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
In enunciating this proposition of ours, then, that because some live
according to the flesh and others according to the spirit there have
arisen two diverse and conflicting cities, we might equally well
have said, "because some live according to man, others according to
God." For Paul says very plainly to the Corinthians, "For whereas
there is among you envying and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk
according to man?"[17] So that to walk according to man and to be
carnal are the same; for by _flesh_, that is, by a part of man, man
is meant. For before he said that those same persons were animal whom
afterwards he calls carnal, saying, "For what man knoweth the things
of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things
of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received
not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is of God; that
we might know the things which are freely given to us of God. Which
things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth,
but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. But the animal man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God; for they are foolishness unto him."[18] It is to men of this
kind, then, that is, to animal men, he shortly after says, "And I,
brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto
carnal."[19] And this is to be interpreted by the same usage, a part
being taken for the whole. For both the soul and the flesh, the
component parts of man, can be used to signify the whole man; and so
the animal man and the carnal man are not two different things, but
one and the same thing, viz. man living according to man. In the same
way it is nothing else than men that are meant either in the words,
"By the deeds of the law there shall no _flesh_ be justified;"[20]
or in the words, "Seventy-five _souls_ went down into Egypt with
Jacob."[21] In the one passage, "no flesh" signifies "no man;" and
in the other, by "seventy-five souls" seventy-five men are meant.
And the expression, "not in words which man's wisdom teacheth," might
equally be "not in words which fleshly wisdom teacheth;" and the
expression, "ye walk according to man," might be "according to the
flesh." And this is still more apparent in the words which followed:
"For while one saith, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos,
are ye not men?" The same thing which he had before expressed by "ye
are animal," "ye are carnal," he now expresses by "ye are men;" that
is, ye live according to man, not according to God, for if you lived
according to Him, you should be gods.
5. _That the opinion of the Platonists regarding the nature of
body and soul is not so censurable as that of the Manichæans,
but that even it is objectionable, because it ascribes the
origin of vices to the nature of the flesh._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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