The City of God is attested by the supreme authority of Holy Scripture, which excels all human writings by its divine origin. Augustine cites the Psalms: “Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God,” and “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God.” These testimonies have instilled in believers a love for this city and desire for its citizenship. Its Founder is the one true God, “the God of gods”—not of false and proud deities who grasp at divine honors from deluded mortals, but of the holy spirits who submit themselves to His sovereign lordship. The citizens of the earthly city, by contrast, prefer their own gods—demons who are enemies of the true God—and live according to self-love and pride.
The foundations of these two cities, Augustine announces, were laid not first in human sin but in the primordial difference that arose among the angels. This angelic division establishes the two archetypal communities whose characteristics will be mirrored in the two human societies descending from them.
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