Oklahombres

h, there is so much here. The more I read this short bit from St. Augustine, the more I saw; about earthly happiness, the nature of the kingdom of God, the relationship between the Old and New Testaments, and on it goes. Hebrews 11:13-16 comes readily to mind.

And therefore earthly kingdoms are given by Him both to the good and the bad; lest His worshippers, still under the conduct of a very weak mind, should covet these gifts from Him as some great things. And this is the mystery of the Old Testament, in which the New was hidden, that there even earthly gifts are promised: those who were spiritual understanding even then, although not yet openly declaring, both the eternity which was symbolized by these earthly things, and in what gifts of God true felicity could be found.
Saint Augustine, The City of God, Dods translation, book 4, chapter 33.

otice the set-up. I’ll contextualize it a bit for modern times: “In the absence of justice, what is government?” I’m not saying we are there (yet), and I’m not saying we are not.

Justice being taken away, then, what are kingdoms but great robberies? For what are robberies themselves, but little kindgoms? The band itself is made up of men; it is ruled by the authority of a prince, it is knit together by the pact of the confederacy; the booty is divided by the law agreed on.
Saint Augustine, The City of God, book 4, chapter 4.

For to the just all the evils imposed on them by unjust rulers are not the punishment of crime, but the test of virtue. Therefore the good man, although he is a slave, is free; but the bad man, even if he reigns, is a slave, and that not of one man, but, what is far more grievous, of as many masters as he has vices; of which vices when the divine scripture treats, it says, “For of whom any man is overcome, to the same he is also the bond-slave.”
Saint Augustine, The City of God, book 4, chapter 3.

aint Augustine, like all good teachers likes to ramble, just a bit. It will be a dozen or more “books” into The City of God before Augustine gets to the real meat of his subject, but the journey to the start, as it were, is quite fascinating. Within the opening “books,” what we would call “chapters” today, one will find a host of subjects, ranging from theology to philosophy, with a good bit of Roman history mixed all through, and a good bit more besides. In the next to the last chapter of the first book of The City of God, Augustine lays out the purpose of the book. It is a gracious explanation of the mixed multitude that the visible church is made of; an explanation filled with hope, and the gospel.

But let this city bear in mind, that among her enemies lie hid those who are destined to be fellow-citizens, that she may not think it a fruitless labour to bear what they inflict as enemies until they become confessors of the faith. So, too, as long as she is a stranger in the world, the cit of God has in her communion, and bound to her by the sacraments, some who shall not eternally dwell in the lot of the saints. Of these, some are not now recognised; others declare themselves, and do not hesitate to make common cause with our enemies in murmuring against God, whose sacramental badge they wear. These men you may to-day see thronging the churches with us, to-morrow crowding the theatres with the godless. But we have the less reason to despair of the reclamation even of such persons, if among our most declared enemies there are now some, unknown to themselves, who are destined to become our friends. In truth, these two cities are entangled together in this world, and intermixed until the last judgment effect their separation. I now proceed to speak, as God shall help me, of the rise, progress, and end of these two cities; and what I write, I write for the glory of the city of God, that, being placed in comparison with the other, it may shine with a brighter lustre.
Saint Augustine, The City of God; book 1, chapter 35.

verything I have been reading or listening to this past winter seems to have references to Saint Augustine’s The City of God. It is something I have wanted to read for some time, so I have decided to read it this year. I do mean this year, because

1. I am a slow reader.
2. I don’t have a whole lot of time to devote to this project.
3. The book  is quite long.

In fact, it may take me considerably longer than just a year.

Throughout the corse of my reading I am going to post some lengthy quotes from The City of God that I find interesting, helpful, or pertinent to our own age. This passage impressed me with that same “pilgrim” quality of Abraham found in Hebrews 11:8-16. Would that we were more like that.

The whole family of God, most high and most true, has therefore a consolation of its own—a consolation which cannot deceive, and which has in it a surer hope than the tottering and falling affairs of earth can afford. They will not refuse the discipline of this temporal life, in which they are schooled for life eternal; nor will they lament their experience of it, for the good things of earth they use as pilgrims who are not detained by them, and its ills either prove or improve them. As for those who insult over them in their trials, and when ills befall them say, “Where is thy God?” we may ask them where their gods are when they suffer the very calamities for the sake of avoiding which they worship their gods, or maintain they ought to be worshipped; for the family of Christ is furnished with its reply: our God is everywhere present, wholly everywhere; not confined to any place. He can be present unperceived, and be absent without moving; when He exposes us to adversities, it is either to prove our perfections or correct our imperfections; and in return for our patient endurance of the sufferings of time, He reserves for us an everlasting reward.

St. Augustine, The City of God; Book First; chapter 29.