Classics
The City of God, Volume I
Augustine of Hippo, translated by Marcus Dods · AD 413–426 (Dods’ translation 1871)
Books I–XIII: Augustine’s answer to the pagans who blamed Christianity for the sack of Rome, and the beginnings of the two cities.
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Contents
Book I38 pages
- Argument
- Preface
- 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.[56]
- 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
Book II29 pages
- Argument
- 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
- 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 III32 pages
- Argument
- 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 IV35 pages
- Argument
- 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.[169]
- 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 V28 pages
- Argument
- Preface
- 1. That the cause of the Roman empire, and of all kingdoms, is neither fortuitous nor consists in the position of the stars.[184]
- 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 VI12 pages
- Argument
- Preface
- 1. Of those who maintain that they worship the gods not for the sake of temporal, but eternal advantages
- 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
Book VII37 pages
- Argument
- 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 VIII28 pages
- Argument
- 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 IX24 pages
- Argument
- 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 X32 pages
- Argument
- 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 XI34 pages
- Argument
- 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
- 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 XII24 pages
- Argument
- 1. That the nature of the angels, both good and bad, is one and the same
- 2. That there is no entity[521] 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
- 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
- 16. How we are to understand God's promise of life eternal, which was uttered before the "eternal times."
- 18. Against those who assert that things that are infinite[550] cannot be comprehended by the knowledge of God
- 19. Of worlds without end, or ages of ages.[556]
- 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 XIII25 pages
- Argument
- 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[580] 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."
Augustine of Hippo, The City of God, Volume I, trans. Marcus Dods (1871). Public domain. Text from Project Gutenberg (eBook #45304).