Augustine on the Psalms. 6. Let the Catholic soul then say, “In the Lord I trust; how say ye to my soul, Remove into the mountains as a sparrow? For, lo, the sinners have bent the bow, they have prepared their arrows in the quiver, that they may in the obscure moon shoot at the upright in heart:” and from them let her turn her speech to the Lord and say, “For they have destroyed what You have perfected” Psalm 10:3. And this let her say not against these only, but against all heretics. For they have all, as far as in them lies, destroyed the praise which God has perfected out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, when they disturb the little ones with vain and scrupulous questions, and suffer them not to be nourished with the milk of faith. As if then it were said to this soul, why do they say to you, “Remove into the mountains as a sparrow;” why do they frighten you with sinners, who “have bent the bow, to shoot in the obscure moon at the upright in heart”? She answers, Therefore it is they frighten me, “because they have destroyed what You have perfected.” Where but in their conventicles, where they nourish not with milk, but kill with poison the babes and ignorant of the interior light. “But what has the Just done?” If Macarius, if Cæcilianus, offend you, what has Christ done to you, who said, “My peace I give unto you, My peace I leave with you;” John 14:27 which you with your abominable dissensions have violated? What has Christ done to you? Who with such exceeding patience endured His betrayer, as to give to him, as to the other Apostles, the first Eucharist consecrated with His own hands, and blessed with His own mouth. What has Christ done to you? Who sent this same betrayer, whom He called a devil, John 6:70 who before betraying the Lord could not show good faith even to the Lords purse, John 12:6 with the other disciples to preach the kingdom of heaven; Matthew 10:5-7 that He might show that the gifts of God come to those that with faith receive them, though he, through whom they receive them, be such as Judas was. 7. “The Lord is in His holy temple” Psalm 10:4, yea in such wise as the Apostle says, “For the temple of God is holy, which” temple “you are.” 1 Corinthians 3:17 “Now if any man shall violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy.” He violates the temple of God, who violates unity: for he “holds not the head, from which the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies according to the working after the measure of every part makes increase of the body to the edifying of itself in love.” The Lord is in this His holy temple; which consists of His many members, fulfilling each his own separate duties, by love built up into one building. Which temple he violates, who for the sake of his own pre-eminence separates himself from the Catholic society. “The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord, His seat is in heaven.” If you take heaven to be the just man, as you take the earth to be the sinner, to whom it was said, “Earth you are, and unto earth shall you go;” Genesis 3:19 the words, “The Lord is in His holy temple” you will understand to be repeated, while it is said, “The Lord, His seat is in heaven.”
Posted on: Sun, 18 Jan 2015 22:37:10 +0000
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