Chap. XXIII.—Of the Anger of God and the Punishment of Sins, and a Recital of the Verses of the Sibyls Respecting It; And, Moreover, 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 Cumæan 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:—  

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:—  

In like manner she foretold a conflagration about to take place hereafter, in which the impiety of men should again be destroyed:—  

From which mention is thus made concerning Jupiter by Ovid:156    Metam., i. 256.  —  

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 reformation158    Pœnitentiâ factorum.   of conduct and self-improvement, added these things :—  

And also a little later:—  

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:—  

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:—  

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 prating160    Vaniloquentia.   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.161    Venerabilis.   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 abode162    Hospitium, i.e., a place of hospitality.   of this world. If you contemplate Him as God, it is He who nourishes us with innumerable resources: it is He who sustains us, we dwell in His house, we are His household; 163    Familia, “a household of slaves.”   and if we are less obedient than was befitting, and less attentive to our duty164    Officiosa, i.e., familia.   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 substance165    Materia rerum.   of things, the principle166    Ratio virtutum.   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 condemned167    Æterna morte damnatur.   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 themselves168    Ineluibiles sibi maculas inusserunt.   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 base169    Humilia.   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,170    Sopiantur, i.e., be lulled to sleep.   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 short lived 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.171    Destructilia. The word is used by Prudentius.   Let us cleanse this temple, which is defiled not by smoke or dust, but by evil thoughts which is lighted not by blazing tapers172    [See p. 163, supra. See note below.]   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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Note by the American Editor.

It is worth while to direct attention to (book vi. cap. 2) what our author has said of “true worship,” just now, when the most violent and persistent efforts are made to sensualize Christian worship, and to explain away the testimony of the Ante-Nicene Fathers on this important subject. The argument of our author, in its entire drift, is as applicable to our own times as to his; and, deeply as I value beauty in the public worship of God, I cannot, as a Nicene Catholic, do less than adopt the universal sentiment of the early Fathers as to the limits of decoration.  

CAPUT XXIII. De ira Dei, et peccatorum punitione, deque ea Sibyllarum 0143B carmina recitata: castigatio praeterea et adhortatio.

Verum quia plures, ut ostendi, Sibyllae a doctissimis auctoribus fuisse traduntur, unius testimonium satis non sit ad confirmandam, sicut intendimus, veritatem. Cumeae quidem volumina, quibus Romanorum fata conscripta sunt, in arcanis habentur: caeterarum tamen fere omnium libelli, quominus in usu sint omnibus, non vetantur; ex quibus alia de nuntians universis gentibus iram Dei ob impietatem hominum, hoc modo exorsa est: Ἐρχομένης ὀργῆς μεγάλης ἐπὶ κόσμον ἀπειθῆ, Ἔσχατον εἰς αἰῶνα θεοῦ μηνύματα φαίνω, Πᾶσι προφητεύσασα κατὰ πόλιν ἀνθρώποισι.

0143C Alia quoque per indignationem Dei adversus injustos 0144A cataclysmum priore saeculo factum esse dixit, ut malitia generis humani extingueretur. Ἐξ οὗ μηνίσαντος ἐπουρανίοιο θεοῖο Αὐταῖσι πολίεσσι καὶ ἀνθρώποισιν ἅπασιν. Γῆν ἐκάλυψε θάλασσα κατακλυσμοῖο ῥαγέντος.

Simili modo deflagrationem postea futuram vaticinata est, qua rursus impietas hominum deleatur. Καί ποτε τὴν ὀργὴν θεὸν οὐκ ἔτι πραΰνοντα, Ἀλλ᾽ ἐξεμβρίθοντα, καὶ ἐξολύοντά τε γένναν Ἀνθρώπων, ἅπασαν ὑπ᾽ ἑμπρησμοῦ πέρθοντα.

Unde apud Nasonem de Jove ita dicitur: Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur, affore tempus, Quo mare, quo tellus, correptaque regia coeli Ardeat, et mundi moles operosa laboret.

Quod tunc fiat necesse est, cum honor, et cultus Dei summi apud homines interierit.

0144B Eadem tamen, placari eum poenitentia factorum et sui emendatione contestans, haec addidit: Ἀλλ᾽ ἐλέει μετάθεσθε βροτοὶ νῦν, μὴ δὲ πρὸς ὀργήν Παντοίην ἀγάγητε θεὸν μέγαν.

Item paulo post: Οὐκ ὁλέσει, παύσει δὲ πάλιν χόλον, εὔτ᾽ ἁν ἄπαντες Εὐσεβέειν ἐρίτιμον ἑνὶ φρεσὶν ἀσκήσητε.

Deinde alia Sibylla coelestium terrenorumque genitorem diligi oportere denuntiat, ne ad perdendos homines indignatio ejus insurgat: Μήποτε θυμωθεὶς θεὸς ἄφθιτος ἐξαπολέσσῃ Πᾶν γένος ἀνθρώπων, βιότον καὶ φῦλον ἀναιδὲς, Δεῖ στέργειν γενετῆρα Θεὸν σοφὸν αἰὲν ἐόντα.

0144C Ex his apparet vanas esse rationes philosophorum, 0145A qui Deum putant sine ira; et inter caeteras laudes ejus id ponunt, quod est inutilissimum, detrahentes ei, quod est rebus humanis maxime salutare, per quod constat ipsa majestas. Regnum hoc imperiumque terrenum nisi metus custodiat, solvitur. Aufer iram regi, non modo nemo parebit, sed etiam de fastigio praecipitabitur. Imo vero cuilibet humili eripe hunc affectum, quis eum non spoliabit? quis non deridebit? quis non afficiet injuria? Ita nec indumenta, nec sedem, nec victum poterit habere, aliis quidquid habuerit diripientibus; nedum putemus coelestis imperii majestatem sine ira et metu posse consistere. Apollo Milesius, de Judaeorum religione consultus, responso hoc indidit: Ἠδὲ Θεὸν βασιλῆα καὶ γεννητῆρα πρὸ πάντων, 0145B Ὃν τρέμεται καὶ γαῖα, καὶ οὐρανὸς, ἠδἐ θάλασσα, Ταρτάρεοί τε μυχοὶ, καὶ δαίμονες ἐκφρίττουσιν.

Si tam lenis est, quam philosophi volunt, quomodo ad nutum ejus non modo daemones, et ministri tantae potestatis, sed etiam coelum, et terra, et rerum natura omnis contremiscit? Si enim nullus alteri servit nisi coactus, omne igitur imperium metu constat: metus autem per iram: nam si non moveatur quis adversus parere nolentem, nec cogi poterit ad obsequium. Consulat unusquisque affectus suos: jam intelliget neminem posse sine ira et castigatione imperio subjugari. Ubi ergo ira non fuerit, imperium quoque non erit. Deus autem habet imperium; ergo et iram, 0146A qua constat imperium, habeat necesse est. Quapropter nemo vaniloquentia philosophorum inductus ad contemptum se Dei erudiat; quod est maximum nefas. Debemus hunc omnes et amare, quod pater est; et vereri, quod dominus; et honorificare, quod beneficus; et metuere, quod severus: utraque persona in eo venerabilis. Quis salva pietate non diligat animae suae parentem? aut quis impune contemnat eum, qui rerum dominator, habeat in omnes veram et aeternam potestatem? Si patrem consideres, ortum nobis ad lucem, qua fruimur, subministrat: per illum vivimus, per illum in hospitium hujus mundi intravimus. Si Deum cogites, ille nos innumerabilibus copiis alit, ille sustentat, in hujus domo habitamus, hujus familia sumus; et si minus obsequens, quam decebat, 0146B minusque officiosa, quam domini et parentis immortalia merita poscebant: tamen plurimum proficit ad veniam consequendam, si cultum ejus notionemque teneamus; si abjectis humilibus terrenisque tam rebus, quam bonis, coelestia et divina sempiterna meditemur. Quod ut facere possimus, Deus nobis sequendus est, Deus adorandus et diligendus est; quoniam in eo est materia rerum, et ratio virtutum, et fons bonorum.

Quid enim Deo aut potentia majus est, aut ratione perfectius, aut claritate luculentius? Qui quoniam nos ad sapientiam genuit, ad justitiam procreavit; non est fas hominem, relicto Deo sensus, ac vitae datore, 0147A terrenis fragilibusque famulari, aut quaerendis temporalibus bonis inhaerentem, ab innocentia et pietate desciscere. Non faciunt beatum vitiosae ac mortiferae voluptates, non opulentia libidinum incitatrix, non inanis ambitio, non caduci honores, quibus illaqueatus animus humanus, et corpori mancipatus, aeterna morte damnatur: sed innocentia sola, sola justitia, cujus legitima et digna merces est immortalitas, quam statuit a principio Deus sanctis et incorruptis mentibus, quae se a vitiis et ab omni labe terrena integras inviolatasque conservant. Hujus praemii coelestis ac sempiterni participes esse non possunt, qui facinoribus, fraudibus, rapinis, circumscriptionibus conscientiam polluerunt, quique injuriis hominum, nefariis commissis, ineluibiles sibi maculas inusserunt. Proinde universos oportet, qui sapientes, qui homines 0147B merito dici volunt, fragilia contemnere, terrena calcare, humilia despicere, ut possint cum Deo beatissima necessitudine copulari.

0148A Auferatur impietas, discordiae; dissensionesque turbulentae ac pestiferae sopiantur, quibus humanae societates, et publici foederis divina conjunctio rumpitur, dirimitur, dissipatur: quantum possumus, boni ac benefici esse meditemur; si quid nobis opum, si quid suppetit copiarum, id non voluptati unius, sed multorum saluti impartiatur. Voluptas enim tam mortalis est, quam corpus, cui exhibet ministerium. Justitia vero et beneficentia tam immortales, quam mens et anima, quae bonis operibus similitudinem Dei assequitur. Sit nobis Deus non in templis, sed in corde nostro consecratus. Destructilia sunt omnia, quae manu fiunt. Mundemus hoc templum, quod non fumo, non pulvere, sed malis cogitationibus sorditatur; quod non cereis ardentibus, sed claritate ac luce sapientiae illuminatur. In quo si Deum semper 0148B crediderimus esse praesentem, cujus divinitati secreta mentis patent, ita vivemus, ut et propitium semper habeamus, et nunquam vereamur iratum.