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Chapter XXII
Of Sins, and the Verses of the Sibyls Respecting them Recited
This is what I
had to say, most beloved Donatus, respecting the anger of God, that you
might know how to refute those who represent God as being without
emotions. It only remains that, after the practice of Cicero, I should
use an epilogue by way of peroration. As he did in the Tusculan
Disputations, when discoursing on the subject of death, so we in this
work ought to bring forward divine testimonies, which may be believed,
to refute the persuasion of those who, believing that God is without
anger, destroy all religion, without which, as we have shown, we are
either equal to the brutes in savageness, or to the cattle in
foolishness; for it is in religion only--that is, in the knowledge of
the Supreme God--that wisdom consists. All the prophets, being filled
with the Divine Spirit, speak nothing else than of the favour of God
towards the righteous, and His anger against the ungodly. And their
testimony is indeed sufficient for us; but because it is not believed
by those who make a display of wisdom by their hair and dress, it was
necessary to refute them by reason and arguments. For they act so
pre-posterously, that human things give authority to divine things,
whereas divine things ought rather to give authority to human. But let
us now leave these things, lest we should produce no effect upon them,
and the subject should be indefinitely drawn out. Let us therefore seek
those testimonies which they can either believe, or at any rate not
oppose.
Authors of great number and weight have made mention of the Sibyls; of
the Greeks, Aristo the Chian, and Apollodorus the Erythraean; of our
writers, Varro and Fenestella. All these relate that the Erythraean
Sibyl was distinguished and noble beyond the rest. Apollodorus, indeed,
boasts of her as his own citizen and countrywoman. But Fenestella also
relates that ambassadors were sent by the senate to Erythrae, that the
verses of this Sibyl might be conveyed to Rome, and that the consuls
Curio and Octavius might take care that they should be placed in the
Capitol, which had then been restored under the care of Quintus
Catulus. In her writings, verses of this kind are found respecting the
Supreme God and Maker of the world:
The
incorruptible and eternal Maker who dwells in the heaven, holding forth
good to the good, a much greater reward, but stirring up anger and rage
against the evil and unjust.
Again, in
another place, enumerating the deeds by which God is especially moved
to anger, she introduced these things:
Avoid unlawful
services, and serve the living God. Abstain from adultery and impurity;
bring up a pure generation of children; do not kill: for the Immortal
will be angry with every one who may sin.
Therefore He is
angry with sinners.
Chapter XXIII
Of the Anger of God and the Punishment of Sins, and a Recital of the
Verses of the Sibyls Respecting it; and, morevoer, a Reproof and
Exhortation
But because it
is related by most learned men that there have been many Sibyls, the
testimony of one may not be sufficient to confirm the truth, as we
purpose to do. The volumes, indeed, of the Cumaean Sibyl, in which are
written the fates of the Romans are kept secret; but the writings of
all the others are, for the most part, not prohibited from being in
common use. And of these another, denouncing the anger of God against
all nations on account of the impiety of men, thus began:
Since great
anger is coming upon a disobedient world, I disclose the commands of
God to the last age, prophesying to all men from city to city.
Another Sibyl
also said, that the deluge was caused by the indignation of God against
the unrighteous in a former age, that the wickedness of the human race
might be extinguished:
From the time
when, the God of heaven being enraged against the cities themselves and
all men, a deluge having burst forth, the sea covered the earth.
In like manner
she foretold a conflagration about to take place hereafter, in which
the impiety of men should again be destroyed:
And at some
time, God no longer soothing His anger, but increasing it, and
destroying the race of men, and laying waste the whole of it by fire.
From which
mention is thus made concerning Jupiter by Ovid:
He remembers also that it is fated that the time shall come in which
the sea, the earth, and the palace of heaven, being caught by fire,
shall be burnt, and the curiously wrought framework of the world be in
danger.
And this must come to pass at the time when the honour and worship of
the Supreme shall have perished among men. The same Sibyl, however,
testifying that He was appeased by reformation of conduct and
self-improvement, added these things:
But, ye mortals,
in pity turn yourselves now, and do not lead the great God to every
kind of auger.
And also a
little later:
He will not destroy, but will again restrain His anger, if you all
practise valuable piety in your minds.
Then another Sibyl declares that the Father of heavenly and earthly
things ought to be loved, lest His indignation should arise, to the
destruction of men:
Lest by chance
the immortal God should be angry, and destroy the whole race of men,
their life and shameless race, it is befitting that we love the wise,
ever-living God the Father.
From these
things it is evident that the arguments of the philosophers are vain,
who imagine that God is without anger, and among His other praises
reckon that which is most useless, detracting from Him that which is
most salutary for human affairs, by which majesty itself exists. For
this earthly, kingdom and government, unless guarded by fear, is broken
down. Take away anger from a king, and he will not only cease to be
obeyed, but he will even be cast down headlong from his height. Yea,
rather take away this affection from any person of low degree, and who
will not plunder him? Who will not deride him? Who will not treat him
with injury? Thus he will be able to have neither clothing, nor an
abode, nor food, since others will deprive him of whatever he has; much
less can we suppose that the majesty of the heavenly government can
exist without anger and fear. The Milesian Apollo being consulted
concerning the religion of the Jews, inserted these things in his
answer:
God, the King
and Father of all, before whom the earth trembles, and the heaven and
sea, and whom the recesses of Tartarus and the demons dread.
If He is so
mild, as the philosophers will have it, how is it that not only the
demons and ministers of such great power, but even the heaven and
earth, and the whole system of the universe, tremble at His presence?
For if no one submits to the service of another except by compulsion,
it follows that all government exists by fear, and fear by anger. For
if any one is not aroused against one who is unwilling to obey, it will
not be possible for him to be compelled to obedience. Let any one
consult his own feelings; he will at once understand that no one can be
subdued to the command of another without anger and chastisement.
Therefore, where there shall be no anger, there will be no authority.
But God has authority; therefore also He must have anger, in which
authority consists. Therefore let no one, induced by the empty prating
of the philosophers, train himself to the contempt of God, which is the
greatest impiety. We all are bound both to love Him, because He is our
Father; and to reverence Him, because He is our Lord: both to pay Him
honour, because He is bounteous; and to fear Him, because He is severe:
each character in Him is worthy of reverence. Who can preserve his
piety, and yet fail to love the parent of his life? or who can with
impunity despise Him who, as ruler of all things, has true and
everlasting power over all? If you consider Him in the character of
Father, He supplies to us our entrance to the light which we enjoy:
through Him we live, through Him we have entered into the abode of this
world. If you contemplate Him as God, it is. He who nourishes us with
innumerable re sources: it is He who sustains us, we dwell in His
house, we are His household; and if we are less obedient than was
befitting, and less attentive to our duty than the endless merits of
our Master and Parent demanded: nevertheless it is of great avail to
our obtaining pardon, if we retain the worship and knowledge of Him;
if, laying aside low and earthly affairs and goods, we meditate upon
heavenly and divine things which are everlasting. And that we may be
able to do this, God must be followed by us, God must be adored and
loved; since there is in Him the substance of things, the principle of
the virtues, and the source of all that is good. For what is greater in
power than God, or more perfect in reason, or brighter in clearness?
And since He begat us to wisdom, and produced us to righteousness, it
is not allowable for man to forsake God, who is the giver of
intelligence and life and to serve earthly and frail things, or, intent
upon seeking temporal goods, to turn aside from innocence and piety.
Vicious and deadly pleasures do not render a man happy; nor does
opulence, which is the inciter of lusts; nor empty ambition; nor frail
honours, by which the human soul, being ensnared and enslaved to the
body, is condemned to eternal death: but innocence and righteousness
alone, the lawful and due reward of which is immortality, which God
from the beginning appointed for holy and uncorrupted minds, which keep
themselves pure and uncontaminated from vices, and from every earthly
impurity. Of this heavenly and eternal reward they cannot be partakers,
who have polluted their conscience by deeds of violence, frauds,
rapine, and deceits; and who, by injuries inflicted upon men, by
impious actions, have branded themselves with indelible stains.
Accordingly it is befitting that all who wish deservedly to be called
wise, who wish to be called men, should despise frail things, should
trample upon earthly things, and should look down upon base things,
that they may be able to be united in a most blissful relationship with
God.
Let impiety and discords be removed; let turbulent and deadly
dissensions be allayed, by which human societies and the divine union
of the public league are broken in upon, divided, and dispersed; as far
as we can, let "us aim at being good and bounteous: if we have a supply
of wealth and resources, let it not be devoted to the pleasure of a
single person, but bestowed on the welfare of many. For pleasure is as
shortlived as the body to which it does service. But justice and
kindness are as immortal as the mind and soul, which by good works
attain to the likeness of God. Let God be consecrated by us, not in
temples, but in our heart. All things which are made by the hand are
destructible. Let us cleanse this temple, which is defiled not by smoke
or dust, but by evil thoughts which is lighted not by blazing tapers?
but by the brightness and light of wisdom. And if we believe that God
is always present in this temple, to whose divinity the secrets of the
heart are open, we shall so live as always to have Him propitious, and
never to fear His anger.
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