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发帖数: 759 | 1 CHAP. 11.--OF THE STATUE OF APOLLO AT CUMAE, WHOSE TEARS ARE
SUPPOSED TO HAVE PORTENDED DISASTER
TO THE GREEKS, WHOM
THE GOD WAS UNABLE TO SUCCOR.
And it is still this weakness of the gods which is confessed
in the story of the Cuman Apollo, who is said to have wept
for four days during the war
with the Achaeans and King Aristonicus. And when the augurs
were alarmed at the portent, and had determined to cast the
statue into the sea, the
old men of Cumae interposed, and related that a similar
pro |
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发帖数: 759 | 2 CHAP. 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.
After this, when their fears were gradually diminished,--not
because the wars ceased, but because they were not so
furious,--that period in which
things were "ordered with justice and moderation" drew to an
end, and there followed that state of matters which Sallust
thus briefly sketches: "Then
began the patricians to oppress the people as slaves, |
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发帖数: 759 | 3 CHAP. 23.--OF THE INTERNAL DISASTERS WHICH VEXED THE ROMAN
REPUBLIC, AND FOLLOWED A PORTENTOUS
MADNESS WHICH SEIZED ALL THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS.
But let us now mention, as succinctly as possible, those
disasters which were still more vexing, because nearer home;
I mean those discords which
are erroneously called civil, since they destroy civil
interests. The seditions had now become urban wars, in which
blood was freely shed, and in
which parties raged against one another, not with wrangling
and ve |
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发帖数: 759 | 4 CHAP. 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.
What fury of foreign nations, what barbarian ferocity, can
compare with this victory of citizens over citizens? Which
was more disastrous, more
hideous, more bitter to Rome: the recent Gothic and the old
Gallic invasion, or the cruelty displayed by Marius and
Sylla and their partisans against
men who were members of the same body as thems |
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发帖数: 759 | 5 BOOK IV.(1)
ARGUMENT.
IN THIS BOOK IT IS PROVED THAT THE EXTENT AND LONG DURATION
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IS TO BE
ASCRIBED, NOT TO JOVE OR THE GODS OF THE HEATHEN, TO WHOM
INDIVIDUALLY SCARCE EVEN SINGLE
THINGS AND THE VERY BASEST FUNCTIONS WERE BELIEVED TO BE
ENTRUSTED, BUT TO THE ONE TRUE GOD,
THE AUTHOR OF FELICITY, BY WHOSE POWER AND JUDGMENT EARTHLY
KINGDOMS ARE FOUNDED AND
MAINTAINED.
CHAP. 1.--OF THE THINGS WHICH HAVE BEEN DISCUSSED IN THE
FIRST BOOK.
HAVING begun to speak of the city of God |
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发帖数: 759 | 6 CHAP. 5.--OF THE RUNAWAY GLADIATORS WHOSE POWER BECAME LIKE
THAT OF ROYAL DIGNITY.
I shall not therefore stay to inquire what sort of men
Romulus gathered together, seeing he deliberated much about
them,--how, being assumed
out of that life they led into the fellowship of his city,
they might cease to think of the punishment they deserved,
the fear of which had driven
them to greater villainies; so that henceforth they might be
made more peaceable members of society. But this I say, that
the Rom |
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发帖数: 759 | 7 CHAP. 11.--CONCERNING THE MANY GODS WHOM THE PAGAN DOCTORS
DEFEND AS BEING ONE AND THE
SAME JOVE.
Let them therefore assert as many things as ever they please
in physical reasonings and disputations. One while let
Jupiter be the soul of this
corporeal world, who fills and moves that whole mass,
constructed and compacted out of four, or as many elements
as they please; another
while, let him yield to his sister and brothers their parts
of it: now let him be the ether, that from above he may
embra |
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发帖数: 759 | 8 CHAP. 17.--WHETHER, IF THE HIGHEST POWER BELONGS TO JOVE,
VICTORIA ALSO OUGHT TO BE
WORSHIPPED.
Or do they say, perhaps, that Jupiter sends the goddess
Victoria, and that she, as it were acting in obedience to
the king of the gods, comes to
those to whom he may have despatched her, and takes up her
quarters on their side? This is truly said, not of Jove,
whom they, according to
their own imagination, feign to be king of the gods, but of
Him who is the true eternal King, because he sends, not
Vic |
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发帖数: 759 | 9 CHAP. 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.
But how does it happen, if their books and rituals are true,
and Felicity is a goddess, that she herself is not appointed
as the only one to be
worshipped, since she could confer all things, and all at
once make men happy? For who wishes anything for any other
reason than that he may
become happy? Why was it left to Lucul |
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发帖数: 759 | 10 CHAP. 29.--OF THE FALSITY OF THE AUGURY BY WHICH THE
STRENGTH AND STABILITY OF THE ROMAN
EMPIRE WAS CONSIDERED TO BE INDICATED.
For what kind of augury is that which they have declared to
be most beautiful, and to which I referred a little ago,
that Mars, and Terminus, and
Juventas would not give place even to Jove, the king of the
gods? For thus, they say, it was signified that the nation
dedicated to Mars,--that is,
the Roman,--should yield to none the place it once occupied;
likewise, that on |
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发帖数: 759 | 11 CHAP. 5 .--IN WHAT MANNER THE MATHEMATICIANS ARE CONVICTED
OF PROFESSING A VAIN
SCIENCE.
Do not those very persons whom the medical sagacity of
Hippocrates led him to suspect to be twins, because their
disease was observed by
him to develop to its crisis and to subside again in the
same time in each of them,--do not these, I say, serve as a
sufficient refutation of those
who wish to attribute to the influence of the stars that
which was owing to a similarity of bodily constitution ? For
wherefor |
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发帖数: 759 | 12 CHAP. 10.--WHETHER OUR WILLS ARE RULED BY
NECESSITY.
Wherefore, neither is that necessity to be feared, for dread
of which the Stoics labored to make such distinctions among
the causes of things as
should enable them to rescue certain things from the
dominion of necessity. and to subject others to it. Among
those things which they wished
not to be subject to necessity they placed our wills,
knowing that they would not be free if subjected to
necessity. For if that is to be called our
necessity w |
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发帖数: 759 | 13 CHAP. 11.---CONCERNING THE UNIVERSAL PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN
THE LAWS OF WHICH ALL THINGS ARE
COMPREHENDED.
Therefore God supreme and true, with His Word and Holy
Spirit (which three are one), one God omnipotent, creator
and maker of every soul
and of every body; by whose gift all are happy who are happy
through verity and not through vanity; who made man a
rational animal consisting
of soul and body, who, when he sinned, neither permitted him
to go unpunished, nor left him without mercy; who has g |
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发帖数: 759 | 14 CHAP. 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.
Nevertheless they do not mention with thanksgiving what God
has very recently, and within our own memory, wonderfully
and mercifully done,
but as far as in them lies they attempt, if possible, to
bury it in universal oblivion. But should we be silent about
these things, we should be in like
manner ungrateful. When Radagaisus, king of the Goths,
havin |
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发帖数: 759 | 15 CHAP. 5.--CONCERNING THE THREE KINDS OF THEOLOGY ACCORDING
TO VARRO, NAMELY, ONE FABULOUS,
THE OTHER NATURAL, THE THIRD CIVIL.
Now what are we to say of this proposition of his, namely,
that there are three kinds of theology, that is, of the
account which is given of the
gods; and of these, the one is called mythical, the other
physical, and the third civil? Did the Latin usage permit,
we should call the kind which he
has placed first in order fabular,(2) but let us call it
fabulous,(3) for myth |
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发帖数: 759 | 16 CHAP. 9.--CONCERNING THE SPECIAL OFFICES
OF THE GODS.
And as to those very offices of the gods, so meanly and so
minutely portioned out, so that they say that they ought to
be supplicated, each one
according to his special function,--about which we have
spoken much already, though not all that is to be said
concerning it,--are they not more
consistent with mimic buffoonery than divine majesty? If any
one should use two nurses for his infant, one of whom should
give nothing but food,
the other no |
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发帖数: 759 | 17 CHAP. 5 .--CONCERNING THE MORE SECRET DOCTRINE OF THE
PAGANS, AND CONCERNING THE PHYSICAL
INTERPRETATIONS.
But let us hear their own physical interpretations by which
they attempt to color, as with the appearance of profounder
doctrine, the baseness of
most miserable error. Varro, in the first place, commends
these interpretations so strongly as to say, that the
ancients invented the images,
badges, and adornments of the gods, in order that when those
who went to the mysteries should see them wi |
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发帖数: 759 | 18 CHAP. 11 -- CONCERNING THE SURNAMES OF JUPITER, WHICH ARE
REFERRED NOT TO MANY GODS, BUT TO
ONE AND THE SAME GOD.
They have called him Victor, Invictus, Opitulus, Impulsor,
Stator, Centumpeda, Supinalis, Tigillus, Almus, Ruminus, and
other names which it
were long to enumerate. But these surnames they have given
to one god on account of diverse causes and powers, but yet
have not compelled
him to be, on account of so many things, as many gods. They
gave him these surnames because he conquered al |
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发帖数: 759 | 19 CHAP. 17. --THAT EVEN VARRO HIMSELF PRONOUNCED HIS OWN
OPINIONS REGARDING THE GODS
AMBIGUOUS,
And the same is true with respect to all the rest, as is
true with respect to those things which I have mentioned for
the sake of example. They do
not explain them, but rather involve them. They rush hither
and thither, to this side or to that, according as they are
driven by the impulse of
erratic opinion; so that even Varro himself has chosen
rather to doubt concerning all things, than to affirm
anyth |
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发帖数: 759 | 20 CHAP. 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.
Surely the earth, which we see full of its own living
creatures, is one; but for all that, it is but a mighty mass
among the elements and the lowest
part of the world. Why, then, would they have it to be a
goddess? Is it because it is fruitful? Why, then, are not
men rather held to be gods, who |
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发帖数: 759 | 21 CHAP. 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.
For all those things which, according to the account given
of those gods, are referred to the world by so-called
physical interpretation, may,
without any religious scruple, be rather assigned to the
true God, who made heaven and earth, and created every soul
and every body; and the
following is the manner in which we see that this may be
done. We w |
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发帖数: 759 | 22 CHAP. 35.--CONCERNING THE HYDROMANCY THROUGH WHICH NUMA WAS
BEFOOLED BY CERTAIN IMAGES
OF DEMONS SEEN IN THE WATER.
For Numa himself also, to whom no prophet, of God, no holy
angel was sent, was driven to have recourse to hydromancy,
that he might see the
images of the gods in the water (or, rather, appearances
whereby the demons made sport of him), and might learn from
them what he ought to
ordain and observe in the sacred rites. This kind of
divination, says Varro, was introduced from the Pers |
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发帖数: 759 | 23 CHAP. 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.
If, then, Plato defined the wise man as one who imitates,
knows, loves this God, and who is rendered blessed through
fellowship with Him in His own
blessedness, why discuss with the other philosophers? It is
evident that none come nearer to us than the Platonists. To
them, therefore, let that fabulous theology
give |
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发帖数: 759 | 24 CHAP. 11.--HOW PLATO HAS BEEN ABLE TO APPROACH SO NEARLY TO
CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.
Certain partakers with us in the grace of Christ, wonder
when they hear and read that Plato had conceptions
concerning God, in which they recognize
considerable agreement with the truth of our religion. Some
have concluded from this, that when he went to Egypt he had
heard the prophet Jeremiah, or, whilst
travelling in the same country, had read the prophetic
scriptures, which opinion I myself have expressed in cert |
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发帖数: 759 | 25 CHAP. 17.--WHETHER IT IS PROPER THAT MEN SHOULD WORSHIP
THOSE SPIRITS FROM WHOSE VICES IT IS NECESSARY
THAT THEY BE FREED.
Wherefore, to omit other things, and confine our attention
to that which he says is common to the demons with us, let
us ask this question: If all the four elements
are full of their own animals, the fire and the air of
immortal, and the water and the earth of mortal ones, why
are the souls of demons agitated by the whirlwinds
and tempests of passions?--for the Greek word
|
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发帖数: 759 | 26 CHAP. 23.--WHAT HERMES TRISMEGISTUS THOUGHT CONCERNING
IDOLATRY, AND FROM WHAT SOURCE HE KNEW THAT
THE SUPERSTITIONS OF EGYPT WERE TO BE ABOLISHED.
The Egyptian Hermes, whom they call Trismegistus, had a
different opinion concerning those demons. Apuleius, indeed,
denies that they are gods; but when he
says that they hold a middle place between the gods and men,
so that they seem to be necessary for men as mediators
between them and the gods, he does not
distinguish between the worship due to th |
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发帖数: 759 | 27 BOOK IX.
ARGUMENT.
HAVING IN THE PRECEDING BOOK SHOWN THAT THE WORSHIP OF
DEMONS MUST BE ABJURED, SINCE THEY IN A
THOUSAND WAYS PROCLAIM THEMSELVES TO BE WICKED SPIRITS,
AUGUSTIN IN THIS BOOK MEETS THOSE WHO ALLEGE
A DISTINCTION AMONG DEMONS, SOME BEING EVIL, WHILE OTHERS
ARE GOOD; AND, HAVING EXPLODED THIS
DISTINCTION, HE PROVES THAT TO NO DEMON, BUT TO CHRIST
ALONE, BELONGS THE OFFICE OF PROVIDING MEN WITH
ETERNAL BLESSEDNESS.
CHAP. 1.--THE POINT AT WHICH THE DISCUSSION HAS ARRIVED, AND
WHAT R |
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发帖数: 759 | 28 CHAP. 5.--THAT THE PASSIONS WHICH ASSAIL THE SOULS OF
CHRISTIANS DO NOT SEDUCE THEM TO VICE, BUT EXERCISE
THEIR VIRTUE.
We need not at present give a careful and copious exposition
of the doctrine of Scripture, the sum of Christian
knowledge, regarding these passions. It subjects
the mind itself to God, that He may rule and aid it, and the
passions, again, to the mind, to moderate and bridle them,
and turn them to righteous uses. In our
ethics, we do not so much inquire whether a pious soul is
a |
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发帖数: 759 | 29 CHAP. 11.--OF THE OPINION OF THE PLATONISTS, THAT THE SOULS
OF MEN BECOME DEMONS WHEN DISEMBODIED.
He(4) says, indeed, that the souls of men are demons, and
that men become Lares if they are good, Lemures or Larvae if
they are bad, and Manes if it is
uncertain whether they de serve well or ill. Who does not
see at a glance that this is a mere whirlpool sucking men to
moral destruction? For, however wicked
men have been, if they suppose they shall become Larvae or
divine Manes, they will become t |
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发帖数: 759 | 30 CHAP. 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.
I am considerably surprised that such learned men, men who
pronounce all material and sensible things to be altogether
inferior to those that are spiritual and
intelligible, should mention bodily contact in connection
with the blessed life. Is that sentiment of Plotinus
forgotten?--"We must fly to our beloved fatherland.
There |
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发帖数: 759 | 31 CHAP. 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.
If the Platonists prefer to call these angels gods rather
than demons, and to reckon them with those whom Plato, their
founder and master, maintains were
created by the supreme God,(1) they are welcome to do so,
for I will not spend strength in fighting about words. For
if they say that these beings are immortal,
and yet created by the supreme God, bles |
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发帖数: 759 | 32 BOOK X.
ARGUMENT.
IN THIS BOOK AUGUSTIN TEACHES THAT THE GOOD ANGELS WISH GOD
ALONE, WHOM THEY THEMSELVES SERVE, TO
RECEIVE THAT DIVINE HONOR WHICH IS RENDERED BY SACRIFICE,
AND WHICH IS CALLED "LATREIA." HE THEN GOES
ON TO DISPUTE AGAINST PORPHYRY ABOUT THE PRINCIPLE AND WAY
OF THE SOUL'S CLEANSING AND DELIVERANCE.
CHAP. 1.--THAT THE PLATONISTS THEMSELVES HAVE DETERMINED
THAT GOD ALONE CAN
CONFER HAPPINESS EITHER ON ANGELS OR MEN, BUT THAT IT YET
REMAINS A QUESTION WHETHER THOSE SPIRITS
WHOM TH |
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发帖数: 759 | 33 CHAP. 5.--OF THE SACRIFICES WHICH GOD DOES NOT REQUIRE, BUT
WISHED TO aS OBSERVED FOR THE EXHIBITION OF
THOSE THINGS WHICH HE DOES REQUIRE.
And who is so foolish as to suppose that the things offered
to God are needed by Him for some uses of His own? Divine
Scripture in many places explodes this
idea. Not to be wearisome, suffice it to quote this brief
saying from a psalm: "I have said to the Lord, Thou art my
God: for Thou needest not my goodness."(1)
We must believe, then, that God has no need |
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发帖数: 759 | 34 CHAP. 17.--CONCERNING THE ARE OF THE COVENANT, AND THE
MIRACULOUS SIGNS WHEREBY GOD AUTHENTICATED THE
LAW AND THE PROMISE.
On this account it was that the law of God, given by the
disposition of angels, and which commanded that the one God
of gods alone receive sacred worship, to
the exclusion of all others, was deposited in the ark,
called the ark of the testimony. By this name it is
sufficiently indicated, not that God, who was worshipped
by all those rites, was shut up and enclosed in that pl |
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发帖数: 759 | 35 CHAP. 11.--OF PORPHYRY'S EPISTLE TO ANEBO, IN WHICH HE ASKS
FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE DIFFERENCES AMONG
DEMONS.
It was a better tone which Porphyry adopted in his letter to
Anebo the Egyptian, in which, assuming the character of an
inquirer consulting him, he unmasks and
explodes these sacrilegious arts. In that letter, indeed, he
repudiates all demons, whom he maintains to be so foolish as
to be attracted by the sacrificial vapors,
and therefore residing not in the ether, but in the air
beneath |
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发帖数: 759 | 36 CHAP. 23. --OF THE PRINCIPLES WHICH, ACCORDING TO THE
PLATONISTS, REGULATE THE PURIFICATION OF THE SOUL.
Even Porphyry asserts that it was revealed by divine oracles
that we are not purified by any sacrifices(1) to sun or
moon, meaning it to be inferred that we are
not purified by sacrificing to any gods. For what mysteries
can purify, if those of the sun and moon, which are esteemed
the chief of the celestial gods, do not
purify? He says, too, in the same place, that "principles"
can purify, le |
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发帖数: 759 | 37 CHAP. 29.--OF THE INCARNATION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST,
WHICH THE PLATONISTS IN THEIR IMPIETY BLUSH TO
ACKNOWLEDGE.
You proclaim the Father and His Son, whom you call the
Father's intellect or mind, and between these a third, by
whom we suppose you mean the Holy Spirit,
and in your own fashion you call these three Gods. In this,
though your expressions are inaccurate, you do in some sort,
and as through a veil, see what we
should strive towards; but the incarnation of the
unchangeable Son of God |
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发帖数: 759 | 38 BOOK XI.
ARGUMENT.
HERE BEGINS THE SECOND PART(1) OF THIS WORK, WHICH TREATS OF
THE ORIGIN, HISTORY, AND DESTINIES OF THE TWO
CITIES, THE EARTHLY AND THE HEAVENLY. IN THE FIRST PLACE,
AUGUSTIN SHOWS IN THIS BOOK HOW THE TWO CITIES
WERE FORMED ORIGINALLY, BY THE SEPARATION OF THE GOOD AND
BAD ANGELS; AND TAKES OCCASION TO TREAT OF THE
CREATION OF THE WORLD, AS IT IS DESCRIBED IN HOLY SCRIPTURE
IN THE BEGINNING OF THE BOOK OF GENESIS.
CHAP. 1--OF THIS PART OF THE WORK, WHEREIN WE BEGIN TO
EXPLAIN |
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发帖数: 759 | 39 CHAP. 5.--THAT WE OUGHT NOT TO SEEK TO COMPREHEND THE
INFINITE AGES OF TIME BEFORE THE WORLD, NOR THE
INFINITE REALMS OF SPACE.
Next, we must see what reply can be made to those who agree
that God is the Creator of the world, but have difficulties
about the time of its creation, and what
reply, also, they can make to difficulties we might raise
about the place of its creation. For, as they demand why the
world was created then and no sooner, we may
ask why it was created just here where it is, a |
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发帖数: 759 | 40 CHAP. 11.--WHETHER THE ANGELS THAT FELL PARTOOK OF THE
BLESSEDNESS WHICH THE HOLY ANGELS HAVE ALWAYS
ENJOYED FROM THE TIME OF THEIR CREATION.
And since these things are so, those spirits whom we call
angels were never at any time or in any way darkness, but,
as soon as they were made, were made light;
yet they were not so created in order that they might exist
and live in any way whatever, but were enlightened that they
might live wisely and blessedly. Some of
them, having turned away from this |
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发帖数: 759 | 41 CHAP. 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.
It is with reference to the nature, then, and not to the
wickedness of the devil, that we are to understand these
words, "This is the beginning of God's handiwork; "(3)
for, without doubt, wickedness can be a flaw or vice(4) only
where the nature previously was not vitiated. Vice, too, is
so contrary to nature, that it cannot but
damage it. And therefore departu |
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发帖数: 759 | 42 CHAP. 23.---OF THE ERROR IN WHICH THE DOCTRINE OF ORIGEN IS
INVOLVED.
But it is much more surprising that some even of those who,
with ourselves, believe that there is one only source of all
things, and that no nature which is not divine
can exist unless originated by that Creator, have yet
refused to accept with a good and simple faith this so good
and simple a reason of the world's creation, that a
good God made it good; and that the things created, being
different from God, were inferior to H |
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发帖数: 759 | 43 CHAP. 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.
Those holy angels come to the knowledge of God not by
audible words, but by the presence to their souls of
immutable truth, i.e., of the only-begotten Word of
God; and they know this Word Himself, and the Father, and
their Holy Spirit, and that this Trinity is indivisible, and
that the three persons |
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发帖数: 759 | 44 BOOK XII.
ARGUMENT.
AUGUSTIN FIRST INSTITUTES TWO INQUIRIES REGARDING THE
ANGELS; NAMELY, WHENCE IS THERE IN SOME A GOOD, AND
IN OTHERS AN EVIL WILL? AND, WHAT IS THE REASON OF THE
BLESSEDNESS OF THE GOOD, AND THE MISERY OF THE EVIL?
AFTERWARDS HE TREATS OF THE CREATION OF MAN, AND TEACHES
THAT HE IS NOT FROM ETERNITY, BUT WAS CREATED,
AND BY NONE OTHER THAN GOD.
CHAP. 1.--THAT THE NATURE OF THE ANGELS, BOTH GOOD AND BAD,
IS ONE AND THE SAME.
IT has already, in the preceding book, been shown how |
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发帖数: 759 | 45 CHAP. 5.--THAT IN ALL NATURES, OF EVERY KIND AND RANK, GOD
IS GLORIFIED.
All natures, then, inasmuch as they are, and have therefore
a rank and species of their own, and a kind of internal
harmony, are certainly good. And when they are in
the places assigned to them by the order of their nature,
they preserve such being as they have received. And those
things which have not received everlasting being,
are altered for better or for worse, so as to suit the wants
and motions of those things to whi |
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发帖数: 759 | 46 CHAP. 11.--OF THOSE WHO SUPPOSE THAT THIS WORLD INDEED IS
NOT ETERNAL, BUT THAT EITHER THERE ARE
NUMBERLESS WORLDS, OR THAT ONE AND THE SAME WORLD IS
PERPETUALLY RESOLVED INTO ITS ELEMENTS, AND
RENEWED AT THE CONCLUSION OF FIXED CYCLES.
There are some, again, who, though they do not suppose that
this world is eternal, are of opinion either that this is
not the only world, but that there are numberless
worlds or that indeed it is the only one, but that it dies,
and is born again at fixed interval |
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发帖数: 759 | 47 CHAP. 17.--WHAT DEFENCE IS MADE BY SOUND FAITH REGARDING
GOD'S UNCHANGEABLE COUNSEL AND WILL, AGAINST THE
REASONINGS OF THOSE WHO HOLD THAT THE WORKS OF GOD ARE
ETERNALLY REPEATED IN REVOLVING CYCLES THAT
RESTORE ALL THINGS AS THEY WERE.
Of this, too, I have no doubt, that before the first man was
created, there never had been a man at all, neither this
same man himself recurring by I know not what
cycles, and having made I know not how many revolutions, nor
any other of similar nature. From thi |
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发帖数: 759 | 48 CHAP. 23.--OF THE NATURE OF THE HUMAN SOUL CREATED IN THE
IMAGE OF GOD.
God, then, made man in His own image. For He created for him
a soul endowed with reason and intelligence, so that he
might excel all the creatures of earth, air,
and sea, which were not so gifted. And when He had formed
the man out of the dust of the earth, and had willed that
his soul should be such as I have
said,--whether He had already made it, and now by breathing
imparted it to man, or rather made it by breathing, so t |
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发帖数: 759 | 49 BOOK XIII.
ARGUMENT.
IN THIS BOOK IT IS TAUGHT THAT DEATH IS PENAL, AND HAD ITS
ORIGIN IN ADAM'S SIN.
CHAP. 1.--OF THE FALL OF THE FIRST MAN, THROUGH WHICH
MORTALITY HAS BEEN CONTRACTED.
HAVING disposed of the very difficult questions concerning
the origin of our world and the beginning of the human race,
the natural order requires that we now
discuss the fall of the first man (we may say of the first
men), and of the origin and propagation of human death. For
God had not made man like the angel |
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发帖数: 759 | 50 CHAP. 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.
The apostle, wishing to show how hurtful a thing sin is,
when grace does not aid us, has not hesitated to say that
the strength of sin is that very law by which sin is
prohibited. "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of
sin is the law."(1) Most certainly true; for prohibition
increases the desire of illicit action, if righteousness is
not so loved that the desire of s |
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