26. But this was discipline; admonition, not desertion. Lastly, giving thanks, he saith what? "And being turned Thou hast made me alive, and from the bottomless places of the earth again Thou hast brought me back." But when before? What is this "again"? Thou hast fallen from a high place, O man, disobedient slave, O thou proud against thy Lord, thou hast fallen. There hast come to pass in thee, "every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled:" may there come to pass in thee, "every one that humbleth himself shall be exalted." [3155] Return thou from the deep. I return, he saith, I return, I acknowledge; "O God, who is like unto Thee? How great troubles hast Thou shown to me, many and evil! and being turned Thou hast made me alive, and from the bottomless places of the earth again Thou hast brought me back." "We perceive," I hear. Thou hast brought us back from the bottomless places of the earth, hast brought us back from the depth and drowning of sin. But why "again"? When had it already been done? Let us go on, if perchance the latter parts of the Psalm itself do not explain to us the thing which here we do not yet perceive, namely, why he hath said "again." Therefore let us hear: "How great troubles Thou hast shown to me, many and evil! And being turned Thou hast made me alive, and from the bottomless places of the earth again Thou hast brought me back." What then? "Thou hast multiplied Thy righteousness, and being turned Thou hast comforted me, and from the bottomless places of the earth again Thou hast brought me back" (ver. 21). Behold a second "again"! If we labour to unravel this "again" when written once, who will be able to unravel it when doubled? Now "again" itself is a redoubling, and once more there is written "again." May He be with us from whom is grace, may there be with us the arm also which we are telling forth to every generation that is to come: may He be with us Himself, and as with the key of His Cross open to us the mystery that is locked up. For it was not to no purpose that when He was crucified the veil of the temple was rent in the midst, but to show that through His Passion the secret things of all mysteries were opened. [3156] May He then Himself be with men passing over unto Him, be the veil taken away: [3157] may our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ tell us why such a voice of the Prophet hath been sent before, "Thou hast shown to me troubles many and evil: and being turned Thou hast made me alive, and from the bottomless places of the earth again Thou hast brought me back." Behold this is the first "again" which hath been written. Let us see what this is, and we shall see why there is a second "again."
27. ...Therein Christ died, wherein thou art to die: and therein Christ rose again, wherein thou art to rise again. By His example He taught thee what thou shouldest not fear, for what thou shouldest hope. Thou didst fear death, He died: thou didst despair of rising again, He rose again. But thou sayest to me, He rose again, do I by any means rise again? But He rose again in that which for thee He received of thee. Therefore thy nature in Him hath preceded thee; and that which was taken of thee, hath gone up before thee: therein therefore thou also hast ascended. Therefore He ascended first, and we in Him: because that flesh is of the human race....Behold one "again." Hear of its being fulfilled from the Apostle: "If then ye have risen with Christ, the things which are above seek ye, where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God; the things which are above mind ye, not the things which are upon the earth." [3158] He then hath gone before: already we also have risen again, but still in hope. Hear the Apostle Paul saying this same thing: "Even we ourselves groan in ourselves, looking for the adoption, the redemption of our body." What is it then that Christ hath granted to thee? Hear that which followeth: "For by hope we are saved: but hope which is seen is not hope. For that which a man seeth, why doth he hope for? But if that which we see not we hope for, through patience we wait for it." We have been brought back therefore again from the bottomless places in hope. Why again? Because already Christ had gone before. But because we shall rise again in substance, for now in hope we are living, now after faith we are walking; we have been brought back from the bottomless places of the earth, by believing in Him who before us hath risen again from the bottomless place of the earth....Thou hast heard one "again," thou hast heard the other: "again;" one "again" because of Christ going before; and the other, yet however in hope, and a thing which remaineth to be in substance. "Thou hast multiplied Thy righteousness," [3159] already in me believing, already in those that first have risen again in hope...."Thou hast multiplied Thy righteousness, and being turned Thou hast comforted me:" and because of the body to rise again at the end, even from the bottomless places of the earth again Thou hast brought me back.
28. "For I will confess to Thee in the vessels of a Psalm Thy truth" (ver. 22). The vessels of a Psalm are a Psaltery. But what is a Psaltery? An instrument of wood and strings. [3160] What doth it signify? There is some difference between it and a harp:...there seemeth to be signified by the Psaltery the Spirit, by the harp the flesh. And because he had spoken of two bringings back of ours from the bottomless places of the earth, one after the Spirit in hope, the other after the body in substance; hear thou of these two: "For I will confess to Thee in the vessels of a Psalm Thy truth." This after the Spirit: concerning the body what? "I will psalm to Thee on a harp, Holy One of Israel."
29. Again hear this because of that same "again" and "again." "My lips shall exult when I shall psalm to Thee" (ver. 23). Because lips are wont to be spoken of both belonging to the inner and to the outward man, it is uncertain in what sense lips have been used: there followeth therefore, "And my soul which Thou hast redeemed." Therefore regarding the inward lips having been saved in hope, brought back from the bottomless places of the earth in faith and love, still however waiting for the redemption of our body, [3161] we say what? Already he hath said, "And my soul which Thou hast redeemed." But lest thou shouldest think the soul alone redeemed, wherein now thou hast heard one "again," "but still," he saith; why still? "but still my tongue also:" therefore now the tongue of the body: "all day long shall meditate of Thy righteousness" (ver. 24): that is, in eternity without end. But when shall this be? Hereafter at the end of the world, at the resurrection of the body and the changing into the Angelic state. Whence is it proved that this is spoken of the end, "but still my tongue also all day long shall meditate of Thy righteousness"? "When they shall have been confounded and shall have blushed, that seek evil things for me." When shall they be confounded, when shall they blush, save at the end of the world? For in two ways they shall be confounded, either when they shall believe in Christ, or when Christ shall have come. For so long as the Church is here, so long as grain groaneth amid chaff, so long as wheat groaneth amid tares, [3162] so long as vessels of mercy groan amid vessels of wrath made for dishonour, [3163] so long as lily groaneth amid thorns, there will not be wanting enemies to say, "When shall he die, and his name perish?" [3164] "Behold there shall come the time when Christians shall be ended and shall be no more: as they began at a set time, so even unto a particular time they shall be." But while they are saying these things and without end [3165] are dying, and while the Church is continuing preaching the Arm of the Lord [3166] to every generation that is to come; there shall come Himself also at last in His glory, [3167] there shall rise again all the dead, each with his cause: there shall be severed good men to the right hand, but evil men to the left, and they shall be confounded that did insult, they shall blush that did mock: and so my tongue after resurrection shall meditate of Thy righteousness, all day long of Thy praise, "when they shall have been confounded and shall have blushed, that seek evil things for me."
[3072] Lat. LXX.
[3073] 1 Cor. xv. 9.
[3074] 1 Tim. i. 13.
[3075] 1 Tim. i. 15.
[3076] Gladiatiorium animum; i.e., of utter desperation, since a gladiator would expect to perish in one fight if not in another.
[3077] Jer. xxxv. 6, etc.
[3078] Ps. lvi. 12.
[3079] Ps. liv. 6.
[3080] Rom. vii. 24.
[3081] Rom. vi. 21.
[3082] Ps. xxxiv. 5.
[3083] Oxf. mss. nunc.
[3084] Rom. x. 3.
[3085] Rom. iv. 5.
[3086] Acts vii. 59.
[3087] Or, "I care not."
[3088] Rom. vii. 23.
[3089] Wisd. ix. 15.
[3090] 2 Cor. iv. 7.
[3091] Ps. civ. 18.
[3092] 1 Cor. x. 4.
[3093] Rom. vii. 24, 25.
[3094] Ps. xix. 12.
[3095] Rom. ii. 12.
[3096] Rom. iv. 15.
[3097] Rom. v. 3-5.
[3098] Eph. v. 12.
[3099] 2 Cor. v. 6.
[3100] Rom. viii. 24.
[3101] Matt. xxii. 30.
[3102] 1 Cor. xv. 32.
[3103] John xiv. 6.
[3104] 2 Cor. xii. 10.
[3105] Matt. xxvii. 39, 40, etc.
[3106] Ps. lxxi. 6.
[3107] Rom. vi. 6.
[3108] [A.N.F. vol. i. p. 392, note 6.--C.]
[3109] Ps. ciii. 5.
[3110] Ps. xxii. 1.
[3111] 2 Cor. v. 19.
[3112] Rom. ix. 5.
[3113] Rom. vi. 6.
[3114] Matt. xxvii. 46.
[3115] 1 Cor. ii. 8.
[3116] Ps. xxxiv. 18.
[3117] Committentes.
[3118] Ps. lxxiii. 1.
[3119] Al. Gaius.
[3120] Rom. iv. 5.
[3121] Ps. iii. 8.
[3122] Ps. lx. 11.
[3123] Gen. i. 5.
[3124] Ps. xxxiv. 1.
[3125] E.V. "For I know not the number thereof."
[3126] Luke x. 7.
[3127] Negotiatio, Lat.; pragm?teia, Gr.
[3128] Ps. lxxxviii. 10.
[3129] Ps. iii. 8.
[3130] Matt. xxi. 13. E.V. "den of robbers."
[3131] Ps. xlvi. 10.
[3132] Rom. x. 3.
[3133] John v. 2.
[3134] Oxf. mss. repeat unus.
[3135] Gal. iii. 21.
[3136] 2 Kings iv. 20-36.
[3137] 2 Cor. iii. 6.
[3138] 1 Cor. iv. 7.
[3139] Imperator.
[3140] Gen. ii. 17, iii. 5.
[3141] Defecit; al. te infecit, "that infected thee."
[3142] [Augustin here talks like the poet Cowper, or like Wesley and Whitefield: and the fact is very instructive in connection with his doctrine of baptism. See Cowper's "Truth," line 17th from close.--C.]
[3143] Ps. lxxxvi. 11.
[3144] Eph. v. 14.
[3145] Senecta.
[3146] Senium.
[3147] See on Ps. xl. § 1 and note, Oxf. edition.
[3148] Isa. liii. 1.
[3149] Oxf. mss. add, "by grace given to thee."
[3150] Gen. iii. 5.
[3151] Ben. "In Adam every man;" but it is noted that the mss. omit "in."
[3152] "Life," most mss.
[3153] Ps. xlix. 12.
[3154] Gen. i. 27.
[3155] Luke xiv. 11.
[3156] Matt. xxvii. 51.
[3157] 2 Cor. iii. 16.
[3158] Col. iii. 1, 2.
[3159] Or, "justice."
[3160] [See p. 170, supra.--C.]
[3161] Rom. viii. 23.
[3162] Matt. iii. 12, xiii. 30.
[3163] 2 Tim. ii. 20.
[3164] Ps. xli. 5.
[3165] "Faith," most mss.
[3166] [See A.N.F. vol. v. 516, 520.--C.]
[3167] Matt. xxv. 31.
Psalm LXXII. [3168]
1. "For Salomon" indeed this Psalm's title is fore-noted: but things are spoken of therein which could not apply to that Salomon king of Israel after the flesh, according to those things which holy Scripture speaketh concerning him: but they can most pertinently apply to the Lord Christ. Whence it is perceived, that the very word Salomon is used in a figurative sense, so that in him Christ is to be taken. For Salomon is interpreted peace-maker: and on this account such a word to Him most truly and excellently doth apply, through Whom, the Mediator, having received remission of sins, we that were enemies are reconciled to God. For "when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son." [3169] The Same is Himself that Peace-maker....Since then we have found out the true Salomon, that is, the true Peace-maker: next let us observe what the Psalm doth teach concerning Him.
2. "O God, Thy judgment to the King give Thou, and Thy justice to the King's Son" (ver. 1). The Lord Himself in the Gospel saith, "The Father judgeth not any one, but all judgment He hath given to the Son:" [3170] this is then, "O God, Thy judgment to the King give Thou." He that is King is also the Son of the King: because God the Father also is certainly King. Thus it hath been written, that the King made a marriage for His Son. [3171] But after the manner of Scripture the same thing is repeated. For that which he hath said in, "Thy judgment;" the same he hath otherwise expressed in, "Thy justice:" and that which he hath said in, "the King," the same he hath otherwise expressed in, "to the King's Son."...But these repetitions do much commend the divine sayings, whether the same words, or whether in other words the same sense be repeated: and they are mostly found in the Psalms, and in the kind of discourse whereby the mind's affection is to be awakened.