If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Read Chapter 11
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
6. Let the Catholic soul then say, "In the Lord I trust; how say ye to my soul, Remove into the mountains as a sparrow? For, lo, the sinners have bent the bow, they have prepared their arrows in the quiver, that they may in the obscure moon shoot at the upright in heart:" and from them let her turn her speech to the Lord and say, "For they have destroyed what Thou hast perfected" (ver. 3). And this let her say not against these only, but against all heretics. For they have all, as far as in them lies, destroyed the praise which God hath perfected out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, when they disturb the little ones with vain and I scrupulous questions, and suffer them not to be nourished with the milk of faith. As if then itwere said to this soul, why do they say to you, "Remove into the mountains as a sparrow;" why do they frighten you with sinners, who "have bent the bow, to shoot in the obscure moon at the upright in heart"? She answers, Therefore it is they frighten me, "becau...
Made. In choosing me for king, Hebrew, "the foundations are, or shall be destroyed; and what shall the just do? or, what has the just man done? "The foundations, both of religion and of the kingdom, depend on God's ordinances, as the Septuagint well explain. (Berthier)
Pagnin has, "the nets "St. Jerome, "the laws. "In these days of infidelity and rebellion, the just must experience the greatest perplexity. (Haydock)
If faith be lost, who shall be just? (Berthier)
Persecutors, and especially heretics, pull down what others have built. (Worthington)
