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| Preface, Explaining His Design in Undertaking This Work.
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Preface, Explaining His Design in
Undertaking This Work.
The
glorious city of God28
| 28
[Augustin uses the term civitas Dei
(πόλις θεοῦ)
of the church
universal as a commonwealth and community founded and governed by
God. It is applied in the Bible to Jerusalem or the church of the
Old Covenant (Bible:Ps.87.3">Ps. xl. 6, 4;
xlviii. 1, 8; lxxxvii. 3), and to the
heavenly Jerusalem or the church perfect (Bible:Rev.21.2 Bible:Rev.22.14 Bible:Rev.22.19">Heb. xi. 10, 16; xii.
22; Rev. iii. 12; xxi. 2; xxii. 14, 19). Augustin
comprehends under the term the whole Kingdom of God under the
Jewish and Christian dispensation both in its militant and
triumphant state, and contrasts it with the perishing kingdoms of
this world. His work treats of both, but he calls it, a
meliore, The City of God.—P.S.] |
is my theme in this work, which you, my dearest son Marcellinus,29
| 29
[Marcellinus was a friend of Augustin, and urged
him to write this work. He was commissioned by the Emperior
Honorius to convene a conference of Catholic and schismatic
Donatist bishops in the summer of 411, and conceded the victory to
the Catholics; but on account of his rigor in executing the laws
against the Donatists, he fell a victim to their revenge, and was
honored by a place among the martyrs. See the Letters of
Augustin, 133, 136, 138, 139, 143, 151, the notes in this ed., vol.
I., 470 and 505, and the Translator’s Preface —P.S.] | suggested, and which is due to you
by my promise. I have undertaken its defence against those who
prefer their own gods to the Founder of this city,—a city
surpassingly glorious, whether we view it as it still lives by
faith in this fleeting course of time, and sojourns as a stranger
in the midst of the ungodly, or as it shall dwell in the fixed
stability of its eternal seat, which it now with patience waits
for, expecting until “righteousness shall return unto
judgment,”30
| 30
Ps. xciv. 15, rendered otherwise in Eng. ver. [In
the Revised Vers.: “Judgment shall return unto
righteousness.” In Old Testament quotations, Augustin, being
ignorant of Hebrew, had to rely on the imperfect Latin version of
his day, and was at first even opposed to the revision of
Jerome.—P.S.] | and it obtain,
by virtue of its excellence, final victory and perfect peace. A
great work this, and an arduous; but God is my helper. For I am
aware what ability is requisite to persuade the proud how great is
the virtue of humility, which raises us, not by a quite human
arrogance, but by a divine grace, above all earthly dignities that
totter on this shifting scene. For the King and Founder of this
city of which we speak, has in Scripture uttered to His people a
dictum of the divine law in these words: “God resisteth the
proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”31
| 31
Jas. iv. 6 and 1 Pet. v.
5. | But this, which is God’s
prerogative, the inflated ambition of a proud spirit also affects,
and dearly loves that this be numbered among its attributes,
to
“Show pity to the humbled
soul,
And crush the sons of pride.”32
| 32
Virgil, Æneid, vi. 854. [Parcere
subjectis et debellare superbos.—P.S.] |
And therefore, as the plan of this work we have
undertaken requires, and as occasion offers, we must speak also of
the earthly city, which, though it be mistress of the nations, is
itself ruled by its lust of rule.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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