The Essential Augustine (continued)
the city of this world: as there is one holy city, Jerusalem, one unholy, Babylon; all the unholy belong to Babylon, even as all the holy to Jerusalem. But he slideth from Babylon to Jerusalem. How but by Him who justifieth the ungodly: Jerusalem is the city of the saints, Babylon of the wicked: but He cometh who justifieth the ungodly, since it is said, "I will think" not only "upon Rahab," but "upon Babylon," but with whom? "With them that know Me."...
THE CHURCH AND THE CITY OF GOD*
"The Lord is. great in Sion, and high above all peo4. ple" (ver. 2)....He whom I spoke to thee of as above the Cherubim, is great in Sion. Ask thou now, what is Sion? We know Sion to be the city of God. The city of Jerusalem is called Sion, and is so called according to a certain interpretation, for that Sion signifieth watching, that is, sight and contemplation, for to watch is to look forward to or gaze upon or strain the eyes to see. Now every soul is a Sion if it trieth to see that light which is to be seen. For if it shall have gazed upon a light of its own, it is darkened; if upon His, it is enlightened. But, now that it is clear that Sion is the city of God; what is the city of God, but the Holy Church? For men who love one another, and who love their God who dwelleth in them, constitute a city unto God. Because a city is held together by some law; their very law is Love, and that very Love is God; for openly it is written, "God is Love." He therefore who is full of Love is full of God; and many full of love constitute a city full of God. That city of God is called Sion; the Church therefore is Sion. In it God is great....
THE FOUNDATION OF THE HOLY CITYt
... This city is therefore now in building; stones are 4. cut down from the hills by the hands of those who preach truth, they are squared that they may enter into an everlasting structure. There are still many stones in the hands of the Builder: let them not fall from His hands, * On Psalm 98, 4; trans. Nicene. {On Psalm 121, 4; trans. Nicene.
THE TWO CITIES 209 that they may be built perfect into the structure of the temple. This, then, is the "Jerusalem that is being built as a city": Christ is its foundation. The Apostle Paul saith, "Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ
Jesus." [I Cor. 3:11] When a foundation is laid on earth, the walls are built above, and the weight of the walls tends towards the lowest parts, because the foundation is laid at the bottom. But if our foundation be in heaven, let us be built towards heaven. Bodies have built the edifice of this basilica, the ample size of which ye see, and since bodies have built it, they placed the foundation lowest, but since we are spiritually built, our foundation is placed at the highest point. Let us therefore run thither, where we may be built... . But what Jerusalem do I speak of? Is it that, he asketh, which ye see standing, raised on the structure of its walls? No, but the "Jerusalem which is being built as a city." Why not, "a city" instead of "as a city'; save because those walls, so built in Jerusalem, were a visible city, as it is by all called a city, literally, but this is being built "as a city," for they who enter it are like living stones; for they are not literally stones? Just as they are called stones, and yet are not so, so the city styled "as a city" is not a city; for he said, "is being built." For by the word building, he meant to be understood the structure, and cohesion of bodies and walls. For a city (civitas) is properly understood of the men that inhabit there. But in saying "is building," he showed us that he meant a town. And since a spiritual building hath some resemblance to a bodily building, therefore it "is building as a city."
RELIGION AND HUMAN DESTINY*
The starting point for following this religion is the 7.13. record and the foretelling of the temporal dispensation of divine providence in its work of reforming and restoring the human race to fit it for its eternal destiny. After belief in this revelation, a mode of life in accordance with the divine commands will purify the mind and make it able to perceive spiritual things. These are neither past nor future, but remain the same in every way forever, subject to no * The True Religion, 7.13-8.14; trans. C.A. Hangartner, S.J., De vera religione (chapters 1-17) (St. Louis University Master's Thesis, 1945), pp. 37-41. Used with permission. change: as, for example, the one God the Father Himself, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. With a knowledge of this Trinity proportioned to this life, we can see beyond the shadow of a doubt that every intellectual, animate, and corporeal creature has its existence, in so far as it exists, its proper nature, and its perfectly ordered career, from the creative power of this same Trinity. Not that the Father is thought to have produced one part of the whole creature, the Son another part, and the Holy Spirit still another; but rather that at one and the same time each and every nature has been made by the Father through the Son and in the gift of the Holy Spirit. For every thing or substance or essence or nature, or whatever else it may be more properly termed, has these three perfections at once: it exists as a single something; its own nature sets it off from other beings; and it does not deviate from the universal order of things.
What necessary, unalterable, and just laws bind all 8.14. things to their God and Lord will appear clearly enough from this knowledge, as far as man can grasp the matter. Some of the things which we first believed merely on the basis of authority are now so well understood that, regarding them, we see by reason that they are altogether certain. Others we see to be both possible and fitting, and we are sorry for those who do not believe them, and who prefer to laugh at us for our belief rather than to share it. For the sacred assumption of human nature, the Virgin birth, the death of the Son of God for us, His resurrection from the dead, His ascension into heaven, His seat at the right hand of the Father, the removal of sins, the day of judgment, and the resurrection of the body, are no longer merely matters of faith believed in the light of the knowledge of the eternal immutability of the Trinity and the changeable nature of creatures, but are recognized as fitting in with the mercy which the supreme God shows to men.
But since it has been said most truly, "There should I5. be many heresies, that the faithful among you may become known," [I Cor, 11:19] let us also use this help of divine providence. For heretics spring from among those who, even though they are members of the Church, fall into error. When they have been expelled, they are very helpful, not by teaching the truth, for they do not know it, but by awakening material-minded Catholics to seek the truth, and wise Catholics to unfold it. There are innumerable faithful