{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Some, however, of those against whom we are defending the\r\ncity of God, think it unjust that any man be doomed to an\r\neternal punishment for sins which, no matter how great they\r\nwere, were perpetrated in a brief space of time; as if any law\r\never regulated the duration of the punishment by the duration\r\nof the offence punished! Cicero tells us that the laws recognise\r\neight kinds of penalty,—damages, imprisonment, scourging,\r\nreparation,<a id=\"FNanchor_874_874\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_874_874\">[874]</a> disgrace, exile, death, slavery. Is there any one\r\nof these which may be compressed into a brevity proportioned\r\nto the rapid commission of the offence, so that no longer time\r\nmay be spent in its punishment than in its perpetration, unless,\r\nperhaps, reparation? For this requires that the offender\r\nsuffer what he did, as that clause of the law says, \"Eye for\r\neye, tooth for tooth.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_875_875\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_875_875\">[875]</a> For certainly it is possible for an\r\noffender to lose his eye by the severity of legal retaliation in\r\nas brief a time as he deprived another of his eye by the\r\ncruelty of his own lawlessness. But if scourging be a reasonable\r\npenalty for kissing another man's wife, is not the fault\r\nof an instant visited with long hours of atonement, and the\r\nmomentary delight punished with lasting pain? What shall\r\nwe say of imprisonment? Must the criminal be confined only\r\nfor so long a time as he spent on the offence for which he is\r\ncommitted? or is not a penalty of many years' confinement\r\nimposed on the slave who has provoked his master with a\r\nword, or has struck him a blow that is quickly over? And\r\nas to damages, disgrace, exile, slavery, which are commonly\r\ninflicted so as to admit of no relaxation or pardon, do not these\r\nresemble eternal punishments in so far as this short life allows\r\na resemblance? For they are not eternal only because the<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_437\">[Pg 437]</a></span>\r\nlife in which they are endured is not eternal; and yet the\r\ncrimes which are punished with these most protracted sufferings\r\nare perpetrated in a very brief space of time. Nor is\r\nthere any one who would suppose that the pains of punishment\r\nshould occupy as short a time as the offence; or that\r\nmurder, adultery, sacrilege, or any other crime, should be\r\nmeasured, not by the enormity of the injury or wickedness,\r\nbut by the length of time spent in its perpetration. Then as\r\nto the award of death for any great crime, do the laws reckon\r\nthe punishment to consist in the brief moment in which death\r\nis inflicted, or in this, that the offender is eternally banished\r\nfrom the society of the living? And just as the punishment\r\nof the first death cuts men off from this present mortal city,\r\nso does the punishment of the second death cut men off from\r\nthat future immortal city. For as the laws of this present\r\ncity do not provide for the executed criminal's return to it, so\r\nneither is he who is condemned to the second death recalled\r\nagain to life everlasting. But if temporal sin is visited with\r\neternal punishment, how, then, they say, is that true which\r\nyour Christ says, \"With the same measure that ye mete\r\nwithal it shall be measured to you again?\"<a id=\"FNanchor_876_876\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_876_876\">[876]</a> and they do not\r\nobserve that \"the same measure\" refers, not to an equal space\r\nof time, but to the retribution of evil, or, in other words, to\r\nthe law by which he who has done evil suffers evil. Besides,\r\nthese words could be appropriately understood as referring to\r\nthe matter of which our Lord was speaking when He used\r\nthem, viz. judgments and condemnation. Thus, if he who\r\nunjustly judges and condemns is himself justly judged and\r\ncondemned, he receives \"with the same measure\" though not\r\nthe same thing as he gave. For judgment he gave, and judgment\r\nhe receives, though the judgment he gave was unjust,\r\nthe judgment he receives just.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK TWENTY-FIRST.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-687"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"221ccd6100dd9d0e1a5a6a318f3da1dbbe3d20e7432fd263c629a83f6829f548","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_874_874","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_874_874","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_874_874\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_874_874\"><span class=\"label\">[874]</span></a> \"Talio,\" <i>i.e.</i> the rendering of like for like, the punishment being exactly\r\nsimilar to the injury sustained.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_874_874","text_sha256":"3e9d630716964c6feabdf3deefd19b93a73923d1cab0ed824958d3e3d307e1df","verified":false,"work_id":null}