Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>At present let us go on, as we have begun, to give some\r\nexplanation regarding the bodies of our first parents. I say\r\nthen, that, except as the just consequence of sin, they would\r\nnot have been subjected even to this death, which is good to\r\nthe good,—this death, which is not exclusively known and\r\nbelieved in by a few, but is known to all, by which soul and\r\nbody are separated, and by which the body of an animal\r\nwhich was but now visibly living is now visibly dead. For\r\nthough there can be no manner of doubt that the souls of the\r\njust and holy dead live in peaceful rest, yet so much better\r\nwould it be for them to be alive in healthy, well-conditioned\r\nbodies, that even those who hold the tenet that it is most\r\nblessed to be quit of every kind of body, condemn this opinion\r\nin spite of themselves. For no one will dare to set wise men,\r\nwhether yet to die or already dead,—in other words, whether\r\nalready quit of the body, or shortly to be so,—above the immortal\r\ngods, to whom the Supreme, in Plato, promises as a\r\nmunificent gift life indissoluble, or in eternal union with their\r\nbodies. But this same Plato thinks that nothing better can\r\nhappen to men than that they pass through life piously and\r\njustly, and, being separated from their bodies, be received\r\ninto the bosom of the gods, who never abandon theirs; \"that,\r\noblivious of the past, they may revisit the upper air, and\r\nconceive the longing to return again to the body.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_597_597\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_597_597\">[597]</a> Virgil<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_543\">[Pg 543]</a></span>\r\nis applauded for borrowing this from the Platonic system.\r\nAssuredly Plato thinks that the souls of mortals cannot\r\nalways be in their bodies, but must necessarily be dismissed\r\nby death; and, on the other hand, he thinks that without\r\nbodies they cannot endure for ever, but with ceaseless alternation\r\npass from life to death, and from death to life. This\r\ndifference, however, he sets between wise men and the rest,\r\nthat they are carried after death to the stars, that each man\r\nmay repose for a while in a star suitable for him, and may\r\nthence return to the labours and miseries of mortals when he\r\nhas become oblivious of his former misery, and possessed with\r\nthe desire of being embodied. Those, again, who have lived\r\nfoolishly transmigrate into bodies fit for them, whether human\r\nor bestial. Thus he has appointed even the good and wise\r\nsouls to a very hard lot indeed, since they do not receive\r\nsuch bodies as they might always and even immortally inhabit,\r\nbut such only as they can neither permanently retain\r\nnor enjoy eternal purity without. Of this notion of Plato's,\r\nwe have in a former book already said<a id=\"FNanchor_598_598\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_598_598\">[598]</a> that Porphyry was\r\nashamed in the light of these Christian times, so that he not\r\nonly emancipated human souls from a destiny in the bodies of\r\nbeasts, but also contended for the liberation of the souls of\r\nthe wise from all bodily ties, so that, escaping from all flesh,\r\nthey might, as bare and blessed souls, dwell with the Father\r\ntime without end. And that he might not seem to be outbid\r\nby Christ's promise of life everlasting to His saints, he also\r\nestablished purified souls in endless felicity, without return to\r\ntheir former woes; but, that he might contradict Christ, he\r\ndenies the resurrection of incorruptible bodies, and maintains\r\nthat these souls will live eternally, not only without earthly\r\nbodies, but without any bodies at all. And yet, whatever he\r\nmeant by this teaching, he at least did not teach that these\r\nsouls should offer no religious observance to the gods who\r\ndwelt in bodies. And why did he not, unless because he did\r\nnot believe that the souls, even though separate from the body,\r\nwere superior to those gods? Wherefore, if these philosophers\r\nwill not dare (as I think they will not) to set human souls\r\nabove the gods who are most blessed, and yet are tied eternally<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_544\">[Pg 544]</a></span>\r\nto their bodies, why do they find that absurd which the\r\nChristian faith preaches,<a id=\"FNanchor_599_599\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_599_599\">[599]</a> namely, that our first parents were\r\nso created that, if they had not sinned, they would not have\r\nbeen dismissed from their bodies by any death, but would\r\nhave been endowed with immortality as the reward of their\r\nobedience, and would have lived eternally with their bodies;\r\nand further, that the saints will in the resurrection inhabit\r\nthose very bodies in which they have here toiled, but in such\r\nsort that neither shall any corruption or unwieldiness be\r\nsuffered to attach to their flesh, nor any grief or trouble to\r\ncloud their felicity?</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK THIRTEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-934"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"e857b987cbb97187a2f142ead740ad7395a3d68e726abe1a60b3c644bacf8869","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume I","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Book IV)","J. J. Smith (Books V-VIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_599_599","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_599_599","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_599_599\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_599_599\"><span class=\"label\">[599]</span></a> A catena of passages, showing that this is the catholic Christian faith, will\r\nbe found in Bull's <i>State of Man before the Fall</i> (<i>Works</i>, vol. ii.).</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_599_599","text_sha256":"503dbdfb6ccf9266fa26ff7c75c2f898a55249256151ae6ecc2327095ab708d9","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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