{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Of this, too, I have no doubt, that before the first man was\r\ncreated, there never had been a man at all, neither this same\r\nman himself recurring by I know not what cycles, and having\r\nmade I know not how many revolutions, nor any other of\r\nsimilar nature. From this belief I am not frightened by\r\nphilosophical arguments, among which that is reckoned the\r\nmost acute which is founded on the assertion that the infinite\r\ncannot be comprehended by any mode of knowledge. Consequently,\r\nthey argue, God has in His own mind finite conceptions\r\nof all finite things which He makes. Now it cannot\r\nbe supposed that His goodness was ever idle; for if it were,\r\nthere should be ascribed to Him an awakening to activity in\r\ntime, from a past eternity of inactivity, as if He repented of\r\nan idleness that had no beginning, and proceeded, therefore, to\r\nmake a beginning of work. This being the case, they say it\r\nmust be that the same things are always repeated, and that\r\nas they pass, so they are destined always to return, whether\r\namidst all these changes the world remains the same,—the\r\nworld which has always been, and yet was created,—or that\r\nthe world in these revolutions is perpetually dying out and\r\nbeing renewed; otherwise, if we point to a time when the\r\nworks of God were begun, it would be believed that He considered\r\nHis past eternal leisure to be inert and indolent, and\r\ntherefore condemned and altered it as displeasing to Himself.\r\nNow if God is supposed to have been indeed always making\r\ntemporal things, but different from one another, and one after\r\nthe other, so that He thus came at last to make man, whom\r\nHe had never made before, then it may seem that He made\r\nman not with knowledge (for they suppose no knowledge can\r\ncomprehend the infinite succession of creatures), but at the\r\ndictate of the hour, as it struck Him at the moment, with a\r\nsudden and accidental change of mind. On the other hand,\r\nsay they, if those cycles be admitted, and if we suppose that<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_506\">[Pg 506]</a></span>\r\nthe same temporal things are repeated, while the world either\r\nremains identical through all these rotations, or else dies away\r\nand is renewed, then there is ascribed to God neither the\r\nslothful ease of a past eternity, nor a rash and unforeseen\r\ncreation. And if the same things be not thus repeated in\r\ncycles, then they cannot by any science or prescience be comprehended\r\nin their endless diversity. Even though reason\r\ncould not refute, faith would smile at these argumentations,\r\nwith which the godless endeavour to turn our simple piety\r\nfrom the right way, that we may walk with them \"in a circle.\"\r\nBut by the help of the Lord our God, even reason, and that\r\nreadily enough, shatters these revolving circles which conjecture\r\nframes. For that which specially leads these men\r\nastray to prefer their own circles to the straight path of\r\ntruth, is, that they measure by their own human, changeable,\r\nand narrow intellect the divine mind, which is absolutely\r\nunchangeable, infinitely capacious, and, without succession of\r\nthought, counting all things without number. So that saying\r\nof the apostle comes true of them, for, \"comparing themselves\r\nwith themselves, they do not understand.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_549_549\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_549_549\">[549]</a> For because they\r\ndo, in virtue of a new purpose, whatever new thing has occurred\r\nto them to be done (their minds being changeable), they conclude\r\nit is so with God; and thus compare, not God,—for they\r\ncannot conceive God, but think of one like themselves when\r\nthey think of Him,—not God, but themselves, and not with\r\nHim, but with themselves. For our part, we dare not believe\r\nthat God is affected in one way when He works, in another\r\nwhen He rests. Indeed, to say that He is affected at all, is\r\nan abuse of language, since it implies that there comes to be\r\nsomething in His nature which was not there before. For he\r\nwho is affected is acted upon, and whatever is acted upon is\r\nchangeable. In His leisure, therefore, is no laziness, indolence,\r\ninactivity; as in His work is no labour, effort, industry. He\r\ncan act while He reposes, and repose while He acts. He can\r\nbegin a new work with (not a new, but) an eternal design;\r\nand what He has not made before, He does not now begin\r\nto make because He repents of His former repose. But<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_507\">[Pg 507]</a></span>\r\nwhen one speaks of His former repose and subsequent operation\r\n(and I know not how men can understand these things),\r\nthis \"former\" and \"subsequent\" are applied only to the things\r\ncreated, which formerly did not exist, and subsequently came\r\ninto existence. But in God the former purpose is not altered\r\nand obliterated by the subsequent and different purpose, but\r\nby one and the same eternal and unchangeable will He effected\r\nregarding the things He created, both that formerly, so long\r\nas they were not, they should not be, and that subsequently,\r\nwhen they began to be, they should come into existence.\r\nAnd thus, perhaps, He would show in a very striking way, to\r\nthose who have eyes for such things, how independent He is\r\nof what He makes, and how it is of His own gratuitous goodness\r\nHe creates, since from eternity He dwelt without creatures\r\nin no less perfect a blessedness.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK TWELFTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-868"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"e182f9e9fef0ba55a995719a7fd8455ac38594d89bc7b28555d59f3925658235","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":[{"book":"2CO","chapter":10,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"2 Cor. x. 12","verse":12,"verse_end":12}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_549_549","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_549_549","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_549_549\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_549_549\"><span class=\"label\">[549]</span></a> 2 Cor. x. 12. Here, and in <i>Enar. in</i> Ps. xxxiv., and also in <i>Cont. Faust.</i>\r\nxxii. 47, Augustine follows the Greek, and not the Vulgate.</p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_549_549","text_sha256":"5b7c6a7b56d16dfc39993ffc740a0d6bd678e7a71204ffbfd727f08471d79f4f","verified":false,"work_id":null}