{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>As for those who find an empty threat rather than a truth\r\nin such passages as these: \"Depart from me, ye cursed, into\r\neverlasting fire;\" and \"These shall go away into eternal\r\npunishment;\"<a id=\"FNanchor_913_913\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_913_913\">[913]</a> and \"They shall be tormented for ever and\r\never;\"<a id=\"FNanchor_914_914\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_914_914\">[914]</a> and \"Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall\r\nnot be quenched,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_915_915\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_915_915\">[915]</a>—such persons, I say, are most emphatically\r\nand abundantly refuted, not by me so much as by the divine<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_455\">[Pg 455]</a></span>\r\nScripture itself. For the men of Nineveh repented in this\r\nlife, and therefore their repentance was fruitful, inasmuch as\r\nthey sowed in that field which the Lord meant to be sown in\r\ntears that it might afterwards be reaped in joy. And yet who\r\nwill deny that God's prediction was fulfilled in their case, if\r\nat least he observes that God destroys sinners not only in\r\nanger but also in compassion? For sinners are destroyed in\r\ntwo ways,—either, like the Sodomites, the men themselves are\r\npunished for their sins, or, like the Ninevites, the men's sins\r\nare destroyed by repentance. God's prediction, therefore, was\r\nfulfilled,—the wicked Nineveh was overthrown, and a good\r\nNineveh built up. For its walls and houses remained standing;\r\nthe city was overthrown in its depraved manners. And\r\nthus, though the prophet was provoked that the destruction\r\nwhich the inhabitants dreaded, because of his prediction, did\r\nnot take place, yet that which God's foreknowledge had predicted\r\ndid take place, for He who foretold the destruction\r\nknew how it should be fulfilled in a less calamitous sense.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK TWENTY-FIRST.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-720"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"334e76121542c4d289954507125f4b4f50f30abad1d9bd333a28eda94b538c6f","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":25,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Matt. xxv. 41","verse":41,"verse_end":41}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_913_913","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_913_913","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_913_913\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_913_913\"><span class=\"label\">[913]</span></a> Matt. xxv. 41, 46.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_913_913","text_sha256":"d0b80c16fa1514854f57523bd89dadd040b8e825060ee5126494c0a464eecbc3","verified":false,"work_id":null}