{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>But the philosophers against whom we are defending the\r\ncity of God, that is, His Church, seem to themselves to have\r\ngood cause to deride us, because we say that the separation of the\r\nsoul from the body is to be held as part of man's punishment.\r\nFor they suppose that the blessedness of the soul then only is\r\ncomplete, when it is quite denuded of the body, and returns to\r\nGod a pure and simple, and, as it were, naked soul. On this\r\npoint, if I should find nothing in their own literature to refute\r\nthis opinion, I should be forced laboriously to demonstrate that\r\nit is not the body, but the corruptibility of the body, which is\r\na burden to the soul. Hence that sentence of Scripture we\r\nquoted in a foregoing book, \"For the corruptible body presseth\r\ndown the soul.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_593_593\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_593_593\">[593]</a> The word corruptible is added to show that\r\nthe soul is burdened, not by any body whatsoever, but by the\r\nbody such as it has become in consequence of sin. And even\r\nthough the word had not been added, we could understand\r\nnothing else. But when Plato most expressly declares that\r\nthe gods who are made by the Supreme have immortal bodies,\r\nand when he introduces their Maker himself promising them\r\nas a great boon that they should abide in their bodies eternally,\r\nand never by any death be loosed from them, why do these\r\nadversaries of ours, for the sake of troubling the Christian\r\nfaith, feign to be ignorant of what they quite well know, and\r\neven prefer to contradict themselves rather than lose an opportunity\r\nof contradicting us? Here are Plato's words, as Cicero<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_537\">[Pg 537]</a></span>\r\nhas translated them,<a id=\"FNanchor_594_594\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_594_594\">[594]</a> in which he introduces the Supreme\r\naddressing the gods He had made, and saying, \"Ye who are\r\nsprung from a divine stock, consider of what works I am the\r\nparent and author. These (your bodies) are indestructible\r\nso long as I will it; although all that is composed can be\r\ndestroyed. But it is wicked to dissolve what reason has\r\ncompacted. But, seeing that ye have been born, ye cannot\r\nindeed be immortal and indestructible; yet ye shall by no\r\nmeans be destroyed, nor shall any fates consign you to death,\r\nand prove superior to my will, which is a stronger assurance\r\nof your perpetuity than those bodies to which ye were joined\r\nwhen ye were born.\" Plato, you see, says that the gods are\r\nboth mortal by the connection of the body and soul, and yet\r\nare rendered immortal by the will and decree of their Maker.\r\nIf, therefore, it is a punishment to the soul to be connected\r\nwith any body whatever, why does God address them as if\r\nthey were afraid of death, that is, of the separation of soul and\r\nbody? Why does He seek to reassure them by promising\r\nthem immortality, not in virtue of their nature, which is\r\ncomposite and not simple, but by virtue of His invincible\r\nwill, whereby He can effect that neither things born die, nor\r\nthings compounded be dissolved, but preserved eternally?</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK THIRTEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-926"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"6365738e97b3366f90bd53125e92c33a7851c633612048ac21827beb5fcd83cb","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_594_594","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_594_594","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_594_594\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_594_594\"><span class=\"label\">[594]</span></a> A translation of part of the <i>Timæus</i>, given in a little book of Cicero's, <i>De\r\nUniverso</i>.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_594_594","text_sha256":"ac0dd561554297d169b0050dec28893f868d164cb39f581cda72e3abba11b8f2","verified":false,"work_id":null}