{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Now they who would refer both the fire and the worm to\r\nthe spirit, and not to the body, affirm that the wicked, who are\r\nseparated from the kingdom of God, shall be burned, as it were,\r\nby the anguish of a spirit repenting too late and fruitlessly;\r\nand they contend that fire is therefore not inappropriately used\r\nto express this burning torment, as when the apostle exclaims,\r\n\"Who is offended, and I burn not?\"<a id=\"FNanchor_866_866\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_866_866\">[866]</a> The worm, too, they\r\nthink, is to be similarly understood. For it is written, they\r\nsay, \"As the moth consumes the garment, and the worm the\r\nwood, so does grief consume the heart of a man.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_867_867\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_867_867\">[867]</a> But they\r\nwho make no doubt that in that future punishment both body\r\nand soul shall suffer, affirm that the body shall be burned with\r\nfire, while the soul shall be, as it were, gnawed by a worm of\r\nanguish. Though this view is more reasonable,—for it is absurd\r\nto suppose that either body or soul will escape pain in the\r\nfuture punishment,—yet, for my own part, I find it easier to\r\nunderstand both as referring to the body than to suppose that\r\nneither does; and I think that Scripture is silent regarding\r\nthe spiritual pain of the damned, because, though not expressed,\r\nit is necessarily understood that in a body thus tormented the\r\nsoul also is tortured with a fruitless repentance. For we read\r\nin the ancient Scriptures, \"The vengeance of the flesh of the\r\nungodly is fire and worms.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_868_868\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_868_868\">[868]</a> It might have been more briefly\r\nsaid, \"The vengeance of the ungodly.\" Why, then, was it said,\r\n\"The flesh of the ungodly,\" unless because both the fire and\r\nthe worm are to be the punishment of the flesh? Or if the\r\nobject of the writer in saying, \"The vengeance of the flesh,\"\r\nwas to indicate that this shall be the punishment of those who\r\nlive after the flesh (for this leads to the second death, as the\r\napostle intimated when he said, \"For if ye live after the flesh,\r\nye shall die\"<a id=\"FNanchor_869_869\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_869_869\">[869]</a>), let each one make his own choice, either\r\nassigning the fire to the body and the worm to the soul,—the\r\none figuratively, the other really,—or assigning both really to<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_434\">[Pg 434]</a></span>\r\nthe body. For I have already sufficiently made out that\r\nanimals can live in the fire, in burning without being consumed,\r\nin pain without dying, by a miracle of the most omnipotent\r\nCreator, to whom no one can deny that this is possible, if\r\nhe be not ignorant by whom has been made all that is wonderful\r\nin all nature. For it is God Himself who has wrought all\r\nthese miracles, great and small, in this world which I have\r\nmentioned, and incomparably more which I have omitted, and\r\nwho has enclosed these marvels in this world, itself the greatest\r\nmiracle of all. Let each man, then, choose which he will,\r\nwhether he thinks that the worm is real and pertains to the\r\nbody, or that spiritual things are meant by bodily representations,\r\nand that it belongs to the soul. But which of these is\r\ntrue will be more readily discovered by the facts themselves,\r\nwhen there shall be in the saints such knowledge as shall not\r\nrequire that their own experience teach them the nature of\r\nthese punishments, but as shall, by its own fulness and perfection,\r\nsuffice to instruct them in this matter. For \"now we\r\nknow in part, until that which is perfect is come;\"<a id=\"FNanchor_870_870\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_870_870\">[870]</a> only, this\r\nwe believe about those future bodies, that they shall be such\r\nas shall certainly be pained by the fire.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK TWENTY-FIRST.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-682"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"78369b07423c015df6a48a0f9d444b9de8851fe278a7f82c3223de953c6b9d2c","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"ROM","chapter":8,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Rom. viii. 13","verse":13,"verse_end":13}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_869_869","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_869_869","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_869_869\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_869_869\"><span class=\"label\">[869]</span></a> Rom. viii. 13.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_869_869","text_sha256":"4edef225d74e81ebb7f0aa749922cc49848c935ae0105fe62254320e9c354cbf","verified":false,"work_id":null}