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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXXVI: De quibus causis sequenti disputatione sit disserendum.

Sed adhuc mihi quaedam dicenda sunt aduersus eos, qui Romanae reipublicae clades in religionem nostram referunt, qua dis suis sacrificare prohibentur. commemoranda sunt enim quae et quanta occurrere potuerint uel satis esse uidebuntur mala, quae illa ciuitas pertulit uel ad eius imperium prouinciae pertinentes, antequam eorum sacrificia prohibita fuissent; quae omnia procul dubio nobis tribuerent, si iam uel illis clareret nostra religio, uel ita eos a sacris sacrilegis prohiberet. deinde monstrandum est, quos eorum mores et quam ob causam deus uerus ad augendum imperium adiuuare dignatus est, in cuius potestate sunt regna omnia, quamque nihil eos adiuuerint hi, quos deos putant, et potius quantum decipiendo et fallendo nocuerint. postremo aduersus eos dicetur, qui manifestissimis documentis confutati atque conuicti conantur adserere non propter uitae praesentis utilitatem, sed propter eam, quae post mortem futura est, colendos deos. quae, nisi fallor, quaestio multo erit operosior et subtiliore disputatione dignior, ut et contra philosophos in ea disseratur, non quoslibet, sed qui apud illos excellentissima gloria clari sunt et nobis cum multa sentiunt, et de animae inmortalitate et quod deus uerus mundum condiderit et de prouidentia eius, qua uniuersum quod condidit regit. sed quoniam et ipsi in illis, quae contra nos sentiunt, refellendi sunt, deesse huic officio non debemus, ut refutatis inpiis contradictionibus pro uiribus, quas deus impertiet, adseramus ciuitatem dei ueramque pietatem et dei cultum, in quo uno ueraciter sempiterna beatitudo promittitur. hic itaque modus sit huius uoluminis, ut deinceps disposita ab alio sumamus exordio.

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The City of God

Chapter 36.--What Subjects are to Be Handled in the Following Discourse.

But I have still some things to say in confutation of those who refer the disasters of the Roman republic to our religion, because it prohibits the offering of sacrifices to the gods. For this end I must recount all, or as many as may seem sufficient, of the disasters which befell that city and its subject provinces, before these sacrifices were prohibited; for all these disasters they would doubtless have attributed to us, if at that time our religion had shed its light upon them, and had prohibited their sacrifices. I must then go on to show what social well-being the true God, in whose hand are all kingdoms, vouchsafed to grant to them that their empire might increase. I must show why He did so, and how their false gods, instead of at all aiding them, greatly injured them by guile and deceit. And, lastly, I must meet those who, when on this point convinced and confuted by irrefragable proofs, endeavor to maintain that they worship the gods, not hoping for the present advantages of this life, but for those which are to be enjoyed after death. And this, if I am not mistaken, will be the most difficult part of my task, and will be worthy of the loftiest argument; for we must then enter the lists with the philosophers, not the mere common herd of philosophers, but the most renowned, who in many points agree with ourselves, as regarding the immortality of the soul, and that the true God created the world, and by His providence rules all He has created. But as they differ from us on other points, we must not shrink from the task of exposing their errors, that, having refuted the gainsaying of the wicked with such ability as God may vouchsafe, we may assert the city of God, and true piety, and the worship of God, to which alone the promise of true and everlasting felicity is attached. Here, then, let us conclude, that we may enter on these subjects in a fresh book.