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The Divine Institutes

Lactantius

Book 7 · Chapter 10

About this work

A large Latin presentation of Christian teaching that criticizes pagan religion and philosophy while treating justice, God, creation, Christ, worship, ethics, and the final destiny of humanity.

Author: Lactantius
Date: c. AD 303–311
Origin: North Africa and Nicomedia
Genre: Apology

Chap. X.—Of Vices and Virtues, and of Life and Death.

Let us now in turn pass on to those

‹ Book 7 · Chapter 9 Book 7 · Chapter 11 ›

things

which

are

opposed

to

virtue

,

that

from

these

also

the

immortality

of

the

soul

may

be

inferred

.

All

vices

are

for

a

time

;

for

they

are

excited

for

the

present

.

The

impetuosity

of

anger

is

appeased

when

vengeance

has

been

taken

;

the

pleasure

of

the

body

puts

an

end

to

lust

;

desire

is

destroyed

either

by

the

full

enjoyment

of

the

objects

which

it

seeks

,

or

by

the

excitement

of

other

affections

;

ambition

,

when

it

has

gained

the

honours

which

it

wished

for

,

loses

its

strength

;

likewise

the

other

vices

are

unable

to

stand

their

ground

and

remain

,

but

they

are

ended

by

the

very

enjoyment

which

they

desire

.

Therefore

they

withdraw

and

return

.

But

virtue

is

perpetual

,

without

any

intermission

;

nor

can

he

who

has

once

taken

it

up

depart

from

it

.

For

if

it

should

have

any

interruption

,

if

we

can

at

any

time

do

without

it

,

vices

,

which

always

oppose

virtue

,

will

return

.

Therefore

it

has

not

been

grasped

,

if

it

deserts

its

post

,

if

at

any

time

it

withdraws

itself

.

But

when

it

has

established

for

itself

a

firm

abode

,

it

must

necessarily

be

engaged

in

every

act

;

nor

can

it

faithfully

drive

away

and

put

to

flight

vices

,

unless

it

shall

fortify

with

a

perpetual

guard

the

breast

which

it

inhabits

.

Therefore

the

uninterrupted

duration

of

virtue

itself

shows

that

the

soul

of

man

,

if

it

has

received

virtue

,

remains

permanent

,

because

virtue

is

perpetual

,

and

it

is

the

human

mind

alone

which

receives

virtue

.

Since

,

therefore

,

vices

are

contrary

to

virtue

,

the

whole

systems

must

of

necessity

differ

from

and

be

contrary

to

each

other

.

Because

vices

are

commotions

and

perturbations

of

the

soul

;

virtue

,

on

the

contrary

,

is

mildness

and

tranquillity

of

mind

.

Because

vices

are

temporary

,

and

of

short

duration

;

virtue

is

perpetual

and

constant

,

and

always

consistent

with

itself

.

Because

the

fruits

of

vices

,

that

is

,

pleasures

,

equally

with

themselves

,

are

short

and

temporary

,

therefore

the

fruit

and

reward

of

virtue

are

everlasting

.

Because

the

advantage

of

vices

is

immediate

,

therefore

that

of

virtue

is

future

.

Thus it happens that in this life there is no reward of virtue, because virtue itself still exists. For as, when vices are completed in their performance, pleasure and their rewards follow; so, when virtue has been ended, its reward follows. But virtue is never ended except by death, since its highest office is in the undergoing of death: therefore the reward of virtue is after death. In fine, Cicero, in his Tusculan Disputations, perceived, though with doubt, that the chief good does not happen to man except after death. “A man will go,” he says, “with confident spirit, if circumstances shall so happen, to death, in which we have ascertained that there is either the chief good or no evil.” Death, therefore, does not extinguish man, but admits him to the reward of virtue. But he who has contaminated himself, as the same writer says, with vices and crimes, and has been the slave of pleasure, he truly, being condemned, shall suffer eternal punishment, which the sacred writings call the second death, which is both eternal and full of the severest torments. For as two lives are proposed to man, of which the one belongs to the soul, the other to the body; so also two deaths are proposed,—one relating to the body, which all must undergo according to nature, the other relating to the soul, which is acquired by wickedness and avoided by virtue. As this life is temporary and has fixed limits, because it belongs to the body; so also death is in like manner temporary and has a fixed end, because it affects the body.

Notes

1
Libidinis finis est.
2
Senescit.
3
Intervallum.
4
Perpetuitas.
5
Tusc. Disp., i. 46.
6
Ibid., i. 30.
7
[Tayler Lewis, Plato, etc., pp. 294–300; more especially, pp. 318–322.]