41. They have blasphemed the change of Christ; but what dost thou answer? "The blessing of [4228] the Lord for evermore. Amen and Amen" (ver. 52). Thanks to His mercy, [4229] thanks to His grace. We express our thanks: we do not give them, nor return them, nor repay them: we express our thanks in words, while in fact we retain our sense of them. [4230] He saved us for no reward, He heeded not our impieties: He searched us out when we searched not for Him, He found, redeemed, emancipated us from the bondage of the devil and the power of his wicked angels: He drew us to Him to purify us by that faith, from which He releases those enemies only who believe not, and who for that reason cannot be purified. Let those who still remain infidels say every day what they choose; day by day they shall be fewer and fewer that remain; let them revile, mock, accuse, not the death, but the change of Christ. Do they not see that, when they say these things, they fail in purpose either by believing or by dying? For their curse is temporal: but the blessing of the Lord "for evermore." To confirm that blessing is added, "Amen and Amen." This is the signature of the bond of God. Secure then of His promises, let us believe the past, recognise the present, hope for the future. Let not the enemy lead us astray from the way, that He, who gathers us like chickens under His wings, may foster us: lest we stray from His wings, and the hawk of the air carry us off while yet unfledged. For the Christian ought not to hope in himself: if he hopes to be strong, let him be reared by his mother's warmth. This is the hen who gathers her young together; whence is the reproach of our Saviour against the unbelieving Jerusalem. "Behold, your house shall be left unto you desolate." [4231] Hence was it said, "Thou hast made his strongholds a terror." Since then they would not be gathered together under the wings of this hen, and have given as a warning to teach us to dread the unclean spirits that fly in the air, seeking daily what they may devour; let us gather ourselves under the wings of this hen, the divine Wisdom, since she is weakened even unto death of her chickens. Let us love our Lord God, let us love His Church: Him as a Father, Her as a Mother: Him as a Lord, Her as His Handmaid, as we are ourselves the Handmaid's sons. But this marriage is held together by a bond of great love: no man offends the one, and wins favour of the other. Let no man say, "I go indeed to the idols, I consult possessed ones and fortune-tellers: yet I abandon not God's Church; I am a Catholic." While thou holdest to thy Mother, thou hast offended thy Father. Another says, Far be it from me; I consult no sorcerer, I seek out no possessed one, I never ask advice by sacrilegious divination, I go not to worship idols, I bow not before stones; though I am in the party of Donatus. What does it profit you not to have offended your Father, if he avenges your offended Mother? what does it serve you, if you acknowledge the Lord, honour God, preach His name, acknowledge His Son, confess that He sitteth by His right hand; while you blaspheme His Church? Does not the analogy of human marriages convince you? Suppose you have some patron, whom you court every day, whose threshold you wear with your visits, whom you daily not only salute, but even worship, to whom you pay the most loyal courtesy; if you utter one calumny against his wife, could you re-enter his house? Hold then, most beloved, hold all with one mind to God the Father, and the Church our Mother. Celebrate with temperance the birthdays of the Saints, that we may imitate those who have gone before us, and that they who pray for you may rejoice over you; that "the blessing of the Lord may abide on you for evermore. Amen and Amen."
[4129] Lat. LXXXVIII. Delivered in the morning, on the festival of some Martyrs.
[4130] See note on title of Ps. lxxxviii.
[4131] Abs Te.
[4132] Jer. i. 10.
[4133] Ps. xxviii. 5.
[4134] Ps. xxv. 10.
[4135] Rom. xv. 8.
[4136] Improbatos.
[4137] Rom. xi. 1, 2.
[4138] Rom. xv. 8, 9.
[4139] Ps. xix. 1.
[4140] Matt. v. 34.
[4141] Gal. iii. 16.
[4142] Eph. v. 23.
[4143] Gal. iii. 29.
[4144] Oxf. mss. "He is proclaimed;" and so again below.
[4145] 1 Cor. iv. 5.
[4146] Æqualis.
[4147] Pro unitate unus.
[4148] Matt. xvi. 13-16.
[4149] Oxf. mss. "by God."
[4150] Ps. cxlv. 3.
[4151] Rom. xv. 9.
[4152] Matt. xxvi. 64.
[4153] Luke ii. 34.
[4154] 1 Cor. x. 13.
[4155] E.V. Rahab.
[4156] Amos ix. 3.
[4157] Ps. civ. 26.
[4158] Col. ii. 14.
[4159] Isa. xiv. 13, 14.
[4160] Matt. v. 14.
[4161] John i. 9.
[4162] Ps. cxv. 1, 2.
[4163] Ps. ix. Tit.
[4164] Matt. xxv. 33.
[4165] Ps. xxv. 10.
[4166] 1 Cor. i. 31.
[4167] Rom. x. 2, 3.
[4168] Oxf. mss. "our."
[4169] 1 Sam. iii. 9-18.
[4170] Ps. xlv. 7.
[4171] Luke i. 31.
[4172] Phil. ii. 6, 8.
[4173] Exod. xxxii. 20.
[4174] Ps. lxxxv. 10.
[4175] Ps. ii. 2, 10.
[4176] In seculum seculi.
[4177] Gal. iii. 15, 29.
[4178] Ps. cii. 27.
[4179] Oxf. mss. add "which are," etc.
[4180] [Here he adds: "Let us, if you please, reserve what remains; since the Psalm is a long one, and we have yet some farther opportunity of speaking with you in Christ's name. Refresh your strength therefore: I do not mean that of your mind, for in mind I see that you are incapable of fatigue; but on account of the slaves of the soul, that your bodies may be sustained in their service, refresh yourselves for a little, and being refreshed return to your meal."--C.]
[4181] Heb. xii. 7.
[4182] Heb. xii. 6.
[4183] 1 Cor. iv. 21.
[4184] Ps. xlv. 7.
[4185] Rom. viii. 34.
[4186] John i. 18.
[4187] i.e. we may consider it as not said of Him at all, for though He is Man, yet being God also He would not, in His own Person, need assurance; therefore it is said of Him in His members.
[4188] Acts ix. 4.
[4189] 1 John i. 8.
[4190] Matt. iii. 9.
[4191] Tolerabiliter. [1 John v. 16, 17.--C]
[4192] Gal. v. 21.
[4193] Matt. iii. 12.
[4194] Matt. xiii. 47.
[4195] 2 Tim. ii. 19.
[4196] Rom. viii. 29, 30.
[4197] Matt. xiii. 43.
[4198] Matt. v. 45.
[4199] Luke x. 30.
[4200] Luke ii. 34. [A.N.F. vol. iii. p. 525.--C.]
[4201] Gen. xxv. 23.
[4202] Ps. cxxxii. 11.
[4203] Oxf. mss. "and such prudence."
[4204] 1 Kings xi. 1, etc.
[4205] Non abstulisti sed distulisti.
[4206] Rom. xi. 21.
[4207] Ps. lxiii. 10.
[4208] Luke xiii. 32.
[4209] Gen. xlix. 9.
[4210] Ego.
[4211] Ps. iv. 8.
[4212] Merito.
[4213] Gal. iii. 11.
[4214] Acts xv. 9.
[4215] Rom. xi. 25.
[4216] Gal. iii. 19.
[4217] Ps. iv. 2.
[4218] Ps. iv. 3.
[4219] Rom. vi. 9.
[4220] Ps. xvi. 10.
[4221] Acts ii. 29.
[4222] John x. 18; Ps. iii. 5.
[4223] Ps. xliv. 22.
[4224] Isa. liv. 1; Gal. iv. 27.
[4225] 1 Cor. iv. 13.
[4226] Christi.
[4227] Ps. lv. 19.
[4228] Oxf. mss. "blessed be."
[4229] Oxf. mss. add here, "what else shall I say but."
[4230] Oxf. mss. Rem tenemus, while we retain possession of the (unrequited) benefit.
[4231] Matt. xxiii. 38.
Psalm XC. [4232]
1. This Psalm is entitled, "The prayer of Moses the man of God," through whom, His man, God gave the law to His people, through whom He freed them from the house of slavery, and led them forty years through the wilderness. Moses was therefore the Minister of the Old, and the Prophet of the New Testament. For "all these things," saith the Apostle, "happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, unto whom the ends of the world come." [4233] In accordance therefore with this dispensation which was vouchsafed to Moses, this Psalm is to be examined, as it has received its title from his prayer.
2. "Lord," he saith, "Thou hast been our refuge from one generation to another" (ver. 1): either in every generation, or in two generations, the old and new: because, as I said, he was the Minister of the Testament that related to the old generation, and the Prophet of the Testament which appertained to the new. Jesus Himself, the Surety of that covenant, and the Bridegroom in the marriage which He entered into in that generation, saith, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me." [4234] Now it is not to be believed that this Psalm was entirely the composition of that Moses, as it is not distinguished by any of those of his expressions [4235] which are used in his songs: but the name of the great servant of God is used for the sake of some intimation, which should direct the attention of the reader or listener. "Lord," he saith, "Thou hast been our refuge from one generation to the other."
3. He adds, how He became our refuge, since He began to be that, viz. a refuge, to us which He had not been before, not that He had not existed before He became our refuge: "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made: and from age even unto age Thou art" (ver. 2). Thou therefore who art for ever, and before we were, and before the world was, hast become our refuge ever since we turned to Thee. But the expression, "before the mountains," etc., seems to me to contain a particular meaning; for mountains are the higher parts of the earth, and if God was before even the earth were formed (or, as some books have it, from the same Greek word, "framed" [4236] ), since it was by Him that it was formed, what is the need of saying that He was before the mountains, or any certain parts of it, since God was not only before the earth, but before heaven and earth, and even the whole bodily and spiritual creation? But it may certainly be that the whole rational creation is marked by this distinction; that while the loftiness of Angels is signified by the mountains, the lowliness of man is meant by the earth. And for this reason, although all the works of creation are not improperly said to be either made or formed; nevertheless, if there is any propriety in these words, the Angels are "made;" for as they are enumerated among His heavenly works, the enumeration itself is thus concluded: "He spake the word, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created;" [4237] but the earth was "formed," that man might thence be created in the body. For the Scripture uses this word, where we read, God made, or "God formed man out of the dust of the ground." [4238] Before then the noblest parts of the creation (for what is higher than the rational part of the Heavenly creation) were made: before the earth was made, that Thou mightest have worshippers upon the earth; and even this is little, as all these had a beginning either in or with time; but "from age to age Thou art." It would have been better, from everlasting to everlasting: for God, who is before the ages, exists not from a certain age, nor to a certain age, which has an end, since He is without end. But it often happens in the Scripture, that the equivocal Greek word causes the Latin translator to put age for eternity and eternity for age. But he very rightly does not say, Thou wast from ages, and unto ages Thou shalt be: but puts the verb in the present, intimating that the substance of God is altogether immutable. It is not, He was, and Shall be, but only Is. Whence the expression, I Am that I Am; and, I Am "hath sent me unto you;" [4239] and, "Thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail." [4240] Behold then the eternity that is our refuge, that we may fly thither from the mutability of time, there to remain for evermore.
4. But as our life here is exposed to numerous and great temptations, and it is to be feared lest we may be turned aside by them from that refuge, let us see what in consequence of this the prayer of the man of God seeks for. "Turn not Thou man to lowness" (ver. 3): that is, let not man, turned aside from Thy eternal and sublime things, lust for things of time, savour of earthly things. This prayer is what God has Himself enjoined us, in the Prayer, "Lead us not into temptation," [4241] He adds, "Again Thou sayest, Come again, ye children of men." As if he said, I ask of Thee what Thou hast commanded me to ask: giving glory to His grace, that "he that glorieth, in the Lord he may glory:" [4242] without whose help we cannot by an exertion of our own will overcome the temptations of this life. "Turn not Thou man to lowness: again thou sayest, Turn again, ye children of men." But grant what Thou has enjoined, by hearing the prayer [4243] of him who can at least pray, and aiding the faith of the willing soul.