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LACTANTIUS
THE DIVINE INSTITUTES, BOOK VII
[Translated by the Rev. William Fletcher, D.D.]
BOOK VII.
OF A HAPPY LIFE.
CHAP. I.--OF THE WORLD, AND THOSE WHO ARE ABOUT TO BELIEVE, AND THOSE WHO
ARE NOT; AND IN THIS THE CENSURE OF THE FAITHLESS.
It is well: the foundations are laid, as the illustrious orator says.
But we have not only laid the foundations, which might be firth and
suitable for the support of the work; but we have raised the entire
edifice, with great and strong buildings, almost to the summit. There
remains, a matter which is much easier, either to cover or adorn it;
without which, however, the former works are both useless and displeasing.
For of what avail is it, either to be freed from false religions(1) or to
understand the true(2) one? Of what avail, either to see the vanity of
false wisdom,(3) or to know what is true?(4) Of what avail is it, I say, to
defend that heavenly justice?(5) Of what avail to hold the worship of
God(2) with great difficulties, which is the greatest virtue, unless the
divine reward of everlasting blessedness attends it? Of which subject we
must speak in this book, lest all that is gone before should appear vain
and unprofitable: if. we should leave this, on account of which they were
undertaken, in uncertainty, lest any one should by chance think that such
great labours are undertaken in vain; while he distrusts their heavenly
reward, which God has appointed for him who shall have despised the present
sweet enjoyments of earth in comparison of solitary and unrewarded(6)
virtue. Let us satisfy this part of our subject also, both by the
testimonies of the sacred writings and also by probable arguments, that it
may be equally manifest that future things are to be preferred to those
which are present; heavenly things to earthly: and eternal things to those
which are temporal: since the rewards of vices are temporal, those of
virtues are eternal.
I will therefore set forth the system of the world, that it may easily
be understood both when and how it was made by God; which Plato, who
discoursed about the making of the world, could neither know nor explain,
inasmuch as he was ignorant of the heavenly mystery, which is not learned
except by the teaching of prophets and God; and therefore he said that it
was created for eternity. Whereas the case is far different, since whatever
is of a solid and heavy body, as it received a beginning at some time, so
it must needs have an end. For Aristotle, when he did not see how so great
a magnitude of things could perish, and wished to escape this objection,(7)
said that the world always had existed, and always would exist. He did not
at all see, that whatever material thing exists must at some time have had
a beginning, and that nothing can exist at all unless it bad a beginning.
For when we see that earth, and water, and fire perish, are consumed, and
extinguished, which are clearly parts of the world, it is understood that
that is altogether mortal the members of which are mortal. Thus it comes to
pass, that whatever is liable to destruction must have been produced. But
everything which comes within the sight of the eyes must of necessity be
material, and capable of dissolution. Therefore Epicurus alone, following
the authority of Democritus, spoke truly in this matter, who said that it
had a beginning at some time, and that it would at some time perish. Nor,
however, was he able to assign any reason, either through what causes or at
what time this work of such magnitude should be destroyed. But since God
has revealed this to us, and we do not arrive at it by conjectures, but by
instruction from heaven, we will carefully teach it, that it may at length
be evident to those who are desirous of the truth, that the philosophers
did not see nor comprehend the truth; but that they had so slight a
knowledge of it, that they by no means perceived from what source that
fragrance(2) of wisdom, which was so pleasant and agreeable, breathed upon
them.
In the meantime, I think it necessary to admonish those who are about
to read this, that depraved and vicious minds, since the acuteness of their
mind is blunted by earthly passions, which weigh down all the perceptions
and render them weak, will either altogether fail to understand these
things which we relate, or, even if they shall understand them, they will
dissemble and be unwilling for them to be true: because they are drawn away
by vices, and they knowingly favour their own evils, by the pleasantness of
which they are captivated, and they desert the way of virtue, by the
bitterness of which they are offended. For they who are inflamed with
avarice and a certain insatiable thirst for riches--because, when they have
sold or squandered the things in which they delight, they are unable to
live in a simple style--undoubtedly prefer that by which they are compelled
to renounce their eager desires. Also, they who, urged on by the
incitements of lusts, as the poet says,(3)
"Rush into madness and fire,"
say that we bring forward things plainly incredible; because the precepts
about self-restraint wound their ears, which restrain them from their
pleasures, to which they have given(4) up their soul, together with their
body. But those who, swollen with ambition or inflamed with the love of
power, have bestowed all their efforts on the acquisition of honours, will
not, even if we should bear the sun himself in our hands, believe that
teaching which commands them to despise all power and honour, and to live
in humility, and in such humility that they may be able to receive an
injury, and if they have received one, be unwilling to return it. These are
the men who cry out(5) in any way against the truth with closed eyes. But
they who are or shall be of sound mind, that is, not so immersed in vices
as to be incurable, will both believe these things, and will readily
approach them; and whatever things we say, they will appear to them open,
and plain, and simple, and that which is chiefly necessary, true and
unassailable.
No one favours virtue but he who is able to follow it; but it is not
easy for all to follow it: they can do so whom poverty and want have
exercised, and made capable of virtue. For if the endurance of evils is
virtue, it follows that they are not capable of virtue who have always
lived in the enjoyment of good things; because they have never
experienced evils, nor can they endure them, through their long-continued
use and desire of good things, which alone they know. Thus it comes to pass
that the poor and humble, who are unencumbered, more readily believe God
than the rich, who are entangled with many hindrances;(6) yea, rather, in
chains and fetters they are enslaved to the nod of desire, their mistress,
which has ensnared them with inextricable bonds; nor are they able to look
up to heaven, since their mind is bent down to the earth, and fixed on the
ground. But the way of virtue does not admit those carrying great burthens.
The path is very narrow by which justice leads man to heaven; no one can
keep this unless he is unencumbered and lightly equipped. For those wealthy
men, who are loaded with many and great burthens, proceed along the way of
death, which is very broad, since destruction rules with extended sway. The
precepts which God gives for justice, and the things which we bring forward
under the teaching of God respecting virtue and the truth, are bitter and
as poisons to these. And if they shall dare to oppose these things, they
must own themselves to be enemies of virtue and justice. I will now come to
the remaining part of the subject, that an end may be put to the work. But
this remains, that we should treat of the judgment of God, which will then
be established when our Lord shall return to the earth to render to every
one either a reward or punishment, according to his desert. Therefore, as
we spoke in the fourth book concerning His first advent,(7) so in this book
we will relate His second advent, which the Jews also both confess and hope
for; but in vain, since He must return to the confusion(8) of those for
whose call He had before come. For they who impiously treated Him with
violence in His humiliation, will experience Him in His power as a
conqueror; and, God requiting them, they will suffer all those things which
they read and do not understand; inasmuch as, being polluted with all sins,
and moreover sprinkled with the blood of the Holy One, they were devoted to
eternal punishment by that very One on whom they laid wicked hands. But we
shall have a separate subject against the Jews, in which we shall convict
them of error and guilt.
CHAP. II.--OF THE ERROR OF THE PHILOSOPHERS, AND OF THE DIVINE WISDOM, AND
OF THE GOLDEN AGE.
Now let us instruct those who are ignorant of the truth. It has been
so determined by the arrangement of the Most High God, that this
unrighteous age, having run the course(1) of its appointed times, should
come to an end; and all wickedness being immediately extinguished, and the
souls of the righteous being recalled to a happy life, a quiet, tranquil,
peaceful, in short, golden age, as the poets call it, should flourish,
under the rule of God Himself. This was especially the cause of all the
errors of the philosophers, that they did not comprehend the system of the
world, which comprises the whole of wisdom. But it cannot be comprehended
by our own perception and innate intelligence, which they wished to do by
themselves without a teacher. Therefore they fell into various and ofttimes
contradictory opinions, out of which they had no way of escape,
And they remained fixed in the same mire, as the comic writer(2) says,
since their conclusion does not correspond with their assumptions;(3)
inasmuch as they had assumed things to be true which could not be affirmed,
and proved without the knowledge of the truth and of heavenly things. And
this knowledge, as I have often said already, cannot exist in a man unless
it is derived from the teaching of God. For if a man is able to understand
divine things, he will be able also to perform them; for to understand is,
as it were, to follow in their track. But he is not able to do the things
which God does, because he is clothed with a mortal body; therefore he
cannot even understand those things which God does. And whether this is
possible is easy for every one to measure, from the immensity of the divine
actions and works. For if you will contemplate the world, with all the
things which it contains, you will assuredly understand how much the work
of God surpasses the works of men. Thus, as great as is the difference
between divine and human works, so great must be the distance between the
wisdom of God and man. For because God is incorruptible and immortal, and
therefore perfect because He is everlasting, His wisdom also is perfect, as
He Himself is; nor can anything oppose it, because God Himself is subject
to nothing.
But because man is subject to passion, his wisdom also is subject to
error; and as many things hinder the life of man, so that it cannot be
perpetual, so also his wisdom must be hindered by many things: so that it
is not perfect in entirely perceiving the truth. Therefore there is no
human wisdom, if it strives by itself to attain to the conception and
knowledge of the truth; inasmuch as the mind of man, being bound up with a
frail body, and enclosed in a dark abode, is neither able to wander at
large, nor clearly to perceive the truth, the knowledge of which belongs to
the divine nature. For His works are known to God alone. But man cannot
attain this knowledge by reflection or disputation, but by learning and
hearing from Him who alone is able to know and to teach. Therefore Marcus
Tullius,(4) borrowing from Plato the sentiment of Socrates, who said that
the time had come for himself to depart from life, but that they before
whom he was pleading his cause were still alive, says: Which is better is
known to the immortal gods; but I think that no man knows. Wherefore all
the sects of philosophers must be far removed from the truth, because they
who established them were men; nor can those things have any foundation or
firmness which are unsupported by any utterances of divine voices.
CHAP. III.--OF NATURE, AND OF THE WORLD; AND A CENSURE OF THE STOICS AND
EPICUREANS.
And since we are speaking of the errors of philosophers, the Stoics
divide nature into two parts--the one which effects, the other which
affords itself tractable for action. They say that in the former is
contained all the power of perception, in the latter the material, and that
the one cannot act without the other. How can that which handles and that
which is handled be one and the same thing? If any one should say that the
potter is the same as the clay, or that the clay is the same as the potter,
would he not plainly appear to be mad? But these men comprehend under the
one name of nature two things which are most widely different, God and the
world, the Maker and the work; and say that the one can do nothing without
the other, as though God were mixed up in nature with the world. For
sometimes they so mix them together, that God Himself is the mind of the
world, and that the world is the body of God; as though the world and God
began to exist at the same time, and God did not Himself make the world.
And they themselves also confess this at other times, when they say that it
was made for the sake of men, and that God could, if He willed it, exist
without the world, inasmuch as God is the divine and l eternal mind,
separate and free from a body. And since they were unable to understand His
power and majesty, they mixed Him(5) with the world, that is, with His own
work. Whence is that saying of Virgil:(6)--
"A spirit whose celestial flame
Glows in each member of the frame,
And stirs the mighty whole."
What, then, becomes of their own saying, that the world was both made and
is governed by the divine providence? For if He made the world, it follows
that He existed without the world; if He governs it, it is plain that it is
not as the mind governs the body, but as a master rules the house, as a
pilot the ship, as a charioteer the chariot. Nor, however, are they mixed
with those things which they govern. For if all these things which we see
are members of God, then God is rendered insensible by them, since the
members are without sensibility, and mortal, since we see that the members
are mortal.
I can enumerate how often lands shaken by sudden motions(1) have either
opened or sunk down precipitously; how often cities and islands have been
overwhelmed by waves, and gone into the deep; marshes have inundated
fruitful plains, rivers and pools have been dried up;(2) mountains also
have either fallen precipitously, or have been levelled with plains. Many
districts, and the foundations of many mountains, are laid waste by latent
and internal fire. And this is not enough, if God does not spare His own
members, unless it is permitted man also to have some power over the body
of God. Seas are built up, mountains are cut down, and the innermost bowels
of the earth are dug out to draw forth riches. Why, should I say that we
cannot even plough without lacerating the divine body? So that we are at
once wicked and impious in doing violence to the members of God. Does God,
then, suffer His body to be harassed, and endure to weaken Himself, or
permit this to be done by man? Unless by chance that divine intelligence
which is mixed with the world, and with all parts of the world, abandoned
the first outer aspect(3) of the earth, and plunged itself into the lowest
depths, that it might be sensible of no pain from continual laceration. But
if this is trifling and absurd, then they themselves were as devoid of
intelligence as those are who have not perceived that the divine spirit is
everywhere diffused, and that all things are held together by it, not
however in such a manner that God, who is incorruptible, should Himself be
mixed with heavy and corruptible elements. Therefore that is more correct
which they derived from Plato, that the world was made by God, and is also
governed by His providence. It was therefore befitting that Plato, and
those who held the same opinion, should teach and explain what was the
cause, what the reason, for the contriving of so great a work; why or for
the sake of whom He made it.
But the Stoics also say the world was made for the sake of men I hear
But Epicurus is ignorant on what account or who made men themselves. For
Lucretius, when he said that the world was not made by the gods, thus
spoke:(4)
"To say, again, that for the sake of men they have willed to set in
order the glorious nature of the world"--
then he introduced:--
"Is sheer folly. For what advantage can our gratitude bestow on
immortal and blessed beings, that for our, sake they should take in hand to
administer aught?"
And with good reason. For they brought forward no reason why the human race
was created or established by God. It is our business to set forth the
mystery of the world and man, of which they, being destitute, were able
neither to reach nor see the shrine of truth. Therefore, as I said a little
before, when they had assumed that which was true, that is, that the world
was made by God, and was made for the sake of men, yet, since their
argument failed them in the consequences, they were unable to defend that
which they had assumed. In fine, Plato, that he might not make the work of
God weak and subject to ruin, said that it would remain for ever. If it was
made for the sake of men, and so made as to be eternal, why then are not
they on whose account it was made eternal? If they are mortal on account of
whom it was made, it must also itself be mortal and subject to dissolution,
for it is not of more value than those for whose sake it was made. But if
his argument(5) were consistent, he would understand that it must perish
because it was made, and that nothing can remain for ever except that which
cannot be touched.
But he who says that it was not made for the sake of men has no
argument. For if he says that the Creator contrived these works of such
magnitude on His own account, why then were we produced? Why do we enjoy
the world itself? what means the creation of the human race, and of the
other living creatures? why do we intercept the advantages of others? why,
in short, do we grow, decrease, and perish? What reason is implied in our
production itself? what in our perpetual succession? Doubtless God wished
us to be seen, and to frame, as it were, impressions(6) with various
representations of Himself, with which He might delight Himself.
Nevertheless, if it were so, He would esteem living creatures as His care,
and especially man. to whose command He made all things subject. But with
regard to those who say that the world always existed: I omit that point,
that itself cannot exist without some beginning, from which they are unable
to extricate themselves; but I say this, if the world always existed, it
can have no systematic arrangement. For what could arrangement have
effected in that which never had a beginning? For before anything is done
or arranged, there is need of counsel that it may be determined how it
should be done; nor can anything be done without the foresight of a
settled plan. Therefore the plan precedes every work. Therefore that which
has not been made has no plan. But the world has a plan by which it both
exists and is governed; therefore also it was made: if it was made, it will
also be destroyed. Let them therefore assign a reason, I if they can, why
it was either made in the beginning or will hereafter be destroyed.
And because Epicurus or Democritus was unable to teach this, he said
that it was produced of its own accord, the seeds(2) coming together in all
directions; and that when these are again resolved, discord and destruction
will follow. Therefore he perverted(3) that which he had correctly seen,
and by his ignorance of system entirely overthrew the whole system, and
reduced the world, and all things which are done in it, to the likeness of
a most trifling dream, if no plan exists in human affairs. But since the
world and all its parts, as we see, are governed by a wonderful plan; since
the framing of the heaven, and the course of the stars and of the heavenly
bodies, which is harmonious(4) even in variety itself, the constant and
wonderful arrangement of the seasons, the varied fruitfulness of the lands,
the level plains, the defences and heapings up of mountains, the verdure
and productiveness of the woods, the most salubrious bursting forth of
fountains, the seasonable over-flowings of rivers, the rich and abundant
flowing(5) in of the sea, the opposite and useful breathing(6) of the
winds, and all things, are fixed with the greatest regularity: who is so
blind as to think that they were made without a cause, in which a wonderful
disposition of most provident arrangement shines forth? If, therefore,
nothing at all exists nor is done without a cause; if the providence of the
Supreme God is manifest from the disposition of things, His excellency from
their greatness, and His power from their government: therefore they are
dull and mad who have said that there is no providence. I should not
disapprove if they denied the existence of gods with this object, that they
might affirm the existence of one; but when they did it with this intent,
that they might say that there is none, he who does not think that they
were senseless is himself senseless.
CHAP. IV.--THAT ALL THINGS WERE CREATED FOR SOME USE, EVEN THOSE THINGS
WHICH APPEAR EVIL; ON WHAT ACCOUNT MAN ENJOYS REASON IN SO FRAIL A BODY.
But we have spoken sufficiently on the subject of providence in the
first book. For if it has any existence, as appears from the wonderful
nature of its works, it must be that the same providence created man and
the other animals. Let us therefore see what reason there was for the
creation of the human race, since it is evident, as the Stoics say, that
the world was made for the sake of men, although they make no slight error
in this very matter, in saying it was not made for the sake of man, but of
men. For the naming of one individual comprehends the whole human race. But
this arises from the fact that they are ignorant that one man only was made
by God, and they think that men were produced in all lands and fields like
mushrooms. But Hermes was not ignorant that man was both made by God and
after the likeness of God. But I return to my subject. There is nothing, as
I imagine, which was made on its own account; but whatever is made at all
must necessarily be made for some purpose. For who is there either so
senseless or so unconcerned as to attempt to do anything at random, from
which he expects no utility, no advantage? He who builds a house does not
build it merely for this purpose, that it may be a house, but that it may
be inhabited. He who builds a ship does not bestow his labour on this
account, only that the ship may be visible, but that men may sail in it.
Likewise he who designs and forms any vessel does not do it on this
account, that he may only appear to have done it, hut that the vessel when
made may contain something necessary for use. In like manner, other
things, whatever are made, are plainly not made superfluously, but for some
useful purposes.
It is plain, therefore, that the world was made by God, not on account
of the world itself; for since it is without sensibility, it neither needs
the warmth of the sun, or light, or the breath of the winds, or the
moisture of showers, or the nourishment of fruits. But it cannot even be
said that God made the world for His own sake, since He can exist without
the world, as He did before it was made; and God Himself does not make use
of all those things which are contained in it, and which are produced. It
is evident, therefore, that the world was constructed for the sake of
living beings, since living beings enjoy those things of which it consists;
and that these may live and exist, all things necessary for them are
supplied at fixed times. Again, that the other living beings were made for
the sake of man, is plain from this, that they are subservient to man, and
were given for his protection and service; since, whether they are of the
earth or of the water, they do not perceive the system of the world as man
does. We must here reply to the philosophers, and especially to Cicero, who
says: "Why should God, when He made all things on our account, make so
large a quantity of snakes and vipers? why should He scatter so many
pernicious things by land and by sea?" A very wide subject for discussion,
but it must be briefly touched upon, as in passing. Since man is formed of
different and opposing elements, soul and body, that is, heaven and earth,
that which is slight and that which is perceptible to the senses, that
which is eternal and that which is temporal, that which has sensibility and
that which is senseless, that which is endued with light and that which is
dark, reason itself and necessity require that both good and evil things
should be set before man--good things which he may use, and evil things
which he may guard against and avoid.
For wisdom has been given to him on this account, that, knowing the
nature of good and evil things, he may exercise the force of his reason in
seeking the good and avoiding the evil. For because wisdom was not given to
the other animals, they were both defended with natural clothing and were
armed; but in the place of all these He gave to man that which was most
excellent, reason only. Therefore He formed him naked and unarmed, that
wisdom might be both his defence and covering. He placed his defence and
ornament not without, but within not in the body, but in the heart Unless,
therefore, there were evils which he might guard against, and which he
might distinguish from good and useful things, wisdom was not necessary for
him. Therefore let Marcus Tullius know that reason was either given to man
that he might take fishes on account of his own use, and avoid snakes and
vipers for the sake of his own safety; or that good and evil things were
set before him on this account, because he had received wisdom, the whole
force of which is occupied in distinguishing things good and evil.(1)
Great, therefore, and right, and admirable is the force, and reason, and
power of man, for whose sake God made the world itself and all things, as
many as exist, and gave him so much honour that He set him over all things,
since he alone could admire the works of God. Most excellently, therefore,
does our Asclepiades,(2) in discussing the providence of the Supreme God in
that book which he wrote to me, say: "And on this account any one may with
good reason think that the divine providence gave the place nearest to
itself to him who was able to understand its arrangement. For that is the
sun: who so beholds it as to understand why it is the sun, and what amount
of influence it has upon the other parts of the system? this is the heaven,
who looks up to it? this is the earth, who inhabits it? this is the sea,
who sails upon it? this is fire, who makes use of it?" Therefore the
Supreme God did not arrange these things on account of Himself, because He
stands in need of nothing, but on account of man, who might fitly make use
of them.
CHAP. V.--OF THE CREATION OF MAN, AND OF THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE WORLD, AND
OF THE CHIEF GOOD.
Let us now assign the reason why He made man himself. For if the
philosophers bad known this, they would either have maintained those things
which they had found to be true, or would not have fallen into the
greatest errors. For this is the chief thing; this is the point on which
everything turns. And if any one does not possess this, the truth
altogether glides away from him. It is this, in short, which causes them to
be inconsistent with reason;(3)for if this had shone upon them, if they had
known all the mystery(4) of man, the Academy would never have been in
entire opposition(5) to their disputations, and to all philosophy.As,
therefore, God did not make the world for His own sake, because He does not
stand in need of its advantages, but for the sake of man, who has the use
of it, so also He made man himself for His own sake. What advantage is
there to God in man, says Epicurus, that He should make him for His own
sake? Truly, that there might be one who might understand His works; who
might be able both to admire with his understanding, and to express with
his voice, the foresight displayed in their arrangement, the order of their
creation, the power exerted in their completion. And the sum of all these
things is, that he should worship God.(6) For he who understands these
things worships Him; he follows Him with due veneration as the Maker of all
things, He as his true Father, who measures the excellence of His majesty
according to the invention, the commencement, and completion of His works.
What more evident argument can be brought forward that God both made the
world for the sake of man, and man for His own sake, than that he alone of
all living creatures has been so formed that his eyes are directed towards
heaven, his face looking towards God, his countenance is in fellowship with
his Parent, so that God appears, as it were, with outstretched hand to have
raised man from the ground, and to have elevated him to the contemplation
of Himself. "What, then," he says, "does the worship paid by man confer on
God, who is blessed, and in want of nothing? Or if He gave such honour to
man as to create the world for his sake, to furnish him with wisdom, to
make him lord of all things living, and to love him as a son, why did He
make him subject to death and decay? why did He expose the object of His
love to all evils? when it was befitting that man should be happy, as
though closely connected with God, and everlasting as He is, to the worship
and contemplation of whom he was formed."
Although we have taught these things for the most part in a scattered
manner in the former books, nevertheless, since the subject now specially
requires it, because we have undertaken to discuss the subject of a happy
life, these things are to be explained by us more carefully and fully, that
the arrangement made by God, and His work and will, may be known. Though He
was always able by His own immortal Spirit to produce innumerable souls, as
He produced the angels, to whom there exists immortality without any danger
and fear of evils, yet He devised an unspeakable work, in what manner He
might create an infinite multitude of souls, which being at first united
with frail and feeble bodies, He might place in the midst between good and
evil, that He might set virtue before them composed as they were of both
natures; that they might not attain to immortality by a delicate and easy
course of life, but might arrive at that unspeakable reward of eternal life
with the utmost difficulty and great labours. Therefore, that He might
clothe them with limbs which were heavy and liable to injury,(1) since they
were unable to exist in the middle void, the weight and gravity of the body
sinking downwards, He determined that an abode and dwelling-place should
first be built for them. And thus with unspeakable energy and power He
contrived the surpassing works of the world; and having suspended the light
elements on high, and depressed the heavy ones to the depths below, He
strengthened the heavenly things, and established the earthly. It is not
necessary at present to follow out each point separately, since we
discussed them all together in the second book.
Therefore He placed in the heaven lights, whose regularity, and
brightness, and motion, were most suitably proportioned to the advantage of
living beings. Moreover, He gave to the earth, which He designed as their
dwelling-place, fruitfulness for bringing forth and producing various,
things, that by the abundance of fruits and green herbs it might supply
nourishment according to the nature and requirements of each kind. Then,
when He had completed all things which belonged to the condition of the
world, He formed man from the earth itself, which He prepared for him from
the beginning as a habitation; that is, He clothed and covered his spirit
with an earthly body, that, being compacted of different and opposing
materials, he might be susceptible of good and evil; and as the earth
itself is fruitful for the bringing forth of grain, so the body of man,
which was taken from the earth, received the power of producing offspring,
that, inasmuch as he was formed of a fragile substance, and could not exist
for ever, when tim space of his temporal life was past, he might depart,
and by a perpetual succession renew that which he bore, which was frail and
feeble. Why, then, did He make him frail and mortal, when He had built the
world for his sake? First of all, that an infinite number of living beings
might be produced, and that He might fill all the earth with a multitude;
in the next place, that He might set before man virtue, that is, endurance
of evils and labours, by which he might be able to gain the reward of
immortality. For since man consists of two parts, body and soul, of which
the one is earthly, the other heavenly, two lives have been assigned to
man: the one temporal, which is appointed for the body; the other
everlasting, which belongs to the soul. We received the former at our birth
we attain to the latter by striving, that immortality might not exist to
man without any difficulty. That earthly one is as the body, and therefore
has an end; but this heavenly one is as the soul, and therefore has no
limit. We received the first when we were ignorant of it, this second
knowingly; for it is given to virtue, not to nature, because God wished
that we should procure life for ourselves in life.
For this reason He has given us this present life, that we may either
lose that true and eternal life by our vices, or win it(3) by virtue. The
chief good is not contained in this bodily life, since, as it was given to
us by divine necessity, so it will again be destroyed by divine necessity.
Thus that which has an end does not contain the chief good. But the chief
good is contained in that spiritual life which we acquire by ourselves,
because it cannot contain evil, or have an end; to which subject nature and
the system of the body afford an argument. For other animals incline
towards the ground, because they are earthly, and are incapable of
immortality, which is from heaven; but man is upright and looks towards
heaven,[1] because immortality is proposed to him; which, however, does not
come, unless it is given to man by God. For otherwise there would be no
difference between the just and the unjust, since every man who is born
would become immortal. Immortality, then, is not the consequence[2] of
nature, but the reward and recompense of virtue. Lastly, man does not
immediately upon his birth walk upright, but at first on all fours,[3]
because the nature of his body and of this present life is common to us
with the dumb animals; afterwards, when his strength is confirmed, he
raises himself, and his tongue is loosened so that he speaks plainly, and
he ceases to be a dumb animal. And this argument teaches that man is born
mortal; but that he afterwards becomes immortal, when he begins to live in
conformity with the will[4] of God, that is, to follow righteousness,[5]
which is comprised in the worship of God, since God raised man to a view of
the heaven and of Himself. And this takes place when man, purified in the
heavenly laver, lays aside[6] his infancy together with all the pollution
of his past life, and having received an increase of divine vigour, becomes
a perfect and complete man.
Therefore, because God has set forth virtue before man, although the
soul and the body are connected together, yet they are contrary, and oppose
one another. The things which are good for the soul are evil to the body,
that is, the avoiding of riches, the prohibiting of pleasures, the contempt
of pain and death. In like manner, the things which are good for the body
are evil to the soul, that is, desire and lust, by which riches are
desired, and the enjoyments of various pleasures, by which the soul is
weakened and destroyed? Therefore it is necessary, that the just and wise
man should be engaged in all evils, since fortitude is victorious over
evils; but the unjust in riches, in honours, in power. For these goods
relate to the body, and are earthly; and these men also lead an earthly
life, nor are they able to attain to immortality. because they have given
themselves up to pleasures which are the enemies of virtue. Therefore this
temporal life ought to be subject to that eternal life, as the body is to
the soul. Whoever, then, prefers the life of the soul must despise the life
of the body; nor will he in any other way be able to strive after that
which is highest, unless he shall have despised the things which are
lowest. But he who shall have embraced the life of the body, and shall have
turned his desires downwards[8] to the earth, is unable to attain to that
higher life. But he who prefers to live well for eternity, will live
badly[9] for a time, and will be subjected to all troubles and labours as
long as he shall be on earth, that he may have divine and heavenly
consolation. And he who shall prefer to live well[10] for a time, will live
ill to eternity; for he will be condemned by the sentence of God to eternal
punishment, be cause he has preferred earthly to heavenly goods. On this
account, therefore, God seeks to be worshipped, and to be honoured by man
as a Father, that he may have virtue and wisdom, which alone produce'
immortality. For because no other but Himself is able to confer that
immortality, since He alone possesses it, He will grant[11] to the piety of
the man, with which he has honoured God, this reward, to be blessed to all
eternity, and to be for ever in the presence of God and in the society of
God.
N.B.--The following paragraphs to the end of the chapter are wanting in
many MSS., and it is very doubtful whether they were written by Lactantius.
Nor can any one shelter himself under the pretext that the fault
belongs to Him who made both good and evil. For why did He will that evil
should exist if He hated it? Why did He not make good only, that no one
might sin, no one commit evil? Although I have explained this in almost all
the former books, and have touched upon it, though slightly, above, yet it
must be mentioned repeatedly, because the whole matter turns on this point.
For there could be no virtue unless He had made contrary things; nor can
the power of good be at all manifest, except from a comparison with evil.
Thus evil is nothing else but the explanation of good. Therefore if evil is
taken away, good must also be taken away. If you shall cut off your left
hand or foot, your body will not be entire, nor will life itself remain the
same. Thus, for the due adjustment of the framework of the body, the left
members are most suitably joined with the right. In like manner, if you
make chessmen[1] all alike, no one will play. If you shall give one
colour[2] only to the circus, no one will think it worth while to be a
spectator, all the pleasure of the Circensian games being taken away. For
he who first instituted the games was a favourer of one colour; but he
introduced another as a rival, that there might be a contest, and some
partisanship[3] in the spectacle. Thus God, when He was fixing that which
was good, and giving virtue, appointed also their contraries, with which
they might contend. If an enemy and a fight be wanting, there is no
victory. Take away a contest, and even virtue is nothing. How many are the
mutual contests of men, and with what various arts are they carried on! No
one, however, would be regarded as surpassing in bravery, swiftness, or
excellence, if he bad no adversary with whom he might contend. And where
victory is wanting, there also glory and the reward of victory must be
absent together with it. Therefore, that he might strengthen virtue itself
by continual exercise, and might make it perfect from its conflict with
evils, He gave both together, because each of the two without the other is
unable to retain its force. Therefore there is diversity, on which the
whole system of truth depends.
It does not escape my notice what may here be urged in opposition by
more skilful persons. If good cannot exist without evil, how do you say
that, before he had offended God, the first man lived in the exercise of
good only, or that be will hereafter live in the exercise of good only?
This question is to be examined by us, for in the former books I omitted
it, that I might here fill up the subject. We have said above that the
nature of man is made up of opposing elements; for the body, because it is
earth, is capable of being grasped, of temporary duration, senseless, and
dark. But the soul, because it is from heaven, is unsubstantial,[4]
everlasting, endued with sensibility, and full of lustre;[5] and because
these qualities are opposed to one another, it follows of necessity that
man is subject to good and evil. Good is ascribed to the soul, because it
is incapable of dissolution; evil to the body, because it is frail. Since,
therefore, the body and the soul are connected and united together, the
good and the evil must necessarily hold together; nor can they be
separated from one another, unless when they (the body and soul) are
separated. Finally, the knowledge of good and of evil was given at the same
time to the first man; and when he understood this, he was immediately
driven from the holy place in which there is no evil; for when he was
conversant with that which was good only, he was ignorant that this itself
was good. But after that he had received the knowledge of good and evil, it
was now unlawful for him to remain in that place of happiness, and he was
banished to this common world, that he might at once experience both of
those things with the nature of which he had at once become acquainted. It
is plain, therefore, that wisdom has been given to man that he may
disitinguish good from evil--that he may discriminate between things
advantageous and things disadvantageous, between things useful and things
useless--that he may have judgment and consideration as to what he ought to
guard against, what to desire, what to avoid, and what to follow. Wisdom
therefore cannot exist without evil; and that first author[6] of the human
race, as long as he was conversant with good only, lived as an infant,
ignorant of good and evil. But, indeed, hereafter man must be both wise and
happy without any evil; but this cannot take place as long as the soul is
clothed with the abode of the body.
But when a separation shall have been made between the body and the
soul, then evil will be disunited from good; and as the body perishes and
the soul remains, so evil will perish and good be permanent. Then man,
having received the garment of immortality, will be wise and free from
evil, as God is. He, therefore, who wishes that we should be conversant
with good only, especially desires this, that we should live without the
body, in which evil is. But if evil is taken away, either wisdom, as I have
said, or the body, will be taken from man; wisdom, that he may be ignorant
of evil; the body, that he may not be sensible of it. But now, since man is
furnished with wisdom to know, and a body to perceive, God willed that both
should exist alike in this life, that virtue and wisdom may be in
agreement. Therefore He placed man in the midst, between both, that he
might have liberty to follow either good or evil. But He mingled with evil
some things which appear good, that is, various and delightful enjoyments,
that by the enticements of these He might lead men to the concealed evil.
And He likewise mingled with good some things which appear evil--that is,
hardships, and miseries, and labours--by the harshness and unpleasantness
of which the soul, being offended, might shrink back from the concealed
good. But here the office of wisdom is needed, that we may see more with
the mind than with the body, which very few are able to do; because while
virtue is difficult and rarely to be found, pleasure is common and public.
Thus it necessarily happens that the wise man is accounted as a fool, who,
while he seeks good things which are not seen, permits those which are seen
to slip from his hands; and while he avoids evils which are not seen, runs
into evils which are before the eyes; which happens to us when we refuse
neither torture nor death in behalf of the faith, since we are driven to
the greatest wickedness, so as to betray the faith and deny the true God,
and to sacrifice to dead and death-bearing gods. This is the cause why God
made man mortal, and made him subject to evils, although he had framed the
world for his sake, namely, that he might be capable of virtue, and that
his virtue might reward him with immortality. Now virtue, as we have shown,
is the worship of the true God.
CHAP. VI.--WHY THE WORLD AND MAN WERE CREATED. HOW UNPROFITABLE IS THE
WORSHIP OF FALSE GODS.
Now let us mark the whole argument by a brief definition.[1] The world
has been created for this purpose, that we may be born; we are born for
this end, that we may acknowledge the Maker of the world and of ourselves--
God; we acknowledge Him for this end, that we may worship Him; we worship
Him for this end that we may receive immortality as the reward of our
labours, since the worship of God consists of the greatest labours; for
this end we are rewarded with immortality, that being made like to the
angels, we may serve the Supreme Father and Lord for ever, and may be to
all eternity a kingdom to God. This is the sum of all things, this the
secret of God, this the mystery of the world, from which they are
estranged, who, following present gratification, have devoted themselves to
the pursuit of earthly and frail goods, and by means of deadly enjoyments
have sunk as it were in mire and mud their souls, which were born for
heavenly pursuits.
Let us now, in the next place, inquire whether there is anything
reasonable in the worship of these gods; for if they are many, if they are
worshipped only on this account by men, that they may afford them riches,
victories, honours, and all things, which are of no avail except for the
present; if we are produced without cause--if no providence is employed in
the production of men--if we are brought forth by chance for ourselves, and
for the sake of our own pleasure--if we are nothing after death,--what can
be so superfluous, so empty, so vain, as the affairs of man, and the world
itself? which, though it is of incredible magnitude, and constructed with
such wonderful arrangement, is nevertheless occupied with trifling
subjects. For why should the breathings of the winds put the clouds in
motion? Why should lightnings shine forth, thunders roar, or showers fall,
that the earth may bring forth its increase, and nourish its various
productions? Why, in short, should all nature labour that nothing may be
wanting of those things by which the life of man is sustained, if it is
vain, if we utterly perish, if there is in us nothing of greater advantage
to God? But if it is unlawful to be spoken, and is not to be thought
possible, that that which you see to be most in accordance with reason was
not established on account of some reason of importance, what reason can
there be in these errors of depraved religions, and in this persuasion of
philosophers, by which they imagine that souls perish? Assuredly there is
none; for what have they to say why the gods so regularly supply to men
everything in its season? Is it that we may present to them corn and wine,
and the odour of incense, and the blood of cattle? Which things cannot be
acceptable to the immortals, because they are perishable; nor can they be
of use to beings destitute of bodies, because these things have been given
for the use of those possessed of bodies; and yet if they required these
things, they could bestow them upon themselves when they wished. Whether,
therefore, souls perish or exist for ever, what principle is involved in
the worship of the gods, or by whom was the world established? Why, or
when, or how long, or how far were men produced, or on what account? Why do
they arise, die, succeed one another, are renewed? What do the gods obtain
from the worship of those who after death are about to have no existence?
What do they perform, what do they promise, What do they threaten, which is
worthy of men or of gods? Or if souls remain after death, what do they do
or are they about to do respecting them? What need is there to them of a
treasure-house of souls? From what source do they themselves arise? How, or
why, or whence are they so many? Thus it comes to pass, that if yon depart
from that sum of things which we comprised above, all system is destroyed,
and all things return[2] to nothing.
CHAP. VII.--OF THE VARIETY OF PHILOSOPHERS, AND THEIR TRUTH.
And because the philosophers did not comprehend this main point, they
were neither able to comprehend truth, although they for the most part both
saw and explained those things of which the main point itself consists. But
different persons brought forward all these things, and in different ways,
not connecting the causes of things, nor the consequences, nor the reasons,
so that they might join together and complete that main point which
comprises the whole. But it is easy to show that almost the whole truth has
been divided by philosophers and sects. For we do not overthrow philosophy,
as the Academics are accustomed to do, whose plan was to reply to
everything, which is rather to calumniate and mock; but we show that no
sect was so much out of the way, and no philosopher so vain, as not to see
something of the truth.[1] But while they are mad with the desire of
contradicting, while they defend their own arguments even though false, and
overthrow those of others even though true, not only has the truth escaped
from them, which they pretended that they were seeking, but they themselves
lost it chiefly through their own fault. But if there had been any one to
collect together the truth which was dispersed amongst individuals and
scattered amongst sects, and to reduce it to a body, he assuredly would not
disagree with us. But no one is able to do this, unless he has
experience[2] and knowledge of the truth. But to know the truth belongs to
him only who has been taught by God. For he cannot in any other way reject
the things which are false, or choose and approve of those which are true;
but if even by chance he should effect this, he would most surely act the
part of the philosopher; and though he could not defend those things by
divine testimonies, yet the truth would explain itself by its own light.
Wherefore the error of those is incredible, who, when they have approved of
any sect, and have devoted themselves to it, condemn all others as false
and vain, and arm themselves for battle, neither knowing what they ought to
defend nor what to refute; and make attacks everywhere, without
distinction,[3] upon all things which are brought forward by those who
disagree with them.
On account of these most obstinate contentions of theirs, no philosophy
existed which made a nearer approach to the truth, for the whole truth has
been comprised by these in separate portions.[4] Plato said[5] that the
world was made by God: the prophets[6] speak the same; and the same is
apparent from the verses of the Sibyl. They therefore are in error, who
have said either that all things were produced of their own accord or from
an assemblage of atoms;[7] since so great a world, so adorned and of such
magnitude, could neither have been made nor arranged and set in order
without some most skilful author, and that very arrangement by which all
things are perceived to be kept together and to be governed bespeaks[8] an
artificer with a most skilful mind. The Stoics say that the world, and all
things which are in it, were made for the sake of men: the sacred
writings[9] teach us the same thing. Therefore Democritus was in error, who
thought that they were poured forth from the earth like worms, without any
author or plan. For the reason of man's creation belongs to a divine
mystery; and because he was unable to know this, he drew[10] down man's
life to nothing. Aristo asserted that men were born to the exercise of
virtue; we are also reminded of and learn the same from the prophets.
Therefore Aristippus is deceived, who made man subject to pleasure, that
is, to evil, as though he were a beast. Pherecydes and Plato contended that
souls were immortal; but this is a peculiar doctrine in our religion.
Therefore Dicaearchus was mistaken, together with Democritus, who argued
that souls perished with the body and were dissolved, Zeno the Stoic taught
that there were infernal regions, and that the abodes of the good were
separated from the wicked; and that the former enjoyed peaceful and
delightful regions, but that the latter suffered punishment in dark places,
and in dreadful abysses of mire: the prophets show the same thing.
Therefore Epicurus was mistaken, who thought that that was an invention[11]
of the poets, and explained those punishments of the infernal regions,
which are spoken of, as happening in this life. Therefore the philosophers
touched upon the whole truth, and every secret of our holy religion; but
when others denied it, they were unable to defend that which they had
found, because the system did not agree[12] with the particulars; nor were
they able to reduce to a summary those things which they had perceived to
be true, as we have done above.
CHAP. VIII.--OF THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.
The one chief good, therefore, is immortality, for the reception of
which we were originally formed and born. To this we direct our course;
human nature regards this; to this virtue exalts us. And because we have
discovered this good, it remains that we should also speak of immortality
itself. The arguments of Plato, although they contribute much to the
subject, have little strength to prove and fill up the truth, since he had
neither summed up and collected into one the plan of the whole of this
great mystery, nor had he comprehended the chief good. For although he
perceived the truth respecting the immortality of the soul, yet he did not
speak respecting it as though it were the chief good. We, therefore, are
able to elicit the truth by more certain signs; for we have not collected
it by doubtful surmise,[1] but have known it by divine instruction. Now
Plato thus reasoned, that whatever has perception by itself, and always
moves, is immortal; for that that which has no beginning of motion is not
about to have an end, because it cannot be deserted by itself. But this
argument would give eternal existence even to dumb animals, unless he had
made a distinction by the addition of wisdom. He added, therefore, that he
might escape this common[2] linking together, that the soul of man could
not be otherwise than immortal, since its wonderful skill in invention, its
quickness in reflection, and its readiness in perceiving and learning, its
memory of the past, and its foresight of the future, and its knowledge of
innumerable arts and subjects, which other living creatures do not possess,
appear divine and heavenly; because of the soul, which conceives such great
things, and contains such great things, no origin can be found on earth,
since it has nothing of earthly admixture united with it. But that which is
ponderous in man, and liable to dissolution, must be resolved into earth;
whereas that which is slight and subtle is incapable of division, and when
freed from the abode of the body, as from prison, it flies to the heaven,
and to its own nature. This is a brief summary of the tenets of Plato,
which are widely and copiously explained in his own writings.
Pythagoras also was previously of the same sentiments, and his teacher
Pherecydes, whom Cicero reported to have been the first who discoursed
respecting the immortality of the soul. And although all these excelled in
eloquence, nevertheless in this contest at least, those who argued against
this opinion had no less authority; Dicaearchus first, then Democritus, and
lastly Epicurus: so that the matter itself, respecting which they were
contending, was called into doubt. Finally, Tullius also having set forth
the opinions of all these respecting immortality and death, declared that
he did not know what was the truth. "Which of these opinions is true," he
said, "some God may see."[3] And again he says in another place: "Since
each of these opinions had most learned defenders, it cannot be divined
what is certainty." But we have no need of divination, since the divinity
itself has laid open to us the truth.
CHAP. IX.--OF THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL, AND OF VIRTUE.
By these arguments, therefore, which neither Plato nor any other
invented, the immorality of souls can be proved and perceived: which
arguments we will briefly collect, since my discourse hastens on to relate
the great judgment of God, which will be celebrated on the earth at the
approaching end of the world.[4] Before all things, since God cannot be
seen by man, lest any one should imagine from this circumstance that God
does not exist, because He was not seen by mortal eyes, among other
wonderful arrangements s He also made many things the power of which is
manifest, but the substance is not seen, as the voice, smell, the wind,
that by the token and example of these things we might perceive God from
His power and operation and works, although He did not fall under the
notice of our eyes. What is clearer than the voice, or stronger than the
wind, or more forcible than smell? Yet these, when they are borne through
the air and come to our senses, and impel them by their efficacy, are not
distinguished by the eyesight, but are perceived by other parts of the
body. In like manner, God is not to be perceived by us through the sight or
other frail sense; but He is to be beheld by the eyes of the mind, since we
see His illustrious and wonderful works. For as to those who have
altogether denied the existence of God, I should not only refuse to call
them philosophers, but even deny them the name of men, who, with a close
resemblance to dumb animals, consisted of body only, discerning nothing
with their mind, and referring all things to the bodily senses, who thought
that nothing existed but that which they beheld with their eyes. And
because they saw that adversity befell the wicked, or prosperity happened
to the good, they believed that all things were carried on by fortune, and
that the world was established by nature, and not by providence.
Hence they at once fell into the absurdities[6] which necessarily
followed such a sentiment. But if there is a God who is incorporeal,
invisible, and eternal, therefore it is credible that the soul, since it is
not seen, does not perish after its departure from the body; for it is
manifest that something exists which perceives and is vigorous, and yet
does not come into sight. But, it is said, it is difficult to comprehend
with the mind how the soul can retain its perception without those parts of
the body in which the office of perception is contained. What about God? Is
it easy to comprehend how He is vigorous without a body? But if they
believe in the existence of gods who, if they exist, are plainly destitute
of bodies, it must be that human souls exist in the same way, since it is
perceived from reason itself, and discernment, that there is a certain
resemblance in man and God. Finally, that proof which even Marcus
Tullius[1] saw is of sufficient strength: that the immortality of the soul
may be discerned from the fact that there is no other animal which has any
knowledge of God; and religion is almost the only thing which distinguishes
man from the dumb creation. And since this falls to man alone, it assuredly
testifies that we may aim at, desire, and cultivate that which is about to
be familiar and very near.
Can any one, when he has considered the nature of other animals, which
the providence of the Supreme God has made abject, with bodies bending down
and prostrated to the earth, so that it may be understood from this that
they have no intercourse with heaven, fail to understand that man alone of
all animals is heavenly and divine, whose body raised from the ground,[2]
elevated countenance, and upright position, goes in quest of its origin,
and despising, as it were, the lowliness of the earth, reaches forth to
that which is on high, because he perceives that the highest good is to be
sought by him in the highest place, and mindful of his condition in which
God made him illustrious, looks towards his Maker? And Trismegistus most
rightly called this looking a contemplation of God,[3] which has no
existence in the dumb animals. Since therefore wisdom, which is given to
man alone, is nothing else but the knowledge of God, it is evident that the
soul does not perish, nor undergo dissolution, but that it remains for
ever, because it seeks after and loves God, who is everlasting, by the
impulse of its very nature perceiving either from what source it has
sprung, or to what it is about to return. Moreover, it is no slight proof
of immortality that man alone makes use of the heavenly element. For, since
the nature of the world consists of two elements[4] which are opposed to
one another--fire and water--of which the one is assigned to the heaven,
the other to the earth, the other living creatures, because they are of the
earth and mortal, make use of the element which is earthly and heavy: man
alone makes use of fire, which is an element light, rising upward,[5] and
heavenly. But those things which are weighty depress to death, and those
which are light elevate to life; because life is on high, and death below.
And as there cannot be light without fire, so there cannot be life without
light. Therefore fire is the element of light and life; from which it is
evident that man who uses it is a partaker of an immortal condition,
because that which causes life is familiar to him.
The gift of virtue also to man alone is a great proof that souls are
immortal. For this will not be in accordance with nature if the soul is
extinguished; for it is injurious to this present life. For that earthly
life, which we lead in common with dumb animals, both seeks pleasure, by
the varied and agreeable fruits of which it is delighted, and avoids pain,
the harshness of which, by its unpleasant sensations, injures the nature of
living beings, and endeavours to lead them to death, which dissolves the
living being. If, therefore, virtue both prohibits man from those goods
which are naturally desired, and impels him to endure evils which are
naturally avoided, it follows that virtue is an evil, and opposed to
nature; and he must necessarily be judged foolish who pursues it, since he
injures himself both by avoiding present goods, and by seeking equally
evils, without hope of greater advantage. For when it is permitted us to
enjoy the sweetest pleasures, should we not appear to be without sense if
we should not prefer to live in lowliness, in want, in contempt and
ignominy, or not to live at all, but to be tormented with pain, and to die,
when from these evils we should gain nothing to compensate us for the
pleasure which we have given up? But if virtue is not an evil, and acts
honourably, inasmuch as it despises vicious and shameful pleasures, and
bravely, inasmuch as it neither fears pain nor death, that it may discharge
its duty, therefore it must obtain some greater good than those things are
which it despises. But when death has been undergone, what further good can
be hoped for except immortality?
CHAP. X.--OF VICES AND VIRTUES, AND OF LIFE AND DEATH.
Let us now in turn pass on to those things which are opposed to virtue,
that from these also the immortality of the soul may be inferred. All vices
are for a time; for they are excited for the present. The impetuosity of
anger is appeased when vengeance has been taken; the pleasure of the body
puts an end[6] to lust; desire is destroyed either by the full enjoyment of
the objects which it seeks, or by the excitement of other affections;
ambition, when it has gained the honours which it wished for, loses[1] its
strength; likewise the other vices are unable to stand their ground and
remain, but they are ended by the very enjoyment which they desire.
Therefore they withdraw and return. But virtue is perpetual, without any
intermission; nor can he who has once taken it up depart from it. or if it
should have any interruption[2] if we can at any time do without it, vices,
which always oppose virtue, will return. Therefore it has not been grasped,
if it deserts its post, if at any time it withdraws itself. But when it has
established for itself a firm abode, it must necessarily be engaged in
every act; nor can it faithfully drive away and put to flight vices, unless
it shall fortify with a perpetual guard the breast which it inhabits.
Therefore the uninterrupted duration[3] of virtue itself shows that the
soul of man, if it has received virtue, remains permanent, because virtue
is perpetual, and it is the human mind alone which receives virtue. Since,
therefore, vices are contrary to virtue, the whole systems must of
necessity differ from and be contrary to each other. Because vices are
commotions and perturbations of the soul; virtue, on the contrary, is
mildness and tranquillity of mind. Because vices are temporary, and of
short duration; virtue is perpetual and constant, and always consistent
with itself. Because the fruits of vices, that is, pleasures, equally with
themselves, are short and temporary, therefore the fruit and reward of
virtue are everlasting. Because the advantage of vices is immediate,
therefore that of virtue is future.
Thus it happens that in this life there is no reward of virtue, because
virtue itself still exists. For as, when vices are completed in their
performance, pleasure and their rewards follow; so, when virtue has been
ended, its reward follows. But virtue is never ended except by death, since
its highest office is in the undergoing of death: therefore the reward of
virtue is after death. In fine, Cicero, in his Yusculan Disputations,[4]
perceived, though with doubt, that the chief good does not happen to man
except after death. "A man will go," he says, "with confident spirit, if
circumstances shall so happen, to death in which we have ascertained that
there is either the chief good or no evil." Death, therefore, does not
extinguish man, but admits him to the reward of virtue. But he who has
contaminated himself,[5] as the same writer says, with vices and crimes,
and has been the slave of pleasure, he truly, being condemned, shall suffer
eternal punishment, which the sacred writings call the second death, which
is both eternal and full of the severest torments.[6] For as two lives are
proposed to man, of which the one belongs to the soul, the other to the
body; so also two deaths are proposed,--one relating to the body, which all
must undergo according to nature, the other relating to the soul, which is
acquired by wickedness and avoided by virtue. As this life is temporary and
has fixed limits, because it belongs to the body; so also death is in like
manner temporary and has a fixed end, because it affects the body.
CHAP. XI.--OF THE LAST TIMES, AND OF THE SOUL AND BODY.
Therefore, when the times which God has appointed for death shall be
completed, death itself shall be ended. And because temporal death follows
temporal life, it follows that souls rise again to everlasting life,
because temporal death has received an end. Again, as the life of the soul
is everlasting, in which it receives the divine and unspeakable fruits of
its immortality; also its death must be eternal, in which it suffers
perpetual punishments and infinite torments for its faults. Therefore
things are in this position, that they who are happy in this life,
pertaining to the body and the earth, are about to be miserable for ever,
because they have already enjoyed the good things which they preferred,
which happens to those who adore false gods and neglect the true God. In
the next place, they who, following righteousness, have been miserable, and
despised, and poor in this life, and have often been harassed with insults
and injuries on account of righteousness itself, because virtue cannot
otherwise be attained, are about to be always happy, that since they have
already endured evils, they may also enjoy goods. Which plainly happens to
those who, having despised gods of the earth and frail goods, follow the
heavenly religion of God, whose goods are everlasting, as He Himself who
gave them. What shall I say of the works of the body and soul? Do not they
show that the soul is not subject to death? For, as to the body, since it
is itself frail and mortal, whatever works it contrives are equally
perishable. For Tullius says that there is nothing which is wrought by the
hands of man which is not at some time reduced to destruction, either
through injury caused by men, or through length of time, which is the
destroyer of all things.
But truly we see that the productions of the mind are immortal. For as
many as, devoting themselves to the contempt of present things, have handed
down to memory the monuments of their genius and great deeds, have plainly
gained by these an imperishable name for their mind and virtue. Therefore,
if the deeds of the body are mortal for this reason, because the body
itself is mortal, it follows that the soul is shown to be immortal from
this, because we see that its productions are not mortal. In the same
manner also, the desires of the body and of the soul declare that the one
is mortal, the other everlasting. For the body desires nothing except what
is temporal, that is, food, drink, clothing, rest, and pleasure; and it
cannot desire or attain to these very things without the assent and
assistance[1] of the soul. But the soul of itself desires many things which
do not extend[2] to the duty or enjoyment of the body; and those are not
frail, but eternal, as the fame of virtue, as the remembrance of the name.
For the soul even in opposition to the body desires the worship of God,
which consists in abstinence from desires and lusts, in the enduring of
pain, in the contempt of death. From which it is credible that the soul
does not perish, but is separated from the body, because the body can do
nothing without the soul, but the soul can do many and great things without
the body. Why should I mention that those things which are visible to the
eyes, and capable of being touched by the hand, cannot be eternal, because
they admit of external violence; but those things which neither come under
the touch nor tinder the sight, but are apparent only in their force and
method and effect, are eternal because they suffer no violence from
without? But if the body is mortal on this account, because it is equally
open to the sight and to the touch, therefore the soul is immortal for this
reason, because it can be neither touched nor seen.
CHAP. XII.--OF THE SOUL AND THE BODY, AND OF THEIR UNION AND SEPARATION AND
RETURN.
Now let us refute the arguments of those who maintain the opposite
opinions, which Lucretius has related in his third book. Since, he says,
the soul is born together with the body, it must necessarily die with the
body. But the two cases are not similar. For the body is solid, and
capable of being grasped[3] both by the eyes and the hand; but the soul is
slight,[4] and eluding the touch and sight. The body is formed from the
earth, and made firm; the soul has in it nothing concrete, nothing of
earthly weight, as Plato maintained. For it could not have such great
force, such great skill, such great rapidity, unless it derived its origin
from heaven. The body, therefore, since it is made up of a ponderous and
corruptible element, and is tangible and visible, is corrupted and dies;
nor is it able to repel violence, because it comes under the sight and
under the touch; but the soul, which by its slightness avoids all touch,
can be dissolved by no attack. Therefore, although they are joined and
connected together from birth, and the one which is formed of earthly
material[5] is, as it were, the vessel of the other, which is drawn out
from heavenly fineness, when any violence has separated the two, which
separation is called death, then each returns into its own nature; that
which was of earth is resolved into earth; that which is of heavenly breath
remains fixed, and flourishes always, since the divine spirit is
everlasting. In fine, the same Lucretius, forgetting what he asserted, and
what dogma he defended, wrote these verses:[6]--
"That also which before was from the earth passes back into the earth, and
that which was sent from the borders of ether is carried again by the
quarters of heaven."[7]
But this language was not for him to employ, who contended that souls
perished with the bodies; but he was overcome by the truth, and the true
system stole upon him unawares. Moreover, that very inference which he
draws, that the soul suffers dissolution, that is, that it perishes
together with the body, since they are produced together, is both false,
and is capable of being turned to the opposite direction. For the body does
not perish together with the soul; but when the soul departs it remains
entire for many days. and frequently by medical preparations it remains
entire for a very long time. For if they both perished together, as they
are produced together, the soul would not hastily depart and desert the
body, but both would be dispersed alike at one point of time; and the body
also, while the breath still remained in it, would dissolve and perish as
quickly as the soul departs: yes, truly, the body, being dissolved, the
soul would vanish, as moisture poured forth from a broken vessel. For if
the earthly and frail body after the departure of the soul does not
immediately flow away and waste into earth, from which it has its origin,
therefore the soul, which is not frail, endures to eternity, since its
origin is eternal. He says, since the understanding increases in boys, and
is vigorous in young men, and is lessened in the aged, it is evident that
it is mortal. First, the soul is not the same thing as the mind; for it is
one thing that we live, another that we reflect. For it is the mind of
those who are asleep which is at rest,[8] not the soul; and in those who
are mad, the mind is extinguished, the soul remains; and therefore they are
not said to be without a soul, but to be deprived of their mind.[1]
Therefore the mind, that is, the understanding, is either increased or
lessened according to age. The soul is always in its own condition; and
from the time when it receives the power of breathing, it remains the same
even to the end, until, being sent forth from the confinement of the body,
it flies back to its own abode. In the next place, the soul, although
inspired by God, yet, because it is shut up in a dark abode of earthly
flesh, does not possess knowledge, which belongs to divinity. Therefore it
hears and learns all things, and receives wisdom by learning and hearing;
and old age does not lessen wisdom, but increases it, if the age of youth
has been passed in virtue; and if excessive old age shall have enfeebled
the limbs, it is not the fault of the mind if the sight has vanished, if
the tongue has become benumbed, if the hearing has grown deaf, but it is
the fault of the body. But, it is said, the memory fails. What wonder, if
the mind is oppressed by the ruin of the falling house, and forgets the
past, not about to be divine on any other condition than if it shall have
escaped the prison in which it is confined?
But the soul, be says, is also subject to pain and grief, and loses its
senses through drunkenness, whence it is evidently frail and mortal. On
this account, therefore, virtue and wisdom are necessary, that both grief,
which is contracted by the suffering and the sight of unworthy objects, may
be repelled by fortitude, and that pleasure may be overcome, not only by
abstaining from drinking, but also from other things. For if it be
destitute of virtue, if it be given up to pleasure, and thus rendered
effeminate, it will become subject to death, since virtue, as we have
shown, is the contriver of immortality, as pleasure is of death. But death,
as I have set forth, does not entirely extinguish and destroy, but visits
with eternal torments. For the soul cannot entirely perish, since it
received its origin from the Spirit of God, which is eternal. The soul, he
says, is sensible even of disease of the body, and suffers forgetfulness of
itself; and as it grows ill, so also it is often healed. This is therefore
the reason why virtue is especially to be used, that the mind--not the
soul[2]--may not be harassed by any pain of the body, or undergo oblivion
of itself. And since this has its seat in a certain part of the body, when
any violence of disease has vitiated that part, it is moved from its place;
and as though shaken, it departs from its station, about to return when a
cure and health shall have remodelled its abode. For, since the soul is
united with the body, if it is destitute of virtue, it grows sick by the
contagion of the body, and from sharing its frailty the weakness extends to
the mind. But when it shall be disunited from the body it will flourish by
itself; nor will it now be assailed by any, condition of frailty, because
it has laid aside its frail covering. As the eye, he says, when torn out
and separated from the body, can see nothing, so also the soul, when
separated, can perceive nothing, because it is itself also a part of the
body. This is false, and dissimilar to the case supposed; for the soul is
not a part of the body, but in the body. As that which is contained in a
vessel is not a part of the vessel, and these things which are in a house
are not said to be a part of the house; so the mind is not a part of the
body, because the body is either the vessel or the receptacle of the soul.
Now, that is a much more empty argument which says that the soul
appears to be mortal because it is not quickly sent forth from the body,
but gradually unfolds itself from all the members, beginning from the
extremity of the feet; as though, if it were eternal, it would burst forth
in a single moment of time, which takes place in those who die by the
sword. But they who are slain by disease are longer in breathing forth
their spirit, so that as the limbs grow cold the soul is breathed forth.
For, since it is contained in the material of the blood, as light is in the
oil, that material being consumed by the heat of fevers, the extremities of
the limbs must grow cold; since the more slender veins are extended into
the extremities of the body, and the extreme and smaller streams are dried
up when the fountain-spring fails. It must not, however, be supposed that,
because the perception of the body fails, the sensibility of the soul is
extinguished and perishes. For it is not the soul that becomes senseless
when the body fails, but it is the body which becomes senseless when the
soul takes its departure, because it draws all sensibility with it. But
since the soul by its presence gives sensibility to the body, and causes it
to live, it is impossible that it should not live and perceive by itself,
since it is in itself both consciousness and life. For as to that which
says,
"But if our mind were immortal, it would not when dying complain so much of
its dissolution as it would rejoice in passing abroad and quitting its
vesture like a snake,"[3]
I never saw any one who complained of his dissolution in death; but he
perhaps had seen some Epicurean philosophizing even in death, and with his
latest breath discoursing about his dissolution.
How can it be known whether he feels that he is in a state of
dissolution, or that he is being set free from the body, when his tongue
grows dumb at his departure? For as long as he perceives and has the power
of speech, he is not yet dissolved; when he has suffered dissolution, he is
now unable either to perceive or to speak, so that either he is not yet
able to complain of his dissolution, or he is no longer able. But, it is
said, he understands before he undergoes dissolution, that he must undergo
it. Why should I mention that we see many of the dying, not complaining
that they are undergoing dissolution, but testifying that they are passing
out, and setting forth on their journey and walking? and they signify this
by gesture, or if they still are able, they express it also by their voice.
From which it is evident that it is not a dissolution which takes place,
but a separation; and this shows that the soul continues to exist. Other
arguments of the Epicurean system are opposed to Pythagoras, who contends
that souls migrate from bodies worn out with old age and death, and gain
admission[1] into those which are new and recently born; and that the same
souls are always reproduced at one time in a man, at another time in a
sheep, at another in a wild beast, at another in a bird; and that they are
immortal on this account, because they often change their abodes,
consisting of various and dissimilar bodies. And this opinion of a
senseless man, since it is ridiculous and more worthy of a stage-player
than of a school of philosophy, ought not even to have been refuted
seriously; for he who does this appears to be afraid lest any one should
believe it. Therefore we must pass by those things which have been
discussed in behalf of falsehood against falsehood; it is sufficient to
have refuted those things which are against the truth.
CHAP. XIII.--OF THE SOUL, AND THE TESTIMONIES CONCERNING ITS ETERNITY.
I have made it evident, as I think, that the soul is not subject to
dissolution. It remains that I bring forward witnesses by whose authority
my arguments may be confirmed. And I will not now allege the testimony of
the prophets, whose system and divination consist in this alone, the
teaching that man was created for the worship of God. and for receiving
immortality from Him; but I will rather bring forward those whom they who
reject the truth cannot but believe. Hermes, describing the nature of man,
that he might show how he was made by God, introduced this statement: "And
the same out of two natures--the immortal and the mortal--made one nature,
that of man, making the same partly immortal, and partly mortal; and
bringing this, he placed it in the midst, between that nature which was
divine and immortal, and that which was mortal and changeable, that seeing
all things, he may admire all things." But some one may perhaps reckon him
in the number of the philosophers, although he has been placed among the
gods, and honoured by the Egyptians under the name of Mercury, and may give
no more authority to him than to Plato or Pythagoras. Let us therefore seek
for greater testimony. A certain Polites asked Apollo of Miletus whether
the soul remains after death or goes to dissolution; and he replied in
these verses:--
"As long as the soul is bound by fetters to the body, perceiving
corruptible sufferings, it yields to mortal pains; but when, after the
wasting of the body, it has found a very swift dissolution of mortality, it
is altogether borne into the air, never growing old, and it remains always
uninjured; for the first-born providence of God made this disposition."
What do the Sibylline poems say? Do they not declare that this is so, when
they say that the time Will come when God will judge the living and the
dead?--whose authority we will hereafter bring forward.[2] Therefore the
opinion entertained by Democritus, and Epicurus, and Dicaearchus concerning
the dissolution of the soul is false; and they would not venture to speak
concerning the destruction of souls, in the presence of any magician, who
knew that souls are called forth from the lower regions by certain
incantations, and that they are at hand, and afford themselves to be seen
by human eyes, and speak, and foretell future events; and if they should
thus venture, they would be overpowered by the fact itself, and by proofs
presented to them. But because they did not comprehend the nature of the
soul, which is so subtle that it escapes the eyes of the human mind, they
said that it perishes. What of Aristoxenus, who denied that there is any
soul at all, even while it lives in the body? But as on the lyre harmonious
sound, and the strain which musicians call harmony, is produced by the
tightening of the strings, so he thought that the power of perception
existed in bodies from the joining together of the vitals, and from the
vigour of the limbs; than which nothing can be said more senseless. Truly
he had his eyes uninjured, but his heart was blind, with which he did not
see that he lived, and had the mind by which he had conceived that very
thought. But this has happened to many philosophers, that they did not
believe in the existence of any object which is not apparent to the eyes;
whereas the sight of the mind ought to be much clearer than that of the
body, for perceiving those things the force and nature of which are rather
felt than seen.
CHAP. XIV.--OF THE FIRST AND LAST TIMES OF THE WORLD.
Since we have spoken of the immortality of the soul, it follows that we
teach how and when it is given to man; that in this also they may see the
errors of their perverseness and folly, who imagine that some mortals have
become gods by the decrees and dogmas of mortals; either because they had
invented arts, or because they had taught the use of certain productions of
the earth, or because they had discovered things useful for the life of
men, or because they had slain savage beasts. How far these things were
from deserving immortality we have both shown in the former books, and we
will now show, that it may be evident that it is righteousness alone which
procures for man eternal life, and that it is God alone who bestows the
reward of eternal life. For they who are said to have been immortalized by
their merits, inasmuch as they possessed neither righteousness nor any true
virtue, did not obtain for themselves immortality, but death by their sins
and lusts; nor did they deserve the reward of heaven, but the punishment of
hell, which impends over them, together with all their worshippers. And I
show that the time of this judgment draws near, that the due reward may be
given to the righteous, and the deserved punishment may be inflicted on the
wicked.
Plato and many others of the philosophers, since they were ignorant of
the origin of all things, and of that primal period at which the world was
made, said that many thousands of ages had passed since this beautiful
arrangement of the world was completed; and in this they perhaps followed
the Chaldeans, who, as Cicero has related in his first book respecting
divination,[1] foolishly say[2] that they possess comprised in their
memorials four hundred and seventy thousand years; in which matter, because
they thought that they could not be convicted, they believed that they were
at liberty[3] to speak falsely. But we, whom the Holy Scriptures instuct to
the knowledge of the truth, know the beginning and the end of the world,
respecting which we will now speak in the end of our work, since we have
explained respecting the beginning in the second book. Therefore let the
philosophers, who enumerate thousands of ages from the beginning of the
world, know that the six thousandth year is not yet completed, and that
when this number is completed the consummation must take place, and the
condition of human affairs be remodelled for the better, the proof of which
must first be related, that the matter itself may be plain. God completed
the world and this admirable work of nature in the space of six days, as is
contained in the secrets of Holy Scripture, and consecrated the seventh
day, on which He had rested from His works. But this is the Sabbath-day,
which in the language of the Hebrews received its name from the number,[4]
whence the seventh is the legitimate and complete number. For there are
seven days, by the revolutions of which in order the circles of years are
made up; and there are seven stars which do not set, and seven luminaries
which are called planets,[5] whose differing and unequal movements are
believed to cause the varieties of circumstances and times.[6]
Therefore, since all the works of God were completed in six days, the
world must continue in its present state through six ages, that is, six
thousand years. For the great day of God is limited by a circle of a
thousand years, as the prophet shows, who says[7] "In Thy sight, O Lord, a
thousand years are as one day." And as God laboured during those six days
in creating such great works, so His religion and truth must labour during
these six thousand years, while wickedness prevails and bears rule. And
again, since God, having finished His works, rested the seventh day and
blessed it, at the end of the six thousandth year all wickedness must be
abolished from the earth, and righteousness reign for a thousand years; and
there must be tranquillity and rest from the labours which the world now
has long endured. But how that will come to pass I will explain in its
order. We have often said that lesser things and things of small importance
are figures and previous shadowings forth of great things; as this day of
ours, which is bounded by the rising and the setting of the sun, is a
representation[8] of that great clay to which the circuit of a thousand
years affixes its limits.[9]
In the same manner also the fashioning of the earthly man held forth to
the future the formation of the heavenly people. For as, when all things
were completed which were contrived for the use of man, last of all, on the
sixth day, He made man also, and introduced him into this world as into a
home now carefully prepared; so now on the great sixth day the true man is
being formed by the word of God, that is, a holy people is fashioned for
righteousness by the doctrine and precepts of God. And as then a mortal and
imperfect man was formed from the earth, that he might live a thousand
years in this world; so now from this earthly age is formed a perfect man,
that being quickened by God, he may bear rule in this same world through a
thousand years. But in what manner the consummation will take place, and
what end awaits the affairs of men, if any one shall examine the divine
writings he will ascertain. But the voices also of prophets of the world,
agreeing with the heavenly, announce the end and overthrow of all things
after a short time, describing as it were the last old age of the wearied
and wasting world. But the things which are said by prophets and seers to
be about to happen before that last ending comes upon the world, I will
subjoin, being collected and accumulated from all quarters.
CHAP, XV.--OF THE DEVASTATION OF THE WORLD AND CHANGE OF THE EMPIRES.
It is contained in the mysteries of the sacred writings, that a prince
of the Hebrews, compelled by want of corn, passed into Egypt with all his
family and relatives. And when his posterity, remaining long in Egypt, had
increased into a great nation, and were oppressed by the heavy and
intolerable yoke of slavery, God smote Egypt with an incurable stroke, and
freed His people, leading them through the midst of the sea, when, the
waves being cut asunder and parted on either side, the people went over on
dry ground. And the king of the Egyptians endeavouring to follow them as
they fled, the sea returning to its place, he was cut off, with all his
people. And this deed so illustrious and so wonderful, although for the
present it displayed to men the power of God, was also a foreshadowing and
figure of a greater deed, which the same God was about to perform at the
last consummation of the times, for He will free His people from the
oppressive bondage of the world. But since at that time the people of God
were one, and in one nation only, Egypt only was smitten. But now, because
the people of God are collected out of all languages, and dwell among all
nations, and are oppressed by those hearing rule over them, it must come to
pass that all nations, that is, the whole world, be beaten with heavenly
stripes, that the righteous people, who are worshippers of God, may be set
free. And as then signs were given by which the coming destruction was
shown to the Egyptians, so at the last time wonderful prodigies will take
place throughout all the elements of the world, by which the impending
destruction may be understood by all nations.
Therefore, as the end of this world approaches, the condition of human
affairs must undergo a change, and through the prevalence of wickedness
become worse; so that now these times of ours, in which iniquity and
impiety have increased even to the highest degree, may be judged happy and
almost golden in comparison of that incurable evil. For righteousness will
so decrease, and impiety, avarice, desire, and lust will so greatly
increase, that if there shall then happen to be any good men, they will be
a prey to the wicked, and will be harassed on all sides by the unrighteous;
while the wicked alone will be in opulence, but the good will be afflicted
in all calumnies and in want. All justice will be confounded, and the laws
will be destroyed. No one will then have anything except that which has
been gained or defended by the hand: boldness and violence will possess all
things. There will be no faith among men, nor peace, nor kindness, nor
shame, nor truth; and thus also there will be neither security, nor
government, nor any rest from evils. For all the earth will be in a state
of tumult; wars will everywhere rage; all nations will he in arms, and
will oppose one another; neighbouring states will carry on conflicts with
each other; and first of all, Egypt will pay the penalties of her foolish
superstitions, and will be covered with blood as if with a river. Then the
sword will traverse the world, mowing down everything, and laying low all
things as a crop. And--my mind dreads to relate it, but I will relate it,
because it is about to happen--the cause of this desolation and confusion
will be this; because the Roman name, by which the world is now ruled, will
be taken away from the earth, and the government return to Asia; and the
East will again bear rule, and the West he reduced to servitude.[1] Nor
ought it to appear wonderful to any one, if a kingdom rounded with such
vastness, and so long increased by so many and such men, and in short
strengthened by such great resources, shall nevertheless at some time fall.
There is nothing prepared by human strength which cannot equally he
destroyed by human strength, since the works of mortals are mortal. Thus
also other kingdoms in former times, though they had long flourished, were
nevertheless destroyed. For it is related that the Egyptians, and Persians,
and Greeks, and Assyrians had the government of the world; and after the
destruction of them all, the chief power came to the Romans also. And
inasmuch as they excel all other kingdoms in magnitude, with so much
greater an overthrow will they fall, because those buildings which are
higher than others have more weight for a downfall.[1]
Seneca therefore not unskilfully divided the times of the Roman city by
ages. For he said that at first was its infancy under King Romulus, by whom
Rome was brought into being, and as it were educated; then its boyhood
under the other kings, by whom it was increased and fashioned with more
numerous systems of instruction and institutions; but at length, in the
reign of Tarquinius, when now it had begun as it were to be grown up, it
did not endure slavery; and having thrown off the yoke of a haughty
tyranny, it preferred to obey laws rather than kings; and when its youth
was terminated by the end of the Punic war, then at length with confirmed
strength it began to be manly.[2] For when Carthage was taken away, which
was long its rival in power, it stretched out its hands by land and sea
over the whole world, until, having subdued all kings and nations, when the
materials[3] for war now failed, it abused its strength, by which it
destroyed itself. This was its first old age, when, lacerated by civil wars
and oppressed by intestine evil, it again fell back to the government of a
single ruler, as it were revolving to a second infancy.[4] For, having lost
the liberty which it had defended under the guidance and authority of
Brutus, it so grew old, as though it had no strength to support itself,
unless it depended on the aid of its rulers. But if these things are so,
what remains, except that death follow old age? And that it will so come to
pass, the predictions of the prophets briefly announce under the cover[5]
of other names, so that no one can easily understand them. Nevertheless the
Sibyls openly say that Rome is doomed to perish, and that indeed by the
judgment of God, because it held His name in hatred; and being the enemy of
righteousness, it destroyed the people who kept[6] the truth. Hystaspes
also,who was a very ancient king of the Medes, from whom also the river
which is now called Hydaspes received its name, handed down to the memory
of posterity a wonderful dream upon the interpretation of a boy who uttered
divinations, announcing long before the founding of the Trojan nation, that
the Roman empire and name would be taken away from the world.
CHAP. XVI.--OF THE DEVASTATION OF THE WORLD, AND ITS PROPHETIC OMENS.[7]
But, test any one should think this incredible, I will show how it will
come to pass. First, the kingdom will be enlarged, and the chief power,
dispersed among many and divided,[8] will be diminished. Then civil
discords will perpetually be sown; nor will there be any rest from deadly
wars, until ten kings arise at the same time, who will divide the world,
not to govern, but to consume it. These, having increased their armies to
an immense extent, and having deserted the cultivation of the fields, which
is the beginning of overthrow and disaster, will lay waste and break in
pieces and consume all things. Then a most powerful enemy will suddenly
arise against him from the extreme boundaries of the northern region, who,
having destroyed three of that number who shall then be in possession of
Asia, shall be admitted into alliance by the others, and shall be
constituted prince of all. He shall harass the world with an intolerable
rule; shall mingle things divine and human; shall contrive things impious
to relate, and detestable; shall meditate new designs in his breast, that
he may establish the government for himself: he will change the laws, and
appoint his own; he will contaminate, plunder, spoil, and put to death. And
at length, the name being changed and the seat of government being
transferred, confusion and the disturbance of mankind will follow. Then, in
truth, a detestable and abominable time shall come, in which life shall be
pleasant to none of men.
Cities shall be utterly overthrown, and shall perish; not only by fire
and the sword, but also by continual earthquakes and overflowings of
waters, and by frequent diseases and repeated famines. For the atmosphere
will be tainted, and become corrupt and pestilential--at one time by
unseasonable rains, at another by barren drought, now by colds, and now by
excessive heats. Nor will the earth give its fruit to man: no field, or
tree, or vine will produce anything; but after they have given the greatest
hope in the blossom, they will fail in the fruit. Fountains also shall be
dried up, together with the rivers; so that there shall not be a sufficient
supply for drinking; and waters shall be changed into blood or bitterness.
On account of these things, beasts shall fail on the land, and birds in the
air, and fishes in the sea. Wonderful prodigies also in heaven shall
confound the minds of men with the greatest terrors, and the trains of
comets, and the darkness of the sun, and the colour of the moon, and the
gliding of the falling stars. Nor, however, will these things take place in
the accustomed manner; but there will suddenly appear stars unknown and
unseen by the eyes; the sun will be perpetually darkened, so that there
will be scarcely any distinction between the night and the day; the moon
will now fail, not for three hours only, but overspread with perpetual
blood, will go through extraordinary movements, so that it will not be
easy for man to ascertain the courses of the heavenly bodies or the system
of the times; for there will either be summer in the winter, or winter in
the summer. Then the year will be shortened, and the month diminished, and
the day contracted into a short space; and stars shall fall in great
numbers, so that all the heaven will appear dark without any lights. The
loftiest mountains also will fall, and be levelled with the plains; the sea
will be rendered unnavigable.
And that nothing may be wanting to the evils of men and the earth, the
trumpet shall be heard from heaven, which the Sibyl foretells in this
manner:--
"The trumpet from heaven shall utter its wailing voice."
And then all shall tremble and quake at that mournful sound.[2] But then,
through the anger of God against the men who have not known righteousness,
the sword and fire, famine and disease, shall reign; and, above all things,
fear always overhanging. Then they shall call upon God, but He will not
hear them; death shall be desired, but it will not come; not even shall
night give rest to their fear, nor shall sleep approach to their eyes, but
anxiety and watchfulness shall consume the souls of men; they shall deplore
and lament, and gnash their teeth; they shall congratulate the dead, and
bewail the living. Through these and many other evils there shall be
desolation on the earth, and the world shall be disfigured and deserted,
which is thus expressed in the verses of the Sibyl:--
"The world shall be despoiled of beauty, through the destruction of men."
For the human race will be so consumed, that scarcely the tenth part of men
will be left; and from whence a thousand had gone forth, scarcely a
hundred will go forth. Of the worshippers of God also, two parts will
perish; and the third part, which shall have been proved, will remain.
CHAP. XVII.--OF THE FALSE PROPHET, AND THE HARDSHIPS OF THE RIGHTEOUS, AND
HIS DESTRUCTION.
But I will more plainly set forth the manner in which this happens.
When the close of the times draws nigh, a great prophet shall be sent from
God to turn men to the knowledge of God, and he shall receive the power of
doing wonderful things.[2] Wherever men shall not hear him, he will shut up
the heaven, and cause it to withhold its rains; he will turn their water
into blood, and torment them with thirst and hunger; and if any one shall
endeavour to injure him, fire, shall come forth out of his mouth, and shall
bum that man. By these prodigies and powers he shall turn many to the
worship of God; and when his works shall be accomplished, another king shah
arise out of Syria, born from an evil spirit, the overthrower and destroyer
of the human race, who shall destroy that which is left by the former evil,
together with himself. He shall fight against the prophet of God, and shall
overcome, and slay him, and shall suffer him to lie unburied; but after the
third day he shall come to life again; and while all look on and wonder, he
shall be caught up into heaven. But that king will not only be most
disgraceful in himself, but he will also be a prophet of lies; and he will
constitute and call himself God, and will order himself to be worshipped as
the Son of God; and power will be given him to do signs and wonders, by the
sight of which he may entice men to adore him. He will command fire to come
down from heaven, and the sun to stand and leave his course, and an image
to speak; and these things shall be done at his word,--by which miracles[3]
many even of the wise shall be enticed by him. Then he will attempt to
destroy the temple of God, and persecute the righteous people; and there
will be distress and tribulation?[4] such as there never has been from the
beginning of the world.
As many as shall believe him and unite themselves to him, shall be
marked by him as sheep; but they who shall refuse his mark will either flee
to the mountains, or, being seized, will be slain with studied[5] tortures.
He will also enwrap righteous men with the books of the prophets, and thus
burn them; and power will be given him to desolate[6] the whole earth for
forty-two months. That will be the time in which righteousness shall be
cast out, and innocence be hated; in which the wicked shall prey upon the
good as enemies; neither law, nor order, nor military discipline shall be
preserved; no one shall reverence hoary locks, nor recognise the duty of
piety, nor pity sex or infancy; all things shall be confounded and mixed
together against right, and against the laws of nature. Thus the earth
shall be laid waste, as though by one common robbery. When these things
shall so happen, then the righteous and the followers of truth shall
separate themselves from the wicked, and flee into solitudes. And when he
hears of this, the impious king, inflamed with anger, will come with a
great army, and bringing up all his forces, will surround all the mountain
in which the righteous shall be situated, that he may seize them. But they,
when they shall see themselves to be shut in on all sides and besieged,
will call upon God with a loud voice, and implore the aid of heaven; and
God shall hear them, and send from heaven a great king to rescue and free
them, and destroy all the wicked with fire and sword.
CHAP. XVIII.--OF THE FORTUNES OF THE WORLD AT THE LAST TIME, AND OF THE
THINGS FORETOLD BY THE SOOTHSAYERS.
That these things will thus take place, all the prophets have announced
from the inspiration of God, and also the soothsayers at the instigation of
the demons. For Hystaspes, whom I have named above, having described the
iniquity of this last time, says that the pious and faithful, being
separated from the wicked, will stretch forth their hands to heaven with
weeping and mourning, and will implore the protection of Jupiter: that
Jupiter will look to the earth, and hear the voices of men, and will
destroy the wicked. All which things are true except one, that he
attributed to Jupiter those things which God will do. But that also was
withdrawn from the account, not without fraud on the part of the demons,
viz., that the Son of God would then be sent, who, having destroyed all the
wicked, would set at liberty the pious. Which, however, Hermes did not
conceal. For in that book which is entitled the Complete Treatise, after an
enumeration of the evils concerning which we have spoken, he added these
things: "But when these things thus come to pass, then He who is Lord, and
Father, and God, and the Creator of the first and one God, looking upon
what is done, and opposing to the disorder His own will, that is, goodness,
and recalling the wandering and cleansing wickedness, partly inundating it
with much water, and partly burning it with most rapid fire, and sometimes
pressing it with wars and pestilences, He brought His world to its ancient
state and restored it." The Sibyls also show that it would not be otherwise
than that the Son of God should be sent by His supreme Father, to set free
the righteous from the hands of the wicked, and to destroy the unrighteous,
together with their cruel tyrants. One of whom thus wrote:--
"He shall come also, wishing to destroy the city of the blest; and a
kingsent against him from the gods shall slay all the great kings andchief
men: then judgment shall thus come from the Immortal to men."
Also another Sibyl:--
"And then God shall send a king from the sun, who shall cause all the
earth to cease from disastrous war."
And again another:--
"He will take away the intolerable yoke of slavery which is placed on
ourneck, and he will do away with impious laws and violent chains."
CHAP. XIX.--OF THE ADVENT OF CHRIST TO JUDGMENT, AND OF THE OVERCOMING OF
THE FALSE PROPHET.
The world therefore being oppressed, since the resources of men shall
be insufficient for the overthrow of a tyranny of immense strength,
inasmuch as it will press upon the captive world with great armies of
robbers; that calamity so great will stand in need of divine assistance.
Therefore God, being aroused both by the doubtful danger and by the
wretched lamentation of the righteous, will immediately send a deliverer.
Then the middle of the heaven shall be laid open in the dead and darkness
of the night, that the light of the descending God may be manifest in all
the world as lightning: of which the Sibyl spoke in these words:--
"When He shall come, there will be fire and darkness in the midst of the
black night."
This is the night which is celebrated by us in watchfulness on account of
the coming of our King and God:[1] of which night there is a twofold
meaning; because in it He then received life when He suffered, and
hereafter He is about to receive the kingdom of the world. For He is the
Deliverer, and Judge, and Avenger, and King, and God, whom we call Christ,
who before He descends will give this sign: There shall suddenly fall from
heaven a sword, that the righteous may know that the leader of the sacred
warfare is about to descend; and He shall descend with a company of angels
to the middle of the earth, and there shall go before Him an unquenchable
fire, and the power of the angels shall deliver into the hands of the just
that multitude which has surrounded the mountain, and they shall be slain
from the third hour until the evening, and blood shall flow like a torrent;
and all his forces being destroyed, the wicked one shall alone escape, and
his power shall perish from him.
Now this is he who is called Antichrist; but he shall falsely call
himself Christ, and shall fight against the truth, and being overcome shall
flee; and shall often renew the war, and often be conquered, until in the
fourth battle, all the wicked being slain, subdued, and captured, he shall
at length pay the penalty of his crimes. But other princes also and tyrants
who have harassed the world, together with him, shall be led in chains to
the king; and he shall rebuke them, and reprove them, and upbraid them with
their crimes, and condemn them, and consign them to deserved tortures.
Thus, wickedness being extinguished and impiety suppressed, the world will
be at rest, which having been subject to error and wickedness for so many
ages, endured dreadful slavery. No longer shall gods made by the hands be
worshipped; but the images being thrust out from their temples and
couches, shall be given to the fire, and shall be burnt, together with
their wonderful gifts: which also the Sibyl, in accordance with the
prophets, announced as about to take place:--
"But mortals shall break in pieces the images and all the wealth."
The Erythraean Sibyl also made the same promise:--
"And the works made by the hand of the gods shall be burnt up."
CHAP. XX.--OF THE JUDGMENT OF CHRIST, OF CHRISTIANS, AND OF THE SOUL
After these things the lower regions shall be opened, and the dead
shall rise again, on whom the same King and God shall pass judgment, to
whom the supreme Father shall give the great power both of judging and of
reigning. And respecting this judgment and reign, it is thus found in the
Erythraean Sibyl:--
"When this shall receive its fated accomplishment, and the judgment of the
immortal God shall now come to mortals, the great judgment shallcome upon
men, and the beginning."
Then in another:--
"And then the gaping earth shall show a Tartarean chaos; and all kingsshall
come to the judgment-seat of God."
And in another place in the same:--
"Rolling along the heavens, I will open the caverns of the earth; and
then I will raise the dead, loosing fate and the sting of death;
andafterwards I will call them into judgment, judging the life of piousand
impious men."
Not all men, however, shall then be judged by God, but those only who have
been exercised in the religion of God. For they who have not known God,
since sentence cannot be passed upon them for their acquittal, are already
judged and condemned, since the Holy Scriptures testify that the wicked
shall not arise to judgment.[1] Therefore they who have known God shall be
judged, and their deeds, that is, their evil works, shall be compared and
weighed against their good ones: so that if those which are good and just
are more[2] and weighty, they may be given to a life of blessedness; but if
the evil exceed, they may be condemned to punishment. Here, perhaps, some
one will say, If the soul is immortal, how is it represented as capable of
suffering, and sensible of punishment? For if it shall be punished on
account of its deserts, it is plain that it will be sensible of pain, and
even of death. If it is not liable to death, not even to pain, it follows
that it is not capable of suffering.
This question or argument is thus met by the Stoics: that the souls of
men continue to exist, and are not annihilated[3] by the intervention of
death: that the souls, moreover, of those who have been just, being pure,
and incapable of suffering, and happy, return to the heavenly abodes from
which they had their origin, or are borne to some happy plains, where they
may enjoy wonderful pleasures; but that the wicked, since they have defiled
themselves with evil I passions, have a kind of middle nature, between that
of an immortal and a mortal, and have something of weakness, from the
contagion of the flesh; and being enslaved to its desires and lusts, they
contract an indelible stain and earthly blot; and when this has become
entirely inherent through length of time, souls are given over to its
nature, so that, though they cannot altogether be extinguished, inasmuch as
they are from God, nevertheless they become liable to torment through the
taint of the body, which being burnt in by means of sins, produces a
feeling of pain. Which sentiment is thus expressed by the poet:[4]--
Nay, when at last the life has fled,
And left the body cold and dead,
E'en then there passes not away
The painful heritage of clay:
Full many a long contracted stain
Perforce must linger deep in grain.
So penal sufferings they endure
For ancient crime, to make them pure."
These things are near to the truth.[5] For the semi, when separated from
the body, is, as the same poet says,[6] such as
"No vision of the drowsy night,
No airy current half so light,"
because it is a spirit, and by its very slighthess incapable of being
perceived, but only by us who are corporeal i but capable of being
perceived by God, since it belongs to Him to be able to do all things.
CHAP. XXI.--OF THE TORMENTS AND PUNISHMENTS OF SOULS.
First of all, therefore, we say that the power of God is so great, that
He perceives even incorporeal things, and manages them as He will. For even
angels fear God, because they can be chastised by Him in some unspeakable
manner; and devils dread Him, because they are tormented and punished by
Him. What wonder is it, therefore, if souls, though they are immortal, are
nevertheless capable of suffering at the hand of God? For since they have
nothing solid and tangible in themselves, they can suffer no violence from
solid and corporeal beings; but because they live in their spirits only,
they are capable of being handled by God alone, whose energy and substance
is spiritual. But, however, the sacred writings inform us in what manner
the wicked are to undergo punishment. For because they have committed sins
in their bodies, they will again be clothed with flesh, that they may make
atonement in their bodies; and yet it will not be that flesh with which God
clothed man, like this our earthly body, but indestructible, and abiding
for ever, that it may be able to hold out against tortures and everlasting
fire, the nature of which is different from this fire of ours, which we use
for the necessary purposes of life, and which is extinguished unless it be
sustained by the fuel of some material. But that divine fire always lives
by itself, and flourishes without any nourishment; nor has it any smoke
mixed with it, but it is pure and liquid, and fluid, after the manner of
water. For it is not urged upwards by any force, as our fire, which the
taint of the earthly body, by which it is held, and smoke intermingled,
compels to leap forth, and to fly upwards to the nature of heaven, with a
tremulous movement.[1]
The same divine fire, therefore, with one and the same force and power,
will both burn the wicked and will form them again, and will replace as
much as it shall consume of their bodies, and will supply itself with
eternal nourishment: which the poets transferred to the vulture of Tityus.
Thus, without any wasting of bodies, which regain their substance, it will
only burn and affect them with a sense of pain. But when He shall have
judged the righteous, He will also try them with fire. Then they whose sins
shall exceed either in weight or in number, shall be scorched by the fire
and burnt:[2] but they whom full justice and maturity of virtue has imbued
will not perceive that fire; for they have something of God in themselves
which repels and rejects the violence of the flame. So great is the force
of innocence, that the flame shrinks from it without doing harm; which has
received from God this power, that it burns the wicked, and is under the
command of the righteous. Nor, however, let any one imagine that souls are
immediately judged. after death. For all are detained in one and a common
place of confinement, until the arrival of the time in which the great
Judge shall make an investigation of their deserts.[3] Then they whose
piety shall have been approved of will receive the reward of immortality;
but they whose sins and crimes shall have been brought to light will not
rise again, but will be hidden in the same darkness with the wicked, being
destined to certain punishment.
CHAP. XXII.--OF THE ERROR OF THE POETS, AND THE RETURN OF THE SOUL FROM THE
LOWER REGIONS.
Some imagine that these things are figments of the poets, not knowing
whence the poets received them, and they say that these things are
impossible; and it is no wonder that it so appears to them. For the matter
is related by the poets in a manner which is different from the truth; for
although they are much more ancient than the historians and orators, and
other kinds of writers, yet because they were ignorant of the secret of the
divine mystery, and mention of a future resurrection had reached them by an
obscure rumour, yet they handed it down, when carelessly and lightly heard,
after the manner of a feigned story. And yet they also testified that they
did not follow a sure authority, but mere opinion, as Maro, who says,[4]
"What ear has heard let tongue make known."
Although, therefore, they have partly corrupted the secrets of the truth,
yet the matter itself is found to be more true, because it partly agrees
with the prophets: which is sufficient for us as a proof of the matter. Yet
some reason is contained in their error. For when the prophets proclaimed
with continual announcements that the Son of God was about to judge the
dead, and this announcement did not escape their notice; inasmuch as they
supposed that there was no other ruler of heaven but Jupiter, they reported
that the son of Jupiter was king in the lower regions, but not Apollo, or
Liber, or Mercurius, who are supposed to be gods of heaven, but one who was
both mortal and just, either Minos, or AEacus, or Rhadamanthus. Therefore
with poetic licence they corrupted that which they had received; or, the
opinion being scattered through different mouths and various discourses,
changed the truth. For inasmuch as they foretold that, when a thousand
years had been passed in the lower regions, they should again be restored
to life, as Maro said:[5]--
"All these, when centuries ten times told
The wheel of destiny have rolled,
The voice divine from far and wide
Calls up to Lethe's river side,
That earthward they may pass once more,
Remembering not the things before,
And with a blind propension yearn
To fleshly bodies to return:"
this matter escaped their notice, that the dead will rise again, not after
a thousand years from their death, but that, when again restored to life,
they may reign with God a thousand years. For God will come, that, having
cleansed the world from all defilement, He may restore the souls of the
righteous to their renewed bodies, and raise them to everlasting
blessedness.Therefore the other things are true, except the water of
oblivion, which they feigned on this account, that no one might make this
objection: why, therefore, did they not remember that they were at one time
alive, or who they were, or what things they accomplished? But nevertheless
it is not thought probable, and the whole matter is rejected, as though
licentiously and fabulously invented. But when we affirm the doctrine of
the resurrection, and teach that souls will return to another life, not
forgetful of themselves, but possessed of the same perception and figure,
we are met with this objection: So many ages have now passed; what
individual ever arose from the dead, that through. his example we may
believe it to be possible? But the resurrection cannot take place while
unrighteousness still prevails. For in this world men are slain by
violence, by the sword, by ambush, by poisons, and are visited with
injuries, with want, with imprisonment, with tortures, and with
proscriptions. Add to this that righteousness is hated, that all who wish
to follow God are not only held in hatred, but are harassed with all
reproaches, and are tormented by manifold kinds of punishments, and are
driven to the impious worship of gods made with hands, not by reason or
truth, but by dreadful laceration of their bodies.
Ought men therefore to rise again to these same things, or to return
to a life in which it is impossible for them to be safe? Since the right-
eous, then, are so lightly esteemed, and so easily taken away, what can we
suppose would have happened if any one returning from the dead had
recovered life by a recovery[1] of his former condition? He would assuredly
be taken away from the eyes of men, lest, if he were seen or heard, all men
with one accord should leave the gods and betake themselves to the worship
and religion of the one God. Therefore it is necessary that the
resurrection should take place once only when evil shall have been taken
away, since it is befitting that those who have risen again should neither
die any more, nor be injured in any way, that they may be able to pass a
happy life whose death has been annulled.[2] But the poets, knowing that
this life abounds with all evils, introduced the river of oblivion, lest
the souls, remembering their labours and evils, should refuse to return to
the upper regions; whence Virgil says:[3]--
"O Father l and can thought conceive
That happy souls this realm would leave,
And seek the upper sky,
With sluggish clay to reunite?
This dreadful longing for the light,
Whence comes it, say, and why?"
For they did not know how or when it must take place; and therefore they
supposed that souls were born again, and that they returned afresh to the
womb, and went back to infancy. Whence also Plato, while discussing the
nature of the soul, says that it may be known from this that souls are
immortal and divine, because in boys minds are pliant, and easy of
perception, and because they so quickly comprehend the subjects which they
learn, that they appear not then to be learning for the first time, but to
be recalling them to mind and recollecting them: in which matter the wise
man most foolishly believed the poets.
CHAP. XXIII.--OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE SOUL, AND THE PROOFS OF THIS FACT.
Therefore they will not be born again, which is impossible, but they
will rise again, and be clothed by God with bodies, and will remember their
former life, and all its actions; and being placed in the possession of
heavenly goods, and enjoying the pleasure of innumerable resources, they
will give thanks to God in His immediate presence, because He has destroyed
all evil, and because He has raised them to His kingdom and to perpetual
life. Respecting which resurrection the philosophers also attempted to
speak as corruptly as the poets. For Pythagoras asserted that souls passed
into new bodies; but foolishly, that they passed from men into cattle, and
from cattle into men; and that he himself was restored from Euphorbus.
Chrysippus says better, whom Cicero speaks of as supporting the portico of
the Stoics, who, in the books which he wrote concerning providence, when he
was speaking of the renewing of the world, introduced these words: "But
since this is so, it is evident that nothing is impossible, and that we,
after our death, when certain periods of time have again come round, are
restored to this state in which we now are." But let us return from human
to divine things. The Sibyl thus speaks:--
"For the whole race of mortals is hard to be believed; but when thejudgment
of the world and of mortals shall now come, which GodHimself shall
institute, judging the impious and the holy at the same time, then at
length He shall send the wicked to darkness in fire. But as many as are
holy shall live again on the earth, God giving them at the same time a
spirit, and honour, and life."
But if not only prophets, but even bards, and poets, and philosophers,
agree that there will be a resurrection of the dead, let no one ask of us
how this is possible: for no reason can be assigned for divine works; but
if from the beginning God formed man in some unspeakable manner, we may
believe that the old man can be restored by Him who made the new man.
CHAP. XXIV.--OF THE RENEWED WORLD.
Now I will subjoin the rest. Therefore the Son of the most high and
mighty God shall come to judge the quick and the dead, as the Sibyl
testifies and says:--
"For then there shall be confusion of mortals throughout the whole earth,
when the Almighty Himself shall come on His judgment-seat to judge the
souls of the quick and dead, and all the world."
But He, when He shall have destroyed unrighteousness, and executed His
great judgment, and shall have recalled to life the righteous, who have
lived from the beginning, will be engaged among men a thousand years, and
will rule them with most just command. Which the Sibyl proclaims in another
place, as she utters her inspired predictions:--
"Hear me, ye mortals; an everlasting King reigns."
Then they who shall be alive in their bodies shall not die, but during
those thousand years shall produce an infinite multitude, and their
offspring shall be holy, and beloved by God; but they who shall be raised
from the dead shall preside over the living as judges.[1] But the nations
shall not be entirely extinguished, but some shall be left as a victory for
God, that they may be the occasion of triumph to the righteous, and may be
subjected to perpetual slavery. About the same time also the prince of the
devils, who is the contriver of all evils, shall be bound with chains, and
shall be imprisoned during the thousand years of the heavenly rule in which
righteousness shall reign in the world, so that he may contrive no evil
against the people of God. After His coming the righteous shall be
collected from all the earth, and the judgment being completed, the sacred
city shall be planted in the middle of the earth, in which God Himself the
builder may dwell together with the righteous, bearing rule in it. And the
Sibyl marks out this city when she says:--
"And the city which God made this He made more brilliant than the stars,
and sun, and moon."
Then that darkness will be taken away from the world with which the heaven
will be overspread and darkened, and the moon will receive the brightness
of the sun, nor will it be further diminished: but the sun will become
seven times brighter than it now is; and the earth will open its
fruitfulness, and bring forth most abundant fruits of its own accord; the
rocky mountains shall drop with honey; streams of wine shall run down, and
rivers flow with milk: in short, the world itself shall rejoice, and all
nature exult, being rescued and set free from the dominion of evil and
impiety, and guilt and error. Throughout this time beasts shall not be
nourished by blood, nor birds by prey; but all things shall be peaceful and
tranquil. Lions and calves shall stand together at the manger, the wolf
shall not carry off the sheep, the hound shall not hunt for prey; hawks and
eagles shall not injure; the infant shall play with serpents. In short,
those things shall then come to pass which the poets spoke of as being done
in the reign of Saturnus. Whose error arose from this source,--that the
prophets bring forward and speak of many future events as already
accomplished. For visions were brought before their eyes by the divine
Spirit, and they saw these things, as it were, done and completed in their
own sight. And when fame had gradually spread abroad their predictions,
since those who were uninstructed in the mysteries[2] of religion did not
know why they were spoken, they thought that all those things were already
fulfilled in the ancient ages, which evidently could not be accomplished
and fulfilled under the reign of a man.[3] But when, after the destruction
of impious religions and the suppression of guilt, the earth shall be
subject to God,--
"The sailor[4] himself also shall renounce the sea, nor shall the naval
pine
Barter merchandise; all lands shall produce all things.
The ground shall not endure the harrow, nor the vineyard the pruning
hook;
The sturdy ploughman also shall loose the bulls from the yoke.
The plain shall by degrees grow yellow with soft ears of corn,
The blushing grape shall hang on the uncultivated brambles,
And hard oaks shall distil the dewy honey.
Nor shall the wool learn to counterfeit various colours;
But the ram himself in the meadows shall change his fleece,
Now for a sweetly blushing purple, now for saffron dye;
Scarlet of its own accord shall cover the lambs as they feed.
The goats of themselves shall bring back home their udders distended
with milk;
Nor shall the herds dread huge lions."[5]
Which things the poet foretold according to the verses of the Cumaean
Sibyl. But the Erythraean thus speaks:--
"But wolves shall not contend with lambs on the mountains, and lynxes shall
eat grass with kids; boars shall feed with calves, and with all flocks; and
the carnivorous lion shall eat chaff at the manger, and serpents shall
sleep with infants deprived of their mothers."
And in another place, speaking of the fruitfulness of all things:--
"And then shall God give great joy to men; for the earth, and the trees,
and the numberless flocks of the earth shall give to men the true fruit of
the vine, and sweet honey, and white milk, and corn, which is the best of
all things to mortals."
And another in the same manner:--
"The sacred land of the pious only will produce all these things, the
stream of honey from the rock and from the fountain, and the milk of
ambrosia will flow for all the just."
Therefore men will live a most tranquil life, abounding with resources,
and will reign together with God; and the kings of the nations shall come
from the ends of the earth with gifts and offerings, to adore and honour
the great King, whose name shall be renowned and venerated by all the
nations which shall be trader heaven, and by the kings who shall rule on
earth.
CHAP. XXV.--OF THE LAST TIMES, AND OF THE CITY OF ROME,
These are the things which are spoken of by the prophets as about to
happen hereafter: but I have not considered it necessary to bring forward
their testimonies and words, since it would be an endless task; nor would
the limits of my book receive so great a multitude of subjects, since so
many with one breath speak similar things; and at the same time, lest
weariness should be occasioned to the readers if I should heap together
things collected and transferred froth all; moreover, that I might confirm
those very things which I said, not by my own writings, but in an especial
manner by the writings of others, and might show that not only among us,
but even with those very persons who revile us, the truth is preserved,[1]
which they refuse to acknowledge.[2] But he who wishes to know these things
more accurately may draw from the fountain itself, and he will know more
things worthy of admiration than we have comprised in these books. Perhaps
some one may now ask when these things of which we have spoken are about to
come to pass? I have already shown above, that when six thousand years
shall be completed this change must take place, and that the last day of
the extreme conclusion is now drawing near. It is permitted us to know
respecting the signs, which are spoken by the prophets, for they foretold
signs by which the consummation of the times is to be expected by us from
day to day, and to be feared. When, however, this amount will be completed,
those teach, who have written respecting the times, collecting them from
the sacred writings and from various histories, how great is the number of
years from the beginning of the world. And although they vary, and the
amount of the number as reckoned by them differs considerably, yet all
expectation does not exceed the limit of two hundred years. The subject
itself declares that the fall and ruin of the world will shortly take
place; except that while the city of Rome remains it appears that nothing
of this kind is to be feared.[3] But when that capital of the world shall
have fallen, and shall have begun to be a street,[4] which the Sibyls say
shall come to pass, who can doubt that the end has now arrived to the
affairs of men and the whole world? It is that city, that only, which still
sustains all things; and the God of heaven is to be entreated by us and
implored--if, indeed, His arrangements and decrees can be delayed--lest,
sooner than we think for, that detestable tyrant should come who will
trader-take so great a deed, and dig out that eye, by the destruction of
which the world itself is about to fall. Now let us return, to set forth
the other things which are then about to follow.
CHAP. XXVI.--OF THE LOOSING OF THE DEVIL, AND OF THE SECOND AND GREATEST
JUDGEMENT,
We have said, a little before, that it will come to pass at the
commencement of the sacred reign, that the prince of the devils will be
bound by God. But he also, when the thousand years of the kingdom, that is,
seven thousand of the world, shall begin to be ended, will be loosed
afresh, and being sent forth from prison, will go forth and assemble all
the nations, which shall then be trader the dominion of the righteous, that
they may make war against the holy city; and there shall be collected
together from all the world an innumerable company of the nations, and
shall besiege and surround the city. Then the last anger of God shall come
upon the nations, and shall utterly[5] destroy them; and first He shall
shake the earth most violently, and by its motion the mountains of Syria
shall be rent, and the hills shall sink down precipitously, and the walls
of all cities shall fall, and God shall cause the sun to stand, so that he
set not for three days, and shall set it on fire; and excessive heat and
great burning shall descend upon the hostile and impious people, and
showers of brimstone, and hailstones, and drops of fire; and their spirits
shall melt through the heat, and their bodies shall be bruised by the hail,
and they shall smite one another with the sword. The mountains shall be
filled with carcases, and the plains shall be covered with bones; but the
people of God during those three days shall be concealed under caves of the
earth, until the anger of God against the nations and the last judgment
shall be ended.
Then the righteous shall go forth from their hiding-places, and shall
find all things covered with carcases and bones. But the whole race of the
wicked shall utterly perish; and there shall no longer be any nation in
this world, but the nation of God alone. Then for seven continuous years
the woods shall be untouched, nor shall timber be cut from the mountains,
but the arms of the nations shall be burnt; and now there shall be no war,
but peace and everlasting rest. But when the thousand years shall be
completed, the world shall be renewed by God, and the heavens shall be
folded together, and the earth shall be changed, and God shall transform
men into the similitude of angels, and they shall be white as snow; and
they shall always be employed in the sight of the Almighty, and shall make
offerings to their Lord, and serve Him for ever. At the same time shall
take place that second and public resurrection[1] of all, in which the
unrighteous shall be raised to everlasting punishments. These are they who
have worshipped the works of their own hands, who have either been ignorant
of, or have denied the Lord and Parent of the world. But their lord with
his servants shall be seized and condemned to punishment, together with
whom all the band of the wicked, in accordance with their deeds, shall be
burnt for ever with perpetual fire in the sight of angels and the
righteous.
This is the doctrine of the holy prophets which we Christians follow;
this is our wisdom, which they who worship frail objects, or maintain an
empty philosophy, deride as folly and vanity, because we are not accustomed
to defend and assert it in public, since God orders us in quietness and
silence to hide His secret, and to keep it within our own conscience; and
not to strive with obstinate contention against those who are ignorant of
the truth, and who rigorously assail God and His religion not for the sake
of learning, but of censuring and jeering. For a mystery ought to be most
faithfully concealed and covered, especially by us, who bear the name of
faith.[2] But they accuse this silence of ours, as though it were the
result of an evil conscience; whence also they invent some detestable
things respecting those who are holy and blameless, and willingly believe
their own inventions.
[The address to Constantine is wanting in some mss. and editions, but is
inserted in the text by Migne, as found in some important mss., and as in
accordance with the style and spirit of Lactantius.]
But all fictions have now been hushed, most holy Emperor, since the
time when the great God raised thee up for the restoration of the house of
justice, and for the protection of the human race; for while thou rulest
the Roman state, we worshippers of God are no more regarded as accursed and
impious. Since the truth now comes forth[3] from obscurity, and is brought
into light, we are not censured as unrighteous who endeavour to perform the
works of righteousness. No one any longer reproaches us with the name of
God. None of us, who are alone of all men religious, is any more called
irreligious; since despising the images of the dead, we worship the living
and true God. The providence of the supreme Deity has raised thee to the
imperial dignity, that thou mightest be able with true piety to rescind the
injurious decrees of others, to correct faults, to provide with a
fathers's clemency for the safety of men,--in short, to remove the wicked
from the state, whom being cast down by pre-eminent piety, God has
delivered into your hands, that it might be evident to all in what true
majesty consists.
For they who wished to take away the worship of the heavenly and
matchless[4] God, that they might defend impious superstitions, lie in
ruin.[5] But thou, who defendest and lovest His name, excelling in virtue
and prosperity, enjoyest thy immortal glories with the greatest happiness.
They suffer and have suffered the punishment of their guilt. The powerful
right hand of God protects thee from all dangers; He bestows on thee a
quiet and tranquil reign, with the highest congratulations of all men. And
not undeservedly has the Lord and Ruler of the world chosen thee in
preference to all others, by whom He might renew His holy religion, since
thou alone didst exist of all, who mightest afford a surpassing example of
virtue and holiness: in which thou mightest not only equal, but also, which
is a very great matter, excel the glory of ancient princes, whom
nevertheless fame reckons among the good. They indeed perhaps by nature
only resembled the righteous. For he who is ignorant of God, the Ruler of
the universe, may attain to a resemblance of righteousness, but he cannot
attain to righteousness itself. But thou, both by the innate sanctity of
thy character, and by thy acknowledgment of the truth and of God in every
action, dost fully perform[6] the works of righteousness.[1] It was
therefore befitting that, in arranging the condition of the human race, the
Deity should make use of thy authority and service. Whom we supplicate with
daily prayers, that He may especially guard thee whom He has wished to be
the guardian of the world: then that He may inspire thee with a disposition
by which thou mayest always continue in the love of the divine name. For
this is serviceable to all, both to thee for happiness, and to others for
repose.
CHAP. XXVII.--AN ENCOURAGEMENT AND CONFIRMATION OF THE PIOUS.
Since we have completed the seven courses[2] of the work which we
undertook, and have advanced to the goal, it remains that we exhort all to
undertake wisdom together with true religion, the strength and office of
which depends on this, that, despising earthly things, and laying aside the
errors by which we were formerly held while we served frail things, and
desired frail things, we may be directed to the eternal rewards of the
heavenly treasure. And that we may obtain these, the alluring pleasures of
the present life must as soon as possible be laid aside, which soothe the
souls of men with pernicious sweetness. How great a happiness must it be
thought, to be withdrawn from these stains of the earth, and to go to that
most just Judge and indulgent Father, who in the place of labours gives
rest, in the place of death life, in the place of darkness brightness, and
in the place of short and earthly goods, gives those which are eternal and
heavenly: with which reward the hardships and miseries which we endure in
this world, in accomplishing the works of righteousness, can in no way be
compared and equalled. Therefore, if we wish to be wise and happy, not only
must those sayings of Terence be reflected upon and proposed to us,
"That we must ever grind at the mill, we must be beaten, and put in
fetters;"[3]
but things much more dreadful than these must be endured, namely, the
prison, chains, and tortures: pains must be undergone, in short, death
itself must be undertaken and borne, when it is clear to our conscience
that that frail pleasure will not be without punishment, nor virtue without
a divine reward. All, therefore, ought to endeavour either to direct
themselves to the right way as soon as possible, or, having undertaken and
exercised virtues, and having patiently performed the labours of this life,
to deserve to have God as their comforter. For our Father and Lord, who
built and strengthened the heaven, who placed in it the sun, with the other
heavenly bodies, who by His power weighed the earth and fenced it with
mountains, surrounded it with the sea, and divided it with rivers, and who
made and completed out of nothing whatever there is in this workmanship of
the world; having observed the errors of men, sent a Guide, who might open
to us the way of righteousness: let us all follow Him, let us hear Him, let
us obey Him with the greatest devotedness, since He alone, as Lucretius
says,[4]
"Cleansed men's breasts with truth-telling precepts, and fixed a limit to
lust and fear, and explained what was the chief good which we all strive to
reach, and pointed out the road by which, along a narrow track, we might
arrive at it in a straightforward course."
And not only pointed it out, but also went before us in it, that no one
might dread the path of virtue on account of its difficulty. Let the way of
destruction and deceit, if it is possible, be deserted, in which death is
concealed, being covered by the attractions of pleasure.
And the more nearly each one, as his years incline to old age, sees to
be the approach of that day in which he must depart from this life, let him
reflect how he may leave it in purity, how he may come to the Judge in
innocency; not as they do, to whose dark minds the light is denied[5] who,
when the strength of their body now fails, are admonished in this of the
last pressing necessity, that they should with greater eagerness and ardour
apply themselves to the satisfying of their lusts. From which abyss let
everyone free himself while it is permitted him, while the opportunity is
present, and let him turn himself to God with his whole mind, that he may
without anxiety await that day, in which God, the Ruler and Lord of the
world, shall judge the deeds and thoughts of each. Whatever things are here
desired, let him not only neglect, but also avoid them, and let him judge
that his soul is of greater value than those deceitful goods, the
possession of which is uncertain and transitory; for they take their
departure every clay, and they go forth much more quickly than they had
entered, and if it is permitted us to enjoy them even to the last, they
must still, without doubt, be left to others. We can take nothing with us,
except a well and innocently spent life. That man will appear before God
with abundant resources, that man will appear in opulence, to whom there
shall belong self-restraint, mercy, patience, love, and faith. This is our
inheritance, which can neither be taken away from any one, nor transferred
to another. And who is there who would wish to provide and acquire for
himself these goods?
Let those who are hungry come, that being fed with heavenly food, they
may lay aside their lasting hunger; let those who are athirst come, that
they may with full mouth draw forth the water of salvation from an ever-
flowing fountain.[1] By this divine food and drink the blind shall both
see, and the deaf hear, and the dumb speak, and the lame walk, and the
foolish shall be wise, and the sick shall be strong, and the dead shall
come to life again. For whoever by his virtue has trampled upon the
corruptions of the earth, the supreme and truthful arbiter will raise him
to life and to perpetual light. Let no one trust m riches, no one in
badges of authority, no one even in royal power: these things do not make a
man immortal. For whosoever shall cast away the conduct becoming a man,[2]
and, following present things, shall prostrate himself upon the ground,
will be punished as a deserter from his Lord, his commander, and his
Father. Let us therefore apply ourselves to righteousness, which will
alone, as an inseparable companion, lead us to God; and "while a spirit
rules these limbs,"[3] let us serve God with unwearied service, let us keep
our posts and watches, let us boldly engage with the enemy whom we know,
that victorious and triumphant over our conquered adversary, we may obtain
from the Lord that reward of valour which He Himself has promised.
Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland beginning in
1867. (ANF 7, Roberts and Donaldson). The digital version is by The
Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.
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