In these Latin verses the meaning of the Greek is correctly given,

although not in the exact order of the lines as connected with the

initial letters; for in three of them, the fifth, eighteenth, and

nineteenth, where the Greek letter Υ occurs, Latin words could not

be found beginning with the corresponding letter, and yielding a

suitable meaning. So that, if we note down together the initial

letters of all the lines in our Latin translation except those

three in which we retain the letter Υ in the proper place, they

will express in five Greek words this meaning, "Jesus Christ the

Son of God, the Saviour." And the verses are twenty-seven, which is

the cube of three. For three times three are nine; and nine itself,

if tripled, so as to rise from the superficial square to the cube,

comes to twenty-seven. But if you join the initial letters of these

five Greek words, Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ υἱὸς σωτήρ, which mean, "Jesus

Christ the Son of God, the Saviour," they will make the word ἰχθὺς,

that is, "fish," in which word Christ is mystically understood,

because He was able to live, that is, to exist, without sin in the

abyss of this mortality as in the depth of waters.

But this sibyl, whether she is the Erythræan, or, as some rather

believe, the Cumæan, in her whole poem, of which this is a very small

portion, not only has nothing that can relate to the worship of the

false or feigned gods, but rather speaks against them and their

worshippers in such a way that we might even think she ought to be

reckoned among those who belong to the city of God. Lactantius also

inserted in his work the prophecies about Christ of a certain sibyl,

he does not say which. But I have thought fit to combine in a single

extract, which may seem long, what he has set down in many short

quotations. She says, "Afterward He shall come into the injurious

hands of the unbelieving, and they will give God buffets with profane

hands, and with impure mouth will spit out envenomed spittle; but He

will with simplicity yield His holy back to stripes. And He will

hold His peace when struck with the fist, that no one may find out

what word, or whence, He comes to speak to hell; and He shall be

crowned with a crown of thorns. And they gave Him gall for meat, and

vinegar for His thirst: they will spread this table of inhospitality.

For thou thyself, being foolish, hast not understood thy God,

deluding the minds of mortals, but hast both crowned Him with thorns

and mingled for Him bitter gall. But the veil of the temple shall be

rent; and at midday it shall be darker than night for three hours.

And He shall die the death, taking sleep for three days; and then

returning from hell, He first shall come to the light, the beginning

of the resurrection being shown to the recalled." Lactantius made

use of these sibylline testimonies, introducing them bit by bit in

the course of his discussion as the things he intended to prove

seemed to require, and we have set them down in one connected series,

uninterrupted by comment, only taking care to mark them by capitals,

if only the transcribers do not neglect to preserve them hereafter.

Some writers, indeed, say that the Erythræan sibyl was not in the

time of Romulus, but of the Trojan war.

24. _That the seven sages flourished in the reign of Romulus, when

the ten tribes which were called Israel were led into captivity

by the Chaldeans, and Romulus, when dead, had divine honours

conferred on him._

While Romulus reigned, Thales the Milesian is said to have lived, being

one of the seven sages, who succeeded the theological poets, of whom

Orpheus was the most renowned, and were called Σοφοί, that is, sages.

During that time the ten tribes, which on the division of the people

were called Israel, were conquered by the Chaldeans and led captive

into their lands, while the two tribes which were called Judah, and

had the seat of their kingdom in Jerusalem, remained in the land of

Judea. As Romulus, when dead, could nowhere be found, the Romans, as

is everywhere notorious, placed him among the gods,--a thing which

by that time had already ceased to be done, and which was not done

afterwards till the time of the Cæsars, and then not through error,

but in flattery; so that Cicero ascribes great praises to Romulus,

because he merited such honours not in rude and unlearned times, when

men were easily deceived, but in times already polished and learned,

although the subtle and acute loquacity of the philosophers had not

yet culminated. But although the later times did not deify dead men,

still they did not cease to hold and worship as gods those deified of

old; nay, by images, which the ancients never had, they even increased

the allurements of vain and impious superstition, the unclean demons

effecting this in their heart, and also deceiving them by lying

oracles, so that even the fabulous crimes of the gods, which were not

once imagined by a more polite age, were yet basely acted in the plays

in honour of these same false deities. Numa reigned after Romulus; and

although he had thought that Rome would be better defended the more

gods there were, yet on his death he himself was not counted worthy

of a place among them, as if it were supposed that he had so crowded

heaven that a place could not be found for him there. They report that

the Samian sibyl lived while he reigned at Rome, and when Manasseh

began to reign over the Hebrews,--an impious king, by whom the prophet

Isaiah is said to have been slain.

25. _What philosophers were famous when Tarquinius Priscus reigned

over the Romans, and Zedekiah over the Hebrews, when Jerusalem

was taken and the temple overthrown._

When Zedekiah reigned over the Hebrews, and Tarquinius Priscus,

the successor of Ancus Martius, over the Romans, the Jewish people

was led captive into Babylon, Jerusalem and the temple built by

Solomon being overthrown. For the prophets, in chiding them for

their iniquity and impiety, predicted that these things should come

to pass, especially Jeremiah, who even stated the number of years.

Pittacus of Mitylene, another of the sages, is reported to have lived

at that time. And Eusebius writes that, while the people of God were

held captive in Babylon, the five other sages lived, who must be

added to Thales, whom we mentioned above, and Pittacus, in order to

make up the seven. These are Solon of Athens, Chilo of Lacedæmon,

Periander of Corinth, Cleobulus of Lindus, and Bias of Priene. These

flourished after the theological poets, and were called sages,

because they excelled other men in a certain laudable line of life,

and summed up some moral precepts in epigrammatic sayings. But they

left posterity no literary monuments, except that Solon is alleged

to have given certain laws to the Athenians, and Thales was a natural

philosopher, and left books of his doctrine in short proverbs. In

that time of the Jewish captivity, Anaximander, Anaximenes, and

Xenophanes, the natural philosophers, flourished. Pythagoras also

lived then, and at this time the name philosopher was first used.

26. _That at the time when the captivity of the Jews was brought

to an end, on the completion of seventy years, the Romans also

were freed from kingly rule._

At this time, Cyrus king of Persia, who also ruled the Chaldeans and

Assyrians, having somewhat relaxed the captivity of the Jews, made

fifty thousand of them return in order to rebuild the temple. They only

began the first foundations and built the altar; but, owing to hostile

invasions, they were unable to go on, and the work was put off to the

time of Darius. During the same time also those things were done which

are written in the book of Judith, which, indeed, the Jews are said not

to have received into the canon of the Scriptures. Under Darius king

of Persia, then, on the completion of the seventy years predicted by

Jeremiah the prophet, the captivity of the Jews was brought to an end,

and they were restored to liberty. Tarquin then reigned as the seventh

king of the Romans. On his expulsion, they also began to be free from

the rule of their kings. Down to this time the people of Israel had

prophets; but, although they were numerous, the canonical writings of

only a few of them have been preserved among the Jews and among us. In

closing the previous book, I promised to set down something in this one

about them, and I shall now do so.

27. _Of the times of the prophets whose oracles are contained in

books, and who sang many things about the call of the Gentiles

at the time when the Roman kingdom began and the Assyrian came

to an end._

In order that we may be able to consider these times, let us go back a

little to earlier times. At the beginning of the book of the prophet

Hosea, who is placed first of twelve, it is written, "The word of the

Lord which came to Hosea in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and

Hezekiah, kings of Judah."[509] Amos also writes that he prophesied

in the days of Uzziah, and adds the name of Jeroboam king of Israel,

who lived at the same time.[510] Isaiah the son of Amos--either the

above-named prophet, or, as is rather affirmed, another who was not a

prophet, but was called by the same name--also puts at the head of his

book these four kings named by Hosea, saying by way of preface that

he prophesied in their days.[511] Micah also names the same times as

those of his prophecy, after the days of Uzziah;[512] for he names the

same three kings as Hosea named,--Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. We find

from their own writings that these men prophesied contemporaneously.

To these are added Jonah in the reign of Uzziah, and Joel in that of

Jotham, who succeeded Uzziah. But we can find the date of these two

prophets in the chronicles,[513] not in their own writings, for they

say nothing about it themselves. Now these days extend from Procas king

of the Latins, or his predecessor Aventinus, down to Romulus king of

the Romans, or even to the beginning of the reign of his successor,

Numa Pompilius. Hezekiah king of Judah certainly reigned till then.

So that thus these fountains of prophecy, as I may call them, burst

forth at once during those times when the Assyrian kingdom failed and

the Roman began; so that, just as in the first period of the Assyrian

kingdom Abraham arose, to whom the most distinct promises were made

that all nations should be blessed in his seed, so at the beginning

of the western Babylon, in the time of whose government Christ was to

come in whom these promises were to be fulfilled, the oracles of the

prophets were given not only in spoken but in written words, for a

testimony that so great a thing should come to pass. For although the

people of Israel hardly ever lacked prophets from the time when they

began to have kings, these were only for their own use, not for that of

the nations. But when the more manifestly prophetic Scripture began to

be formed, which was to benefit the nations too, it was fitting that it

should begin when this city was founded which was to rule the nations.

28. _Of the things pertaining to the gospel of Christ which Hosea

and Amos prophesied._

The prophet Hosea speaks so very profoundly that it is laborious

work to penetrate his meaning. But, according to promise, we must

insert something from his book. He says, "And it shall come to pass

that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people,

there they shall be called the sons of the living God."[514] Even the

apostles understood this as a prophetic testimony of the calling of

the nations who did not formerly belong to God; and because this same

people of the Gentiles is itself spiritually among the children of

Abraham, and for that reason is rightly called Israel, therefore he

goes on to say, "And the children of Judah and the children of Israel

shall be gathered together in one, and shall appoint themselves

one headship, and shall ascend from the earth."[515] We should but

weaken the savour of this prophetic oracle if we set ourselves

to expound it. Let the reader but call to mind that corner-stone

and those two walls of partition, the one of the Jews, the other

of the Gentiles,[516] and he will recognise them, the one under

the term sons of Judah, the other as sons of Israel, supporting

themselves by one and the same headship, and ascending from the

earth. But that those carnal Israelites who are now unwilling to

believe in Christ shall afterward believe, that is, their children

shall (for they themselves, of course, shall go to their own place

by dying), this same prophet testifies, saying, "For the children

of Israel shall abide many days without a king, without a prince,

without a sacrifice, without an altar, without a priesthood, without

manifestations."[517] Who does not see that the Jews are now thus?

But let us hear what he adds: "And afterward shall the children of

Israel return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king,

and shall be amazed at the Lord and at His goodness in the latter

days."[518] Nothing is clearer than this prophecy, in which by David,

as distinguished by the title of king, Christ is to be understood,

"who is made," as the apostle says, "of the seed of David according

to the flesh."[519] This prophet has also foretold the resurrection

of Christ on the third day, as it behoved to be foretold, with

prophetic loftiness, when he says, "He will heal us after two days,

and in the third day we shall rise again."[520] In agreement with

this the apostle says to us, "If ye be risen with Christ, seek those

things which are above."[521] Amos also prophesies thus concerning

such things: "Prepare thee, that thou mayst invoke thy God, O Israel;

for lo, I am binding the thunder, and creating the spirit, and

announcing to men their Christ."[522] And in another place he says,

"In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen,

and build up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins,

and will build them up again as in the days of old: that the residue

of men may inquire for me, and all the nations upon whom my name is

invoked, saith the Lord that doeth this."[523]

29. _What things are predicted by Isaiah concerning Christ and

the Church._

The prophecy of Isaiah is not in the book of the twelve prophets, who

are called the minor from the brevity of their writings, as compared

with those who are called the greater prophets because they published

larger volumes. Isaiah belongs to the latter, yet I connect him

with the two above named, because he prophesied at the same time.

Isaiah, then, together with his rebukes of wickedness, precepts of

righteousness, and predictions of evil, also prophesied much more

than the rest about Christ and the Church, that is, about the King

and that city which he founded; so that some say he should be called

an evangelist rather than a prophet. But, in order to finish this

work, I quote only one out of many in this place. Speaking in the

person of the Father, he says, "Behold, my servant shall understand,

and shall be exalted and glorified very much. As many shall be

astonished at Thee."[524] This is about Christ.

But let us now hear what follows about the Church. He says, "Rejoice,

O barren, thou that barest not; break forth and cry, thou that

didst not travail with child: for many more are the children of

the desolate than of her that has an husband."[525] But these must

suffice; and some things in them ought to be expounded; yet I think

those parts sufficient which are so plain that even enemies must be

compelled against their will to understand them.

30. _What Micah, Jonah, and Joel prophesied in accordance with the

New Testament._

The prophet Micah, representing Christ under the figure of a great

mountain, speaks thus: "It shall come to pass in the last days, that

the manifested mountain of the Lord shall be prepared on the tops of

the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people

shall hasten unto it. Many nations shall go, and shall say, Come, let

us go up into the mountain of the Lord, and into the house of the God

of Jacob; and He will show us His way, and we will go in His paths:

for out of Zion shall proceed the law, and the word of the Lord

out of Jerusalem. And He shall judge among many people, and rebuke

strong nations afar off."[526] This prophet predicts the very place

in which Christ was born, saying, "And thou, Bethlehem, of the house

of Ephratah, art the least that can be reckoned among the thousands

of Judah; out of thee shall come forth unto me a leader, to be the

prince in Israel; and His going forth is from the beginning, even

from the days of eternity. Therefore will He give them [up] even

until the time when she that travaileth shall bring forth; and the

remnant of His brethren shall be converted to the sons of Israel. And

He shall stand, and see, and feed His flock in the strength of the

Lord, and in the dignity of the name of the Lord His God: for now

shall He be magnified even to the utmost of the earth."[527]

The prophet Jonah, not so much by speech as by his own painful

experience, prophesied Christ's death and resurrection much more

clearly than if he had proclaimed them with his voice. For why was he

taken into the whale's belly and restored on the third day, but that

he might be a sign that Christ should return from the depths of hell

on the third day?

I should be obliged to use many words in explaining all that Joel

prophesies in order to make clear those that pertain to Christ and

the Church. But there is one passage I must not pass by, which the

apostles also quoted when the Holy Spirit came down from above on

the assembled believers according to Christ's promise. He says, "And

it shall come to pass after these things, that I will pour out

my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall

prophesy, and your old men shall dream, and your young men shall see

visions: and even on my servants and mine handmaids in those days

will I pour out my Spirit."[528]

31. _Of the predictions concerning the salvation of the world

in Christ, in Obadiah, Nahum, and Habakkuk._

The date of three of the minor prophets, Obadiah, Nahum, and

Habakkuk, is neither mentioned by themselves nor given in the

chronicles of Eusebius and Jerome. For although they put Obadiah

with Micah, yet when Micah prophesied does not appear from that part

of their writings in which the dates are noted. And this, I think,

has happened through their error in negligently copying the works

of others. But we could not find the two others now mentioned in

the copies of the chronicles which we have; yet because they are

contained in the canon, we ought not to pass them by.

Obadiah, so far as his writings are concerned, the briefest of all

the prophets, speaks against Idumea, that is, the nation of Esau,

that reprobate elder of the twin sons of Isaac and grandsons of

Abraham. Now if, by that form of speech in which a part is put for

the whole, we take Idumea as put for the nations, we may understand

of Christ what he says among other things, "But upon Mount Sion

shall be safety, and there shall be a Holy One."[529] And a little

after, at the end of the same prophecy, he says, "And those who

are saved again shall come up out of Mount Sion, that they may

defend Mount Esau, and it shall be a kingdom to the Lord."[530] It

is quite evident this was fulfilled when those saved again out of

Mount Sion--that is, the believers in Christ from Judea, of whom

the apostles are chiefly to be acknowledged--went up to defend

Mount Esau. How could they defend it except by making safe, through

the preaching of the gospel, those who believed that they might be

"delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom

of God?"[531] This he expressed as an inference, adding, "And it

shall be to the Lord a kingdom." For Mount Sion signifies Judea,

where it is predicted there shall be safety, and a Holy One, that

is, Christ Jesus. But Mount Esau is Idumea, which signifies the

Church of the Gentiles, which, as I have expounded, those saved again

out of Sion have defended that it should be a kingdom to the Lord.

This was obscure before it took place; but what believer does not

find it out now that it is done?

As for the prophet Nahum, through him God says, "I will exterminate

the graven and the molten things: I will make thy burial. For lo,

the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings and announceth peace are

swift upon the mountains! O Judah, celebrate thy festival days,

and perform thy vows; for now they shall not go on any more so as

to become antiquated. It is completed, it is consumed, it is taken

away. He ascendeth who breathes in thy face, delivering thee out of

tribulation."[532] Let him that remembers the gospel call to mind who

hath ascended from hell and breathed the Holy Spirit in the face of

Judah, that is, of the Jewish disciples; for they belong to the New

Testament, whose festival days are so spiritually renewed that they

cannot become antiquated. Moreover, we already see the graven and

molten things, that is, the idols of the false gods, exterminated

through the gospel, and given up to oblivion as of the grave, and we

know that this prophecy is fulfilled in this very thing.

Of what else than the advent of Christ, who was to come, is Habakkuk

understood to say, "And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the

vision openly on a tablet of boxwood, that he that readeth these things

may understand. For the vision is yet for a time appointed, and it will

arise in the end, and will not become void: if it tarry, wait for it;

because it will surely come, and will not be delayed?"[533]

32. _Of the prophecy that is contained in the prayer and song

of Habakkuk._

In his prayer, with a song, to whom but the Lord Christ does he say,

"O Lord, I have heard Thy hearing, and was afraid: O Lord, I have

considered Thy works, and was greatly afraid?"[534] What is this

but the inexpressible admiration of the foreknown, new, and sudden

salvation of men? "In the midst of two living creatures thou shalt be

recognised." What is this but either between the two testaments, or

between the two thieves, or between Moses and Elias talking with Him

on the mount? "While the years draw nigh, Thou wilt be recognised;

at the coming of the time Thou wilt be shown," does not even need

exposition. "While my soul shall be troubled at Him, in wrath Thou

wilt be mindful of mercy." What is this but that He puts Himself

for the Jews, of whose nation He was, who were troubled with great

anger and crucified Christ, when He, mindful of mercy, said, "Father,

forgive them, for they know not what they do?"[535] "God shall come

from Teman, and the Holy One from the shady and close mountain."[536]

What is said here, "He shall come from Teman," some interpret "from

the south," or "from the south-west," by which is signified the

noonday, that is, the fervour of charity and the splendour of truth.

"The shady and close mountain" might be understood in many ways, yet

I prefer to take it as meaning the depth of the divine Scriptures,

in which Christ is prophesied: for in the Scriptures there are many

things shady and close which exercise the mind of the reader; and

Christ comes thence when he who has understanding finds Him there.

"His power covereth up the heavens, and the earth is full of His

praise." What is this but what is also said in the psalm, "Be Thou

exalted, O God, above the heavens; and Thy glory above all the

earth?"[537] "His splendour shall be as the light." What is it but

that the fame of Him shall illuminate believers? "Horns are in His

hands." What is this but the trophy of the cross? "And He hath placed

the firm charity of His strength"[538] needs no exposition. "Before

His face shall go the word, and it shall go forth into the field

after His feet." What is this but that He should both be announced

before His coming hither and after His return hence? "He stood, and

the earth was moved." What is this but that "He stood" for succour,

"and the earth was moved" to believe? "He regarded, and the nations

melted;" that is, He had compassion, and made the people penitent.

"The mountains are broken with violence;" that is, through the power

of those who work miracles the pride of the haughty is broken. "The

everlasting hills flowed down;" that is, they are humbled in time

that they may be lifted up for eternity. "I saw His goings [made]

eternal for His labours;" that is, I beheld His labour of love not

left without the reward of eternity. "The tents of Ethiopia shall

be greatly afraid, and the tents of the land of Midian;" that is,

even those nations which are not under the Roman authority, being

suddenly terrified by the news of Thy wonderful works, shall become

a Christian people. "Wert Thou angry at the rivers, O Lord? or was

Thy fury against the rivers? or was Thy rage against the sea?" This

is said because He does not now come to condemn the world, but that

the world through Him might be saved.[539] "For Thou shalt mount

upon Thy horses, and Thy riding shall be salvation;" that is, Thine

evangelists shall carry Thee, for they are guided by Thee, and Thy

gospel is salvation to them that believe in Thee. "Bending, Thou

wilt bend Thy bow against the sceptres, saith the Lord;" that is,

Thou wilt threaten even the kings of the earth with Thy judgment.

"The earth shall be cleft with rivers;" that is, by the sermons of

those who preach Thee flowing in upon them, men's hearts shall be

opened to make confession, to whom it is said, "Rend your hearts

and not your garments."[540] What does "The people shall see Thee

and grieve" mean, but that in mourning they shall be blessed?[541]

What is "Scattering the waters in marching," but that by walking in

those who everywhere proclaim Thee, Thou wilt scatter hither and

thither the streams of Thy doctrine? What is "The abyss uttered its

voice?" Is it not that the depth of the human heart expressed what it

perceived? The words, "The depth of its phantasy," are an explanation

of the previous verse, for the depth is the abyss; and "Uttered its

voice" is to be understood before them, that is, as we have said,

it expressed what it perceived. Now the phantasy is the vision,

which it did not hold or conceal, but poured forth in confession.

"The sun was raised up, and the moon stood still in her course;"

that is, Christ ascended into heaven, and the Church was established

under her King. "Thy darts shall go in the light;" that is, Thy

words shall not be sent in secret, but openly. For He had said to

His own disciples, "What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in

the light."[542] "By threatening thou shalt diminish the earth;"

that is, by that threatening Thou shalt humble men. "And in fury

Thou shalt cast down the nations;" for in punishing those who exalt

themselves Thou dashest them one against another. "Thou wentest forth

for the salvation of Thy people, that Thou mightest save Thy Christ;

Thou hast sent death on the heads of the wicked." None of these

words require exposition. "Thou hast lifted up the bonds, even to

the neck." This may be understood even of the good bonds of wisdom,

that the feet may be put into its fetters, and the neck into its

collar. "Thou hast struck off in amazement of mind the bonds" must be

understood for, He lifts up the good and strikes off the bad, about

which it is said to Him, "Thou hast broken asunder my bonds,"[543]

and that "in amazement of mind," that is, wonderfully. "The heads of

the mighty shall be moved in it;" to wit, in that wonder. "They shall

open their teeth like a poor man eating secretly." For some of the

mighty among the Jews shall come to the Lord, admiring His works and

words, and shall greedily eat the bread of His doctrine in secret

for fear of the Jews, just as the Gospel has shown they did. "And

Thou hast sent into the sea Thy horses, troubling many waters," which

are nothing else than many people; for unless all were troubled,

some would not be converted with fear, others pursued with fury. "I

gave heed, and my belly trembled at the voice of the prayer of my

lips; and trembling entered into my bones, and my habit of body was

troubled under me." He gave heed to those things which he said, and

was himself terrified at his own prayer, which he had poured forth

prophetically, and in which he discerned things to come. For when

many people are troubled, he saw the threatening tribulation of the

Church, and at once acknowledged himself a member of it, and said, "I

shall rest in the day of tribulation," as being one of those who are

rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation.[544] "That I may ascend,"

he says, "among the people of my pilgrimage," departing quite from

the wicked people of his carnal kinship, who are not pilgrims in

this earth, and do not seek the country above.[545] "Although the

fig-tree," he says, "shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the

vines; the labour of the olive shall lie, and the fields shall yield

no meat; the sheep shall be cut off from the meat, and there shall

be no oxen in the stalls." He sees that nation which was to slay

Christ about to lose the abundance of spiritual supplies, which, in

prophetic fashion, he has set forth by the figure of earthly plenty.

And because that nation was to suffer such wrath of God, because,

being ignorant of the righteousness of God, it wished to establish

its own,[546] he immediately says, "Yet will I rejoice in the Lord;

I will joy in God my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, and He

will set my feet in completion; He will place me above the heights,

that I may conquer in His song," to wit, in that song of which

something similar is said in the psalm, "He set my feet upon a rock,

and directed my goings, and put in my mouth a new song, a hymn to our

God."[547] He therefore conquers in the song of the Lord, who takes

pleasure in His praise, not in his own; that "He that glorieth, let

him glory in the Lord."[548] But some copies have, "I will joy in God

my Jesus," which seems to me better than the version of those who,

wishing to put it in Latin, have not set down that very name which

for us it is dearer and sweeter to name.

33. _What Jeremiah and Zephaniah have, by the prophetic Spirit,

spoken before concerning Christ and the calling of the nations._

Jeremiah, like Isaiah, is one of the greater prophets, not of

the minor, like the others from whose writings I have just given

extracts. He prophesied when Josiah reigned in Jerusalem, and Ancus

Martius at Rome, when the captivity of the Jews was already at

hand; and he continued to prophesy down to the fifth month of the

captivity, as we find from his writings. Zephaniah, one of the minor

prophets, is put along with him, because he himself says that he

prophesied in the days of Josiah; but he does not say till when.

Jeremiah thus prophesied not only in the times of Ancus Martius, but

also in those of Tarquinius Priscus, whom the Romans had for their

fifth king. For he had already begun to reign when that captivity

took place. Jeremiah, in prophesying of Christ, says, "The breath

of our mouth, the Lord Christ, was taken in our sins,"[549] thus

briefly showing both that Christ is our Lord and that He suffered for

us. Also in another place he says, "This is my God, and there shall

none other be accounted of in comparison of Him; who hath found out

all the way of prudence, and hath given it to Jacob His servant,

and to Israel His beloved: afterward He was seen on the earth, and

conversed with men."[550] Some attribute this testimony not to

Jeremiah, but to his secretary, who was called Baruch; but it is more

commonly ascribed to Jeremiah. Again the same prophet says concerning

Him, "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise up

unto David a righteous shoot, and a King shall reign and shall be

wise, and shall do judgment and justice in the earth. In those days

Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell confidently: and this

is the name which they shall call Him, Our righteous Lord."[551] And

of the calling of the nations which was to come to pass, and which

we now see fulfilled, he thus spoke: "O Lord my God, and my refuge

in the day of evils, to Thee shall the nations come from the utmost

end of the earth, saying, Truly our fathers have worshipped lying

images, wherein there is no profit."[552] But that the Jews, by whom

He behoved even to be slain, were not going to acknowledge Him, this

prophet thus intimates: "Heavy is the heart through all; and He is

a man, and who shall know Him?"[553] That passage also is his which

I have quoted in the seventeenth book concerning the new testament,

of which Christ is the Mediator. For Jeremiah himself says, "Behold,

the days come, saith the Lord, that I will complete over the house of

Jacob a new testament," and the rest, which may be read there.[554]

For the present I shall put down those predictions about Christ by

the prophet Zephaniah, who prophesied with Jeremiah. "Wait ye upon

me, saith the Lord, in the day of my resurrection, in the future;

because it is my determination to assemble the nations, and gather

together the kingdoms."[555] And again he says, "The Lord will be

terrible upon them, and will exterminate all the gods of the earth;

and they shall worship Him every man from his place, even all the

isles of the nations."[556] And a little after he says, "Then will

I turn to the people a tongue, and to His offspring, that they may

call upon the name of the Lord, and serve Him under one yoke. From

the borders of the rivers of Ethiopia shall they bring sacrifices

unto me. In that day thou shalt not be confounded for all thy curious

inventions, which thou hast done impiously against me: for then I

will take away from thee the naughtiness of thy trespass; and thou

shalt no more magnify thyself above thy holy mountain. And I will

leave in thee a meek and humble people, and they who shall be left of

Israel shall fear the name of the Lord."[557] These are the remnant

of whom the apostle quotes that which is elsewhere prophesied:

"Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the

sea, a remnant shall be saved."[558] These are the remnant of that

nation who have believed in Christ.

34. _Of the prophecy of Daniel and Ezekiel, other two of the

greater prophets._

Daniel and Ezekiel, other two of the greater prophets, also first

prophesied in the very captivity of Babylon. Daniel even defined the

time when Christ was to come and suffer by the exact date. It would

take too long to show this by computation, and it has been done often

by others before us. But of His power and glory he has thus spoken:

"I saw in a night vision, and, behold, one like the Son of man was

coming with the clouds of heaven, and He came even to the Ancient

of days, and He was brought into His presence. And to Him there was

given dominion, and honour, and a kingdom: and all people, tribes,

and tongues shall serve Him. His power is an everlasting power, which

shall not pass away, and His kingdom shall not be destroyed."[559]

Ezekiel also, speaking prophetically in the person of God the Father,

thus foretells Christ, speaking of Him in the prophetic manner as

David because He assumed flesh of the seed of David, and on account

of that form of a servant in which He was made man, He who is the Son

of God is also called the servant of God. He says, "And I will set

up over my sheep one Shepherd, who will feed them, even my servant

David; and He shall feed them, and He shall be their shepherd. And

I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince in the

midst of them. I the Lord have spoken."[560] And in another place

he says, "And one King shall be over them all: and they shall no

more be two nations, neither shall they be divided any more into two

kingdoms: neither shall they defile themselves any more with their

idols, and their abominations, and all their iniquities. And I will

save them out of all their dwelling-places wherein they have sinned,

and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be

their God. And my servant David shall be king over them, and there

shall be one Shepherd for them all."[561]

35. _Of the prophecy of the three prophets, Haggai, Zechariah,

and Malachi._

There remain three minor prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi,

who prophesied at the close of the captivity. Of these Haggai more

openly prophesies of Christ and the Church thus briefly: "Thus

saith the Lord of hosts, Yet one little while, and I will shake the

heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will

move all nations, and the desired of all nations shall come."[562]

The fulfilment of this prophecy is in part already seen, and in part

hoped for in the end. For He moved the heaven by the testimony of

the angels and the stars, when Christ became incarnate. He moved the

earth by the great miracle of His birth of the virgin. He moved the

sea and the dry land, when Christ was proclaimed both in the isles

and in the whole world. So we see all nations moved to the faith; and

the fulfilment of what follows, "And the desired of all nations shall

come," is looked for at His last coming. For ere men can desire and

wait for Him, they must believe and love Him.

Zechariah says of Christ and the Church, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter

of Sion; shout joyfully, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King

shall come unto thee, just and the Saviour; Himself poor, and

mounting an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass: and His dominion

shall be from sea to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the

earth."[563] How this was done, when the Lord Christ on His journey

used a beast of burden of this kind, we read in the Gospel, where,

also, as much of this prophecy is quoted as appears sufficient for

the context. In another place, speaking in the Spirit of prophecy

to Christ Himself of the remission of sins through His blood, he

says, "Thou also, by the blood of Thy testament, hast sent forth Thy

prisoners from the lake wherein is no water."[564] Different opinions

may be held, consistently with right belief, as to what he meant by

this lake. Yet it seems to me that no meaning suits better than that

of the depth of human misery, which is, as it were, dry and barren,

where there are no streams of righteousness, but only the mire of

iniquity. For it is said of it in the Psalms, "And He led me forth

out of the lake of misery, and from the miry clay."[565]

Malachi, foretelling the Church which we now behold propagated through

Christ, says most openly to the Jews, in the person of God, "I have no

pleasure in you, and I will not accept a gift at your hand. For from

the rising even to the going down of the sun, my name is great among

the nations; and in every place sacrifice shall be made, and a pure

oblation shall be offered unto my name: for my name shall be great

among the nations, saith the Lord."[566] Since we can already see

this sacrifice offered to God in every place, from the rising of the

sun to his going down, through Christ's priesthood after the order of

Melchisedec, while the Jews, to whom it was said, "I have no pleasure

in you, neither will I accept a gift at your hand," cannot deny that

their sacrifice has ceased, why do they still look for another Christ,

when they read this in the prophecy, and see it fulfilled, which could

not be fulfilled except through Him? And a little after he says of Him,

in the person of God, "My covenant was with Him of life and peace; and

I gave to Him that He might fear me with fear, and be afraid before

my name. The law of truth was in His mouth: directing in peace He

hath walked with me, and hath turned many away from iniquity. For the

Priest's lips shall keep knowledge, and they shall seek the law at His

mouth: for He is the Angel of the Lord Almighty."[567] Nor is it to

be wondered at that Christ Jesus is called the Angel of the Almighty

God. For just as He is called a servant on account of the form of a

servant in which He came to men, so He is called an angel on account

of the _evangel_ which He proclaimed to men. For if we interpret these

Greek words, _evangel_ is "good news," and _angel_ is "messenger."

Again he says of Him, "Behold I will send mine angel, and He will look

out the way before my face: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly

come into His temple, even the Angel of the testament, whom ye desire.

Behold, He cometh, saith the Lord Almighty, and who shall abide the day

of His entry, or who shall stand at His appearing?"[568] In this place

he has foretold both the first and second advent of Christ: the first,

to wit, of which he says, "And He shall come suddenly into His temple;"

that is, into His flesh, of which He said in the Gospel, "Destroy this

temple, and in three days I will raise it up again."[569] And of the

second advent he says, "Behold, He cometh, saith the Lord Almighty,

and who shall abide the day of His entry, or who shall stand at His

appearing?" But what he says, "The Lord whom ye seek, and the Angel of

the testament whom ye desire," just means that even the Jews, according

to the Scriptures which they read, shall seek and desire Christ. But

many of them did not acknowledge that He whom they sought and desired

had come, being blinded in their hearts, which were preoccupied with

their own merits. Now what he here calls the testament, either above,

where he says, "My testament had been with Him," or here, where he has

called Him the Angel of the testament, we ought, beyond a doubt, to

take to be the new testament, in which the things promised are eternal,

and not the old, in which they are only temporal. Yet many who are weak

are troubled when they see the wicked abound in such temporal things,

because they value them greatly, and serve the true God to be rewarded

with them. On this account, to distinguish the eternal blessedness of

the new testament, which shall be given only to the good, from the

earthly felicity of the old, which for the most part is given to the

bad as well, the same prophet says, "Ye have made your words burdensome

to me: yet ye have said, In what have we spoken ill of Thee? Ye have

said, Foolish is every one who serves God; and what profit is it that

we have kept His observances, and that we have walked as suppliants

before the face of the Lord Almighty? And now we call the aliens

blessed; yea, all that do wicked things are built up again; yea, they

are opposed to God and are saved. They that feared the Lord uttered

these reproaches every one to his neighbour: and the Lord hearkened and

heard; and He wrote a book of remembrance before Him, for them that

fear the Lord and that revere His name."[570] By that book is meant the

New Testament. Finally, let us hear what follows: "And they shall be an

acquisition for me, saith the Lord Almighty, in the day which I make;

and I will choose them as a man chooseth his son that serveth him. And

ye shall return, and shall discern between the just and the unjust, and

between him that serveth God and him that serveth Him not. For, behold,

the day cometh burning as an oven, and it shall burn them up; and all

the aliens and all that do wickedly shall be stubble: and the day that

shall come will set them on fire, saith the Lord Almighty, and shall

leave neither root nor branch. And unto you that fear my name shall the

Sun of Righteousness arise, and health shall be in His wings; and ye

shall go forth, and exult as calves let loose from bonds. And ye shall

tread down the wicked, and they shall be ashes under your feet, in the

day in which I shall do [this], saith the Lord Almighty."[571] This

day is the day of judgment, of which, if God will, we shall speak more

fully in its own place.

36. _About Esdras and the books of the Maccabees._

After these three prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, during

the same period of the liberation of the people from the Babylonian

servitude Esdras also wrote, who is historical rather than prophetical,

as is also the book called Esther, which is found to relate, for the

praise of God, events not far from those times; unless, perhaps,

Esdras is to be understood as prophesying of Christ in that passage

where, on a question having arisen among certain young men as to what

is the strongest thing, when one had said kings, another wine, the

third women, who for the most part rule kings, yet that same third

youth demonstrated that the truth is victorious over all.[572] For by

consulting the Gospel we learn that Christ is the Truth. From this

time, when the temple was rebuilt, down to the time of Aristobulus, the

Jews had not kings but princes; and the reckoning of their dates is

found, not in the Holy Scriptures which are called canonical, but in

others, among which are also the books of the Maccabees. These are held

as canonical, not by the Jews, but by the Church, on account of the

extreme and wonderful sufferings of certain martyrs, who, before Christ

had come in the flesh, contended for the law of God even unto death,

and endured most grievous and horrible evils.

37. _That prophetic records are found which are more ancient

than any fountain of the Gentile philosophy._

In the time of our prophets, then, whose writings had already come to

the knowledge of almost all nations, the philosophers of the nations

had not yet arisen,--at least, not those who were called by that

name, which originated with Pythagoras the Samian, who was becoming

famous at the time when the Jewish captivity ended. Much more, then,

are the other philosophers found to be later than the prophets. For

even Socrates the Athenian, the master of all who were then most

famous, holding the pre-eminence in that department that is called

the moral or active, is found after Esdras in the chronicles. Plato

also was born not much later, who far outwent the other disciples

of Socrates. If, besides these, we take their predecessors, who had

not yet been styled philosophers, to wit, the seven sages, and then

the physicists, who succeeded Thales, and imitated his studious

search into the nature of things, namely, Anaximander, Anaximenes,

and Anaxagoras, and some others, before Pythagoras first professed

himself a philosopher, even these did not precede the whole of

our prophets in antiquity of time, since Thales, whom the others

succeeded, is said to have flourished in the reign of Romulus, when

the stream of prophecy burst forth from the fountains of Israel in

those writings which spread over the whole world. So that only those

theological poets, Orpheus, Linus, and Musæus, and, it may be, some

others among the Greeks, are found earlier in date than the Hebrew

prophets whose writings we hold as authoritative. But not even

these preceded in time our true divine, Moses, who authentically

preached the one true God, and whose writings are first in the

authoritative canon; and therefore the Greeks, in whose tongue the

literature of this age chiefly appears, have no ground for boasting

of their wisdom, in which our religion, wherein is true wisdom, is

not evidently more ancient at least, if not superior. Yet it must be

confessed that before Moses there had already been, not indeed among

the Greeks, but among barbarous nations, as in Egypt, some doctrine

which might be called their wisdom, else it would not have been

written in the holy books that Moses was learned in all the wisdom of

the Egyptians,[573] as he was, when, being born there, and adopted

and nursed by Pharaoh's daughter, he was also liberally educated.

Yet not even the wisdom of the Egyptians could be antecedent in time

to the wisdom of our prophets, because even Abraham was a prophet.

And what wisdom could there be in Egypt before Isis had given them

letters, whom they thought fit to worship as a goddess after her

death? Now Isis is declared to have been the daughter of Inachus, who

first began to reign in Argos when the grandsons of Abraham are known

to have been already born.

38. _That the ecclesiastical canon has not admitted certain

writings on account of their too great antiquity, lest through

them false things should be inserted instead of true._

If I may recall far more ancient times, our patriarch Noah was

certainly even before that great deluge, and I might not undeservedly

call him a prophet, forasmuch as the ark he made, in which he escaped

with his family, was itself a prophecy of our times.[574] What of

Enoch, the seventh from Adam? Does not the canonical epistle of the

Apostle Jude declare that he prophesied?[575] But the writings of

these men could not be held as authoritative either among the Jews

or us, on account of their too great antiquity, which made it seem

needful to regard them with suspicion, lest false things should be

set forth instead of true. For some writings which are said to be

theirs are quoted by those who, according to their own humour,

loosely believe what they please. But the purity of the canon has

not admitted these writings, not because the authority of these men

who pleased God is rejected, but because they are not believed to

be theirs. Nor ought it to appear strange if writings for which so

great antiquity is claimed are held in suspicion, seeing that in the

very history of the kings of Judah and Israel containing their acts,

which we believe to belong to the canonical Scripture, very many

things are mentioned which are not explained there, but are said to

be found in other books which the prophets wrote, the very names of

these prophets being sometimes given, and yet they are not found in

the canon which the people of God received. Now I confess the reason

of this is hidden from me; only I think that even those men, to whom

certainly the Holy Spirit revealed those things which ought to be

held as of religious authority, might write some things as men by

historical diligence, and others as prophets by divine inspiration;

and these things were so distinct, that it was judged that the former

should be ascribed to themselves, but the latter to God speaking

through them: and so the one pertained to the abundance of knowledge,

the other to the authority of religion. In that authority the canon

is guarded. So that, if any writings outside of it are now brought

forward under the name of the ancient prophets, they cannot serve

even as an aid to knowledge, because it is uncertain whether they are

genuine; and on this account they are not trusted, especially those

of them in which some things are found that are even contrary to the

truth of the canonical books, so that it is quite apparent they do

not belong to them.

39. _About the Hebrew written characters which that language

always possessed._

Now we must not believe that Heber, from whose name the word Hebrew

is derived, preserved and transmitted the Hebrew language to Abraham

only as a spoken language, and that the Hebrew letters began with

the giving of the law through Moses; but rather that this language,

along with its letters, was preserved by that succession of fathers.

Moses, indeed, appointed some among the people of God to teach

letters, before they could know any letters of the divine law. The

Scripture calls these men γραμματεισαγωγεῖς, who may be called in

Latin _inductores_ or _introductores_ of letters, because they, as

it were, introduce them into the hearts of the learners, or rather

lead those whom they teach into them. Therefore no nation could vaunt

itself over our patriarchs and prophets by any wicked vanity for the

antiquity of its wisdom; since not even Egypt, which is wont falsely

and vainly to glory in the antiquity of her doctrines, is found to

have preceded in time the wisdom of our patriarchs in her own wisdom,

such as it is. Neither will any one dare to say that they were most

skilful in wonderful sciences before they knew letters, that is,

before Isis came and taught them there. Besides, what, for the most

part, was that memorable doctrine of theirs which was called wisdom

but astronomy, and it may be some other sciences of that kind, which

usually have more power to exercise men's wit than to enlighten their

minds with true wisdom? As regards philosophy, which professes to

teach men something which shall make them happy, studies of that kind

flourished in those lands about the times of Mercury whom they called

Trismegistus, long before the sages and philosophers of Greece, but

yet after Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and even after Moses

himself. At that time, indeed, when Moses was born, Atlas is found

to have lived, that great astronomer, the brother of Prometheus,

and maternal grandson of the elder Mercury, of whom that Mercury

Trismegistus was the grandson.

40. _About the most mendacious vanity of the Egyptians, in which

they ascribe to their science an antiquity of a hundred

thousand years._

In vain, then, do some babble with most empty presumption, saying

that Egypt has understood the reckoning of the stars for more than a

hundred thousand years. For in what books have they collected that

number who learned letters from Isis their mistress, not much more

than two thousand years ago? Varro, who has declared this, is no

small authority in history, and it does not disagree with the truth

of the divine books. For as it is not yet six thousand years since

the first man, who is called Adam, are not those to be ridiculed

rather than refuted who try to persuade us of anything regarding a

space of time so different from, and contrary to, the ascertained

truth? For what historian of the past should we credit more than him

who has also predicted things to come which we now see fulfilled? And

the very disagreement of the historians among themselves furnishes

a good reason why we ought rather to believe him who does not

contradict the divine history which we hold. But, on the other hand,

the citizens of the impious city, scattered everywhere through the

earth, when they read the most learned writers, none of whom seems

to be of contemptible authority, and find them disagreeing among

themselves about affairs most remote from the memory of our age,

cannot find out whom they ought to trust. But we, being sustained

by divine authority in the history of our religion, have no doubt

that whatever is opposed to it is most false, whatever may be the

case regarding other things in secular books, which, whether true or

false, yield nothing of moment to our living rightly and happily.

41. _About the discord of philosophic opinion, and the concord of

the Scriptures that are held as canonical by the Church._

But let us omit further examination of history, and return to the

philosophers from whom we digressed to these things. They seem to

have laboured in their studies for no other end than to find out

how to live in a way proper for laying hold of blessedness. Why,

then, have the disciples dissented from their masters, and the

fellow-disciples from one another, except because as men they have

sought after these things by human sense and human reasonings? Now,

although there might be among them a desire of glory, so that each

wished to be thought wiser and more acute than another, and in no

way addicted to the judgment of others, but the inventor of his own

dogma and opinion, yet I may grant that there were some, or even very

many of them, whose love of truth severed them from their teachers or

fellow-disciples, that they might strive for what they thought was

the truth, whether it was so or not. But what can human misery do,

or how or where can it reach forth, so as to attain blessedness, if

divine authority does not lead it? Finally, let our authors, among

whom the canon of the sacred books is fixed and bounded, be far from

disagreeing in any respect. It is not without good reason, then,

that not merely a few people prating in the schools and gymnasia in

captious disputations, but so many and great people, both learned

and unlearned, in countries and cities, have believed that God spoke

to them or by them, _i.e._ the canonical writers, when they wrote

these books. There ought, indeed, to be but few of them, lest on

account of their multitude what ought to be religiously esteemed

should grow cheap; and yet not so few that their agreement should not

be wonderful. For among the multitude of philosophers, who in their

works have left behind them the monuments of their dogmas, no one

will easily find any who agree in all their opinions. But to show

this is too long a task for this work.

But what author of any sect is so approved in this demon-worshipping

city, that the rest who have differed from or opposed him in opinion

have been disapproved? The Epicureans asserted that human affairs

were not under the providence of the gods; and the Stoics, holding

the opposite opinion, agreed that they were ruled and defended by

favourable and tutelary gods. Yet were not both sects famous among

the Athenians? I wonder, then, why Anaxagoras was accused of a crime

for saying that the sun was a burning stone, and denying that it was

a god at all; while in the same city Epicurus flourished gloriously

and lived securely, although he not only did not believe that the

sun or any star was a god, but contended that neither Jupiter nor

any of the gods dwelt in the world at all, so that the prayers and

supplications of men might reach them! Were not both Aristippus

and Antisthenes there, two noble philosophers and both Socratic?

yet they placed the chief end of life within bounds so diverse and

contradictory, that the first made the delight of the body the chief

good, while the other asserted that man was made happy mainly by

the virtue of the mind. The one also said that the wise man should

flee from the republic; the other, that he should administer its

affairs. Yet did not each gather disciples to follow his own sect?

Indeed, in the conspicuous and well-known porch, in gymnasia, in

gardens, in places public and private, they openly strove in bands

each for his own opinion, some asserting there was one world, others

innumerable worlds; some that this world had a beginning, others

that it had not; some that it would perish, others that it would

exist always; some that it was governed by the divine mind, others by

chance and accident; some that souls are immortal, others that they

are mortal,--and of those who asserted their immortality, some said

they transmigrated through beasts, others that it was by no means so,

while of those who asserted their mortality, some said they perished

immediately after the body, others that they survived either a little

while or a longer time, but not always; some fixing supreme good in

the body, some in the mind, some in both; others adding to the mind

and body external good things; some thinking that the bodily senses

ought to be trusted always, some not always, others never. Now what

people, senate, power, or public dignity of the impious city has ever

taken care to judge between all these and other well-nigh innumerable

dissensions of the philosophers, approving and accepting some, and

disapproving and rejecting others? Has it not held in its bosom at

random, without any judgment, and confusedly, so many controversies

of men at variance, not about fields, houses, or anything of a

pecuniary nature, but about those things which make life either

miserable or happy? Even if some true things were said in it, yet

falsehoods were uttered with the same licence; so that such a city

has not amiss received the title of the mystic Babylon. For Babylon

means confusion, as we remember we have already explained. Nor does

it matter to the devil, its king, how they wrangle among themselves

in contradictory errors, since all alike deservedly belong to him on

account of their great and varied impiety.

But that nation, that people, that city, that republic, these

Israelites, to whom the oracles of God were entrusted, by no means

confounded with similar licence false prophets with the true prophets;

but, agreeing together, and differing in nothing, acknowledged and

upheld the authentic authors of their sacred books. These were their

philosophers, these were their sages, divines, prophets, and teachers

of probity and piety. Whoever was wise and lived according to them was

wise and lived not according to men, but according to God who hath

spoken by them. If sacrilege is forbidden there, God hath forbidden

it. If it is said, "Honour thy father and thy mother,"[576] God

hath commanded it. If it is said, "Thou shalt not commit adultery,

Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal,"[577] and other similar

commandments, not human lips but the divine oracles have enounced

them. Whatever truth certain philosophers, amid their false opinions,

were able to see, and strove by laborious discussions to persuade men

of,--such as that God has made this world, and Himself most providently

governs it, or of the nobility of the virtues, of the love of country,

of fidelity in friendship, of good works and everything pertaining to

virtuous manners, although they knew not to what end and what rule all

these things were to be referred,--all these, by words prophetic, that

is, divine, although spoken by men, were commended to the people in

that city, and not inculcated by contention in arguments, so that he

who should know them might be afraid of contemning, not the wit of men,

but the oracle of God.

42. _By what dispensation of God's providence the sacred Scriptures

of the Old Testament were translated out of Hebrew into Greek,

that they might be made known to all the nations._

One of the Ptolemies, kings of Egypt, desired to know and have these

sacred books. For after Alexander of Macedon, who is also styled the

Great, had by his most wonderful, but by no means enduring power,

subdued the whole of Asia, yea, almost the whole world, partly by

force of arms, partly by terror, and, among other kingdoms of the

East, had entered and obtained Judea also, on his death his generals

did not peaceably divide that most ample kingdom among them for a

possession, but rather dissipated it, wasting all things by wars.

Then Egypt began to have the Ptolemies as her kings. The first of

them, the son of Lagus, carried many captive out of Judea into

Egypt. But another Ptolemy, called Philadelphus, who succeeded him,

permitted all whom he had brought under the yoke to return free; and,

more than that, sent kingly gifts to the temple of God, and begged

Eleazar, who was the high priest, to give him the Scriptures, which

he had heard by report were truly divine, and therefore greatly

desired to have in that most noble library he had made. When the

high priest had sent them to him in Hebrew, he afterwards demanded

interpreters of him, and there were given him seventy-two, out of

each of the twelve tribes six men, most learned in both languages,

to wit, the Hebrew and Greek; and their translation is now by custom

called the Septuagint. It is reported, indeed, that there was an

agreement in their words so wonderful, stupendous, and plainly

divine, that when they had sat at this work, each one apart (for so

it pleased Ptolemy to test their fidelity), they differed from each

other in no word which had the same meaning and force, or in the

order of the words; but, as if the translators had been one, so what

all had translated was one, because in very deed the one Spirit had

been in them all. And they received so wonderful a gift of God, in

order that the authority of these Scriptures might be commended not

as human but divine, as indeed it was, for the benefit of the nations

who should at some time believe, as we now see them doing.

43. _Of the authority of the Septuagint translation, which, saving

the honour of the Hebrew original, is to be preferred to all

translations._

For while there were other interpreters who translated these sacred

oracles out of the Hebrew tongue into Greek, as Aquila, Symmachus, and

Theodotion, and also that translation which, as the name of the author

is unknown, is quoted as the fifth edition, yet the Church has received

this Septuagint translation just as if it were the only one; and it has

been used by the Greek Christian people, most of whom are not aware

that there is any other. From this translation there has also been made

a translation in the Latin tongue, which the Latin churches use. Our

times, however, have enjoyed the advantage of the presbyter Jerome, a

man most learned, and skilled in all three languages, who translated

these same Scriptures into the Latin speech, not from the Greek, but

from the Hebrew. But although the Jews acknowledge this very learned

labour of his to be faithful, while they contend that the Septuagint

translators have erred in many places, still the churches of Christ

judge that no one should be preferred to the authority of so many men,

chosen for this very great work by Eleazar, who was then high priest;

for even if there had not appeared in them one spirit, without doubt

divine, and the seventy learned men had, after the manner of men,

compared together the words of their translation, that what pleased

them all might stand, no single translator ought to be preferred to

them; but since so great a sign of divinity has appeared in them,

certainly, if any other translator of their Scriptures from the Hebrew

into any other tongue is faithful, in that case he agrees with these

seventy translators, and if he is not found to agree with them, then

we ought to believe that the prophetic gift is with them. For the same

Spirit who was in the prophets when they spoke these things was also in

the seventy men when they translated them, so that assuredly they could

also say something else, just as if the prophet himself had said both,

because it would be the same Spirit who said both; and could say the

same thing differently, so that, although the words were not the same,

yet the same meaning should shine forth to those of good understanding;

and could omit or add something, so that even by this it might be shown

that there was in that work not human bondage, which the translator

owed to the words, but rather divine power, which filled and ruled the

mind of the translator. Some, however, have thought that the Greek

copies of the Septuagint version should be emended from the Hebrew

copies; yet they did not dare to take away what the Hebrew lacked and

the Septuagint had, but only added what was found in the Hebrew copies

and was lacking in the Septuagint, and noted them by placing at the

beginning of the verses certain marks in the form of stars which they

call asterisks. And those things which the Hebrew copies have not, but

the Septuagint have, they have in like manner marked at the beginning

of the verses by horizontal spit-shaped marks like those by which

we denote ounces; and many copies having these marks are circulated

even in Latin.[578] But we cannot, without inspecting both kinds of

copies, find out those things which are neither omitted nor added, but

expressed differently, whether they yield another meaning not in itself

unsuitable, or can be shown to explain the same meaning in another way.

If, then, as it behoves us, we behold nothing else in these Scriptures

than what the Spirit of God has spoken through men, if anything is

in the Hebrew copies and is not in the version of the Seventy, the

Spirit of God did not choose to say it through them, but only through

the prophets. But whatever is in the Septuagint and not in the Hebrew

copies, the same Spirit chose rather to say through the latter, thus

showing that both were prophets. For in that manner He spoke as He

chose, some things through Isaiah, some through Jeremiah, some through

several prophets, or else the same thing through this prophet and

through that. Further, whatever is found in both editions, that one and

the same Spirit willed to say through both, but so as that the former

preceded in prophesying, and the latter followed in prophetically

interpreting them; because, as the one Spirit of peace was in the

former when they spoke true and concordant words, so the selfsame one

Spirit hath appeared in the latter, when, without mutual conference,

they yet interpreted all things as if with one mouth.

44. _How the threat of the destruction of the Ninevites is to be

understood, which in the Hebrew extends to forty days, while in

the Septuagint it is contracted to three._

But some one may say, "How shall I know whether the prophet Jonah

said to the Ninevites, 'Yet _three_ days and Nineveh shall be

overthrown,' or _forty_ days?"[579] For who does not see that the

prophet could not say both, when he was sent to terrify the city

by the threat of imminent ruin? For if its destruction was to take

place on the third day, it certainly could not be on the fortieth;

but if on the fortieth, then certainly not on the third. If, then, I

am asked which of these Jonah may have said, I rather think what is

read in the Hebrew, "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown."

Yet the Seventy, interpreting long afterward, could say what was

different and yet pertinent to the matter, and agree in the selfsame

meaning, although under a different signification. And this may

admonish the reader not to despise the authority of either, but to

raise himself above the history, and search for those things which

the history itself was written to set forth. These things, indeed,

took place in the city of Nineveh, but they also signified something

else too great to apply to that city; just as, when it happened

that the prophet himself was three days in the whale's belly, it

signified besides, that He who is Lord of all the prophets should be

three days in the depths of hell. Wherefore, if that city is rightly

held as prophetically representing the Church of the Gentiles, to

wit, as brought down by penitence, so as no longer to be what it had

been, since this was done by Christ in the Church of the Gentiles,

which Nineveh represented, Christ Himself was signified both by the

forty and by the three days: by the forty, because He spent that

number of days with His disciples after the resurrection, and then

ascended into heaven, but by the three days, because He rose on the

third day. So that, if the reader desires nothing else than to adhere

to the history of events, he may be aroused from his sleep by the

Septuagint interpreters, as well as the prophets, to search into the

depth of the prophecy, as if they had said, In the forty days seek

Him in whom thou mayest also find the three days,--the one thou wilt

find in His ascension, the other in His resurrection. Because that

which could be most suitably signified by both numbers, of which

one is used by Jonah the prophet, the other by the prophecy of the

Septuagint version, the one and selfsame Spirit hath spoken. I dread

prolixity, so that I must not demonstrate this by many instances in

which the seventy interpreters may be thought to differ from the

Hebrew, and yet, when well understood, are found to agree. For which

reason I also, according to my capacity, following the footsteps of

the apostles, who themselves have quoted prophetic testimonies from

both, that is, from the Hebrew and the Septuagint, have thought that

both should be used as authoritative, since both are one, and divine.

But let us now follow out as we can what remains.

45. _That the Jews ceased to have prophets after the rebuilding of

the temple, and from that time until the birth of Christ were

afflicted with continual adversity, to prove that the building

of another temple had been promised by prophetic voices._

The Jewish nation no doubt became worse after it ceased to have

prophets, just at the very time when, on the rebuilding of the temple

after the captivity in Babylon, it hoped to become better. For so,

indeed, did that carnal people understand what was foretold by

Haggai the prophet, saying, "The glory of this latter house shall be

greater than that of the former."[580] Now, that this is said of the

new testament, he showed a little above, where he says, evidently

promising Christ, "And I will move all nations, and the desired One

shall come to all nations."[581] In this passage the Septuagint

translators, giving another sense more suitable to the body than the

Head, that is, to the Church than to Christ, have said by prophetic

authority, "The things shall come that are chosen of the Lord from

all nations," that is, _men_, of whom Jesus saith in the Gospel,

"Many are called, but few are chosen."[582] For by such chosen ones

of the nations there is built, through the new testament, with living

stones, a house of God far more glorious than that temple was which

was constructed by king Solomon, and rebuilt after the captivity.

For this reason, then, that nation had no prophets from that time,

but was afflicted with many plagues by kings of alien race, and by

the Romans themselves, lest they should fancy that this prophecy of

Haggai was fulfilled by that rebuilding of the temple.

For not long after, on the arrival of Alexander, it was subdued,

when, although there was no pillaging, because they dared not resist

him, and thus, being very easily subdued, received him peaceably,

yet the glory of that house was not so great as it was when under

the free power of their own kings. Alexander, indeed, offered up

sacrifices in the temple of God, not as a convert to His worship

in true piety, but thinking, with impious folly, that He was to be

worshipped along with false gods. Then Ptolemy son of Lagus, whom I

have already mentioned, after Alexander's death carried them captive

into Egypt. His successor, Ptolemy Philadelphus, most benevolently

dismissed them; and by him it was brought about, as I have narrated

a little before, that we should have the Septuagint version of the

Scriptures. Then they were crushed by the wars which are explained

in the books of the Maccabees. Afterward they were taken captive by

Ptolemy king of Alexandria, who was called Epiphanes. Then Antiochus

king of Syria compelled them by many and most grievous evils to

worship idols, and filled the temple itself with the sacrilegious

superstitions of the Gentiles. Yet their most vigorous leader

Judas, who is also called Maccabæus, after beating the generals of

Antiochus, cleansed it from all that defilement of idolatry.

But not long after, one Alcimus, although an alien from the

sacerdotal tribe, was, through ambition, made pontiff, which was an

impious thing. After almost fifty years, during which they never

had peace, although they prospered in some affairs, Aristobulus

first assumed the diadem among them, and was made both king and

pontiff. Before that, indeed, from the time of their return from the

Babylonish captivity and the rebuilding of the temple, they had not

kings, but generals or _principes_. Although a king himself may be

called a prince, from his principality in governing, and a leader,

because he leads the army, but it does not follow that all who are

princes and leaders may also be called kings, as that Aristobulus

was. He was succeeded by Alexander, also both king and pontiff, who

is reported to have reigned over them cruelly. After him his wife

Alexandra was queen of the Jews, and from her time downwards more

grievous evils pursued them; for this Alexandra's sons, Aristobulus

and Hyrcanus, when contending with each other for the kingdom, called

in the Roman forces against the nation of Israel. For Hyrcanus asked

assistance from them against his brother. At that time Rome had

already subdued Africa and Greece, and ruled extensively in other

parts of the world also, and yet, as if unable to bear her own

weight, had, in a manner, broken herself by her own size. For indeed

she had come to grave domestic seditions, and from that to social

wars, and by and by to civil wars, and had enfeebled and worn herself

out so much, that the changed state of the republic, in which she

should be governed by kings, was now imminent. Pompey then, a most

illustrious prince of the Roman people, having entered Judea with an

army, took the city, threw open the temple, not with the devotion of

a suppliant, but with the authority of a conqueror, and went, not

reverently, but profanely, into the holy of holies, where it was

lawful for none but the pontiff to enter. Having established Hyrcanus

in the pontificate, and set Antipater over the subjugated nation as

guardian or procurator, as they were then called, he led Aristobulus

with him bound. From that time the Jews also began to be Roman

tributaries. Afterward Cassius plundered the very temple. Then after

a few years it was their desert to have Herod, a king of foreign

birth, in whose reign Christ was born. For the time had now come

signified by the prophetic Spirit through the mouth of the patriarch

Jacob, when he says, "There shall not be lacking a prince out of

Judah, nor a teacher from his loins, until He shall come for whom it

is reserved; and He is the expectation of the nations."[583] There

lacked not therefore a Jewish prince of the Jews until that Herod,

who was the first king of a foreign race received by them. Therefore

it was now the time when He should come for whom that was reserved

which is promised in the New Testament, that He should be the

expectation of the nations. But it was not possible that the nations

should expect He would come, as we see they did, to do judgment in

the splendour of power, unless they should first believe in Him when

He came to suffer judgment in the humility of patience.

46. _Of the birth of our Saviour, whereby the Word was made flesh;

and of the dispersion of the Jews among all nations, as had

been prophesied._

While Herod, therefore, reigned in Judea, and Cæsar Augustus was

emperor at Rome, the state of the republic being already changed, and

the world being set at peace by him, Christ was born in Bethlehem

of Judah, man manifest out of a human virgin, God hidden out of God

the Father. For so had the prophet foretold: "Behold, a virgin shall

conceive in the womb, and bring forth a Son, and they shall call

His name Immanuel, which, being interpreted, is, God with us."[584]

He did many miracles that He might commend God in Himself, some

of which, even as many as seemed sufficient to proclaim Him, are

contained in the evangelic Scripture. The first of these is, that

He was so wonderfully born, and the last, that with His body raised

up again from the dead He ascended into heaven. But the Jews who

slew Him, and would not believe in Him, because it behoved Him to

die and rise again, were yet more miserably wasted by the Romans,

and utterly rooted out from their kingdom, where aliens had already

ruled over them, and were dispersed through the lands (so that indeed

there is no place where they are not), and are thus by their own

Scriptures a testimony to us that we have not forged the prophecies

about Christ. And very many of them, considering this, even before

His passion, but chiefly after His resurrection, believed on Him, of

whom it was predicted, "Though the number of the children of Israel

be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved."[585] But

the rest are blinded, of whom it was predicted, "Let their table be

made before them a trap, and a retribution, and a stumbling-block.

Let their eyes be darkened lest they see, and bow down their back

alway."[586] Therefore, when they do not believe our Scriptures,

their own, which they blindly read, are fulfilled in them, lest

perchance any one should say that the Christians have forged these

prophecies about Christ which are quoted under the name of the sibyl,

or of others, if such there be, who do not belong to the Jewish

people. For us, indeed, those suffice which are quoted from the books

of our enemies, to whom we make our acknowledgment, on account of

this testimony which, in spite of themselves, they contribute by

their possession of these books, while they themselves are dispersed

among all nations, wherever the Church of Christ is spread abroad.

For a prophecy about this thing was sent before in the Psalms, which

they also read, where it is written, "My God, His mercy shall prevent

me. My God hath shown me concerning mine enemies, that Thou shalt not

slay them, lest they should at last forget Thy law: disperse them in

Thy might."[587] Therefore God has shown the Church in her enemies

the Jews the grace of His compassion, since, as saith the apostle,

"their offence is the salvation of the Gentiles."[588] And therefore

He has not slain them, that is, He has not let the knowledge that

they are Jews be lost in them, although they have been conquered

by the Romans, lest they should forget the law of God, and their

testimony should be of no avail in this matter of which we treat.

But it was not enough that he should say, "Slay them not, lest they

should at last forget Thy law," unless he had also added, "Disperse

them;" because if they had only been in their own land with that

testimony of the Scriptures, and not everywhere, certainly the Church

which is everywhere could not have had them as witnesses among all

nations to the prophecies which were sent before concerning Christ.

47. _Whether before Christian times there were any outside of the

Israelite race who belonged to the fellowship of the heavenly

city._

Wherefore if we read of any foreigner--that is, one neither born

of Israel nor received by that people into the canon of the sacred

books--having prophesied something about Christ, if it has come or

shall come to our knowledge, we can refer to it over and above;

not that this is necessary, even if wanting, but because it is not

incongruous to believe that even in other nations there may have been

men to whom this mystery was revealed, and who were also impelled to

proclaim it, whether they were partakers of the same grace or had no

experience of it, but were taught by bad angels, who, as we know, even

confessed the present Christ, whom the Jews did not acknowledge. Nor

do I think the Jews themselves dare contend that no one has belonged

to God except the Israelites, since the increase of Israel began on

the rejection of his elder brother. For in very deed there was no

other people who were specially called the people of God; but they

cannot deny that there have been certain men even of other nations

who belonged, not by earthly but heavenly fellowship, to the true

Israelites, the citizens of the country that is above. Because, if they

deny this, they can be most easily confuted by the case of the holy and

wonderful man Job, who was neither a native nor a proselyte, that is, a

stranger joining the people of Israel, but, being bred of the Idumean

race, arose there and died there too, and who is so praised by the

divine oracle, that no man of his times is put on a level with him as

regards justice and piety. And although we do not find his date in the

chronicles, yet from his book, which for its merit the Israelites have

received as of canonical authority, we gather that he was in the third

generation after Israel. And I doubt not it was divinely provided, that

from this one case we might know that among other nations also there

might be men pertaining to the spiritual Jerusalem who have lived

according to God and have pleased Him. And it is not to be supposed

that this was granted to any one, unless the one Mediator between God

and men, the Man Christ Jesus,[589] was divinely revealed to him; who

was pre-announced to the saints of old as yet to come in the flesh,

even as He is announced to us as having come, that the selfsame faith

through Him may lead all to God who are predestinated to be the city of

God, the house of God, and the temple of God. But whatever prophecies

concerning the grace of God through Christ Jesus are quoted, they

may be thought to have been forged by the Christians. So that there

is nothing of more weight for confuting all sorts of aliens, if they

contend about this matter, and for supporting our friends, if they are

truly wise, than to quote those divine predictions about Christ which

are written in the books of the Jews, who have been torn from their

native abode and dispersed over the whole world in order to bear this

testimony, so that the Church of Christ has everywhere increased.

48. _That Haggai's prophecy, in which he said that the glory of

the house of God would be greater than that of the first had

been,_[590] _was really fulfilled, not in the rebuilding of the

temple, but in the Church of Christ._

This house of God is more glorious than that first one which was

constructed of wood and stone, metals, and other precious things.

Therefore the prophecy of Haggai was not fulfilled in the rebuilding

of that temple. For it can never be shown to have had so much glory

after it was rebuilt as it had in the time of Solomon; yea, rather,

the glory of that house is shown to have been diminished, first by the

ceasing of prophecy, and then by the nation itself suffering so great

calamities, even to the final destruction made by the Romans, as the

things above-mentioned prove. But this house which pertains to the new

testament is just as much more glorious as the living stones, even

believing, renewed men, of which it is constructed are better. But it

was typified by the rebuilding of that temple for this reason, because

the very renovation of that edifice typifies in the prophetic oracle

another testament which is called the new. When, therefore, God said

by the prophet just named, "And I will give peace in this place,"[591]

He is to be understood who is typified by that typical place; for since

by that rebuilt place is typified the Church which was to be built by

Christ, nothing else can be accepted as the meaning of the saying, "I

will give peace in this place," except I will give peace in the place

which that place signifies. For all typical things seem in some way to

personate those whom they typify, as it is said by the apostle, "That

Rock was Christ."[592] Therefore the glory of this new testament house

is greater than the glory of the old testament house; and it will show

itself as greater when it shall be dedicated. For then "shall come the

desired of all nations,"[593] as we read in the Hebrew. For before His

advent He had not yet been desired by all nations. For they knew not

Him whom they ought to desire, in whom they had not believed. Then,

also, according to the Septuagint interpretation (for it also is a

prophetic meaning), "shall come those who are elected of the Lord out

of all nations." For then indeed there shall come only those who are

elected, whereof the apostle saith, "According as He hath chosen us in

Him before the foundation of the world."[594] For the Master Builder

who said, "Many are called, but few are chosen,"[595] did not say this

of those who, on being called, came in such a way as to be cast out

from the feast, but would point out the house built up of the elect,

which henceforth shall dread no ruin. Yet because the churches are

also full of those who shall be separated by the winnowing as in the

threshing-floor, the glory of this house is not so apparent now as it

shall be when every one who is there shall be there always.

49. _Of the indiscriminate increase of the Church, wherein many

reprobate are in this world mixed with the elect._

In this wicked world, in these evil days, when the Church measures

her future loftiness by her present humility, and is exercised

by goading fears, tormenting sorrows, disquieting labours, and

dangerous temptations, when she soberly rejoices, rejoicing only in

hope, there are many reprobate mingled with the good, and both are

gathered together by the gospel as in a drag net;[596] and in this

world, as in a sea, both swim enclosed without distinction in the

net, until it is brought ashore, when the wicked must be separated

from the good, that in the good, as in His temple, God may be all

in all. We acknowledge, indeed, that His word is now fulfilled who

spake in the psalm, and said, "I have announced and spoken; they are

multiplied above number."[597] This takes place now, since He has

spoken, first by the mouth of his forerunner John, and afterward

by His own mouth, saying, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at

hand."[598] He chose disciples, whom He also called apostles,[599]

of lowly birth, unhonoured, and illiterate, so that whatever great

thing they might be or do, He might be and do it in them. He had one

among them whose wickedness He could use well in order to accomplish

His appointed passion, and furnish His Church an example of bearing

with the wicked. Having sown the holy gospel as much as that behoved

to be done by His bodily presence, He suffered, died, and rose again,

showing by His passion what we ought to suffer for the truth, and

by His resurrection what we ought to hope for in adversity; saving

always the mystery of the sacrament, by which His blood was shed for

the remission of sins. He held converse on the earth forty days with

His disciples, and in their sight ascended into heaven, and after

ten days sent the promised Holy Spirit. It was given as the chief

and most necessary sign of His coming on those who had believed,

that every one of them spoke in the tongues of all nations; thus

signifying that the unity of the catholic Church would embrace all

nations, and would in like manner speak in all tongues.

50. _Of the preaching of the gospel, which is made more famous

and powerful by the sufferings of its preachers._

Then was fulfilled that prophecy, "Out of Sion shall go forth the

law, and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem;"[600] and the

prediction of the Lord Christ Himself, when, after the resurrection,

"He opened the understanding" of His amazed disciples "that they

might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them that thus it

is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from

the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins

should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at

Jerusalem."[601] And again, when, in reply to their questioning about

the day of His last coming, He said, "It is not for you to know the

times or the seasons which the Father hath put in His own power; but

ye shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and ye

shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and

Samaria, and even unto the ends of the earth."[602] First of all, the

Church spread herself abroad from Jerusalem; and when very many in

Judea and Samaria had believed, she also went into other nations by

those who announced the gospel, whom, as lights, He Himself had both

prepared by His word and kindled by His Holy Spirit. For He had said

to them, "Fear ye not them which kill the body, but are not able to

kill the soul."[603] And that they might not be frozen with fear,

they burned with the fire of charity. Finally, the gospel of Christ

was preached in the whole world, not only by those who had seen

and heard Him both before His passion and after His resurrection,

but also after their death by their successors, amid the horrible

persecutions, diverse torments and deaths of the martyrs, God also

bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and divers

miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost,[604] that the people of the

nations, believing in Him who was crucified for their redemption,

might venerate with Christian love the blood of the martyrs which

they had poured forth with devilish fury, and the very kings by

whose laws the Church had been laid waste might become profitably

subject to that name they had cruelly striven to take away from the

earth, and might begin to persecute the false gods for whose sake the

worshippers of the true God had formerly been persecuted.

51. _That the catholic faith may be confirmed even by the

dissensions of the heretics._

But the devil, seeing the temples of the demons deserted, and the

human race running to the name of the liberating Mediator, has

moved the heretics under the Christian name to resist the Christian

doctrine, as if they could be kept in the city of God indifferently

without any correction, just as the city of confusion indifferently

held the philosophers who were of diverse and adverse opinions.

Those, therefore, in the Church of Christ who savour anything morbid

and depraved, and, on being corrected that they may savour what is

wholesome and right, contumaciously resist, and will not amend their

pestiferous and deadly dogmas, but persist in defending them, become

heretics, and, going without, are to be reckoned as enemies who serve

for her discipline. For even thus they profit by their wickedness

those true catholic members of Christ, since God makes a good use

even of the wicked, and all things work together for good to them

that love Him.[605] For all the enemies of the Church, whatever error

blinds or malice depraves them, exercise her patience if they receive

the power to afflict her corporally; and if they only oppose her by

wicked thought, they exercise her wisdom: but at the same time, if

these enemies are loved, they exercise her benevolence, or even her

beneficence, whether she deals with them by persuasive doctrine or by

terrible discipline. And thus the devil, the prince of the impious

city, when he stirs up his own vessels against the city of God that

sojourns in this world, is permitted to do her no harm. For without

doubt the divine providence procures for her both consolation through

prosperity, that she may not be broken by adversity, and trial

through adversity, that she may not be corrupted by prosperity; and

thus each is tempered by the other, as we recognise in the Psalms

that voice which arises from no other cause, "According to the

multitude of my griefs in my heart, Thy consolations have delighted

my soul."[606] Hence also is that saying of the apostle, "Rejoicing

in hope, patient in tribulation."[607]

For it is not to be thought that what the same teacher says can at

any time fail, "Whoever will live piously in Christ shall suffer

persecution."[608] Because even when those who are without do not

rage, and thus there seems to be, and really is, tranquillity, which

brings very much consolation, especially to the weak, yet there are

not wanting, yea, there are many within who by their abandoned

manners torment the hearts of those who live piously, since by them

the Christian and catholic name is blasphemed; and the dearer that

name is to those who will live piously in Christ, the more do they

grieve that through the wicked, who have a place within, it comes to

be less loved than pious minds desire. The heretics themselves also,

since they are thought to have the Christian name and sacraments,

Scriptures, and profession, cause great grief in the hearts of the

pious, both because many who wish to be Christians are compelled by

their dissensions to hesitate, and many evil-speakers also find in

them matter for blaspheming the Christian name, because they too

are at any rate _called_ Christians. By these and similar depraved

manners and errors of men, those who will live piously in Christ

suffer persecution, even when no one molests or vexes their body;

for they suffer this persecution, not in their bodies, but in their

hearts. Whence is that word, "According to the multitude of my griefs

in my heart;" for he does not say, in my body. Yet, on the other

hand, none of them can perish, because the immutable divine promises

are thought of. And because the apostle says, "The Lord knoweth them

that are His;[609] for whom He did foreknow, He also predestinated

[to be] conformed to the image of His Son,"[610] none of them can

perish; therefore it follows in that psalm, "Thy consolations have

delighted my soul."[611] But that grief which arises in the hearts

of the pious, who are persecuted by the manners of bad or false

Christians, is profitable to the sufferers, because it proceeds from

the charity in which they do not wish them either to perish or to

hinder the salvation of others. Finally, great consolations grow

out of their chastisement, which imbue the souls of the pious with

a fecundity as great as the pains with which they were troubled

concerning their own perdition. Thus in this world, in these evil

days, not only from the time of the bodily presence of Christ and His

apostles, but even from that of Abel, whom first his wicked brother

slew because he was righteous,[612] and thenceforth even to the end

of this world, the Church has gone forward on pilgrimage amid the

persecutions of the world and the consolations of God.

52. _Whether we should believe what some think, that, as the ten

persecutions which are past have been fulfilled, there remains

no other beyond the eleventh, which must happen in the very

time of Antichrist._

I do not think, indeed, that what some have thought or may think

is rashly said or believed, that until the time of Antichrist the

Church of Christ is not to suffer any persecutions besides those

she has already suffered,--that is, _ten_,--and that the eleventh

and last shall be inflicted by Antichrist. They reckon as the first

that made by Nero, the second by Domitian, the third by Trajan, the

fourth by Antoninus, the fifth by Severus, the sixth by Maximin, the

seventh by Decius, the eighth by Valerian, the ninth by Aurelian,

the tenth by Diocletian and Maximian. For as there were ten plagues

in Egypt before the people of God could begin to go out, they think

this is to be referred to as showing that the last persecution by

Antichrist must be like the eleventh plague, in which the Egyptians,

while following the Hebrews with hostility, perished in the Red Sea

when the people of God passed through on dry land. Yet I do not

think persecutions were prophetically signified by what was done in

Egypt, however nicely and ingeniously those who think so may seem

to have compared the two in detail, not by the prophetic Spirit,

but by the conjecture of the human mind, which sometimes hits the

truth, and sometimes is deceived. But what can those who think this

say of the persecution in which the Lord Himself was crucified? In

which number will they put it? And if they think the reckoning is

to be made exclusive of this one, as if those must be counted which

pertain to the body, and not that in which the Head Himself was set

upon and slain, what can they make of that one which, after Christ

ascended into heaven, took place in Jerusalem, when the blessed

Stephen was stoned; when James the brother of John was slaughtered

with the sword; when the Apostle Peter was imprisoned to be killed,

and was set free by the angel; when the brethren were driven away and

scattered from Jerusalem; when Saul, who afterward became the Apostle

Paul, wasted the Church; and when he himself, publishing the glad

tidings of the faith he had persecuted, suffered such things as he

had inflicted, either from the Jews or from other nations, where he

most fervently preached Christ everywhere? Why, then, do they think

fit to start with Nero, when the Church in her growth had reached

the times of Nero amid the most cruel persecutions, about which it

would be too long to say anything? But if they think that only the

persecutions made by kings ought to be reckoned, it was king Herod

who also made a most grievous one after the ascension of the Lord.

And what account do they give of Julian, whom they do not number in

the ten? Did not he persecute the Church, who forbade the Christians

to teach or learn liberal letters? Under him, the elder Valentinian,

who was the third emperor after him, stood forth as a confessor of

the Christian faith, and was dismissed from his command in the army.

I shall say nothing of what he did at Antioch, except to mention

his being struck with wonder at the freedom and cheerfulness of one

most faithful and stedfast young man, who, when many were seized

to be tortured, was tortured during a whole day, and sang under

the instrument of torture, until the emperor feared lest he should

succumb under the continued cruelties and put him to shame at last,

which made him dread and fear that he would be yet more dishonourably

put to the blush by the rest. Lastly, within our own recollection,

did not Valens the Arian, brother of the foresaid Valentinian, waste

the catholic Church by great persecution throughout the East? But how

unreasonable it is not to consider that the Church, which bears fruit

and grows through the whole world, may suffer persecution from kings

in some nations even when she does not suffer it in others! Perhaps,

however, it was not to be reckoned a persecution when the king of the

Goths, in Gothia itself, persecuted the Christians with wonderful

cruelty, when there were none but catholics there, of whom very many

were crowned with martyrdom, as we have heard from certain brethren

who had been there at that time as boys, and unhesitatingly called to

mind that they had seen these things? And what took place in Persia

of late? Was not persecution so hot against the Christians (if even

yet it is allayed) that some of the fugitives from it came even to

Roman towns? When I think of these and the like things, it does not

seem to me that the number of persecutions with which the Church is

to be tried can be definitely stated. But, on the other hand, it

is no less rash to affirm that there will be some persecutions by

kings besides that last one, about which no Christian is in doubt.

Therefore we leave this undecided, supporting or refuting neither

side of this question, but only restraining men from the audacious

presumption of affirming either of them.

53. _Of the hidden time of the final persecution._

Truly Jesus Himself shall extinguish by His presence that last

persecution which is to be made by Antichrist. For so it is written,

that "He shall slay him with the breath of His mouth, and empty him

with the brightness of His presence."[613] It is customary to ask,

When shall that be? But this is quite unreasonable. For had it been

profitable for us to know this, by whom could it better have been told

than by God Himself, the Master, when the disciples questioned Him? For

they were not silent when with Him, but inquired of Him, saying, "Lord,

wilt Thou at this time present the kingdom to Israel, or when?"[614]

But He said, "It is not for you to know the times, which the Father

hath put in His own power." When they got that answer, they had not at

all questioned Him about the hour, or day, or year, but about the time.

In vain, then, do we attempt to compute definitely the years that may

remain to this world, when we may hear from the mouth of the Truth that

it is not for us to know this. Yet some have said that four hundred,

some five hundred, others a thousand years, may be completed from the

ascension of the Lord up to His final coming. But to point out how

each of them supports his own opinion would take too long, and is not

necessary; for indeed they use human conjectures, and bring forward

nothing certain from the authority of the canonical Scriptures. But on

this subject He puts aside the figures of the calculators, and orders

silence, who says, "It is not for you to know the times, which the

Father hath put in His own power."

But because this sentence is in the Gospel, it is no wonder that

the worshippers of the many and false gods have been none the less

restrained from feigning that by the responses of the demons, whom

they worship as gods, it has been fixed how long the Christian

religion is to last. For when they saw that it could not be consumed

by so many and great persecutions, but rather drew from them

wonderful enlargements, they invented I know not what Greek verses,

as if poured forth by a divine oracle to some one consulting it,

in which, indeed, they make Christ innocent of this, as it were,

sacrilegious crime, but add that Peter by enchantments brought it

about that the name of Christ should be worshipped for three hundred

and sixty-five years, and, after the completion of that number of

years, should at once take end. Oh the hearts of learned men! Oh,

learned wits, meet to believe such things _about_ Christ as you are

not willing to believe _in_ Christ, that His disciple Peter did not

learn magic arts from Him, yet that, although He was innocent, His

disciple was an enchanter, and chose that His name rather than his

own should be worshipped through his magic arts, his great labours

and perils, and at last even the shedding of his blood! If Peter the

enchanter made the world so love Christ, what did Christ the innocent

do to make Peter so love Him? Let them answer themselves then, and,

if they can, let them understand that the world, for the sake of

eternal life, was made to love Christ by that same supernal grace

which made Peter also love Christ for the sake of the eternal life

to be received from Him, and that even to the extent of suffering

temporal death for Him. And then, what kind of gods are these who

are able to predict such things, yet are not able to avert them,

succumbing in such a way to a single enchanter and wicked magician

(who, as they say, having slain a yearling boy and torn him to

pieces, buried him with nefarious rites), that they permitted the

sect hostile to themselves to gain strength for so great a time, and

to surmount the horrid cruelties of so many great persecutions, not

by resisting but by suffering, and to procure the overthrow of their

own images, temples, rituals, and oracles? Finally, what god was

it--not ours, certainly, but one of their own--who was either enticed

or compelled by so great wickedness to perform these things? For

those verses say that Peter bound, not any demon, but a god to do

these things. Such a god have they who have not Christ.

54. _Of the very foolish lie of the pagans, in feigning that the

Christian religion was not to last beyond three hundred and

sixty-five years._

I might collect these and many similar arguments, if that year had

not already passed by which lying divination has promised, and

deceived vanity has believed. But as a few years ago three hundred

and sixty-five years were completed since the time when the worship

of the name of Christ was established by His presence in the flesh,

and by the apostles, what other proof need we seek to refute that

falsehood? For, not to place the beginning of this period at the

nativity of Christ, because as an infant and boy He had no disciples,

yet, when He began to have them, beyond doubt the Christian doctrine

and religion then became known through His bodily presence, that is,

after He was baptized in the river Jordan by the ministry of John.

For on this account that prophecy went before concerning Him: "He

shall reign from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends

of the earth."[615] But since, before He suffered and rose from the

dead, the faith had not yet been defined to all, but was defined in

the resurrection of Christ (for so the Apostle Paul speaks to the

Athenians, saying, "But now He announces to men that all everywhere

should repent, because He hath appointed a day in which to judge the

world in equity, by the Man in whom He hath defined the faith to all

men, raising Him from the dead"[616]), it is better that, in settling

this question, we should start from that point, especially because

the Holy Spirit was then given, just as He behoved to be given after

the resurrection of Christ in that city from which the second law,

that is, the new testament, ought to begin. For the first, which is

called the old testament, was given from Mount Sinai through Moses.

But concerning this which was to be given by Christ it was predicted,

"Out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord out

of Jerusalem;"[617] whence He Himself said, that repentance in His

name behoved to be preached among all nations, but yet beginning

at Jerusalem.[618] There, therefore, the worship of this name

took its rise, that Jesus should be believed in, who died and rose

again. There this faith blazed up with such noble beginnings, that

several thousand men, being converted to the name of Christ with

wonderful alacrity, sold their goods for distribution among the

needy, thus, by a holy resolution and most ardent charity, coming

to voluntary poverty, and prepared themselves, amid the Jews who

raged and thirsted for their blood, to contend for the truth even to

death, not with armed power, but with more powerful patience. If this

was accomplished by no magic arts, why do they hesitate to believe

that the other could be done throughout the whole world by the same

divine power by which this was done? But supposing Peter wrought that

enchantment so that so great a multitude of men at Jerusalem was

thus kindled to worship the name of Christ, who had either seized

and fastened Him to the cross, or reviled Him when fastened there,

we must still inquire when the three hundred and sixty-five years

must be completed, counting from that year. Now Christ died when the

Gemini were consuls, on the eighth day before the kalends of April.

He rose the third day, as the apostles have proved by the evidence of

their own senses. Then forty days after, He ascended into heaven. Ten

days after, that is, on the fiftieth after His resurrection, He sent

the Holy Spirit; then three thousand men believed when the apostles

preached Him. Then, therefore, arose the worship of that name, as

we believe, and according to the real truth, by the efficacy of the

Holy Spirit, but, as impious vanity has feigned or thought, by the

magic arts of Peter. A little afterward, too, on a wonderful sign

being wrought, when at Peter's own word a certain beggar, so lame

from his mother's womb that he was carried by others and laid down at

the gate of the temple, where he begged alms, was made whole in the

name of Jesus Christ, and leaped up, five thousand men believed, and

thenceforth the Church grew by sundry accessions of believers. Thus

we gather the very day with which that year began, namely, that on

which the Holy Spirit was sent, that is, during the ides of May. And,

on counting the consuls, the three hundred and sixty-five years are

found completed on the same ides in the consulate of Honorius and

Eutychianus. Now, in the following year, in the consulate of Mallius

Theodorus, when, according to that oracle of the demons or figment

of men, there ought already to have been no Christian religion,

it was not necessary to inquire what perchance was done in other

parts of the earth. But, as we know, in the most noted and eminent

city Carthage, in Africa, Gaudentius and Jovius, officers of the

Emperor Honorius, on the fourteenth day before the kalends of April,

overthrew the temples and broke the images of the false gods. And

from that time to the present, during almost thirty years, who does

not see how much the worship of the name of Christ has increased,

especially after many of those became Christians who had been kept

back from the faith by thinking that divination true, but saw when

that same number of years was completed that it was empty and

ridiculous? We, therefore, who are called and _are_ Christians, do

not believe in Peter, but in Him whom Peter believed,--being edified

by Peter's sermons about Christ, not poisoned by his incantations;

and not deceived by his enchantments, but aided by his good deeds.

Christ Himself, who was Peter's Master in the doctrine which leads to

eternal life, is our Master too.

But let us now at last finish this book, after thus far treating of,

and showing as far as seemed sufficient, what is the mortal course

of the two cities, the heavenly and the earthly, which are mingled

together from the beginning down to the end. Of these, the earthly one

has made to herself of whom she would, either from any other quarter,

or even from among men, false gods whom she might serve by sacrifice;

but she which is heavenly, and is a pilgrim on the earth, does not make

false gods, but is herself made by the true God, of whom she herself

must be the true sacrifice. Yet both alike either enjoy temporal good

things, or are afflicted with temporal evils, but with diverse faith,

diverse hope, and diverse love, until they must be separated by the

last judgment, and each must receive her own end, of which there is no

end. About these ends of both we must next treat.

FOOTNOTES:

[497] Sallust, _Bell. Cat._ c. 8.

[498] In the Hebrew text, Gen. xxv. 7, a hundred and seventy-five

years.

[499] Gen. xlix. 10.

[500] Ἄρης and παγος.

[501] 1 Cor. xv. 46, 47.

[502] The priests who officiated at the Lupercalia.

[503] _Æneid_, viii. 321.

[504] Isa. xlviii. 20.

[505] Virgil, _Eclogue_, viii. 70.

[506] Virgil, _Eclogue_, v. 11.

[507] Varro, _De Lingua Latina_, v. 43.

[508] _Æneid_, vi. 767.

[509] Hos. i. 1.

[510] Amos i. 1.

[511] Isa. i. 1. Isaiah's father was Amoz, a different name.

[512] Mic. i. 1.

[513] The chronicles of Eusebius and Jerome.

[514] Hos. i. 10.

[515] Hos. i. 11.

[516] Gal. ii. 14-20.

[517] Hos. iii. 4.

[518] Hos. iii. 5.

[519] Rom. i. 3.

[520] Hos. vi. 2.

[521] Col. iii. 1.

[522] Amos iv. 12, 13.

[523] Amos ix. 11, 12; Acts xv. 15-17.

[524] Isa. lii. 13-liii. 13. Augustine quotes these passages in full.

[525] Isa. liv. 1-5.

[526] Mic. iv. 1-3.

[527] Mic. v. 2-4.

[528] Joel ii. 28, 29.

[529] Obad. 17.

[530] Obad. 21.

[531] Col. i. 13.

[532] Nah. i. 14-ii. 1.

[533] Hab. ii. 2, 3.

[534] Hab. iii. 2.

[535] Luke xxiii. 34.

[536] Hab. iii. 3.

[537] Ps. lvii. 5, 11.

[538] Hab. iii. 4.

[539] John iii. 17.

[540] Joel ii. 13.

[541] Matt. v. 4.

[542] Matt. x. 27.

[543] Ps. cxvi. 16.

[544] Rom. xii. 12.

[545] Heb. xi. 13, 16.

[546] Rom. x. 3.

[547] Ps. xl. 2, 3.

[548] Jer. ix. 23, 24, as in 1 Cor. i. 31.

[549] Lam. iv. 20.

[550] Bar. iii. 35-37.

[551] Jer. xxiii. 5, 6.

[552] Jer. xvi. 19.

[553] Jer. xvii. 9.

[554] Jer. xxxi. 31; see Bk. xvii. 3.

[555] Zeph. iii. 8.

[556] Zeph. ii. 11.

[557] Zeph. iii. 9-12.

[558] Isa. x. 22; Rom. ix. 27.

[559] Dan. vii. 13, 14.

[560] Ezek. xxxiv. 23.

[561] Ezek. xxxvii. 22-24.

[562] Hag. ii. 6.

[563] Zech. ix. 9, 10.

[564] Zech. ix. 11.

[565] Ps. xl. 2.

[566] Mal. i. 10, 11.

[567] Mal. ii. 5-7.

[568] Mal. iii. 1, 2.

[569] John ii. 19.

[570] Mal. iii. 13-16.

[571] Mal. iii. 17-iv. 3.

[572] Esdras iii. and iv.

[573] Acts vii. 22.

[574] Heb. xi. 7; 1 Pet. iii. 20, 21.

[575] Jude 14.

[576] Ex. xx. 12.

[577] Ex. xx. 13-15, the order as in Mark x. 19.

[578] Var. reading, "both in Greek and Latin."

[579] Jon. iii. 4.

[580] Hag. ii. 9.

[581] Hag. ii. 7.

[582] Matt. xxii. 14.

[583] Gen. xlix. 10.

[584] Isa. vii. 14, as in Matt. i. 23.

[585] Isa. x. 22, as in Rom. ix. 27, 28.

[586] Ps. lxix. 22, 23; Rom. xi. 9, 10.

[587] Ps. lxix. 10, 11.

[588] Rom. xi. 11.

[589] 1 Tim. ii. 5.

[590] Hag. ii. 9.

[591] Hag. ii. 9.

[592] 1 Cor. x. 4; Ex. xvii. 6.

[593] Hag. ii. 7.

[594] Eph. i. 4.

[595] Matt. xxii. 11-14.

[596] Matt. xiii. 47-50.

[597] Ps. xl. 5.

[598] Matt. iii 2, iv. 17.

[599] Luke vi. 13.

[600] Isa. ii. 3.

[601] Luke xxiv. 45-47.

[602] Acts i. 7, 8.

[603] Matt. x. 28.

[604] Heb. ii. 4.

[605] Rom. viii. 28.

[606] Ps. xciv. 19.

[607] Rom. xii. 12.

[608] 2 Tim. iii. 12.

[609] 2 Tim. ii. 19.

[610] Rom. viii. 29.

[611] Ps. xciv. 19.

[612] 1 John iii. 12.

[613] Isa. xi. 4; 2 Thess. i. 9.

[614] Acts i. 6, 7.

[615] Ps. lxxii. 8.

[616] Acts xvii. 30, 31.

[617] Isa. ii. 3.

[618] Luke xxiv. 47.

BOOK NINETEENTH.

ARGUMENT.

IN THIS BOOK THE END OF THE TWO CITIES, THE EARTHLY AND THE

HEAVENLY, IS DISCUSSED. AUGUSTINE REVIEWS THE OPINIONS OF THE

PHILOSOPHERS REGARDING THE SUPREME GOOD, AND THEIR VAIN EFFORTS

TO MAKE FOR THEMSELVES A HAPPINESS IN THIS LIFE; AND, WHILE HE

REFUTES THESE, HE TAKES OCCASION TO SHOW WHAT THE PEACE AND

HAPPINESS BELONGING TO THE HEAVENLY CITY, OR THE PEOPLE OF

CHRIST, ARE BOTH NOW AND HEREAFTER.

1. _That Varro has made out that two hundred and eighty-eight

different sects of philosophy might be formed by the various

opinions regarding the supreme good._

As I see that I have still to discuss the fit destinies of the two

cities, the earthly and the heavenly, I must first explain, so far as

the limits of this work allow me, the reasonings by which men have

attempted to make for themselves a happiness in this unhappy life,

in order that it may be evident, not only from divine authority, but

also from such reasons as can be adduced to unbelievers, how the

empty dreams of the philosophers differ from the hope which God gives

to us, and from the substantial fulfilment of it which He will give

us as our blessedness. Philosophers have expressed a great variety of

diverse opinions regarding the ends of goods and of evils, and this

question they have eagerly canvassed, that they might, if possible,

discover what makes a man happy. For the end of our good is that for

the sake of which other things are to be desired, while it is to be

desired for its own sake; and the end of evil is that on account of

which other things are to be shunned, while it is avoided on its own

account. Thus, by the _end of good_, we at present mean, not that by

which good is destroyed, so that it no longer exists, but that by

which it is finished, so that it becomes complete; and by the _end of

evil_ we mean, not that which abolishes it, but that which completes

its development. These two ends, therefore, are the supreme good

and the supreme evil; and, as I have said, those who have in this

vain life professed the study of wisdom have been at great pains to

discover these ends, and to obtain the supreme good and avoid the

supreme evil in this life. And although they erred in a variety of

ways, yet natural insight has prevented them from wandering from the

truth so far that they have not placed the supreme good and evil,

some in the soul, some in the body, and some in both. From this

tripartite distribution of the sects of philosophy, Marcus Varro,

in his book _De Philosophia_,[619] has drawn so large a variety of

opinions, that, by a subtle and minute analysis of distinctions, he

numbers without difficulty as many as 288 sects,--not that these have

actually existed, but sects which are possible.

To illustrate briefly what he means, I must begin with his own

introductory statement in the above-mentioned book, that there

are four things which men desire, as it were by nature without a

master, without the help of any instruction, without industry or

the art of living which is called virtue, and which is certainly

learned:[620] either pleasure, which is an agreeable stirring of the

bodily sense; or repose, which excludes every bodily inconvenience;

or both these, which Epicurus calls by the one name, pleasure; or

the primary objects of nature,[621] which comprehend the things

already named and other things, either bodily, such as health, and

safety, and integrity of the members, or spiritual, such as the

greater and less mental gifts that are found in men. Now these four

things--pleasure, repose, the two combined, and the primary objects

of nature--exist in us in such sort that we must either desire virtue

on their account, or them for the sake of virtue, or both for their

own sake; and consequently there arise from this distinction twelve

sects, for each is by this consideration tripled. I will illustrate

this in one instance, and, having done so, it will not be difficult

to understand the others. According, then, as bodily pleasure is

subjected, preferred, or united to virtue, there are three sects. It

is subjected to virtue when it is chosen as subservient to virtue.

Thus it is a duty of virtue to live for one's country, and for its

sake to beget children, neither of which can be done without bodily

pleasure. For there is pleasure in eating and drinking, pleasure also

in sexual intercourse. But when it is preferred to virtue, it is

desired for its own sake, and virtue is chosen only for its sake, and

to effect nothing else than the attainment or preservation of bodily

pleasure. And this, indeed, is to make life hideous; for where virtue

is the slave of pleasure it no longer deserves the name of virtue.

Yet even this disgraceful distortion has found some philosophers

to patronize and defend it. Then virtue is united to pleasure when

neither is desired for the other's sake, but both for their own. And

therefore, as pleasure, according as it is subjected, preferred, or

united to virtue, makes three sects, so also do repose, pleasure and

repose combined, and the prime natural blessings, make their three

sects each. For as men's opinions vary, and these four things are

sometimes subjected, sometimes preferred, and sometimes united to

virtue, there are produced twelve sects. But this number again is

doubled by the addition of one difference, viz. the social life;

for whoever attaches himself to any of these sects does so either

for his own sake alone, or for the sake of a companion, for whom he

ought to wish what he desires for himself. And thus there will be

twelve of those who think some one of these opinions should be held

for their own sakes, and other twelve who decide that they ought to

follow this or that philosophy not for their own sakes only, but also

for the sake of others whose good they desire as their own. These

twenty-four sects again are doubled, and become forty-eight by adding

a difference taken from the New Academy. For each of these four and

twenty sects can hold and defend their opinion as certain, as the

Stoics defended the position that the supreme good of man consisted

solely in virtue; or they can be held as probable, but not certain,

as the New Academics did. There are, therefore, twenty-four who hold

their philosophy as certainly true, other twenty-four who hold their

opinions as probable, but not certain. Again, as each person who

attaches himself to any of these sects may adopt the mode of life

either of the Cynics or of the other philosophers, this distinction

will double the number, and so make ninety-six sects. Then, lastly,

as each of these sects may be adhered to either by men who love a

life of ease, as those who have through choice or necessity addicted

themselves to study, or by men who love a busy life, as those who,

while philosophizing, have been much occupied with state affairs and

public business, or by men who choose a mixed life, in imitation of

those who have apportioned their time partly to erudite leisure,

partly to necessary business: by these differences the number of the

sects is tripled, and becomes 288.

I have thus, as briefly and lucidly as I could, given in my own words

the opinions which Varro expresses in his book. But how he refutes all

the rest of these sects, and chooses one, the Old Academy, instituted

by Plato, and continuing to Polemo, the fourth teacher of that school

of philosophy which held that their system was certain; and how on this

ground he distinguishes it from the New Academy,[622] which began with

Polemo's successor Arcesilaus, and held that all things are uncertain;

and how he seeks to establish that the Old Academy was as free from

error as from doubt,--all this, I say, were too long to enter upon in

detail, and yet I must not altogether pass it by in silence. Varro then

rejects, as a first step, all those differences which have multiplied

the number of sects; and the ground on which he does so is that they

are not differences about the supreme good. He maintains that in

philosophy a sect is created only by its having an opinion of its own

different from other schools on the point of the ends-in-chief. For

man has no other reason for philosophizing than that he may be happy;

but that which makes him happy is itself the supreme good. In other

words, the supreme good is the reason of philosophizing; and therefore

that cannot be called a sect of philosophy which pursues no way of its

own towards the supreme good. Thus, when it is asked whether a wise

man will adopt the social life, and desire and be interested in the

supreme good of his friend as in his own, or will, on the contrary, do

all that he does merely for his own sake, there is no question here

about the supreme good, but only about the propriety of associating or

not associating a friend in its participation: whether the wise man

will do this not for his own sake, but for the sake of his friend in

whose good he delights as in his own. So, too, when it is asked whether

all things about which philosophy is concerned are to be considered

uncertain, as by the New Academy, or certain, as the other philosophers

maintain, the question here is not what end should be pursued, but

whether or not we are to believe in the substantial existence of that

end; or, to put it more plainly, whether he who pursues the supreme

good must maintain that it is a true good, or only that it appears to

him to be true, though possibly it may be delusive,--both pursuing

one and the same good. The distinction, too, which is founded on the

dress and manners of the Cynics, does not touch the question of the

chief good, but only the question whether he who pursues that good

which seems to himself true should live as do the Cynics. There were,

in fact, men who, though they pursued different things as the supreme

good, some choosing pleasure, others virtue, yet adopted that mode

of life which gave the Cynics their name. Thus, whatever it is which

distinguishes the Cynics from other philosophers, this has no bearing

on the choice and pursuit of that good which constitutes happiness.

For if it had any such bearing, then the same habits of life would

necessitate the pursuit of the same chief good, and diverse habits

would necessitate the pursuit of different ends.

2. _How Varro, by removing all the differences which do not form

sects, but are merely secondary questions, reaches three

definitions of the chief good, of which we must choose one._

The same may be said of those three kinds of life, the life of studious

leisure and search after truth, the life of easy engagement in affairs,

and the life in which both these are mingled. When it is asked, which

of these should be adopted, this involves no controversy about the

end of good, but inquires which of these three puts a man in the best

position for finding and retaining the supreme good. For this good,

as soon as a man finds it, makes him happy; but lettered leisure,

or public business, or the alternation of these, do not necessarily

constitute happiness. Many, in fact, find it possible to adopt one or

other of these modes of life, and yet to miss what makes a man happy.

The question, therefore, regarding the supreme good and the supreme

evil, and which distinguishes sects of philosophy, is one; and these

questions concerning the social life, the doubt of the Academy, the

dress and food of the Cynics, the three modes of life--the active,

the contemplative, and the mixed--these are different questions, into

none of which the question of the chief good enters. And therefore, as

Marcus Varro multiplied the sects to the number of 288 (or whatever

larger number he chose) by introducing these four differences derived

from the social life, the New Academy, the Cynics, and the threefold

form of life, so, by removing these differences as having no bearing on

the supreme good, and as therefore not constituting what can properly

be called sects, he returns to those twelve schools which concern

themselves with inquiring what that good is which makes man happy, and

he shows that one of these is true, the rest false. In other words,

he dismisses the distinction founded on the threefold mode of life,

and so decreases the whole number by two-thirds, reducing the sects to

ninety-six. Then, putting aside the Cynic peculiarities, the number

decreases by a half, to forty-eight. Taking away next the distinction

occasioned by the hesitancy of the New Academy, the number is again

halved, and reduced to twenty-four. Treating in a similar way the

diversity introduced by the consideration of the social life, there

are left but twelve, which this difference had doubled to twenty-four.

Regarding these twelve, no reason can be assigned why they should

not be called sects. For in them the sole inquiry is regarding the

supreme good and the ultimate evil,--that is to say, regarding the

supreme good, for this being found, the opposite evil is thereby

found. Now, to make these twelve sects, he multiplies by three these

four things--pleasure, repose, pleasure and repose combined, and the

primary objects of nature which Varro calls _primigenia_. For as these

four things are sometimes subordinated to virtue, so that they seem to

be desired not for their own sake, but for virtue's sake; sometimes

preferred to it, so that virtue seems to be necessary not on its own

account, but in order to attain these things; sometimes joined with

it, so that both they and virtue are desired for their own sakes,--we

must multiply the four by three, and thus we get twelve sects. But

from those four things Varro eliminates three--pleasure, repose,

pleasure and repose combined--not because he thinks these are not

worthy of the place assigned them, but because they are included in

the primary objects of nature. And what need is there, at any rate, to

make a threefold division out of these two ends, pleasure and repose,

taking them first severally and then conjunctly, since both they, and

many other things besides, are comprehended in the primary objects of

nature? Which of the three remaining sects must be chosen? This is the

question that Varro dwells upon. For whether one of these three or

some other be chosen, reason forbids that more than one be true. This

we shall afterwards see; but meanwhile let us explain as briefly and

distinctly as we can how Varro makes his selection from these three,

that is, from the sects which severally hold that the primary objects

of nature are to be desired for virtue's sake, that virtue is to be

desired for their sake, and that virtue and these objects are to be

desired each for their own sake.

3. _Which of the three leading opinions regarding the chief good

should be preferred, according to Varro, who follows Antiochus

and the Old Academy._

Which of these three is true and to be adopted he attempts to show in

the following manner. As it is the supreme good, not of a tree, or

of a beast, or of a god, but of man, that philosophy is in quest of,

he thinks that, first of all, we must define man. He is of opinion

that there are two parts in human nature, body and soul, and makes

no doubt that of these two the soul is the better and by far the

more worthy part. But whether the soul alone is the man, so that

the body holds the same relation to it as a horse to the horseman,

this he thinks has to be ascertained. The horseman is not a horse

and a man, but only a man, yet he is called a horseman, because he

is in some relation to the horse. Again, is the body alone the man,

having a relation to the soul such as the cup has to the drink? For

it is not the cup and the drink it contains which are called the

cup, but the cup alone; yet it is so called because it is made to

hold the drink. Or, lastly, is it neither the soul alone nor the

body alone, but both together, which are man, the body and the soul

being each a part, but the whole man being both together, as we

call two horses yoked together a pair, of which pair the near and

the off horse is each a part, but we do not call either of them, no

matter how connected with the other, a pair, but only both together?

Of these three alternatives, then, Varro chooses the third, that man

is neither the body alone, nor the soul alone, but both together.

And therefore the highest good, in which lies the happiness of man,

is composed of goods of both kinds, both bodily and spiritual. And

consequently he thinks that the primary objects of nature are to

be sought for their own sake, and that virtue, which is the art of

living, and can be communicated by instruction, is the most excellent

of spiritual goods. This virtue, then, or art of regulating life,

when it has received these primary objects of nature which existed

independently of it, and prior to any instruction, seeks them all,

and itself also, for its own sake; and it uses them, as it also

uses itself, that from them all it may derive profit and enjoyment,

greater or less, according as they are themselves greater or less;

and while it takes pleasure in all of them, it despises the less

that it may obtain or retain the greater when occasion demands. Now,

of all goods, spiritual or bodily, there is none at all to compare

with virtue. For virtue makes a good use both of itself and of all

other goods in which lies man's happiness; and where it is absent,

no matter how many good things a man has, they are not for his good,

and consequently should not be called good things while they belong

to one who makes them useless by using them badly. The life of man,

then, is called happy when it enjoys virtue and these other spiritual

and bodily good things without which virtue is impossible. It is

called happier if it enjoys some or many other good things which

are not essential to virtue; and happiest of all, if it lacks not

one of the good things which pertain to the body and the soul. For

life is not the same thing as virtue, since not every life, but a

wisely regulated life, is virtue; and yet, while there can be life

of some kind without virtue, there cannot be virtue without life.

This I might apply to memory and reason, and such mental faculties;

for these exist prior to instruction, and without them there cannot

be any instruction, and consequently no virtue, since virtue is

learned. But bodily advantages, such as swiftness of foot, beauty,

or strength, are not essential to virtue, neither is virtue essential

to them, and yet they are good things; and, according to our

philosophers, even these advantages are desired by virtue for its own

sake, and are used and enjoyed by it in a becoming manner.

They say that this happy life is also social, and loves the advantages

of its friends as its own, and for their sake wishes for them what it

desires for itself, whether these friends live in the same family,

as a wife, children, domestics; or in the locality where one's home

is, as the citizens of the same town; or in the world at large, as

the nations bound in common human brotherhood; or in the universe

itself, comprehended in the heavens and the earth, as those whom they

call gods, and provide as friends for the wise man, and whom we more

familiarly call angels. Moreover, they say that, regarding the supreme

good and evil, there is no room for doubt, and that they therefore

differ from the New Academy in this respect, and they are not concerned

whether a philosopher pursues those ends which they think true in

the Cynic dress and manner of life or in some other. And, lastly, in

regard to the three modes of life, the contemplative, the active, and

the composite, they declare in favour of the third. That these were

the opinions and doctrines of the Old Academy, Varro asserts on the

authority of Antiochus, Cicero's master and his own, though Cicero

makes him out to have been more frequently in accordance with the

Stoics than with the Old Academy. But of what importance is this to

us, who ought to judge the matter on its own merits, rather than to

understand accurately what different men have thought about it?

4. _What the Christians believe regarding the supreme good and

evil, in opposition to the philosophers, who have maintained

that the supreme good is in themselves._

If, then, we be asked what the city of God has to say upon these

points, and, in the first place, what its opinion regarding the

supreme good and evil is, it will reply that life eternal is the

supreme good, death eternal the supreme evil, and that to obtain

the one and escape the other we must live rightly. And thus it is

written, "The just lives by faith,"[623] for we do not as yet see

our good, and must therefore live by faith; neither have we in

ourselves power to live rightly, but can do so only if He who has

given us faith to believe in His help do help us when we believe and

pray. As for those who have supposed that the sovereign good and

evil are to be found in this life, and have placed it either in the

soul or the body, or in both, or, to speak more explicitly, either

in pleasure or in virtue, or in both; in repose or in virtue, or in

both; in pleasure and repose, or in virtue, or in all combined; in

the primary objects of nature, or in virtue, or in both,--all these

have, with a marvellous shallowness, sought to find their blessedness

in this life and in themselves. Contempt has been poured upon such

ideas by the Truth, saying by the prophet, "The Lord knoweth the

thoughts of men" (or, as the Apostle Paul cites the passage, "The

Lord knoweth the thoughts of the _wise_") "that they are vain."[624]