ST. AUGUSTIN

EXPOSITIONS ON THE BOOK OF PSALMS

[Translated by the Rev. J. E. Tweed, M.A., chaplain of Christ Church,
Oxford; T. Scratton, Esq., M.A., of Christ Church; the Rev. H.M. Wilkins,
M.A., of Merton College, Oxford; ?the Rev. Charles Marriot, of Oriel
College; ?the Rev. H. Walford, Vice-Principal of St. Edmund's Hall; at
least one anonymous contributor. Abridged from the six volumes of the Oxford
Series by A. Cleveland Coxe, D.D.]

PSALMS 76-85: FROM THE 3RD BOOK OF THE PSALMS.


PSALM LXXVI.[1]

   1. The Jews are wont to glory in this Psalm which we have sung, saying,
"Known in Judaea is God, in Israel great is the name of Him :" and to
revile the Gentiles to whom God is not known, and to say that to themselves
alone God is known; seeing that the Prophet saith," Known in Judaea is
God." In other places therefore He is unknown. But God is known in very
deed in Judaea, if they understand what is Judaea. For indeed God is not
known except in Judaea. Behold even we say this, that except a person shall
have been in Judaea, known to him God cannot be. But what saith the
Apostle? He that in secret is a Jew, he that is so in circumcision of the
heart, not in letter but in spirit.[2] There are therefore Jews in
circumcision of the flesh, and there are Jews in circumcision of the heart.
Many of our holy fathers[3] had both the circumcision of the flesh, for a
seal of the faith, and circumcision of the heart, for the faith itself.
From these fathers these men degenerating, who now in the name do glory,
and have lost their deeds; from these fathers, I say, degenerating,   they
have remained Jews in flesh, in heart Heathens. For these are Jews, who are
out of  Abraham, from whom Isaac was born, and out of him Jacob, and out of
Jacob the twelve Patriarchs, and out of the twelve Patriarchs the whole
people of the Jews.[4] But they were generally called Jews for this reason,
that Judah was one of the twelve sons of Jacob, a Patriarch among the
twelve, and from his stock the Royalty came among the Jews. For all this
people after the number of the twelve sons of Jacob, had twelve tribes.
What we call tribes are as it were distinct houses and congregations of
people. That people, I say, had twelve tribes, out of which twelve tribes
one tribe was Judah, out of which were the kings; and there was another
tribe, Levi, out of which were the priests. But because to the priests
serving the temple no land was allotted,[5] but it was necessary that among
twelve tribes all the Land of promise should be shared: there having been
therefore taken out one tribe of higher dignity, the tribe of Levi, which
was of the priests, there would have remained eleven, unless by the
adoption of the two sons of Joseph the number twelve were completed.

   What this is, observe. One of the twelve sons of Jacob was Joseph. ...
This Joseph had two sons, Ephraim and Manasse. Jacob, dying, as though by
will, received those his grandsons into the number of sons, and said to his
son Joseph, "The rest that are born shall be to thee; but these to me, and
they shall divide the land with their brethren."[6] As yet there had not
been given nor divided the land of promise, but he was speaking in the
Spirit, prophesying. The two sons therefore of Joseph being added, there
were made up nevertheless twelve tribes, since now there are thirteen. For
instead of one tribe of Joseph, two were added, and there were made
thirteen. There being taken out then the tribe of Levi, that tribe of
priests which did serve the Temple, and lived by the tithes of all the rest
unto whom the land was divided, there remain twelve. In these twelve was
the tribe of Judah, whence the kings were. For at first from another tribe
was given King Saul,[7] and he was rejected as being an evil king; after
there was given from the tribe of Judah King David, and out of him from the
tribe of Judah were the Kings.[8] But Jacob had spoken of this, when he
blessed his sons, "there shall not fail a prince out of Judah, nor a leader
from his thighs, until there come He to whom the promise hath been
made."[9] But from the tribe of Judah there came Our Lord Jesus Christ. For
He is, as the Scripture saith, and as ye have but now heard, out of the
seed of David born of Mary,[10] But as regardeth the Divinity of our Lord
Jesus Christ, wherein He is equal with the Father, He is not only before
the Jews, but also before Abraham himself;[11] nor only before Abraham, but
also before Adam; nor only before Adam, but also before Heaven and earth
and before ages: for all things by Himself were made, and without Him there
was made nothing? Because therefore in prophecy hath been said, "there
shall not fail a prince out of Judah," etc.:[9] former times are examined,
and we find that the Jews always had their kings of the tribe of Judah, and
had no foreign  king before that Herod who was king when the Lord was born.
Thence began foreign kings, from Herod.[13] Before Herod all were of the
tribe  of Judah, but only until there should come He to whom the promise
had been made. Therefore when the Lord Himself came, the kingdom of the
Jews was overthrown, and removed from the Jews. Now they have no king;
because they will not acknowledge the true King. See now whether they must
be called Jews. Now ye do see that they must not be called Jews. They have
themselves with their own voice resigned that name, so that they are not
worthy to be called Jews, except only in the flesh. When did they sever
themselves from the name? They said, "We have no king but Caesar."[1] O ye
who are called Jews and are not, if ye have no king but Caesar, there hath
failed a Prince of Judah: there hath come then He to whom the promise hath
been made. They then are more truly Jews, who have been made Christians out
of Jews: the rest of the Jews, who in Christ have not believed, have
deserved to lose even the very name. The true Judaea, then, is the Church
of Christ, believing in that King, who hath come out of the tribe of Judah
through the Virgin Mary; believing in Him of whom the Apostle was just now
speaking, in writing to Timothy, "Be thou mindful that Jesus Christ hath
risen from the dead, of the seed of David, after my Gospel."[2] For of
Judah is David, and out of David is the Lord Jesus Christ. We believing in
Christ do belong to Judah: and we acknowledge Christ. We, that with eyes
have not seen, in faith do keep Him. Let not therefore the Jews revile, who
are no longer Jews. They said themselves, "We have no king but Caesar."[1]
For better were it for them that their king should be Christ, of the seed
of David, of the tribe of Judah. Nevertheless because Christ Himself is of
the seed of David after the flesh, but God above all things blessed for
ever? He is Himself our King and our God; our King, inasmuch as born of the
tribe of Judah, after the flesh, was Christ the Lord, the Saviour; but our
God, who is before Judah, and before Heaven and earth, by whom were made
all things,[4] both spiritual and corporal. For if all things by Himself
were made; even Mary herself, out of whom He was born, by Himself was made.
..

   2. "Known in Judaea is God, in Israel great is the Name of Him" (ver.
1). Concerning Israel also we ought so to take it as we have concerning
Judaea: as they were not the true Jews, so neither was that the true
Israel. For what is Israel said to be? One seeing God. And how have they
seen God, among whom He walked in the flesh; and while they supposed Him to
be man, they slew Him? ... "In Israel great is His Name." Wilt thou be
Israel? Observe that man concerning whom the Lord saith, "Behold an
Israelite indeed, in whom guile is not."[5] If a true Israelite is he in
whom guile is not, the guileful and lying are not true Israelites. Let them
not say then, that with them is God, and great is His name in Israel. Let
them prove themselves Israelites, and I grant that "in Israel great is His
Name."

   3. "And there hath been made in peace a place for Him, and His
habitation is in Sion" (ver. 2). Again, Sion is as it were the country of
the Jews; the true Sion is the Church of Christians. But the intrepretation
of the Hebrew names is thus handed down to us: Judaea is interpreted
confession, Israel, one seeing God. After Judaea is Israel. Wilt thou see
God? First do thou confess, and then in thyself there is made a place for
God; because "there hath been made in peace a place for Him." So long as
then thou confessest not thy sins, in a manner thou art quarrelling with
God. For how art thou not disputing with Him, who art praising that which
displeaseth Him? He punisheth a thief, thou dost praise theft: He doth
punish a drunken man, thou dost praise drunkenness. Thou art disputing with
God, thou hast not made for Him a place in thy heart: because in peace is
His place. And how dost thou begin to have peace with God? Thou beginnest
with Him in confession. There is a voice of a Psalm, saying, "Begin ye to
the Lord in confession."[6] What is, "Begin ye to the Lord in confession"?
Begin ye to be joined to the Lord. In what manner? So that the same thing
may displease you as displeaseth Him. There displeaseth Him thy evil life;
if it please thyself, thou art disunited from Him; if it displease thee,
through confession to Him thou art united. ...

   4. "There He hath broken the strength of bows, and the shield, and the
sword, and the battle" (ver. 3). Where hath He broken? In that eternal
peace, in that perfect peace. And now, my brethren, they that have rightly
believed see that they ought not to rely on themselves: and all the might
of their own menaces, and whatsoever is in them whetted for mischief, this
they break in pieces; and whatsoever they deem of great virtue wherewith to
protect themselves temporally, and the war which they were waging against
God by defending their sins, all these things He hath broken there.

   5. "Thou enlightening marvellously from the eternal mountains" (ver.
4). What are the eternal mountains? Those which He hath Himself made
eternal; which are the great mountains, the preachers of truth. Thou dost
enlighten, but from the eternal mountains: the great mountains are first to
receive Thy light, and from Thy light which the mountains receive, the
earth also is clothed. But those great mountains the Apostles have
received, the Apostles have received as it were the first streaks of the
rising light. ... Wherefore also, in another place, a Psalm saith what? "I
have lifted up mine eyes unto the mountains, whence there shall come help
to me."[7] What then, in the mountains is thy hope, and from thence to thee
shall there come help? Hast thou stayed at the mountains? Take heed what
thou doest. There is something above the mountains: above the mountains is
He at whom the mountains tremble. "I have lifted up," he saith, "mine eyes
unto the mountains, whence there shall come help to me." But what
followeth? "My help," he saith, "is from the Lord, who hath made Heaven and
earth."[1] Unto the mountains indeed I have lifted up eyes, because through
the mountains to  me the Scriptures were displayed: but I have my heart in
Him that doth enlighten all mountains. ...

   6. "There have been troubled all the unwise in heart" (ver. 5). ... How
have they been troubled? When the Gospel is preached. And what is life
eternal? And who is He that hath risen from the dead? The Athenians
wondered, when the Apostle Paul spake of the resurrection of the dead, and
thought that he spake but fables.[2] But because he said that there was
another life which neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor hath it gone
up into the heart of man? therefore the unwise in heart were troubled. But
what hath befallen them? "They have slept their sleep, and all men of
riches have found nothing in their hands." They have loved things present,
and have gone to sleep in the midst of things present: and so these very
present things have become to them delightful: just as he that seeth in a
dream himself to have found treasure, is so long rich as he waketh not. The
dream hath made him rich, waking hath made him poor. Sleep perchance hath
held him slumbering on the earth, and lying on the hard ground, poor and
perchance a beggar; in sleep he hath seen himself to lie on an ivory or
golden bed, and on feathers heaped up; so long as he is sleeping, he is
sleeping well, waking he hath found himself on the hard ground, whereon
sleep had taken him. Such men also are these too: they have come into this
life, and through temporal desires, they have as it were slumbered here;
and them riches, and vain pomps that fly away, have taken, and they have
passed away: they have not understood how much of good might be done
therewith. For if they had known of another life, there they would have
laid up unto themselves the treasure which here was doomed to perish: like
as Zacchaeus, the chief of the Publicans, saw that good[4] when he received
the Lord Jesus in his house, and he saith, "The half of my goods I give to
the poor, and if to any man I have done any wrong, fourfold I restore."[5]
This man was not in the emptiness of men dreaming, but in the faith of men
awake. ...

   7. "By Thy chiding, O God of Jacob, there have slept all men that have
mounted horses" (ver. 6). Who are they that have mounted horses? They that
would not be humble. To sit on horseback is no sin; but it is a sin to lift
up the neck of power against God, and to deem one's self to be in some
distinction. Because thou art rich, thou hast mounted; God doth chide, and
thou sleepest. Great is the anger of Him chiding, great the anger. Let your
Love observe the terrible thing. Chiding hath noise, the noise is wont to
make men wake. So great is the force of God chiding, that he said, "By Thy
chiding, O God of Jacob, there have slept all men that have mounted
horses." Behold what a sleep that Pharaoh slept who mounted horses. For he
was not awake in heart, because against chiding he had his heart
hardened.[6] For hardness of heart is slumber. I ask you, my brethren, how
they sleep, who, while the Gospel is sounding, and the Amen, and the
Hallelujah, throughout the whole world, yet will not condemn their old
life, and wake up unto a new life. There was the Scripture of God in Judaea
only, now throughout the whole world it is sung. In that one nation one God
who made all things was spoken of, as to be adored and worshipped; now
where is He unsaid? Christ hath risen again, though derided on the Cross;
that very Cross whereon He was derided, He hath now imprinted on the brows
of kings: and men yet sleep. ...

   8. "Thou art terrible, and who shall withstand Thee at that time by
Thine anger?" (ver. 7). Now they sleep, and perceive not Thee angry; but
for cause that they should sleep, He was angry. Now that which sleeping
they perceived not, at the end they shall perceive. For there shall appear
the Judge of quick and dead. "And who shall withstand Thee at that time by
Thine anger?" For now they speak that which they will, and they dispute
against God and say, who are the Christians? or who is Christ? or what
fools are they that believe that which they see not, and relinquish the
pleasures which they see, and follow the faith of things which are not
displayed to their eyes! Ye sleep and snore,[7] ye speak against God, as
much as ye are able. "How long shall sinners, O Lord, how long shall
sinners glory, they answer and will speak iniquity?"[8] But when doth no
one answer and no one speak, except when he turneth himself[9] against
himself? ...

   9. "From Heaven Thou hast hurled judgment: the earth hath trembled, and
hath rested" (ver. 8). She which now doth trouble herself, she which now
speaketh, hath to fear at the end and to rest. Better had she now rested,
that at the end she might have rejoiced. Rested? When? "When God arose unto
judgment, that He might save all the meek in heart" (ver. 9). Who are the
meek in heart? They that on snorting horses have not mounted, but in their
humility have confessed their own sins. "For the thought of a man shall
confess to Thee, and the remnants of the thought shall celebrate
solemnities to Thee" (ver. 10). The first is the thought, the latter are
the remnants of the thought. What is the first thought? That from whence we
begin, that good thought whence thou wilt begin to confess. Confession
uniteth us to Christ. But now the confession itself, that is, the first
thought, doth produce in us the remnants of the thought: and those very
"remnants of thought shall celebrate solemnities to Thee." What is the
thought which shall confess? That which condemneth the former life, that
where-unto that which it was is displeasing, in order that it may be that
which it was not, is itself the first thought. But because thus thou
oughtest to withdraw from sins, with the first thought after having
confessed to God, that it may not escape thy memory that thou hast been a
sinner; in that thou hast been a sinner, thou dost celebrate solemnities to
God. Furthermore it is to be understood as followeth. The first thought
hath confession, and departure from the old life. But if thou shalt have
forgotten from what sins thou hast been delivered, thou dost not render
thanks to the Deliverer, and dost not celebrate solemnities to thy God.
Behold the first confessing thought of Saul the Apostle, now Paul, who at
first was Saul, when he heard a voice from Heaven! ... He put forth the
first thought of obedience: when he heard, "I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom
thou persecutest," "O Lord," he saith, "what dost Thou bid me to do?"[1]
This is a thought confessing: now he is calling upon the Lord, whom he
persecuted. In what manner the remnants of the thought shall celebrate
solemnities, in the case of Paul ye have heard, when the Apostle himself
was being read: "Be thou mindful that Christ Jesus hath risen from the
dead, of the seed of David, after my Gospel."[2] What is, be thou mindful?
Though effaced from thy memory be the thought, whereby at first thou hast
confessed: be the remnant of the thought in the memory. ...

   10. Even once was Christ sacrificed for[3] us, when we believed; then
was thought; but now there are the remnants of thought, when we remember
Who hath come to us, and what He hath forgiven us; by means of those very
remnants of thought, that is, by means of the memory herself, He is daily
so sacrificed for us,[4] as if He were daily renewing us, that hath renewed
us by His first grace. For now the Lord hath renewed us in Baptism, and we
have become new men, in hope indeed rejoicing, in order that in tribulation
we may be patient[5] nevertheless, there ought not to escape from our
memory that which hath been bestowed upon us. And if now thy thought is not
what it was,--for the first thought was to depart from sin: but now thou
dost not depart, but at that time didst depart,--be there remnants of
thought, test He who hath made whole escape from memory. ...

   11. "Vow ye, and pay to the Lord our God" (ver. 11). Let each man vow
what he is able, and pay it. Do not vow and not pay: but let every man vow,
and pay what he can. Be ye not slow to vow: for ye will accomplish the vows
by powers not your own. Ye will fail, if on yourselves ye rely: but if on
Him to whom ye vow ye rely, ye will be safe to pay. "Vow ye, and pay to the
Lord our God." What ought we all in common to vow? To believe in Him, to
hope from Him for life eternal, to live godly according to a measure common
to all. For  there is a certain measure common to all men.  To commit no
theft is not a thing enjoined merely upon one devoted to continence,[6] and
not enjoined upon the married woman: to commit no adultery is enjoined upon
all men: not to love wine-bibbing, whereby the soul is swallowed up, and
doth corrupt in herself the Temple of God, is enjoined to all alike: not to
be proud, is enjoined to all men alike: not to slay man, not to hate a
brother, not to lay a plot to destroy any one, is enjoined to all in
common. The whole of this we all ought to vow. There are also vows proper
for individuals: one voweth to God conjugal chastity, that he will know no
other woman besides his wife:[7] so also the woman, that she will know no
other man besides her husband. Other men also vow, even though they have
used such a marriage, that beyond this they will have no such thing, that
they will neither desire nor admit the like: and these men have vowed a
greater vow than the former. Others vow even virginity from the beginning
of life, that they will even know no such thing as those who having
experienced have relinquished: and these men have vowed the greatest vow.
Others vow that their house shall be a place of entertainment for all the
Saints that may come: a great vow they vow. Another voweth to relinquish
all his goods to be distributed to the poor, and go into a community, into
a society of the Saints: a great vow he doth vow. "Vow ye, and pay to the
Lord our God." Let each one vow what he shall have willed to vow; let him
give heed to this, that he pay what he hath vowed. If any man doth look
back with regard to what he hath vowed to God, it is an evil. Some woman or
other devoted to continence hath willed to marry: what hath she willed? The
same as any virgin. What hath she willed? The same as her own mother. Hath
she willed any evil thing? Evil certainly. Why? Because already she had
vowed to the Lord her God. For what hath the apostle Paul said concerning
such? Though he saith that young widows may marry if they will:[1]
nevertheless he saith in a certain passage, "but more blessed she will be,
if so she shall have remained, after my judgment."[2] He showeth that she
is more blessed, if so she shall have remained; but nevertheless that she
is not to be condemned, if she shall have willed to marry. But what saith
he concerning certain who have vowed and have not paid? "Having," he saith,
"judgment, because the first faith they have made void."[3] What is, "the
first faith they have made void"? They have vowed, and have not paid. Let
no brother therefore, when placed in a monastery, say, I shall depart from
the monastery: for neither are they only that are in a monastery to attain
unto the kingdom of Heaven, nor do those that are not there not belong unto
God. We answer him, but they have not vowed; thou hast vowed, thou hast
looked back. When the Lord was threatening them with the day of judgment,
He saith what? "Remember Lot's wife."[4] To all men He spake. For what did
Lot's wife? She was delivered from Sodom, and being in the way she looked
back. In the place where she looked back, there she remained. For she
became a statue of salt,[5] in order that by considering her men might be
seasoned, might have sense, might not be infatuated, might not look back,
lest by giving a bad example they should themselves remain and season
others. For even now we are saying this to certain of our brethren, whom
perchance we may have seen as it were weak in the good they have purposed.
And wilt thou be such an one as he was? We put before them certain who have
looked back. They are savourless[6] in themselves, but they season others,
inasmuch as they are mentioned, in order that fearing their example they
may not look back. "Vow ye, and pay." For that wife of Lot to all doth
belong. A married woman hath had the will to commit adultery; from her
place whither she had arrived she looked back. A widow who had vowed so to
remain hath willed to marry, she hath willed the thing which was lawful to
her who hath married, but to herself was not lawful, because from her place
she hath looked back. There is a virgin devoted to continence, already
dedicated to God; let her have[7] also the other gifts which truly do adorn
virginity itself, and without which that virginity is unclean. For what if
she be uncorrupt in body and corrupt in mind? What is it that he hath said?
What if no one hath touched the body, but if perchance she be drunken, be
proud, be contentious, be talkative? All these things God doth condemn. If
before she had vowed, she had married, she would not have been condemned:
she hath chosen something better, hath overcome that which was lawful for
her; she is proud, and doth commit so many things unlawful. This I say, it
is lawful for her to marry before that she voweth, to be proud is never
lawful. O thou virgin of God, thou hast willed not to marry, which is
lawful: thou dost exalt thyself, which is not lawful. Better is a virgin
humble, than a married woman humble: but better is a married woman humble,
than a virgin proud. But she that looked back upon marriage is condemned,
not because she hath willed to marry; but because she had already gone
before, and is become the wife of Lot by looking back. Be ye not slow, that
are able, whom God doth inspire to seize upon higher callings: for we do
not say these things in order that ye may not vow, but in order that ye may
vow and may pay. Now because we have treated of these matters, thou
perchance wast willing to vow, and now art not willing to vow. But observe
what the Psalm hath said to thee. It hath not said, "Vow not;" but, "Vow
and pay." Because thou hast heard, "pay," wilt thou not vow? Therefore wast
thou willing to vow, and not to pay? Nay, do both. One thing is done by thy
profession, another thing will be perfected by the aid of God. Look to Him
who doth guide thee, and thou wilt not look back to the place whence He is
leading thee forth. He that guideth thee is walking before thee; the place
from whence He is guiding thee is behind thee. Love Him guiding, and He
doth not condemn thee looking back)

   12. "All they that are in the circuit of Him shall offer gifts." Who
are in the circuit of Him? ... Whatever is common to all is in the midst.
Why is it said to be in the midst? Because it is at the same distance from
all, and at the same proximity to all. That which is not in the middle, is
as it were private. That which is public is set in the middle, in order
that all they that come may use the same, may be enlightened. Let no one
say, it is mine: test he should be wanting to make his own share of that
which is in the midst for all. What then is, "All they that are in the
circuit of Him shall offer gifts"? All they that understand truth to be
common to all, and who do not make it as it were their own by being proud
concerning it, they shall offer gifts; because they have humility: but they
that make as it were their own that which is common to all, as though it
were set in the middle, are endeavouring to lead men astray to a party,
these shall not offer gifts. ... "To Him terrible." Let therefore all men
fear that are in the circuit of Him. For therefore they shall fear, and
with trembling they shall praise; because they are in the circuit of Him,
to the end that all men may attain unto Him, and He may openly meet all,
and openly enlighten all. This is, to stand in awe with others.[1] When
thou hast made him as it were thine own, and no longer common, thou art
exalted unto pride; though it is written, "Serve ye the Lord in fear, and
exult unto Him with trembling."[2] Therefore they shall offer gifts, who
are in the circuit of Him. For they are humble who know truth to be common
to all.

   13. To whom shall they offer gifts? "To Him terrible, and to Him that
taketh away the spirit of princes" (ver. 12). For the spirits of princes
are proud spirits. They then are not His Spirits; for if they know
anything, their own they will it to be, not public; but, that which setteth
Himself forth as equal toward all men, that setteth Himself in the midst,
in order that all men may take as much as they can, whatever they can; not
of what is any man's, but of what is God's, and therefore of their own
because they have become His. Therefore they must needs be humble: they
have lost their own spirit, and they have the Spirit of God. ... For if
thou shalt have confessed thyself dust, God out of dust doth make[3] man.
All they that are in the circuit of Him do offer gifts. All humble men do
confess to Him, and do adore Him. "To Him terrible they offer gifts."
Whence to Him terrible exult ye with trembling:[2]  "and to Him that taketh
away the spirit of princes:" that is, that taketh away the haughtiness of
proud men. "To Him terrible among the kings of the earth." Terrible are the
kings of the earth, but He is above all, that doth terrify the kings of the
earth. Be thou a king of the earth, and God will be to thee terrible. How,
wilt thou say, shall I be a king of the earth? Rule the earth, and thou
wilt be a king of the earth. Do not therefore with desire of empire set
before thine eyes exceeding wide provinces, where thou mayest spread abroad
thy kingdoms; rule thou the earth which thou bearest. Hear the Apostle
ruling the earth: "I do not so fight as if beating air, but I chasten my
body, and bring it into captivity, lest perchance preaching to other men, I
myself become a reprobate."[4] ...

PSALM LXXVII.[5]

   1. This Psalm's lintel is thus inscribed: "Unto the end, for Idithun, a
Psalm to Asaph himself." What "Unto the end" is, ye know. Idithun is
interpreted "leaping over those men," Asaph is interpreted "a
congregation." Here therefore there is speaking "a congregation that
leapeth over," in order that it may reach the End, which is Christ
Jesus.[6] ...

   2. "With my voice," he saith, "to the Lord I have cried" (ver. 1). But
many men cry unto the Lord for the sake of getting riches and avoiding
losses, for the safety of their friends, for the security of their house,
for temporal felicity, for secular dignity, lastly, even for mere soundness
of body, which is the inheritance[7] of the poor man. For such and such
like things many men do cry unto the Lord; scarce one for the sake of the
Lord Himself. For an easy thing it is for a man to desire anything of the
Lord, and not to desire the Lord Himself; as if forsooth that which He
giveth could be sweeter than Himself that giveth. Whosoever therefore cloth
cry unto the Lord for the sake of any other thing, is not yet one that
leapeth over. ... He doth indeed hearken to thee at the time when thou dost
seek Himself, not when through Himself thou dost seek any other thing. It
hath been said of some men, "They cried, and there was no one to save them;
to the Lord, and He hearkened not unto them."[8] For why? Because the voice
of them was not unto the Lord. This the Scripture doth express in another
place, where it saith of such men, "On the Lord they have not called."[9]
Unto Him they have not ceased to cry, and yet upon the Lord they have not
called. What is, upon the Lord they have not called? They have not called
the Lord unto themselves:[10] they have not invited the Lord to their
heart, they would not have themselves inhabited by the Lord. And therefore
what hath befallen them? "They have trembled with fear where fear was not."
They have trembled about the loss of things present, for the reason that
they were not full of Him, upon whom they have not called. They have not
loved gratis, so that after the loss of temporal things they could say, "As
it hath pleased the Lord, so hath been done, be the name of the Lord
blessed."[11] Therefore this man saith, "My voice is unto the Lord, and He
doth hearken unto me." Let him show us how this cometh to pass.

   3. "In the day of tribulation I have sought out God" (ver. 2). Who art
thou that doest this thing? In the day of thy tribulation take heed what
thou seekest out. If a jail be the cause of tribulation, thou seekest to
get forth from jail: if fever be the cause of tribulation, thou seekest
health: if hunger be the cause of tribulation, thou seekest fulness: if
losses be the cause of tribulation, thou seekest gain: if expatriation be
the cause of tribulation, thou seekest the home of thy flesh. And why
should I name all things, or when could I name all things? Dost thou wish
to be one leaping over? In the day of thy tribulation seek out God: not
through God some other thing, but out of tribulation God, that to this end
God may take away tribulation, that thou mayest without anxiety cleave unto
God. "In the day of my tribulation, I have sought out God:" not any other
thing, but "God I have sought out." And how hast thou sought out? "With my
hands in the night before Him." ...

   4. Tribulation must not be thought to be this or that in particular.
For every individual that doth not yet leap over, thinketh that as yet to
be no tribulation, unless it be a thing which may have befallen this life
of some sad occasion: but this man, that leapeth over, doth count this
whole life to be his tribulation. For so much doth he love his supernal
country, that the earthly pilgrimage is of itself the greatest tribulation.
For how can this life be otherwise than a tribulation, I pray you? how can
that not be a tribulation, the whole whereof hath been called
temptation?[1] Thou hast it written in the book of Job,[2] is not human
life a temptation upon earth? Hath he said, human life is tempted upon
earth? Nay, but life itself is a temptation. If therefore temptation, it
must surely be a tribulation. In this tribulation therefore, that is to say
in this life, this man that leapeth over hath sought out God. How? "With my
hands," he saith. What is, "with my hands"? With my works. For he was not
seeking any thing corporeal, so that he might find and handle something
which he had lost, so that he might seek with hands coin, gold, silver,
vesture, in short everything which can be held in the hands. Howbeit, even
our Lord Jesus Christ Himself willed Himself to be sought after with hands,
when to His doubting disciple He showed the scars.[3] ... What then, to us
belongeth not the seeking with hands? It belongeth to us, as I have said,
to seek with works. When so? "In the night." What is, "in the night"? In
this age. For it is night until there shine forth day in the glorified
advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. For would ye see how it is night? Unless
we had here had a lantern, we should have remained in darkness. For Peter
saith," We too have more sure the prophetic discourse, whereunto ye do well
to give heed, as to a lantern shining in a dark place, until day shine, and
the day-star arise in your hearts."[4] There is therefore to come day after
this night, meanwhile in this night a lantern is not lacking. And this is
perchance what we are now doing: by explaining these passages, we are
bringing in a lantern, in order that we may rejoice in this night. Which
indeed ought alway to be burning in your houses. For to such men is said,
"The Spirit quench ye not."[5] And as though explaining what he was saying,
he continueth and saith, "Prophecy despise ye not:" that is, let the
lantern alway shine in you. And even this light by comparison with a sort
of ineffable day is called night. For the very life of believers by
comparison with the life of unbelievers is day. ... Night and day--day in
comparison with unbelievers, night in comparison with the Angels. For the
Angels have a day, which we have not yet. Already we have one that
unbelievers have not: but not yet have believers that which Angels have:
but they will have, at the time when they will be equal to the Angels of
God, that which hath been promised to them in the Resurrection.[6] In this
then which is now day and yet night; night in comparison with the future
day for which we yearn, day in comparison with the past night which we have
renounced: in this night then, I say, let us seek God with our hands. Let
not works cease, let us seek God, be there no idle yearning. If we are in
the way, let us expend our means in order that we may be able to reach the
end. With hands let us seek God. ... "With my hands in the night before
Him, and I have not been deceived."

   5. ... "My soul hath refused to be comforted" (ver. 2). So great
weariness did here possess me, that my soul did close the door against all
comfort. Whence such weariness to him? It may be that his vineyard hath
been hailed on, or his olive hath yielded no fruit, or the vintage hath
been interrupted by rain. Whence the weariness to him? Hear this out of
another Psalm. For therein is the voice of the same: "weariness hath bowed
me down, because of sinners forsaking Thy law."[7] He saith then that he
was overcome with so great weariness because of this sort of evil thing; so
as that his soul refused to be comforted. Weariness had well nigh swallowed
him up, and sorrow had ingulfed him altogether beyond remedy, he refuseth
to be comforted. What then remained? In the first place, see whence he is
comforted. Had he not waited for one who might condole with him?[1] ... "I
have been mindful of God, and I have been delighted" (ver. 3). My hands had
not wrought in vain, they had found a great comforter. While not being
idle, "I have been mindful of God, and I have been delighted." God must
therefore be praised, of whom this man being mindful, hath been delighted,
and hath been comforted in sorrowful case, and refreshed when safety was in
a manner despaired of: God must therefore be praised. In fine, because he
hath been comforted, in continuation he saith, "I have babbled." In that
same comfort being made mindful of God, I have been delighted, and have
"babbled." What is, "I have babbled"? I have rejoiced, I have exulted in
speaking. For babblers they are properly called, that by the common people
are named talkative, who at the approach of joy are neither able nor
willing to be silent. This man hath become such an one. And again he sixth
what? "And my spirit hath fainted."

   6. With weariness he had pined away; by calling to mind God, he had
been delighted, again in babbling he had fainted: what followeth? "All mine
enemies have anticipated watches" (ver. 4). All mine enemies have kept
watch over me; they have exceeded in keeping watch over me; in watching
they have been beforehand with me. Where do they not lay traps? Have not
mine enemies anticipated all watches? For who are these enemies, but they
of whom the Apostle saith, "Ye have not wrestling against flesh and
blood."[2] ... Against the devil and his angels we are waging hostilities.
Rulers of the world he hath called them, because they do themselves rule
the lovers of the world. For they do not rule the world, as if they were
rulers of heaven and earth: but he is calling sinners the world. ... With
the devil and his angels there is no concord. They do themselves grudge us
the kingdom of Heaven. They cannot at all be appeased towards us: because
"all mine enemies have anticipated watches." They have watched more to
deceive than I to guard myself. For how can they have done otherwise than
anticipate watches, that have set everywhere scandals, everywhere traps?
Weariness doth invest the heart, we have to fear lest sorrow swallow us up:
in joy to fear lest the spirit faint in babbling: "all mine enemies have
anticipated watches." In fine, in the midst of that same babbling, whiles
thou art speaking, and art speaking without fear, how much is oft-times
found which enemies would lay hold of and censure, whereon they would even
found accusation and slander--" he said so, he thought so, he spake so!"
What should man do, save that which followeth? "I have been troubled, and I
spake not." Therefore when he was troubled, lest in his babbling enemies
anticipating watches should seek and find slanders, he spake not. ...

   7. "I have thought on ancient days" (ver. 5). Now he, as if he were one
who had been beaten out of doors, hath taken refuge within: he is
conversing in the secret place of his own heart. And let him declare to us
what he is doing there. It is well with him. Observe what things he is
thinking of, I pray you. He is within, in his own house he is thinking of
ancient days. No one saith to him, thou hast spoken ill: no one saith to
him, thou hast spoken much: no one saith to him, thou hast thought
perversely. Thus may it be well with him, may God aid him: let him think of
the ancient days, and let him tell us what he hath done in his very inner
chamber, whereunto he hath arrived, over what he hath leaped, where he hath
abode. "I have thought on ancient days; and of eternal years I have been
mindful." What are eternal years? It is a mighty thought. See whether this
thought requireth anything but great silence. Apart from all noise without,
from all tumult of things human let him remain quiet within, that would
think of those eternal years. Are the years wherein we are eternal, or
those wherein our ancestors have been, or those wherein our posterity are
to be? Far be it that they should be esteemed eternal. For what part of
these years doth remain? Behold we speak and say, "in this year:" and what
have we got of this year, save the one day wherein we are. For the former
days of this year have already gone by, and are not to be had; but the
future days have not yet come. In one day we are, and we say, in this year:
nay rather say thou, to-day, if thou desirest to speak of anything present.
For of the whole year what hast thou got that is present? Whatsoever
thereof is past, is no longer; whatsoever thereof is future, is not yet:
how then, "this year"? Amend the expression: say, to-day. Thou speakest
truth, henceforth I will say, "to-day." Again observe this too, how to-day
the morning hours have already past, the future hours have not yet come.
This too therefore amend: say, in this hour. And of this hour what hast
thou got? Some moments thereof have already gone by, those that are future
have not yet come. Say, in this moment. In what moment? While I am uttering
syllables, if I shall speak two syllables, the latter doth not sound until
the former hath gone by: in a word, in that same one syllable, if it chance
to have two letters, the latter letter doth not sound, until the former
hath gone by. What then have we got of these years? These years are
changeable: the eternal years must be thought on, years that stand, that
are not made up of days that come and depart; years whereof in another
place the Scripture saith to God, "But Thou art the Self-same, and Thy
years shall not fail."[1] On these years this man that leapeth over, not in
babbling without, but in silence[2] hath thought.

   8. "And I have meditated in the night with my heart" (ver. 6). No
slanderous person seeketh for snares in his words, in his heart he hath
meditated. "I babbled." Behold there is the former babbling. Watch again,
that thy spirit faint not. I did not, he saith, I did not so babble as if
it were abroad: in another way now. How now? "I did babble, and did search
out my spirit." If he were searching the earth to find veins of gold, no
one would say that he was foolish; nay, many men would call him wise, for
desiring to come at gold: how great treasures hath a man within, and he
diggeth not! This man was examining his spirit, and was speaking with that
same his spirit, and in the very speaking he was babbling. He was
questioning himself, was examining himself, was judge over himself. And he
continueth; "I did search my spirit." He had to fear lest he should stay
within his own spirit: for he had babbled without; and because all his
enemies had anticipated watches, he found there sorrow, and his spirit
fainted. He that did babble without, lo, now doth begin to babble within in
safety, where being alone in secret, he is thinking on eternal years. ...

   9. And thou hast found what? "God will not repel for everlasting" (ver.
7). Weariness he had found in this life; in no place a trustworthy, in no
place a fearless comfort. Unto whatsoever men he betook himself, in them he
found scandal, or feared it. In no place therefore was he free from care.
An evil thing it was for him to hold his peace, lest perchance he should
keep silence from good words; to speak and babble without was painful to
him, lest all his enemies, anticipating watches, should seek slanders in
his words. Being exceedingly straitened in this life, he thought much of
another life, where there is not this trial. And when is he to arrive
thither? For it cannot but be evident that our suffering here is the anger
of God. This thing is spoken of in Isaiah, "I will not be an avenger unto
you for everlasting, nor will I be angry with you at all times."[3] ...
Will this anger of God alway abide? This man hath not found this in
silence. For he saith what? "God will not repel for everlasting, and He
will not add any more that it should be well-pleasing to Him still." That
is, that it should be well-pleasing to Him still to repel, and He will not
add the repelling for everlasting. He must needs recall to Himself His
servants, He must needs receive fugitives returning to the Lord, He must
needs hearken to the voice of them that are in fetters. "Or unto the end
will He cut off mercy from generation to generation?" (ver. 8).

   10. "Or will God forget to be merciful?" (ver. 9). In thee, from thee
unto another there is no mercy unless God bestow it on thee: and shall God
Himself forget mercy? The stream runneth: shall the spring itself be dried
up? "Or shall God forget to be merciful: or shall He keep back in anger His
mercies?" That is, shall He be so angry, as that He will not have mercy? He
will more easily keep back anger than mercy.

   11. "And I said." Now leaping over himself he hath said what? "Now I
have begun:" (ver. 10), when I had gone out even from myself. Here
henceforth there is no danger: for even to remain in myself, was danger.
"And I said, Now I have begun: this is the changing of the right hand of
the Lofty One." Now the Lofty One hath begun to change me: now I have begun
something wherein I am secure: now I have entered a certain palace[4] of
joys, wherein no enemy is to be feared: now I have begun to be in that
region, where all mine enemies do not anticipate watches. "Now I have
begun: this is the changing of the right hand of the Lofty One."

   12. "I have been mindful of the works of the Lord" (ver. 11). Now
behold him roaming among the works of the Lord. For he was babbling
without, and being made sorrowful thereby his spirit fainted: he babbled
within with his own heart, and with his spirit, and having searched out
that same spirit he was mindful of the eternal years, was mindful of the
mercy of the Lord, how God will not repel him for everlasting; and he began
now fearlessly to rejoice in His works, fearlessly to exult in the same.
Let us hear now those very works, and let us too exult. But let even us
leap over in our affections, and not rejoice in things temporal. For we too
have our bed. Why do we not enter therein? Why do we not abide in silence?
Why do we not search out our spirit? Why do we not think on the eternal
years? Why do we not rejoice in the works of God? In such sort now let us
hear, and let us take delight in Himself speaking, in order that when we
shall have departed hence, we may do that which we used to do while He
spake; if only we are making the beginning of Him whereof he spake in," Now
I have begun." To rejoice in the works of God, is to forget even thyself,
if thou canst delight in Him alone. For what is a better thing than He?
Dost thou not see that, when thou returnest to thyself, thou returnest to a
worse thing? "for I shall be mindful from the beginning of Thy wonderful
works.

   13. "And I will meditate on all Thy works, and on Thy affections I will
babble" (ver. 12). Behold the third babbling! He babbled without, when he
hinted; he babbled in his spirit within, when he advanced: he babbled on
the works of God, when he arrived at the place toward which he advanced.
"And on Thy affections:" not on any affections. What man doth live without
affections? And do ye suppose, brethren, that they who fear God, worship
God, love God, have not any affections? Wilt thou indeed suppose and dare
to suppose, that painting, the theatre, hunting, hawking, fishing, engage
the affections, and the meditation on God doth not engage certain interior
affections of its own, while we contemplate the universe, and place before
our eyes the spectacle of the natural world, and therein labour to discover
the Maker, and find Him nowhere unpleasing, but pleasing above[1] all
things?

   14. "O God, Thy way is in the Holy One" (ver. 13). He is contemplating
now the works of the mercy of God around us, out of these he is babbling,
and in these affections he is exulting. At first he is beginning from
thence, "Thy way is in the Holy One?" What is that way of Thine which is in
the Holy One? "I am," He saith," the Way, the Truth, and the Life."[2]
Return therefore, ye men, from your affections. ... "Who is a great God,
like our God?"[3] Gentiles have their affections regarding their gods, they
adore idols, they have eyes and they see not; ears they have and they hear
not; feet they have and they walk not. Why dost thou walk to a God that
walketh not? I do not, he saith, worship such things, and what dost thou
worship? The divinity which is there. Thou dost then worship that whereof
hath been said elsewhere, "for the Gods of the nations are demons."[4] Thou
dost either worship idols, or devils. Neither idols, nor devils, he saith.
And what dost thou worship? The stars, sun, moon, those things celestial.
How much better Him that hath made both things earthly and things
celestial. "Who is a great God like our God?"

   15. "Thou art the God that doest wonderful things alone" (ver. 14).
Thou art indeed a great God, doing wonderful things in body, in soul; alone
doing them. The deaf have heard, the blind have seen, the feeble have
recovered, the dead have risen, the paralytic have been strengthened. But
these miracles were at that time performed on bodies, let us see those
wrought on the soul. Sober are those that were a little before drunken,
believers are those that were a little before worshippers of idols: their
goods they bestow on the poor that did rob before those of others.
.."Wonderful things alone." Moses too did them, but not alone: Elias too
did them, even Eliseus did them, the Apostles too did them, but no one of
them alone. That they might have power to do them, Thou wast with them:
when Thou didst them they were not with Thee. For they were not with Thee
when Thou didst them, inasmuch as Thou didst make even these very men. How
"alone"? Is it perchance the Father, and not the Son? Or the Son, and not
the Father? Nay, but Father and Son and Holy Ghost. For it is not three
Gods but one God that doeth wonderful things alone, and even in this very
leaper-over. For even his leaping over and arriving at these things was a
miracle of God: when he was babbling within with his own spirit, in order
that he might leap over even that same spirit of his, and might delight in
the works of God, he then did wonderful things himself. But God hath done
what? "Thou hast made known unto the people Thy power."[5] Thence this
congregation of Asaph leaping over; because He hath made known in the
peoples His virtue. What virtue of His hath He made known in the peoples?
"But we preach Christ crucified, ... Christ the power of God and the wisdom
of God."[6] If then the virtue of God is Christ, He hath made known Christ
in the peoples. Do we not yet perceive so much as this; and are we so
unwise, are we lying so much below, do we so leap over nothing, as that we
see not this?

   16. "Thou hast redeemed in Thine arm Thy people" (ver. 15). "With Thine
arm," that is, with Thy power. "And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been
revealed?"[7] "Thou hast redeemed in Thine arm Thy people, the sons of
Israel and of Joseph." How as if two peoples, "the sons of Israel and of
Joseph"? Are not the sons of Joseph among the sons of Israel? ... He hath
admonished us of some distinction to be made. Let us search out our spirit,
perchance God hath placed there something--God whom we ought even by night
to seek with our hands, in order that we may not be deceived-- perchance we
shall discover even ourselves in this distinction of "sons of Israel and of
Joseph." By Joseph He hath willed another people to be understood, hath
willed that the people of the Gentiles be understood. Why the people of the
Gentiles by Joseph? Because Joseph was sold into Egypt by his brethren.[8]
That Joseph whom the brethren envied, and sold him into Egypt, when sold
into Egypt, toiled, was humbled; when made known and exalted, flourished,
reigned. And by all these things he hath signified what? What but Christ
sold by His brethren, banished from His own land, as it were into the Egypt
of the Gentiles? There at first humbled, when the Martyrs were suffering
persecutions: now exalted, as we see; inasmuch as there hath been fulfilled
in Him, "There shall adore Him all kinds of the earth, all nations shall
serve Him."(1)  Therefore Joseph is the people of the Gentiles, but Israel
the people of the Hebrew nation. God hath redeemed His people, "the sons of
Israel and of Joseph." By means of what? By means of the corner stone,(2)
wherein the two walls have been joined together.

   17. And he continueth how? "The waters have seen Thee, O God, and they
have feared and the abysses have been troubled" (ver. 16). What are the
waters? The peoples. What are these waters hath been asked in the
Apocalypse,(3) the answer was, the peoples. There we find most clearly
waters put by a figure for peoples. But above he had said, "Thou hast made
known in the peoples Thy virtue."(4) With reason therefore, "the waters
have seen Thee, and they have feared." They have been changed because they
have feared. What are the abysses? The depths of waters. What man among the
peoples is not troubled, when the conscience is smitten? Thou seekest the
depth of the sea, what is deeper than human conscience? That is the depth
which was troubled, when God redeemed with His arm. His people. In what
manner were the abysses troubled? When all men poured forth their
consciences in confession.

   18. In praises of God, in confessions of sins, in hymns and in songs,
in prayers, "There is a multitude of the sound of waters. The clouds have
uttered a voice" (ver. 17). Thence that sound of waters, thence the
troubling of the abysses, because "the clouds have uttered a voice." What
clouds? The preachers of the word of truth. What clouds? Those concerning
which God doth menace a certain vineyard, which instead of grape had
brought forth thorns and He saith, "I will command My clouds, that they
rain no rain upon it."(5) In a word, the Apostles forsaking the Jews, went
to the Gentiles: in preaching Christ among all nations, "the clouds have
uttered a voice." "For Thine arrows have gone through." Those same voices
of the clouds He hath again called arrows. For the words of the Evangelists
were arrows. For these things are allegories. For properly neither an arrow
is rain, nor rain is an arrow: but yet the word of God is both an arrow
because it doth smite; and rain because it doth water. Let no one therefore
any longer wonder at the troubling of the abysses, when "Thine arrows have
gone through." What is, "have gone through"? They have not stopped in the
ears, but they have pierced the heart. "The voice of Thy thunder is in the
wheel" (ver. 18). What is this? How are we to understand it? May the Lord
give aid. When boys we were wont to imagine, whenever we heard thunderings
from Heaven, that carriages were going forth as it were from the stables.
For thunder doth make a sort of rolling like carriages. Must we return to
these boyish thoughts, in order to understand," the voice of Thy thunder is
in the wheel," as though God hath certain carriages in the clouds, and the
passing along of the carriages doth raise that sound? Far be it. This is
boyish, vain, trifling. What is then, "The voice of Thy thunder is in the
wheel"? Thy voice rolleth. Not even this do I understand. What shall we do?
Let us question Idithun himself, to see whether perchance he may himself
explain what he hath said: "The voice," he saith, "of Thy thunder is in the
wheel." I do not understand. I will hear what thou sayest: "Thy lightnings
have appeared to the round world." Say then, I had no understanding. The
round world is a wheel.(6) For the circuit of the round world is with
reason called also an "orb:" whence also a small wheel is called an
"orbiculus." "The voice of Thy thunder is in the wheel:" Thy "lightnings
have appeared to the round world." Those clouds in a wheel have gone about
the round world, have gone about with thundering and with lightning, they
have shaken the abyss, with commandments they have thundered, with miracles
they have lightened. "Unto every land hath gone forth the sound of them,
and unto the ends of the orb the words of them."(7) "The land hath been
moved and made to tremble:" that is, all men that dwell in the land. But by
a figure the land itself is sea. Why? Because all nations are called by the
name of sea, inasmuch as human life is bitter, and exposed to storms and
tempests. Moreover if thou observe this, how men devour one another like
fishes, how the stronger doth swallow up the weaker--it is then a sea, unto
it the Evangelists went.

   19. "Thy way is in the sea" (ver. 19). But now Thy way was in the Holy
One, now "Thy way is in the sea:" because the Holy One Himself is in the
sea, and with reason even did walk upon the waters of the sea.(8) "Thy way
is in the sea," that is, Thy Christ is preached among the Gentiles. ..."Thy
way is in the sea, and Thy paths in many waters," that is, in many peoples.
"And Thy footsteps will not be known." He hath touched certain, and wonder
were it if it be not those same Jews. Behold now the mercy of Christ hath
been so published to the Gentiles, that "Thy way is in the sea. Thy
footsteps will not be known." How so, by whom will they not be known, save
by those who still say, Christ hath not yet come? Why do they say, Christ
hath not yet come? Because they do not yet recognise Him walking on the
sea.

  20. "Thou hast led home Thy people like sheep in the hand of Moses and
of Aaron" (ver. 20). Why He hath added this is somewhat difficult to
discover. ... They banished Christ sick as they were, they would not have
Him for their Saviour; but He began to be among the Gentiles, and among all
nations, among many peoples. Nevertheless, a remnant of that people hath
been saved. The ungrateful multitude hath remained without, even the
halting breadth of Jacob's thigh.(1) For the breadth of the thigh is
understood of the multitude of lineage, and among the greater part of the
Israelites a certain multitude became vain and foolish, so as not to know
the steps of Christ on the waters. "Thou hast led home Thy people like
sheep," and they have not known Thee. Though Thou hast done such great
benefits unto them, hast divided sea, hast made them pass over dry land
between waters, hast drowned in the waves pursuing enemies, in the desert
hast rained manna for their hunger, leading them home "by the hand of Moses
and Aaron:" still they thrust Thee from them, so that in the sea was Thy
Way, and Thy steps they knew not.

PSALM LXXVIII. (2)

   1. This Psalm(3) doth contain the things which are said to have been
done among the old people: but the new and latter people is being
admonished, to beware that it be not ungrateful regarding the blessings of
God, and provoke His anger against it, whereas it ought to receive His
grace. ... The Title thereof doth first move and engage our attention. For
it is not without reason inscribed, "Understanding(4) of Asaph:" but it is
perchance because these words require a reader who doth perceive not the
voice which the surface uttereth, but some inward sense. Secondly, when
about to narrate and mention all these things, which seem to need a hearer
more than an expounder: "I will open," he saith, "in parables my mouth, I
will declare propositions from the beginning."(5) Who would not herein be
awakened out of sleep? Who would dare to hurry over the parables and
propositions, reading them as if self-evident, while by their very names
they signify that they ought to be sought out with deeper view? For a
parable hath on the surface thereof the similitude of something: and though
it be a Greek word, it is now used as a Latin word. And it is observable,
that in parables, those which are called the similitudes of things are
compared with things with which we have to do. But propositions, which in
Greek are called problh'mata, are questions having something therein which
is to be solved by disputation. What man then would read parables and
propositions cursorily? What man would not attend while hearing these words
with watchful mind, in order that by understanding he may come by the fruit
thereof?

   2. "Hearken ye," He saith, "My people, to My law" (ver. 1). Whom may we
suppose to be here speaking, but God? For it was Himself that gave a law to
His people, whom when delivered out of Egypt He gathered together, the
which gathering together is properly named a Synagogue, which the word
Asaph is interpreted to signify. Hath it then been said, "Understanding of
Asaph," in the sense that Asaph himself hath understood; or must it be
figuratively understood, in the sense that the same Synagogue, that is, the
same people, hath understood, unto whom is said, "Hearken, My people, unto
My law"? Why is it then that He is rebuking the same people by the mouth of
the Prophet, saying, "But Israel hath not known Me, and My people hath not
understood"?(6) But, in fact, there were even in that people they that
understood, having the faith which was afterwards revealed, not pertaining
to the letter of the law, but the grace of the Spirit. For they cannot have
been without the same faith, who were able to foresee and foretell the
revelation thereof that should be in Christ, inasmuch as even those old
Sacraments were significants of those that should be. Had the prophets
alone this faith, and not the people too? Nay indeed, but even they that
faithfully heard the Prophets, were aided by the same grace in order that
they might understand what they heard. But without doubt the mystery[7] of
the Kingdom of Heaven was veiled in the Old Testament, which in the fulness
of time should be unveiled in the New.(8) "For," saith the Apostle, "they
did drink of the Spiritual Rock following them, but the Rock was
Christ."(1)  In a mystery therefore theirs was the same meat and drink as
ours, but in signification the same, not in form;(2) because the same
Christ was Himself figured to them in a Rock, manifested to us in the
Flesh. "But," he saith, "not in all of them God was well pleased."(3) All
indeed ate the same spiritual meat and drank the same spiritual drink, that
is to say, Signifying something spiritual: but not in all of them was God
well pleased. When; he saith," not in all:" there were evidently there some
in whom was God well pleased; and although all the Sacraments were common,
grace, which is the virtue of the Sacraments, was not common to all. Just
as in our times, now that the faith hath been revealed, which then was
veiled, to all men that have been baptized in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Ghost,(4) the Layer of regeneration is common; but
the very grace whereof these same are the Sacraments, whereby the members
of the Body of Christ are to reign s together with their Head, is not
common to all. For even heretics have the same Baptism, and false brethren
too, in the communion of the Catholic name.

   3. Nevertheless, neither then nor now without profit is the voice of
him, saying, "Hearken ye, My people, to My law." Which expression is
remarkable in all the Scriptures, how he saith not, "hearken thou," but,
"hearken ye." For of many men a people doth consist: to which many that
which followeth is spoken in the plural number. "Incline ye your ear unto
the words of My mouth." "Hearken ye," is the same as, "Incline your ear:"
and what He saith there, "My law," this He saith here in, "the words of My
mouth." For that man doth godly hearken to the law of God, and the words of
His mouth, whose ear humility doth incline: not he whose neck pride doth
lift up. For whatever is poured in is received on the concave surface of
humility, is shaken off from the convexity of swelling. Whence in another
place, "Incline," he saith, "thine ear, and receive the words of
understanding."(6) We have been therefore sufficiently admonished to
receive even this Psalm of this understanding of Asaph,(7) to receive, I
say, with inclined ear, that is, with humble piety. And it hath not been
spoken of as being of Asaph himself, but to Asaph himself. Which thing is
evident by the Greek article, and is found in certain Latin copies. These
words therefore are of understanding, that is, of intelligence, which hath
been given to Asaph himself: which we had better understand not as to one
man, but as to the congregation of the people of God; whence we ought by no
means to alienate ourselves. For although properly we say "Synagogue" of
Jews, but "Church" of Christians, because a "Congregation"(8) is wont to be
understood as rather of beasts, but a "convocation" as rather of men: yet
that too we find called a Church, and it perhaps is more suitable for us(9)
to say, "Save us, O Lord, our God, and congregate us from the nations, in
order that we may confess to Thy Holy Name."(10) Neither ought we to
disdain to be, nay we ought to render ineffable thanks, for that we are,
the sheep of His hands, which He foresaw when He was saying, "I have other
sheep which are not of this fold, them too I must lead in, that there may
be one flock and one Shepherd:"(11)  that is to say, by joining the
faithful people of the Gentiles with the faithful people of the Israelites,
concerning whom He had before said, "I have not been sent but to the sheep
which have strayed of the house of Israel."(12) For also there shall be
congregated before Him all nations, and He shall sever them as a shepherd
the sheep from the goats.(13) Thus then let us hear that which hath been
spoken. "Hearken ye, My people, to My law, incline ye your ear unto the
words of My mouth:"  not as if addressed to Jews, but rather as if
addressed to ourselves, or at least as if these words were said as well to
ourselves (as to them(14)). For when the Apostle had said, "But not in all
them was God well pleased," thereby showing that there were those too in
whom God was well pleased: he hath forthwith added, "For they were
overthrown in the desert:"(15) secondly he hath continued, "but these
things have been made our figures."... To us therefore more particularly
these words have been sung. Whence in this Psalm among other things there
hath been said, "That another generation may know, sons who shall be born
and shall arise." (16) Moreover, if that death by serpents, and that
destruction by the destroyer, and the slaying by the sword, were figures,
as the Apostle evidently doth declare, inasmuch as it is manifest that all
those things did happen: for he saith not, in a figure they were spoken,
or, in a figure they were written, but, in a figure, he saith, they
happened to them: with how much greater diligence of godliness must those
punishments be shunned whereof those were the figures? For beyond a doubt
as in good things there is much more of good in that which is signified by
the figure, than in the figure itself: so also in evil things very far
worse are the things which are signified by the figures, while so great are
the evil things which as figures do signify. For as the land of promise,
whereunto that people was being led, is nothing in comparison with the
Kingdom of Heaven, whereunto the Christian people is being led: so also
those punishments which were figures, though they were so severe, are
nothing in comparison with the punishments which they signify. But those
which the Apostle hath called figures, the same this Psalm, as far as we
are able to judge, calleth parables and propositions: not having their end
in the fact of their having happened, but in those things whereunto they
are referred by a reasonable comparison. Let us therefore hearken unto the
law of God--us His people--and let us incline our ear unto the words of His
mouth.

   4. "I will open," he saith, "in parables My mouth, I will declare
propositions from the beginning" (ver. 2). From what beginning he meaneth,
is very evident in the words following. For it is not from the beginning,
what time the Heaven and earth were made, nor what time mankind was created
in the first man: but what time the congregation that was led out of Egypt;
in order that the sense may belong to Asaph, which is interpreted a
congregation. But O that He that hath said, "I will open in parables My
mouth," would also vouchsafe to open our understanding unto them! For if,
as He hath opened His mouth in parables, He would in like sort open the
parables themselves: and as He declareth "propositions," He would declare
in like sort the expositions thereof, we should not be here toiling: but
now so hidden and closed are all things, that even if we are able by His
aid to arrive at anything, whereon we may feed to our health, still we must
eat the bread in the sweat of our face; and pay the penalty of the ancient
sentence(1) not with the labour of the body only, but also with that of the
heart. Let him speak then, and let us hear the parables and propositions.

   5. "How great things we have heard, and have known them, and our
fathers have told them to us" (ver. 3). The Lord was speaking higher up.
For of what other person could these words be thought to be, "Hearken ye, O
My people, to My law"?(2) Why is it then that now on a sudden a man is
speaking, for here we have the words of a man, "our fathers have told them
to us." Without doubt God, now about to speak by a man's ministry, as the
Apostle saith, "Will ye to receive proof of Him that is speaking in me,
Christ?"(3) in His own person at first willed the words to be uttered, lest
a man speaking His words should be despised as a man. For it is thus with
the sayings of God which make their way to us through our bodily sense. The
Creator moveth the subject creature by an invisible working; not so that
the substance is changed into anything corporal and temporal, when by means
of corporal and temporal signs, whether belonging to the eyes or to the
ears, as far as men are able to receive it, He would make His will to be
known. For if an angel is able to use air, mist, cloud, fire, and any other
natural substance or corporal species;(4) and man to use face, tongue,
hand, pen, letters, or any other significants, for the purpose of
intimating the secret things of his own mind: in a word, if, though he is a
man, he sendeth human messengers, and he saith to one, "Go, and he goeth;
and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to his servant, Do this, and he
doeth it;"(5) with how much greater and more effectual power doth God, to
whom as Lord all things together are subject, use both the same angel and
man, in order that He may declare whatsoever pleaseth Him? ... For those
things were heard in the Old Testament which are known in the New: heard
when they were being prophesied, known when they were being fulfilled.
Where a promise is performed, hearing is not deceived. "And our fathers,"
Moses and the Prophets, "have told unto us."

   6. "They have not been hidden from their sons in another generation"
(ver. 4). This is our generation wherein there hath been given to us
regeneration. "Telling forth the praises of the Lord and His powers, and
His wonderful works which He hath done." The order of the words is, "and
our fathers have told unto us, telling forth the praises of the Lord." The
Lord is praised, in order that He may be loved. For what object can be
loved more to our health? "And He hath raised up a testimony in Jacob, and
hath set a law in Jacob" (ver. 5). This is the beginning whereof hath been
spoken above, "I will declare propositions from the beginning."(6) So then
the beginning is the Old Testament, the end is the New. For fear doth
prevail in the law? "But the end of the law is Christ for righteousness to
every one believing;"(8) at whose bestowing "love is shed abroad in our
hearts through the Holy Spirit, which hath been given to us:"(9) and love
made perfect doth cast out fear,(10) inasmuch as now without the Law the
righteousness of God hath been made manifest. But inasmuch as He hath a
testimony by the Law and the Prophets," therefore, "He hath raised up a
testimony in Jacob." For even that Tabernacle which was set up with a work
so remarkable and full of such wondrous meanings, is named the Tabernacle
of Testimony, wherein was the veil over the Ark of the Law, like the veil
over the face of the Minister of the Law;(1) because in that dispensation
there were "parables and propositions." For those things which were being
preached and were coining to pass were hidden in veiled meanings, and were
not seen in unveiled manifestations. But "when thou shall have passed over
unto Christ," saith the Apostle, "the veil shall be taken away."(2) For
"all the promises of God in Him are yea, Amen."(3) Whosoever therefore doth
cleave to Christ, hath the whole of the good which even in the letters of
the Law he perceiveth not: but whosoever is an alien from Christ, doth
neither perceive, nor hath. "He hath set a law in Israel." After his usual
custom he is making a repetition. For "He hath raised up a testimony," is
the same as, "He hath set a law," and "in Jacob," is the same as "in
Israel." For as these are two names of one man, so law and testimony are
two names of one thing. Is there any difference, saith some one, between
"hath raised up" and "hath set"? Yea indeed, the same difference as there
is between "Jacob" and "Israel:" not because they were two persons, but
these same two names were bestowed upon one man for different reasons;
Jacob because of supplanting, for that he grasped the foot of his brother
at his birth:(4) but Israel because of the vision of God.(5) So "raised up"
is one thing, "set" is another. For, "He hath raised up a testimony," as
far as I can judge, hath been said because by it something has been raised
up; "For without the Law," saith the Apostle, "sin was dead: but I lived
sometime without the Law: but at the coming in of the commandment sin
revived."(6) Behold that which hath been raised up by the testimony, which
is the Law, so that what was lying hidden might appear, as he saith a
little afterwards: "But sin, that it might appear sin, through a good thing
hath wrought in me death."(7) But "He hath set a law," hath been said, as
though it were a yoke upon sinners, whence hath been said," For upon a just
man law hath not been imposed." s It is a testimony then, so far forth as
it doth prove anything; but a law so far forth as it doth command; though
it is one and the same thing. Wherefore just as Christ is a stone, but to
believers for the Head of the corner, while to unbelievers a stone of
offence and a rock of scandal;(9) so the testimony of the Law to them that
use not the Law lawfully,(10) is a testimony whereby sinners are to be
convicted as deserving of punishment; but to them that use the same
lawfully, is a testimony whereby sinners are shown unto whom they ought to
flee in order to be delivered. ...

   7. "How great things," he saith, "He hath commanded our fathers, to
make the same known to their sons?" (ver. 5). "That another generation may
know, sons who shall be born and shall rise up, and they may tell to their
sons" (ver. 6). "That they may put their hope in God, and may not forget
the works of God, and may seek out His commandments" (ver. 7). "That they
may not become, like their fathers, a crooked and embittering generation: a
generation that hath not guided their heart, and the spirit thereof hath
not been trusted with God" (ver. 8). These words do point out two peoples
as it were, the one belonging to the Old Testament, the other to the New:
for in that he saith, he hath implied that they received the commandments,
"to make them known to their sons," but that they did not know or do them:
but they received them themselves, to the end "that another generation
might know," what the former knew not. "Sons who shall be born and shall
arise." For they that have been born have not arisen: because they had not
their heart above, but rather on the earth. For the arising is with Christ:
whence hath been said, "If ye have arisen with Christ, savour ye the things
which are above."[11] "And they may tell them," he saith, "to their sons,
in order that they may put their hope in God." ... "And may not forget the
works of God:" that is to say, in magnifying and vaunting their own works,
as though they did them themselves; while "God it is that worketh," in them
that work good things, "both to will and to work according to good
will."(12) "And may search out His commandments." ... The commandments
which He hath commanded. How then should they still search out, whereas
they have already learned them, save that by putting their hope in God,
they do then search out His commandments, in order that by them, with His
aid, they may be fulfilled? And he saith why, by immediately subjoining,
"and its spirit hath not been trusted with God," that is, because it had no
faith, which doth obtain what the Law doth enjoin. For when the spirit of
man doth work together with the Spirit of God working, then there is
fulfilled that which God hath commanded: and this doth not come to pass,
except by believing in Him that doth justify an ungodly man.(13) Which
faith the generation crooked and embittering had not: and therefore
concerning the same hath been said, "The spirit thereof hath not been
trusted with God." For this hath been said much more exactly to point out
the grace of God, which doth work not only remission of sins, but also doth
make the spirit of man to work together therewith in the work of good
deeds, as though he were saying, his spirit hath not believed in God. For
to have the spirit trusted with God, is, not to believe that his spirit is
able to do righteousness without God, but with God. For this is to believe
in God: which is surely more than to believe God. For ofttimes we must
believe even a man, though in him we must not believe. To believe in God
therefore is this, in believing to cleave unto God who worketh good works,
in order to work with Him well. ...

   8. Lastly, "The sons of Ephrem bending and shooting bows, have been
turned back in the day of war" (ver. 9). Following after the law of
righteousness, unto the law of righteousness they have not attained.(1)
Why? Because they were not of faith. For they were that generation whereof
the spirit hath not been trusted with God: but they were, so to speak, of
works: because they did not, as they bended and shot their bows (which are
outward actions, as of the works of the law), so guide their heart also,
wherein the just man doth live by faith, which worketh by love; whereby men
cleave to God, who worketh in man both to will and work according to good
will(2) For what else is bending the bow and shooting, and turning back in
the day of war, but heeding and purposing in the day of hearing, and
deserting in the day of temptation; flourishing arms, so to speak,
beforehand, and at the hour of the action refusing to fight? But whereas he
saith, "bending and shooting bows," when it would seem that he ought to
have said, bending bows and shooting arrows. ... Some Greek copies to be
sure are said to have "bending and shooting with bows," so that without
doubt we ought to understand arrows. But whereas by the sons of Ephrem he
hath willed that there be understood the whole of that embittering
generation, it is an expression signifying the whole by a part. And perhaps
this part was chosen whereby to signify the whole, because from these men
especially some good thing was to have been expected. ... Although set at
the left hand by his father as being the younger, Jacob nevertheless
blessed with his right hand, and preferred him before his eider brother
with a benediction of hidden meaning.(3) ... For there was being figured
how they were to be last that were first, and first were to be they that
were last? through the Saviour's coming, concerning whom hath been said,
"He that is coming after me was made before me."(5) In like manner
righteous Abel was preferred before the elder brother; so to Ismael Isaac;
so to Esau, though born before him, his twin brother Jacob; so also Phares
himself preceded even in birth his twin brother, who had first thrust a
hand out of the womb, and had begun to be born: 6 so David was preferred
before his elder brother:(7) and as the reason why all these parables and
others like them preceded, not only of words but also of deeds, in like
manner to the people of the Jews was preferred the Christian people, for
redeeming the which as Abel by Cain(8) so by the Jews was slain Christ.
This thing was prefigured even when Jacob stretching out his hands cross-
wise, with his right hand touched Ephrem standing on the left; and set him
before Manasse standing on the right, whom he himself touched with the left
hand.(3)

   9. But what that is which he saith, "they have been turned back in the
day of war," the following words do teach, wherein he hath most clearly
explained this: "they have not kept," he saith, "the testament of God, and
in His law they would not walk" (ver. 10). Behold what is, "they have been
turned back in the day of war:" they have not kept the testament of God.
When they were bending and shooting bows, they did also utter the words of
most forward promise, saying, "Whatsoever things the Lord our God hath
spoken we will do, and we will hear."9 "They have been turned back in the
day of war:" because the promise of obedience not hearing but temptation
doth prove. But he whose spirit hath been trusted with God, keepeth hold on
God, who is faithful, and "cloth not suffer him to be tempted above that
which he is able; but will make with the temptation a way of escape
also,"(10) that he may be able to endure, and may not be turned back in the
day of war. ... Therefore these men have been thus branded: "a generation,"
he saith, "which hath not directed their heart."(11) It hath not been said,
works, but heart. For when the heart is directed, the works are right; but
when the heart is not directed, the works are not right, even though they
seem to be right. And how the crooked generation hath not directed the
heart, hath sufficiently been shown, when he saith, "and the spirit thereof
hath not been trusted with God."(11) For God is right: and therefore by
cleaving to the right, as to an immutable rule, the heart of a man can be
made right, which in itself was crooked. ...

   10. "And they forgat His benefits, and the wonderful works of Him which
He showed to them; before their fathers the wonderful things which He did"
(ver. 11). What this is, is not a question to be negligently passed over.
Concerning those very fathers he was speaking a little before, that they
had been a generation crooked and embittering. ... What fathers, inasmuch
as these are the very fathers, whom he would not have posterity to be like?
If we shall take them to be those out of whom the others had derived their
being, for example, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, by this time they had long since
fallen asleep, when God showed wonderful things in Egypt. For there
followeth, "in the land of Egypt, in the plain of Thanis" (ver. 12): where
it is said that God showed to them wonderful things before their fathers.
Were they perchance present in spirit? For of the same the Lord saith in
the Gospel, "for all do live to Him."(1) Or do we more suitably understand
thereby the fathers Moses and Aaron, and the other elders who are related
in the same Scripture also to have received the Spirit, of which also Moses
received, in order that they might aid him in ruling and bearing the same
people?(2) For why should they not have been called fathers? It is not in
the same manner as God is the One Father, who doth regenerate with His
Spirit those whom He doth make sons for an everlasting inheritance; but it
is for the sake of honour, because of their age and kindly carefulness:
just as Paul the elder saith, "Not to confound you I am writing these
things, but as my dearly beloved sons I am admonishing you:"(3) though he
knew of a truth that it had been said by the Lord, "Call ye no man your
father on earth, for One is your Father, even God."(4) And this was not
said in order that this term of human honour should be erased from our
usual way of speaking: but lest the grace of God whereby we are regenerated
unto eternal life, should be ascribed either to the power or even sanctity
of any man. Therefore when he said," I have begotten you;" he first said,"
in Christ," and "through the Gospel;" lest that might be thought to be of
him, which is of God. ... Accordingly, the land of Egypt must be understood
for a figure of this world. "The plain of Thanis" is the smooth surface of
lowly commandment. For lowly commandment is the interpretation of Thanis.
In this world therefore let us receive the commandment of humility, in
order that in another world we may merit to receive the exaltation which He
hath promised, who for our sake here became lowly.

   11. For He that "did burst asunder the sea and made them go through,
did confine the waters as it were in bottles" (ver. 13), in order that the
water might stand up first as if it were shut in, is able by His grace to
restrain the flowing and ebbing tides of carnal desires, when we renounce
this world, so that all sins having been thoroughly washed away, as if they
were enemies, the people of the faithful may be made to pass through by
means of the Sacrament of Baptism. He that "led them home in the cloud of
the day, and in the whole of the night in the illumination of fire" (ver.
14), is able also spiritually to direct goings if faith crieth to Him,
"Direct Thou my goings after Thy word."[5] Of Whom m another place(6) is
said, For Himself shall make thy courses right, and shall prolong thy
goings in peace"(7) through Jesus Christ our Lord, whose Sacrament in this
world, as it were in the day, is manifest in the flesh, as if in a cloud;
but in the Judgment it will be manifest like as in a terror by night; for
then there will be a great tribulation of the world like as it were fire,
and it shall shine for the just and shall burn for the unjust. "He that
burst asunder the rock in the desert, and gave them water as in a great
deep" (ver. 15); "and brought out water from the rock, and brought down
waters like rivers" (ver. 16), is surely able upon thirsty faith to pour
the gift of the Holy Spirit (the which gift the performance of that thing
did spiritually signify), to pour, I say, from the Spiritual Rock that
followed, which is Christ: who did stand and cry, "If any is athirst, let
him come to Me:"(8) and, "he that shall have drunk of the water which I
shall give, rivers of living water shall flow out of his bosom."(9) For
this He spake, as is read in the Gospel,(10) to the Spirit, which they were
to receive that believed in Him, unto whom like the rod drew near the wood
of the Passion, in order that there might flow forth grace for believers.

   12. And yet, "they," like a generation crooked and embittering, "added
yet to sin against Him" (ver. 17): that is, not to believe. For this is the
sin, whereof the Spirit doth convict the world, as the Lord saith, "Of sin
indeed because they have not believed on Me."(11) "And they exasperated the
Most High in drought," which other copies have, "in a place without water,"
which is a more exact translation from the Greek, and doth signify no other
thing than drought. Was it in that drought of the desert, or rather in
their own? For although they had drank of the rock, they had not their
bellies but their minds dry, freshening with no fruitfulness of
righteousness. In that drought they ought the more faithfully to have been
suppliant unto God, in order that He who had given fulness unto their jaws,
might give also equity to their manners. For unto him the faithful soul
doth cry, "Let mine eyes see equity."(12)

   13. "And they tempted God in their hearts, in order that they might
seek morsels for their souls" (ver. 18). It is one thing to ask in
believing, another thing in tempting. Lastly there followeth, "And they
slandered God, and said, Shall God be able to prepare a table in the
desert?" (ver. 19). "For He smote the rock, and the waters flowed, and
torrents gushed forth: will He be able to give bread also, or to prepare a
table for His people?" (ver. 20). Not believing therefore, they sought
morsels for their souls. Not so the Apostle James doth enjoin a morsel to
be asked for the mind, but doth admonish that it be sought by believers,
not by such as tempt and slander God. "But if any one of you," he saith,
"doth lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who doth give to all men abundantly,
and doth not upbraid, and it shall be given to him: but let him ask in
faith, nothing wavering."(1) This faith had not that generation which" had
not directed their heart, and the spirit thereof had not been trusted with
God."

   14. "Wherefore the Lord heard, and He delayed, and fire was lighted in
Jacob, and wrath went up into Israel" (ver. 21). He hath explained what he
hath called fire. He hath called anger fire: although in strict propriety
fire did also burn up many men. What is therefore this that he saith, "The
Lord heard, and He delayed"? Did He delay to conduct them into the land of
promise, whither they were being led: which might have been done in the
space of a few days, but on account of sins they must needs be wasted in
the desert, where also they were wasted during forty years? Anti if this be
so, He did then delay the people, not those very persons who tempted and
slandered God: for they all perished in the desert, and their children
journeyed into the land of promise. Or did He delay punishment, in order
that He might first satisfy unbelieving concupiscence, lest He might be
supposed to be angry, because they were asking of Him what He was not able
to do? "He heard," then, "and He delayed to avenge:" and after He had done
what they supposed He was not able to do, then "anger went up upon Israel."

   15. Lastly, when both these things have been briefly touched,
afterwards he is evidently following out the order of the narrative.
"Because they believed not in God, nor hoped in His saving health" (ver.
22). For when he had told why fire was lighted in Jacob, and anger went up
upon Israel, that is to say, "because they believed not in God, nor hoped
in His saving health:" immediately subjoining the evident blessings for
which they were ungrateful, he saith, "and He commanded the clouds above,
and opened the doors of Heaven" (ver. 23). "And He rained upon them manna
to eat, and gave them bread of Heaven" (ver. 24). "Bread of angels man did
eat: dainties He sent them in abundance" (ver. 25). He brought over the
South Wind from Heaven, and in His virtue He led in the South West Wind"
(ver. 26). "And He rained upon them fleshes like dust, and winged fowls
like the sand of the sea" (ver. 27 ). "And they fell in the midst of their
camp, around their tabernacles" (ver. 28). "And they ate and were filled
exceedingly; and their desire He brought to them: they were not deprived of
their desire" (ver. 29). Behold why He had delayed. But what He had delayed
let us hear. "Yet the morsel was in their mouths, and the anger of God came
down upon them" (ver. 30). Behold what He had delayed. For before "He
delayed:" and afterwards, "fire was lighted in Jacob and anger went up upon
Israel." He had delayed therefore in order that He might first do what they
had believed that He could not do, and then might bring upon them what they
deserved to suffer. For if they placed their hope in God, not only would
their desires of the flesh but also those of the spirit have been
fulfilled. For he that ... opened the doors of Heaven, and rained upon them
manna to eat," that He might fill the unbelieving, is not without power to
give to believers Himself the true Bread from Heaven, which the manna did
signify: which is indeed the food of Angels, whom being incorruptible the
Word of God doth incorruptibly feed: the which in order that man might eat,
He became flesh, and dwelled in us.(2) For Himself the Bread by means of
the Evangelical clouds is being rained over the whole world, and, the
hearts of preachers like heavenly doors, being opened, is being preached
not to a murmuring and tempting synagogue, but to a Church believing and
putting hope in Him. He is able also to feed the feeble faith of such as
tempt not, but believe, with the signs of words uttered by the flesh and
speeding through the air, as though it were fowls: not however with such as
come from the north, where cold and mist do prevail, that is to say,
eloquence which is pleasing to this world, but by bringing over the South
Wind from Heaven; whither, except to the earth? In order that they who are
feeble in faith, by hearing things earthly may be nourished up to receive
things heavenly. ...

   16. But as to unbelievers, being a crooked and embittering generation,
as it were, while the morsel was yet in their mouths, "the anger of God
went up upon them, and it slew among the most of them" (ver. 31): that is,
the most of them, or as some copies have it, "the fat ones of them," which
however in the Greek copies which we had, we did not find. But if this be
the truer reading, what else must be understood by "the fat ones of them,"
than men mighty in pride, concerning whom is said, "their iniquity shall
come forth as if out of fat"?(1) "And the elect of Israel He lettered."
Even there there were elect, with whose faith the generation crooked and
embittering was not mixed. But they were fettered, so that they might in no
sort profit them for whom they desired that they might provide from a
fatherly affection. For what is conferred by human mercy, on those with
whom God is angry? Or rather hath He willed it to be understood, how that
even the elect were fettered at the same time with them, in order that they
who were diverse both in mind and in life, might endure sufferings with
them for an example not only of righteousness, but also of patience? For we
have learned that holy men were even led captive with sinners for no other
reason; since in the Greek copies we read not enepo'disen, which is
"fettered;" but sunepo'disen, which is rather "fettered together with."

   17. But the generation crooked and embittering, "in all these things
sinned yet more, and they believed not in His wonderful works" (ver. 32).
"And in their days failed in vanity" (ver. 33 ). Though they might, if they
had believed have had days in truth without failing, with Him to whom hath
been said, "Thy years shall not fail."(2) Therefore, "their days failed in
vanity, and their years with haste." For the whole life of mortal men is
hastening, and that which seemeth to be longer is but a vapour of somewhat
longer duration.

   18. Nevertheless, "when he slew them they sought Him:" not for the sake
of eternal life, but fearing to end the vapour too soon. There sought Him
then, not indeed those whom, He had slain, but they that were afraid of
being slain according to the example of them. But the Scripture hath so
spoken of them as if they sought God who were slain; because they were  one
people, and it is spoken as if of one body: "and they returned, and at dawn
they came to God" (ver. 34). "And they remembered that God is their Helper,
and the High God is their Redeemer" (ver. 35). But all this is for the sake
of acquiring temporal good things, and for avoiding temporal evil things.
For they that did seek God for the sake of temporal blessings, sought not
God indeed, but things. Thus with those God is worshipped with slavish
fear, not free love. Thus then God is not worshipped, for that thing is
worshipped which is loved. Whence because God is found to be greater and
better than all things, He must be loved more than all things, in order
that He may be worshipped.

   19. Lastly, here let us see the words following: "And they loved Him,"
he saith, "in their mouth, and in their tongue they lied unto Him" (ver.
36). "But their heart was not right with Him, and they were not counted
faithful in His Testament" (ver. 37). One thing on their tongue, another
thing in their heart He found, unto whom the secret things of men are
naked, and without any impediment He saw what they loved rather. Therefore
the heart is right with God, when it doth seek God for the sake of God. For
one thing he desired of the Lord, the same he will require, that he may
dwell always in the House of the Lord, and may meditate on the pleasantness
of Him.(3) Unto Whom saith the heart of the faithful, I will be filled, not
with the flesh-pots of the Egyptians, nor with melons and gourds, and
garlick and onions, which a generation crooked and embittering did prefer
even to bread celestial,(4) nor with visible manna, and those same winged
fowls; but, "I will be filled, when Thy glory shall be made manifest."(5)
For this is the inheritance of the New Testament, wherein they were not
counted faithful; whereof however the faith even at that time, when it was
veiled, was in the elect, and now, when it hath already been revealed, it
is not in many that are called. "For many have been called, but few are
elect."(6) Of such sort therefore was the generation crooked and
embittering, even when they were seeming to seek God, loving in mouth, and
in tongue lying; but in heart not right with God, while they loved rather
those things, for the sake of which they required the help of God.

   20. "But He is Himself merciful, and will become propitious to their
sins, and He will not destroy them. And He will abound to turn away His
anger, and He will not kindle all his anger" (ver. 38). By these words many
men promise to themselves impunity for their iniquity from the Divine
Mercy, even if they shall have persevered in being such, as that generation
is described, "crooked and embittering; which hath not directed their
heart, and the spirit thereof hath not been trusted with God:" with whom it
is not profitable to agree. For if, to speak in their words, God will
perchance not destroy no not even bad men, without doubt He will not
destroy good men. Why then do we not rather choose that wherein there is no
doubt? For they that lie to Him in their tongue, though their heart doth
hold some other thing, do think indeed, and will, even God to be a liar,
when He doth menace upon such men eternal punishment. But whilst they do
not deceive Him with their lying, He doth not deceive them with speaking
the truth. These words therefore of divine sayings, concerning which the
crooked generation doth cajole itself, let it not make crooked like its own
heart: for even when it is made crooked, they continue right. For at first
they may be understood according to that which is written in the Gospel,
"that ye may be like your Father who is in the Heavens, who maketh His sun
to rise upon good men and evil men, and raineth upon just men and unjust
men."(1) For who could not see, how great is the long-suffering of mercy
with which He is sparing evil men? But before the Judgment, He spared then
that nation in such sort, that He kindled not(1) all His anger, utterly to
root it up and bring it to an end: which thing in His words and in the
intercession for their sins of His servant Moses doth evidently appear,
where God saith, "Let Me blot them out, and make thee into a great
nation:"(3) he intercedeth, being more ready to be blotted out for them
than that they should be; knowing that he is doing this before One
Merciful, who inasmuch as by no means He would blot out him, would even
spare them for his sake. For let us see how greatly He spared, and doth
still spare. ...

   21. In the second place, that we may not seem to do violence to divine
words, and lest in the place where there was said, "He will not destroy
them,"(4) we should say, "But hereafter He will destroy them: "concerning
this very present Psalm let us turn to a very common phrase of the
Scripture, whereby this question may be more diligently and more truly
solved. Speaking of these same persons a little lower down, when He had
made mention of the things which the Egyptians because of them had endured,
He saith, ... "And He led them unto the mount of His sanctification, the
mount which His fight hand won. And He cast out from their face the
nations, and by lot distributed to them the land in the cord of
distribution."(5) If any one at these words should press a question upon
us, and should say, How doth he make mention of all these things as having
been bestowed upon them, when the same persons were not led into the land
of promise, as were delivered from Egypt, inasmuch as they were dead? What
shall we reply but that they were spoken of, because they were the self-
same people by means of a succession of sons? ...

   22. "And He remembered that they are flesh, a spirit(6) going and not
returning" (ver. 39). Therefore calling them and pitying them through His
grace, He called them back Himself, because of themselves they could not
return. For how doth flesh return, "a spirit walking and not turning
back,"(7) while a weight of evil deserts doth weigh it down unto the lowest
and far places of evil, save through the election of grace? ... For thus
also is solved this no unimportant question, how it is written in the
Proverbs, when the Scripture was speaking of the way of iniquity, "all they
that walk in her shall not return."(8) For it hath been so spoken as if all
ungodly men were to be despaired of: but the Scripture did only commend
grace; for of himself man is able to walk in that way, but is not able of
himself to return, except when called back by grace.

   23. I say then of these crooked and embittering persons, "How often
they exasperated Him in the desert, and provoked Him to wrath in the
waterless place!" (ver. 40). "And they turned themselves and tempted God,
and exasperated the Holy One of Israel" (ver. 41). He is repeating that
same unbelief of theirs, of which He had made mention above. But the reason
of the repetition is, in order that there may be mentioned also the plagues
which He inflicted on the Egyptians for their sakes: all which things they
certainly ought to have remembered, and not to be ungrateful. Lastly, there
followeth what? "They remembered not His hands, in the day when He redeemed
them from the hand of the troubler" (ver. 42). And he beginneth to speak of
what things He did to the Egyptians: "He set in Egypt His signs, and His
prodigies in the plain of Thanis" (ver. 43): "and He turned their rivers
into blood, and their showers lest they should drink" (ver. 44), or rather,
"the flowings of waters," as some do better understand by what is written
in Greek, ta` ombrh'mata, which in Latin we call scaturigines, waters
bubbling from beneath. "He sent upon them the dog-fly, and it ate them up;
and the frog, and it destroyed them" (ver. 45). "And He gave their fruit to
the mildew, and their labours to the locust" (ver. 46). "And He slew with
hail their vineyards, and their mulberry trees with frost" (ver. 47). "And
He gave over to the hail their beasts of burden, and their possessions to
the fire" (ver. 48). "He sent upon them the anger of His indignation,
indignation and anger and tribulation, a visitation through evil angels"
(ver. 49). He made a way to the course of His anger, and their beasts of
burden He shut up in death" (ver. 50). "And He smote every first-born thing
in the land of Egypt, the first-fruits of their labours in the tabernacles
of Cham" (ver. 51).

   24. All these punishments of the Egyptians may be explained by an
allegorical interpretation, according as one shall have chosen to
understand them, and to compare them to the things whereunto they must be
referred. Which we too will endeavour to do; and shall do it the more
properly, the more we shall have been divinely aided. For to do this, those
words of this Psalm do constrain us, wherein it was said, "I will open in
parables my mouth, I will declare propositions from the beginning."(1) For
for this cause even some things have been here spoken of, which that they
befell the Egyptians at all we read not, although all their plagues are
most carefully related in Exodus according to their order, so that while
that which is not there mentioned we are sure hath not been mentioned in
the Psalm to no purpose, and we can interpret the same only figuratively,
we may at the same time understand that even the rest of the things which
it is evident did happen, were done or described for the sake of some
figurative meaning. For the Scripture doth so do in many passages of the
prophetic sayings. ... In the plagues therefore of the Egyptians, which are
in the book which is called Exodus, where  the Scripture hath been
especially careful, that those things whereby they were afflicted should be
all related in order, there is not found what this Psalm hath, "and He gave
to the mildew their fruits." This also wherein, when he had said, "and He
gave over to the hail their beasts," he hath added, "and their possession
to  the fire :" of the beasts slain with hail is read in Exodus;(2) but how
their possession was burned with fire, is not read at all. Although voices
and fires do come together with hail, just as thunderings do commonly
accompany lightnings; nevertheless, it is not written that anything was
given over to the fire that it should be burned. Lastly, the soft things
which the hail could not hurt, are said not to have been smitten, that is,
hurt with hard blows; which things the locust devoured afterwards. Also
that which is here spoken of, "and their mulberry trees with hoar-frost,"
is not in Exodus. For hoar-frost doth differ much from hail; for in the
clear winter nights the earth is made white with hoar-frost.

   25. What then those things do signify, let the interpreter say as he
can, let reader and hearer judge as is just. The water turned into blood
seemeth to me to signify a carnal view of the causes of things. Dog-fly,
are the manners of dogs? who see not even their parents when first they are
born. The frog is very talkative vanity. Mildew doth hurt secretly, which
also some have interpreted by rust, others black mould: which evil thing to
what vice is it more appropriately compared, than to what doth show itself
least readily, like the trusting much in one's self? For it is a blighting
air which doth work this secretly among fruits: just like in morals, secret
pride, when a man thinketh himself to be something, though he is
nothing.(4) The locust is malice hurting with the mouth, that is, with
unfaithful testimony. The hail is iniquity taking away the goods of others;
whence theft, robberies, and depredations do spring: but more by his
wickedness the plunderer himself is plundered. The hoar-frost doth signify
the fault wherein the love of one's neighbour by the darkness of
foolishness, like as it were by the cold of night, is frozen up. But the
fire, if here it is not that which is mentioned which was in the hail out
of the lightning clouds, forasmuch as he hath said here, "He gave over
their possession to the fire," where he implieth that a thing was burned,
which by that fire we read not to have been done,--it seemeth to me, I say,
to signify the savageness of wrath, whereby even man-slaying may be
committed. But by the death of beasts was figured, as far as I judge, the
loss of chastity. For concupiscence, whereby offspring do arise, we have in
common with beasts. To have this therefore tamed and ordered, is the virtue
of chastity. The death of the first-born things, is the putting off of the
very justice whereby a man doth associate with mankind. But whether the
figurative significations of these things be so, or whether they are better
understood in another way, whom would it not move, that with ten plagues
the Egyptians are smitten, and with ten commandments the tables are
inscribed,(5) that thereby the people of God should be ruled? Concerning
the comparing of which one with the other, inasmuch as we have spoken
elsewhere, there is no need to load the exposition of this Psalm therewith:
thus much we remind you, that here too, though not in the same order, yet
ten plagues of the Egyptians are commemorated, forasmuch as in the place of
three which are in Exodus and are not here, to wit, lice, boils, darkness;
other three are commemorated, which are not there, that is to say, mildew,
hoarfrost, and fire; not of lightning, but that where-unto their possession
was given over, which is not read of in that place.

   26. But it hath been clearly enough intimated, that by the judgment of
God these things befell them through the instrumentality of evil angels, in
this wicked world, as though it were in Egypt and in the plain of Thanis,
where we ought to be humble, until there come that world, wherein we may
earn to be exalted out of this humiliation. For even Egypt in the Hebrew
tongue doth signify darkness or tribulations, in which tongue, Thanis,(6)
as I have observed, is understood to be humble commandment. Concerning the
evil angels therefore in this Psalm, while he was speaking of those very
plagues, there hath been something inserted, which must not be passed over
cursorily: "He sent upon them," he saith, "an infliction through evil
angels." Now that the devil and his angels are so very evil, that for them
everlasting fire is prepared, no believer is ignorant: but that there
should be sent by means of them an infliction from the Lord God upon
certain whom He judgeth to be deserving of this punishment, seemeth to be a
hard thing to those who are little prone to consider, how the perfect
justice of God doth use well even evil things. For these indeed, as far as
regardeth their substance, what other person but Himself hath made? But
evil He hath not made them: yet He doth use them, inasmuch as He is good,
well, that is, conveniently and justly: just as on the other hand
unrighteous men do use His good creatures in evil manner. God therefore
doth use evil angels not only to punish evil men, as in the case of all
those concerning whom the Psalm doth speak, as in the case of king Achab,
whom a spirit of lying by the will of God did beguile, in order that he
might fall in war:(1) but also to prove and make manifest good men, as He
did in the case of Job. But as far as regardeth that corporal matter of
visible elements, I suppose that thereof angels both good and evil are able
to make use, according to the power given to each: just as also men good
and evil do use such things, as far as they are able, according to the
measure of human infirmity. For we use both earth and water, and air, and
fire, not only in things necessary for our support, but also in many
operations superfluous and playful, and marvellously artificial. For
countless things, which are called mhchanh'mata, are moulded out of these
elements scientifically employed. But over these things angels have a far
more extended power, both the good and the evil, though greater is that
which the good have;(2) but only so far as is commanded or permitted by the
will and providence of God; on which terms also we have it. For not even in
these cases are we able to do all that we will. But in a book the most
unerring we read that the devil was able even to send fire from Heaven, to
burn up with wonderful and awful fierceness so great a number of the cattle
of a holy man:(3) which thing no one of the faithful would dare perchance
to ascribe to the devil, except it were read on the authority of Holy
Scripture. But that man, being by the gift of God just and firm, and of
godly knowledge, saith not, The Lord hath given, the devil hath taken away:
but, "The Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken away:"(4) very well knowing
that even what the devil was able to do with these elements, he would still
not have done to a servant of God, except at his Lord's will and
permission; he did confound the malice of the devil, forasmuch as he knew
who it was that was making use thereof to prove him. In the sons then of
unbelief like as it were in his own slaves, he doth work,(5) like men with
their beasts, and even therewith only so far as is permitted by the just
judgment of God. But it is one thing when his power is restrained from
treating even his own as he pleases, by a greater power; another thing when
to him power is given even over those who are alien from him. Just as a man
with his beast, as men understand it, doeth what he will, and yet doth not
indeed, if he be restrained by a greater power: but with another man's
beast to do something, he doth wait until power be given from him unto whom
it belongeth. In the former case the power which there was is restrained,
in the latter that which there was not is conceded.

   27. And if such be the case, if through evil angels God did inflict
those plagues upon the Egyptians, shall we dare to say that the water also
was turned into blood by means of those same angels, and that frogs were
created by means of the same, the like whereunto even the magicians of
Pharaoh were able to make by their enchantments;(6) so as that evil angels
stood on both sides, on the one side afflicting them, on the other side
deceiving them, according to the judgment and dispensation(7) of the most
just and most omnipotent God, who doth justly make use of even the
naughtiness of unrighteous men? I dare not to say so. For whence was it
that the magicians of Pharaoh could by no means make lice?(8) Was it not
because even these same evil angels were not suffered to do this? Or, to
speak more truly, is not the cause hidden, and it doth exceed our powers of
inquiry? For if we shall have supposed that God wrought those things by
means of evil angels, because punishments were being inflicted, and not
blessings being bestowed, as though God doth inflict punishments upon no
one by means of good angels, but by means of those executioners as it were
of the heavenly wrath; the consequence will be that we must believe that
even Sodom was overthrown by means of evil angels, and that Abraham and Lot
would seem to have entertained under their roof evil angels;(9) the which,
as being contrary to the most evident Scriptures, far be it that we should
think. It is clear then that these things might have been done to men by
means of good and evil angels. What should be done or when it should be
done doth escape me: but Him that doeth it, it escapeth not, and him unto
whom He shall have willed to reveal it. Nevertheless, as far as divine
Scripture doth yield to our application thereto, on evil men that
punishments are inflicted both by means of good angels, as upon the
Sodomites, and by means of evil angels, as upon the Egyptians, we read: but
that just men with corporal penances by means of good angels are tried and
proved, doth not occur to me.

   28. But as far as regardeth the present passage of this Psalm, if we
dare not ascribe those things which were marvellously formed out of
creatures, to evil angels; we have a thing which without doubt we can
ascribe to them; the dyings of the beasts, the dyings of the first-born,
and this especially whence all these things proceeded, namely, the
hardening of heart, so that they would not let go the people of God.(1) For
when God is said to make this most iniquitous and malignant obstinacy, He
maketh it not by suggesting and inspiring, but by forsaking, so that they
work in the sons of unbelief that which God doth duly and justly permit.(2)
.. Moreover, those evil manners which we said were signified by these
corporal plagues, on account of that which was said before, "I will open in
parables my mouth,"(3) are most appropriately believed by means of evil
angels to have been wrought in those that are made subject to them by
Divine justice. For neither when that cometh to pass of which the apostle
speaketh, "God gave them over into the lusts of their heart, that they
should do things which are not convenient,"(4) can it be but that those
evil angels dwell and rejoice therein, as in the matter of their own work:
unto whom most justly is human haughtiness made subject, in all save those
whom grace doth deliver. "And for these things who is sufficient?" (5)
Whence when he had said, "He sent unto them the anger of His indignation,
indignation and anger and tribulation, an infliction through evil angels;"
for this which he hath added, "a way He hath made for the path of His anger
"(ver. 50), whose eye, I pray, is sufficient to penetrate, so that it may
understand and take in the sense lying hidden in so great a profundity? For
the path of the anger of God was that whereby He punished the ungodliness
of the Egyptians with hidden justice: but for that same path He made a way,
so that drawing them forth as it were from secret places by means of evil
angels unto manifest offences, He most evidently inflicted punishment upon
those that were most evidently ungodly. From this power of evil angels
nothing doth deliver man but the grace of God, whereof the Apostle
speaketh, "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and l hath
translated us into the kingdom of the Son  of His love:"(6) of which things
that people did  bear the figure, when they were delivered from  the power
of the Egyptians, and translated into the kingdom of the land of promise
flowing with milk and honey, which doth signify the sweetness of grace.

   29. The Psalm proceedeth then after the commemoration of the plagues of
the Egyptians (ver. 51) and saith, "And He took away like sheep His people,
and He led them through like a flock in the desert" (ver. 52). "And He led
them down in hope, and they feared not, and their enemies the sea covered"
(Ver, 53). This cometh to pass to so much the greater good, as it is a more
inward thing, wherein being delivered from the power of darkness, we are in
mind translated into the Kingdom of God, and with respect to spiritual
pastures we are made to become sheep of God, walking in this world as it
were in a desert, inasmuch as to no one is our faith observable: whence
saith the Apostle, "Your life is hidden with Christ in God."(7) But we are
being led home in hope, "For by hope we are saved."(8) Nor ought we to
fear. For, "If God be for us, who can be against us"(9) And our enemies the
sea hath covered, He hath effaced them in baptism by the remission of sins.

   30. In the next place there followeth, "And He led them into the
mountain of His sanctification" (ver. 54). How much better into Holy
Church! "The mountain which His right hand hath gotten." How much higher is
the Church which Christ hath gotten, concerning whom has been said, "And to
whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?(10) (ver. 55). "And He cast
forth from the face of them the nations." And(11) from the face of His
faithful. For nations in a manner are the evil spirits of Gentile errors.
"And by lot He divided unto them the land in the cord of distribution." And
in us "all things one and the same Spirit doth work, dividing severally to
every one as He willeth."(12)

   31. "And He made to dwell in their tabernacles the tribes of Israel."
In the tabernacles, he saith, of the Gentiles He made the tribes of Israel
to dwell, which I think can better be explained spiritually, inasmuch as
unto celestial glory, whence sinning angels have been cast forth and cast
down, by Christ's grace we are being uplifted. For that generation crooked
and embittering, inasmuch as for these corporal blessings they put not off
the coat of oldness, "Did tempt" yet, "and provoked the high God, and His
testimonies they kept not (ver. 56): and they turned them away, and they
kept not the covenant, like their fathers" (ver. 57). For under a sort of
covenant and decree they said, "All things which our Lord God hath spoken
we will do, and we will hear."(13) It is a remarkable thing indeed which he
saith, "like their fathers:" while throughout the whole text of the Psalm
he was seeming to speak of the same men as it were, yet now it appeareth
that the words did concern those who were already in the land of promise,
and that the fathers spoken of were of those who did provoke in the desert.
"They were turned," he saith, "into a crooked," or, as some copies have it,
"into a perverse bow" (ver. 58). But what this is doth better appear in
that which followeth, where he saith, "And unto wrath they provoked Him
with their hills" (ver. 59). It doth signify that they leaped into
idolatry. The bow then was perverted, not for the name of the Lord, but
against the name of the Lord: who said to the same people, "Thou shalt have
none other Gods but Me."(1) But by the bow He doth signify the mind's
intention. This same idea, lastly, more clearly working out, "And in their
graven idols," he saith, "they provoked Him to indignation."

   32. "God heard, and He despised:" that is, He gave heed and took
vengeance. "And unto nothing He brought Israel exceedingly" (ver. 60). For
when God despised, what were they who by God's help were what they were?
But doubtless he is commemorating the doing of that thing, when they were
conquered by the Philistines in the time of Heli the priest, and the Ark of
the Lord was taken, and with great slaughter they were laid low.(2) This it
is that he speaketh of. "And He rejected the tabernacle of Selom, His
tabernacle, where He dwelled among men" (ver. 61). He hath elegantly
explained why He rejected His tabernacle, when he saith, "where He dwelled
among men." When therefore they were not worthy for Him to dwell among, why
should He not reject the tabernacle, which indeed not for Himself He had
established, but for their sakes, whom now He judged unworthy for Him to
dwell among. "And He gave over unto captivity their strength, and their
beauty unto the hands of the enemy." The very Ark whereby they thought
themselves invincible, and whereon they plumed themselves, he calleth their
"virtue" and "beauty." Lastly, also afterward, when they were living ill,
and boasting of the temple of the Lord, He doth terrify them by a Prophet,
saying, "See ye what I have done to Selom, where was My tabernacle."(3)
"And He ended with the sword His people, and His inheritance He despised"
(ver. 62). "Their young men the fire devoured:" that is, wrath. "And their
virgins mourned not" (ver. 63). For not even for this was there leisure, in
fear of the foe. "Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows were
not lamented" (ver. 64). For there fell by the sword the sons of Heli, of
one of whom the wife being widowed, and presently dying in child-birth,(4)
because of the same confusion could not be mourned with the distinction of
a funeral. "And the Lord was awakened as one sleeping" (ver. 65). For He
seemeth to sleep, when He giveth His people into the hands of those whom He
hateth, when there is said to them, "Where is thy God?"(5) "He was
awakened, then, like one sleeping, like a mighty man drunken with wine." No
one would dare to say this of God, save His Spirit. For he hath spoken, as
it seemeth to ungodly men reviling; as if like a drunken man He sleepeth
long, when He succoureth not so speedily as men think.(6)

   33. "And He smote His enemies in the hinder parts" (ver. 66): those, to
wit, who were rejoicing that they were able to take His Ark: for they were
smitten in their back-parts.(7) Which seemeth to me to be a sign of that
punishment, wherewith a man will be tortured, if he shall have looked back
upon things behind; which, as saith the Apostle, he ought to value as
dung.(8) For they that do so receive the Testament of God, as that they put
not off from them the old vanity, are like the hostile nations, who did
place the captured Ark of the Testament beside their own idols. And yet
those old things even though these be unwilling do fall: for "all flesh is
hay, and the glory of man as the flower of hay. The hay hath dried up, and
the flower hath fallen off:"(9) but the Ark of the Lord "abideth for
everlasting," to wit, the secret testament of the kingdom of Heaven, where
is the eternal Word of God. But they that have loved things behind, because
of these very things most justly shall be tormented. For "everlasting
reproach He hath given to them." (ver. 67).

   34. "And He rejected," he saith," the tabernacle of Joseph, and the
tribe of Ephraim(10) He chose not" (ver. 68). "And He chose the tribe of
Judah" (ver. 69). He hath not said, He rejected the tabernacle of Reuben,
who was the first-born son of Jacob;(11) nor them that follow, and precede
Judah in order of birth; so that they being rejected and not chosen, the
tribe of Judah was chosen. For it might have been said that they were
deservedly rejected; because even in the blessing of Jacob wherewith he
blessed his sons, he mentioneth their sins,(12) and deeply abhorreth them;
though among them the tribe of Levi merited to be the priestly tribe,
whence also Moses was.(1) Nor hath he said, He rejected the tabernacle of
Benjamin, or the tribe of Benjamin He chose not, out of which a king
already had begun to be; for thence there had been chosen Saul;(2) whence
because of the very proximity of the time, when he had been rejected and
refused, and David chosen,(3) this might conveniently have been said; but
yet was not said: but he hath named those especially who seemed to excel
for more surpassing merits. For Joseph fed in Egypt his father and his
brethren, and having been impiously sold, because of his piety, chastity,
wisdom, he was most justly exalted;(4) and Ephraim by the blessing of his
grandfather Jacob was preferred before his eider brother:(5) and yet God
"rejected the tabernacle of Joseph, and the tribe of Ephraim He chose not."
In which place by these names of renowned merit, what else do we understand
but that whole people with old cupidity requiring of the Lord earthly
rewards, rejected and refused, but the tribe of Judah chosen not for the
sake of the merits of that same Judah? For far greater are the merits of
Joseph, but by the tribe of Judah, inasmuch as thence arose Christ
according to the flesh, the Scripture doth testify of the new people of
Christ preferred before that old people, the Lord opening in parables His
mouth. Moreover, thence also in that which followeth, "the Mount Sion which
He chose," we do better understand the Church of Christ, not worshipping
God for the sake of the carnal blessings of the present time, but from afar
looking for future and eternal rewards with the eyes of faith: for Sion too
is interpreted a "looking out."

   35. Lastly there followeth, "and He builded like as of unicorns His
sanctification" (ver. 70): or, as some interpreters have made thereof a new
word, "His sanctifying.:"(6) The unicorns are rightly understood to be
those, whose firm hope is uplifted unto that one thing, concerning which
another Psalm saith, "One thing I have sought of the Lord, this I will
require."(7) But the sanctifying of God, according to the Apostle Peter, is
understood to be a holy people and a royal priesthood.(8) But that which
followeth, "in the land which He founded for everlasting:" which the Greek
copies have eis to`n aiw^na, whether it be called by us "for everlasting,"
or "for an age," is at the pleasure of the Latin translators; forasmuch as
it doth signify either: and therefore the latter is found in some Latin
copies, the former in others. Some also have it in the plural, that is,
"for ages:" which in the Greek copies which we have had we have not found.
But which of the faithful would doubt, that the Church, even though, some
going, others coming, she doth pass out of this life in mortal manner, is
yet founded for everlasting?

   36. "And He chose David His servant" (yet. 71). The tribe, I say, of
Judah, for the sake of David: but David for the sake of Christ: the tribe
then of Judah for the sake of Christ. At whose passing by blind men cried
out," Have pity on us, Son of David:"(9) and forthwith by His pity they
received light, because true was  the thing which they cried out. This then
the Apostle doth not cursorily speak of, but doth heedfully notice, writing
to Timothy, "Be thou mindful, that Christ Jesus hath risen from the dead,
of the seed of David," etc.(10) Therefore the Saviour Himself, made
according to the flesh of the seed of David, is figured in this passage
under the name of David, the Lord opening in parables His mouth. And let it
not move us, that when he had said, "and He chose David," under which name
he signified Christ, he hath added, "His servant," not His Son. Yea even
hence we may perceive, that not the substance of the Only-Begotten
coeternal with the Father, but the "form of a servant" was taken of the
seed of David.

   37. "And He took him from the flocks of sheep, from behind the teeming
sheep He received him: to feed Jacob His servant, and Israel His
inheritance" (ver. 72). This David indeed, of whose seed the flesh of
Christ is, from the pastoral care of cattle was translated to the kingdom
of men: but our David, Jesus Himself, from men to men, from Jews to
Gentiles, was yet according to the parable from sheep to sheep taken away
and translated. For there are not now in that land "Churches of Judaea in
Christ," which belonged to them of the circumcision after the recent
Passion and Resurrection of our Lord, of whom saith the Apostle," But I was
unknown by face to the Churches of Judaea, which are in Christ," etc.(11)
Already from hence those Churches of the circumcised people have passed
away: and thus in Judaea, which now doth exist on the earth, there is not
now Christ.(12) He hath been removed thence, now He doth feed flocks of
Gentiles. Truly from behind teeming sheep He hath been taken thence. For
those former Churches were of such sort, as that of them it is said in the
Song of Songs, "Thy teeth--are like a flock of shorn ewes going up from the
washing, (13) all of which do bear twins, and a barren one is not among
them." (14) For they then laid aside like as it were fleeces the burdens of
the world,(15) when before the feet of the Apostles they laid the prices of
their sold goods,(16) going up from that Layer, concerning which the
apostle Peter doth admonish them, when they were troubled because they had
shed the blood of Christ, and he saith, "Repent ye, and let each one of you
be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and your sins shall be
forgiven you."(1) But twins they begat, the works, to wit, of the two
commandments of twin love, love of God, and love of one's neighbour: whence
a barren one there was not among them. From behind these teeming sheep our
David having been taken, doth now feed other flocks among the Gentiles, and
those too "Jacob" and "Israel." For thus hath been said, "to feed Jacob His
servant, and Israel His inheritance." ... Unless perchance any one be
willing to make such a distinction as this; viz. that in this time Jacob
serveth; but he will be the eternal inheritance of God, at that time when
he shall see God face to face, whence he hath received the name Israel.(2)

   38. "And He fed them," he saith, "in the innocence of His heart" (ver.
73). What can be more innocent than He, who not only had not any sin
whereby to be conquered, but even not any to conquer? "And in the
understanding of His hands He led them home:" or, as some copies have it,
"in the understandings of His hands." Any other man might suppose that it
would have been better had it been said thus, "in innocence of hands and
understanding of heart;" but He who knew better than others what He spake,
preferred to join with the heart innocence, and with the hands
understanding. It is for this reason, as far as I judge; because many men
think themselves innocent, who do not evil things because they fear lest
they should suffer if they shall have done them; but they have the will to
do them, if they could with impunity. Such men may seem to have innocence
of hands, but yet not that of heart. And what, I pray, or of what sort is
that innocence, if of heart it is not, where man was made after the image
of God?(3) But in this which he saith, "in understanding (or intelligence)
of His hands He led them home," he seemeth to me to have spoken of that
intelligence which He doth Himself make in believers: and so "of His
hands:" for making cloth belong to the hands, but in the sense wherein the
hands of God may be understood; for even Christ was a Man in such sort,
that He was also God. ...

PSALM LXXIX. (4)

   1. Over the title of this Psalm, being so short and so simple, I think
we need not tarry. But the prophecy which here we read sent before, we know
to be evidently fulfilled. For when these things were being sung in the
times of King David, nothing of such sort, by the hostility of the
Gentiles, as yet had befallen the city Jerusalem, nor the Temple of God,
which as yet was not even builded. For that after the death of David his
son Salomon made a temple to God, who is ignorant? That is spoken of
therefore as though past, which in the Spirit was seen to be future.

   "O God, the Gentiles have come into Thine inheritance" (ver. 1). Under
which form of expression other things which were to come to pass, are
spoken of as having been done. Nor must this be wondered at, that these
words are being spoken to God. For they are not being represented to Him
not knowing, by whose revelation they are foreknown; but the soul is
speaking with God with that affection of godliness, of which God
knoweth.(5) For even the things which Angels proclaim to men, they proclaim
to them that know them not; but the things which they proclaim to God, they
proclaim to Him knowing, when they offer our prayers, and in ineffable
manner consult the eternal Truth respecting their actions, as an immutable
law. And therefore this man of God is saying to God that which he is to
learn of God, like a scholar to a master, not ignorant but judging; and so
either approving what he hath taught, or censuring what he hath not taught:
especially because under the appearance of one praying, [the Prophet is
transforming into himself those who should be at the time when these things
were to come to pass.(6) But in praying it is customary to declare those
things to God which He hath done in taking vengeance, and for a petition to
be added, that henceforth He should pity and spare. In this way here also
by him the judgments are spoken of by whom they are foretold, as if they
were being spoken of by those whom they befell, and the very lamentation
and prayer is a prophecy.

   2. "They have defiled Thy holy Temple, they have made Jerusalem for a
keeping of apples." "They have made the dead bodies of Thy servants morsels
for the fowls of heaven, the fleshes of Thy saints for the beasts of the
earth" (ver. 2). "They have poured forth their blood like water in the
circuit of Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them" (ver. 3). If in
this prophecy any one of us shall have thought that there must be
understood that laying waste of Jerusalem, which was made by Titus the
Roman Emperor, when already the Lord Jesus Christ, after His Resurrection
and Ascension, was being preached among the Gentiles, it doth not occur to
me how that people could now have been called the inheritance of God, as
not holding to Christ, whom having rejected and slain, that people became
reprobate, which not even after His Resurrection would believe in Him. and
even killed His Martyrs. For out of that people Israel whosoever have
believed in Christ; to whom the offer of Christ was made, and in a manner
the healthful and fruitful fulfilment of the promise; concerning whom even
the Lord Himself saith, "I am not sent but to the sheep which have been
lost of the house of Israel,"(1) the same are they that out of them are the
sons of promise; the same are counted for a seed;(2) the same do belong to
the inheritance of God. From hence are Joseph that just man, and the Virgin
Mary who bore Christ:(3) hence John Baptist the friend of the Bridegroom,
and his parents Zacharias and Elisabeth:(4) hence Symeon the old,(5) and
Anna the widow, who heard not Christ speaking by the sense of the body; but
while yet an infant not speaking, by the Spirit perceived Him: hence the
blessed Apostles: hence Nathanael, in whom guile was not:(6) hence the
other Joseph, who himself too looked for the kingdom of God:(7) hence that
so great multitude who went before and followed after His beast, saying,
"Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord:"(8) among whom was also
that company of children, in whom He declared to have been fulfilled, "Out
of the mouth of infants and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise."(9) Hence
also were those after His resurrection, of whom on one day three and on
another five thousand were baptized,(10) welded into one soul and one heart
by the fire of love; of whom no one spoke of anything as his own, but to
them all things were common.(11) Hence the holy deacons, of whom Stephen
was crowned with martyrdom before the Apostles.(12) Hence so many Churches
of Judaea, which were in Christ, unto whom Paul was unknown by face,(13)
but known for an infamous ferocity, and more known for Christ's most
merciful grace. Hence even he, according to the prophecy sent before
concerning him, "a wolf ravening, in the morning carrying off, and in the
evening dividing morsels;"(14) that is, first as persecutor carrying off
unto death, afterwards as a preacher feeding unto life. These are they that
are out of that people the inheritance of God. ... So then even at this
time a remnant through election of Grace have been saved. This remnant out
of that nation doth belong to the inheritance(15) of God: not those
concerning whom a little below he saith, "But the rest have been blinded."
For thus he saith. "What then? That which Israel sought, this he hath not
obtained: but the election hath obtained it: but the rest have been
blinded."(16) This election then, this remnant, that people of God, which
God hath not cast off, is called His inheritance. But in that Israel, which
hath not obtained this, in the rest that were blinded, there was no longer
an inheritance of God, in reference to whom it is possible that there
should be spoken, after the glorification of Christ in the Heavens, in the
time of Titus the Emperor, "O God, there have come the Gentiles unto Thine
inheritance," and the other things which in this Psalm seem to have been
foretold concerning the destruction of both the temple and city belonging
to that people.

   3. Furthermore herein we ought either to perceive those things which
were done by other enemies, before Christ had come in the flesh: at that
time when there were even the holy prophets, when the carrying away into
Babylon took place,(17) and that nation was grievously afflicted, and at
the time when under Antiochus also the Maccabees, having endured horrible
sufferings, were most gloriously crowned.(18) Or certainly if after the
Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord the inheritance of God must be
understood to be here spoken of; such things must be understood herein, as
at the hands of worshippers of idols, and enemies of the name of Christ,
His Church, in such a multitude of endured martyrs. ... This Church then,
this inheritance of God, out of circumcision and uncircumcision hath been
congregated, that is, out of the people of Israel, and out of the rest of
the nations, by means of the Stone which the builders rejected, and which
hath become for the Head of the corner,(19) in which corner as it were two
walls coming from different quarters were united. "For Himself is our
peace, who hath made both one, that He might build two into Himself, making
peace, and might unite together(20) both in one Body unto God:(21) in which
Body we are sons of God, "crying, Abba Father."(22) Abba, on account of
their language; Father, on account of ours. For Abba is the same as Father.
..

   4. But now in that which followeth, "they have made Jerusalem for a
keeping of apples;" even the Church herself is rightly understood under
this name, even the free Jerusalem our mother,(23) concerning whom hath
been written, "many more are the sons of the forsaken, than of her that
hath the husband."(1) The expression, "for a keeping of apples," I think
must be understood of the desertion which the wasting of persecution hath
effected: that is, like a keeping of apples; for the keeping of apples is
abandoned, when the apples have passed away. And certes when through the
persecuting Gentiles the Church seemed to be forsaken, unto the celestial
table, like as it were many and exceeding sweet apples from the garden of
the Lord, the spirits of the martyrs did pass away.

   5. "They have made," he saith, "the dead bodies of Thy servants morsels
for the fowls of heaven, the fleshes of Thy saints for the beasts of the
earth" (ver. 2). The expression, "dead bodies," hath been repeated in
"fleshes:" and the expression, "of Thy servants," hath been repeated in,
"of Thy saints." This only hath been varied, "to the fowls of heaven, and
to the beasts of the earth." Better have they interpreted who have written
"dead," than as some have it, "mortal." For "dead" is only said of those
that have died; but mortal is a term applied even to living bodies. When
then, as I have said, to their Husbandman the spirits of martyrs like
apples had passed away, their dead bodies and their fleshes they set before
the fowls of heaven and the beasts of the earth: as if any part of them
could be lost to the resurrection, whereas out of the hidden recesses of
the natural world He will renew the whole, by whom even our hairs have been
numbered.(2)

   6. "They have poured forth their blood like water," that is, abundantly
and wantonly, "in the circuit of Jerusalem" (ver. 3). If we herein
understand the earthly city Jerusalem, we perceive the shedding of their
blood in the circuit thereof, whom the enemy could find outside the walls.
But if we understand it of that Jerusalem, concerning whom hath been said,
"many more are the sons of her that was forsaken, than of her that hath the
husband,"(1) the circuit thereof is throughout the universal earth. For in
that lesson of the Prophet, wherein is written, "many more are the sons of
her that was forsaken, than of her that hath the husband:" a little after
unto the same is said, "and He that hath delivered thee, shall be called
the God of Israel of the universal earth."[3] The circuit then of this
Jerusalem in this Psalm must be understood as followeth: so far as at that
time the Church had been expanded, bearing fruit, and growing in the
universal world, when in every part thereof persecution was raging, and was
making havoc of the Martyrs, whose blood was being shed like water, to the
great gain of the celestial treasuries. But as to that which hath been
added, "and there was no one to bury:" it either ought not to seem to be an
incredible thing that there should have been so great a panic in some
places, that not any buriers at all of holy bodies came forward: or certes
that unburied corpses in many places might lie long time, until being by
the religious in a manner stolen[4] they were buried.

   7. "We have become," he saith, "a reproach to our neighbours" (ver. 4).
Therefore precious not in the sight of men, from whom this reproach was,
but "precious(5) in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."(6)
"A scoffing and derision :" or, as some have interpreted it, "a mockery to
them that are in our circuit." It is a repetition of the former sentence.
For that which above hath been called, "a reproach," the same hath been
repeated in, "a scoffing and derision:" and that which above hath been said
in, "to our neighbours," the same hath been repeated in, "to them that are
in our circuit." Moreover, in reference to the earthly Jerusalem, the
neighbours, and those in the circuit of that nation, are certainly
understood to be other nations. But in reference to the free Jerusalem our
mother,(7) there are neighbours even in the circuit of her, among whom,
being her enemies, the Church dwelleth in the circuit of the round world.

   8. In the second place now giving utterance to an evident prayer,
whence it may be perceived that the calling to remembrance of former
affliction is not by way of information but prayer; "How long," he saith,
"O Lord, wilt Thou be angry, unto the end? shall Thy jealousy burn like
fire?" (ver. 5). He is evidently asking God not to be angry unto the end,
that is, that this so great oppression and tribulation and devastation may
not continue even unto the end; but that He moderate His chastening,
according to that which is said in another Psalm, "Thou shalt feed us with
the bread of tears, and Thou shalt give us to drink of tears in
measure."(8) For the, "how long, O Lord, wilt Thou be angry, unto the end?"
hath been spoken in the same sense as if it had been said, Be not, O Lord,
angry unto the end. And in that which followeth, "shall Thy jealousy burn
like fire?" both words must be understood, both, "how long," and, "unto the
end: "just as if there had been said, how long shall there burn like fire
Thy jealousy unto the end? For these two words must be understood in the
same manner as that word which was used a little higher up, namely, "they-
have-made." For while the former sentence hath, "they have made the dead
bodies of Thy servants morsels for the fowls of heaven:"(9) this word the
latter sentence hath not, wherein is said, "the fleshes of Thy saints for
the beasts of the earth;" but there is surely understood what the former
hath, namely, "they have made."

   Moreover, the anger and jealousy of God(1) are not emotions of God; as
some do charge upon the Scriptures which they do not understand:(2) but
under the name of anger is to be understood the avenging of iniquity; under
the name of jealousy, the exaction of chastity; that the soul may not
despise the law of her Lord, and perish by departing in fornication from
the Lord. These then in their actual operation in men's affliction are
violent; but in the disposal of God they are calm, unto whom hath been
said, "But Thou, O Lord of virtues, with calmness dost judge."(3) But it is
clearly enough shown by these words, that for sins these tribulations do
befall men, though they be faithful: although hence may bloom the Martyrs'
glory by occasion of their patience, and the yoke of discipline godly
endured as the scourge of the Lord. Of this the Maccabees amid sharp
tortures,(4) of this the three men amid flames innocuous,(5) of this the
holy Prophets in captivity, do testify. For although paternal correction
most bravely and most godly they endure, yet they do not hide the fact,
that these things have befallen them for the deservings of their sins.(6)
..

   9. But that which he addeth, "Pour forth Thine anger upon the nations
which have not known Thee, and upon the kingdoms which have not called upon
Thy name" (ver. 6); this too is a prophecy, not a wish. Not in the
imprecation of malevolence are these words spoken, but foreseen by the
Spirit they are predicted: just as in the case of Judas the traitor, the
evil things which were to befall him have been so prophesied as if they
were wished. For in like manner as the prophet doth not command Christ,
though in the imperative mood he giveth utterance to what he saith, "Gird
Thou Thy sword about Thy thigh, O Most Mighty: in Thy beauty and in Thy
goodliness, both go on, and prosperously proceed, and reign :"(7) so he
doth not wish, but doth prophesy, who saith, "Pour forth Thine anger upon
the nations which have not known Thee." Which in his usual way he
repeateth, saying, "And upon the kingdoms which have not called upon Thy
name." For nations have been repeated in kingdoms: and that they have not
known Him, hath been repeated in this, that they have not called upon His
name. How then must be understood, what the Lord saith in the Gospel s
concerning stripes, "the many and the few"? if greater the anger of God is
against the nations, which have not known the Lord? For in this which he
saith, "Pour forth Thine anger," with this word he hath clearly enough
pointed out, how great anger he hath willed that there should be
understood. Whence afterwards he saith, "Render to our neighbours seven
times as much."(9) Is it not that there is a great difference between
servants, who, though they know not the will of their Lord, do yet call
upon His name, and those that are aliens from the family of so great a
Master, who are so ignorant of God, as that they do not even call upon God?
For in place of Him they call upon either idols or demons, or any creature
they choose; not the Creator, who is blessed for ever. For those persons,
concerning whom he is prophesying this, he doth not even intimate to be so
ignorant of the will of their God, as that still they fear the Lord
Himself; but so ignorant of the Lord Himself, that they do not even call
upon Him, and that they stand forth as enemies of His name. There is a
great difference then between servants not knowing the will of their God,
and yet living in His family and in His house, and enemies not only setting
the will against knowing the Lord Himself, but also not calling upon His
name, and even in His servants fighting against it.

   10. Lastly, there followeth, "For they have eaten up Jacob, and his
place they have made desolate" (ver. 7). ... How we should view" the place"
of Jacob, must be understood. For rather the place of Jacob may be supposed
to be that city, wherein was also the Temple, whither-unto the whole of
that nation for the purpose of sacrifice and worship, and to celebrate the
Passover, the Lord had commanded to assemble. For if the assemblies of
Christians, letted and suppressed by persecutors, has been what the Prophet
would have to be understood, it would seem that he should have said, places
made desolate, not place. Still we may take the singular number as put for
the plural number; as dress for clothes, soldiery for soldiers, cattle for
beasts: for many words are usually spoken in this manner, and not only in
the mouths of vulgar speakers, but even in the eloquence of the most
approved authorities. Nor to divine Scripture herself is this form of
speech foreign. For even she hath put frog for frogs, locust for
locusts,(10) and countless expressions of the like kind. But that which
hath been said, "They have eaten up Jacob," the same is well understood, in
that many men into their own evil-minded body, that is, into their own
society, they have constrained to pass.

   11. ... He subjoineth, "Remember not our iniquities of old" (ver. 8).
He saith not bygone, which might have even been recent; but "of old," that
is, coming from parents. For to such iniquities judgment, not correction,
is(1) owing. "Speedily let Thy mercies anticipate us." Anticipate, that is,
at Thy judgment. For "mercy exalteth above in judgment."(2) Now there is
"judgment without mercy," but to him that hath not showed mercy. But
whereas he addeth, "for we have become exceeding poor:" unto this end he
willeth that the mercies of God should be understood to anticipate us; that
our own poverty, that is, weakness, by Him having mercy, should be aided to
do His commandments, that we may not come to His judgment to be condemned.

   12. Therefore there followeth, "Help us, O God, our healing(3) One"
(ver. 9). By this word Which he saith, "our healing One," he doth
sufficiently explain what sort of poverty he hath willed to be understood,
in that which he had said, "for we have become exceeding poor." For it is
that very sickness, to which a healer is necessary. But while he would have
us to be aided, he is neither ungrateful to grace, nor doth he take away
free-will. For he that is aided, doth also of himself something. He hath
added also, "for the glory of Thy Name, O Lord, deliver us:" in order that
he who glorieth, not in himself, but in the Lord may glory.(4) "And
merciful be Thou," he saith, "to our sins for Thy Name's sake:" not for our
sake. For what else do our sins deserve, but due and condign punishments?
But "merciful be Thou to our sins, for Thy Name's sake." Thus then Thou
dost deliver us, that is, dost rescue us from evil things, while Thou dost
both aid us to do justice, and art merciful to our sins, without which in
this life we are not. For "in Thy sight shall no man living be
justified."(5) But sin is iniquity.(6) And "if Thou shalt have marked
iniquities, who shall stand?"(7)

   13. But that which he addeth, "lest at any time they should say among
the Gentiles, Where is their God?" (ver. 10) must be taken as rather for
the Gentiles themselves. For to a bad end they come that have despaired of
the true God, thinking that either He is not, or doth not help His own, and
is not merciful to them. But this which followeth, "and that there may be
known among the nations before our eyes the vengeance of the blood of Thy
servants which hath been shed:" is either to be understood as of the time,
when they believe in the true God that used to persecute His inheritance;
because even that is vengeance, whereby is slain the fierce iniquity of
them by the sword of the Word of God, concerning which hath been said,
"Gird Thou Thy sword:"(8) or when obstinate enemies at the last are
punished. For the corporal ills which they suffer in this world, they may
have in common with good men. There is also another kind of vengeance; that
wherein the Church's enlargement and fruitfulness in this world after so
great persecutions, wherein they supposed she would utterly perish, the
sinner and unbeliever and enemy seeth, and is angry; "with his teeth he
shall gnash, and shall pine away."(9) For who would dare to deny that even
this is a most heavy punishment? But I know not whether that which he
saith, "before our eyes," is taken with sufficient elegance, if by this
sort of punishment we understand that which is done in the inmost recesses
of the heart, and doth torment even those who blandly smile at us, while by
us there cannot be seen what they suffer in the inner man. But the fact,
that whether in them believing their iniquity is slain, or whether the last
punishment is rendered to them persevering in their naughtiness, without
difficulty of doubtfulness is understood in the saying, "that there may be
known before our eyes vengeance among the nations."

   14. And this indeed, as we have said, is a prophecy, not a wish. ...
And the Lord in the Gospel(10) hath set before us the widow for an example,
who longing to be avenged, did intercede with the unjust judge, who at
length heard her, not as being guided by justice, but overcome with
weariness: but this the Lord hath set before us, to show that much more the
just God will speedily make the judgment of His elect, who cry unto Him day
and night, Thence is also that cry of the Martyrs under the altar of
God(11) that they may be avenged in the judgment of God. Where then is the,
"Love your enemies, do good unto them that hate you, and pray for them that
persecute you"?[12] Where is also the, "Not rendering evil for evil, nor
cursing for cursing :"(13) and, "unto no man rendering evil for evil"?(14)
.. For when the Lord was exhorting us to love enemies, He set before us
the example of our Father, who is in Heaven, "who maketh His sun to rise
upon good men and evil men, and raineth upon just men and unjust men:"(15)
cloth He yet therefore not chasten even by temporal correction, or not
condemn at the last the obstinately hardened? Let therefore an enemy be so
loved as that the Lord's justice whereby he is punished displease us not,
and let the justice whereby he is punished so please us, as that the joy is
not at his evil but at the good Judge. But a malevolent soul is sorrowful,
if his enemy by being corrected shall have escaped punishment: and when he
seeth him punished, he is so glad that  he is avenged, that he is not
delighted with the justice of God, whom he loveth not, but with the misery
of that man whom he hateth: and when he leaveth judgment to God, he hopeth
that God will hurt more than he could hurt: and when he giveth food to his
hungering  enemy, and drink to him thirsty, he hath an evil-minded sense of
that which is written, "For thus doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon
his head."(1) ... In such sort then under the appearance of one asking in
this Psalm, future vengeance on the ungodly is prophesied of, as that we
are to understand that holy men of God have loved their enemies, and have
wished no one anything but good, which is godliness in this world,
everlasting life in that to come; but in the punishments of evil men, they
have taken pleasure not in the ills of them, but in God's good judgments;
and wheresoever in the holy Scriptures we read of their hatreds against
men, they were the hatreds of vices, which every man must needs hate in
himself, if he loveth himself.

   15. But now in that which followeth, "Let there come in before Thy
sight," or, as some copies have it, "In Thy sight, the groans of the
fettered:" not easily doth any one discover that the Saints were thrown
into fetters by persecutors; and if this doth happen amid so great and
manifold a variety of punishments, so rarely it doth happen, that it must
not be believed that the prophet had chosen to allude to this especially in
this verse. But, in fact, the fetters are the infirmity and the
corruptibleness of the body, which do weigh down the soul. For by means of
the frailty thereof, as a kind of material for certain pains and troubles,
the persecutor might constrain her unto ungodliness. From these fetters the
Apostle was longing to be unbound, and to be with Christ;(2) but to abide
in the flesh was necessary for their sakes unto whom he was ministering the
Gospel. Until then this corruptible put on incorruption, and this mortal
put on immortality,(3) like as it were with fetters, the weak flesh doth
let the willing spirit.(4) These fetters then not any do feel, but they
that in themselves do groan being burthened, desiring to be clothed upon
with the tabernacle which is from Heaven;(5) because both death is a
terror, and mortal life is sorrow. In behalf of these men groaning the
Prophet doth redouble his groaning, that their groaning may "come in in the
sight of the Lord." They also may be understood to be fettered, who are
enchained with the precepts of wisdom, the which being patiently supported
are turned into ornaments: whence it hath been written, "Put thy feet into
her fetters."(6) "According to the greatness," he saith, "of Thy arm,
receive Thou unto adoption the sons of them that are put to death:"(7) or,
as is read in some copies, "Possess Thou sons by the death of the
punished."(8) Wherein the Scripture seemeth to me to have sufficiently
shown, what hath been the groan of the fettered, who for the name of Christ
endured most grievous persecutions, which in this Psalm are most clearly
prophesied. For being beset with divers sufferings, they used to pray for
the Church, that their blood might not be without fruit to posterity; in
order that the Lord's harvest might more abundantly flourish by the very
means whereby enemies thought that she would perish. For "sons of them that
were put to death" he hath called them who were not only not terrified by
the sufferings of those that went before, but in Him for whose name they
knew them to have suffered, being inflamed with their glory which did
inspire them to the like, in most ample hosts they believed. Therefore he
hath said, "According to the greatness of Thine arm." For so great a wonder
followed in the case of Christian peoples, as they, who thought they would
prevail aught by persecuting her, no wise believed would follow.

   16. "Render," he saith, "to our neighbours seven times so much into
their bosoms" (ver. 13). Not any evil things he is wishing, but things just
he is foretelling and prophesying as to come. But in the number seven, that
is, in sevenfold retribution, he would have the completeness of the
punishment to be perceived, for with this number fulness is wont to be
signified. Whence also there is this saying for the good, "He shall receive
in this world seven times as much:"(9) which hath been put for all. "As if
having nothing, and possessing all things."(10) Of neighbours he is
speaking, because amongst them dwelleth the Church even unto the day of
severing: for not now is made the corporal separation. "Into their bosoms,"
he saith, as being now in secret, so that the vengeance which is now being
executed in secret in this life, hereafter may be known among the nations
before our eyes. For when a man is given over to a reprobate mind, in his
inward bosom he is receiving what he deserveth of future punishments.
"Their reproach wherewith they have reproached Thee, O Lord." This do Thou
render to them sevenfold into their bosoms, that is, in return for this
reproach, most fully do Thou rebuke them in their secret places. For in
this they have reproached Thy Name, thinking to efface Thee from the earth
in Thy servants.

   17. "But we Thy people" (ver. 14), must be taken generally of all the
race of godly and true Christians. "We," then, whom they thought they had
power to destroy, "Thy people, and the sheep of thy flock:" in order that
he that glorieth may glory in the Lord,(1) "will confess to Thee for an
age." But some copies have it, "will confess to Thee for everlasting." Out
of a Greek ambiguity this diversity hath arisen. For that which the Greek
hath, eis to`n aiw^na, may be interpreted both by "for everlasting," and
"for an age;" but according to the context we must understand which is the
better interpretation. The sense then of this passage seemeth to me to
show, that we ought to say "for an age," that is, even unto the end of
time. But the following verse after the manner of the Scriptures, and
especially of the Psalms, is a repetition of the former with the order
changed, putting that before which in the former case was after, and that
after which in the former case was before. For whereas in the former case
there had been said, "we will confess to Thee," instead of the same herein
hath been said, "We will proclaim Thy praise." And so whereas in the former
case there had been said, "for an age," instead of the same herein hath
been said, "for generation and generation." For this repetition of
generation doth signify perpetuity: or, as some understand it, it is
because there are two generations, an old and a new. ... But in many places
of holy Scriptures we have already made known to you that confession is
also put for praise: as in this passage it is, "These words ye shall say in
confession, 'That the works of the Lord are very good.'"(2) And especially
that which the Saviour Himself saith, who had not any sin at all, which by
repentance to confess: "I confess to Thee, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast
revealed them to babes."(3) I have said this, in order that it may be more
clearly perceived how in the expression, "We will proclaim Thy praise," the
same hath been repeated as had been said higher up, "We will confess to
Thee."

PSALM LXXX.(4)

   1. ... If perchance things obscure demand the office of an interpreter,
those things which are evident ought to require of me the office of a
reader. The song here is of the Advent of the Lord and of our Saviour Jesus
Christ, and of His vineyard. But the singer of the song is that Asaph, as
far as doth appear, enlightened and converted, by whose name ye know the
synagogue to be signified. Lastly, the title of the Psalm is: "For the end
in behalf of them that shall be changed;" that is, for the better. For
Christ, the end of the Law, (5) hath come on purpose that He should change
men for the better. And he addeth, "a testimony to Asaph himself." A good
testimony of truth. Lastly, this testimony doth confess both Christ and the
vineyard; that is, Head and Body, King and people, Shepherd and flock, and
the entire mystery of all Scriptures, Christ and the Church. But the title
of the Psalm doth conclude with, "for the Assyrians." The Assyrians are
interpreted, "men guiding." Therefore it is no longer a generation which
hath not guided the heart(6) thereof, but now a generation guiding.
Therefore hear we what he saith in this testimony.

   2. What is, "Thou that feedest Israel, hearken, Thou that conducteth
Joseph like sheep"? (ver. 1). He is being invoked to come, He is being
expected until He come, He is being yearned for until He come. Therefore
may He find "men guiding:" "Thou that conductest," he saith, "Joseph like
sheep: "Joseph himself like sheep. Joseph himself are the sheep, and Joseph
himself is a sheep. Observe Joseph; for although even the interpretation of
his name doth aid us much, for it signifieth increase; and He came indeed
in order that the grain given to death(7) might arise manifold;(8) that is,
that the people of God might be increased. ... "Thou that sittest upon the
Cherubin." Cherubin is the seat of the glory of God, and is interpreted the
fulness of knowledge. There God sitteth in the fulness of knowledge. Though
we understand the Cherubin to be the exalted powers and virtues of the
heavens: yet, if thou wilt, thou wilt be Cherubin.(9) For if Cherubin is
the seat of God, hear what saith the Scripture: "The soul of a just man is
the seat of wisdom." How, thou sayest, shall I be the fulness of knowledge?
Who shall fulfil this? Thou hast the means of fulfilling it: "The fulness
of the Law is love."(10) Do not run after many things, and strain thyself.
The amplitude of the branches doth terrify thee: hold by the root, and of
the greatness of the tree think not. Be there in thee love, and the fulness
of knowledge must needs follow. For what doth he not know that knoweth
love? Inasmuch as it hath been said, "God is love."(11) "Appear." For we
went astray because Thou didst not appear. "Before Ephraim and Benjamin and
Manasse" (ver. 2). Appear, I say, before the nation of the Jews, before the
people of Israel. For there is Ephraim, there Manasses, there Benjamin. But
to the interpretation let us look: Ephraim is fruit-bearing, Benjamin son
of right hand, Manasses one forgetful. Appear Thou then before one made
fruitful, before a son of the right hand: appear Thou before one forgetful,
in order that he may be no longer forgetful, but Thou mayest come into his
mind that hast delivered him. ... For weak Thou wast when it was being
said, "If Son of God He is, let Him come down from the Cross."(1) Thou wast
seeming to have no power: the persecutor had power over Thee: and Thou
didst show this aforetime, for Jacob too himself prevailed in wrestling, a
man with an angel. Would he at any time, except the angel had been willing?
And man prevailed, and the angel was conquered: and victorious man holdeth
the angel, and saith, "I will not let thee go, except thou shalt have
blessed me."(2) A great sacrament! He both standeth conquered, and blesseth
the conqueror. Conquered, because he willed it; in flesh weak, in majesty
strong. ... Having been crucified of weakness, rise Thou in power:(3) "Stir
up Thy power, and come Thou, to save us."

   3. "O God, convert us." For averse we have been from Thee, and except
Thou convert us, we shall not be converted. "And illumine Thy face, and we
shall be saved" (ver. 3). Hath He anywise a darkened face? He hath not a
darkened face, but He placed before it a cloud of flesh, and as it were a
veil of weakness; and when He hung on the tree, He was not thought the Same
as He was after to be acknowledged when He was sitting in Heaven. For thus
it hath come to pass. Christ present on the earth, and doing miracles,
Asaph knew not; but when He had died, after that He rose again, and
ascended into Heaven, he knew Him. He was pricked to the heart, and he may
have spoken(4) also of Him this testimony which now we acknowledge in this
Psalm. Thou didst cover Thy face, and we were sick: illumine Thou the same,
and we shall be whole.

   4. "O Lord God of virtues, how long wilt Thou be angry with the prayer
of Thy servant?" (ver. 4). Now Thy servant. Thou wast angry at the prayer
of Thy enemy, wilt Thou still be angry with the prayer of Thy servant? Thou
hast converted us, we know Thee, and wilt Thou still be angry with the
prayer of Thy servant? Thou wilt evidently be angry, in fact, as a father
correcting, not as a judge condemning. In such manner evidently Thou wilt
be angry, because it hath been written, "My son, drawing near unto the
service of God, stand thou in righteousness and in fear, and prepare thy
soul for temptation."(5) Think not that now the wrath of God hath passed
away, because thou hast been converted. The wrath of God(6) hath passed
away from thee, but only so that it condemn not for everlasting. But He
scourgeth, He spareth not: because He scourgeth every son whom He
receiveth,(7) If thou refusest to be scourged, why dost thou desire to be
received? He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. He who did not spare
even His only Son, scourgeth every one. But nevertheless, "How long wilt
Thou be angry with the prayer of Thy servant?" No longer thine enemy: but,
"Thou wilt be angry with the prayer of Thy servant," how long? There
followeth: "Thou wilt feed us with the bread of tears, and wilt give us to
drink with tears in measure" (ver. 5). What is, "in measure"? Hear the
Apostle: "Faithful is God, who doth not suffer you to be tempted above that
ye are able to bear."(8) The measure is, according to your powers: the
measure is, that thou be instructed, not that thou be crushed.

   5. "Thou hast set us for a contradiction to our neighbours" (ver. 6).
Evidently this did come to pass: for out of Asaph were chosen they that
should go to the Gentiles and preach Christ, and should have it said to
them, "Who is this proclaimer of new demons?"(9) "Thou hast set us for a
contradiction to our neighbours." For they were preaching Him who was the
subject of the contradiction. Whom did they preach? That after He was dead,
Christ rose again. Who would hear this? Who would know this? It is a new
thing. But signs did follow, and to an incredible thing miracles gave
credibility. He was contradicted, but the contradictor was conquered, and
from being a contradictor was made a believer. There, however, was a great
flame: there the martyrs fed with the bread of tears, and given to drink in
tears, but in measure, not more than they are able to bear; in order that
after the measure of tears there should follow a crown of joys. "And our
enemies have sneered at us." And where are they that sneered? For a long
while it was said, Who are they that worship the Dead One, that adore the
Crucified? For a long while so it was said. Where is the nose of them that
sneered? Now do not they that censure flee into caves, that they may not be
seen? But ye see what followeth: "O Lord God of virtues, convert us, and
show Thy face, and we shall be whole" (ver. 7). "A vineyard out of Egypt
Thou hast brought over, Thou hast cast out the nations, and hast planted
her" (ver. 8). It was done, we know. How many nations were cast out?
Amorites, Cethites, Jebusites, Gergesites, and Evites: after whose
expulsion and overthrow, there was led in the people delivered out of
Egypt, into the land of promise. Whence the vineyard was cast out, and
where she was planted, we have heard. Let us see what next was done, how
she believed, how much she grew, what ground she covered.

   6. "A way Thou hast made in the sight of her, and hast planted the
roots of her, and she hath filled the land" (ver. 9). Would she have filled
the land, unless a way had been made in the sight of her? What was the way
which was made in the sight of her? "I am," He saith, "the Way, the Truth,
and the Life."(1) With reason she hath filled the land. That hath now been
said of this vineyard, which hath been accomplished at the last. But in the
mean time what? "She hath covered the mountains with her shadow, and with
her branch the cedars of God" (ver. 10). "Thou hast stretched out her
boughs even unto the sea, and even unto the river her shoots" (ver. 11).
This requireth the office of an expositor, that of a reader and praiser(2)
doth not suffice: aid me with attention; for the mention of this vineyard
in this Psalm is wont to overcloud with darkness the inattentive. ... But
nevertheless the first Jewish nation was this vine But the Jewish nation
reigned as far as the sea and as far as the river. As far as the sea; it
appeareth in Scripture(3) that the sea was in the vicinity thereof. And as
far as the river Jordan. For on the other side of Jordan some part of the
Jews was established, but within Jordan was the whole nation. Therefore,
"even unto the sea and even unto the river," is the kingdom of the Jews,
the kingdom of Israel: but not "from sea even unto sea, and from the river
even unto the ends of the round world;"(4) this is the future perfection of
the vineyard, concerning which in this place he hath foretold. When, I say,
he had foretold to thee the perfection, he returneth to the beginning, out
of which the perfection was made. Of the beginning wilt thou hear? "Even
unto the river." Of the end wilt thou hear? "He shall have dominion from
sea even unto sea:"(4) that is, "she hath filled the earth." Let us look
then to the testimony of Asaph, as to what was done to the first vineyard,
and what must be expected for the second vineyard, nay to the same
vineyard. ... What then, the vineyard before the sight whereof a way was
made, that she should fill the earth, at first was where? "Her shadow
covered the mountains." Who are the mountains? The Prophets. Why did her
shadow cover them? Because darkly they spake the things which were foretold
as to come. Thou hearest from the Prophets, Keep the Sabbath-day, on the
eighth day circumcise a child, offer sacrifice of ram, of calf, of he-goat.
Be not troubled, her shadow doth cover the mountains of God; there will
come after the shadow a manifestation. "And her shrubs the cedars of God,"
that is, she hath covered the cedars of God; very lofty, but of God. For
the cedars are types of the proud, that must needs be overthrown. The
"cedars  of Lebanon," the heights of the world, this vineyard did cover in
growing, and the mountains of God, all the holy Prophets and Patriarchs.

   7. Then what? "Wherefore hast Thou thrown down her enclosure?" (ver.
12). Now ye see the overthrow of that nation of the Jews: already out of
another Psalm ye have heard, "with axe and hammers they have thrown her
down."(6) When could this have been done, except her enclosure had been
thrown down. What is her enclosure? Her defence. For she bore herself
proudly against her planter. The servants that were sent to her and
demanded a recompense, the husbandmen they scourged, beat, slew: there came
also the Only Son, they said, "This is the Heir; come, let us kill Him, and
our own the inheritance will be:" they killed Him, and out of the vineyard
they cast Him forth.(7) When cast forth, He did more perfectly possess the
place whence He was cast forth. For thus He threatens her through Isaiah,
"I will throw down her enclosure." Wherefore? "For I looked that she should
bring forth grapes, but she brought forth thorns."(8) I looked for fruit
from thence, and I found sin. Why then dost thou ask, O Asaph, "Why hast
Thou thrown down her enclosure?" For knowest thou not why? I looked that
she should do judgment, and she did iniquity. Must not her enclosure needs
be thrown down? And there came the Gentiles when the enclosure was thrown
down, the vineyard was assailed, and the kingdom of the Jews effaced. This
at first he is lamenting, but not without hope. For of directing the heart
he is now speaking, that is, for the "Assyrians," for "men directing," the
Psalm is. "Wherefore hast Thou thrown down her enclosure: and there pluck
off her grapes all men passing along the way." What is "men passing along
the way?" Men having dominion for a time.

   8. "There hath laid her waste the boar from the wood" (ver. 13). In the
boar from the wood what do we understand? To the Jews a swine is an
abomination, and in a swine they imagine as it were the uncleanness of the
Gentiles. But by the Gentiles was overthrown the nation of the Jews: but
that king who overthrew, was not only an unclean swine, but was also a
boar. For what is a boar but a savage swine, a furious swine? "A boar from
the wood hath laid her waste." "From the wood," from the Gentiles. For she
was a vineyard, but the Gentiles were woods. But when the Gentiles
believed, there was said what? "Then there shall exult all the trees of the
woods."(1) "The boar from the wood hath laid her waste; and a singular wild
beast hath devoured her." "A singular wild beast" is what? The very boar
that laid her waste is the singular wild beast. Singular, because proud.
For thus saith every proud one, It is I, it is I, and no other.

   9. But with what profit is this? "O God of virtues turn Thou
nevertheless" (ver. 14). Although these things have been done, "Turn Thou
nevertheless." "Look from heaven and see, and visit this vineyard." "And
perfect Thou her whom Thy right hand hath planted" (ver. 15). No other
plant Thou, but this make Thou perfect. For she is the very seed of
Abraham, she is the very seed in whom all nations shall be blessed:(2)
there is the root where is borne the grafted wild olive. "Perfect Thou this
vineyard which Thy right hand hath planted." But wherein doth He perfect?
"And upon the Son of man, whom Thou hast strengthened to Thyself." What can
be more evident? Why do ye still expect, that we should still explain to
you in discourse, and should we not rather cry out with you in admiration,
"Perfect Thou this vineyard which Thy right hand hath planted, and upon the
Son of man" perfect her? What Son of man? Him "whom Thou hast strengthened
to Thyself." A mighty stronghold: build as much as thou art able. "For
other foundation no one is able to lay, except that which is laid, which is
Christ Jesus."(3)

   10. "Things burned with fire, and dug up, by the rebuke of Thy
countenance shah perish" (ver. 16). What are the things burned with fire
and dug up which shall perish from the rebuke of His countenance? Let us
see and perceive what are the things burned with fire and dug up. Christ
hath rebuked what? Sins: by the rebuke of His countenance sins have
perished. Why then are sins burned with fire and dug up? Of all sins, two
things are the cause in man, desire and fear(4) Think, examine, question
your hearts sift your consciences, see whether there can be sins, except
they be either of desire, or of fear. There is set before thee a reward to
induce thee to sin, that is, a thing which delighteth thee thou doest it,
because thou desirest it. But perchance thou wilt not be allured by bribes
thou art terrified with menaces, thou doest it because thou fearest. A man
would bribe thee, for example, to bear false witness. Countless cases there
are, but I am setting before you the plainer cases, whereby ye may imagine
the rest. Hast thou hearkened unto God, and hast thou said in thy heart,
"What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, but of his own soul
suffer loss?"(5) I am not allured by a bribe to lose my soul(6) to gain
money. He turneth himself to stir up fear within thee, he who was not able
to corrupt thee with a bribe, beginneth to threaten loss, banishment,
massacres, perchance, and death. Therein now, if desire prevailed not,
perchance fear will prevail to make thee sin. ... What had evil fear done?
It had dug up, as it were. For love doth inflame, fear doth humble:
therefore, sins of evil love, with fire were lighted: sins of evil fear
were dug up. On the one hand, evil fear doth humble, and good love doth
light; but in different ways respectively. For even the husbandman
interceding for the tree, that it should not be cut down, saith, "I will
dig about it, and will apply a basket of dung."(7) The dug trench doth
signify the godly humility of one fearing, and the basket of dung the
profitable squalid state of one repenting. But concerning the fire of good
love the Lord saith, "Fire I have come to send into the world."(8) With
which fire may the fervent in spirit burn, and they too that are inflamed
with the love of God and their neighbour. And thus, as all good works are
wrought by good fear and good love, so by evil fear and evil love all sins
are committed. Therefore, "Things set alight with fire and dug up," to wit,
all sins, "by the rebuke of Thy countenance shall perish."

   11. "Let Thy hand be upon the Man of Thy right hand, and upon the Son
of Man whom Thou hast strengthened Thyself" (ver. 17). "And we depart not
from Thee. ... Thou wilt quicken us, and Thy Name we will invoke" (ver.
18). Thou shalt be sweet to us, "Thou wilt quicken us." For aforetime we
did love earth, not Thee: but Thou hast mortified our members which are
upon the earth.(9) For the Old Testament, having earthly promises, seemeth
to exhort that God should not be loved for nought, but that He should be
loved because He giveth something on earth. What dost thou love, so as not
to love God? Tell me. Love, if thou canst, anything which He hath not made.
Look round upon the whole creation, see whether in any place thou art held
with the birdlime of desire, and hindered from loving the Creator, except
it be by that very thing which He hath Himself created, whom thou
despisest. But why dost thou love those things, except because they are
beautiful? Can they be as beautiful as He by whom they were made? Thou
admirest these things, because thou seest not Him: but through those things
which thou admirest, love Him whom thou seest not. Examine the creation; if
of itself it is, stay therein: but if it is of Him, for no other reason is
it prejudicial to a lover, than because it is preferred to the Creator. Why
have I said this? With reference to this verse, brethren. Dead, I say, were
they that did worship God that it might be well with them after the flesh:
"For to be wise after the flesh is death:"(1) and dead are they that do not
worship God gratis, that is, because of Himself He is good, not because He
giveth such and such good things, which He giveth even to men not good.
Money wilt thou have of God? Even a robber hath it. Wife, abundance of
children, soundness of body, the world's dignity, observe how many evil men
have. Is this all for the sake of which thou dost worship Him? Thy feet
will totter,(2) thou wilt suppose thyself to worship without cause, when
thou seest those things to be with them who do not worship Him. All these
things, I say, He giveth even to evil men, Himself alone He reserveth for
good men. "Thou wilt quicken us;" for dead we were, when to earthly things
we did cleave; dead we were, when of the earthly man we did bear the image.
"Thou wilt quicken us;" Thou wilt renew us, the life of the inward man Thou
wilt give us. "And Thy Name we will invoke;" that is, Thee we will love.
Thou to us wilt be the sweet forgiver of our sins, Thou wilt be the entire
reward of the justified. "O Lord God of virtues, convert us, and show Thy
face, and we shall be whole "(ver. 20).

PSALM LXXXI.(3)

   1. For a Title this Psalm hath, "Unto the end for the presses, on the
fifth of the Sabbath, a Psalm to Asaph himself." Into one title many
mysteries are heaped together, still so that the lintel of the Psalm
indicates the things within. As we have to speak of the presses, let no one
expect that we shall speak of a vat, of a press, of olive baskets;(4)
because neither the Psalm hath this, and therefore it indicateth the
greater mystery. ...

   No such thing did ye hear in this when it was reading. Therefore take
the presses for the mystery of the Church, which is now transacting. In the
presses we observe three things, pressure, and of the pressure two things,
one to be laid up, the other to be thrown away. There takes place then in
the press a treading, a crushing, a weight: and with these the oil strains
out secretly into the vat,(5) the lees run openly down the streets.

   Look intently on this great spectacle. For God ceaseth not to exhibit
to us that which we may look upon with great joy, nor is the madness of the
Circus to be compared with this spectacle. That belongeth to the lees, this
to the oil. When therefore ye hear the blasphemers babble impudently and
say that distresses abound in Christian times; for ye know that they love
to say this: and it is an old proverb, yet one that began from Christian
times," God gives no rain; count it to the Christians!"(6) Although it was
those of old that said thus. But these now say also, "That God sends rain,
count it to the Christians! God sends no rain; we sow not. God sends rain;
we reap not!" And they wilfully make that an occasion of showing pride,
which ought to make them more earnest in supplication, choosing rather to
blaspheme than to pray.

   When therefore they talk of such things, when they make such boasts,
when they say these things, and say them in defiance, not with fear, but
with loftiness, let them not disturb you. For suppose that pressures
abound; be thou oil. Let the lees, black with the darkness of ignorance, be
insolent; and let it, as though cast away in the streets, go gibing
publicly: but do thou by thyself in thy heart, where He who seeth in secret
will requite thee, strain off into the vat.

   ... To name some one thing about which even they murmur who make them:
How great plunderings, they say, are there in our times, how great
distresses of the innocent, how great robberies of other men's goods! Thus
indeed thou takest notice of the lees, that other men's goods are seized;
to the oil thou givest no heed, that to the poor are given even men's own.
The old time had no such plunderers of other men's goods: but the old time
had no such givers of their own goods. ...

   2. Wherefore also "on the fifth of the sabbath"?(7) What is this? Let
us go back to the first works of God, if perchance we may not there find
somewhat in which we may also understand a mystery. For the sabbath is the
seventh day, on which "God rested from all His works,"[8] intimating the
great mystery of our future resting from all our works. First of the
sabbath then is called that first day, which we also call the Lord's day;
second of the sabbath, the second day; ... and the sabbath itself the
seventh day. See ye therefore to whom this Psalm speaketh. For it seems to
me that it speaketh to the baptized. For on the fifth day God from the
waters created animals: on the fifth day, that is, on the "fifth of the
sabbath," God said, "Let the waters bring forth creeping things of living
souls."(1) See ye, therefore, ye in whom the waters have already brought
forth creeping things of living souls. For ye belong to the presses, and in
you, whom the waters have brought forth, one thing is strained out, another
is thrown away. For there are many that live not worthily of the baptism
which they have received. For how many that are baptized have chosen rather
to be filling the Circus than this Basilica! How many that are baptized are
either making booths in the streets, or complaining that they are not made!

   But this Psalm, "For the presses," and "on the fifth of the sabbath,"
is sung "unto Asaph." Asaph was a certain man called by this name, as
Idithun, as Core, as other names that we find in the titles of the Psalms:
yet the interpretation of this name intimates the mystery of a hidden
truth. Asaph, in fact, in Latin is interpreted "congregation." Therefore,"
For the presses, on the fifth of the sabbath," it is sung "unto Asaph,"
that is, for a distinguishing pressure, to the baptized, born again of
water, the Psalm is sung to the Lord's congregation. We have read the title
on the lintel, and have understood what it means by these "presses." Now if
you please let us see the very house of the composition, that is, the
interior of the press. Let us enter, look in, rejoice, fear, desire, avoid.
For all these things ye are to find in this inward house, that is, in the
text of the Psalm itself, when we shall have begun to read, and, with the
Lord's help, to speak what He grants us.

   3. Behold yourselves, O Asaph, congregation of the Lord. "Exult ye unto
God our helper" (vet. 1). Ye who are gathered together to-day, ye are this
day the congregation of the Lord, if indeed unto you the Psalm is sung,
"Exult ye unto God our helper." Others exult unto the Circus, ye unto God:
others exult unto their deceiver, do ye exult unto your helper: others
exult unto their god their belly, do ye exult unto your God your helper.
"Jubilate unto the God of Jacob." Because ye also belong to Jacob: yea, ye
are Jacob, the younger people to which the elder is servant.(2) "Jubilate
unto the God of Jacob." Whatsoever ye cannot explain in words, ye do not
therefore forbear exulting: what ye shall be able to explain, cry out: what
ye cannot, jubilate. For from the abundance of joys, he that cannot find
words sufficient, useth to break out into jubilating; "Jubilate unto the
God of Jacob."

   4. "Take the Psalm and give the tabret" (ver. 2). Both "take," and
"give." What is, "take"? what, "give"? "Take the Psalm, and give the
tabret." The Apostle Paul saith in a certain place,(3) reproving and
grieving, that no one had communicated with him in the matter of giving and
receiving. What is, "in the matter of giving and receiving," but that which
he hath openly set forth in another place.(4) "If we have sowed unto you
spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things." And
it is true that a tabret, which is made of hide, belongs to the flesh. The
Psalm, therefore, is spiritual, the tabret, carnal. Therefore, people of
God, congregation of God, "take ye the Psalm, and give the tabret:" take ye
spiritual things, and give carnal. This also, is what at that blessed
Martyr's table(5) we exhorted you, that receiving spiritual things ye
should give carnal. For these which are built for the time, are needful for
receiving the bodies either of the living or of the dead, but in time that
is passing by. Shall we after God's judgment take up these buildings to
Heaven? Yet without these we shall not be able to do at this time the
things which belong to the possessing of Heaven. If therefore ye are eager
in getting spiritual things, be ye devout in expending carnal things. "Take
the Psalm, and give the tabret:" take our voice, return your hands.

   5. "The pleasant psaltery,(6) with the harp." I remember that we once
intimated to your charity the difference of psaltery and harp.(7) ... For
heavenly is the preaching of the word of God. But if we wait for heavenly
things, let us not be sluggish in working at earthly things; because, "the
psaltery is pleasant," but, "with the harp." The same is expressed in
another way as above, "Take the Psalm, and give the tabret:" here for
"Psalm," is put "psaltery," for "tabret," "harp." Of this, however, we are
admonished, that to the preaching of God's word we make answer by bodily
works.

   6. "Sound the trumpet" (ver. 3). This is, Loudly and boldly preach, be
not affrighted! as the Prophet says in a certain place, "Cry out, and lift
up as with a trumpet thy voice."(8) Sound the trumpet in the beginning of
the month of the trumpet." It was ordered, that in the beginning of the
month there should be a sounding of the trumpet: and this even now the Jews
do in bodily sort, after the spirit they understand it not. For the
beginning of the month, is the new moon: the new moon, is the new life.
What is the new moon? "If any, then, is in Christ, he is a new
creature."(1) What is, "sound the trumpet in the beginning of the month of
the trumpet "? With all confidence preach ye the new life, fear not the
noise of the old life.

   7. "Because it is a commandment for Israel, and a judgment for the God
of Jacob" (ver. 4). Where a commandment, there judgment. For, "They that
have sinned in the Law, by the Law shall be judged."(2) And the very Giver
of the commandment, the Lord Christ, the Word made flesh, saith, "For
judgment I am come into the world, that they that see not may see, and they
that see may be made blind."(3) What is, "That they that see not may see,
they that see be made blind," but that the lowly be exalted, the proud
thrown down? For not they that see are to be made blind, but those who to
themselves seem to see are to be convicted of blindness. This is brought
about in the mystery of the press, that they who see may not see, and they
that see be made blind.

   8. "A testimony in Joseph He made that" (ver 5). Look you, brethren,
what is it? Joseph is interpreted augmentation. Ye remember, ye know of
Joseph sold into Egypt: Joseph sold into Egypt(4) is Christ passing over to
the Gentiles. There Joseph after tribulations was exalted, and here Christ,
after the suffering of the Martyrs, was glorified. Thenceforth to Joseph
the Gentiles rather belong, and thenceforth augmentation; because, "Many
are the children of her that was desolate, rather than of her that hath the
husband."(5) "He made it, till he should go out of the land of Egypt."
Observe that also here the "fifth of the sabbath" is signified: when Joseph
went out from the land of Egypt, that is, the people multiplied through
Joseph, he was caused to pass through the Red Sea. Therefore then also the
waters brought forth creeping things of living souls.(6) No other thing was
it that there in figure the passage of that people through the sea
foreshowed, than the passing of the Faithful through Baptism; the apostle
is witness: for "I would not have you ignorant, brethren," he said, "that
our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and
were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea."(7) Nothing else
then the passing through the sea did signify, but the Sacrament of the
baptized; nothing else the pursuing Egyptians, but the multitude of past
sins. Ye see most evident mysteries. The Egyptians press, they urge; so
then sins follow close, but no farther than to the water. Why then dost
thou fear, who hast not yet come, to come to the Baptism of Christ, to pass
through the Red Sea? What is "Red "? Consecrated with the Blood of the
Lord. Why fearest thou to come? The consciousness, perhaps, of some huge
offences goads and tortures in thee thy mind, and says to thee that it is
so great a thing thou hast committed, that thou mayest despair to have it
remitted thee. Fear lest there remain anything of thy sins, if there lived
any one of the Egyptians!(8)

   But when thou shalt have passed the Red Sea, when thou shalt have been
led forth out of thine offences "with a mighty hand and with a strong
arm,"(9) thou wilt perceive mysteries that thou knowest not: since Joseph
himself too, "when he came out of the land of Egypt, heard a language which
he knew not." Thou shalt hear a language which thou knowest not: which they
that know now hear and recognise, bearing witness and knowing. Thou shalt
hear where thou oughtest to have thy heart:(10) which just now when I said
many understood and answered by acclamation, the rest stood mute, because
they have not heard the language which they knew not. Let them hasten,
then, let them pass over, let them learn.

   9. "He turned away from burdens his back" (ver. 6). Who "turned away
from burdens his back," but He that cried, "Come unto Me, all ye that
labour and are heavy laden"?(11) In another manner this same thing is
signified. What the pursuit of the Egyptians did, the same thing do the
burdens of sins. As if thou shouldest say, From what burdens? "His hands in
the basket did serve." By the basket are signified servile works; to
cleanse, to manure, to carry earth, is done with a basket,(12) such works
are servile: because "every one that doeth sin, is the slave of sin;" and
"if the Son shall have made you free, then will ye be free indeed."(13)
Justly also are the rejected things of the world counted as baskets, but
even baskets did God fill with morsels; "Twelve baskets"(14) did He fill
with morsels; because "He chose the rejected things of this world to
confound the things that were mighty."(15) But also when with the basket
Joseph did serve, he then carried earth, because he did make bricks. "His
hands in the basket did serve."

   10. "In tribulation thou didst call on Me, and I delivered thee" (ver.
8). Let each Christian conscience recognise itself, if it have devoutly
passed the Red Sea,(16) if with faith in believing and observing it hath
heard a strange language which it knew not, let it recognise itself as
having been heard in its tribulation. For that was a great tribulation, to
be weighed down with loads of sins. How does the conscience, lifted from
the earth, rejoice. Lo, thou art baptized, thy conscience which was
yesterday overladen, to-day rejoiceth thee. Thou hast been heard in
tribulation, remember thy tribulation. Before thou camest to the water,
what anxiety didst thou bear on thee! what fastings didst thou practise!
what tribulations didst thou carry in thy heart! what inward, pious, devout
prayers! Slain are thine enemies; all thy sins are blotted out. In
tribulation thou didst call upon Me, and I delivered thee.

   11. "I heard thee in the hidden part of the tempest." Not in a tempest
of the sea, but in a tempest of the heart. "I proved thee in the water of
contradiction." Truly, brethren, truly, he that was heard in the hidden
part of the tempest ought to be proved in the water of contradiction. For
when he hath believed, when he hath been baptized, when he hath begun to go
in the way of God, when he hath striven to be strained into the vat, and
hath drawn himself out from the lees that run in the street, he will have
many disturbers, many insulters, many detractors, many discouragers, many
that even threaten where they can, that deter, that depress. This is all
the "water of contradiction." I suppose there are some here to-day, for
instance, I think it likely there are some here whom their friends wished
to hurry away to the circus, and to I know not what triflings of this day's
festivity: perchance they have brought those person's with them to church.
But whether they have brought those with them or whether they have by them
not permitted themselves to be led away to the circus, in the "water of
contradiction" have they been tried. Do not then be ashamed to proclaim
what thou knowest, to defend even among blasphemers what thou hast
believed. ... However much the bad that are aliens may rage, O that our own
bad people would not help them!

   Ye recollect what was said of Christ, that He was thus born for "the
fall of many, and the rising again of many, and for a sign to be spoken
against."(1) We know, we see: the sign of the Cross has been set up, and it
has been spoken against. There has been speaking against the glory of the
Cross: but there was a title over the Cross which was not to be corrupted.
For there is a title in the Psalm,(2) "For the inscription of the title,
corrupt thou not." It was a sign to be spoken against: for the Jews said,
"Make it not, King of the Jews, but make it, that He said I am the King of
the Jews."(3) Conquered was the contradiction; it was answered, "What I
have written, I have written."

   12. All this, from the beginning of the Psalm up to this verse, we have
heard of the oil of the press. What remains is rather for grief and
warning: for it belongs to the lees of the press, even to the end;
perchance also not without a meaning in the interposition of the
"Diapsalma." But even this too is profitable to hear, that he who sees
himself already of the oil may rejoice; he that is in danger of running
among the lees may beware. To both give heed, choose the one, fear the
other.

   "Hear, O My people, and I will speak, and will bear witness unto
thee"(ver. 8). For it is not to a strange people, not to a people that
belongs not to the press: "Judge ye," He saith, "between Me and My
vineyard."(4)

   13. "Israel, if thou shalt have heard Me, there shall not be in thee
any new god" (ver. 9). A "new god" is one made for the time: but our God is
not new, but from eternity to eternity. And our Christ is new, perchance,
as Man,(5) but eternal God. For what before the beginning? And truly, "In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God."(6) And our Christ Himself is the Word made flesh, that He might dwell
in us.(7) Far be it, then, that there should be in any one a new god. A new
god is either a stone or a phantom. He is not, saith one, a stone; I have a
silver and a gold one. Justly did he choose to name the very costly things,
who said, "The idols of the nations are silver and gold." Great are they,
because they are of gold and silver; costly they are, shining they are; but
yet, "Eyes they have, and see not"(8) New are these gods. What newer than a
god out of a workshop? Yea, though those now old ones spiders' webs have
covered over, they that are not eternal are new. So much for the Pagans.(9)
..

   14. For if there be error in thee, Thou wilt not worship a strange god.
If thou think not of a false god, thou wilt not worship a manufactured god:
for "there will not" be in thee any strange god. "For I am." Why wouldest
thou adore what is not? "For I am the Lord thy God" (ver. 10). Because "I
am I that Am," and indeed "I Am" He saith, I that Am, over every creature:
yet to thee what good have I afforded in time? "Who brought thee out of the
land of Egypt." Not to that people alone is it said. For we all were
brought out of the land of Egypt, we have all passed through the Red Sea;
our enemies pursuing us have perished in the water. Let us not be
ungrateful to our God; let us not forget God that abideth, and fabricate in
ourselves a new god. "I, who led thee out of the land of Egypt," saith God.
"Open wide thy mouth, and I will fill it." Thou sufferest straitness in
thyself because of the new god set up in thy heart; break the vain image,
cast down from thy conscience the feigned idol: "open wide thy mouth," in
confessing, in loving: "and I will fill it," because with me is the
fountain of life.

   15. "And My people obeyed not My voice" (ver. 11). For He would not
speak these things except to His own people. For, "we know that whatsoever
things the Law saith, it saith to them that are in the Law."(1) "And Israel
did not listen to Me." Who? To whom? Israel to Me. O ungrateful soul!
Through Me the soul, by Me the soul called, by Me brought back to hope, by
Me washed from sins! "And Israel did not listen to Me!" For they are
baptized and pass through the Red Sea: but on the way they murmur, gainsay,
complain, are stirred with seditions, ungrateful to Him who delivered them
from pursuing enemies, who leads through the dry land, through the desert,
yet with food and drink, with light by night and shade by day.

   16. "And I let them go according to the affections of their heart"
(ver. 12). Behold the press: the orifices are open, the lees run. "And I
let them go," not according to the healthfulness of My commands; but,
according to the affections of their heart: I gave them up to themselves.
The Apostle also saith, "God gave them up to the desires of their own
hearts."(2) "I let them go according to the affection of their heart, they
shall go in their own affections." There is what ye shudder at, if at least
ye are straining out into the hidden vats of the Lord if at least ye have
conceived a hearty love for His storehouses, there is what ye shudder at.
Some stand up for the circus, some for the amphitheatre, some for the
booths in the streets some for the theatres, some for this, some for that,
some finally for their "new gods;" "they shall go in their own affections."

   17. "If My people would have heard Me, if Israel would have walked in
My ways" (ver. 13). For perchance that Israel saith, Behold I sin, it is
manifest, I go after the affections of my own heart: but what can I do?(3)
The devil doth this. Demons do this. What is the devil? Who are the demons?
Certainly thine enemies. "Unto nothing all their enemies I would have
brought down; and on them that oppress them I would have sent forth My
hand" (ver. 14). But now what have they to do to complain of enemies?
Themselves are become the worse enemies. For how? What followeth? Of
enemies ye complain, yourselves, what are ye?

   18. "The enemies of God have lied unto Him" (ver. 15). Dost thou
renounce? I renounce.(4) And he returns to what he renounced. In fact, what
things dost thou renounce, except bad deeds, diabolical deeds, deeds to be
condemned of God, thefts, plunderings, perjuries, manslayings, adulteries,
sacrileges, abominable rites, curious arts.(5) ...

   19. If therefore all those works "shall not possess the kingdom of God"
(yea not the works, but "they that do such things;"(6) for such works there
shall be none in the fire: for they shall not, while burning in that fire,
be committing theft or adultery; but "they that do such things shall not
possess the kingdom of God"); they shall not therefore be on the right
hand, with those to whom it shall be said, "Come, ye blessed of My Father,
receive the kingdom:" because, "they that do such things shall not possess
the kingdom of God." If therefore on the right they shall not be, there
remaineth not but that they must be on the left. To those on the left what
shall He say? "Go ye into eternal fire." Because, "their time shall be for
ever."

   20. Explain to us, then, saith one, how those that build wood, hay,
stubble, on the foundation, do not perish, but "are saved, yet so as by
fire"? An obscure question indeed that, but as I am able I tell you
briefly. Brethren, there are men altogether despisers of this world, to
whom nothing is pleasant that flows in the course of time, they cling not
by love to any earthly works, holy, chaste, continent, just, perchance even
selling all their goods and distributing to the poor, or "possessing as
though they possessed not, and using this world as though not using it."(7)
But there are others who cling to things allowed to infirmity with a degree
of affection. He robs not another of his estate, but so loves his own, that
if he loses it he will be disturbed. He does not covet another's wife, but
so clings to his own, so cohabits with his own, as not therein to keep the
measure prescribed in the laws, for the sake of begetting children. He does
not take away other men's things, but reclaims his own, and has a law-suit
with his brother. For to such it is said, "Now indeed there is altogether a
fault among you, because ye have law-suits with each other."(8) But these
very suits he orders to be tried in the Church, not to be dragged into
court, yet he says they are faults. For a Christian contends for earthly
things more than becomes one to whom the kingdom of Heaven is promised. Not
the whole of his heart doth he raise upward, but some part of it he
draggeth on the earth. ... Therefore if thou lovest thy possession, yet
dost not for its sake commit violence, dost not for its sake bear false
witness, dost not for its sake commit man-slaughter, dost not for its sake
swear falsely, dost not for its sake deny Christ: in that thou wilt not for
its sake do these things, thou hast Christ for a foundation. But yet
because thou lovest it, and art saddened if thou losest it, upon the
foundation thou hast placed, not gold, or silver, or precious stones, but
wood, hay, stubble. Saved therefore thou wilt be, when that begins to burn
which thou hast built, yet so as by fire. For let no one on this foundation
building adulteries, blasphemies, sacrileges, idolatries, perjuries, think
he shall be "saved through fire," as though they were the "wood, hay,
stubble:" but he that buildeth the love of earthly things on the foundation
of the kingdom of Heaven, that is upon Christ, his love of temporal things
shall be burned, and himself shall be saved through the right(1)
foundation.

   21. ... "And He fed them of the fat of wheat, and from the rock with
honey He satisfied them" (ver. 16). In the wilderness from the rock He
brought forth water,(2) not honey. "Honey" is wisdom, holding the first
place for sweetness among the viands of the heart. How many enemies of the
Lord, then, that lie unto the Lord, are fed not only of the fat of wheat,
but also from the rock with honey, from the wisdom of Christ? How many are
delighted with His word, and with the knowledge of His sacraments, with the
unfolding of His parables, how many are delighted, how many applaud with
clamour! And this honey is not from any chance person, but "from the rock."
But "the Rock was Christ."(3) How many, then, are satisfied with that
honey, cry out, and say, It is sweet; say, Nothing better, nothing sweeter
could be thought or said! and yet the enemies of the Lord have lied unto
Him. I like not to dwell any more on matters of grief; although the Psalm
endeth in terror to this purpose, yet from the end of it, I pray you, let
us return to the heading: "Exult unto God our Helper." Turned unto God.(4)

PSALM LXXXII.(5)

   1. This Psalm, like others similarly named, was so entitled either from
the name of the man who wrote it, or from the explanation of that same
name, so as to refer in meaning to the Synagogue, which Asaph signifies;
especially as this is intimated in the first verse. For it begins, "God
stood in the synagogue of gods" (ver. 1). Far however be it from us to
understand by these Gods the gods of the Gentiles, or idols, or any
creature in heaven or earth except men; for a little after this verse the
same Psalm relates and explains what Gods it means in whose synagogue God
stood, where it says, "I have said, Ye are gods, and ye are all the
children of the Most High: but ye shall die like men, and fall like one of
the princes." In the synagogue of these children of the Most High, of whom
the same Most High said by the mouth of Isaiah, "I have begotten sons and
brought them up, but they despised Me,"(6) stood God. By the synagogue we
understand the people of Israel, because synagogue is the word properly
used of them, although they were also called the Church. Our congregation,
on the contrary, the Apostles never called synagogue, but always Ecclesia;
whether for the sake of the distinction, or because there is some
difference between a congregation whence the synagogue has its name, and a
convocation whence the Church is called Ecclesia:(7) for the word
congregation (or flocking together) is used of cattle, and particularly of
that kind properly called "flocks,"(8) whereas convocation (or calling
together) is more of reasonable creatures, such as men are. ... I think
then that it is clear in what synagogue of gods God stood.

   2. The next question is, whether we should understand the Father, or
the Son, or the Holy Spirit, or the Trinity, "to have stood among the
congregation of gods, and in the midst to distinguish the gods;" because
Each One is God, and the Trinity itself is One God. It is not indeed easy
to make this clear, because it cannot be denied that not a bodily but a
spiritual presence of God, agreeable to His nature, exists with created
things in a wonderful manner, and one which but a few do understand, and
that imperfectly: as to God it is said, "If I shall ascend into heaven,
Thou art there; if I shall go down into hell, Thou art there also."(9)
Hence it is rightly said, that God stands in the congregation of men
invisibly, as He fills heaven and earth, which He asserts of Himself by the
Prophet's mouth;(10) and He is not only said, but is, in a way, known to
stand in those things which He hath created, as far as the human mind can
conceive, if man also stands and hears Him, and rejoices greatly on account
of His voice within. But I think that the Psalm intimates something that
took place at a particular time, by God's standing in the congregation of
gods. For that standing by which He fills heaven and earth, neither belongs
peculiarly to the synagogue, nor varies from time to time. "God,"
therefore, "stood in the congregation of gods;" that is, He who said of
Himself, "I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."(1)
The cause too is mentioned; "but in the midst, to judge of the gods." ...

   3. "How long will ye judge unrighteously, and accept the persons of the
ungodly" (ver. 2); as in another place, "How long are ye heavy in
heart?"(2) Until He shall come who is the light of the heart? I have given
a law, ye have resisted stubbornly: I sent Prophets, ye treated them
unjustly, or slew them, or connived at those who did so. But if they are
not worthy to be even spoken to, who slew the servants of God that were
sent to them, ye who were silent when these things were doing, that is, ye
who would imitate as if they were innocent those who then were silent, "how
long will ye judge unrighteously, and accept the persons of the ungodly?"
If the Heir comes even now, is He to be slain? Was He not willing for your
sake to become as it were a child under guardians? Did not He for your sake
hunger and thirst like one in need? Did He not cry to you, "Learn of Me,
for I am meek and lowly of heart"?(3) Did He not "become poor, when He was
rich, that by His poverty we might be made rich"?(4) "Give sentence,"
therefore, "for the fatherless(5) and the poor man, justify the humble and
needy" (ver. 3). Not them who for their own sake are rich and proud, but
Him who for your sake was humble and poor, believe ye to be righteous:
proclaim Him righteous. But they will envy Him, and will not at all spare
Him, saying, "This is the Heir, come, let us kill Him, and the inheritance
shall be ours." "Deliver," then, "the poor man, and save the needy from the
hands of the ungodly" (ver. 4). This is said that it might be known, that
in that nation where Christ was born and put to death, those persons were
not guiltless of so great a crime, who being so numerous, that, as the
Gospel says, the Jews feared them, and therefore dared not lay hands on
Christ, afterwards consented, and permitted Him to be slain by the
malicious and envious Jewish rulers: yet if they had so willed, they would
still have been feared, so that the hands of the wicked would never have
prevailed against Him. For of these it is said elsewhere, "Dumb dogs, they
know not how to bark." Of them too is that said, "Lo, how the righteous
perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart."(6) He perished(7) as far as lay
in them who would have Him to perish; for how could He perish by dying, who
in that way rather was seeking again what had perished? If then they are
justly blamed and deservedly rebuked, who by their dissembling suffered
such a wicked deed to be committed; how must they be blamed, or rather not
only blamed, but how severely must they be condemned, who did this of
design and malice?

   4.To all of them, verily, what follows is most fitly suited: "They did
not know nor understand, they walk on in darkness" (ver. 5). "For if even
they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory: "(8) and
those others, if they had known, would never have consented to ask that
Barabbas should be freed, and Christ should be crucified. But as the above-
mentioned blindness happened in part unto Israel until the fulness of the
Gentiles should come in, this blindness of that People having caused the
crucifixion of Christ, "all the foundations of the earth shall be moved."
So have they been moved, and shall they be moved, until the predestined
fulness of the Gentiles shall come in. For at the actual death of the Lord
the earth was moved, and the rocks rent.(9) And if we understand by the
foundations of the earth those who are rich in the abundance of earthly
possessions, it was truly foretold that they should be moved, either by
wondering that lowliness, poverty, death, should be so loved and honoured
in Christ, when it is to their mind great misery; or even in that
themselves should love and follow it, and set at nought the vain happiness
of this world. So are all the foundations of the earth moved, while they
partly admire, and partly are even altered. For as without absurdity we
call foundations of heaven those on whom the kingdom of heaven is built up
in the persons of saints and faithful; whose first foundation is Christ
Himself, born of the Virgin, of whom the Apostle says, "Other foundation
can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus;"(10) next
the Apostles and Prophets themselves, by whose authority the heavenly place
is chosen," that by obeying them we may be builded together with them;
whence he says to the Ephesians, "Ye are built upon the foundation of
Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief corner
stone."[12] ... But the kingdom of earthly happiness is pride, to oppose
which came the lowliness of Christ, rebuking those whom He wished by
lowliness to make the children of the Most High, and blaming them: "I said,
Ye are gods, ye are all the children of the Most High" (ver. 6). "But ye
shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes" (ver. 7). Whether to
those He said this, "I said, Ye are gods," and to those particularly who to
eternal life are unpredestined and to the other, "But ye shall die like
men," etc., "and shall fall like one of the princes," in this way also
distinguishing the gods; or whether He blames all together, in order to
distinguish the obedient and those who received correction, "I said, Ye are
gods, and ye are all the children of the Most High:" that is, to all of you
I promised celestial happiness, "but ye," through the infirmity of your
flesh, "shall die like men," and through haughtiness of soul, "like one of
the princes," that is, the devil, shall not be exalted, but "shall fall."
As if He said: Though the days of your life are so few, that ye speedily
die like men, this avails not to your correction: but like the devil, whose
days are many in this world, because he dies not in the flesh, ye are
lifted up so that ye fall. For by devilish pride it came to pass that the
perverse and blind rulers of the Jews envied the glory of Christ: by this
will it came to pass, and still does, that the lowliness of Christ
crucified unto death is lightly esteemed in the eyes of them who love the
excellence of this world.

   5. And therefore that this vice may be cured, in the person of the
Prophet himself it is said, "Arise, O God, and judge the earth" (ver. 8);
for the earth swelled high when it crucified Thee: rise from the dead, and
judge the earth. "For Thou shall destroy among all nations." What, but the
earth? that is, destroying those who savour of earthly things, or
destroying the feeling itself of earthly lust and pride in believers; or
separating those who do not believe, as earth to be trodden under foot and
to perish. Thus by His members, whose Conversation is in heaven, He judges
the earth, and destroys it among all nations. But I must not omit to
remark, that some copies have, "for Thou shalt inherit among all nations."
This too may be understood agreeably to the sense, nor does anything
prevent both meanings existing at once. His inheritance takes place by
love, which in that He cultivates by His commands and gracious mercy, He
destroys earthly desires.

PSALM LXXXIII.(1)

   1. Of this Psalm the title is, "A song of a Psalm of Asaph." We have
already often said what is the interpretation of Asaph, that is,
congregation. That man, therefore, who was called Asaph, is named in
representation of the congregation of God's people in the titles of many
Psalms. But in Greek, congregation. is called synagogue, which has come to
be held for a kind of proper name for the Jewish people, that it should be
called The Synagogue; even as the Christian people is more usually called
The Church, in that it too is congregated.

   2. The people of God, then, in this Psalm saith, "O God, who shall be
like unto Thee?" (ver. 1). Which I suppose to be more fitly taken of
Christ, because, being made in the likeness of men,(2) He was thought by
those by whom He was despised to be comparable to other men: for He was
even "reckoned among the unrighteous,"(3) but for this purpose, that He
might be judged. But when He shall come to judge, then shall be done what
is here said, "O God, who is like unto Thee?" For if the Psalms did not use
to speak to the Lord Christ, that too would not be spoken which not one of
the faithful can doubt was spoken unto Christ. "Thy throne, O God, is for
ever and ever, a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy
kingdom."(4) To him therefore also now it is said, "O God, who shall be
like unto Thee?" For unto many Thou didst vouchsafe to be likened in Thy
humiliation, even so far as to the robbers that were crucified with Thee:
but when in glory Thou shalt come, "who shall be like unto Thee?" ...

   3. "For lo Thine enemies have sounded, and they that hate Thee have
lifted up the head" (ver. 2). He seems to me to signify the last days, when
these things that are now repressed by fear are to break forth into free
utterance, but quite irrational, so that it should rather be called a
"sound," than speech or discourse. They will not, therefore, then begin to
hate, but "they that hate Thee" will then "lift up the head." And not
"heads," but "head;" since they are to come even to that point, that they
shall have that head, which "is lifted up above all that is called God, and
that is worshipped;"(5) so that in him especially is to be fulfilled, "He
that exalteth himself shall be abased;"(6) and when He to whom it is said,
"Keep not silence, nor grow mild, O God," shall "slay him with the breath
of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming."(7)
"Upon Thy people they have malignantly taken counsel" (ver. 3). Or, as
other copies have it, "They have cunningly devised counsel, and have
devised against Thy saints." In scorn this is said. For how should they be
able to hurt the nation or people of God, or His saints, who know how to
say, "If God be for us, who shall be against us?"(8)

   4. "They have said, Come, and let us destroy them from a nation" (ver.
4). He has put the singular number for the plural: as it is said, "Whose is
this cattle," even though the question be of a flock, and the meaning
"these cattle." Lastly, other copies have "from nations," where the
translators have rather followed the sense than the word. "Come, and let us
destroy them from a nation." This is that sound whereby they "sounded"
rather than spake, since they did vainly make a noise with vain sayings.
"And let it not be mentioned of the name of Israel any more." This others
have expressed more plainly," and let there not be remembrance of the name
of Israel any more." Since, "let it be mentioned of the name" (memoretur
nominis), is an unusual phrase in the Latin language; for it is rather
customary to say, "let the name be mentioned" (memoretur nomen); but the
sense is the same. For he who said, "let it be mentioned of the name,"
translated the Greek phrase. But Israel must here be understood in fact of
the seed of Abraham, to which the Apostle saith, "Therefore ye are the seed
of Abraham, according to the promise heirs."(1) Not Israel according to the
flesh, of which he saith," Behold Israel after the flesh."

   5. "Since they have imagined with one consent; together against Thee
have they disposed a testament" (ver. 5): as though they could be the
stronger. In fact, "a testament" is a name given in the Scriptures not only
to that which is of no avail till the death of the testators, but every
convenant and decree they used to call a testament. For Laban and Jacob
made a testament,(2) which was certainly to have force between the living;
and such cases without number are read in the words of God. Then he begins
to make mention of the enemies of Christ, under certain proper names of
nations; the interpretation of which names sufficiently indicates what he
would have to be understood. For by such names are most suitably figured
the enemies of the truth. "Idumaeans," for instance, are interpreted either
"men of blood," or "of earth." "Ismaelites," are "obedient to themselves,"
and therefore not to God, but to themselves. "Moab," "from the father;"
which in a bad sense has no better explanation, than by considering it so
connected with the actual history, that Lot, a father, by the illicit
intercourse procured by his daughter, begat him; since it was from that
very circumstance he was so named.(3) Good, however, was his father, but as
"the Law is good if one use it lawfully,"(4) not impurely and unlawfully.
"Hagarens,"  proselytes, that is strangers, by which name also are
signified, among the enemies of God's people, not those who become
citizens, but those who persevere in a foreign and alien mind, and when an
opportunity of doing harm occurs, show themselves. "Gebal," "a vain
valley," that is, humble in pretence. "Amon," "an unquiet people," or "a
people of sadness." "Amalech," "a people licking;" whence elsewhere it is
said, "and his enemies shall lick the earth."(5) The "alien race," though
by their very name in Latin, they sufficiently show themselves to be
aliens, and for this cause of course enemies, yet in the Hebrew are called
"Philistines," which is explained, "falling from drink," as of persons made
drunken by worldly luxury. "Tyre" in Hebrew is called Sor; which whether it
be interpreted straitness or tribulation, must be taken in the case of
these enemies of God's people in that sense, of which the Apostle speaks,
"Tribulation and straitness on every soul of man that doeth evil."(6) All
these are thus enumerated in the Psalms: "The tabernacles of the Edomites,
Ishmaelites, Moab and the Hagarenes, Gebal, and Amon, and Amalech, and the
Philistines with those who inhabit Tyre."

   6. And as if to point out the cause why they are enemies of God's
people, he adds, "For Assur came with them." Now Assur is often used
figuratively for the devil, "who works in the children of disobedience,"(7)
as in his own vessels, that they may assail the people of God. "They have
holpen the children of Lot," he saith: for all enemies, by the working in
them of the devil, their prince, "have holpen the children of Lot," who is
explained to mean "one declining." But the apostate angels are well
explained as the children of declension, for by declining from truth they
swerved to become followers of the devil. These are they of whom the
Apostle speaks: "Ye wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places."(8) Those invisible(9) enemies
are holpen then by unbelieving men, in whom they work in order to assail
the people of God.

   7. Now let us see what the prophetic spirit prays may fall upon them,
rather foretelling than cursing. "Do thou to them," he saith, "as unto
Madian and Sisera, as unto Jabin at the brook of Kishon" (ver. 9). "They
perished at Endor, they became as the dung of the earth"(ver. 10). All
these, the history relates, were subdued and conquered by Israel, which
then was the people of God: as was the case also with those whom he next
mentions: "Make their princes like Oreb and Zeb, and Zebee and
Salmana"(ver. 11). The meaning of these names is as follows: Madian is
explained a perverted judgment: Sisera, shutting out of joy: Jabin,
wise.(10) But in these enemies conquered by God's people is to be
understood that wise man of whom the Apostle speaketh, "Where is the wise?
where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world?"(11) Oreb is
dryness, Zeb, wolf, Zebee, a victim, namely of the wolf; for he too has his
victims; Salmana, shadow of commotion. All these agree to the evils which
the people of God conquer by good. Moreover Kishon, the torrent in which
they were conquered, is explained, their hardness. Endor, where they
perished, is explained, the Fountain of generation, but of the carnal
generation namely, to which they were given up, and therefore perished, not
heeding the regeneration which leadeth unto life, where they shall neither
marry nor be given in marriage,(1) for they shall die no more. Rightly then
it is said of these: "they became as the dung of the earth," in that
nothing was produced of them but fruitfulness of the earth. As then all
these were in figure conquered by the people of God, as figures, so he
prays that those other enemies may be conquered in truth.

   8. "All their princes, who said, Let us take to ourselves the sanctuary
of God in possession" (ver. 12). This is that vain noise, with which, as
said above, Thy enemies have made a murmuring. But what must be understood
by "the sanctuary of God," except the temple of God? as saith the Apostle:
"For the temple of God is holy,(2) which temple ye are."(3) For what else
do the enemies aim at, but to take into possession, that is, to make
subject to themselves the temple of God, that it may give in to their
ungodly wills?

   9. But what follows? "My God, make them like unto a wheel" (ver. 13).
This is fitly taken as meaning that they should be constant in nothing that
they think; but I think it may also be rightly explained, make them like
unto a wheel, because a wheel is lifted up on the part of what is
behind,(4) is thrown down on the part of what is in front; and so it
happens to all the enemies of the people of God. For this is not a wish,
but a prophecy. He adds: "as the stubble in the face of the wind." By face
he means presence; for what face hath the wind, which has no bodily
features, being only a motion, in that it is a kind of wave of air? But it
is put for temptation, by which light and vain hearts are hurried away.

   10. This levity, by which consent is easily given to what is evil, is
followed by severe torment; therefore he proceeds:--

   "Like as the fire that burneth up the wood, and as the flame that
consumeth the mountains" (ver. 14): "so shall Thou persecute them with Thy
tempest, and in Thy anger shalt disturb them" (ver. 15). Wood, he saith,
for its barrenness, mountains for their loftiness; for such are the enemies
of God's people, barren of righteousness, full of pride. When he says,
"fire" and "flame," he means to repeat under another term, the idea of God
judging and punishing. But in saying, "with Thy tempest," he means, as he
goes on to explain, "Thy anger:" and the former expression, "Thou shall
persecute," answers to, "Thou shalt disturb." We must take care, however,
to understand, that the anger of God is free from any turbulent emotion;
for His anger is an expression for His just method of taking vengeance: as
the law might be said to be angry when its ministers are moved to punish by
its sanction.

   11. "Fill their faces with shame, and they shall seek Thy name, O Lord"
(ver. 16). Good and desirable is this which he prophesieth for them: and he
would not prophesy thus, unless there were even in that company of the
enemies of God's people, some men of such kind that this would be granted
to them before the last judgment: for now they are mixed together, and this
is the body of the enemies, in respect of the envy whereby they rival the
people of God. And now, where they can, they make a noise and lift up their
head: but severally, not universally as they will do at the end of the
world, when the last judgment is about to fall. But it is the same body,
even in those who out of this number shall believe and pass into another
body (for the faces of these are filled with shame, that they may seek the
name of the Lord), as well as in those others who persevere unto the end in
the same wickedness, who are made as stubble before the wind, and are
consumed like a wood and barren mountains. To these he again returns,
saying, "They shall blush and be vexed for ever and ever" (ver. 17). For
those are not vexed for ever and ever who seek the name of the Lord, but
having respect unto the shame of their sins, they are vexed for this
purpose, that they may seek the name of the Lord, through which they may be
no more vexed.

   12. Again, he returns to these last, who in the same company of enemies
are to be made ashamed for this purpose, that they may not be ashamed for
ever: and for this purpose to be destroyed in as far as they are wicked,
that being made good they may be found alive for ever. For having said of
them, "Let them be ashamed and perish," he instantly adds, "and let them
know that Thy name is the Lord, Thou art only the Most Highest in all the
earth" (ver. 18). Coming to this knowledge, let them be so confounded as to
please God: let them so perish, as that they may abide. "Let them know," he
says, "that Thy name is the Lord:" as if whoever else are called lords are
named so not truly but by falsehood, for they rule but as servants, and
compared with the true Lord are not lords; as it is said, I AM THAT I
AM:(5) as if those things which are made are not, compared with Him by whom
they are made. He adds, "Thou only art the Most Highest in all the earth:"
or, as other copies have it, "over all the earth;" as it might be said, in
all the heaven, or over all the heaven: but he used the latter word in
preference, to depress the pride of earth. For earth ceaseth to be proud,
that is, man ceaseth, to whom it was said, "Thou art dust;"(1) and "why is
earth and ashes proud?"(2) when he saith that the Lord is the Most Highest
above all the earth, that is, that no man's thoughts avail against those
"who are called according to His purpose," and of whom it is said, "If God
is for us, who can be against us?"(3)

PSALM LXXXIV.(4)

   1. This Psalm is entitled," For the winepresses." And, as you observed
with me, my beloved (for I saw that you attended most closely), nothing is
said in its text either of any press, or wine-basket, or vat, or of any of
the instruments or the building of a winepress; nothing of this kind did we
hear read; so that it is no easy question what is the meaning of this title
inscribed upon it, "for the winepresses." For certainly, if after the title
it mentioned anything about such things as I enumerated, carnal persons
might have believed that it was a song concerning those visible wine-
presses; but as it has this title, yet says nothing afterwards of those
winepresses which we know so well, I cannot doubt that there are other
wine-presses, which the Spirit of God intended us to look for and to
understand here. Therefore, let us recall to mind what takes place in these
visible winepresses, and see how this takes place spiritually in the
Church. The grape hangs on the vines, and the olive on its trees. For it is
for these two fruits that presses are usually made ready; and as long as
they hang on their boughs, they seem to enjoy free air; and neither is the
grape wine, nor the olive oil, before they are pressed. Thus it is with men
whom God predestined before the world to be conformed to the image of His
only-begotten Son,(5) who has been first and especially pressed in His
Passion, as the great Cluster. Men of this kind, therefore, before they
draw near to the service of God, enjoy in the world a kind of delicious
liberty, like hanging grapes or olives: but as it is said, "My son, when
thou drawest near to the service of God, stand in judgment and fear, and
make thy soul ready for temptation:"(6) so each, as he draweth near to the
service of God, findeth that he is come to the winepress; he shall undergo
tribulation, shall be crushed, shall be pressed, not that he may perish in
this world, but that he may flow down into the storehouses of God. He hath
the coverings of carnal desires stripped off from him, like grape-skins:
for this hath taken place in him in carnal desires, of which the Apostle
speaks, "Put ye off the old man, and put on the new man."(7) All this is
not done but by pressure: therefore the Churches of God of this time are
called winepresses.

   2. But who are we who are placed in the wine-presses? "Sons of Core."
For this follows: "For the winepresses, to the sons of Core." The sons of
Core has been explained, sons of the bald: as far as those could explain it
to us, who know that language, according to their service due to God.(8)
..

   3. But being placed under pressure, we are crushed for this purpose,
that for our love by which we were borne towards those worldly, secular,
temporal, unstable, and perishable things, having suffered in them, in this
life, torments, and tribulations of pressures, and abundance of
temptations, we may begin to seek that rest which is not of this life, nor
of this earth; and the Lord becomes, as is written, "a refuge for the poor
man."(9) What is, "for the poor man"? For him who is, as it were,
destitute, without aid, without help, without anything on which he may
rest, in earth. For to such poor men, God is present. For though men abound
in money on earth, ... they are filled more with fear than with enjoyment.
For what is so uncertain as a rolling thing? It is not unfitly that money
itself is stamped round, because it remains not still. Such men, therefore,
though they have something, are yet poor. But those who have none of this
wealth, but only desire it, are counted also among rich men who will be
rejected; for God takes account not of power, but of will. The poor then
are destitute of all this world's substance, for even though it abounds
around them, they know how fleeting it is; and crying unto God, having
nothing in this world with which they may delight themselves, and be held
down, placed in abundant pressures and temptations, as if in winepresses,
they flow down, having become oil or wine. What are these latter but good
desires? For God remains their only object of desire; now they love not
earth. For they love Him who made heaven and earth; they love Him, and are
not yet with Him. Their desire is delayed, in order that it may increase;
it increases, in order that it may receive. For it is not any little thing
that God will give to him who desires, nor does he need to be little
exercised to be made fit to receive so great a good: not anything which He
hath made will God give, but Himself who made all things. Exercise thyself
to receive God: that which thou shalt have for ever, desire thou for a long
time. ...

   4. Wherefore, most beloved, as each can, make vows, and perform to the
Lord God(1) what each can: let no one look back, no one delight himself
with his former interests, no one turn away from that which is before to
that which is behind: let him run until he arrive: for we run not with the
feet but with the desire. But let no one in this life say that he hath
arrived. For who can be so perfect as Paul?(2) Yet he saith, "Brethren, I
count not myself to have attained."

   5. If therefore thou feelest the passions of this world, even when thou
art happy, thou understandest now that thou art in the winepress. ... If
therefore the world smile upon thee with happiness, imagine thyself in the
winepress, and say, "I found trouble and heaviness, and I did call upon the
name of the Lord."(3) He said not, I found trouble, without meaning, of
such a kind as was hidden: for some troubles are hidden from some in this
world, who think they are happy while they are absent from God. "For as
long as we are in the body," he saith, "we are absent from the Lord."(4) If
thou wert absent from thy father, thou wouldest be unhappy: art thou absent
from the Lord, and happy? There are then some who think it is well with
them. But those who understand, that in whatever abundance of wealth and
pleasures, though all things obey their beck, though nothing troublesome
creep in, nothing adverse terrify, yet that they are in a bad case as long
as they are absent from the Lord; with a most keen eye these have found
trouble, and grief, and have called on the name of the Lord. Such is he who
sings in this Psalm. Who is he? The Body of Christ. Who is that? You, if
you will: all we, if we will: for Christ's Body is one. ...

   "How lovely are Thy tabernacles, O Lord of Hosts" (ver. 1). He was in
some tabernacles, that is, in winepresses: but he longed for other
tabernacles, where is no pressure: in this he sighed for them, from these,
he, as it were, flowed down into them by the channel of longing desire.

   6. And what follows? "My soul longeth and faileth for the courts of the
Lord" (ver. 2). It is not enough that it "longeth and faileth:" for what
doth it fail? "For the courts of the Lord." The grape when pressed hath
failed: but for what? So as to be changed into wine, and to flow into the
vat, and into the rest of the storeroom, to be kept there in great quiet.
Here it is longed for, there it is received: here are sighs, there joy:
here prayers, there praises: here groans, there rejoicing. Those things
which I mentioned, let no one while here turn from ashamed: let no one be
unwilling to suffer. There is danger, lest the grape, while it fears the
winepress, should be devoured by birds or by wild beasts. ...

   7. Thou hast heard a groan in the winepress, "My soul longeth and
faileth for the courts of the Lord:" hear how it holdeth out, rejoicing in
hope: "My heart and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God." Here they
have rejoiced for that cause. Whence cometh rejoicing, but of hope?
Wherefore have they rejoiced? "In the living God." What has rejoiced in
thee? "My heart and my flesh." Why have they rejoiced? "For," saith he,
"the sparrow hath found her a house, and the turtle-dove a nest, where she
may lay her young" (ver. 3). What is this? He had named two things, and he
adds two figures of birds which answer to them: he had said that his heart
rejoiced and his flesh, and to these two he made the sparrow and turtle-
dove to correspond: the heart as the sparrow, the flesh as the dove. The
sparrow hath found herself a home: my heart hath found itself a home. She
tries her wings in the virtues of this life, in faith, and hope, and
charity, by which she may fly unto her home: and when she shall have come
thither, she shall remain; and now the complaining voice of the sparrow,
which is here, shall no longer be there. For it is the very complaining
sparrow of whom in another Psalm he saith, "Like a sparrow alone on the
housetop."(5) From the housetop he flies home. Now let him be on the
housetop, treading on his carnal house: he shall have a heavenly house, a
perpetual home: that sparrow shall make an end of his complaints. But to
the dove he hath given young, that is, to the flesh: "the dove hath found a
nest, where she may lay her young." The sparrow a home, the dove a nest,
and a nest too where she may lay her young. A home is chosen as for ever, a
nest is framed for a time: with the heart we think upon God, as if the
sparrow flew to her home: with the flesh we do good works. For ye see how
many good works are done by the flesh of the saints; for by this we work
the things we are commanded to work, by which we are helped in this life.
"Break thy bread to the hungry, and bring the poor and roofless into thy
house; and if thou see one naked, clothe him:"(6) and other such things
which are commanded us we work only through the flesh. ... We speak,
brethren, what ye know: how many seem to do good works without the
Church?(7) how many even Pagans feed the hungry, clothe the naked, receive
the stranger, visit the sick, comfort the prisoner? how many do this? The
dove seems, as it were, to bring forth young: but finds not herself a nest.
How many works may heretics do not in the Church; they place not their
young in a nest. They shall be trampled on and crushed: they shall not be
kept, shall not be guarded. ...In that faith lay thy young: in that nest
work thy works. For what the nests are, what that nest is, follows at once.
Having said, And the dove hath found herself a nest, where she may lay her
young; as if thou hadst asked, What nest? "Thy altars, O Lord of Hosts, my
King and my God." What is, "My King and my God?" Thou who rulest me, who
hast created me.

   8. ... "Blessed are those who dwell in Thy house" (ver. 4). ... If thou
hast thy own house, thou art poor; if God's, thou art rich. In thy own
house thou wilt fear robbers; of the house of God, He is Himself the wall.
Therefore "blessed are those who dwell in Thy house." They possess the
heavenly Jerusalem, without constraint, without pressure, without
difference and division of boundaries; all have it, and each have all.
Great are those riches. Brother crowdeth not brother: there is no want
there. Next, what will they do there? For among men it is necessity which
is the mother of all employments. I have already said, in brief, brethren,
run in your mind through any occupations, and see if it is not necessity
alone which produces them. Those very eminent arts which seem so powerful
in giving help to others, the art of speaking in their defence or of
medicine in healing, for these are the most excellent employments in this
life; take away litigants, who is there for the advocate to help? take away
wounds and diseases? what is there for the physician to cure? And all those
employments of ours which are required and done for our daily life, arise
from necessity. To plough, to sow, to clear fallow ground, to sail; what is
it which produces all these works, but necessity and want? Take away
hunger, thirst, nakedness; who has need of all these things? ... For
instance, the injunction, "Break thy bread to the hungry." For whom could
you break bread, if there were nobody hungry? "Take in the roofless poor
into thy house."(1) What stranger is there to take in, where all live in
their own country? What sick person to visit, where they enjoy perpetual
health? What litigants to reconcile, where there is everlasting peace? What
dead to bury, where there is eternal life? None of those honourable actions
which are common to all men will then be your employment, nor any of these
good works; the young swallows will then fly out of their nest.

   What then? You have said already what we shall have; "Those who dwell
in Thy house are blessed." Say now what they shall do, for I see not then
any need to induce me to action. Even what I am now saying and arguing
springs from some need. Will there be any such argument there to teach the
ignorant, or remind the forgetful? Or will the Gospel be read in that
country where the Word of God Itself shall be contemplated? ... "They shall
be always praising Thee." This shall be our whole duty, an unceasing
Hallelujah. Think not, my brethren, that there will be any weariness there:
if ye are not able to endure long here in saying this, it is because(2)
some want draws you away from that enjoyment. If what is not seen gives not
so much joy here, if with so much eagerness under the pressure and weakness
of the flesh we praise that which we believe, how shall we praise that
which we see? "When death shall be swallowed up in victory, when this
mortal shall have put on immortality,"(3) no one will say, "I have been
standing a long time;" no one will say, "I have fasted a long time," "I
have watched a long time." For there shall be great endurance, and our
immortal bodies shall be sustained in contemplation of God. And if the word
which we now dispense to you keeps your weak flesh standing so long, what
will be the effect of that joy? how will it change us? "For we shall be
like Him, since we shall see Him as He is."(4) Being made like Him, when
shall we ever faint? what shall draw us off? Brethren, we shall never be
satiated with the praise of God, with the love of God. If love could fail,
praise could fail. But if love be eternal, as there will there be beauty
inexhaustible, fear not lest thou be not able to praise for ever Him whom
thou shalt be able to love for ever. For this life let us sigh.

   9. But how shall we come thither? "Happy is the man whose strength is
in Thee"(ver. 5). He knew where he was, and that by reason of the frailty
of his flesh he could not fly to that state of blessedness: he thought upon
his own burden, as it is said elsewhere; "For the corruptible body weighs
down the soul, and the earthly house depresses the understanding which has
many thoughts."(5) The Spirit calls upward, the weight of the flesh calls
back again downward: between the double effort to raise and to weigh down,
a kind of struggle ensues: this struggle goes toward the pressure of the
wine-press. Hear how the Apostle describes this same struggle of the
winepress, for he was himself afflicted there, there he was pressed. ...
"Miserable man that I am: who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord."(1) ... "For I delight in
the Law of God according to the inner man." But what shall I do? how shall
I fly? how shall I arrive thither? "I see another law in my members," etc.
.. And as in the words of the Apostle, that difficulty and that almost
inextricable struggle is alleviated by the addition, "The grace of God
through Jesus Christ our Lord;" so here, when he sighed in the ardent
longing for the house of God, and those praises of God, and when a kind of
despair arose at the feeling of the burden of the body and the weight of
the flesh, again he awoke to hope, and said (ver. 5), "Blessed is the man
whose taking up[2] is in Thee."

   10. What then does God supply by His grace to him whom He taketh hold
of to lead him on? He goes on to say: "He hath placed steps(3) in his
heart." ... Where does it place steps? "In his heart, in the valley of
weeping" (ver. 6). So here thou hast for a winepress the valley of weeping,
the very pious tears in tribulation are the new wine of those that love.
..They went forth "weeping," he says, "casting their seed."(4) Therefore,
by the grace of God may upward steps be placed in thy heart. Rise by
loving. Hence the Psalm "of degrees" is called. ... "He hath placed steps
of ascent to the place which He hath appointed" (ver. 7). Now we lament;
whence proceed our lamentations, but from that place where the steps of our
ascent are placed? Whence comes our lamentation, but from that cause
wherefore the Apostle exclaimed that he was a wretched man, because he saw
another law in his members, warring against the law in his mind?(5) And
whence does this proceed? From the penalty of sin. And we thought that we
could easily be righteous as it were by our own strength, before we
received the command; "but when the command came, sin revived; but I
died,"(6) saith the Apostle. For a law was given to men, not such as could
save them at once, but it was to show them in what severe sickness they
were lying. ... But when sin was made manifest by the law given, sin was
but increased, for it is both sin, and against the Law; "Sin," saith he,
"taking occasion by the command, wrought in me all manner of
concupiscence."(7) What does he mean by "taking occasion by the law"?
Having received the command, men tried as by their own strength to obey it;
conquered by lust, they became guilty of transgression of this very command
also. But what saith the Apostle? "Where sin abounded, grace hath much more
abounded;"(8) that is, the disease increased, the medicine became of more
avail. Accordingly, my brethren, did those five porches of Solomon, in the
middle of which the pool lay, heal the sick at all? The sick, says the
Evangelist, lay in the five porches.(9) In the Gospel we have and read it.
Those five porches are the law in the five books of Moses. For this cause
the sick were brought forth from their houses that they might lie in the
porches. So the law brought the sick men forth, but did not heal them: but
by the blessing of God the water was disturbed, as by an Angel descending
into it. At the sight of the water troubled, the one person who was able,
descended and was healed. That water surrounded by the five porches, was
the people of the Jews shut up in their law. The Lord came and disturbed
this people, so that He Himself was slain. For if the Lord had not troubled
the Jews by coming down to them, would He have been crucified? So that the
troubled water signified the Passion of the Lord, which arose from His
troubling the Jewish people. The sick man who believeth in this Passion,
like him who descended into the troubled water, is healed thereby. He whom
the Law could not heal, that is, while he lay in the porches, is healed by
grace, by faith in the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. ...

   11. "He shall give blessing," saith he, "who gave the law." ... Grace
shall come after the law, grace itself is the blessing. And what has that
grace and blessing given unto us? "They shall go from virtue to virtue."
For here by grace many virtues are given. "For to one is given by the
Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to
the same Spirit, to another faith, to another the gift of healing, to
another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of
tongues, to another prophecy."(10) Many virtues, but necessary for this
life; and from these virtues we go on to "a virtue." To what "virtue"? To
"Christ the Virtue of God and the Wisdom of God."(11) He giveth different
virtues in this place, who for all the virtues which are necessary and
useful in this valley of weeping shall give one virtue, Himself. For in
Scripture and in many writers four virtues are described useful for life:
prudence, by which we discern between good and evil; justice, by which we
give each person his due, "owing no man anything,"(12) but loving all men:
temperance, by which we restrain lusts; fortitude, by which we bear all
troubles. These virtues are now by the grace of God given unto us in the
valley of weeping: from these virtues we mount unto that other virtue. And
what will that be, but the virtue of the contemplation of God alone? ... It
follows in that place: "They shall go from virtue to virtue." What virtue?
That of contemplation. What is contemplation? "The God of Gods shall appear
in Sion." The God of Gods, Christ of the Christians. ... When all is
finished, that mortality makes necessary, He shall appear to the pure in
heart, as He is, "God with God," The Word with the Father, "by which all
things were made."

   12. And again, from the thought of those joys he returns to his own
sighs. He sees what has come before in hope, and where he is in reality.
.. Therefore returning to the groans proper to this place, he saith, "O
Lord God of virtues, hear my prayer: hearken, O God of Jacob" (ver. 8): for
Jacob himself also Thou hast made Israel out of Jacob. For God appeared
unto him, and he was called Israel,(1) seeing God. Hear me therefore, O God
of Jacob, and make me Israel. When shall I become Israel? When the God of
Gods shall appear in Sion.

   13. "Behold, O God our defender. And look on the face of Thy Christ"
(ver. 9). For when doth God not look upon the face of His Christ? What is
this, "Look on the face of Thy Christ"? By the face we are known What is it
then, Look on the face of Thy Christ? Cause Thy Christ to become known to
all. Look on the face of Thy Christ: let Christ become known to all, that
we may be able to go from strength to strength, that grace may abound,
since sin hath abounded.

   14. "For one day in Thy courts is better than a thousand" (ver. 10).
Those courts they were for which he sighed, for which he fainted. "My soul
longeth and faileth for the courts of the Lord:"(2) one day there is better
than a thousand days. Men long for thousands of days, and wish to live here
long: let them despise these thousands of days, let them long for one day,
which has neither rising nor setting: one day, an everlasting day, to which
no yesterday yields, which no to-morrow presses. Let this one day be longed
for by us. What have we to do with a thousand days? We go from the thousand
days to one day; let us hasten to that one day,(3) as we go from strength
to strength.

   15. "I have chosen to be cast away in the house of the Lord, rather
than to dwell in the tents of sinners" (ver. 11). For he found the valley
of weeping, he found humility by which he might rise: he knoweth that if he
would raise himself he shall fall, if he humble himself he shall be
exalted: he hath chosen to be cast away, that he may be raised up. How many
beside this tabernacle of the Lord's winepress, that is beside the Catholic
Church, wishing to be lifted up, and loving their honours, refuse to see
the truth. If this verse had been in their heart, would they not cast away
honours, and run to the valley of weeping, and hence find in their heart
the way of ascent, and hence go from virtues to virtue, placing their hope
in Christ, not in some man or another? A good word is this, a word to
rejoice in, a word to be chosen. He himself chose to be cast away in the
house of the Lord; but He who invited him to the feast, when he chose a
lower place calleth him to a higher one, and saith unto him, "Go up
higher."(4) Yet he chose not but to be in the house of the Lord, in any
part of it, so that he were not outside the threshold.

   16. Wherefore did he choose? ... "Because God loveth mercy and truth"
(ver. 12). The Lord loveth mercy, by which He first came to my help: He
loveth truth, so as to give to him that believeth what He has promised.(5)
Hear in the case of the Apostle Paul, His mercy and truth, Paul who was
first Saul the persecutor. He needed mercy, and he has said that it was
shown towards him: "I who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and
injurious: but I obtained mercy, that in me Christ Jesus might show forth
all longsuffering towards those who shall believe in Him unto life
eternal."(6) So that, when Paul received pardon of such great crimes, no
one should despair of any sins whatever being forgiven him. Lo! Thou hast
Mercy. ... Lo, we see that Paul holdeth Him a debtor, having received
mercy, demanding truth. The Lord, he says, shall give back in that day.
What shall He give thee back, but that which He oweth thee? How oweth He
unto thee? What hast thou given Him? "Who hath first given unto Him, and it
shall be restored to him again."(5) The Lord Himself hath made Himself a
debtor, not by receiving, but by promising: it is not said unto Him,
Restore what Thou hast received: but, Restore what Thou hast promised. He
hath shown mercy unto me, he saith, that He might make me innocent: for
before I was a blasphemer and injurious: but by His grace I have been made
innocent. But He who first showed mercy, can He deny His debt? "He loveth
mercy and truth. He will give grace and glory." What grace, but that of
which the same one said: "By the grace of God I am what I am"?(7) What
glory, but that of which he said, "There is laid up. for me a crown of
glory"?(8)

   17. Therefore "the Lord will not withhold good from those who walk in
innocence" (ver. 12). Why then, O men, are ye unwilling to keep innocence,
except in order that ye may have good things? ... Thou seest wealth in the
hands of robbers, of the impious, the wicked, the base; in the hands of
scandalous and criminal men thou seest wealth: God giveth them these things
on account of their fellowship in the human race, for the abundant
overflowing of His goodness: who also "maketh His sun to rise upon the good
and the evil, and causeth it to rain upon the righteous and upon the
sinners."(1) Giveth He so much to the wicked, and keepeth nothing for thee?
He keepeth something: be at ease, He who had mercy on thee when thou wast
impious, doth He desert thee when thou hast become pious? He who gave to
the sinner the free gift of His Son's death, what keepeth He for the saved
through that death? Therefore be at ease. Hold Him a debtor, for thou hast
believed in Him promising. What then remains for us here, in the winepress,
in affliction, in hardship, in our present dangerous life? What remains for
us, that we may arrive thither? "O Lord God of virtues, blessed is the man
that putteth his hope in Thee."

PSALM LXXXV.(2)

   1. ... Its title is, "A Psalm for the end, to the sons of Core."(3) Let
us understand no other end than that of which the Apostle speaks: for,
"Christ is the end of the law."(4) Therefore when at the head of the title
of the Psalm he placed the words, "for the end," he directed our heart to
Christ. If we fix our gaze on Him, we shall not stray: for He is Himself
the Truth unto which we are eager to arrive, and He Himself the Way s by
which we run. ...

   2. The Prophet singeth to Him of the future, and useth words as it were
of past time: he speaks of things future as if already done, because with
God that which is future has already taken place. ... "Lord, Thou hast been
favourable unto Thy land" (ver. 1); as if He had already done so. "Thou
hast turned away the captivity of Jacob." His ancient people of Jacob, the
people of Israel, born of Abraham's seed, in the promise to become one day
the heir of God. That was indeed a real people, to whom the Old Testament
was given; but in the Old Testament the New was figured: that was the
figure, this the truth expressed. In that figure, by a kind of foretelling
of the future, there was given to that people a certain land of promise, in
a region where the people of the Jews abode; where also is the city of
Jerusalem, whose name we have all heard of. When this people had received
possession of this land, they suffered many troubles from their
neighbouring enemies who surrounded them: and when they sinned against
their God, they were given into captivity, not for destruction, but for
discipline; their Father not condemning, but scourging them. And after
being seized on, they were set free, and many times were both made
captives, and set free; and they are now in captivity, and that for a great
sin, even because they crucified their Lord. What then are we to understand
them to mean by the words, "Thou hast turned away the captivity of Jacob"?
.. This Psalm hath prophesied in song. "Thou hast turned away the
captivity of Jacob." To whom did it speak? To Christ; for it said, "for the
end, for the sons of Core:" for He hath turned away the captivity of Jacob.
Hear Paul himself confessing: "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death?" He asked who it should be, and straightway
it occurred to him, "The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.(6) Of
this grace of God the Prophet speaketh to our Lord Jesus Christ, "Thou hast
turned away the captivity of Jacob." Attend to the captivity of Jacob,
attend, and see that it is this: Thou hast turned away our captivity, not
by setting us free from the barbarians, with whom we had not met, but by
setting us free from bad works, from our sins, by which Satan held sway
over us. For if any one has been set free from his sins, the prince of
sinners hath not whence he may hold sway over him.

   3. For how did He turn away the captivity of Jacob? See, how that that
setting free is spiritual, see how that it is done inwardly. "Thou hast
forgiven," he saith, "the iniquity of Thy people: Thou hast covered all
their sins" (ver. 2). Behold how He hath turned away their captivity, in
that He hath remitted iniquity: iniquity held them captive; thy iniquity
forgiven, thou art freed. Confess therefore that thou art in captivity,
that thou mayest be worthy to be freed: for he that knoweth not of his
enemy, how can he invoke the liberator? "Thou hast covered all their sins."
What is, "Thou hast covered"? So as not to see them. How didst Thou not see
them? So as not to take vengeance on them. Thou wast unwilling to see our
sins: and therefore sawest Thou them not, because Thou wouldest not see
them: "Thou hast covered all their sins." "Thou hast appeased all Thy
anger: Thou hast turned Thyself from Thy wrathful indignation" (ver. 3).

   4. And as these things are said of the future, though the sound of the
words is past, it follows: "Turn us, O God of our salvation" (ver. 4). That
which he had just related as if it were done, how prayeth he that it may be
done, except because he wished to show that he had spoken as if of the past
in prophecy? But that it was not yet done which he had said was done he
showeth by this, that he prayeth that it may be done: "Turn us, O God of
our salvation, and turn away Thine anger from us." Didst thou not say
before: "Thou hast appeased all Thy anger, Thou has turned Thyself from Thy
wrathful indignation"? How then now sayest thou, "And turn away Thine anger
from us"? The Prophet answereth: These things I speak of as done, because I
see them about to be done: but because they are not yet done, I pray that
they may come, which I have already seen.

   5. "Be not angry with us for ever" (ver. 5). For by the anger of God we
are subject to death, and by the anger of God we eat bread on this earth in
want, and in the sweat of our face.(1) This was Adam's sentence when he
sinned: and that Adam was every one of us, for "in Adam all die;"(2) the
sentence passed on him hath taken effect after him on us. For we were not
yet ourselves, but we were in Adam: therefore whatever happened to Adam
himself took effect on us also, so that we should die: for we all were in
him. ... So far as this the sin of thy father hurts thee not, if thou hast
changed thyself, even as it would not hurt thy father if he had changed
himself. But that which our stock hath received unto its subjection to
death, it hath derived from Adam. What hath it so derived? That frailty of
the flesh, this torture of pains, this house of poverty, this chain of
death, and snares of temptations; all these things we carry about in this
flesh; and this is the anger of God, because it is the vengeance of God.
But because it was so to be, that we should be regenerated, and by
believing should be made new, and all that mortality was to be removed in
our resurrection, and the whole man was to be restored in newness; "For as
in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive;"(2) seeing this
the Prophet saith, "Be not angry with us for ever, nor stretch out Thy
wrath from one generation to another." The first generation was mortal by
Thy wrath: the second generation shall be immortal by Thy mercy. ...

   6. "O God, Thou shall turn us again, and make us alive" (ver. 6). Not
as if we ourselves of our own accord, without Thy mercy, turn unto Thee,
and then Thou shall make us alive: but so that not only our being made
alive is from Thee, but our very conversion, that we may be made alive.
"And Thy people shall rejoice in Thee." To their own evil they shall
rejoice in themselves: to their own good they shall rejoice in Thee. For
when they wished to have joy of themselves, they found in themselves woe:
but now because God is all our joy, he that will rejoice securely, let him
rejoice in Him who cannot perish. For why, my brethren, will ye rejoice in
silver? Either thy silver perisheth, or thou: and no one knows which first:
yet this is certain, that both shall perish; which first, is uncertain. For
neither can man remain here always, nor can silver remain here always: so
too gold, so garments, so houses, so money, so broad lands, so, lastly,
this light itself. Be not thou willing then to rejoice in these: but
rejoice in that light which hath no setting: rejoice in that dawn which no
yesterday precedes, which no to-morrow follows. What light is that? "I,"
saith He, "am the Light of the world."(3) He who saith unto thee, "I am the
Light of the world," calls thee to Himself. When He calls thee, He converts
thee: when He converts thee, He healeth thee: when He hath healed thee,
thou shall see thy Converter, unto whom it is said, "Show us Thy mercy, O
Lord, and grant us Thy salvation" (ver. 7): Thy salvation, that is, Thy
Christ.(4) Happy is he unto whom God showeth His mercy. He it is who cannot
indulge in pride, unto whom God showeth His mercy. For by showing him His
salvation He persuadeth him that whatever good man has, he hath not but
from Him who is all our good. And when a man has seen that whatever good he
has he hath not from himself, but from his God; he sees that everything
which is praised in him is of the mercy of God, not of his own deserving;
and seeing this, he is not proud; not being proud, he is not lifted up; not
lifting himself up, he falleth not; not falling, he standeth; standing, he
clingeth fast; clinging fast, he abideth; abiding, he enjoyeth, and
rejoiceth in the Lord his God. He who made him shall be unto him a delight:
and his delight no one spoileth, no one interrupteth, no one taketh away.
.. Therefore, what saith John in his Epistle? "Beloved, now are we the
sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be."(5) Who would not
rejoice, if suddenly while he was wandering abroad, ignorant of his
descent, suffering want, and in a state of misery and toil, it were
announced, Thou art the son of a senator: thy father enjoys an ample
patrimony on your family estate; I bid thee return to thy father: how would
he rejoice, if this were said to him by some one whose promise he could
trust? One whom we can trust, an Apostle of Christ, hath come and said to
us, Ye have a father, ye have a country, ye have an inheritance. Who is
that father? "Beloved, we are the sons of God."(1) ... Therefore He(2)
promised us to show Himself unto us. Think, my brethren, what His beauty
is. All those beautiful things which ye see, which ye love, He made. If
these are beautiful, what is He Himself? If these are great, how great is
He? Therefore from these things which we love here, let us the more long
for Him: and despising these things, let us love Him: that by that very
love we may by faith purify our hearts, and His vision, when it cometh, may
find our heart purified. The light which shall be shown unto us ought to
find us whole: this is the work of faith now. This is what we have spoken
here: "And grant us Thy salvation:" grant us Thy Christ, that we may know
Thy Christ, see Thy Christ; not as the Jews saw Him and crucified Him, but
as the Angels see Him, and rejoice.

   7. "I will hearken" (ver. 8). The Prophet spoke: God spoke within in
him, and the world made a noise without. Therefore, retiring for a little
from the noise of the world, and turning himself back upon himself, and
from himself upon Him whose voice he heard within; sealing up his ears, as
it were, against the tumultuous disquietude of this life, and against the
soul weighed down by the corruptible body, and against the imagination,
that through the earthly tabernacle pressing down,(3) thinketh on many
things,(4) he saith, "I will hearken what the Lord God speaketh in me;" and
he heard, what? "For He shall speak peace unto His people." The voice of
Christ, then, the voice of God, is peace: it calleth unto peace. Ho! it
saith, whosoever are not yet in peace, love ye peace: for what can ye find
better from Me than peace? What is peace? Where there is no war. What is
this, where there is no war? Where there is no contradiction, where there
is no resistance, nothing to oppose. Consider if we are yet there: consider
if there is not now a conflict with the devil, if all the saints and
faithful ones wrestle not with the prince of demons. And how do they
wrestle with him whom they see not? They wrestle with their own desires, by
which he suggests unto them sins: and by not consenting to what he
suggests, though they are not conquered, yet they fight. Therefore there is
not yet peace where there is fighting. ... Whatever we provide for our
refreshment, there again we find weariness. Art thou hungry? one asks thee:
thou answerest, I am. He places food before thee for thy refreshment;
continue thou to use it, for thou hadst need of it; yet in continuing that
which thou needest for refreshment, therein findest thou weariness. By long
sitting thou wast tired; thou risest and refreshest thyself by walking;
continue that relief, and by much walking thou art wearied; again thou
wouldest sit down. Find me anything by which thou art refreshed, wherein if
thou continue thou dost not again become weary. What peace then is that
which men have here, opposed by so many troubles, desires, wants,
wearinesses? This is no true, no perfect peace. What will be perfect peace?
"This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality."(5) ... Persevere in eating much; this itself will kill thee:
persevere in fasting much, by this thou wilt die: sit continually, being
resolved not to rise up, by this thou wilt die: be always walking so as
never to take rest, by this thou wilt die; watch continually, taking no
sleep, by this thou wilt die; sleep continually, never watching, thus too
thou wilt die. When therefore death shall be swallowed up in victory, these
things shall no longer be: there will be full and eternal peace. We shall
be in a City, of which, brethren, when I speak I find it hard to leave off,
especially when offences wax common. Who would not long for that City
whence no friend goeth out, whither no enemy entereth,(6) where is no
tempter, no seditious person, no one dividing God's people, no one wearying
the Church in the service of the devil; since the prince himself of all
such is cast into eternal fire, and with him those who consent unto him,
and who have no will to retire from him? There shall be peace made pure in
the sons of God, all loving one another, seeing one another full of God,
since God shall be all in all.(7) We shall have God as our common object of
vision, God as our common possession, God as our common peace. For whatever
there is which He now giveth unto us, He Himself shall be unto us instead
of His gifts; this will be full and perfect peace. This He speaketh unto
His people: this it was which he would hearken unto who said, "I will
hearken what the Lord God will say unto me: for He shall speak peace unto
His people, and to His saints, and unto those who turn their hearts unto
Him." Lo, my brethren, do ye wish that unto you should belong that peace
which God uttereth? Turn your heart unto Him: not unto me, or unto that
one, or unto any man. For whatever man would turn unto himself the hearts
of men, he falleth with them. Which is better, that thou fall with him unto
whom thou turnest thyself, or that thou stand with Him with whom thou
turnest thyself? Our joy, our peace, our rest, the end of all troubles, is
none but God: blessed are "they that turn their hearts unto Him."

   8. "Nevertheless, His salvation is nigh them that fear Him" (ver. 9).
There were some even then who feared Him in the Jewish people. Everywhere
throughout the earth idols were worshipped: devils were feared, not God: in
that nation God was feared. But why was He feared? In the Old Testament He
was feared, lest He should give them up to captivity, lest He should take
away their land from them, lest He should destroy their vines with hail,
lest He should make their wives barren, lest He should take away their
children from them. For these carnal promises of God captivated their
minds, which as yet were of small growth, and for these things God was
feared: but He was near unto them who even for these things feared Him. The
Pagan prayed for land to the devil: the Jew prayed for land to God: it was
the same thing which they prayed for, but not the same to whom they prayed.
The latter, though seeking what the Pagan sought, yet was distinguished
from the Pagan; for He sought it of Him who had made all things. And God,
who was far(1) from the Gentiles, was near(1) unto them: yet He had regard
even to those who were afar off, and to those who were near, as the Apostle
said: "And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off, and to them
that were near."(2) Whom did He mean by those near? The Jews, because
they(3) worshipped one God. Whom by those who were afar off? The Gentiles,
because they had left Him by whom they were made and worshipped things
which themselves had made. For it is not in space that any one is far from
God, but in affections. Thou lovest God, thou art near unto Him. Thou
hatest God, thou art far off. Thou art standing in the same place, both
while thou art near and far off This it was, my brethren, which the Prophet
had regard to: although he saw the mercy of God extending over all, yet he
saw something especial and peculiar shown toward the Jews, and he saith,
"Nevertheless, I will hearken what the Lord God shall say unto me: for He
shall speak peace unto His people;" and His people shall be, not Judaea
only, but it shall be gathered together out of all nations: "For He shall
speak peace unto His hints, and to those who turn their hearts unto Him,"
and to all who shall turn their hearts unto Him from the whole world.
"Nevertheless, His salvation shall be nigh them that fear Him, that glory
may dwell in our land:" that is, in that land in which the Prophet was
born, greater glory shall dwell, because Christ began to be preached from
thence. Thence were the Apostles, and thither first they were sent; from
thence were the Prophets, there first was the Temple, there sacrifice was
made to God, there were the Patriarchs, there He Himself came of the seed
of Abraham, there Christ was manifested, there Christ appeared; for from
thence was the Virgin Mary who bore Christ. There He walked with His feet,
there He worked miracles. Thirdly, He ascribed so great honour to that
nation, that when a certain Canaanitish woman interrupted Him, praying for
the healing of her daughter, He said unto her, "I am not sent but unto the
lost sheep of the house of Israel."(4) Seeing this, the Prophet saith,
"that glory may dwell in our land."

   9. "Mercy and truth have met together" (ver. 10). "Truth in our land,"
in a Jewish person, "mercy" in the land of the Gentiles. For where was
truth? Where the utterances of God were. Where was mercy? On those who had
left their God, and turned themselves unto devils. Did He look down s also
upon them? Yea, as if He said, Call those who are fugitives afar off, who
have departed far from Me: call them, let them find Me who seek them, since
they themselves would not seek Me. Therefore, "Mercy and truth have met
together: righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Do
righteousness, and thou shalt have peace; that righteousness and peace may
kiss each other. For if thou love not righteousness, thou shalt not have
peace; for those two, righteousness and peace, love one another, and kiss
one another: that he who hath done righteousness may find peace kissing
righteousness. They two are friends: thou perhaps willest the one, and not
the other: for there is no one who wills not peace: but all will not work
righteousness. Ask all men, Wiliest thou peace? With one mouth the whole
race of man answers thee, I wish, I desire, I will, I love it. Love also
righteousness: for these two, righteousness and peace, are friends; they
kiss one another: if thou love not the friend of peace, peace itself will
not love thee, nor come unto thee. For what great thing is it to desire
peace? Every bad man longeth for peace. For peace is a good thing. But do
righteousness, for righteousness and peace kiss one another, they quarrel
not together. ...

   10. "Truth hath sprung out of the earth, and righteousness hath looked
down from heaven" (ver. 11). "Truth hath sprung out of the earth:" Christ
is born of a woman. The Son of God hath come forth of the flesh. What is
truth? The Son of God. What is the earth? Flesh. Ask whence Christ was
born, and thou seest that "Truth is sprung out of the earth." But the Truth
which sprang out of the earth was before the earth, and by It the heaven
and the earth were made: but in order that righteousness might look down
from heaven, that is, in order that men might be justified by Divine grace,
Truth was born of the Virgin Mary; that He might be able to offer a
sacrifice to justify them, the sacrifice of suffering, the sacrifice of the
Cross. And how could He offer a sacrifice for our sins, except He died? How
could He die, except He received from us that wherein He might die; that
is, unless He received from us mortal flesh, Christ could not have died:
because the Word of God dieth not, Godhead dieth not, the Virtue and Wisdom
of God doth not die. How should He offer a sacrifice, a healing victim, if
He died not? How should He die, unless He clothed Himself with flesh? How
should He put on flesh, except truth sprang out of the earth?

   11. On the same passage we may mention another meaning. "Truth is
sprung out of the earth:" confession from man. For thou, O man, wast a
sinner. O earth, who when thou hadst sinned didst hear the sentence," Earth
thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return,"(1) from thee let truth spring,
that righteousness may look down from heaven. How doth truth spring from
thee, whilst thou art a sinner, whilst thou art unrighteous? Confess thy
sins, and truth shall spring out of thee. For if whilst thou art
unrighteous, thou callest thyself just, how can truth spring out of thee?
But if being unrighteous thou dost confess thyself to be so, "truth hath
sprung out of the earth." ... What "righteousness hath looked down from
heaven"? It is that of God, as though He said: Let us spare this man, for
he spareth not himself: let us pardon him, for he himself confesseth. He is
changed so is to punish his sin: I too will change, so as to set him free.

   12. "For the Lord shall give sweetness, and our land shall give her
increase" (ver. 12). ... He will give unto thee the sweetness of working
righteousness, so that righteousness shall begin to delight thee, whom
before unrighteousness delighted: so that thou who at first didst delight
in drunkenness, shall rejoice in sobriety: and thou who didst at first
rejoice in theft, so as to take from another man what thou hadst not, shalt
seek to give to him that hath not that which thou hast: and thou who didst
take delight in robbing, shalt delight now in giving: thou whom shows
delighted, shalt delight in prayer; thou who didst delight in trifling and
lascivious songs, shalt now delight in singing hymns to God; in running to
church, thou who at first didst run to the theatre. Whence is that
sweetness born to thee, except from this, that "God giveth sweetness"? For,
behold, ye see what I mean: behold, I have spoken unto you the word of God,
I have sown seed in your devout hearts, finding your souls furrowed, as it
were, with the plough of confession: with devout attention ye have received
the seed; think now upon the word which ye have heard, like those who break
up the clouds, lest the fowls should carry away the seed, that what is sown
may be able to spring up there: and unless God rain upon it, what profits
it that it is sown? This is what is meant by "our land shall give her
increase." May He with His visitations, in leisure, in business, in your
house, in your bed, at meal-time, in conversation, in walks, visit your
hearts, when we are not by. May the rain of God come and make to sprout
what is sown there: and when we are not by, and are resting quietly, or
otherwise employed, may God give increase to the seeds which we have sown,
that remarking afterwards your improved characters, we too may rejoice for
your fruit.

   13. "For righteousness shall go before him, and he shall direct his
steps in the way" (ver. 14): that righteousness, namely, which consists in
confession of sins: for this is truth itself. For thou oughtest to be
righteous towards thyself, and to punish thyself: for this is the beginning
of man's righteousness, that thou shouldest punish thyself, who art evil,
and God should make thee good. Therefore since this is the beginning of
man's righteousness, this becomes a way for God, that God may come unto
thee: there make for Him a way, in confession of sins. Therefore John too,
when he was baptizing in the water of repentance, and would have men come
to him repenting of their former deeds, spoke thus: "Prepare the way of the
Lord, make His paths straight."(2) Thou didst please thyself in thy sins, O
man: let that which thou wast displease thee, that thou mayest be able to
become what thou wast not. Prepare the way of the Lord: let that
righteousness go before, of confession of sins: He will come and visit
thee, for now He hath where to place His steps, He hath whereby He may come
to thee. Before thou didst confess thy sins, thou hadst shut up the way of
God: there was no way by which He might come unto thee. Confess thy past
life, and thou openest a way; and Christ shall come unto thee, and "shall
place His steps in the way," that He may guide thee with His own footsteps.


Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in
1867. (LNPF I/VIII, Schaff). The digital version is by The Electronic Bible
Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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