licked, and who longed for the crumbs which fell from his table. What did those riches profit him? Both changed places: the one was borne from the rich man's gate into Abraham's bosom, the other from his rich feasts was cast into the fire; the one was in peace, the other burned; the one was sated, the other thirsted; the one had laboured till the end, but he lived for ever; the other had lived till the end, but he laboured for ever. And what did it profit the rich man, who asked, while lying in torments in hell, that a drop of water should be poured upon his tongue from the finger of Lazarus, saying, " For I am burning here in this flame," 3 and it was not granted to him? One longed for the drop from the finger, as the other had for the crumbs from the rich man's table; but the labour of the one is ended, and the life of the other is ended: the labour of this is for ever, the life of that is for ever. We who labour perchance here on the earth, have not our life here: and shall not be so placed hereafter, for our life shall be Christ for ever: while they who " will " have their life here, shall labour for ever and live till the end.
11." For he shall not see death, though he shall have seen wise men dying " (ver. 10). The man who laboured for ever and shall live till the end, " shall not see death, though he shall have seen wise men dying." What is this? He shall not comprehend what death is, whenever he shall have seen wise men dying. For he saith to himself, " this fellow, for all he was wise and 1 Soli sunt isti. 2 Luke xvi. 19. 3 Luke xvi. 34.
dwelled with wisdom and worshipped God with piety, is he not dead? Therefore I will enjoy myself while I live; for if they that are wise in other respects, could do anything, they would not have died." Just as the Jews saw Christ hanging on the Cross and despised Him, saying, " If this Man were the Son of God, He would come down from the Cross:" * not seeing what death is. If they had seen what death is; if they had seen, I say.5 He died for a time, that He might live again for ever: they lived for a time, that they might die for ever. But because they saw Him dying, they saw not death, that is to say, they understood not what was very death. What say 'they even in Wisdom? " Let us con- demn Him with a most shameful death, for by His own sayings He shall be respected; " 5 for if he is indeed the Son of God, He will deliver Him from the hands of His adversaries: He will not suffer His Son to die, if He is truly His Son. But when they saw themselves insulting Him upon the Cross, and Him not descending from the Cross, they said, He was indeed but a Man. Thus was it spoken: and surely He could have come down from the Cross, He that could rise again from the tomb: but He taught us to bear with those who insult us; He taught us to be patient of the tongues of men, to drink now the cup of bitterness, and afterwards to receive everlasting salvation...
12. "The imprudent and unwise shall perish together." Who is " the imprudent "? He that looketh not out for himself for the future. Who is " the unwise "? He that perceiveth not in what evil case he is. But do thou perceive in what evil case thou art now, and look out that thou be in a good case for the future. By per- ceiving in what evil case thou art, thou wilt not be unwise: by looking out for thyself for the future, thou wilt not be imprudent. Who is he that looketh out for himself? That servant to whom his master gave what he should expend, and afterwards said to him, " Thou canst not be my steward, give an account of thy steward- ship; " and who answered, " What shall I do? I cannot dig, to beg I am ashamed; " 7 had, never- theless, by even his master's goods made to him- self friends, who might receive him when he was put out of his stewardship. Now he cheated his master in order that he might get to himself friends to receive him: fear not thou lest thou be cheating, the Lord Himself exhorteth thee to do so: He saith Himself to thee, " Make to thy- self friends of the mammon of unrighteousness."8 Perhaps what thou hast got, thou hast gotten of * Matt, xxvii. 40, 42. 5 Al. " if they had seen themselves."
6 Wisd. ii. 20. [The Jews, even in their own book of Wisdom, show what they did to " the Just One." The whole passage is so remarkable, that we need not wonder at the esteem in which this book was held by the Fathers. St. James (v. 6) seems to refer to this passage. — C.J 1 Luke xvi. 1, 2, etc. B Luke xvi. 9.
Psalm XLIX.]
ON THE PSALMS.
173 unrighteousness: or perhaps this very thing is unrighteousness, that thou hast and another hath not, thou aboundest and another needeth. Of this mammon of unrighteousness, of these riches which the unrighteous call riches, make to thy- self friends, and thou shalt be prudent: thou art gaining for thyself, and art not cheating. For now thou seemest to lose it. Wilt thou lose it if thou place it in a treasury? For boys, my brethren, no sooner find some money, wherewith to buy something, than they put it in a money- box,' which they open not until afterwards: do they, because they see not what they have got, on that account lose it? Fear not: boys put in a money-box, and are secure: dost thou place it in the hand of Christ, and fear? Be prudent, and provide for thyself against the future in Heaven. Be therefore prudent, copy the ant, as saith the Scripture: 3 " Store in summer, lest thou hunger in winter; " the winter is the last day, the day of tribulation; the winter is the day of offences and of bitterness: gather what may be there for thee for the future: but if thou doest not so, thou wilt perish both imprudent and un- wise.
13. But that rich man3 too died, and a like funeral was made for him. See to what men have brought themselves: they regard not what a wicked life he led while he lived, but what pomp followed him when he died! O happy he, whom so many lament! But the other lived in such sort, that few lament. For all ought to lament a man living so sadly. But there is the funeral train; he is received in a costly tomb, he is wound in costly robes, he is buried in per- fumes and spices. Secondly, what a monument he hath! How marbled! Doth he live in that same monument? He is therein dead. Men deeming these to be good things, have strayed from God, and have not sought the true good things, and have been deceived with the false. To this end see what followeth. He who gave not the price of the redemption of his soul, who understood not death, because he saw wise men dying, he became imprudent and unwise, in order that he might die with them. And how shall they perish, who " shall leave their riches to aliens"?...
14. But do those same aliens indeed serve them who are called their own? Hear in what they serve them, observe how they are ridiculed: why hath he said, " to strangers "? Because they can do them no good. Nevertheless, wherein do they seem to themselves to do good? " And their tombs shall be their house for ever" ( ver. n). Now because these tombs are erected, the tombs are a house. For often thou hearest a rich man saying, I have a house of marble 1 Thcsaurario. 3 Prov. vi. 8, xxx. 2$. 3 Luke xvi. aa.
which I must quit, and I think not for myself of an eternal house, where I shall alway be. When he thinketh to make for himself a monument of marble or of sculpture, he is deeming as it were of an eternal house: as if therein this rich man would abide! If he would abide there, he would not burn in hell. We must consider that the place where the spirit of an evil doer abideth, is not where the mortal body is laid: but " their tombs shall be their house for ever. Their dwell- ing places are from generation to generation." " Dwelling places " are wherein they abode for a season: " house " is wherein they will abide as it were for ever, that is to say, their tombs. Thus they leave their dwelling places, where they abode while they lived, to their families, and they pass as it were to everlasting houses, to their tombs. What profit to them are " their dwelling places, from generation to generation "? Now suppose a generation and generation are sons, grandsons there will be, and great grandsons; what do their dwelling places, what do they profit them? What? Hear: " they shall invoke their names in their lands." What is this? They shall take bread and wine to their tombs, and there they shall invoke the names of the dead.
Dost thou consider how loudly was invoked the name of the rich man after his death, when men drank them drunk at his monument, and there came down not one drop upon his own burning tongue? Men minister to their own belly, not to the ghosts of their friends. The souls of the dead nothing doth reach, but what they have done of themselves while alive: but if they have done nought of themselves while alive, nothing doth reach them dead. But what do the survivors? They will but " invoke their names in their lands."
15. " And man though he was in honour per- ceived not, he was compared to the beasts with- out sense, and was made like to them " (ver. 12)...They ought, on the contrary, to have made ready for themselves an eternal house in good works, to have made ready for themselves ever- lasting life, to have sent before them expenditure, to have followed their works, to have ministered to a needy companion, to have given to him with whom they were walking, not to have despised Christ covered with sores before their gate, who hath said, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me."4 However, "man being in honour hath not understood." What is, " being in honour "? Being made after the image and likeness of God, man is preferred to beasts. For God hath not so made man as He made a beast: but God hath made man for beasts to minister to: is it to his strength then, and not to his * Matt. xxv. 40.
174 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Psalm XL1X.
understanding? Nay. But he "understood not; " and he who was made after the image of God, " is compared to the beasts without sense, and is made like unto them." Whence it is said elsewhere, " Be ye not like to horse and mule, in which there is no understanding." ' 1 6. "This their own way is an offence to them " (ver. 13). Be it an offence to them, not to thee. But when will it be so to thee too? If thou thinkest such men to be blessed. If thou perceivest that they be not blessed, their own way will be an offence to themselves; not to Christ, not to His Body, not to His members. " And afterwards they shall bless with their mouth." What meaneth, " Afterwards they shall bless with their mouth "? Though they have become such, that they seek nothing but temporal goods, yet they become hypocrites: and when they bless God, with lips they bless, and not with heart. Christians like these, when to them eternal life is commended, and they are told, that in the name of Christ they ought to be despisers 2 of riches, do make grimaces in their hearts: and if they dare not do it with open face, lest they blush, or lest they should be rebuked by men, yet they do it in heart, and scorn; and there remaineth in their mouth blessing, and in their heart cursing.
The Second Part.
I. "Like sheep laid in hell, death is their shepherd" (ver. 14). Whose? Of those whose way is a stumbling-block to themselves. Whose? Of those who mind only things present, while they think not of things future: of those who think not of any life, but of that which must be called death. Not without cause, then, like sheep in hell, have they death to their shepherd. What meaneth, " they have death to their shep- herd "? For is death either some thing or some power? Yea, death is either the separation of the soul from the body, or a separation of the soul from God,3 and that indeed which men fear is the separation of the soul from the body: but the real death, which men do not fear, is the separation of the soul from God. And ofttimes when men fear that which doth separate the soul from the body, they fall into that wherein the soul is separated from God. This then is death. But how is " death their shepherd "? If Christ is life, the devil is death. But we read in many places in Scripture, how that Christ is life. But the devil is death, not because he is himself death, but because through him is death. For whether that (death) wherein Adam fell was given man to drink by the persuasion of him: or whether that wherein the soul is separated from the body, still they have him for the author thereof, who first falling through pride envied him who stood, 1 Ps. xxxii. 9. 3 Oxf. mss. add, ' 2 Most MSS. " there should be a despising." or a separation of the soul from God."
and overthrew him who stood with an invisible death, in order that he might have to pay 4 the visible death. They who belong to him have death to their shepherd: but we who think of future immortality, and not without reason do wear the sign of the Cross of Christ on the fore- head, have no shepherd but life. Of unbelievers death is the shepherd, of believers life is the shep- herd. If then in hell are the sheep, whose shepherd is death, in heaven are the sheep, whose shepherd is life. What then? Are we now in heaven? In heaven we are by faith. For if not in heaven, where is the " Lift up your heart "? If not in heaven, whence with the Apostle Paul, " For our conversation is in heaven "? 5 In body we walk on earth, in heart we dwell in heaven. We dwell there, if thither we send anything which holdeth us there. For no one dwelleth in heart, save where thought is: but there his thought is, where his treasure is. He hath treasured on earth, his heart doth not withdraw from earth: he hath treasured in heaven, his heart from heaven doth not come down: for the Lord saith plainly, " Where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also." 6 2. They, then, whose shepherd is death, seem to flourish for a time, and the righteous to labour: but why? Because it is yet night. What mean- eth, it is night? The merits of the righteous ap- pear not, and the felicity of the unrighteous hath, as it were, a name. So long as it is winter, grass appeareth more verdant than a tree. For grass fiourisheth through the winter, a tree is as it were dry through the winter: when in summer time the sun hath come forth with greater heat, the tree, which seemed dry through the winter, is bursting with leaves, and putteth forth fruits, but the grass withereth: thou wilt see the honour of the tree, the grass is dried. So also now the righteous labour, before that summer cometh. There is life in the root, it doth not yet appear in the branches. But our root is love. And what saith the Apostle? That we ought to have our root above, in order that life may be our shepherd, because our dwelling ought not to quit heaven, because in this earth we ought to walk as if dead; so that living above, below we may be dead; not so as that being dead above, we may live below...Our labour shall appear in the morning, and there shall be fruit in the morning: so that they that now labour shall hereafter reign, and they that now boast them and are proud, shall hereafter be brought under. For what fol- lowed!? " Like sheep laid in hell, death is their shepherd; and the righteous shall reign over them in the morning."
3. Endure thou the night, yearn for the morning. Think not because the night hath * Al. '* destroy him with the visible death." 5 Philip, in. 20. 6 Matt. vt. ta.
Psalm XLIX.]
ON THE PSALMS.
175 life, the morning too hath not life. Doth then he that sleepeth live, and he that riseth live not? Is not he that sleepeth more like death? r And who are they that sleep? They whom the Apostle Paul rouseth, if they choose but to awake. For to certain he saith, " Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." 2 They then that are lightened by Christ watch now, but the fruit of their watchings appeareth not yet: in the morn- ing it shall appear, that is, when doubtful things of this world shall have passed away. For these are very night: for do they not appear to thee like darkness?...But they on whom men have trampled, and who were ridiculed for be- lieving, shall hear from Life Itself, whom they have for shepherd, " Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Therefore the righteous " shall reign over them," not now, but " in the morning." Let no one say, Wherefore am I a Christian? I rule no one,3 I would rule the wicked. Be not in haste, thou shalt reign, but " in the morning." " And the help of them shall grow old in hell from their glory." Now they have glory, in hell they shall grow old. What is " the help of them "? Help from money, help from friends, help from their own might. But when a man shall be dead, "in that day shall perish all his thoughts."4 How great glory he seemed to have among men, while he lived, so great oldness and decay of punishments shall he have, when he shall be dead in hell.
4. " Nevertheless, God shall redeem my soul " (ver. 15). Behold the voice of one hoping in the future: " Nevertheless, God shall redeem my soul." s Perhaps it is the voice of one still wishing to be relieved from oppression. Some one is in prison, he saith, " God shall redeem my soul: " some one is in bond, " God shall redeem my soul: " some one is suffering peril by sea, is being tossed by waves and raging tempests, what saith he? " God shall redeem my soul." They would be delivered for the sake of this life. Not such is the voice of this man. Hear what followeth: " God shall redeem my soul from the hand of hell, when He shall have received me." He is speaking of this redemption, which Christ now showeth in Him- self. For He hath descended into hell, and hath ascended into heaven. What we have seen in the Head we have found in the Body. For what we have believed in the Head, they that have seen, have themselves told us, and by themselves we have seen: " For we are " all 1 Or, " a dead person."
2 Eph. v. 14.
3 Most mss. omit, " I rule no one." See Ser. 72, ad. Fr. in Erem. * Ps. cxlvi. 4. 5 [Compare vcr. 7, p. 171, supra. — CJ " one body." 6 But are they better that hear., we worse to whom it hath been told? Not so saith The Life Itself, Our Shepherd Himself. For He rebuketh a certain disciple of His, doubting and desiring to handle His scars, and when he had handled the scars and had cried out, saying, " My Lord and my God,"? seeing His disciple doubting, and looking to the whole world about to believe, " Because thou hast seen Me," He saith, " thou hast believed: blessed are they that see not, and believe." " But God shall re- deem my soul from the land of hell, when He hath received me." Here then what? Labour, oppression, tribulation, temptation: expect noth- ing else. Where joy? In future hope...
5...Perchance thy heart saith, Wretch that I am, I suppose to no purpose I have be- lieved, God doth not regard things human. God therefore doth awaken us: and He saith what? " Fear not, though a man have become rich " (ver. 16). For why didst thou fear, because a man hath become rich? Thou didst fear that thou hadst believed to no purpose, that per- chance thou shouldest have lost the labour for thy faith, and the hope of thy conversion: be- cause perchance there hath come in thy way gain with guilt, and thou couldest have been rich, if thou hadst seized upon that same gain with the guilt, and neededst not have laboured; and thou, remembering what God hath threatened, hast refrained from guilt, and hast contemned the gain: thou seest another man that hath made gain by guilt, and hath suffered no harm; and thou fearest to be good. " Fear not," saith the Spirit of God to thee, " though a man shall have become rich." Wouldest thou not have eyes but for things present? Things future He hath promised, who hath risen again; peace in this world, and repose in this life, He hath not promised. Every man doth seek repose; a good thing he is seeking, but not in the proper region thereof he is seeking it. There is no peace in this life; in Heaven hath been prom- ised that which on earth we are seeking: in the world to come hath been promised that which in this world we are seeking.
6. " Fear not, though a man be made rich, and though the glory of his house be multi- plied." Wherefore "fear not"? "For when he shall die, he shall not receive anything " (ver. 17). Thou seest him living, consider him dying. Thou markest what he hath here, mark what he taketh with him. What doth he take with him? He hath store of gold, he hath store of silver, numerous estates, slaves: he dieth, these remain, he knoweth not for whom. For though he leaveth them for whom he will, he keepeth them not for whom he will. For many 6 Rom. xii. 5.
7 John xx. 28.
176 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Psalm XLIX.
have gained even what was not left them, and many have lost what was left them. All these things then remain, and he taketh with him what? Perhaps some one saith, He taketh that with him in which he is wound, and that which is expended upon him for a costly and marble tomb, to erect a monument, this he taketh with him. I say, not even this. For these things are presented to him without his feeling them. If thou deckest a man sleeping and not awake, he hath the decorations with him on the couch: perhaps the decorations are resting upon the body of him as he lieth, and perhaps he seeth himself in tatters during sleep. What he feeleth is more to him than what he feeleth not. Though even this when he shall have awaked will not be: yet to him sleeping, that which he saw in sleep was more than that which he felt not. Why then, brethren, should ' men say to themselves, Let money be spent at my death: why do I leave my heirs rich? Many things will they have of mine, let me too have some- thing of my own for my body. What shall a dead body have? what shall rotting flesh have? what shall flesh not feeling have? If that rich man had anything, whose tongue was dry, then man hath something of his own. My brethren,