{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>If, moreover, any one is solicitous about this point, how, if\r\ndeath be the very punishment of sin, they whose guilt is cancelled\r\nby grace do yet suffer death, this difficulty has already\r\nbeen handled and solved in our other work which we have\r\nwritten on the baptism of infants.<a id=\"FNanchor_577_577\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_577_577\">[577]</a> There it was said that the\r\nparting of soul and body was left, though its connection with\r\nsin was removed, for this reason, that if the immortality of\r\nthe body followed immediately upon the sacrament of regeneration,\r\nfaith itself would be thereby enervated. For faith is\r\nthen only faith when it waits in hope for what is not yet seen\r\nin substance. And by the vigour and conflict of faith, at least\r\nin times past, was the fear of death overcome. Specially was\r\nthis conspicuous in the holy martyrs, who could have had no\r\nvictory, no glory, to whom there could not even have been any\r\nconflict, if, after the laver of regeneration, saints could not suffer<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_525\">[Pg 525]</a></span>\r\nbodily death. Who would not, then, in company with the\r\ninfants presented for baptism, run to the grace of Christ, that\r\nso he might not be dismissed from the body? And thus faith\r\nwould not be tested with an unseen reward; and so would\r\nnot even be faith, seeking and receiving an immediate recompense\r\nof its works. But now, by the greater and more admirable\r\ngrace of the Saviour, the punishment of sin is turned\r\nto the service of righteousness. For then it was proclaimed\r\nto man, \"If thou sinnest, thou shalt die;\" now it is said to\r\nthe martyr, \"Die, that thou sin not.\" Then it was said, \"If\r\nye transgress the commandments, ye shall die;\" now it is\r\nsaid, \"If ye decline death, ye transgress the commandment.\"\r\nThat which was formerly set as an object of terror, that men\r\nmight not sin, is now to be undergone if we would not sin.\r\nThus, by the unutterable mercy of God, even the very punishment\r\nof wickedness has become the armour of virtue, and the\r\npenalty of the sinner becomes the reward of the righteous.\r\nFor then death was incurred by sinning, now righteousness is\r\nfulfilled by dying. In the case of the holy martyrs it is so;\r\nfor to them the persecutor proposes the alternative, apostasy\r\nor death. For the righteous prefer by believing to suffer what\r\nthe first transgressors suffered by not believing. For unless\r\nthey had sinned, they would not have died; but the martyrs\r\nsin if they do not die. The one died because they sinned, the\r\nothers do not sin because they die. By the guilt of the first,\r\npunishment was incurred; by the punishment of the second,\r\nguilt is prevented. Not that death, which was before an evil,\r\nhas become something good, but only that God has granted to\r\nfaith this grace, that death, which is the admitted opposite to\r\nlife, should become the instrument by which life is reached.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK THIRTEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-900"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"800c927d870f1a3655bc3a6b4bd708006e8d7f4510307927ffba89dfe9453ba6","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_577_577","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_577_577","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_577_577\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_577_577\"><span class=\"label\">[577]</span></a> <i>De Baptismo Parvulorum</i> is the second half of the title of the book, <i>de\r\nPeccatorum Meritis et Remissione</i>.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_577_577","text_sha256":"85958eb76e56b09247113e1cd8c30404a4a6357a7bfac5ed2221753aafd08d7c","verified":false,"work_id":null}