Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series • VOLUME 2
Augustine — City of God & Christian Doctrine
SECTION 321
When, therefore, we read in the prophetical books that God is to come to do judgment at the last, from the mere mention of the judgment, and
When, therefore, we read in the prophetical books that God is to come to do judgment at the last, from the mere mention of the judgment, and although there is nothing else to determine the meaning, we must gather that Christ is meant; for though the Father will judge, He will judge by the coming of the Son. For He Himself, by Hi…
1,031 wordsSECTION 322Book XXI.
Book XXI. ------------------------ Argument--Of the end reserved for the city of the devil, namely, the eternal punishment of the damned; and of the arguments which unbelief brings against it. Chapter 1.--Of the Order of the Discussion, Which Requires that We First Speak of the Eternal Punishment of the Lost in Company with t…
1,716 wordsSECTION 323Chapter 4.--Examples from Nature Proving that Bodies May Remain Unconsumed and Alive in Fire.
Chapter 4.--Examples from Nature Proving that Bodies May Remain Unconsumed and Alive in Fire. If, therefore, the salamander lives in fire, as naturalists [1499] 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 sufficien…
1,519 wordsSECTION 324Chapter 5.--That There are Many Things Which Reason Cannot Account For, and Which are Nevertheless True.
Chapter 5.--That There are Many Things Which Reason Cannot Account For, and Which are Nevertheless True. Nevertheless, when we declare the miracles which God has 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 …
1,061 wordsSECTION 325Chapter 6.--That All Marvels are Not of Nature's Production, But that Some are Due to Human Ingenuity and Others to Diabolic Contrivance.
Chapter 6.--That All Marvels are Not of Nature's Production, But that Some 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 appear…
933 wordsSECTION 326Chapter 7.--That the Ultimate Reason for Believing Miracles is the Omnipotence of the Creator.
Chapter 7.--That the Ultimate Reason for Believing Miracles is the Omnipotence of the Creator. Why, then, cannot God effect 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, wh…
2,701 wordsSECTION 327Chapter 9.--Of Hell, and the Nature of Eternal Punishments.
[1503] See the same collocation of words in Cic. Nat. deor. ii. 3. [1504] The etymologies given here by Augustin are, "monstra," a monstrando; "ostenta," ab ostendendo; "portenta," a portendendo, i.e. præostendendo; "prodigia," quod porro dicant, i.e. futura prædicant. Chapter 9.--Of Hell, and the Nature of Eternal Punishments…
922 wordsSECTION 328Chapter 10.--Whether the Fire of Hell, If It Be Material Fire, Can Burn the Wicked Spirits, that is to Say, Devils, Who are Immaterial.
Chapter 10.--Whether the Fire of Hell, If It Be Material Fire, Can Burn the Wicked Spirits, that is to Say, Devils, Who are Immaterial. Here arises the question: If the fire is not to be immaterial, analogous to the pain of the soul, but material, burning by contact, so that bodies may be tormented in it, how can evil spirits b…
1,355 wordsSECTION 329Chapter 12.--Of the Greatness of the First Transgression, on Account of Which Eternal Punishment is Due to All Who are Not Within the Pale of the Saviour's Grace.
Chapter 12.--Of the Greatness of the First Transgression, on Account of Which Eternal Punishment is Due to All Who are Not Within the Pale of the Saviour's Grace. 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 …
901 wordsSECTION 330Chapter 14.--Of the Temporary Punishments of This Life to Which the Human Condition is Subject.
Chapter 14.--Of the Temporary Punishments of This Life to Which the Human Condition is Subject. Quite exceptional are those who are not punished in this life, but only afterwards. Yet that there have been some who have reached the decrepitude of age without experiencing even the slightest sickness, and who have had uninterrupte…
1,073 wordsSECTION 331Chapter 16.--The Laws of Grace, Which Extend to All the Epochs of the Life of the Regenerate.
Chapter 16.--The Laws of Grace, Which Extend to All the Epochs of the Life of the Regenerate. But such is God's mercy towards the vessels of mercy which He has prepared for glory, that even the first age of man, that is, infancy, which submits without any resistance to the flesh, and the second age, which is called boyhood, and…
1,127 wordsSECTION 332Chapter 18.--Of Those Who Fancy That, on Account of the Saints' Intercession, Man Shall Be Damned in the Last Judgment.
Chapter 18.--Of Those Who Fancy That, on Account of the Saints' Intercession, Man Shall Be Damned in the Last Judgment. There are others, again, with whose opinions I have become acquainted in conversation, who, though they seem to reverence the holy Scriptures, are yet of reprehensible life, and who accordingly, in their own i…
812 wordsSECTION 333Chapter 19.--Of Those Who Promise Impunity from All Sins Even to Heretics, Through Virtue of Their Participation of the Body of Christ.
Chapter 19.--Of Those Who Promise Impunity from All Sins Even to Heretics, Through Virtue of Their Participation of the Body of Christ. 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…
1,058 wordsSECTION 334Chapter 23.--Against Those Who are of Opinion that the Punishment Neither of the Devil Nor of Wicked Men Shall Be Eternal.
Chapter 23.--Against Those Who are of Opinion that the Punishment Neither of the Devil Nor of Wicked Men Shall Be Eternal. First of all, it behoves us to inquire and to recognize why the Church has not been able to tolerate the idea that promises cleansing or indulgence to the devil even after the most severe and protracted pun…
2,263 wordsSECTION 335But that these perversely compassionate persons may see what is the purport of these words, "How great is the abundance of Thy sweetness, Lo
But that these perversely compassionate persons may see what is the purport of these words, "How great is the abundance of Thy sweetness, Lord, which Thou hast hidden for them that fear Thee," [1558] let them read what follows: "And Thou hast perfected it for them that hope in Thee." For what means, "Thou hast hidden it for them…
2,098 wordsSECTION 336Chapter 26.--What It is to Have Christ for a Foundation, and Who They are to Whom Salvation as by Fire is Promised.
Chapter 26.--What It is to Have Christ for a Foundation, and Who They are to Whom Salvation as by Fire is Promised. But, say they, the catholic Christians have Christ for a foundation, and they have not fallen away from union with Him, no matter how depraved a life they have built on this foundation, as wood, hay, stubble; and …
1,968 wordsSECTION 337Chapter 27.--Against the Belief of Those Who Think that the Sins Which Have Been Accompanied with Almsgiving Will Do Them No Harm.
Chapter 27.--Against the Belief of Those Who Think that the Sins Which Have Been Accompanied with Almsgiving Will Do Them No Harm. It remains to reply to those who maintain that those only shall burn in eternal fire who neglect alms-deeds proportioned to their sins, resting this opinion on the words of the Apostle James, "He sh…
2,276 wordsSECTION 338Book XXII.
"And they who grateful memory won By services to others done;" [1602] 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 Christian lips, where some humble person commends himself to one of the saints, and says, Remember me, and secures that he do …
737 wordsSECTION 339Chapter 1.--Of the Creation of Angels and Men.
Chapter 1.--Of the Creation of Angels and Men. As we promised in the immediately preceeding book, this, the last of the whole work, shall contain a discussion of the eternal blessedness of the city of God. This blessedness is named eternal, not because it shall endure for many ages, though at last it shall come to an end, but b…
744 wordsSECTION 340Chapter 2.--Of the Eternal and Unchangeable Will of God.
Chapter 2.--Of the Eternal and Unchangeable Will of God. It is true that wicked men do many things contrary 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 which He Himself has foreknown. And consequently, when God i…
1,009 wordsSECTION 341Chapter 4.--Against the Wise Men of the World, Who Fancy that the Earthly Bodies of Men Cannot Be Transferred to a Heavenly Habitation.
Chapter 4.--Against the Wise Men of the World, Who Fancy that the Earthly Bodies of Men Cannot Be Transferred to a Heavenly Habitation. But men who use their learning and intellectual ability to resist the force of that great authority which, in fulfillment of what was so long before predicted, has converted all races of men to…
1,453 wordsSECTION 342Chapter 6.--That Rome Made Its Founder Romulus a God Because It Loved Him; But the Church Loved Christ Because It Believed Him to Be God.
Chapter 6.--That Rome Made Its Founder Romulus a God Because It Loved Him; But the Church Loved Christ Because It Believed Him to Be God. Let us here recite the passage in which Tully expresses his astonishment that the apotheosis of Romulus should have been credited. I shall insert his words as they stand: "It is most worthy o…
1,379 wordsSECTION 343Chapter 7.--That the World's Belief in Christ is the Result of Divine Power, Not of Human Persuasion.
Chapter 7.--That the World's Belief in Christ is the Result of Divine Power, Not of Human Persuasion. But it is thoroughly ridiculous to make mention of the false divinity of Romulus as any way comparable to that of Christ. Nevertheless, if Romulus lived about six hundred years before Cicero, in an age which already was so enli…
2,501 wordsSECTION 344A gouty doctor of the same city, when he had given in his name for baptism, and had been prohibited the day before his baptism from being ba
A gouty doctor of the same city, when he had given in his name for baptism, and had been prohibited the day before his baptism from being baptized that year, by black woolly-haired boys who appeared to him in his dreams, and whom he understood to be devils, and when, though they trod on his feet, and inflicted the acutest pain h…
2,384 wordsSECTION 345At Uzali, too, a colony near Utica, many signal miracles were, to my knowledge, wrought by the same martyr, whose relics had found a place t
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 ma…
1,862 wordsSECTION 346Chapter 9.--That All the Miracles Which are Done by Means of the Martyrs in the Name of Christ Testify to that Faith Which the Martyrs Had in Christ.
Chapter 9.--That All the Miracles Which are Done by Means of the Martyrs in the Name of Christ Testify to that Faith Which the Martyrs 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, tha…
877 wordsSECTION 347Chapter 11.--Against the Platonists, Who Argue from the Physical Weight of the Elements that an Earthly Body Cannot Inhabit Heaven.
Chapter 11.--Against the Platonists, Who Argue from the Physical Weight of the Elements that an Earthly Body Cannot Inhabit Heaven. But against this great gift of God, these reasoners, "whose thoughts the Lord knows that they are vain" [1626] bring arguments from the weights of the elements; for they have been taught by their m…
1,300 wordsSECTION 348Chapter 12.--Against the Calumnies with Which Unbelievers Throw Ridicule Upon the Christian Faith in the Resurrection of the Flesh.
Chapter 12.--Against the Calumnies with Which Unbelievers Throw Ridicule Upon the Christian Faith in the Resurrection of the Flesh. But their way is to feign a scrupulous anxiety in investigating this question, and to cast ridicule on our faith in the resurrection of the body, by asking, Whether abortions shall rise? And as the…
847 wordsSECTION 349Chapter 13.--Whether Abortions, If They are Numbered Among the Dead, Shall Not Also Have a Part in the Resurrection.
Chapter 13.--Whether Abortions, If They are Numbered Among the Dead, Shall Not Also Have a Part in the Resurrection. To these objections, then, of our adversaries which I have thus detailed, I will now reply, trusting that God will mercifully assist my endeavors. That abortions, which, even supposing they were alive in the womb…
875 wordsSECTION 350Chapter 16.--What is Meant by the Conforming of the Saints to the Image of The Son of God.
Chapter 16.--What is Meant by the Conforming of the Saints to the Image of The Son of God. Then, again, these words, "Predestinate to be conformed to the image of the Son of God," [1632] may be understood of the inner man. So in another place He says to us, "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed in the renewing …
904 wordsSECTION 351Chapter 18.--Of the Perfect Man, that Is, Christ; And of His Body, that Is, The Church, Which is His Fullness.
Chapter 18.--Of the Perfect Man, that Is, Christ; And of His Body, that Is, The Church, Which is His Fullness. To understand what the apostle means when he says that we shall all come to a perfect man, we must consider the connection of the whole passage, which runs thus: "He that descended is the same also that ascended up far…
1,706 wordsSECTION 352Chapter 20.--That, in the Resurrection, the Substance of Our Bodies, However Disintegrated, Shall Be Entirely Reunited.
Chapter 20.--That, in the Resurrection, the Substance of Our Bodies, However Disintegrated, Shall Be Entirely Reunited. Far be it from us to fear that the omnipotence of the Creator cannot, for the resuscitation and reanimation of our bodies, recall all the portions which have been consumed by beasts or fire, or have been disso…
708 wordsSECTION 353Chapter 21.--Of the New Spiritual Body into Which the Flesh of the Saints Shall Be Transformed.
Chapter 21.--Of the New Spiritual Body into Which the Flesh of the Saints Shall Be Transformed. Whatever, therefore, has been taken from the body, either during life or after death shall be restored to it, and, in conjunction with what has remained in the grave, shall rise again, transformed from the oldness of the animal body …
1,991 wordsSECTION 354Chapter 23.--Of the Miseries of This Life Which Attach Peculiarly to the Toil of Good Men, Irrespective of Those Which are Common to the Good and Bad.
Chapter 23.--Of the Miseries of This Life Which Attach Peculiarly to the Toil of Good Men, Irrespective of 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 undergo labors peculiar to themselves, in so far as they make war upon their vi…
2,608 wordsSECTION 355Chapter 25.--Of the Obstinacy of Those Individuals Who Impugn the Resurrection of the Body, Though, as Was Predicted, the Whole World Believes It.
How can I tell of the rest of creation, with all its beauty and utility, which the divine goodness has given to man to please his eye and serve his purposes, condemned though he is, and hurled into these labors and miseries? Shall I speak of the manifold and various loveliness of sky, and earth, and sea; of the plentiful supply …
1,809 wordsSECTION 356Chapter 27.--Of the Apparently Conflicting Opinions of Plato and Porphyry, Which Would Have Conducted Them Both to the Truth If They Could Have Yielded to One Another.
Chapter 27.--Of the Apparently Conflicting Opinions of Plato and Porphyry, Which Would Have Conducted Them Both to the Truth If They Could Have Yielded to One Another. Statements were made by Plato and Porphyry singly, which if they could have seen their way to hold in common, they might possibly have became Christians. Plato s…
864 wordsSECTION 357Chapter 29.--Of the Beatific Vision.
Chapter 29.--Of the Beatific Vision. And now let us consider, with such ability as God may vouchsafe, how the saints shall be employed when they are 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 …
2,233 wordsSECTION 358Chapter 30.--Of the Eternal Felicity of the City of God, and of the Perpetual Sabbath.
Wherefore it may very well be, and it is thoroughly credible, 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 shall most distinctly recognize God everywhere present and governing all things, material as well as spiritual, and shall see Him, not as now we underst…
2,343 wordsSECTION 359Preface, Showing the Utility of the Treatise on Christian Doctrine.
I think I have now, by God's help, discharged my obligation in writing 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. [1690] Ps. lxxxiv. 4. [1691] Numbers. [1692] Lev. xxvi.…
902 wordsSECTION 360Book II.
Book II. Having completed his exposition of things, the author now proceeds to discuss the subject of signs. He first defines what a sign is, and shows that there are two classes of signs, the natural and the conventional. Of conventional signs (which are the only class here noticed), words are the most numerous and important, …
773 wordsSource & rights
Historical text source: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The downloaded text itself records Public Domain.