[277] See on Ps. lxxxiv. [The octave of Ps. i., and understood by the Fathers of the ascension of Christ. It was probably sung at the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles.--C.]
[278] Luke iii. 17.
[279] Numb. xiii. 23.
[280] John xix. 29.
[281] Matt. xxvi. 29.
[282] 1 Cor. iii. 1, 2.
[283] Matt. xxi. 16.
[284] 1 Cor. ii. 6.
[285] Eph. iii. 17-19.
[286] 1 Cor. ii. 6-10.
[287] See "On Profit of Believing."
[288] Isa. vi. 9; Acts xiii. 27-41.
[289] John xx. 29.
[290] Matt. xi. 25.
[291] See on Ps. cii., and St. Greg. on Job, Intr. § 15.
[292] Exod. xxxi. 18, xxxiv. 28; Deut. ix. 10. [The "arm of the Lord" is understood by the Fathers of the Son; so also the "right hand of the Lord." The "finger" (proceeding from head and hand) is understood of the Holy Spirit. So the Latin hymn, "Dextræ Dei tu Digitus."--C.]
[293] Exod. viii. 19.
[294] Isa. xxxiv. 4. See Rev. vi. 14.
[295] Ps. xviii. 9.
[296] Al. step of faith.
[297] Oxford mss. "and establish them in it," for "up," etc.
[298] [Here is intimated Augustin's idea of the Catholic Church, in which individual national churches hold their own autonomies.--C.]
[299] Ps. xi. 2.
[300] 1 Cor. xv. 49.
[301] Oxford mss. "called man, and the old man."
[302] Eph. iv. 22, 24.
[303] Ps. cxix. 155.
[304] Ps. iv. 6.
[305] Ps. xxxvi. 6-10.
[306] 1 Cor. iii. 1, 2, 3.
[307] 1 Cor. xv. 27.
[308] Heb. ii. 8.
[309] Primates.
[310] Matt. xviii. 12; Luke xv. 4.
[311] Gen. ii. 21, 22.
[312] 1 Cor. ix. 9; 1 Tim. v. 18.
[313] [See p. 27, and p. 30, note 1, supra.--C.]
[314] Campi.
[315] See on title. Matt. iii. 12, xiii. 47; Gen. vii. 8.
[316] Matt. vii. 13.
[317] Gen. iv. 8.
[318] Ps. xxxvi. 6.
[319] Ps. lxxiii. 9.
[320] Ps. xii. 4.
[321] 1 John ii. 15, 16.
[322] Matt. iv. 3.
[323] Matt. iv. 8, 9.
[324] Matt. iv. 6.
[325] Luke iv. 13.
Psalm IX.
1. The inscription of this Psalm is, "To the end for the hidden things of the Son, a Psalm of David himself." [326] As to the hidden things of the Son there may be a question: but since he has not added whose, the very only-begotten Son of God should be understood. For where a Psalm has been inscribed of the son of David, [327] "When," he says, "he fled from the face of Absalom his son;" although his name even was mentioned, and therefore there could be no obscurity as to whom it was spoken of: yet it is not merely said, from the face of son Absalom; but "his" is added. But here both because "his" is not added, and much is said of the Gentiles, it cannot properly be taken of Absalom. [328] For the war which that abandoned one waged with his father, no way relates to the Gentiles, since there the people of Israel only were divided against themselves. This Psalm is then sung for the hidden things of the only-begotten Son of God. [329] For the Lord Himself too, when, without addition, He uses the word Son, would have Himself, the Only-begotten to be understood; as where He says, "If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed." [330] For He said not, the Son of God; but in saying merely, Son, He gives us to understand whose Son it is. Which form of expression nothing admits of, save His excellency of whom we so speak, that, though we name Him not, He can be understood. For so we say, it rains, clears up, thunders, and such like expressions; and we do not add who does it all; for that the excellency of the doer spontaneously presents itself to all men's minds, and does not want words. What then are the hidden things of the Son? By which expression we must first understand that there are some things of the Son manifest, from which those are distinguished which are called hidden. Wherefore since we believe two advents of the Lord, one past, which the Jews understood not: the other future, which we both hope for; and since the one which the Jews understood not, profited the Gentiles; "For the hidden things of the Son" is not unsuitably understood to be spoken of this advent, in which "blindness in part is happened to Israel, that the fulness of the Gentiles might come in."
For notice of two judgments is conveyed to us throughout the Scriptures, if any one will give heed to them, one hidden, the other manifest. The hidden one is passing now, of which the Apostle Peter says, "The time is come that judgment should begin from the house of the Lord." [332] The hidden judgment accordingly is the pain, by which now each man is either exercised to purification, or warned to conversion, or if he despise the calling and discipline of God, is blinded unto damnation. But the manifest judgment is that in which the Lord, at His coming, will judge the quick and the dead, all men confessing that it is He by whom both rewards shall be assigned to the good, and punishments to the evil. But then that confession will avail, not to the remedy of evils, but to the accumulation of damnation. Of these two judgments, the one hidden, the other manifest, the Lord seems to me to have spoken, where He says, "Whoso believeth on Me hath passed from death unto life, and shall not come into judgment;" [333] into the manifest judgment, that is. For that which passes from death unto life by means of some affliction, whereby "He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth," [334] is the hidden judgment. "But whoso believeth not," saith He, "hath been judged already:" [335] that is, by this hidden judgment hath been already prepared for that manifest one. These two judgments we read of also in Wisdom, whence it is written, "Therefore unto them, as to children without the use of reason, Thou didst give a judgment to mock them; But they that have not been corrected by this judgment have felt a judgment worthy of God." [336] Whoso then are not corrected by this hidden judgment of God, shall most worthily be punished by that manifest one....
2. "I will confess unto Thee, O Lord, with my whole heart" (ver. 1). He doth not, with a whole heart, confess unto God, who doubteth of His Providence in any particular: but he who sees already the hidden things of the wisdom of God, how great is His invisible reward, who saith, "We rejoice in tribulations;" [337] and how all torments, which are inflicted on the body, are either for the exercising of those that are converted to God, or for warning that they be converted, or for just preparation of the obdurate unto their last damnation: and so now all things are referred to the governance of Divine Providence, which fools think done as it were by chance and at random, and without any Divine ordering. "I will tell all Thy marvels." He tells all God's marvels, who sees them performed not only openly on the body, but invisibly indeed too in the soul, but far more sublimely and excellently. For men earthly, and led wholly by the eye, marvel more that the dead Lazarus rose again in the body, than that Paul the persecutor rose again in soul. [338] But since the visible miracle calleth the soul to the light, but the invisible enlighteneth the soul that comes when called, he tells all God's marvels, who, by believing the visible, passes on to the understanding of the invisible.
3. "I will be glad and exult in Thee" (ver. 2). Not any more in this world, not in pleasure of bodily dalliance, not in relish of palate and tongue, not in sweetness of perfumes, not in joyousness of passing sounds, not in the variously coloured forms of figure, not in vanities of men's praise, not in wedlock and perishable offspring, not in superfluity of temporal wealth, not in this world's getting, whether it extend over place and space, or be prolonged in time's succession: but, "I will be glad and exult in Thee," namely, in the hidden things of the Son, where "the light of Thy countenance hath been stamped on us, O Lord:" [339] for, "Thou wilt hide them," saith he, "in the hiding place of Thy countenance." [340] He then will be glad and exult in Thee, who tells all Thy marvels. And He will tell all Thy marvels (since it is now spoken of prophetically), "who came not to do His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him." [341]
4. For now the Person of the Lord begins to appear speaking in this Psalm. For it follows, "I will sing to Thy Name, O Most High, in turning mine enemy behind." His enemy then, where was he turned back? Was it when it was said to him, "Get thee behind, Satan"? [342] For then he who by tempting desired to put himself before, was turned behind, by failing in deceiving Him who was tempted, and by availing nothing against Him. For earthly men are behind: but the heavenly man is preferred before, although he came after. For "the first man is of the earth, earthy: the second Man is from heaven, heavenly." [343] But from this stock he came by whom it was said, "He who cometh after me is preferred before me." [344] And the Apostle forgets "those things that are behind, and reaches forth unto those things that are before." [345] The enemy, therefore, was turned behind, after that he could not deceive the heavenly Man being tempted; and he turned himself to earthy men, where he can have dominion....For in truth the devil is turned behind, even in the persecution of the righteous, and he, much more to their advantage, is a persecutor, than if he went before as a leader and a prince. We must sing then to the Name of the Most High in turning the enemy behind: since we ought to choose rather to fly from him as a persecutor, than to follow him as a leader. For we have whither we may fly and hide ourselves in the hidden things of the Son; seeing that "the Lord hath been made a refuge for us." [346]
5. "They will be weakened, and perish from Thy face" (ver. 3). Who will be weakened and perish, but the unrighteous and ungodly? "They will be weakened," while they shall avail nothing; "and they shall perish," because the ungodly will not be; "from the face" of God, that is, from the knowledge of God, as he perished who said, "But now I live not, but Christ liveth in me." [347] But why will the ungodly "be weakened and perish from thy face?" "Because," he saith, "Thou hast made my judgment, and my cause:" that is, the judgment in which I seemed to be judged, Thou hast made mine; and the cause in which men condemned me just and innocent, Thou hast made mine. For such things served [348] Him for our deliverance: as sailors too call the wind theirs, which they take advantage of for prosperous sailing.
6. "Thou satest on the throne Who judgest equity" (ver. 4). Whether the Son say this to the Father, who said also, "Thou couldest have no power against Me, except it were given thee from above," [349] referring this very thing, that the Judge of men was judged for men's advantage, to the Father's equity and His own hidden things: or whether man say to God, "Thou satest on the throne Who judgest equity," giving the name of God's throne to his soul, so that his body may peradventure be the earth, which is called God's "footstool:" [350] for "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself:" [351] or whether the soul of the Church, perfect now and without spot and wrinkle, [352] worthy, that is, of the hidden things of the Son, in that "the King hath brought her into His chamber," [353] say to her spouse, "Thou satest upon the throne Who judgest equity," in that Thou hast risen from the dead, and ascended up into heaven, and sittest at the right hand of the Father: whichsoever, I say, of those opinions, whereunto this verse may be referred, is preferred, it transgresses not the rule of faith.
7. "Thou hast rebuked the heathen, and the ungodly hath perished" (ver. 5). We take this to be more suitably said to the Lord Jesus Christ, than said by Him. For who else hath rebuked the heathen, and the ungodly perished, save He, who after that He ascended up into heaven, sent the Holy Ghost, that, filled by Him, the Apostles should preach the word of God with boldness, and freely reprove men's sins? At which rebuke the ungodly perished; because the ungodly was justified and was made godly. "Thou hast effaced their name for the world, [354] and for the world's world. The name of the ungodly hath been effaced. For they are not called ungodly who believe in the true God. Now their name is effaced "for the world," that is, as long as the course of the temporal world endures. "And for the world's world." What is "the world's world," but that whose image and shadow, as it were, this world possesses? For the change of seasons succeeding one another, whilst the moon is on the wane, and again on the increase, whilst the sun each year returns to his quarter, whilst spring, or summer, or autumn, or winter passes away only to return, is in some sort an imitation of eternity. But this world's world is that which abides in immutable eternity. As a verse in the mind, and a verse in the voice, the former is understood, the latter heard; and the former fashions the latter; and hence the former works in art and abides, the latter sounds in the air and passes away. So the fashion of this changeable world is defined by that world unchangeable which is called the world's world. And hence the one abides in the art, that is, in the Wisdom and Power of God: but the other is made to pass in the governance of creation. If after all it be not a repetition, so that after it was said "for the world," lest it should be understood of this world that passeth away, it were added "for the world's world." For in the Greek copies it is thus, eis ton aiona, kai eis ton aiona tou aionos Which the Latins have for the most rendered, not, "for the world, and for the world's world;" [355] but, "for ever, and for the world's world," [356] that in the words "for the world's world," the, words "for ever," should be explained. "The name," then, "of the ungodly Thou hast effaced for ever," for from henceforth the ungodly shall never be. And if their name be not prolonged unto this world, much less unto the world's world. [357]