The City of God, Volume I by Saint of Hippo Augustine

first man, and that God there saw the portion of it which was to be honoured and rewarded, and that which was to be condemned and punished._ With good cause, therefore, does the true religion recognise and proclaim that the same God who created the universal cosmos, created also all the animals, souls as well as bodies. Among the terrestrial animals man was made by Him in His own image, and, for the reason I have given, was made one individual, though he was not left solitary. For there is nothing so social by nature, so unsocial by its corruption, as this race. And human nature has nothing more appropriate, either for the prevention of discord, or for the healing of it, where it exists, than the remembrance of that first parent of us all, whom God was pleased to create alone, that all men might be derived from one, and that they might thus be admonished to preserve unity among their whole multitude. But from the fact that the woman was made for him from his side, it was plainly meant that we should learn how dear the bond between man and wife should be. These works of God do certainly seem extraordinary, because they are the first works. They who do not believe them, ought not to believe any prodigies; for these would not be called prodigies did they not happen out of the ordinary course of nature. But, is it possible that anything should happen in vain, however hidden be its cause, in so grand a government of divine providence? One of the sacred Psalmists says, "Come, behold the works of the Lord, what prodigies He hath wrought in the earth."[571] Why God made woman out of man's side, and what this first prodigy prefigured, I shall, with God's help, tell in another place. But at present, since this book must be concluded, let us merely say that in this first man, who was created in the beginning, there was laid the foundation, not indeed evidently, but in God's foreknowledge, of these two cities or societies, so far as regards the human race. For from that man all men were to be derived--some of them to be associated with the good angels in their reward, others with the wicked in punishment; all being ordered by the secret yet just judgment of God. For since it is written, "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth,"[572] neither can His grace be unjust, nor His justice cruel. FOOTNOTES: [520] _Vitium_: perhaps "fault" most nearly embraces all the uses of this word. [521] Essentia. [522] Ex. iii. 14. [523] Quintilian calls it _dura_. [524] With this may be compared the argument of Socrates in the _Gorgias_, in which it is shown that to escape punishment is worse than to suffer it, and that the greatest of evils is to do wrong and not be chastised. [525] Eccles. x. 13. [526] Specie. [527] Ps. xix. 12. [528] C. 13. [529] Rom. v. 5. [530] Ps. lxxiii. 28. [531] _De Deo Socratis._ [532] Augustine no doubt refers to the interesting account given by Critias, near the beginning of the _Timæus_, of the conversation of Solon with the Egyptian priests. [533] Augustine here follows the chronology of Eusebius, who reckons 5611 years from the Creation to the taking of Rome by the Goths; adopting the Septuagint version of the patriarchal ages. [534] See above, viii. 5. [535] It is not apparent to what Augustine refers. The Arcadians, according to Macrobius (_Saturn._ i. 7), divided their year into three months, and the Egyptians divided theirs into three seasons: each of these seasons having four months, it is possible that Augustine may have referred to this. See Wilkinson's excursus on the Egyptian year, in Rawlinson's _Herod._ Book ii. [536] The former opinion was held by Democritus and his disciple Epicurus; the latter by Heraclitus, who supposed that "God amused Himself" by thus renewing worlds. [537] The Alexandrian Neo-Platonists endeavoured in this way to escape from the obvious meaning of the _Timæus_. [538] Antoninus says (ii. 14), "All things from eternity are of like forms, and come round in a circle." Cf. also ix. 28, and the references to more ancient philosophical writers in Gataker's notes on these passages. [539] Eccles. i. 9, 10. So Origen, _de Prin._ iii. 5, and ii. 3. [540] Rom. vi. 9. [541] 1 Thess. iv. 16. [542] Ps. xii. 7. [543] Cf. _de Trin._ v. 17. [544] Wisdom ix. 13-15. [545] Gen. i. 1. [546] Gen. i. 14. [547] Rom. xii. 3. [548] Titus i. 2, 3. Augustine here follows the version of Jerome, and not the Vulgate. Comp. _Contra Priscill._ 6, and _de Gen. c. Man._ iv. 4. [549] 2 Cor. x. 12. Here, and in _Enar. in_ Ps. xxxiv., and also in _Cont. Faust._ xxii. 47, Augustine follows the Greek, and not the Vulgate. [550] _i.e._ indefinite, or an indefinite succession of things. [551] Again in the _Timæus_. [552] Wisdom xi. 20. [553] Isa. xl. 26. [554] Matt. x. 30. [555] Ps. cxlvii. 5. [556] De sæculis sæculorum. [557] Ps. cxlviii. 4. [558] Cicero has the same (_de Amicitia_, 16): "Quonam modo quisquam amicus esse poterit, cui se putabit inimicum esse posse?" He also quotes Scipio to the effect that no sentiment is more unfriendly to friendship than this, that we should love as if some day we were to hate. [559] C. 30. [560] Coquæus remarks that this is levelled against the Pelagians. [561] "Quando leoni Fortior eripuit vitam leo? quo nemore unquam Exspiravit aper majoris dentibus apri? Indica tigris agit rabida cum tigride pacem Perpetuam; sævis inter se convenit ursis. Ast homini," etc. JUVENAL, _Sat._ xv. 160-5. --See also the very striking lines which precede these. [562] See this further discussed in _Gen. ad Lit._ vii. 35, and in Delitzsch's _Bibl. Psychology_. [563] Jer. xxiii. 24. [564] Wisdom viii. 1. [565] 1 Cor. iii. 7. [566] 1 Cor. xv. 38. [567] Jer. i. 5. [568] Compare _de Trin._ iii. 13-16. [569] See Book xi. 5. [570] "The Deity, desirous of making the universe in all respects resemble the most beautiful and entirely perfect of intelligible objects, formed it into one visible animal, containing within itself all the other animals with which it is naturally allied."--_Timæus_, c. xi. [571] Ps. xlvi. 8. [572] Ps. xxv. 10. BOOK THIRTEENTH. ARGUMENT. IN THIS BOOK IT IS TAUGHT THAT DEATH IS PENAL, AND HAD ITS ORIGIN IN ADAM'S SIN.