Expositions on the Book of Psalms
168 THE' WORKS OF 'ST. AUGUSTIN. [PsaLmM XLVIIL the Lord for those Apostles only to whom He deigned to show Himself alive after His Resurrection, but for us also. For to them He spake, and signified us when He spake, " Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world." 4 Were they then to be here alway, even to the end of the world? Also He said, " Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word." 5 Therefore He considereth us, because He suffered on account of us. Justly then it is said, " That ye may tell it to the generation following."
death; for as death is most violent to take away, so love is most violent to save. Through love many have died to the world, to liye to God; by this love inflamed, the martyrs, not pretenders, not puffed up by vain-glory, not such as they of whom it is written, "Though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing," but men whom truly a love of Christ and of the truth led on to this passion ; what to them were the temptations of the tormentors? Greater violence had the eyes of their weeping friends, than the persecutions of enemies. For how many were held by their children, that they might not suffer? to how many did their wives fall upon their knees, that they might not be left widows? How many have their parents forbidden to die, as we know and read in the Passion of the Blessed Perpetua !? All this was done ; but tears, however great, and with whatever force flowing, when did they extinguish the ardour of love? This is the might of Sion, to whom elsewhere it is said, '' Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces." 3
14. Tell what? "For this is God, even our God" (ver. 13). The earth was seen, the earth's Creator was not seen; the flesh was held, God in the flesh was not acknowledged. For the flesh was held by those from whom had been taken the same flesh, for of the seed of Abraham was the Virgin Mary. At the flesh they stayed, the Divinity they did not understand. O Apostles, O mighty city, preach thou on the towers, and say, 'This is God, even our God." So, even so as He was despised, as He lay a stone before the feet of the stumbling, that He might humble the hearts of the confessing ; even so, "This is God, even our God." Certainly He was seen, as was said, " Afterward did He show Himself upon earth, and conversed with men." ® "This is God, even our God." He is also Man, and who is there will know Him? "This is God, even our God.' But haply for a time as the false gods. For because they can be called gods, but cannot be so, for a time they are even called so. For what saith the Prophet, or what warneth He to be said to them? 'This shall ye say to them, "The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from those that are under the heavens." 7 He is not such a god: for our God is above all gods. Above all what gods? "For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens." ® The same then is our God. "This is God, even our God." For how long? "For ever and ever: He shall rule us for ever." If He is our God, He is also our King. He protecteth us, being our God, lest we die; He ruleth us, being our King, lest we fall. But by ruling us He doth not break us; for whom He ruleth not, He breaketh. "Thou shalt rule them," saith He, "with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." 9 But there are whom He ruleth not; these He spareth not, as a potter's vessel dashing them in pieces. By Him then let us wish to be ruled and delivered, "for He is our God for ever and ever, and He shall rule us for ever."
13. What here understand we, "Set your hearts upon her might, and distribute her houses ''? That is, distinguish house from house. Do not confound. For there is a house having the form of godliness, and not having godliness ; but there is a house having both form and godliness. Distribute, confound not. But then ye distribute and confound not, when ye "set your hearts upon her might ;" that is, when through love ye are made spiritual. Then ye will not judge rashly, then ye will see that the evil harms not the good as long as we are in this floor. " Distribute her houses." There can be also another understanding. The two houses, one coming of the circumcision, one of the uncircumcision, it is commanded the Apostles to distribute. For when Saul was called, and made the Apostle Paul, agreeing in unity with his fellow Apostles, he so with them determined, that they should go to the circumcision, he to the uncircumcision. By that dispensation of their Apostleship, they distributed the houses of the city of the great King; and meeting in the corner, divided the Gospel in dispensation, in love united it. And truly this is rather to be understood ; for it followeth and showeth that it is here said to the preachers, " distribute her houses: that ye may tell it to the generation following: " that is, that even to us, who were to come after them, their dispensation of the Gospel should reach: For not for those only they laboured, with whom they lived in the earth ; nor
1 x Cor, xiii. 3. 2 Ruinart. Acta Martyrum, p. 86, which supports the reading adopted from the Oxford Mss. Ben. has, '' How many parents did their sons forbid." [See A. N. F. vol. iii., p. 700. —C. 3 Ps. cxxii. 7.
4 Matt. xxviii. 20, 5 John xvii. 20. © Baruch iii. 37. 7 Jerox.121, 8 Ps. xcvi. 5. 9 Ps. ii. 9.