22. See who this is: David as one man was seeming to implore; see ye here our image and the type of the Church.
"Deal kindly, O Lord, in Thy good will with Sion" (ver. 18). With this Sion deal kindly. What is Sion? A city holy. What is a city holy? That which cannot be hidden, being upon a mountain established. Sion in prospect, because it hath prospect of something which it hopeth for. For Sion is interpreted "prospect," and Jerusalem, "vision of peace." Ye perceive then yourselves to be in Sion and in Jerusalem, if being sure ye look for hope that is to be, and if ye have peace with God. "And be the walls of Jerusalem builded." "Deal kindly, O Lord, in Thy good will with Sion, and be the walls of Jerusalem builded." For not to herself let Sion ascribe her merits: do Thou with her deal kindly, "Be the walls of Jerusalem builded:" be the battlements of our immortality laid, in faith and hope and charity.
23. "Then Thou shalt accept the sacrifice of righteousness" (ver. 19). But now sacrifice for iniquity, to wit, a spirit troubled, and a heart humbled; then the sacrifice of righteousness, praises alone. For, "Blessed they that dwell in Thy house, for ever and ever they shall praise Thee:" [1878] for this is the sacrifice of righteousness. "Oblations and holocausts." What are "holocausts"? A whole victim by fire consumed. When a whole beast was laid upon the altar with fire to be consumed, it was called a holocaust. May divine fire take us up whole, and that fervour catch us whole. What fervour? "Neither is there that hideth himself from the heat thereof." [1879] What fervour? That whereof speaketh the Apostle: "In spirit fervent." [1880] Be not merely our soul taken up by that divine fire of wisdom, but also our body; that [1881] it may earn their immortality; so be it lifted up for a holocaust, that death be swallowed into victory. "Oblations and holocausts." "Then shall they lay upon thine altar calves." Whence "calves"? What shall He therein choose? Will it be the innocence of the new age, or necks freed from the yoke of the law?...
[1803] From a sermon to the people of Carthage. See below, § 11.
[1804] [On the sign of the Cross, see (Tertullian) A.N.F. vol. iii. p. 104; also vol. vii. (Lactant.) p. 130, note 3.--C.]
[1805] Rom. i. 3.
[1806] 2 Sam. xi. 2-17.
[1807] 2 Sam. xii. 1.
[1808] Al. "Love this in David which in himself David hated not."
[1809] 2 Sam. xi. 2.
[1810] Rom. vi. 12.
[1811] [Compare the author's Confessions, vol. i. of this series, pp. 126, 153, 154, and book viii. passim.--C.]
[1812] Ps. ii. 11.
[1813] 1 Sam. xxiv. 5, xxvi. 9.
[1814] Ps. cxvi. 3, 4.
[1815] [Here I have corrected the feeble translation, "do penance," which is unjust to the author's entire system of thought. See Confessions, book viii. vol. i. this series.--C.]
[1816] Al. "The pride of royalty."
[1817] 1 Tim. i. 13.
[1818] Matt. vii. 5.
[1819] 2 Sam. xii. 1, 2, etc.
[1820] Al. "he was captive," or, "was held captive."
[1821] 2 Sam. xi. 4, 15.
[1822] John viii. 46.
[1823] John xiv. 30.
[1824] Wisd. ii. 24.
[1825] John x. 18.
[1826] 1 Sam. xvi. 18.
[1827] Job xiv. 5, LXX.
[1828] Against the Pelagians.
[1829] So most mss. Ben. "carnal," but see below.
[1830] Luke i. 35.
[1831] [The mother need not be conceived of as sinning in her passive relations to an act which is undefiled in itself (Heb. xiii. 4); but she is a sinner like all mortals, and in that estate of sinfulness her offspring is begotten and nourished in the womb. So he argues.--C.]
[1832] Rom. viii. 10.
[1833] 1 Cor. xv. 22.
[1834] Rom. v. 12.
[1835] Prærogasti.
[1836] i.e., as His mercy is to us beforehand.
[1837] Jonah iii. 4.
[1838] Jonah iii. 9.
[1839] [Here the translator has "did penance," which has no meaning at all apart from ecclesiastical discipline, to which the men of Nineve were certainly not subjected.--C.]
[1840] Acts ix. 4.
[1841] [See p. 166, note 3, supra.--C.]
[1842] Jer. i. 10.
[1843] Deut. xxxii. 39.
[1844] 2 Sam. xii. 13.
[1845] [The English Version is not sustained by Jerome, whose rendering is (happier than that so beautifully expounded by our author), absconditum et arcanum sapietatiæ manifestasti.--C.]
[1846] Oxf. mss. radice.
[1847] Acts ix. 1.
[1848] Isa. i. 18.
[1849] Eph. v. 27.
[1850] Matt. xvii. 2.
[1851] Ps. xxvii. 9.
[1852] Satagit. Oxf. mss. Sategit, "he hath done enough for."
[1853] Ps. xxxiv. 16.
[1854] Oxf. mss. add, perdet de terrâ memoriam eorum.
[1855] So mss. Ben. "He meant not," but "as it were" seems to meet the difficulty.
[1856] Ps. lvii. 6.
[1857] Ps. lxxiii. 1.
[1858] 2 Sam. xii. 13.
[1859] [Compare 2 Sam. xii. 10.--C.]
[1860] 2 Sam. xv. 10.
[1861] 2 Sam. xvi. 10.
[1862] Ps. xxxiv. 1.
[1863] Salutaris tui.
[1864] John i. 1.
[1865] [Credebatur.--C.]
[1866] John iv. 24.
[1867] Jerome on the Epist. to Gal. iv. 6.
[1868] Ex iniquo. Oxf. mss. ex iniquus.
[1869] Rom. iv. 5.
[1870] [ex haim?ton, Sept.--C.]
[1871] 1 Cor. xv. 50.
[1872] 1 Cor. xv. 53.
[1873] Some mss. ut.
[1874] Ps. li. 9.
[1875] Most mss. "whereby" throughout.
[1876] [So Lactantius, A.N.F. vol. vii. p. 193, note 1, and the whole chapter.--C.]
[1877] Ps. lvi. 12.
[1878] Ps. lxxxiv. 4.
[1879] Ps. xix. 6.
[1880] Rom. xii. 11.
[1881] mss. omit ut, "also let our body earn," etc.
Psalm LII. [1882]
1. The title of the Psalm hath: "At the end, understanding of David, when there came Doeg the Edomite and told Saul, David hath come into the house of Abimelech:" whereas we read that he had come into the house of Achimelech. And it may chance that we do not unreasonably suppose, that because of the similarity of a name and the difference of one syllable, or rather of one letter, the titles have been varied. In the manuscripts, however, of the Psalms, when we looked into them, rather Abimelech we have found than Achimelech. And since in another place thou hast a most evident Psalm, intimating not a dissimilarity of name, but an utterly different name; when, for instance, David changed his face before King Achish, not before king Abimelech, and he sent him away, and he departed: and yet the title of the Psalm is thus written, "When he changed his countenance in the presence of Abimelech" [1883] --the very change of name maketh us the rather intent upon a mystery, lest thou shouldest pursue the quasi-facts of history, and despise the sacred veilings....
2. Observe ye two kinds of men; the one of men labouring, the other of those among whom they labour: the one of men thinking of earth, the other of heaven: the one of men weighing down their heart unto the deep, the other of men with Angels their heart conjoining: the one trusting in earthly things, wherein this world aboundeth, the other confiding in heavenly things, which God, who lieth not, hath promised. But mingled are these kinds of men. We see now the citizen of Jerusalem, citizen of the kingdom of heaven, have some office upon earth: to wit, one weareth purple, is a Magistrate, is Ædile, is Proconsul, is Emperor, doth direct the earthly republic: but he hath his heart above, if he is a Christian, if he is a believer, if he is godly, if he is despising those things wherein he is, and trusteth in that wherein he is not yet. Of which kind was that holy woman Esther, who, though she was wife of a king, incurred the danger of interceding for her countrymen: and when she was praying before God, where she could not lie, in her prayer said, that her royal ornaments were to her but as the cloth of a menstruous woman. [1884] Despair we not then of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven, when we see them engaged in any of Babylon's matters, doing something earthly in republic earthly: nor again let us forthwith congratulate all men that we see doing matters heavenly; because even the sons of pestilence sit sometimes in the seat of Moses, of whom is said, "What things they say, do ye: but what things they do, do not: for they say, and do not." [1885] Those, amid earthly things, lift up heart unto heaven, these, amid heavenly words, trail heart upon earth. But there will come time of winnowing, when both are to be severed with greatest diligence, in order that no grain may pass over unto the heap of chaff that is to be burned, that not one single straw may pass over to the mass that is to be stored in the barn. [1886] So long as then now it is mingled, hear we thence our voice, that is, voice of the citizens of the kingdom of heaven (for to this we ought to aspire, to bear with evil men here, rather than be borne with by good men): and let us conjoin ourselves to this voice, both with ear and with tongue, and with heart and work. Which if we shall have done, we are here speaking in those things which we hear. Let us therefore speak first of the evil body of kingdom earthly.
3. "Why doth he glory in malice that is mighty?" (ver. 1). Observe, my brethren, the glorying of malignity, the glorying of evil men. Where is glorying? "Why doth he glory in malice that is mighty?" That is, he that in malice is mighty, why doth he glory? There is need that a man be mighty, but in goodness, not in malice. Is it any great thing to glory in malice? To build a house doth belong to few men, any ignorant man you please can pull down. To sow wheat, to dress the crop, to wait until it ripen, and in that fruit on which one has laboured to rejoice, doth belong to few men: with one spark any man you please can burn all the crop. To breed an infant, when born to feed him, to educate, to bring him on to youth's estate, is a great task: to kill him in one moment of time any one you please is able. Therefore those things which are done for destruction, are most easily done. "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord:" [1887] he that glorieth, let him glory in goodness. Thou gloriest, because thou art mighty in evil. What art thou about to do, O mighty man, what art thou about to do, boasting thyself much? Thou art about to kill a man: this thing also a scorpion, this also one fever, this also a poisonous fungus can do. To this is thy mightiness reduced, that it be made equal to a poisonous fungus? This therefore do the good citizens of Jerusalem, who not in malice but in goodness glory: firstly, that not in themselves, but in the Lord they glory. Secondly, that those things which make for edification they earnestly do, and do such things as are strong to abide: but things which make for destruction they may do, for the discipline of men advancing, not for the oppression of the innocent. To this mightiness then that earthly body being compared, why may it not hear out of these words, "Why doth he glory in malice that is mighty?"
4. "In iniquity the whole day upon injustice hath thy tongue thought" (ver. 2): that is, in the whole of time, without weariness, without intermission, without cessation. And when thou doest not, thou thinkest; so that when anything of evil is away from thy hands, from thy heart it is not away; either thou doest an evil thing, or while thou canst not do, thou sayest an evil thing, that is, thou evil-speakest: or when not even this thou canst do, thou willest and thinkest an evil thing. "The whole day," then, that is, without intermission. We expect punishment to this man. Is he to himself a small punishment? Thou threatenest him: thou, when thou threatenest him, wilt send him whither? Unto evil? Send him away unto himself. In order that thou mayest vent much rage, thou art going to give him into the power of beasts: unto himself he is worse than beasts. For a beast can mangle his body: of himself he cannot leave his heart whole. Within, against himself he doth rage of himself, and dost thou from without seek for stripes? Nay, pray God for him, that he may be set free from himself. Nevertheless in this Psalm, my brethren, there is not a prayer for evil men, or against evil men, but a prophecy of what is to result to evil men. Think not therefore that the Psalm of ill-will saith anything: for it is said in the spirit of prophecy.
5. There followeth then what? All thy might and all thy thought of iniquity all the day, and meditation of malignity in thy tongue without intermission, hath performed what, done what? "As with a sharp razor thou hast done deceit" (ver. 3). See what do evil men to Saints, they scrape their hair. What is it that I have said? If there be such citizens of Jerusalem, that hear the voice of their Lord, of their King, saying, "Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul:" that hear the voice which but now from the Gospel hath been read, "What doth it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and of himself make wreck:" [1888] they despise all present good things, and above all life itself. And what is Doeg's razor to do to a man on this earth meditating on the kingdom of heaven, and about to be in the kingdom of heaven, having with him God, and about to abide with God? What is that razor to do? Hair it is to scrape, it is to make a man bald. And this belongeth to Christ, who in the Place of a Skull was crucified. [1889] It maketh also the son of Core, which is interpreted baldness. [1890] For this hair signifieth a superfluity of things temporal. Which hairs indeed are not made by God superfluously on the body of men, but for a sort of ornament: yet because without feeling they are cut off, they that cleave to the Lord with their heart, so have these earthly things as they have hair. But sometimes even something of good with "hair" is wrought, when thou breakest bread to the hungry, the poor without roof thou bringest into thy house; if thou shalt have seen one naked, thou coverest him: [1891] lastly, the Martyrs themselves also imitating the Lord, blood for the Church shedding, hearing that voice, "As Christ laid down His life for us, so also ought we also to lay down for the brethren," [1892] in a certain way with their hair did good to us, that is, with those things which that razor can lop off or scrape. But that therefore even with the very hair some good can be done, even that woman a sinner intimated, who, when she had wept over the feet of the Lord, with her hair wiped what with tears she wetted. [1893] Signifying what? That when thou shalt have pitied any one, thou oughtest to relieve him also if thou canst. For when thou hast pity, thou sheddest as it were tears: when thou relievest, thou wipest with hair. And if this to any one, how much more to the feet of the Lord. The feet of the Lord are what? The holy Evangelists, whereof is said, "How beautiful are the feet of them that tell of peace, that tell of good things!" [1894] Therefore like a razor let Doeg whet his tongue, let him whet deceit as much as he may: he will take away superfluous temporal things; will he necessary things everlasting?