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Works Augustine of Hippo (354-430)

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De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XXVI: De pace populi alienati a deo, qua utitur ad pietatem populus dei, dum in hoc peregrinus est mundo.

Quocirca ut uita carnis anima est, ita beata uita hominis deus est, de quo dicunt sacrae litterae Hebraeorum: beatus populus, cuius est dominus deus ipsius. miser igitur populus ab isto alienatus deo. diligit tamen etiam ipse quandam pacem suam non inprobandam, quam quidem non habebit in fine, quia non ea bene utitur ante finem. hanc autem ut interim habeat in hac uita, etiam nostri interest; quoniam, quamdiu permixtae sunt ambae ciuitates, utimur et nos pace Babylonis; ex qua ita per fidem populus dei liberatur, ut apud hanc interim peregrinetur. propter quod et apostolus admonuit ecclesiam, ut oraret pro regibus eius atque sublimibus, addens et dicens: ut quietam et tranquillam uitam agamus cum omni pietate et caritate, et propheta Hieremias, cum populo dei ueteri praenuntiaret captiuitatem et diuinitus imperaret, ut oboedienter irent in Babyloniam deo suo etiam ista patientia seruientes monuit et ipse ut oraretur pro illa dicens: quia in eius est pace pax uestra, utique interim temporalis, quae bonis malisque communis est.

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The City of God

Chapter 26.--Of the Peace Which is Enjoyed by the People that are Alienated from God, and the Use Made of It by the People of God in the Time of Its Pilgrimage.

Wherefore, as the life of the flesh is the soul, so the blessed life of man is God, of whom the sacred writings of the Hebrews say, "Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord." 1 Miserable, therefore, is the people which is alienated from God. Yet even this people has a peace of its own which is not to be lightly esteemed, though, indeed, it shall not in the end enjoy it, because it makes no good use of it before the end. But it is our interest that it enjoy this peace meanwhile in this life; for as long as the two cities are commingled, we also enjoy the peace of Babylon. For from Babylon the people of God is so freed that it meanwhile sojourns in its company. And therefore the apostle also admonished the Church to pray for kings and those in authority, assigning as the reason, "that we may live a quiet and tranquil life in all godliness and love." 2 And the prophet Jeremiah, when predicting the captivity that was to befall the ancient people of God, and giving them the divine command to go obediently to Babylonia, and thus serve their God, counselled them also to pray for Babylonia, saying, "In the peace thereof shall ye have peace," 3

--the temporal peace which the good and the wicked together enjoy.


  1. Ps. cxliv. 15. ↩

  2. 1 Tim. ii. 2; var. reading, "purity." ↩

  3. Jer. xxix. 7. ↩

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De civitate Dei (CCSL)
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The City of God
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The City of God - Translator's Preface

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Faculty of Theology, Patristics and History of the Early Church
Miséricorde, Av. Europe 20, CH 1700 Fribourg

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