ing: to the rock it is said to adhere with roots. Thence in a mystery the similitude of cleansing the heart has been taken. Do thou also take hold, with ' the root of thy love, on thy Rock: be humble in thy humble God, in order that thou mayest be exalted in thy glorified God. Thou shalt be sprinkled with hyssop, the humility of Ghrist shall cleanse thee. Despise not the herb, attend to the efficacy of the medicine. Something further I will say, which we are wont to hear from physicians, or to experience in sick persons. Hyssop, they say, is proper for purging the lungs. In the lung is wont to be noted pride: for there is inflation, there breathing. It was said of Saul the persecutor as of Saul the proud, that he was going to bind Christians, breathing slaughter: 2 he was breathing out slaughter, breathing out blood, his lung not yet cleansed. Hear also in this place one humbled, because with hyssop purged: " Thou shalt wash me," that is, shalt cleanse me: " and above snow I shall be whitened." " Although," he saith, " your sins shall have been like scarlet, like snow I will whiten." 3 Out of such men Christ doth present to Himself a vesture without spot and wrinkle.4 Further, His vesture on the mount, which shone forth like whitened snow,' signified the Church cleansed from every spot of sin.
13. But where is humility from hyssop? Hear what followeth: " To my hearing Thou shalt give exultation and gladness, and bones hum- bled shall exult " (ver. 8). I will rejoice in hear- ing Thee, not in speaking against Thee. Thou hast sinned, why defendest thou thyself? Thou wilt speak: suffer thou; hear, yield to divine words, lest thou be put to confusion, and be still more wounded: sin hath been committed, be it not defended: to confession let it come, not to defence. Thou engagest thyself as defender of thy sin, thou art conquered: no innocent patron hast thou engaged, thy defence is not profitable to thee. For who art thou that defendest thy- self? Thou art meet to accuse thyself. Say not, either, " I have done nothing; " or, " What great thing have I done?" or, "Other men as well have done." If in doing sin thou sayest thou hast done nothing, thou wilt be nothing, thou wilt receive nothing: God is ready to give in- dulgence, thou closest the door against thyself: He is ready to give, do not oppose the bar of defence, but open the bosom of confession. " To my hearing Thou shalt give exultation and gladness."...
14. "Turn Thou away Thy face from my sins, and all mine iniquities blot out " (ver. 9). For now bones humbled exult, now with hyssop cleansed, humble I have become. " Turn Thou away Thy face," not from me, but " from my * Oxf. mss. radice.
* Eph. v. 27.
2 Acts ix. 1. » Matt. xvii. a.
> Isa. i. 18 sins." For in another place praying he saith, "Turn not away Thy face from me."6 He that would not that God's face be turned away from himself, would that God's face be turned away from his sins. For to sin, when God turneth not Himself away, he adverteth: if he adverteth, he animadverteth. " And all mine iniquities blot out." He is busied ' with that capital sin: he reckoneth on more, he would have all his iniquities to be blotted out: he re- lieth on the Physician's hand, on that " great mercy," upon which he hath called in the begin- ning of the Psalm: " All mine iniquities blot out." God turneth away His face, and so blot- teth out; by " turning away " His face, sins He blotteth out. By " turning towards," He writeth them. Thou hast heard of Him blotting out by turning away, hear of Him by turning towards, doing what? "But the countenance of the Lord is upon men doing evil things, that He may de- stroy from the earth the remembrance of them: " 8 He shall destroy the remembrance of them,? not by " blotting out their sins." But here he doth ask what? " Turn away Thy face from my siris." Well he asketh. For he himself doth not turn away his face from his own sins, saying, " For my sin I acknowledge." With reason thou askest and well askest, that God turn away from thy sin, if thou from thence dost not turn away thy face: but if thou settest thy sin at thy back, God doth there set His face. Do thou turn sin before thy face, if thou wilt that God thence turn away His face; and then safely thou askest, and He heareth.
15. "A clean heart create in me, O God" (ver. 10). " Create " — he meant '° to say, " as it were begin something new." But, because re- pentant he was praying (that had committed some sin, which before he had committed, he was more innocent), after what manner he hath said " create " he showeth. " And a right spirit renew in my inner parts." By my doing, he saith, the uprightness of my spirit hath been made old and bowed. For he saith in another Psalm, "They have bowed mysoul." " And when a man doth make himself stoop unto earthly lusts, he is " bowed " in a manner, but when he is made erect for things above, upright is his heart made, in order that God may be good to him. For, " How good is the God of Israel to the upright of heart! " " Moreover, brethren, listen. Sometimes God in this world chastis- eth for his sin him that He pardoneth in the world to come. For even to David himself, to whom it had been already said by the Prophet, 6 Ps. xxvii. 9.
7 Satagit. Oxf. MSS. Sattgit, " he hath done enough for."
8 Ps. xxxiv. 16.
9 Oxf. MSS. add, perdet de terrA memoriam eorum.
10 So mss. Hen. " He meant not," but " as it were " seems to meet the difficulty.
« Pi. lvii. 6. " Ps. lxxiii. I.
Psalm LI.]
ON THE PSALMS.
195 " Thy sin is put away," ' there happened certain things which God had threatened for that very sin.2 For his son Abessalom against him waged bloody war, and many ways humbled his father.3 He was walking in grief, in the tribulation of his humiliation, so resigned to God, that, ascribing to Him all that was just, he confessed that he was suffering nothing undeservedly, having now an heart upright, to which God was not displeas- ing. A slanderous person and one throwing in his teeth harsh curses 4 he patiently heard, one of the soldiers on the opposite side, that were with his unnatural son. And when he was heap- ing curses upon the king, one of the companions of David, enraged, would have gone and smitten him; but he is kept back by David. And he is kept back how? For that he said, God sent him to curse me. Acknowledging his guilt he embraced his penance, seeking glory not his own, praising the Lord in that good which he had, praising the Lord in that which he was suffer- ing, " blessing the Lord alway, ever His praise was in his mouth." s Such are all the upright in heart: not those crooked persons who think themselves upright and God crooked: who when they do any evil thing, rejoice; when they suffer any evil thing, blaspheme; nay, if set in tribu- lation and scourging, they say from their dis- torted heart, " O God, what have I done to Thee?" Truly it is because they have done nothing to God, for they have done all to them- selves. " And an upright spirit, renew in my inner parts."
16. "Cast me not forth from Thy face" (ver. 11). Turn away Thy face from my sins: and " cast me not forth from Thy face." Whose face he feareth, upon the face of the Same he calleth. " And Thy Holy Spirit take not away from me." For in one confessing there is the Holy Spirit. Even now, to the gift of the Holy Spirit it belongeth, that what thou hast done dis- pleaseth thee. The unclean spirit sins do please; the Holy One they displease. Though then thou still implore pardon, yet thou art joined to God on the other part, because the evil thing that thou hast committed displeaseth thee: for the same thing displeaseth both thee and Him. Now, to assail thy fever, ye are two, thou and the Physician. For the reason that there cannot be confession of sin and punishment of sin in a man of himself: when one is angry with him- self, and is displeasing to himself, then it is not without the gift of the Holy Spirit, nor doth he say, Thy Holy Spirit give to me, but, " Take not away from me."
1 7. " Give back to me the exultation of Thy salvation"6 (ver. 12). "Give back" what I had; what by sinning I had lost: to wit, of Thy Christ. For who without Him can be made whole? Because even before that He was Son of Mary, " In the beginning He was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; " ' and so, by the holy fathers a future dis- pensation of flesh taken upon Him, was looked for; 8 as is believed by us to have been done. Times are changed, not faith. "And with Prin- cipal Spirit confirm me." Some have here understood the Trinity in God, Itself God; the dispensation of Flesh being excepted therefrom: since it is written, " God is a Spirit." 9 For that which is not body, and yet is, seemeth to exist in such sort as that it is spirit. Therefore some understand here the Trinity spoken of: " In upright Spirit," the Son; in " Holy Spirit," Holy Ghost; in " Principal Spirit," Father.10 It is not any heretical opinion, therefore, whether this be so, or whether " upright Spirit " He would have to be taken of man himself (when He saith, "An upright spirit renew in my inner parts"), which I have bowed and distorted by sinning, so that in that case the Holy Spirit be Himself the Principal Spirit: which also he would not have to be taken away from him, and thereby would have himself to be confirmed therein.
18. But see what he annexeth: "With Prin- cipal Spirit," he saith, " confirm Thou me." Wherein " confirm "? Because Thou hast par- doned me, because I am secure, that what Thou hast forgiven is not to be ascribed, on this being made secure and with this grace confirmed, therefore I am not ungrateful. But I shall do what? "I would teach unrighteous men Thy ways" (ver. 13). Being myself of the un- righteous " (that is, one that was myself an unrighteous man, now no longer unrighteous; the Holy Spirit not having been taken away from me, and I being confirmed with Principal Spirit). " I would teach unrighteous men Thy ways." What ways wilt thou teach unrighteous men? "And ungodly men to Thee shall be converted." If David's sin is counted for ungodliness, let not ungodly men despair of themselves, foras- much as God hath spared an ungodly man; but let them take heed that to Him they be converted, that His ways they learn. But if David's deed is not counted for ungodliness, but this is properly call ungodliness, namely, to apos- tatize from God, not to worship one God, or never to have worshipped, or to have forsaken, Him whom one did worship, then what he saith hath the force of superabundance, "And un- godly men shall to Thee be converted." So full art thou of the fatness of mercy, that for those converted to Thee, not only sinners of any 10 Jerome on the Epist. to Gal. iv. 6.
11 Ex iniquo. Oxf. MSS. ex iniquus.
9 John iv. 24.
i g6 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Psalm LI.
sort, but even ungodly, there is no cause for despair. Wherefore? That believing on Him that justifieth an ungodly man, their faith may be counted for righteousness.'
19. " Deliver me from bloods, O God, God of my health" (ver. 14). The Latin translator hath expressed, though by a word not Latin, yet an accuracy from the Greek.2 For we all know that in Latin, sanguines (bloods) are not spoken of, nor yet sanguiria (bloods in the neuter), never- theless because the Greek translator hath thus used the plural number, not without reason, but because he found this in the original language the Hebrew, a godly translator hath preferred to use a word not Latin, rather than one not exact. Wherefore then hath he said in the plural num- ber, " From bloods "? In many bloods, as in the origin of the sinful flesh, many sins he would have to be understood. The Apostle having re- gard to the very sins which come of the corrup- tion of flesh and blood, saith, " Flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God." J For doubtless, after the true faith of the same Apostle, that flesh shall rise again and shall itself gain in- corruption, as He saith Himself, " This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality." * Because then this corruption is of sin, by the name thereof sins are called. In like manner as both that morsel of flesh and member which playeth in the mouth when we articulate words is called a tongue, and that is called a -tongue which by the tongue is made, so we call one tongue the Greek, another the Latin; for the flesh is not diverse, but the sound. In the same manner, then, as the speech which is made by the tongue is called a tongue; so also the iniquity which is made by blood is called blood. Heeding, then, his many iniquities, as 5 in the expression above,6 " And all my iniquities blot out," and ascribing them to the corruption of flesh and blood, " Free me," he saith, " from bloods: " that is, free me from iniquities, cleanse me from all corruption...Not yet is the substance, but certain hope. " And my tongue shall exult of Thy righteousness."
20. " O Lord, my lips Thou shalt open, and my mouth shall tell of Thy praise" (ver. 15). " Thy praise," because 7 I have been created: " Thy praise," because sinning I have not been forsaken: " Thy praise," because I have been ad- monished to confess: " Thy praise," because in order that I might be secured I have been cleansed.
21. " Because if Thou hadst willed sacrifice, I would have given it surely" (ver. 16). David was living at that time when sacrifices of victim animals were offered to God, and he saw these ' Rom. iv. 5. a [t£ nluaTuiv, Sept. — C] * 1 Cor. xv. 53. * Some MS*, vt. 7 Most mss. whereby" throughout.
times that were to be. Do we not perceive our- selves in these words? Those sacrifices were figurative, foretelling the One Saving Sacrifice. Not even we have been left without a Sacrifice to offer to God. For hear what he saith, having a concern for his sin, and wishing the evil thing which he hath done to be forgiven him: " If Thou hadst willed)" he saith, " sacrifice, I would have given it surely. With holocausts Thou wilt not be delighted." Nothing shall we there- fore offer? So shall we come to God? And whence shall we propitiate Him? Offer; cer- tainly in thyself thou hast what thou mayest offer. Do not from without fetch frankincense,8 but say, " In me are, O God, Thy vows, which I will render of praise to Thee." » Do not from without seek cattle to slay, thou hast in thyself what thou mayest kill. " Sacrifice to God is a spirit trou- bled, a heart contrite and humbled God despiseth not" (ver. 17). Utterly he despiseth bull, he- goat, ram: now is not the time that these should be offered. They were offered when they indi- cated something, when they promised something; when the things promised come, the promises are taken away. " A heart contrite and humbled God despiseth not." Ye know that God is high: if thou shalt have made thyself high, He will be from thee; if thou shalt have humbled thyself, He will draw near to thee.
22. See who this is: David as one man was seeming to implore; see ye here our image and the type of the Church.
" Deal kindly, O Lord, in Thy good will with Sion " (ver. 18). With this Sion deal kindly. What is Sion? A city holy. What is a city holy? That which cannot be hidden, being upon a mountain established. Sion in prospect, because it hath prospect of something which it hopeth for. For Sion is interpreted " prospect," and Jerusalem, " vision of peace." Ye perceive then yourselves to be in Sion and in Jerusalem, if being sure ye look for hope that is to be, and if ye have peace with God. " And be the walls of Jerusalem builded." "Deal kindly, O Lord, in Thy good will with Sion, and be the walls of Jerusalem builded." For not to herself let Sion ascribe her merits: do Thou with her deal kindly, " Be the walls of Jerusalem builded: " be the battlements of our immortality laid, in faith and hope and charity.
23. "Then Thou shalt accept the sacrifice of righteousness" (ver. 19). But now sacrifice for iniquity, to wit, a spirit troubled, and a heart humbled; then the sacrifice of righteousness, praises alone. For, " Blessed they that dwell in Thy house, for ever and ever they shall praise Thee: " '° for this is the sacrifice of righteousness.
• [So Lactantius, A. N. F. vol. vii. p. 193, note 1, and the whole chapter. — C] 9 Ps. lvi. 13.,0 Ps. Ixxxiv. 4.
Psalm LII.]
ON THE PSALMS.
197 " Oblations and holocausts." What are " holo- causts "? A whole victim by fire consumed. When a whole beast was laid upon the altar with fire to be consumed, it was called a holocaust. May divine fire take us up whole, and that fervour catch us whole. What fervour? " Neither is there that hideth himself from the heat thereof." ■ What fervour? That whereof speaketh the Apos- tle: " In spirit fervent." 2 Be not merely our soul taken up by that divine fire of wisdom, but also our body; that3 it may earn their immortality; so be it lifted up for a holocaust, that death be swallowed into victory. " Oblations and holo- causts." " Then shall they lay upon thine altar calves." Whence " calves "? What shall He therein choose? Will it be the innocence of the new age, or necks freed from the yoke of the law?...PSALM Lit* PSALM Lit* 1. The title of the Psalm hath: "At the end, understanding of David, when there came Doeg the Edomite and told Saul, David hath come into the house of Abimelech: " whereas we read that he had come into the house of Achim- elech. And it may chance that we do not un- reasonably suppose, that because of the similar- ity of a name and the difference of one syllable, or rather of one letter, the titles have been varied. In the manuscripts, however, of the Psalms, when we looked into them, rather Abim- elech we have found than Achimelech. And since in another place thou hast a most evident Psalm, intimating not a dissimilarity of name, but an utterly different name; when, for in- stance, David changed his face before King Achish, not before king Abimelech, and he sent him away, and he departed: and yet the title of the Psalm is thus written, " When he changed his countenance in the presence of Abimelech " 5 — the very change of name maketh us the rather intent upon a mystery, lest thou shouldest pur- sue the quasi-facts of history, and despise the sacred veilings...
2. Observe ye two kinds of men; the one of men labouring, the other of those among whom they labour: the one of men thinking of earth, the other of heaven: the one of men weigh- ing down their heart unto the deep, the other of men with Angels their heart conjoining: the one trusting in earthly things, wherein this world aboundeth, the other confiding in heav- enly things, which God, who lieth not, hath promised. But mingled are these kinds of men. We see now the citizen of Jerusalem, citizen of the kingdom of heaven, have some office upon earth: to wit, one weareth purple, is a Magis- 1 Ps. xix. 6. 2 Rom. xii. n.
3 Mss. omit ut, " also let our body earn," etc. * Lat. LI. 5 Ps. xxxiii. tit trate, is vEdile, is Proconsul, is Emperor, doth direct the earthly republic: but he hath his heart above, if he is a Christian, if he is a be- liever, if he is godly, if he is despising those things wherein he is, and trusteth in that where- in he is not yet. Of which kind was that holy woman Esther, who, though she was wife of a king, incurred the danger of interceding for her countrymen: and when she was praying before God, where she could not lie, in her prayer said, that her royal ornaments were to her but as the cloth of a menstruous woman.6 Despair we not then of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven, when we see them engaged in any of Babylon's matters, doing something earthly in republic earthly: nor again let us forthwith congratulate all men that we see doing matters heavenly; be- cause even the sons of pestilence sit sometimes in the seat of Moses, of whom is said, " What things they say, do ye: but what things they do, do not: for they say, and do not." ' Those, amid earthly things, lift up heart unto heaven, these, amid heavenly words, trail heart upon earth. But there will come time of winnowing, when both are to be severed with greatest dili- gence, in order that no grain may pass over unto the heap of chaff that is to be burned, that not one single straw may pass over to the mass that is to be stored in the barn.8 So long as then now it is mingled, hear we thence our voice, that is, voice of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven (for to this we ought to aspire, to bear with evil men here, rather than be borne with by good men): and let us conjoin ourselves to this voice, both with ear and with tongue, and with heart and work. Which if we shall have done, we are here speaking in those things which we hear. Let us therefore speak first of the evil body of kingdom earthly.
3. " Why doth he glory in malice that is mighty?" (ver. 1). Observe, my brethren, the glorying of malignity, the glorying of evil men. Where is glorying? " Why doth he glory in malice that is mighty? " That is, he that in malice is mighty, why doth he glory? There is need that a man be mighty, but in goodness, not in malice. Is it any great thing to glory in malice? To build a house doth belong to few men, any ignorant man you please can pull down. To sow wheat, to dress the crop, to wait until it ripen, and in that fruit on which one has laboured to rejoice, doth belong to few men: with one spark any man you please can burn all the crop. To breed an infant, when born to feed him, to educate, to bring him on to youth's estate, is a great task: to kill him in one mo- ment of time any one you please is able. There- fore those things which are done for destruction, * Eith. xiv. 16. t Matt, xxiii. 3. • Matt. iii. 12.
198 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Psalm LI I.
are most easily done. " He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord: " ' he that glorieth, let him glory in goodness. Thou gloriest, because thou art mighty in evil. What art thou about to do, O mighty man, what art ihou about to do, boasting thyself much? Thou art about to kill a man: this thing also a scorpion, this also one fever, this also a poisonous fungus can do. To this is thy mightiness reduced, that it be made equal to a poisonous fungus? This therefore do the good citizens of Jerusalem, who not in mal- ice but in goodness glory: firstly, that not in themselves, but in the Lord they glory. Second- ly, that those things which make for edification they earnestly do, and do such things as are strong to abide: but things which make for de- struction they may do, for the discipline of men advancing, not for the oppression of the inno- cent. To this mightiness then that earthly body being compared, why may it not hear out of these words, " Why doth he glory in malice that is mighty? "