Expositions on the Book of Psalms
PsatmM LXXXVI.] ON THE PSALMS. 409 ness might look down from heaven, that is, in order that men might be justified by Divine grace, Truth was born of the Virgin Mary ; that sown seed in your devout hearts, finding your souls furrowed, as it were, with the plough of confession: with devout attention ye have received the seed; think now upon the word which ye have heard, like those who break up the clouds, lest the fowls should carry away the seed, that what is sown may be able to spring up there: and unless God rain upon it, what profits it that it is sown? This is what is meant by " our land shall give her increase." May He with His visitations, in leisure, in business, in your house, in your bed, at meal-time, in conversation, in walks, visit your hearts, when we are not by. May the rain of God come and make to sprout what is sown there: and when we are not by, and are resting quietly, or otherwise employed, may God give increase to the seeds which we have sown, that remarking afterwards your improved characters, we too may rejoice for your fruit.
He might be able to offer a sacrifice to justify them, the sacrifice of suffering, the sacrifice of the Cross. And how could He offer a sacrifice for our sins, except He died? How could He die, except He received from us that wherein He might die ; that is, unless He received from us mortal flesh, Christ could not have died: because the Word of God dieth not, Godhead dieth not, the Virtue and Wisdom of God doth not die. How should He offer a sacrifice, a healing victim, if He died not? How should He die, unless He clothed Himself with flesh? How should He put on flesh, except truth sprang out of the earth?
11. On the same passage we may mention another meaning. 'Truth is sprung out of the earth: "' confession from man. For thou, O man, wast a sinner. O earth, who when thou hadst sinned didst hear the sentence, " Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return,'"'! from thee let truth spring, that righteousness may look down from heaven. How doth truth spring from thee, whilst thou art a sinner, whilst thou art unrighteous? Confess thy sins, and truth shall spring out of thee. For if whilst thou art unrighteous, thou callest thyself just, how can truth spring out ofthee? But if being unrighteous thou dost confess thyself to be so, " truth hath sprung out of the earth." .. . What "righteousness hath looked down from heaven"? It is that of God, as though He said: Let us spare this man, for he spareth not himself: let us pardon him, for he himself confesseth. He is changed so as to punish his sin: I too will change, so as to set him free.
13. "For righteousness shall go before him, and he shall direct his steps in the way" (ver.
14): that righteousness, namely, which consists in confession of sins: for this is truth itself. For thou oughtest to be righteous towards thyself, and to punish thyself: for this is the beginning of man's righteousness, that thou shouldest punish thyself, who art evil, and God should make thee good. 'Therefore since this is the beginning of man's righteousness, this becomes a way for God, that God may come unto thee: there make for Him a way, in confession of sins. Therefore John too, when he was baptizing in the water of repentance, and would have men come to him repenting of their former deeds, spoke thus: '' Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight."? Thou didst please thyself in thy sins, O man: let that which thou wast displease thee, that thou mayest be able to become what thou wast not. Prepare the way of the Lord: let that righteousness go before, of confession of sins: He will come and visit thee, for now He hath where to place His steps, He hath whereby He may come to thee. Before thou didst confess thy sins, thou hadst shut up the way of God: there was no way by which He might come unto thee. Confess thy past life, and thou openest a way ; and Christ shall come unto thee, and "shall place His steps in the way," that He may guide thee with His own footsteps.
12. "For the Lord shall give sweetness, and our land shall give her increase"' (ver. 12). He will give unto thee the sweetness of working righteousness, so that righteousness shall begin to delight thee, whom before unrighteousness delighted : so that thou who at first didst delight in drunkenness, shalt rejoice in sobriety: and thou who didst at first rejoice in theft, so as to take from another man what thou hadst not, shalt seek to give to him that hath not that which thou hast: and thou who didst take delight in robbing, shalt delight now in giving: thou whom shows delighted, shalt delight in prayer; thou who didst delight in trifling and lascivious songs, shalt now delight in singing hymns to God; in running to church, thou who at first didst run to the theatre. Whence is that sweetness born to thee, except from this, that " God giveth sweetness'? For, behold, ye see what I mean : behold, I have spoken unto you the word of God, I have
PSALM LXXXVI.3
1. No greater gift could God have given to men than in making His Word, by which He created all things, their Head, and joining them to Him as His members: that the Son of God might
2 Matt. iii. 3 Lat. LXXXY, A sermon to the people at Carthage, delivered' on the vigil of a festival, perhaps of St. Cyprian.
I Gen. iii. 19.
A1O-
THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [PsALmM LXXXVI,
become also the Son of man, one God with the Father, one Man with men; so that when we speak to God in prayer for mercy, we do not separate the Son from Him ; and when the Body of the Son prays, it separates not its Head from itself: and it is one Saviour of His Body, our poor and him that is in misery He boweth down His ear, that is, unto the humble, and him that confesseth, unto him that is in need of mercy: not unto him that is full, who lifteth up himself and boasteth, as if he wanted nothing, and saith, "T thank Thee that I am not as this Publican." For the rich Pharisee boasted of his merits: the poor Publican confessed his sins.?
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who both prays for us, and prays in us, and is prayed to by us. He prays for us, as our Priest ; He prays in us, as our Head; He is prayed to by us, as our God. Let us therefore recognise in Him our words, and His words in us. Norwhen anything is said of our Lord Jesus Christ, especially in prophecy, implying a degree of humility below the dignity of God, let us hesitate to ascribe it to Him who did not hesitate to join Himself unto us. .. . He is prayed to in the form of God, in the form of a servant He prayeth ; there the Creator, here created; assuming unchanged the creature, that it might be changed, and making us with Himself one Man, Head and Body. Therefore we pray to Him, through Him, in Him ; and we speak with Him, and He speaks with us ; we speak in Him, He speaks in us the prayer of this Psalm, which is entitled, " A Prayer of David." For our Lord was, according to the flesh, the son of David; but according to His divine nature, the Lord of David, and his Maker.
3. Yet do not take what I have said, my brethren, in such a way, as if God does not hear those who have gold and silver, and a household, and farms, if they happen to be born to this estate, or hold such a rank in the world: only let them remember the Apostle's words : " Charge those who are rich in this world, that they be not highminded."3 For those that are not highminded are poor in God, and to the poor and needy and those in want He inclines His ear. For they know that their hope is not in gold and silver, nor in those things in which for a time they seem to abound. It is enough that riches ruin them not; it is enough that they do them no harm: for good they can do them none. What certainly profiteth is a work of mercy, done -by a rich or by a poor man: by a rich man, with will and deed ; by a poor man, with will alone. When therefore he is such an one as despiseth in himself everything which is wont toswell men with pride, he is one of God's poor: He inclines unto him His ear, for He knows that his heart is contrite. . . . Was it really for the merit of his poverty that the poor man was carried away by Angels,' or was it for the sin of his riches that the rich man was sent away to be tormented? In that poor man is signified the honour which is paid to humility, in that rich man the condemnation which awaits pride. I will prove shortly that it was not riches but pride which was tormented in that rich man. It is certain that the poor man was carried into the bosom of Abraham: of Abraham himself Scripture saith that he had here very much gold and silver, and was rich on the earth.5 If every one that is rich is hurried away to be tormented, how could Abraham have gone before that poor man, so as to be ready to receive him when carried to his bosom? But Abraham in his riches was poor, humble, reverencing all commands, and obeying them. So true was it that he counted all those riches for nothing, that on God's command he was ready to sacrifice his son,° for whom he was keeping his riches. Learn therefore ye to be poor and needy, whether ye have ee: in i world, or whether ye have not. . .
. . . Let no one then, when he hears these words, say, Christ speaketh not; nor again say,
I speak not; nay rather, if he own himself to be in the Body of Christ, let him say both, Christ speaks, and I speak. Be thou unwilling to say anything without Him, and He saith nothing without thee. .. . 2. " Bow down Thine ear, O Lord, and hear me" (ver. 1). He speaks in the form of a servant: speak thou, O servant, in the form of thy
Lord: " Bow down Thine ear, O Lord." He bows down His ear, if thou dost not lift up thy neck: for unto the humble He draweth near: from him that is exalted He removes afar off, except whom He Himself hath exalted from being humble. God then bows down His ear unto us. For oe is above, we below: Hein a high place, we in a lowly one, yet not deserted. " For while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. For scarcely for a just man will one die: yet for a good man peradventure one would even dare to die:" * but our Lord died for the wicked. Forno merits of ours had gone before, for which the Son of God should die: but the more, because there were no merits, was His mercy great. How sure then, how firm is the promise, by which for the righteous He keepeth His life, who for the wicked gave His own death ! "For Iam poor and in misery." To the rich then He boweth not down His ear: unto the ite Preserve Thou My Soul, for I am holy" (ver. 2). I know not whether any one could say this, "I am holy," but He who was in the world without sin: He by whom all sins were not
2 Luke xviii. 11-13. 3 x Tim. vi. 17. 5 Gen. xiii. 2, en. XX. 10,
4 Luke xvi. 19-24.
t Rom. v. 8, 7.
PsALM LXXXVL.] ON THE PSALMS. All committed but remitted.:. We own it to be His voice saying, " Preserve Thou My Soul, for I am holy ;" of course in that form of a servant which He had assumed. For in that was flesh, in that was also a Soul. For He was not, as some? have said, only Flesh and the Word: but Flesh and Soul also, and the Word, and all this, One Son of God, One Christ, One Saviour; in the form of God equal to the Father, in the form of a servant the Head of the Church. When therefore I hear, " for I am holy," I recognise His voice: yet do I exclude my own? Surely He speaks inseparably from His body when He speaks thus. Shall I then dare to say, "For I am holy'? If holy as making holy, and as needing none to sanctify, I should be proud and false: but if holy as made holy, as it is written, "' Be ye holy, for I am holy,''3 then the body of Christ may venture, and that one Man " crying from the end of the earth," 4 may venture with his Head, and under his Head, to say, 'For I am holy." For he hath received the grace of holiness, the grace of Baptism, and of remission of sins.5 . . . Say unto thy God, I am holy, for Thou hast sanctified me: because I received, not because I had: because Thou gavest, not because I deserved. For on another side thou art beginning to do an injury to our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. For if all Christians who are faithful and have been baptized in Him have put Him on, as the Apostle saith, "As many as are baptized in Christ have put on Christ :"'° if they have been made members of His body, and say that they are not holy, they do injury to their Head, of whom they are members, and yet not holy. Look thou where thou art and from thy Head assume dignity. For thou wert in darkness, "but now light in the Lord."7. "Ye were sometime darkness," he saith: but did ye remain darkness? Was it for this the Enlightener came, that ye might still remain darkness, or that in Him ye might become light? Therefore, every Christian by himself, therefore also the whole body of Christ, may say, it may cry everywhere, while it suffers tribulations, various temptations and offences, it may say, '' Preserve Thou my soul, for I am holy: my God, save Thy servant, that putteth his trust in Thee." See thou, that holy man is not proud, since he putteth his trust in God.
of us after his measure hath his part in that cry in the whole body. Thou hast cried in thy days, and thy days have passed away: another hath come after thee, and cried in his days: and thou here, he there, another elsewhere: the body of Christ crieth all the day, its members departing and succeeding one another. One Man it is that reaches to the end of the world: the same members of Christ cry, and some members already rest in Him, some still cry, some when we shall be at rest will cry, and after them others will cry. It is the whole body of Christ whose voice He hears, saying, " Unto Thee have I cried all the day.' Our Head on the right hand of the Father intercedes for us: some members He recovereth, others He scourgeth, others He cleanseth, others He comforteth, others He is creating, others calling, others recalling, others correcting, others restoring.
6. " Make glad the soul of Thy servant: for unto Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul"
(ver. 4). Make it glad, for unto Thee have I lifted it up. For it was on earth, and from the earth it felt bitterness: lest it should wither away in bitterness, lest it should lose all the sweetness of Thy grace, I lifted it up unto Thee : make Thou it glad with Thyself. For Thou alone art gladness: the whole world is full of bitterness. Surely with reason He admonishes His members to lift up their hearts. May they hear and do it: may they lift up unto Him what on earth is ill, There the heart decayeth not, if it be lifted up to God. It thou hadst corn in thy rooms below, thou wouldest take it up higher, lest it should grow rotten. Wouldest thou remove thy corn, and dost thou suffer thy heart to rot on the earth? Thou wouldest take thy corn up higher : lift up thy heart to heaven. And how can I, dost thousay? What ropes are needed? what machines? what ladders? Thy affections are the steps: thy will the way. By loving thou mountest, by neglect thou descendest. Standing on the earth thou art in heaven, if thou lovest God. For the heart is not so raised as the body is raised: the body to be lifted up changes its place: the heart to be lifted up changes its will.
7. "For Thou, Lord, art good and gracious "' (ver. 5)... . Even prayers are often hindered by vain thoughts, so that the heart scarcely remains fixed.on God: and it would hold itself so as to be fixed, and sometliow flees from itself, and finds no frames in which it can enclose itself, no bars by which it may keep in its flights and wandering movements, and stand still to be made glad by its God. Scarcely does one such prayer occur amongst many. Each one might say that this happened to him, but that it happened not to others, if we did not find in the holy Scripture David praying in a certain place,
5. " Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for I have cried unto Thee all day" (ver. 3). Not "one day :" understand "all day" to mean continually: from the time that the body of Christ groans being in afflictions, until the end of the world, when afflictions pass away, that man groaneth and calleth upon God: and each one
2 Apollinarians, 1 Non commissor sed dimissor. c i 5 x Cor, vi. 11. 3 Lev. xix. 2. So IXT ae 6 Gal. iii. 27. 7 Eph. v. 8.
412 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [PsALM LXXXVI, come unto thee, thou callest upon those things which thou desirest may come unto thee: but thou makest God the helper of thy desires, not the listener to thy needs. God is good, if He gives what thou wishest. What if thou wishest ill, will He not then be more merciful by not giving? Then, if He gives not, then is God nothing to thee; and thou sayest, How much I have prayed, how often I have prayed, and have not been heard! Why, what didst thou ask? Perhaps that thy enemy might die. What if he at the same time were praying for thy death? He who created thee, created him also: thou art a man, he too is a man; but God is the Judge: He hears both, and He grants their prayer to neither. Thou art sad, because thou wast not heard when praying against him; be glad, because his prayer was not heard against thee. But thou sayest, I did not ask for this; I asked not for the death of my enemy, but for the life of my child; what ill did I ask? Thou askedst no ill, as thou didst think. What if "he was taken away, lest wickedness should alter his understanding.'"'5 But he was a sinner, thou sayest, and therefore I wished him to live, that he might be corrected. Thou wishedst him to live, that he might become better ; what if God knew, that if he lived he would become worse? . . . If, therefore, thou callest on God as God, be confident thou shalt be heard: thou hast part in that verse: "And of great mercy unto all that call upon. Thee sox 8. Think, brethren, and refiect what good things God giveth unto sinners: and learn hence what He keepeth for His own servants. To sinners who blaspheme Him every day He giveth the sky and the earth, He giveth springs, fruits, health, children, wealth, abundance: all these good things none giveth but God. He who giveth such things to sinners, what thinkest thou and saying, "Since I have found my heart, O Lord, so that I might pray unto Thee." He said that he had found his heart, as if it were wont to flee from him, and he to follow it like a fugitive, and not be able to catch it, and to cry to God, " For my heart hath deserted me.'"'? Therefore, my brethren, thinking over what he saith here, I think I see what he meaneth by "gracious." I seem to feel that for this reason he calls God gracious, because He bears with those failings of ours, and yet expects prayer from us, in order to make us perfect: and when we have given it to Him, He receives it gratefully, and listens to it, and remembers not those many prayers which we pour out unthinkingly, and accepts the one which we can scarcely find. For what man is there, my brethren, who, on being addressed by his friend, when he wishes to answer his address, sees his friend turn away from him and speak to another, who is there who would bear this? Or if you appeal to a judge, and set him up to hear you, and all at once, while you are speaking to him, pass from him, and begin to converse with your friend, who would endure this? Yet God endures the hearts of so many persons who pray and think of different things. . . . What then? Must we despair of mankind, and say that every man is already condemned into whose prayers any wandering thoughts have crept and interrupted them? If we say this, my brethren, I know not what hope remains. Therefore because there is some hope before God, because His mercy is great, let us say unto Him, " For unto Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul." And how have I lifted it up? As I could, as Thou gavest me strength, as I could catch it when it fled away. . . . From infirmity I sink: heal Thou me, and I shall stand: strengthen Thou me, and I shall be strong. But until Thou do this, Thou bearest with me : '' For Thou, Lord, art good and gracious, and of great mercy." That is, not only '"'of mercy," but "of great
He keeps for His faithful ones? Is this to be believed of Him, that He who giveth such things to the bad, keepeth nothing for the good? Nay verily He doth keep, not earth, but heaven for them. Too common a thing perhaps I say when I say heaven; Himself rather, who made the heaven. Fair is heaven, but fairer is the Maker of heaven. But I see the heavens, Him I see not. Because thou hast eyes to see the heavens : a heart thou hast not yet to see the Maker of heaven: therefore came He from heaven to earth, to cleanse the heart, that He may be seen who made heaven and earth. But wait thou with full patience for salvation. By what treatment to cure thee, He knoweth: by what cutting, what burning, He knoweth. Thou hast brought sickness on thyself by sinning: He comes not only to nurse, but also to cut and to burn. Seest mercy:" for as our iniquity abounds, so also aboundeth Thy mercy. "Unto all that call upon Thee.'"' What is it then which Scripture saith in many places: "They shall call, and I will not hear them''?3 Yet surely Thou art merciful to all that call upon Thee; but that some call, yet call not upon Him, of whom it is said, "They have not called upon God." 4 They call, but not on God. Thou callest upon whatever thou lovest: thou callest upon whatever thou callest unto thyself, whatever thou wishest to come unto thee. Therefore if thou callest upon God for this reason, in order that money may come unto thee, that an inheritance may come unto thee, that worldly rank may
1 2 Sam. vii. 27. 2 Ps, xxxviil. 10. 3 Prov. i. 28. 4 Ps. lili. 4.
5 Wisd. iv. 12,
Psatm LXXXVI.] ON THE
PSALMS. 413 thou not how much men suffer under the hands of physicians, when a man promises them an uncertain hope? Thou wilt be cured, says the physician: thou wilt be cured, if I cut. Itisa man who speaks, and to a man that he speaks: neither is he sure who speaks, nor he who hears, for he who is speaking to the man hath not made man, and knows not perfectly what is passing in man: yet at the words of a man who knows not what is passing in man, man sooner believeth, submits his limbs, suffers himself to be bound, often without being bound is cut or burned ; and receives perhaps health for a few days, even when the more secure as thou wast the poorer. In fine, be it that thou hast wealth, that thou hast redundance of this world's affluence, that thou hast assurance given thee that all this shall not perish; besides this, that God say unto thee, Thou shalt remain for ever in these things, they shall be for ever with thee, but My face thou shalt not see. Let none ask counsel of the flesh: ask ye counsel of the Spirit: let your heart answer you ; let hope, faith, charity, which has begun to be in you, answer. If then we were to receive assurance that we should always be in affluence of worldly goods, and if God were to say to us, My face ye shall not see, would ye rejoice in these goads? Some one might perhaps choose to rejoice, and say, These things abound unto me, it is well with me, I ask no more. He hath not yet begun to be a lover of God: he hath not yet begun to sigh like one far from home. Far be it, far be it from us: let them retire, all those seductions: let them retire, those false blandishments: let them be gone, those words which they say daily unto us, "Where is thy God?" Let us pour out our soul' over us,5 let us confess in tears, let us groan in confession, let us sigh in misery. Whatever is present with us.besides our God, is not sweet: we would not have all things that He hath given, if He gives not Himself who gave all things.
just healed not knowing when he may die: perhaps, while being healed, dies; perhaps cannot be healed. But to whom hath God promised anything, and deceived him?
9. "Fix my prayer in Thy ears, O Lord" (ver. 6). Great earnestness of him who prays ! That is, let not my prayer go out of Thine ears, fix it then in Thine ears. How did he travail that he might fix his prayer in the ears of God? Let God answer and say to us; Wouldest thou that I fix thy prayer in My ears? Fix My law in thy heart; "and attend to the voice of my prayer."
10. "In the day of my trouble I have cried unto Thee, for Thou hast heard me" (ver. 7). A little before he had said, All the day have I cried, all the day have I been troubled. Let no Christian then say that there is any day in which he is not troubled. By "all the day " we have understood the whole of time. What then, is there trouble even when it is well with us? Even so, trouble. Howis there trouble? Because " as long as we are in the body we are absent from the Lord." * Let what will abound here, we are not yet in that country whither we are hastening to return. He to whom foreign travel is sweet, loveth not his country: if his country is sweet, travel is bitter; if travel is bitter, all the day there is trouble. When is there not trouble? When there is joy in one's country. "At Thy right hand are delights for evermore."? "Thou shalt fill me with joy," he saith, " with Thy countenance: that I may see the delight of the Lord."3 There toil and groaning shall pass away: there shall be not prayer but praise ; there Alleluia, there Amen, the voice in concord with Angels; there vision without failing and love without weariness. So long therefore as we are not there, ye see that we are not in that which is good. But do all things abound? If all things abound, see if thou art assured that all things perish not. But I have what I had not: more money is come to me which I had not before. Perhaps more fear too is come, which thou hadst not before : perhaps thou wast so much
11. " Among the gods there is none like unto Thee, O Lord" (ver. 8). What did he say? " Among the gods," etc. Let the Pagans make for themselves what gods they will; let them bring workmen in silver and in gold, furbishers, sculptors ; let them make gods. What kind of gods? Having eyes, and seeing not ;® and the other things which the Psalm mentions in what follows. But we do not worship these, he says ; we do not worship them, these are symbols. What then do ye worship? Something else that is worse: for the gods of the gentiles are devils. What then? Neither, say they, do we worship devils. Ye have certainly nothing else in your temples, nothing else inspires your prophets than a devil.7, But what do ye say? We worship Angels, we have Angels as gods. Ye know not altogether what Angels are. Angels worship the one God, and favour not men who wish to worship Angels and not God. For we find Angels of high rank ® forbidding men to adore them, and commanding them to adore the true God.? But when they say Angels, suppose they mean men, since it is said, "' I have said, Ye are Gods, and all the children of the Most Highest." 7° Whatever '* man thinks to the contrary, that which was made is not like Him who made it. Except God, whatever else there is in the
4 Ps. xlii. 3, 4. 5 Super nos. 6 Ps, cxv. 5. 7 Ps. xcvi. 5. 8 Honoratos. 9 Rev. xix. 10. To Ps, Ixxxil, 6. Il Oxodlibet aliud,
3 Ps. xxvii. 4. 1 2 Cor. v. 6. 2 Ps, xvi. 11.
THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [PsaLm LXXXVI.
universe was made by God. What a difference there is between Him who made, and that which was made, who can worthily imagine? Therefore this man said, "there is none like unto Thee, O Lord: there is not one that can do as thou doest." But how much God is unlike them he said not, because it cannot be said. Let*your Charity attend: God is ineffable: we more easily say what He is not than what He is. Thou thinkest of the earth ; this is not God: thou thinkest of the sea; this is not God: of all things which are in the earth, men and animals; this is not God: of all things which are in the sea, which fly through the air ; this is not God: whatever shines in the sky, the stars, sun and moon; this is not God: the heaven itself; this is not God: think of the Angels, Virtues, Powers, Archangels, Thrones, Seats, Principalities ; this is not God. What is He then? I could only tell thee, what He is not. Askest thou what He is? What " the eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard, nor hath risen up into the heart of man."?...
alone remains." This thou sayest, who callest thyself great :? another thing He saith who alone is the great God. What saith He, who alone is the great God? "All nations." Isee what the only great God hath said: let man be silent, who is falsely great; great only in appearance, because he disdains to be small. Who disdains to be small? He who saith this. Whoever will be great among you, said the Lord, shall be your servant.3 If that man had wished to be the servant of his brethren, he would not have separated them from their mother: but when he wishes to be great, and wishes not to be.small, as would be for his welfare, God, who resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble,* because He alone is great, fulfilleth all things which He predicted, and contradicteth those who blaspheme. For such persons blaspheme against Christ, who say that the Church has perished from the whole world, and is left only in Africa. If thou wert to say to him, Thou wilt lose thy villa, he would perhaps scarcely keep from laying his hand upon thee: and yet he says, that Christ has lost His inheritance, redeemed by His own Blood! See now what a wrong he does, my brethren. 'The Scripture says, " In a wide nation is the king's honour; but in the domination of the people is the affliction' of aprince."° This wrong then thou dost unto Christ, to say that
12. "All nations that Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord" (ver.
He has announced the Church: " All nations." If there is any nation which God hath not made, it will not worship Him: but there is no nation which God hath not made; because God made Adam and Eve, the source of all nations, thence all nations sprang. All nations therefore hath God made. When was this said? When before Him there worshipped none but a few holy men in one people of the Hebrews, then this was said: and see now what it is which was said: " All nations that Thou hast made," etc. When these things were spoken, they were not seen, and they were believed: now that they are seen, why are they denied? " All nations that Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord, and shall glorify Thy Name."
His people is diminished to that small number. Was it for this thou wast born, for this thou callest thyself a Christian, that thou mayest grudge Christ His glory, whose sign thou sayest that thou bearest on thy forehead, and hast lost out of thy heart? In a wide nation is the king's honour: acknowledge thy King: give Him glory, give Him awide nation. What wide nation shall I give Him, dost.thou say? Choose not to give Him from thy own heart, and thou wilt give aright. Whence am I to give? thou wilt say. Lo, give from hence: "All nations that Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lerd." Say this, confess this, and thou hast given a wide nation: for all nations in One. are one: this is very oneness. For as there is a Church and Churches, and those are Churches which also are a Church, so that isa nation which was nations: formerly nations, many nations, now one nation. Why one nation? Because one faith, one hope, one charity, one expectation. Lastly, why not one nation, if one country? Our country is heavenly, our country is Jerusalem: whoever is not a citizen of it, belongs not to that nation: but whoever is a citizen of it is in that one nation of God. And this nation, from the east to the west, from the north and the sea, is extended through the four quarters of the whole world. This God saith: From the east and west, from
13. " For Thou art great, and doing wondrous things: Thou alone art the great God" (ver. 10). Let no man call himself great. Some were to be who would call themselves great: against these it is said, 'Thou alone art the great God." For what great thing is ascribed to God, when it is said that He alone is the great God? Who knows not that He is the great God? But because there were to be some who would call themselves great and make God little, against these it is said, 'Thou alone art the great God." For what Thou sayest is fulfilled, not what those say who call themselves great. What hath God said by His Spirit? 'All nations." What saith he, whoever he is, who calleth himself great? " Far from it: God is not worshipped in all nations; all nations have perished, Africa
2 The Donatist. 5 Contritio, 3 Matt. xx. 26. ? 4 Jas. iv. 6. 6 Proy. xiv. 28.
1 x Cor, ii. 9,
PsaLmM LXXXVL.] ON THE PSALMS. 415 the north and the sea, give glory to God. This He foretold, this He fulfilled, who alone is great. Let him therefore who would not be little cease from saying this against Him who alone is great : for there cannot be two great, God and Donatus.!
that worketh in you." © Whatever prosperity comes then, my brethren, is rather to be feared : those things which ye think to be prosperous, are rather temptations. An inheritance cometh, there cometh wealth, there is an abundant overflow of some happiness: these are temptations : take care that they corrupt you not. Whatever prosperity also there is according to Christ, and the true love of Christ: if perhaps thou hast gained thy wife, who was of the party of Donatus : if thy sons have been made believers who were Pagans: if perhaps thou hast gained thy friend who wished to draw thee away to the theatres, and thou hast drawn him to the church: if some hostile opponent of thine who was furiously mad against thee, laying aside his fury, has become gentle, and owned God, and now barks at thee no more, but cries with thee against wickedness : these things are pleasant. For what do we rejoice for, if we do not rejoice for these things?
14. "Lead me, O Lord, in Thy way, and I will walk in Thy truth" (ver. 11). Thy way, Thy truth, Thy life, is Christ. Therefore belongeth the Body to Him, and the Body is of Him. I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life." " Lead me, O Lord, in Thy way." In what way? " And I will walk in Thy truth." It is one thing to lead to the way, another to guide in the way. Behold man everywhere poor, everywhere in need of help. 'Those who are beside the way are not Christians, or not yet Catholics: let them be guided to the way: but when they have been brought to the way and made Catholics in Christ, they must be guided by Him in the way itself, lest they fall.3 Now assuredly they walk in the way. 'Lead me, O Lord, in Thy way:" surely Iam nowin Thy way, lead me there. "And I will walk in Thy truth: " while Thou leadest I shall not err: if Thou let me go, I shall err. Pray then that He let thee not go, but lead thee even to the end. Howdoth He lead thee? By always admonishing, always giving thee His hand. And the arm of the Lord, to whom is it revealed ?4 For in giving His Christ He giveth His hand: in giving His hand, He giveth His Christ. He leadeth to the way, in leading to His Christ: He leadeth in the way, by leading in His Christ, and Christ is truth. "Lead me," therefore, ""O Lord, in Thy way, and I will walk in Thy truth: in Him verily who said, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life." 2 For Thou who leadest in the way and the truth, whither leadest Thou, but unto life? In Him then, unto Him Thou leadest.
Or what other are our joys, but these? But because tribulations also abound, and temptations, and dissensions, and schisms, and other evils,? without which this world cannot be, until iniquity pass away: let not that rejoicing make us secure, but let our heart be so made glad, as to fear the name of the Lord, lest it be made glad on one side, be stricken on another. Expect not security in journeying: if ever we wish for it here, it will be the birdlime of the body,® not the safety of the man. "Let my heart be made glad, so that it may fear Thy name."
16. "I will confess unto Thee, O Lord my God, in my whole heart, and I will glorify Thy name for ever" (ver. 12): "for great is Thy mercy toward me, and Thou hast delivered my soul from the nethermost hell" (ver. 13). Do not be angry, brethren, if I do not explain what I have said as though I were certain. For lam aman, and as much as is granted to me concerning the sacred Scriptures, so much I venture to speak: nothing of myself. Hades? I have not yet seen, nor have you: and there will be perhaps another way for us, and not through Hades. These things are uncertain. But because Scripture, which cannot be gainsaid, says, "Thou hast delivered my soul from the nethermost hell,'"' we understand that there are as it were two hells, an upper one and a lower one: for how can there be a lower hell, unless because there is also an upper? The one would not be called lower, except by comparison with that upper part. It appears then, my brethren, that there is some heavenly abode of Angels: there is there a life of ineffable joys, there immortality and incorruption, there all things abiding accord-
15. "Let my heart be made glad, so that it may fear Thy name." There is then fear in gladness. How can there be gladness, if fear? Is not fear wont to be painful? There will hereafter be gladness without fear, now gladness with fear; for not yet is there perfect security, nor perfect gladness. If there is no gladness, we faint: if fullsecurity, we rejoice wrongly. Therefore may He both sprinkle on us gladness, and strike fear into us, that by the sweetness of gladness He may lead us to the abode of security ; by giving us fear, may cause us not to rejoice wrongly, and to withdraw from the way. Therefore saith the Psalm: "'Serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling: ''5 so also saith the Apostle Paul ; salvation with fear and trembling ; for it is God
"Work out your own |
6 Philip. ii. 12, 13. 7 Oxf. mss. '' other such evils." 8 47, ** of the heart." 9 Infernum: used, as our word "hell" in the Apostles' Creed, for the place of de arted spirits. [Note he has no dogma on this point, but speaks of his views as uscertain.—
1 [He made his little sect the whole Catholic Church. So now the Roman communion claims to be the whole Catholic communion, cutting itself off even from the ee alk va' n xiv. 6. See Acts xviii, 26.— C.] 4 Isa. lili. 1. ayo a.