Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>But such is God's mercy towards the vessels of mercy\r\nwhich He has prepared for glory, that even the first age of\r\nman, that is, infancy, which submits without any resistance to\r\nthe flesh, and the second age, which is called boyhood, and\r\nwhich has not yet understanding enough to undertake this\r\nwarfare, and therefore yields to almost every vicious pleasure<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_443\">[Pg 443]</a></span>\r\n(because though this age has the power of speech,<a id=\"FNanchor_886_886\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_886_886\">[886]</a> and may\r\ntherefore seem to have passed infancy, the mind is still too\r\nweak to comprehend the commandment), yet if either of these\r\nages has received the sacraments of the Mediator, then, although\r\nthe present life be immediately brought to an end, the child,\r\nhaving been translated from the power of darkness to the kingdom\r\nof Christ, shall not only be saved from eternal punishments,\r\nbut shall not even suffer purgatorial torments after\r\ndeath. For spiritual regeneration of itself suffices to prevent\r\nany evil consequences resulting after death from the connection\r\nwith death which carnal generation forms.<a id=\"FNanchor_887_887\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_887_887\">[887]</a> But when\r\nwe reach that age which can now comprehend the commandment,\r\nand submit to the dominion of law, we must declare\r\nwar upon vices, and wage this war keenly, lest we be landed\r\nin damnable sins. And if vices have not gathered strength,\r\nby habitual victory they are more easily overcome and subdued;\r\nbut if they have been used to conquer and rule, it is\r\nonly with difficulty and labour they are mastered. And\r\nindeed this victory cannot be sincerely and truly gained but\r\nby delighting in true righteousness, and it is faith in Christ\r\nthat gives this. For if the law be present with its command,\r\nand the Spirit be absent with His help, the presence of the\r\nprohibition serves only to increase the desire to sin, and adds\r\nthe guilt of transgression. Sometimes, indeed, patent vices\r\nare overcome by other and hidden vices, which are reckoned\r\nvirtues, though pride and a kind of ruinous self-sufficiency\r\nare their informing principles. Accordingly vices are then\r\nonly to be considered overcome when they are conquered by\r\nthe love of God, which God Himself alone gives, and which\r\nHe gives only through the Mediator between God and men,\r\nthe man Christ Jesus, who became a partaker of our mortality\r\nthat He might make us partakers of His divinity. But few\r\nindeed are they who are so happy as to have passed their\r\nyouth without committing any damnable sins, either by dissolute\r\nor violent conduct, or by following some godless and\r\nunlawful opinions, but have subdued by their greatness of\r\nsoul everything in them which could make them the slaves of\r\ncarnal pleasures. The greater number having first become<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_444\">[Pg 444]</a></span>\r\ntransgressors of the law that they have received, and having\r\nallowed vice to have the ascendency in them, then flee to\r\ngrace for help, and so, by a penitence more bitter, and a struggle\r\nmore violent than it would otherwise have been, they subdue\r\nthe soul to God, and thus give it its lawful authority over\r\nthe flesh, and become victors. Whoever, therefore, desires to\r\nescape eternal punishment, let him not only be baptized, but\r\nalso justified in Christ, and so let him in truth pass from the\r\ndevil to Christ. And let him not fancy that there are any\r\npurgatorial pains except before that final and dreadful judgment.\r\nWe must not, however, deny that even the eternal\r\nfire will be proportioned to the deserts of the wicked, so that\r\nto some it will be more, and to others less painful, whether\r\nthis result be accomplished by a variation in the temperature\r\nof the fire itself, graduated according to every one's merit, or\r\nwhether it be that the heat remains the same, but that all do\r\nnot feel it with equal intensity of torment.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK TWENTY-FIRST.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-699"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"0f261ecd757b8da650635799465e1f1c68a4a8aa60fbf32584649d88506c56a6","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_886_886","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_886_886","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_886_886\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_886_886\"><span class=\"label\">[886]</span></a> \"Fari.\"</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_886_886","text_sha256":"21c685afe8a4fe953a964a83fc105ac9594fd2c23231b11c210235a0f305e25d","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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