'That is a force of nature, the nature of these things is thus disposed, these are the efficacies proper to their natures.' The whole reason, therefore, why the flame makes the salt of Agrigentum flow, and the water makes it crackle, is that this is its nature. But this rather seems to be against nature, which gave salt to be dissolved not by fire but by water, and to be parched by fire, not by water. But this, they say, is the natural force of this salt, that it should suffer things contrary to these. This reason, then, is rendered also concerning that Garamantic spring, where one vein is cold by day and hot by night, troublesome to those who touch it by either force;
this too concerning that other spring, which, though cold to those who handle it, and though it extinguishes a kindled torch as other springs do, yet, unlike them and marvellously, itself kindles an extinguished one; this too concerning the stone asbestos, which, though it has no fire of its own, yet, having received fire from another, burns so that it cannot be extinguished; this concerning the rest, which it is wearisome to recount, in which, though an unusual force seems to be present contrary to nature, yet no other reason is rendered of them, save that it be said that this is their nature. A brief reason indeed, I confess, and a sufficient answer.
But since God is the author of all natures, why are they unwilling that we should render a stronger reason, when they refuse to believe something as though impossible, and to them, demanding the rendering of a reason, we answer that this is the will of Almighty God? — who is certainly not called Almighty for any other cause than that He can do whatever He wills, who was able to create so many things which, unless they were shown, or said by trustworthy witnesses to exist even today, would assuredly be thought impossible — not only those which are most unknown among us, but even those most well-known which I have set down.
For those things which, besides those in whose books we have read of them, have no witness, and were written down by men who were not divinely taught and could perhaps be humanly deceived — anyone may without just blame decline to believe. For neither do I wish all the things I have set down to be believed rashly, since not even by myself are they so believed as though there were no doubt about them in my thought — except those which I have either myself experienced, and which it is easy for anyone to experience: as concerning lime, that it grows hot in water and is cold in oil; concerning the magnet stone, that by some imperceptible absorption it does not move a straw, yet snatches iron; concerning the flesh of the peacock which does not decay, when even that of Plato has decayed;
concerning chaff so cold that it does not allow snow to melt, so warm that it compels apples to ripen; concerning bright fire, that according to its brightness it whitens stones by baking, and contrary to that same brightness of its, by burning it darkens very many things. Such also is the fact that black stains are spread by shining oil, and likewise black lines are imprinted from white silver; and concerning coals also, that with fire kindling them they are so turned into the contrary that from most beautiful woods they become foul, from hard things brittle, from perishable things imperishable. Some of these things I myself know along with many, some along with all; and very many others, which to insert into this book would be too long.
But concerning those things which I have set down not as experienced but as read — except concerning that spring where burning torches are extinguished and extinguished ones kindled, and concerning the apples of the land of Sodom, ripe as it were on the outside, smoky within — I have been unable to find any suitable witnesses from whom I might hear whether they were true. And indeed that spring I did not find any who said they had seen in Epirus, but some who knew of a similar one in Gaul, not far from the city of Grenoble. But concerning the fruits of the Sodomite trees, not only do trustworthy writings indicate it, but also so many say they have experienced it, that I cannot doubt of it. The rest, however, I so hold, that I have determined neither to deny nor to affirm them;
but I have set down these very things for this reason, because I read them among the historians of those against whom we contend, in order to show what and how many things many of theirs believe on the written page of their own men of letters, with no reason rendered — men who do not deign to believe us, and that too with no reason rendered, when we say that Almighty God is going to do that which transcends their experience and sense. For what better and more valid reason is rendered concerning such things than when the Almighty is declared to be able to do them, and is said to be going to do those things which He is there read to have foretold, where He foretold many other things which He is shown to have done?
For He Himself will do it, because He foretold that He would do it — namely those things which are thought impossible — He who promised and brought it about that incredible things should be believed by unbelieving nations. [VIII] But if they answer that they do not believe the things we say concerning human bodies which shall always burn and never die, for this reason: because we know the nature of human bodies to have been established far otherwise, so that not even that reason can here be rendered which was rendered concerning those marvellous natures, such that it might be said 'This force is natural, this is the nature of this thing' — since we know that this is not the nature of human flesh:
we have indeed something to answer from the sacred writings, namely that this very human flesh was established otherwise before sin — that is, so that it could never suffer death — but otherwise after sin, such as it has become known in the misery of this mortality, so that it cannot hold perpetual life; thus, then, it shall be established otherwise than it is known to us, in the resurrection of the dead. But since they do not believe these writings, where it is read what manner of man lived in paradise and how far he was estranged from the necessity of death (which, if indeed they believed, we should not deal more laboriously with them concerning the punishment of the damned which is to come):
something must be brought forth from the writings of those who were most learned among them, whereby it may appear that it can come to pass that each thing should be disposed otherwise than it had before become known in the determination of its own nature. There is in the books of Marcus Varro, whose title is 'On the Race of the Roman People,' something which I shall here set down in the very words in which it is read there: 'In the heaven,' he says, 'a marvellous portent appeared; for in the star of Venus, the most noble, which Plautus calls Vesperugo, Homer Hesperos, calling it most beautiful, Castor writes that so great a portent appeared, that it changed its colour, magnitude, figure, and course; which thing so happened neither before nor afterward.
This event happened in the reign of King Ogygus, said the famous mathematicians Adrastus of Cyzicus and Dion of Naples.' Certainly Varro, so great an authority, would not have called this a portent, unless it had seemed to be against nature. For we say that all portents are against nature; but they are not. For how is that against nature which comes to pass by the will of God, since the will of so great a Creator is surely the nature of each created thing? A portent, therefore, comes to pass not against nature, but against nature as it is known. But who numbers the multitude of portents which the history of the nations contains? But now let us attend to this one thing, which pertains to the matter of which we treat.
What was ordained by the Author of heaven and earth more precisely than the most orderly course of the stars? What is fixed and established by laws more determined? And yet, when He willed it, who governs by supreme sovereignty and power what He has made, a star more famous than the rest for its size and splendour changed its colour, its magnitude, its figure, and (what is more wonderful still) the very order and law of its course. Assuredly it then threw into confusion, if any such existed at that time, the canons of the astrologers, which they hold to be composed by an unerring computation concerning the past and future movements of the stars; and by following these canons they dared to say that this which happened to Lucifer (the morning star) had never happened either before or afterward.
But we read in the divine books that even the sun itself both stood still, when the holy man Joshua the son of Nun asked this of the Lord God, until the battle he had begun should be ended in victory; and that it went backward, so that to King Hezekiah fifteen years added to his life might also be signified by this prodigy joined to the promise of God. But these miracles too, which were granted to the merits of the saints, these men, when they believe they were done, attribute to magical arts. Hence comes that which I mentioned above as having been said by Virgil: to stay the water in the rivers and turn the stars backward.
For we read in the sacred writings that a river both stood still and flowed backward in its upper part while its lower part flowed on, when the people of God were making their way under the aforesaid leader Joshua the son of Nun; and that this was done when the prophet Elijah crossed over, and afterward when his disciple Elisha did so; and we have just now recalled that a very great star turned backward in the reign of Hezekiah. But as for what Varro wrote concerning Lucifer, it is not there said that this was granted to any man who asked for it. Let not the unbelieving, therefore, make darkness for themselves out of their knowledge of natures, as though it were impossible that in some matter something else could be done by divine power than what they have come to know in the nature of that thing through their own human experience;
although even those very things which are known to all in the nature of things are no less wonderful, and would be astonishing to all who consider them, if men were wont to marvel at wonders that were not rare. For who, if he reflects with reason, does not see that among the innumerable multitude of men, and amid so great a likeness of nature, individuals so remarkably have their several faces, that unless they were like one another, their species could not be distinguished from the other animals; and again, unless they were unlike one another, individuals could not be distinguished from other men? Those, therefore, whom we acknowledge to be alike, the very same we find to be unlike. But the consideration of the unlikeness is the more wonderful, since it seems that a common nature more justly demands likeness.
And yet, since it is the things that are rare which are wonderful, we marvel far more when we find two so alike that in distinguishing them we err either always or frequently. But this which I said Varro wrote, although he is a historian of these matters and also most learned, perhaps they do not believe was truly done; or because the other course of that same star did not last long, but a return was made to the usual one, they are the less moved by this example. They have, therefore, another thing which even now can be shown to them, and which I think ought to suffice to admonish them: that when they have observed something in some established order of nature and have made it most familiar to themselves, they ought not on that account to prescribe to God, as though He could not turn and change it into something far other than what has been known to them.
The land of Sodom was certainly not as it now is, but lay with a face like the rest and abounded in a fertility equal to, or even richer than, others; for in the divine oracles it is compared to the paradise of God. After it was smitten from heaven, as their own history also attests, and as it is now beheld by those who come to those places, it is horrible with a prodigious sooty smoke, and its fruits enclose an inner ash beneath a lying surface of ripeness. Behold, it was not such, and such it is. Behold, its nature was, by the Founder of natures, by a wonderful change turned into this most foul difference; and what happened after so long a time, endures for so long a time.
As therefore it was not impossible for God to establish such natures as He willed, so it is not impossible for Him to change into whatever He wills the natures He has established. Hence too there springs up a whole forest of those miracles which are called monstra (portents), ostenta (signs), portenta, prodigia; which, if I wished to review and recall, what end would there be to this work? They say that monstra are so called from monstrare (to show), because they demonstrate something by signifying; and ostenta from ostendere (to display); and portenta from portendere, that is, from foreshowing; and prodigia, because they say forth (porro dicant), that is, they foretell things to come.
But let their diviners see to it, how, whether they are deceived by these things, or by the instigation of those spirits whose care it is to entangle in the nets of harmful curiosity the souls of men who deserve such a penalty, they even foretell true things, or by saying much they sometimes chance upon something of the truth.
To us, however, these things which are done as it were against nature, and are said to be done against nature (in which manner of human speech the Apostle too spoke when he said that against nature the wild olive was grafted into the olive and made partaker of the richness of the olive), and which are named monstra, ostenta, portenta, prodigia—these ought to show us this, to display or foreshow us this, to foretell us this: what God is going to do, which He has foretold that He will do concerning the bodies of men, with no difficulty hindering Him, no law of nature prescribing to Him. But in what manner He has foretold it, I think I have sufficiently taught in the preceding book, by gathering from the holy Scriptures, both new and old, not indeed all things pertaining to this, but such as I judged sufficient for this work.
[IX] That which, therefore, God said through His prophet concerning the everlasting punishment of the damned, shall come to pass, shall assuredly come to pass: Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched. For to commend this more forcibly, the Lord Jesus also, when He was putting the members which cause a man to stumble in place of those men whom one loves as his own right-hand members, and was bidding them be cut off, said: It is good for thee to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands to go into Gehenna, into the fire that cannot be quenched, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Likewise concerning the foot:
It is good for thee, He says, to enter halt into life eternal, rather than having two feet to be cast into the Gehenna of unquenchable fire, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Not otherwise does He speak also of the eye: It is good for thee to enter one-eyed into the kingdom of God, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna of fire, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. It did not weary Him to say the same words thrice in one passage. Whom would this repetition not terrify, and this commendation of that punishment, so vehement, from the divine mouth?
Both of these, namely the fire and the worm, those who wish them to pertain to the punishments of the soul and not of the body, say that those who have been separated from the kingdom of God are also burned with the grief of a mind repenting too late and fruitlessly, and therefore contend that fire could not unfittingly be put for this burning grief; whence comes that saying of the Apostle: Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn? They think the same worm also is to be so understood. For it is written, they say: As the moth the garment, and the worm the wood, so grief tormenteth the heart of a man. But those who do not doubt that there will be punishments both of soul and of body in that torment affirm that the body will be burned with fire, while the soul will be gnawed in a certain manner by the worm of grief.
Although this is said more credibly—since it is certainly absurd that there should be lacking there a pain either of body or of soul—yet for my part it is easier for me to say that both pertain to the body than that neither does; and that therefore the pain of the soul is left unspoken in those words of divine Scripture, because it is understood to follow even if it be not stated, so that, as the body thus suffers pain, the soul too is tormented with barren repentance. For indeed it is read also in the old Scriptures: The vengeance on the flesh of the ungodly is fire and worm. It could have been said more briefly: The vengeance on the ungodly. Why then was it said: on the flesh of the ungodly, unless because both, that is both fire and worm, will be the punishment of the flesh?
Or if He wished to say vengeance on the flesh for this reason, because that will be punished in man which he lived according to the flesh (for on this account he will come into the second death, which the Apostle signified when he said: For if ye live according to the flesh, ye shall die), let each choose what pleases him: either to assign the fire to the body and the worm to the soul, the one properly, the other figuratively; or both properly to the body. For I have already sufficiently argued above that living creatures can live even in fire, in burning without consumption, in pain without death, through a miracle of the most omnipotent Creator; and whoever denies that this is possible for Him, is ignorant from whom comes whatever he marvels at in all natures.
For He it is who is God, who made all the miracles great and small in this world which we have mentioned, and incomparably more which we have not mentioned, and who has enclosed these very things in this world itself as one and the greatest miracle of all. Let each therefore choose one of the two, whichever pleases him: whether he thinks the worm pertains to the body properly, or to the soul by a term transferred from things corporeal to things incorporeal. But which of these is true, the reality itself will more readily indicate, when there shall be so great a knowledge among the saints that for knowing those punishments experience will not be necessary to them, but that wisdom, which will then be full and perfect, will alone suffice for knowing this too (for now we know in part, until that which is perfect shall come);
provided, however, that we by no means believe those bodies will be such as to be affected by no pains from the fire. [X] Here it occurs to inquire: If the fire will not be incorporeal, like the pain of the soul, but corporeal, harmful to the touch, so that bodies can be tormented by it, how will there be in it also the punishment of the malignant spirits? For it will be the same fire, assigned namely to the punishment of men and of demons, since Christ says: Depart from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels. Unless it be because there are also certain bodies of their own even to the demons, as it has seemed to learned men, made of this thick and moist air, the impact of which is felt when the wind blows.
And if this kind of element could suffer nothing from fire, it would not burn when heated in the baths. For in order that it may burn, it is first burned itself, and it acts while it suffers. But if anyone asserts that the demons have no bodies at all, this matter is not to be labored over with painstaking inquiry, nor contended about with contentious disputation. For why should we not say that, by wondrous yet true modes, even incorporeal spirits can be afflicted by the punishment of corporeal fire, if the spirits of men, themselves also assuredly incorporeal, both could now be shut up in corporeal members, and then will be able to be indissolubly bound by the chains of their own bodies?
Therefore the spirits of the demons—nay rather, the demon-spirits—if they have no bodies, will cleave, though incorporeal, to corporeal fires to be tormented; not so that those fires themselves, to which they will cleave, may be inspired by their conjunction and become living creatures composed of spirit and body, but, as I have said, by cleaving in wondrous and ineffable modes, receiving punishment from the fires, not giving life to the fires; because that other mode also, by which spirits cleave to bodies and become living creatures, is altogether wondrous and cannot be comprehended by man—and this man himself is. I would indeed say that spirits will thus burn without any body of their own, just as that rich man burned among the dead, when he said:
I am tormented in this flame—did I not perceive that a fitting answer may be made, that such was that flame as were the eyes which he lifted up and saw Lazarus, such as the tongue for which he desired a little moisture to be poured, such as the finger of Lazarus by which he begged this to be done for him; where nevertheless there were souls without bodies. So then that flame with which he burned was incorporeal, and that little drop which he asked for was incorporeal, such as are also the things seen by those who sleep, or by those who in ecstasy perceive incorporeal things, which nevertheless have a likeness of bodies. For man himself, though in such visions he is present with his spirit, not his body, yet then sees himself so like to his own body that he cannot at all distinguish it.
But truly that Gehenna, which is also called a lake of fire and brimstone, will be corporeal fire, and will torment the bodies of the damned—either both of men and of demons, the solid bodies of men, the airy bodies of demons; or only the bodies of men together with their spirits, while the demons are spirits without bodies cleaving to the fire so as to receive punishment, not to impart life to the corporeal fires. For there will be one fire for both, as the Truth has said.
[XI] But if certain of those against whom we defend the City of God think it unjust that anyone should be condemned to eternal punishment for sins however great, committed namely in a short time—as though the justice of any law ever aimed at this, that a man should be punished for as long a stretch of time as that in which he committed the deed for which he is punished—Tullius (Cicero) writes that there are eight kinds of penalties in the laws: fine, bonds, stripes, retaliation, disgrace, exile, death, servitude. Which of these is there that is compressed into a brief time to match the swiftness of each sin, so that it is avenged in only such a moment as the deed is found to have taken, unless perhaps retaliation? For this aims that a man should suffer the same as he did. Whence comes that saying of the law:
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. For it can happen that a man loses his eye in as brief a time by the severity of vengeance as he himself took another's eye by the wickedness of sin. Furthermore, if it is reasonable to avenge a kiss forced upon another man's wife with stripes, does not he who did that in a moment of time get beaten for an incomparable span of hours, and the sweetness of a scant pleasure is punished with lasting pain? What of bonds—is anyone to be judged that he ought to be in them only as long as he took to do the deed by which he deserved to be bound; when most justly a slave pays years-long penalties in fetters, who by a word or blow most swiftly passing either provoked or struck his master?
Now indeed, since fine, disgrace, exile, and servitude are for the most part so inflicted that they are relaxed by no pardon, do they not, in proportion to the measure of this life, seem like to eternal punishments? For the reason they cannot be eternal is that neither is that very life, which is chastised by them, prolonged into eternity; and yet the sins which are avenged by penalties of the longest time are perpetrated in a very short time; nor has anyone ever existed who would judge that the torments of the guilty should be ended as swiftly as the deed was done—whether homicide, or adultery, or sacrilege, or any other crime whatsoever—since it is to be measured not by length of time, but by the greatness of the iniquity and impiety.
But he who for some great crime is punished with death—do the laws reckon his punishment to be the delay in which he is killed, which is very brief, and not rather the fact that they remove him forever from the society of the living? For what it is to remove men from this mortal city by the punishment of the first death, this it is to remove men from that immortal city by the punishment of the second death. For as the laws of this city do not bring it about that anyone slain is recalled into it, so neither do the laws of that city bring it about that one damned by the second death is recalled into life eternal. How then is it true, they say, what your Christ said: With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again, if a temporal sin is punished with eternal punishment?
They do not observe that the same measure was spoken of, not on account of an equal span of time, but on account of the reciprocity of evil, that is, that he who did evil should suffer evil. Although this can be taken properly in that very matter about which the Lord was speaking when He said this, that is, concerning judgments and condemnations. Accordingly, he who judges and condemns unjustly, if he is judged and condemned justly, receives in the same measure, although not the very thing which he gave. For by judgment he acted, by judgment he suffers; although he did by condemnation what is unjust, he suffers by condemnation what is just.
[XII] But eternal punishment seems harsh and unjust to human perceptions, because in this weakness of dying senses there is lacking that sense of the loftiest and purest wisdom, by which it might be perceived how great a wickedness was committed in that first transgression. For the more man enjoyed God, the greater the impiety with which he forsook God, and he became worthy of eternal evil, who destroyed in himself that good which could have been eternal. Hence the whole mass of the human race is condemned;
since he who first committed this was punished together with that stock which had been rooted in him, so that no one is freed from this just and due punishment except by merciful and undeserved grace; and thus the human race is so apportioned that in some it may be shown what merciful grace avails, in the rest what just vengeance avails. For neither would both be shown in all; because, if all remained in the punishments of just condemnation, in none would merciful grace appear; and again, if all were transferred from darkness into light, in none would the truth of retribution appear. In which retribution there are on this account far more than in the other, so that thus may be shown what was owed to all.
But if it were repaid to all, no one would justly reprehend the justice of the Avenger; but since so many are thence set free, there is cause for the greatest thanks to be rendered to the gratuitous gift of the Deliverer. [XIII] The Platonists indeed, although they wish no sins to be unpunished, yet think that all punishments are applied for amendment, whether inflicted by human laws or divine, whether in this life or after death, if either one be spared here or so chastised that here he is not corrected. Hence comes that sentence of Maro (Virgil), where, when he had said concerning earthly bodies and dying members, that souls Hence fear and desire, grieve and rejoice, nor do they look up to the air, shut in by darkness and a blind prison, following on he added and said:
Nay more, when with the final light life has left them (that is, when on the last day this life has left them), yet not, he says, does every evil, nor do all corporeal plagues, wholly depart from the wretched, and it is necessary that many things long concreted should deeply grow inveterate in wondrous ways. Therefore they are exercised with penalties and pay the punishments of their old evils; some are spread out, suspended, exposed to the empty winds; for others the ingrained wickedness is washed out beneath a vast whirlpool, or is burned away by fire. Those who hold this opinion wish there to be no punishments after death except purgatorial ones, so that—since the elements higher than the earth are water, air, fire—by some one of these there may be cleansed, through expiatory penalties, whatever has been contracted by earthly contagion. For air is understood in that which he says: