Augustine, Sermones 26-33 (Classis I, de Scripturis: de Psalmis)

change, He Himself comes to help. With Whom there is not [change], nor the overshadowing of a moment (Jas. 1:17): for you lie in the darkness of your night. From Him, therefore, are all things: no one has given anything to Him first; let no one demand a debt. By grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8).

Chapter XIV. — 15. Nothing is to be claimed for ourselves. But it troubles me, you say, that this man perishes, that man is baptized: it troubles me, it troubles me as a man. If you wish to hear the truth, it troubles me too, because I am a man. But if you too are a man, and I am a man, let us both listen to the one who says, O man! Surely, if we are troubled because we are men, it is that very human nature, weak and feeble, that the Apostle addresses, saying: O man, who are you that answer back to God? Does the thing formed say to Him Who formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus (Rom. 9:20)? If a beast could speak and say to God, Why didst Thou make that one a man, and me a beast? would you not justly be angry and say, O beast, who are you that answer back to God? You too are a man, but before God you are a beast: and would that you were His beast and the sheep of His pasture! Acknowledge the kindnesses of the shepherd, and you will not follow the wolves of error. We were wolves: We too were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest (Eph. 2:3): but the sheep died, and made us sheep. Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him Who takes away the sin, not of this man or that, but of the world (John 1:29). Nothing therefore to ourselves, my brothers, on the ground that we are something, if indeed we are something in His faith, however much we are, let us claim nothing for ourselves; lest we lose even what we have received: but in that which we have received, let us give glory to Him, let us honour Him, let Him Himself rain upon His own seeds. What would our earth have, had He not sown it? But He also gives the rain; He does not abandon what He has sown. The Lord will give sweetness, and our earth will yield its fruit (Ps. 84:13). Turning to the Lord, etc.

Sermon 27. On the title and the first verses of Psalm 95: and on the words of the Apostle to the Romans, chapter 9, I will have mercy on whom I have had mercy, etc. Against the Pelagians.

Chapter I. — 1. The house of God, which is now being built. As a door leads into a house, so the title of the Psalm leads into understanding. For it is headed thus: When the house was being built after the captivity. You ask what house; the Psalm itself now shows you: Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Behold what house. When all the earth sings a new song, it is the house of God. By singing it is built, by believing it is founded, by hoping it is raised up, by loving it is completed. Now, therefore, it is being built: but at the end of the age it is dedicated. Let the living stones, then, run together to the new song; let them run together and be fitted into the structure of the temple of God: let them acknowledge the Saviour, let them receive the Indweller.

2. The captivity from which we are freed through Christ. It has been said what house: it must be said after what captivity. This too the Psalm shows you; follow a little further: Sing to the Lord a new song; sing

to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name, proclaim well from day to day His salvation. Announce among the nations His wonders, among all peoples His glory. For all the gods of the nations are demons. See under whose captivity the house lay hidden.

Chapter II. — For from the first transgression of the first man the devil, as victor, possessed the whole human race, born with the bond of sin. For if we were not held in captivity, we would not need a Redeemer. He came to the captives, not a captive: He came to redeem the captives, having in Himself nothing of captivity, that is, of iniquity, but bearing our price in mortal flesh. For if He did not have mortal flesh, whence would there be in the Word the blood which He might shed for the captives? But He Who came to our captivity with the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom. 8:3) did not come with the flesh of sin. For that was the likeness of the flesh of sin: true flesh, but like the flesh of sin; true flesh, but not flesh of sin. He, then, Who came thus, who was He? Proclaim well from day to day. See who He was. He was Day from Day, He was God from God, He was light from light: but the Word was made flesh, that He might dwell in us (John 1:14); majesty hidden, weakness apparent, so that weakness might die and majesty be retained.

3. In God, Who has mercy on whom He will, there is no iniquity. If, then, the whole world was held in captivity, it is well said, I will have mercy on whom I have had mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I have had mercy. For if the whole world is under captivity, the whole world in sin, the whole world most justly destined for punishment, but in part set free through mercy, who may say to God, Why dost Thou condemn the world? How is God the judge accused, when the world is condemned as guilty? You are guilty: if you consider what you owe, it is called punishment; nor, when the debt is exacted from you, is the exactor justly blamed. Let the exactor be blamed if he exacts what is not owed: but when he exacts what is owed, who would blame the exactor, even though one may look for a remitter?

Chapter III. — He has mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardens. You say then to me: Why does He still complain? For who resists His will? O man, who are you that you answer back to God? Consider who He is: consider who you are. He is God, you are man. But do you seem to yourself to speak justice, and has that fount of justice dried up? If you speak what is just, whence do you have it? Either you speak what is unjust, and you ought to be silent: or you speak what is just, and you have it only from the fount of justice: but who is the fount of justice, if not God? Lay first, then, the foundation of faith: Is there iniquity with God (Rom. 9:14–20)? Equity can be hidden from you; iniquity cannot be there.

4. Why God has mercy on whom He will, man cannot grasp. Perhaps you expect me to tell you why He has mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardens? Do you expect it of me, man? If you are a man and I am a man, let us both hear, O man, who are you that you answer back to God? For faithful ignorance is better than rash knowledge. God says to me, through the Apostle Christ speaks, O man, who are you that you answer back to God? And

am I indignant because I do not know the justice of God? If I am a man, let me not be indignant: let me go beyond man, if I can, and reach the fountain. But even if I reach it, I will not tell it to a man: let him too go beyond, and reach it with me. And who is it, you say, who, being a man, goes beyond man? Does the Apostle not, then, reproach certain people and say, For when you say, I am of Paul, I of Apollo, are you not men (1 Cor. 3:4)? What did he want those people to do, whom he reproached for being men? You are a man, you belong to Adam. Belong to the Son of Man.

Chapter IV. — 5. How here all things were made known to the apostles. And perhaps He says to you: Now I will not call you servants, but friends; because the things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you (John 15:15). But He said this to the disciples, to those apostles; to them He said this: we ought not to be saddened because we are not yet such. And yet how did He say this even to them, All things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you? I think that He said this in hope, not yet in reality: I think [He spoke of] what He was going to do, not what He had already done. And how is this proved, when He says, I have made known to you, and does not say, I will make known to you? Because certain things are said in the Scriptures in the past which are to be understood of the future. How are they said in the past, when they are to be understood of the future? They have dug, it says, my hands and feet, they have numbered all my bones (Ps. 21:17–18). It had not yet been done, and what was to come was announced as though done. He saved us through the washing of regeneration (Titus 3:5). But in another place he himself says: In hope we have been saved: but hope that is seen is not hope. 'We have been saved in hope' we say only in the past: and since we have been saved in hope, not yet in reality, what we hope for is still to come. For already we see and hold: but not yet the reality, only the hope. For what someone sees, it says, why does he hope for? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience (Rom. 8:24–25). And yet we have been saved, and yet we still hope for and await salvation; we do not yet hold it. So too the Lord says to the disciples, All things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. If this had already been done, why in another place does He say to them: I have still many things to say to you; but you cannot bear them now (John 16:12)? Certainly, All things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you: but when He says, You cannot bear them now, and says, I have to say to you, He defers, He does not take away. Because of sure hope, then, since He knew without doubt that He would do it, it was reckoned with Him as done: and therefore He said, I have made known to you.

Chapter V. — 6. The equity of God, Who has mercy on whom He wills, is to be believed now, until afterwards it is seen. The sign of the cross. As long, then, as we are in the body, we are on pilgrimage away from the Lord: for we walk by faith, and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:6–7). As far as is given to us, let us hold to faith, and let us not doubt concerning the justice of God. Let us not believe at all that there is iniquity with Him, lest we come into the great abyss of impiety. And when we have held with perfect faith that there is no iniquity with Him; and if we do not see it now, that is, the equity that is with Him: let the way be finished, and

we come to the homeland; He cannot be seen in the time of faith, He will be seen in the time of sight. For now we walk by faith, then by sight. What is "by sight"? "Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men" (Ps. 44:3). Because "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). "He who loves Me," He says, "keeps My commandments; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him." And what will You give him? "And I will show Myself to him" (John 14:21). This will be the sight, when He does what He said, "And I will show Myself to him." There you will see the justice of God, there without a book you will read in the Word. So when we see Him as He is, our pilgrimage will then pass away: and afterwards we shall rejoice with the joy of the angels. For this way, what is it? It is faith. For the sake of your faith Christ was made deformed, yet Christ remains beautiful. "Beautiful in form beyond the sons of men" will be seen after the pilgrimage.

Chapter VI. — But now, by faith, how is He seen? "And we saw Him, and He had no beauty nor comeliness: but His face was cast down, and His bearing deformed," that is, His strength: "despised and His bearing deformed, a man set in affliction, and knowing how to bear infirmities" (Isa. 53:2–3). The deformity of Christ forms you. For if He had been unwilling to be deformed, you would not have recovered the form which you had lost. So He hung deformed on the cross: but His deformity was our beauty. In this life, then, let us hold fast to the deformed Christ. What is "the deformed Christ"? "Far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6:14). This is the deformity of Christ. Did I say that I knew anything among you except the way? This is the way: to believe in the Crucified. The sign of this deformity we bear on our forehead: let us not be ashamed of this deformity of Christ. Let us hold to this way, and we shall come to the sight. When we have come to the sight, we shall see the justice of God: and then there will be no saying, Why did He help this one, and not that one? why was this man led by the governance of God to be baptized, while that one, though he had lived well as a catechumen, died by a sudden collapse and did not come to Baptism? and that other, though he had lived wickedly, as a profligate, as an adulterer, as an actor, as a hunter, fell ill, was baptized, departed, and sin was convicted in him, sin was blotted out in him? Seek merits; you will find none, except punishment: seek grace; "O the depth of the riches!" Peter denies, the thief believes: "O the depth of the riches!"

7. The judgements of God in the mystery of grace are not to be scrutinized by reason, but to be attended with wonder. Do you suppose that we can search out what the blessed Apostle dreaded? And when, gazing on such great depth and height, he trembled, he cried out, "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!"