Expositions on Twelve Psalms

Since God has set before virtue as its highest incentive the delight of future blessedness, the devil too has devised, as a violent goad to error, delight. Adam, the first of the human race, offers proof of both purposes, having been placed by the Lord God in the paradise of pleasure, that he might enjoy eternal delight, so as to provoke his future offspring to virtue. Nor was it unknown to God that he would give occasion to error, and that for the rest there ought to be set before them the hope of salvation, by which they might strive to be restored to the seat snatched away from the human race. And this same man, through the form of the serpent, which prefigured the enticement of delight, was deceived by his wife's persuasion. Taking occasion, therefore, the adversary wrought death in me through delight.

And so that which had been bestowed by divine grace unto life became for me unto death, and the enemy found the easier assent of man for this, for he held out to his fall the appearance of nature. For his own works delighted the Lord: the first beginnings of nature delighted him, which the Lord, beholding, said: Very good.

The angels praise the Lord, the Powers of the heavens sing psalms to him, and before the very beginning of the world the Cherubim and Seraphim with the sweetness of their tuneful voice say: Holy, holy, holy. Countless thousands of angels stand by, and elders and a great multitude, like the voices of many waters, sing together Alleluia. A more express account holds that the very axis of heaven is carried about with a certain sweetness of perpetual harmony, so that its sound might be heard in the farthest parts of the earth, where there are certain secrets of nature. Nor does this seem alien to the custom of nature, since a voice sent forth resounds with more pleasing applause from the groves or mountains, and gives back what it received with a sweeter sound. In the very crags and stones too nature finds something to delight. The sight of some things delights, the use or the grace of others. Wild beasts themselves, and birds, are soothed by the delight of a pleasanter place or the modulation of voice.

Even nursing infants are terrified by severity, or delighted by caresses. Delight, therefore, is natural.

Whence also holy David, who perceived whence man came and by what fraud he had been cast down (for if he had kept the grace of that eternal and heavenly delight infused into him by the Lord, and had not, captivated by worldly enticements, lost it, he would never have undergone the injuries of so pitiable a distress), striving therefore to repair and restore it by the office of psalm-singing, established for us a kind of heavenly manner of life.

For although all divine Scripture breathes the grace of God, yet especially the sweet book of the Psalms; since even Moses himself, who described the deeds of the forefathers in plain speech, when he had led the people of the fathers through the Red Sea with memorable wonder, seeing King Pharaoh submerged with his forces, raising his mind to greater things (because he had attained things beyond his powers), sang a triumphal song to the Lord. Mary also, taking a timbrel, exhorted the others, saying: Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously honored; the horse and its rider he has cast into the sea. Moses himself too, when he had read the Law of the Lord, in order to fix its memory in the hearts of his hearers, spoke through a song, saying: Give ear, O heaven, and I will speak; let my speech be awaited like the rain, and let my words descend like the dew, like a shower upon the grass, like snow upon the hay.

God is delighted, therefore, by a song not only being praised but also being reconciled.

Hence Moses too used a song then especially, when he called heaven and earth to witness, that the world might the more eagerly hear his salvation sounding forth with the tone of heavenly grace, and that by the sweetness of sacred delight the observance of the Law might grow into human minds forever. In fact, before the tablets of the Law were confirmed by a song, they were broken and shattered through the indignation of Moses. But when they were consecrated with such a seal, human anger found no place, because their sanctification excluded it by sacred sweetness. So the song of the Lord descends from heaven like a softer dew, and pours the faith of men, like grass, with a shower of spiritual grace. These two songs, then, in the books of Moses, like two eyes of the world and lights of heaven, illuminate the whole body of his work.

But David was chiefly chosen by the Lord for this office; that what appears rare and outstanding above the rest of the work in others might shine forth continual and unbroken in him.

We read one song in the book of Judges, the rest run on in the manner of history, by which the deeds of the forefathers are expressed. Isaiah wrote one song, by which he might soothe the hearts of his readers; in the rest he thundered with the terrible trumpet of rebuke. Not even his enemies themselves, who persecuted him even to death on account of his other sayings, could object to him a song. Daniel wrote one, Habakkuk one. Solomon himself, David's son, though he is said to have sung innumerable songs, left behind one which the Church has received, the Song of Songs. In the others, then, one may observe single instances.

History instructs, the Law teaches, prophecy announces, rebuke chastises, moral teaching persuades: in the book of Psalms there is the profit of all these, and a certain medicine of human salvation. Whoever reads it has that by which he may cure the wounds of his own passion with a remedy suited specifically to him. Whoever wishes to look, as in a common gymnasium of souls, and in a certain stadium of virtues, finding various kinds of contests set out ready, let him choose for himself that to which he feels himself better suited, so that he may more easily arrive at the crown. If anyone is eager to review the deeds of the forefathers and wishes to imitate them, within one psalm he receives the whole series of ancestral history comprised, so that he may acquire a treasure of memory by the compendium of a single reading. Things are also easier when they are explained more briefly.

Note too what depth there is in this, that within a brief space it has distinguished the adversities of offense, and woven in afterward the good fortunes of reconciliation, so that you might know at once how much harm unbelief does, and how much ready faith confers. If anyone examines the force of the Law, which is wholly bound in the bond of charity (for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the Law), let him read in the Psalms with what affection of love, to repel the reproach of the whole people, he alone exposed himself to grave dangers—in which he will recognize a glory of charity not unequal in the triumph of virtue. If anyone dreads the savagery of rebukes, let him hear him saying: O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor chastise me in your wrath; and let him learn how he ought to temper the censure of an angry judge.

If anyone longs to know an example of patience, let him read in the Psalms: If I have repaid with evils those who repaid me; and let him note that in spirit he foresaw the Gospel precept, and in virtue anticipated it. You have, then, that proverb: For a gentle man is a physician of the heart. If, moreover, anyone wishes to be fortified against the assaults of the spirit of wickedness, what more should he know than that he must sing psalms? David sang psalms while yet quite young, and put to flight the wicked spirit of Saul, which had before gripped him.

But what shall I say of the power of prophecy?

What others announced through enigmas seems to have been promised to him alone plainly and openly, that the Lord Jesus should be born of his seed, as the Lord said to him: Of the fruit of your womb I will set upon your throne. In the Psalms, then, not only is Jesus born for us, but he also undergoes that saving passion of the body, rests, rises again, ascends into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father. What no man had presumed to say, this prophet alone announced, and afterward the Lord himself proclaimed it in the Gospel.

All the other writers of the Scriptures, moreover, placed in their writings examples, or certain sayings of their predecessors: the Psalms contain nothing except what is their own. What, then, is more pleasing than a psalm? Whence David himself beautifully says: Praise, he says, for a psalm is good: to our God let praise be pleasant and comely. And truly; for a psalm is the blessing of the people, the praise of God, the commendation of the people, the applause of all, the speech of everyone, the voice of the Church, the tuneful confession of faith, devotion full of authority, the joy of freedom, the cry of gladness, the resounding echo of joy. It softens anger, renounces anxiety, lightens sorrow. It is nightly armor, daily teaching; a shield in fear, a festival in holiness, an image of tranquility, a pledge of peace and concord, in the manner of a lyre expressing from diverse and unequal voices one melody.

The rising of the day resounds with a psalm, the setting of the day echoes with a psalm.

Women the Apostle bids be silent in the Church: yet they too cry out well in a psalm; this is sweet to every age, this is fitting to both sexes. This the old sing, having laid aside the rigor of old age; this sad veterans respond in the joy of their heart; this young men sing without the envy of wantonness; this adolescents sing together without the danger and temptation of a slippery age and of pleasure; young women themselves sing psalms without loss of matronly modesty; little girls, without any slipping of modesty, with the sobriety of gravity, modulate a hymn to God with the sweetness of a supple voice. This childhood is glad to hold, this infancy delights to ponder, which declines to learn other things. This is a kind of game that yields greater profit of learning than when serious discipline is imparted.

How much labor is spent in the Church that silence be kept, when the readings are read?

If one speaks, all cry out against him; when a psalm is read, it is itself the maker of its own silence. All speak, and none cries out against another. Kings sing a psalm without the arrogance of power. In this ministry David rejoiced to be seen. A psalm is sung by emperors, shouted for joy by peoples. Each one strives to proclaim aloud what profits all. At home a psalm is sung, abroad it is repeated. It is grasped without labor, kept with delight; a psalm joins the discordant, unites the estranged, reconciles the offended. For who would not forgive one with whom he has sent up one voice to God? Truly a great bond of unity, that the whole number of the people come together into one choir! The strings of a lyre are unlike, but there is one harmony.

In very few strings the fingers of the artist often err; but in the people the artist Spirit knows not how to err.

A psalm is the exchange of nightly labor, the wage of daily rest, the instruction of beginners, the confirmation of the perfect. It is the ministry of angels, the warfare of heaven, a spiritual sacrifice. Even rocks respond to a psalm: a psalm is sung, and even stony hearts themselves are softened. We see the very hardened weep, the merciless bend.

In a psalm doctrine and grace vie together at once.

It is sung for delight, it is learned for instruction. For things taught by force do not endure; but what you have received with sweetness does not tend to slip once instilled from the heart. What is there that does not meet you when reading the Psalms? In these I read a Song for the beloved, and I am kindled with desire of sacred charity; in these I recognize the wine-presses of the divine mystery; in these I review the grace of revelations, the testimonies of the resurrection, I number the promises; in these I learn to avoid sin, I unlearn to blush at repentance of my offenses. So great a king, so great a prophet has provoked me by his example, to strive either to lessen the sin committed, or to beware of committing what has not been committed.

What, then, is a psalm, but an instrument of the virtues, which the venerable prophet, striking with the plectrum of the Holy Spirit, made a heavenly sound resound in sweetness upon earth? At the same time, as he modulated on the strings and chords—that is, on the dead remains of various voices—the distinctions of pitches, directing toward heavenly things the song of divine praise; he taught us, indeed, that we must first die to sin, and only then, in this body, the various works of the virtues must be distinguished, by which the grace of our devotion might arrive at the Lord; so that, with the mind occupied in intent upon heavenly things, no lust of earthly vices might creep in, and the soul at once might grow bright with the sweetness of heavenly grace. Rightly, then, the Lord, praising the minister of so great an office, said: I have found David according to my own heart.

They say too that among those who play the harp, the more skilled play within, as the tales tell of Aspendius the harpist; and that the causes of the modulations, and certain enclosures of the rhythms, are in the upper part of the psaltery. David, then, taught that we ought to sing within, to make music within, just as Paul also sang, saying: I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the understanding; I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the understanding, and to form our life and actions with regard to the higher things, lest the delight of sweetness stir up the passions of the body, by which our soul is not redeemed but weighed down; since the holy prophet recorded that he sang for the redemption of his own soul, saying: I will sing to you on the harp, O Holy One of Israel: my lips will rejoice when I sing to you; and my soul, which you have redeemed.

But now let us enter upon the beginning of this psalm which has been set before us.

Blessed, he says, is the man who has not gone in the counsel of the impious.

How fitting, how opportune a beginning! For just as those who are about to celebrate some solemn contest are wont to set forth beforehand the prize, and to proclaim the nobility of the crown, so that competitors may assemble with greater zeal and strive with a more eager effort: so our Lord Jesus set before us, as incentives to human virtue, the glory of the heavenly kingdom, the grace of perpetual rest, the blessedness of eternal life. An emperor too, when he goes forth to war, promises the soldier a donative, and promotions of rank among the military ranks; so that the hope of advantage may steal away the toils, and hide the fear of danger.

As it were, then, the herald of the great Emperor, holy David exhorts the soldiers, calls them athletes, sets forth the prize, saying: Blessed is the man who has not gone in the counsel of the impious. He began from the prize, that he might lighten the weight of the coming contest; he set the reward in front, so that each one, leaping over in heart the anxieties and toils of present things, might strive with eager haste to earn the blessedness of things to come. Blessed, he says, is the man. What greater thing could be given to man, than that beyond which nothing greater could, by apostolic authority, be attributed to God? For God is called blessed, and alone powerful, and King of kings, and Lord of lords. He alone is powerful, He the King of kings, He the Lord of lords; yet He does not go beyond the power of blessedness. He has granted to us common fellowship in that appellation of His, which has been judged worthy of divine honor.

Let us now consider for what reason he said, Blessed is the man, and not rather, blessed are men, since both sexes are called to grace. Has he excluded women from the fellowship of blessedness

because he named only "man" as blessed? Far from it; for neither did God exclude women from the fellowship of creation, because He made man first. For God said: Let us make man according to our image and according to our likeness [lacuna] And God made man, it says; He made him in the image of God; male and female He made them. In "man" both are signified: in "male" the sex is expressed. But just as when "man" is said, both are comprehended, so when "male" is named, the woman also, whose husband he is, is understood. Finally, it says: She shall be called woman, because she was taken from her husband. Add to this, that since the nature of both is the same, their operations certainly cannot be separate; and since their work is equal, their reward too is certainly equal.

Therefore Scripture, by saying "man" (vir), has not omitted the partner of the union, just as by saying "human being" (homo) it did not pass over in silence the partner of nature. Thus, just as there we read that "man" was made, and although it is one nature, we cannot deny that the principal sex was created first: so also here, when we read "man" (vir), from the principal portion we recognize the equal sex as well. Equal, therefore, are the pursuits of virtue, because the prerogative of creation is equal. But why should you raise the question of sex, where the contests demanded of you are not of the body, but of the soul, which has no sex? Do not, then, distinguish honor there, or divide the reward, where sex is not distinguished. Yet it is not without care that he who was later to fall is called first to the exercise. She who began badly ought to follow, not to lead, so that, after the experience, she might at least be more modest.

Eve wrongly overstepped the order of nature; she ought to have waited for the one who preceded her.

The serpent cunningly began with the latter; therefore the Prophet returns to the former, to him, at any rate, who would not have fallen had he not followed the latter.

Finally, he called us back from the fall before he summoned us to the palm of victory.

Blessed, he says, is the man who has not gone in the counsel of the impious. See, O man, in what respect you are called blessed: not in riches, not in powers and honors, not in nobility of birth, or comeliness and beauty, not in bodily health, in which things there is nothing naturally good; indeed, they not only easily change into their opposites, but even furnish occasion for fault to one who does not know how to use them. For who is just because of money? Who humble in positions of power? Who merciful because of nobility? Who chaste because of comeliness? These things are more alluring toward sin than fruitful for the advance of virtue.

What, then, does he mean by preferring to say: has not gone, and has not stood, as it were in the past tense; when he could have said: Blessed is the man who does not go in the counsel of the impious, and does not stand in the way of sinners, and does not sit in the seat of pestilence? See the doctrine; for one is not immediately blessed who is not impious or a sinner, because of the uncertainty of the outcome. For it is not written in vain: Before death praise no one. Therefore, while anyone is in this life, he cannot be praised with a definitive proclamation, since he can still lie open to error; but he who has closed his life without offense is rightly reckoned worthy of the appellation "blessed," who enjoys the fellowship of the blessed.

But perhaps you will say: For what reason then did he say elsewhere: Blessed is he who understands concerning the needy and the poor?

For he did not say blessed is he who has understood, but he who understands; because those who do good find, in the very deed, that by which they are proven, obtaining their reward in the very work itself. Since indeed the fruit of a blessed conscience is a good deed done. But those who abstain from evil are not blessed immediately if they have avoided fault once or twice; but if they have been able to escape the contagion of fault throughout the whole time of their life.

Now this occurs to us: why did he prefer to call blessed, not him who has performed some office of piety, but him who has abstained from the counsel of the impious? For it would seem that he who has fulfilled the duty of virtue is more to be praised than he who has merely avoided sin. Since indeed neither ox, nor horse, nor stone is accustomed to be in sin, or to sit in the seat of pestilence. But those things do not have the fruit of blessedness which do not have the sense of virtue. For how do things attain to the reward of the law which do not have the desire of following the law? Of rational beings, therefore, I see the proposed sentence to be spoken, that is, of us. But for us the beginning of good things is abstinence from sins; since we read: Turn away from evil, and do good.

For this is the order of discipline, that you should press on from lower things to more perfect ones; lest you be terrified by the weight of greater things, when you ought to be encouraged by the beginning of lighter ones. For Scripture teaches us that the ascent of piety is like a ladder, by which holy Jacob, a man of exercise, saw the angels of the Lord ascending and descending; who has been set before us, that through him we might learn that we ought to advance the degree of virtue little by little; and that thus we can strive from the lowest to the highest, if through small steps of progress we reach those things which seem higher than human nature. Always hold this ladder before you. Do not fear, O man, to ascend these steps of discipline. The first step is near the earth, the next resembles the former. Thus, through equal steps, one climbs to the heights. Do not disdain, O man, that first step as though it were the vilest.

That first ascent separates you from the earth; you tread the air, when you have lifted your foot from the ground.

Placed in virtue, by rising you have left the earth; you leave the earth, if you decline from fault. The beginning, therefore, of the progression toward virtue is to abstain from sin.

But that we may know that this discipline belongs to teaching, hear the Law saying: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit murder; for these precepts seemed suitable to the imperfect. Finally, the Lord Jesus Himself, knowing him to be imperfect who asked Him by what works he might attain to eternal life, answered him: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit murder, you shall not steal. Then, when he said that he had done all these things, He added more perfect things, saying: Sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven. And He taught that there is so great a distance between the avoidance of evils and the imitation of good things, that he refused these latter, who judged the former easy for himself. But because he had not even ascended to the former, therefore he could not fit himself to the latter. For if he had loved his neighbor, he could not have refused the poor a share of his patrimony.

Therefore ascend the first step of the Law, that you may be able to reach the heavenly summit of the Gospel. Whence I judge that, as though placed under the Law, following the manner of the Law in the first psalm, the holy Prophet, speaking in his own person, announces rather things to be avoided than proposes things to be followed. But in the fortieth psalm, which is inscribed as from the person of the Savior, there is rather an exhortation to virtue than a suppression of error; for it speaks of the Passion of the Savior. And therefore the Dispenser of the Gospel also, as we may reckon, when we hear Him saying: Blessed are the merciful, both in the psalm of His own Passion and in the Gospel crowned mercy. But let us now approach the exposition of the psalm, and behold the Prophetic virtue.

Blessed, he says, is the man who has not gone in the counsel of the impious, and has not stood in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the seat of pestilence. We may say that there are three species of sins which we think are here expressed: of thought, of action, of persistence; and that he is signified as blessed who has not even thought what is evil. For how can he be blessed who is to be convicted at the judgment day by the accusation of his own thoughts? Even if he has deceived man, has fled the witness, has evaded the accuser, still he will not be able to avoid the accuser within himself, whom he ought most to fear; because he will have both an accuser and a confessing culprit. Blessed, therefore, is he who has not thought what is evil, and has not performed sin (because sometimes we sin even without thought; for we do not escape sin from much speaking), and has not persisted in sin.

Or thus: he who has not thought what pertained to error, or has not stood in that thought, or at least has not persisted in those thoughts which he perceived to be full of error. But whether these things fit rightly, let the reader judge. For he who has once thought evil ought not to have stood in it, nor to have persisted. But even if he did not persist, he could not be blessed; because he stood in that which he wickedly thought. And even if he did not stand, yet by the very fact that he thought evil, whether he has the fruit of blessedness is a question that requires some lenient interpreter. Finally, since no one can say he has a clean heart, granted that the thought be pardonable, is the performance of sin also pardonable? Finally, if the standing be pardonable, is it also full of blessedness, because he did not persist in the crime? Then he who has not thought what is wicked, how could he stand in sin, or persist?

That he may be blessed who has rightly kept these three things, certainly the order is different.

For the first is, that he has not persisted in sin; the second, that he has not stood in it; the third, that he has not thought what pertained to error. For he who has not persisted could nevertheless have stood; he who has not stood could have thought; but he who has not even thought is truly blessed.

Whence I have thought that another tradition too should not be passed over, whereby we may affirm that the three degrees were made in the right order; so that he who wishes to be blessed may not go in the counsel of the impious, that is, may not walk in their thoughts; then may not stand in the way of sinners; third, may not sit in the seat of pestilence. You, therefore, who have been made a Christian in the Church, or who are striving toward grace, abstain from the counsels of the impious, so that you may be able to say: Do not destroy my soul with the impious, O God, nor my life with men of blood. And do not think what is impious. What is that, but what is devised to the injury of God? For piety is first toward God, second toward parents. And indeed the enemy frequently insinuates various things into our minds: and therefore the Prophet cautiously judged that thoughts rather than unforeseen infusions ought to be held liable to crime.

Have you then abstained from the counsels of the impious?

Rightly; yet you are not thereby immediately blessed. Take heed also lest you stand in the way of sinners.

With how great a scrutiny are the words of divine Scripture set forth!

For since we are all under sin, it does not require of you that which is beyond nature, that you should not sin; for not even an infant of one day is without sin; but that you should not remain in sin as in a kind of prolonged station. Not all are impious; therefore you are recalled from all the thoughts and conspiracies of the impious; but all are sinners; therefore you are admonished to cease from sinning. If there has been a fall of the more youthful age, the maturity that comes with the passing years ought to amend it. Therefore do not proceed into graver things, and do not stand still in lighter ones. You have this also said in Isaiah by the Lord: Go forth from Babylon, fleeing from the Chaldeans: that is, even if you have entered into the confusion of vices, go forth.

It was not fitting that you should enter; but having entered, compelled by the law of the flesh, and being held captive by you in the law of sin, go forth, depart even though late, strip off from yourself the heavy servitude. You could not help but enter into sin through frailty: it is granted to you to go forth from sin through sobriety. Go forth, then, from Babylon, fleeing from the Chaldeans. Babylon is confusion, which does not keep the order of virtues; for, our mind confused by allurements, we transgress. The Chaldeans are those who, with vain zeal of superstition, explore the courses of the stars, and impiously search out the errors of the gentiles. Flee from these, lest they seize you, lest they entangle you in the heavy snare of captivity. Abraham was a Chaldean, but he fled from the Chaldeans, and this before the Law; you were born under the Law, flee from the impious.

He rejected the inheritance of his fathers, that he might possess that of faith; do you abandon the succession of the body, and acquire the inheritance of devotion.

But if you have not stood in sin, not even so are you yet blessed; there is still something you must lack.

Many are the allurements, many the deviations from virtue: grievous are the incitements of pleasures, grievous the tinder of avarice, the cupidity of powers, the ambition for honor, which, as it were by a certain poison, contaminate the minds of men, and, by a certain pestilential decay of vices, taint their souls. This is the seat of pestilence upon which the Scribes and Pharisees sat, who impose heavy burdens upon men, but themselves are unwilling to move them with a finger. These seats the Savior cast out of the temple—the seats of those who boasted of honor, who sought the primacy of dignities; of those who used the priesthood or the primacy of honor for gain; of those who, indulging the belly, kept by no means the due watch of continence. This is the true pestilence. Indeed, the sons of Eli were sons of pestilence.

In this, as it were, seat of vices, Scripture forbids us to bend the neck, and to recline the strength of the whole body. Attend, therefore, to the particulars.

And has not stood in the way of sinners, nor sat in the seat of pestilence.

That the course of this life is called a way admits of no doubt; since Scripture itself says: In this way in which I walked, they have hidden a snare for me. And: Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are with him in the way. For since we run the course of this life, we have a path along which we walk daily, until we arrive at the end. Even if we do not seem to go bodily, we advance. For just as those sleeping in ships are carried by the winds into port; and though those at rest have no sense of sailing, yet the course urges them toward the end and drives them on unaware: so, as the space of our life flows away, each one is led, by a hidden course, to his own end.

Whence it is said: Rise, you who sleep; for you sleep, and your time walks on; and take heed lest, while you sleep long, the time pass by.

Therefore, even if you sleep, let your heart keep watch, let your heart not take a holiday; if the heart is not idle, your times are not idle. You are on the way, O man, walk that you may arrive; let not night overtake you on the way, let not the day of life be consumed before you hasten the advance of virtue. You are a traveler of this life; all things pass, all things happen behind you. All things in this way you behold, and pass by. You have seen the pleasantness of trees, the greenness of grasses, the purity of springs, and whatever else of this sort delights the eyes; it was pleasant to look, it delighted for a little to attend; while you attended, you had already passed by.

Again, while walking, you have come upon a rocky and broken path, the hollows of cliffs, the precipices of mountains, the density of forests.

You were wearied a little, again you have passed on. Such is this life, whose prosperous things do not remain, nor its adverse things endure long. Therefore, as one placed on a road, let neither good fortune elate you, nor adversity break you, nor pleasing things delay you, nor sorrowful things detain you. Hasten always toward the end, hasten that you may arrive. Choose, however, the way before you run.

There are two ways: one of the just, the other of sinners: one of equity, the other of iniquity, of which the Prophet said: And see if the way of iniquity is in me.

Therefore not only is our life a way, but also in our very life itself there is either the way of virtue or the way of iniquity. Take care, then, that avarice does not plant its steps in you, and that you do not become a way of crime; nor wickedness, nor lust, and that you do not become a way of iniquity, worn down by the vices of travelers. It is permitted you to choose whom you will follow, either the just or the unjust. The way of the just is the narrower, that of the unjust the broader: the former of sobriety is narrower, the latter of drunkenness is broader, so that it may hold those who waver; the latter has the allurements of this world, the former has the rewards of things to come.

In the latter the fruit is more present, in the former the hope is slower; for the things that are sweet do not defer a long waiting but have an immediate enjoyment; but that which is serious is sought with labor, because it is scarcely grasped by a blessed thought; for eye has not seen, nor ear heard, the things God has prepared for those who love him. We are accustomed to believe with difficulty the things we do not see: and therefore the soul seethes, and carries its thoughts hither and thither as it were certain eyes. Then diverse appearances of things meet it, and pour themselves upon it. If it looks to eternal things, it chooses virtue; if to present things, it prefers pleasure. Grave and unequal is the contest against the delights of present things.

There is the liberty of desires, here the servitude of injuries, doing what you do not wish, and abstaining from those things which you have desired; here a banquet, there a fast; here the intemperance of joys, there the perseverance of tears; here dancing, there prayer; here sweet songs, there heavy groans. It is indeed written: The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, and the heart of fools in the house of feasting. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. But few hear these things, fewer follow them. The sweetness of sin allures men more, which flows in and impresses the present affection of the hearer, than the sadness of virtue, which wraps the hope of faith as it were in a bark of bitter labor.

Blessed, therefore, and admirable is he who, placed in the choice of such ways, has not been bent by the allurements of pleasure; so that he sets his step firm above the shifting sands and the crooked ways. It is not said to him: Woe to you who have abandoned the straight paths, going away into the ways of darkness!

We have learned, then, what is the way of sinners, in which the Prophet admonishes us we ought not to stand; but Ecclesiastes also teaches, who says: Do not stand in an evil word

that is, do not persist in evil words, and likewise in reprehensible works. How we ought to stand in good things, the same holy Prophet enjoins, saying: Our feet were standing in your courts, O Jerusalem. In Jerusalem one must stand, from Babylon one must flee. And to Moses it is said: But you, stand with me, who fled from Egypt, and, standing with the Lord, persevered. And in the Gospel, those who stood until the eleventh hour received equal wages with those who labored. And the virgins who stood until the coming of the bridegroom deserved to enter into the wedding together; but those who departed, and afterward returned, are excluded by the authority of the Lord's sentence.

We have learned, then, not to stand in the way of sinners, but to stand in the office of virtue; for it is written: But you stand by faith.

Now let us consider what it means: And has not sat in the seat of pestilence.

And indeed we have said beforehand that a simple sitting upon such a seat as is in ordinary use is not reprehended. For what fault would that carry with it? But since the eyes of the Lord are always upon the faithful of the earth, we ought to stand as though placed under the gaze of an emperor, and as it were set in a certain ministry. A soldier under arms stands, he does not sit; a soldier in arms does not recline himself, but rouses and rears himself up. And therefore it is said to the soldiers of Christ: Behold, now bless the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand in the house of the Lord. But, on the contrary, iniquity sits as upon a leaden weight, because, fixed in sin, it cannot separate itself from it.

For indeed, those grown old in error, and studiously clinging to their crimes, are said to sit, who are unwilling to rise, nor to hear him who says: Rise up after you have sat. Indeed this same Prophet says elsewhere: The princes sat, and spoke against me. Do we not know what great force an inveterate habit of sinning has, that it excludes nature, which, though it be curable unto salvation, yet, its passions being strengthened by time, is found incurable? Let us not, then, remain in vices; but let each one, even if he has fallen, leap away from the fault, as it is written concerning the harlot woman. Do not fix your eye upon her, but leap away, do not delay; leap away before the years of youth find you. But, what is more grievous, very many have not even blushed at the whitening of their hair from bodily lust, and have prolonged their stained life even to the age of old age.

For the plague of sin, conceived in the innermost recesses, is, with the process of time, heaped up. Beware, then, of the counsels of the impious, let counsels of this sort not penetrate your mind; lest it be said of you: Has anyone bound fire in his bosom, and his garments not be burned? For indeed, whoever has once kindled in the bosom of his mind the flame of a burning crime, will quickly burn the garments of his body. And as fire, leaping into stubble, clings and remains, until it consumes everything it has seized: so even a small spark of sin, if it be stirred up by any fuel of vices, kindles a great conflagration. Do not, then, stand in sin. Finally, if you have set your footstep above the abyss of guilt, quickly withdraw your foot; lest the pollution creep up to your sole, and, deceived by an easier slip, you sit down upon the mud.

Therefore the first vices must be guarded against, lest they afterward creep on into many more grievous ones. For just as those who wallow in mud, the more they roll about, the more they are befouled, so he who has once sprinkled himself with the mud of wickedness, unless he swiftly leaps out of it, spreads over himself day by day a heavier filth of disgrace through his muddy manner of living. And so from the heavy stench of that earth and shameful pit a certain pestilence of souls is contracted, and, the breath of wholesome thoughts being corrupted, a wretched plague of seething passions spreads. From this a deadly poison is infused into minds; from this sickness creeps into bodies, languors into souls. For there is an evil languor, the languor of error, the languor of avarice, the languor of insatiable desire. Such are riches, as Ecclesiastes says: There is an evil languor which I have seen under the sun, riches kept to the hurt of him that possesses them.

Tell me, O Ecclesiastes, for what reason is this languor evil?

He will answer, because greedy hope devours many. The gluttony of desire is insatiable. He who covets silver is never satisfied with silver. Riches distend, they do not fill: And if one be satisfied with riches, he says, there is none that suffers him to sleep. And indeed all his days are in darkness, and mourning, and much wrath, and languor, and anger. For how can he sleep who keeps anxious watch over gold, who dreads losses, who plots gains, who reckons interest, who counts his storehouses? Evil, then, is that languor which takes away the good repose of the mind. An evil languor also is luxury, lust, concupiscence, delight, worldly ambition, which quickly corrupts the health of sobriety. In short, every corruption of this world is a pestilence. Touch it not, therefore, handle it not. It is a plague, it contaminates; it is a disease, it defiles.

Taste not things which all tend to corruption by their very use, as the Apostle said, who elsewhere also cries out: The root of all evils is avarice; it stirs up sicknesses, it implants sorrows. In short, those who have coveted it have pierced themselves through with many sorrows. This is the pestilence which for the most part makes men neither hot nor cold, but—what is worse both for the hot and for the cold—lukewarm; so that they are vomited out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus, whom he rejects on account of grievous sins. This is that which stirs up the sicknesses not of a few, but of all. The whole head is in sorrow, the whole heart in sadness. From the feet even to the head are the sores of sinners. The whole head is in sorrow, when those who are thought wise are tormented by the sorrow of avarice; for the understanding of the wise man is in his head. This can also be referred to those set over the Church.

The whole heart is in sadness, when we savor the things which are of the flesh, and bury the sharp edge of our heart in bodily pleasures. Wherefore the Lord says of such, that he has given them a heart of flesh.

From the feet even to the head the dire plague of diseases creeps, when they labor under contagion, when they share the sufferings of others: if anyone is deprived of the fulfillment of his lust, could not conquer the modesty of a widow, invade a field; and hardly do all mutually pass on their sicknesses to one another. How often do old men groan that they can no longer drink long! How often do they grieve that they have ceased to whore, though they still have the will to whore? How often, amid the tales of drunkards, are virtues a reproach, sins a praise, honesty a mockery, continence a laughingstock, mercy a vanity! These are the diseases which transfer their evils to many. From a few the corruption reaches to all. They sit in councils disparaging the sober, belching forth their debauch; they sit in taverns contending over drunkenness. Among these a harlot full of wine, smiling on this one, inflaming that one, and setting all ablaze with the fire of lust.

If a modest man passes by, he blushes, he is picked at by each one; if a shameless man, he is praised by the mouth of all, and like a disease it passes into the souls of individuals; for he who is celebrated in shameful deeds leads very many into imitation of his error. And so, while they imitate another's sin, they make it their own evil. Do not sit among those whom the holy Prophet fled. Imitate him—fleeing indeed, not sitting—who says: I have not sat in the council of the malignant, and with those who do iniquity I will not enter in. By what reasoning did you flee them, David? Explain to us. Show us these parties, that we too may flee them, lest we be infected by their contagion: They are corrupted, he says, and have become abominable: there is none that does good, no not one.

This can be referred generally to all the wicked; but especially to the scoffers of the good, whom Aquila called χλευαστάς mockers, for these are truly diseases, who by mocking the good, work very great error upon souls, and corrupt minds. It is an evil sense, if by storehouses—that is, chests, coffers, cells in which riches are hidden away—the miser is said to count them.

How many things he has said from which the blessed man ought to abstain! And still he adds others.

But his will was in the law of the Lord, and on his law he will meditate day and night

that is, blessed is he who does these things by counsel, by reason, by prudence; for even a little child can abstain from the things mentioned, not through virtue, but through inability and ignorance of transgressing. It can also belong to an irrational beast, which has no power of counsel, no sense of error. This, then, is the fourth thing that follows, in which the definition of the blessed man is distinguished from that of a beast; because the wise man is subject to the law by will, not by necessity. For it makes a great difference; because in will there is the fruit of reward, in necessity the mere service of stewardship. For thus the Apostle taught us, saying: If I do this willingly, I have a reward; if unwillingly, a dispensation is entrusted to me.

But the fitting order is that you should first love the law, and second meditate on it.

He who loves does the commandments of the law of his own will; he who fears keeps them unwillingly. We have received this discipline of teaching the justice of God also in the Law. For thus it is written: Hear, O Israel: The Lord your God is one God. And: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart, and in your soul: and you shall show them to your children, and you shall speak of them sitting in your house, and walking on the way, and resting, and rising. And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as ornaments before your eyes: and you shall write them upon the lintels of your houses and upon your gates.

And below: And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you, but that you love the Lord your God, and walk in all his ways? Wisdom also says: Desire therefore my words, love them, and you shall have instruction. Wisdom is bright, and never fades, and is easily seen by those who love her, and is found by those who seek her. Rightly, then, are we taught by the holy Prophet to have our will in the Law, our meditation according to the Law. The will in the Law consists not only in study, but also in deed. The will is prior, the operation second. Finally, the Lord too, when it was said to him: If you will, you can make me clean, answered: I will, be clean; thereby showing that our will ought to precede our works. Finally, the law seeks willing followers; because the law of the Lord is blameless, converting the soul: but no one is converted, except he who is converted willingly.

The willing one, moreover, hides and steals away the very sense of labor.

And therefore he meditates in the Law day and night; in which not so much a continual intent of reading is required, as the affection for keeping the Law. For he meditates fully who is himself a law to himself, keeping in mind the law written in his own heart. Aquila, however, set down only "day," and not also "night." He set this down not so much as differing from the others as referring to something else; since he who meditates on the Law is always in light, he has no night. For indeed he whose works shine cannot walk in darkness; because his justice shines forth like light. Let our life, then, meditate on the Law, let our conduct meditate, let our action meditate, let the understanding of heavenly mysteries meditate. For the Law is the pattern and shadow of heavenly things, a shadow of the good things to come, which he who believes recognizes in the Law, in the Gospel. Let him meditate in darkness and in day, that is, both when placed in adversity and in prosperity.

For the Law commands that you love your Lord. He who loves ought in every state of his to preserve the affection of enduring charity. A father loves his son, he loves him even when he reproves him, he loves him even when he strikes him with the rod; for he who spares his rod hates his son. Us too the Lord chastises, and loves. And so even when we incur a deserved correction, still he loves us, he who even receives back the offender. For the Lord chastises every son whom he receives. And you, when you are chastised, love; because you are chastised for this reason, that you may be received back. For what great thing is it, if you love the Lord your God then, when all things abound to you, when you enjoy your desires, when you rejoice in honors, in wealth, in children. And to a man from whom we have received a benefit we are accustomed to render thanks.

Finally, when Job was praised in the heavenly judgment, the devil made this reply: It is no wonder if he were pleasing to God, to whom such an abundance of prosperity was at hand; but then is it to be proved, if he loses all these things, and still renders the service of a devout worshipper. This, then, is the first virtue, that you not be broken by adversity, nor puffed up by prosperity. This the Law teaches you, that in affliction you should not relax your resolve, nor take on despair; nor, victorious, should you say: My own power and my own strength have given me this; but you should know that all things must be attributed to the divine mercy.

Isaiah cries out: He that is in anguish shall not be confounded until the time.

Drink this first. What is meant, "drink this first"? Let us set aside the mystical sense, let us pursue the moral meaning which the letter teaches. Because of grievous errors he says that there will be grievous afflictions and vexations of the people; and it was fitting that these should come first, so that mercy might follow. Drink, then, first tribulation; for through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God; drink, that the sense of the tribulation of your breast may be poured into your inmost being: drink with the feeling of one who suffers, with the sorrow of one who mourns. For when, being converted, you have groaned, then you will reconcile to yourself the offended Lord. This, then, drink first; that you be in sorrow and in anguish. Joy quickly pours in error. The people, grown fat and thick, rose up to play, and departed from the Lord. It profits you to have a contrite heart.

Drink this first, that your sacrifice may be accepted by the Lord.

Let the Apostle teach you what this is: Drink this first, that is, the cup of tribulation. For tribulation works patience. There can be no patience, unless tribulation has gone before. Tribulation, he says, works patience, and patience trial, and trial hope; and hope does not confound. Drink tribulation first, that afterward so many cups of virtues may be ministered to you. And that you may know that tribulation is drunk, you have heard the Prophet saying today: You have given us to drink the wine of compunction. And further on he says: And you shall give us to drink tears, in measure. He asks for drink in measure, not beyond measure; lest he should not be able to bear it. Finally, with what good affection he prayed this, he proved by his own example, he who mingled his drink with weeping, that he might incline the mercy of the Lord toward himself.

Drink then this first, that you may also drink the second (for now is the time that we should insert something mystical): drink first the Old Testament, that you may drink the New Testament. Unless you have drunk the first, you cannot drink the second. Drink the first, that you may lessen your thirst; drink the second, that you may draw out the fullness of drinking. In the Old Testament there is compunction, in the New there is joy. See how the Lord met the wiles of the devil on behalf of his little servants. That one deceived one man by the food of fraud, that in one he might ensnare all; but Jesus redeemed all by the food of salvation, that in all he might restore even him who had been deceived. That one devised the golden cup of Babylon, that whoever drank more might thirst more; and because the drink itself could not please, he enticed men to drink by the value of gold.

He gave to drink of his wine to him for whom he also required the support of metal. But the Lord Jesus poured forth water from the rock, and all drank. Those who drank in the type were satisfied; those who drank in the truth were made drunk. Good is that drunkenness which pours in joy, and brings no shame; good is that drunkenness which steadies the gait of a sober mind; good is that drunkenness which waters the gift of eternal life. Drink then this cup, of which the Prophet said: And your inebriating cup, how excellent it is! Let it not trouble you that Babylon's cup is of gold; for you too drink the cup of wisdom, which is more precious than gold and silver. Drink then both cups, of the Old and the New Testament; for in both you drink Christ.

Drink Christ

because he is the vine; drink Christ, because he is the rock that poured out water; drink Christ, because he is the fountain of life; drink Christ, because he is the river, whose stream makes glad the city of God; drink Christ, because he is peace; drink Christ, because from his belly shall flow rivers of living water; drink Christ, that you may drink the blood by which you were redeemed; drink Christ, that you may drink his words; his word is the Old Testament, his word is the New Testament. The divine Scripture is drunk, and the divine Scripture is devoured, when the juice of the eternal word descends into the veins of the mind and the powers of the soul. In short, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Drink this word, but drink it in its order. Drink first in the Old Testament; make haste to drink also in the New Testament.

And as though he himself were hastening, he says: Galilee of the nations and the regions of Judaea, people who walk in darkness, see a great light; you who dwell in the region of death, light shall shine upon you. Drink then quickly, that a great light may shine upon you; our daily light, not of day, nor of sun, nor of moon; but that light which excludes the shadow of death. For those who are in the shadow of death cannot indeed see the light of the sun and of day. And as though you were asking whence such splendor, such grace should be, he answers: For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. A child, because he arose from a Virgin; a Son, because born of God, he is the author of so great a light. A child is born to us.

To us, who believe; not to the Jews, who did not believe; to us, not to heretics; to us, not to the Manichaeans; born to us

because the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us; born to us, because he took flesh from the Virgin, because he was born man from Mary. Flesh is born to us, the Word is given. That which is ours is born among us; that which is above us is given to us.

He shall be like a tree that is planted beside the courses of waters, which shall give its fruit in its season. And its leaf shall not fall off, and whatsoever he shall do shall prosper. What is this blessedness, which is compared to the wood of a tree, unless we understand in paradise, that place of the blessed, the tree of life produced from the earth in the midst of other trees? For among many trees which were beautiful to behold, and good for food, the earth also produced this tree, and it was in the midst of paradise; that the other trees might flourish by its verdure. What do we say this tree is, but that through which salvation came to us? And rightly did the earth produce this, because when the Virgin gave birth, she was earth according to the sentence of the Author, which was spoken to her: You are earth, and unto earth you shall go.

Beautifully too it is read to be in the midst of the other trees

because it was in the midst of the learning apostles, or because it was in the midst of the mind and heart, as he himself says: There stands one among you, whom you know not. And elsewhere he says: But I am in the midst of you. Lastly, Solomon also said of him: He is a tree of life to all who lay hold of him. He therefore who is blessed will be an imitator of the Lord Jesus, who is the tree of life, the tree of wisdom, planted in the womb of the Virgin, by the will of the Father; by whom it is planted to remain forever, that it might give fruit in its season. For this planting could not wither, since it had within itself the abundance of spiritual grace remaining. Lastly, full of the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan.

These are the courses of the waters of which it is said in the Gospel: Rivers of living water shall flow from his belly.

But this he said of the Spirit which those who were to believe in him were about to receive.

There is also another tradition, that there are waters from which Jeremiah forbids us to drink, saying: What have you to do with the way of Egypt, that you should drink the water of Gihon? There is also the river Tigris flowing past the Assyrians. There is also the Euphrates tending toward Babylon. There is also the Phison, which by Latin interpretation is called the changing of the mouth, encircling the land of Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good; and the carbuncle stone, and the prasine stone. Rightly is the mouth changed there, so that the faith of promises is not kept: but let there be deceit in the mouth, where there is good gold; for avarice breaks faith, and does not keep the simplicity of words. Precious ornaments also change the mind and the spirit; so that one thing is in the breast, another in speech.

In those regions of the rivers, then, the Jews were captives, led away into Egypt, and to the Assyrians, and to the Babylonians, where they sat upon the rivers of Babylon, and wept for the misery of their calamity; and, as this same Prophet here testifies, there they hung up their instruments, and laid aside all joy, where they endured graver things. In short, the remaining ten Tribes were led to the Assyrians; but the two, Judah and Benjamin, as being guilty of a graver crime, passed over into Babylon. For an adulterous priest's daughter is punished more severely than others; because she has discolored the grace of a priestly race with foul disgrace.

As they, then, were in the gravest temptations: so our Savior exposed himself to many temptations; that no contest of our temptation might he pass by.

He is therefore rightly said to be planted beside the courses of these rivers, not in the courses themselves; that you may understand him as neighboring, not submerged. His first contest was that of flesh and blood. Accordingly he says: Father, remove this cup from me; but not what I will, but what you will. There was the temptation of riches set before him, when the enemy offered him all the kingdoms of the earth, if the Lord, falling down, would worship him. You have here the courses of two rivers, Gihon and Phison. There was his wrestling against the princes of the world: there was, in the very passion, a contest against the tempters, whom the Hebrew interpretation calls Persians, who brought false testimonies. Against those who said: Let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him; which the devil was suggesting.

You have here the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.

Now the Apostle also understood the contest as fourfold, saying: For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world; against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places. These are the rivers that go out from paradise. Whence I think that he who longs to return into paradise ought to cross these courses of the waters. This the same holy Prophet did not express idly, showing to those who should undergo all temptations, that the rest of paradise is now owed to them. Thus he says: My eyes have shed streams of waters. For as the fiery sword is at the entrance of paradise; that he who returns may return through fire, may burn his sins, may prove his gold: so he who returns, returns through these courses. And rightly do the saints say: We have passed through fire and water. Of these same courses Isaiah also says: If you pass through the water, the rivers shall not overwhelm you. What rivers?

Hear David speaking of those who were hastening toward paradise: Perhaps our soul would have passed through the intolerable water.

Although some understand also that saying with reference to these four temptations: You shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample under foot the lion and the dragon. So that he walked in the incarnation, trampled in the passion, or tramples in the handing over of the kingdom, which he shall deliver to the Father, when he shall have emptied out every principality. Beautifully, however, Aquila said τὸ μεταπεφυτευμένον, that is, transplanted, in that it was first planted in the Virgin, afterward transplanted into paradise; as he said to the thief: Amen, amen I say to you: today you shall be with me in paradise.

This tree, then, will give its fruit in its season. Earthly trees are said not to give fruit, but to bear it; but the tree of life and of wisdom gives fruit, that is, bestows and grants it. Again this comes up: If it is the tree of wisdom, why will it give in season, and not always? Lest perhaps it be hard for us to think this of Christ; but you who have read that the Lord will appoint a faithful and prudent steward over his household, to give them in season the measure of wheat—in season, indeed, not always—you surely ought not to be troubled. Wisdom can always give fruit; but because it is wisdom, it ought to give wisely, to dispense prudently, if ever we either deserve or are able to receive the full measure. As here in the last time it will give fruit, so there also it will give good fruit among the nations; that we may be able to take and keep fellowship in his resurrection.

Now we cannot, we do not endure it in this hateful age.

For here there is corruption, and it was necessary to beware lest we should corrupt the good fruits which the tree of life would give; because now we are corrupt, but there incorrupt: when, it says, the dead also shall rise incorrupt, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. What then would it profit one about to die to receive what death was to take from him? Wisdom therefore knows to whom and when it ought to give, wisdom which does not lose even the leaf of its tree. And therefore let us consider what the leaf of wisdom's fruit is.

The fruit is within; the leaf is that by which the fruit is protected either from the scorching sun, or from the cold.

The fruit appears to be faith, peace, doctrine, the excellence of true knowledge, good intention, the reasoning of the mysteries. The flower of the fruit good life preserves: even if it has received evil things, it loses them: but to the sinner God said: Why do you declare my justices? In mystical things the fruit is the contemplation of heavenly mysteries, in moral things the leaf. For virtues without faith are leaves; they seem to be green, but they cannot profit. They are shaken by the wind, because they have no foundation. How many of the Gentiles have mercy, have sobriety; but they do not have fruit, because they do not have faith! Leaves fall quickly, wherever the wind has blown. And some Jews have chastity, much diligence in reading, and care; but they are without fruit, and turn about like leaves.

These are perhaps the leaves which the Savior found on that fig tree, but found no fruit.

The mystical things save, and free from death: but moral adornments are ornaments of beauty, not aids to redemption.

And that mystical things are to be preferred to moral ones the Lord himself teaches in his Gospel, saying of Mary, who, sitting beside the Lord's feet, heard his word, while Martha was busy about her service, and complained that her sister did not help her about the service of the table: Martha, Martha, Mary has chosen the best part, which shall not be taken from her. If she who ministered to Christ at the table was not to be compared with her who desired to hear the word, whom shall we be able to compare, working, with one zealous for eternal knowledge? Yet in such a way that neither faith be lacking to the former's work, nor work to the latter's knowledge, as with Mary; lest either there be leaves without fruit, or fruit uncovered without natural safeguards, and lie open to injury.

We can also understand this, that Adam and Eve covered themselves with leaves, seeking bodily garments

because the resurrection of the Lord's body was thereby being prophesied; because the flesh too, which had before been accustomed to perish in place of leaves, would not perish in Christ; and the flesh of all the just, who, according to the Gospel, in imitation of the tree of wisdom born of the Virgin, would form their life and deeds. For the Greek said thus: he shall give his fruit; which can be referred to "blessed," in Greek, "blessed shall give fruit"; but in Latin it is said thus, that it may mean: because the blessed one will give fruit, namely in his resurrection, when he can give it perpetually. It can also be read thus: he who gives his fruit for the sake of the tree, so that it be referred to the tree, whose deeds shall all prosper. In which there is clear testimony that it was said of the Savior.

For whose deeds, if not his own, can be universally praised, and have prosperous outcomes? But Aquila says, "they shall be directed": which seems to be referable also to any man whom the Lord directs by heavenly favor. For by the Lord are the steps of a man directed, and the prophet David asked that his prayer be directed in the sight of God.

But the Lord himself also directed his own works, that they might be bent by no crooked wandering of error.

There follows: Not so the wicked, not so; but as the dust which the wind casts away from the face of the earth

that is, not so as the blessed man, who is blessed for this reason, because he did not walk in the counsel of the wicked, because he did not stand in sin, did not sit in the counsel of the pestilent, of those wishing either to corrupt the pious in belief or in living; who had his will in the Law, and will meditate on it; or, as Aquila put it, will resound in the Law: so that his life may resound with the precepts of the Law, and his conduct may echo, like the conduct of those whose sound has gone out into all the earth.

Perhaps here this sound is the sound of human teaching; but there, where it will be granted to see face to face, a fuller expression of the word will seem to come to pass. Not so, then, as this blessed one who has done these things, who shall be like a tree planted, whose deeds shall all prosper, so shall it also be with the wicked. Therefore either the writer repeated it, or someone afterward added it (as some think), so that the repeated sentence might be made more emphatic, saying: Not so the wicked, not so, who shall be like dust; for they are earthly, and as dust is cast away from the face of the wind, so also shall these be cast away and scattered by the Holy Spirit, who is accustomed to breathe upon the fertile and fruitful soil of the healthful soul like the south wind.

To this wind it is said in the Song of Songs: Come, south wind, that by the mildness of a softer air the fields of our heart may be loosened, which, bound by wintry frost, refused their bosom to receive the seeds. It is good for us that this wind breathe, which brings the ships of Tarshish, bearing to the true Solomon what seem necessary for his temple, safely into port. But this wind breathes then, if that heavy wind, the north wind, shall have ceased to blow. Therefore either the Church, or the pious soul, says: Arise, north wind, and come, south wind; that is: You, north wind, withdraw, and come, south wind: breathe upon my garden; that you may not scatter the flowers, but preserve them. The soul, then, full of the flowers of piety has a garden, or is itself a garden, which bears fruit: the soul which lies open to impiety has dust, which is barren of fruit. The Lord indeed made it fruitful; but it gathered for itself the dust of impiety.

Why do you boast, O one full of impiety?

Is it because you are powerful in honors, and abound in riches? Do you not perceive that you are dust, and you shall be scattered and dissipated? I have seen, it says, the wicked exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed by, and behold, he was not. Why do you glory, because many servants attend you, many friends cover your sides, very many horses follow you, whose pedigree you recount to us, as though the lineage of your ancestors? You set forth riches, because you feed your companions with banquets. Would that you fed the poor; would that they were not ministers of your amusements, but helpers of your vows. You boast that as you go forth men immediately give way, and men shun you as a wild beast or animal. Do you think these things are anything? Do you not hear that all these things pass away like a shadow? What good do the consular purple borders do, or the triumphal robes shining with gold?

You shall go out naked: no one there will recognize a consul.

What good do countless possessions do? They are public, not yours. Today you hold them, tomorrow another. When you go out, another enters. Scarcely have you moved your foot, another has stepped in. How many were there before you, how many shall rule after you, and do you think this is your own private thing? Whom have riches ever redeemed from death? Nay, whom have not riches driven to death? Whom have their resources ever called back from the underworld? Whom has power excused from punishment? Impiety is dust, as the power of the impious is dust: it brings darkness, it cannot give salvation. As soon as a violent wind begins to blow, it scatters and dissolves it: it disturbs the air, lays bare the ground; it is cast away like dust, it fails like smoke, it melts like wax.

Hence many have raised no small question, whether divine Scripture seems to assert that nature is to perish; especially because elsewhere it said: I will crush them like dust before the face of the wind, and I will blot them out like the mire of the streets; and elsewhere: Behold, all the adversaries shall be confounded and put to shame; for they shall be as though they were not. First, then, I ask, whether they think impiety to be according to nature, or contrary to nature? If they assert it to be according to nature, their opinion is certainly in error. Let them say, then, whether sin belongs to nature, or not? But it is certain that to sin is to deviate from that which is according to nature. What then could be so absurd as to say that to be impious seems something less than to be a sinner, when it is the most bitter of all things, whatever seems to be done as an injury to God?

But if to act impiously is not contrary to nature: then to live impiously is according to nature, and is not to be reckoned in the place of sin, nor to be judged worthy of reproof; for no one is reproved who acts according to nature. Whence it is concluded that impiety is contrary to nature. How then does Scripture, along with the destruction of a habit, introduce "perishing natures" (ἀπολλυσομένας φύσεις)—that is, natures that are to perish—since impiety is by no means natural, but contrary to nature? For what one does not have, one does not lose: nor can that substance perish which never was. For even dust, when stirred, is either transferred into the substance of water, or into air, or into fire—that is, it often seems to pass over into another nature. It does not, then, fail into nothing, but passes over into something else.

What, then, prevents that he too who is crushed like dust by the power and reason of the word, should not be dissipated into nothing, but be changed into something better; so that from an earthly man he becomes a spiritual man, and, like the mire of the streets, be so blotted out that whatever seems rough and filthy is removed, while whatever is smooth and clean remains? And when it says of the adversaries of Jerusalem: They are as though they were not; it could indeed have said: They shall not be. But since it says: They shall be confounded and put to shame; you understand certainly that they shall exist in substance, and in the progress of conversion, but shall not exist as adversaries, which they were. Thus, through the failing of their wickedness they shall not exist, but shall exist changed by faith and devotion. Finally, elsewhere too it is said in the person of a sinner: And I will bear the wrath of God, because I have sinned, until he justify my judgment (Micah vii, 9).

For God, desiring to convert the sinner, punishes him and burns him, that he may be purged. Whence it says: And he will bring me out into the light. For fire also burns wax, and it melts, that it may be purged: and we are proved by fire: and smoke, once all its material is consumed, is cleared away, and yet its nature does not pass away. So too the soul, purged of every stain, fails into that which is, not into that which is not; whence Balaam says: Let my soul die the death of the just; that his fall might die, and a certain habit of wickedness; but that it might pass over into the custom and life of the just; for God wills all things to be safe. Whence Solomon also says: God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living (Wisdom, 13).

He made the soul that it might exist: he created man unto incorruption, whom he made in his own image: but men, deviating from the gift of nature, made themselves liable to death, so that, as it were earthly, they are corrupted. But God, through tribulations, compels to repentance, that through repentance that accidental evil of wickedness may be burned and consumed, and perish; and that place of the soul, which was the possession of the accident of impiety, may lie open to the reception of virtue and grace. It is certain, however, that the nature of the soul is precious, which, made in the likeness of God, admits the reception of every virtue; inasmuch as it has not been defrauded of fellowship with knowledge from above.

Now we think there remains that which is on the lips of many, by what reasoning God, without whose will not even the vilest sparrow falls, and with whom the hairs of the head are numbered, said through Isaiah: So all the nations are esteemed as a drop from a bucket, and as a moment of the balance, and shall be esteemed as spittle. Shall all the nations then perish thus, as a drop from a bucket perishes, and as spittle perishes, and profits to no use? But you, who know that our God has not held the nations so utterly as nothing, that he even said to Abraham: In you shall all the nations be blessed; and spoke through David to the Son, saying: I will give you the nations for your inheritance; and below: All nations shall serve him; you who have read that God offered his Son for every nation, that he might save sinners; you ought at this point to consider the force of the divine saying.

For in the contemplation of the heavenly creatures, which are many (as the heaven, which is manifoldly greater than the earth, so that by many the earth has been reckoned a mere point in comparison with heaven), of Angels, Archangels, Principalities, Powers, Thrones, Dominations, of thousands, and ten thousands, and innumerable thousands; in the contemplation, then, of these, the nations are esteemed as a drop from a bucket, whose fullness is entire. From that heavenly fullness, then, the nations are esteemed as a falling drop. For how could they seem greatest, when the very earth in which the nations dwell is the smallest portion of the world, and of all that God has made, the nations are but as the slight inclination of a balance?

At the same time, know by this balance that God made all things with justice, and that in the nations themselves there is something naturally present in which even the slightest weight of justice might be seen to exist, and that spittle itself, as it were from the whole of the entire body, exists as an inner portion.

Mercy, then, is here rather proclaimed: since he who came to seek what was lost did not despise even that drop as though vile, and lightened the moment of the balance; and, granting to that spittle the substance of a good body, deigned to gather all the nations together into one body of the Church. And among the nations, Israel too can be numbered, in no way lacking a share of his divine justice; since Moses himself said of Israel: Behold, a wise people, and holding fast to discipline, a great nation. And that you may know that the goodness of God has overflowed beyond our merit, the Apostle, interpreting this prophetic passage, says: God has shut up all things in unbelief, that he might have mercy on all; and he adds: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and how untraceable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?

Or who has first given to him, that it might be repaid to him?

And this passage the Prophet had prefaced, saying: So all the nations are esteemed as a drop from a bucket, and the rest, so that you may recognize that this understanding agrees with the Apostle's interpretation.

But what is more evident than this, that he does not seem to introduce natures that are to perish, since the holy Prophet himself subjoined: Because the wicked do not rise in judgment.

For he did not say: They do not rise; but he says: They do indeed rise, but not in judgment. For whoever rises, certainly exists, and remains; but because he did not believe in Christ, he has already been judged; and therefore he does not come into judgment, since the penalty of judgment already remains for him who has finished his course. And concerning the resurrection indeed there are very many testimonies of the divine Scriptures, which we have not passed over in the books on consolation and resurrection.

But as to what he says: The wicked do not rise in judgment; according to the Gospel this is an absolute statement

because not all will be judged. But the Apostle says: For we must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things proper to his body, according as he has done, whether good or evil. Many think these things to be contrary; and they do not notice that the Saviour spoke concerning unbelief and the wicked, who did not believe in the Lord Jesus. For thus he says: He who believes in me shall not be judged, but he who does not believe is already judged, because he does not believe in the name of the only-begotten Son of God. But this is the judgment, that the light has come into this world, and men loved darkness more than the light; for their works were evil. It is clear, therefore, of whom this was said, that is, of those who did not believe in the Lord Jesus.

The Apostle too, although he said "all," said it certainly of those who believed, but who are to render an account of their deeds on the day of judgment. Finally he himself elsewhere says, that the testimony of our conscience will be revealed on the day of judgment, when our thoughts will either accuse one another, as it is written, or defend, and the hidden things of the heart will be laid open. But what is more evident than what he says elsewhere: We shall all indeed rise, but we shall not all be changed? For the just will be changed into incorruption, the truth of the body remaining. Daniel also says: Judgment sat, and the books were opened. He shows therefore that judgment is to come, especially since elsewhere he says the same: Many who sleep in the dust of the earth shall arise, some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting reproach and confusion; and the wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and many of the just as the stars for ever.

What is this judgment of judges sitting, and what are the books opened, but our conscience, containing as it were the series of our sins like a book?

Although it is base to reckon this itself as though it were like human judgment. The judgment of Christ is another thing, where conscience itself betrays itself, which cannot be hidden from the arbiter of hidden things: where thoughts shine before him, who said even to men still thinking: Why do you think evil in your hearts? When he spoke to the Jews, he was speaking to all; lest anyone should think that hidden things could escape him, lest anyone should think that behind closed walls he could escape the witness of a hidden error. And so the Evangelist also testifies, saying: But Jesus knew their thoughts. How then does he say: The books were opened? Not indeed written with ink, but with the traces of offenses, and the stain of crimes.

The book of your conscience will be opened, the book of your heart will be opened, our guilt will be read aloud.

There is a book there, where there is a tablet; rather there are inscribed books, where there are inscribed tablets, which Apostolic teaching inscribes by the Holy Spirit, as we read, Paul saying: You are our epistle ... written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God: not on tablets of stone, but on fleshly tablets of the heart. There are, then, tablets of the heart inscribed by the Holy Spirit; these will be read aloud. If you have done well, the writing will remain. See that you do not take away the grace of the Holy Spirit; see that you do not erase it, and write your crimes with ink, lest the day of judgment come, and the Judge say: Let the books be read, let the tablets of his deeds be read; and let him say to you: I wrote your tablets, why have you erased my letters?

I wrote my gifts, how have you erased my gifts, and written your own reproaches?

Have you not read that I write? Have I not told you through the mouth of my Prophet: My tongue is the pen of a scribe writing swiftly? But the judgment is of the Word.

Many, therefore, of those sleeping in the dust of the earth shall arise, those who have done good, into the resurrection of life; those who have done evil, into the resurrection of judgment. What Daniel calls: unto eternal life; the Saviour called: the resurrection of life. Likewise what Daniel calls: unto reproach and confusion; the Saviour called: the resurrection of judgment. Whence it is not expedient for us to come to judgment, and it is not expedient not to come; lest either we should seem pre-condemned, or, under this stain of vices, we should undergo the weight of so great a judgment. The Prophet asks that the Lord not enter into judgment with his servant; how much more ought we to fear the judgment of the Lord? Suppose that the merciful Lord will pardon: how great things will be exposed which I believed to be hidden? What shame, what confusion will be mine, when I who professed to teach others, shall myself be caught in that very thing for which I reproached others?

And therefore, since the Saviour also set down two kinds of resurrection, and John in the Apocalypse said: Blessed is he who has part in the first resurrection, for these come to grace without judgment; but those who do not come to the first resurrection, but are reserved for the second, these shall be burned, until they fulfil the times between the first and second resurrection; or if they have not fulfilled them, they will remain longer in punishment. Let us therefore pray that we may deserve to have part in the first resurrection. There are those who rose again at the passion of Christ; and these are plainly blessed, who received the grace of Christ, and heard his voice, of which it is written: The hour is coming when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live. And: They entered into the holy city.

I think that this signifies rather that heavenly city, than this Jerusalem, which he left, which he rebuked

because into this one they entered with their feet, but into that heavenly one by their merits.

But let us also beware of this, that we, being placed here, may rise from the tomb of earth.

There are those who, while living, are surrounded by a tomb and filled with the dead, whose throat is a sepulchre, not speaking words of life, but of death.

If we have risen here from the dead, we shall rise there also; if here we have not been dry bones, but have received the dew of the Word, the moisture of the Holy Spirit, there too we shall live; so may Jesus rouse us here with his great voice, as he roused Lazarus, and through his disciples loose us from the bonds of death, and lead us into Bethany, where Lazarus was, that is, into the house of the obedient one, and admit us here to his banquet; and there we shall recline with him, and there we shall always feast with him, and there the ointment will be fragrant to us, which only the betrayer grieved to see poured out.

Therefore the wicked do not rise in judgment, that is, into the portion of those who are to undergo judgment; nor do sinners rise in the council of the just.

You see that the wicked rise, and do not rise in the judgment of the just

because sinners, even though they do not rise in the council of the just, nevertheless rise in judgment. Whence it appears that those who believed rightly, and followed their faith also with works, are themselves not judged, but rise in the council of the just; but sinners, who cannot rise among the just, will rise in judgment. You have two orders. A third remains, of the wicked, who, since they did not believe, are already judged; and therefore they do not rise in judgment, but unto punishment; for they loved darkness more than light; and therefore their judgment is punishment, and perhaps the punishment of darkness. And it might indeed be understood that those who have evil works, though believing in Christ, wishing indeed to live rightly, but overcome by the allurements of sins, loved darkness more than light: that is, they loved both, but darkness more.

But because he had said beforehand concerning those who did not believe, I think it is to be understood thus, that they loved darkness, and not the light; for the light is Christ. Those, therefore, who did not believe in the light, it is absurd that they should be thought even to have loved the light, which they did not know. For they knew not, neither did they understand; they walk in darkness, as it is written.

There follows: For the Lord knows the way of the just, and the path of the wicked shall perish.

Consider the sense: The wicked do not rise in judgment: for the Lord knows the way of the just. He certainly knows the ways of those whose steps he directs; for there are steps of men, which are directed by the Lord. Directed by the Lord too is the way of a man. These ways the Lord knows, which are right, which tend toward that life of him who says: I am the way, the truth, and the life.

This is the good way; but the way of the world is crooked. He does not deign to know that way. For he acknowledges those who are his own, who work his works; but to those who work iniquity, the Lord says: Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. Not through ignorance, but because they are unworthy of the knowledge of God, are they unknown.

Beautifully, moreover, he says: And the path of the wicked shall perish.

The Latin has distinguished it, so as to say "path," and has, as it were, set apart "path" from "way"; but the Greek said "way" in both cases. Yet the Latin did not do so without purpose, because the Lord also said: I am the way; he did not say: I am the path. But he said that the path of the wicked perishes, not the wicked themselves. He preserves their substance, who, if they be converted, will lose only the path of impiety, which neither existed from the beginning, nor will exist. What is accidental, therefore, perishes; what is substantive, remains. But the wicked perish in the way it is said: The soul that sins, it shall die: so that they may die from the sting of sin, not from the complete dissolution of their whole substance.

PREFACE.

Being about to tell in the following psalm what the form of the just man is, the Prophet first set forth the form of the unjust. For we cannot know what the form of justice is, unless we know what the image of iniquity is; for they are opposed and contrary to each other. For in the one there is the simple disposition of nature, in the other the deceitful cunning of wickedness; the one presents images of virtues, the other holds forth dealings in vices. That this order is fitting, reason itself teaches; and if testimonies are to be taken from opposites, the very teachers of philosophy have confessed it, while they follow it.

Who indeed could doubt that David was far earlier than the times of Plato, whom not only his teacher, but not even the grandfathers of his grandfathers could have seen: since he lived at the beginning of the kingdom of the Jews (which was propagated through countless courses of years), while Plato came after the times of the captivity, by which the kingdom of his people had already been dissolved. Therefore he himself, who holds among all men the primacy of secular wisdom, when he said that the form of justice could not be comprehended, unless the series of injustice had first been thought through and discussed, brought forward the example that those who wish to seek gold first smear themselves with mud. Gold, then, is justice; mud is iniquity. That this was said first by our own writers is not in doubt, since it is written: I will wipe them out like the mud of the streets. And truly mud; because it defiles those who come near it.

Let us flee therefore from injustice, lest we be defiled with muddy filth, and lest, in its whirlpool, not our outward foot, but, what is more grievous, our mind be submerged. And philosophy indeed says that it seeks gold; but it deals in mud, that which seeks divinity in statues; but the potter's vessels he will break with a rod. We seek the gold by which we may cleanse our bodies, bearing about in our body the mortification of Jesus Christ; that the life also of Jesus Christ may be manifested in our body. Good gold is the blood of Christ, rich in worth, abundant for the washing away of every sin. We have spoken of the order; let us consider the title.

Unto the end, he says, a psalm of David for the servant of the Lord.

In the whole body of the psalter this is the only title which testifies that he wrote a psalm for the servant of the Lord.

Let us see who this servant of the Lord is: what the sequence of the psalm signifies: to whom this psalm was addressed.

Let us hear to whom he speaks: O Lord, he says, thy mercy is in heaven, and thy truth reacheth even to the clouds. Thy justice is as the mountains of God, thy judgments are a great deep. To whom is this said, if not to the Son of God? For these things belong not to human, but to divine power. But what does it mean that the title declared this psalm to be spoken for the servant of the Lord, when in a later title he preferred to call it a prayer of Moses the man of God, rather than of the servant of the Lord? What counsel of the Prophet this was, therefore, I do not understand, or rather of the Lord Saviour himself, who spoke in the Prophet. Truly his judgments are as a great deep, that he might reserve honor for the servant, and ascribe to himself the condition of servitude.

I seem to myself to understand, I seem to have drawn something from spiritual grace.

This psalm was written, as we have said, against injustice: and therefore the injustice of the unbelievers is the more heavily weighed, who were unwilling to receive Christ Jesus the Lord, though he took up servitude on their account. For what is so unjust as to have been ungrateful for such great benefits; that those to whom he gave salvation should shed his blood? Finally, elsewhere, when speaking of his passion, he says thus to heap up the odium of Jewish impiety: Turn not away thy face from thy servant: for I am in trouble, hear me speedily [lacuna] I am poor and sorrowful.

Come, Paul, explain to us for what reason the Lord of heaven and earth called himself poor, and what this poverty is.

You surely have called him rich: how is the same one both rich and poor? Let us hear the testimony of Paul. You know, he says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ; that for your sakes he became poor, though he was rich; that you through his poverty might be made rich. Come also you, Isaiah, explain to us how Christ called himself sorrowful, who was wont to heal the sorrows of wounds. A physician came to cure the sick: what did he himself have to grieve over? Let us hear also the testimony of Isaiah. For us, he says, he grieves: and we esteemed him to be in sorrows. He expressed the affection of a physician, who, even though he himself had no wound to grieve over, yet had compassion on the wounded.

This, therefore, the Lord reproaches the Jews with in the psalm: I, poor for your sake, I, sorrowing for you, and you laid impious hands on me saying: Let us take away the just man, because he is unprofitable to us. Let us put wood into his bread. Well did he say bread for his flesh. He brought food, they repaid with punishment for the benefit. No wonder, then, if they hunger, who denied to themselves the nourishment of eternal life. Beautifully also they joined these two together: Let us put wood into his bread. The Jews did not know what they were saying, and they were speaking a mystery. The Cross of Christ has restored paradise to us. This is the wood which the Lord showed to Adam, speaking of the tree of life, which was in the midst of paradise, to be eaten of: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, not to be eaten. Adam erred, he did not keep the commandments, he tasted the forbidden thing.

Through wood we began to hunger; because the flesh received its own nourishment.

Therefore the Lord joined flesh and wood in Christ, that the ancient hunger might cease, and the grace of life be restored. Blessed wood of the Lord, which crucified the sins of all: blessed flesh of the Lord, which ministered sustenance to all!

Concerning the poverty and sorrow of the Lord, therefore, we have brought forward, as I judge, fitting testimonies of the saints, of whom the one saw and spoke, the other was chosen that he might speak. Let us again bring forward the testimonies concerning the servitude of the Lord from those who have been proven; rather, his own words which he himself spoke concerning himself in both. Let us hear, then, what he says: Thus saith the Lord, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to gather Jacob and Israel unto him. We note, therefore, that on account of the gathering of the people, he took up the form of servitude. Do you hear, Jew, and yet you turn grace into an insult; and you divert this into unbelief, on account of which you ought rather to have believed. He came to call you, and you revile him. He called himself a servant from the womb.

Hear, Arian, from what womb: run back a little above: From the womb, he says, of my mother, the Lord called my name.

Let us hear what his name is, by which the Father called him. Behold a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel: which is interpreted, God with us. For what else but Son of God is the name of Christ? Take another. Gabriel indeed had said to Joseph concerning Mary: She shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. Take the voice of God: And thou, Bethlehem of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Juda; for out of thee shall come forth a Prince who shall rule my people. Attend to the mystery: from the womb of the Virgin the same one came forth both servant and lord; servant to work, lord to command; that he might root the kingdom of God in the minds of men.

On both sides one, not one from the Father and another from the Virgin; but the same one who before all ages was from the Father, he afterward took flesh from the Virgin.

Therefore he is called both servant and lord: servant for our sake; but by the unity of the divine substance, God of God, Prince of Prince, equal of equal; for he did not beget a degenerate son, in whom he himself declared that he was well pleased.

It is a great thing, he says, for thee to be called my servant, that thou mayest raise up the tribes of Jacob. Everywhere he preserves the terms of his dignity. Great is God, and great is the child: nor in the flesh does he lose the name of his greatness, whose greatness has no end. And rightly is he secure, since, though he was in the form of God, as the Apostle says, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in habit as a man: he humbled himself, made obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

This, then, is he who is equal as the Son of God, this is he who took the form of a servant in the flesh, this is he who tasted death, whose greatness has no end; because the end of the Law is Christ unto righteousness to every one that believes: that we may all believe in him, that we may adore him with inmost affection. Good is the servitude which made all free: good is the servitude which acquired a name above every name: good is the humility which brought it about that at his name every knee should bow, of things in heaven, of things on earth, and of things under the earth; and every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the Father. To this end, then, is this psalm directed, that we too may be servants unto righteousness, not proud unto arrogance. For servitude is the reward of freedom: but the reward of arrogance is death. But let us now approach the sequence of the psalm itself.

The unjust man hath said, that he may sin unto himself.

He did not express what he said, and therefore I think it should be understood thus, that whatever the unjust man says is sin. For every injustice is sin; since where the instrument is faulty, how can the song not be faulty? The offspring is a discolored birth of degenerate matter. Whatever the unjust man speaks, therefore, is iniquity, which is referred back to its own author, like the birth of the viper, which first tears open its own parent, as is frequently said. He sins, therefore, unto himself. I think nothing more sublime has been said than this sentence. Among those who have claimed the wisdom of the world for themselves, I have read nothing like it, I have known nothing like it. And no wonder, since they spoke by human wit, whereas the Spirit of God, the Spirit of truth, infused this: that the unjust man sins unto himself, generates wounds for himself, stabs himself.

For just as thorns grow up in the hand of a drunkard, as Scripture asserts: so also from the speech of the unjust are born things which prick the speaker. The unjust man speaks, and his inner conscience is wounded; because in every word he speaks, he is not free of fraud. For whose punishment is heavier than his own, since for every word he pays penalties? The serpent pours poison into others, the unjust man into himself; for whatever he pours out is poured back upon him. The unjust man, therefore, is both useless to others and harmful to himself: but the life of the just is fruitful to others, and sweet to himself. For Solomon says: Son, if thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself, and for thy neighbors; but if thou shalt turn out evil, thou alone shalt drink evils.

We note, therefore, that justice is born rather for others than for itself: it awaits the common good, not its own, and reckons another's good as its own gain. Blessed and glorious is justice, whose good profits all: it proceeds most often from one to many, and reaches to all. Just was David, who spared his enemy, and preferred to guard his innocence rather than his life; lest he should be avenged by public evil, and give to others also, in evil causes, the example of striking down a prince, when he himself had taken vengeance on the plotter. Just was Abel, who thought that the firstfruits of the sheep which the Lord had given him ought to be offered to the Lord; and therefore he pleased God the more, because he made no delay, he proved his devotion. But this the wicked one could not bear, the transgressor of justice, the root of iniquity; and so he slew his brother, because his sacrifice had been approved by God more than his own offering.

But that slain one spoke to God in the voice of his blood, this living one was driven from the face of the Lord; and while punishments still were withheld from him by the Lord, the consciousness of his own sins tormented him. The wretch lay hidden, trembling and fearing; and while yet the slayer was lacking, the very life of the unjust man tortured itself. He had received a sign, that no one should kill him: not that he might enjoy the sweetness of life, but that death might not take away his misery: that he might suffer daily, fearing his own slayer. He had indeed deserved that his slayer be restrained; but without any intermission he himself was his own executioner, he himself the slayer.

What punishment is greater than to fear what you cannot avoid, nor to escape what you have feared?

Whence David, excellently expressing the heaviest reckoning of a sinful conscience, says: For I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is always before me. For the avenging image of our own sin is spread over us, nor does it allow its culprit to be at rest, bringing wretched servitude upon him: and drags him into his own chains, so that he cannot unbind himself; since he sold himself of his own will, though it was free to him not to incur the debt of sins, and to keep the freedom of innocence. And so while we pray, sin is poured over us; when the senses of the body relax in sleep, sin runs back. Our error always meets us like an evil tax-collector, or like a shameless moneylender confronting his debtor. Whence the Lord says: He that committeth sin is the servant of sin.

But the just man knows how to loosen the chains of his own sins, nor does he wait for an accuser, but he anticipates by confessing so as to lighten every offense of his own; lest the adversary have anything to accuse. And therefore Scripture says to you: The just man is his own accuser at the beginning of his speech. For he snatches the voice from the adversary, and, as it were, binds fast with the confession of his own sins the teeth already prepared for the prey of hostile accusation. Judas Iscariot said, that he might sin unto himself. What did he say: Whomsoever I shall kiss, it is he; hold him fast. This he said, and by his own mouth drove himself to death. How many tormentors, do we think, were in him, that he himself should press upon himself so heavy an exactor of punishment, and strangle himself with a noose?

The unjust man has said, that he may sin against himself.

The just man spoke: Behold, I the sinner have done evil, and this flock, what have they done? And every sin was forgiven. The just man therefore spoke, and it profited himself. Cain said: Am I my brother's keeper? And he lied to himself. Ananias said that he had brought the whole price of his field that was sold, and he lied to himself, who could have offered less without fraud. And so it is excellently said: And iniquity hath lied to itself. For it lies to itself beforehand, when it lies unto its own destruction; it sins against itself, who tears from itself the sweetness of innocence. For what fruit is sweeter than purity and simplicity of heart? What food more pleasant than that which a mind well conscious to itself, and the mind of the innocent, feasts upon? But indeed iniquity, like a certain leaden weight, as Scripture testifies, burdens the conscience.

And rightly does David say: Like a heavy burden they are grown heavy upon me.

And Solomon: As a sour grape to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes, so is iniquity to all who use it. Grievous is the penalty which hinders food, which darkens the sight; and, what is more, which pours over the eyes of the inner mind a shadowy darkness, so that the unjust man cannot see what is true. And therefore he sins against himself, who tears from himself the things that are precious.

The unjust man therefore has said, that he may sin against himself.

But the just man speaks, that he may profit others and himself; the one speaks unto ruin, the other speaks unto salvation. Of the just indeed and the faithful it is said: With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. The tongue of the former wounds, but the tongue of the prudent heals. Whence, when David remonstrated with king Saul, that, forgetful of a kindness, ungrateful for his own preservation, he pursued him unto death—by whom he saw himself already so often preserved—and sought the life of him who had exposed his own life to dangers for the safety of the king, David said that the fruit of righteousness would not perish for him, since he had not slain the one who lay in wait for him when delivered by the Lord into his hands. From the unjust iniquity came forth; venom was poured out by serpents, and the venom and the weapons of iniquity perished.

Therefore it is written: The unjust man has said, that he may sin against himself. What did he say? I will set my throne above the clouds, and I will be like the Most High. The words have no effect, but they carry sin. Vain indeed is the display of boasting; but the criminal spirit of pride does not fear to violate the divine majesty with insult. For if any fear of God were in his affection, he would not have dared, with rash presumption, to believe that things full of guile could be carried on in the sight of God, as though God, who is the searcher of what is within, could not know hidden things. God beholds all things; there is nothing that escapes Him, no one who can deceive Him: to whom all things that are future are present, and things that are hidden are manifest.

For if this worldly sun for the most part sends its light in even where the dwellings of houses are shut; how much more does God, supreme and eternal, search out and forestall by His knowledge even the secret recesses of the human mind, and every counsel of the angels? What else, then, does the unjust man do, but seek for himself iniquity and hatred?

For thus it is written: There is no fear of God before his eyes: because he has dealt deceitfully in his sight, that he might find his iniquity and hatred. For what would he find? For everyone who seeks, finds: therefore if evil is sought, it is brought about that it be found. But just as he is praiseworthy who finds the good which he has sought, so he is blameworthy who has labored that he might find the evil which he had sought; for we ought to expend our labor on good things, not on shameful deeds and crimes. What then is it but the height of foolishness and madness, to seek hatred, to find iniquity by evil arts, which no good man has ever sought?

Let us consider, then, how the wicked seek out iniquity and hatred for themselves.

Herodias, indeed, was joined in lawful marriage to Philip the tetrarch, abounding in the wealth of royal power: she received Herod, when he was traveling as far as Rome, as it were a brother of her husband, by right of hospitality and kinship; having agreed with him upon her own union, not long after, having left her husband, she changed the rights of her partnership. Did not she seek iniquity and hatred, who deserted her marriage, that she might find adultery? And because the holy Baptist constantly rebuked the unlawful nuptials, saying to Herod: It is not lawful for thee to have her as wife—she who had left her husband contrary to the Law, and had come together with her husband's brother as though by the Law—the adulteress was moved, that she might wish to kill him.

But when she learned that she could not easily bend Herod to the killing of the just man, she devised a way by which she might accomplish this. It was Herod's birthday, which he was accustomed to celebrate with excessive luxury, as is the custom with most kings. She adorned her daughter, that she might dance at the king's banquet, a royal pledge. And when it pleased Herod—which ought to have displeased her uncle—he offered her that she should ask whatever reward she wished for the disgrace of the dancing. She consulted her mother, at whose urging she demanded the head of the Baptist. Herod, overcome, because he had bound himself by oath to give whatever his stepdaughter should ask, ordered John to be killed, and his head to be brought. This, being brought, was given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother.

It is therefore true that iniquity and hatred are sought after: since that woman, what she could not obtain by an easy request, drew forth by the wicked arts of a contrived deceit.

What shall I say of Judas the traitor, who sought avarice, and found sacrilege, saying: What will you give me, and I will deliver him to you? Not satisfied with the spoils of the poor, by bearing crimes he arrived at the fullness of the gravest crimes, mixing the pious sacraments of charity with shameful deeds, when he said: Whomsoever I shall kiss, it is he: hold him; so that truly of him it cannot be doubted that it was said: The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit. He bore kisses on his lips, he poured poisons into hearts; he was meditating bitter torments, he was bringing a pledge of grace.

Well did the prophecy add concerning him: He would not understand, that he might do well; for he sinned not through nature, but through will.

Indeed, he was an Apostle, he heard the divine commands daily, he was learning the heavenly mystery; he could have understood, that he might do well, had he wished. He saw the paralytics healed, light restored to the blind, the dead raised up; ought he not to have understood that He was God, who could work such things? But he would not understand, because the avaricious man, intent on money, turned away the vigor of his mind from the knowledge of divinity. For everyone who has plunged himself into shameful deeds does not wish to understand the things that belong to the heavenly commandments, lest he be called back from his vices. See him fleeing from understanding, who says: Darkness covers me, and walls surround me: who knows whether the Lord sees?

For he does not wish to seek and find that God sees and knows all things; lest he be drawn back from crime by fear. See king Achab asking Naboth for his vineyard; know his reply: Far be it from me that I should give up the inheritance of my fathers. Ought he not to have understood that he was speaking justly? But he would not understand, that he might do well, and not seek after what belonged to another. Ought he not to have understood that Elijah truly served God, when he saw, at the word of Elijah, heaven closed for three years and three months; and at his prayers rains sent down, that all dry things might be watered? But he would not understand, lest he should condemn his own perfidy, and follow the faith.

Moreover He hath meditated iniquity upon his bed, where he ought to have sought the truth.

For in our beds our sins ought to prick us, not be committed by sinning there itself, as the Prophet says: The things which you say in your hearts, be pricked with compunction upon your beds.

He hath stood, it says, in every way that is not good: but evil he hath not hated. For not without cause does he meditate unjust things, who stands in the way of error, and loves the malice which he ought to have hated. He said more, he hath stood; as though he now remains a long time in the way of wickedness, by a lasting station. For that man is blessed, who has not stood in the way of sinners, not he who does not cease to stand in it. And therefore the first precepts of the holy prophet David are, to flee impiety, not to stand in sin, to meditate on the Law; that you may understand what things are good, and discern the just from the unjust. In all things, therefore, the root of what is being generated is to be watched, lest a useless sap infect it from the beginning, and the vices of souls are far graver than those of shoots.

We must beware above all things else, lest the habit of malice grow into human nature, and every succeeding age degenerate; for a bad tree makes bad fruits. For if for the most part we do what we do not wish, and cannot avoid it; and what we hold in hatred, this we do, conquered by a certain delight in the shameful deed, or by the stealthy approach of sin: how can we avoid what we love? If we are bound even unwillingly, how can we not be held as willing? Scarcely did Paul free himself from errors by daily struggling contention, that, stripped of the bonds of captivity, he might be preserved through the grace of Christ; and do you think that by standing amid sins you can attain to the merits of the heavenly promises? By struggling the crown is sought, not by yielding; by zeal, not by shrinking back, is it obtained.

For those who contend, the aid of divine mercy also must be sought, that the crown of righteousness may be bestowed according to the merits of their labors.

Let us then consider what follows.

O Lord, it says, in heaven is thy mercy; and thy truth reaches even unto the clouds. Thy justice is like the mountains of God; thy judgments are a great deep. Did not Paul follow this passage, when he said: Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For where the human mind is troubled, and the hard and harsh struggles of contests wear us out, the help of the Lord must be sought. And therefore, turning to the Lord, he calls upon and implores Him, that He might stand by as helper to those who labor.

Mercy, then, is to be sought from heaven, and the truth of God is to be gathered from the oracles of the prophets, who, like clouds, cover over the mysteries of divine knowledge. For God has made darkness His hiding place; that you may first receive the rain of mystical fertility, and then, being infused with heavenly dew, may recognize the brightness of the light disclosed, so that you may be able to say: Of his fullness we have received. For who can easily comprehend the secrets of God, whose justice is like the mountains of God, or (as Aquila has rendered it) like the strong mountains; because His precepts are full of strong power. Whence also the Apostle, seeing that the things he had heard were sublime, says: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments, and how unsearchable are his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor?

He referred, then, the depth of the riches of wisdom to the height of mountains. Hear of what mountains. For the Son of God Himself is a great mountain; and therefore ascend upon this mountain, thou who bringest good tidings to Sion, that thou mayest stand rooted and grounded in Christ. There is a mountain as it were the wisdom of God, there is a mountain as it were the justice, there is a mountain as it were the knowledge of God, there is a mountain as it were sanctification, there is a mountain as it were redemption, there is a mountain as it were resurrection. Scripture has shown us these mountains, which said: But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom from God, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption. Or because to the angels the Son of God was made an angel, to the prophets a prophet; whose judgments are a great deep.

Hear good things: Deep calls unto deep at the voice of thy floodgates

that is, the Scripture of the Old Testament calls forth the sequence of the New Testament unto the consummation of sanctification and the fullness of grace, with a certain sound and outpouring of spiritual overflow.

Men and beasts you will make safe, O Lord, as you have multiplied your mercy, O God.

But the sons of men shall hope in the protection of your wings. They shall be inebriated with the plenty of your house, and you shall give them drink of the torrent of your pleasure. What is meant by, men and beasts? Assuredly, the rational and the irrational. For the rational, judgments; for the irrational, mercy. Some are ruled, others are nourished.

And therefore he added: But the sons of men shall hope in the protection of your wings; that is, not a generation of vipers, but sons of men, who live according to the image and likeness of God; who are placed not in pastures but at banquets: for some are in the place of pastures, others in the privilege of the sacraments. For the imperfect, the nourishment of milk; for the perfect, the table of refreshment, of which he said: You have prepared a table before me; on which is the living bread, that is, the Word of God; on which is the oil of sanctification, by which the head of the just is anointed, and the inner sense is strengthened, so that the oil of the sinner may be abolished; on which also is the inebriating cup, how excellent, or how strong! For the Greek says κράτιστον, meaning either powerful, or strong, or valid; valid indeed, by which sins are washed away or blotted out. Good, therefore, is the inebriation of the wholesome cup.

But there is another inebriation, from the abundance of the Scriptures.

And there is yet another inebriation, through the infusion of the Holy Spirit. Hence those who spoke in various tongues in the Acts of the Apostles seemed to their hearers to be full of new wine. The house, therefore, is the Church; the plenty of the house is the abundance of graces; the torrent of pleasure is the Holy Spirit.

Nor let the name or the way of a torrent trouble you, in that it is sometimes drier or more meager, so that its streams are wont to cease. This torrent of ours also once ceased, the torrent of spiritual outpouring once ceased among the people of the Jews. What shall I say, that a torrent ceased; when even the sea ceased, as today's reading has taught us, the Lord saying: Behold, by my rebuke I will make the sea desolate, and I will make the rivers a desert, and their fish shall wither away, namely, of the Jews, by the dryness of their unbelief, so that they cannot swim forth? The torrent, therefore, ceased on account of the sacrileges of the Synagogue; because that people was dry in faith, sterile in works, captive in sins. For what could flow for those who do not drink but pollute the sacred channels, since they killed the very fountain itself?

Good is the torrent, which ceased for them, that it might abound for us, and might turn away the thirst of human desire, like a torrent in the south. Whence also Scripture says: Arise, O north wind, and come, O south wind, which is wont to blow through the little trees of paradise.

We have spoken of the sense; let us also consider the wording, why he said, you will give them drink of the torrent of your pleasure, and not, from the torrent, as it were, of the torrent; unless it be because he wished to express the eagerness of those drinking, as if they wished to drink up the torrent itself, if they could? This is perhaps that torrent of pleasure which we read of in Genesis, the fountain that waters paradise, and is divided into four rivers, which go around the whole earth. For from this fountain flow forth the spiritual virtues, prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice. Good is the fountain of grace and of splendor of the same, and of nature, of which also is that river of which it is said in what follows: The rush of the river makes glad the city of God.

Most fittingly, therefore, he adds: For with you is the fountain of life; and in your light we shall see light.

Extend your mercy to those who know you; and your justice to those who are upright of heart.

For indeed, after the commemoration of heavenly benefits, they are rightly referred back by grace to their author, our Lord Jesus Christ, who as the fountain of life, gushing with eternity, came down to earth, that he might water the dryness of our breast. He is the very splendor of the glory of God the Father, and the image of his substance; and therefore in his true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world, we shall see, he says, the Father; because God is light. Rightly also is it said: In your light we shall see light; according to that saying: He who sees me, sees also my Father. With you, therefore, O Fountain of life, we shall see the Father present. For as you were with the Father in the beginning, God the Word, so also the Father is always with you, who is in you.

For he is with him in whom he is. Now this prophesies the coming of the Lord the Savior, who, about to come upon earth, would say: I and the Father are one; that is, we are one light, as we are one name. Through the unity of light and of name we are both one; nay rather, a Trinity, one in unity of substance, but distinct in the distinction of each person. The Trinity signifies distinction of persons, the unity, power. It can also be said of the Father: For with you is the fountain of life, that is, in you, from whom life proceeded, was the Word, and always was, because it was with you. All things were made through him and in him; and he himself is the life of all things, and he himself has manifested you to us, that the hearts of men might be enlightened to the knowledge of your majesty.

Extend, therefore, your mercy to those who know you.

The privilege is extended, that those may deserve mercy for whom the merit of your knowledge intercedes. Indeed, we recognize further on that the zeal of knowledge availed even for baser persons, the Lord saying: I will remember Rahab and Babylon among those who know me; that is, I will be mindful of that harlot Rahab, and of that confusion, among those who know me, or amid them; because that harlot recognized me, whom the people did not recognize. Among those, therefore, who knew me, Rahab shall be commemorated, that she may obtain a reward worthy of her faith. Whence also we notice it said in the Gospel: Harlots and publicans go before you into the kingdom of heaven.

But because we are weak to carry out, though devout to believe: do you extend your mercy to those believing in you, so that our devotion and faith may be matched also by our deeds; nor let the weakness of this body abandon the zeal of our mind, but let us glory in the very temptations and infirmities, in which the Apostle gloried, saying: Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may be extended in me.

Most beautifully, therefore, he adds: Let not the foot of pride come to me, and let not the hand of sinners move me.

There have they fallen who work iniquity; they are cast out, and could not stand. Some above understand by the torrent of your pleasure, fortitude in temptations; such as is that of the martyrs, in whom it pleased God to display for himself the pleasure of a sweet and pleasing contest.

For indeed, if winters are taken for temptations; whence also the Lord admonishes us to pray, that our flight be not in winter or on the sabbath, that is, either in temptation or in idleness; for in winter the torrent grows and is filled, and swells: a torrent, then, may well be taken for the graver temptation, which occurs in persecutions. And therefore it is well called a torrent of pleasure, because where the sin of persecution abounded, there the grace of confession abounded also.

See the power of the Prophet's distinction.

First he set forth the unjust man, who either in his heart or in speech says, that he may sin against himself, or that he sins within himself; for the Greek codex has, ἐν ἑαυτῷ, that is, in himself, but not all copies have it. And perhaps because the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. Lest perhaps the unjust man too say within himself, and sin within himself, though openly to deny God is the part of a madman; injustice, however, many profess as though it were a matter of praise. For to seize, and even to harm those who have not injured, and to circumvent, many reckon glorious for themselves. Therefore he first set forth the life of the unjust, and afterward added the mystery of divine knowledge; that, fearing God, we might turn aside from iniquity and injustice.

He added a prayer, that God would deign to free his just ones from the fellowship of the unjust; that in those also who are pure of heart, divine justice might extend itself, as a watchful and pious sentinel; lest the assault of sinners, as of enemies, steal upon us, and catch us sleeping. Therefore we must watch, the camp of the Lord must ever be fortified; because the enemy and adversary comes by night, when sense is held by sleep, when the body is weighed down by food. We must pray that the justice of God extend over us, which may make those placed in weakness stronger, so that each one of us may say: When I am weak, then am I strong.

There he prayed, there he fulfilled it: he would not have fulfilled it, had he not prayed.

Pride is to be shunned, which trips one even in prosperous things. Indeed, Adam fell more gravely in paradise, than if he had fallen upon the earth. To fall from the heights is a precipice: on the level ground a fall is called a slip. Therefore the foot of the proud man wanders, because it does not keep to the head; for the eyes of the wise man are in his head. No wonder, then, if the footstep wanders, where the eye is not present. Let the eye go before, that the foot may follow. For how would a traveler proceed in darkness? The foot quickly stumbles in the night, if the moon, as a certain eye of the world, does not show the way. And you also are in the night of the world; let the Church show you the way; let the sun of justice illumine you from on high, that you need not fear a fall.

And because he had spoken of the foot of pride, he added: And let not the hand of sinners move me. For indeed, as the saints are members of Christ, so the impious are members of the devil. Let not the hand of sinners move me, that is, let the acts of those who sin not move me from the station of justice. For often, when we see sinners abound in prosperous successes, we waver in feeling, and are torn as it were from the root of virtue by a certain hand of sinners. We must beware, then, lest those whom the divine hand has planted in the house of God be undermined by a hostile hand. Yet aptly does he who is scourged by persecutors say this. But those who are moved from their root, by which they had already clung to Christ, fall.

Whence he adds: There have they fallen who work iniquity.

What is meant by, there? Where pride is, where the hand of sinners is? Or where they were standing, where they had been previously planted; there did they fall? Or nearby, or continuously, as it were at that very time, in that very place? And it seems ambiguous. But elsewhere we are taught who is there, where it is said: There are pangs as of a woman in labor. Good is the pang for one for whom there is a birth of faith, by which Christ is formed and born in the Church. And elsewhere he says: I will remember Rahab and Babylon among those who know me. For indeed foreigners, and Tyre and the people of the Ethiopians, these were there; that is, where those who know me are, where the foundations are in the holy mountains, there also are the foreigners; because they too thought that belief in me was due.

There, therefore, they fell, where they ought rather to have stood

because Adam also fell in paradise, and Christ came to ruin, and to resurrection, that ruin might belong to the unbelieving, but resurrection to the just and the faithful.

Indeed, they were cast out; because unjust men could not stand in a holy place. Whence also the Apostle said: And you who stand, take heed lest you fall. And indeed he said this to one who stood, not in body, but in faith. We may also understand, there, with reference to the future, as it is written: There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth; and: Naked shall I go on there. How brief in its outcome, and how great a conclusion! Let me not, he says, be proud, so as to sin; let me not sin, lest I be moved, lest I fall; let me not fall, lest I be cast out, as Adam was cast out of paradise; because in him first the foot of pride could not stand. Pride knows not how to stand; and if it has fallen, it knows not how to rise again.

And therefore aptly does this same psalmist elsewhere speak of the proud: These in chariots, and these in horses; but we will be magnified in the name of our God; for the one is stable, the other treacherous. And he added: They are bound and have fallen; but we have risen up, and stand upright. And in the book of the prophet Micah it is written: Rejoice not proudly over me, my enemy, because I have fallen; for I shall rise again. For we have fallen in this world, but in Christ we have risen again: to whom be honor, glory, power, and perpetuity, both from the ages, and now and always, and unto all ages of ages. Amen.

All divine Scripture is either natural, or mystical, or moral.

Natural, in Genesis, in which is expressed how the heaven, the seas, the lands were made, and how this world was constituted. Mystical, in Leviticus, in which the priestly mystery is comprehended. Moral, in Deuteronomy, in which human life is formed according to the precept of the Law. Whence also the three books of Solomon seem to have been chosen out of very many: Ecclesiastes, concerning natural things; the Song of Songs, concerning mystical things; Proverbs, concerning moral things.

But since the body of all the psalms is one, therefore nothing in them is divided and distinguished; but as occasion offered itself, no discipline of this kind of teaching has been omitted. For it also comprehends the natural most evidently, speaking of Angels and Virtues, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars, and the light of the heaven of heavens, and the water that is above the heavens: For he spoke, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created. He established them for ever and ever; he made a decree, and it shall not pass away. And he spoke of mystical things, when he wrote of hidden things, and of the ointment of sacred unction, and of the completion of the Tabernacle. Of which there is manifold grace; since God spoke in many parts and in many ways in the Prophets.

For he foretold both that the Son of God, the Prince of priests, would come, and would suffer for us, and would cleanse our sins by his blood—the titles For the winepresses (others) declared; and that he would rise again, the psalm of the resurrection expressed; and another title afterward indicated, in which his land was restored, and also the future transformation of all things by the sacraments of faith. And of moral things he wove together many, and showed diverse kinds of virtues, and gave precepts for living, by which he healed the ulcers of our errors, and renewed human character, and changed the innermost affections; as the thirty-third psalm teaches, which even holy Peter, in his epistle, applied like a medicine to our hearts; and also this one which has been set before us in today's reading. For these are found to be more ethical than the rest: but this one, which is entitled the thirty-sixth, is more diffuse.

For though that one is very sweet and clear, this one is yet sweeter; since that one taught me to restrain my tongue from evil, this one to cease from anger, to abandon indignation. That one bade me speak without guile, this one instructed me to be gentle, showing the rewards of gentleness. What greater balms are there for the human heart than gentleness and simplicity, by which every pain of received injury is relieved, and every stain of guilt is excluded?

Let us then apply a helping remedy to these things, that we may cure our wounds; lest, if we should wish to say that we can cure others, it be said to us: Physician, heal thyself. Therefore, what is common not only to physicians but also to the common people—that few profess medicine, yet very many say they know some of its remedies—or what the apprentices of physicians do, let us too, with borrowed medicine, offer a remedy to those who need it. Let the rich man employ a master, the poor man a servant. He who can grasp the height of perfection, let him take from it itself; he who desires plainer things, let him be pastured in the valley, like a little one. He who fears the river, let him drink from the little stream; and he who dreads the deep, let him swim near the shore.

Beautifully, moreover, does holy David, in the preceding psalm, describe the life of the unjust man, and here that of the just; there the unjust man is set forth, here the just man is instructed; there he sins against himself, here he takes away even the sins of others. And therefore let us consider what the first remedy of justice is.

Be not, he says, envious among evildoers, neither be thou jealous of them that do iniquity.

First let us learn what it is to be jealous; although the force of this word is less in Latin than in Greek. For we read of jealousy (aemulatio) both in a good sense, and in a bad. Thus the Apostle says: It is good to be zealous in a good thing always. And above he himself said: They are jealous of you, not well; but they wish to exclude you, that you may be jealous of them. And again he says: Be zealous for the better gifts. And to the Romans you have: I say then, have they so stumbled that they should fall? God forbid; but by their fall salvation is come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.

And below: For I say to you Gentiles: as long as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I will honor my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy my own flesh, and may save some of them; that is, may affect my own flesh. Thus the Greek has παραζηλώσω. For here too it has: μὴ παραζήλου ἐν πονηρευομένοις, μηδὲ ζήλου τοὺς ποιοῦντας τὴν ἀνομίαν; that is, do not stir the wicked to jealousy; since they contend not for good, but for evil.

What is it, to stir up to jealousy?

Let us open it by example, if we can. There are certain unrestrained women, who solicit the hearts of other women's husbands: whom, when they have subjected to their own habit and disgrace, not content to keep their error secret, they take pains to boast their crime before the men's own wives; that they may stir up and inflame them to jealousy of them, seeking a certain triumph from the grief and agitation of virtuous minds. These wives, unable to bear the insult to their own marriage-bed through jealousy of the woman, either dissolve the bonds of a once-happy marriage, or struggle in daily strife; and from jealousy discord arises, from dissension division, by which the whole house is disturbed. By the example, therefore, of the shameless woman, learn, you who read, that it is the part of the most wicked and detestable cunning to stir up another's soul by wicked jealousy: and that zeal is one thing, and para-zeal another.

For this is the depraved jealousy which creeps into the affection even of good men: by which the Jew also erred, who from the true and good way of the Gospel discipline turned aside into the byways of jealousy for the Law, as the Apostle says of himself, that according to zeal for the Law he persecuted the Church of Christ.

Therefore although our God was frequently offended by the ungrateful affections and complaints of the Jews, yet he by no means abandoned the people he had once taken up and chosen for himself; but only the shameless harlot Synagogue began to provoke him into the bitterness of jealousy, mingling herself with the sacrileges of transgression. Thus she said to the priest Aaron: Make us gods whom we may worship; and they began to worship the head of a calf. Whence through the great song of Moses the Lord resounded in his own mouth, saying: They have provoked me to jealousy with what is not God, they have angered me with their idols; but I will provoke them to jealousy with what is not a nation, I will anger them with a foolish nation.

See how the Lord condemned the harlotrous ways of the Synagogue, that he might turn their own cunning back upon them; and that they might be affected by their own device, who had refused the Lord their God, by whom they had been taken up, through grievous sacrileges, choosing for themselves gods whom they might worship: taking up, on the contrary, for himself, from the profane, the Church, which without Law, without grace, the people of the Jews would groan to see preferred to them; and their affection would be stirred up the more to jealousy of them, the more contemptible the choice seemed to be. For before, that people had nothing by which to be affected, when it considered itself alone chosen by the Lord. But when it perceived that a gathered common people, adopted from the nations, was claiming for itself the law of the Lord, the oracles of the prophets, the new Testament of the Lord, then indeed it began to be tormented with excessive passion, after it recognized that it had been rejected.

Thus, if it should see the ceremonies of the Gentiles, it is not moved; if it should hear of the progress of the Church, it is tortured and wretchedly racked with envy. Thus in Judea is fulfilled: And I will provoke them to jealousy with what is not a nation.

There is added to the affliction of a heavier torment, that from the Gentiles sinners appear to be preferred over them, who do not even claim the name of a nation or of any people at all. For every gathering of any region has been accustomed to claim a name for itself, as the Egyptians, the Ethiopians, the Syrians, the Jews, the Arabs, put forward the name of their province and of their own lands: we, gathered from diverse peoples, cannot claim for ourselves the name of one nation; and therefore, because we had no name on earth, we received one from heaven, that we might be called the people of Christ. But this the Gentile thinks foolishness, the Jew a reproach. It is true, then, what is written, that God has avenged his own insult, seeking for himself a Church from what is not a nation; and preferring it, from a foolish nation, to that ancient and royal people.

What that foolish nation is which has been preferred, hear him say: For God has chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise. And again: If any man among you seems to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. The Lord, therefore, rendered, did not inflict, the fellowship of jealousy; that it might exist not in the form of imitation, but in the punishment of iniquity.

Thus the Latin translator, wishing to make a distinction between the jealousy of virtue and the jealousy of offense, says: Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?

That is, do we bring upon the Lord the offense of jealousy, by eating of the things which have been sacrificed to idols; as the Jews did, when by sacrificing to idols they provoked him? But if among men the intention of stirring up jealousy gives offense, and frequently the person provoked is found to be the superior—since it is customary for the kindling of jealousy to be a snare—what folly is it to provoke the divine majesty, and to assail it with the offense of jealousy, where there is no difficulty in vengeance?

We ought not, therefore, to supply to wicked men the stings of jealousy against us, since even when not provoked they are stirred up by the goads of envy to do harm; as Cain killed his brother, because his sacrifice was more acceptable than what he himself had thought fit to offer. In this Abel did not act with jealousy: but envious Cain pursued with wicked fratricide the grace of preference. For Abel did not wish to overshadow his brother's sacrifice, but to preserve the discipline of sacrifice; that no sloth should delay the firstfruits, nor any diverted usurpation violate them for private uses. Saul also attempted, by ambush, to kill David, the conqueror of the Philistines, the prophet, and the preserver of his own safety, whom the maidens' song had preferred to him; he prepared to kill him with the cast of a spear, and had almost shed the blood of his innocent son-in-law, had not David evaded the wound by bending his body aside.

What malice was there, if the maidens said: Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?

How atrocious, moreover, was the envy of King Saul, who turned a slip of speech into the destruction of an innocent man!

Neither be jealous, he says, of them that do iniquity.

He did not repeat what he had said, but changed it: for it is one thing to be sub-jealous, another to be jealous: sub-jealousy has cunning, jealousy has simplicity. But yet even simplicity itself ought to be cautious and provident, that it may know what should be guarded against. For it was not said idly: Be ye wise as serpents, and simple as doves. Therefore the cunning ought to be spiritual, which preserves safety and knows no deceit. The simplicity ought to be spiritual. Scripture seems also, in another place, to have made a distinction of sub-jealousy, when it says: And the jealousy of Ephraim shall be taken away, and the enemies of Judah shall perish. Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. But elsewhere you have: So also you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek to abound unto the edification of the Church.

He put "zealous ones" for good men and imitators of a good thing, and "jealous" for the crooked and envious.

The first thing, then, is that you not provoke the wicked to the malignity of jealousy; the second, that you not be jealous of them that do iniquity.

For very often the pious, seeing certain men have sought riches by fraud and cunning, and attained to honors, are moved by a shameful jealousy to eagerly follow their ways; so that they may attain to riches and honors by a similar art, or in contracting marriage may defraud young girls. For what does it profit, when riches themselves and all worldly glory wither quickly like hay, and fall away, like the herbs of the field, in the very appearance of their flower? All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man is as the flower of grass. Do not, then, greatly seek after what cannot be lasting; do not be jealous and crooked; do not be contentious and a rival in zeal.

Whence also Aquila said: Do not strive among evildoers.

Symmachus: Do not contend. Do not also be an imitator of iniquity and fraud; but be an imitator of apostolic teaching, of prophetic grace, and of the virtue of the saints; that you may bear fruit, and store up a harvest of goodness, like Joseph, who by an abundance of grain shut out the famine of long-lasting sterility: like Habakkuk, who, in carrying a meal to the reapers, was lifted up by an angel and made a journey through the airy path, and, restored to the earth amid the fierce roaring of lions, ministered a sweet feast to the pious prophet.

Rightly then does the Prophet say: Hope in the Lord, and do good; and dwell in the land, and thou shalt be fed with its riches.

What is the land which he urges to be dwelt in, but your soul, which you ought carefully to cultivate, frequently to plough with spiritual shares, lest it grow rough with long neglect?

For a good husbandman works his field with daily labor and wakeful care, and guards his own lands, lest the boar from the forest lay them waste, and a plunderer snatch away the ripened fruits. Plough therefore your land, that when he who sows the word comes, he may find your soul prepared; lest the seed fall upon the untilled parts of your heart, and the birds of the air come and snatch away what has been sown. Hear then who tells you what that land is: Behold, he went forth who sows, to sow his field; and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, some upon a rock, some upon good ground [lacuna] But that which fell upon good ground, these are they who, hearing the word with a good heart, retain it, and bring forth fruit with patience. Let your heart therefore be clean, let your soul be clean, that you may be able to bring forth the fruit of goodness, that is, of spiritual grace.

For goodness is the fruit of the Holy Spirit; as it is written: But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience, benignity, goodness, faith, modesty, continence. These are the fruits with whose riches we are fed, and with whose abundance we are satisfied. In this land the just Noah planted that fruitful vine, and drank of its fruit, and was loosed in his innermost heart; when the twofold posterity of his virtues clothed him with the praiseworthy garment of piety. In another place too the holy Prophet showed us those riches, in which he was rich in Christ, and abounded in all things that lead to eternal life. And indeed who is richer than he who is rich in the Lord; so that he can say: In the way of thy testimonies I have delighted, as in all riches? For what could be lacking to a man who was enriched with heavenly oracles?

And therefore in this psalm he urges us to seek for ourselves that eternal treasure, and to take hold of its delight by acquiring it.

therefore he says: Delight in the Lord, and he will give thee the petitions of thy heart. Why did he not say "your petitions," but "the petitions of your heart"? For the petitions of the outer man and of the inner man are not common, nor are all approved by Christ; because the law of the flesh frequently fights against the law of the mind. But whatever petitions belong to the inner man, who is renewed by the Spirit, those petitions the Lord grants to the petitioner in effect. Whence also elsewhere he says: May the Lord grant thee according to thy heart, and confirm all thy petitions.

According to the heart, he says, not according to the appetite of the flesh; and those petitions, he says, which proceed from the innermost heart, may he confirm, not those which are directed by the enticement and pleasures of this flesh.

Reveal thy way to the Lord, and hope in him, and he will do it.

And he will bring forth thy justice as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. In this one

alone he has declared what sort of person you ought to be.

For who reveals his way, except one who confesses the inner things of his breast to God, the arbiter of his hidden things? Well does he say "reveal," that is, open your conscience, lest the shadow of this world or of the flesh weigh it down. For sprouting seeds, if they are shaded, become thin; exposed to the sun, they grow fat. Why do I speak of seeds?

Even the young trees themselves, the shade of the forest kills off, preventing them from raising themselves aloft, and forbids them to spread their branching arms. But beautifully has he said: Reveal thy way to the Lord, because human nature, prone to sin, draws as it were a certain veil over our mind; lest we confess our sins to the Lord, who is able to heal our wounds: so that one blushes to ask for medicine with his own mouth, lest his disgraces be revealed before men. Therefore conscience presses itself within a man, since it cannot lie hidden; and it delays so long, until the wound festers, so that it is now uncovered not by the healthfulness of faith, but by the incurable severity of the ulcer. Reveal, he says, your way to the Lord; that is, open your way, do not hide it, as Cain hid it, who wished to lie hidden; for everyone who does evil hates the light. David was revealing his way, who says: I declare my works to the King.

Open your understanding, that there may be nothing which you fear to have reproved.

Paul too revealed it, who presumed to say: I am conscious to myself of nothing. Let such be your act, such your life, that your way may shine before your Father who is in heaven.

But because all human condition is subject to frailty, and it is not in our own power to direct our path according to our will; therefore he says to you: Hope in the Lord, and he will do it; that is, that he may open your way, and not permit you to be such as to flee the light, while you fear to be exposed, and to love darkness, so that you might be able to hide your disgraces, saying: Darkness covers me, who knows if the Most High sees? For how can he who plots adultery not seek a night suited to his attempts? He who thinks to bring in a false witness to further his fraud, who seeks to corrupt a judge to oppress the innocent, not to seek out the secrecy of iniquity? The robber lies in wait in solitude, waits for the darkness of night, that his crime may succeed. Iniquity therefore is darkness: God is light.

And if you wish to hide your righteousness, God will bring it out into the light; nor does he allow to lie hidden the judgment by which you have chosen what is good, and rejected what is wicked. Nor does he only make your judgment shine; but shine as the noonday. When this sun pours itself out fully into brightness, it is noon. It was noon when Joseph feasted with his brothers, not avenging the wrong, but having forgotten it.

Be subject to the Lord, and entreat him.

You are admonished not only to be subject to God; but also to entreat the Lord, so that you may be able to fulfill the effort of your subjection, just as he also said above: Reveal your way to the Lord, and hope in him. It befits you not only to reveal your way; but also to hope in the Lord. Now subjection is good, not abject, not base, but glorious and lofty; for he is subject to God who does the will of the Lord.

Finally, who does not know that the wisdom of the mind is more excellent than the wisdom of the flesh?

Now the wisdom of the mind is subject to the law of God; the wisdom of the flesh is not subject. And the Apostle added: For neither can it be. Be therefore subject, that is, near to Christ, so that you may fulfill the Law. Finally, Christ, by doing the will of the Father, fulfilled the Law. And therefore he is the end of the Law, and the fullness of charity; because loving the Father, he applied all his affection to his will. Whence for glory the Apostle said: But when all things shall be subjected to him, then the Son also himself shall be subject unto him, that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. And he himself says of himself: Is not my soul subject to God? For from him is my salvation. Finally, it was for piety's sake, not for weakness, that Joseph and Mary's parents were subject to him.

Now the greatest glory of Christ is that he pours himself into the hearts of all men, and calls all back from the impiety of unbelief, and the affection of paganism, so as to make them subject to himself. But when he shall have subjected all things to himself, when the fullness of the Gentiles shall have entered in, and all Israel shall have been saved, and there shall be one body in Christ throughout the whole world; then he too shall be subject, offering his gift to God the Father, and as it were the Prince of all priests, offering his body upon the heavenly altars, so that the faith of all may be the sacrifice. This subjection, then, belongs to piety, that the Lord Jesus will be subject in the body; of which we are the body and members. Be therefore, O man, subject to Christ, that is, subject to the wisdom of God, subject to the word, subject to righteousness, subject to virtue; because Christ is all these things.

Let every man subject himself to God; for he teaches not one, but all, to subject their heart, to subject their soul, to subject their flesh, so that God may be all in all. He therefore is subject who is full of grace, and takes up the yoke of Christ, and vigorously and without delay carries out the commandments of the Lord; but without subjection is he who vainly exalts himself, puffed up by the sense of his own flesh, insolent of devotion and declining the observance of pious servitude, which by the very law of nature we owe to our eternal Author. Finally, he who is without sin is subject to Christ, since he has been redeemed by the Lord; but he who is in sin cannot be called free, but a slave, whom the heavy chains of sin hold fast.

There follows: Be not emulous of him who prospers in his way, doing iniquity.

Here he clearly intimated what he meant above: that the wicked are not to be roused by emulation toward wickedness, nor are those who do iniquity to be imitated. For it is not iniquity, but the prosperous circumstances which come to those who do iniquitous things, that often disturb us, so that we think they are to be imitated, in order that we may attain to their successes, saying: Behold these are sinners, and abounding in the world, they have obtained riches.

And I said: Then have I in vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent; and I have been scourged all the day If therefore David was scourged, we ought to be wary lest we too be scourged; and lest it be said to us that riches, honors, powers, seem to be laid out for this generation, as though they were the vague and uncertain workings of money, the profits of iniquity, not as though they were any rewards of virtue; and so they come like a dream, and vanish like a dream when you awaken. The athletes themselves, it is certain, are crowned when they have won, not before they win. Our wrestling is with the world. Conquer before the world ends, that you may seek the crown. No one is crowned before he has completed the contest. Those who run the race, do they receive the prize before they have run the course? How many who are ahead fall at the finish, and are cheated of the swiftness of their course?

Are you then more acceptable to God than Paul?

He, the vessel of election, he, the Teacher of the Gentiles, never in this world dared to demand a crown for himself. Finally, hear him saying: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. As to what remains, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord will render to me in that day. That Paul, caught up into the third heaven, who heard secret words which it is not lawful for a man to utter: whether he was caught up in the body, or out of the body, he does not know, as he himself testified. Paul, then, says that the crown is to be rendered to him in that day; do you insist that it be rendered to you here? Fulfill therefore the time of your contest.

The athlete does not wrestle only once, nor does the soldier fight only once, that he may fulfill his stipend; and for you the struggle is not with one single passion.

If you have escaped the aforementioned passions, anger succeeds; and therefore Scripture says to you: Cease from anger, and forsake indignation.

There are many vices which creep upon the unwise. Anger is a heavy passion: it often inflames a man against his will; and one who wishes to avenge himself more gently it snatches into fury, so that he destroys the very one whom he thought should merely be restrained. Being provoked, he often runs through the innocent with a sword. Very many have destroyed friends and brothers through indignation. Therefore the Wise Man says: Anger destroys even the wise. This is the saying of Solomon, that anger destroys not only ordinary men from their midst, but even the wise themselves. And David admonishes the wise man, saying: Cease from anger; lest, once you have kindled it, it not cease before its flame consumes you.

Forsake, he says, indignation

that is, nature carries you along, feeling stirs you, someone's fault or offense rouses you to indignation; but not to such an extent that you know no measure: forsake it, put an end to it, lest it draw you into sin. This is what he said above: Be angry, and sin not. For he does not exhort you to be angry, but yields for a time to feeling; yet he gives a remedy, lest the force of the wound spread further. "Be angry," as he says, belongs to your passion. For a physician does not immediately apply medicines to an ailment; if pain is burning, he applies fomentations, that the pain may soften; if fever is raging, he waits for the time of remedy, and is accustomed to deny drink itself to those who thirst. He does not say: Do not have fever, while the patient's heat is burning; but he says: Wait, let the fever cease, let the disturbance be dispersed.

So too the Prophet could not say to a man, whose flesh is stirred by various passions of disturbance just as by diseases: Do not be angry; but he says: Cease from anger, and forsake indignation, lest you sin; for anger is a heavy teacher of sin. Another physician also says: Let not the sun go down upon your wrath; lest, while you delay too long, he comes who is accustomed to rouse the body, warmed by sleep, and goads you, inserts thoughts into you, and immerses himself in the secret places of your breast, saying: Avenge your injury, know yourself to be a man: it is a mark of womanish weakness not to take vengeance. Therefore should a slave have despised you, a brother deceived you, a friend mocked you; and do you still not avenge your own insult? You must proscribe him, you must rise up with the sword, and dissolve your grief by the death of your adversary.

That man was a man who killed his enemy, he is rightly praised

because he avenged himself in such a way that another, though ignorant, might hear of it, and not dare to inflict injury upon him. By these goads he is more inflamed, more moved; so that what is written may be fulfilled: Anger destroys even the wise.

Therefore do not listen to him; lest, like a woman, you act wickedly. For those who act wickedly shall be cut off. Those are cut off who have no roots, like vegetables or hay. Let the weak man eat vegetables: but you, plant a vine in your field, establish a vineyard. And if Achab should come, who says to you: Give me your vineyard, that I may sow vegetables for myself; do not consent to him, lest by your consent he sow perishable things, and cut off eternal ones.

Therefore Naboth is counted among the saints, because he thought that the inheritance of his forebears should not be yielded even to the king; and he preferred to be stoned rather than give up his vineyard to plunder. The inheritance of our forebears is the true faith. There arose Arians, propped up by royal power, who thought the temple of the Lord should be handed over to them, threatening bitter punishments; but far be it that, in a mind serving the Lord, the dread of punishment should weigh more than the form of piety. Perfidy did not prevail, because faith resisted. There is also a certain vineyard in the hearts of the faithful, of which Isaiah says: A vineyard was made for the beloved in a fruitful horn. This vineyard the Lord planted in our hearts; and therefore we read God saying: I planted you a fruitful vine, wholly true. Let no one, therefore, take away this vine from the field of our soul; for that vine is blessed.

And therefore it is said of the saints: From the fruit of grain, wine, and oil, they are multiplied. It is good, therefore, to have within you winepresses overflowing with wine; so that wine may flow for you into your vessel from the vineyard of Sorech, that cup, how splendid its inebriation! For Sorech is the vineyard of a new beginning, and of a new righteousness. Whence also it is said to us: Sing to the Lord a new song, its beginning, magnify his name from the end of the earth. Let this vineyard, then, produce grapes, not iniquity. Therefore the vineyard of the Jews was abandoned; because it produced iniquity, as it is written, and not judgment. Let us, then, bear fruit in Christ, that we may deserve to be everlasting.

For those who wait upon the Lord shall possess the land: that land, certainly, of the living. There is a certain heavenly land, which bears heavenly fruit, of which he says: I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living. This earth ministers food to the belly through much sweat of men; that land of the goodness of the Lord bears fruit without any labor, in which there is the enduring possession of the just, and the inheritance of a pious mind. And well does he say: But those who wait upon the Lord shall possess the land by inheritance. For this is the land which does not pass away; for heaven and earth shall pass away, but the words of the Lord shall not pass away. And therefore that intelligible land of paradise cannot pass away either, in which are those who keep the words of the Lord.

In this land Adam was placed, that he might receive the fruit of eternal life; but

because he was unwilling to keep the words of the Lord, therefore he did not deserve to remain in the possession he had received. But he who keeps the words of the Lord confidently says: Waiting, I have waited for the Lord, and he has looked upon me. But Adam, because he did not wait for the Lord (for how could he wait, who fled and feared to present himself), therefore the Lord did not deign to look upon him either; for the eyes of the Lord are upon the just. And him he was so unwilling to see, that he sought him, saying: Adam, where are you? He who is sought is held to be absent. It is faith that presents us to God, perfidy that makes the impious go into exile. No one, therefore, is absent from God, except one who has made himself absent.

And therefore he says: Let it be done to you according to your faith; for he who does not know, will not be known. Therefore Adam, as a sinner, could not keep his place. Cast out of paradise, he was banished into a stronghold, that he might do penance. He received a delay, lest he perish immediately and utterly; that Eve might be saved through the generation of children, the faith of holy Abel, the grace of the prophets, the posterity of the Church.

But because through these means he was unwilling to be redeemed, and thinks he must persevere in sin, the Prophet says of him: And yet a little while, and the sinner shall not be; and you will seek his place, and will not find it. For how can he exist in the future, since the place of sin cannot be lasting? For this is the earth which opened its mouth, to receive the blood of the innocent. And therefore in this earth there is a place for sinners.

The earth passes away; how then can the place of the sinner be found?

I think that God ordered the firmament to exist between water and water in order to distinguish sins from virtues; and that the upper water, which praises the Lord, should remain calm and free of error, while the lower water should be subject to sin. Finally, that upper water sees God, this lower one does not: that which is above the heavens, sees; that which is in the abyss, does not see. Whence also it is said: The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you, and were afraid; the depths were troubled, the abundance of sound of waters. Rightly are the depths troubled, over which deformed darkness lies, and therefore they cannot have peace. Whence also the legion of demons begged to be sent into the abyss, and with great tumult cast itself down into the waves; that it might strangle the herd of swine it had found.

Sinners, therefore, seek the abyss, where the gloom of darkness is.

But the meek shall possess the land, and shall delight in the abundance of peace.

Rightly do they possess the land in whom God himself rests; as it resounded through the divine oracle by Isaiah, saying: Upon whom shall I rest, but upon the humble and quiet, and him who trembles at my words? Who are the meek, but those whom no goad of dissension stirs up, whom anger does not disturb, whom savagery does not exasperate, whom the madness of cruelty does not inflame?

And therefore, because, while established in the body, they loved not wines, not banquets, not riches, but the peace of the Lord; in place of that delight of bodily pleasures, of which they thought they would be deprived, in order to obtain eternal grace, they shall delight in the abundance of peace, which our Lord Jesus bestowed upon the human race in his days; as the prophecy, which did not lie, sets forth, asserting: In his days shall justice arise, and abundance of peace, until the moon be taken away. What, then, is the peace by which the people of the whole Church has been multiplied; if not that of which the Lord said: My peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you? He gave peace, who quieted the wars of souls.

There follows: The sinner shall watch the just man, and shall gnash upon him with his teeth.

But the Lord shall laugh at him; for he foresees that his day is coming.

It is indeed the custom of one who is indignant and boiling into wrath to gnash with the teeth: but the heart of the wicked man also has its own teeth, which are accustomed not to make sound, but to lacerate. Snares, contrivances, wicked deeds, are the teeth of the sinner. The sinner, therefore, lies in wait for the just man, because he envies him; for the life of the just man refutes the sinner, whom it condemns silently with greater authority than if it spoke with a clear voice. But the just man ought not to fear the gnashing of the sinner, because wickedness cannot be perpetual. Snares are temporal; but the fortifications of virtue are eternal. The death of the sinner dissolves all his power and deceit.

He adds more: Behold, he says, sinners have drawn out the sword, they have bent their bow, that they may cast down the poor and needy. What is the sword of the sinner, but that which is contrary to the sword of the Holy Spirit?

Scripture taught me this sword; the Apostle taught, saying, that we have the breastplate of righteousness, and the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God Therefore the word of God is the sword of the Holy Spirit. Contrariwise, the sword of the most wicked spirit is an evil word. With this sword the apostle Peter struck Ananias and Sapphira with his word as with a kind of blade; with this sword Paul, when Elymas opposed his disputations, tore away the light of his eyes, and poured upon him the night of blindness. Consider now for me those quarrelling sinners, casting forth bitter arrogances, and bringing forth reproaches of accusations; will you not, if you hear them, say: Sinners have drawn their sword; when a foul speech is brought forth from the mouth as if from some petulant sheath, which it would have been fitting to restrain and put back?

Just as the word of God is called a sword, and the same is true of the speech of the sinner: so too the bow which sinners bend is their mind; and the arrow which they cast is poisonous speech. For just as Christ is an arrow, who is the Word of God, of whom it is said: I have set you as a chosen arrow, which is brought forth from the quiver of God: so the arrows of the perfidious are those which, shot from a certain bow of iniquity, wound the unwary innocent, unless their fiery darts are repelled by the shield of faith. And therefore you ought to be watchful as a soldier in battle; because your struggle is not only against flesh and blood, but also against those spiritual wickednesses themselves which are not seen. Let strong weapons of God abound to you, that you may easily be able to draw forth whatever darts you wish: lest the enemy be able to oppress you, poor and unarmed.

Be strong in God, rich in God, that it may be said of you: The redemption of a man's soul is his riches.

Abound in the treasure of wisdom, be rich in word and in good works, that you may be fortified. Flee the riches of the sinner, lest he find where he may wound you. Be merciful, that you may remain invulnerable, or that you may be able to be healed, if you have been wounded. There is also a poor man whom the adversaries wish to wound, of that number of whom the Savior said: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

therefore let the sword of sinners enter into their own hearts, and let their bow be broken.

So that just as peace returns to God's little servants from those who have not received it, blessing peace: so also the malice of sinners, whereby they justly strive to do harm, may return to their own destruction; that they may be slaughtered by their own weapons and wounds. For often darts are turned back upon those who made them. This also happened in the recent war, when unfaithful and sacrilegious men provoked one who trusted in the Lord, and strove to snatch away his kingdom, threatening the churches of the Lord with savage persecutions; when suddenly a wind arose, which shook the shields from the hands of the unfaithful, and turned back the weapons and missiles of all of them against the sinners' own army. The enemy was not yet at hand, and already they could not bear the battles of the winds, and were laid low by their own darts.

And, what is worse, those wounds of the body were not graver than the wounds of their minds; for their hearts failed them, when they perceived that God was fighting against them. So they had gone forth provoking, and from the quiver of their own heart were bringing forth against the Christian people the poisoned darts of perfidy; but their impiety returned upon their own heads. In the end they themselves were undone among themselves by their own perfidy, and the Lord scattered the snares prepared for the faithful; so that they could not only do no harm to the pious, but were stripped of their own defenses, and their weapons passed over to the enemy. How much better it would have been not to have drawn the sword from the sheath, that is, never to have uttered impious words! For if each man must render account for an idle word, how much more shall he expiate the words of sacrilege with grave punishments?

Thou hast tried us with fire, says David.

Therefore we shall all be tried by fire. And Ezekiel says: Behold the Almighty Lord comes; and who shall endure the day of his coming; or who shall stand when he appears to us? For he shall enter in like the fire of the smelting furnace, and like the fuller's basin; and he shall sit refining and purifying as gold and silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and pour them out as gold and as silver, and they shall be to the Lord those offering sacrifice in righteousness (Malachi III, 2 and 3). By fire, then, shall the sons of Levi be purified, by fire Ezekiel, by fire Daniel. But these, although they shall be tried by fire, will nevertheless say: We have passed through fire and water. Others will remain in the fire: for them the fire will fall as dew, as it did for the Hebrew boys who were thrown into the burning fiery furnace; but the avenging fire will burn up the ministers of impiety.

Woe is me if my work is burned up, and I suffer the loss of this labor!

And if the Lord shall save his servants, we shall be saved through faith, yet saved as it were through fire; and even if we are not consumed, still we shall be scorched. But how it is that some remain in the fire while others pass through, divine Scripture teaches us in another place. For indeed the people of the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea, but the people of the Hebrews passed through; Moses passed through, Pharaoh was cast down: because heavier sins sank him. In this way the sacrilegious shall be cast down into the lake of burning fire, who have hurled proud blasphemies against God. Let us therefore, placed here, follow the pillar of fire, which may illumine us placed in this body, and show us the way; that in the future the mist of night may refresh us: whereby we may be able to relieve fierce burnings.

But see what Scripture says: May the Lord break the bow of sinners.

He set his own bow in the cloud, that the floods might cease, and calm be restored. Whence it must be believed that the adversary and the wicked one stretches out his own bow, so that he may stir up storms in quiet souls, and rouse up blasts. Let us pray, therefore, that the Lord our God may loosen the bow of malice; that he may assist his poor and needy one, who, because of the fear of God, has concluded that riches ought not to be coveted, that the estates of lesser folk ought not to be seized, that widows ought not to be stripped of the inheritances left them by their elders.

Better is a little to the just, above the great riches of sinners.

It is not, then, riches that are accused, but the riches of sinners; unless perhaps because the sinner said: All these things have been delivered to me, and to whomever I will, I give them.

Then also

because riches inflame all the more the torch of cupidity; and each one, while he desires greater things, does not avoid the byways of sin. Whence also the Savior said: Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity. For it is the wealth of iniquity which is in the power of the devil, so that it may be conferred on whomever he wishes. This too can be understood: Better is a little to the just, above the great riches of sinners; because there is one who is rich in words, as are the philosophers of this world disputing about sacrileges, about the motion of the stars, about the star of Jupiter and Saturn, about the generations of men, about the worship of idols, about geometry, about dialectic. The philosophers, then, are rich in speech, but poor in faith, devoid of truth. And there are many simple priests of the Lord, poor in speech, but exalted in abstinence and virtue.

The former speak perfidy to many, the latter assert faith to a few; the former lose their followers daily, this poor man gains peoples for the Church, and multitudes of believers. Whoever, therefore, hears these and sees the quality of their works, says: Better is a little to the just, above the great riches of sinners. Hence Solomon derived that saying, which he set forth as his own: By much speaking you shall not escape sin. Dialectic, then, flows with riches of words, but piety keeps the fear of God. Therefore this man is sparing in words, but rich in spirit; he wishes rather to fear than to hurl about vain words of truth; for fear is the discipline of wisdom: loquacity is the shipwreck of innocence and virtue, and an incitement to falling and to guilt.

For, he says, the arms of sinners shall be broken. So that their deeds cannot bring hindrance to the just; lest the rod of sinners be left upon the lot of the just.

And Paul says: May God crush Satan under your feet.

For if his arm shall be broken, he himself shall be wholly crushed; that his devices may be trampled upon, like the venoms of a serpent.

The Lord strengthens the just, once the arm of the adversary is undone.

And therefore the just man says: And thou hast confirmed thy hand upon me. And Job says: The hand of the Lord has touched me. The Lord, therefore, sent forth his hand upon his servant; and he broke the hand and arm of the sinner, which, having received power, he had sent forth against him. Thus the devil was deceived by his own word, who said: Send forth thy hand upon him, and let us see if he does not bless thee to thy face. For he did not dare to say "curse," but left this to be understood. God sent forth his hand, and Job was strengthened. He who was believed about to curse began to bless; for the divine hand heals the just when it touches, it does not wound. He sent forth his hand, and every stain of leprosy departed; he touched the eyes of the blind, and blindness being driven away, the light of the eyes shone forth.

Ask, therefore, always to be strengthened, since you also who stand, take heed lest you fall.

We ought to stand, that we may be strengthened by the Lord. The world is slippery, we slip quickly. Therefore let us pray that the Lord may deign to establish and strengthen us.

Do not think that the Lord does not know your way.

If you are just, he knows it. Believe the Prophet who says: The Lord knows the ways of the undefiled; and their inheritance shall be undefiled. They shall not be confounded in the evil time. He who knows the Lord is known by the Lord. He knows the just, he does not know the unjust; therefore to the unjust he will say: Depart from me, all you who work iniquity: I know you not; that is, because you are unworthy of divine acknowledgment. I know you not; because you yourselves have willed that I should not know you.

Your works do not know me, your deeds do not know me; even if you say that you know me, your sins refute you.

All sin is of evil: but he who does not sin, remains in me, this John wrote. What shall I say of the Lord, that he deigns to know the impious? Paul disdains this, who said: If any one among you is a prophet, or a spiritual man, let him acknowledge that what I write to you is of the Lord: but he who is ignorant shall be ignored. And elsewhere it is written: The Lord knows who are his. Let us therefore be the Lord's, that the Lord may know us, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.

The Greek has: The Lord knows the days of the undefiled.

For there are the days of Elijah, there are the days of Nebuchadnezzar; therefore the Gospel has: In the days of Elijah, when heaven was shut. It was night for the unfaithful, but for Elijah there was light; heaven was shut for the unfaithful, but for Elijah it lay open; there was famine for the unfaithful, but for Elijah abundance; for he could not hunger, to whom food was ministered from heaven; nor did he hunger, who himself fed others. So the just man has his own day even in darkness; for light shines even in darkness. And Joseph was in Egypt, and noonday shone for him; as it says below: But to the sinner God said: why do you declare my righteous acts? Righteousness is light, since above you have: And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light. You have, therefore, that which shines within you, if you follow righteousness.

Day gleams for you, night shines for you; because for the faithful even night shall be illumined as day.

The Lord, therefore, knows the day of the just, because he himself enlightens every man coming into this world, that is, him who lives according to the image and likeness of God; him who knows himself to be a man, so that he flees the neighing lust of horses, the rage of wild beasts, the timidity of hares, the cunning of foxes, the ravening of wolves; that man who so acts as though he had newly come into this world; who was born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God. You have come, therefore, do not remain, do not cling to earthly things. But that you may know that good days exist, hear him who says: Abraham [lacuna] saw my day, and rejoiced. He has a good day, who knows the Son of God to be the good God, and confesses him Lord.

And again he himself warns us that we must beware, because the days are evil.

What days are evil? Those in which, of course, evil is recognized, which is of evil. Or perhaps the days of the world are evil; because the world lies in the power of the evil one. But we also read of an evil day after the world: In the evil day the Lord will deliver him, that is, in the day of judgment, evil indeed because of the punishments of many. For it is necessary that the unjust be tormented, while the just have compassion; since even the Angels rejoice when one sinner is saved from death. They have compassion, therefore, when he is punished; even though we read elsewhere: The just man shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance of the wicked, which I reserve for its own place; even though you have often heard why he rejoices; but let us not intersperse one occupation with another.

Whence also their inheritance shall be forever; because they sought eternal goods, not the profits of a temporal inheritance.

And they shall have nothing to be ashamed of, in the evil time, that is, of the heavenly judgment: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied; because man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. But what man? I know a man in Christ fourteen years ago (whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not, God knows) who was caught up in such a manner even to the third heaven.

That man, then, who is in Christ, who does not know himself to be in the flesh, who does not walk in the flesh, but in the spirit; he who is caught up not only to heaven, but even to the third heaven, is caught up to paradise, and hears secret words which it is not lawful for a man to utter; who glories not in his own virtues, but in his infirmities: he lives not by bread alone, but by every word of God. For the Word of God is life, because the Word was made flesh. Whence the Evangelist said splendidly: That which was made in him is life.

The Alexandrians indeed and the Egyptians read: All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made; and after inserting a punctuation-mark, they add: In him is life. Let that distinction remain valid for the faithful: I for my part am not afraid to read: What was made in him is life; and the Arian has nothing to hold to in this, because I am not considering his poisons, but recognizing the customary usage of the sacred reading. For it did not say: The Word was made before every beginning. It did not say: The Word was made; but if you wish to hear what it did say: The Word, it says, was with God. He was with God, working with him, ruling with him. It did not say: The Word was made; but it said: The Word was God: but God is not something made, but the maker and creator. Open your ears, and hear: All things were made through him, and without him was made nothing.

Do you learn that he is the Son, in whom is the fullness of divinity?

Open your ears yet a little further, and hear him saying: What was made in him is life. In him, he says, it was made: it does not say the Word of God was made. Or if this moves you to calumny, that he said: it was made in him; do you also slander God the Father, because the Son of God said: But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be made manifest, because they are done in God? Or because David said: I will confess to thee, O Lord, because thou hast heard me, and thou hast become my salvation; that is, thou hast turned to be my salvation, thou hast worked for my salvation? I could use other testimonies, but I do not wish you to believe me on my own account; lest you think these are arguments of ingenuity, not testimonies of truth.

Let that very son of thunder, he who reclined on the breast of Christ, he to whom the Lord did not keep his secrets silent, to whom Peter nodded that he should ask the Lord, and he asked, and the Lord revealed it; let him himself explain what he meant by saying: What was made in him is life. Hear then him interpreting, since he was already guarding against your calumnies, O Arian: What was from the beginning; and what we have heard, and have seen with our eyes; what we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life, and the life appeared. Flesh, then, is what appeared in Christ, or Christ in the flesh; he himself is our life in all things. His divinity is life; his eternity is life; his flesh is life; his passion is life. Whence Jeremiah also says: In his shadow we shall live. The shadow of the wings, the shadow of the cross, is the shadow of the passion.

His death is life; his wound is life; his blood is life; his burial is life; his resurrection is the life of all.

Do you wish to know that his death is life? In his death, it says, we were baptized [lacuna] so that we might walk with him in newness of life. And he himself says: Amen, amen I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it remains alone; but if it die, it brings forth much fruit. He himself, the grain, was loosed and died in body for us, that he might bring forth much fruit in us. His death, therefore, is the fruit of life. What was made in him, then, is life.

Flesh was made in him, it is life; infancy was made in him, it is life; judgment was made in him, it is life; death was made in him, it is life; remission of sins was made in him, it is life; the wound was made in him, it is life; the mockery was made in him, it is life; the division was made in him, it is life; the burial was made in him, it is life; the resurrection was made in him, it is life. See how many things were made in him, by which the turning of our life was made, so that what had perished might be restored. At the last, the selling was made in him, it is life; the redemption was made in him, it is life. He was sold to death by Judas, bought by the Jews unto death, that by his precious blood we might be redeemed unto life.

This is the life that was made, this is the life that appeared, this is the life which we have heard, this is the life which was with the Father; because he who was in the beginning was afterward born of the Virgin, that he might be life for those who were to die.

Let us ask this very question proposed to us.

What is it, man in Christ? This is, made in Christ, in whom all things were made, whether Thrones, or Dominions, or Principalities, or Powers, all things were created through him and in him, and he is before all, and all things hold together in him, that is, in his power. Man, then, in Christ, who was made to his image and likeness: man in Christ, who is wholly in Christ. For just as God the Father, through the unity and fullness of divinity, is wholly God in the Son, and the Son in the Father: so, through intention and the affection of piety (that we may use this by way of example, not comparison), man is wholly in Christ; for he who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit with him. Man, then, in Christ, not that earthly man, not the man of sin; but the man of Christ.

What then troubles you: What was made in him is life; if the interior man especially was made in him, crucified in him, renewed in him, buried in him, and buried together with him, raised again in him? What troubles you, as I said, that it is written: What was made in him is life; when man himself has said: In God we shall do valiantly? If you ask what that life is, if it troubles you what was made in him, receive this. Surely the life is the Church. It was made in him, in his rib, Eve was raised again in him. But Eve is life, that is, what was made; because Eve who had perished was made safe through the Church, that is, through the generation of her children, as it is written; because a sober inheritance amended the fault of the earlier transgressor. Whence Paul himself was caught up to life, who before had been a persecutor unto death.

Those who fail shall fail like smoke.

The Greek has ἐξέλιπον, that is, they have failed. You see someone suddenly come to power, and to the insignia of honor: you judge him sublime. You see another succession happen to him; do you not say of him: Where is he now who was honored and exalted? He has failed. The Greek said more for this reason: because where someone is believed to be honored and exalted, there he is forestalled by his own failure; so that you understand the currents of rivers to have passed by more quickly than they came; and while you wait for the coming streams, even as you still wait, they have flowed away. On the contrary, the humble and meek, while they are subjected by the rich and oppressed, are exalted from their humility, and suddenly shine forth. And so Paul was pleased with himself in his infirmities, not in his powers.

But let us consider, lest anyone think that he boasted in revelations; and let us repeat these things, that he may defend himself as a master of humility. I know, he says, a man in Christ fourteen years ago, whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not, God knows, who was caught up in this way even to the third heaven. He says it was revealed to him fourteen years before, and you judge. You see what happened to him. Yet he kept and suppressed the revelation with himself for so long: nor would he have told it, had he not judged it useful for us to speak it; lest we be puffed up by revelations. For if in so great a grace Paul did not boast, neither ought we to boast. Did he not boast as a young man, and does he boast as an old man?

Then he could not deny that he had been caught up even to the third heaven; and yet he testified that he did not know whether he was caught up in the body or out of the body. He boasts, therefore, not of knowledge, but of ignorance, and proclaims God's grace toward himself. What belongs to knowledge, he denies; what belongs to charity, he confesses: for knowledge puffs up, but charity builds up. And again, he said that this man was caught up in this way: how he was caught up, whether in the body or out of the body, he recorded as uncertain to himself. Behold the balance of wisdom. He sets up one man in Christ, and himself as another, who says: I do not know. What is another's, he exalts: what is his own, he humbles. And he heard, it says, unspeakable words. He did not say: I heard, but he did not deny that another heard.

Modestly, then, he preferred to show himself a witness rather than a prophet, and shrank from appearing to be an arbiter of heavenly secrets.

For to bear testimony belongs to truth: not to shrink from the merit of exaltation belongs to one who boasts. And so he says: For such a one I will glory: but for myself I will not glory.

But what is it that he says the man heard, and that man in Christ, things which it is not permitted for a man to speak? How does it fit, that it was not permitted for a man to speak what it was permitted for a man to hear? If it is not permitted for the very man who heard to speak, how was it entrusted to him to hear what was not permitted to be spoken? What is this distinction? If it was another man who was outside, how could a man come to know what a man was not permitted to hear? Whence it seems that grace of speaking was not lacking to that man who was in Christ, to whom it was not lacking; but that place, time, and merit were lacking to those who would hear.

For he heard in heaven; and therefore it was judged not fitting that he should speak on earth what he had heard in heaven; since even on earth itself there is this distinction, that what is sung in one region is not sung in another, according to what is written: How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land? Indeed the Hebrews did not sing in the land of captivity what they had been accustomed to sing in their own homeland. This is the land of captivity, the other land is the land of freedom; this is of sin, that of eternal rest; this is of the valley, that of heaven. Therefore Paul was now proclaiming in heaven those things which he could not proclaim before on earth; for the secrets of wisdom are to be spoken among the perfect.

Yet what does the mention of this revelation accomplish, except to teach that one ought by no means to boast in revelations, but in infirmities

because infirmity is both the remedy and the exercise of virtue in the revelation? Revelation, on the contrary, is a slippery slope to exaltation; for lest Paul himself, who was caught up into the third heaven, should be exalted by the sublimity of the revelation, he received a thorn in the flesh. Infirmity, then, came to his aid, lest the grace be turned into danger. Infirmity, therefore, is more useful than grace. The same infirmity is also the workshop of virtue; as the Lord himself testified to the Apostle, that virtue is perfected in infirmities. Indeed, after the revelation, this man asked for the remedy of health, and did not obtain it; but in infirmity he did not seek a remedy, but finished the course, and found the crown.

The sinner, it says, borrows and does not repay; but the just man shows mercy and gives.

This too fits the person of Paul, because the just man shows mercy and gives. See him dividing the words of the Lord, see him putting the Lord’s silver out to interest. He received one mna, he returned two; he received two, he returned four; he received five, he returned ten. He did not bind up in a napkin what he had received, but gave it out to the moneychangers; and what he had given out, he received back with interest. Thus he also freed the recipient from the gravest sin, lest the Lord’s money should be lost in his hands; and he himself earned to be set over ten cities. What these ten cities are, recognize in the epistles which he wrote; even though the apostles are not bound by a fixed number, to whom it was said: Go through the whole world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. This man, then, from Jerusalem through the East and Illyricum and Italy dispensed the Lord’s money.

And lest anyone should think that he was putting out his own money at interest, he testified that it was the Lord’s money, saying: But to those who are joined in marriage, I declare, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not depart from her husband. And elsewhere: Do you seek proof of him who speaks in me, Christ? Finally, the king himself said, in whom there is a figure of the Lord: You ought to have committed my money to the moneychangers. My money, he says, not yours. The just man, therefore, shows mercy and gives. How he gives, hear him saying: Through all the churches I teach. But the sinner borrows, and does not repay. See the rich man borrowing, and not repaying: the poor man receiving, and at once repaying, lest he remain longer in another’s debt. These are the moral matters.

See now the mystical poor man

that is, the simple man who fears the name of God, hearing the word about chastity, and paying it; hearing about mercy, and paying it; hearing about gentleness, and not becoming angry: but that rich man, arrogant and proud, hearing indeed, but casting the words of God behind him; hearing of the condemnation of luxury, and given more to luxury still. In short, the Church pays what she received, the Synagogue does not pay. Know that the Church pays: They were yours, he says, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. And elsewhere: For the Father himself loves you, because you love me. The Church, therefore, repaid the money of charity which she received from the Lord, but the Synagogue did not repay it. And therefore it is said of the Jews: If I had not come, and had not spoken to them, they would have no sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin; because they heard indeed, and did not believe.

It is proved, then, that sinners borrowed, and did not repay. The sinner, therefore, is always in need: but the just man abounds and gives, whose conscience is rich. And therefore the Jews were in need in their riches: The rich were in need and hungered; but the Christians did not fail in the riches of their simplicity.

The just man, then, is good; and therefore Scripture adds: For those who bless him shall possess the land; but those who curse him shall perish.

How does the just man possess the land, or what land, since Scripture says: Shall you alone dwell upon the earth? And elsewhere: Woe to those dwelling upon the earth, which is a word of rebuke and curse. Of what land, then, is the possession blessed? Not that land which is hidden in darkness and filled with bitterness: but that which flows with milk and honey, that is, has the grace of sweetness, and the brightness of eternal light.

Take the sweetness of good honey; nay, above honey: Sorrow and mourning and sadness shall flee away

because the sweetness of grace will exclude the bitterness of human frailty. And elsewhere: And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more, nor mourning. Take also the brightness of milk. And they will not need a lamp, or the light of the sun; for the Lord himself will shine upon them, and they will reign for ever and ever. Amen.

There is also a mystical just man, who shows mercy and gives, who gave us all the words he received from the Father, and forgave us the debt of our sins, and paid his own blood for our debts; so that we should not be in another’s debt, but the good creditor should hold us in his own account. There is also that sinner who gathered what he had not begotten, and borrowed what he did not hold, nor wishes to restore what he received. Hear how the devil borrowed: To you, he says, I will give all this power, and their glory (for they have been handed over to me, and I give them to whomever I wish) if you will fall down and worship me. Most wicked one, you received it for temptation, not for death; that is, you received it that the servants of God might be tried, not extinguished; you received it that God might be worshipped, not denied; you received worldly things, why do you snatch away what is eternal?

You received what is of the world, why do you wish to take away what is of Christ?

Give those things to whom you wish, we do not envy you. Why are the things we want begrudged us by you? You wish to be worshipped, who, worse than all others, are unworthy even of servitude itself.

By the Lord shall the steps of a man be directed.

The Greek says διαβήματα, that is, crossings.

And therefore it is said to you: If you cross through the water, the rivers shall not shut you in. Cross over, then, do not stop; just as a good traveler, when he comes to some signpost of the way, does not stand still, but passes on; and you are on the way, as long as you are set in this course. If Paul had stood still, he would not have finished his course. See lest for this reason it is said: And you who stand, take heed lest you fall. For he who has passed over cannot fear to fall. I have seen, it says, the wicked man exalted above measure, and lifted up above the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed by, and behold, he was not (below, verse 35).

Seeing, then, the wicked man exalted above measure, he who did not stand still did not stumble: if he had stood still, and had marveled at him, and had followed him, he would have stumbled and fallen just as the wicked man did. Therefore Moses, seeing the bush glowing and not burning, said: Passing by, I will see this great sight. He who passes on from this world sees a great sight: he who loosens the bonds of that knot by which we are bound to this body sees a great sight. Moses, in Exodus, as we read, sees many miracles: another who is not in the Exodus does not see so many. The same Moses passed over: the people of the fathers also passed over, because they were going out from the land of captivity.

Thus their steps were directed by the Lord, for whom by night the pillar of fire gave light, by day the cloud; so that neither the heat of day should afflict them as they journeyed, nor the darkness of night bring hindrance to those on the way.

And you, earn by deeds, and beg by vows that your steps be directed by the Lord, lest your feet be moved; for it is written: But my feet were almost moved; my steps were nearly poured out. One must also beware lest you abandon the straight path, and the byways of crooked roads deceive you; therefore it is said: Prepare the way of the Lord: make straight his paths. Let us, then, prepare the way of the Lord our God in our minds; let us make straight the paths of our souls, lest we slip; let not our steps be poured out like those of Lot’s wife, who looked back and could not hold her steps, but they were poured out, when she was suddenly turned into salt; let them not be poured out like those of the Egyptians, whose steps the waves of the sea poured out. Even the Hebrews themselves who were with Moses, because they sinned in the desert, had the footsteps of their feet fall, lest they should enter the land of resurrection.

Is it not also finely said of these, that their courses have been poured out, whose hopes have collapsed, whose labor has been poured out in vain, whose vows have been abandoned? Consider someone who for several years has had a zeal for uprightness, a guarding of chastity, an affection of more attentive life, a purpose of pious servitude, a devotion to careful observance; and who has suddenly been changed, has departed from the monastery, has said farewell to fasts, has renounced continence, indulges in delights, pursues luxury. Once they went out from monasteries, and now they are masters of luxury, sowers of incontinence, kindlers of wantonness, detractors of modesty. Might one not fitly say of these: Their steps have been poured out, who have repented of having once directed them well? They have thus performed a new kind of penance for their virtues, and do not perform it for their sins. But these went out from us, says John, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us.

These, then, have condemned their own way, of whom it is fitting to say: O you who have abandoned the straight paths, going into the ways of darkness; and who rejoice in evils, and delight in wicked overthrow, whose paths are crooked, and whose courses are winding, like their slippery and winding author; why have you begun to hate the straight way, and have abandoned righteous counsel? The Lord did not direct you: but whomever the Lord directs will desire his way, as it is written, and will delight in his very paths.

Yet both can be understood, so it stands in the middle, that both he who is directed by the Lord will desire the way of the Lord

because, with him as leader, all labor is lightened, all hindrances are removed, incentives are supplied: and the Lord himself does not disdain, but gladly accepts, the way of the man whom he himself has directed to virtue. But it is fittingly said that a man’s steps are directed by the Lord; because it belongs not to him who wills nor to him who runs, but to God who shows mercy, to keep the footstep without stumbling. For neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything; but God who gives the increase: to him alone rightly is the glory of virtues ascribed.

Finally, even the just man falls at times; but if he is just, when it happens, he will not be troubled.

What belongs to his condition, falls; what belongs to his righteousness, rises again: since God does not abandon the just man, but strengthens his hand.

For what reason did he say “hand” and not “foot”? Unless perhaps because he who falls does not so much slip by the foot, but the weak man is often deceived by a slippery place, or stumbles on a rock; but here understand the fall of the just man, that is, of the stronger one. In fact, among the common people who wrestle, if one bends the knee, or slips by the foot, he is held to be defeated; but the athlete who has skill in wrestling, and wrestles for the crown, even willingly bends the knee, that he may win; and if he has slipped, he is not excluded; and even if pressed by one who is stronger, supporting himself by his hands, he still contends rightly; nor is the prize taken from him, unless he is thrown flat on his belly, or bound by a hold of the arms. From this arise frequent contests; because many kinds of falls are unknown to most people. For their falls are properly called “ruina,” for in Greek they are called πτώματα.

So when he is gripped and pressed, he often rolls himself over, and the one who was thought inferior comes out on top, and while rising, throws down the one who was superior: which Scripture seems to signify, when it says: You have turned his whole bed in his weakness. So of him it is said: When the good athlete has fallen, he will not be troubled; for many wish to be held down, so that they may win the more quickly, those who presume upon their skill. But even if he has been thrown, to use the very word, both the first and the second time, he is not excluded; it is allowed him sometimes to renew the struggle, and it often happens that he wins, and that he who overcame in the second bout yields. So too, therefore, even the just man, even if he meets a stumbling-block and falls, let him not abandon his zeal for devotion and faith, let him keep sobriety, let him practice penance, let him often renew himself.

Therefore Peter asks: If my brother sins against me, how many times shall I forgive him; up to seven times? And the Lord answered: Not only seven times, but even seventy times seven. And that you may know that we are athletes and are pushed, and some fall, and many are thrown down, hear him saying: The Lord upholds all who fall, and sets right all who are thrown down. Whence also David himself says of himself, or rather he who spoke in the Prophet: Being pushed, I was overturned so that I might fall; and the Lord took me up: for Jesus did not fall, but was pushed. For since he himself turns back those who are thrown down, how could he himself be thrown down? But that the just man, when he has fallen, can rise again, Scripture attests, which says: Shall not he who falls also rise again; or he who has turned away, shall he not return? Woe to those who turn away with a shameless turning away, says the Lord.

Would that indeed Christ's athlete be unyielding and unconquerable, and glorious in every age, in every kind of virtue, as he says: But in all things we overcome

because of him who loved us. What does “in all things” mean? There are athletes who are called boys, youths, men; that is, παῖδες, ἔφηβοι, πύκται. Scripture too knows these ages among wrestlers, David saying: Turn not away thy face from thy servant boy; and I have been young, and now am old (below, verse 25). Whence also John says: I write unto you, little children, because you have known the Father: I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one: I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning Writing therefore to the more mature, to the fathers, he designates those matured by the progress of faith and devotion. These, then, are ages of virtue, not of weakness; for the boy is not without virtue who has known the Father, God of virtues.

From that Boy come these boys, who, before they knew how to call upon father or mother, received the strength of Damascus, and the spoils of Samaria. He himself is the boy who is born to us, the son who is given to us, whose government is upon his shoulders. He himself taught us that boyhood is a virtue, saying: Suffer the little children, and forbid them not to come unto me. And elsewhere: Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you be converted, and become as this little child, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Even in bodily strength boys often conquer men. And indeed if we consider the age of boyhood, a boy cannot know the whole practice, nor endure the force of wrestling. Yet we know that often boys have overcome those whom they could not even carry. So much does vigor of soul exclude the weakness of age.

But as the boys are, such also are the youths, that is, spiritual ones.

Scripture knows the young man Paul already near to his conversion; it knows also the young man Eutychus, who, being intent upon Paul's discourse, overcome by sleep, fell from the third floor and rose again; it knows also the young man John reclining on the breast of Christ, who was so strong that he did not fear persecution, and overcame evil. This is the boy who left his begetting father, following that Father whom he recognized as eternal; the young man clothed in a linen cloth, who followed the Lord at the time of the passion, having left behind all that was his own; a more mature man, he knew that God the Word had always been and was in the very beginning, and proved him to abide in himself.

Scripture has also taught us spiritual men, the prophet Agabus saying: This man whose girdle this is, so shall the Jews bind him at Jerusalem.

And Festus says: A certain man was left by Felix in custody. Before his passion Paul is called a young man; in his passion he is signified as a man, having finished his course, now near to the crown.

We have learned the ages contending for faith and devotion; let us also learn the kinds of contests of each.

Let the tenor of Scripture teach us this too. In this worldly contest, then, there are some who wrestle in a certain simple and lawful manner, and contend only with holds of the body, not knowing how to strike, who are called wrestlers (palaestritae); others who mix striking and the throwing of dust with the twinings of limbs, every right of striking being permitted them: these they call pammacharii, because they have every power of contest and combat against themselves; others who contend against each other with the caestus, and are tormented with lacerated heads: these are called πύκται (boxers).

The apostle Paul underwent all these contests, as he himself shows.

For thus he says: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood; but against principalities and powers, and (to use a summary) against spiritual wickedness. In most Latin copies “colluctatio” is found, but in all the Greek ones πάλη is written; for the Greeks’ πάλη is the Latins’ “lucta” (wrestling). And truly a wrestling; for flesh and blood, and spiritual wickednesses are overcome by patience and continence of body, and moderation of soul. Anger, rage, slaughter, are the weapons of the devil. Elsewhere too he shows that he was beaten with blows above measure, saying: In stripes above measure, in deaths often. And at Jerusalem he was struck with blows; where, when the soldiers intervening had made the Jews cease for a time to strike Paul, the high priest Ananias himself ordered those standing by to strike him on the mouth, to whom the Apostle answered: God shall smite thee, thou whited wall.

And you, sitting, judge me according to the Law, and command me to be struck contrary to the Law?

He indeed knew how to strike back, who with a heavier blow struck back the high priest; for he himself was struck bodily: he returned to him a blow to be struck in the soul by Christ. Writing also in the first epistle to the Corinthians he says: I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air. What he said in Latin, “enitor” (I fight/strive), in Greek he says πυκτεύω. And truly like a good boxer, he was striking not the air, but the aerial powers and the heads of the Jews; because they did not have Jesus the Lord as head of all. In every contest, then, the Apostle was proved, who also received the crown, his course being finished. Whence he himself says: I can do all things in him who strengthens me.

Christ too has those who in their boyhood conquered elders mature in age; as the boy Daniel with strong spirit rebuked those elders of the Jews, and by right of victory cast them down into death. He has others too, who wrestled while yet in their mother's womb before they were born. Thus Jacob supplanted his brother Esau, and overcame evil; and so came forth from his mother's womb as to show the mark of victory, and, as victor, to turn back the heel of the elder, degenerate one. Jeremiah was sanctified and approved in his mother's womb. John the Baptist, not yet born, recognized that the Prince of the human contest, and the awarder of prizes to wrestlers, had come, and leaping in his mother's womb earned the prize of pious confession. Rightly then was he already marked out for the crown, who before all others had offered his name to Christ's contest as witness of faith and herald of virtue. A good herald, who roused others to the contest.

And truly a good herald, who cried with so great a voice, that at its sound the secrets of heaven resounded.

What more? He moved the earth, he filled heaven. And therefore he received the name of “voice”; because the sacred voice went before the Word of God, as he himself taught us, saying: I am the voice of one crying in the desert.

This the prophet Isaiah said: that this was spoken of him, this one confirmed. We have heard what the herald said: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. This is a singular and sole voice, so resonant that it was heard by all; so sweet that it soothed the hearts of all. These, then, his athletes the Lord strengthened that they might conquer; for he never abandons or forsakes his own.

therefore the Prophet added: I have been young, and now am old: so the Latins have it; but some, following the Greeks, have: I have been young, for I am also old, and I have not seen the just forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread. For one who wishes to understand simply, the sense is plain, that in the time of his life David did not see the just forsaken.

But this is both of brief time, and incredible; since we see many just men in the world forsaken by men, when some of the powerful persecute them; and no one dares approach them, when he sees them set in fear or in injury. Whence Job says: My brethren have departed from me, they have known strangers rather than me: my friends have become unmerciful; and they that knew me have forgotten my name. David too proclaims that he was not only forsaken, but even attacked by friends and neighbors: My friends, he says, and my neighbors have drawn near against me. Therefore if in this world just men are found forsaken, how did David say things contrary to himself; unless you understand that the just man, even if forsaken in the world, is nevertheless not forsaken by the Lord?

For neither was Job forsaken by the Lord when he was in the dung heap, whom the Lord himself was praising with his own voice in the council of angels, whom he allowed to be tempted, that he might crown him; but he gave temptation to the body, denied it to the soul. Nor was David forsaken, to whom he gave a kingdom, that he might rule the chosen people: whom, though attacked in parricidal wars, driven from the borders of his kingdom, he restored by right of victory. Jacob himself too, Elijah and Elisha, and John the Baptist, and the rest who, going about in goatskins, wandered in deserts, and mountains, and caves, and pits of the earth, although they seem to have endured many mockeries and bitter sufferings; yet were not forsaken. For indeed when Jacob was fleeing his brother, and wandering unaccompanied through the deserts, he fell asleep, and rising saw there a multitude of the heavenly host, and said: This place is called the Camp of Angels.

It was not enough to call it a camp; but camps, which would suit so great a multitude. You see, then, that he thought himself alone, and the camps of the heavenly army were following him; just as also our fathers in the time of Moses, lest they thirst in the desert, the rock (as it is written) followed them. For when we read in Exodus that, the people thirsting, Moses struck the rock with his rod, and water flowed, and the people of God drank; again we read in Leviticus, or in Numbers, that again Moses touched the rock with his rod, and water gushed forth for the fathers to drink; the Apostle excellently interpreted this, saying: And they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ. Those, then, the murmurers, the complainers, the transgressors, the Lord did not forsake, but followed. What shall I say of Elijah and Elisha, to whom, as they walked through the deserts, horses from heaven, and a fiery chariot, came to meet them?

How was Elijah forsaken, who was invited by Christ?

How was he forsaken on earth, who was caught up to heaven? How was he needy and naked and empty, who left the inheritance of a double spirit to his disciple; that, endowed as heir with a single mantle, he might stop rivers, call back the Jordan into its source, feed the armies of kings in the desert, and minister drink to the thirsty? At his bidding, cups flowed forth from heaven, on earth the dead rose again. How was Elisha forsaken, who, when he was surrounded by the army of the Syrians, so that he might be seized as a captive to the king, and his servant Gehazi said, Lord, what shall we do, said: Fear not, for there are more with us than with them. And he said: Lord, open his eyes, that he may see. And his eyes were opened, and he saw the mountain full all around with countless horses and heavenly legions.

Paul too, who said he was tossed about by perils in the sea, perils in the desert, yet himself testified, saying: If God be for us, who is against us?

Therefore if he was forsaken and abandoned by men, he abounds and overflows before God. For Elijah too was so abandoned, that he said: Lord, take my soul; and yet he was so vigorous before God, that he was terrible in power even to kings themselves.

How, being young, could David grasp this?

For a young man considers temporal things more than eternal; because that age inclines toward vices. But there are some who are old men in youth, and others who are young in old age. There are, I say, men whose souls are reckoned with the gravity of the elderly, in whom the age of old age is a life unspotted, in whom hoary prudence flourishes: such was Jeremiah, who, when he recalled himself as young by contemplation of his age, and by his youth excused himself, as seeming unequal to the office of preaching, the Lord said to him: Say not: I am a young man; for to all to whomsoever I shall send thee, thou shalt go. Thus he did not think him young, whom he judged fit for prophetic grace. Such, then, was the young David, who had been renewed, and had flourished again, as he himself said, like the youth of the eagle renewed.

Thus, then, it must be understood: I was young; but sanctified, but set as a prophet among the nations, one who could already know the mysteries of the heavenly kingdom, and consider the true rewards of justice: but I have not seen the just forsaken. Afterward too, elsewhere, strengthened both by practice and by gift, I acquired increases of wisdom. The same grace has seemed to me to remain about the just.

We have explained, as best we could, how he said: I was young; but let us consider how he added: For I have grown old.

Good is youth, but better is old age; for he who shall have persevered to the end, he shall be saved. Whence it is not said perfunctorily of the patriarch Abraham that he was nourished in a good old age. And John began, as an old man, to write the Gospel, or the Epistles, he who, when he refused to write as an apostle, wrote as an elder; nor was he thought the less, for whom a certain swan-like grace of old age was at hand. The Vessel of the Lord's election himself, writing to Philemon, says: Since you are such a one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ, I beseech you for my son, whom I have begotten in my bonds, Onesimus.

Wishing therefore to show him the greatest deference, he compared him to Paul the elder, not the young man; and there he gloried in being old, where he was now held in chains. And behold the difference: as a young man he is signified in another's passion, as an old man in his own. There, as a young man, because he kept the garments of the Jews; here, an old man, where he was putting off the spoils of his own body. Finally Peter too is called old, where the contest of the passion is: When you were younger, he says, you girded yourself, and walked where you would; but when you shall be old, you shall stretch forth your hands, and another shall gird you, and lead you where you would not. Now this he said, signifying by what death he should glorify God. Before the contest he is called younger, in the contest an old man, he who has fulfilled the whole contest.

This therefore David says, that warrior in youth, peaceable in old age: I was young, he says; but do not think me still young: For I have grown old, and have not seen the just forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread.

What is the seed of the just?

The promises were spoken to Abraham, and to his seed; he does not say: And to seeds, as of many; but as of one: And to your seed, which is Christ. Hear the seed of the just. My little children, of whom I am in labor again, until Christ be formed in you. And now if anyone coming from among the gentiles hears our discourse, and the Lord deigns to help, so that Christ may be formed in his mind, whereby the birth of faith may result; Christ shall be seed to him. There, in both. Abraham therefore was both a father of generation according to the flesh, and he who first poured the word of the Lord into the hearts of the just. And therefore this seed of Abraham does not require those loaves by which bodily nourishment is supplied; because it has the bread of righteousness, which came down from heaven.

For just as those are denied to be sons of Abraham who have not done the works of Abraham: so those are the seed of Abraham, and are received among the sons, who have accomplished his work. True seed of Abraham was Elijah, to whom an angel supplied food, and in the strength of that food he walked through the course of forty days. The true seed of Abraham did not require that nourishment of this body, to whom loaves were brought from heaven. Finally, ravens ministered to him a daily banquet. Thus he was in need of all things, so that he had nothing of his own, and was sent that he might bestow sustenance upon others. True seed was Daniel, to whom, placed among the lions, brazen dishes filled with the food of reapers were carried through the prophet Habakkuk. There is therefore bread of angels, which man ate; for so it is written: Man ate the bread of angels.

This is the bread of which David spoke: The Lord feeds me, and I shall want nothing: he has placed me in a green place. He has brought me up beside the water of refreshment. Good David taught me the bread of angels, and he himself taught me the water of refreshment. This refreshment is spiritual, this refreshment is the rest of the inner mind. Good is the water which washes away sin, which cleanses the inner parts. Let us hear what this water is. If anyone, he says, thirst, let him come to me, and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Now this he said of the Spirit, which they were about to receive who would believe in him. Therefore the just man needs neither this bread nor the water of refreshment, for whom the Holy Spirit is rest and refreshment.

But how can he be in need who all the day shows mercy and lends?

What is it that the just man lends?

Not bronze, not iron, not lead: but silver tried by fire. This he brings to the table of the Lord, and divides to those who ask: to one he divides one mina, to another two, to another five, daily, and never fails. But we have heard lending reproved in the Law, Moses saying: You shall not lend upon usury. There is a twofold lending: one of money, the other of grace. Divide each; for it is written: If you offer rightly, but do not divide rightly, you have sinned: be still. And you divide rightly, lest you sin. Let Moses himself teach you to divide, who admonished that division be made rightly; that you may follow what Abel did, who divided rightly: flee what Cain the parricide did, who knew not how to divide rightly. The Holy Spirit therefore divides divisions, he who works all things, dividing to each as he wills: he as he wills, you as you are able, as far as your capacity avails.

Divide when the Law speaks of money, when of grace.

For he said to you: You shall lend to the nations, of whom the Lord requires usury: but you shall not borrow. There is also money of interest, and there is also grace, of which the Lord requires usury; the money of interest has bronze, grace confers faith. Lend faith therefore to the nations, that grace may abound to you: but do not borrow as one in need, as swans were said to sing more sweetly at the approach of death. But that this is a mere invention no one now denies. But as a rich and wealthy man, lend. Peter lent, Paul lent, John the Evangelist lent, or both, and were not in need; that is, they lent the money of Christ, they did not lend money at interest. Lend therefore, and do not cease to lend. Do you hear what Scripture says: All the day he shows mercy and lends.

The just man lends by day, the covetous man by night; for grace is of the light, but avarice is the usury of darkness.

And therefore the seed of the one who lends faith shall be in blessing, having indeed the reward of blessing.

Turn away from evil, and do good; and dwell forever and ever.

For the Lord loves judgment, and will not forsake his saints: they shall be preserved forever. But the unjust shall be punished, and the seed of the wicked shall perish. The just shall inherit the land; and shall dwell upon it forever and ever. By these little

the Prophet shows that we belong to the Lord, and that he himself is the arbiter of our thoughts and works, beholding the merits of each, who does nothing without judgment; but distinguishes by judgment good and evil acts. One must therefore turn away from evil and do good.

Lest you confound the good and the bad, first you must be free from crime; afterward bear the fruit of innocence, whereby you may be able to be perpetual. Do not think that your sins pass God by; for thus many fall away. He himself sees all things and condemns, and exterminates the seed of the wicked; seed, that is, not of bodily generation, but of the inner mind, and the succession of impiety. For indeed Job, begotten of the seed of Esau, is marked by the testimony of Scripture. How then did the seed of Esau perish in Job, when he was so great a man as to foresee that the Lord would come upon the earth, who would subdue the whale of this age, the devil? This therefore is sought, lest malice be transmitted to posterity.

This Christ works through the sacrament of baptism, that each may put off what he was born, and put on what he is reborn; that he may become not the heir of his family, but of grace; that he may be able to acquire for himself a perpetual dwelling of eternal habitation. But he who has deserved to dwell forever and ever, he too shall honor God forever and ever.

following.) Where he instructs the just man in moral disciplines, so that he might teach you what he ought to be, and what is the form of perfect justice; he wishes his mind to rise to wisdom and contemplation; and he rouses his intention, that he may behold heavenly things with an attentive heart, and turn over within himself the divine oracles, and shape his affection to those things which are pleasing to God; that he be meditative in the Law, nor let any of the Lord's commands pass him by; that he may know the movements of the divine Sacrament.

Finally, from this point I have seen the holy Prophet rise in his precepts: The mouth of the just shall meditate wisdom, and his tongue shall speak judgment. The law of his God is in his heart: and the Lord, he says, will not condemn him when he is judged. Wait for the Lord, and keep his way; and he will exalt you, that you may possess the land by inheritance: when the sinners perish you shall see. I have seen the wicked highly exalted and lifted up above the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed by, and behold he was not; and I sought him, and his place was not found. The former things are moral, these are intelligible. What is the mouth of the just which shall meditate wisdom, but that of the inner man? For there are two men in each one: one inner, the other outer; the inner thinks the things of the mind, speaks the things of the mind; the outer, the things of the body.

Yet the Lord, coming, joined both; and made two into one man; lest they war against each other with diverse motions, but be joined to one another by unity of their wills.

Therefore the mouth of the just shall meditate wisdom. For already the outer man of the just has been transfused into the discipline of the inner man; and conformed to his nature, exercises his offices, so that the flesh meditates what belongs to the inner mind. But lest this seem incredible to you, hear the Apostle saying that the Lord Jesus transfigured the body of our lowliness, that it might be conformed to the body of his glory.

Who would dare to say that the flesh without sin, the flesh assumed from the Virgin, the flesh begotten by the Spirit of God coming upon Mary, which in nothing differed from the disciplines of wisdom, was without a share in the virtues of the inner man, and could not pass into his uses; when it was above man that at its touch the sick were healed, sight was restored to the blind, the dead rose again? Fittingly therefore it is written: the mouth of the just shall meditate wisdom; because the whole man is spiritual, not at all earthly: for as is the earthly, such also are the earthly; and as is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly. Let the earthly therefore be absent, let the heavenly remain. And therefore, referring to the times of the Redeemer, the Prophet said "shall meditate": although one of many wrote "meditates." Nor is this contrary to the sense; because to the spirit of the prophets future things are as present things.

Others think "mouth" was said for "mind." Solomon has beautifully expounded this for us, saying: The discourse of the just is always wisdom: but the fool is changed like the moon

that is, that he is often varied, and does not persevere in his own opinion, and seems, as it were in darkness, to shed light, yet not to hold it.

Let there be therefore always in your heart and mouth the meditation of wisdom, and let your tongue speak judgment, let the law of your God be in your heart.

Therefore Scripture says to you: You shall speak of them sitting in your house, walking on the way, sleeping, rising. Let us therefore speak the Lord Jesus; because he himself is Wisdom, he himself is the Word and the Word of God. For this too is written: Open your mouth for the word of God. He breathes him who resounds his words, and meditates his sayings. Let us always speak him. When we speak of wisdom, it is he: when we speak of virtue, it is he: when we speak of justice, it is he: when we speak of peace, it is he: when we speak of truth, and life, and redemption, it is he. Open your mouth for the word of God, it is written: you open it, he will speak. Therefore David said: I will hear what the Lord speaks in me.

And the Son of God himself says: Open your mouth, and I will fill it.

But not all can grasp the perfection of wisdom as Solomon; not all as Daniel. Yet to all, according to their capacity, the spirit of wisdom is infused; but to all who are faithful. If you believe, you have the spirit of wisdom; therefore the Wise Man says: I have believed, therefore have I spoken. When you shall have believed, you will receive the grace of speaking. And he who believes is redeemed; and he who prays is redeemed: if he attends piously to his prayers, and is assiduous in prayer, if he anticipates the day, frequents the night, meets the dawn early, so that he himself may be illumined by Christ before the earth by the sun's rising; and he who sings psalms is redeemed; and he who is compunct is redeemed.

Therefore always meditate, always speak the things that are of God, sitting in the house. We can take "house" to mean the Church, we can take it to mean the inner house within us, so that we may speak within ourselves. Judges sit in Jerusalem; thrones were set for judgment; the council of judges also sat, and the books were opened. Prophecy says: And do thou do all things with counsel. With counsel judge your deeds, with counsel drink wine, with counsel speak; that you may escape sin, lest you fall through much speaking. Sitting, speak to yourself, as one who judges; on the way speak, that you may never be idle. You speak on the way, if you speak in Christ, for Christ is the way. On the way speak to yourself, speak to Christ. Hear how you should speak to him. I will, he says, that men pray in every place, lifting up pure hands without anger and disputation. Speak, O man, even while dozing, lest the sleep of death steal upon you.

Hear how, while dozing, you should speak: If I shall give sleep to my eyes, or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. Conquer nature by diligence, shut out the body's sleep. We cannot shape nature for ourselves, but we can shape diligence. David was a man: he indulged sleep somewhat during the night; but he shut out sleep, washing his bed every night and watering his couch with tears. Therefore he was ever mindful of his Lord upon his couch, and meditated on him, so that he might anticipate the dawn, and Christ might shine upon him in the darkness, saying: Rise, thou that sleepest. This grace is not in all, but diligence can be in many. Do not, then, wait for Christ to wake you; rather wake Christ yourself. He wakes Christ who, even while dozing, thinks of him. If you wake him, he too will wake you from sleep, will raise you from death, saying to you: Arise from the dead.

When therefore you rise, or rise again, speak to him, that you may fulfill what is commanded.

Hear how Christ wakes you. Your soul says: The voice of my brother knocks at the door; and Christ says: Open to me, my sister, my spouse. Hear how you wake Christ. The soul says: I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, if you have wakened and roused up love. Love is Christ. Hear also how, while sleeping, you should speak: I sleep, and my heart watches. These things in common; now raise your mind a little higher.

Speak sitting in the house, in this earthly house of this habitation, which is dissolved, in which we are pilgrims from the Lord.

For placed in this body, while we wish rather to be clothed upon than to be unclothed, we are exiled from Christ, and we groan heavily. Sitting therefore in this house, confess your sins; because you sat, and did not stand, and did not say: Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem. Rather speak, and do not hide your faults; speak sitting, that you may hear him who says: Rise up after you have sat, you who eat the bread of sorrow. Speak walking on the way, that is, plucking the course of this life. Speak here, lest you become mute there, as he became mute who did not before believe the angel of Christ; yet afterward, when he had believed, he received his voice back. Speak sleeping and resting, buried together with Christ; that with him you may rise in newness of life.

Speak also buried in the tomb; as the souls of the saints spoke, asking vengeance from the author of death.

How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood? Speak lastly when you rise; as he taught who said: I have slept, and taken my rest, and have risen up; for the Lord will sustain me. And there also: The mouth of the just shall meditate wisdom, until he himself arrives at the loftier secret places of the heavenly tabernacle, full of sacred joy and gladness; as Scripture has taught us, David saying: These things I remembered, and poured out my soul upon myself; for I shall go over into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God. With the voice of joy and praise, the sound of one that feasts. Therefore both sitting in this bodily house, and having gone forth from here, and walking on the way, when we shall be caught up, if we deserve it, to meet Christ, we shall speak even while sleeping.

Take a third anagogical sense, by which the soul of the just man raises itself.

For there is a certain spiritual sleep to be understood, of which Solomon says: For if thou shalt sit, thou shalt sit without fear; if thou shalt sleep, thou shalt rest sweetly, and thou shalt not fear the dread that shall come upon thee, nor the assaults of the wicked when they come upon thee You will rest with sweetness, and you will not fear dread, and the assaults of the wicked that come upon you; if your tongue speaks the judgment of God, and you always have it before your eyes; so that you leave no room for sin, and know that the price of a fault will be paid by the retribution of punishment. For he himself interpreted this in the ninetieth psalm, saying: Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night, of the arrow that flieth in the day, of the business that walketh about in the dark, of invasion, or of the noonday devil.

A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.

But thou shalt consider with thy eyes, and shalt see the reward of sinners For the just man, when he speaks the judgment of God, or when he himself speaks things that are just and full of true judgment, does not speak with anger, not out of the affliction of a grieving mind, not out of pain, not out of any passion; but he speaks out of truth, he speaks out of equity, so that he does not lean by affection, but weighs what he says by a true examination: for he judges what things ought to be said, or not brought forth.

To this is like that saying: The lips of the wise are bound with sense

because all the things they speak seem to agree with true sense, and by the prudence of their own understanding they know what ought to be said or kept silent: so that things that should be kept silent, they restrain by a certain enclosure and knot of the lips; but in those things which ought to be said, the bonds of the lips are loosed. Rightly, therefore, he had said beforehand: The mouth of the just shall meditate wisdom; for long meditation will be able to have full judgment, which the just man will speak in due time; when he shall have seen face to face the things that are perfect. For now we cannot speak truly of the things we do not comprehend. Indeed, not even Paul presumed to speak, who, caught up into paradise, heard heavenly secrets: but wishing not to err in the things he might say, he said: How unsearchable are the judgments of God, and how untraceable are his ways!

But now, released from the body, perhaps he comprehends the kinds of untraceable ways, and his judgments which are as a great abyss.

Further the form of justice is described and increased, Scripture saying: The law of his God is in his heart; and his steps shall not be supplanted.

In the heart of the just man is the law of God. What law? Not written, but natural; for law is not set for the just man, but for the unjust. In his heart is the law, not perfunctorily, as on the lips of the Jews; for with the heart belief unto justice is had. He who believes, also speaks; but he who speaks does not immediately believe. Indeed, the people did not believe, of whom it was said: This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

If, then, the Gentiles, when they do the things that are of the law, are a law to themselves, knowing what they ought to follow or avoid; how much more the faithful and just man, who lives to the image and likeness of God, knows how to discern what is fitting and honorable, and to use a certain lawful rudder of natural wisdom, lest his footsteps be supplanted; as Esau, whom, on account of his gluttonous eagerness, his brother supplanted so that he fell, and poured out his footsteps into death.

The more just anyone is, the more the enemy lies in wait for him; and therefore Scripture says: The sinner watcheth the just man, and seeketh to slay him.

But the Lord will not leave him in his hands; nor will he condemn him, when he shall be judged.

You see, therefore, sinner, that the just man speaks in his mouth, and meditates wisdom in his heart, that he speaks judgment with his tongue, that he keeps the law of the Lord in his heart; you try to bring upon him the death of sin, but the Lord protects him. And therefore let us not fear the snares of the sinner, since God is for us. If, then, God is for us, who is against us? Therefore God will not leave his just one, nor will he condemn him, when he shall have judgment concerning him. For he is a true judge; and therefore justice cannot be endangered. Whence also Aquila said: Nor will he condemn him when judging him. Symmachus: Nor will he condemn, when the just man is judged.

But because the Seventy men put it thus: When he shall be judged to him; we think that it looks to something else

because it is written: For the Lord himself will come into judgment. But into what judgment? Hear him saying: To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee; that thou mayest be justified in thy words, and mayest overcome when thou art judged. Therefore the Lord offers himself to be heard, so that he might be judged concerning himself, that he might the more overcome. Hear how he offers himself: O my people, what have I done to thee, or in what have I grieved thee, or in what have I been troublesome to thee? Answer me. Because I brought thee out of Egypt, and delivered thee out of the house of bondage. And elsewhere: I am, I am he who blots out thy iniquities, and I will not remember them; but do thou remember, and let us be judged together.

This judgment is grave, when the Lord demands to be judged concerning himself against man. For what will you answer him, who conferred all things upon you, set you over all things; subjected to you the Egyptians, to whom you had come as a guest, and afterward, when they pursued you, drowned them in the sea. He destroyed your enemies and overthrew them, he created and formed you, he redeemed you with his own blood; and you hand yourself over, to serve his enemy! He forgave you all your sins, and you commit graver ones! He calls you, you will come into judgment—what will you answer him, who, unless he grants you pardon again, you have perished? Therefore holy David, seeing that by this sort of moral reckoning he was more burdened before God, fled from judgment, and begged for mercy, saying: And enter not into judgment with thy servant; for in thy sight no man living shall be justified. He confesses himself set in darkness like the dead of the world.

Cautiously he said "like the dead of the world," not "dead"; for those who die in Christ are not the dead of the world; but those are the dead of the world who place all the life they lived in the world in ruin and death. And therefore, as one in despair, he takes refuge in remedy, saying: Hear me speedily, O Lord; for my spirit hath fainted away. For at the mere proposal of such a judgment his spirit failed, in which truth would rather be examined than mercy conferred.

Yet the Lord is so merciful, that even though no one living is justified in his sight (for who, however just, is not liable to sin; or whose life is such as to be judged worthy of the likeness of God?)—yet he who was made to the image and likeness of God ought, as God who is without sin, so also he who is to his image, to be without sin. Of what punishment, then, is he worthy who has lost so great a grace of the Lord's working, and the likeness of the divine beauty? But because he is merciful, even if he subjects himself to judgment, he does not judge the just man, but the unjust. He spares the just man, as one sinning by the frailty of his condition; he punishes the unjust, as one abhorring an ingrate.

Then, even if you have many works of justice, do not be impatient and arrogant, so as to think that the rewards of justice ought to be demanded by you in this age, or to complain that some adversities have happened to you undeservedly. For as long as you live, a contest is owed to you, not a reward.

Wait, therefore, either for the helper or for the rewarder, the Lord: And keep his ways; that is, to wait for him whom you think should be waited for, is to keep his commandments.

Even if you are ground down, even if you are afflicted, even if you fail from sickness, yet wait for the Lord, and hope will not confound you.

But you will see when sinners have perished; for then will be the reward of the just, when judgment shall have been passed upon the merits of the impious. But sinners do not perish in one manner only. They perish for you beforehand, if you do not marvel at their power and riches: if it does not move you when you learn that they abound in honors, children, friends. For these are of the world, and the world is subject to worldly malice: and the prince of the world favors those who serve him; according to that word: All these things will I give you, if falling down you will worship me. Why do you seek that these things be given to you, when the impious one himself who gives them cannot remain in them longer? He himself also passes away; how can the things he has bestowed not pass away?

Do you only bear a steadfast mind, hold to justice, let no one move you, and you will see that nothing impious exists.

Finally, hear him saying: I saw the wicked highly exalted, and lifted up like the cedars of Libanus.

And I passed by, and lo, he was not. I saw him in this world, I saw him with the eyes of the body; I saw him too boasting himself, and exalting himself in his own words, esteeming himself to be something, who is nothing. How does he exalt himself? I will set, he says, my throne above the clouds: and I will be like the Most High. He exalts himself, that you may see him like the cedars of Libanus exalted on high: and they themselves are lofty, and are on the loftiest mountain.

Rightly, then, are they exalted, and the impious man seems exalted, who has set himself upon that mountain of which it is written: If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain: Be removed, and be cast into the sea. To this mountain. To what? To the demon, he says, by whom that man had been possessed and oppressed, whom you marvel to see healed. Therefore he has greater charity in Christ than the devil has power. You see the cedar exalted on the loftiest mountain; but it is broken by the wind, it is burned by fire, it is dissolved by age: so is the rich man in this world. He shines indeed with a certain splendor of worldly favor like Libanus, he leans upon the power of the world, he exults in wealth and riches. He seems to you to be something, before you say: Passing by I will see.

For as Moses passed beyond material things in mind and spirit, and saw God: so too you, if you pass beyond from here, lifting the footstep of your mind toward the grace of God, will see that he is nothing who seemed to himself most powerful upon this earth. Therefore God the Word says to your soul, says to your mind: Come hither from Libanus, my spouse, come hither from Libanus: you shall pass over and pass through. If you pass beyond worldly things, you will pass through to paradise. Hear one who is passing through. Remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom. Hear again him passing through: Amen, amen I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise.

What is it: And lo, he was not.

Indeed, in the beginning was the Word. And he who sees the Word, who is a partaker of the Word, indeed himself also is; because the Word of God always is, and the word which is of Him, is not: He is, and not; but: He is; and he abides in Him who follows God. But he who does not know the Word, is not, because he does not cling to Him who said: I am who I am.

But he who clings to Him is one spirit.

And where the spirit is, there also is life. Therefore Scripture says to you concerning God: Who gives life to the dead, and calls those things which are not, as though they were; that is, He calls the nations which were not, as His own people who was; for our fathers were, who were the elect of God. And elsewhere it is said: The Lord knows who are His own; He does not know those who are not. And Esther says: Do not give the scepter of your kingdom to those who are not (Esther. XIV, 11). Rightly then does the just man say: And I passed by, and lo, he was not; that is, I saw him highly exalted in the world, before I considered that the world is nothing. But when I passed beyond in mind above the world, I saw that he no longer was, who before was exalted in this world.

And you, if you are just, pass over from present things to those which are to come, and present things will pass away for you.

Heaven and earth shall pass away; but my words shall not pass away. Therefore for the just man all things pass away. The wicked man passes away, he is like vanity, and his days pass by like a shadow. Nor do present things alone pass away for the just man; but even when he has turned his attention to the things which are to come, these present things already pass away. See how present things have passed away for the just man. Indeed, in the times of David the prophet the Synagogue existed, the Church of the Gentiles did not yet exist: and yet he speaks of future things as though present, saying: Bless our God, you nations. Then above he says: God ascended with jubilation.

He passed over, not in age but in mind, the coming times of unbelief; and the resurrection of the Lord, to come much later in time, he celebrated with pious devotion of faith, saying: Sing praises to our God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. As though he were himself present at the very sacraments of the nuptial union of Christ and the Church, so he leaps for joy and rejoices. He also expressed the cause of the celebration, saying: The Lord has reigned over all the earth. Therefore if we pass over, those things which are to come seem to us also to have passed over; just as if in sailing you pass by the land, you also see that land pass by, and as it were depart from you. Often sailors, especially in a storm, flee the land; and yet when they flee it while sailing, the land itself seems rather to flee from those sailing.

And you, if you flee this world, it too will flee from you; if you pass beyond this earth, it too will pass beyond you.

And you sail on this sea, and toss upon this world; flee the land, it has rocks, it has stones; as it is written: Cast the stones out of the way. If you hasten through this airy deep to the harbor of the divine will, you will see that all these things have passed away for you. For what does it matter whether they have passed away, or you judge them to have passed away for you?

There is also another impious man who seems exalted and lifted up above the cedars of Libanus; and if you pass by, he will not be there, nor will you find his place. Consider for me the Jewish scribe rendering the sequence of the old Scriptures, but not following it; you hear that he renders it with his lips, you marvel at him as learned. You ask what he thinks: he answers according to the letter, he runs through the history. He seems to you highly exalted and lifted up, if you consider the letter. Pass over to spiritual understanding, because the Law is spiritual; you see that he is nothing, then you say: I saw the wicked highly exalted [lacuna] and I passed by, and lo, he was not; and I sought him, and his place was not found. I sought him where he ought to have been, where life is: I did not find him. He was not there, where life was; because he was dead, and therefore his place was not found either.

For what is the place of a dead man, who was not, and never had been? For he who was in the letter never truly was; for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. I sought him, therefore, that I might find him: he did not offer himself, that he might be found; that is, I wished to convert him: he was unwilling to offer himself to me, that he might be converted. I did what belongs to one who seeks: he fled from what ought to have belonged to one returning. Finally, the soul which wishes to be converted seeks the Word; and when it has found Him, it says: I held him, and I will not let him go, that is, the Son of God, the Word of God. But the unjust man who was unwilling to be healed, I sought him, and did not find him; and therefore do not imitate him.

Keep innocence, and behold equity.

He who keeps innocence sees equity; since he who is clean of heart sees God, whose way is right, and whose justice is right; that he may turn away from those who have declined toward pursuits of wickedness. Good is innocence, which sees God. Finally, others have rendered: Keep perfection; for he is perfect who knows no malice, nor knows deceit. Therefore he says: Keep perfection; because there are remains for the peaceful man. Remains are said of a man from the dead body, from his cast-off garments. Therefore they are called remains, because after the man's death they are seen to survive; for they survive, being kept for the resurrection. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. Therefore the remains of a man are rather the hope of resurrection, and the faith of conversion, and the grace of love; since the impious do not rise in judgment; but the life of the just is known to God, and is approved by the judgment of the Lord.

To this place that saying fittingly applies: A remnant according to the election of grace has been made safe.

But the unjust shall perish together; the remains of the impious shall perish.

The remains of the just are their virtues: the remains of the impious are wickedness and the sin of unbelief. These shall be blotted out, so that they may not exist.

But the salvation of the just is from the Lord; not from the world, not from an element.

Heaven and earth shall pass away. I do not entrust my salvation to heaven; because it too passes away, since of the several heavens it has been said: They shall perish, but you remain. To God alone do I entrust it, who remains, who is able to forgive sins; that he may be my protector in the time of tribulation, and may help me, and deliver me, and rescue me from sinners at the time of his judgment, and make me safe, since I have hoped in him.

In him alone have I hoped; for he does not wish us to serve both himself and another.

He who serves him alone is set free; since to him alone belong praise, glory, perpetuity from the ages, and now and always, and unto all ages of ages.

Finally, the title itself at the outset admonishes us that precepts of this sort are being formed; for thus we read: In remembrance, it says, of the sabbath day, a psalm of David.

For the definition of penitence is full, being the remembrance of offenses; that each one should chastise his own sins with a kind of daily scourge of speech, and condemn the crimes committed by himself. For thus we are taught, the Lord saying: Declare your iniquities, that you may be justified. And the Apostle says: Confession is made with the mouth unto salvation. But perhaps it moves one to wonder, because he did not say a remembrance of sins; but of the sabbath day, or (as another text has it) of the sabbaths. But what is the sabbath, if not rest from things to come, a lightening of present burdens, in which the Law commands that men's works cease, and burdens be laid down? What are heavier burdens than our sins?

Let these be laid down on the days of the sabbaths, that is, in this time of this present life.

For every week is comprised in seven days, in six days that world was formed, on the seventh day the Lord rested from his work, he who rests in our meekness, as he himself said: Upon whom shall I rest, but upon the humble and meek? Free yourself, therefore, on every sabbath, and lighten the weight of your errors; that you may deserve to arrive secure at the rest of that future sabbath. For if you carry heavy sins from here, you will not have rest there. Unburden, therefore, your mind, cast away all things by which conscience is weighed down and pressed, lest your flight be in winter or on the sabbath: this life is in labor, that one in rest. May the ending of this world find you lighter, lest, burdened with sins, you be unable to flee. Flee beforehand, that you may anticipate it.

He flees the world, who is not held by the enticements of the world, who frees himself from every care of it. Flee also the wrath to come, that is, the day of judgment. He flees it who has done penance; for thus John the Baptist defined it, saying: Generation of vipers, who has shown you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, therefore, fruits worthy of repentance.

You have heard it read today that John was baptizing in Ænon, near Salim.

Ænon means "the eye of punishments": Salim itself means "the ascending one"; this is what the interpretation gives. He therefore who chooses to be baptized foresees punishments; and for that reason takes refuge in the sacrament of baptism, that he may lay down all sin, lest he begin to be liable to punishments. And perhaps he who is baptized with the baptism of penitence foresees punishments; but truly he looks toward grace who is baptized in Christ. Therefore the baptism of John is the eye of punishments; the baptism of Christ, the eye of graces. And although John was baptizing in Ænon, he was baptizing near "the ascending one"; for this too is what that interpretation gives, that Salim should mean "the ascending one himself." He therefore who announced His coming was nearest to Christ. For indeed the Son of Man who descended from heaven is Himself also He who ascended into heaven, that He might fulfil all things.

But because as is the heavenly one, such also are they who are heavenly; and he ascends into heaven who, laying aside earthly things, is buried together with Christ; that with Christ he may rise from the death of sin unto newness of life, and to the fellowship of the inheritance; that it may come to pass, as it is written: Heir of God, joint-heir with Christ.

The true medicine, then, is to do penance: which was then lawfully preached, when the Physician came from heaven, who would not exasperate wounds, but heal them. A good Physician, who taught in what manner we should seek remedies on this earth for our body; when there arose for us the flower of the health-bringing herb, who from sin condemned sin in the flesh. The flesh, therefore, which before was the poison of sin, became an antidote: because it was the enticement of sinners. Hear how the flesh becomes God's antidote: The Word was made flesh; He put His hand into the den of asps, drained out the venom, took away the sin; that is, from sin He condemned sin in the flesh.

And that this may be more fully considered, let us review the very passage of the Apostle.

For it is thus written: God, sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh from sin; that the justification of the Law might be fulfilled in us, that we might not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. The Son of God, then, came in the likeness of sinful flesh: not indeed that He came in the likeness of flesh, He who took up true flesh; but in the likeness of sinful flesh, that is, of sin-bearing flesh. For our flesh had been made, through the deceit and poison infused by the serpent, the flesh of sin. After it was made liable to sin, it became the flesh of death; because it was owed to death.

Christ took up in His own flesh the likeness of this flesh, already guilty, already prejudged

because although He had taken up the natural substance of this flesh, He had nonetheless taken up no contagion of it: neither was He conceived in iniquities, nor born in transgressions, He who was not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man; but was born of the Holy Spirit, of the Virgin. What then does it mean: From sin He condemned sin in the flesh? Is it from the likeness of sinful flesh; or because Christ took up our sins not in the practice of them, but in their nature—not by crime, but by the sacrament of His mercy; and He was made sin for us, He who Himself committed no sin?

Or rather

because also from this very flesh of sin, that is, from our own liable and prejudged flesh, He condemned sin in the flesh, by teaching in what manner, being placed in the flesh, we should not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit? For it is sin to walk according to the flesh; because he who conducts himself according to the wisdom of the flesh lives for luxury, and pleasures, and wantonness, and the desires of the flesh; for the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God: wherefore they who are in the flesh cannot please God. Therefore he condemns sin from sin who, washing himself from the vices of the flesh, lives according to the spirit, wholly given to God, and intent on heavenly oracles: for which reason Christ came, that He might do not His own will, that is, of the flesh, but the will of God.

If anyone therefore follows Him, so as to do the things that please God, and restrains the appetite of his flesh, he is an imitator of Christ.

What we have felt, we have set forth.

You who read, choose what you will follow. There is no error, where the simple affection of piety, and every sense is faithful. Christ condemned sin, by taking up the likeness of sinful flesh, that He might abolish the transgressions of our flesh. He condemned sin, that He might crucify our sins in His own flesh; Himself being made sin for us, that we might in Him be the righteousness of God, we who were the captivity of death, and the prey of the serpent. Therefore this taking up of sins is a matter of piety, not of crime. Through this the eternal God absolved us of sin, He who did not spare His own Son, and made Him to be sin for us. Then Christ condemned sin in the flesh, from that very flesh of sin, which by a certain judicial vigor and censorial authority, hates the vices which it had been accustomed to love, and shudders at the shamelessness which it had thought pleasure.

It separates itself from wantonness, renounces desires, disavows crimes and disgraces, drives away avarice, which effeminates a certain manliness of the flesh. Behold for you that imitator of Christ, himself also condemning sin from sin in the flesh. Thus I run, he says, not as into uncertainty; thus I fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection; lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway.

We have not wandered off superfluously, I think; since this too pertained to the medicine of man.

Looking to this medicine, God, just as He commanded this earth to bear the healthful juices of herbs and trees, by which the wounds of the flesh might be cured; so also He filled the series of the divine Scriptures with health-giving precepts, by which the infirmity of the soul might be healed. How grave a thing it is, therefore, that dumb animals should know how to doctor themselves, and should seek out and not refuse to choose healthful herbs for their wounds; while the diligence of men does not seek out those things for which even a Physician was sent, who might show forth in the old Scriptures the seeds of health-bringing medicine, and Himself bring new ones? How many things, then, are wholesome, which are judged harmful by a cursory glance? Let us take examples from the earth itself.

The serpent nourishes poison, has harmful bites, wounds the flesh; but even in its very poison you will find an antidote, if you seek it.

Indeed its flesh is burned, from whose ash the theriac is made, by which the force of poison is accustomed to be blunted, so that it cannot do harm. The earth, then, is not at fault, which produces the serpent; but he is at fault who does not know how to be wary of the serpent. The serpent itself can profit you, if you understand; nay, if you do not scorn the physician's precepts. Learn to imitate what you think ought to be shunned. Be, He says, wise as serpents, and simple as doves. Guard your head as does the serpent; and though you be mangled in your whole body, you will live again. Your head is Christ, for He Himself is the head of man: if you keep the faith, even though you die as the serpent dies, you too will rise again.

Imitate the serpent, which sheds its outer skin, that its inner self may be renewed: imitate the serpent, which vomits forth its venom.

Blessed are you too, if you vomit forth your evil thoughts, and lay aside the venoms of your malice. There is a well-known account, and one made strong by the authority of writers, that a serpent, drawing near to the waters, courts by hissing the mating embrace of the female snake; she, taking counsel for her own safety, stipulates by this law for the union of intercourse sought of her, that the serpent should vomit forth its venom; and, once seized, he obeys her commands, lays down his weapons, and, after the manner of their proper mating, inserts his head into her mouth; and, when the customary act begins to grow warm, whether by a certain violence of nature, or by the ardor of lust, the female presses her mouth tight, and crushes the bites of lust with kisses, and so the serpent's head is cut off.

Will you not recognize in the nature of the serpent a mystery of faith?

That first serpent of paradise provoked the woman to the adultery of guilt; but when its venom was poured out into this world, the offspring of that woman, through the deceiving of the parent, and the many frauds of the serpent, stripped him of his weapons and cut off his head. But if the poisons should prevail, and sin, in which is the sting of death, should creep in; use the example of physicians, that the serpent may at least die late for you. Crush its venom, and pound its body, and know that it must be tempered when mixed with wholesome juices; so that it may not only lose its force and its virus, but even become a remedy out of poison. That intelligible serpent dies for you, if you die to sin, and your sins die to you.

Thus is its venom crushed, if your deeds prick your conscience: thus is all its virus abolished, if you cover the crime committed with good works, and temper it with a faithful confession. Hear in what manner the power of that dragon itself is crushed. May God, He says, crush Satan under your feet. Crush first your own heart, in which was the dragon's lair; that he may find no place to dwell: crush the dragon's flesh: the dragon's flesh is our sins. Therefore God says to you: The nations feast upon it. And below He says: It hastens to die: But the flesh of its body clings to it. For as the saints are the body and members of Christ; so sinners who do not forsake sin, but cling to sin, are the body and members of the dragon.

Therefore we feast upon the body of Christ; but they feast upon the body of the dragon: we, who strive to cling to Christ, feast upon daily remission and forgiveness of sins; but they, who daily join sins to sins, feast upon a continuation of disgraces and crimes.

Crush, then, this flesh, and sprinkle upon it the contrition of your heart: then pour upon all of it the water of the Jordan.

For the Jordan is a going down and a going up, since he who has gone down into the sacred spring also goes up; that he may seek the things that are above. For he goes down into the death of Christ who is baptized in Christ, and rises again into His resurrection. But if, being already baptized, you have strayed, pour on the water of tears, not false, but true; that you may cry to the Lord your God out of the depths, and it may be said of you: A voice was heard in Rama, weeping and much wailing, Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, because they are not. Rachel is the Church, in whom the people of God is blessed: let her weep for you, let her lament your sins, and let her weep exceedingly; that she may not readily accept consolation, as those do who grieve exceedingly.

Therefore she refused to be consoled; because you have ceased to be who you were. But by this perseverance of grief and weeping, let her merit to say: My son was dead, and lives again: he was lost, and is found. Or perhaps Rachel refused to be consoled in the children of the Jews; because they are not, whom she had indeed borne for the purpose that they should exist. And therefore she did not admit consolation, when the little ones were slain by Herod; because they did not believe even in the coming of Jesus, filling up the measure of their crime, so that they should even kill infants, that among them the Virgin's Son might also be slain. Therefore the Church of the Lord refused to be consoled in the Jews, because they are not: but in the Christians who have been gathered together from the nations, she feasts and rejoices; because they have begun to be, who were not.

You have poured, then, the water of the Jordan, the water of grace; drink this first: you have poured the water of tears, the water of penitence; this is the second cup, that you may repair the first. Drink water from your own vessels, drink water from your own weepings, that you may say: And I tempered my drink with weeping. Your weeping, then, is your drink; and your tears are your food. My tears, he says, have been my bread. If tears are bread, you have from the sin of iniquity the food of conversion, according to what you read in the Gospel: For he to whom more is forgiven loves more. Whence we often see certain persons who before had been negligent Christians, once some sin has been committed, become more diligent, and from that occasion, through penance, come to reach perfection. As, therefore, conversion comes from sin, so does remedy come from poison. Hear this remedy: The righteous man is his own accuser at the beginning of his speech.

The poison is sin; the remedy is the accusation of one's own crime: the poison is iniquity; the confession is the remedy of the fall.

And therefore it is truly a remedy out of poison, if you speak your iniquities, that you may be justified.

O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy wrath, nor chasten me in Thy anger.

He who does penance ought to be prepared to endure reproaches and to undergo injuries; and not to be disturbed, if someone should cast the charge of his sin against him. For since he himself ought to accuse himself, how can he fail to bear another accusing him? But if he ought not to fear being accused by man, how much more by the Lord his God, against whom we all sin even in what is hidden; especially since—before his face runs destruction, or, as Aquila has it, failing. A condemnation of things present, an absolution of things to come. But those who are not condemned in this world will not be scourged along with men. Woe is me! If it should be said of me: he has his reward. If a good deed is thus condemned by this sentence, how much more is a crime weighed down?

For if mercy, boasted of in easy speech, is defrauded of its eternal fruit, how much more is the punishment of iniquity deferred by the addition of a bitter usury? Therefore he who does penance ought to offer himself to punishment, that he may be punished here by the Lord, and not be reserved for eternal torments; nor should he wait for the time, but should go to meet the divine indignation.

See how the deeds of David agree with his prayers.

He had offended the Lord, because he had ordered the people to be numbered. He forestalled God's messenger by confession, recalling that he had sinned greatly, and had acted very foolishly: not as though he were reminding one who had forgotten, but as though he were urging one who delayed, lest he should defer any longer the commotion of offense. I have sinned, he says, greatly, because I have done this thing; and now, Lord, blot out the iniquity of thy servant. But hear how sins are blotted out, as it is said: Her sin is loosed; for she has received of the Lord's hand double for her sins. He does not therefore ask that the sin be entirely remitted to him, but that it be blotted out by a moderate release; that is, that its memory be effaced for the future.

Then, as though the Lord were entreated by the voice of one interceding, lest the vengeance of the committed error be prolonged, he sent to him Nathan the prophet; and he came to the king, and said to him: Choose what you wish to be done: three years' famine upon the land, or three months to flee before the face of your enemies while they pursue you, or three days of death in the land. And now know, and see what I should answer him who sent me. See God teaching with what moderation His indignation is softened, if we do not entirely refuse the scourge, but ask for a lightening of the punishment, not its avoidance. He proposed three things, that he might choose whichever he thought more moderate. See also how He provokes to penitence, that we may offer ourselves to injury: bidding him choose the punishment, so that in the very punishment a certain prerogative of choice might be preserved, and He might soothe His guilty one with this word.

And David said to Nathan: I am in straits amid these three things; but I would rather fall into the hands of the Lord, for His mercy is great, than into the hands of men. Did he ask that the punishment for his error be forgiven him? Had he done so, he would have been marked with impudence, being ungrateful for the divine moderation. For a shamefaced confession pleads greatly for the guilty; and the punishment which we cannot avoid by defense, we lighten by modesty. He chose not what was free from the scourge, but what he judged more moderate; that he might commit himself rather to God's leniency, who knew how to forgive, than to the power of men, who frequently exceed the measure of vengeance. He therefore has mercy who knows not how to err; he does not have mercy who is a partaker of error.

Nor did his faith deceive holy David, but even in that very offense he earned the grace of divine mercy.

For He who had proposed to exercise death for three days upon the land did not suffer even one day to pass; but at the hour of the meal He willingly relented, and (to use the Scripture's own word) He had repentance over the evil. See how Scripture exhorts you also not to shun repentance, but to follow God, whom you ought to follow. He rightly added, "over the evil"; because every vengeance seems harsh. For this reason also the day of judgment is called an evil day, from which blessed is he who is delivered through God; as it is written: In the evil day the Lord will deliver him. And the Lord, it says, told the angel to spare there. Note, however, that when the Lord wishes to forgive, He gives grace and confidence to entreat.

And David saw the angel striking, and said: Behold it; I have sinned, and I the shepherd have done evil, and what have these of the flock done? Let your hand be upon me and upon my father's house. If the Lord had already commanded the angel to spare, how was the angel still striking, unless because the Lord, although He wishes to forgive, wishes to be entreated, and works so that He may be entreated? Nor would the man have seen the angel striking, unless the Lord had revealed the angel to his eyes. Whence also Elisha says: Lord, open now the eyes of this young man, that he may see. And the eyes of his young man were opened, and he saw a mountain full of horses and chariots round about the prophet. Nor let it move you that the person of a mere servant is meaner than that of a prophet or a king; for the sight of horses and chariots is also meaner than the sanctity of angels.

And perhaps to some reading it hastily it may seem harsh that David, that man humble of heart and gentle, who spared his enemies, chose rather the death of the people than his own flight or a famine upon the land. He avoided the famine of the people, because it is held to be more grievous than death and all punishments, since pestilence also follows it, which contaminates the sky and heaps up death. He did not ask for his own flight, on this account: because a prophet could pray for the people, as indeed happened; but the people could not intervene for the prophet. For it is written: If the people err, the priest shall pray for it; if the priest errs, who shall pray for him? And yet when he saw the people being slain, he offered himself to the striking angel, that he himself might rather be struck for the people.

It is a greater thing that, not even terrified by the very sight of the dead, he offered himself to the sword, than if he had merely wished for the terms of the proposed condition. In the choice, therefore, he followed reason; in his grief, piety.

See, moreover, the grace of the Lord, in that He Himself turned aside from the condition He had proposed.

Is it in any way a fault of mercy, that it threatens more and exacts less? He who in the bestowal of rewards keeps His promises, in the exaction of punishments relents from what was prescribed. When He is angry with the guilty, He delays; when He has mercy, He hastens to absolve; He terrifies, that He may correct; He warns, that He may amend; He forestalls, that He may forgive. Whence also the Prophet says elsewhere concerning the Lord: The cup in the hand of the Lord is full of pure wine mixed [lacuna] nevertheless its dregs are not drained out. To terrify, the cup is full; to strike, it is not drained out. The cup was full, when death for three days was commanded: but the mercy of God intervened, held the hand of the Angel, before it drained out that cup.

But that you may know that the cup is punishment or the sword, hear him saying: Take the cup of this pure wine from my hand, and you shall give it to drink to all the nations to whom I send you; and they shall vomit, and go mad before the face of the sword. And to Jerusalem it is said: You have drunk the cup of wrath from the hand of the Lord; for you have drunk the cup of ruin, and drained it out, nor was there any to comfort you. Jerusalem drank a measure that was above measure, for she had sinned above measure: the Church of Christians does not know how to drain out the cup of wrath, but the drained-out ointment, for whose sake Christ emptied Himself, that He might be fragrant everywhere. This gift she received from the hand of the Lord: but she knows not the cup of death. I read of two cups, one of death, the other of life.

Christ drained the cup of death in His own blood; and He ministered a new cup, that we might say: I will take the cup of salvation. The cup of the New Testament is that which is poured out for the remission of sins. This cup is poured out, and its dregs are not found, because it cleanses every offense.

We have said how the Lord bends His commotion in punishing: let us say how He forestalls our petition in rewarding, and let us teach by example. Hear that one of the two thieves saying to the Lord: Remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom. The Lord answered: Amen I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise. He was still asking that the Lord remember him when He had come into His kingdom; and the Lord, though He had not yet come, was already granting him the heavenly kingdom. How swift is mercy! The wish of the one praying is slower than the reward of the one rewarding.

Therefore David held to moderation, and did not pray for remission, saying: Lord, do not rebuke me in your wrath, nor chastise me in your fury. "Fury" in Greek is called θυμὸς, and is the onset of wrath. This, then, the Latin wished to express: Neither in wrath, nor in the very onset of wrath, rebuke me or chastise me. Now chastisement is instruction. It is called in Greek παίδευσις, of which it is said: Blessed is the man whom you instruct, O Lord! For God is not subject to passion so as to be angry, since He is impassible; but because He avenges, He seems to be angry. This seems so to us, because we ourselves are accustomed to avenge with agitation. Yet often even men are found not to be moved when they take vengeance, but to carry out vengeance and inflict torments with the utmost patience. Why then should you wonder at this in God, if you sometimes recognize it in man? We have said above that vengeance is wrath.

In fact, usage is such that we say of someone punished, that he has incurred the wrath of the laws: not

because the laws are wrathful, but because he has incurred the severity of the laws. So also elsewhere concerning the ten plagues of the Egyptians it says: He sent wrath upon them through evil angels, that is, vengeance; for the law does not know how to be angry, but the minister of the law knows how. He, then, who is the author of the laws does not know how to be angry, whose will is to terrify, not to punish. Imitate, therefore, O rulers, the divine example, that you may be more severe in enacting laws, and merciful in exacting punishments. Let the severity of the laws restrain insolent audacity, let the mercy of princes withdraw the guilty from punishment. The Prophet, therefore, acknowledges his fault, sees his wounds, asks to be healed.

He who wishes to be healed does not shrink from being rebuked; but he does not wish to be rebuked in fury, but in the word of God. The word of God is health. For so we read: He sent His Word, and healed them. He does not wish to be instructed in wrath, but in doctrine; as if you were to ask a physician not to cut your wound, but to apply medicine; he urges with medicine, but does not cut. In short, there is pain, but not beyond the measure of pain: it bites, but does not draw blood.

he added: For your arrows are fixed in me. He seems to say the same things as holy Job; but they are different. For he too says: For the arrows of the Lord are in my body, whose fury drinks up my blood; when I begin to speak, they pierce me. He complains of the wound of his own body; this one bewails the wounds of his soul.

And perhaps this one is doing penance for sin; that one pleads the cause of human infirmity, and, as it were an advocate of our weakness, he demands the Creator's help for the remedy of the work. This one, therefore, prays; that one intercedes. And so this one's grief is more vehement, because wounds of the soul are graver than those of the flesh. That one says the arrows of the Lord are in his body, this one bewails that they are fixed in him; his blood is drunk, this one's is poured out; that one is pierced, this one is wounded; that one the hand of God touched, upon this one it has been pressed with heavy weight; this one bewails that his soul is filled with illusions, that one his body with sores. By the hand of God we understand the power of punishing. This hand scourged the king of the Egyptians on account of the wrong done to Abraham, for the attempted violation of Sarah's chastity.

This hand plunged the chariots, horses, and peoples of the Egyptians into the depths of the Red Sea. This hand weighed down the mind of King Saul, so that he hated the grace of his preserver; and for the transgression of the heavenly command, deserted by his allies, bereft too of his slain sons, conquered by his enemies (a spectacle than which nothing is more shameful for a king), he turned his own sword against himself, lest as a captive old man he should live to outlive his sons and kingdom. David, having experienced this hand in himself and in his children, bewailed the incest of the one, the parricide of the other, and (what is more grievous to a devoted father than the ruin of his own welfare) at once wept for the disgraces of his offspring and the ruin of family piety: of whom the one was inflamed to incest by affection for a sister, the other was armed for parricide by zeal for chastity.

See how in these most grievous crimes the borders of virtues played tricks upon them.

Would that either the one had not loved his sister, or the other had not avenged her! At the last, he himself, driven from his country's borders by his son, fled from an enemy whom he wished to be his heir: he feared to conquer, lest he should conquer at the cost of paternal love.

But perhaps someone may say: How could the hand of God be in parricide or incest, since that is the work of the enemy?

Let us therefore understand that even where the devil wounds, the arrows are said to be the arrows of the Lord. For indeed we read that when, in the council of the angels, the Lord, turning to the devil, praised his servant holy Job, that the envious one, the adversary of the human race, might be inflamed (for the praise of a lower substance is the condemnation of him who has been cast down from a higher state), the devil answered that Job did not venerate the Lord without reward, since by God's will he abounded in all things. But, he said, put forth thy hand, and touch all that he hath: let us see if he will not bless thee to thy face. And God gave the devil power to put forth his hand upon all that Job had.

When this had been done, since holy Job remained unmoved in his fortitude—for Job was not moved either by the death of his sons or by the loss of his possessions—the Lord again spoke to the devil, taunting him because he had scattered all that Job had and slain his sons, yet had by no means been able to move him from the station of virtue. And he answered: Whatsoever a man hath, will he give for his life. But, he said, put forth thy hand, and touch his flesh and his bones. And he received power again to put forth his hand upon his body, yet so as to preserve his soul. And he covered holy Job with sores, whence "it went forth from the Lord." We observe, then, that it is called the hand of the Lord, where there is temptation of man through the devil's assault.

Indeed Job also said that it was the hand of the Lord that had touched him, and he recalled that the arrows of pirates were the arrows of the Lord. And he hath delivered me, he says, into the hands of the unjust. He himself thus explains it, because when the devil wounds, the arrows are the Lord's, who permitted the devil the power of wounding. Finally, if you command that your servant be beaten, is he not said to be beaten by you, even though he is struck by another standing by? There is also this reason: that the Lord gives power to the tempter so that the disposition of men may be proved in temptations. Persecution comes about for this end, that faith may shine, that virtue may excel, that the inner mind may be manifested to all.

Therefore temptation pierces the inward parts of man like an arrow, and like the sword of God, which searches out inward things. Now the sword is the powerful word of God, sharper than every sharpest sword: of which sword hear Simeon speaking to Mary: And thy own soul a sword shall pierce; that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. For by the word of God all things are revealed, in whose sight all things are naked and open. The soul itself is seen, the inward marrow, and the thoughts are made manifest: nor is there, finally, any creature, as Scripture says, that can hide itself from his knowledge. Let us therefore sell all things, that we may buy the word, and store it up in our inmost being.

The devil himself finally bears witness that man gives all that he has for his life, and confesses that the price of a whole patrimony is not worthy in exchange for the redemption of a single soul. What is cheaper than a patrimony, which the devil himself judges worthless in comparison with salvation? I said too little in saying "for salvation"—he testifies it is little even for error. In the end, he says: All these will I give thee, if falling down thou wilt adore me. And he displayed not only the riches of the world, but also honors and kingdoms. If it costs so much for the devil to be adored, how much ought the Christian to offer, that he may rise again with Christ? But let us dismiss the devil as a scapegoat into the wilderness; for he is not a faithful witness of truth, even though he sometimes transfigures himself into an angel of light.

We have abundant testimonies of the divine Scriptures, by which we are taught that nothing is more precious in man than faith, that no patrimony is so great that it can be weighed against the price of our salvation and soul. So Abraham left his own country, and his land, and even the kinsmen whom he saw, and followed him whom he did not see as though he beheld him. Moses too esteemed the price of his own soul greater than all the riches of Egypt. Why should I speak of exalted men? Rahab the harlot, that alien woman of the world, yet thought her soul was to be redeemed not only by the contempt of all she had, but even by the perils of her life: she who denied to her fellow citizens, when they sought them, the spies of Jesus the son of Nun; and preferred to hide the enemies of her country—yet ambassadors of the faith—rather than betray them.

Neither the threats of her citizens, nor the perils of war, nor the burning of her country, nor the dangers of her own people terrified her. Learn, O man, learn, O Christian, how you ought to follow the true Jesus; when a woman despised all that was hers, and followed Jesus in figure, on account of the likeness of the name. Whence Solomon splendidly said: The riches of a man are the ransom of his soul. Redeem, therefore, your soul. Money is cheap, but it becomes precious through faith: it is cheap when hoarded, precious when scattered; for so it is written: He hath scattered abroad, he hath given to the poor: his justice remaineth for ever and ever.

If, then, you have become such that you can despise not only all

that is yours, but even your very flesh for the sake of righteousness, than which no possession can be more wealthy (for a precious possession is a clean man), even if rivers rising above you should shut you in, you pass through. For even if the Lord has given power to tempt you, he nonetheless commands the devil to guard your soul himself; according to what is written: That thou mightest destroy the enemy and the defender; for he tempts as an adversary, he defends as a servant. For it is written: And the unicorn will be willing to serve thee. For he serves who does not carry out what he desires according to his own will, but reluctantly obeys imperial commands out of necessity. Behold the depth of Christ, how he turned back upon the devil the price of his own malice.

He compels us to do what we hate: For not what I will, this I do, as the Apostle said, but what I hate, that I do. The Lord turned it back upon him, that he too very often does not do what he wishes, but does what he hates. In the end, he guards the soul which he wishes to conquer. We condemn the corruption of the flesh, and yet follow it; like that widow who breaks the pledge of fidelity promised to her husband, and afterward wishes to marry, what she formerly fled. He is an enemy to the saints, and is employed as a defender, that he may be more greatly punished; so that he dares not harm, though he desires to harm. And how much more tolerable it is to love the virtues, even if you cannot fulfill them, than to hate the virtues, whom you cannot harm.

There is, he says, no health in my flesh because of the face of thy wrath.

Isaiah has explained this passage for us: We have sinned, and thou hast been angry with us.

What, then, is the face of the wrath of the Lord? Is it not perhaps this, because The eyes of the Lord are upon them that do evil? For if the eyes of the Lord are upon the just, how is the Prophet weakened by the face of God's wrath? Whence consider also that which David himself said in a later place: For thou hast delivered me out of all my troubles; and mine eye hath looked upon mine enemies. For as he looks upon the good deeds of the just, so also he detects the hidden deeds of sinners. Unless perhaps you refer this to Christ, who was delivered from all by whom he was being crushed, when he stripped himself from the people of the Jews, who crushed him with frequent sacrileges and daily impieties; and called to grace his enemies, whom the eye of God saw and loved. Therefore, since God is merciful, one must by no means despair.

Even if he is angry, he forgives; even if he strikes, he heals; even if he delivers the flesh to destruction, he saves the spirit.

Do not, therefore, fear the weakness of the flesh; for the saint, when weak, is more powerful.

But what is meant by his saying: There is no peace in my bones because of the face of my sins?

What are these bones; are they of the soul, or of the body? But there would not be such great concern for bodily pain, when the soul too labors; since it belongs to a saint to wish the flesh to be scourged for the soul's sake, as Paul also scourged himself, lest his own assertion be found reprobate. There are certain bones of the inner man, just as there are the other members, the eyes of the mind, and nostrils; as Job said: The divine spirit which is in my nostrils. There are, therefore, also bones by which a certain framework of charity is formed. Whence Adam also said of the partner of his charity, and coheir of the grace of life: This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. Which the Apostle interpreted, saying: This is a great mystery: but I speak in Christ and in the Church.

Now who would doubt that the mystery of Christ and the Church is not carnal but spiritual; since every good man in marriage itself is held not by the beauty of the flesh, but of virtue: and loves the character in a wife, not the use? Finally, hear that he speaks not according to the flesh, but according to inward virtue: My bone is not hidden, which thou hast made in secret. Virtue, then, is not flesh, which knows the hidden things of God the Father.

Therefore there is no peace for the virtues of the soul, when our sins run together before our eyes, and pour themselves over our minds. And this the chosen Teacher of the Gentiles well interpreted, in the second epistle to the Corinthians, saying: For also when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest; but we were troubled on every side: without were fightings, within were fears. The sins of the Macedonians vexed him; how much more do the sins proper to each of us disturb us, so that there can be no rest for us? Our own guilt is a heavier adversary to us, which stirs up the idle, afflicts the sound, saddens the joyful, disquiets the peaceful, harasses the meek, rouses the sleeping. We are guilty without an accuser, we are tortured without a torturer, we are bound without chains, we are sold without a seller. Whence Scripture also says: You are sold for your sins.

These, then, are the sins which are always against us; as the Prophet said: They have sold us, and they lord it over us.

A servant who is sold departs from the earlier servitude, so as to pass to another master: but we neither lay down the yoke of former sins, and yet we bend to new ones.

Whence also the Saint groaned, saying: For my iniquities are gone over my head: they are heaped upon me like a heavy burden

that is, my iniquities have gone over my head, and rise above me, so as to press down my senses; for the eyes of the wise man are in his head. And so Nabal was evil and hard, because his senses were blocked up by malice and iniquity. Whence he could not bear the word of Abigail; but his heart hardened, and he fell down as though ill. Or see whether this is not the head of which the Apostle speaks, because he does not hold it, being puffed up by the mind of the flesh.

Now this head is Christ; for the head of every man is Christ.

This is the head which, through the joints and bands of the whole people, grows unto the increase of God; because Christ rises up in all of us through each of his members. Therefore, when our own sins weigh us down, and we are pressed toward earthly things by a certain leaden weight of iniquity, let us burst their bonds, and cast off from us their yoke; that we may be able to lift up the eyes of our mind, and hear him who says: Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Finally, avarice burdened Egypt, money vexed the merchandise of the Ethiopians, as it is written: Egypt labored, the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to thee. Egypt labored, before it knew the truth: but it labors no longer after it has passed over to Christ.

The willing Sabean men follow, who formerly fled; because the bonds of charity, stronger than adamant, hold them.

And this passage of Isaiah fittingly applies here also: Every head is in pain, and every heart in sadness: from the feet unto the head there is no soundness, neither wound, nor bruise, nor swelling sore. For iniquity burns, when it reigns, lifting itself up above our head and occupying the place, lest Christ, the master of repentance, hold it.

These iniquities have no small force, if you consider that man of iniquity, who is to come according to the working of Satan, in all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and in all the deceivableness of iniquity: whom the Apostle showed us we must beware, because he shall receive the working of error; that the faithful may be proved, the unfaithful judged.

Rightly, therefore, being set beneath iniquities, and (what is worse) his own, he says that his scars have become corrupted and have rotted away

because of the face of his foolishness; because a remedy followed more slowly the one bearing the burdens of iniquities. Yet also to holy Job, who scraped the discharge of his own ulcers, being covered with ulcers from his feet even to his head, health was restored; and Lazarus the poor man who lay at the gate of the rich man, with dogs licking his sores, was lifted up from the stench of his scars by angels and placed in the bosom of Abraham.

There is, therefore, in holy David a hope for the remedy of health

because his wounds of sin give off, not the fragrance of ointment, but a stench; and because he is twice afflicted and bent down, and takes no delight in it. Consider now some lascivious young man, exceedingly given to lust, who spends his life in debaucheries, after the manner of that rich man, reclining in fine linen and purple, and feasting splendidly every day, for whom the pavements swim with wine, the ground is covered and strewn with flowers and the bones of fish, and the dining rooms are filled with the kindled odors of various incenses—how he considers himself blessed, and judges himself to smell sweetly; while he carries grievous and long-standing wounds of his soul, and corrupt blood flows, yet he perceives no stench from his scar. For his nostrils are stopped up with filth, and he cannot say: The divine spirit which is in my nostrils.

Therefore that rich man could not find the remedy of salvation, but the poor man found it. In the end, the one is in torment among the dead, the other in rest.

The holy prophet David, then, also found the remedy of everlasting salvation, he who confessed that the wounds of his soul stank to him, and said that his own scars had rotted away

because of the face of his foolishness. But there is also a foolishness which, through the folly of preaching, brings salvation to believers. The Prophet, therefore, already with the spirit of the Gospel, flees the wisdom of this world, which does not know God: which conceals its wounds, and does not reveal them to the Lord. Better, then, is the foolishness which has eyes to see its own sores, than the wisdom which has none. And so, admonished by the spiritual sight of his foolishness, so great a king declares himself afflicted with miseries; that he might be able to find the remedy of repentance—which Judas, who possessed a field with the price of iniquity, was not able to find.

Afflicted, he says, with miseries, and bowed down even to the end: I went about mourning all the day.

To what end does he say that he was bowed down?

Is it the lawful end of repentance? Or, further, are we to understand it mystically, unto Christ, who is the end of the Law; who suffered himself to be scourged, suffered his dead body to be stoned? But those wounds gave off no stench of repentance, but only the fragrance of grace. For indeed, no decay of death came from his wound, as from that of other men; but a fountain of eternal life gushed forth; as the Scripture teaches us, saying: And you shall draw water with joy out of the springs of the Saviour (Isaiah 12:3). Water, then, leapt forth from the wound, that we might drink salvation. All the sinners of the earth shall drink, that they may lay aside their sins. Consider each point. Christ was afflicted with miseries, that he might make blessed the men who were set in miseries. Let no one call him miserable who is just; for he himself said: No one shall make you miserable (Isaiah 33:1).

He was bowed down, that we might be raised up: he was made sorrowful, that he might make us glad; according to what is written: For if I make you sorrowful, who then is he that makes me glad, but he that is made sorrowful by me? He, therefore, who is made sorrowful because of the Lord Jesus Christ, himself makes Christ glad; and he himself is made glad by Christ. Therefore we too know that we must make satisfaction, not perfunctorily. Let us be bowed down even to the end, that is, offering not only faith to Christ, but also perseverance in our sufferings, and let us rejoice in our sufferings; just as Christ also rejoiced in his sufferings. Those which he took up for his little servants, let us undergo for the Lord. This, then, is the end. That I may fill up, he says, those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the Church, of which I have been made a minister.

We see what we must undertake, we who have received the priestly ministry; that we ought bravely to endure the sufferings of the body, not only for ourselves, but also for the Church of the Lord. But David added also the sufferings of the soul.

For he himself says: For my soul is filled with mockeries: and there is no health in my flesh. I am bowed down and humbled exceedingly: I roared with the groaning of my heart. And all my desire is before you, and my groaning is not hidden from you. My heart is troubled, my strength has left me, and the light of my eyes is not with me. We observe, then, that the labor of the soul is greater than that of the flesh. Now understand with what mockeries the soul is filled; because in temptations the devil seems to mock and insult it, as though it were laboring grievously. Symmachus, however, speaks of loins, in which are the seedbeds of human generation.

Whence the Wisdom of God bids you have your loins girded; lest your chastity be undone.

Indeed, that you may know that in the loins are the stirrings of lust, which are frequently roused by the devil—when he strives to scatter the members of Christ, and to make them members of a harlot—it is said: Behold, his strength is in his loins, and his power is in his navel. In the loins of the man are the seeds, but in the womb of the woman. The devil, therefore, mocks in these things, so as to bring about adultery, incest, fornication. And so he who fornicates sins against his own body, not outside the body. First, because the flesh is weakened, which dissolves in lusts, and does not keep the bounds of chastity; then because the seeds which ought to profit for the begetting of offspring produce only the defilement of the body, not the fruit of posterity.

Hence, perhaps, they are called mockeries, because in these the heat of the body often mocks without the actual union of intercourse. Whence the Seventy rightly spoke of the mockeries of the soul; because the devil, mocking someone's affections, strives to pour out his strength in vain, to empty his power, and dissolve his vigor. And so elsewhere it is said: And my reins are dissolved. In which the blessed Apostle also confirms us, that we ought not to fear the mockeries of the soul, nor the weakness of the flesh; because Christ is the strength both of our soul and of our body, who heals the sick like a physician, and strengthens the weak, as the strength of all. Indeed, even though our outward man is decaying; yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

Wearied, then, by these mockeries of the soul, holy David had bowed down and humbled himself exceedingly, not that he was giving place to his iniquities piling themselves up above his head, as we have said, or yielding to the enemy, who in what follows teaches him that he ought not to yield, saying: How great things has the enemy wrought maliciously in your holy places; and they that hated you have gloried in the midst of your feast? They have set up their signs as signs; and I did not know them, as upon the way above the summit. As with axes in a forest of trees they have cut down its doors. My enemies, he says, setting up the signs of their iniquity above the summit (and what is the summit but your head, where the senses are, where Christ, who is Wisdom, is)—I did not know, that is, I did not acquiesce, I did not consent to these things, and I joined the verdict of my own thought to them.

Whence elsewhere also you have: I did not know a wicked word; and: I did not acknowledge those who turned aside from me as evildoers.

Indeed, though Christ knows all things, he did not know sin; for he knows the things that are his own, that is, the things of the virtues, not the things of wicked deeds.

Therefore Scripture says to you: The Lord knows who are his own. But to the wicked he says: Depart from me, for I do not know you. And through Jeremiah he spoke, saying: I was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and I knew not. How was it that he did not know what he had foretold would come to pass? But I did not know, he says, their thoughts, their malice. I do not wish to know the things of blood. Indeed, I will not gather their assemblies made of bloodshed; and: I blot out their iniquities, and remember them no more (Isaiah 43:25). I do not wish to know the things which I have come to forgive. I did not take note of the wood that burns, nor that which is laid in the woodpile, or the stubble, or the hay, so that the flame might more quickly consume them with its nourishment.

I wish to know those things which remain, that they may receive the fruit of their reward: I wish to know those things which are built upon the foundation, that they may be made better; not those which are on the road, where passers-by plunder them: I wish to know those which are of the vine, those certain branches which bear fruit, not those which are gathered into bundles and prepared for burning; that is, I am not the arbiter and companion of those things which are perishable. It is not, then, fellowship in some matter, but criminal fellowship, that is at fault.

But for what reason did he not acknowledge those glorying in fruitless and fragile things?

Because by evil works and by the axes of their iniquity they overturn the entrances of the faithful soul, and with cruel deeds they cut the vestibules of the pious mind—so that Christ cannot enter through them. But each one ought to guard his own gates and doors; so that when Christ comes and knocks, the ministering powers that go before and run ahead may say: Lift up your gates, O princes, and be lifted up, you everlasting doors. Truly they are princes who have ruled themselves well, so that Christ's entrance may be into their souls. Similar also is that saying of Solomon: If the spirit of him that has power ascend against you, leave not your place; for care will mitigate great offenses. For diligence and faith hold the higher place, faithlessness the lower.

Therefore let good diligence ascend to you, which shuts out the snares of the enemy and takes away sin, lest the malice of him that has power be able to do harm. This malice Ecclesiastes sees in the Song under the sun, that is, in this world, whence Scripture has recorded this place under the sun. Under the sun, then, he saw it, not above the sun, where is the peace of the angels, or the holiness of the heavenly powers. Or perhaps he said "under the sun" of iniquity; for over malice the devil presides, over the virtues Christ. Therefore, that he might overcome the spirit having power, which it received for a time, David bent himself in prayer, bowing his neck like a hoop, and humbled himself in his prayers; for the prayer of one who humbles himself pierces the clouds, and transcends the heights of the elements, that it may draw near to Christ.

And I roared with the groaning of my heart.

He roars, who expresses only a groan, not words. This, then, is that illustrious prayer, when the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered, as the Vessel of election affirmed. This is the groaning which God does not despise, who does not despise the younger servant bereft of his father, nor the widow, if she pour out her speech.

Groaning, then, above all, the Apostle sets forth as the sign of the Holy Spirit, as we read.

Let us, then, guard the doors of our soul; lest the entrance of our confession be cut by the axes of much speaking. Let nothing insolent and proud proceed from our mouth; lest we lift up an axe or a hammer, which do not enter into the Church of the Lord. Shut the door, when you pray, lest the wicked spirit thrust himself in; that he may not wrest away sin even there, where we wish to gain the profit of piety. He who prays thus, his groaning is not hidden from the Lord. Indeed, thus was the groaning of holy Peter both known and heard, when he wept most bitterly. It was not, indeed, that his tears were bitter, but that the feeling which poured them out was bitter. Even in the perfidious Ahab his groaning would have found grace; had not lingering envy heaped up the offense.

For it is not a perfunctory groaning that is commended; but one that has conversion; for it is written: If, being converted, you groan, you shall be saved.

Let us also set before the Lord all our desire: What is desire?

For I have read desire applied to a good thing: With desire have I desired to eat this passover with you; and: The hart desires the fountains of waters. But I think that he who bears penance, who afflicts himself, ought to enumerate not his good deeds but the sins committed by him. Finally, by those

as I judge, we are taught this, where he says: O God, I will declare my life to thee: thou hast set my tears in thy sight.

For he does not declare a life as though innocent, where tears are poured out, which are wont to undertake an embassy for offenses. Unless perhaps we understand it thus, that even though one be innocent, he cannot be secure, who has daily battles against most grievous enemies; and therefore, although his conscience be joyful, yet the struggle is tearful.

According to these

then, we can understand it rather as concupiscence than desire; for the Greek used ἐπιθυμία: and concupiscence and desire are both called ἐπιθυμία.

But concupiscence is spoken both of good and of evil. My soul hath coveted, and fainted for the courts of the Lord, for good; but in the Law otherwise: For I had not known concupiscence, unless the Law had said: Thou shalt not covet, certainly for evil. Finally, let the following passages teach us, that sin, occasion being taken, works through the commandment every concupiscence in the affection of man. Yet we can understand it thus: I set before thee all my desire; that is, I make manifest to thee what I desire to obtain; so that it may seem to be referred to the order of petitions, not to a boasting of virtues. For boasting is insolent even in one who is blameless, but supplication is praiseworthy in a sinner.

The Prophet added also, that when his heart was troubled his strength forsook him.

Great is the danger if the heart, by which we believe unto justice, be shaken. But yet, as in the great dangers of sicknesses, if pain is felt and its sense is expressed, a remedy of health is shown forth (for to feel pain is more tolerable than not to feel it; for one thing is the token of vitality still remaining, if thou feel pain; another the sign of utmost death, if there be no sense of pain at all)—so also the heart shows signs of health, when it recognizes the causes of its own disturbance. Accordingly the heart of David was troubled against Nabal, a pestilent man, and he found grace, when Abigail met him, who softened the motion of his indignation and received the sanctification of a blessing. But Nabal, with a hard and rigid heart, could not bear the word of his wife, and, struck dumb, grew stiff, and fell into death.

But what strength forsook the Prophet?

That of the flesh or of the mind? If of the flesh, health is by no means to be despaired of. For virtue is made perfect in weakness. Concerning which he disputed not slightly who, as umpire and combatant, knowing the wrestling of mind and body, tempered the contest of both; that he might restrain the flesh, if he perceived it stronger, lest it should lead the mind captive under the law of sin. So he called back the flesh, but joined strength to the mind: thus he deserved to attain to the crown. This, then, is what the Prophet says: If the strength of the flesh has failed, the strength of the mind has prevailed. But if we take it that the strength of the mind failed, it is no wonder if, in the gravest temptations, with his heart troubled, a man thinks himself forsaken by the strength of his own mind. Let him himself teach thee, saying: My strength and my praise is the Lord.

He was seeking the Lord, therefore; and so, lest he should deserve to be forsaken, he thought he must often seek; and wherever he wavered, he thought himself forsaken. Thus the Apostles rouse one sleeping, lest he fall asleep to himself, not because they believed him to have fallen asleep. Thus Elisha (to use examples from what precedes) says: Where is the God of Elijah? Not that he thought him absent, but because he sought his presence in benefits. Thus Jeremiah followed him as a physician, saying: Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved. I have not labored after thee. Thus the Church sought him in the Song of Songs, and asked the daughters of Jerusalem to stir up love. She sought that she might find him whom she held by her love, nor ever felt him absent. So, then, David also was not complaining that he was forsaken by Christ; but he judged that, with Him present, he could not be troubled.

Finally, that thou mayest know that this is rather to be understood of Christ, he added: And the light of my eyes is not with me. For what is the true light of all things, if not Christ Jesus, of whom John says: He was the true light, which enlighteneth every man coming into this world; since he it is who enlightens both the eyes of the body and the gaze of the mind? Let us pray, therefore, that he may always pour his light into us, and always be with us, as he was with David; and therefore he dared to say: For with thee is the fountain of life, and in thy light we shall see light. He certainly, as a prophet, had seen a great light: let his lamp shine for us, that we may not be able to err. And the lamp is the Word, just as the Word is the true light, which enlightens the whole world entirely. Finally: Thy word, O Lord, is a lamp to my feet.

And it was that lamp, not a lantern, that the Prophet was seeking.

That lamp John found, and showed forth: whereas with a lantern the persecutor came and showed.

For a lantern holds the light shut in, not free. The Jew, like a lamp under a bushel, or torches under a covering, can see, but does not see; but we, with unveiled face, behold the everlasting glory of the Lord; that we may be transformed into his image from glory to glory through the Holy Spirit. So the crowd of persecutors came with lanterns; and therefore their eyes could not see the light shut up within them. They came with torches, which have more of the smoke of gloom than of the splendor of light. Finally, corpses of the dead are wont to be burned with torches. So the Jews were already bringing fires upon themselves, who were persecuting the author of salvation.

They came with weapons, signifying that by weapons they themselves were to perish at the hands of the Romans, even to the destruction of the whole city and the temple, they who refused the peace of the Lord.

My friends and my neighbors have drawn near against me, and stood.

And my neighbors stood afar off. And they that sought my soul used violence. And they that sought evils to me spoke vanity: and studied deceits all the day long. But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and as a dumb man not opening his mouth. And I became as a man that heareth not, and that hath no reproofs in his mouth. I shall see who they are that discuss these things sharply. To me, in this first

especially, the meaning of the Lord seems to be held; because in temptations even a man's own household become his enemies.

This, then, holy David confesses purely and sincerely and sorrowfully.

For it is true grief, and the confession of an inward heart, when all the things by which the secret inward parts of the mind are pierced with most bitter feeling and are embittered with domestic gall, are enumerated. The Prophet, therefore, laments that he was assailed by friends and neighbors, by whom certainly he ought not to have been assailed, but helped. This certainly agrees with the complaint of holy Job; for he too accused those three kings, comforters of evils, who brought upon him greater struggles, when they had come together, for friendship's sake, to comfort him: which indeed we must beware of. For comfort ought to be gentle, not harsh, which should rather soothe grief and mitigate fervor than excite disturbance. Surely the very medicine of the body should teach us this, which is accustomed to apply softer remedies to inflamed wounds, by which it may relieve the pain. And therefore wounds are first fomented, afterward cut; lest the very hardness offend, and the incision aggravate the wound.

How much more, then, does it behoove us to be cautious, that when we have come to console, we should not speak readily, not carelessly?

For seven days Job was silent, his friends were silent, nor would they have spoken, had not Job broken forth in speech from grief; for one must seek where to begin, lest thy consolation give offense in the very speech. Even silence itself is a medicine, and speed in speaking wounds the more. Why marvel if it wounds another, since often it wounds itself; because through much speaking sin is not escaped? For if the physician awaits the time for healing, that, the sicknesses having been digested, the aids of medicine may be applied; lest, the sickness being still, as they say, bitter and unripe, it should resist the remedies of cure, and be unable to feel the benefit; how much more does it behoove us to explore, that a medicinal word may proceed from us in due season, one that seems not to kindle mourning but to soothe it?

The force of grief presses hard: the heart of an afflicted woman is oppressed, who by an untimely death has lost her husband or her sons: why dost thou hasten, when she will not hear thee unless the grief cool down? We have often seen quarrels arise out of consolations. Thou hast come to grieve, not to argue. The order of speech itself must be sought; lest thou incur sin before God, while desiring to console a man; lest, when thou sayest to him, "Hear these things," and many other things which profit nothing, he answer thee: "Hear, ye troublesome comforters"; lest thou introduce, into another's mourning, a contest of garrulous disputation; lest thou not approach, when thou oughtest; lest thou approach, and thy speech be too harsh. Finally, let holy Job teach thee what is said of such men: All at once the gravest temptations came upon me, they that lay in wait surrounded me: my brethren have departed from me, they have known strangers rather than me.

My friends have become unmerciful This, then, is the natural sense also of the holy prophet David; that he complains he was assailed by friends, forsaken by neighbors.

But let not even the mystical sense of feeling of piety shrink from having been said of the angels, who go before them that fear the Lord, that they may snatch them from the temptations which they could not bear. How then do they stand afar off, who are assigned for help? But it is not that they separate themselves; rather, he who is pressed by temptations thinks them far away, whom he desires to be nearer to him; and he supposes them to be feigning indifference, while they await the time of helping at the bidding of their emperor, who has bidden his athlete to fight the longer, that he might conquer the more gloriously. And this seems rather to fit what follows; for while the angels relaxed their watches of protection, the enemies lay in wait, seeking to find in his soul what might harm him. For then the power of a graver temptation is permitted to them, when the graver fault of the soul is found.

Whence you have that saying in the Book of Kings, spoken by Elijah to king Ahab; when the Prophet vehemently rebuked him and foretold his death: Hast thou found me, said he? And Elijah answered: I have found thee; because thou hast done evil in the sight of the Lord. You see, then, that injury is not to be done rashly to kings, either by the prophets of God or by priests, if there be no graver sins in which they ought to be rebuked; but where the sins are graver, there it does not seem that the priest should spare, so that they may be corrected by just rebukes.

Yet David says in this place that they seem to have found nothing; and therefore his enemies spoke vanity, since they found nothing which they might speak for the truth. Or certainly, though I did sin, yet I was cleansing my sins with the grief of penitence. In this they spoke to me with guile: that they might confound me with rebuke, and call me back from conversion. And see whether he did not rather mean this—that they sought his evils; but when they wished to accuse, they were forestalled; since he himself had laid open his wounds, becoming his own accuser; and thus the force of their accusation was annulled: but that they had spoken vain things, which, the fault being confessed, could no longer harm.

Being excluded therefore from the odium of accusation, they employed guile; so that they might rise up, he says, and insult me, whereby they might goad me to some agitation: but seeing their guile, I, like a deaf man, did not hear. Consider the force of the phrase. He did not say that I pretended not to hear what they were saying: but he said, I did not hear; and that with the intention of his mind he shut out the voice of the speaker: nor did he open his mouth, like a dumb man. Blessed is he who can have such virtue, that when provoked he is not angered, and when disturbed does not wish to avenge himself. Enemies do this, that they may provoke to wrath: they curse, that we may curse; they accuse, that we may hurl back the charge; they revile, that they may stir us to a mutual exchange of insult.

Whence Peter finely set down concerning the Lord Jesus in his epistle: That when he was cursed, he did not curse back; when he suffered, he did not threaten. In likeness therefore and image of him, the just man, wishing to shape the pattern of his life, when accused is silent, when injured forgives, when provoked dissembles, and does not open his mouth; that he may imitate him who, as a lamb led to the slaughter, so did not open his mouth; and though he could have something to reply, he prefers rather to be silent than to speak. For the Lord Jesus himself, truly, when he was accused, was silent; and when he was struck, he did not strike back. Indeed, when struck, he answered: If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why do you strike me?

See how, as if truly weak, and as one who could not avenge himself, he spoke with a certain childlike feeling: so also you, if you have wherewith to refute your accuser, will do better to be silent; lest by the exchange of refutation you betray your own agitation. For it is better to dissemble an injury than, in refuting, to avenge it. Good is the mute man who knows not how to speak evil, from whose mouth no accusation is wont to issue. This is the truly blessed mute, who, while silent, speaks within himself. The Lord gives me a tongue of learning, that I may know when it behooves me to speak a word. Such things Zacharias spoke within himself, when he had become mute: and truly, because it had not profited him to speak, he became mute, lest he should speak; and that he might speak, he was heard by Christ.

Indeed he wrote that which Christ heard; and he received back his voice, which Christ granted; and added a grace which before he did not have; that he might prophesy of him whose commands he had not before believed. Why do I speak of the Lord of all virtues, when the woman Susanna, not disturbed by the weakness of her sex, when she knew herself condemned to the peril of death, uttered no voice? She was accused, and was silent: she was led to death, and covered herself with silence, lest she should lay bare her modesty. Yet within herself she spoke to God, who heard her the more because she was silent: whereas if she had wished to speak, perhaps she would not have been heard.

You too, therefore, who have proposed to make satisfaction for your offenses to the Lord your God, purify yourself before him alone with an inward heart, look upon him who is able to wash away sins. He helps you, who thought fit to accuse you. Indeed, when David was cursed, and his commander Abishai wished to avenge the injury done to the king, David said to him: Let him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord has bidden him, that he may see my humiliation, and the Lord may repay me good for this cursing. Do you see, then, that you are helped by those who revile you, that the Lord may hear you and remit your sin? For since you yourself ought to be your own accuser, and to pile up your own misdeeds, and offer yourself to punishment; how do you wish to deny what is charged against you? Penitence seeks patience; patience mitigates great offenses. How can you be angry at others, when you are guilty before your own conscience?

How can you be disturbed, when you ought to be an object of pity?

He who is accused, and (what is more) accused by himself, ought to tend his own wounds, not wound another. No one heals himself by wounding another. Physician, heal thyself. If a physician, how much more ought a guilty man first heal himself! You confess your own sin, and yet profess yourself the physician of another: even though what you retort be true in fact, it is not fitting in season; for to the sinner God said: Why do you recount my statutes of righteousness? You have arrogated to yourself the right to accuse from the Law, you who have yourself acted against the Law. Why do you waste the time for tears? Why in wrangling do you either hear or speak vain words; when it is written for you: You shall not receive an idle report; when you have read in the Gospel that for every idle word judgment must be undergone?

Even if another speaks, be silent; even if another reviles, stop up your ear.

David by keeping silence conquered his adversaries: and

because he was made as one that is mute, he received back his voice; because, turning to the Lord, he spoke, saying: For in thee, O Lord, have I hoped: thou wilt hear me, O Lord my God. For I said, lest at any time my enemies rejoice over me. Observe each point: David was silent, his enemies were speaking, they were provoking that he too might say something. They were saying: Let us hear your voice. He, silent, spoke within himself: What need is there that these should hear things which cannot profit them? In thee, O Lord, have I hoped; to thee alone I speak: hear thou, who art able to hear.

From thee I have always asked that my enemies might never rejoice over me; for even if I have sinned, thou dost remit the sin: even if I have fallen, thou dost raise me up again, lest those who rejoice in others' sins should have anything whereof to rejoice. For we have gained more, we who have sinned more; because thy grace makes us more blessed than our own innocence. We have this same sense also in the book of the prophet Micah: Rejoice not over me, my enemy; for I have fallen, but I shall rise again (Micah 7:8). The fall of weakness is not grave, if there be not also a deliberate purpose of will not to rise from it. Have the will to rise; he who can make you rise is present.

David then said in his heart, asking that he be heard by the Lord, and that his enemies might not rejoice over him: asking also that he might persevere in the purpose of his conversion; lest, while the steps of his purpose, as it were the feet of his soul, were being shaken, the adversaries might speak against him proud and boastful words, as those do who desire to insult. Though he be moved as a man, he says he is ready for the scourges; that even by punishment he may release himself from his error. Even though the Lord's scourges should cease, he yet records that he is scourged by his own grief; so that his fault may find nothing to condemn, since a good confession has forestalled it.

This, then, is what he says: And while my feet were shaken, they spoke great things against me; because they are so ready for the mockeries of insult, that at the shaking of my feet they had boastful speech at the ready; or else thus: While my feet were shaken, thinking that I would fall, they had already spoken proud and boastful things.

But yet, since he himself in a later passage said that his feet were almost moved, lest any scruple arise from this, consider that here we are taught the feeling of penitence, whereas there the notion of his error is excluded, namely that the riches and more prosperous success of the wicked ought not to move us. But such is the custom of speech found in the divine Scriptures. For so also elsewhere: When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we became like men comforted. Although the holy man wishes to be approved not by the show of words, but by the power of the spirit. We must therefore always look to the sense, which even frequent translation, from Hebrew into Greek, from Greek into Latin, is wont to attenuate.

For all the foregoing, then, a fair remedy is this, that he is ready for scourges, and offers himself to the Lord, that he may endure whatever scourges shall please God (1 Chron. 21:13).

I read indeed that holy David chose the kind of scourge which he would bear with equanimity: but he chose

because of three conditions the necessity of choosing one was enjoined. But where it is not enjoined, the little servant of God is ready for all things, whether he undergo bodily sickness, or flight from the face of the enemy, or the death of sons, whom he does not fear to send ahead; because he can receive them back undismayed. For knowing too that if here he be punished with temporal punishment, he may lighten in the future the penalty of perpetual affliction: he asks therefore that his petition be received, and that he himself be chastened, that it may be received; for the Lord chastens every son whom he receives.

If you should see your own little servant confessing his own sins and freely offering himself to punishment, you would be moved, you would forgive: and do you distrust the Lord's mercy?

A judge himself, who in very many cases is not allowed to spare the sword

because he serves the laws, can nevertheless grant remission of penalties: and do you still tremble as to what you should ask of the Lord of laws and Author of mercy, for whom law is will, and the right of pardoning? Provided, however, that you ask that your sins be forgiven you, and do not consider your honors, or blush before your friends; lest you seem to have compromised your dignity. The friend of God, the prophet of God, a king chosen by God himself, and anointed unto the kingdom, offered himself of his own will to scourges, and was not ashamed: and are you ashamed? That modesty will not help you much when you come to the judgment of God; but you will repent of that shame, when, set in the sight not only of men but also of Angels and all the heavenly Powers, you begin not to deny your own sins. How will you make excuse, when you have committed such things?

Will you plead the weakness of the human condition, that no one is without sin?

It will be answered you: You ought therefore to have done penance; I had given the remedy, why did you refuse it? Will you cover over your shame, because you were ashamed of your honors? He will say: If you were ashamed of me before your friends, I too will be ashamed of you before my Father who is in heaven. Learn that it is true which is written, that there is a shame that brings sin. David set his grief before his own sight, that he might never forget it; David himself pronounced his own iniquity; David thought of his own sin, not of his riches; David was not ashamed to recount his own sins, lest he should be ashamed of them when standing before my judgment: and were you ashamed?

My little servant Job would not today be at rest, if he had been ashamed before those three kings his friends; nor David himself, if he had been ashamed to confess his own offenses.

Therefore, because he was not ashamed to lay open his sins to me, neither will I be ashamed to unlock my secrets to him. And because neither of them was ashamed to place the price of his deeds in my power, to commit himself to my judgment and will; neither will I be ashamed of such little servants, so as to call them friends, who have striven to do my will. And therefore, because they were before in sorrow, now they are in consolation: you, because you were in delights, are now in torments. There is a great chasm between you; so that neither can their grace pass over to you, nor your punishment to them. Do you hear, then, what David says? Hear, while it is permitted you to correct and amend: if you amend here, you will rest there.

Let not the sweet things of the world and the pleasures of this age delight you; for they are wont to stir up bitter gall.

He was not seeking pleasant things, set in his kingdom, who rather chose the death of the saints over the life of the wicked.

My enemies, he says, live, and are stronger than I; and they that hate me wrongfully are multiplied.

They that render evil for good detracted me, because I followed after justice. But how much more illustrious was he who daily died, that he might give life to his peoples; and offered his body to the wounds of death; as he himself says: In deaths often! For death is an honorable redemption of life, even a bulwark for a life that is discolored or blameless: but the outcome of death is in the hand of life. And therefore the Apostle preferred to die daily; that he might prove the merit of his life. For it is written: Praise not a man in his lifetime.

For they who live shall die; they who die shall rise again. Nearer, then, to salvation is he who dies that he may rise, than he who lives that he may die. But who is he that dies daily, except him who carries about in his flesh the death of the Lord Jesus, that all sins may die in him? Now David's enemies were made strong and were multiplied in this world; but there is no fitting strength except in him who is made strong in Christ. Indeed those are made strong in the world who hate the just man wrongfully: therefore the hatred is not just, but unjust, since they hated wrongfully.

But observe the difference.

In the following

he says: Who hate me without cause; here he has: Who hate me unjustly. But there he speaks in the person of Christ, here in his own person; where he speaks in the person of Christ, he is hated without cause: where in his own, he is hated unjustly. For a man may be closed to some one wound, as for instance injustice, intemperance, unchastity; yet be open to other wounds. But in Christ there could be no cause whereby he might have received the wound of any sin, being immune from guilt, and whole from offense, and unstained by vice. There are, however, those who think that both psalms proceed in the person of Christ, who was making satisfaction to the Father for our sins. Here, then, he said that he was assailed against justice, there against grace.

And he well adds, to prove that he was assailed unjustly: Because I have followed after justice.

What force there is in the word by the addition of one syllable, that he said he had "followed after" justice, not simply "followed"! For he who follows after is nearer than he who merely follows, and equal rather than unequal, and the succession of an heir is called such rather than a mere accession.

yet, although he follows after justice, he does not consider this to be of his own virtue, but of heavenly grace, if he is not forsaken by Christ; and so he prays the more earnestly, saying: Forsake me not, O Lord my God; depart not from me; that is, men have forsaken me, my friends have assailed the neighbor dear to them: they have not drawn near.

They fled from me as from a dead man, and abhorred me

because I desired to lay open my sins to thee, and to confess; because I offered myself to be wounded by thy scourges; because I chose the scars of wounds above the banquets of kings, and the boasting of powers: do thou alone not forsake me, do thou cleave to thy little servant, who raisest up the needy from the earth, and liftest the poor from the dunghill. Relying on thy company, I shall count myself more attended than those courted by peoples. My scars indeed have festered; but I still long for the scars of thy words, which are drawn over healed wounds, so that afterward no sore appears. Good are the scars of triumphal wounds, in which the victors of this earthly battle glory. How much more illustrious are the wounds which appear to have been received for the faith and glory of thy name! This is the scar which opens heaven, acquires the kingdom, finds immortality.

This, then, brethren, is the blessed scar, since blessed are they who have washed their robes in their own blood. Thus the robe began to be a robe of glory, the flesh a body of death: in which even Paul, the elect of God, was formerly in peril, had he not sought to be delivered from the body of this death, as we read.

And therefore let us who are in this body of death pray that that good physician, beloved of God, may not forsake us, whom the patriarch David besought not to depart from him. Let us commit ourselves to him, ready to be cured by whatever remedy he wishes. No one tells the physician of his body how he should be cured. The physician knows what remedies suit each wound, whose sore's decay must be cut away with iron, lest the destruction creep through the whole body. If the physician names the kind of medicine by which the sick man ought to be cured, and he disdains it, the physician departs and abandons the sick man. See him who wishes to be cured, acquiescing in every kind of remedy the physician gives; note the order. First he opens his wounds to the physician, and says: Heal me, but I ask, not in thy anger, because my infirmities cannot bear harsh medicine. The medicine of Christ is correction; for the Lord corrects whom he wishes to convert.

Therefore Paul also says to the physician: Reprove, entreat, rebuke. He who asks to be reproved does not refuse to be healed; but he wishes the penalty to be lightened, lest he be reproved in wrath, and seized by the onset of anger.

And observe the progression.

First he asks to be reproved; then, what is greater, to be corrected. Then he not only confesses his sins, but also enumerates and accuses them; for he does not wish his offenses to remain hidden. For as fevers, when they are deep within, cannot be assuaged; when they break out, they bring hope of ceasing: so the disease of sins, while it is covered, burns the more fiercely; if it is disclosed by confessions, it evaporates. And therefore the righteous man is his own accuser at the beginning of his discourse, before the contagion of the sore creeps within; for the memory of offenses weighs on the conscience, unless medicine is sought.

And if the physician delays, the sick man ought to offer himself, that he may be cut the sooner; as David offered himself to the scourges of the Lord, saying: Render to me double for my sins, provided thou take vengeance here; do not forsake me, do not turn thy face away from me; do not disdain and shrink from the stench of my wounds. And Job thy servant was struck with a sore from the feet even to the head, and he found the remedy of his health; although that wound was of virtue, this of error. The wounds stank, which physicians could not heal. Thou, O Lord, hast spoken the mysteries of thy sacraments, thou hast made manifest the poisons of the serpent; and by the medicine of thy word alone the wounds of thy servant were healed, because thou didst not forsake him; and do not forsake me, O Lord, do not depart from me. Men have forsaken me; because my wounds are loathsome to them, which I thought should be laid open to thy loving-kindness.

They say: Go out from us, for you are a sinner; depart, lest you defile us.

But thou, O Lord, healest, and art not defiled; thou helpest, and art not contaminated; because thou art the God of my salvation, O Lord, and thy hand is not accustomed to destroy, but to heal.

We have completed the psalm, along with the interpretation of that

which some Greek codices have, but not all the Latin ones.

For before the responsory nearby there is the

they cast me forth, like an abhorred dead man; that is, those who repaid me evil for good.

But do thou not forsake me, O Lord, do not depart from me; for this follows; that is: Do not thou forsake me, who art wont to heal the stinking dead. Indeed, we have this in the Gospel. For when he had come to the tomb of Lazarus, and had said: Take away the stone; Martha said: By now he stinks, for he has been dead four days; he answered her: Did I not tell thee, that if thou believest, thou shalt see the glory of God? And he cried out to Lazarus, and he came forth healed. Let us also believe, therefore, that from our wounds we may acquire the medicine of salvation, and future glory.

In prayers, therefore, and supplications, with grief and tears must repentance be exacted, that we may deserve to see that glory of God.

And let it not move you that mourning, grief, and the wasting of the body are very grievous sufferings; even though they seem very grievous, yet such sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed, as the apostle Paul testifies to you. Let it not, then, weary us to endure lighter things here; that there we may be able to obtain things full of praise and glory, carrying back everlasting rewards for temporal labors through our Lord Jesus: to whom be praise, honor, glory, perpetuity from ages, both now, and always, and unto all ages of ages, Amen.

In the previous psalm the form of repentance was expressed: in this following one the form of patience is marked.

This psalm David wrote, and gave it to Idithun, a man trained in Levitical and priestly disciplines, to be sung, who before the ark of the Lord was most skillful in leading the order of the psalms to be composed. Therefore, since Idithun did not write this psalm, but the prophet David, and gave it to Idithun, a man skilled in singing, to be chanted; therefore the title is so inscribed. Indeed, even in secular writings there were some who wrote, and others who were accustomed to sing on the stage, either songs, or comedies, or tragedies.

And those indeed sought the Olympic crown: whence also their writings at the end attest their hymn of victory, the ἐπινίκιον; but David, who did not seek these garlands of withering wreaths, but with pious desire longed for that incorruptible and undefiled reward, the heavenly inheritance, wrote a hymn not of victory, an ἐπινίκιον; but to him who bestowed victory on those believing in him, who is the end of all things which we ask with a pious mind. For whether you seek wisdom, or strive after virtue, or after truth, or after the way and justice, or after resurrection, in all things Christ must be followed by you, who is the virtue of God and wisdom, truth, way, justice, resurrection. To whom, then, would you strive, if not to the perfection of all things, and the sum of virtues? And therefore he says to you: Come, follow me; that is, that you may deserve to arrive at the consummation of virtues.

Therefore he who follows Christ ought to imitate him according to his own capacity; that he may meditate on his precepts within himself, and on the examples of his divine deeds.

And therefore David meditated within himself, since he held that Christ had spoken in him, that when some were troublesome to him, and tried to provoke him to contention, he should put on patience, and decline the zeal for strife, from which vain uproar and quarrels frequently arise. And so, when many, envying holy David for his virtues, who believed he could be drawn away from his purpose of gentleness and the disposition of humility, frequently assailed him; and when the spiritual wickednesses in the heavenly places especially, against which there is a grave struggle for the righteous, urged the ministers of their own wickedness to provoke him: lest amid the frequent contests of those clamoring against him, and the tumults of disputations, some word of offense should escape him, the holy prophet resolved to be silent. O strong shield of circumspect defense, silence!

O most trustworthy foundation of stability, on which, if anyone can stand, he need not fear the slipperiness of speech!

For many, even though firm in a steadfast heart, yet unwary, have often fallen through the error of wavering speech. Seeing, therefore, that he was being tempted by such snares and the vain uproar of those contending against him, the prophet silently conferred within himself, imposing on himself the law of silence; and while he kept silence, those insulting him, and provoking him to say something; such as are wont to be the contests and speeches of the insolent: Answer us, if you presume upon equality: you see that you too are overcome, and have nothing to reply; when he saw himself almost driven to speak by their revilings, he called himself back, that he might speak in his heart.

I said, I will guard my ways; that I sin not with my tongue.

I set a guard upon my mouth; while the sinner stands against me

that is, I proposed, I confirmed, I commanded myself, I spoke to my own heart: I will guard my ways. If I had said this to another, my word ought to stand firm; how much more firm ought that to be which I have determined for myself! If anyone deceives a stranger, it is unseemly: if anyone deceives a neighbor, it is grave; how much more grave, then, if anyone should think that he himself is to be defrauded of what he had promised himself; so that he should be reckoned unfaithful and contemptible in his own judgment. To whom, then, can he seem fit, who is vile to himself? Let us then keep the constancy of our soul; lest hasty lips break forth into offense in speaking. Job also conquered his affliction by silence, and overcame his endurance by taciturnity. The flesh is not to be well trusted: we would have conquered, had Eve kept silent.

Therefore that first sin proceeded from a voice, and that most wicked and crafty serpent tempted us first through a voice. And would that either Adam had been deaf, or Eve had been mute: he, that he might not hear the voice of his wife; she, that she might not speak to her husband, and by the ministry of a slippery voice transfuse the serpent's poison into the man. Cain also, although he violated human nature by parricide, and impiously blotted out the laws of piety; yet by voice he added sacrilege to his crime, in that he denied to God the death of his slain brother. What shall I say of individuals? The people themselves, chosen by the Lord, for whom Moses in silence opened the sea, murmured ungratefully against the heavenly benefits, whereby they drew upon themselves the divine displeasure. Then they rejected Moses himself, the leader of that pathless and unaccustomed journey, and from his brother Aaron demanded that gods be made for them to worship.

I said, he says, I will keep my ways.

What then these ways of man may be, which are greatly to be guarded against, lest they incur any graver offense, so great a Prophet admonishes us to consider more diligently. Solomon also, his son, interpreter of his father's mind, admonishes us to examine more keenly, who wrote: Three things are impossible for me to understand, and a fourth which I do not know. The track of an eagle flying, and the way of a serpent upon a rock, and the paths of a ship sailing on the sea, and the ways of a man in youth. Such is the way of an adulterous woman, who after she has acted, being washed, says she has done nothing wrong. Three things then he said were impossible for him to understand, and a fourth which he, holding among men the seal of wisdom, did not recognize, namely the progress of the ways of a man in youth.

Of these things, then, whose recognition is either inexplicable or difficult, can the keeping of them be easy?

Whence not without reason David himself did not offer a defense of the sins of his youth, but asked for their forgetfulness. The sins of my youth, he says, and of my ignorance, remember not. Not without reason therefore did Solomon say he did not know what his father, in whom there was greater grace of God, testified that he himself had not known. And perhaps he referred the sins of youth to the fervor of the flesh, but ignorance to the slipping of words, which are often poured forth not from our deliberate judgment, but by a certain impetus and rush of speaking; which the Prophet, knowing to be dangerous, says: I believed, therefore have I spoken. Upon the foundation of virtue, therefore, speech is safe; without a foundation, it is slippery.

Therefore, as with a certain trumpet-blast, the chosen interpreter of the divine Scripture cried out: With the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. The faith of believers is primary, confession is of its execution.

Let us hear then how the holy prophet David proposed, or for what purpose, to keep his ways: That I sin not, he says, with my tongue. If the Prophet is wary of this, are you not wary? If he fears this, in whom the grace of God spoke, do you not fear, you who do not shun the words of error, and delight in theatrical speeches? Do you not dread, you to whom it is written in the Gospel, that for every idle word you shall render account? If there is danger for an idle word, how much more for a criminal one! Not everything that is idle is criminal: but everything that is not fruitful is dangerous and to be uprooted; for every tree not bearing fruit shall be cut down, and cast into the fire. When the mind is stirred, agitated by adversaries goading, clamoring, mocking, accusing, a word of agitation slips out; therefore silence is both safe and becoming, which preserves caution with gravity. For what are our lips but a kind of bonds of ours?

Finally, each one is bound by the bonds of his own lips.

Therefore the wise man is silent in his time, and considers within himself at what time he ought to speak. Of which Solomon himself says excellently: The lips of the wise are bound by understanding. When therefore you see, amid the mocking of the insolent, the wise man silent, say: This man has bound his lips with understanding; that is, he wisely keeps silence, lest he be bound by the bonds of his own lips. He has set a guard upon his mouth, hedged his ears with thorns, applied a bar to the doors of his mouth, keeps the treasure of his heart and the silver of his speech, that, examined and purified, he may bring it forth when it is fitting; lest some thief or disturber first break into his heart, and drag him captive to those to whom he might sell his own misdeeds.

Judas was meditating to sell Christ, but so great a grace of the Lord kept calling him back, and certain caresses of paternal piety, by which his fury was being softened; nor would he have burst forth into the crime, unless the adversary had plunged himself into his heart, because he thought he was deceiving Christ. Do not doubt, then, when some are troublesome to you as you wish to keep justice, that they are ministers of that most wicked sinner, who is the author of all misdeeds. David saw with prophetic eyes, he recognized his figure; therefore he kept silent, lest he do the will of him who strives to disturb the affections. He restrained his voice, closed his gates with silence, put forward patience in this, and kept watch over the guard of his silence; lest the enemy should creep in, lest from the enclosures of his mouth some wandering and incautious word should go forth. Therefore the patient man who restrains himself is stronger than one who takes cities.

The just man is himself his own enclosure, himself his own ever-watchful guard.

Setting this before himself then, he spoke in his heart: I have set a guard upon my mouth, while the sinner stands against me.

The enemy is always present, because he is always lying in wait. Even if you do not see him, he is present; even if you do not perceive him, he attacks. If you do not see, believe him who sees: The sinner, he says, stands against me. He who sees his own sin, sees also the sinner mocking him in what he has done. But he who has foreseen the sinner can avoid the sin. David saw the sinner standing against him; when Semei was cursing him and stoning his king, and crying out: Come out, man of blood. For he would not have been so headlong as to be moved neither by reverence for so great a king, nor to fear his armed army, since one of his army could have killed the one hurling insults; but the devil had made him mad, who was driving him to death.

Therefore David fought rather against the author than pursued the minister. For what great thing is it to be avenged on a weak man, whom another was urging to fury, in whose death the sinner would have had the effect of his will? The devil is conquered not by the sword, but by the Word of God: therefore let the tongue of man be silent, let the Word of God speak. Finally Christ also kept silent, standing before the judgment of Pilate, that he might give us a pattern of silence; because the tongue of the body is prone to error, inclined to slipping. But there are also those who, being silent, speak; like Moses who stood astonished, and was silent, to whom, while silent, God said: Why do you cry out to me? Like Susanna, who was silent in her perils, and the Lord heard her. Therefore even if the Word of God is in you, you too will be silent in the Word of God, and, silent, you will cry out, that you may be heard by Christ.

Meditate then on the things that are Christ's, which the prophet David was meditating within himself, in whom Christ had spoken beforehand what David says he meditated within himself in this psalm. For thus it is written: But I, when they were troublesome to me in anything, put on sackcloth; and I humbled my soul with fasting, and my prayer shall turn back into my own bosom. What does "in anything" mean? Because it is then especially that either an inopportune word slips out, or the affections are stirred; when we are either in some grief and sadness, or the mind sickens with indignation, or is hindered by certain anxieties, or occupied by disputes. Who then are troublesome? Understand this first of the very author of sin and his angels; then of those who prefer to be his followers rather than Christ's.

A wife is driven to it, as with holy Job; a friend, as is shown in that very book; a son, as Absalom; a servant, a freedman, a household member

because a man's enemies are even those of his own household, so that each of them harasses him. What remedy then against such sicknesses of the mind, except patience, except silence? And, what is graver, he provokes you more who has enjoyed your benefits: and among these he exasperates the more who owes you more; so that you are more moved by the bitterness of an ungrateful man, or by the unworthiness of some vile person.

Therefore the just man, even if a friend is insolent to him, grieves for his friend; because his friend falls precisely because he is driven by the tempter. If he grieves for a friend, much more for a wife, for a son: if he finds them too insolent toward him; and if a brother harasses him, as Esau did holy Jacob, he grieves and seeks to be reconciled to his brother, or to flee from his face, as Rebecca advised, lest the anger of the brother find some occasion of doing harm; and if a neighbor or household member, he grieves; and if a minister, or freedman, or servant, he bears it patiently, and in all these he is silent: lest he answer him by whom he perceives himself to be driven. Does then someone of the household revile him? He grieves and is silent: does a freedman revile? He is silent; does a servant revile? He is silent. Thus is he conquered who stretches the snare for that soul through the bait of a word.

Be silent then, you too, when one unworthy of you reviles you; be silent when a servant, and especially your own, does you injury; and say in your heart: I am silent: but do not You be silent, O Lord; and add: Do not depart from me, as David the prophet said; that is, do not abandon me alone to those who assail me. For he to whom God is present is not alone. Take the testimony. Behold, he says, the hour comes, that you shall be scattered each to his own, and shall leave me alone; but I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

The just man, then, is silent toward those insolent to him; the just man prays.

Hear the just man praying: Instead of loving me, they detracted from me; but I gave myself to prayer. The just man blesses those who curse him; as the apostles did, as Paul asserts, saying: We are cursed, and we bless. The just man loves his enemies. See how he is taught to ascend little by little, step by step, to the increase of virtues, the Lord saying: Love your enemies. The just man prays for those who slander him; because the Lord also commanded this, adding: Do good to those who hate you, pray for those who slander and persecute you. He is himself just in all things who keeps and observes these things. First, because he is silent, and does not answer his enemies; then because he prays, that is, he is not of idle affection. And he who prays, prays for good things, not for things which could harm his enemy. It is more, then, to pray than to be silent.

The just man blesses those who curse him.

This too is more than to pray for oneself; for secure in himself he blesses one whom he does not fear, or even one whom he formerly feared. The just man loves his enemy. It is more to love than to bless; because the love of the mind is greater than the grace of speech. The just man does good to him by whose hatred he is assailed. The just man prays for those who slander him. Charity is good, and piety is good: both are of God, and both are God; because charity is God, as John said in his epistle. Therefore both are joined together: Love your enemies [lacuna] and pray for those who slander and persecute you.

The fullness of the Law is charity: but this too is the fullness of the Gospel, that it commands us to pray for those who slander and persecute us, that we may ask pardon for their sins; just as, by divine judgment, holy Job was chosen, whose prayer would blot out the offense of those slandering kings against the just man.

Therefore even if you are weak, pray; even if you are strong, pray. Weak, you pray for yourself; strong, you pray for your enemy. A good shield of weakness is prayer. You pray, and the Lord protects you. A good shield also of one triumphing, that you may defend your enemy whom you could strike, lest he be slain by someone, and (what is greater) by Christ, who said: Vengeance is mine, and I will repay. This is the prayer which turns back into the bosom of the one entreating, bringing back the fruit of what he wished to obtain; so that the gifts he asked from the Lord may return into his soul and mind; just as in the later

this same prophet taught you, saying: So will I bless you in my life, and in your name I will lift up my hands. As with marrow and fatness may my soul be filled.

This is the bosom of the soul, the secret inner chambers of the will of his prayer, and a kind of innermost receptacle of returning vows. Whence also the just are read to rest in Abraham's bosom, because in his grace, in his rest, in his placidity they rest, who have put on a faith conformed to his, and made the same will in good works.

But perhaps someone may wonder how, when the Lord said through the mouth of David that he humbled his soul in fasting, David himself should say in a later passage: Did I not think humbly? But I exalted my soul. But let him consider that it is one thing which refers to the wisdom of the mind, another which pertains to the humility of the heart: the wisdom of the mind is lofty; but the wisdom of the flesh ought not to be puffed up. David therefore humbled his soul in fasting, that he might teach the swelling of our flesh to be chastised. The Prophet exalted his soul through the lofty grace of God; since he also who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.

Nor is it only that the proud is beaten down, and the humble raised up, by a fitting recompense of merits, as is first to be understood; but

because the word of God is sharp on every side, like a sword sharpened on both edges, I think it can also be understood that he who exalts himself knows how to humble himself, and he who knows how to humble himself knows also how to exalt himself. Finally Paul shows this, saying: But I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound.

Therefore David too, by not thinking humbly of Christ, whom the Arians humble and cast down, exalted his soul; and by exalting his soul he displayed, with pious feeling, the vigor of his understanding, the grace of faith, and the virtue of humility.

Therefore he said: I was dumb, and was humbled, and kept silence from good things; because he knew when he ought to humble himself, and knew when he ought to be silent. He was dumb, lest by contentious strife he should make an uproar with those who reproached him; he was humbled, that he might cast down the swelling of the proud, or that he might teach them by his own example how they ought to humble themselves; he was silent from good things, because a good conscience needs no defense of words, resting on its own testimony, itself its own judge. And so the just man says: Who will contend with me? Or who will resist me?

And Paul says: But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you, or by man's judgment.

Against slanderers and sinners the just man is content with his own judgment; but he reserves the judgment of his own merits to Christ. And so he added: He that judges me is the Lord. Most beautifully has he chosen as judge one who can be deceived by no fraud; so that neither hidden things escape him, nor does the lapse of a frail condition offend him, who knows how to forgive frailty. Silence therefore is useful for everything. If you recognize sin, be silent, lest by denying you increase it; if you do not recognize it, be silent, secure in your innocence. The words of others cannot fasten a charge upon what one's own conscience has not admitted.

There follows: And my sorrow was renewed.

Still placed in a lower degree of virtue, he utters these words, because his sorrow was renewed for him by the objection of his old sins, which forgetfulness seemed already to have covered over, being blotted out, or which the compensation of good works had veiled. Accordingly in a later passage, as though stronger, he says: They saw me, and shook their heads; because they threatened, and were not able to harm. And he added: They will curse, and thou wilt bless. And this he speaks as though more resolute, careless of injury or of shame, since the blessing of the Lord would abound for him in place of all things. Therefore in this thirty-eighth psalm, as it were in a certain meditation, not yet however placed in the full perfection of virtue, he says that sorrow was renewed for him. For the strongest does not know how to feel the offense of a scar, nor can the stronger fear a wound.

In the very contest of boxers, the stronger is generally accustomed to wait for the weaker to strike some blow, so that, being struck, he may rise up the more fiercely; thus, strengthened by excessive training and endurance, as though insensible to pain, unable to feel the blow, when struck he laughs, when provoked he is only roused. But the weaker, if perchance he receives a blow from the striker over the scar already drawn upon an old wound, feels the renewed pain. So it is with one against whom former sins are cast up, which he has fittingly grieved over and bewailed, so that by due satisfaction he might draw a scar over the wound of his sins.

If he is perfect, he is silent under reproaches, no sorrow being renewed in him

because even if he sinned, he is secure, since the gifts of God are without repentance; and therefore what He has once given He is not wont to dissolve or renew, since He Himself has said: I am, I am he that blots out iniquities, and I will remember them no more. But if one is imperfect and forgetful of heavenly precepts, sorrow is renewed for him as though the scar were torn open again.

My heart grew hot within me, and in my meditation a fire shall be kindled.

Graver wounds, as we know, are healed by a caustic medicine or by the application of fire. Therefore the wise man is himself his own physician; yet even though he is a physician, he heals his own wound. And so, if he is not fully brought to the state of unoffending health, his heart is heated, he has a fever, he burns at the reproaches cast at him.

And if he is silent, he is even ground within himself.

If stone is rubbed against stone, it strikes out fire; so also a good conscience is kindled with shame, if the recollection of its own faults is renewed in it. And in that very meditation a fire is kindled. Not an evil fire, which scorches but does not consume—such is the fire of God which Moses saw in the bush; when the bush was burning but was not consumed. There is therefore a fire which diminishes sin, and consumes the fault with its burning. There is also a fire which is kindled by meditation on the heavenly Scriptures; such as that of which Jeremiah speaks: And there was a burning fire in my bones. Or that of which Cleophas, and he who journeyed together with him, spoke, when after the resurrection Christ joined Himself to them, conversing together and saying: Was not our heart burning within us, while He opened to us the Scriptures?

And so the Lord came, that He might cast this fire upon the earth; whereby He might enlighten the souls of all, kindle zeal, and burn away sin.

I spoke with my tongue: make known to me, O Lord, my end, and the number of my days, what it is; that I may know what is wanting to me.

Good is the fire which made the Prophet speak. And see whether it is not that very fire which was seen, when on the day of Pentecost, the disciples being gathered together in one place, the Holy Spirit descended upon them with a great sound, and they spoke with various tongues. For thus it is written: For there appeared to them tongues parted, as it were of fire. There, then, is He who said to Jeremiah: Behold, I give my words in your mouth as fire. This tongue of fire, then, David too received, that being kindled with the ardor of divine knowledge he might speak: Make known to me, O Lord, my end.

He does not ask about his own death (for there is no "end" here for one who is to rise again), but he asks about that end of which the Apostle spoke: For that is the end, when the Lord Jesus shall deliver up the kingdom to God the Father, and shall bring to nought all Principality and Power; and when death, last of all, shall be destroyed: so that evils may cease, and eternal goods succeed. And so it is said: Sorrow and sadness and mourning shall flee away. This end Paul too was working in men, saying: And who is he that makes me glad, but he who is made sorrowful by me? For by rebuking, he stirred up sorrow, sadness, and mourning, so that they might do penance, whereby they might merit irrevocable pardon and salvation, of which God would not repent. That, then, is the true end, which shall not be the end of one, but of all. How then did he say "my end"? But consider who is speaking.

It is a man, of course, one of mankind, using the community of substance, or because he is set forth as a pattern for all men, and is being trained to the perfection of the complete man.

Whence he also added that the number of his days should be made known to him, what it is, that he might know what is wanting to him. What is wanting, of course, for perfection, not for the life of this body, from which the prophet David longed to be released, saying: Woe is me! That my sojourning is prolonged, and I have dwelt among the inhabitants of Cedar. Accordingly he wished to know the number of days, not also of nights. For here there are days and nights; but there, only days, there perpetual and lasting light. And so he added: which is, he says, not which passes away. For heaven and earth shall pass away, but faith remains, and the day of Christ; because He is the same yesterday and today, and forever. But what number he asks for, learn thus. In my Father's house, He says, there are many mansions. The Lord Jesus therefore gives to each a place, that is, a mansion fitting for the merits of each one. For each in his own order.

He went before, then, that He might prepare a place in Himself for those who believe in Him. Whence also He said: If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to myself; that where I am, you also may be: and where I go you know, and the way you know. There is, therefore, a way by which Christ, rising, ascended. And He indeed ascended above all the heavens to the seat of God: but men ascend from the first heaven to the second, and thence from the second to the third, and from that, through distinctions, up nearly to the seventh heaven, and to the very vault and summit of the heavens, do those who deserve it ascend. If, then, there is a number of ways, and a number of mansions, surely there is a number of days, through which one comes to the height of heaven.

Behold, thou hast made my days old: another has: Thou hast made my days as handbreadths palaestas.

If, according to the Seventy, we take "old" as the reading, that is, we understand them to be spent according to the old man.

But our old man has been fixed to the cross. Therefore the old day too has passed away, the new has come. For one is the day of man, another the day of Christ, which Abraham saw, and was glad; of which David also says: This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. The saint, therefore, rejoices in the day of the Lord, in the new day, in which God the Lord has shone upon us, and has given a new light to those reformed unto a blameless and whole life. Therefore the just man, secure of the new light and the grace of God, says: There shall be for me a new heaven, and a new earth, and a new light. For neither lamp, nor the light of the sun shall shine there, nor of the moon; but the Lord shall give light upon His people.

These things, therefore, I have desired, these I have longed for; and so I did not seek the day of man.

But if we take the days as "palaestas," we understand from the name that they are full of contest and toil; since wrestlers in the contest are called "palaestae," who wrestle for a crown.

Therefore, since our wrestling too is not only against flesh and blood, but also against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places, our days, that is, of this life, are in labor and pain. Whence also in a later passage he says: Our years shall be considered as a spider: the days of our years in themselves are seventy years. But if in the strong, eighty years: and the greater part of them is labor and sorrow. Whence also the apostle Paul labored more abundantly than the other apostles, that by contending lawfully he might attain to the crown he desired.

But yet, since the measures of builders are also said to be called "palaestae," by which, for computing the number or measure of space for a structure, buildings are measured, and the place in which the buildings are to be set is marked out; and since through Isaiah God has spoken: Who has measured the water in the hollow of his hand, and weighed the heaven with the span, and comprehended all the earth in a closed hand? Who has weighed the mountains in scales? Let us see whether perhaps this sense is to be gathered from this saying, namely that God has the days of all men known to Him: to whom nothing is immeasurable, who comprehends all things by a certain measure of His own knowledge, to whom nothing is inestimable, nothing unexamined and uncounted, who says: But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.

This, then, the Prophet says: Behold, thou hast known my days; my daily acts do not escape thee; my sins thou hast set before thine eyes: and therefore my substance is as nothing before thee. For what is man, but that thou art mindful of him? Man is become like vanity. Man is in sin: and if he has any uprightness or virtue, he is rightly set before the other earthly creatures, and excels in the sight of the animals over which he is set; but in the sight of God his substance is as nothing. Whence also elsewhere he says: For in thy sight shall no man living be justified. Which Symmachus expressed more plainly, saying: And my life is as nothing before thee.

There are some who think the days are called short

because Symmachus rendered σπιθαμὰς: now σπιθαμὴ is a span; and because God is said to have measured the heaven with a span (a palm or span being that portion of the hand which measures and grasps something), for this reason they suppose the days to be called short, as it were; whereas the knowledge of God through measure, as we said above, can be understood; but that heavenly knowledge is such that all things were made according to measure. Therefore the Prophet's days may be understood not as short but as great, which God measured with the span with which He measured the heaven. For he would not call the days of his life short, who afterward says: Woe is me! That my sojourning is prolonged; unless perhaps because, on account of the sins of men, God made the days of this life shorter, which formerly extended to nine hundred and seven hundred years, but is now confined within the span of a hundred years.

Thus, then, it must be understood: Behold, thou hast known my days as liable to sin; for the days of this life, which is subject to sin, are short: but the days of eternal life are without end.

Or certainly thus (for it is our task to seek the truth by arguments, yours to choose what you will follow): Lest sin, he says, should increase, thou hast shortened the days of human life by which we live in these lands; and yet, though the end of sinners comes the more swiftly in this brief course of this life, by the swiftness of death my substance is as nothing before thee; because, although we were made to the image and likeness of God, yet a certain earthly contagion weighs us down, constituted as we are in this body: a contagion which would not weigh us down, if we should choose rather to strip off the old man, when we put on grace, than to put it on over ourselves; for the old man stripped off would bring us less labor than the old man put on over. For what is stripped off, we cast away: what is put on over, we wear.

And therefore we groan and labor, until this mortal garment of the old man, made liable to error, is swallowed up by the newness of his spiritual life; just as if very much honey were poured over poison, the poison's venom is destroyed only with difficulty and very slowly. Much water, too, struggles long with the gall of poison, if it does not spit it out, but absorbs it. Therefore penitence is laborious, grace is sweet; because sin is stripped off where grace is: it is swallowed up where there is penitence; there it is remitted, here it is hidden. And therefore it is written: Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

he rested a little while, groaning over the misery of the human condition; for he had said: Surely every man living is altogether vanity.

And after the diapsalm, having resumed his spirit, he says: Although man walks in the image of God; yet he is disquieted in vain: he heaps up treasure, and knows not for whom he gathers it. See how he tempered the harshness of his statement beforehand: afterward he completes the reason for his utterance. He tempered it by saying: Because man walks in the image of God. Blessed is the man who walks by faith in the likeness of God: blessed is he who has faith in you: more blessed still if he did not have avarice. One good is that of the mind, eternal; another is the vain conflagration of carnal desire. For faith serves God; avarice serves the tempter: the latter heaps up what may profit itself, the former what may benefit others. What, then, is so vain as not to know for what heir one labors? For who knows whether his own son or grandson will survive him?

Often the one written as heir in the tablets of a will, by a fatal ambition, precedes the testator to the tomb, or a surviving heir swallows up the inheritance, or a prodigal squanders it, or a fool most stupidly fails to guard it, or one proscribed loses it. If therefore you see someone eagerly heaping up riches, say you too: He is disquieted in vain: he heaps up treasure, and knows not for whom he gathers it. For he cannot carry away with him what he possesses; and when he dies, he will leave his riches to strangers. Often an enemy and an ungrateful one succeeds him, and the successor insults the predecessor. Those whom the one loved, the other persecutes: those whom the one nourished, this one sells.

The Greek, however, does not have: In the image of God; but only: In the image.

In what image, then, does man walk? He surely walks in that to whose likeness he was made; that is, to the image of God. Now the image of God is Christ; who is the brightness of glory, and the image of His substance. Christ, therefore, the image of God, came to the earth; so that we should no longer walk in the shadow, but in the image. For he who follows the Gospel walks in Christ the image. Therefore He says to His disciple: Get thee behind me, that you may follow me. Therefore the people of the Jews erred; because they walked in the shadow. Therefore the Christian people does not err; because it walks in the image, having the sun of righteousness shining upon it. A good image, not one tinted with the colored waxes of a painting, but expressed in the fullness of divinity.

In which image both the Father and the Son are seen together; because through both of them the unity of operation shines forth.

Although Christ has already risen, yet in the Gospel His image is still shown to us. I read that He raised Lazarus; and I believe it to be the work both of the Father and of the Son. The Son called, the Father heard, and Lazarus walked. I read that the demons confessed Him; they confessed the Father also, because they prayed to the Son of God; they confessed Him too, because through Him they were cast out. For it is written: If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, by whom do your sons cast them out?

First, then, the shadow went before, the image followed, the truth shall be.

The shadow in the Law, but the image in the Gospel, the truth in the heavenly things. The shadow of the Gospel and of the Church's gathering was in the Law, the image of future truth in the Gospel, the truth in the judgment of God. Therefore the things which are now celebrated in the Church, their shadow was in the words of the prophets: a shadow in the flood, a shadow in the Red Sea; when our fathers were baptized in the cloud and in the sea: a shadow in the rock, which flowed with water and followed the people. Was not that in the shadow, the sacrament of this most sacred mystery? Was not the water from the rock in the shadow, as it were the blood from Christ, which followed the peoples fleeing from it, that they might drink and not thirst: be redeemed, and not perish?

But now the shadow of the night and darkness of the Jews has departed, the day of the Church has drawn near.

We now see good things through an image, and we hold the goods of the image. We have seen the Prince of priests coming to us, we have seen and heard Him offering His blood for us: we, priests, follow as we are able, that we may offer sacrifice for the people: though weak in merit, yet honorable through the sacrifice; because although Christ is not now seen to offer, yet He Himself is offered on earth when the body of Christ is offered: indeed He Himself is shown to offer in us, whose word sanctifies the sacrifice that is offered. And He indeed stands as our advocate with the Father: but now we do not see Him; then we shall see, when the image shall have passed away, and the truth shall have come. Then no longer through a mirror, but face to face, shall those things which are perfect be seen.

Ascend, then, O man, into heaven, and you shall see those things of which there was here a shadow or an image.

You shall see, not in part, not in an enigma, but in consummation; not in a veil, but in light. You shall see the true light, the eternal and everlasting Priest; whose images here you saw, Peter, Paul, John, James, Matthew, Thomas. You shall see the perfect man, no longer in image, but in truth; for as is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly ones. Surely they too are already in glory or beauty, already in the grace of resurrection; not in the body of death, and in the deformity of corruption.

See that you do not carry there the image of the earthly, where the light of heavenly things is.

Here, if anyone should have the images of a tyrant who has already been conquered and perished, he is justly condemned. How do you bring in the image of the enemy and adversary into the city of the true Emperor, except to condemn yourself? And if you should wish to bring in the image of the earthly one, the prince of this world will contradict you, and will say: This image is mine; and what you offer is mine. What will you do when caught, when he shall say to you: Mine is the avarice, mine the ambition, mine the riches, whose image I recognize in you? For he is both adversary and accuser. But if you should be such as Jacob, you will say to Laban, who transforms himself into an angel of light: Recognize if you find anything of yours in me.

Then he will search, and not finding, will depart confounded; because you have hidden and blotted out all the images of vices.

Blessed is he who can say: The prince of this world will come, and he will find nothing of his own in me. For he seeks what is his own, not the things that are Christ's. If, therefore, you follow the things that are Christ's, do not seek after riches which you did not have, do not increase those which you had; and let the poor man feel that you are rich toward him. Bring into your house the needy, break bread for the hungry, and clothe the naked; that a treasure may be laid up for you in heaven, which may go with you. Christ became poor, though He was rich, that He might make us rich by His poverty.

Do not, therefore, be vainly disquieted for the sake of riches, roused from sleep, thinking how you may keep your money, increase your wealth, go forth by night, keep watch at the judge's house; that you may plunder others' goods, stir up a lawsuit against the poor man, fear the tax collector: such disquiet is vain.

therefore the Just One said: And now what is my expectation? Is it not the Lord? And my substance is before thee. Christ is our hope and our patience: He Himself was made our redemption, He Himself is our expectation; so that each of us may say: Waiting I waited for the Lord, and he had regard to me. Look upon us, then, in your judgment. May your mercy look upon us; that we, who distrust our own merit, may be freed through your mercy, in whose power is the substance of our soul and of our life.

And therefore we do not fear the death of the body; but Him who is able either to preserve or to destroy our soul: whose substance is power, which God poured into human breasts in His own likeness.

Whoever, therefore, has this substance of his soul, says: Deliver me from all my iniquities.

He does not confess the lapse of a single crime, who prays to be freed from all his iniquities. For he knows that unless the Lord forgives, no one can be saved, whoever is born under sin, whom the very inheritance of a guilty condition binds to fault.

Thou hast given me, he says, as a reproach to the fool.

Who is the fool, but he who commits sin, and chooses evils in place of goods? Therefore he who is the author of sins is more the fool than his minister. When we sin, therefore, we are handed over as a reproach to the adversary; that he, as an enemy, may accuse and betray us on the day of judgment. Let us, then, take up the reproach of the cross of Christ, which Moses took up, and preferred it to the royal treasures of Egypt; and therefore he was not delivered as a reproach to the fool. Other copies have: Do not deliver me as a reproach to the fool.

But rather it is David's custom to confess his own reproaches and sins more, and not to blush at his sins and reproaches, since he knows that in confession there is pardon, and in the condemnation of one's own sin, righteousness.

Finally, from what follows, this meaning is made clear; for he adds: I was dumb, and opened not my mouth

because thou hast done it; that is, because you gave me as a reproach to the fool, therefore I was dumb, and opened not my mouth, lest I should contract greater sins. I acknowledged your will, that for a time I should be put to shame, and afterward be saved by asking for pardon. Therefore reproach is sometimes profitable. Indeed even the destruction of the flesh itself is profitable; as the Apostle testifies, saying: I have delivered him unto the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Reproach also David himself testified to be profitable, saying to Abishai: Let him alone, let him curse me, this son of Jemini

because the Lord said to him: that he may see my humility, and the Lord may repay me good for this cursing. And indeed the Lord saw his reproach, when he went weeping and unshod, with his head covered; and he removed his reproach. It is clear, therefore, that since David, given over to reproach, fled, and was humbled, and made satisfaction to the Lord with bare feet, and did not strike back at the one throwing stones, and did not allow vengeance to be taken on the one cursing him, and after these things was restored to his kingdom whole; both that reproach is from the Lord, and that it profits more to endure reproach than to refute it. Finally, victory followed after. Therefore reproach profits. But what is it that he adds: Because thou hast done it?

Does he not for this reason say that he was dumb, and opened not his mouth

because he acknowledged the will of the Lord: for this reason he bore it patiently, that satisfaction might be made to the Lord through reproach for sin?

Whence he also added: Take away thy plagues from me.

How does this agree with itself? In the preceding psalm he offered himself to stripes, here he asks that stripes be taken away from him; unless it be that he has now discharged from the hand of the Lord his double sins, by blushing, by enduring reproaches. There are compunctions of his heart and of his thoughts, and there are also the stripes of rebukes. Let us consider, however, whether he said that the substance of his soul is before God for this reason; because the adversary would not assail it unless he had received power from the Lord; for what the Lord has made, He also guards. Finally, an angel is round about man, who watches lest anyone harm him.

The angel does not depart unless bidden by the Lord, that His athlete may fight the contest.

Therefore, as it were being the Lord's substance, he presumes that pardon of his iniquities can be granted him by his Creator; and therefore he asks, because he knows his Author to be merciful. Then, because he has been given over to reproach, he does not resist; but he suffers the sinner to stand against him, and the consciousness of his substance, which is good, is silent, and can restrain the ferocity of the body, so that virtue may succeed and guilt be laid aside. Finally, because he was made by the Lord, he confidently reckons that sin can more quickly be forgiven him, since he has been able to endure the strength of the Lord's hand.

And this indeed belongs to a good substance, even though he says he has failed under the strength of the Lord's hand.

As a strong hand smites grievously, so it quickly heals: it is strong for the wound, and strong also for the remedy. Whence He Himself says: I will strike, and I will heal; that he who has been healed and escaped may not remember the wound. Finally, this hand of the Lord took away everything from holy Job, and restored everything; nay rather, increased everything in abundance, so as to double what had been lost. And let it not disturb you that he said he had failed. There is one who fails, and rises the stronger; for the Lord upholds all who fall, and sets right all who are cast down. For whoever is corrected rises with strength. Paul failed under the strength of this hand. The persecutor fell, and the preacher of the Gospel rose. This is what he says: I have failed under the strength of thy hand.

And he added: With rebukes for iniquity thou hast instructed man: and thou hast made his soul waste away like a spider.

The Greek said ὑπὲρ ἀνομίας, that is, for iniquity; and he set down the whole

thus, ἐν ἐλεγμοῖς ὑπὲρ ἀνομίας ἐπαίδευσας ἄνθρωπον, which is: With rebukes for iniquity thou hast instructed man.

Therefore the Wise Man said: Who will give me stripes for my thoughts [lacuna], and a seal upon my lips? That he himself might scourge his own heart with his own thoughts, and set a seal upon his lips; whereby he might diminish his old sins, and not renew others by speaking; whereby, instructed by his own rebukes, he might put on the exercises of virtue. Now the soul wastes away when sin is diminished: or when the soul wastes away, guilt is laid down: it grows fat when sins are accumulated. Whence the Lord says of sinners: My Spirit shall not remain in these forever; for they are flesh. And elsewhere Scripture says: The heart of this people is grown fat.

Therefore also Jeremiah first saw a rod of a nut-tree: then a seething pot, so that the soul might waste away from the beginning of the prophet; so that guilt might depart, that grace might come. But why the rod first, and the pot afterward? Because he who is not corrected by the rod is put into the pot, to burn and to waste away. And therefore it is said to the prophet Ezekiel: Take thee a frying-pan [lacuna]: and thou shalt take up the iniquities of the house of Israel [lacuna] and thou shalt consume them, and they shall waste away, he says, in their iniquities And elsewhere in the same book the Lord says: But I will make a great pile, and I will multiply the wood, and kindle a fire; that the flesh may be melted, and the broth boiled away. By these testimonies it is signified that the souls of the perfidious, when fire is applied, waste away; that they may lay aside a certain grossness of carnal moisture.

Therefore the souls of sinners also are put into the frying-pan; that a certain flesh of sin may flow away, which had encrusted the vigor of soul and mind; and as it were by a certain right had poured the soul over with certain allurements of desires. There await us therefore certain frying-pans; therefore let us here bruise our heart, that it may become fine, and lay aside all hardness and a certain fatness of carnal grease: which those shall suffer who have lived luxuriously in this life; and who have believed, after the Jewish manner, that mockeries of dishonor rather than any works of virtue were to be practiced by them. For Jacob grew fat, and became gross, and rose up to play: whom that sport turned from the truth of faith into the error of perfidy. Rightly, therefore, did Paul chastise his body, lest he should nourish the body of sin; for by luxury we make members of sin, but by sobriety members of righteousness. It is not nature, therefore, but guilt that sins.

Nor again let us pursue vain and empty things, lest we be judged to be weaving a spider's web

because no sins can have any substance of permanence. Whence, when you see some striving to enlarge their means, to heap up powers, to court beauty, you will say that word of Isaiah: These men weave a spider's web through all their one day, which cannot be lasting; but is quickly torn, and all its work is dissolved. For it is not placed upon any solid foundation; but is suspended in the void. Nothing lax, nothing soft befits a true soldier of Christ; for behold, they that are clothed in soft raiment are in the houses of kings. What is more subtle, what more anxious than the spider, which is intent upon its work day and night continually, and completes its garment at no cost, no expense whatever? Yet vain is all that it has made. So is every man who does not establish his work upon the foundation of Christ.

He too is troubled in vain, day and night; since often, like the spider, in the very effort of his own wickedness, he is himself wrapped in the ruin of his own work.

therefore the wise man, who knows the vanity of this world, does not pray for a long tenure of this life; but hastens toward those eternal things, and longs to be released from the labor and grief of this body; as the Prophet is known to have desired, saying: Hear, O Lord, my prayer and my supplication: give ear to my tears. Be not silent toward me, for I am a stranger with thee upon the earth, and a sojourner; as all my fathers were. One is an inhabitant, another a stranger, another a settler. The inhabitant is one who is of the place, and dwells in his native place: the stranger is one who has come from elsewhere: the settler is one who dwells there for a time, and changes with the turning of years.

This, then, is what David says: I am a foreigner with thee, while I am on earth: I am not now an inhabitant of thy paradise. Whence he himself explained this, adding: And a sojourner; as all my fathers were. Which the apostle Paul also opened, asserting that while we are in this body, we are sojourning away from the Lord; because although faith is in us, yet we walk by faith, not by sight, that is, not face to face, as though present; for we walk as yet in a riddle, not in the truth. Then he added: We are of good courage, therefore, and are confident, and would rather be absent from the body, and be present with the Lord.

"We are of good courage" is a word of presumption of faith in God, not of rashness; and of one consenting

that is, willing we acquiesce and desiring, not depending as by the authority of fuller knowledge principally upon our own judgment: we wish that to be true which we desire; that we may draw near to the Lord, from whom the distance of things future and present seems to separate us. We are of good courage, therefore, to be present; and therefore he says: We labor. You recognize the word of one still wishing to arrive, not of one who has arrived. Affection, therefore, is shown in this speech, not accomplishment. Finally, question the very witness of his own speech; nay rather, hear him speaking, or rather hear him in doubt, when he says: Therefore we labor, whether absent or present, to be pleasing unto him: absent still through faith, present through sight.

Whence this too can be understood, that both here placed, and there, we desire to be pleasing to our Judge, who is also the Redeemer of our souls. For it is necessary that we stand before him through sight; that each may attain, by the examination of a worthy lot, the merits of his own works: either the just in rest, or the wicked in distress. He pours out tears, therefore; because, being a stranger who has come into the land, he tarries and is separated from his fatherland, held in a long exile. Consider now for me that Adam cast out of paradise, banished into a stronghold, gazing whence he was cast down, weeping abundantly; because he remembers what he has lost, and whence he has fallen. And therefore let us give thanks to God, who has freed us from perpetual exile, opening the door by which we may return to our fatherland.

Whence the Apostle ventured to say: Now, therefore, you are no more strangers and sojourners; but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.

Wishing to receive this before Christ came upon earth, David said: Forgive me, that I may be refreshed, before I go, and shall be no more; that is, forgive me here, where I have sinned.

Unless thou forgive me here, I shall not be able to find the rest of forgiveness there; for what shall have remained bound on earth, shall remain bound in heaven; what shall have been loosed on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. For the Prophet, and the preacher of the Church that was to be gathered together, foresaw by an evangelical spirit the indulgences of the Lord; and the Lord was revealing to him what was to be enjoined on the apostles; nay rather this was the ancient sentence, that whoever had bound himself on earth should depart bound from the body.

Therefore the Lord, what before belonged to His own judgment, gave to the apostles, to be loosed by the equity of remitting sins; lest what ought to be loosed quickly should remain long bound. Hear him then saying: I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven. To thee, he says, I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven, that thou mayest both loose and bind. Novatian did not hear this, but the Church of God heard it; therefore he remains in a fall, we in forgiveness: he in impenitence, we in grace. What is said to Peter is said to the apostles.

We do not usurp power, but serve a command; lest afterward, when the Lord shall come, and shall find bound those who ought to have been loosed, he be moved against the steward who has kept bound those servants whom the Lord had commanded to be loosed, saying, that he who knew his master's will, and did not according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes: but he who knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few.

Rightly, therefore, does David ask that what he knew was not attributed to the priests of Aaron be forgiven him: but was reserved for the Gospel. To whomever, then, forgiveness is not granted, he is in exile, he continues in the injury of a sojourner. Here, therefore, pardon must be sought. For here it was said: Blessed are ye that weep now; for ye shall laugh: here is the place for asking pardon. Let us weep, then, on earth, that we may deserve indulgence. Unless sin be forgiven here, we shall not have rest: if there be no rest, there will be no eternal life: if there be no eternal life, we shall not be. Therefore he asks that it be forgiven him before he goes, that he may be. For if it be not forgiven, he says, I shall not be with those who are, with those who deserve to ascend into paradise. But he who is not, shall be consumed with those descending into the pit, who has been left in chains and prison.

He does not, therefore, say definitively: "I shall not be"; for elsewhere he says: I will sing to thee upon the harp, O God, thou Holy One of Israel. My lips shall rejoice when I shall sing to thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed. He presumes, therefore, on redemption. And elsewhere hear him saying: I will please the Lord in the land of the living. He will exist, then, who presumes to please. It can also be understood thus; because he said: I am a stranger with thee upon the earth; and a sojourner, as all my fathers were; and therefore forgive me, that I may cease to be a stranger: forgive me the exile to which I have been banished. If thou forgive me before I depart hence, I shall no longer be an exile and a sojourner. For when thou hast forgiven, I shall not be a sojourner; but I shall be a citizen of thy saints. I shall be with my fathers, who themselves were once sojourners, but are now indeed citizens.

I shall be of the household of God, that I may not fear punishment, but may deserve grace: through our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be praise, honor, glory, perpetuity to thee, with the Holy Spirit, from the ages, and now and always, and world without end. Amen.

1. The New Testament Awaited and Fulfilled in Christ

In the foregoing psalms he preached penitence: then he spoke of his own patience, and of man's disturbance: but in the thirty-ninth psalm he announces the New Testament; for he who does penance for his evils, waits in expectation. But it is not the mark of the perfect to be waiting, but to have waited; for no one shall be saved except him who shall have persevered unto the end.

Therefore he added: Waiting I have waited for the Lord. Where then is this said, except in the Gospel?

In which now for us he who was awaited has come: in which now for us no longer the shadow of the Law darkens, but the truth shines forth

because Christ has shone, who heard the prayers of his own, and led us out of the pit of misery, and from the mire of dregs; where already sunk we were held fast in the whirlpool of our own sins, and our whole man clung fast, nor could our soul tear itself free, overwhelmed by the stain of manifold wickedness.

Thanks therefore to the Lord Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God, our redeemer, who, about to remit all our sins, came down from heaven; that he might snatch us from the pit and mire of this world, and from a certain filthy marsh of the earth, and also from the body of this death, and might set the inner footsteps of our soul in his own flesh; so that, made firm in the word of God, and freed through the cross by the sufferings of the Lord's body, we might now walk not in the reproach of disgrace, but in the remission of sin. Made firm, therefore, and rooted in Christ, he recalls that his footsteps have been set upon a rock. Whence the Apostle says: But they were drinking of the spiritual rock that followed them; and that rock was Christ. A rock, because it follows those who thirst, it strengthens those who slip; lest water be lacking to the thirsty, or a firm footing to those who slip.

To me then waiting, Lord Jesus, you came at last, you directed my steps in the Gospel, you put in my mouth a new song, which is the New Testament. Rejoicing now we sing a hymn to our God, because we have come to know the precepts of new virtues; that we should leave all that is ours, following Christ, and love our enemies. We have also drunk in new ways; that for those who persecute us we should bring a prayer to the Lord. Behold, being cursed, we bless. We know not how to boast of our works, nor to hide our sins. After the manner of angels also we refuse marriage.

What more?

From that wretched sinner he has become a blessed man, no longer looking to the various vanities of this world. For vanity of vanities, and all is vanity—this whole world is such; as the wise Solomon said. For what else but vain is it to follow things which cannot endure, and all of which pass away like a shadow?

False madnesses, indeed, are those contests of wars, in which for temporal possession so much blood is poured out: or the dissensions of theatrical contentions: or the pursuits of the Circus full of frenzy: or the deadly teaching of heretics: or the counterfeit gestures and composed words of pseudo-prophets in the manner of heavenly oracles. For thus says the prophet: Blessed is the man whose hope is the name of the Lord: and who has not looked to vanities, and false madnesses.

5. True Madness of the Prophets

There are, then, also true madnesses, and perhaps those of prophets, who, set in an ecstasy of mind, prophesied, filled with the Spirit of God, so that to some they seemed to be mad; since, forgetful of their own safety, mostly naked and unshod, as holy Isaiah, they ran through the peoples, crying out not what they themselves wished, but what they were commanded by the Lord. From these things, then, it is understood that the remedy of salvation had shone forth; since he who was awaited is present.

6. Adam and Noah as Figures Awaiting Christ

Adam awaited him, cast out of paradise; that he might be freed from long exile.

He awaited him in righteous Noah, who was preserved for the seed of things to come; that from him the seeds of righteousness might spring up in mankind. He thought him to be the author of public salvation, who had deserved to survive the flood. He thought him the prince of wisdom, who had cultivated the vine, and had been made drunk from its fruit. For what is the vine, but wisdom? As David, the heavenly interpreter of the oracle, disclosed to us, saying: Your wife is like an abundant vine on the sides of your house.

Because in him was the fullness of wisdom, which was awaited in Christ, who, filled with the new sacrament of wisdom, which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, hastened to bring to us an unaccustomed mystery; that he might lie naked, and pour forth unheard-of cups of overflowing wisdom: that, forgetting former things, we might rise again into new manners, and a new sobriety of eternal life; whereby through the foolishness of preaching God might be known, whom this world did not know through wisdom. Finally, in that figure of the sleeping and naked father, he who laughed at the foolishness was cursed: those who revered it obtained the grace of blessing.

And therefore those who have believed that the death of the only-begotten Son of God, the Father and Creator of all things, is to be cast up as a stumbling-block, or a reproach, against our faith, are held bound by the bonds of their own sins to the perpetual affliction of a curse: but those who receive it for the redemption of the whole human race are supported by the aid of eternal power. For the cross of Christ is to the Jews a stumbling-block, to the Greeks foolishness, as the Apostle said: but to us who believe in the Lord Jesus, it is the power of God and wisdom.

7. Moses and the Rock That Followed

8. Aaron and the Bronze Serpent as Figures of Christ

He was awaited also in Aaron, prince of priests, who stood in the middle between the living and the dead: and set up the serpent as a check on death's plague; lest the destruction pass from the bodies of the dead to the ruin of the living. For what is so proper to Christ, as to stand as an advocate before God the Father for the peoples, to offer his own death for all, to repel death, to restore life to those about to perish?

9. Joshua Son of Nun as a Figure of Christ

He was awaited also in Joshua the son of Nun, and indeed he came, who received both his power and his name; that he might both lead the people into the land of promise, and truly be called by the name of Jesus. He dried up the streams, turned the river back to its source, halted the sun, until he might complete the victory in strength. But this was still a figure, not the truth. Finally, the true leader of the heavenly host shone upon him, and Joshua the son of Nun worshipped him; although the true one had not yet appeared in a body, but had come as yet in figure.

10. Sacrifice Ends With the True One's Coming

When, then, did the true one come? Hear him saying: I have declared and spoken: they are multiplied beyond number. Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body thou hast perfected for me. Then said I, behold I come. In the head of the Book it is written of me, that I should do thy will: my God, I have willed it. What is more evident than that Jesus the true one came to us with the gift of his Gospel? He himself spoke, and innumerable peoples believing were gathered together, who before scarcely believed one by one. He himself came in the flesh, and the sacrifice of the Jews ceased. The offering for sin ceased, because the remitter of sins had come. There was no need of the remedy of the Law, where the Author of the Law was present.

11. Eve as a Figure of the Church

In the head of the Book it is written of me.

It was indeed written of Christ at the beginning of the Old Testament that he would come, that in the redemption of mankind he might do the will of God the Father; since it is written, that he formed Eve in the likeness of the Church, for the help of man. For what can be a defense for us in this weakness of the body, and in the disturbance of this age, except the grace alone of the Church, by which we are redeemed: and our faith, by which we live? In the head of the Book it is written: Bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. For this reason man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall be in one flesh. Who this is who spoke, or of what this is a sacrament, hear him saying: This is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the Church.

Whence also he admonishes that a man should so love his wife as Christ loved the Church; since we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. What greater salvation, then, is there than to be with Christ, and to cleave to him by a certain unity of body, in whom is no stain, nor any crookedness of sin?

12. Abel's Sacrifice and Isaac as Figures of Christ's Offering

It is written in the head of the Book, that the sacrifice of righteous Abel pleased God, but the offering of the fratricide displeased him. Did not the Lord Jesus openly signify that he was to be offered for us; that in his passion he might consecrate the grace of a new sacrifice, and abolish the rite of the fratricidal people? What, moreover, is more express than that a son was offered by the holy Patriarch, and a ram was slain? Did he not openly show that the flesh of man, which is common to all earthly living beings, and not the divinity of the only-begotten Son of God, was to be subject to the sacred wound of the passion?

13. Angels Ascending and Descending Upon the Son of Man

14. The Lamb of God Who Takes Away Sin

It is written in the head of the Book: A lamb without blemish, clean, mature, male, of one year, shall it be for you; and the whole synagogue shall kill it. Who this lamb is, you have heard him saying: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world. This is he who was slain by all the people of the Jews: whom they still persecute with hostile hatred. And it was indeed fitting that he should die for all; that in his cross remission of sins might come to be, and his blood might wash the defilements of the world: but woe to those who denied the author of their own salvation! You have made, he says, a counsel; but not by me. How could he approve of parricide, who did not approve of the counsel? And yet how great is his mercy! He indeed shrank from the counsel; but if they should be converted, he did not deny the remedy.

15. Christ's Willing Sacrifice and Oneness of Will

16. The Two Wills of Christ at Gethsemane

But perhaps you may say: How is it that in the Gospel he said: Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me, but not as I will, but as thou wilt? And indeed there seems to be a distance of will: but we understand that one thing is expressed according to the unity of divinity, where he says: I and the Father are one; another is spoken according to the affection of man, which he indicates ought to be cautious, and not presume upon what it cannot easily accomplish; lest while seeking the reward it fall into sacrilege. Whence he says: When they shall persecute you in this city, flee into another. Rightly, therefore, here too, about to undergo the passion of the body, he began to be sorrowful and to be sad: and having taken Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he first said: My soul is sorrowful; and afterwards he added: Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

You see that everywhere he speaks according to man, prays according to man, is sorrowful according to man, says according to man: My Father, if it be possible. Which indeed is not impossible to God; but it is of man to doubt, of God to confirm. Therefore he took the more ready ones with him, as chosen witnesses of his final judgment, who might recognize the mystery of his words. Finally, the others slept, these alone kept watch with faithful mind. Whence also through Jeremiah, before he had taken up the body, he himself says: I was led as a lamb, and I knew it not. What is it that the Wisdom of God does not know, who is always in the secret counsel of the Father? And therefore the Son of God declared all things, because he himself is the wisdom of God the Father. How did he foreknow that he was to be led as a lamb, and yet say that he did not know whither he was being led?

Or how in the earlier passage does he say, through the mouth of David himself: God, my God, look upon me: why hast thou forsaken me? How is the Son forsaken by the Father, who says: And I am not alone; because the Father is with me? And elsewhere: I was delivered up, and I did not go forth? And elsewhere: I rose up, and am still with thee? Unless it is that adversity expresses the sense of men, who think that they are forsaken by their Lord when they are in dangers. Finally, hear what follows: Far, he says, from my salvation are the words of my sins; that is, one thing are the words of sins, another the mysteries of eternal salvation. Words do not prejudice virtue: the divine substance is sustained by its own powers. Man is seen, man is heard, God is recognized in the works. And yet of this man it is said: And he is a man, and who shall know him? What is meant by "who"?

Not that no one, but that few, that the wise; as that saying: Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord?

Who is wise, and shall understand these things? Finally, elsewhere: The foolish man does not know these things, and the fool does not understand these. You, too, therefore, when you read the Gospel, as one wise and not foolish, understand what you read: let the splendor of eternal Wisdom illumine you. Words indeed they are; but these very words cleanse, these illumine, these confirm, these give life. Whence Peter says: Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life, and we will leave thee.

17. Judas' Betraying Kiss and the Penitent Thief

Finally, that we might observe that he had spoken according to man, a little afterward he said: Behold, the hour draws near, that the Son of man be betrayed into the hands of sinners. And to Judas as he kissed him he says: Judas, dost thou betray the Son of man with a kiss? That is, dost thou pour in poison with a kiss, by which the grace of love is poured in; with a kiss which is the token of sacred peace; with a kiss by which faithful friendship is confirmed; with a kiss by which holy faith is sealed? Dost thou then, with this kiss, betray to danger him whom, for the sake of the exchange of the kiss, thou oughtest to venerate? And dost thou, a man, betray the Son of man, who came down from heaven for the salvation of men? For thus it is written: The Son of man who is in heaven, he it is who came down from heaven.

Dost thou betray the Son of man, who made thee, from a sinner, an apostle?

Dost thou betray the Son of man, who came that he might wash away the sins of all in his own blood? I do not deny the kiss: you yourself see who have violated the sanctity of the kiss. Have you not read that the wounds of a friend are more profitable than the willing kisses of an enemy? Not undeservedly was Judas struck by a heavier weapon of such great condescension than if a thunderbolt had struck him. Finally, he who betrayed his majesty could not bear the patience of the Lord; so much so that the guilt of so great a crime could not be washed from himself. And so he departed, and cast back the money; that is, he condemned his own avarice, the author of such great impiety, and returned to the synagogue the price of the treachery.

The betrayer is not excused, who could not find a place for repentance; but the sacrilege of the Jews is heaped up, who are accused even by the voices of the betrayer. He acknowledged his crime, saying that he had betrayed innocent blood: they both received the price of the crime, and pursued the Prince of justice with keener zeal. Therefore, unto the perpetual condemnation of all these, the crucified thief is absolved; because he recognized Christ in his own sufferings, whom they did not recognize in his benefits: and he confessed his sin to Christ, who knew how to forgive; because on his cross he beheld in mind the kingdom of the Lord, which Judas could not see at the banquet of Christ. Therefore, after the thief's petition, this heavenly voice followed: Amen, amen, I say to thee, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. You exulted, O dragon, that you had snatched away an apostle from Christ: you have lost more than you gained, seeing a thief transferred into paradise.

No one can be excluded, when the thief, your own minister, has been received; and has arrived where you yourself were cast down from.

18. One Will and One Divine Substance

We have appended these things on account of that

because he said: That I may do thy will: my God, I have willed; that is, my divinity has, with thee, Father, one will. And because there is one will, there is one substance; because both the majesty and the power of the Trinity are inseparable. But there is another voice of the flesh, and yet it too consented to the will of God, saying: Not what I will, but what thou willest. And elsewhere: If this cannot pass, unless I drink it, thy will be done. It is a common feeling to fear death, which Christ took upon himself; that he might crucify, as he did crucify, the flesh also; for he wrestled for me, that he might conquer for me. Although the flesh of Christ was strong, and not liable to sin, yet it took up sins: it took up infirmities, although it had nothing of its own to grieve for. Finally, hear him saying, that he grieves for us [lacuna] until he bring forth judgment unto truth.

For he took up not another flesh, but this one; as the Apostle teaches, saying: For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. Although he was born of the Virgin by the Holy Spirit, yet he is the son of man; because the Virgin is human.

And therefore what was born of the flesh is flesh; and he who was born of man is called man, mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

19. The Meaning of Today and Paradise

Therefore the incorruptible one took up this flesh, that he might make it incorruptible; and the immortal one, that he might make it immortal. If anyone therefore follows him, he will put on immortality. If anyone does his will, he will not die forever; but Christ says to him: Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. What is meant by "today"? This: you have passed over from night, you shall be with me in light. Do not fear the darkness, you whom eternal light has received. Beautifully also he added: Thou shalt be with me in paradise; that is, do not doubt concerning the flesh, and you have seen me in the flesh: do not fear lest you too fall from paradise, as Adam fell; but hear that you shall be with me, in whose presence you cannot fall. The flesh fell in paradise, before it was taken up by Christ.

There you shall be received, where he also is who received you

because he did not lie in saying: I will that where I am, they also may be with me. The shepherd will not withdraw from his flocks, although now you cannot fear the wolf in paradise, to whom it was said: I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven. Therefore, before the consummation, the adversary is cast down into the fire, and is also bound with everlasting chains; that you may no longer fear any snares.

20. Adam's Fall and Absence from Christ

And Adam, that he might fall, was deceived by the serpent, and was bent by his wife.

Therefore now there are no marriages in paradise, but all shall be without the celebrations of marriages, like the angels in heaven. He had not said to Adam: Thou shalt be with me; because he knew that he was to fall, that he might be redeemed by Christ. A happy ruin, which is repaired unto something better. Therefore now the pious shepherd, the good merchant, has not abandoned his flock and his own merchandise. There will indeed still be, even in paradise, a struggle of the angels against the serpent, until he is cast down: but he who is with Christ cannot fear. Adam was not with Christ, when he was deceived. For if he had been with Christ, and had remained in his precept, he certainly could not have perished. He did not remain in Christ, because he did not remain in his word. Finally, hear who remains in Christ.

If you remain, he says, in me, and my words remain in you; whatsoever you will, you shall ask, and it shall be done for you. And further on: If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love. Do you wish to know that Adam was not with Christ? The Lord said to him: Adam, where art thou? He indeed asks as if for one absent; he would not say, "Where art thou," if he knew him to remain in himself. But let us hear who made him absent. They hid themselves, it says, both, from the face of the Lord. Christ sees all: but he who hides himself is hidden; because he who does not know is not known. For the Lord knows those who are his own. He wishes all to be his own, whom he formed and created. Would that you, O man, would not flee, and would not hide yourself from Christ!

He seeks even those who flee, and does not wish those who are hidden to perish, but cries out saying: Adam, where art thou? That is, man, where art thou? I placed you in light, you sought darkness.

21. Evening in Paradise and the Conversion of Saul

Finally, in paradise, where it was always morning day, evening came to be; because all sins are dark.

And so you have it, that they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the evening in paradise. At the same time, recognize the mystery. In the morning you went astray: in the evening you shall be freed. For how is there evening, where Christ is? For although his throne is above the heaven of heavens, yet Christ is in his saints. How then is there evening where God is, since God is light? Finally, on Saul's journey a light shone round about, when Christ met him. Whence also, the light of God shining forth, the persecutor was blinded. Why then was he blinded, unless because he had not recognized Christ? For if he had recognized the arbiter of light, he would not have lost the light of his eyes. Finally, where he recognized, there he received it back. It is a sign that he did not recognize Christ, that, hearing the voice: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

He answered: Who art thou, Lord? He would not have asked who he was, if he had recognized him. Whence also the Lord, as to one ignorant, says: I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the goad. And he said: Lord, what wouldst thou have me do? See the fitting correspondences on both sides of these teachings. The physician threatens, that he may correct; he frightens, that he may cure: the sick man first asks about the person of the physician, whether he is fit, from whom he may presume he can be healed; when he has heard the author of the medicine, he asked for the remedy, and found salvation.

Finally, from him as he approached, not only was blindness expelled, but he also received the light which he had not had before; that he might see Christ, whom before he had not seen.

But let us look at what follows; the

being repeated, however, concerning which the treatment seems to be: Behold, I come, that I may do thy will: my God, I have willed it, and thy law in the midst of my heart.

I have well declared thy justice in the great Church: behold, I will not restrain my lips, O Lord, thou hast known. I have not hidden thy justice within my heart. From the preceding

then, we understand: Behold, I come not only to do thy will, but also thy law in the midst of my heart.

Others have: In the midst of my belly. For there is a belly of the mind as well, which conceives the seeds of the senses; concerning which Isaiah said: We have conceived in the womb, and have brought forth the spirit of salvation.

In this womb Paul also brought forth, who says: My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you.

Christ, therefore, is formed not in a bodily womb, but in a certain womb of the soul. In this womb the Apostle begot; as it is written: I have begotten you through the Gospel. Therefore some rightly have: In the midst of the heart; others: In the midst of the belly; that you may understand the belly of the inner man, which is taken to be in the midst of the heart: in which we keep the precepts of the natural law; which is not only observed, but also comes to be in our hearts. Whence also it is written, that not only the hearers of the law are just before God; but also the doers of the law shall be justified.

For there are those who naturally do the things that are of the law; as the Gentiles who do not hear the law and are a law unto themselves, who keep the precepts of the law known to them. Therefore, as it were the gatherer of the Gentile people, Christ took up our person in this place; that he might say he does the law in the midst of his heart. Since the people of the nations fulfilled the law which they did not hear; that they might recognize Christ whom the people of the Jews, who had received the law, did not receive, nor thought worthy to be known; because it is written: The ox knew his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel hath not known me.

This, then, is the womb of believers, in which the Holy Spirit has worked, and has been wont to fill it with spiritual seed; as the Lord Jesus testifies in the Gospel, who says: He that believeth in me, as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. From that river are these rivers, concerning which we read: The stream of the river maketh glad the city of God. Concerning those, then, from whom such spiritual rivers flow, it is well said: The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods shall lift up their waves at the voice of spiritual waters, which praise God above the heavens.

23. The Great Church Gathered from All Nations

He who shall have lifted up his voice, he can say: I have well declared thy justice in the great Church. What is it that he added, great; unless because before it was not great? Which is great, unless gathered from the parts of the whole world; when from the east and the west, the north and the south the peoples of the nations were called? Elsewhere, however, we read of a great Church: I will confess to thee, O Lord, in the great Church: I will praise thee among a grave people. There, then, is the great Church, where the people is grave; that is, not restless and unstable, which sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. A grave people is one that keeps faith to its God, and is not changed by any levity; nor wavers and fluctuates, but is founded in charity in Christ; so that it can say: For I am confident that neither death, nor sword, nor tribulation can separate me from the charity of God, which is in Christ Jesus.

24. Faith as Justice Preached in the Great Church

But he who preaches in the great Church does not hide the justice of God in his heart; but exalts his voice with all his strength, announcing Christ.

He does not fear to preach him before the people, does not blush at his cross; but glories in that passion of the Lord. He does not follow the letter of the Law; but digs out the deep mysteries, by which he may reveal the glory of the Lord Jesus: whom the Law signified was to come to the Church, which is to be gathered as great. Justice, therefore, is faith. For indeed Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice. Behold, I will not restrain my lips, O Lord, thou hast known. So also elsewhere: Thou hast known my sitting down, and my rising up.

25. Answering the Apollinarians on Christ's Human Soul

To the Father he says: I have not hidden my justice in my heart: I have declared thy truth, and thy salvation.

This whole psalm is spoken from the person of Christ; therefore he says my justice: although not arrogantly a man too can say his own justice, who believes in God, and confesses that his faith is reputed to him unto justice. He loves truth and mercy, who preaches the true faith, and forgives sins. For this reason Christ came, that he might establish faith, and grant the remission of sins.

because we have said that this whole psalm is from the person of the Savior; lest perchance the Apollinarists say: Behold, he said, a body thou hast prepared for me. Not a soul also; let them hear, in the lower parts of this psalm, him saying: Let them be confounded and ashamed together who seek my soul, to take it away.

27. Closing Notes on This Exposition

In good order, he who in the preceding psalm said: Behold, I come; in this one has now come, and suffers: and therefore it is inscribed the fortieth psalm

because for forty days the Lord Jesus fasted, that by that number he might complete the perfection of man who had perished. For just as through the desire for the forbidden fruit he had lost grace, so through fasting his virtue had to be repaired; that he who had perished in Adam, might be restored in Christ. Therefore, unto the end; because he himself is the end of our hope, to him we direct our endeavors, to him we bring our vows; because he is the fullness, he is the consummation of all things, he is the sum of all virtues.

Therefore, to David himself; as it were to him who alone of all took up our sins in his flesh, who alone as the Lamb of God took away the sin of the whole world, who alone blotted out the handwriting of the decree by the shedding of his blood, and took it out of the midst, and fastened it to the cross: as Wisdom, knowing how to loose the old sin of the world; as Redemption, how to renew man from guilt; as Sanctification, how to sanctify him unto grace. This, then, is the title, this the beginning.

Blessed is he that understandeth concerning the needy and the poor.

Open your ears, you who are beginning to know the mysteries of the Lord's passion. Therefore it is said to you: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Therefore the Lord touched the ears and lips of that deaf and dumb man in the Gospel; that he might know what he was hearing in the mystery, what also he was speaking, and when he was to speak. For it is not idly written: The Lord hath given me the tongue of learning; that I should know when it is fitting to speak a word. You ought, then, to know what you hear, to know what you ought to speak, to know also when you ought to speak.

3. Blessed Understanding of the Poor and Needy

Hear, then, him saying: Blessed is he that understandeth concerning the needy and the poor.

Blessed indeed is he who has compassion on the poor, who draws in their needs, knows what evil poverty brings to the needy: but what does this exordium mean in the Lord's passion? It is true, indeed, that he suffered for the poor; yet he himself rebuked Judas saying, concerning that ointment which Mary had poured out upon the feet of Christ: This might have been sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor. The other apostles too had felt the same, but from a different disposition: he out of avarice, they out of mercy; for Judas had an eye to theft, the disciples took thought for the sustenance of the poor. To whom he answered in common: Let her alone, that she may keep it against the day of my burial. For the poor you have always with you, but me you have not always.

4. Faith, Mercy, and the Poverty of Christ

Therefore another meaning of "blessed" is to be understood here, he who understandeth concerning the poor. Here he speaks of faith, elsewhere of mercy. Faith, therefore, comes first, mercy second. With faith, mercy is precious: without faith, it is bare; without faith, unstable. For faith is the stable foundation of all virtues. Blessed, then, is he who understands concerning the neediness and poverty of Christ, who for our sake was made poor, though he was rich: rich in the kingdom, poor in the flesh; because he took up this poor flesh. For we were made exceedingly poor, we who lost the precious spoils of the virtues by the deceit of the serpent, shut out from paradise, cast out of our homeland, banished into exile, stripped even of the covering of the body, which before the enclosures of the virtues fortified, and afterwards our sins laid bare. If, then, he is needy and poor in the flesh, certainly he is needy and poor in the suffering of this flesh. He suffered, therefore, not in his own riches, but in our poverty.

And so it was not the fullness of the Godhead, which dwells in him bodily, as Scripture testifies, but the flesh that suffered.

Understand this, follow this, hold to this, lest it be said of you: He was not willing to understand concerning the beggar and the poor. For if here you doubt, certainly in that psalm which is spoken from the person of the Savior against the betrayal of Judas, you will not be able to doubt concerning that

in which he says: And he persecuted the poor and needy man.

Understand, then, into the poverty of Christ, that you may be rich; understand into his infirmity, that you may receive health; understand into his cross, that you may not blush; understand into his wound, that you may heal your wounds; understand into his death, that you may acquire eternal life; understand into his burial, that you may find resurrection.

5. How Christ Is Rich in Poverty

But perhaps you may say: How is Christ rich in poverty?

Even if my own wit should fail, yet the supports of the divine readings do not fail; since the Apostle has said: That the Lord Jesus was made poor, though he was rich; that you might be enriched by his poverty. What, then, is this poverty, which makes rich? Let us consider it, let us look into the venerable Sacrament itself. What can be purer or simpler than it? No one is drenched with bull's blood, as the sacred rites of the Gentiles are said to have; no sinner is washed with the gore of goats and rams (for no one is thus purified; the flesh is washed, but the guilt is not thereby washed away), but water shall go forth, he says, with delight from the fountains of the Savior: and a heavenly table is prepared in your sight, and how excellent is the inebriating cup! These are the riches of simplicity, in which is the precious poverty of Christ.

There is also a good poverty in morals; whence the Lord also said: Blessed are the poor in spirit.

And in the Psalms we find that the Lord will save the humble in spirit. There is also, in slight contribution, an abundant poverty, if faith abounds. Whence the Apostle says: And their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their simplicity.

6. The Evil Day of Judgment

But that we may also understand from his other words that he called himself poor, we have it written elsewhere: I am poor and sorrowful

that is, because he grieves for us, as we read, for he had nothing in himself for which to grieve. Just as, then, he grieves for us, as Isaiah interpreted, who saw him in the spirit: he was sad, indeed, for our sake; according to which he called his soul sorrowful even unto death, yet not on account of death itself: and he called his flesh weak, which lay subject to the weakness of death; that he might break the sting of death, whereby he might free us on the day of judgment, which he did not lightly call evil.

For thus he added: In the evil day the Lord will deliver him; because that day seems bitter, which adjudges the greater number to punishment. For the way of virtue is narrow, that of sin broad; therefore fewer walk in virtue, more are occupied in wickedness.

Whence it comes about that the number of those is smaller who will receive the rewards of recompense, than of those who, for the price of their grave sins, will bear away the adverse lot of judgment. As if grieving, therefore, he called it the evil day of judgment. For if the angels rejoice at the pardon of one sinner, how much more will men be tormented at the condemnation of so many men! And rightly does he grieve for that sheep which he himself carried back on his shoulders, and recalled, wandering, to his fold. The Son of God speaks according to our feeling; because for us the day of judgment, which we fear, is bitter. To all it seems evil, because it is full of terror; for on it God judges not only the outward acts of man, but also his hidden things; on it each one is compelled to disclose what he has done, or what he has thought. And therefore many are condemned, few are crowned.

But even those who are crowned will grieve; for the just will be crowned: and the just man reckons the misery of his brother as his own. And who, to judge concerning that day on which man is joined to the assemblies of angels? Let us hear the sentence of the Lord himself: The hour will come, he says, in which all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of man; and they who have done good will come forth unto the resurrection of life; but they who have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment. Those, then, who have done evil will be judged; and therefore the day is called evil and harsh by the Judge himself; that you may know that he who had compassion in the prophets has compassion for us in the Gospel.

8. The Evil Day and Christ the Advocate

But we can also understand it thus: In the evil day, that is, in the evil time; for the world is set in evil.

And therefore the days of this world are evil, and each day abounds in its own malice. It is no small thing that here we be freed from the snares of the sinner. He who shall have been free from crime here, will there be free from punishment, and will not be able to undergo the severity of judgment.

therefore there is need of vows and daily prayers, and of the advocacy of the Prince of priests, of whom John the Evangelist says: We have an advocate with the Father, the Lord Jesus, and he is the propitiation for our sins. This advocate of ours, then, and the propitiation for the sins of the whole age, prays for him who understands and believes in Christ, and says: May the Lord preserve him, and quicken him, and make him blessed.

May he preserve him from dangers, quicken him as one set in the darkness of death, and deign to make him blessed by the accession of good works.

10. Cleansing on Earth and the Bed of Sickness

may he not deliver him into the hands of his enemy.

Who is the enemy, but that lion who goes about roaring, seeking whom he may devour? Others of the Greek have: And may he not deliver him into the souls of his enemies. He put souls for hands; because the souls of enemies lie in wait for the good, and try by their thoughts to overturn the just man. Souls are also said for men. All the souls, seventy, which went down into Egypt. Therefore David also preferred to commit himself to the power of God, rather than to the snares of enemies, who would not know how to spare of their own will.

There follows: May the Lord bring help to him upon the bed of his sorrow: thou hast turned all his couch in his sickness.

What is the bed of sorrow, but the flesh of infirmity?

And rightly the bed of sorrow

because it is the body of death, from which the Apostle prays to be freed; that he may be able to rise up as from a certain tomb, in which the sick soul lies, and, as it were, reclines upon a little bed. Symmachus said, bed of misery: Aquila, pallet of misery: the Seventy men thought it should be more expressly called, bed of sorrow. These

then, are to be used among those who are for a long time detained by bodily infirmity; that they may have God's medicine, whereby they may deserve to be healed.

The bed of the soul, then, is the sick flesh, whose sickness our soul suffers with; which, if it have the Lord as its helper, he says to it: Rise, take up thy bed, and go into thy house. Strengthened by this word of God, he who was sick rises and takes up his bed on which he lay, and returns to his former state of health.

This is to return to his own house, that he may dwell in the abode of most robust health. He who dwells, rules; he who rules, has the favoring grace of virtue with him. But the Lord also turns every couch in the sickness of the languishing one, to whom he deigns to be present. What is turned, changes state, either from health into sickness, or from sickness to health. He, then, who is sick, turns himself toward the remedy of health.

13. The Wrestler's Wound That Brings Life

Thus, then, the Lord Jesus, although he was wounded for our sins, yet did not remain in that infirmity; but turned himself for the better, unto the salvation of all. And so by the passion infirmity was dissolved, and death by the resurrection. As, then, he turned himself for the redemption of peoples, and felt not the sting of death, nor the weakness of a wound: so him who believes in him, even though gravely sick, he turns unto life, that he may free him from death. He turned, then, the whole couch, that is, the infirmity of all men, in his own infirmity. For he took upon himself the infirmities of all in his flesh, raised himself up upon the cross, and turned the infirmities of all in the infirmity of his own body. Whence Isaiah says: By his bruise we are healed (Isaiah liii, 5).

Wrestlers have this practice, that they submit themselves to those with whom they grapple and wrestle, so that they may seem able to be overcome; and suddenly, when they are reckoned as overcome, they throw them down, and by a certain art turn themselves, so as to overthrow the one on top. He falls who was being carried, and he who was carrying is found the stronger, so as to lay low the one pressing upon him. So in a spiritual wrestling-match, the Lord Jesus, taking up our burdens, submitted himself in that encounter of his passion; and, in the appearance of weakness, so that the adversary might judge him a man like the rest, whom he could easily overpower, he laid aside the arms of his divinity, and took up the covering of humanity. The tempter, secure of victory, came nearer: he wished to wound him in the side with the soldier's spear, reckoning that this one too, like Adam, could be laid low through the side.

But the Lord Jesus, wounded in the side, brought forth life from the wound, emptied out all sin, cast down the adversary, from whom he snatched away the death of the thief; and in that death, in that burial of his own body, when he was reckoned as overcome, being struck down he turned himself by his own power: the adversary fell, the Lord rose again.

There follows: I said: Lord, have mercy on me: heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee.

This can also be said in the person of King David, who, seeing in spirit so great a victory and grace of Christ, asks that in that remission of all sins he too may find mercy; since he himself, although as king he was not bound, as it were, by human laws, yet knows himself to be liable to God for his sins. He confesses, then, his sin, that he may receive remission, and find the gift of general indulgence.

It can also be expressed in the person of the Savior, who asks God's mercy for us, and said that he had sinned, because he was made sin for us. At the same time he teaches us, when we are engaged in some contest against the enemies of God, to implore God's help: to confess our own sins ourselves, and, especially when we are hard pressed and worn down, to cast ourselves down with grief and bitterness, lest we seem to have kept silent; so that medicine may the sooner be brought to our wounds, that, being healed, we may resist the adversary. For how can a wounded man engage in combat? Whence do we learn that we are wounded by the stings of our sins? A wound seeks a physician, a physician demands confession.

Hence too the Savior begins more and more to open the mystery of his passion, which without doubt agrees with the Gospel.

For the Jews cursed him, sought his death, laid snares for him, pressed upon him, unable to bear the daily growing glory of his work. This, then, prophecy announces, which is fulfilled in the Gospel: My enemies have spoken evil against me: When will he die, and his name perish? Madmen, who believed that the author of life could die: but the Church destroyed their wishes, believing that even dead, according to the condition of the body, he would increase his name; and therefore she sang to him, saying: I will remember thy name in every generation and generation. She repeated: Thy name is oil poured out. They will die who presume that thou canst die: I shall not die, I who have known thee as the arbiter of life, the author of salvation.

For we know that at the time of the passion and resurrection the disciples, gathered together, were praying; when Mary Magdalene announced to them that the Lord had risen, and when, the door being shut, the Lord showed himself to them in the body of the resurrection, when Thomas saw his wounds and believed. The Jews, then, mocked him as one dead: but the Lord was revealing himself alive to the apostles. When, therefore, the Jews said: Behold, the whole world has gone after him; when they said that by his miraculous works he was seducing the people; what else were they saying, but: When will he die, and his name perish? And therefore in his passion they cried out: Away, away with him from the earth: let him be crucified, let him be crucified.

What they asked for came to pass: he was taken away from the earth, he rose again, ascended into heaven, and restored his kingdom for us in the seats of paradise.

Concerning Judas the traitor also, a clear prophecy is woven in these

which follow: And he went out that he might see, having spoken vain things: his heart gathered iniquity to itself.

He went out abroad, and spoke. Thus we find it divided in the Greek copies. Judas, then, was going in, seeking to betray the Savior, to see what he was doing, or what he was saying; that he might catch him in speech, and report it to the Jews: but he found nothing, he who understood nothing. Rightly Scripture says that he who had withdrawn from his teaching and abandoned his instructions was not within with Jesus. He wished to enter, but could not penetrate; because his own perfidy shut him out.

For every unchaste man, or covetous man, or unclean man (which is the servitude of idols) has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Not only, then, was he attempting to enter, and not entering; but he also wished to see, and did not see. Furthermore Jesus spoke in parables, but Judas did not hear. Furthermore he did not see the divine mysteries; for not all who seem to themselves to hear the word of God actually hear it. For if all heard, Jesus would not say: He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

And therefore, because he did not hear, and could not see, he spoke vain things in place of true ones, and thought he was deceiving Jesus when he said: This could have been sold, and given to the poor; while by his thefts he was providing not for the poor, calling him "rabbi." For how could he call teacher one from whose teaching he was deviating; whose heart (into which the devil had immersed himself) was gathering and increasing iniquities for itself? For he was iniquitous to himself, unjust to himself, sinning against himself, who was meditating deceit within himself, which could not remain hidden. For Jesus, who was being betrayed willingly, was not coming as flesh, and testified: One of you will betray me. Finally Judas confessed, saying: Is it I, rabbi? And the Lord said: Thou hast said it. Nor did Judas understand thereby that he was known. For if he had understood, he would not have betrayed him.

17. Judas Going Outside, Away from the Faith

But nevertheless, he was also going forth outside, and speaking. A

well suited against those who betray another's secret.

He says beautifully: He was going forth outside; for outside are the wolves, outside the robbers: inside is Moses in the cloud with Jesus, outside are the Jews: inside is Zacharias the priest in the temple, outside the multitude: inside the Holy Spirit cries out to the Father in our hearts, outside our adversary keeps watch like a lion for prey: outside are the unfaithful, inside the faithful. And therefore those who are outside God will judge; but those who are inside Christ absolves. Judas, therefore, was going forth, and speaking.

He was going forth from the faith: he was going forth from the council and number of the apostles; he was going forth from the banquet of Christ to the banditry of the devil: he was going forth from the grace of sanctification to the snare of death, speaking vain things to the perfidious: he was going forth outside, who was abandoning the mysteries of the inner life; he was going forth, who had not known the inner things of Scripture. For if he had known, he would have understood the one saying: Shall not he that sleepeth rise again? He would also have understood this: But thou, a man of one mind, my leader, and my acquaintance, who together with me took sweet meats, in the house of the Lord we walked with consent. Therefore he did not understand this psalm, nor the hundred and eighth, nor other, nor other testimonies of the Scriptures. Of whom the Evangelist John says well, and of the rest of the unbelieving: They went out from us, but they were not of us.

For if they had been of us, they would have remained with us.

The betrayer, then, did not remain with the apostles, he who was going out and whispering with the perfidious.

Which word divine Scripture used, showing that perfidy is without authority, which fears that what it says will be discovered. But of faith it is said: Lift up thy voice with strength. Behold to what the apostle Judas had fallen, who had been sent to preach the faith to the Gentiles with the full proclamation of authority; that he should whisper into the ear of those lying in wait for his master what he was afraid to have heard. Did he not condemn himself by his own judgment?

But he blushed to have heard what he did not fear to do: he blushed

because he was plotting evils against the author of his own life, sanctification, and honor; nor did he repay grace for benefits, but rendered evil for good to a good master; which even men of the world have been accustomed to condemn: the ungrateful man blushed to be caught, the covetous man blushed to be seen so; since for money he was betraying the salvation of his benefactor: he blushed to be seen as perfidious.

Likewise also the Jews, who as perfidious men suborned false witnesses against the teacher of the faith, that they might say that he had preached that the temple of God which Solomon built should be destroyed; whereas he had signified concerning the temple of his own body: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up; truly they were outside, who were excluded from the knowledge of the heavenly Word.

They have proposed, he says, an unjust word against me

that is, they proposed an unlawful discourse, contrary to right and law, making pacts with me concerning human blood, which Judas most wickedly sold: the Jews too believed it should be bought, with no lesser crime, most vain men; as if, he says, he that sleepeth should not rise again. Let us consider what this addition means.

20. Sleep and Resurrection in the Psalm's Words

It is natural to all earthly living things, and to the birds of heaven, and to the fishes of the sea, to be born and to die: but upon man, whom God had made more precious than the other living things of the earth, he conferred especially this grace, that having died he should live again. This addition, then, is spoken with reference to the renewal of the former life. Accordingly, also when the Lord had foretold to King Ezechias that he had fulfilled the time of his life, and had commanded through Isaiah that he should set his house in order, because he was about to die; and he had prayed to the Lord, and had wept with a great weeping; the Lord, having pity, commanded him: Behold, I add to thy time fifteen years. And elsewhere holy David says: Thou shalt add days to the days of the king, his years.

It is found, then, that something can be added to man; but to God nothing can be added; because it is written: There is nothing to be added, nor taken away, in whom all things are perfect and complete. Even if Christ rose again, it was certainly in that which he had assumed that he rose, in which nothing could either be lost or added to the fullness of his divinity. For God is incorporeal and immortal, whose highest nature and fullness of powers is marked without any addition of flesh. But the flesh in Christ is of the dispensation, which he took on by the title of compassion and the right of piety; that he might redeem the captive, wash the contaminated, raise up the dead. And beautifully he says: Shall not he that sleepeth rise again?

He did not say, "he is not raised"; but, "shall he not rise again"; because he, the Son of God, raised himself; as we have said above that he said to the Jews: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. The flesh received the addition, as taken from man, assumed from the Virgin: but as God he himself worked the addition, who rose again by his own power; that he might be the worker of his own resurrection. But that you may understand that both the Father raised the Son, and the Son himself raised himself, know that operation to have been of the divine power; because there is one power, one common operation, of the Father and the Son; since the substance of the Trinity is one and the same.

But why do I accuse others (says the Lord Jesus)?

What wonder is it if the people did not know me, and condemned me to the cross; when my own apostle demanded the price of betrayal, when my own table-companion sold my death?

For the man of my peace, in whom I hoped, who ate my bread, has enlarged his supplanting over me. Some think Judas ought to be excused, because he cast back the money which he had received as the price of betrayal: but behold, this condemns his unfaithfulness beyond that of the Jews; for to whom more has been given, from him more is required. What, he says, shall I complain about others? The man of my peace, to whom I had given my peace, whom I had wished to leave my peace, having led my persecutors to me, betrayed me, and deceived me, in whom I had hoped.

Did he not know that he would be his betrayer, of whom he had foretold beforehand: One of you shall betray me?

(Now this he said of Judas, as it is written in the Gospel.) Certainly not; but that he might condemn him the more, he said he had hoped in his faith. Aquila said, "I had trusted"; Symmachus put, "I was trusting." For we burden more heavily him in whom we say we had the greatest hope or confidence, if afterward he has abandoned our hope and expectation.

22. Zacchaeus, the Thief, and Rahab Converted

At the same time he shows how great the power of divine sanctification is, which excludes malice and amends a depraved disposition; if the form of a better resolve be added. How many do we know to have been converted? That publican Zacchaeus was changed, and he who was intent with covetous affection on gain, afterward paid off his fault with fourfold restitution, condemned in himself his avarice, renounced the gains of the former time, made compensation to the poor, though no exactor demanded it. The thief himself changed his wickedness by a better resolve, acknowledged Christ on the cross, confessed him the Son of God, called him king with his own voice. At a time when most of the just were wavering, when the very apostles indeed were hiding: the executioner himself, the centurion, did not deny him. Why do I speak of the time of the Gospel?

Rahab was a harlot, who nourished herself by the wages of unfaithfulness and intemperance; yet when she saw the spies whom Jesus, son of Nun, had sent, she put on faith; and with danger imminent, she preserved justice; nor did she betray those she had received, but protected them with faithful humanity. Therefore he says he had hoped; as if he had rightly presumed that the apostle would lay aside his former ways, and follow better things: and that he who had received the office of sanctifying others would himself keep in himself the grace of holiness, and cleave to the offices of sincerity. Well, he says, I hoped; because God gave man the freedom of choosing what he should follow. I have set, he says, before thee good and evil. If thou choose evil, it is not nature that offends, but the disposition of the one choosing. If every man is condemned who has chosen evil; what shall we say of Judas, who betrayed him to whom he was joined by the sweetness of table-fellowship?

23. The Sweetness of Table-Fellowship with Christ

He that ate, he says, my bread, has enlarged his supplanting over me. Why did he add, "my bread"? He could have said: he who ate bread with me; unless you understand that special nourishment of Christ, that is, of the heavenly word; for man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Accordingly elsewhere he says: Thou who together with me took sweet meats always. Which

we use well against those who have believed that those with whom they seemed to have feasted ought to be slain.

The Gentiles are recorded to observe this, mostly enemies, even robbers; that they spare those with whom they remember they entered into a feast: even wild beasts themselves grow gentle through the fellowship of feeding. Whence, on account of such an affection of the grace of table-fellowship, if we consider the words, he did not idly say "sweet meats." For how are they sweet, which quickly spoil? But see whether he did not mean by "sweet meats" the words of life.

For no bitterness spoils these foods, no corruption of death contaminates them. Hence also he said "always." For no one could always be eating. But we can always cling to the word of God, both nights and days, if we meditate on the law of God day and night.

24. The Heel Lifted in Betrayal's Insult

What too does "enlarged" mean?

The Greek says ἐμεγάλυνεν, that is, magnified. The Lord expounded both of these to us, in what could move us, saying in the Gospel: He that eats bread with me has lifted up his heel against me. Let us consider whence this expression is drawn. We were, he says, once foolish, unbelieving, going astray, serving divers lusts and pleasures. Let us confess the error, that we may be cleansed. And I, as a boy, saw an athlete, when he had thrown down his adversary, strike him on the forehead with his heel: which was a sign that he was insulting the vanquished. This is what he says: He has magnified his supplanting over me; by which word he declared the insolence of one insulting. Judas, too, lifted up his heel over Christ, when he betrayed him; but he did not lift it up unpunished. Adam still lifts up the heel that was wounded by the serpent. And indeed Christ had washed his feet.

He had heard him saying: He that is washed needs not, but to wash his feet; but is clean altogether. But what grace had washed, perfidy had defiled. Judas, then, lifted up his heel to a wound. Truly he who lifted up his heel against Christ did not hold to the head. Adam lifted it up over himself, this man over Christ; and therefore the serpent wounded him more grievously than the rest. He lifted up his heel, who offered the deceitful kiss, by which he supplanted the author of life; and therefore it is written in the Prophet: He has enlarged his supplanting over me. Esau also says of his brother: He has now supplanted me twice. He who supplants works deceit, by which he strikes down or wounds his adversary. Therefore Judas too is said to have supplanted; because with his kiss he inflicted a wound, by which he showed the sign to the persecutors for seizing the Savior.

He supplanted, then, like a serpent; because the serpent pours in poison with his mouth, and wounds the heel with his tooth: and this man too did not wound the divinity of Christ, but the extremity of the body, the heel. Judas also lifted his heel like an insolent and proud wrestler, in order to strike the head of the Savior with it; but he could not strike the head of Christ, because the head of Christ is God. His own head, indeed, he bound with the knot of a shapeless noose, so that he took away from himself the remedy of salvation.

25. Jacob's Prophecy of Dan as a Serpent

See if you can piously apply that which the holy patriarch Jacob said in Genesis, when he prophesied concerning his sons: Dan shall judge his people as one tribe in Israel; and: Let Dan be as a serpent in the way, lying in the path, biting the horse's heel, that his rider may fall backward, awaiting salvation from the Lord. We read indeed (Judges 13:25) that Samson of the tribe of Dan was a judge in Israel: but here another is signified who will come forth from that tribe, who will afflict the people with the punishments of sacrilegious impiety. That Antichrist, who will sit in the temple as if he were God, truly has judgment, which is the meaning of the interpretation; for Dan signifies judgment. And beautifully he said, that he will judge his own people, who will become liable to perpetual punishment; for he who does not believe has already been judged: but he who believes will not be judged; because he believes in the Son of God, the redeemer of his soul.

And therefore, as a book of judgment, he says: He who judges me is the Lord. He is going to judge, then, the people of impiety, not the people; for those are judged who fall by the ruin of perfidy, not those who rise up by the freedom of faith.

26. The Wounded Horse and Christ's Ascension

He will therefore sit in the way, and lie in wait in the path, like a serpent; that he may wound those passing by, and bite our horse's heel; for he will not be able to wound the soul of the faithful. But in what way will he sit, and in what path; if not from those to which Christ the Lord, as we read, called the people of the nations to his supper, saying: Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in; that my house may be filled. And because Judas is likewise read to have amplified his supplanting against Christ, it seems that he himself is signified in this place, in that he was to bite the heel of the horse on which Christ the Lord was riding. Whence it is said: Thy riding was salvation; because his flesh was to take up the sin of the whole world; that salvation might succeed in place of destruction, and eternal life in place of death.

The horse, therefore, was wounded—not the false one alone—unto salvation: the horse was wounded who took up the sins of the whole world, and bore our burdens, and was not wearied: the horse was wounded who knew not how to neigh unto the fury of lust. And therefore perhaps to John the Evangelist heaven was opened, and a white horse was shown, upon which sat one having diadems upon his head, and on his thigh a name written: King of kings, and Lord of lords. White he was, because he was immaculate, who had known no stains of sin. For if lust is dark, rightly does holiness shine and gleam. This horse, therefore, is wounded, but not delayed. Indeed with that very wound he rose from the tomb, ran to heaven above all angels and archangels, found swifter than every cavalry of the heavenly host, above even those fiery horses by which Elijah was caught up.

And rightly swifter, he who ascended above all the heavens, and above the heaven of heavens, to the seat of God almighty, and sits there; as Scripture has taught us, saying: You shall see henceforth the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power.

27. The Horse Prefigured by Heliodorus and the Maccabees

This horse, then, was shown beforehand also in figure at the time of the Maccabees, ridden by that leader of the heavenly host, resplendent in golden armor, who cast down and struck that plunderer Heliodorus, robber of the widow's deposit and of the other things which had been committed to sacred keeping, and afterward, being entreated by the prayers of Onias the priest, restored him to the use of life. Whence truly in him the golden arms shone; because he alone sat upon this horse, and conquered, on which no one else escaped free of guilt. Not Enoch, who was caught up lest wickedness should change his heart: not Abraham, not Isaac, not Jacob, not Moses. For all were under sin, all under death. Indeed death reigned from Adam even unto Moses. He alone is the one who did no sin: Christ alone is he who took away the sin of the world, who said to death: Where, O death, is thy victory? Where, O death, is thy sting?

28. The Rider Falls Backward for Our Salvation

How then did Judas amplify his supplanting against this one, and the rider fall backward?

What is in Judas, was deceit: what is in Christ, was suffered willingly. We often see the stronger one wish to be struck; that being provoked he may rise the more keenly, be roused the more vehemently. The serpent, then, bit the heel of the horse, spewed out the venom of his fraud: the rider willingly cast himself down, willingly fell; that he might raise us up. But what is it that Scripture says: And the rider shall fall backward? Why backward, unless to guide those following behind him? Peter was behind, to whom he said: Get thee behind me. Behind were the apostles, and the other disciples. Therefore he fell backward; because upon whom he falls, he saves. For everyone, he says, that shall fall upon this stone, shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will cleanse him. Others have, it will winnow him; others, it will crush him.

For he who winnows grain, cleanses it from chaff: he who crushes something, reduces it to dust; that by the softness of the dust, either for a healthful drink, or for the remaining use of medicine, it may profit without any disturbance. Whence we gather that it must be guarded against, lest anyone once received by Christ through baptism should fall away from his body, that is, be shaken off from the Church; for that itself is the ruin of perpetual death. But him who comes about to believe in Christ; that his death may find him, his cross take him up, the nail fasten him, the blood pour into him, his burial also enfold him, the grace of resurrection lift him, from sleep raise him, from death give him life: him, I say, he frees from the world, cleanses from sin, heals from wound, bends from the hardness of impiety, softens to the gentleness of piety, that with circumcised heart he may draw in that uncircumscribed and incomprehensible spirit, may drink the cup of eternal salvation.

The rider, then, fell backward.

29. Falling Backward to Carry Adam Home

Take also another reason, why he fell backward and not forward.

After him are all, before him no one. He fell, then, not for himself, but for all; that by falling upon us he might soften the hardness of our heart. He fell upon Adam, whom he sought, that he might find him. Behind him he sought him; that the good shepherd might place him upon his shoulders, and carry him with himself into paradise in the redemption of that thief.

30. The Persecutors Fall Back Before Christ

But perhaps you will say: The persecutors also fell backward.

For thus it is written, that the chief priests, whom the betrayer Judas had brought, and the others who had come to apprehend the Lord Jesus, went backward, and fell to the ground. This is what I too say, that he wished to fall upon sinners, not upon the just; for the just man has no need of a physician, but sinners do. If the shadow of the apostles healed; how much more does the flesh of Christ defend from death those it touches! Indeed he touched a leper, and without delay cleansed him. But that you who read may know that he wished to free even his persecutors, ask the witness of Christ. For when Peter was inveighing against the Jews, because they had killed the Prince of life, he pointed out the remedy; that by doing penance, they might merit that the sin they had committed be forgiven them.

Why then do you doubt that he fell for this reason, that he might raise up again; since he himself said: I will strike, and I will heal? Yet observe the difference of the words. In Genesis it is held: The rider shall fall backward, awaiting salvation from the Lord; that is, that he should not turn his eyes away, that the action should not bend back his own mind, that he should claim the prerogative of his own resurrection, and raise himself by divine power. Here, however, it is held: They went backward, and fell to the ground. He who is earthly, falls to the earth: he who is heavenly, clings to heaven. And if in body he falls, in power he does not fall: nor to the things which are his own, but he always intends the things which are above; for he always looks to the Father, that he may fulfill his will concerning us. Would that these too had not gone backward, but had received Christ!

As Joseph received him, and buried him in a new tomb.

He who is faithful does not fall to the earth: he who is unfaithful, falls and descends into the lower parts of the earth; as it is written: Let them go down alive into hell. Therefore the persecutor falls upon the earth, and into hell: Christ falls upon those who are to rise again, Christ upon the rock, Christ upon the Church. Hear how he falls upon the Church. Peter was behind, and followed him when he was being led by the Jews from the Synagogue to the house of Caiaphas the high priest. This is Peter to whom he said: Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church. Where Peter is, there is the Church: where the Church is, there is no death; but eternal life. And therefore he added: And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it: and I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed Peter, against whom the gate of hell did not prevail, for whom the gate of heaven did not close itself; but on the contrary he destroyed the vestibules of hell, laid open the heavenly places. Placed thus on earth, he opened heaven, closed hell.

31. The Good Samaritan and the Choice of Matthias

This too can fit this place, that the Samaritan did not pass by that man wounded by robbers as he was going down from Jericho; but took him up, and healed his wounds, pouring in oil and wine: and set him upon his own beast, and led him to the inn. Why do you doubt about the good horse, when you have read of the good beast of burden also? When you have read that into that Jerusalem many riders entered, very many with chariots and wagons? Nor let it trouble you that you have read: These in chariots, and these on horses: but we will be magnified in the name of the Lord our God. They are bound, and have fallen. But Elijah did not fall, who entered by chariot; for where the name of God is, there no one is bound, but all are set free. But in the name of our God both the poor man is safe, and the rich; both the noble, and the ignoble; both the weak, and the powerful.

Wealth does not prejudice faith; if only we know how to use wealth.

therefore, having the name of God in himself, he says: But thou, O Lord, have mercy on me, and raise me up, and I will requite them. Which surely he does not say as if doubting concerning the resurrection, he who had it in his power to say: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up; but he gives a pattern to man, that he should hope for mercy from God, and resurrection from God. Then he does not ask to be raised up himself: but he asks that Matthias be raised up for him in the place of Judas; that the apostolic number may be filled. For indeed, since it was necessary that the son of perdition should perish, that Scripture might be fulfilled; it was fitting that a son of salvation be substituted in his place. Take a third point.

He asks that he be raised up, that is, his body: but the body of Christ is the Church. And because Judas was a figure of the unfaithful people of the Jews, who with money either bought or sold Christ (as do those who value money more than religion), by the destruction of the people he signifies in faith that the Church is to be despised by them. For indeed if the heavenly man always intends the things that are his own, surely he always intends heavenly things. Grace is to rise again for itself. Whence it also says in the Canticles: If ye have stirred up and awakened love; when it sought Christ among the young maidens, because Christ is love.

33. The Innocence and Resurrection of Christ

But as to what he says: I will repay them; we understand this to mean that they will be tormented by the advances of the flourishing Church: and then they will know what the punishment of unbelief is, when they perceive what the splendor of faith and grace is. Or because the Lord is good, who could have said: They repaid me evil for good. And the word "repayment" is a middle term, whether in good or in evil: he says he will repay in good, because although blindness will happen in Israel in part, yet when the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, then all Israel will be saved by the mercy of Christ.

he added: In this I have known that thou hast willed me; because my enemy shall not rejoice over me.

Above he spoke of his passion as a man; from here he now discloses his majesty, that he alone was without sin, he alone whom the sinner could not touch with iniquity, he alone whom the Father loved as his only Son. For what reason, then, did the enemy not rejoice over him? Because although he underwent death for us, yet he rose again; and he himself exulted over the enemy, whose victory he destroyed, and whose sting of death he broke. And we, although we are sorrowful in the world, and though the enemy rejoices in our sorrow and in the contrition of our heart and soul, yet by rising again we destroy his joy. Whence also Micah said: Rejoice not over me, my enemy, because I have fallen; for I shall rise again. There is a resurrection, therefore, because all the bonds of the enemy are loosed, and every triumph is abolished.

There follows: But because of my innocence thou hast upheld me: and thou hast confirmed me in thy sight for ever.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from age to age: so be it, so be it.

The innocent one harms no one, sins against no one. Therefore Christ is marked by the authority of divine Scripture as without sin, without guile. This, then, is also declared here, where he says: But because of my innocence thou hast upheld me. What upholding is signified? For elsewhere too we read: Thou hast upheld me from my mother's womb. Therefore, because he who was born of the Spirit and the Virgin was born free from every admixture of human generation, the Father upheld him, because no accustomed admixture of bodily generation darkened his origin. He upheld him as he rose again, because no offense of a fall sprinkled him. Immaculate he returned to the Father, from whom immaculate he had gone forth, when he came down to earth.

Whence the Father says to him: Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee

that is, I acknowledge in thee the privilege of my begetting, whom no stain of sin could defile. Thou didst dwell among sinners, thou didst take upon thyself the sins of all, thou wast made sin for all, thou wast made a curse for all; but no practice of sin could pass over to thee. Thus thou didst dwell among sinners as if thou wert dwelling among angels. Thou hast made the earth to be as heaven, that there too thou mightest take away sin. This day have I begotten thee, in whom I am well pleased. Thou hast proved thyself the Son, who hast fulfilled in all things the will of the Father. This day have I begotten thee, in whom I recognize the unstained light of offspring. Yesterday and today thou art the same, and forever. There is no night in thee, because thou art wholly day.

Well is he said to be confirmed in the sight of the Father forever

because he is always with the Father, and truly in the sight of him whose he is the brightness of glory and the image of substance. But as the Father is well pleased in the Son, so also the Son blesses the Father. For the Father honors the Son, and the Son honors the Father.

36. The Meaning of Amen and Amen

Blessed, he says, be the Lord God of Israel

that is, of the people that sees God, who believes him to be both his Lord and God: From age to age: so be it, so be it. In the Hebrew there is: Amen, amen; as those have affirmed who have read the book written in Hebrew letters. The Greek at this place said γένοιτο, γένοιτο; which means: So be it, so be it. This word has various meanings, so that it is sometimes that of one commanding, sometimes of one entreating, sometimes of one confirming something: it is of one commanding, when a superior determines for an inferior what is to be done or followed: it is of one entreating, as in that saying: Thy will be done; for no one commands God, but pours out a prayer: it is of one confirming, when a prophet, or a priest, or some holy man blesses, and the people respond: So be it, so be it.

Here, then, it seems to me to be rather a confirmation of a blessing than a prayer or supplication, especially because the very word is repeated. And it seems that the Hebrew expression is indeed changed, but the same sense is expressed. For just as when a priest blesses, the people respond, "amen," confirming for themselves the blessing which the priest entreats from the Lord for the people; so in the psalm the response is: So be it, so be it; as if: Amen, amen. Now that "amen" is a word of confirmation is clearly shown in the Gospel, where the Lord, confirming his word, says: Amen I say to you. But greater force is present where the word is repeated, which we bring forward more frequently in the book of the Gospel according to John, because he especially spoke of heavenly and profound mysteries; as it is written: Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

And elsewhere: Amen, amen I say to you: if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

Two examples suffice; but if anyone seeks the rest, he will find them.

37. The Five Books of the Psalter and Their Endings

It is also a mark of the end of a book: So be it, so be it. For the Psalter seems to be divided into five books. The first book ends with this psalm, that is, the fortieth. And fittingly the fortieth psalm is comprised up to the Savior's passion, which would give an end to the book, since the Lord's passion is the end of the forty days: so that the second book might begin with the mysteries of renewal, which book, as befitting the number forty, embraces more perfect sacraments.

For it also foretells the sacraments of baptism, when it says: As the hart longs for the fountains of waters; and the rest of the saints who have arrived at the heavenly tabernacle; and the descent of the Holy Spirit, when spiritual grace was poured out in a certain voice of the heavenly cataracts, because the Spirit was borne with great power, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles; and the entrance of the renewed man to the altar; and the Savior's ascension; and the sanctification of the virginal purpose. This book ends at the seventy-first psalm, in which the peaceful kingdom of Christ, spread throughout the whole world, is announced in prophetic speech, together with the remission of sins; where, having set forth the blessing of the Lord beforehand, he added: And the whole earth shall be filled with his majesty: So be it, so be it. The third book also ends at the eighty-eighth psalm, and there it has: Blessed be the Lord for ever: So be it, so be it.

The fourth book ends at the hundred and fifth psalm, where it has: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from age to age; and let all the people say: So be it, so be it. The fifth book extends to the end, where instead of this expression the Prophet says: Let every spirit praise the Lord.

38. One Psalter Compared to the Fourfold Gospel

But perhaps it may again move you, how I claim there are five books, when the Psalter is one.

But the Gospel too is one, and yet we cannot deny that there are four books. Now that the Gospel is one, elsewhere too, if I am not mistaken, we have indicated; and if it be demanded again, we can easily teach it, since the Savior said: Amen I say to you, wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached. And the Apostle: I marvel that you are so quickly removed to another gospel, which is not another; unless there are some who trouble you. And elsewhere: For I make known to you, brethren, the Gospel. Nor do you have anywhere else, concerning this body of four books, anything other than the Gospel signified. Finally, because the body of the psalms is likewise one, Scripture said: On the ten-stringed psaltery, with a song upon the harp. But again, because there are five books, it says elsewhere: In the vessels of the psalms.

39. The Five Spiritual Senses of the Inner Man

Fittingly, then, there are five books and one Psalter; since the outer man is quickened by five senses, and again by five spiritual senses that hidden inner man of our heart is made complete, who alone is found rich before God, according to the testimony of the apostle Peter. He that hath, he says, ears to hear, let him hear. You have one sense. And just as there are those who have eyes and do not see, so there are those who, though their eyes do not see, are believed to see the more. Whence also the prophets were called seers, even those who did not see with the eyes. There is also that good odor, of which the Apostle said: We are a good odor of Christ unto God. Whence also Job says: And the divine Spirit which is in my nostrils. The same odor, then, is that of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, before God; because there is one odor of the Trinity.

There is also an inner food, of which the Lord said: My food is to do the will of my Father who is in heaven.

There is also an inner touch, by which that woman in the Gospel touched Christ, who for twelve years had suffered a flow of blood, and had received no healing from physicians, but received it from Christ. It is the touch of faith by which Christ is touched. Finally, men did not see her; but Jesus saw her, and testified that he had perceived it, saying: Someone hath touched me; for I know that virtue is gone out from me. The recognition of Christ is the conferring of healing. Therefore, since it is manifest that ten senses are present in man, David, who sang both outwardly and inwardly—outwardly with the body, inwardly with the heart—says in the psalm: On the ten-stringed psaltery I will sing to thee.

40. The Ten-Stringed Harp of the Perfected Soul

harp, O Holy One of Israel: my lips shall rejoice when I shall sing to thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed.

Paul says of himself: Without were fightings, within were fears. This one rejoices both within and without; but that one is still in the contest, this one in release, because he had known that he had merited the redemption of his soul. He who sings a psalm is in gladness; he who wrestles is in anxiety. Yet Paul too knew how to sing a psalm; but he still reserved himself for further advances, until he should be more fully proved, that he might sing; and so he said: I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the understanding: I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the understanding.

41. The Inward Voice of Prayer

And because he has shown a twofold office of singing psalms, Scripture has also taught that there is a twofold voice, the Prophet saying: I cried to the Lord with my voice, and my voice was to God, and he gave ear to me. What is "my"? For he could have said: I cried to the Lord. But what is our own voice, except that better one, which does not know how to err? For from much speaking we fall into sin, and cannot avoid it.

That is the voice of the Prophet which reaches God, which, while Moses was silent, cried out to the Lord: by which voice also Anna cried out in her prayers, when she did not move the lips of her mouth; and she obtained a son, whom she had not obtained before for a long time, though she had cried out with the voice of the body of this voice the Lord said: But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy chamber, and having shut the door, pray to thy Father who is in secret; and thy Father who seeth in secret will repay thee. What is "will repay"? This is what you have entreated, what you have prayed for. For just as sinners receive from the hand of the Lord their sins doubled, so on the contrary the just receive with affection what they have themselves asked. Hear how they receive it. Your prayer ascends to God, and descends to you.

Whence also in the psalm we read: And my prayer shall be turned into my own bosom

that is, that it may bring back fruit to the one who asks. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who has opened to us such great mysteries: from age to age; that is, from the infinite to the infinite: So be it, so be it.

The title of the psalm is: Unto the end, for the sons of Core, understanding.

Where the mysteries of the Lord's passion, and of baptism, and of the entrance to the sacred altar have been run through, the holy prophet David teaches in what manner Christ trains his athlete, whose name is held in the contest of the saints.

For just as without labor of ours, not from works, but from faith through his grace, he has forgiven us our sins, and, most indulgent and kind, has admitted us to the petition for the crown, and has not allowed our former offenses to be an obstacle to us, by which we should be judged unworthy of so great a contest (for even in those who undergo this purifying contest, the discipline of living is also examined); so again, lest, being loosened by so great a forgiveness of sins, we return to our former offenses or to sloth, this psalm warns us that many and heavy contests are set before us; so that no one is crowned except him who has striven lawfully. We must therefore wrestle against the enticements of this flesh, and the heat of the blood: we must wrestle against spiritual wickedness. No adversary is heavier than the one within the household: no enemy is more harmful than that one to whom the power of a heavenly substance lends its support.

When I say "no one," remember the divine saying, by which the Lord said: Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.

For he who was born of the Virgin is above all. And therefore let us fear no one, we who have Christ; since if Christ is for us, who is against us? Let us contend therefore even unto the end; that, with all things done away which used to fight against Jesus and the will of the Lord in our former body, intent upon the exercises of true virtue, we may serve God alone and our Lord. For this is the end, as it is written: Christ the firstfruits [lacuna] then the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father; when he shall have brought to nought all Principality and Power and Virtue [lacuna] that death, the last enemy, shall be destroyed, and we begin to be subject to God, keeping within us the heavenly kingdom, where before there was the filth of sins.

Rightly, therefore, is the psalm entitled: Unto the end, for the sons of Core, understanding; so that in coming to know it, not common hearing, but spiritual understanding may operate. Indeed Aquila placed it as a psalm of discipline. And therefore Scripture says to you: Apply thy heart to discipline; and thy ears prepare for words of understanding. And elsewhere: Love wisdom and discipline. Wisdom is that which springs forth in perception: discipline is a certain habitual form of virtues grown together into the nature, and confirmed by the settled judgment of the mind through the disciplines of knowledge.

Scripture has also taught us to understand obscure speech, and the prudence of sayings, and the enigmas of the Proverbs, by whose authority we gather that these are the principal virtues of prudence

because wisdom, as it were a fruitful mother, always brings forth; discipline, as a stricter mistress, restrains; understanding, as a diligent seeker, finds, and searches out true justice and judgment.

Let us prove these things by the testimonies of sacred reading.

Wisdom says: I, like a stream from paradise, said: I will water my garden [lacuna] and I will yet pour forth doctrine as prophecy. For she pours her offspring into the mind of man, that is, our perceptions, like a devoted mother. Take also the testimonies of discipline: My son, neglect not the discipline of God, neither be thou wearied while thou art corrected by him; for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. Discipline is indeed severe in chastising, but sweet in correcting; lest we drift and wander astray, but be received by Christ. For discipline unexamined wanders, as it is written. But here he set down discipline for its preservation. Nevertheless, just as wisdom, so also discipline, both perfect and imperfect, is called by the same name: but where, without qualification, either discipline or wisdom is named, they receive the definition of perfection. Therefore discipline unexamined wanders, but examined it does not wander.

Concerning understanding also the same Scripture defines, that a good understanding is to all that do it: understanding, moreover, since it has in itself both the grace of wisdom and the order of discipline, we are indeed taught that both wisdom and discipline are good to those who carry out their precepts by their ministrations. We have spoken of the title; let us approach the psalm.

O God, we have heard with our ears; so Symmachus: Theodotion says, in our ears; as also the Seventy men.

What is it that he says, with our ears? For if "we have heard" were not sufficient, certainly if this had pleased: With ears we have heard, it would have been full. When, therefore, "ours" is added, what does this mean, unless that you understand those things to be ours which belong to the mind; and that these are better than those of this body? And therefore, as if speaking of another, this same Prophet says: I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.

And elsewhere: With my voice I cried to the Lord; and with my voice to God, and he gave ear to me.

That is my voice which is heard by Christ, not that which resounds in public. He does not wish that to be his own, therefore, which is corruptible and earthly, he who remembers himself created in the image and likeness of God. Indeed Scripture teaches us that man was first formed in the image of God, afterward made of clay. As the superior, then (for that which is more ancient is superior), and the governor and ruler of this body, the vigor of the soul says: We have heard with our ears. Who is this, unless he to whom it is said He that hath ears to hear, let him hear? For there are some who have ears, and yet cannot hear the mysteries, of whom Jesus says in the revelation of John: Without are dogs, and sorcerers, and the unchaste; whose ear of hearing the desire of crimes and the rust of money stops up.

Let us consider, then, what they say they have heard, or from whom they recall having heard it.

And our fathers, he says, have declared to us.

Who are these fathers of ours? The title indicates that the psalm was written for the sons of Core; so that it might be sung by those who had received the office of psalm-singing, and had been assigned to duty of this kind. But Core, and Dathan, and Abiron, with the others who had risen up against Moses and Aaron with stubborn zeal, were swallowed up and slain by the gaping of the earth in the desert. When these had died, what other fathers could have declared to their sons the wonderful works of the Lord? For into a malevolent soul wisdom entereth not. If, therefore, their own fathers did not declare it to their sons, still less did strangers, who turned away from the offspring of the faithless. Who, then, are these fathers? See whether they are not those of whom it was said: Ask thy father, and he will tell thee.

Ask when you read Paul: or if you do not read him, and something moves you, seek it in him.

For he is a good father, who can teach and form the Lord Jesus in us; as he himself testified, saying: My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you. The Evangelist John shows you these fathers, saying: I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him who is from the beginning. These are the fathers, whose old age is a spotless life. Therefore in the assembly of elders lay your finger on your mouth; that you may hear what may profit you, and know the mysteries of eternal life: lest you clamor insolently as a raw recruit against teachers; and, when you ought still to be learning, presume to speak. Let us hear, then, what these fathers declared to the sons of Core.

The work, he says, that thou hast wrought in the days of old.

Let us inquire what these days are in which God has wrought great and wonderful things. And Scripture teaches us that there are certain illustrious days in which divine deeds have shone forth; since it is read, that the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and illustrious day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. For on that very day Christ rose again for men, and therefore it is said specially of it: This is the day which the Lord hath made: let us be glad and rejoice therein. Although, therefore, God made all days, yet to this day, above the rest, the prerogative of the divine work was granted, on which all sin was taken away. But other days belong to sinners. This, then, is the day which that sun of justice has illuminated.

For it too is accustomed to have its risings and its settings. Whence it is also written: In his days shall justice arise.

Ps.:). There are, then, the days of Christ in which justice arose: there are the days of Christ in which the abundance of peace arose: there are the days of Christ in which wisdom arose. Hear how wisdom arises: If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. And therefore Wisdom, who chose the foolish things of this world, says: The Lord created me the beginning of his ways for his works. For just as in the days of Ozias the king, and in the days of Nabuchodonosor, perfidy arose, and captivity held sway; so in the days of the Lord Jesus faith arose, which pours forth the splendor of its brightness and light over the whole world. For what days are better than those in which the vision of God shone forth upon us; as Jacob said? For thus it is written: I have seen God face to face; and my soul has been saved. And immediately the sun rose for him.

What is this sun, but he who caused the days of justice to shine, in which Christ was born on earth of a Virgin?

In a figure Jacob saw, and said that he had seen God: in truth the Jews saw, and did not believe. Therefore for them the days were shortened, for us they were made bright; since for them the day was failing, for us it was drawing near. Whence holy David, fleeing Jewish blindness, says: Bring me not down in the midst of my days. For thus the day of the Lord is great and illustrious, not indeed by length of time, but by the brightness of justice or grace. Therefore there are half-days, in which the days of impiety are shortened by darkness, and by the squalor of faithlessness, in which the sun sets upon the prophets, as it is written. For as the sun of justice rises for the just, so it sets for the unfaithful.

But there occurs that saying of the Lord: For the sake of the elect, the days shall be shortened.

And it seems contrary, unless you attend carefully, and go back to what precedes; for the Lord says: Then if any man shall say to you, Behold here is Christ, or there, believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch as to deceive (if possible) even the elect. And therefore, lest the elect be deceived, the Lord warns what is to be followed; that we may not be taken in by the speech of false prophets, nor let any of their prodigious deeds deceive us: but let us then believe that Christ is to come, when the full days of justice begin to shine forth.

For Christ shall be revealed in the full light of his majesty; and as lightning goeth out from the east, and spreads its light over the whole world even unto the west: so also shall the Son of man, coming with his angels, illuminate this world; that every man may believe, and all flesh be saved. Let us not, therefore, believe in Antichrist, of whom the false prophets shall say: This is Christ; for the days of perfidy shall be the days of Antichrist. Let us not believe those who shall say: Christ is in the desert, Christ is in the inner chambers; for already all things are full of Christ, when Christ has begun to draw near. But when we shall have seen the deeds which Christ foretold beforehand in his Gospel, then let us believe in his coming; lest, while seeking the true light, we fall into the darkness of unbelief.

Therefore the signs of perfidy must be guarded against, by which the days are shortened and diminished. For the sun will be darkened, the stars will fall, that is, the just of God; for there are those who shine like stars in heaven. When you see these things, believe that Christ still delays; for where Christ is, there faith is clearer; where Antichrist is, there are the half-days: concerning which David the prophet would surely not have complained, if it were to be understood as referring to the brevity of time; since he himself elsewhere said: Woe is me, for my sojourning is prolonged! For how could he grieve either that this heavenly sojourn was delayed, or that this earthly one was prolonged, when he had earlier asked not to be led away in the midst of his days; since the brevity of days would seem to bring an abridgment of hastening this course?

Whence is also gathered that saying: Honor your father and mother, that you may be long-lived upon the earth; how we ought to understand this. For many who honor their parents are often snatched away quickly, so that they die in immature age; many also who show less deference to their parents enjoy the wages of long old age; and unless we take that longevity to mean of eternal life, Scripture is found to be deprived of the support of truth. Whence the Greek expressed it more clearly: “that you may be of many days”; that is, πολυήμερος. For whoever diligently keeps pious observances with faithful duty, being alien from the darkness of night, dwells in the light of days. And so he who reads Deuteronomy: “He shall read it,” it says, “all the days of his life”; not indeed by nights, but by days; because day shines for the one reading the mysteries of truth, and the oracles of divine piety.

Let us consider what follows.

Your hand has destroyed the nations, and you have planted them; you have afflicted the peoples, and driven them out.

We know indeed that the Lord uprooted and overthrew many nations, so that the people of the Jews might find for themselves a possession, whose lands the Lord declared he would give to the seed of Abraham: but since this psalm announces the Gospel of the Lord, and the times of his coming, it does not seem to me that it recounts what was done above by the Jews, but signifies what is to come: namely how the people of the nations were to believe. He therefore confirms the faith of the Church before announcing it, and enumerates the victories of his piety: which expelled fierce nations not by arm nor by his sword, and did not by warlike combat put hostile troops to flight; but by gentleness and faith possessed the lands of the enemies without any bloodshed; for faith alone fought.

And therefore it earned triumphs, which perfidy would not recall, but increase; because the Church of the Lord is not conquered by its persecutions, but proved. Let us know, then, what these nations are which the Church conquered. I speak of old names, but new mysteries. They are the Chananites, the Hittites, and the Amorrhites, the Pherezites, or Cerethites, whose names we shall set forth below. These are indeed the names of peoples; but they are also the weaknesses of passions, and the incitements and reproaches of human sins. What comes first, then, is that man in Christ tamed himself, and conquered himself; that he might live for himself. For he lives for himself who lives for God; that he may live the eternal life of Christ. Not, then, did the people of the Church fight with military arms and iron weapons, as the people of the Jews fought.

That people fought in figure, we fight in spirit: that people fought against foreigners, we ourselves have war within us; and therefore we must first conquer the passions of our own body.

Hear the apostle Paul fighting against the nation of the Chananites: I see, he says, the law of my flesh warring against the law of my mind, and taking me captive in the law of sin. Now our flesh raises itself, now it casts itself down. It raises itself for the mind, it casts itself down for power: and when it sees itself pressed, it deserts constancy, and, ready for subjection, is led into the law of sin; so that it deserts faith, succumbs to perfidy; and, the truth of the Hittite weakness having been abandoned, yields to falsehood, serves crime, acquiesces in error; and speaks, as it were an Amorrhite, bitter things for sweet. For faith is sweet, perfidy is bitter. Whence Peter splendidly expressed what faith is, saying: Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we believe; how then do you bid us depart from you? For, captivated by the sweetness of heavenly words, he was unwilling to depart from Christ.

But whoever denies Christ separates himself, or is separated, from Christ.

But neither the crafty disputation of the Amorrhites, which through philosophy leads some away from the truth; nor the base abjection of the Jebusites, which subjects and prostrates itself to the worldly course of those running, which cannot be perpetual; but fails at the gates of death, from which David the prophet rejoices that he was lifted up: nor the Kenite, who is possessed by his own money, like the greedy man with insatiable desire: nor the Kenizzite, who thinks that possession in riches is perpetual, and sets a vain hope in perishable things, and boasts himself in empty opinion: nor the Rephaim, who professes to bring healing to others while he cannot heal his own wounds; and therefore if anyone flees to such a physician, he must first consume all his patrimony before receiving the benefit of health; as that woman in the Gospel who for twelve years could not stanch the flowing blood of bodily pleasures, until after she fled to Christ.

For she understood that no one is a perfect physician unless he had come down from heaven, of whom she had known it said: He sent his word, and healed them; and she perceived that it was said of him: Behold, I have put my words in your mouth, and set you this day over nations and kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to build, and to plant. For although God has often spoken through the prophets, in whom nevertheless has he spoken more clearly than in his own Son, who, expressing the full power of the Father, says: My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me? Not Jeremiah, then, who at the time of the captivity took up exile; but the Lord Jesus by his own words uprooted from the inmost breasts the vices of the nations, the perfidy of the peoples, and destroyed the wicked contrivances of crafty thoughts, and abolished all traces of iniquity.

Then afterward he poured in faith, and the discipline of continence; lest, as in a corrupted vessel, the sacraments of virtues should sour amid the confusion of vices.

Whence the Apostle beautifully says to you: But death reigned from Adam even unto Moses.

What is Moses, but the Law; since he himself is the interpreter of the Law: and the end of the Law is Christ Jesus? Sin therefore reigned in this world, and in sin, savage death, and a certain intolerable penalty of sin. Moses indeed taught us to lift up hands to the Lord, instituting the discipline of pious worship. He taught how the crafty-speaking Amalek might be overcome; so that, by lifting our conduct and works to Christ, perfidy could thus be destroyed; but if instead we cast down the soul, bent our affection, and turned our mind away from the pursuit of continence, so that vain persuasion overcame us, there would be no remedy, unless Jesus should raise up the now lowered arms of Moses, as it were the weakness of the Law, and sustain them by his own mercy.

But the help of the Law would still have been weak, unless Jesus himself had come into the earth, who took upon himself our weaknesses, whom alone our sins could not burden, nor bend down his hands: who bent himself down even unto death, even the death of the cross, in which, spreading out his hands, he raised up the whole world that was about to perish; he lifted up those lying down, and drew the faith of all nations to himself, saying to the man: Today you shall be with me in paradise. This, then, is to destroy and to plant; that vicious things be uprooted, and better things be planted in the hearts of each.

Of which Moses splendidly says in the canticle of Exodus: Bringing them in, you planted them on the mountain of your inheritance, in the dwelling place prepared by you; asking that the Lord bring in his people into those plantations of exalted virtue and wisdom, and there be planted in his works, and be instructed in the disciplines of heavenly precepts, and in it prepare for himself a dwelling of his sanctification: which surely is bestowed not by hereditary right, nor in consideration of our merits, but which the Lord deigns to confer of his own grace. For how could we, where we were not able to remain, return there, unless supported by the privilege of eternal redemption?

therefore the Prophet beautifully said: For not by their own sword did they possess the land, and their own arm did not save them; but your right hand, and your arm, and the light of your countenance; because you were well pleased in them.

What land, then, is this, which is not seized by arm, is not possessed by sword; but the land of promise, of which the Prophet himself here said: I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living? Not undeservedly, then, is its possession so glorious, in which not the adversities of the world rule, but the eternal goods of the Lord bear fruit. And so it is not acquired by sword, but possessed by gentleness, as the Lord Jesus testified, saying: Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land. Let no one, then, be unpeaceable, no one arrogant or proud; but meek and humble of heart: let him claim nothing for himself, but refer everything to grace: let him not glory in his own strength, but believe himself protected by the right hand of God, saying: The right hand of the Lord has wrought strength, the right hand of the Lord has exalted me.

Let him remember too that he was saved by the sword of God, and illumined by the countenance of Almighty God, in all of which Christ is protector, right hand, defender, and sword. Whence also Simeon said to Mary: And a sword shall pierce through your own soul also. For the sword is the word of God, which is sharper than any sword, piercing even to the division of soul and thoughts; so that nothing hidden may escape its knowledge. The countenance also of the Father is the splendor that is Christ; and therefore he says: He who sees me, sees the Father also; as the splendor of his glory, and the image of his substance. To him, then, all things are rightly to be referred. To him Moses, to him Aaron, to him also the Fathers consecrated all that they had done; that they might triumph over their enemies.

For it was not in his own confidence that Jesus, son of Nun, said: Let the sun stand still against Gabaon; but because he presumed upon Christ, whom he recognized as leader of the heavenly host, and humbly adored: and therefore he deserved to uproot the fierce nations, and to lead the people of the Fathers into the land of promise; because he attributed nothing to his own works, believing the works of men unworthy of so great a reward of heavenly glory; which the Lord established, out of his own mercy rather than in consideration of our deeds, to be conferred upon those who believe in him. Whence also Abraham unhesitatingly believed God; that he might find with him the grace of justification, which he might set as the reward of his own work; for the gifts of the one who bestows are richer than the wages of the one who works. Wherefore also to him who had envied the equality of the reward, the Lord replied: If I am good, why is your eye evil?

Our fathers, therefore, as being the neighbors and heirs of the patriarchs, planted in the land of promise, did not claim this by their own merits.

Therefore Moses did not lead them in, lest this should be thought to be of the Law, but of grace; for the Law examines merits, grace looks to faith. Whence the Apostle, following the faith of the fathers, says splendidly: But neither is he who plants anything, nor he who waters; but God who gives the increase. For it is not Jesus son of Nun who led them in, nor he who planted them; but God who gave the increase to the people, who holds the primacy of glory.

Nor let it disturb you that above he said: Thy hand hath destroyed the nations, and thou hast planted them.

For from this you gather that not everyone who plants, or who waters, gives the increase; but he who can give the increase can himself plant, just as the Lord is said to have planted the nations. For he himself planted who granted the effect to the planting; yet in those who through faith in Christ have deserved to please the Lord, to whom alone it is said by the Father, God: Thou art my Son: in thee I am well pleased. Those, then, who are partakers of Christ obtain from him the grace of pleasing. And beautifully he says: He was well pleased in thee in them; that a distinction might seem rightly preserved. For rightly God is well pleased in the Son, because he is equal to the Father, and is found deficient in nothing, because he is pleasing by right of the divine nature and unity of substance.

And rightly the Father is well pleased in the Son, because the Father is honored in the Son, as the Son in the Father.

But in us God was well pleased, because he himself granted to us that we might be able to please him. Scripture has taught us that this too was piously and specially given to man, not arrogantly usurped. For it is fitting that God should be pleased in those whom he made in his own likeness, and whom through his own image he willed to have the prerogative of heavenly grace. In his own image, then, God is pleased; but in those who are according to his image, he is pleased with God. In these, however, is his own gift and his own bestowal, which will then be revealed when that perfect state shall come; because when it shall appear what we shall be, we shall be like him, as it is written.

Therefore he who does not presume in his own arm, that is, in his own working, but in the grace of God; believing that not one's own deeds justify a man, but ready faith, says to the Lord: Thou art my King and my God, who commandest the salvations of Jacob. It is not a perfunctory saying that you say: Thou art my King. Not just anyone says this, but he in whom is the kingdom of God: and in whom God reigns, in him surely sins do not reign; for God's kingdom has nothing in common with crime. But who calls him his God, except one who shows him a full affection of reverence and piety? For to the just it is said: I am thy God. Finally, Thomas too, when he touched with his own hand the side of Christ, and found evident proofs of the undoubted resurrection, answered: My Lord, and my God. Lord, because he redeemed his little servants; God, because not only did he rise, but he also raised himself.

He commanded the salvations of Jacob; because in each oracle there is salvation: in each dwelling place too there is salvation: salvation in the ministries of angels, who are appointed for the protection of men. From the command of God, then, salvation is conferred on man, not from his own work. For God preferred that man's salvation should be sought by faith rather than by works; lest anyone should glory in his own deeds, and incur sin. But he who glories in the Lord acquires the fruit of piety, and escapes the crime of boasting.

This, then, is he who can say: In thee we will winnow our enemies with the horn. What is it to winnow with the horn? The Lord gave horns to many creatures, that they might be able to defend themselves against the assault of wild beasts. And thus the ox often resists the lion, tramples the bear; the stag also, although timid, nonetheless defends itself with its horns: the ram too butts the wolf.

Therefore those animals which have horns are said to winnow. But man has no horns. How then does he winnow? Whence? See what Scripture says: In thee, it says, we will winnow our enemies with the horn. Our horn is thou, Lord Jesus; and therefore, just as we do not presume in our own arm, so neither do we have the defense of winnowing in our own horns, but in Christ. For faith has its own horns, which it borrows from Christ. Since indeed not idly do we read in the blessings of Moses: He who was seen in the bush, let him come upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of his head, glorified among his brethren, the firstborn; the beauty of a bull is his likeness, his horns are the horns of a unicorn: with them he shall winnow the nations together even to the end of the earth. These are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and these the thousands of Manasseh.

Who was seen by Moses in the bush, but the firstborn Son of God, who says: I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob?

Therefore he showed himself to human sight; because he was to come that he might be seen by all. Therefore the bush was burning, and was not consumed; because this earth which brought forth for us thorns and briers, he was arranging to burn through the discipline of continence, rather than to consume through the affliction of death. Whence the Prophet says: Burn my reins and my heart. He revealed, then, a certain future indication of bodily splendor, by which through the resurrection this flesh should shine. For what did the harmless fire signify, but the lights of those rising again? Whence the Apostle presumed to say that as star differs from star in glory, so also is the resurrection of the dead.

This one, then, it says, let him come upon the head of Joseph; that he may exalt the head of his people: let him come also upon the crown of the head; that he may walk over the crown of the hair, about to cut away the superfluities of sins, about to sanctify the ornaments of virtues.

This is he glorified among his brethren; as he himself says: I will declare thy name to my brethren. What greater glory is there than to pour into the breasts of the nations the knowledge of divinity? He whom Joseph saw in a vision, that his sheaf was adored by the sheaves of his brethren, that the sun and moon with the stars adored him. That sheaf is taken as a figure of the flesh; for all flesh is hay. This our hay he took up, that his own wheat might germinate, and bring forth the fruit of resurrection. Do you seek testimony? Hear him speaking of himself: Unless a grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it remains alone: but if it shall have died, it brings forth much fruit. Finally, that you may know that Moses speaks of the Son of God, he says: Glorified among his brethren, the firstborn. Now surely Joseph was not the firstborn among the sons of Jacob, but Reuben; for Joseph came after very many.

But he is called firstborn who was to come, that he might gather together the peoples of the nations.

Whence Scripture beautifully says: The beauty of a bull is his.

For as a bull leads the herd, so Christ led the people of the nations to the Church, brought them in to pasture; that he might say: In a place of pasture there he has set me: he has established me by the water of refreshment. The herds followed the beauty of this bull, according to the capacity of our frailty, following him who went before; that they might obtain eternal life. This bull bellowed, and death fled. A lion roars, and who does not fear? Truly the bull is the greatest victim; that we may take testimonies even from adversaries (Virg. Lib. II Georg. For what greater victim is there than the one who cleansed the sin of the whole world with his blood? Hear that the holy prophet Jacob too calls him a bull; when he revealed the Lord's passion, whom the Jews afterward persecuted. In their fury, he says, they hamstrung the bull.

And to make clear that he was speaking of the Jews, he added: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.

This is the man who wrestled with Jacob, and touched his thigh, by which touch the Patriarch's sinew became numb: signifying that from his succession according to the flesh he was to come who would be hamstrung by the Jewish people in the passion of his body. Not understanding this mystery, the sons of Israel decreed that they would not eat the sinew. And so they defrauded themselves of the redemption of the sacred blood, and disowned themselves from the benefits of the saving passion, that they might not merit eternal life; because it is written: Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you will not have life in yourselves. But he who eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, will have eternal life. Take another meaning. What is a sinew, but that by which the whole body is bound together?

The body of Christ is the Church, which is bound by the bond of charity.

What else did the Jews do in regard to Christ, but loose entirely the bond of charity? Rightly Peter is chosen as priest; who bound himself threefold by the spirit of divine charity.

Take further that Moses signified this same one.

He added: Horns of a unicorn are his horns: with them he shall winnow the nations. But do not fear because he winnows; for he said: I will strike and I will heal. Good horns, with which he enclosed the circle of the earth: good horns, with which he winnowed that lion, our adversary: good horns, by which he made it so that we need not fear the horns of the adversary; for Satan too has his horns, as Daniel testified, saying: I beheld, and that horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of days came. This is the Ancient of days. But who is the unicorn, except the only-begotten Son of God, and the sole Word of God, which was in the beginning with the Father?

This Word with its horns put to death the peoples of the nations, and gave life; that they might become in ten thousands of Ephraim even to the ends of the earth, and even in thousands of Manasseh: because the people of the nations, who would fill the whole earth, was to believe in him, and afterward also the people of the Jews was to believe, being converted from forgetfulness to grace. For he has forgotten his own salvation, who should be converted to Christ so late. Therefore Saul is reckoned in thousands, David in ten thousands; because he is harsh among the few, gentle among the many.

Nor do I refuse, however, if anyone thinks it said as it were of Joseph: The firstborn, the beauty of a bull is his; and thinks it should be distinguished thus

because he gave horns also to his saints: For he has exalted the horn of his people. And Anna, mother of the prophet Samuel, says: My heart has rejoiced in the Lord, and my horn is exalted in my God. Joseph too indeed had spiritual horns in the Lord. Let it be taken, then, of Joseph, provided that in him is a figure of Christ, to whom it is said: Joseph my son enlarged, my younger son, return to me. For Joseph does not return to Jacob; but Christ, raised from the dead, returns to God the Father; as it is written: His going forth is from the height of heaven, and his return unto the height thereof. Yet let it be, that "return to me" is taken of Joseph; because the people returns into the land of the Chananites, in which the patriarchs had formerly dwelt.

Whence Isaac says to Jacob: Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of the Chananites; and sends him into Mesopotamia, that he might find a wife for himself there. Did the lords of the arrows lie in wait for him? Was he himself blessed in the whole world on account of the blessing of the maternal womb, and not the Lord Jesus, whom the Virgin bore? And therefore not only above men, but even above angels and archangels, and above every height of heavenly powers he is blessed; as Scripture testifies, saying: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord: the Lord is God, and he has shone upon us: for the Lord God himself is King of kings, and Lord of lords over those things which are held in the heavens.

On account of these horns of the Lord Jesus, David too, singing with the sound of a horn-trumpet, is heard by Christ; and Moses taught that the rites of sacrifices are to be celebrated with the sound of the trumpet; as it is also written: Blow the trumpet at the beginning of the month. To whom is this written, if not to us? For the ancients used to observe the months from the beginning of the moon. But the moon is the Church, which is exalted by spiritual and evangelical preachings in abundance of peace, as the Prophet said. In Christ, then, we shall winnow our enemies with the horn.

And in his name we shall spurn those who rise up against us.

What is a name, except that by which each one is properly signified, which he does not have in common with others? For "man" is a common term; unless you add who is called by it, it cannot be made clear. A name, then, is the property of each one, by which he can be understood. Whence I think that Moses too, wishing to know something proper and special about God, which would not be common with the heavenly powers, asked: What is thy name? Then God, knowing his mind, did not answer with a name, but expressed the matter itself, not an appellation, saying: I am who am; because nothing is so proper to God as always to be. Since therefore they deny that Christ is co-eternal with the Father, let them see that they deny God, whose property it is always to be, and never at any time not to have been.

By this knowledge, then, of the divine property, Moses wished to spurn those rising up against him: or, as Aquila and Symmachus said, to trample underfoot those resisting him as though serpents and scorpions: which the Lord also says in the Gospel must be crushed by spiritual footsteps; that they may not be able to hinder our way, which leads to the secret places of paradise. We have, then, in ourselves the pursuit of divine knowledge: we have the Word of God, which is the name of the Father. This is truly the property of God, because he is the Father of Christ: and therefore he who came, came in the name of the Father, that he might do the Father's will. And therefore he says: I have come in the name of the Father, and ye received me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive; signifying that the Jews would believe in Antichrist, who refused to believe in Christ.

Therefore he who believes in Christ hopes neither in his bow nor in his sword; but places his hope of victory in his name.

therefore he says: For I will not hope in my bow: and my sword shall not save me. But if hope is to be placed in a bow, certainly hope is to be placed in God's bow, which he set in the cloud; that mankind might cease to fear from the flood. With this bow he protects us, with this bow he also shoots arrows, by which he strikes our enemies and adversaries.

Whence he also says: For thou hast delivered us from them that afflict us: and them that hate us thou hast put to shame.

In God we shall be praised all the day: and in thy name we will confess forever.

Hear how he delivers us; for by the arrows which he shoots from heaven, the interior parts of our earth are pierced; that all earthly motion may perish and be still, as he says further on: From heaven thou didst hurl judgment: the earth trembled and was still.

Thus, then, we are delivered, while hostile and adverse powers are confounded; or the wisdom of this flesh, blunted by heavenly commands, blushes at its own crimes, and is confounded with shame at its own disgraces: the adulterer in the flames of his lust, and in the fire of mad love: the covetous man in the burning of immoderate greed, who by seizing others' goods, the more he has invaded, the more he desires: the drunkard in his intoxication, the criminal in his crime, who are also here most gravely confounded: but they shall be confounded far more when they see the saints of the Lord rising again, and that saying of the Gospel fulfilled, which the Lord says: Many of those sleeping in the earth shall rise from their tombs: these into eternal life, and those into reproach and everlasting confusion.

When, then, those shall begin to be raised again unto everlasting confusion, the saint of the Lord says: In God we shall be praised all the day: and in thy name we will confess forever. The wealthy man is praised for his riches, the luxurious for his banquets, the fornicator for his night, the powerful man in this life which has its nights: but the saint shall be praised not in this life, but in God; he who has striven to please the Lord in all things, who can say: The Lord is my strength and my praise. He shall be praised all the day; because he acted honestly, and did not hide his works and his sins, but laid them open to the eternal king, walking in the day, not in darkness and in secret.

Whence also the Apostle says: Let us walk honestly, as in the day

that is, not in taverns and dens, not in beds and shameful acts, in which the wicked man thinks himself hidden by walls, that he may escape the knowledge of God; whereas before God all the disgraces of all are unveiled, and the sins of men cannot be hidden from divine knowledge. The saint, therefore, shall be praised in the future; because he sought not the praise of the present, but the grace of things to come.

Yet observe the difference.

Here, while he exists, he glories in the Lord: there he shall be praised in the Lord, and for a brief time he shall receive the reward of eternity. Aquila, however, has put it: In the Lord we shall glory all the day. Symmachus says: We will sing a hymn to God through every day. The sense of all agrees, that we should not cease from the praises of God, whether by singing a hymn, or by celebrating the divine glory at every moment.

For he who sings a hymn, sings with a pure heart and spiritually, and excludes every kind of human passion; so that his duty may be hindered by no grief, his affection embittered by no bitterness of sorrow: but singing a hymn to God, he perseveres unmoved and unshaken; as David himself, who says: I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall always be in my mouth; as Job, who, having lost his sons, all his own having been slain, his goods plundered, said: The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away [lacuna] blessed be the name of the Lord.

But now thou hast cast us off and put us to shame.

And thou, God, wilt not go forth with our armies. Since David himself, the saint, said elsewhere: For the Lord will not cast off his people; how does he say here: Thou hast cast us off; especially since he says this of the people, for whom he enumerates no small marks of their own virtue?

For it is no small thing to say that tempests and various temptations came upon them, and they did not forget the Lord their God, and did not act unjustly against his Testament (below, vers. 19), and the rest that follows. Whence also the holy Apostle interprets this, and says that the Lord did not cast off his people so far, that he set him saying: All day long I have stretched forth my hands to a people unbelieving and contradicting. Relying on the authority of which saying, he says: I say then: Hath God cast away his inheritance? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not cast off his people, whom he foreknew. But it can be said in this place that he did not cast off the people, because a remnant according to the election of grace has been saved.

And it seems that in a few he did not indeed cast off the people; although not the whole people, but he cast off very many of them. Whence he added, setting forth God's response, that not only in a few did he preserve the people, but also that he reserved for himself seven thousand men, who did not bow the knee before Baal. It may be true that this was said by the Apostle according to the Gospel; since the Lord had passed over to the Gentiles: but the time of the divine response may be referred to the zeal of faith still fervent; when the grace of the prophets still abounded to the people of the Jews. Whence if in Elijah's time the Lord denied that his people had been cast off; much more in David's time, or that of the sons of Core, when the faith of the elect people was still shining forth.

Yet let us also ask holy David himself, that we may gather how the Lord did not cast off his people.

For since God draws near, and does not draw far off, as the Scripture of the old Testament has it; surely he who draws near does not cast off. For it belongs to the divine mercy that he be the cause of death to no one, and that he consider all to be redeemable. But see that he is cast off who distances himself from the Lord, as David says: For behold, they who remove themselves far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that go a whoring from thee. What is meant, that they go a whoring from thee? That in the mockeries of their own baseness they leave thee, and depart from thee, and go astray from thy commandments. Then elsewhere you find it written: But adulterers God judges, destroying them from himself. Thou hast cast off, then, means: by alienating them from thyself thou hast destroyed them.

Therefore he who separates himself from the Lord, is himself separated from the Lord: and he who does not know the Lord, is not known by the Lord: and he who is ignorant, is ignored; as the Lord himself said: Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity, I know you not. For he does not deign to know the ministers of injustice and the authors of iniquity. The sinner, then, is not cast off; because he casts himself off. In this manner, therefore, he says: But now thou hast cast us off and put us to shame.

Yet the

that follows explains how God casts off.

For thou, God, he says, wilt not go forth with our armies. When God does not help, he seems to cast off. For each one who does not feel the aids of divinity conferred upon him by help, thinks himself cast off and abandoned. But what does it mean that he says: Thou, God, wilt not go forth? And what does it mean that God is sometimes said to go forth, or to come out, or to rise up, or to come down? For God is not moved bodily, nor does he go out from some place, or pass over to another, he who is above all things: nor does he truly rise up, as though lying on some couch, or bodily seated on some seat; but these things are said, that you may understand when and to whom he is said to go forth, and to whom to rise up. For we read in this very psalm: Rise up, why sleepest thou, O Lord (below, vers. 25)?

And we must consider whether by our reprehensible acts he may seem to sleep; as we read in the Gospel, when the apostles were still imperfect, that Jesus Christ slept among them. But when they were struck with fear and terror of shipwreck, they woke Christ sleeping. To the unfaithful, then, the Lord Jesus sleeps; to the faithful he is awake.

Then also he who is faithful enters unto God: and from the negligent God seems to go out, and to depart.

Certainly the Lord draws the imperfect and still weak to himself; as you have read the young maidens saying: Draw us, we will run after the odor of thy ointments. But Moses, who was already stronger, and chosen by the Lord, is read both to ascend and to enter unto the Lord his God, as it is written: For Moses ascended into the mountain, and a light surrounded the mountain, and the majesty of the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, and a cloud covered it six days: and the Lord called Moses on the seventh day, out of the midst of the cloud. And the appearance of the majesty of the Lord was like a burning fire on the top of the mountain before the children of Israel. And Moses entered into the midst of the cloud.

Just as, then, here Moses was entering into the cloud, when he was first called to the mountain by the Lord; so afterward, more perfected, when he himself would enter into his tabernacle, the pillar of cloud would descend to him, and stand at the door of the tabernacle; and standing, all the people worshiped, each one at the door of his own tabernacle: but the Lord was in the cloud; for he made darkness his hiding place. But that you may know that he speaks of the Lord: And the Lord spoke, it says, to Moses. But that it is recorded that Moses' tabernacle was set outside the camp, that he might meet God, does not seem contrary; for he who seeks God, as it were enters unto God, and with his whole mind enters into the knowledge of him.

The just man, then, enters unto the Lord; as Moses entered into the cloud: and God is in the cloud.

Then: Behold, the Lord comes upon a light cloud. And in the Gospel you have it written: But when thou prayest, enter into thy chamber, and, having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret: and thy Father who sees in secret, will reward thee. Therefore God is within, as it were in your chamber. Hear also elsewhere, that God is within. Behold, he says, the Lord shall go forth out of his place, and he shall come down and go up upon the high places of the earth, and the mountains shall be moved under him, and the valleys shall melt (Micah, 3-4). Scripture says this: and already then it signified that he would desert the people of the Jews, and pass over to the Gentiles. Then in this psalm too we find it expressed, when David says: And he as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber.

He hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way.

By these kinds, then, we find the going-forth of God, or his entering-in; just as the Lord Jesus also says that he comes to the man who fears him. Behold, he says, I stand at the door, and knock: and if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. We have said these things, then, because of what the Prophet says: Thou hast driven us back, and thou wilt not go forth, O God, in our armies.

Let us also take this simply: that God went forth in the armies of the Jews when Joshua the son of Nun worshipped the leader of the heavenly host; and therefore without iron he conquered, and without any siege destroyed the city of Jericho, which had exceedingly strong walls. For when God went forth in the armies of his servants, victory followed. For the angel went forth at Hezekiah's prayers, and laid low the innumerable forces of the Assyrians. But sometimes the Lord even forsakes for a time those whom he wishes to be crowned in the contest, that they may conquer by faith, and that devotion may not slacken in prosperous and favorable circumstances. Finally, we often find that those who fell through a course of prosperity and the enjoyment of favorable things are corrected by adversity. Therefore we often find the Jews, after victory, fallen; after servitude, corrected; because by prayers and lamentations they made God return to them.

Whence also that saying which was spoken according to man, and according to human feeling, does not contradict this view; for the Lord said: God, my God, look upon me; why hast thou forsaken me? Not that the Lord was forsaken, who says elsewhere: For I am not alone, because the Father is with me; but because, according to the flesh of man and its feeling, one who is set in a grievous struggle seems to be forsaken by the Lord. Finally, it is not without purpose that Scripture says, that after the first temptation the devil departed from him until a time, that is, until the contest; for when the great contest of the sacred passion came, the adversary again returned to tempt him: but man, when he is placed as it were in doubt, thinks himself deserted by his God.

But just as we understand this according to the feeling of the flesh—because man seemed to himself forsaken, whose progress Christ wrought in his own body—so also according to his divinity he knew that he was never forsaken by the Father; for he himself said: I am in the Father, and the Father in me, and signified that he was not alone.

He also added this little

Thou hast turned us back before our enemies.

It is not good to be turned backward, for no one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. Finally, the wife of Lot, because she looked back, could not reach the top of the mountain, that is, could not attain to the higher things; but was turned into salt, a substance quickly dissolved, and unable to have lasting use. So are those who follow temporal things and do not follow eternal things: they are made foolish here by their folly, and cannot have the grace of things to come.

Yet there are some who, though placed behind, forget the things that are behind and stretch forward, that they may be able to attain the prize. And to Peter it is said: Get behind me, Satan; that he might be called to something better. And in rank he is first who is after Christ. Therefore it is "before our enemies," because they afflict us, and they pursue us. Thou hast willed us to be turned backward, that we might stretch ourselves toward the higher things, that we might always look ahead of us, pursuing our enemies, and desiring to pass beyond their place.

Finally, Theodotion has it thus, as do the Seventy men

that is, as this

has been rendered.

Aquila has: Thou hast turned us back from the afflicter. Symmachus: Thou hast set us last from every adversary. What are the things contrary to us, but the pleasures of this age, and things full of delights and wantonness, and the incitements of luxury? The wife of Lot was deceived; because she had behind her the luxury of the Sodomites, and the allurements of that region. Whence was she deceived? Because she looked back. Do thou, then, not look upon thy enemies; God has set thee last in the world. Or: he who by humility makes himself last is not turned backward, but always looks ahead. But that you may know who your enemies are, hear him who says: Hear, O Israel [lacuna] What is it that thou art in the land of thine enemies [lacuna], thou art defiled with the dead?

Yet who is so much thy enemy and foe as the prince of this world, and his associates, who persecuted the Lord Jesus even unto the cross, not knowing his power?

For if they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of majesty. Therefore, though thou art last, do not follow thy enemies; but follow the Lord Jesus, and his cross with joy, and press upon his footsteps. For he who follows Christ does not look back; that is, toward the luxuries and allurements of sins; and therefore he can say with the saints: Our heart has not turned back (below, verse 19). Whence it is understood that even he who is before his enemies becomes last and lowest in heart, if he looks toward them, and directs the affection of his mind toward carnal rather than spiritual things. Also, he who is last can be first in heart, if he considers the things that are in heaven, and not the things that are on earth. Hear that one who is last in the world is among the first with Christ.

I think that God showed us apostles as the last, as men appointed to death; that we might be a spectacle to this world, and to angels, and to men. He called himself last, and yet showed that he was the same as the first, when he says: But our citizenship is in heaven.

There follows: And those who hated us plundered for themselves.

Thou hast given us as sheep for meat; and hast scattered us among the nations. You may wonder, perhaps, that whereas in the later

as we said, those who speak have the utmost constancy of faith, here they say that they were plundered by those who hated them: but let not this alarm you.

For many here are plundered; and yet their merits cannot be separated from Christ. The apostles were seized, beaten with rods, thrust into prison, separated from one another, and yet they remained with Christ: indeed, by this very fact, that they were seized by the faithless, their merits grew, and their grace in the heavenly places increased.

For not everyone who is seized by men is thereby also conquered. See the apostle Paul rejoicing in his dangers: see his glory, in that he was let down through a window in a basket. See how holy Jeremiah, holy Ezekiel, holy Daniel, led into captivity and plundered by the Assyrians, nevertheless suffered no captivity of their own faith; nor did they transgress the Testament of the Lord, who kept even in captivity the precepts of the divine law, and thought that, regarding forbidden foods, nothing should be taken contrary to the institution of their ancestors.

Whence Theodotion rightly said: And those who hated us exulted over us; for the insolence of enemies brings no prejudice to good minds, nor does the plundering of enemies. And so the saint says, being certain that plundering cannot harm him: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress? And so on: But in all these things we conquer and more than conquer through him who loved us: knowing that neither death, nor life, nor angel, nor Powers, nor things present, nor things to come [lacuna] can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore he who is of this kind is not separated from Christ. Whence, even if he is bodily plundered, he is nevertheless spiritually free: and not only is he not subject to plundering, but he even seeks for himself a praiseworthy plunder; like those of whom it is written: From the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent bear it away.

He, then, is victor who, though set among earthly things, does not know himself to be a captive of unbelief; nor is that which is glorious taken from him, but rather he himself carries off that which is eternal.

There are also those who become sheep for meat.

Our good Lord Jesus Christ, because he was made a sheep for our feasting. You ask how he was made so? Hear him who says: Christ our Passover is sacrificed. And consider how our forebears, in a figure, ate the lamb they had slain, signifying the passion of the Lord Jesus, of whose sacrament we partake daily. Through that same sheep, then, the flocks were made into food, as Aquila said; or flocks into meats, as Theodotion spoke; or pastures of those who eat, as Symmachus said. But this good feasting is not only not to be feared by the saints, but is even to be desired. For otherwise one cannot arrive at the kingdom of heaven; since the Lord himself said: Unless you eat my flesh, and drink my blood, you will not have eternal life. It is proved, then, that our Lord is the food, the feast, or the nourishment of those who eat; as he himself says: I am the living bread which came down from heaven.

And that you may know that all these things were done for our sake, from the time he descended, from that time the saint says: We are all one bread. Let us not fear, then, that we have been made sheep for meat. For just as the flesh and blood of the Lord himself redeemed us, so also Peter endured much for the Church. Much also did the holy apostle Paul and the other apostles endure; when they were beaten with rods, when they were stoned, when they were thrust into prisons. For by that endurance of injuries, and by the experience of dangers, the people of the Lord was founded, and the Church attained increase; while the rest hastened to martyrdom, seeing through those sufferings that nothing had been lost of the apostles' virtue; but that, because of this brief life, immortality was sought for them.

For as our Lord Jesus Christ fell like a grain into the earth, and died, that he might bring forth much fruit: so also the holy apostles were scattered, that they might bring good seed among the nations; whereby, after their likeness, the fruit of the nations might spring forth. Finally, Scripture says that the Lord said this: For I have sent you for this reason, that you should go, and bring forth very much fruit, and that your fruit should remain. The Lord Jesus Christ was made, then, like a seed, according to what was said to Abraham: And to thy seed; which is Christ. Christ, then, is the seed of all. And therefore he allowed himself to fall and be scattered, that he might transfigure, into conformity with his own body, the body of our lowliness.

This saving seed, then, sprang up for all men, and from it, formed in his image, the holy apostles were sent forth like seeds through diverse regions and scattered, that the nations, gathered into the field of the Church, might shine forth with diverse fruits throughout the whole world. These, then, are called scatterings, just as also in the following

the same David says: The Lord building up Jerusalem, and gathering together the dispersions of Israel.

For they were scattered that they might produce new fruits, and afterward, like new wheat, be brought into the storehouses of the Church.

But this scattering does not occur in the lower regions; that is, not on earth, but in heaven.

Indeed the precepts of the Law confirm this, through which the Lord says: If your dispersion shall be from the highest heaven to the highest of heaven, from there I will gather you, says the Lord. What is this dispersion from the highest heaven to the highest heaven? Who is this one so great, who could be scattered in such a way? If it were a man, he was born on earth: he began from the lowest, not from the highest. If these things move and trouble you, return to the earlier parts of this holy prophet, and hear who that one is, so great, who made such harvests fruitful on earth, that their fruit might reach the heavenly storehouses.

He is the bridegroom who, like a giant, ran this whole course, impassable to others, passable to himself: and from him it began now to be passable for mortals; yet in such a way that they might ascend: he alone, however, first descended, so that afterward his saints might merit to ascend. Hear then how the scattering was from the highest of heaven to the highest of heaven. From the highest heaven, it says, was his going forth, and his course unto the highest thereof. To what man could this be attributed? Moses scarcely ascended to the summit of Mount Sinai, and this because he was called by the Lord, and was encouraged by a heavenly voice. Who could descend from the highest heaven except Christ, who even when he descended to the earth, remained in heaven? For no one has ascended into heaven, except he who descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven. You see then that both when he descended and ascended, he himself was and remained in heaven.

For he himself said: I fill heaven and earth, says the Lord. He is the one who is in heaven. Let this suffice concerning the dispersion.

But as for what he says: You have winnowed us; although it differs in wording, it agrees in sense.

For just as those who were scattered were tested, so too those who were winnowed have merited to arrive at proof. For just as wheat, if it is winnowed and separated from the chaff, is clean, but if it has not been winnowed, it cannot be clean, but stands mixed and blended with chaff: so too a man, unless he has been winnowed by temptations, cannot separate from himself all fragile things, as it were chaff. Whence also it was said to Peter: Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat: but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail. See what he says, and understand. Peter is winnowed, that he might be forced to deny Christ. He fell into temptations, he spoke certain things as if full of chaff: but he spoke in word, that he might be more grounded in feeling.

Then he wept, and washed away his chaff, and by those temptations he merited that Christ should intercede for him.

How much greater is this patronage than the trial of that disturbance? And therefore he gained more than he suffered; for he gained Christ as his patron. But the adversary is compelled to tempt the saints of the Lord to his own harm. For while he tempts, he makes them better; so that he who is tempted may be able also to instruct others, who to himself had seemed weak. Then Peter is set over the Church, after he had been tempted by the devil. And therefore the Lord signifies beforehand what it was, that afterward he chose him as shepherd of the Lord's flock. For to him he said: But you, once converted, confirm your brothers. Therefore the holy apostle Peter was converted to good fruit, and was winnowed like wheat; that he himself, with the saints of the Lord, might be one bread, which might be food for us.

For while we read the deeds of Peter, we come to know the precepts of Peter, and it becomes for us food of eternal life and salvation.

You have sold, he says, your people without price.

Buying and selling seem to be an equal contract: but nevertheless, if you consider the disposition of buyer and seller, each sells to himself what is of less worth, and buys what pleases him. For to speak apart from that class of men who carry on trade selling slaves; hardly anyone sells except one who displeases him, and whom he judges unfit for his use: and again, each one desires to buy him whom he has judged suitable to his use or service. But even those very ones who exercise their expense in selling slaves, and pursue profits; hold those whom they sell so cheap, that they are of less worth to them than money: and often even those whom they have judged more suitable to their trade, they prefer to keep rather than sell.

Thus therefore God also sold the one of lesser worth, and bought the better.

He sold the people of the Jews, not by any harshness of God, but by their own fault; to whom it is rightly said: Behold, you were sold for your sins, and for your iniquities I sent away your mother. By this kind of selling, then, the people of the Jews was sold, the Christian people was bought: the one sold by sin, this one bought by blood. Whence Peter says: You were bought with a price, not with corruptible things, silver or gold, [lacuna] but with precious blood. What is that precious blood, if not that of the immaculate Lamb, that is, of our Lord Jesus Christ? Therefore the people of the Jews is without price, but the Christian people is precious. The former has no price, because it has sin: the latter is of price, whose sin has been forgiven. Whence rightly it is said to the children of the Church: You were bought with a price, do not become slaves of men.

If it is said to you, lest you become a slave of men, and lose your own liberty; how much more is it said to you, lest you become a slave of sin. And again, lest you become a slave of the serpent, the enemy and adversary: but serve only the Lord, who redeemed you by his own charity; for he himself is the redemption of his own servants.

The Lord, then, does not sell except a wicked servant: he certainly does not sell a good one.

For although Joseph was sold, the Prophet did not say: Joseph was sold by the Lord; but: Joseph was sold into servitude, whom his own brothers sold: whom the Lord, however, in a figure of his own passion, redeemed from servitude, and renewed unto grace. His brothers, therefore, sold him, and received money: but the Lord not only restored him to freedom, but also heaped him with dignity. Scripture shows that the figure of the Lord Jesus was in him, saying: My son, sought after with zeal, [lacuna] return to me. And elsewhere: The firstborn of the bull, his glory; because God the Father exalted the horn of his Christ.

He, therefore, who is sold, is cheap and without price; as one who rather is not, than is. Whence also Aquila said: You have delivered your people, so that it might not be. And Symmachus: You have delivered your people without substance. For those who are rejected by Christ are not; but those who are chosen by the Lord are; since the Lord called things which are not, as though they were: and the nations of the Gentiles were chosen; that they might destroy the perfidy of the Jews. That people, then, was delivered into nothingness; because it was sold by its own sin; for fault has no substance.

Whence, I think, it is said: And there was no multitude in their exchanges; that is, freely you scattered them among the nations.

For you receive nothing in exchange, that you might hand over the soul of a man; for nothing is more pleasing to you than the conversion of the soul: but if it refuses to be converted, it hands itself over into nothingness; that it may be enslaved to sin and disgrace. Therefore you sold this degenerate people without price and without exchange. Whence in what follows he says: For there is no exchange for them. Why is there no exchange for them? Because they did not fear, he says, God.

There is a double understanding of why the people of error had no exchange

because a man cannot redeem his own soul with silver, or gold, or possessions. For what exchange will he give for his soul, since those things are temporal or perishable, but the soul endures either to reward or to punishment? Nor was there that exchange even in the impious, which is in the resurrection, of which the Apostle says: We shall all rise, but we shall not all be changed. It can also be understood thus, that even though a few of the redeemed merited to be changed, such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, still that exchange did not extend to all. There is also this, that there be no multitude in the exchanges of grave sins; according to what is written, that the sins of certain men are manifest, going before unto judgment: but some also follow after. Those which are grave and manifest go before, and without any doubt are drowned: but those which are lighter are often relieved by good works.

Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

But where iniquity outweighs, it is not called back by any exchange of good works.

Therefore even if anyone of the people of the Jews was redeemed, he was not redeemed for that reason, because he had great worth of himself, nor because he had a multitude in his exchange: but he was redeemed freely; which the Apostle teaches you, saying: A remnant according to the election of grace has been made safe. But where there is grace, it is certainly not by merit of works, nor by justification of virtues: but by the liberality of the giver, by the election of the redeemer; which Scripture likewise taught you, the apostle Paul saying: But if by grace, then it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. What then, that what Israel sought, this he did not obtain? Recognize why he did not obtain it: because he desired to justify himself, because he sought the boasting of his own works, because he did not offer faith, nor acknowledge grace.

And therefore the election obtained it, which heard him who called, and received him who came.

Rightly, then, in the person of that people it is said: You have made us a reproach to our neighbors: a mockery and derision to those who are round about us.

Who these neighbors are, and how they might be seen to pertain to the vicinity of the Israelite people, is not easy to discern; if a spiritual vicinity is sought, having a certain light of knowledge for investigating the mystery of Christ: especially since in that very book of Solomon which is called Ecclesiastes, we have learned that the more wisdom is sought, the deeper it is judged to be. For thus it is written: I said, I will seek wisdom, and it has become far from me, far more than it was: and in the depth, who shall find its height?

Whence a diffidence arises in me to search out the mysteries of divinely inspired Scripture, and to examine its words: which he could worthily do, who spoke wisdom among the perfect. I see perfect ones, nor would I unjustly call you perfect; since I see you have your senses trained to discern good and evil: but even he himself, who knew how to receive more solid food, sought helps; that in him the word of the Lord might run its course. Nor could even he presume to use this without prayer, that his praise might become pleasing to God; for it is not the assertion of one who presumes, but of one who prays.

Yet, lest we seem to have shrunk back entirely, let us consider who were neighbors to the tribes of the Jews.

For, to review ancient matters, the Philistines were held as neighbors to the tribe of Judah: and on another side the same bordered upon the tribe of Reuben. The Ammonites also were in the desert: and those who were within the borders of Tyre and Sidon were joined to Galilee; that is, to the tribe of Zebulun, and the tribe of Naphtali, which were in Galilee; as Isaiah said: The land of Zebulun, and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan. Whence one may gather what the property of each of the individual tribes was, so that they were joined to certain fixed neighbors; whereby gradually even upon the nations the knowledge of heavenly mysteries might be poured.

This indeed can be understood of that Canaanite woman, who went out from her own borders; that she might meet the Lord Jesus as he passed, and, having set aside her idols, might worship the true author of salvation: to whom our Lord Jesus Christ gave testimony, that her faith was great. Indeed the grace of the Gospel was already shining, and the light of the august presence: but nevertheless because she went out of her own accord, and asked for mercy, and confessed the Lord with a pious voice, and though held in seeming disdain, persevered in the cry of her own petition; this woman received no small privilege, who first went out from among the nations of the Gentiles, and by persevering entreaty merited to carry away so great a testimony from the Lord.

In which passage indeed I have noted that some have seemingly doubted what is meant by his saying: I was not sent but to the sheep that have perished of the house of Israel; as though the Lord seemed to have sought the nobility of the elect race for the saving of souls, he who came that all might be redeemed. But he deigned to show his purpose, that he by no means wished to reject those whom he had first chosen; and often, though they were wandering and erring, he sought to call them back with a certain fatherly affection. But when they themselves abandoned their own author, knowing himself to be the God of the mountains, not of the valleys, and that the kingdom of heaven is taken not by the disdainful but by those who press upon it, he turned by degrees to the nations; so that the devotion of the nations might be the more approved, and their obstinacy condemned by its own desert.

What then does he mean by saying: It is not lawful to take the bread of the children, and cast it to the dogs?

Surely by children he meant the Israelites, that is, the people of the Jews; and by dogs, the people of the nations. What then? Is it for the rich or the more noble to receive the heavenly sacraments, and not for those who with pious fervor of mind strive the more toward knowledge of the heavenly mystery? And if some Israelite should be remiss and negligent, or stubborn, casting behind him the words of God, while the Canaanite woman were eager without sloth to fix her mind upon acquiring the sacraments—should the one who dissembles be preferred to the one who brings zeal? Certainly not.

And therefore it must be carefully noted what he expressed, who, having said: It is not lawful to take the bread of the children, and cast it to the dogs, when the Canaanite woman answered: For even the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the table of their masters, praised her zeal and humility, in that she did not from the first claim for herself the depth of wisdom, although she had already gone forth from the borders of Tyre and Sidon; but believed that she should gather up certain crumbs of the saving word that fell from the table of their masters. For he who diligently and subtly searches the words of Scripture is accustomed to arrive at the height of the mysteries. Whence to her also it is said: Great is thy faith: be it done to thee as thou wilt; that is, that the door of the word be opened to thee, and the saving mystery of eternal life shine forth.

Therefore let him who is a neighbor go forth, and desire to see Christ, and cry out in prayer; just as this Canaanite woman went forth from her borders, and saw Christ, and cried out with unceasing voice, that she might carry back his mercy. So then, while the Canaanites believe, let the Jew be a reproach, because he himself did not believe; and let him grieve that he is mocked, and groan that he is derided by those who are round about him.

And this prophecy seems to be about the nations who were to believe; especially since what follows shows this, for he says: Thou hast made us a byword to the Gentiles, a shaking of the head among the peoples; since by the transgression of the Jews salvation came to the Gentiles: and the things that were done for them in figure have, on the Apostle's authority, profited unto our understanding, as we know. And truly they are made a reproach to the Gentiles, because the Gentiles preferred the reproach of the cross of the Lord above all worldly riches. But he who thought that cross a reproach, and fled it as though it were a reproach, has indeed remained in lasting reproach.

Yet since those are not seen to be Israelites according to the flesh who could say: For we have not dealt unjustly in the covenant of the Lord (below, verse 19); nor has their heart turned back from the Lord: see lest they recall that they were an object of mockery and derision to those placed round about them, of whom the Lord says: Many calves have surrounded me. For persecutors surrounded him, when according to the counsel of his own will he underwent his passion. Whence also elsewhere he says: Surrounding, they surrounded me, and in the name of the Lord I took vengeance upon them. Therefore it is better to hold to the straight way, in which the wicked cannot walk. They fall quickly, because they do not walk in a straight direction. Whence also when they wished to seize the Lord Jesus, when he looked upon them, they fell. Because of these, then, who were accustomed to walk round about, the Lord set an angel, to repel from behind the enemies lying in wait.

The angel of the Lord, therefore, encamps round about them that fear him, and guards and keeps them.

For the wicked walk round about, as it is written. See then the difference. The wicked walk round about: but the angel encamps round about those who do not walk round about; and therefore he encamps, that he may deliver the just from the snares of persecutors. The just, then, seem to be the spiritual Israelites who say these things, in that they were subjected to the temptations of the world, and were a reproach to their neighbors; that is, of those who did not dwell in their homeland Jerusalem. They were also mocked by spiritual wickedness and powers, against which the just are accustomed to wrestle. Finally, let history teach you that the Jews carried away into Babylon, even though they seemed to be subjected on account of their sins, were nevertheless held to be much better than the Gentiles.

For those round about them, who insulted them, were worse, though they themselves were bowed down by the weight of grave sins.

The first understanding, then, is to be applied to the captive fathers, whom the Assyrians insulted, mocking them in Babylon: over whom also that most wicked king Nebuchadnezzar ruled. The second understanding is to be referred to higher things, namely that the most savage king is the devil: he is the Assyrian Nebuchadnezzar, who is accustomed to lie in wait for the good, to draw them into sin through the enticement of the flesh. Note then this king in that place where the Apostle says: I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin; that is, in that law of carnal enticement. The adversary is a lion, who presses upon those subject to him, wearies the just. Whence Aquila well rendered: Thou hast made us a scorn and a spectacle to those round about us.

For thus they were reckoned contemptible, made a theater to this world, and to angels and men; because although they do not sin against the covenant of God, nor are turned aside from the Lord by the enticements of the flesh, yet they seem to be carried about as in a certain procession and to be despised: since sinners are accustomed to insult the humility of the just; that they may reckon as reproach the cross of the Lord the Savior, and the humility of the just. Finally, as though set in a certain procession of the theater, the Apostle says: I am well pleased in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses.

In these he is well pleased, who counts all

that is of the world as loss; that he may gain Christ, seeking only through life and death, to whom to live is Christ, and to die is gain, that he may be found in Christ.

These Israelites add further, saying: Thou hast made us a parable to the Gentiles, a shaking of the head among the peoples.

To what Gentiles hast thou made us so, unless to those who were to believe? For the things that happened to the Jews were made in the likeness of a figure; that there might become for us a type and figure the destruction of the Jews, and from that likeness, by way of parable, we might seek the solution for present things, whereby we might be able to guard against their examples. Then, because all the affairs of the Jews are as it were parables; that is, as figures needing solution.

Finally, the Lord spoke to the Jews in parable, that the unlearned might not understand, but the wise might understand; as the Apostles understood, and, in what moved them, questioned the Lord: but the Jews neither understood, nor again desired to learn what they had not understood.

What a parable is, receive this.

Abraham then had two sons: one by the bondwoman, and one by the free woman. The Jew did not understand this except according to the letter. He did not know which of the two sons should receive the father's inheritance; because he inclined toward carnal things. The parable needed solution. There came the Teacher of the Gentiles, and the faith of the nations, and understood that those two women are two Testaments: one from Mount Sinai, which brought forth the people of the Jews into bondage, which is Agar. And therefore Sinai, which by interpretation signifies its measure: for the measure is of the Law, but the superabundance is of grace. Sinai is also called "reward," and this fits the people of the Jews, who preferred to be justified by the reward of works, rather than by the grace of faith. Therefore the Jerusalem which was under the Law, with her children was in bondage: but the Jerusalem which is above is free.

And therefore Sara, who is called the principal one, has liberty; because he is master of himself who is just and upright. From the two Testaments, then, come two peoples: one of the Jews, the other of the nations, who believed in Christ. That of the Jews, which did not believe, serves; he is the one born according to the flesh, because he interpreted the divine Scripture according to the flesh, and according to the letter, not according to the spirit. But he who is of the free woman is born through promise; that is, he to whom the promise is by faith, he is the son of the Church, holding the freedom of grace, on whose account the Church says: Cast out the bondwoman and her son; for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with my son Isaac. And the Apostle says: So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

This, then, is the solution; because what the Jew was ignorant of, the faith of the Gentiles resolved, poured into the minds of the nations by Paul the teacher. Therefore their deeds are for us in parable.

But the Lord also said: I am become to them a parable: those who sat in the gate exercised themselves against me.

He was made a parable, because, he says, you say: Physician, heal thyself. He was made a parable, because he rebuked those sitting in the gate; for at our going out we ought not to be idle, but exercised. And so it is written: Watch, that your flight be not in winter, or on the sabbath; that is, not in idleness, but in business. Therefore the Jews sat sluggishly; because they could not stand, they who did not know the courts of the true Jerusalem; for if they had known that Jerusalem, they would have sought it. These, then, wearied, sat in the gate. Nor did he say only that they sat; but also that they hated the Lord who rebuked them in the gates. For he was in the gate, who was about to undergo the passion of his body, by which he would depart from the earth, and return to heaven.

He was in the gate when he said: Walk while you have the light. What then is: I am become to them a parable; except that the end of the Law is Christ, and his death unlocks the riddles of the prophets; and those things which before were unknown to the Jews, when they were prophesied, were afterward made manifest by the effect of the Lord's passion? He was made to them a parable; because he offered himself as though vile, thrusting himself upon them, not shunning their seditions, and leading them on to the time of his good pleasure; that he might die for all men, that by his blood the race of men might be cleansed.

Likewise it is written in a parable: Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treads out the corn.

The Apostle resolves this parable, saying: Doth God take care for oxen? Or does he say this altogether for our sakes? For it was written for our sakes. For who is he that plows, but he who plows in hope? That he may reap in the judgment of the Lord? And therefore, as good farmers, where our field has lain unplowed for the sake of hope of bodily continence, let us sow not carnal but spiritual things: since from carnal things corruption is gathered, from spiritual things eternal life is acquired. Let the deeds of our forefathers then be for us type and figure. Let the Law written in our hearts be a type, so that in it there be for us a certain figure of things to come, not the truth. Let the Law, then, be for us as a figure: the Gospel as the light and seal of truth.

In parable, then, the Lord showed himself to the Jews; but they did not understand the parable

because they did not receive the physician, who would heal the souls of those laboring, and free them from every sickness and inequality of infirmity. He was also made a parable, because he took on flesh, which the Jews crucified, not understanding the spiritual parable. For they failed so far to understand that, when they crucified the author of life, and saw the saving flesh of the Lord hanging on the cross, they shook their heads. For if they had understood, they surely would not have mocked, but would have groaned. And yet that very shaking of the head fell to them as a likeness; so that it might signify not what they were feeling, but what the mysteries were declaring. For they, mocking the Lord according to the common custom of the crowd, shook their heads; just as those who wish to insult the just, if perchance they see them wearied in this world, shake their heads.

This shaking of the head has a twofold meaning. For those who shake the head are shown to be reprehensible according to the authority of Scripture; since Matthew says: Those who passed by blasphemed the Lord Jesus, shaking their heads. And Mark: Those who passed by. That those who pass by are to be reckoned reprehensible, this same Prophet teaches, when he says of the vineyard of Sabaoth: And all who pass along the way gather its grapes. Indeed the

that follows signifies this also: The boar out of the wood has laid it waste, and the solitary wild beast has devoured it.

And in a later place he says: And those who passed along the way did not say: The blessing of the Lord be upon you; behold, he who passes by, and does not stand in the courts of the Lord, does not give a blessing. Thus, then, the Jews shook their heads over the Lord Jesus, so as to pass by, since they could not have a firm and solid footing of faith.

But they were shaking their own head, whose head Christ ought to have been, whom the faithlessness of the Jews ought not to have dislodged and disturbed. But

because they did not allow themselves to be members of Christ, therefore their head was not Christ. Nor was the Law their head either, since they were being despoiled even of the Law by the people of the nations. Nor was the Word of God their head; for they had lost the prophets, and did not have the apostles. Let this suffice concerning the reprehensible shaking of the head. Yet there is also a praiseworthy shaking of the head: reprehensible for the Jews, praiseworthy for the people of the nations. For what is the head, but that in which the senses are? For the eyes of the wise man are in his head; and these eyes—that is, the perceptions of your mind—ought to be moved, lest they grow sluggish through some torpor.

Move, then, your prudence, move your wisdom, move your thoughts by the comparing of heavenly discourses and the discussion of prophetic words; so that you may not sin against the Testament of God, but that your faith may be firm. For there are heretics who move their perceptions, yet in such a way as to stir up faithlessness, not faith.

But now we must speak more explicitly of that shaking of the head which is set forth in the likeness of a people.

For who is the head of peoples, if not Christ? For the head of the woman is the man, and the head of the man is Christ. But the Law also is the head of the intelligible woman. Indeed, under the Law, as under a husband, is the people of the Jews; for the Law is called νόμος in Greek; and therefore the Synagogue is joined to the νόμος as to a husband, but to a bodily Law, not a spiritual one; that is, to the Jewish rite of the Law, by whose bonds she is bound, not knowing the sacraments of lawful wedlock. But if the Law should die, that is, the bodily interpretation of the Law, then the people, as though her former husband were dead, will lawfully marry a second husband, who has risen from the dead. This woman's head is also the Gospel.

Whence certain ones, interpreting mystically, wished that, the Jewish rite having been put to death, she should marry, as it were, the Gospel, the brother of the deceased, out of the Law

because the Law had announced the Gospel beforehand. Therefore the earlier Law is the husband, and afterward comes the marriage of a second husband, that is, the sacraments of the Gospel. For as it were two marriages are the two Testaments. One marriage is the Old Testament, which was dissolved by the death of the former husband. And so that woman, to whom the Law is dead, rightly comes into a second marriage, that is, the New Testament. Thus one woman is joined to two brothers, one to whom her former sins die, and afterward better sacraments are renewed.

This the Apostle has clearly explained to us, saying: For the woman who is under a husband is bound by the law while her husband lives; that is, by the law of her husband, so that she owes him chastity: but if her husband should die, she is freed from the law of the husband; that is, so that she may marry whom she wishes, provided that, her husband being dead, she marries; for while her husband lives, he says, she shall be called an adulteress, if she is joined to another man: but if her husband should die, she is freed from the law of her husband, so that she is not an adulteress if she is with another man. That this sacrament pertains also to Christ and the Church, he has shown elsewhere too, because it is a great sacrament. Here also he has not omitted to say: Therefore, my brothers, you also have been put to death to the Law through the body of Christ, that you may belong to another, who has risen from the dead.

How are you put to death to the Law, unless it be that the shadow of the Law dies for you, when you approach the heavenly sacraments? Nor indeed ought you to approach the Gospel otherwise, than freed from the impediments of bodily interpretation. Otherwise it is adultery, to mix false things with true; but it is spiritual chastity, if your soul, stripped of all the impediments of erring knowledge, approaches the Word of God without wrinkle. Therefore, just as the head of the Church is Christ, so also the head of the Synagogue is the Law; that is, for those who are under the Law, on whose account the apostle made himself as one under the Law, though he was not under the law; that he might gain those who were under the Law. And again he became a teacher of the Gentiles, as though he were himself without law, that he might win to Christ those who were without law.

And he says beautifully that he was not without the law of God, but remained in the law of Christ.

But the Law was not from the beginning the head of the Synagogue; for Christ was the head of the ancient Synagogue, which Moses founded and established. For hear him saying that it was founded by the word of the Lord. By faith, he says, Moses, when he had grown great, denied that he was the grandson of Pharaoh the king. For he preferred to have compassion on the afflicted rather than to delight in temporal things; and he reckoned and preferred the reproach of Christ to greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. For he was looking to the reward of the promises of God, which is the grace of the resurrection. But when, on account of the faithlessness of the Jews, the Word of God died for those unbelieving, and fell away from the hearts of the Jews; the spiritual understanding of the law lay dead, and the Synagogue married the bodily rite, and the observance of faithlessness. But that was not the sobriety of a spiritual marriage, but an adultery of chastity.

Therefore the Synagogue could not be free, since she had married badly, and had not believed that the resurrection of Christ would come to pass. Whence the Church married well to him, to whom, according to the sacred dispensation, Christ died according to the flesh; that that Jewish soul which had before been bound by sin, might through the death of Christ be released from the bond of transgressions. A woman therefore does not marry another man, unless her husband has died; that is, unless she has been released from the bond of lawful love. But if her husband has died, she is freed.

Indeed she was bound by the Law, so that she should be joined to the brother of her own husband; if the husband had left her no seed. This bond was fastened more by the interpretation of the letter than by spiritual grace. For the brother of the deceased had it within his will, that if he did not wish it, he need not take his brother's wife to raise up seed for the deceased. Whence he was bidden to loose his shoe, that he might be stripped of the bond of union with her, whom he had shown to be a stranger to his own kindness. For it is written thus, that the man loosed his shoe, and gave it to his neighbor, saying: This shall be a testimony in Israel. And the kinsman said: Take it, and acquire it for yourself. And he loosed his shoe.

Those standing by also said: May the Lord give you a wife who enters your house, like Rachel and like Leah, who both built up the house of Israel, and did valiantly in Ephratah. But this bound the Jew by the letter's interpretation. Otherwise it was a figure, that Christ was to come into the world, who would raise up the seed of the deceased people. Rightly "of the brother": because it is said: I will declare thy name to my brethren; and: Whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ according to the flesh. Or because the Gospel would effect the restoration of the deceased Law in those who came after; so that the seed which the Law had not left, the tenor of the Gospel might raise up.

It is no wonder, then, if they shook their own head by a perverse interpretation; that they might themselves dislodge from themselves wisdom, the author of their own salvation: or at any rate, by shaking their own head, they became the cause of a shaking of the head not for a few, but for peoples. This shaking of the head has come to pass: since indeed their sound has gone out into all the earth; that all the earth might become the Lord's, and the kingdom of the Lord might be among the nations. Whence also in a later place he says: The Lord has reigned, let the peoples be angry: let him who sits upon the Cherubim, let the earth be moved. Which Aquila beautifully interpreted, so as to say ἀλλάγμα; that is, a transmutation, which is from place to place, from Judea to the peoples of the nations.

This can be clearly shown from that reading which is in the Gospel, how the Law is a boundary-marker, as Scripture says: Upon the seat of Moses have sat the scribes and Pharisees. All things therefore that they say to you, observe and do: but do not according to their works; for they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens, and lay them upon men's shoulders: but they themselves will not move them with their finger. But all their works they do, that they may be seen by men.

What is meant by "the scribes sat," unless that the letter is written?

Whence also in Greek scribes are called γραμματεῖς, following the interpretation of the letter, not the understanding of the spirit; but the letter kills. Following, then, the letter that kills, and resounding with that very name, they are scribes: and Pharisees are, that is, those who are divided from the unity of truth; for "phares" is interpreted "division." The Pharisees divide the words of the Law in this manner, so that they resound and are pondered in themselves; but they do not see the spiritual mysteries and sacraments of the Law. For if the Law is spiritual, then certainly the precepts of the Law are spiritual, and its works are spiritual.

Teaching, then, what Moses wrote, they bind heavy burdens with the bodily elements of the Law (for heavy are those things which are contrary to the yoke of Christ), and through their erring teaching they impose heavy burdens on the ears of hearers, which they themselves are unwilling even to move by so much, that they might be moved from the bodily things of the Law to the spiritual words of Scripture. For it is to be understood thus, that they are unwilling to move them with their finger; that is, they do not transfer themselves even by a small point and moment to spiritual understanding. Hence also that which is written: But if I by the finger of God cast out demons. What the finger is, Scripture itself interprets, saying in another book of the Gospel: But if I by the Spirit of God cast out demons. The finger of God, then, is the Spirit of God; for God is Spirit, and has nothing corporeal in his substance, but is wholly Spirit.

In the Spirit of God, then, he casts out the demon, who casts it out by the finger of God.

Whence also holy David says: For I shall see thy heavens, the works of thy fingers; that is, the heavens are the works of thy Spirit, as it is also written: By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their power by the spirit of his mouth.

To conclude this discussion, then, the scribes and Pharisees refer nothing to the inner man, who, since he was made after the image and likeness of God, ought therefore, in what he thinks and what he ponders, to think rather what is spiritual than what is carnal. They strive, then, to refer everything to that outward man, to that superficial, exterior man: and therefore all their works are of such a kind that they may be seen by men; not that they may please the Father, who sees in secret. For they fear to reveal their works.

This, then, is the shaking of the head that has come to pass among peoples; or, as Aquila and Symmachus said, among the nations; for all the nations have shaken their head, so as to interpret the Law spiritually. Let no one think that he is to be saved according to the letter of the Law; for the letter of the Law holds a curse: the spirit brings a blessing. No one can be justified by works of the Law; for all who are under the letter are under the curse. Let all, then, flee the curse of the Law, and take refuge in the grace of blessing; that they may have blessing in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, who died for us, that faith might pass over to the nations: who, although he was formerly the husband of the Synagogue, did not abandon her even so, and redeemed us; for he did not abandon her, that the remnant might be saved; he redeemed us by choosing the peoples of the nations.

This election of the nations, then, is salvation for the Jews; for the remnant were saved not by their own works, but by the election of grace. It is, then, the grace of Christ that both redeemed us, and gave life to the remnant. But the shaking of the head has come to pass among the nations: yet from this shaking the Jews received no small grace of change, whose remnant have been saved.

There follows: All the day my shame is before me: and the confusion of my face hath covered me.

What is the reason that this psalm is spoken now in the person of one, now in the person of many? For from the beginning it began in the plural, as: God, we have heard with our ears, and the things which follow (Above, verse 2 and following). Then it says: Thou art the same King my God. Again: In thee we will push down our enemies.

And afterward: For I will not trust in my bow; and: In God we will be praised all the day: and: All the day my shame is before me. What does this change mean, which is frequently repeated in the psalms; just as also in the hundred and eighth psalm it says: O God, hold not thy peace at my praise; for the mouth of the sinner, and the mouth of the deceitful man is opened against me. Is this said of one, and does what follows apply to many? They have spoken against me with a deceitful tongue [lacuna] and have repaid me hatred for my love. Then of one: Set thou the sinner over him. In the hundred and eighth psalm one part seems to refer to the people of the Jews, another to Judas the traitor. When it is spoken in the plural, it refers to the people; when in the singular, to Judas.

Here too we can say that when it is spoken in the plural, it refers to the saints; when in the singular, to our Lord Jesus Christ; because it may be reckoned that the Prophet spoke both on behalf of many, and on his own behalf. And therefore he said: My shame is before me; which is called ἐντροπή; and ἐντροπή is when one wishes to instill shame in another, so as to bend his purpose, as it is said: Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe him: he trusteth in God, let him deliver him now. But he well says: All the day; because the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ brought light to the world. So it is the day of the Incarnation, of which the Lord himself says: Walk while ye have the light; and: Abraham saw my day. Therefore this shame carries confusion within itself. Whence also Symmachus says: All the day, my confusion is before me.

But what is the confusion of Christ, if not the cross; because he hung naked upon it?

And rightly, all the day; because from the moment he was fixed to the cross, until the ninth hour there was darkness: and after the ninth hour light shone again until evening. This day is the first of three. Yet the chorus of the saints can also speak of itself both in the plural and in the singular; for a chorus has, as it were, a single person, but the number is of many; just as it is said: This people honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

But what is the confusion which covered the Lord Jesus, since sins produce confusion; for it is sins that cover the sinner: but he committed no sin? But just as there is a confusion that brings on sin, so there is a confusion that abolishes sin; such as the confusion of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which sins are cleansed. There is also a confusion which is entirely good, which you may undergo for the name of Christ, and even glorious; if, for example, in a persecution there be a law that a Christian be scourged, that he lose his rank, that he be deprived of privilege, that he be led into chains. This confusion, even though it carries no privilege, has the glory of pious confession. There is also a confusion of Christ, as he himself says: Whoever shall be ashamed of me before men, I also will be ashamed of him before my Father who is in heaven. So this confusion is good.

Yet to many this confusion of Christ is bitter

that is, to those who do not believe: it is pleasant to those who believe.

Whether then you wish to understand the confusion of Christ as referring to his cross, which seemed to the Jews to be confusion, who mocked him; as though Christ should be ashamed of that work, in which he was working the public salvation: or also this confusion, which seemed to be inflicted, from the voice of him that reproacheth and speaketh against him: from the face of the enemy and persecutor. For he was ashamed that his chosen people had so fallen, and he was confounded before the Father on their account, whose end had come; for the Father was present to the Son, from whom the Son can never be separated. And therefore the Father heard him saying to the Jews: Behold, your house shall be left to you desolate.

But there are those who even glory in their confusion; as those of whom the Apostle says

Because their glory is in their shame; to whom the glory of Christ is contrary, who took up the cross, and did not flee from confusion. This confusion we too ought by no means to fear, nor by dread or disdain avoid; lest it bring sin upon us, which could instead bring the grace of life. For there is also a glory of confusion, as if you fall in among many gentiles, or philosophers, and they object to you the cross of Christ, and you cannot reply in words, nor does anyone hear salutary words as you speak, this is confusion; but it comes from the voice of him that reproacheth and speaketh against, from the face of the enemy and persecutor.

And therefore answer not a fool according to his folly: be as a man that is dumb and silent, and as one that does not hear the words of those who insult and speak against; not because you are unable to answer, but because you ought not to answer. For everything has its time: a time to be silent, and a time to speak. One must be silent, when you find no prepared listener: one must speak, when the Lord grants a tongue of learning; so that your speech may work upon the feelings of the hearers. But how should he hear you, who speaks against you precisely because he does not wish to hear your wholesome word? Or how should he yield to you, who is a persecutor, and wishes to avenge himself upon you? Or, as Aquila said, or Symmachus, that he may take revenge and punish in you, because the inheritance of Christ seems to have been transferred to the Gentiles? Far different, then, is this confusion from the confusion and reproach of the sinner.

For the conscience of the former is illuminated, who has not forgotten his God: the latter are confounded, whose minds the remembrance of their crimes darkens and disturbs.

therefore, well conscious of themselves, they say: All these things have come upon us, and we have not forgotten thee, and we have not done wickedly in thy covenant. And our heart hath not turned back: and thou hast turned aside our paths from thy way. This last

seems not to agree with the preceding ones.

For how did they turn aside, who were touched by no forgetfulness of the divinity, nor any consciousness of wrongdoing, nor any idleness? But if you consider that the just man is scarcely saved, you will surely understand that his own footsteps sometimes falter, and that God is seen to be the author of their turning aside; because he himself also allows the just to be often tempted, that they may be more proven, being trained by temptations.

But who is so strong that he is not at all moved in temptation, unless the Lord stand by him as helper?

Indeed, even the prophet David himself was troubled: for he said in his abundance: I shall never be moved. Or who is there whom the place of affliction, and the corruption of the earth, does not move; since the divine sentence excepted no one, who is free from the toil and weariness of this earth, to whom it was said: Cursed is the earth in all thy works [lacuna] it shall bring forth, he says, thorns and thistles. Finally, Paul himself, the Lord's vessel of election, though freed from the curse of the old sentence by the passion of the Lord Jesus, still most vehemently deplored that he was being led captive into the law of sin, and found no one but Christ by whom he could be freed; since the law of his body and the shadow of death pressed upon him.

We have stated the meaning: but it is fitting for us to consider more precisely what the place of affliction is.

Is it this world, which lies in the power of the wicked one: or rather our flesh, in which our soul is humbled, when it descends into fellowship with this flesh: or the adversities by which we are tried, constituted in this body, in which we groan being burdened; wherein we would not be unclothed, but clothed upon? For it is a heavy labor while we wait for this mortal to be swallowed up by life, of which we ought to strip ourselves; for it is a lesser labor to be stripped than to be swallowed up. And see whether this be the difference between stripping oneself, and waiting to be swallowed up by life. Grace strips; repentance swallows up: loftiness of mind strips; diligence swallows up. But how can you doubt that this is a place of affliction, when it is a body of death, in which even the shadow of death covers us?

And therefore we ought always to gaze toward that lamp, which is the word of God; that we may know how to direct the paths of our souls and the inward steps of the mind, so that the light of souls may dissolve the shadows of the body.

But finely also the interpretation of Aquila expressed how we ought to understand the place of affliction, saying: For thou hast humbled us in the place of the sirens? So that neither the flesh should be in the fault, nor nature; but rather those things which made the flesh corruptible. Indeed, the divine Scripture makes mention of sirens a second time and a third time; gentile history has handed down that they were certain maidens, who, by the sweetness of their own voice, by the allurements of singing, and by the eagerness of hearing, enticed sailors, drawing their ships toward the shore; and antiquity has handed down to posterity that these, while following the charm of the voice, were accustomed to suffer shipwreck in a rocky place (Hom. Od. B). Their interpretation is this: the pleasure of the voice, and a certain flattery. So then the pleasure of the age delights us with a certain carnal flattery, so as to deceive.

As then in that case it was not the shore that was at fault, but the tuneful sweetness, which caused the roughness of the shore not to be guarded against: so it is not the flesh that is at fault; but those things by which this flesh is enticed and made to waver. Indeed, the sea, if the storm is absent, is calm: if the tempest rages, it is dangerous.

And the opinion of the Seventy men seems to agree with these, when they say that it is written: For thou hast humbled us.

For the proof of this interpretation we must draw testimonies from the divine Scriptures. For it says in Deuteronomy: If thou go out, it says, to fight against thy enemies, and the Lord thy God shall deliver them into thy hands, and thou shalt take spoils of them, and shalt see among them a comely woman, and shalt live with her. And below: If thou wilt not have her afterward, thou shalt let her go free [lacuna] because thou hast humbled her. You see, then, that she is said to have been humbled not by her own nature, but by him who took from her the integrity of her modesty. Humiliation, therefore, is a matter of the deed, through which this flesh has been made a body of sin, and a place of affliction.

Again elsewhere: If a virgin be betrothed to a husband, and a man finding her in the city lie with her, both shall be brought out to the gate of their city, and shall be stoned: and the young woman shall die, because she cried not out in the city, nor called any man to help her: and the man, it says, because he hath humbled the wife of his neighbor. And here the reasoning of this word is the same, that she is said to have been humbled by the corrupter. You also have a third testimony on this matter, and more, if you seek them. Yet hear from the same book: If a man find a virgin that is not betrothed, and taking her by force lie with her, and be found out, he that lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty pieces of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he hath humbled her: nor may he put her away for all time, because he hath humbled her.

The same word is repeated, that you may understand that it is not the condition of the flesh that seems to humble us, but the fault.

Yet we cannot deny that the flesh is humbled in many ways, by the very place, by its own allurements, and also by the frailty by which it lay open to error. Which, although it was not deceived by a mediocre adversary, the serpent, yet possessed no mean grace of its own, before sin crept in: Adam was in the sight of God, he flourished in paradise, he shone with heavenly grace, he spoke with God. Have you ever read that he was humbled before, except after his own transgression humbled him? The inheritance of this fault he has transmitted down to us; so that, established in this body, we are unwilling to journey away from the body, and to be present with God.

And therefore we humble our soul, which longs to raise itself to God: but this corruptible body weighs down the soul, and earthly dwellings weigh it down beforehand, so that a mind devoted to God is frequently inclined toward the world, and cannot subject itself to God, since it does not know the subjection owed by the wisdom of the flesh, which entangles our affections.

Saying these things about ourselves, what shall we say of the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ?

Who indeed took up the reality of this flesh, and therefore humbled himself even unto death, and that the death of the cross. Attend diligently, and consider each point. See that willingly he took up this form of our body, and the service of your servitude, being made in the likeness of men: not in the likeness of flesh, but in the likeness of sinful men; for every man is under sin. Therefore he was found in appearance as a man; as it is written of him: He is also a man, and who shall know him? A man according to the flesh, but beyond man according to his working. As a man, it says, he humbled himself; because God came to those who had been humbled, to set them free. He himself therefore humbled himself for our sake.

Therefore his body is not a body of death; since it is a body of life: nor is his flesh a shadow of death; since it is the brightness of glory: nor in it is there any place of affliction; since in that body there is grace of consolation for all. He humbled himself, that you might learn what humility is. Finally hear him saying: Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart. He humbled himself, that you might be exalted; for he who humbles himself shall be exalted. But not all who are humbled shall be exalted; for many are humbled by crime unto ruin. But the Lord was humbled even unto death; that he might be exalted from the gates of death.

Behold, see the grace of Christ, see his benefits.

After Christ came, this flesh which was the shadow of death began, through the grace of the Lord, to shine forth, and to have its own light; whence it is also said: The lamp of your body is your eye. But see of what eye he speaks; not of the outer, but of the inner: If your eye, he says, be single, your whole body shall be full of light. The inner eye indeed is that which illumines the whole body of man. The inner eye also is that which takes away blindness from the whole body; for it is written: But if your eye be evil, your whole body shall be full of darkness. You see in one man whence darkness is born, whence light arises. You yourself, then, are to yourself either darkness or light. Darkness is of iniquity, the darkness of sins: light is of innocence. You yourself, then, are to yourself either the author of injury, or of grace: the divine working errs in nothing.

The light is in yourself; because your infancy is innocent.

The mind of man is pure before the slipperiness of adolescence, and the error of youth. You yourself, then, have made to be darkness what is light. Finally, the same eye, that is, the sense of man, is dark in the sinner, splendid in the innocent.

the gaze is held.

Then because the pleasure and delight of the world frequently creeps in (Hom. Odyssey, M). Whence we ought not to bind and fetter ourselves with the chains of that man, nor to close our ears with wax: but to turn away the ear whenever anyone thinks something ought to be spoken that is foreign to the faith, and contrary or adverse to our profit; lest in that speech the shadow of death cover us: and if any such thing is uttered, we ought nevertheless to insert the word of God, which may illumine the eyes of our mind with the brightness of its argument.

There follows: If we have forgotten the name of our God, and if we have spread out our hands to strange gods.

Shall not God search these things out? Aquila said, he will investigate these things. Symmachus, he will find these things? For he himself knows the hidden things of the heart.

Because for your sake we are put to death all the day long: we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. What does it mean that he says: God will search out? As if, were he not to search, he would not know: and thus God will search out your forgetfulness which has crept in, that he may remove every trace of it. Whence also Aquila said: He will investigate these things. For indeed he who knows the hidden things of the heart, how does he seek, to whom even the things that are within are manifest? Since indeed before God the conscience of each one betrays itself, and the thought of man before him either condemns or purges itself. Finally Aquila said "visions of the heart," in that he sees our heart, and every thought of our heart is at hand before God, and the image of our thoughts shines forth to him.

Well does Aquila say: In you we are put to death; since to die in Christ is arduous and glorious: and in him dies whoever for his name's sake has been crowned by holy suffering. But why do you marvel that this

declares that God, in searching, knows the hidden things of the heart; since elsewhere you read that God is the searcher of the heart?

Why also do you marvel if the majesty of the divine substance cannot be explained by our words, since the Apostle says: Judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will manifest the counsels of hearts: and then shall each one have praise from God? We often read of the darkness of the heart in place of crime; indeed almost everywhere. See then whether these are the "hidden things of darkness," which are the hidden things of the heart; and therefore they have received the name of darkness, because they are not detected by others, but lie hidden.

And therefore the Lord is said to be about to illumine, on the day of judgment, the hidden things of darkness; because the heart of each one shall be made manifest, which before was hidden: known indeed to Christ alone, who, knowing the grace of his judgment, says: Nothing is hidden that shall not be made manifest.

There are, moreover, many things which for shame's sake we suppress, and, that we may fulfill the heavenly commandment, we keep in silent affection within ourselves; lest we seem to glory in those things that are our own, and by making them public begin to lose their fruit. There are, moreover, hidden things of wisdom, which the apostle Paul, caught up into paradise, heard: and because it was not lawful for a man to speak them, he kept them to himself: not because he begrudged others their use or grace; but because it was not lawful for a man to speak them, perhaps it was also not profitable for a man to hear them: which things the Lord will illumine when the time for revealing secrets shall come. See whether you find some difference also in the Gospel, where he said: Nothing is hidden that shall not be made manifest, nor covered that shall not be revealed.

This nevertheless supports the above interpretation, that we should believe both to be said of good things; for it is written: The Lord knows who are his own. He knows, then, his own, and he knows those who know God: but he does not know those who do not know God; for he who does not know shall not be known. The Lord, then, recognizes the things that are good: the things that are full of divine knowledge, the hidden things of wisdom, the Lord knows: but he turns away from those things which are full of iniquity and sin.

Finally, if you consider the person of those whom no forgetfulness of divine worship separated, so that they should spread out their hands to a strange god, and were unwilling to open their souls, you will understand that in their hidden things there were no misdeeds, but that they contained things that belonged to innocence; seeing that they were put to death for the worship of God, and were engaged all day long in death: just as Paul also was engaged, who says: Daily I die, for your glory. And truly Paul was dying daily according to the flesh, being set amid fastings, shipwrecks, various dangers, and miseries: but he was not wholly dying. His outer man was dying, but the inner was being renewed: and therefore he did not fail, though pressed by so many dangers; because although his outer man was being corrupted, the inner was being renewed day by day; for the faith and grace of working illumines the day for each one.

Whence the apostle Paul knew no night; for he who is renewed is always in the light.

Does it not seem to you that he who contains the love of Christ in himself is in the light? And therefore, secure in his sacrifice, he did not shrink from hardships: nor could any persecution, or hunger, or the sword separate him from Christ the Lord, whom the bonds of divine love bound fast.

Meanwhile, however, even in good works the human mind is troubled, and shaken by temptations.

Yet this too belongs to the just, that when they see themselves being tempted, they ask for help; as the apostles did in the Gospel, when Christ was sleeping in the boat, and, fearing the tempest of the waves, they roused the Lord Jesus, that he might drive away their fear. Do not the holy apostles seem to you to have spoken these

Arise, why do you sleep, O Lord?

Arise, and do not cast us off forever. Surely, even if the letter seems to differ, the sense agrees.

Nor indeed, even when established in the body, did our Lord Jesus Christ sleep in such a way that he was ignorant of the storm on the sea, and that, the tempest of winds having arisen, his knowledge of it was surpassed by the depth of his slumber. He slept in body, but in power he was awake. And it was arranged that the Son of God, the Word of God, should embark in the boat: that his disciples also should embark together: whom, that they should not be careless and negligent, as though secure of the Lord's presence and favor, he composed himself in bodily sleep. Therefore by that appearance of sleep, the Word of God showed to the apostles that he was asleep to this world.

Yet his power and providence were awake, which stirred up the tempest on the sea; so that the boat should be almost covered by the rising waves: by which storm the disciples, being troubled, it might be known whether they would sustain themselves by the provision of a salutary counsel, or exceed the bounds of remedy. But to those for whom Jesus was not asleep, faith was awake: and therefore, rising, they roused the Lord Jesus, saying: Lord, save us, we perish.

See whether this too is at variance with the Gospel, what we read of Jonah, who slept in the belly of the ship, and snored: in which the figure of the sacred passion went before. For as Jonah slept in the ship, and snored securely, as though not fearing to be found out; so our Lord Jesus Christ, who fulfilled that figure by the mystery of his death, slept in the boat in the time of the Gospel: and as that one was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale; so the Son of man was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, in the passion of his body. When he had roused himself from death, and relaxed the sleep of his body, that he might rise again for the salvation of all, he visited the disciples. There, then, is the true Jonah, who offered his soul as a redemption for us.

For this reason, therefore, he was lifted up and cast into the sea, that he might be received and devoured by the whale, so that, being placed within the belly of the whale, he might empty out its interior. Of which whale this is said, hear Job saying: He who has, he says, power to render even the great whale captive. Who is this? You surely recognize it, when you have read that our Lord Jesus Christ led captivity captive; for, the adversary and enemy having been overcome, we who were captives began to possess liberty through Christ.

Finally, the very prayer of holy Jonah teaches that the mysteries belong to the Lord's passion, when he said: I cried, he says, to my Lord in my tribulation, and he heard me out of the belly of hell. Do you see that he said the belly of hell, not of the whale? But the Lord descended not into the whale, but into hell; that those also who were in the underworld might be loosed from their perpetual bonds. Finally very many also rose again. But what rivers surrounded Jonah, or of what abyss did Jonah speak: The abyss surrounded me at the last, it sank my head into the clefts of the mountains; I went down into the earth, whose bars are everlasting bonds? This surely does not fit and suit the person of Jonah.

But the Son of God descended into the clefts of the mountains, when he descended into the tomb; for Joseph himself, as the Gospel teaches, laid him in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock, and rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb. Finally also in another book: He laid him, it says, in a hewn tomb, in which no one had yet been laid.

But who is it that sacrificed to the Lord with the voice of praise and confession, if not the Prince of all priests, who both vowed vows for all and paid them?

For he alone had power over his own becoming. For just as Jonah was sent into the sea, and the sea grew quiet from its commotion; so our Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, that he might gain the world, and pacify all things by his blood, whether earthly or heavenly. By his coming, therefore, he redeemed all men; and by his works he called them to the worship of God, when he raised the dead, healed the sick, instilling the fear of God into human affections. He it is who sacrificed to the Lord the sacrifice of salvation for us, and offered to God worthy victims of our conversion; he it is who slept, and awoke.

We must beware, then, lest he sleep as to sinners; for he seems to sleep toward those for whom he has not risen, and whom he casts off in the end. But who is it

that is cast off, except him who is a stranger to the Lord, because he is not a stranger to the body? For how can those who are in the flesh please God? And therefore let us not be in the flesh, but in the spirit: let us cleave to the Lord Jesus, who in the eighty-eighth psalm says that he was cast off for our sake. "But thou hast cast off and despised, thou hast been wroth with thy anointed; thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant". Thus, being cast off, he became in us a reproach to his neighbors; for he took upon himself the reproach of the cross, that he might clothe us with the glory of his resurrection.

He seems cast off, as one dead; and covered with confusion, as one crucified: but blessed for ever is he who took away the curse, and procured the grace of blessing.

There follows: Why turnest thou thy face away?

We think that God turns his face away from us when we are placed in certain afflictions; so that darkness is poured over our feeling, hindered by which we cannot draw in the brightness of truth with our eyes. For indeed, if God attends to our understanding, and deigns to visit our mind, let us be certain that no thing can spread darkness over us. For if a man's countenance shines forth more than the other parts of his members, and whomever we look upon, we either recognize as unknown or acknowledge as known, whom our gaze does not allow to remain hidden; how much more does the countenance of God illuminate him whom it beholds!

Concerning which, as are his other qualities, so also is this splendid saying of the holy Apostle, who is truly the interpreter of Christ, that he might pour it into our minds with fitter sense and speech; whence he says: "For God, who said that light should shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ". We have heard, then, where Christ may shine in us. For he is the eternal brightness of souls, whom the Father therefore sent to earth, that, illuminated by his countenance, we might be able to behold eternal and heavenly things, we who before were held in earthly darkness. Why should I speak of Christ, when even the apostle Peter said to that man lame from his mother's womb: "Look upon us"; who looked upon Peter, and was illuminated by the grace of faith? For he would not have received the remedy of healing, had he not faithfully believed.

Whence, since there was such glory in the apostles, Zacchaeus, hearing that the Lord Jesus was passing by, climbed up into a tree

because, being small and little, he could not see him in the crowd. He saw Christ, and found light. He saw him, and he who before had seized the goods of others, gave away his own. Rightly, then, do these say: Why turnest thou thy face away?

Or perhaps it is said for this reason: because to those who longed for Christ, his coming seemed delayed.

For he himself is the countenance of the Father, who is the image and glory of God. Certainly, if we do not take this as referring to the mystery of his Incarnation, the saints rightly also use these words, saying: Why turnest thou thy face away? That is: Even though thou, Lord, turnest thy face away from us, yet the light of thy countenance, O Lord, is sealed upon us. We hold it in our hearts, and it shines in our inmost feeling; for no one can subsist if thou turn away thy face. For all things wait upon thee, that thou mayest give them food in due season. "When thou givest to them, they shall gather: when thou openest thy hand, they shall all be filled with good things: but when thou turnest away thy face, they shall be troubled. Thou shalt take away their spirit, and they shall fail, and shall return to their dust.

Thou shalt send forth thy spirit, and they shall be created: and thou shalt renew the face of the earth".

Do you recognize what food it is that God supplies to men? He himself is the food which, according to the will of the Father, the only-begotten Son, our Lord, feasts on; as he himself says: "My food is to do the will of my Father who is in heaven". This food is salutary for us, and all things of God are salutary.

You hear of certain members of God; learn their powers.

His hand indeed is the fullness of goodness: his face is the illumination of the mind. And therefore let us always hope in him, and direct our vows and all our endeavors toward him: nor let us despair, even though we cannot see him bodily; for Moses did not despair, to whom it was said: "Thou canst not see my face; for man shall not see my face and live." And he added: "Behold, there is a place by me, thou shalt stand upon a rock: and when my glory shall pass by, I will put thee in a hole of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by; and I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my hinder parts: but my face thou shalt not be able to see". The face of God, then, is not seen by man. Yet there is a place where God shows himself to man by faith.

This place is with God: and therefore, if we shall stand upon the rock, that is, in the conscience of this flesh, and in the firmness of faith; even though we cannot see his fullness, yet as far as we are able, we shall draw in, as it were, the remnants of that light. For not even Moses saw the whole fullness of his divinity, which dwells in Christ bodily: but he saw the hinder parts of Christ, he saw his splendor as man, he saw the glory of his passion, through which he unlocked for us the heavenly kingdom.

And he added: "Thou forgettest," he says, "our poverty and our tribulation." Of what poverty does the holy Prophet say that it has come into forgetfulness with God? Or what is this poverty which he complains has slipped from the mind of our God and Lord? This poverty is not an idle one; unless perhaps it is that which is accustomed to have God as protector and rewarder. For if there is a poverty to which the kingdom of heaven is open, rightly do these think that their poverty has slipped from the divine perception, they who lamented that their soul was humbled in the dust, and said that their belly cleaved to the earth. But those who cleave to the earth seem to be deprived of divine protection. Hear, then, what this poverty is: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven". If, then, poverty is blessed, to which heaven is open, let us disregard these earthly riches, let us avoid bodily abundance.

Let us follow the footsteps of the apostles, before whose feet each one laid whatever money he had from the price of his fields, that it might be distributed to the poor. This evangelical poverty, then, these holy men had long before begun to practice; and therefore they said: "Thou forgettest our poverty." This is like that apostolic saying: "Behold, we have left all things, and followed thee". Good, then, is that poverty which proceeds from piety, and is undertaken through the exercise of virtues.

Not only their poverty, but also their tribulation, do they lament as having come into forgetfulness with God.

Good also are the tribulations which are proper to the just, who bear them not for their own deserts, but for piety's sake: in which the just man is not worn down, but enlarged, as the holy Prophet declares, saying: "In tribulation thou hast enlarged me". And the Lord Jesus himself says: "I called upon the Lord in tribulation, and he heard me unto a large place". He enlarged the holy apostle Paul, when he took from him the light of his eyes; for thus he confessed Christ, whom before he had denied. Therefore he deserved to become a vessel of election. Finally, that you may know that the Lord Jesus enlarged Paul, hear the Apostle himself saying: "Our mouth is open unto you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged". Open your mouth, then, confess Christ; because there is fullness: where there is fullness, there is also breadth.

And, like a good teacher who wished to have disciples equal to himself, he also exhorted us to be enlarged, saying: "Be ye also enlarged".

But when God somewhere enlarges in tribulation, then there will be a breadth of heart, like the sand of the sea, innumerable.

Hear what this breadth is, from the holy Solomon speaking: "I wished, and understanding was given me: and I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came upon me". For that he might receive wisdom from God, he asked not for riches, not for nobility, not for power; but he asked for wisdom, and in it he found all things which he had not even asked for. Whence Scripture says that such was the breadth of his heart, like the sand of the sea, innumerable. That you may grasp this breadth, hear him saying of himself, knowing it: "Write it upon the breadth of thy heart". And therefore let him who has wisdom not keep it in secret, not for a moment; but let him sing it forth at its going out: let him everywhere proclaim with authority what he perceives.

Finally, the Lord Jesus himself, to receive the Law, wished only Moses—not without Jesus, however—to ascend the mountain.

In the Gospel also, he revealed the glory of his resurrection to Peter, John, and James alone, out of the whole number of disciples. Thus he wished his mystery to remain hidden: and he frequently admonished them not to announce easily to anyone what they had seen; lest some weaker person should meet with a stumbling-block, being unable to draw in the force of the mysteries with a wavering understanding. Finally, Peter himself did not know what he was saying, who thought that three tabernacles ought to be made for the Lord and for his servants. Then he could not bear the brightness of the glory of the Lord transfiguring himself: but fell to the ground, and the sons of thunder, James and John, fell also, and a cloud covered them; nor could they rise until afterward, when Jesus came, and touched them, and bade them rise, and put aside their fear.

They entered, then, into the cloud, that they might know hidden and secret things; and there they heard the voice of God saying: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him". What does it mean, "This is my beloved Son"? It means: Do not err, Simon, so as to think the Son of God is to be compared with servants: "This is my Son"; not Moses, a son, not Elias, a son; although the one opened the sea, the other closed heaven. For by the word of the Lord each conquered the nature of the element: but they furnished a ministry, this one is he who solidified the waters, closed heaven with drought, and, when he willed, dissolved it into rains. Where testimony of the resurrection is being invoked, the ministries of the servants lend their support: where the glory of the Lord rising again is shown, the splendor is hidden from the servants.

For indeed the very orbs of the stars are eclipsed when the sun rises, and all their lights vanish beneath the sun of this world. How, then, under the eternal sun of righteousness, and that divine brightness, could the fleshly stars be seen? Where, then, are those lights which shone before your eyes with a certain miracle? All things are darkness in comparison with the eternal light. Let others hasten to please God by their ministries: this one alone is the true and eternal light, in whom the Father is well pleased, or in whom it is my good pleasure; that whatever he has done here may be mine: and whatever I have done may rightly be believed to be the Son's work. Hear him saying: "I and the Father are one". He did not say: I and Moses are one. He did not say that he shared any fellowship of divine glory with Elias. Why do you prepare three tabernacles? This one has his tabernacle not on earth, but in heaven.

The apostles heard, and fell, troubled with fear.

The Lord came, and raised them up, and bade them tell no one what they had seen.

To him, then, keep your hidden things, to whom David entrusted his hidden things, saying: From my hidden sins cleanse me, O Lord.

For clean must be the vessels in which the hidden mysteries of piety are kept. And therefore it is said to you: Drink water from your own vessels, and from the springs of your own wells [lacuna] and let your waters overflow in the streets, that you may be cleansed by an irrigating fountain. Therefore it is said to you: Let your winepresses overflow with wine. Therefore it is said: In tribulation you called upon me, and I delivered you; I heard you in the secret place of the storm; I proved you at the water of contradiction. For there is a certain savage inner storm within our breasts in times of tribulation, when there are battles without and fears within. There is the water of contradiction, when, as it were by a tide of most bitter salt, our thoughts surge and are not calmed by any stability of resolve in the depths of our minds.

Then is the storm in the secret place, then the water of contradiction, which can be stilled only by the word of Christ, by which he forgives us our sins, according to what he himself deigned to say: Now you are clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Speak, Lord Jesus: your word is medicine, your word is light, your word is the washing away of our filth, your word is a fountain. You speak, and guilt is washed away.

And since our discourse has been led to speak of the secret place of the storm and the water of contradiction, the Word of God has become all things for us. It was made flesh, that it might save the flesh; it was made water, that by its grace it might temper the water of contradiction, and take away the bitterness of impiety. And therefore it is written: The word in the heart of a man is deep water. In one place it is called word, in another again counsel; for good counsel is there, where the good Word of God is. And therefore the Law says to you: Take heed to yourself, lest an evil word arise in your heart; and let Jesus say: Why do you think evil in your hearts? For God sent his Word to heal man, not to destroy him. This Word is medicine, not punishment.

Let this Word be in your heart, and in your mouth; let this Word be in the hidden places, where the devil lies in ambush: let the Word enter, let the devil go out. For if the devil should creep in, Christ withdraws; as he withdrew from Judas after the devil had plunged himself into his heart. Do you, then, also say: From my hidden sins cleanse me, O Lord; lest the devil lie in ambush in hidden places, as a lion in his den. But if you keep the hidden things of Christ piously and faithfully, there will be no place for the devil to lay ambush.

And therefore in the ninth psalm, David, writing of the hidden mysteries of the Lord—which is the conversion of sinners, the calling of the Gentiles, the kingdom of God, the preparation of the heart, the judgment of the poor, the refreshment of the needy—first speaks of the exterminating of the adversary from the hidden and secret places of your breast: lest he sit in ambush in hidden places like one desiring to kill the innocent. And therefore it is said to you: Enter into your chamber, and having shut the door, pray to your Father in secret. Let your prayer descend there, where he who searches out hidden things may hear it: let it there find your patience, whether in concealing injuries or in avoiding boastfulness; for the wise man conceals his own injury. There is the hiding-place of wisdom; for he has made darkness his hiding-place. The wicked shall seek me, and shall not find me.

Therefore Abraham dug a well, that whoever sought water might find it: therefore Isaac dug a well: therefore the Lord Jesus sat by a well; and there was the fountain of Jacob. He sat by the well, that you might seek. There is a fountain, where Christ is. It is a fountain, that waters may overflow abundantly for those who seek, by which all the crimes of the flesh may be washed away, or its fires quenched. This, then, is the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God: that the wicked may not find it, that the good may seek it, and be occupied in the study and meditation of acquiring it. Do you wish to know how true this is? Hear the words of Wisdom herself: Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.

Knock then at the door; for Christ is the door: knock at the gate of the Word; that it may be opened to you for the utterance of the mystery of Christ, and that you may be able to find the treasures of wisdom hidden in Christ. In him our wisdom, in him our life is hidden; as Paul affirmed, who was caught up even to the third heaven, that he might hear things which it is not lawful for a man to utter. How great is the discipline of hidden things! It is lawful for man to know, and not lawful to speak. To know is life, to speak is death.

Knowing therefore that this is the end of hidden things, which in Greek is called σκοπὸς, and this is its sum, that the unworthy may not lay hold of the discipline of wisdom; and that those who have the desire, yet by the merits of life and faith supporting them, labor to grasp the knowledge of divine mysteries, and toil with daily exercises, that they may deserve to obtain the fruit of their intention; let us read more diligently the ninth psalm and the forty-fifth, that we may be able to comprehend with faithful mind the wisdom hidden in mystery. For these alone bear before them the title concerning hidden things. But now let us take up the psalm.

Our God is a refuge and strength.

What does “our” mean? That is, of us who believe in you. So also elsewhere: Lord, you have become a refuge for us. For us, he says, who believe, not for unbelievers: for us who seek, not for those who flee from the truth. For he alone can say this, who has placed the hope of his salvation solely in the protection of God. Therefore you have become a refuge for us, and our refuge and strength, we who are from the peoples of the nations. The Jews denied you, the Jews did not receive you; and therefore you turned to the Gentiles, you called us, and became our refuge, and are strength for us. Do you wish to know that this was said of us who are from the Gentiles? The cross of the Lord is a stumbling-block to the Jews, foolishness to the Greeks: but to us it is the power of God and wisdom.

And below: But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who was made wisdom for us by God.

Surely Paul spoke neither of the Jews nor of the Gentiles, but of those who, turned to the Lord Jesus, would proclaim the author of their salvation. Have you then fled for refuge to Christ? Do not abandon the foundation, do not forsake your confirmer; that he who received you may himself guard you, and that the pious merchant of our souls may recognize his own merchandise.

A helper in the tribulations which have found us exceedingly.

He answers well to both meanings with “exceedingly,” so that it may be understood both as the tribulations which have found us exceedingly, and as a helper exceedingly. For the greater the tribulations have been, the greater and more powerful helps are necessary for us. And therefore it often happens that we are crowned in the more grievous and harsher contests: because by more frequent tears and groans and prayers we procure for ourselves the help of the eternal Godhead.

Whence it comes about that we do not fear, when our earth is troubled, and the mountains are moved

because if you are for us, who is against us? We cannot fear the frailties of this flesh, which is broken by fear and dread, is inflamed by desires, is softened by luxury, is enervated by delights, is exhaled in fevers, is vexed by pain, is exhausted by anguish. Or when those mountains are moved into the heart of the sea, of which the Savior said: If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall not only do this to the fig tree; but even if you say to this mountain: Be taken up, and cast into the sea; nothing shall be impossible to you. This mountain cast itself into the heart of Judas, and troubled his mind with a heavy storm, stirring it with the waves of various passions.

For just as the soul, fertile in good works and in the fruits of devotion and faith, is compared to the fertility of lands, like the fragrance of Jacob, like the fragrance of a full field; so also is the soul figured by the restlessness of a stormy sea, of one who does not know how to be at peace, and stirs up heavy waves by bitter thoughts. Indeed, not even by his kiss did the Lord Jesus soften the bitterness of Judas the traitor. The traitor received the kiss, poured in the poison, inflicted death: Christ indeed blunted its sting, but only the traitor did not escape. And that he might clearly manifest to us a mountain of this sort, elsewhere too, when he had commanded a demon to go out of a man, and the apostles asked him why they themselves had not been able to cast it out, he said: This kind is not cast out, except by prayer and fasting.

And he added: If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain: Move from here to there, signifying by his hand what that mountain was, which perfect faith could move. For perfect faith is: though I have all faith, so that I could move mountains, but have not charity, it profits me nothing.

There are also those who distinguish thus: And the mountains shall be moved; so that what follows is: In the hearts of the seas they have sounded, and its waters are troubled: the mountains are troubled at his strength. Not good are the waters which sound, and are troubled, and cannot give drink. Better are those that pass through; as it is written: Between the midst of the mountains the waters shall pass through, and all the beasts of the field shall drink: the wild asses shall take them up in their thirst.

Indeed, when the legion of demons asked and received power to enter into the swine, with a great rush it cast itself down into the sea: and those waters were troubled by the plunging of its herd. Elsewhere too the same prophet David set it thus: The waters saw you, O God, the waters saw you, and were afraid; that is, the good powers, which are made calm by the knowledge of the heavenly Word, are not terrible with sound and roaring. But of the evil powers what does he say? And the abysses were troubled, a multitude of the sound of waters. The abysses do not see God, and therefore they are always subject to disturbances. And he explained what the abysses were. A multitude, he says, of the sound of waters.

For indeed that beast Antichrist ascends from the abyss, to make war against Elijah and Enoch, and John, who because of the testimony of the Lord Jesus are restored to the earth: as we read in the Apocalypse of John; to whom it is given a mouth speaking great things, that it might resound blasphemies full of fury and sacrilege against God.

The waters, then, sounded

that is, the unclean spirits, when they were troubled, seeing the works of God, fearing at the salutary coming of the Lord that judgment was drawing near to them. The waters sounded and were troubled at the Lord's Passion. Whence also it is said: Why have the nations raged, and the peoples devised vain things? And elsewhere Scripture says: Their memory has perished with a crash. The devil seeks noise, Christ seeks silence. Indeed, as a lamb before its shearer, so he opened not his mouth. And elsewhere: He shall not cry, nor strive, nor shall anyone hear his voice in the street [lacuna] until he brings forth judgment unto victory. What is this victory but the victory over the serpent? In this strength of the Son of God the mountains were troubled; when the devil and his ministers saw the dead rising again. These are the mountains that are troubled: those are the mountains that are moved into paradise, to whom it is said: Today you shall be with me in paradise.

And another, to whom it is said: So I will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?

Follow me. And Enoch, who was caught up, lest the malice of the age should change him.

After the Passion of the Lord, what else ought to follow, but that a river went out from the body of the Lord: when from his side flowed water and blood, by which he gladdened the souls of all; because by that river he washed away the sin of the whole world? There is also the river which went out from Eden, and went round about the whole earth, the Word of God by which the intelligible paradise is watered, and every soul is called to the grace of Christ, the Word of God himself saying: If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink. To him I shall give water, rivers of living water shall flow from his belly. For from that one Word of God have flowed the streams of prudence and fortitude, of temperance also and justice.

For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another faith in the same Spirit, to another the grace of healings in the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles [lacuna] For all these works the one and the same Spirit works, dividing to each as he wills. These are the rushes of the river, when it pours itself out into the grace of ministries, of operation and of virtue, by a spontaneous division.

By these streams of the celestial river, then, that city in which God dwells is watered; and the tabernacle of the Most High is sanctified—every soul which is inhabited by Christ; or that body which the Virgin bore, of which the angel Gabriel said: And that which shall be born of thee shall be called holy, the Son of the living God. A good tabernacle, which no sins could overshadow. An admirable temple of God, and a heavenly hall, which when dissolved could not be corrupted, but rose again within three days, raised up by him who seemed to have died. Nor is it strange, since God was in the midst of her city, and was not moved; either because the Son of God was not shaken by the fall of any sin, nor did he waver at the offense of any error, nor totter under the impulse of bodily allurement; or because the grace of God did not forsake his soul, but remained in it inseparably, so that it endured immaculate from every stain of sin.

Whence the Son of God also said to the Father: Neither wilt thou leave my soul in hell.

Therefore, because it was granted him not to sin even in the flesh, he says divinely: I am in the Father, and the Father in me. And elsewhere: I was given up, and I did not go forth. He did not go forth, certainly, from him to whom he afterward said: I have risen, and am still with thee. But where anyone sins more grievously, God is moved in him, so as to pass away from him. Whence to Adam sinning he appeared to walk, and to Stephen to stand; because the one fell in transgression, the other was crowned in martyrdom. And in the book of Zechariah it is thus written: The Lord walked in the commotion of the indignation of his wrath. A similar thing is said in the Gospel to the Jews: Behold, your house shall be left to you desolate. For the Lord forsook the Jews, and ruin immediately followed for the Synagogue.

But if Christ had not forsaken her, that final destruction would never have overtaken her.

We have thus explained what is said: God shall not be moved in the midst of her.

There follows: God will help her at the break of day.

By which it is signified that the morning resurrection confers upon us the aid of heavenly assistances, which drove back the night, and poured forth the day, as Scripture says: Rise, thou who sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten thee. But observe the mystery. Christ suffered in the evening: therefore according to the Law also the lamb is slain toward evening. He rose in the morning; for so it is written: Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came at early light to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone taken away from the door. He is slain at the evening of the world, the light now failing; because this whole world was in darkness, and would have been wrapped in yet greater filth of shadows, had not Christ come to us as eternal light from heaven, about to pour back upon the human race the times of innocence.

The Lord Jesus therefore suffered, and by his blood forgave our sins; the light of a purer conscience shone forth, and the day of spiritual grace grew bright. Whence the Apostle also says: The night is past, the day is at hand. Let us therefore awaken, let us sleep no more. We have put on the garment of light; let us not return to the mantle and cast-off garb of a life of darkness. To revelings and delights, which belong to the time of night, we have said farewell: we have chosen sobriety, by whose grace Jacob found the birthrights he did not have.

In other codices also is found: God will help her with his countenance.

Let the Prophet himself teach us what this too signifies. For he himself said further on: Show thy face, and we shall be saved. The regard of God, then, is our salvation, and in his countenance is our help. How great its power is, divine Scripture declares, which did not idly add that God had respect unto the offerings of Abel, but unto the offerings of Cain he had no respect; and therefore Cain was made sorrowful, because he knew his sacrifice had displeased God, while his brother's had pleased. Whence also that which was said today in the responsory of the psalm, and sung, contributes very much to our assertion: Waiting I have waited for the Lord, and he had regard unto me. Whom the Lord regards, he saves.

Finally, in the Lord's passion, when Peter faltered in speech, not in mind (though even the faltering speech of Peter is more faithful than the teaching of many), Christ looked upon him, and Peter wept; whereby he washed away his own error. Thus, whom he seemed to deny in voice, he confessed with tears.

The nations were troubled, the kingdoms bowed down: the Most High uttered his voice, and the earth was moved.

At the coming of the Lord Savior the adversary powers, with their whole legion, were troubled, commanded to go forth from human bodies, and begging to be sent into swine. With the most wicked powers thus troubled, it was necessary that the worshipers of idols be troubled, and the kingdoms of sin bowed down as well. For it was a heavy kingdom, which had subjugated to itself in grievous servitude the minds of all sinners; for whoever commits sin is the servant of sin. But the kingdom of sin is the kingdom of death, which long prevailed over the whole world. Whence the Apostle also says: But death reigned from Adam even unto Moses, even over those who had not sinned, after the similitude of the transgression of Adam, who is the figure of him that was to come.

Truth came, the figure ceased: life came, the kingdom of death vanished: remission of sins came, and the bonds of sin were loosed.

Before, even lighter offenses were bound by the chains of death: but after the coming of the saving Lord, even graver crimes were remitted. The kingdoms, therefore, of the spirits of wickedness which are in the heavenly places were bowed down; because the worship of idols and the enticement of sin began to diminish through the preaching of the Gospel teaching. Faithlessness was bowed down after faith began to reign in the hearts of the nations. The kingdoms of sin are bowed down, when it is read: Let not sin reign in your mortal body. The Lord bowed down all the kingdoms of faithlessness by his voice, saying: Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you.

The Most High gave this voice, and all the peoples of the nations followed him, fleeing the harsh kingdoms of sin, and the atrocity of perpetual death, and the intolerable servitude of all crimes; since he promised rest to the weary, remission to captives, freedom to those in bondage: and having thrown off the iron yoke of the king of Babylon, he substituted his own sweet yoke upon the necks of the faithful; lest the enemy again bind the empty necks of the nations with the chains of his iniquity. For Christ frees those whom he binds: and looses those whom he binds fast. Finally, he who has been called a servant by the Lord is a freedman of the Lord; and he who has been called free is a servant of Christ. And so Paul glories in his own bonds, saying: Paul, a prisoner of Jesus. What under others is disgrace, is glory under Christ.

The Lord gave his voice in the passion, and all the elements trembled, all the earth was moved; that the rites of the nations might be dissolved, and the earth might become the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, as it is written; that the auguries of the faithless might cease, and knowledge of faith and zeal of devotion might abolish the sacrifice of impiety. The Lord gives his voice daily, and it resounds in the hearts of each one; that everything earthly may depart from him who believes well in feeling, and that all the inward senses of souls may be moved from error, from the corruption of luxury and dissoluteness, to the knowledge of the heavenly sacraments and the pursuit of chastity; from wickedness to virtue, by pious confession.

He says therefore that those who are on the earth were moved, either because all men were earth, in whom was earthly corruption; because they did not know how to raise and lift the eyes of their minds to the sublimity of heavenly grace; nor could they say: The God of hosts is with us; with whom there was nothing but the instigator of downfall and the author of error. But after the voice of the Lord resounded in the Gospel, the Prophet dares to say: The God of hosts is with us. Well does he say: The God of hosts is with us; who believed what the Virgin received in her womb and brought forth. We too dare to say: The God of hosts is with us; after Emmanuel—that is, God—began to be with us. Where Emmanuel is, therefore, there the God of hosts is with us.

The God of Jacob is our protector.

Let us therefore imitate the patriarch Jacob, his fragrance, his virtue, his labor. For just as we ought to do the works of Abraham, that we may rightly deserve to be called his sons; so also we ought to undergo the exercises and struggles of holy Jacob, that the God of Jacob may be believed to be our God. For if the works of Jacob—or rather, because we cannot equal him—if he does not recognize in us the pursuits of his work and faith, how will he deign to help us as the God of Jacob?

While saying these things, behold, through the Holy Spirit a present image of things to come was poured into him; and seeing, out of the grievous turmoil of wars, peace spread throughout the whole world at the coming of the saving Lord, he cries out to all, saying: Come and see the works of the Lord, what wonders he has set upon the earth.

Come, has regard to the gathering: See, has regard to attention, and to the zeal of knowing the truth.

See, he says, the works of the Lord, full of miracles, in which are great signs of powers. Indeed τέρατα in Greek is called "admiranda" (things to be wondered at) in Latin. Do not, then, take the works of the Lord as of a prodigious horror, but as full of wonder. He excellently placed "upon the earth"; that is, in the earth.

Taking away wars even to the ends of the earth, he shall break the bow and shatter the weapons: and shall burn the shields with fire.

And indeed, before the Roman empire was spread abroad, not only did the kings of individual cities fight against one another; but the Romans themselves were also frequently worn down by civil wars. Marius fought against Cinna. On both sides Roman blood was shed. Sulla rose up, and again stirred civil wars against Marius the victor. Lepidus and Sertorius offered themselves as rebels against the Roman empire.

Caesar pursued Pompey, and roused the fury of the Gauls against Roman arms.

Having defeated the elder Pompey, he warred down the younger in the regions of Spain. Why should I speak of the Triumvirs, who became friends out of enemies, and again from friends passed into hostile tumults: the seas too stained with Roman blood in the Actian war? Whence it came about that, from weariness of civil wars, the Roman empire was conferred upon Julius Augustus; and thus the internal battles were settled. This, moreover, so profited that the apostles were rightly sent throughout the whole world, the Lord Jesus saying: Going, teach all nations. To them indeed even kingdoms shut off by barbarian mountains lay open, as India to Thomas, Persia to Matthew. But nevertheless, that they might traverse more regions of the lands, at the rising of the Church he spread the power of the Roman empire over the whole world, and, granting peace, settled the minds of those at discord and the divisions of the lands.

All men, living under one empire of the earth, learned to confess with faithful speech the empire of one almighty God.

He took away, then, wars even to the ends of the earth; which without doubt has come to pass. But see whether he has not taken away the wars of infirmity, which are in the heart of the wavering. For he who has passed beyond earthly things no longer says: Without were fightings, within were fears; but says: Our conversation, however, is in heaven. Pass over the world, then, that you may begin to be above the world; for περάσαι means to pass over, or, to speak more precisely, to cross the strait. The Lord, then, has taken away the wars which the spiritual wickedness stirred up against us: and, the devil overcome, he has left his peace with us. He has broken the bow, from which the fiery darts of the adversary were scattered: and he has burned with fire the shields of faithlessness; that the shield of faith might remain inviolable.

Be still, he says, and see that I am the Lord.

The voice of the Lord after wars are stilled: Be still, that there be no occupation of souls; lest the outpouring of worldly disturbances darken the eye of the inner mind. Be still, he says, from errors, be still from disturbances, be still from sins; because everyone who sins has not seen God, nor known him; as John the Evangelist said in his Epistle. Be still, then, for the pursuit of knowing divinity: be not occupied with earthly works. For this reason the king of the Egyptians ordered the number of bricks and the other burdens of the Jews to be increased; lest they should know God and be free for sacred worship, being offended at the voice of Moses and Aaron, of the holy men who said: Let the people of God go, that we may go and serve the Lord our God.

I shall be exalted among the nations, and I shall be exalted in the earth.

The Lord was lofty on high, that is, among the Angels and Archangels, among the patriarchs and prophets, who held lofty thoughts of him, and did not compare him with earthly images and stone idols: but he was not lofty among the peoples of the nations, who seemed to seek their god in caves and dens as dwelling-places. Hence Magdalene is reproved, who wept for Christ as though he were dead, and sought him as though buried, in a tomb. Wherefore Christ says to her: Mary, why do you weep? Whom do you seek? Do you suppose him one who could be carried off? She heard his voice, and recognized him, and wished to touch him; and the Lord said: Do not touch me, whom you think dead. I am going to the Father. Do you wonder that you did not find in the tomb him whom the heavens await?

Or perhaps she is reproved

because none but perfect faith touches Christ; just as the woman with the flow of blood touched him with full faith. Wherefore the Lord said: Someone has touched me: I perceive that power has gone out from me. At these words she recognized within herself that she had been healed by the power going forth; and at once, aware of it, she confessed that she had touched the Lord. Wherefore the Lord said: Your faith has saved you: go in peace. Now the Lord was exalted in the earth, according to what he himself said: When I shall be lifted up, I will draw all things to myself. Or because his will was done as in heaven, so also on earth.

he repeats, saying: The God of hosts is with us, our helper is the God of Jacob.

The repetition is a confirmation.

Or it is because not only when he was born of the Virgin did he become “with us” God, but also after the resurrection he himself said: Behold, I am with you [lacuna] even to the consummation of the world. To whom be honor and glory, perpetuity from ages, both now, and always, and unto all ages of ages. Amen.

Its title is this: A Psalm of a canticle for the sons of Core, on the second day of the week.

The good sons of Core, already approved in the preceding psalms, because with fitting perceptions and thoughts suited to the pursuit of virtues they composed within themselves a spiritual psaltery, and, ever watchful with the gaze of the mind intent upon the knowledge of divinity, were worthy to draw forth the secrets of the heavenly mysteries. And therefore, since they had received the duty and office of singing psalms daily before the ark of the Lord, they are seen to have been chosen so that they might receive, in particular, a psalm of a canticle to be sung together on the second day of the week. For to those to whom it seemed rightly entrusted that they should sing with their own voice the ascension of the Lord rising from the dead, it was surely fitting that they should celebrate by their own office and ministry that very day of the resurrection.

For what is the second day of the week, but the Lord’s Day which followed the sabbath? Now the day of the sabbath was later in the order of days, but earlier in the sanctification of the Law. But when the end of the Law came, who is Christ Jesus (for Christ is the end of the Law unto righteousness for everyone who believes), and by his resurrection sanctified the eighth day: that same day began to be first which is the eighth, and the eighth which is first: having, from the order of number, its precedence, and from the resurrection of the Lord, its holiness. Whence also in the Gospel we read of the δευτερόπρωτον sabbath, which in Latin is called “second-first.” For where the Lord’s Day began to take precedence, on which the Lord rose, the sabbath which had been first began to be reckoned second from the first. For the first rest ceased, the second succeeded.

Whence also the Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, says: There remains therefore a rest for the people of God on the following day.

Let us hasten, therefore, to enter into that rest.

True rest, therefore, is now not in the cessation of work, but in the time of the resurrection.

And so those who kept the solemnity of the sabbath according to the Law called it “one of the sabbath,” as though there were one sabbath and no other. We, who have put on spiritual observance, and who desire to shape our warfare after the likeness and rest of God, and to render our service in that heavenly city, where there is no pattern, no shadow, but truth; we call it the first day of the week, as it is written: Now on the evening of the sabbath, which draws toward the first day of the week. Nothing could be more beautiful, nothing more express. Before the resurrection he called it the sabbath; after the resurrection he named it the first of the week. John the Evangelist also says: On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came in the morning, while it was still dark. Darkness for the time, morning for grace.

But these speak more explicitly according to the Gospel, as though the veil had been cast aside.

But David, being placed under the Law, both kept the moderation of the fitting song and did not suppress the mystery, so as to declare the Lord’s Day as the second of the sabbath; whereby among the Jews the order of number might be thought preserved, and the spiritual sacrament might be recognized as revealed. Let us hear, then, what he says who sings a psalm to God on the second day of the week.

Great, he says, is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, in the city of our God, in his holy place.

Is God, then, not great and praiseworthy everywhere? He indeed is everywhere great and mighty; but the narrow mind does not grasp the greatness of his divine power and grace. But the nearer our knowledge draws to God, the more excellent does his majesty appear to us.

Thus Thomas, who before had said: Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe; when he put in his finger, and recognized the manifest tokens of the resurrection, marveling within himself at the grace of God, said: My Lord and my God. Then, therefore, did he most fully confess his divinity and lordship, when he no longer doubted that he had risen from the dead. Thus, in Sion a hymn is fitting for God, and a vow is paid to him in Jerusalem. What wonder, then, if in the heavenly city, and in that supernal and ethereal place, his power is proclaimed the more vehemently?

He adds: Spreading joy over all the earth. And truly he is called great, who has spread joy throughout the whole world over this earth, in which formerly the seeds of intolerable sins sprang up, where there was the sorrow of sadness and groaning.

Thus the conscience of men, which before, submerged in the whirlpools of its own crimes, mourned, now, through the indulgence of Christ and the remission of all sins, rejoices, freed from fear. This agrees, then, even if we understand it as we have said; but because in certain ancient copies we find: εὐρίζῳ ἀγαλλιάματι πάσης τῆς γῆς, which in Latin signifies “with joy rooted in good root, of the whole earth”: we note indeed the same sense; because the divine gifts of God the Father are praised in us, who has given us joy founded in a good root, namely God Jesus, the true and most fruitful vine, from which the heavenly sacraments have flowed; in which there is perpetual and lasting gladness, because by them all sin is washed away, and the inner conscience is cleansed: and we recognize that the expression fits; because we rejoice with a well-rooted joy, we who rejoice in Christ.

For the joy of the world is temporal, but perpetual is the joy of him who rejoices in the Lord.

Mount Sion, the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

God shall be known in her bulwarks, when he shall take her to himself. He has clearly expressed why there should be joy over the whole earth; because the Lord Jesus gathered to himself a Church out of sinners. Thus those who were formerly “the sides of the north,” that is, companions and clinging followers of the devil, to whom it is said, Arise, O north wind, that the south wind may come, became faithful to Christ. For these are they of whom it is said: They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Sion. They became, then, Mount Sion through the grace of Christ and the sacrament of baptism.

The breath of the intelligible north is heavy, which formerly stirred up very harsh storms and tempests among human affections: it began to lose its own, whom it had used to trouble as belonging to others. It had overturned the whole nation of the Jews, held all nations bound to its rule, and these were its sides; that is, they breathed together with it. For just as we call the sides of a prince his attendants and companions, and just as a wife is the side of her husband, because she is joined to him in a compliant partnership; so were the sides of the devil those who did his will. These, then, are now Mount Sion, who gaze upon the eternal God, and are intent upon him night and day. Consider Paul for me: when he persecuted the Church of the Lord, he was a side of the north; consider him now, when he is read in the Church, to be a mountain of watchfulness, through whom we know and see the glory of Christ.

And because the Greek said “mountains,” that is, ὄρη, see how the servants of Christ are mountains. Mountains round about her; in which is the Church of the Lord, which is the city of the great King. At the same time, because the Lord suffered, according to the tract of heaven, at the place called Venerarium, which was on the side of the north. There too is Mount Sion, there the Jerusalem which is on earth.

See whether this too seems to be expressed, that the congregation of the people of God, which had been joined to the north through fault, has become the Church of Christ through grace; so that it is no longer called the Synagogue, but the Church of Christ. And because the remnants of the Jews were made safe through the election of grace, in them God is known—in Peter, Paul, John, James, who, weighty and lofty men, are as the foundations and pinnacles of the Church. As weighty foundations, whom no heavy blasts of the north have shaken; but immovable, they have kept the foundation of faith, lest the whole Church should waver: as lofty pinnacles, who have raised its summit with the towers of their own virtue.

For just as in his works the founder, and in his buildings the builder is recognized; so that even if you do not hear the name, yet from the quality of the works you perceive the craftsman (and what wonder is it concerning human things, since even of the Creator himself, eternal, who is not seen by us, we nevertheless understand his invisible things through the things that are made), so in these lofty and great houses (which houses we are, if we hold firm to the end the foundation of liberty and glory) God the indwelling one is recognized, as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. For he himself is the true God, who founded such men by the instruction of his precepts.

Therefore, just as in them he showed himself the eternal God; so, he says, when he shall receive the city of the great King, he will pour into her steps the reception of the knowledge of himself: that they may become teachable of God, who have both heard his command and thought it must be carried out; lest they should degenerate from the firmness of that house built upon the rock.

Behold, he says, seeing this the kings of the earth assembled, and passed by together.

They, seeing it, were then astonished. Good kings, who can present themselves as rulers of their own body, flowing from the very origin and institution of the patriarch Abraham, who taught that sin could be overcome. Therefore he is a true king, who did not know himself subject to crimes, in whom the enticement of fault and error could not reign. Whence also it was said to such a man by the sons of Heth: You are a king from God among us.

Such, then, are the kings of the earth who ruled the flesh, and who assembled, that they might be of one heart and one spirit, as we read: For the multitude of believers had one soul and one heart, and there was no division among them. These are they who passed by, not so much into one place, as into the same disposition and purpose. For to one approved it is said: Pass by, sit down. For it is no mean virtue to pass from the wicked to the honorable, from things earthly to things eternal, and to change the habit of carnal life, and to abolish its every practice, to take up new manners, and to turn aside the whole state of the old way of life. And rightly it is said to him: If you pass through the water, I am with you. God is with the one passing over, not with the one standing still.

These, then, who within themselves had formerly been discordant, when they came together in mind and purpose, having received the peace which made both one, and by the destruction of the middle wall dissolved the enmities in his flesh: marveled, either at him who is known in his steps, or at men so changed, that they who formerly served the devil are now, by the righteousness of a devoted service, bound over to the Lord Jesus. And because kings of their own body, having experienced within themselves the force of no small toil (for it is neither easy nor of little account to conquer the mind, to cut away desires, to tame the wantonness of the flesh, to root out luxury, which fought even against Paul, so as to bind him captive to the law of sin), just as they marveled at the grace in those who had advanced in virtue, so also they were disturbed lest anyone should slip back into vice, cast down from the higher summit of virtues.

For the human condition is prone and changeable toward either direction; so that wherever it inclines, it tends and leans in that direction, whether toward the pursuits of virtue or the enticement of sins.

And therefore they were shaken by no ordinary feeling; so that trembling seized them out of dread, considering that which is written: For in the places of the impious the just shall groan. Then behold for me Peter weeping most bitterly, because error had crept upon him; and had bent the strength of his mind by the lapse of bodily frailty: and deservedly he was reproved by Christ above, because he had dared to claim constancy for himself, and did not consider his liable nature. And he indeed by grace amended his error; but Judas remained in his crime, persevered in groaning. He was just when he was bound with the number of the apostles: but because he was tripped up by the devil, he now laments and groans in the places of the impious; because he had fallen back from grace to punishment.

Therefore, with such men falling, of the sort that Judas the betrayer was, or Saul summoned by the Lord his God to the kingdom, even strong men trembled.

Comparing then with how great a struggle the end was reached, how great the contritions of the just, how great the anxieties, what an adversary, how great the contention through long labor, what bitternesses of the terror set over them, what bonds of continence, what scourges of conscience—these troubled them not a little; lest anyone should yield either to such labors of a more austere life, or to its griefs. For there are bitter and heavy griefs there; that is, in the Church, in that city of the great King there are griefs, like those of a woman in travail, until Christ be formed in us. For Paul was not without grief, when he saw in the foolish Galatians a slower progress of his teaching. And therefore he said: My little children, of whom I travail again, until Christ be formed in you.

The Lord too testifies in the Gospel that the pains of a woman in travail are heavy; when he says: A woman when she is in travail has sorrow

because her day has come: but when she has brought forth the child, she remembers the sorrow no more for joy, because a man is born into the world. Great, then, is the labor, that one may acquire Christ for oneself; lest, like a ship without a pilot, one be tossed upon the swell of this world's sea. Then the apostles were sorrowful, when Christ recalled that he would return to the Father, because they thought themselves left destitute in the absence of their guide. Christ is the joy. He himself is also the child whom she brings forth in travail, who has received in the womb of her mind the spirit of salvation. She who has borne and nourished rejoices; she who is in travail is shaken and pierced.

It is good that you both bring forth and nourish him. Do not boil the lamb in its mother's milk, lest it be said to you: Woe to those who are with child and to those who give suck. For thus was Christ born of Mary, that you may know him, as the ox knew his owner: and know that he himself created you, and that he himself possessed your elders. Do not nourish him as a little child, but know him to be adored as true and perfect God from true and perfect God. Thus the Magus adored him, so as not to boil the lamb in his mother's milk; but to venerate him as the eternal God. Then, that he might find him, he looked to heaven. He did not therefore seek on earth him whom the shining star from heaven pointed out.

Therefore Mary did not travail with him, but bore him, because she knew that both the Lord and salvation were to be born from herself, as she herself testifies, saying: My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour. There, then, are pains as of a woman in travail. There is pain in bringing forth, there is pain in nourishing him whom from the beginning you must have perfect.

therefore very many are heavily broken, as the

which follows signifies: With a vehement spirit you shall break the ships of Tharsis.

For while the servants of God desire to attain to the perfection of faith, they waste their bodies away, chastising more severely, and reducing them into the service of subjection; lest those who have already been approved be rejected. And this they do in a holy and vehement spirit.

For there is a spirit of counsel and of strength, that by excessive abstinence they dissolve their body, that they may empty out all its pleasures; so that it may be said to them: Be strong, feeble hands, and weak knees. For when one has been loosed from this earthly framework, then he rises stronger to eternal life. I lie, unless Scripture supports me, which says: To be dissolved and to be with Christ, is far better. He who is dissolved begins to be with Christ. And elsewhere: The time of my dissolution is at hand. He therefore who shall have meditated on dissolving himself through abstinence will not be able to fear the day of his own passion.

And well does he say a vehement spirit, being about to speak of ships.

But he called bodies "ships," which are moved by the wandering surge of diverse passions: and they are quickly submerged, unless they have a pilot. Whence also elsewhere he says: Who go down to the sea in ships. Well do they sail, who in their ships bear before them the cross of Christ as a mast, and thence observe the blasts of the winds; that they may direct their bodies to the grace of the Holy Spirit, safe and secure in the wood of the Lord: and do not allow their ships to wander at the wandering surge over the seas, but strive by the direction of their course toward the harbor of salvation, and toward the consummation of grace; that they may gain a trustworthy anchorage, where, once dissolved, they may be able to renew their course in the resurrection, where they can fear no shipwreck.

Let us therefore look about at this grace, let us be watchmen of it, let us explore it; that our bodies may become ships of Tharsis. For then is the flesh reduced to servitude, when we attend to the grace of God; so that we follow what is bitter for a time, as is fasting, not what is sweet and voluntary. Tharsis, then, is the watchtower of grace, the intelligible city, like Sion above. To it Jonah was hastening. Of it Scripture said, that Josaphat allied himself with Ozias the king, and thus it pleased them that they should build ships and go to him in Tharsis. But because he joined himself with an impious man, therefore a prophet was sent to him, to say to him: The Lord has destroyed your work, and your ships are broken, and they could not go to Tharsis (2 Chron. XX, 35, 36 and 37). By which is signified that the bodies of those who transgress the command of God cannot arrive at the consummation of grace.

But to Solomon, as being a wise and peaceable man, ships came from Tharsis with gold and silver and ivory tusks without any hindrance, and to it he himself sent.

For he had with king Hiram a spiritual commerce of sacred business, and the affection of mutual grace vying with each other. These ships, then, those who possess in themselves royal authority for restraining bodily ferocity, seeing them turned from corruptible into incorruptible, from stained ones shining with the highest light of grace, from things dissolved and worn out made new, coming to life from the dead, rising from the buried, commemorate with celebrated speech.

As we have heard, so also have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God: God has founded it forever.

We heard outside the city, we saw within the city, to which God is the eternal light, the day shines without worldly sun, the moon is not sought: its foundation is not temporal, but eternal.

We have received, he says, O God, your mercy in the midst of your temple.

If this is said with reference to the Son of God, we understand "temple" according to what he himself said of his body: Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Truly the temple of God is the body of Christ, in which is the purification of our sins. Truly the temple of God is that flesh in which no contagion of sin could exist; but for the offense of the whole world it was itself the sacrifice. Truly the temple of God is that flesh, in which the image of God shone forth, and in which the fullness of divinity dwelt bodily; since Christ himself is the fullness.

Therefore it is said to him: We have received, O God, your mercy in the midst of your temple. Which is nothing else than what he says: There stands one in the midst of you, whom you know not; that is, he is in the midst of you, and is not seen? But if it is referred to the Father, what is "in the midst of your temple," except that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself?

In that temple, then, we have received, he says, your mercy; that is, the Word which was made flesh and dwelt among us.

For as Christ is redemption, so also is he mercy. But what greater mercy is there, than that for our crimes he offered himself to be immolated; that by his own blood he might wash the world, whose sin could have been abolished by no other means? For if of holy men the Apostle said: You are the temple of God, and the Holy Spirit dwells in you; how much more may I call the flesh of the Lord Jesus the temple of God, who is read to have always been full of the Holy Spirit, and who himself testifies, saying: I perceive that power has gone out from me; which power healed the harsh wounds of all.

It can also be understood thus, that he said that he had received with the people the mercy of God in the midst of his temple; since he himself founded his Church, and propagated it forever; since he himself truly, with his only-begotten Son, conferred this grace upon his people, whom he also showed to be the builder, saying: This one shall build me a city; which, spread over the whole earth, made the whole earth full of his praise and name. For as it is written: The earth is full of his praise; so it is written: A name has been given to him above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth; and every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the Father.

Whence the Prophet properly said: According to your name, O God, so also is your praise unto the ends of the earth: your right hand is full of justice.

It is not to be wondered at if he is full of the justice of God, who is the right hand of God.

But the power of God and the justice of God are the same; so that both according to that whereby he is full of the justice of God, you may know that fullness of justice to be in him which the Father has: and according to that whereby he is read to be the power and justice and wisdom of God the Father, you may understand nothing of divine majesty to be different in him; but that the Son has received all things from the Father, and you may recognize the Son to be the splendor of all the Father's glory, and the character of his substance: who has so expressed the Father, that in him the Father is whole, just as in the Father the Son is whole.

because the Prophet saw in the spirit the praises of Christ to be proclaimed in all lands, making as it were a certain epilogue of the discourse he had taken up, he exhorts us in conclusion to gladness and to the worship of his name, saying:

Let mount Sion rejoice

that is, those who trust in the Lord, as he himself afterward interpreted, saying: They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Sion. Let the Lord Jesus himself, who is the mountain and the height of his Church, which contemplates its Christ with its whole affection, rejoice in her faith and devotion which was pleasing to God; since the unfaithful one has been repudiated. This too can be piously understood, since he himself is also the mountain higher than all, upon which he is bidden to ascend who preaches the faith, Scripture saying: Get up upon the high mountain, you who evangelize Sion.

Let the souls, he says, that confess to you exult.

These are the daughters of that Judea in which God is known. For that Judea which is in the flesh or in the letter did not know the Lord. For if it had known him, it would also have received him. But it did not know him, whom it did not receive, and it fled from his judgments: by which he recalled that they flow not from father Abraham, but from the seed of the devil; since every sin is the seed of the enemy. But the daughters of confession do not commit sin, but they cover it over. And therefore blessed are they whose sins are covered.

And deservedly the daughters of confession will exult

because of the judgments of the Lord, when they shall have known his judgments and his ways, which in this age are inscrutable and unsearchable to men: and when they shall have begun to behold the truth face to face, then those things which now seem inscrutable they shall comprehend, and shall rejoice in the knowledge of them.

Surround, he says, Sion, and embrace her: tell of it in her towers.

Those who understand Sion surround her, and embrace her with their own senses; that they may hold her, and not let her go, lest the contemplative discipline of virtue be taken from them. Wherefore that woman in the Canticles says: I held him, and I will not let him go; who sought the wisdom of God, and embraced the justice of God with the arms of charity, and with certain sinews of faith and devotion; for this is the embrace of a devout mind.

Let us too, then, grasp as far as we can the inward mysteries of truth, and write them and fix them upon our senses, and the power of the heavenly oracle: which that Moses, skilled in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, in order to attain, went up into the mountain, and entered into the cloud; that he might know things covered and hidden, with his companion Jesus cleaving to him; because no one without the true Jesus can comprehend the uncertain and hidden things of wisdom. And therefore in the figure of Jesus the son of Nave was signified for him the aspiring presence of the true Saviour, through whom all should be made teachable of God, who might open the Law, and reveal the Gospel.

Therefore they who have surrounded Sion with their prudence, and, ascending above her towers, have embraced her with understanding, tell from above, to him who has not been able to ascend into her towers, what is to be done, or what is to be guarded against. For the city of God is walled; and therefore the Lord says elsewhere: Behold, I have painted your walls, O Jerusalem. It is marked out with towers, from which the one lying in ambush, if he begins to draw near, may be detected. That enemy army has its own forces, with which it is accustomed to besiege the souls of God, to bring up engines; that it may be able to storm fortified towers. But you, he says, preach from the towers; for in the towers of Jerusalem there is abundance. Preach righteousness, warn of vigilance; for wisdom is sung at the outlet, and is proclaimed on the highest points of the walls.

And elsewhere again he says: Upon your walls I have set watchmen, who day and night shall not be silent until the end.

Tell, then, without intermission, without end. The adversary watches, goes about, and with feral rage seeks whom he may devour. Therefore the Lord must always be sung, who grinds down the teeth of lions and breaks their jaws; that they may not be able to harm us.

Set, he says, your hearts upon her power; that is, that you may understand her power: and distribute her steps, that you may tell it to another generation.

For this is God, our God for ever and ever: he will rule us for ever. The Greek said βάρις, that is, lofty and towered houses; whence the Prophet, speaking of the city of God and its inhabitants, says: Distribute her steps; that is, her high and lofty dwellings in the heavens. By this he teaches that an order of merits is to be observed. For each one in his own order.

Whence also the Lord says he goes to prepare dwellings for his disciples; that each, according to the measure of his merits, may attain a worthy habitation, in which he may gather that eternal rest.

There are also sublime and lofty precepts, in which are the hidden mysteries of piety, and the theorems of heavenly discourses.

These, he says, distribute, and divide according to the capacity of each, as much as each can grasp with his own understanding. For Paul did not discuss the same things with everyone. To some he preached nothing but Christ Jesus, and him crucified, not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power; but among the perfect he spoke wisdom, because the whole people could not receive the wisdom in a mystery that is hidden.

Therefore Christ hid it, that the foolish might not understand it, and the prudent might seek it more diligently: and might tell it in another generation, which would be more perfect in strength of spirit; since the earlier generation, through weakness of faith, could not know the mysteries of perfect wisdom. And therefore it sought a sign, it rejected the truth; whereas indeed it is not the truth that belongs to the sign, but the sign that belongs to the truth. Whence the Lord answered them: An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign; and a sign shall not be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.

To rebuke, therefore, the perfidy of the Jews, the example of Jonas is brought forward

because the Ninevites believed by the sign, and thought that the preaching of Jonas, who had been in the belly of the whale, was to be followed: but the Jews did not believe even after the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, who rose again after three days from the heart of the earth, and lives and reigns through all ages. Amen.

Being about to come, then, to the sick, about to come as a physician, to heal our grievous sores; he sets forth medicines, that men may see them, and with faithful eagerness run to the remedy of health. So that woman in the Gospel merited health, who had suffered from a flow of blood for twelve years. She heard that the physician had come, she hastened to touch him, saying: If I shall touch but his hem, I shall be made whole. This she said within herself, and Christ heard it: and she touched the hem, and power went out from the Saviour, which healed the sick woman, strengthened the weak, stopped the flow, and proved his compassion. Similarly, then, here also he calls all nations to the fountain of wisdom and understanding: he promises redemption to all, that no one may tremble, no one despair, since no one is excluded; but every soul is invited to grace, that it may be redeemed from sin without price, and may obtain the fruit of eternal life.

This is the sense of the psalm, which we shall set forth in its order, when we have explained the force and quality of the preceding words. For the nations are commanded to hear, and those who dwell in the world are to perceive with their ears. That very world, of course, of which he said above: The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof: the world, and they that dwell therein. He founded it upon the seas, and prepared it upon the rivers. Which the Greeks call οἰκουμένη; because it is inhabited by Christ; as he himself said: For I will dwell in them; for he dwells in them, that he may fill what seemed empty. What, then, is the οἰκουμένη, but the holy Church, the temple of God, and the dwelling-place of Christ?

Nor unfittingly have the Latins, though in different words, yet with the same meaning, called it the world (orbis) of the earth

because the life of the saints who are indwelt by the Spirit, like a wheel, revolves in a circle (orbis) without any hindrance to its course.

The Church, then, is founded amid tribulations, in tempests and storms, in anxieties and sorrow, in adversities she is prepared amid rivers.

In what rivers? Hear him say: The floods have lifted up their voice. Hear also in the Gospel: He that believes in me, as the Scripture says, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this he spoke of the Spirit, which they that believed in him should receive. In these rivers, then, is the Church prepared, in which the grace of God flows forth. These are the rivers who perceive the word of God with the ear, and speak; that they may pour the word into the hearts of individuals. And therefore Scripture made a distinction, saying: Hear these things, all you nations: perceive with your ears, all you that inhabit the world. All can hear, yet not all perceive with their ears, but only the elect of God. And therefore the Saviour says: He that has ears to hear, let him hear.

He speaks of those spiritual ears of the inner man, whose nostrils also we read of, Job saying: The divine spirit which is in my nostrils. Not all men have these ears, and these nostrils. For one is the form of the body, another that of spiritual grace. He who is spiritual hears all things, judges all things: but the animal man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God. For the one is earth-born, the other heavenly.

therefore he adds: Both you that are earth-born, and sons of men: rich and poor together in one, that he might call all. Who is earth-born, but the son of man? Who is spiritual, but the Son of God? The one formed of concreted blood, and begotten of the desire of flesh and of man: the other born of God. One rich in every word and in knowledge: another poor, yet rich in grace; for the poor man also cried, and the Lord heard him.

And conversely there is also a rich man in pride, and a poor man in humility.

All are called to the Church, that all may be redeemed by Christ. He that is sick finds a physician; he that is well, acquires wisdom; the captive, a redeemer, the free man, a rewarder. Divine Scripture builds up all. In it each one finds either the healing of his wounds, or the confirmation of his merits. But the calling of rich and poor together in one summons us to a certain humility and equality; that neither should the rich disdain the poor, nor the poor envy the rich: but one single grace should bind the two together; because the Lord also became poor, though he was rich, that he might be at once the saviour of the poor and of the rich.

he goes on: My mouth shall speak wisdom; and the meditation of my heart, understanding.

Rightly are all called

because for all the fountain of wisdom abounds, nor is it comparable to a treasure of money, for it is declared more precious than all treasures. And therefore neither is the rich man turned away, nor is the poor man excluded; because wisdom does not discriminate by means, but by wills. He is more fit who is first in affection, and nearest in discipline. But if the meditation of the heart utters understanding, how much more perfect teaching! Then we are admonished not to bring forth a tumultuous discourse, but by a certain exercise of meditation, and by the balance of the inner mind, to weigh what is to be said; because it is written elsewhere: A false balance is not good.

I will incline my ear to a parable: I will open my proposition upon the psaltery.

The wise hearer attends, and inclines his ear, that he may understand the figures of parables. The Saviour speaks of this very ear, he who has an ear to hear.

The Lord also opens his closed proposition, when he has found a fitting instrument and vessel of election for himself, which he calls a psaltery: to whose likeness Paul, sounding forth the song of sweet grace with all his strings harmonizing together, plucked with the plectrum of the Holy Spirit both the inner and the outer string, so that both his tongue and his mind might pray. And therefore he says: I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the mind: I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the mind. Such a man, then, Christ promised long before, through whom he might manifest hidden things, and open what was wrapped in the obscurity of prophetic speech. Good is the psaltery, when the life agrees with faith, and the flesh's will aspires to the strength of the soul.

This is the sweet psaltery, where the discipline of living is melodious; that what is written may be fulfilled: The tongue of the dumb shall be clear.

There follows: Why shall I fear in the evil day?

The iniquity of my heel shall surround me. That is, since my mouth speaks wisdom, and the meditation of my heart understanding, what can I fear in the day of judgment; unless perhaps the iniquity of my heel is to be washed away from me? One thing is our iniquity, another the iniquity of our heel, in which Adam was wounded by the tooth of the serpent, and left, through his own wound, a liable inheritance to the succession of humankind, so that we all limp from that wound. Whence the Lord washed the feet of his disciples, that he might wash away the poisons of the serpent: and Peter is rebuked because he made excuse, that the Lord should not wash his feet.

And therefore it was said to him: Unless I wash your feet, you shall have no part with me. Hearing this, he offered not only his feet, but also his hands to be washed. To whom the Lord answered: He that is washed does not need to wash again, except his feet: but he is clean altogether.

Therefore David says: My iniquities have gone over my head; for he knew that he had been conceived in iniquity, and generated in sins from his mother. But the Lord, who had no sins of his own, and knew no iniquities of his own, says: The iniquity of my heel shall surround me; that is, the iniquity of Adam, not mine. But this cannot be a terror to me; for in the day of judgment, our own sins are punished in us, not the offenses of another's iniquity. Whence I think that the iniquity of the heel refers rather to the slipperiness of falling into sin, than to any guilt of our own transgression.

And rightly does the Lord, who took up all things on our behalf, say: Let us wash also our feet, that we may be able to remove the slipperiness of the heel; whereby there may be a faithful standing-ground of virtues, and lest anyone slip through his father's error, who is prepared to stand by his own resolve: and let him not fear the slipperiness of inheritance, who desires to hold fast the footstep of virtue. The iniquity, then, of our heel is the transgression of Adam, through which he slipped into contempt and disregard of the heavenly commandments.

There is also the iniquity of the heel, the wavering betrayal of Judas.

Of the heel for this reason, because it is written: He who eats bread with me shall lift up his heel against me. Rightly there it said "his," and here "my": "his," because Christ was without iniquity, but this iniquity is the traitor's alone; but "my heel," as though Christ calls Judas the last part of his own body, whose body and members we are. The apostles are the more excellent and active members of Christ; Judas is the heel, as it were the extreme part of the body, exposed to the serpent and open to wounding. Therefore the first heel was Adam, the second heel was Judas. That one was the fall of the whole inheritance, this one of the traitor alone, who could not implicate the inheritance; because we are now no longer carnal, but the inheritance of the Redeemer, Scripture saying: There is an inheritance for those who believe in the Lord.

Those, then, are the heel of whom he says: Those who trust in their own strength, and who glory in the abundance of their riches.

The rich have wanted and hungered. This was said concerning the Jews. But also all who live luxuriously, and do not hold the head, are the heel of Christ. But these are general statements, which apply broadly. For the rest, he spoke specifically of Judas the traitor, who seemed to himself strong and rich in the glory of the apostolate.

Finally, the discourse is woven from the Passion of the Lord: A brother does not redeem; man shall redeem; nor shall he give to God his own propitiation, and the price of the redemption of his soul; that is, why should I fear in the evil day? For what can harm me, who not only do not need a redeemer, but am myself the redeemer of all? Shall I make others free, and shall I myself tremble for myself?

Behold I will make all things new, which are above the very affection and piety of kinship.

Whom a brother, poured forth into the light from the same mother's womb, cannot redeem, because he is held back by the weakness of a like nature, man shall redeem: but that man of whom it is written: for the Lord shall send them a man who shall save them; who said of himself: You seek to kill me, a man who has spoken to you the truth. But although he is man, who shall know him? Why shall no one know him? Because as there is one God, so there is one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus. He alone is the one who shall redeem man, surpassing brothers in piety; because he shed his blood for strangers, which no one can offer for a brother.

And so he did not spare his own body, that he might redeem us from sin: and he gave himself as redemption for all; as the apostle Paul, his true witness, affirmed, saying: I speak the truth, I do not lie. But why shall he alone redeem? Because no one can equal him in piety, to lay down his soul for his little servants: no one in integrity; for all are under sin, all lie subject to that fall of Adam. He alone is chosen as Redeemer, who could not be liable to the old sin. Therefore by "man" let us understand the Lord Jesus, who took up the condition of man; that in his flesh he might crucify the sin of all, and blot out with his own blood the handwriting of all.

But perhaps you will say: How is it denied that a brother shall redeem, when he himself said: I will declare your name to my brothers? But not as a brother to us, but as the man Christ Jesus, in whom God was, did he forgive us our sins. For thus it is written: God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. In that Christ Jesus, of whom alone it was said: that the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us. Not, therefore, as a brother, but as Lord did he dwell in us, when he dwelt in the flesh. Since, then, he reconciled the world to God, he himself certainly had no need of reconciliation. For what sin of his own should he propitiate God, who knew no sins? Finally, when the Jews demanded the didrachma, which was given for sin according to the Law, he said to Peter: Simon, from whom do the kings of the earth receive tribute or census, from their own sons, or from strangers? Peter answered: From strangers.

To whom the Lord said: Then the sons are free.

But that we may not give them offense [lacuna] cast a hook, and take the fish that first comes up; and opening its mouth, you will find a stater: take that and give it for me and for you. He shows that he owes no propitiation of sins for himself; because he was not a servant of sin, but the Son of God was free from all error. For the son is free, the servant is under guilt. Therefore this one, free from all, neither gives the price of the redemption of his soul, whose blood's price could abound enough to redeem all the sins of the whole world. Rightly, therefore, does he free others, who owed nothing for himself.

I add more.

Not only does Christ not owe for himself the price of his own redemption or propitiation for sin, but even if you take it of any faithful man, it can be understood that individuals do not owe their own propitiation; because the propitiation of all is Christ, and he himself is the redemption of all. For whose man's blood is now sufficient for his own redemption, when for the redemption of all Christ poured out his own blood? Is there, then, anyone's blood that could be compared to the blood of Christ? Or what man is so powerful that he could give for himself a propitiation surpassing that propitiation which Christ offered in himself, who alone reconciled the world to God through his blood? What greater victim; what more excellent sacrifice; what better advocate, than he who was made the entreaty for the sins of all, and gave his soul as redemption for us?

Therefore no propitiation or redemption is sought for individuals; because the price of all is the blood of Christ, by which the Lord Jesus redeemed us, who alone reconciled the Father: and labored even to the end; because he himself took up our labor, saying: Come to me, all you who labor [lacuna] and I will refresh you. Behold him laboring: I have labored crying out, my jaws have become hoarse. And elsewhere: Issachar desired that which is good, resting among the strong. And below: He put his shoulder to labor, and became a husbandman. Therefore man shall no longer give his own propitiation, nor redemption; because he has once been washed from sin through the blood of Christ. Yet he shall labor, to keep the precepts of living, and not depart from the heavenly commandments.

While he lives, let him be in labor, and persevere in it; that he may live to the end, lest he too die by death, though he has already been redeemed from death.

But he who has kept the commandments of life shall not see destruction, when he sees those die who seemed to themselves most wise and most prudent in this age.

This applies specially to the scribes and Pharisees, who claim for themselves seats in the synagogues, as though the primacy of wisdom. Who truly labor in vain, since they think they are freed by the didrachma, while they have despised, by a certain empty interpretation of the Law, the spiritual price of their soul, and that singular sacrifice of the Lord's body, fleeing the sacrament of baptism. For no one is redeemed by the blood of goats and bulls: but all are freed by one blood, that of Christ, of which in Leviticus there is the figure, not the truth.

For it is not by didrachmas, but by the price of that blood alone that we are freed.

Let us therefore be teachable by God; that none of us may see destruction on that day, when the wise ones of this world, or the princes of the Jews, shall be condemned to perpetual death, when the foolish and the senseless alike shall perish. The two are not the same. The fool is one who has no sense, and understands foolish things: the senseless one is he who thinks wrongly. The senseless one has said, there is no God. In the same way the unjust one, not because he does not know equity, but because through the wickedness of his heart he commits unjust deeds: he is also called wicked; because he wishes to destroy uprightness through his own malice, not because he is ignorant of uprightness. So when the senseless and the foolish perish, they leave their riches to strangers; for they cannot find a proper and lawful heir of their folly and wickedness. For the lawful ones say: Because we are sons of God.

But if sons, then also heirs: heirs indeed of God, and co-heirs of Christ: if indeed we suffer together, that we may also be glorified together. The senseless, therefore, have no riches

because they have no inheritance either. The unfaithful have no riches, no possession; for to the faithful the whole world is a possession. They have no inheritance, because the inheritance belongs only to those who believe in the Lord. But they have their own riches. And so the miser says: I have nowhere to gather my fruits; for it is not true fruit, but the miser's fruit, which is money. And the Lord says to the miser: Go, sell your goods [lacuna] and come; follow me. For patrimony is not the perfect good, but these are the goods of the miser, which consist in some sort of profit. Sell, he says, what you think is yours; since it is not yours, because it passes to others like a river: and follow me, that you may know the immortal good.

The wise, therefore, are led to destruction, from whom God has hidden what he has revealed to little ones.

They shall perish together, and in one and the same place shall be the senseless and the foolish, and they shall leave their riches to strangers; because wickedness finds no lawful successor.

their graves are their houses forever, their tabernacles from generation to generation: they have called their lands after their own names.

Everywhere Scripture regards graves as base, to which the degenerate and those greedy for this life are compared. Their throat is an open sepulcher. To these, then, who live for the day and from the day, graves serve as houses. For the house of the just is not on earth, but in heaven; as the Apostle taught, saying: But our conversation is in heaven. This is our house, which is the house of Christ.

Whence Scripture says: And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken: but Christ as a son over his own house.

For the pious, then, the Church is their house, heaven is their homeland. And so the just man says: I am a sojourner with you on earth, and a pilgrim, as all my fathers were. For the luxurious, the house is a grave. Finally, those live as though in a grave who can say: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die, not having resurrection before their eyes. And so they cling fixed and entombed to their own tombs, because they did not believe they could be raised again. Their dwelling place, then, is in their own tomb, and their tabernacle is in an earthly progeny and generation; they leave the worms as heirs of their body; so that here alone is their memory, and it cannot pass into eternity.

Finally, their names are in their own lands; because their works are corruptible and earthly.

And so their names are written there, where they chose rather to live. But to those who lifted up their works, it is said: Do not rejoice, because the demons are subject to you: but rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. From this, then, let us understand that the Lord did not idly rebuke those who built for themselves sepulchers, or the tombs of the prophets, and adorned them. For the Jews are condemned, who bestowed earthly comforts, not eternal rewards, upon the prophets whom they had killed. And so he forbids his disciple to bury his father; because he ought to be intent without ceasing upon the eternal Father. And it is written in the book of Isaiah: What, he says, that you have built and hewn out for yourself a sepulcher? And Mary is reproved, who sought Christ in the tomb.

Leave the sepulchers, which they left who, hearing the voice of the Lord at his very passion, rose from their tombs.

Do not dwell among the dead, you who live. Hear the voice of Jesus raising up: Arise, you who sleep, and rise from the dead; that the light of Christ may be poured into you. His other light is the Holy Spirit, who shone like fire upon the holy apostles in the dispersion of tongues.

There follows: Man, when he was in honour, did not understand: he is compared to the beasts that have no understanding, and is become like unto them.

This way of theirs is a stumbling-block to them, and afterward they will be pleased in their own mouth. Because man, when he was in honour, did not understand (and honour it is, because he was made to the image of God, made capable of reason), he is compared to the beasts, which have no understanding: but he who has understood is compared to the angels.

And so this one is made glorious by the splendour of good works: that one, like a neighing horse, is reckoned by the filth of his living, which brings a stumbling-block on the way to those who live in baseness and shame. For the folly of a man defiles his ways. Men of this sort live according to their own appetite, which creates the stumbling-block, and after the stumbling-block they will be pleased in their own mouth, but not in their heart. For they are not the good, of whom it is said: With their mouth they blessed, and with their heart they cursed. To this an answer is given also by those who have it written thus in their copies: And afterward they will bless in their own mouth. For let thy word be near, and let it be in thy mouth and in thy heart.

Like sheep they shall be laid in hell: death shall feed upon them.

And the just shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their help shall grow old in hell, from their glory.

Because they were unwilling that Christ should feed them, death shall feed upon them. Who then would forsake the good shepherd, who lays down his life for his sheep, because the care of his flock belongs to him? Or who would choose the death of a hireling, which is repaid with the fitting wage of the worst deeds? Know at the same time, O man, that Christ is the true shepherd, who feeds his own unto life. Death crept in, which leads strangers to destruction, and devours those over whom it can prevail because of their crimes. Though in this life they had a zeal for power and riches, so as to lord it over others: yet in the resurrection there will be servitude, when the morning splendour shall shine upon the just: whose figure is that Jacob the lord is set before his brother.

Wretched, therefore, is that servitude, that at the time when others are called into the glory of splendour and light, the glory of these shall grow old and be consumed in the darkness of the nether world. And rightly it is said of them: They are cast out from their honour and their glory; for this glory is but temporal.

But God, it says, will deliver my soul from the hand of hell, when he shall receive it.

Well does he say this, who knew that his soul was not to be left in hell. For he descended, that he might release captives from the jaws of the nether world, not that he might remain captive among them.

Therefore, since these things which are in this world cannot pass away with us; therefore it is said to you: Be not thou afraid, when a man shall be made rich, and when the glory of his house shall be increased.

For when he shall die he shall take nothing away; nor shall the glory of his house descend with him. Do not, he says, be terrified at riches, and the power of the rich man, and worldly glory; because those things are fleeting, and pass away more quickly than they came. This treasure is a dream: you wake, and it has withdrawn; because he who is able to sleep off the drunkenness of this world, and take up the sobriety of virtue, despises these things, and counts money as nothing. Nor should you be afraid when you hear that the glory of some powerful man’s house has been multiplied. Look closely, and it is empty, having in it nothing of the fullness of faith. And what shall I say of a house? This whole world was empty before Christ filled it with the number of believers. And so it is written: He shall judge among the nations, he shall fill up ruins. For what else was there before in this world, but the ruin of unbelief? What is ruin?

Hear him who says: Where the ruin is, there also the eagles will be gathered; that is, where there is ruin, there also is resurrection.

Ruin is the emptiness of stability: resurrection is the fullness of living. And so the ruin of that Adam emptied us, but the grace of Christ has filled us. Therefore he emptied himself, that he might fill us, and that the fullness of virtue might dwell in the flesh of man. Learn what ruin is. While man lives, he is filled with breath; when he has died, he is certainly emptied of this vital breath. Much more does the loss of spiritual grace make one empty, which grace was accustomed to fill; so that we may say: Of his fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.

Of another it is said: I have laboured in vain: but the just man is like the scent of a full field.

But what is not empty, that is worldly and earthly; since he spoke rightly, who with sober virtue despised this world: naked was I born, and naked shall I die?

Can anyone carry away with him what he possesses? There he leaves everything behind, he alone enters the tomb, and the sepulchre is void of his riches, he whom not even the earth itself could contain. Whence it is said: Shall you alone dwell upon the earth? Does the glory of his house, or his abundance, go down into that sepulchre? See the force of Scripture. The glory of the world does not descend with the sinner, but the glory of virtue ascends with the innocent. And to put it more briefly, the glory of man will ascend with him who ascends: it will not descend with him who descends. What belongs to grace and virtue will ascend. Into paradise one ascends, into hell one descends.

Let them go down alive into hell, it says.

Therefore Lazarus the poor man was lifted by angels into Abraham’s bosom. The luxurious rich man, lifting up his eyes in hell, asks Abraham to send the poor man, and touch his tongue with his finger, that, set in the greatest burning, he might obtain some rest. See that poor man abounding in all good things, whom the blessed rest of the holy Patriarchs surrounded. See this one empty, who seemed to himself in this world to abound in all things, whose soul was blessed in his own lifetime: but now he is tormented, helpless, in death.

Whence there follows fittingly: For his soul shall be blessed in his life: he shall praise thee when thou shalt do well to him.

They will bless him, it says, with earthly blessing. Foolish men, who consider present things, not future ones. His followers and parasites will bless him. He too thinks himself blessed, if he has seized some field that he desired.

He will give thanks to God then, when things go well for him in this world: but when adverse things happen, he curses with impious mouth. This, then, he says, because the worldly man does not give thanks when placed in poverty and adversity; but the just man, in straits, blesses the Lord all the more with a grateful heart. Finally, the devil says to God: What wonder, if Job blesses you? He has everything in abundance. But stretch forth, he says, your hand, and touch what he possesses, let us see if he will bless you to your face. And the Lord gave him power to take away what belonged to this world; to cover his flesh with the atrocity of sores. Yet Job kept blessing, saying: The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away [lacuna] blessed be the name of the Lord.

He shall go in even unto the generations of his fathers: even unto eternity he shall not see light.

Man, when he was in honour, did not understand; he is compared to the beasts, which have no understanding, and is become like unto them. Therefore, he says, this one shall enter into the generation of his fathers. Who is the father of the impious, the Lord declared, saying: You are of your father the devil. There are also those fathers of whom it is said: Let the dead bury their dead. Therefore also the Moabites were forbidden, even unto the third and fourth generation, to enter into the Church of the Lord; that their sons, because of the sins of their fathers, should enter into that generation whose deeds and manners they imitated. Whence also it is written: The children of adulterers shall come to nought. Therefore he who follows not that Father who is in heaven, but that one who lives in earthly filth, enters into the generation of his earthly father. For such as the earthly man is, such also are the earthly ones; so that his life is earthly, with no rest after death.

He shall not see light forever, because he sought the temporal. But he who has followed the glory of Christ, who has desired that light which enlightens every man coming into this world, shall find and shall see the eternal light, because Christ has redeemed him from death.

It is the undoubted habit of all of us to hasten to the end, and to wish to know the sum of the things we have read, or seen, or heard. Whence the title itself does not allow us to be idle, nor to pass by with idle ears the sign of our common desire. For beyond the rest, though it shines forth in the others too, the divine oracle gleams especially in a psalm of this kind. Whence let us more carefully consider what "end" means; for it is called τέλος, and it is the sum of the thing which we wish to explain. Christ is called the end, because he himself is the end of the Law; as it is written: For Christ is the end of the Law unto justice to everyone that believeth. He is also called the end, because he himself is the beginning and the end.

Therefore these psalms which are entitled: Unto the end, either concern Christ, or are Christ’s own; concerning Christ, when he himself is announced: Christ’s own, when he himself announces himself, and promises that he will come upon the earth, and deigns to reveal to us the future passion of his own body.

And rightly, for Idithun, who was a prophet, and used to sing psalms with his six sons, it is, as it were, a kind of preface

because pardon needed to be granted in advance to those who, established in the ministry of psalm-singing, spoke divine oracles with a human voice. And because for the abolishing of the error of the whole world the passion of the Lord's body was to be undertaken, under the name of him whose diligence was approved, he expressed a more commendable instruction of the people. So let us hear him speaking himself: 4.

Shall not my soul be subject to God?

Our Lord Jesus, about to take up the flesh of man, in order himself to cleanse it in himself, what first ought he to have abolished, before all else, but the contagion of the ancient sin? For because guilt had crept in through disobedience, while the divine commandments were being transgressed, he certainly ought, above all else, to restore obedience, so that he might shut out the seedbed of error.

For the fiber of sin had flowed from there; and therefore, like a good physician, he had first to cut away the roots of the ulcer, so that the wholesome remedy of the medicines might reach the mouth of the wound. For in vain would you heal the scar, if the inner contagions creep on; nay, the wound is made worse if it is closed on the outside, while the poison seethes within. For what would it have profited to have forgiven the sin, if the disposition to sin remained? This would be not to heal the scar, but to close it over. He wished, therefore, to cleanse the wound, that he might heal the disposition; lest any lot of disobedience should remain. He himself took up obedience, that he might pour it into us. For it was fitting that, as through the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so again through the obedience of one man many should be made just.

Whence it is clearly shown how greatly they err who say that the flesh of man was taken up by Christ, but deny the affection of soul; and who come against the very counsel of the Lord Jesus himself, in that they take away man from man; since man cannot exist without human affection. For flesh without affection is exempt both from reward and from fault. That, therefore, he ought to take up and heal, from which fault had flowed; that he might close the origin of error and the certain doors of bursting-forth sin. Whence should I today acknowledge the Lord Jesus as man, whose flesh I do not see, but whose affection I read? Whence, I say, should I acknowledge him as man, unless he had hungered, unless he had thirsted, unless he had wept, unless he had said: My soul is sorrowful even unto death? Finally it is written: And he is man, and who shall know him? But man is known through these things, who through divine works is esteemed above men.

And so he himself wished to be believed man to this extent, though he was God, that he called himself man, saying: Why do you seek to kill me, a man who have spoken the truth to you? And not only did he call himself man, but even Son of man, as he says: Whom do men say that I, the Son of man, am? Whence he was pronounced to hold the sum of the faith, who both knew the Son of God and did not deny the man. He himself, therefore, is one in both, inseparable in number, and to be known by distinction of work, not by variety of person. For it is not one from the Father and another from Mary; but he who was from the Father took flesh from the Virgin; he assumed affection from his mother, that he himself might take up our infirmities. Whence the Prophet says: And he grieves for us. How was he grieving with my grief, if he did not bear my affection?

Man, he says, in stroke, and knowing how to bear infirmity.

And so as man he was made infirm, as man he grieved; and we esteemed him as man to be in griefs: but as victor over infirmities, not conquered by infirmities, he grieved for us, not for himself; and he was made infirm not for his own but for our sins, that he might heal us by his bruise. What indeed is "man in stroke, and knowing how to bear infirmity," except that he had compassion for the stroke? Or how did he know how to bear infirmity, if he had excluded the sense of infirmity? For what we carry, this we sustain as a burden. He took up, therefore, our sins, that he might carry them; he took them up also, that he might purge them. Finally it is written: And their sins he himself purged. Therefore he shall possess many by inheritance, and shall divide the spoils of the strong. For there is a greater triumph, where the inner mind is cleansed. That which he carries, therefore, pertains to remission; that which he purges, to correction.

He took up, then, our compassion, he took up also our subjection. For that he subjected all things to himself, is his own; that he was subjected, is ours. And therefore he says: Shall not my soul be subject to God? The soul, he says, is subjected, not the divinity; the soul is subjected, not the power of God. For the power of God is not subject to authority, but uses unity and fellowship of that authority. That is subjected which is for the most part changed by the fragility of the human condition, not that which cannot be changed. The soul suffers with the flesh, and the flesh with the soul, which are joined together by a certain fellowship of dwelling. That is subjected which is sorrowful; because it is written: My soul is sorrowful even unto death.

That is subjected which was assumed, not born of God the Father; although this very subjection is not indeed in the appearance of infirmity, but in the operation of power; it is rather the arbiter of a temporary dispensation, than made over to perpetual servitude. Whence also he says: Shall not my soul be subject to God?

Why did he say, "shall be," if the subjection is everlasting?

But because the Son of God who was speaking is eternal, yet he took up the soul in time; therefore he speaks of the future subjection of his soul. Through it, then, is obedience, through it humility; which nevertheless were not taken up for weakness of power, but for the teaching of discipline. For the Lord Jesus himself, though he was in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, found in appearance as a man: he humbled himself, made obedient unto death. As the Apostle says, wishing to declare not a continual and perpetual, but a temporal subjection: such as was taken up with the flesh, and laid aside with the servitude of that body itself. So too it is written to the Hebrews.

For when he had set forth an example, saying: Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchisedech; Paul the same subjoined: Who in the days of his flesh, offered up prayers and supplications to him who was able to save him from death, with a loud cry and tears; and was heard for his fear. Though he was Son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became to those obeying him the cause of eternal salvation, called of God a priest after the order of Melchisedech. Did not the Apostle, then, cry out clearly, saying that that obedience and humility was not of the divinity, but of the flesh? For what is spoken of is temporal.

As man, therefore, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered; that he might be made perfect in the flesh, and through the succession of obedience poured out into us might become for us the cause of eternal salvation, for whom before through the inheritance of disobedience that first Adam became the cause of death.

Subjection, therefore, is a teaching of human virtue, not a diminution of divine power.

For if they say that he is a lesser Son and unequal to the Father, because he was subject to God the Father; is he then also lesser than his mother, because he was subject to his mother? For it is read of Joseph and Mary: And he was subject to them. But piety is to us all not a loss but an increase, through which the Lord Jesus has poured faith and grace into all of us; that he may make us, by a faithful spirit, subject to God the Father. And therefore by a new and profound counsel the Apostle says that he himself will be subject to the Father in us, when there shall be in all the fullness of faith, and a certain unity of devotion.

For now, so long as we differ in opinions, we in some manner diminish the kingdom of Christ; because not yet are all things subject to him whose kingdom is unity: But when all things shall be subject to him, then the Son also himself shall be subject to him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all; as it is written. For now he is above all in power, but it is needful that he be in all by will: and he will will it, when he shall have known all things in us full of himself, and empty of sins. Not yet, therefore, is he subject to the Father; because not yet is Christ all and in all: but when Christ shall be all and in all, then God shall be all and in all.

Whence it is gathered that the kingdom of the Father and of the Son, and also of the Holy Spirit, is one

because he who receives the Son, receives also the Father, and receives also the Holy Spirit; because one is the power, one the grace, one the operation of the Trinity.

And rightly the Lord added: For from him is my salvation.

As if he said: Be not troubled because I said that my soul would be subject to God. The soul will be subject, which is your portion: but my salvation is from him; that is, because I am always from the Father and in the Father. For from the Father I came into this world: though you see a man, believe him to be the Son of God. But when the Paraclete shall come whom I will send you from my Father, the spirit of truth, who proceeds from my Father, he shall bear witness of me. And the Son proceeds from the Father, and the Spirit proceeds from him. Of the unity of the divinity, therefore, there is nothing ambiguous.

And therefore David desired that this salvation of God be given to us; because he himself is eternal life, if we acknowledge both the Father as true God and the Son, whom it is certain came for our salvation: but he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He holds in reserve the assertion of his divinity, and displays the office of the human dispensation.

therefore he added at once: For he himself is my God, my helper, my defender: I shall not be moved any more. This indeed he speaks as man; because we ought to place our hope in God, lest we easily slip: although in that which he said, "I shall not be moved any more," he shows that he has the marks of divine power. For you have him elsewhere saying: Yet once more I will shake the earth (Haggai 2:7). He shook it by the flood, when except for Noah's ark all flesh perished: he shook it when Sodom and Gomorrah were consumed by sacred fire.

These are signs of heavenly indignation.

But because the Lord chose rather to save the race of men than to destroy it, he who came unto mercy will not be moved any more unto indignation: he came to redeem us by his blood, not to pour out ours: he came to offer himself for us, and like a good merchant to keep his goods safe by the suffering of his own body.

when he had said this, he lifted up his eyes, and saw on this side his persecutors, on that the spiritual wickednesses coming together as one, and he said: How long do you rush upon a man, slaying all, that is: Why do you hasten to destroy the human race? Do you not know that I as man came for the redemption of all? I offered myself for all, that I might protect all by my offering.

We take "man," then, either for the whole human multitude, or if we take it of one, we understand it said of himself: You rush upon, but upon a man

because you cannot rush upon God; as you have elsewhere: Why do you seek to kill me, a man? For the divinity could not be subject to death, but the human assumption could. If, then, you rush upon me, and wish to hold me; why do you wish to kill those who are with me? It is enough for you to have him whom you seek. Nor do I seek a partner in my suffering, I who need no helper for the salvation of all. I do not seek a delegate, I send no messenger ahead; but I myself offered myself as messenger to those not seeking me: I handed myself over to those not apprehending me; that I might free those who had been caught in the snares of death.

You rush, therefore, as upon a leaning wall and a battered rampart, not knowing that I came not to make the wall lean, and to batter the rampart; but to loose it. For I came, being peace, that I might make both one; and loosing the middle wall of partition which divided flesh and soul, so that they could not feel as one: and therefore the flesh warred against the soul, and could not be subject to its rule; because, by the obstacle of the wall placed between, it could not obey its governance.

The law of the flesh, therefore, was opposed to the law of the mind.

This wall of old enmities the Lord Jesus removed like a barrier, and made the meeting of mind and flesh passable; that coming together as one, they might follow that which was salutary to both. The wall, then, is a certain prominence of sins. Whence Paul says to the high priest of the Jews: God shall smite you, whitewashed wall; for a wall is built with mud and mortar. From this the Egyptians used to build their cities, when the Jews were compelled to make bricks. In Egypt mud was made, and the people of God wrought sin there. Therefore they groaned, therefore they were heard and freed from sin. Therefore the Law was given, grace was promised; that the Law might cut off sin in part, grace might grant it entirely.

when he was conferring these things upon us, when he was undergoing these things for us, we were rejecting his price.

Whence he says: But they thought to reject my price; when, the traitor Judas bringing back the price, the Jews would not put it into the treasury, saying: It is not lawful for us to put it into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. Here the traitor is condemned by his own judgment, who poured back the price which he had received, weak as a witness to the sacred gift, but strong as a witness of his own crime. For everyone is a heavier accuser of himself, and pronounces upon himself an unanswerable sentence. The princes of the Synagogue condemn themselves by their own judgment. For they confess that it is the price of blood which they gave, while they find fault with him who pours it back. For if it was not to be received, neither was it to be paid. And would that either they had not given it, or, since they had given it, that they had not received it back.

For they rejected what they refused to put into the treasury, and bought with it a field for the burial of foreigners. Rightly, therefore, the Gentiles, to whom the field of him who was bought by Christ's death has profited for burial, are no longer strangers and foreigners, but have become fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; because they are buried together with the Son of God: but the Jews who rejected the price of his passion are pilgrims away from Christ. More tolerable in this respect even the traitor, in that he confesses his error: but they aggravate their own crime by excusing it. For confession after a fault is more modest. Impudently, therefore, they rejected the one confessing a common sacrilege, saying: What is that to us? See thou to it. For what did the traitor say, but this: I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood?

What was the crime of the one betraying, how could it not be the sin of the one receiving; since crime is joined to crime, so that him whom they wickedly bought, they should more wickedly slay?

I ran, he says, in thirst.

True indeed it is that our Lord Jesus thirsted. Blessed is the Lord's thirst; because he thirsted for us, and most of all in his passion. Finally he said: I thirst. Then therefore he was thirsting, when from his side he was pouring forth the streams of living water that would quench the thirst of all. Finally it is written: Rivers of living water shall flow from his belly. But in the Greek it is put ambiguously; because ἔδραμον signifies both the singular and the plural number. Therefore we can understand both "I ran" and "they ran," according to the Greek. Now we have said what "I ran" expresses, that is, I hastened to take up the thirst of all, that I might satisfy all with the abundance of the perpetual fountain (for to whomsoever I shall give water, he shall not thirst, neither here, nor in the future, as it was said to the Samaritan woman); now let us say what it signifies: They ran in thirst.

That is, they hastened, so that, denying the living fountain in the heat of their perfidy, they might dry their throats with eternal aridity; as the Lord himself says: They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have hewn out for themselves broken cisterns. Nor is it strange if they thirsted, who could not hold the water of the eternal fountain through the cracks of their slippery perfidy. They thirsted, therefore; because they deprived themselves of the spiritual drink, which they had drawn from the rock that followed them. Whence also Symmachus says: Τῷ δόλῳ αὐτῶν εὐλόγουν, that is, it pleased them in a lie, when they set forth false things instead of true. Every lie has thirst, truth has abundance, which perseveres forever.

And how quickly he proved that they ran in falsehood!

With their mouth, he says, they blessed, and with their heart they cursed. Wretched is the thirst of the faithless, who held one thing in their heart, and spoke another with their mouth. But where the abundance of faith overflows, belief is held in the heart unto righteousness, and confession is made with the mouth unto salvation. But how they blessed with the mouth, and cursed with the heart, the course of the Passion shows, when they said: Let him come down from the cross and we will believe him. Fools! He rose from death, and they did not believe; how, if he had come down from the cross, would they have believed? He trusted in the Lord, let him deliver him: let him deliver him now, seeing he delighteth in him; because they were saying these things mocking rather than wishing, and were asking whether he was the Son of God, speaking peaceable words, while in their heart they were devising the accusation of sacrilege.

We recall someone (he means Gratian) recently assailed by all, abandoned and betrayed by his own men: who, lately set upon the height of empire, suddenly lacking everything, from the very ones by whom he had inherited obedience, began to be beset, men rushing in upon his destruction, bringing death, with no helper, no companion now of his, no comrade. What better could he have said, than what he had received from him to whom he devoted himself: Shall not my soul be subject to God? That is, why do you persecute; why do you rage; why do you insult? You can kill the flesh, you cannot kill the soul. You can take away that life of the body, you cannot destroy its merit. For it is written: Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

The soul, therefore, which is subject to God, is not subject to human power; for from him it hopes for the fruit of eternal life, and the help of perpetual salvation. He therefore to whom I have delivered myself will both defend me when slain, and raise me up when dead, and avenge me when killed. The righteous man was taken away, lest wickedness should change his heart. This death, then, is rather a flight from sin, than a loss to the one dying.

For he himself is my God, my helper, my defender: I shall not be moved any more. He who slips, is moved; because he flows away from a certain station of his integrity and innocence. For once placed upon the rock of Christ, one ought not to have a slippery footing; but to keep the firmness of his own standing. Whence he is called immovable, who preserves an immovable will, and pursues some purpose with the intent of a faithful mind. For we also read of God's immovable will, as you have it to the Hebrews: In which, God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed an oath.

Rightly, therefore, is the will of God immovable, which is moved by the enticements of no sin.

But men are movable, slippery unto sinning, prone to erring. Finally it is said of the Jews: And they that passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads. And the Lord himself says in the psalm: All they that saw me laughed me to scorn: they spoke with the lips, and shook the head. Christ is the head of all. It is better, then, that Christ remain in us, than that he be moved by any commotion of ours. Whence the Jews, shaking their heads, said: Away with such a fellow from the earth. The Gerasenes asked that he depart from their borders: but the Church held him, and did not let him go. Therefore she who held him, possesses him: they who moved him, cannot hold him. But beautifully the evangelist says that they passing by shook their heads: passing by, not standing still. We stand in the sacred courts, we pass by in the streets.

The priest passed by, the Levite passed by: he stood who cured the wounds that were inflicted.

And therefore those who were passing along the way did not say: The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we bless you out of the house of the Lord; for the feet of those who bless are standing, not passing by. Finally also, they pass by and gather grapes from a vineyard whose fence is broken down, not those who abide. Those passing by hiss, as we read in the Lamentations of Jeremiah: All that pass by clap their hands at thee: they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem (Thren. Ii, 15). Therefore the priest could not be crowned, the Levite could not, because they passed by, and passed away like a shadow. But Stephen was crowned with martyrdom; because he saw the Lord Jesus standing, immovable, not passing by. Stephen, therefore, immovable in faith, was seeing the immovable Christ: he was moved by no fear of death. Stephen did not move himself, Christ did not move himself.

Moved were the sons of the traitor, of whom it is said: Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg.

For he who is moved needs a physician. The sinner is destitute, the righteous man is rich; because he lacks no good thing, who always seeks the Lord.

And since from that the discourse has been drawn, he who said: I shall not be moved any more; that to be moved is to sin toward, David himself shows, saying: Who hath set my soul unto life, and hath not suffered my feet to be moved. Whence also it is said to the holy man by the Lord our God: But stand thou here with me; since he who is close to God cannot be near to falling. For every fault is accustomed, as with an adversary's effort, to cast the mind down from its place, and to move it from its own standing: which seems drawn either from an enemy, or from a wrestling-match. Anger disturbs, lust inflames, envy goads, avarice tortures, fear casts down, grief afflicts. And it was said to Peter by the Lord Jesus: Get thee behind me. He did not say: Get thee behind (for this he said to the devil alone) but: Get thee behind me; for he is not behind, who is after Christ.

But because Peter was erring, as the Lord himself says to him

Because thou savourest not, he says, the things that be of God, but the things that be of men; therefore come behind me, that thou mayest begin to perceive, not human things, but divine. Therefore also here the righteous man, about to be taken from the earth, says: I shall not be moved any more. For to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, is far better. For he cannot slip who has begun to be with Christ; because death for the righteous is not the end of nature, but of sin.

Amid these words he suddenly sees the columns of his persecutors, and set amid dangers, not anxious for himself; but concerning those whom he desired to free, he says: How long will ye rush upon a man, slaying all together (Above, verse 4)? If you seek me, why do you wish to slay others? I offer myself for many; because he alone was able to offer himself for all, who is the author of all. The imitator, then, of him whom he followed says: If ye seek me, let these go their way; that the saying might be fulfilled which Jesus spoke: That I have lost none of them but one (for this the Lord's sentence comprehends in another book); who nevertheless perished more by his own will, than punished, he says, by my severity.

And though I offer myself of my own accord, ye rush and press in as against a leaning wall, and a tottering fence

of the Psalm)

that is: The summit of a noble seat once august, and the strong wall, once encircled throughout the whole Roman world, of empire, like a leaning wall, or a tottering fence, I collapse.

But be it so, that they sought me even unto death, they sought me for slaughter, saying: Let us take away the righteous, let us take away the merciful

because he is grievous to us even to look upon: but they thought that even my reputation, my chastity, was to be wounded with false calumnies; for this is: They thought to reject my price; because our price is chastity, which separates us from the beasts, joins us to the angels. Our price is mercy, which, while it is bestowed on the needy, redeems us from death. Our price is faith, which has acquired for Christ all men oppressed by pagan error and servitude. Our price is good reputation; because the sequence of merits of each of us is reckoned. Our price is purity and simplicity; because it is written: A precious possession is a pure man; for nothing is more precious than a simple man. Whence the Apostle beautifully says: He abounded, he says, in the riches of his simplicity.

For what is richer than simplicity: which, like a good father of a household, is sufficient abundantly for itself, and content with its own purity, does not seek what is another's, nor gnaw at it; but fashions others after itself? For the innocent man believes every word, nor does he often shift himself into various arts; as does cunning, which, in order to be cautious, fears everything, and does not trust itself to its own counsels: it turns over its own judgments. But simplicity knows not how to fear. In this manner, then, they attempted to reject the price of the righteous man; although this too can be understood, that they were receiving his gold with their hands, while rejecting it in their inmost heart, holding the plunder, denying the faith.

Whence also he says: I ran in thirst; because he sought faith, and could not find it, forsaken by his companions, abandoned by his own.

Thus we read that the Lord Jesus in the Gospel both hungered and thirsted; since he hungered for our faith, thirsted for our works, and seemed to seek what was another's. Or, if we refer it to bodily thirst, with what great indignity does he say: I ran in thirst? That is: I was thirsting, while others belched forth my wines; and from that lofty seat of sovereign power, and royal opulence, I was brought down to the extremity of thirst by a certain plebeian vileness.

And because the Greek has ἔδραμον, which signifies both "I ran" in the singular, and "they ran" in the plural, it can also be understood thus: They ran in thirst, whose throats with excessive heat grew dry for the shedding of my blood. For as there is a thirst of faith, so also of faithlessness. That thirst the just man thirsts, who says: My soul has thirsted for thee, O God. This the faithless thirst, whose tongue grew dry from thirst. Which did that man thirst for, who, amid the feasts and cups of a banquet, was plotting the death of an innocent guest, an Augustus? Did it not seem to you, impious one, while you were eating, that you were preparing slaughter, that human bones crackled beneath your teeth? While you drank wine, and were contemplating parricide, that in those very cups you were pouring for yourself the blood of an innocent man?

So utterly a stranger not only to the imitation, but even to the reading, of the divine word; that there did not come to your mind that

of the Psalms: But thou, a man of one mind with me, my guide and my acquaintance, who together with me took sweet food.

And that other, of whom the Lord Jesus himself makes mention in the Gospel: He who ate bread with me will lift up his heel against me.

What shall I do to thee, Ephraim; what shall I do to thee, Judah?

You have left us more heirs of your betrayal and your fraud; for this too can be turned by apostrophe to the betrayer Judas. You betrayed life, kingdom, Lord. But the Lord Jesus is betrayed once in himself, frequently in his little servants. For what you have done to one of these least ones, he says, you have done to me. You took charge of the purses entrusted to you and the moneys of the poor, that other man took charge of provinces entrusted to him. You had the honor of an apostle, he the dignity of military command, the insignia of office. Let me number his honors, that I may aggravate his crime.

Both of you violated the fellowship of the table: yet you rose from the table to betrayal, that other man to murder

that is, you, though in crime, were the more modest, in that you denied that you believed death was to be inflicted upon the Lord whom you were betraying, and you gave back the price; lest the wages of parricide should seem to remain with you. That other man not only kept the reward he had received, but even extorted a reward for betrayal that had not been offered. That other man was not only not deceived by another's lie: but deceived by his own, and deceived in order to kill. And when that first betrayer refused the banquet, seeing that he was to be destroyed, this one offered the sacrament; lest any part of the crime to be heaped upon him should be lost. Finally, the money of the earlier betrayer served for the burial of strangers: this one denied full burial to his own prince.

Nor was there lacking one who washed his hands, saying: I am innocent of the blood of this just man; in which Pilate did not cleanse himself, but stained himself: and entangled himself, did not free himself. For although there is no weight in the judgments of the lost, yet there is a greater bond in their confessions. For the just are absolved not by another's sentence, but by their own life: the unjust bind themselves the more vehemently by their own words, who cannot bind others. Yet lest even this man should seem to lack a confession of his own, he swore in order to perjure himself. He washed his hands, while touching the Gospel: lest anything should be lacking to the example. He washed his hands with water, that he might stain himself the more wickedly with the blood of an innocent man. Nor was Herod lacking, to whom this other Pilate believed he would give pleasure, if he sent the captured Prince to him.

What shall I say too of this, that he also was clothed in a white garment for mockery: afterward too he was given a royal garment for his death; lest he should seem to have lost the honor due to him? For although he perished through crime, he retained, even in death, the right of the power conferred upon him, whether by the service or by the assent of those very ones by whom it was denied.

There was added to so great a crime a funereal pomp; but he who impatiently was bewailing these things, upon learning what was being prepared, moved by just grief rebuked the proud victor, saying that such things are wont to be inflicted by tyrants, not by kings. Thus, terrified by the horror of the outrage, he set aside the apparatus of the most foul crime. Nor, therefore, was there lacking a petitioner for burial, even though that Joseph who was called just, was lacking. But by far the more savage Maximus was refusing what Pilate himself could not take away. In this, the humanity of the parricide was lacking, yet grace was not lacking to the innocent one: and patience being assumed for a time, vengeance was but a little while postponed.

therefore he says: Nevertheless my soul is subject to God; for from him is my patience. For he himself is my God, and my salvation, my helper, I shall not remove.

That is, has the denial of bodily burial taken from me the abode of perpetual rest? I have my dwelling in the tabernacle of the Lord, and I shall rest in his holy mountain. I shall not remove because of human crime; because I have been received into the favor of the Lord; because neither death, nor sword, nor tribulation shall be able to separate me from the charity of Christ. For it is not the innocent who removes from the tabernacles of the just, but the sinner. The heirs of Judas the betrayer remove, of whom and of those like them it is deservedly said: Let his children be shaken and removed, and let them beg; let them be cast out of their dwellings.

This is well referred also to the Lord Jesus Christ, who, though he descended to the earth, to be crucified, to be buried, did not remove from the Father, but remained in the Father. I was delivered up, and I did not go forth. Nor did he lay aside what he was, but retained it: nor did he cease to be in the form of God, but persevered: the glory of God not being changed by the assumption of a body, but remaining, he acquired a triumph, he did not lose his power. Whence he himself says: Henceforth you shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of power.

Whence, having called together the peoples of the nations, and those acquired for the Father by his own blood, he exhorts them to faith, saying: Hope in him, all assemblies of my people

that is, not Israel alone, but all, he says: nor the remnant alone, but also the fullness of the nations: nor the nations alone, but Israel; for when the fullness of the nations shall have entered in, then all Israel shall be saved. Who can comprehend the divine mysteries? Whose multitude is so great, that Paul rightly marvels, and rightly says: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! The nations were rejected, that Israel might be chosen: afterward Israel was blinded because of the calling of the nations; and the blinded remnant of Israel, according to the election of grace, was made safe, after the fullness of the nations entered in. Thus the fault of Israel profited the nations: the faith of the nations set free the Israelite people.

Pour out, he says, your hearts before him.

He who puts on faith must first put off faithlessness, empty his heart of every stain of malice; that his heart may become capable of spiritual grace. And therefore the Apostle says: Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. For when the old malice is poured out, new grace is taken up, by which each one is renewed. Therefore the Son of God says: Pour out your hearts before him; because he knew that the Father was going to say: I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh. There is also that tradition, that we seem to pour out our heart, when we open all the thoughts and desires of our heart to someone. Let us, therefore, cast our thoughts upon God, nor believe that anything is hidden from him. We pour out our heart before him, when we set aside human disputations.

But vain are the sons of men: the sons of men are liars in the balances, that they may deceive.

If the sons of men are vain, and the sons of men are liars, can the sons of God not be vain; who are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man; but of God? For the sons of men seem to themselves to weigh equity, and to examine justice with the gravity of a stricter judgment, harsh to others, indulgent to themselves, unjust in works, censors in speech. Whence Solomon says: A double weight is abominable to the Lord, and a deceitful balance is not good. By which he signifies those who meditate rapine with an insatiable heart, and put forth sobriety on their brow. Such are the scribes of the Jews, who impose heavy burdens of stricter observance upon others, not having a straight yoke of their own soul; but bent by inclined iniquity: yet they themselves are deserters of their own precepts.

Thus avarice is found, as it were, the root of all vices, which is the head and tinder of iniquity: which a man, renouncing the world, and buried together with Christ through the sacrament of baptism, being dead to the world, ought to decline and flee from.

Do not, he says, hope in iniquity, and do not covet rapine: if riches flow in, do not set your heart upon them.

Do you see that they flow in abundance, do you not see that they flow past? You were born naked, you shall die naked. Why do you seek to take up what you cannot carry away with you? They are streams which you admire: as they come, so they pass and recede. Only the Jordan was turned backward, into which you descended: which admonishes you, that you should return to that very fountain and origin of nature, which brought you forth naked, not clothed with a garment; that you may learn not to seek superfluous things. This, that you blush to be naked, guilt has taught, not nature.

For there would be no shame of the genital parts, if there were no guilt. For neither are the other animals clothed, that they may be covered; nor are they clothed, that they may be defended. All things are sufficiently defended by the covering of their own nature; we, while we seek superfluous things, have lost the covering of nature, have lost the common right. And therefore in this psalm a healing doctrine is inscribed; because either Idithun, or himself under that name, by spiritual exercise, instructed for the undergoing of temptations, that one placed in straits should subject himself to God; and if he has sinned before, he should cease to sin, nor be moved by a relapse into error.

God has spoken once, these two things have I heard.

God has spoken once, and many things have been heard; because he did not speak through letters and syllables. He has spoken through enigmas, he has spoken through visions, he has spoken through distributions of graces, he has spoken through the Spirit to individuals.

But we speak many things, and are scarcely heard.

He spoke once in the Law, the same he spoke again in the Gospel. Or perhaps, as I think, because he spoke in many ways in the prophets, but lately he has spoken in his Son. He has spoken once, when he spoke in the Son; and there were heard also those things which had not before been heard by those to whom he had spoken through the prophets. He has spoken, therefore, once in the New Testament, and the Old Testament was heard, which was not being heard; because the Lord himself said of the people of the Jews: Seeing they shall see, and not see: hearing they shall hear, and not hear. They shall hear with the bodily ear, but they shall not hear with the hearing of the mind.

To us, then

that is, to the Church, he has spoken once, and two things have been heard; because we have both heard and understood those things which they who read did not understand: they who heard did not hear. For Christ alone opened the human ear to know the mysteries; he alone loosed the seal of the book, and unraveled the enigmas of the prophets.

therefore he himself will render to each one according to his works, in which he includes also the quality of the works; that either he may restore the rewards of many and better deeds according to the merits of individuals; or on the contrary we may be burdened both by the number and by the bitterness of our deserts.