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The City of God
By Augustine
Argument.
Book I.
PREFACE, EXPLAINING HIS DESIGN IN UNDERTAKING THIS WORK.
1. Of the adversaries of the name of Christ, whom the barbarians for Christ’s sake spared when they stormed the city.
2. That it is quite contrary to the usage of war, that the victors should spare the vanquished for the sake of their gods.
3. That the Romans did not show their usual sagacity when they trusted that they would be benefited by the gods who had been unable to defend Troy.
4. Of the asylum of Juno in Troy, which saved no one from the Greeks; and of the churches of the apostles, which protected from the barbarians all who fled to them.
5. Cæsar’s statement regarding the universal custom of an enemy when sacking a city.
6. That not even the Romans, when they took cities, spared the conquered in their temples.
7. That the cruelties which occurred in the sack of Rome were in accordance with the custom of war, whereas the acts of clemency resulted from the influence of Christ’s name.
8. Of the advantages and disadvantages which often indiscriminately accrue to good and wicked men.
9. Of the reasons for administering correction to bad and good together.
10. That the saints lose nothing in losing temporal goods.
11. Of the end of this life, whether it is material that it be long delayed.
12. Of the burial of the dead: that the denial of it to Christians does them no injury. [Augustine expresses himself more fully on this subject in his tract, De cura pro mortuis gerenda.]
13. Reasons for burying the bodies of the saints.
14. Of the captivity of the saints, and that divine consolation never failed them therein.
15. Of Regulus, in whom we have an example of the voluntary endurance of captivity for the sake of religion; which yet did not profit him, though he was a worshipper of the gods.
16. Of the violation of the consecrated and other Christian virgins to which they were subjected in captivity, and to which their own will gave no consent; and whether this contaminated their souls.
17. Of suicide committed through fear of punishment or dishonour.
18. Of the violence which may be done to the body by another’s lust, while the mind remains inviolate.
19. Of Lucretia, who put an end to her life because of the outrage done her.
20. That Christians have no authority for committing suicide in any circumstances whatever.
21. Of the cases in which we may put men to death without incurring the guilt of murder.
22. That suicide can never be prompted by magnanimity.
23. What we are to think of the example of Cato, who slew himself because unable to endure Cæsar’s victory.
24. That in that virtue in which Regulus excels Cato, Christians are pre-eminently distinguished.
25. That we should not endeavour by sin to obviate sin.
26. That in certain peculiar cases the examples of the saints are not to be followed.
27. Whether voluntary death should be sought in order to avoid sin.
28. By what judgment of God the enemy was permitted to indulge his lust on the bodies of continent Christians.
29. What the servants of Christ should say in reply to the unbelievers who cast in their teeth that Christ did not rescue them from the fury of their enemies.
30. That those who complain of Christianity really desire to live without restraint in shameful luxury.
31. By what steps the passion for governing increased among the Romans.
32. Of the establishment of scenic entertainments.
33. That the overthrow of Rome has not corrected the vices of the Romans.
34. Of God’s clemency in moderating the ruin of the city.
35. Of the sons of the church who are hidden among the wicked, and of false Christians within the church.
36. What subjects are to be handled in the following discourse.
ARGUMENT.
Book II.
1. Of the limits which must be put to the necessity of replying to an adversary.
2. Recapitulation of the contents of the first book.
3. That we need only to read history in order to see what calamities the Romans suffered before the religion of Christ began to compete with the worship of the gods.
4. That the worshippers of the gods never received from them any healthy moral precepts, and that in celebrating their worship all sorts of impurities were practised.
5. Of the obscenities practised in honour of the mother of the gods.
6. That the gods of the pagans never inculcated holiness of life.
7. That the suggestions of philosophers are precluded from having any moral effect, because they have not the authority which belongs to divine instruction, and because man’s natural bias to evil induces him rather to follow the examples of the gods than to obey the precepts of men.
8. That the theatrical exhibitions publishing the shameful actions of the gods, propitiated rather than offended them.
9. That the poetical licence which the Greeks, in obedience to their gods, allowed, was restrained by the ancient Romans.
10. That the devils, in suffering either false or true crimes to be laid to their charge, meant to do men a mischief.
11. That the Greeks admitted players to offices of state, on the ground that men who pleased the gods should not be contemptuously treated by their fellows.
12. That the Romans, by refusing to the poets the same licence in respect of men which they allowed them in the case of the gods, showed a more delicate sensitiveness regarding themselves than regarding the gods.
13. That the Romans should have understood that gods who desired to be worshipped in licentious entertainments were unworthy of divine honour.
14. That Plato, who excluded poets from a well-ordered city, was better than these gods who desire to be honoured by theatrical plays.
15. That it was vanity, not reason, which created some of the Roman gods.
16. That if the gods had really possessed any regard for righteousness, the Romans should have received good laws from them, instead of having to borrow them from other nations.
17. Of the rape of the Sabine women, and other iniquities perpetrated in Rome’s palmiest days.
18. What the history of Sallust reveals regarding the life of the Romans, either when straitened by anxiety or relaxed in security.
19. Of the corruption which had grown upon the Roman republic before Christ abolished the worship of the gods.
20. Of the kind of happiness and life truly delighted in by those who inveigh against the Christian religion.
21. Cicero’s opinion of the Roman republic.
22. That the Roman gods never took any steps to prevent the republic from being ruined by immorality.
23. That the vicissitudes of this life are dependent not on the favour or hostility of demons, but on the will of the true God.
24. Of the deeds of Sylla, in which the demons boasted that he had their help.
25. How powerfully the evil spirits incite men to wicked actions, by giving them the quasi-divine authority of their example.
26. That the demons gave in secret certain obscure instructions in morals, while in public their own solemnities inculcated all wickedness.
27. That the obscenities of those plays which the Romans consecrated in order to propitiate their gods, contributed largely to the overthrow of public order.
28. That the Christian religion is health-giving.
29. An exhortation to the Romans to renounce paganism.
Book III.
1. Of the ills which alone the wicked fear, and which the world continually suffered, even when the gods were worshipped.
2. Whether the gods, whom the Greeks and Romans worshipped in common, were justified in permitting the destruction of Ilium.
3. That the gods could not be offended by the adultery of Paris, this crime being so common among themselves.
4. Of Varro’s opinion, that it is useful for men to feign themselves the offspring of the gods.
5. That it is not credible that the gods should have punished the adultery of Paris, seeing they showed no indignation at the adultery of the mother of Romulus.
6. That the gods exacted no penalty for the fratricidal act of Romulus.
7. Of the destruction of Ilium by Fimbria, a lieutenant of Marius.
8. Whether Rome ought to have been entrusted to the Trojan gods?
9. Whether it is credible that the peace during the reign of Numa was brought about by the gods.
10. Whether it was desirable that the Roman empire should be increased by such a furious succession of wars, when it might have been quiet and safe by following in the peaceful ways of Numa.
11. Of the statue of Apollo at Cumæ, whose tears are supposed to have portended disaster to the Greeks, whom the god was unable to succour.
12. That the Romans added a vast number of gods to those introduced by Numa, and that their numbers helped them not at all.
13. By what right or agreement the Romans obtained their first wives.
14. Of the wickedness of the war waged by the Romans against the Albans, and of the victories won by the lust of power.
15. What manner of life and death the Roman kings had.
16. Of the first Roman consuls, the one of whom drove the other from the country, and shortly after perished at Rome by the hand of a wounded enemy, and so ended a career of unnatural murders.
17. Of the disasters which vexed the Roman republic after the inauguration of the consulship, and of the non-intervention of the gods of Rome.
18. The disasters suffered by the Romans in the Punic wars, which were not mitigated by the protection of the gods.
19. Of the calamity of the second Punic war, which consumed the strength of both parties.
20. Of the destruction of the Saguntines, who received no help from the Roman gods, though perishing on account of their fidelity to Rome.
21. Of the ingratitude of Rome to Scipio, its deliverer, and of its manners during the period which Sallust describes as the best.
22. Of the edict of Mithridates, commanding that all Roman citizens found in Asia should be slain.
23. Of the internal disasters which vexed the Roman republic, and followed a portentous madness which seized all the domestic animals.
24. Of the civil dissension occasioned by the sedition of the Gracchi.
25. Of the temple of Concord, which was erected by a decree of the senate on the scene of these seditions and massacres.
26. Of the various kinds of wars which followed the building of the temple of Concord.
27. Of the civil war between Marius and Sylla.
28. Of the victory of Sylla, the avenger of the cruelties of Marius.
29. A comparison of the disasters which Rome experienced during the Gothic and Gallic invasions, with those occasioned by the authors of the civil wars.
30. Of the connection of the wars which with great severity and frequency followed one another before the advent of Christ.
31. That it is effrontery to impute the present troubles to Christ and the prohibition of polytheistic worship, since even when the gods were worshipped such calamities befell the people.
Book IV.
1. Of the things which have been discussed in the first book.
2. Of those things which are contained in Books Second and Third.
3. Whether the great extent of the empire, which has been acquired only by wars, is to be reckoned among the good things either of the wise or the happy.
4. How like kingdoms without justice are to robberies.
5. Of the runaway gladiators whose power became like that of royal dignity.
6. Concerning the covetousness of Ninus, who was the first who made war on his neighbours, that he might rule more widely.
7. Whether earthly kingdoms in their rise and fall have been either aided or deserted by the help of the gods.
8. Which of the gods can the Romans suppose presided over the increase and preservation of their empire, when they have believed that even the care of single things could scarcely be committed to single gods?
9. Whether the great extent and long duration of the Roman empire should be ascribed to Jove, whom his worshippers believe to be the chief god.
10. What opinions those have followed who have set divers gods over divers parts of the world.
11. Concerning the many gods whom the pagan doctors defend as being one and the same Jove.
12. Concerning the opinion of those who have thought that God is the soul of the world, and the world is the body of God.
13. Concerning those who assert that only rational animals are parts of the one God.
14. The enlargement of kingdoms is unsuitably ascribed to Jove; for if, as they will have it, Victoria is a goddess, she alone would suffice for this business.
15. Whether it is suitable for good men to wish to rule more widely.
16. What was the reason why the Romans, in detailing separate gods for all things and all movements of the mind, chose to have the temple of Quiet outside the gates.
17. Whether, if the highest power belongs to Jove, Victoria also ought to be worshipped.
18. With what reason they who think Felicity and Fortune goddesses have distinguished them.
19. Concerning Fortuna Muliebris. [The feminine Fortune.]
20. Concerning Virtue and Faith, which the pagans have honoured with temples and sacred rites, passing by other good qualities, which ought likewise to have been worshipped, if deity was rightly attributed to these.
21. That although not understanding them to be the gifts of God, they ought at least to have been content with Virtue and Felicity.
22. Concerning the knowledge of the worship due to the gods, which Varro glories in having himself conferred on the Romans.
23. Concerning Felicity, whom the Romans, who venerate many gods, for a long time did not worship with divine honour, though she alone would have sufficed instead of all.
24. The reasons by which the pagans attempt to defend their worshipping among the gods the divine gifts themselves.
25. Concerning the one God only to be worshipped, who, although His name is unknown, is yet deemed to be the giver of felicity.
26. Of the scenic plays, the celebration of which the gods have exacted from their worshippers.
27. Concerning the three kinds of gods about which the pontiff Scævola has discoursed.
28. Whether the worship of the gods has been of service to the Romans in obtaining and extending the empire.
29. Of the falsity of the augury by which the strength and stability of the Roman empire was considered to be indicated.
30. What kind of things even their worshippers have owned they have thought about the gods of the nations.
31. Concerning the opinions of Varro, who, while reprobating the popular belief, thought that their worship should be confined to one god, though he was unable to discover the true God.
32. In what interest the princes of the nations wished false religions to continue among the people subject to them.
33. That the times of all kings and kingdoms are ordained by the judgment and power of the true God.
34. Concerning the kingdom of the Jews, which was founded by the one and true God, and preserved by Him as long as they remained in the true religion.
Book V.
PREFACE.
1. That the cause of the Roman empire, and of all kingdoms, is neither fortuitous nor consists in the position of the stars. [On the application of astrology to national prosperity, and the success of certain religions, see Lecky’s Rationalism, i. 303.]
2. On the difference in the health of twins.
3. Concerning the arguments which Nigidius the mathematician drew from the potter’s wheel, in the question about the birth of twins.
4. Concerning the twins Esau and Jacob, who were very unlike each other both in their character and actions.
5. In what manner the mathematicians are convicted of professing a vain science.
6. Concerning twins of different sexes.
7. Concerning the choosing of a day for marriage, or for planting, or sowing.
8. Concerning those who call by the name of fate, not the position of the stars, but the connection of causes which depends on the will of God.
9. Concerning the foreknowledge of God and the free will of man, in opposition to the definition of Cicero.
10. Whether our wills are ruled by necessity.
11. Concerning the universal providence of God in the laws of which all things are comprehended.
12. By what virtues the ancient Romans merited that the true God, although they did not worship Him, should enlarge their empire.
13. Concerning the love of praise, which, though it is a vice, is reckoned a virtue, because by it greater vice is restrained.
14. Concerning the eradication of the love of human praise, because all the glory of the righteous is in God.
15. Concerning the temporal reward which God granted to the virtues of the Romans.
16. Concerning the reward of the holy citizens of the celestial city, to whom the example of the virtues of the Roman are useful.
17. To what profit the Romans carried on wars, and how much they contributed to the well-being of those whom they conquered.
18. How far Christians ought to be from boasting, if they have done anything for the love of the eternal country, when the Romans did such great things for human glory and a terrestrial city.
19. Concerning the difference between true glory and the desire of domination.
20. That it is as shameful for the virtues to serve human glory as bodily pleasure.
21. That the Roman dominion was granted by Him from whom is all power, and by whose providence all things are ruled.
22. The durations and issues of war depend on the will of God.
23. Concerning the war in which Radagaisus, king of the Goths, a worshipper of demons, was conquered in one day, with all his mighty forces.
24. What was the happiness of the Christian emperors, and how far it was true happiness.
25. Concerning the prosperity which God granted to the Christian emperor Constantine.
26. On the faith and piety of Theodosius Augustus.
Book VI.
PREFACE.
1. Of those who maintain that they worship the gods not for the sake of temporal, but eternal advantages.
2. What we are to believe that Varro thought concerning the gods of the nations, whose various kinds and sacred rites he has shown to be such that he would have acted more reverently towards them had he been altogether silent concerning them.
3. Varro’s distribution of his book which he composed concerning the antiquities of human and divine things.
4. That from the disputation of Varro, it follows that the worshippers of the gods regard human things as more ancient than divine things.
5. Concerning the three kinds of theology according to Varro, namely, one fabulous, the other natural, the third civil.
6. Concerning the mythic, that is, the fabulous, theology, and the civil, against Varro.
7. Concerning the likeness and agreement of the fabulous and civil theologies.
8. Concerning the interpretations, consisting of natural explanations, which the pagan teachers attempt to show for their gods.
9. Concerning the special offices of the gods.
10. Concerning the liberty of Seneca, who more vehemently censured the civil theology than Varro did the fabulous.
11. What Seneca thought concerning the Jews.
12. That when once the vanity of the gods of the nations has been exposed, it cannot be doubted that they are unable to bestow eternal life on any one, when they cannot afford help even with respect to the things of this temporal life.
Book VII.
PREFACE.
1. Whether, since it is evident that Deity is not to be found in the civil theology, we are to believe that it is to be found in the select gods.
2. Who are the select gods, and whether they are held to be exempt from the offices of the commoner gods.
3. How there is no reason which can be shown for the selection of certain gods, when the administration of more exalted offices is assigned to many inferior gods.
4. The inferior gods, whose names are not associated with infamy, have been better dealt with than the select gods, whose infamies are celebrated.
5. Concerning the more secret doctrine of the pagans, and concerning the physical interpretations.
6. Concerning the opinion of Varro, that God is the soul of the world, which nevertheless, in its various parts, has many souls whose nature is divine.
7. Whether it is reasonable to separate Janus and Terminus as two distinct deities.
8. For what reason the worshippers of Janus have made his image with two faces, when they would sometimes have it be seen with four.
9. Concerning the power of Jupiter, and a comparison of Jupiter with Janus.
10. Whether the distinction between Janus and Jupiter is a proper one.
11. Concerning the surnames of Jupiter, which are referred not to many gods, but to one and the same god.
12. That Jupiter is also called Pecunia.
13. That when it is expounded what Saturn is, what Genius is, it comes to this, that both of them are shown to be Jupiter.
14. Concerning the offices of Mercury and Mars.
15. Concerning certain stars which the pagans have called by the names of their gods.
16. Concerning Apollo and Diana, and the other select gods whom they would have to be parts of the world.
17. That even Varro himself pronounced his own opinions regarding the gods ambiguous.
18. A more credible cause of the rise of pagan error.
19. Concerning the interpretations which compose the reason of the worship of Saturn.
20. Concerning the rites of Eleusinian Ceres.
21. Concerning the shamefulness of the rites which are celebrated in honour of Liber.
22. Concerning Neptune, and Salacia, and Venilia.
23. Concerning the earth, which Varro affirms to be a goddess, because that soul of the world which he thinks to be God pervades also this lowest part of his body, and imparts to it a divine force.
24. Concerning the surnames of Tellus and their significations, which, although they indicate many properties, ought not to have established the opinion that there is a corresponding number of gods.
25. The interpretation of the mutilation of Atys which the doctrine of the Greek sages set forth.
26. Concerning the abomination of the sacred rites of the Great Mother.
27. Concerning the figments of the physical theologists, who neither worship the true divinity, nor perform the worship wherewith the true divinity should be served.
28. That the doctrine of Varro concerning theology is in no part consistent with itself.
29. That all things which the physical theologists have referred to the world and its parts, they ought to have referred to the one true God.
30. How piety distinguishes the Creator from the creatures, so that, instead of one God, there are not worshipped as many gods as there are works of the one author.
31. What benefits God gives to the followers of the truth to enjoy over and above His general bounty.
32. That at no time in the past was the mystery of Christ’s redemption awanting, but was at all times declared, though in various forms.
33. That only through the Christian religion could the deceit of malign spirits, who rejoice in the errors of men, have been manifested.
34. Concerning the books of Numa Pompilius, which the senate ordered to be burned, in order that the causes of sacred rites therein assigned should not become known..
35. Concerning the hydromancy through which Numa was befooled by certain images of demons seen in the water.
Book VIII.
1. That the question of natural theology is to be discussed with those philosophers who sought a more excellent wisdom.
2. Concerning the two schools of philosophers, that is, the Italic and Ionic, and their founders.
3. Of the Socratic philosophy.
4. Concerning Plato, the chief among the disciples of Socrates, and his threefold division of philosophy.
5. That it is especially with the Platonists that we must carry on our disputations on matters of theology, their opinions being preferable to those of all other philosophers.
6. Concerning the meaning of the Platonists in that part of philosophy called physical.
7. How much the Platonists are to be held as excelling other philosophers in logic, i.e. rational philosophy.
8. That the Platonists hold the first rank in moral philosophy also.
9. Concerning that philosophy which has come nearest to the Christian faith.
10. That the excellency of the Christian religion is above all the science of philosophers.
11. How Plato has been able to approach so nearly to Christian knowledge.
12. That even the Platonists, though they say these things concerning the one true God, nevertheless thought that sacred rites were to be performed in honour of many gods.
13. Concerning the opinion of Plato, according to which he defined the gods as beings entirely good and the friends of virtue.
14. Of the opinion of those who have said that rational souls are of three kinds, to wit, those of the celestial gods, those of the aerial demons, and those of terrestrial men.
15. That the demons are not better than men because of their aerial bodies, or on account of their superior place of abode.
16. What Apuleius the Platonist thought concerning the manners and actions of demons.
17. Whether it is proper that men should worship those spirits from whose vices it is necessary that they be freed.
18. What kind of religion that is which teaches that men ought to employ the advocacy of demons in order to be recommended to the favour of the good gods.
19. Of the impiety of the magic art, which is dependent on the assistance of malign spirits.
20. Whether we are to believe that the good gods are more willing to have intercourse with demons than with men.
21. Whether the gods use the demons as messengers and interpreters, and whether they are deceived by them willingly, or without their own knowledge.
22. That we must, notwithstanding the opinion of Apuleius, reject the worship of demons.
23. What Hermes Trismegistus thought concerning idolatry, and from what source he knew that the superstitions of Egypt were to be abolished.
24. How Hermes openly confessed the error of his forefathers, the coming destruction of which he nevertheless bewailed.
25. Concerning those things which may be common to the holy angels and to men.
26. That all the religion of the pagans has reference to dead men.
27. Concerning the nature of the honour which the Christians pay to their martyrs.
Book IX.
1. The point at which the discussion has arrived, and what remains to be handled.
2. Whether among the demons, inferior to the gods, there are any good spirits under whose guardianship the human soul might reach true blessedness.
3. What Apuleius attributes to the demons, to whom, though he does not deny them reason, he does not ascribe virtue.
4. The opinion of the Peripatetics and Stoics about mental emotions.
5. That the passions which assail the souls of Christians do not seduce them to vice, but exercise their virtue.
6. Of the passions which, according to Apuleius, agitate the demons who are supposed by him to mediate between gods and men.
7. That the Platonists maintain that the poets wrong the gods by representing them as distracted by party feeling, to which the demons, and not the gods, are subject.
8. How Apuleius defines the gods who dwell in heaven, the demons who occupy the air, and men who inhabit earth.
9. Whether the intercession of the demons can secure for men the friendship of the celestial gods.
10. That, according to Plotinus, men, whose body is mortal, are less wretched than demons, whose body is eternal.
11. Of the opinion of the Platonists, that the souls of men become demons when disembodied.
12. Of the three opposite qualities by which the Platonists distinguish between the nature of men and that of demons.
13. How the demons can mediate between gods and men if they have nothing in common with both, being neither blessed like the gods, nor miserable like men.
14. Whether men, though mortal, can enjoy true blessedness.
15. Of the man Christ Jesus, the Mediator between God and men.
16. Whether it is reasonable in the Platonists to determine that the celestial gods decline contact with earthly things and intercourse with men, who therefore require the intercession of the demons.
17. That to obtain the blessed life, which consists in partaking of the supreme good, man needs such mediation as is furnished not by a demon, but by Christ alone.
18. That the deceitful demons, while promising to conduct men to God by their intercession, mean to turn them from the path of truth.
19. That even among their own worshippers the name “demon” has never a good signification.
20. Of the kind of knowledge which puffs up the demons.
21. To what extent the Lord was pleased to make Himself known to the demons.
22. The difference between the knowledge of the holy angels and that of the demons.
23. That the name of gods is falsely given to the gods of the Gentiles, though Scripture applies it both to the holy angels and just men.
Book X.
1. That the Platonists themselves have determined that God alone can confer happiness either on angels or men, but that it yet remains a question whether those spirits whom they direct us to worship, that we may obtain happiness, wish sacrifice to be offered to themselves, or to the one God only.
2. The opinion of Plotinus the Platonist regarding enlightenment from above.
3. That the Platonists, though knowing something of the Creator of the universe, have misunderstood the true worship of God, by giving divine honour to angels, good or bad.
4. That sacrifice is due to the true God only.
5. Of the sacrifices which God does not require, but wished to be observed for the exhibition of those things which He does require.
6. Of the true and perfect sacrifice.
7. Of the love of the holy angels, which prompts them to desire that we worship the one true God, and not themselves.
8. Of the miracles which God has condescended to adhibit, through the ministry of angels, to His promises for the confirmation of the faith of the godly.
9. Of the illicit arts connected with demonolatry, and of which the Platonist Porphyry adopts some, and discards others.
10. Concerning theurgy, which promises a delusive purification of the soul by the invocation of demons.
11. Of Porphyry’s epistle to Anebo, in which he asks for information about the differences among demons.
12. Of the miracles wrought by the true God through the ministry of the holy angels.
13. Of the invisible God, who has often made Himself visible, not as He really is, but as the beholders could bear the sight.
14. That the one God is to be worshipped not only for the sake of eternal blessings, but also in connection with temporal prosperity, because all things are regulated by His providence.
15. Of the ministry of the holy angels, by which they fulfil the providence of God.
16. Whether those angels who demand that we pay them divine honour, or those who teach us to render holy service, not to themselves, but to God, are to be trusted about the way to life eternal.
17. Concerning the ark of the covenant, and the miraculous signs whereby God authenticated the law and the promise.
18. Against those who deny that the books of the Church are to be believed about the miracles whereby the people of God were educated.
19. On the reasonableness of offering, as the true religion teaches, a visible sacrifice to the one true and invisible God.
20. Of the supreme and true sacrifice which was effected by the Mediator between God and men.
21. Of the power delegated to demons for the trial and glorification of the saints, who conquer not by propitiating the spirits of the air, but by abiding in God.
22. Whence the saints derive power against demons and true purification of heart.
23. Of the principles which, according to the Platonists, regulate the purification of the soul.
24. Of the one only true principle which alone purifies and renews human nature.
25. That all the saints, both under the law and before it, were justified by faith in the mystery of Christ’s incarnation.
26. Of Porphyry’s weakness in wavering between the confession of the true God and the worship of demons.
27. Of the impiety of Porphyry, which is worse than even the mistake of Apuleius.
28. How it is that Porphyry has been so blind as not to recognise the true wisdom—Christ.
29. Of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which the Platonists in their impiety blush to acknowledge.
30. Porphyry’s emendations and modifications of Platonism.
31. Against the arguments on which the Platonists ground their assertion that the human soul is co-eternal with God.
32. Of the universal way of the soul’s deliverance, which Porphyry did not find because he did not rightly seek it, and which the grace of Christ has alone thrown open.
Book XI.
1. Of this part of the work, wherein we begin to explain the origin and end of the two cities.
2. Of the knowledge of God, to which no man can attain save through the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
3. Of the authority of the canonical Scriptures composed by the Divine Spirit.
4. That the world is neither without beginning, nor yet created by a new decree of God, by which He afterwards willed what He had not before willed.
5. That we ought not to seek to comprehend the infinite ages of time before the world, nor the infinite realms of space.
6. That the world and time had both one beginning, and the one did not anticipate the other.
7. Of the nature of the first days, which are said to have had morning and evening, before there was a sun.
8. What we are to understand of God’s resting on the seventh day, after the six days’ work.
9. What the Scriptures teach us to believe concerning the creation of the angels.
10. Of the simple and unchangeable Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one God, in whom substance and quality are identical.
11. Whether the angels that fell partook of the blessedness which the holy angels have always enjoyed from the time of their creation.
12. A comparison of the blessedness of the righteous, who have not yet received the divine reward, with that of our first parents in paradise.
13. Whether all the angels were so created in one common state of felicity, that those who fell were not aware that they would fall, and that those who stood received assurance of their own perseverance after the ruin of the fallen.
14. An explanation of what is said of the devil, that he did not abide in the truth, because the truth was not in him.
15. How we are to understand the words, “The devil sinneth from the beginning.”
16. Of the ranks and differences of the creatures, estimated by their utility, or according to the natural gradations of being.
17. That the flaw of wickedness is not nature, but contrary to nature, and has its origin, not in the Creator, but in the will.
18. Of the beauty of the universe, which becomes, by God’s ordinance, more brilliant by the opposition of contraries.
19. What, seemingly, we are to understand by the words, “God divided the light from the darkness.”
20. Of the words which follow the separation of light and darkness, “And God saw the light that it was good.”
21. Of God’s eternal and unchangeable knowledge and will, whereby all He has made pleased Him in the eternal design as well as in the actual result.
22. Of those who do not approve of certain things which are a part of this good creation of a good Creator, and who think that there is some natural evil.
23. Of the error in which the doctrine of Origen is involved.
24. Of the divine Trinity, and the indications of its presence scattered everywhere among its works.
25. Of the division of philosophy into three parts.
26. Of the image of the supreme Trinity, which we find in some sort in human nature even in its present state.
27. Of existence, and knowledge of it, and the love of both.
28. Whether we ought to love the love itself with which we love our existence and our knowledge of it, that so we may more nearly resemble the image of the divine Trinity.
29. Of the knowledge by which the holy angels know God in His essence, and by which they see the causes of His works in the art of the worker, before they see them in the works of the artist.
30. Of the perfection of the number six, which is the first of the numbers which is composed of its aliquot parts.
31. Of the seventh day, in which completeness and repose are celebrated.
32. Of the opinion that the angels were created before the world.
33. Of the two different and dissimilar communities of angels, which are not inappropriately signified by the names light and darkness.
34. Of the idea that the angels were meant where the separation of the waters by the firmament is spoken of, and of that other idea that the waters were not created.
Book XII.
1. That the nature of the angels, both good and bad, is one and the same.
2. That there is no entity [Essentia.] contrary to the divine, because nonentity seems to be that which is wholly opposite to Him who supremely and always is.
3. That the enemies of God are so, not by nature but by will, which, as it injures them, injures a good nature; for if vice does not injure, it is not vice.
4. Of the nature of irrational and lifeless creatures, which in their own kind and order do not mar the beauty of the universe.
5. That in all natures, of every kind and rank, God is glorified.
6. What the cause of the blessedness of the good angels is, and what the cause of the misery of the wicked.
7. That we ought not to expect to find any efficient cause of the evil will.
8. Of the misdirected love whereby the will fell away from the immutable to the mutable good.
9. Whether the angels, besides receiving from God their nature, received from Him also their good will by the Holy Spirit imbuing them with love.
10. Of the falseness of the history which allots many thousand years to the world’s past.
11. Of those who suppose that this world indeed is not eternal, but that either there are numberless worlds, or that one and the same world is perpetually resolved into its elements, and renewed at the conclusion of fixed cycles.
12. How these persons are to be answered, who find fault with the creation of man on the score of its recent date.
13. Of the revolution of the ages, which some philosophers believe will bring all things round again, after a certain fixed cycle, to the same order and form as at first.
14. Of the creation of the human race in time, and how this was effected without any new design or change of purpose on God’s part.
15. Whether we are to believe that God, as He has always been sovereign Lord, has always had creatures over whom He exercised His sovereignty; and in what sense we can say that the creature has always been, and yet cannot say it is co-eternal.
16. How we are to understand God’s promise of life eternal, which was uttered before the “eternal times.”
17. What defence is made by sound faith regarding God’s unchangeable counsel and will, against the reasonings of those who hold that the works of God are eternally repeated in revolving cycles that restore all things as they were.
18. Against those who assert that things that are infinite [i.e. indefinite, or an indefinite succession of things.] cannot be comprehended by the knowledge of God.
19. Of worlds without end, or ages of ages. [De sæculis sæculorum.]
20. Of the impiety of those who assert that the souls which enjoy true and perfect blessedness, must yet again and again in these periodic revolutions return to labour and misery.
21. That there was created at first but one individual, and that the human race was created in him.
22. That God foreknew that the first man would sin, and that He at the same time foresaw how large a multitude of godly persons would by His grace be translated to the fellowship of the angels.
23. Of the nature of the human soul created in the image of God.
24. Whether the angels can be said to be the creators of any, even the least creature.
25. That God alone is the Creator of every kind of creature, whatever its nature or form.
26. Of that opinion of the Platonists, that the angels were themselves indeed created by God, but that afterwards they created man’s body.
27. That the whole plenitude of the human race was embraced in the first man, and that God there saw the portion of it which was to be honoured and rewarded, and that which was to be condemned and punished.
Book XIII.
IN THIS BOOK IT IS TAUGHT THAT DEATH IS PENAL, AND HAD ITS ORIGIN IN ADAM’S SIN.
1. Of the fall of the first man, through which mortality has been contracted.
2. Of that death which can affect an immortal soul, and of that to which the body is subject.
3. Whether death, which by the sin of our first parents has passed upon all men, is the punishment of sin, even to the good.
4. Why death, the punishment of sin, is not withheld from those who by the grace of regeneration are absolved from sin.
5. As the wicked make an ill use of the law, which is good, so the good make a good use of death, which is an ill.
6. Of the evil of death in general, considered as the separation of soul and body.
7. Of the death which the unbaptized [Literally, unregenerate.] suffer for the confession of Christ.
8. That the saints, by suffering the first death for the truth’s sake, are freed from the second.
9. Whether we should say that the moment of death, in which sensation ceases, occurs in the experience of the dying or in that of the dead.
10. Of the life of mortals, which is rather to be called death than life.
11. Whether one can both be living and dead at the same time.
12. What death God intended, when He threatened our first parents with death if they should disobey His commandment.
13. What was the first punishment of the transgression of our first parents?
14. In what state man was made by God, and into what estate he fell by the choice of his own will.
15. That Adam in his sin forsook God ere God forsook him, and that his falling away from God was the first death of the soul.
16. Concerning the philosophers who think that the separation of soul and body is not penal, though Plato represents the supreme Deity as promising to the inferior gods that they shall never be dismissed from their bodies.
17. Against those who affirm that earthly bodies cannot be made incorruptible and eternal.
18. Of earthly bodies, which the philosophers affirm cannot be in heavenly places, because whatever is of earth is by its natural weight attracted to earth.
19. Against the opinion of those who do not believe that the primitive men would have been immortal if they had not sinned.
20. That the flesh now resting in peace shall be raised to a perfection not enjoyed by the flesh of our first parents.
21. Of Paradise, that it can be understood in a spiritual sense without sacrificing the historic truth of the narrative regarding the real place.
22. That the bodies of the saints shall after the resurrection be spiritual, and yet flesh shall not be changed into spirit.
23. What we are to understand by the animal and spiritual body; or of those who die in Adam, and of those who are made alive in Christ.
24. How we must understand that breathing of God by which “the first man was made a living soul,” and that also by which the Lord conveyed His Spirit to His disciples when He said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.”
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Book XIV.
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.
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.
3. That sin is caused not by the flesh, but by the soul, and that the corruption contracted from sin is not sin, but sin’s punishment.
4. What it is to live according to man, and what to live according to God.
5. That the opinion of the Platonists regarding the nature of body and soul is not so censurable as that of the Manichæans, but that even it is objectionable, because it ascribes the origin of vices to the nature of the flesh.
6. Of the character of the human will which makes the affections of the soul right or wrong.
7. That the words love and regard (amor and dilectio) are in Scripture used indifferently of good and evil affection.
8. Of the three perturbations, which the Stoics admitted in the soul of the wise man to the exclusion of grief or sadness, which the manly mind ought not to experience.
9. Of the perturbations of the soul which appear as right affections in the life of the righteous.
10. Whether it is to be believed that our first parents in Paradise, before they sinned, were free from all perturbation.
11. Of the fall of the first man, in whom nature was created good, and can be restored only by its Author.
12. Of the nature of man’s first sin.
13. That in Adam’s sin an evil will preceded the evil act.
14. Of the pride in the sin, which was worse than the sin itself.
15. Of the justice of the punishment with which our first parents were visited for their disobedience.
16. Of the evil of lust,—a word which, though applicable to many vices, is specially appropriated to sexual uncleanness.
17. Of the nakedness of our first parents, which they saw after their base and shameful sin.
18. Of the shame which attends all sexual intercourse.
19. That it is now necessary, as it was not before man sinned, to bridle anger and lust by the restraining influence of wisdom.
20. Of the foolish beastliness of the Cynics.
21. That man’s transgression did not annul the blessing of fecundity pronounced upon man before he sinned, but infected it with the disease of lust.
22. Of the conjugal union as it was originally instituted and blessed by God.
23. Whether generation should have taken place even in Paradise had man not sinned, or whether there should have been any contention there between chastity and lust.
24. That if men had remained innocent and obedient in Paradise, the generative organs should have been in subjection to the will as the other members are.
25. Of true blessedness, which this present life cannot enjoy.
26. That we are to believe that in Paradise our first parents begat offspring without blushing.
27. Of the angels and men who sinned, and that their wickedness did not disturb the order of God’s providence.
28. Of the nature of the two cities, the earthly and the heavenly.
Book XV.
1. Of the two lines of the human race which from first to last divide it.
2. Of the children of the flesh and the children of the promise.
3. That Sarah’s barrenness was made productive by God’s grace.
4. Of the conflict and peace of the earthly city.
5. Of the fratricidal act of the founder of the earthly city, and the corresponding crime of the founder of Rome.
6. Of the weaknesses which even the citizens of the city of God suffer during this earthly pilgrimage in punishment of sin, and of which they are healed by God’s care.
7. Of the cause of Cain’s crime and his obstinacy, which not even the word of God could subdue.
8. What Cain’s reason was for building a city so early in the history of the human race.
9. Of the long life and greater stature of the antediluvians.
10. Of the different computation of the ages of the antediluvians, given by the Hebrew manuscripts and by our own. [“Our own mss.,” of which Augustine here speaks, were the Latin versions of the Septuagint used by the Church before Jerome’s was received; the “Hebrew mss. “ were the versions made from the Hebrew text. Compare De Doct. Christ. ii. 15 et seqq.]
11. Of Methuselah’s age, which seems to extend fourteen years beyond the deluge.
12. Of the opinion of those who do not believe that in these primitive times men lived so long as is stated.
13. Whether, in computing years, we ought to follow the Hebrew or the Septuagint.
14. That the years in those ancient times were of the same length as our own.
15. Whether it is credible that the men of the primitive age abstained from sexual intercourse until that date at which it is recorded that they begat children.
16. Of marriage between blood-relations, in regard to which the present law could not bind the men of the earliest ages.
17. Of the two fathers and leaders who sprang from one progenitor.
18. The significance of Abel, Seth, and Enos to Christ and His body the Church.
19. The significance of Enoch’s translation.
20. How it is that Cain’s line terminates in the eighth generation, while Noah, though descended from the same father, Adam, is found to be the tenth from him.
21. Why it is that, as soon as Cain’s son Enoch has been named, the genealogy is forthwith continued as far as the deluge, while after the mention of Enos, Seth’s son, the narrative returns again to the creation of man.
22. Of the fall of the sons of God who were captivated by the daughters of men, whereby all, with the exception of eight persons, deservedly perished in the deluge.
23. Whether we are to believe that angels, who are of a spiritual substance, fell in love with the beauty of women, and sought them in marriage, and that from this connection giants were born.
24. How we are to understand this which the Lord said to those who were to perish in the flood: “Their days shall be 120 years.”
25. Of the anger of God, which does not inflame His mind, nor disturb His unchangeable tranquillity.
26. That the ark which Noah was ordered to make figures in every respect Christ and the church.
27. Of the ark and the deluge, and that we cannot agree with those who receive the bare history, but reject the allegorical interpretation, nor with those who maintain the figurative and not the historical meaning.
Book XVI.
1. Whether, after the deluge, from Noah to Abraham, any families can be found who lived according to God.
2. What was prophetically prefigured in the sons of Noah.
3. Of the generations of the three sons of Noah.
4. Of the diversity of languages, and of the founding of Babylon.
5. Of God’s coming down to confound the languages of the builders of the city.
6. What we are to understand by God’s speaking to the angels.
7. Whether even the remotest islands received their fauna from the animals which were preserved, through the deluge, in the ark.
8. Whether certain monstrous races of men are derived from the stock of Adam or Noah’s sons.
9. Whether we are to believe in the Antipodes.
10. Of the genealogy of Shem, in whose line the city of God is preserved till the time of Abraham.
11. That the original language in use among men was that which was afterwards called Hebrew, from Heber, in whose family it was preserved when the confusion of tongues occurred.
12. Of the era in Abraham’s life from which a new period in the holy succession begins.
13. Why, in the account of Terah’s emigration, on his forsaking the Chaldeans and passing over into Mesopotamia, no mention is made of his son Nahor.
14. Of the years of Terah, who completed his lifetime in Haran.
15. Of the time of the migration of Abraham, when, according to the commandment of God, he went out from Haran.
16. Of the order and nature of the promises of God which were made to Abraham.
17. Of the three most famous kingdoms of the nations, of which one, that is, the Assyrian, was already very eminent when Abraham was born.
18. Of the repeated address of God to Abraham, in which He promised the land of Canaan to him and to his seed.
19. Of the divine preservation of Sarah’s chastity in Egypt, when Abraham had called her not his wife but his sister.
20. Of the parting of Lot and Abraham, which they agreed to without breach of charity.
21. Of the third promise of God, by which He assured the land of Canaan to Abraham and his seed in perpetuity.
22. Of Abraham’s overcoming the enemies of Sodom, when he delivered Lot from captivity and was blessed by Melchizedek the priest.
23. Of the word of the Lord to Abraham, by which it was promised to him that his posterity should be multiplied according to the multitude of the stars; on believing which he was declared justified while yet in uncircumcision.
24. Of the meaning of the sacrifice Abraham was commanded to offer when he supplicated to be taught about those things he had believed.
25. Of Sarah’s handmaid, Hagar, whom she herself wished to be Abraham’s concubine.
26. Of God’s attestation to Abraham, by which He assures him, when now old, of a son by the barren Sarah, and appoints him the father of the nations, and seals his faith in the promise by the sacrament of circumcision.
27. Of the male, who was to lose his soul if he was not circumcised on the eighth day, because he had broken God’s covenant.
28. Of the change of name in Abraham and Sarah, who received the gift of fecundity when they were incapable of regeneration owing to the barrenness of one, and the old age of both.
29. Of the three men or angels, in whom the Lord is related to have appeared to Abraham at the oak of Mamre.
30. Of Lot’s deliverance from Sodom, and its consumption by fire from heaven; and of Abimelech, whose lust could not harm Sarah’s chastity.
31. Of Isaac, who was born according to the promise, whose name was given on account of the laughter of both parents.
32. Of Abraham’s obedience and faith, which were proved by the offering up of his son in sacrifice; and of Sarah’s death.
33. Of Rebecca, the grand-daughter of Nahor, whom Isaac took to wife.
34. What is meant by Abraham’s marrying Keturah after Sarah’s death.
35. What was indicated by the divine answer about the twins still shut up in the womb of Rebecca their mother.
36. Of the oracle and blessing which Isaac received, just as his father did, being beloved for his sake.
37. Of the things mystically prefigured in Esau and Jacob.
38. Of Jacob’s mission to Mesopotamia to get a wife, and of the vision which he saw in a dream by the way, and of his getting four women when he sought one wife.
39. The reason why Jacob was also called Israel.
40. How it is said that Jacob went into Egypt with seventy-five souls, when most of those who are mentioned were born at a later period.
41. Of the blessing which Jacob promised in Judah his son.
42. Of the sons of Joseph, whom Jacob blessed, prophetically changing his hands.
43. Of the times of Moses and Joshua the son of Nun, of the judges, and thereafter of the kings, of whom Saul was the first, but David is to be regarded as the chief, both by the oath and by merit.
Book XVII.
1. Of the prophetic age.
2. At what time the promise of God was fulfilled concerning the land of Canaan, which even carnal Israel got in possession.
3. Of the threefold meaning of the prophecies, which are to be referred now to the earthly, now to the heavenly Jerusalem, and now again to both.
4. About the prefigured change of the Israelitic kingdom and priesthood, and about the things Hannah the mother of Samuel prophesied, personating the Church.
5. Of those things which a man of God spake by the Spirit to Eli the priest, signifying that the priesthood which had been appointed according to Aaron was to be taken away.
6. Of the Jewish priesthood and kingdom, which, although promised to be established for ever, did not continue; so that other things are to be understood to which eternity is assured.
7. Of the disruption of the kingdom of Israel, by which the perpetual division of the spiritual from the carnal Israel was prefigured.
8. Of the promises made to David in his son, which are in no wise fulfilled in Solomon, but most fully in Christ.
9. How like the prophecy about Christ in the 89th Psalm is to the things promised in Nathan’s prophecy in the Books of Samuel.
10. How different the acts in the kingdom of the earthly Jerusalem are from those which God had promised, so that the truth of the promise should be understood to pertain to the glory of the other King and kingdom.
11. Of the substance of the people of God, which through His assumption of flesh is in Christ, who alone had power to deliver His own soul from hell.
12. To whose person the entreaty for the promises is to be understood to belong, when he says in the psalm, “Where are Thine ancient compassions, Lord?” etc.
13. Whether the truth of this promised peace can be ascribed to those times passed away under Solomon.
14. Of David’s concern in the writing of the Psalms.
15. Whether all the things prophesied in the Psalms concerning Christ and His Church should be taken up in the text of this work.
16. Of the things pertaining to Christ and the Church, said either openly or tropically in the 45th Psalm.
17. Of those things in the 110th Psalm which relate to the priesthood of Christ, and in the 22d to His passion.
18. Of the 3d, 41st, 15th, and 68th Psalms, in which the death and resurrection of the Lord are prophesied.
19. Of the 69th Psalm, in which the obstinate unbelief of the Jews is declared.
20. Of David’s reign and merit; and of his son Solomon, and that prophecy relating to Christ which is found either in those books which are joined to those written by him, or in those which are indubitably his.
21. Of the kings after Solomon, both in Judah and Israel.
22. Of Jeroboam, who profaned the people put under him by the impiety of idolatry, amid which, however, God did not cease to inspire the prophets, and to guard many from the crime of idolatry.
23. Of the varying condition of both the Hebrew kingdoms, until the people of both were at different times led into captivity, Judah being afterwards recalled into his kingdom, which finally passed into the power of the Romans.
24. Of the prophets, who either were the last among the Jews, or whom the gospel history reports about the time of Christ’s nativity.
Book XVIII.
1. Of those things down to the times of the Saviour which have been discussed in the seventeen books.
2. Of the kings and times of the earthly city which were synchronous with the times of the saints, reckoning from the rise of Abraham.
3. What kings reigned in Assyria and Sicyon when, according to the promise, Isaac was born to Abraham in his hundredth year, and when the twins Esau and Jacob were born of Rebecca to Isaac in his sixtieth year.
4. Of the times of Jacob and his son Joseph.
5. Of Apis king of Argos, whom the Egyptians called Serapis, and worshipped with divine honours.
6. Who were kings of Argos, and of Assyria, when Jacob died in Egypt.
7. Who were kings when Joseph died in Egypt.
8. Who were kings when Moses was born, and what gods began to be worshipped then.
9. When the city of Athens was founded, and what reason Varro assigns for its name.
10. What Varro reports about the term Areopagus, and about Deucalion’s flood.
11. When Moses led the people out of Egypt; and who were kings when his successor Joshua the son of Nun died.
12. Of the rituals of false gods instituted by the kings of Greece in the period from Israel’s exodus from Egypt down to the death of Joshua the son of Nun.
13. What fables were invented at the time when judges began to rule the Hebrews.
14. Of the theological poets.
15. Of the fall of the kingdom of Argos, when Picus the son of Saturn first received his father’s kingdom of Laurentum.
16. Of Diomede, who after the destruction of Troy was placed among the gods, while his companions are said to have been changed into birds.
17. What Varro says of the incredible transformations of men.
18. What we should believe concerning the transformations which seem to happen to men through the art of demons.
19. That Æneas came into Italy when Abdon the judge ruled over the Hebrews.
20. Of the succession of the line of kings among the Israelites after the times of the judges.
21. Of the kings of Latium, the first and twelfth of whom, Æneas and Aventinus, were made gods.
22. That Rome was founded when the Assyrian kingdom perished, at which time Hezekiah reigned in Judah.
23. Of the Erythræan sibyl, who is known to have sung many things about Christ more plainly than the other sibyls.
24. That the seven sages flourished in the reign of Romulus, when the ten tribes which were called Israel were led into captivity by the Chaldeans, and Romulus, when dead, had divine honours conferred on him.
25. What philosophers were famous when Tarquinius Priscus reigned over the Romans, and Zedekiah over the Hebrews, when Jerusalem was taken and the temple overthrown.
26. That at the time when the captivity of the Jews was brought to an end, on the completion of seventy years, the Romans also were freed from kingly rule.
27. Of the times of the prophets whose oracles are contained in books, and who sang many things about the call of the Gentiles at the time when the Roman kingdom began and the Assyrian came to an end.
28. Of the things pertaining to the gospel of Christ which Hosea and Amos prophesied.
29. What things are predicted by Isaiah concerning Christ and the Church.
30. What Micah, Jonah, and Joel prophesied in accordance with the New Testament.
31. Of the predictions concerning the salvation of the world in Christ, in Obadiah, Nahum, and Habakkuk.
32. Of the prophecy that is contained in the prayer and song of Habakkuk.
33. What Jeremiah and Zephaniah have, by the prophetic Spirit, spoken before concerning Christ and the calling of the nations.
34. Of the prophecy of Daniel and Ezekiel, other two of the greater prophets.
35. Of the prophecy of the three prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
36. About Esdras and the books of the Maccabees.
37. That prophetic records are found which are more ancient than any fountain of the Gentile philosophy.
38. That the ecclesiastical canon has not admitted certain writings on account of their too great antiquity, lest through them false things should be inserted instead of true.
39. About the Hebrew written characters which that language always possessed.
40. About the most mendacious vanity of the Egyptians, in which they ascribe to their science an antiquity of a hundred thousand years.
41. About the discord of philosophic opinion, and the concord of the Scriptures that are held as canonical by the Church.
42. By what dispensation of God’s providence the sacred Scriptures of the Old Testament were translated out of Hebrew into Greek, that they might be made known to all the nations.
43. Of the authority of the Septuagint translation, which, saving the honour of the Hebrew original, is to be preferred to all translations.
44. How the threat of the destruction of the Ninevites is to be understood, which in the Hebrew extends to forty days, while in the Septuagint it is contracted to three.
45. That the Jews ceased to have prophets after the rebuilding of the temple, and from that time until the birth of Christ were afflicted with continual adversity, to prove that the building of another temple had been promised by prophetic voices.
46. Of the birth of our Saviour, whereby the Word was made flesh; and of the dispersion of the Jews among all nations, as had been prophesied.
47. Whether before Christian times there were any outside of the Israelite race who belonged to the fellowship of the heavenly city.
48. That Haggai’s prophecy, in which he said that the glory of the house of God would be greater than that of the first had been, [Hag. ii. 9.] was really fulfilled, not in the rebuilding of the temple, but in the Church of Christ.
49. Of the indiscriminate increase of the Church, wherein many reprobate are in this world mixed with the elect.
50. Of the preaching of the gospel, which is made more famous and powerful by the sufferings of its preachers.
51. That the catholic faith may be confirmed even by the dissensions of the heretics.
52. Whether we should believe what some think, that, as the ten persecutions which are past have been fulfilled, there remains no other beyond the eleventh, which must happen in the very time of Antichrist.
53. Of the hidden time of the final persecution.
54. Of the very foolish lie of the pagans, in feigning that the Christian religion was not to last beyond three hundred and sixty-five years.
Book XIX.
1. That Varro has made out that two hundred and eighty-eight different sects of philosophy might be formed by the various opinions regarding the supreme good.
2. How Varro, by removing all the differences which do not form sects, but are merely secondary questions, reaches three definitions of the chief good, of which we must choose one.
3. Which of the three leading opinions regarding the chief good should be preferred, according to Varro, who follows Antiochus and the Old Academy.
4. What the Christians believe regarding the supreme good and evil, in opposition to the philosophers, who have maintained that the supreme good is in themselves.
5. Of the social life, which, though most desirable, is frequently disturbed by many distresses.
6. Of the error of human judgments when the truth is hidden.
7. Of the diversity of languages, by which the intercourse of men is prevented; and of the misery of wars, even of those called just.
8. That the friendship of good men cannot be securely rested in, so long as the dangers of this life force us to be anxious.
9. Of the friendship of the holy angels, which men cannot be sure of in this life, owing to the deceit of the demons who hold in bondage the worshippers of a plurality of gods.
10. The reward prepared for the saints after they have endured the trial of this life.
11. Of the happiness of the eternal peace, which constitutes the end or true perfection of the saints.
12. That even the fierceness of war and all the disquietude of men make towards this one end of peace, which every nature desires.
13. Of the universal peace which the law of nature preserves through all disturbances, and by which every one reaches his desert in a way regulated by the just Judge.
14. Of the order and law which obtain in heaven and earth, whereby it comes to pass that human society is served by those who rule it.
15. Of the liberty proper to man’s nature, and the servitude introduced by sin,—a servitude in which the man whose will is wicked is the slave of his own lust, though he is free so far as regards other men.
16. Of equitable rule.
17. What produces peace, and what discord, between the heavenly and earthly cities.
18. How different the uncertainty of the New Academy is from the certainty of the Christian faith.
19. Of the dress and habits of the Christian people.
20. That the saints are in this life blessed in hope.
21. Whether there ever was a Roman republic answering to the definitions of Scipio in Cicero’s dialogue.
22. Whether the God whom the Christians serve is the true God to whom alone sacrifice ought to be paid.
23. Porphyry’s account of the responses given by the oracles of the gods concerning Christ.
24. The definition which must be given of a people and a republic, in order to vindicate the assumption of these titles by the Romans and by other kingdoms.
25. That where there is no true religion there are no true virtues.
26. Of the peace which is enjoyed by the people that are alienated from God, and the use made of it by the people of God in the time of its pilgrimage.
27. That the peace of those who serve God cannot in this mortal life be apprehended in its perfection.
28. The end of the wicked.
Book XX.
CONCERNING THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE DECLARATIONS REGARDING IT IN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS.
1. That although God is always judging, it is nevertheless reasonable to confine our attention in this book to His last judgment.
2. That in the mingled web of human affairs God’s judgment is present, though it cannot be discerned.
3. What Solomon, in the book of Ecclesiastes, says regarding the things which happen alike to good and wicked men.
4. That proofs of the last judgment will be adduced, first from the New Testament, and then from the Old.
5. The passages in which the Saviour declares that there shall be a divine judgment in the end of the world.
6. What is the first resurrection, and what the second.
7. What is written in the Revelation of John regarding the two resurrections, and the thousand years, and what may reasonably be held on these points.
8. Of the binding and loosing of the devil.
9. What the reign of the saints with Christ for a thousand years is, and how it differs from the eternal kingdom.
10. What is to be replied to those who think that resurrection pertains only to bodies and not to souls.
11. Of Gog and Magog, who are to be roused by the devil to persecute the Church, when he is loosed in the end of the world.
12. Whether the fire that came down out of heaven and devoured them refers to the last punishment of the wicked.
13. Whether the time of the persecution of Antichrist should be reckoned in the thousand years.
14. Of the damnation of the devil and his adherents; and a sketch of the bodily resurrection of all the dead, and of the final retributive judgment.
15. Who the dead are who are given up to judgment by the sea, and by death and hell.
16. Of the new heaven and the new earth.
17. Of the endless glory of the Church.
18. What the Apostle Peter predicted regarding the last judgment.
19. What the Apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians about the manifestation of Antichrist which shall precede the day of the Lord.
20. What the same apostle taught in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians regarding the resurrection of the dead.
21. Utterances of the prophet Isaiah regarding the resurrection of the dead and the retributive judgment.
22. What is meant by the good going out to see the punishment of the wicked.
23. What Daniel predicted regarding the persecution of Antichrist, the judgment of God, and the kingdom of the saints.
24. Passages from the Psalms of David which predict the end of the world and the last judgment.
25. Of Malachi’s prophecy, in which he speaks of the last judgment, and of a cleansing which some are to undergo by purifying punishments.
26. Of the sacrifices offered to God by the saints, which are to be pleasing to Him, as in the primitive days and former years.
27. Of the separation of the good and the bad, which proclaim the discriminating influence of the last judgment.
28. That the law of Moses must be spiritually understood to preclude the damnable murmurs of a carnal interpretation.
29. Of the coming of Elias before the judgment, that the Jews may be converted to Christ by his preaching and explanation of Scripture.
30. That in the books of the Old Testament, where it is said that God shall judge the world, the person of Christ is not explicitly indicated, but it plainly appears from some passages in which the Lord God speaks that Christ is meant.
Book XXI.
1. Of the order of the discussion, which requires that we first speak of the eternal punishment of the lost in company with the devil, and then of the eternal happiness of the saints.
2. Whether it is possible for bodies to last for ever in burning fire.
3. Whether bodily suffering necessarily terminates in the destruction of the flesh.
4. Examples from nature proving that bodies may remain unconsumed and alive in fire.
5. That there are many things which reason cannot account for, and which are nevertheless true.
6. That all marvels are not of nature’s production, but that some are due to human ingenuity and others to diabolic contrivance.
7. That the ultimate reason for believing miracles is the omnipotence of the Creator.
8. That it is not contrary to nature that, in an object whose nature is known, there should be discovered an alteration of the properties which have been known as its natural properties.
9. Of hell, and the nature of eternal punishments.
10. Whether the fire of hell, if it be material fire, can burn the wicked spirits, that is to say, devils, who are immaterial.
11. Whether it is just that the punishments of sins last longer than the sins themselves lasted.
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.
13. Against the opinion of those who think that the punishments of the wicked after death are purgatorial.
14. Of the temporary punishments of this life to which the human condition is subject.
15. That everything which the grace of God does in the way of rescuing us from the inveterate evils in which we are sunk, pertains to the future world, in which all things are made new.
16. The laws of grace, which extend to all the epochs of the life of the regenerate.
17. Of those who fancy that no men shall be punished eternally.
18. Of those who fancy that, on account of the saints’ intercession, no man shall be damned in the last judgment.
19. Of those who promise impunity from all sins even to heretics, through virtue of their participation of the body of Christ.
20. Of those who promise this indulgence not to all, but only to those who have been baptized as catholics, though afterwards they have broken out into many crimes and heresies.
21. Of those who assert that all catholics who continue in the faith, even though by the depravity of their lives they have merited hell fire, shall be saved on account of the “foundation” of their faith.
22. Of those who fancy that the sins which are intermingled with alms-deeds shall not be charged at the day of judgment.
23. Against those who are of opinion that the punishment neither of the devil nor of wicked men shall be eternal.
24. Against those who fancy that in the judgment of God all the accused will be spared in virtue of the prayers of the saints.
25. Whether those who received heretical baptism, and have afterwards fallen away to wickedness of life; or those who have received catholic baptism, but have afterwards passed over to heresy and schism; or those who have remained in the catholic Church in which they were baptized, but have continued to live immorally,—may hope through the virtue of the sacraments for the remission of eternal punishment.
26. What it is to have Christ for a foundation, and who they are to whom salvation as by fire is promised.
27. Against the belief of those who think that the sins which have been accompanied with almsgiving will do them no harm.
Book XXII.
1. Of the creation of angels and men.
2. Of the eternal and unchangeable will of God.
3. Of the promise of eternal blessedness to the saints, and everlasting punishment to the wicked.
4. Against the wise men of the world, who fancy that the earthly bodies of men cannot be transferred to a heavenly habitation.
5. Of the resurrection of the flesh, which some refuse to believe, though the world at large believes it.
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.
7. That the world’s belief in Christ is the result of divine power, not of human persuasion.
8. Of miracles which were wrought that the world might believe in Christ, and which have not ceased since the world believed.
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.
10. That the martyrs who obtain many miracles in order that the true God may be worshipped, are worthy of much greater honour than the demons, who do some marvels that they themselves may be supposed to be God.
11. Against the Platonists, who argue from the physical weight of the elements that an earthly body cannot inhabit heaven.
12. Against the calumnies with which unbelievers throw ridicule upon the Christian faith in the resurrection of the flesh.
13. Whether abortions, if they are numbered among the dead, shall not also have a part in the resurrection.
14. Whether infants shall rise in that body which they would have had had they grown up.
15. Whether the bodies of all the dead shall rise the same size as the Lord’s body.
16. What is meant by the conforming of the saints to the image of the Son of God.
17. Whether the bodies of women shall retain their own sex in the resurrection.
18. Of the perfect Man, that is, Christ; and of His body, that is, the Church, which is His fulness.
19. That all bodily blemishes which mar human beauty in this life shall be removed in the resurrection, the natural substance of the body remaining, but the quality and quantity of it being altered so as to produce beauty.
20. That, in the resurrection, the substance of our bodies, however disintegrated, shall be entirely reunited.
21. Of the new spiritual body into which the flesh of the saints shall be transformed.
22. Of the miseries and ills to which the human race is justly exposed through the first sin, and from which none can be delivered save by Christ’s grace.
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.
24. Of the blessings with which the Creator has filled this life, obnoxious though it be to the curse.
25. Of the obstinacy of those individuals who impugn the resurrection of the body, though, as was predicted, the whole world believes it.
26. That the opinion of Porphyry, that the soul, in order to be blessed, must be separated from every kind of body, is demolished by Plato, who says that the supreme God promised the gods that they should never be ousted from their bodies.
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.
28. What Plato or Labeo, or even Varro, might have contributed to the true faith of the resurrection, if they had adopted one another’s opinions into one scheme.
29. Of the beatific vision.
30. Of the eternal felicity of the city of God, and of the perpetual Sabbath.
I.—INDEX OF TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE.
MURRAY AND GIBB, EDINBURGH, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE.
A COLLECTION OF ALL THE WORKS OF THE FATHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, PRIOR TO THE COUNCIL OF NICÆA,
EDITED BY THE
REV. ALEXANDER ROBERTS, D.D.,
Author of ‘Discussions on the Gospels,’ etc.,
AND
JAMES DONALDSON, LL.D.,
Rector of the Royal High School, Edinburgh, and Author of ‘Early Christian Literature and Doctrine.’
FIRST YEAR.
SECOND YEAR.
THIRD YEAR.
FOURTH YEAR.
FIFTH YEAR.
(Arnobius and Dionysius, etc., in May.)
SIXTH YEAR (to be ready in 1871).