Early Church Fathers
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Volume 2
Edited by Philip Schaff · AD 397–426 (English edition 1886–89)
Augustine’s City of God, his defence of the faith after the fall of Rome, and On Christian Doctrine, on reading and teaching Scripture.
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Contents
The City of God. Book I38 pages
- Summary
- Preface, Explaining His Design in Undertaking This Work
- Chapter 1.—Of the Adversaries of the Name of Christ, Whom the Barbarians for Christ's Sake Spared When They Stormed the City
- Chapter 2.—That It is Quite Contrary to the Usage of War, that the Victors Should Spare the Vanquished for the Sake of Their Gods
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 5.—Cæsar's Statement Regarding the Universal Custom of an Enemy When Sacking a City
- Chapter 6.—That Not Even the Romans, When They Took Cities, Spared the Conquered in Their Temples
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 8.—Of the Advantages and Disadvantages Which Often Indiscriminately Accrue to Good and Wicked Men
- Chapter 9.—Of the Reasons for Administering Correction to Bad and Good Together
- Chapter 10.—That the Saints Lose Nothing in Losing Temporal Goods
- Chapter 11.—Of the End of This Life, Whether It is Material that It Be Long Delayed
- Chapter 12.—Of the Burial of the Dead: that the Denial of It to Christians Does Them No Injury
- Chapter 13.—Reasons for Burying the Bodies of the Saints
- Chapter 14.—Of the Captivity of the Saints, and that Divine Consolation Never Failed Them Therein
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 17.—Of Suicide Committed Through Fear of Punishment or Dishonor
- Chapter 18.—Of the Violence Which May Be Done to the Body by Another's Lust, While the Mind Remains Inviolate
- Chapter 19.—Of Lucretia, Who Put an End to Her Life Because of the Outrage Done Her
- Chapter 20.—That Christians Have No Authority for Committing Suicide in Any Circumstances Whatever
- Chapter 21.—Of the Cases in Which We May Put Men to Death Without Incurring the Guilt of Murder
- Chapter 22.—That Suicide Can Never Be Prompted by Magnanimity
- Chapter 23.—What We are to Think of the Example of Cato, Who Slew Himself Because Unable to Endure Cæsar's Victory
- Chapter 24.—That in that Virtue in Which Regulus Excels Cato, Christians are Pre-Eminently Distinguished
- Chapter 25.—That We Should Not Endeavor By Sin to Obviate Sin
- Chapter 26.—That in Certain Peculiar Cases the Examples of the Saints are Not to Be Followed
- Chapter 27.—Whether Voluntary Death Should Be Sought in Order to Avoid Sin
- Chapter 28.—By What Judgment of God the Enemy Was Permitted to Indulge His Lust on the Bodies of Continent Christians
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 30.—That Those Who Complain of Christianity Really Desire to Live Without Restraint in Shameful Luxury
- Chapter 31.—By What Steps the Passion for Governing Increased Among the Romans
- Chapter 32.—Of the Establishment of Scenic Entertainments
- Chapter 33.—That the Overthrow of Rome Has Not Corrected the Vices of the Romans
- Chapter 34.—Of God's Clemency in Moderating the Ruin of the City
- Chapter 35.—Of the Sons of the Church Who are Hidden Among the Wicked, and of False Christians Within the Church
- Chapter 36.—What Subjects are to Be Handled in the Following Discourse
Book II28 pages
- Summary
- Chapter 1.—Of the Limits Which Must Be Put to the Necessity of Replying to an Adversary
- Chapter 2.—Recapitulation of the Contents of the First Book
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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 Practiced
- Chapter 5.—Of the Obscenities Practiced in Honor of the Mother of the Gods
- Chapter 6.—That the Gods of the Pagans Never Inculcated Holiness of Life
- Chapter 8.—That the Theatrical Exhibitions Publishing the Shameful Actions of the Gods, Propitiated Rather Than Offended Them
- Chapter 9.—That the Poetical License Which the Greeks, in Obedience to Their Gods, Allowed, Was Restrained by the Ancient Romans
- Chapter 10.—That the Devils, in Suffering Either False or True Crimes to Be Laid to Their Charge, Meant to Do Men a Mischief
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 13.—That the Romans Should Have Understood that Gods Who Desired to Be Worshipped in Licentious Entertainments Were Unworthy of Divine Honor
- Chapter 14.—That Plato, Who Excluded Poets from a Well-Ordered City, Was Better Than These Gods Who Desire to Be Honoured by Theatrical Plays
- Chapter 15.—That It Was Vanity, Not Reason, Which Created Some of the Roman Gods
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 17.—Of the Rape of the Sabine Women, and Other Iniquities Perpetrated in Rome's Palmiest Days
- Chapter 18.—What the History of Sallust Reveals Regarding the Life of the Romans, Either When Straitened by Anxiety or Relaxed in Security
- Chapter 19.—Of the Corruption Which Had Grown Upon the Roman Republic Before Christ Abolished the Worship of the Gods
- Chapter 20.—Of the Kind of Happiness and Life Truly Delighted in by Those Who Inveigh Against the Christian Religion
- Chapter 21.—Cicero's Opinion of the Roman Republic
- Chapter 22.—That the Roman Gods Never Took Any Steps to Prevent the Republic from Being Ruined by Immorality
- Chapter 23.—That the Vicissitudes of This Life are Dependent Not on the Favor or Hostility of Demons, But on the Will of the True God
- Chapter 24.—Of the Deeds of Sylla, in Which the Demons Boasted that He Had Their Help
- Chapter 25.—How Powerfully the Evil Spirits Incite Men to Wicked Actions, by Giving Them the Quasi-Divine Authority of Their Example
- Chapter 26.—That the Demons Gave in Secret Certain Obscure Instructions in Morals, While in Public Their Own Solemnities Inculcated All Wickedness
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 28.—That the Christian Religion is Health-Giving
- Chapter 29.—An Exhortation to the Romans to Renounce Paganism
Book III32 pages
- Summary
- Chapter 1.—Of the Ills Which Alone the Wicked Fear, and Which the World Continually Suffered, Even When the Gods Were Worshipped
- Chapter 2.—Whether the Gods, Whom the Greeks and Romans Worshipped in Common, Were Justified in Permitting the Destruction of Ilium
- Chapter 3.—That the Gods Could Not Be Offended by the Adultery of Paris, This Crime Being So Common Among Themselves
- Chapter 4.—Of Varro's Opinion, that It is Useful for Men to Feign Themselves the Offspring of the Gods
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 6.—That the Gods Exacted No Penalty for the Fratricidal Act of Romulus
- Chapter 7.—Of the Destruction of Ilium by Fimbria, a Lieutenant of Marius
- Chapter 8.—Whether Rome Ought to Have Been Entrusted to the Trojan Gods
- Chapter 9.—Whether It is Credible that the Peace During the Reign of Numa Was Brought About by the Gods
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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 Succor
- Chapter 12.—That the Romans Added a Vast Number of Gods to Those Introduced by Numa, and that Their Numbers Helped Them Not at All
- Chapter 13.—By What Right or Agreement The Romans Obtained Their First Wives
- Chapter 14.—Of the Wickedness of the War Waged by the Romans Against the Albans, and of the Victories Won by the Lust of Power
- Chapter 15.—What Manner of Life and Death the Roman Kings Had
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 18.—The Disasters Suffered by the Romans in the Punic Wars, Which Were Not Mitigated by the Protection of the Gods
- Chapter 19.—Of the Calamity of the Second Punic War, Which Consumed the Strength of Both Parties
- Chapter 20.—Of the Destruction of the Saguntines, Who Received No Help from the Roman Gods, Though Perishing on Account of Their Fidelity to Rome
- Chapter 21.—Of the Ingratitude of Rome to Scipio, Its Deliverer, and of Its Manners During the Period Which Sallust Describes as the Best
- Chapter 22.—Of the Edict of Mithridates, Commanding that All Roman Citizens Found in Asia Should Be Slain
- Chapter 23.—Of the Internal Disasters Which Vexed the Roman Republic, and Followed a Portentous Madness Which Seized All the Domestic Animals
- Chapter 24.—Of the Civil Dissension Occasioned by the Sedition of the Gracchi
- Chapter 25.—Of the Temple of Concord, Which Was Erected by a Decree of the Senate on the Scene of These Seditions and Massacres
- Chapter 26.—Of the Various Kinds of Wars Which Followed the Building of the Temple of Concord
- Chapter 27.—Of the Civil War Between Marius and Sylla
- Chapter 28.—Of the Victory of Sylla, the Avenger of the Cruelties of Marius
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 30.—Of the Connection of the Wars Which with Great Severity and Frequency Followed One Another Before the Advent of Christ
- Chapter 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 IV33 pages
- Summary
- Chapter 1.—Of the Things Which Have Been Discussed in the First Book
- Chapter 2.—Of Those Things Which are Contained in Books Second and Third
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 4.—How Like Kingdoms Without Justice are to Robberies
- Chapter 5.—Of the Runaway Gladiators Whose Power Became Like that of Royal Dignity
- Chapter 6.—Concerning the Covetousness of Ninus, Who Was the First Who Made War on His Neighbors, that He Might Rule More Widely
- Chapter 7.—Whether Earthly Kingdoms in Their Rise and Fall Have Been Either Aided or Deserted by the Help of the Gods
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 10.—What Opinions Those Have Followed Who Have Set Divers Gods Over Divers Parts of the World
- Chapter 11.—Concerning the Many Gods Whom the Pagan Doctors Defend as Being One and the Same Jove
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 13.—Concerning Those Who Assert that Only Rational Animals are Parts of the One God
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 15.—Whether It is Suitable for Good Men to Wish to Rule More Widely
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 17.—Whether, If the Highest Power Belongs to Jove, Victoria Also Ought to Be Worshipped
- Chapter 18.—With What Reason They Who Think Felicity and Fortune Goddesses Have Distinguished Them
- Chapter 19.—Concerning Fortuna Muliebris
- Chapter 21.—That Although Not Understanding Them to Be the Gifts of God, They Ought at Least to Have Been Content with Virtue and Felicity
- Chapter 22.—Concerning the Knowledge of the Worship Due to the Gods, Which Varro Glories in Having Himself Conferred on the Romans
- Chapter 23.—Concerning Felicity, Whom the Romans, Who Venerate Many Gods, for a Long Time Did Not Worship with Divine Honor, Though She Alone Would Have Sufficed Instead of All
- Chapter 24.—The Reasons by Which the Pagans Attempt to Defend Their Worshipping Among the Gods the Divine Gifts Themselves
- Chapter 25.—Concerning the One God Only to Be Worshipped, Who, Although His Name is Unknown, is Yet Deemed to Be the Giver of Felicity
- Chapter 26.—Of the Scenic Plays, the Celebration of Which the Gods Have Exacted from Their Worshippers
- Chapter 27.—Concerning the Three Kinds of Gods About Which the Pontiff Scævola Has Discoursed
- Chapter 28.—Whether the Worship of the Gods Has Been of Service to the Romans in Obtaining and Extending the Empire
- Chapter 29.—Of the Falsity of the Augury by Which the Strength and Stability of the Roman Empire Was Considered to Be Indicated
- Chapter 30.—What Kind of Things Even Their Worshippers Have Owned They Have Thought About the Gods of the Nations
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 32.—In What Interest the Princes of the Nations Wished False Religions to Continue Among the People Subject to Them
- Chapter 33.—That the Times of All Kings and Kingdoms are Ordained by the Judgment and Power of the True God
- Chapter 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
- Summary
- Preface
- Chapter 1.—That the Cause of the Roman Empire, and of All Kingdoms, is Neither Fortuitous Nor Consists in the Position of the Stars
- Chapter 2.—On the Difference in the Health of Twins
- Chapter 3.—Concerning the Arguments Which Nigidius the Mathematician Drew from the Potter's Wheel, in the Question About the Birth of Twins
- Chapter 4.—Concerning the Twins Esau and Jacob, Who Were Very Unlike Each Other Both in Their Character and Actions
- Chapter 5.—In What Manner the Mathematicians are Convicted of Professing a Vain Science
- Chapter 6.—Concerning Twins of Different Sexes
- Chapter 7.—Concerning the Choosing of a Day for Marriage, or for Planting, or Sowing
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 9.—Concerning the Foreknowledge of God and the Free Will of Man, in Opposition to the Definition of Cicero
- Chapter 10.—Whether Our Wills are Ruled by Necessity
- Chapter 11.—Concerning the Universal Providence of God in the Laws of Which All Things are Comprehended
- Chapter 12.—By What Virtues the Ancient Romans Merited that the True God, Although They Did Not Worship Him, Should Enlarge Their Empire
- Chapter 13.—Concerning the Love of Praise, Which, Though It is a Vice, is Reckoned a Virtue, Because by It Greater Vice is Restrained
- Chapter 14.—Concerning the Eradication of the Love of Human Praise, Because All the Glory of the Righteous is in God
- Chapter 15.—Concerning the Temporal Reward Which God Granted to the Virtues of the Romans
- Chapter 16.—Concerning the Reward of the Holy Citizens of the Celestial City, to Whom the Example of the Virtues of the Romans are Useful
- Chapter 17.—To What Profit the Romans Carried on Wars, and How Much They Contributed to the Well-Being of Those Whom They Conquered
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 19.—Concerning the Difference Between True Glory and the Desire of Domination
- Chapter 20.—That It is as Shameful for the Virtues to Serve Human Glory as Bodily Pleasure
- Chapter 21.—That the Roman Dominion Was Granted by Him from Whom is All Power, and by Whose Providence All Things are Ruled
- Chapter 22.—The Durations and Issues of War Depend on the Will of God
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 24.—What Was the Happiness of the Christian Emperors, and How Far It Was True Happiness
- Chapter 25.—Concerning the Prosperity Which God Granted to the Christian Emperor Constantine
- Chapter 26.—On the Faith and Piety of Theodosius Augustus
Book VI12 pages
- Summary
- Preface
- Chapter 1.—Of Those Who Maintain that They Worship the Gods Not for the Sake of Temporal But Eternal Advantages
- Chapter 3.—Varro's Distribution of His Book Which He Composed Concerning the Antiquities of Human and Divine Things
- Chapter 4.—That from the Disputation of Varro, It Follows that the Worshippers of the Gods Regard Human Things as More Ancient Than Divine Things
- Chapter 5.—Concerning the Three Kinds of Theology According to Varro, Namely, One Fabulous, the Other Natural, the Third Civil
- Chapter 6.—Concerning the Mythic, that Is, the Fabulous, Theology, and the Civil, Against Varro
- Chapter 7.—Concerning the Likeness and Agreement of the Fabulous and Civil Theologies
- Chapter 8.—Concerning the Interpretations, Consisting of Natural Explanations, Which the Pagan Teachers Attempt to Show for Their Gods
- Chapter 9.—Concerning the Special Offices of the Gods
- Chapter 10.—Concerning the Liberty of Seneca, Who More Vehemently Censured the Civil Theology Than Varro Did the Fabulous
- Chapter 11.—What Seneca Thought Concerning the Jews
Book VII
Argument—In this book it is shown that eternal life is not obtained by the worship of Janus, Jupiter, Saturn, and the other "select gods" of the civil theology35 pages
- Preface
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 2.—Who are the Select Gods, and Whether They are Held to Be Exempt from the Offices of the Commoner Gods
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 4.—The Inferior Gods, Whose Names are Not Associated with Infamy, Have Been Better Dealt with Than the Select Gods, Whose Infamies are Celebrated
- Chapter 5.—Concerning the More Secret Doctrine of the Pagans, and Concerning the Physical Interpretations
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 7.—Whether It is Reasonable to Separate Janus and Terminus as Two Distinct Deities
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 9.—Concerning the Power of Jupiter, and a Comparison of Jupiter with Janus
- Chapter 10.—Whether the Distinction Between Janus and Jupiter is a Proper One
- Chapter 11.—Concerning the Surnames of Jupiter, Which are Referred Not to Many Gods, But to One and the Same God
- Chapter 12.—That Jupiter is Also Called Pecunia
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 14.—Concerning the Offices of Mercury and Mars
- Chapter 15.—Concerning Certain Stars Which the Pagans Have Called by the Names of Their Gods
- Chapter 16.—Concerning Apollo and Diana, and the Other Select Gods Whom They Would Have to Be Parts of the World
- Chapter 17.—That Even Varro Himself Pronounced His Own Opinions Regarding the Gods Ambiguous
- Chapter 18.—A More Credible Cause of the Rise of Pagan Error
- Chapter 19.—Concerning the Interpretations Which Compose the Reason of the Worship of Saturn
- Chapter 20.—Concerning the Rites of Eleusinian Ceres
- Chapter 21.—Concerning the Shamefulness of the Rites Which are Celebrated in Honor of Liber
- Chapter 22.—Concerning Neptune, and Salacia and Venilia
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 25.—The Interpretation of the Mutilation of Atys Which the Doctrine of the Greek Sages Set Forth
- Chapter 26.—Concerning the Abomination of the Sacred Rites of the Great Mother
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 28.—That the Doctrine of Varro Concerning Theology is in No Part Consistent with Itself
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 31.—What Benefits God Gives to the Followers of the Truth to Enjoy Over and Above His General Bounty
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 33.—That Only Through the Christian Religion Could the Deceit of Malign Spirits, Who Rejoice in the Errors of Men, Have Been Manifested
- Chapter 34.—Concerning the Books of Numa Pompilius, Which the Senate Ordered to Be Burned, in Order that the Causes of Sacred Rights Therein Assigned Should Not Become Known
- Chapter 35.—Concerning the Hydromancy Through Which Numa Was Befooled by Certain Images of Demons Seen in the Water
Book VIII28 pages
- Summary
- Chapter 1.—That the Question of Natural Theology is to Be Discussed with Those Philosophers Who Sought a More Excellent Wisdom
- Chapter 2.—Concerning the Two Schools of Philosophers, that Is, the Italic and Ionic, and Their Founders
- Chapter 3.—Of the Socratic Philosophy
- Chapter 4.—Concerning Plato, the Chief Among the Disciples of Socrates, and His Threefold Division of Philosophy
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 6.—Concerning the Meaning of the Platonists in that Part of Philosophy Called Physical
- Chapter 7.—How Much the Platonists are to Be Held as Excelling Other Philosophers in Logic, i.e. Rational Philosophy
- Chapter 8.—That the Platonists Hold the First Rank in Moral Philosophy Also
- Chapter 9.—Concerning that Philosophy Which Has Come Nearest to the Christian Faith
- Chapter 10.—That the Excellency of the Christian Religion is Above All the Science of Philosophers
- Chapter 11.—How Plato Has Been Able to Approach So Nearly to Christian Knowledge
- Chapter 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 Honor of Many Gods
- Chapter 13.—Concerning the Opinion of Plato, According to Which He Defined the Gods as Beings Entirely Good and the Friends of Virtue
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 15.—That the Demons are Not Better Than Men Because of Their Aerial Bodies, or on Account of Their Superior Place of Abode
- Chapter 16.—What Apuleius the Platonist Thought Concerning the Manners and Actions of Demons
- Chapter 17.—Whether It is Proper that Men Should Worship Those Spirits from Whose Vices It is Necessary that They Be Freed
- Chapter 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 Favor of the Good Gods
- Chapter 19.—Of the Impiety of the Magic Art, Which is Dependent on the Assistance of Malign Spirits
- Chapter 20.—Whether We are to Believe that the Good Gods are More Willing to Have Intercourse with Demons Than with Men
- Chapter 21.—Whether the Gods Use the Demons as Messengers and Interpreters, and Whether They are Deceived by Them Willingly, or Without Their Own Knowledge
- Chapter 22.—That We Must, Notwithstanding the Opinion of Apuleius, Reject the Worship of Demons
- Chapter 23.—What Hermes Trismegistus Thought Concerning Idolatry, and from What Source He Knew that the Superstitions of Egypt Were to Be Abolished
- Chapter 24.—How Hermes Openly Confessed the Error of His Forefathers, the Coming Destruction of Which He Nevertheless Bewailed
- Chapter 25.—Concerning Those Things Which May Be Common to the Holy Angels and to Men
- Chapter 26.—That All the Religion of the Pagans Has Reference to Dead Men
- Chapter 27.—Concerning the Nature of the Honor Which the Christians Pay to Their Martyrs
Book IX23 pages
- Summary
- Chapter 1.—The Point at Which the Discussion Has Arrived, and What Remains to Be Handled
- Chapter 2.—Whether Among the Demons, Inferior to the Gods, There are Any Good Spirits Under Whose Guardianship the Human Soul Might Reach True Blessedness
- Chapter 3.—What Apuleius Attributes to the Demons, to Whom, Though He Does Not Deny Them Reason, He Does Not Ascribe Virtue
- Chapter 4.—The Opinion of the Peripatetics and Stoics About Mental Emotions
- Chapter 5.—That the Passions Which Assail the Souls of Christians Do Not Seduce Them to Vice, But Exercise Their Virtue
- Chapter 6.—Of the Passions Which, According to Apuleius, Agitate the Demons Who Are Supposed by Him to Mediate Between Gods and Men
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 8.—How Apuleius Defines the Gods Who Dwell in Heaven, the Demons Who Occupy the Air, and Men Who Inhabit Earth
- Chapter 9.—Whether the Intercession of the Demons Can Secure for Men the Friendship of the Celestial Gods
- Chapter 10.—That, According to Plotinus, Men, Whose Body is Mortal, are Less Wretched Than Demons, Whose Body is Eternal
- Chapter 11.—Of the Opinion of the Platonists, that the Souls of Men Become Demons When Disembodied
- Chapter 12.—Of the Three Opposite Qualities by Which the Platonists Distinguish Between the Nature of Men and that of Demons
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 14.—Whether Men, Though Mortal, Can Enjoy True Blessedness
- Chapter 15.—Of the Man Christ Jesus, the Mediator Between God and Men
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 18.—That the Deceitful Demons, While Promising to Conduct Men to God by Their Intercession, Mean to Turn Them from the Path of Truth
- Chapter 19.—That Even Among Their Own Worshippers the Name "Demon" Has Never a Good Signification
- Chapter 20.—Of the Kind of Knowledge Which Puffs Up the Demons
- Chapter 21.—To What Extent the Lord Was Pleased to Make Himself Known to the Demons
- Chapter 22.—The Difference Between the Knowledge of the Holy Angels and that of the Demons
- Chapter 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
- Summary
- Chapter 2.—The Opinion of Plotinus the Platonist Regarding Enlightenment from Above
- Chapter 3.—That the Platonists, Though Knowing Something of the Creator of the Universe, Have Misunderstood the True Worship of God, by Giving Divine Honor to Angels, Good or Bad
- Chapter 4.—That Sacrifice is Due to the True God Only
- Chapter 5.—Of the Sacrifices Which God Does Not Require, But Wished to Be Observed for the Exhibition of Those Things Which He Does Require
- Chapter 6.—Of the True and Perfect Sacrifice
- Chapter 7.—Of the Love of the Holy Angels, Which Prompts Them to Desire that We Worship the One True God, and Not Themselves
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 9.—Of the Illicit Arts Connected with Demonolatry, and of Which the Platonist Porphyry Adopts Some, and Discards Others
- Chapter 10.—Concerning Theurgy, Which Promises a Delusive Purification of the Soul by the Invocation of Demons
- Chapter 11.—Of Porphyry's Epistle to Anebo, in Which He Asks for Information About the Differences Among Demons
- Chapter 12.—Of the Miracles Wrought by the True God Through the Ministry of the Holy Angels
- Chapter 13.—Of the Invisible God, Who Has Often Made Himself Visible, Not as He Really Is, But as the Beholders Could Bear the Sight
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 15.—Of the Ministry of the Holy Angels, by Which They Fulfill the Providence of God
- Chapter 16.—Whether Those Angels Who Demand that We Pay Them Divine Honor, 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
- Chapter 17.—Concerning the Ark of the Covenant, and the Miraculous Signs Whereby God Authenticated the Law and the Promise
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 19.—On the Reasonableness of Offering, as the True Religion Teaches, a Visible Sacrifice to the One True and Invisible God
- Chapter 20.—Of the Supreme and True Sacrifice Which Was Effected by the Mediator Between God and Men
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 22.—Whence the Saints Derive Power Against Demons and True Purification of Heart
- Chapter 23.—Of the Principles Which, According to the Platonists, Regulate the Purification of the Soul
- Chapter 24.—Of the One Only True Principle Which Alone Purifies and Renews Human Nature
- Chapter 25.—That All the Saints, Both Under the Law and Before It, Were Justified by Faith in the Mystery of Christ's Incarnation
- Chapter 26.—Of Porphyry's Weakness in Wavering Between the Confession of the True God and the Worship of Demons
- Chapter 27.—Of the Impiety of Porphyry, Which is Worse Than Even the Mistake of Apuleius
- Chapter 28.—How It is that Porphyry Has Been So Blind as Not to Recognize the True Wisdom—Christ
- Chapter 29.—Of the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Which the Platonists in Their Impiety Blush to Acknowledge
- Chapter 30.—Porphyry's Emendations and Modifications of Platonism
- Chapter 31.—Against the Arguments on Which the Platonists Ground Their Assertion that the Human Soul is Co-Eternal with God
- Chapter 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
- Summary
- Chapter 1.—Of This Part of the Work, Wherein We Begin to Explain the Origin and End of the Two Cities
- Chapter 2.—Of the Knowledge of God, to Which No Man Can Attain Save Through the Mediator Between God and Men, the Man Christ Jesus
- Chapter 3.—Of the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures Composed by the Divine Spirit
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 5.—That We Ought Not to Seek to Comprehend the Infinite Ages of Time Before the World, Nor the Infinite Realms of Space
- Chapter 6.—That the World and Time Had Both One Beginning, and the One Did Not Anticipate the Other
- Chapter 7.—Of the Nature of the First Days, Which are Said to Have Had Morning and Evening, Before There Was a Sun
- Chapter 8.—What We are to Understand of God's Resting on the Seventh Day, After the Six Days' Work
- Chapter 9.—What the Scriptures Teach Us to Believe Concerning the Creation of the Angels
- Chapter 10.—Of the Simple and Unchangeable Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, One God, in Whom Substance and Quality are Identical
- Chapter 11.—Whether the Angels that Fell Partook of the Blessedness Which the Holy Angels Have Always Enjoyed from the Time of Their Creation
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 15.—How We are to Understand the Words, "The Devil Sinneth from the Beginning."
- Chapter 16.—Of the Ranks and Differences of the Creatures, Estimated by Their Utility, or According to the Natural Gradations of Being
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 18.—Of the Beauty of the Universe, Which Becomes, by God's Ordinance, More Brilliant by the Opposition of Contraries
- Chapter 19.—What, Seemingly, We are to Understand by the Words, "God Divided the Light from the Darkness."
- Chapter 20.—Of the Words Which Follow the Separation of Light and Darkness, "And God Saw the Light that It Was Good."
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 23.—Of the Error in Which the Doctrine of Origen is Involved
- Chapter 24.—Of the Divine Trinity, and the Indications of Its Presence Scattered Everywhere Among Its Works
- Chapter 25.—Of the Division of Philosophy into Three Parts
- Chapter 26.—Of the Image of the Supreme Trinity, Which We Find in Some Sort in Human Nature Even in Its Present State
- Chapter 27.—Of Existence, and Knowledge of It, and the Love of Both
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 30.—Of the Perfection of the Number Six, Which is the First of the Numbers Which is Composed of Its Aliquot Parts
- Chapter 31.—Of the Seventh Day, in Which Completeness and Repose are Celebrated
- Chapter 32.—Of the Opinion that the Angels Were Created Before the World
- Chapter 33.—Of the Two Different and Dissimilar Communities of Angels, Which are Not Inappropriately Signified by the Names Light and Darkness
- Chapter 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 XII25 pages
- Summary
- Chapter 1.—That the Nature of the Angels, Both Good and Bad, is One and the Same
- Chapter 2.—That There is No Entity Contrary to the Divine, Because Nonentity Seems to Be that Which is Wholly Opposite to Him Who Supremely and Always is
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 4.—Of the Nature of Irrational and Lifeless Creatures, Which in Their Own Kind and Order Do Not Mar the Beauty of the Universe
- Chapter 5.—That in All Natures, of Every Kind and Rank, God is Glorified
- Chapter 6.—What the Cause of the Blessedness of the Good Angels Is, and What the Cause of the Misery of the Wicked
- Chapter 7.—That We Ought Not to Expect to Find Any Efficient Cause of the Evil Will
- Chapter 8.—Of the Misdirected Love Whereby the Will Fell Away from the Immutable to the Mutable Good
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 10.—Of the Falseness of the History Which Allots Many Thousand Years to the World's Past
- Chapter 12.—How These Persons are to Be Answered, Who Find Fault with the Creation of Man on the Score of Its Recent Date
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 16.—How We are to Understand God's Promise of Life Eternal, Which Was Uttered Before the "Eternal Times."
- Chapter 18.—Against Those Who Assert that Things that are Infinite Cannot Be Comprehended by the Knowledge of God
- Chapter 19.—Of Worlds Without End, or Ages of Ages
- Chapter 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 Labor and Misery
- Chapter 21.—That There Was Created at First But One Individual, and that the Human Race Was Created in Him
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 23.—Of the Nature of the Human Soul Created in the Image of God
- Chapter 24.—Whether the Angels Can Be Said to Be the Creators of Any, Even the Least Creature
- Chapter 25.—That God Alone is the Creator of Every Kind of Creature, Whatever Its Nature or Form
- Chapter 26.—Of that Opinion of the Platonists, that the Angels Were Themselves Indeed Created by God, But that Afterwards They Created Man's Body
- Chapter 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 Honored and Rewarded, and that Which Was to Be Condemned and Punished
Book XIII
Argument—In This Book It Is Taught That Death Is Penal, and Had Its Origin in Adam's Sin22 pages
- Chapter 1.—Of the Fall of the First Man, Through Which Mortality Has Been Contracted
- Chapter 2.—Of that Death Which Can Affect an Immortal Soul, and of that to Which the Body is Subject
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 4.—Why Death, the Punishment of Sin, is Not Withheld from Those Who by the Grace of Regeneration are Absolved from Sin
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 6.—Of the Evil of Death in General, Considered as the Separation of Soul and Body
- Chapter 7.—Of the Death Which the Unbaptized Suffer for the Confession of Christ
- Chapter 8.—That the Saints, by Suffering the First Death for the Truth's Sake, are Freed from the Second
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 10.—Of the Life of Mortals, Which is Rather to Be Called Death Than Life
- Chapter 11.—Whether One Can Both Be Living and Dead at the Same Time
- Chapter 12.—What Death God Intended, When He Threatened Our First Parents with Death If They Should Disobey His Commandment
- Chapter 13.—What Was the First Punishment of the Transgression of Our First Parents
- Chapter 14.—In What State Man Was Made by God, and into What Estate He Fell by the Choice of His Own Will
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 17.—Against Those Who Affirm that Earthly Bodies Cannot Be Made Incorruptible and Eternal
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 19.—Against the Opinion of Those Who Do Not Believe that the Primitive Men Would Have Been Immortal If They Had Not Sinned
- Chapter 20.—That the Flesh Now Resting in Peace Shall Be Raised to a Perfection Not Enjoyed by the Flesh of Our First Parents
- Chapter 21.—Of Paradise, that It Can Be Understood in a Spiritual Sense Without Sacrificing the Historic Truth of the Narrative Regarding The Real Place
- Chapter 22.—That the Bodies of the Saints Shall After the Resurrection Be Spiritual, and Yet Flesh Shall Not Be Changed into Spirit
- Chapter 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
Book XIV28 pages
- Summary
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 3.—That the 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
- Chapter 4.—What It is to Live According to Man, and What to Live According to God
- Chapter 6.—Of the Character of the Human Will Which Makes the Affections of the Soul Right or Wrong
- Chapter 7.—That the Words Love and Regard (Amor and Dilectio) are in Scripture Used Indifferently of Good and Evil Affection
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 9.—Of the Perturbations of the Soul Which Appear as Right Affections in the Life of the Righteous
- Chapter 10.—Whether It is to Be Believed that Our First Parents in Paradise, Before They Sinned, Were Free from All Perturbation
- Chapter 11.—Of the Fall of the First Man, in Whom Nature Was Created Good, and Can Be Restored Only by Its Author
- Chapter 12.—Of the Nature of Man's First Sin
- Chapter 13.—That in Adam's Sin an Evil Will Preceded the Evil Act
- Chapter 14.—Of the Pride in the Sin, Which Was Worse Than the Sin Itself
- Chapter 15.—Of the Justice of the Punishment with Which Our First Parents Were Visited for Their Disobedience
- Chapter 16.—Of the Evil of Lust,—A Word Which, Though Applicable to Many Vices, is Specially Appropriated to Sexual Uncleanness
- Chapter 17.—Of the Nakedness of Our First Parents, Which They Saw After Their Base and Shameful Sin
- Chapter 18.—Of the Shame Which Attends All Sexual Intercourse
- Chapter 19.—That It is Now Necessary, as It Was Not Before Man Sinned, to Bridle Anger and Lust by the Restraining Influence of Wisdom
- Chapter 20.—Of the Foolish Beastliness of the Cynics
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 22.—Of the Conjugal Union as It Was Originally Instituted and Blessed by God
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 25.—Of True Blessedness, Which This Present Life Cannot Enjoy
- Chapter 26.—That We are to Believe that in Paradise Our First Parents Begat Offspring Without Blushing
- Chapter 27.—Of the Angels and Men Who Sinned, and that Their Wickedness Did Not Disturb the Order of God's Providence
- Chapter 28.—Of the Nature of the Two Cities, the Earthly and the Heavenly
Book XV26 pages
- Summary
- Chapter 1.—Of the Two Lines of the Human Race Which from First to Last Divide It
- Chapter 2.—Of the Children of the Flesh and the Children of the Promise
- Chapter 3.—That Sarah's Barrenness was Made Productive by God's Grace
- Chapter 4.—Of the Conflict and Peace of the Earthly City
- Chapter 5.—Of the Fratricidal Act of the Founder of the Earthly City, and the Corresponding Crime of the Founder of Rome
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 7.—Of the Cause of Cain's Crime and His Obstinacy, Which Not Even the Word of God Could Subdue
- Chapter 8.—What Cain's Reason Was for Building a City So Early in the History of the Human Race
- Chapter 9.—Of the Long Life and Greater Stature of the Antediluvians
- Chapter 10.—Of the Different Computation of the Ages of the Antediluvians, Given by the Hebrew Manuscripts and by Our Own
- Chapter 11.—Of Methuselah's Age, Which Seems to Extend Fourteen Years Beyond the Deluge
- Chapter 12.—Of the Opinion of Those Who Do Not Believe that in These Primitive Times Men Lived So Long as is Stated
- Chapter 13.—Whether, in Computing Years, We Ought to Follow the Hebrew or the Septuagint
- Chapter 14.—That the Years in Those Ancient Times Were of the Same Length as Our Own
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 16.—Of Marriage Between Blood-Relations, in Regard to Which the Present Law Could Not Bind the Men of the Earliest Ages
- Chapter 17.—Of the Two Fathers and Leaders Who Sprang from One Progenitor
- Chapter 18.—The Significance of Abel, Seth, and Enos to Christ and His Body the Church
- Chapter 19.—The Significance Of Enoch's Translation
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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."
- Chapter 25.—Of the Anger of God, Which Does Not Inflame His Mind, Nor Disturb His Unchangeable Tranquillity
- Chapter 26.—That the Ark Which Noah Was Ordered to Make Figures In Every Respect Christ and the Church
Book XVI42 pages
- Summary
- Chapter 1.—Whether, After the Deluge, from Noah to Abraham, Any Families Can Be Found Who Lived According to God
- Chapter 2.—What Was Prophetically Prefigured in the Sons of Noah
- Chapter 3.—Of the Generations of the Three Sons of Noah
- Chapter 4.—Of the Diversity of Languages, and of the Founding of Babylon
- Chapter 5.—Of God's Coming Down to Confound the Languages of the Builders of the City
- Chapter 6.—What We are to Understand by God's Speaking to the Angels
- Chapter 7.—Whether Even the Remotest Islands Received Their Fauna from the Animals Which Were Preserved, Through the Deluge, in the Ark
- Chapter 8.—Whether Certain Monstrous Races of Men are Derived from the Stock of Adam or Noah's Sons
- Chapter 9.—Whether We are to Believe in the Antipodes
- Chapter 10.—Of the Genealogy of Shem, in Whose Line the City of God is Preserved Till the Time of Abraham
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 12.—Of the Era in Abraham's Life from Which a New Period in the Holy Succession Begins
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 14.—Of the Years of Terah, Who Completed His Lifetime in Haran
- Chapter 15.—Of the Time of the Migration of Abraham, When, According to the Commandment of God, He Went Out from Haran
- Chapter 16.—Of the Order and Nature of the Promises of God Which Were Made to Abraham
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 18.—Of the Repeated Address of God to Abraham, in Which He Promised the Land of Canaan to Him and to His Seed
- Chapter 19.—Of the Divine Preservation of Sarah's Chastity in Egypt, When Abraham Had Called Her Not His Wife But His Sister
- Chapter 20.—Of the Parting of Lot and Abraham, Which They Agreed to Without Breach of Charity
- Chapter 21.—Of the Third Promise of God, by Which He Assured the Land of Canaan to Abraham and His Seed in Perpetuity
- Chapter 22.—Of Abraham's Overcoming the Enemies of Sodom, When He Delivered Lot from Captivity and Was Blessed by Melchizedek the Priest
- Chapter 24.—Of the Meaning of the Sacrifice Abraham Was Commanded to Offer When He Supplicated to Be Taught About Those Things He Had Believed
- Chapter 25.—Of Sarah's Handmaid, Hagar, Whom She Herself Wished to Be Abraham's Concubine
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 29.—Of the Three Men or Angels, in Whom the Lord is Related to Have Appeared to Abraham at the Oak of Mamre
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 31.—Of Isaac, Who Was Born According to the Promise, Whose Name Was Given on Account of the Laughter of Both Parents
- Chapter 32.—Of Abraham's Obedience and Faith, Which Were Proved by the Offering Up, of His Son in Sacrifice, and of Sarah's Death
- Chapter 33.—Of Rebecca, the Grand-Daughter of Nahor, Whom Isaac Took to Wife
- Chapter 34.—What is Meant by Abraham's Marrying Keturah After Sarah's Death
- Chapter 35.—What Was Indicated by the Divine Answer About the Twins Still Shut Up in the Womb of Rebecca Their Mother
- Chapter 36.—Of the Oracle and Blessing Which Isaac Received, Just as His Father Did, Being Beloved for His Sake
- Chapter 37.—Of the Things Mystically Prefigured in Esau and Jacob
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 39.—The Reason Why Jacob Was Also Called Israel
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 41.—Of the Blessing Which Jacob Promised in Judah His Son
- Chapter 42.—Of the Sons of Joseph, Whom Jacob Blessed, Prophetically Changing His Hands
- Chapter 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 XVII22 pages
- Summary
- Chapter 1.—Of the Prophetic Age
- Chapter 2.—At What Time the Promise of God Was Fulfilled Concerning the Land of Canaan, Which Even Carnal Israel Got in Possession
- Chapter 3.—Of the Three-Fold Meaning of the Prophecies, Which are to Be Referred Now to the Earthly, Now to the Heavenly Jerusalem, and Now Again to Both
- Chapter 4.—About the Prefigured Change of the Israelitic Kingdom and Priesthood, and About the Things Hannah the Mother of Samuel Prophesied, Personating the Church
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 7.—Of the Disruption of the Kingdom of Israel, by Which the Perpetual Division of the Spiritual from the Carnal Israel Was Prefigured
- Chapter 8.—Of the Promises Made to David in His Son, Which are in No Wise Fulfilled in Solomon, But Most Fully in Christ
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 13.—Whether the Truth of This Promised Peace Can Be Ascribed to Those Times Passed Away Under Solomon
- Chapter 14.—Of David's Concern in the Writing of the Psalms
- Chapter 15.—Whether All the Things Prophesied in the Psalms Concerning Christ and His Church Should Be Taken Up in the Text of This Work
- Chapter 16.—Of the Things Pertaining to Christ and the Church, Said Either Openly or Tropically in the 45th Psalm
- Chapter 17.—Of Those Things in the 110th Psalm Which Relate to the Priesthood of Christ, and in the 22d to His Passion
- Chapter 18.—Of the 3d, 41st, 15th, and 68th Psalms, in Which the Death and Resurrection of the Lord are Prophesied
- Chapter 19.—Of the 69th Psalm, in Which the Obstinate Unbelief of the Jews is Declared
- Chapter 21.—Of the Kings After Solomon, Both in Judah and Israel
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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 XVIII50 pages
- Summary
- Chapter 1.—Of Those Things Down to the Times of the Saviour Which Have Been Discussed in the Seventeen Books
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 4.—Of the Times of Jacob and His Son Joseph
- Chapter 5.—Of Apis King of Argos, Whom the Egyptians Called Serapis, and Worshipped with Divine Honors
- Chapter 6.—Who Were Kings of Argos, and of Assyria, When Jacob Died in Egypt
- Chapter 7.—Who Were Kings When Joseph Died in Egypt
- Chapter 8.—Who Were Kings When Moses Was Born, and What Gods Began to Be Worshipped Then
- Chapter 9.—When the City of Athens Was Founded, and What Reason Varro Assigns for Its Name
- Chapter 10.—What Varro Reports About the Term Areopagus, and About Deucalion's Flood
- Chapter 11.—When Moses Led the People Out of Egypt; And Who Were Kings When His Successor Joshua the Son of Nun Died
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 13.—What Fables Were Invented at the Time When Judges Began to Rule the Hebrews
- Chapter 14.—Of the Theological Poets
- Chapter 15.—Of the Fall of the Kingdom of Argos, When Picus the Son of Saturn First Received His Father's Kingdom of Laurentum
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 17.—What Varro Says of the Incredible Transformations of Men
- Chapter 18.—What We Should Believe Concerning the Transformations Which Seem to Happen to Men Through the Art of Demons
- Chapter 19.—That Æneas Came into Italy When Abdon the Judge Ruled Over the Hebrews
- Chapter 20.—Of the Succession of the Line of Kings Among the Israelites After the Times of the Judges
- Chapter 21.—Of the Kings of Latium, the First and Twelfth of Whom, Æneas and Aventinus, Were Made Gods
- Chapter 22.—That Rome Was Founded When the Assyrian Kingdom Perished, at Which Time Hezekiah Reigned in Judah
- Chapter 23.—Of the Erythræan Sibyl, Who is Known to Have Sung Many Things About Christ More Plainly Than the Other Sibyls
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 28.—Of the Things Pertaining to the Gospel of Christ Which Hosea and Amos Prohesied
- Chapter 29.—What Things are Predicted by Isaiah Concerning Christ and the Church
- Chapter 30.—What Micah, Jonah, and Joel Prophesied in Accordance with the New Testament
- Chapter 31.—Of the Predictions Concerning the Salvation of the World in Christ, in Obadiah, Nahum, and Habakkuk
- Chapter 32.—Of the Prophecy that is Contained in the Prayer and Song of Habakkuk
- Chapter 33.—What Jeremiah and Zephaniah Have, by the Prophetic Spirit, Spoken Before Concerning Christ and the Calling of the Nations
- Chapter 34.—Of the Prophecy of Daniel and Ezekiel, Other Two of the Greater Prophets
- Chapter 35.—Of the Prophecy of the Three Prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi
- Chapter 36.—About Esdras and the Books of the Maccabees
- Chapter 37.—That Prophetic Records are Found Which are More Ancient Than Any Fountain of the Gentile Philosophy
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 39.—About the Hebrew Written Characters Which that Language Always Possessed
- Chapter 40.—About the Most Mendacious Vanity of the Egyptians, in Which They Ascribe to Their Science an Antiquity of a Hundred Thousand Years
- Chapter 41.—About the Discord of Philosophic Opinion, and the Concord of the Scriptures that are Held as Canonical by the Church
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 43.—Of the Authority of the Septuagint Translation, Which, Saving the Honor of the Hebrew Original, is to Be Preferred to All Translations
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 47.—Whether Before Christian Times There Were Any Outside of the Israelite Race Who Belonged to the Fellowship of the Heavenly City
- Chapter 49.—Of the Indiscriminate Increase of the Church, Wherein Many Reprobate are in This World Mixed with the Elect
- Chapter 50.—Of the Preaching of the Gospel, Which is Made More Famous and Powerful by the Sufferings of Its Preachers
- Chapter 51.—That the Catholic Faith May Be Confirmed Even by the Dissensions of the Heretics
- Chapter 53.—Of the Hidden Time of the Final Persecution
- Chapter 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 XIX28 pages
- Summary
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 3.—Which of the Three Leading Opinions Regarding the Chief Good Should Be Preferred, According to Varro, Who Follows Antiochus and the Old Academy
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 5.—Of the Social Life, Which, Though Most Desirable, is Frequently Disturbed by Many Distresses
- Chapter 6.—Of the Error of Human Judgments When the Truth is Hidden
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 10.—The Reward Prepared for the Saints After They Have Endured the Trial of This Life
- Chapter 11.—Of the Happiness of the Eternal Peace, Which Constitutes the End or True Perfection of the Saints
- Chapter 12.—That Even the Fierceness of War and All the Disquietude of Men Make Towards This One End of Peace, Which Every Nature Desires
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 16.—Of Equitable Rule
- Chapter 17.—What Produces Peace, and What Discord, Between the Heavenly and Earthly Cities
- Chapter 18.—How Different the Uncertainty of the New Academy is from the Certainty of the Christian Faith
- Chapter 19.—Of the Dress and Habits of the Christian People
- Chapter 20.—That the Saints are in This Life Blessed in Hope
- Chapter 21.—Whether There Ever Was a Roman Republic Answering to the Definitions of Scipio in Cicero's Dialogue
- Chapter 22.—Whether the God Whom the Christians Serve is the True God to Whom Alone Sacrifice Ought to Be Paid
- Chapter 23.—Porphyry's Account of the Responses Given by the Oracles of the gods Concerning Christ
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 25.—That Where There is No True Religion There are No True Virtues
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 27.—That the Peace of Those Who Serve God Cannot in This Mortal Life Be Apprehended in Its Perfection
- Chapter 28.—The End of the Wicked
Book XX
Argument—Concerning the Last Judgment, and the Declarations Regarding It in the Old and New Testaments29 pages
- Chapter 1.—That Although God is Always Judging, It is Nevertheless Reasonable to Confine Our Attention in This Book to His Last Judgment
- Chapter 2.—That in the Mingled Web of Human Affairs God's Judgment is Present, Though It Cannot Be Discerned
- Chapter 3.—What Solomon, in the Book of Ecclesiastes, Says Regarding the Things Which Happen Alike to Good and Wicked Men
- Chapter 4.—That Proofs of the Last Judgment Will Be Adduced, First from the New Testament, and Then from the Old
- Chapter 5.—The Passages in Which the Saviour Declares that There Shall Be a Divine Judgment in the End of the World
- Chapter 6.—What is the First Resurrection, and What the Second
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 8.—Of the Binding and Loosing of the Devil
- Chapter 9.—What the Reign of the Saints with Christ for a Thousand Years Is, and How It Differs from the Eternal Kingdom
- Chapter 10.—What is to Be Replied to Those Who Think that Resurrection Pertains Only to Bodies and Not to Souls
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 12.—Whether the Fire that Came Down Out of Heaven and Devoured Them Refers to the Last Punishment of the Wicked
- Chapter 13.—Whether the Time of the Persecution or Antichrist Should Be Reckoned in the Thousand Years
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 15.—Who the Dead are Who are Given Up to Judgment by the Sea, and by Death and Hell
- Chapter 16.—Of the New Heaven and the New Earth
- Chapter 17.—Of the Endless Glory of the Church
- Chapter 18.—What the Apostle Peter Predicted Regarding the Last Judgment
- Chapter 19.—What the Apostle Paul Wrote to the Thessalonians About the Manifestation of Antichrist Which Shall Precede the Day of the Lord
- Chapter 20.—What the Same Apostle Taught in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians Regarding the Resurrection of the Dead
- Chapter 21.—Utterances of the Prophet Isaiah Regarding the Resurrection of the Dead and the Retributive Judgment
- Chapter 22.—What is Meant by the Good Going Out to See the Punishment of the Wicked
- Chapter 23.—What Daniel Predicted Regarding the Persecution of Antichrist, the Judgment of God, and the Kingdom of the Saints
- Chapter 24.—Passages from the Psalms of David Which Predict the End of the World and the Last Judgment
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 27.—Of the Separation of the Good and the Bad, Which Proclaim the Discriminating Influence of the Last Judgment
- Chapter 28.—That the Law of Moses Must Be Spiritually Understood to Preclude the Damnable Murmurs of a Carnal Interpretation
- Chapter 29.—Of the Coming of Elias Before the Judgment, that the Jews May Be Converted to Christ by His Preaching and Explanation of Scripture
Book XXI
Argument—Of the end reserved for the city of the devil, namely, the eternal punishment of the damned; and of the arguments which unbelief brings against it25 pages
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 2.—Whether It is Possible for Bodies to Last for Ever in Burning Fire
- Chapter 3.—Whether Bodily Suffering Necessarily Terminates in the Destruction of the Flesh
- Chapter 4.—Examples from Nature Proving that Bodies May Remain Unconsumed and Alive in Fire
- Chapter 5.—That There are Many Things Which Reason Cannot Account For, and Which are Nevertheless True
- Chapter 6.—That All Marvels are Not of Nature's Production, But that Some are Due to Human Ingenuity and Others to Diabolic Contrivance
- Chapter 7.—That the Ultimate Reason for Believing Miracles is the Omnipotence of the Creator
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 9.—Of Hell, and the Nature of Eternal Punishments
- Chapter 10.—Whether the Fire of Hell, If It Be Material Fire, Can Burn the Wicked Spirits, that is to Say, Devils, Who are Immaterial
- Chapter 11.—Whether It is Just that the Punishments of Sins Last Longer Than the Sins Themselves Lasted
- Chapter 12.—Of the Greatness of the First Transgression, on Account of Which Eternal Punishment is Due to All Who are Not Within the Pale of the Saviour's Grace
- Chapter 13.—Against the Opinion of Those Who Think that the Punishments of the Wicked After Death are Purgatorial
- Chapter 14.—Of the Temporary Punishments of This Life to Which the Human Condition is Subject
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 16.—The Laws of Grace, Which Extend to All the Epochs of the Life of the Regenerate
- Chapter 17.—Of Those Who Fancy that No Men Shall Be Punished Eternally
- Chapter 18.—Of Those Who Fancy That, on Account of the Saints' Intercession, Man Shall Be Damned in the Last Judgment
- Chapter 19.—Of Those Who Promise Impunity from All Sins Even to Heretics, Through Virtue of Their Participation of the Body of Christ
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 22.—Of Those Who Fancy that the Sins Which are Intermingled with Alms-Deeds Shall Not Be Charged at the Day of Judgment
- Chapter 23.—Against Those Who are of Opinion that the Punishment Neither of the Devil Nor of Wicked Men Shall Be Eternal
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 26.—What It is to Have Christ for a Foundation, and Who They are to Whom Salvation as by Fire is Promised
- Chapter 27.—Against the Belief of Those Who Think that the Sins Which Have Been Accompanied with Almsgiving Will Do Them No Harm
Book XXII28 pages
- Summary
- Chapter 1.—Of the Creation of Angels and Men
- Chapter 2.—Of the Eternal and Unchangeable Will of God
- Chapter 3.—Of the Promise of Eternal Blessedness to the Saints, and Everlasting Punishment to the Wicked
- Chapter 4.—Against the Wise Men of the World, Who Fancy that the Earthly Bodies of Men Cannot Be Transferred to a Heavenly Habitation
- Chapter 5.—Of the Resurrection of the Flesh, Which Some Refuse to Believe, Though the World at Large Believes It
- Chapter 6.—That Rome Made Its Founder Romulus a God Because It Loved Him; But the Church Loved Christ Because It Believed Him to Be God
- Chapter 7.—That the World's Belief in Christ is the Result of Divine Power, Not of Human Persuasion
- Chapter 8.—Of Miracles Which Were Wrought that the World Might Believe in Christ, and Which Have Not Ceased Since the World Believed
- Chapter 9.—That All the Miracles Which are Done by Means of the Martyrs in the Name of Christ Testify to that Faith Which the Martyrs Had in Christ
- Chapter 11.—Against the Platonists, Who Argue from the Physical Weight of the Elements that an Earthly Body Cannot Inhabit Heaven
- Chapter 12.—Against the Calumnies with Which Unbelievers Throw Ridicule Upon the Christian Faith in the Resurrection of the Flesh
- Chapter 13.—Whether Abortions, If They are Numbered Among the Dead, Shall Not Also Have a Part in the Resurrection
- Chapter 14.—Whether Infants Shall Rise in that Body Which They Would Have Had Had They Grown Up
- Chapter 15.—Whether the Bodies of All the Dead Shall Rise the Same Size as the Lord's Body
- Chapter 16.—What is Meant by the Conforming of the Saints to the Image of The Son of God
- Chapter 17.—Whether the Bodies of Women Shall Retain Their Own Sex in the Resurrection
- Chapter 18.—Of the Perfect Man, that Is, Christ; And of His Body, that Is, The Church, Which is His Fullness
- Chapter 20.—That, in the Resurrection, the Substance of Our Bodies, However Disintegrated, Shall Be Entirely Reunited
- Chapter 21.—Of the New Spiritual Body into Which the Flesh of the Saints Shall Be Transformed
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 23.—Of the Miseries of This Life Which Attach Peculiarly to the Toil of Good Men, Irrespective of Those Which are Common to the Good and Bad
- Chapter 24.—Of the Blessings with Which the Creator Has Filled This Life, Obnoxious Though It Be to the Curse
- Chapter 25.—Of the Obstinacy of Those Individuals Who Impugn the Resurrection of the Body, Though, as Was Predicted, the Whole World Believes It
- Chapter 27.—Of the Apparently Conflicting Opinions of Plato and Porphyry, Which Would Have Conducted Them Both to the Truth If They Could Have Yielded to One Another
- Chapter 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
- Chapter 29.—Of the Beatific Vision
- Chapter 30.—Of the Eternal Felicity of the City of God, and of the Perpetual Sabbath
Contents of Christian Doctrine43 pages
- Preface, Showing the Utility of the Treatise on Christian Doctrine
- Preface
- Book I. Containing a General View of the Subjects Treated in Holy Scripture
- Chapter 1.—The Interpretation of Scripture Depends on the Discovery and Enunciation of the Meaning, and is to Be Undertaken in Dependence on God's Aid
- Chapter 2.—What a Thing Is, and What A Sign
- Chapter 3.—Some Things are for Use, Some for Enjoyment
- Chapter 4.—Difference of Use and Enjoyment
- Chapter 5.—The Trinity the True Object of Enjoyment
- Chapter 6.—In What Sense God is Ineffable
- Chapter 7.—What All Men Understand by the Term God
- Chapter 8.—God to Be Esteemed Above All Else, Because He is Unchangeable Wisdom
- Chapter 9.—All Acknowledge the Superiority of Unchangeable Wisdom to that Which is Variable
- Chapter 10.—To See God, the Soul Must Be Purified
- Chapter 11.—Wisdom Becoming Incarnate, a Pattern to Us of Purification
- Chapter 12.—In What Sense the Wisdom of God Came to Us
- Chapter 13.—The Word Was Made Flesh
- Chapter 14.—How the Wisdom of God Healed Man
- Chapter 15.—Faith is Buttressed by the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ, and is Stimulated by His Coming to Judgment
- Chapter 16.—Christ Purges His Church by Medicinal Afflictions
- Chapter 17.—Christ, by Forgiving Our Sins, Opened the Way to Our Home
- Chapter 18.—The Keys Given to the Church
- Chapter 19.—Bodily and Spiritual Death and Resurrection
- Chapter 20.—The Resurrection to Damnation
- Chapter 21.—Neither Body Nor Soul Extinguished at Death
- Chapter 22.—God Alone to Be Enjoyed
- Chapter 23.—Man Needs No Injunction to Love Himself and His Own Body
- Chapter 24.—No Man Hates His Own Flesh, Not Even Those Who Abuse It
- Chapter 25.—A Man May Love Something More Than His Body, But Does Not Therefore Hate His Body
- Chapter 26.—The Command to Love God and Our Neighbor Includes a Command to Love Ourselves
- Chapter 27.—The Order of Love
- Chapter 28.—How We are to Decide Whom to Aid
- Chapter 29.—We are to Desire and Endeavor that All Men May Love God
- Chapter 30.—Whether Angels are to Be Reckoned Our Neighbors
- Chapter 31.—God Uses Rather Than Enjoys Us
- Chapter 32.—In What Way God Uses Man
- Chapter 33.—In What Way Man Should Be Enjoyed
- Chapter 34.—Christ the First Way to God
- Chapter 35.—The Fulfillment and End of Scripture is the Love of God and Our Neighbor
- Chapter 36.—That Interpretation of Scripture Which Builds Us Up in Love is Not Perniciously Deceptive Nor Mendacious, Even Though It Be Faulty. The Interpreter, However, Should Be Corrected
- Chapter 37.—Dangers of Mistaken Interpretation
- Chapter 38.—Love Never Faileth
- Chapter 39.—He Who is Mature in Faith, Hope and Love, Needs Scripture No Longer
- Chapter 40.—What Manner of Reader Scripture Demands
Book II43 pages
- Summary
- Chapter 1.—Signs, Their Nature and Variety
- Chapter 2.—Of the Kind of Signs We are Now Concerned with
- Chapter 3.—Among Signs, Words Hold the Chief Place
- Chapter 4.—Origin of Writing
- Chapter 5.—Scripture Translated into Various Languages
- Chapter 6.—Use of the Obscurities in Scripture Which Arise from Its Figurative Language
- Chapter 7.—Steps to Wisdom: First, Fear; Second, Piety; Third, Knowledge; Fourth, Resolution; Fifth, Counsel; Sixth, Purification of Heart; Seventh, Stop or Termination, Wisdom
- Chapter 8.—The Canonical Books
- Chapter 9.—How We Should Proceed in Studying Scripture
- Chapter 10.—Unknown or Ambiguous Signs Prevent Scripture from Being Understood
- Chapter 11.—Knowledge of Languages, Especially of Greek and Hebrew, Necessary to Remove Ignorance or Signs
- Chapter 12.—A Diversity of Interpretations is Useful. Errors Arising from Ambiguous Words
- Chapter 13.—How Faulty Interpretations Can Be Emended
- Chapter 14.—How the Meaning of Unknown Words and Idioms is to Be Discovered
- Chapter 15.—Among Versions a Preference is Given to the Septuagint and the Itala
- Chapter 16.—The Knowledge Both of Language and Things is Helpful for the Understanding of Figurative Expressions
- Chapter 17.—Origin of the Legend of the Nine Muses
- Chapter 18.—No Help is to Be Despised, Even Though It Come from a Profane Source
- Chapter 19.—Two Kinds Of Heathen Knowledge
- Chapter 20.—The Superstitious Nature of Human Institutions
- Chapter 21.—Superstition of Astrologers
- Chapter 22 .—The Folly of Observing the Stars in Order to Predict the Events of a Life
- Chapter 23.—Why We Repudiate Arts of Divination
- Chapter 24.—The Intercourse and Agreement with Demons Which Superstitious Observances Maintain
- Chapter 25.—In Human Institutions Which are Not Superstitious, There are Some Things Superfluous and Some Convenient and Necessary
- Chapter 26.—What Human Contrivances We are to Adopt, and What We are to Avoid
- Chapter 27.—Some Departments of Knowledge, Not of Mere Human Invention, Aid Us in Interpreting Scripture
- Chapter 28.—To What Extent History is an Aid
- Chapter 29.—To What Extent Natural Science is an Exegetical Aid
- Chapter 30.—What the Mechanical Arts Contribute to Exegetics
- Chapter 31.—Use of Dialectics. Of Fallacies
- Chapter 32.—Valid Logical Sequence is Not Devised But Only Observed by Man
- Chapter 33.—False Inferences May Be Drawn from Valid Reasonings, and Vice Versa
- Chapter 34.—It is One Thing to Know the Laws of Inference, Another to Know the Truth of Opinions
- Chapter 35 .—The Science of Definition is Not False, Though It May Be Applied to Falsities
- Chapter 36.—The Rules of Eloquence are True, Though Sometimes Used to Persuade Men of What is False
- Chapter 37.—Use of Rhetoric and Dialectic
- Chapter 38.—The Science of Numbers Not Created, But Only Discovered, by Man
- Chapter 39.—To Which of the Above-Mentioned Studies Attention Should Be Given, and in What Spirit
- Chapter 40.—Whatever Has Been Rightly Said by the Heathen, We Must Appropriate to Our Uses
- Chapter 41.—What Kind of Spirit is Required for the Study of Holy Scripture
- Chapter 42.—Sacred Scripture Compared with Profane Authors
Book III74 pages
- Summary
- Chapter 1 .—Summary of the Foregoing Books, and Scope of that Which Follows
- Chapter 2.—Rule for Removing Ambiguity by Attending to Punctuation
- Chapter 3.—How Pronunciation Serves to Remove Ambiguity. Different Kinds of Interrogation
- Chapter 4.—How Ambiguities May Be Solved
- Chapter 5.—It is a Wretched Slavery Which Takes the Figurative Expressions of Scripture in a Literal Sense
- Chapter 6.—Utility of the Bondage of the Jews
- Chapter 7.—The Useless Bondage of the Gentiles
- Chapter 8.—The Jews Liberated from Their Bondage in One Way, the Gentiles in Another
- Chapter 9.—Who is in Bondage to Signs, and Who Not
- Chapter 10.—How We are to Discern Whether a Phrase is Figurative
- Chapter 11.—Rule for Interpreting Phrases Which Seem to Ascribe Severity to God and the Saints
- Chapter 12.—Rule for Interpreting Those Sayings and Actions Which are Ascribed to God and the Saints, and Which Yet Seem to the Unskillful to Be Wicked
- Chapter 13.—Same Subject, Continued
- Chapter 14.—Error of Those Who Think that There is No Absolute Right and Wrong
- Chapter 15.—Rule for Interpreting Figurative Expressions
- Chapter 16.—Rule for Interpreting Commands and Prohibitions
- Chapter 17.—Some Commands are Given to All in Common, Others to Particular Classes
- Chapter 18.—We Must Take into Consideration the Time at Which Anything Was Enjoyed or Allowed
- Chapter 19.—Wicked Men Judge Others by Themselves
- Chapter 20.—Consistency of Good Men in All Outward Circumstances
- Chapter 21.—David Not Lustful, Though He Fell into Adultery
- Chapter 22.—Rule Regarding Passages of Scripture in Which Approval is Expressed of Actions Which are Now Condemned by Good Men
- Chapter 23.—Rule Regarding the Narrative of Sins of Great Men
- Chapter 24.—The Character of the Expressions Used is Above All to Have Weight
- Chapter 25.—The Same Word Does Not Always Signify the Same Thing
- Chapter 26.—Obscure Passages are to Be Interpreted by Those Which are Clearer
- Chapter 27.—One Passage Susceptible of Various Interpretations
- Chapter 28.—It is Safer to Explain a Doubtful Passage by Other Passages of Scripture Than by Reason
- Chapter 29.—The Knowledge of Tropes is Necessary
- Chapter 30.—The Rules of Tichonius the Donatist Examined
- Chapter 31.—The First Rule of Tichonius
- Chapter 32.—The Second Rule of Tichonius
- Chapter 33.—The Third Rule of Tichonius
- Chapter 34.—The Fourth Rule of Tichonius
- Chapter 35.—The Fifth Rule of Tichonius
- Chapter 36.—The Sixth Rule of Tichonius
- Chapter 37.—The Seventh Rule of Tichonius
- Book IV
- Chapter 1.—This Work Not Intended as a Treatise on Rhetoric
- Chapter 2.—It is Lawful for a Christian Teacher to Use the Art of Rhetoric
- Chapter 3.—The Proper Age and the Proper Means for Acquiring Rhetorical Skill
- Chapter 4.—The Duty of the Christian Teacher
- Chapter 5.—Wisdom of More Importance Than Eloquence to the Christian Teacher
- Chapter 6.—The Sacred Writers Unite Eloquence with Wisdom
- Chapter 7.—Examples of True Eloquence Drawn from the Epistles of Paul and the Prophecies of Amos
- Chapter 8.—The Obscurity of the Sacred Writers, Though Compatible with Eloquence, Not to Be Imitated by Christian Teachers
- Chapter 9.—How, and with Whom, Difficult Passages are to Be Discussed
- Chapter 10.—The Necessity for Perspicuity of Style
- Chapter 11.—The Christian Teacher Must Speak Clearly, But Not Inelegantly
- Chapter 12.—The Aim of the Orator, According to Cicero, is to Teach, to Delight, and to Move. Of These, Teaching is the Most Essential
- Chapter 13.—The Hearer Must Be Moved as Well as Instructed
- Chapter 14.—Beauty of Diction to Be in Keeping with the Matter
- Chapter 15.—The Christian Teacher Should Pray Before Preaching
- Chapter 16.—Human Directions Not to Be Despised, Though God Makes the True Teacher
- Chapter 17.—Threefold Division of The Various Styles of Speech
- Chapter 18.—The Christian Orator is Constantly Dealing with Great Matters
- Chapter 19.—The Christian Teacher Must Use Different Styles on Different Occasions
- Chapter 20.—Examples of the Various Styles Drawn from Scripture
- Chapter 21.—Examples of the Various Styles, Drawn from the Teachers of the Church, Especially Ambrose and Cyprian
- Chapter 22.—The Necessity of Variety in Style
- Chapter 23.—How the Various Styles Should Be Mingled
- Chapter 24.—The Effects Produced by the Majestic Style
- Chapter 25.—How the Temperate Style is to Be Used
- Chapter 26.—In Every Style the Orator Should Aim at Perspicuity, Beauty, and Persuasiveness
- Chapter 27.—The Man Whose Life is in Harmony with His Teaching Will Teach with Greater Effect
- Chapter 28.—Truth is More Important Than Expression. What is Meant by Strife About Words
- Chapter 29.—It is Permissible for a Preacher to Deliver to the People What Has Been Written by a More Eloquent Man Than Himself
- Chapter 30.—The Preacher Should Commence His Discourse with Prayer to God
- Chapter 31.—Apology for the Length of the Work
- The City of God (part 1 of 3)
- The City of God (part 2 of 3)
- The City of God (part 3 of 3)
- On Christian Doctrine
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Volume 2, ed. Philip Schaff (1886–89). Public domain. Text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.