Expositions on the Book of Psalms
260 THE 'WORKSOF (ST, AUGUSTIN, [Psatm LXIII.
the corruption which now it hath. For now because of the corruption of frailty, if we eat not, we faint and are hungry; if we drink not, we faint and are thirsty; if long time we watch, we faint and sleep ; if long time we sleep, we faint, therefore we watch. . . . Secondly, see how without any standing is our flesh: for infancy passeth away into boyhood, and thou seekest infancy, and infancy is not, for now instead of infancy is boyhood: again this same also passeth into youth, thou seekest boyhood and findest not: the young man becometh a middle-aged man, thou seekest the young man and he is not: the middle-aged man becometh an old man, thou seekest a middle-aged man and findest not: and an old man dieth, thou seekest an old man and findest not: our age therefore standeth not still: everywhere is weariness, everywhere faintness, everywhere corruption. Observing what a hope of resurrection God promiseth to us, in all those our manifold faintings we thirst for that incorruption: and so our flesh manifoldly doth thirst for God.
Idumea, this is the desert of Idumzea, whence the Psalm hath received its title. "In a land desert." Too little it is to say '" desert,' where no man dwelleth; it is besides, both '" without way, and without water."" O that the same desert had even a way: O that into this a man running, even knew where he might thence get forth! . . . Evil is the desert, horrible, and to be feared: and nevertheless God hath pitied us, and hath made for us a way in the desert, Himself our Lord Jesus Christ: 3 and hath made for us a consolation in the desert, in sending to us preachers of His Word: and hath given to us water in the desert, by fulfilling with the Holy Spirit His preachers, in order that there might be created in them a well of water springing up unto life everlasting. And, lo! we have here all things, but they are not of the desert. . . . 7. "Thus in a holy thing I have appeared to Thee, that I might see Thy power and Thy glory" (ver. 3). . . . Unless a man first thirst in that desert, that is in the evil wherein he is, he never arriveth at the good, which is God. But "'T have appeared to Thee," he saith, "in a holy thing." Now in a holy thing is there great consolation. "I have appeared to Thee," is what? In order that Thou mightest see me: and for this reason Thou hast seen me, in order that I might see Thee. ''I have appeared to Thee, that I might see." He hath not said, "I have appeared to Thee, that Thou mightest see:" but, "I have appeared to Thee, that I might see Thy power and Thy glory." Whence also the Apostle, " But now," he saith, "knowing God, nay, having been known of God.''5 For first ye have appeared to God, in order that to you God might be able to appear. 'That I might see Thy power and Thy glory." In truth in that forsaken place, that is, in that desert, if as though from the desert a man striveth to obtain enough for his sustenance, he will never see the power of the Lord, and the glory of the Lord, but he will remain to die of thirst, and will find neither way, nor consolation, nor water, whereby he may endure in the desert. But when he shall have lifted up himself to God, so as to say to Him out of all his inward parts, 'My soul hath thirsted for Thee; how manifoldly for Thee also my flesh !"' lest perchance even the things necessary for the flesh of others he ask, and not of God, or else long not for that resurrection of the flesh, which God hath promised to us: when, I say, he shall have lifted up himself, he will have no small consolations.
5. Nevertheless, my brethren, the flesh of a good Christian and a believer even in this world for God doth thirst: for if the flesh hath need of bread, if it hath need of water, if it hath need of wine, if it hath need of money, if this flesh hath need of a beast, from God it ought to seek it, not from demons and idols and I know not what powers of this world. For there are certain who when they suffer hunger in this world, leave God and ask Mercury or ask Jove to give unto them, or her whom they call " Heavenly," ' or any the like demons: not for God their flesh thirsteth. But they that thirst for God,? everywhere ought to thirst for Him, both soul and flesh : for to the soul also God giveth His bread, that is the Word of Truth: and to the flesh God giveth the things which are necessary, for God hath made both soul and flesh. For the sake of thy flesh thou askest of demons: hath God made the soul, and the demons made the flesh? He that hath made the soul, the Same hath made the flesh also: He that hath made both of them, the Same feedeth both of them. Let either part of us thirst for God, and after labour manifold let either simply be filled.
6. But where thirsteth our soul, and our flesh manifoldly, not for any one but for Thee, O Lord, that is our God? it thirsteth where? "In a land desert, and without way, and without water." Of this world we have spoken, the same is
8. . . . But ye have heard but now when the Gospel was being read in what terms He hath notified His Majesty: "I and My Father are One." ® Behold how great a Majesty and how
T Ed. Ben. refers to Tertullian, A pol. xxiii., where Virgo Ce lestzs is represented as "' promising rain," and St. Augustin, De Civ. Det, ii. 4, where the same goddess is mentioned as worshipped together with Berecynthia, the mother of the gods. [An intimation of the lingerings of heathenism, now Paganzsm, the religion of Rustics.
ut how easily this Virgo Celestis became a new idolatry among Christians is here illustrated. Compare Coleridge's araphrase of Schiller, '' The fair humanities of old religion," etc. — onl
3 John xiv. 6. 6 John x. 30. 4 John iv. 14. 5 Gal. iv. 9.
2 Oxf. mss. Deo.