{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Our first parents fell into open disobedience because already\r\nthey were secretly corrupted; for the evil act had never\r\nbeen done had not an evil will preceded it. And what is the\r\norigin of our evil will but pride? For \"pride is the beginning\r\nof sin.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_92_92\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_92_92\">[92]</a> And what is pride but the craving for undue\r\nexaltation? And this is undue exaltation, when the soul\r\nabandons Him to whom it ought to cleave as its end, and<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_26\">[Pg 26]</a></span>\r\nbecomes a kind of end to itself. This happens when it becomes\r\nits own satisfaction. And it does so when it falls\r\naway from that unchangeable good which ought to satisfy it\r\nmore than itself. This falling away is spontaneous; for if\r\nthe will had remained stedfast in the love of that higher and\r\nchangeless good by which it was illumined to intelligence\r\nand kindled into love, it would not have turned away to find\r\nsatisfaction in itself, and so become frigid and benighted;\r\nthe woman would not have believed the serpent spoke the\r\ntruth, nor would the man have preferred the request of his\r\nwife to the command of God, nor have supposed that it was\r\na venial transgression to cleave to the partner of his life even\r\nin a partnership of sin. The wicked deed, then,—that is to\r\nsay, the transgression of eating the forbidden fruit,—was committed\r\nby persons who were already wicked. That \"evil\r\nfruit\"<a id=\"FNanchor_93_93\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_93_93\">[93]</a> could be brought forth only by \"a corrupt tree.\" But\r\nthat the tree was evil was not the result of nature; for certainly\r\nit could become so only by the vice of the will, and\r\nvice is contrary to nature. Now, nature could not have been\r\ndepraved by vice had it not been made out of nothing. Consequently,\r\nthat it is a nature, this is because it is made by\r\nGod; but that it falls away from Him, this is because it is\r\nmade out of nothing. But man did not so fall away<a id=\"FNanchor_94_94\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_94_94\">[94]</a> as to\r\nbecome absolutely nothing; but being turned towards himself,\r\nhis being became more contracted than it was when he clave\r\nto Him who supremely is. Accordingly, to exist in himself,\r\nthat is, to be his own satisfaction after abandoning God, is\r\nnot quite to become a nonentity, but to approximate to that.\r\nAnd therefore the holy Scriptures designate the proud by another\r\nname, \"self-pleasers.\" For it is good to have the heart\r\nlifted up, yet not to one's self, for this is proud, but to the\r\nLord, for this is obedient, and can be the act only of the\r\nhumble. There is, therefore, something in humility which,\r\nstrangely enough, exalts the heart, and something in pride\r\nwhich debases it. This seems, indeed, to be contradictory,\r\nthat loftiness should debase and lowliness exalt. But pious\r\nhumility enables us to submit to what is above us; and\r\nnothing is more exalted above us than God; and therefore<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_27\">[Pg 27]</a></span>\r\nhumility, by making us subject to God, exalts us. But pride,\r\nbeing a defect of nature, by the very act of refusing subjection\r\nand revolting from Him who is supreme, falls to a low condition;\r\nand then comes to pass what is written: \"Thou castedst\r\nthem down when they lifted up themselves.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_95_95\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_95_95\">[95]</a> For he does\r\nnot say, \"when they had been lifted up,\" as if first they were\r\nexalted, and then afterwards cast down; but \"when they lifted\r\nup themselves\" even then they were cast down,—that is to say,\r\nthe very lifting up was already a fall. And therefore it is\r\nthat humility is specially recommended to the city of God as\r\nit sojourns in this world, and is specially exhibited in the city\r\nof God, and in the person of Christ its King; while the contrary\r\nvice of pride, according to the testimony of the sacred\r\nwritings, specially rules his adversary the devil. And certainly\r\nthis is the great difference which distinguishes the two cities\r\nof which we speak, the one being the society of the godly\r\nmen, the other of the ungodly, each associated with the angels\r\nthat adhere to their party, and the one guided and fashioned\r\nby love of self, the other by love of God.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK FOURTEENTH.[1]","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-58"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"ec3b7974dc62f419eee828e843867f3d6f8d8f80b90ab984283bdbca0e37e4fd","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[{"book":"SIR","chapter":10,"kind":"unreviewed","source_notation":"Ecclus. x. 13","verse":13,"verse_end":13}],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_92_92","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_92_92","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_92_92\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_92_92\"><span class=\"label\">[92]</span></a> Ecclus. x. 13.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_92_92","text_sha256":"b79c558b7038e73d074e1ca4fb89d1f6db0c8499c427028256170d2459a8cf3a","verified":false,"work_id":null}