5. Rom. V. 3.
322 ST. AUGUSTINE denly overtaketh thee, through trouble in thy worldly affairs, wherein thou didst delight, when suddenly sadness of her own accord findeth thee, befalleth thee from some point, whence thou didst not think thou couldest be saddened, and thou art made sad, then the sorrows of hell have found thee. For thou thoughtest thyself aloft, whereas thou wast beneath; there hast thou found thyself beneath, where thou thoughtest thyself aloft. For thou hast found thyself grievously dieted with sorrow, through sadness at some evil from a quarter where perchance thou hadst presumed thou wouldest not be made sad: the sorrows of hell have found thee. But when it is well with thee, when all earthly things smile on thee, none of thy loved ones hath died, no drought or hail or barrenness hath assailed thy vineyard, thy cask hath not grown sour, thy cattle have not failed, thou hast not been dishonoured in any high position of this world wherein thou hast been placed, thy friends all around thee live and preserve their friendship for thee, dependents are not wanting, thy children obey thee, thy slaves tremble before thee, thy wife liveth in harmony with thee, thy house is called happy,—then find tribulation, if in any way thou canst, that, having found tribulation thou mayest call on the name of the Lord. Perversely seemeth the word of God to teach that thou shouldest weep in joy, and rejoice in sorrow. Hear it rejoicing in sorrow. We glory, it saith, in tribulations.^ But see it weeping in joy, if it have found tribulation. Let each one mark his own happiness, wherein his soul hath exulted and puffed itself up in a manner with joy and elated itself, and said,
am happy.' Let him mark whether that happi-
5. Rom. V. 3.
POLITICAL WRITINGS 323 ness floweth not on, if he can be sure of it that it remaineth for ever. But if he be not certain, but seeth that that wherein he rejoices floweth, it is a stream of Babylon; let him sit down by it, and weep. He will sit down and weep, if he remember
Sion. O for that peace which we shall see in the presence of God! O for that holy equality with the Angels! O for that vision, that fair sight! Lo, in Babylon fair are the things which hold thee: let them not hold thee, let them not deceive thee. One thing is the solace of the captive, another the joy of the free. By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered Sion.
On the willows in the midst thereof we hung up our instruments of music. The citizens of Jenisa1am have their instruments of music, God's Scriptures, God's commands, God's promises, meditation on the life to come; but while they are dwelling in the midst of Babylon, they hang up their instruments of music on the willows thereof. Willows are Unfruitful trees, and here so placed, that no good whatever can be understood of them: elsewhere perhaps there may. Here understand barren trees, growing by the waters of Babylon. These trees are watered by the waters of Babylon, and bring forth no fruit; just as there are men greedy, covetous, barren in good works, citizens of Babylon in such wise, that they are even trees of that region; they are fed there by these pleasures of transitory things, as though watered by the waters of Babylon. Thou seekest fruit of them, and no where findest it. When we suffer such men as these, we Uve among those who are in the midst of Babylon. For wide is the difference between the midst of Babylon and the outside of Babylon. There are some who are not in the midst of it, that
324 ST. AUGUSTINE is, are not buried entirely in the lust of the world and the delights thereof. But those who, to speak plainly and briefly, are thoroughly bad, are in the midst of Babylon, and are barren trees like the willows of Babylon. When we see them, and find them so barren, that with difficulty do we find in them ought whereby they may be led on to true faith and good works, or to hope of a future life, or to desire to be set free from captivity under mortality, then we know indeed the Scriptures which we should address to them; but, because we find in them no fruit upon which to begin, we turn away our face from them, and say, *As yet they have no taste nor capacity for them; whatever we say to them, they will consider foohsh and contrary.' Therefore by deferring to apply the
Scriptures to them, we hang up our instruments of music upon the willows. For we hold them not worthy to carry our instruments. We do not therefore insert our instruments into them and bind them to them, but defer to use them, and so hang them up. For the willows are the unfruitful trees of Babylon, fed by temporal pleasures, as by the waters of Babylon.
And see whether the Psalm do not agree with this. On the willows in the midst thereof we hung up our instruments of music. For there they that led us captive demanded of us words of songs, and they that led us away, an hymn. They demanded of us words of songs and an hymn, who led us captive. Who have led us captive, brethren? Whom have we at some time or other experienced as our capturers. Jerusalem of old experienced captivity at the hands of the Babylonians, the Persians, the Chaldeans, and the men of those nations and regions, and that afterwards, not when these