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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXVI: Quid sit in fundamento habere Christum et quibus spondeatur salus quasi per ignis usturam.

Sed habent, inquiunt, Christiani catholici in fundamento Christum, a cuius unitate non recesserunt, tametsi huic fundamento superaedificauerunt quamlibet pessimam uitam, uelut ligna, fenum, stipulam; recta itaque fides, per quam Christus est fundamentum, quamuis cum damno, quoniam illa, quae superaedificata sunt, exurentur, tamen poterit eos quandoque ab illius ignis perpetuitate saluare. respondeat eis breuiter apostolus Iacobus: si quis dicat se fidem habere, opera autem non habeat, numquid poterit fides saluare eum? et quis est, inquiunt, de quo dicit apostolus Paulus: ipse autem saluus erit, sic tamen quasi per ignem? simul quis iste sit, inquiramus; hunc tamen non esse certissimum est, ne duorum apostolorum sententias mittamus in rixam, si unus dicit: etiamsi mala opera quis habuerit, saluabit eum per ignem fides; alius autem: si opera non habeat, numquid poterit fides saluare eum? inueniemus ergo quis possit saluari per ignem, si prius inuenerimus quid sit habere in fundamento Christum. quod ut de ipsa similitudine quantocius aduertamus: nihil in aedificio praeponitur fundamento; quisquis itaque sic habet in corde Christum, ut ei terrena et temporalia nec ea quae licita sunt atque concessa praeponat, fundamentum habet Christum; si autem praeponit, etsi uideatur habere fidem Christi, non est tamen in eo fundamentum Christus, cui talia praeponuntur; quanto magis, si salutaria praecepta contemnens committat inlicita, non praeposuisse Christum, sed postposuisse conuincitur, quem posthabuit imperantem siue concedentem, dum contra eius imperata siue concessa suam per flagitia delegit explere libidinem. si quis itaque Christianus diligit meretricem eique adhaerens unum corpus efficitur, iam in fundamento non habet Christum. si quis autem diligit uxorem suam, si secundum Christum, quis ei dubitet in fundamento esse Christum? si uero secundum hoc saeculum, si carnaliter, si in morbo concupiscentiarum, sicut et gentes quae ignorant deum, etiam hoc secundum ueniam concedit apostolus, immo per apostolum Christus. potest ergo et iste in fundamento habere Christum. si enim nihil ei talis adfectionis uoluptatisque praeponat, quamuis superaedificet ligna, fenum, stipulam, Christus est fundamentum, propter hoc saluus erit per ignem. delicias quippe huiusmodi amoresque terrenos, propter coniugalem quidem copulam non damnabiles, tribulationis ignis exuret; ad quem pertinent ignem et orbitates et quaecumque calamitates quae auferunt haec. ac per hoc ei, qui aedificauit, erit aedificatio ista damnosa, quia non habebit, quod superaedificauit, et eorum amissione cruciabitur, quibus fruendo utique laetabatur; sed per hunc ignem saluus erit merito fundamenti, quia, etsi utrum id habere mallet an Christum a persecutore proponeretur, illud Christo non praeponeretur. uide in apostoli uerbis hominem aedificantem super fundamentum aurum, argentum, lapides pretiosos: qui sine uxore est, inquit, cogitat quae sunt dei, quomodo placeat deo. uide alium aedificantem ligna, fenum, stipulam: qui autem matrimonio iunctus est, inquit, cogitat quae sunt mundi, quomodo placeat uxori. uniuscuiusque opus manifestabitur; dies enim declarabit - dies utique tribulationis - , quoniam in igne, inquit, reuelabitur. eandem tribulationem ignem uocat, sicut alibi legitur: uasa figuli probat fornax et homines iustos tentatio tribulationis. et uniuscuiusque opus quale sit, ignis probabit. si cuius opus permanserit - permanet enim quod quisque cogitat quae sunt dei, quomodo placeat deo - , quod superaedificauit mercedem accipiet, id est, unde cogitauit, hoc sumet; si cuius autem opus arserit, damnum patietur - quoniam quod dilexerat non habebit - , ipse autem saluus erit - quia nulla eum tribulatio ab illius fundamenti stabilitate semouit - ; sic tamen quasi per ignem - quod enim sine inliciente amore non habuit, sine urente dolore non perdit. ecce, quantum mihi uidetur, inuentus est ignis, qui nullum eorum damnet, sed unum ditet, alterum damnificet, ambos probet. si autem ignem illum loco isto uoluerimus accipere, de quo dominus dicet sinistris: discedite a me, maledicti, in ignem aeternum; ut in eis etiam isti esse credantur, qui aedificant super fundamentum ligna, fenum, stipulam, eosque ex illo igne post tempus pro malis meritis inpertitum liberet boni meritum fundamenti, quid arbitrabimur dextros quibus dicetur: uenite, benedicti patris mei, possidete paratum uobis regnum, nisi eos, qui aedificauerunt super fundamentum aurum, argentum, lapides pretiosos? sed in illum ignem, de quo dictum est: sic tamen quasi per ignem, si hoc modo est intellegendus, utrique mittendi sunt, et dextri scilicet et sinistri. illo quippe igne utrique probandi sunt, de quo dictum est: dies enim declarabit, quoniam in igne reuelabitur, et uniuscuiusque opus quale sit, ignis probabit. si ergo utrumque probabit ignis, ut, si cuius opus permanserit, id est non fuerit igne consumptum, quod superaedificauit mercedem accipiat; si cuius autem opus arserit, damnum patiatur; profecto non est ipse aeternus ille ignis. in illum enim soli sinistri nouissima et perpetua damnatione mittentur, iste autem dextros probat. sed alios eorum sic probat, ut aedificium, quod super Christum fundamentum, ab eis inuenerit esse constructum, non exurat atque consumat; alios autem aliter, id est, ut quod superaedificauerunt ardeat damnumque inde patiantur, salui fiant autem, quoniam Christum in fundamento stabiliter positum praecellenti caritate tenuerunt. si autem salui fient, profecto et ad dexteram stabunt et cum ceteris audient: uenite, benedicti patris mei, possidete paratum uobis regnum, non ad sinistram, ubi illi erunt, qui salui non erunt et ideo audient: discedite a me, maledicti, in ignem aeternum. nemo quippe ab illo igne saluabitur, quia in supplicium aeternum ibunt illi omnes, ubi uermis eorum non moritur et ignis non exstinguitur, quo cruciabuntur die ac nocte in saecula saeculorum. post istius sane corporis mortem, donec ad illum ueniatur, qui post resurrectionem corporum futurus est damnationis et remunerationis ultimus dies, si hoc temporis interuallo spiritus defunctorum eiusmodi ignem dicuntur perpeti, quem non sentiant illi, qui non habuerunt tales mores et amores in huius corporis uita, ut eorum ligna, fenum, stipula consumatur, alii uero sentiant, qui eiusmodi se cum aedificia portauerunt, siue ibi tantum, siue et hic et ibi, siue ideo hic ut non ibi saecularia, quamuis a damnatione uenialia, concremantem ignem transitoriae tribulationis inueniant, non redarguo, quia forsitan uerum est. potest quippe ad istam tribulationem pertinere etiam mors ipsa carnis, quae de primi peccati perpetratione concepta est, ut secundum cuiusque aedificium tempus quod eam sequitur ab unoquoque sentiatur. persecutiones quoque, quibus martyres coronati sunt et quas patiuntur quicumque Christiani, probant utraque aedificia uelut ignis et alia consumunt cum ipsis aedificatoribus, si Christum in eis non inueniunt fundamentum, alia sine ipsis, si inueniunt, quia licet cum damno salui erunt ipsi, alia uero non consumunt, quia talia reperiunt quae maneant in aeternum. erit etiam in fine saeculi tribulatio tempore Antichristi, qualis numquam antea fuit. quam multa erunt tunc aedificia, siue aurea siue fenea, super optimum fundamentum, quod est Christus Iesus, ut ignis ille probet utraque et de aliis gaudium, de aliis inferat damnum, neutros tamen perdat, in quibus haec inueniet, propter stabile fundamentum. quicumque autem, non dico uxorem, cuius etiam commixtione carnis ad carnalem utitur uoluptatem, sed ipsa quae ab eiusmodi delectationibus aliena sunt nomina pietatis humano more carnaliter diligendo Christo anteponit, non eum habet in fundamento et ideo non per ignem saluus erit, sed saluus non erit, quia esse cum saluatore non poterit, qui de hac re apertissime loquens ait: qui amat patrem aut matrem plus quam me, non est me dignus; et qui amat filium aut filiam super me, non est me dignus. uerum qui has necessitudines sic amat carnaliter ut tamen eas Christo domino non praeponat, malitque ipsis carere quam Christo, si ad hunc fuerit articulum tentationis adductus, per ignem erit saluus, quia et earum amissione tantum necesse est urat dolor, quantum haeserat amor. porro qui patrem matrem, filios filias secundum Christum dilexerit, ut ad eius regnum obtinendum eique cohaerendum illis consulat, uel hoc in eis diligat, quod membra sunt Christi, absit ut ista dilectio reperiatur in lignis, feno, stipula consumenda. sed prorsus aedificio aureo, argenteo, gemmeo, deputabitur. quomodo autem potest eos plus amare quam Christum, quos amat utique propter Christum?

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The City of God

Chapter 26.--What It is to Have Christ for a Foundation, and Who They are to Whom Salvation as by Fire is Promised.

But, say they, the catholic Christians have Christ for a foundation, and they have not fallen away from union with Him, no matter how depraved a life they have built on this foundation, as wood, hay, stubble; and accordingly the well-directed faith by which Christ is their foundation will suffice to deliver them some time from the continuance of that fire, though it be with loss, since those things they have built on it shall be burned. Let the Apostle James summarily reply to them: "If any man say he has faith, and have not works, can faith save him?" ¹ And who then is it, they ask, of whom the Apostle Paul says, "But he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire?" ² Let us join them in their inquiry; and one thing is very certain, that it is not he of whom James speaks, else we should make the two apostles contradict one another, if the one says, "Though a man's works be evil, his faith will save him as by fire," while the other says, "If he have not good works, can his faith save him?"

We shall then ascertain who it is who can be saved by fire, if we first discover what it is to have Christ for a foundation. And this we may very readily learn from the image itself. In a building the foundation is first. Whoever, then, has Christ in his heart, so that no earthly or temporal things--not even those that are legitimate and allowed--are preferred to Him, has Christ as a foundation. But if these things be preferred, then even though a man seem to have faith in Christ, yet Christ is not the foundation to that man; and much more if he, in contempt of wholesome precepts, seek forbidden gratifications, is he clearly convicted of putting Christ not first but last, since he has despised Him as his ruler, and has preferred to fulfill his own wicked lusts, in contempt of Christ's commands and allowances. Accordingly, if any Christian man loves a harlot, and, attaching himself to her, becomes one body, he has not now Christ for a foundation. But if any one loves his own wife, and loves her as Christ would have him love her, who can doubt that he has Christ for a foundation? But if he loves her in the world's fashion, carnally, as the disease of lust prompts him, and as the Gentiles love who know not God, even this the apostle, or rather Christ by the apostle, allows as a venial fault. And therefore even such a man may have Christ for a foundation. For so long as he does not prefer such an affection or pleasure to Christ, Christ is his foundation, though on it he builds wood, hay, stubble; and therefore he shall be saved as by fire. For the fire of affliction shall burn such luxurious pleasures and earthly loves, though they be not damnable, because enjoyed in lawful wedlock. And of this fire the fuel is bereavement, and all those calamities which consume these joys. Consequently the superstructure will be loss to him who has built it, for he shall not retain it, but shall be agonized by the loss of those things in the enjoyment of which he found pleasure. But by this fire he shall be saved through virtue of the foundation, because even if a persecutor demanded whether he would retain Christ or these things, he would prefer Christ. Would you hear, in the apostle's own words, who he is who builds on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones? "He that is unmarried," he says, "careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord." ³ Would you hear who he is that buildeth wood, hay, stubble? "But he that is married careth for the things that are of the world, how he may please his wife. ⁴ "Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it,"--the day, no doubt, of tribulation--"because," says he, "it shall be revealed by fire." ⁵ He calls tribulation fire, just as it is elsewhere said, "The furnace proves the vessels of the potter, and the trial of affliction righteous men." ⁶ And "The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide"--for a man's care for the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord, abides--"which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward,"--that is, he shall reap the fruit of his care. "But if any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss,"--for what he loved he shall not retain:--" but he himself shall be saved,"--for no tribulation shall have moved him from that stable foundation,--"yet so as by fire;" ⁷ for that which he possessed with the sweetness of love he does not lose without the sharp sting of pain. Here, then, as seems to me, we have a fire which destroys neither, but enriches the one, brings loss to the other, proves both.

But if this passage [of Corinthians] is to interpret that fire of which the Lord shall say to those on His left hand, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire," ⁸ so that among these we are to believe there are those who build on the foundation wood, hay, stubble, and that they, through virtue of the good foundation, shall after a time be liberated from the fire that is the award of their evil deserts, what then shall we think of those on the right hand, to whom it shall be said, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you," ⁹ unless that they are those who have built on the foundation gold, silver, precious stones? But if the fire of which our Lord speaks is the same as that of which the apostle says, "Yet so as by fire," then both--that is to say, both those on the right as well as those on the left--are to be cast into it. For that fire is to try both, since it is said, "For the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." ¹⁰ If, therefore, the fire shall try both, in order that if any man's work abide--i.e., if the superstructure be not consumed by the fire--he may receive a reward, and that if his work is burned he may suffer loss, certainly that fire is not the eternal fire itself. For into this latter fire only those on the left hand shall be cast, and that with final and everlasting doom; but that former fire proves those on the right hand. But some of them it so proves that it does not burn and consume the structure which is found to have been built by them on Christ as the foundation; while others of them it proves in another fashion, so as to burn what they have built up, and thus cause them to suffer loss, while they themselves are saved because they have retained Christ, who was laid as their sure foundation, and have loved Him above all. But if they are saved, then certainly they shall stand at the right hand, and shall with the rest hear the sentence, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you;" and not at the left hand, where those shall be who shall not be saved, and shall therefore hear the doom, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." For from that fire no man shall be saved, because they all shall go away into eternal punishment, where their worms shall not die, nor their fire be quenched, in which they shall be tormented day and night for ever.

But if it be said that in the interval of time between the death of this body and that last day of judgment and retribution which shall follow the resurrection, the bodies of the dead shall be exposed to a fire of such a nature that it shall not affect those who have not in this life indulged in such pleasures and pursuits as shall be consumed like wood, hay, stubble, but shall affect those others who have carried with them structures of that kind; if it be said that such worldliness, being venial, shall be consumed in the fire of tribulation either here only, or here and hereafter both, or here that it may not be hereafter,--this I do not contradict, because possibly it is true. For perhaps even the death of the body is itself a part of this tribulation, for it results from the first transgression, so that the time which follows death takes its color in each case from the nature of the man's building. The persecutions, too, which have crowned the martyrs, and which Christians of all kinds suffer, try both buildings like a fire, consuming some, along with the builders themselves, if Christ is not found in them as their foundation, while others they consume without the builders, because Christ is found in them, and they are saved, though with loss; and other buildings still they do not consume, because such materials as abide for ever are found in them. In the end of the world there shall be in the time of Antichrist tribulation such as has never before been. How many edifices there shall then be, of gold or of hay, built on the best foundation, Christ Jesus, which that fire shall prove, bringing joy to some, loss to others, but without destroying either sort, because of this stable foundation! But whosoever prefers, I do not say his wife, with whom he lives for carnal pleasure, but any of those relatives who afford no delight of such a kind, and whom it is right to love,--whosoever prefers these to Christ, and loves them after a human and carnal fashion, has not Christ as a foundation, and will therefore not be saved by fire, nor indeed at all; for he shall not possibly dwell with the Saviour, who says very explicitly concerning this very matter, "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." ¹¹ But he who loves his relations carnally, and yet so that he does not prefer them to Christ, but would rather want them than Christ if he were put to the proof, shall be saved by fire, because it is necessary that by the loss of these relations he suffer pain in proportion to his love. And he who loves father, mother, sons, daughters, according to Christ, so that he aids them in obtaining His kingdom and cleaving to Him, or loves them because they are members of Christ, God forbid that this love should be consumed as wood, hay, stubble, and not rather be reckoned a structure of gold, silver, precious stones. For how can a man love those more than Christ whom he loves only for Christ's sake?