The City of God, Volume I by Saint of Hippo Augustine
11. _Of Porphyry's epistle to Anebo, in which he asks for
1274 words | Chapter 278
information about the differences among demons._
It was a better tone which Porphyry adopted in his letter to Anebo
the Egyptian, in which, assuming the character of an inquirer
consulting him, he unmasks and explodes these sacrilegious arts. In
that letter, indeed, he repudiates all demons, whom he maintains to
be so foolish as to be attracted by the sacrificial vapours, and
therefore residing not in the ether, but in the air beneath the
moon, and indeed in the moon itself. Yet he has not the boldness
to attribute to all the demons all the deceptions and malicious
and foolish practices which justly move his indignation. For,
though he acknowledges that as a race demons are foolish, he so
far accommodates himself to popular ideas as to call some of them
benignant demons. He expresses surprise that sacrifices not only
incline the gods, but also compel and force them to do what men wish;
and he is at a loss to understand how the sun and moon, and other
visible celestial bodies,--for bodies he does not doubt that they
are,--are considered gods, if the gods are distinguished from the
demons by their incorporeality; also, if they are gods, how some are
called beneficent and others hurtful, and how they, being corporeal,
are numbered with the gods, who are incorporeal. He inquires further,
and still as one in doubt, whether diviners and wonderworkers are
men of unusually powerful souls, or whether the power to do these
things is communicated by spirits from without. He inclines to the
latter opinion, on the ground that it is by the use of stones and
herbs that they lay spells on people, and open closed doors, and do
similar wonders. And on this account, he says, some suppose that
there is a race of beings whose property it is to listen to men,--a
race deceitful, full of contrivances, capable of assuming all forms,
simulating gods, demons, and dead men,--and that it is this race
which brings about all these things which have the appearance of
good or evil, but that what is really good they never help us in,
and are indeed unacquainted with, for they make wickedness easy, but
throw obstacles in the path of those who eagerly follow virtue; and
that they are filled with pride and rashness, delight in sacrificial
odours, are taken with flattery. These and the other characteristics
of this race of deceitful and malicious spirits, who come into the
souls of men and delude their senses, both in sleep and waking, he
describes not as things of which he is himself convinced, but only
with so much suspicion and doubt as to cause him to speak of them
as commonly received opinions. We should sympathize with this great
philosopher in the difficulty he experienced in acquainting himself
with and confidently assailing the whole fraternity of devils, which
any Christian old woman would unhesitatingly describe and most
unreservedly detest. Perhaps, however, he shrank from offending
Anebo, to whom he was writing, himself the most eminent patron of
these mysteries, or the others who marvelled at these magical feats
as divine works, and closely allied to the worship of the gods.
However, he pursues this subject, and, still in the character of
an inquirer, mentions some things which no sober judgment could
attribute to any but malicious and deceitful powers. He asks why,
after the better class of spirits have been invoked, the worse
should be commanded to perform the wicked desires of men; why they
do not hear a man who has just left a woman's embrace, while they
themselves make no scruple of tempting men to incest and adultery;
why their priests are commanded to abstain from animal food for fear
of being polluted by the corporeal exhalations, while they themselves
are attracted by the fumes of sacrifices and other exhalations;
why the initiated are forbidden to touch a dead body, while their
mysteries are celebrated almost entirely by means of dead bodies;
why it is that a man addicted to any vice should utter threats, not
to a demon or to the soul of a dead man, but to the sun and moon,
or some of the heavenly bodies, which he intimidates by imaginary
terrors, that he may wring from them a real boon,--for he threatens
that he will demolish the sky, and such like impossibilities,--that
those gods, being alarmed, like silly children, with imaginary and
absurd threats, may do what they are ordered. Porphyry further
relates that a man Chæremon, profoundly versed in these sacred or
rather sacrilegious mysteries, had written that the famous Egyptian
mysteries of Isis and her husband Osiris had very great influence
with the gods to compel them to do what they were ordered, when he
who used the spells threatened to divulge or do away with these
mysteries, and cried with a threatening voice that he would scatter
the members of Osiris if they neglected his orders. Not without
reason is Porphyry surprised that a man should utter such wild and
empty threats against the gods,--not against gods of no account,
but against the heavenly gods, and those that shine with sidereal
light,--and that these threats should be effectual to constrain them
with resistless power, and alarm them so that they fulfil his wishes.
Not without reason does he, in the character of an inquirer into the
reasons of these surprising things, give it to be understood that
they are done by that race of spirits which he previously described
as if quoting other people's opinions,--spirits who deceive not, as
he said, by nature, but by their own corruption, and who simulate
gods and dead men, but not, as he said, demons, for demons they
really are. As to his idea that by means of herbs, and stones,
and animals, and certain incantations and noises, and drawings,
sometimes fanciful, and sometimes copied from the motions of the
heavenly bodies, men create upon earth powers capable of bringing
about various results, all that is only the mystification which these
demons practise on those who are subject to them, for the sake of
furnishing themselves with merriment at the expense of their dupes.
Either, then, Porphyry was sincere in his doubts and inquiries, and
mentioned these things to demonstrate and put beyond question that
they were the work, not of powers which aid us in obtaining life,
but of deceitful demons; or, to take a more favourable view of the
philosopher, he adopted this method with the Egyptian who was wedded
to these errors, and was proud of them, that he might not offend him
by assuming the attitude of a teacher, nor discompose his mind by the
altercation of a professed assailant, but, by assuming the character
of an inquirer, and the humble attitude of one who was anxious to
learn, might turn his attention to these matters, and show how worthy
they are to be despised and relinquished. Towards the conclusion
of his letter, he requests Anebo to inform him what the Egyptian
wisdom indicates as the way to blessedness. But as to those who hold
intercourse with the gods, and pester them only for the sake of
finding a runaway slave, or acquiring property, or making a bargain
of a marriage, or such things, he declares that their pretensions to
wisdom are vain. He adds that these same gods, even granting that
on other points their utterances were true, were yet so ill-advised
and unsatisfactory in their disclosures about blessedness, that they
cannot be either gods or good demons, but are either that spirit who
is called the deceiver, or mere fictions of the imagination.
Chapters
1. Chapter 1
2. BOOK I.
3. BOOK II.
4. BOOK III.
5. BOOK IV.
6. BOOK V.
7. BOOK VI.
8. BOOK VII.
9. BOOK VIII.
10. BOOK IX.
11. BOOK X.
12. BOOK XI.
13. BOOK XII.
14. BOOK XIII.
15. 1. _Of the adversaries of the name of Christ, whom the barbarians for
16. 2. _That it is quite contrary to the usage of war, that the victors
17. 3. _That the Romans did not show their usual sagacity when they
18. 4. _Of the asylum of Juno in Troy, which saved no one from the
19. 5. _Cæsar's statement regarding the universal custom of an enemy when
20. 6. _That not even the Romans, when they took cities, spared the
21. 7. _That the cruelties which occurred in the sack of Rome were in
22. 8. _Of the advantages and disadvantages which often indiscriminately
23. 9. _Of the reasons for administering correction to bad and good
24. 10. _That the saints lose nothing in losing temporal goods._
25. 11. _Of the end of this life, whether it is material that it be long
26. 12. _Of the burial of the dead: that the denial of it to Christians
27. 13. _Reasons for burying the bodies of the saints._
28. 14. _Of the captivity of the saints, and that divine consolation
29. 15. _Of Regulus, in whom we have an example of the voluntary
30. 16. _Of the violation of the consecrated and other Christian
31. 17. _Of suicide committed through fear of punishment or dishonour._
32. 18. _Of the violence which may be done to the body by another's
33. 19. _Of Lucretia, who put an end to her life because of the outrage
34. 20. _That Christians have no authority for committing suicide in any
35. 21. _Of the cases in which we may put men to death without incurring
36. 22. _That suicide can never be prompted by magnanimity._
37. 23. _What we are to think of the example of Cato, who slew himself
38. 24. _That in that virtue in which Regulus excels Cato, Christians
39. 25. _That we should not endeavour by sin to obviate sin._
40. 26. _That in certain peculiar cases the examples of the saints are
41. 27. _Whether voluntary death should be sought in order to avoid sin._
42. 28. _By what judgment of God the enemy was permitted to indulge
43. 29. _What the servants of Christ should say in reply to the
44. 30. _That those who complain of Christianity really desire to
45. 31. _By what steps the passion for governing increased among
46. 32. _Of the establishment of scenic entertainments._
47. 33. _That the overthrow of Rome has not corrected the vices of
48. 34. _Of God's clemency in moderating the ruin of the city._
49. 35. _Of the sons of the church who are hidden among the wicked,
50. 36. _What subjects are to be handled in the following discourse._
51. 1. _Of the limits which must be put to the necessity of replying
52. 2. _Recapitulation of the contents of the first book._
53. 3. _That we need only to read history in order to see what
54. 4. _That the worshippers of the gods never received from them any
55. 5. _Of the obscenities practised in honour of the mother of
56. 6. _That the gods of the pagans never inculcated holiness of life._
57. 7. _That the suggestions of philosophers are precluded from having
58. 8. _That the theatrical exhibitions publishing the shameful actions
59. 9. _That the poetical licence which the Greeks, in obedience to
60. 10. _That the devils, in suffering either false or true crimes to
61. 11. _That the Greeks admitted players to offices of state, on
62. 12. _That the Romans, by refusing to the poets the same licence in
63. 13. _That the Romans should have understood that gods who desired
64. 14. _That Plato, who excluded poets from a well-ordered city, was
65. 15. _That it was vanity, not reason, which created some of the
66. 16. _That if the gods had really possessed any regard for
67. 17. _Of the rape of the Sabine women, and other iniquities
68. 18. _What the history of Sallust reveals regarding the life of the
69. 19. _Of the corruption which had grown upon the Roman republic
70. 20. _Of the kind of happiness and life truly delighted in by those
71. 21. _Cicero's opinion of the Roman republic._
72. 22. _That the Roman gods never took any steps to prevent the
73. 23. _That the vicissitudes of this life are dependent not on
74. 24. _Of the deeds of Sylla, in which the demons boasted that he
75. 25. _How powerfully the evil spirits incite men to wicked actions,
76. 26. _That the demons gave in secret certain obscure instructions in
77. 27. _That the obscenities of those plays which the Romans
78. 28. _That the Christian religion is health-giving._
79. 29. _An exhortation to the Romans to renounce paganism._
80. 1. _Of the ills which alone the wicked fear, and which the world
81. 2. _Whether the gods, whom the Greeks and Romans worshipped in
82. 3. _That the gods could not be offended by the adultery of Paris,
83. 4. _Of Varro's opinion, that it is useful for men to feign
84. 5. _That it is not credible that the gods should have punished the
85. 6. _That the gods exacted no penalty for the fratricidal act of
86. 7. _Of the destruction of Ilium by Fimbria, a lieutenant of Marius._
87. 8. _Whether Rome ought to have been entrusted to the Trojan gods?_
88. 9. _Whether it is credible that the peace during the reign of Numa
89. 10. _Whether it was desirable that the Roman empire should be
90. 11. _Of the statue of Apollo at Cumæ, whose tears are supposed to
91. 12. _That the Romans added a vast number of gods to those introduced
92. 13. _By what right or agreement the Romans obtained their first
93. 14. _Of the wickedness of the war waged by the Romans against
94. 15. _What manner of life and death the Roman kings had._
95. 16. _Of the first Roman consuls, the one of whom drove the other
96. 17. _Of the disasters which vexed the Roman republic after the
97. 18. _The disasters suffered by the Romans in the Punic wars, which
98. 19. _Of the calamity of the second Punic war, which consumed the
99. 20. _Of the destruction of the Saguntines, who received no help
100. 21. _Of the ingratitude of Rome to Scipio, its deliverer, and of
101. 22. _Of the edict of Mithridates, commanding that all Roman
102. 23. _Of the internal disasters which vexed the Roman republic, and
103. 24. _Of the civil dissension occasioned by the sedition of
104. 25. _Of the temple of Concord, which was erected by a decree of
105. 26. _Of the various kinds of wars which followed the building of
106. 27. _Of the civil war between Marius and Sylla._
107. 28. _Of the victory of Sylla, the avenger of the cruelties of
108. 29. _A comparison of the disasters which Rome experienced during
109. 30. _Of the connection of the wars which with great severity and
110. 31. _That it is effrontery to impute the present troubles to Christ
111. 1. _Of the things which have been discussed in the first book._
112. 2. _Of those things which are contained in Books Second and Third._
113. 3. _Whether the great extent of the empire, which has been
114. 4. _How like kingdoms without justice are to robberies._
115. 5. _Of the runaway gladiators whose power became like that of
116. 6. _Concerning the covetousness of Ninus, who was the first who
117. 7. _Whether earthly kingdoms in their rise and fall have been
118. 8. _Which of the gods can the Romans suppose presided over the
119. 9. _Whether the great extent and long duration of the Roman empire
120. 10. _What opinions those have followed who have set divers gods
121. 11. _Concerning the many gods whom the pagan doctors defend as
122. 12. _Concerning the opinion of those who have thought that God is
123. 13. _Concerning those who assert that only rational animals are
124. 14. _The enlargement of kingdoms is unsuitably ascribed to Jove;
125. 15. _Whether it is suitable for good men to wish to rule more
126. 16. _What was the reason why the Romans, in detailing separate gods
127. 17. _Whether, if the highest power belongs to Jove, Victoria also
128. 18. _With what reason they who think Felicity and Fortune
129. 19. _Concerning Fortuna Muliebris._[169]
130. 20. _Concerning Virtue and Faith, which the pagans have honoured
131. 21. _That although not understanding them to be the gifts of God,
132. 22. _Concerning the knowledge of the worship due to the gods,
133. 23. _Concerning Felicity, whom the Romans, who venerate many gods,
134. 24. _The reasons by which the pagans attempt to defend their
135. 25. _Concerning the one God only to be worshipped, who, although
136. 26. _Of the scenic plays, the celebration of which the gods have
137. 27. _Concerning the three kinds of gods about which the pontiff
138. 28. _Whether the worship of the gods has been of service to the
139. 29. _Of the falsity of the augury by which the strength and
140. 30. _What kind of things even their worshippers have owned they
141. 31. _Concerning the opinions of Varro, who, while reprobating the
142. 32. _In what interest the princes of the nations wished false
143. 33. _That the times of all kings and kingdoms are ordained by the
144. 34. _Concerning the kingdom of the Jews, which was founded by the
145. 1. _That the cause of the Roman empire, and of all kingdoms, is
146. 2. _On the difference in the health of twins._
147. 3. _Concerning the arguments which Nigidius the mathematician drew
148. 4. _Concerning the twins Esau and Jacob, who were very unlike each
149. 5. _In what manner the mathematicians are convicted of professing
150. 6. _Concerning twins of different sexes._
151. 7. _Concerning the choosing of a day for marriage, or for planting,
152. 8. _Concerning those who call by the name of fate, not the
153. 9. _Concerning the foreknowledge of God and the free will of man,
154. 10. _Whether our wills are ruled by necessity._
155. 11. _Concerning the universal providence of God in the laws of
156. 12. _By what virtues the ancient Romans merited that the true God,
157. 13. _Concerning the love of praise, which, though it is a vice, is
158. 14. _Concerning the eradication of the love of human praise,
159. 15. _Concerning the temporal reward which God granted to the
160. 16. _Concerning the reward of the holy citizens of the celestial
161. 17. _To what profit the Romans carried on wars, and how much they
162. 18. _How far Christians ought to be from boasting, if they have done
163. 19. _Concerning the difference between true glory and the desire
164. 20. _That it is as shameful for the virtues to serve human glory
165. 21. _That the Roman dominion was granted by Him from whom is all
166. 22. _The durations and issues of war depend on the will of God._
167. 23. _Concerning the war in which Radagaisus, king of the Goths, a
168. 24. _What was the happiness of the Christian emperors, and how far
169. 25. _Concerning the prosperity which God granted to the Christian
170. 26. _On the faith and piety of Theodosius Augustus._
171. 1. _Of those who maintain that they worship the gods not for the
172. 2. _What we are to believe that Varro thought concerning the gods
173. 3. _Varro's distribution of his book which he composed concerning
174. 4. _That from the disputation of Varro, it follows that the
175. 5. _Concerning the three kinds of theology according to Varro,
176. 6. _Concerning the mythic, that is, the fabulous, theology, and
177. 7. _Concerning the likeness and agreement of the fabulous and
178. 8. _Concerning the interpretations, consisting of natural
179. 9. _Concerning the special offices of the gods._
180. 10. _Concerning the liberty of Seneca, who more vehemently
181. 11. _What Seneca thought concerning the Jews._
182. 12. _That when once the vanity of the gods of the nations has been
183. 1. _Whether, since it is evident that Deity is not to be found in
184. 2. _Who are the select gods, and whether they are held to be
185. 3. _How there is no reason which can be shown for the selection of
186. 4. _The inferior gods, whose names are not associated with infamy,
187. 5. _Concerning the more secret doctrine of the pagans, and
188. 6. _Concerning the opinion of Varro, that God is the soul of the
189. 7. _Whether it is reasonable to separate Janus and Terminus as
190. 8. _For what reason the worshippers of Janus have made his image
191. 9. _Concerning the power of Jupiter, and a comparison of Jupiter
192. 10. _Whether the distinction between Janus and Jupiter is a proper
193. 11. _Concerning the surnames of Jupiter, which are referred not to
194. 12. _That Jupiter is also called Pecunia._
195. 13. _That when it is expounded what Saturn is, what Genius is, it
196. 14. _Concerning the offices of Mercury and Mars._
197. 15. _Concerning certain stars which the pagans have called by the
198. 16. _Concerning Apollo and Diana, and the other select gods whom
199. 17. _That even Varro himself pronounced his own opinions regarding
200. 18. _A more credible cause of the rise of pagan error._
201. 19. _Concerning the interpretations which compose the reason of
202. 20. _Concerning the rites of Eleusinian Ceres_.
203. 21. _Concerning the shamefulness of the rites which are celebrated
204. 22. _Concerning Neptune, and Salacia, and Venilia_.
205. 23. _Concerning the earth, which Varro affirms to be a goddess,
206. 24. _Concerning the surnames of Tellus and their significations,
207. 25. _The interpretation of the mutilation of Atys which the
208. 26. _Concerning the abomination of the sacred rites of the Great
209. 27. _Concerning the figments of the physical theologists, who
210. 28. _That the doctrine of Varro concerning theology is in no part
211. 29. _That all things which the physical theologists have referred
212. 30. _How piety distinguishes the Creator from the creatures, so
213. 31. _What benefits God gives to the followers of the truth to
214. 32. _That at no time in the past was the mystery of Christ's
215. 33. _That only through the Christian religion could the deceit of
216. 34. _Concerning the books of Numa Pompilius, which the senate
217. 35. _Concerning the hydromancy through which Numa was befooled
218. 1. _That the question of natural theology is to be discussed with
219. 2. _Concerning the two schools of philosophers, that is, the
220. 3. _Of the Socratic philosophy._
221. 4. _Concerning Plato, the chief among the disciples of Socrates,
222. 5. _That it is especially with the Platonists that we must carry
223. 6. _Concerning the meaning of the Platonists in that part of
224. 7. _How much the Platonists are to be held as excelling other
225. 8. _That the Platonists hold the first rank in moral philosophy
226. 9. _Concerning that philosophy which has come nearest to the
227. 10. _That the excellency of the Christian religion is above all
228. 11. _How Plato has been able to approach so nearly to Christian
229. 12. _That even the Platonists, though they say these things
230. 13. _Concerning the opinion of Plato, according to which he defined
231. 14. _Of the opinion of those who have said that rational souls are
232. 15. _That the demons are not better than men because of their
233. 16. _What Apuleius the Platonist thought concerning the manners
234. 17. _Whether it is proper that men should worship those spirits
235. 18. _What kind of religion that is which teaches that men ought to
236. 19. _Of the impiety of the magic art, which is dependent on the
237. 20. _Whether we are to believe that the good gods are more willing
238. 21. _Whether the gods use the demons as messengers and
239. 22. _That we must, notwithstanding the opinion of Apuleius, reject
240. 23. _What Hermes Trismegistus thought concerning idolatry, and from
241. 24. _How Hermes openly confessed the error of his forefathers, the
242. 25. _Concerning those things which may be common to the holy angels
243. 26. _That all the religion of the pagans has reference to dead
244. 27. _Concerning the nature of the honour which the Christians
245. 1. _The point at which the discussion has arrived, and what remains
246. 2. _Whether among the demons, inferior to the gods, there are any
247. 3. _What Apuleius attributes to the demons, to whom, though he
248. 4. _The opinion of the Peripatetics and Stoics about mental
249. 5. _That the passions which assail the souls of Christians do not
250. 6. _Of the passions which, according to Apuleius, agitate the
251. 7. _That the Platonists maintain that the poets wrong the gods by
252. 8. _How Apuleius defines the gods who dwell in heaven, the demons
253. 9. _Whether the intercession of the demons can secure for men the
254. 10. _That, according to Plotinus, men, whose body is mortal, are
255. 11. _Of the opinion of the Platonists, that the souls of men become
256. 12. _Of the three opposite qualities by which the Platonists
257. 13. _How the demons can mediate between gods and men if they have
258. 14. _Whether men, though mortal, can enjoy true blessedness._
259. 15. _Of the man Christ Jesus, the Mediator between God and men_.
260. 16. _Whether it is reasonable in the Platonists to determine that
261. 17. _That to obtain the blessed life, which consists in partaking
262. 18. _That the deceitful demons, while promising to conduct men to
263. 19. _That even among their own worshippers the name "demon" has
264. 20. _Of the kind of knowledge which puffs up the demons._
265. 21. _To what extent the Lord was pleased to make Himself known to
266. 22. _The difference between the knowledge of the holy angels and
267. 23. _That the name of gods is falsely given to the gods of the
268. 1. _That the Platonists themselves have determined that God alone
269. 2. _The opinion of Plotinus the Platonist regarding enlightenment
270. 3. _That the Platonists, though knowing something of the Creator
271. 4. _That sacrifice is due to the true God only._
272. 5. _Of the sacrifices which God does not require, but wished to
273. 6. _Of the true and perfect sacrifice._
274. 7. _Of the love of the holy angels, which prompts them to desire
275. 8. _Of the miracles which God has condescended to adhibit, through
276. 9. _Of the illicit arts connected with demonolatry, and of which
277. 10. _Concerning theurgy, which promises a delusive purification of
278. 11. _Of Porphyry's epistle to Anebo, in which he asks for
279. 12. _Of the miracles wrought by the true God through the ministry
280. 13. _Of the invisible God, who has often made Himself visible,
281. 14. _That the one God is to be worshipped not only for the sake
282. 15. _Of the ministry of the holy angels, by which they fulfil
283. 16. _Whether those angels who demand that we pay them divine
284. 17. _Concerning the ark of the covenant, and the miraculous signs
285. 18. _Against those who deny that the books of the Church are to
286. 19. _On the reasonableness of offering, as the true religion
287. 20. _Of the supreme and true sacrifice which was effected by the
288. 21. _Of the power delegated to demons for the trial and
289. 22. _Whence the saints derive power against demons and true
290. 23. _Of the principles which, according to the Platonists,
291. 24. _Of the one only true principle which alone purifies and renews
292. 25. _That all the saints, both under the law and before it, were
293. 26. _Of Porphyry's weakness in wavering between the confession of
294. 27. _Of the impiety of Porphyry, which is worse than even the
295. 28. _How it is that Porphyry has been so blind as not to recognise
296. 29. _Of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which the
297. 30. _Porphyry's emendations and modifications of Platonism._
298. 31. _Against the arguments on which the Platonists ground their
299. 32. _Of the universal way of the soul's deliverance, which Porphyry
300. 1. _Of this part of the work, wherein we begin to explain the origin
301. 2. _Of the knowledge of God, to which no man can attain save
302. 3. _Of the authority of the canonical Scriptures composed by the
303. 4. _That the world is neither without beginning, nor yet created
304. 5. _That we ought not to seek to comprehend the infinite ages of
305. 6. _That the world and time had both one beginning, and the one
306. 7. _Of the nature of the first days, which are said to have had
307. 8. _What we are to understand of God's resting on the seventh day,
308. 9. _What the Scriptures teach us to believe concerning the creation
309. 10. _Of the simple and unchangeable Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy
310. 11. _Whether the angels that fell partook of the blessedness which
311. 12. _A comparison of the blessedness of the righteous, who have not
312. 13. _Whether all the angels were so created in one common state of
313. 14. _An explanation of what is said of the devil, that he did not
314. 15. _How we are to understand the words, "The devil sinneth from
315. 16. _Of the ranks and differences of the creatures, estimated by
316. 17. _That the flaw of wickedness is not nature, but contrary to
317. 18. _Of the beauty of the universe, which becomes, by God's
318. 19. _What, seemingly, we are to understand by the words, "God
319. 20. _Of the words which follow the separation of light and
320. 21. _Of God's eternal and unchangeable knowledge and will, whereby
321. 22. _Of those who do not approve of certain things which are a part
322. 23. _Of the error in which the doctrine of Origen is involved._
323. 24. _Of the divine Trinity, and the indications of its presence
324. 25. _Of the division of philosophy into three parts._
325. 26. _Of the image of the supreme Trinity, which we find in some
326. 27. _Of existence, and knowledge of it, and the love of both._
327. 28. _Whether we ought to love the love itself with which we love
328. 29. _Of the knowledge by which the holy angels know God in His
329. 30. _Of the perfection of the number six, which is the first of
330. 31. _Of the seventh day, in which completeness and repose are
331. 32. _Of the opinion that the angels were created before the world._
332. 33. _Of the two different and dissimilar communities of angels,
333. 34. _Of the idea that the angels were meant where the separation
334. 1. _That the nature of the angels, both good and bad, is one and
335. 2. _That there is no entity_[521] _contrary to the divine, because
336. 3. _That the enemies of God are so, not by nature but by will,
337. 4. _Of the nature of irrational and lifeless creatures, which in
338. 5. _That in all natures, of every kind and rank, God is glorified._
339. 6. _What the cause of the blessedness of the good angels is, and
340. 7. _That we ought not to expect to find any efficient cause of the
341. 8. _Of the misdirected love whereby the will fell away from the
342. 9. _Whether the angels, besides receiving from God their nature,
343. 10. _Of the falseness of the history which allots many thousand
344. 11. _Of those who suppose that this world indeed is not eternal,
345. 12. _How these persons are to be answered, who find fault with the
346. 13. _Of the revolution of the ages, which some philosophers believe
347. 14. _Of the creation of the human race in time, and how this was
348. 15. _Whether we are to believe that God, as He has always been
349. 16. _How we are to understand God's promise of life eternal,
350. 17. _What defence is made by sound faith regarding God's
351. 18. _Against those who assert that things that are infinite_[550]
352. 19. _Of worlds without end, or ages of ages._[556]
353. 20. _Of the impiety of those who assert that the souls which enjoy
354. 21. _That there was created at first but one individual, and that
355. 22. _That God foreknew that the first man would sin, and that He at
356. 23. _Of the nature of the human soul created in the image of God._
357. 24. _Whether the angels can be said to be the creators of any, even
358. 25. _That God alone is the Creator of every kind of creature,
359. 26. _Of that opinion of the Platonists, that the angels were
360. 27. _That the whole plenitude of the human race was embraced in the
361. 1. _Of the fall of the first man, through which mortality has
362. 2. _Of that death which can affect an immortal soul, and of that
363. 3. _Whether death, which by the sin of our first parents has passed
364. 4. _Why death, the punishment of sin, is not withheld from those
365. 5. _As the wicked make an ill use of the law, which is good, so
366. 6. _Of the evil of death in general, considered as the separation
367. 7. _Of the death which the unbaptized_[580] _suffer for the
368. 8. _That the saints, by suffering the first death for the truth's
369. 9. _Whether we should say that the moment of death, in which
370. 10. _Of the life of mortals, which is rather to be called death
371. 11. _Whether one can both be living and dead at the same time._
372. 12. _What death God intended, when He threatened our first parents
373. 13. _What was the first punishment of the transgression of our
374. 14. _In what state man was made by God, and into what estate he
375. 15. _That Adam in his sin forsook God ere God forsook him, and
376. 16. _Concerning the philosophers who think that the separation of
377. 17. _Against those who affirm that earthly bodies cannot be made
378. 18. _Of earthly bodies, which the philosophers affirm cannot be in
379. 19. _Against the opinion of those who do not believe that the
380. 20. _That the flesh now resting in peace shall be raised to a
381. 21. _Of Paradise, that it can be understood in a spiritual sense
382. 22. _That the bodies of the saints shall after the resurrection be
383. 23. _What we are to understand by the animal and spiritual body; or
384. 24. _How we must understand that breathing of God by which "the
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