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1878

V. 2

c.2

B73909

Or the following Work, Books IV. XVII. and XVIII. have been translated

by the Rev. GEORGE WILSON, Glenluce; Books V. VI. VII. and VIII. by the Rev. J. J. SMITH.

CONTENTS.

BOOK XIV.

Of the punishment and results of man's first sin, and of the propaga-
tion of man without lust,

PAGK

1

BOOK XV.

The progress of the earthly and heavenly cities traced by the sacred
history,

49

BOOK XVI.

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

104

BOOK XVII.

The history of the city of God from the times of the prophets to
Christ,

165

BOOK XVIII.

A parallel history of the earthly and heavenly cities from the time of
Abraham to the end of the world,

BOOK XIX.

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

BOOK XX.

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

New Testaments, .

217

293

345

BOOK XX I.

PAGE

Of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and of the various
objections urged against it,

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413

BOOK XXII.

Of the eternal happiness of the saints, the resurrection of the body,
and the miracles of the early Church,

472

THE CITY OF GOD.

BOOK FOURTEENTH1

ARGUMENT.

AUGUSTINE AGAIN TREATS OF THE SIN OF THE FIRST MAN, AND TEACHES THAT IT IS THE CAUSE OF THE CARNAL LIFE AND VICIOUS AFFECTIONS OF MAN. ESPECIALLY HE PROVES THAT THE SHAME WHICH ACCOMPANIES LUST IS THE JUST PUNISHMENT OF THAT DISOBEDIENCE, AND INQUIRES HOW MAN, IF HE HAD NOT SINNED, WOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE WITHOUT LUST TO PROPAGATE HIS KIND.

1. That the disobedience of the first man would have plunged all men into the endless misery of the second death, had not the grace of God rescued many.

WE

E have already stated in the preceding books that God, desiring not only that the human race might be able by their similarity of nature to associate with one another, but also that they might be bound together in harmony and peace by the ties of relationship, was pleased to derive all men from one individual, and created man with such a nature that the members of the race should not have died, had not the two first (of whom the one was created out of nothing, and the other out of him) merited this by their disobedience; for by them so great a sin was committed, that by it the human nature was altered for the worse, and was transmitted 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 the undeserved grace of God saved some therefrom. And

This book is referred to in another work of Augustine's (contra Advers. Legis et Prophet. i. 18), which was written about the year 420.

VOL. II.

A

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 dress, are distinguished by marked differences, yet there are no more than two kinds of human society, which we may justly call two cities, according to the 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 what they wish, they live in peace, each after their kind.

2. Of carnal life, which is to be understood not only of living in bodily indulgence, but also of living in the vices of the inner man.

First, we must see what it is to live after the flesh, and what to live after the spirit. For any one who either does not recollect, or does not sufficiently weigh, the language of sacred Scripture, may, on first hearing what we have said, suppose that the Epicurean philosophers live after the flesh, because they place man's highest good in bodily pleasure; and that those others do so who have been of opinion that in some form or other bodily good is man's supreme good; and that the mass of men do so who, without dogmatizing or philosophizing on the subject, are so prone to lust that they 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, live 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 flesh 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; "2 for what does he mean here by "no flesh" but "no man?” And this, indeed, he shortly after says more plainly: "No man shall be justified by the law; "3 and in the Epistle to the Galatians, "Knowing that a man is not justified by the 11 Cor. xv. 39.

2 Rom. iii. 20.

"1

3 Gal. iii. 11.

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