Original Douay–Rheims AnnotationsPsalms 102
English College of Douai–Rheims
Read Psalms 102 in the BiblePsalms 102:9
He will not be angry always.
[1] Origen misunderstood this place, and some other like, holding an erroneous opinion, that all, even the most wicked sinners, both men and devils, shall at last be saved, and not eternally damned: which is a condemned heresy, contrary to evident places of holy Scriptures. Psal. 9. v. 6. The impious hath perished: their name thou hast destroyed for ever, & for ever & ever. Mat. 25. The wicked shall go into fire everlasting, into everlasting punishment. Apoc. 20. The beast and the false Prophet (and the same reason is for all the wicked) shall be tormented day and night, for ever and ever. Neither are these words (God will not be angry always) spoken universally, touching all sinners whosoever, but are limited, v. 13. & 17. to those that fear him, and keep his testament: whereas all those that die in mortal sin [2], are still obstinate in malice, and can never rightly repent, nor rightly fear God, nor keep his commandments.
- 1 Origen's heresy, that all shall be saved.
- 2 The damned can never repent.
Original Douay–Rheims Annotations — English College of Douai–Rheims. CC0 1.0
Psalms 102:5
Thy youth shall be renewed, as the Eagle's.
Aristotle and Pliny write, that an Eagle decayeth not [1], nor ever dieth by old age, but the upper part of her beak still growing, at last hindereth her from eating, and so she dieth of famine. Saadias, and other Hebrew Rabbins report, that an Eagle Every ten years washeth herself in the sea as in a bath, & then flying very high burneth her feathers in the elemental fire, & new feathers growing she becometh fresh, as in her first youth, till at last about an hundred years old, she is not able to rise from the water, and so is drowned. Saint Augustine more probably affirmeth, that in long time her beak growing long, and stopping her mouth that she cannot eat, she breaketh the upper hooked part thereof against a stone, and so receiveth meat and recovereth strength, as in her youth. But whatsoever is the natural property of this kingly bird, the Royal Prophet here instructeth us by the similitude of her long life, or by the renovation of her strength, that just men, God's servants, are spiritually renovated in Christ [2], the principal rock, on whom the Church, & all the faithful are built, either by receiving new strength by his grace in their souls, after they are weakened by sin, as Saint Jerome and Euthymius expound this place: or by restoration of their bodies glorified in the resurrection, as Saint Augustine teacheth [3]: or by both, as most Catholic Doctors understand it. For one sense of holy Scripture excludeth not another. Especially when one is subordinate to the other. As here these two senses do very well concur, seeing the state of the body after the resurrection, dependeth upon the state of the soul, at the time of death.