs, and lay aside her ferocity
to fondle them ? Wiat kite, solitary as he is when circling
over his prey, does not seek a mate, build a nest, hatch the
eggs, bring up the young bii'ds, and maintain "with the mother
of his family as peaceful a domestic alliance as he can ? How
much more powerfully do the laws of mans nature move him
to liold fellowship and maintain peace with all men so far as
in liim lies, since even wicked men wage war to maintain the
peace of their own circle, and wish that, if possible, all men
belonged to them, that all men and things might serve but one
head, and Tuight, either through love or fear, yield themselves
to peace with him ! It is thus that pride in its perversity apes
God It abhors equality TiVith other men under Him ; but,
instead of His rule, it seeks to impose a rule of its own upon
its equals. It abhors, that is to say, the just peace of God,
and loves its own unjust peace ; but it cannot help loving peace
of one kind or other. For there is no vice so clean contrary
to nature that it obliterates even the faintest traces of nature.
He, then, who prefers what is right to what is wrong, and
what is well-ordered to what is perverted, sees that the peace
of unjust men is not worthy to be called peace in comparison
with the peace of the jtist. And yet even what is pen^erted
must of necessity be in harmony with, and in dependence on.
and in some part of the order of things, for otherwise it would
have no existence at all Suppose a man hangs with his liead
downwaids, this is certainly a per\'erted attitude of body and
arrangement of its members ; for that which nature requires
to be above is beneath, and vice versa. This perversity disturbs
the peace of the body, and is therefore painftd Nevertheless
the spirit is at peace with its body, and labours for its preserva-
tion, and lifMice the suffering; but if it is banished from the
body by its pains, then, so long as the bodily framework holds
together, there is in the remains a kind of peace among the
members, and hence the body remains suspended. And inas-
much as the earthy body tends towards the earth, and rests on
the bond by which it is suspended, it tends thus to its natural
peace, and the voice of its own weight demands a place for it
to rest ; and though now lifeless and without feeling, it does

BSbX XK.]

OUS KINDS OF PEA

S19

not fall from the peace that is natural to its place in creation,
whether it already has it, or is tending towards it. For if you
apply embahuiag preparations to prevent the bodily frame from
mouldering and dissolving, a land of peace still unites part to
part, and keeps the whole body in a suitable place on the earth,
— in other words, in a place that is at peace with the body. If,
on the other band, the body receive no such care, but be left
to the natural course, it is disturbed by exhalations that do not
harmonize with one another, and that offend our senses ; for
it is this which is perceived in putrefaction until it is assimi-
lated to the elements of the world, and particle by particle
enters into peace with them. Yet throughout this process the
laws of the most high Creator and Governor are strictly observed,
for it is by Him the peace of the universe is administered. For
although minute animals are produced firom the carcase of a
lai^'er animal, all tliese httle atoms, by the law of the same
Creator, serve the animals they belong to in peace. And although
the flesh of dead animals be eaten by othei-s, no matter where
it be carried, nor what it be brought into contact with, nor what
it be converted and changed into, it still is riJed by the same
laws which per\'ade all things for the conservation of every
mortal race, and which bring things that £t one another into
harmony.

13. Of the universal p€ac€ vluch the laxc of nature preservts through all digturb-
anceft afu2 &y which every one rcaehea kia desert in a way regulated hy
the just Judge.

The peace of the body then consists in the duly proportioned
arrangement of its parts. The peace of the irrational soul is
the harmonious repose of the appetites, and that of the rational
soul the hannony of knowledge and action. The peace of body
and sold is the well-ordered and harmonious life and health of
the living creature. Peace between man and God is the well-
ordered obedience of faith to eternal law. Peace between man
and man is well-ordered concord. Domestic peace is the well-
ordered concord between those of the family who rule and
those who obey. Civil peace is a similar concord among the
citizens. The peace of the celestial city is the perfectly ordered
and harmonious enjoyment of God, and of one another in God,
The peace of all tilings is the tranq[uillity of order. Order is

320

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XIX.

the distribution wliich allots things equal and unequal, each to
its own place. And Iience, though the misemble, in so far as
they are such, do certainly not enjoy peace, but are severed
from that tranquillity of order in whicli there is no disturbance,
nevertheless, iuasmuch as they are deser\'edly and justly mise-
rable, they are by their very misery connected with order.
They are not, indeed, conjoined with the blessed, but they are
disjtjuied from them by the law of order. And though they
are disquieted, their circiunstances are notwithstanding adjusted
t€ them^ and consequently they have some tranquillity of order,
and therefore some peace. But they are wi-etched because,
although not wholly miserable, they are not in that place where
any mixture ci misery is impossible. They would, however,
be more wretched if they liad not that peace which arises from
being in harmony with the natural order of things. When
they suffer, their peace is in so far disturbed ; but their peace
continues in so far as they do not suffer, and in so far as their
uatiu'e continues to exist. As, then, there may be life without
pain, while there cannot be pain without some kind of life,
so there may be peace without war, but there cannot be war
without some kind of peace, because war supposes the exist-
ence of some natures to wage it, and these natures cannot
exist without peace of one kind or other.

And therefore there is a nature in which evil does not or
even cannot exist; but there cannot be a nature in which
there is no good. Hence not even the nature of the devil
himself is evil, in so far as it is nature, but it was made evil
by being perverted. Thus he did not abide in the truth,* but
could not escape the judgment of the Truth ; he did not abide
in the tranquillity of oixler, but did not therefore escape tlie
power of the Ordainer. The good imparted by God to his
nature did not screen him from tlie justice of God by which
order was preserved in liis punishment ; neither did God
punish the good which He had created, but the evil which
the devil had committed. God did not take back all He had
imparted to his nature, but something He took and something
He left, that there might remain enough to be sensible of the
loss of what was taken. And this very sensibility to pain is

' Jolm viiL ii.

BOOK XIX.

Tire BLEssryGS of this life.

eviileuce of the good wliich has been taken away and the
good which has been left. For, were nothing good left, tliere
could be no pnia on account of the good which had been lost
For he who sins is still worse if he rejoices in liis loss of
righteousness. But he who is in paii], if lie derives no benefit
frani it, mourns at least the loss of health. And as righteous-
ness and health are both good things, and as the loss of any
good thing is matter of grief, not of joy, — if, at least, there is
no compensation, as spiritual righteousness may compensate
fur the loss of bodily health, — certaiidy it is more suitable
for a wicked man to grieve in punishment than to i-ejoice in
his fault. As, then, the joy of a sinner who has abandoned
what is good ia evidence of a bad will, so his grief for the
good he has lost when he is punished is evidence of a good
nature. For he who laments the peace his nature has lost is
stirred to do so by some relics of peace whicti make his nature
friendly to itself. And it is very just that in the final
pumshment the wicked and godless should in anguish bewail
the loss of the natural advantages they enjoyed, and should
perceive that they were most justly taken from them by that
God whose benign liberality they had despised. God, then,
the most wise Creator and most just Ordainer of all natures,
who placed the huniati race upon earth as its greatest orna-
ment, imparted to men some good things adapted to this life,
to wit, temporal peace, such as we can enjoy in this life from
health and safety and human fellowship, and all things need-
ful for the preservation and recovery of tliis peace, such as
the objects wliich are accommodated to our outward senses,
light, ni,L;ht, the aii*, and waters suitable for us, and everj'-
tliing the body requires to sustain, shelter, heal, or beautify
it: and all under this most equitable condition, that every
man who made a good use of these advantages suited to the
peace of this mortal condition, should receive ampler and
better blessings, namely, the peace of immortality, accompanied
by gloiy and houour in on endless life made fit for the enjoy-
ment of God and of one another in God ; but that he who
used the present blessings badly should both lose them and
should not receive the others.

TOL. IL

322

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book m.

14. OfUie. ordrr and law which ollain iii htaren and earthy whereby it comes to
pa9s thai hunuut society u tervtd hy those who ruie iC.

The whole use, then, of things temporal liaa a reference to
this result of eartlily peace in the eartlily community, while
iu the city of God it is connected with eternid peace. And
therefore, if we were irrational animals, we should desire
nothing beyond the pi-oper arrangement of the parts of the
body and the satisfaction of the appetites, — nothing, there-
fore, but bodily comfort and abundance of pleasures, that the
peace of the body might contribute to the peace of the souL
For if bodily peace be awanting, a bar is put to the peace
even of the irrational soul, since it cannot obtain the gratiH-
cation of its appetites. And these two together help out the
mutual pen.ce of soul and body, the peace of harmonious life
and health. For as animals, by shunning pain, show that they
love bodily peace, and, by pursuing pleasure to gratify their
appetites, show that they love peace of soul, so their slirinking
from death is a sufficient indication of their intense love of
that peace which binds soul and body in close alliance. But,
as man has a rational soul, he subordinates all this which he
has in common with the beasts to the peace of liis rational
soul, that his intellect may have free play and may regulate
his actions, and that he may thus enjoy the well-ordered har-
mony of knowlciigc and action which constitutes, as we have
said, the peace of the rational soul And for this purpoee he
must desire to be neither molested by pain, nor disturbed by
desire, nor extinguislied by death, that he may arrive at some
useful knowledge by which he may regulate his life and
manners. But, owing to the liability of the human mind to
fall into mistakes, tliis very pursuit of knowledge may be a
snare to him luiless he baa a divine Master, whom he may
uhcy without misgiving, and who may at the same time give
aim such help as to preserve his own freedom. And because,
so long as he is in this mortal body, he is a stranger to God,
he walks by faith, not by sight ; and he therefore refers all
peace, bodily or spiritual or both, to that peace which mortal
man has with the immortal God, so that he exhibits the well-
ordered obedience of faith to eternal law. But as this divine
blaster incidcates two precepts, — the love of God and the

BOOK XIX.]

DOMESTIC A^D SOCIAL KULE.

323

love of our neighbour, — and as in these precepts a man finds
tliree thuigs he has to love, — God, himself, and his neighbour,
— and that he who loves God loves himseli thereby, it follows
that he must endeavour to get his neighbour to love God,
since he is ordered to love his neighbour as himsi^lL He
ought to make this endeavour in behalf of his wife^ his chil-
dren, his household, all within his reach, even as he would
wish his neighbour to do the same for him. if he needed it ;
and consequently he will be at peace, or in well-ordered con-
cord, with all men, as far as in him lies. And this is the
order of this concord, that a man, in the first place, injure no
one, and, in the second, do good to every one he can reacL
Primarily, therefore, his own household are his care, for the
law of nature and of society gives him readier access to them
and greater opportunity of serving them. And hence the
apostle says, "Now, if any provide not for his own, and
specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the
faith, and is worse than an iofidcL" ^ This is the origin of
domestic peace, or the well-ordered concord of those in the
family who rule and those who obey. For they who care
for the rest ride, — the husband the wife, the parents the
children, the masters the servants; and they who are cared
for obey, — tlie women their husbands, the children their
parents, the servants their masters. But in the family of
the just man who lives by faith and is as yet a pilgrim
journeying on to tlie celestial city, even those who rule
sen^e those whom they seem to command; for they nde
not from a love of power, but from a sense of the duty they
owe to others — not because they are proud of authority, but
because they love mercy.

15. 0/ the llhftrfy proper to manV naturf, and the servitude hUrodueed bjf ri», —
a sert^tude i» lokich iJve man toho*e will it ioicktd La the slave <^fhi$ om
Uut, though he ia/ree wo far as regards other men.

This is prescribed by tlie order of nature : it is thus that
God has created man. For " let them," He says, " have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the
air, and over every creeping thing which crcepeth on the
eai-th.'"^ He did not intend that His rational creature, who

> X Tim. V. 8. * Ken. i. 26,

)(

324

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XTC

was made in His image, should have dominion over anything

but the irrational creation, — not man over man, bat man over
tliG beasts. And licnce the righteous men in primitive times
were made shepherds of cattle rather than kings of men, God
intending tlnis to taiuli xis what the relative position of the
creatm-es is, and what the desert of sin ; for it is with justice,
we believe, that the condition of slavery is the result of siri.
And tills is why we do not find the word " slave " in any jwut
of Scriptiu*e until rigliteous Noali branded the fiiii of his son
with this name. Ifc is a name, therefore, introduced by ain
and not by nature. The origin of the Latin avoixI for slave
is supposed to be found in tlie circumstance that those who
by the law of war were liable to be killed were sometimes
preserved by their victors, and were hence called ser^'unts.*
And these circumstances could never have arisen save tlu-ough
sin. For even when we wage a just war. our adversaries
must be sinning ; and every victory, even thougli gained by
wicknd men, is a result of the first judgment of God, who
humbles the vanquished either for the sake of removing or
of pnnisliing their sins. Witness that man of God, Daniel,
whOj when he was in captivity, confessed to God his own sins
and the sins of his people, and declares with pious grief that
these were the cause of the captivity.* Tlio jninic cause, then,
of slaveiy is sin, which brings man under the dominion of his
fellow, — that which does not haj>pen save by the judgment ol
God, with whom is no unrighteousness, and who knows how
to award fit punishments to every variety of offence. But our
Master in heaven says, " Every one who doeth sin is the ser-
vant of sin."^ And thus there are many \nckcd masters who
have religious men as tlicir slaves, and who are yet tliemselves
in bondage ; " for of whom a man is overcome, of the same
is he brought in bondage."* And beyond question it is a
happier thing to be the slave of a man than of a lust ; for even
this very lust of ruling, to mention no others, lays waste men's
hearts with the most ruthless dominion. Moreover, when men
are subjected to one another in a peaceful order, tho lowly
position does as much good to the sei-vant as the proud posi-

* John viii. 31

from tervare, "to preserve,"

' Dim. ix.
*2?dt iL 10.

BOOK XIX.]

07 EQUITABLE RULE.

32,

tion does harm to the master. But by nature, as God £rst
created lis, no one is the slave either of man or of sin. This
servitude is, however, penal, and is appointed by that law
which enjoins the preser^'ation of the natural order and for-
bids its disturbance ; for if nothing had been done in violation
of that law, there would have been nothing to restrain by
penal ser\'itude. And therefore the apostle admonishes slaves
to be subject to their masters, and to sen'e them heartily
and with good-will, so that, if the}' cannot be freed by their
masters, they may themselves make their slavery in some sort
free, by serving not in crafty fear, but in faithful love, until
all unrighteousness pass away, and all principality and every
human power be brought to nothing, and God be all in all

18. 0/ equitable ruU,

And therefore, although our righteous fathers ^ had slaves,
and administered their domestic affairs so as to distinguish
between the condition of elaves and the heirship of sons in
regard to the blessings of this life, yet in regard to the wor-
ship of God, in whom we hope for eternal blessings, they took
an equally loving oversight of all the members of their liouse-
hold. And this is so much in accordance w*ith the natural
onler, that the head of the household was called paierfamiiias ;
and this name has been so generally accepted, that even tliose
whoso rule is unrighteous are glad to apply it to themselves.
Eut those who are true fathers of their households desire and
endeavour tlmt all the members of their household, equally
with their own cliildren, shoidd worship and win God, and
sliould come to that heavenly home in which the duty of
ruling men is no longer necessary, because the duty of caring
for Uieir everlasting happiness has also ceased ; but, until they
reach that home, masters ought to feel their position of autho-
rity a greater burden than servants theii* service. And if any
member of the family interrupts the domestic peace by dis-
obedience, he is corrected either by word or blow, or some
kind of just and legitimate punishment, such as society per-
mits, that he may himself be the better for it, and be re-
adjusted to the family harmony from which he had dislocated
' The patriarclis.

326 THl!: CTTT OF GOD. [BOOK XEC

himself. For as it is not benevolent to give a man help at
the expense of some greater benefit he might receive, so it is
not innocent to spare a man at the risk of his falling into
graver sin. To be innocent, we must not only do harm to
no man, but also restrain him from sin or punish his sin, so
that, either the man himself who is punished may profit by
bis expeiience, or others be warned by his example. Since,
then, the house ouglit to be the beginning or element of the
city, and every beginning bears reference to some end of its
own kind, and every element to the integrity of the whole of
which it is an element, it follows plainly enough that domestic
peace has a relation to civic ptmce,^in other words, that the
well-oidered concoi*d of domestic obedience and domestic rule
has a relfition to the well-ordered concord of civic obedience
and civic rule. And therefore it follows, fiu-ther, that the
father of the family ought to frame his domestic rule in ac-
cordance with the law of the city, so that the household may
be in harmony with the civic order.

17. What produces peace^ and what discord, between Oie heavady and
earthly cUka,

But the families which do not live by faith seek their
peace in the earthly advantages of this life ; while the fami-
lies which live by faith look for those eLerual blessings which
are promised, and use as pilgrims such advantages of time
and of earth as do not fascinate and divert them from God,
but rather aid them to endure with greater ease, and to keep
down the nimiber of those burdens of the corruptible body
which weigh upon the soul. Thus the things necessary for
this mortal life are used by both kinds of men and families
alike, but each has its own peculiar and widely difFerent aim
in using them. The earthly city, which does not live by fsuth,
seeks an earthly peace, and the end it proposes, in the well-
ordered concord of civic obedience and rule, is the combioa-
tion of men's wills to attain the things which are heljpfnl to,
this life. The heavenly city, or rather the part of it which
sojourns on earth and lives by faith, makes use of this peace
only because it must, until this mortal condition which neces-
sitates it shall pass away. Consequently, so long as it lives
like a caj^tive and a stranger in the eaithly city, though it

BOOK XTX.]

DI3C0RP OF THE TWO CITIES.

327

has already'" i*eceived the promise of redemption, and the gift
of the Spirit as the earnest of it, it makes do scniple to obey
the laws of the earthly city, whereby the things necessary for
the maijitenanoe of this mortal life are administered; and
thiLS, us tbia life is common to both cities, so there is a har-
mony between them in reorard to what belongs to it Biit, as
the earthly city has had some philosophers whose doctrine is
condemned by the divine teaching, and who, being deceived
either by their own conjectxires or by demons, supposed that
many gods must be invited to talce an interest in human
affairs, and assigned to each a separate function and a sepa-
mte department,— to one the body, to another the soul ; and
in the body itself, to one the head, to another the neck, and
each of the other members to one of the gods ; and in like
manner, in the soul, to one god the natural capacity was as-
signed, to another education, to another anger, to another lust ;
and so the various affiiirs of life were assigned, — cattle to one,
com to another, wine tti another, oil to another, the woods to
another, money to another, navigation to another, wars and
victories to another, man-iages to another, births and fecundity
to another, and other things to other gods : and as the celes-
tial city, on the othei hand, knew that one God only was to
be worshipped, and that to Him alone was due that service
which the Greeks call Xarpeia, and wliich can be given only
to a god, it has come to pass that the two cities could not
have conunon laws of religion, and that the heavenly city has
been compelled in this matter to dissent, and to become
obnoxious to those who think dififerently, and to stand the
brunt of their anger and hatred and persecutions, except in so
fur as the minds of their enemies have beeu alarmed by the
multitude of the Christians and qnclled by the manifest pro-
tection of God accorded to them. This heavenly city, then,
wliile it sojourns on earth, calls citizens out of all nations, and
gathers together a society of pilgrims of all languages, not
scrupling about diversities in the manners, laws, and institu-
tions whereby earthly peace is secured and maintained, but
recognising that, however various tliese are, they all tend to
one and, the same end of cartlily peace. It therefore is so fai"
from rescinding and abolishing these diversities, that it even

323

THE GITY 07 GOD.

[book XIX.

preserves and adopts them, so long only as no hindrance to
the worship of the one supreme and true God is thus intro-
duced. Even the heavenly city, therefore, while in its stale
of pilgrimage, avails itself of the peace of earth, and, so far as
it can without injuring faith and godliness, desires and main-
tains a common agreement among men regarding the acquisi-
tion of the necessaries of life, and makes this earthly peace
bear upon the peace of heaven ; for this alone can be truly
called and esteemed the peace of the reasonable creatures, con-
sisting as it does in the perfectly ordered and harmonions en-
joyment of God and of one another in God. Wlien we shall
have reached that peace, this mortal life shall give place
to one that is eternal, and our body shall be no more this
animal body which by its corruption weighs down the sonl,
but a spiritual body feeling no want, and in all its members
subjected to the will. In its pOgrim state the heavenly
city possesses this peace Ly faith ; and by tliis faith it live*
righteously when it i-efers to the attainment of that peace
every good action towards God and man ; for the life of the
city is a social life.

18. Ifow iliJerenC (he uncertainty of tJte Xew Academy u fi'om tht certainty <^
the Christian faith.

As regards the uncertainty about everything which Varro
alleges to be the difi'oi-entiating clmracteristic of the New
Academy, the city of God thoroughly detests such doubt as
madness. Regarding matters which it apprehends by the
mind and reason it 1ms most absolute certainty, although its
knowledge is limited because of the corruptible body pressing
down the mindj for, as the apostle says, " We know in part" '
It believes also the evidence of the senses which the miud
uses by aid of the body ; for [if one who trusts Ids senses is
sometimes deceived], he is more wretchedly deceived who
fancies he should never trust them. It believes also the
Holy Script\ires, old and new, which we call canonical, and
which arc the source of the faith by which the just lives,* and
by which we walk without doubting whilst we are absent
from the Lord* So long as this faith remains inviolate and
firm, we may without blame entertain doubts regai*ding some

» 1 Cor. xiii. 9. « Hab. ii. 4. ^ 2 Cor. t. «.

BOOK XIX.]

HABITS OF THE CHRISTIAKS.

320

tluaga which we have neither perceived hy sense nor by
reason, and which have not been revealed to us by the
canonical Scriptures, nor come to our knowledge through
witnesses whom it is absurd to disbelieve.

19. Of the drut and haUU of the Christian ptopU.

It is a matter of no moment in tlie city of God whether

he who adopts the faith that brings men to God adopts it in
one dress and mamier of life or another, so louj^ only as he
lives in conformity with the commandments of God. And
hence, when philosophers themselves become Christians, they
are compelled, indeed, to abandon their erroneous doctrines, but
not their dress and mode of living, which are no obstacle to
reli!][ion. So that we make no account of that distinction of
sects which VaiTo adduced in connection with the Cynic
school, provided always nothing indecent or self-indulgent is
retained. As to these three modes of life, the contemplative,
the active, and the composite, although, so long as a man's
faith is preserved, he may clioose any of tliem without detri-
ment to his eternal intei-eats, yet he must never overlook the
claims of truth and duty. No man has a right to lead such
a life of contemplation as to forget in liis own ease the sen'ice
due to his neighbour ; nor has any man a right to be so im-
mei-sed in active life as to ne;;lect the contemplation of God.
The charm of leisure must not be indolent vacancy of mind,
but the investigation or discovery of truth, that thus every
man may make aohd attainments without gi-udging that others
do the same. And, in active life, it is not the honours or
power of this life we should covet, since all things under the
sun are vanity, but we should aim at using our position and
influence, if these have been honoTirably attained, for the wel-
fare of those who are under us, in the way we have already
explained.* It is to this the apostle refers when he says,
" He that desireth the episcopate desireth a good work."^ He
wished to show that the episcopate is the title of a work, not
of an honour. It is a Greek word, and signifies tliat he wlio
governs superintends or takes care of those wliom he governs :
for iwl means over, and ffKoireiv, to sec; therefore iirKXKOTretv
» Ch. a. a 1 Tim. iii. 1.

TiTE cnr or god.

[book xdl

means "to oversee."* So tliat he who loves to govern rather
than to do good is no hishop. Accordingly no one is pro-
hihited from the search after truth, for in this leisure may
most laudably be si>ent ; but it is unseemly to covet the high
position requisite for governing the people, even though, that
position be held and that government be administered in a
seeudy manner. And therefore holy leisure is longed for hy
the love of tnith ; but it is the necessity of love to undertake
requisite business. If no one imposes this burden upon to,
we are &ee to sift and contemplate truth ; "but if it be laid
upon ufi, we are necessitated for love's sake to undertalce it
And yet not even in this case are we obliged wholly to re-
linquish the sweets of contemplation ; for were these to be
wi^d^a^vn, the burden might prove more than we could beat.

so. ThcU the aaints are in thit life bleated in hope.

Since, then, the supreme good of the city of God is perfect
and eternal peace, not such as mortals pass into and out of
by birth and death, but the peace of freedom from all evil, in
which the immortals ever abide, who can deny that that
future life is most blessed, or that, in comparison with it. tliis
life which now we live is most wretched, be it filled with all
blessings of body and soul and external things ? And yet, if
any man uses this life with a reference to that other which
he ardently loves and confidently hopes for, he may well be
called even now blessed, though not in reality so much as in
hope. But the actual possession of the happiness of this
life, without the hope of what ia beyond, is but a false happi-
ness and profound misery. For the true blessings ol the soul
are not now enjoyed ; for that is no true wisdom which does
not direct all its prudent observations, manly actions, virtuous
self-restraint, and just arrangements, to that end in which
God shall be all and all in a secure eternity and perfect
peace.

21. Whether there ever tew a Roman repvhlic anmetrlng U> the deJtniGau
of Scipio in OceTo'ii dialcrj^in.

This, then, is the place where I should fulfil the promii

' Augiistine's words are: " !«•<, quippe 'super;' r»*^it, vero, * inte&tio * eit
iwigH»*utt d velirans, latiue 'auperiiiUudcrc ' poasumua diccre."

BOOK XDC.] WHETHER HOME "WAS A HEPTTBMC.

gave in the second book of tliis work,' and explain, as briefly
and clearly as possible, that if we are to accept the definitions
laid do>vn by Scipio in Cicero's De Hepublica, there never was
a Eoman republic ; for he briefly defines a republic as the
weal of the peo])le. And if this definition he true, there
never was a Eoman republic, for the jpeojple's weal was never
attained among the Eomans. For the people, according to
his definition, is an assemblage associated by a common
acknowledgment of right and by a community of interests.
And what he means by a common acknowledgment of right
he explauis at large, showing that a republic L-uunot be ad-
ministered without justica ^Vhere^__thereforej there _ is no_
true justice there can he no right. For that which is done
by right is justly done, and what is unjustly done cannot be
done by right. For the unjust inventions of men are neither
to be considered nor spoken of as rights ; for even they them-
selves say that right is tliat whicli flows from the fountain of
justice, and deny the definition which is commonly given by
those who misconceive the matter, that right is that which is
useful to the stronger party. Tlius, wliere there is not true
justice there can be no assemblage of men associated by a
common acknowledgment of right, and therefore there can
be no people, as defined by Scipio or Cicero ; and if no
people, then no weal of the people, but only of some pro-
miscuous multitude unworthy of the name of people. Conse-
quently, if the republic is the weal of the people, and there is
no people if it be not associated by a common acknowledg-
ment of right, and if there is no right where there is no justice,
then most certainly it follows that there is no republic where
there is no justice. Fui'ther, justice is that 'S'irtue which
gives every one his due. Where, then, is the justice of man,
when he deserts the true God and yields liiuiself to impure
demons ? Is this to give every one his due ? Or is he who
keeps back a piece of ground from the piu'chaser, and gives it
to a man who has no right to it, nnjust, while he who keeps
back himself from the God who made hiu], and serves wicked
spirits, is just ?

This same book, De Eepuhlica, advocates the cause of justice

332 Tire CITY OF GOD. [book XIX.

against injustice with great force and keenness. The plead-
ing for injustice against justice was first heard, and it was
asserted that without injustice a republic could neither in-
crease nor even subsist^ for it was laid down as an absolutely
unassailable position that it is unjust for some men to rule
and some to serve ; and yet the imperial city to which the
republic belongs cannot rule her provdnces without having
recourse to this injustice. It was replied in behalf of justice,
that this ruling of the provinces is just, because servitude may
be advantageous to the pro^'incials, and is so when righdy
at! ministered, — that is to say, when lawless men are prevented
from doing harm. And further, as they became worse and
worse so long as they were free, they will improve by sub-
jection. To confirm this reasoning, there is added an enunent
example drawn from nature : for " why," it is asked, " does
God rule man, the soul the body, the reason the passions and
other vicious parts of the soul ? " This example leaves no
doubt that, to some, servitude is useful ; and, indeed, to serve
God is useful to all. And it is when the soul serves God
that it exercises a right control over the body ; and in the
soul itself the reason must be subject to God if it is to govern
as it ought the passions and other vices. Hence, when a
man docs not serve God, what justice can we ascribe to him,
since in this case his soul cannot exercise a just control over
the body, nor his reason over his vices ? And if there is no
justice in such an individual^ certainly there can be none La a
community composed of such persons. Here, therefore, there
13 not that common acknowledgment of right which makes
an assemblage of men a people whose affairs we call a re-
public. And why need I speak of the advantageousness, the
common participation in whicli, according to the definition,
makes a people ? For although, if you choose to regard the
matter attentively, you will see that there is nothing advan-
tageous to those wlio live godlessly, as every one lives who
does not serve God but demons^ whose wickedness you may
measure by their desire to receive the worship of men though
they are most impure spirits, yet what I have said of the
common acknowledgment of right is enough to demonstrate
tliat, according to the above definition, there can be no people,

BOOK XIX.] CHUISTIANS WORSHIP THE TRUE GOD.

333

and therefore no republic, where there is no justice. For if
they nssert that in their republic the Iloniana did not serve
unclean spirits, but good atid holy gods, must we tlierefore
again reply to this evasion, though already we liave said
enough, and more than enough, to expose it ? He must be
an nnconimonly stupid, or a shamelessly couteutious person,
who has read through the foregoing books to this point, and
can yet question whether the Eonians served wicked and
impure demons. But, not to speak of tlieir character, it is
written in the law of the true God, " He that sacrificeth unto
any god save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly de-
stroyed." ' lie, therefore, who uttered so menacing a com-
mandment decreed that no worship should be given either to
good or bad gods.

£2. Whether Uit God whom the ChrisUaiu serve U the true God to vshom atone
tacr\fice ought to be -paid.

But it may be replied, Wixo is this God, or what proof is
there that He alone is worthy to receive sacrifice from the
Ilomans ? One must be veiy blind to be still asking who
this God is. He is the God whose prophets predicted the
things we see accomplished. He is the God from whom
Abraham received the assuaunce, " In thy seed shall all nations
be blessed."' - Tliat this was fulfilled in Christ, who accord-
ing to the flesh sprang from that seed, is recognised, whether
they will or no, even by those who liave continued to be the
enemies of this name. He is the God whose divine Sj)irit
spake by the men whose predictions I cited in the preceding
books, and which are fidfilled in the Church which has ex-
tended over all tho world. This is the God whom Varro, the
most learned of the liomans, supposed to be Jupiter, though
ho knows not what he says ; yet I think it right to note the
ciicumstance that a man of such learning was unable to sup-
pose that this God liad no existence or was contemptible, btit
believed Hun to be the some as the supreme God. In fine.
He is the God whom Porphyry, the most learned of the philo-
sophers, though the bitterest enemy of the Christians, con-
fesses to be a great God, even according to the oracles of those
whom be esteems gods.

) Elx. xxil 20. > Gen. xxiL 18,

23. pQi-phifry'a account qftJte responses given bi/ the oracUs qftha gods con^
cerning CfirutL

For in his book called e/c Xoyltov if>i\o<roif>ia^, in which he
collects and commente upon the responses which he pretends
were uttered by the gods concerning divine things, he says — 1
give his own words as they have been translated from the
Greek : " To one who inquired what god he should pTopitiate
in order to recall his wife from Christianity, Apollo replied in
the i'ollowing verses." Then the following words are given as
those of Apollo: "You ^viU probably find it easier to write
lasting characters on the water, or lij:;litly fly hke a bin!
through the air, than to restore right feeling in your impious
wife once she has polluted herself. Let her remain as she
pleases in her foolish deception, and sing false laments to her
dead God, who was condemned by right-minded judges, and
perished ignominiously by a violent death." Then after theao
verses of Apollo (which we have given in a Latin vemon that
does not preserve the metrical fonn), he goes on to say : " In
these verses Apollo exposed the inciu-able corruption of the
Chi'istians, 8a}'ing that the Jews, rather than the Christians,
recognised God." See how he misrepresents Christ, giving
the Jews the preference to the Christians in the recognition of
Grod, This was his explanation of Apollo's venues, in which
he says that Christ was put to death by right-minded or just
judges, — in other words, that He deserved to die. I leave the
responsibility of this oracle regai*ding Christ on the lying in-
terpreter of Apollo, or on this philosopher who believed it or
possibly himself invented it ; as to its agreement with Por-
phyry's opinions or with other oracles, we shall in a little
have something to say. In this passage, liowever, he says
that the Jews, as the interpreters of God, judged justly in
pronouncing Christ to be worthy of the most shameful deatL
He should have listened, then, to this God of the Jews to whom
ho bears this testimony, when that God says, " He that sacrificeth
to any other god save to the Lord alone shall be utterly de-
stroyed." But let us come to still plainer expressions, and
hear how great a God Porphyry thinks the Grod of the Jews
is. Apollo, he says, "VNlien asked whether word, i.^. reason, or
law is the better thing, replied in the following verses. Th«

BOOK XIX.] ORACLES QUOTED BY PORPHYRY.

33;

he gives the veraes of Apollo, from which I select the follow-
ing as sufficient ; " God, the Generator, and the King prior to
all tilings, before whom heaven and earth, and the sea, and
the hidden places of hell tremble, and the deities themselves
are afraid, for their law is the Father whom the holy Hebrews
honour" In this oracle of his god AjioUo, Pori»hyry avowed
that the God of the Hebrews is so great that the deities them-
selves are afraid before Him. I am surprised, therefore, that
when God said, He that sacrificeth to other gods shall be
utterly destroyed, Porphyry himself was not afraid lest he
should be dcsti*oyed for sacrificing to other gods.

This philosopher, however, has also some good to say of
Christ, oblivious, as it were, of that contumely of his of which
we have just been speaking ; or as if his gods spoke evil of
Christ only wliile asleep, and recognised Him to be good, and
gave Him His deserved praise, when they awoke. For, as if
he were about to proclaim some marvellous thing passing
belief, he says, " What we are going to say \\'ill certainly take
some by surprise. For the gods have declared that Christ
was very pious, and lias become immortal, and that they
cherish his memory; that the Christians, however, are pol-
luted, contaminated, and involved in error. And many other
such things," he says, " do the gods say against the Christians."
Then he gives specimens of the accusations made, as he sa^'s,
by the gods against them, and then goes on : " But to some
who asked Hecate whether Christ were a God, she replied.
You know the condition of the disembodied immortal soul,
and that if it has been sevei-ed from wisdom it always errs.
The soul you refer to is that of a man foremost in piety : they
worship it because they mistake the truth." To this so-called
oracular response he adds the following words of his own:
" Of this very pious man, then, Hecate said that the soul, like
the souls ot other good men, was after death dowered with im-
mortality, and that the Christians through ignorance worship
it. And to those who ask why he was condemned to die,
tlie oracle of the goddess replied. The body, indeed, is always
exposed to torments, but the souLs of the pious abide in heaven.
And the soul you inquire about has been the fatal cause of
error to other souls which were not fated to receive tlie gifts

336 THE CITY OV GOD. [BOOK XDC

of the gods, and to have the knowledge of immortiLl Jore.
Such souls are therefore hated by the gods; for they who
were fated not to receive the gifts of the gods, and not to
know God, were fated to be involved in error by means of
him you speak of. He himself^ however, was good, and
heaven has been opened to liini as to other good men. You
are not, then^ to speak evil of him^ but to pity the folly of
men : and through him men's danger is imminent/'

Who is 80 fuoKsIi as not to see that these oracles were
either composed by a clever man with a strong animus against
the Christians, or were uttered as responses by impure demons
with a similar design, — that is to say, in oi*der that their
praise of Clirist may win credence for their >ntuperatiou of
Christians ; and tliat thus they may, if possible, close the way
of eternal salvation, which is identical with Christianity ?
For they believe that they are by no means counterworking
their own hurtful craft hy promoting belief in Christ, so long
as their calumuiaLion of Christians is also accepted ; for they
thus secure that even the man who thinks well of Christ de-
clines to become a Christian, and is therefore not delivered
from their own ride by the Christ he praises. Besides, their
praise of Christ is so contrived that wliosoover believes in
Him as thus represented will not be a true Christian but
a riiotiniiiu heretic, recoj:»nisin^ only the humanity, and not
also the divinity of Ciuist, and will thus be precluded from
salvation and from deliverance out of the meshes of these
devilish lies. For our part, we are no better pleased with
Hecate's prabes of Christ than with Apollo's calumniation of
Him. Apollo says that Christ was put to death by right-
minded judges, implying that He was unrighteous. Hecate
says that He was a most pious man, but no more. The inten-
tion of botli 13 the saiue, to prevent men from becoming Chris-
tians» because if this be secured, men shall never be rescued
from their power. But it is incumbent on our philosopher, or
rather on those wlio believe in these pretended oracles against
the Christians, first of all, if they can, to bring Apollo and
Hecate to the same mind regarding Christ, so that either both
may condemn or both praise Him. And even if tliey suc-
ceeded in this, we for our part would notwitlxstanding repudi-

TJOOK XTX.1 BISCRCTAXCY O? OBACLES TIEGABBING CHRIST.

337

ate the testimony of demons, whether favourable or adverse to
Clirist. r*iit w'lwn our adverssories find a gcjd and j^nddess of
their own at variance about Christ, the one praising, the other
vitupcratin<5 Him, they can certainly give no credence, if they
have any judgment, to mere men who blaspheme the Chris-
tians.

"When Porphyry or Hecate praises Girist, and adds that He
gave HiTuself to the Christians as a fatal gift, that they might
be involved in en*or, he exposes, as he thinks, the causes of
this error. But before I cite his words to that purpose, I
"vvould ask, If Christ did thus give Himself to the Christians
10 involve tlieni in error, did He do so wiliiugly, or against
His will ? If willingly, how is He righteous ? If against
His will, how is He blessed ? However, let us hear the
causes of this error. " There are " lie says, " in a certain
yjlace very small earthly spirits, subject to the power of evil
demoag. The wise men of the Hebrews, among whom was
this Jesus, as you have heard from the oracles of Apollo cited
above, turned religious persons from these very wicked demons
and minor spirits, and taught them rather to worship the
celestial gods, and especially to adore Clod the Father. Tliis,"
he said, " the gods enjoin ; and we have already showTi how
they admoni.sh the soul to turn to God, and comiiuind it to
worship Iliin. But the ignorant and tlie ungodly, who are
not destined to receive favours from the gods, nor to know the
immortal Jupiter, not listening to the gods and their messages,
h:ivo turned away from all gotls, and have not only refused to
hatCj but liave venerated the prohibited demons. Professing
to worsliip God, they refuse to do those things by w^hich alone
God is worshipped. For God, indeed, being the Father of all,
is in need of nothing ; but for ua it is good to adore Him by
means of justice^ chastity, and other virtues, and thus to make
life itself a pi*ayer to Him, by inquiring into and imitating His
nature. For inquiry," says he, '* purifies and imitation deifies
us, by moving us nearer to llinx" He is right in so far as
be proclaims God the Father, and the conduct by which we
should woi-ship Him. Of such precepts the prophetic books
of the Hebrews are full, when they praise or blame the life of
tbe saints. But in speaking of the Christians he is in error,
VOL. IL T

538

THE CITT or GOD.

[book xk.

and calumniates them as much as ifi desired by the demons
whom he takes for gods, as if it were difficult for any man to
tecollect the disgraceful and shameful actions which used to
be done in the theatres and temples to please the gods, and
to compare with these things what is heard in our churches,
and what i3 offered to the true God, and from this comparison
to conclude where character is edified, and where it is ruined
But who but a diabolical spirit has told or siigfjesteid to this
man so manifest and vain a lie, as that the Christians reverenced
rather than hated the demons, whose worship the Hebrews
prohibited ? But that God, whom the Hebrew sages wor-
shipped, forbids sacrifice to be ofFerod even to the holy angcb
of heaven and divine powers, whom we, in this our pilgrimage,
venerate and love as our most blessed fellow-citizens. For in
the law which God gave to His Hebrew people He utters
this menace, as in a voice of thunder : " He that sacrificeth
unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly
destroyed."^ And that no oue migliL suppose that this pro-
hibition extends only to the very wicked demons and earthly
spirits, M'honi this pliilasopher colls very small and inferior, —
for even these are in the Scripture ciiUed gotls, not of the
Hebrews, but of the nations, as the Septuagint translators have
shown in the psalm where it is said, " For all the gods of the
nations are demons,"' — that no one might suppose, I say, that
sacrifice to these demons was prohibited, but that sacrifice
might be offered to all or some of the celestials, it was im-
mediately added, "save unto the Lord alone."* The God of
the Hebrews, then, to whom this renowned philosopher bears
this signal testimony, gave to His Hebrew people a law,
composed in the Hebrew language, and not obscure and
unknown, but published now in every nation, and in this
law it is written, " He that sacrificeth unto any god, save
imto the Lord alone, he shall be utterly destroyed." "What
need is there to seek further proofs in the law or the prophets
of this same thing ? Scel\ we need not say, for the passages
are neither few nor difficult to find; but what need to collect

' Ex. ixit. 20. « Pi, xcvL 6,

' Augrnstine here warns liis readers against a possible inisunderstandinj of the
Lfttin word for ** alone " («0J»), which might be rendered "the sun/*

BOOK XUC]

DEFINinON or A PEOrLE.

and apply tx) my argiiirent the proofs which are thickly sown
and obvious, and by which it appears cleai" as day that saciifice
may be paid to none but the supreme and true God ? Here
is one brief but decided, even menacing, and certainly true
utterance of that God -whom the wisest of our adversaries so
higldy extoL Let this be listened to, feared, fuliilled, that
there may be no disobedient soul cut off. "He that sacrifices,"
He says, not because He needs anything, but because it behoves
U3 to bo His possession. Hence the Psalmist in the Hebrew
Scriptures sings, " I have said to the Lord, Thou art my Grod,
for Tliou needest not my good." ^ For wc ourselves, who are
His own city, are His most noble and worthy sacrifice, and it
is this mystery we celebrate in our sacrifices, which are well
known to the faithful, as we have explained in the preceding
books. For thiough the prophets the oracles of God declared
that the sacrifices which the Jew^ offered as a shadow of that
which was to be wquld cease, and that the nations, from the
rising to the setting of the sun, would offer one sacrifice.
From these oracles, which we now see accomplished, we have
made such selections as seemed suitable to our purpose in this
work. And therefore, where there is not this righteousness
wherehy the one supreme God rules the obedient city accord-
ing to His giace, so that it sacrifices to none but Hito, and
whereby, in all the citizens of this obedient city, the soul con-
sequently rules the body and reason the vices in the rightful
order, so that, as the individual just man, so also the com-
munity and people of the just, live by faith, which works by
love, that love whereby man loves God as He ought to be
loved, and his neighbour as himself, — there, I say, there is
not an assemblage associated by a common acknowledgment
of right, and by a community of interests. But if there is
not this, there is not a people, if onr definition be true, i^nd
therefore there is no republic j for where there is no people
there can be no republic.

£4. The d^nition whicJt must he (ptrn of a -pfOpU and a rtpuhHc, %n ordrr to
vindicate the aswmption 0/ these titieM by (he JiomoMa and by other lingdoms.

But if we discard this definition of a people, and, assmning
another, say that a people is an assemblage of reasonable

*p«. ivL a.

340

THE CITY OF GOP.

[book xnc.

beings bound together by a common agreement as to the objects
of tlieir love, then, in order to discover the character of any
people, we have only to observe what they love. Yet what-
ever it laves, if only it is an assemblage of reasonable lieings
and not of beasts, and is bound together by an agreement as
to the objects of love, it is reasonably called a people ; and
it will be a supeiior jDeople in proportion as it is bound to-
gethef by hi^^her interests, inferior in proportion as it is bound
together by lower. According to this definition of ours, the
Roman people is a people, and its weal is without doubt a
commonwealth or republic. But what its tastes were in its
early and subsequent days, and how it declined into sangui-
nary seditions and then to social and civil wars, and so burst
asunder oi lotted off the bond of concord in which the health
of a people consists, history shows, and in the preceding books
1 have related at large. And yet I would not on tliis account
say cithei tliat it was not a people, nr that its administration
was not a republic, so long as there remains an assemblage of
reasonable beings bound tngther by a common agreement as
to the objects of love. Uut what I say of this people and of
this re])ublic I must he understood to think and say of the
Athenians or any Greek state, of the Eg^^jtians, of the early
Assyrian Babylon, and of every other nation, great or small,
which had a public government. For, in general, the city of
the ungodly, which did not obey the comninnd of God that
it shoidd offer no sacrifice save to Him alone, and which,
therefore, could not give to the soul its proper command over
the body, nor to the reason its just authority over the nces»
is void of true justice.

25. Tfiat vchert Uicrt i$ no true rtligUm there art no trut virtutt.

For though the soul Dia}' seem to rule the body admirably
and the reason the vices, if the soul and reason do not them-
selves obey God, as God has commanded them to sen'e Him,
they have no proper authority over the body and the vices. For
what kind of mistress of the body and the vices can that mind
be which is ignorant of the true God, and which, instead of
being subject to His anthorit}', is prostituted to the corrupting
influences of the most vicious demons ? It is fox this reosou

COOK Xl.X.] THE PEACE OF THE E.VETIILY CITY.

that the virtues which it seems to itself to possess, and by
•which it i-estrains the body and the vices that it may obUiii
and keep what it desires, are rather vices than virtues so lon^ \
as there is no reference to God in the matter. For althoygli *
some suppose that virtues which have a reference only to
themselves, and are desired only on their own account, are
yet truo and genuine virtues, tlie fact is that even then they
are inflated M'ith iirule, and are tliercfore to be reckoned vices
rather than virtues. Tor as that which gives life to the tlesh
is not derived from flesh, hub is above it, so that which gives
blessed life to man is not derived from man, but is something
above iiim ; and what 1 say of man is true of every celestial
power and virtue whatsoever.

20. Of ike jieiite \ph\ch u tnjoyfd by thf pfopte that arc allnmitd ffom God^ and
the lue made of U bjf the jteopU of God m tKc iime of ila ^Ijpirnage. -

Wherefore, as the life of the flesh is the soul, so the blessed
life of man is God, of whom the saci-ed writings of the Hebrews
say, " Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord."^ Mise-
rable, therefore, is the people which is alienated from God. Yet
even this people has a peace of its own which is not to be
lightly esteemed, though, indeed, it shall not iu the end enjoy
it, because it makes no good use of it before the end. But it
is our interest that it enjoy this peace meanwhile in tliis life ;
for as long as the two cities are commingled, we also enjoy the
peace of Babylon. For from Babylon tlie people of God is so
li'ced that it meanwhOe sqjounis in its company. And there-
fore the apostle also admonished the Church to pray for kings
and those in authority, assigning as the reason, " that we may
live a quiet and tranquil life in all godliness and love." '
And the proplud Jeremiah, when predicting tlic captivity that
was to befall the ancient people of God, and giving them the
divine command to go obediently to Babylonia, and tlius serve
tlieir God, counselled tliem also to pray for Babylonia, saying,
" la the peace thereof shall ye have peace," ° — the temporal
peace which the good and the wicked together enjoy.

27. Tftai the peace of those who serve Ood cannot in this mortal life he
apprehended in Us perfection.

But the jjcace which is peculiar to ourselves we enjoy now

* Fs. C3div, 15. ' 1 Tim. ii. 2; var. reading, "purity." ' Jer. xaIx. 7.

THE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK XII.

with God by_ Jaith, and shall hereafter enjoy eternally with
Him by sight But the peace which we enjoy in this life,
whether common to all or pectdiar to ourselves, is rather the
solace of our misery than the positive enjoyment of felidtj.
Out very righteousness, too, though true in so far as it has
respect to the true good, is yet in this life of such a kind that
it consists rather in the remission of sins than in the perfect-
ing of virtues. Witness the prayer of the whole city of God
in its pilgrim state, for it cries to God by the mouth of all its
members, " Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." ^
And this prayer is efficacions not for those whose faith is
"without works and dead/'* but for those whose faith "worketh
by love."' For as reason, though subjected to God, is yefe
" pressed down by the corruptible body," * 60 long as it is in
this mortal condition, it has not perfect authority over vice,
imd therefore this prayer is needed by the righteous. For
though it exercises authority, the xnces do not submit without
a stmggle. For however well one maintains the conflict, and
however thoroughly he has subdued these enemies, there steals
in some evil thing, which, if it do not find ready expression in
act, slips out by the lips, or insinuates itself into the thought ;
and therefore his peace is not full so long as he is at war
with his vices. For it is a doubtful conflict he wages with
tliose that resist, and his victory over those that are defeated
is not secure, but full of anxiety and effort Amidst these
temptations, therefore, of all which it has been summarily
said in the divine oracles, " Is not human life upon earth a
temptation ?"* who but a proud man can presume that he so
lives that he has no need to say to God, "Forgive us oiu*
debts ?'* And such a man is not great, but swollen and puffed
up with vanity, and is justly resisted by Him who abundantly
gives grace to the humble. Whence it is said, " God I'esisteth
the proud, but giveth grace to the humble."" In this, then,
consists the righteousness of a man, that he submit, himself to
God, his body to his soul, and his vices, even when they rebel,
to his reason, which either defeats or at least resists them ;

1 Matt vi. 12. - Jas. u. 17.

«'Gal. V. 6. * Wisdom ii. 15.

* Job Tii. 1. « Jasi iv. 6 ; 1 Pet. t. 6.

XTX.]

END OP THE EABTHLY CITT.

343

and also that he beg from God grace to do his duty,' and the
pardon of his sins, and that he render to God thanks for all
tiie blessings he receives. But, in that final peace to which
all oiir righteousness has reference, and for the sake of which
it is miiintained, as our nature shidl enjoy a sound immortality
and iucorruption, and shall have no more vices, and as we
shall experience no resistance either from ourselves or from
other3, it will not be necessary that reason should rule "vices
which no longer exist, but God shall rule tlie man, and the
soul shall rule the body^ mth a sweetness and facility suitable
to the felicity of a life which is done with bondage. And
this condition shall there be eternal, and we shall be assured
of its eternity ; and thus the peace of this blessedness and
the blessedness of this peace shall be the supreme good.

28, TJie end oftit^ mchtd.

But, on the other hand, they who do not belong to this city
of Gnd shall inherit eternal misery, which is also called the
second death, because the soul shall then be separated from
God its life, and therefore cannot be said to live, and the
botly shall be subjected to eternal pains. And consequently
this second death shall be the more severe, because no death
shall terminate it. But war being contrary to peace, as misery
to happiness, and life to death, it is not without reason asked
what kind of war can be found in the end of the wicked
answering to the peace which is declared to be the end of the
righteous ? The person who puts this question has only to
observe what it is in war that is hurtful and destructive, and he
shall see that it is nothing else than the mutual opposition and
conflict ol tliing.s. And can he conceive a more gi'ievous and
bitter war than that in which the will is so opposed to passion,
and passion to the will, that their hostility can never be ter-
minated by the \'ictory of either, and in which the violence
of pain so conflicts -with the nature of the body, that neither
yields to the other? For in this life, when this conflict has
arisen, either pain conquers and death expels the feeling of it,
or nature conquers and health expels the pain. But in the
world to come the pain continues that it may torment, and

^ Gratia meritoniui.

344 THE CITY OF GOD. [DOOK XIX.

the nature endures that it may be sensible of it ; and neither
ceases to exist, lest punishment also should cease. Now, as it
is through the last judgment that men pass to these ends,
the good to the supreme good, the evil to the supreme evil,
I will treat of this judgment in the following book.

•»

BOOK XX.]

THE DAY OF nSAt JUDGMEN'T.

BOOK TWENTIETH.

ARGUMENT.

COKCCRNtNO THE LAST Jt*DGME.NT, AND TUB I>F.CLAUATIONS IlZGAJtOlKG IT XIT

THE OLI> AhD KEW TESTAMCara.

1. That allhowjh God is always judffimj, it m neverthdesa reaiKmaUt to confiM
onr alltiidon in this book to His last jadytuciit,

INTENDING to speak, in dependence on God's gi^ce, of
the day of His final judgment, and to aflinu it a<;uiust
tlie iingotlly and incrediilous. we must first of all lay, as it
were, iu the foviudatlun of the edifice the divine declarations.
Those persons who do not believe such declarations do their
best to oppose to tliem false and illusive sophisms of thuir
own, either contending tliut what is adduced from Scripture
has anoLlier meaning, or altogether denying that it is an utter-
ance of God's. For I suppose no man who understantls what
ia written, ami believes it to be conmiuuicated by tlie supreme
and ti'ue God tlu-ough holy men, refuses to yield and consent
to these declarations, whether he ondly confesses his consent,
or is from some evil intlacncc ashamed or afraid to do so ; or
even, with an opinionativenoss closely resembling madness,
makes streniious efforts tn tlefeud wlmt he knows and believes
to be false against what lie knows nud believes to be true.

That, therefore, which tlie whole Church of the true God
holds and professes as it.^ creed, that Christ shall come from
heaven to judge quick and dead, this we call the last day, or
last time, of the divine judgment. Tor we do not know how
nifiny days this judgment may occupy ; but no one who reads
the Scriptures, however negLgently, need be told that in ibem
"day" is customarily used for "time." And when we speak
of the day of God's judgment, we add tlie word last or final
for this reason, because even now God judges, and has judged
from the beginning of human history, banishing from paradise,
and excluding from the tree of life, those first men who per-
pctuited so great a sin. Yea, He was certaiidy exercising

judgment also when He did not spare the angels who sinned,
whose prince, overconie by envy, seduced men after being
himself seduced. Neither is it without God's profound and
just judgment that the Kfe of demons and men, the one in
the air, the other on earth, is filled with misery, calamities,
and mistakes. And even though no one had sinned, it could
only have been by the good and right judgment of God that
the whole rational creation could have been maintained in
etenial blessedness by a persevering adherence to its Lord.
He judges, too, not only in the mass, condemning the race of
devils and the race of men to be miserable on account of the
original sin of these races, but He also judges the volnntaiy
and personal acts of individuals. For even the devils pray
that they may not be tormented/ which proves that without
injustice they might either be spared or tormented according
to their deserts. And men are punished by God for their
sins often visibly, always secretly, either in this life or after
death, although no man acts rightly save by the assistance of
divine aid ; and no man or devil acts unrighteously save by
the permission of the divine and moat just judgment For, as
the apostle says, "There is no nnrighteousness with God;"*
and as he elsewhere says, " His judgments are inscnitable,
and His ways past finding out" ^ In this book, then, I shall
speak, as God permits, not of those first judgments, nor of
these intervening judgments of God, but of the last judgment,
when Clirisfc is to come from heaven to judge the q^uick and
the dead. For that day is properly called the day of judg-
ment, because in it there shall be no room, left for the igno-
i-ant questioning why this wicked person is happy and that
righteous man unliappy. In that day true and lull happiness
shall be the lot of none but the good, while deserved and
supreme misery shall be the portion of the wicked, and of
them only.

2. TJuU in the mingUd veh qfh«man afairs Ood^s judgment Ui prtsmt, though
it eannot be discerned.

In this present time we leam to hear with equanimity the

ills to which even good men are subject, and to hold cheap

the blessings which even the wicked enjoy. And conse-

> Matt. riii. 29. * Rom. ix. 1 4. » Kom. xi. 33.

BOOK XX.]

GOD JUDGES 1TEK NOW.

347

quently, even in those conditious of life in which the justice
of God is not apparent. His teaching is salutaiy. For we do
not know by what judgment of God this good man is poor
and that bad man rich ; why he who, in our opinion, ought
to suffer acutely for his abandoned life enjoys himself, while
Borrow piirsues him whose praiseworthy lifo leads us to suppose
he should be happy ; why the innocent man is dismissed from
the bar not only unavenged, but even condemned, being either
wronged by the iniquity of the judge, or overwhelmed by
false evidence, while his guilty adversary, on the other hand,
is not only discharged with impunity, but even has his claims
admitted ; why the ungodly enjoys good health, while the godly
pines in sickness ; why ruftians are of the soundest constitu-
tion, while they who could not hxirt any one even with a
word are from infancy afflicted with complicated disorders ;
why he who is useful to society is cut off by premature death,
while those who, as it might seem, ought never to have been
so much as bom have lives of unusual length ; why he who
is full of crimes is crowned with honours, while the blameless
man is buried in the darkness of neglect. But who can collect
or enumerate all the contrasts of this kind ? 15ut if this
anomalous state of things were uniform in this life, in which,
as the sacred Psalmist says, " Man is like to vanity, his days
as a shadow that passeth away," ^ — so uniform that none but
wicked men won the transitory prosperity of earth, Avliile only
the good suffered its ills, — this could be referred to the just and
even benign judgment of God. Wo miglit suppose that they
who were not destined to obtain those everlasting benefits
wliich constitute human blessedness w^ere either deluded by
transitory blessings as the just rewai-d of their wickedness, or
were, in Crod*s mercy, consoled by them, and that they who
were not destined to suffer eternal torments were afflicted
with temporal chastisement for their sins, or were stimulated to
greater attainment in virtue. But now, as it is, since we not
only see good men involved in the ills of life, and bad men
enjoying the good of it, which seems unjust, but also that evil
often overtakes evil men, and good surprises the good, the
rather on this account are God's judgments unsearchable, and

* Ps. cxliv. 4.

THE CITV Oy GOI>. FBOOK XX

His ways past finding out. jVlthough, therefore, we do not
know by what judgment these tilings are rlone or permittal
to bo done by God, -^nth whom is the highest virtue, the
highest wisdom, the highest justice, no infinnity, no rashness,
no unrighteousness, yet it is salutary for us to learn to hoM
cheap such things, be they good or evil, as attach indificr-
ently to good men and bad, and to covet those good things
which belong only to good men, and flee those evils which
belong only to evil men. But when we shall have come tu
that j udgment, the date of which is called pDCidiarly the day
of judgment, and sometimes the day of the Lord, we shall
tlien recogiuse tlie justice of all God's judgments, not only of
such as shall then be pronounced, but of all which take eflect
from the beginning, or may take effect before that time. And
in that day we shall also recognise with what justice so many,
or almost all, the just judgments of God in the present hfe
defy the scrutiny of liumari sense or insight, though in this
matter it is not concealed from pious minds that what is con-
cealed is just

3. What Sotomoa^ in the book of EccUslasteft tayn rtgarding the thinga wAirA
hapjKTi atike to good and mcktd men,

Solomon, the wisest king of Israel, who reigned in Jeru-
salem, thus commences tbe book called Ecclesiastes, wliich
the Jews number auiong their canonical Scriptm-es : " Vanity
of vanities, said Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities ; all is vanity.
Wiat profit hath a man of all his labour wliich he hath
taken under the sun ?"' And after going on to enumerate,
with this as his text, the calamities and delusions of tlus
life, and the shifting nature of the present time, in whicli
there is nothing substantial, notliing lasting, lie beAvails,
among the other vanities that are under the sun, this also,
that though wisdom excelletli folly as light excelleth darkness,
and though the eyes of the wise man are in his head, while
the fool walketh in darkness,'' yet one event happeneth to
them all, that is to say, in this life under the sun, unques-
tionably alluding to those evils which we see befall good and
bad men alike. He says, further, that the good suffer the ills
of life as if they were evil-doers, and the bad enjoy the good

^ Ecclea. l 2, 3. - Eccles. ii. 13, 14.

BOOK XX] IN Tins tIFE JTTBGMENT XOT APPAKKNT.

349

of life as if tliey were good. *' There is a vanity which is

done upon the earth ; that there be just men unto whom it
hapi>eneth according to the work of the wicked : y^'ain, there
be wicked men, to whom it happeueth according to the work
of the righteous. T said, that this also is vanity.''^ This
wisest man devoted this whole book to a fail exposure of this
vanity, evidently with no otlier object than that we might
long for that life in which there is no vanity itnder the sun,
but verity under Him who made the sun. Tu this vanity,
then, was it not by the just and righteous judgment of God
that man, made like to vanity, was destined to pass away ?
But in these days of vanity it innkes an impnrtsuit diilerence
whether he resists or yields to the truth, and whether he is des-
titute of true piety or a paitaker of it, — important not so far as
regards the acquirement of the blessings or the evasion of the
calamities of this transitory and vain life, but in connection
with the future judgment which shall make over to good men
good things, and to bad men bad things, in permanent, in-
alienable possession. In fine, this wise man concludes this
book of his by saying, " Fear God, and keep Hi-j command-
ments : for this is every man. For God shall bring every
work into judgment, with every despised person, whether it
be good, or whether it be evil." * Wliat truer, terser, more
salutary enouncement could be made ? " Fear God," he says,
*' and keep His commandments : for this is every man." For
whosoever has i*eal existence, is tliis, is a keeper of God's
commandments ; and he who is not this, is nothing. For so
long as lie remains in the likeness of vanity, he is not renewed
in the image of the truth. " For God shall bring into judg-
ment every work," — ^that Ls, whatever man docs in this lite,—
•' whether it be good or whether it be evil, with every
despised person," — -that is, with every man who here seems
despicable, and is therefore not considered ; for God sees
even him, and does not despise him nor pass him over in His
judgment.

4. 77iaf jtroo/8 of (Jte last judjmtnC will be adducttf, Jtrtl/ivm the New
Testament^ and ihen/rom the OUL

The proofs, then, of this last judgment of God which I pro-

^ £ccl«8. viii. 14. * Eccles. xii. 13, IL

v. (

350

THE CITY OF GOD.

[BOOKXt

pose to adduce shall be drawn first from the New Testament,
and then from the Old. For although the Old Testament is
prior in point of time, the New ha.*? the precedence in intrinsic
viilue ; for the Old acts the part of herald to the New, We
shall therefore first cite passages from the New Testament^
and confirm them by quotations from the Old TestamfiDt
The Old contains the law and the prophets, the New the gospel
and the apostolic epistles. Now the apostle says, " By the
law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness o£
God without the law is manifested, being ^^'itne8sed by the
law and the prophets ; now the righteousness of God ia by
faith of Jesus Christ upon all them that believe." * This
righteousness of God belongs to the New Testament, and
evidence for it exists in the old books, that is to say, in
thti law and the prophets. I sliall first, then, state the case,
and then call the witnesses. This order Jesus Christ Himself
directs us to observe., saying, "The scribe instructed in the
kingdom of God is like a good householder, bringing out of
his treasure things new and old." ' He did not say " old and
new," which He certainly would have said had He not wiahed
to follow the order of merit rather than that of time.

5. The pcu»agM in which tJie Saviour dechres thit there shall he a divme jwi^
ment in tfie end of the world.

The Saviour Himself, while reproving the cities in which
He had done great works, but which had not believed, and
while setting them in unfavourable comparison with foreign
cities, says, " But I say imto yon. It shall be more tolerable
for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you.**'
And a little after He says, "Verily, I say unto you. It shall
be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judg-
ment than for thee " * Here He most plainly predicts that a
day of judgment is to come. And in another place He sap,
" The men of Nineveh sludl rise in judgment with this gene-
ration, and shall condemn it : because they repented at the
preaching of Jonas ; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is hera
The queen of the south shall rise up in tlie judgment with
this generatioUj and shall condemn it : for slio came from the
uttermost parts of the earth to hear the words of Solomon ;

> Hom. iii. 20-22. * Matt. xiii. 52. ' Matt. xi. 22. *Mjitt. si. 24.

and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here." ' Two things
■we learn from this passage, that a judgment is to take place,
and that it is to take place at the resurrection of the dead.
For when He spoke of the Ninevites and the queen of the
south, He certaiidy spoke of dead persons, and yet He said
that they should rise up in the day of Judgment. He did not
say, " They shall condemn," as if they themselves were to be
the judges, but because, in comparison with them^ the others
flhall be justly condemned.

AgaiUj in another passage, in which He was speaking of the
present intermingling and future separation of tlie good and
badj — the separation which shall be nxade in the day of judg-
mentj — He adduced a comparison dra^mi from the sown wheat
and the tares sown among them, and gave this explanation of
it to His disciples : " He that soweth the good seed is the Son
of man,"* etc. Here, indeed, He did not name the judgment
or the day of ju<^^ent, but indicated it much more clearly by
describing the circumstances, and foretold that it should take
place in the end of the world.

In like manner He says to His disciples, " Verily I say
unto you. That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration,
when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye
alao shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes
of Israel" * Here we learn that Jesus shall judge with His
disciples. And therefore He said elsewhere to the Jews,
" If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons
cast them out ? Therefore they shall be your judges." *
Neither ought we to suppose that only twelve men shall judge
along with Him, though He says that they shall sit upon
twelve thrones; for by the number twelve is signified the
completeness of the multitude of those who shall judge. "For
the two parts of the number seven (which commonly symbolizes
totality), that is to say, four and three, multiplied into one
another, give twelve. For four times three, or three times
four, are twelve. There are other meanings, too, in this
number twelve. Were not this the right interpretation of
the twelve thrones, then since we read that Matthias was

* Mfttt. xii. 41, 42. * Aaguatine quotes the whole passage, Matt xiii. 37-43.
> Mfttt zix. 23. * Matt xii 27.

352 THE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK XX.

onlaineJ an apostle in the room of Judas the traitor, the
Apostle Paul, though he laboured more thiiii theiu all/ should
have no throne of judgment; but he unmistakeably considers
himself to be included in the number of the judj^es when he
says, " Know yc not that we shall judge angels V'' The same
nde ia to be observed in a^jplying the number twelve to thoae
who are to be judged. For though it was said, "judging the
twelve tribes of Israel," the tribe of Levi, which is the
thirteenth, ^\m\] not on this account be exempt from judg-
ment, neither shall judgment be passed only on Israel ami
not on the other nations. And by the woi-ds " in the re-
generation " He certainly nieajit the resurrection of the dead
to be understood ; for onr fleali shall be regenerated by io-
coiTuption, as our soul is regenerated by faith.

Many passages I omit, because, though they seem to i^er
to the last judgment, yet on a closer examination they are
found to be ambiguous, or to allude rather to some other
event, — whether to that coming of the Saviour which con-
tinually occurs in His Church, that is, in His members, in
which He comes little by little, and piece by piece, since the
■whole Church is His body, or to the destruction of the
earthly Jerusalem. For when He speaks even of this. He often
uses language which is applicable to tlve end of the world and
that lust and great day of judgment, so that these two evenu
cannot be distinguished unless all the corresponding passages
bearing on the subject in the three evangelists, ^latthew,
Mark, and Luke, are compared with one another, — for some
tilings are put more obscurely by one evangelist and more
plainly by another, — so that it becomes apparent what things
arc meant to be referred to one event. It is this which I
have been at pains to do in a letter which I wrote to Hesy-
chius of blessed memory, bishop of Salon, and entitled^ * Of
the End of the World'' »

I shall now cite from the Gospel accoi-ding to Matthew the
passage which speaks of the sepamtion of the good from the
\vicked by the most efficacious and final judgment of Christ:
"When the Son of man," he says, "shall come in His glory, . . .
then shall He say also unto them on His left liand, Depart
1 1 Cor. IT, 10. * I Cor. vi. 3. ' £p, 19?.

BOOK XX.] THE FIRST AND SEGOXD RESURRECTIOX.

O^O

from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the de\il
and Ills angels." * Then Ho in like manner recounts to tlie
wicked the things they had not done, but "which He had said
those on the right hand had done. And when they ask when
they had seen Him in need of these tilings. He replies that,
inasmuch aa they had not done it to the least of His brothren,
they had not done it unto Him, and concludes His address in
the words, "And these shall go away into everlasting punish-
ment, but the righteous into life eternal" Moreover, the evan-
gelist John most distinctly states that He had predicted that tlie
judgment should he at the resurrection of the dead. For after
saying, " The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all
judgment unto the Son ; that all men should honour the Son,
even as they honour the Father ; he that honoureth not the
Son, honoureth not tlie Father wliich hath sent Him ;" He im-
mediately adds, "Verily, verily, 1 say unto you, He that heareth
my word and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting
life, ami shall not cunie into judgment; but is passed from death
to life." ^ Here He said that believers on Him sliould not
come into judgment. How, then, shall thoy be sepai-ated from
the wicked by judgment, and be set at His right liand, tmless
judgment be in this passage used for condemnation I For into
judgment, in this sense, they shall not come who hear His
word, and believe on Him that sent Him.

6. What M tlie/rst reeurrecthn, and tchtU Uu Kcond.

After that He adds the words, '* Verily, verily, I say unto
you, The hour is coming, and now is, wlien the dead shall
Iiear tlie voice of the Son of God ; and they that hear shall
live. For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He
given to the Son to have life in Himself."^ As yet He does
jiot speak of the second resurrection, that is, the resurrection
of the body, wliich shall be in the end, but of the first, which
now is. It is for the sake of making this distinction that He
says, " The hour is coming, and now is." Now tliis resuiTec-
tion regards not the body, but the soul. For souls, too, have a
death of their own in wickedness and sins, whereby they are
the dead of whom the same lips say, " Sufier the dead to bury
» Matt. XXV, 34-41, given in full. « John v. 22-24. ■ John v. 25, 26.

VOL. IL Z

354

THE Cmr OF GOD.

[300K 3X

their dead," ' — that is, let those who are dead in soul bury them
that are dead in body. It is of these dead, then — the dead
in ungodliness and wickedness — that He saj-s, " The ho^ir is
comingj and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the
Son of God; and they that hear shall live." "They that hear,"
that is, they who obey, believe, and persevere to the end.
Here no difference is made between the good and the bad.
For it is good for all men to hear His voice and live, by
passing to the life of godliness from the death of ungodlinesaL
Of this death the Apostle Paul says, " Therefore all are dead,
and He died for all, that they wluch live should not henceforth
live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and
rose again." * ' Thus all, without one exception, were dead in
sins, whether original or voluntary sins, sins of ignorance, or
sins committed against knowledge ; and for all the dead there
died the one only person who lived, that is, who had no sm
whatever, in order that they who live by the remission of
their sins slionld live, not to themselves, but to Him who
died for all, for our sins» and rose again for our justification,
that we, believing in Him who justifies the ungodly, and
being justified from ungodliness or quickened from death,
may be able to attain to the first resurrection which now is.
For in this first resurrection none have a part save those who
shall be eternally blessed ; but in the second, of which He
goes on to speak, all, as we shall learn, have a part^ both the
blessed and the wretched. The one is the resurrection of
mercy, the other of judgment And therefore it is written in
the psalm, " I will sing of mercy and of judgment : unto Thee,
0 Lord, will I sing."''

And of this judgment He went on to say, " And hath given
Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the
Son of man." Here He shows that He will come to judge in
tliat flesh in which He had come to be judged. For it is to
show this He says, " because He is the Son of man." And
then follow the words for our purpose : " Marvel not at this ;
for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves
shall hear His voice, and sLall come forth ; they that have
done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have
> 3Iatt. viii. 22. * 2 Cor. r. 14, 15. ■ Pa. cL 1.

tooK XX.] TriE FIRST iiESTnir.Ecrnox spiritual.

355

done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment"^ This judg-
laent He uses here in tlie saiue sense as a Utile before^ when
He says, " He that heareth my vrord, and believeth on Him
that sent me, hath everlastiiiLC life, and shall not come into
judgment, but is passed from death to life;" t.f., by having a
part in the first resurrection, by which a transition fiom death
to life is made in this present time, he shall not come into
damnation, which He mentions by the name of judgment, as
also in the place where He says, ** but they that have done evil
unto the resurrection of judgment," i.€, of damnation. He,
therefore, who would not be damned in the second resurrection,
let him rise in the fi\si. For " tlie hour is coming, and now
is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God ; and
they that hear shall live," i.c, shall not come into damnation,
which is called the second death ; into which death, after the
second or bodily resurrection, they shall be hurled who do not
rise in the first or spiritual resurrection. For " thii hour is
coming " (but here He does not sa}^ " and now is," because it
shall come in the end of the world in the last and greatest
judgment of God) "when all that are in the graves shall hear
His voice and sliall come forth." He does not say, as in the
first resurrection, " And they that hear shall liva" For all
shall not live, at least with such life as ought alone to be
called life because it alone is blessed. For some kind of life
they must have in order to hear, and come forth from tlie
graves in tlieir rising bodies. And why aU sliall not live He
teaches in the words that follow ; " They that have done good,
to the resurrection of life," — these are they who shall live ;
"but they that have done evil, to the resurrection of judg-
ment,"— these are they who shall not live, for they shall die
in the second death. They have done evil because their life
has been e\il ; and tlicir life lias been evil because it lias not
been renewed in the first or spiritual resurrection which now
is, or because they have not persevered to the end in their
renewed life. As, then, there are two regenerations, of which
I have already made mention,— the one according to faith, and
wliich takes place in the present life by means of baptism ;
the other according to the flesh, and which shall be accom-
1 John T. 28, 29.

356

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XT.

plished in its incomiption apd inunortality by means of the
great and fmal judgment, — so are there also two resurrections, —
the one the tirat and spiritual resurrection, which has place in
this life, and preserves us from coming into the second death;
the other the second, which does not occur now, but in the
end of the world, aud which is of the body, not of the soul,
and which by the la.st judf^cnt shall dismiss some into the
second death, others into that Kfe which has no death.

7. Whil u wriit^n in tht JlfVflation of John regnrdinrj the. tico resurrfcilons,
and Me thousand years, aud tahat ma^ reaaonahly ?« hitd on these poinU.

The evangelist John has spoken of these two resurrections
in the book which is called the Apocal>7>se, but in such a
way that some Christians do not understand the first of the
two, and so construe the passage into ridiculous fancies. For
the Apostle John says in the foresaid book, "And I saw an
angel come down from heaven. . . . Blessed and holy is he
that hnth part in the first resurrection : on such the second
death hath no power ; but they shall be priests of God and of
Christ, and shall reign with Hini a thousand years." * Those
who, on the strength of this passage, have suspected that the
first resurrection is future and bodily, have been moved, among
other things, specially by the number of a thousand years, as
if it were a ht thing that the saints should thus enjoy a kind
of Sabbath-rest during that period, a holy leisure after the
labours of the six thousand years since man was created, and
was on account of his gi*eat sin dismissed from the blessedness
of pamdise into the woes of this mortal lifcj so that thus, as it
is written, " One day is with the Lord as a thousand years,
and a thousand years as one day,"^ there should follow on
the completion ot six thousand years, as of six days, a kind of
seventh-day Sabbath in the succeeding thousand years ; and
that it is for tliis purpose the saints rise, viz. to celebrate
this Sabbatk And tliis opinion would not be objectioliable,
if it were believed that the joys of the saints in that Sabbath
shall be spiritual, and consequent on the presence of God;
for I myself, too, once held tliis opinion,^ But, as they assert
that those who then rise again shall enjoy the 161810*6 of im-

^ Rev. XX. 1-6. The whole pasaoge la quoted. * 2 Pet iiL 8.

' Serm. 259.

»v

BOOK XX.] THE APOCALYPSE AKT> THE LAST THINGS. 357

moderate carnal bauq_uets, furnished with an amount of meat
and drink such as Bot only to shock the feeling of the tem-
perate, but even to surpass the measure of credulity itself,
such assertions can be believed only by the carnal. They who
do believe them arc called by the spiritual Chiliasts, which
w:e may literally reproduce by the name Millenariaus.* It
were a tedious process to refute these opinions point by point :
we prefer proceeding to show how that passage of Scripture
should be imderstood.

The Lord Jesus Christ Himself says, *' No man can enter
into a strong man s house, and spoil his goods, except lie first
bind the strong man,"" — meaning by the strong man the devil,
because he had power to take captive the human race ; and
meaning by his goods which he was to take, those who had
been held by the devil in divers sins and iniquities, but were
to become believej*s in Himself. It was then for the binding
of tliis strong one that the apostle saw in the Apncaljrpse " an
angel coming down from heaven, having the key of the abyss,
and a chain in his hand. And he laid liold," he says, " on the
dragon, that old serpent, which is called the devil and Satan,
and bound him a thousand years," — that is, bridled and re-
strained his power so that he could not seduce and gain pos-
session of those who were to be freed. Now the tijousand
years may be understood in two ways, so far as occm*s to me :
either because these things happen in the sixth thousand of
years or sixth millennium (the latter part of whicli is now pass-
ing), as if during the sixth day, which is to be followed by a
Sabbath which has no evening, the endless rest of the saints,
so that, speaking of a part under the name of the whole, he
calls the last part of the mOlennium — the part, tliat is, wliich
had yet to expire before the end of the world — a thousand
years; or he used the thousand years as an equivalent for the
whole duration of this world, employing the number of per-
fection to mark the fulness of time, ior a thousand is the
cube of ten. For ten times ten makes a hxmdred, that is, the
sqiuire on a plane suiierlicies. Eufc to give this superficies
height, and make it a cube, the hundred is again multiplied
by ten, which gives a thousand. Besides, if a hundred is
I ililliaiii. =" Mmk iii. 27 ; " Vaaa" for "goods."

353

THE CITY OP GOD.

[book

sometiiues used for totality, as when the Lord said by way of
promise to him that left all and followed Him, " He sliall re-
ceive in tlus world oa hundredfold;"^ of which the upostJo gives,
as it were, an expIaDation when he says, "As having nothing,
yet possessing all things,"' — for even of old it hud been said,
Tlje whole world is the wealtli of a believer, — with how much
greater reaac^n is a thousand put for totality since it is the
cube, while the other is only the square ? And for the same
reason we cannot bcUer iiiLerjuut the words of the psalm,
" He hath been mindhil of His covenant for ever, the word
which He commanded to a thousand generations," ' tlion by
understanding it to mean " to all generations."

"And he cast him into the abyss," — tLe. cast the devil
into the abyss. By the ah/ss is meant the countless multi-
tude of the wicked whose hearts are unfathomably deep in
malignity against the Church of God ; not that the devil was
not there before, but he is said to be cast in thither, because,
when prevented from harming believers, he takes more com-
plete possession of the imgodly. For tliat man is more abun-
dantly possessed by the de\Tl who is not only alienated from
God, but also gratmtously hates those who serve God. **And
shut him up, and set a seal upon liim, that he should deceive
the nations no more till the thousand years should bo fulfilled."
" Shut him up,' — ie. prohibited him from going out, from doing
what was forbidden And the addition of " set a seal upon
him " seems to me to mean that it was designed to keep it s
secret who belonged to the devil's paity and who did not
For in this world this is a secret, for we cannot tell whether
even the man who seems to stand shall fidl, or whether be
who seems to lie shall rise again. But by the chain and
prisonhouse of this interdict the devil is prohibited and re-
strained from seducing those nations which belong to Christ,
but which he formerly seduced or held in subjection. For
before the foundation of the world God cliose to rescue these
from the power of darkness, and to ti'anslate them into the
kingdom of the Son of ills love, as the apostle says.* For
what Christian is not aware that he seduces nations even now,
and draws tliera with himself to etenial punishment, but not

» ilatt xix. 29. * 2 Cor. vi. 10. ' Ps. cv. S. * Col i. 13,

BOOK XX.

THE MILLENNIUM.

359

those predestined to eternal life ? And let no one be dismayed
by the circumstance that the de\dl often seduces even those
who have been regenerated in Christ, and begun to wallc in
God's way. For "the Lord knoweth them that are His/'^ and
of these the devil seduces none to eternal damnation. For
it is as God, from whom nothing is hid even of things future,
that the Lord knows them ; not as a man, who sees a man at
the present time (if he can be said to see one whose heart he
does not see), but does not see even hiiuseK so far as to be
able to know what kind of person he is to be. The devil,
tlien, is bomid and shut up in tire abyss that he may not
seduce the nations from which the Church is gathered, and
wKiah he formerly seduced before the Church existed. For
it is not said "that he should not seduce any man" but "that
he should not seduce the nations " — meaning, no doubt, those
among which the Church exists — "till the thousand years
should be fulfilled," — i.e. either what remains of the sixth day
wliich consists of a thousand years, or all the years which are
to elapse till the end of the world.

The words, " that he should not seduce the nations till the
thousand years should be fulfilled," are not to be understood
as indicating that afterwards he is to seduce only those nations
from which the predestined Church is composed, and from
sc'dncing whoTn he is restrained by that chain and imprison-
ment ; but they are used in confonriity M*ith that usage fre-
qiiently employed in Scripture and exemplified in tlie psalm,
" So our eyes wait upon tlie Lord our God, until He have
mercy upon us,"* — not as if the eyes of His servants would no
longer wait upon the Lord their God when He had mercy upon
them. Or the order of the words is unquestionably this, "And
he shut him up and set a seal upon him, till the thousand
years hIiouUI be fulfilled;" and the interposed clause, " that he
should seduce tlie nations no more," is not to be understood
in the connection in which it stands, but separately, and as if
added afterwards, so that the whole sentence might be read,
''And He shut him up and set a seal upon him till the
thousand years should be fulfilled, that he should seduce the
nations no more " — ix. he is shut up till the thousand years

* 2 Tira. it 19. ' 1*3. cxxiii. 2.

SCO

THE Cmr OF GOD.

[book XX.

"be fuliilled, on this account, that he may no more deceive the
natioiiB.

8. 0/ the Unding and looainr; qf the devil.

" After tliat," says John, " he must be luosed a little season."
If the binding and shutting up of the devil means liis being
made unable to seduce the Church, must his loosinf; be the
recovery of this ability ? By no means. For the Church pre-
desLiued and elected before the I'oundation of the world, the
Church of which it is said, '* Tlie Lord knoweth them that are
His," shall never be seduced by him. And yet thei-e shall bo
a Church in tliis world even when the devil shall be loosed,
as there has been since the beginning, and shall be alwa^'S,
the places of the dying being filled by new believers. For a
little after John says that the devil, being loosed, shall draw
the nations whom he has seduced in the whole world to make
war against the Church, and that the number of these enemies
shall be as the sand of the sea. "And they went up on the
breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints
about, and the beloved city : and fire came down from God
out of heaven and devoured them. And the devil who seduced
them was cast into the lake of lire and brimstone, where the
beast and the false prophet are, and shall be t^Drmented day and
night for ever and ever."' This relates to the last judgment,
but I have thought fit to mention it now, lest any one might
suppose that in that short time during which the devil shall
be loose there shall be no Church upon earth, whether because
the devil finds no Church, or destroys it by manifold perse-
cutions. The devil, then, is not bound during the whole time
which this book endiraces,^that is, from the hrst coming of
Clirist to the end of the world, when He shall come the second
time, — not bound in this sense, that during this interval, which
goes by the name of a thousand years, he shall not seduce the
Church, for not even when loosed shall he seduce it. For cer-
tainly if Ids being bound means tluit he is not able or not per-
mitted to seduce tlie Church, what can the loosing of him
mean but his being able or permitted to do so ? But God
forbid that such should be the case ! But the binding of tlie

»Ikv. JJL 9, 10.

BOOK XX.] BINDING AND LOOSING OF THE DEITL.

361

devil is his being prevented from the exercise of hia whole
power to seduce men, either by violently forcing or fraudu-
lently deceiving them into taking part with hirn. If he were
during so long a period permitted to assail the weakness of
men, very many persons, auch as God would not wish to ex-
pose to such temptation, would have their faith overthrown, or
would be prevented from believing ; and that this might not
happen, he is bound.

But when the short time comes he shall be loosed* For he
shall rage with the whole force of himself and his angels for
tiirec years and sL\ months ; and those with whom he makes war
shall have power to withstand all liis violence and stratagems.
And if he were never loosed, his mahcioua power would be less
patent, and less proof would be given of the stedfast fortitude of
tlie holy city : it would, in short, be less manifest what good
use the Almighty makes of his great evil For the Almighty
does not absolutely seclude the saints from his temptation, but
shelters only their inner man, whci-c faith resides, that by out-
ward temptation they may grow in grace. And He binds him
that he may not, in the free and eager exercise of his malice,
hinder or destroy the faith of those countless weak persons,
already believing or yet to believe, from whom the Church
niust be increased and completed ; and he will in the end
loose him, that tlie city of God uuiy see how mighty an ad-
versary it has conquered, to the great glory of its liedeemer,
Helper, Deliverer. And what are we in cornparisau with those
believers and saints who shall then exist, seeing that they
shall be tested by the loosing of an enemy with whom we
make war at the greatest peril even when he is bound ?
Although it is also certain that even in this inter\'ening period
there have been and are some soldiers of Christ so wise and
strong, that if they were to be alive in this mortal condi-
tion at the time of his loosing, they woidd both most "wisely
guard against, and most patiently endure, all his snares and
assaults.

Now the devil was thus bound not only when the Church
began to be more and more widely extended aninng the nations
beyond Judea, but is now and shall be bound till the end of
the world, M'hen he is to be loosed. Because even now men

362

THE CITT OF GOD.

fBOOK TX

are, and doubtless to the end of the world shall be, con-
verted to the faith from the unbelief in which he held them.
And this strong one is bound in each instance in which he is
spoiled of one of his goods ; and the abyss in which, he is shut
up is not at an end when thuae die who were alive when first
he was shut up in it, but these have been succeeded, and shall
to the end of the world be succeeded, by others born after
them with a like hate of the Christians, and in the depth of
whose blind hearts he is continually shut up as in an abyss^
But it is a question whether, during these three years and sis
months when he shall be loose, and raging with all his force,
any one who has not previously believed shaU attach himself
to the faith. For how in tliat case would the words hold
good, " Who entereth into the house of a strong one to spoil
his goods, unless lirst he shall have bound the strong one?"
Consequently this verse seems to compel us to believe that
during that time, short as it is, no one will be added to the
Christian community, but that the devil will make war with
those who have pre^-iously become Christians, and that, thougti
some of these may be conquered and desert to the devil, tbes«
do not belong to the predestinated number of the sons of
Grod. For it is not without reason that John, the same
apostle as •wrote this Apocalypse, says in his epistle regarding
certain persons, " They went out from us, but they were not
of us ; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have
remained with iis."* But what shall become of the little
ones ? For it is beyond all lu^licf that in these days there shall
not be found some Christinn children bom, but not yet baptised,
and that there shall not also be some bom during that very
period ; and if tliere be such, we cannot believe that their
parents shall not find some way of bringing them to the laver
of regeneration. But if this shall be the case, how shall these
goods be snatched from the devil wlien he is loose, since into
his liouse no man enters to spoil his goods unless he has first
bound him ? On the contrary, we are rather to believe that
in these days thero shall bo no lack either of those who fall
away from, or of those who attach themselves to the Church ;
but there shall be such resoluteness, both in parents to seek

1 1 JoUu ii. IS.

BOOK XX.]

EEIGN OF TWT. SAINTS.

^63

baptism for their little ones, and in those who shall then first
believe, that they shall conquer tliat strong one, even though
unbound, — that is, shall both ^^gilantIy comprehend, and
patiently bear up against him, though emplojdng such wiles
and putting forth such force as ho never before used ; and
thus they shall be snatched from bim even though unbound.
And yet the vei*se of the Gospel will not be untrue, " Who
entereth into the house of the strong one to spoil his goods,
unless he shall first have bound the strong one ?" For in
accordance with this true saying that order is observed — the
sti'ong one first bound, and then his goods spoiled ; for the
Church is so increased by the weak and strong from all
nations far and near, that by its most robust faith in things
divinely predicted and accomplished, it shall be ablo to spoil
the goods of even the unbound devil. For as we must own
tliat, " when iniquity abounds, the love of many waxes cold,"*
and that those who have not been written in the book of life
gliall in large niimbers yield to the severe and unprecedented
persecutions and stratagems of the devil now loosed, so we
cannot but think thnt not only those whom that time sliall
find sound in the faith, but also some who till then shall be
without, shall become firm in the faith they have hitherto
rejected, and mighty to conquer the devil even though im-
bouiid, God's grace aiding them to imderstand the Scriptures,
in which, among other things, there is foretold that very end
which they themselves see to be arriving. And if this shall
be so, his binding is to be spoken of as preceding, that there
might follow a spoiling of him both boimd and loosed ; for it
is of this it is said, " Who shall enter into the house of the
strong one to spoil his goods, tinless he shall first have bound
the strong one ?"

fl. }Vhat tlie reign of the Mxintu vnth CJirhtfor a tJioiuand yeare is, and how it
difen/rom the eternal kingdom.

But while the devil is boimd, the saints reign with Christ
during the same thousfind years, understood in the same way,
that is, of the time of Ilis fii*st coming.^ For, leaving out of
account that kingdom concerning which He shall say in the
end, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, take j^ossession of the
* Matt xxiv. 12, ' Between His first and second corains.

364

[E axy OF GOD.

[book XX.

kingdi.iia prepared for you/** the Church could not now be
called His kingdom or the kinii^dom of heaven unless His
saints were even now reigning with Hiiu, though in another
and far different way ; for to His saints He says, " Lo, I am
with you always, even to the end of the world." ' Certainly
it is in tliis present tinie that the scribe well instructed in the
kingdom of God, and of whom we have already spoken, brings
fortli from his treasure things new and old. And from the
Church those reapers shall gather out the tares which He
suffered to grow with the wheat till the harvest, as He ex-
plains in the words, " The harvest is the end of the world ; and
the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares ai-e gathered
together and burned with fire, so shall it be in the end of the
world. The Son of man shall send His angels, and they shall
gather out of His kingdom all offences." * Can He mean out
of that kingdom in which ai'e no offences ? Then it must ht
out of His present kingdom, the Church, that they are gathered.
So He says, " He that breaketh one of the least of these com-
mandments, and tcachcth men so, shall he called least in the
kingdom of heaven : bnt he that doeth and teacheth thus
shall be called gv^at in the kingdom of heaven." * He sjtcaks
of both as being in the kingdom of heaven, botli the man who
does not perform the commandments which He teaches, — for
" to break " means not to keep, not to perform, — and the mau
who does and teaches as He did ; but the one He calls least,
the other great And He immediately adds, " For I say unto
you, that except your righteousness exceed that of the scribes
and Pharisees/* — that is, the righteousness of those who break
what they teach ; for of tlie scribes and Pharisees He else-
where says, 'Tor they say and do not;"* — unless, therefore,
your righteousness exceed theirs, that is, so tliat you do noi
break but rather do what you teach, " ye shall not enter the
kingdom of heaven." * AVe must uuderstund in one sense the
kingdom of heaven in which exist together both he who breaks
what he teaches and he mIio does it, the one being least, the
other great, and in another sense the kingdom of heaven into
which only he who does what he teaches shall enter. Con-

> Matt XXV. 3J.
* ilatt. V. 1».

- Jtfitt. xxviii. 20.
• Uatt. Txiii. &.

' Mfttt. xiii. 39-41.
0 Matt. T. 20.

BOOK XX.l

OF THE SATKTS.

3G5

sequently, where both classes exist, it is the Church as it now
is, but where only the one shall exist, it is the Church as it
is destined to lie when no wicked person shall be in her.
Tlierefore the Church even now is the kingdom of Christ, ajid
the kingdom of heaven. Accoi-din^ly, even now His saints
Tci'jjn with Him, though otherwise than hs they shall reij^ii
hereafter; and yet, though the tares grow in the Church
ulon^ with the wlieat, they do not reign with Hira, For they
reign with Him who do what the apostle says, " If ye he risen
with Christ, mind the things which are above, where Christ
sitteth at the right hand of God. Seek those things which
are above, not the things which are on the earth." ^ Of such
persons he also says that their conversation is in heaven.'
In fine, they reign Avith Him who are so in His kingdom that
they themselves are His kingdom. But in Mdiat sense are

those the kingdom of Christ who, to say no more,

though

they are in it until all offences are gathered out of it nt the
end of the world, yet seek their own things in it, and not the
things that arc Christ's ?'

It is then of this kingdom militant, in which conflict M'ith
the enemy h still maintained, and war carried on with war-
ring lusts, or government laid upon them as they yield, until
we come to that most peaceful kingdom in which we shall
reign Avithout an enemy, and it is of this first resurrection in
the present life, that the Apocalypse speaks in the words just
quoted. For, after saying that the devil is bound a thousand
years and is afterwards loosed for a short setison, it goes on
to give a sketch of what the Church does or of what is done
in the Church in those days, in the words, " And I saw seats
and them that sat upon them, and jmlgment was given." It
is not to be supposed that this refei*s to the last judgment, but
to the seats of the rulers and to the rulers themselves by whom
the Church is now governed. And no better interpretation of
judgment being given can be produced than that which we
have in the words, " What ye bind on earth shall be bound
in heaven; and what ye loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven." * Whence the apostle says, " "Wliat have I to do

J Cal. iii. 1, 2.
' PhiL ii 21.

» Phil iii. 2D.
* iUtt xviii 18.

366 ^ THB CITY OP GOD. [BOOK XX.

with judgiog them that are without ? do not ye judge them
that are within ?*' ' " And the souls," says John, " of those
who were slain for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of
God/' — understanding what he afterwaids says, " reigned -with
Christ a thousand years/* ' — that is, tlie souls of the raartris
not yet restored to their bodies. For the souls of tlie pious
dead are not separated from the Church, which even now is
the kingdom of Christ; otherwise there would be no remem*
brance made of Uiem at tlie altar of God in the pattaldng
of the body of Christ, nor would it do any good in danger
to run to His baptism, that we might not pass from this life
without it ; nor to reconciliation, if by penitence or a bod
conscience any one may be severed from His body. For why
are these things practised, if not because the foitlifiil, even
though dead, are His members ? Therefore, while these thousand
years run on, their souls reign with Him, though not as yet in
conjunction with their bodies. And tlierefore in another part
of this same book we read, " Blessed are the dead who die in
the Loixl from henceforth : and now, saith the Spirit, that they
may rest from their labours ; for their works do follow tliem." *
The Churcbj then, begins its reign with Christ now in the
living and in the dead. For, as the apostle says, " Christ died
that He might be Lord both of the living and of the dead-^*
But he mentioned the souls of the martyrs only, because they
who have contended even to death for the truth, themselves
principally reign after death ; but, taking the part for the
whole, we imderstand the words of all others who belong to
the Church, which is the kingdom of Christ

As to the words following, "And if any have not wor-
shipped the beast nor his image, nor have received his in-
scription on then- forehead, or on their hand/' we must take
them of both the living and the dead. And what this beast is,
though it requires a more careful investigation, yet it is not
inconsistent with the true faith to understand it of the un-
godly city itself, and the community of unbelievers set in
opposition to the faithfid people and the city of God. " His
image " seems to me to mean his simulation, to witj in those

» 1 Cor. V. 12. « Rtv. XX. 4.

' &ev. xiv. 13. * Bom. sir. 8.

EOOK XX.] TIIE HRST AND SECOND HESURRECTION.

men who profess to believe, but live as unbelievers. For they
pretend to be what they are not, and are called Christians,
not from a true likeness, but from a deceitful image. For to
this beast belong not only the avowed enemies of the name
of Christ and His most glorious city, but also tlie tares which
are to be gathered out of Ilia kingdom, the Church, in the end
of the world. And who are they who do not worship the
beast and his image, if not those who do what the apostle
says, " Be not yoked with unbelievers ? " * For sucli do not
worship, i,e. do not consent, are not subjected ; neither do
they receive the inBcription, the brand of crime, on their fore-
head by their profession, on their hand by their practice.
They, then, who are free from these pollutions, whether they
still live in tliis mortal flesh, or are dead, reign with Christ
even now, through tliia whole interval which is indicated by
tlie tliousand years, in a fashion suited to this time.

" The rest of them," he says, " did not live." For now is
the hour when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God, and they that hear shall Hve ; and tlie rest of them
shall not live. The words added, " until the tliousand years
are finished," mean that they did not live in the time in which
they ought to have lived by passing from death to life. And
therefore, when the day of the bodily resurrection arrives, they
shall come out of their graves, not to life, hut to judgment,
namely, to damnation, which is called the second death. For
whosoever has not lived until the thousand years be finished,
i.e. during this whole time in which the first resurrection is
going on, — whosoever has not heard the voice of the Son of
God, and passed from death to life, — that man shall certainly in
the second resurrection, the resurrection of the iiesh, pass with
Ids flesh into the second death. For he goes on to say, " This
is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is ho that hath
part in the first resurrection," or who experiences it Now
he experiences it who not only revives from the death of sin,
but continues in this renewed life. " In these tlie second
death hath no power." Therefore it has poM-er in the rest, of
whom he said above, " The rest of them did not live imtil the
thousand years were finished ;" for in this whole intervening
1 2 Cor. Ti. U.

3C3

TnZ CITY OF GOD.

[nooK XX.

tiuie, called a thousand yeavs, however lustily they lived in
the body, they M-ere not quickened to life out of tliat death in
which their wickedness held them, so that by this revived
life they should become partakers of the first resurrection, and
so the second death shoidd have no power over them.

10. WhtU U tobe rtplied to thone who think that reaurrtetloti pertaina only te

bodies and not Co souls.

There are some who suppose that resurrection can be pre-
dicated only of the body, and therefore they contend that this
first resurrection (of the Apocalypse) is a bodily resurrection.
For, say tliey, " to rise again " can only be said of things that
falL Kow, bodies fall in deatlx^ There cannot, therefore, be
a resurrectinn of souls, Imt of bodies. Eut what do they say
to the apostle who speaks of a resurrection of souls ? Tor
certainly it was in the inner and not the outer man that those
had risen again to whom he says, " If ye have risen with
Christ, mind the things that are above."^ The same sense he
elsewhere conveyed in other words, saying, " That as Chrisc
has risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so wo also
may walk in newness of life."^ vSo, too, " Awake tliou that
sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee
light"* As to what they say about nothing being able to
rise again bub what falls, whence they conclude that resur-
rection pertains to bodies only, and not to souls, because
bodies fall, why do they make noLhin;:^ of the words, " Ye that
fear the Lord, wait for His mercy ; and go not aside lest
ye fall;"* and "To his own Master he stands or falls;"*
and " He that thinketh he standeth, let Idra take heed lest
he fall?"^ For I laucy tliis lull that we are to take heed
against is a toll of the soul, not of the body. If, then, rising
again belongs to tilings that fall, and souls fall, it must be
owned that souls also rise again. To the words, " In them
the second death hath no power," are added the words, " but
they shall be priests of God imd Christ, and shall reign with
Him a thousand years ; " and this refers not to the bishops

^ And, as Augustine rem&iks, are therefore called cadavera^ from codtrt,
"tofftU."
* CoL iii. ]. 5 Tlom. vi. 4. * Eph. t. 11.

' Ecclos. ii.

* Koni. xiv. 4.

T 1 Cor. X. li

BOOK XX.]

GOO AND MAGOG.

369

alone, and presbyters, who are now specially called priests in
the Church ; but as we caD all beUevei's Cliristians on account
of the mystical chrism, so we call all priests because they are
members of the one Priest. Of them the Apostle Peter says,
" A holy people, a royal priesthood." ^ Certainly he implied,
though in a passing and incidental way, that Christ is God.
saying priests of God and Christ, that ia, of the Pather and
the Son, though it was iu His servant-form and as Son of nmn
that Clii'ist was made a Priest for ever after the order of Mcl-
chisedec. But this we have already explained more than
once.

11. Of GoQ and Magog, who arc to he roused by ilie devil to persecute the
Churchy when fie is loosed in the end oj the tcorld.

"And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall
be loosed from his prison, and shall go out to seduce the
nations which ore in the four comers of the earth, Gog and
Magog, and shall draw them to battle, whose nujuber is as
the sand of the sea." This, then, is his purpose in seducing
them, to draw them to this battle. For even before this he
was wont to use as many and vaiious seductions as ho could
continue. And the words " he shall go out" mean, he shall
burst forth from lurking hatred into open persecution. For
this persecution, occurring while the final judgment is immi-
nent, shall be the last wdiich shall be endured by the holy
Churcli throughout the world, the wliole city of Clirist being
assailed by tlie whole city of the devil, as each exists on
earth. For these nations which he names Gog and Magog
ore not to be understood of some barbarous nations in some
part of the world, whether the GetiC and Maasagetrp, as some
conclude from the initial letters, or some otlier foreign nations
not under the Eoman government. For John marks that
they are spread over the whole earth, when he says, " The
nations wliich are in the four cornera of the earth," and he
added that these are Gog and Magog. The meaning of these
names we find to be, Gog, " a roof," Magog, " from a roof," — a
house, as it were, and he who comes out of the liouse. They
are therefore the nations in which we found that the devil
was shut up as in an abyss, and the dcv-il himself coming out

1 1 Ptter ii, fi.

VOL. n. 2 A

370

TWR CITY OF GOD.

[book XX.

from them and going forth^ bo that they are the roof, he from
the roof. Or if we refer both "words to the nations, not one
to them and one to the devil, then they are both the roo^
because in them the old enemy is at present shut up, and as
it "were roofed in ; and they shall be from the roof when they
break forth from concealed to open hatred. The words, " And
they went up on the breadth of the earth, and encompassed
the camp of the saints and the beloved city," do not meftn
that they have come, or shall come, to one place, oa if the
camp of the saints and the beloved city should be in some
one place ; for this camp is nothing else than the Church of
Christ extending over the whole world. And consequently
wherever the Church shall be, — and it shall be in all nations,
as is signified by " the breadth of the earth," — there also shall
be the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and thera it
shall be encompassed by the savage persecution of all its
enem.ies ; for they too shall exist along with it in all nations,
— that is, it shall be straitened, and hard pressed, and shut
up in the straits of tribulation, but shall not desert its mili-
tary dutj', which is signified by the word " camp."

12. Whether the fire that came down out of heaven and devoured them r^en to
the laal pfMighinent qf the wicked.

The wordSj "And iire caine down out of heaven and de-
voured them," are not to be understood of the final punish-
ment which shall be inllicted when it ia said, " Depart from
me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire ;"^ for then they shall be
cast into the fii-e, not fire come down out of heaven upon
them. In this place " fire out of heaven " is well understood
of the firmness of the saints, wherewith they refuse to jrield
obedience to those who rage against them. For the firma-
ment is " heaven," by whose firmness these assailants shall be
pained with blazing zeal, for they shall be impotent to draw
away the saints to the party of Antichrist. This is the fire
which shall devour them, and this is " from God ; " for it
is by Grod's grace the saints become unconquerable, and so
tonncnt their enemies. For as in a good sense it is said,
" The zeal of Thine house hath consumed me/'' so in a bad
sense it is said, " Zeal bath possessed the uninstructed people,
^ Malt xxT. 41. ' Fs. Ixix. 9.

BOOK XX.]

ANTICHMST'S PERSECtTTIOK.

and now fire shall consume tlie enemies." ' " And now," that
is to say, not the fire of the last judgment Or if by this fire
coming down out of heaven and consuming them, John me^mt
that blow wherewith Christ in Hia coming is to strike those
pei*secutor8 of the Church whom He shall then find alive ujwn
earth, when He shall kill Antichrist -with the breath of His
mouth,^ then even this is not the last judgment of the wicked ;
but the last judgment is that which they shall suffer when
the bodily resurrection has taken place.

13. WkeiAer t^ thu qftfte persecution t^Antichrvsi ahovld he reckoned in the

thousand yeart.

This last persecution by Antichrist shall last for three years
and BIX months, as we have already said^ and as is affirmed
both in the book of Revelation and by Daniel the prophet.
Though this time is brief, yet not without reason is it ques-
tioned whether it is comprehended in the thousand years in.
which the devil is bound and the saints reign with Christ,
or whether this little season should be added n%'er and alxive
to these years. For if we say that they are included in the
thousand years, then the saints reign with Christ during a
more protracted period than the devil is bo^md. For they
shall reign with their King and Conqueror mightily even in
that crowning persecution when the devil shall now be un-
bound and shall rage against them with all hia miglit How
then does Scriptxire define both the binding of tlie devil and
the reign of the saints by the same thousand years, if the
binding of the devil ceases three years and six months before
this reign of the saints with Christ 'I On the other hand, if
we say that the brief space of this persecution is not to be
reckoned as a part of the thousand years, but rather as an
additional period, we shall indeed be able to interpret the
woixis, "The priests of God and of Christ shall reign with
Him a thousand years ; and when the thousand years shall be
finished, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison ;** for thus they
signify tliat the reign of the saints and the bondage of the
devil shall cease simultaneously, so that the time of the per-
secution we speak of should be contempora-neous neither with
the reign of the saints nor with the imprisonment of Satan,

Im. zxri. 11.

* S Tfaeaa. ii 6.

372 THE CITY OF GOD. [ BOOK XX

but should be reckoned over and above as a superadded portion
of time. Rut then in this case wc are forced to adiuic that
the saints shall not reign with Christ during that persecution.
But who can dare to say that His members shall not reign
with Him at that very juncture when they sliall most of all,
and viith the greatest fortitude, cleave to Him, and when the
glory of resistance and the crown of martyrdom shall be more
conspicuous iu proportion to the hotness of the battle ? Or
if it is suggested that they may be said not to reign, because
of the tribulations which tliey shall suffer, it will follow that
all the saints who liave formerly, during the thousand yeare,
sulfei*ed tribulation, shall not be said to have reigned with
Christ during the period of their tribulation, and consequently
even those whose souls the author of this book says that
he saw, and who were slain for the testimony of Jesus and
the word of God, did not reign with Christ when they were
suffering persecution, and they were not themselves the king-
dom of Cluistj though Christ was then pre-eminently possess*
ing them. This is indeed perfectly absurd, and to be scouted.
But assuredly the victorious souls of the glorious martyrs,
having overcoine and iinished all griefs and toils, and having
laid down their mortal members, have reigned, and do reign,
with Christ till the thousand years are finished, that they
may afterwards reign with Him when tliey have received
their immortal bodies. And therefore during these three
years and a half the souls of those who were slain for His
testimony, both those which formerly passed from the body
and those which shall pass in that last persecution, shall
reign with Him till the mortal world come to an end, and
pass into that kingdom in which there shall be no death.
And thus the reign of the saints with Christ shall last longer
than the bonds and imprisonment of the devil, because they
shall reigu with their King the Son of God for these three
years and a half during which the devil is no longer bound.
It remains, therefore, that when we read that " the priests of
Clod and of Christ shall reign with Him a thousand years;
and when tlie thousand years are finished, the devil shall be
loosed from his imprisonment," that we understand either
that the thousand years of the reigu of the saints does sot

BOOK XX.]

OF Tin: DFATTi.

373

terminate, though the mprisomnent of tlie devil does, — so that
both parties have their thousand years, that is, their complete
time, yet each with a different actual duration appropriate to
itself, tlie kingdom of the saints being longer, the imprison-
ment of the devil shorter,- — or at least that^ as three years and
six months is a very short time, it is not reckoned as either
deducted from the whole time of Satan's imprisonment, or as
ndded to the whole duration of the reign of the saints, as we
have shown above in the sixteenth book^ regarding the round
number of four hundred years, wliich were specified as four
hundred, though actually somewhat more ; and similar ex-
pressions are often found in the sacred "Nvritings, if one wiU
mark them.

14. Of the damnation o/lhe devil and his ndJifrenis ; and a stctch of the hodUy
raurrection of aU the dead, and of the final rtlributtve judgintnt.

After this mention of the closini; persecution, he summarily

indicates all that the devil, and the city of which he is the

prince, shall suffer m the last judj^^ment. For lie says, " And

the devil who seduced them is cast into the lake of fire and

brimstone, in which are tlic beast and the false prophet, and

they shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever."

We have already said that by the beast is well understood

the wicked city. HLs false prophet is either Antichrist or

that image or figment of wliich we have spoken in the same

placa After this he gives a brief narrative of the last judg-

]uent itself, which shall take place at the second or bodily

resurrection of the dead, as it had been revealed to him: "1

saw a throne great and wliite, and One sitting on it from

whose face the heaven and the earth fled away, and their

place was not found." He does not say, " I saw a throne

f^reat and white, and One sitting on it, and from His face the

heaven and the earth fled away," for it had not happened

then, ix. before the living and the dead were judged ; but he

says that he saw Him sitting on the throne from whose face

heaven and earth fled away, but afterwards. For when the

judgment is linished, this heaven and earth shall cease to be,

and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. For this

world shall pass away by transmutation, not by absolute de-

1 Ch. 24.

374

THE CTTT OF GOD.

[book tx:

figure

struction. And therefore the apostle saysj " For the
of this world passeth away, I would have you be without
anxiety." * The figure, therefore, passes away, not the nature.
After John had said that he hud seen One sitting on the
throne from whose face heaven and earth fled, though not till
after^^'arda, he said, " And 1 saw the dead, great and small :
and the books were opened ; and another book was opened,
which is the book of the life of each man: and the dead were
judged out of those things which were written in the boo^
according to their deeds." He said that the books were
opened, and a book ; but he left us at a loss as to the nature
of this book, " which is," he says, " the book of the life of each
man." By those books, then, which he first mentioned, we
are to understand the sacred books old and new, that out of
them it might be shown what commandments God had en-
joined ; and that book of the life of each man is to show what
commandments ouch man has done or omitted to do. If this
book be materially considered, who can reckon its size or
length, or the time it would take to read a book in which
the whole life of every man is recorded ? Shall there be pre-
sent as many angels as men, and shall each man hear his life
recited by the angel assigned to him ? In tliat case there
will be not one book containing all the lives, hut a separate
book for every lite. But oui- passage requires us to think of
one only. " And another book was opened," it says. We must
therefore understand it of a certain divine power, by which it
shall be brought about that every one shall recall to memory
all his own works, whether good or evil, and shall mentally
survey them with a marvellous mpidity, so that this know-
ledge will either accuse or excuse conscience, and thus all and
each shall be simultantjously judged. And this divine power
is called a book, because in it we shall as it were read all that
it causes us to remember. That he may show who the de-ad,
small and great, are who are to be judged, he recurs to this
which he had omitted or rather deferred, and says, " And the
sea presented the dead which were in it ; and death and hell
gave up the dead which were in them." This of course took
place before the dead were judged, yet it is mentioned after.

I ] Cor. vii. 31. 32.

BOOK XX.]

THE SEA GIVING UP ITS DEAD.

J/. 5

And so, I say, he returns again to whsi he Imcl onutted. But
now he jireserves the order of events, and for the sake of
exhibiting it repeats in its own proper place what he liad
already said regarding tlie dead who were judged. For after
he had said, " And the sea presented the dead which were in
it, and death and hell gave up the dead which were in them/
he immediately subjoined what he had already said, " and
they were judged every man according to their works." For
this is just wliat he had said before, " And the dead were
judged according to their works."

15. Who tlix dead are who art given vp topidQmtnt hy the tea, and fry deatk

and helL

But who are the dead wliich were in the sea, and which the
sea presented ? For we cannot suppose that those who die in
the sea are not in hell, nor that their bodies are preserved in
the sea ; nor yet, which is still more absurd, that the seu re-
tained the good, while hell received the had. Who could
beUeve this ? But some very sensibly suppose that in this
place the sea is put for this world. When John tlien wished
to signify that those whom Clu-isfc should find still alive in the
body were to be judged along with those wlio should rise
again, he called them dead, both the good to whom it ia said,
" For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God,'*^
and the wicked of whom it is said, " Let the dead buiy their
dead."^ They may also bo called dead, because they wear
mortal bodies, as the apostle says, " The body indeed is dead
because of sin ; but the spirit id life because of righteousness;"^
proving that in a living man in the body there is both a body
which is dead, and a spirit which is life. Yet he did not say
that the body was mortal, but dead, although immediately
after he speaks in the more usual way of mortal bodies.
These, then, are the dead which were in the sea, and which
the sea presented, to wit, the men who were in this world,
because they had not yet died, and whom the world presented
for judgment "And death and hell," he says, "gave up the
dead which were in them." The sea prescjikd them because
they had merely to be found in the place where they were ;
but death and hell gave thrm up or restored them, because they
J Col. iih 3. « iUtt viii. 22. » Horn. viii. 10.

376

THE CITY OF GOD.

[dock XX.

called them back to life, wliich they had already quitted.
And perhaps it was not without reason that neither deafJi nor
hrU were judged suflicient alone, and both were mentioned, —
death to indicate the good, who have sulTered only death and
not hell ; hell to indicate the wicked, who suffer also the
punishment of hell. For if it does not seem absurd to believe
that the ancient saints who believed in Christ and His then
future coming, were kept in places far removed indeed from
the torments of the wicked, but yet in hell/ until Christ's
blood and His descent into these places delivered them, cer-
tainly good Christians, redeemed by that precious price already
jmid, are quite unacquainted with liell while they wait for
their restoration to the body, and the reception of their re-
wanL After saying, "They were judged every man acconling
to their works." he briefly added what the judgment was:
" Death and hell were cast into the lake of fire;" by theae
names designating the devil and the Avhole company of his
angelSf for he is the author of death and the pains of hell.
For this is what he liad already, by anticipation, said in clearer
laugujij^e : " The devil who seduced them was cast into a lake
of fire and brimstone." The obscure addition he had made
in the words, " in wliich were also the beast and the false
prophet;' he here explains, *' They who were not found written
in the book of life were cast into the lake of lire." This book
is not for reminding God, as if things might escape Him by
forgetfulness, but it symbolizes His predestination of those to
whom eternal life shall be given. For it is not that God is
iijTiarant, and reads in the book to inform Hiiiiself, but rather
His infallible prescience is the book of life in which they are
WTitten, that is to say, known beforehand,

10. 0/ the new heaven and the new earth.

Having finished the prophecy of judgment, so far as the
wicked are concerned, it remains that he speak also of the
good. Hanng briefly explained tlie Loitl's woixls, '* These will
go away into everhiating punishment," it remains that he ex-
plain the connected woixls, " but the righteous into life eternal'**

' " Apud iuferos," i.e. in liell, ut the soDse in wliicli the word is used in. the
Psalms mnl in tlie Creod.

- ilatt. XXV. 48.

BOOK XX.

THE NEW HEAVENS MfolffEW EARTn.

377

And I saw," he says, " a new Leaven and a new earth : for

the firet heaven and the first earth have passed away ; and
there is no more sea."' This will take place in the order
■which he has by anticipation declared in the words, " I saw
One sitting on the throne, from whose face heaven and earth
fled." For as soon as those who are not ^vritten in the book
of life have been judged and cast into eternal fire, — the nature
of which fire, or its position in the world or nniverse, I sup-
pose is known to no man, unless perhaps the divine Spirit
reveal it to some one, — then shall the figure of this world pass
away in a conflagration of universal fire, as once before the
world was flooded with a deluge of universal water. And by
this universal confiagration the quaHties of the corruptible
elements which suited our comiptible bodies shall utterly
perish, and our substance shall receive such qualities as sliall.
by a wonderful transmutation, harmonize with our immortal
bodies, so that, as the world itself is renewed to some better
thing, it is fitly accommodated to men, tliemselves renewed in
their flesh to some better thing. As for the statement, " And
there shall be no more sea," I would not lightly say whether
it is dried up with that excessive heat, or is itself also turned
into some better thing. For we read that there shall be a
now heaven and a new earth, but I do not remember to have
anywhere read anything of a new sea, unless what I find in
this same book, "As it were a sea of glass like crystal/'^ Cut
he was not then speaking of this end of the world, neither
does he seem to speak of a literal sea, but " as it were a sea."
It is possible that, as prophetic diction delights in mingling
figurative and real language, and thus in some sort veiling the
sense, so the words " And there is no more sea " may be taken
in the same sense as the previous phrase, " And the sea pre-
sented the dead wliich were in it." For then there shall be
no moi*e of this world, no more of the aurgings and restless-
ness of human life, and it is this which is symboHzed by the
sea,

3 ". 0/ the endlfss glory qf (Ac Church.
" And I saw," he says, " a great city, new Jerusalem, coming
down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned

* Rer. xxl 1. » Bey. xv. 2.

f.v.

THE CITT OF GOD. IBObK XX

for her husband And I heard a great voice from the throne,
sajang, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He
will dwell with them, and they sliail be His people, and God
Himself shall be with them. And God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes , and there shall be no more deatli,
neither sorrow, nor cr}'iag, but neither shall there be any
more pain : because the former things have passed away. And
He that sat upon the throne said. Behold, I make all things
new."* This city is said to come down out of heaven, be-
cause the grace with which God formed it is of heaven.
Wherefore He says to it by Isaiah, " I am the Lord that
formed thee,"^ It is ind^LMl descended from heaven from its
commencement, since its citizens during the course of this
world grow hy the grace of God, which comnth down from
above through the laver of regeneration in the Holy Ghost
sent down from heaven. But by God's final judgment, which
shall be administered by His Son Jesus Christ, there shall by
God's grace be manifested a glory so pervading and so new,
that no vestige of what is old shall remain ; for even our
bodies shall pass from their old corruption and mortality to
new incomiption and immortality. For to refer tlus promise
to the present time, in which the saints are reigning with their
King a thousand years, seems to me excessively barefaced,
when it is most distinctly said, " God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes ; and thei'e shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying, but there shall be no more piiin."
And who is so absurd, and blinded by contentious opinion-
ativeness, as to be audacious enough to affirm that in the
midst of the calamities of this mortal state, God's people, or
even one single saint, does live, or has ever lived, or shall ever
live, without tern's or pain, — the fact being that the holier a
man is, and the fuller of holy desire, so much the more abun-
dant is the tearfulness of his supplication ? Are not these
the utterances of a citizen of the heavenly Jenisalem : " My
tears have been my meat day and night ; " ' and " Every night
shall I malce my bed to awim ; with my tears shall I water
my couch ; '"* and *' My groaning is not hid from Thee ; "* and

^ Pwcv. xxi. 2-5. * Im. xlr. 8. > Ps. xliL 3L

* P». Ti. a. » Pa. xxiviii. 0.

■nOOK XX.] PETElfS PREDICTION OF THE LAST THINGS.

379

" My sorrow was renewed ? " ^ Or are not those God's children
who groan, being burdened, not that they wish to be nn-
clothed, but clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed
up of life?* Do not they even who have the first-fruits of
the Spirit groan within themselves, waiting for the adoption,
the redemption of their body ?' "Was not the Apostle Paul
himself a citizen of the lieavenly Jerusalem, and was he not
80 all the more when he had heaviness and continual sorrow
of heart for his Israelitish brethren ?* But whcm aholl there be
no more death in that city, except when it shall be said, " 0
death, where is thy contention ?* O death, where is thy sting ?
The sting of death is sin.'** Obviously there shall be no sin
wlien it can be said, " AVhere is " — But as for the present
it is not some poor weak citizen of this city, but this same
Apostle John himself who .says, " If we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."' No
doubt, though this book is called the Apocalypse, there are in
it many obscure passages to exercise the mind of the reader,
and there are few passages so plain as to assist us in tlie
interpretation of the others, even though we take pains ; and
this difB-Culty is increased by the repetition of tlie same things,
in forms so different, that the things referred to seem to be
difftirent, although in fact they are only differently stated.
But in the words, " God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes ; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor
crying, but there shall be no more pain/' there is so manifest
a reference to the future world and the immortality and
eternity of the saints, — for only then and only there shall
such a condition be realized, — that if we tlxink this obscure,
we need not expect to Mud anything plain in any part of
Scripture,

18. Wtal the Apostle Pettr predictfd regarding thf. last judgment

Let US now see what the Apostle Peter predicted concern-
ing this judgment. "Tliere shall come," he says, "in the last
days scoffers. . . . Nevertheless we, according to His promise.

/
X

' Fs. xixix. 2- "2 Cor. v. 4.

» Rom. viii. 23. * Rom. ix. 2.

1^ Augustine therefore read vuxif, and not ^^th the Vulgate, tUn,
■ 1 Cor. IV. 55. ' 1 John L 8.

380

THE Cmr OF GOD.

[book XX

look for new heaveus and a new oartb, wherein dwelletL
righteousneas." * There is nothing said here about the resur-
rection of the dead, but enough certainly regarding the de-
struction of this world. And by his reference to the deluge
he seems as it were to suggest to us how far we should be-
lieve the ruin of the uorld ^vill extend in the end of llie
world. For lie says that the world which then was perished,
and not only the earth itself, but also the heavens, by which
wc understand the air, the place and room of which waa
occupied by the water. Therefore the whole, or almost the
whole, of the gusty atmosphere (which he calls heaven, or
rather the heavens, meaning the earth's atmosphere, and not
the upper air in which sun, moon, and stars are set) ms
turned into moisture, and in this way perished together with
the earth, whose former appeanuict! liail been destroyed by the
deluge. " But the heavens and the earth which ar€ now, by
the same word aie kept in store, reserved unto fire against the
day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Therefore
the heavens and the earth, or the world which was preserved
from the water to stand in place of that world which perished
in the flood, is itself reser\'ed to fire at last in the day of the
judgment and perdition of ungodly men. He does not hesitate
to alfirm that in this great change men also shall perish : their
nature, however, shall notwitkstandiug continue, though in
eternal punishments. Some one will perhaps put the question,
If after judgment is pronounced the world itself is to bum,
where shall the saints be during the coniiagration, and before
it ia replaced by a new heavens and a new earth, since some-
where they must be, because tliey liave material bodies ? We
may reply that they shall be in the upper regions into which
the flame of that conflc^ration shall not ascend, as neither did
the water of the flood ; for they shall have such bodies that
they shall be wherever they wish. Moreover, when they have
become immortal and incorrnptible, they shall not greatly dread
the blaze of that conflagration, as the coiTuptible and mortal
bodies of the three men were able to live unhurt in the blazing
furnace.

' 3 Pet. iU. S-18. The whole passage is quoted by Augustine.

BOOK XX.] PAUL'S PREDICTION OF THE LAST THINGS.

381

19. WItat the Apostle Paul irrofe to ike T^AeHnfontaiu about the man'/egtatton
of Anlichrist irAiVA shall pntede the datj of Die Lord.

I see that I must oniit many of the statements of the"
gospels and epistles about this last judgment, that this volume
may not become unduly long ; but I can on no account omit
■what the Apostle Paid says, in writing to the Thessalonians,
" We beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus
Clirist " * etc.

No one can doubt that he ^vrote this of Antichrist and of
the day of judgment, which he here calls the day of the Lord,
nor that he declared that this day should not come unless he
first came who is called the apostate — apostate, to wit, from
the Lord Goi And if this may justly be said of all the un-
godly, how much more of him ? But it is uncertain in what
temple he shall sit^ whether in that niin of the temple which
"was biiOt by Solomon, or in the Church ; for the apostle
would not call the temple of any idol or demon the temple of
God. And on this accoimt some think that in tliis passage
Antichrist means not the prince himself alone, but his whole
body, that is, the mass of men who adhere to him, along with
him their prince ; and they also think that we shoidd render
the Greek more exactly were we to read, not " in the temple
of God," but " for " or " as the temple of God," as if he him-
self were the temple of God, the Church,- Then as for the
words, " And now ye know what withholdeth," i.e. ye know
what hindrance or cause of delay there is, " that he might be
revealed in his own time;" they show that he was unwilling
to make an explicit statement, because he said that they knew.
And thus we who have not their knowledge wish and are
not able even with pains to understand what the apostle re-
ferred to, especially as his meaning is made still more obscure
by what he adds. For what does he mean by *' For the
mystery of iniq^uity doth already work : only he who now
holdeth, let him hold until he be taken out of the way : and
then shall the wicked be revealed ? " I frankly confess I do

' 2 Thess. ii. I-ll. "Whole passage given in the Latin, In ver. 3 rtfuga is
used instead of the Vulgate's ducestio.

' Angustinc udds the wonls, "Sicut dioimns, Sodet in amicnm, id ei^ rdnt
omicns ; vel bI i^tiid aliud isto tocutiouis genere did solet"

382 THE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK XL

not know what he means. 1 wiU nevertheless mention such
conjectures as I have heard or read.

Some tliink that the Apostle Paul referred to the Soman
empire, and that he was unwiDing to use huiguage mone ex-
plicit, lest he should inciu* the calumnious choice of wishing
ill to the empire which it was hoped would be eternal; so
that in saving, " For the mystery of iniquity doth already
work," he alluded to Nero, whose deeds already seemed to be
as the deeds of Antichnst And hence some suppose that he
shall rise again and be Antichnst. Others, again, suppose that
he is not even dead, hut that he was concealed that he might
be supposed to have been killed, and that he now lives in
conceahnent in the vigour of that same age wliich he had
reached when he was believed to have perished, and will live
until he is revealed in his own time and restored to his king-
dom.^ But I wonder that men can be so audacious in their
conjectures. However, it is not absurd to beHeve that these
words of the apostle, " Only he who now boldeth, let h)m hold
until he be taken out of the way." refer to the Eoman empire,
as if it were said, " Oidy he who now reigneth, let him reign
until he be taken out of the way." "And then shall the
wicked be revealed :"' no one doubts that this means Anti*
christ. But others think that the words, " Ye know what
withholdeth," and " The mystery of iniquity worketh," refer
only to the wicked and the hypocrites who are in the Church,
until they reach a number so great as to furnish Antichrist
with a great people, and that this is the inystery of iniquity,
because it seems hiddt-u ; also that the apostle is exhorting
the faithful tenaciously to hold the faith they hold when he
says, " Only he who now holdeth, let him hold until he he
taken out of the way," that is, until the mystery of iniquity
which now is liidden depaits from the Church. For they
suppose that it is to this same mystery John alludes when in
Ilia epistle he saya, " Littla children, it ig the last time : and
as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now aie
there many antichrists ; whereby we know that it is the last
time. They went out from us, but they were not of us ; for
if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued
^Suetonins' Nvro, o. 57.

BOOK XX.] VARIOUS lUTERPKETATIONS OF PAUL'S WOBDS. 383

with U3."* As therefore there went out from the Chiirch
many heretics, whom John calls " many anticliriats," at that
time prior to the end, and which John calls " the last time "
so in the end they shall go out who do not belong to Christ,
but to that last Antichrist, and then he shall be revealed.

Thus variouSj then, are the conjectui-al explanations of the
obscure words of the apostle. That which there is no doubt
he said is this, that Christ will not come to judge quick and
dead unless Antichrist, His adversary, first come to seduce
those who are dead in aoul ; although their seduction is a re-
sult of God's secret judgment already passed. For, as it is
said, " his presence shall be after the working of Satan, with
all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and witli all seduction
of unrighteousness in them that perish." For then shall
Satan be loosed, and by means of that Antichrist shall work
with all power in a lying though a wonderful manner. It is
commonly questioned whether these works are called "signs
and lying wonders " because he is to deceive men's senses by
false appearances, or because the things he does, though they
be true prodigies, shall be a lie to those who shall believe
that such things could be done only by God, being ignorant
of the devil's power, and especially of such unexampled power
as he shall then for the iirst time put forth. For when he
fell from heaven as fire, and at a stroke swept away from the
holy Job his numerous household and his vast flocks, and
then as a whirlwind nished upon and smote the house and
killed his children, these were not deceitful appearances^ and
yet they were the works of Satan to whom God had given
this power. Wliy they are called signs and lying wonders
we shall then be more likely to know when the tinie itself
arrives. But whatever be the reason of the name, they shall
be such signs and wonders as shall seduce those who shall
deserve to be seduced, " because they received not the love of
the truth that they might be saved." Neither did the apostle
scruple to go on to say, " For this cause God shall send upon
them the working of eiTor that they should believe a lie."
For God shall seiid, because God shall permit the devil to do
these things, the permission being by His own jast judgment,
> 1 John iL IS, 19.

384 THE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK XJL

though the doirj^ of them is in pursuance of the devil s un-
righteous and malignant purpose, " that they all might be
judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in ua-
righteousness." Therefore, being judged, they shall be seduced,
and, being seduced, they shall be judged. But, being judged,
they shall be seduced by those secretly just and justly secitt
judgments of God, with which He has never ceased to judge
since the first sin of the rational creatures ; and, being seduced,
they shall be judged in that last and nmnifest judgment ad-
ministered by Jesus Christ, who was Himself most unjustly
judged and shall most justly judga

SO. What the same aposth taught in thejirat SpUtle to the The»9aloniaaM
TtQard'mg the resurrection o/tlie dead.

But the apostle has said nothing here regarding the resur-
rection of the dead ; but in hw first Epistle to the Thessa-
lonians he says, "We would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are askep," ^ etc. These
woa*d3 of the apostle most distinctly proclaim the future re-
surrection of tlie dead, when the Lord Christ shall come to
judge the quick and the dead.

But it is commonly nsked whether those whom our Lori
shall iind alive upon earth, personated in this passage by the
apostle and those who were alive with him, shall never die
at all, or shall pass with incomprehensible swiftness through
death to inmiortality in the veiy moment during which they
shall be caught up along with those who rise again to meet
the Lord in the air 1 For we cannot say tliat it is impossible
that they should both die and revive again while they are
carried aloft through the air. For the words, " And so shall
we ever be with the Lord," are not to be understood as if he
meant that we shall always remain in the air with the Lord ;
for He Himself shall not remain there, but shall only pass
thi'ough it as He comes. For we shall go to meet Him as
He comes, not where He remains ; but " so shall we be with
the Loi-d/' that is, wo shall be with Him possessed of im-
mortal bodies wherever we shall be with Him. We seem
compelled to take the words in this sense, and to suppose that
those whom the Lord shall find alive upon earth shall in that

1 1 TLesfl. IT. 13-16.

BOOK XX.] RIGHT INTERPRETATION OF PAUL's WORDS.

;S5

brief sjjace botli sufTer death and receive immortality ; for tliis
same apostle says, " In Christ shall all be made alive ; "^ while,
speaking of the same resurrection of the body, he elsewhere
says, " TRat which thou sowest is not quickened, except it
die."' How, then, shall those whom Christ shall find alive
upon earth be made alive to immortality in Him if they die
not, since on this very account it is said, " That which thou
sowest is not quickened, except it die?" Or if we cannot
properly speak of human bodies as sown, unless in so far as
by dying they do in some sort return to the earth, as also the,
sentence pronounced by God against the sinning fatlier of the
human race runs, " Earth thou art, and unto earth .shalt thou
return," ^ we must acknowledge that those whom Christ at
His coming shall find still in the body are not included in
these words of the apostle nor in those of Genesis ; for, being
caught up into tlie clouds, they are certainly not sown, neitlier
going nor returning to the earth, whether they experience no
death at all or die for a moment in the air.

But, on the other hand, there meets us the saying of the
same apoatle when he was speaking to tlie Corinthians about
the resurrection of the body, ''We shall all rise," or, as other
MSS. read, "We shall all sleep."* Since, then, there can be
no resurrection unless death has preceded, and since we can
in tlus pas.sage understand by sleep nothing else tlaan death,
how shall all either sleep or rise agaiin if so many persons
whom Christ shall find in the body shall neither sleep nor
rise again ? If, then, we believe that the saints who shall
be found alive at Christ's coming, and shall be c«ught up to
meet Him, shall in that same ascent pass from mortal to im-
mortal bodies, we shall find no diHiculty in the words of the
apostle, either when he says, " That which thou sowest is
not quickened, except it die," or when he says, " We shall all
rise/' or " all sleep," for not even the saints shall be quick-
ened to immortality unless they first die, however biiefly -
and consequently they shall not be exempt from resurrection
which is preceded by sleep, however brief. And why should
it seem to ua incredible that that multitude of bodies should

" 1 Cor. IV. 22.
•Gen. iii. 19.

• 1 Cor. XT. 36.
< 1 Cor, XV. 61.

VOL. IL

386 THE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK XX

be, as it w(ire, rdwii in the air, and should in the air forUiwitL
revive immortal and incorruptible, when we believe, on tbe
testimony of the same apostle, that the resurrection shall taka
place in the twinkling of an eye, and that the dust of bodies
loug dead shall return with incomprehensible facility and
swiftness to those members that are now to live endlessly 1
Neither do we suppose that in the cose of these saints tLe
sentence. " Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return,*
is null, though their bodies do not, on dying, fall to earth, bot
both die and rise again at once while caught up into the air.
For " Thou ahalt return to earth " means, Thou shalt at deatli
return to that which thou wert before life began. Th<m
shalt, when exanimate, be that which thou wert before thou
wast animate. For it was into a face of earth that God
breathed the breath of life when man was made a living
soul ; as if it were said. Thou art earth with a soul, which
thou wast not ; thou shalt be eaith without a soul, as thoa
wast. And this ia what all bodies of the dead are before
they rot ; and what the bodies of those saints shall be if they
die, no matter where they die, as soon as they shall give np
tliat life which they are immediately to receive back again.
In this way, then, they retiirn or go to earth, inasmuch u
from being living men they shall be earth, as that wbich he-
comes cinder is said to go to cinder ; that which decays, to
go to decay; and so of six. hundred other things. But the
manner in which tixis shall take place we can now only feebly
conjecture, and shall understand it only when it conies to
pasa For tluit there shall be a bodily resurrection of the
dead when Christ comes to judge quick and dead, we moat
believe if we would be Christiana But if we are unable
perfectly to comprehend the maimer in which it shall take
place, our faith is not on tliis account vain. Now, however,
we ought, as we formerly promised, to show, as far as seems
necessary, what the ancient prophetic books predicted con-
cerning this final judgment of God ; and I fancy no great
time need be spent in discussing and explaining these predic-
tions, if the reader has been careful to avail himself of the
help we have already furnished.

BOOK XX.] OLD TE3TA>raXT PREDICTIOXS OF JUDGMENT. 38?

21. UUeraiuxa <^ the propttfl laaiah regardhiff the n^mrrwtion qf tfie dead and
Uu rariiiuHw judgment.

The prophet Isaiah says, " Tho dead shall rise again, and
all who were in the graves shall rise again ; and all who are
in the earth shall rejoice : for the dew which is from Thee is
their health, and the earth of the wicked shall falL"^ All
the former part of this passage relates to the resurrection of
the blessed ; but the words, " the earth of the -svicked shall
fall/' is rightly understood as meaning that the bodies of the
■wicked shall fall into the ruin of damnation. And if we
would more exactly and carefully scrutinize the words which
refer to the resurrection of the good, we may refer to the first
resurrection the words, " the dead shall rise again/' and to
the second the following words, "and all who were in the
graves shall rise again." Aud if we ask what relate to those
saints whom the Lord at His coming shall find alive upon
earth, the following clause may suitably be referred to them :
" All who are in the earth shall rejoice : for the dew which is
from Thee is their healtL" By "health" in this place it is
best to understand immortality. For thfit is the most perfect
healtli which is not repaired by nourishment as by a daily
remedy. In like manner the same prophet, affording hope to
the good and tenifying the wicked regaidiDg the day of judg-
ment, says, " Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will flow, down
upon them as a river of peace, and upon the glory of the
Gentiles as a rushing ton*ent : their sons shaD be carried on
the shoTjiders, and shall be comforted on the knees. As one
whom his mother comforteth, so shall I comfort you ; and ye
shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see, and your
heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall rise up like a herb ;
and the hand of the Lord shall be known by His worshippera,
and He shall threaten the contumacious. For, behold, the
Lord shall come as a fire, and as a whirlwind His chariots, to
execute vengeance with indignation, and wasting with a flame
of fire. For with fire of the Lord shall all the earth be
judged, and all flesh with His sword : many shall be wounded
by the Lord."' In His promise to the good he says that He
will flow down as a river of peace, tliat is to say, in the
> In. xxTL 19. * hu. UtL 12-16.

388

THE CITY OF COD.

[book XX

greatest possible abundance of peace. Willi this peace we
shall in the end be refreshed ; but of this we have spoken
abundantly in tlie prccedinj^ book. It is tliis river in which
he says He shall How down upon those to whom He pro-
mises 80 great happiness, that we may understand that in the
region of that felicity, which is in heaven, all things are
satisfied from this river. But because there shall thence flov,
even upon earthly bodies, the peace of incorruption and im-
mortality, therefore he says that He shall fiow down as this
river, that He may as it were pour Himself from things abon
to things beneath, and make men the equals of the angck
By " Jerusaleni/' too, we should understand not that which
serves with her children, but that which, according to the
apostle, is our free mother, eternal in the heavens.' In her
we shall be comforted as we pass toilworu from earth's cores
and calamities, and be taken up as her children on her knees
and shoulders. Inexpenenced and new to such blandLdi-
ments, we sludl be received into unwonted bliss. There we
shall see, and our heart shall rejoice. He does not say what
we shall see; but wliat but Cod, that the promise in the
Gospel may be fulfilled in us, " Blessed are the pure in heart.
for they sliall see God ?"^ What shall we see but all those
things whicli now we see not, but believe in, and of which
the idea we form, according to our feeble capacity, is incom-
parably less than the reality ? " And ye shall see," he sayj.
" and your heart shall rejoice," Here ye believe, theie ye
shall see.

But because he said, " Your heart shall rejoice," lest we
should suppose that the blessings of that Jerusalem are only
spirilnaljhti adds, " And your bones shall rise up like a herb,"
alluding to the resurrection of the body, and as it were sup-
plying an omission he had made. For it will not tike place
when we have seen ; but we sliall see when it has takai
place. For he liad already s])okcu of the new heavens and
the new earth, speaking repeatedly, and under many figures,
of the things promised to the saints, and saying, " There sliall
be new heavens, and a new earth : and the former shall not be
remembered nor come into mind ; but they shall find in ifc
1 GaL iv. 26, ' Matt. v. 8.

BOOK XX.] TSATAH^S PREDICTION OF THE LAST THINGS. 389

gladness and exultation. Behold, T will make Jerusalem an
exultation, and iiiy people a joy. And I will exult in Jeni-
salcm, and joy in my people ; and the voice of weepinj^ shall
be no more heard in her ; " * and other promises, which some
endeavour to refer to carnal enjoyment during the thousand
yeiirs. For, in the manner of prophecy, figurative and literal
expressions are mingled, so that a serious mind may, by useful
and salutary effort, reach the spiritual sense ; Init carnal
sluggishness, or the slowness of an uneducated and undisci-
plined mind, rests in the superficial letter, and thinks there is
nothing beneath to be looked for. But let this be enough
regarding the stylo of those prophetic expressions just quoted.
And now, to return to their interpretation. When he had said.
" And your bones shall rise up like a herb," in order to show
that it was the resurrection of the good, though a bodily
resurrection, to which he alluded, he added, " And the hand
of the Lord shall be known by His worshippers," What is
this but the hand of Him who distinguishes those who wor-
ship firom those who despise Him ? Regarding these the
context immediately adds, " And He shall threaten the con-
tumacious," or, as another translator has it, " the unbeHeving."
He shall not actually threaten then, but the threats which
are now uttered shall then be fulfilled in effect '* For be-
hold," he says, " the Lord shall come as a fire, and as a whirl-
wind His chariots, to execute vengeance with indignation, and
wasting with a flame of fiiu For with fire of the Lord shall
all the earth be judged, and all flesh with His sword : many
shall be wounded by the Lord." By firt^ tchirlnnnd, sward,
he means the judicial punishment of God. For he says that
the Lord Himself shall coiue as a fire, to those, that is to say,
to whom His coming sliall be penal By His eJiariots (for the
word is plural) we suitably understand the ministration of
angels. And when he says that all flesh and all the earth
shall be judged with His fire and sword, we do not under-
stand the spiritual and holy to be included, but tlie earthly
and carnal, of whom it is said that they " mind earthly
things/'* and " to be carnally minded is death," ^ and whom
the Lord calls simply flesh when lie says, " My Spirit shall
• X». Uv. 17-19. ■ Phil, iii 19. > Rom. yiu. 6.

390

THE CITY OP CM)D.

[book 3X

not always remain in these men, for they are flesh."* As

to the worda, " Many shall "be wounded by the Lord " this
wounding shall produce the second death. It ia possible,
indeed, to understand fire, sword, and wouTid in a good sassft
For the Lord said that He wibhed to send fire on the eartL'
And the cloven tongues appeai*ed to them as fire when the
Holy Spirit cama' And our Lord says, " I am not come to
send peace on earth, hut a sword."* And Scripture says that
the word of God is a doubly shoi-p sword,* on account of ti>e
two edges, the two Testaments. And in the Song of 6ongs

the holy Churcli sa}a thut she is wounded with love/ pierced,

as it were, with the arrow of love. But here, where we read
or hear that the Lord shall come to execute vengeance, it is
ob\'ious in what sense we are to understand these expressions.
After briefly mentioning those who shall be consumed in
this judgment, speaking of the wicked and sinners under the
figure of the meats forbidden by the old law, from which they
had not abetaincd, he summarily recounts the grace of the
new testament, from the first coming of the Saviour to the
last judgment, of which we now speak ; and herewith he con-
cludes his prophecy. For he relates that the Lord declara
that He is coining to gather all nations, that they may come
and witness His glory.' For, as the ajiostle says, " All have
sinned and are in want of the glory of God."* And he saya
that He will do wonders among them, at which they shaD
marvel and believe in Him ; and tliat from tliem He will send
forth those that are saved into various nations, and distant
islands which have not heard His name nor seen His gloiy,
and that they shall declare His glory among the nations, and
shall bring the brethren of those to whom the prophet was
speaking, ic. shall bring to the faith under God the Father
the brethren of the elect Israelites ; and that they shall bring
from all nations an oflering to the Lord on beasts of burden
and waggons (which are understood to mean the aids fumisfaed
by God in the shape of angelic or human ministry), to the
holy city Jerusalem, which at present is scattered over the

* Gen. vi. 3.

* Matt. X. 34.
r laa. Ixvi. 18.

■ Lnke xiL 49.
*Heb. ix. 12.
* Hum. iii 23.

■ Acta ii 3.

* Song of Sol. ii. &

r BOOK XX.]

is.viAHs PREDicnoy.

391

eartb, in the faithful saints. For where divine aid is given,
men believe, and where they believe, they come. And the
Lord compared them. in. a figure, to the children of Israel
offering sacrifice to Him in His house with psalms, which is
already everywhere done by the Church ; and He promised
that from among them He would choose for Himself priests
and Levites, which also we see already accomplished. For
we see that priests and Levites are now chosen, not from a
certain family and blood, as was originally the rule in the
priesthood according to the order of Aaron, but as befits the
new testament, under which Christ is the High Priest after
the order of Melchisedec, in consideration of the merit which
is bestowed upon each man by divine grace. And these priests
are not to be judged by their mere title, which is often borne
"by unworthy men, but by that holiness which is not conamon
to good men and bad.

After having thus spoken of this mercy of God which is
now experienced by the Chiirch, and is very e^'ident and
familiar to ns, he foretells also the ends to which men shall
come when the last judji^nent has separated the good and the
bad, saying by the prophet, or the prophet himself speaking
for God, " For as the new heavens and the new earth shall
remain before me, said the Lord, so shaU your seed and your
name remain, and there shaU be to them month after month,
and Sabbath after Sabbath. All flesh shall come to worship
before me in Jerusalem, said the Lord. And they shall go
out, and shall see the members of the men who have sinned
against me : their worm shall not die, neither shall their
fire be quenchGd ; and they shall be for a spectacle to all
Hesh." ^ At this point the prophet closed his book, as at
this point the world shall come to an end. Some, indeed,
have translated "carcases"* instead of "members of the men,"
meaning by carcases the manifest punishment of the body,
although carcase is commonly used only of .dead flesh, while
tLe bodies here spoken of shall be animated, else they could
not be sensible of any pain ; but perhaps they may, without
absurdity, he called carcases, as beiug the bodies of those who
are to fall into the second deatL And for the same reason

^ Ilia. Ixvi. 22-21 * As the Vulgate : cadavera

392

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XX.

it is said, as I have already quoted, by this same prophet,
" The earth of the wicked shall fall" * It is obvious that
those translators who use a different word for wi^m do not
mean to include only males, for no one will saj that the
women who sinned shall not appear in that judgment; but
the male sex^ being the more worthy, and that from which
the woman was derived, is intended to include both sexes.
But that which is especially pertinent to our subject is this,
that since the words "All tlesli shall eonie" apply to the good,
for the people of God shall be composed of every race of men,
— for all men f^liall not be present, since the greater pan
shall be in punLshnient, — but, as I was saving, since Jl<^ if
used of the good, and members or carcases of the bad, certainly
it is thus put beyond a doubt that that judgment in which
the good and tbe bad shall he allotted to tlieir destinies shall
take place after the resurrection of the body, our faith ia
which is thoroughly established by the use of these words.

22. What iff meani by lite good gving out to m« the punishmeHt of the idcJbed.

But in what way shall the good go out to see the punish-
ment of the wicked ? Ai*e they to leave their happy abodes
by a bodily movement, and proceed to the places of punish-
ment, so as to witness the torments of the wicked in their
bodily pi*esence ? Certainly not ; but they shall go out by
Icnowledge. For this expression, 170 out, signifies tliat those
who shall be punished shall be without. And thus the Loid
also calls these places " tlie outer darkness,"' to which is
opposed that entrance concerning which it is said to the
good servant, "Enter into the joy of thy Lord," that it may
not be supposed that tbe wicked can enter thither and be
known, but rather that the good by their knowledge go out
to thera, because the good are to know that which is without*
For those who shall be in torment aliall not know what is
going on witliin in the joy of the Lord ; but they who shall
enter into that joy shall know what is going on outside in
the outer darkness. Therefore it is said, " They shall go

' H«re Angustine inst^rta the remarlc, " Who docs not see that etidavtra (aif>

) are so caUed from cadendo (falling) !"
> liott xxT, so.

BOOK XX.

DAXTEL 8 PREDICTION.

393

out " because they shall know what is done by those "who are
without. For if the prophets were able to know things tliat
had not yet happened, by means of that indwelling of God in
their minds, limited though it was, shall not the immarbal
saints know tilings that have already happened, when God
Bhidl be all in all ? ^ Tlie seed, then, and the name of the
saints shall remain in that blessedness, — the seed, to wit, of
which John says, " And his seed reniaineth in him ;"' and the
name, of which it was said through Isaiah himself, '* I will
give them an everlasting name,"* "And there shall be to
them month after month, and Sabbath after Sabbath," as if it
were said, Moon after moon, and rest upon i*eat, both of which
they shall themselves he when they shall pass from the old
shaJowa of time into the new lights of eternity. Tlie worm
that dieth not, and the lire that is not quenched, which con-
stitute the punishment of the wicked* are differently inter-
preted by different people. For some refer both to the body,
others refer both to the soul ; while others again refer the fire
literally to the body, and the worm figuratively to the soul,
which seems the more credible idea. But the present is not
the time to discuss this difference, for we have undertaken to
occupy this book with the last judgment, in which the good
and the bad are separated : their rewards and punislmients we
shall more carefully discuss elsewhere.

23. What Daniel predicted rtganllntf the pcraeeution of Antichrist, rA* \ X
judgment of God, atid the k'inr/tlam of the saints. /

Daniel propliesies of the last judgment in such a way as to
indicate that Antichrist shall first come, and to cany on his
description to the eternal reign of the saints. For when in
prophetic vision he had seen four beasts, signifying four king-
doms, and the fourth conquered by a certain king, who ia
i-ecognised as Antichrist, and after this tlie eternal kingdom
of the Son of man, that is to say, of Christ, he says, " My
spirit was teixified, I Daniel in the midst of my body, and
the visions of my head troubled me," * etc. Some have inter-
preted these four kingdoms as signifying those of the Asf^yrians,
Persians, Macedonians, and Romans. They who desire to

ITT';

1 1 Cor. XV. 28.
' Jso. Ivl. 5.

• 1 John iii. 9.
*Dan. vii. 15-28.

Fassftge cited at length.

<594

THi: CITY OP GOD.

[book xr

understand the fitness of this interpretation may read Jerome's
book on Daniel, which is written with a sufficiency of care
and erudition. But he who reads this passage, even half-
asleep, cannot fail to see that the kingdom of Antichrist shaD
fiercely, though for a short timo, assaO the Church before the
last judgment of God shall introduce the eternal reign of tte
saints. For it is patent from the context that the tim^, timm^
arid half a tivie, means a year, and two years, and half a yetf,
that is to say, three years and a half Sometimes in Scriptnir
the same thing is indicated by months. For though the word
times seems to be used here in the Latin indefinitely, that is
only because the Latins have no dual, as the Greeks hare^
and as the Hebrews also are said to have. Times, therefore, ii
used for two times. As for the ten kings, whom, as it seems,
Antichrist is to find in the person of ten individuals when be
comes, I own I am afraid we may be deceived in this, and
that he may come unexpectedly while there are not ten kings
living in the Roman world. For what if this number ten
signifies the whole number of kings who are to precede his
coming, as totality is frequently symbolized by a thousand,
or a hundred, or seven, or other nimibers, which it is not
necessary to recount ?

In another place the same Daniel says, " And there shall
be a time of trouble, such as was not since there was bom a
nation upon earth until that time : and in that time all Thy
people which shall be found written in the book shall be de-
livered. And many of them thiit sleep in the mound of
earth shall arise, some to everlasting life, and some to shame
and everlasting confusion. And they that be wise shall shine
as the brightness of the firmament ; and many of the just aa
the stars for ever."* ThiB passage is very sinular to the one
we have quoted from the Gospel,* at least so far as regards the
resurrection of dead bodies. For those who are there said to
be " in the graves " are here spoken of as " sleeping in the
mound of earth," or, as others translate, "in the dmi of
earth," There it is said, " They shall come forth ;" so here,
" They shall arise." There, " They that have done good, to the
resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil, to the re-
^ Don. jcii. 1-3. * John r. 3&

BOOK XX.]

PREDICTIONS IN THE PSALMS.

395

stirrection of judgment;" here, "Some to everlasting life, and
some to shame and everlasting confusion." Neither is it to
be supposed a difference, though in place of the expression
in the Gospel, " All who are in their graves," the prophet does
rot say " all," but " many of them that sleep in the mound of
eortL" For many is sometimes used in Scripture for all.
Thus it was said to Abraham, " I have set thee as the father
of many nations/' though in another place it was said to him^
" In thy seed shall all nations be blessed." * Of such a re-
en rrection it is said a little afterwards to the prophet him-
self, " And come thou and rest : for there is yet a day till the
completion of the consummation ; and thou ahalt rest, and
rise in thy lot in the end of the dajV *

S4. Patsoffa/rom the PmtiM of David which predict the end qfihe vorld and
the loot judgment.

There are many allusions to the last judgment in the
Psalms, but for the most part only casual and slight I can-
not, however, omit to mention what is said there in express
terms of the end of this world : " In the beginning hast Thou
laid the foundations of the earth, O Lord ; and the heavens
are the work of Thy hands. They shu.II perish, but Thou
shalt endure ; yea> all of them shall wax old like a garment ;
and aq a vesture Thou shalt change them, and they shall be
changed : but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not
fail."^ Why is it that Porphyry, while he lauds the piety of
the Hebrews in worshipping a God great and true, and terrible
to the gods themselves, follows the oracles of these gods in
accusing the Christians of extreme folly because they say that
this world shall perish ? For here we find it said in the
sacred books of the Hebrews, to that God whom this great
philosopher acknowlerigas to be teirible even to the gods
themselves, "The heavens are the work of Thy hands: they
shall perisL" "VVlien the heavens, the higher and more secure
part of the world, perish, shall the world itself be preserved ?
If this idea is not relished by Jupiter, whose oracle is quoted
by this philosopher as an unquestionable authority in rebuke
of the credulity of the Christians, why does he not similarly
rebuke the "vvisdom of the Hebrews as folly, seeing that the

> Ocn. xvii. 6, and xxiL 18. ■ Dan. xu. 13. » Pi, ciL 26-27.

THE CITY or GOD,

[book 3X

prediction is found iu their most holy books ? But if this
Hebrew wisdoiiij with which Porphyry is so captivated that
he extols it through the utterances of his own gods, pixicLiims
that the heavens are to perish, how ia he so infatuated as to
detest the faith of the Christians partly, if not chiefly^ on tlui
account, that they believe the world is to perish 1 — though bow
the heavens are to perish if the world does not is not eosj to
see. And, indeed, in the sacred writing wliich are peculia;
to ourselves, and not common to the Hebrews and us, — 1
mean the evangelic and apostolic books, — the following ex-
pressions are used : " The figure of this world passeth away;'*'
"The world pji^seth awayj"' "Heaven and earth shall paa
away,"* — expressions which are, I fancy, somewhat milder tluu
"They shaM pansh." In the Epistle of the Apostle Peter, loo,
where the world which then was is said to have perished,
being overflowed with water, it is sufficiently obvious what
part of the world is signified by the whole, and in what sense
the woi*d perished is to be taken, and what heavens were kept
in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and
perdition of ungodly men.* And wlu'.u he says a little after-
wards, *' The day of the Lord will come as a thief ; in ibe
which the heavens shall pass away with a great rush, and the
elements shall melt with burning heat, and the earth and ibc
works whiuh are in it aliall be burned up;" and then odds,
" Seeing, then, that all these things shall be dissolved, what
manner of persons ought ye to be?"*^ — these heavens whidi
are to perish may be understood to be the same which he said
were kept in store reserved for fire ; and the elements which
ai'e to be burned are those which ai-e full of storm and dis-
turbance in this lowest part of the world in which he said
that these heavens were kept in store ; for the higher heavens
in whose firmament are set the stars are safe, and remain in
their integrity. For even the expression of Scripture, that
" the stars shall fall from heaven,"^ not to mention tliat a
different interpretation is much preferable, rather shows
that Uie heavens themselves shall remaiuj if the stars are to
foil from them. This expression, then, is either figurative, «

> 1 Cor. vii. 31.
« 2 Pet. iiL 6.

» 1 John ii. 17.
»2Pet iii. 10, 11.

' Mftlt. XTL\y, 35.
* Matt. xzir. 3d.

BOOK XX]

ntEDICTIOKS IN THE PSAUIS.

397

is more credible, or this phenomenon will take place in this
lowest heaven, like that menLioned by Vir^l, —

" A meteor with a train of light
Athwart the sky gleamed doizling bright,
Then in Idean wooils was losL'*^

But the passage I have quoted from the psalm seems to
except none of the heavens from the destiny of destruction;
for he says, " The heavens are the works of Thy hands : they
shall perish ; " so that, as none of them are excepted from the
category of God's works, none of them are excepted from
destruction. For oiir opponents will not condescend to defend
the Hebrew piety, which has won the approbation of their
gods, by the words of tlie Apostle Peter, whom they vehe-
mently detest ; nor will they argue that, as the apostle in Ids
epistle imderstands a part when lie speaks of the whole world
perishing in the flood, thongh only tlie lowest part of it, and
the corresponding heavens were destroyed, so in the psalm the
whole is used for a part, and it is said " They shall perish,"
though only the lowest heavens are to perish. But since, as
I said, ihey will not condescend to reason tlms, lest they
should seem to approve of Peter's meaning, or ascribe as
much importance to the final conflagration as we ascribe to
the deluge, whereas they contend that no waters or flames
could destroy the whole human race, it only remains to them
to maintain that tlieir gods lauded the wisdom of the Hebrews
because they had not read this psalm.

It is the last judgment of Gud which is referred to also in
the 50th Psalm in the words, " God shall come manifestly,
our God, and shall not keep silence : fire shall devour before
Him, and it shall bo veiy tempestuous round about Him. Ho
shall call the heaven above, and the earth, to judge His
people. Gather His saints together to Him ; they wlio make
a covenant with Him over sacrifices."^ This we underetand
of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom we look for from licaven to
judge the quick and the dead. For He shall come manifestly
to judge justly the just and the unjust, who before came
hiddenly to be unjustly judged by the unjust. He, I say,
shall come manifestly, and shall not keep silence, that is, shall
> j£neid, ii. 694. « Pa. 1. 3-6.

398 THE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK XI

make Himself known by His voice of judgment, -who before,
when Ho came liiddenly, was silent before His judge "wboi
He was led as a sheep to the slaughter, and, as a lajnb befon
the shearer, opened not His mouth, as we read that it was
prophesied of Him by Isaiah/ and as we see it fulfilled in the
Gospel"'' As for the fire, and tanpest, we have already said
how these are to be interpreted when we were explaining t
similar passage in Isaiah.^ As to the expression, " He shall
call the heaven above," as the saints and the righteous an
rightly called heaven, no doubt this means what the aposUe
says, " We shall be caught up together with them in the
clouds, to meet the Lord in the air."* For if we take the
bare literal sense, how is it possible to call the heaven abovie,
as if the heaven could he anywhere else than above ? And
the following expression, " And the earth to judge His people,"
if we supply only the words, " He shall call," that is to say,
" He shall call the earth also," and do not supply " above."
seems to give us a meaning in accordance with sound doctrine,
the heaven symbolizing those who will judge along with
Christ, and the earth those who shall be judged ; and thus
the words, " He shall call the heaven above,** would nrt
mean, " He shall catcli up into the air," but " He shall lift np
to seats of judgment." Possibly, too, " He shall call the
heaven," may mean. He shall call the angels in the high and
lofty places, that He may descend with them to do judgment;
and " He shall call the eai-th also " would then mean, He shall
call the men on the earth to judgment. But if with the words
"and the earth " we understand not only " Ho shall call," but
also " above," so as to make the full sense be. He shall call
the heaven above, and He shall call the earth above, then I
think it is best understood of the men who shall be cauffhc
up to meet Christ in the air, and that they are called du
Juavtn with reference to their soula, and the earth vdih reter-
ence to their bodies. Then what is " to judge His people,"
but to separate by judgment the good from the bad, as the
sheep from the goats ? Then he turns to address the angels :
" Gather His saints together unto Him." For certainly a

' Isa. Uii. 7. ' Matt. xxtI 63.

• CJi. 21. * 1 TtcM. iv. 17.

matter so important must be accomplished by the ministry of
angels. And if we ask who the saints are who are gathered
unto Him by the angels, we are told, " They who make a
covenant with Him over sacrifices." This is the whole life of
the saints, to make a covenant with God over sacrifices. For
*' over sacrifices " either refers to works of mercy, which are
preferable to sacrifices in the judgment of God, who says,
"I desire mercy more than sacrifices;"* or if "over sacri-
fices " means in sacrifices, then these very works of mercy are
the sacrifices with which God is pleased, as I remember to
have stated in the tenth book of this work ; * and in these
works the saints make a covenant with God, because they do
them for the sake of the promises which are contained in His
new testament or covenant And hence, when His saints
have been gathered to Him and set at His right hand in the
last judgment, Christ shall sny, " Come, ye blessed of my
Pather, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world. For I was hun^'ry, and ye gave
me to eat,"^ and so on, mentioning the good works of the
good, and their eternal rewards assigned by the last sentence
of the Judge.

25. Of MalacliVa prophecy t in wWcR he tptaka of the Uut Judgment, and of a
eUansing which some are to undertjo by purifying punishments.

The prophet Malachi or Malachias, who is also called Angel,
and is by some (for Jerome * tells us that this is the opinion
of the Hebrews) identified with Ezra the priest," others of
whose writings have been received into the canon, predicts
the last judgment, saying, " Beliuld, He conmth, saith the Lord
Almighty ; and who shall abide the day of His entrance ? . . .
for I am the Lord your Godj and I cliange not." * From
these words it more evidently appears that some shall in the
last judgment suffer some kind of purgatorial piinishments ;
for what else can be understood by the word, " Wlio shall
abide the day of His entrance, or who shall be able to look
upon Him ? for He enters as a moulder's tire, and as the
herb of fullers : and He shall sit fusing and puiifying as if

" Hoa. Ti. 6.
■ Matt. xjfv. »4.

B See SiuitU's Bible DicL

«Cb. 6.

* In his Proem, ad yfaX.

< MjiI. iii. 1-6. Wliole ptasnge quoted*

400

THE CITY OF GOD,

[book XL

over gold and silver : and lie shall purify the sons of Leri.
and pour them out like gold and silver ?" Similarly Isaiuh
says, " The Lord shall wash the filthiness of the sons and
daughters of Zion, and siiall cleanse away the blood from their
niidst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning."'
Unless perhaps we should say that they are cleansed &rai
filthiness and in a manner clarified, when the wicked at
aepamted from them by penal judj^^uent, so that the elimimt-
tion and damnation of the one party is the purgation of the
others, because they shall Jienuutbrth live free from the coo-
tamination of such men. But when he says, " And he shall
purify the sons of Levi, and pour them out like gold and silver
and they shall ofifer to the Lord sacrifices in righteousness,
and the sacrifices of Judah and Jerusalem shall be pleasing to
the Lord," he declares that those who shall be purified shaD
then please the Lord Mith sacrifices of ri*^hteousness, and con-
sequently they tbenisclves shall be purified from, their own
unrighteousness which made thera displeasing to God Xow
they tlicmselves, when they have been purified, shall be sacri-
fices of complete and perfect righteousness ; for what more
acceptable ottering can such persons make to God than thtitt*
Belves ? But this question of pui-^torial punishments w
must defer to another time, to give it a more adequate treat-
ment. By the sons of Levi and Judah and Jerusalem we
ought to understand the Church herself, gathered not from
the Hebrews only, but from other nations as well ; nor such
a Church as she now is, when " if we say that we have no an.
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us,"* but as sluf
shall then be, purged by the last judgment as a threshing-floor
by a winnowing wind, and those of her members who need it
being cicnnsed by fire, so that there remains absolutely not
one who oH'ers sacrifice for his sins. For all who make suet
ofl'eringH are assuredly in their sins, for the remission of which
they make offerings, that having made to God an acceptabk
offering, they may then be absolved.

26. 0/ the sacrifices ofered to Ood htf tht saxnU^ wjikh are to bf pleasing to IFtm
as in (he pritnitive ihujM and/ormjcr years.

And it was with the design of showing that His city shall
* Isa. iv. 4. » 1 John i, 8.

»0K XX.]

]\TALACin's PREDICTIOX.

401

not then follow this custom, that God said that the sons of
Levi should offer sacrifices in righteousness, — not therefore in
I sin. and consequently not for sin. And hence we see how
I vainly the Jews promise themselves a return of the old times of
[ sacriticing according to the law of the old testament, grounding
I on the words wliich follow, "And the sacrifice of Judah and
Jerusalem shall be pleasing to the Lord, as in the primitive
I days, and as in former years." For in the times of the law
\ they offered sacrifices not in righteousness but in sins, offering
especially and primarQy for sins, so much so that even the
priest himself, whom we must suppose to have been their most
righteous man, was accustomed to offer, accoixling to God's
commandments, first for his own sins, and then for the sins
of the people. And therefore we must explain how we are
to understand the words, " as in the primitive days, and as in
I former years ;" for perhaps he alludes to the time in which
our first parents were in pamdise. Then, indeed, intact and
pure from all stain and blemish of siu, they offered themselves
I to God as the purest sacrifices. But since they were banished
thence on account of their transgression, and human nature
was condemned in thorn, with the exception of the one Medi-
j ator and those who have been baptized, and are as yet infants,
" there is none clean from stiin, not even the bal>e whose life
baa been but for a day upon the earth." ^ But if it be replied
I that those who offer in faith may be said to offer in righteous-
ness, because the righteous lives by faith,^— he deceives him-
self, however, if he says that he bus no sin, and therefore he
does not say so, because he lives by faith, — will any man say
this time ot faith can be placed on an equal footing with that
consummation when they who offer sacrifices in righteousness
I shall be purified by the fire of the last judgment ? And con-
sequently, since it must be believed that after such a cleansing
the righteous shall retain no sin, assuredly that time, so far as
regards its freedom from sin, can be compared to no other
period, uidess to that during which our fii-st parents lived in
paradise in the most innocent happiness before their trans-
gression. It is this period, then, which is properly understood
when it is said, " as in the primitive days, and as in former

Uobxiv. 4. «Rom. i. 17.

VOL. IL 2 C

years." For in Isaiah, too, after the new heavens and the new
earth have been promised, among other elements in the blessed-
ness of the saints which are there depicted by allegories and
figaies> from giving an adequate explanation of which I un
prevented by a desire to avoid prolixity, it is said, •• Accordiog
to the days of the tree of life shall be the days of my peopk"'
And who that has looked at Scripture does not Imow where
Grod planted the tree of life, from whose fhiit He excluded
our first parents when their own iniquity ejected them from
paradise, and round which a terrible and fiery fence was set !
But if any one contends that those days of the tree of life
mentioned by the prophet Isaiah are the present times of the
Church of Christ, and that Christ Hiiuself is prophetically
called the Tree of Life, because He Is Wisdom, and of wisdom
Solomon says, "It is a tree of life to all who embrace it;"*
and if they maintain that our first parents did not pass y«an
in paradiae, but were driven from it so soon that none of their
children were begotten there, and that therefor© that tine
cannot be alluded to in words which run, " as in the primitive
days, and as in former years" I forbear entering on this qncs-
tion, lest by discussing everything I become prolix, and leave
the whole subject in uncertainty. For I see another meaning
which should keep us from believing that a restoration of the
primitive days and fonner years of the legal sacrifices coold
have been promised to us by the prophet as a great boon.
For the animals selected as victims under the old law were
required to be immaculate, and free from all blemish what-
ever, and symbolized holy men free from all sin, the only in-
stance of wliich character was found in Christ As, therefore^
after the judgment those who are worthy of such purification
shall be purified even by fire, and shall be rendered thoroughly
sinless, and shall offer themselves to God in righteous ne-ss, aod
be indeed victims immaculate and free from all blemish what-
ever, they shall then certainly be "as in the primitive dajs,
and as in former yeaj-s," when the pujest victims were offered,
the shadow of this future reality. For there shoD then be in
the body and soul of the saints the purity which was sym-
bolized in the bodies of these victima

^ Iso. Ixv. 22. * Prov. iii 18,

»00K XX]

MALACHfs PlffiDICTIoy.

403

L Then, TVith reference to those who are worthy not of cleans-
Sng but of dumnation, He says, " And I will dniw noux U) you
mo judgment, and I will be a swift witness against evil-doers »
BUid against adulterei-s ;" and after enumerating other damnable
[crimes, He adds, "For I am the Lord your God, and I am not
[changed." It is as if He said. Though your fault has changed
lyou for the worse, and my grace has changed you for the
Letter, 1 am not changed. And he says that He Himself will
"be a. witness, because in His judgment He needs no witnesses ;
and that He ^viIl be "swift," either because He is to come
suddenly, and the judgment wliich seemed to lag shall be very
swift by His unexpected airival, or because He will convince
the consciences of men directly and without any prolix
harangue. " For," as it is written, " in the thoughts of the
wicked His examination shall be conducted." ^ And the
apostle aays, " The thoughts accusing or else excusing, in the
day in wliich God shall judge tlie hidden things of men, ac-
cording to my gospel in Jesus Christ." ^ Thus, then, shall the
Lord be a swift witness, when He shall suddenly bring back
into tl)e memory that which shall convince and punish the
conscience.

27. 0/ the separa^on of the good and iJte had^ vshich prodaim ike dUcriminaHnff
tjyfupncc qfthe last jvd'jmeni.

Tlie passage also which I formerly quoted for another pur-
pose from this prophet refers to the last judgment, in which
lie says, "They shall be mine, saith the Lord Almighty, in
the day in which I make up my gains,"' etc. When this
diversity between the rewards and punishments which distin-
guish the righteous from the wicked shall appear under that '
Sun of righteausness in the brightness of life eternal, — a diver- >
sity which is not discerned under this sun which shines on
the vanity of this life, — there shall then be such a judgment as
Las never before been.

23. That the law of Moks must he tpiritualhj understood to prtdude the
damnable riiurmura of a carnal iuterpretation.

In the succeeding words, "Remember the law of Moses
my servant, which I commanded to him in Horeb for all

MVifMl. i. 9. «Rom. ii. 15, 16.

•Mai. iii. 17-iv. 3.

404

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book Vi

larael,"^ the prophet opporttincly mentions precepts and sta-
tutes, after declaring the important distinction hereafter to be
unade between those who observe and those who despise llie
law, lie intends also that they learn to interpret the lar
spiritually, and find Christ in it, by whose judgment that
separation between the good and the bad is to be niada For
it is not without reason that the Lord Himself says to UK
Jews, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me;
for ho wrote of me."' For by recei\inp; the law camallj,
without perceiving that its earthly promises were fignres d
things spiritual, they fell into such murmurings as audaciously
to say, " It is vain to serv^e God ; and what profit is it that
we have kept His ordinance, and that we have walked sup-
pliantly before the face of the Lord ^Umighty 1 And now
we call aliens happy; yea, tliey that work wickedness are set
up"* It was these words of theirs which in a manner com-
pelled the prophet to announco the last judgment, in which
the wicked shall not even in appearance be happy, but shall
manifestly be most miserable; and in which the good shall
be oppressed with not even a transitory wretchedness, but
shall enjoy unsullied and etcrniU felicity. For he had pre-
viously cited some similar expressions of those who saii
"Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord,
and such are pleasing to Him."* It was, I say, by unde>
standing the law of Moses carnally that they had come to
murmur thus against God. And hence, too, the writer of the
73d Psalm says that his feet were almost gone, his steps had
well-nigh slipped, because he was envious of sinners while he
considered their prosperity, so thfit he said among other things.
How doth God know, and is there knowledge in the Most
High ? and again. Have I sanctified my heart in vain, and
washed my hands in innoccncy 1^ He goes on to say that his
efforts to solve this most difficult problem, which arises wheu
the good seem to be wretched and the wicked happy, were iu
vain until he went into the sanctuary of God, and understood
the last tilings.* For in the last judgment things shall not be
so; but in the manifest felicity of the righteous and niani-

1 Mai iv. 4.
« UaL il 17.

■John V. 46.

' la umoceutibua.

»Mji1. iii. 14, 15.

BOOK XX.] ELTAS TO COME BEFORE THE END. 405

fest miser)' of the wicked quite another state of things shall
appear.

29. Oftht commQ of EHa» he/ore th€ jitdgment^ thai the Jexcit may be con-
verted to Clirut hy hU prtachintj and explanation oj Saiplurt,

After admonishing them to give heed to the law of Moses,
as he foresaw that far a long time to come they would not
■understand it spiritually and rightly, he went on to say, " And,
behold, I will send to ynu Elias the Tishbite before the groat
and signal day of the Lord come : and he shall turn the heart
of tlic father to the son, and the heart of a man to his next
of kin, lest I come and utterly smite the earth."^ It is a
familiar theme in the conversation and heart of the faithful,
that in the lost days before the judgment the Jews shall be-
lieve in tlie true Christ, that is, our Christ, by means of this
great and admirable prophet Elias who shall expound the law
to them. For not without reason do we hope that before the
coming of our Judge and Saviour Elias shall come, because
we have good reason to believe that he is now alive ; for, as
Scripture most distinctly informs us,^ he was taken up from
this hfe in a chariot of fire. When, therefore, he is come, he
shall give a spiritual explanation of the law which the Jews
at present understand carnally, and shall thus " turn the heart
of tlie lather to tlic son/' that is, the heart of fathers to their
children ; for the Septuagint translators have frequently j>ut
the singular for the plural number. And the meaning is, that
the sons, that is, tlie Jews, shall nnderstand the law as the
fathers, that is, the prophets, and among them Moses himself,
understood it For the heart of the falliers shall be tunied to
their children when the children understand the law ns their
fathers did ; and tlic heart of the children shall be turned to
their fathers when they have the same sentiments as the
fathers. The Septuagint used the expression, " and the heart
of a man to his next of kin," because fatliere and children are
eminently neighbours to one another. Another and a prefer-
able sense can be found in the words of the Septuagint trans-
lators, who have translated Scripture with an eye to prophecy,
the sense, viz., that Elias shall turn the heart of God the Father
to the Son, not certainly as if he should bring about tJiis love
^MaL iv. 5,6. » 2 Kings ii. 11.

406

THE CITY 0? GOD.

[book 3X

II * '^

' V» ♦■■'

•t^

of the Father for the Son, but meaning that he should make
it knoMTi, and that the Jews also, who had previously hated,
should then love the Son who is our Christ For so far as
regards the Jews, God has His heart turned away from our
Christ, this being their conception about God and Christ
But in their case the heart of God sliall be turned to the
Son when they themselves shall turn in heart., and learn the
love of the Father towards the Son, The words following,
" and the heart of a man to his next of kin," — that is, Ellas shall
ftlsa turn the heart of a man to his next of kin, — bow can we
uudtJi-sland this better than as the heart of a man to the man
Christ ? For though in the form of God He is our God,
yet, taking the form of a 8er\'ant, He condescended to become
«lfiO our next of kia It is this, then, which Eliaa will do,
* lost," he says, " I come and smite the earth utterly." For
they who mind earthly things are the earth. Such are the
carnal Jowa until tliis day ; and hence these murmurs of theirs
against God, " The wioked are pleasing to Him," and " It i« t
irain thing to serve God." ^

80. r^ in CA« hooU t/ the Old Tfxtameni, where it is »aid tTuU God thaU judge
the tisittdt die p^aon of CJtrutt is not explicitly indicated^ &u< U plainly
apjteara from tome passages in which the Lord God speaks (Aol Ckritt it
\ meant.

There are many other passages of Scripture bearing on the
last judgment of God, — so many, indeed, that to cite tliem all
would swell this book to an unpardonable size. Suffice it to
have proved that both Old aud New Testament enounce the
judgment But in the Old it is not so definitely declared as
in the New that the judj^'iueut shall be administered by Christ,
that is, that Christ shall descend fi-om heaven as the Judge;
for when it is therein stated by the Loitl God or His prophet
that the Lord God shall come, we do not necessarily under-
stand this of Christ For boUi the Father, and the Son, and
the Holy Ghost are the Lord God. We must not, however,
leave tliis without proof. And therefore we must first show
how Jesus Christ speaks in the prophetical l>ooks under the title
of the Lord God, while yet there can be no doubt that it is
Jesus Cliriat who speaks ; so that in other passages where this
>MaL ii. 17, lit 11

BOOK XX] JUDGMENT TO BR APMlNlS'i'EltED BT^HniST. 407

is uot at once apparent, and where nevertheless it is said that
the Lord God will come to that last judgment, we may under-
staud that Jesus Christ is meant. There is a passage iu the
prophet Isaiah which illustrates what I mean. For God says
hy the prophet, " Hear me, Jacob and Israel, whom I call. I
am the first, and I am for ever: and my hand has founded
the earth, and my right hand has established the heaven. I
will call tliem, and they shall stand togetlier, and be gathered,
and hear. Who has declared to them these things ? In love
of thee I have done thy pleasure upon Babylon, that I might
take away the seed of the Chaldeans. I have spoken, and I
havt? called : I have brought him, and have made his way
prosperous. Come ye near unto me, and hear this. I have
not spoken in secret from the beginning; when they were
made, there was I. And now the Lord God and His Spirit
hath sent me."* It was Himself who was speaking as the
Lord God ; and yet we should not have understood that it
was Jesus Christ had He not added, " And now the Lord
God and His Spirit hath sent me." For He said this with
reference to the foim of a servant, spenking of a future event
as if it were past, as in the same prophet wc read, " He was
led as a sheep to tlie slaughter,"* not " He shall be led ;" but
the past tense is used to express the future. And prophecy
constantly speaks iu this way.

There is also another passage in Zechariah which plainly
declares that the Almiglity sent the Almighty ; and of what
persons can tliis be understood but of God tlie Father and
God the Son ? For it is written, " Thus saith the Lord
Almighty, After the glorj' hath He sent me unto the nations
which spoiled you ; for he that touchcth "you toucheth the
apple of His eye. Behold, I will bring mine hand upon them,
and they shall be a spoil to their servants : and ye shall know
that the Lord Almighty hath sent me."^ Observe, the Lord
Almighty saith that the Lord Almighty sent Him. Wlio can
presume to understand these words of any other than Clirist,
who is speaking to the lost sheep of the house of Israel ? For
He says in the Gospel, ** I am not sent save to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel,"* which He here compared to the

1 Isa. ilviiL 12-16. « Isa. liii 7. » ZecL. ii. 8, &. * ilalt xv. 24.

408 THE CITY OF COD. [BOOK H

piipil of God's eye, to signify the profoundest love. And to
this class of sheep the apostles themselves belonged. B;il
alter the glory, to wit, of Ills resurrection, — for before ii
happened the evangelist said that " Jesus was not yet glorv
Jied/'^ — He was seut unto the nations in the persons of His
apostles ; and thus tlie saying of the psalm was fulfilled
"Thou wilt deliver me from the contradictions of the people;
Thou wilt set me as the head of the nations."* So that th<K
who had spoiled the Israelites, and whom the Israelites had
served when they were subdued hy them, were not themselves
to be spoiled in the same fashion, but were in their own per-
sons to become the spoil of the Israelites. For this had been
promised to the apostles when the Lord said, " I will make
ytiu iislicrs of men."'* And to one of them He says, " From
henceforth tbou slialt catch men,"^ They were then to be-
come a spoil, but iu a good sense, as those who are snatched
from that strong one when he is bound by a stronger.*

In like manner tlie Lord, speaking by the same prophet,
says, " And it shall come to pass in that day, that I -will seek
to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, Audi
will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and mercy j and they shall
look upon me because they have insulted me, and they shall
mourn fur Him as for one very duar, and shall be in bitter-
ness as for an only-begotten,"* To whom but to God does
it belong to destroy all the nations that are hostile to the
holy city Jerusalem, which " come against it," that is, arc
opposed to it, or, as some translate, " come upon it/' as if
putting it down under them ; or to pour out upon the house
of David and the inhabitants of Jerustilem the spirit of grace
and mercy ? This belongs doubtless to God, and it is to God
the projdiet ascribes the words; and yet Christ shows that
He is the God who does these so great and divine things,
when He goes on to say, " And they shall look upon me be-
cause they have insidted me, and they shall mourn for Him
as if for one very dear (or beloved), and shall be iu bitterness
for Him as for an only-begotten." For in that day the Jews —

' John vii. 39. » Ts. xviii. 43. » Matt. iv. 39.

* Luke V. 10. * ^ott. xii. 29. • Zech. xii d, 10.

(OOK XX,] jxmGxrexT to be adxtinistered by cnRisT, 409

those of them, at least, who shall receive the spirit of grace and
mercy — wlien the}' see Him coining in His majesty, and re-
cognise that it ia He whom they, in Uie person of their parents,
insulted when He came before in His humiliation, shall repent
of insulting Him in His passion : and their parents them-
selves, "who were the perpetrators of this huge impiety, shall
see Him when they rise ; but this will be only for their
punishment, and not for their correction. It is not of them
we are to understand the words, " And I will pour upon the
house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the
spirit of grace and mercy, and they shall look upon me be-
cause they have insulted me ; " but we are to understand the
words of their descendants, who shall at that time believe
through Elias. But aa we say to the Jews, You killed Christ,
alLliough it was their parents who did so, so these pei-sous
shall grieve that they in some sort did what their progenitors
did. Although, therefore, those that receive the spirit of
mercy and gi-ace, and btlievcj shall not be condemned with
their impious parents, yet they shall mourn as if they them-
selves iiad done what their parents did. Their grief shall
arise not so much from guilt as from pious affection. Cer-
tainly the words which the Septuagint have translated, "They
shall look upon me because they insulted me " stand in the
Hebrew, "They shall look upon me whom they pierced."'
And by this woi*d the crucifixion of Christ is certainly more
plainly indicated. But the Septuagint translators preferred
to allude to the insult which was involved in His whole
passion. For in point of fact they insulted Him both when
He was arrested and when He was bound, when He was
judged, when He was mocked by the robe they put on Him
and the homage they did on bended knee, when He was
crowned with thorns and struck with a rod on the head, when
He bore His cross, and when at last He hung upon the tree.
And therefore we recognise more fully the Lord's passion
when we do not confine oui'selves to one interpretation, but
coinbine both, and read both "insulted" and "pierced."

When, therefore, we read in the pi-ophetical books that God
is to come to do judgment at the last, from the mere mention
1 So the Vulg&te.

41 0 THE CITY or GOD. [BOOK XI

of the judgment, and although there is nothing else to det«r-
mine the meaning, we mxist gather that Christ is ineanL j fa
though the Father will judge^ He will judge by the cotmog
of the Son, For He Himself, hy His own nianifested pre-
sence, "jiidges no man, but has committed aH judgmest to
the Son;"^ for as the Son was judged as a man. He shall
also judge in human form. For it is none but He of whom
God speaks by Isaiah under the name of Jacob and Israel, of
whose seed Christ took a body, as it is ^vritten, " Jacob is mj
servant, I will uphold Him ; Israel is mine elect, my Spint
has assumed Him: I have put my Spirit upon Him; He
shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry,
nor cease, neither shall His voice be heard ■without A
bruised reed shall He not break, and the smoking flax shall
He not quencli : but in truth shall He briug forth judgment
He shall sliine and shall not be broken^ until He sets judg-
ment in the earth : and the nations shall hope in His name."'
The Hebrew has not "Jacob" and ■" Israel ;" but the Septna-
gint translators, wishing to show the significance of the
expression " my servant," and that it refers to the form of &
servant in which the Most High humbled Himself, inserted
the name of that man from whose stock He took the form
of a servant. The Holy Spirit was given to Him, and was
manifested, as tlie evangelist testifies, in the form of a dov&*
He brought forth judgment to the Gentiles, because He pre-
dicted what was hidden from them. In His meekness He
did liot cry, nor did He cease to proflaim the truth. But
His voice was not heard, nor is it heard, without, because He
is not obeyed by those who are outside of His body. And the
Jews themselves, who persecuted Him, He did not break,
though as a bruised reed they had lost their integrity, and as
smoking flax their light was quenched ; for He spared them,
having come to be judged and not yet to judga He brought
forth judgment in truth, declnring that they should be
punished did they persist in their wickednesa His face
ahoue on the lloant/ His fame in the world. He is not
broken nor overcome, because neither in Himself nor in His

* John V. 22. 9 Tsa. xlii. 1-4.

* John i. 32. * Matt xviL 1, Z

»0K XX.] JUDGIIENT TO BE AD^nXISTEREP BY CHUIST. 411

mrch has persecution prevailed to annihilate Him. And
lerefore that has not, and shall not, Ix; brought about which
is enemies said or say, " When shall He die, and His name
jrish?"^ "until He set judgment in the earth." Behold,
the hidden thing which we were seeking is discovered- For
this is the last judgment, which He will set in the earth,
■u'hen He comes from heaven. And it is in Him, too, we
already seethe concluding expression of the prophecy fulfilled:
" In His name shall the nations hope." And by this fulfil-
ment, which no one can deny^ men are encouraged to believe
in that which is most impudently denied. For who could
have hoped for that which even those who do not yet believe
in Christ now see fidfiUed among us, and which is so un-
deniable that they can but gnash their teeth and pine away ?
Wlio, I say, coidd have hoped that the nations would hope in
the name of Christ, when He was arrested, bound, scourged,
mocked, crucified, when even the disciples themselves had
lost the hope which they had begun to have in Him ? The
hope which was then entertained scarcely by the one thief on
the cross, is now cherished by nations everywhere on the
earth, who are marked with the sign of the cross on which
He died that they may not die eternally.

That the last jud^ent, then, shall he administered by
Jesus Clirist in the manner predicted in the sacred writings
is denied or doubted by no one, unless by those who, through
some incredible animosity or blindness, decline to believe these
writings, though already their truth is demonstrated to all the
■world. And at or in connection with that judgment the fol-
lowing events shall come to pass, as we have learned : Elias
the Tishbite shall come ; the Jews shall believe ; Anticlirist
shall persecute; Christ shall judge; the dead shall rise; the good
and the "svicked shall be septu-ated ; the world shall be burned
and renewed. All these things, we beUeve, sliall come to
pass ; but how, or in what order, human understanding cannot
perfectly teach us, but only the experience of the events them-
selves. My opinion, however, is, that they will happen in the
order in which I have related them.

Two books yet remain to be viitten by mjB, in order to
« Pi. xii e.

412 THE cmr 07 god. [book xl

complete, by God*3 help, what I promised. One of these wiU
explain the punishment of the wicked, the other the happines
of the righteous ; and in them I shall be at special pains to
refute, by God's grace, the arguments by which some TLnhappr
creatures' seem to themselves to undermine the divine promiaei
and threatenlngs, and to ridicule as empty words statement!
which are the most salutary nutriment of faith. But thef
who are instructed in divine things hold the truth and onaor
potence of God to be the strongest arguments in favour of
those things which, however incredible they seem to men, an
yet contained in the Scriptures, whose truth has already in
many ways been proved ; for they are sure that God can is
ho wise lie, and that He can do what is impossible to the
xmbelieving.

] BOOK xn.]

OTIDER OF DISCUSSION.

413

BOOK TWENTY-FIRST.

AEOUIIENT.

I OF THie E?n) HBSKRVED FOR THE CITY OP THE DFV1L, NAMBLT, THE ETEU-VAL
I UNISFfMEST 07 THE DAlUfED ; AS1> OP THE ABGVlIE^*T8 WUICH UNBELlXT
' BGI^CS AOAI>*fiT IT.

1, O/the ordrr of the r/uruMton, which requires that wejtrirt »p*ak of the eternal
puniahment of the hat in company with the devils and theri qf the eternal
happines9 of the saints.

I PROPOSE, with such ability as God may grant me, to
discuss in this book more thoroughly the nature of t]ie
punishment which shall be assi^ed to the devil and all his
retainers^ when the two cities, the ono of God, the other of
the devil, shall have reached their proper ends through Jesus
Christ our Ty>nl, the Judge of quick and dead. And I have
adopted this order, and preferred to apeak, ilrat of the punish-
ment of the devils, and afterwards of the blessedness of the
saints, bccatise the hodtf partakes of either destiny ; and it
seems to be more incredible that bodies endure in everlasting
torments than that they continue to exist without any pain
in everlasting felicity. Consequently, when I shall have
demonstrated that that punishment ought not to be incredible,
this will materially aid me in proving that which is much
more credible, viz. the immortality of the bodies of the saints
which arc delivered from all paiii. Neither is this onler out
of harmony with the divine writings, in which sometimes,
indeed, the blessedness of the good is placed first, as in the
words, "They tliat have done good, unto the resurrection of
life ; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of
damnation ;" ^ but sometimes also last, as, "The Son of man
shall send fortlv Ilis angels, and they shall gather out of His
kingdom all things which offend, and shall cast them into a
furnace of fire : there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

» John T. 29,

414 THE cmr op god. [book xxl

Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the king-
dom of His Father;".^ and that. "These shall go away into
everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal"*
And though Tve have not room to cite instances, any one who
examines the prophets will find that they adopt now the one
arrangement and now the other. My own reason for follow-
ing the latter order I have given.

2. WTtether it U posaihle/or bodies to last for ever in Mtntingjlre,

What, then, can I adduce to convince those who refuse to
believe that human bodies, animated and living, can not only
survive death, hut also last in the torments of everlasting
fires ? They will not allow us to refer this simply to the
power ot tlic Ahiiiglity, hut demand that we persuade them
by some example. If, then, we reply to them, that there
are animals which certainly are corraptihle, because they are
mortal, and which yet live in the midst of flames ; and like-
wise, that in springs of water so hot that no one can put his
hand in it with impunity a species of worm is found, which
not only lives there, hut cannot live elsewhere ; they either
refuse to believe these facts unless we can show them, or, if
we are in circumstances to prove them by ocular demonsti»-
tiou or by adequate testimony, they contend, with the same
acepticism, that thiise facta are not examples of what we seek
to prove, inasmuch as tliese animals do not live for ever, and
besides, they live in that blaze of heat without pain, the ele-
ment of fire being congenial to their nature, and causing it
to thrive and not to suffer, — just as if it were not mora
incredible that it should thrive than that it should suffer in
such circumstjinces. It is strange tliat anything shoifld suffer
in fire and yet live, but stranger that it should live in tire
and not suffer. If, tlien, the latter be believed, why not also
the former 7

3. Whether bodily aufering neeessariiif terminalea in the destruction oj (he jCeiL

But, say they, there is no body which can suffer and can-
not also die. How do we know this ? For who can say with
certainty that the devils do not suffer in their bodies, wbeo

1 Mutt. xiii. 41-43. > MfttU xxv. 46.

BOOK XXT.] THAT BODIES CAN SUFFER AKD "tNTTUBK.

415

they own that they are grievously tormented ? And if it is
replied that there is no earthly body — that is to say, no solid
and perceptible body, or, in one "word, no flesh — wliich can
snfifer and cannot die, is not this to tell ns only what men
have gathered from experience and their bodily senses ? For
they indeed have no acquaintance with any flesh but that
which is mortal ; and this is their whole argument, that what
they have had no experience of they judge quite impospiWe.
For we cannot call it reasoning to make pain a presumption
of death, whOe^ in fact, it is rather a sign of life. For though
it be a question whether that which suffers can continue to
live for ever, yet it is certain that eveT3i,hing which suffers
pain does live, and that pain can exist only in a living subject
It is necessary, therefore, that he who is pained be livini;, not
necessary that pain kill him ; for every pain does not kill even
those mortal bodies of ours which are destined to dia And
that any pain kills them is caused by the circumstance that the
soul is so connected with the body that it succumbs to great
pain and withdraws ; for the structure of our members and
vital pEiTts is so infirm that it cannot bear up against that vio-
lence which causes great or extreme agony. But in the life to
corns this connection of sonl and body is of such a kind, that
as it is dissolved hj no lapse of time, so neither is it burst
asunder by any pain. And so, although it be true that in
this world there ia no flesh which can suffer pain and yet
cannot die, yet in the world to come there shall be flesh sucb
as now there is not, as there will also be death such, as
now there is not. For death will not be abolished, but
win be eternal, since the soid will neither be able to enjoy
God and live, nor to die and escape the pains of the body.
The first death drives the soul from the body against her will :
the second death holds the soul in the body against her wilL
The two have this in common, that the soul suffers against
her will what her own body inflicts.

Our opponents, too, make much of this, that in this world
there is no flesh which can suffer pain and cannot die ;
while they make nothing of the fact that there is something
which is greater than the body. For the spirit, whose pre-
sence animates and rules the body, can both suffer pain and

416

THB CITT OF GOD.

[book XXL

cannot die. Here then is soraetliing which, though it can
feel pain, is immortaL And this capacity, which we now see
in t-lie spirit of all, shall be hereafter in the bodies of the
damned. Moreover, if we attend to the matter a little more
closely, we sec that what is called bodily pain is rather to be
referred to the souL For it is the soul, not the body, which
is pained, even when the pain originates with the body, — tho
soul feeling pain at the point where the body is hurt. As then
we speak of bodies fettling and living, tho^igh the feeling and
life of the body are from the soul, so also we speak of bodies
being pained, though no pain can be suffered by the body
apart from the souL The soul, then, is pained >vith the body
in that part where something occurs to hurt it; and it is
pained alone, though it be in the body, when some invisible
cause distresses it, wliile the body is safe and sound. Even
when not associated with the body it is pained ; for certainly
that rich man was suffering in hell when he cried, " I am
tonnented in this flame." * But as for the body, it suffers xu>
pain when it is soulless; and even when animate it can
suffer only by the soul's suffering. If, thei*efore, we might
draw a just presumption from the existence of pain to that of
death, and conclude tliat where pain can be felt death can
occur, deatli woidd rather he the property of the soul, for to
it jtain more peculiarly belongs. But, seeing that tliat which
suffers most cannot die, what ground is there for supposing
that those bodies, because destined to suffer, are therefore
destined to die i T\ie Platonists indeed maintained that these
earthly bodies and dying members gave rise to the fears, desires*
griefs, and joys of the soul. " Hence," says Virgil {i.e. from
these eartldy bodies and dying membera),

" Hence wild Jesires and grovelling fears,
Aud hmniiii luughtur, human tears."'

But in the fomleenth book of this M'ork' we have proved
that, according to the Platonists' own theory, souls, even when
purged from all pollution of the body, are yet possessed by a
monstrous deske to return again into their bodies. But where
desire can exist, certainly pain also can exist; for desire
frustrated, either by missing what it aims at or losing what
1 Luke ivi. 24, » JSneid, vi. 733, ' Ch. 3, 5, 6.

BOOK XXI.]

EXAMPLES FROM KATURE.

417

it had attained, is turned into pain. And therefore, if the
snul^ which is eitlier the only or the chief sufferer, has yet a
kind of immortality of its own, it is inconsequent to say that
because the bodies of the damned shall suffer pain, therefore
they shall die. In fine, if the body causes the soul to suffer,
why can the body not cause death as well as suffering, unless
because it does not follow that what causes pain causes death
as well? And why then is it incredible that these fires can
cause pain but not death to those bodies we speak of, just as
the bodies themselves cause pain, but not therefore death, to
the souls ? Pain is therefore no necessary presumption of
deatL

i. Examples /rom nahtrt proving that hod\t» may remain wncorntumed
and alive in firt.

If, therefore, the salamander lives in fire, as naturalists ^
have recorded, and if certain famous mountains of Sicily have
been continually on fire from the remotest antiquity until
now, and yet remain entire, these are sufficiently convincing
examples that everything which bums is not consumed. As
the soul, too, is a proof that not everything which can suffer
pain can also die, why then do they yet demand that we
produce real examples to prove that it is not incredible that
the bodies of men condemned to everlasting punishment may
retain their, soul in the fire, may bum without being con-
sumed, and may suffer without perishing ? For suitable pro-
perties will be communicated to the substance of the flesh by
Him who has endowed the things we see with 50 marvellous
and diverse properties, that their very multitude prevents cur
wonder. For who but God the Creator of all tilings has given
to the flesh of the peacock its antiseptic property ? This
property, when I first Iieard of it, seemed to me incredible ;
but it happened at Carthage that a bird of tliis kind was
cooked and served up to me, and, taking a suitable slice of
flesh from its breast, I ordered it to be kept, and when it had
been kept as many days as make any other flesh stinking, it
was produced and set before me, and emitted no offensive

' Aristotle does not nffirm it as a fact observed by himself^ 'but as a popalar
tradition {H'vA. anim. 7. 10). Pliny is equally cautions {IV^i. nat. xxbc. 23).
Dioikioiides declared the tiling impoaaible (iL 68).— Saibsbt.

VOL. n. ID

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XXL

smell And aft^r it had been laid by for thirty dajrs and
more, it was still in the same etate ; and a year after, the
same still, except that it was a little more shrivelled, and
drier. Who gave to chaff such power to freeze that it pie-
serves snow buried under it, and such power to warm that it
ripens green fruit 1

But who can explain the strange properties of fire itself,
which blackens everytlilng it burns^ though itself bright ; and
whichj though of the most beautiful colours, discolours almost
all it touches and feeds upon, and turns blazing fuel into
grimy cinders ? Still this is not laid down as an absolutely
uniform law ; for, on the conti-ary, stones baked in glowing
fire themselves also glow, and though the fire be rather of a
red hue, and they white, yet white is congruous with light,
and black with darltness. Thus, though the fire bums llie
wood in calcining the stones, these contrary effects do not
result from the contrariety of the materials. For thou^
wood and stone differ, they are not contraries, like bLick and
white, the one of which colours is produced in the stones,
while the otlier is produced in the wood by the same action
of fire, which imparts its own brightness to the former, while
it begrimes the latter, and which could have no eflFect on the
one were it not fed by the other. Then what wonderful pro-
perties do we find in charcoal, which is so brittle that a light
tap breaks it and a slight pressure pulverizes it, and yet is
so strong that no moisture rots it, nor any time causes it to
decay. So enduring is it, that it is customary in laying down
landmarks to put charcoal underneath them, so that if, after
the longest interval, any one raises an action, and pleads that
there is no boundary stone, he may be convicted by tlie char-
coal below. What then has enabled it to last so long without
rotting, though buried in the damp earth in which [its original]
wood rots, except this same fire which consumes all things ?

Again, let us consider the wonders of lime ; for besides
growing white in fire, which makes other things black, and
of which I have already said enough, it has also a mysterious
property oi conceiving fire within it Itself cold to the touch,
it yet has a hidden store of fire, which is not at once apparent
to our senses, but which experience teaches us, lies as it wert

BOOK XXI.]

KXAJIPLES FROM XATURE.

419

sluml>eriiig witliin it even while unseen. And it is for this
reason called " quick lime/* aa if the fire were the invisible
soul quickening the visible substance or body. But the mai'-
vellous thinff is. that this fire is kindled when it is extin^-uished.
For to disengage the hidden fire the lime is moistened or
drenched with water, and then, though it be cold before, it
becomes hot by that very application which cools what is hot.
As if the fire were departing from the lime and breathing its
last, it no longer lies hid, but appears; and then the lime
lying in the coldness of death cannot be requickened, and
vhat we before called " quick/' we now call " slaked." What
can be stranger than this ? Yet there is a greater marvel
still. For if you treat the lime, not with water, but with oil,
which is as fuel to fire, no amount of oil will heat it. Now
if this marvel had been told us of some Indian mineral which
we had no opportunity of experimenting upon, we should
either have forthwith pronounced it a falsehood, or certainly
should have been greatly astonished. But things that daily
present themselves to our own observation we despise, not
because they are really less marvellous, but because they are
common; so that even some products of India itself, remote
as it is from ourselves, cease to excite our admiration as soon
as we can admire them at our leisure.*

The diamond is a stone possessed by many among ourselves,
especially by jewellera and lapidaries, and the stone is so hard
that it can be wrought neither by iron nor fire^ nor, they say,
by anything at all except goat's blood. But do you suppose
it is as much admired by those who own it and are familiar
with its properties as by those to whom it is shown for the
first time ? Peraons who have not seen it perhaps do not
believe what is said of it, or if they do, they wonder as at a
tiling beyond their experience ; and if they happen to see it,
Btill they man-el because they are unused to it, but gradually
familiar experience [of it] dulls their admiration. We know

' Scr Lucretius, li. 1025:

*• Sed nef^ue tam fiirilia n*8 ulU 'st, quin ea primnm
Difficilifl magis ad crodendum constet : itemque
Nil adeo magniiiu, nee tjim mlrabile qoicquom
Frincipis, quod ddd mlnuaat mirarltiT onmea
Paulatira,"

420

tot: city 07 GOD.

BOOK XXL

that the loadstone has a wonderful power of attractmg iron.
When I first saw it I was thuudersti'uck, for I saw an iron
ring attracted and suspended by the stone ; and then, as if it
had communicated its own property to the iron it attracted,
and had made it a substance like itself, this ring was put
near another, and lifted it up ; and as the first ring clung to
the magnet, so did the second ring to the first. A third and a
fourth were similarly added, so that there hung from the stone
a kind of chain of rings, with their hoops connected, not inter-
linking, hut attached together by their outer surfaca Who
would not be amazed at this virtue of the stone, subsisting a£
it does not only in itself, but tmnsmitted through so many
suspended rings, and binding them together by invisible links?
Yet far more astonishing is what I heard about this stone
from my brother in the episcopate, Severus bishop of Alilevis.
He told me that Batbanarius^ once count of Africa, when the
bishop was dining with him, produced a magnet, and held it
under a silver plate on wliich he placed a bit of iron ; then as
he moved his hand with the magnet underneath the plate, the
iron upon the plate moved about accortlingly. The interven-
ing silver was not affected at all, but precisely as the magnet
was moved backwards and forwards below it, no matter how
quickly, so was the iron attracted above. I have related what
I myself have witnessed ; I have related what I was told by
one whom I trust as I trust my own eyes. Let me further
say what I have read about this magnet. When a diamond
is laid near it, it does not lift iron'; or if it has already lifted
it, as soon as the diamond approaches, it drops it These
stones come from India. But if we cease to admire them
now familiar, how much less must they
procure them very easily and send them
they are held as cheap as we hold lime,
is common, we think nothing of, though it
has the strange property of burning when water, which is
wont to quench Jire, is poured on it, and of remaining cool
when mixed with oil, which ordinarily feeds fire.

5. Tfiot there are many thtnga ichich reason cannot account/or, and vkick
are nevertheless true,

19'everthelesSj when we declare the miracles which Qod

because they are
admire them who
to us ? Perhaps
which, because it

BOOK XXI.]

MAKVEL3 OF NATtmE.

421

wrought, or will yet work, and which we cannot bring under
the very eyes of men, sceptics keep demanding that we shall
explain these marvels to reason. And because we cannot do
so, inasmuch as they are above human comprehension, they
suppose we are speaking falsely. These persons themselves,
therefore, ought to account for all these marvels which we
either can or do sec. And if they perceive that this is im-
possible for man to do, they should acknowledge that it cannot
be concluded tliab a thing has not been or shall not be because
it cannot be reconciled to reason, since there are things now
in existence of which the same is true. I will not, then,
detail the multitude of marvels which are related in books,
and which refer not to things that happened once and passed
away, but that are permanent in certain places, where, if any
one baa the desire and opportunity, he may ascertain their
truth ; but a few only I recount. The following are some of
tlie marvels men tell us : — The salt of Agrigentum in Sicily,
when thruwTi into the fire, becomes fluid as if it were in
water, but in the water it crackles as if it were in the
fire. The Garamantae have a fountain so cold by day that
no one can drink it^ so hot by ni^lit no one can t^juch it^
In Epirus, too, there is a fountain which, like all others,
quenches lighted torches, but, unlike all others, lights quenched
torches. There is a stone found in Arcadia^ and called asbestos,
because once lit it cannot be put out. The wood of a certain
kind of Egyptian fig-tree sinks in water, and does not float
like other wood ; and, stranger still, when it has been sunk
to the bottom for some time, it rises again to the surface,
though nature requires that when soaked in water it should
be heavier than ever. Then there are the apples of Sodom,
which grow indeed to an appearance of ripeness, but, when
you touch them with hand or tootli, the peel cracks, and they
cioinible into dust and ashes, The Persian stone pyrites burns
the hand when it is tightly held in it^ and so gets its name

* Alluded to by Moore in his Mfhdit-3 .•

"The (ount that playisd
In times of old through Amnion's shadCf
Thmigh icy cold by day it ran.
Yet still, like souls of mirth, began
To burn when night was near.*'

422

THE CITY OF COD.

[book XXL

from fire. In Persia, too, there is found another stone called
Belenite, because its interior brilliancy waxes and wanes with
the moon. Then in Cappadocia the mares are impregnated
by the wind, and their foals live only three years. Tilon,
an Indian island, has this advantage over all other lands,
tliat no tree which grows in it ever loses its foliage.

These and numberless other mar\'el3 recorded in the history,
not of past events, but of permanent localities, I have no time
to enlarge upon and diverge from my main object ; but let
those sceptics who i-efiiso to credit the divine writings give
me, if they can, a rational account of them. For their only
ground of unbelief in the Scriptures is, that they contain
incredible things, just such as I have been recounting. For,
say they, reason cannot admit that flesh burn and remain
unconsumed, suffer u^thout dying. Mighty reasoners, indeed,
who are competent to give the reason of all the marvels that
exist ! Let them then give us the reason of the few Chings
we have cited, and which, if they did not know they exiet^,
and were only assured by ns they would at some future time
occur, they would believe etill less than that which they now
refuse to credit on our word. For which of them would
believe us if, instead of saying that the living bodies of men
hereafter will be such as to endure everlasting pain and fire
without ever dying, we were to say that in the world to come
there will be salt which becomes liquid in fire as if it were
in water, and crackles in water as if it were in fire ; or that
there will be a fountain whose water in the chill air of night
is so hot that it cannot be touched, while in the heat of day
it is so cold that it cannot be drunk ; or that there will be a
stone which by its own heat bums the hand when tightly
held, or a stone which cannot be extinguished if it has been
lit in any part ; or any of those wonders I have cited, while
omitting numberless others ? If we were to say that these
things would be found in the world to come, and our sceptics
were to reply, " If you wish ua to believe these things, satisfy
our reason about each of them," we should confess that we
could not, because the frail comprehension of man cannot
master these and such-like wonders of God's working ; and
t^t yet our reason was thoroughly convinced that the

XXI.] SCEPTICS CAKNOT EXPLAIN THESE MARVri^S. 423

Almighty does nothing without reason, though the frail
mind of man cannot explain the reaaou ; and that while we
are in many instances uncertain what He intends, yet that it
is always most certain that nothing which lie intends is im-
possible to Him ; and that when He declares Hia mind, we
believe Him whom we cannot believe to be either powerless
or false. Nevertheless these cavillers at faith and exactors
of reason, how do they dispose of those things of which a reason
cannot be given, and which yet exist, tliough in apparent con-
trariety to the nature of things ? If we had announced that
these things were to be, these sceptics would have demanded
^oni us the reason of them, as they do in the case of those
things which we are announcing as destined to be. And con-
sequently, as these present marvels are not non-existent, though
human reason and discourse are lost in such works of God, so
those things we speak of are not impossible because in-
explicable ; for in this particular they are in the same pre-
dicament as the marvels of eartL

C. Tltat all Tnartfdi art not of nature's production, but tKiU aonu are due to
human ingenuity and others to diabolic contrivance.

At this point they will perhaps reply, " These things have
no existence ; we don't believe one of them ; they are travellers'
tales and fictitious romances;*' and they may add what has
the appearance of argument, and say, " If you believe such
things as these, believe what is recorded in the same books,
that there was or is a temple of Venus in which a candela-
brum set in the open air holds a lamp, which burns so strongly
that no storm or rain extinguishes it, and which is therefore
called, like the stone mentioned above, the asbestos or inex-
tinguishable lamp." They may say this with the intention of
putting U3 into a dilemma: for if we say this is incredible,
then we shall impugn the truth of the other recorded marvels ;
if, on the other hand, we admit that this is credible, we shall
avouch the pagan deities. But, as I have already said in the
eighteenth book of this work, we do not hold it necessary to
believe all that profane history contains, since, as Varro says,
even historians themselves disagree on so many points, that
one would think they intended and were at pains to do so;
but we believe, if we are disposed, those things which are not

424

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XXL

contradicted by these books, which we do not hesitate to say
we are boimd to believe. But as to those permanent minicles
of nature, whei-eby we wish to persuade the sceptical of tlw
rairaclea of the world to come, those are quite sufficient for
our purpose which we ourselves can observe, or of which it is
not difficult to find trustworthy witnesses. Moreover, that
temple of Venus, with its inextinguishable lamp, so far from
hemining ns into a corner, opens an advantiigeous field to
our argument. For to this inextinguishable lamp we add a
host of marvels wrought by men, or by mafpc, — that is, by
men under the influence of devils, or by the devils directly, —
for such marvels we cannot deny without impugning the truth
of the sacred Scriptures we believe. That lamp, therefore,
was either by some mechanical and human device fitted with
asbestos, or it was arranged by magical art in order that the
worshippers might be astonished, or some devil under the
name of Venus so signally manifested himself that this prodigy
both began and became permanent. Now devils are attracted to
dwell in certain temples by means of the creatures (God's crea-
tures, not theirs), who present to them what suits their various
tastes. They are attracted not by food like animals, but, like
spirits, by such symbols as suit their taate, various kinds of
stones, woods, plants, animals, songs, rites. And that men
may provide these attractions, the devils first of all cunningly
seduce them, either by imbuing their hearts with a secret
poison, or by revealing themselves under a friendly guise, and
thus make a few of them their disciples, who become the in-
structors of the multitude. For unless they first instructed men,
it were impossible to know what each of them desires, what
they shrink from, by what name they should be invoked or
constrained to be present Hence the origin of magic and
magicians. But, above all, they possess the hearts of men, and
are chiefly proud of this possession when they transform them-
flelvea into angels of light Very many things that occur,
therefore, are their doing ; and these deeds of theirs we ought
all the more carefully to shun as we acknowledge them to be
very surprising. And yet these very deeds forward my pre^
sent arguments. For if such marvels are wrought by unclean
devils, how much mightier are the holy angels ! and what can-

BOOK XXI.]

GOD CAN DO ALL MAUVELS,

425

not that God do who made the angels themselves capable of
working miracles !

If, then, very many effects can he contrived by human art,
of so surprising a kind that the uninitiattul think them divine,
as when, e.g., in a certain temple two magnets have been ad-
justed, one in the roof, another in the floor, so that an iron
image is suspended in mid-air between them, one would sup-
pose by the power of the divinity, were he ignorant of the
magnets above and beneath ; or, as in the case of that lamp of
Venus which we already mentioned as being a skilful adaptation
of asbestos ; if, again, by the help of magicians, whom Scrip-
ture calls sorcerers and enchanters, the devils could gain such
power that the noble poet Virgil should consider himself justi-
fied in describing a very powerful magician in these lines :

•'Ilcr charms can cure what souls she please,
Kob other ht^aj-ts of healthful ease,
Turn rivere bofkward to their aource,
And make the stars forget their course^
Ami call np ghosts from ni^ht :
The ground shall bellow 'neatb your feet:
Ths mountaiii-atth shall quit its seat,

Aiid travei dowD the height ; " ' —

if tills be so, how much more able la God to do those things
which to Bceptics are incredible, but to Huj power easy, since
it is He who has given to stones and all other things their
vii"tue, and to men their skill to use them in wonderful ways ;
He who has given to the angels a nature more mighty than
that of all that lives on earth ; He whose power surpasses all
marvels, and whose wisdom in working, ordaining, and "pet'
mitting is no less marvellouB in its governance of all things
than in its creation of all !

7. Tfiai the uitiinate reaaon/or helinnttg rmracUa U the omnipotence of the

Creator.

Why, then, cannot God eflect both that the bodies of the
dead shall rise, and that the bodies of the damned shall be
tormented in everlasting fire, — God, who made the world full
of countless miracles in sky, earth, air, and waters, while itself
is a miracle unquestionably greater and more admirable than
all the marvels it is filled with ? But those with whom or

» JJneid, iv. 487-4fll.

426 Tin: cmr of god. [book xxl

against whom wq are arguing, who believe both that there is
a God who made the world, and that there are gods created
by Him who administer the world's laws as His vicegerents,
—our adversaries, I say, who, so far from denying emphatically,
assert that there are powers in the world which effect mar-
vellous results (whether of their own accord, or because they
are invoked by some rite or prayer, or in some magical way),
when we lay before them the wonderful properties of other
things which arc neither rational animals nor rational spirits,
but such material objects as those we have just cited, are
in the habit of replying, This is their natural property, their
nature ; these are the powers naturally belonging to them.
Thus the whole reason wliy Agrigentine salt dissolves in fiie
and crackles in water is that this is its nature. Yet tliis seems
rather contrary to nature, which has given not to fire but w
water the power of melting salt, and the power of scorching it
not to water but to fire. But this, they say, is the natural
property of this salt, to show effects contrary to these. The
some reason, therefore, is assigned to account for that Gara-
mantian fountain, of which one and the same runlet is chill
by day and boiling by nighty so that in either extreme it can-
not be touched. So also of that other fountain which, though
it is cold to tlie touch, and though it, hke other fountains,
extinguishes a liglited torch, yet, unlike other fountains, and
in a surprising manner, kindles an extinguished torch. So of
the asbestos stone, which, though it has no heat of its own, yet
when kindled by fire applied to it, cannot be extinguished.
And so of the rest, which I am weary of reciting, and in wliicb,
though there seems to be an extraordinarj' property contrary
to nature, yet no other reason is given for them than this, that
this is their nature,-^a brief reason truly, and, I own, a satis-
factory reply. But since God is the author of all natures,
how is it that our advei*saries, when they refuse to believe
what we affirm, on the ground tliat it is impossible, are un-
willing to accept from us a better explanation than their own.
viz. that tliis is the will of Almighty God, — for certainly He
is called Almighty only because He is mighty to do all He
will, — He who was able to create so many mar\"els, not only
imloiowiij but very well ascertained, as I have been showing,

BOOK XXI.]

TXCOySISTENCY OF SCEPTICS.

427

and wliich, were they not under our own observation, or re-
ported by recent and credible witnesses, would certainly be
pronounced impoasible ? For as for those marvels which have
no other testimony than the writers in whose books we read
them, and who wrote without being divinely instructed, and are
therefore liable to human error, we cannot justly blame any
one who declines to believe them.

For my own part, I do not wish all the marvels I have
cited to be rashly accepted, for I do not myaelf believe them
implicitly, save those which have either come under my own
observation, or which any one can readOy verify, — such as the
lime which is heated by water and cooled by oil ; the magnet
which by its mysterious and insensible suction attracts the
iron, but has no effect on a straw ; the peacock s flesh whicli
triumphs over the corruption from which not the flesh of
Plato is exempt ; the chaff so chilling that it prevents snow
from melting, so heating that it forces apples to ripen ; the
glowing fire, which, in accordance with its glowing appearance,
■whitens the stones it bakes, while, contrary to its glowing
appearance, it begrimes most things it burns (just as dirty
stains are made by oil, however pure it be, and as the lines
drawn by white silver are black) ; the charcoal, too, which by
the action of fire is so completely changed from its original,
that a finely marked piece of wood becomes hideous, the tough
becomes brittle, the decaying incorruptible. Some of these
things I know in common with many otlier persona, some of
them in common with all men ; and there are many others
which I have not room to insert in this book. But of those
which I have cited, though I have not myself seen, but only
read about them, I have been unable to hud trustworthy wit-
nesses from whom I could ascertain whether they are facts,
except in the case of that fountain in which burning torches
are extingimhed and extinguished torches lit, and of the
apples of Sodom, which are ripe to appearance, but are filled
with dust. And indeed I have not met with any who said
they had seen that fountain in Epirus, but with some who
knew there was a similar fountain in Gaul not far from
Grenoble. The fruit of the trees of Sodom, however, is not
only spoken of in books worthy of credit^ but so many per-

428 THK CTTY OF GOD. [BOOK XXL

sons say that they have seen it that I cannot doubt the fact
liut the rest of the prodigies I receive without definitely
affirming or denying them; and I have cited them because I
read them in the authors of our adversaries, and that I might
prove how many things many among themselves believe, be-
cause they are written in the works of their own literary men,
though no rational explanation of them is given, and yet they
scorn to believe us when we assert that Almighty God will do
what is beyond their experience and observation ; and this they
do even though we assign a reason for His work. For wlnt
better and stronger reason for such things can be given than
to say that the Almighty is able to bring them to pass, and
will bring them to pass, having predicted them in those books
in which many other marvels which have already come to
pass were predicted ? Those things which are regarded as
impossible will be accomplished according to the word, and by
the power of that God wlio predicted and effected that the
incredulous nations should believe incredible wondei^a.

8. That it u not eonirary to nature that^ in an object whose nature te Iwmn,
there should be discovered an alteration of the properties tehkh have het»

knoxcn as its natural j^opcrtie^.

But if they reply that their reason for not believing 08
vhen we say that human bodies will always bum and yet never
die, is tliat the nature of human boilies is known to be quite
otherwise constituted ; if they say that for this mii'acle we
cannot give the reason which was valid in the case of those
natural miracles, viz. that this is the natural property, the
nature of tlie thing, — for we know that tlus is not tJie nature
of human flesh, — we find our answer in the sacred writings,
that even this human ^esh was constituted in one fashion
before there was sin, — was constituted, in fact, so that it
could not die, — and in another fashion after sin, being made
such as we see it in this miserable state of mortality, unable
to retain enduring life. And so in the resurrection of the
dead shall it be constituted difFerently from its present well-
known condition. But as they do not believe these writings
of ours, in which we read what nature man had in paradise,
and how remote he was from the necessity of death, — and
indeed, if they did believe them^ we should of course have

BOOK XXI. J WHAT 18 CONTRARY TO NATURE ?

429

little trouble in debating with them the future punishment
of the damned, — we must produce from the writings of their
own most learned authorities some instances to ehow that it
is possible for a thing to become different from what it was
formerly known characteristically to be.

From the book of JIarcus Varro, entitled. Of the Bace of
the. Roman Ftopie, I cite word for word the following in-
stance : " There occurred a remarkable celestial portent ; for
Castor records that, in the brilliant star Venus, called Ves-
perugo by Plautua, and the lovely Hesperus by Homer, there
occurred so stran;^e a prodigy, that it changed its colour, size,
form, course, which never happened before nor since. Adrastus
of Cyzicus, and Dion of Naples, famous mathematicians, said
that this occurred in the reign of Ogygos." So great an
author as Varro would certainly not have called this a por-
tent had it not seemed to be contrary to nature. Per we say
that all portents are contrary to nature ; but they are not so.
For how is that contrary to nature which happens by the
will of God, since the will of so mighty a Creator is certainly
the nature of each created thing ? A portent, therefore, hap-
pens not contrary to nature, but contrary to what we know as
nature. But who can number the multitude of portents
recorded in profane histories ? Let us then at present fix
our attention on this one only which concerns the matter in
hand. Wliat is there so arranged by the Author of the nature
of heaven and earth as the exactly ordered course of the
stars ? What is there established by laws so sure and in-
flexible ? And yet, when it pleased Him who with sove-
reignty and supreme power regulates all He has created, a
star conspicuous among tlie rest by its size and splendour
changed its colour, size, form, and, most wonderful of all, the
order and law of its course ! Cctrtainly that phenomenon
disturbed the canons of the astronomers, if there were any
then, by which they tabulate, as by uneiTing computation, the
pa^t and future movements of the stars, so as to take upon
them to affirm that this wliich happened to the morning star
(Venus) never happened before nor since. But we read in
the divine books that even the sun itself stood still when a
holy man, Joshua the son of Nun^ had begged this from God

430

THE CITY OP GOD.

[book XXL

until victory should finish the battle he had begun ; and Uuit

it even went back, that the promise of fifteen years added to

the life of king Hezekiah might be sealed by thia additional

prodigy. But these miracles, wliich were vouchsafed to the

merits of holy men, even when our adversaries believe them,

they attribute to magical arts ; so Virgil, in the lines I quoted

above, ascribes to magic the power to

*• Turn rivers bAclcwArd to their source,
And make the al&ra forget their course."

For in our sacred books we lead that this also happened,
that a river " turned backward/ was stayed above while the
lower part flowed on, when the people passed over under the
above-mentioned leader, Joshua the son of Nun ; and also when
Elias the prophet crossed ; and afterwards, when his disciple
Elisha passed through it: and we have just mentioned how,
in the case of king Hezekiah, the greatest of the " stars foigot
its course." But what happened to Venus, according to Varro,
was not said by him to have happened in answer to any man's
prayer.

Let not the sceptics then benight themselves in this know-
ledge of the nature of things, as if divine power cannot
bring to pass in an object anything else than what their own
experience has shown them to be in its nature. Even the
very things which are most commonly known as natural
would not be less wonderful nor less effectual to excite sur-
prise in all who beheld them^ if men were not accustomed to
admire nothiug but what is rare. For who that thoughtfully
observes the countless multitude of men, and their similarity
of nature, can fail to remark with surprise and admiration the
individuality of each man's appearance, suggesting to us, as it
does, that imless men were like one another, they would not
be distingiuahed from the rest of the animals ; while imless,
ou the other hand, they were unlike, they could not be dis-
tinguished from one another, so that those whom we declare
to be like, we also find to be unlike ? And the unlikeness is
the more wonderfid consideration of the two ; for a common
nature seems rather to require similarity. And yet, because
the very rarity of tilings is that which makes them wonderful,
we are filled with much greater wonder when we are iutro-

BOOK XXI.]

NATURE IS WHAT GOD WTTXS.

431

daced to two men so like, that we either always or frequently
mistake in endeavouring to distinguish between them.

But possibly, though Varro is a heathen historian, and a
very learned one, they may disbelieve that what I have cited
from him truly occurred ; or they may say the example is in-
valid, because the 8t;ir did not for any length of time continue
to follow its new course, but returned to its ordinary orbit.
There is, then, another phenomenon at present open to their
observation, and which, in my opinion, ought to be sufficient
to convince them that, though they have observed and ascer-
tained some natural law, they ought not on that account
to prescribe to God, as if He could not change and turn it
into something very diBFerent from what they have observed.
The land of Sodom was not always as it now is ; but once
it had the appearance of other lands, and enjoyed equal if
not richer fertility ; for, in the divine narrative, it was com-
pared to the paradise of God. But after it was touched [by
fire] from heaven, as even pagan history testifies, and as is
now witnessed by those who visit the spot, it became un-
naturally and horribly sooty in appearance ; and its apples,
under a deceitful appearance of ripenesa, contain ashes within.
Here is a thing which was of one kind, and is of another.
You see how its nature was converted hy the wonderful
transmutation wrought by the Creator of all natures into so
very disgusting a diversity, — an alteration which after so long
a time took place, and after so long a time still continues.

As therefore it was not impossible to God to create such
natures as He pleased, so it is not impossible to Him to
change these natures of His own creation into whatever He
pleases, and thus spread abroad a multitude of those marvels
which are called monsters, portents, prodigies, plieuoniena,*
and which if I were minded to cite and record, what end
would tliure be to tliis work ? They say tliat they are called
"monsters," because they demonstrate or signify something;
" portents," because they portend something ; and so forth."

* See the same collocation of wonli in Cie. Nat deer. ii. 3.

*The etyrnologie* given here by Augtutiue are, " monstra," a monttrando;
"ostenta," nb ostendendo ; "portenta," a porUndendo, i.e. prRoslendeodo ;
** prodigia," <^uod porro dicant, i.e. futura predicant

432

THB CVTY OP OOD.

[book xn

But let their diviners see how they are either deceived, or
even when they do predict true things, it is because they
are inspired by spirits, who are intent upon entangling the
minds of men (worthy, indeed, of such a fate) in the meshes
of a hurtful curiosity, or how they light now and then upon
some truth, because they make so many predictions. Yet,
for our part, these things which happen contrary to natofe,
and are said to be contrary to nature (as the apostle, speak-
ing after the manner of men, says, that to graff the wild olive
into the good olive, and to partake of its fatness, is contraiy
to nature), and are called monsters, phenomena, portents, pro-
digies, ought to demonstrate, portend, predict that God will
bring to pass what He has foretold regarding the bodies of
men, no difficulty preventing Ilira, no law of nature pre-
scribing to Him His limit. How He has foretold what He
is to do, I think I have sufficiently shown in the preceding
book, culling from the sacred Scriptures, both of the New and
Old Testaments, not, indeed, all the passages that relate to
this, but as many as I judged to suMce for this work.

9. Ofhcli, and tht nature of tienval punUhmenU.

So then what God by Hig prophet has said of the ever-
lasting punishment of the damned shall come to pass — shall
without fail come to pass, — "their worm shall not die, neither
shall their fire be quenched." ^ In order to impress this upon
us most forcibly, the Lord Jesns Himself, when ordering us to
cut off our members, meaning thereby those persons whom a
man loves as the most useful members of his body, says, " It
is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than ha\'ing two
hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched;
where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched."
Similarly of the foot : " It is better for thee to enter halt into
life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire
that never shall be quenched ; where their worm dieth not,
and the fire is not quenched/' So, too, of the eye : " It is
better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye,
than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire ; where their
worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." ' He did not
1 iBfc Ixvi 2t * Mark ix. 43-i8.

BOOK XXl]

THE FIRE OF HKLL MATERIAL

433

shrink from using the same words three times over in one
passai^. And who is not terrLfied by this repetition, and by
the tlireat of that punialunent uttered so vehemently by the
lips of the Lord Himself ?

Now they who would refer both the fire and the worm to
the spirit, and not to the body, affirm that the wicked, who are
separated from the kingdom of Go<lj shall be burned, as it were,
by the anguish of a spirit rcpentiug too Lite and fruitlessly ;
and they contend that fire is therefore not inappropriately used
to express this burning torment, as when the apostle exclaims,
" Wlio is offended, and I burn not ? " * The worm, too, they
think, is to be similai'ly understood. For it is written, they
say, " As the moth consumes the garment, and the worm the
wood, so does grief couaiuue the heart of a man." ' But they
who make no doubt that in that future punishment both body
and soul shall suffer, affirm that the body shall be burned with
fire, wliiJe the soul shall be, as it were, gnawed by a worm of
anguish. Though this view is more reasonable, — for it is absiu^
to suppose that either body or soul will escape pain in the
future punishment, — yet, for my own part, I find it easier to
understand both aa referring to the body than to suppose that
neither does ; and I think that Scripture is silent regarding
the spiritual pain of the damned, because, though not expressed,
it is necessarily understood that in a body thus tormented the
soul also is tortured with a fruitless repentance. For we read
in the ancient Scriptures, "The vengeance of the flesh of the
ungodly is fire and worms." ' It might have been more briefly
said, " The vengeance of the ungodly." Wliy, then, was it said,
"The flesh of the ungodly/* unless because both the fire and
the worm are to be the punislunent of the flesh ? Or if the
object of the writer in saying, " The vengeance of the flesh,"
was to indicate that this shall be the punishment of tliose who
live after tiie flesh (for this leads to the second death, as the
apostle intimated when he said, "For if ye live after the .flesh,
ye shall die"*), let each one make his own choice, either
assigning the fire to the body and the worm to the soul, — the
one figuratively, the other really, — or assigning both reaDy to

> 2 Cor. xi. 29.
■ Ecolua. vii 17.
VOL. a

» UtL. \i. 8.
* Rom. Tiii. 13.

434 THE CITY OF GOD. [rOOK XXI.

the body. For I have already sufficiently made out that
animals can live in the fire, in burning without being con-
Bumed, in pain without dying, by a miracle of the most omni-
potent Creator, to whom no one can deny that this is possible, if
he be not ignorant by whom has been made all that is wonder-
ful in all nature. For it is God Himself who has wrousht oU
these miracles, great and small, in this world which I have
mentioned, and incomparably more which I have omitted, and
who has enclosed these marvels in tliis world, itself the greatest
miracle of all. Let each man, then, choose which he will,
whether he thinks that the worm is real and pertains to the
body, or that spiritual things are meant by bodUy representa-
tions, and that it belongs to the souL But which of these is
true will be more readily discovered by the facts themselves,
when there shall be in the saints such knowledge as shall noc
require that their own experience teach them the nature of
these punishments, but as shall, by its own fulness and per-
fection, suffice to instruct them in this matter. For " now we
know in part, until that which is perfect is come ; " ' only, this
we believe about those future bodies, that they shall be audi
as shall certainly be pained by the fire.

10. WheiJicr Utejire ofheii, if it he material f re, can bum the uncj&etj epirUt,
that w to «a^, deviU, who are imnuUcrial,

Here arises the question : If the fire is not to be immaterial,
analogous to the pain of the soid, but material, burning by
contact, so that bodies may be tormented in it, how can evil
spirits be punished in it ? For it is undoubtedly the same
fire which is to serve for the punishment of men and of devds,
according to the words of Christ : " Depart from me, ye cursed,
into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels ; " '
unless, perhaps, na learned men have thouglit, the devils have
a kind of body made of that dense and humid air which we
feel strikes us when the wind is blowing. And if this kind
of substance coidd not be affected by fire, it could not bum
when heated in the baths. For in order to burn, it is firet
burned, and affects other things as itself is affected But if
any one maintains that the devils have no bodies, this is not
1 1 Cor. xiii. 0, 10, ■ idfttt. ut. 41.

1^^

BOOK XXI.] now SPIHITS StTFER IN HELL. 435

a matter either bo be laboriously investigated, or to be debated
with keenness. For why may we not assert that even imma-
terial spirits may, in some extraordinary way, yet really be
pained by the punishment of material fire, if the spirits of
men. which also are certainly immaterial, are both now con-
tained in material members of the body, and in the world to
come shall be indissolubly united to their own bodies ? There-
fore, though the devils have no bodies, yet their spirits, that
is, the devils themselves, shall be brought into thorough con-
tact with the material Urea, to be tormented by them ; not
that the fires themselves with which they are brought into
contact shall be ariiuiated by their connection with tliese spirits,
and become animals composed of body and spirit, but, as I
said, tliis junction will he eflected in a wonderful and ineffable
way, so that they shall receive pain from the fires, but give no
life to them. And, in truth, tlus other mode of union, by
which bodies and spirits are bound together and become
animals, is thoroughly niarvcDous, and beyond the compre-
hension of man, though this it is which is maa

1 would indeed say that tlmsc spirits will burn without any
body of their own, as that rich man was burning in hell when
he exclaimed, " I am tormented in this flame," ' were I not
aware that it is aptly said in reply, that tliat flame was of the
same nature as the eyes he raised and fLxed on Lazarus, as tlie
tongue on which he entreated that a little cooling water might
be dropped, or as the finger of Lazarus, with which he asked
that this might be done, — all of which took place where souls
exist without bodies. Thus, therefore, both that flame in
which he burned and that drop he begged were immaterial,
and resembled the visions of sleepers or persons in an ecstasy,
to whom immaterial objects appear in a bodily form. For the
man himself who is in such a state, though it be in spirit
only, not in body, yet sees himself so like to his own body
tlmt he cannot discern any difference whatever. But that
hell, which also is called a lake of fire and hrimsbone,' will be
material fire, and will torment the bodies of the damned,
whether men or devils, — the solid bodies of the one, aerial
bodies of the others ; or if only men have bodies as well as

^ Luke xvi 24. ■ Rer. m. 1(K

TTTE CTTT 0? GOP.

[book xxt

soulSj yet the e\nl spirits, though without bodies, shall be so
connected with the bodily fires as to receive pain without
imparting life. One fire certainly shall be the lot of both,
for thus the truth has declared.

11. Whether U it Just that the punittkmmts o/tiju tast longer tluxn the sin*
I thanstlves lasted.

Some, however, of those against whom we are defending the"
city of God, think it unjust that any man be doomed to an
eternal punishment for sins which, no matter how great they
were, were perpeimted in a brief space of time; as if any law
ever regulated the duration of the punishment by the duration
of the offence punished ! Cicero tells us that the laws recog-
nise eight kintlg of penalty, — damages, imprisonment, scourging,
reparation,^ disgrace, exile, death, slavery. Is there any one
of these which may be compressed into a brevity proportioned
to the rapid commission of the offence, so that no longer time
may be spent in its punishment than in its perpetration, unless,
perhaps, reparation ? For this requires that the offender
suffer what he did, as that clause of the law says, " Eye for
eye, tooth for tooth."* For certaiidy it is possible for an
offender to lose his eye by the severity of legal retaliation in
as brief a time as he deprived auother of his eye by the
cruelty of hia own lawlessness. But if scourging bo a reason-
able penalty for kissing another man's wife, is not the fault
of an instant visited with long hours of atonement, and the
momentary delight punished with lasting pain ? "What shall
we say of imprisonment ? Must the criminal be confined only
for so long a time as he spent on the offence for wliich be is
committed ? or is not a penalty of many years' confinement
imposed on the slave who has provoked his master with a
word, or has struck him a blow that is quickly over ? And
as to damages, disgrace, exLLe, slavery, wliich are commonly
inflicted so as to admit of no relaxation or pardon, do not these
resemble eternal punislunents ia so far as this short life allows
a resemblance ? For they are not eternal only because the

* "Talio," ie, tha Tendering of Uke for like, the punishmeut being exactly
similnr to tht* injury auatuined,

BOOK XXL] nrn^cAL rtnasinfENT of brtep six.

437

life in which they are endured is not eternal ; and yet the
crimes wliich are punished with these most protracted sxiffer-
ings are perpetrated in a very brief space of time. Nor is
there any one who would suppose that the pains of punish-
ment should occupy as short a time as the offence ; or that
murder^ adultery, sacrilege, or any other crime, should be
measured, not by the enormity of the iujuiy or wickedness,
but by the length of time spent in its perpetration. Then as
to the award of death for any great crime, do the laws reckon
the punishment to consist in the brief moment in which death
is inflicted, or in this, that the offender is eternally banished
from the society of the living ? And just as the punishment
of the first death cuU men off from this present mortal city,
so does the puuiahincnt of the second death cut men off from
that futuje immortal city. For as the laws of this present
city do not provide for the executed criminal's return to it, so
neither is he who is condemned to the eecond death recalled
again to life everlasting. But if temporal sin is visited with
eternal punishment, how, then, they say, is that true which
your Christ says, " With the same measure tliat ye mete
withal it sliall be measured to you again ?"* and they do not
observe that " the same measure" refers, not to an equal space
of time, but to the retribution of evil, or, in other words, to
the law by which he who has done eyil suilera evil Besides,
these words could be appropriately understood as referring to
the matter of which our Lord was speaking when He used
them, viz. judgments and condemnation. Thus, if he who
unjustly judges and condemns is himself jiistly judged and
condemned, he receives ''with the same measure" though not
the same thing as he gave. For judgment he gave, and judg-
ment he receives, though the judgment he gave was unjust,
the judgment he receives just

12. OJ the ffreatnesa of the /rat transgression, on account of which eternal
punishment is due to all who art not within tite pale of the Saviour'»
rprace.

But eternal punishment seems hard and unjust to human
perceptions, because in the weakness of our mortal condition
there is wanting that highest and purest wisdom by which it

* Luke Ti. 38,

438 Tire CITY OP GOD. ["book xxt

can be perceived bow great a wickedness was comznitted in
that first transgression. The more enjoyment man found in
God, the greater was his wickedness in aLandoning Him;
and he who destroyed in himself a good which might have
been uterual, hecame worthy of eternal evil. Hence the
whole mass of the human race is cnndemned ; for he who at
first gave entrance to sin has been punished with all his pos-
terity who were in him as in a root, so that no one is exempt
from this just and due punishment, unless delivered by mercy
and undeserved grace ; and the human race is so apportioned
that in some is displayed the efficacy of merciful grace, in tbe
rest the efficacy of just retribution. For both coidd not be
displayed in all; for if all had remained^ under the punish-
ment of just condemnation, there would have been seen in no
one the mercy of redeeming grace. And, on the other hand, if
all had been transferred from darkness to light, the severity of
retribution would have been manifested in none. But many
more are left under punishnitint than are delivered from it, in
order that it may thus be shown what was due to alL And
had it been inflicted on all, no one could justly have found
fault with tlie justice of Him who taketh vengeance ; whereas,
in the deliverance of so many from that just award, there is
cause to render the most cordial thanks to the gratuitous
bounty of Him who delivers.

13. Affoinst the opinion ofthojtt vrlio thini that the ptmUhmenU qfthe uricbed
<lJ'ter death are purgatorial.

Tlie Platonists, indeed, while they maintain that no sins
are unpunished, suppose tliat all punishment is administered
for remedial purposes,' be it inflicted by human or divine law,
in this life or after death ; for a man may be scathless here,
or, though punished, may yet not amend. Hence that passage

* RemanerenL But Augujitine coiifitoQUy lues tlie inip. for tlie plup. sab-
junctivfl.

' Pkto'a own theory was tbat punishment had a twofold purpose, to refonn
and to deter. "No one pnnialjes an offender on account of the past offeuce,
and simply because he has done ^Tong, but for the sake of tlie future, that the
offence may nut be again committed, either by the same person or by any one
who has seen )ma punished." — See the Protagoras, 324, b, and Grote's Plato,
ii. il.

BOOK XXL] PLATONIST THEORY OP PITNISHMENT.

439

of Virgil, where, when he had said of our earthly bodies and
mortal members, that our aouls derive —

*' Hence wild desires »nd grovelling fcnra,
And baman laughter, human tears :
Immured in dungeon-seeming night,
They look abroad, yet see no light, "

goes on to say :

*' Xay, when at last the life has fled.
And left the body cold and dead,
E'en then there passes not away
The painful heritage of clay ;
Full many a long -contracted itAin
Perforce mnst linger deep in grain.
So penal aufTerings they endure
For ancient crime, to make them pure ;
Some hang aloft in open view,
For winds to pierce them through and through,
While others purge their guilt deep-dyed
In burning lire or whelming tide,**^

They who are of this opinion would Lave all punisliiriGnta
after death to be purgatorial ; and as the elements of air, fire,
and water are superior to eartli, one or other of these may be
the instrument of expiating and purging away the stain con-
tracted by tlie contagion of earth. So Virgil hints at the air
in the words, "Some hang aloft for winds to pierce;*' at the
water in " whelming tide ; " and at fire in the expression " in
buniing fire." For our part, we recognise that even in this
life some ptinishments are purgatorial, — not, indeed, to those
whose life is none the better, but rather the worse for them,
but to those who are constrained by them to amend their life.
All other punishments, whether temporal or eternal, inflicted
as they are on every one by divine providence, are sent either
on account of past sins, or of sins presently allowed in the
life, or to exercise and reveal a man's graces. They may be
inflicted by the instrumentnlity of bad men and angels as well
as of the good. For even if any one suffers some hurt throiigh
another's wickedness or mistake, the man indeed sins whose
ignorance or injustice does the harm ; but God, who by His
just though hidden judgment permits it to be done, sins not.
But temporary punishments are suffered by some in this life
> ^iieid, vL 733,

440 TUE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK XXL

only, by others after death, by others both now and then ; bat
all of them before that last and Btrictest judgment. But of
those who suffer temporary pimishments after death, all are
not doomed to those everlasting pains which are to foUov
that judgment ; for to sonio, as we have already said, what
is not remitted in this world is remitted in the next, that is,
they are not punished with the eternal punisliment of the
world to come.

H. Of the Uinporary pttnhshmenU of this life to which the human condiHon

is tttbject

Quite exception«il are those who are not pimislied in this
life, but only afterwanls. Yet that there have been some
who have reached the decrepitude of age without experiencing
even the slightest sickness, and wlm have had uninterrupted
enjoyment of life, I know both from report and from my own
observation. However, the very life we mortals lead is itself
all punishment, for it is all temptation, as the Scriptures
declare, where it ia written, " Is not the life of man npon
earth a temptation?"^ For ignorance is itself no slight
punishment, or want of culture, whinli it is with justice
thought so necessary to escape, that boys are compelled, under
pain of severe punishment, to learn trades or letters ; and the
learning to which they are driven by punishment is itself so
much of a punishment to them, that they sometimes prefer the
pain that drives them to the pain to which they are driven by
it. And who would not slu-ink from the alternative, and
elect to die, if it were proposed to him either to suffer death
or to be again an infant ? Our infancy, indeed, introducing
us to tliis life not with laughter but with tears, seems un-
consciously to predict the ills we are to encounter.* Zoroaster
alone is said to have laughed when he was born, and that
imnatural omen portended no good to him. For he is said to
have been the inventor of magical arts, though indeed they
were unable to secure to him even the poor felicity of this
present life against tlie assaults of his enemies. For, liimself
king of the Bactrians, he was conquered by Kinus king of the

' Jot vii. 1.

' Compare Goldsmith's saying, " We b^in life ta tean^ and eveiy day tcIU
ua why/*

BOOK XXI.]

PUNISHMENTS IN THIS LIFE.

Assyrians. In short, the words of Scripture, " An heavy yoke
is upon the sons of Adam, from the day that they go out of
their mother*s womb till the day tliafc they return to the
mother of all tilings."' — these words so inftdlibly find fulfil-
ment, that even tlie little ones, who by the laver of regenera-
tion have been freed from the bond of original sin in which
alone they were held, yet sufifer many ills, and in some in-
stances are even exposed to the assaults of evil spirits. But
let us not for a moment suppose that this suffering is pre-
judicial to their future happiness, even though it has so in-
creased as to sever soul from body, and to terminate their life
in that early age.

la. That everyUi'ing which ike grace o/Ood dot* in tht way qf rescuing vsfrom
ike inveterate tviU in which vre are sunk, pertains to tfie fuiure toorld, m
toMeh aU thing* are made ntto.

Nevertheless, in the "heavy yoke that is laid upon the
sons of Adam, from the day that they go out of their mother's
womb to the day that they return to the mother of all things,"
there is found an admirable though painful monitor teaching
us to be sober-minded, and convincing us that this life has
become penal in conseq^uence of that outrageous wickedness
which was perpetrated in Paradise, and that all to which the
New Testament invites belongs to that future inheritance
which awaits us in the world to come, and is offered for our
acceptance, as the earnest that we may, in its own due time,
obtain that of which it is the pledge. Now, therefore, let us
walk in hope, and let us by the spirit mortify the deeds of
the flesh, and so make progress from day to day. For " the
Loi"d knoweth them that are His ; " ^ and " as many as are
led by the Spirit of God, tliey are sons of God,"^ but by grace,
not by nature. For there is but one Son of God by nature,
who in His compassion became Son of man for onr sakes, that
we, by nature sons of men, might by grace become through
Him sons of God. For He, abiding unchangeable, took upon
Him our nature, that thereby He might take us to Himself;
and, holding fast His own divinity, He became paitaker of
our infirmity, that we, being changed into some better thing,
might, by participating in His righteousness and inmior-

» Ewlus. xl. 1.

»2Tim. ii. 19.

' Kom. viii. 1 4.

442

TRE CITY OF GOP.

[book XXL

tality, lose our own properties of sin and mortality, and
presei-ve "whatever good quality He liad implanted in our
imture, perfected now by sharing in tlie goodness of His
nature. For aa by the sin of one man we have fallen
into a misery so deplorable, so by the righteonaness of one
Man, who also is God, shall we come to a blessedness in-
conceivably exalted. Nor ought any one to trust that he has
passed from the one man to the other until he shall have reached
that place where there is no temptation, and have entered
into the peace which he seeks in the many and variotxs con-
iitcts of this war, in which "the ilesh liisteth against the
spirit, and the spirit against the llesk"* Now, such a war as
this would have had no existence, if human nature had, in
the exercise of free will, continued stedfast in the upright-
ness in which it was created. But now in its misery it
makes war upon itself, because in its blessedness it woidd not
continue at peace with God ; and this, though it be a mise-
rable calamity, is better than the eoiiier stages of this life,
which do not recognise that a war is to be maintained. For
better is it to contend with vices tlian without conflict to be
subdued by them. Better, I say, is war with the hope of
peace everlasting than captivity without any thought of de-
liverance. We long, indeed, for the cessation of this war, and,
kindled by the flame of divine love, we burn for entrance on
that well-ordered peace in which whatever is inferior is for
ever subordinated to what is above it. But if (which God
forbid) there had been no hope of so blessed a consummation,
we should still have preferred to endure the hardness of this
conflict, rather than, by our non-resistance, to yield ourselves
to the dominion of vice.

16. The laiM offfraee, which exUnd to all the epochs qf the life of the regeno'ate^

But such ia God's mercy towards the vessels of mercy
which He has prepared for glory, that even the first age of
man, that is, infancy, wliich submits without any resistance bo
the flesh, aud the second age, which is called boyhood, and
which has not yet understanding enough to undertake this
warfai'e, and therefore yields to almost every vicious pleasure

» Gal. V. 17.

BOOK xxr.]

CRACE IN THIS LIFE.

443

(because though this age has the power of speech/ and may
therefore seem to have passed infancy, the mind is still too
■weak to comprehend the commandment), yet if eitlier of these
ages has received the sacraments of the Mediator, then, although
the present life be immediately brought to an end, the child,
having been translated from the power of darkness to the king-
dom of Christ, shall not only be saved from eternal punish-
ments, but shall not even suffer purgatorial torments after
death. Por spiritual regeneration of itself suflBces to prevent
any evil consequences resulting after death from the connec-
tion with death which carnal generation foi-ms.^ But when
we reach that age which can now comprehend the command-
ment, and submit to the dominion of law, we must declare
war upon vices, and wage this war keenly, lest we be landed
in damnable sins. And if vices have not gathered strength,
by habitual victory they are more easily overcome and sub-
dued ; but if they have been used to conquer and rule, it is
only with difficulty and hibour they are mastered. And
indeed this victory cannot be sincerely and truly gained but
by delighting in true righteousness, and it is faith in Christ
that gives this. For if the law be present with its command,
and the Spirit be absent with His help, the presence of the
prohibition serves only to increase the desire to sin, and adds
the guilt of transgression. Sometimes, indeed, patent vices
ftre overcome by other and hidden vices, which are reckoned
virtues, though pride and a kind of ruinous self-suflBcicncy
aie their informing principles. Accordingly vices are then
only to be considered overcome when they are conquered by
the love of God, which God Himself alone gives, and which
He gives only through the Mediator between God and men,
the man Christ Jesus, who became a partaker of our mortality
that He might make us partakers of His divinity. But few
indeed are they who are so happy as to have passed their
youtii without committing any damnable sins, eitlier by disso-
lute or violent conduct, or by following some godless and
unlawfid opinions, but have subdued by their greatness of
soul everything in them which coidd make them the slaves of
csarual pleasures. The greater number having first become
* " MuL" * See Aug. £p. 98, ad Bonifaeium,

444 ^ TnE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK HI

transgressors of the law that they have received, and having
allowed vice to have the ascendency in them, then flee to
grace for he)p, and so^ by a penitence more bitter, and a stru^
more violent than it would othei*wise have been, they subdau
the soul to God, and thus give it its lawful authority over
the flesh, and become victors. Whoever, therefore, desires to
escape eternal punishment, let him not only he baptized, but
abo justified in Christ, and so let him in truth, pass from the
devil to Christ And let him not fancy that there are any
purgatorial pains except before that final aud dreadful judg-
ment We must not, however, deny that even the etentil
lire will be proportioned to the deserts of the wicked, so that
to some it will be more, and to others less painful, whether
this result be accomplished by a variation in the temperatow
of the fire itself, graduated according to every one's merit, nr
whether it be that the heat remains the same, but that all di?
not feel it with equal intensity of torment,

17. Of those whofanqf that no mea shall be punUUetl ttemaUtf,

I must now, I see, enter the lists of amicable controvcnj
with those tender-h called Christians who decline to beUen
that any, or that all of those whom the infallibly just Judge
may pronounce worthy of the punishment of hell, shall suffff
eternally, and Mho suppose that they shall be delivered after
a fijced terra of punishment, longer or -shorter according to
the amount of each man's sin. In respect of this maltet,
Origen was even more indulgent ; for he believed that even
the devil himself and his angels, after suffering those more
severe and prolonged pains which their sins deserved, shouJd
be delivered from their tomients, and associated witlx the hoij
(angels. But the Church, not without reason, condemned hin
for this and other errors, especially for liis theory of the ceast-
less alternation of happiness and misery, and the interminabte
transitions from the one state to the other at fixed periods of
ages ; for in this theory he lost even tlio credit of being mcT"
ciful, by allotting to the saints real miseries for the expiation
of their sins, and false happiness, which brought them no true
and secure joy, that is, no fearless assurance of eternal blessed-
ness. Very different, however, is the error we speak of, which

>0K XXI.] ORIGEN' ON ETERNAL PimiSHMENT.

445

is dictated by the tenderness of these Christians who suppose
that the sufferings of those who are condemned in the judg-
ment will be temporary, while the blessedness of all who are
sooner or later set free will be eternal. Which opiaion, if it
is good anil true because it is merciful, will be so much the
better and truer in proportion as it becomes more merciful.
Let, then, this fountain of mercy be extended, and flow forth
even to the lost angels, and let them also be set free, at legist
after as many and lonj:; ages as seem fit I "VVhy does this sti'eaml*
of mercy flow to all the human race, and dry up as soon as U
it reaches the angelic ? And yet they dare not extend theiri,
pity further, and propose the deliverance of the devil himself./*
Or if any one is bold enough to do so, he does indeed put to
shame their charity, but is himself convicted of error that is more
linsightly, and a wresting of God's truth that is more perverse,
in proportion as his clemency of sentiment seems to be greater.^

18. Ofihose wfio/anq/ that, on accovnt of the eaints' intercession, no man aAott
be dnmnfd in Uif last jud<jm«nt.

There are others, again, with whose opinions I have become
[uainted in conversation, who, though they seem to reve-
ice the holy Scriptures, are yet of reptrehensible life, and
rho accordingly, in their own interest, attribute to God a still
greater compassion towards men. For they acknowledge that
it is truly predicted in the divine word that the wicked and
iinbelie%Tiig arc worthy of punishment, but they assert that,
■when the judgment comes, mercy will prevail. For, say they,
God, having compassion on them, will give them up to the
prayers and intercessions of His saints. For if the saints
used to pray for them whnn they suffered from their cniel
hatred, how much more will they do so when they see them
prostrate and humble suppliants ? For wc cannot, they ^ja^,
believe that the saints shall lose their bowels of compassion
when tliey have attained the most perfect and complt;te holi-
ness ; soThat they who, when still sinners, prayed for their

* On tho Tiereay of Origcm sec Epiphanitia {Spistota ad Joannem Hltroaol.) ;
Jerome (K}Astola 61, ad Pammacfaam) ; and Augustine {De flttres. 43). Ori-
jfen's opinion was conilemned by AniutJisius (Jerome, Apologia adv. liHJjinumj
and Ep'tttola 78, ad Pammachittm), and after Augustine's death by Vigilitis and
the Emperor Justinian, in the Fifth CEcumenical Conncil (Nicephorus Callistua,
xviL 27, and the AcUo/the CoiMcU, ir. 11).— CoqiTiSUa.

446 THE CITY OF GOD. [UOOK HI

n*x of U
lishiJB

enemies, should now, when they are freed from sin, withhoW
from intercediog for their suppliants. Or shall God rpfn.se to
listen to so many of His beloved children, when their holiDCsi
has purged their prayers of all hindrance to His answeria;
them ? And the passage of the psalm which is cited by those
who admit that wicked men and infidels shall be punished for
a long time, though in the end delivered from all suiferin|%
is claimed also by the persons we are now speaking of u
making much more for them. The verse runs : *' Shall
forget to be gracious ? Shall He in anger shut up His
mercies ?"^ His anger, they say, would condemn all
unworthy of everlasting happiness to endless pun
But if He suffer them to be punished for a long time, or evea
at all, must He not shut up His tender mercies, wluch tb*
Psalmist implies He wOl not do ? For he does not say. Shall
He in anger shut up His tender mercies for a long period I
but Ite irapKen that He will not shut them up at alL

And they deny that thus God's threat of judgment is proved
to be false even though He condemn no man, any more thaa
we can say that His threat to ovei-tlirow Nineveh was false,
though the destruction which was absolutely predicted iras
not accompLshed. For He did not say, " Nineveh shall be
overtlirown if they do not repent and amend their wa3's," bul
without any such condition He foretold that the city should
be overthrown. And this prediction, they maintain, was true
because God predicted the punishment which they deserved,
although He was not to iiillict it For though He spared
them on their repentance, yet He was certainly aware that
they would repent, and, notwithstanding, absolutely and de-
finitely predicted that the city should be overthrown. Thia
was truBj they say, in the truth of severity, because they
worthy of it ; but in respect of the compassion which checked
His anger, so that He spared the suppliants fi-om the punish
mcnt with which He had threatened the rebellious, it was nol
true. If, then, He spared those whom His own holy prophet
was provoked at His sparing, how much more shall He spare
those more wretched suppliants for whom all His saints shall
intercede ? And they suppose that this conjecture of thein

* Pft. IxxTii 9.

►OK XXI.] VAMOUS THEORrES 0? FUTTRE PTINISHireXT. 447

not hinted at in Scripture, for the sake of stimulating many
reformatioa of life through fear of very protracted or eternal
ferings, and of stimulating others to pray for those "who
tve not reformed. However, they think that the divine
Les are not altogether silent on this point ; for they ask
■what purpose is it said, " How great is Thy goodness which
lou hast hidden for them that fear Thee/' ^ if it be not to
;h U3 that the great and hidden sweetness of God's merny
concealed in order that men may fear ? To the same pur-
)se tliey think the apostle said, "Far God hath concluded
men in unbehef, that He may have mercy upon all," "
;nifying tiiat no one should be condemned by God, And
yet they who hold this opinion do not extend it to the ac-
quittal or liberation of the devil and his angels. Their human
tenderness is moved only towards men, and they plead chiefly
their own cause, holding out false hopes of impunity to their
own depraved lives by means of this quasi compassion of God
to the whale race. Consequently they who promise tliis im-
punity even to the prince of the devils and his satellites make
a still fuller exhibition of the mercy of God

19. 0/ thoK tcho promise impunity from all sins even to herftics^ tJarough
virtue of Uieir parUcipation of the body of UJiritt.

So, too, there are others who promise this deliverance from
eternal punishment, not, indeed, to all men, but only to those
who have been washed in Christian baptism, and who become
partakers of the body of Christ, no matter how Uiey have
lived, or what heresy or impiety they have fallen into. They
ground this opinion on the saying of Jesus, " This is the bread
"which cometh down from heaven, that if any man eat thereof,
he shall not die. I am the living bread which came down
from heaven. If a man eat of this bread, he shall live for
ever." * Therefore, say they, it ioUows that these persons
must be delivered from death eternal, and at one time or other
be introduced to everlasting life.

20. Of those who promise this indulgence not to ail, hut only to those who Have
been bapUud as catholics^ though qftericards they have broken out into
many Crimea and herenes.

There are others still who make this promise not even to

» Pb. xxxL 19. ■ Eom. li. S2. » Jol^n vL 50, 51.

443 """'^ "THE CITY OF GOD. [BOOK XXI

all who have received the sacraments of the baptism of Christ
and of His body, but only to the catholics, however badly
they have lived. For these have eaten the body of Christ,
not only sacramentally but really, being incorporated in Hi*
body, as the apostle says, " We, being many, are one bread,
one body;"^ so that, though they have afterwards lapsed into
Bonie heresy, or even into heathenism and idolatry, yet by
virtue of this one thing, that they have received the baptism
of Christ, and eaten the body of Christ, in the body of Christ.
that 13 to say, in the catholic Church, they shall not die
eternally, but at one time or other obtain eternal life ; and all
that wickedness of theirs shall not avail to make tlieir punisL-
ment eternal, but only proportionately long and severe.

21. Of Uioae who (uscrt that ail eathoUca who continue in thf-faith^ even thenf^
by the depravity oj tfi*ir Uvea they have vtrrited heU^e^ $JiaU bt iOMtf M
account o/iftc ** foundation " of tftfir fuith.

There are some, too, who found upon the expression of
Scripture, " He that eiidureth to the end shall be saved,"' and
who promise salvation only to those who continue in the
Church catholic ; and though such persons have lived badly,
yet, say they, they shall be saved as by lire through virtue of
the foundation of which the apostle says, " For other founda-
tion hath no njan laid than that which is laid, Avhich is Clirist
Josus. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold,
silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble ; every man's work
shall be made manifest: for the day of the I^jrd shall de-
clare it, for it shall be revealed by fire ; and each man s work
shall be proved of what sort it is. If any man's work shall
endure which be hath built thereupon, he shall receive a
reward. But if any man's work shall be burned, he shaD
suffer loss : but he himself shall be saved ; yet so as througli
fire." ' They say, accordingly, that the catholic Christian, no
matter what his life be, has Christ as his foundation, while
tliis foundation is not possessed by any heresy which is sepa-
rated from the unity of His body. And therefore, through
virtue of this foundation, even though the catholic Cliristiiia
by tlie inconsistency of his life has been as one building up
wood, hay, stubble, upon it, they believe that he shall be
* 1 Cor. X. 17. ■ Matt xxiv. 13. ^ 1 Cor. liL 11-15.

BOOK XXI.] THEOniES OF TUTUEE PUNISHMENT.

4-A9

saved by fire, in otl»er wortis, that he shall be delivered after
tasting the pain of that fire to which the wicked shall be con-
demned at the last judj^nent.

22. Of thou lohofancif that the «i/i« inAiVA are intrrfnhujlal with aitnatlecds
ahall not be charged tU iJtr day o/jutfrpnent.

I have also met with some who are of opinion that such
only as negkict to cover their sins with alms-deeds shall be
punished in everlasting fire ; and they cite the words of the
Apostle James, '* He shall have judgment without mercy who
hath sliown no mercy." ' Therefore, say they, he who has
not amended his waya. but yet has interminrrled his profligate
and wicked actions with works of mercy, shall receive mercy
in the jud^fuient, so that he shall either quite escape con-
demnation, ur shall be liberated from his doom after some time
shorter or longer. They suppose that this w^aa tlie reason
why the Judjjje Himself of quick and dead declined to mention
anylhiug else than works of mercy done or omittetl, when
awarding to those on His right hand life eternal, and to those
on His left everlasting punishment." To the same purpose,
they say, is the daily petition wc make in the Lord's prayer,
"Foi-^ive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."' For, no
doubt, whoever pardons the person who has wronged him does
a charitable action. And this has been so higldy commended
by the Lord Himself, that lie says, " For if ye forgive men
their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you :
but if ye forgive not men their trespa.s.ses, neither will your
Father forgive yom* trespasses." * And so it is to this kind
of alms-deeds that the saying of the Apostle James refers,
" He shall have judgment without mercy that hath shown no
mercy." And our Lord, they say, made no distinction of
great and small sins, but *' Your Father will forgive your sins,
if ye foi*give men theirs." Consequently they conclude that,
though a man has led an abandoned life up to tlie last day of
it, yet whatsoever his sins have been, they are all remitted by
vii'tue of this daily prayer, if only he has been mindful to
attend to tliLs one thing, that when they who have done him
any injuiy ask his pardon, he forgive them from his heart

» Jas. ii. 13.
' Matt vi. 12.
VOL. II.

» JIatt. iTV. 33.
* Mtttt. Tu U, 15.

450

TUE CITY OF COD.

[B00£ XXL

\Vlien, by God's help, I have replied to all these errors,!
shall conclude this (tweuty-first) book.

23. Agairuit UiOS6 who arf. of opinion Ouit the punUhmtnt neither of Gut ddifl wr
of lakked mrn shall be eternal.

First of all, it behoves us to inquire and to recognise why
the Chuich has not been able to tolemte the idea that promises
cleansing or indulgence to the devil even after the most sevew
and protracted punishment. For so many holy men, imbued
with the spirit of the Old and New Testament, did not grudge
to angels of any rank or character that they should enjoy the
blessedness of the heavenly kingdom after being cleansed by
suffering, but rather they perceived that they could not io-
Vfllidate nor evacuate the di\ine sentence which the lord
predicted that He would pronounce in the judgment, sa}Tii§
"Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared
for the de\Tl and his angels." ^ For here it is evident tlul
the devil and his angels shall bum in everlasting fire. And
there is also that declaration in the Apocalypse, " The devil
their deceiver was cast into the lalce of fire and brimstoDft
where also are the beast and the false prophet And thqr
shall be tormented day and night for ever." * In the fonuw
passage " everlasting " is aised, in the latter " for ever ;" and
by these words Scripture is M'ont to mean nothing else than
endless duration. And therefore no other reason, no reasoa
more obvious and just, can be found for holding it as the fixed
aud immovable belief of the truest piety, that the devil and
his angels shall never retimi to the justice and life of the
saints, than that Scripture, which deceives no man, says thttt
God spared them not, and that they were condemned before-
hand by Him, and cast into prisons of darkness in hell/ bein^
reseiTcd to the judgment of the last day, when eternal fire
shall receive them, in wliich, they shall be tormented world
without end. And if this be so, how can it be believed that
all men, or even some, shall be withdraMn from the endurance
of punislmicnt after some time has been spent in it ? how can
this be believed without enervating our faith in the etenul
punishment of the devils ? For if all or some of those to
whom it shall be said, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into ever-

Mntt. xxr. 41. ^ Her. xx. l(K » 2 PeU ii. 4.

BOOK XXI.] SAEfrS rRAVIKG FOB TUE DAiHJED.

451

lasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," are not to
"be always in that fli'e, tlien what reason is there for believing
that the de\'il and his angels shall always be there ? Or is
perhaps the sentence of God, which is to be pronounced on
Mnckcd men and angels alilce, to be true in the case of the
angels, false in tliat of men 1 Plainly it will be so if the
conjectures of men are to weigh more tlian the word of God.
But because this is absurd, they who desire to be rid of eternal
puuislunent ougiit to abstain from arguing against Ood, and
latlier, while yet there is opportunity, obey the divine com-
mands. Then what a fond fancy is it to suppose that eternal
pimishment means long-continued punishment, while eternal
life means life without end, since Clirist in the very same
passage spoke of both in similar terms in one and the same
sentence, " These shall go away into eternal punisliment, but
the righteous into life eternal ! " ^ If both destinies are
" eternal," then we must either understand both as long-con-
tinued but at last terminating, or both as endless. For they
are correlative, — on the one hand, puuiahment eternal, on the
Other hand, life eternal And to say in one and the same
sense, life eternal shall be endless, punishment eternal shaU
come to an end, is the height of absurdity. Wherefore, as
tlie eternal life of the saints shall be endless, so too the eternal
punishment of those who are doomed to it shall have no end.

24. Against those \oiio fancy that in the judgment of Qod uU the acaual wilt be
spared iti virtue oj the prayers (nf the tiainta.

And this reasoning is equally conclusive against those who,
in their own interest, but under the guise of a greater tender-
ness of spirit, attempt to invalidate the words of God, and
who assert that these words are true, not because men shall
suffer those tilings which are threaUued by God, but because
they deserve to suffer them. For God, they say, will yield
them to t!ie prayers of His saints, who will then the more
earnestly pray for their enemies, as they shall be more perfect
in holiness, and whose prayera wiU be the more efficacious
and the more worthy of God's ear, because now purged from
all sin whatsoever. Why, then, if in that perfected holiness
their prayers be so pure and all-availing, will they nob use

1 ^att. XXT. il.

* ilatt. XXT. 46,

452

THB CITY OF GOD.

[book XSl

them in behalf of the angels for whom eternal fire is prepaid
that God may mitigate His sentence and alter it, and extricate
them from that tire ? Or will there, perhaps, be some one hardy
enough to affirm that even the holy angels will make comxuas
catisc with holy men (then become the equals of God's angelsj,
and will intercede for the guilty, both men and angels, tliai
mercy may spare them the puuishuient which truth has pn>-
nounced them to deseiTe ? But this has been asserted by no
one sound in the faith, nor will be. Otherwise there is do
reason why the Church should not even now pray for lli«
devil and hia angels, since God her Master has ordered kr
to pray for her enemies. The reason, then, which prevents
the Church from now prating for tlie wicked angels, whom
she knows to be her enemies, is the identical reason which
sliall prevent lier, however perfected iu holiness, from praying
at the last judgment for those men who are to be punished in
eternal fiie. At present she prays for her enemies amon*
men, because they have yet opportunity for fruitful repent-
ance. For what does she especially beg for them but that
" God would grant them repentance," as the apostle says,
" that they may return to soberness out of the snare of die
devil, by whom they are held captive accoi-ding to his will ?"'
But if the Clmrcli were certified who those are, who, thoa^h
they are still abiding in this life, are yet predestinated to go
with the devil into eternal fire, then for tliem she could no
more pray than for him. But since she has this certainty
regarding no man, she prays for all her enemies who yet live
in this world ; and yet she is not heaid in behalf of alL But
she is heard in tlie case of those only who, though they oppose
the Church, are yet predestinated to become her sons throU£;h
her intercession. But il* any retain an impMiitent heart until
death, anil are not conveiitHl from enemies into sons, does the
Church continue to pray for them, for the spirits, i.e., of such
persuns deceased ? And why does she cease to pray for them,
unless because the man who was not translated into Christ's
kingdom wlule lie was in the body, is now judged to be of
Satan's followmg ?

It is then, I say, the same reason which prevents tic
1 2 Tim. iL 25, 26.

EOOK XXI.] now FAR SUCH PRAYERS AVAIL.

453

Church at any time from praying for the wicked angels, which
prevents her from praying hereafter for those men who are to
be punished in eternal fire ; and this also is the reason why,
though she prays even for the wicked so long as they live,
she yet does not even in this world pray for the unbelieving
and godless wlio are dead For some of the dead, indeed, the]
prayer of the Church or of pious individuals is heard ; but it
is for tLose who» having been regenerated in Clorist, did not
spend their life so wickedly that they can be judged unwoithy
of such compassion, nor so well that they can be considered
to have no need of it. As also, after the resurrection, there
will be some of the dead to whom, after they have endured
the pains proper to the spirits of the dead, mercy shall be
accorded, and acquittal from the punishment of etenml fire.
For were there not some whose sins, though not remitted in
this life, shall be remitted in that which is to come, it could'
not be truly said, " They shall not be forgiven, neither in thiaj
world, neither in that which is to come."^ But when the Judge
of quick and dead has said, " Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foiuiilatiun of
the world," and to those on the other side, " Depart from me,
ye cui-sed, into the eternal fire, w^hich is prepared for the
de\al and his angels," and " These shall go away into eternal
punishment, but the righteous into eUiriia! lil'e/'^ it were
excessively presumptuous to say that the punishment of any
of those whom God has said shall go away into eteniiil
punishment shall not be eternal, and so bring either despair
or doubt upon the coiTesponding promise of life eternal.

Let no man then so understand the words of the I'siilmist,
" Shall Gad forget to be gracious 1 siiidl He shut up in His
anger His tender mercies?"^ as if the sentence of God were
true of good men, false of bad men, or true of good men and
wicked angels, but false of bad men. For tlie Psahnlst^s words
refer to the vessels of mercy and the children of the promise,
of whom the prophet himself "was one ; for when he had said,
" Sliall God forget to be gracious ? shall He shut up in His
anger His tender mercies ?" and then immediately subjoins,
" And I said, Now I begin : this is the change wrought by

> Matt sii 32. ■ Untt. xxv, 34. 41» 40. * Pe. Jxxvil 9.

454

TITE CITY OF GOD.

[dook m

the right band of the Most High/'^ he manifestly explained
what he meant by the words, "Shall He shut up in His
anger His tender mercies?" For God's anger is this mortal
life, in which man is made like to vanity, and his days pas
as a shadow,^ Yet in this anger God does not forget to be
graciouSj causing His sun to shine and His rain to descend oa
the just and the unjust j^ and thus He does not in His anger
cut short His tender mercies, and especially in what the
rsalmlst speaks of in the words, *' Now I begin : this change
Ls from the right hand of the Most High ;" for He changes for
the better the vessels of mercy, even while they are still in
this most wretched life, which is God's anger, and even while
His anger is manifesting itself in this miserable corruption;
for "in His anger He does not shut up His tender mercies."
And since the truth of this divine canticle is quite satisfied by
this application of it, there is no need to give it a reference to
that place in which those who do not belong to the city of God
are punished in eternal fire. But if any persist in extending
its application to the torments of the wicked^ let them at least
underetand it so that the anger of God, which has threatened
the wicked with eternal punishment, shall abide, but shall be
mixed with mercy to the extent of alleviating the tormenti
which might justly be inflicted; so that the wicked shall
neither wholly escape, nor only for a time endure these threat-
ened pains, but that they shall be less severe and more endar-
able than they deserve. Thus the anger of God shall continnc,
and at the same time He will not in this anger shut up His
tender mercies. But even this hypothesis I am not to be
supposed to afl&rm because I do not positively oppose it*

As for those who find an empty threat rather than a truth
in such passages as these : " Depai-t from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire ;" and " These shall go away into eternal
punishment;"* and "They shaU be tormented for ever and
ever;"* and "Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall
not be quenched,"^ — such pei-sons, I say, are most emphaticaUy
and abundantly refuted^ not by me so much as by the divine

> P«. Ixxvii. 10. » Ps. 03cliv. 4,

* It Is the thuory which Chrj-anstom adojita.

• RcT. XX. 10. ' Isa. livi. '24.

• Mutt v. 45.

» MaU. xiT. 41, 4fi.

»bK XXT.] G0T>'S VrOTtD BfUST BE FUT-HLLED.

:ripture itself. For the men of Nineveh repented iii this
life, and therefore their repentance was fruitful, inasmuch as
ley sowed in that field which the Lord meant to be sown in

ira that it might afterwards he reaped in joy. And yet who
'"will deny that God's prediction was fulfilled in their case, if
at least he observes that God destroys sinners not only in
anger but also in compassion ? For sinners are destroyed in
two wa^'s, — either, like the Sodomites, the men themselves are
punished for their sins, or, like the Ninevites, the men's sins
are destroyed by repentance. God's prediction, therefore, was
fulfilled, — the wicked Nineveh was overthrown, and a good
Nineveh built uji. For its walls and houses remained stand-
ing; the city was overthrown in its depraved moDners. And
thus, tliough the pro[»liet was provoked that the destruction
which the inhabitants dreaded, because of his pretliction, did
not take place, yet that which God's foreknowledge had pre-
dicted did take place, for Tie who foretold tlie destiiiction
knew how it shoidd he fulfilled in a less cidamitous sense.

But that these perversely compassionate persons may see
what is tlie purpoii of LhovSe woixls, " How great is the abun-
dance of Thy sweetness. Lord, which Thou hast liidden for them
that fear Tliee,"' let them read what IVilluws : "And Thou hast
pei*fected it for them that hope in Thee." For what means,
" Thou hast hidden it for them that fear Thee/' " Thou hast
perfected it for them that hope in Thee." unless this, that to
those wlio through fear of puniyhment seek to establish their
own righteousness by the law, the righteousness of God ia not
sweet, because they are ignorant of it ? They have not tasted
it. For they hope in themselves, not in Him ; and therefore
God's abundant sweetness is hidden from them. They fear
God, indeed, but it is with that servile fear " which ia not in
love J for perfect love casteth out fear."* Therefore to them
that hope in Him He peifecteth His sweetness, inspiiing them
Tvith His own love, so that with a holy fear, which love does
not cast out, but wliich endureth for ever, they may, when
tliey glory, glory in the Lord. For the righteousness of God
is Christ, " who is of God made unto us," as the apostle says,
" wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctificationj and redemp-

' Ps. xxii. 19. ' 1 John iv. 18.

456

TiiE ciry or god.

[book xn.

tion : as it is written. He that glorietb, let him glory in the
Lord."^ This righteousness of God, whicli is the gift of graa
without merits, is not known by those who go about to estab-
lish their own righteousness, and are therefore not subject to
the righteousness of God. which is Christ' But it is in this
righteousness that we find the great abundance of God s sweet-
ness, of which the psalm says, " Taste and see bow SAveet the
Loi-d is.'*' And this we rather taste than partake of to satiety
iu this our pilgrimage. We hunger and thirst for it now, thtt
hereafter we may be satisfied with it when we see Him as He
is, and that ia fulfilled which is written, " I shall be satisfied
when Thy glory shall be manifested."* It is thus that Christ
perfects the great abundance of His sweetness to them that
hope in Him. But if God conceals His sweetness from them
tliat fear Him in the sense thnt these our objectors fancy, so that
men's ignorance of His purj^ose of mercy towards the wicked
may lead tlieni to fejir Him and live better, and so that there
may be prayer made for those who are not Hving as they
ought, how then does He perfect His sweetness to them tlmt
hope in Him, since, if their dreams be true, it is this very
sweetness wliich will prevent Him from punishing those who
do not hope in Ilim ? Let us then seek that sweetness of Hif>
which He perfects to them thnt hope in Him, not that which
He is supposed to perfect to tliose who despise and blasi)hcnie
Him ; for in vain, after this life, does a man seek for wliat he
has neglected to provide while iu this life.

Then, as to that saying of the apostle, " For God hath con-
cluded all in unbelief, that He may have mercy upon all,"*
it does not mean that He will condemn no one ; but the fore-
going context shows what is meant. Tlie apostle composed
the epistle for the Gentiles who were already believers ; and
M'hen he was speaking to them of the Jews who were yet to
believe, he says, " For as ye in times past believed not God,
yet have now obtained mercy through their nnbehef ; evea
80 have these also now not believed, that through your mercy
they also may obtain mercy." Then he added the words in
question with which these persons beguile themselves : " For

« rs. xixiv. 8.

^ 1 Cor. i. SO, 31.
* Ps. xviL 15.

» liom. li. 3:

»0K XXI.] PAI-SE EXPECTATIONS 07 IMPUmTT.

457

lod concluded all in unbelief, that He might have mercy

Lpon

all." All whom, if not all those of "whom he was

spe

iik-

tg, just as if he had said, " Both you and them ?" God then
coucluded all those in luiheUef, both Jews and Gentiles^ whom
He foreknew and predestinated to he conformed to the image
of His Son, in oixler that they might be confounded by tlie
bitterness of unbeUef, and might repent and believingly turn
to the sweetness of God's mercy, and miglit take up that
exclamation of the psalm, " How great is the abundance of
Thy sweetness^ 0 Lord, which Thou hast liidden for them that
fear Thee, but hast perfected to them that hope," not in them-
selves, but " in Thee." He has mercy, then, on all the vessels
of mercy. And what means " all ?" Both those of tlie
Gentiles and those of the Jews wliom He predestinated, called,
justified, glorified: none of these w*ill be condemned by Him;
but we cannot say none of all men whatever.

S£. Whether those who r^Mntd heretical haptUtm^ and Aa»« aftfrtrarda fallen
away to wici-edHtsa of life ; or tliow who havf rtceival c(i/Wic fxiptUni,
but have a/tericardg paused over to heresy and schitm ; or thone who have
remained in thr tntholie Church in which tfwtj luere baptized^ but Aai?6
eoniinued to Uir immorally, — may hnp*' tfironr/h the virtue qf the sacra-
tncnts/or the rcniistion of eternal punishment.

But let US now reply to those who promise deliverance
fern eternal fire, nut to the de\il and liis angels (as neither
do they of whom we have been speaking), nor even to all
men whatever, but oidy to those who have been washed by
the baptism of Christ, and have become partakers of His body
and blood, no naatter Iiow they have lived, no matter what
heresy or impiety they have fidlen into. But they are con-
tradicted by the apostle, where he sa}*s, " Now the works of
the flesh are manifest, which are these ; fornication, unclean-
ness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variances,
emulations, wrath, strife, heresies, en\ying3, drunkeimess,
revellings, and the like : of the which I tell you before, as I
have also tcdd you in time past, for they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."^ Certainly
this sentence of the apostle is false, if such persons shall 1>b
delivered after any lapse of time, and shall then inherit the
kingdom of Gnd, But as it is not false, they shall certainly

iGoL y. 19-21.

458 THE cnr of god. [book xxi

never inlierit the kingdom of God. And if they shall ncrer
enter that kingdom, then they shall always be retained ia
eternal punishment; for there i3 no middle place where he
may live unpunished who has not been admitt^ into that
kingdom.

And therefore we may reasonably inquire how we are to
understand these words of the Lord Je^us : " This is the bread
which Cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof,
and not die. I am the living bread which came down from
heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever**
And those, indeed, whom we are now answering, are refuted
in their interpretation of this passage by those whom we are
shortly to answer, and who do not promise this deliverance to
all wlu) have received the sacraments of baptism and the
Lord's body, but only to the catholics, however wickedly they
live ; for these, say they, have eaten the Lord's body not only
sacranientally, but really, being constituted members of His
body, of which the apostle says, " We being many are one
bread, one body."' He then who is in the unity of Christ's
body (that is to say, in the Christian membersliip), of which
body the faithfid have been wont to receive-the sacrament at
the altar, that man is truly said to eat the body and drink
the blood of Christ And consequently heretics and schis-
matics being separate from the unity of this body, are able
to receive the same sacrament, but with no profit to them-
selves,— nay, rather to their own hurt, so that they are rather
more severely judf^ed than liberated after some time. For
they are not in that bond of peace which is symbolized by
that sacramont.

But again, even those who sufficiently understand that he
who is not in the body of Christ cannot be said to eat the
body of Christ, are iu error when they promise liberation
from the fire of eternal punishment to persons who fall away
from the unity of that body into heresy, or even into heathen-
ish superstition. For, in the first place, they ought to con-
sider how intolerable it is, and how discordant with sound
doctrine, to suppose that many, indeed, or abnost all, who
have forsaken tlie Church catholic, and have originated im-

> John vL 50, 51. « 1 Cor. X. 17.

BOOK XXI.] NO REMISSION FOR IXKKETICS.

iS9

pions heresies and become heresiarchs, should enjoy a destiny
supeinor to those who never were catholics, hut have fallen
into the snares of these others ; that is to say, if the fact of
their catholic haptisni and original reception of the sacrament
of the body of Christ in the true body of Christ is sufficient
to deliver these heresiarchs from eternal punishment For
certainly he who deserts the faith, and from a deserter be-
comes an assailant, is worse than he who has not deserted the
faith he never held. And, in the second place, they ai*e con-
tradicted by the apostle, who, after enumerating tlie works
of the flesh, says with reference to heresies, " They who do
such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

And therefore neitlier ought such peraons as lead an
abandoned and damnable life to be confident of salvation,
though they persevere to the end in the communion of the
Chiu'ch catholic, and comfort themselves with the words, " He
that cndureth to the end shall be saved." By the iniq^uity of
their life they abandon that very righteousness of life which
Christ is to them, whether it he by fornication, or by perpetrating
in their body the other uncleannesses wliich the apostle would
not so much as mention, or by a dissolute luxiny, or by doing
any one of those things uf which he says, " They who do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God/* Consequently,
they wlio do such things shall not exist anywhere but in
eternal punishment, since they cannot be in the kingdom of
God. For, wliile they continue in such things to the very
end of life, they cannot be said to abide in Christ to the end ;
for to abiJo in Hlra is to abide in the faith of Clirist. And
this faith, according to the apostle's definition of it, " worketh
by love."^ And "love," as he elsewhere says, "worketh no
evii"' Neither can these persons be said to eat the body of
Christ, for they cannot even be reckoned among His members.
For, not to mention other reasons, they cannot be at once the
members of Christ and the members of a harlot In fine. He
Himself, when He says, " He that oatctli my flesh and drinketh
my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him,"' shows what it is
in reah'ty, and not sacramentally, to eat His body and drink
His blood ; for this is to dwell in Christ, that He also may

1 GaL V. 6.

^ Ram. xiii. 10.

' Joliu tL 56.

TIIE CITY OF GOD.

[book XXL

dwell in us. So that it is ns if He said, He that dwellvlh
not in nie, and in whom I do not dwell, let him not say or
think that he eateth my body or drinketh luy hlood. Accord-
ingly, they who are not Christ's members do not dwell in
~"uii. And they who make themselves members of a harlots
not men)liei*s of Christ unless they have penitently aban-
doned that evil, and have returned to this good to be recon-
ciled to it

26. miat it U to Jwvf Cfirist/or a foundation, and vfho thry art te> v Aoai
aalvation aa bt/jtre u promuicd.

But, say they, the catholic Christians have Christ for &
foundation, and they have not fallen away from luiion wilJi
Him, no matter how depraved a life they have built on this
foundation, as wood, hay, stubble ; and accordingly the well-
directed faith by which Christ is their foundation will suffice
to dehver them some time irom the continuance of that fire,
though it be with loaSj since those things they have built on
it shall be burned. Let the Apostle James summarily reply
to them : " If any man say he has faith, and have not works,
can faith save hirn?"^ And who then is it, they ask, of
whom the Apostle Paul says, " But ho himself shall be saved»
yet so as by fire ?" ' Let us join them in their inquiry ; and
one tiling is very certain, that it is not he of w^horn James
speaks, else we should make the two apostles contradict one
imotlier, if the one says, "Though a man's works l>e evil, his
faith will save him as by fire," while the other says, " If b&
have not good works, can his faitli save him ? "

We shall then ascertain who it is who can be saved by
fire, if w^e first discover what it is to have Clinst for a foun-
dation. And tliis we may very readily learn from the image
itself. In a building the foundation is fu-st Whoever, th(Ui,
has Clirist in his heart, so that no earthl}' or temporal thin^
^nut e^'en those that are legitimate and allowed- — are pre-
ferred to Him, has Chi'ist as a foundation. But if thcsa
things be preferred, then even though a man seem to have faith
in Christ, yet Christ is not the foimdation to that man ; and
much more if he, in contempt of wholesome precepts, seek
forbidden grLitifications, is he cleaily convicted of putting
* Jos. iu H. * 1 Cor. iii. 16.

BOOK XXI.]

or BEING SXrED BY VJV.VL

4G1

Christ not first hut last, siiiro ho has despised Him as his
ruler, and has prefeircd to fulfil his own wicked lusts, in con-
tempt of Christ's commands and allowances. Accordingly, if
any Christian man loves a harlot, and, attaching himself to
her, becomes one body, he has not now Christ for a foundation.
Dut if any one loves bia own wife, and loves her as Christ ■would
have liim love her, who can doubt that he has Christ for a
foundation ? But if be loves her in the world's fashion, car-
nally, as the disease of lust prompts him, and as the Gentiles
love who know not God, even this the apostle, or rather
Christ by the apostle, allows as a veniiil fault. And there-
fore even such a man may have Christ for a foundation. For
so long as he does not prefer such au affection or pleasure to
Christ, Christ is his foundation, though on it be builds wood,
hay, stubble ; and therefore he shall be saved as by fire. For
the fire of affliction shall burn such luxurious pleasures and
eiuLhly loves, thou<jh they be not damnable, because enjoyed
in lawful wedlock And of this fire the fuel is bereavement,
and all those calamities which consume theso joys. Conse-
quently the superstructure will be loss to him who has built
it, for he shall not retain it, but shall be agonized by the loss
of those things in the enjoyment of which he found pleasure.
But by this fire he shall be saved through virtue of the foun-
dation, because even if a persecutor demanded whether be
would retain Christ or these things, he would prefer Christ.
Would yon bear, in the apostle's own words, who he is who
builds on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones ? " He
that is unmarried," he says, " caretli for the things tliafc
belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord."^ Would
you hear who he is that buildeth wood, hay, stubble ? " But
he that is mamed careth for the things that are of the world,
how he may please his wife."^ " Every man's work shall be
made manifest : for the day shall declare it," — the day, no
doubt, of trihulation — " because," says he, " it shall be re-
vealed by fire." ' He calls tribulation fire, just as it is else-
where said, "The furnace proves the vessels of the potter, and
the trial of affliction righteous men."* And " The fire shall

1 1 Cor. vii. 32.
* 1 Cor. iii, 13.

• 1 Cor. vii. 33.

• Ecclus. ixvii. 5,

462

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xn

trj' every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's woric
abide " — for a man s care for the tlxiiigs of the Lord, how he
may please the Lord, abides — " which he hath built them-
upon, he shall receivti a rewaid," — that is, he sball reap the
fruit of his care. " But if any man's work shall be burned,
he shall suffer loss," — for what he loved he shall not retain : —
"but he himself shall be saved," — for no tribulation shall
have moved him from tliat stable foundation, — *' yet so as by
fire ; " ^ for that which ho possessed with the sweetness of
love he does not lose without the sharp sting of pain. Here,
then, as seems to nic, wc have a fire which destroys neither,
but eoriches the one, brings 1<jss to the other, proves both.

But if this passage [of Corinthians] is to interpret thflt
fire of which the Lord shall say to those on His left hand.
** Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire," * so that
among these we are to believe there are those who build ou
the foundation wood, hay, stubble, and that they, Un'ongh
virtue of the good foundation, shall after a time be liberated
from the fire that is the award of their evil deserts, what
then shall wc tljiuk of those on the right hand, to whom it
shall be said, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit Ha
kingdom prepared for you," ' unless that they are those who
have built on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones?
But if the fire of wliich our Lord speaks is the same as that
of which the apoatlo says, " Yet so as by fire," then both —
that is to say, both those on the light as well as those on the
left — are to be cast into it For that fire is to try both,
since it is said, " For the day of the Lord shall declare it, be-
cause it shall be revealed by fire ; and the lire shall try every
man's work of what sort it is."* If, therefore, the fixe shall
try botli, in order that if any man's work abide^ — i.e. if the
superstructure be not consumed by the fire — he may receive
a reward, and that if his work is burned he may suffer loes,
certainly that fire is not the eternal fire itself For bto
this latter fire only those on the left hand shall be cast, and
that with final and everlasting doom ; but that former fire
pi-ovea those on the ri^ht hand. But some of them it so
proves that it does not burn and cousimie the structure which
M Cor. iii 14, 15. * Htitt xxr. 41. > Matt xxr. 31 *1 Cor. iil ISi

BOOK XXI,]

WHAT FIIIE SAVES,

463

is found to have been biiilt by them ou Christ as the founda-
tion ; while others of them it proves in another fashion, so as
to btim what they have built up, and thus cause them to
suffer loss, while they themselves are saved because they have
retained Christ, who was laid as their sure foundation, and
have loved Him above alL But if they are saved, then cer-
tainly tliey shall stand at the right hnnd, and shall with the
rest hear the sentence, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, in-
herit the kingdom prepared for you ; " and not at the left
hand, where those shall be who shall not be saved, and shaU
therefore hear tlie doonj, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire." For from that fire no man shall be saved,
because thuy all shall go away into eternal punishment, where
their worms shall not die, nor their fire be quenched, in which
they shall be tormented day and night for ever.

But if it be said that in the interval of time between the
death of this body and that last day of judgment and retri-
bution which shall follow the resurrection, the bodies of the
dead shall be exposed to a fire of ,such a nature that it shall
not affect those who have not in this life indulged in such
pleasures and pursuits as shall be consumed like wood, hay,
stubble, but shall afiect those others who have carried with
them structures of that kind ; if it be said that such worldli-
ness, being venial, shall be consumed in the fire of tribidation
either here only, or here and hereafter both, or here that it may
not be hereafter,-^this I do not contradict, because possibly
it is true. For perhaps even the death of the body is itself
a part of this tribulation, for it results from the first trans-
gression, so that the time wliich follows death takes its colour
in each case from the nature of the man's building. The
persecutions, too, which have crowned the martyrs, and which
Christians of all kinds suffer, try both buildings like a fire,
consuming some, along with the builders themselves, if Christ
is not found in them as their foundation, while otliers thoy
consume without the builders, because Christ is found in
them, and they are saved, though with loss ; and other build-
ings still they do not consume, because such materials as
abide for ever are found in them. In the end of the world
there shall be in the time of Antichi-ist tribulation such aa

464 THE cnr of god. [cook xxl

has nevt^r before been. How many edifices there shall then t*e,
of gold or uf hay^ built on the best foundation, Christ Jeaus^
which that fire shall prove, briuf^ing joy to some, loss to
others, but without destroying either sort, because of this
staljle iouudationl But whosoever prefers, I do not say hifl
wife, with whom he lives for carnal pleasure, but any of those
relatives who afford no delight of such a kind, and \vliom it
is right to love, — whosoever prefers these to Chi-ist, and loves
them after a human and carnal fashion, has not Christ as s
foundation, and wiE therefore not be saved by fire, nor indeed
at all ; for ho sliall not possibly dwell with tlie Saviour, who
says very explicitly concerning this very matter. "He that lovetli
father or mother more than me is not worthy of me ; and be
that loveLh son or diiughter more than me is not worthy of
me"^ But he who loves liis relations carnally, anA yet so that
he does not prefer them to C'lmst, but would rather want them
than Chiist if he were put to the proof, shall be saved by lire,
because it is necessary that by the loss of these relations he
suffer pain in proportion to his love. And he who lovas
father^ mother, sun.s, ilauglitera, according to Christ, so that
he aids them in obtiiining His kingdom and cleaving to Wim
or loves them because they arc members of Christ, God forbid
that this love should be consumed as w^ood, hay, stubble, and
not rather he reckoned a structure of gold, silver, precioDi
stones. For how can a man love those more than Chnst
whom he loves only for Christ's sake ?

27. Agairut the Miffoftho^ who think that the iins which hacf been acam-
panial with abrngwing will do thrrn no harm.

It remains to reply to those who maintain that those only
shall bum in eternal fire who neglect alms-deeds propor-
tioned to their sins, resting this opinion on the words of the
Apostle James, " He shall have judgment without mercy that
hath showed no mercy." ^ Therefore^ they say, he that hath
showed mercy, tliough he has not rerurmed his dissolute con-
duct, but has lived wickedly and ijiiquitously even while
abounding in ahns, shall have a mercifid judgment, so that lui
shall either be not condemned at all, or shall be dehvercil
from final judgtuent after a time. And for the same reason
> Matt. X. 37. » Jas. iL 13,

BOOK XXL]

HOW ALMSGIVING SAVES.

4C5

they suppose thnt Christ will discriminate between those on
the right hand and those on the left, and will send the one
party into His kingdom, the other into eternal punishment, on
the sole ground of theii" attention to or neglect of works of
chanty. Jlorcover, they endeavour to use tlie prayer which
the Lord Himself taught as a proof and bulwark of their
opinion, that daily sins which are never abandoned can be
expiated through ahns-deeds, no matter how offensive or of
what sort they be. For, say they, as there is no day on
which Christians ought not to aise this prayer, so there is no
fiin of any kind which, though committed every day, is not
remitted when we say, "Forgive ua our debts," if we take
care to fulfil what foHows, '* as we forgive our debtors."^ For,
they go on to say, tiie Lord does not say, " If ye forgive men
their trespasses, your heavenly P'ather will forgive you your
little daily sins," but "will forgive you your sins." There-
fore, be they of any kind or magnitude whatever, be they per-
petrated daily and never abandoned or subdued in this life,
they can be pardoned, thoy presume, tlirough iilrns-deeels.

But they are right to inculcate the giving of alms propor-
tioned to past sins ; for if they said that any kind (tf alms
could obtain the divine pardon of great sins committed daily
and with habitual enormity, if they said that such sins could
thus be daily remitted, they would see that their doctrine
was absurd and ridiculous. For they would thus be driven
to acknowledge that it wei'e possible for a very wealthy man
tc buy absolution from murders, adulteries, and all manner of
"wickedness, by paying a daily alms of ten paltry coins. And
if it be most absurd and insane to make such an acknow-
ledgment, and if we still ask what are those fitting alms of
which even the forerunner of Chiist said, " Bring forth there-
fore fniits meet for repentance/*^ undoubtedly it will be found
that they are not such as are done by men who undermine
their life by daily enonnities even to the very end. For
they suppose that by giWng to the poor a small fraction
of the wealth they acquire by extortion and spoliation they
can propitiate Christ, so that they may with impunity
commit the most damnable bins, in the persuasion that they
1 MatL tL 12. 0 Matt Ui. 8.

vou XL s a

466 THE CITY OF GOD. ^BOOK XH

have bought from Him a licence to transgress, or ratter
do buy a daily indulgence. And if they for one crime Law
distributed all their goods to Christ's needy metaberSj thai
could profit them nothing unless they desisted from all similw
actions, and attained charity which worketh no e\*il He
therefore who does alms-deeds proportioned to his sins mint
first begin with liimself. For it is not reasonable that a man
who exercises charity towards his neighbour should not do so
towards hiuiself, since he hears the Loi-d saying, " Thou shall
love thy neighbour sts thyself/'^ and again, " Have compossiaa
on thy soul, and please God." ^ He then who has not com-
passion on liis own soul that he may please God, ho\r can he
be said to do alms-deeds proportioned to his sins ? To the
same purpose is that written, "He who is bad to himself, to
whom can he be good ? "* We ought therefore to do aim
timt we may be heard when we pray that our past sins maj
be foigiven, not that while we continue in thorn we nar
think to provide ourselves with a licence for wickedness by
alms-dfteds.

The reason, therefore, of our predicting that He viH im-
pute to those on His light hand the alms-deeds they have
done, and charge those on His left with omitting the same, is
that He may thus show the efficacy of charity for the dcletioa
of past sins, not for impunity in their perpetual commission.
And such persons, indeed, as decline to abandon their evil
habits of life for a better course cannot be said to do chari-
tahle deeds. For tiiis is the purport of the saying, " Inaa-
much as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it
not to me."* He shows them that they do not perfonn
charitable actions even when they think they are doing so.
For if they gave bread to a hungering Christian because he is
a Christian, assuredly they would not deny to themselves the
bread of righteousness, that is, Christ Himself; for God con-
siders not the person to wham tlie gift is made, but the spiiit
in which it is made. He therefore who loves Christ in «
Christian extends alms to him in the same spirit in which he
dmws near to Christ, not in that spirit which would abandoB

» Matt. xxii. 39. ' Kcclus. xxx. 21.

' Eoclia. xxL 1. * Matt. xxv. 45.

BOOK XXL]

EFFICACY OF ALMS AND PRAYEH.

467

Christ if it could do so with impunity. For in proportion as
a man loves what Christ disapproves does he himself abandon
Christ For what does it profit a man that he is baptized, if
he is not justified? Did not He who said, "Except a man
be born of water and of the Spirit, he shall not enter into the
kingdom of God,"' say also, "Except your righteousness shall
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Phaiisees, ye shall
not enter into the kingdom of heaven?"* Why do many
through fear of the fiarst saying nm to baptism, while few
through fear of the second seek to be justified ? As therefore
it is not to his brother a man says, '• Thou fool," if when he
says it he is indignant not at the brotherhood, but at the sin
of the offender, — for otherwise he were guilty of hell fire, —
so he who extends charity to a Christian does not extend it
to a Cliristian if he does not love Christ in him. Now he
does not love Christ who refuses to be justified in Him. Or,
again, if a man has been guilty of this sin of calling his
brother Eoul^ unjustly reviling him without any desire to
remove his sin, his alms-deeds go a small way towards expiat-
ing this fault, unldsa he adds to this the remedy of iiiconciha-
tiou which the same passage enjoins. For it is there said,
" Thereforej if thou bring thy gift to tlic ultur, and there re-
membereat that tliy brother hath aught against thee ; leave
there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way ; first be recon-
ciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift."^ Just
so it is a small matter to do alms-deeds, no matter how great
they be, for any sin, so long as the offender continues in the
practice of sin.

Then as to the daily prayer which the Lord Himself taught,
and wliich is therefore called the Lord's pi-ayer, it obhterates
indeed the sins of the day, when day by day we say, *' Forgive
us our debts," and when we not only say but act out that
which follows, "aa we forgive our debtors;"* but we utter
this petition because sins have been committed, and not that
they may ba For by it our Saviour designed to teach us
that, however righteously we live in this life of infirmity and
darlcneas, we still commit sins for the remission of which we

^ John iii. 6.

' Matt, V. 23, 24.

= Matt. V. 20.
* Matt vi 12.

468

THE CITY OF GOD.

[nooK Jit

oii^ht to pray, while we must pardon those 'svho sin against
us that we ourselves nlso may be panloned. The Lord then
did not utter the words, " If ye forgive men their trespaaso,
ymir Father will also forgive you your trespasses," "^ in oido
that we might contract from this petition such confidence a
yhould enable ua to sin securely from day to day, either put-
ting ourselves above the fear of human laws, or craftily de-
feivin^ men concerning our conduct, but in order that tb
might thus learn not to suppose that we are without sins,
even tho;igh we should be free from crimes ; as nlso God
admonished the priests of the old law to this same effect
regarding their siicriilces, which He commanded them to offer
first for tlieir own sins, and then for the sins of the people.
For even the very woi'ds of so great a Master and Lord are lo
he intently conaidei'ed. For He does not say, If ye forgive
men their sins, your Father will also forgive you your sins, do
matter of what sort they he, but He says, your sins ; for it
was a daily prayer He was teaching, and it was certainly to
disciples already justified He was speaking. Wliat, then,
does He mean by " your sins," but those sins from which not
even you who arc justified and sanctified can be free ? While,
then, those who seek occasion from tin's petition to indulge in
liabitual sin inaintain that tlie Lord meant to include gnat
sins, because He did not say, He will forgive you your small
sins, but "your sins," we, on the other Iiand, taking into
account the character of the persons He was addressing, can-
nuL sec our way to intcri>ret the exprt^ssion "your sins" of
anything but small sins, because such persons are no longer
guilty of great sins, Nevertheless not even great sins them-
selves— sins from which we must flee with a total reformation
of life— are forgiven to those who ]imy, unless they observe
the appended precept, "as ye also forgive your debtors," For
tf the very small sins which attach even to the life of th«
righteous he not remitted without tliat condition, how much
further from obtaining indulgence shall those be w*ho are in*
volved in many great crimes, if, while they cease from pe^
petrating such enormities, they still inexorably refuse to remit
any debt incurred to themselves, since the Lord says, " But ii

* Matt vL 14.

►OK XXI.]

now uxTjGirrEOUs mammon saves.

469

ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father
forgive your tresixisseal"^ For this is the purpoit of the say-
ing of the Apostle James also, " He shall have judgment with-
out mercy that hath showed no mercy." ' For we should
remember that servant whose debt of ten thousand talents his
lord cancelled, but afterwards ordered hiin to pay up, because
the servant himself had uo pity for his fellow-seivant who
owed liini an hundred pence.^ The wortls which the Apostle
James sulijoiiis, "And mercy rejoiceth against judgment/'*
find their application among those w^ho are the children of the
promise and vessels of mercy. For even those righteous men,
who have lived witli such holiness that they receive into
the eternal habitations others also who have won their friend-
ship with the mammon of unrighteousness,® became such only
through tiie merciful deliverance of Him who justifies the
ungodly, imputing to liim a reward according to grace, not
according to debt. For among this number is the ajwstlc,
who says» '■ I obtained mercy to be faithful"**

But it must be admitted, that those wlio are thus Teceived
into the eternal habitations are not of such a character that
their own life would suffice to rescue them without the aid of
the saints, and consequently in their case especiidly does mercy
rejoice against judgment. And yet we are not on this account
to suppose that every abandoned profligate, who has made
no amendment of his life, is to be received into the eternal
liabitations if only he lias assisted the saints with the miunmon
uf unrighteousness, — that is to say, with money or wealtli
which has been unjustly acquired, or, if rightfully acquired, is
yet not the true riches, but oidy M-hat iniquity counts riches,
because it knows not the true riches in which those persons
abound, who even receive others also into eternal habitations.
There is tlicn a certain kind of life, which is neither, on the
one hand» so bad that those who adopt it are not helped
towards the kingdom of heaven by any bountifid almsgiving
by which tliey may relieve the wants of the saints, and make
friends who could receive them into eternal habitations, nor,
on the other hand, so good that it ol itself sulBces to win for

> Matt vi. 15.
* Ja& ii. 13.

• Jns. iL 13.

* Luke xvL 9.

' Mutt xviii. 23.
• 1 Cor. viL 25.

470

THE CITY 07 GOD.

[book XXL

them tliat great blessedness, if they do not obtain mer^
through the merits of those whom they have made their friendi
And I frequently wonder that even Virgil should give expres*
sion to this sentence of the Lord, in which He says, " Moke
to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that
they may receive you into everlasting habitations ;"* and tiiia
very similar saying, " He that receiveth a prophet, in thft
name of a prophet, shall receive a prophet's reward ; and hv
that receiveth a righteous man, in the name of a righteoufi
man, shall receive a righteous man's reward."' For when that
poet described the Elysian fiulils, in which they suppose that
the souls of the blessed dwell, he placed there not only those
who had been able by their own merit to reach that abode,
but added, —

"And they who gmtefol memory won
By Bervicca to others done ;"'

that is, they who had served others, and thereby merited to
be remembered by them. Just as if they used the expression
so common in Cliristian lips, where some humble person com-
mends himself to one of the saints, and says, Eemember me,
and secures that he do so by deserving well at his hand Bat
what that kind of life we have been speaking of is, and what
those sins are which prevent a man from \rinning the king-
dom of God by himself, but yet permit him to avail himself
of the merits of the saints, it is veiy difHcult to aficertain,
very perilous to define. For my own pait, in spite of all
investigation, I have been up to the present hour unable to
discover this. And possibly it is hidden from us, lest we
should become careless in avoiding such sins, and so cease t»
make progress. For if it were known what these sins are,
wliichj though they continue, and be not abandoned for a
higher life, do yet not prevent us from seeking and hoping
for the intercession of the saints, human sloth would presump-
tuously wrap itself in these sins, and would take no steps to
be disentangled from ?nch wrappings by the defl energy of
any virtue, but would only desire to be rescued by the merita
of other people, whose friendship had been won by a bountiful
use ol the mammon of unrighteousness. But now that we
^ Luke ivi. ». - Mutt. X. 41. ^ _£-„ y-^ gj|^

lOK XXI. J"

MERmNf; FOK OTHERS.

are left in ignorance of the precise nature of that iniquity
wliicb is venial, even though it be persevered in^ certainly we
are both more vigilant in our prayers and efforts for progress,
and more careful to secure with the mammon of unrighteous-
ness friends for ourselves among the saints.

But this dehverance, which is efiFectcd by one's own prayers,
or the intercession of holy men, secures that a man be not cast
into eternal fire, but not that, when once he has been cast into
it, he should after a time be rescued from it For even those
who fancy tliat what is said of the good ground bringing forth
abundant fruit, some tliirtj', some sixty, some an hundred fold,
is to be rei'erred to the saints, so that in proportion to their
merits some of them shall deliver thirty men, some sixty,
some an hundred, — even those who maintain this are yet
commonly inclined to suppose that tliis deUverance will take
place at, and not after the day of judgment. Under this im-
pression, some one who obser\'ed the unseemly folly with which
men promise themselves impunity on the ground that all will
be included in this method of deliverance, is reported to have
very hajypily rtnnarked, that we shouhl ratlier endwivour to live
so well that we shall be all found among the number of those
who are to intercede for the liberation of others, lest these*
shoodd be so fe"s\' in number, that, after they have delivered,
one thirty, anothor sixty, another a liundred, there should still
remain many who coxild not be delivered from punishment by
their intercessions, and among thorn eveiy one who has vainly
and rashly promised lumself the fniit of another's labour. But
enough has been said in reply bo those who acknowledge the
authority of the same sacred Scriptures as ourselves, but who.
by a mistaken inteipixitation of them, conceive of the future
rather as they themselves wish, than as the Scriptures teach.
And having given this reply, I now, according to promise,
close this book.

•THB CITY OF GOP.

[dookxhl

BOOK TWEKTY-SECOND.
augumext.

THrs BOOK TREATS OP THE END OF THE CITY OF OOD, THAT IS TO SAV, Of TM
ETERNAL HAPPINESS OP THE SAINTS; TJIE FAITU OF THE RESURRFCTIOOr
OP THE BODY IS ESTABLISHED AND EXPLAINED ; AND THF. WUKK CdJf-
CLFIiES BV SHOWINO HOW THE SAINTS, CLOTHED IN IMMOUTAX ASD gPIII-
TUAL BODIES, SIIALL DE EMt'LOVtD.

1, Of the erftitlon of anQfU and men,

AS we promised in the immediately preceding book^ tlii*,
the last of the whole work, shall contain a discussion
of the eternal blessedness of the city of God. This blessed-
ness is named eternal, not because it shall endure for many
agea, though at last it shall come to an end, but because,
accoi-ding to the words of the gospel, " of His kingdom there
shall be no end." ' Neither shall it enjoy the jwere appear-
ance of perpetuity which is maintained by tJie rise of fresh
generations to occupy the place of those that have died out, u
in an evergreen the sjime freshness seems to continue perma-
nently, and the same appearance of dense foliage is preserved
by the growth (jf fresh leaves in tlie room of tliose that have
withered and fallen ; but in that citv all tlie citizens shall be
innnorta!, men now for the first time enjoying what the holy
angels have never lost. And this shall be accomplished b)*
God, the most almighty Founder of tlie city. For He has
promised it, and cannot lie, and has already perfonned many
of His promises, und has done many nnpromised kindnesses
to those whom He now asks to believe that He will do thia
also.

For it is He wlio in the beginning created the world full
of all visible and intelligible beings, among which He created
nothing better than those spirits whom He endowed with intel-
ligence, and made capable of contemplating and enjoying Him,

' Luke i. 33.

BOOK XXIl] FREE-WILL IN ANGELS AND ifEN.

473

and united in our societ}', which we call the holy and heavenly
city, and in which the nmteriiU of their sustenance and blessed-
ness is God Himself, qs it were their common food and nourish-
ment. It is He who gave to this intellectual nature free-will
of such a kind, tliat if lie wished to foi-sake God his blessed-
ness, misery should furthwiLh result. It is He who, wlien
He foreknew that certain angels would in their pride desire
to suffice for tlieir own blessednes-s, and wonld forsake tlieir
great good, did not deprive them of this power, deeming it to
be more befitting His power and goodness to bring good out
of evil than to prevent the evil from coniinj:; into exisLence.
And indeed evil had never been, had not the mutable nature
— mutable, though good, and created by the most high God
and immutable Good, who created all things good — brought
evil upon it-sell' by sin. And this its sin is itself proof that
its nature was originally good. Por had it not been very good,
though not equal to its Creator, the deserlion of God as its
light could not have been an evil to it. For as blindness is
a vice of the eye, and this very fact indicates that the eye
was created to see the light, and as, consequently, vice itself
proves that the eye is more excellent than tlie other members,
because it is capable of light (for on no other supposition
would it be a vice of the eye to want light), so the nature
which once enjoyed God teaches, even by its veiy vice, that
it was created the best of all. since it is now miserable because
it does not enjoy God. It is He who with very just punish-
ment doomed the angels M-ho voluntarily fell to everla-«ting
misery, and rewaixled those who continued hi their attachment
to the supreme good witli the assui*ance ot endless stability
as the meed of thfur fidelity. It is He who made also nmii
himself upright, with the same freedom of will,^ — an earthly
animal, indeed, but fit for heaven if he remained faitliful to
his Creator, but destined to the misery Appropriate to such a
nature if he forsook Him. It is He who, when He foreknew
that man would in his turn sin l>y abandoning God and
breaking His law, did not deprive him of the power of free-
will, because He at the same time foresaw what good He
Himself would bring out of the evil, and how from this
mortal race, deaei'vedly and justly condemned, He would by

THE CITY or GOB. [BOOK XHL

His grace collect, as uow He does, a people so numerous, that
Ho tlius fills up and repairs the blank rande by the fallen
angels, and that thus that beloved and heavenly city is not
defrauded of the full number of its citizens, but perhaps may
even rejoice in a still more overflowing population.

2. 0/ the demal and unchangeable vili qf God.

Tt is true that wicked men do many things contraTy to God's
will ; but so great is His wisdom and power, that all things
which seem adverse to His purpose do still tend towards those
just and good ends and issues wliich He Himself has fore-
known. And consequently, when God is said to change His
will, as when, c^., He becomes angrj* with those to whom He
was gentle, it is rather they than He who are changed, and
they find Him changed in so far as their experience of suffering
at His hand is new, as the sun is changed to injured eyes, and
becomes as it were fierce from being mild, and hurtful from
being delightful, though in itself it remains the same as it
was. That also is called the will of God which He does in
the heaits of those who obey His commandments ; and of Uiis
the apostle says, " Jot it is God that worketh in you both
to wilL"^ As God's " righteousness" is used not only of the
righteousness wherewith He Himself is righteous, but also of
that which He produces in the man whom He justifies, so sdso
that is called His law, which, though given by God, is rather
the law of men For certainly they were men to whom Jesus
said, " It is written in your law,"^ though in another place
we read, " The law of his God is in his heart"* AcoordiBg
to this will which God works in men, He is said also to will
what He Himself does not will, but causes His people to will ;
as He is said to know what He has caused those to know vrho
were ignorant of it. For when the apostle says, " But now,
after that ye have known God, or rather are Imown of God,***
we cannot suppose that God there for the first time knew
those who were foreknown by Him bt^fore the foundation of
the world ; but He is said to have known them then, because
then He caused them to know. But I remember that I dis-

> Phil. ji. IS. « John viii. 17.

» P8. xxxrit. 31. * GflL it. 9.

xxn.]

THE i'NCHAXGEAIJLE WILL OP GOD.

475

cussed these modes of expression in the preceding hooks.
According to this will, then, hy which we say that God wills
what He causes to be willed hy others, from whom the future
is hidden, He wills many things wliicli He does not perform-
Thus His saints, inspired by His holy will, desire many
things which never happen. They pray, e.g., for certain indi-
riduals — they pray in a pious and holy manner — but what
they request He docs not perform, though He Himself by His
own Holy Spirit has %'rrougbt in them this will to pray. And
consequently, when the saints, in conformity with God's mind,
will and pray that all men be saved, we can use this mode of
expression : God wills tmd docs not perform, — meaning that
He who causes them to will these things Himself wills them.
But if we speak of that will of His which is ctenml as His
foreknowledge, certainly He has already done all things in
heaven and on eartli that He has willed^ — not only past and
present things, but even things still future. But before the
arrival of that time in which Ho has wiJled the occurrence of
what He foreknew and arranged before all time, we say, It
will happen when God 'v^ ills. But if we are ignorant not
only of the time in which it is to be, but even whether it shall
be at all, we say, It will happen if God wills, — not because
God will then have a new will which He had not before, but
because that event, which' from eternity has been prepared in
His unchangeable will, shall then come to pass.

3. 0/ the promisf o/demnl blessednesi to the sainU, and tnerla^ing
punUIiment to the wickfd.

Wherefore, not to mention many other instancpa besides, as
we now see in Christ the fulfilment of that which God pro-
mised to Abraham when He said, " In thy seed shall all
nations be blessed," ^ so this also shall be fulfilled which He
promised to the same race, when He said by the prophet,
''They that axe in their sepulchres shall rise again;"' and
also, " There shall be a new heaven and a new earth ; and the
former shall not be mentioned, nor come into mind ; but they
shall find joy and rejoicing in it : for I will make Jerusalem
a rejoicing, and my people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jeru-
salem, and joy in my people, and the voice of weeping shall

I Gen. audi. 18.

' Isa. xxTu 10.

476 TffE CITY OP GOP. [book XXIL

be no more heard in her." ^ And by another prophet He
uttered the same prediction : " At that time thy people shall
he deliveredj every one that sliall be found \\nitten in the book.
And many of them that sleep in the dust" (or, as some inter-
pret itj "in tlic inoiuid") "oi" the earth shall awake, some l'*
everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempL"'
And in another place by the same prophet; "The saints of
the Most High sljall take the kingdom, and shall possess the
kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever." ^ And a htllf
after he says, "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom.***
Otlier proplieuies referring lo the same suhject I have iul-
vanced in the twentieth book, and others still "which I ha^"e
not advanced are found written in the same Scriptures ; axul
these predictions shall be fulfilled, as those also have hxa
which unbelieving men supposed would be frustrate. For it
is the same God who promised both, and predicted that both
would come to pass, — the God whom the pagan deities trcralilc
before, as even Torphyry, the noblest of pagan philosopher
testifies.

4. Affoimt (he tcisf. mm o/fhf world, who fannj that the tarlMy hoditu <^mai
cannot be irans/cntd to a heavenly habitation.

But men who use their learning and intellectual ability to
resist the force of that gieat auLhorily wliiuh, in fulfilment of
what was so long before predicted, has converted all races of
men to faith and ]iope in its promises, seem to themselves to
argue acutely against the resiuTection of the body wliile thev
cite what Cicero mentions in the third book De HqnihluxL
For when lie was asserting the apotheosis of Hercules and
Romulus^ he says: "Whose bodies were not taken up into
heaven ; for nature wonld not permit a body of earth to exist
anywhere except upon earth," This, forsooth, is the profound
reasoning of the wise men, whose tlioughts God knows that
the)' are vain. For if we were only souls, that is, spirits
withont any body, and if we dwelt in heaven and had no
knowledge of earthly animals, and were told that we shouW
be bound to earthly bodies by some wonderful bond of union,
and should animate them, should we not much more vigor-

' I&a. Ixv. 17-19. »Dan. xii. 1, 2.

* Dtn. vii. 18. * Daa. vii. 27. '

BOOK XXII.] THE RKSITIRECTION OF THE FLESIT. 477

msly refuse to believe this, and maintain that nature would
not permit an incorporeal substance to be held by a coq>oreal
bond ? And 3'et the eaith is full of living spirits, to which
teiTestrial bodies are bound, and Mitli which they are in a
wonderful way implicatcrl If, then, the same God who has
created sucli beings wills this also, what is to hinder tlie
earthly body from being raised to a heavenly body, since a
spirit, which is more excellent than all botlies, and conse-
quently than even a heavenly body, has be.en tied to an earthly
body ? If so small an earthly particle has been able to hold
in union with iLself sometlving better than a heavenly body,
60 as to receive sensation and life, will heaven disdain to
receive, or at least to retain, this sentient and living particle,
which derives its life and sensation from a substance more
excellent than any lieavculy body ? li' this does not happen
now, it is because the time is not yet come which has been
determined by Him who has alrnady done a much more mar-
vellous tiling than that whicli these men refuse to believe.
For why do we not more intensely wonder tliat incorporeal
souls, which are of higher rank than heavenly bodies, ai-e
bound to earthly bodies, ratlier than that bodies, although
earthly, are exalted to an abode which, though heavenly, is yet
corjxjreaj, except because we have been accustomed to see
tliis, and indeed are this, while we are not as yet that other
marvel, nor have as yet ever seen it ? Certainly, if we con-
sult sober reason, the more wonderful of the two divine w^orks
is found to be to attacli somehow^ corporeal things to incor-
poreal, and not to connect earthly things witli heavenly,
which, though diverse, are yet both of them coqioreal.

5- 0/tht ragumrtioa 0/ the Jlrsh^ which »ome rr/ute to Iclicvr^ thongh the
tcorld at large helUvta iL

But granting that this was once incrcdiblo, liehnld, now, the
world has come to the l>elief that tlie earthly body of Christ
was received up into heaven. Alreatly botli the learned and
unlearned have believed in the resurrection of the flesh and
its ascension to the htiavenly places, while only a very few
either of the educated or uneducated are still staggered by it.
If this is a credible thing wliich is believed, then let those
who do not believe see how stolid they are ; and if it is in-

478

THE Cnr OF GOD.

[book XXll

credible, then this also is an incredible thing, that what is
incredible should have received such credit. Here then we
have two incredibles. — to wit, the resurrection of our body U)
eternity, and that the world should believe so incredible a
tlxing ; and both these incredibles the same God predicted
should come to pass before either had as yet occurred. We
see that already one of the two has come to pass, for the world
has believed what was incredible ; why should we despair
that the remaining one shall also come to pass, and that this
which the world believed, though it was incredible, shall itoelf
occur ? For already that which was equally incredible hss
come to pass, in the world's believing an incredible thing.
Both were incredible : the one we see accomplished, the other
we believe shall be ; for both were predicted in tliose same
Scriptures by means of which the world believed. And the
very manner in which the world's faith was won is found to
be even more incredible, if we consider it Men uninstrucled
in any branch of a liberal education, without any of the re-
finement of heatlien learning, unskilled in grammar, not armed
with dialectic, not adorucd with rhetoric, but plain fishermen.
and very few in number, — these were the men whom Chris;
sent with the nets of faith to the sea of this world, and thas
took out of every race so many iishes, and even the philoso-
phers themselves, wonderful as they are rare. Let us add, if
you please, or because you ought to be pleased, this third
incredible thing to the two former. And now we have Lhiee
incredibles, all of which have yet come to pass. It is in-
credible that Jesus Christ should have risen in the flesh and
ascended with flesh into heaven; it is incredible that the
world should have believed so incredible a thing ; it is in-
credible that a very few men, of mean bii'th and the lowest
rank, and no education, should have been able so effectuallT
to persuade the world, and even its learned men, of so in-
credible a thing. Of these three incredibles, the parties with
whom we are debating i-efuse to believe the first ; they cannui
jftdnae to see the second, which they are unable to account f«
if they do not believe the third. It is indubitable that the
resurrection of Christ, and Hia ascension into heaven with the
flesh in which He rose, is already preached and believed in

BOOK XXn.] THE RESUKRECTTON SOT DfCUEDIBLE. 479

the "whole "world. If it is not credible, how is it that it has |

already received credence in the -whole world ? If a number !

of noble, exalted, and leai-ned men had said that they had
witnessed it, and had been at pains to publish what they had
■witnessed, it were not wonderful that the world should have
believed it, but it were very stubborn to refuse credence ; but
if, as is true, the world has believed a few obscure, incon-
siderable, uneducated persons, who state and "write that they
witnessed it, is it not unreasonable that a handfid of wrong-
headed men should oppose themselves to the creed of the
whole world, and refuse their belief ? And if the world has
put faith in a small niimbcr of men, of mean birth and the
lowest rank, and no education, it is because the divinity of the
thing itself appeared all the more manifestly in such con-
temptible "Witnesses. The eloquence, indeed, which lent per-
suasion to their message, consisted of wonderfid works, not
words. For they who had not seen Christ risen in the flesh,
nor ascending into heaven with His risen body, believed those
who related how they had seen these things, and who testified
not only with words but wonderfid signs. For men whom they
knew to be acquainted M'ith only one, or at most two languages,
they marvelled to hear speaking in the tongues of aU nations.
They saw a man, lame from his mother's womb, after forty
years stand up sound at their word in the name of Christ ;
that handkerchiefs taken from their bodies had virtue to heal
the sick ; Umt countless ])Graons, siok of voiious diseases, were
laid in a row in the road where they were to pass, that their
shadow might fall on them as they walked, and that they
forthwith received health ; that many other stupendous
miracles were wrought by them in the name of Christ ; and,
finally, that they even raised the dead. If it be admitted
that these things occurred as thoy are related, then we have
a multitude of incredible things to add to those three in-
credibles. That the one incredibility of the resurrection and
ascension of Jeaus Christ may be believed, we accumulate the
testimonies of countless incredible miracles, but even so we
do not bend the frightful obstinacy of these sceptics. But if
they do not believe that these miracles were "wrought by
Christ's apostles, to gain credence to their preaching of His

480

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xxn.

Tefiurrectiiin uutl ascension, tbis one grand niinicle suffice-s for
us, that the whole world has believed without any miracles.

6. TIuU Rome made iU /ouiuler Sonudwi a god beeauM U loted him ; 6vl Vkit

Ckurdi loved ChrUt bftfiiue U hdkeed Him to he God.

Let US here recite the ]>as3age in which Tully expresses hi'
astonishment that the apotheosis of Homulus should have been
credited. I shall insert his woixls as they stand : " It is most
worthy of remark in Eomulus, tliat other men who are said to
have become gods lived in less educated ages, when there was
a gi'cater propensity to the faliulous, and when the iininstructed
were easily persuaded to boHeve anything. But the age of
llomulus was barely six hundred years ago, and already litera-
ture and science had dispelk-d the errors that attach to an
uncultui-ed age." And a little after he says of the same
Rnmidus words to this effect : " From this we may perceive
that Homer liad fiutirished long before Komulus, and tliat then?
was nuw so much letu-ning in iudiv^iduals, and so generally
diffused an enlightenment, that scarcely any room was left for
fable. For antiquity admitted fables^ and sometimes even
very clumsy ones; but this age [of Ilomulus] was sufficiently
enlightened to reject whatever had not the air of truth." Thus
one of the most learned men, and certainly the most eloquent,
M. Tullius Cicero, says that it is surprising tliat the divinity
of Romulus was believed in, because the times were already so
enli^'htened that they would not accept a fabulous fiction. But
who believed that Fioniulus was a god except Kome, which was
itself small and in its infancy? Then afterwards it was neces-
sary that succeeding generations should preserve the tradition
of their ancestors ; that, drinldng in this superstition with their
mothers nulk, the state might grow and come to such power
that it miglit dictate this belief, as from a point of vantage,
to all the nations over whom its sway extended. And these
nations, though they might not believe that Komulus \^'a5 a
god, at least said so, that they might not give offence to their
sovereign state by refusing to give its founder that title which
was given him by Rome, which had adopted thLs belief, not by
a love of error, but an error of love. But though Chiist is the
founder of the heavenly and eternal city, yet it did not beUeve
Him to be God because it was foxmded by Him, but rather it

BOOK XXn.] DIVINITY OF CHKIST IS CRJEDTBLE.

481

is founded by Him, in virtue of its belief. Rome, after it
had been built and dedicated, worshipped its founder in a
temple as a god; but this Jeruaalem laid Christ, its God,
as its foundation, that the building and dedication might
proceed. The former city loved its founder, and therefore
believed him to be a god ; the Intter believed Christ to be God,
and therefore loved Him. There -was an antecedent cause for
the love of the former city, and for its believing that even a
false dignity attached to the object of its love ; so there "was
an antecedent cause for the belief of the latter, and for its
loving the true dignity \\-hich a proper faith, not a rash surmise,
ascribed to its object. For, not to mention the multitude of
very striking miracles which proved that Christ is God, there
■were also divine prophecies heralding Him, prophecies most
worthy of belief, which being already accomplished, we have
not, like the fathers, to wait for their verification. Of Romulus,
on the other hand, and of his building Rome and reigning in
it, we read or hear the narrative of what did take place, not
prediction which beforehand said that such things shoiUd be.
And so far as his reception among the gt)ds is concerned, liis-
tory only recoixls that this' was believed, and does not state it
as a fact; for no miraculous signs testified to the truth of
this. For as to that wolf which is said to have nursed the
twin-brothers, and which is considered a great marvel, how
does this prove him to have been divine ? For even suppos-
ing that this nurse was a real wolf and not a mere courtezan,
yet she nursed both brothers, and Eemus is not reckoned a
god Besides, what was there to hinder any one from assert-
ing that Romulus or Hercules, or any snch man, was a god ?
Or who would rather choose to die than profess belief in his
divinity ? And did a single nation worship Romulus among
its gods, unless it were forced through fear of the Roman
name ? But who can number the multitudes who have chosen
death in the most cniel shapes rather than deny the divinity
of Christ ? And thus the dread of some slight indignation,
which it was supposed, perhaps groundlessly, might exist in the
minds of the Romans, constrained some states who were sub-
ject to Rome to worship Romulus as a god ; whereas the dread,
not of a slight mental shocks but of severe and various punish-

VOU U. 8 H

482

THE CITY OP GOD.

[book xra.

ments, and of death itself, the most formidable of all, could not
prevent an immense multitude of martyrs throughout the world
from not merely woi'shipping but also confessing Christ as God,
The city of Christ, which, although as yet a stranger upon
earthy had countless hosts of citizens, did not make war upon
its godless persecutors for the sake of temporal security, bat
preferred to win eternal salvation by abstaining from wtr.
They were bound; imprisoned, beaten, tortured, bui-ned, tarn
in pieces, massacred, and yet they multiplied. It was nut
given to them tu fight for tlieu eternal salvation except by
despising theii temporal salvation for their Saviour's sake,

I am aware that Cicero, in the third book of his J)c Rcpvb-
lica, if I mistake not, argues that a first-rate power will mrt
engage in war except either for honour or for safety. What
he has to say about the question of safety, and what he means
by safety, he explains in another place, sajoag. " Private per-
sons fretiuuntly evade, by a speedy death, destitution, exile,
bonds, the scourge, and the other pains which even the xnosl
insensible feeL But to states, death, wliich seems to emanci-
pate individuals from all punishments, is itself a punishment,
for a state should he so constituted as to be eternal And
thus death is not natural to a republic as to a man, to whom
death is not only necessary, but often even desirable. But
when a state is destroyed, obliterated, annihilated, it is as if
(to compare great tilings \^ith small) this whole world perished
and collapsed.*' Cicero said this because he, with the Pla-
tonists, believed that the world would not perish. It is there-
fore agreed that, according to Cicero, a state should engage in
war for the safety which preserves the state permanently in
existence, though its citizens change ; as the foliage of an olive
or laurel, or any tree of this kind, is perennial, tlie old leaves
being replaced by fresh ones. For death, as he says, is no
punishment to individuals, but rather delivers them from all
other punishments, but it is a punishment to the stata And
therefore it is reasonably asked whether the Sagimtiues did
right when they chose that their whole state should perish
rather than that they should break fiiith with the Eoznon
republic ; for tliis deed of theirs is applauded by the citizens
of the earthly republic. But I do not see how they oould

BOOK XXa] "WHY THE WOULD BELIEYHS IK CnillST.

483

follow the advice of Cicero, who tells us that no war is to be

undertaken save for safety or for honour ; neither does he say
which of these two is to be preferred, if a case should occur
in which the one could not be preserved without the loss of
the other. For manifestly, if the Saguntines chose safety, they
must break faith • if they kept faith, they must reject safety ;
as also it fell out. But the safety of the city of God is such
that it can be retained, or rather acquired, by faith and with
faith ; but if faith be abandoned, no one can attain it. It is
this thought of a most atedfast and patient spirit that has
made so many noble martyrs, while Romuhis has not had, and
could not have, so much as one to die for his divinity.

7. Tliai the world^s bfli^in Christ « the rtsuU o/divim poicer^ not of human

pertiuu'wn.

But it is thoroughly ridiculous to make mention of the false
divinity of Romuhis as any way comparahle to that of Christ,
Nevertheless, if Romulus lived about six hundred years before
Cicero, in an age which already was so enlightened that it
rejected all impossibilities, how much more, in an age which
certainly was more enlightened, being six hundred years later,
the age of Cicero himself, and of the emperors Augustus and
TiberiuSj would the human uiiud have refused to listen to or
believe in the resurrection of Christ's body and its ascension
into heavL'u, and have scouted it as an impossibility, had not
the divinity of the truth itself, or the truth of the divinity, and
corroborating miraculous signs, proved tliat it could happen
and bad happened ? Through virtue of these testimonies, and
notwithstanding the opposition and terror of so many cruel
persecutions, the resurrection and immortality of the fiesh,
first in Christ, and subsequently in all in the new world, was
believed, was intrepidly proclaimed, and was sown over the
whole world, to be fertilized richly with the blood of the
martyrs. For the predictions ot the prophets that had pre-
ceded the events were read, they were corroborated by power-
ful signs, and the truth was seen to be not contradictory to
reason, but only different from customary ideas, so that at
length the world embraced the faith it had furiously perse-
cuted.

484

CITY OF GOD.

[book XXtL

O/miraefeg whtrJi icere wrought that the. xcorld mujkl belirrt in Chritig
and which Have not ceased tince the world believed.

\Vliy, they say, are those miracles, -which you affirm were
wrought fonnerly, wrought no longer ? I might, indeed, refdy
that miracles were necessary before the world believed, in order
that it might believe. And whoevet now-a-days demands lo
see prodigies that he may believe, is himself a great prodig)',
because ho doea not believe, though the whole world does.
But they make these objections for the sole purpose of in-
sinuating that even those former miracles were never wrought
How, then, is it that everywhere Christ is celebrated with
such firm belief in His resurrection and ascension ? How is it
that in enlightened times, in which every impossibility is re-
jected, tlie world ha.s, without any miracles, believed thingR
marvellously incredible? Or will they say that these things
were credible, and therefore were credited ? Wl\j then do
they themselves not believe ? Our argimicnt, therefore, is i
summary one — either incredible things which were not wt-
nessed have caused the world to beheve other incredible thina*
which both occurred and were witnessed, or this matter was
so credible that it needed no miracles in proof of it, and there-
fore convicts these unbelievers of unpardonable scepticism.
This I might say for the suke of refuting these most frivolous
objectors. But we cannot deny that many miracles were
wrought to confirm that one grand and health-gi\'ing miracle
of Christ's ascension to heaven with the flesh in which He
rosa For these most trustworthy books of ours contain in
one narrative both the miracles that were wrought and the
creed which they were wrought to confirm. The miracles
were published that they might produce faith, and tlie faith
which they produced brought them into greater prominence.
For they are read in congregations that they may be believed,
and yet they would not be so read unless they were believed
For even now miracles are wrought in the name of Christ,
whether by His sacraments or by the prayers or relics of His
saints ; but they are not so brilliant and conspicuous as to
cause them to be published with such glory as accompanied
tlie former miracles. For the canon of the sacred ■«

in*

COOK XXII.] MIRACLHS IX AUGUSTINE'S DAY.

435

hich behoved to be closed,' causes those to be everywhere
recited, and to sink into the memoiy of all the congregations ;
but these modern miracles are scarcely known, even to the
whole population in the midst of which they are wroup:ht, and
at the best are confined to one spot For frequently they are
known only to a very few persons, wliile all the rest are igno-
rant of them, especially if the state is a large one ; and when
they are reported to other persona in other localities, there is
no suflicient authority to give them prompt and unwavering
credence, although they are reported to the faithful by the
faithful.

The miracle which wag wrought at Milan Avhen I was tliere,
and by which a blind man was restored to sight, could come
to the knowlerl^cof many ; for not only is the rity a large one,
but also the emperor was there at the time, and the occurrence
was witnessed by an immense concourse of people that had
gathei'ed to the bodies of the martyrs Protasius and Gervasius,
which had long lain conceLded and unknown, but were now
made known to the bishop Ambrose in a dream, and discovered
by liim. V»y virtue of these remains the darkness of tlmt blind
man was scattered, and he saw the light of day.'

liut who but a very small number are aware of the cure
which was wrought upon Tnnocentius, cK-advocate of the deputy
piefecture, a cure wrought at Cartlmge, in my presence, and
under my own eyea ? For when I and my brother Alypina,* who
were not yet clergymen/ though already servants of God, came

' Another rendinKhfia dijamatujn, "puliliahed."

• A somewhut lullcr account of this mirncle \a given by Angtiatine in the
Coi\fe4nons, ix. l(i. Sec also Scrm. 286, and Ambiofle, Ep. 22. A translation
of this epistle in full is piven in Isiuic T.»ylor'8 Ancitnt CkrUHanit^, u. 242,
where this niimcle is takt-n as a specimen of the so-called rairaclea of that ngc,
and submitted to a detailed examination. The result arrived at will be gathered
from the following sentence: *'In the Nicene Churrh, ao lax wt-re the notiona
of common mnmlity, and in ao feeble a manner did the fear of God influpnce th«
conduct of leading meD» that, on occasions when the Church was to be served,
and her assailants to be confoandod, they did not scruple to take upon them-
selves the contriv.i nee and execution flftho most degrading impostures." — P. 270.
It is to be observL-d, however, that Augustine wait, at least iu this inatance, one
of the deceived-

' Alypius waa a countryman of Angnstine, and one of his most attached Drieuds.
See thir Con/esaioHS, passim.

* Lleroa

486

THE CITY OF GOD.

[cook xxn-

from abroad, this man received us, and made us live with
him, for he and all his household were devotedly pious. He
was being treated by medical men for fistuhe, of which he
had a large number intricately seated in the Tectum. He had
already imdergone an operation, and the surgeons were using
every means at their command for his relief In that operatioo
he had suffered long-continued and acute pain ; yet, amooig
the many folds of the gut, one lind escaped the operators so
entirely, that, though they ought to have laid it open with the
knife, they never touched it And thus, though all those that
had been opened were cured, this one remained as it was, and
frustrated all their labour. The patient, having his suspicions
awakened by the delay thus occasioned, and fearing greatly n
second operation, which another medical man — one of his own
domestics — had told him he must undergo, though this man
had not even been allowed to witness the lirst operation, and
had been banished from the house, and with difficulty allowed
to come back to his enraged mafiter's presence, — the patiejit» I
say, broke out to the surgeons, saying, "Are you going to cut
me again ? Are you, after all, to fulfil the prediction of that
man whom you would not allow even to be present ? " The
surgeons laughed at the unskilful doctor, and soothed their
patient's fears with fair words and promises. So several days
passed, and yet nothing they tried did hiia good Still they
persisted in promising that they would cure that fistula by
drugs, without the knife. They called in also another old
practitioner of great repute in that department, Ammonius (for
he was still alive at tliat time) ; and he, after examining the
part, promised the same result as themselves fi-om their care
and skill. On this great authority, tlie patient became con-
Sdent, and, as il already well, vented his good spirits in facetious
remarks at the expense of his domestic jthysician, who had pre-
dicted a second operation. To make a long story short, after
a number of days had thus uselessly elapsed, the suigeons,
wearied and confused, had at last to confess that he could only
be ciu*ed by the knife. Agitated with excessive fear, he was
terrified, and grew pole with dread ; and when he collected
himself and was able to speak, he ordered them to go away
and never to return. AVom out with weeping, and driven fe

BOOK XXn.] ^miACLES TS AUGUSTINT^'S DAT.

487

necessity^ it occurred to hini to call in an Alexandrian, who
was at that time esteemed a wonderfully skilful operator, that
he might perform the operation his rage would not suffer them
to do. But -when he had come, and examined with a pro-
fessional eye the traces of their careful work, he acted the
part of a good man, and persuaded his patient to allow those
same hands the satisfaction of finishing his cure which had
begun it with a skill that excited iiis adniiration, adding that
there was no doubt his only hope of a cure was by an opera-
tion, but that it was tlioroughly inconsistent with his nature
to win the credit of the cure by doing the little that remained
to be done, and rob of their reward men whose consummate
skill, care, and dOigcnce he could not but admire when he saw
the traces of their work. They were therefore again received
to favour; and it was agreed that, in the presence of the
Alexandrian, they should operate on the fiat\ila, which, by the
consent of all, could now only be cured by the knife. The
operation was deferred till the following day. But when tliey
bad left, there arose in the liouse such a wailing, in sympathy
with the excessive despondency of the master, that it seemed
to us like the mourning at a funeral, and we could scarcely
repress it. Holy men were in the habit of visiting him daily ;
Satuminus of blessed memory, at that time bishop of Uzali,
and the presbj'ter Gelosus, and the deacons of the church of
Carthage ; and among these was the bishop AureHus, wlio
alone of them all sur\'iveSj — a man to be named by iis with due
reverence, — and with him I have often spoken of this affair,
as we conversed together about the wonderful works of God,
and I have found that he distinctly remembers what I am
now relating. When tliese persons visited him that evening
according to their custom, he besought them, with pitiable
tears, that they would do him the honour of being present next
day at what he judged his funeral rather than Ids suffering.
For such was the ten-or his former pains had produced, that he
made no doubt ho would die in the hands of the surgeons.
They comforted him, and exhorted liim to put his trust in
God, and nerve his will like a man. Then we went to prayer ;
but while we, in the usual way, were kneeling and bending
to the ground, he cast liimself down, as if some one were

THR CITY OF COD.

[book rtn

Inirling him violently to the earth, and began to pray ; but in
what a manner, with what earnestness and emotion, with what
a Hood of tears, with what p;roaiiB and sobs, that shook hi«
whole body, and ahnost prevented him speaking, who can
describe ! AVliether the others prayed, and had not their
attention wholly diverted by tliis conduct, I do not know. For
myself, I coiild not pray at alL Tliis only I briefly said in my
heart : " O Lord, what prayers of Thy people dost Thou hear
if Thou hcarest not these ?" For it seemed to me that notliing
could be added to this prayer, unless he expired in praying.
We rose from our knees, and, receiving the blessing of the
bishop, departed, the patient beseeching his visitoi^s to be pre-
sent next morning, they exhorting him to keep up his heait
The dreaded day dawned. The servants of God were pre-
sent, as they had promised to be ; the sui^eons arrived ; all
that the circumstances required was ready ; the frightful
instruments are produced ; all look on in wonder and suspense.
Wliile those who have most intiuence with the patient »re
cheering his fainting spirit, his limbs are arranged on tbe
couch so as to suit the hand of the operator ; the knots of the
bandages are untied ; the part is bared ; the surgeon examines
it, and, with knife in hand, eagerly looks for the sinus tliat is
to be cut. He searches for it witli his eyes ; he feels for it
with his finger ; he applies every kind of scrutiny : he finds ft
perfectly firm cicatrix ! No words of mine can describe the
joy, and praise, and thanksgiving to the merciful and almighty
God which was poured from the Ups of all, witli tears of glad-
ness. Let the scene be imagined rather than described !

In the same city of Carthage lived Innocentia, a very
devout woman of the highest rank in the state. She
cancer in one of her breasts, a disease which, as physii
say, is incurable. Ordinarily, therefore, tliey eitlier ampu
and so sepai'ate from the body the member on which the dij
has seized, or, that the patient's life may be prolonged a little,
though death is inevitable even if somewhat delayed, they
abandon all remedies, following, as they say, the advice of
Kippocratea. Tliis the lady we speak of had been advised lo
by a skilful physician, who was intimate -with her family ; and
she betook herself to God alone by jn-ayer. On the approach

►K XXII.] RTTRACtES 15 AUGtJSTINX's DAY.

489

Easter, she was instructed in a dream to wait for the first
unan that came out from the baptistery^ after being baptized,
id to ask her to make the sign of Christ upon her sore. She
did so, and wsis iniiiiediately cured. The physician who Iiad
advised her to apply no remedy if she wished to live a little
longer, when he had examined her after this, and found that
she who, on liis former examination, was afflicted with that
disease was now perfectly cured, eagerly asked her what
remedy she had used, anxious, as we may well believe, to dis-
cover the drug which shoiJd defeat tlie decision of Hippocrates.
But when she told him wliat had happened, he is said to have
repliedj witli religious politeness, though with a contemptuous
tone, and an expression which made her fear he would utter
some blaspliemy against Christ, " I thought you would make
some great discovery to me." She, shuddering at his indiffer-
ence, quickly replied, " T\T]at great thing was it for Christ to
heal a cancer, who raised one wlio had been four days dead ?"
When, therefore, I had heard this, I was extremely indignant
that so great a mirjicle, w^rought in that well-known city, and
on a person who was certainly not obscure, should not be
divulged, and I considered that slie should be spoken to, if
not reprimanded on tlus score. And when she replied to me
that she had not kept silence on the subject, I asked the
womnn with whom she was best acquainted whetlier they had
ever heard of this before. They told me they knew nothing
of it. " See," I said, " what your not keeping silence amounts
to, since not even those wlin arc so familiar witli you know of it."
And as I had only briefly heard the stoiy, I made her tell
how the whole thing happened, from beginning to end, while
the other women listened in great astonishment, and glorified
God.

A gouty doctor of the same city, when he had given in his
name for baptism, and had been prohibited the day bofore
his baptism from being baptized that year, by black woolly-
liaired boys who appeared to him in his dreams, and whom

* Knster and Wliit^untide were the commofi scnsons for ndmini-stenng bnptisin,
though no mle wna laiJ down till towards the end of the sixth century. Ter-
tullian thinks these the most appropriate times, but says Ihnt every time is
suitable. See Tertull. rfc BaptismOj c. 1&.

490

THE Cmr OF GOD.

[book xxh

he understood to be devils, and when, though they trod .«
his feet, and inflicted the acutest pain he had ever yet expe-
rienced, he refused to obey them, but overcame them, and
would not defer being washed in the laver of regeneration,
was relieved in the very act of baptism, not only of the eitn-
ordinary pain he was tortured with, but also of the diaeoe
itself, so that, though hti lived a long time afterwards, be
never suffered from gout; and yet who knows of this miracle f
We, however, do know it, and so, too, do the small number of
brethren who were in the neighbourhood, and to whose eais
it might come.

An old comedian of Curubis' was cured at baptism not
only of pamlysis, but also of hernia, and, being delivered fwB
both afflictions, came up out of the font of regeneration u
if he had had nothing wrong witli his body. Who outside of
Curubis knows of this, or who but a very few who mighi
hear it elsewhere ? But we, when we heard of it, made
the man corae to Cartilage, by order of the holy bishop
Aureliua, although we had already ascertained tlie fact on tb*
information of persons whose word we could not doubt

Hesperius, of a tribunitiim family, and a neighbour of oui
own,' has a farm called Zubedi in the Fussalian district;'
and, finding that his family, his cattle, and his servants were
suffering from the malice of evil spirits, he asked our pres-
byters, during my absence, that one of them would go with
him and banish the spirits by his prayers. One went, ofTexcd
there the sacrifice of tlie body of Christ, praying with &11
his might that that vexation might cease. It did cease forth-
with, through God's mercy. Now he had received from a
friend of his own some holy earth brought from Jerusalem,
where Christ, having been buried, rose again the third day.
This earth he had hung up in his bedroom to preserve him-
self from harm. Eut when his house was purged of thftt
demoniacal invasion, he began to consider what should be
done with the earth ; for his reverence for it made him unwill-
ing to have it any longer in his bedi'oom. It so happened
that I and Ma:timinus bishop of Synita, and then my

' A town near Cartluigv. * This maj potsibly memi a Christian.

* Near Hippo.

BOOK XXn.] MIKACLES m AUGUSTINE'S PAY.

491

colleague, were in the neighbourhood He^perius asked us
to visit hirUj and we did so. When he had related all the
circumstances, ho begged that the earth nii^'ht be buried
somewhere, and that the spot should be made a place of
prayer where Christians might assemble for tlie worsliip of
God We made no objection : it was done as he desired.
There was in that neighbourhood a young countryman who
was paralytic, who, when he heard of this, begged his parents
to take him without delay to that holy place. When he had
been brought there, he prayed, and forthwith went away on
his own feet perfectly cured.

. There is a country-seat called Victoriana, less than thirty
niilea from Hippo-regius. At it there is a monument to the
Milanese martyrs, Protasius and Gervasius. Thither a young
man was carried, who, when he was watering his horse one
summer day at noon in a pool of a river, had been taken
possession of by a devil As he lay at the monument, near
death, or even quite like a dead person, the lady of the manor,
with her maids and religious att-endants, entered the place
for evening prayer and praise, as her custom was, and they
began to sing hymns. At this sound the young man, as if
electrified, was thoroughly aroused, and with frightful scream-
ing seized the altar, and held it as if he did not dare or were
not able to let it go, and as if he were fixed or tied to it ;
and the devil in him, %vitli loud lamentation, besought that
he might be spared, and confessed where and when and how
he took possession of the youth. At last, dcclarijig that he
would go out of him, he named one by one the parts of his
body which he tbreateued to mntOate as he went out ; and
with these words he departed from the man. But his eye,
falling out on his cheek, hung by a slender vein as by a root,
and the whole of the pupil which had been black became
white. When this was witnessed by those present (others
too had now gathered to hia cries, and had all joined in
prayer for him), although they were delighted that he had
recovered his sanit}- of mind, yet, on the other hand, they
were grieved about his eye, and said he should seek medical
advice. But his sister's husband, who had brought him
therCj said, " God, who has banished the devil, is able to

THE rmr of gov.

[nooK xxn

restore Ms eye at the prayers of His saints." Therewith he
replaced the eye that was fallen out and hanging, and bound
it in its' place with his handkerchief as well as he could, and
advised him not to loose the bandage for seven days. When
he did so, he found it quite healthy. Others also were cond
there^ but of them it were tedious to speak.

I know that a young woman of Hippo was immediately
dispossessed of a devil, on imointiiig hersulf with oil lahtA
with the tears of the presbyter who Iiad been praying fof
her. I know also that a bishop once prayed for a demoniac
young man whom he never saw, and tliat he was cxired on
tlie spot

There was a fellow-townsman of ours at Hippo, Florentiui,
an old man, religious and poor, who supported himself as a
tailor. Having lost his coat, and not having means to bur
another, he prayed to the Twenty Martyrs/ who have a tot
celebrated memorial slirine in our town, begging in a dtslinct
voice that he might be clothed. Some scoliing young men.
who happened to be present, heard him, and followed hi»
with their sarcasm as he went away, as if he bad asked tlr
martyrs for fifty pence to buy a coat But he. walking on in
silence, saw on the shore a great fish, gasping as if just ctft
up, and having secured it with the good-natured assistance of
the youths, he sold it for curing to a cook of the name of
Catosus, a good Christian man, telling him how he had come
by it, and receiving for it three hundred pence, which he lai*'
out in wool, that his wife might exercise her skill upon, and
make Into a coat for him. But, on cutting up the fish, \hf
cook found a gold ring in its belly; and forth^vith, moved
with compassion, and influenced, too, by religious fear, gave i*
up to the man, saying, " See how the Twenty Martyrs hare
clothed you."

"When the bishop Projectus was bringing the relics of ibe
most glorious martyr Stephen to the waters of Tibilis, a grea*
concourse ot people came to meet him at the slirine. Thcrt
a blind woman entreated that she might be led to the bishop
who was carrying the relics. He gave her the floweis be
was canying. She took them, applied them to her eyes, «nd
' Augiutine'a 326th semion is in honour of iliese martyn.

ioK XXII.] MIRACLES IX AITGrSTryE*S DAT.

493

,hwith saw. Those who were present were astounded,
rhile she, with every expression of joy, preceded them, pur-
ling her way without further need of a guida
Lucillus bishop of Sinita, in the neighbourhood of the
jloninl town of Hippo, was caiTying in procession some
LC3 of the same martyr, which had been deposited in the
(tie of Sinita A fistula under which he bad long laboured,
id which his private physician was watching an opportunity
cut, was suddenly cui'ed by the mere carrying of that
id fardel/ — at least, afterwards there was no trace of it
5n his body.

Eucharius, a Spanish priest, residing at Cakma, was for a
long time a suEferer from stone. By the relics of the 8£ime
martyr, which the bishop Possidius brought him, he was
sured. Afterwards the same priest, sinking under another
ioase, was lying dead, and already they were binding his
tnds. By the succour of the same martyr he was raised to
fe. the priest's cloak liaving been brought from the oratory
id. laid upon the corpse.

There was there an old nobleman named Martial, who had
great aversion to the Christian religion, but whose daughter
ras a Christian, while her husband had been baptized that
same year. When he was ill, they besought him with tears
and prayers to become a Christian, but he positively refused,
and dismissed them from his presence in a storm of indigna^
tion. It occurred, to the son-in-la^v to go to the oratory of
St. Stephen, and there pray for him with all earnestness that
God might give him a right mind, so that he should not
delay believing in Christ This he did with great groaning
and tears, and the burning fer\^our of sincere piety ; then, as
he left the place, he took some of the flowers that were lying
there, and, as it was already night, laid them by his father s
bead, who so slept. And lo ! before dawn, he cries out for
fflome one to run for the bishop ; but he happened at that
time to be with me at Hippo. So when he had heard that
he was from home, he asked the presbyters to come. They
tme. To the joy and amazement of all, he declared that he
ieved, and he was baptized. As long as he remained in

' See Isaac Taylor's AncieiU ChrisiianUy, ii. 354.

494 THE CITT OF GOD. fBOOK XXH

life, these words were ever on his lips: " Christ, receive mj
spirit," though he was not aware that these were the last
words of the most blessed Stephen when he was stoned h
the Jews. They were his last words also, for not long ^i
he himself also gave up the ghost

There, too, by the same martyr, two men, one a citizen, the
other a stranger, were cured of gout ; but while the cituGBB
was absolutely cured, the stranger was only informed what he
should apply when the pain returned ; and when he foUowed
this advice, the pain was ut once relieved.

Audurus is tJie name of an estate, where there is a church
that contains a memorial shrine of the martyr Stephen. It
happened that, as a little boy was pkying in the court, the
oxen drawing a waggon went out of the track and cruaheJ
him with the wheel, so that immediately he seemed at hb
last gasp. His mother snatched him up, and laid him at the
shi'ine, and not only did he revive, but also appeared uuinjund

A religious female, who lived at Caspolium, a neighbooring
estate, when she was so ill as to be despaired of, had her dre»
brought to this shrine, but before it was brought back she was
gone. However, her parents ^v^apped lier corpse in the drets
and, her breath returning, she became quite well

At Hippo a S}Tian called Bassiis was praying at the relics
of the sanje martyr for his daughter, who was djuigcrously ill
He too had brought her dress with him to the shrine. Bat
as he prayed, behold, his servants ran from the house to tell
him she was dead. His friends, however, intercepted theni,
and forbade them to tell him, lest he should bewail her in
public. And when he had returned to his house, which WM
abeady ringing with the lamentations of liis family, and bad
thrown on his daughter's body the dress he was carrying,
she was restored to life.

There, too, the son of a man, Irenaeus, one of our tiuc*
gatherers, took ill and died. And while his body was lying
lifeless, and the last rites were being prepared, amidst the
weeping and mourning of aU, one of the friends who weif
consoling the father suggested that the body should be
anointed with the oil of the same martyr. It was done, and
he revived.

BOOK XXIL] MIBACLES IN AUGUSTINE'S DAY

495

Likewise Eleusinua, a man of tribunitian rank among us,
laid his infant son, who had died, on the slirine of the martyr,
which is in the suburb where he lived, and, after prayer,
•which he poured cut there with many tears, he took up his
child aliva

What am I to do 7 I am bo pressed by the promise of
finishing this w^ork, that I cannot record all the miracles I
know ; and doubtless several of our adherents, when they
read what I have narrated, will regret that I have omitted
so many which they, as well as I, certainly know. Even now
1 beg these persons to excuse me, and to consider how long it
-would take me to relate all those miracles, which the necessity
of finishing the work I have undertaken forces me to omit
For were I to be silent of all others, and to record exclusively
the miracles of he^iliug which were wrought in the district of
Calama and of Hippo by means of this martyr — I mean the
most glorious Stephen — they would fill many volumes ; and
yet all even of these could not be collected, but only those of
which narratives have been written for public recital For
when I saw, in our own times, frequent signs of tlio presence
of divine powers similar to those which had been given of
old, I desired that narratives might be written, judging that
the midtitude should not remain ignorant of these things. It
is not yet two years since these relics wore first brought to
Hippo-regius, and though many of the miracles which have
been wrought by it have not, as I have the most certain
means of knowing, been recorded, those which have been
published amount to almost seventy at the hour at which I
write. But at Calama, where these relics have been for a
longer time, and where mure of the miracles wGi*e narrated
for public information, there are incomparably more.

At Uzali, too, a colony near Utica, many signal miracles
were, to my knowledge, wrought by the same martyr, whose
relics had found a place there by direction of the bishop
Evodius, long before we had them at Hippo. But there the
custom of publishing narratives does not obtain, or, I should
say. did not obtain, for possibly it may now have been begun.
For, when I was there recently, a woman of rank, Petronia,
had been miraculously cured of a serious illness of long

496

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xxu

standing, in wliich all medical appliances had failed, and, widi
the consent of the above-named bishop of the place, I exhorted
her to publish an account of it that might be read to tlie
people. She most promptly obeyed, and inserted in hef
narrative a circumstance which I cannot omit to mentinn,
though I am compelled to hasten on to the subjects which
this work requires me to treat. She said that she had besD
persuaded by a Jew to wear next her skin, under all ha
clothes, a hair girdle, and on this girdle a ring, wldch, instead
of a gem, had a stone which had been found in the kidneys rf
an ox. Girt with this chanu, she was making her way to
the threshold of the holy martjT. But, after leaving Carthage,
and when she had been lodging in her own demesne on tJie
river Biigrada, and was now risijig to continue her joum^,
she saw her ring lying before her feet. In gre^t surprise
she examined the liair girdle, and when she found it bound, as
it had been, quite finnly with knots, she conjectured that the
ring had been worn through and dropped off; but when she
found that the ring was itself also perfecdy whole, she pre-
sumed that by this great miracle she had received somehov
a pledge of her cure, whereupon she untied the girdle, and
cast it into the river, and the ring along with it This is noi
credited by those who do not believe either that the Lcnl
Jesus Christ came forth from His mother's womb without
destroying her virginity, and entered among His disciples
when the doors were abut ; but let them make strict inquiry
into this miracle, and if they find it true, let them believe
those others. The lady is of distinction, nobly bom, married
to a nobleman. She resides at Carthage. The city is dis-
tinguished, the pei*30u is distinguished, so that they who make
inquiries cannot fail to find satisfaction. Certainly the martTT
himself, by whose prayers she was healed, believed on the Soo
of her who remained a virgin; on Him who came in among
the disciples when the doors were shut ; in fine, — and to this
tends all that we have been retailing, — on Him who ascended
into heaven with the flesh in which He had risen ; and it is
because he laid down his life for this faith that-such mir^cl^
were done by his means.

Even now, therefore, many miracles are wrought, the same

BOOK XXn.] mRACXES WBOUGHT BY MARTYRS' RELICS. 497

God who wrought those we read of still performing them, by
whom He will and as He will ; but they are not as well
known, nor arc they beaten into the memory, like gravel, by
frequent reading, so that they cannot fall out of mind. For
even where, as is now done among ourselves, care ia taken
that the pamphlets of those who receive benefit be read
publicly, yet tJiose who are present hear the narrative but
once, and many are absent ; and so it comes to pass that even
those who are present forget in a few days what they heard,
and scarcely one of them can be found who will tell what he
heard to one who he knows was not present

One miracle was wrought among ourselves, which, though
no greater than those I have mentioned, was yet so signal
and conspicuous, that I suppose there is no inhabitant of
Hippo who did not either see or hear of it, none who could
possibly forget it There were seven brothers and three sisters
of a noble faniily of the Cappadocian Csesarea, who were cursed
by their mother, a new-made widow, on account of some
wrong they bad done her, and which she bitterly resented, and
who were visited with so severe a punishment from Heaven,
that all of them were seized with a hideous shaking in all
their limbs. Unable, while presenting this loathsome appear-
ance, to endure the eyes of their fellow-citizens, they wandered
over almost the whole Koman worlds each following his own
direction. Two of them came to Hippo, a brother and a sister,
Paulus and Palladia, already known in many other places by
the fame of their wretched lot. Now it was about fifteen
days before Easter when they came, and they came daily to
church, and speci:tlly to the relics of the most glorious Stepljen,
praying that God might now be appeased, and restore their
former health. Tliere, and wherever they went, they attracted
the attention of everj' one. Some who bad seen them else-
where, and knew tlie cause of their trembling, told others as
ocoasion offered. Easter arrived, and on the Lord's day, in
the mornings when there was now a large crowd present, and
the young man was holding the bars of the holy place where
the relics were, and praying, suddenly he fell down, and lay
precisely as if asleep, but not trembling as he was wont to
do even in sleep. All present were astonished. Some were

VOL. IL X 1

498

CITY OF GOD.

Dbook^bol

alanned, some were moved with pity ; and while some wen
for lifting him up, otliers prevented them, and said they should
rather wait and see what would result And behold ! he rote
up, and trembled no more, for he was healed, and stood quite
well, scanning those who were scanning him. Who then
refrained himself from praisuig God ? The whole church was
filled with the voices of those who were shouting and con-
gratulating him. Then they came running to me, where I
was sitting ready to come into the churclt One after another
they throng in, the last comer telling me as news what the
first had told mc already ; and while I rejoiced and inwardly
gave God thauks, the young man himseK also enters, with a
number of others, falls at my knees, is raised up to receive
my kiss. We go in to the congregation ; the chiuch was
full, and ringing with the shouts of joy, "Thanks to God!
lYaised be God !" every one joining and shouting on all side^
" I have healed the people," and then with still louder voice
shouting again. Silence being at last obtained, the customnn*
lessons of the divine Scriptures were read And when I came
to my sermon, I made a few remai'ks suitable to the occasion
and the hup[>y and joyful fueling, not desiring them to listen
to me, but rather to consider the eloquence of God in this
divine work. The man dined with us, and gave us a carefol
account of his own, his motlier's, and his family's calamity.
Accordingly, on the following day, after delivering my senium,

T promised that next day I would read his narrative to the
people." And when I did so, the third day after Easter Sun-
day, I made the brother and sister both stand on the steps of
the raised place fi-om which I used to speak ; and while they
stood there their pamphlet was read.' The whole congrega-
tion, men and womeu alike, saw the one standing without any
unnatural movement, the other trembling in all her limbs;
so that those who had not before seen the man himself saw
in his sister what the divine compassion had removed from
him. In him they saw matter of congratulation, in her sub-
ject for prayer. Meanwhile, their pamphlet being finished,
I instructed them to withdraw from the gaze of the people ;
and I had begun to discuss the whole matter somewhat more
1 See AugustiQti'a Sermont, 321. * Sermon 322.

>0K XXn.] ?^IGNinCANCE OP THESE MIRACLES,

499

irefully, when lo ! as I was proceeding, other voices are heaiti
>m the tomb of the martyr, shouting new congratulations.
[y audience turned round, and began to nin to the tomb.
The young womanj when she had come down from the steps
■where she h.ad been standing, went to pray at the holy relics,
and no sooner had she touched the bars than she, in the same
way as her brother, collapsed, as if falling asleep, and rose
up cured. \\Tiile, then, we were asking what had happened,
and what occasioned this noisa of joy, they came into the
basilica where we were, leading her from the martyr's tomb
in perfect health. Then, indeed, sucli a shout of wonder rose
from men and women together, that the exclamations and the
tears seemed like never to come to an end. She was led to
the place where she had a little before stood trembling. They
now rejoiced that she was like her brother, as before they liad
mourned that she remained unlike him ; and as they had not
yet uttered thtiir prayers in her behalf, they perceived that
their intention of doing so had been speedily heard. They
shouted God's praises without words, but with such a noise
that our ears could scarcely bear it What was there in the
hearts of these exidtant people but the faith of Christ, for
which Stephen had shed his blood ?

9. 7*hat all the miraclf» which are done by means of the martyrn in the name of
Christ testify to that faith which the matiifrs had in Christ.

To what do these miracles witness, but to this faith which
preaches Christ risen in the flesh, and ascended with the same
into heaven ? For the martyrs themselves were martyrs, that
is to say, witnesses of this faith, drawing upon themselves by
their testimony the hatred of the world, and conquering the
world not by resisting it, but by dying. For this faith they
died, and can now ask these benefits from the Lord in whose
name they were slain. For this faith their mars^ellous con-
stancy was exercised, so tliat in these miracles great power
■was manifested as the result. For if the resurrection of the
flesh to eternal life had not taken place in Christ, and were
not to be accomplished in His people, as predicted by Christ,
or by the prophets who foretold that Christ was to come,
why do the martyrs who were slain for this faith which pro-
claims the resurrection possess such power ? For whether

:oa

TFra CITY OF GOD.

[book XIIL

CJod Himself wrought these miracles by that wonderful
manner of working by which, though Himself eternal. He
pi*oduces effects in time ; or whether He wrought them by
servants, and if so, whether He made use of the spirits of
martyrs as He uses men who are still in the body, or effects
all these maiTels by means of angels, over whom He exeits an
invisible, immutable^ incorporeal sway, so that what is said to
be done by the martyrs is done not by their opei*ation. but
only by their prayer and request ; or whether, finally, some
things are done in one way, others in another, and so thai
man cannot at all comprehend them, — nevertheless these
miracles attest this faith which preaches the resurrection of
the flesh to eternal life.

10. Th(U the martyrs tcho obtain many miracles in order that the true Cod wxy
be worshipjtcd, are worUiy oj much greater honour than the demons, laU
do some viarveU tJuit they tJiemeeivca may be aupposed to he Ood.

Here perhaps our adversaries will say that their gods also
have done some wonderful things, if now they begin to com-
pare their gods to our dead men. Or will they also say that
they have gods taken from among dead men, such as Hercules.
nomulua, and many others whom they fancy to have been
' received into the number of tlie gods ? But our martyrs ate
not our gods ; for we know that the martyra and we have
both but one God, and that the same. Nor yet are the
miracles which they maintain to have been done by means of
their temples at all comparable to those which are done by
the tombs of our mart^Ts. If they seem similar, their gods
have been defeated by our martyrs as Pharaoh's magi were ty
Moses. In reality, the demons wrought these marvels with
the same impure pride with which they aspired to be the
gods of the nations ; but the martyrs do these wonders, oi
rather God docs them while they pray and assist, in order
that au impulse may be given to the faith by which we believe
that they are not our gods, but have, together with ourselves,
one God In fine, they built temples to these gods of theirs,
and set up altars, and ordained priests, and appointed sacri-
fices ; but to our martyrs we build, not temples as if they
were gods, but monuments as to dead men whose spirits live
with God. Neither do we erect altars at these monuments

BOOK XXU.] THE BODY WILL RISE IN SPITE OF ITS WEIGHT. 501

that we may sacrifice to the martyrs, but to the one God of
the zaartyrs and of ourselves ; and in this sacrifice they are
named in their own place and rank as men of God who con-
quered the world by confessing Rini, but they are not invoked
by the sacrificing priest. For it is tb God, not to them, he
sacrifices, though he sacrifices at their monument ; for he is
God's priest, not theirs. The sacrifice itself^ too, is the body of
Christ, which is not offered to them, because they themselves
are this body. "Wliich then can more readily be believed to
work miracles ? They who wish themselves to be reckoned
gods by those on whom they work miracles, or tlioae whose
sole object in working any miracle is to induce faith in God,
and in Christ also as God ? They who vv-ished to turn even
their crimes into sacred rites, or those who are unwilling
that even their own praises be consecrated, and seek that
everything ior which they are justly praised be ascribed to
the glory of Him in whom they are praised ? For in the Lord
their souls are praised. Let us therefore believe those who
both speak the truth and work wondei-s. For by speaking
the ti'uth they suffered, and so won the power of working
wonders. Ami the leading truth they professed is that Clxrist
rose from the dead, and first showed in His own flesh the im-
mortality of the resurrection which He promised should be
ours, cither in the beginning of the world to come, or in the
end of this world.

11. Affainst tiie Platoniita^ %Dho arjUf/roin the physkal tceight qftim elemenU
Uiat an eartlUy body cannot inhabit fuMven.

But against this great gift ol God, tliese reasoners, *' whose
thoughts the Lord knows that they are vain," ^ bring ai-gu-
nients from the weights of the elements ; for they have been
taught by their master Plato that the two gieatest elements of
the world, and the fiulhest removed from one another, are
coupled and united by the two intermediate, air and water.
And consequently they say, since the earth is the first of the
elements, beginning from the base of the series, the second
the water above the eailh, the third the air above the water,
the fourth the heaven above the air, it follows that a body of
earth ctuinot live in the heaven ; for each element is poised

1 Ps. xciv. 11.

502

Tirc CITY or GOD.

[book xxa

by its owu weight so as to preserve its own place and rank.
Behold with what arguments human infirmity, possessed with
vanity, contradicts the omnipotence of God ! What^ then, do
so many earthly bodies do in the air, since the air is the
third element from the earth ? Unless perhaps He who lia«
granted to the earthly bodies of birds that they be carried
through the air by the lightness of feathers and wings, be
not been able to confer upon the bodies of men made im-
mortal the power to abide in the highest heaven. The earthly
animals, too, which cannot fly, among which are men, ought
on these terms to live under the earth, as fishes, wliich are
the animals oi the water, live under the water. Why, th*ai,
can an animal of earth not live in the second element, that is,
in water, wliile it can in the third ? Why, though it belongs
to the earth, is it forthwith suffocated if it is forced to live in
the second eleiucnt next above earth, while it lives in the
third, and cannot live out of it ? Is there a mistake here in
the order of Uie elemfnt3,or is not the mistake rather in their
reasonings, and not in the nature of things ? I will not re-
peat what I said in the thirteenth book/ that many earthly
bodieSj though heavy like lead, receive from the "workman's
hand a fomi which enables them to swim in water ; and
yet it is denied that the omnipotent Worker can confer on
the human body a property which shall enable it to pass into
heaven and dwell there.

But against what I have formerly said they can find
nothing to say, even though they introduce and make the
most of this order of the elements in which they confide.
For if the order be that the earth is first, the water 86ooxid«
the air tliird, the heaven fourth, tlien the soul is above aH
For Aristotle said that the soul was n fifth body, while Plato
denied that it was a body at all. If it were a fifth body,
then ccrUinly it would be above the rest; and il it ia not a
body at all, so much the more does it rise above all Wljit,
then, does it do in an earthly body ? What docs this seal,
which is finer than all else, do in such a mass of matter as
this ? Wiiat does the lightest of substances do in this pon-
derosity ? this swiftest substance in such sluggishness ? Will

^ C. 18.

SOOK XXn.] irFAXY BODTKS MAY BE rPHFT,D.

K03

lot the body be raised to heaven by virtue of so excelleut a
iture as this? and if now earthly bodies can retain the
luls below, shall not the souls be one day able to raise the
iarthly bodies above ?

H we pass now to their miracles which they oppose to
OUT martjTS as wrought by their gods, shall not even these
be found to make for us, and help out our argument ? For
if any of the miracles of their gods are great, certainly
that is a gi'eat one which Varro mentions of a vestal virgin,
who, when she was endangered by a false accusation of un-
chastity, filled a sieve with water from the Tiber, and carried
it to her judges without any part of it leaking. Who kept
the weight of water in the sieve ? Who prevented any drop
from falling from it through so many open holes ? They will
answer. Some god or some demon. If a. god, is he greater
than the God who made the world ? If a demon, is he
mightier than an angel who serves the God by whom the
world was made ? If, then, a lesser god, angel^ or demon could
so sustain the weight of this liquid element that the water
might seem to have changed its nature, shall not Almighty
God, who Himself created all the elements, be able to eliminate
from the earthly body its heaviness, so that the quickened
body shall dwell in whatever element the quickening spirit
pleases?

Then, again, since they give the air a middle place between
the fire above and the water beneath, liow is it that we often
find it between water and water, and between the water and
the earth ? For what do they make of those watery clouds,
between which and the seas air is constantly found interven-
ing ? I should like to know by what weight and order of the
elements it comes to pass that very violent and stormy torrents
are suspended in the clouds above the eaiih before they rush
along upon the earth under the air ? In fine, why is it that
throughout the whole globe the air ia between the highest
heaven and the earth, if its place is between the sky and the
water, as the place of the water is between the skj^ and the
earth?

Finally, if the order of the elements is so disposed that,
as Plato thinks, the two extremes, lire and earth, are imited

604:

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book zxn.

by the two means, air and water, and that the fire occupies
the highest part of the sky, and the earth the lowest part, or
as it were the foundation of the world, and that therefoxe
earth cannot be in the heavens, how is fire in the earth '
For, according to this reasoning, these two elements, earth and
tire, ought to be so restricted to their own places, the highesi
and the lowest, that neither the lowest can rise to the place
nf the highest, nor the highest sink to that of the lowest
Thus, as they think that no particle of earth is or shall ever
be in the sky, so we ought to see no particle of fire on tlie
earth. But the fact is that it exists to such an extent, not
only on but even under the eartli, that the tops of moun-
tains vomit it forth ; besides that we see it to exist on earth
for human uses, and even to be produced from the earth, since
it is kindled from wood and stones, which are without doubt
earthly bodies. Eut that [dipper] fire, they say, is trdnquil.
pure, harmless, eternal ; but this [earthly] fire is tnrlnd,
smoky, corruptible, and corrupting. But it does not corrupt
the mountains and cavnms of the earth in which it rsg6S
continually. But grant that the earthly fire is so unlike the
other as to suit its earthly position, why then do they object
to our believing that the nature of earthly bodies shall some
day be made incx)Tniptible and fit for the sky, even as notr
fire is corruptible and suite<i to the earth ? They therefore
adduce from their weights and order of the elements nothing
from which they can prove that it is impossible for Almighty
God to make our bodies such that they can dwell in the
skies.

13, Agmtut th£ ca/umniM vUh which unbelU-t^* throw ridicuU upon Me Obv-
tian/akh in tJie rtAurrectioH o/theJtt»fi.

But their way is to feign a scrupulous anxiety in investi-
gating this question, and to cast ridicule on our faith in the
resurrection of the. body, by asking. Whether abortions shall
rise ? And as the Ix»rd says, " Verily I say unto you, not
a hair of your head shall perish,"^ shn.il all bodies have an
equal stature and strength, or shall there be differences in
size ? For if there is to be eqinility, where shall those abor-
tions, supposing that they rise again, get that bulk which

* Luke XXL 18.

XXII.] CAPTIOCS 01

ACTION. 505

j they had not here ? Or if they shall not rise because they
were not bom but cast out, they raise the same question
about children who have died in childhood, asking us whence

I they get the stature which we see they had not here ; for
we will not say that those who have been not only bom, but
born again, shall not rise again. Then, further, they ask of
what size these equal bodies shall he. For if all shall bo as

I tall and large as were the tallest and largest in this M'orld,
they ask us how it is that not only children but many full-
gi-own persons shall i*eceive what they here did not possess,
if each one is to receive what he had lierc. And if the say-
ing of the apostle, that we are all to come to the " measure
of the n^G of the fulness of Cluist," ' or that other saying,
" Whom He predestinated to be confomied to the image of
His Sou/' '^ is to Ub understood to mean that the stature and
size of Christ's body shall be the measure of the bodies of
all those who shall be in His kingdom, then, say they, the size
and lieight of many must be diminished ; and if so much of
the bodily frame itself be lost, what becomes of the saying,
" Not a hair of your head shall perish?" .Besides, it might
be asked regarding the hair itself, whether all that the baiber
has cut oif shall be restored ? And if it is to be restored,
who would not shrink from sucli deformity ? For as the
same restoration will be made of what has been pared otf
the nails, much will be replaced on the bcdy which a regard
for its appearance had cut off. And where, then, will be its
beauty, which assuredly ought to be much gi-eater in that

■■ immortal condition than it could be in this corruptible state ?
On tlie otlier hand, if such things are not restored to the
body, they must perish ; how, then, they say, shall not a hair
,of the head perish? In like manner they reason alxiut fat-
and leanness ; for if all are to be equal, then certainly
shall not be some fat, others leaa Some, therefore,
shall gain, others lose sometlung. Consequently there will
not be a simple restoration of what formerly existedj but, on
the one hand, an addition of what had no existence, and, on

I the other, a loss of what did before exist
The difficulties, too, about the corniption and dissolution
' Ei^li. iv. 13. ' Horn, viii, 29.

506

THE Cnr OF GOD.

[book Kxn

of dead bodies, — that one is turned into dust^ while another
evaporates into the air ; that some tire devoured by beasto,
some by fire, while some perish by shipwreck or by drowning
in one shnpe or other, so that their bodies decay into liqiiid,
— ^tbese difBculties give them immoderate alann, and they be-
lieve that all those dissolved elements cannot be gathered agaio
and reconstructed into a body. They also make eager use of all
tlie deformities and blemishes which either accident or birth
has produced, and accordingly, with horror and derision, cite
monstrous births, and ask if every deformity will be preserved
in the resurrection. For if we say that no such thing shall
1)6 reproduced in tlie body of a man, tliey suppose that thej
confute us by citing the marks of the wounds which vre assert
were found in the risen body of the Lord Christ But of all
these, the most difticult question is, into whose body that
tlesh shall return which has been eaten and assimilated by
another man constrained by hunger to use it so ; for it has
been converted into the flesh of the man who used it as his
nutriment, and it fiDed up those losses of flesh "which famine
had produced. For the sake, then, of ridiculing the resur-
rection, they ask, Shall this return to the man whose flesh
it first "was, or to him whose flesh it afterwards beoome?
And thus, too, they seek to give promise to the huncian wul
of alternations of tnie misery and false happiness, in ac«)rd-
ance with Plato's theory ; or, in accordance with Porphyry's,
that, after many transmigrations into different bodies, it ends
its miseries, ami never more returns to them, not, however,
by obtaining an immortal body, but by escaping from eveiy
kind of body.

13. Whetfter aboriiom^ ifthfy are numho'td among the deadj shall not alto
have a pari in the rejfurrectum.

To these objections, then, of our adversaries which I have
thus detailed, I will now reply, trusting that God will mer-
cifully assist my endeavours. That abortions, which, even sup-
posing they were alive in the womb, did also die there, shall
rise again, I make bold neither to affirm nor to deny, although
I fail to see w^hy, if they are not excluded from the number
of the dead, they should not attain to the resurrection of the
dead. For either all the dead shall not rise, and there will

lOK XXTL] dead IXFANTS shall rise FUtL-GROWK.

507

to all eternity some souls without bodiea, though they once
id them, — only in their mother's womb, indeed ; or, if all
luman souls shall receive again the bodies which they had
wherever they lived, and which they left when they died,
then I do not see how I can say that even those who died
in their mother's womb shall have no resurrection. But
whichever of these opinions any one may adopt concerning
them, we must at least apply to them, if they rise again, all
that we have to say of infants who have been born.

14. Whtiher infanU ahaU me in thai body which they would have had had they

tjrown up.

What, then, are we to say of infants, if not that they will
not rise in that diminutive body in which they died, but
shall receive by the marvellous and rapid operation of God
that body which time by a slower process would have given
them ? For in the Lord's words, where He 8a3's, " Not a hair
of your head shall perish," * it is asserted that nothing which
was possessed shall be wanting; but it is not said that nothin*^
wluch was not possessed shall be given. To the dead infant
there was wanting the pcrfoct stature of its body ; for even
the perfect infant lacks the perfection of bodily size, being
capable of further growth. This perfecC stature is, in a sense,
so possessed by all that they are conceived and born with it,
— that is, they have it potentially, though not yet iu actual
bulk ; just as all the members of the body are potentially in
the seed, though, even after the child is bonij some of tbem,
the teeth for example, may be wanting. In this seminal
principle of every substance, tliere seems to be, as it were,
the beginning of everything which does not yet exist, or
rather does not appear, but which in process of time will
come into being, or rather into sight. In this, therefore, the
child who is to be tall or short is already tall or sliort. And
in the resurrection of the body, we need, for the same reason,
fear no bodily loss ; for though all should be of equal size,
and reach gigantic proportions, lest the men who were largest
here should lose anything of their bulk and it should perish,
in contradiction to the words of Christ, who said that not a
hair of their head should perish, yet why should there lack

^ Luke xxl 18.

508

Tire CITY OF GOD.

[book xxn

the means by which that wonderful Worker should nude
8uch additions, seeing that Uo is the Creator, who Hi my If
created all things out of nothing ?

15. Whether the bodies qf all the dead ehail rise the same site as the I/Onti

bixltj.

It is certain that Christ rose in the same bodily stature la
which He died, and tliat it is wrong to say that, when the
general resurrection shall have arrived, His body shall, for tiia
sake of equalling the tallest, assume proportions which it had
not wlien He appeared to the disciples in the figure with
which they were familiar. But if we say that even the bodies
of taller men are to be reduced to tlie si2e of the Lord's body,
there will be a great loss in inuny bodies, though He pro-
mised that not a liair of their head should perish. It remain^
therefore, that we conclude that every man shall receive his
own size which he had in youth, though he died an old man,
01' which he would liave had, supposing he died before his
prime. As for what the apostle said of the measure of the
age of the fulness of Christ, we must either understand him
to refer to something else, viz. to the fact that the measure
of Christ will be completed when all the members among the
Christian communities are added to the Head ; or if we aie
to refer it to the resurrection of the body, the meaning is that
all shall rise neither beyond nor under youth, but in that
vigour Olid age to which we know that Christ had arrived
For even the world's wisest men have fixed the bloom of
youtli at about the age of tliirty ; and when this period has
been passed, the man begins to decline towards the defective
and duller period of old age. And therefore the apostle did
not speak of the measure of the body, nor of the measure of
the st-ature, but of " the measure of the age of the fulness of
Christ"

16. What is meant hy tlie eoi\form\ng of the saints to the itnarfe <^the Son of

Ood,

Then, again, these words, " Predestinate to be conformed to
the image of the Son of God," ^ may be understood of the
inner maa So in another place He says to us, " Be not con-
formed to this world, but be ye translormed in the renewing

* Rom. viil 20.

your miBfl." * In so far, then, ss we are tvanaforuied so as
ot to be conformed to the world, we are conformed to the
n of God. It may also be understood thus, that as He
confonned to us Ly assuming mortality, we shall be con-
rmed to Him by ipomoitality ; and this indeed is connected
^ith the resun'ection of the body. But if we are also taught
I in these words what form our bodies shall rise in, as the mea-
H sure we spoke of before, so also this conformity is to be under-
^ stood not of size, but of age. Accordingly all Bball rise in
I the stature they either had attained or would have attained
I had they lived to their prime, although it will be no great
. disadvantage even if the form of the body be ijifantine or
I aged, while no infirmity shall remain in the mind nor in the
I body itsel£ So that even if any one contends that every person
. will rise again in tlie same bodily form in which he died, we
^ need not spend much labour in disputing with him,

17. \^^her the bodies o/womrn shall reiain their own sex m the rttumcOon.

From the words, " Till we all come to a perfect man, to the
measure of the age of the fulness of Christ,"* and from the
words, "Conformed to the image of the Son of God/'* some
conclude that women shall not rise women, but that all shall
be men, because Cod made man only of earth, and woman of
the man. For my part, they seem to be wiser who make no
doubt that both sexes shall rise. For there shall be no lust,
which is now the cause of confusion. For before they sinned,
the man and the woman were naked, and were not ashamed.
Frum those bodies, then, vice shall be withdrawn, while nature
shall be preserved. And the sex of woman is not a vice,
but nature. It shidl then indeed be superior to carnal inter-
course and cliild-bearing ; nevertheless the female members
shall remain adapted not to the old uses, but to a new beauty,
which, so far trom provoking lust, now extinct, shall excite
praise to the wisdom and clemency of God, who both made
what was not and delivered from corruption what He made.
For at the beginning of the human race the woman was made
of a rib taken from the side of the man wliLle he slept ; for
it seemed fit that even then Christ and His Church should

' Uom. xii. 2, ' EpU. ir. 13. = Uuin. vui 29,

;io

THE CITT or GOD.

[dock TC\.

be foreshadowed in this event For Uiat sleep of the man
waa the death of Christ, whose side, as He hung lifeless upon
the cross, was pierced with a spear, and there flowed from it
blood and water, and these we know to be the sacranaents by
wliich the Church is " built up * For Scripture used Uiis verr
word, not saying " He formed" or " framed," but " built her
up into a woman ;"" whence also the apostle speaks of the
edification of the body of Christ,' which is the Church. The
woman, therefore, is a creature of God even as the man ; hat
by her creation from man unity is commended ; and the
manner of her creation prefigured, as has been said, Christ and
tlie Church. He, then, who created both sexes will restore
both. Jesus Himself also, when asked by the Sadducees, who
denied the resurrection, which of the seven brothers shoolil
have to wife the woman whom all in succession had taken to
raise up seed to their brother, as the law enjoined, says. * Ye
do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God."*
And though it was a fit opportunity for His saying, She
about whom you make inquiries shall herself be a man, and
not a woman, He said nothing of the kind ; but " In the
resurrection they neither marry nor are given in. marriage,
but are as the angels of God in heaven."* They shall be
equal to the angels in immortality and happiness, not in flesh,
nor in resurrection, which the angels diil not need, because
they could not die. The Lord then denied that there would
be in the resurrection, not women, but marriages ; and He
uttered this denial in circumstances in which the question
mooted would have been more easily and speedily solved by
denying that the female sex would exist, if this had in truth
been foreknown by Ilim. But, indeed. He even affirmed that
the sex should exist by saying, " They shall not be given in
marriage," which can only apply to females ; " Neither shall
they marry,** which applies to males. There shall therefore
be those who are in this world accustomed to marry and
be given in marriage, only they shall there make no sacb
marriages.

* GeiL iL 33.
> lUtt. uii. 29,

» Eph. iv. 12.
* UmXL xxiL 80.

BOOK xxn,]

WHAT THE PERFECT MA^ IS.

511

I X8. O/Uu per/eel Man^ that u, Christ; and qfBia bodjft that u, the Churcit,
^K ttkich ia his fulness.

^B To uiiderstaiid wLat the apostle means when he says that
^^c shall all come to a perfect man, we must consider the con-
f nection of the whole passage, wliich runs thus : " He that de-
scended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens,
that He might fill all things. And He gave some, apostles ;
and some, prophets ; and some, evangelists ; and some, pastors
and teachers ; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ : till we
all come to the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son
of God, to a perfect man^ to the measure of the age of the
fulness of Christ : that we henceforth be no more children,
tossed and carried about with every wind of doctrine^ by the
sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait
to deceive ; but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up
I in Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ; from
whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by
' that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual
working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the
body, unto the edifying of itself in love."" Behold what the
' perfect man is — the head and the body, which is made up of
all the members, which in their own time shall be perfected,
■ But new additions are daily being nmde to this body while
I the Church is being built up, to which it is said, " Ye are the
m body oi Christ and His members ; "' and again, " For His body's
^Lsake/' he says, " which is the Church ;"' and again, " We being
^Pmany are one head, one body."* It is of the edification of
* this body that it is here, too, said, " For the perfecting of the
saints, for the work of the ministry, for tlie edification of the
body of Christ ;" and then that passage of which we are now
speaking is added, " Till we all come to the unity of the faith
and knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to tlie
measure of the age of the fulness of Christ," and so on. And
he shows of what body we are to understand this to be the
measure, when he says, " That we may grow up into Him in
all things, which is the Head, even Christ : from whom the

' Eph. It. 10-1«,
* Coi i, 24.

• 1 Cor. xiu 27.

* 1 Cor. X. 17.

512

THE CITY OF GOD.

[rooKnn

whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that whicB
every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in tht
measure of every part." A3, therefore, there is a measure rf
every part, so there is a measure of the fulness of the wlioir
body which is made up of all its parts, and it is of this me*-
sure it is said, " To the measure of the age of the fulness o(
Christ." This fulness he spoke of also in the place where h*
says of Christ, " And gave Him to be the Head over all thii^
to the Church/ which is His body, the fulness of Him thai
filleth all in olL"' But even if this should be referred to tie
form in which each one shall rise, what should hinder us fiom
applying to the woman what is expressly said of the mail.
understanding both sexes to be included under the general
term "man?" For certainly in the saying, "Blessed is he
who feareth the Lord,"' women also who fear the Lord are
included.

10. That ail bodUy bUmuhea u/ifrA mar human beaiity m this l\fa ahttU htt^
moiled m thi rrsurrection, Ote natural SHhulauce of the bod^
but the quality and quantity of it heing attired m aa to produce

AVliat am I to say now about the hair and nails ? Onoe ft
is understood that no part of the body shall so perish ts
to produce deformity in the body, it is at the same tinw
understood that such things as would have produced a de-
formity by their excessive proportions shall be added to the
total bulk of the body, not to parts in which the beauty of
the proportion would thus be maiTod. Just as if, after Triftlnng
a vessel of clay, one wished to make it over again of the
clay, it would not be necessary that the same portion of the
clay which hiid formed the handle should again form the new
han<lle, or that what had formed the bottom should again do
fio, but only that the whole clay should go to make up the
whole new vessel, and that no part of it should be left unused
AMierefore, if the hair that has been cropped and the nails
that have been cut would cause a deformity were they to be
restored to their places, they shall not be restored ; and yet
no one will lose these parts at the resurrection, for the}' shall
be changed into the same flesh, their substance being so altered

^ Another rewling is, " Head over all th« Church,"

* Ei.lL L 22, 23. ' r«. cxiL L

(OOK XXII.]

SIZK OF THE mSEX BODT.

513

to presen*e the pi*oportion of the various parts of the body.
[owever, what our Lord said, " Not a hair of your head shall
ji'ish," might more auitaldy be interpreted of the number,
and uot of the length of the hairs, as He elsewhere says, " The
hairs of your head are all numbered."* Nor would I say this
because I suppose that any part naturally belonging to the
body can perish, but that whatever deformity was in it, and
served to exhibit the penal condition in which we mortals are,
should be restored in such a way that, while the substance is
entirely preserved, the deformity shall perish. Jor if even a
human workman^ who has, for some reason, made a deformed
statue, can recast it and make it very beautifiU, and this with-
out suffering any part of the substance, but only the deformity
to be lost, — if he can, for example, remove some unbecoming
or disproportionate part, not by cutting off and separating this
part from the whole, but by so breaking down and mixing up
the whole as to get rid of the blemisli without diminishing
the quantity of his material, — sliall we not think as highly of
the almighty Worker ? Shall He not be able to remove and
abolish all deformities of the human body, whether common
ones or rare and monstrous, which, tliough in keeping with
this miserable life, are yet not to be thought of in coimec-
tion with that future blessedness ; and shall He uot be able
so to remove them tliat, while the natural but unseemly
blemishes are put an end to, the natural substance shall
suffer no diminution ?

And consequently overgro^vn and emaciated persons need
rDOt fear that they shaU be in heaven of such a figure as
they would not be even in this world if they could help it.
Tor aU bodily beauty consists in the proportion of the parts,
together with a certain agreeableness of colom*. Where there
is no proportion, the eye is offended, either because there h
something mvauting, or too small, or too laT^e, And thus
there shall be no deformity resulting from want of proportion
in that state in wliich all that is wrong is corrected, and all
that is defective supplied from resources the Creator wots of,
and all that is excessive removed without destroying the in-
tegrity of the substance. And as for the pleasant colour, liow

^ Luke xii. 7.

VOL. IL 9 K

614

TllE CITY OF GOD.

[book XXIL

conspicuous shall it be where " the ju3t shall shine forth as
the sun in the kingdom of their Father ! "^ This brighlii«
we must rather believe to have been concealed from the em
of the disciples when Christ rose, than to have been awontii^
For weak human eyesight could not bear it, and it was nbct^
sary that they should so look upon Hiin as to be able tft
recognise Him. For this purpose also He allowed them to
touch the marks of His wounds, and also ate and drank, — ui
because He needed nourishineut, but because He could take is
if He wished. Now, when an object, though, present, is in-
visible to persons who see other things which are present^ u
we say that that brightness was present but invisible by thoae
who saw other things, this is called in Greek aopaala ; and oar
Latin translators, for want of a better word, have rendered
this coccUas (blindness) in the book of Genesis. This bUud-
ness the men of Sodom sufiered when they sought the just
Lot's gate and could not 6nd it. But if it had been blindneast
that is to say, if they could see nothing, then they would noC
have asked for the gate by which they might enter the house,
but for guides who might lead them away.

But the love we bear to the blessed martyrs causes ns, I
know not how, to desire to see in the heavenly kingdom the
marks of the wounds which they received for tlie name of
Christ, and possibly we shall see them. For this will not be
a deformity, but a mark of honour, and will add lustre to their
appcai-ance, and a spiritual, if not a bodily beautj'. And yei
we need not believe that they to whom it has been said, " Not &
hair of your head shall perish," shall, in tlie resurrection, waat
such of their members as they have been deprived of in their
marL}Ttiom. But if it will be seemly in tliat new kingdom
to have some marks of these wounds still visible in tlmt im-
mortal flesh, the places where they have been wounded or muti-
lated shall retain the scars ^\ithout any of the members being
lost While, therefore, it is quite true that no blemiahe*
which the body has sustained shall appear in the i^orrec-
tion, yet we are not to reckon or name these uiai-ks of viitua
blemishes.

» Matt. liii 48.

lOK xxn.] ont BODar substance shall be kkstored. 515

That, in the murrtttiont th^ auhaia%ce pfow bodies, however diaiiiteffraud,
shall he entirfJy reumled.

Far be it from us to fear that the omnipotence of the Creator
not, for the resuscitation and reanimation of our bodies,
call all the portions which have been consumed by beasts or
, or have been dissolved into dust or ashes, or have decom-
ed into water, or evaporated into the air. Far from us be
e thought, that anything which escapes our observation in any
ost hidden recess of nature either evades the knowledge or
nds the power of the Creator of all things, Cicero, the
great authority of our adversaries, wishing to define God as
accurately as possible, says, " God is a mind fi*ee and indepen-
dent, without materiality, perceiving and moving all things,
and itself endowed with eternal movement."^ This he found
in the systems of the greatest philosophers. Let me ask, then,
in their own language, how anything can either lie hid from
Him who perceives all things, or irrevocably escape Him who
moves all things ?

This leads me to reply to that question which seems the
most dif&culb of all, — To whom, in the resurrection, will belong
the flesh of a deud man which has become the flesh of a living
man ? For if some one, fanushing for want and pressed with
hunger, use human flesh as food, — an extremity not unknown,
as both ancient history and the unhappy experience of our own
days liave taught us,^ — can it be contended, vdth any show of
Teason, that all the flesh eaten has been evacuated, and that
none of it has been assimilated to tlio substance of the eater,
though the very emaciation which existed before, and has now
disappeared, sufficiently indicates what large deflciencies have
been tilled up with this food ? But I have already made some
remarks which will suf&ce for the solution of this difficidty
also. For all the flesh which hunger has consumed finds ite
■way into the air by evaporation, whence, as we have said, God
Almighty can recall it. That flesh, therefore, shall be restored
to the man in whom it first became human flesL For it must
be looked upon as borrowed by the other person, and, like a
pecuniary loan, must be returned to the lender. His own
flesh, however, which he lost by famine, shall be restored to

1 Cic Tutc QucesL I 27.

516

THE CITY OF GOD.

[BOOKXIE

him by Hiin who can recover evon what has evaporatetL And
though it had been absoUitely annihilated, so that no part of
its substance remained in any secret spot of nature, tb
Almighty could restore it by such means as He saw fit
For this sentence, uttered by the Truth, " Not a hair of yoax
head shall perish," forbids us to suppose that, though no hair
of a man's head can perish, yet the large portions of his fieaii
eaten and consumed by the famishing can perish.

From all that we have thus considered, and discussed villi
such poor ability as wc can command, we gather this coQclc-
sion, that in the resurrection of the flesh the body shall be
ol* that size which it cither hod attained or should have
attained in the flower of its youth, and shall enjoy ibe
beauty that arises from preser\-ing symmetry and proi>artioa
in all its members. And it is reasonable to suppose that, i(d
the preservation of this beauty, any part of the body's sah-
stance, which, if placed in one spot, woidd produce a deformitj.
shall be distributed tbrougli the whole of it, so that ndtW
any part, nor the symmetry of the whole, may be lost, but
only the genend stature of the body somewhat increased hj
the distribution in all the parts of that which, in one place,
would have been unsightl}'. Or if it is contended that each
will rise 'N^'ith the same stature as that of the body he died in.
wc shall not obstinately dispute this, provided only tlieits bt
no deformity, no infirmity, no languor, no corruption, — nothing
of any kind which would ill become that kingdom in wliich iht
childi-en of the resuiTtction and of the promise shall be equal to
die angels of God, if not in body and age, at least in happinufi

21. Of the. new gpirUaal hodtf into \ehif.h theJUsho/theMomU siali bt
trafis/o}ineti.

Whatever, therefore, has been taken from the body, eilher
duruig life or after death, shall be restored to it, and, in con-
junction with what has remained in the grave, shall riae
again, transformed froni the oldncss of the animal body into
the newness of the spiritual body, and clotlicd in incorruption
and immortality. But even though the body has been all
quite groimd to powder by some severe accident, or by the
ruthlessness of enemies, and though it has been so diligently
scattered to the winds, or into the water, that there is to

lOK XXII.]

THE NEW SPiniTUAL BODT.

517

Lce of it left, yet it shall not be beyond the omnipotence of
le Ci-eator,— no, not a haii- of its head shall perish. The
ksh shall then be spiritual, and subject to the spirit^ but still
;sb, not spirit, as the spirit itself, wlien subject to the flesh,
ts fleshly, but still spirit and not flesh. And of this we
ive experimental pmof in the deformity of our penal condition,
^or those persons were carnal, not in a fleshly, but in a spiri-
lal way, to whom the apostle said, " I could not speak to
)u ns unto spiritual, but as unto carnal."^ And a man is in
is life spiritual in such a way, that he is yet carnal with
p respect to his body, and sees another law in his members
I warring against tlie law of his mind ; but even in his body
I he M'ill be spiritual when the same flesh shall have had that
I resiurection of which these words speak, *' It is sown an
animal body, it shall rise a spiritual body."* But what this
spiritual body shall be, anil how great its grace, I fear it were
hut rash to pronounce, seeing that we have as yet no experi-
ence of it, Nevertheless, since it is fit that the joyfiJness of
our hope should utter itself, and so show forth God's praise,
and since it was from the profoundest sentiment of ardent and
Jioly love that the Psalmist cried, " O Lord, I have loved the
beauty of Thy house," ^ we may, with God's help, speak of the
gifts Hti lavishes on men, good and bad alike, in this most
' wTetched life, and may do our best to conjecture the great
glory of that atate which we cannot worthily speak of, because
we have not yet experienced it. For I say nothing of the
time when God made man upright ; I say notliing of the
' happy life of " the man and bis wife " in the fruitful garden,
since it was so short that none of their children experienced
I it : I speak only of this life which we know, and in which we
|i now are, from the temptations of which we caimot escape so
long as we are in it, no matter what progress we make, for it
is all temptation, and I ask, Who can describe the tokens of
God's goodness tliat are extended to the human ixice even in
this life ?

I 22. OJ the mtserlft and iU* to wJilch the liuman race « jitffly exposfd through
ihtjlrst sin, and from, tcltich nvnc can be dtUvenxt gave by Chr'tsCa (/race.

That the whole human race has been condenmed in its

> 1 Cor. iiL 1. » 1 Cor. xv. 44. ' Ps. xxri. 8.

518

THE CITY OP GOD.

[book mt

first OTigin, this life itself, if life it is to be called, besn

witness by the host of cruel ills with -which it is filled. I»
not this prnveil by the profound and dreadful ignorance which
produces all the errors that enfold the children of Adam^ ntJ
from which no man can be delivered without toil, pain, and
fear ? Is it not proved by his love of so manj vain tiui
hurtful things, which produces gnawing cares, disquiet, griefs
fears, wild joys, quarrels, law-suits, wars, treasons, asgeflb
hatreds, deceit, flattery, fraud, theft, robbery, perfidy, priik;
ambition, envy, murders, parricides, cruelty, ferocity, wicked-
ness, hixury, insolence, impudence, shamelessness, fomicalioM;
adulteries, incests, and the numberless uncleannesses and xrn-
natiiral acts of both sexes, which it is shameful so much as to
mention ; sacrileges, heresies, blasphemies, perjuries, oppw**
aiun of the innocent, calumnies, plots, falsehoods, false witness-
ings, unrighteous judgments, violent deeds, plunderings, and
whatever similar wickedness has found its way into the hv«
of men, though it caimot find its way into the conception uf
pure minds ? These are indeed the crimes of wicked men, yet
they spring from that root of error and misplaced love which
is bom with every son of Adam. For who is there that has
not observed with what profound ignorance, manifesting iteelf
even in infancy, and with wluit superfluity of foolish desireSi
beginning to appear in boyhood, man comes into this life, so
that, were he left to live as he pleased, and to do whatever he
pleased, he would plnnge into all, or certainly into many of
those crimes and iniquities which I mentioned, and could not
mention ?

But because God does not wholly desert those whom He
condemns, nor shuts up in His anger His tender mercies, the
human race is restrained by law and instruction, which keep
guard against the ignorance that besets us, and oppose the
assaidts of vice, but are themselves full of labour and sorrow.
For what mean those multifarious threats which are used to
restrain the folly of childien ? Wliat mean pedagogiieSt
masters, the biich, the strap, the cane, the schooling which
Scripture says must be given a child, " beating him on the
sides lest he wax stubborn," ^ and it be hardly possible or not
* £cdus. XXX. 13.

DOCK XXn.] TTTE ILLS OF TITTS TENAL STATK.

f)19

( possible at all to subdue him ? Why all these puuishmeuts,
gi save to overcome ignorance and bridle evil desires — these

0 evils "with Tvhich ive come into the world ? For why is it that
f jf we remember with difficulty, and without difficulty forget ?
|i learn with difficidty, and without difficidty remain ignorant ?
ri are diligent with difficulty, and without difficulty are indo-
P lent ? Does not this show what vitiated nature inclines and

1 tends to by its own weight, and what succour it needs if it is
to be delivered ? Inactivity, sloth, laziness, negligence, are
vices which shun labour, since labour, though useful, is itself
a punishment.

But, besides the punishments of childhood, without which
there would be no learning of what the parents wish, — and
the parents rarely wish anything useful to be twight, — who
can describe, who can conceive the number and severity of
the punishments which afflict the human race, — pains which
are not only the accompaniment of the wickedness of godless
men, but are a part of the himian condition and the common
misery, — what fear and what grief are caused by bereavement
and mourninfT^ by losses and condemnations, by fraud and
falsehood, by false suspicions, and all the crimes and wicked
deeds of other men ? For at their bauds we suffer robbery,
captivity, chains, irapriBonment, exile, torture, mutUation, loss
of sight, the violation of chastity to satisfy the lust of the
oppressor, and many other dreadful evils. Wliat numberless
casualties threaten our bodies fmm without,— extremes of
heat and cold, storms, floods, inundations, lightning, thunder,
hail, earthquakes, houses fnllinj; ; or from the stumbUng, or
shying, or vice of horses ; from countless poisons in fruits,
water, air^ animals ; from the painfid or even deadly bites of
wild animals ; from the madness which a mad dog communi-
cates, so that even the animal which of all others is most
gentle and friendly to its own master, becomes an object of
intenser fear than a lion or dragon, and the man whom it has
by chance infected with this pestilential contagion becomes so
rabid, that his parents, wife, cldldren, dread him more than
any wild l^east! What disasters are suffered by those who
travel by land or sea I \Vhat man can go out of his own
house without being exposed on all hands to unforeseen acci-

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book XS3L

dents ? Eetuming home sound in limb, he slips on his own
door-step, breaks his leg, and never recovers. What can seen
safer than a man sitting in his chair ? Eli the priest feQ
from his, uud broke his neck. How many accidents do
fanners, or rather all men, fear that the crops may euffer from
the weather, or the soil, or the ravages of destructive animals !
Commonly they feel safe when the crops are gathered ao^
housed. Yet, to my certain knowledge, sudden floods hflve
driven the labourers away, and swept the bams clean of the
finest harvest. Is innocence a sufficient protection against tha
various assaults of demons ? That no man might think so»
even baptized infants, who are ceitainly unsurpassed in Lodo-
cence, are sometimes so tormented, that God, who permits i^
tcacltes us hereby to bewail the calamities of this life, and to
desire the felicity of the life to come. As to bodily disease^
they are so numerous tliat they cannot all be contained even
in medical books. And in very many, or almost all of them,
the cures and remedies arc themselves tortures, so that men
are delivered from a pain that destroys by a cure that paim
Haa not the madness of thirst driven men to drink hum-in
urine, and even their own ? Has not hunger driven men to
eiit human flesh, and that the flesh not of bodies found dead,
but of bodies slain for the purpose ? Have not the fierce
pangs of famine driven mothers to cat their own children,
incredibly savage as it seems ? In fine, sleep itself, which is
justly called rupose, how little of repose there sometimes n
in it when disturbed with dreams and ATsions; and with what
terror is the wretched mind overwhelmed by the appearances of
tilings which are so presented, and which, as it were, so stand
out Ixifore tlie senses, that we cannot distinguish them from
realities I How wretchedly do false appearances distract men
in certain diseases ! With what astonishing variety of appear-
ances are even healthy men sometimes deceived by evil spirits,
who produce these delusions for the sake of perplexing the
senses of their victims, if they cannot succeed in seducing
them to their side !

From this hell upon earth there is no escape, save through
the grace of the Saviour Christy our God and Lord. The vtry
name Jesus shows this, for it means Saviour ; and He saves

Eoos XXII.] !\rTSERn:s pecult.\r to good xrE!;.

521

us especially from passing out of this life into a more wretched
and eternal state, which is rather a death than a life. For in
this life, though holy men and holy pursuits afford us great
consolations, yet the blessings which men crave are not in-
variably bestowed upon them, lest religion should be cultivated
for the sake of these temporal advantages, while it ought
leather to be cultivated for the sake of that other life from
which all evil is excluded. Therefore, also, does grace aid
good men in the midst of present calamitieSj so that they are
enabled to endure them with a constancy proportioned to
tlieir faith. The world's aajres afiirm that philosophy con-
tributes something to this, — tliat philosophy which, according
to Cicero, the gods have bestowed in its purity only on a few
mea They have never given, he says, nor can ever give, a
greater gift to men. So that even those against whom we
are disputing have been compelled to acknowledge, in some
fashion, that the grace of God is necessary for the acquisition,
not, indeed, of any philosophy, but of the true philosophy.
jVnd if the true philosophy — this sole support against the
miseries of this life — has been given by Heaven only to a few,
it sufficiently appears from tlus that the human race has been
condemned to pay this penalty of wretchedness. And as,
according to their acknowledgment, no greater gift has been
-bestowed by God, so it must be believed that it could be
given only by that God whom they themselves recognise as
greater than all the gods they worship.

23. 0/the miseries of this U/t^ which att'ich peculiarly to thf toil o/rjood merif
irrzfptdivt qf those which are common to the good and bad.

But, irrespective of the miseries which in this life

are

common to the good and bad, the righteous undei^o labours
peculiar to themselves, in so fiu* as they make war upon their
vices, and are involved in the temptations and perils of such
a contest. For though sometimes more violent aud at other
times slacker, yet without intermission does the flesh lust
against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that we
cannot do the things we woidd,^ and extirpate all lust, but
can only refuse consent to it, as God gives us ability, and so
keep it under, vigilantly keeping watch lest a semblance of

>Gal. V. n.

52;

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book TXJL

tnith. deceive us, lest a subtle discourse blind us^ lest error
involve ns in darkness, lest we should take good for evil or
evil for goodj lest fear should hinder us from doing what ^re
ought, or desire precipitate us into doing what we ought not,
lest the sun go down upon our wrath, lest hatred provoke vs
to render evil for evil, lest unseemly or immoderate gmf
consume us, lest an ungrateful disposition make us slow to
lecognise benefits received, lest calumnies fret our conscience,
lest rash suspicion on our part deceive us regarding a friend,
or false suspicion of us on the part of others give us too mndi
uneasiness, lest sin reign in our mortal Ixxly to obey its
desires, lest our members be used as the instruments of un-
righteousness, lest the eye follow lust, lest thirst for revenge
carry us away, lest sight or thought dwell too long on some
evil thing which gives us pleasure, lest wicked or indecent
language be willingly listened to, lest we do what is pleasant
but unlawful, and lest in this warfare, filled so abundantly
with toil and peril, wu either hope to secure victory by our
o>vn strength, or attribute it when secured to our own strength
and not to His grace of whom the apostle says, " Thanks be
unto God, who giveth us the \ictory thiough our Lord Jesoa
Christ;"* and in another place he says, "In all these things
we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us."**
But yet we are to Icnow this, that however volorously we
resist our vices, and however successful we are in overcoming
them, yet as long as we are in this body we have always
reason to say to God, " Forgive us our debts/' * But in that
kingdom where we shall dweU for ever, clothed in immortal
bodies, we shall no longer have either conflicts or debts, — as
indeed we should not have had at any time or in any con-
dition, had our nature continued upright as it was created.
Consequently even this our conflict, in which we are exposed
to peiil, and from which we hope to he delivered by a final
victory, belongs to the ills of this life, which is proved by the
■witness of so many grave evils to be a life under condemnation.

24. 0/Uie blessings toith xchich the Creator hasJiUed thU ti/e, ohnoyioM*
though it be to the curse.

But we must now contemplate the rich and countless bles^

* 1 Cor. XV. 57. * Rom. viiL 87, * Matt vl 12.

BOOK XXII.] THE BLESSINGS OF THIS LIFE.

523

ings with which the goodnesa of God^ who c^res for all Ho
has created, has filled this very misery of the human race,
which reflects His retributive justice. That first blessing
which He pronounced before the fall, when He said, "In-
crease, and multiply, and replenish the earth," ^ He did not
inhibit after man had sinned, but the fecundity originally be-
stowed remained in the condemned stock ; and the vice of sin,
which has involved us in the necessity of dying, has yet not
deprived us of that wonderful power of seed, or rather of that
still more marvellous power by wliich seed is produced, and
which seems to be as it were inwrought and inwoven in the
human body. But in this river, as I may call it, or torrent
of the himian race, both elements are carried along together, —
both the evil which is derived from him who begets, and the
good which is bestowed by Him who creates us. In the
original evil there are two things, sin and punishment; in the
original good, there arc two other tilings, propagation and
conformation. But of the evils, of which the one, sin, arose
fi"om our audacity, and the other, punishment, from G<jd's
judgment, we have already said as much as suits our present
purpose. I mean now to speak of the blessings which God
has conferred or still confers upon our nature, vitiated and
condemned as it is. For in condemniitg it He did not with-
draw all that He had given it, else it had been annihilated ;
neither did He, in penally subjecting it to the devil, remove
it beyond His own power ; for not even the devil himself is
outside of God's government, since the devil^s nature subsists
only by the supreme Creator, who gives being to all that in
any form exists.

Of these two blessings, then, which we have said flow from
God's goodness, as from a fountain, towards our nature, vitiated
by sin and condenmed to punishment, the one, propagation,
was conferred by God*s benediction when He made those first
works, from wliich He rested on the seventh day. But the
other, conformation, is confen*ed in that work of His wherein
" He worketh hitherto/' * For were He to withdraw His effi-
cacious power from tilings, they should neither be able to go
on and complete the periods assigned to their measured move-
'Gen. i. 28. 'John v, 17.

52-

TUE CITY OF GOD.

[dock xxn

mejitSj nor should they even continue in possession of that
nature they were created ia God, then, so created man ihsi
He gave him what we may call fertility, whereby he inifiht
propagate other men, giving them a conge^tal capacity to
propagate their kind, but not imposing on them any necessity
to do so. This capacity God withdraws at pleasure from in-
tlividuals, making Uiem barren ; but from the whole race He
has not withdrawn the blessing of propagation once conferred
But though not withdrawn on account of sin, this power of
propagation ia not what it would have been had there beea
no sin. For since " man placed in honour fell, he has become
like the beasts," ^ and generates as they do, though, the little
spark of reason, which was the image of God in Lim, has not
been quite quenched. But if conformation were not added
to propagation, there would be no reproduction of one's kind.
Tor even though there were no such thing as copulation, and
God wished to fill the earth with hiunan inhabitants. He
might create all the.sc as He created one without the help
of human generation. And, indeed, even as it is, those who
copulate can generate, nothing save by the creative energy
of God. As, therefore, in respect of that spiritual growth
whereby a man is formed to piety and righteousness, the
apostle says, "Neither is lie tliat plauteth anything, neither
he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase,'** so also
it must be said that it is not he that generates that is any-
thing, but God that giveth the essential i'orni ; that it is not
the mother who carries and nurses the fruit of her womb that
is anything, but God tliat giveth the increase. For He alone,
by that energy wlierewith " lie worketh hitherto," causes the
seed to develope, and to evolve from certain secret ajid in-
visible folds into the \'isible forms of beauty which we see.
He alone, coupling and connecting in some wonderful fashion
the spiritual and corporeal natures, the one to command, the
other to obey, makes a li\ing being. And this work of His
is so great and wonderfid, that not only man, who is a rational
animal, and consequently more excellent than all other animals
of the earth, but even the most diminutive insect, cannot be

> P-. xlix. 20. « 1 Cor. iiL 7.

BOOK XXIL]

considered atteutively without astonishment and without prais-
ing the Creator.

It is He, then, who has given to the human soul a mind,
in wliich reason and understanding lie as it were asleep duiing
infancy, and as if they were not, destined, however, to he
awakened and exercised as years increase, so as to hecome
capalde of knowledge and of receiving instruction, fit to under-
stand what is true and to love what is good. It is by this
capacity the soul druilvs in wisdom, and becomes endowed
with those virtues by which, in prudence, fortitude, temper-
ance, and righteousness, it makes war upon error and the
other inborn vices, and coiiquera them by fixing its desires
upon no other object than the supreme and unchangeable
Good. And even though this be not uniformly the result, yet
who can competently utter or even conceive the grandeur of
this work of the Almighty, and the unspeakable boon He has
conferred upon our i^tional nature, by giving us even the
capacity of such nttainment ? For over and above those arts
•which are called \drtues, and which teach us how we may
spend our life well, and attain to endless happiness, — arts
"which are given to the children of the promise and the king-
dom by the sole grace of God which is in Christ, — has not
the genius of man invented and applied countless astonish-
ing arts, partly the residt of necessity, partly the result of
exuberant invention, so that this vigour of mind, which is so
active in the discovery not merely of superfluous but even of
dangerous and destructive things, betokens an inexhaustible
■wealth in tlie nature which can invent, Liam, or employ such
ails ? What wonderful — one might say stupefying — advances
has human industry made in tlie arts of weaving and building,
of agriculture and navigation I "With what endless variety
are designs in pottery, pttinling, and sculpture jiruduced, and
with what skill executed ! What wonderfid spectacles are
exhibited in the theatres, wliich those who have not seen
them cnnnot credit ! How skilful the contrivances for catch-
ing, killing, or taming wild beasts I And for the injury of
men, also, how many kinds of poisons, weapons, engines of
destruction, have been invented, while for the preservation or
restoration of health the apphancus and remedies are infinite !

526

Tira CITY OF GOD.

[book he

To provoke appetite and please the palate, what a variety of
seasonings have been concocted ! To express and gain entranw
for thoughts, -what a miiltitude and variety of signs there are,
among which speaking and writing hold the first place ! vhtt
ornaments has eloquence at command to delight the mindt
what wealth of song is there to captivate the ear J how many
musical instruments and strains of harmony have been de-
vised I What skill has been attained in measures and
numbers ! witli what sagacity have the movements and con-
nections of the stars been discovered ! Who could tell ths
thought that lias been spent upon nature, even though, de-
spairing of recoimting it in detail, he endeavoured only to give
a general view of it ? In fine, even the defence of errors and
misapprehensions, which has illustrated the genius of heretics
and philosophers, cannot be sufficiently declared- For at
present it is the nature of the human mind which adonis tins
mortal life which we are extolling, and not the faith and the
way of truth which lead to immortality. And since tliis
great nature has certainly been created by the true and
supreme God, who atlministers all things He has made with
absolute power and justice, it could never have fallen into
these miseries, nor have gone out of them to miseries eternal,
— saving only those who are redeemed^ — had not an exceed-
ing great sin been found in the lu-st man from whom the rest
have sprung-

Moreover, even in the body, though it dies like that of the
beasts, and is in many ways weaker than theirs, what good-
ness of God, what providence of the great Creator, is apparent ■
The organs of sense and the rest of the members, are not they
so placed, the appeai^ance, and fonn, and stature of the body
as a whole, is it not so fashioned, as to indicate that it was
made for the service of a reasonable soul ? Man has not been
created stooping towards the earth, like the irrational animals ;
but his bodily form, erect and looking heavenwards, admo-
nishes him to mind the things that are above. Then the mar-
vellous nimbkness which has been given to the tongue and
the hands, fitting them to speak, and write, and execute so
many duties, and practise so many arts, does it not prove the
excellence of the soul for which, such an assistant was pro-

BOOK XXII.] BEAUTY OF THE HUMAN BODY.

527

\'ided ? And even apart fi-om its adaptation to the work
required of it, there is such a symmetry in its various parts,
and so beautiful a proportion maintained, that one is at a loss
to decide "whether, in creating the body, greater regard was
paid to utility or to beauty. Assuredly no x>art of the body
lias been created for the sake of utility which docs not also
contribute something to its beauty. And this would be all
the more apparent, if we knew more precisely how all its
parts are connected and adapted to one another, and were not
limited in our observations to what appears on the surface ;
for as to what is covered up and hidden from our view, the
intricate web of veins and nerves, the vital parts of all that
lies under the skin, no one can discover it For although,
with a cruel zeal for science, some medical men, who are
called anatomists, have dissected the bodies of the dead, and
sometimes even of sick persons who died under their knives,
and have inhumanly pried into the secrets of the human body
to learn ^e nature of the disease and its exact seat, and how
it might be cured, yet those relations of which I speak, and
wliich form the concord,^ or, as the Greeks call it, " harmony,"
of the whole body outside and in, as of some instrument, no
one has been able to discover, because no one has been auda-
cious enough to seek for them. Kut if these could be known,
then even the inward parts, which seem to have no beauty,
would so delight us with their exquisite fitness, as to afford a
profounder satisfaction to the mind — and the eyes are but its
ministers — than the obvious beauty which gratifies the eye.
There are some things, too, wliich have such a place in the
body, that they obviously servo no useful purpose, but nitJ
solely for beauty, as e.g. the teats on a man's breast, or the
beard on his face ; for that tliis is for ornament, and not lor
protection, is proved by the bare faces of women, who ought
ratlier, as the weaker sex, to enjoy such a defence. If, there-
fore, of all those members which are exposed to our ^^ew,
there is certainly not one in which beauty is sacriilced to
utility, while there are some which serve no purjiose but only
beauty, I think it can readily be concluded that in the crea-

* Coapiaiio, u word coined by Aogostiae, and used by liiin again in tb*
De Trin. iv. 2.

623

THE cm" OF GOD.

[dook xin.

tion of the human body comeliness was more regarded than
necessity. In truth, necessity ia a transitory thing ; and tbc
time is coming when we slxall enjoy one another's heaulr
without any lust, — a condition which will specially redound
to tlie praise of the Creator, who, as it is said in the psalm,
has "put on praise and comeliness.***

How can I tell of the rest of creation, with all its beauty
and utility, whicli the divine" goodness has given to man to
please his eye and serve his purposes, condemned though b
is, and hurled into these labours and miseries ? Shall I speak
of the manifold and various loveliness of sky, and earth, and
sea ; of tlie plentiful supply and wonderful qualities of the
light ; of sun, moon, and stars j of the shade of trees ; of the
colours and i)erfume of flowers ; of the multitude of biidsv
all differing in plumage and in song ; of the variety of ani-
mals, of which the smallest in size are often the most wonder-
ful,— the works of ants and bees astonishing us more than
the huge bodies of whales ? Shall I speak of the sea, whicli
itself is BO grand a spectiicle, "when it arrays itself as it were
in vestures of various colours, now running through e\'ery
shade of gi'een, and again becoming pui*ple or blue ? Is it not
delightful to look at it in storm, and experience the swathing
compluconcy wliich it inspires, by suggesting that we ourselves
are not tossed and shipwrecked ? ' What shall I say of tbe
numberless kinds of food to alleviate hunger, and the variety
of seasonings to stimulate appetite wliich are scattered eveiy-
where by nature, and for whicli we are not indebted to the art
of cookery ? How many natural appliances are there for pK-
serving and restoiing health I How grateful is the alternatiou
of day and night I how pleasant the breezes that cool the air!
how abundant the supply of clothing furnished us by trees
and animals ! Who can enumerate all tho blessings we en-
joy ? If I were to attempt to detail and imfold only these few
which I have indicated in tlie mass, such an enumeration
would fill a voluuie. And all these arc but the solace of Che

>rs. civ. 1.

• Ho npparently has in view the celebrated passage in the opening of the
second book of LncrcUus. The uses made of this passage an referred to bj
"Lecky, Hut. (^ European MoraU, i. 74.

lOK XXIL] obstinacy and S1NGUL.VRITY OF SCEPTICS. 529

itched and condemned, not the rewards of the blessed.

lat then shall these rewards be, if such be the blessings of a

mdemned state ? Wliat will He give to those whom He has

predestined to life, who has given such things even to those

riiom He has pi*edestined to death ? What blessings will He

the blessed life shower upon those for whom, even in this

(tate of miaeT}^j He has been willing that His only-begotten

Ion should endure such sufferings even to death 1 Thus the

ipostle reasons concerning those who are predestine^! to that

ingdom : " He that spared not His own Son, but delivered

'im up for us all, how shall He not "witli Him also give us

1 things ?"* AVlien this promise is fulfilled, what shall we

? What blessings shall wo receive in that kingdom, since

'already we have received as the pledge of them Christ's dying ?

In what condition shall the spirit of man be, when it has no

longer any vice at all ; when it neither yields to any, nor is

in bondage to any, nor has to make war against any, but is

perfected, and enjoys undisturbed peace with itself ? Shall

it not then know all things with certainty, and without any

labour or error, when unhiDdered and joyfully it drinks the

wisdom of God at the fountainhead ? What shall the body

be, when it is in every respect subject to the spirit, from

which it shall draw a Hfe so sufficient, as to stand in need of

no other nutriment ? For it shall no longer be animal, but

spiritiml, having indeed the substance of flesh, but without

any fleshly corruption. ,

25- 0/ the ohitinactj of those indicidttais who impugn the resurrection of the body,
though^ as icaa 2>i'cdicted, the whote world believes it.

Tlio foremost of the philosophers agree with us about the
spiritual felicity enjoyed by the blessed in the life to come ;
it is only the resurrection of the flesh they call m question,
and with all theii* might deny. But the mass of ineUj learned
and unlearned, the world's wise men and its fools, have be-
lieved, and have left in mea|-;re isolation the. unbelievers, and
have tiuraed to Christ, who in His own resurrection demon-
strated the reality of that which seems to our adversaries
absurd. For the world has believed this wliich God predicted,
as it was also predicted that the world would believe, — a pre-

^ itom. Txij. 32.

VOL. n. S L

530

TUE CITY OF GOD.

[book xm

diction not due to the sorceries of Peter/ since it was uttend
so long before. He who has predicted these things, as I btn
already said, and am not ashamed to repeat, is the God befcn
whom all other divinities tremble, as Porphyry himself oira,
and seeks to prove, by testimonies from the oracles of theit
gods, and goes so far as to call Him Grod the Father and ^itw
Far be it from us to interpret these predictions as thev do wK>
have not believed, along vnth the whole world, in that whict
it waa predicted the world would believe in. For why should
we not rather iinderstand them as the world does, whoae
belief was predicted, and leave that handful of unbelievers to
their idle talk and obstinate and solitary infidelity ? For if
they mainl-iiin that tliey interpret them differently only U-
avoid charging Scripture with folly, and so doing an injiur
to that God to whom they bear so notable a teatimony, is it
not a much grenter injury they do Him when they eay Uttt
His predictions must be understood otherwiae tlian the wodd
believed them, though He Himself praised, promised, accom-
phshed this belief on the world's part ? And why cannot He
cause the body to rise again, and live for ever ? or is it not
to be believed that He will do this, because it is an tlndesi^
able thing, and unworthy of God? Of His omnipotence, which
efi'ects so many great miracles, wb have already said enough
H they wish to know what the Almighty cannot do, I shall
tell theui He cannot lie. Let us therefore believe what He
can d«, by refusing to believe what He cannot do. Befusii^
to believe that He can lie, let them beheve that He will do
M'hnt He has promised to do ; and let them believe it as the
world has believed it> whose faith He predicted, whose faith
He praised, whose faith He promised, whose faith He now
points to. Bnt how do they prove that the resurrection is an
undesirable thing ? There shall then be no comiption, which
is the only evil thing about the body. I have already said
enough about the order of the elements, and the other fancifol
objections men raise ; and in the thirteenth book I have, in
my own judgment, sufficiently illustrated the facility of move-
ment which thf incorruptible body shall enjoy, judging from
the ease and vigour we experience even now, when the body

* Vids Rook iriii. c 53.

lOOK XXn.] PORPHYKT CONFUTED BY PLATO.

531

in good health. Those who have either not read the former
>k3, or wish to refresh their memory, m^iy read them for

lemselvesL

That the ojnrUon of Porphyry, thai the 90iti, in order to ht hkued^ must he
separated from ertry hitid o/bod^, u demolishrd by Ptalo, vho naj/it that
the »upremt£ Cfodpromiscd tJtA goda that they should never be ousted Jrom
their bodUt,

they,

tells

', Porphyry

be blessed, must escape connection with eveiy kind of body.
It does not avail, therefore, to say that the future body shall
be incorruptible, if tlic soul cannot be blessed till delivered
from every kind of \yody. But in the book above mentioned
I have already sufficiently discussed this. This one thing only
■will I repeat, — let Plato^ their master, correct his writings, nnd
say that their gods, in order to be blessed, must quit their
bodies, or, in other words, die ; for he said that they were shut
up in celestial bodies, and that, nevertheless, the Qod who
made them promised them immortality, — that is to say, an
eternal tenure of these same bodies, such as was not provided
for them naturally, but only by the further intervention of
His will, that thus they might be assured of felicity. In this
he obviously overturns their assertion that the resurrection
of the bodj' cannot be believed because it is impossible ; for,
according to liim, when the uncreated God promised immor-
tality to the created gods, He expressly said that He would
do what was impossible. For Plato tells us that He said,
" As ye have had a beginning, so you cannot be immortal
and incorruptible ; yet ye shall not decay, nor shall any fate
destroy you or prove stronger than my will, which more effec-
tually binds you to immortality than the bond of your nature
keeps you from it" If they who hear these words have, we
do not say understanding, but ears, they cam;ot doubt that
Plato believed that God promised to the gods He had made
that He would effect an impossibility. For He who says,
"Ye cannot be immortal, but by my wiU ye shall be im-
mortal," what else does He say than this, " I shall make you
what ye cannot be?" The body, therefore, shall be raised
incorruptible, immortal, spiritual, by Him who, according to
Plato, has promised to do that which is impoasible. "VVIiy

532

THE CITY OF GOD.

[dook xxir.

tlipii do tliey still exclaim that this which God has j)rouiised,
which the world has believed on God's promise as was pre-
dicted, is an impossihility ? For what we say is, that the God
who, even according to Plato, docs impossible things, will do
this. It is not, then, necessary to the blessedness of the soul
that it be detached from a body of any kind whatever, hut
that it receive an incomiptible body. And in what incor-
niptible body will they more suitably rejoice than in that in
which they groaned when it was comiptible ? For thus they
shall not ieel that dire craving which Virgil, in imitation of
Plato, has ascribed to them when he says that they wish to
return again to their bodies.* They shall not, T say, feel this
desire to retnm to their bodies, since they shall have those
bodies to which a return was desired, and shall, indeed, bo in
such thorough possession of them, that they shall never lose
them even for the briefest momentj nor ever lay them down
in death.

27. 0/the apparently covJUcting opinhru of Plato and Porphjryy tcAicA KOvXd
have conducted them both to the truth if they could have yidded to one
another.

Statements were made by Plato and Porphyry singly, which
if they could have seen then* way to hold in common, they
might possibly have become Christians. Plato said that souls
could not exist eternally without bodies ; for it was on this
account, he said, that the souls even of wise men must some
time or other return to their bodies. Porphyrj% again, said
that the pnrificd soul, when it has returned to the Father, shall
never return to the ills of this world. Consequently, if Plato
had communicated to Porphyry that which he saw to be true,
that souls, though perfectly purified, and belonging to the wise
and righteoufl, must return to human bodies: and if Porph^TV,
again, had imparted to Plato the trutli wliich he saw, that holy
souls sliall never return to the miseries of a corruptible body,
so that they should not have each held only his own opinion,
but siiould both liave held both truths, I think they would
have seen that it follows that the smds return to their bodies,
and also that the.se bodies shall be such as to afford them a
blessed and immortal life. For, according to Plato, even holy

1 Virg. ^n, vi. 761.

BOOK XXn.] PORPHYRY THE COMPLKMEST OF PLA.TO. 533

PpBOuls shall return to the body ; according to Porphyry, holy
souls shall not rctiim to the ills of tliis world. Let Porph}Ty
then say with I'lato, they shall retiu'n to the body ; kt Plato
say with Porphyry, they shall not return to their old misery :
and they will agree that they return to bodies in which they
sliall sufler no more. And this is nothing else tlian what God
has promised, — that He will give eternal felicity to souls joined
to their own bodies. For this, I presvtme, both of tbem would
readily concede, that if the souls of the saints are to be re-
united to bodies, it shall be to their own bodies, in which they
have endui*ed the miseries of this life, and in which, to escape
these miseries, they served God with iiiety and iidelity.

23. )¥7iat Ptato or Lahfo, or even Varro, might hav^ oontrihuted to the tnie
faith of the rtwrrec^on, if the^ had adopted one another^s opinion* into

one scheme.

Some Christians, who have a liking for Plato on account of
his magnificent style and the truths whicli he now and then
uttered, say that he even held an opinion similar to our owni
regarding the resurrection of the dead. Cicero, however, allud-
ing to this in his IicpuhUc, asserts that Plato meant it i*ather
as a playful fancy than as a reality ; for he introduces a man^
who had come to life again, and gave a narrative of his ex-
perience ill con'oboration of the doctrines of Plato. Labeo, too,
says that two men died on one day, and met at a cross-road,
and that, being afterwards ordered to return to their bodies,
they agreed to be friends for life, and were so till they died
again. But the resurrection which these Avriters instance re-
sembles that of those persons whom we have ourselves known
to rise again, and wlio came back indeed to this life, but not
so as never to die again. Marcus Varro, however, in iiis work
On the Oriffin of the Roman People, records something more
remarkable ; I think his own words shrnild be given. " Certain
astrologers," he says, " have written that men are destined to
a new birth, which the Greeks call palinffcnm/. This will take
place after fonr hundred and forty years have elapsed ; and then
the same soul and the same body, wliich were formerly utiited
in the person, shall again be reimited." This Varro, indeed, or
those nameless astrologers, — -for he does not give us the names
' In the liepublic, x.

534

THE CITY OP CMDD.

[book XXIL

of the men whose statement he cites, — have aifirmed what is
indeed not altogether true ; for once the souls have returned to
the bodies they wore, they shall never afterwards leave them.
Yet what they say upsets and demolishes much of that idle
talk of oiir adveraaries ahout the impossibility of the resur-
rection. For those who have been or are of this opinion, have
not thouglit it possible that bodies which have dissolved into
air, or dust, or ashes, or water, or into the bodies of the beasta
or even of the men that fed on them, should be restored again
to that which they formerly were. And therefore, if Plato
and Porphyr}', or rather, if their disciples now living, agree
with us that holy souls shall return to the body, as Plato says,
and that, nevertheless, tliey shall not return to misery, as Por-
phyry maintains, — if they accept the consequence of these two
propositions which is taught by the Christian faith, that they
shall receive bodies in which they may live eternally without
suffering any misery, — let thein also adopt from Varro the
opinion that they shall return to the same bodies as they were
formerly in, and thus the whole qtiestion of the eternal resur-
rection of the body shiill be resolved out of their own mouths.

29. Of the beatific vmon.

And now let us consider, with such ability as God may
vouchsafe, how the saints shall be employed when they arc
clothed in immortal and spiritual bodies, and when the flesh
shall live no longer in a fleshly but a spiritual fashion. And
indeed, to tell the truth, I am at a loss to understand the
nature of that employment, or, shall I rather say, repose and
ease, for it has never come within the range of my bodily
senses. Aud if I should speak of my mind or understanding,
what is our understanding in comparison of its excellence ?
For then shall be that " peace of God which," as the aposde
says, " passeth all understanding,"^ — that is to say, all human,
and perhaps all angelic understanding, but certainly not the
divine. That it passeth ours there is no doubt ; but if it
pasaeth that of the angels, — and he who says " all understand-
ing" seems to make no exception in their favour, — then we
must understand him to mean that neither we nor the angels

' Pliil. iv, 7.

BOOK xxn.]

TUB BEATIFIC VlSIOir.

535

can understand, as God understands, the peace which God Him-
self enjoys. Doubtless this passeth all understanding but His
own. But as we shall one day be made to participate, accord-
ing to our slender capacity, in His peace, both in our&elves,
and with our neighbour, and with God our chief good, in tliis
respect the angels understand the peace of God in their own
measure^ and men too, though now for behind them, whatever
spiritual advance they have made. For we must remember
how great a man he was who said, " We know in part, and
we prophesy in part, until that which is perfect is come ;"*
and " Now we see through a glass, darkly ; but then face to
face.'" Such also is now the \iaion of the holy angels, who
are also called our angels, because we, being rescued out of
the power of darkness, and receiving the earnest of the Spirit,
are translated into the kingdom of Christ, and already b^iii
to belong to those angels with whom we shall enjoy that holy
and most delightful city of God of which we have now written
so much. Thus, then, the angels of God are our angels, as
Christ is God's and also ours. They are God's, because they
have not abandoned Him ; they are ours, bec^iuse we are their
fellow-citi2cns. The Lord Jesus also said, " See that ye de-
spise not one of these little ones : for I say unto you, That in
heaven their angels do always see the face of my Father whicli
is in heaven."" As, then, they see, so shall we also see; but
not yet do we thus see. Whei'efore the apostle uses the words
cited a little ago, " Now we sec through a glass, darkly ; but
then face to face." This vision is reserved as tlio reward of
our faith ; and of it the Apostle John also says, " When He
shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He
is.''* By " the face'* of God we are to understimd His mani-
festation, and not a part of the body similar to that which in
our bodies wc call by that nama

And so, when I am asked how the saints shall be employed
in that spuitual body, I do not say what I see, but I say what
I believe, according to that which I read in the psalm, " I be-
lieved, therefore have I spoken."* I say, then, they shall in
the body see God ; but whether they shall see Him by means

* liatt. xviii. 10.

* 1 Cor. xiii. 9, 10.

* 1 Jolm iii 2.

» 1 Tor. Niii. 12.
* Ps. cxvl 10.

536

THK CITY OF GOD.

[look xxn.

of the body, as now we see the suit, moon, stars, eea, e«itb,
aud all that is in it, that is a diffi^cult question. For it is
haixl to say tliat the saints shall then have such bodies that
they shall not he able to shut aud open their eyes as they
please ; wbilo it is harder still to say that every one who shuts
his eyes shall lose the vision of God. For if the jirophet
EJisha, thougli at a distance, saw his servant Gehazi, who
thought that his wickedness would escape his master's obser-
vation and accepted gifts from Nmiman the Syrian, whom the
prophet had cleansed from his foul leprosy, how much more
shall tlie saints in the spiritual body see all things, not only
though their eyes be shut, but though tliey themselves be at
a gi'eat distance ? For then shall be " that which is perfect,**
of which the apostle says, *' We know in part, and we pro-
phesy in part ; but when that which is perfect is come, Uien
that which is in part shall be done away.** Then, that he
may illustrate as well as possible, by a simile, how superior
the future life is to the life now lived, not only by ordi-
nary men, but even by the foremost of the saints, he says,
" \M\cx\ I was a child, I understood as a child, I spake as a
child, 1 thouglib as a cldld ; but when I became a man, I put
away childish things. Now we see thi*ough a gloss, darkly;
but then face to face : now I know in part ; but then shall
I know even as also I am known."* If, then, even in this
life, in which the prophetic power of remarkable men is no
more worthy to be compared to the vision of the future life
than childhood is in iimnliood, Elislia, tliungli distant from his
servant, saw him accepting gifts, shall we say that when that
which is perfect is come, aud the corruptible body no longer
oppresses the soul, but is incorruptible and offers no impedi-
ment to it, the saints shall need bodily eyes to see, though
Elisha had no need of them to see his aen'ant ? For, following
tlie Septuagiiit version, these are the prophet's words : "Did not
my heart go with thee, when the man came out of his chariot
to meet thee, and thou tookedst his gifts ?'" Or, as the pi-es-
bj-ter Jerome rendered it from the Hebrew, " Was not my lieart
present when the man tui-ned from his chariot to meet thee?**
Tlie prophet said that he saw this with his heart, miraculously

» 1 Cor. xiii. li, 1*2. « 2 Kmys v. 26.

BOOK XAU.] GOD SEEN WITII THE BODILY KYE

537

aided by God, as no one can doubt. But how much more
abundantly shall the saints enjoy tliia gift when God shall be
all in all ? Nevertheless the bodily eyes also shall liave tlieir
office and their place, and shall be used by the spirit through
the spiritual body. Tor the prophet did not forego the use of
his eyes for seeing what was before them, tliough he did not
need thorn to see his absent servant, and thou^*h he could have
seen these present objects in spirit, and with his eyes shut, as
he saw things far distant in a place where he himself was not
Far be it, then, from us to say that in the life to come the
saints shall not see God when their eyes are shut, since they
shall always see Him with the spirit.

But the question arises, whether, when tlicir eyes are open,
they shall see Him with the bodily eye ? If the eyes of the
spiritual body have no more power than the eyes which we
now possess, manifestly God cannot be seen with them. They
must be of a wery different power if they can look iipon that
incorporeal nature wliich is not contained in any place, but is
all in every place. For though we say that God is in heaven
and on earth, as He Himself says by the propliet, " I fill
heaven and earth/' ^ we do not mean that there is one part of
God in heaven and another part on earth ; but He is all in
heaven and all on earth, not at alternate intervals of time,
but both at once, as no bodily nature can be. The eye, tlien,
shall have a vastly superior power, — the power not of keen
sight, such as is ascribed to serpents or eagles, for however
keenly these animals see, they can discern nothing but bodily
substances, — but the power of seeing things incorporeal. Pos-
sibly it was this great power of vision wliich was temporarily
comm;micfitcd to the eyes of the holy Job while yet in this
mortal body, when he says to God, " I have heard of Thee by
the hearing of the ear ; but now mine eye seetli Thee : where-
fore I abhor myself, and melt awa}', and count myself dust
and aslies ;"^ although there is no reason why we should not
undei-stand this of the eye of the heart, of which the apostle
says, " Having the eyes of your heart illuuiinated."' But that
God shall be seen with these eyes no Christian doubts who
believingly accepts what our God and Master says, " Blessed
» Jer. xxiil 24. ' Job xlii. 5, 6. » Eph. i. 18.

538

TffK CTTT 07 GOD.

[book xxa.

are the pure in heart : for they shall see God."^ Bnt whether
in the future life Cod shall also be seen with the bodily eye>
this is now our question.

The expression of Scripture, " And all flesh shall see the
salvation of God," ^ may without difficulty be underatood as
if it were said, " And every man shall see the Christ of God"
And He certainly was seen in the body, and shall be seen in
the body when He judges quick and dead. And that Christ
is the salvation of God, many other passages of Scripture wit-
ness, but especially the words of the venerable Simeon, who,
when he had received into his hands the infant Christ, said,
'* Now lettest Thou Thy servant deport in peace, according to
Thy word : for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation."' A& for
the words of the above-mentioned Job, as they are found in
the Hebrew manuscripts, " And in m}' flesh I shall see God,"*
no doubt they were a prophecy of the resurrection of the
flesh ; yet he does not say " by the flesh." And indeed, if he
had said this, it would still be possible that Christ was meant
by," God;" for Christ shall be seen by the flesh in the flesh.
But even understanding it of God, it is only eqmvalent to
saying, I shall be in the flesh when I see God llieu the
apostle's expression, "face to face,"* does not oblige us to
believe that we shall see God by the bodily face in which are
the eyes of the body, for we shall see Him without intermis-
sion in spirit And if the apostle had not referred to the
face of the inner man. he would not have said, " But we, with
unveiled face beholdinf; as in a gltiss the glory of the Lord,
are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as
by the Spirit of the Lord."** In the same sense we understand
what tho Psalmist sings, " Draw near unto Hirp^ and be
enlightened ; and your faces shall not be ashamed."^ For it is
by faith we draw near to God, and faith is an act of the spirit,
not of the body. But as we do not know what degree of per-
fection the spiritual body shall attain, — for here we speak of a
matter of which we have no experience, and upon which the
authority of Scripture does not definitelv pronounce, — it is

> Matt. V. 8.
* Job xix. 26.
' Ps. xxxir. 6.

' Luke iii. 6.
* 1 Cor. xiii. 12.

■ Luke u. 29, 30,
• 2 Cor. iu. 18.

BOOK XXIL] now THE FDTUBE BODY SHALL SER

539

necessary that the words of the Book of Wisdom be illustrated
in us ; " The thoughts of mortal men are timid, and our fore-
castings uncertain."'

For if that reasoning of the philosophers, by which they
attempt to make out that intelligible or mental objects are so
seen by the mind, and sensible or bodily objects so seen by the
body, that the former cannot be discerned by the mind through
the body, nor the latter by the mind itself without the body, —
if this reasoning wer« trustworthy, then it would certainly
follow that God could not be seen by the eye even of a
spiritual body. But this reasoning is exploded both by true
reason and by prophetic authority. For who is so little ac-
quainted with the truth as to say that God has no cognisance
of sensible objects ? Has He therefore a body, the eyes
of which give Him this knowledge ? Moreover, what we
have JTist been relating of the prophet Elisha, does this not
sufficiently show that bodily things can be discerned by the
spirit without the help of tlie body ? For when that servant
received the gifts^ certuinly this was a bodily or material
transaction, yet the prophet saw it not by the body, but by
the spirit. As, therefore, it is agreed that bodies are seen by
the spirit, what if the power of the spiritual hody shall be so
great that spirit also is seen by the body ? For God is a
spirit. Besides, each man recognises his own life — that life
by which he now lives in the body, and which vivifies these
earthly members and causes them to grow — by an interior
sense, and not by his bodily eye ; but the life of other men,
though it is invisible, he sees with the bodily eye. For how do
we distinguish between living and dead bodies, except by seeing
at once botli the body and the Kfe winch we cannot see save
by the eye ? But a life without a body we cannot see tlius.

Wherefore it may very well be, and it is thoroughly cre-
dible, that we shall in the future world see the material forms
of the new heavens and the new earth in such a way that we
aliall most distinctly recognise God everyAvhere present and
governing all things, material as well as spiritual, and shall
see Him, not as now we understand the invisible things of
God, by the things which are made,* and see Him darkly, as

' Wisd. ix. IL

* Eom. i. 20.

540

THE CITY OP con.

[book xxn.

in a mirror, and in part, and rather by faith than by bodily
vision of material appearances, but by means of the bodies we
shall wear and which we shall see wherever we turn our eyes.
As we do not believe, but see that the living men around us
who are exercising vital functions are alive, though we cannot
see their life without their bodies, but see it most distinctly by
means of their bodies, so, wherever we shall look with, those
spiritual eyes of our future bodies, we sliall then, too, by
means of bodily substances behold God, though a spirit, rulinj;
aH things. Either, therefore, the eyes shall possess some
quality similar to that of the mind, by which they may btf
able to discern spiritual things, and among these God, — a
supposition for which it is dilhcult or even impossible to find
any support in Scripture, — or, which is more easy to comprc-
hendj God will be so known by us, and shall be so much before
us, that Ave shall see Him by the spirit in ourselves, in one
another, in Himself, in the now heavens and the new earth, in
every created thing which shall tlien exist; and also by the
body we shall see Him in every body which the keen vision
of the eye of the spiritual body shall reacli. Our thoughts
also shall be visible tu id\, for tlieri shall be fulfilled the words
of the apostle, " Judge notliing before the time, until the Lord
come, who both will brinf,*; to li<^lit tlie hidden things of dark-
ness, and will make manifest the thoughts of the heart, and
then shall every one have praisB of God/'^

SO. 0/ the eternal felieiijf of the tUy <^ Ood, ami of the perpetual ^oUati^^B

How great shall be that felicity, which shall be tainted with 1
no evil, which shall luck no good, and which shall afford 1
leisure for the praises of God, who shall be all in all 1 For I
know not what other emplo3'ment there can be where no lassi- i
tude shall slacken activity, nor any want stimulate to labour »
1 am adinoiiished also by the sacred song, in which I read or J
hear the words, " Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house,
O Lortl ; they will be still praising Thee."* All the members
and organs of the incorruptible body, which nuw we see to be
suited to various necessary uses, shall contribute to the praises
of God J for in that life necessity shall have no place, but full,

* 1 Cor. ir. 5. * Pa. Uxxiv. i.

P.OOK XXII.] "ETEItKAL FELTCITY OF THE CITY OF GOD.

541

certain, secure, everlasting felicity. For all those parts ^ of the
' bodily harmony, which are di.strihntcfl thn.mgli the wliole body,
! within and without, and of which I have just been saying
that they at present elude our obsen'ation, shall then be dis-
j cerned ; and, along with the other great and marvellous dis-
i coveries which shall then kindle rational minds in praise of
the great Artificer, there shall be the enjoyment of a beauty
which appeals to the reason. What power of movement such
bodies shall possess, I have not the audacity rashly to deline,
as I have not tlie ability to conceive. Nevertheless I will say
that in any case, both in motion and at rest, they shall be,
as in their appearance, seemly ; for into that state nothing
which is unseemly shall he admitted. One thinff is certain,
the body shall forthwitli bo wherever the spirit wills, and the
spirit shall will nothing which is unbecoming either to the
spirit or to the body. Tnie hnnonr shall be there, for it shall
be denied to none who is worthy, nor yielded to any unworthy;
neither shall any unworthy person so much as sue for it, for
none but the worthy shall be there. True peace shall be
there, whore no one shall suffer opposition either from himself
or any other. God Himself, who is the Author of virtue,
shall there be its reward ; for, as there is nothing greater or
t)ettGr, He has promised Himself. AVhat else was meant by
His word through the prophet, " I will be your God, and ye
shall be my people/' "^ than, I shall be their satisfaction, I shall
be all that men linnourabl y desire, — life, and health, and nour-
ishment, and plenty, and glory, and honour, and peace, and all
good things ? This, too, is the right interpretation of the saying
of the apostle, " That God may be all in aU." ' He shall be
the end of our desires who shall be seun without end, loved
without cloy, praised without weariness. This outgoing of
aifection, this employment, shall certainly be, like eternal life
itself, common to aU.
1^ But who can conceive, not to say describe, what degrees of
■"honour and glory shall be awarded to the various degrees of
merit ? Yet it cannot be doubted that there shall be degrees.
And in that blessed city there shall be this great blessing, that
no inferior shall envy any superior, as now the archangels are
» Numbers. » Lev. xxvi. 12. ' 1 Cor. sv. 28.

542

THE CITY OF GOD.

[book xxn.

not envied by the angelfl, because no one will wish to be what
he has not received, though bound in strictest concord with
him who has received ; as in the body the finger does not seek
to be the eye, though both members are harmoniously included
in the complete structure of the body. Ajid thus, along with
his gift, greater or less, each shall receive this further gift of
contentment to desire no more than he has.

Neither are we to suppose that because sin shall have no
power to delight them, free will must be "withdrawn. It will,
on the contrary, be all the more truly free, because set free
from delight in sinning to take unfailing delight in not RiTining
For the first freedom of will which man received when he was
created upright consisted in an ability not to sin, but also in
an ability to sin ; whereas this last freedom of will shall be
superior, inasmuch as it shall not he able to sin. This, indeed,
shall not be a natural ability, but the gift of God. For it is
one thing to be God, another thing to be a partaker of God
God by nature caimot sin, but the part-aker of God receives
this inability from God. And in this divine gift there was to
be observed this gmdation, that man should first receive a free
will by wliich l:e was able not to sin, and at last a free will by
wliich he wiis not able, to sin, — the former being adapted to the
jicquiring of merit, the latter to the enjoying of the reward.'
But the nature thus constituted, having sinned when it had
the ability to do so, it is by a more abundant grace that it is
delivered ao as tn reach that frftedom in which it cannot sin.
For as the first immortality which Adam lost by siiming con-
sisted in his being able not to die, while the last shall consist
in his not being able to die ; so the first free will consisted in
his being able not to sin, the last in his not being able to sin.
And thus piety and justice shall be as indefeasible as happi-
ness. For certainly by sinning we lost both piety and happi-
ness ; but when we lost happiness, we did not lose the love of
it. Are we to say that God Himself is not firee because He
cannot sin ? In that city, then, there shall be free will, one
in all the citizens, and indivisible in each, delivered from all
ill, filled with all good, enjoying indefeasibly the delights of
eternal joys, oblivious of sins, oblivious of sufferings, and yet

* Or, Uie former to a sUite of probAlion, tlie latter to a ilate of rewiitd.

BOOK XXU.] OF THE PERPETTTAL SABHATH. 643

not SO oblivious of its deliverance as to be ungrateful to its
Deliverer.

The soul, then, shall have an intellectual remembrance of its
past ill3 ; but, so far as regards sensible experiencej they shall
be quite forgotten. For a skilful physician knows, indeed, pro-
fessionally almost all diseases ; but experimentally he is igno-
rant of a great number 'which ho himself has never suffered
from. As, therefore, there are two ways of knowing evil
things, — one by mental insight, the other by sensible experience,
for it is one thing to understand all vices by the wisdom of a
cultivated mind, another to understand them by the foolishnass
of an abandoned life, — so also there are two ways of forgetting
evils. For a well-instructed and learned man forgets them one
way, and he who has e-xperimentally suffered from them forgets
them another, — the former by neglecting wliat he has learned,
the latter by escaping what he has suffered. And in this
latter way the saints shall forget their past ills, for they shall
have so thoroughly escaped them all, that they shall be quite
blotted out of their experience. But their intellectual know-
ledge, wliich shall be great, shall keep them acquainted not
only with theii- own pa^t woes, butAvith the eternal sufferings
of the lost. For if they were not to know that they had been
miserable, how could they, as the Psalmist says, for ever sing
the mercies of God ? Certainly that city shall have no greater
joy than the celebration of the grace of Christ, who redeemed
us by His blood. There shall be accomplished the woi*ds of
the psalm, '*Be still, and know that I am God."* There shall
be the great Sabbath which has no evening, which God cele-
brated among His first works, as it is written, " And God
rested on the seventh day from all His works wliich He had
mada And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it ;
because that in it He had rested from aU His work which God
began to make." ^ For we ahaU ourselves be the seventh day,
when we shall be filled and replenished with God's blessing
and sanctification. There shall w© be still, and know that He
is God; that He is that which we ourselves aspired to be
when we fell away from Him, and listened to the voice of the
.seducer, " Ye shall be as gods," ^ and so abandoned God, who

1 Pa xlTi. 10. * Gen. ii. 2, 8. » Gen. in. 5.

544

THE CITY OF COD.

[rook XXTI

would have uuido us as guds, not Ly deseitiug Hiiu, buL by
participating in Him. For without Him what have we accom-
plished, save to perish in His anger? But when we arc
restored by Him, and perfected with greater grace, we shall
have eternal leisure to see that He is God, for wo tihall be full
of Him when He shall be all in alL For even our good worfa,
whon they are understood to be rather His than ours, are
imputed to us that we may enjoy this Sabbath rest. For
if we attribute them to ourselves, they shall be servile ; for
it is said of the Sabbath, " Ye shall do no servile work in
it" ^ Wherefore also it is said by Ezekiel the prophet, " And
I gave them my Sabbaths to be a sign between me and them,
tLat they might know that I am the Lord who sanctify them."'
This knowledge shall be perfected when we shall be perfectly
at rest, and shall perfectly know that He is God.

This Sabbath shall appear still more clearly if we count tlic
ages as days, in accoi*dance with the peiiods of time deiiued
in Scripture, for that period will be found to be the seventh.
The first age, as the first day, extends from Adam to the
deluge J the second from tho deluge to Abraham, equalling the
first, not in length of time, but in the number of generations,
there being ten in each. From Abraham to the atlvent of
Christ there are, as the evaugelLst Matthew calculates, three
periodfl, in each of which are fourteen generations, — one period
from Abraham to David, a second from David to the captivity,
a tliiixi from the captivity to the birth of Christ in the fieah.
There are thus five ages in all. The sixth is now passing, and
cannot be mwisured by any number of generations, as it has
been said, " It is not for you to know the times, which the
Fsither hath put in His own power." * After tliis period God
shall rest as on the seventh day, when He shall give us (who
shall be tho seventh day) rest in Himself But there is not now
space to treat of these ages ; siifficc it to say that the seventh
shall be our Sabbath, which shall be brouglit to a close, not
by an evening, but l)y the Lord's day, as an eighth and eternal
day, consecrated by the resuirection of Chi-ist, and prefiguring
the eternal repose not only of the 52)irit, but also of the body.
There we shall rest and see, see and love, love and prais&
> Deut r. 14. ' £zek. xx. 12. ' AcU L 7.

BOOK XXII.] CONCLUSION.

This is what shall be in the end without end. Jor what other
end do we propose to ourselves than to attain to the kingdom
of which there is no end ?

I think I have now, by God's help, discharged my obligation
in ^vTiting this large work. Let those who think I have said
too little, or those who think I have said too much, forgive
me ; and let those who think I have said just enough join me
in giving thanks to God. Amen.

TOXh It S U

.'■

^.1

INDEXES.

I.— index: of texts of scripture.

GrxESis.

i. I, 2,
i. 6,
I 14,
i. 14 18,
i. 24.
i. 26,
L 27, 28,
i 28,
i.31,

as, 3,

ii 6,.

11.17, i.

ii. 22.
ii. 25,
sii. 5,
iii 6,
iij. 7,
iii. 9,.
iii. 12,
iii. 12, 13,
iii 16,
iii 19,

iv. 6, 7.
ir. 17,
iv. 18-22,
iv. 25.
iv. 26,
V. 1,.
T. 2, .

T. 6, .
T. 8,.
vi 1-4,
^3,
vi 5-7.
▼i. 6,
■vi. 19. 20,
Tii, 10, U,

TOt. PACK

I 439, 446. 601
. i. 322
. i. 479
. I 502
. i. 458
L 544 ; ii
. ii 114

. ii. _-

a 21, 37, 623

. i4G4

. ii. 543

. id52

. i. M9

. 533, 535. 548 :

ii 142

. u. 510

. ii. 32

U. 27. 543

. ii. 32

ii. 32, 33

. L 535

. ii. 24

. U. 28

. ii. CO

i 535, 546 ;

ii. 385

. ii. 57

ii. 51, 62

. ii 82

. a

ii.

. a

. ii.

63
82

89
81

77
77
94

a 290
ii. 97
ii. 22
ii 103

a 73

via 4, 5, ,
U. 25,
ix. 26, 27,

X. 21,
I. 25,
«. 1.
xi 1-9,
xi. 6.
xi. 27.»,
xi, 31,
xi32.

xa 1, a 127,
xa 1, 2, .
xa 1-3, .
xa 3,

xii 4,

xii 7,
xiii 8, 9, .
xia 14-17,
XV. 4,
XV. 6,
XV. 7,
XV. 17, .
XV. 10, 21,
xvi. 3,
xvi. C,
xvii. 1-22,

xva 5,

ivii. 5, 6, 10

xva 14,

xvii 17, .
xviii

xviii. 2, 3,
xviii. 18, i 392
xix. 2,
xix. 16-19,
xix. 21, .

XI. 12, .
xxi. 6,
xxi. 10, .
xxi. 12. .
xxi. 12, 13,

TOL. PAttl 1

. ii.

1(H

. ii.

104

. ii.

109

. UU,

122

. ii.

128

. ii

112

. ii

115

. ii.

125

. ii

126

. 126.

138

, 128.

129

. ii.

166

. ii.

130

. a

166

. ii.

127

. ii.

132

. ii.

133

. a

133

. ii.

140

. ii.

135

. ii.

136

392

. ii.

136

. ii.

150

. a

140

. ii.

140

, ii.

395

. ii.

143

. ii

142

. ii.

149

393

- ii.

145

2; ii

146

■ a

li!3

. ii.

145

. ii

145

- ii.

146

. ii.

147

. ii.

187

. ii

155

. a

147

xxii, 10, 12,
xxii. 14, .
xxit. 15-18»

xza 18, .

xxiv. 2. 3,
xxiv. 10, .

XXV. 1.

XXV. 5. 6, .
XXV. 7,
XXV. 9,
XXV. 23, .
XXV. 27, .
xxvi 1-5, .
xxvi. 24, .
xxviL 27-29,
xxvii. 33, .
xxvia 1-4,
ixvia 10-19,
xxxa 28, .
xxxii. 28-30,
XXXV, 29. •
xlvi. 8, .
xlvi. 27, .
xlvii. 29. .
xlviu. 19, .
ilix. 8-12,
xlix. 10, .
xlix. 12, .
L 22, 23, .
L23.
i24,

rOL. NSI

. a 148

. a 140

. a 149

. L432;

a 333, 395

. a 150

. a 125

. ii 15(»

. ii 150

. a 22t>

. i 24
a 151, 161

. a 154

. ii. 152

. a 153

, a 154

. a 155

. a 156

. ii- 167

. ii 199

. i. 24

. ii 159

. a 7

. i 21

. a 161

. a 160

a 223. 277

. a 161

. a 159

. i 21

iii 14,

xii. 37,
xvii 6,
xxi. 24. ,
xxa20,

xxxia 13,

ExoT>rs.

323. 482
. ii 112
, ii. 63
. a 281
. a436
. i. 387;
332, 338
. i 402

C47

^B 548 INDEX OF TEXTS. ^^

^B LKvmcra.

vol. rxar t. rou r»c». 1

^^H TOU FJQE

vL G,

. iL 378 i 1. 12, 1.-:. . . L .tao 1

^H xxvi. 12, . . il 541

ix- IS,

. iL 20

1. 14. 1.%. . . L 3»

X.3, .

. L 107

1. 10, K, . . iSSS

^H Deutebokomy.

xL5,

, ii. 11

IL 3, . . . iL 88

^m V. M, . iL 544

xiL 6,

. iL 182

IiL 8. . . iL W

xu. 7,

. i. 499

liii, 3, 4. . . iL 121

^H Joshua.

xiii. 1,

. iL 194

Ivu. 5-11, . . iLS53

H XXIV. 2, . . ii. 124

xvi. 2,

L 3SS; iL 339

lix. 9, . L546

xvi. 9, 10,

. u. 207

IxiL U. 12, . tl92

^^1 JUDQIS.

xvi. 10.

. iL 174

!xvU. 1. 2. . L 432

^M ui. 30. . . il IDO

xvi, 11,

. iL 12

liviiL 20, . . iL 208

xvii. 0,

. L454

Ixix. 6. . . iL 212

^H \ Samuel.

xviL 8.

. y. 182

Ixix. 9, , . iL 3;u

^m iL MO. . . ii. 171

xvii. 15,

. a. 450

Ixix. 10. 11, , iLSTS

^M ii. S7-3B, . . iL 170

xviiL I,

. ii. 47

Ixix. 211, . . iL 19

^H viL 9-12, . , ii. ISS

XV iiL 4.*?,

11.203,408

Ixix. 21, . . iLSOS

^m vii. 14. 15. . ii. 192

xviiL 45,

. iL 158

Ixix. 22, 23. ii. 208, 27S

^M xiiL 13. 14, . iL 135

xix. 9.

. iL 19

Ixxii. 8, . iL 191, 290

^M XV. 11, . . iL 22

xix. 12,

. i. 490

IxxiiL . iL 4(H

^m XV. 23, . . ii. ISG

xxiL 16. V

r, . ii. 205

IxxiiL IS, . . iL SI

^m XV. 26-29, . . ii. ISG

xxiL 18, 11

). . iL 205

Ixxiii. 20. . . iL 90

^m xxiv. 5, U, . iL 1S5

xxiv. 16,

. i. 475

IxxiiL 2S,L 391, 409,416

XXV. 10,

. i. 520

Ixxiv. 12. . . iL 177

^H 2 Sauukl.

XXV. 17,

. iL310

Ixxvii. y. . ii. 446, 453

^H vii. 8. . . U. 198

xxvi. 2.

. iL \G

IxxviL 10. . ii. 4M

^H vii. 8-lC, . . iL 190

XXX i. 19,

ii. 447, 455

IxxxiL G. I 379, 385;

^H TiL 10, 11. iL]9S^>^

x:(xii. 1,

* n. 209

a 9S

^H vii. 10. . . ii. 197

xxxii. U,

. iL 12

IxxxiiL 10, . iL 2S

^M vii. 29. . . iL 198

xxxiv. .\

. u. 538

Ixxxiii. 2S. . L 367

xxxiv. S, .

. iL 45G

ixxxiv. 2. . . L 417

^m 1 Kings.

xxxvL 8, .

. ii. 617

Ixxxiv. 4, . . 5L BW

^m xiiL 2, . u. 200

xxxix. 2,

. iL 379

Ixxxiv. 10, . iL 183

^H xix. 10, 14. 15, . iL 214

xxxix. S,

. ii. 378

Ixxxvii. 3. L 292, 436

xl. 2,

. iL 261

IxxxviL 5, . iL 402

^^ 2 KiNca.

xl. 2, 3,

. iL25G

Ixxxix. 2, 3, . L 19

iL n, . . iL405

xl.4.

L 229; iL 90

IxxxLx. 3, 4, . iL 191

V. 2fi, . . ii. 53fi

xl. 5,

. ii. 282

Ixxxix. 19-29, . ii. 195

xiu. 15-17, . iL 200

xl 0.

, ii. 212

Ixxxix. :W-33, . a 198

xli. 5,

. iL4H

Ixxxix. 32. . i 10

2 Chroniclzs.

xli. 5-8.

. iL206

Ixxxix. 34. 35, . a 193

XXK. 9, , . L 384

xlL n.

. a 200 1 Ixxxix. 3(p. 37, . iL 195 |

xli. 10,

. ii, 206 Ixxxix. .38, R 193 /^t 1

Jon.

xlii. .?,

. ii. 378 1 Ixxxix. 39-45, . iL 194 1

L 21, . . L 15

xliL 6, .

. L 540

Ixxxix. 46, . iL 194

viL 1, iL 312. 342. -WO

xlii. 10,

. L 41

Ixxxix. 46, 47, . iL 195

xiv. 4, . . ii. 401

xlv. I. 'J.

. iL202

Ixxxix. 47. . a 196

XV. 13, . . ii. 112

xlv. 7.

. ii. 203

Ixxxix. 48, . a 196

xix. 26, . . ii. 538

xlv. 9 17,

. iL203

Ixxxix. 49-51. . iL t%

xxxiv. 30, . . i. 210

xlv. 16»

, iL 2W 1 xc. 10. . . iL 74 ■

XKXviiL 7, - . L 44ti

xlvi. 4,

. L436

xciv. 4, . . i 49

xL 14. . L 455, 45fi

xlvL 8.

, i. 520

xciv. U. a 173, 302, 301

xliL 5, 6, . . ii. 537

xlvi. 10,

. ii. 543

xciv. 15, . . i. 1

xlviiL 1,

. L436

xciv. 19, , a 2H 2«

PflALUB.

xlviii. 2, .

ii. 172, 2U3

xcv. 3, , L 579

iU. 3, . . ii. 47

xlix. 11,

. iL 90

xcT. 5, , . i4flB

iiL 5, . . iL 205

xlix. 12.

. 1523

xov. G. , .a 113

iv. 7, • . ii. 12

xlix, 20,

. iL524

xcvi. 1, . . L M4

vL 2. . . iL 173

L 1. .

, i. 370

xcvL 1-5. . . L 345

vL 5, . . L 532

1. 3-5,

. iL 397 xcvi 4, 5, . „ L 42 1

^^^^^^^^^^^S^SSI^m

m -^^^lB^^^^^^^^^H

IXDEt OF TEXTS.

o4u

Tou rifls

VOL. TKat

VOL. rkr,^

^pxevi. 6,

. u. 33S

viii. 14, . . ii. 349

xxiii. 24, . i. 61

7; a 537 '

^^ xcvi. 5, 6, .

. i.379

viii, 15, . • . ii. 211

xxix. 7, .

ii. 341

ci. 1,

. ii.354

X. 13. . . i. 4S5

xxxL 31, ,

u. 257

cii. 25.27, .

. ii.395

X. 16, 17» . . il 212

civ. 1,

. ii. 528

xi. 9. . . i. 384

Lahsxtatiok.s. 1

^ civ. 4.

. it 92

xiL 13, 14, . ii. 340

iv. 20,

ii. 267

Kciv. 24. .

. i. 477

■«iv. 26, .

i 4:i.'i, 457

Cakticles or SoN'aa

I ev, 28, .
cv. 15, .

. ii. 358
. ii. 192

L 3. . . u. 105
i. 4. . . ii. 212

KZEICICL. {

XX. 12, . . ii. 544

.-•in . . • . \

ex. 1,

ii. 200. 204

ii. 4, . . ii. 92

XX Via. 13, .

• ?5

ex. 2,

. ii. 20-1

ii. 5. . . ii. soil

X xxiii. 0, ,

I. 14 '

ii. 2.59

ex- 4, i

i. 13J, 205 big

iv. 13, . , i. G4ti

xxxiv. 23, .

Kcxi. 1,

. ii. 187

viLC, . . a213

xxxriL 22-24, .

ii. 259

■ oxi. 2, .

. il 46

■ exii. 1,

. ii. 612

IsAun.

DAyjiL.

■ exv. 6,

. L 3U

i. 1. . . u. 247

iii.

L 22

■^ cxvL 10, .

. ii. S-SS

ii. 2, 3, . . i 433

vii. 13, 14,

ii. 258

exvi 15, .

i. 19, 527

ii. 3, . ii. 2S2, 290

vii. 15-28,

ii. 393

cxvL

. ii. 255

iv. 4, . . ii. 400

vii. 18, .

ii. 470

cxviii. l-r>,

. i. 440

v. 7. . , iu lOG

vii. 27, .

ii. 470

cxix. 20, .

. Ix. U

vii. 14, . . ii. 277

xii I, 2. .

it 476

cx\x. IIU. .

. ii. 142

X. 2t, . . it 182

xii. 1-3, .

ii. 304

cxix. 104, .

. i. 475

X. 22, . ii. 258. 278

xiL 13, .

il 395

cxxiii. 2, ,

. ii. S29

xi. 2, . . i. 47e

cxxxvi. 2. .

. t. 379

si. 4, . . ii. 2S8

Hofflu.

cxxxrii. 1,

. ii. 19S

xiv. 18, . . i. 454

i. I, . ,

ii. 246

cxxxWiL 3

. ii. 37

xix. 1, . . i. 342

i. 10. . .

ii. 248

cxUv. 4, ii

.195,347.454

xxvi. 11, . . ii. 371

i. 11,

ii. 248

cxliv. 16, .

. il. 341

xxvi. 10, . . ii. 387

iii. 4,

ii. 248

cxlvii. 6, .

. V 50R

xxviii. 22, . . ii. 183

iii. 5,

ii. 248

cxlvii. 12-1

4, . it .114

xxix. 14. . . i. 422

vi. 2.

iL 248

cxlviii 2, .

. i. 478

xl. 2G, . . i. 508

vi. 0, i. 39

0; iL 399

cxlviii. 4, .

. i. 500

xlii. M, . . ii. 410

oxlriii. 8, .

. i. S54

xlv. S, . . ii. 373

Joel.

xlviiL 12.10, . ii. 407

ii. 13.

. ii. 254 1

Pbc

VERBS.

xlviii. 20, . . ii. 2^)5

ii.28, 29, .

, ii.251 1

i. 11-13.

. ii. 210

Ii. 8, . . ii. 4:13

m. 18,

i. 415; ii. 404

Iii. 13-Uii. 12, . ii. 449

Amos.

i. 1.

,Ti26.

. i. 54

Uii. 7. . ii. 29S, 407

11247
iL 249

vHi. 15,

. i. 216

liv. 1-5, . . ii. 2iQ

iv. 12, 13,.

viii. 27, .

. i. 4:iD

Ivii. 21, . . ii. 13

ix. 11, 12..

. ii 249 1

ix. 1,

. ii. 174

Ixv. 5, . . ii. 393

ix. 1-5,
ix. 6,
X. 5, .

. il. 211
, ii. 211
, ii. 105

Ixv. 17-19,. ii. 3Sn, 470
Ixv. 22, . . ii. Mr2
Ixvi. 12-10, . ii. 387

OBADIA}

ver. 17, .

ver. 21. .

1
. ii.251
. il251

xviii. 12,

. il 27

Ixvi. 18, . . ii. 390

xxiv. 10, .

. i. 475

IxvL 22-24. . ii. 391
Ixvi. v-t, . . ii. 464

JUXAH

iu.4, .

. ii. 273

ECCL

iSIASTM.

Ixvi. 34. . .a. 432

i. 2, 3.

L 9, 10,

. it. 34S
. i. 409

Jeeemiau.

MiCAIf

i. 1,

iv. 13,

. ii. 247
. ii. 250 •

ii 13, 14,
ii. 24,

. ii. 348
. ii. 2U

i. 5. . . i. 617
ix. 23, 24. . . ii. 266

iii. 13,

. ii. 211

xvi. 19, . . ii. 267

V. 2-4,
vi. O-S, .

. ii. 2.10
. 1380

iii. 18,

. ii, 2n

xvi. 20, . X. 241. ai6

iii. 22,

. i. 654

xvii. 7. . . i'. 83

vii. 4.

. ii. 212

xvii. 9, . . ii. 257

NAnuM

%'ii. 29,

• it 22

xxiii. 5, 6, . il. 257

L l4-il 1,

. il c:2

^H 550 IXDKX OF TEJCTS. ^^

^^B Habakruk.

TOL. r*fl«

VOL. rjici

^^H vot. rjkO*

ix. 13-15, . . i 501

vi 15,

. iL46(»

^m u.2,3. . ii 252

ix. 14^ . ii 5.19

vi 19-21, .

. i 16

H ii4. i 157; 0.301.328

ix. 15, i53C;ii. 4, 303

vi 2S-3U, .

. i4tt

^B iii. 2, . ii. 252

xi 20. . i. 475, 503

vii 7, 8, .

. iim

^B ill 3. . ii 253

xi 38, . . i 532

vii 12, .

. ii u

^m iiL 4, . ii. 253

vii 18, .

. ii %

EocLraiAsncTTs.

vii. 20, .

. iilM

^^H Zkfbaviab.

ii. 7, . . ii 36S

viii22,i2I

2;ii35^^H

H ii.11, . ii258

iii 27,

. i. 3S

viii 29, i

342; ii^fl

^1 iii. 8, . ii 257

Tii- 13,

. ii 14

1. _-.

. ii 16

^m iii 912, . . ii 253

vii 17,

. ii. 4.^.1

X. 27,

. ii255

X. 13,

. ii. 23

X. 28, i

19, 212,522;

^H Hargai.

XV. 17,

. ii. 142

ii2S3 ,

^H ii 6, . a 259

xxi 1,

. ii466

X. 30.

. i506 i

^m ii. 7. . ii. 275. 231

xxiv. 3,

. i. 455

X. 32,

• iSST I

^m ii S. ii. 275. 2S0, 281

xxvii. 5.

, ii. 401

X. 33,

. i«U

XXX. 12.

. ii 51S

X. 34,

. ii.al

^H Zecharxah.

XXX. 24, i 390 ; ii. 4<i6

X, 30,

iiM

^I ix. 9, 10, . . ii 259

xKiiii 15. , i 457

X. 37.

. ii46i

^m ix. 11, . ii 2G0

xxxvi 1-5, , ii 210

X, 41.

. ii470

^H xii 9, 10, . . ii 408

xl. 1, . ii 441

xi. 13,

. ii. 217

^H xiii 2, . i 34

xi22.

. ii.3S0

BAr.CCH.

xi. 24,

. ii350

^H Maulchl

iii. 26, 27, . . ii. 97

xii 27,

. ii35l

^B i 10, 11, . . ii2G0

iii 35-37. . . ii. 257

iii 29.

. ii406

^m ii. 5-7, ii. 260

xii. 32.

. ii453

^H ii 7. . . ii. 93

HyHN Oy THK TttEK

xii. 41, 42.

. iiSSl

^H ii 17, . ii. 404, 406

CHll.r>UKN-.

xiii. 37-43.

. ii. 351

H iiil. 2, . ii. 201

ver 35, . . i 446

xiii. 39-41.

. ii964

^m iii 1-6, . ii 399

xiii. 41-!::.

. ii414

^H ui 13 10, . . iiSaS

liu. 43, .

. iiSU

^H iii 14, . ii 406

xiii. 47-50,

. ii 2S2

^M iii 14, 15, . ii 404

KEW TESTAMENT.

xiii. 52, .

. iiSSO 1

^P iii. 17-iv. ;t, ii. 262, 403

xvi 16, .

. i342 J

^ iv. 4, - ii. 404

Mattukw.

xTi 25, .

. i528

iv. 6, 6, . . ii. 405

i. . . ii 77

xvii 1, 2. .

. ii 410

i 1. 18,

. ii. 192

xrii 7,

. ii. 313

i.21.

. ii208

XTiii 10, ,

. i439

i23.

. ii277

xviii. 15, ,

. ii 56

APOCRYPHA.

iii 2,

. ii282

xviii. IS, .

. ii36S

iii. 6,

. ii 465

xviii 23, .

. ii460

ESDRAS.

iv. 3-11, .

. i 377

x^-iii 35, .

. ii 66

iii IV. . . iL 'HtH

iv. 9,

. i47S

xix. 4, 5, .

. ii 38

iv. 17,

. ii 282

xix. 27. 28,

. ii 175

TODIT.

iv. 19.

. ii 408

xix. 28, .

. ii35l

xu. 12. . . i 21

V. 4,

. ii. 254

xix. 29. .

. ii358

xu. 19, . . i 547

V. 8.

ii. 388. 53H

XX. 22, »

. ii IOC

T. 16,

. i. 2(16

vxii U-14,

. ii. 281

Jin)iTH,

V. 19,

. ii. 364

xxii 14, .

. ii 273

T. 5-9. . ii. 126

V. 20,

ii. 364, 467

XX ii. 29, .

. iiSlO

Tii 20, . i. 3S4

V. 23, 24,

. ii 407

xrii 30, i

477 ; ii. 510

V. 2S,

. ii 21

xxii. 37-40,

. i3S7

! Wisdom.

V. 45, i !(

), 138 J ii 454

xxii. 39, .

. ii466

i i9, . . ii403

VL 1,

. i206

xrii 40, .

. i390

ii 12-21, , . ii 210

vi2,

. 1297

xxii. 44, .

. ii200

Ti. 20. . , ii n

vi 12, ii 342, 349. 465,

xxiii 3,

. ii364

vii. 22, . . i. 4.W

467, 522

xxiii. 26, .

. i4l7

vii 24-27, . . i 305

vi. U, . il 468

xxiv. 12, ii

16, 313, 363

▼iii. 1, i 617; ii 53

vi. 14, 15. . ii 449

xxiv. 13, .

ii 178,448

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^B

■^ INDEX

DF TEXT5. r)51 H

H' Toi^ »Q" J0H3r.

VOL. ^H

WjDriT. 15, . . ii. 183

voz..rAO]i

XV. 15-17. . ii 249 H

xxiv. 21, . . ii. 138

i 1-5.

. i42G

xvii. 28. . . i 320 ^M

Txiv. 25, . , ii- 396

i. 6-9,

. iS86

xvii 30. 31, . u. 290 H

xxiv. 29, . . ii. 396

i 9,

. i447

^^1

XXV. 24, . . ii. 407

i 14, i. 4

115.426; u. 3

BoaiANS. ^M

XXV. 30, . . il 392

i. 32.

. ii 410

i 3, ii. 186, 190,248 ^M

XXV. 33, . . ii. 449

i47. 51. .

. ii 156

i 11-13, . . ii 17 ■

XXV. 34. ii. 364, 399, 462

ii 19.

i 160 ; ii 261

i 17. . . ti401 ■

XXV. 34-41, . ii 353

iii. 6,

L 527 ; ii 467

i 19. 20. . i 316, 320 H

XIV. 34,41,46, ii 543

iii 17,

. ii 254

i 20, i. 323 ; ii. 5.39 H

XXV. 35, . . ii. 207
XXV. 40, . . ii. 207

'^ .

, i554,
. u. 553

i 21, . i 341. 383
i 21-23. . . i 320

XXV. 41, . ii- 370, 434,

V. 22.

. u. 410

i 21-25, . . ii 48 _^

450, 451, 462

V. 22-24, .

. ii. 353

23, . . i 170 fl

XXT. 45, . . ii 466

V. 25, 26, .

. ii 353

i. 26, . ii 41 ■

XXT. 46. . 1453,376.

V. 28,

. ii394

i 31. . . ii. 18 ■

414,451

V. 28, 29, .

. ii 355

ii4. . L 10 ■

xxvi 10-13, . ii 13

V. 29,

. U.413

ii 15, 16. . . ii 403 ■

xxvi. 38, .

ii IS

V. 44,

. i205

iii 2, . ii 173 H

xxvi. 39, .

ii 106

V, 40,

. ii404

iii. 4, . ii 135 H

xxvi. 03, .

. ii398

vi 50, 51,

ii. 447. 458

iii. 7, . ii 6 ^M

xxvi. 75, .

ii, 16

vi 51.

. ii. 183

iii. 20. . ii. 27 H

xxrii. 34, 43,

ii. 208

vi. 56.

. ii. 458

iii. 20-22, . . ii. 350 ■

xxviii 19,

i. 554

vi. GO-04, .

. i4l5

iii. 23, . ii 390 ^|

xxviii 20,

ii 364

vi. 70,

. U. 207

iii. 26. . . ii. 172 *

vii 39.

. ii408

iii 28, 29, . ii 196

31ABK.

viii 25,

i 415, 476

iv. 15, . ii 142 ^

i. 2. . . ii. 93

viii. 34,

. ii 324

V. 5, . . ii. 212 ■

i24,

. i. 377

viii 30, .

. ii 23

v. 12, . . ii 24 ■

iii. 5,

. U. 17

viii 44,

. 453 ; ii 320

V. 12. 19, . . ii 142 ■

iu. 27,

. ii357

X. 9. .

. i270

vi. 4. . ii. 368 ■

ix.43,4S,.

. ii 432

X. IS.

i 160, 195

Vi 9, i 499 ; ii 195 H

xi 15,

. ii. 18

vi. 12, 13.. . a 57 ■

Luke.

xi. 35,

. ii 18

vi. 13, . i 31)0; U. 60 ^M

i 27, . . ii. 192

xii. 43, .

. i. 205

vi. 22. . ii. 315 ■

133.

. ii472

xiv. 6,

i. 432 ; ii. G

L-ii 12, 13, . i 526 ■

L84,

. u. 137

xvi 13, ,

. i 476

vii 17, . ii. <U) ^H

iS: ,

. iil37

xix. 30, .

, ii. 160

viii 6. . . ii 380 H

ii 14,

. ii 14

xix. 38, .

. i 21

viii 10, . . ii. 375 •

ii. 25-30, .

. u. 172

XX. 13. .

. ii 3

viii 13, . . ii 433

u. 29. 30,

. u. 538

XX. 22,

. i551

viii. 14, . . ii. 441

iii 6,

. il. 538

xxi. 15*17,

. ii 11

viii. 15, . . ii 19

V. 10.

. ii. 408

viii 18, . . i 215

vi 13,

. ii282

tCTS.

viii 23, . ii. 16, 379

vi. 38,

. u. 437

i. 6. 7.

. ii. 288

viii 24. i650; ii307

xii.4.

. i 19

i. 7.

. u. 644

viii. 24, 25, i. 418

xii. 7.

. ii513

i 7, 3,

. ii 283

viii 28, i. 14 ; ii 284

xii. 49,

. u. 390

i 17.

. ii207

viii. 28, 29, . i 549

xvi 9,

ii. 469, 470

ii. .3. .

, ii390

viii 29, ii. 285, 505

xvi. 24,

. u. 416, 435

ii 27. 31,

. ii 174

viii 32, ii 148, 174, 529 J

xix. 10,

. ii. 185

ii. 45,

. L213

viii 37, . . ii 522 ^1

XX. 34.

u. :jO, 86

^-ii. 2,

. ii 130

ix. 2, ii. 17, 379 H

XX. 36,

. ii. 81

vii. 2, 3,

. ii. 128

ix. 5. . ii 86 ^1

xxi 18,

ii 504, 507

vii. 4,

. ii 129

ix. 7. S, . ii. 148, 150 H

xxii. 16,

. ii. 18

vii. 22,

. ii 101. 264

ix. 10 13, . . ii. 151 ^

xxiii. 34,

. ii. 253

vii. 53,

. i403

ix. 14, . . ii 346

xxiv. 27,

. u. 290

ix.4.

. ii. 193

ix. 21. . . ii 30

xxiv. 44-17, . i. 433

X. 42.

. u. 177

ix. 22,23,. , ii. 52

TTtiv. 45^7, . it 2S3

xiii 46,

. iil96

ix. 27, • ii 258 ^^j

INDEX OP TEXTS. ^1

VOL. FACK

VOL. TACR TOL pi«B fl

^1 ix. 27, 28,

. ii 278

xi. 14, . . i 86

IT. 22-31, . . iL IBS

^H ix. 2&t

. ii ]83

xi. 19. . . ii 105

iv. 25, . iiia

^m X. 3, ii. 17,

172, 256, 456

xii 12, . ii. 178, 207

iv. 26, i. 444 ; ii. 3SS

. ii203

xii. 27. . , ii. 511

V. 0, . u. 342. 4SJ

^m 13.

. ii. 83

xiii 4, . ii. 107

V. 17, i. 534 ; u. 55. 9,

■ xi. 5. .

. u. 162

xiii. 9. 10. ii. 434, 535

303,441.521

H xL 11, .

. ii. 278

xiii. 10, 12. . ii 47G

v. 19-21, . il3. 457

■ xi. ao. .

. ii 12

xiii 11, 12. . ii. 530

vi. 1, . ii 16. «

^m xl 32.

. i39;

xiii. 12, ii. 535. 538

vi. 2, . . ii. 3C

ii. 447, 45G

XV. 10. . . ii. 352

vi. 3, . . u. 172

^H XL 33,

. ii. 34<i

xvi. 21, 22, . i. 550

vi4. . . iSOl

^m xu. 1,

300; ii. 1S3

XV. 22, . . ii. 386

^H xii. 2.

. i. 391

XV. 28, ii. 48, 393, 641

£rilE5!AN8.

^H xii. 3,

. i 504

XV. 32, . . i. 544

i 4. . ii 185. 281

H xii. 30. .

. i. 391

XV. 36. . . ii 385

il8.

ii 539

^m xii 12, .

ii. 255, 284

XV. 38, . . i. 517

i. 22, 2.^

. ii 512

. u. 17

XV. 39. . . ii. 2

iv. 9. 10.

. ii. ITS

^H xiii. 10, .

. ii 459

XV. 42-45, . . i. 549

iv. 10-16,

. ii 511

^H xiii. 21, 20,

. ii. 83

XV. 44, . . ii 517

iv. 12,

. ii. 5HI

^H xiv.

. ii. 30S

XV. 46, . 11. 50

iv. Ki

■ ii505

. u. 306

XV. 46, 47. . ii 228 iv. 20,

. iL »

XV. 47-49, . i. 5.->0 V. 8,

, i477

^H 1 CORINTHIAS.S.

XV. 51, . . ii. 3S5 i v. 14,

. ii36S

^m i. 19-25, .

. i. 42:^

XV. 54, . . ii 10

V. 25.

. ii. 39

^B i. 25,

. u. 107

XV. 55, . . ii. 379

V. 28, 29,

. ii 61

■ i. 27, .

. U. 211

XV. 56. . . i. 525

vi 5,

. i3SS

^r i 30, 31, .

. ii. 450

XV. 67, . . ii. 522

vi 20,

. ii 172

i. 31,

. ii. 256

L ii. U,

i. 38, 553

2 CORINTHIAjrS.

CotossiA>». 1

H ii. 11-14. .

. ii. 7

i 12, . . i 201

i 12. . ii3S« 1

■

ii 7. 517

iii 15, 10, . . ii 188

i 13.

. «.25l

. ii IGI

iii. 18, . ii 538

i 24.

. ii 611

^B iii. 3,

. it. 7

iv. 16. . i. 552 ; ii 4

u. 8.

. i»9

^ iii. 7,

517 ; ii. 524

V. 1-4, . . ii. 4

iii 1,

. ii. 249. SOS

iii. 9, .

ii. 1 14, 328

v. 4, . . ii. 379

iii 1. 2,

. ii3GS

jii. 11*15, .

. ii 44S

V. 6, . . ii. 328

ui 1-3,

, iil74

iii. 13.

ii. 4G1, 462

V. 10, . . si. 177

iii 3,

. ii3*fi

iii. 14, 15.

. ii. 462

V. 14. 15, . . ii354

iii. 15,

. ii460

vi 7-10, . . i 457

PmuFnAxs. 1

iii 17. .

. ii 191

vi. 10. . . ii 358

i 3, . ii 17 1

iii 20,

ii. 173, 302

vi. 14, . . ii 369

i 18.

, iil05

iv. G.

. ii. MO

vii 5, . . ii 17

i23.

. ii 11

iv. 7,

. ii 176

vii8-U, . . it 15

ii7.

. ii m

iv. 9,

. ii 17

viii 9, , , ii. 174

ii8.

. ii 29

V. 12.

. ii. 366

ix. 7, . . ii. 16

ii. 12.

. ii. 12

vi 3,

. ii 352

X. 12, . . i 50<J

ii 21.

. iia85

vii. 4. .

. ii. 140

xi. 1-3, . . ii 17

Iii. 7. S,

. U.175

i vii, 25, .

. ii46g

.Ti3. i 12

iii H.

. a 17

vii 31. .

. ii. 39G

xi 14. i 397; ii 313

iii. 10.

. asm

vii 31. 32,

. ii374

xi. 29, . . ii 4;t3

iii 2(1.

. iiaos

vii. 32, .

. ii46l

xii 21, . ii 17

iv, 7,

. ii.5U

vii 33, .

. ii 461

viii. I,

. i. 370

GALATIAS.S.

1 TllKSSlALONTAirS. 1

viii 6. 6» .

. t. 380

ii. 14-20, . . ii 248

iv. 4. . ii SI I

X. 4, i

545; ii 281

iii. II, . . ii 2

iv. 13-16.

. ii%t J

X. 12, .

. ii. 368

iii. 17, . . ii 138

iv. 16.

. l499 1

i X. 17. .

u. 1S3, 44S,

ui. 19, . . i,432

iv. 17. .

. iL3M 1

468, 511

iii 27, . . i. 550

V. 5.

i. 444.479 1

X. 19, 20, .

. i345

iv. 21-31, . . ii 51

V. 14, 15. -

ii 5o 1

TXBEX or SUBJECTS.

553

1 2 TuEssAtrrstANS.

TOt. TAOR

VOL rAOK

VOL. TAGK

Tii 11-27, ,

. ii. Ib3

iii. 3-13, .

. it. 380

19, , .

il 2S8

viii 8,

. ii. 16$

iii 6,

. ii. 396

ii. MI, .

ii. 381

ix. 15,

. li. 185

iii S,

. li. :i56

ii. 8, . .

ii.371

xi 7. .
li U,

. ii. 26-1
. ii. 144

iii. 10. 11,

. ii.396

1 TiMOTnv

xi 12.

. it. 144

1 Jons.

i. 5.

ii. 44

xi 13-lG, .

. ii. 255

i 8, ii 16.

19, 379. 400

ii. 5^ L 374 ; ii.

98, 183,

xi 17-19, .

. ii. 146

u. 15,

. ii. 11

ISti.2S0

xii. 14. .

. ii. 56

ii 17,

. ii, 3fl6

ii H,

ii 24

xiii. 2,

. ii 144

ii. 18, 19,

. ii 381

iii. 1, . .

ii, 329

xiii. IG, .

. i389

ii. 19,

. ii, 362

V. S. . .

ii. 323

iii. 2.

. ii. 535

V. 20.

ii. 50

JAIitES.

iii. 8,

i. 453. 454

vi. (i-IO, .

i. 15

i. 2,

. ii 16

iii 9,

. ii. 393

vl 17-lD, .

i IG

i 17.

. i460

iii. 12,

. ii 58

ii. 13, ii. 449, 464, 409

iv. 7.

. ii. 176

2 Timothy

ii 14,

. ii. 4C0

iv. IS,

ii. 19. 455

ii. 9,

ii. 172

ii 17,

. it 342

ii. 19, ii. 2S.->, 3G!>, 441

iv. 6,

i 2. 47S ;

J IDE.

ii. 25. 20. .

ii. 452

ii. 17.% 342

ver. 14, .

. U. 264

iii. 2, . .

V. \\

iii. 7. . -

L 49

I Peter.

KKVZLATlOy.

ui. 12,

ii. 2&4

ii. 2,

. ii. 161

i. 4,

. li. 173

iii. 16,

ii. 214

ii. 9,

iu 1S3. 209

iii. 1.

. i476

iv. 1,

ii. 207

liL 4,

i. 14

iii. 14.

. i. 47C

iii. 20. 21,

. ii. 20-1

xiT. 13, .

. ii. 366

Trrcs.

iv. 5.

. ii. 207

XV. 2,

. ii. 377

i. 2. 3, . .

iS04

T. 5,

i 2, 175

XX. 1-6, .

. ii. 356

uB, . .

ii 10

v.O,

. ii342

XX. t.

XX. 9. 10^ .

. ii. 3G6
. ii. 300

HEsaEws.

2 Fetkk.

XX. 10, ii, '

:n:>. 4.';o, 4m

ii. 4,

ii. 2S.1

ii. 4, i. 477

; ii. 9.1, 450

zxt. 1,

. 11. 377

iv. 12, . .

iiSUO

li 19, i.

138 ; ii 324

xxi. 25,

. ii. 378

IT.-TNDEX OF PRINCIPAL SUBJECTS.

A^elf the relation of, to ChriAt, ii. 82,
83. See Caio.

Abraham, the era in the life of^ from
whivh a tmw sucoossiun begiDt, i
124; time of the migration of, 127,
etc.; the order and nature of Owl's
promisfs to. 129, etc. ; the three great
kingdoms existing at the time of
the birth of, 130, KJl ; the repeated
promises of the land of Cansinn
made to. and to hii aced, 131 ; hia
denial of his wife in Egypt. 132 ;
the parting of Lot and, 132, W.\ ;
the third promise <if the land to,
133 ; his victory over the kings.
l.'M ; the promise made to, of a
large posterity, 135 ; the sacritlces

offered hy, when the eovcnant was
renewed with, 136 ; the leed of , to
be in bondage 400 years, KiS ;
Sarah gives llagarto, 130; the ]n-o>
miae of a son given to, — receives the
seal of circumcision, 140 ; chango of
the name of, 143 ; visit of three
anfjels to, 144 ; bj;9 denial of hit
%-ife in Gerar, 14G ; birth of his son
Isaac, 147; his offering up of Isaao,
147 ; death of his wife Sarah, 149;
what is meant by marrying Keturah
after S.irah's death t 150 ; the time
of the fulfilment of the promise
niaile to, respcctiug Canaau, 100.
Abvss, casting SaUxi into the, ii

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

Achior, hii answer to Holofemcs'
inquiry respecting the Jem, ii. 1*26.

Adjuu forsook Gud Before God forsook
Mm, i. 535; in Paradise; his temptA.-
tionaadfaU,ii. 22,etc; nature of liis
first sio, 25 ; an evil wiM preceded
his evil act, 25, 2G ; the pride in-
volved in the ain of, S8 ; the justice
of the punishment of, 2$, etc. ; the
nakedness of, seen aiFter hia base
Bin, 32 ; the fearftil consequences of
the tin of, i. 515, 521, ii. 1, 2.

^neas, i. 94 ; time of the arrival of,
in Italy, u. 238.

^scuIanuB, the god, i. 159.

.iSaculopius, sent for to Epidaunu hy
the Komans, i. 115, 116; u delHed
man, 349.

Affections of the soul, right or wroTig
according to their direction, n. 10,
12, 15.

Africa, a fearful visitation of, by lo-
custs, i. 134.

Ages of ages, i. SOS, eta

A/tfHtff, ii, 141.

Albans, the wickedness of the war
waged by the Rouiaas ag&inat, i. 105.

Alcinius, ii. 276.

Alexander the Great, the apt reply
of a pirate to, i. HO ; and I^eo, an
Egyptian priest, — a letter of, tu
his mother Olympias, i. 313, 351 ;
invades Jadea, ii. 275.

Alexandra, queen of the Jews, ii, 276.

Alms-deeds, nf those who think that
thoy will free evil-doers from dam-
nattoD in the day of judgment, li.
449. 464,

Alter, i. 2i>8.

Alypius, ii. 485,

A mor and ctiltctio, how used in Scrip-
ture, ii. 10, etc.

Amulius and Numitor, iL 240, 241.

Anaxagoraa, i. 308; ii. 268.

Anaximander, L 307.

Anaximenes, i. 3US.

'Ancient compassions. Thine,' BWoru
unto David, ii. 195, etc

Andromache, i. 104.

Anebo, Porphyry's letter to, i.397, etc.

Angels, the holy things common to men
and, i. 347, etc. ; not mediators, 370;
the difference between the Imnw-
ledge of, and that of demons, 377 ;
the love of, which prompts them to
desire that we should worship Qi»\
alone, 392; miracles wrought by the
miuiiittry of, for the confirmation nf
the faith, 392. etc., 400, etc.; the
nuzxistry of. to fulfil the provideooe

of God, 403 ; those who
ship for thenuelvea, and thou wh*
seek honour for God, which to W
trusted about life ' «t«maJ^ 404 ;
rather to be imitated than invoked.
41 S ; the creation of, 44o, «t&;
whether those who fell partook cl
the bleasedseas of the uafallea,
450 ; were those who fell ami*
that they would fall ? 452; wm
the unfallen assured of their o«b
I>crseveranoe ? 452, 453; the sep«r»*
tion nf the unfallen from the f allea,
meant by the soparation of the UAt
from the darknees, 45S ; approMr
tion of the good, signiried by tfa*
words, ' God saw the light that B
was good,' 459 ; the knowledge \j
which they knowGod in Hiaeawnoo,
and perceive the causea of Hii
works, 473; of the opinion that tb«y
were created before the world. 476;
the two different and distimilir
communities of, 477, etc. ; the idea
that angels are meant by the aepooa-
tion of the waters by the 6rmameo^
479; the nature of good and bad, ow
and the same, 481 ; the cause of the
blessedness of the good, and of the
misery of the bad, &7; did they re-
ceive their good-will as veil aa tbcir
nature from God? 491; wh«U»r
they can be said to bo creat
any creatuies, 516 ; the opii
the Platonists that man's body
created by, 518; the wickedni
those who sinned did not
the order of God's providence, il
4C; the 'sons of God* of the Gth
chapter of Genesis not, fK2, eta;
what we are to understand by God's
speaking to, 114 ; the three, whid
appuarud to Abraham, 144 ; Lot de-
livered by, 140; the creation of, 47i

Anger of God, the, ii. 97| etc., 454.

Animals, the dispersion of those pre-
served in the ark, after the delogSi
ii. 115, etc.

Animals, rational, aro they part of
God? i 151.

Antediluvians, the louj^ life
great stature of, ii. G3, eta
different computation of the
of, given by the Hebrew and
M33. of the Old Testament,
etc. ; the o()inion of those
licvo they did not live so long
stated, considered, 6S
of puberty later among,
now ? 75, etc.

and
the

rh«a»t
atodMH

inii^^^l

INDEX OF SlTBJECTa

55S

^nticbrUt, the time of the Imst per-
secution by, hiddcTi, ii. 2S8, etc;
whether the time of the persecutaon
by, is included in the thousuid
ye«r8, 371; tbo xuauifeetatioa of,
preceding the day of the Lord, 381,
etc. ; Daniel's predictions respect-
ing the persecution caused by, 393,
etc.

Antiochus of Sjrris, ii. 275.

Antipatcr, ii. 276. 277.

AntI[K»des, the idenof, abenrd, ii. 113.

Antif^iiitios, Varro's bonk respecting
humsn and divine, i. 234, 235.

Antiquity of the world, the alleged,
i 494, etc

Antisthenes, ii. 26S.

Antithesis, i. 457.

Antoninui, quoted, i. 18.

Antony, i. 132.

Apis, andtSerapia, the alleged change
of name ; wfitithipped, ii. 222, 223.

Apooryphnl Scriptures, ii. 95.

Apollo and Diana, i. 279.

Apollo, the weeping statue of, i. 101.

Apostles, the, whence chosen, ii. 282.

Apples of Sodom, the, ii. 421.

Apnleitts, referred to, or quoted, i. 56,
137, 324 ; his book eoneeminff the
Ood of SocratiSf 326 ; his definition
of man, 329 ; what he attributes
to dumons, to whom he aicribea
no virtue, 354, 355; on the pfts-
sions which agitate demons, SCO ;
maintains that the poets wrong the
gods, 3G1 ; his dehnition of gods
and men, 362 ; the error of, in re-
spect to demons, 419, etc

Aquila, the translator, ii. 95, and
note.

Archelaos, i. 308.

Areopagus, the, iL 227.

Argos, the kings of, ii. 222, 223 ; the
fall of the kiogaom of, 233.

Argus, Kin^, ii. 223, 224.

Arifltippus, li. 24>8.

AristoWus, it. 276.

Aristotle, and Plato, i. 323.

Ark. the. of Noah« a 6gure of Christ
and of His Church, ii. 98, etc. ; and
the dclngc, the literal and alle-
gorical interpretation of, 100 ; the
capacity of, 101 ; what sort of
creatures entered, 101, 102 ; how the
crcaturea entered, 102 ; the food
required by the creatures in, lf>2,
103; whether the remotest islands
received their fauna from the ani-
mals preserved in, 115, etc.

Ark of the covenant, the, i. 407.

Art of making gods, the invention of

the, i. 343.
Asbestos, ii. 421.
.Assirrian empire, the, iL 219; close

of, 240.
Athenians, the, ii. 21D.
Athens, the founding of, and reason

of the name, iL 226.
Atlas, iL 224.
Atys, the interpretation of the mati-

lationof, L 291.292.
Andiaus, i. 470, and note.
Augury, the influence o^ L 162, 168,

169.
Augustus C.-Psar, i. 132.
Aulus Oellins, the story he relates in

the Nocle» Attica: of uie Stoic philo*

■opher in a stonn at sea, L 356, 357.
Aureliui, Biihop, iL 487.
Avcntinus, king of Latiam, deified,

ii. 240. SAl.

Babti^ok, the founding of, it III,
etc. ; meaning of the word, 112, 2G9. ■

Bacchanaliat the, ii. 232.

Baptism, the confession of Christ has
toe same efficacy as, L 527, 528,
544 ; of those who think that
Catholic, will free from damnation,
ii. 447, etc., 457, etc j other re-
ferences to, 489, 400.

Barbarian?, the, in the sack, of Rome,
spared those who had taken refuge
in Christixn churches, L 2.

"Barren, the, hath bom aoven," iL
173. 174.

Bassus, the daughter of, restored to
life by a dress from the shrine of
St. Stephen, ii. 494.

fiathananns, count of Africa, and his
magnet, ii. 430.

Beast, the, and his image, ii. 366,
367.

BeatiBc vision, the nature of, con-
sidored, ii. 534-540.

Beauty of the universe, the, i. 457.

"Beginning, in the," i. 476.

Bereoynthia, i. 52, and note.

Binding the devil, ii. 357.

Birds, the, oti'ercd by Abraham, not
to be divided, — import of this, ii.
137.

Birds, the, of Diomede, iL 234, 238.

Blessed life, the, nut to bo obtained
by the intercession of demons, bat
of Christ alone, i. 374.

Blessedness, the, of the righteous in
this life compared with that of oar
first parents in Paradise, i. 451 ; of
good angels, — its cause, 487, ote* ;

556

I>T)EX OF SUBJECTS.

the trnc, ii. 43; etem&l, the pro*
misG of, 475.

BlessiDK". the, with which the Creator
huB Hllcd thiB life, although tt is
obnoxious to the curse, ii. 62'2-5*J9.

Boastisg, ChriBtions ought to bo frco
from, i. 209.

Bodica, earthly, refutation of those
who aifirm that they cannot be
made inoorruptible and eternal,
i. 538; refutation of thoeewbo boM
that they caunot be in heavenly
places, 540, etc. ; of the saints, after
tho rcmirrertion, in what sense
Bpirituol, 540 ; the animal and
spiritual, 547-551 ; can they last for
ever in burning tiro! ii. 4I4-41S ;
against the wise men who deny
that they can be transferred to
heavenly habitations, 470 ; tho Fla-
tonistfl refuted, who argue that thev
cannot inhabit heaven, 501 ; all
blemishes shall be removed from
tho resurrection bodies, tho sob-
stance of, remaining, 57'- ; the sub-
stance of, however thor may have
been tli»integrated. sbaU in the re-
Burrcction be rcnnited, 515 ; the
opinion of Porphyry, that souls
must bo wholly released from, in
order to bo hajipy, exploded by
PJato, 531.

Body, the, sanctity of, not polluted by
the violence done to it by another's
lust, i. 26, 27 ; the Platonic and
Mauich.van idea of, ii. 8, etc.; tho
now spiritual, 516 ; obviously meant
to be the habitation of a reasonable
soul, 52ti.

Body, tho, oF Christ, against those
who think that the participation
of, will nave from damnation, ii.
447, 443.

Body of Christ, the Church the,
ii. 611.

Books opfned, the, ii 374.

Bread, they that were full of, — who?
ii. 173.

Breathing, the, flf God, when man
WAS made a linng snul, distin-
guished from thu brtratbiiigof Christ
on His dJiaciplcn, i. 551.

Brutus, Junius, his unjust treatment
of Tarquiniua Collatinufl, i. 68, ill,
] 12 ; kills his own son, 210.

Uull, the sacred, of Egypt, ii. 223.

Burial, tbe denial of, to Christians,
no hurt to them, i. 19 ; the reason
of. in tho caso of Chriatiam, 20, etc

Busiri?, ii. IIJO.

CjsaaR. AngnatiM, i. 132.

CflMar, Julias, the atatcmoit of, it-
Bpecting an enemy when iw^aa(
a city, i. 7> etc. ; claims to bt
descended from Venus, 94; ua^
sination of, 132.

Cain, and Abel, belonged luapouti'Jf
to the two cities, the earthly nd
the heavenly, ii. 50 ; the fratricidil
act of tho former corrvapondinff witk
the crime of the foanaer of Bmdc,
54, etc.; cause of the crime if.—
God's e.\p05talation with, — exposi-
tion of the vicionsnesa of his ofler-
ing, 57-GI ; his reason for bnildiif
a city so early in the history of the
human race, 61, etc. ; and Scth, the
heads of the two cities, the earthJj
and heavenly, 81 ; why tfae liai
of, terminates in the eighth gene*
ration from Adam, 84 -89 ; why tibt
genealogy of, is continoed to ti^
deluge, while after the mention d
£uos tho narratire retonu to tlM
creation, S9, etc.

Cakas {kKxit), the giant, iu 317.

Caniillus, Fiirius, the vite trestni«£t
of, by tbe Romans, i. 68, 115, 311.

Canaan, the land of, the time of th«
fullilTncnt of God's promise of, to
Abraham, ii. lUti.

(-'anaan, and Noah, ii. 106.

Cnudelabrum, a particular, in atcmrlt
of Venus, ii. 423, 424.

Cannm, tbe battle of. i. 121.

Canon, the eiudcsiastical, haaexcladeil
certain ^vritings, on account of their
great antiquity, ii. 204, 2f»5.

Canonical Si.ripture», the, i. 4.18, il
2G3 ; the oaeurd of, in coutrsst
with the discordance of philetih
phical opinion, 267, 268.

Cappadocia, the mares of, ii. 422.

Captivity of the Jews, the, the end of*
II. 240.

Captivity, the, of the uinta^ coniolir
tinn in, i. 22.

Carnil life, thf, ii. Z etc

Carthaj^inians, tlie, their treatment ci
Rcgttlas, i. 23.

Cataline, i. 80.

Catholic truth, the, confirmed byt^e
dissensions of heretics, ii. 283-2s^

Cato, what are we to think of his ecu-
duct in committing Buicide! i-.'U,
rTcellcd by Uepihia, 35 ; hisvirtoc
202 ; was his vaicide lortitttile or
weakness ? ii. 305.

Catoens. tbe cook. ii. 492.

Cecrops, ii. 224, 220.

IXDEX OF SUBJl

557

erea, i. 279 ; the rites of, 2S3.
ajremon, cited by Forpbyry in re-
latioti to the myateriea of laia and
Oairu, L 399.
CbaldiEAD, a certain, quoted by Por-
phyry as complaiuinf; of the ob-
atacles expenonced from, another
man's itifiueiic« with tho gods to
Itu efforts at self-puiilicattou, i. 395,
391).
Charcoft], the peculiar properties of,

ii. 418.
Chariuta, the, oC God, ii. 389.
Charity, the efficacy of, ii. 4tiG.
CUickena, the sacred, aad the treaty

of Numantia, i. 124.
Children of the flesh, and children of
I promise, ii. 51.

'' Chiliosta, the, ii. 357.
I Chriftt, the presorviiig power of the
^_ naiue of, m the sack of Kome, i.
^K 2, etc., 9, etc. ; the myitory of the
^V rcdLniption of, at no paat time
' awantiDg, but declared in various

forms, 299, etc. ; the incarnation
of, 414 ; faith in the iQcarnation of,
alone iustifiea, 41(i; the true Wia-
^_ dom, but Porphyry fails to recog-
^m nine, 422, 423 ; tbo Platonists blnsb
^H tn acknowledge the iucariiation of,
^H 423, etc. ; tbe grace of, opcna a way
^H for the sours deliverance, '13U, etc. ;
^H tbe knowledge of God attained only
^P thrtaigh, 437, etc. ; prtssessed true
^^ human emolious, ii. 17, etc. ; the
paaaion of, typified by Noah's
nakedness, 1(KJ ; described in tbe
40th Psalm, 201-204 ; tbeprieslhii04^l
and poasion of, described in the llOth
and 122d Paaltus, 2(H ; the resur-
rection of, predicted in the Paalma,
205 ; the passion of, foretold in the
Book of Wisdom, 2(Hl ; the birth of,
277 ; tho birth and death of, 29U,
291 ; Porphyry's account of the re-
I aponses of the oracles respecting,

334, etc. ; the world to be judg^tl
i by, 40C, etc. ; the one Son of <iod

' by nature, 441 ; the Pouodatiun,

4U0 ; the worM's belief in» the re-
auU of divine power, 4S3 ; the mea-
flurc of tho stature of, 503 } tho
Ferfeot Man, and His Body, 511 ;
the body of, after His rcaurrection,
514 ; the grace of, alone delivers us
from the miserj' caused by the first
no, 520, 521.
Christian faith, the certainty of, is, 32M.
Christian religion, the, be Uth -giving,
i. S8 ; alone, revealed tbe malignity

of evil spirits, .'^(JO ; tbe leneth it is
to last fooliiibly and lyiogly lixed
by the heathen, ii. 289-292.

Christianity, the calamtties of Kome
attributed to, by the heathen, i. 23,
50, 51 ; the effrontery of auch au
imputation to, 132.

Christians} why they are permitted to
sufTer evils from their oncmies, i.
39 ; tho reply of, to thoM who
reproach them with snfl'eriug, 41 ;
ought to be far from boasting, 209 :
the God whom they serve, the true
Uod, to whom alone sacrifice ought
to be offered, ii. 333, etc.

Chronology, the enormously lon^r, of
htalheu writers, i. 494, 495, 4dG ;
the discrepancy in that of the
Hebrew and otber m.ss. in rcUtion
to tho lives of the antediluvian?,
ii. G5, etc.

Churvh, the aoiia of the, often bidden
among tho wicked, and false Chris-
tiana within tbe, i. 4Q ; tbe in-
discriminate increase of, ii. 281, 282,
2S3 ; the endless glory of, 377, etc. ;
tbe body vf Christ, 511, etc.

Cicero, his opinion of the Roman re-
public, i. 74 ; on tho miseries of
this life, 302 ; bis definition of a
repubtic, — was there ever a Koman
ropublii: answering to it ? 330, IWl ;
variously quoted, 57, 58, G2, C3, S7,
1«9, 117, 129, 1G5, 170, 171, 173,
2U5. 25D. 511, ii. 48U, 4S2.

CincinnatuB, Qkiintus, i. 213.

Circe, ii. 235, 237.

Circumcision, iastitutrd, li. 141 ; tbe
punishment of tbe male who had
not received, 141, 142.

City, the celestial, i. 207.

City of God, the, i. 418 ; the origin
of, and of the opposing cit}', 43G ;
nature of, and of the earthly, ii. 47 ;
Al>cl the founder of, and Cain of
tbe earthly, 50 ; the citizens of, and
of the earthly, 51 ; the weakness of
the citizens of, during their earthly
pilgrimage, 50 ; and the earthly,
compared and contraatod, 292 :
what prod uccs peace, and what
discord, between, and the earthly,
320, etc. ; the eternal felicity of,
540-545.

Claudian, tbe poet, qvioted, i. 225.

Ccflcatia, i. 52, and note ; the mys-
teries of, 80.

CoUatinus. TarquiDiua, the vile treat-
ment of, by Jonius Brutus, i
111, etc

558

INDEX OF SUBJECTS,

CoDCord* the temple of, erected, i.

126 ; the wan vhich followed the

Imildiiig of, 1 28, etc.
Confetiioa of Christ, tho efficacy of,

far the rauiuion of aaiu, i. 527-
Coafl^ration of the world, the, ii.

377 : where shall tlie saiati be

during? 3S0.
CoafuBion of tongues, the, ii. 11 1, etc ;

God's coming down to cause, 113,

etc.
Conjagal union, the, as instituted and

bleaeed by God, ii. 38.
Constantine,i. 219, etc.; the protperity

granted to, by God, 223, etc
CoDKuls, the fint lloznan, their fate,

ii. Ill, etc
Corn, the gods which were sappoaed

to prcaido over, at the Tariooi stages

of its growth, gathering in, etc., L

144.
Creation, i. 430, 443 ; the reascm and

cause of, 461, 44i2; the beauty ontl

goodness of, ii. 258.
Creation, the, of an^Is, i. 445 ; of the

human race in time, 500 ; of both

angels and men, ii. 472, etc.
Creator, the, ia distinguished from His

works by piety, i. 297i etc. ; aiu had

not its origin in, 45ti.
Creatures, the, to be estimated by

their utility, i. 465.
CumH:an Sibyl, the. i. 421.
Ctiriatu and Horatii, the, i. 105.
Curtius leaps into the gulf in tho

Forum, i. 211.
CurubiB, a comedian, miraouIonBly

healed, ii. 490.
Cybcle, L 52, 53 ; the priests of, 56.
Qrcles of time maintained by some,
. \ 498, 505, etc., 611, 513.
Cynics, the fooliah beastliness of

the, ii 30; further referred to, 297.
CynocophaluB, i. 05,

Damned, the punishment of the, ii.
432.

DuttOpii 232.

Darkness, the, when tho Lord was
crucified, i. 108, 109.

David, the promiso made to, in his
Son; Nathan's measage to, ii. 189,
etc., 193, etc.; God's "aucieotcom-
pasaiona " sworn to, 195, etc., 198;
his concum iu writing tho Psalms,
199; hia reign and merit, 209.

Day, the seventh, the meaning of
God's resting on, i. 444.

Days, the first, i. 443.

Dsys, lucky and unlucky, i. 186, 1S7.

" Days of the tree of life," the, ii
Dead, the, given up to judgnM

the sea, death, and hell, ii. 375;
Dead, prayers for the, ii. 453,
Dead men, the reli^oxk of the pa^Ms

has refereaoe to, x. 347.
Death, caased by the fsjl of SMa, i.
521 ; that which can affect aa m-
mortal soul, and that to whick ti*
body is subject, 521, o22 ; is it tW
pomsbment of sin, even in cais d
the good? 522-524 ; why, if it is the

Eunishment of sin, ia it not wibb-
eld from the regenerate? 534;
although an evil, yet made a good
to the ^ood, 525 ; tbe evil of. as the
separation of soul and body, SSi;
that which the unbaptised anflier^r
the confession of Christ, 527, etc.;
the saints, by suiTering the tint, art
freed from the second, 528 ; tbe
moment of, when it actually oocsn,
528, 529 ; the life which mortals
claim may be fitly called, 529, 530:
whether one con be living and yt<
in the state of, at the same tinr.
531 ; what kiod of, involred in tbu
threateniogs addrc«8cd to our &it
parents, 533 ; concerning those plu-
loaophen who think it is not paaal,
536; the second, iL 343, etc

Death, when it may be inflicted with-
out committing murder, t 32.

Deborah, ii. 2;i3.

*' Debts, forgive us oar," ii. 467, 4CS.

Decii, the, ii. 212.

Deliverance, the way of the aonT^
which grace throws open, L 490i

Denuenetna, ii. 235.

Demon of Socrates, tbe, Apvletru on,
i. 326, 327-

Demoniacal powessions, ii 303.

Demonolatry, illicit acta oonneeted
with, L 394.

Demons, the Ticissitndea of lif* oot
dependent on, i. 79; look after tbsir
own ends only, 82 ; indte to criBi«
by the pretence of divine authority.
83; give certain obscure iustmatiaoi
in morals, while their own sidcm*
nities publicly inculcate wicked-
ness, 85, etc. ; what they are, 32S;
not l>etter than men becaoie of thur
having aerial hodies, 327, etc; whit
Apnleins thought concerning the
manners and actions of, 329, ttc;
is it proper to worship? 331, etc.;
ought the advocacy of, with the
gods, to bo employed ? 33^ 331 ;
are the good gods more williogto

INDEX OF srnjEcrs.

559

hare intorcourso witb» thaa with
men? 335 ; do the gotU uso them
■B mencngerB, or ioterprct«ra, or
mn they deceived by ? 335, etc. ;
we must reject tho worabipof, 338 ;
are there any good, to whom the
gaardiaiuhip oC the soul may be
committed? 354; what Apuleiiia
attributes to, :io4, 355; the pauious
which antate, 360; does the inter-
ceuion oT, obtain for men the favour
of the celestial gode! 303 ; men,
according to I'lutlnuA, less wretched
than, 364 ; the opinion of the Plato-
Dists that the soula of men become,
3(»5; the three opijositc qualitiea by
which tlie PlatouAta distinguiah be-
tween the nature of man, and that
of, 365, 360; how can they mediate
between gods and men, having
nothing in common with either 1
.%G; the Platoniat idea of the ne-
ceaaity of the mediation of, 371 ;
uieao, by their icterceesion, to tnro
man from the path of tmth, 375 ;
the name has never a good aigniti-
catioD, 37i'» ; the kind of knowledge
which puffa up the, 370 ; to what
extent the Lord was pleased tn make
Himself known to, 376, 377 ; the
diifereucc between the kuuwleil^^o
possessed by, and that of the holy
angels, 377; ilie j)'»wer delegated U>,
lor the trial of the saiuta, 41 1 ; where
the aiuDta obtain power against, 41'2;
seek to bo worshipped, 410; error
of Apuleius in reganl to, 4L9, etc, ;
strange transformations of men, said
to have been wrought by, ii 235,
23S; the friendship of good angels
in this life, reu'lered insecure by
the deception of, 313, etc.

Demons, varioaa other references to,
i. 174, 222, 223, 2S1, 288, 301, 302,
303, 304, 305, 312, 32C, 327, 345,
.170, 411, 420, ii. 223, 2S9. 347.

" lies i red One, the," of all nations^
ii. 275.

jDeocahon's flood, ii. 228.

Devil, the, how ho abode not in the
truth, i. 454 ; how is it said that
he sinned from the beginning ? 454,
455 ; the reason of the fall of (the
wicked angel), ii. 46, 47 ; stirs up
perseoatioo, SS4; the nature of, na
nature, not evil, 320, 321 ; the bind-
ing of, 357 ; cast into the abysa,
358 ; seducing the nations, 359 ; the
binding and loosing of, 360, etc. ;
atirs up Gog and Magog against the

Church, 36d, etc. ; the damnat^mi:
of, 373; of those who deny the
eternal pnnishment of, 450.

Devi], a yooiig man freed from a, at
the monument of I'rotaaiua and
Gervasina, ii. 491 ; a young woman
freed from a, by anointing, 492.

I>c\-il8, marvels wrought by, ii. 424.

Diamond, the, the peculiar properties
of, ii. 419.

Diana, and Apollo, i. 279.

Dictator, the tirat, L U6.

Diomode and his companions, who
were changed into birds, ii. 234, 238.

Dis, i. 279, 288, 296.

Discord, why not a goddess as well
as Concord? i 127.

Divination, i. 302.

Doctor, a gouty, of Carthage, luira-
culously healed, ii. 4S9.

Duration and space, infinite, not to be
comprehended, i 44!.

Kabth, the, affirmed by Varro to bo

a goddess, — reason of bis opinion,

•' Earth, in the midst of the," ii 176,
177, 178.

Earth, holy, from Jerusalem, the effi-
cacy of, li. 490, 491.

Ecclcsiasticua and Wisdom, the Books
of, ii. 209.

Eclipses, i. lOS, 109.

Education, the divine, of mankind,
i. 402.

Egcria, the nymph, and Numa, i. 303.

Egypt, a fig-tree of a peculiar kind
found in, ij. 421.

Egyptians, the mendacity of, in Ascrib-
ing an extravagant antiquity to
their science, ii. 266, 267.

Kleusinian rites of Ceres, the, i. 2S3.

Eleven, the 6igni6cance of the num-
ber, ii. 88.

Eli, the message of the man of God
to, ii. 179-183.

Elias, the coming of, before the judg-
mout, ii. 40.'j.

Elieha and Oehazi, ii. 636, 537.

Emotions, mental, opinions of the
Peripatetics and Stoics respecting,
i. 355, 356.

Emotions and a0ectioot, good and
bad, ii. 10. 12, 15.

Emperors, the Christian, the happiness
of, i. 222, etc.

Empire, a great, acquired by war, —
is it to be reckoned among good
things t i. 133; should good men wish
to rule an extensive? 152, 153, 154.

iGO

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

Empire, the Xtgnion. >Sce Romiui

Kni|>ir«.
Eneuiiea of God, the. aro not so by

nature, but by will, i. 'IM.
EnliKhtcnm«:it from above, Plotinus

respecting, i. 385.
Fnooh, the seventh from Adam, tbo

AigniBcauce of the traDsUtion of,

84 ; left ftomo divine writings, 06.
Knoch, tha son of Cain, ii. Si.
Ditni, the son of Soth, iL 81 ; a type

of Christ, 8-2-84.
Eutity, none contrary to the divine,

i. 4S3.
Kpicttitui, qaoted on mental emotionii,

i. 3o7.
Ericthonias, ii. 2l>i>.
KrrnrH, tlie, of the hnman jaderment,

when the truth is hidden, ii. 209, etc.
Erythraean Sibyl, the, her predictions

of Christ, ii. 242.
Eaaa and Jacob, tho di^Atmtlarity nf

the chara':tcr and actions of, i. 182 ;

the things mystically preligurcd by,

ii. 153, etc.
Bsdnu and Maccabees, tho Boolca of,

ii. 2ti2.
Eternal life, the gift of God, i. 257 ;

tho prouiisc of, uttered before

eternal tiniei*. MM.
£t'>mal panirihrnent, ii. 433. Sef.

Vunishment.
Eucliarius, a Spanish bishop, cured of

atone by the relici of 8t. Stephen,

ii. 49.^.
EwitmonA, i, 3Gd, 30$.
llvri^Kc, i. :^S4.
Kvi), no natural, i. 4G1.
Evil will, a, no cflicient canse of, i

4'.H>.
Existence, and knowledge of it, and

love of both, i. 4f»9, etc., 471, etc.
Eye, the, of the reaurrectiou body, the

power of, ii. 537.

Fables invented by tbo heathen in
the times of the judges of laraol,
ii. 231.

Fabricina and Pyrrhus, i. 213.

Fftith, justificatiuQ by, i. 41C, etc.

Faith and Virtue, honoured by the
Komnns with templea, i. 156, 157-

Fall of man, the, and its results, fore*
known by GoJ, i. 514; mortality
contracted by, 521 ; tho second
death results from. ii. 1 ; the nature
of, 22, etc., 25, etc.

Fate, j. 178 ; the name misapplied
by some when they use it of tho
divine will, ISO.

Fathers, the two, of the tvo cities,
sprung from one progenitor, it SI.

Fear and Drea<I, mode gods, i Itil.

Febcity, the gift of God, u 237 ; Ike
eternal, of the city of Cod, it. MO-
545.

Felicity, the goddeu of. t 1S5 ; tk
Romans ougnt to have been ooatafc
with Virtue and, ir>7, 158; for a
long time not wurshipped by fta
Komona; her deserts, ftil, 163^ 163.

Fever, worahii){>ed as m deity, i. 65
and note, 102.

Fig-tree, a siogular, of Egypt, ii 431.

Fiuibria, the destruction of Jlicua br,
i. DC. 97.

Fire, the pecalior propertiea of, ii.
418.

Fire, the, whirlwind, and the sworJ,
ii. 380.

Fire, saved ao aa by, ii. 400.

Fire, the, which cornea down frm
heaven to consume the owwwi— of
the holy city, ii. 370.

Fire, the, and the worm that dietb not
ii. 433 ; of hell, — ia it material ? aitd
if it be so, can it bum wickeJ
spirita ? 434, etc

First man {oar lirat parents), the,
tho plenitude of tb« human ran
contained in, i. 510 ; the fall oL
521 ; what was the first punishnwnt
of ? 534 ; the state in which hems
made, ontl that into which be fell,
534, 535 ; forsook God, before God
forsook him, 535 ; eifccts of tha sin
of, — the second death, iL 1, tic;
was ho, before the fall, free fraa
l>crturbAtions of aoul * 20 ; tJ«
temptation and fall of, 22-23 ; aa*
ture of the tirat ain of, 25 ; the ph<1e
of the sin of, 23; jnatice of ths
f>an]ahment of, 28-31 ; the nakedac*
of, 32 ; the transgression of, di<l
not abolish the l»1essing of fecsad-
ity, 37 ; begat offspring in ParadiM
without bloabiag, 44-40.

First parents, our. .SVr First Ua*.

First priuciplca of all things, the, s^
cording to the ancient philosopbr,
i. 313.

First sin, tho nature of the, ii. 23^

Ftaccianus, ii. 242.

Flesh, the, of bvlieven, the rs■a^
rection of, i 544 ; the world lil
large believes in the rcsurreetioa of
[a^, Ueaurrection], ii. 477 ; of a Ataii
man, which has become the deib f^'
a living man, — whijsti ahaii it be u
tho resurrection? 515.

INDEX OF SUDJECTS.

561

Flesh, liviDg after the, ii. 2, etc., 4,
etc., 6, etc.; children of the, and of
the proiiiise, At.

Florentios, the tailor, how he prayed
for a ccat, and Rot it, ii. 402.

Foreknnwleflgc, the, of OoJ, and the
free-will of man, i. 190, etc.

Forgireaess of debts, prayed for, ii.
467,468.

Fortitude, ii. 304, ."JOS.

Fortune, the goddess of. i. 155, 2G3.

Foundation, the, the opiuion of those
who think that even depraved Ca-
tholics will be saved frum damna-
tion on account of, considered, ii.
448, etc., 460, etc. ; who haa Christ
for? 460, 4iJl.

Fountain, the singular, of the Gara-
uiant.f, ii. 421.

Free-will of man. the, and the fore-
knowledge of God, i. Iflo, etc.

Free-will, m tho stato of perfect feli-
city, ii. 542.

Fricndahip, the. of {^ood men, anxie-
tiea connected with, ii. 311 ; of
good an^lfl, rendered insecure by
the deceit of demons, 313, etc.

Fruit, i. 467.

Fuffttliat the, i. 54, 55.

Fnmace, a'smoking, and a lamp of fire
passing between tho pieces of Abra-
iiaiu'ft sacrifice, the import of, ii.
139.

G.^LLi, the, i. 50, and note, 289, 2(M>.

Games, restored in Konie during the
^t Punic war, i. 1 18.

Ganymede, ii. 232.

Garamantie, the aingatiir fonnttun of
the. ii. 421.

Ganls, the, Rome invaded by, i. 115,
UG.

Oehazi and Eliaha, ii. 536, 537.

Generation, would there have been.
in Paradise if man had not sinned ?
ii. 39, etc., 41, etc.

Genius, and Saturn, both shown to be
really Jupiter, i. 275, etc.

Giants, the ofTspring of the eons of
God and daughters of men, — and
other, ii. 03, etc., 96.

Glory, the difference between, and the
dealra of dominion, i. 215; ahn.meful
to make the virtues serve human,
217; the, of the latter hoase, ii. 280,
281; the endless, of the Church, 377,
etc.

God, the Tieismtndea of life depen-
dent on tho will of. i. 79, etc. ; not
tho soul of the world, 151; rational

VOL. rr.

animals not parts of, 1 o), 152 : the
ONE, to be worshipped, although His
name is unknown, tho giver of
felicity, 164, 165 ; the times of
kings and kingdoms ordered by,
175; the kin^om of the Jews
founded by, 175 ; the foreknowledge ^
of, and the free-will of man, 190,etc;
the providence of, 198, etc., 403;
all the glory of the righteous is in,
205; what Uc gives to the followers
of truth to enjoy alxive His gcnoral
boonties, 199; the worehip m'j :j8:^.
334, 386 : tho sacTiticea duo to llmi
only. 387, etc.; tho sacriitccs not
rotjuired, but enjoined by, for the
exhibition of truth, 3SS ; tho trae
and perfect sacriticc duo to, 300,
etc.; invisible, yet has often mode
Himself visible, 401, etc. ; oar depen-
dence for temporal good, 4(V2; angeU
fullil the providence of, 40.'i, 4k)4;
sin had not its origin in, 4.~)7 ; the
eternal knowledge, will, and design^
of, 459, etc. ; has He been always
sovereign Lord, and has Ue always ^
had creatures over whom Ho exer-
cised His sovereignty? 501, etc.;
His promise of eternal life uttered
before eternal times, 504; the nn-
changeable counsel and will of, dc-*^
fcndfcd against objections, 505 ;
rufutation of the opinion that His
knowledge cnnnot comprehend
things iniinite, 507; the fall of man^
foreknown by, 514; the Creator of
every kind of creature, 516; the
providence of, not disturbed by the
wickedneas of angels or of men. ii.
46; the anger of, 97, etc., 45-1; the
coming down of, to cunfound tho
language uf tho builders of Babel,
113, etc. ; whether the, of the Chris-
tians is the true, to whom alnno
sacrifice ou^-ht to be paid, 3."3,
etc. ; the will of, unchangeable and ^
eternal, 474.
Gods, the, cities never spared on
account of, i. 3, etc. ; folly of the
Romans in trusting, 4, etc. ; the wor-
shippers of, never received healthy
precepts from, — tho impurity of
the worship of, 51 ; obscenities prac-
tised in honour of the Mother of thf,
53; never inculcated holiness of life,
55; the shameful actions of, as dis-
played in theatrical exhibitions, 57;
the reason why they sn ffered false or
real crimes to be attributed to them,
59 i the Itomana showed a more

2 N

562

IKDEX OF SUBJECTS,

delicate regard for themulves tlian
for the, 61 ; the Romaca ebouM have
coiuidcrtid those who desired to be
worshippod in a licentious manner
H anwurtby of being boDOured as,
63 ; Plato better than, 63; if they
had any regard fur Home, the
Romans HhouTd have received good
lawa from them, tM'r, took no means
to prevent the reimblic from being
mined by immorality, 77, etc.; the
Ticiasitudes of life not dependent on.
79, oto. ; incite to evil aotionaf 83,
etc. ; give secret and ubecure iuatruc-
tions in morals, white their solcm-
aities publicly incite to wiukednes>r,
85; the obscenitiGR nf the pUya con-
•eoratod to, contributed to over*
throw the republic, 37 ; the evds
which alone toe pagans feared, not
averted by, 01, etc. ; were they jus-
tified in permitting the destruotion
of Troy? 02; could not be offended
at the adultery of Paris, the crime
beinp HO coiumon nuiDU|i! theuisclv* s,
93; Varro'a opinion of the utility
of men feigning themselves tu bv
the ofTs^iug of, 94 ; not likely thvy
were oneuded at the adultery of
Paris, as they were not at tho
adultery of the mother of Komulus,
94 ; exacted no penalty for the
fratricidai conduct of Romnlue, DS;
is it credible that the peace of
Noma's reign was owing to ? 9S ;
new, introduced by ^uma, 101;
the Romann added many to those
of Nuraa, 102; Rome not defended
by, 1 14, oti*. ; whirh of the, can the
Romans supposo presided over the
rise and weuoro of the empire 1 1 43,
etc. ; the silly and absurd mnltipli-
cation of, for places and things, 144;
diven set over divers parts of the
woHd, 146 ; the many, who are
asserted by pagan doctors to be the
one Jove, 148, etc.; the knowledge
and worship of the, ivhich Yarro
^dories in having conferred on the
Bomans, 150; tho reasons by which
the pagans defended their worsbip-
ping the divine gifta themselves
among the, 163, etc.; the soeikio
plays which they have exacted from
their worshippers, I6S ; the three
kinds of, discovered by Scievola,
166| etc. ; whether the worship of,
baa been of service to the Romans,
168; what their womliipners have
owned they have thoaght aboat,

170 ; the opinions of Varro aboat,
17'2; of those who profess to wwvhip
them on account of eternal advaa-
tages, 229, Mc. ; Varro's tbov^ti
abontthe, of the nationa, 233^ atft;
the worshippers of, refund baaia
things more than divine, 239, eia;
Varro's distribution of, into faba*
Ions, natnral. and civil, £38, etc;
tho mythical and civil, 240; Datnral
cxplaaationa of, 24C, etc. ; the vpa^
cial offices of, 24K ; those praaiduig
over the marriage chamber, 249, SROi
the popular worship of, vebamently
censured by Seneca, 252-2M ; kd>
able to bestow eternal life, 29C, 257;
tbe select, 2.'i8, 259; no reason can be
assigned for forming the aeleot olas
of, 260 ; those which preside oror
births, 2C0 ; the inferior and ^
select compared, ^^li th« aeersl
doctrine of the pagans coaeeraiqg
the physical interpretatioa (tf, 3G( ;
Varro prononnces his own opuucaa
conccruiug, uncertain, 280^ 281 ;
Varro's doctrine oonceming, not self*
consistent, 295, eta ; distmgaiabed
from men and demons, 326; do tbey
use the demons as meaaeDgers t XSB;
Hermes lamenta the error of hit
forefathers in inventing the art of
makin;;, 343 ; scarcely any of, who
were not dead men, 'M^ - the Hi-
tonists maintain that the poets
wrong the, 361 ; Apol*iua' Me£m*
tion of, 363 ; does the intereesasa
of demons secure the favour of, for
men ? 363; according to tho Pl^o-
nista, they decline interoouive with
men, 371, etc.; tho name falsely
given to those of the nations, yet
given in Scripture to angels sad
men, 37S, etc.; threats em^(^ed to-
wards, 390 ; philo80|iher8 assigned
to each of, different fonotiona, it
327.

Gods, the mnUttudes of, for every
place and thinp, i. 144, etc, 168^
159, 248. 249. 269, 260.

Gods, the invention of the art of
m&kinc, i. 343.

Gog and Magog, ii. 3G9.

Good, BO D^nre in which there is not
some, ii. 330.

Good, the chief, ii. ^8 ; rariooj
opinions of the philoeophersresrect-
ing, '293 ; the three leading vw«8
of, which to be chooeo, 2^, els. |
the Christian view of, 301, eiis.

Good men, and wicked, the adraft-

Index of sttbjects.

563

tagM &&d diflftdvantAces inditcrimi- I

nately occurring to, l 10 ; reaaooa |

for ftdmixustcring correction to both |

together^ 11, etc. ; what Solomon

ssyi of thiogB happeniiig alike to

both, MS.
Goods, the loss of, no lose to the

aaintt, i. 14, etc.
Goepel, the, made more famone by

tbesnfiferiDgnof itsprcachers, ii. 282.
Gracchi, the civil dissensioDS oooa-

flioned by, i. ild.
Grace of God, the, the opention of,

is relation to beUevcni, iu 441 ;

pcrtftina to cverj' epoch of life, 4-1- ;

delivers from the miwries oceuioned

by the first sin, 520, 521.
Great Mother, the. the abominable

sacred rites of, i. 202, 293.
Greeks, the conduct of the, on the

sack of Troy, i. li, 7.

Habakkttk, the proi^iecy and prayer

of, ii. 252.
Uagir, the relation of, to Sarah and

Abraham, ii. 130.
Uaggai's prophecy respectinj; the glory

o! the fatter house, li. 2S0, 2SI.
Harlrian yteUla up fKirtinnfl of the

Koman emiiirr, i. H>9, 170.
Ham, the conduct of, towards his

father, ii. 105 ; the SDns of, 100.
Hannah's prophetic song, an exposition

of, ii. 170-179.
Hannibal, hia invasion of Italy, and

victories over the Romann.i. 120;hifl

destruction of Sagtintum, 121. 122.
Happiness, the gift of God, i. 257 ; of

the saints in Uie future life, ii 314,

:il5.
Happiness, the, desired by those who

reject the Christian religion, 1 72, etc.
Happy man, the, deacnbod by con-
trast, i. 138.
Heaven, God ahall call to, ii. 398.
Hebrew Bible, the, and the Septusgint,

— which to be fnllowed in computing

the years of the antedilavians, ii 70,

etc.
Hebrew language, the original, ii, 121,

etc. ; written character of, 265, 2CC.
Hebrews, the Epi&tle to the, ii 135.
Hecate, thtj reply of, when questioned

respecting Christ, ii 335,
Heifer, goat, and ram, three years

old, in Abraham's sacrifice, — the

import of, ii, I3C, 137.
Hell, ii. 432 ; is the tire of. material ?

and if so, can it bum wicked spirits ?

Herouleit, ii. 225, 230 ; the story of
the sacristan of, i 244.

Here, i 4U.

Heretics, the Catholic faith confirmed
by the dissensions of. ii 2S3, 284.

Hermes, the god, i. 349.

Hermes Trismegistns, respecting ido-
latry and the abolition of the super-
stitions of the Egyptians, i. 339.
etc. ; openly confesses the error of
his forefathers, the destruction of
which he yet deplores, 342, etc,

Herod, ii 277 ; a persecutor, 287.

Heroes of the Church, the, ii. 411.

Hesperins, miractdoaaly delivered
from evil spirits, ii 490.

Hippocrates quoted in relation tn
twins, i. 179.

Histriones, i. B,3, note.

Holofemes, his inquiry respecting
the Israelites, and Achior's answer,
ii 126.

Holy Ghost, the. i. 553.

Homer, quoted, i. 02, ISO.

Hope, the inHuencQ of, ii 307 ; the
saints DOW blessed in, 330.

Horace, quoted, i. 5, 264.

Uoratii and Curiatii, the, i 105, 106.

Hortenaius, the first dictator, i. 116.

Hosea. hi9 prophecies respecting the
things of the gospel, ii. 247-249.

Hnman race, the, the creation of, in
time, i. 500 ; created at first in one
individual, .'>13, 514 ; the plenitnde
of, contained in the first man, 519.

Kydromancy, i. 302.

Hyrcanos, ii. 27G.

luuv. modem, destroyed by Fimbria,
i. 9ti, 97.

Image of the beast, the, ii. 3fi6, 3fi7.

Image of Gwl, the human soul created
in the, i 51.5.

Images of the gods, not nsed by the
ancient Romans, i. 173.

Imitation of the gods, i. 50.

Immortality, thei>ortion of man, had
he not sinned, i. 521, 542, etc.

Incarnation of Christ, the, i. 414, ii
277 i faith in, alone justifies, 416,
etc. ; the Platonists, in their im-
piety, blosh to acknowledge, 423,
etc.

Innocentia, of Carthage, miracnloosly
cured of cancer, ii. 4S8, 489.

Tnnocentius, of Carthage, miraculously
cured of fistala, ii 485-488.

Tno, ii. 233.

Intercession of the saint?, — of thoso
who think that, ou account of, no

564

INt»EX OF SUBJECTS.

man shall be daiuneil ui tbo lut
juilgment, iL 445. etc., 4jI, etc,
lo, daughter of, ii. 221.

Ionic school nf philosophy, the founder
oC the, i. 307.

Irennaa, a tax-gatherer, the son of,
restored to life by meima of tho oil
of St. Stephen, ii. 494.

Isaac, and Ishnubel, ii. 52 ; a type, £3 ;
the birth of, and import of hts
name, 140, 147 ; the otTerin;; up of,
148 ; Kebecca, the wife of, 149 ;
the oracle and blcseiug received by,
just as his father died, 152.

Isaiah, the predictions of, respecting
Christ, ii. 249.

Isis and Uairia, i. 349, 351, 395, ii.
221,223, 204, 266,

Israel, the nanie given to Jacob, —
the import of, ii. 157>

Israel, the nation of, its increase in,
nod deliverance from K^ypt. ii. H>1-
163 ; were there any outside of, l>c-
fore C'hrist, who belonged to the
fellowship of the holy city ? 2";.^,
etc.

Italic school of philosophy, the, i. 306.

•

J.icoB, and Esau, the tbingfi myste-
riously prefigured by, ii. 153, etc.;
hia mission to Mesopotamia, 155 ;
his dream, 166 ; his wives, 157 ;
why called Israel, 157 ; how said
tu have gone into K^ypt with
seven ty-iive souls, 15S; his blessing
on Judob, 159; his blessing the
sons of Joseph, IGl ; the timea of,
and of Joaepn, 221. cto.

Janus, the temple of, i. 9S ; the re-
Utioa of, to births. 260. 2fil ; nn-
thhig infamous related of, 2ti5 ; is it
reasonable toseporate Termiausand*
2(>8 ; why two faccp, and sometimes
four, given to the image of ? 24iU ;
compared with Jupiter, 270; why
he has received no star, 278.

Japhet, iL 105.

Jeroboam, ii. 214.

Jerome, bis lalKmrs as a translator of
Keripture, ii. 271 ; his commentary
on Daniel referred to, 394.

Jerusalem, the new, coming down from
heaven, ii. 377, etc.

Jews, the, the kingdom of, fonnfle<l by
God, i. 175; what Sciieca thought
of, 255, 250; their unbelief, foretold
io the Psalms, ii. 2U8 ; end of the
captivity of, — their prophets, 240,
etc.; the many adversities endured
by, 274, etc. ; the disponioa uf, pre-

dicted, 277-279; whether, before
Christ, there were a.ny oatude ot
who belonged to the heavoaly citr,
27iK

Joseph, the sons of, blessed by Jacob,
ii. IGl ; the times of, '2'Jl ; the eje*
vation of, to be niler of fclgypt. 222;
who were kings at the period of the
death of « 224.

Joshua, i. 1G3; who were kioga at the
time tf the death of ? ii. 229 ; U»e
sun stayed in it* course by, 429,
430 ; the Jordan divided by, 430

Jove, are the many gods of the pagans
one and the same Jove? i. 148; the
enlargement of kinsdoms i mpr^^perly
ascribed to, 152; Mars, Tenmnui,
and Jnventas refuse to yield to, l(i2,
1G9. Sr:e Jupiter.

Jndafa, Jacob's blessing on, ii 159, tte.

Judgment, cvir going on, — the but,
ii. 345, 346 ; ever present, although
it cannot be discerned, 346 ; pronfs
of the last, from the New Testameat
and the Gift, .^9, etc. ; words «
JcHua respecting, .H.'jO, 373, 374, 375;
what Peter snva of. 379 ; predictions
respecting, ',\S^, 390, etc., 395, etc.
399, etc. ; separation of the eood ami
b.id in the, 4<W ; to bo effected in
the person of Christ, 40G, etc.

Julian the apostate, L 219 ; a pene>
cutor, ii. 287.

Juno, i. 147. 148. 2C0.

Jupiter, the power of, compared wiA
Janus, i. 270, etc. ; is tbo di^tinctiao
made between, and Janns, a proper
one ? 273 ; the surnames of. 273 ;
called ••l*t:cnniA,"~why?275;sc*a'
d.ilous araoura of, ii. 232.

Justinn.i, the hisinrian, quoted rr-
spccting >i inns' lust of empire, L14L

.laventas, i. 162, 109.

KETPRAB.whatisroeanlby Abraham^i
maiTving, after the death of 8arahf
ii. 150.

' ' Killeth and maketh alire, the Lord,"
li. 174.

Killing, when allowable, i. 32L

Kingdom, the, of Israel, under 8anl,
a shadow, ii. 184; the deacription of,
186; promises of God respecting,
189, etc., 193, etc.; varying cha-
racter of. till the captivity, and,
linaJIy, till the people passed under
the power of the Komans. 214, 215.

Kingdom of Christ, the, ii. 363, 361.

Kingdoms, without joatioe, i. 130 ;
have any been aided or deaortod by

INDEX OF SITBJECTS.

565

the gods 7 142 ; the enlftrgcmeot of,
uusuiUbly attributed to Jore, 152 ;
the tiizic« oft ordained by the truL-
Otxl, 175 ; Qot furtuitous, nor intlu-
encod by the atara, 177-179; the
three great, when Abraham wan
born, ii. 130, 131.

Kinga, of Israe], the times of the. ii. 163;
after SoIoinon/213; after the judges,
239 ; of the earthly city which syn-
chronize with the times of the sainU,
reokoning from Abraham, iL 218.
etc. ; of Argos, ii. 223, 224 j of
Latium, 24(K

Knowledge, the eternal and unchange-
able, of Uod, L 439, etc. ; of oar own
existence, 4U9, etc., 471, etc. ; bv
which the holy angels know God,
473, etc.

Labko, cited, i. 64. 127, 325, ii, 533.

Lactantius, tj^notations made by, from
a certain Sibyl, ii. 243, 244.

LangQAge, the origin of the rJiverRity
of, ii. Ill, etc.; the original. 121,
etc. ; diversities of, bow theyojierate
to prevent human intercourse, 310,
311.

Larentina, the harlot, i. 244.

Latinius. Titus, the trick of, to secure
the re-enactment of the games, L IGo.

Lattum, the kiugs of, ii. 240.

Aar^iic and Aty)^iia, I 333, 386.

Laorentum, the kingdom of, ii. 233.

Laver of n^neration, the, ii. 441.

Law, the, contirmed by miraculous
signs, i. 407, etc. ; of AfoKs, must
be spiritnally understood, to cut otl
the murmura of carnal interpreters,
ii. 403, 404.

X.ethe, the river, L 428.

L^x Vofoula, the, L 124.

Liber, the gud, i. 23(^ ; and Libera,
24S, 26lt, 2GI, ii. 232.

Liberty, the, which is proper to man's
nature, ii. 323, etc.

Life, the end of, whether it is material
that it be long delayed, i. 18 ; the
vicissitudes of, not de]>eudent ou the
favour of the go<ls, but on the will
of the true God, 79.

Life, eternal, the gift of (»od, i. 257 ;
the promise of, uttered before the
eternal times, 504.

Light, the. the division of, from the
aarkness, — the signiticance of this,
i. 458 ; pronoanccd "guod," — mean-
ing of this, 459.

Lime, the peculiar properliea of, ii.
41^. 419.

Livy, quoted, i. 1G5.

Loadstone, the, ii. 420.

f>ocuats, a fearful invasion of Africa
by, i. 134.

Lot, the parting of Abraham and, ii.
132 ; the deliverance of, from cap*
tivity, by Abraham, 134.

LoVs wife. i. 293.

liOve and regard used in Scripture in-
dilTercntly of good and evil affec-
tions, ii. 10.

Lucan'e PharsaUa, quoted, i. 30, 103,
129.

Lucillus, bishop of Sinito, cured of a
listula by the rulies of i^t. Stephtu,
ii. 493.

Luciuii, the goildess, i. 149, 2G0.

Lucretia, her chastity and suicide, L
28, 29.

LaoretiuB, quoted, ii. 419.

Lust, the evil of, ii. 31 ; and anger, to
be bridled, 35, etc. ; the bondsg*^ of,
worse thsn bondage to men, 224,
225.

Lying-in woman, the, her god-pro-
tectors, i 249.

Maccab.cus, Judas, ii. 276.

Maccabees, the Books of, ii. 262.

Madness, tlio strange, which onca
flt'izeil upon all the domestic aiii-
aKilH of the Uumans, i. 126.

Magic art, the impiety of. i. 33 ; the
marveU wrought by, ii. 42"!.

Magicians of Egypt, the, i. .393.

Magnets, two, an imsge suspended
between, in raid air, iL 425.

Malachi. ii. 399.

"Mammon of unrighteonsnesB," ii.
4G9. 470.

Man. though mortal, con enjoy true
happiness, i. 369 ; roccntnesa of the
creation of, 4!)6, etc.; the first, 519,
etc.: the fall of the first, 521 ; the
death with which he first was
threatened, 533 ; in what state
made, and into what state ho fell,
534 ; forsook God before God for*
sook him, 535 ; effects of the sin of
the firat, ii. 1, etc.; what it is to
live according to, 6, etc. ^Scv First
Man.

Manicbn:ans, the, references to. i. 4Glt
462, 463 ; their view of the body, ii.
8, otc,

Mau]iu.<«, Cneius, i. 123.

Manturnif, the goddess, i. 249, 250.

Marcellus, Marcus, destro}-! S^Taccse,
and l>cwails its ruin, i- 8.

Maies, the, of Csppadocia, ii. 422.

566

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

KfaricA, the Mintumiui godd^n, L 61.

Marias, i. 79, SO, 81 ; the wir bstwfen,
Ukd SyUa, 128. 129, 130.

Marriage, as originally iiMtitnted by
God, ii. 38 ; Among blood reUtioiui
in priznitive times, 7S ; between
blood relfttiaiu, now abhorred, 79-

ManiAAe bed-chombor, the, iho gods
whic£ preside over, L 249, 260.

Man, Terminaa, and Juveatos. refuse
to yield to Juve, i. 162, 169 ; and
Mercury, the offices of. 276.

Martial, a nobltiiuan, uouvurted by
xneana of flowers bruucht from the
■luine of St. Stephen, li. 493.

Martyrs, the honour paid to, by Ohris'
tiana, i. 350, etc. ; the heroes of the
Ohnrch, 41 1 ; miracles wrought by,
ii. 499. oOO.

Marvels related in history, ii. 417-423.
426, 427 ; wrought by magic, 424,
425.

Masaephmt, ii. l&S.

Mathematioians, the. couvicted of pro-
fessing a raia science, l 1S3.

Mediator, Christ the, betweeu Qodand
man, L 3G0 ; the necessity of ha\ai]g
Chrut so, to obtain, the blessed life,
374 ; the sacritice effected by, 410,
etc

Melchizedek. blesses Abraham, ii. ISu.

Melioertes, ii. 233.

Meo, the primitive, immortal, had
they never sinned, i, 542 ; the crea-
tion of, and of aogele, ii. 472-474.

Mercury, and Mars, i. 27(3 ; the fame
of, ii. 225.

Metellos, reacaes the sacre<l things
from the fire in the temple of
Vesta, i. !1'J.

Methoseloh, the great age of, ii 66.

Millennium, the, ii. 35G.

Mind, the capaoity and powers oC, iL
526.

Minerva, i. 146, 262, 279. 296. ii 225.

Miracles, wrought by the ministry of
angels, i. 392, etc.. 400, etc, 405 ;
the, ascribed to the gods, 405, 406 ;
the, by which God authenticated the
law, 407. etc. ; against such as deny
the, recorded in Scripture. 40S, etc. ;
the ultimate reason for believing,
425-428 ; wrought in more recent
times, 434-499 ; wrought hy the
martyrs in the name of Christ, 499,
etc.

Miseries, the, of this life, Cicero on,
ii. 302 ; of the human race through
the tirst sin, 517-520 ; deliverance
£rom« through the grace of Christ,

5S0^ 1^21 ; which attach pecolurlf

(• tlw tuil of good men, ^1, etc.
Mithridatee, the edict of, eDJoRun^

the slaughter of all Roxnaa citiaaal

found in Asia, L )25.
Monatnnu raoec, — are they terwi

from the stock of Adam, or fron

Noah's sou! i 116, 118.
Moses, miracles wrought by. L 393 ;

the time of, ii. 16L-163 ; who were

kings at the period of the birth oi '.

224 ; the time he led Israel out oi

Egypt, 228 i the antiquity of the

writuiga of, 264.
Mother of the goda, th« obMmiitie* ui

the worship of, i. 5^ 63, etc ;

whence she come. 103.
Mucins, and king Porsonna, i. Sll.
Mysteries, i. 260 ; the KlenaiBiu,

2S3 ; the Somothrsoian, 290.
Mysteiy, the. of Christ's rsdemptioa

often made known by suni^ «|e.,

i. 299.
Mystery of iniquity, the, ii SSI

first parent^

NjinoR, ii 125,
Nakedness of our

ii. 32.
Nathan, his message to Dnrid, n. 199;

the resemblaiioe of Psalm Ixxxix. to

the prof^eoy of, 191. etc.
Natural history, curioas facto ia:—

tbo salamander, ii. 417 ; thm flsik

of the peacock, 417, 418 ; fef^

418 ; charcoal, 418 ; lime, 418. 419;

the diamond, 419 ; the loadstone,

420 ; the salt of Aurigeatum. 421 ;
the fountain of uie Oaranante,
and of Epirua, 421 ; asbestos;, 421 ;
the wood of the Egyptian fig-tree,

421 i the apples of Sodom, 421 ; tb«
stone pynto, 431, 422 ; the stooe
seleaite, 423; the Csppadocisn
mares, 422 ; the island Ilion, 422 ;
the star Vonus, 429.

Nature, not contrary to Ood, but
good, i. 484 ; of irrational and 1
less creatures, 485 ; none in
there is not good, 320, 321.

Natures, God glorided in oU, i

Nccessi^, is uie will of
by? i 195.

Necromancy, i 302.

Ntiptunc, i 279. 296; and Sslaoiiw
and Venilia, 285.

Nero, the first to reach the citadel ol
vice, i. 216 ; curious opinions en-
tertained of him after his death, ii.
3S2.

New Academy, the oucortainty

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

567

contrwted with the ClLmtuui faith,
ii. 328.

New hearen8» and now earth, the, iL
373, 374, 376. etc.

Nigiiliaa, cited in referenoe to the
birth of twin*, i. 181.

Nimrod, ii. 108. 100, 112. 122.

Kinoveh. iL lOi) ; curious diacrepancy
between the Hebrew and Scptua-
giot as to the time iixed Cur the over-
throw of, in Jonah's prophecy, 273,
274 ; spared, 446 ; how the predic-
tion against, was f uifUlod, 405.

Kiniu, ii. 219, 220.

Noah, commanded by God to build
an ark. ii. 1)8 ; whether after, till
Abraham, any family can be found
who lived according to God. 10*1 ;
what was prophetically signified by
the BOOS of? 105 ; the nakedness of.
revealed by Ham, but covered b^
Shem and Japhet, its typical signi-
ficance, 100. 107 ; the generation of
the Miw of, 108, eto.

Ifoetet Attica, the. of Aulua Gellias.
quoted, 35G, 357.

Numa Pompliius, the peace that ex*
isted during tlie reign of, is it at-
tributable to the gods? i. 9S ; intra-
ducua new gudst, 101. etc. ; the
Romans add new gods to those in-
troduced by, 102 ; the story of find-
ing tho books of. respecting the gods,
and the burning of the same by the
senate, 301. etc. ; befooled by hydro-
mancy, 302.

Niunantia, i. 124.

iviimitor and Amulius, ii. 240, 241.

0GYaE3, ii 225, 226.

Old Testament Schptorea. caused by
Ptolemy Philadclphna to be trans-
lated out of Hebrew into Greek, u.
270. 271.

OpimiuB. Lucius, and the Gracchi,
i. 12G.

Oracles of the gods, responses of, re-
specting Christ, as related by Por-
phyry, ii. 344. eta

Onier and law, the. which obtain in
heaven, and on earth, ii. 322.

Ohgen, the errors of. L 463-405.

'OffiHy ii. 303.

Orpheus, ii. 233.

Pagan error, the probable cause of the
naeof. L 281, 282, 347.

Paradise, man in, ii. 23 ; would there
have been generation in. had Dian
mt ainned? 30. eto.. 41, etc., 44,

etc. ; Malachi'i reference io man'a
state in, 401.

Paris, the gods had no reaaon to be
olTeuded with, i. OS.

PasaiooB, the, which assail Christian
auuls, i 359. etc. ; which agitate
demons, 360.

Fattr/amilunf, ii. 325.

Patricians and PIcba, tho disaenaions
between, i. 69, 70, 113.

Pnulinua. i. 16.

FauluB and Palladia, members of *
household cursed by a mother-in-
law, miraculously healed at the
shrine of St. Stephen, ii 497-499.

Peace, the eternal, of the saints, ii
314, 31o; the tierceuess of war, and
the disquietude of men make to-
wards, 315-319; the universal,
which the law of nature preserree,
319. etc. ; tho, bvtween the heavenly
and earthly cities, 326, etc. ; the.
of those alienated from God, and the
use made of it by God's ]>oople, 341 ;
cf thoie who serve God in thii
mortal life, cannot be apprehended
in its perfection, 341-313; of God,"
which passeth all onderstandiug.
634, 635.

Peacock, the antiseptic properties of
thoOcahof. ii. 417.

ruouoia, i 2G4 ; J upitor so named, 275.

Peleg. ii. 122. 123.

Peripatetiu vect, the, i 323.

Peripatetics, an<l Stoics, the opinion
of, aboutmental emotions, — an tllos-
trativc story, i. 355-358.

*'Periih."u. 296.

Periurjiatt, L 40-i.

Persecution, all Christians must snffcr.
ii. 284 ; the beneKts derivetl from.
285; tho *'ten persecutions," 286-
288 : the time of the linal, hidden.
288-290.

PersiuB. quoted, i 65, 56.

Perturbations, the three, of the souls
of the wise, as admitted by the
Stoics, ii. 12 ; in the souls of the
righteous, 15. etc. ; were our 6rat
parents before the fall free from? 20.

Poter. ridiculously feigned by the
heathen to have brouuht about by
enchantment the worship of Christ,
ii. 289 ; heals the cripple at the
temple gate, 291.

Petronia, a woman of rank, miracu-
lously cured, ii. 496.

Philosopher, origin of the name, i. 307.

Philosophers, the aecret of the weak-
neu of the moral precepts of, i. 55 ;

rs'DEX OF SUBJECTS.

tbe ItoUo and Iodic schools of, 306,
etc. ; of some who thiiik the sepa-
rAtion of soul and body not penal,
536 ; the difloord ot tho opiDlona of,
contrasted with the concord of the
ranouical .Scriptures, ii. 2»»7-270.

Philosophy, X'arro's enumeration of
tho multitudinoua secta of, ii. 293-
297.

Phoroneus, ii. 221.

Picas, king of Argos, ii. 233.

" Piety," i. 38^1.

Pirate, the apt reply of a, to Alex*
andcr the Great, i. H<l.

Platu, would exclude the poeta from
his ideal republic, i. iui, etc, ; his
threefold division of philoaophy,
310, etc. ; how he was able to ap-
proach BO near Cliri»tian knowledge,
321, etc. ; bis dctiuitiuu of the gods,
324 ; the opinion of, aa to the trana-
migration of aoula. 427; the opinion
of, that alnio.<it all animals v/ete
created by inferior gods, 010 ; de-
clared that the gods made by the
•Supreme have inunortal bodies,
r>;J6, ii. 531 ; the anparently conHiiLt-
ing views of, ana of Porphyry, ii
united, might have led to the tmtti,

r>;t2, 533.

Platoniiitc, the opinions of, preferable
to those of other philosophers, i.
312, etc- ; their views of physical
philosophy, 314, etc. ; how far they
excel other philosophers in log^io, or
rational philosophy, 316 ; hold the
first rank in moral philosophy, 317 ;
their philosophy has come nearest
to the Christiaa faith, 31S; the
Christian religion above all their
science, 310 ; thought that sacred
rites were to be performed to many
gods, 323 ; the opinion of, that the
souls of men liccome dcnioDS, 365 ;
the three qualities by which they
distinguish between the nature of
men and of dcmon.ti. 355^ etc.; their
idea of the nr)n-intcrcoursG of ceka-
tial gods with men, and the need of
the intercourse of demons, 371, etc. ;
hold that God alone can bealaw
happiccBB, 382 ; Lave misunderstoiid
the true worship of God,* 38ti ; the
priuciptes whicb, according to, regu-
late the puriticatioD of the soul, 413 ;
blush to acknowledge the incarna-
tion vt Christ, 423; refutation oE
the notion of, that the soul in cn-
etcrnal with God, 429, 430 ; opinion
of, that angels created man's body,

518 ; refutation of the opinion of.
that earthly bodies caonot inhenl
heaven, ii. 501, etc

Players, excluded by the Komana ftva
offices of sUte, i. GO, Gl.

Plays, scenic, which the coda have
e.Tncbcd from their worshippers, L
lli.5.

Pleasu re, bodily, graphically described,
i. 217.

Plebs, the dissensions bertween, as'l
the Patricians, ii, 69, 70, 1 13 ; tht
eeoeuion of, 113.

Plotinu^, in<^n, according tn, !«*•
wretohcd than demona, i. 304 ; re-
garding enlightenment from abo%-e,
385.

Plutarch, his Life of Cato quoted, l
34 ; his Li/e o/Xuma^ 17^

Pluto, i. 290.

n>i»^«, i. 55.*). HiA^ £55.

Poetical licence, allowed by theGmkf,
reatrained by tho Roraana. i. 57. Gl'

Poets, the. P]ato would exclude (mau
his ideid republic, i. 63. etc, 3'ZS;
the theological, ii. 232, 233.

I'ontius, Lucius, announces Syllii
victory, L 82.

*' Poor, He raiseth the, oat of iM
dunghill," ii. 175.

Porphyry, bis views of theurgy, L SMv
etc, 3'.>6, etc. ; cpiatle of, to Anebn,
397, etc. ; as to how the soul is poti-
fied, 413; refused torecogniacChmt,
414 ; vacillation of, between th«
confession of the true God and the
worship of demons, 418; the im-
piety of, 419 ; 80 blind as not to re*
cognise the true wisdom, 422; his
emendations of Platonism, 420, etc;
his ignorance of tho universal way
of tlie soul's deliverance, 430, etc;
abjured the opinion that aouls con.
stantly pass away and return ia
cycles, 511 ; his notion that the
soul must be separated from ths
body in order to be happy, demo*
lished by Plato. 531, etc.; the con-
flicting opinions of Plato and, if
united, might have led to the truth.
532, E^i ; his account of the re-
six>nsc8 of the oraclee of the gods
concerning Christ, ii. 334-339.

Portents, strange, i. 133 ; meaning ol
the word, ii. 429.

PosaidoniUB, the story of, i. 179.

PoatumiuB, the augur, and ^)vlla, I
81, S2, t>3.

Profstantiua, the strange story related
by, respecting bis father, ii. 237.

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

569

the lovo of, why reokoned a
nttoe! i. tMM; of the eradication of
the lore of human, 205.

Prayer for the dead, ii. 453.

Predictions of Scripture, i. 434.

Priest, the faithfol. ii. 181.

Prieathood, the, the promiao to estab-
lish it for ever, how to bo undor-
stood, ii. IS4; of Christ, described
ia the Psalma. 2(M, 205.

Proclus, Julius, i. lOS.

Projectua^ Biahup, and the miraculous
cure of blind women, ii. 49^, 493.

ProUtarii, the, i. 116.

Prometheus, ii. 224.

Promises, the, made to Abraham, ii.
129, etc., 131, etc., 133.

Prophetic age, the, ii. Itio.

Prophetic records, the. ii. 163.

Propliecies, the threefold meaning nf
the, ii. 167-169; rospectiug Christ
and His gniipel, '1-Vi-'1A% 250, "J:*!,
252, 256, 258, 259.

Prophets, the later, ii. 215; of the
time when the Ivoman kingdom be-
gan, 24 G.

Proscription, the, of Sylla, i. 130.

Proserpine, i. 284, 283.

Protaaius and Gorvaains, martyrs, a
bliad utan healed by the bodtcs uf,
at Milan, ii. 4S5 ; ayoong mau freed
from a devil by, 491.

Providence of God, the, i. 107, 403 ;
not disturbed by tho wickedness of
angels or men, iL 46.

Prudence, ii. 304.

Pdalms, the, David's concern in writ-
ing, ii. 199.

Ptulumy rijilaJt'lphuH causes the He-
brew Scriptures to bo trauslaicd
into Greek, ii. 270, 271.

Puberty, was it later among the ante-
diluvians than it is uow T ii. 75, etc.

Pulvillns, Marcus, i. 212.

Punic wars, tho, the disasters suffered
by the liomaua io, i. 117; the se-
cond of these, its deplorable ejects,
1 10, etc

Puniahmcut, otomal, ii. 413; whether
it is possible for bodies to last for
ever in bumiog fire, 414 ; whether
bodily BU0erings necessarily termi-
nate in tho destruction of tbc flesh,
414-417 ; ex^iinplea frum naturu to
show that bodici may remain un-
cousumed and aUva in fire, 417 ; the
nature of, 432. etc. ; is it just that
it should laat longer than the sins
themselves lasted ? 436, etc. ; the
greatness of the first transgrcssioa

un account of which it is due to all
not within the pale of the Savtoor's

grace, 437, etc. ; of the wicked after
eatb, not purgatunal, 438-440;
proportioned to the doaorta of the
\iacked,444 ; of certain persons, who
deny, A\i ; uf those who thii^ that
the iutcrcusbion of saints will deliver
from, 445 ; of those who think that
partici|>alioa of the body of Christ
will save from, 447 ; of those who
think that Catholic baptism will
deliver from, 447 ; of the opinion
that boildiog on the *' Foundation**
will save from, 448 ; of the opinion
that alms-giving will deliver from,
449 ; of thoao who think that the
dtjvil will uot aulFor, 450 ; replies to
all these who deny, 451, 457, etc,
460.

Fujiialimcuta, the temporary, of this
life, ii. 4-10 ; the object of, 441.

ParKatorial punishments, iL 399, 400,
453.

Purilication of heart, tho, whence
obtaiued by the saints, i. 412 ; the
prioL'iplcs which, according to the
PlatouLbta, regulate, 413 ; the one
true principle which alone can effect,
414.

Purifying puniabmeut, the, spoken of
by Matachi. li. 390.

Pyrites, the Pcraian stone ao called,
ii. 421.

Pyrrhus, invades Italy, — responae of
the oraclo nf Apollo to, i, 116; can-
not tempt Fabricius, 213.

Pythagoras, the founder of the Italic
school of philosophy, i. 307.

Qltek>, the, tho Church, iL 202, 203.
Quiet, the temple of, L 154.

Radaoaiai's, king of tho Gotha, the

war with, i. 221.
Itain, portentoo5, L 133.
Uape of the ^abite women, the, L 103,

104.
Rebecca, wife f>f laaac, ii. 119; the

divine answer respecting the twins

in tho womb of, 151.
Ktiuentuess of man's creation, an an-

awcr to those who complain of, i.

494L
Kegcneration, the laver or font of, ii.

490.
liCgulua, aa an example of heroism,

and voluntary endurance for re-

ligion's sake, L 22, etc. ; the virtue

of, far excelled that of Cato, 35.

670

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

Beigu of the somta with Chrict for a

tboojuuid yc&n, 11. 203, eta
fiaiigion, 1. 3S4 ; no trae, without true

virtaee, ii. 340.
B^iflionB, false, kept up on policy, 11,
174.

Bepublic, Oiooro's de&zutionof a, — wu
there ever a Koman, answering to *
ii. 330-333 ; according to what deti-
niiiou could tho Komana or others
afisume the title of a? 33U, 'MQ.

Kestiug on the seveuth day, God's,
the meaning of, i. 444, 445.

Beftitutoa, presbyter of theCalameu-
■ aian Church, a curioos aooonatof,
ii 42, 43.

ReHurrectioUf the, of the flesh of be-
liovors, to a perfection not enjoyed
by our lirst parents, i. 544, 540, 547 ;
tho 6r8t and tho aeoand, ii. 3o3-
35(j, 307. 36i( ; Paul's tastimony on,
384 ; utterances of Isaiohrespoctiag,
387, etc. ; some refuse to uelieve,
while tho world at large believes,
477 ; riudicated against ridicule
thrown on it, 504, etc. ; whether
abortions shall have part in, 500 ;
whether infanta shall have that
body in, which they would have had
if tliey had grown up. 507 ; whether
in the, the iload shall rise the same
sizu as the Lord's body, 5U6 ; the
■aiuts shall be conformed to tho
image of Christ iu the, 508, 509 ;
whether women shall retain their
■ex in, 509, 610 ; all bodily blem-
ishes shall be removed in, 512 ; the
substance of oar bodies, however
disintegrated, shall be entirely re-
tmlted, 515; the new spiritoal body
of, 517 ; the obstinacy of those who
Impugn, while tho world believes,
52y, etc.

Resurrection of Christ, the, referred
to in tho rsalms, ii. 205, 'JOG.

Kcward, the, of the saints, after the
trials of this life, ii. SI4.

Khea, or Ilia, mother of Romulos and
Eemua, ii 240, 241.

Rich man, the, In hull, ii. 436.

Righteous, the glory of the, is in God,
1. 305.

Righteona man, the, the sufForinga of,
described in the Book of Wisdom,
ii 209, etc

Rites, sacred, of the gods, i. 245.

Ritnals of false gods, instituted by
Jungs of Urcece, from the exodus ui
IsimI dow-nwQj-d, ii. 329.

empire, tlie, which of the

gods presided over? i. 143; wheths
the great extent and duration of.
should be attributed t*.i Jove, 165 ;
whether the worship of the gods hss
been of service in extending, 106; ths
canse of, not fortuitous, nor attriiMit>
able to ih9 position of tiie ataii; 177.
etc. ; by what ^-irtnea tho enlarge-
ment of, was merited, 198, etc.

Roman kings, what maooer ol lile
and death they had, L 106, efeo.

Roman ropablic, was there ever one
answering to Cicero's definition ! l
331-333. 33U, 340.

RomaxiB, the, the fully of, in tf using
^uda which could not defend Troj,
1. 4, etc. ; by what steps "Uie pMsion
of governing increased ameof, 43 ;
the vices oC not correertnd by the
overthrow of their city, 45; Iht
calamities suffered by. befon
Christ, 50, etc., 67, etc. ; poetical
licence restrained by, 57, etc.; ei*
eluded players from offices of state,
and restrained the hccnce of playcn,
tiO, 61; the goda never took any
steps to prevent the republic oC
from being mined by immoralit)'.
77. etc ; the obscenities of their
plays consecrated to the scrvios of
their gods, contributed to overthrov
their republic, 87. etc. ; exhorted tu
forsake paffaui»m, 89 ; wae it detic-
able that toe empire of, ahoold be
increased by a succession of furiosi
wars ? 99 ; oy what right tiwy ob-
tained their firat wives, 103; Kht
wickedness of the wan waged
by, against the Albans, 105, 106;
the first consuls of, HI, etc. ; ths
disasters which befell, in the
Punic wars, 117, etc., 119, etei; the
ingratitude of, to Scipio, the COD'
qncror of Hannibal, 123 ; the io-
tcrual disasters which rezad ths
republic. 125, etc.; multiplied gods
fur small and ignoble pnrpoMS^ 144;
to what proHt they earned on war,
and how far to the well-being of the
conquered, 206 ; dominion granted
to, by the pro\*idcnee of Ood, 2IS.

Rome, the sack uf, by tho Barbarisns,
i. 2; the evils indicted on the Chris-
tians in the sack of, — why permitted,
39 ; the iniquities practised in the
jK'Jmic'Bt days of, 67, etc. ; the eor*
ruption which had grown up in, be-
fore Christianity, 71, etc. ; Cicero'i
opinion of the i-eijublic of, 74; fn»it
and anow incredibly severe at, 117;

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

571

calmmitiea wliich befell, in the Panic
wan, 117, etc., 119, etc. : Aaiatic
luxury iatroducod to, 123; when
founded, iL 241 ; the fotuider of,
lUAcle a god, 480.

Roamlaa. the alleged parentage of, i.
94, D5 ; no penalty exacteil for bia
fratricidal act, Uo, otc. ; tbu death
of, lOS, 109, ii. 240 ; suckled by a
wolf, ii. 240, 241 ; made a god by
Rome, 480, etc.

Rule, equitable, ii 32.1.

Kulera serve the society which they
rule, ii. 322, 323.

Sabbath, the perpetual, ii 543.

Sabine women, the rape of the, i. G7,
103, 104.

Sack, of Home, tho, by theBarbariant,
i 2, etc. ; of Troy. C, etc.

Sacritice, that duo to the true God
only, i 3S7 ; the true aiid perfect,
390 ; the reaaonableneaa of offering
a viaible, to God, 409; the supreme
and true, of the Mediator, 410; of
Abraham, when he believed, ^ts
meaning, ii. 13C.

SacriBcefl, those not required b^ God,
but enjoined for the exhibition of
the truth, i 3S8.

Sacrifices of righteoiuneu. ii. 400,
401.

Sacristan of Herculea, a, the story of,
i. 244.

Sages, the seven, ii 244, 243.

Saguntum, the destruction of, i. 121,
122.

Saints, the, lose nothing in losing their
temporal goods, i 1-1, etc, ; their con-
solations m captivity, 22 ; cases in
which the e.tamp]c<t of, are not to bo
followed, 37 ; why the enemy was
permitted to indulge his lost on the
bodies of, 39 ; the reply of, to on-
believBTB, who taunted them with
Christ's not having reiicued them
from the fury of their enemies, 41,
otc. ; the reward of, after the trialu
of this life, ii. 314; the happiness
of tho eternal peace which con-
stitntes the perfection of, 314. 315 ;
in this life, blessed in hope, 330.

SaJacia, i. 2S5.

Salamander, the, ii. 417.

Salluat, quoted, i. 7. 8, 67, G9, 92, 100,
107, 113, IDS, 201, 203, ii 210.

Salt, the, of Agrigentum, the peculiar
qualities of, li. 421.

Samnites, the, defeated by the £o-
mans, i 11a.

Samothraciana, the mysteries of the,
I 206.

Samuel, the Address of, to Saul on his
disobedience, ii. 1S6, otc. ; acts up
a stone of memorial, 188.

Sanl. spared by David, ii 184, 185;
foifeita the kingdom, 18.1, ISA.

Sanctity, the, of the body, not violated
by tho violence of another's lust, i.
26,27.

Sancua, or Sangus, a Sabine god, ii.
238.

Sarah, and Ha^ar, and ^eir sons, —the
typical sigiulicanco of, ii. 51, 52;
Sarah's barrenness, 52, 53 ; preser-
vation of the chastity of, in Egypt,
and in Cierar, 32. 146 ; change of too
name of. 143, 144 ; the death of, 149.

Satan, tr&n&forms himself into an angel
of light, ii. 313. .See Devil.

Saturn, i. 147, 260, 261, 265 ; and
Genius, thought to be really Jupiter,
275, etc. ; interpretations of the
reasons for worshipping, 282; and
Pious, ii. 233.

Saved by tire, ii. 400.

Sca^'vola, the pontiff, slain in the Ma-
rian wars, i 129. 131 ; distinguishcj
three kinds of gods, 16G, IGf.

Scenic rcpreacntationp, tho eatabliah-
ment of, nppoacd by Scipio Naaica,
i. 44 ; thoobBccaitiosof, contributed
to the overthrow of the repnblii-,
84, etc.

Schools of philosopher?, i. 300, etc.

Scipio Noaica, Rome's "best man. "op-
poses the destructiou of Carthage,
I. 42, 4.S ; opposes scenic representa-
tions, 144.

Scripture, the obscurity of, — its advan-
tages, i. 458.

Scriptures, the canonical, the autho-
rity of, i 438 ; of the Old Testa-
ment, translated into Greek, ii. 270,
271.

Sea, the, gives up the dead which are
in it, ii 375 ; no more, 377.

Sects of philo8ojtby, the number of,
according to \ arro, ii 293-2117.

Selenite, the stone so cadled, ii <i22.

Semiramiit, ii. 220.

Seneca, Anneus. recognises the guid-
ing will of the Supreme, i 1B9; cen-
sures the popular worahipofthegods.
and the popular theology, 252*255 ;
what he thought of the Jews, 255,
250.

Scptoagint,— is it or tho Hebrew
t«xt to be followed in computing
years? ii. 70, etc; origin of the, 270,

INDEX OF SUBJECTS.

271 ; ftutliorit)' of, m relntion to the
iiebrcw- oi'igiorU, 27 1 -273 ; dilferenue
between, uid tho Uebrow text, oh
to Uie dayB lixcl by Jouah for tliu
deatruotiou of ?\iiieveh. 273-275.

Servitude iDtroduccd by sin, ii. 323.

Servius Tullitu, thu foul uimler of, i.

no.

Seth and Cain, be&da of two liues of
dest^cndantfl, ii. SI ; relation of thu
fonner to Christ, S'2.

Seven, the number, i. 47j, u. 173, 174.

Seventh day, tbe, i. 475.

Seveius, bishop of MLle\'i8, ii. 420.

Sex, thuU it be restored in the resor-
reotion? 509, 510.

Sexual intercourse, ii. 34 ; iu the Ante-
diluvian age, 7t5, ttc.

Shorn, ii. 105; the sona of, lUO ; the
genealogy of, 110, etc.

Sibvl, the Cnmn>an, i. 421 ; tho Ery-
danuuD, 422.

Sibylline books, the, i. 113.

Sioyou, tho kiiigdotu and kings oF, iL
2U». 220, 221. 23It.

SilvauOB, the god, i. 240.

.Silvii, ii. 239.

^iui{iliciauus, bishop of MUan, Ms re-
iniuiacencc of the saying of acertftiu
riAtooist, i. 426.

Sin, should not be sought to be ob-
viated by sin, i. 3G ; should not be
sought to be shunned by a voluntary
death, 3S ; had not it.^ origin in God,
bat in the will of the creature, 456 ;
not caused by the fleah, but by the
son], iL 4 ; servitade introduced by,
323.

Sins, how cloansed, i. 413.

Six, the pcrfecliuu of tho number, L
474.

Slave, when tho word, fust occurs iu

Scripture ; its nicauing, ii. 324.
Social life, disturbed by many dis-
tresses, ii. 307, etc.
Socrates, a sketch of, — his philosophy,
i. 308-310 ; thi^ god or demon of, tho
book, of Apuleius couceLiing, Z~o,
327. ni^

Sodom, tiio region of, ii. 431. *^
Solomon, buuhs written by, and the
prophecies they contaiii, ii. 209, etc. ;
the kinvCB after, both «£ Israel and
Judah. 213.
Son of God, but one by ilature, ii.

441.
Sons of God, the, and daughters of
men, ii. 91, etc. ; not angels, 92^ etc.
Soranus, Valerius, i. 274.
Soul, the, immortal, l 257 ; the way

of its deliverance, 43U ; created is
the image of God, ol5 ; Porphyry's
notion that its blessedness requires
separation from the body^ deao-
lisued by Plato, 531 ; the separatiaa
of, and the body, considered by
some not to bo peual, 530.
Sonl of the world, God not the, i. lol ;

Varro'a opinion of, examined, 267.
Souls, rational, the opinion that then
arc three kinds of, l 325, 326 ; thf>
of men, acconling to the Platonisla,
beoome demons, 3G3 ; views of the
transmigration of, -kll, 42S ; not co-
eternal with God, 42^ ; do not rv
turn from blessedness to lalxmr aud
misery, after certain puiodio rcvo-
lutiuns, WH).
Ztfffafu>K, ii. 303.
SjiGuaippui, i. oJ4.
Spirit, i. 55.S, rw4, /iSfi.
Spiritual body, the, of the uiuts, ia

the resurrection, ii. 516.
Stars, the supposed influence of, <m
kingdoms, births, etc, i. 177, 17S,
1 79, I SO ; some, colled by the uanus
of gods, 2/7, etc.
Stephen, St., miracles wrought by the
relics of, aud at tho ahriue of, ii. 4if'2,
493, 494, 41'5, 496, 497.
Stoics, opiaions of, about mental cino-
tions, 1. 355, etc. ; the three peilur-
bations admitted by, in the soul oe
the wise man, ii. 12, cttx ; the boUci
of, OS to the gods, 2G9 ; aulcido per-
mitted by, :i04, :0Ci.
Strong man, the, iL '^oQ.
Substance, the, of the people of God.

iL im.

Suicide, comioitted through fear cf
dishonour or of punishmont, L 2<j ;
Christiaushaveuu.-iuthority loroom-
nittiDg, under any circumataaoe*,
30; can never be prompted to, by
magnanimity, 32 ; the example oi
Catu iu relation to, 34 ; should it
be resorted to. to avoid sin ! SS ;
permitted by tbe Stoics, ii 3(H, 303.

Suo, the, stayed in its course by
Joshua, ii. 429, 430.

SuperetitioD, i. 171-

Sylla, the deeds of, i. S1-S3; a!:i}

". Mariua, the war between, 12S, ISiSl

Sylva, i. 95.

Symmachus, L 51, and note.

TAHQUiMrs, iViscus, or Saperbua, his
baibarouii murder of bis father-is*
law, L 1 10 ; the expulsioa of, from
Uome, 110, 111.

ETDEX OF SUBJECTS.

i o

TatiaB, Titus, introduces new gods,

i. 161.
Tellns, i. 147 ; the Bnmanefl of, and

thoir aignificancc, 28U.
Teiuperftiioe, ii. 30^1.
Ten kings, the. ii. 394.
Terah, the emigration of, from Ur of

the Chaldeca, ii. 125 ; the yiara of,

126.
Terence, quoted, i. 56.
TerentiuB, a certain, finds the books

of Nnma Pompilius, i. 301.
Terminus, i. 162, 169 ; and Janus, S6S.
Thalcii, the founder of the luuic school

of philosophy, i. 307.
TbcAtrical exhtbitiona, publish the

ahamo of the gods, i. 57; the ob-
scenities of, contributed to over*

throw the republic, S7.
Tbeodorus, the Cyreuian philosopher,

his reply to Lyaimachus, i. 20, note.
TheodofiiuB, the faith and piety of,

i. '224. etc.
Theological poets, ii. 232, 233.
Theology, Varro's threefold division

of, i 2dS'243.
etH-ij9im, i. 384.
Theurgy, i. 304, etc., 396, etc.
Thousand years, the, of the Book of

Revelation, ii. 35li ; the reign of the

saints with Christ during, 362,

etc.
Threats employetl against the gods

to compel their aid, i. SifO.

Ufi;r«i«a, i, 384.

Tilon, the island of, ii 422.

Time, i. 442.

Time, times, and a half time, ii. 394.

Times and seasons, the hidden, ii.
28S, 269.

TStus, Latiniaa, I 335.

Torquatus, slays his victorious son,
i. 210.

Transformations, strange, of men, ii.
233 ; what we should believe respect-
ing. 235.238.

Transgression, the first, the greatness
of, li. 347, 34S.

Transmigration of souls, the t'Latonic
views of, amended by Furpbyry,
i. 427, 428.

"Tree of life, the, th« days of," ii.
402.

Trinity, the, i. 414 ; further explained,
447-450 ; further statements of, — in-
dications of, scattered everj'where
among the works of God, 4^5 ; in-
dications of, in philosophy, 4^>6 468:
the image of, in human nature, 46S.

Troy, the gods unable to afford an

asylum during the sauk of, i. G ;

were the gods justified in permitting

the destruction of ? 93, etc.
Truth, tho sad results where it is

hidden, ii. 309, etc.
Tullua Uostilius, i. 109, 110.
Twelve thrones, ii. 351.
Twenty Martyrs, the, how a tailor

got a new coat by praying at the

shrine of, ii. 492.
Twins, on the difftrrence of the hcaltfa,

etc., of, i. 179, 180; of different
185.

UNiiAiTizKp. the, saved through the
confession cf Christ, i. 527, 528.

Unbelief of the Jews, the, foretold,
ii. 208.

Unity, the, of the human rscc, i. 513,
etc.

Universe, the beauty of the, i 457.

Valens, a persecutor, ii. 287.

Valentiniau, protected by Theodosiue,
i. 224; a confessor, ii. 287.

Valerius, Marcus, i. 213.

Varro, his opinion of the utility of
men feigning tbemselres to be the
offspring of gods, i. 94 ; boasts of
having conferred tho knowledge of
the worship of the gods on the
Komans, 151), 160 ; what ho thought
of the gods of the nations, 232; his
book concerning tho antiquities of
divine and human things, 234, 235,
etc. ; hia threefold division of theo-
logy into fabulous, natural, and
civil, 233, etc.; the opinion of, that
God is the soul of tho world, 267,
272; pronounces hia own opinions
respecting the gods uncertain, 280;
holds the earth to be a &oddess,2BG,
etc. ; hia doctrine of the gods not
self -consistent, 295 ; assigns the
reason why Aliiens was bo called, ii.
226; tho opinion of, about the name
of Areopagus. 227. 228 ; what he
relates of the strange transforma-
tions of men, 235. etc. ; on the number
oi philobopLical sects. 293 2iH>,etc;
in reference to a celestial portent,
420 ; his story of the Vestal virgin
falsely accused, 503 ; bis work on
Th^ Origin of the Roman People,
quoted in relation to the Palwgtneayt
533.

Vaticanus, i. 149.

Venilia, i. 285.

Venus, a peculiar candelabnun in a
temple of, ii. 423, 424.

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3 6105 041 234 183

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