Expositions on the Book of Psalms 39
39.1 Psalm XXXIX PL 36, 431
1. The title of this Psalm, which we have just chanted and proposed to discuss, is, “On the end, for Idithun, a Psalm for David himself.” Here then we must look for, and must attend to, the words of a certain person who is called Idithun; and if each one of ourselves may be Idithun, in that which he sings he recognises himself, and hears himself speak. For thou mayest see who was called Idithun, according to the ancient descent of man; let us, however, understand what this name is translated, and seek to comprehend the Truth in the translation of the word. According therefore to what we have been able to discover by enquiry in those names which have been translated from the Hebrew tongue into the Latin, by those who study the sacred writings, Idithun being translated is “over-leaping them.” Who then is this person “over-leaping them”? or who those whom he hath “over-leaped”?…For there are some persons, yet clinging to the earth, yet bowed down to the ground, yet setting their hearts on what is below, yet placing their hopes in things that pass away, whom he who is called “over-leaping them” hath “over-leaped.”
Omnia quae praedixit Dominus noster Jesus Christus, partim facta cognoscimus, partim futura speramus: cuncta tamen complebuntur, quia veritas haec dicit, et quam fideliter dicit, tam fideles requirit. Qui credit, venientibus laetabitur: qui non credit, venientibus confundetur. Venient tamen illa sive volentibus hominibus, sive nolentibus, sive credentibus, sive non credentibus, sicut ait Apostolus: Si negaverimus, et ipse nos negabit: si non credimus, ille fidelis permanet, negare seipsum non potest . Prae caeteris tamen, fratres, hoc mementote breve, et hoc tenete quod modo ex Evangelio omnes audivimus. Qui perseveraverit usque in finem, hic salvus erit . Jam patres nostri traditi sunt in concilia, dixerunt causas apud inimicos quos diligebant; praestiterunt eis et quantam potuerunt correptionem, et quantam valuerunt dilectionem: et sparsus est sanguis justus, et illo sanguine, tanquam seminatione per totum mundum facta, seges surrexit Ecclesiae. Consequens autem tempus est scandalorum et simulationis et tentationum, per eos qui dicunt: Ecce hic est Christus, ecce illic . Hostis ille noster, tunc leo fuit, cum aperte saeviebat: modo draco est, cum occulte insidiatur. Ille autem cui dictum est, Conculcabis leonem et draconem , quoniam corpus ejus et membra ejus sumus, sicut conculcavit leonem pedibus patrum nostrorum aperte saevientem, et ad passiones martyres attrahentem, ita modo draconem conculcet, ne nobis insidietur. De quo dracone nos cautos faciens Apostolus ait: Aptavi vos uni viro virginem castam exhibere Christo: timeo autem ne sicut serpens Evam seduxit astutia sua, sic et vestrae mentes corrumpantur a castitate quae est in Christo Jesu . Serpens ergo iste adulter antiquus, virginitatem corrumpendam, non carnis, sed cordis inquirit. Sicut autem adulter homo laetatur in nequitia sua, cum carnem corrumpit; sic et diabolus laetatur quando mentem corrumpit. Sicut autem patribus nostris adversus leonem opus erat patientia, sic nobis adversus draconem vigilantia. Persecutio tamen sive a leone, sive a dracone, nunquam cessat Ecclesiae: et magis metuendus est eum fallit, quam cum saevit. Illo tempore cogebat Christianos negare Christum; isto autem tempore docet Christianos negare Christum: tunc cogebat, nunc docet. Tunc ergo ingerebat violentias, nunc insidias: videbatur tunc fremens, lubricus nunc et oberrans difficile videtur. Quomodo autem tunc cogebat Christianos negare Christum, apertum est. Attrahebantur enim ut negarent Christum, et confitentes Christum coronabantur. Nunc autem docet negare Christum; et ideo fallit, quia qui docetur negare Christum, quasi non sibi videtur recedere a Christo. Modo enim quid dicitur ab haereticis hominibus christiano catholico? Veni, esto christianus. Ad hoc dicitur, Esto, ut dicat, Non sum? Aliud longe est, Veni, esto christianus; aliud, Veni, nega Christum. Apertum malum, fremitus leonis a longe auditur, a longe cavetur. Applicat se lubricus draco, occultis lapsibus serpens, leni tractu subrepens, astuto sibilo immurmurans, et non dicit, Nega Christum. Nam eum coronatis martyribus quis audiret? Sed dicit, Esto christianus. Et ille mirabili voce percussus, si nondum veneno penetratus est, respondet, Plane christianus sum. Si autem movetur, et dente draconis captus est, respondet, Quare mihi dicis, Esto christianus? quid enim, non sum christianus? Et ille, Non. Ergo non sum? Non. Ergo nunc fac me christianum, si non sum. Veni. Sed cum interrogari coeperis ab episcopo quis sis, noli dicere, Christianus sum, aut Fidelis sum, sed dic non te esse, ut possis esse. Cum enim audierit confessionem christiani fidelis, rebaptizare non audet: cum autem audierit quod non sit, dat illi tanquam quod non habebat; ut quasi ipse sit extra culpam, quia secundum vocem ejus facit. Ubi quaero abs te, haeretice, cur te extra culpam putas? Quid hac voce audio? quia non tu negas, sed ille negat? Si habet culpam qui negat, quid qui docet negare eum qui negat? Itane vero tu extra culpam es, quia facis docendo christianus, quod faciebat minando paganus? Et quid agis? Numquid tollis quod habet, quia negavit quod habet? Non facis ut non habeat, sed ut ad poenam habeat. Quod enim habet, habet. Baptismus ille tanquam character infixus est: ornabat militem, convincit desertorem. Quid enim facis? Christum imponis super Christum. Si simplex esses, Christum non duplicares. Deinde, quaeso te, oblitus es quod lapis est Christus, et Lapidem quem reprobaverunt aedificantes, hic factus est in caput anguli ? Si ergo lapis est Christus, et Christum vis imponere super Christum, excidit tibi quod audivisti in Evangelio, quia lapis super lapidem non stabit ? Tantum autem valet junctura charitatis, ut quamvis multi lapides vivi in structura templi Dei conveniant, unus lapis ex omnibus fiat. Tu autem discidisti te; ab aedificatione revocas, ad ruinam vocas; et abundant hae insidiae, et non quiescunt: et videmus, et toleramus, et quantum possumus reprimere conamur, disputando, convincendo, conveniendo, terrendo, tamen in omnibus diligendo. Et cum haec nobis agentibus perseverant in malo, et cor nostrum de fraternis mortibus contabescit, cum eos qui foris sunt dolet, his qui intus sunt timet, per angustias multiformes et incessabiles tentationes, quibus abundat haec vita, quid facturi sumus? Ex abundantia enim iniquitatis fit quidam torpor charitatis: quoniam abundavit iniquitas, refrigescit charitas multorum. Et quid sumus facturi, nisi quod sequitur, si tamen ipso adjuvante possimus: Qui perseveraverit usque in finem, hic salvus erit ?
39.2 PL 36, 433
2. You know that some of the Psalms are entitled, “Songs of Degrees;” and in the Greek it is obvious enough what the word ‡ναβαθμῶν means. For ‡ναβαθμοὶ are degrees (or steps) of them that ascend, not of them that descend. The Latin, not being able to express it strictly, expresses it by the general term; and in that it called them “steps,” left it undetermined, whether they were “steps” of persons ascending or descending. But because there is no “speech or language where their voices are not heard among them,” the earlier language explains the one which comes after it: and what was ambiguous in one is made certain in another. Just then as there the singer is some one who is “ascending,” so here is it some one who is “over-leaping.”…Let this Idithun come still to us, let him “over-leap” those whose delight is in things below, and take delight in these things, and let him rejoice in the Word of the Lord; in the delight of the law of the Most High.…
[vers. 2, 3.] Ergo dicamus quod iste psalmus: Sustinens sustinui Dominum. Sustinens sustinui, non quemlibet hominem promissorem, qui possit fallere et falli; non quemlibet hominem consolatorem, qui potest tristitia sua ante tabescere, quam me reficere. Consoletur me frater homo cum tristis est mecum; simul gemamus, simul fleamus, simul oremus, simul sustineamus; quem, nisi Dominum qui promissa non aufert, sed differt? Exhibebit profecto, exhibebit; quia multa jam exhibuit: et nihil de Dei veritate formidare deberemus, etiamsi nihil adhuc exhiberet. Ecce jam putemus ita, omnia promisit, nondum aliquid dedit: idoneus promissor est, fidelis redditor; tu tantum esto pius exactor, etsi parvulus, etsi infirmus, exige misericordiam. Non vides teneros agnos capitibus pulsare ubera matrum, ut lacte satientur? Sustinens, inquit, sustinui Dominum. Et quid ille? An avertit se a te, an sustinentem contempsit, an forte non vidit? Non plane ita. Sed quid? Et attendit mihi, et exaudivit deprecationem meam. Attendit, et exaudivit. Ecce non frustra sustinuisti: super te oculi ejus, ad te aures ejus. Oculi enim Domini super justos, et aures ejus in preces eorum. Quid ergo, cum male faceres, cum eum blasphemares, non videbat? non audiebat? Et ubi est quod in ipso psalmo dictum est, Vultus autem Domini super facientes mala? Sed utquid? Ut perdat de terra memoriam eorum (Psal. XXXIII, 16, 17). Ergo et cum malus esses, attendebat te, sed non attendebat tibi. Proinde iste qui sustinens sustinuit Dominum, parum ei fuit dicere, Attendit me: Attendit mihi, inquit, id est, consolando attendit, ut mihi prodesset. Quid attendit? Et exaudivit deprecationem meam.
39.3 PL 36, 434
3. “I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue” (ver. 1).…For it is not without reason that the tongue is set in a moist place, but because it is so prone to slip. Perceiving therefore how hard it was for a man to be under the necessity of speaking, and not to say something that he will wish unsaid, and filled with disgust at these sins, he seeks to avoid the like. To this difficulty is he exposed who is seeking to “leap beyond.”…Although I have “leaped beyond” the pleasures of earth, although the fleeting passions for things temporal ensnare me not, though now I despise these things below, and am rising up to better things than these, yet in these very better things the satisfaction of knowledge in the sight of God is enough for me. Of what use is it for me to speak what is to be laid hold of, and to give a handle to cavillers? Therefore, “I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue. I keep my mouth with a bridle.” Wherefore is this? Is it on account of the religious, the thoughtful, the faithful, the holy ones? God forbid! These persons hear in such a manner, as to praise what they approve; but as for what they disapprove, perhaps, among much that they praise they rather excuse than cavil at it; on account of what persons then dost thou “take heed to thy ways,” and place a guard on thy lips “that thou mayest not sin with thy tongue”? Hear: it is, “While the wicked standeth over against me.” It is not “by me” that he takes up his station, but “against me.” Why?…Even the Lord Himself says, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” And the Apostle, “I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal.” Yet not as to persons to be despaired of, but as to those who still required to be nourished. For he goes on to say, “As babes in Christ, I have fed you with milk, and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able.” Well, tell it unto us even now. “Neither yet now are ye able.” Be not therefore impatient to hear that which as yet thou art not capable of; but grow that thou mayest be “able to bear it.” It is thus we address the little one, who yet requires to be fed with kindly milk in the bosom of Mother Church, and to be rendered meet for the “strong meat” of the Lord’s Table. But what can I say even of that kind to the sinner, who “taketh his stand against me,” who either thinks or pretends himself capable of what he “cannot bear;” so that when I say anything unto him, and he has failed to comprehend it, he should not suppose that it was not he that had failed to comprehend, but I who had broken down. Therefore because of this sinner, who “taketh up his stand against me, I keep my mouth as it were with a bridle.”
Et quid tibi praestitit? quid tibi fecit? Et eduxit me de lacu miseriae, et de luto limi: et statuit supra petram pedes meos, et direxit gressus meos. Et immisit in os meum canticum novum, hymnum Deo nostro. Magna bona praestitit, et adhuc debitor est: sed qui haec reddita jam tenet, de caeteris credat, qui credere debuit et antequam aliquid sumeret. Rebus etiam ipsis persuasit nobis Dominus noster fidelem se esse promissorem, largum datorem. Quid ergo nunc fecit? Eduxit me de lacu miseriae. Quis est lacus miseriae? Profunditas iniquitatis, ex carnalibus concupiscentiis. Hoc est enim, et de luto limi. Unde te eduxit? De profundo quodam. Unde in alio psalmo clamabas: De profundis clamavi ad te, Domine . Et qui jam de profundo clamant, non penitus in profundo sunt: clamor ipse jam levat. Sunt alii profundius in profundo, qui nec sentiunt se esse in profundo. Tales sunt superbi contemptores, non pii deprecatores, non lacrymosi clamatores: sed tales, quales alio loco Scriptura designat: Peccator cum venerit in profundum malorum, contemnit . Cui enim parum est esse peccatorem, nisi etiam non sit peccatorum suorum confessor, sed defensor, altius in profundo est. Ille autem qui de profundo exclamavit, jam ab imo profundi caput ut clamaret levavit: auditus est, eductus est de lacu miseriae, et de luto limi. Jam habet fidem, quam non habebat; habet spem, sine qua erat; in Christo ambulat, qui in diabolo errabat. Ideo enim, Posuit, inquit, supra petram pedes meos, et direxit gressus meos. Petra autem erat Christus . Simus super petram, dirigantur gressus nostri: opus est tamen adhuc ut ambulemus, ut ad aliquid perveniamus. Nam Paulus apostolus, jam super petram, jam directis pedibus suis, quid dicebat? Non quia jam acceperim, aut jam perfectus sim: fratres, ego non arbitror me apprehendisse. Quid ergo tibi praestitum est, si non apprehendisti? Unde gratias agis, cum dicis: Sed misericordiam consecutus sum ? Quia directi sunt pedes, quia jam supra petram ambulat. Quid enim ait? Unum autem quae retro oblitus. Quae retro? Lacus miseriae. Quid est, retro? Limus luti, concupiscentiae carnales, tenebrae iniquitatum. Quae retro oblitus, in ea quae ante sunt extentus. Non se diceret extentum, si jam pervenisset. Extenditur enim animus desiderio rei concupitae, non laetitia consecutae. In ea quae ante sunt, inquit, extentus, sequor ad palmam supernae vocationis Dei in Christo Jesu . Currebat, sequebatur ad palmam. Et alio loco jam proximus palmae, Cursum, inquit, consummavi. Quando ergo dicebat, Sequor ad palmam supernae vocationis, quia jam pedes ejus in petra directi erant, jam viam bonam ambulabat: habeat unde gratias ageret, habebat quod peteret, gratias agens de acceptis, petens debita. De quibus acceptis? De indulgentia peccatorum, de illuminatione fidei, de robore spei, de flamma charitatis. Unde autem adhuc Dominum debitorem tenebat? De caetero, inquit, superest mihi corona justitiae. Adhuc ergo mihi aliquid debetur. Quid debetur? Corona justitiae, quam reddet mihi Dominus in illa die justus judex . Primo benignus pater, ut erueret de lacu miseriae, ut donaret peccata, ut liberaret de luto limi: postea justus judex, reddens bene ambulanti quod promisit, cui primo ut bene ambularet donavit. Reddet ergo justus judex: sed quibus? Qui perseveraverit usque in finem, hic salvus erit .
39.4 PL 36, 435
4. “I became deaf, and was humbled, I held my peace from good” (ver. 2). For this person, who is “leaping beyond,” suffers some difficulty in a certain stage to which he hath already attained; and he desires to advance beyond, even from thence, to avoid this difficulty. I was afraid of committing a sin; so that I spoke not; that I imposed on myself the necessity of silence: for I had spoken thus, “I will take heed to my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue.” Whilst I was too much afraid of saying anything wrong, I kept silence from all that is good. For whence could I say good things, except that I heard them? “It is Thou that shalt make me to hear of joy and gladness.” And the “friend of the bridegroom standeth and heareth Him, and rejoiceth on account of the bridegroom’s voice,” not his own. That he may speak true things, he hears what he is to say. For it is he that “speaketh a lie,” that “speaketh of his own.”…When therefore I had “put a bridle,” as it were, “on my lips;” and constrained myself to silence, because I saw that everywhere speech was dangerous, then, says he, that came to pass upon me, which I did not wish, “I became deaf, and was humbled;” not humbled myself, but was humbled; “and I held my peace even from good.” Whilst afraid of saying any evil, I began to refrain from speaking what is good: and I condemned my determination; for “I was holding my peace even from what is good.”
“And my sorrow was stirred up again” (ver. 2). Inasmuch as I had found in silence a kind of respite from a certain “sorrow,” that had been inflicted upon me by those who cavilled at my words, and found fault with me: and that sorrow that was caused by the cavillers, had ceased indeed; but when “I held my peace even from good, my sorrow was stirred up again.” I began to be more grieved at having refrained from saying what I ought to have said, than I had before been grieved by having said what I ought not. “And my sorrow was stirred up again.”
[vers. 4.] Et immisit in os meum canticum novum. Quod canticum novum? Hymnum Deo nostro. Dicebas forte hymnos diis alienis, veteres hymnos; quia vetus homo dicebat, non novus homo fiat: novus homo, dicat canticum novum: innovatus amet nova quibus renovatur. Nam quid antiquius Deo, qui est ante omnia, et sine fine, et sine initio? Tibi fit novus redeunti; quia discedendo factus eras vetus, et dixeras: Inveteravi in omnibus inimicis meis . Dicimus ergo hymnum Deo nostro, et ipse hymnus liberat nos. Laudans enim invocabo Dominum, et ab inimicis meis salvus ero . Hymnus est enim canticum laudis. Laudans invoca, non reprehendens. Quando enim invocas Deum, ut premat inimicum tuum, quando de malo alieno gaudere vis, et ad hoc malum invocas Deum, participem eum facis malitiae tuae. Si participem eum facis malitiae, non ergo laudans invocas, sed reprehendens. Talem enim putas Deum, qualis tu es. Unde tibi alio loco dicitur: Haec fecisti, et tacui; suspicatus es iniquitatem, quod ero tibi similis . Laudans ergo invoca Dominum: noli eum putare similem tibi, ut similis fias illi. Estote enim sicut Pater vester perfecti, qui solem suum oriri facit super bonos et malos, et pluit super justos et injustos . Sic ergo lauda Dominum, ut nolis male inimicis tuis. Et quantum eis, inquis, velim bonum? Quantum tibi. Non enim de tuo accepturi sunt ut boni sint, aut quod illis dabitur, tibi minuetur. Inimicus tuus, quia malus est, inimicus est: fit bonus, et amicus erit, et socius erit; ut simul velis possidere quod amabas, jam frater erit. Laudans ergo invoca, hymnum dic Deo tuo. Sacrificium laudis, ait, glorificabit me. Et quid? major gloria erit Deo, quia glorificas cum? aut addimus gloriam Deo, quando ei dicimus, Glorifico te, Deus meus? aut sanctiorem eum facimus, quando dicimus, Benedico te, Deus meus? Ipse quando nos benedicit, facit nos sanctiores, facit nos feliciores; quando nos glorificat, facit nos gloriosiores, facit nos honoratiores: quando eum glorificamus, nobis prodest, non illi. Quomodo enim eum glorificamus? Gloriosum dicendo, non faciendo. Proinde quid secutus ait, cum diceret, Sacrificium laudis glorificabit me? Ne putares te aliquid praestare Deo, offerendo illi sacrificium laudis, Et ibi est via, inquit, ubi ostendam illi salutare meum . Vides quia tibi proderit laudare Deum, non Deo. Laudas Deum? Ambulas viam. Reprehendis Deum? Perdidisti viam.
39.5 PL 36, 436
5. “And while I was musing, the fire burned” (ver. 3).…I reflected on the words of my Lord, “Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou oughtest to have put My money to the exchangers, and I at My coming should receive it again with usury.” And that which follows may God avert from those who are His stewards! Bind him hand and foot, and let him be cast into outer darkness; the servant, who was not a waster of his master’s goods, so as to destroy them, but was slothful in laying them out to improve them. What ought they to expect, who have wasted them in luxury, if they are condemned who through slothfulness have kept them? “As I was musing, the fire burned.” And as he was in this state of wavering suspense, between speaking and holding his peace, between those who are prepared to cavil and those who are anxious to be instructed,…in this state of suspense, he prays for a better place, a place different from this his present stewardship, in which man is in such difficulty and in such danger, and sighing after a certain “end,” when he was not to be subject to these things, when the Lord is to say to the faithful dispenser, “Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,” he says, “Then spake I with my tongue.” In this fluctuation, in the midst of these dangers and these difficulties, because, that in consequence of the abundance of offences “the love of many is waxing cold,” although the law of the Lord inspires delight, in this fluctuation then, (I say), “then spake I with my tongue.” To whom? not to the hearer whom I would fain instruct; but to Him who heareth and taketh heed also, by whom I would fain be instructed myself. “I spake with my tongue” to Him, from whom I inwardly hear whatever I hear that is good or true.—What saidst thou?
“Lord, make me to know mine end” (ver. 4). For some things I have passed by already; and I have arrived at a certain point, and that to which I have arrived is better than that from which I have advanced to this; but yet there remains a point, which has to be left behind. For we are not to remain here, where there are trials, offences, where we have to bear with persons who listen to us and cavil at us. “Make me to know mine end;” the end, from which I am still removed, not the course which is already before me.
Et inimisit in os meum canticum novum, hymnum Deo nostro. Forte quaerit aliquis, quae persona loquatur in hoc psalmo. Breviter dixerim, Christus est. Sed sicut nostis, fratres, et saepe dicendum est, Christus aliquando loquitur ex se, id est ex capite nostro: est enim ipse Salvator corporis, caput nostrum, Filius Dei natus ex virgine, passus pro nobis, resurgens ad nos justificandos, sedens ad dexteram Dei ad interpellandum pro nobis, retributurus omnia in judicio bona bonis, mala malis. Caput nostrum ille, caput dignatus est corporis fieri, carnem assumendo a nobis, in qua moreretur pro nobis: quam etiam resuscitavit propter nos, ut in illa carne resurrectionis nobis praeberet exemplum, ut sperare disceremus quod desperabamus, et haberemus jam pedes in petra, ambularemus in Christo. Loquitur ergo aliquando ex capite nostro, loquitur aliquando et ex nobis, id est ex membris suis: quia etiam quando dixit, Esurivi, et dedistis mihi manducare , ex membris suis loquebatur, non ex se. Et quando dixit, Saule. Saule, quid me persequeris ? caput pro membris clamabat: et tamen non dixit, Quid persequeris membra mea? sed, quid me persequeris? Si in nobis ipse patitur, et nos in illo coronabimur. Haec est charitas Christi. Quid huic comparari potest? Hujus rei hymnum immisit in os nostrum, et dicit hoc ex membris suis.
39.6 PL 36, 436
6. The “end” he speaks of, is that which the Apostle fixed his eye upon, in his course; and made confession of his own infirmity, perceiving in himself a different state of things from that which he looked for elsewhere. For he says, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.” And that you might not say, “If the Apostle hath not apprehended, have I apprehended? If the Apostle is not perfect, am I perfect?”…
Videbunt justi, et timebunt, et sperabunt in Dominum. Videbunt justi. Qui justi? Fideles: quia justus ex fide vivit . Etenim in Ecclesia iste ordo est: alii praecedunt, alii sequuntur: et qui praecedunt, exemplo se praebent sequentibus; et qui sequuntur, imitantur praecedentes. Sed et illi qui se exemplo praebent sequentibus, numquid neminem sequuntur? Si neminem sequuntur, errabunt. Sequuntur ergo et illi aliquem, ipsum Christum. Meliores quique in Ecclesia, quibus non remansit jam homo quem imitentur, quia omnes proficiendo superaverunt, ipse Christus eis remanet, quem usque in finem sequantur. Et cernitis ordinatos gradus per Paulum apostolum dicentem: Imitatores mei estote, sicut et ego Christi . Ergo qui jam directos gressus habent in petra, forma sint fidelibus: Sed forma, inquit, esto fidelibus . Ipsi fideles sunt justi, qui attendentes eos qui se in bono praecedunt, imitando sequuntur. Quomodo sequuntur? Videbunt justi, et timebunt. Videbunt, et timebunt sequi vias malas, cum vident quosque meliores jam elegisse vias bonas; et dicunt in animo suo, quemadmodum solent dicere viatores, attendentes alios cum praesumptione ambulantes in via, ipsi adhuc incerti viae, et quasi fluctuantes qua eant, dicunt sibi: Non frustra illi hac eunt, quando illo eunt quo nos ire volumus; et quare cum magna fiducia hac eunt, nisi quia illac ire perniciosum est? Videbunt ergo justi, et timebunt. Angustam viam vident hac, latam viam vident illac: hac vident paucos, illac multos . Sed si justus es, noli numerare, sed appende; stateram affer aequam, non dolosam, quia justus appellatus es: Videbunt justi, et timebunt, dictum est de te. Noli ergo numerare turbas hominum incedentes latas vias, implentes crastinum circum, civitatis Natalem clamando celebrantes, civitatem ipsam male vivendo turpantes. Noli ergo illos attendere; multi sunt, et quis numerat? Pauci autem per viam angustam. Profer, inquam, stateram, appende: vide contra pauca grana quantam paleam leves. Hoc agant fideles justi qui sequuntur. Quid illi qui praecedunt? Non superbiant, non se exaltent, non decipiant sequentes. Quomodo possunt decipere sequentes? Promittendo illis in se salutem. Quid ergo debent illi qui sequuntur? Videbunt justi, et timebunt, et sperabunt in Dominum: non in eos a quibus praeceduntur: sed attendendo praecedentes se, sequuntur quidem et imitantur, sed quia cogitant a quo acceperint illi ut praecedant, et in eum sperant. Quamvis ergo istos imitentur, spem suam tamen in illo ponunt, a quo et isti acceperunt unde tales sunt. Videbunt justi, et timebunt, et sperabunt in Dominum: quemadmodum in alio psalmo, Levavi oculos meos in montes, intelligimus montes, claros quosque et magnos Ecclesiae spirituales viros, magnos soliditate, non tumore. Per ipsos nobis Scriptura omnis dispensata est; Prophetae sunt, Evangelistae sunt, doctores boni sunt: illuc levavi oculos meos in montes, unde veniet auxilium mihi. Et ne humanum putares auxilium, sequitur, et dicit: Auxilium meum a Domino, qui fecit coelum et terram . Videbunt justi, et timebunt, et sperabunt in Dominum.
39.7 PL 36, 437
7. “And the number of my days, what it is.” I ask of “the number of my days, what it is.” I can speak of “number” without number, and understand “number without number,” in the same sense as “years without years” may be spoken of. For where there are years, there is a sort of “number” at all events, also. But yet, “Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail.” “Make me to know the number of my days;” but “to know what it is.” What then? that number in which thou art, think you that it “is” not? Assuredly, if I weigh the matter well, it has no being; if I linger behind, it has a sort of being; if I rise above it, it has none. If, shaking off the trammels of these things, I contemplate things above, if I compare things that pass away with those that endure, I see what has a true being, and what rather seems to be, than really is. Should I say that these days of mine “are;” and shall I rashly apply this word so full of meaning to this course of things passing away? To such a degree have I my own self almost ceased to “be, failing” as I am in my weakness, that He escaped from my memory, who said, “I AM HE THAT IS.” Hath then any number of days any existence? In truth it hath, and it is “number without end.”…Everything is swept on by a series of moments, fleeting by, one after the other; there is a torrent of existences ever flowing on and on; a “torrent,” of which He “drank in the way,” who hath now “lift up His Head.” These days then have no true being; they are gone almost before they arrive; and when they are come, they cannot continue; they press upon one another, they follow the one the other, and cannot check themselves in their course. Of the past nothing is called back again; what is yet to be, is expected as something to pass away again: it is not as yet possessed, whilst as yet it is not arrived; it cannot be kept when once it has arrived. He asks then concerning “the number of his days, which is;” not that which is “not:” and (which confounds me by a still greater and more perplexing difficulty) at once “is,” and “is not.” We can neither say that “is,” which does not continue; nor that it “is not,” when it has come and is passing. It is that absolute “IS,” that true “IS,” that “IS” in the true sense of the word, that I long for; that “IS;” which “is” in that “Jerusalem” which is “the Bride” of my Lord; where there will not be death, there will not be failing; there will be a day that passeth not away, but continueth: which has neither a yesterday to precede it, nor a to-morrow pressing close upon it. This “number of my days, which is,” this (I say), “make Thou me to know.”
[vers. 5.] Eia qui volunt sperare in Dominum, qui vident et timent, timeant ambulare vias malas, vias latas; eligant viam angustam, ubi jam supra petram quorumdam directi sunt gressus: quid facere debeant, audiant modo. Beatus vir cujus est nomen Domini spes ejus, et non respexit in vanitates et insanias mendaces. Ecce qua volebas ire, ecce turba viae latae: non frustra ipsa ducit ad amphitheatrum, non frustra ipsa ducit ad mortem. Via lata mortifera est: latitudo ejus delectat ad tempus, finis ejus angustus in aeternum. Sed turbae strepunt, turbae festinant, turbae collaetantur, turbae concurrunt. Noli imitari, noli averti; vanitates sunt, et insaniae mendaces. Sit Dominus Deus tuus spes tua: non aliud aliquid a Domino Deo tuo speres, sed ipse Dominus tuus sit spes tua. Namque multi de Deo sperant pecuniam, multi de Deo sperant honores caducos et perituros, aliud quodlibet a Deo praeter ipsum Deum: sed tu ipsum Deum tuum pete: imo vero contemptis aliis, perge ad illum; obliviscens alia, memento illius; relinquens retro alia, extendere in illum. Ipse certe aversum correxit, ipse ducit rectum, ipse perducit: ergo sit ipse spes tua, qui ducit et perducit. Quo ducit et quo perducit terrena avaritia? Fundos quaerebas, terram possidere cupiebas, vicinos excludebas; illis exclusis, aliis vicinis inhiabas; et tamdiu tendebas avaritiam, donec ad littora pervenires: perveniens ad littora, insulas concupiscis; possessa terra, coelum forte vis prendere. Relinque omnes amores: pulchrior est ille qui fecit coelum et terram.
39.8 PL 36, 438
8. “That I may know what is wanting to me.” For while I am struggling here, “this” is wanting unto me: and so long as it is wanting unto me, I do not call myself perfect. So long as I have not received it, I say, “not that I have already attained, either am already perfect; but I am pressing towards the prize of God’s high calling.” This let me receive as the prize of my running the race! There will be a certain resting-place, to terminate my course; and in that resting-place there will be a Country, and no pilgrimage, no dissension, no temptation. Make me then to know “this number of my days, which is, that I may know what is wanting unto me;” because I am not there yet; lest I should be made proud of what I already am, that “I may be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness.” …
Beatus vir, cujus est nomen Domini spes ejus, et non respexit in vanitates et insanias mendaces. Unde enim insaniae mendaces? Insania mendax, sanitas verax. Quae vides bona putas, falleris: sanus non es, nimia febre phreneticus factus es; verum non est quod amas. Laudas aurigam, clamas aurigae, insanis in aurigam. Vanitas est, insania mendax est. Non est, ait: nihil melius, nihil delectabilius. Quid facio febrienti? Si est in vobis misericordia, orate pro talibus. Quia et ipse medicus plerumque in desperatione convertitur ad eos qui circumstant lacrymantes in domo, qui pendent ex ore ejus audire sententiam de aegroto et periclitante: stat anceps medicus, non videt bonum quod promittat, timet malum pronuntiare, ne terreat; modestam plane iste concipit sententiam: Bonus Deus omnia potest, orate pro illo. Quem itaque comprehendam istorum insanorum? Quis me audiat? quis eorum nos non miseros dicat? Quia cum eis non insanimus, amisisse nos putant magnas et varias voluptates, in quibus ipsi insaniunt: nec vident quia mendaces sunt. Quando illi ovum do vel invito, vel calicem salutarem porrigo saucio; et quomodo reficiam, quando invenio? Ne inedia deficiat, et ad sanitatem non perveniat, hortor ut reficiat: pugnos parat, saevire vult in medicum. Et si percusserit, diligatur; et si injuriam fecerit, non relinquatur: rediturus est ad mentem, gratias acturus. Quam multi hic cognoscunt se, vident se invicem, et loquuntur de se in Ecclesia Dei; in Ecclesiae sanctae gremio attendunt studia sua jam bona circa verbum Dei, circa officia et obsequia charitatis, ad frequentandum gregem Christi non recedere de Ecclesia, vident et loquuntur ad invicem de invicem. Quis est iste circissarius? Quis est iste amator et laudator illius venatoris, illius histrionis? De alio loquitur, et ille de ipso. Certe ista sunt, certe gaudemus de talibus. Si gaudemus de talibus, non desperemus de talibus. Oremus pro ipsis, fratres carissimi: inde crescit numerus sanctorum, de numero qui erat impiorum. Et non respexit in vanitates et insanias mendaces. Ille vicit, talem equum junxit, pronuntiat, quasi divinus vult esse: affectat divinitatem amittendo fontem divinitatis: et saepe pronuntiat, et saepe fallitur. Quare hoc? Quia insaniae mendaces sunt. Quare autem aliquando proveniunt quae dicunt? Ut abducant insanos, ut amando ibi speciem veritatis, incurrant laqueum falsitatis: retro sint, relinquantur, amputentur. Si membra nostra erant, mortificentur: Mortificate, inquit, membra vestra quae sunt super terram . Sit spes nostra Deus noster. Qui fecit omnia, melior est omnibus; qui pulchra fecit, pulchrior est omnibus; qui fortia, fortior est; qui magna, major est: quidquid amaveris, ille tibi erit. Disce amare in creatura creatorem, et in factura factorem; ne teneat te quod ab illo factum est, et amittas eum a quo et ipse factus es. Ergo, Beatus vir cujus est nomen Domini spes ejus, et non respexit in vanitates et insanias mendaces.
39.9 PL 36, 439
9. “Behold, thou hast made my days old” (ver. 5). For these days are “waxing old.” I long for new days “that never shall wax old,” that I may say, “Old things have passed away; behold, things are become new.” Already new in hope; then in reality. For though, in hope and in faith, made new already, how much do we even now do after our old nature! For we are not so completely “clothed upon” with Christ, as not to bear about with us anything derived from Adam. Observe that Adam is “waxing old” within us, and Christ is being “renewed” in us. “Though our outward man is perishing, yet is our inward man being renewed day by day.” Therefore, while we fix our thoughts on sin, on mortality, on time, that is hastening by, on sorrow, and toil, and labour, on stages of life following each other in succession, and continuing not, passing on insensibly from infancy even to old age; whilst, I say, we fix our eyes on these things, let us see here “the old man,” the “day that is waxing old;” the Song that is out of date; the Old Testament; when however we turn to the inner man, to those things that are to be renewed in place of these which are to be changed, let us find the “new man,” the “new day,” the “new song,” the “New Testament;” and that “newness,” let us so love, as to have no fears of its “waxing old.”…This man, therefore, who is hasting forward to those things which are new, and “reaching forward to those things which are before,” says, “Lord, make me to know mine end, and the number of my days, which really is, that I may know what is wanting unto me.” See he still drags with him Adam; and even so he is hasting unto Christ. “Behold,” saith he, “thou hast made my days old.” It is those days that are derived from Adam, those days, I say, that thou hast made old. They are waxing old day by day: and so waxing old, as to be at some day or other consumed also. “And my substance is as nothing before Thee.” “Before Thee, O Lord, my substance is as nothing.” “Before Thee;” who seest this; and I too, when I see it, see it only when “before Thee.”
When “before men” I see it not. For what shall I say? What words shall I use to show, that which I now am is nothing in comparison of That which truly “IS”? But it is within that it is said; it is within that it is felt, so far as it is felt. “Before Thee, O Lord,” where Thine eyes are; and not where the eyes of men are. And where Thine eyes are, what is the state of things? “That which I am is as nothing.”
[vers. 6-9.] Forte nobis dicturus est, qui versu isto percussus corrigi voluerit, et quem occupaverit timor ille justitiae fidei, et volens coeperit ambulare angustam viam; dicturus est nobis: Ambulare non durabo, si nihil spectabo. Quid ergo facimus, fratres? Dimissuri eum sumus sine spectaculo? Morietur, non subsistet, non nos sequetur. Quid ergo facimus? Demus pro spectaculis spectacula. Et quae spectacula daturi sumus christiano homini, quem volumus ab illis spectaculis revocare? Gratias ago Domino Deo nostro: sequenti versu Psalmi ostendit nobis, quae spectatoribus spectare volentibus spectacula praebere et ostendere debeamus. Ecce aversus fuerit a circo, a theatro, ab amphitheatro, quaerat quod spectet, prorsus quaerat; non eum relinquimus sine spectaculo. Quid pro illis dabimus? Audi quid sequitur: Multa fecisti tu, Domine Deus meus, mirabilia tua. Miracula hominum intuebatur, intendat mirabilia Dei. Multa fecit Dominus mirabilia sua; haec respiciat. Quare illi viluerunt? Aurigam laudat regentem quatuor equos, et sine labe atque offensione currentes: forte talia miracula spiritualia non fecit Dominus? Regat luxuriam, regat ignaviam, regat injustitiam, regat imprudentiam, motus istos qui nimium lapsi haec vitia faciunt, regat et subdat sibi, et teneat habenas, et non rapiatur; ducat quo vult, non trahatur quo non vult. Aurigam laudabat, auriga laudabitur: clamabat ut auriga veste cooperiretur, immortalitate vestietur. Haec munera, haec spectacula edit Deus. Clamat de coelo: Specto vos; luctamini, adjuvabo; vincite, coronabo. Multa fecisti tu, Domine Deus meus, mirabilia tua; et cogitationibus tuis non est qui similis sit tibi. Nunc specta histrionem. Didicit enim homo magno studio in fune ambulare, et pendens te suspendit. Illum attende editorem majorum spectaculorum. Didicit iste in fune ambulare, numquid fecit in mari ambulare? Obliviscere theatrum tuum, attende Petrum nostrum, non funambulum, sed, ut ita dicam, mariambulum. Ambula et tu non in illis aquis, ubi Petrus aliquid significans ambulavit, sed in aliis; quia hoc saeculum mare est. Habet amaritudinem noxiam, habet fluctus tribulationum, tempestates tentationum; habet homines velut pisces de suo malo gaudentes, et tanquam se invicem devorantes; hic ambula, hoc calca. Spectare vis, esto spectaculum. Ne deficias, vide praecedentem et dicentem: Spectaculum facti sumus huic mundo, et Angelis, et hominibus . Calca mare, ne mergaris in mari. Non ibis, non calcabis, nisi ille jusserit qui prior in mari ambulavit. Sic enim ait Petrus: Si tu es, jube me venire ad te super aquas. Et quia ipse erat, audivit petentem, tribuit desideranti, vocavit ambulantem, erexit mergentem . Haec mirabilia fecit Dominus, ipsa intuere; oculus spectantis fides sit. Et fac tu talia; quia etsi venti turbaverint, etsi fluctus infremuerint, et te humana fragilitas ad aliquam dubitationem tuae salutis adduxerit, habes clamare; dicis, Domine, pereo. Non sinit ille perire, qui jussit te ambulare. Quia enim jam in petra ambulas, nec in mare times: si sine petra fueris, in mare mergeris, quia in tali petra ambulandum est, quae in mari non mersa est.
39.10 PL 36, 440
10. “But, verily, every man living is altogether vanity.” “But, verily.” For what was he saying above? Behold, I have already “leaped beyond” all mortal things, and despised things below, have trampled under foot the things of earth, have soared upwards to the delights of the law of the Lord, I have been afloat in the dispensation of the Lord, have yearned for that “End” which Itself is to know no end, have yearned for the number of my days that truly “is,” because the number of days like these hath no real being. Behold, I am already such a one as this; I have already overleaped so much; I am longing for those things which abide. “But verily,” in the state in which I am here, so long as I am here, so long as I am in this world, so long as I bear mortal flesh, so long as the life of man on earth is a trial, so long as I sigh among causes of offence, as long as while I “stand” I am in “fear lest I fall,” as long as both my good and my ill hangs in uncertainty, “every man living is altogether vanity.”…
Vide mirabilia Dei. Annuntiavi, et locutus sum, multiplicati sunt super numerum. Est numerus, sunt super numerum. Numerus certus est, pertinens ad illam coelestem Jerusalem. Novit enim Dominus, qui sunt ejus , christianos timentes, christianos fideles, christianos praecepta servantes, Dei vias ambulantes, a peccatis abstinentes, si ceciderint confitentes: ipsi ad numerum pertinent. Sed numquid soli sunt? Sunt et super numerum. Nam etsi modo pauci sunt, pauci in comparatione multitudinis majorum frequentiarum: quantis turbis implentur ecclesiae, stipantur parietes, pressuris se urgent, prope se suffocant multitudine. Rursus ab eis ipsis, si munus est, curritur ad amphitheatrum: isti super numerum sunt. Sed ideo ista dicimus, ut in numero sint: quia non adsunt, non audiunt a nobis; sed cum exieritis, audiant a vobis. Annuntiavi, inquit, et locutus sum. Christus dicit: annuntiavit ipse ex capite nostro, ipse annuntiavit ex membris suis, ipse misit annuntiatores, ipse misit Apostolos: in omnem terram exivit sonus eorum, et in fines orbis terrae verba eorum . Quanti fideles agglomerantur, quantae turbae concurrunt, multi vere conversi, multi falso conversi; et pauciores sunt vere conversi, plures falso conversi; quia multiplicati sunt super numerum.
39.11 PL 36, 441
11. “Albeit man walketh in the Image” (ver. 6). In what “Image,” save that of Him who said, “Let Us make man in Our Image, after Our Likeness.” “Albeit man walks in the Image.” For the reason he says “albeit,” is, that this is some great thing. And this “albeit” is followed by “nevertheless,” that the “albeit” which you have already heard, should relate to what is beyond the sun; but this “nevertheless,” which is to follow, to what is “under the sun,” and that the one should relate to the Truth, the other to “vanity.” “Albeit,” then, “that man walketh in the Image, nevertheless he is disquieted in vain.” Hear the cause of his “disquieting,” and see if it be not a vain one; that thou mayest trample it under foot, that thou mayest “leap beyond it,” and mayest dwell on high, where that “vanity” is not. What “vanity” is that? “He heapeth up riches, and knoweth not for whom he may be gathering them together.” O infatuated vanity! “Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust, and hath not respected vanities, nor lying deceits.” To you indeed, O covetous man, to you I seem to be out of my senses, these words appear to you to be “old wives’ tales.” For you, a man of great judgment, and of great prudence, to be sure, are daily devising methods of acquiring money, by traffic, by agriculture, by eloquence perhaps, by making yourself learned in the law, by warfare, perhaps you even add that of usury. Like a shrewd man as you are, you leave nothing untried, whereby you may pile coin on coin; and may store it up more carefully in a place of secrecy. You plunder others; you guard against the plunderer; you are afraid lest you should yourself suffer the wrong, that you yourself do; and even what you do suffer, does not correct you.…Examine your own heart, and that prudence of yours, which leads you to deride me, to think me out of my senses for saying these things: and tell me now, “You are heaping up treasures; for whom are you gathering them together?” I see what you would tell me; as if what you would say had not occurred to the person described here; you will say, I am keeping them for my children? This is the voice of parental affection; the excuse of injustice. “I am keeping them” (you say) “for my children.” So then you are keeping them for your children, are you? Did not Idithun then know this? Assuredly he did; but he reckoned it one of the things of the “old days,” that have waxed old, and therefore he despised it: because he was hastening on to the new “days.”…
Annuntiavi et locutus sum, multiplicati sunt super numerum. Sacrificium et oblationem noluisti. Haec miracula Dei sunt, hae cogitationes Dei sunt, quibus nemo est similis: ut spectator ille abducatur a curiositate, et quaerat ista nobiscum meliora, fructuosiora, de quibus inventis gaudebit; et sic gaudebit, ut non timeat ne vincatur quem amat: amat enim aurigam, quo victo insultationes ferat. Quando vincit auriga, ipse vestitur. Numquid pauper qui illi clamat? Victor ipse vestitur, pro victo illi insultatur. Quare pro illo percipis reprehensionem, cum quo non dividis vestem? Hac aliud in spectaculis nostris. Omnes quidem currunt, Paulus apostolus dixit, in illo stadio, in illo spectaculo, unus tamen accipit bravium: caeteri victi discedunt . Et perseveraverunt in currendo: sed cum acceperit unus, remanent caeteri qui similiter laboraverunt. Hac non est sic. Quotquot currunt, perseveranter currant, omnes accipiunt: et qui prior venerit, exspectat ut cum posteriore coronetur. Agonem quippe istum non cupiditas, sed charitas facit: omnes currentes amant se, et ipse amor cursus est.
39.12 PL 36, 441
12. For He, “by whom all things were made,” hath built “mansions” for all of us: thither He would have that which we have go before us; that we may not lose it on earth. When, however, you have kept them on earth, tell me for whom you are to “gather them together”? You have children: add one more to their number; and give something to Christ also. “He is disquieted in vain.”
Sacrificium et oblationem noluisti, ait psalmus Deo. Antiqui enim, quando adhuc sacrificium verum quod fideles norunt, in figuris praenuntiabatur, celebrabant figuras futurae rei: multi scientes, sed plures ignorantes. Nam Prophetae et sancti Patriarchae noverant quod celebrabant: caetera autem multitudo iniqua, carnalis sic erat, ut fieret de illa quod significaret posteriora ventura: et venit sublato illo sacrificio primo, sublatis holocaustis arietum, hircorum, vitulorum, caeterarumque victimarum; noluit illa Deus. Quare illa noluit? quare primo voluit? Quia illa omnia quasi verba erant promittentis; et verba promissiva, cum venerit quod promittunt, non jam enuntiantur. Tamdiu quisque promissor est, donec det: cum dederit, mutat verba. Non dicit adhuc, Dabo, quod se daturum dicebat; sed dicit, Dedi: mutavit verbum. Quare illi primo placuit hoc verbum, et quare illud mutavit? Quia temporis sui verbum fuit, et pro tempore suo placuit. Quando promittebatur, tunc dicebatur: cum autem datum est quod promissum est, ablata sunt verba promissiva, data sunt completiva. Sacrificia ergo illa, tanquam verba promissiva, ablata sunt. Quid est quod datum est completivum? Corpus quod nostis, quod non omnes nostis; quod utinam qui nostis, omnes non ad judicium noveritis. Videte quando dictum est; Christus enim ille est Dominus noster, modo loquens ex membris suis, modo loquens ex persona sua. Sacrificium, inquit, et oblationem noluisti. Quid ergo? Nos jam hoc tempore sine sacrificio dimissi sumus? Absit. Corpus autem perfecisti mihi. Ideo illa noluisti ut hoc perficeres: illa voluisti antequam hoc perficeres. Perfectio promissorum abstulit verba promittentia. Nam si adhuc sunt promittentia, nondum impletum est quod promissum est. Hoc promittebatur quibusdam signis: ablata sunt signa promittentia, quia exhibita est veritas promissa. In hoc corpore sumus, hujus corporis participes sumus, quod accipimus novimus: et qui non nostis noveritis, et cum didiceritis, utinam non ad judicium accipiatis. Qui enim manducat et bibit indigne, judicium sibi manducat et bibit . Perfectum est nobis corpus, perficiamur in corpore.
39.13 PL 36, 442
13. “And now” (ver. 7). “And now,” saith this Idithun,—looking back on a certain “vain” show, and looking up to a certain Truth, standing midway where he has something beyond him, and something also behind him, having below him the place from which he took his spring, having above him that toward which he has stretched forth;—“And now,” when I have “over-leaped” some things, when I have trampled many things under foot, when I am no longer captivated by things temporal; even now, I am not perfect, “I have not yet apprehended.” “For it is by hope that we are saved; but hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” Therefore he says: “And now what wait I for? Is it not for the Lord?” He is my expectation, who hath given me all those things, that I might despise them. He will give unto me Himself also, even He who is above all, and “by whom all things were made,” and by whom I was made amongst all; even He, the Lord, is my Expectation! You see Idithun, brethren, you see in what way he waiteth for Him! Let no man therefore call himself perfect here; he deceives and imposes upon himself; he is beguiling himself, he cannot have perfection here, and what avails it that he should lose humility?…
“And my substance is ever before Thee.” Already advancing, already tending towards Him, and to some extent already beginning to “be,” still (he says) “my substance is ever before Thee.” Now that other substance is also before men. You have gold, silver, slaves, estates, trees, cattle, servants. These things are visible even to men. There is a certain “substance that is ever before Thee.”
Sacrificium et oblationem noluisti, corpus autem perfecisti mihi. Holocausta etiam pro delicto non petisti: tunc dixi, Ecce venio. Numquid exponendum est, Sacrificium et oblationem noluisti, corpus autem perfecisti mihi? Holocausta etiam pro delicto non petisti: quae petebat antea. Tunc dixi, Ecce venio. Tempus est ut veniant quae promittebantur, quia auferuntur ea per quae promittebantur. Et vere, fratres mei, attendite illa ablata, haec impleta. Det mihi modo gens judaica sacerdotem. Ubi sunt sacrificia illorum? Certe perierunt, certe ablata sunt nunc. Numquid tunc reprobaremus ea? Reprobamus modo: quia si modo velis facere, intemporale est, non est opportunum, non congruit. Adhuc promittis, jam accepi. Remansit illis quiddam quod celebrent, ne omnino sine signo remanerent. Cain enim major frater, qui occidit minorem fratrem, accepit signum, ne quis eum occideret, sicut scriptum est in Genesi: Posuit Deus Cain signum, ut nemo eum occideret. Proinde et ipsa gens judaea manet. Omnes gentes subditae juri romano, in jus romanum confluxerunt, superstitiones communicaverunt; postea inde coeperunt per gratiam Domini nostri Jesu Christi separari: illa vero sic mansit cum signo suo, cum signo circumcisionis, cum signo azymorum sic mansit: non est occisus Cain, non est occisus, habet signum suum. Maledictus est a terra, quae aperuit os suum excipere sanguinem fratris ejus de manu ejus. Ille enim fudit sanguinem, non excepit: ille fudit, alia terra excepit: et ab ea terra quae os aperuit et excepit, ille maledictus est: et ipsa terra quae ore excepit sanguinem, Ecclesia est. Ab hac ergo ille maledictus est. Et ille sanguis clamat de terra ad me. De hac enim terra dixit Dominus, Vox sanguinis fratris tui clamat ad me de terra . Clamat, inquit, ad me de terra. Clamat ad Dominum: sed surdus est qui sanguinem fudit, quia non bibit. Illi ergo ita sunt, tanquam Cain cum signo. Sacrificia vero quae ibi fiebant, ablata sunt; et quod eis remansit ad signum Cain, jam perfectum est, et nesciunt. Agnum occidunt, azyma comedunt: Pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus. Ecce agnosco agnum occisum, quia immolatus est Christus. Quid de azymis? Itaque, inquit, diem festum celebremus, non in fermento veteri, neque in fermento malitiae et malignitatis: ostendit quid sit vetus, vetus farina est, acuit: sed in azymis sinceritatis et veritatis . In umbra remanserunt, solem gloriae ferre non possunt: jam nos in luce sumus, tenemus corpus Christi, tenemus sanguinem Christi. Si habemus novam vitam, cantemus canticum novum, hymnum Deo nostro. Holocausta pro delicto non petisti: tunc dixi, Ecce venio.
39.14 PL 36, 443
14. “Deliver me from all my transgressions” (ver. 8). I have “over-leaped” a great deal of ground, a very great deal of ground already; but, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the Truth is not in us.” I have “over-leaped” a great deal: but still do I “beat my breast,” and say, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Thou therefore art “my expectation!” my “End.” For “Christ is the end of the Law unto righteousness, unto every man that believeth.” From all mine offences: not only from those, that I may not relapse into those which I have already “over-leaped;” but from all, without exception, of those on account of which I now beat my breast, and say, “Forgive us our debts.” “Deliver me from all mine offences:” me being thus minded, and holding fast what the Apostle said, “As many of us as be perfect, let us be thus minded.” For at the time that he said that he was not “already perfect,” he then immediately goes on and says, “As many of us as be perfect, let us be thus minded.”…Art thou then, O Apostle, not perfect, and are we perfect? But hath it escaped you, that he did just now call himself “perfect”? For he does not say, “As many of you as are perfect, be ye thus minded;” but “As many of us as be perfect, let us be thus minded;” after having said a little before, “Not that I have already attained; either am already perfect.” In no other way then can you be perfect in this life, than by knowing that you cannot be perfect in this life. This then will be your perfection, so to have “over-leaped” some things, as to have still some point to which you are hastening on: so as to have something remaining, to which you will have to leap on, when everything else has been passed by. It is such faith as this that is secure; for whoever thinks that he has already attained, is “exalting himself,” so as to be “abased” hereafter.…
In capite libri scriptum est de me, ut faciam voluntatem tuam: Deus meus, volui, et legem tuam in medio cordis mei. Ecce ad membra respexit, ecce et ipse fecit voluntatem Patris. Sed in quo capite libri scriptum est de illo? Fortasse in capite libri hujus Psalmorum. Quid enim longe petamus, aut alios libros inquiramus? Ecce in capite libri hujus Psalmorum, scriptum est, Beatus vir qui non abiit in consilio impiorum, et in via peccatorum non stetit, et in cathedra pestilentiarum non sedit, sed in lege Domini voluntas ejus fuit: hoc est, Deus meus, volui, et legem tuam in medio cordis mei: hoc est, et in lege ejus meditabitur die ac nocte .
39.15 PL 36, 443
15. “Thou hast made me the reproach of the foolish.” Thou hast so willed it, that I should live among those, and preach the Truth among those, who love vanity; and I cannot but be a laughing-stock to them. “For we have been made a spectacle unto this world, and unto angels, and unto men:” to angels who praise, to men who censure, us; or rather to angels, some of whom praise, some of whom are censuring us: and to men also, some of whom are praising, and some censuring us.…Both the one and the other are arms to us: the one “on the right hand,” the other “on the left:” arms however they are both of them; both of these kinds of arms, both those “on the right hand,” and those “on the left;” both those who praise, and those who censure; both those who pay us honour, and those who heap dishonour upon us; with both these kinds I contend against the devil; with both of these I smite him; I defeat him with prosperity, if I be not corrupted by it; by adversity, if I am not broken in spirit by it.
[vers. 10.] Bene nuntiavi justitiam tuam in Ecclesia magna. Alloquitur membra sua, hortatur quod fecit, ut faciant. Annuntiavit, annuntiemus; passus est, compatiamur; glorificatus est, conglorificabimur. Annuntiavi justitiam tuam in Ecclesia magna. Quam magna? Toto orbe terrarum. Quam magna? In omnibus gentibus. Quare in omnibus gentibus? Quia semen est Abrahae, in quo benedicentur omnes gentes . Quare in omnibus gentibus? Quia in omnem terram exivit sonus eorum . In Ecclesia magna. Ecce labia mea non prohibebo, Domine tu cognovisti. Labia mea loquuntur, non ea prohibebo loqui. Sonant quidem labia mea ad aures hominum, sed tu cognovisti cor meum. Labia mea non prohibebo, Domine tu cognovisti. Aliud audit homo, aliud agnoscit Deus. Ne in labiis solis esset annuntiatio, et diceretur de nobis. Quae dicunt vobis, facite, quae autem faciunt, facere nolite : aut ipsi populo, laudanti Deum ore, non corde, diceretur, Populus hic labiis me honorat, cor autem eorum longe est a me : sona labiis, propinqua corde. Corde enim creditur ad justitiam, ore autem confessio fit ad salutem . Qualis ille latro inventus est, pendens in cruce cum Domino, agnoscens in cruce Dominum. Alii non cognoverunt miracula facientem, agnovit ille in ligno pendentem. Erat ille confixus omnibus membris; manus clavis inhaerebant, pedes transfixi erant, totum corpus adjungebatur ligno; corpus illud non vacabat caeteris membris, lingua vacabat et cor: corde credidit, ore confessus est. Memento mei, inquit, Domine, cum veneris in regnum tuum. Salutem suam longe futuram sperabat, et post longum tempus accipere contentus erat: in longum sperabat, dies non est dilatus. Ille dixit, Memento mei, cum veneris in regnum tuum: ille respondit: Amen dico tibi, hodie mecum eris in paradiso. Hodie, inquit, mecum eris in paradiso . Paradisus habet ligna felicia: hodie mecum in ligno crucis, hodie mecum in ligno salutis.
39.16 PL 36, 444
16. “I became dumb; and I opened not my mouth” (ver. 9). But it was to guard against “the foolish man,” that “I became dumb, and opened not my mouth.” For to whom should I tell what is going on within me? “For I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me; for He will speak peace unto His people.” But “There is no peace,” saith the Lord, “to the wicked.” “I was dumb, and opened not my mouth; because it is Thou that madest me.” Was this the reason that thou openedst not thy mouth, “because God made thee”? That is strange; for did not God make thy mouth, that thou shouldest speak? “He that planted the ear, doth He not hear? He that formed the eye, doth He not see?” God hath given thee a mouth to speak with; and dost thou say, “I was dumb, and opened not my mouth, because Thou madest me”? Or does the clause, “Because Thou madest me,” belong to the verse that follows? “Remove Thy stroke away from me” (ver. 10). Because it is “Thou that hast made me,” let it not be Thy pleasure to destroy me utterly; scourge, so that I may be made better, not so that I faint; beat me, so that I may be beaten out to a greater length and breadth, not so that I may be ground to powder. “By the heaviness of Thy hand I fainted in corrections.” That is, I “fainted” while Thou wast correcting me. And what is meant by “correcting” me? except what follows.
Ecce labia mea non prohibebo, Domine, tu cognovisti: ne credat corde, et prae timore labia prohibeat annuntiare quod credidit. Sunt enim christiani, habent fidem in corde, et inter paganos amaros, misere urbanos, sordidos, infideles, ineptos, insultatores, si exagitari coeperint, quia christiani sunt; habent in corde fidem, et timent confiteri per labia, prohibent labia sua sonare quod norunt, sonare quod intus habent. Sed reprehendit hos Dominus, Qui me confusus fuerit coram hominibus, confundar de illo coram Patre meo , id est, non eum cognoscam: quia erubuit me confiteri coram hominibus, non eum confitebor coram Patre meo. Dicant ergo labia quod habet cor: hoc contra timorem. Habeat cor quod dicunt labia: hoc contra simulationem. Aliquando enim timor est, et non audes dicere quod nosti, quod credis: aliquando simulatio est, dicis, et non habes in corde. Consentiant labia tua cordi tuo. Quaerens pacem a Deo, tibi ipse esto pacatus: non sit inter os tuum et cor tuum mala rixa. Ecce labia mea non prohibebo, Domine, tu cognovisti. Quomodo ille? quid cognovit Dominus? Intus in corde, ubi non videt homo. Ideo et ille, Credidi, inquit. Ecce cor habet, jam habet quod videat Deus: non prohibeat labia sua. Non prohibet. Quid enim dicit? Propter quod locutus sum. Et quia locutus est quod credidit, quaerens quid retribuat Domino pro omnibus quae retribuit ei, adjungit: Calicem salutaris accipiam, et nomen Domini invocabo. Non exhorruit Dominum dicentem: Potestis bibere calicem quem ego bibiturus sum ? Confitetur enim per labia quod habebat in corde, pervenit ad passionem. Et quia pervenit ad passionem, hostis quid nocuit? Nempe pretiosa in conspectu Domini mors justorum ejus . Mortes in quas Pagani saevierunt, in illis hodie reficimur. Natalem martyrum celebramus, exempla martyrum nobis proponimus, attendimus fidem, quomodo inventi, quomodo attracti, quomodo steterunt ante judices. In Ecclesia catholica nihil habentes simulationis, compaginati junctura unitatis, confessi sunt Christum: caput quod praecesserat, sicut membra, sequi concupierunt. Sed qui concupierunt? In tormentis patientes, in confessione fideles, in sermone veraces. Jaculabantur enim in ora interrogantium se sagittas Dei, et vulnerabant ad iram; multos vulneraverunt et ad salutem. Haec omnia proponimus nobis, et intuemur illa, et optamus imitari. Haec sunt spectacula christiana, haec videt desuper Deus, ad haec hortatur, ad haec adjuvat; his certaminibus praemia proponit et donat. Ecce labia mea non prohibebo. Vide ne timeas, et prohibeas labia tua. Domine, tu cognovisti: quia est et in corde quod sonat et in labiis.
39.17 PL 36, 445
17. “Thou with rebukes hast chastened man for iniquity; Thou hast made my life to consume away like a spider” (ver. 11). There is much that is discerned by this Idithun; by every one who discerns as he does; who overleaps as he does. For he says, that he has fainted in God’s corrections; and would fain have the stroke removed away from him, “because it is He who made him.” Let Him renew me, who also made me; let Him who created me, create me anew. But yet, Brethren, do we suppose that there was no cause for his fainting, so that he wishes to be “renewed,” to be “created anew”? It is “for iniquity,” saith he, “that Thou hast chastened man.” All this, my having fainted, my being weak, my “crying out of the deep,” all of this is because of “iniquity;” and in this Thou hast not condemned, but hast “chastened” me. “Thou hast chastened man for sin.” Hear this more plainly from another Psalm: “It is good for me that Thou hast afflicted me, that I might learn Thy righteousness.” I have been “afflicted,” and at the same time “it is good for me;” it is at once a punishment, and an act of favour. What hath He in store for us after punishment is over, who inflicts punishment itself by way of favour? For He it is of whom it was said, “I was brought low, and He made me whole:” and, “It is good for me that Thou hast afflicted me, that I might learn Thy righteousness.” “Thou chastenest man for iniquity.” And that which is written, “Thou formest my grief in teaching me,” could only be said unto God by one who was “leaping beyond” his fellows; “Thou formest my grief in teaching me;” Thou makest, that is to say, a lesson for me out of my sorrow. It is Thou that formest that very grief itself; Thou dost not leave it unformed, but formest it; and that grief, that has been inflicted by Thee, when formed, will be a lesson unto me, that I may be set free by Thee. For the word finges is used in the sense of “forming,” as it were moulding, my grief; not in the sense of “feigning” it; in the same way that fingit is applied to the artist, in the same sense that figulus is derived from fingere. Thou therefore “hast chastened man for iniquity.” I see myself in afflictions; I see myself under punishment; and I see no unrighteousness in Thee. If I therefore am under punishment, and if there is no unrighteousness with Thee, it remains that Thou must have been “chastening man for iniquity.”
[vers. 11.] Justitiam meam non abscondi in corde meo. Quid est, justitiam meam? Fidem meam: quia justus ex fide vivit . Ut puta, interrogat sub poena persecutor, quod eis licuit aliquando, Quid es? paganus, an christianus? Christianus. Ipsa est justitia ejus: credidit, ex fide vivit. Non abscondit in corde suo justitiam suam. Non dixit apud se: Credo quidem in Christum, sed huic persecutori meo saevienti et minanti non dicam quod credidi: novit Deus meus intus in corde meo quia credo, ipse scit quia illi non renuntio. Ecce hoc dicis te intus habere in corde: in labiis quid? Non sum christianus? Contra cor tuum testimonium dicunt labia tua. Justitiam meam non abscondi in corde meo.
39.18 PL 36, 445
18. And by what means hast Thou “chastened” him? Tell us, O Idithun, the manner of thy chastening; tell us in what way thou hast been “chastened.” “And Thou hast made my life consume like a spider.” This is the chastening! What consumes away sooner than the spider? I speak of the creature itself; though what can be more liable to “consume away” than the spider’s webs? Observe too how liable to decay is the creature itself. Do but set your finger lightly upon it, and it is a ruin: there is nothing at all more easily destroyed. To such a state hast Thou brought my life, by chastening me “because of iniquity.” When chastening makes us weak, there is a kind of strength that would be a fault.…It was by a kind of strength that man offended, so as to require to be corrected by weakness: for it was by a certain “pride” that he offended; so as to require to be chastened by humility. All proud persons call themselves strong men. Therefore have many “come from the East and the West,” and have attained “to sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of Heaven.” Wherefore was it that they so attained? Because they would not be strong. What is meant by “would not be strong”? They were afraid to presume of their own merits. They did not “go about to establish their own righteousness,” that they might “submit themselves to the righteousness of God.”…Behold! you are mortal; and you bear about you a body of flesh that is corrupting away: “And ye shall fall like one of the princes. Ye shall die like men,” and shall fall like the devil. What good does the remedial discipline of mortality do you? The devil is proud, as not having a mortal body, as being an angel. But as for you, who have received a mortal body, and to whom even this does no good, so as to humble you by so great weakness, you shall “fall like one of the princes.” This then is the first grace of God’s gift, to bring us to the confession of our infirmity, that whatever good we can do, whatever ability we have, we may be that in Him; that “He that glorieth, may glory in the Lord.” “When I am weak,” saith he, “then am I strong.”
Veritatem tuam et salutare tuum dixi. Christum tuum dixi, hoc est, Veritatem tuam et salutare tuum dixi. Unde veritas Christus? Ego sum veritas . Unde salutare ipsius Christus? Simeon agnovit infantem in manibus matris in templo, et dixit: Quoniam viderunt oculi mei salutare tuum . Agnovit infantem senex, factus in puero puer, innovatus fide. Acceperat enim responsum, et hoc dixit: dixerat ei Dominus, quia non exiturus erat de hac vita, priusquam videret salutare Dei. Hoc salutare Dei bonum est ut ostendatur hominibus: sed clament, Ostende nobis, Domine, misericordiam tuam, et salutare tuum da nobis . Salutare autem Dei in omnibus gentibus: quia cum dixisset quodam loco, Deus misereatur nobis, et benedicat nos, illuminet vultum suum super nos, ut cognoscamus in terra viam tuam, adjecit: In omnibus gentibus salutare tuum. Primo dixit, Ut cognoscamus in terra viam tuam, et secutus est: In omnibus gentibus salutare tuum . Quasi diceretur ei, Quae est via quam cupis agnoscere? Homines ad viam veniunt, numquid via venit ad homines? Via nostra venit ad homines, invenit errantes, vocavit ad se extra ambulantes. In me, inquit, ambulate, et non errabitis: Ego sum via, et veritas, et vita . Ne diceres, Ubi est via Dei? ad quam regionem ibo? quem montem ascendam? quos campos inquiram? Viam Dei inquiris? Salutare Dei est via Dei, et ubique haec est: quia in omnibus gentibus salutare tuum. Veritatem tuam et salutare tuum dixi.
39.19 PL 36, 446
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” 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.”…
Non celavi misericordiam tuam et veritatem tuam a congregatione multa. Ibi simus, in hoc corpore numeremur et nos, non celemus misericordiam Domini et veritatem Domini. Vis audire misericordiam Domini? Recede a peccatis, donabit peccata. Vis audire veritatem Domini? Tene justitiam, coronabitur justitia. Modo enim misericordia tibi praedicatur, postea veritas exhibebitur. Non enim sic est Deus misericors, ut injustus sit; nec sic justus, ut misericors non sit. Parvane misericordia tibi est? Non imputabit priora omnia: male vixisti usque in hodiernum diem, adhuc vivis, bene vive hodie, hanc misericordiam non celabis. Si haec est misericordia: quae veritas? Congregabuntur ante eum omnes gentes, et dividet eas sicut pastor dividit oves ab hoedis; oves ponet ad dexteram, hoedos ad sinistram. Ovibus quid? Venite, benedicti Patris mei, percipite regnum quod vobis paratum est. Hoedis quid? Ite in ignem aeternum . Ibi poenitentiae locus non est. Quia misericordiam Dei contempsisti, veritatem senties: si autem non contempsisti misericordiam, veritate gaudebis.
39.20 PL 36, 446
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.” 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?…
[vers. 12-14.] Tu autem, Domine, ne elonginquaveris misericordias tuas a me. Respexit ad membra saucia. Quia misericordiam tuam et veritatem tuam non celavi a congregatione multa, ab Ecclesia unitatis orbis terrarum: attende membra saucia, attende delictores et peccatores, et noli removere misericordias tuas. Misericordia tua et veritas tua semper susceperunt me. Non auderem converti, nisi securus de remissione: non durarem perseverare, nisi securus de promissione. Misericordia tua et veritas tua semper susceperunt me. Attendo quia bonus es, attendo quia justus es: amo bonum, timeo justum. Amor et timor perducunt me: quia, misericordia et veritas tua semper susceperunt me. Quare ipsa suscipiunt, et ab eis oculus avertendus non est? Quoniam circumdederunt me mala, quorum non est numerus. Quis numerat peccata? quis numerat iniquitates alienas et proprias? Sub quo cumulo gemebat qui dicebat: Ab occultis meis munda me, Domine, et ab alienis parce servo tuo . Parva erant nostra, imponuntur aliena: timeo mihi, timeo bono fratri, tolero malum fratrem; et sub isto cumulo quid erimus, si cesset misericordia Dei? Tu autem, Domine, ne elonginquaveris: prope esto. Cui prope est Dominus? His qui obtriverunt cor . Longe a superbis, prope ad humiles. Excelsus est enim Dominus, et humilia respicit. Sed non se putent latere qui superbi sunt: excelsa enim a longe cognoscit . Cognoscebat a longe jactantem se Pharisaeum, subveniebat de proximo confitenti Publicano . Jactabat ille merita sua, et tegebat vulnera sua: non jactabat ille merita, sed offerebat vulnera. Ad medicum venerat, sciebat se languidum, sciebat se sanandum: oculos ad coelum levare non audebat, pectus percutiebat: sibi non parcebat, ut ille parceret; se agnoscebat, ut ille ignosceret; se puniebat, ut ille liberaret. Tales hic voces sunt; audiamus eas pie, et amemus pie: corde, lingua, omnibus medullis nostris haec dicamus. Nemo se justum putet: vivit qui loquitur; vivit, et utinam vivat! Adhuc hic vivit, adhuc cum morte vivit: et si spiritus vita est propter justitiam, corpus tamen mortuum est propter peccatum . Et corpus quod corrumpitur aggravat animam, et deprimit terrena inhabitatio sensum multa cogitantem . Pertinet ergo ad te clamare, pertinet gemere, pertinet confiteri, non te exaltare, non te jactare, non te tuis meritis gloriari: quia et si habes aliquid gaudendum, quid est quod non accepisti ? Quoniam circumdederunt me mala, quorum non est numerus.
39.21 PL 36, 447
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.” 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.” 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?…
Comprehenderunt me iniquitates meae, et non potui ut viderem. Est aliquid quod videamus: quid premit ut non videamus? Nonne iniquitas? Oculum tuum, ne istam lucem videre posses, premebat fortassis humor irruens, premebat fortasse fumus, pulvis, aliquid injectum; et levare oculum saucium non poteras ad istam lucem: quid ergo, cor saucium levabis ad Deum? Nonne prius sanandum est ut videas? Nonne superbus inveniris, cum dicis: Primo videam, et sic credam? Quis dicit? Quis enim visurus dicit: Videam, et sic credam? Lucem ostensurus sum, imo vero ipsa se lux ostendere vult. Cui? Caeco non potest, non videt. Unde non videt? Gravato oculo multis peccatis. Quid enim ait? Comprehenderunt me iniquitates meae, et non potui ut viderem. Removeantur ergo iniquitates, dimittantur peccata, levetur pondus ab oculo, sanetur quod saucium est, adhibeatur mordax praeceptum quasi collyrium. Prius effice quod tibi praecipitur: sana cor, munda cor, dilige inimicum tuum . Et quis diligit inimicum suum? Hoc jubet medicus; amarum est, sed salubre. Quid tibi faciam, inquit? Ita vexatus es, ut inde saneris. Et plus dicit: Sanato non erit onerosum, voluptuose diliges inimicum sanatus; conare tu ut saneris. In tribulationibus, in angustiis, in tentationibus fortis esto, perdura: medici manus est, non latronis. Ecce, inquit, praeceptis acceptis, et fide retenta, prius sicut jubes sanabo cor, ut dicis: sanato corde et mundato corde quid videbo? Beati mundo corde, quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt . Hoc modo, inquit, non possum. Comprehenderunt me iniquitates meae, et non potui ut viderem.
39.22 PL 36, 447
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.” He then who goes from Him, in the contrary direction, goes to non-existence.…
Multiplicatae sunt super capillos capitis mei. Capillos capitis ad numeri multitudinem revocat. Quis numerat capillos capitis sui? Multo minus peccata, quae excedunt numerum capillorum. Minuta videntur, sed multa sunt. Praecavisti magna; jam non facis adulterium, jam non facis homicidium, non rapis res alienas, non blasphemas, non dicis falsum testimonium: moles istae sunt peccatorum. Magna praecavisti, de minutis quid agis? An non times minuta? Projecisti molem, vide ne arena obruaris. Multiplicatae sunt super capillos capitis mei.