The Apology of David

Section 1

Each one of us commits how many faults every single hour, and yet not one of the common people thinks his own sin ought to be confessed. That so great and powerful a king did not even suffer for the smallest moment the consciousness of his fault to remain within him; but by an early confession and immense grief, he restored his sin to the Lord. Whom now among the honored and wealthy could you easily find, who, if he be charged as guilty of some fault, does not take it ill? But he, illustrious in royal power, proved by so many divine oracles, when he was rebuked by a private man for having gravely sinned, did not rage with indignation, but confessed and groaned with the grief of his fault. In the end, grief of inward feeling so moved the Lord, that Nathan said: Because you have repented, the Lord also has taken away your sin.

The promptness of the pardon, therefore, declared the depth of the king's repentance, which drew away the offense of so great an error.

Section 2

Other men, when they are rebuked by the priests, aggravate their sin, while they wish to deny or defend it; and there their fall is the greater, where correction is hoped for. But the saints of the Lord, who are eager to bring the pious contest to completion, and to run the course of salvation, if perchance they should stumble as men, more from the fragility of nature than from the lust of sinning, rise the more eagerly to run, repairing greater contests by the spur of shame; so that the fall is reckoned not merely to have brought no hindrance, but even to have added incentives of speed.

Therefore, if the course of those running is not undone when some perchance have fallen, but the contests remain not of those wrestling in vain but unhindered; indeed, many, after one or another fall, have conquered with greater grace: how much more ought those who have entered the contest of piety not be judged by the offense of a single fall, since blessed is he who can repair himself after a fall; since to rise again even after death is the gift of the blessed.

Section 3

We can also understand in another way that sin can be of profit, and that by the providence of the Lord faults crept upon the saints. For they have been set before us for imitation; and it was therefore arranged that they too should sometimes fall. For if they had passed through the whole course of this world, amid so many slippery places, without offense from vices, they would have given us occasion to think them of some superior and divine nature; such that they could not receive fault, nor have fellowship in guilt. Which opinion indeed would have called us back from an impossible imitation, as though we had no share in that substance. Therefore the grace of God passes them by for a little while, so that their life might become a discipline for our imitation; and that from their acts we might take a teaching not only of innocence, but also of repentance.

Therefore, while I read of their falls, I recognize them also as sharers of infirmity: while I believe them sharers, I presume them to be worthy of imitation.

Section 4

The apostle Paul also warns that the Lord our God took heed, lest human feeling, even in the saints, should be exalted either by the sublimity of revelations, or by a continuing succession of prosperous works, and lest they should reckon to themselves, and attribute to their own virtue, what had been conferred upon them by divine working. Therefore, lest they should rush into such great presumption, and fall into the pit of unbelief, the Lord allowed fault to creep in upon them; so that they too might perceive that they needed divine help, and might recognize that the guide of their salvation must be sought. In the end, Paul testifies that his infirmity profited him, the Lord saying, when he begged that the thorn of his flesh might depart from him: My grace is sufficient for you: for power is made perfect in weakness. And rightly he glories in his infirmities; for he knew that many of the saints too, through an abundance of virtue, had fallen without remedy.

How much more advantageous, then, to have given place to one or two reproaches, than to have drawn upon oneself the offense of the Godhead forever?

Section 1

What shall I add further, which we can gather from the very practice of the world, that when we have approved most people in some office, we wish to test the same as diligent and unwearied in another task? How many athletes, when they have prevailed in one kind of contest, are called to another kind of contest! What if your Lord God also, when you have given some proof of your virtue, wishes to test you in another kind of virtue? He allowed holy Job, running without offense, nevertheless to be tempted by the death of his children, and by ulcers over his whole body: that in this too He might prove his virtue, whether, compelled neither by injuries nor by bitterness, he would lessen the devotion of his affection.

Is it not clear that He also wished to prove holy David, noble in faith, most excellent in gentleness, strong in hand, as to how he would cover his vice, how he would amend his fall; that He might teach us how we can cover a sin we have committed?

Section 2

Unless perhaps it seems to someone a base cause, that so great a prophet should err for our correction, when Christ took on our infirmities for the redemption of all, He who was made sin for us, though He knew no sin. And it is thought unworthy, and not credible, that David, for the advancement of posterity, should have fallen into the disgrace of a single lapse; when the Lord Himself was made a reproach for us, as He Himself says: But I am a worm, and no man; the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people. And elsewhere: And the reproaches of them that reproached you fell upon me. Therefore he sent before in his own persons the mystery of the future dispensation. And indeed the little servants bore the sins of their own condition, and therefore could not themselves be without a share of sin either: but the Lord took up a burden not His own, and therefore alone was without fellowship in sins.

Section 3

In sum, taught also by the Apostle, we know that many things were done in figure, which were done in former times. For when he had said that the fathers in the desert, wounded by serpents, could not otherwise be healed, unless Moses had lifted up a bronze serpent, at the sight of which the deadly bites and infusions of harmful poison were cured, he added: Now these things were done in a figure for them, for our correction. In figure, the bronze serpent as it were fixed to the cross; because the true one to be crucified was announced to the human race, who would empty out the poisons of the serpent devil—in figure accursed, but in truth He who would blot out the curses of the whole world. Elsewhere too, that is, writing to the Galatians, he says: For Abraham had two sons, one by a bondwoman, and one by a free woman.

And he added: But he who was of the bondwoman, was born according to the flesh: but he of the free woman, was by promise; which things are said by an allegory. What is meant by allegory he explained clearly in what follows, saying that those two generations, one from the bondwoman, the other from the free, are the two Testaments: one indeed from Mount Sinai, generating unto bondage, on which mount Moses received the Law from the Lord: the other from Jerusalem which is free, which bore sons in Isaac, that is, in the freedom of grace, not in the bondage of the letter. For to slaves punishment is decreed, to the free grace is conferred. Is it not in the type of the twin people that Jacob took two wives, from whom he produced diverse offspring?

Why is it recorded that the patriarch Judah sought intercourse with his own daughter-in-law after his son's death, from which the birth of twins was brought forth, unless that the figure might foreshow both Testaments of the Lord Jesus by the two births: of which the one was established in the type of His future death, the other in the truth of the Gospel—that two peoples were to be generated, of whom the latter, by the sign of the cross, would cut through every hedge and fortification of the former people? This is the people later in hand but earlier in birth. Or else because the Lord Jesus Himself, born of the tribe of Judah, sent forth His works beforehand, before He should be born to us of the Virgin.

Section 4

What shall I say of Joseph, who, sought after by his brothers, stripped of his father's garment, cast into a pit, sold into slavery, expressed a clear indication of the Lord's Incarnation? Because he, beloved of the Father, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied himself: that, taking the form of a servant, He might come, and humble Himself even unto the death of the cross: by whose price, both bought and sold by His own brothers, He redeemed the human race. In whose type David, the younger, chosen from among his brothers, anointed unto the kingdom, alone by the peril of grievous war, freed the whole people by single combat, triumphed over ten thousand; so that the maidens sang with timbrels: Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. What figure is there in those young women, but of souls who sing together the triumphal psalm to Christ?

He begot of himself sons, one incestuous, another a parricide; because the incestuous and parricidal people were to violate on the gibbet of the cross the flesh of their own author. Finally, in the third psalm the title of Absalom is set at the head, and the Passion of the Lord is prophesied.

Section 5

What shall I say of holy Solomon, whose later years were not without grave error, yet the Jewish common people think that he himself came in the place of Christ? And how many has the offense of a grave error called back? A greater fault, therefore, was of greater profit, lest he be believed to be above man, who was not without human vice. There was, then, in him an invidious wisdom, and a persuasive fault, which proved him to be a man.

Section 6

What therefore hinders that Bathsheba too should be believed to have been associated with holy David in a figure; so that there might be signified the congregation of the nations, which was not joined to Christ the lawful one by a certain wedded bond of faith, which was to enter through certain crosswise vestibules into his favor, beyond the prescription of the Law, in which the naked sincerity of mind and open simplicity, by the mystery of the justifying laver, might win over the mind of the true David and eternal king, might provoke his charity? Rightly did he come hidden, and he who would deceive the prince of the world, as it were that Uriah who by interpretation is called "my light," transfiguring himself into an angel of light. He came, I say, into this world, and he came hidden, entering as an adulterer, that he might vindicate his lawful right.

Section 1

We have distinguished, as we judge, valid allegations, and have shown that the text of this history was in a figure: now let us go back over what precedes, and let us look at the error as though stripped of its spiritual garments. David sinned, as kings are wont to do: but he did penance, wept, groaned, which kings are not wont to do. He confessed his fault, he besought pardon, prostrate on the ground he lamented his misery, he fasted, he prayed, he transmitted to perpetual ages the testimony of his confession by a grief made known to all. What private persons blush to do, the king did not blush to confess. Those who are bound by laws dare to deny their sin, they disdain to ask pardon, which he sought who was bound by no human laws. That he sinned belongs to his condition; that he besought pardon, to his amendment. The fall is common, but the confession is special. To have fallen into fault, then, belongs to nature; to have washed it away, to virtue.

"Who," he says, "boasts that he has a pure heart?" And it is declared by the testimony of Scripture that the world is not clean even for a day's-old infant.

Section 2

Give me someone without the fall of some fault. The strongest of all is read to have been Samson (Judges xiv and following), who even strangled a lion with his own hands; but would that he had been able to suffocate his own love. He set fire to the harvests of the Philistines, and he himself burned with the little flame of one woman. Jephthah returned from the enemy a victor: but bringing back triumphal standards, he was conquered by his own vow, so that he thought the devotion of the daughter who ran to meet him should be rewarded with parricide. First of all, what need was there to swear so easily, and to vow uncertain things as if certain, the outcome of which he did not know? Then to what end does he render to the Lord God such sad vows, that he pays them with a bloody funeral?

Section 3

Nor do I think we should be silent about the priests, lest I seem to dissemble our own faults. Aaron himself, the high priest (under whose leadership, together with Moses, the people of the Hebrews crossed the Red Sea on foot), when asked by the people to make gods for them to worship, demanded gold, cast it into the fire, and the head of a calf was fashioned, to which sacrifices were offered. By this sign it became clear that the desire for gold is the material of faithlessness, and that sacrileges are wont to be born of the pursuit of avarice. Again, so great a priest fell into an occasion of offense with his sister Miriam.

For while both brother and sister found fault with him for having taken a foreign wife, straightway Miriam broke out with the contagion of spotted flesh.

Section 4

In this place the figure of the mystery was evident, that the priestly people of the fathers, in later times, would disparage the brotherly people, not knowing the sacrament of that Ethiopian woman. For if she had known it, she would not have found fault with what agreed with the ancient mystery. And so when a Jew calls him who has believed out of the Gentiles common, and wishes to sever him from the Law, he has leprosy which he will not be able to escape, unless the acknowledgment of the spiritual law shall have interceded for pardon.

Section 5

Therefore David also, who knew that he was born a man liable to a fall, sought pardon: but did not despair of the mercy of the Lord.

Section 1

Nor does the parable seem to differ from the mystery. For who is rich, except our Lord Jesus, who says of himself, as was read today, that a certain man, being rich, went away into a far country to receive a kingdom and to return? And truly he was rich in the resources of his majesty and in the fullness of his own divinity, whom Angels and Archangels, Virtues and Powers and Principalities, Thrones and Dominations, Cherubim and Seraphim served with unwearied obedience. But nevertheless, being rich, he left ninety-nine sheep on the mountains, and sought the one sheep that had remained weary. This sheep the prince of this world, poor and needy in comparison with that rich one, nourished as it were a daughter with his own food. Rightly, then, had she failed, whose sustenance was the food of the world. This sheep had gone astray in Adam, beguiled by the wiles of the serpent.

Section 2

And not an evil sheep, which was full of the Word, being as it were the daughter of the rational hebdomad, and the gift of the holy Author; yet she was fed for a long time not with any precious wealth, but with the paltry riches of the poor man. Indeed, "of his bread," it says, "she ate, and of his cup she drank, and slept in his bosom". Not good food is that of the Ethiopians, harmful is the golden cup of Babylon, which makes the nations drunk: not useful is sleep for those who sleep, it is better to be awake. For "all the foolish of heart are troubled, they slept their sleep, and found nothing." Because of hospitality, then, since he had received a guest, in order to serve him a banquet, he took away that poor man's sheep. For if he had sacrificed any animal from his own flocks or herds, it could not have profited us, whom, unless he had sacrificed himself, he would not have redeemed.

Section 3

He took up, then, the infirmities of our fragility in his flesh with a certain hospitable affection, for the relieving, or rather the restoring, of which he offered his own flesh to that saving passion, that he might also provide us with the food of eternal life. And rightly Scripture called her a lamb, because she was born of a Virgin. Rightly is that rich man pronounced worthy of death by prophetic judgment; because Caiaphas also prophesied, saying: "It is expedient that one man die for the people". But the Lord Jesus alone was chosen, worthy of such a death, by which he might take away the sin of the world. Beautifully too it was added: "He shall restore the lamb"; because he raised up his own flesh, he restored that flesh of virginal integrity.

Nor is it without meaning that he said: "He shall restore fourfold." For the resurrection of the dead is fourfold, as the Apostle teaches, saying: "It is sown in corruption, it rises in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it rises in glory; it is sown in weakness, it rises in power; it is sown a natural body, it rises a spiritual body". He shall plainly restore the lamb fourfold also in that way in which a man can now say: "If I have taken anything from anyone, I restore it fourfold". Fittingly too he added this: "Because he did not spare"; for Christ did not spare himself, that he might come to the help of all.

Section 4

And therefore it was said by the Lord Jesus Christ to his servant David, that he might declare the mystery: "Because you did this in secret, I will do this thing before all Israel, and in the sight of this sun". And at first indeed, not knowing the sacrament, David was moved with indignation, but did not err in feeling. But afterward, when he had come to know the great mystery—for great is the mystery of Christ and the Church—seeing the remission of all sins to come, foreseeing the brightness of grace through the laver of regeneration, and the infusion of the Holy Spirit, he says, secure of pardon: "I have sinned against the Lord"; that he himself too might come into the fellowship of those to whom remission of fault would come. Do you observe how he lamented his own sin? Who then would wonder that it was forgiven him?

Section 1

Now let us consider his works, by which he was able to cover his sin. For since human frailty cannot be without sin, care must be taken that there not be more sins than works of virtue. Which great force of his wisdom holy Paul expressed, saying: "The sins of certain men are manifest, going before to judgment, but some also follow after", that is, no one is found untouched by fault; a man has good merits, he has also vices and sins. All our deeds, then, are weighed as it were in a balance: if, then, sins outweigh good deeds, they go before to judgment; for sins sink down as it were into the deep, sink down those which are manifest either by weight and bitterness, or by number. But some, he says, they also follow, that is, those who have lived soberly, but who through the frailty of their condition have sometimes given place even to error, good deeds go before them, evil ones follow.

These are more honorable, yet still men who have fallen into lighter vices and errors. Therefore sins follow the just, they do not go before; they go before the unjust. Sins that sink down outweigh; but if any right deeds were done, they follow, weighed down as it were by a certain prejudgment of the preceding sins. Likewise good deeds also are manifest. For they shine by the work of virtue and by the splendor of merits; and those which stand otherwise cannot be hidden. Therefore such are not covered, charity does not overshadow them—charity which covers a multitude of sins—the grace of good works does not cover them, the multitude of virtues does not hide them, but they are betrayed naked and uncovered as it were. For there is not among them one who says: "Protect me under the shadow of your wings". For the cross of the Lord abolishes and hides all errors.

Section 2

Who then covered and hid more than holy David, who also says elsewhere: "And in the shadow of your wings have I hoped, until iniquity pass away"; and so loved the Lord, that by excessive charity he covered and hid every sin. For indeed if the holy apostle Peter blotted out his fall by the confession of charity, and being asked by the Lord, who said to him a third time: "Simon, son of John, do you love me?", so that he might, a third time, confess him whom he had a third time denied, and thus by a certain threefold veil of love might hide the fall of a threefold denial—if because Peter wept once, he carried away pardon, how much more David, who washed his bed every single night, and watered his couch with tears; to whom his tears were bread day and night; who ate ashes as bread, and mingled his drink with weeping?

For indeed if Jesus has mercy on him who, being converted, groans; if he looked upon Peter, and he wept: how much more upon him who wept long, did the Lord not withdraw his gaze from him? Peter denied, and did not weep, because Jesus had not looked upon him; he denied a second time, and did not weep, because the Lord had not looked upon him; he denied a third time, Jesus looked upon him, and immediately he wept, and wept most bitterly. Therefore David, who wept always, said: "My eyes are ever toward the Lord". He who was always seen by Christ said: "My eyes have run down with streams of waters".

Section 3

But now let us also consider his deeds. Who would not overshadow the odium of one crime by the praise of such great virtues? Chosen by divine testing, he immediately proved himself not unworthy of so great a judgment. He went forth into battle, and while the others trembled, he alone struck down the Philistine Goliath, terrible in the boasting of his words and the mass of his monstrous body, with faith and valor running together. The courage of one man became the victory of all. Let there be compared, if you please, the private crime, and the triumph of all: the death of one man, and the life of the peoples, of so many whom he freed from death.

Section 4

Let us come to other matters. He was suffering plots from the king, who sought to extinguish his life; but by divine disposition the king was delivered into his power, and when he lay wholly exposed for a wound, holy David ran to meet his companions who were about to strike, and turned aside the deadly wound from the body of the one about to perish, saying: "Do not touch the Lord's anointed". Indeed, he even avenged the death of his enemy, lamented his ruin quite tearfully, and long deferred the empire owed to him, which he knew was owed by the authorship of God. By this alone he taught all men not to snatch a kingdom before its time, even if it be owed to them; but to wait until it be conferred in its own time. Would that posterity had imitated this man; we would not have endured so many bitternesses of wars! You object that he killed one man, you do not consider that he taught how perpetual peace might be preserved for the Roman world.

With how grave a devastation do we still atone, with what a kind of public funeral of the whole world have we paid for the murder of a king that we sought? Alas, dire punishments! From that time still the barbarian enemy insults us, while arms prepared against him are turned against us. Thus the public strength has fallen, thus Roman valor, broken by its own upheavals, has grown old, while that is seized by public parricide which is undertaken under the guise of paternal solicitude. And he took such precaution against this, that when he discovered that his son Adonijah was usurping the kingdom for himself and sowing conspiracies, he chose not the one who was eager to snatch it, but the one who would wait.

Section 5

He danced before the ark of the Lord, the most powerful of kings, and when he was rebuked by his own wife, because he had been stripped bare before the faces of the young women, he answered: "I will be stripped bare before the Lord still further, and I will be a fool before your eyes; that the Lord may be honored," he said, "who chose me instead of your father for the kingdom", teaching that regard for royal power should not be had, where obedience is shown to religion. For it is honorable to act for the sake of religion, even if it be unbecoming to power.

Section 6

Behold another memorable deed. A parricidal son had violently seized his father's kingdom; his father at first gave way to his fury, and avoided the place of battle, that even so the wicked one might come to his senses from his madness. He was even unwilling to be present at the battle, and he asked those who were setting out to fight to spare his son. He who asked that they spare him was confident of victory, nor was he wanting in piety who did not think that even an impious son ought to perish. He wept, and with great mourning lamented the end of the parricide, saying: My son Absalom, would that I had died for you, my son Absalom! He thought that vengeance should be taken for the one who had been killed for avenging his father's piety.

Section 7

How patient indeed he was of injury and of grief! He gave way, as I have said, to the fury of his son Absalom, though hedged about on right and left by strong warriors. A man named Shimei cursed him, calling him bloody, and a man of blood, and saying he had been justly cast down by the Lord's judgment from the kingdom; yet he was not moved even by such abuse—though his companions were moved. Finally one of his companions (a man named Abishai) threatened that he would take off his head as the price of the injury; but the king, turning to Abishai, said: What have I to do with you, son of Zeruiah? He curses me thus because the Lord has told him to curse. How morally did he teach that the times of our injuries or dangers are the contests of temptations and the testings of trials, and that they are not wont to be inflicted without divine judgment!

The good athlete is trained by insults, trained by labors and dangers, that he may be worthy to be awarded the crown of justice; and therefore those things which are thought adverse must be borne patiently. Finally, elsewhere too the divine Scripture teaches you this, when the just man says: If we have received good things from the hand of the Lord, why should we not endure the evil ones?

Section 8

And the holy Prophet added, saying: Behold my son, who came forth from my womb, seeks my life. If moreover the Benjaminite curses me, let him alone, that he may curse; for the Lord has told him to, that he may look on my humiliation; and the Lord will repay me good for this cursing. O depth of prudence! O remarkable patience! O great device for swallowing up insult! You are moved, Abishai, he says, that a stranger curses me, whom my own son seeks to slay by parricide; the Lord has told him to curse me. But the Lord is not a curser, nor does he delight in insults.

Section 9

See how carefully he guards each point. He does not accuse the Lord as the author of the injury, but rather praises him for allowing us to suffer lesser things, that we may obtain pardon for greater sins. Behold, the insult of words lightened the burden of parricide, absolved the insolent one, whose curses profit the more, since they are rewarded with divine recompense. Who would not reckon such an injury a gain to himself, that whom man has wounded, God should console with the recompense of better things?

Section 1

Let us consider also his other deeds. He fought against the offspring of the giants, when one of them nearly struck down the king as he moved about in battle, though the adversary who dared this paid the price with his death.

Section 2

Having gained this triumph too over the conquered fierce nation, he again undertook an immense war in the valley of the Titans, no less against the enemy than against nature. For being thirsty while engaged in the battle, he had nothing to drink: Who, he said, will give me a drink from the cistern which is at Bethlehem by the gate? Now between the cistern and holy David there lay the enemy, and the midst of the hostile camp's ramparts. Three men cut through the multitude of adversaries, and filled water from the cistern that was in Bethlehem, and brought it to the king to drink; but the king refused to drink, and poured it out to the Lord. It was indeed worthy of so great a gift that what was a token of vigorous valor should become a sacrifice of piety. And he spoke a saying worthy of the prophetic spirit: Far be it from me to do this; lest I drink the blood of men who went at the peril of their lives.

He conquered nature, then, so that being thirsty he did not drink; and he offered from himself an example, by which the whole army might learn to endure thirst. He also trained his subjects in the duty of virtue, that even through dangers soldiers might obey the royal command of their own will. And by his refusal to drink, he made clear that he had commanded this for the sake of testing his soldiers, not because he was overcome by the necessity of thirst; he also took care that no king should seek the practice of drinking at others' peril. Finally he deprecates the wound to his pious conscience, because water sought at the cost of so many men's blood could not have the sweetness of drinking, seeing that it consisted of the horror of death set before them.

Section 3

But if you wish to look more deeply, and to look into the mystery, David thirsted not for the water from the cistern which is at Bethlehem, but foresaw in spirit Christ who was to arise from the Virgin. He wished, then, to drink not the water of a stream, but the draught of spiritual grace; that is, he thirsted not for the element of waters, but for the blood of Christ. Accordingly he did not drink the water offered him, but poured it out to the Lord, signifying that he thirsted for the sacrifice of Christ, not for the flow of nature: that sacrifice in which there would be remission of sins; he thirsted for that eternal fountain, not one that would be sought at the peril of others, but one that would drive away the perils of others.

Section 4

Shall we not believe, then, that the blood of one man was covered over by so many and such wonderful works? Rightly did the voice of righteous Abel's blood cry out to the Lord, because impious Cain was covered by no good works, because he was a parricide, because he did not confess his crime, but denied it. David, however, had indeed killed a man who was by no means guilty; but he killed him, not driven by a zeal for cruelty, but to shade his shame, to cover the disgrace of his desire. I do not dare to say that he was overwhelmed by the force of his crime (for he was not overwhelmed, who knew how he might raise himself from that fall of sin); yet I do say that he was bent by the force of temptation. For he had said before: Prove me, O Lord, and try me: burn my reins and my heart. And elsewhere: But I said in my abundance, I shall never be moved.

And: You have tried me with fire, and no iniquity has been found in me. The Lord willed him to be subject to temptation, lest he should ascribe to himself something above what belongs to man; for virtue is perfected in weakness. Nor did he act with a bloodthirsty disposition; nothing less can be ascribed to the holy Prophet, who even at the point of death, with his last utterance, charged his son Solomon to take away from him the innocent blood which his commander Joab had shed, when Abner, while treating of entering into alliance, though the commander of the opposing army, fell by treachery; whom he wept for, and after mourning him, walking behind, having laid aside the insignia of power, saw to the due rites of his funeral. By this deed he taught that faith once pledged, even to adversaries, must be kept, and that valor must be honored even in an enemy. Did he not, by so gentle a legacy of piety, wipe away even the stain of this error?

Section 5

How splendid too, that when three conditions were offered him, he might choose whichever he wished, when, having numbered the people, he had incurred an offense, and it was proposed whether he would rather have famine upon the land for three years, or flee for three months from the face of his pursuing enemies, or that death should come upon the land for three days; he chose the third, preferring to fall into the power of the Lord rather than into that of men! For the Lord, being quickly moved to pity, would forgive. Thus he said: I am in great straits in these three things; but let me rather fall into the hands of the Lord (for his mercy is very great) than fall into the hands of men. By this humility, prudence, and gentleness he brought it about, to use the words of Scripture, that the Lord repented of his own displeasure. For it is written thus: For the Lord repented of the evil.

Section 6

How admirable too was it, that he offered himself to the Angel who was striking the people, saying: What has this flock done? Let your hand be against me, and against my father's house. By this deed he was at once judged worthy of sacrifice, he who by absolution was reckoned unworthy. Nor is it surprising that by such an offering of himself for the people he obtained pardon for his own sin, since Moses too, by offering himself to the Lord for the people's error, blotted out even the people's sins.

Section 7

Did he then cover his sins, or not? But who would deny this, when the Prophet himself taught that iniquities are remitted, sins are gathered up, are not imputed by the Lord? He himself taught that his sin was remitted, as it is written: I acknowledge my transgression, and I have not concealed my injustice. I said, I will declare against myself my injustice to the Lord; and you forgave the impiety of my heart. If he said, I will declare, and merited pardon before he declared it; how much more, when he did declare concerning himself, saying, I acknowledge my iniquity, was all his sin remitted? Although the prophet Nathan himself specifically answered concerning this: And the Lord has taken away your sin.

Section 8

He merited, then, the remission of his iniquity, and he covered and overspread his sins with charity, and covered them with good works. Nor was sin imputed to him, because there was in him no guile of malice, but a lapse of error. Then too, because there was no burning of wickedness, but the shadow of a mystery. And yet he confessed his transgression, acknowledged his iniquity, saw the laver, saw it and believed. He loved much, so that by exceeding charity he could cover whatever error he had.

Section 1

But let him now defend himself, for he wrote the fiftieth psalm concerning that story. And though he had appended the story of his earlier deeds, such as concerning the betrayal by Doeg the Syrian, whose title stands upon the fifty-first psalm, and the Ziphites, which seems to be comprised in the title of the fifty-third psalm; he set before that story, which is later, this one, though Doeg or the Ziphites had betrayed him earlier, before the prophet David took up the kingdom. For while he was still fleeing King Saul, he still wandered as an exile through diverse hidden places; but he took Bathsheba when he was already reigning.

Section 2

Why then does the order of the psalms not correspond to the order of the events? Because he wished not so much to make order correspond to order, as to make the mystery correspond to the deeds; and therefore he wished to fit the number of remission to this story. For fifty is the number of remission, as the Lord himself taught us in the Gospel, saying: There were two debtors of a certain creditor; one owed five hundred denarii, the other fifty; when they had nothing with which to repay, he forgave them both. Which of them, then, loves him more? And in the Law you have it, that the recurrence of fifty years is called the jubilee, a most celebrated number, in which debts are cancelled, the liberties of the Hebrews are confirmed, and possessions restored.

This number we joyfully celebrate after the Lord's passion, when the debt of all guilt has been remitted, the bond also cancelled, freed from every obligation; and we receive the coming grace of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost: fastings cease, praise is given to God, alleluia is sung. Finally the father of a girl who has endured intercourse by force, being betrothed to no one, shall receive fifty silver didrachmas; and she shall remain in marriage. By this number, then, even vices are turned into grace. Great, therefore, is this psalm, by which we are taught how penance is to be performed.

Section 3

Have mercy on me, O Lord, he says, according to your great mercy. And according to the multitude of your mercies blot out my iniquity. Wash me thoroughly from my injustice, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my iniquity: and my sin is ever before me. Against you only have I sinned, and done evil before you; that you may be justified in your words, and may overcome when you are judged. For behold, I was conceived in iniquities; and in sins did my mother bear me. Which of us, even if he confesses his own transgression, would think it should rather be touched on lightly than repeated? Who repeats it a second, or a third time? See in how many verses so great a Prophet echoes his sin, how not a single verse is without confession of his transgression.

He heaped up everything together, proclaiming his iniquities and his injustice, joining transgressions to sins; and by so often repeating them, he rightly asks for great mercy—and not only great mercy, but also the multitude of mercies. What sin, then, would not such lamentation dissolve, what guilt would not such a prayer as this cleanse? He, for one sin, entreats a multitude of mercies: we, for many sins, scarcely believe that his mercy should be implored even once. Furthermore, we read that by his great power and his exalted arm he freed his people from the land of Egypt, when he led them through the Red Sea, in which there was a figure of baptism. If then great power was in the figure of the sacraments, how much more is there great mercy in their reality? Rightly too is a multitude of mercies asked for there, where there is a multitude of sinners.

Section 4

Wash me thoroughly from my injustice, and cleanse me from my sin. He asks to be washed not so much frequently as fully, that he may be able to wash away the filth he has contracted. He knew that according to the Law there were many aids of cleansing, but none full and perfect. Therefore with his whole intention he hastens toward that perfect washing, by which all righteousness is fulfilled, which is the sacrament of baptism, as the Lord Jesus himself teaches. For when he had come to John, the Baptist said: I ought to be baptized by thee, and comest thou to me? The Lord answered: Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.

But after Christ was baptized, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove, and the Father sealed the Son from heaven, all righteousness was fulfilled. Therefore the Prophet says: Wash me thoroughly from my injustice. For great filth and no small stain is removed by much washing.

Section 5

But if anyone wishes to take it otherwise, he can form his understanding thus: the divine word cleanses, our confession cleanses; the former while it is heard, the latter while it is uttered; good thought cleanses, honest action cleanses, and the practice of a good manner of life as well. Each one, cleansed by these things, more easily draws in, and as it were seizes to himself, the splendor of spiritual grace. Finally, it is not by one infusion of the fleece that the precious hue at once shines forth, but first the fleece is dyed with an ignoble juice; then by other and yet other juices its natural appearance is repeatedly washed out, and it is changed often into a different color; and thus afterward, as it were, a fuller washing of dye is applied, so that the truer and more perfect glow of purple may gleam forth.

Therefore, just as there is a multitude of murex shells in the dyeing of purple, so in the laver of regeneration there is a multitude of heavenly mercies, that iniquity may be blotted out. And so he who is washed thoroughly is cleansed from injustice and from sin, and lays aside a certain habit of sinning ingrained by pursuits and manners, and forgets its very quality. And rightly is he washed from injustice or iniquity, which is greater; he is cleansed also from sin, which is lesser.

Section 1

And so he added: For I acknowledge my iniquity; and my sin is ever before me. It is no small thing for each one to acknowledge his own sin. And so above he also says: Who shall understand his failings? That is, who is so great as to understand? Just as that other saying: Who shall dwell in thy tabernacle, or who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord? Not indeed no one, but a rare one. For he who can recognize can also turn away, can choose what should follow. Many glory in their own falls, and think those things to be praise which are crime. If one has defiled another’s marriage bed, and overthrown the chastity of a pure woman, if by some fraud he has changed the resolve of a widow: another thinks it a matter of virtue to live by the killing of a man, by the ambushes of robbery, and by plunder: some think it wisdom to circumvent and deceive.

Of these none can say: For I acknowledge my iniquity; and my sin is ever before me. Against thee only have I sinned, and done evil before thee; that thou mayest be justified in thy words, and mayest overcome when thou art judged. For behold, I was conceived in iniquities; and in sins did my mother bring me forth. Which of us, even if he confesses his sin, does not think it should rather be touched on lightly than repeated? Who repeats it a second or a third time? See in how many verses so great a Prophet sounds forth his sin, how no verse is without confession of sin. He has gathered everything together, sounding forth his iniquities and injustice, joining sins to sins; and by so often repeating them, he rightly asks for great mercy; and not only great mercy, but even a multitude of mercies. What sin, then, would not such lamentation wash away, what fault would not such a prayer cleanse?

He, for one sin, entreats a multitude of mercies: we, for many sins, scarcely believe his mercy need be besought even once. Then we read that by his great power, and his uplifted arm, he freed his people from the land of Egypt, when he led them through the Red Sea, in which was a figure of baptism. If, then, there was great power in the figure of the sacraments, how much more is there great mercy in their reality? Rightly, too, is a multitude of mercies sought there, where there is a multitude of sinners. But he can acknowledge his sin who is able to grieve over what he has done, to condemn what he has committed, whom his own vices sting. Whence the Prophet also says: The things you say in your hearts, be pricked with remorse upon your beds. Many horses, when they have fallen, are accustomed to thrash about; and those whom the fall has not injured, by thrashing about weaken and break themselves.

Others (such as is said to be the nature of Greek horses), when they have been thrown either in a chariot race or have fallen by chance, are not at all accustomed to stir, and maintain a certain discipline of quiet and patience. If the fall has not harmed these, quiet is of benefit; certainly the injury is not aggravated. Are not those to be judged worse than many animals, who boast in their own crimes, and think it a mark of virtue where there has been a lapse into wrongdoing? Therefore it is said, as it were to a dumb beast: Thou hast sinned, be still.

Section 2

Whence he added fittingly: And my sin is ever before me. For the foolish man delights in his own errors, and by overshadowing old sins with new ones, thinks himself aided by sins; and so he exults in his crime. But the wise man judges his own sin to stand against him, and thinks that the lapses of his faults, like hostile battle-lines, stand opposed to him in the manner of adversaries. Whatever has sounded forth, whatever has thundered, his own fault always meets him; whatever has been said or read, he thinks was said of himself; whatever is aimed at anything, he thinks is signified by a nod, by the eyes, toward himself. If he feasts, if he thinks, if he prays and entreats, before his eyes is always his own error, and at every moment his fault knocks at his conscience, and allows him neither to rest nor to forget, but agitates him like a stern censor with perpetual dread.

He, then, has everything against him who is displeasing to himself, who is his own accuser, his own witness, and finds nowhere to flee, since he himself presses and goads himself. But this belongs to a good mind, to feel the wound of sin. For those who are without pain do not feel the bitterness of the wound, which is a sign of an incurable sickness; but those who are pricked by some pain, just as they do not lack the sense of pain, so also they do not lack the progress toward health. For where there is sense of pain, there is also sense of life; for to feel belongs to vital vigor and function. Whence also he who does not acknowledge his error, is mad, raves, is senseless; but he who acknowledges it, indeed comes to his senses, does not reject the remedies of health, but restrains himself, repents of his fault, always thinks about it, and by thinking condemns himself. For the just man, at the very beginning of his speech, is his own accuser.

He who accuses himself is just; he who is just is sober, is sound. The just man does not know how to favor himself, does not know how to bend the rigor of judgment even concerning himself, shudders at the recollection of his own fall, and blushes at the error he has committed; he dreads, fears, and shrinks from every memory of it; he judges himself a burden to himself, flees from being his own judge, and does not dare to entrust himself to himself; because he thinks nothing is more burdensome to him than the one whom he cannot hide from, cannot deceive, cannot find a way to flee or avoid, except by denying himself and taking up the cross of the Lord.

Section 3

Great is the power of a conscience bound by guilt, great its torments. Adam and Eve were afraid; and when they heard the voice of the Lord walking in paradise, they wished to hide themselves, though no one was seeking them. Cain also feared lest whoever found him should kill him: so did he himself pass sentence upon himself, that he was worthy of one whom no one should pardon. Whence he well says: And my sin is ever before me, that is, without any interval the recollection and the very image of my error assault me. Consider how it confounds us, when we have committed some fault, how it assails our eyes, how it always returns to memory. He who is ashamed of what he has done does not afterward know how to commit anything similar, whereby he might blush likewise.

Section 4

Now iniquity precedes, sin follows. Iniquity is the root, and the fruit of the root is guilt. Whence it seems that iniquity refers to the wickedness of the mind, sin to the fall of the body. Iniquity, as the material of sins, is more grave; sin is lighter. Finally, iniquity is remitted through the laver, while sin is covered by good deeds, and, as it were, overshadowed by other works. Whence he himself says well above: Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. For charity hides error, and covers a multitude of sins. Great charity also remits even sins themselves, as it is written of the woman who poured ointment on the Lord: Many sins are forgiven her, because she loved much.

Section 5

There are also those who take the earlier verse as referring to the laver, and the second to penance. By this same grace also Peter, who had earlier been baptized, is questioned after he was seen to have denied the Lord: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? He said to him: Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee And again he is asked: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? And again he answered: Thou knowest that I love thee. And a third time he is asked: Simon, son of John, lovest thou me? And he was grieved, because he said to him the third time: Lovest thou me? And he said to him: Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. And it was said to him three times: Feed my sheep; follow me, as though he who had covered his sin with abundant charity.

Nor is it without purpose that after the confession of such abundant charity he is bidden to rule the people, he who, even when troubled, had not lost the capacity to rule himself likewise? These things we have said on account of the grace of charity, in that it covers sin. Finally, some have said that the threefold question of love was made because there had been a threefold denial; so that the confession of love, repeated as many times, might blot out the fall of the threefold denial.

Section 1

There follows: Against thee only have I sinned. He was indeed a king, himself bound by no laws, since kings are free from the bonds of offenses; for they are not called to punishment by any laws, being safe under the power of their rule. Therefore he did not sin against a man, to whom he was not held liable. But although safe by his rule, yet by devotion and faith he was subject to God; and knowing himself to be subject to his law, he could not deny his sin; but as a defendant, with bitterness he confessed, knowing that he was held by greater bonds because he owed more; since more is required of him to whom more has been entrusted. We can also understand it thus. Who shall judge me, since all are under sin? Finally, the Lord said of that adulteress: He that is without sin, let him first cast a stone at her. And no one stoned her.

This, then, is what the Prophet says: Against thee only have I sinned, who alone art without sin. But he who is himself liable to sin cannot judge another as a sinner. For every man is without excuse who condemns in another the very things he himself does; for in judging another he condemns himself. Against thee, he says, have I sinned, and done evil before thee; that thou mayest be justified in thy words, and mayest overcome when thou art judged. Against thee have I sinned, who didst call me to pursuits of virtue, who didst instruct me in thy law. Against thee only have I sinned, whom alone the hidden things of thought and the secrets of the mind do not deceive.

Section 2

And done evil before thee, whom alone holiness befits. We shun the testimony of man, and in thy sight commit things that are unworthy. It is an injury to man to behold shameful deeds. We know God to be the arbiter of all things, and yet with him as witness we sin: and nevertheless in these very things the Lord our God is rather justified; because our injustice commends the justice of God, and our falsehood celebrates the truth of God together with it. Let God be true, and every man a liar.

Section 3

That thou mayest be justified in thy words. The words of God are full of truth and justice, and therefore true are whatever things the Lord has spoken concerning human frailty, because the heart of men is inclined to wickedness, and prone to deceit; and because he has determined that there is no man who does not sin: for all have turned aside, and become unprofitable. Therefore he overcomes when he is judged, since by the fall of all he has proved true whatever he judged concerning our deceitfulness. Therefore if we say that we have committed iniquity, we justify God in his words: but if we say that we have not sinned, we make God a liar: but it is impossible for him to lie: therefore it is manifest that we are all under sin.

Section 4

How great a crime, then, is it for a man to deny that he is a sinner? For, so far as lies in himself, he seems to accuse and refute the falsehood of the most high God, who is so moderate and patient that he conquers when he is judged. For God comes to judgment and says: My people, what have I done to thee, or wherein have I grieved thee, or wherein have I been troublesome to thee? For I brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and delivered thee from the house of bondage, and I sent before thy face Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. My people, remember what Balak devised against thee He sets forth, one by one, his benefits before thy sight, so that thou mayest judge, as it were, concerning these things which thou oughtest to have kept, whereby thou mayest become the more guilty, thou who couldst not stand firm before the divine benefits. What have I done, He says, to thee? He makes Himself, as it were, the accused, and thee the judge.

Or wherein have I grieved thee? He does not deny the crime of an offended countenance, if thou hast been grieved by God its author. Or wherein have I been troublesome to thee? He confesses the wrong of an interruption, if it was reckoned too troublesome; He has added benefits, for which he who proved ungrateful did not blush. In this case also consider how the Lord offered Himself to be judged by David himself, that He might conquer; for Nathan says: Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul, and I gave thee all that was thy master's, and I gave his wives into thy bosom, and I gave thee the house of Israel itself; and if these things be too little, I will add unto thee. And why hast thou despised the Lord, to do evil in his sight?

Being confronted with the recollection of these things, when he saw that he was the lesser as he judged, he said: I have sinned against the Lord. Thus he justified the Lord, he who did not dare to deny his own sin.

Section 5

We may also understand it thus: he justifies the Lord who confesses his own sin. Indeed in the Gospel you have it that the publicans justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John. Now John the Baptist administered a baptism of repentance. But he who does penance does not deny his offenses. Therefore, since David always held his own offense before himself, he certainly was not denying that of which he was also ashamed, he was not denying that which he also acknowledged. By not denying, indeed, he was performing penance for the error committed; and thus, by confessing his offense, he justified the Lord, and he himself was justified by the Lord. For the Lord is justified when His justice is proclaimed, and pardon is sought from Him. At the same time He also justifies the one confessing, and is justified in his words, as it is written: Declare thy iniquities, that thou mayest be justified.

Section 1

There follows: For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother bear me. Who performs penance with such great feeling? He lay prostrate, dissolved in tears; he tasted no food; he denied himself the bath. What more shall I say of the rest, that he abstained from royal adornment and grooming? He added the confession of his own iniquity, and handed it down to be sung throughout the whole world for all ages to come. Behold, he says, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother bear me. Turn away thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Cast me not away from thy face, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation. Before we are born, we are stained by contagion; and before we take our first draught of the light, we already receive the injury of our very origin—we are conceived in iniquity: he did not express whether this refers to the parents or to ourselves.

And in sins each one's mother bears him: nor did he here declare whether the mother bears in her own sins, or whether there already are certain sins of the one being born. But see whether both are to be understood. Nor is the conception itself free from iniquity, since the parents too are not without lapse. And if not even an infant of a single day is without sin, much more are those days of the maternal conception not without sin. We are conceived, then, in the sin of our parents, and we are born in their offenses. But the birth itself also has its own contagions, nor does nature itself have only one contagion. Marriage indeed is good, the union holy; yet those who have wives should be as though they had them not. The very marriage bed is defiled: and no one ought to defraud the other of it, except perhaps for a time, that they may be free for prayer.

Yet according to the Apostle, one is not free for prayer at that time when one exercises the use of that bodily union, and the garment of a menstruating woman is polluted, nor can she in those days of her purification offer sacrifice. And the days of a woman's childbirth, and many other things besides, are exempt from sacrifice, until she is purified after birth according to the lawful rite.

Section 2

Therefore, in him in whom the Lord willed that there should be no such contagion of origin, the Lord says to him: Before I formed thee in the womb of thy mother, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee, and appointed thee a prophet unto the nations. Who is so great, to whom such great things were granted? Was it Jeremiah? But he was certainly not set forth as a prophet among the nations, but in Judea at that time; though now also among the nations, which have believed in Jesus Christ the Lord. See, however, whether this is not said of Him who, before He was born of the Virgin, already existed long before, and existed always, and was already working even while established in the womb of Mary; and was so holy that He sanctified His own prophets: in Him alone were both the virginal conception and the birth without any stain of mortal origin.

For it was fitting that He who was not to have in His body the sin of the fall should feel no natural contagion of generation. Rightly, then, did David tearfully lament in himself the very stains of nature, because in man the stain begins before life itself.

Section 1

While he says these things, and confesses the confluence of his particular and common sins, suddenly the splendor of truth and the brightness of spiritual grace shone upon him. For, having risen above the shadow, he saw with prophetic spirit the very mysteries of the heavenly sacraments, whose type Moses prefigured in the Law Wounded, then, by the wound of charity, and seized by the desire of tracking out truth, he stretched the gaze of his mind toward higher things, and looking forward into the future, he saw the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ, he foresaw the sacrament of baptism, and, marveling at the grace, suddenly cried out, saying: Behold, thou hast loved truth: the uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom hast thou made manifest to me. Not that the mysteries are uncertain, for they are certain; nor are the secrets and hidden things of wisdom uncertain, but rather not manifest. For this is what he signifies, that they had not yet been made manifest to any.

For what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man, this has God prepared for those who love him. Seeing these things, then, he says: Behold, now no longer in shadow, nor in figure, nor in type, but in truth the open light shines forth: behold, now I behold the truth, I recognize the splendor of truth: now I venerate thee, O Lord our God, with greater affection. Behold, thou hast loved truth—not through a glass, not in a riddle, but face to face hast thou shown thyself to me, O Christ; in thy sacraments I find thee. These are thy true sacraments of wisdom, by which the hidden things of the mind are cleansed.

Section 2

Therefore, now joyful and secure, because the fulness of wisdom had flashed upon him, he says to the Lord: Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed; thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow. Well does he neither annul the sacraments of the Old Testament, nor fail to teach that the Gospel mysteries are to be preferred; he asks to be cleansed with hyssop according to the Law; he longs to be washed according to the Gospel; and he reckons that, if he shall be washed, he will be made whiter than snow. By the bundle of hyssop one was sprinkled with the blood of the lamb, he who wished to be cleansed by the typical baptism. But he is washed who is cleansed by the irrigation of the eternal fountain; and he is made whiter than snow to whom guilt is forgiven. Indeed, of the soul itself it is said: Who is this that ascends made white?

Before she was baptized, she herself is the one who was saying: I am black and beautiful, O daughters of Jerusalem. For she was black, dark, disfigured by the horror of sins; but after she had been washed by baptism and had merited the remission of offenses, she ascended made white to Christ. Thence also, through Isaiah, the Lord spoke, saying: If your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow, that is, if they be bloody, if foul, I will cleanse them. This is the intelligible snow, of which he says that the garments of the Lord Jesus in the Gospel shone like snow; because he knew no sin. For the flesh with which He clothed Himself had been pure from every offense. Why do you marvel that he saw the sacraments of baptism, since he had already said above, where he described the passion of the Lord: The Lord feeds me, and I shall want nothing: in a green place he has set me, he has brought me up beside the water of refreshment.

And elsewhere: The voice of the Lord is upon the waters, the God of majesty has thundered. And of the sacrament itself he spoke more fully: Thou hast prepared a table before me, thou hast anointed my head with oil, and thy cup which inebriates, how excellent it is?

Section 1

Rightly, then, exulting here too, he says: To my hearing thou shalt give joy and gladness: and the humbled bones shall rejoice. Thou hast proved, O Lord Jesus, that thy words never pass away. Thou hast proved that saying of the Gospel which thou spoke: Many prophets and just men have desired to see the things which you see, and to hear the things which you hear. Behold, David rejoices at hearing alone, because there was to be a remission of sins; and he prophesies that the humbled bones shall rejoice. As all the bones of the just shall say: O Lord, who is like unto thee; so shall the humbled bones rejoice, namely of the just man who humbles his soul.

The bones, then, are said to be the virtues; the bones are said to be, as it were, certain motions of the mind, or of the soul, which motions are humbled by sins, and exult by the gift of heavenly grace: and the bones are also said to be the people of the Churches; whence you have it said also in the psalm: My substance is not hidden from thee, which thou madest in secret. He calls the Church his own substance, and the sacred assemblies of the devoted people; since we are members of Christ's body, of his flesh and of his bones. This, then, he says, because the Church of the Lord shall know all the divine works, and shall receive the faith of the resurrection.

Section 2

There follows: Turn away thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. It is a customary form of entreaty, that we ask those whom we have wronged to forget our own offense. Morally, then, the Prophet asks God to turn away His face from his sins, and, as it were, to assume an oblivion of his sins. But since He beholds all things, and nothing escapes Him, He cannot forget, as we do, from whom, after a brief interval of time, the memory of things we have known slips away. Therefore he rightly says that He should turn away His face—not from himself, lest he be destitute and fail—but from his sins, so that his sins may not be able to have force. For those whom the Lord beholds, He illumines, and in the countenance of the Lord there is mercy and indulgence. Wherefore he himself here says: From thy countenance let my judgment come forth, for from the countenance of the Lord pardon proceeds, not punishment.

He is to be asked, then, to look upon us, but to turn away His face from our sins, so that He may blot them out. For what He does not look upon, He blots out; and what He has blotted out is buried in oblivion, as the Lord Himself says: I am, I am He that blots out thy iniquities, and I will not remember them: but do thou remember, and let us be judged together.

Section 3

Now sin is either forgiven, or blotted out, or covered: it is forgiven through grace, blotted out through the blood of the cross, covered through charity. Likewise also iniquity, which is reckoned as the disposition of an unjust mind. Although John in his epistle says that he who commits sin also commits iniquity, as we have it written: Every one who commits sin commits also iniquity—sin is iniquity, because in sin itself there is iniquity; yet, as it seems to us, sin is the work of iniquity, whereas iniquity is the worker of guilt and offense. It is a greater thing, then, that iniquity itself be blotted out, that the root and seedbed of sins be cut away; let the evil root be removed, lest it produce evil fruits; let every disposition of error be abolished, let every kind of iniquity be taken away.

Section 4

And so, just as the discipline of wisdom, entering into the soul, removes imprudence, and knowledge removes ignorance: so perfect virtue removes iniquity, and the remission of sins blots out all sin. Whence the Apostle excellently says: Because the Lord Jesus has forgiven us our sins, blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, and, he says, he took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. By his blood he blotted out the ink-blot of Eve, he blotted out the bond of the inheritance under obligation. Faith therefore lessens sin. And therefore the Lord, in forgiving sins, said: Be it done unto thee according to thy faith.

Section 1

There follows: Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit within my bowels. Above he asked to be cleansed from his hidden faults; here he asks that a clean heart be created in him, which comes to one who is renewed in spirit: for in the new man the heart is clean, in which the filth of old offenses has been blotted out, nor does any imprint of iniquity remain inscribed. It is, moreover, a great gift, to be of clean heart. Whence Solomon beautifully says: Who shall boast that he has a chaste heart? And the Lord in the Gospel: Blessed are the clean of heart; for they shall see God. The prophet David also desired to have a clean heart, lest he be cast away from the face of the Lord.

Section 2

Now in him whose heart is clean, the spirit is renewed in his inward parts. For the bowels are the interior parts of the body: so also there are intelligible bowels of the soul, as there are the bowels of mercy, as there are the inward parts that bless the Lord, of which he says: Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. Now the bowels of the soul are the inventions of the senses, the pursuits of good thought, the perseverance of the virtues, and finally those things which in Greek are called εὐνομίαι.

Section 3

The right spirit, moreover, which directs well, which leads into the right way, is the spirit of truth; or certainly the right conscience of man, bent by no sins, or the spirit which is in man. We have not omitted what others think; yet it seems to us that the reading speaks of mysteries, and that the grace of the future renewal is being expressed, and the infusion of the Holy Spirit is being asked for.

Section 4

Then follows: Cast me not away from thy face; and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. If any of our little servants offends us, we are wont to turn our countenance away from him. Many of the rich, moreover, are accustomed to send their slaves away, and to relegate them to little farms, and this penalty is reckoned more severe. Indeed, they generally offer themselves more readily to stripes. If this is considered grave among men, how much more before the Lord our God. As though it were not from this that a parricidal grief burst forth (to be restrained indeed, if any piety could have tempered it), because God turned his face away from Cain's gifts; but he looked with favor upon the gifts of Abel. Thus, by his silent countenance, he pronounced the one innocent, the other a sinner. Therefore, like the lowest of servants, he humbles himself; and as one caught in sin and guilty of offense, he beseeches rather to be scourged than to be cast away from the face of the Lord.

Section 5

How God casts away from his face, hear him saying: Take him into the outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. He who is not amended is set in darkness away from his face. Therefore the just man, lest he suffer darkness, says: Thy face, O Lord, will I seek. For where the face of the Lord is, there is light, as it is written: Make thy face to shine upon thy servant. Finally, as soon as he looked upon Peter, he beheld him, and enlightened him.

Section 6

Great, therefore, is the punishment, to be cast away from the face of God. Adam was cast out when he went forth from paradise, and not undeservedly; for he himself had first hidden from the face of God. Cain too went out from the face of God, not only after the parricidal deed committed, but also after he thought God could be deceived, so as to deny the crime. The sinner, then, is excluded from the face of God: but the just man says: Here I am. Finally David himself, when he saw the plague coming upon the people, offered himself, saying: I have sinned, and I the shepherd have done wickedly: and thus the wrath of the Lord was mitigated, and pardon was granted.

Section 7

At the same time he shows that the saints remain, the guilty are cast away. And therefore we must guard the spiritual grace, lest it be taken from us because of our sins. For he in whom the Holy Spirit is, is not cast away: but with the fruit of his gift undamaged, he strives always to offer himself to the Lord, as did that one who, when the Lord said, Will you also go away, answered: Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we believe.

Section 8

At the same time this is to be considered, that the Spirit is not taken away except by the will of the Lord; just as he is not given except by the will of the Lord: who, indeed, when given, does not operate as though compelled, but is distributed according to his own will, as it is written, the Apostle saying: But all these things one and the same Spirit works, dividing to each as he wills. Since, therefore, he is not taken away except by the will of the Lord, it appears that the will of the Trinity is one.

Section 1

Restore to me the joy of thy salvation: and strengthen me with a governing spirit. To whom it is owed, and it is restored: joy of salvation is restored to the rational nature. Now joy and gladness are the fruit of the Spirit. Our stability, too, is the governing spirit. Indeed, he who is strengthened by the governing spirit is not subject to servitude, knows not how to serve sin, knows not how to be limited, knows not how to err, nor wavers uncertain in his purpose; but, firmly set upon the rock, is established with a solid footing.

Section 2

Whom do we suppose is called the governing spirit? Many refer the right spirit to the Lord Jesus, who took away the sin of the world, and renewed the whole race of men by the shedding of his blood; and therefore it is said: Renew a right spirit within my bowels: but the Holy Spirit, of whom he says: Take not thy Spirit from me, they understand as the Spirit of truth: the holy governing Spirit, however, they think to be God the Father. How morally, moreover, he says: Cast me not away from thy face. Faithfully he fears lest the grace he has received be taken from him; and therefore elsewhere he says: My eyes are ever toward the Lord. And further on: Behold, as the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, and as the eyes of the handmaid are on the hands of her mistress: so are our eyes toward the Lord our God, until he have mercy on us.

Surely this is the Spirit, teacher and prince, who rules the mind, strengthens the affection, draws it whither he will, and directs it to a higher life.

Section 3

There are also those who take it to mean the spirit of man, which is in him. Hence the Apostle says: For who among men knows the things of a man, but the spirit of man which is in him? He who can know all things, whom the hidden things of man do not deceive, can hold in man the governing place.

Section 1

There follows: I will teach the unjust thy ways, and the impious shall be converted to thee. That is the chief pilot, who steers his ship on a rocky coast: that is the good teacher, who sharpens the harder minds toward the progress of learning: that is the excellent warrior, the admirable leader, who kindles the more timid to battle, and, having explored the character of the terrain, supports them, so that he may compensate for the weakness of their strength by the opportunity of position: so likewise is he a great zealot of the faith, who teaches the unjust. Whence he beautifully says: I will teach the unjust. He did not say: I will teach the just; for the just already know the ways of the Lord: but, the unjust, he says, I will teach. Finally, the author and teacher of prudence of all things says: I came not to call the just, but sinners. And that heavenly physician: The physician is not needed, he says, by those who are well, but by those who are sick.

Section 2

Whether therefore in the person of him who called the Gentiles, or in his own person, he well set down: I will teach the unjust thy ways; because vicious affections can be changed, and heavenly doctrine can convert a purpose, and divine working can pour the pursuits of piety into sacrilegious breasts; so that those who lived without the law might be converted to the true Lord, from whom they were formerly turned away: also, by the example of the king's repentance, those who practice iniquities and bitter crimes might be corrected; and, converted by faith and works, might receive the remedy of saving doctrine, might enter the ways of the Lord, in which no windings of error, no byways of headlong falling, offend them.

For just as the pattern of a good life and the model of virtue is found in those men who have passed through their lifetime without offense: so those who, renouncing former crimes or errors of unbelief, have amended the course of their later years, are set forth as models to be imitated by those who fall either in deed or in thought.

Section 3

There follows: Deliver me from bloods, O God, God of my salvation. This can also be referred to the death of Uriah, that, conscious of his commanded death, he asks pardon for so great an offense, and though a king exempt from the laws, is yet guilty before his own conscience; wishing to be freed from these bonds, he prays for divine help, that he might be cleansed from all the stain of the crime committed. And indeed, since the holy Prophet, mild and meek of heart, always gave excellent tokens of his gentleness and piety, so that he frequently forgave his adversaries, and thought he ought to abstain from their death; it is no wonder that he grieves so gravely that the sin of shedding innocent blood crept upon him. Therefore he asked to be delivered from bloods, that is, from mortal sins. He praised the Lord his God, he proclaimed the justice of the Lord; and therefore he added: My tongue shall exult in thy justice.

Section 1

O Lord, thou wilt open my lips, and my mouth shall declare thy praise. He who praises the Lord shall be safe from his enemies, as it is written. And indeed above he had said, in the forty-ninth psalm: But to the sinner God said: Why dost thou declare my justices? Since, therefore, by his own mouth he had said that God forbids the sinner to declare his justices, surely by declaring the justice of God himself, he made clear that this offense committed was in no way imputed to him as sin.

Section 2

And he added: Thou wilt open my lips, and my mouth shall declare thy praise. God closes the mouth of the sinner, that he may not speak the justices of God; he opens that of the just, that he may speak. Whose lips, therefore, he opens, this one he absolves from the guilt of sin. But the Lord opens the lips of him who receives the word at the opening of his mouth. Whence the Apostle also asks to be aided by the prayers of the people, that a door of speech might be opened to him for speaking the mystery of Christ. The tongue, moreover, we take to mean the speech of him who exults in the praises of God. Whence also that is understood thus: My tongue is the pen of a scribe writing swiftly, speech infused into the Prophet.

Section 3

But if we take this as said in the person of Christ, see whether the scribe writing swiftly is not the Word of God, which runs through and penetrates the bowels of the soul, and inscribes in it either the gifts of nature or of grace: and the tongue is that holy body, born of the Virgin, by which the poisons of the serpent were emptied out, and the works of the Gospel were carried out to be celebrated throughout the whole world. It contributes to the emptying out of sin, that he took up humility; he crushed his own heart, which sacrifice the Lord chose rather than the holocausts for sins, which used to be offered according to the Law.

Finally, above he says: Holocausts and sin-offerings thou didst not require, then said I: Behold, I come, that is, not thinking it robbery to be equal with God, I come taking the form of a servant; I come in the appearance of human assumption, in the truth of the cross, to prove obedience by the humility of death; that in obedience it might be blotted out.

Section 4

Rightly, therefore, he also says here: For if thou hadst desired sacrifice, I would surely have given it: with holocausts thou wilt not be delighted. A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit: a contrite and humbled heart God does not despise. And as I said above, it is certain that it agrees with the mystery that the Lord Jesus himself appears here too to be speaking in his own person, he who above set forth that clear testimony belonging to his own person. For he is the true David, mighty in hand, truly humble, and meek, first and last, first in eternity, last in humility: through whose obedience the guilt of the human race was blotted out, and justice restored. He, I say, Jesus, the end of the shadow and of the Law, came as teacher of humility, to teach the proud in mind, and those puffed up with pride of heart, that they must pass over to meekness and simplicity.

How, then, can sin be imputed in the type of this mystery, when in the mystery itself is the remission of sins? Unless perhaps David confessed his own iniquity and the sin of that offense committed for this reason: that he too might belong to the remission of sin, and to the grace of the mystery.

Section 5

For what does it mean that a man, confessing his sin, sings a psalm about Sion and Jerusalem, saying: Do good, O Lord, in thy good will to Sion, that the walls of Jerusalem may be built; except that it pleases him that the gathering of the Church through the calling of the nations be hastened; a Church which, not of the handmaid's son but of the free Jerusalem's, that one which is in heaven, might spread the offspring of its faith throughout the whole world, and might establish the enclosures of spiritual walls by the assertion of apostolic teaching?

Section 6

The walls of Jerusalem, then, are the bulwarks of faith, the fortifications of disputations, the pinnacles of the virtues; the walls of Jerusalem are the assemblies of the Churches founded throughout the whole world. For the Church says: I am a wall, and my breasts are as a tower. And rightly are the walls of Jerusalem the assemblies of the Churches; since whoever enters the Church in good faith and works, let him be a citizen and dweller of that heavenly city which comes down from heaven. These walls the structure of living stones builds.

Section 7

Seeing therefore the true Jerusalem and Sion, he said: When thou shalt have blessed Jerusalem and Sion in thy good will, then shalt thou accept the sacrifice of justice, that is, the sacrifice of the body of Christ, who says, when speaking of his own passion: Open to me the gates of justice, and entering into them I will confess to the Lord. And in the Gospel he says to John: Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all justice. And below: Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake. Christ is justice. He affirms therefore that the sacrifice of Christ will be acceptable to the Father. This, then, is what he also said above: Sacrifice the sacrifice of justice, and hope in the Lord.

This is the spiritual oblation of justice, and the holocaust of fervent devotion, and of the infusion of the Holy Spirit, which he says shall come to pass when the souls of believers shall begin to be brought near to that spiritual altar of the Lord, souls which, renouncing pleasures and delights, draw, as it were, the plough within their own inward parts, that they may be able to bear the fruits of pious cultivation.

Section 8

Or certainly thus: When thou shalt have blessed the Church acquired from the nations, and the spiritual sacrifice of justice shall have begun to be frequented, then also the holy martyrs, who offered their own body for Christ to be furrowed, shall be offered like calves upon the sacred altars; even as we find it written in the Apocalypse of John, that under the altar were the souls of those who, for the name of the Lord Jesus, offered their bodies in martyrdom, that they might purchase for themselves the grace of Christ: to whom be honor and glory, praise, perpetuity with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ages, both now and always, and unto all ages of ages. Amen.