" I have thought on ancient days; and of eternal years I have been mindful." What are eternal years? It is a mighty thought. See whether this thought requireth anything but great silence. Apart from all noise without, from all tumult of things human let him remain quiet within, that would think of those eternal years. Are the years wherein we are eternal, or those wherein our ancestors have been, or those wherein our posterity are to be? Far be it that they should be esteemed eternal. For what part of these years doth remain? Behold we speak and say, " in this year: " and what have we got of this year, save the one day wherein we are. For the former days of this year have already gone by, and are not to be had; but the future days have not yet come. In one day we are, and we say, in this year: nay rather say thou, to-day, if thou desirest to speak of anything present. For of the whole year what hast thou got that is present? Whatsoever thereof is past, is no longer; whatsoever thereof is future, is not yet: how then, "this year"? Amend the expression: say, to-day. Thou speakest truth, henceforth I will say, " to-day." Again observe this too, how to-day the morning hours have already past, the future hours have not yet come. This too therefore amend: say, in this hour. And of this hour what hast thou got? Some moments thereof have already gone by, those that are future have not yet come. Say, in this moment. In what moment? While I am uttering syllables, if I shall speak two syllables, the latter doth not sound until the former hath gone by: in a word, in that same one syllable, if it chance to have two letters, the latter letter doth not sound, until the former hath Psalm LXXVII.]
gone by. What then have we got of these years? These years are changeable: the eternal years must be thought on, years that stand, that are not made up of days that come and depart; years whereof in another place the Scripture saith to God, " But Thou art the Self-same, and Thy years shall not fail." ' On these years this man that leapeth over, not in babbling without, but in silence2 hath thought.
8. " And I have meditated in the night with my heart" (ver. 6). No slanderous person seeketh for snares in his words, in his heart he hath meditated. " I babbled." Behold there is the former babbling. Watch again, that thy spirit faint not. I did not, he saith, I did not so babble as if it were abroad: in another way now. How now? "I did babble, and did search out my spirit." If he were searching the earth to find veins of gold, no one would say that he was foolish; nay, many men would call him wise, for desiring to come at gold: how great treasures hath a man within, and he diggeth not! This man was examining his spirit, and was speaking with that same his spirit, and in the very speaking he was babbling. He was questioning himself, was examining himself, was judge over himself. And he continueth; " I did search my spirit." He had to fear lest he should stay within his own spirit: for he had babbled without; and because all his enemies had anticipated watches, he found there sorrow, and his spirit fainted. He that did babble without, lo, now doth begin to babble within in safety, where being alone in secret, he is thinking on eternal years...
9. And thou hast found what? "God will not repel for everlasting " (ver. 7). Weariness he had found in this life; in no place a trustworthy, in no place a fearless comfort. Unto whatsoever men he betook himself, in them he found scandal, or feared it. In no place therefore was he free from care. An evil thing it was for him to hold his peace, lest perchance he should keep silence from good words; to speak and babble without was painful to him, lest all his enemies, anticipating watches, should seek slanders in his words. Being exceedingly straitened in this life, he thought much of another life, where there is not this trial. And when is he to arrive thither? For it cannot but be evident that our suffering here is the anger of God. This thing is spoken of in Isaiah, " I will not be an avenger unto you for everlasting, nor will I be angry with you at all times." 3...Will this anger of God alway abide? This man hath not found this in silence. For he saith what? " God will not repel for everlasting, and He will not add any more that it should be well-pleasing to 1 Ps. cii. 27. 3 Isa. Ivii. 16.
2 Oxf. MSS. " his own silence."
Him still." That is, that it should be well-pleasing to Him still to repel, and He will not add the repelling for everlasting. He must needs recall to Himself His servants, He must needs receive fugitives returning to the Lord, He must needs hearken to the voice of them that are in fetters. " Or unto the end will He cut off mercy from generation to generation? " (ver. 8).
10. "Or will God forget to be merciful?" (ver. 9). In thee, from thee unto another there is no mercy unless God bestow it on thee: and shall God Himself forget mercy? The stream runneth: shall the spring itself be dried up? " Or shall God forget to be merciful: or shall He keep back in anger His mercies?" That is, shall He be so angry, as that He will not have mercy? He will more easily keep back anger than mercy.
11. "And I said." Now leaping over himself he hath said what? "Now I have begun:" (ver. 10), when I had gone out even from myself. Here henceforth there is no danger: for even to remain in myself, was danger. " And I said, Now I have begun: this is the changing of the right hand of the Lofty One." Now the Lofty One hath begun to change me: now I have begun something wherein I am secure: now I have entered a certain palace 4 of joys, wherein no enemy is to be feared: now I have begun to be in that region, where all mine enemies do not anticipate watches. " Now I have begun: this is the changing of the right hand of the Lofty One."
12. "I have been mindful of the works of the Lord" (ver. 11). Now behold him roaming among the works of the Lord. For he was babbling without, and being made sorrowful thereby his spirit fainted: he babbled within with his own heart, and with his spirit, and having searched out that same spirit he was mindful of the eternal years, was mindful of the mercy of the Lord, how God will not repel him for everlasting; and he began now fearlessly to rejoice in His works, fearlessly to exult in the same. Let us hear now those. very works, and let us too exult. But let even us leap over in our affections, and not rejoice in things temporal. For we too have our bed. Why do we not enter therein? Why do we not abide in silence? Why do we not search out our spirit? Why do we not think on the eternal years? Why do we not rejoice in the works of God? In such sort now let us hear, and let us take delight in Himself speaking, in order that when we shall have departed hence, we may do that which we used to do while He spake; if only we are making the beginning of Him whereof he spake in, " Now I have begun." To rejoice in the works of God, is to forget even [Psalm LXXVII.
thyself, if thou canst delight in Him alone. For what is a better thing than He? Dost thou not see that, when thou returnest to thyself, thou returnest to a worse thing? " for I shall be mindful from the beginning of Thy wonderful works.
13. "And I will meditate on all Thy works, and on Thy affections I will babble " (ver. 12). Behold the third babbling! He babbled without, when he fainted; he babbled in his spirit within, when he advanced; he babbled on the works of God, when he arrived at the place toward which he advanced. " And on Thy affections: " not on my affections. What man doth live without affections? And do ye suppose, brethren, that they who fear God, worship God, love God, have not any affections? Wilt thou indeed suppose and dare to suppose, that painting, the theatre, hunting, hawking, fishing, engage the affections, and the meditation on God doth not engage certain interior affections of its own, while we contemplate the universe, and place before our eyes the spectacle of the natural world, and therein labour to discover the Maker, and find Him nowhere unpleasing, but pleasing above ■ all things?
14. " O God, Thy way is in the Holy One " (ver. 13). He is contemplating now the works of the mercy of God around us, out of these he is babbling, and in these affections he is exulting. At first he is beginning from thence, " Thy way is in the Holy One? " What is that way of Thine which is in the Holy One? " I am," He saith, " the Way, the Truth, and the Life." 2 Return therefore, ye men, from your affections..."Who is a great God, like our God?" 3 Gentiles have their affections regarding their gods, they adore idols, they have eyes and they see not; ears they have and they hear not; feet they have and they walk not. Why dost thou walk to a God that walketh not? I do not, he saith, worship such things, and what dost thou worship? The divinity which is there. Thou dost then worship that whereof hath been said elsewhere, " for the Gods of the nations are demons." * Thou dost either worship idols, or devils. Neither idols, nor devils, he saith. And what dost thou worship? The stars, sun, moon, those things celestial. How much better Him that hath made both things earthly and things celestial. " Who is a great God like our God? " 15." Thou art the God that doest wonderful things alone " (ver. 14). Thou art indeed a great God, doing wonderful things in body, in soul; alone doing them. The deaf have heard, the blind have seen, the feeble have recovered, the dead have risen, the paralytic have been strengthened. But these miracles were at that time performed on bodies, let us see those wrought on the soul. Sober are those that were a little before drunken, believers are those that were a little before worshippers of idols: their goods they bestow on the poor that did rob before those of others..." Wonderful things alone." Moses too did them, but not alone: Elias too did them, even Eliseus did them, the Apostles too did them, but no one of them alone. That they might have power to do them, Thou wast with them: when Thou didst them they were not with Thee. For they were not with Thee when Thou didst them, inasmuch as Thou didst make even these very men. How "alone"? Is- it perchance the Father, and not the Son? Or the Son, and not the Father? Nay, but Father and Son and Holy Ghost. For it is not three Gods but one God that doeth wonderful things alone, and even in this very leaperover. For even his leaping over and arriving at these things was a miracle of God: when he was babbling within with his own spirit, in order that he might leap over even that same spirit of his, and might delight in the works of God, he then did wonderful things himself. But God hath done what? " Thou hast made known unto the people Thy power." s Thence this congregation of Asaph leaping over; because He hath made known in the peoples His virtue. What virtue of His hath He made known in the peoples? " But we preach Christ crucified,...Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."6 If then the virtue of God is Christ, He hath made known Christ in the peoples.
Do we not yet perceive so much as this; and are w e so unwise, are we lying so much below, do we so leap over nothing, as that we see not this?
16. " Thou hast redeemed in Thine arm Thy people " (ver. 15). " With Thine arm," that is, with Thy power. " And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?"' "Thou hast redeemed in Thine arm Thy people, the sons of Israel and of Joseph." How as if two peoples, " the sons of Israel and of Joseph "? Are not the sons of Joseph among the sons of Israel?...He hath admonished us of some distinction to be made. Let us search out our spirit, perchance God hath placed there something — God whom we ought even by night to seek with our hands, in order that we may not be deceived — perchance we shall discover even ourselves in this distinction of " sons of Israel and of Joseph." By Joseph He hath willed another people to be understood, hath willed that the people of the Gentiles be understood. Why the people of the Gentiles by Joseph? Because Joseph was sold into Egypt by his brethren.8 That Joseph whom the brethren envied, and sold 1 One ms. ' * Vz. cxiii.
through."
2 John xi * Ps. CXX 6. cxxxv. 15.
5 Virtus. 1 Isa. liii. 1.
' Virtue," Oxf. ed.
8 Gen. xxxvii. 38.
6 1 Cor. i. 23.
Psalm LXXVII.]
him into Egypt, when sold into Egypt, toiled, was humbled; when made known and exalted, flourished, reigned. And by all these things he hath signified what? What but Christ sold by His brethren, banished from His own land, as it were into the Egypt of the Gentiles? There at first humbled, when the Martyrs were suffering persecutions: now exalted, as we see; inasmuch as there hath been fulfilled in Him, "There shall adore Him all kinds of the earth, all nations shall serve Him." ' Therefore Joseph is the people of the Gentiles, but Israel the people of the Hebrew nation. God hath redeemed His people, " the sons of Israel and of Joseph." By means of what? By means of the corner stone,2 wherein the two walls have been joined together.
17. And he continueth how? "The waters have seen Thee, O God, and they have feared: and the abysses have been troubled" (ver. 16). What are the waters? The peoples. What are these waters hath been asked in the Apocalypse,3 the answer was, the peoples. There we find most clearly waters put by a figure for peoples. But above he had said, " Thou hast made known in the peoples Thy virtue." 4 With reason therefore, " the waters have seen Thee, and they have feared." They have been changed because they have feared. What are the abysses? The depths of waters. What man among the peoples is not troubled, when the conscience is smitten? Thou seekest the depth of the sea, what is deeper than human conscience? That is the depth which was troubled, when God redeemed with His arm His people. In what manner were the abysses troubled? When all men poured forth their consciences in confession.
18. In praises of God, in confessions of sins, in hymns and in songs, in prayers, " There is a multitude of the sound of waters. The clouds have uttered a voice" (ver. 17). Thence that sound of waters, thence the troubling of the abysses, because " the clouds have uttered a voice." What clouds? The preachers of the word of truth. What clouds? Those concerning which God doth menace a certain vineyard, which instead of grape had brought forth thorns, and He saith, " I will command My clouds, that they rain no rain upon it." 5 In a word, the Apostles forsaking the Jews, went to the Gentiles: in preaching Christ among all nations, " the clouds have uttered a voice." " For Thine arrows have gone through." Those same voices of the clouds He hath again called arrows. For the words of the Evangelists were arrows. For these things are allegories. For properly neither an arrow is rain, nor rain is an arrow: but yet 1 Ps. lxxii. 11. * Ps. bcxvii. 14.
2 Eph. ii. ao. 5 Isa. v. 6.
i Rev. xvii. 15.
the word of God is both an arrow because it doth smite; and rain because it doth water. Let no one therefore any longer wonder at the troubling of the abysses, when " Thine arrows have gone through." What is, " have gone through "? They have not stopped in the ears, but they have pierced the heart. " The voice of Thy thunder is in the wheel" (ver. 18). What is this? How are we to understand it? May the Lord give aid. When boys we were wont to imagine, whenever we heard thunderings from Heaven, that carriages were going forth as it were from the stables. For thunder doth make a sort of rolling like carriages. Must we return to these boyish thoughts, in order to understand, " the voice of Thy thunder is in the wheel," as though God hath certain carriages in the clouds, and the passing along of the carriages doth raise that sound? Far be it. This is boyish, vain, trifling. What is then, " The voice of Thy thunder is in the wheel "? Thy voice rolleth. Not even this do I understand. What shall we do? Let us question Idithun himself, to see whether perchance he may himself explain what he hath said: " The voice," he saith, " of Thy thunder is in the wheel." I do not understand. I will hear what thou sayest: " Thy lightnings have appeared to the round world." Say then, I had no understanding. The round world is a wheel.6 For the circuit of the round world is with reason called also an " orb: " whence also a small wheel is called an "orbiculus." "The voice of Thy thunder is in the wheel: " Thy " lightnings have appeared to the round world." Those clouds in a wheel have gone about the round world, have gone about with thundering and with lightning, they have shaken the abyss, with commandments they have thundered, with miracles they have lightened. " Unto every land hath gone forth the sound of them, and unto the ends of the orb the words of them." ' " The land hath been moved and made to tremble: " that is, all men that dwell in the land. But by a figure the land itself is sea. Why? Because all nations are called by the name of sea, inasmuch as human life is bitter, and exposed to storms and tempests. Moreover if thou observe this, how men devour one another like fishes, how the stronger doth swallow up the weaker — it is then a sea, unto it the Evangelists went.
19. "Thy way is in the sea" (ver. 19). But now Thy way was in the Holy One, now "Thy way is in the sea:" because the Holy One Himself is in the sea, and with reason even did walk upon the waters of the sea.8 6 [No idea of a sphere, but of a plane, bounded by the encircling horizon. — C] 7 Ps. xix. 4. 8 Matt. xiv. 25.
[Psalm LXXVIII.
" Thy way is in the sea," that is, Thy Christ is preached among the Gentiles..." Thy way is in the sea, and Thy paths in many waters," that is, in many peoples. " And Thy footsteps will not be known." He hath touched certain, and wonder were it if it be not those same Jews. Behold now the mercy of Christ hath been so published to the Gentiles, that " Thy way is in the sea. Thy footsteps will not be known." How so, by whom will they not be known, save by those who still say, Christ hath not yet come? Why do they say, Christ hath not yet come? Because they do not yet recognise Him walking on the sea.
20. " Thou hast led home Thy people like sheep in the hand of Moses and of Aaron " (ver. 20). Why He hath added this is somewhat difficult to discover...They banished Christ; sick as they were, they would not have Him for their Saviour; but He began to be among the Gentiles, and among all nations, among many peoples. Nevertheless, a remnant of that people hath been saved. The ungrateful multitude hath remained without, even the halting breadth of Jacob's thigh.' For the breadth of the thigh is understood of the multitude of lineage, and among the greater part of the Israelites a certain multitude became vain and foolish, so as not to know the steps of Christ on the waters. " Thou hast led home Thy people like sheep," and they have not known Thee. Though Thou hast done such great benefits unto them, hast divided sea, hast made them pass over dry land between waters, hast drowned in the waves pursuing enemies, in the desert hast rained manna for their hunger, leading them home " by the hand of Moses and Aaron: " still they thrust Thee from them, so that in the sea was Thy Way, and Thy steps they knew not.
PSALM LXXVIII.'
PSALM LXXVIII.'
1. This Psalm3 doth contain the things which are said to have been done among the old people: but the new and latter people is being admonished, to beware that it be not ungrateful regarding the blessings of God, and provoke His anger against it, whereas it ought to receive His grace...The Title thereof doth first move and engage our attention. For it is not without reason inscribed, " Understanding4 of Asaph: " but it is perchance because these words require a reader who doth perceive not the voice which the surface uttereth, but some inward sense. Secondly, when about to narrate and mention all these things, which seem to need a hearer « Gen. xxxii. 3». » Lat. LXXVII.
' Dictated a.d 415. See Ep. 169, to Evodius. — Ben.
* \lute!lectMi,Vu\-&.; Eruditionis, Jerome; iuceotwt Ty 'Affa$, Sept. — C] more than an expounder: " I will open," he saith, " in parables my mouth, I will declare propositions from the beginning." 5 Who would not herein be awakened out of sleep? Who would dare to hurry over the parables and propositions, reading them as if self-evident, while by their very names they signify that they ought to be sought out with deeper view? For a parable hath on the surface thereof the similitude of something: and though it be a Greek word, it is now used as a Latin word. And it is observable, that in parables, those which are called the similitudes of things are compared with things with which we have to do. But propositions, which in Greek are called irpo/JX^ara, are questions having something therein which is to be solved by disputation. What man then would read parables and propositions cursorily? What man would not attend while hearing these words with watchful mind, in order that by understanding he may come by the fruit thereof?
2. " Hearken ye," He saith, " My people, to My law " (ver. i). Whom may we suppose to be here speaking, but God? For it was Himself that gave a law to His people, whom when delivered out of Egypt He gathered together, the which gathering together is properly named a Synagogue, which the word Asaph is interpreted to signify. Hath it then been said, " Understanding of Asaph," in the sense that Asaph himself hath understood; or must it be figuratively understood, in the sense that the same Synagogue, that is, the same people, hath understood, unto whom is said, " Hearken, My people, unto My law "? Why is it then that He is rebuking the same people by the mouth of the Prophet, saying, " But Israel hath not known Me, and My people hath not understood "? 6 But, in fact, there were even in that people they that understood, having the faith which was afterwards revealed, not pertaining to the letter of the law, but the grace of the Spirit. For they cannot have been without the same faith, who were able to foresee and foretell the revelation thereof that should be in Christ, inasmuch as even those old Sacraments were significants of those that should be. Had the prophets alone this faith, and not the people too? Nay indeed, but even they that faithfully heard the Prophets, were aided by the same grace in order that they might understand what they heard. But without doubt the mystery * of the Kingdom of Heaven was veiled in the Old Testament, which in the fulness of time should be unveiled in the New.3 " For," saith the Apostle, " they did drink of the Spiritual Rock following them, but the Rock was 5 Ps. lxxvii. 3.
• [Velaoatur in Vttcri, quod revelaretur in Novo. — C] Psalm LXXVIII.]
Christ." ■ In a mystery therefore theirs was the same meat and drink as ours, but in signification the same, not in form; 2 because the same Christ was Himself figured to them in a Rock, manifested to us in the Flesh. " But," he saith, " not in all of them God was well pleased." 3 All indeed ate the same spiritual meat and drank the same spiritual drink, that is to say, signifying something spiritual: but not in all of them was God well pleased. When, he saith, " not in all: " there were evidently there some in whom was God well pleased; and although all the Sacraments were common, grace, which is the virtue of the Sacraments, was not common to all. Just as in our times, now that the faith hath been revealed, which then was veiled, to all men that have been baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,4 the Laver of regeneration is common; but the very grace whereof these same are the Sacraments, whereby the members of the Body of Christ are to reign s together with their Head, is not common to all. For even heretics have the same Baptism, and false brethren too, in the communion of the Catholic name.
3. Nevertheless, neither then nor now without profit is the voice of him, saying, " Hearken ye, My people, to My law." Which expression is remarkable in all the Scriptures, how he saith not, " hearken thou," but, " hearken ye." For of many men a people doth consist: to which many that which followeth is spoken in the plural number. " Incline ye your ear unto the words of My mouth." " Hearken ye," is the same as, " Incline your ear: " and what He saith there, " My law," this He saith here in, " the words of My mouth." For that man doth godly hearken to the law of God, and the words of His mouth, whose ear humility doth incline: not he whose neck pride doth lift up. For whatever is poured in is received on the concave surface of humility, is shaken off from the convexity of swelling. Whence in another place, " Incline," he saith, " thine ear, and receive the words of understanding."6 We have been therefore sufficiently admonished to receive even this Psalm of this understanding of Asaph,7 to receive, I say, with inclined ear, that is, with humble piety. And it hath not been spoken of as being of Asaph himself, but to Asaph himself. Which thing is evident by the Greek article, and is found in certain Latin copies. These words therefore are of understanding, that is, of intelligence, which hath been given to Asaph himself: which we had better understand not as to one man, but as to 2 Specie. * Malt, xxviii. 19. are regenerated," which makes scarcely 1 1 Cor. x. 4. 3 1 Cor. x 5. 3 So Oxf. mss.: Ben. an intelligible sense.
6 Prov. v. t.
7 I He subjoins as follows: " For the word on the Title is put i: the genitive case: hujus intellects*, not hie intellectus." — C.]
the congregation of the people of God; whence we ought by no means to alienate ourselves. For although properly we say " Synagogue " of Jews, but " Church " of Christians, because a " Congregation " 8 is wont to be understood as rather of beasts, but a " convocation " as rather of men: yet that too we find called a Church, and it perhaps is more suitable for us 9 to say, " Save us, O Lord, our God, and congregate us from the nations, in order that we may confess to Thy Holy Nane." '° Neither ought we to disdain to be, nay we ought to render ineffable thanks, for that we are, the sheep of His hands, which He foresaw when He was saying, " I have other sheep which are not of this fold, them too I must lead in, that there may be one flock and one Shepherd:"" that is to say, by joining the faithful people of the Gentiles with the faithful people of the Israelites, concerning whom He had before said, " I have not been sent but to the sheep which have strayed of the house of Israel.",2 For also there shall be congregated before Him all nations, and He shall sever them as a shepherd the sheep from the goats. '3 Thus then let us hear that which hath been spoken. " Hearken ye, My people, to My law, incline ye your ear unto the words of My mouth: " not as if addressed to Jews, but rather as if addressed to ourselves, or at least as if these words were said as well to ourselves (as to them '4). For when the Apostle had said, " But not in all them was God well pleased," thereby showing that there were those too in whom God was well pleased: he hath forthwith added, " For they were overthrown in the desert: " '5