1 Rom. vi. 6; Eph. iv. 33.
3 Col. iii. 10.
4 [On the tripartite nature of 1 pp.463, 474.- C.l » Deut. vi. 5; Matt. xxu. 37.
enough. Those numbers then of the body which have relation to the old man and the Old Testament,.being past and gone, the numbers too of the soul, which have relation to the new man and the New Testament, being past and gone, a septenary so to say being passed; be- cause everything is done in time, four having been distributed to the body, three to the mind; the eighth will come, the day of judgment: which assigning to deserts their due, will transfer at once the saint, not to temporal works, but to eternal life; but will condemn the ungodly to eternal punishment.
3. In fear of which comdemnation the Church prays in this Psalm, and says, " Reprove me not, O Lord, in Thine anger" (ver. i). The Apostle too mentions the anger of the judgment; " Thou treasurest up unto thyself," he says, "anger against the day of the anger of the just judg- ment of God." 6 In which he would not be re- proved, whosoever longs to be healed in this life. " Nor in Thy rage chasten me." " Chasten," seems rather too mild a word; for it availeth toward amendment. For for him who is reproved, that is, accused, it is to be feared lest his end be condemnation. But since " rage " seems to be more than " anger," it may be a difficulty, why that which is milder, namely, chastening, is joined to that which is more severe, namely, rage. But I suppose that one and the same thing is signified by the two words. For in the Greek dy/Ms, which is in the first verse, means the same as opyrj, which is in the second verse.' But when the Latins themselves too wished to use two distinct words, they looked out for what was akin to " anger," and " rage " 8 was used. Hence copies vary. For in some " anger " is found first, and then " rage: " in others, for "rage," "indignation" or "choler" is used. But whatever the reading, it is an emotion of the soul urging to the infliction of punishment. Yet this emotion must not be attributed to God, as if to a soul, of whom it is said, " but Thou, O Lord of power, judgest with tranquillity." 9 Now that which is tranquil, is not disturbed. Disturbance then does not attach to God as judge: but what is done by His ministers, in that it is done by His laws, is called His anger. In which anger, the soul, which now prays, would not only not be reproved, but not even chastened, that is, amended or instructed. For in the Greek it is, wcuStvoT/s, that is, instruct. Now in the day of judgment all are " reproved " that hold not the foundation, which is Christ. But they are amended, that is, purged, who " upon this foun- dation build wood, hay, stubble. For they shall suffer loss, but shall be saved, as by fire." '° 6 Rom. ii. 5.
7 [Compare Trench on Synonyms of the New Testament, p.
10 1 Cor. iii. tif ta, 13, 15.
Psalm VI.]
ON THE PSALMS.
17 What then does he pray, who would not be either reproved or amended in the anger of the Lord? what else but that he may be healed? For where sound health is, neither death is to be dreaded, nor the physician's hand with caustics or the knife.
4. He proceeds accordingly to say, " Pity me, O Lord, for I am weak: heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled" (ver. 2), that is, the support of my soul, or strength: for this is the meaning of " bones." The soul therefore says, that her strength is troubled, when she speaks of bones. For it is not to be supposed, that the soul has bones, such as we see in the body. Wherefore, what follows tends to explain it, " and my soul is troubled exceedingly" (ver. 3), lest because he mentioned bones, they should be un- derstood as of the body. " And Thou, O Lord, how long?" Who does not see represented here a soul struggling with her diseases; but long kept back by the physician, that she may be convinced what evils she has plunged herself into through sin? For what is easily healed, is not much avoided: but from the difficulty of the healing, there will be the more careful keep- ing of recovered health. God then, to whom it is said, "And Thou, O Lord, how long?" must not be deemed as if cruel: but as a kind con- vincer of the soul, what evil she hath procured for herself. For this soul does not yet pray so per- fectly, as that it can be said to her, " Whilst thou art yet speaking I will say, Behold, here I am." ' That she may at the same time also come to know, if they who do turn meet with so great difficulty, how great punishment is pre- pared for the ungodly, who will not turn to God: as it is written in another place, " If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the sinner and un- godly appear? " 2 5. "Turn, O Lord, and deliver my soul" (ver. 4). Turning herself she prays that God too would turn to her: as it is said, " Turn ye unto Me, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord." 3 Or is it to be understood according to that way of speaking, " Turn, O Lord," that is, make me turn, since the soul in this her turning feels difficulty and toil? For our perfected turn- ing findeth God ready, as says the Prophet, " We shall find Him ready as the dawn." •* Since it was not His absence who is everywhere pres- ent, but our turning away that made us lose Him; " He was in this world," it is said, " and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not." s If, then, He was in this world, and the world knew Him not, our impurity doth not endure the sight of Him. But whilst we are turning ourselves, that is, by changing our old life are fashioning our spirit; we feel it hard and 1 Isa Ixv. 24.
< Hos. vi. 3, LXX.
3 Zech.
toilsome to be wrested back from the darkness of earthly lusts, to the serene and quiet and tran- quillity of the divine light. And in such difficulty we say, " Turn, O Lord," that is, help us, that that turning may be perfected in us, which findeth Thee ready, and offering Thyself for the fruition of them that love Thee. And hence after he said, " Turn, O Lord," he added, " and deliver my soul: " cleaving as it were to the entangle- ments of this world, and suffering, in the very act of turning, from the thorns, as it were, of rending and tearing desires. " Make me whole," he says, " for Thy pity's sake." He knows that it is not of his own merits that he is healed: for to him sinning, and transgressing a given command, was just condemnation due. Heal me therefore, he says, not for my merit's sake, but for Thy pity's sake.
6. " For in death there is no one that is mind- ful of Thee " (ver. 5). He knows too that now is the time for turning unto God: for when this life shall have passed away, there remaineth but a retribution of our deserts.6 " But in hell who shall confess to Thee? " 7 That rich man, of whom the Lord speaks, who saw Lazarus in rest, but bewailed himself in torments, confessed in hell, yea so as to wish even to have his brethren warned, that they might keep themselves from sin, because of the punishment which is not be- lieved to be in hell. Although therefore to no purpose, yet he confessed that those torments had deservedly lighted upon him; since he even wished his brethren to be instructed, lest they should fall into the same. What then is, " But in hell who will confess to Thee? " Is hell to be understood as that place, whither the ungodly will be cast down after the judgment, when by reason of that deeper darkness they will no more see any light of God, to whom they may confess aught? For as yet that rich man by raising his eyes, although a vast gulf lay between, could still see Lazarus established in rest: by comparing himself with whom, he was driven to a confession of his own deserts. It may be understood also, as if the Psalmist calls sin, that is committed in contempt of God's law, death: so as that we should give the name of death to the sting of death, because it procures death. " For the sting of death is sin." 8 In which death this is to be unmindful of God, to despise His law and commandments: so that by hell the Psalmist would mean that blindness of soul which over- takes and enwraps the sinner, that is, the dying. " As they did not think good," the Apostle says, * [St. Augustin, whatever he may have imagined of the fire that is to purify at the last day (i Cor. iii. 13-15), knew nothing of an intermediate purgatory. Compare A. N. F. vol. viii. pp. 139, 390, for apocryphal opinions and a misleading note. Consult (same series) vol. iii. p. 428, and v. p. 222, notes 1 and 7, with p. 223, note 1. — C] 7 Luke xvi. 8 1 Cor. xv. 56.
i8 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[FSALM VI.
" to retain God in " their " knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind." ' From this death, and this hell, the soul earnestly prays that she may be kept safe, whilst she strives to turn to God, and feels her difficulties.
7. Wherefore he goes on to say, "I have laboured in my groaning." And as if this availed but litde, he adds, " 1 will wash each night my couch" (ver. 6). That is here called a couch, where the sick and weak soul rests, that is, in bodily gratification and in every worldly pleasure. Which pleasure, whoso endeavours to withdraw himself from it, washes with tears. For he sees that he already condemns carnal lusts; and yet his weakness is held by the pleasure, and willingly lies down therein, from whence none but the soul that is made whole can rise. As for what he says, " each night," he would perhaps have it taken thus: that he who, ready in spirit, per- ceives some light of truth, and yet, through weakness of the flesh, rests sometime in the pleasure of this world, is compelled to suffer as it were days and nights in an alternation of feeling: as when he says, " With the mind I serve the law of God," he feels as it were day; again when he says, " but with the flesh the law of sin," * he declines into night: until all night passeth away, and that one day comes, of which it is said, " In the morning I will stand by Thee, and will see."3 For then he will stand, but now he lies down, when he is on his couch; which he will wash each night, that with so great abundance of tears he may obtain the most assured remedy from the mercy of God. " I will drench my bed with tears." It is a repetition.4 For when he says, " with tears," he shows with what meaning he said above, "I will wash." For we take " bed " here to be the same as " couch " above. Although, " I will drench," is something more than, " I will wash: " since any- thing may be washed superficially, but drench- ing penetrates to the more inward parts; which here signifies weeping to the very bottom of the heart. Now the variety of tenses which he uses; the past, when he said, " I have laboured in my groaning;" and the future, when he said, "I will wash each night my couch; " the future again, "I will drench my bed with tears;" this shows what every man ought to say to himself, when he labours in groaning to no purpose. As if he should say, It hath not profited when I have done this, therefore I will do the other.
8. " Mine eye is disordered by anger " (ver. 7): is it by his own, or God's anger, in which he maketh petition that he might not be re- proved, or chastened? But if anger in that • Rom. i. »8.
2 Rom. vii. 35.
* lot. Auguitin was the inventor of what is now called " The Silent Comforter." for the invalid. This Psalm, with the six other Penitential Psalms, he caused to be set up before his dying eyes. See Vita S. A •/. auctort Fouidio, ed. Migne, vol. i. p. 63. — C.J place intimate the day of judgment, how can it be understood now? Is it a beginning of it, that men here suffer pains and torments, and above all the loss of the understanding of the truth; as I have already quoted that which is said, " God gave them over to a reprobate mind "? ' For such is the blindness of the mind. Whosoever is given over thereunto, is shut out from the interior light of God: but not wholly as yet, whilst he is in this life. For there is "outer darkness," 5 which is understood to belong rather to the day of judgment; that he should rather be wholly without God, whosoever whilst there is time refuses correction. Now to be wholly without God, what else is it, but to be in extreme blindness? If indeed God "dwell in inaccessible light," 6 whereinto they enter, to whom it is said, " Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 7 It is then the beginning of this anger, which in this life every sinner suffers. In fear therefore of the day of judgment, he is in trial and grief; lest he be brought to that, the disastrous commencement of which he experiences now. And therefore he did not say, mine eye is extin- guished, but, " mine eye is disordered by anger." But if he mean that his eye is disordered by his own anger, there is no wonder either in this. For hence perhaps it is said, " Let not the sun go down upon your wrath; " 8 because the mind, which, from her own disorder, is not permitted to see God, supposes that the inner sun, that is, the wisdom of God, suffers as it were a setting in her.
9. " I have grown old in all mine enemies." He had only spoken of anger (if it were yet of his own anger that he spoke): but thinking on his other vices, he found that he was entrenched by them all. Which vices, as they belong to the old life and the old man, which we must put off, that we may put on the new man,' it is well said, " I have grown old." But " in all mine enemies," he means, either amidst these vices, or amidst men who will not be converted to God. For these, even if they know them not, even if they bear with them, even if they use the same tables and houses and cities, with no strife arising between them, and in frequent converse together with seeming concord: notwithstanding, by the contrariety of their aims, they are enemies to those who turn unto God. For seeing that the one love and desire this world, the others wish to be freed from this world, who sees not that the first are enemies to the last? For if they can, they draw the others into punishment with them. And it is a great grace, to be conversant daily with their words, and not to depart from the way of God's commandments. For often the mind which is striving to go on to God-ward, * Matt. xxv. 30. 8 Eph. iv. a6.
Psalm VI.]
ON THE PSALMS.
19 being rudely handled in the very road, is alarmed; and generally fulfils not its good in- tent, lest it should offend those with whom it lives, who love and follow after other perishable and transient goods. From such every one that is whole is separated, not in space, but in soul. For the body is contained in space, but the soul's space is her affection.
10. Wherefore after the labour, and groaning, and very frequent showers of tears, since that can- not be ineffectual, which is asked so earnestly of Him, who is the Fountain of all mercies, and it is most truly said, " the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart: " ' after difficulties so great, the pious soul, by which we may also un- derstand the Church, intimating that she has been heard, see what she adds: " Depart from me, all ye that work iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping" (ver. 8). It is either spoken prophetically, since they will depart, that is, the ungodly will be separated from the righteous, when the day of judgment arrives, or, for this time present. For although both are equally found in the same assemblies, yet on the open floor the wheat is already sepa- rated from the chaff, though it be hid among the chaff. They can therefore be associated to- gether, but cannot be carried away by the wind together.
11. " For the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping; The Lord hath heard my supplication; the Lord hath received my prayer" (ver. 9). The frequent repetition of the same sentiments shows not, so to say, the necessities of the narrator, but the warm feeling of his joy. For they that rejoice are wont so to speak, as that it is not enough for them to declare once for all the object of their joy. This is the fruit of that groaning in which there is labour, and those tears with which the couch is washed, and - bed drenched: for, " he that sows in tears, shall reap in joy: " 2 and, " blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted."
12. " Let all mine enemies be ashamed and vexed" (ver. 10). He said above, "depart from me all ye: " which can take place, as it has been explained, even in this life: but as to what he says, " let them be ashamed and vexed," I do not see how it can happen, save on that day when the rewards of the righteous and the pun- ishments of the sinners shall be made manifest. For at present so far are the ungodly from being ashamed, that they do not cease to insult us. And for the most part their mockings are of such avail, that they make the weak to be ashamed of the name of Christ. Hence it is said, " Whoso- ever shall be ashamed of Me before men, of him will I be ashamed before My Father."3 But Ps. xxxiv. 18.
Matt. x. 33; Luke ix. 26.
2 Ps. cxxvi. 5.
now whosoever would fulfil those sublime com- mands, to disperse, to give to the poor, that his righteousness may endure for ever; 4 and selling all his earthly goods, and spending them on the needy, would follow Christ, saying, " We brought nothing into this world, and truly we can carry nothing out; having food and raiment, let us be therewith content; " 5 incurs the profane raillery of those men, and by those who will not be made whole, is called mad; and often to avoid being so called by desperate men, he fears to do, and puts off that, which the most faithful and powerful of all physicians hath ordered. It is not then at present that these can be ashamed, by whom we have to wish that we be not made ashamed, and so be either called back from our proposed journey, or hindered, or delayed. But the time will come when they shall be ashamed, saying as it is written, " These are they whom we had sometimes in derision, and a parable of re- proach: we fools counted their life madness, and their end to be without honour: how are they numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints? Therefore have we erred from the way of truth, and the light of rightousness hath not shined into us, nor the sun risen upon us: we have been filled with the way of wickedness and destruction, and have walked through rugged deserts, but the way of the Lord we have not known. What hath pride profited us, or what hath the vaunting of riches brought us? All those things are passed away like a shadow." 6 13. But as to what he says, "Let them be turned and confounded," who would not judge it to be a most righteous punishment, that they should have a turning unto confusion, who would not have one unto salvation? After this he added, " exceeding quickly." For when the day of judgment shall have begun to be no longer looked for, when they shall have said, " Peace, then shall sudden destruction come upon them." i Now whensoever it come, that comes very quickly, of whose coming we give up all expectation; and nothing makes the length of this life be felt but the hope of living. For nothing seems more quick, than all that has already passed in it. When then the day of judgment shall come, then will sinners feel how that all the life which pass- eth away is not long. Nor will that any way possibly seem to them to have come tardily, which shall have come without their desiring, or rather without their believing. Although it can too be taken in this place thus, that inasmuch as God has heard, so to say, her groans, and her long and frequent tears, she may be understood to be freed from her sins, and to have tamed every disordered impulse of carnal affection: J x Tim. vi. 7, 8.
<■ Wisd. v. 3-9.
20 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Psalm VII.
as she saith, " Depart from me, all ye that work iniquity, for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping: " and when she has had this happy issue, it is no marvel if she be already so perfect as to pray for her enemies. The words then, " Let all mine enemies be ashamed, and vexed," may have this meaning; that they should repent of their sins, which cannot be effected without confusion and vexation. There is then nothing to hinder us from taking what follows too in this sense, " let them be turned and ashamed," that is, let them be turned to God, and be ashamed that they sometime gloried in the former dark- ness of their sins; as the Apostle says, " For what glory had ye sometime in those things of which ye are now ashamed? " ■ But as to what he added, " exceeding quickly," it must be re- ferred either to the warm affection of her wish, or to the power of Christ; who converteth to the faith of the Gospel in such quick time the nations, which in their idols' cause did persecute the Church.
PSALM VII.
A PSALM TO DAVID HIMSELF, WHICH HE SUNG TO THE LORD, FOR THE WORDS OF CHUSI, SON OF JEMINI.2 i. Now the story which gave occasion to this prophecy may be easily recognised in the second book of Kings.3 For there Chusi, the friend of king David, went over to the side of Abessalon, his son, who was carrying on war against his father, for the purpose of discovering and report- ing the designs which he was taking against his father, at the instigation of Achitophel, who had revolted from David's friendship, and was instruct- ing by his counsel, to the best of his power, the son against the father. But since it is not the story itself which is to be the subject of considera- tion in this Psalm, from which the prophet hath taken a veil of mysteries, if we have passed over to Christ, let the veil be taken away.4 And first let us inquire into the signification of the very names, what it means. For there have not been wanting interpreters, who investigating these same words, not carnally according to the let- ter, but spiritually, declare to us that Chusi should be interpreted silence; and Gemini, right- handed; Achitophel, brother's ruin. Among which interpretations, Judas, that traitor, again meets us, that Abessalon should bear his image, according to that interpretation of it as a father's peace; in that his father was full of thoughts of peace toward him: although he in his guile had war in his heart, as was treated of in the third Psalm. Now as we find in the Gospels that the 1 Rom. vi. ai.
disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ are called sons,5 so in the same Gospels we find they are called brethren also. For the Lord on the res- urrection saith, " Go and say to My brethren." 6 And the Apostle calls Him " the first begotten among many brethren." The ruin then of that disciple, who betrayed Him, is rightly understood to be a brother's ruin, which we said is the inter- pretation of Achitophel. Now as to Chusi, from the interpretation of silence, it is rightly under- stood that our Lord contended against that guile in silence, that is, in that most deep secret, whereby " blindness happened in part to Israel," i when they were persecuting the Lord, that the fulness of the Gentiles might enter in, and " so all Israel might be saved." When the Apostle came to this profound secret and deep silence, he exclaimed, as if struck with a kind of awe of its very depth, " O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearch- able are His judgments, and His ways past find- ing out! For who hath known the wind of the Lord, or who hath been His counsellor?"8 Thus that great silence he does not so much discover by explanation, as he sets forth its greatness in admiration. In this silence the Lord, hiding the sacrament of His adorable pas- sion, turns the brother's voluntary ruin, that is, His betrayer's impious wickedness, into the order of His mercy and providence: that what he with perverse mind wrought for one Man's destruction, He might by providential overruling dispose for all men's salvation. The perfect soul then, which is already worthy to know the secret of God, sings a Psalm unto the Lord, she sings " for the words of Chusi," because she has attained to know the words of that silence: for among unbelievers and persecutors there is that silence and secret. But among His own, to whom it is said, " Now I call you no more servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of My Father I have made known unto you: ' among His friends, I say, there is not the silence, but the words of the silence, that is, the meaning of that silence set forth and manifested. Which silence, that is, Chusi, is called the son of