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EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET.
LONDON, HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. DUBLIN, JOHN ROBERTSON AND CO. NEW YORK, C. SCRIBNER AND CO.
EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET.
Of the following Work, Books IV. XVII. and XVIII. have been translated by the Rev. GEORGE WILSON, Glenluce; Books V. VI. VII. and VIII. by the Rev. J. J. SMITH.
Augustine censures the pagans, who attributed the calamities of the world, and especially the sack of Rome by the Goths, to the Christian religion and its prohibition of the worship of the gods, 1
A review of the calamities suffered by the Romans before the time of Christ, showing that their gods had plunged them into corruption and vice, 48
That empire was given to Rome not by the gods, but by the One True God, 135
Of fate, freewill, and God's prescience, and of the source of the virtues of the ancient Romans, 177
Of Varro's threefold division of theology, and of the inability of the gods to contribute anything to the happiness of the future life, 228
Of the "select gods" of the civil theology, and that eternal life is not obtained by worshipping them, 258
Some account of the Socratic and Platonic philosophy, and a refutation of the doctrine of Apuleius that the demons should be worshipped as mediators between gods and men, 305
Of those who allege a distinction among demons, some being good and others evil, 353
Augustine passes to the second part of the work, in which the origin, progress, and destinies of the earthly and heavenly cities are discussed.--Speculations regarding the creation of the world, 436
Of the creation of angels and men, and of the origin of evil, 481
That death is penal, and had its origin in Adam's sin, 521
"Rome having been stormed and sacked by the Goths under Alaric their king,[1] the worshippers of false gods, or pagans, as we commonly call them, made an attempt to attribute this calamity to the Christian religion, and began to blaspheme the true God with even more than their wonted bitterness and acerbity. It was this which kindled my zeal for the house of God, and prompted me to undertake the defence of the city of God against the charges and misrepresentations of its assailants. This work was in my hands for several years, owing to the interruptions occasioned by many other affairs which had a prior claim on my attention, and which I could not defer. However, this great undertaking was at last completed in twenty-two books. Of these, the first five refute those who fancy that the polytheistic worship is necessary in order to secure worldly prosperity, and that all these overwhelming calamities have befallen us in consequence of its prohibition. In the following five books I address myself to those who admit that such calamities have at all times attended, and will at all times attend, the human race, and that they constantly recur in forms more or less disastrous, varying only in the scenes, occasions, and persons on whom they light, but, while admitting this, maintain that the worship of the gods is advantageous for the life to come. In these ten books, then, I refute these two opinions, which are as groundless as they are antagonistic to the Christian religion.