The City of God, Volume IIAugustine, of Hippo, Saint
ReligionChristian
The City of God, Volume II
Augustine, of Hippo, Saint
Apologetics -- Early works to 1800; Kingdom of God -- Early works to 1800
Justly is shame very specially connected with this lust; justly,
too, these members themselves, being moved and restrained not at
our will, but by a certain independent autocracy, so to speak, are
called "shameful." Their condition was different before sin. For as
it is written, "They were naked and were not ashamed,"[105]--not that
their nakedness was unknown to them, but because nakedness was not
yet shameful, because not yet did lust move those members without the
will's consent; not yet did the flesh by its disobedience testify
against the disobedience of man. For they were not created blind,
as the unenlightened vulgar fancy;[106] for Adam saw the animals to
whom he gave names, and of Eve we read, "The woman saw that the tree
was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes."[107] Their
eyes, therefore, were open, but were not open to this, that is to
say, were not observant so as to recognise what was conferred upon
them by the garment of grace, for they had no consciousness of their
members warring against their will. But when they were stripped of
this grace,[108] that their disobedience might be punished by fit
retribution, there began in the movement of their bodily members a
shameless novelty which made nakedness indecent: it at once made them
observant and made them ashamed. And therefore, after they violated
God's command by open transgression, it is written: "And the eyes
of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and
they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons."[109]
"The eyes of them both were opened," not to see, for already they
saw, but to discern between the good they had lost and the evil into
which they had fallen. And therefore also the tree itself which they
were forbidden to touch was called the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil from this circumstance, that if they ate of it it would
impart to them this knowledge. For the discomfort of sickness reveals
the pleasure of health. "They knew," therefore, "that they were
naked,"--naked of that grace which prevented them from being ashamed
of bodily nakedness while the law of sin offered no resistance to
their mind. And thus they obtained a knowledge which they would have
lived in blissful ignorance of, had they, in trustful obedience to
God, declined to commit that offence which involved them in the
experience of the hurtful effects of unfaithfulness and disobedience.
And therefore, being ashamed of the disobedience of their own flesh,
which witnessed to their disobedience while it punished it, "they
sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons," that is,
cinctures for their privy parts; for some interpreters have rendered
the word by _succinctoria_. _Campestria_ is, indeed, a Latin word,
but it is used of the drawers or aprons used for a similar purpose by
the young men who stripped for exercise in the _campus_; hence those
who were so girt were commonly called _campestrati_. Shame modestly
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account