Sermon 33

SERMO 33

ON THAT WHICH IS WRITTEN IN PSALM 143:
"GOD, I WILL SING A NEW SONG TO YOU"

Charity sings a new song.

Since it is written: God, I will sing a new song to you, I will play on a ten-stringed harp for you; the ten-stringed harp, the ten commandments of the law are understood. But singing and playing are usually the business of lovers. For the old man is in fear, the new in love. Thus also we distinguish the two Testaments, the old and the new, which the Apostle says are also figured in the children of Abraham, one from the slave woman, the other from the free woman: Which are, he says, the two Testaments. For slavery pertains to fear, freedom to love. For the Apostle says: You have not received the spirit of slavery again in fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, in which we cry: Abba, Father. And John says: There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. Therefore, love sings a new song. For that servile fear in the old man can indeed have a ten-stringed harp, because the Jews themselves were given the law of the ten commandments; but they cannot sing a new song with it. For they are under the law and cannot fulfill the law. They carry the instrument itself, but do not play it; they are burdened with the harp, not adorned by it. But he who is under grace, not under the law, fulfills the law, because it is not a burden to him but a grace, not torment to one who fears but an ornament to one who loves. Enkindled by the spirit of love, he now sings a new song on the ten-stringed harp.

The fullness of the law is love.

For thus says the Apostle: For he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. The Lord also, because he said: I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, for this reason gave such a commandment to his disciples, by which the law could be fulfilled by them: A new commandment, he said, I give to you, that you love one another. It is therefore not surprising if a new commandment sings a new song, because, as it is said, the ten-stringed psaltery signifies the ten commandments of the law, and the fulfillment of the law is love. However, the Apostle wanted to mention a few of these strings, so that from them the others might be understood, where he says: For you shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, and so on. For just as there are two commandments of love, of which the Lord says all the Law and the Prophets depend, thus sufficiently showing that love is the fulfillment of the law, so the ten commandments themselves were given on two tablets. For it is said that three were written on one tablet, and seven on the other. Just as these three pertain to the love of God, so the other seven pertain to the love of neighbor.

Of the first three commandments of the Decalogue.

The first is of those three: Hear, O Israel: The Lord your God is one Lord. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness, neither that which is in the heaven above, nor that which is on the earth below, and so on, by which he binds us to the worship of one God, leaving behind the fornication of idols. The second commandment, however, is: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. The third, concerning the observance of the Sabbath. I believe that on account of the Trinity, three commandments pertain to the love of God. For the unity of divinity has its origin from the Father, hence the first commandment speaks chiefly about one God. We are reminded by the second commandment, lest we consider the Son of God as a creature if we receive him as unequal to the Father. For every creature, as the Apostle says, is subjected to vanity. There it is commanded that we should not take the name of the Lord our God in vain. Now indeed the gift of God, which is the Holy Spirit, promises eternal rest which the Sabbath signifies. Hence we observe the Sabbath spiritually, if we do not perform servile works. For even the Jews are prohibited from these on the Sabbath in a carnal understanding. However, because he wishes to understand spiritual servile works, let him hear the Lord saying: Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. But sin is not only that which appears to men in shameful or unjust deeds, but also if it has the appearance of good work, and yet it is done for a temporal reward not for eternal rest. For whatever anyone does, if he does it with the intention of obtaining earthly gain, he does it servilely, and therefore does not observe the Sabbath. For God is to be loved freely, nor can the soul rest except in that which it loves. But eternal rest is not given to it, except in the love of God who alone is eternal. And this is the perfect sanctification and spiritual Sabbath of Sabbaths. Therefore, since we are sanctified in the Holy Spirit, who is there who would not be moved to understanding the great sacrament, which in the three commandments pertaining to God, the third commandment is about the Sabbath? And in all those things which Scripture recounts that God made in the book of Genesis, it is not said there that he sanctified any day except the seventh day, which signifies the Sabbath.

Seven commandments are attributed to the love of neighbor.

The first of the seven commandments that pertain to the love of neighbor is: Honor your father and your mother. The second: You shall not kill. The third: You shall not commit adultery. The fourth: You shall not steal. The fifth: You shall not bear false witness. The sixth: You shall not covet your neighbor's wife. The seventh: You shall not covet your neighbor's goods. The Apostle clearly attests to this distribution when he says: Honor your father and your mother, which is the first commandment. For it is inquired, and it is not found in the whole Decalogue to be the first, because the first of the ten commandments is that which commands the worship of one God. And therefore, the commandment to honor parents is written on another tablet, and it is first because it begins the commandments that pertain to the love of neighbor.

The Donatists do not sing the hymn of charity.

Let us sing, therefore, a new song, singing praise with a psaltery of ten strings. This is the new song, the grace of the New Testament, which distinguishes us from the old man, who was first made of the earth, earthly. For he was made from the clay, and having lost blessedness, he was justly cast into misery, because he had become a transgressor of the commandment. But what does the one who gives thanks to the grace of God through the forgiveness of sins, reconciling us to God and renewing the old things of the past, say in the words of the Prophet? He says, "He brought me out of the pit of misery and out of the mire of clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and directed my steps, and put a new song in my mouth, a hymn to our God." This is the new song, which is sung with a psaltery of ten strings. For no one praises God, that is, sings a hymn, unless he agrees with his mouth by his deeds, by loving God and neighbor. Nor should the rebaptizing Donatists think they belong to the new song. For they do not sing the new song, who, with arrogant impiety, have been cut off from the Church, which God wished to be in all the earth. For indeed, elsewhere the same Prophet says, "Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth." Therefore, he who does not wish to sing with all the earth, staying with the old man, does not sing the new song, nor does he play on the psaltery of ten strings, because he is an enemy of charity, which is the fullness of the law, which we say is contained in the ten commandments pertaining to the love of God and neighbor.