{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>This sickliness—that is to say, that disobedience of which\r\nwe spoke in the fourteenth book—is the punishment of the\r\nfirst disobedience. It is therefore not nature, but vice; and\r\ntherefore it is said to the good who are growing in grace, and\r\nliving in this pilgrimage by faith, \"Bear ye one another's\r\nburdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_139_139\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_139_139\">[139]</a> In like manner it\r\nis said elsewhere, \"Warn them that are unruly, comfort the\r\nfeeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men.\r\nSee that none render evil for evil unto any man.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_140_140\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_140_140\">[140]</a> And in\r\nanother place, \"If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which\r\nare spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness;\r\nconsidering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_141_141\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_141_141\">[141]</a> And elsewhere,\r\n\"Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_142_142\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_142_142\">[142]</a> And\r\nin the Gospel, \"If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go\r\nand tell him his fault between thee and him alone.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_143_143\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_143_143\">[143]</a> So too\r\nof sins which may create scandal the apostle says, \"Them\r\nthat sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_144_144\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_144_144\">[144]</a> For\r\nthis purpose, and that we may keep that peace without which\r\nno man can see the Lord,<a id=\"FNanchor_145_145\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_145_145\">[145]</a> many precepts are given which\r\ncarefully inculcate mutual forgiveness; among which we may\r\nnumber that terrible word in which the servant is ordered to\r\npay his formerly remitted debt of ten thousand talents, because\r\nhe did not remit to his fellow-servant his debt of two hundred\r\npence. To which parable the Lord Jesus added the words, \"So\r\nlikewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from\r\nyour hearts forgive not every one his brother.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_146_146\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_146_146\">[146]</a> It is thus\r\nthe citizens of the city of God are healed while still they sojourn\r\nin this earth and sigh for the peace of their heavenly\r\ncountry. The Holy Spirit, too, works within, that the medicine\r\nexternally applied may have some good result. Otherwise,\r\neven though God Himself make use of the creatures\r\nthat are subject to Him, and in some human form address our\r\nhuman senses, whether we receive those impressions in sleep<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_57\">[Pg 57]</a></span>\r\nor in some external appearance, still, if He does not by His\r\nown inward grace sway and act upon the mind, no preaching\r\nof the truth is of any avail. But this God does, distinguishing\r\nbetween the vessels of wrath and the vessels of mercy, by\r\nHis own very secret but very just providence. When He\r\nHimself aids the soul in His own hidden and wonderful ways,\r\nand the sin which dwells in our members, and is, as the\r\napostle teaches, rather the punishment of sin, does not reign\r\nin our mortal body to obey the lusts of it, and when we no\r\nlonger yield our members as instruments of unrighteousness,<a id=\"FNanchor_147_147\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_147_147\">[147]</a>\r\nthen the soul is converted from its own evil and selfish desires,\r\nand, God possessing it, it possesses itself in peace even\r\nin this life, and afterwards, with perfected health and endowed\r\nwith immortality, will reign without sin in peace everlasting.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK FIFTEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-107"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"e1ae932a8a9a9c94a4614bbecb1ac374d6da6ff92194c9acade2abdc01b3edf2","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"MAT","chapter":18,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Matt. xviii. 35","verse":35,"verse_end":35}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_146_146","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_146_146","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_146_146\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_146_146\"><span class=\"label\">[146]</span></a> Matt. xviii. 35.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_146_146","text_sha256":"c218e66aaa75d5345e50cbb340a16f8f57a64f76ed3e7ef6146acff16dc851fc","verified":false,"work_id":null}