Chap. I.—Of the World, and Those Who are About to Believe, and Those Who are Not; And in This the Censure of the Faithless.

It is well: the foundations are laid, as the illustrious orator says. But we have not only laid the foundations, which might be firm and suitable for the support of the work; but we have raised the entire edifice, with great and strong buildings, almost to the summit. There remains, a matter which is much easier, either to cover or adorn it; without which, however, the former works are both useless and displeasing. For of what avail is it, either to be freed from false religions1257    Fingendi.      [The ritual use of lights was unknown to primitive Christians, however harmless it may be.]      The subject of the first and second books.   or to understand the true1258    Undique quadrat.      [The ritual use of lights was unknown to primitive Christians, however harmless it may be.]      The subject of the sixth book.   one? Of what avail, either to see the vanity of false wisdom,1259    Hierocles, referred to in chapter 2.      φω̑τες. There is here a play on the double meaning of the word—φω̑ς, a light, and φώς, a man. Some editions read “φω̑ς nuncupatur.”      The subject of the third book.   or to know what is true?1260    Apollonius, a celebrated Pythagorean philosopher of Tyana: his works and doctrines are recorded by Philostratus, from whom Lactantius appears to have derived his account. The pagans compared his life and actions with those of Christ. [See Origen, vol. iv. p. 591, this series.]      [The ritual use of lights was unknown to primitive Christians, however harmless it may be.]      The subject of the fourth book.   Of what avail is it, I say, to defend that heavenly justice?1261    Apuleius, a native of Madaura, a city on the borders of the province of Africa, he professed the Platonic philosophy. He was reputed a magician by the Christian writers. [Author of The Golden Ass, a most entertaining but often indecent satire, which may have inspired Cervantes, and concerning which see Warburton, Div. Legat., vol. ii. p. 177 (et alibi), ed. London, 1811.]      [The Lutherans retain altar-lights in Europe, and their use has never been wholly obsolete in the Anglican churches; but it is evident from our author that “from the beginning it was not so.” This is not said with any scruple against their use where it is authorized by competent legislation.]      The subject of the fifth book.   Of what avail to hold the worship of God1262    Affectavit divinitatem.      Saginam, thick coarse food, such as that which was given to gladiators.      The subject of the sixth book.   with great difficulties, which is the greatest virtue, unless the divine reward of everlasting blessedness attends it? Of which subject we must speak in this book, lest all that is gone before should appear vain and unprofitable: if we should leave this, on account of which they were undertaken, in uncertainty, lest any one should by chance think that such great labours are undertaken in vain; while he distrusts their heavenly reward, which God has appointed for him who shall have despised the present sweet enjoyments of earth in comparison of solitary and unrewarded1263    Noster.      Persius, Sat., ii. 29.      Nuda.   virtue. Let us satisfy this part of our subject also, both by the testimonies of the sacred writings and also by probable arguments, that it may be equally manifest that future things are to be preferred to those which are present; heavenly things to earthly; and eternal things to those which are temporal: since the rewards of vices are temporal, those of virtues are eternal.  

I will therefore set forth the system of the world, that it may easily be understood both when and how it was made by God; which Plato, who discoursed about the making of the world, could neither know nor explain, inasmuch as he was ignorant of the heavenly mystery, which is not learned except by the teaching of prophets and God; and therefore he said that it was created for eternity. Whereas the case is far different, since whatever is of a solid and heavy body, as it received a beginning at some time, so it must needs have an end. For Aristotle, when he did not see how so great a magnitude of things could perish, and wished to escape this objection,1264    Sacramentum.      [Ad justitiam. In Christian use, it means more than “justice,” which is put here by the translator.]      Præscriptionem.   said that the world always had existed, and always would exist. He did not at all see, that whatever material thing exists must at some time have had a beginning, and that nothing can exist at all unless it had a beginning. For when we see that earth, and water, and fire perish, are consumed, and extinguished, which are clearly parts of the world, it is understood that that is altogether mortal the members of which are mortal. Thus it comes to pass, that whatever is liable to destruction must have been produced. But everything which comes within the sight of the eyes must of necessity be material, and capable of dissolution. Therefore Epicurus alone, following the authority of Democritus, spoke truly in this matter, who said that it had a beginning at some time, and that it would at some time perish. Nor, however, was he able to assign any reason, either through what causes or at what time this work of such magnitude should be destroyed. But since God has revealed this to us, and we do not arrive at it by conjectures, but by instruction from heaven, we will carefully teach it, that it may at length be evident to those who are desirous of the truth, that the philosophers did not see nor comprehend the truth; but that they had so slight a knowledge1265    With one spirit, “uno spiritu.”      [1 John iii. 1–8. The ethical truth of the Gospel was understood and exemplified by the primitive faithful.]      Ita leviter odoratos.   of it, that they by no means perceived from what source that fragrance1266    [But Apollonius was set up as an Antichrist by Philostratus as Cudworth supposes, and so other men of learning. But no student should overlook l.ardner’s valuable commentary on this character, and his quotations from Bishop Parker of Oxford, Credib., vol. vii. p. 486, and also p. 508, cap. 29, and appendix.]      Odor.   of wisdom, which was so pleasant and agreeable, breathed upon them.  

In the meantime, I think it necessary to admonish those who are about to read this, that depraved and vicious minds, since the acuteness of their mind is blunted by earthly passions, which weigh down all the perceptions and render them weak, will either altogether fail to understand these things which we relate, or, even if they shall understand them, they will dissemble and be unwilling for them to be true: because they are drawn away by vices, and they knowingly favour their own evils, by the pleasantness of which they are captivated, and they desert the way of virtue, by the bitterness of which they are offended. For they who are inflamed with avarice and a certain insatiable thirst for riches—because, when they have sold or squandered the things in which they delight, they are unable to live in a simple style—undoubtedly prefer that by which they are compelled to renounce their eager desires. Also, they who, urged on by the incitements of lusts, as the poet says,1267    Deliramenta.      Virg., Georg., iii. 244.    

say that we bring forward things plainly incredible; because the precepts about self-restraint wound their ears, which restrain them from their pleasures, to which they have given1268    See book ii. ch. 23.      Adjudicaverunt.   up their soul, together with their body. But those who, swollen with ambition or inflamed with the love of power, have bestowed all their efforts on the acquisition of honours, will not, even if we should bear the sun himself in our hands, believe that teaching which commands them to despise all power and honour, and to live in humility, and in such humility that they may be able to receive an injury, and if they have received one, be unwilling to return it. These are the men who cry out1269    Cf. Matt. vii. 15.      Latrant.   in any way against the truth with closed eyes. But they who are or shall be of sound mind, that is, not so immersed in vices as to be incurable, will both believe these things, and will readily approach them; and whatever things we say, they will appear to them open, and plain, and simple, and that which is chiefly necessary, true and unassailable.  

No one favours virtue but he who is able to follow it; but it is not easy for all to follow it: they can do so whom poverty and want have exercised, and made capable of virtue. For if the endurance of evils is virtue, it follows that they are not capable of virtue who have always lived in the enjoyment of good things; because they have never experienced evils, nor can they endure them, through their long-continued use and desire of good things, which alone they know. Thus it comes to pass that the poor and humble, who are unencumbered, more readily believe God than the rich, who are entangled with many hindrances;1270    Epilogus.      Impedimentis.   yea, rather, in chains and fetters they are enslaved to the nod of desire, their mistress, which has ensnared them with inextricable bonds; nor are they able to look up to heaven, since their mind is bent down to the earth, and fixed on the ground. But the way of virtue does not admit those carrying great burthens. The path is very narrow by which justice leads man to heaven; no one can keep this unless he is unencumbered and lightly equipped. For those wealthy men, who are loaded with many and great burthens, proceed along the way of death, which is very broad, since destruction rules with extended sway. The precepts which God gives for justice, and the things which we bring forward under the teaching of God respecting virtue and the truth, are bitter and as poisons to these. And if they shall dare to oppose these things, they must own themselves to be enemies of virtue and justice. I will now come to the remaining part of the subject, that an end may be put to the work. But this remains, that we should treat of the judgment of God, which will then be established when our Lord shall return to the earth to render to every one either a reward or punishment, according to his desert. Therefore, as we spoke in the fourth book concerning His first advent,1271    [See p. 108, supra.]   so in this book we will relate His second advent, which the Jews also both confess and hope for; but in vain, since He must return to the confusion1272    Ad confundendos. Others read “consolandos.”   of those for whose call He had before come. For they who impiously treated Him with violence in His humiliation, will experience Him in His power as a conqueror; and, God requiting them, they will suffer all those things which they read and do not understand; inasmuch as, being polluted with all sins, and moreover sprinkled with the blood of the Holy One, they were devoted to eternal punishment by that very One on whom they laid wicked hands. But we shall have a separate subject against the Jews, in which we shall convict them of error and guilt.  

0733C CAPUT PRIMUM. De mundo; et qui sint credituri, qui vero non, atque ibi reprehensio perfidorum.

Bene habet: jacta sunt fundamenta, ut ait eximius Orator. Verum nos non fundamenta solum jecimus, quae firma et idonea essent operi perforendo; sed magnis robustisque molibus aedificium totum pene usque ad summa perduximus. Restat, id quod est 0734C multo facilius, vel tegere, vel ornare; sine quo tamen priora opera et inutilia sunt, et ingrata. Nam quid prodest, aut falsis religionibus liberari, aut intelligere veram? quid aut vanitatem falsae sapientiae pervidere, aut quae sit vera cogoscere? Quid, inquam, prodest coelestem illam justitiam defendere? quid cum magnis difficultatibus cultum Dei tenere, quae est summa virtus? nisi eam divinum 0735A praemium 0735A beatitudinis perpetue subsequatur. De qua nobis est in hoc libro disserendum; ne priora omnia irrita et infructuosa videantur, si hoc, cujus causa illa suscepta sunt, in incertum relinquamus; ne quis forte arbitretur, tantos labores incassum suscipi, dum eorum coelesti mercedi diffidit, quam Deus statuit ei, qui haec suavia terrae bona prae sola nudaque virtute contempserit. Satis et huic parti faciamus, cum testimoniis divinarum Litterarum, tum etiam probabilibus argumentis, ut aeque clarum sit, et futura praesentibus, et divina terrenis, et perpetua brevibus esse anteponenda, quoniam temporalia sunt praemia vitiorum, sempiterna virtutum.

Exponam igitur rationem mundi, ut facile possit 0735B intelligi, et quando, et quare sit effectus a Deo: quod Plato, qui de mundi fabricatione disseruit, nec scire poterat, nec explicare; quippe qui coeleste mysterium, quod non nisi prophetis ac Deo docente discitur, ignorabat; ideoque in perpetuum dixit esse fabricatum. Quod longe secus est: quoniam quidquid est solido ac gravi corpore, ut initium cepit aliquando, ita finem capiat necesse est. Nam Aristoteles cum non videret quemadmodum posset tanta rerum magnitudo interire, et hanc praescriptionem vellet 0736A effugere, semper ait fuisse mundum, ac semper futurum. Prorsus nihil vidit; quia quidquid est, necesse est aliquando habuerit principium, nec omnino quidquam potest esse, nisi coeperit. Nam cum terram, et aquam, et ignem disperire, consumi, extinguique videamus, quae sunt utique mundi partes, intelligitur id totum esse mortale, cujus membra sunt mortalia. Ita fit, ut natum sit quidquid potest interire. Sed et omne quod sub visum oculorum venit, et corporale, ut ait Plato, et solubile sit necesse est. Unus igitur Epicurus, auctore Democrito, veridicus in hac re fuit; qui ait, et ortum aliquando, et aliquando esse periturum. Nec tamen rationem ullam reddere potuit, aut quibus de causis tantum hoc opus, aut quo 0736B tempore solvatur. Quod quoniam nobis Deus revelavit, nec conjecturis id assequimur, sed traditione coelesti, docebimus sedulo; ut tandem studiosis veritatis appareat, non vidisse neque comprehendisse philosophos veritatem, sed ita leviter odoratos, ut tamen unde eos odor ille sapientiae tam suavis, tam jucundus afflaverit, nullo modo senserint.

Interim necessarium puto admonere lecturos, quod haec nostra quae tradimus; pravae vitiosaeque mentes aut omnino non intelligent (hebetatur enim 0737A acies eorum terrenis cupiditatibus, quae sensus omnes gravant, imbecillesque reddunt); aut etiam si intelligent, dissimulabunt tamen, et haec vera esse nolent, quia trahuntur a vitiis, et scientes malis suis favent, quorum suavitate capiuntur, et virtutis viam deserunt, cujus acerbitate offenduntur. Nam qui avaritia, et opum inexplebili quadam siti flagrant, 0737A quia non possunt, venditis aut dilargitis quae amant, tenui cultu vitam degere, sine dubio malunt id esse fictum, quo desideriis suis renuntiare coguntur. Item, qui libidinum stimulis incitati, ut ait poeta, In furias ignemque ruunt,utique incredibilia nos afferre dicunt; quia vulnerant aures eorum praecepta continentiae, quae illos a voluptatibus suis prohibent, quibus animam suam cum 0737B corpore adjudicaverunt. Qui vero ambitione inflati, aut amore potentiae inflammati, omne studium suum ad honores acquirendos contulerunt, ne si solem quidem ipsum gestemus in manibus, fidem commodabunt ei doctrinae, illos jubet omni potentia et honore contempto humiles vivere, atque ita humiles, ut et accipere injuriam possint, et referre nolint, si acceperint. Ii sunt homines, qui contra veritatem clausis oculis quoquo modo latrant. Qui autem sani sunt, vel erunt, id est, non ita vitiis immersi, ut insanabiles sint, et credent his, et libenter accedent; et quaecumque dicimus, aperta, et plana, et simplicia, et quod maxime opus est, vera et inexpugnabilia illis videbuntur.

0737C Nemo virtuti favet, nisi qui sequi potest; sequi autem non facile est omnibus: ii possunt, quos paupertas et rerum indigentia exercuit, et capaces virtutis 0738A effecit. Nam si virtus est tolerantia malorum, non capiunt ergo virtutem, qui semper in bonis fuerunt, quia mala neque experti sunt, neque ferre possunt assuetudine ac desiderio bonorum, quae sola noverunt. Eo fit, ut pauperes et humiles Deo credant facilius, qui sunt expediti, quam divites, qui sunt impedimentis pluribus implicati: immo vero catenati et compediti serviunt ad nutum dominae cupiditatis, quae illos inextricabilibus vinculis irretivit; nec possunt in coelum aspicere, quoniam mens eorum in terram prona humique defixa est. Virtutis autem via non capit magna onera gestantes. Angustus admodum trames est, per quem justitia hominem deducit in coelum. Hunc tenere non potest, nisi qui fuerit expeditus et nudus. Nam isti locupletes multis et ingentibus sarcinis onerati per viam mortis incedunt, quae 0738B latissima est; quoniam late perditio dominatur. His acerba sunt, his venena, quae Deus ad justitiam praecipit, quaeque nos Dei magisterio de virtute ac veritate disserimus. Quibus si repugnare audebunt, necesse est hostes se esse virtutis justitiaeque fateantur. Aggrediar nunc quod superest, ut finis operi possit imponi. Id autem superest, ut de judicio Dei disseramus: quod tum constituetur, cum Dominus noster redierit in terram; ut unicuique pro merito aut praemium persolvat, aut poenam. Itaque ut in quarto libro de primo adventu ejus diximus, sic in hoc secundum referamus adventum, quem Judaei quoque et confitentur, et sperant, sed frustra, quoniam necesse est ad eos confundendos revertatur, 0738C ad quos convocandos prius venerat. Nam qui violaverunt impie humilem, sentient in potestate victorem; eaque omnia quae legunt, et non intelligunt, 0739A Deo repensante 0739A patientur, quippe qui peccatis omnibus inquinati, et insuper sancto cruore perfusi, ab illo ipso, qui nefandas manus intulerunt, sint ad aeterna supplicia destinati. Sed erit nobis contra Judaeos separata materia, in qua illos erroris et sceleris revincemus.