Chapter XXXIV.—Argument:  Moreover, It is Not at All to Be Wondered at If This World is to Be Consumed by Fire, Since Everything Which Has a Beginning Has Also an End.  And the Ancient Philosophers are Not Averse from the Opinion of the Probable Burning Up of the World.  Yet It is Evident that God, Having Made Man from Nothing, Can Raise Him Up from Death into Life.  And All Nature Suggests a Future Resurrection.

“Further, in respect of the burning up of the world, it is a vulgar error not to believe either that fire will fall upon it in an unforeseen way, or that the world will be destroyed by it.107    This passage is very indefinite, and probably corrupt; the meaning is anything but satisfactory.  The general meaning is given freely thus:  “Further, it is a vulgar error to doubt or disbelieve a future conflagration of the world.”  For who of wise men doubts, who is ignorant, that all things which have had a beginning perish, all things which are made come to an end?  The heaven also, with all things which are contained in heaven, will cease even as it began.  The nourishment of the seas by the sweet waters of the springs shall pass away into the power of fire.108    This passage is very variously read, without substantial alteration of the sense.  The Stoics have a constant belief that, the moisture being dried up, all this world will take fire; and the Epicureans have the very same opinion concerning the conflagration of the elements and the destruction of the world.  Plato speaks, saying that parts of the world are now inundated, and are now burnt up by alternate changes; and although he says that the world itself is constructed perpetual and indissoluble, yet he adds that to God Himself, the only artificer,109    Otherwise, “to God Himself alone, the artificer.” it is both dissoluble and mortal.  Thus it is no wonder if that mass be destroyed by Him by whom it was reared.  You observe that philosophers dispute of the same things that we are saying, not that we are following up their tracks, but that they, from the divine announcements of the prophets, imitated the shadow of the corrupted truth.  Thus also the most illustrious of the wise men, Pythagoras first, and Plato chiefly, have delivered the doctrine of resurrection with a corrupt and divided faith; for they will have it, that the bodies being dissolved, the souls alone both abide for ever, and very often pass into other new bodies.  To these things they add also this, by way of misrepresenting the truth, that the souls of men return into cattle, birds, and beasts.  Assuredly such an opinion as that is not worthy of a philosopher’s inquiry, but of the ribaldry of a buffoon.110    This is otherwise read, “the work of the mimic or buffoon.”  But for our argument it is sufficient, that even in this your wise men do in some measure harmonize with us.  But who is so foolish or so brutish as to dare to deny that man, as he could first of all be formed by God, so can again be re-formed; that he is nothing after death, and that he was nothing before he began to exist; and as from nothing it was possible for him to be born, so from nothing it may be possible for him to be restored?  Moreover, it is more difficult to begin that which is not, than to repeat that which has been.  Do you think that, if anything is withdrawn from our feeble eyes, it perishes to God?  Every body, whether it is dried up into dust, or is dissolved into moisture, or is compressed into ashes, or is attenuated into smoke, is withdrawn from us, but it is reserved for God in the custody of the elements.  Nor, as you believe, do we fear any loss from sepulture,111    Scil. “by burning.” but we adopt the ancient and better custom of burying in the earth.  See, therefore, how for our consolation all nature suggests a future resurrection.  The sun sinks down and arises, the stars pass away and return, the flowers die and revive again, after their wintry decay the shrubs resume their leaves, seeds do not flourish again. unless they are rotted:112    [1 Cor. xv. 36, Job xiv. 7–15.]  thus the body in the sepulchre is like the trees which in winter hide their verdure with a deceptive dryness.  Why are you in haste for it to revive and return, while the winter is still raw?  We must wait also for the spring-time of the body.  And I am not ignorant that many, in the consciousness of what they deserve, rather desire than believe that they shall be nothing after death; for they would prefer to be altogether extinguished, rather than to be restored for the purpose of punishment.  And their error also is enhanced, both by the liberty granted them in this life, and by God’s very great patience, whose judgment, the more tardy it is, is so much the more just.

CAPUT XXXIV.

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ARGUMENTUM.---Nihil autem mirum si mundus hic igne tandem sit absumendus, omnia siquidem quae initium, eadem et finem habent. Neque a sententia de mundi incendio abhorrent antiqui philosophi. Constat tamen Deum posse hominem quem ex nihilo finxit, ex morte excitare ad vitam. Resurrectionem autem futuram omnis natura meditatur.

Caeterum, de incendio mundi, aut improvisum ignem cadere, aut difficile non credere, vulgaris erroris est. Quis enim sapientium dubitat, quis ignorat, omnia quae orta sunt, occidere; quae facta sunt, interire? coelum quoque, cum omnibus quae coelo continentur, ita, ut coepisse, desinere? fontium 0345A dulcis aqua maria nutrire, in vim ignis abiturum? Stoicis constans opinio est quod, consumpto humore, mundus hic omnis ignescat; et Epicureis, de elementorum conflagratione et mundi ruina, eadem ipsa sententia est. Loquitur Plato partes orbis nunc inundare, dicit nunc alternis vicibus ardescere; et, quum ipsum mundum perpetuum et insolubilem diceret esse fabricatum, addit tamen ipsi artifici, Deo soli et solubilem et esse mortalem. Ita nihil mirum est, si ista moles ab eo quo exstructa est, destruatur. Animadvertis philosophos eadem disputare 0346A quae dicimus, non quod nos simus eorum vestigia subsecuti, sed quod illi, de divinis praedicationibus Prophetarum, umbram interpolatae veritatis imitati sint. Sic etiam conditionem renascendi, sapientium clariores, Pythagoras primus, et praecipuus Plato, corrupta et dimidiata fide, tradiderunt: nam, corporibus dissolutis, solas animas volunt et perpetuo manere, et in alia nova corpora saepius commeare. Addunt istis et illa ad retorquendam veritatem, in pecudes, aves, belluas, hominum animas redire. Non philosophi sane studio, sed mimico vitio digna ista sententia est. Sed 0347A ad propositum satis est etiam in hoc sapientes vestros, in aliquam modum nobiscum consonare. Caeterum, quis tam stultus aut brutus est ut audeat repugnare hominem a Deo, ut primum potuisse fingi, ita posse denuo reformari? nihil esse post obitum, et ante ortum nihil fuisse; sicut de nihilo nasci licuit, ita de nasci licere reparari? Porro difficilius est id quod non sit incipere, quam id quod fuerit iterare. Tu perire et Deo credis, si quid oculis nostris hebetibus subtrahitur? Corpus omne, sive arescit in pulverem, sive in humorem solvitur, vel in cinerem comprimitur, vel in nidorem tenuatur, subducitur nobis; sed Deo, elementorum custodia reservatur. Nec, ut creditis, ullum damnum sepulturae timemus, sed veterem et meliorem consuetudinem humandi frequentamus. Vide 0347B adeo quam, in solatium nostri, resurrectionem futuram omnis natura meditetur! Sol demergit et nascitur, astra labuntur et redeunt, flores occidunt et reviviscunt, post senium arbusta frondescunt, semina non nisi corrupta revirescunt: ita corpus in saeculo, ut arbores in hyberno, occultant virorem ariditate mentita. Quid festinas, ut cruda adhuc hyeme reviviscat et redeat? expectandum nobis etiam corporis ver est. Nec 0348A ignoro plerosque, conscientia meritorum, nihil se esse post mortem magis optare quam credere: malunt enim exstingui penitus, quam ad supplicia reparari. Quorum error augetur, et in saeculo libertate remissa, et Dei patientia maxima: cujus quanto judicium tardum, tanto magis justum est.