Works (City of God, On the Trinity, etc.) 43 part 4/5

and all the sanctified spirits, even whosoever in the high parts of the heavens obey God with pious devotion, and do not imitate the impious pride of the devil and his angels. Of this city the King is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God by whom the highest angels are ruled, and the Word taking on man so that by him men also might be ruled, who all together with him shall reign in eternal peace. For the prefiguration of this King, in that earthly kingdom of the people of Israel there stood out especially King David, from whose seed according to the flesh there would come our most true King, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever.

Many things were done in that land of promise as a figure of the coming Christ and the Church, which you will be able to learn little by little in the sacred books. XXI. 37. Yet after some generations he showed another type pertaining most especially to the matter. For that city was taken captive, and a great part of it was led away into Babylon. But just as Jerusalem signifies the city and society of the saints, so Babylon signifies the city and society of the wicked, since it is said to be interpreted 'confusion.' Concerning which two cities, running on from the beginning of the human race even to the end of the age, mingled in the variety of the times, and to be separated in the last judgment, we have already spoken a little before.

That captivity, then, of the city of Jerusalem, and that people led into Babylon, are commanded by the Lord, through Jeremiah the prophet of that time, to go into servitude. And there arose kings of Babylon, under whom they served, who, moved by the occasion arising from them, by certain miracles came to know and worship, and commanded to be worshipped, the one true God, who founded the whole creation. They were commanded also to pray for those by whom they were held captive, and in their peace to hope for peace, so as to beget sons and build houses and plant gardens and vineyards. But after seventy years, deliverance from that captivity is promised to them.

But all this figuratively signified that the Church of Christ, in all his saints, who are citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, was to serve under the kings of this world. For the apostolic doctrine also says, that every soul should be subject to the higher powers: and that to all should be rendered all things, tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom; and the other things which, saving the worship of our God, we render to the princes of human institution; since even the Lord himself, that he might furnish us with an example of this sound doctrine, did not disdain to pay tribute for the head of the man with which he was clothed.

Christian servants also and good believers are commanded to serve their temporal masters with equanimity and fidelity; whom they shall judge, if they find them wicked unto the end, or with whom they shall reign as equals, if they too shall have been converted to the true God. Yet to all it is enjoined to serve human and earthly powers, until after the time appointed beforehand — which the seventy years signify — the Church, like Jerusalem, may be freed from the confusion of this world, as it were from the captivity of Babylon.

From the occasion of which captivity, those earthly kings themselves, having forsaken the idols for which they persecuted the Christians, came to know and worship the one true God and Christ the Lord — for whom the apostle Paul commands prayers to be made, even while they were persecuting the Church. For thus he says: 'I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, adorations, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for kings, for all men, and for all who are in high place, that we may lead a secure and tranquil life with all piety and charity.' And so through them peace was given to the Church, though temporal — a temporal tranquillity for building houses spiritually and planting gardens and vineyards.

For behold, even now, through this discourse, we are building you up and planting you. And this is done throughout the whole world with the peace of Christian kings, as the same Apostle says: 'You are God's husbandry, God's building.' 38. And after seventy years indeed, which Jeremiah had mystically prophesied, that he might prefigure the end of the times, yet in order that the figure itself might be made complete, there took place in Jerusalem the restoration of the building of the temple of God: but because the whole matter was being enacted figuratively, there was not a firm peace and liberty restored to the Jews. And so afterward they were conquered by the Romans, and made tributaries.

From that time indeed, from which they received the land of promise and began to have kings, lest they should think that what was promised to them — Christ the deliverer — had been fulfilled in any of their kings, Christ was more openly prophesied through many prophecies, not only by David himself in the book of Psalms, but also by the other great and holy Prophets, even to the time of the captivity in Babylon: and in that very captivity there were Prophets who prophesied that the Lord Jesus Christ, the deliverer of all, would come.

And after the temple had been restored, the seventy years being past, the Jews suffered such great oppressions and calamities from the kings of the nations, that they understood the deliverer had not yet come, whom they understood would deliver them not spiritually, but whom they desired for a carnal deliverance. XXII. 39. Five ages of the world, therefore, having been accomplished — of which the first is from the beginning of the human race, that is, from Adam, who was made the first man, unto Noah, who made the ark in the flood; thence the second is unto Abraham, who was called the father of all nations indeed which would imitate his faith, but nevertheless, from the propagation of his own flesh, the father of the future people of the Jews:

who, before the Christian faith of the nations, was the one people among all the peoples of all lands to worship the one true God, from which people the Saviour Christ would come according to the flesh. For these joints of two ages stand out in the old books: but of the remaining three they are declared also in the Gospel, when the carnal origin of the Lord Jesus Christ is recounted. For the third is from Abraham unto David the king: the fourth from David unto that captivity, by which the people of God passed over into Babylon: the fifth from that transmigration unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; from whose coming the sixth age is now being carried on:

so that now the spiritual grace, which then was known to a few Patriarchs and Prophets, might be made manifest to all nations; that no one might worship God except freely — desiring from him not the visible rewards of his service and the felicity of the present life, but eternal life alone, in which he might enjoy God himself; so that in this sixth age the human mind might be renewed to the image of God, just as on the sixth day man was made to the image of God. For then also the law is fulfilled, when whatever things he commanded are done, not through covetousness of temporal things, but through love of him who commanded them. And who would not strive to love in return the most just and most merciful God, who first so loved men most unjust and most proud?

that for their sake He might send His only Son, through whom He made all things, who—not by any change in Himself, but by taking on manhood—was made man, so that He might not only live with them, but might also be slain for them and by them? 40. And so, revealing the new testament of the everlasting inheritance, in which man, renewed through the grace of God, might lead a new life, that is, a spiritual life; He first showed forth the old, in which a carnal people, leading the old man—except for a few who understood, the Patriarchs and Prophets and certain hidden saints—living carnally, desired carnal rewards from the Lord God, and received them as a figure of spiritual goods:

Therefore the Lord Christ, having been made man, despised all earthly goods, that He might show they are to be despised; and He endured all earthly evils, which He commanded to be endured: so that happiness should not be sought in the former, nor misery feared in the latter. For born of a mother who, though she conceived untouched by man and remained ever untouched—a virgin in conceiving, a virgin in giving birth, a virgin in dying—was nevertheless betrothed to a carpenter, He extinguished all the pride of carnal nobility. Born too in the town of Bethlehem, which among all the towns of Judaea was so small that even today it is called a village, He willed that no one should glory in the eminence of any earthly city. Made poor also,

He to whom all things belong, and through whom all things were created: lest anyone, when he believed in Him, should dare to be lifted up on account of earthly riches. He willed not to be made a king by men; because He was showing the way of humility to the wretched, whom pride had separated from Him: although all creation bears witness to His everlasting kingdom. He hungered, who feeds all; He thirsted, through whom every drink is created, and who is spiritually the bread of the hungry and the fountain of the thirsty; He was wearied by an earthly journey, who made Himself for us the way into heaven; He was as one dumb and deaf before those who reviled Him, through whom the dumb spoke and the deaf heard:

He was bound, who looses from the bonds of infirmities; He was scourged, who drove the scourges of all pains from the bodies of men; He was crucified, who ended our torments; He died, who raised the dead. But He also rose again, never to die, lest anyone should learn from Him to despise death as though he would never live again. XXIII. 41. Then, having strengthened His disciples, and having lived with them forty days, He ascended into heaven as they watched; and when fifty days from His resurrection were completed, He sent them the Holy Spirit (for He had promised it), through whom, by love poured out in their hearts, they were able to fulfil the law not only without burden, but even with gladness.

This law was given to the Jews in ten precepts, which they call the Decalogue. These again are reduced to two, that we love God with our whole heart, with our whole soul, with our whole mind; and that we love our neighbour as ourselves. For that on these two precepts the whole law and the prophets hang, the Lord Himself both said in the Gospel and manifested by His own example. For the people of Israel too, from the day when they first celebrated the Passover in figure, slaying and eating the lamb, with whose blood their doorposts were marked for the safeguarding of their salvation; from that very day the fiftieth day was completed, and they received the law written by the finger of God, by which name we have already said the Holy Spirit is signified:

just as after the Lord's passion and resurrection, which is the true Passover, on the fiftieth day the Holy Spirit Himself was sent to the disciples: no longer signifying hard hearts by tablets of stone; but when they were gathered together into one place in Jerusalem itself, suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a violent rushing wind, and there appeared to them divided tongues as of fire, and they began to speak in tongues, so that all who had come to them each recognized his own language: (for to that city Jews used to gather from every land, wherever they had been scattered, and they had learned the various languages of the various nations):

then, preaching Christ with all confidence, they worked many signs in His name, so that as Peter passed by, his shadow touched a certain dead man, and he rose again. 42. But when the Jews saw such great signs being done in the name of Him whom they had crucified, partly through envy, partly through error, some were provoked to persecute His preachers, the Apostles; but others, marvelling all the more at this very thing—that in the name of Him whom they had mocked as one crushed and conquered by them, such great miracles were being wrought—repented, were converted, and believed in Him: thousands of the Jews. These no longer desired from God temporal benefits and an earthly kingdom, nor awaited the promised King, Christ, in a carnal way;

but understanding and loving Him with an immortal love—Him who had suffered so much in mortal flesh for them, at their own hands, and had forgiven them their sins even to the shedding of His own blood, and had shown, by the example of His resurrection, that immortality was to be hoped for and desired from Him. And so, now mortifying the earthly desires of the old man, and burning with the newness of the spiritual life, just as the Lord had commanded in the Gospel, they sold all that they had, and laid the prices of their possessions at the feet of the Apostles, that they themselves might distribute to each as everyone had need: and living harmoniously in Christian love, they called nothing their own, but all things were common to them, and their soul and heart were one toward God.

Then these very ones too suffered persecution from the Jews, the carnal fellow-citizens of their own flesh, and were scattered, so that Christ might be more widely preached through their dispersion, and that they themselves might imitate the patience of their Lord: for He who had meekly suffered for them commanded them, now made meek, to suffer for Him. 43. From among these very persecutors of the saints had also been the apostle Paul, and he raged most fiercely against the Christians: but afterwards, believing and made an apostle, he was sent to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, having endured graver things for the name of Christ than he had done against the name of Christ.

And establishing churches throughout all the nations where he sowed the Gospel, he earnestly enjoined that—since they themselves, coming from the worship of idols and being untrained in the worship of the one God, could not easily serve God by selling and distributing their goods—they should make offerings for the poor among the saints who were in the churches of Judaea, which had believed in Christ: thus by apostolic teaching he set the one as soldiers, and the other as provincial contributors, inserting into them Christ as a cornerstone,

just as it had been foretold through the prophet, in whom both, like walls coming from different sides—namely from the Jews and the Gentiles—might be joined together in genuine love. But afterward graver and more frequent persecutions arose from the unbelieving Gentiles against the Church of Christ, and day by day was fulfilled the word of the Lord foretelling, 'Behold, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves.' XXIV. 44. But that vine which throughout the whole world—as had been prophesied of it and foretold by the Lord Himself—was spreading fruitful branches, sprouted the more abundantly the more richly it was watered by the blood of martyrs.

As countless numbers of them died throughout all lands for the truth of the faith, even the very persecuting kingdoms yielded, and, their neck of pride broken, were turned to know and venerate Christ. But it was fitting that this same vine, as had been repeatedly foretold by the Lord, should be pruned, and that from it should be cut away the unfruitful branches, by which heresies and schisms were made here and there under the name of Christ, by those seeking not His glory but their own; through whose adversities the Church was more and more exercised and tested and made illustrious, both in her doctrine and in her patience. 45. All these things, then, just as we read that they were foretold so long before, so also we recognize that they were done:

and just as the first Christians, because they did not yet see these things come to pass, were moved by miracles to believe; so we, because all these things have been so fulfilled as we read of them in the books which were written long before they came to pass—where all that was to come was foretold, and is now seen as present—are built up unto faith, so that even those things which remain, enduring and persevering in the Lord, we may without doubt believe are to come. For indeed there are still future tribulations read of in those same Scriptures, and the very last day of judgment, when all the citizens of both those cities, having received back their bodies, shall rise again, and shall render an account of their life before the tribunal of Christ the judge.

For He will come in the brightness of power, who first deigned to come in the humility of manhood; and He will separate all the godly from the ungodly: not only those who utterly refused to believe in Him, but also those who believed in Him vainly and unfruitfully; to the former He will give the kingdom eternal with Himself, but to the latter eternal punishment with the devil. But just as no joy of temporal things can in any respect be found comparable to the joy of eternal life, which the saints are to receive: so no torment of temporal punishments can be compared to the everlasting torments of the wicked. XXV. 46.

Therefore, brother, strengthen yourself in the name and help of Him in whom you believe, against the tongues of those who mock our faith, through whom the devil speaks seductive words, wishing above all to deride the faith in the resurrection. But from your own self believe that you will be in the future, since, whereas you formerly were not, you now see that you are. For where was that mass of your body and that form and framework of your members a few years ago, before you were born, or even before you were conceived in your mother's womb—where was this mass and this stature of your body?

Did it not come forth into the light out of the hidden secrets of this creation, the Lord God invisibly forming it, and, by fixed increments of the ages, rise up into this magnitude and form? Is it then difficult for God—who even draws together the piled-up clouds out of the hidden in a moment, and covers the sky in the blink of an eye—to restore this quantity of your body as it was, seeing He was able to make it when it was not? Believe then, firmly and unshaken, that all things which seem to be withdrawn from human eyes as though by perishing are safe and whole to the omnipotence of God: who, when He wills, will restore them without any delay or difficulty—those, at least, which His justice judges are to be restored:

so that in these bodies men may render an account of their deeds, in which they did them; and in these may merit either the change into heavenly incorruption for the merits of piety, or the corruptible condition of the body for the merits of iniquity—not one that is dissolved by death, but one that furnishes material for everlasting pains. 47. Flee therefore, through unshaken faith and good morals, flee, brother, those torments where neither the tormentors fail nor the tormented die; for whom death is without end, in that they cannot die amid their torments. And be inflamed with love and desire for the everlasting life of the saints, where there will be neither laborious activity nor idle rest: there will be the praise of God without weariness, without failing:

no weariness in the mind, no labour in the body; no want—neither your own, which you would wish to be relieved, nor your neighbour's, which you would hasten to relieve. God will be all delight and satisfaction to the holy city, which lives wisely and blessedly in Him and from Him. For we shall be made, as we hope and await from the promise made by Him, equal to the angels of God, and together with them shall we alike enjoy that Trinity by sight, in which we now walk by faith. For we believe what we do not see, that by the very merits of faith we may deserve also to see what we believe, and to cleave to it:

so that the equality of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the unity of that same Trinity—how these three are one God—we may no longer sound forth in words of faith and clattering syllables, but may drink in, in that silence, by contemplation most pure and most ardent. 48. Hold these things fixed in your heart, and call upon God in whom you believe, that He may protect you against the temptations of the devil: and be watchful, lest that enemy creep upon you from some other quarter—he who, for the most malevolent consolation of his own damnation, seeks out those with whom he may be damned. For it is not only through those alone who hate the Christian name, and grieve that the whole world is occupied by that name, and still desire to serve idols and the curiosities of demons, that he dares to tempt Christians:

but also through those whom we mentioned a little before, cut off from the unity of the Church as from a pruned vine, who are called heretics or schismatics, he sometimes attempts this too. But nevertheless he also at times attempts to tempt and lead astray even through the Jews. But most of all one must beware, lest through men who are within the Catholic Church herself—whom she bears like chaff until the time of her winnowing—each one be tempted and deceived. For God is patient toward them for this reason: both to confirm the faith and prudence of His own elect by exercising them through the perversity of those men; and because many from among their number make progress, and, having pity on their own souls to please God, are converted with great force.

For not all treasure up for themselves, through the patience of God, wrath against the day of the wrath of His just judgment: but that same patience of the Almighty leads many to the most salutary sorrow of repentance. And until this comes to pass, through them are exercised the patience—and not only the forbearance but also the mercy—of those who already hold to the right way. Many, therefore, you will see: drunkards, misers, cheats, gamblers, adulterers, fornicators, binding sacrilegious remedies upon themselves, given over to enchanters and astrologers, or to the diviners of whatever impious arts. You will also observe that those crowds fill the churches on the feast days of the Christians, who also fill the theatres on the solemn days of the pagans;

and by seeing these things you will be tempted to imitate them. And what shall I say?—you will see what even now you already surely know: for you are not unaware that many who are called Christians do all these evils which I have briefly mentioned. And perhaps at times you know that men whom you know to be called Christians do even graver things. But if you have come with this intention, that you may do such things as though secure, you err greatly: nor will the name of Christ profit you when He shall begin to judge most severely, who first deigned most mercifully to come to your aid. For He foretold these things, and says in the Gospel: 'Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father.'

Many will say to me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, in your name we have eaten and drunk.' To all, therefore, who persevere in such works, condemnation is the end. When, then, you see many not only doing these things but even defending and urging them, hold yourself to the law of God, and do not follow its transgressors. For you will be judged not according to their opinion, but according to His truth. 49. Join yourself to the good, whom you see loving your King together with you. For you will find many, if you too begin to be such. For if at the spectacles you longed to be with them and to cleave to those who together with you loved a charioteer, or a huntsman, or some actor;

how much more ought the fellowship of those to delight you who together with you love God, of whom His lover shall never be ashamed, because not only can He Himself not be conquered, but He also renders His lovers unconquered! Yet not even in the good themselves, who either go before you or accompany you to God, ought you to place your hope, since neither ought you to place it in yourself, however much you may have advanced, but in Him who, by justifying both them and you, makes them such. For you are secure concerning God, because He does not change: but concerning man no one is prudently secure. But if we ought to love those who are not yet just, that they may become so; how much more ardently are those to be loved who already are so. Yet it is one thing to love a man, another to place one's hope in a man;

and so great is the difference, that God commands the one and forbids the other. But if, having suffered some insults or tribulations for the name of Christ, you have not failed from the faith nor deviated from the good way, you will receive a greater reward: but those who in these things yield to the devil lose even a lesser one. But be humble before God, that He may not permit you to be tempted beyond your strength. XXVI. 50. When these things have been said, he is to be asked whether he believes them and desires to observe them. And when he has answered, he is of course to be solemnly signed and dealt with according to the custom of the Church. Concerning the sacrament indeed which he receives, when it has been well commended to him, that the signs of divine things are visible, but that the things themselves that are invisible are honoured in them;

and that that species, sanctified by blessing, is not to be regarded in the same way as it is in any ordinary use: it must also be told what that discourse which he heard signifies, what it seasons within it, of which that thing bears the likeness. Then, on this occasion, he is to be admonished that, if he hears anything even in the Scriptures which sounds carnal, although he does not understand it, he should nevertheless believe that something spiritual is signified, which pertains to holy morals and the life to come. But this he learns so briefly, that whatever he hears from the canonical books which he cannot refer to the love of eternity and truth and holiness, and to the love of neighbour, he should believe to have been said or done figuratively;