4 Give heed, brethren, give heed, I entreat you. For it delights me yet to speak a few words to you of this beloved City. For “most glorious things of You have been spoken, City of God.” And, “if I forget You, O Jerusalem, let my own right hand forget me.” For dear is the one Country, and truly but one Country, the only Country: besides Her whatsoever we have, is a sojourning in a strange land. I will say therefore that which you may acknowledge, that of which you may approve: I will call to your minds that which you know, I will not teach that which you know not.
“Not first,” says the Apostle, “that which is spiritual, but that which is natural, afterwards that which is spiritual.” Therefore the former city is greater by age, because first was born Cain, and afterwards Abel: but in these the elder shall serve the younger. The former greater by age, the latter greater in dignity. Wherefore is the former greater by age? Because “not first that which is spiritual, but that which is natural.” Wherefore is the latter greater in dignity?
Because “the elder shall serve the younger.”...Cain first built a city, and in that place he built where no city was. But when Jerusalem was being built, it was not built in a place where there was not a city, but there was a city at first which was called Jebus, whence the Jebusites. This having been captured, overcome, made subject, there was built a new city, as though the old were thrown down; and it was called Jerusalem, vision of peace, City of God. Each one therefore that is born of Adam, not yet does belong to Jerusalem: for he bears with him the offshoot of iniquity, and the punishment of sin, having been consigned to death, and he belongs in a manner to a sort of old city.
But if he is to be in the people of God; his old self will be thrown down, and he will be built up new. For this reason therefore Cain built a city where there was not a city. For from mortality and from naughtiness every one sets out, in order that he may be made good hereafter. “For as by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One Man many shall be made just.” And all we in Adam do die: and each one of us of Adam was born. Let him pass over to Jerusalem, he shall be thrown down old, and shall be built new.
As though to conquered Jebusites, in order that there may be built up Jerusalem, is said, “Put ye off the old man, and put on the new.” And now to them built in Jerusalem, and shining by the light of Grace, is said, “You have been sometime darkness, but now light in the Lord.” The evil city therefore from the beginning even unto the end does run on, and the good City by the changing of evil men is built up. And these two cities are meanwhile mingled, at the end to be severed; against each other mutually in conflict, the one for iniquity, the other for the truth.
And sometimes this very temporal mingling brings it to pass that certain men belonging to the city Babylon, do order matters belonging to Jerusalem, and again certain men belonging to Jerusalem, do order matters belonging to Babylon. Something difficult I seem to have propounded. Be patient, until it be proved by examples. “For all things” in the old people, as writes the Apostle, “in a figure used to befall them: but they have been written for our amendment, upon whom the end of the world has come.” Regard therefore that people as also set to intimate an after people; and see then what I say.
There were great kings in Jerusalem: it is a known fact, they are enumerated, are named. They all were, I say, wicked citizens of Babylon, and they were ordering matters of Jerusalem: all men from thence to be dissevered at the end, to no one but to the devil do belong. Again we find citizens of Jerusalem to have ordered certain matters belonging to Babylon. For those three children, Nabuchodonosor, overcome by a miracle, made the ministers of his kingdom, and set them over his Satraps; and so there were ordering the matters of Babylon citizens of Jerusalem. Observe now how this is being fulfilled and done in the Church, and in these times....Every earthly commonwealth, sometime assuredly to perish, whereof the kingdom is to pass away, when there shall come that kingdom, whereof we pray, “Your kingdom come;” and whereof has been foretold, “And of His kingdom shall be no end:” an earthly commonwealth, I say, has our citizens conducting the affairs of it.
For how many faithful, how many good men, are both magistrates in their cities, and are judges, and are generals, and are counts, and are kings? All that are just and good men, having not anything in heart but the most glorious things, which of You have been said, City of God. And as if they were doing bond-service in the city which is to pass away, even there by the doctors of the Holy City they are bidden to keep faith with those set over them, “whether with the king as supreme, or with governors as though sent by God for the punishment of evil men, but for the praise of good men:” or as servants, that to their masters they should be subject, even Christians to Heathens, and the better should keep faith with the worse, for a time to serve, for everlasting to have dominion.
For these things do happen until iniquity do pass away. Servants are commanded to bear with masters unjust and capricious: the citizens of Babylon are commanded to be endured by the citizens of Jerusalem, showing even more attentions, than if they were citizens of the same Babylon, as though fulfilling the precept, “He that shall have exacted of you a mile, go with him other two.”...
Source: The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms (New Advent)