because through them we
enter the kingdom of God : for they proclaim it to us : and
while we enter by their means, we enter also through Christ, Himself being the Gate.
enter the kingdom of God : for they proclaim it to us : and
while we enter by their means, we enter also through Christ, Himself being the Gate.
Augustine - Exposition on the Psalms - v4
Would
ye not be consoled ? Say that ye are happy, and ye hear, My people, (now ye answer, and I hear a murmur, as of persons
who remember the Scriptures. May God, Who hath written this in your hearts, confirm it in your deeds. Ye see, brethren, that those who say unto you, Ye are happy, seduce
Is. 3,l2. you,) 0 My people, they that call you happy cause you to err, Lat. andaw? j </,s^tfrj (fa way 0j- your feet. So also from the Epistle marg. of the Apostle James : Be afflicted, and mourn : let your Jas. 4,9. laughter be turned to mourning. Ye see what ye have heard
read: when would such things be said unto us in the land of security? This surely is the land of offences, and temptations, and of all evils, that we may groan here, and deserve to re joice there ; here to be troubled, and there to be comforted,
8'9'
Ps. 116, and to say, For Thou hast delivered mine eyes from tears,
my feet from falling: I will please the Lord in the land of the living. This is the land of the dead. The land of the dead passcth, the land of the living cometh. In the land of the dead is labour, grief, fear, tribulation, temptation, groan ing, sighing: here are false happy ones, true unhappy, be cause happiness is false, misery is true. But he that owneth himself to be in true misery, will also be in true happiness: and yet now because thou art miserable, hear the Lord saying,
Mart. 6, Blessed are they that mourn. O blessed they that mourn ! Nothing is so akin to misery as mourning: nothing so remote and contrary to misery as blessedness: Thou speakest of those who mourn, and Thou callest them blessed ! Understand, He saith, what I say
:
blessed. Wherefore blessed? In hope. Wherefore mourn
ing? In act. For they mourn in this death, in these tribulations, in their wandering: and because they own them selves to be in this misery, and mourn, they are blessed.
Wherefore do they mourn ? The blessed Cypriau was put to
I call those who mourn
Our present works will have no place in Heaven. ->1 1
sorrow in his passion : now he is comforted with his crown ; Ver. now though comforted, he was sad. For our Lord Jesus Christ still intercedeth for us: all the Martyrs who are with
Him intercede for us. Their intercessions pass not away, except when our mourning is passed away : but when our mourning shall have passed away, we all with one voice, in
one people, in one country, shall receive comfort, thousands of thousands joined with Angels playing upon harps, with choirs of heavenly powers living in one city. Who mourneth there ? Who there sigheth ? Who there toileth ? Who there needeth ? Who dieth there ? Who there sheweth mercy ? Who breaketh bread to the hungry there, where all are satis fied with the bread of righteousness ? No one saith unto thee,
Receive a stranger ; there no one will be a stranger to thee : all live in their own country. No one sailh unto thee, Set at
one thy friends disputing ; in everlasting peace they enjoy the Face of God. No one saith unto thee, Visit the sick ; health and immortality abide for ever. No one saith unto thee, Bury the dead ; all shall be in everlasting life. Works of mercy stop, because misery is found not. And what shall we do there? Shall we perhaps sleep ? If now we fight against ourselves, although we carry about a house of sleep, this flesh of ours, and keep watch with these lights, and this solemn feast gives us a mind to watch ; what wakefulness shall that day give unto us ! Therefore we shall be awake, we shall not sleep. What shall we do ? There will be no works of mercy, because there will be no misery. Perhaps there will be these necessary works which there are hero now, of sowing, plough ing, cooking, grinding, weaving ? None of these, for there will be no want. Thus there will be no works of mercy, because misery is past away : where there is no want nor misery, there
will be neither works of necessity nor of mercy. What will be there? What business shall we have? What action ? Will there be no action, because there is rest ? Shall we sit there,
If our love grow cold, our action will grow cold. How then will that love resting in the face of God, for Whom we now long, for Whom we sigh, how will it inflame us, when we shall have come to Him? He for
Whom while as yet we see Him not, we so sigh, how will He enlighten us, when we shall have come to Him ? How will He p2
and be torpid, and do nothing ?
212 Praise the work of the Blented, satisfying not cloying.
Psalm change us ? What will He make of us ? What then shall we do, mxvi. bremren; Let the Psalm tell us: Blessed are they who dwell in Ps. 84,4. Thy house. Why? They shall praise Thee for ever and ever. This will be our employment, praise of God. Thou lovest and praisest. Thou wilt cease to praise, if thou cease to
EccIub. 24, 21.
for it*6! !
Lat. lBtxyi-
PSALM LXXXVII.
love. But thou wilt not cease to love, because He Whom thou seest is such an One as offends thee not by any weariness : He both satisBes thee, and satisfies thee not. What I say is wonderful. If I say that He satisfies thee, I am afraid lest as though satisfied thou shouldest wish to depart, as from a dinner or from a supper. What then do I say ? doth He not satisfy thee ?
I am afraid again, that if I say, He doth not satisfy thee, thou shouldest seem to be in want : aud shouldest be as it were empty, and there should
be in thee some void which ought to be filled. What then shall I say, except what can be said, but can hardly be thought ? He both satisfies thee, and satisfies thee not: for I find both
Matt. 6, in Scripture. For while He said, Blessed are Ihe hungry,
oe filled; it is again said of Wisdom, Those who eat Thee shall hunger again, and those who drink shall thirst again. Nay, but He did not say ' again,' but he said, still: for, " shall thirst again" is as if once having been filled he departed and digested, and returned to drink. So it Those who eat Thee shall still hunger: thus when they eat they hunger: and those who drink Thee, even thus when drinking, thirst. What it, to thirst in drinking? Never to grow weary. If then there shall be that ineffable and eternal sweetness, what doth He now seek of us, brethren, but faith unfeigned, firm hope, pure charity and man may walk in the way which the Lord hath given, may bear troubles, and receive consolations.
see? . 9. A Discourse to the people, perhaps at Carthage, delivered the day after that on the preceding Psalm.
The Psalm which has just been sung short, we look to the number of its words, but of deep interest in its
I.
is
if
1
1
?
is
is,
The Psalm composed out of love for the City of God. 213
thoughts. The whole has been read, and you see in how brief Ver. a period it has been exhausted. The consideration of this -- --- -- with you, beloved, so far as God deigns, to grant, has just
been proposed to me by our blessed father ? here present : and
the proposal from its suddenness might alarm me, did not his prayer who proposed it at once support me. Listen, therefore, beloved. The subject of song and praise in that Psalm is a
city, whose citizens are we, as far as we are Christians:
whence we are absent, as long as we are mortal : whither we
are tending: through whose approaches, undiscoverable among the brakes and thorns that entangle them, the Sove
reign of the city made Himself a path for us to reach it. se fecit Walking thus in Christ, and pilgrims till we arrive, and sighing as we long for a certain ineffable repose that dwells within that city, a repose of which it is promised, that the
eye of man hath never seen such, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into his heart to conceive; let us chant the song of a longing heart : for he who truly longs, thus sings within his
soul, though his tongue be silent: he who does not, however he may resound in human ears, is voiceless to God. See what ardent lovers of that city were they by whom these words were composed, by whom they have been handed down to us; with how deep a feeling were they sung by those ! A feeling that the love of that city created in them : that love the Spirit of God inspired; the love of God, he saith, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which in yiven unto ui. Fervent with this Spirit then, let us listen to what is
said of that city.
2. Ver. 1, 2. Her foundations are upon the holy hills.
The Psalm had as yet said nothing of the city : it begins thus, and says, Her foundations are upon the holy hills. Whose ? There can be no doubt, that foundations, especially among the hills, belong to some city. Thus filled with the Holy Spirit, and with many thoughts of love and longing for that city, as if after long internal meditation, that citizen bursts out, Her foundations are upon the holy hills ; as if he had already said something concerning it. And how could he have said nothing on a subject, respecting which in his heart he had never been silent? For how could her foundations have >> Perhaps Aurelius, Bishop of Carthage. Ben.
214 Apostles and Prophets both Citizens and Foundations.
Psalm been written, of which nothing had been said before ? But, lxxxVI1, as I said, after long and silent travailing in contemplation of that city in his mind, crying to God, he bursts out into the
ears of men thus : Herfoundations are upon the holy hills. And, supposing persons who heard to enquire of what city he spoke, he adds, the Lord loveth the gates of Sion. Behold then, a city whose foundations are upon the holy hills, a city called Sion, whose gates the Lord loveth, as he adds, above all the dwellings of Jacob. But what doth this mean, her foundations on the holy hills ? What are the holy hills upon which this city is built ? Another citizen tells us this more explicitly, the Apostle Paal : of this was the Prophet a citizen, of this the Apostle citizen : and they spoke to exhort the other citizens. But how are these, I mean the Prophets and Apostles, citizens? Perhaps in this sense ; that they are themselves the hills, upon which are the foundations of this city, whose gates the Lord loveth. Let then another citizen state this clearly, that I may not seem to guess. Speaking to the Gentiles, and telling them how they were returning, and being, as it were, framed together
Eph. 2, into the holy structure, built, he says, upon the foundations
20-
of the Apostles and Prophets: and because neither the Apostles nor Prophets, upon whom the foundations of that city rest, could stand by their own power, he adds, Jesus Christ Himself being the head corner stone. That the Gentiles, therefore, might not think they had no relation to Sion : for Sion was a certain city of this world, which bore a typical resemblance as a shadow to that Sion of which he presently speaketh, that Heavenly Jerusalem, of which the
Gal. 4, Apostle saith, which is the mother of us all; that they might not be said to bear no relation to Sion, on the ground that they did not belong to the Jewish people, he addresses
Eph. 2, them thus : Now therefore ye are no more strangers and 19. 20. yoreigners^ but follow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the
Apostles and Prophets. Thou seest the structure of so great a city : yet whereon does all that edifice repose, where does it rest, that it may never fall ? Jesus Christ Himself, he saith, being the head comer stone.
3. Perhaps some one will say, if Christ Jesus be the corner
How Christ can be at once Foundation and Corner Stone. 215
stone, in Him the two walls are joined together: for it is Ver. only two walls meeting from opposite lines that constitute a L 2' coiner : just so, the close union of the Jewish and Gentile nations with one another in the peace of Christ, in one faith,
one hope, and one love. But if Christ Jesus be the head comer stone, there seems a foundation laid earlier, and a corner stone added later. Some one may say then, that Christ rather rests upon the Prophets and Apostles, not they Eph. 2, on Him, if they form the foundation, Himself the corner. 20- But let him who so saith reflect, that there is also a corner
in the foundation ; and not only where it appears, towering
to the top, for it beginneth from the bottom. But that ye
may know that Christ is at once the earliest and the highest foundation, the Apostle saith, Other foundation can no man 1 Cor.
lay than is laid, tohich is Christ Jesus. How, then, are the3' U' Prophets and Apostles foundations, and yet Christ so, than Whom nothing can be higher ? How, think you, save that
as He is openly styled, Saint of saints, so figuratively Found
ation of foundations ? Thus if thou art thinking of mysteries, Christ is the Saint of saints : if of a subject flock, the Shep herd of shepherds: if of a structure, the Pillar of pillars. In material edifices, the same slone cannot be above and below: if a^ the bottom, it cannot be at the top: and vice versa: for almost all bodies are liable to limitations in space : nor can they be every where or for ever; but as the Godhead is in every place, from every place symbols may be taken for It ; and not being any of these things in external properties, It can be every thing in figure. Is Christ a door, in the same sense as the doors/we see made by carpenters ? Surely not ;
am the door. Or a shepherd, in the same capacity as those who guard sheep ? though He said, / am
and yet He said,
the Shepherd. Both these names occur in the same passage:
in the Gospel, He said, that the shepherd enters by the
door: the words are, / am the good Shepherd; and in the Johnio.
same passage, / am th/
enters by the door ?
the door by which Thou, Good Shepherd, entcrest ? How then art Thou all things? In the sense in which every thing is through Me. To explain : when Paul enters by the door, does not Christ ? Wherefore ? Not because Paul is Christ :
e door : and who is the shepherd who9-
am the good Shepherd: and what is
2 1(3 Our Foundation is above, the Citizens our Building.
ijtxxvu Dut smce Christ is in Paul : and Paul acts through Christ.
2 Cor. 13,3'
The Apostle says, Do ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me? When His saints and faithful disciples enter by the door, does not Christ enter by the door ? How are we to prove this ? Since Saul, not yet called Paul, was persecuting those very saints, when He called to him' from Heaven,
Acts 9, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me ? Himself then is the foundation, and corner stone: rising from the bottom: if indeed from the bottom : for the base of this foundation is the highest exaltation of the building : and as the support of bodily fabrics rests upon the ground, that of spiritual structures reposes on high. Were we building up ourselves upon the earth, we should lay our foundation on the lowest level : but since our edifice is a heavenly one, to Heaven our Foundation has gone before us : so that our Saviour, the corner stone, the Apostles, and mighty Prophets, the hills that bear the fabric of the city, constitute a sort of living structure. This building now cries from your hearts ; that
you may be built up into its fabric, the hand of God,*as of
an artificer, worketh even through my tongue. Nor was it Gen. 6, wilhout a meaning that Noah's ark was made of square LXX. beams, which were typical of the form of the Church. For
what is it to be made square ? Listen to the resemblance of the squared stone : like qualities should the Christian have : for in all his trials he never falls : though pushed, and, as it were, turned over, he falls not : and thus too, whichever way a square stone is turned, it stands erect. The Martyrs, while beneath the stroke, seemed to be falling : but what is
Ps. 37, the expression in the Canticle ? Though (the just) fall, he shall not be cast away : for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand. Thus then build yourselves together into a com pact square, ready for every temptation : whatsoever chance to thrust you, let it not overthrow you; whatever befal, let it find thee standing : thus art thou built into this fabric with a devoted piety, an earnest religion, faith, hope, and love : and even to be thus built up, is to walk. In earthly cities, one thing is the structure of buildings: another thing are the citizens that dwell therein : that city is builded of its own inmates, who are themselves the blocks that form the city, for the very stones are living : Ye also, says the Apostle, as living
l Pet.
Mystical meaning of the Twelve Foundations. 2 1 7
stones, are built up a spiritual house, words that are ad- Ver. dressed to ourselves. Let us then pursue the contemplation --
of that city.
4. Her foundations are upon the holy hills: the Lord loveth the gates of Sion. 1 have made the foregoing remarks, that ye may not imagine the gates are one thing, the found ations another. Why are the Apostles and Prophets found ations ? Because their authority is the support of our weak
ness. Why are they gates ?
because through them we
enter the kingdom of God : for they proclaim it to us : and
while we enter by their means, we enter also through Christ, Himself being the Gate. And twelve gates of Jerusalem are Rev. 2l, spoken of, and the one gate is Christ, and the twelve gates 12'
are Christ : for Christ dwells in the twelve gates, hence was
twelve the number of the Apostles. There is a deep mystery
in this number of twelve : Ye shall sit, says our Saviour, on Mat. 19, twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. If there 28,
are twelve thrones there, there will be no room for the judg ment-seat of Paul, the thirteenth Apostle, though he says that
he shall judge not men only, but even Angels; which, but
the fallen Angels ? Know ye not, that we shall judge Angels, l Cor. 6, he writes. The world would answer, Why dost thou boast3,
that thou shalt be a judge ? Where will be thy throne ? Our
Lord spoke of twelve thrones for the twelve Apostles : one,
Judas, fell, and his place being supplied by Matthias, the number of twelve thrones was made up: first, then, discover Act* 1, room for thy judgment-seat; then threaten that thou wilt1*-26'
judge. Let us, therefore, reflect upon the meaning of the twelve thrones. The expression is typical of a sort of uni versality, as the Church was destined to prevail throughout the whole world : whence this edifice is styled a building together into Christ: and because judges come from all quarters, the twelve thrones are spoken of, just as the twelve gates, from the entering in from all sides into that city. Not only therefore have those twelve, and the Apostle Paul, a claim to the twelve thrones, but, from the universal signi fication, all who are to sit in judgment: in the same manner
as all who enter the city, enter by one or the other of the twelve gates. There are four quarters of the globe : East, West, North, and South : and they are constantly alluded to
218 Christ may speak in the Head or in the Body.
Psalm in the Scriptures. From all those four winds; our Lord ^-xk"g declares in the Gospel that He will call his sheep from the
27.
'four winds ; therefore from all those four winds is the Church called. And how called? On every side it is called in the Trinity : no otherwise is it called than by Baptism in the
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: four then being thrice taken, twelve are found.
5. Knock, therefore, with all your hearts at these gates : Ps. lis, and let Christ cry within you: Open me the gates of right- l9' eousness. For He went before us the Head : He follows
which is behind--ofwhat ? ofthe afflictions ofChrist --wherein ? in my flesh. Were any afflictions wanting in that Man, which the Word of God became, when born of the Virgin Mary ? He suffered all that was due from His own will, not by any necessity arising from sin : and it seemeth that He
suffered all : for while stretched upon the Cross He received John 19, the vinegar at the lust, with these words, It is finished; and
Himself in His Body. Remember the words of the Apostle,
I
fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh. Remark the words, That I may fill up -- what 1 that
Col. l, spoken because Christ suffered within himself: Tiiat 24-
may
M'
He bowed His head, and gave up the Ghost. What is the meaning of, is finished? it means, Of the measure of My sufferings nothing is wanting : all that was prophesied of Me has been fulfilled: as if He was waiting in order that they might be fulfilled. Who is the man who departs as He did from the body ? Rather, who is he, who had the
John 10, power of doing so ? He,IWho had first said, ,8'
have power to
/
have power to take it again : no
I7' lay down My soul, and I man taketh it from Me, but Hay it down of Myself, and
it again. He laid it down, when He willed : He took it again, when He willed : no one stole, no one extorted it from Him.
All his sufferings, therefore, were fulfilled : but in the Head :
i Cor. those is His body remained still. Now ye are the body and
,2' 27 '
limbs of Christ: so the Apostle, being one of these limbs, used
the words, That I may fill up thai which is behind of the
afflictions of Christ in myflesh. Thither accordingly, where
Christ preceded us, are we on our way : and Christ is still journeying whither He has gone before ; for Christ went before us in the Head, Christ follows in the Body : still Christ is here
take
The Spiritual City pre/erred above its Emblem. 2J9
toiling : here Christ suffered at Saul's hands, when Saul heard Vk>>. the voice, Saul, Saul, why persecvtest thou Me? So, when the A foot is trodden upon, the tongue says, Thou treadest upon 4. me, though no man touched the tongue : it cries out from sympathy, not that it is trodden upon. Still Christ is here in want, Christ here still journeys, Christ here is sick, Christ
'
here is in bonds. In saying this we should wrong Him, had
He not told ns this truthIin His own words,
I was thirsty, and ye
was an hungred, Mat. 28,
3 ' 40-
Me :
we Thee an hungred, and fed Thee ? and He shall answer, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one ofthe least ofthese My brethren, ye have done it unto Me. Let us therefore build our
selves up in Christ on the foundation of the Apostles and Pro- Eph. J, phets, Himself being the chief corner stone: For the Lord20' loveth Sion above all the dwellings of Jacob. But this does not
mean that Sion is not among the dwellings of Jacob : where
was indeed, but in the people of Jacob? for Jacob was the grandson of Abraham, of whom conies the Jewish nation, thence called the people of Israel, since Jacob himself re
ceived the appellation of Israel, as ye well know, holyGen. 32, brethren. But as these were merely temporal dwellings,28' which were emblems of the other, and the Prophet speak
ing of city which he conceives in spiritual sense, of which
that on this earth was the shadow and figure he says, The
Lord loveth the gates of Sion above all the dwellings of Jacob. He loveth that spiritual city above all figurative emblems of which represent as city everlasting, eter
nally in heaven at rest.
6. Ver. 4. Very excellent things are said of thee, thou city of God. He was, as were, contemplating that city of Jerusalem on earth for consider what city he alludes to, of which certain very excellent things are spoken. Now the earthly city has been destroyed after suffering the enemy's rage, fell to the earth no longer what was ex hibited the emblem, and the shadow hath passed away. Whence then are very excellent things spoken of thee, thou city of God? Listen whence will think upon Rahab and Babylon, with them that know Me. In that city, the Prophet,
a/nd ye gave Me meat:
gave
Me drink:
was Ia stranger, and ye took Me in : naked, and clothed ye
was sick, and ye visited Me: and they ask, When saw
;/
:
it
a
it
a it,
it,
; it is
it
it
;
:
3,
: is it
a
220 ' Rahab and Babylon,' the future converts.
Fsalm in the person of God, says, / will think upon Bahab and lxxxYTI- Babylon. Rahab belongs not to the Jewish people ; Babylon &TMh 46. belongs not to the Jewish people ; as is clear from the next 1Ali'eni- verse : For the Philistines1 also, and Tyre, with the Ethio- Iax^u- pians, were there. Deservedly then, very excellent things are
understood.
spoken of thee, thou city of God : for not only is the Jewish nation, born of the flesh of Abraham, included therein, but all nations also, some of which are named that all may be
/ will think, he says, upon Rahab: who is that harlot? That harlot in Jericho, who received the spies and conducted them out of the city by a different road : who trusted beforehand in the promise, who feared God, who was told to hang out of the window a line of scarlet thread, that
to bear upon her forehead the sign of the blood of Christ. She
was saved there, and thus represented the Church of the
Gentiles whence our Lord said to the haughty Pharisees, Mat. 21, Verily say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go
n'
Id. 11, take by force. For written, The kingdom of Heaven
,2'
"l fauce
into the kingdom of God before you. They go before, because they do violence: they push their way by faith, and to faith way made, nor can any resist, since they who are violent
violence, and the violent take Such force.
suffereth
was the conduct of the robber, more courageous on the cross
than in the place of ambush*. will think upon Bahab and Babylon, By Babylon meant the city of this world as there one holy city, Jerusalem one unholy, Babylon: all the unholy belong to Babylon, even as all the holy to Jerusalem. But he slidethb from Babylon to Jerusalem. How, but by Him who justifieth the ungodly: Jerusalem
the city of the saints Babylon of the wicked but He cometh Who justifieth the ungodly: since said,
trill think not only upon Bahab, but upon Babylon, but with whom with them that know Me. For this reason
Ps. 79, Scripture says somewhere, Pour out thine indignation upon
'
the heathen that have not known Thee, and elsewhere, Con- Ps. 36, tinue forth Thy loving-kindness unto them that know Thee. 10' And that ye may be assured that by Rahab and Babylon the
Gentiles are meant, the purport of this verse, will think
Dilabitur, which would seem to drawing off,' e. of citizens, mean the writer, al. derivatur,' there
?
b
.
/ is
a it is
if '
is
it is
?
is I a
i.
/
it by
it
is
:
;
;
is
I :
:
*
is,
Mystery of the Man, her' Founder, born in Sion. 221
upon Rahab and Babylon with them that know Me, be asked, Ver. the next explains as follows, behold the Philistines also? -----
e. they too belong to Rahab, belong to Babylon, and they of Tyre. But to what extent are the Gentiles included in this allusion To the ends of the earth. For He called people from the ends of the earth and the people of the Ethiopians, they were there. Ifthen Rahab, and Babylon, and the Philistines, and Tyre, and the people of the Ethi opians, are in that city, deservedly said, Very excellent things are spoken of thee, thou city God.
7. Ver. Listen now to a deep mystery. Rahab there through Him, through Whom also Babylon, now no longer Babylon, but beginning to be Jerusalem. The daughter
divided against her mother, and will be among the members
of that queen to whom said, Forget thine own people, and p,, thy father's house, so shall the king have pleasure in thy10,11, beauty. For how could Babylon aspire to Jerusalem How could Rahab reach those foundations? How could the Philis
tines, or Tyre, or the people of the Ethiopians? Listen to this verse, "Sion, my mother" a man shall sayh. There then a man who saith this: through whom all those have mentioned make their approach. Who this man
It tells we hear, we understand. follows, as ques tion had been raised, through whose aid Rahab, Babylon, the Philistines, Tyre, and the Morians, gained an entrance. Behold, through whom they come Sion, my mother, a man shall say; and a man was born in her, and Himself the Most High hath founded her. What, my brethren, can be clearer Truly, because very excellent things are spoken of
thee, thou city God. Lo, Sion, mother, a man shall say. . What man He who was born in her. then the man who was born in her, and He Himself hath founded her. Yet how can Hebe born in the city which He himself founded? had
already been founded, that therein He might be born. Under stand thus, thou canst: Mother Sion, he shall say but
a man that shall say. Mother Sion yea, a man teas born in her and yet he hath founded her, (not man, but,) the Most
St. Aug. Tertullian, and others, Or, He who was made man in read, e-'firvp 2W, for the reading of her Qui homo factus est in es. '
the LXX, tiirri.
b
is :
i.
it
? ?
if
if
of
e; ;'' ; O
'
'
It It a is
isofit: is
if
it,
is
; if? is
It it
a
Iis is a
?
is
5.
?
22? 2 Sim a Mother to Christ. ' Her people and Princes.
Psalm high. As He created a mother of whom He would be born, so lxxxvn. He fouuded a city in which He would be born. What hope is ours, brethren ! On our behalf the Most High, Who founded the city, addresses that city as a mother : and He was bom
in her, and the Most High hath founded her.
8. Ver. 6. As though it were said, How do ye know
this ? All of us have sung these Psalms : and Christ, Man for our sake, God before us, sings within us all. But is this much to say, before us, of Him, Who was before heaven and earth and time ? He then, born for our sakes a man, in that city, also founded her when He was the Most High. Yet how are we assured of this? The Lord shall rehearse it when He writeth up the people, as the following verse has it. Mother Sion, a man shall say, and a man was born in her, and Himself the Most High hath
founded her. The Lord shall declare, when He writeth up the people, and their princes. What princes*? Those who were born in her; those princes who, born within her walls, became therein princes : for before they could become princes in her, God chose the despised things of the world to confound the strong. Was the fisherman, the publican, a prince? They were indeed princes: but because they became such in her. Princes of what kind were they ? Princes come from Babylon, believing monarchs of this world, came to the city of Rome, as to the head of Babylon : they went not to the temple of the Emperor, but to the tomb of the Fisherman.
l Cor. l, Whence indeed did they rank as princes ? God chose the
26. 27. f
trea/. fhings of the world to confound the strong, and the
oolish things He hath chosen, and things which are not as though they were, that things which are may be brought to
Ps. 113, nought. This He doth Who from the ground raises thehelpless, and from the dunghill exalts the poor. For what purpose!
ib. 8.
That He may set him with the princes, even with the princes of His people. This is a mighty deed, a deep source of pleasure and exultation. Orators came later into that city, but they could never have done so, had not fishermen preceded them. These things are glorious indeed, but where could they take place, but in that city of God, of whom very excellent things are spoken?
9. Ver. 7. So thus, after drawing together and mingling A Et Principet, in added in the text: but it has no equivalent in our versioo.
The employment) and rest, of the Saints in glory.
every source of joyous exultation, how doth he conclude? Ver.
The dwelling as ofall that shall be made joyous is in Thee. As if all made joyous, all rejoicing, shall dwell in that ciiy. Amid our journeyings here we suffer bruises : our last home shall be the home ofjoy alone. Toil and groans shall perish: prayers pass away, hymns of praise succeed. There shall be the dwelling of the happy ; no longer shall there be the groans of those that long, but the gladness of those who enjoy. For He will be present for Whom we sigh : we shall be like Him, as we shall see Him as He is: there it will be our whole task to praise and enjoy the presence of God : and what beyond shall we ask for, when He alone satisfies us, by Whom all things were made ? We shall dwell and be dwelt in : and shall be subject to Him, that God be all in all. Blessed, then, are J
----
1 John 3' 2'
1p0Ti 16, 28.
Ps. 84,
1 ot'0>>0 e80t ? -
former* Psalm, n'
may they that dwell in Thy house. How blessed ? Blessed in their
gold, and silver, their numerous slaves, and multiplied off spring? Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house : for ever and ever they will be praismg Thee. Blessed in that sole labour1 which is rest! Let this then be the one and only object of our desire, my brethren, when we shall have reached this pass. Let us prepare ourselves to rejoice in God: to praise Him. The good works which conduct us thither, will not be needed there. I described, as far as I could, only yesterday*, our condition there: works of charity there
be none, where there will be no misery : thou shalt not find one in want, one naked, no one will meet you tormented with thirst, there will be no stranger, no sick to visit, no dead to bury, no disputants to set at peace. What then wilt thou find to do ? Shall we plant new vines, plough, traffic, make voyages, to support the necessities of the body ? Deep quiet shall be there; all toilsome work, that necessity demands, will cease : the necessity being dead, its works will perish too. What then will be our state? As far as possible, the tongue of a man thus told us. As it were, the dwelling of all who shall be made perfect is in Thee? .
ye not be consoled ? Say that ye are happy, and ye hear, My people, (now ye answer, and I hear a murmur, as of persons
who remember the Scriptures. May God, Who hath written this in your hearts, confirm it in your deeds. Ye see, brethren, that those who say unto you, Ye are happy, seduce
Is. 3,l2. you,) 0 My people, they that call you happy cause you to err, Lat. andaw? j </,s^tfrj (fa way 0j- your feet. So also from the Epistle marg. of the Apostle James : Be afflicted, and mourn : let your Jas. 4,9. laughter be turned to mourning. Ye see what ye have heard
read: when would such things be said unto us in the land of security? This surely is the land of offences, and temptations, and of all evils, that we may groan here, and deserve to re joice there ; here to be troubled, and there to be comforted,
8'9'
Ps. 116, and to say, For Thou hast delivered mine eyes from tears,
my feet from falling: I will please the Lord in the land of the living. This is the land of the dead. The land of the dead passcth, the land of the living cometh. In the land of the dead is labour, grief, fear, tribulation, temptation, groan ing, sighing: here are false happy ones, true unhappy, be cause happiness is false, misery is true. But he that owneth himself to be in true misery, will also be in true happiness: and yet now because thou art miserable, hear the Lord saying,
Mart. 6, Blessed are they that mourn. O blessed they that mourn ! Nothing is so akin to misery as mourning: nothing so remote and contrary to misery as blessedness: Thou speakest of those who mourn, and Thou callest them blessed ! Understand, He saith, what I say
:
blessed. Wherefore blessed? In hope. Wherefore mourn
ing? In act. For they mourn in this death, in these tribulations, in their wandering: and because they own them selves to be in this misery, and mourn, they are blessed.
Wherefore do they mourn ? The blessed Cypriau was put to
I call those who mourn
Our present works will have no place in Heaven. ->1 1
sorrow in his passion : now he is comforted with his crown ; Ver. now though comforted, he was sad. For our Lord Jesus Christ still intercedeth for us: all the Martyrs who are with
Him intercede for us. Their intercessions pass not away, except when our mourning is passed away : but when our mourning shall have passed away, we all with one voice, in
one people, in one country, shall receive comfort, thousands of thousands joined with Angels playing upon harps, with choirs of heavenly powers living in one city. Who mourneth there ? Who there sigheth ? Who there toileth ? Who there needeth ? Who dieth there ? Who there sheweth mercy ? Who breaketh bread to the hungry there, where all are satis fied with the bread of righteousness ? No one saith unto thee,
Receive a stranger ; there no one will be a stranger to thee : all live in their own country. No one sailh unto thee, Set at
one thy friends disputing ; in everlasting peace they enjoy the Face of God. No one saith unto thee, Visit the sick ; health and immortality abide for ever. No one saith unto thee, Bury the dead ; all shall be in everlasting life. Works of mercy stop, because misery is found not. And what shall we do there? Shall we perhaps sleep ? If now we fight against ourselves, although we carry about a house of sleep, this flesh of ours, and keep watch with these lights, and this solemn feast gives us a mind to watch ; what wakefulness shall that day give unto us ! Therefore we shall be awake, we shall not sleep. What shall we do ? There will be no works of mercy, because there will be no misery. Perhaps there will be these necessary works which there are hero now, of sowing, plough ing, cooking, grinding, weaving ? None of these, for there will be no want. Thus there will be no works of mercy, because misery is past away : where there is no want nor misery, there
will be neither works of necessity nor of mercy. What will be there? What business shall we have? What action ? Will there be no action, because there is rest ? Shall we sit there,
If our love grow cold, our action will grow cold. How then will that love resting in the face of God, for Whom we now long, for Whom we sigh, how will it inflame us, when we shall have come to Him? He for
Whom while as yet we see Him not, we so sigh, how will He enlighten us, when we shall have come to Him ? How will He p2
and be torpid, and do nothing ?
212 Praise the work of the Blented, satisfying not cloying.
Psalm change us ? What will He make of us ? What then shall we do, mxvi. bremren; Let the Psalm tell us: Blessed are they who dwell in Ps. 84,4. Thy house. Why? They shall praise Thee for ever and ever. This will be our employment, praise of God. Thou lovest and praisest. Thou wilt cease to praise, if thou cease to
EccIub. 24, 21.
for it*6! !
Lat. lBtxyi-
PSALM LXXXVII.
love. But thou wilt not cease to love, because He Whom thou seest is such an One as offends thee not by any weariness : He both satisBes thee, and satisfies thee not. What I say is wonderful. If I say that He satisfies thee, I am afraid lest as though satisfied thou shouldest wish to depart, as from a dinner or from a supper. What then do I say ? doth He not satisfy thee ?
I am afraid again, that if I say, He doth not satisfy thee, thou shouldest seem to be in want : aud shouldest be as it were empty, and there should
be in thee some void which ought to be filled. What then shall I say, except what can be said, but can hardly be thought ? He both satisfies thee, and satisfies thee not: for I find both
Matt. 6, in Scripture. For while He said, Blessed are Ihe hungry,
oe filled; it is again said of Wisdom, Those who eat Thee shall hunger again, and those who drink shall thirst again. Nay, but He did not say ' again,' but he said, still: for, " shall thirst again" is as if once having been filled he departed and digested, and returned to drink. So it Those who eat Thee shall still hunger: thus when they eat they hunger: and those who drink Thee, even thus when drinking, thirst. What it, to thirst in drinking? Never to grow weary. If then there shall be that ineffable and eternal sweetness, what doth He now seek of us, brethren, but faith unfeigned, firm hope, pure charity and man may walk in the way which the Lord hath given, may bear troubles, and receive consolations.
see? . 9. A Discourse to the people, perhaps at Carthage, delivered the day after that on the preceding Psalm.
The Psalm which has just been sung short, we look to the number of its words, but of deep interest in its
I.
is
if
1
1
?
is
is,
The Psalm composed out of love for the City of God. 213
thoughts. The whole has been read, and you see in how brief Ver. a period it has been exhausted. The consideration of this -- --- -- with you, beloved, so far as God deigns, to grant, has just
been proposed to me by our blessed father ? here present : and
the proposal from its suddenness might alarm me, did not his prayer who proposed it at once support me. Listen, therefore, beloved. The subject of song and praise in that Psalm is a
city, whose citizens are we, as far as we are Christians:
whence we are absent, as long as we are mortal : whither we
are tending: through whose approaches, undiscoverable among the brakes and thorns that entangle them, the Sove
reign of the city made Himself a path for us to reach it. se fecit Walking thus in Christ, and pilgrims till we arrive, and sighing as we long for a certain ineffable repose that dwells within that city, a repose of which it is promised, that the
eye of man hath never seen such, nor ear heard, nor hath it entered into his heart to conceive; let us chant the song of a longing heart : for he who truly longs, thus sings within his
soul, though his tongue be silent: he who does not, however he may resound in human ears, is voiceless to God. See what ardent lovers of that city were they by whom these words were composed, by whom they have been handed down to us; with how deep a feeling were they sung by those ! A feeling that the love of that city created in them : that love the Spirit of God inspired; the love of God, he saith, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which in yiven unto ui. Fervent with this Spirit then, let us listen to what is
said of that city.
2. Ver. 1, 2. Her foundations are upon the holy hills.
The Psalm had as yet said nothing of the city : it begins thus, and says, Her foundations are upon the holy hills. Whose ? There can be no doubt, that foundations, especially among the hills, belong to some city. Thus filled with the Holy Spirit, and with many thoughts of love and longing for that city, as if after long internal meditation, that citizen bursts out, Her foundations are upon the holy hills ; as if he had already said something concerning it. And how could he have said nothing on a subject, respecting which in his heart he had never been silent? For how could her foundations have >> Perhaps Aurelius, Bishop of Carthage. Ben.
214 Apostles and Prophets both Citizens and Foundations.
Psalm been written, of which nothing had been said before ? But, lxxxVI1, as I said, after long and silent travailing in contemplation of that city in his mind, crying to God, he bursts out into the
ears of men thus : Herfoundations are upon the holy hills. And, supposing persons who heard to enquire of what city he spoke, he adds, the Lord loveth the gates of Sion. Behold then, a city whose foundations are upon the holy hills, a city called Sion, whose gates the Lord loveth, as he adds, above all the dwellings of Jacob. But what doth this mean, her foundations on the holy hills ? What are the holy hills upon which this city is built ? Another citizen tells us this more explicitly, the Apostle Paal : of this was the Prophet a citizen, of this the Apostle citizen : and they spoke to exhort the other citizens. But how are these, I mean the Prophets and Apostles, citizens? Perhaps in this sense ; that they are themselves the hills, upon which are the foundations of this city, whose gates the Lord loveth. Let then another citizen state this clearly, that I may not seem to guess. Speaking to the Gentiles, and telling them how they were returning, and being, as it were, framed together
Eph. 2, into the holy structure, built, he says, upon the foundations
20-
of the Apostles and Prophets: and because neither the Apostles nor Prophets, upon whom the foundations of that city rest, could stand by their own power, he adds, Jesus Christ Himself being the head corner stone. That the Gentiles, therefore, might not think they had no relation to Sion : for Sion was a certain city of this world, which bore a typical resemblance as a shadow to that Sion of which he presently speaketh, that Heavenly Jerusalem, of which the
Gal. 4, Apostle saith, which is the mother of us all; that they might not be said to bear no relation to Sion, on the ground that they did not belong to the Jewish people, he addresses
Eph. 2, them thus : Now therefore ye are no more strangers and 19. 20. yoreigners^ but follow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the
Apostles and Prophets. Thou seest the structure of so great a city : yet whereon does all that edifice repose, where does it rest, that it may never fall ? Jesus Christ Himself, he saith, being the head comer stone.
3. Perhaps some one will say, if Christ Jesus be the corner
How Christ can be at once Foundation and Corner Stone. 215
stone, in Him the two walls are joined together: for it is Ver. only two walls meeting from opposite lines that constitute a L 2' coiner : just so, the close union of the Jewish and Gentile nations with one another in the peace of Christ, in one faith,
one hope, and one love. But if Christ Jesus be the head comer stone, there seems a foundation laid earlier, and a corner stone added later. Some one may say then, that Christ rather rests upon the Prophets and Apostles, not they Eph. 2, on Him, if they form the foundation, Himself the corner. 20- But let him who so saith reflect, that there is also a corner
in the foundation ; and not only where it appears, towering
to the top, for it beginneth from the bottom. But that ye
may know that Christ is at once the earliest and the highest foundation, the Apostle saith, Other foundation can no man 1 Cor.
lay than is laid, tohich is Christ Jesus. How, then, are the3' U' Prophets and Apostles foundations, and yet Christ so, than Whom nothing can be higher ? How, think you, save that
as He is openly styled, Saint of saints, so figuratively Found
ation of foundations ? Thus if thou art thinking of mysteries, Christ is the Saint of saints : if of a subject flock, the Shep herd of shepherds: if of a structure, the Pillar of pillars. In material edifices, the same slone cannot be above and below: if a^ the bottom, it cannot be at the top: and vice versa: for almost all bodies are liable to limitations in space : nor can they be every where or for ever; but as the Godhead is in every place, from every place symbols may be taken for It ; and not being any of these things in external properties, It can be every thing in figure. Is Christ a door, in the same sense as the doors/we see made by carpenters ? Surely not ;
am the door. Or a shepherd, in the same capacity as those who guard sheep ? though He said, / am
and yet He said,
the Shepherd. Both these names occur in the same passage:
in the Gospel, He said, that the shepherd enters by the
door: the words are, / am the good Shepherd; and in the Johnio.
same passage, / am th/
enters by the door ?
the door by which Thou, Good Shepherd, entcrest ? How then art Thou all things? In the sense in which every thing is through Me. To explain : when Paul enters by the door, does not Christ ? Wherefore ? Not because Paul is Christ :
e door : and who is the shepherd who9-
am the good Shepherd: and what is
2 1(3 Our Foundation is above, the Citizens our Building.
ijtxxvu Dut smce Christ is in Paul : and Paul acts through Christ.
2 Cor. 13,3'
The Apostle says, Do ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me? When His saints and faithful disciples enter by the door, does not Christ enter by the door ? How are we to prove this ? Since Saul, not yet called Paul, was persecuting those very saints, when He called to him' from Heaven,
Acts 9, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me ? Himself then is the foundation, and corner stone: rising from the bottom: if indeed from the bottom : for the base of this foundation is the highest exaltation of the building : and as the support of bodily fabrics rests upon the ground, that of spiritual structures reposes on high. Were we building up ourselves upon the earth, we should lay our foundation on the lowest level : but since our edifice is a heavenly one, to Heaven our Foundation has gone before us : so that our Saviour, the corner stone, the Apostles, and mighty Prophets, the hills that bear the fabric of the city, constitute a sort of living structure. This building now cries from your hearts ; that
you may be built up into its fabric, the hand of God,*as of
an artificer, worketh even through my tongue. Nor was it Gen. 6, wilhout a meaning that Noah's ark was made of square LXX. beams, which were typical of the form of the Church. For
what is it to be made square ? Listen to the resemblance of the squared stone : like qualities should the Christian have : for in all his trials he never falls : though pushed, and, as it were, turned over, he falls not : and thus too, whichever way a square stone is turned, it stands erect. The Martyrs, while beneath the stroke, seemed to be falling : but what is
Ps. 37, the expression in the Canticle ? Though (the just) fall, he shall not be cast away : for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand. Thus then build yourselves together into a com pact square, ready for every temptation : whatsoever chance to thrust you, let it not overthrow you; whatever befal, let it find thee standing : thus art thou built into this fabric with a devoted piety, an earnest religion, faith, hope, and love : and even to be thus built up, is to walk. In earthly cities, one thing is the structure of buildings: another thing are the citizens that dwell therein : that city is builded of its own inmates, who are themselves the blocks that form the city, for the very stones are living : Ye also, says the Apostle, as living
l Pet.
Mystical meaning of the Twelve Foundations. 2 1 7
stones, are built up a spiritual house, words that are ad- Ver. dressed to ourselves. Let us then pursue the contemplation --
of that city.
4. Her foundations are upon the holy hills: the Lord loveth the gates of Sion. 1 have made the foregoing remarks, that ye may not imagine the gates are one thing, the found ations another. Why are the Apostles and Prophets found ations ? Because their authority is the support of our weak
ness. Why are they gates ?
because through them we
enter the kingdom of God : for they proclaim it to us : and
while we enter by their means, we enter also through Christ, Himself being the Gate. And twelve gates of Jerusalem are Rev. 2l, spoken of, and the one gate is Christ, and the twelve gates 12'
are Christ : for Christ dwells in the twelve gates, hence was
twelve the number of the Apostles. There is a deep mystery
in this number of twelve : Ye shall sit, says our Saviour, on Mat. 19, twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. If there 28,
are twelve thrones there, there will be no room for the judg ment-seat of Paul, the thirteenth Apostle, though he says that
he shall judge not men only, but even Angels; which, but
the fallen Angels ? Know ye not, that we shall judge Angels, l Cor. 6, he writes. The world would answer, Why dost thou boast3,
that thou shalt be a judge ? Where will be thy throne ? Our
Lord spoke of twelve thrones for the twelve Apostles : one,
Judas, fell, and his place being supplied by Matthias, the number of twelve thrones was made up: first, then, discover Act* 1, room for thy judgment-seat; then threaten that thou wilt1*-26'
judge. Let us, therefore, reflect upon the meaning of the twelve thrones. The expression is typical of a sort of uni versality, as the Church was destined to prevail throughout the whole world : whence this edifice is styled a building together into Christ: and because judges come from all quarters, the twelve thrones are spoken of, just as the twelve gates, from the entering in from all sides into that city. Not only therefore have those twelve, and the Apostle Paul, a claim to the twelve thrones, but, from the universal signi fication, all who are to sit in judgment: in the same manner
as all who enter the city, enter by one or the other of the twelve gates. There are four quarters of the globe : East, West, North, and South : and they are constantly alluded to
218 Christ may speak in the Head or in the Body.
Psalm in the Scriptures. From all those four winds; our Lord ^-xk"g declares in the Gospel that He will call his sheep from the
27.
'four winds ; therefore from all those four winds is the Church called. And how called? On every side it is called in the Trinity : no otherwise is it called than by Baptism in the
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: four then being thrice taken, twelve are found.
5. Knock, therefore, with all your hearts at these gates : Ps. lis, and let Christ cry within you: Open me the gates of right- l9' eousness. For He went before us the Head : He follows
which is behind--ofwhat ? ofthe afflictions ofChrist --wherein ? in my flesh. Were any afflictions wanting in that Man, which the Word of God became, when born of the Virgin Mary ? He suffered all that was due from His own will, not by any necessity arising from sin : and it seemeth that He
suffered all : for while stretched upon the Cross He received John 19, the vinegar at the lust, with these words, It is finished; and
Himself in His Body. Remember the words of the Apostle,
I
fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh. Remark the words, That I may fill up -- what 1 that
Col. l, spoken because Christ suffered within himself: Tiiat 24-
may
M'
He bowed His head, and gave up the Ghost. What is the meaning of, is finished? it means, Of the measure of My sufferings nothing is wanting : all that was prophesied of Me has been fulfilled: as if He was waiting in order that they might be fulfilled. Who is the man who departs as He did from the body ? Rather, who is he, who had the
John 10, power of doing so ? He,IWho had first said, ,8'
have power to
/
have power to take it again : no
I7' lay down My soul, and I man taketh it from Me, but Hay it down of Myself, and
it again. He laid it down, when He willed : He took it again, when He willed : no one stole, no one extorted it from Him.
All his sufferings, therefore, were fulfilled : but in the Head :
i Cor. those is His body remained still. Now ye are the body and
,2' 27 '
limbs of Christ: so the Apostle, being one of these limbs, used
the words, That I may fill up thai which is behind of the
afflictions of Christ in myflesh. Thither accordingly, where
Christ preceded us, are we on our way : and Christ is still journeying whither He has gone before ; for Christ went before us in the Head, Christ follows in the Body : still Christ is here
take
The Spiritual City pre/erred above its Emblem. 2J9
toiling : here Christ suffered at Saul's hands, when Saul heard Vk>>. the voice, Saul, Saul, why persecvtest thou Me? So, when the A foot is trodden upon, the tongue says, Thou treadest upon 4. me, though no man touched the tongue : it cries out from sympathy, not that it is trodden upon. Still Christ is here in want, Christ here still journeys, Christ here is sick, Christ
'
here is in bonds. In saying this we should wrong Him, had
He not told ns this truthIin His own words,
I was thirsty, and ye
was an hungred, Mat. 28,
3 ' 40-
Me :
we Thee an hungred, and fed Thee ? and He shall answer, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one ofthe least ofthese My brethren, ye have done it unto Me. Let us therefore build our
selves up in Christ on the foundation of the Apostles and Pro- Eph. J, phets, Himself being the chief corner stone: For the Lord20' loveth Sion above all the dwellings of Jacob. But this does not
mean that Sion is not among the dwellings of Jacob : where
was indeed, but in the people of Jacob? for Jacob was the grandson of Abraham, of whom conies the Jewish nation, thence called the people of Israel, since Jacob himself re
ceived the appellation of Israel, as ye well know, holyGen. 32, brethren. But as these were merely temporal dwellings,28' which were emblems of the other, and the Prophet speak
ing of city which he conceives in spiritual sense, of which
that on this earth was the shadow and figure he says, The
Lord loveth the gates of Sion above all the dwellings of Jacob. He loveth that spiritual city above all figurative emblems of which represent as city everlasting, eter
nally in heaven at rest.
6. Ver. 4. Very excellent things are said of thee, thou city of God. He was, as were, contemplating that city of Jerusalem on earth for consider what city he alludes to, of which certain very excellent things are spoken. Now the earthly city has been destroyed after suffering the enemy's rage, fell to the earth no longer what was ex hibited the emblem, and the shadow hath passed away. Whence then are very excellent things spoken of thee, thou city of God? Listen whence will think upon Rahab and Babylon, with them that know Me. In that city, the Prophet,
a/nd ye gave Me meat:
gave
Me drink:
was Ia stranger, and ye took Me in : naked, and clothed ye
was sick, and ye visited Me: and they ask, When saw
;/
:
it
a
it
a it,
it,
; it is
it
it
;
:
3,
: is it
a
220 ' Rahab and Babylon,' the future converts.
Fsalm in the person of God, says, / will think upon Bahab and lxxxYTI- Babylon. Rahab belongs not to the Jewish people ; Babylon &TMh 46. belongs not to the Jewish people ; as is clear from the next 1Ali'eni- verse : For the Philistines1 also, and Tyre, with the Ethio- Iax^u- pians, were there. Deservedly then, very excellent things are
understood.
spoken of thee, thou city of God : for not only is the Jewish nation, born of the flesh of Abraham, included therein, but all nations also, some of which are named that all may be
/ will think, he says, upon Rahab: who is that harlot? That harlot in Jericho, who received the spies and conducted them out of the city by a different road : who trusted beforehand in the promise, who feared God, who was told to hang out of the window a line of scarlet thread, that
to bear upon her forehead the sign of the blood of Christ. She
was saved there, and thus represented the Church of the
Gentiles whence our Lord said to the haughty Pharisees, Mat. 21, Verily say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go
n'
Id. 11, take by force. For written, The kingdom of Heaven
,2'
"l fauce
into the kingdom of God before you. They go before, because they do violence: they push their way by faith, and to faith way made, nor can any resist, since they who are violent
violence, and the violent take Such force.
suffereth
was the conduct of the robber, more courageous on the cross
than in the place of ambush*. will think upon Bahab and Babylon, By Babylon meant the city of this world as there one holy city, Jerusalem one unholy, Babylon: all the unholy belong to Babylon, even as all the holy to Jerusalem. But he slidethb from Babylon to Jerusalem. How, but by Him who justifieth the ungodly: Jerusalem
the city of the saints Babylon of the wicked but He cometh Who justifieth the ungodly: since said,
trill think not only upon Bahab, but upon Babylon, but with whom with them that know Me. For this reason
Ps. 79, Scripture says somewhere, Pour out thine indignation upon
'
the heathen that have not known Thee, and elsewhere, Con- Ps. 36, tinue forth Thy loving-kindness unto them that know Thee. 10' And that ye may be assured that by Rahab and Babylon the
Gentiles are meant, the purport of this verse, will think
Dilabitur, which would seem to drawing off,' e. of citizens, mean the writer, al. derivatur,' there
?
b
.
/ is
a it is
if '
is
it is
?
is I a
i.
/
it by
it
is
:
;
;
is
I :
:
*
is,
Mystery of the Man, her' Founder, born in Sion. 221
upon Rahab and Babylon with them that know Me, be asked, Ver. the next explains as follows, behold the Philistines also? -----
e. they too belong to Rahab, belong to Babylon, and they of Tyre. But to what extent are the Gentiles included in this allusion To the ends of the earth. For He called people from the ends of the earth and the people of the Ethiopians, they were there. Ifthen Rahab, and Babylon, and the Philistines, and Tyre, and the people of the Ethi opians, are in that city, deservedly said, Very excellent things are spoken of thee, thou city God.
7. Ver. Listen now to a deep mystery. Rahab there through Him, through Whom also Babylon, now no longer Babylon, but beginning to be Jerusalem. The daughter
divided against her mother, and will be among the members
of that queen to whom said, Forget thine own people, and p,, thy father's house, so shall the king have pleasure in thy10,11, beauty. For how could Babylon aspire to Jerusalem How could Rahab reach those foundations? How could the Philis
tines, or Tyre, or the people of the Ethiopians? Listen to this verse, "Sion, my mother" a man shall sayh. There then a man who saith this: through whom all those have mentioned make their approach. Who this man
It tells we hear, we understand. follows, as ques tion had been raised, through whose aid Rahab, Babylon, the Philistines, Tyre, and the Morians, gained an entrance. Behold, through whom they come Sion, my mother, a man shall say; and a man was born in her, and Himself the Most High hath founded her. What, my brethren, can be clearer Truly, because very excellent things are spoken of
thee, thou city God. Lo, Sion, mother, a man shall say. . What man He who was born in her. then the man who was born in her, and He Himself hath founded her. Yet how can Hebe born in the city which He himself founded? had
already been founded, that therein He might be born. Under stand thus, thou canst: Mother Sion, he shall say but
a man that shall say. Mother Sion yea, a man teas born in her and yet he hath founded her, (not man, but,) the Most
St. Aug. Tertullian, and others, Or, He who was made man in read, e-'firvp 2W, for the reading of her Qui homo factus est in es. '
the LXX, tiirri.
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22? 2 Sim a Mother to Christ. ' Her people and Princes.
Psalm high. As He created a mother of whom He would be born, so lxxxvn. He fouuded a city in which He would be born. What hope is ours, brethren ! On our behalf the Most High, Who founded the city, addresses that city as a mother : and He was bom
in her, and the Most High hath founded her.
8. Ver. 6. As though it were said, How do ye know
this ? All of us have sung these Psalms : and Christ, Man for our sake, God before us, sings within us all. But is this much to say, before us, of Him, Who was before heaven and earth and time ? He then, born for our sakes a man, in that city, also founded her when He was the Most High. Yet how are we assured of this? The Lord shall rehearse it when He writeth up the people, as the following verse has it. Mother Sion, a man shall say, and a man was born in her, and Himself the Most High hath
founded her. The Lord shall declare, when He writeth up the people, and their princes. What princes*? Those who were born in her; those princes who, born within her walls, became therein princes : for before they could become princes in her, God chose the despised things of the world to confound the strong. Was the fisherman, the publican, a prince? They were indeed princes: but because they became such in her. Princes of what kind were they ? Princes come from Babylon, believing monarchs of this world, came to the city of Rome, as to the head of Babylon : they went not to the temple of the Emperor, but to the tomb of the Fisherman.
l Cor. l, Whence indeed did they rank as princes ? God chose the
26. 27. f
trea/. fhings of the world to confound the strong, and the
oolish things He hath chosen, and things which are not as though they were, that things which are may be brought to
Ps. 113, nought. This He doth Who from the ground raises thehelpless, and from the dunghill exalts the poor. For what purpose!
ib. 8.
That He may set him with the princes, even with the princes of His people. This is a mighty deed, a deep source of pleasure and exultation. Orators came later into that city, but they could never have done so, had not fishermen preceded them. These things are glorious indeed, but where could they take place, but in that city of God, of whom very excellent things are spoken?
9. Ver. 7. So thus, after drawing together and mingling A Et Principet, in added in the text: but it has no equivalent in our versioo.
The employment) and rest, of the Saints in glory.
every source of joyous exultation, how doth he conclude? Ver.
The dwelling as ofall that shall be made joyous is in Thee. As if all made joyous, all rejoicing, shall dwell in that ciiy. Amid our journeyings here we suffer bruises : our last home shall be the home ofjoy alone. Toil and groans shall perish: prayers pass away, hymns of praise succeed. There shall be the dwelling of the happy ; no longer shall there be the groans of those that long, but the gladness of those who enjoy. For He will be present for Whom we sigh : we shall be like Him, as we shall see Him as He is: there it will be our whole task to praise and enjoy the presence of God : and what beyond shall we ask for, when He alone satisfies us, by Whom all things were made ? We shall dwell and be dwelt in : and shall be subject to Him, that God be all in all. Blessed, then, are J
----
1 John 3' 2'
1p0Ti 16, 28.
Ps. 84,
1 ot'0>>0 e80t ? -
former* Psalm, n'
may they that dwell in Thy house. How blessed ? Blessed in their
gold, and silver, their numerous slaves, and multiplied off spring? Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house : for ever and ever they will be praismg Thee. Blessed in that sole labour1 which is rest! Let this then be the one and only object of our desire, my brethren, when we shall have reached this pass. Let us prepare ourselves to rejoice in God: to praise Him. The good works which conduct us thither, will not be needed there. I described, as far as I could, only yesterday*, our condition there: works of charity there
be none, where there will be no misery : thou shalt not find one in want, one naked, no one will meet you tormented with thirst, there will be no stranger, no sick to visit, no dead to bury, no disputants to set at peace. What then wilt thou find to do ? Shall we plant new vines, plough, traffic, make voyages, to support the necessities of the body ? Deep quiet shall be there; all toilsome work, that necessity demands, will cease : the necessity being dead, its works will perish too. What then will be our state? As far as possible, the tongue of a man thus told us. As it were, the dwelling of all who shall be made perfect is in Thee? .
