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The City of God · Chapter

Of the advantages and disadvantages which often indiscriminately accrue to good and wicked men explained

Augustine explains that God's mercy extends to both the good and the wicked, as seen in the common distribution of temporal goods and ills.

What happens

Augustine explains that God's mercy extends to both the good and the wicked, as seen in the common distribution of temporal goods and ills. He argues that this commonality prevents excessive desire for worldly goods and fear of worldly ills, and that the same afflictions serve to purify the good and condemn the wicked, demonstrating divine providence and the difference in the character of the sufferers.

Themes in this chapter

  • Divine Providence and History

    Augustine emphasizes that God's providence governs the distribution of temporal goods and ills, preparing rewards and punishments for the world to come, and that the same afflictions serve different purposes for the good and the wicked.

  • Sin, Grace, and Redemption

    The chapter discusses how the patience of God invites the wicked to repentance, while the scourge of God educates the good to patience, highlighting the role of suffering in the process of redemption.

  • Morality and Virtue vs. Pagan Corruption

    Augustine contrasts the responses of the good and the wicked to affliction: the good pray and praise, while the wicked detest God and blaspheme, showing the moral difference between them.

Characters to notice

  • Augustine

    Author and speaker, presenting the argument on divine providence and the commonality of temporal goods and ills.

  • Paul

    Quoted as the apostle who warns against despising God's goodness and long-suffering, and speaks of the righteous judgment of God.

Key passages

  • “For as the same fire causes gold to glow brightly, and chaff to smoke; and under the same flail the straw is beaten small, while the grain is cleansed; and as the lees are not mixed with the oil, though squeezed out of the vat by the same pressure, so the same violence of affliction proves, purges, clarifies the good, but damns, ruins, exterminates the wicked.”

    Just as fire makes gold shine and chaff smoke, and the same flail separates straw from grain, and pressure separates oil from lees, so the same suffering tests and purifies the good while destroying the wicked.

    Augustine uses analogies from common processes to illustrate how the same affliction has opposite effects on the good and the wicked.

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The City of God — Of the advantages and disadvantages which often indiscriminately accrue to good and wicked men Explained