§ 1. This disputation of mine is against atheists, blasphemous deniers of divine providence and benevolence, who judge it harmful to the commonwealth not to have sacrificed to demons. I am not unaware that one ought to fight against them with reason and secular literature rather than with the divine Scriptures. Nevertheless, I have judged that these weapons too must not be omitted; even if they do not wound an enemy who flees them, they will nevertheless weary and terrify him.
My reason is fourfold. First, the consideration will be useful and agreeable to orthodox princes and counselors, and exceedingly efficacious for detesting Machiavellianism. Secondly, it will benefit many whom an ambiguous ἐποχή, or suspension and hesitation, holds between piety and dissimulation. For it is necessary that a Scripture so ancient, so venerable, commended by so many thousands of years, should possess some authority even among unbelievers. Thirdly, there is hidden within the words of God a certain power and efficacy more penetrating than any two-edged sword, which often works conversion even in the hearts of the impious. I judge this to be the reason why the holy Fathers, when disputing against the gentiles, frequently opposed the oracles of the divine writings to their fables. Finally, sacred history, if you join to it the oracles of the prophets, convinces not only the faithful but also the gentiles and atheists that God exists and that all the kingdoms of the earth are in his hand.
I shall therefore use the sacred writings here as well. For whom shall I believe concerning God more than God? [Ambrose, Against Symmachus.] I shall cast the testimonies into three classes. For sometimes God himself is said to govern all things; at other times he is said to give, take away, and transfer kingdoms; and finally, he long ago predicted every change of kingdoms. If, therefore, God takes part in—and indeed presides over—all administrations of all kingdoms; if he declares that he gives and transfers kingdoms; and if he announced the destructions of cities and changes of monarchies long before they occurred, how do not all things depend upon him who created all things, foreknew all things, and was even concerned to disclose all things to his friends the prophets?
§ 2. The whole of Sacred Scripture is occupied in demonstrating that all things depend upon God and that all things are governed at his discretion. What else does the production of things and construction of the world proclaim than an author? The sacrifices of the two brothers teach that he attended to individual things, some of which he regarded and some neglected. He then submerged the crimes of the primeval world beneath avenging waters together with the whole race of human beings, but did not involve the just Noah and his household in the same punishment. How great were the losses the same God inflicted upon the Egyptians? He not only led out and led back the waters of the Red Sea, but afflicted them with frogs, flies, and darkness. No less an artificer in small things than in great ones, he therefore chastised and subdued the pride of an impious nation with the vilest little animals. Consider the slaughter of one night and the one hundred and eighty-five thousand deaths in the Assyrian camp during Hezekiah’s reign, and deny that God was then propitious to Israel and hostile to the Assyrians. Let us therefore believe God; he is the best witness concerning his own kingdom.
§ 3. Exodus 15:18: “The Lord shall reign for eternity and beyond.”
Deuteronomy 17:20: “Nor shall his heart be lifted up in pride above his brethren, nor shall he turn aside to the right hand or to the left, that he himself and his son may reign for a long time over Israel.”
1 Kings 8:7: “But the Lord said to Samuel: Hear the voice of the people in all the things they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but me, that I should not reign over them.”
1 Kings 12:12: “But when you saw that Nahash, king of the children of Ammon, had come against you, you said to me: By no means; rather, a king shall command us—although the Lord your God was reigning among you.”
1 Chronicles 29:11: “Yours, O Lord, is magnificence and power and glory and victory, and to you belongs praise; for all things in heaven and on earth are yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom, and you are above all princes. Yours are riches, and yours is glory; you rule over all; in your hand are the greatness and dominion of all.”
Job 34:18: “Who says to a king, ‘Apostate,’ and who calls leaders impious.”
Job 34:24: “He shall break many and innumerable men and make others stand in their place.”
Luke 1:33: “And he shall reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
Isaiah 24:23: “And the moon shall blush and the sun be confounded when the Lord of hosts shall reign upon Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and shall have been glorified in the sight of his elders.”
Ezekiel 20:33: “As I live, says the Lord God, in a strong hand and an outstretched arm and poured-out fury I shall reign over you. And I shall lead you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands in which you have been dispersed; in a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and poured-out fury I shall reign over you.”
Jeremiah 23:5: “Behold, the days come, says the Lord, and I shall raise up for David a just shoot; and a king shall reign, he shall be wise, and he shall execute judgment and justice upon the earth.”
Daniel 4:31: “Therefore, after the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding was restored to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and glorified him who lives forever, because his power is an everlasting power and his kingdom is unto generation and generation.”
Daniel 4:14: “By the sentence of the watchers the decree was made, and the word and demand of the holy ones, until the living know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of human beings, and shall give it to whomsoever he wills and shall appoint the lowest man over it.”
Psalm 47:9: “Because God is king of all the earth; the Lord shall reign over the nations.”
Psalm 93:1: “The Lord has reigned; he is clothed with beauty.”
Psalm 97:1: “The Lord has reigned; let the earth rejoice.”
Psalm: “The Lord has reigned; let the peoples be angry.”
§ 4. If, therefore, the kingdom is the Lord’s; if it is he who gives power over the nations so that he may rule them with an iron rod [Revelation 2:27 and 19:15]; if weakness does not befall God, he himself is both protector of the kingdom and, when offended, its destroyer. An enemy need not be feared by a prince whose calculations depend upon God, for earthly power is no more capable of casting down than divine guardianship is of raising up. “No human force resists divine forces.” [Cyprian, Book II, Epistle 6.] And Philo truly says well: “Whoever has a covenant with God holds the summit of happiness.”
Let princes therefore hold this: God is the supreme governor. Just as, when God is offended, there is nothing that can support them, so, when God is propitious, no adversity will harm them. For those whom almighty guardianship undertakes to defend cannot be conquered even if they are assailed by the forces of the whole world, because God—with whom they are, and with whom they reign—is unconquered.
§ 5. The same God testifies that he not only reigns and governs dominions, but gives, takes away, increases, and diminishes them.
1 Kings 15:28: “And Samuel said to him: The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has delivered it to your neighbor, who is better than you.”
Wisdom 10:10: “But she led the just man, who was a fugitive from his brother’s wrath, along right ways; and showed him the kingdom of God; and gave him knowledge of holy things; honored him in his labors and completed his labors.”
Wisdom 10:14: “And she did not abandon him in chains until she brought him the scepter of a kingdom and power against those who oppressed him; and she showed those who stained him to be liars and gave him everlasting glory.”
Isaiah 10:10: “As my hand found the kingdoms of the idol, so also their images from Jerusalem and Samaria.”
Isaiah 13:19: “And Babylon, that glorious city among kingdoms, renowned in the pride of the Chaldeans, shall be as when the Lord overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.”
Isaiah 14:16: “Those who see you shall bend toward you and gaze upon you: Is this the man who troubled the earth, who shook kingdoms, who made the world a desert and destroyed its cities, who did not open the prison to his prisoners?”
Isaiah 60:12: “For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish, and the nations shall be devastated with desolation.”
Isaiah 62:3: “And you shall be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord and a diadem of the kingdom in the hand of your God.”
Ezekiel 32:1: “And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and you shall say to him: You have been likened to the lion of the nations and to the dragon that is in the sea; and you tossed your horn in your rivers, troubled the waters with your feet, and trampled their streams. Therefore thus says the Lord God: I shall spread my net over you amid the multitude of many peoples, and I shall draw you out in my dragnet. And I shall cast you upon the earth; I shall throw you upon the face of the field, and shall cause all the birds of heaven to dwell upon you, and shall satisfy the beasts of the whole earth from you. And I shall place your flesh upon the mountains and fill your hills with your corruption. And I shall water the earth with the stench of your blood upon the mountains, and the valleys shall be filled from you. And when you have been extinguished, I shall cover the heavens and cause their stars to grow dark; I shall cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. I shall cause all the lights of heaven to mourn over you, and shall place darkness over your land, says the Lord God. And I shall provoke the heart of many peoples when I have brought your destruction among the nations upon lands that you do not know. And I shall cause many peoples to be astonished over you, and their kings shall fear for you with immense horror when my sword begins to fly before their faces; and on the day of your ruin individuals shall suddenly be astounded for their own life. For thus says the Lord God: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you; by the swords of the mighty I shall cast down your multitude—all these nations are unconquerable—and they shall devastate the pride of Egypt, and its multitude shall be scattered. And I shall destroy all its beasts of burden that were upon the many waters; the foot of man shall trouble them no more, nor shall the hoof of beasts of burden trouble them.”
Daniel 2:21: “And he changes times and ages; he transfers and establishes kingdoms; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who understand discipline.”
Daniel 5:18: “O king, the Most High God gave kingdom and magnificence, glory and honor, to Nebuchadnezzar your father. And because of the magnificence which he had given him, all peoples, tribes, and tongues trembled and feared him. Whom he willed, he killed; whom he willed, he struck; whom he willed, he exalted; and whom he willed, he humbled. But when his heart was lifted up and his spirit hardened unto pride, he was deposed from the throne of his kingdom and his glory was taken away.”
Daniel 5:28: “PHARES: your kingdom has been divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”
Daniel 7:14: “And he gave him power and honor and a kingdom, and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve him. His power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away, and his kingdom one that shall not be corrupted.”
§ 6. The third argument is taken from predictions. Long beforehand, all the things that were to come were disclosed to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the other patriarchs for their descendants; all future things were laid open to the leaders Moses and Joshua and to the other prophets. By the providence of God, therefore, kingdoms stand and fall.
See Numbers 24:7: “Water shall flow from his bucket, and his seed shall be in many waters. His king shall be taken away because of Agag, and his kingdom shall be removed.”
Deuteronomy 3:21: “I also commanded Joshua at that time, saying: Your eyes have seen what the Lord your God did to these two kings; so shall he do to all the kingdoms through which you are about to pass. Do not fear them, for the Lord our God shall fight for you.”
2 Kings 11:11: “And so the Lord said to Solomon: Because you have had this within you and have not kept my covenant and the precepts that I commanded you, by rending I shall rend your kingdom and give it to your servant. Nevertheless, I shall not do it in your days, on account of David your father; I shall rend it from the hand of your son. Nor shall I take away the whole kingdom, but I shall give one tribe to your son on account of David my servant and Jerusalem, which I chose.”
2 Kings 3:10: “Thus shall I deal with him: the kingdom shall be transferred from the house of Saul, and David’s throne shall be raised over Israel and over Judah, from Dan as far as Beersheba.”
Daniel 2:39: “And after you shall arise another kingdom, inferior to you, of silver; and another third kingdom, of bronze, which shall command the whole earth. And the fourth kingdom shall be like iron: just as iron breaks and subdues all things, so it shall break and shatter all these things.”
Presentiment and prediction of future things is therefore an efficacious antidote against the atheism of statesmen. For if the eternal God announced to his servants—and through them to the impious world—the destruction of kingdoms and the crimes of kings that were to be punished so long beforehand, no one can doubt that the world is administered by a most watchful providence and immutable justice.
§ 7. The books of many authors and the opinions of the most ancient men reported by later ones teach that certain elaborate arguments of the ancient philosophers for the existence of divination had been collected. Indeed, there was agreement in establishing divination among all who said that gods existed, except Xenophanes of Colophon and Epicurus, as Cicero is the authority in Book II of On Divination.
I mean all who conceded that something could be known. For how could the Academics, who contended that nothing could be known—so far that they professed not even to know this, that they knew nothing—being doubtful of everything and always ἐπέχοντες, suspending judgment, prove divination, when they did not know that they themselves existed? The reasoning of the others who believed that gods existed was this: if divination exists, gods exist; and if gods exist, divination exists. For these reciprocate with one another. Those ancients were criticized by the men who followed them most nearly. For the latter thought that future things could be signified by nature without God and that there could be gods who bestowed no divination upon the human race.
But both the former and the latter, ignorant of the truth, bound themselves by various fraud and superstition. They brought the matter to such a point that both those who thought that the gods and religion were defended by them and those who boasted that they abolished superstition equally weakened every power and faculty of divining, or brought it into ill repute by great crimes. For by what futile reasoning do Chrysippus, Diogenes, and Antipater fight for knowledge of future affairs? They say in Cicero, On Divination, Book II:
If gods exist and do not declare to human beings beforehand the things that are to be, then either they do not love human beings, or they are ignorant of what will happen, or they judge that it is of no concern for a human being to know what is to come, or they do not judge it to belong to their majesty to signify beforehand to human beings the things that are to be, or not even the gods themselves can signify them. But they do not fail to love us, for they are beneficent and friends of the human race. Nor are they ignorant of the things constituted and designed by themselves. Nor is it of no concern to us to know the things that are to be, for we shall be more cautious if we know them. Nor do they regard this as foreign to their majesty, for nothing is more excellent than beneficence. Nor are they unable to foreknow future things. Therefore, gods do not exist and do not signify future things to us; but gods do exist; therefore, they signify them.
There are indeed certain true things in this reasoning if they are referred to the one true God, who is most beneficent toward us, who first loved us, so that for the reconciliation of the whole world he gave his only-begotten Son, and who foreknew the outcomes of all things, however secret and hidden—both those which occur by his will and those which do not lack his permission. Nevertheless, gentility cannot prove its own predictions from this, since he willed that very many things should lie hidden even from the best and his closest friends.
Then, by bringing forward examples of their soothsayers that were partly manifestly false and partly ambiguous and pliant in speech, they made a matter doubtful among themselves and exposed it to the mockery of atheists, when they announce certainty of outcomes from entrails, birds, omens, lightning, dreams, and finally frenzies. What is easier than to refute the fables about Tages the plowed-up seer, the snakes of Gracchus, the sparrows of Calchas, Aius Locutius, the razor of Tarquinius, the tripudium solistimum, Epimenides the Cretan, the Babylonian observations of four hundred and seventy thousand years, and the rest, since they were generally accustomed to be mocked by the gentiles themselves? Vain, therefore, superstitious, and often frenzied are the approvers and defenders of gentile divinations.
§ 8. Yet, on the contrary, the reasoning of those who abolished all presentiment and prediction of future affairs was not probable. For in taking from God his right and foreknowledge they were sacrilegious, and their arguments have no weight in a matter of the greatest gravity. For what they attempt to prove by an enumeration of all things—that prophecy or any foreknowledge of fortuitous events cannot exist—they get wrong in each individual case.
The argument of all atheists is found in Cicero, On Divination, Book I: things perceived by the senses are handled by art; things in philosophy are established concerning duties; things are transmitted in physics, dialectic, and medicine; these do not belong to soothsayers or prophets; therefore, there is no divination. Reason, however, will show that true predictions exist in all these things; and although no reasons appear why these things rather than those should occur, nevertheless by divine disclosure a prophet knows what could not be known in itself. And the dullness of men otherwise acute when assailing foreknowledge of future things is astonishing. For since it is within a man’s power to predict the future things that he himself has resolved to do, why can he who is the almighty author not be the revealer of his own counsels? There can therefore be divination concerning all those things, because they all depend upon a certain outcome.
Others deny divination and foreknowledge because they execrate Stoic fate. For they think that foreknowledge, prediction, and fate are joined by an indissoluble bond and so bound together that either fate must be conceded or the other two denied. Cicero argues thus in his books written On Divination, as Saint Augustine noted in City of God, Book V, chapter 9:
Cicero attempts so to refute them that he does not think he can prevail at all against them unless he abolishes divination. He attempts to abolish it by denying that there is knowledge of future things; with all his strength he contends that it is altogether nonexistent, either in God or in man, and that there is no prediction of affairs. Thus he also denies God’s foreknowledge and attempts by empty arguments to overthrow every prophecy, which is clearer than daylight, setting against himself certain oracles that can readily be refuted—although not even he himself refutes them. But his discourse reigns supreme in refuting these conjectures of the astrologers, because they truly are such as to destroy and refute themselves.
Yet those who constitute either the stars or the fates are much more tolerable than he who abolishes foreknowledge of future things. For both to confess that God exists and to deny that he foreknows future things is the most manifest insanity. When Cicero himself saw this, he also attempted to assert that which is written, “The fool has said in his heart: There is no God”—but not in his own person. For he saw how odious and troublesome it was, and therefore, in his books On the Nature of the Gods, he made Cotta dispute about this matter against the Stoics; and although he assigned the defense of the Stoics’ side to Lucilius Balbus, he preferred to cast his vote for Cotta, who contends that no divine nature exists. But in the books On Divination, arguments from Cicero himself most openly attack foreknowledge of future things.
He appears to do all this so that he need not assent that fate exists and thereby destroy free will. For he thinks that, once knowledge of future things is conceded, fate follows so necessarily that it cannot be denied at all. But it is so clear and manifest that some prophecy of future and hidden things exists that whatever is assumed to prove it appears less clear. For every history, sacred and profane, is full of many predictions, and not all are invented or fallacious—those made with the aid of demons are true, but made deceitfully. For though very many are empty and invented, most of the things customarily related certainly do not exceed the faculty of those spirits. Lest I draw the matter out any farther, I shall bring forward what Augustine recounts concerning Albicerius in Book I of Against the Academics.
§ 9. Here Licentius, whom after that definition I had long thought would ask what he should say, immediately added: “Why, therefore, do we not call that infamous man wise whom we ourselves know well to be accustomed to dissolve himself among innumerable harlots? I mean that Albicerius who, at Carthage, for many years gave marvelous and certain answers to those who consulted him. I could recall innumerable things, were I not speaking among men who have experienced them and were a few things not now sufficient for what I intend. When a spoon could not be found in the house, did he not, when questioned at your command”—he was speaking to me—“answer most swiftly and truthfully not only what was being sought, but also specifically whose thing it was and where it lay hidden?
“Likewise, when I was present—I omit the fact that he was not mistaken at all concerning the thing about which he was asked—when the boy who was carrying the coins had stolen a certain portion of them while we were proceeding to him, Albicerius ordered all of them to be counted out to himself and compelled the boy, before our eyes, to return those he had taken away, before Albicerius himself had seen those same coins at all or had heard from us how much had been brought to him.
“What of the fact that we have learned from you that the most learned and illustrious Flaccianus was accustomed to marvel at him? When Flaccianus had spoken about buying an estate, he brought the matter to that diviner so that, if he could, he might declare what Flaccianus had done. And the diviner immediately pronounced not only the kind of transaction but also the very name of the estate—at which Flaccianus cried out vehemently in astonishment—although it was so absurd a name that Flaccianus himself scarcely remembered it.
“Now I cannot tell without amazement of mind what happened when our friend, your disciple, wishing to mock him, insolently demanded that he say what he himself was silently turning over in his mind. Albicerius answered that he was thinking of a verse of Virgil. When the man, dumbfounded, could not deny it, he went on to ask which verse it was. Nor did Albicerius—who had perhaps scarcely seen the outside of a grammarian’s school—hesitate confidently and volubly to recite the very verse. Therefore, either the things about which he was consulted were not human affairs, or without knowledge of divine things he gave such certain and true answers to those who consulted him. But either is absurd. For human affairs are nothing other than the affairs of human beings, such as silver, coins, an estate, and finally even thought itself; and who would not rightly judge those things to be divine through which divination itself comes to a human being? Albicerius was therefore wise, if by that definition we concede wisdom to be knowledge of human and divine things.”
Then the other said: “First, I do not call that ‘knowledge’ in which the man who professes it is sometimes mistaken. For knowledge consists not only of things comprehended, but of things so comprehended that no one can err in it or be shaken when driven by any adversaries whatsoever. Hence certain philosophers say most truly that it can be found in no one except a wise man, who must not only have grasped that which he maintains and follows, but must also hold it unshaken. But we know that the man you recalled often said many false things, which I discovered not only when others reported them to me, but sometimes perceived myself while present. I would therefore by no means call him knowledgeable when he often said false things—nor would I call him so if he consistently said true things.
“Judge that I have said this concerning soothsayers, augurs, all those who consult the stars, and interpreters of dreams. Or produce, if you can, anyone from this class of human beings who, when consulted, never doubted his answers and, finally, never answered falsely. For concerning prophets I think I need not labor, since they speak with another mind.
“Next, although I concede that human affairs are the affairs of human beings, do you think anything that chance can either give us or take from us is ours? Or, when knowledge of human affairs is spoken of, is that said to be the knowledge by which someone knows either how many or what kind of estates we possess, how much gold, how much silver, or finally what verses belonging to others we are thinking about? That is knowledge of human affairs which knows the light of prudence, the grace of temperance, the strength of fortitude, and the sanctity of justice. For these are the things which, fearing no fortune, we dare to call truly ours. If that Albicerius had learned them, believe me, he would never have lived so luxuriously and disgracefully.
“As for his saying what verse the man who consulted him was turning over in his mind, I do not think this should be numbered among our affairs. I do not deny that the most honorable disciplines pertain to a certain possession of our mind; but because even the most unskilled man is permitted to recite and pronounce a verse belonging to another, when such things have entered our memory it is not marvelous if they can be perceived by certain very vile creatures of this air whom men call demons. I concede that we can be surpassed by them in acuteness and subtlety of the senses, but I deny that we can be surpassed in reason; and it happens in some manner unknown to me, most secret and remote from our senses. For if we marvel that a little bee, by I know not what sagacity in which it surpasses a human being, flies from wherever it is to honey that has been set out, we ought not therefore to prefer it to ourselves or even compare it with us.
“Accordingly, I would have preferred that this Albicerius, when questioned by one who desired to learn, had taught the meters themselves, or, when compelled by one of those consulting him, had sung verses of his own concerning a subject immediately proposed to him. You are accustomed to recall that the same Flaccianus often said this when, with great elevation of mind, he mocked and despised that kind of divination and attributed it to I know not what most abject little soul—for thus he spoke—by which Albicerius, as though moved or instigated by a spirit, was accustomed to give these answers. For that most learned man asked those who admired such things whether Albicerius could teach grammar, music, or geometry. But who knew him and did not confess him to be most unskilled in all these things? Therefore, he finally exhorted those who had learned such things to prefer their own minds without hesitation to that divination, and to labor to instruct and support their minds by these disciplines, through which it might fall to them to pass beyond and fly above that true nature of invisible living beings.
“Now, since divine things are, with everyone conceding it, much better and far more august than human things, how could he attain them when he did not know what he himself was? Unless perhaps you think that the stars, which we contemplate daily, are some great thing in comparison with the truest and most secret God, whom perhaps the intellect rarely reaches and no sense reaches at all, whereas the stars are present to our eyes. Therefore, these are not those divine things which wisdom professes that it alone knows. But the remaining things which those men—I know not who—who divine abuse either for empty boasting or for profit are surely viler than the stars. Albicerius therefore did not participate in knowledge of human and divine affairs, and our definition has been tested by you in that manner in vain.”
Finally, since we ought to judge whatever is outside human and divine affairs to be most vile and altogether to despise it, I ask: in what affairs does that wise man of yours seek truth? “In divine affairs,” he said, “for virtue even in a human being is without doubt divine.” Did Albicerius, then, already know those things which your wise man will always seek? Therefore, leaving these things aside, let us treat of true divination.
§ 10. Next, we see how great is the sagacity in physicians, philosophers, and others, and how great a prediction arises in the minds of prudent men from a small circumstance. What cause, therefore, shall we say there is why that creative mind, passing through the secrets of all causes and governing their outcomes, cannot know them thoroughly? If it knows them, why can it not communicate them? Can God not signify to a human being what a friend can relate to a companion?
§ 11. Thirdly, the authority of the Scriptures can remove absolutely every doubt, even among the gentiles. For no one is so inexperienced in human affairs, no one so obstinate, that he either calls into doubt or despises the whole history of the human race. But when those transformations of commonwealths which the world experienced with great rending of itself had been predicted so eloquently and distinctly—when, as fires raged in different directions, it was harassed on both sides; when the Chaldeans succeeded the Assyrians, the Medes and Persians the Chaldeans; when the Macedonian, accustomed to make funeral offerings to his flatterers with the deaths of nations, enveloped the Persians together with Asia, as though in one common ruin;
when, I say, those things had been predicted so eloquently and distinctly, Cyrus himself named and Alexander and his princes described—the prophecy cannot remain concealed when it has been written by the repeated convulsion of the world and in the blood of many nations. Saint Augustine once used that argument and taught that the remaining things would come to pass because the greater part had already occurred.
Since these things, therefore, were predicted, we learn that those affairs whose many fulfillments we behold are governed by God, so that with right piety we may trust that the remaining things will occur.