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The Fifteen Books of Aurelius Augustinus, Bishop of Hippo, on the Trinity

Chapter 8.--Blessedness Cannot Exist Without Immortality.

11. As, therefore, all men will to be blessed, certainly, if they will truly, they will also to be immortal; for otherwise they could not be blessed. And further, if questioned also concerning immortality, as before concerning blessedness, all reply that they will it. But blessedness of what quality soever, such as is not so, but rather is so called, is sought, nay indeed is feigned in this life, whilst immortality is despaired of, without which true blessedness cannot be. Since he lives blessedly, as we have already said before, and have sufficiently proved and concluded, who lives as he wills, and wills nothing wrongly. But no one wrongly wills immortality, if human nature is by God's gift capable of it; and if it is not capable of it, it is not capable of blessedness. For, that a man may live blessedly, he must needs live. And if life quits him by his dying, how can a blessed life remain with him? And when it quits him, without doubt it either quits him unwilling, or willing, or neither. If unwilling, how is the life blessed which is so within his will as not to be within his power? And whereas no one is blessed who wills something that he does not have, how much less is he blessed who is quitted against his will, not by honor, nor by possessions, nor by any other thing, but by the blessed life itself, since he will have no life at all? And hence, although no feeling is left for his life to be thereby miserable (for the blessed life quits him, because life altogether quits him), yet he is wretched as long as he feels, because he knows that against his will that is being destroyed for the sake of which he loves all else, and which he loves beyond all else. A life therefore cannot both be blessed, and yet quit a man against his will, since no one becomes blessed against his will; and hence how much more does it make a man miserable by quitting him against his will, when it would make him miserable if he had it against his will! But if it quit him with his will, even so how was that a blessed life, which he who had it willed should perish? It remains then for them to say, that neither of these is in the mind of the blessed man; that is, that he is neither unwilling nor willing to be quitted by a blessed life, when through death life quits him altogether; for that he stands firm with an even heart, prepared alike for either alternative. But neither is that a blessed life which is such as to be unworthy of his love whom it makes blessed. For how is that a blessed life which the blessed man does not love? Or how is that loved, of which it is received indifferently, whether it is to flourish or to perish? Unless perhaps the virtues, which we love in this way on account of blessedness alone, venture to persuade us that we do not love blessedness itself. Yet if they did this, we should certainly leave off loving the virtues themselves, when we do not love that on account of which alone we loved them. And further, how will that opinion be true, which has been so tried, and sifted, and thoroughly strained, and is so certain, viz. that all men will to be blessed, if they themselves who are already blessed neither will nor do not will to be blessed? Or if they will it, as truth proclaims, as nature constrains, in which indeed the supremely good and unchangeably blessed Creator has implanted that will: if, I say, they will to be blessed who are blessed, certainly they do not will to be not blessed. But if they do not will not to be blessed, without doubt they do not will to be annihilated and perish in regard to their blessedness. But they cannot be blessed except they are alive; therefore they do not will so to perish in regard to their life. Therefore, whoever are either truly blessed or desire to be so, will to be immortal. But he does not live blessedly who has not that which he wills. Therefore it follows that in no way can life be truly blessed unless it be eternal.

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De Trinitate

VIII.

[VIII 11] Cum ergo beati esse omnes homines volunt si verum volunt, profecto esse et immortales volunt; aliter enim beati esse non possunt. Denique et de immortalitate interrogati sicut de beatitudine omnes eam se velle respondet. Sed qualiscumque beatitudo quae potius vocetur quam sit in hac vita quaeritur, immo vero fingitur, dum immortalitas desperatur sine qua vera beatitudo esse non potest. Ille quippe beate vivit, quod iam superius diximus et astruendo satis fiximus, qui vivit ut vult nec male aliquid vult. Nemo autem male vult immortalitatem si eius humana capax est deo donante natura; cuius si capax non est, nec beatitudinis capax est. Ut enim homo beate vivat oportet ut vivat. Quem porro morientem vita ipsa deserit beata vita cum illo manere qui potest? Cum autem deserit, aut nolentem procul dubio deserit aut volentem aut neutrum. Si nolentem, quomodo est beata vita quae ita est in voluntate ut non sit in potestate? Cumque beatus nemo sit aliquid volendo nec habendo, quanto minus beatus est qui non honore, non possessione, non qualibet alia re, sed ipsa beata vita nolens deseritur quando ei nulla vita erit? Unde etsi nullus sensus relinquitur quo sit misera (propterea enim beata vita discedit quoniam tota vita discedit), miser est tamen quamdiu sentit quia scit se nolente consumi propter quod cetera et quod prae ceteris diligit. Non igitur potest vita et beata esse et nolentem deserere quia beatus nemo nolens fit, ac per hoc quanto magis nolentem deserendo miserum facit quae si nolenti praesto esset miserum faceret? Si autem volentem deserit, etiam sic quomodo beata erat quam perire voluit qui habebat? Restat ut dicant neutrum esse in animo beati, id est eum deseri a beata vita, cum per mortem deserit tota vita, nec nolle nec velle, ad utrumque enim parato et aequo corde consistere. Sed nec ista beata est vita quae talis est ut quem beatum facit amore eius indigna sit. Quomodo enim est beata vita quam non amat beatus? Aut quomodo amatur quod utrum vigeat an pereat indifferenter accipitur? Nisi forte virtutes quas propter solam beatitudinem sic amamus persuadere nobis audent ut ipsam beatitudinem non amemus. Quod si faciunt, etiam ipsas utique amare desistimus quando illam propter quam solam istas amavimus non amamus.

Deinde quomodo erit vera illa tam perspecta, tam examinata, tam eliquata, tam certa sententia, beatos esse omnes homines velle, si ipsi qui iam beati sunt beati esse nec nolunt nec volunt? Aut si volunt ut veritas clamat, ut natura compellit cui summe bonus et immutabiliter beatus creator hoc indidit, si volunt, inquam, beati esse qui beati sunt, beati non esse utique nolunt. Si autem beati non esse nolunt, procul esse utique nolunt. Si autem beati non esse nolunt, procul dubio nolunt consumi et perire quod beati sunt. Nec nisi viventes beati esse possunt; nolunt igitur perire quod vivunt. Immortales ergo esse volunt quicumque vere beati vel sunt vel esse cupiunt. Non autem vivit beate cui non adest quod vult; nullo modo igitur esse poterit vita veraciter beata nisi fuerit sempiterna. [12] Hanc utrum capiat humana natura quam tamen desiderabilem confitetur non parva quaestio est. Sed si fides adsit quae inest eis quibus dedit potestatem Iesus filios dei fieri, nulla quaestio est.