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The City of God. Book XV
Argument-Having treated in the four preceding books of the origin of the
two cities, the earthly and the heavenly, Augustin explains their growth and
progress in the four books which follow; and, in order to do so, he explains the
chief passages of the sacred history which bear upon this subject. In this
fifteenth book he opens this part of his work by explaining the events recorded
in Genesis from the time of Cain and Abel to the deluge.
Chapter 1.-Of the Two Lines of the
Human Race Which from First to Last Divide It.
Of the bliss of Paradise, of Paradise itself, and of the life of our first
parents there, and of their sin and punishment, many have thought much, spoken
much, written much. We ourselves, too, have spoken of these things in the
foregoing books, and have written either what we read in the Holy Scriptures, or
what we could reasonably deduce from them. And were we to enter into a more
detailed investigation of these matters, an endless number of endless questions
would arise, which would involve us in a larger work than the present occasion
admits. We cannot be expected to find room for replying to every question that
may be started by unoccupied and captious men, who are ever more ready to ask
questions than capable of understanding the answer. Yet I trust we have already
done justice to these great and difficult questions regarding the beginning of
the world, or of the soul, or of the human race itself. This race we have
distributed into two parts, the one consisting of those who live according to
man, the other of those who live according to God. And these we also mystically
call the two cities, or the two communities of men, of which the one is
predestined to reign eternally with God, and the other to suffer eternal
punishment with the devil. This, however, is their end, and of it we are to
speak afterwards. At present, as we have said enough about their origin, whether
among the angels, whose numbers we know not, or in the two first human beings,
it seems suitable to attempt an account of their career, from the time when our
two first parents began to propagate the race until all human generation shall
cease. For this whole time or world-age, in which the dying give place and those
who are born succeed, is the career of these two cities concerning which we
treat.
Of these two first parents of the human race, then, Cain was the first-born,
and he belonged to the city of men; after him was born Abel, who belonged to the
city of God. For as in the individual the truth of the apostle's statement is
discerned, "that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and
afterward that which is spiritual,"1
whence it comes to pass that each man, being derived from a condemned stock, is
first of all born of Adam evil and carnal, and becomes good and spiritual only
afterwards, when he is grafted into Christ by regeneration: so was it in the
human race as a whole. When these two cities began to run their course by a
series of deaths and births, the citizen of this world was the first-born, and
after him the stranger in this world, the citizen of the city of God,
predestinated by grace, elected by grace, by grace a stranger below, and by
grace a citizen above. By grace,-for so far as regards himself he is sprung from
the same mass, all of which is condemned in its origin: but God, like a potter
(for this comparison is introduced by the apostle judiciously, and not without
thought), of the same lump made one vessel to honor, another to dishonor.2
But first the vessel to dishonor was made, and after it another to honor. For in
each individual, as I have already said, there is first of all that which is
reprobate, that from which we must begin, but in which we need not necessarily
remain; afterwards is that which is well-approved, to which we may by advancing
attain, and in which, when we have reached it we may abide. Not, indeed, that
every wicked man shall be good, but that no one will be good who was not first
of all wicked but the sooner any one becomes a good man, the more speedily does
he receive this title, and abolish the old name in the new. Accordingly, it is
recorded of Cain that he built a city,3
but Abel, being a sojourner, built none. For the city of the saints is above,
although here below it begets citizens, in whom it sojourns till the time of its
reign arrives, when it shall gather together all in the day of the resurrection;
and then shall the promised kingdom be given to them, in which they shall reign
with their Prince, the King of the ages, time without end.
Chapter 2.-Of the Children of the
Flesh and the Children of the Promise.
There was indeed on earth, so long as it was needed, a symbol and
foreshadowing image of this city, which served the purpose of reminding men that
such a city was to be rather than of making it present; and this image was
itself called the holy city, as a symbol of the future city, though not itself
the reality. Of this city which served as an image, and of that free city it
typified, Paul writes to the Galatians in these terms: "Tell me, ye that desire
to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had
two sons, the one by a bond maid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of
the bond woman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by
promise. Which things are an allegory:4
for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth
to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth
to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem
which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written,
Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest
not for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now
we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was
born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it
is now. Nevertheless, what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bond woman and her
son: for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free
woman. And we, brethren, are not children of the bond woman, but of the free, in
the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free."5
This interpretation of the passage, handed down to us with apostolic authority,
shows how we ought to understand the Scriptures of the two covenants-the old and
the new. One portion of the earthly city became an image of the heavenly city,
not having a significance of its own, but signifying another city, and therefore
serving, or" being in bondage." For it was founded not for its own sake, but to
prefigure another city; and this shadow of a city was also itself foreshadowed
by another preceding figure. For Sarah's handmaid Agar, and her son, were an
image of this image. And as the shadows were to pass away when the full light
came, Sarah, the free woman, who prefigured the free city (which again was also
prefigured in another way by that shadow of a city Jerusalem), therefore said,
"Cast out the bond woman and her son; for the son of the bond woman shall not be
heir with my son Isaac," or, as the apostle says, "with the son of the free
woman." In the earthly city, then, we find two things-its own obvious presence,
and its symbolic presentation of the heavenly city. Now citizens are begotten to
the earthly city by nature vitiated by sin, but to the heavenly city by grace
freeing nature from sin; whence the former are called "vessels of wrath," the
latter "vessels of mercy."6
And this was typified in the two sons of Abraham,-Ishmael, the son of Agar the
handmaid, being born according to the flesh, while Isaac was born of the free
woman Sarah, according to the promise. Both, indeed, were of Abraham's seed; but
the one was begotten by natural law, the other was given by gracious promise. In
the one birth, human action is revealed; in the other, a divine kindness comes
to light.
Chapter 3.-That Sarah's
Barrennesswasmade Productive by God's Grace.
Sarah, in fact, was barren; and, despairing of offspring, and being resolved
that she would have at least through her handmaid that blessing she saw she
could not in her own person procure, she gave her handmaid to her husband, to
whom she herself had been unable to bear children. From him she required this
conjugal duty, exercising her own right in another's womb. And thus Ishmael was
born according to the common law of human generation, by sexual intercourse.
Therefore it is said that he was born "according to the flesh,"-not because such
births are not the gifts of God, nor His handiwork, whose creative wisdom"
reaches," as it is written, "from one end to another mightily, and sweetly cloth
she order all things,"7
but because, in a case in which the gift of God, which was not due to men and
was the gratuitous largess of grace, was to be conspicuous, it was requisite
that a son be given in a way which no effort of nature could compass. Nature
denies children to persons of the age which Abraham and Sarah had now reached;
besides that, in Sarah's case, she was barren even in her prime. This nature, so
constituted that offspring could not be looked for, symbolized the nature of the
human race vitiated by sin and by just consequence condemned. which deserves no
future felicity. Fitly, therefore, does Isaac, the child of promise, typify the
children of grace, the citizens of the free city, who dwell together in
everlasting peace, in which self-love and self-will have no place, but a
ministering love that rejoices in the common joyall, of many hearts makes one,
that is to say, secures a perfect concord.
Chapter 4.-Of the Conflict and Peace
of the Earthly City.
But the earthly city, which shall not be everlasting (for it will no longer
be a city when it has been committed to the extreme penalty), has its good in
this world, and rejoices in it with such joy as such things can afford. But as
this is not a good which can discharge its devotees of all distresses, this city
is often divided against itself by litigations, wars, quarrels, and such
victories as are either life-destroying or short-lived. For each part of it that
arms against another part of it seeks to triumph over the nations through itself
in bondage to vice. If, when it has conquered, it is inflated with pride, its
victory is life-destroying; but if it turns its thoughts upon the common
casualties of our mortal condition, and is rather anxious concerning the
disasters that may befall it than elated with the successes already achieved,
this victory, though of a higher kind, is still only shot-lived; for it cannot
abidingly rule over those whom it has victoriously subjugated. But the things
which this city desires cannot justly be said to be evil, for it is itself, in
its own kind, better than all other human good. For it desires earthly peace for
the sake of enjoying earthly goods, and it makes war in order to attain to this
peace; since, if it has conquered, and there remains no one to resist it, it
enjoys a peace which it had not while there were opposing parties who contested
for the enjoyment of those things which were too small to satisfy both. This
peace is purchased by toilsome wars; it is obtained by what they style a
glorious victory. Now, when victory remains with the party which had the juster
cause, who hesitates to congratulate the victor, and styleit a desirable peace?
These things, then, are good things, and without doubt the gifts of God. But if
they neglect the better things of the heavenly city, which are secured by
eternal victory and peace never-ending, and so inordinately covet these present
good things that they believe them to be the only desirable things, or love them
better than those things which are believed to be better,-if this be so, then it
is necessary that misery follow and ever increase.
Chapter 5.-Of the Fratricidal Act of
the Founder of the Earthly City, and the Corresponding Crime of the Founder of
Rome.
Thus the founder of the earthly city was a fratricide. Overcome with envy, he
slew his own brother, a citizen of the eternal city, and a sojourner on earth.
So that we cannot be surprised that this first specimen, or, as the Greeks say,
archetype of crime, should, long afterwards, find a corresponding crime at the
foundation of that city which was destined to reign over so many nations, and be
the head of this earthly city of which we speak. For of that city also, as one
of their poets has mentioned, "the first walls were stained with a brother's
blood,"8
or, as Roman history records, Remus was slain by his brother Romulus. And thus
there is no difference between the foundation of this city and of the earthly
city, unless it be that Romulus and Remus were both citizens of the earthly
city. Both desired to have the glory of founding the Roman republic, but both
could not have as much glory as if one only claimed it; for he who wished to
have the glory of ruling would certainly rule less if his power were shared by a
living consort. In order, therefore, that the whole glory might be enjoyed by
one, his consort was removed; and by this crime the empire was made larger
indeed, but inferior, while otherwise it would have been less, but better. Now
these brothers, Cain and Abel, were not both animated by the same earthly
desires, nor did the murderer envy the other because he feared that, by both
ruling, his own dominion would be curtailed,-for Abel was not solicitous to rule
in that city which his brother built,-he was moved by that diabolical, envious
hatred with which the evil regard the good, for no other reason than because
they are good while themselves are evil. For the possession of goodness is by no
means diminished by being shared with a partner either permanent or temporarily
assumed; on the contrary, the possession of goodness is increased in proportion
to the concord and charity of each of those who share it. In short, he who is
unwilling to share this possession cannot have it; and he who is most willing to
admit others to a share of it will have the greatest abundance to himself. The
quarrel, then, between Romulus and Remus shows how the earthly city is divided
against itself; that which fell out between Cain and Abel illustrated the hatred
that subsists between the two cities, that of God and that of men. The wicked
war with the wicked; the good also war with the wicked. But with the good, good
men, or at least perfectly good men, cannot war;though, while only going on
towards perfection, they war to this extent, that every good man resists others
in those points in which he resists himself. And in each individual "the flesh
lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh."9
This spiritual lusting, therefore, can be at war with the carnal lust of another
man; or carnal lust may be at war with the spiritual desires of another, in some
such way as good and wicked men are at war; or, still more certainly, the carnal
lusts of two men, good but not yet perfect, contend together, just as the wicked
contend with the wicked, until the health of those who are under the treatment
of grace attains final victory.
Chapter 6.-Of the Weaknesses Which
Even the Citizens of the City of God Suffer During This Earthly Pilgrimage in
Punishment of Sin, and of Which They are Healed by God's Care.
This sickliness-that is to say, that disobedience of which we spoke in the
fourteenth book-is the punishment of the first disobedience. It is therefore not
nature, but vice; and therefore it is said to the good who are growing in grace,
and living in this pilgrimage by faith, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so
fulfill the law of Christ."10
In like manner it is said elsewhere, "Warn them that are unruly, comfort the
feeble-minded, sup port the weak, be patient toward all men. See that none
render evil for evil unto any man."11
And in another place, "If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual
restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou
also be tempted."12
And elsewhere, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath."13
And in the Gospel, "If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him
his fault between thee and him alone."14
So too of sins which may create scandal the apostle says, "Them that sin rebuke
before all, that others also may fear."15
For this purpose, and that we may keep that peace without which no man can see
the Lord,16
many precepts are given which carefully inculcatemutual forgiveness; among which
we may number that terrible word in which the servant is ordered to pay his
formerly remitted debt of ten thousand talents, because he did not remit to his
fellow-servant his debt of two hundred pence. To which parable the Lord Jesus
added the words, "So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye
from your hearts forgive not every one his brother."17
It is thus the citizens of the city of God are healed while still they sojourn
in this earth and sigh for the peace of their heavenly country. The Holy Spirit,
too, works within, that the medicine externally applied may have some good
result. Otherwise, even though God Himself make use of the creatures that are
subject to Him, and in some human form address our human senses, whether we
receive those impressions in sleep or in some external appearance, still, if He
does not by His own inward grace sway and act upon the mind, no preaching of the
truth is of any avail. But this God does, distinguishing between the vessels of
wrath and the vessels of mercy, by His own very secret but very just providence.
When He Himself aids the soul in His own hidden and wonderful ways, and the sin
which dwells in our members, and is, as the apostle teaches, rather the
punishment of sin, does not reignin our mortal body to obey the lusts of it, and
when we no longer yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness,18
then the soul is converted from its own evil and selfish desires, and, God
possessing it, it possesses itself in peace even in this life, and afterwards,
with perfected health and endowed with immortality, will reign without sin in
peace everlasting.
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