1. Jas. iv. 6 and I Pet. v. 5.
CHAPTER n
The Rise antd Fall of Nations
A. An End to All Earthly Kingdoms
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." ^ But this, which is God's prerogative, the inflated ambition of a proud spirit also afifects, and dearly loves that this be numbered among its attributes:
To spare the lowly, and stnke down the proud.2 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.
For to this earthly city belong the enemies against whom I have to defend the city of God. Many of them, indeed, being reclaimed from their imgodly error, have become sufficiently creditable a. City of God, I, Preface1.
1. Jas. iv. 6 and I Pet. v. 5. 2. Virgil, ^neid, vi. 854.