25. "They also that render evil for good, were speaking evil of me, because I have pursued the thing that is just" (ver. 20). Therefore was it that I was requited evil for good. What is meant by "pursued after the thing that is just"? Not forsaken it. That you might not always understand persecutio in a bad sense, He means by persecutus pursued after, thoroughly followed. "Because I have followed the thing that is just." Hear also our Head crying with a lamentable voice in His Passion: "And they cast Me forth, Thy Darling, even as a dead man in abomination." [1010] Was it not enough that He was "dead"? wherefore "in abomination" also? Because He was crucified. For this death of the Cross was a great abomination in their eyes, as they did not perceive that it was spoken in prophecy, "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." [1011] For He did not Himself bring death; but He found it here, propagated from the curse of the first man; and this same death of ours, which had originated in sin, He had taken upon Himself, and hung on the Tree. Lest therefore some persons should think (as some of the Heretics think), that our Lord Jesus Christ had only a false body of flesh; and that the death by which He made satisfaction on the Cross was not a real death, the Prophet notices this, and says, "Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." He shows then that the Son of God died a true death, the death which was due to mortal flesh: lest if He were not "accursed," you should think that He had not truly died. But since that death was not an illusion, but had descended from that original stock, which had been derived from the curse, when He said, "Ye shall surely die:" [1012] and since a true death assuredly extended even to Him, that a true life might extend itself to us, the curse of death also did extend to Him, that the blessing of life might extend even unto us. "And they cast Me forth, Thy Darling, even as a dead man in abomination."
26. "Forsake me not, O Lord; O my God, depart not from me" (ver. 21). Let us speak in Him, let us speak through Him (for He Himself intercedeth for us), and let us say, "Forsake me not, O Lord my God." And yet He had said, "My God! My God! why hast Thou forsaken Me?" [1013] and He now says, "O My God, depart not from Me." If He does not forsake the body, did He forsake the Head? Whose words then are these but the First Man's? To show then that He carried about Him a true body of flesh derived from him, He says, "My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken Me?" God had not forsaken Him. If He does not forsake Thee, who believest in Him, could the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, One God, forsake Christ? But He had transferred to Himself the person of the First Man. We know by the words of an Apostle, that "our old man is crucified with Him." [1014] We should not, however, be divested of our old nature, had He not been crucified "in weakness." For it was to this end that He came that we may be renewed in Him, because it is by aspiration after Him, and by following the example of His suffering, that we are renewed. Therefore that was the cry of infirmity; that cry, I mean, in which it was said, "Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" Thence was it said in that passage above, "the words of mine offences." As if He were saying, These words are transferred to My Person from that of the sinner.
27. "Depart not from me. Make haste to help me, Lord of my salvation" (ver. 22). This is that very "salvation," Brethren, concerning which, as the Apostle Peter saith, "Prophets have enquired diligently," [1015] and though they have enquired diligently, yet have not found it. But they searched into it, and foretold of it; while we have come and have found what they sought for. And see, we ourselves too have not as yet received it; and after us shall others also be born, and shall find, what they also shall not receive, and shall pass away, that we may, all of us together, receive the "penny of salvation in the end of the day," with the Prophets, the Patriarchs, and the Apostles. For you know that the hired servants, or labourers, were taken into the vineyard at different times; yet did they all receive their wages on an equal footing. [1016] Apostles, then, and Prophets, and Martyrs, and ourselves also, and those who will follow us to the end of the world, it is in the End itself that we are to receive everlasting salvation; that beholding the face of God, and contemplating His Glory, we may praise Him for ever, free from imperfection, free from any punishment of iniquity, free from every perversion of sin: praising Him; and no longer longing after Him, but now clinging to Him for whom we used to long to the very end, and in whom we did rejoice, in hope. For we shall be in that City, where God is our Bliss, God is our Light, God is our Bread, God is our Life; whatever good thing of ours there is, at being absent from which we now grieve, we shall find in Him. In Him will be that "rest," which when we "call to remembrance" now, we cannot choose but grieve. For that is the "Sabbath" which we "call to remembrance;" in the recollection of which, so great things have been said already; and so great things ought to be said by us also, and ought never to cease being said by us, not with our lips indeed, but in our heart: for therefore do our lips cease to speak, that we may cry out with our hearts. [1017]
[944] Lat. XXXVII.
[945] Matt. v. 4.
[946] Futuri sunt in emendatione quidam salvi.
[947] Emendatio (alluding to emendes in the Latin of v. 1.).
[948] Utique arguet.
[949] Matt. xxv. 42.
[950] 1 Cor. iii. 15.
[951] 1 Cor. iii. 12.
[952] Per.
[953] [See Augustin's ideas as to a possible meaning of the text 1 Cor. iii. 11-15 in vol. ii. this series, p. 474. He there propounds, as a conjecture merely, a purification of some souls in the intermediate state, which he does not care to reject. It is not his own theory; he says, I do not contradict; possibly it is true." He thus proves there was no dogma of any sort of purgatory in his day, and even this theory is entirely inconsistent with the dogma as expounded in the Trent Catechism.--C.]
[954] Gen. ii. 17.
[955] Job vi. 4.
[956] 1 Cor. xv. 53.
[957] Ps. xxii. 1.
[958] Ps. xxii. 18.
[959] Gen. ii. 24.
[960] Matt. xxv. 42, 43.
[961] Matt. xxv. 44, 45.
[962] Acts ix. 4.
[963] Matt. xix. 6.
[964] Ecclus. x. 12. [Note "as a Lesson:" part of Divine Service.--C.]
[965] Ps. vii. 16.
[966] 2 Cor. ii. 15.
[967] [Isa. lviii. 13.--C.]
[968] Song of Sol. i. 3, 4.
[969] Ps. xxxviii. 5.
[970] John xiv. 6.
[971] 1 Cor. ii. 10.
[972] John xiv. 8.
[973] John xiv. 9.
[974] John xiv. 21.
[975] St. Augustin, infirmatus; E.V. "troubled;" Prayer Book, "feeble;" Vulgate, afflictus.
[976] Ps. xxxi. 22.
[977] Assumpta mente.
[978] 2 Cor. xii. 2, 4.
[979] 2 Cor. xii. 4.
[980] Rugiebam a gemitu cordis mei. E.V. "by reason of the disquietness."
[981] Matt. vi. 6.
[982] 1 Thess. v. 17.
[983] Matt. xxiv. 12.
[984] Matt. v. 44.
[985] Gen. iii. 8.
[986] E.V. "and my friends stand aloof."
[987] Matt. xx. 22.
[988] Matt. xxii. 16.
[989] John ii. 25.
[990] Matt. xxii. 18.
[991] Isa. xxix. 13.
[992] John xxi. 15.
[993] Ps. cxlii. 4.
[994] Matt. xxvi. 60.
[995] Isa. liii. 9. St. Augustin, Ponam malos pro sepulturâ ejus. Vulgate, Dabit impios, etc.
[996] Matt. xxviii. 13.
[997] Matt. xxiii. 13.
[998] Isa. liii. 7.
[999] Gal. vi. 1.
[1000] Al. "He would not suffer."
[1001] Prov. iii. 11.
[1002] Heb. xii. 6.
[1003] Job i. 21.
[1004] John xi. 39.
[1005] Fiant, redimantur.
[1006] Al. "fill thine inward parts."
[1007] Ps. cxliv. 12-14.
[1008] Ps. cxliv. 15.
[1009] Cito subintrat.
[1010] A few mss. of LXX. note this to be added here.
[1011] Deut. xxi. 23.
[1012] Gen. ii. 17.
[1013] Matt. xxvii. 46.
[1014] Rom. vi. 6.
[1015] 1 Pet. i. 10.
[1016] Matt. xx. 9.
[1017] [Heb. iv. 9. The Sabbath that "remaineth" is the only Sabbath our author sees in this Psalm.--C.]
Psalm XXXIX. [1018]
1. The title of this Psalm, which we have just chanted and proposed to discuss, is, "On the end, for Idithun, a Psalm for David himself." Here then we must look for, and must attend to, the words of a certain person who is called Idithun; and if each one of ourselves may be Idithun, in that which he sings he recognises himself, and hears himself speak. For thou mayest see who was called Idithun, according to the ancient descent of man; let us, however, understand what this name is translated, and seek to comprehend the Truth in the translation of the word. According therefore to what we have been able to discover by enquiry in those names which have been translated from the Hebrew tongue into the Latin, by those who study the sacred writings, Idithun being translated is "over-leaping them." Who then is this person "over-leaping them"? or who those whom he hath "over-leaped"?...For there are some persons, yet clinging to the earth, yet bowed down to the ground, yet setting their hearts on what is below, yet placing their hopes in things that pass away, whom he who is called "over-leaping them" hath "over-leaped."
2. You know that some of the Psalms are entitled, "Songs of Degrees;" and in the Greek it is obvious enough what the word ?nabathmon means. For ?nabathmoi are degrees (or steps) of them that ascend, not of them that descend. The Latin, not being able to express it strictly, expresses it by the general term; and in that it called them "steps," left it undetermined, whether they were "steps" of persons ascending or descending. But because there is no "speech or language where their voices are not heard among them," [1019] the earlier language explains the one which comes after it: and what was ambiguous in one is made certain in another. Just then as there the singer is some one who is "ascending," so here is it some one who is "over-leaping."...Let this Idithun come still to us, let him "over-leap" those whose delight is in things below, and take delight in these things, and let him rejoice in the Word of the Lord; in the delight of the law of the Most High....
3. "I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue" (ver. 1)....For it is not without reason that the tongue is set in a moist place, but because it is so prone to slip. [1020] Perceiving therefore how hard it was for a man to be under the necessity of speaking, and not to say something that he will wish unsaid, and filled with disgust at these sins, he seeks to avoid the like. To this difficulty is he exposed who is seeking to "leap beyond."...Although I have "leaped beyond" the pleasures of earth, although the fleeting [1021] passions for things temporal ensnare me not, though now I despise these things below, and am rising up to better things than these, yet in these very better things the satisfaction of knowledge in the sight of God is enough for me. Of what use is it for me to speak what is to be laid hold of, and to give a handle to cavillers? Therefore, "I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue. I keep my mouth with a bridle." Wherefore is this? Is it on account of the religious, the thoughtful, the faithful, the holy ones? God forbid! These persons hear in such a manner, as to praise what they approve; but as for what they disapprove, perhaps, among much that they praise they rather excuse than cavil at it; on account of what persons then dost thou "take heed to thy ways," and place a guard on thy lips "that thou mayest not sin with thy tongue"? Hear: it is, "While the wicked standeth over against me." It is not "by me" that he takes up his station, but "against me." Why?...Even the Lord Himself says, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." [1022] And the Apostle, "I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal." [1023] Yet not as to persons to be despaired of, but as to those who still required to be nourished. For he goes on to say, "As babes in Christ, I have fed you with milk, and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able." Well, tell it unto us even now. "Neither yet now are ye able." [1024] Be not therefore impatient to hear that which as yet thou art not capable of; but grow that thou mayest be "able to bear it." It is thus we address the little one, who yet requires to be fed with kindly milk [1025] in the bosom of Mother Church, and to be rendered meet for the "strong meat" of the Lord's Table. But what can I say even of that kind to the sinner, who "taketh his stand against me," who either thinks or pretends himself capable of what he "cannot bear;" so that when I say anything unto him, and he has failed to comprehend it, he should not suppose that it was not he that had failed to comprehend, but I who had broken down. Therefore because of this sinner, who "taketh up his stand against me, I keep my mouth as it were with a bridle."