28. ...From so many generations thou wilt gather together all the holy offspring of all generations, and wilt form one generation thence: "In" this "generation of generations are Thy years," that is, that eternity will be in that generation, which is collected from all generations, and reduced into one; this shall share in Thy eternity. Other generations are born for fulfilling their times, out of which this one is regenerated for ever; though changed it shall be endued with life, it shall be fitted to bear Thee, receiving strength from Thee.
29. "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth: and the Heavens are the work of Thy hands" (ver. 25)....God laid the foundation of the earth, we know: the heavens are the works of His hands. For do not imagine that God doth one thing with His hand, another by His word. What He doth by His word, He doth by His hand: for He hath not distinct bodily members, who said, "I Am That I Am." And perhaps His Word is His hand, assuredly His hand is His power. For inasmuch as it is said, "Let there be a firmament," [4637] and there was a firmament; He is understood to have created it by His Word; but when He said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness;" [4638] He seemeth to have created him by His hand. Hear therefore: "The heavens are the work of Thy hands." Lo, what He created by His word, He created also by His hands; because He created them through His excellence, through His power. Observe rather what He created, and seek not to know in what manner He created them. It is much to thee to understand how He created them, since He created thyself so, that thou mayest first be a servant obeying, and afterwards perhaps a friend understanding. [4639]
30. "They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure" (ver. 26). The Apostle Peter saith this openly: "By the word of God the heavens were of old," etc. [4640] He hath said then that the heavens have already perished by the flood: and we know that the heavens perished as far as the extent of this atmosphere of ours. For the water increased, and filled the whole of that space in which birds fly; thus perished the heavens that are near the earth; those heavens which are meant when we speak of the birds of heaven. But there are heavens of heavens higher than these in the firmament: but whether these also shall perish by fire, or those only which perished also by the flood, is a much harder question among the learned, nor can it easily, especially in a limited space of time, be explained. Let us therefore dismiss or put it off; nevertheless, let us know that these things perish, and that God endureth....
31. Perhaps by the heavens we here may understand, without being far-fetched, the righteous themselves, the saints of God, abiding in whom God hath thundered in His commandments, lightened in His miracles, watered the earth with the wisdom of truth, for "The heavens have declared the glory of God." [4641] But shall they perish? Shall they in any sense perish? In what sense? As a garment. [4642] What is, as a garment? As to the body. For the body is the garment of the soul; since our Lord called it a garment, when He said, "Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" [4643] How then doth the garment perish? "Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." [4644] They then shall perish: but as to the body: "But Thou shalt endure."...Such heavens therefore shall perish; not, however, for ever; they shall perish, that they may be changed. Doth not the Psalm say this? Read the following: "They shall all wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed." Thou hearest of the garment, of the vesture, and dost thou understand anything but the body? We may therefore hope for the change of our bodies also, but from Him who was before us, and abideth after us...."But Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail" (ver. 27). But what are we to those years with these beggarly years? and what are they? Yet we ought not to despair. He had already said in His great and exceeding Wisdom, "I Am That I Am;" and yet He saith to console us, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob:" [4645] and we are Abraham's seed: [4646] even we, although abject, although dust and ashes, trust in Him. We are servants: but for our sakes our Lord took the garb of a servant: [4647] for us who are mortal the Immortal One deigned to die, for our sakes He showed His example of resurrection. Let us therefore hope that we may reach these lasting years, in which days are not spent in a revolution of the Sun, but what is abideth even as it is, because it alone truly Is.
32. "The children of Thy servants shall dwell there: and their seed shall stand fast for ages" (ver. 28): for the age of ages, the age of eternity, the age that abideth. But, "the children," he saith, "of Thy servants:" is it to be feared lest we be the servants of God, and our children, and not ourselves, dwell there? Or if we are the children of the servants, inasmuch as we are the Apostles' children, what are we to say? Can those children rising after have so unhappy a presumption, as to boast in their late succession, and so to venture to say, We shall be there; the Apostles will not be there? May this be far from their piety as children, from their faith as little ones, from their understanding when of age! The Apostles also will be there: rams go before, lambs follow. Wherefore then, "the children of Thy servants;" and not in brief, "Thy servants"? Both they are Thy servants, and their children are Thy servants; and the children of these, their grandsons, what are they but Thy servants? Thou wouldest include them all briefly, if Thou shouldest say, Thy servants shall dwell therein...."The children of Thy servants," are the works of Thy servants; no one shall dwell there, but through his own works. What therefore meaneth, Their children shall dwell? Let no man boast that he shall dwell there, if he calleth himself God's servant, and hath not works; for none but children shall dwell there. What meaneth therefore, "The children of Thy servants shall dwell there"? Thy servants shall dwell there by their own works, Thy servants shall dwell there through their own children. Be not therefore barren, if thou dost wish to dwell there; send before the children whom thou mayest follow, by sending them before thee, not by burying them. Let thy children lead thee to the land of promise, the land of the living, not of the dying: whilst thou art living here in this pilgrimage, let them go before thee, let them receive thee....
[4575] Lat. CI.
[4576] 2 Cor. viii. 9.
[4577] Ps. cii. 9.
[4578] John i. 14.
[4579] Ps. cxvi. 16.
[4580] Philip. iii. 21.
[4581] Matt. iii. 2.
[4582] Eph. iv. 15; John iii. 29.
[4583] Ps. lxi. 2.
[4584] Isa. lxi. 10.
[4585] Isa. lviii. 9.
[4586] 2 Cor. xi. 29.
[4587] Isa. xl. 6.
[4588] Gen. iii. 6.
[4589] John vi. 41.
[4590] Ps. xxii. 27.
[4591] John vi. 49.
[4592] Matt. v. 6.
[4593] [In the next verse.--C.]
[4594] Matt. xxv. 26.
[4595] Matt. x. 27.
[4596] [See p. 285, note 8, supra.--C.]
[4597] Matt. xxiii. 37.
[4598] Deut. xxxii. 39.
[4599] Acts ix. 4.
[4600] [Compare the pardonable credulity of Clement, A.N.F. vol. i. p. 12, note 2; also p. 285, note 8, supra.--C.]
[4601] Ps. iii. 5.
[4602] Rom. viii. 34.
[4603] Matt. xxii. 16, 17.
[4604] Matt. ix. 11, 12.
[4605] [See p. 315, note 10, supra.--C.]
[4606] Ezek. xiii. 11.
[4607] Gen. i. 26.
[4608] Wisd. v. 8, 9.
[4609] 1 Tim. iv. 8.
[4610] Gal. iv. 4, 5.
[4611] 1 Cor. xv. 6.
[4612] Acts iv. 32.
[4613] 2 Cor. vi. 2.
[4614] 1 Cor. iii. 9-11.
[4615] Ps. i. 4.
[4616] Ps. ciii. 14.
[4617] Formata et formosa.
[4618] Acts ii. 41, iv. 32.
[4619] Eph. ii. 20.
[4620] Isa. liii. 2.
[4621] Matt. xxv. 31.
[4622] Zech. xii. 10.
[4623] Matt. xxv. 12.
[4624] 2 Cor. v. 17.
[4625] Ps. lxxix. 11.
[4626] Eccles. vi. 24-32.
[4627] John xi. 44.
[4628] [Public confession, the ancient discipline. A.N.F. vol. iii. pp. 666, 667.--C.]
[4629] Matt. xv. 19.
[4630] [Note this distinction between what the Church may do in restoring to communion, and what Christ only can do in cleansing the conscience.--C.]
[4631] Matt. xxiii. 38.
[4632] Isa. liv. 1; Gal. iv. 27.
[4633] Rom. x. 9, 10.
[4634] [i.e. the party of Donatus.--C.]
[4635] Pereant.
[4636] 1 Cor. xv. 28.
[4637] Gen. i. 6.
[4638] Gen. i. 26.
[4639] John xv. 15.
[4640] 2 Pet. iii. 5, 6.
[4641] Ps. xix. 7.
[4642] Or, "as to the garment," secundum vestimentum.
[4643] Matt. vi. 25.
[4644] 2 Cor. iv. 16.
[4645] Exod. iii. 6.
[4646] Gal. iii. 29.
[4647] Philip. ii. 7.
Psalm CIII. [4648]
1. ..."Bless the Lord, O my soul! and all that is within me, His holy Name" (ver. 1). I suppose that he speaketh not of what is within the body; I do not suppose him to mean this, that our lungs and liver, and so forth, are to burst forth into the voice of blessing of the Lord. There are lungs in our breast indeed, like a kind of bellows, which send forth successive breathings, which breathing forth of the air inhaled is pressed out into voice and sound, when the words are articulated; nor can any utterance sound forth from our mouth, but what the pressed lungs have given vent to; but this is not the meaning here; all this relateth to the ears of men. God hath ears: the heart also hath a voice. A man speaketh to the things within him, that they may bless God, and saith unto them, "all that is within me bless His holy Name!" Dost thou ask the meaning of what is within thee? Thy soul itself. In saying then, "all that is within me, bless His holy Name," it only repeateth the above, "Bless the Lord, O my soul:" for the word "Bless," is understood. Cry out with thy voice, if there be a man to hear; hush thy voice, when there is no man to hear thee; there is never wanting one to hear all that is within thee. Blessing therefore hath already been uttered from our mouth, when we were chanting these very words. We sung as much as sufficed for the time, and were then silent: ought our hearts within us to be silent to the blessing of the Lord? Let the sound of our voices bless Him at intervals, alternately, let the voice of our hearts be perpetual. When thou comest to church to recite a hymn, thy voice soundeth forth the praises of God: thou hast sung as far as thou couldest, thou hast left the church; let thy soul sound the praises of God. Thou art engaged in thy daily work: let thy soul praise God. Thou art taking food; see what the Apostle saith: "Whether ye eat or drink, do all to the glory of God." [4649] I venture to say; when thou sleepest, let thy soul praise the Lord. Let not thoughts of crime arouse thee, let not the contrivances of thieving arouse thee, let not arranged plans of corrupt dealing arouse thee. Thy innocence even when thou art sleeping is the voice of thy soul.
2. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His rewards" (ver. 2). But the rewards of the Lord cannot be before thine eyes unless thy sins are before thine eyes. Let not delight in past sin be before thine eyes, but let the condemnation of sin be before thine eyes: condemnation from thee, forgiveness from God. For thus God rewardeth thee, so that thou mayest say, "How shall I reward the Lord for all His rewards unto me?" [4650] This it was that the martyrs considering (whose memory we are this day celebrating), and all the saints who have despised this life, and as ye have heard in the Epistle of St. John, laid down their lives for the brethren, which is the perfection of love, [4651] even as our Lord saith: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends:" [4652] this the holy martyrs, then, considering, despised their lives here, that they might find them there, following our Lord's words when He said, "He that loveth his life, shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for My sake, shall keep it unto life eternal." [4653] ..."Forget not," he saith, "all His rewards:" not awards, but "rewards." [4654] For something else was due, and what was not due hath been paid. Whence also these words: "What," he asketh, "shall I reward the Lord for all His rewards unto me?" Thou hast rewarded good with evil; He rewardeth evil with good. How hast thou, O man, rewarded thy God with evil for good? Thou who hast once been a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious, [4655] hast rewarded blasphemies. For what good things? First, because thou art: but a stone also is. Next, because thou livest: but a brute also liveth. What reward wilt thou give the Lord, for His having created thee above all the cattle; and above all the fowls of the air, in His image and likeness? [4656] Seek not how to reward Him: give back unto Him His own image: He requireth no more; He demandeth His own coin. [4657] ...