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发帖数: 759 | 1 CHAP. 11.--WHETHER ONE CAN BOTH BE LIVING AND DEAD AT THE
SAME TIME.
But if it is absurd to say that a man is in death before he
reaches death (for to what is his course running as he
passes through life, if already he is in death?), and if it
outrage common usage to speak of a man being at once alive
and dead, as much as it does so to speak of him as at once
asleep and awake, it remains to be asked
when a man is dying? For, before death comes, he is not
dying but living; and when death has come |
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发帖数: 759 | 2 CHAP. 17. AGAINST THOSE WHO AFFIRM THAT EARTHLY BODIES
CANNOT BE MADE INCORRUPTIBLE AND ETERNAL.
These same philosophers further contend that terrestrial
bodies cannot be eternal though they make no doubt that the
whole earth, which is itself the central member
of their god,--not, indeed, of the greatest, but yet of a
great god, that is, of this whole world,--is eternal. Since,
then, the Supreme made for them another god, that
is, this world, superior to the other gods beneath Him; and
since the |
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发帖数: 759 | 3 CHAP. 23.--WHAT WE ARE TO UNDERSTAND BY THE ANIMAL AND
SPIRITUAL BODY; OR OF THOSE WHO DIE IN ADAM, ANDOF
THOSE WHO ARE MADE ALIVE IN CHRIST.
For as those bodies of ours, that have a living soul, though
not as yet a quickening spirit, are called soul-informed
bodies,and yet are not souls but bodies, so also
those bodies are called spiritual,--yet God forbid we should
therefore suppose them to be spirits and not bodies,--which,
being quickened by the Spirit, have the
substance, but not the unwiel |
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发帖数: 759 | 4 BOOK XIV. (1)
ARGUMENT.
AUGUSTIN AGAIN TREATS OF THE SIN OF THE FIRST MAN, AND
TEACHES THAT IT IS THE CAUSE OF THE CARNAL LIFE AND
VICIOUS AFFECTIONS OF MAN. ESPECIALLY HE PROVES THAT THE
SHAME WHICH ACCOMPANIES LUST IS THE JUST
PUNISHMENT OF THAT DISOBEDIENCE, AND INQUIRES HOW MAN, IF HE
HAD NOT SINNED, WOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE
WITHOUT LUST TO PROPAGATE HIS KIND.
CHAP. I.- THAT THE DISOBEDIENCE OF THE FIRST MAN WOULD HAVE
PLUNGED ALL MEN INTO THE ENDLESS MISERY OF THE
SECOND DEATH, HAD NOT THE GRAC |
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发帖数: 759 | 5 CHAP. 5.--THAT THE OPINION OF THE PLATONISTS REGARDING THE
NATURE OF BODY AND SOUL IS NOT SO CENSURABLE AS
THAT OF THE MANICHEANS,, BUT THAT EVEN IT IS Objectionable,
BECAUSE IT ASCRIBES THE ORIGIN OF VICES TO THE NATURE
OF THEFLESH.
There is no need, therefore, that in our sins and vices we
accuse the nature of the flesh to the injury of the Creator,
for in its own kind and degree the flesh is good;
but to desert the Creator good, and live according to the
created good, is not good, whether a m |
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发帖数: 759 | 6 CHAP. 11.--OF THE FALL OF THE FIRST MAN, IN WHOM NATURE WAS
CREATED GOOD, AND CAN BE RESTORED ONLY BY ITS
AUTHOR.
But because God foresaw all things, and was therefore not
ignorant that man also would fall, we ought to consider this
holy city m connection with what God
foresaw and ordained, and not according to our own ideas,
which do not embrace God's ordination. For man, by his sin,
could not disturb the divine counsel, nor
compel God to change what He had decreed; for God's
foreknowledge had |
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发帖数: 759 | 7 CHAP. 17.--OF THE NAKEDNESS OF OUR FIRST PARENTS, WHICH THEY
SAW AFTER THEIR BASE AND SHAMEFUL SIN.
Justly is shame very specially connected with this lust;
justly, too, these members themselves, being moved and
restrained not at our will, but by a certain independent
autocracy, so to speak, are called "shameful." Their
condition was different before sin. For as it is written,
"They were naked and were not ashamed,"(1)--not that
their nakedness was unknown to them, but because nakedness
was not |
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发帖数: 759 | 8 CHAP. 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.
But he who says that there should have been neither
copulation nor generation but for sin, virtually says that
man's sin was necessary to complete the number of the
saints. For if these two by not sinning should have
continued to live alone, because, as is supposed, they could
not have begotten children had they not sinned, t |
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发帖数: 759 | 9 BOOK XV.
ARGUMENT.
HAVING TREATED IN THE FOUR PRECEDING BOOKS OF THE ORIGIN OF
THE TWO CITIES, THE EARTHLY AND THE
HEAVENLY, AUGUSTIN EXPLAINS THEIR GROWTH AND PROGRESS IN THE
FOUR BOOKS WHICH FOLLOW; AND, IN ORDER
TO DO SO, HE EXPLAINS THE CHIEF PASSAGES OF THE SACRED
HISTORY WHICH BEAR UPON THIS SUBJECT. IN THIS
FIFTEENTH BOOK HE OPENS THIS PART OF HIS WORK BY EXPLAINING
THE EVENTS RECORDED IN GENESIS FROM THE
TIME OF CAIN AND ABEL TO THE DELUGE.
CHAP. 1.--OF THE TWO LINES OF THE HUMAN RACE WH |
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发帖数: 759 | 10 CHAP. 5.--OF THE FRATRICIDAL ACT OF THE FOUNDER OF THE
EARTHLY CITY, AND THE CORRESPONDING CRIME OF THE
FOUNDER OF ROME.
Thus the founder of the earthly city was a fratricide.
Overcome with envy, he slew his own brother, a citizen of
the eternal city, and a sojourner on earth. So that
we cannot be surprised that this first specimen, or, as the
Greeks say, archetype of crime, should, long afterwards,
find a corresponding crime at the foundation
of that city which was destined to reign over so man |
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发帖数: 759 | 11 CHAP. 12.--OF THE OPINION OF THOSE WHO DO NOT BELIEVE THAT
IN THESE PRIMITIVE, TIMES MEN LIVED SO LONG AS IS
STATED.
For they are by no means to be listened to who suppose that
in those times years were differently reckoned, and were so
short that one of our years may be
supposed to be equal to ten of theirs. So that they say,
when we read or hear that some man lived 900 years, we
should understand ninety, ten of those years
making but one of ours, and ten of ours equalling 100 of
theirs. Conseq |
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发帖数: 759 | 12 CHAP. 18.--THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ABEL, SETH, AND ENOS TO
CHRIST AND HIS BODY THE CHURCH.
"And to Seth," it is said, "there was born a son, and he
called his name Enos: he hoped to call on the name of the
Lord God."(2) Here we have a loud testimony
to the truth. Man, then, the son of the resurrection, lives
in hope: he lives in hope as long as the city of God, which
is begotten by faith in the resurrection,
sojourns in this world. For in these two men, Abel,
signifying "grief," and his brother Seth |
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发帖数: 759 | 13 CHAP. 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.
In the third book of this work (c. 5) we made a passing
reference to this question, but did not decide whether
angels, inasmuch as they are spirits, could have
bodily intercourse with women. For it is written, "Who
maketh His angels spirits,"(4) that is, He makes those who
are by nature spirits His |
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发帖数: 759 | 14 BOOK XVI.
ARGUMENT.
IN THE FORMER PART OF THIS BOOK, FROM THE FIRST TO THE
TWELFTH CHAPTER, THE PROGRESS OF THE TWO CITIES,
THE EARTHLY AND THE HEAVENLY, FROM NOAH TO ABRAHAM, IS
EXHIBITED FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE: IN THE LATTER
PART, THE PROGRESS OF THE HEAVENLY ALONE, FROM ABRAHAM TO
THE KINGS OF ISRAEL, IS THE SUBJECT.
CHAP. I.--WHETHER, AFTER THE DELUGE, FROM NOAH TO ABRAHAM,
ANY FAMILIES CAN BE FOUND WHO LIVED
ACCORDING TO GOD.
IT is difficult to discover from Scripture, whether, after
the delug |
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发帖数: 759 | 15 CHAP. 5.--OF GOD'S COMING DOWN TO CONFOUND THE LANGUAGES OF
THE BUILDERS OF THE CITY.
We read, "The Lord came down to see the city and the tower
which the sons of men built:" it was not the sons of God,
but that society which lived in a merely
human way, and which we call the earthly city. God, who is
always wholly everywhere, does not move locally; but He is
said to descend when He does anything
in the earth out of the usual course, which, as it were,
makes His presence felt. And in the same wa |
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发帖数: 759 | 16 CHAP. II.--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.
Wherefore, as the fact of all using one language did not
secure the absence of sin-infected men from the race,--for
even before the deluge there was one
language, and yet all but the single family of just Noah
were found worthy of destruction by the flood, --so when the
nations, by a prouder godlessness, earned
th |
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发帖数: 759 | 17 CHAP. 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.
During the same period there were three famous kingdoms of
the nations, in which the city of the earth-born, that is,
the society of men living according to man
under the domination of the fallen angels, chiefly
flourished, namely, the three kingdoms of Sicyon, Egypt, and
Assyria. Of these, Assyria was much the most
powerful and sublime; for that king N |
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发帖数: 759 | 18 CHAP. 23. --OF THE WORD OF THE LORD TO ABRAHAM, BY WHICH IT
WAS PROMISED TO HIM THAT HIS POSTERITY
SHOULD BE MULTIPLIED ACCORDING TO THE MULTITUDE OF THE
STARS; ON BELIEVING WHICH HE WAS DECLARED
JUSTIFIED WHILE YET IN UNCIRCUMCISION.
The word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision also. For
when God promised him protection and exceeding great reward,
he, being solicitous about
posterity, said that a certain Eliezer of Damascus, born in
his house, would be his heir. Immediately he was promised |
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发帖数: 759 | 19 CHAP. 29.--OF THE THREE MEN OR ANGELS, IN WHOM THE LORD IS
RELATED TO HAVE APPEARED TO ABRAHAM AT THE
OAK OF MAMRE.
God appeared again to Abraham at the oak of Mature in three
men, who it is not to be doubted were angels, although some
think that one of them was Christ,
and assert that He was visible before He put on flesh. Now
it belongs to the divine power, and invisible, incorporeal,
and incommutable nature, without changing
itself at all, to appear even to mortal men, not by what it
is, but |
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发帖数: 759 | 20 CHAP. 35.--WHAT WAS INDICATED BY THE DIVINE ANSWER ABOUT THE
TWINS STILL SHUT UP IN THE WOMB OF REBECCA
THEIR MOTHER.
Let us now see how the times of the city of God run on from
this point among Abraham's descendants. In the time from the
first year of Isaac's life to the
seventieth, when his sons were born, the only memorable
thing is, that when he prayed God that his wife, who was
barren, might bear, and the Lord granted
what he sought, and she conceived, the twins leapt while
still enclosed i |
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发帖数: 759 | 21 CHAP. 41.--OF THE BLESSING WHICH JACOB
PROMISED IN JUDAH HIS SON.
If, on account of the Christian people in whom the city of
God sojourns in the earth, we look for the flesh of Christ
in the seed of Abraham, setting aside the sons
of the concubines, we have Isaac; if in the seed of Isaac,
setting aside Esau, who is also Edom, we have Jacob, who
also is Israel; if in the seed of Israel himself,
setting aside the rest, we have Judah, because Christ sprang
of the tribe of Judah. Let us hear, then, |
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发帖数: 759 | 22 BOOK XVII.
ARGUMENT.
THIS BOOK THE HISTORY OF THE CITY OF GOD IS TRACED DURING
THE PERIOD OF THE KINGS AND PROPHETS FROM
SAMUEL TO DAVID, EVEN TO CHRIST; AND THE PROPHECIES WHICH
ARE RECORDED IN THE BOOKS OF KINGS, PSALMS,
AND THOSE OF SOLOMON, ARE INTERPRETED OF CHRIST AND THE
CHURCH.
CHAP. I .--OF THE PROPHETIC AGE.
By the favor of God we have treated distinctly of His
promises made to Abraham, that both the nation of Israel
according to the flesh, and all nations according to
faith, should be |
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发帖数: 759 | 23 CHAP. 8.--OF THE PROMISES MADE TO DAVID IN HIS SON, WHICH
ARE IN NO WISE FULFILLED IN SOLOMON, BUT MOST
FULLY IN CHRIST.
And now I see I must show what, pertaining to the matter I
treat of, God promised to David himself, who succeeded Saul
in the kingdom, whose change
prefigured that final change on account of which all things
were divinely spoken, all things were committed to writing.
When many things had gone prosperously
with king David, he thought to make a house for God, even
that temple of |
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发帖数: 759 | 24 CHAP. 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.
But after having prophesied these things, the prophet
betakes him to praying to God; yet even the very prayer is
prophecy: "How long, Lord, dost Thou turn away
in the end?"(5) "Thy face" is understood, as it is elsewhere
said, "How long dost Thou turn away Thy face from me?"(6)
For therefore some copies have here not
"dost," but "wilt Thou t |
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发帖数: 759 | 25 CHAP. 17.--OF THOSE THINGS IN THE 110TH PSALM WHICH RELATE
TO THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST, AND IN THE 22D TO HIS
PASSION.
Just as in that psalm also where Christ is most openly
proclaimed as Priest, even as He is here as King, "The Lord
said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at my right hand,
until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool."(1) That Christ
sits on the right hand of God the Father is believed, not
seen; that His enemies also are put under His
feet doth not yet appear; it is being done, [therefore] it |
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发帖数: 759 | 26 CHAP. 23.--OF THE VARYING CONDITION OF BOTH THE HEBREW
KINGDOMS, UNTIL THE PEOPLE OF BOTH WERE AT
DIFFERENT TIMES LED INTO CAPTIVITY, JUDAH BEING AFTERWARDS
RECALLED INTO HIS KINGDOM, WHICH FINALLY
PASSED INTO THE POWER OF THE ROMANS.
So also in the kingdom of Judah pertaining to Jerusalem
prophets were not lacking even in the times of succeeding
kings, just as it pleased God to send them,
either for the prediction of what was needful, or for
correction of sin and instruction in righteousness;(2 |
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发帖数: 759 | 27 BOOK XVIII.
ARGUMENT.
AUGUSTIN TRACES THE PARALLEL COURSES OF THE EARTHLY AND
HEAVENLY CITIES FROM THE TIME OF ABRAHAM TO
THE END OF THE WORLD; AND ALLUDES TO THE ORACLES REGARDING
CHRIST, BOTH THOSE UTTERED BY THE SIBYLS,
AND THOSE OF THE SACRED PROPHETS WHO WROTE AFTER THE
FOUNDATION OF ROME, HOSEA, AMOS, ISAIAH, MICAH,
AND THEIR SUCCESSORS.
CHAP. 1.--OF THOSE THINGS DOWN TO THE TIMES OF THE SAVIOUR
WHICH HAVE BEEN DISCUSSED IN THE SEVENTEEN
BOOKS.
I PROMISED to write of the rise, progress, an |
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发帖数: 759 | 28 CHAP. 5 --OF APIS KING OF ARGOS, WHOM THE EGYPTIANS CALLED
SERAPIS, AND WORSHIPPED WITH DIVINE HONORS.
In these times Apis king of Argos crossed over into Egypt in
ships, and, on dying there, was made Serapis, the chief god
of all the Egyptians. Now Varro gives
this very ready reason why, after his death, he was called,
not Apis, but Serapis. The ark in which he was placed when
dead, which every one now calls a
sarcophagus, was then called in Greek soros,
and they began to worship |
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发帖数: 759 | 29 CHAP. 11.--WHEN MOSES LED THE PEOPLE OUT OF EGYPT; AND WHO
WERE KINGS WHEN HIS SUCCESSOR JOSHUA THE SON
OF NUN DIED.
Moses led the people out of Egypt in the last time of
Cecrops king of Athens, when Ascatades reigned in Assyria,
Marathus in Sicyon, Triopas in Argos; and
having led forth the people, he gave them at Mount Sinai the
law he received from God, which is called the Old Testament,
because it has earthly promises, and
because, through Jesus Christ, there was to be a New
Testament, in wh |
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发帖数: 759 | 30 CHAP. 17.--WHAT VARRO SAYS OF THE INCREDIBLE TRANSFORMATIONS
OF MEN.
In support of this story, Varro relates others no less
incredible about that most famous sorceress Circe, who
changed the companions of Ulysses into beasts, and
about the Arcadians, who, by lot, swam across a certain
pool, and were turned into wolves there, and lived in the
deserts of that region with wild beasts like
themselves. But if they never fed on human flesh for nine
years, they were restored to the human form on swimmi |
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发帖数: 759 | 31 CHAP. 23.--OF THE ERYTHRAEAN SIBYL, WHO IS KNOWN TO HAVE
SUNG MANY THINGS ABOUT CHRIST MORE PLAINLY
THAN THE OTHER SIBYLS.(1)
Some say the Erythraean sibyl prophesied at this time. Now
Varro declares there were many sibyls, and not merely one.
This sibyl of Erythrae certainly wrote
some things concerning Christ which are quite manifest, and
we first read them in the Latin tongue in verses of bad
Latin, and unrhythmical, through the
unskillfulness, as we afterwards learned, of some
interpreter un |
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发帖数: 759 | 32 CHAP. 29.--WHAT THINGS ARE PREDICTED BY ISAIAH CONCERNING
CHRIST AND THE CHURCH.
The prophecy of Isaiah is not in the book of the twelve
prophets, who are called the minor from the brevity of their
writings, as compared with those who are
called the greater prophets because they published larger
volumes. Isaiah belongs to the latter, yet I connect him
with the two above named, because he
prophesied at the same time. Isaiah, then, together with his
rebukes of wickedness, precepts of righteousness |
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发帖数: 759 | 33 CHAP. 35.--OF THE PROPHECY OF THE THREE PROPHETS, HAGGAI,
ZECHARIAH, AND MALACHI.
There remain three minor prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and
Malachi, who prophesied at the close of the captivity. Of
these Haggai more openly prophesies of
Christ and the Church thus briefly: "Thus saith the Lord of
hosts, Yet one little while, and I will shake the heaven,
and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and
I will move all nations, and the desired of all nations
shall come."(11) The fulfillment of thi |
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发帖数: 759 | 34 CHAP. 41.--ABOUT THE DISCORD OF PHILOSOPHIC OPINION, AND THE
CONCORD OF THE SCRIPTURES THAT ARE HELD AS
CANONICAL BY THE CHURCH.
But let us omit further examination of history, and return
to the philosophers from whom we digressed to these things.
They seem to have labored in their studies
for no other end than to find out how to live in a way
proper for laying hold of blessedness. Why, then, have the
disciples dissented from their masters, and the
fellow-disciples from one another, except becau |
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发帖数: 759 | 35 CHAP. 47.--WHETHER BEFORE CHRISTIAN TIMES THERE WERE ANY
OUTSIDE OF THE ISRAELITE RACE WHO BELONGED TO
THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE HEAVENLY CITY.
Wherefore if we read of any foreigner--that is, one neither
born of Israel nor received by that people into the canon of
the sacred books--having prophesied
something about Christ, if it has come or shall come to our
knowledge, we can refer to it over and above; not that this
is necessary, even if wanting, but because it
is not incongruous to believe that ev |
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发帖数: 759 | 36 CHAP. 53.--OF THE HIDDEN TIME OF THE FINAL
PERSECUTION.
Truly Jesus Himself shall extinguish by His presence that
last persecution which is to be made by Antichrist. For so
it is written, that "He shall slay him with the
breath of His mouth, and empty him with the brightness of
His presence."(1) It is customary to ask, When shall that
be? But this is quite unreasonable. For had it
been profitable for us to know this, by whom could it better
have been told than by God Himself, the Master, when th |
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发帖数: 759 | 37 BOOK XIX.
ARGUMENT.
IN THIS BOOK THE END OF THE TWO CITIES, THE EARTHLY AND THE
HEAVENLY, IS DISCUSSED. AUGUSTIN REVIEWS THE
OPINIONS OF THE PHILOSOPHERS REGARDING THE SUPREME GOOD, AND
THEIR VAIN EFFORTS TO MAKE FOR
THEMSELVES A HAPPINESS IN THIS LIFE; AND, WHILE HE REFUTES
THESE, HE TAKES OCCASION TO SHOW WHAT THE PEACE
AND HAPPINESS BELONGING TO THE HEAVENLY CITY, OR THE PEOPLE
OF CHRIST, ARE BOTH NOW AND HEREAFTER.
CHAP. 1.--THAT VARRO HAS MADE OUT THAT TWO HUNDRED AND
EIGHTY-EIGHT DIFFERENT |
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发帖数: 759 | 38 CHAP. 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.
If, then, we be asked what the city of God has to say upon
these points, and, in the first place, what its opinion
regarding the supreme good and evil is, it will reply
that life eternal is the supreme good, death eternal the
supreme evil, and that to obtain the one and escape the
other we must live rightly. And thus it is writt |
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发帖数: 759 | 39 CHAP. 5.--OF THE SOCIAL LIFE, WHICH, THOUGH MOST DESIRABLE,
IS FREQUENTLY DISTURBED BY MANY DISTRESSES.
We give a much more unlimited approval to their idea that
the life of the wise man must be social. For how could the
city of God (concerning which we are
already writing no less than the nineteenth book of this
work either take a beginning or be developed, or attain its
proper destiny, if the life of the saints were not a
social life? But who can enumerate all the great grievances
with which h |
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发帖数: 759 | 40 CHAP. 11.--OF THE HAPPINESS OF THE ETERNAL PEACE, WHICH
CONSTITUTES THE END OR TRUE PERFECTION OF THE
SAINTS.
And thus we may say of peace, as we have said of eternal
life, that it is the end of our good; and the rather because
the Psalmist says of the city of God, the
subject of this laborious work, "Praise the Lord, O
Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion: for He hath strengthened
the bars of thy gates; He hath blessed thy
children within thee; who hath made thy borders peace."(1)
For when the bar |
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发帖数: 759 | 41 CHAP. 17.--WHAT PRODUCES PEACE, AND WHAT DISCORD, BETWEEN
THE HEAVENLY AND EARTHLY CITIES.
But the families which do not live by faith seek their peace
in the earthly advantages of this life; while the families
which live by faith look for those eternal blessings
which are promised, and use as pilgrims such advantages of
time and of earth as do not fascinate and divert them from
God, but rather aid them to endure with
greater ease, and to keep down the number of those burdens
of the corruptible |
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发帖数: 759 | 42 CHAP. 23.--PORPHYRY'S ACCOUNT OF THE RESPONSES GIVEN BY THE
ORACLES OF THE GODS CONCERNING CHRIST.
For in his book called ek
logiwn filosofias, in which he
collects and comments upon the responses which he
pretends were uttered by the gods concerning divine things,
he says--I give his own words as they have been translated
from the Greek: "To one who inquired
what god he should propitiate in order to recall his wife
from Christianity, Apollo replied i |
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发帖数: 759 | 43 BOOK XX.
ARGUMENT.
CONCERNING THE LAST JUDGMENT, AND THE DECLARATIONS REGARDING
IT IN THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS.
CHAP. I.--THAT ALTHOUGH GOD IS ALWAYS JUDGING, IT IS
NEVERTHELESS REASONABLE TO CONFINE OUR ATTENTION IN
THIS BOOK TO HIS LAST JUDGMENT.
INTENDING to speak, in dependence on God's grace, of the day
of His final judgment, and to affirm it against the ungodly
and incredulous, we must first of all
lay, as it were, in the foundation of the edifice the divine
declarations. Those persons w |
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发帖数: 759 | 44 CHAP. 5.--THE PASSAGES IN WHICH THE SAVIOUR DECLARES THAT
THERE SHALL BE A DIVINE JUDGMENT IN THE END OF
THE WORLD.
The Saviour Himself, while reproving the cities in which He
had done great works, but which had not believed, and while
setting them in unfavorable comparison
with foreign cities, says, "But I say unto you, It shall be
more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment
than for you."(6) And a little after He says,
"Verily, I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the
la |
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发帖数: 759 | 45 CHAP. 8.--OF THE BINDING AND LOOSING OF THE DEVIL.
"After that," says John, "he must be loosed a little
season." If the binding and shutting up of the devil means
his being made unable to seduce the Church, must his
loosing be the recovery of this ability? By no means. For
the Church predestined and elected before the foundation of
the world, the Church of which it is said,
"The Lord knoweth them that are His," shall never be seduced
by him. And yet there shall be a Church in this world even
whe |
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发帖数: 759 | 46 CHAP. 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.
"And when the thousand years are finished, Satan shall be
loosed from his prison, and shall go out to seduce the
nations which are in the four corners of the
earth, Gog and Magog, and shall draw them to battle, whose
number is as the sand of the sea." This then, is his purpose
in seducing them, to draw them to this
battle. For even before this he was wont to use as m |
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发帖数: 759 | 47 CHAP. 17.--OF THE ENDLESS GLORY OF THE
CHURCH.
"And I saw," he says, "a great city, new Jerusalem, coming
down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband. And I heard a great
voice from the throne, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God
is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be
His people, and God Himself shall be
with them. And God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor
crying, but neither shall |
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发帖数: 759 | 48 CHAP. 21.--UTTERANCES OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH REGARDING THE
RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD AND THE RETRIBUTIVE
JUDGMENT.
The prophet Isaiah says, "The dead shall rise again, and all
who were in the graves shall rise again; and all who are in
the earth shall rejoice: for the dew which is
from Thee is their health, and the earth of the wicked shall
fall."(1) All the former part of this passage relates to the
resurrection of the blessed; but the words,
"the earth of the wicked shall fall," is rightly under |
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发帖数: 759 | 49 CHAP. 23.--WHAT DANIEL PREDICTED REGARDING THE PERSECUTION
OF ANTICHRIST, THE JUDGMENT OF GOD, AND THE
KINGDOM OF THE SAINTS.
Daniel prophesies of the last judgment in such a way as to
indicate that Antichrist shall first come, and to carry on
his description to the eternal reign of the saints.
For when in prophetic vision he had seen four beasts,
signifying four kingdoms, and the fourth conquered by a
certain king, who is recognized as Antichrist, and
after this the eternal kingdom of the Son o |
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发帖数: 759 | 50 CHAP. 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.
The prophet Malachi or Malachias, who is also called Angel,
and is by some (for Jerome(9) tells us that this is the
opinion of the Hebrews) identified with Ezra
the priest,(10) others of whose writings have been received
into the canon, predicts the last judgment, saying, "Behold,
He cometh, saith the Lord Almighty; and
who shall abide the day of His e |
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