Expositions on the Book of Psalms (continued)
594 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [Psatm CXXII.
livest, if thou believest: but if thou believest,|whom thou canst not comprehend, became for thou art made a temple of God; for the Apostle; thee. Remember the flesh of Christ, towards Paul saith, "The temple of God is holy, which | which thou wast raised when sick, and when left temple are ye."* 'This city is therefore now in| half dead from the wounds of robbers, that thou building ; stones are cut down from the hills by | mightest be brought to the Inn, and there mightthe hands of those who preach truth, they are|est be cured.° Let us therefore run unto the squared that they may enter into an everlasting | Lord's house, and reach the city where our feet structure. There are still many stones in the: may stand; the city " that is building as a city: hands of the Builder: let them not fall from His | whose partaking i is in The Same." hands, that they may be built perfect into the] 6. That city "which partaketh in the same,' structure of the temple. This, then, is the} | partaketh in its stability : justly therefore, since "Jerusalem that is being built as a city:" Christ | he is made a sharer in its stability, saith he who is its foundation. The Apostle Paul saith, "Other| runneth thither. For all things there stand foundation can no man lay than that is laid,|where nought passeth by. Dost thou too wish which is Christ Jesus." When a foundation is | to stand there and not to pass by? Run thither, laid on earth, the walls are built above, and the | Nobody hath "the same" from himself. . . . weight of the walls tends towards the lowest parts, 4. "For thither the tribes went up " (ver. 4). because the foundation is laid at the bottom. | We were asking whither he ascendeth who hath But if our foundation be in heaven, let us be | fallen; for we said, it is the voice of a man who built towards heaven. Bodies have built the | is ascending, of the Church rising. Can we tell edifice of this basilica,3 the ample size of which | whither it ascendeth? whither it goeth? whither ye see; and since bodies have built it, they | itis raised? '"Thither," he saith, "the tribes went placed the foundation lowest: but since we are |up." Whither? To "partaking in the Same." spiritually built, our foundation is placed at the | But what are the tribes? Many know, many highest point. Let us therefore run thither, |know not. For if we use the word "curies" in where we may be built. . . . But what Jerusalem |its proper sense, we understand nothing, save do I speak of? Is it that, he asketh, which ye | the "curies"' which exist in each particular city, see standing, raised on the structure of its walls? | whence the terms "curiales " and " decuriones,"' No; but the " Jerusalem which is being built as | that is, the citizens of a curia or a decuria ;' and a city." Why not, a city, instead .of, "as a|ye know that each city hath such curies. But city ;'' save because those walls, so built in Jeru- | there are, or were at one time, curies of the salem, were a visible city, as it is by all called a | people in those cities, and one city hath many city, literally ; but this is being built "as a city," | curies, as Rome hath thirty-five curies of the for they who enter it are like living stones; for | people.? These are called tribes. The people they are not literally stones? Just as they are! of Israel had twelve of these, according to the called stones, and yet are not so: so the city |sons of Jacob. styled "'as a city," is not a city; for he said,| 8. There were twelve tribes of the people of "is being built.' For by the word building, he ; Israel: but there were good, and there were bad meant to be understood the structure, and co-!among them. For how evil were those tribes hesion of bodies and walls. For a city+ is prop- | which crucified our Lord! How good those erly understood of the men that inhabit there.|who recognised the Lord! Those tribes then But in saying 'is building," he showed us that | who crucified the Lord, were tribes of the devil. he meant atown. And since a spiritual building | When therefore he here said, "For thither the hath some resemblance to a bodily building, ; tribes goup ;" that thou mightest not understand therefore it "is building as a city." all the tribes, he added, "even the tribes of the 5. But let the following words remove all, Lord.' . . . What are the tribes of the Lord? doubt that we ought not to understand carnally "A testimony unto Israel." Hear, brethren, the words, "' Whose partaking is in the same.'"5, what this meaneth. "A testimony to Israel: ". What meaneth, "the same"? What is that is, whereby it may be known that it is truly ever in the same state ; not what is now in one; Israel. . . . He is such in whom there is no state, now in another. What then is, "the! guile. And what did the Lord say, when He same,'' save that which is? What is that which'saw Nathanael? 'Behold an Israelite indeed, is? That which is everlasting. . . . Behold, in whom is no guile."® If therefore he is a true "The Same: I Am Tuat I Am, I AM." Thou) Israelite, in whom there is no guile, those tribes canst not understand ; it is much to understand, | go up to Jerusalem, in whom there is no guile. it is much to apprehend. Remember what He,
6 Luke x. 30, 34. 1 1 Cor. iii. 17. 2 x Cor. iii. 11. 7 Thirty, according to Liv. i. 13, Cic. De Ref. ii. 8; thirty-five 3 [Note this proof of the costly Christian architecture of this age. | afterwards, according to Sext. Pomp. in v. Curia, who seems to The Basilica, however, was originally an imperial court turned into | confound them with the " Tribes," See Pollet, Hist. For. Rom. in a church. Cy [ive Supplem. t. i. p. 516. 4 Civitas. 5 In id ipsum. 8 John i. 47.