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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 51-59: FROM THE 2ND BOOK OF THE PSALMS


PSALM LI.[10]

    1. Neither must this multitude's throng be defrauded, nor their 
infirmity burthened. Silence we ask, and quiet, in order that our voice, 
after yesterday's labour, be able with some little vigour to last out. It 
must be believed, that your love hath met together in greater numbers to-
day for nothing else, but that ye may pray for those whom an allen and 
perverse inclination doth keep away. For we are speaking neither of 
heathens nor of Jews, but of Christians: nor of those that are yet 
Catechumens, but of many that are even baptized, from the Layer of whom ye 
do no wise differ, and yet to their heart ye are unlike. For to-day how 
many brethren of ours we think of, and deplore their going unto vanities 
and lying insanities, to the neglect of that to which they have been 
called. Who, if in the very circus from any cause they chance to be 
startled, do immediately cross themselves,[11] and stand bearing It on the 
forehead, in the very place, from whence they had withdrawn, if they had 
borne It in heart. God's mercy must be implored, that He may give 
understanding for condemning these things, inclination to flee them, and 
mercy to forgive. Opportunately, then, of Penitence a Psalm to-day has been 
chanted. Speak we even with the absent: there will be to them for our voice 
your memory. Neglect not the wounded and feeble, but that ye may more 
easily make whole, whole ye ought to abide. Correct by reproving, comfort 
by addressing, set an example by living well, He will be with them that 
hath been with you. For now that ye have overpassed these dangers, the 
fountain of God's mercy is not closed Where ye have come they will come; 
where ye have passed they will pass. A grievous thing it is  indeed, and 
exceeding perilous, nay ruinous, and for certain a deadly thing, that 
witting they sin. For in one way to these vanities doth he run that 
despiseth the voice of Christ; in another way, he that knoweth from what he 
is  fleeing. But that not even of such men we ought to despair, this Psalm 
doth show.

    2. For there is  written over it the title thereof, "A Psalm of David 
himself, when there came to him Nathan the prophet, when he went in unto 
Bersabee." Bersabee was a woman, wife of another. With grief indeed we 
speak, and with trembling; but yet God would not have to be hushed what He 
hath willed to be written. I will say then not what I will, but what I am 
obliged; I will say not as one exhorting to imitation, but as one 
instructing you to real Captivated with this woman's beauty, the wife of 
another, the king and prophet David, from whose seed according to the flesh 
the Lord was to come,[1] committed adultery with her. This thing in this 
Psalm is not read, but in the title thereof it appeareth; but in the book 
of Kings[2] it is more fully read. Both Scriptures are canonical, to both 
without any doubt by Christians credit must be given. The sin was 
committed, and was written down. Moreover her husband in war he caused to 
be killed: and after this deed there was sent to him Nathan the prophet;[3] 
sent by the Lord, to reprove him for so great an outrage.

    3. What men should beware of, we have said; but what if they shall have 
fallen they should imitate, let us hear. For many men will to fall with 
David, and will not to rise with David. Not then for falling is the example 
set forth, but if thou shalt have fallen for rising again. Take heed lest 
thou fall. Not the delight of the younger be the lapse of the elder, but be 
the fall of the elder the dread of the younger. For this it was set forth, 
for this was written, for this in the Church often read and chanted: let 
them hear that have not fallen, lest they fall; let them hear that have 
fallen, that they may rise. So great a man's sin is  not hushed, is 
proclaimed in the Church. There men hear that are ill hearers, and seek for 
themselves countenance for sinning: they look out for means whereby they 
may defend what they have made ready to commit, not how they may beware of 
what they have not committed, and they say to themselves, If David, why not 
I too? Thence that soul is  more unrighteous, which, forasmuch as it hath 
done it because David did, therefore hath done worse than David. I will say 
this very thing, if I shall be able, more plainly. David had set forth to 
himself none for a precedent as thou hast: he had fallen by lapse of 
concupiscence, not by the countenance of holiness: thou dost set before 
thine eyes as it were a holy man, in order that thou mayest sin: thou dost 
not copy his holiness, but dost copy his fall Thou[4] dost love that in 
David, which in himself David hated: thou makest thee ready to sin, thou 
inclinest to sin: in order that thou mayest sin thou consultest the book of 
God: the Scriptures of God for this thou hearest, that thou mayest do what 
displeaseth God. This did not David; he was reproved by a Prophet, he 
stumbled not over a Prophet. But others hearing to their health, by the 
fall of a strong man measure their weakness: and desiring to avoid what God 
condemneth, from careless looking do restrain their eyes. Them they fix not 
upon the beauty of another's flesh, nor make themselves carries with 
perverse simpleness; they say not, "With good intent I have observed, of 
kindness I have observed, of charity I have long looked." For they set 
before themselves the fall of David, and they see that this great man for 
this purpose hath fallen, in order that little men may not be willing to 
look on that whereby they may fall. For they restrain their eyes from 
wantonness, not readily do they join themselves in company, they do not 
mingle with strange women, they raise not complying eyes to strange 
balconies, to strange terraces. For from afar David saw her with whom he 
was captivated.[5] Woman afar, lust near. What he saw was elsewhere, in 
himself that whereby he fell. This weakness of the flesh must be therefore 
minded, the words of the Apostle recollected, "Let not sin therefore reign 
in your mortal body."[6] He hath not said, let there not be; but, "let 
there not reign." There is sin in thee, when thou takest pleasure; there 
reigneth, if thou shalt have consented. Carnal pleasure, especially if 
proceeding unto unlawful and strange objects, is to be bridled, not let 
loose: by government to be tamed, not to be set up for government. Look and 
be without care, if thou hast nothing whereby thou mayest be moved. But 
thou makest answer, "I contain with strong resolution." Art thou any wise 
stronger than David ?[7]

    4. He admonisheth, moreover, by such an example, that no one ought to 
lift himself up in prosperous circumstances. For many fear adverse 
circumstances, fear not prosperous circumstances. Prosperity is more 
perilous to soul than adversity to body. First, prosperity doth corrupt, in 
order that adversity may find something to break. My brethren, stricter 
watch must be kept against felicity. Wherefore, see ye after what manner 
the saying of God amid our own felicity doth take from us security: "Serve 
ye," He saith, "the Lord in fear, and exult unto Him with trembling."[8] In 
exultation, in order that we may render thanks; in trembling, lest we fall 
This sin did not David, when he was suffering Saul for persecutor.[9] When 
holy David was suffering Saul his enemy, when he was being vexed by his 
persecutions, when he was fleeing through divers places, in order that he 
might not fall into his hands, he lusted not for her that was another's, he 
slew not husband after committing adultery with wife. He was in the 
infirmity of his tribulation so much the more intimate with God as he 
seemed more miserable. Something useful is  tribulation; useful the 
surgeon's lancet rather than the devil's temptation. He became secure when 
his enemies were overthrown, pressure was removed, swelling grew out. This 
example therefore doth avail to this end, that we should fear felicity. 
"Tribulation," he sixth, "and grief I found, and on the name of the Lord I 
called. "[1]

    5. But it was done; I would say these words to those that have not done 
the like, in order that they should watch to keep their uncorruptness, and 
that while they take heed how a great one has fallen, they that be small 
should fear. But if any that hath already fallen heareth these words, and 
that hath in his conscience any evil thing; to the words of this Psalm let 
him advert; let him heed the greatness of the wound, but not despair of the 
majesty of the Physician. Sin with despair is certain death. Let no one 
therefore say, If already any evil thing I have done, already I am to be 
condemned: God pardoneth not such evil things, why add I not sins to sins? 
I will enjoy this word in pleasure, in wantonness, in wicked cupidity: now 
hope of amendment having been lost, let me have even what I see, if I 
cannot have what I believe. This Psalm then, while it maketh heedful those 
that have not believed, so doth not will them that have fallen to be 
despaired of. Whoever thou art that hast sinned, and hesitatest to exercise 
penitence[2] for thy sin, despairing of thy salvation, hear David groaning. 
To thee Nathan the prophet hath not been sent, David himself hath been sent 
to thee Hear him crying, and with him cry: hear him groaning, and with him 
groan; hear him weeping, and mingle tears; hear him amended, and with him 
rejoice. If from thee sin could not be excluded, be not hope of pardon 
excluded. There was sent to that man Nathan the prophet, observe the king's 
humility.[3] He rejected not the words of him giving admonition, he said 
not, Darest thou speak to me, a king? An exited king heard a prophet, let 
His humble people hear Christ.

    6. Hear therefore these words, and say thou with him: "Have pity upon 
me, O God, after Thy great mercy" (ver. 1). He that imploreth great mercy, 
confesseth great misery. Let them seek a little mercy of Thee, that have 
sinned in ignorance: "Have pity," he sixth, "upon me, after Thy great 
mercy." Relieve a deep wound after Thy great healing. Deep is what I have, 
but in the Almighty I take refuge. Of my own so deadly wound I should 
despair, unless I could find so great a Physician. "Have pity upon me, O 
God, after Thy great mercy: and after the multitude of Thy pities, blot out 
my iniquity." What he saith, "Blot out my iniquity," is  this, "Have pity 
upon me, O God." And what he saith, "After the multitude of Thy pities," is 
this, "After Thy great mercy." Because great is the mercy, many are the 
mercies; and of Thy great mercy, many are Thy pitying. Thou dost regard 
mockers to amend them, dost regard ignorant men to teach them, dost regard 
men confessing to pardon. Did he this in ignorance? A certain man had done 
some, aye many evil things he had done; "Mercy," he saith, "I obtained, 
because ignorant I did it in unbelief."[4] This David could not say, 
"Ignorant I did it." For he was not ignorant how very evil a thing was the 
touching of another's wife, and how very evil a thing was the killing of 
the husband, who knew not of it, and was not even angered. They obtain 
therefore the mercy of the Lord that have in ignorance done it; and they 
that have knowing done it, obtain not any mercy it may chance,   but "great 
mercy."

    7. "More and more wash me from mine unrighteousness" (ver. 2). What is 
, "More and more wash "? One much stained. More and more wash the sins of 
one knowing. Thou that hast washed off the sins of one ignorant. Not even 
thus is  it to be despaired of Thy mercy. "And from my delinquency purge 
Thou me." According to the manner in which He is  physician, offer a 
recompense. He is  God, offer sacrifice. What wilt thou give that thou 
mayest be purged? For see upon whom thou callest; upon a Just One thou 
callest. He hateth sins, if He is  just; He taketh vengeance upon sins, if 
He is just; thou wilt not be able to take away from the Lord God His 
justice: entreat mercy, but observe the justice: there is  mercy to pardon 
the sinner, there is justice to punish the sin. What then? Thou askest 
mercy; shall sin unpunished abide? Let David answer, let those that have 
fallen answer, answer with David, and say, No, Lord, no sin of mine shall 
be unpunished; I know the justice of Him whose mercy I ask: it shall not be 
unpunished, but for this reason I will not that Thou punish me, because I 
punish my sin: for this reason I beg that Thou pardon, because I 
acknowledge.

    8. "For mine iniquity I acknowledge, and my delinquency is before me 
ever" (ver. 3). I have not put behind my back what I have done, I look not 
at others, forgetful of myself, I pretend not to pull out a straw from my 
brother's eye, when there is  a beam in my eye;[5] my sin is before me, not 
behind me. For it was behind me when to me was sent the Prophet, and set 
before me the parable of the poor man's sheep.[6] For saith Nathan the 
Prophet to David, "There was a certain rich man having very many sheep; but 
a poor man his neighbour had one little ewe sheep, which in his bosom and 
of his own food he was feeding: there came a stranger to the rich man, 
nothing from his flock he took, for the lithe ewe sheep of the poor man his 
neighbour he lusted;  her he slew for the stranger: what doth he deserve?" 
But the other being angry doth pronounce sentence: then the king, evidently 
knowing not wherein he had been taken,[1] declared the rich man deserving 
of death, and that the sheep be restored fourfold. Most sternly and most 
justly. But his sin was not yet before him, behind his back was what he had 
done: his own iniquity he did not yet acknowledge, and therefore another's 
he did not pardon. But the Prophet, being for this purpose sent, took from 
his back the sin, and before his eyes placed it, so that he might see that 
sentence so stern to have been pronounced against himself. For cutting and 
healing his heart's wound, he made a lancet of his tongue. ...

    9. "Against Thee alone have I sinned, and before Thee an evil thing 
have I done" (ver. 4). What is  this? For before men was not another's wife 
debauched and husband slain? Did not all men know what David had done?[2] 
What is, "Against Thee alone have I sinned, and before Thee an evil thing 
have I done." Because Thou alone art without sin. He is a just punisher 
that hath nothing in Him to be punished; He is a just reprover that hath 
nothing in Him to be reproved. "That thou mayest be justified in Thy 
sayings, and conquer when Thou art judged." To whom he speaketh, brethren, 
to whom he speaketh, is difficult to understand. To God surely he speaketh, 
and it is evident that God the Father is not judged. What is, "And conquer 
when Thou art judged"? He seeth the future Judge to be judged, one just by 
sinners to be judged, and therein conquering, because in Him was nothing to 
be judged. For alone among men could truly say the God-Man, "If ye have 
found in Me sin, say."[3] But perchance there was what escaped men, and 
they found not what was really there, but was not manifest. In another 
place[4] He saith, "Behold there cometh the Prince of the world," being an 
acute observer of all sins; "Behold," He saith, "there cometh the Prince of 
this world," with death afflicting sinners, presiding over death: for, "By 
the malice of the devil death came into the world."[5] "Behold," He saith, 
"there cometh the Prince of the world:"--He said these words dose upon His 
Passion:--" and in Me he shall find nothing," nothing of sin, nothing 
worthy of death, nothing worthy of condemnation. And as if it were said to 
Him, Why then dost Thou die? He continueth and saith, "But that all men may 
know that I do the will of My Father; arise, let us go hence." I suffer, He 
saith, undeserving, for men deserving, in order that them I may make 
deserving of My Life, for whom I undeservedly suffer their death. To Him 
then, having no sin, saith on the present occasion the Prophet David, 
"Against Thee only have I sinned, and before Thee an evil thing have I 
done, that Thou mayest be justified in Thy sayings, and conquer when Thou 
art judged." For Thou overcomest all men, all judges; and he that deemeth 
himself just, before Thee is  unjust: Thou alone justly judgest, having 
been unjustly judged, That hast power to lay down Thy life, and hast power 
again to take it.[6] Thou conquerest, then, when Thou art judged. All men 
Thou overcomest, because Thou art more than men, and by Thee were men made.

    10. "For, behold, in iniquities I was conceived" (ver. 6). As though he 
were saying, They are conquered that have done what thou, David, hast done: 
for this is not a little evil and little sin, to wit, adultery and man-
slaying. What of them that from the day that they were born of their 
mother's womb, have done no such thing? even to them dost thou ascribe some 
sins, in order that He may conquer all men when He beginneth to be judged. 
David hath taken upon him the person of mankind, and hath heeded the bonds 
of all men, hath considered the offspring of death, hath adverted to the 
origin of iniquity, and he saith, "For, behold, in iniquities I was 
conceived." Was David born of adultery; being born of Jesse,[7] a righteous 
man, and his own wife? What is it that he saith himself to have been in 
iniquity conceived, except that iniquity is drawn from Adam? Even the very 
bond of death, with iniquity itself is engrained? No man is born without 
bringing punishment, bringing desert of punishment. A Prophet saith also in 
another placer "No one is clean in Thy sight, not even an infant, whose 
life is of one day upon earth." For we know both by the Baptism of Christ 
that sins are loosed, and that the Baptism of Christ availeth the remission 
of sins. If infants are every way innocent, why do mothers run with them 
when sick to the Church?[9] What by that Baptism, what by that remission is  
put away? An innocent one I see that rather weeps than is angry. What doth 
Baptism wash off? what doth that Grace loose? There is  loosed the 
offspring of sin. For if that infant could speak to thee, it would say, and 
if it had the understanding which David had, it would answer thee, Why 
heedest thou me, an infant? Thou dost not indeed see my actions: but I in 
iniquity have been conceived, "And in sins hath my mother nourished me in 
the womb."

    Apart from this bond of mortal[1] concupiscence was Christ horn without 
a male, of a virgin conceiving by the Holy Ghost. He cannot be said to have 
been conceived in iniquity, it cannot be said, In sins His mother nourished 
Him in the womb, to whom was said," The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, 
and the Virtue of the Highest shall overshadow thee."[2] It is not 
therefore because it is sin to have to do with wives that men are conceived 
in iniquity, and in sins nourished in the womb by their mother; but because 
that which is made is surely made of flesh deserving punishment.[3] For the 
punishment of the flesh is death, and surely there is in it liability to 
death itself. Whence the Apostle spoke not of the body as if to die, but as 
if dead: "The body indeed is dead," he saith, "because of sin, but the 
Spirit is life because of righteousness."[4] How then without bond of sin 
is born that which is conceived and sown of a body dead because of sin? 
This chaste operation in a married person hath not sin, but the origin of 
sin draweth with it condign punishment. For there is no husband that, 
because he is an husband, is not subject to death, or that is subject to 
death for any other reason but because of sin. For even the Lord was 
subject to death, but not on account of sin: He took upon Him our 
punishment, and so looseth our guilt. With reason then, "In Adam all die, 
but in Christ shall all be made alive."[5] For, "Through one man," saith 
the Apostle, "sin hath entered into this world, and through sin death, and 
so hath passed unto all men, in that all have sinned."[6] Definite is the 
sentence: "In Adam," he saith, "all have sinned." Alone then could such an 
infant be innocent, as hath not been born of the work of Adam.

    11. "For, behold, truth Thou hast loved uncertain and hidden things of 
Thy wisdom, Thou hast manifested to me" (ver. 6). That is, Thou hast not 
left unpunished even the sins of those whom Thou dost pardon. "Truth Thou 
hast loved:" so mercy Thou hast granted first,[7] as that Thou shouldest 
also preserve truth. Thou pardonest one confessing, pardonest, but only if 
he punisheth himself: so there are preserved mercy and truth: mercy because 
man is set free; truth, because sin is punished. "Uncertain and hidden 
things of Thy wisdom Thou hast manifested to me." What "hidden things"? 
What "uncertain things"? Because God pardoneth even such. Nothing is so 
hidden, nothing so uncertain.[8] For this uncertainty the Ninevites 
repented, for they said, though after the threatenings of the Prophet, 
though after that cry, "Three clays and Nineve shall be overthrown:"[9] 
they said to themselves, Mercy must be implored; they said in this sort 
reasoning among themselves, "Who knoweth whether God may turn for the 
better His sentence, and have pity?"[10] It was "uncertain," when it is 
said, "Who knoweth?" on an uncertainty they did repent,[11] certain mercy 
they earned: they prostrated them in tears, in fastings, in sackcloth and 
ashes they prostrated them, groaned, wept, God spared. Nineve stood: was 
Nineve overthrown? One way indeed it seemeth to men, and another way it 
seemed to God. But I think that it was fulfilled that the Prophet had 
foretold. Regard what Nineve was, and see how it was overthrown; overthrown 
in evil, builded in good; just as Saul the persecutor was overthrown, Paul 
the preacher builded.[12] Who would not say that this city, in which we now 
are, was happily overthrown, if all those madmen, leaving their 
triflings,[13] were to run together to the Church with contrite heart, and 
were to call upon God's mercy for their past doings? Should we not say, 
Where is that Carthage? Because there is not what there was, it is 
overthrown: but if there is what there was not, it is builded. So is said 
to Jeremiah, "Behold, I will give to thee to root up, to dig under, to 
overthrow, to destroy," and again, "to build, and to plant."[14] Thence is 
that voice of the Lord, "I will smite and I will heal."[15] He smiteth the 
rottenness of the deed, He healeth the pain of the wound. Physicians do 
thus when they cut; they smite and heal; they arm themselves in order to 
strike, they carry steel, and come to cure. But because great were the sins 
of the Ninevites, they said, "Who knoweth?" This uncertainty had God 
disclosed to His servant David. For when he had said, before the Prophet 
standing and convicting him, "I have sinned:" straightway he heard from the 
Prophet, that is, from the Spirit of God which was in the Prophet, "Thy sin 
is put away from thee."[16] "Uncertain and hidden things" of His wisdom He 
manifested to him.[17]

    12. "Thou shall sprinkle me," he saith, "with hyssop, and I shall be 
cleansed" (ver. 7). Hyssop we know to be a herb humble but healing: to the 
rock it is said to adhere with roots. Thence in a mystery the similitude of 
cleansing the heart has been taken. Do thou also take hold, with[1] the 
root of thy love, on thy Rock: be humble in thy humble God, in order that 
thou mayest be exalted in thy glorified God. Thou shalt be sprinkled with 
hyssop, the humility of Christ shall cleanse thee. Despise not the herb, 
attend to the efficacy of the medicine. Something further I will say, which 
we are wont to hear from physicians, or to experience in sick persons. 
Hyssop, they say, is proper for purging the lungs. In the lung is wont to 
be noted pride: for there is inflation, there breathing. It was said of 
Saul the persecutor as of Saul the proud, that he was going to bind 
Christians, breathing slaughter:[2] he was breathing out slaughter, 
breathing out blood, his lung not yet cleansed. Hear also in this place one 
humbled, because with hyssop purged: "Thou shalt wash me," that is, shalt 
cleanse the: "and above snow I shall be whitened." "Although," he saith, 
"your sins shall have been like scarlet, like snow I will whiten."[3] Out 
of such men Christ doth present to Himself a vesture without spot and 
wrinkle.[4] Further, His vesture on the mount, which shone forth like 
whitened snow,[5] signified the Church cleansed from every spot of sin.

    13. But where is humility from hyssop? Hear what followeth: "To my 
hearing Thou shall give exultation and gladness, and bones humbled shall 
exult" (ver. 8). I will rejoice in hearing Thee, not in speaking against 
Thee. Thou hast sinned, why defendest thou thyself? Thou wilt speak: suffer 
thou; hear, yield to divine words, lest thou be put to confusion, and be 
still more wounded: sin hath been committed, be it not defended: to 
confession let it come, not to defence. Thou engagest thyself as defender 
of thy sin, thou art conquered: no innocent patron hast thou engaged, thy 
defence is not profitable to thee. For who art thou that defendest thyself? 
Thou art meet to accuse thyself. Say not, either, "I have done nothing;" 
or, "What great thing have I done?" or, "Other men as well have done." If 
in doing sin thou sayest thou hast done nothing, thou wilt be nothing, thou 
wilt receive nothing: God is ready to give indulgence, thou closest the 
door against thyself: He is ready to give, do not oppose the bar of 
defence, but open the bosom of confession. "To my hearing Thou shall give 
exultation and gladness." ...

    14. "Turn Thou away Thy face from my sins, and all mine iniquities blot 
out" (ver. 9). For now bones humbled exult, now with hyssop cleansed, 
humble I have become. "Turn Thou away Thy face," not from me, but "from my 
sins." For in another place praying he saith, "Turn not away Thy face from 
me."[6] He that would not that God's face be turned away from himself, 
would that God's face be turned away from his sins. For to sin, when God 
turneth not Himself away, he adverteth: if he adverteth, he animadverteth. 
"And all mine iniquities blot out." He is busied[7] with that capital sin: 
he reckoneth on more, he would have all his iniquities to be blotted out: 
he relieth on the Physician's hand, on that "great mercy," upon which he 
hath called in the beginning of the Psalm: "All mine iniquities blot out." 
God turneth away His face, and so blotteth out; by "turning away" His face, 
sins He blotteth out. By "turning towards," He writeth them. Thou hast 
heard of Him blotting out by turning away, hear of Him by turning towards, 
doing what? "But the countenance of the Lord is upon men doing evil things, 
that He may destroy from the earth the remembrance of them: "[8] He shall 
destroy the remembrance of them,[9] not by "blotling out their sins." But 
here he doth ask what? "Turn away Thy face from my sins." Well he asketh. 
For he himself doth not turn away his face from his own sins, saying, "For 
my sin I acknowledge." With reason thou askest and well askest, that God 
turn away from thy sin, if thou from thence dost not turn away thy face: 
but if thou settest thy sin at thy back, God doth there set His face. Do 
thou turn sin before thy face, if thou wilt that God thence turn away His 
face; and then safely thou askest, and He heareth.

    15. "A clean heart create in me, O God" (ver. 10). "Create"--he 
meant[10] to say, "as it were begin something new." But, because repentant 
he was praying (that had committed some sin, which before he had committed, 
he was more innocent), after what manner he hath said "create" he showeth. 
"And a right spirit renew in my inner parts." By my doing, he saith, the 
uprightness of my spirit hath been made old and bowed. For he saith in 
another Psalm, "They have bowed my soul."[11] And when a man cloth make 
himself stoop unto earthly lusts, he is "bowed" in a manner, but when he is 
made erect for things above, upright is his heart made, in order that God 
may be good to him. For, "How good is the God of Israel to the upright of 
heart! "[12]Moreover, brethren, listen. Sometimes God in this world 
chastiseth for his sin him that He pardoneth in the world to come. For even 
to David himself, to whom it had been already said by the Prophet, "Thy sin 
is put away,"[1] there happened certain things which God had threatened for 
that very sin.[2] For his son Abessalom against him waged bloody war, and 
many ways humbled his father.[3] He was walking in grief, in the 
tribulation of his humiliation, so resigned to God, that, ascribing to Him 
all that was just, he confessed that he was suffering nothing 
underservedly, having now an heart upright, to which God was not 
displeasing. A slanderous person and one throwing in his teeth harsh 
curses[4] he patiently heard, one of the soldiers on the opposite side, 
that were with his unnatural son. And when he was heaping curses upon the 
king, one of the companions of David, enraged, would have gone and smitten 
him; but he is kept back by David. And he is kept back how? For that he 
said, God sent him to curse me. Acknowledging his guilt he embraced his 
penance, seeking glory not his own, praising the Lord in that good which he 
had, praising the Lord in that which he was suffering, "blessing the Lord 
alway, ever His praise was in his mouth."[5] Such are all the upright in 
heart: not those crooked persons who think themselves upright and God 
crooked: who when they do any evil thing, rejoice; when they suffer any 
evil thing, blaspheme; nay, if set in tribulation and scourging, they say 
from their distorted heart, "O God, what have I done to Thee?" Truly it is 
because they have done nothing. to God, for they have done all to 
themselves. "And an upright spirit, renew in my inner parts."

    16. "Cast me not forth from Thy face" (ver. 11). Turn away Thy face 
from my sins: and "cast me not forth from Thy face." Whose face he feareth, 
upon the face of the Same he calleth. "And Thy Holy Spirit take not away 
from me." For in one confessing there is the Holy Spirit. Even now, to the 
gift of the Holy Spirit it belongeth, that what thou hast done displeaseth 
thee. The unclean spirit sins do please; the Holy One they displease. 
Though then thou still implore pardon, yet thou art joined to God on the 
other part, because the evil thing that thou hast committed displeaseth 
thee: for the same thing displeaseth both thee and Him. Now, to assail thy 
fever, ye are two, thou and the Physician. For the reason that there cannot 
be confession of sin and punishment of sin in a man of himself: when one is 
angry with himself, and is displeasing to himself, then it is not without 
the gift of the Holy Spirit, nor doth he say, Thy Holy Spirit give to me, 
but, "Take not away from me."

    17. "Give back to me the exultation of Thy salvation"'[6] (ver. 12). 
"Give back" what I had; what by sinning I had lost: to wit, of Thy Christ. 
For who without Him can be made whole? Because even before that He was Son 
of Mary, "In the beginning He was the Word, and the Word was with God, and 
the Word was God;"[7] and so, by the holy fathers a future dispensation of 
flesh taken upon Him, was looked for;[8] as is believed by us to have been 
done. Times are changed, not faith. "And with Principal Spirit confirm me." 
Some have here understood the Trinity in God, Itself God; the dispensation 
of Flesh being excepted therefrom: since it is written, "God is a 
Spirit."[9] For that which is not body, and yet is, seemeth to exist in 
such sort as that it is spirit. Therefore some understand here the Trinity 
spoken of: "In upright Spirit," the Son; in "Holy Spirit," Holy Ghost; in 
"Principal Spirit," Father.[10] It is not any heretical opinion, therefore, 
whether this be so, or whether "upright Spirit" He would have to be taken 
of man himself (when He saith, "An upright spirit renew in my inner 
parts"), which I have bowed and distorted by sinning, so that in that case 
the Holy Spirit be Himself the Principal Spirit: which also he would not 
have to be taken away from him, and thereby would have himself to be 
confirmed therein.

    18. But see what he annexeth: "With Principal Spirit," he saith, 
"confirm Thou me." Wherein "confirm"? Because Thou hast pardoned me, 
because I am secure, that what Thou hast forgiven is not to be ascribed, on 
this being made secure and with this grace confirmed, therefore I am not 
ungrateful. But I shall do what? "I would teach unrighteous men Thy ways" 
(ver. 13). Being myself of the unrighteous" (that is, one that was myself 
an unrighteous man, now no longer unrighteous; the Holy Spirit not having 
been taken away from me, and I being confirmed with Principal Spirit). "I 
would teach unrighteous men Thy ways." What ways wilt thou teach 
unrighteous men? "And ungodly men to Thee shall be converted." If David's 
sin is counted for ungodliness, let not ungodly men despair of themselves, 
forasmuch as God hath spared an ungodly man; but let them take heed that to 
Him they be converted, that His ways they learn. But if David's deed is not 
counted for ungodliness, but this is properly call ungodliness, namely, to 
apostatize from God, not to worship one God, or never to have worshipped, 
or to have forsaken, Him whom one did worship, then what he saith hath the 
force of superabundance, "And ungodly men shall to Thee be converted." So 
full art thou of the fatness of mercy, that for those converted to Thee, 
not only sinners of any sort, but even ungodly, there is no cause for 
despair. Wherefore? That believing on Him that justifieth an ungodly man, 
their faith may be counted for righteousness.[1]

    19. "Deliver me from bloods, O God, God of my health" (ver. 14). The 
Latin translator hath expressed, though by a word not Latin, yet an 
accuracy from the Greek.[2] For we all know that in Latin, sanguines 
(bloods) are not spoken of, nor yet sanguina (bloods in the neuter), 
nevertheless because the Greek translator hath thus used the plural number, 
not without reason, but because he found this in the original language the 
Hebrew, a godly translator hath preferred to use a word not Latin, rather 
than one not exact. Wherefore then hath he said in the plural number, "From 
bloods"? In many bloods, as in the origin of the sinful flesh, many sins he 
would have to be understood. The Apostle having regard to the very sins 
which come of the corruption of flesh and blood, saith, "Flesh and blood 
shall not possess the kingdom of God."[3] For doubtless, after the true 
faith of the same Apostle, that flesh shall rise again and shall itself 
gain incorruption, as He saith Himself, "This corruptible must put on 
incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality."[4] Because then this 
corruption is of sin, by the name thereof sins are called. In like manner 
as both that morsel of flesh and member which playeth in the mouth when we 
articulate words is called a tongue, and that is called a tongue which by 
the tongue is made, so we call one tongue the Greek, another the Latin; for 
the flesh is not diverse, but the sound. In the same manner, then, as the 
speech which is made by the tongue is called a tongue; so also the iniquity 
which is made by blood is called blood. Heeding, then, his many iniquities, 
as[5] in the expression above,[6] "And all my iniquities blot out," and 
ascribing them to the corruption of flesh and blood, "Free me," he saith, 
"from bloods: "that is, free me from iniquities, cleanse me from all 
corruption. ... Not yet is the substance, but certain hope. "And my tongue 
shall exult of Thy righteousness."

    20. "O Lord, my lips Thou shall open, and my mouth shall tell of Thy 
praise" (ver. 15). "Thy praise," because[7] I have been created: "Thy 
praise," because sinning I have not been forsaken: "Thy praise," because I 
have been admonished to confess: "Thy praise," because in order that I 
might be secured I have been cleansed.

    21. "Because if Thou hadst willed sacrifice, I would have given it 
surely" (ver. 16). David was living at that time when sacrifices of victim 
animals were offered to God, and he saw these times that were to be. Do we 
not perceive ourselves in these words? Those sacrifices were figurative, 
foretelling the One Saving Sacrifice. Not even we have been left without a 
Sacrifice to offer to God. For hear what he saith, having a concern for his 
sin, and wishing the evil thing which he hath done to be forgiven him: "If 
Thou hadst willed;" he saith, "sacrifice, I would have given it surely. 
With holocausts Thou wilt not be delighted." Nothing shall we therefore 
offer? So shall we come to God? And whence shall we propitiate Him? Offer; 
certainly in thyself thou hast what thou mayest offer. Do not from without 
fetch frankincense,[8] but say, "In me are, O God, Thy vows, which I will 
render of praise to Thee."[9] Do not from without seek cattle to slay, thou 
hast in thyself what thou mayest kill. "Sacrifice to God is a spirit 
troubled, a heart contrite and humbled God despiseth not" (ver. 17). 
Utterly he despiseth bull, he-goat, ram: now is not the time that these 
should be offered. They were offered when they indicated something, when 
they promised something; when the things promised come, the promises are 
taken away. "A heart contrite and humbled God despiseth not." Ye know that 
God is high: if thou shalt have made thyself high, He will be from thee; if 
thou shall have humbled thyself, He will draw near to thee.

    22. See who this is: David as one man was seeming to implore; see ye 
here our image and the type of the Church.

    "Deal kindly, O Lord, in Thy good will with Sion" (ver. 18). With this 
Sion deal kindly. What is Sion? A city holy. What is a city holy? That 
which cannot be hidden, being upon a mountain established. Sion in 
prospect, because it hath prospect of something which it hopeth for. For 
Sion is interpreted" prospect," and Jerusalem, "vision of peace." Ye 
perceive then yourselves to be in Sion and in Jerusalem, if being sure ye 
look for hope that is to be, and if ye have peace with God. "And be the 
walls of Jerusalem builded." "Deal kindly, O Lord, in Thy good will with 
Sion, and be the walls of Jerusalem builded." For not to herself let Sion 
ascribe her merits: do Thou with her deal kindly, "Be the walls of 
Jerusalem builded:" be the battlements of our immortality laid, in faith 
and hope and charity.

    23. "Then Thou shalt accept the sacrifice of righteousness" (ver. 19). 
But now sacrifice for iniquity, to wit, a spirit troubled, and a heart 
humbled; then the sacrifice of righteousness, praises alone. For, "Blessed 
they that dwell in Thy house, for ever and ever they shall praise 
Thee:"[10] for this is the sacrifice of righteousness. "Oblations and 
holocausts." What are "holocausts"? A whole victim by fire consumed. When a 
whole beast was laid upon the altar with fire to be consumed, it was called 
a holocaust. May divine fire take us up whole, and that fervour catch us 
whole. What fervour? "Neither is there that hideth himself from the heat 
thereof."[1] What fervour? That whereof speaketh the Apostle:" In spirit 
fervent."[2] Be not merely our soul taken up by that divine fire of wisdom, 
but also our body; that[3] it may earn their immortality; so be it lifted 
up for a holocaust, that death be swallowed into victory. "Oblations and 
holocausts." "Then shall they lay upon thine altar calves." Whence 
"calves"? What shall He therein choose? Will it be the innocence of the new 
age, or necks freed from the yoke of the law? ...

PSALM LII.[4]

    1. The title of the Psalm hath: "At the end, understanding of David, 
when there came Doeg the Edomite arid told Saul, David hath come into the 
house of Abimelech:" whereas we read that he had come into the house of 
Achimelech. And it may chance that we do not unreasonably suppose, that 
because of the similarity of a name and the difference of one syllable, or 
rather of one letter, the titles have been varied. In the manuscripts, 
however, of the Psalms, when we looked into them, rather Abimelech we have 
found than Achimelech. And since in another place thou hast a most evident 
Psalm, intimating not a dissimilarity of name, but an utterly different 
name; when, for instance, David changed his face before King Achish, not 
before king Abimelech, and he sent him away, and he departed: and yet the 
title of the Psalm is thus written, "When he changed his countenance in the 
presence of Abimelech"[5]--the very change of name maketh us the rather 
intent upon a mystery, lest thou shouldest pursue the quasi-facts of 
history, and despise the sacred veilings. ...

    2. Observe ye two kinds of men; the one of men labouring, the other of 
those among whom they labour: the one of men thinking of earth, the other 
of heaven: the one of men weighing down their heart unto the deep, the 
other of men with Angels their heart conjoining: the one trusting in 
earthly things, wherein this world aboundeth, the other confiding in 
heavenly things, which God, who lieth not, hath promised. But mingled are 
these kinds of men. We see now the citizen of Jerusalem, citizen of the 
kingdom of heaven, have some office upon earth: to wit, one weareth purple, 
is a Magistrate, is Aedile, is Proconsul, is Emperor, doth direct the 
earthly republic: but he hath his heart above, if he is a Christian, if he 
is a believer, if he is godly, if he is despising those things wherein he 
is, and trusteth in that wherein he is not yet. Of which kind was that holy 
woman Esther, who, though she was wife of a king, incurred the danger of 
interceding for her countrymen: and when she was praying before God, where 
she could not lie, in her prayer said, that her royal ornaments were to her 
but as the cloth of a menstruous woman.[6] Despair we not then of the 
citizens of the kingdom of heaven, when we see them engaged in any of 
Babylon's matters, doing something earthly in republic earthly: nor again 
let us forthwith congratulate all men that we see doing matters heavenly; 
because even the sons of pestilence sit sometimes in the seat of Moses, of 
whom is said, "What things they say, do ye: but what things they do, do 
not: for they say, and do not."[7] Those, amid earthly things, lift up 
heart unto heaven, these, amid heavenly words, trail heart upon earth. But 
there will come time of winnowing, when both are to be severed with 
greatest diligence, in order that no grain may pass over unto the heap of 
chaff that is to be burned, that not one single straw may pass over to the 
mass that is to be stored in the barn.[8] So long as then now it is 
mingled, hear we thence our voice, that is, voice of the citizens of the 
kingdom of heaven (for to this we ought to aspire, to bear with evil men 
here, rather than be borne with by good men): and let us conjoin ourselves 
to this voice, both with ear and with tongue, and with heart and work. 
Which if we shall have done, we are here speaking in those things which we 
hear. Let us therefore speak first of the evil body of kingdom earthly.

    3. "Why doth he glory in malice that is mighty?" (ver. 1). Observe, my 
brethren, the glorying of malignity, the glorying of evil men. Where is 
glorying? "Why doth he glory in malice that is mighty?" That is, he that in 
malice is mighty, why doth he glory? There is need that a man be mighty, 
but in goodness, not in malice. Is it any great thing to glory in malice? 
To build a house doth belong to few men, any ignorant man you please can 
pull down. To sow wheat, to dress the crop, to wait until it ripen, and in 
that fruit on which one has laboured to rejoice, doth belong to few men: 
with one spark any man you please can burn all the crop. To breed an 
infant, when born to feed him, to educate, to bring him on to youth's 
estate, is a great task: to kill him in one moment of time any one you 
please is able. Therefore those things which are done for destruction, are 
most easily done. "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord: "[1] he 
that glorieth, let him glory in goodness. Thou gloriest, because thou art 
mighty in evil. What art thou about to do, O mighty man, what art thou 
about to do, boasting thyself much? Thou art about to kill a man: this 
thing also a scorpion, this also one fever, this also a poisonous fungus 
can do. To this is thy mightiness reduced, that it be made equal to a 
poisonous fungus? This therefore do the good citizens of Jerusalem, who not 
in malice but in goodness glory: firstly, that not in themselves, but in 
the Lord they glory. Secondly, that those things which make for edification 
they earnestly do, and do such things as are strong to abide: but things 
which make for destruction they may do, for the discipline of men 
advancing, not for the oppression of the innocent. To this mightiness then 
that earthly body being compared, why may it not hear out of these words, 
"Why doth he glory in malice that is mighty?"

    4. "In iniquity the whole day upon injustice hath thy tongue thought" 
(ver. 2): that is, in the whole of time, without weariness, without 
intermission, without cessation. And when thou doest not, thou thinkest; so 
that when anything of evil is away from thy hands, from thy heart it is not 
away; either thou doest an evil thing, or while thou canst not do, thou 
sayest an evil thing, that is, thou evil-speakest: or when not even this 
thou canst do, thou wiliest and thinkest an evil thing. "The whole day," 
then, that is, without intermission. We expect punishment to this man. Is 
he to himself a small punishment? Thou threatenest him: thou, when thou 
threatenest him, wilt send him whither? Unto evil? Send him away unto 
himself. In order that thou mayest vent much rage, thou art going to give 
him into the power of beasts: unto himself he is worse than beasts. For a 
beast can mangle his body: of himself he cannot leave his heart whole. 
Within, against himself he doth rage of himself, and dost thou from without 
seek for stripes? Nay, pray God for him, that he may be set free from 
himself. Nevertheless in this Psalm, my brethren, there is not a prayer for 
evil men, or against evil men, but a prophecy of what is to result to evil 
men. Think not therefore that the Psalm of ill-will saith anything: for it 
is said in the spirit of prophecy.

    5. There followeth then what? All thy might and all thy thought of 
iniquity all the day, and meditation of malignity in thy tongue without 
intermission, hath performed what, done what? "As with a sharp razor thou 
hast done deceit" (ver. 3). See what do evil men to Saints, they scrape 
their hair. What is it that I have said? If there be such citizens of 
Jerusalem, that hear the voice of their Lord, of their King, saying, "Fear 
not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul:" that hear 
the voice which but now from the Gospel hath been read, " What doth it 
profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and of himself make 
wreck:"[2] they despise all present good things, and above all life itself. 
And what is Doeg's razor to do to a man on this earth meditating on the 
kingdom of heaven, and about to be in the kingdom of heaven, having with 
him God, and about to abide with God? What is that razor to do? Hair it is 
to scrape, it is to make a man bald. And this belongeth to Christ, who in 
the Place of a Skull was crucified.[3] It maketh also the son of Core, 
which is interpreted baldness.[4] For this hair signifieth a superfluity of 
things temporal. Which hairs indeed are not made by God superfluously on 
the body of men, but for a sort of ornament: yet because without feeling 
they are cut off, they that cleave to the Lord with their heart, so have 
these earthly things as they have hair. But sometimes even something of 
good with "hair" is wrought, when thou breakest bread to the hungry, the 
poor without roof thou bringest into thy house; if thou shalt have seen one 
naked, thou coverest him:[5] lastly, the Martyrs themselves also imitating 
the Lord, blood for the Church shedding, hearing that voice, "As Christ 
laid down His life for us, so also ought we also to lay down for the 
brethren," [6] in a certain way with their hair did good to us, that is, 
with those things which that razor can lop off or scrape. But that 
therefore even with the very hair some good can be done, even that woman a 
sinner intimated, who, when she had wept over the feet of the Lord, with 
her hair wiped what with tears she wetted? Signifying what? That when thou 
shalt have pitied any one, thou oughtest to relieve him also if thou canst. 
For when thou hast pity, thou sheddest as it were tears: when thou 
relievest, thou wipest with hair. And if this to any one, how much more to 
the feet of the Lord. The feet of the Lord are what? The holy Evangelists, 
whereof is said, "How beautiful are the feet of them that tell of peace, 
that tell of good things!"[8] Therefore like a razor let Doeg whet his 
tongue, let him whet deceit as much as he may: he will take away 
superfluous temporal things; will he necessary things everlasting?

    6. "Thou hast loved malice above benignity" (ver. 4). Before thee was 
benignity; herself thou shouldest have loved. For thou wast not going to 
expend anything, nor wast thou going to fetch something to love by a 
distant voyage. Benignity is before thee, iniquity before thee: compare and 
choose. But perchance thou hast an eye wherewith thou seest malignity, and 
hast no eye wherewith thou seest benignity. Woe to the iniquitous heart. 
What is worse, it doth turn away itself, that it may not see what it is 
able to see. For what of such hath been said in another place? "He would 
not understand that he might do good."[1] For it is not said, he could not: 
but "he would not," he saith, "understand that he might do good," he closed 
his eyes from present light. And what followeth? "Of iniquity he hath 
meditated in his bed;" that is, in the inner secrecy of his heart. Some 
reproach of this kind is heaped upon this Doeg the Edomite, a malignant 
body, a motion of earth, not abiding, not heavenly. "Thou hast loved 
malignity above benignity." For wilt thou know how an evil man doth see 
both, and the former he doth rather choose, from the other doth turn 
himself away? Wherefore doth he cry out when he suffereth anything 
unjustly? Wherefore doth he then exaggerate as much as he can the iniquity, 
and praise benignity, censuring him that hath wrought in him malignity 
above benignity? Be he then a rule to himself for seeing: out of himself he 
shall be judged. Moreover, if he do what is written, "Thou shalt love thy 
neighbour as thyself;"[2] and, "Whatsoever good things ye will that men 
should do unto you, these also do ye do unto them:"[3] at home he hath 
means of knowing, because what on himself he will not have to be done, he 
ought not to do to another. "Thou hast loved malice above benignity." 
Iniquitously, inordinately, perversely thou wouldest raise water above 
oil:[4] the water will be sunk, the oil will remain above. Thou wouldest 
under darkness place a light: the darkness will be put to flight, the light 
will remain. Above heaven thou wouldest place earth, by its weight the 
earth will fall into its place. Thou therefore wilt be sunk by loving 
malice above benignity. For never will malice overcome benignity. "Thou 
hast loved malice above benignity: iniquity more than to speak of equity." 
Before thee is equity, before thee is iniquity: one tongue thou hast, 
whither thou wilt thou turnest it: wherefore then rather to iniquity and 
not to equity? Food of bitterness dost thou not give to thy belly, and food 
of iniquity dost thou give to thy malignant tongue? As thou choosest 
whereon to live, so choose what thou mayest speak. Thou preferrest iniquity 
to equity, and preferrest malice to benignity; thou indeed preferrest, but 
above what can ever He but benignity and equity? But thou, by placing 
thyself in a manner upon those things which it is necessary should go 
beneath, wilt not make them to be above good things, but thou with them 
wilt be sunk unto evil things.

    7. Because of this there followeth in the Psalm, "Thou hast loved all 
words of sinking under" (ver. 5). Rescue therefore thyself, if thou canst, 
from sinking-under. From shipwreck thou art fleeing, and dost embrace lead! 
If thou wilt not sink, catch at a plank, be borne on wood, let the Cross 
carry thee through. But now because thou art a Doeg the Edomite, a 
"motion," and "of earth," thou doest what? "Thou hast loved all words of 
sinking-under, a tongue deceitful." This hath preceded, words of sinking-
under have followed a tongue deceitful. What is a tongue deceitful? A 
minister of guile is a tongue deceitful, of men bearing one thing in heart, 
another thing from mouth bringing forth. But in these is overthrowing, in 
these sinking under.

    8. "Wherefore God shall destroy thee at the end" (ver. 6): though now 
thou seemest to flourish like grass in the field before the heat of the 
sun. For, "All flesh is grass, and the brightness of man as the bloom of 
grass: the grass hath withered, and the bloom hath fallen down: but the 
word of the Lord abideth for everlasting."[5] Behold that to which thou 
mayest bind thyself, to what[6] "abideth for everlasting." For if to grass, 
and to the bloom of grass, thou shalt have bound thyself, since the grass 
shall wither, and the bloom shall fall down, "God shall destroy thee at the 
end: "and if not now, certainly at the end He shall destroy, when that 
winnowing shall have come, and the heap of chaff from the solid grain shall 
have been separated.[7] Is not the solid grain for the barns, and the chaff 
for the fire? Shall not the whole of that Doeg stand at the left hand, when 
the Lord is to say, "Go ye into fire everlasting, which hath been prepared 
for the devil and his angels"?[8] Therefore "God shall destroy at the end: 
shall pluck thee out, and shall remove thee from thy dwelling." Now then 
this Doeg the Edomite is in a dwelling: "But a servant abideth not in the 
house for ever."[9] Even he worketh something of good, even if not with his 
doings, at least with the words of God, so that in the Church, when he 
"seeketh his own,"[10] he would say, at least, those things which are of 
Christ.

    "But He shall remove thee from thy dwelling." "Verily, verily, I say 
unto you, they have received their reward."[11] "And thy root from the land 
of the living." Therefore in the land of the living we ought to have root. 
Be our root there. Out of sight is the root: fruits may be seen, root 
cannot be seen. Our root is our love, our fruits are our works: it is 
needful that thy works proceed from love, then is thy root in the land of 
the living. Then shall be rooted up that Doeg, nor any wise shall he be 
able there to abide, because neither more deeply there hath he fixed a 
root:[1] but it shall be with him in like manner as it is with those seeds 
on the rock, which even if a root they throw out, yet, because moisture 
they have not, with the risen sun forthwith do wither. But, on the other 
hand, they that fix a root more deeply, hear from the Apostle what? "I bow 
my knees for you to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye may be in 
love rooted and grounded." And because there now is root, "That ye may be 
able," he saith, "to comprehend what is the height, and breadth, and 
length, and depth: to know also the super-eminent knowledge of the love of 
Christ, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God."[2] Of such 
fruits so great a root is worthy, being so single, so budding, for buddings 
so deeply grounded. But truly this man's root shall be rooted up from the 
land of the living.

    9. "And the just shall see, and shall fear; and over him they shall 
laugh" (ver. 7). Shall fear when? Shall laugh when? Let us therefore 
understand, and make a distinction between those two times of fearing and 
laughing, which have their several uses. For so long as we are in this 
world, not yet must we laugh, lest hereafter we mourn. We have read what is 
reserved at the end for this Doeg, we have read and because we understand 
and believe, we see but fear. This, therefore, hath been said, "The  just 
shall see, and shall fear." So long as we  see what will result at the end 
to evil men, wherefore do we fear? Because the Apostle hath said, "In fear 
and trembling work out your own salvation:"[3] because it hath been said in 
a Psalm,[4] "Serve the Lord in fear, and exult unto Him with trembling." 
Wherefore "with fear"? "Wherefore let him that thinketh himself to stand, 
see that he fall not."[5] Wherefore "with trembling"? Because he saith in 
another place: "Brethren, if a man shall have been overtaken in any 
delinquency, ye that are spiritual instruct such sort in the spirit of 
gentleness; heeding thyself, lest thou also be tempted."[6] Therefore, the 
just that are now, that live of faith, so see this Doeg, what to him is to 
result, that nevertheless they fear also for themselves: for what they are 
to-day, they know; what to-morrow they are to be, they know not. Now, 
therefore, "The just shall see, and they shall fear." But when shall they 
laugh? When iniquity shall have passed over; when it shall have flown over; 
as now to a great degree hath flown over the time uncertain; when shall 
have been put to flight the darkness of this world, wherein now we walk not 
but by the lamp of the Scriptures, and therefore fear as though in night. 
For we walk by prophecy; whereof saith the Apostle Peter, "We have a more 
sure prophetic word, to which giving heed ye do well, as to a lamp shining 
in a dark place, until the day shine, and the day-star arise in your 
hearts."[7] So long then as by a lamp we walk, it is needful that with fear 
we should live. But when shall have come our day, that is, the 
manifestation of Christ, whereof the same Apostle saith, "When Christ shall 
have appeared, your life, then ye also shall appear with Himself in 
glory,"[8] then the just shall laugh at that Doeg. ...

    10. But what shall they then say that shall laugh? "And over him they 
shall laugh; and shall say, Behold a man that hath not set God for his 
helper" (ver. 8). See ye the body earthly! "As much as thou shalt have, so 
great shalt thou be," is a proverb of covetous men, of grasping men, of men 
oppressing the innocent, of men seizing upon other men's goods, of men 
denying things entrusted to their care. Of what sort is this proverb? "As 
much as thou shalt have, so great shalt thou be;" that is, as much as thou 
shall have had of money, as much as thou shalt have gotten, by so much the 
more mighty shall thou be. "Behold a man that hath not set God for his 
helper, but hath trusted in the multitude of his riches." Let not a poor 
man, one perchance that is evil, say, I am not of this body. For he hath 
heard the Prophet saying, "He hath trusted in the multitude of his riches:" 
forthwith if he is poor, he heedeth his rags, he hath observed near him 
perchance a rich man among the people of God more richly apparelled, and he 
saith in his heart, Of this man he speaketh; doth he speak of me? Do not 
thence except thyself, do not separate thyself, unless thou shalt have seen 
and feared, in order that thou mayest hereafter laugh. For what doth it 
profit thee, if thou dost want means, and thou burnest with cupidity? When 
our Lord Jesus Christ to that rich man that was grieved, and that was 
departing from Him, had said, "Go, sell all that thou hast, and give to the 
poor, and thou shall have treasure in heaven, and come follow Me:"[9] and 
great hopelessness for rich men foretold, so that He said, more easily 
could a camel pass through the eye of a needle, than a rich man enter into 
the kingdom of Heaven,[10] were not forthwith the disciples grieved, saying 
with themselves, "Who shall be able to be saved?" Therefore when they were 
saying, "Who shall be able to be saved?" did they think of the few rich 
men, did there escape them so great a multitude of poor men? Could they not 
say to themselves, If it is hard, aye an impossible thing, that rich men 
should enter into the kingdom of heaven, as it is impossible that a camel 
should enter through the eye of a needle, let all poor men enter into the 
kingdom of heaven, be the rich alone shut out? For how few are the rich 
men? But of poor men are thousands innumerable. For not the coats are we to 
look upon in the kingdom of heaven; but for every one's garment shall be 
reckoned the effulgence of righteousness: there shall be therefore poor men 
equal to Angels of God, clothed with the stoles of immortality, they shall 
shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father: what reason is there for 
us about a few rich men to be concerned, or distressed? This thought not 
the Apostles; but when the Lord had spoken this, "It is easier for a camel 
to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the 
kingdom of heaven:" they saying to themselves, "Who shall be able to be 
saved," meant what? Not means, but desires; for they saw even poor men 
themselves, even if not having money, yet to have covetousness. And that ye 
may know, that not money in a rich man, but covetousness is condemned, 
attend to what I say; Thou observest that rich man standing near thee, and 
perchance in him is money, and is not covetousness; in thee is not money, 
and is covetousness. A poor man full of sores, full of woe, licked by dogs, 
having no help, having no morsel, not having perchance a mere garment, was 
borne by the Angels unto Abraham's bosom.[1] Ho! being a poor man, art thou 
glad now; for are even sores by thee to be desired? Is not thy patrimony 
soundness? There is not in this Lazarus the merit of poverty, but that of 
godliness. For thou seest who was borne up, thou seest not whither he was 
borne up. Who was borne up by Angels? A poor man, full of woe, full of 
sores. Whither was he borne up? Unto Abraham's bosom. Read the Scriptures, 
and thou shall find Abraham to have been a rich man.[2] In order that thou 
mayest know, that not riches are blamed; Abraham had much gold, silver, 
cattle, household, was a rich man, and unto his bosom Lazarus, a poor man, 
was borne up. Unto bosom of rich man, poor man: are not rather both unto 
God rich men, both in cupidity poor men? ...

    11. Therefore that man having been condemned that "hath trusted in the 
multitude of his riches, and hath prevailed in his vanity:" for what more 
vain, than he that thinketh coin more to avail than God? Therefore that man 
having been condemned that said, blessed of the people to whom these things 
are: thou that sayest, "Blessed the people of whom is the Lord their own 
God," dost think of thyself what? dost hope for thyself what? "But I;" now 
at length hear that body: "But I am like an olive, fruit-bearing in the 
house of God" (ver. 9). Not one man speaketh, but that olive fruit-bearing, 
whence have been pruned the proud branches, and the humble wild olive 
grafted in.[3] "Like an olive, fruit-bearing in the house of God, I have 
trusted in the mercy of God." He did what? "In the multitude of his 
riches:" therefore his root shall be plucked out from the land of the 
living. "But I," because "like an olive, fruit-bearing in the house of 
God," the root whereof is nourished, is not rooted out, "have trusted in 
the mercy of God." But perchance now? For even herein men err sometimes. 
God indeed they worship, and are not now like to that Doeg: but though on 
God they rely, it is for temporal things nevertheless; so that they say to 
themselves, I Worship my God, who will make me rich upon earth, who to me 
will give sons, who to me will give a wife. Such things indeed giveth none 
but God, but God would not have Himself for the sake of such things to be 
loved. For to this end oftentimes those things He giveth even to evil men, 
in order that some other thing good men of Him may learn to seek. In what 
manner then sayest thou, "I have trusted in the mercy of God "? Perchance 
for obtaining temporal things? Nay but, "For everlasting and world without 
end." The expression, "For everlasting," he willed to repeat by adding, 
"world without end," in order that by there repeating he might affirm how 
rooted he was in the love of the kingdom of heaven, and in the hope of 
everlasting felicity.

    12. "I will confess to Thee for ever, because Thou hast done" (ver. 
10). "Hast done what?" Doeg Thou hast condemned, David Thou hast crowned. 
"I will confess to Thee for ever, because Thou hast done." Great 
confession, "Because thou hast done"! "Hast done" what? except these very 
things which above have been spoken of, that like an olive fruit-bearing in 
the house of God, I should trust in the mercy of God for everlasting and 
world without end? Thou hast done: an ungodly man cannot justify himself. 
But who is He that justifieth? "Believing," he saith, "on Him" that 
justifieth "the ungodly."[4] " For what hast thou which thou hast not 
received? But if thou hast received, why dost thou glory as if thou hast 
not received, as if of thyself thou hast?"[5] Be it far from me that I 
should so glory, saith he, that is opposed against Doeg, that beareth with 
Doeg upon earth, until he remove from his dwelling, and be rooted up from 
the land of the living. I glory not as if I have not received, but in God I 
glory. "And I will confess to Thee because Thou hast done," that is, 
because Thou hast done not according to my merits, but according to Thy 
mercy. But I have done what? If thou recollectest, "Before, I was a 
blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious." But thou, what hast thou 
done? "But mercy I have obtained, because ignorant I did it."[1] " I will 
confess to Thee for ever, because Thou hast done."

    13. "And I will look for Thy name, for it is pleasant." Bitter is the 
world, but Thy name is pleasant. Even if certain sweet things are in the 
world, yet with bitterness they are digested. Thy name is preferred, not 
only for greatness but also for pleasantness. "For unjust men have told to 
me their delights, but it is not as Thy law, O Lord."[2] For if there were 
nothing sweet to the Martyrs, they would not have suffered with equanimity 
so great bitterness of tribulations. Their bitterness by any one was 
experienced, their sweetness easily could no one taste. The name of God 
therefore is pleasant to men loving God above all pleasantnesses. "I will 
look for Thy name, for it is pleasant." And to what dost Thou prove that it 
is pleasant? Give me a palate to which it is pleasant. Praise honey as much 
as thou art able, exaggerate the sweetness thereof with what words thou 
shalt have the power: a man knowing not what honey is, unless he shall have 
tasted, what thou sayest knoweth not. Therefore the rather to the proof the 
Psalm inviting thee saith what? "Taste and see that sweet is the Lord."[3] 
Taste thou wilt not, and thou sayest, Is it pleasant? What is pleasant? If 
thou hast tasted, in thy fruit be it found, not in words alone, as it were 
only in leaves, lest by the curse of the Lord, to wither like that fig-
tree[4] thou shouldest deserve. "Taste," he saith," and see, that sweet is 
the Lord." Taste and see: then ye shall see, if ye shall have tasted. But 
to a man not tasting, how provest thou? By praising the pleasantness of the 
name of God, whatsoever things thou shall have said are words: something 
else is taste. The words of His praise there hear even the ungodly, but 
none taste how sweet it is, but the Saints. Further, a man discerning the 
sweetness of the name of God, and wishing to unfold and wishing to show the 
same, and not finding persons to whom he may unfold it; for to the Saints 
there is no need that he show it, because they even of themselves taste and 
know, but the ungodly cannot discern what they will not taste: doth, I say, 
what, because of the sweetness of the name of God? He hath borne him 
forthwith away from the crowds of the ungodly. "And I will look," he saith, 
"for Thy name, for it is pleasant, in the sight of Thy Saints." Pleasant is 
Thy name, but not in the sight of the ungodly. I know how sweet a thing it 
is, but it is to them that have tasted.

PSALM LIII.[5]

    1. Of this Psalm we undertake to treat with you, as far as the Lord 
supplieth us. A brother biddeth us[6] that we may have the will, and 
prayeth that we may have the power. If anything in haste perchance I shall 
have passed over, He that even to us deigneth to give what we shall be 
enabled to say, will supply it in you. The title of it is: "At the end, for 
Maeleth, understanding to David himself." "For Maeleth," as we find in 
interpretations of Hebrew names, seemeth to say, For one travailing, or in 
pain. But who there is in this world that travaileth and is in pain, the 
faithful acknowledge, because thereof they are. Christ here travaileth, 
Christ here is in pain: the Head is above, the members below. For one not 
travailing nor in pain would not say, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou 
me?"[7] Him, with whom when persecuting He was travailing, being converted, 
He made to travail. For he also was himself afterwards enlightened, and 
grafted on those members which he used to persecute; being pregnant with 
the same love, he said, "My little children, of whom again I travail, until 
Christ be formed in you."[8] For the members therefore of Christ, for His 
Body which is the Church,[9] for that same One Man, that is, for that very 
unity, whereof the Head is above, this Psalm is sung. ... Who are they, 
then, amid whom we travail and groan, if in the Body of Christ we are, if 
under Him, the Head, we live, if amongst His members we are counted? Who 
they are, hear ye.

    2. "The unwise man hath said in his heart, There is no God" (ver. 1). 
Such sort is it of men amid whom is pained and groaneth the Body of Christ. 
If such is this sort of men, of not many do we travail; as far as seemeth 
to occur to our thoughts, very few there are; and a difficult thing it is 
to meet with a man that saith in his heart, "There is no God;"[10] 
nevertheless, so few there are, that, fearing amid the many to say this, in 
their heart they say it, for that with mouth to say it they dare not. Not 
much then is that which we are bid to endure, hardly is it found: uncommon 
is that sort of men that say in their heart, "There is no God." But, if it 
he examined in another sense, is not that found to be in more men, which we 
supposed to be in men few and uncommon, and almost in none? Let them come 
forth into the midst that live evil lives, let us look into the doings of 
profligate, daring, and wicked men, of whom there is a great multitude; who 
foster day by day their sins, who, their acts having been changed into 
habit, have even lost sense of shame: this is so great a multitude of men, 
that the Body of Christ, set amid them, scarce dareth to censure that which 
it is not constrained to commit, and deemeth it a great matter for itself 
that the integrity of innocence be preserved in not doing that which now, 
by habit, either it doth not dare to blame, or if it[1] shall have dared, 
there breaketh out the censure and recrimination of them that live evil 
lives, more readily than the free voice of them that live good lives. And 
those men are such as say in their heart, "There is no God." Such men I am 
confuting. Whence confuting? That their doings please God, they judge. He 
doth not therefore affirm, "some say," but "The unwise man hath said in his 
heart, There is no God." Which men do so far believe there is a God, that 
the same God they judge with what they do to be pleased. But if thou being 
wise dost perceive, how "the unwise man hath said in his heart, There is no 
God," if thou give heed, if thou understand, if thou examine; he that 
thinketh that evil doings please God, Him he doth not think to be God. For 
if God is, He is just; if He is just, injustice displeaseth Him, iniquity 
displeaseth. But thou, when thou thinkest that iniquity pleaseth Him, dost 
deny God. For if God is one Whom iniquity displeaseth, but God seemeth not 
to thee to be one whom iniquity displeaseth, and there is no God but one 
whom iniquity displeaseth, then when thou sayest in thy heart, God doth 
countenance my iniquities, thou sayest nothing else than, "There is no 
God."

    3. Let us advert also to that sense, which concerning Christ our Lord 
Himself, our Head Himself, doth present itself. For when Himself in form of 
a servant[2] appeared on earth, they that crucified Him said," He is not 
God." Because Son of God He was, truly God He was. But they that are 
corrupted and have become abominable said what? "He is not God:" let us 
slay Him, "He is not God." Thou hast the voice of these very men in the 
book of Wisdom.[3] For after there had gone before the verse, "The unwise 
man hath said in his heart, There is no God ;" as if reasons were required 
why the unwise man could say this, he hath subjoined, "Corrupted they are, 
and abominable have become in their iniquities" (ver. 2). Hear ye those 
corrupted men. "For they have said with themselves, not rightly 
thinking:"[4] corruption beginneth with evil belief, thence it proceedeth 
to depraved morals, thence to the most flagrant iniquities, these are the 
grades. But what with themselves said they, thinking not rightly? "A small 
thing and with tediousness is our life."[5] From this evil belief followeth 
that which also the Apostle hath spoken of, "Let us eat and drink, for to-
morrow we shall die."[6] But in the former passage more diffusely luxury 
itself is described: "Let us crown us with roses, before they be withered; 
in every place let us leave the tokens of our gladness."[7] After the more 
diffuse description of that luxury, what followeth? "Let us slay the poor 
just man:"[8] this is therefore saying, "He is not God." Soft words they 
seemed but now to say:" Let us crown us with roses, before they be 
withered." What more delicate, what more soft? Wouldest thou expect, out of 
this softness, Crosses, swords? Wonder not, soft are even the roots of 
brambles; if any one handle them, he is not pricked: but that wherewith 
thou shall be pricked from thence hath birth. "Corrupted," therefore, are 
those men, "and abominable have become in their iniquities." They say, "If 
Son of God He is, let Him come down from the Cross."[9] Behold them openly 
saying, "He is not God." ...

    4. "The Lord from Heaven hath looked forth upon the sons of men, that 
He might see if there is one understanding and seeking after God" (ver. 3). 
What is this? "Corrupted they are," all these that say, "There is no God"? 
And what? Did it escape God, that they were become such? Or indeed to us 
would their inward thought be opened, except by Him it were told? If then 
He understood, if then He knew, what is this which hath been said, "that He 
might see "? For the words are of one inquiring, of one not knowing. "God 
from Heaven hath looked forth," etc. And as though He had found what He 
sought by looking upon, and by looking down from Heaven, He giveth 
sentence: "All men have gone aside, together useless they have become: 
there is not one that doeth good, not so much as one" (ver. 4). Two 
questions arise somewhat difficult: for if God looketh out from Heaven, in 
order that He may see if there is one understanding or seeking after God; 
there stealeth upon an unwise man the thought, that God knoweth not all 
things. This is one question: what is the other? If there is not one that 
doeth good, is not so much as one; who is he that travaileth amid bad men? 
The former question then is solved as followeth: ofttimes the Scripture 
speaketh in such manner, that what by the gift of God a creature doth, God 
is said to do. ... For hence has been said the following also, "For the 
Spirit searcheth all things, even the depth of God; "[10] not because He 
that knoweth all things searcheth, but because to thee hath been given the 
Spirit, which maketh thee also to search: and that which by His own gift 
thou doest, He is said to do; because without Him thou wouldest not do it: 
therefore God is said to do, when thou doest. ... And because this by the 
gift of God thou doest, God from heaven is "looking forth upon the sons of 
men." The former question then, according to our measure, thus hath been 
solved.

    5. What is that which looking forth we acknowledge? What is that which 
looking forth God acknowledgeth? What (because here He giveth it) doth He 
acknowledge? Hear what it is; that "All have gone aside, together useless 
they have become: there is not one that doeth good, there is not so much as 
one." What then is that other question, but the same whereof a little 
before I have made mention? If, "There is not one that doeth good, is not 
so much as one," no one remaineth to groan amid evil men. Stay, saith the 
Lord, do not hastily give judgment. I have given to men to do well; but of 
Me, He saith, not of themselves: for of themselves evil they are: sons of 
men they are, when they do evil; when well, My sons. For this thing God 
doth, out of sons of men He maketh sons of God: because out of Son of God 
He hath made Son of Man. See what this participation is: there hath been 
promised to us a participation of Divinity: He lieth that hath promised, if 
He is not first made partaker of mortality. For the Son of God hath been 
made partaker of mortality, in order that mortal man may be made partaker 
of divinity. He that hath promised that His good is to be shared with thee, 
first with thee hath shared thy evil: He that to thee hath promised 
divinity, showeth in thee love. Therefore take away that men are sons of 
God, there remaineth that they are sons of men: "There is none that doeth 
good, is not so much as one."

    6. "Shall not all know that work iniquity, that devour My people for 
the food of bread "? (ver. 5). ...There is therefore here a people of God 
that is being devoured. Nay, "There is not one that doeth good, there is 
not so much as one." We reply by the rule above. But this people that is 
devoured, this people that suffereth evil men, this that groaneth and 
travaileth amid evil men, now out of sons of men have been made sons of 
God: therefore are they devoured. For, "The counsel of the needy man thou 
hast confounded, because the Lord is his hope."[1] For ofttimes, in order 
that the people of God may be devoured, this very thing in it is despised, 
that it is the people of God. I will pillage, he saith, and despoil; if he 
is a Christian, what will he do to me? ... But what followeth? "I will 
convince thee, and will set thee before thy face." Thou wilt not now know 
so as thou shouldest be displeasing to thyself, thou shall know so as thou 
mayest mourn. For God cannot but show to the unrighteous their iniquity. If 
He is not to show, who will they be that are to say, "What hath profiled us 
pride, and what hath boasting of riches bestowed upon us?"[2] For then 
shall they know, that now will not know. "Shall not all know?" etc. Why 
hath He added, "for the food of bread "? As it were as bread, they eat My 
people. For all other things which we eat, we can eat now these, now those; 
not always this vegetable, not always this flesh, not always these apples: 
but always bread. What is then, "Devour My people for the food of bread "? 
Without intermission, without cessation they devour.

    7. "On God they have not called." He is comforting the man that 
groaneth, and chiefly by an admonition, lest by imitating evil men, who 
ofttimes prosper, they delight in evil doing. There is kept for thee that 
which to thee hath been promised: their hope is present, thine is future, 
but theirs is transient, thine sure; theirs false, thine true. For they 
"upon God have not called." Do not daily such men ask of God? They do "not" 
ask of God. Give heed, if I am able to say this by the aid of God Himself. 
God gratuitously will have Himself to be worshipped, gratuitously will have 
Himself to be loved, that is chastely to be loved; not Himself to be loved 
for the reason that He giveth anything besides Himself, but because He 
giveth Himself. He then that calleth upon God in order that He may be made 
rich, On God doth not call: for upon that He calleth which to himself he 
willeth to come. ... But now thou wouldest have coffer full, and conscience 
void: God filleth not coffer, but breast. What do outward riches profit 
thee, if inward need presseth thee? Therefore those men that for the sake 
of worldly comforts, that for the sake of earthly good things, that for the 
sake of present life and earthly felicity, call upon God, do not call upon 
God.

    8. For this reason what followeth concerning them? "There have they 
feared with fear, where there was no fear" (ver. 6). For is there fear, if 
a man lose riches? There is no fear there, and yet in that case men are 
afraid. But if a man lose wisdom, truly there is fear, and in that case he 
is not afraid. ... Thou hast feared to give back money, and hast willed to 
lose fidelity. The Martyrs took not away property of other persons, but 
even their own they despised that they might not lose fidelity: and it was 
too little to lose money, when they were proscribed; they took also their 
life when they suffered: they lost life, in order that unto everlasting 
life they might find it.[1] Therefore there they feared, where they ought 
to have been afraid. But they that of Christ have said, "He is not God," 
have there feared where was no fear. For they said, "If we shall have let 
Him go, there will come the Romans, and will take away from us both place 
and kingdom."[2] O folly and imprudence saying in its heart, "He is not 
God"! Thou hast feared to lose earth, thou hast lost Heaven: thou hast 
feared lest there should come the Romans, and take away from thee place and 
kingdom! Could they take away from thee God? What then remaineth? what but 
that thou confess, that thou hast willed to keep, and by keeping ill hast 
lost? For thou hast lost both place and nation by slaying Christ. For ye 
did will rather to slay Christ, than to lose place; and ye have lost place, 
and nation, and Christ. In fearing, they have slain Christ: but wherefore 
this? "For God hath scattered the bones of them that please men."[3] 
Willing to please men, they feared to lose their place. But Christ Himself, 
of whom they said, "He is not God," willed rather to displease such men, as 
they were: sons of men, not sons of God, He willed rather to displease. 
Thence were scattered their bones, His bones no one hath broken. "They were 
confounded, for God hath despised them." In very deed, brethren, as far as 
regardeth them, great confusion hath come to them. In the place where they 
crucified the Lord, whom for this cause they crucified, that they might not 
lose both place and nation, the Jews are not. "God," therefore," hath 
despised them:" and yet in despising He warned them to be converted. Let 
them now confess Christ, and say, He is God, of whom they said, "He is not 
God." Let them return to the inheritance of their fathers, to the 
inheritance of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, let them possess with these 
very persons life eternal: though they have lost life temporal. Wherefore 
this? Because out of sons of men have been made sons of God. For so long as 
they remain, and will not, there is not one that doeth good, there is not 
so much as one. "They were confounded, for God hath despised them." And as 
though to these very persons He were turned, He saith, "Who shall give out 
of Sion salvation to Israel?" (ver. 7). O ye fools, ye revile, insult, 
buffet, besmear with spittings, with thorns ye crown, upon the Cross ye 
lift up; whom? "Who shall give out of Sion salvation to Israel?" Shall not 
That Same of whom ye have said, "He is not God "? "In God's turning away 
the captivity of His people." For there turneth away the captivity of His 
people, no one but He that hath willed to be a captive in your own hands. 
But what men shall understand this thing? "Jacob shall exult, and Israel 
shall rejoice." "Israel;" the true Jacob, and the true Israel, that 
younger, to whom the eider was servant[4] shall himself exult, for he shall 
himself understand.

PSALM LIV.[5]

    1. The title of this Psalm hath fruit in the prolixity thereof, if it 
be understood: and because the Psalm is short, let us make up our not 
having to tarry over the Psalm by tarrying over the title. For upon this 
dependeth every verse which is sung. If any one, therefore, observe that 
which on the front of the house is fixed, secure he will enter; and, when 
he shall have entered, he will not err. For this on the post itself is 
prominently marked, namely, in what manner within he may not be in error. 
The title thereof standeth thus: "At the end, in hymns, understanding to 
David himself, when there came the Ziphites, and said to Saul, Behold, is 
not David hidden with us?" That Saul was persecutor of the holy man David, 
very well we know: that Saul was bearing the figure of a temporal kingdom, 
not to life but to death belonging, this also to your Love we remember to 
have imparted. And also that David himself was bearing the figure of 
Christ, or of the Body of Christ, ye ought both to know and to call to 
mind, ye that have already learned.[6] What then  of the Ziphites? There 
was a certain village, Ziph, whereof the inhabitants were Ziphites, in 
whose country David had hidden himself, when Saul would find and slay him. 
These Ziphites then, when they had learned this, betrayed him to the king 
his persecutor, saying, "Behold, is not David hidden with us?" Of no good 
to them indeed was their betrayal, and to David himself of no harm. For 
their evil disposition was shown: but Saul not even after their betrayal 
could seize David; but rather in a certain cave in that very country, when 
into his hands Saul had been given to slay, David spared him, and that 
which he had in his power he did not[7] But the other was seeking to do 
that which he had not in his power. Let them that have been Ziphites take 
heed: let us see those whom to us the Psalm presenteth to be understood by 
the occasion of those same men.

    2. If we inquire then by what word is translated Ziphites, we find, 
"Men flourishing." Flourishing then were certain enemies to holy David, 
flourishing before him hiding. We may find them in mankind, if we are 
willing to understand the Psalm. Let us find here at first David hiding, 
and we shall  find his adversaries flourishing. Observe David hiding: "For 
ye are dead," saith the Apostle to the members of Christ," and your life is 
hid with Christ in God."[1] These men, therefore, that are hiding, when 
shall they be flourishing? "When Christ," he saith, "your life, shall have 
appeared, then ye also with Him shall appear in glory."[2] When these men 
shall be flourishing, then shall be those Ziphites withering. For observe 
to what flower their glory is compared: "All flesh is grass, and the honour 
of flesh as the flower of grass."[3] What is the end? "The grass hath 
withered, and the flower hath fallen off." Where then shall be David? See 
what followeth: "But the Word of the Lord abideth for ever." ...

    3. These men sometimes are observed of the weak sons of light, and 
their feet totter, when they have seen evil men in felicity to flourish, 
and they say to themselves, "Of what profit to me is innocence? What doth 
it advantage me that I serve God, that I keep His commandments, that I 
oppress no one, from no one plunder anything, hurt no one, that what I can 
I bestow? behold, all these things I do, and they flourish, I toil." But 
why? Wouldest thou also wish to be a Ziphite? They flourish in the world, 
wither in judgment, and after withering, into fire everlasting shall be 
cast: wouldest thou also choose this? Art thou ignorant of what He hath 
promised thee, who to thee hath come, what in Himself here He displayed? If 
the flower of the Ziphites were to be desired, would not Himself thy Lord 
also in this world have flourished? Or indeed was there wanting to Him the 
power to flourish? Nay but here He chose rather amid the Ziphites to hide, 
and to say to Pontius Pilate, as if to one being himself also a flower of 
the Ziphites, and in suspicion about His kingdom, "My kingdom is not of 
this world."[4] Therefore here He was hidden: and all good men are hidden 
here, because their good is within, it is concealed, in the heart it is, 
where is faith, where charity, where hope, where their treasure is. Do 
these good things appear in the world? Both these good things are hidden, 
and the reward of these good things is hidden. ...

    4. "O God, in Thy name make me safe, and in Thy virtue judge me" (ver. 
1). Let the Church say this, hiding amid the Ziphites. Let the Christian 
body say this, keeping secret the good of its morals, expecting in secret 
the reward of its merits, let it say this: "In Thy virtues judge me." Thou 
hast come, O Christ, humble Thou hast appeared, despised Thou hast been, 
scourged hast been, crucified hast been slain hast been; but, on the third 
day hast risen, on the fortieth day into Heaven hast ascended: Thou sittest 
at the right hand of the Father, and no one seeth: Thy Spirit thence Thou 
hast sent, which men that were worthy have received; fulfilled with Thy 
love, the praise of that very humility of Thine throughout the world and 
nations they have preached: Thy name I see to excel among mankind, but 
nevertheless as weak to us hast Thou been preached. For not even did that 
Teacher of the Gentiles say, that among us he knew anything, "Save Christ 
Jesus, and Him crucified;"[6] in order that of Him we might choose the 
reproach, rather than the glory of the flourishing Ziphites. Nevertheless, 
of Him he saith what? "Although He died of weakness, yet He liveth of the 
power[7] of God." He came then that He might die of weakness, He is to come 
that He may judge in the power of God: but through the weakness of the 
Cross His name hath been illustrious. Whosoever shall not have believed 
upon the name made illustrious through weakness, shall stand in awe at the 
Judge, when He shall have come in power. But, lest He that once was weak, 
when He shall have come strong, with that fan send us to the left hand; may 
He "save  us in His name, and judge us in His virtue." For who so rash as 
to have desired this, as to say to God, for instance "Judge me"? Is it not 
wont to be said to men for a curse, "God judge thee"? So evidently it is a 
curse, if He judge thee in His virtue; and shall not have saved thee in His 
name: but when in name precedent He shall have saved thee, to thy health in 
virtue consequent He shall judge. Be thou without care: that judgment shall 
not to thee be punishment, but dividing. For in a certain Psalm s thus is 
said: "Judge me, O God, and divide my cause from the nation unholy." ...

    5. "O God, hearken to my prayer, in Thy ears receive the words of my 
mouth" (ver. 2). ... To Thee may my prayer attain, driven forth and darted 
out from the desire of Thy eternal blessings: to Thy ears I send it forth, 
aid it that it may reach, lest it fall short in the middle of the way, and 
fainting as it were it fall down. But even if there result not to me now 
the good things which I ask, I am secured nevertheless that hereafter they 
will come. For even in the case of transgressions a certain man is said to 
have asked of God, and not to have been hearkened to for his good. For 
privations of this world had inspired him to prayer, and being set in 
temporal tribulations he had wished that temporal tribulations should pass 
away, and there should return the flower of grass; and he saith, "My God, 
my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"[9] The very voice of Christ it is, but 
for His members' sake. "The words," he saith, "of my transgressions I have 
cried to Thee throughout the day, and Thou hast not hearkened: and by 
night, and not for the sake of folly to me:" that is, "and by night I have 
cried, and Thou hast not hearkened; and nevertheless in this very thing 
that Thou hast not hearkened, it is not for the sake of folly to me that 
Thou hast not hearkened, but rather for the sake of wisdom that Thou hast 
not hearkened, that I might perceive what of Thee I ought to ask. For those 
things I was asking which to my cost perchance I should have received." 
Thou askest riches, O man; how many have been overset through their riches? 
Whence knowest thou whether to thee riches may profit? Have not many poor 
men more safely been in obscurity; having become rich men, so soon as they 
have begun to blaze forth, they have been a prey to the stronger? How much 
better they would have lain concealed, how much better they would have been 
unknown, that have begun to be inquired after not for the sake of what they 
were, but for the sake of what they had! In these temporal things 
therefore, brethren, we admonish and exhort you in the Lord, that ye ask 
not anything as if it were a thing settled, but that which God knoweth to 
be expedient for you. For what is expedient for you, ye know not at all. 
Sometimes that which ye think to be for you is against you, and that which 
ye think to be against you is for you. For sick ye are; do not dictate to 
the physician the medicines he may choose to set beside you. If the teacher 
of the Gentiles, Paul the Apostle, saith, "For what we should pray for as 
we ought, we know not,"[1] how much more we? Who nevertheless, when he 
seemed to himself to pray wisely, namely, that from him should be taken 
away the thorn of the flesh, the angel of Satan, that did buffet him, in 
order that he might not in the greatness of the revelations be lifted up, 
heard from the Lord what? Was that done which he wished? Nay,[2] in order 
to that being done which was expedient, he heard from the Lord, I say, 
what? "Thrice," he saith, "I besought the Lord that He would take it from 
me; and He said to me, My Grace sufficeth for thee: for virtue in weakness 
is made perfect."[3] Salve to the wound I have applied; when I applied it I 
know, when it should be taken away I know. Let not a sick man draw back 
from the hands of the physician, let him not give advice to the physician. 
So it is with all these things temporal. There are tribulations; if well 
thou worshippest God, thou wilt know that He knoweth what is expedient for 
each man: there are prosperities; take the more heed, lest these same 
corrupt thy soul, so that it withdraw from Him that hath given these 
things. ...

    6. "For aliens have risen up against me" (ver. 3). What "aliens"? Was 
not David himself a Jew of the tribe of Judah? But the very place Ziph 
belonged to the tribe of Judah; it was of the Jews. How then "aliens "? Not 
in city, not in tribe, not in kindred, but in flower.[4] ... But see the 
Ziphites, see them for a time flourishing. With reason "alien" sons. Thou 
amid the Ziphites hiding saidst what? "Blessed the people whereof the Lord 
is its God." Out of this affection this prayer[5] is being sent forth into 
the ears of the Lord, when it is said, "for aliens have risen up against 
me."

    7. "And mighty men have sought after my soul." For in a new manner, my 
brethren, they would destroy the race of holy men, and the race of them 
that abstain from hoping in this world, all they that have hope in this 
world. Certainly commingled they are, certainly together they live. Very 
much to one another are opposed these two sorts: the one of those that 
place no hope but in things secular, and in temporal felicity, and the 
other of those that do firmly place their trope in the Lord God. And though 
concordant are these Ziphites, do not much trust to their concord: 
temptations are wanting; when there shall have come any temptation, so as 
that a person may be reproved for the flower of the world, I say not to 
thee he will quarrel with the Bishop, but not even to the Church Herself 
will he draw near, lest there fall any part of the grass.[6] Wherefore have 
I said these words, brethren? Because now gladly ye all hear in the name of 
Christ, and according as ye understand, so ye shout out at the word; ye 
would not indeed shout at it unless ye understood.[7] This your 
understanding ought to be fruitful. But whether it is fruitful, temptation 
doth try; lest suddenly when ye are said to be ours, through temptation ye 
be found aliens, and it be said, "Aliens have risen up against me, and 
mighty men have sought my soul." Be not that said which followeth, "They 
have not set forth God before their face." For when will he set God before 
his face, before whose eyes there is nought but the world? namely, how he 
may have coin upon coin, how flocks may be increased, how barns may be 
filled, how it may be said to his soul, "Thou hast many good things, be 
merry, feast, take thy fill." Doth he set before his face Him, that unto 
one so boasting and so blooming with the flower of the Ziphites saith, 
"Fool" (that is, "man not understanding," "man unwise"), "this night shall 
be taken from thee thy soul; all these things which thou hast prepared, 
whose shall they be?"[1]

    8. "For behold, God helpeth me" (ver. 4). Even themselves know not 
themselves, amid whom I am hiding. But if they too were to set God before 
their face, they would find in what manner God helpeth me. For all holy men 
are helped by God, but within, where no one seeth For in like manner as the 
conscience of ungodly men is a great punishment, so a great joy is the very 
conscience of godly men. "For our glory this is," saith the Apostle, "the 
testimony of our conscience."[2] In this within, not in the flower of the 
Ziphites without, doth glory that man that now saith, "For behold God 
helpeth me." Surely though afar off are to be those things which He 
promiseth, this day have I a sweet and present help; to-day in my heart's 
joy I find that without cause certain say, "Who doth show to us good 
things? For there is signed upon us the light of Thy countenance, O Lord, 
Thou hast put pleasantness into my heart."[3] Not into my vineyard, not 
into my flock, not into my cask, not into my table, but" into my heart." 
"For behold God helpeth me." How doth He help thee? "And the Lord is the 
lifter up of my soul."

    9. "Turn away evil things unto mine enemies" (ver. 5). So however green 
they are, so however they flourish, for the fire they are being[4] 
reserved. "In Thy virtue destroy Thou them." Because to wit they flourish 
now, because to wit they spring up like grass:[5] do not thou be a man 
unwise and foolish, so that by giving thought to these things thou perish 
for ever and ever. For, "Turn Thou away evil things unto mine enemies." For 
if thou shalt have place in the body of David Himself, in His virtue He 
will destroy them. These men flourish in the felicity of the world, perish 
in the virtue of God. Not in the same manner as they flourish, do they also 
perish: for they flourish for a time, perish for everlasting: flourish in 
unreal good things, perish in real torments. "In Thy strength destroy," 
whom in Thy weakness Thou hast endured.

    10. "Voluntarily I will sacrifice to Thee" (ver. 6). Who can even 
understand this good thing of the heart, at another's speaking thereof, 
unless in himself he hath tasted it? What is, "Voluntarily I will sacrifice 
to Thee"?... For what sacrifice here shall I take, brethren? or what 
worthily shall I offer to the Lord for His mercy? Victims shall. I seek 
from flock of sheep, ram shall I select, for any bull in the herds shall I 
look out, frankincense indeed from the land of the Sabaeans shall I bring? 
What shall I do? What offer; except that whereof He speaketh, "Sacrifice of 
praise shall honour Me"?[6] Wherefore then "voluntarily"? Because truly I 
love that which I praise. I praise God, and in the self-same praise I 
rejoice: in the praise of Himself I rejoice, at whom being praised, I blush 
not. For He is not praised in the same manner as by those who love the 
theatrical follies is praised either by a charioteer, or a hunter, or actor 
of any kind, and by their praisers, other praisers are invited, are 
exhorted, to shout together: and when all have shouted, ofttimes, if their 
favourite is overcome, they are all put to the blush. Not so is our God: be 
He praised with the will, loved with charity: let it be gratuitous (or 
voluntary) that He is loved and that He is praised. What is "gratuitous "? 
Himself for the sake of Himself, not for the sake of something else. For if 
thou praisest God in order that He may give thee something else, no longer 
freely dost thou love God. Thou wouldest blush, if thy wife for the sake of 
riches were to love thee, and perchance if poverty should befall thee, 
should begin to think of adultery. Seeing that therefore thou wouldest be 
loved by thy partner freely, wilt thou for anything else love God? What 
reward art thou to receive of God, O covetous man? Not earth for thee, but 
Himself He keepeth, who made heaven and earth. "Voluntarily I will 
sacrifice to Thee:" do it not of necessity. For if for the sake of anything 
else thou praisest God, out of necessity thou praisest. ... These things 
also which He hath given, because of the Giver are good things. For He 
giveth entirely, He giveth these temporal things: and to certain men to 
their good, to certain men to their harm, after the height and depth of His 
judgments. ... "Voluntarily I will sacrifice to Thee." Wherefore 
"voluntarily"? Because gratis. What is gratis? "And I will confess to Thy 
name, O Lord, for it is a good thing:" for nothing else, but because a 
"good thing" it is. Doth he say, "I will confess to Thy name, O Lord," 
because Thou givest me fruitful manors, because Thou givest me gold and 
silver, because Thou givest me extended riches, abundant money, most 
exalted dignity? Nay. But what? "For it is a good thing." Nothing I find 
better than Thy name.

    11. "For out of all tribulation Thou hast delivered me" (ver. 7). For 
this cause I have perceived how good a thing is Thy name: for if this I 
were able before tribulations to acknowledge, perchance for me there had 
been no need of them. But tribulation hath been applied for admonition, 
admonition hath redounded to Thy praise. For I should not have understood 
where I was, except of my weakness I had been admonished. "Out of all 
tribulations," therefore, "Thou hast delivered me. And upon mine enemies 
mine eye hath looked back:" upon those Ziphites "mine eye hath looked 
back." Yea, their flower I have passed over in loftiness of heart, unto 
Thee I have come, and thence I have looked back upon them, and have seen 
that "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of 
grass:"[1] as in a certain place is also said, "I have seen the ungodly man 
to be exalted and raised up like[2] the cedars of Lebanon: I passed by, 
and, lo! he was not."[3] Wherefore "he was not"? Because thou hast passed 
by. What is," because thou hast passed by"? Because not to no purpose hast 
thou heard "Lift up thy heart;" because not on earth, where thou wouldest 
have rotted, thou hast remained; because thou hast lifted thy soul to God, 
and thou hast mounted beyond the cedars of Lebanon, and from that elevation 
hast observed: and "Lo! he was not;" and thou hast sought him, and there 
hath not been found place for him. No longer is labour before thee; because 
thou hast entered into the sanctuary of God, and hast understood for the 
last things.[4] So also here thus he concludeth. "And upon mine enemies 
mine eye hath looked back." This do ye therefore, brethren, with your 
souls; lift up your hearts, sharpen the edge of your mind, learn truly to 
love God, learn to despise the present world, learn voluntarily to 
sacrifice the offerings of praise; to the end that, mounting beyond the 
flower of the grass, ye may look back upon your enemies.

PSALM LV.[5]

    1. Of this Psalm the title is: "At the end, in hymns, understanding to 
David himself." What the "end" is, we will briefly call to your 
recollection, because ye have known it. "For the end of the Law is Christ, 
for righteousness unto every man believing."[6] Be the attention therefore 
directed unto the End, directed unto Christ. Wherefore is He called the 
end? Because whatever we do, to Him we refer it, and when to Him we shall 
have come home, more to ask we shall not have. For there is an end spoken 
of which doth consume, there is an end spoken of which doth make perfect. 
In one sense, for instance, we understand it, when we hear, there is ended 
the food which was in eating; and in another sense we understand it when we 
hear, there is ended the vesture which was in weaving: in each case we 
hear, there is ended; but the food so that it no longer is, the vesture so 
that it is perfected. Our end therefore ought to be our perfection, our 
perfection Christ. For in Him we are made perfect, because of Himself the 
Head, the Members are we. And he hath been spoken of as "the End of the 
Law," because without Him no one doth make perfect the Law. When therefore 
ye hear in the Psalms, "At the end,"--for many Psalms are thus 
superscribed,--be not your thought upon consuming, but upon consummation.

    2. "In hymens:" in praises. For whether we are troubled and are 
straitened, or whether we rejoice and exult, He is to be praised, who both 
in tribulations doth instruct, and in gladness doth comfort. For the praise 
of God from the heart and mouth of a Christian man ought not to depart; not 
that he may be praising in prosperity, and speaking evil in adversity; but 
after the manner that this Psalm doth prescribe, "I will speak good of the 
Lord in every time, alway the praise of Him is in my mouth." Thou dost 
rejoice; acknowledge a Father indulging: thou art troubled; acknowledge a 
Father chastening. Whether He indulge, or whether He chasten, He is 
instructing one for whom He is preparing an inheritance.

    3. What then is, "Understanding to David himself"? David indeed was, as 
we know, a holy prophet, king of Israel, son of Jesse:[7] but because out 
of his seed there came for our salvation after the flesh the Lord Jesus 
Christ,[8] often under that name He is figured, and David instead of Christ 
is in a figure set down, because of the origin of the Flesh of the Same. 
For after some sort He is Son of David, after some sort He is the Lord of 
David; Son of David after the flesh, Lord of David after the divinity. For 
if by Him have been made all-things,[9] by Him also David himself hath been 
made, out of whose seed He came to men. Moreover, when the Lord had 
questioned the Jews, whose Son they affirmed Christ to be, they made 
answer, "David's:" where the Lord chides the Jews, when they said that He 
was the Son of David.[10] He saw that they had stayed at the flesh, and had 
lost sight of the divinity; and He reproveth them by propounding a 
question: "How then doth David himself in spirit call Him Lord, 'The Lord 
hath said unto my Lord.' ... If then He in spirit calleth Him Lord, how is 
He is Son?"[11] A question He propounded; His being Son He denied not. Ye 
have heard "Lord;" say ye how He is his "Son:" ye have heard "Son;[11] say 
how He is "Lord." This question the Catholic Faith solveth. How "Lord"? 
Because "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the 
Word was God."[1] How "Son"? Because "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt 
among us.[2] Because then David in a figure is Christ, but Christ, as we 
have often reminded your Love, is both Head and Body; neither ought we to 
speak of ourselves as alien from Christ, of whom we are members, nor to 
count ourselves as if we were any other thing: because "The two shall be in 
one flesh."[3] "This is a great Sacrament," saith the Apostle, "but I speak 
in regard of Christ and the Church."[4] Because then whole Christ is" Head 
and Body;" when we hear, "Understanding to David himself," understand we 
ourselves also in David. Let the members of Christ understand, and Christ 
in His members understand, and the members of Christ in Christ understand: 
because Head and Members are one Christ. The Head was in heaven, and was 
saying, "Why dost thou persecute Me?"[5] We with Him are in heaven through 
hope, Himself is with us on earth through love. Therefore "understanding to 
David himself." Be we admonished when we hear, and let the Church 
understand: for there belongeth to us great diligence to understand in what 
evil we now are, and from what evil we desire to be delivered, remembering 
the Prayer of the Lord, where at the end we say," Deliver us from evil."[6] 
Therefore amid many tribulations of this world, this Psalm complaineth 
somewhat of understanding. He lamenteth not with it, who hath not 
understanding. But furthermore, dearly beloved, we ought to remember, that 
after the image of God we have been made, and that not in any other part 
than in the understanding itself. For in many things by beasts we are 
surpassed: but when a man knoweth himself to have been made after the image 
of God,[7] therein something in himself he acknowledgeth to be more than 
hath been given to dumb animals. But on consideration of all those things 
which a man hath, he findeth himself in this thing peculiarly distinguished 
from a dumb animal, in that he hath himself an understanding. Whence 
certain men despising in themselves that peculiar and especial thing which 
from their Maker they had received, the Maker Himself reproveth, saying, 
"Do not become like horse and mule, in which there is no understanding."[8] 
...

    4. "Hear Thou, O God, my entreaty, and despise not my prayer: give heed 
unto me, and hearken unto me" (ver. 1). Of one earnest, anxious, of one set 
in tribulation, are these words. He is praying, suffering many things, from 
evil yearning to be delivered: it remaineth that we hear in what evil he 
is, and when he beginneth to speak, let us acknowledge there ourselves to 
be; in order that the tribulation being shared, we may conjoin prayer. "I 
have been made sad in my exercise, and have been troubled" (ver. 2). Where 
made sad, where troubled? "'In my exercise," he saith. Of evil men, whom he 
suffereth, he hath made mention, and the same suffering of evil men he hath 
called his "exercise." Think ye not that without profit there are evil men 
in this world, and that no good God maketh of them. Every evil man either 
on this account liveth that he may be corrected, or on this account liveth 
that through him a good man may be exercised. O that therefore they that do 
now exercise us would be converted, and together with us be exercised! 
Nevertheless, so long as they are such as to exercise, let us not hate 
them: because in that wherein any one of them is evil, whether unto the end 
he is to persevere,  we know not; and ofttimes when to thyself thou seemest 
to have been hating an enemy, thou hast been hating a brother, and knowest 
not. The devil and his angels in the holy Scriptures have been manifested 
to us, that for fire everlasting they have been destined. Of them only must 
amendment be despaired of. ... Therefore since this rule of Love for thee 
is fixed, that imitating the Father thou shouldest love an enemy: for, He 
saith, "love your enemies:"[9] in this precept how wouldest thou be 
exercised, if thou hadst no enemy to suffer? Thou seest then that he 
profiteth thee somewhat: and let God sparing evil men profit thee, so that 
thou show mercy: because perchance thou too, if thou art a good man, out of 
an evil man hast been made a good man: and if God spared not evil men, not 
even thou wouldest be found to return thanks. May He therefore spare 
others, that hath spared thee also. For it were not right, when thou hadst 
passed through, to close up the way of godliness.

    5. Whence then doth this man pray, set among evil men, with whose 
enmities he was being exercised? Why saith he, "I have been made sad in my 
exercise, and have been troubled"? While he is extending his love so as to 
love enemies, he hath been affected with disgust, being bayed at all around 
by the enmities of many men, by the frenzy of many and under a sort of 
human infirmity he hath sunk. He hath seen himself now begin to be pierced 
through with an evil suggestion of the devil, to bring on hatred against 
his enemies: wrestling against hatred in order to perfect love herself, in 
the very fight, and in the wrestling, he hath been troubled. For there is 
his voice in another Psalm, "Mine eye hath been troubled, because of 
anger." And what followeth there? "I have waxen old among all mine 
enemies."[10] As if in storm and waves he were beginning to sink, like 
Peter.[1] For he doth trample the waves of this world, that loveth enemies. 
Christ on the sea was walking fearless, from whose heart there could not by 
any means be taken away the love of an enemy, who hanging on the Cross did 
say, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."[2] Peter too 
would walk. He as Head, Peter as Body: because, "Upon this rock," He saith, 
"I will build My Church."[3] He was bidden to walk, and he was walking by 
the Grace of Him bidding, not by his own strength. But when he saw the wind 
mighty, he feared; and then he began to sink, being troubled in his 
exercise. By what mighty wind? "By the voice of the enemy, and by the 
tribulation of the sinner" (ver. 3). Therefore, in the same manner as he 
cried out on the waves, "Lord, I perish, save me,"[1] a similar voice from 
this man hath preceded, "Hearken unto me." Wherefore? For what sufferest 
thou? Of what dost thou groan? "I have been made sad in my exercise." To be 
exercised indeed among evil men Thou hast set me, but too much they have 
risen up, beyond my powers: calm Thou one troubled, stretch forth a hand to 
one sinking. "For they have brought down upon me iniquity, and in anger 
they were shadowing me." Ye have heard of waves and winds: one as it were 
humbled they were insulting, and he was praying: on every side against him 
with the roar of insult they were raging, but he within was calling upon 
Him whom they did not see. ...

    6. But this man being troubled and made sad was praying, his eye being 
disturbed as it were on account of anger.[4] But the anger of a brother if 
it shall have been inveterate is then hatred. Anger doth trouble the eye, 
hatred doth quench it: anger is a straw, hatred is a beam. Sometimes thou 
hatest and chidest an angry man: in thee is hatred, in him whom thou 
chidest anger: with reason to thee is said, "Cast out first the beam from 
thine own eye, and so thou shall see to cast out the straw from thy 
brother's eye."[5] For that ye may know how much difference there is 
between anger and hatred: day by day men are angry with their sons, show me 
them that hate their[6] sons! This man being troubled was praying even when 
made sad, wrestling against all revilings of all revilers; not in order 
that he might conquer any one of them by giving back reviling, but that he 
might not hate any one of them. Hence he prayeth, hence asketh: "From the 
voice of the enemy and from the tribulation of the sinner." "My heart hath 
been troubled in me" (ver. 4). This is the same as elsewhere hath been 
said," Mine eye because of anger hath been troubled."[4] And if eye hath 
been troubled, what followeth? "And fear of death hath fallen upon me." Our 
life is love: if life is love, death is hatred. When a man hath begun to 
fear lest he should hate him that he was loving, it is death he is fearing; 
and a sharper death, and a more inward death, whereby soul is killed, not 
body. Thou didst mind a man raging against thee; what was he to do, against 
whom thine own Lord had given thee security, saying, "Fear not them that 
kill the body"?[7] He by raging killeth body, thou by keeping hatred hast 
killed soul; and he the body of another, thou thine own soul. "Fear," 
therefore, "of death hath fallen upon me."

    7. "Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, and darkness hath 
covered me" (ver. 5 ). "And I have said," "He that hateth his brother, is 
in darkness until now."[8] If love is light, hatred is darkness. And what 
saith to himself one set in that weakness and troubled in that exercise? 
"Who shall give me wings as to a dove, and I shall fly and shall rest?" 
(ver. 6). Either for death he was wishing, or for solitude he was longing. 
So long, he saith, as this is the work with me, as this command is given 
me, that I should love enemies, the revilings of these men, increasing and 
shadowing me, do derange mine eye, perturb my sight, penetrate my heart, 
slay my soul. I could wish to depart, but[9] weak I am, lest by abiding I 
should add sins to sins: or at least may I be separated for a little space 
from mankind, lest my wound suffer from frequent blows, in order that when 
it hath been made whole it may be brought back to the exercise. This is 
what takes place, brethren, and there ariseth ofttimes in the mind of the 
servant of God a longing for solitude, for no other reason than because of 
the multitude of tribulations and scandals, and he saith, "Who shall give 
me wings?" Doth he find himself without wings, or rather with bound wings? 
If they are wanting, be they given; if bound, be they loosed; because even 
he that looseth a bird's wings, either giveth, or giveth back to it its 
wings. For it had not as though its own them, wherewith it could not fly. 
Bound wings make a burden. "Who," he saith, "shall give me wings as to a 
dove, and I shall fly and shall rest?" Shall rest, where? I have said there 
are two senses here: either, as saith the Apostle, "To be dissolved and to 
be with Christ, for it is by far the best thing."[10] ... Even he that 
amended cannot be, is thine, either by the fellowship of the human race, or 
ofttimes by Church Communion; he is within, what wilt thou do? whither wilt 
go? whither separate thyself, in order that these things thou mayest not 
suffer? But go to him, speak, exhort, coax, threaten, reprove. I have done 
all things, whatever powers I had I have expended and have drained, nothing 
I see have I prevailed; all my labour hath been spent out, sorrow hath 
remained. How then shall my heart rest from such men, except I say, "Who 
shall give me wings?" "As to a dove," however, not as to a raven. A dove 
seeketh a flying away from troubles, but she loseth not love. For a dove as 
a type of love is set forth, and in her the plaint is loved. Nothing is so 
fond of plaints as a dove: day and night she complaineth, as though she 
were set here where she ought to complain. What then saith this lover? 
Revilings of men to bear I am unable, they roar, with frenzy are carried 
away, are inflamed with indignation, in anger they shadow[1] me; to do good 
to them I am unable; O that I might rest somewhere, being separated from 
them in body, not in love; lest in me there should be troubled love itself: 
with my words and my speech no good can I do them, by praying for them 
perchance I shall do good. These words men say, but ofttimes they are so 
bound, that to fly they are not able. For perchance they are not bound with 
any birdlime, but are bound by duty. But if they are bound with care and 
duty, and to leave it are unable, let them say," I was wishing to be 
dissolved and to be with Christ, for it is by far the best thing: to abide 
in the flesh is necessary because of you."[2] A dove bound back by 
affection, not by cupidity, was not able to fly away because of duty to be 
fulfilled, not because of little merit. Nevertheless a longing in heart 
must needs be; nor doth any man suffer this longing, but he that hath begun 
to walk in that narrow way:[3] in order that he may know that there are not 
wanting to the Church persecutions, even in this time, when a calm is seen 
in the Church, at least with respect to those persecutions which our 
Martyrs have suffered. But there are not wanting persecutions, because a 
true saying is this, "All that will godly to live in Christ, shall suffer 
persecution."[4] ...

    8. "Behold I have gone afar fleeing, and have abode in the desert" 
(ver. 7). In what desert? Wherever thou shalt be, there will gather them 
together other men, the desert with thee they will seek, will attach 
themselves to thy life, thou canst not thrust back the society of brethren: 
there are mingled with thee also evil men; still exercise is thy due 
portion," Behold I have gone afar, and have abode in the desert." In what 
desert? It is perchance in the conscience, whither no man entereth, where 
no one is with thee, where thou art and God. For if in the desert, in any 
place, what wilt thou do with men gathering themselves together? For thou 
wilt not be able to be separated from mankind, so long as among men thou 
livest.[5] ...

    9. "I was looking for him that should save me from weakness of mind and 
tempest (ver. 8). Sea there is, tempest there is: nothing for thee 
remaineth but to cry out, "Lord, I perish."[6] Let Him stretch forth hand, 
who doth the waves tread fearlessly, let Him relieve thy dread, let Him 
confirm in Himself thy security, let Him speak to thee within, and say to 
thee, "Give  heed to Me, what I have borne:" an evil brother perchance thou 
art suffering, or an enemy without art suffering; which of these have I not 
suffered? There roared without Jews, within a disciple was betraying. There 
rageth therefore tempest, but He doth save men from weakness of mind, and 
tempest. Perchance thy ship is being troubled, because He in thee is 
sleeping. The sea was raging, the bark wherein the disciples were sailing 
was being tossed; but Christ was sleeping: at length it was seen by them 
that among them was sleeping the Ruler[7] and Creator of winds; they drew 
near and awoke Christ;[8] He commanded[9] the winds, and there was a great 
calm. With reason then perchance thy heart is troubled, because thou hast 
forgotten Him on whom thou hast believed: beyond endurance thou art 
suffering, because it hath not come into thy mind what for thee Christ hath 
borne. If unto thy mind cometh not Christ, He sleepeth: awake Christ, 
recall faith. For then in thee Christ is sleeping, if thou hast forgotten 
the sufferings of Christ: then in thee Christ is watching, if thou hast 
remembered the sufferings of Christ. But when with full heart thou shalt 
have considered what He hath suffered, wilt not thou too with equanimity 
endure? and perchance rejoicing, because thou hast been found in some 
likeness of the sufferings of thy King. When therefore on these things 
thinking thou hast begun to be comforted and to rejoice, He hath arisen, He 
hath commanded the winds; therefore there is a great calm. "I was looking 
for Him that should save me from weakness of mind and tempest."

    10. "Sink, O Lord, and divide the tongues of them" (ver. 9). He is 
referring to men troubling him and shadowing him, and he hath wished this 
thing not of anger, brethren. They that have wickedly lifted up themselves, 
for them it is expedient that they be sunk. They that have wickedly 
conspired, it is expedient for them that their tongues should be divided: 
to good let them consent, and let their tongues agree together. But if to 
one purpose[10] there were a whispering against me,[11] he saith, all mine 
enemies, let them lose their "one purpose" in evil, divided be the tongues 
of them, let them not with themselves agree together. "Sink, O Lord, and 
divide the tongues of them." Wherefore "sink"? Because themselves they have 
lifted up. Wherefore "divide"? Because for an evil thing they have united. 
Recollect that tower of proud men made after the deluge: what said the 
proud men? Lest we perish in a deluge, let us make a lofty tower.[1] In 
pride they were thinking themselves to be fortified, they builded up a 
lofty tower, and the Lord divided the tongues of them. Then they began not 
to understand one another; hence arose the beginning of many tongues. For 
before, one tongue there was: but one tongue for men agreeing was good, one 
tongue for humble men was good: but when that gathering together did into a 
union of pride fall headlong, God spared them; even though He divided the 
tongues, lest by understanding one another they should make a destructive 
unity. Through proud men, divided were the tongues; through humble 
Apostles, united were the tongues. Spirit of pride dispersed tongues, 
Spirit Holy united tongues. For when the Holy Spirit came upon the 
disciples, with the tongues of all men they spake,[2] by all men they were 
understood: tongues dispersed, into one were united. Therefore if still 
they rage and are Gentiles, it is expedient for them divided to have their 
tongues. They would have one tongue; let them come to the Church; because 
even among the diversity of tongues of flesh, one is the tongue in faith of 
heart.

    11. "For I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city." With 
reason this man was seeking the desert, for he saw iniquity and 
contradiction in the city. There is a certain city turbulent: the same it 
was that was building a tower, the same was confounded and called Babylon, 
the same through innumerable nations dispersed:[3] thence is gathered the 
Church into the desert of a good conscience. For he saw contradiction in 
the city. "Christ cometh."--"What Christ?" thou contradictest.--"Son of 
God."--" And hath God a Son?" thou contradictest.--"He was born of a 
virgin, suffered, rose again."--"And whence is it possible for this to be 
done?" thou contradictest.--Give heed at least to the glory of the Cross 
itself. Now on the brow of kings that Cross hath been fixed, over which 
enemies insulted. The effect hath proved the virtue.[4] It hath subdued the 
world, not with steel, but with wood. The wood of the Cross deserving of 
insults hath seemed to enemies, and before the wood itself standing they 
were wagging the head, and saying, "If Son of God He is, let Him come down 
from the Cross."[5] He was stretching forth His hands to a people 
unbelieving and contradicting. For if just he is that of faith liveth,[6] 
unjust he is that hath not faith. By that which here he saith "iniquity," I 
understand unbelief. The Lord therefore was seeing in the city iniquity and 
contradiction, and was stretching forth His hands to a people unbelieving 
and contradicting: and nevertheless waiting for these same, He was saying, 
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."[7] Even now indeed 
there rage the remnant of that city, even now they contradict. From the 
brows of all men now He is stretching forth hands to the remnant 
unbelieving and contradicting.

    12. "Day and night there will compass it upon the walls thereof 
iniquity, and labour."[8] "Upon the walls thereof;" upon the fortifications 
thereof, holding as it were the heads thereof, the noble men thereof. If 
that noble man were a Christian, not one would remain a pagan! Oft-times 
men say, "no one would remain a pagan, if he were a Christian." Ofttimes 
men say, "If he too were made a Christian, who would remain a pagan?" 
Because therefore not yet they are made Christians, as if walls they are of 
that city unbelieving and contradicting. How long shall these walls stand? 
Not always shall they stand. The Ark is going around the walls of Jericho: 
there shall come a time at the seventh going round of the Ark, when all the 
walls of the