He, then, who prefers what is right to what is wrong, and what is well-ordered to what is perverted, sees that the peace of unjust men is not worthy to be called peace in comparison with the peace of the just.And yet even what is perverted must of necessity be in harmony with, and in dependence on, and in some part of the order of things, for otherwise it would have no existence at all.Suppose a man hangs with his head downwards, this is certainly a perverted attitude of body and arrangement of its members; for that which nature requires to be above is beneath, and vice versa.This perversity disturbs the peace of the body, and is therefore painful.Nevertheless the spirit is at peace with its body, and labors for its preservation, and hence the suffering; but if it is banished from the body by its pains, then, so long as the bodily framework holds together, there is in the remains a kind of peace among the members, and hence the body remains suspended.And inasmuch as the earthly body tends towards the earth, and rests on the bond by which it is suspended, it tends thus to its natural peace, and the voice of its own weight demands a place for it to rest; and though now lifeless and without feeling, it does not fall from the peace that is natural to its place in creation, whether it already has it, or is tending towards it.For if you apply embalming preparations to prevent the bodily frame from mouldering and dissolving, a kind of peace still unites part to part, and keeps the whole body in a suitable place on the earth,--in other words, in a place that is at peace with the body.If, on the other hand, the body receive no such care, but be left to the natural course, it is disturbed by exhalations that do not harmonize with one another, and that offend our senses; for it is this which is perceived in putrefaction until it is assimilated to the elements of the world, and particle by particle enters into peace with them.Yet throughout this process the laws of the most high Creator and Governor are strictly observed, for it is by Him the peace of the universe is administered.For although minute animals are produced from the carcass of a larger animal, all these little atoms, by the law of the same Creator, serve the animals they belong to in peace.And although the flesh of dead animals be eaten by others, no matter where it be carried, nor what it be brought into contact with, nor what it be converted and changed into, it still is ruled by the same laws which pervade all things for the conservation of every mortal race, and which bring things that fit one another into harmony.
CHAP.13.--OF THE UNIVERSAL PEACE WHICH THE LAW OF NATURE PRESERVESTHROUGH ALL
DISTURBANCES, AND BY WHICH EVERY ONE REACHES HIS DESERT IN A WAY REGULATEDBY
THE JUST JUDGE.
The peace of the body then consists in the duly proportioned arrangement of its parts.The petite of the irrational soul is the harmonious repose of the appetites, and that of the rational soul the harmony of knowledge and action.The peace of body and soul is the well-ordered and harmonious life and health of the living creature.Peace between man and God is the well-ordered obedience of faith to eternal law.Peace between man and man is well-ordered concord.Domestic peace is the well-ordered concord between those of the family who rule and those who obey.Civil peace is a similar concord among the citizens.The peace of the celestial city is the perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God, and of one another in God.The peace of all things is the tranquillity of order.Order is the distribution which allots things equal and unequal, each to its own place.And hence, though the miserable, in so far as they are such, do certainly not enjoy peace, but are severed from that tranquillity of order in which there is no disturbance, nevertheless, inasmuch as they are deservedly and justly, miserable, they are by their very misery connected with order.They are not, indeed, conjoined with the blessed, but they are disjoined from them by the law of order.And though they are disquieted, their circumstances are notwithstanding adjusted to them, and consequently they have some tranquillity of order, and therefore some peace.But they are wretched because, although not wholly miserable, they are not in that place where any mixture of misery is impossible.They would, however, be more wretched if they had not that peace which arises from being in harmony with the natural order of things.When they suffer, their peace is in so far disturbed;but their peace continues in so far as they do not suffer, and in so far as their nature continues to exist.As, then, there may be life without pain, while there cannot be pain without some kind of life, so there may be peace without war, but there cannot be war without some kind of peace, because war supposes the existence of some natures to wage it, and these natures cannot exist without peace of one kind or other.
And therefore there is a nature in which evil does not or even cannot exist; but there cannot be a nature in which there is no good.Hence not even the nature of the devil himself is evil, in so far as it is nature, but it was made evil by being perverted.
