Expositions on the Book of Psalms (continued)
THE WORKS°OF SIVAUGUSTIN. [Psatm CXLVII. eth like morsels of bread.'"? What meaneth this? They were too hard, no longer fit to be compared to snow, but to crystal; but they too are predestinated and called, and some of them even so as to feed others, to be useful to others also. And what need is there to enumerate many, whom we happen to know, this one and that one? Every one when he thinks can recall to mind how hardened and obstinate some of those whom he knows have been, how they have struggled against the truth; yet now they preach the truth, they have been made morsels of bread. Who is that one Bread? "We being many," saith the Apostle, "are one Body in Christ ;"? he saith also, ' we being many are one Bread and one Body.''?. If then the whole Body of Christ isone Bread, the members of Christ are morsels of Bread. Of some that are hard He maketh members of Himself, and useful for feeding others. . . . Behold, the Apostle Paul was a crystal, hard, resisting the truth, crying out against the Gospel, hardening himself, as it were, against the sun. . . . Since then he was crystal, he appeared clear and white, but he was hard and very cold. How was he bright and white? 'An Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee."" Behold the brightness of crystal. Now hear the hardness of crystal. '* As touching zeal, persecuting the Church "'3 of Christ. Among the stoners of the holy martyr Stephen, was he, hard, perhaps harder than all. 'For he kept the raiment of all who were stoning," 4 so that he stoned by the hands of all.
That mist findeth safety in repentance: for, ""whom He predestinated, them He also called." But even though they be the very hardest among the predestinated, though they have been for a long time hardening, and are become crystal, they will not be hard to the mercy of God. "He shall send out His Word, and melt them." What is " melt'? Understand not "melt"? in an ill sense: it meaneth, He shall liquefy, He shall thaw them. For they are hard through pride. Rightly is pride called also dulness: for whatever is dull, is also cold.... Despair not even of the crystal. Hear a saying of the crystal. 'Who before was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious.""® But wherefore doth God melt the crystal? That the snow despair not of itself. For he saith, '" For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them that hereafter should believe on Him unto eternal life."? God then calleth unto the Gentiles, "Be melted, O crystal; come, ye snows." "His Spirit shall blow, and the waters shall flow." Lo, the " crystal" and the "snows "' are melted, they turn into water, "let them that thirst, come and drink.''® Saul, hard as crystal, 'persecuted Stephen unto death; Paul, now in the living water,? calleth the Gentiles to the Fount.' sc. 28. " Announcing His Word unto Jacob, His Righteousnesses and Judgments unto Israel" (ver. 19). What " Righteousnesses," what " Judgments"? Because whatever mankind had suffered here before, when it was "snow" and " mist" and "crystal," it suffered for the deserts of its pride and uplifting against God. Let us go back to the origin of our fall, and see that most truly is it sung in 'the Psalm, " Before I was troubled I went wrong.' '° But he who says, "Before I was troubled I went wrong," saith also, "It is good for me that Thou hast humbled me, that I may learn Thy Righteousnesses." '' These righteousnesses Jacob learnt from God, who made him to wrestle with an Angel ; under the guise of which Angel, God Himself wrestled with him. He held Him, he exerted violence to hold Him, he prevailed to hold Him: He caused Himself to be held, in mercy, not in weakness. Jacob therefore wrestled, and prevailed: he held Him, and when he seemed to have conquered Him, asked to be blessed of Him.'? How did he understand with Whom he had wrestled, Whom he had held? Wherefore did he wrestle violently, and hold Him? Because "the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force." 13. Wherefore then did he wrestle ? Because it is with toil. Wherefore do we with
27. Thus then we see " the snow, the mist, the crystal :"' it is good that He blow and thaw them. For if He blow not, if He Himself thaw not the hardness of this ice, "in the face of His cold who shall stand?" He abandoneth a sinner, behold, He calleth him not ; behold, He openeth not his perception; behold, He poureth not in grace ; let the man thaw himself, if he can, from the ice of folly. He cannot. Wherefore can he not? "In the face of His cold who shall stand?"' Behold him then growing harder, and saying, ''O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Behold, I am growing cold, behold, I am growing hard, what heat shall thaw me that I may run? "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' "In the face of His cold who shall stand?'' And who shall free himself, if God abandon him? Who is it that freeth? 'The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." 5 Are we then to despair? God forbid. For it goeth on, "He shall send out His Word, and melt them" (ver. 18). Let not then the snow despair, nor the mist, nor the crystal. For of the snow, as of wool, a garment is being made.
7 x Tim. i, 16, TOPs exixe 67. Osx Dims teers 9 John iv. 14. 12 Gen, xxxil. 24, etc.
8 John vii. 37.
2 x Cor. x. 17. 3 Philip. iii. 5, 6. 5 Rom. vii. 24, 25. I Rom. xii. 5. 4 Acts xxii. 20.
TIS Ps, xix. 77. 13 Matt. xi. 12.