{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>In Scripture they are called God's enemies who oppose His\r\nrule, not by nature, but by vice; having no power to hurt\r\nHim, but only themselves. For they are His enemies, not\r\nthrough their power to hurt, but by their will to oppose Him.\r\nFor God is unchangeable, and wholly proof against injury.\r\nTherefore the vice which makes those who are called His\r\nenemies resist Him, is an evil not to God, but to themselves.\r\nAnd to them it is an evil, solely because it corrupts the good\r\nof their nature. It is not nature, therefore, but vice, which is\r\ncontrary to God. For that which is evil is contrary to the\r\ngood. And who will deny that God is the supreme good?\r\nVice, therefore, is contrary to God, as evil to good. Further,\r\nthe nature it vitiates is a good, and therefore to this good\r\nalso it is contrary. But while it is contrary to God only as\r\nevil to good, it is contrary to the nature it vitiates, both as\r\nevil and as hurtful. For to God no evils are hurtful; but\r\nonly to natures mutable and corruptible, though, by the testimony\r\nof the vices themselves, originally good. For were they\r\nnot good, vices could not hurt them. For how do they hurt\r\nthem but by depriving them of integrity, beauty, welfare,\r\nvirtue, and, in short, whatever natural good vice is wont to\r\ndiminish or destroy? But if there be no good to take away,\r\nthen no injury can be done, and consequently there can be no\r\nvice. For it is impossible that there should be a harmless\r\nvice. Whence we gather, that though vice cannot injure the\r\nunchangeable good, it can injure nothing but good; because\r\nit does not exist where it does not injure. This, then, may\r\nbe thus formulated: Vice cannot be in the highest good, and\r\ncannot be but in some good. Things solely good, therefore,\r\ncan in some circumstances exist; things solely evil, never; for\r\neven those natures which are vitiated by an evil will, so far\r\nindeed as they are vitiated, are evil, but in so far as they<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_485\">[Pg 485]</a></span>\r\nare natures they are good. And when a vitiated nature is\r\npunished, besides the good it has in being a nature, it has\r\nthis also, that it is not unpunished.<a id=\"FNanchor_524_524\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_524_524\">[524]</a> For this is just, and\r\ncertainly everything just is a good. For no one is punished\r\nfor natural, but for voluntary vices. For even the vice which\r\nby the force of habit and long continuance has become a\r\nsecond nature, had its origin in the will. For at present we\r\nare speaking of the vices of the nature, which has a mental\r\ncapacity for that enlightenment which discriminates between\r\nwhat is just and what is unjust.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK TWELFTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-835"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"36b930851483565aee5ecac44dbdbdff67ce122b1e3dfeb3cbeecda34eceafe0","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_524_524","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_524_524","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_524_524\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_524_524\"><span class=\"label\">[524]</span></a> With this may be compared the argument of Socrates in the <i>Gorgias</i>, in\r\nwhich it is shown that to escape punishment is worse than to suffer it, and that\r\nthe greatest of evils is to do wrong and not be chastised.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_524_524","text_sha256":"cbd742677b0e50b89343217046d5abf5a7f3e365eef9dbedab14dc9a9e3ca0cc","verified":false,"work_id":null}