him. The delight accordingly was produced not in the reins, but there, where against the chiding of the reins God was foreseen to be on the right hand, that is, in the heart.
12." God the righteous judge, strong 4 (in endu- rance) and long-suffering " (ver. n). What God is judge, but the Lord, who judgeth the people? He is righteous; who " shall render to every man according to his works." s He is strong (in en- durance); who, being most powerful, for our sal- vation bore even with ungodly persecutors. He is long-suffering; who did not immediately, after His resurrection, hurry away to punishment, even those that persecuted Him, but bore with them, that they might at length turn from that ungod- liness to salvation: and still He beareth with them, reserving the last penalty for the last judg- ment, and up to this present time inviting sinners to repentance. " Not bringing in anger every day." Perhaps " bringing in anger " is a more significant expression than being angry (and so we find it in the Greek6 copies); that the an- ger, whereby He punisheth, should not be in Him, but in the minds of those ministers who obey the commandments of truth through whom orders are given even to the lower ministries, who are called angels of wrath, to punish sin: whom even now the punishment of men delights not for justice' sake, in which they have no pleasure, but for malice' sake. God then doth not " bring in anger every day," that is, He doth not collect His ministers for vengeance every * Fortis. 5 Matt. xvi. 27.
b IJ.fi ipyTjV indytov, LXX.
3 Ps. J day. For now the patience of God inviteth to repentance: but in the last time, when men " through their hardness and impenitent heart shall have treasured up for themselves anger in the day of anger, and revelation of the right- eous judgment of God, » then He will brandish His sword."
13. " Unless ye be converted," He says, " He will brandish His sword" (ver. 12). The Lord Man Himself may be taken to be God's double- edged sword, that is, His spear, which at His first coming He will not brandish, but hideth as it were in the sheath of humiliation: but He will bran- dish it, when at the second coming to judge the quick and dead, in the manifest splendour of His glory, He shall flash light on His righteous ones, and terror on the ungodly. For in other copies, instead of, " He shall brandish His sword," it has been written, " He shall make bright His spear: " by which word I think the last coming of the Lord's glory most appropriately signified: seeing that is understood of His person, which another Psalm has, " Deliver, O Lord, my soul from the ungodly, 8 Thy spear from the enemies of Thine hand. He hath bent His bow, and made it ready." The tenses of the words must not be altogether overlooked, how he has spoken of "the sword" in the future, " He will bran- dish; " of " the bow " in the past, " He hath bent: " and these words of the past tense follow after. ' 14. " And in it He hath prepared the instru- ments of death: He hath wrought His arrows for the burning" (ver. 13). That bow then I would readily take to be the Holy Scripture, in which by the strength of the New Testament, as by a sort of string, the hardness of the Old has been bent and subdued. From thence the Apostles are sent forth like arrows, or divine preachings are shot. Which arrows " He has wrought for the burning," arrows, that is, whereby being stricken they might be inflamed with heavenly love. For by what other arrows was she stricken, who saith, " Bring me into the house of wine, place me among perfumes, crowd me among honey, for I have been wounded with love "? '° By what other arrows is he kindled, who, desir- ous of returning to God, and coming back from wandering, asketh for help against crafty tongues, and to whom it is said, " What shall be given thee, or what added to thee against the crafty tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, with dev- astating coals: " " that is, coals, whereby, when thou art stricken and set on fire, thou mayest burn with so great love of the kingdom of heaven, as to despise the tongues of all that it.'je'i 9 [So St. Jerome also understood the Hebrew in his strict version. — C] 10 Sol. Song ii. 4, 5, 11 Ps. cxx. 3, 4.
26 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Psalm VIL resist thee, and would recall thee from thy pur- pose, and to deride their persecutions, saying, " Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For I am persuaded," he says, " that neither death, nor life, nor angel, nor principality, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor other creature, shall be able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." ' Thus for the burn- ing hath He wrought His arrows. For in the Greek copies it is found thus, " He hath wrought His arrows for the burning." But most of the Latin copies 2 have " burning arrows." But whether the arrows themselves burn, or make others burn, which of course they cannot do unless they burn themselves, the sense is com- plete.
15. But since he has said that the Lord has prepared not arrows only, but " instruments of death " too, in the bow, it may be asked, what are " instruments of death "? Are they, per- adventure, heretics? For they too, out of the same bow, that is, out of the same Scriptures, light upon souls not to be inflamed with love, but destroyed with poison: which does not happen but after their deserts: wherefore even this dispensation is to be assigned to the Divine Providence, not that it makes men sinners, but that it orders them after they have sinned. For through sin reaching them with an ill purpose, they are forced to understand them ill, that this should be itself the punishment of sin: by whose death, nevertheless, the sons of the Catholic Church are, as it were by certain thorns, so to say, aroused from slumber, and make progress toward the understanding of the holy Scriptures. " For there must be also heresies, that they which are approved," he says, " may be made manifest among you: " 3 that is, among men, seeing they are manifest to God. Or has He haply ordained the same arrows to be at once instruments of death for the destruction of un- believers, and wrought them burning, or for the burning, for the exercising of the faithful? For that is not false that the Apostle says, "To the one we are the savour of life unto life, to the other the savour of death unto death; and who is sufficient for these things? " 4 It is no wonder then if the same Apostles be both instruments of death in those from whom they suffered persecution, and fiery arrows to inflame the hearts of believers.
16. Now after this dispensation righteous judgment will come: of which the Psalmist so 1 Rom. viii. 35, 38. 39. 3 [Not to the Vulgate He refer* to the African (old Italic)' Psalters. But see Scrivener, p.
ot to the Vulgate nor St. Jerome, which follow the Greek.
speaks, as that we may understand that each man's punishment is wrought out of his own sin, and his iniquity turned into vengeance: that we may not suppose that that tranquillity and inef- fable light of God brings forth from Itself the means of punishing sin; but that it so ordereth sins, that what have been delights to man in sinning, should be instruments to the Lord avenging. "Behold," he says, "he hath travailed with injustice." Now what had he conceived, that he should travail with injustice? " He hath conceived," he says, " toil." Hence then comes that, " In toil shalt thou eat thy bread." 5 Hence too that, " Come unto Me all ye that toil and are heavy laden; for My yoke is easy, and My burden light." 6 For toil will never cease, except one love that which cannot be taken away against his will. For when those things are loved which we can lose against our will, we must needs toil for them most miserably; and to obtain them, amid the straitnesses of earthly cares, whilst each desires to snatch them for himself, and to be beforehand with another, or to wrest it from him, must scheme injustice. Duly then, and quite in order, hath he travailed with injustice, who has conceived toil. Now he bringeth forth what, save that with which he hath travailed, although he has not travailed with that which he conceived? For that is not born, which is not conceived; but seed is conceived, that which is formed from the seed is born. Toil is then the seed of iniquity, but sin the conception of toil, that is, that first sin, to "depart from God."7 He then hath travailed with injustice, who hath conceived toil. " And he hath brought forth iniquity." "Iniquity" is the same as " injustice: " he hath brought forth then that with which he travailed. What follows next?
1 7. " He hath opened a ditch, and digged it " (ver. 15). To open a ditch is, in earthly mat- ters, that is, as it were in the earth, to prepare deceit, that another fall therein, whom the un- righteous man wishes to deceive. Now this ditch is opened when consent is given to the evil suggestion of earthly lusts: but it is digged when after consent we press on to actual work of deceit. But how can it be, that iniquity should rather hurt the righteous man against whom it proceeds, than the unrighteous heart whence it proceeds? Accordingly, the stealer of money, for instance, while he desires to in- flict painful harm upon another, is himself maimed by the wound of avarice. Now who, even out of his right mind, sees not how great is the difference between these men, when one suffers the loss of money, the other of inno- cence? " He will fall " then " into the pit which 4 a Cor. ii. 16.
5 Gen. iii. 17.
6 Matt. xi. 28, 30.
7 Ecclus. x. 13.
Psalm VIII.]
ON THE PSALMS.
27 he hath made." As it is said in another Psalm, " The Lord is known in executing judgments; the sinner is caught in the works of his own hands." " 18. " His toil shall be turned on his head, and his iniquity shall descend on his pate "(ver. 16). For he had no mind to escape sin: but was brought under sin as a slave, so to say, as the Lord saith, "Whosoever sinneth is a slave."2 His iniquity then will be upon him, when he is subject to his iniquity; for he could not say to the Lord, what the innocent and upright say, " My glory, and the lifter up of my head."3 He then will be in such wise below, as that his iniquity may be above, and descend on him; for that it weigheth him down and burdens him, and suffers him not to fly back to the rest of the saints. This occurs, when in an ill regulated man reason is a slave, and lust hath dominion.
19. " I will confess to the Lord according to His justice" (ver. 17). This is not the sinner's confession: for he says this, who said above most truly, " If there be iniquity in my hands: " but it is a confession of God's justice, in which we speak thus, Verily, O Lord, Thou art just, in that Thou both so protectest the just, that Thou en- lightenest them by Thyself; and so orderest sin- ners, that they be punished not by Thine, but by their own malice. This confession so praises the Lord, that the blasphemies of the ungodly can avail nothing, who, willing to excuse their evil deeds, are unwilling to attribute to their own fault that they sin, that is, are unwilling to attribute their fault to their fault. Accordingly they find either fortune or fate to accuse, or the devil, to whom He who made us hath willed that it should be in our power to refuse consent: or they bring in another nature, which is not of God: wretched waverers, and erring, rather than confessing to God, that He should pardon them. For it is not fit that any be pardoned, except he says, I have sinned. He, then, that sees the deserts of souls so ordered by God, that while each has his own given him, the fair beauty of the universe is in no part violated, in all things praises God: and this is not the confession of sinners, but of the righteous. For it is not the sinner's confession when the Lord says, " I con- fess to Thee, O Lord of heaven and earth, be- cause Thou hast hid these things from the wise,' and revealed them to babes." 4 Likewise in Ecclesiasticus it is said, " Confess to the Lord in all His works: and in confession ye shall say this, All the works of the Lord are exceeding good." 5 Which can be seen in this Psalm, if any one with a pious mind, by the Lord's help, distinguish between the rewards of the righteous and the penalties of the sinners, how that in 1 Ps. ix. 16. * Matt. xt. 25.
2 John viii. 34. 3 Ps.
4J.3.
these two the whole creation, which God made and rules, is adorned with a beauty wondrous and known to few. Thus then he says, " I will con- fess to the Lord according to His justice," as one who saw that darkness was not made by God, but ordered nevertheless. For God said, " Let light be made, and light was made."6 He did not say, Let darkness be made, and dark- ness was made: and yet He ordered it. And therefore it is said, " God divided between the light, and the darkness: and God called the light day, and the darkness He called night." 7 This is the distinction, He made the one and ordered it: but the other He made not, but yet He ordered this too. But now that sins are signified by darkness, so is it seen in the Prophet, who says, "And thy darkness shall be as the noon day: " 8 and in the Apostle, who says, " He that hateth his brother is in darkness: " 9 and above all that text, " Let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." '° Not that there is any nature of darkness. For all nature, in so far as it is nature, is compelled to be. Now being belongs to light: not-being to dark- ness. He then that leaves Him by whom he was made, and inclines to that whence he was made, that is, to nothing, is in this sin en- darkened: and yet he does not utterly perish, but he is ordered among the lowest things. Therefore after the Psalmist said, " I will confess unto the Lord: " that we might not understand it of confession of sins, he adds lastly, " And I will sing to the name of the Lord most high." Now singing has relation to joy, but repentance of sins to sadness.
20. This Psalm can also be taken in the per- son of the Lord Man: if only that which is there spoken in humiliation be referred to our weak- ness, which He bore."
PSALM VIII.
TO THE END, FOR THE WINE-PRESSES, A PSALM OF DAVID HIMSELF.'2 I. He seems to say nothing of wine-presses in the text of the Psalm of which this is the title. By which it appears, that one and the same thing is often signified in Scripture by many and various similitudes. We may then take wine- presses to be Churches, on the same principle by which we understand also by a threshing-floor the Church. For whether in the threshing-floor, or in the wine-press, there is nothing else done but the clearing the produce of its covering; which is necessary, both for its first growth.
9 1 John 11. 11.,0 Rom. xiii. is".
11 [On the continuity of the first seven Psalms, see Bishop Words- worth s Commentary, p. 10. ed. London. 1867. — C.J 12 See on Ps. Ixxxiv. < [The octave of Ps. i., ana understood by the Fathers of the ascension of Christ. It was probably sung at the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles. — C] 28 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Psalm VKI.
and increase, and arrival at the maturity either of the harvest or the vintage. Of these cover- ings or supporters then; that is, of chaff, on the threshing-floor, the corn; and of husks, in the presses, the wine is stripped: as in the Churches, from the multitude of worldly men, which is col- lected together with the good, for whose birth and adaptatingto the divine word that multitude was necessary, this is effected, that by spiritual love they be separated through the operation of God's ministers. For now so it is that the good are, for a time, separated from the bad, not in space, but in affection: although they have con- verse together in the Churches, as far as respects bodily presence. But another time will come, the corn will be stored up apart in the granaries, and the wine in the cellars. " The wheat," saith he, " He will lay up in garners; but the chaff He will burn with fire unquenchable." ■ The same thing may be thus understood in another similitude: the wine He will lay up in cellars, but the husks He will cast forth to cattle: so that by the bellies of the cattle we may be allowed by way of similitude to understand the pains of hell.
2. There is another interpretation concerning the wine-presses, yet still keeping to the meaning of Churches. For even the Divine Word may be understood by the grape: for the Lord even has been called a Cluster of grapes; which they that were sent before by the people of Israel brought from the land of promise hanging on a staff, crucified as it were.2 Accordingly, when the Divine Word maketh use of, by the necessity of declaring Himself, the sound of the voice, whereby to convey Himself to the ears of the hearers; in the same sound of the voice, as it were in husks, knowledge, like the wine, is en- closed: and so this grape comes into the ears, as into the pressing machines of the wine- pressers. For there the separation is made, that the sound may reach as far as the ear; but knowledge be received in the memory of those that hear, as it were in a sort of vat; whence it passes into discipline of the conversation and habit of mind, as from the vat into the cellar: where if it do not through negligence grow sour, it will acquire soundness by age. For it grew sour among the Jews, and this sour vinegar they gave the Lord to drink.3 For that wine, which from the produce of the vine of the New Testament the Lord is to drink with His saints in the kingdom of His Father,4 must needs be most sweet and most sound.
3. " Wine-presses " are also usually taken for martyrdoms, as if when they who have confessed the name of Christ have been trodden down by the blows of persecution, their mortal remains 1 Luke iii. 17. 4 Matt. xxvi. 29.
3 Numb. xiii. 23.
3 John xix. 29.
as husks remained on earth, but their souls flowed forth into the rest of a heavenly habitation. Nor yet by this interpretation do we depart from the fruitfulness of the Churches. It is sung then, " for the wine-presses," for the Church's estab- lishment; when our Lord after His resurrection ascended into heaven. For then He sent the Holy Ghost: by whom the disciples being ful- filled preached with confidence the Word of God, that Churches might be collected.
4. Accordingly it is said, " O Lord, our Lord, how admirarble is Thy Name in all the earth! " (ver. 1). I ask, how is His Name wonderful in all the earth? The answer is, " For Thy glory has been raised above the heavens." So that the meaning is this, O Lord, who art our Lord, how do all that inhabit the earth admire Thee! for Thy glory hath been raised from earthly humilia- tion above the heavens. For hence it appeared who Thou wast that descendedst, when it was by some seen, and by the rest believed, whither it was that Thou ascendedst.
5. " Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast made perfect praise, because of Thine enemies" (ver. 2). I cannot take babes and sucklings to be any other than those to whom the Apostle says, " As unto babes in Christ I have given you milk to drink, not meat." 5 Who were meant by those who went before the Lord prais- ing Him, of whom the Lord Himself used this testimony, when He answered the Jews who bade Him rebuke them, " Have ye not read, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast made perfect praise? " 6 Now with good reason He says not, Thou hast made, but, " Thou hast made per- fect praise." For there are in the Churches also those who now no more drink milk, but eat meat: whom the same Apostle points out, saying, " We speak wisdom among them that are perfect; " * but not by those only are the Churches perfected; for if there were only these, little consideration would be had of the human race. But consider- ation is had, when they too, who are not as yet ca- pable of the knowledge of things spiritual and eternal, are nourished by the faith of the tempo- ral history, which for our salvation after the Patri- archs and Prophets was administered by the most excellent Power and Wisdom of God, even in the Sacrament of the assumed Manhood, in which there is salvation for every one that believeth; to the end that moved by Its authority each one may obey Its precepts, whereby being purified and " rooted and grounded in love," he may be able to run with Saints, no more now a child in milk, but a young man in meat, " to comprehend the breadth, the length, the height, and depth, to know also the surpassing knowledge of the love of Christ."8 6 Matt. xxi. 16.
7 x Cor. ii. 6.
TSALM VIII.]
ON THE PSALMS.
29 6. " Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast made perfect praise, because of Thine enemies." By enemies to this dispensation, which has been wrought through Jesus Christ and Him crucified, we ought generally to understand all who forbid belief in things unknown,1 and promise certain knowledge: 2 as all heretics do, and they who in the superstition ot the Gentiles are called philosophers. Not that the promise of knowledge is to be blamed; but because they deem the most healthful and necessary step.of faith is to be neglected, by which we must needs ascend to something certain, which nothing but that which is eternal can be. Hence it appears that they do not possess even this knowledge, which in contempt of faith they promise; seeing that they know not so useful and necessary a step thereof. " Out of the mouth," then " of babes and sucklings Thou hast made perfect praise," Thou, our Lord, declaring first by the Apostle, " Except ye believe, ye shall not understand; " ' and saying by His own mouth, " Blessed are they that have notseen, and shall believe." 4 " Because of the enemies: " against whom too that is said, " I confess to Thee, O Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise, and revealed them unto babes." 5 " From the wise," he saith, not the really wise, but those who deem themselves such. " That Thou mayest de- stroy the enemy and the defender." Whom but the heretic? 6 For he is both an enemy and a defender, who when he would assault the Chris- tian faith, seems to defend it. Although the philosophers too of this world may be well taken as the enemies and defenders: forasmuch as the