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| Of This Part of the Work, Wherein We Begin to Explain the Origin and End of the Two Cities.
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Chapter 1.—Of This Part of the
Work, Wherein We Begin to Explain the Origin and End of the Two
Cities.
The city
of God we speak of is the same to which testimony is borne by that
Scripture, which excels all the writings of all nations by its
divine authority, and has brought under its influence all kinds of
minds, and this not by a casual intellectual movement, but
obviously by an express providential arrangement. For there it is
written, “Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.”446
And in
another psalm we read, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be
praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness,
increasing the joy of the whole earth.”447
And, a little after, in the same
psalm, “As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord
of hosts, in the city of our God. God has established it for
ever.” And in another, “There is a river the streams whereof
shall make glad the city of our God, the holy place of the
tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she
shall not be moved.”448
From these and similar
testimonies, all of which it were tedious to cite, we have learned
that there is a city of God, and its Founder has inspired us with a
love which makes us covet its citizenship. To this Founder of the
holy city the citizens of the earthly city prefer their own gods,
not knowing that He is the God of gods, not of false, i.e.,
of impious and proud gods, who, being deprived of His unchangeable
and freely communicated light, and so reduced to a kind of
poverty-stricken power, eagerly grasp at their own private
privileges, and seek divine honors from their deluded subjects; but
of the pious and holy gods, who are better pleased to submit
themselves to one, than to subject many to themselves, and who
would rather worship God than be worshipped as God. But to the
enemies of this city we have replied in the ten preceding books,
according to our ability and the help afforded by our Lord and
King. Now, recognizing what is expected of me, and not unmindful
of my promise, and relying, too, on the same succor, I will
endeavor to treat of the origin, and progress, and deserved
destinies of the two cities (the earthly and the heavenly, to wit),
which, as we said, are in this present world commingled, and as it
were entangled together. And, first, I will explain how the
foundations of these two cities were originally laid, in the
difference that arose among the angels.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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