18. Ps. bcv. 3.
340 ST. AUGUSTINE
daughter of Sion/ *the Church' and *the daughter of the Church.' As it succeedeth the other, it is called 'daughter;' as it is preferred before the other, it is called 'mother.' There was a former Babylon; did the people remain in it? Because it succeedeth to Babylon, it is called daughter of Babylon. O daughter of Babylon, unhappy thou! Happy shall he be that payeth thee; unhappy thou, happy he.
For what hast thou done, and how shalt thou be repaid? Listen: happy shall he be that repayeth thee, as thou hast served us. What repayment meaneth he? Herewith the Psalm closeth, Happy, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the rock. Her he calleth unhappy, but hun happy who payeth her as she hath served us. Do we ask, what reward? Happy, saith he, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the rock. This is the repayment. For what hath that Babylon done to us? We have already sung in another Psalm, The words of the wicked have prevailed against us.^^ For when we were bom, the confusion of this world found us, and choked us while yet infants with the empty notions of divers errors. The infant that is bom destined to be a citizen of Jemsalem, and in God's predestination already a citizen, but meanwhile a prisoner for a time, when leameth he to love ought, save what his parents have whispered into his ears? They teach him and train him in avarice, robbery, daily lying, the worship of divers idols and devils, the unlawful remedies of enchantments and amulets. What shall one yet an infant do, a tender soul, observing what its elders do, save follow that which it seeth them doing. Babylon then has persecuted us
18. Ps. bcv. 3.