Expositions on the Book of Psalms (continued)
Psatm CII] ON THE PSALMS. 499
15. Here therefore what saith he? "For thy 'servants take pleasure in her stones" (ver. 14).
17. "For the Lord shall build up Sion" (ver. 16). This work is going on now. O ye living stones, run to the work of building, not to ruin. Sion is in building, beware of the ruined walls: the tower is building, the ark is in building ; remember the deluge. This work is in progress now; but when Sion is built, what will happen? "And He will appear in His glory." That He might build up Sion, that He might be a foundation in Sion, He was seen by Sion, but not in His glory: "we have seen Him, and He had no form nor comeliness."® But truly when He shall have come with His angels to judge," shall they not look then upon Him whom they have pierced ?® and they shall be put to confusion when too late, who refused confusion in early and healthful repentance.
In whose stones? In the stones of Sion? But there are those there that are not stones. Not stones of what? What then followeth? "and pity the dust thereof.' I understand by the stones of Sion all the Prophets: there was the voice of preaching sent before, thence the ministry of the Gospel assumed, through their preaching Christ became known. Therefore thy servants have taken pleasure in the stones of Sion. But those faithless apostates from God, who offended their Creator by their evil deeds, have returned to the earth, whence they were taken. They have become dust, they have become ungodly.' But wait, Lord ; bear with us, Lord ; be long-suffering,O Lord: let not the wind rush in, and sweep away this dust from the face of the earth. Let thy servants come, let them come, let them acknowledge in the stones thy voice, let them pity the dust of Sion, let them be formed in thy image: let the dust say, lest it perish, "Remember that we are but dust."? This of Sion: was not that which crucified the Lord, dust? What is worse, it was dust from the ruined walls ; altogether dust it was, but nevertheless it was not in vain said of this dust, "Father, forgive them." From this very dust there came a wall of so many thousands who believed, and who laid the price of their possessions at the Apostles' feet. From that dust then there arose a human nature formed; and beautiful. Who among the heathen acted thus? How few are there whom we admire for having done thus, compared with the many thousands of these converts? At first suddenly three, afterwards five thousand ; all living in unity, all laying the price of their possessions, when they had sold them, at the Apostles' feet, that it might be distributed to each, as each had need, who had one soul and one heart toward God. Who made this even of that very dust, but He who created Adam himself out of dust? This then is concerning Sion, but not in Sion only.
18. "He hath turned Him unto the prayer of the poor destitute, and despised not their desire" (ver. 17). This is going on now in the building of Sion: the builders of Sion pray, they groan: He is the one poor, because the poor are many; because the thousands among so many nations are one in Him, because He. is the unity of the peace of the Church, He is one, He is many: one, through love: many, on account of His extension. Therefore we now pray, we now run: now, if any man hath used to be otherwise, and lived differently, let him eat ashes as it were bread, and mingle his drink with weeping. Now is the time, when Sion is in building : now the stones are entering into the structure: when the building is finished, and the house dedicated, why dost thou run, to ask when too late, to beg in vain, to knock to no purpose, doomed to abide without with the five foolish virgins?? Therefore now run. 1g. "Let these things be written for those that come after" (ver. 18). When these words were written, they profited not so much those among whom they were written: for they were written to prophesy the New Testament, among men who lived according to the Old Testament. But God had both given that Old Testament, and had settled in that land of promise His own people. But since "Thy remembrance is from generation to generation," belongeth not to the ungodly, but to the righteous ; "in our generation" belongeth to the Old Testament; while "in the other generation" belongeth to the New Testament; and since the New 'Testament announceth this that was prophesied, "Let these things be written for those that come after: and the people which shall be created, shall praise the Lord." Not the people which is created, but "the people which shall be created." What is clearer, my brethren? Here is prophesied that creation of which the Apostle saith:
16. "The heathen shall fear Thy Name, O Lord ; and all the kings of the earth Thy Majesty"
(ver. 15). Now that Thou hast pitied Sion, now that Thy servants have taken pleasure in her stones, by acknowledging the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets ; now that they have pitied her dust ; so that man is formed, or rather re-formed, in life out of dust; hence preaching hath increased among the heathen: let the heathen fear Thy Name, let another wall approach also from the heathen, let the Corner Stone 5 be recognised, let the two who come from different regions, but who no longer differ in belief, meet in close union.
7 Matt. xxv. 31. 9 Matt. xxv. 12, 6 Isa. liii. 2. 8 Zech. xii. 10,
3 Formata et formosa. TPs. i. 4. 2 Ps. ciii, 14. ee ph. ii. 20. 4 Acts ii. 41, iv. 32.
500 THE 'WORKS OF ST AUGUSTIN: [PsaLm CII.
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new: creature ; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." ! "For he hath looked down from His lofty sanctuary." He hath looked down from on high, that He might come unto the humble: from on high He hath become humble, that He might exalt the humble. ...
He saith, "shall be loosed in Heaven.''® Forgiveness of sins may justly be granted by the Church : but the dead man himself cannot be aroused except by the Lord crying within him ; for God doth this within him. We speak to your ears: how do we know what may be going on in your hearts? But what is going on within, is not our doing, but His."
20. "Out of the heaven did the Lord look down upon the earth" (ver. 19): "that He might hear the mournings of such as are in fetters, and deliver the children of suchas are put to death"' (ver. 20). We have found it said in another Psalm, "O let the sorrowful sighs of the fettered come before Thee ;"' * and in a passage where the voice of the martyrs was meant. Whence are the martyrs in fetters?. . . But God had bound them with these fetters, hard indeed and painful for a season, but endurable on account of His promises, unto whom it is said, "On account of the words of Thy lips, I have kept hard ways." We must indeed groan in these fetters in order to gain the mercy of God. These fetters must not be shunned, in order to gain a destructive freedom and the temporal and brief pleasure of this life, to be followed by perpetual bitterness. Accordingly Scripture,3 that we may not refuse the fetters of wisdom, thus addresseth us: ". .. Then shall her fetters be a strong defence for thee, and her chains a robe of glory." Let the fettered therefore cry out, as long as they are in the chains of the discipline of God; in which the martyrs have been tried: the fetters
21. "That the name of the Lord may be declared in Sion" (ver. 21). For at first, when the fettered were appointed unto death, the Church was oppressed: since these tribulations the Name of the Lord has been declared in Sion, with great freedom, in the Church herself. For she is Sion : not that one spot, at first proud, afterwards taken captive; but the Sion whose shadow was that Sion, which signifieth a watchtower; because when placed in the flesh, we see into the things before us, extending ourselves not to the present which is now, but to the future. Thus it is a watch-tower: for every watcher gazes far. Places where guards are set, are termed watch-towers : these are set on rocks, on mountains, in trees, that a wider prospect may be commanded from a higher eminence. Sion therefore is a watch-tower, the Church is a watch-tower. . . . If therefore the Church be a watch-tower, the Name of the Lord is already declared there. Not the Lord's Name only is declared in that Sion, but ''His praise," He saith, "in Jerusalem."
22. And howis it declared? "In the nations gathering together in one, and the kingdoms, that they may serve the Lord" (ver. 22). + How is this accomplished, unless by the blood of the slain? How accomplished, but by the groans of the fettered? Those therefore who were in tribulation and humility have been heard ; that in our times the Church might be in the great glory which we see her in, so that the very kingdoms which then persecuted her, now serve the Lord.
shall be loosed, and they shall fly away, and these very fetters shall afterwards be turned into an ornament. This hath happened with the martyrs. For what have the persecutors effected by killing them, except that their fetters were thereby loosed, and turned into crowns?. . . The remission of sins, is the loosing. For what would it have profited Lazarus, that he came forth from the tomb, unless it were said to him, "loose him, and let him go''??4 Himself indeed with His voice aroused him from the tomb, Himself restored his life by crying unto him, Himself overcame the mass of earth that was heaped upon the tomb, and he came forth bound hand and foot : not therefore with his own feet, but by the power of Him who drew him forth. This taketh place in the heart of the penitent: when thou hearest a man is sorry for his sins, he hath already come again to life; when thou hearest him by confessing 5 lay bare his conscience, he is already drawn forth from the tomb, but he is not as yet loosed. When is he loosed, and by whom is he loosed? " Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth,"
23. "She answered Him in the way of His strength" (ver. 23). . . . The preceding words show, that either "' His praise," or " Jerusalem," answered: for it was said, "'And His praise in Jerusalem; in the nations gathering together in one, and the kingdoms, that they may serve the Lord. Respondit e."' We cannot say, " the kingdoms answered," for he would have said responderunt. Respondit et. We cannot say, "the nations answered," for he would have said, vesponderunt (in the plural). Since then it is Respondit et, in the singular, we look for the singular number above, and find that the words, "' His praise," and ' Jerusalem,"' are the t 2 Cor. v. 17. 2 Ps, Ixxix, 11. 3 Eccles. vi. 24-32. 4 John xi. 44. 5 [Public confession, the ancient discipline. A. N. F. vol. iii. pp. 666, 667. —C.]
6 Matt. xv. 19. 7 [Note this distinction between what the Church may do in restoring to communion, and what Christ only can do in cleansing the conscience, — C. ]