{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>In this present time we learn to bear with equanimity the\r\nills to which even good men are subject, and to hold cheap\r\nthe blessings which even the wicked enjoy. And consequently,<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_347\">[Pg 347]</a></span>\r\neven in those conditions of life in which the justice\r\nof God is not apparent, His teaching is salutary. For we do\r\nnot know by what judgment of God this good man is poor\r\nand that bad man rich; why he who, in our opinion, ought\r\nto suffer acutely for his abandoned life enjoys himself, while\r\nsorrow pursues him whose praiseworthy life leads us to suppose\r\nhe should be happy; why the innocent man is dismissed from\r\nthe bar not only unavenged, but even condemned, being either\r\nwronged by the iniquity of the judge, or overwhelmed by\r\nfalse evidence, while his guilty adversary, on the other hand,\r\nis not only discharged with impunity, but even has his claims\r\nadmitted; why the ungodly enjoys good health, while the godly\r\npines in sickness; why ruffians are of the soundest constitution,\r\nwhile they who could not hurt any one even with a\r\nword are from infancy afflicted with complicated disorders;\r\nwhy he who is useful to society is cut off by premature death,\r\nwhile those who, as it might seem, ought never to have been\r\nso much as born have lives of unusual length; why he who\r\nis full of crimes is crowned with honours, while the blameless\r\nman is buried in the darkness of neglect. But who can collect\r\nor enumerate all the contrasts of this kind? But if this\r\nanomalous state of things were uniform in this life, in which,\r\nas the sacred Psalmist says, \"Man is like to vanity, his days\r\nas a shadow that passeth away,\"<a id=\"FNanchor_676_676\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_676_676\">[676]</a>—so uniform that none but\r\nwicked men won the transitory prosperity of earth, while only\r\nthe good suffered its ills,—this could be referred to the just and\r\neven benign judgment of God. We might suppose that they\r\nwho were not destined to obtain those everlasting benefits\r\nwhich constitute human blessedness were either deluded by\r\ntransitory blessings as the just reward of their wickedness, or\r\nwere, in God's mercy, consoled by them, and that they who\r\nwere not destined to suffer eternal torments were afflicted\r\nwith temporal chastisement for their sins, or were stimulated to\r\ngreater attainment in virtue. But now, as it is, since we not\r\nonly see good men involved in the ills of life, and bad men\r\nenjoying the good of it, which seems unjust, but also that evil\r\noften overtakes evil men, and good surprises the good, the\r\nrather on this account are God's judgments unsearchable, and<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_348\">[Pg 348]</a></span>\r\nHis ways past finding out. Although, therefore, we do not\r\nknow by what judgment these things are done or permitted\r\nto be done by God, with whom is the highest virtue, the\r\nhighest wisdom, the highest justice, no infirmity, no rashness,\r\nno unrighteousness, yet it is salutary for us to learn to hold\r\ncheap such things, be they good or evil, as attach indifferently\r\nto good men and bad, and to covet those good things\r\nwhich belong only to good men, and flee those evils which\r\nbelong only to evil men. But when we shall have come to\r\nthat judgment, the date of which is called peculiarly the day\r\nof judgment, and sometimes the day of the Lord, we shall\r\nthen recognise the justice of all God's judgments, not only of\r\nsuch as shall then be pronounced, but of all which take effect\r\nfrom the beginning, or may take effect before that time. And\r\nin that day we shall also recognise with what justice so many,\r\nor almost all, the just judgments of God in the present life\r\ndefy the scrutiny of human sense or insight, though in this\r\nmatter it is not concealed from pious minds that what is concealed\r\nis just.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK TWENTIETH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-561"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"07b7131d055441320a772b56ca1ec000446b44d4ba11db1881eaaae94bc1c784","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":144,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Ps. cxliv. 4","verse":4,"verse_end":4}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_676_676","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_676_676","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_676_676\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_676_676\"><span class=\"label\">[676]</span></a> Ps. cxliv. 4.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_676_676","text_sha256":"0939a185a4515bb6ea463b0498b577e1cc8e070aa268d758a634fec477518e32","verified":false,"work_id":null}