306 THE WOQORKS (continued)
PsaLM LXIX.] ON THE PSALMS. 309 the Romans, and take away from us both place and kingdom '"'?* Behold, both they did not let Him go alive, and He liveth: and there have come the Romans, and have taken from them both place and kingdom. But now we heard, when the Gospel was being read, " Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered together thy sons, as a hen her chickens under her wings, and thou wouldest not? Behold, there is left to you your house forsaken."? . . 27. Why so? "For Him whom Thou hast smitten they have themselves persecuted, and upon the pain of my wounds they have added"
For sins He hath called His wounds. But do not look to the Head, consider the Body ; according to the voice whereof hath been said by the Same in that Psalm, wherein He showed there was His voice, because in the first verse thereof He cried from the Cross, "God, My God, look upon Me, why hast 'Thou forsaken Me?' 8 There in continuation He saith, " Afar from My safety are the words of Mine offences." ...
28. "Lay Thou iniquity upon their iniquity " (ver. 28). What is this? Who would not be afraid? To God is said, " Lay Thou iniquity upon their iniquity." Whence shall God lay iniquity? For hath He iniquity to lay? For we know that to be true which hath been spoken through Paul the Apostle, '"'What then shall we say? Is there anywise iniquity with God? Far be it."9 Whence then, " Lay Thou iniquity upon iniquity'? How must we understand this? May the Lord be with us, that we may speak, and because of your weariness may be able to speak briefly. Their iniquity was that they killed a just Man: there was added another, that they crucified the Son of God. Their raging was as though against a man: but "if they had known, the Lord of Glory they had never crucified." '° They with their own iniquity willed to kill as it were a man: there was laid iniquity upon their own iniquity, so that the Son of God they should crucify. Who laid this iniquity upon them? He that said, '' Perchance they will reverence My Son," ' Him I will send. For they were wont to kill servants sent to them, to demand rent and profit. He sent the Son Himself, in order that Him also they might kill. He laid iniquity upon their own iniquity. And these things did God do in wrath, or rather in just requital? For, ' May it be done to them," He saith, "for a requital and for a stumblingblock." 12. They had deserved to be so blinded as not to know the Son of God. And this God did, laying iniquity upon their iniquity ; not in wounding, but in not making whole. For in like manner as thou increasest a fever, increasest a disorder, not by adding disorder, but by not relieving: so because they were of such sort as that they merited not to be healed, in their very naughtiness in a manner they advanced ; as it is said, " But evil men and wicked doers advance for the worse:" "3 and iniquity is laid upon their own iniquity. " And let them not enter in ™ Thy righteousness." This is a plain thing.
(ver. 27). How then have they sinned 'if they have persecuted one by God smitten? What sin is ascribed to their mind? Malice. For the thing was done in Christ which was to be. To suffer indeed He had come, and He punished him through whom He suffered. For Judas the traitor was punished, and Christ was crucified : but us He redeemed by His blood, and He punished him in the matter of his price. For he threw down the price of silver, for which by him the Lord had been sold ;3 and he knew not the price wherewith he had himself by the Lord been redeemed.* This thing was done in the case of Judas. But when we see that there is a sort of measure of requital in all men, and that not any one can be suffered to rage more than he hath received power to do: how have they "added," or what is that smiting of the Lord? Without doubt He is speaking in the person of him from whom He had received a body, from whom He had taken unto Him flesh, that is in the person of mankind, of Adam himself who was smitten with the first death because of his sin.5 Mortal therefore here are men born, as born with their punishment: to this punishment they add, whosoever do persecute men. For now here man would not have had to die, unless God had smitten him. Why then dost thou, O man, rage more than this? Is it little for a man that some time he is to die? Each one of us therefore beareth his punishment: to this punishment they would add that persecute us. This punishment is the smiting of the Lord. For the Lord | smote man with the sentence: 'What day ye shall have touched it," He saith, "with death ye shall die." ® Out of this death He had taken upon Him flesh, and our old man hath been crucified together with Him.? By the voice of that man He hath said these words, " Him whom Thou hast smitten they have themselves persecuted, and upon the pain of My wounds they have added." Upon what pain of wounds? Upon the pain of sins they have themselves added.
29. " Let them be blotted out from the book of the living" (ver. 29). For had they been some time written therein? Brethren, we must not so take it, as that God writeth any one in t John xi. 48. 2 Matt. xxiii. 37, 38. 3 Matt. xxvii. 5. 4 Redemptus, Oxf. mgs.; and two in Ben. redzmendus, "was to be redeemed." See note at the end of Homzlies on St. ohn. 5 Gen. iii. 6, 6 Gen. ii, 17. 7 Rom, vi. 6.
8 Ps. xxii. 1. 9 Rom. ix. 14. 10 x Cor. ii. 8. It Matt. xxi. 3712 Ps, Ixix, 22. 13 2 Tim, ili, 13. 14 Oxf, mss. "into."
THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [Psatm LXIX.
much!" He answereth, "poor and sorrowful Iam." They have brought Me to want, unto this sorrow they have set Me down, therefore I say these words. It is not, however, the indignation of one cursing, but the prediction of one prophesying. For He was intending to recommend to us certain things which hereafter He saith of His poverty and His sorrow, in order that we may learn to be poor and sorrowful. For, " Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven."® And, " Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." 'This therefore He doth Himself before now show to us: and so, "poor and sorrowful I am." The whole Body of Him saith this. The Body of Christ in this earth is poor and sorrowful. But let Christians be rich. 'Truly if Christians they are, they are poor; in comparison with the riches celestial for which they hope, all their gold they count for sand. "And the health of Thy countenance, O God, hath taken Me up." Is this poor One anywise forsaken? When dost thou deign to bring near to thy table a poor'man in rags? But again, this poor One the health of the countenance of God hath taken up: in His countenance He hath hidden His need. For of Him hath been said, " Thou shalt hide them in the hiding place of Thy countenance." 9 But in that countenance what riches there are would ye know? Riches here give thee this advantage, that thou mayest dine on what thou wilt, whenever thou wilt: but those riches, that thou mayest never hunger. "The health of Thy countenance, O God, hath taken Me up." For what purpose? In order that no longer I may be poor, no longer sorrowful? "TI will praise the name of the Lord with a song, I will magnify Him in praise" (ver. 31). Now it hath been said, this poor One praiseth the name of the Lord with a song, he magnifieth Him in praise. When would He have ventured to sing, unless He had been refreshed from hunger? "I will magnify Him with praise." O vast riches! What jewels of God's praise hath he brought out of his inward treasures! These are my riches! "The Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken away." '° Then miserable he hath remained? Far be it. See the riches: " As it hath pleased the Lord, so hath been done, be the name of the Lord blessed."
the book of life, and blotteth him out. Ifa man said, " What I have written I have written," ! concerning the title where it had been written, " King of the Jews:" doth God write any one, and blot him out? He foreknoweth, He hath predestined all before the foundation of the world that are to reign with His Son in life everlasting. These He hath written down, these same the Book of Life doth contain. Lastly, in the Apocalypse, what saith the Spirit of God, when the same Scripture was speaking of the oppressions that should be from Antichrist? "There shall give consent to him all they that have not been written in the book of life." + So then without doubt they will not consent that have been written. How then are these men blotted out from that book wherein they were never written? This hath been said according to their own hope, because they thought of themselves that they were written. What is, "let them be blotted out from the book of life''? Even to themselves let it be evident, that they were not there. By this method of speaking hath been said in another Psalm, " There shall fall from Thy side a thousand, and tens of thousands from on Thy right hand: "'5 that is, many men shall be offended, even out of that number who thought that they would sit with Thee, even out of that number who thought that they would stand at Thy right hand, being severed from the left-hand goats:° not that when any one hath there stood, he shall afterwards fall, or when any one with Him hath sat, he shall be cast away ; but that many men were to fall into scandal, who already thought themselves to be there, that is, many that thought that they would sit with Thee, many that hoped that they would stand at the right hand, will themselves fall. So then here also they that hoped as though by the merit of their own righteousness themselves to have been written in the book of God, they to whom is said, 'Search the Scriptures, wherein ye think yourselves to have life eternal:" 7 when their condemnation shall have been brought even to their own knowledge, shall be effaced from the book of the living, they shall know themselves not to be there. For the verse which followeth, explaineth what hath been said: " And with just men let them not be written." I have said then, " Let them be effaced," according to their hope: but according to Thy justice J say what?
31. " And it shall please God:" that I shall praise Him, shall please: "above a new calf, bearing horns and hoofs." More grateful to Him shall be the sacrifice of praise than the sacrifice of a calf. '' The sacrifice of praise shall glorify me."' "' "Immolate to God the sacrifice of praise." '?, So then His praise going forth from my mouth shall please God more than a great
30. " Poor and sorrowful I am" (ver. 30). Why this? Is it that we may acknowledge that through bitterness of soul this poor One doth speak evil? For He hath spoken of many things to happen to them. And as if we were saying to Him, " Why such things?' — " Nay, not so
1 ane xix. 22, 2 Rom. viii. 29. 3 E. V. " worship." 4 Rev. xiii. 8. 5 Ps. xci. 7. 6 Matt. xxv. 33. 7 John v. 39:
9 Ps. xxxi. 22. 10 Job i, 21. 8 Matt. v. 3. ee s. 1.14. I Ps, J. 23.