{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>There are others, again, with whose opinions I have become\r\nacquainted in conversation, who, though they seem to reverence\r\nthe holy Scriptures, are yet of reprehensible life, and\r\nwho accordingly, in their own interest, attribute to God a still\r\ngreater compassion towards men. For they acknowledge that\r\nit is truly predicted in the divine word that the wicked and\r\nunbelieving are worthy of punishment, but they assert that,\r\nwhen the judgment comes, mercy will prevail. For, say they,\r\nGod, having compassion on them, will give them up to the\r\nprayers and intercessions of His saints. For if the saints\r\nused to pray for them when they suffered from their cruel\r\nhatred, how much more will they do so when they see them\r\nprostrate and humble suppliants? For we cannot, they say,\r\nbelieve that the saints shall lose their bowels of compassion\r\nwhen they have attained the most perfect and complete holiness;\r\nso that they who, when still sinners, prayed for their<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_446\">[Pg 446]</a></span>\r\nenemies, should now, when they are freed from sin, withhold\r\nfrom interceding for their suppliants. Or shall God refuse to\r\nlisten to so many of His beloved children, when their holiness\r\nhas purged their prayers of all hindrance to His answering\r\nthem? And the passage of the psalm which is cited by those\r\nwho admit that wicked men and infidels shall be punished for\r\na long time, though in the end delivered from all sufferings,\r\nis claimed also by the persons we are now speaking of as\r\nmaking much more for them. The verse runs: \"Shall God\r\nforget to be gracious? Shall He in anger shut up His tender\r\nmercies?\"<a id=\"FNanchor_889_889\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_889_889\">[889]</a> His anger, they say, would condemn all that are\r\nunworthy of everlasting happiness to endless punishment.\r\nBut if He suffer them to be punished for a long time, or even\r\nat all, must He not shut up His tender mercies, which the\r\nPsalmist implies He will not do? For he does not say, Shall\r\nHe in anger shut up His tender mercies for a long period?\r\nbut he implies that He will not shut them up at all.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK TWENTY-FIRST.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-703"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"f4a09c0d857adbea7ab7f3af206506ff2feddc93a43bef26a5235b555c615204","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"PSA","chapter":77,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Ps. lxxvii. 9","verse":9,"verse_end":9}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_889_889","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_889_889","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_889_889\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_889_889\"><span class=\"label\">[889]</span></a> Ps. lxxvii. 9.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_889_889","text_sha256":"b1dce4a42f11b1082dba15df306e302cd514b23f282e0a5ac9cc06c88081b103","verified":false,"work_id":null}