Expositions on the Book of Psalms (continued)
Psatm LXXXIX.] ON THE PSALMS. 435 world, but unto the world without end: whither His seed, which is His heritage, the seed of Abraham, which is Christ, will pass.2 But if ye are Christ's, ye are also Abraham's seed: and if ye are destined His heirs for ever, " He will establish His seed unto world without end: and His throne as the days of Heaven." The thrones of earthly kings are as the days of the earth: different are the days of Heaven from those of earth. The days of Heaven are those years of which it is said, "Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail.""3 | The days of the earth are soon overtaken by their successors: those which precede are shut out from us: nor do those which succeed remain: but they come that they may go, and are almost gone before they are come. Such are the days of earth. But the days of Heaven, which are also the " One day " of Heaven,+ and the never failing years, have neither beginning nor end: nor is any day there narrowed between yesterday and to-morrow: no one there expects the future, nor loses the past: but the days of Heaven are always present, where His throne shall be for ever and ever.5...
you with arod?"® Let not pious sons say, if Thou art coming with a rod, come not at all. For it is better to be taught with the Father's rod, than to perish in the caresses of the robber.
30. '' Nevertheless, My mercy will I not utterly take from Him" (ver. 33). From whom? From that David to whom I gave these promises, whom "I anointed with my holy oil of gladness above His fellows.''9 Do you recognise Him from whom God will not utterly take away His mercy? That no one may anxiously say, since He speaks of Christ as Him from whom
He will not take away His mercy, What then will become of the sinner? Did He say anything like this, "I will not take My loving-kindness utterly from them"? "TI will visit," He saith, " their offences with the rod, and their sin with scourges." Thou didst expect for thy own security, "I will not utterly take my lovingkindness from' them. And indeed this is the reading of some books, but not of the most accurate: though, where they have it, it is a reading by no means inconsistent with the real meaning. For howcan it be said that He will not utterly take His mercy from Christ? Has the Saviour of the body committed aught of sin either in Heaven or in earth, '' who sitteth even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us" ?'° Yet it is from Christ: but from His members, His body which is the Church. For in this sense He speaks of it as a great thing that He will not take away His mercies from Him, supposing us not to recognise the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father ;*" for there the Man is not counted for His Person, but the One Person is God and Man. He therefore does not utterly take His mercies from Him, when He takes not His mercy from His body, His members,''? in which, even while He was enthroned in Heaven, He was still suffering persecutions on earth; and when He cried from Heaven, "Saul, Saul," not why persecutest thou My servants, nor why persecutest thou My saints, nor My disciples, but, "why persecutest thou Me?" '3 As then, while no one persecuted Him when sitting in Heaven, He cried out, ' Why persecutest thou Me?" when the Head recognised its limbs, and His love allowed not the Head to separate Himself from the union of the body: so, when He taketh not away His mercies from Him, it is surely that He taketh it not from us, who are His limbs and body. Yet ought we not on that account to sin not without apprehension, and perversely to assure ourselves that we shall not
29. This is a strong pledge of the promise of God. The sons of this David are the children of the Bridegroom; all Christians therefore are called His sons. But it is much indeed that God promises, that if Christians, that is, " Tf his children forsake My law, and walk not in My judgments" (ver. 30) ; "if they profane My statutes, and keep not My commandments "' (ver. 31); I will not spurn them, nor will I send them away from Me in perdition: but what will I do? 'I will visit their offences with the rod, and their sin with scourges"' (ver. 32). It is not the mercy of one that calls them only; but also that chastises and scourges them. Let therefore thy Father's hand be upon thee, and if thou art a good son, repel not chastening ; for 'what son is there, to whom his father giveth not chastening?''® Let Him chasten him, so long as He takes not from him His mercy : let Him beat him when obstinate, as long as He does not disinherit him. If thou hast well understood the promises of thy Father, fear not to be scourged, but to be disinherited: "for whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth: and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth."? Does the sinful son spurn chastening, when he sees the only Son without sin scourged? 'TJ will visit their offences with the rod." Thus too the Apostle threatens: ' What will ye? shall I come unto
2 Gal, iii. 15, 29. 4 Oxf. mss. add "' which are," etc. I In seculum secult, 3 Ps, cii. 27. 5 [Here he adds: '' Let us, if you please, reserve what remains; since the Psalm is a long one, and we have yet some farther opportunity of speaking with you in Christ's name. Refresh your strength therefore: I do not mean, that of your mind, for in mind I see that you are incapable of fatigue; but on account of the slaves of the soul, that your bodies may be sustained in their service, refresh yourselves for a little, and being refreshed return to your meal," — cd
8 x Cor. iv. 21. 9 Ps. xlv. 7» 10 Rom. viii. 34. 11 John i. 18, 12 7.e we may consider it as not said of Him at all, for though He is Man, yet being God also He would not, in His own Person, need assurance; therefore it is said of Him in His members.
13 Acts ix. 4.
6 Heb, xii. 7. Heb. xii. 6.
436 THE WORKS OF
ST. AUGUSTIN. [PsaLm LXXXIX, perish, be our actions what they may. there are certain sins and certain offences, to define and discourse of which it is either impossible for me, or if it were possible, it would be too tedious for the time we have at present. For no man can say that he is without sin; for if he says so, he will lie; "if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.'"'" Each one therefore is needfully scourged for his own sins ; but the mercy of God is not taken away from him, if he be a Christian. Certainly if thou committest such offences as to repel the hand of Him who chasteneth, the rod of Him who scourgeth thee, and art angry at the correction of God, and fliest from thy Father when He chasteneth thee, and wiit not suffer Him to be thy Father, because He spares thee not when thou dost sin; thou hast estranged thyself from thy heritage, He has not thrown thee off; for if thou wouldest abide being scourged, thou wouldest not abide disinherited. "Nor will I do hurt in My truth." For His mercy in setting free shall not be taken away, lest His truth in taking vengeance do harm.
"Tf God is with us, who shall be against us?" God will not therefore do hurt in His truth, nor will He "profane His Testament.'"' His Testament remains immovable, because in His foreknowledge He predestined His heirs ; and " He will not reject the thing that is gone out of His lips."
For |
32. Listen for thy confirmation in hope, for thy security, if thou knowest thyself to be among the members of Christ. "I have sworn once by My holiness that I will not lie unto David" (ver. 35). Dost thou wait till God swear a second time? How often is He to swear, if in one oath He is false? One oath He made for our life, who sent His Only One to die forus. "I have sworn once by My holiness, that I will not lie unto David." 'His seed shall endure for ever"'s(ver. > 36) a> His seed endures) for ever; because the Lord knows them that are His. "And
His seat is like as the sun before me:" "and as the moon perfect for evermore: and the faithful witness in heaven" (ver. 37). They are His seat, in whom He sits and reigns. But if His seat, His members also ; because even our members are the seat of our head. See how all our other members sustain our head: but the head supports nothing above itself, but is itself supported by the rest of our limbs, as if the whole body of a man were the seat of his head. His seat, therefore, all in whom God reigns, " shall be like as the sun before Me,'' He saith: because the righteousin the kingdom of My Father "shall shine like the sun." But the sun is meant in a spiritual, not a bodily sense, as that which shines from Heaven, which He maketh to rise upon the just and unjust.'° Finally, that sun is not before men's eyes only, but even those of cattle and the smallest insects ; for which of the vilest animals sees not that sun? What does he say to distinguish the sun meant here? " Like as the sun before Me.'"' Not before men, before the flesh, before mortal animals, but '" before Me, and as the moon." But what moon? one "that is perfect for evermore." Tor although that moon which we know becomes perfect, the next day she begins to wane, after her orb is full. " He shall be as the moon perfect for evermore," He saith. His seat shall be made perfect as the moon, but that moon is one which will be perfect for evermore. If as the sun, why also as the moon? the Scriptures usually signify by the moon the mortality of this flesh, because of its increasings and decreasings, because of its transitory nature. The moon is also interpreted as Jericho: one who was descending from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among robbers: ' for he was descending from immortality to mortality. Similar then is the flesh to
31. ' My covenant will I not profane, nor reject the thing that is gone out of my lips" (ver.
34). Because his sons sin, I will not on this account be found false: I have promised ; I will do. Suppose they choose to sin even as past hope, and so fall into sins as to offend their Father's countenance, and deserve to be disinherited ; is it not still God Himself, of whom it is said, "' From these stones'? He " will raise up sons to Abraham" ?? 'Therefore L tell you, brethren, many Christians sin venially,3 many are scodurged and so corrected for their sin, chastened, and cured; many turn away altogether, striving with a stiff neck against the discipline of the Father, even wholly refusing God as their
Father, though they have the mark of Christ, and so fall into such sins, that it can only be announced against them, "that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.'' 4 Nevertheless, Christ shall not be destitute of an inheritance on their account: not for the chaff's sake shall the wheat also perish : 5 nor on account of bad fish shall nothing be cast into the vessels from that net.© "The Lord knows them that are His."7 For He who predestined us before we were born, promised undoubtingly: " For whom He did predestinate, them. He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified."'® Let desperate sinners sin as far as they choose: let the members of Christ reply,
2 Matt. iii. 9. [x John v. 16, 17.—C.]
tx Johni. 8. 3 Tolerabiliter. 5 Matt. tii. r2. 8 Rom. viii. 29, 30.
6 Matt. xiii. 47. 4 Gal. v. 21. 7 2 Tim. ii. 19.
9 Matt. xiii. 43. 10 Matt. v. 45. II Luke x. 30.