19. "But surely every man living disquieteth himself in vain." He returns to what he mentioned a little before. Although he be improving here, yet for all that, "every man living disquieteth himself in vain;" forasmuch as he lives in a state of uncertainty. For who has any assurance even of his own goodness? "He is disquieted in vain." Let him "cast upon the Lord the burden" [1082] of his care; let him cast upon Him whatever causes him anxiety. "Let Him sustain thee;" let Him keep thee. For on this earth what is there that is certain, except death? Consider the whole sum of all the good or the ill of this life, either those belonging to righteousness, or those belonging to unrighteousness; what is there that is certain here, except death? Have you been advancing in goodness? You know what you are to-day; what you will be to-morrow, you know not! Are you a sinner? you know what you are to-day; what you will be to-morrow, you know not! You hope for wealth; it is uncertain whether it will fall to your lot. You hope to have a wife; it is uncertain whether you will obtain one, or what sort of one you will obtain. You hope for sons: it is uncertain whether they will be born to you. Are they born? it is uncertain whether they will live: if they live, it is uncertain whether they will grow up in virtue, or whether they will fall away. Whichever way you turn, all is uncertain, death alone is certain. Art thou poor? It is uncertain whether thou wilt grow rich. Art thou unlearned? It is uncertain whether thou wilt become learned. Art thou in feeble health, it is uncertain whether thou wilt regain thy strength. Art thou born? It is certain that thou wilt die: and in this certainty of death itself, the day of thy death is uncertain. Amidst these uncertainties, where death alone is certain, while even of that the hour is uncertain, and while it alone is studiously guarded against, though at the same time it is in no way to be escaped, "every man living disquieteth himself in vain."...
20. "Hear my prayer, O Lord" (ver. 12). Whereof shall I rejoice? Whereof should I groan? I rejoice on account of what is past, I groan longing for these which are not yet come. "Hear my prayer, and give ear unto my cry. Hold not Thy peace at my tears." For do I now no longer weep, because I have already "passed by," have "left behind" so great things as these? "Do I not weep much the more?" For, "He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow." [1083] The more I long for what is not here, do I not so much the more groan for it until it comes? do I not so much the more weep until it comes?...
21. "For I am a sojourner with Thee." But with whom am I a "sojourner"? When I was with the devil, I was a "sojourner;" but then I had a bad host and entertainer; now, however, I am with Thee; but I am a "sojourner" still. What is meant by a sojourner? I am a "sojourner" in the place from which I am to remove; not in the place where I am to dwell for ever. The place where I am to abide for ever, should be rather called my home. In the place from which I am to remove I am a "sojourner;" but yet it is with my God that I am a sojourner, with whom I am hereafter to abide, when I have reached my home. But what home is that to which you are to remove from this estate of a sojourner? Recognise that home, of which the Apostle speaks, "We have an habitation of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens." [1084] If this house is eternal in the Heavens, when we have come to it, we shall not be sojourners any more. For how should you be a sojourner in an eternal home? But here, where the Master of the house is some day to say to you, "Remove," while you yourself know not when He will say it, be thou in readiness. And by longing for your eternal home, you will be keeping yourself in readiness for it. And be not angry with Him, because He gives thee notice to remove, when He Himself pleases. For He made no covenant with thee, nor did He bind Himself by any engagement; nor didst thou enter upon the tenancy of this house on a certain stipulation for a definite term: thou art to quit, when it is its Master's pleasure. For therefore is it that you now dwell there free of charge. "For I am a sojourner with Thee, and a stranger." Therefore it is there is my country: it is there is my home. "I am a sojourner with Thee, and a stranger." Here too is understood "with Thee." For many are strangers with the devil: but they who have already believed and are faithful, are, it is true, "strangers" as yet, because they have not yet come to that country and to that home: but still they are strangers with God. For so long as we are in the body, we are strangers from the Lord, and we desire, whether we are strangers, or abiding here, "we may be accepted with Him." [1085] I am a "sojourner with Thee; and a stranger, as all my fathers were." If then I am as all my fathers were, shall I say that I will not remove, when they have removed? Am I to lodge here on other terms, than those on which they lodged here also?...
22. "Grant me some remission, that I may be refreshed before I go hence" (ver. 13). Consider well, Idithun, consider what knots those are which thou wouldest have "loosed" unto thee, that thou mightest be "refreshed before thou goest hence." For thou hast certain fever-heats from which thou wouldest fain be refreshed, and thou sayest, "that I may be refreshed," and "grant me a remission." What should He remit, or loosen unto thee, save that difficulty under which, and in consequence of which, thou sayest, "Forgive us our debts. Grant me a remission before I go hence, and be no more." Set me free from my sins, "before I go hence," that I may not go hence with my sins. Remit them unto me, that I may be set at rest in my conscience, that it may be disburthened of its feverish anxiety, the anxiety with which "I am sorry for my sin. Grant me a remission, that I may be refreshed" (before everything else), "before I go hence, and be no more." For if thou grantest me not a "remission, that I may be refreshed," I shall "go and be no more." "Before I go" thither, where if I go, I shall thenceforth "be no more. Grant me a remission, that I may be refreshed." A question has suggested itself, how he will be no more....What is meant then by "shall be no more," unless Idithun is alluding to what is true "being," and what is not true "being." For he was beholding with the mind, with which he could do so, with the "mind's eye," by which he was able to behold it, that end, which he had desired to have shown unto him, saying, "Lord, make me to know mine end." He was beholding "the number of his days, which truly is;" and he observed that all that is below, in comparison of that true being, has no true being. For those things are permanent; these are subject to change; mortal, and frail, and the eternal suffering, though full of corruption, is for this very reason not to be ended, that it may ever be being ended without end. He alluded therefore to that realm of bliss, to the happy country, to the happy home, where the Saints are partakers of eternal Life, and of Truth unchangeable; and he feared to "go" where that is not, where there is no true being; longing to be there, where "Being" in the highest sense is! It is on account of this contrast then, while standing midway between them, he says, "Grant me a remission, that I may be refreshed before I go hence and be no more." For if Thou "grantest me not a remission" of my sins, I shall go from Thee unto all eternity! And from whom shall I go to all eternity? From Him who said, I Am HE that Am: from Him who said, "Say unto the children of Israel, I Am hath sent me unto you." [1086] He then who goes from Him, in the contrary direction, goes to non-existence....
[1018] Lat. XXXVIII.
[1019] Ps. xix. 3.
[1020] Non frustra in udo est, nisi quia facile labitur.
[1021] Volatici.
[1022] John xvi. 12.
[1023] 1 Cor. iii. 1.
[1024] 1 Cor. iii. 2.
[1025] Pio lacte.
[1026] Ps. li. 8.
[1027] John iii. 29.
[1028] John viii. 44.
[1029] He omits, "My heart became hot within me."
[1030] Matt. xxv. 26, 27.
[1031] Matt. xxv. 30.
[1032] Matt. xxv. 27.
[1033] Matt. xxiv. 12.
[1034] Phil. iii. 12, 13.
[1035] Ps. cii. 27.
[1036] Exod. iii. 14.
[1037] E.V. Ps. cx. 7, "the brook."
[1038] Rev. xxi. 9.
[1039] Rev. xxi. 25.
[1040] Phil. iii. 12, 14.
[1041] Phil. iii. 9.
[1042] E.V. "as an hand-breadth."
[1043] 2 Cor. v. 17.
[1044] 2 Cor. iv. 16.
[1045] Alluding to palaioumenon, Heb. viii. 13.
[1046] Ps. cxxxix. 16.
[1047] Al. "learned."
[1048] i.e., in the high doctrine, p. 114; but some mss. ap. Ben. and ours, Fluctuavi in dispensatione munerum (or nummorum) Dominicorum: "I have wavered in the dispensing of the Lord's gifts (or moneys)." A better sense, see p. 113.
[1049] Job iii. 25.
[1050] E.V. "in a vain show."
[1051] Gen. i. 26.
[1052] Ps. xl. 4.
[1053] Text, castigetur. Four mss. have congregetur, one collocetur; three cartigetur, on which word there is a gloss. Cartigare est in chartâ propter memoriam aliquid scribere; usitatius de usurariis dicitur. Nine mss. castigetur, as Martial, Et cujus laxas arca flagellat opes, and the Jurisconsults flagellare annonam, for "to shut up."--Ben. Flagellare annonam, however, seems rather to mean to "drive up the prices," and perhaps arca flagellat may be the lid striking the heaped contents, thus affording no parallel. However, it may be to "keep it from peeping out." Oxf. mss. cartigetur.
[1054] Col. i. 16.
[1055] Hoc, qu. hic, "here."
[1056] Phil. iii. 13.
[1057] Rom. viii. 24, 25.
[1058] E.V. "And now, Lord, what wait I for," etc.
[1059] Col. i. 16.
[1060] Oxf. mss. inquit.
[1061] 1 John i. 8.
[1062] Matt. vi. 12.
[1063] Rom. x. 4.
[1064] Phil. iii. 15.
[1065] Luke xviii. 14.
[1066] 1 Cor. iv. 9.
[1067] Or, "deaf."
[1068] Augustin and Vulgate, quid loquatur in me.
[1069] Ps. lxxxv. 8.
[1070] Isa. xlviii. 22.
[1071] Ps. xciv. 9.
[1072] Ut producar, non ut comminuar.
[1073] Ps. cxix. 71. Justificationes.
[1074] Ps. cxvi. 6, cxix. 71.
[1075] Ps. xliv. 20. Qui fingis dolorem in præcepto (Vulgate, laborem); E.V. "which frameth mischief by a law."
[1076] Matt. viii. 11.
[1077] Rom. x. 3.
[1078] Ps. lxxxii. 7.
[1079] [Dan. x. 13. "Princes" understood of angels. Then, Isa. xiv. 12. So Shaks.: "He falls like Lucifer," etc.--C.]
[1080] 1 Cor. i. 31.
[1081] 2 Cor. xii. 10.
[1082] Ps. lv. 22.
[1083] Eccles. i. 18.
[1084] 2 Cor. v. 1.
[1085] 2 Cor. v. 9.
[1086] Ex. iii. 14.
Psalm XL. [1087]
1. Of all those things which our Lord Jesus Christ has foretold, we know part to have been already accomplished, part we hope will be accomplished hereafter. All of them, however, will be fulfilled, because He is "the Truth" who speaks them, and requires of us to be as "faithful," as He Himself speaks them faithfully....
2. Let us say then what this Psalm says. "I waited patiently for the Lord" (ver. 1). I waited patiently for the promise of no mere mortal who can both deceive and be himself deceived: I waited for the consolation of no mere mortal, who may be consumed by sorrow of his own, before he gives me comfort. Should a brother mortal attempt to comfort me, when he himself is in sorrow likewise? Let us mourn in company; let us weep together, let us "wait patiently" together, let us join our prayers together also. Whom did I wait for but for the Lord? The Lord, who though He puts off the fulfilment of His promises, yet never recalls them? He will make it good; assuredly He will make it good, because He has made many of His promises good already: and of God's truth we ought to have no fears, even if as yet He had made none of them good. Lo! let us henceforth think thus, "He has promised us everything; He has not as yet given us possession of anything; He is a sponsible Promiser; a faithful Paymaster: do you but show yourself a dutiful exactor of what is promised; and if you be "weak," if you be one of the little ones, claim the promise of His mercy. Do you not see tender [1088] lambs striking their dams' teats with their heads, in order that they may get their fill of milk?..."And He took heed unto me, and heard my cry." He took heed to it, and He heard it. See thou hast not waited in vain. His eyes are over thee. His ears turned towards thee. For, "the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry." [1089] What then? Did He not see thee, when thou usedst to do evil and to blaspheme Him? What then becomes of what is said in that very Psalm, "The face of the Lord is upon them that do evil"? [1090] But for what end? "that He may cut off the remembrance of them from the earth." Therefore, even when thou wert wicked, He "took heed of thee;" but He "took no heed to thee." [1091] So then to him who "waited patiently for the Lord," it was not enough to say, "He took heed of me, He says, "He took heed to me;" that is, He took heed by comforting me, that He might do me good. What was it that He took heed to? "and He heard my cry."