The City of God
On Sin
St. Augustine
I have already said, in previous Books, that God had two purposes in deriving all men from one man. His first purpose was to give unity to the human race by the likeness of nature. His second purpose was to bind mankind by the bond of peace, through blood relationship, into one harmonious whole. I have said further that no member of this race would ever have died had not the first two (Adam and Eve)---one created from nothing and the second from the first---merited this death by disobedience. The sin which they committed was so great that it impaired all human nature---in this sense, that the nature has been transmitted to posterity with a propensity to sin and a necessity to die....
When a man lives “according to man”---and not “according to God”---he is like the Devil....
When man lives according to himself, that is to say, according to human ways and not according to God’s will, then surely he lives according to falsehood. Man himself, of course, is not a lie, since God who is his Author and Creator could not be the Author and Creator of a lie. Rather, man has been so constituted in truth that he was meant to live not according to himself but to Him who made him---that is, he was meant to do the will of God rather than his own. It is a lie not to live as a man was created to live.
Man indeed desires happiness even when he does so live as to make happiness impossible.... The happiness of man can come not from himself but only from God, and that to live according to oneself is to sin, and to sin is to lose God....
Moreover, our first parents (Adam and Eve) only fell openly into the sin of disobedience because, secretly, they had begun to be guilty. Actually, their bad deed could not have been done had not bad will preceded it; what is more, the root of their bad will was nothing else than pride. For, “pride is the beginning of all sin.”---And what is pride but an appetite for inordinate exaltation? Now, exaltation is inordinate when the soul cuts itself off from the very Source (God) to which it should keep close and somehow makes itself and becomes an end to itself. This takes place when the soul becomes inordinately pleased with itself, and such self-pleasing occurs when the soul falls away from the unchangeable Good which ought to please the soul far more than the soul can please itself. Now, this falling away is the soul’s own doing, for, if the will had merely remained firm in the love of that higher immutable Good which lighted its mind into knowledge and warmed its will into love, it would not have turned away in search of satisfaction in itself and, by so doing, have lost that light and warmth. And thus Eve would not have believed that the serpent’s lie was true, nor would Adam have preferred the will of his wife to the will of God....
This life of ours---if a life so full of such great ills can properly be called a life---bears witness to the fact that, from its very start, the race of mortal men has been a race condemned. Think, first, of that dreadful abyss of ignorance from which all error flows and so engulfs the sons of Adam in a darksome pool that no one can escape without the toll of toils and tears and fears. Then, take our very love for all those things that prove so vain and poisonous and breed so many heartaches, troubles, griefs, and fears; such insane joys in discord, strife, and war; such wrath and plots of enemies, deceivers, sycophants; such fraud and theft and robbery; such perfidy and pride, envy and ambition, homicide and murder, cruelty and savagery, lawlessness and lust; all the shameless passions of the impure---fornication and adultery, incest and unnatural sins, rape and countless other uncleannesses too nasty to be mentioned; the sins against religion---sacrilege and heresy, blasphemy and perjury; the iniquities against our neighbors---calumnies and cheating, lies and false witness, violence to persons and property; the injustices of the courts and the innumerable other miseries and maladies that fill the world, yet escape attention.
It is true that it is wicked men who do such things, but the source of all such sins is that radical canker (sinfulness) in the mind and will that is innate in every son of Adam....
Yet, for all this blight of ignorance and folly, fallen man has not been left without some ministries of Providence, nor has God, in His anger, shut up His mercies. There are still within the reach of man himself, if only he will pay the price of toil and trouble, the twin resources of law and education. With the one, he can make war on human passion; with the other, he can keep the light of learning lit even in the darkness of our native ignorance....
From this all but hell of unhappiness here on earth, nothing can save us but the grace of Jesus Christ, who is our Saviour, Lord and God. In fact, the very meaning of the name, Jesus, is Saviour, and when we say “save”, we mean, especially, that He saves us from passing from the misery of this mortal life to a still more miserable condition, which is not so much a life as death....
What we see, then, is that two societies have issued from two kinds of love. Worldly society has flowered from a selfish love which dared to despise even God, whereas the communion of saints is rooted in a love of God that is ready to trample on self. In a word, this latter relies on the Lord, whereas the other boasts that it can get along by itself. The city of man seeks the praise of men, whereas the height of glory for the other is to hear God in the witness of conscience. The one lifts up its head in its own boasting; the other says to God: “Thou art my glory, thou liftest up my head.”
In the city of the world both the rulers themselves and the people they dominate are dominated by the lust for domination; whereas in the City of God all citizens serve one another in charity, whether they serve by the responsibilities of office or by the duties of obedience. The one city loves its leaders as symbols of its own strength; the other says to its God: “I love thee, 0 Lord, my strength.” Hence, even the wise men in the city of man live according to man, and their only goal has been the goods of their bodies or of the mind or of both; though some of them have reached a knowledge of God, “they did not glorify him as God or give thanks but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless minds have been darkened. For while professing to be wise” (that is to say, while glorying in their own wisdom, under the domination of pride), “they have become fools, and they have changed the glory of the incorruptible God for an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things” (meaning that they either led their people, or imitated them, in adoring idols shaped like these things), “and they worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever.” In the City of God, on the contrary, there is no merely human wisdom, but there is a piety which worships the true God as He should be worshiped and has as its goal that reward of all holiness whether in the society of saints on earth or in that of angels of heaven, which is “that God may be all in all.”…
…. In the eternal City of God, each and all of the citizens are personally immortal with an immortality which the holy angels never lost and which even human beings can come to share. This is to be achieved by the supreme omnipotence of the Creator, the Founder of the City….
Who can measure the happiness of heaven, where no evil at all can touch us, no good will be out of reach; where life is to be one long laud extolling God, who will be all in all; where there will be no weariness to call for rest, no need to call for toil, no place for any energy but praise….
. . . There will be such poise, such grace, such beauty as become a place where nothing unbecoming can be found. Wherever the spirit wills, there, in a flash, will the body be. Nor will the spirit ever will anything unbecoming either to itself or to the body.
In heaven, all glory will be true glory, since no one could ever err in praising too little or too much. True honor will never be denied where due, never be given where undeserved, and, since none but the worthy are permitted there, no one will unworthily [pursue] glory. Perfect peace will reign, since nothing in ourselves or in any others could disturb this peace.
论罪（选自《上帝之城》）
我在之前的篇章中已经说过，上帝从一人繁衍出全人类有两个目的。第一个目的是通过天性的相似性赋予人类统一性；第二个目的是通过血缘关系，将人类以和平的纽带联结成一个和谐的整体。我还说过，若非最初的两人（亚当与夏娃）——一个由虚无创造，另一个由前者创造——因违命而应受死亡，这一种族的任何成员本都不会经历死亡。他们所犯下的罪过如此巨大，以至于损害了整个人类的本性——从这种意义上说，这种本性在传承给后代时，带有了犯罪的倾向和死亡的必然性。
当一个人“顺从人”而活——而非“顺从上帝”时——他便像魔鬼一样。当人顺从自己，也就是说，顺从人的方式而非上帝的旨意而活时，他无疑是活在谎言之中。当然，人本身并不是谎言，因为作为造物主的上帝不可能创造谎言。相反，人受造成真理，本应不为自己而活，而为造物主而活——也就是说，他本应遵行上帝的旨意而非自己的意志。不按照人受造时的初衷生活，这就是一种谎言。
人固然渴望幸福，即便他的生活方式使幸福变得不可能……人的幸福不能来自他自己，只能来自上帝；顺从自己而活就是犯罪，而犯罪就是失去上帝。
此外，我们的始祖（亚当与夏娃）之所以公开陷入违命之罪，是因为他们在内心深处已经先有了负罪感。实际上，若无邪恶的意志在前，邪恶的行为就不会产生；更重要的是，他们邪恶意志的根源无非是骄傲。因为，“骄傲是万罪之首”。骄傲是什么？不就是一种对过度自我提升的渴求吗？当灵魂切断了与它应亲近的源头（上帝）的联系，转而以自我为中心、将自我视为终点时，这种提升就是过度的。当灵魂过度自我陶醉时，这种情况就会发生；而当灵魂背离了那本应让它感到喜悦、远胜于自我陶醉的永恒美善时，这种自我陶醉就产生了。
这种背离是灵魂自身的行为，因为，如果意志坚定地爱着那照亮其心智、温暖其情感的更高且永恒的美善，它就不会为了在自身中寻找满足而转身离去，从而丧失了那光与热。如此一来，夏娃便不会相信毒蛇的谎言，亚当也不会将妻子的意志置于上帝的旨意之上。
我们的这一生——如果这充满巨大苦难的生活还能称之为生活的话——见证了一个事实：从一开始，会死的人类就是一个被定罪的种族。首先，想想那流出一切错误的可怕的无知深渊，它将亚当的子孙吞没在黑暗的池沼中，若不付出辛劳、泪水与恐惧，无人能逃脱。接着，再看看我们对虚荣且有害之物的迷恋，它们孕育了多少心痛、麻烦、忧愁和恐惧；在不和、冲突与战争中那疯狂的快感；敌人的愤怒与阴谋、欺骗者与谄媚者；欺诈、偷窃与抢劫；背信弃义、骄傲、嫉妒、野心、谋杀、残忍、野蛮、无法无天与淫欲；以及不洁者所有羞耻的热情——奸淫、乱伦、悖逆本性的罪行、强奸，以及无数其他难以言表的污秽；还有针对宗教的罪行——亵渎神圣、异端邪说、妄称神名与伪证；针对邻人的不义——诽谤、欺诈、谎言、假证、对人身和财产的暴力；法庭上的不公，以及充斥世界却被忽视的无数其他苦难与弊病。
诚然，是邪恶的人做了这些事，但所有这些罪行的源头是那在每一个亚当子孙的心灵与意志中根深蒂固的病根（罪性）。
然而，尽管存在无知与愚昧的颓败，堕落的人类并未被天意的眷顾所遗弃，上帝也没有在愤怒中收回祂的怜悯。只要人愿意付出辛劳，依然可以触及法律与教育这两大资源。通过法律，他可以对抗人类的情欲；通过教育，即使在天生的无知黑暗中，他也能保留学习之光。
从这地上的不幸炼狱中，唯有我们的救主、主和上帝耶稣基督的恩典能拯救我们。“耶稣”这个名字本身的含义就是“救主”，当我们说“拯救”时，我们的意思尤其是：祂将我们从这必死生活的痛苦中拯救出来，使其不至于走向一种更痛苦的状态——那与其说是生活，不如说是死亡。
因此我们看到，两个社会源于两种爱。**世俗社会源于对自己私爱的膨胀，甚至到了藐视上帝的地步；而圣徒的团契则根植于对上帝的爱，这种爱甘愿舍弃自我。**简言之，后者信靠主，而前者则吹嘘可以独立。人的城市寻求人的赞美，而另一座城市最高的光荣是在良心的见证中聆听上帝。一个在自夸中昂首，另一个则对上帝说：“你是我的荣耀，又是叫我抬起头来的。”
在世俗之城中，统治者和他们所统治的人民都被统治欲所支配；而在上帝之城中，所有的公民都以仁爱互相服务，无论是履行职位的职责，还是尽顺服的义务。一座城市爱它的领袖，将其视为自身力量的象征；另一座城市则对它的上帝说：“主啊，我的力量，我爱你。”
因此，即便在人的城市中，那些聪明人也是顺着人生活，他们的目标仅仅是肉体、灵魂或两者的福祉；虽然他们中有些人达到了对上帝的认识，但“他们不把祂当作上帝荣耀祂，也不感谢祂，反而其思念变为虚妄，无知的心就昏暗了。自称为聪明”（也就是说，在骄傲的支配下以自己的智慧为荣），“反成了愚拙，将不能朽坏之上帝的荣耀，变为偶像，仿佛必朽坏的人和飞禽、走兽、昆虫的样式”（意指他们要么引导百姓，要么模仿百姓，崇拜那些形状的偶像），“去敬拜侍奉受造之物，不敬拜那造物的主，主乃是可称颂的，直到永远。”
相反，在上帝之城中，没有纯粹的人类智慧，只有虔诚，以真诚的方式崇拜真神，并以那所有神圣者的奖赏为目标——无论是在地上的圣徒社会还是在天上的天使社会——那就是“上帝在万物之上，为万物之主”。
在永恒的上帝之城中，每一位公民都是永生的，这种永生是圣天使从未失去的，甚至人类也可以分享。这是由造物主，即这座城市的创建者，通过其至高的全能来实现的。谁能衡量天堂的幸福呢？在那里，没有任何邪恶能触及我们，没有任何美善是不可及的；生命将是一场歌颂上帝的长久赞美，祂将是万物之主；那里没有疲惫需要休息，没有匮乏需要劳作，除了赞美，没有任何能量的消耗。
那里将有如此的平衡、优雅与美丽，正适合一个没有瑕疵的地方。灵之所向，身之即往。灵魂永远不会意欲任何对自己或对身体不体面的事。在天堂，所有的荣耀都将是真实的荣耀，因为没有人会在赞美中过少或过多。真实的尊荣在应得之处绝不会被拒绝，在不应得之处绝不会被给予；而且，既然只有配得的人才被允许进入，没有人会不光彩地追求荣耀。完美的平安将统治那里，因为我们自身或他人中的任何事物都无法扰乱这种平安。