(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was 
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all discovered errors.)

Transliteration of Greek words: All phonetical except: w = omega; h serves 
three puposes: 1. = Eta; 2. = rough breathing, when appearing initially 
before a vowel; 3. = in the aspirated letters theta = th, phi = ph, chi = 
ch. Accents are given immediately after their corresponding vowels: acute = 
' , grave = `, circumflex = ^. The character ' doubles as an apostrophe, 
when necessary.


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 86-89: THE END OF THE 3RD BOOK OF THE PSALMS.
PSALMS 90-94: THE BEGINNING OF THE 4TH BOOK OF THE PSALMS.


PSALM LXXXVI.(3)

    1. No greater gift could God have given to men than in making His Word, 
by which He created all things, their Head, and joining them to Him as His 
members: that the Son of God might become also the Son of man, one God with 
the Father, one Man with men; so that when we speak to God in prayer for 
mercy, we do not separate the Son from Him; and when the Body of the Son 
prays, it separates not its Head from itself: and it is one Saviour of His 
Body, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who both prays for us, and 
prays in us, and is prayed to by us. He prays for us, as our Priest; He 
prays in us, as our Head; He is prayed to by us, as our God. Let us 
therefore recognise in Him our words, and His words in us. Nor when 
anything is said of our Lord Jesus Christ, especially in prophecy, implying 
a degree of humility below the dignity of God, let us hesitate to ascribe 
it to Him who did not hesitate to join Himself unto us. ... He is prayed to 
in the form of God, in the form of a servant He prayeth; there the Creator, 
here created; assuming unchanged the creature, that it might be changed, 
and making us with Himself one Man, Head and Body. Therefore we pray to 
Him, through Him, in Him; and we speak with Him, and He speaks with us; we 
speak in Him, He speaks in us the prayer of this Psalm, which is entitled," 
A Prayer of David." For our Lord was, according to the flesh, the son of 
David; but according to His divine nature, the Lord of David, and his 
Maker. ... Let no one then, when he hears these words, say, Christ speaketh 
not; nor again say, I speak not; nay rather, if he own himself to be in the 
Body of Christ, let him say both, Christ speaks, and I speak. Be thou 
unwilling to say anything without Him, and He saith nothing without thee. 
...

    2. "Bow down Thine ear, O Lord, and hear me" (ver. 1). He speaks in the 
form of a servant: speak thou, O servant, in the form of thy Lord: "Bow 
down Thine ear, O Lord." He bows down His ear, if thou dost not lift up thy 
neck: for unto the humble He draweth near: from him that is exalted He 
removes afar off, except whom He Himself hath exalted from being humble, 
God then bows down His ear unto us. For He is above, we below: He in a high 
place, we in a lowly one, yet not deserted. "For while we were yet sinners, 
Christ died for us. For scarcely for a just man will one die: yet for a 
good man peradventure one would even dare to die:"(1) but our Lord died for 
the wicked. For no merits of ours had gone before, for which the Son of God 
should die: but the more, because there were no merits, was His mercy 
great. How sure then, how firm is the promise, by which for the righteous 
He keepeth His life, who for the wicked gave His own death "For I am poor 
and in misery." To the rich then He boweth not down His ear: unto the poor 
and him that is in misery He boweth down His ear, that is, unto the humble, 
and him that confesseth, unto him that is in need of mercy: not unto him 
that is full, who lifteth up himself and boasteth, as if he wanted nothing, 
and saith, "I thank Thee that I am not as this Publican." For the rich 
Pharisee boasted of his merits: the poor Publican confessed his sins.(2)

    3. Yet do not take what I have said, my brethren, in such a way, as if 
God does not hear those who have gold and silver, and a household, and 
farms, if they happen to be born to this estate, or hold such a rank in the 
world: only let them remember the Apostle's words: "Charge those who are 
rich in this world, that they be not highminded."(3) For those that are not 
high-minded are poor in God, and to the poor and needy and those in want He 
inclines His ear. For they know that their hope is not in gold and silver, 
nor in those things in which for a time they seem to abound. It is enough 
that riches ruin them not; it is enough that they do them no harm: for good 
they can do them none. What certainly profiteth is a work of mercy, done by 
a rich or by a poor man: by a rich man, with will and deed; by a poor man, 
with will alone. When therefore he is such an one as despiseth in himself 
everything which is wont to swell men with pride, he is one of God's poor: 
He inclines unto him His ear, for He knows that his heart is contrite. ... 
Was it really for the merit of his poverty that the poor man was carried 
away by Angels,(4) or was it for the sin of his riches that the rich man 
was sent away to be tormented? In that poor man is signified the honour 
which is paid to humility, in that rich man the condemnation which awaits 
pride. I will prove shortly that it was not riches but pride which was 
tormented in that rich man. It is certain that the poor man was carried 
into the bosom of Abraham: of Abraham himself Scripture saith that he had 
here very much gold and silver, and was rich on the earth.(5) If every one 
that is rich is hurried away to be tormented, how could Abraham have gone 
before that poor man, so as to be ready to receive him when carried to his 
bosom? But Abraham in his riches was poor, humble, reverencing all 
commands, and obeying them. So true was it that he counted all those riches 
for nothing, that on God's command he was ready to sacrifice his son,(6) 
for whom he was keeping his riches. Learn therefore ye to be poor and 
needy, whether ye have anything in this world, or whether ye have not. ...

    4. "Preserve Thou My Soul, for I am holy" (ver. 2). I know not whether 
any one could say this, "I am holy," but He who was in the world without 
sin: He by whom all sins were not committed but remitted.(1) We own it to 
be His voice saying, "Preserve Thou My Soul, for I am holy;" of course in 
that form of a servant which He had assumed. For in that was flesh, in 
that, was also a Soul. For He was not, as some(2) have said, only Flesh and 
the Word: but Flesh and Soul also, and the Word, and all this, One Son of 
God, One Christ, One Saviour; in the forth of God equal to the Father, in 
the form of a servant the Head of the Church. When therefore I hear, "for I 
am holy," I recognise His voice: yet do I exclude my own? Surely He speaks 
inseparably from His body when He speaks thus. Shall I then dare to say, 
"For I am holy"? If holy as making holy, and as needing none to sanctify, I 
should be proud and false: but if holy as made holy, as it is written, "Be 
ye holy, for I am holy,"(3) then the body of Christ may venture, and that 
one Man "crying from the end of the earth,"(4) may venture with his Head, 
and under his Head, to say, "For I am holy." For he hath received the grace 
of holiness, the grace of Baptism, and of remission of sins.(5) ... Say 
unto thy God, I am holy, for Thou hast sanctified me: because I received, 
not because I had: because Thou gavest, not because I deserved. For on 
another side thou art beginning to do an injury to our Lord Jesus Christ 
Himself. For if all Christians who are faithful and have been baptized in 
Him have put Him on, as the Apostle saith, "As many as are baptized in 
Christ have put on Christ:"(6) if they have been made members of His body, 
and say that they are not holy, they do injury to their Head, of whom they 
are members, and yet not holy. Look thou where thou art and from thy Head 
assume dignity. For thou weft in darkness, "but now light in the Lord."(7) 
"Ye were sometime darkness," he saith: but did ye remain darkness? Was it 
for this the Enlightener came, that ye might still remain darkness, or that 
in Him ye might become light? Therefore, every Christian by himself, 
therefore also the whole body of Christ, may say, it may cry everywhere, 
while it suffers tribulations, various temptations and offences, it may 
say, "Preserve Thou my soul, for I am holy: my God, save Thy servant, that 
putteth his trust in Thee." See thou, that holy man is not proud, since he 
putteth his trust in God.

    5. "Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for I have cried unto Thee all day" 
(ver. 3). Not "one day:" understand "all day" to mean continually: from the 
time that the body of Christ groans being in afflictions, until the end of 
the world, when afflictions pass away, that man groaneth and calleth upon 
God: and each one of us after his measure hath his part in that cry in the 
whole body. Thou hast cried in thy days, and thy days have passed away: 
another hath come after thee, and cried in his days: and thou here, he 
there, another elsewhere: the body of Christ crieth all the day, its 
members departing and succeeding one another. One Man it is that reaches to 
the end of the world: the same members of Christ cry, and some members 
already rest in Him, some still cry, some when we shall be at rest will 
cry, and after them others will cry. It is the whole body of Christ whose 
voice He hears, saying, "Unto Thee have I cried all the day." Our Head on 
the right hand of the Father intercedes for us: some members He recovereth, 
others He scourgeth, others He cleanseth, others He comforteth, others He 
is creating, others calling, others recalling, others correcting, others 
restoring.

    6. "Make glad the soul of Thy servant: for unto Thee, O Lord, have I 
lifted up my soul" (ver. 4). Make it glad, for unto Thee have I lifted it 
up. For it was on earth, and from the earth it felt bitterness: lest it 
should wither away in bitterness, lest it should lose all the sweetness of 
Thy grace, I lifted it up unto Thee: make Thou it glad with Thyself. For 
Thou alone art gladness: the whole world is full of bitterness. Surely with 
reason He admonishes His members to lift up their hearts. May they hear and 
do it: may they lift up unto Him what on earth is ill. There the heart 
decayeth not, if it be lifted up to God. It thou hadst corn in thy rooms 
below, thou wouldest take it up higher, lest it should grow rotten. 
Wouldest thou remove thy corn, and dost thou suffer thy heart to rot on the 
earth? Thou wouldest take thy corn up higher: lift up thy heart to heaven. 
And how can I, dost thou say? What ropes are needed? what machines? what 
ladders? Thy affections are the steps: thy will the way. By loving thou 
mountest, by neglect thou descendest. Standing on the earth thou art in 
heaven, if thou lovest God. For the heart is not so raised as the body is 
raised: the body to be lifted up changes its place: the heart to be lifted 
up changes its will.

    7. "For Thou, Lord, art good and gracious" (ver. 5). ...Even prayers 
are often hindered by vain thoughts, so that the heart scarcely remains 
fixed on God: and it would hold itself I so as to be fixed, and somehow 
flees from itself, and finds no frames in which it can enclose itself, no 
bars by which it may keep in its flights and wandering movements, and stand 
still to be made glad by its God. Scarcely does one such prayer occur 
amongst many. Each one might say that this happened to him, but that it 
happened not to others, if we did not find in the holy Scripture David 
praying in a certain place, and saying, "Since I have found my heart, O 
Lord, so that I might pray unto Thee."(1) He said that he had found his 
heart, as if it were wont to flee from him, and he to follow it like a 
fugitive, and not be able to catch it, and to cry to God, "For my heart 
hath deserted me."(2) Therefore, my brethren, thinking over what he saith 
here, I think I see what he meaneth by "gracious." I seem to feel that for 
this reason he calls God gracious, because He bears with those failings of 
ours, and yet expects prayer from us, in order to make us perfect: and when 
we have given it to Him, He receives it gratefully, and listens to it, and 
remembers not those many prayers which we pour out unthinkingly, and 
accepts the one which we can scarcely find. For what man is there, my 
brethren, who, on being addressed by his friend, when he wishes to answer 
his address, sees his friend turn away from him and speak to another, who 
is there who would bear this? Or if you appeal to a judge, and set him up 
to hear you, and all at once, while you are speaking to him, pass from him, 
and begin to converse with your friend, who would endure this? Yet God 
endures the hearts of so many persons who pray and think of different 
things. ... What then? Must we despair of mankind, and say that every man 
is already condemned into whose prayers any wandering thoughts have crept 
and interrupted them? If we say this, my brethren, I know not what hope 
remains. Therefore because there is some hope before God, because His mercy 
is great, let us say unto Him, "For unto Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my 
soul." And how have I lifted it up? As I could, as Thou gavest me strength, 
as I could catch it when it fled away. ... From infirmity I sink: heal Thou 
me, and I shall stand: strengthen Thou me, and I shall be strong. But until 
Thou do this, Thou bearest with me: "For Thou, Lord, art good and gracious, 
and of great mercy." That is, not only "of mercy," but "of great mercy:" 
for as our iniquity abounds, so also aboundeth Thy mercy. "Unto all that 
call upon Thee." What is it then which Scripture saith in many places: 
"They shall call, and I will not hear them"?(3) Yet surely Thou art 
merciful to all that call upon Thee; but that some call, yet call not upon 
Him, of whom it is said, "They have not called upon God."(4) They call, but 
not on God. Thou callest upon whatever thou lovest: thou callest upon 
whatever thou callest unto thyself, whatever thou wishest to come unto 
thee. Therefore if thou callest upon God for this reason, in order that 
money may come unto thee, that an inheritance may come unto thee, that 
worldly rank may come unto thee, thou callest upon those things which thou 
desirest may come unto thee: but thou makest God the helper of thy desires, 
not the listener to thy needs. God is good, if He gives what thou wishest. 
What if thou wishest ill, will He not then be more merciful by not giving? 
Then, if He gives not, then is God nothing to thee; and thou sayest, How 
much I have prayed, how often I have prayed, and have not been heard! Why, 
what didst thou ask? Perhaps that thy enemy might die. What if he at the 
same time were praying for thy death? He who created thee, created him 
also: thou art a man, he too is a man; but God is the Judge: He hears both, 
and He grants their prayer to neither. Thou art sad, because thou wast not 
heard when praying against him; be glad, because his prayer was not heard 
against thee. But thou sayest, I did not ask for this; I asked not for the 
death of my enemy, but for the life of my child; what ill did I ask? Thou 
askedst no ill, as thou didst think. What if "he was taken away, lest 
wickedness should alter his understanding."(5) But he was a sinner, thou 
sayest, and therefore I wished him to live, that he might be corrected. 
Thou wishedst him to live, that he might become better; what if God knew, 
that if he lived he would become worse? ... If, therefore, thou callest on 
God as God, be confident thou shalt be heard: thou hast part in that verse: 
"And of great mercy unto all that call upon Thee." ...

    8. Think, brethren, and reflect what good things God giveth unto 
sinners: and learn hence what He keepeth for His own servants. To sinners 
who blaspheme Him every day He giveth the sky and the earth, He giveth 
springs, fruits, health, children, wealth, abundance: all these good things 
none giveth but God. He who giveth such things to sinners, what thinkest 
thou He keeps for His faithful ones? Is this to be believed of Him, that He 
who giveth such things to the bad, keepeth nothing for the good? Nay verily 
He doth keep, not earth, but heaven for them. Too common a thing perhaps I 
say when I say heaven; Himself rather, who made the heaven. Fair is heaven, 
but fairer is the Maker of heaven. But I see the heavens, Him I see not. 
Because thou hast eyes to see the heavens: a heart thou hast not yet to see 
the Maker of heaven: therefore came He from heaven to earth, to cleanse the 
heart, that He may be seen who made heaven and earth. But wait thou with 
full patience for salvation. By what treatment to cure thee, He knoweth: by 
what cutting, what burning, He knoweth. Thou hast brought sickness on 
thyself by sinning: He comes not only to nurse, but also to cut and to 
burn. Seest thou not how much men suffer under the hands of physicians, 
when a man promises them an uncertain hope? Thou wilt be cured, says the 
physician: thou wilt be cured, if I cut. It is a man who speaks, and to a 
man that he speaks: neither is he sure who speaks, nor he who hears, for he 
who is speaking to the man hath not made man, and knows not perfectly what 
is passing in man: yet at the words of a man who knows not what is passing 
in man, man sooner believeth, submits his limbs, suffers himself to be 
bound, often without being bound is cut or burned; and receives perhaps 
health for a few days, even when just healed not knowing when he may die: 
perhaps, while being healed, dies; perhaps cannot be healed. But to whom 
hath God promised anything, and deceived him?

    9 "Fix my prayer in Thy ears, O Lord" (ver. 6). Great earnestness of 
him who prays! That is, let not my prayer go out of Thine ears, fix it then 
in Thine ears. How did he travail that he might fix his prayer in the ears 
of God? Let God answer and say to us; Wouldest thou that I fix thy prayer 
in My ears? Fix My law in thy heart; "and attend to the voice of my 
prayer."

    10. "In the day of my trouble I have cried unto Thee, for Thou hast 
heard me" (ver. 7). A little before he had said, All the day have I cried, 
all the day have I been troubled. Let no Christian then say that there is 
any day in which he is not troubled. By "all the day" we have understood 
the whole of time. What then, is there trouble even when it is well with 
us? Even so, trouble. How is there trouble? Because "as long as we are in 
the body we are absent from the Lord."(1) Let what will abound here, we are 
not yet in that country whither we are hastening to return. He to whom 
foreign travel is sweet, loveth not his country: if his country is sweet, 
travel is bitter; if travel is bitter, all the day there is trouble. When 
is there not trouble? When there is joy in one's country. "At Thy right 
hand are delights for evermore."(2) "Thou shalt fill me with joy," he 
saith," with Thy countenance: that I may see the delight of the Lord."(3) 
There toil and groaning shall pass away: there shall be not prayer but 
praise; there Alleluia, there Amen, the voice in concord with Angels; there 
vision without failing and love without weariness. So long therefore as we 
are not there, ye see that we are not in that which is good. But do all 
things abound? If all things abound, see if thou art assured that all 
things perish not. But I have what I had not: more money is come to me 
which I had not before. Perhaps more fear too is come, which thou hadst not 
before: perhaps thou wast so much the more secure as thou wast the poorer. 
In fine, be it that thou hast wealth, that thou hast redundance of this 
world's affluence, that thou hast assurance given thee that all this shall 
not perish; besides this, that God say unto thee, Thou shalt remain for 
ever in these things, they shall be for ever with thee, but My face thou 
shalt not see. Let none ask counsel of the flesh: ask ye counsel of the 
Spirit: let your heart answer you; let hope, faith, charity, which has 
begun to be in you, answer. If then we were to receive assurance that we 
should always be in affluence of worldly goods, and if God were to say to 
us, My face ye shall not see, would ye rejoice in these goods? Some one 
might perhaps choose to rejoice, and say, These things abound unto me, it 
is well with me, I ask no more. He hath not yet begun to be a lover of God: 
he hath not yet begun to sigh like one far from home. Far be it, far be it 
from us: let them retire, all those seductions: let them retire, those 
false blandishments: let them be gone, those words which they say daily 
unto us, "Where is thy God?" Let us pour out our soul(4) over us,(5) let us 
confess in tears, let us groan in confession, let us sigh in misery. 
Whatever is present with us besides our God, is not sweet: we would not 
have all things that He hath given, if He gives not Himself who gave all 
things.

    11. "Among the gods there is none like unto Thee, O Lord" (ver. 8). 
What did he say? "Among the gods," etc. Let the Pagans make for themselves 
what gods they will; let them bring workmen in silver and in gold, 
furbishers, sculptors; let them make gods. What kind of gods? Having eyes, 
and seeing not;(6) and the other things which the Psalm mentions in what 
follows. But we do not worship these, he says; we do not worship them, 
these are symbols. What then do ye worship? Something else that is worse: 
for the gods of the gentiles are devils. What then? Neither, say they, do 
we worship devils. Ye have certainly nothing else in your temples, nothing 
else inspires your prophets than a devil.(7) But what do ye say? We worship 
Angels, we have Angels as gods. Ye know not altogether what Angels are. 
Angels worship the one God, and favour not men who wish to worship Angels 
and not God. For we find Angels of high rank s forbidding men to adore 
them, and commanding them to adore the true God.(9) But when they say 
Angels, suppose they mean men, since it is said, "I have said, Ye are Gods, 
and all the children of the Most Highest."(10) Whatever(11) man thinks to 
the contrary, that which was made is not like Him who made it. Except God, 
whatever else there is in the universe was made by God. What a difference 
there is between Him who made, and that which was made, who can worthily 
imagine? Therefore this man said, "there is none like unto Thee, O Lord: 
there is not one that can do as thou doest." But how much God is unlike 
them he said not, because it cannot be said. Let your Charity attend: God 
is ineffable: we more easily say what He is not than what He is. Thou 
thinkest of the earth; this is not God: thou thinkest of the sea; this is 
not God: of all things which are in the earth, men and animals; this is not 
God: of all things which are in the sea, which fly through the air; this is 
not God: whatever shines in the sky, the stars, sun and moon; this is not 
God: the heaven itself; this is not God: think of the Angels, Virtues, 
Powers, Archangels, Thrones, Seats, Principalities; this is not God. What 
is He then? I could only tell thee, what He is not. Askest thou what He is? 
What "the eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard, nor hath risen up into the 
heart of man."(1) ...

    12. "All nations that Thou hast made shall come and worship before 
Thee, O Lord" (ver.9). He has announced the Church: "All nations." If there 
is any nation which God hath not made, it will not worship Him: but there 
is no nation which God hath not made; because God made Adam and Eve, the 
source of all nations, thence all nations sprang. All nations therefore 
hath God made. When was this said? When before Him there worshipped none 
but a few holy men in one people of the Hebrews, then this was said: and 
see now what it is which was said: "All nations that Thou hast made," etc. 
When these things were spoken, they were not seen, and they were believed: 
now that they are seen, why are they denied? "All nations that Thou hast 
made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord, and shall glorify Thy 
Name."

    13. "For Thou art great, and doing wondrous things: Thou alone art the 
great God" (ver. 10). Let no man call himself great. Some were to be who 
would call themselves great: against these it is said, "Thou alone art the 
great God." For what great thing is ascribed to God, when it is said that 
He alone is the great God? Who knows not that He is the great God? But 
because there were to be some who would call themselves great and make God 
little, against these it is said, "Thou alone art the great God." For what 
Thou sayest is fulfilled, not what those say who call themselves great. 
What hath God said by His Spirit? "All nations." What saith he, whoever he 
is, who calleth himself great? "Far from it: God is not worshipped in all 
nations: all nations have perished, Africa alone remains." This thou 
sayest, who callest thyself great:(2) another thing He saith who alone is 
the great God. What saith He, who alone is the great God? "All nations." I 
see what the only great God hath said: let man be silent, who is falsely 
great; great only in appearance, because he disdains to be small. Who 
disdains to be small? He who saith this. Whoever will be great among you, 
said the Lord, shall be your servant.(3) If that man had wished to be the 
servant of his brethren, he would not have separated them from their 
mother: but when he wishes to be great, and wishes not to be small, as 
would be for his welfare, God, who resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to 
the humble,(4) because He alone is great, fulfilleth all things which He 
predicted, and contradicteth those who blaspheme. For such persons 
blaspheme against Christ, who say that the Church has perished from the 
whole world, and is left only in Africa. If thou wert to say to him, Thou 
wilt lose thy villa, he would perhaps scarcely keep from laying his hand 
upon thee: and yet he says, that Christ has lost His inheritance, redeemed 
by His own Blood! See now what a wrong he does, my brethren. The Scripture 
says, "In a wide nation is the king's honour; but in the domination of the 
people is the affliction s of a prince."(6) This wrong then thou dost unto 
Christ, to say that His people is diminished to that small number. Was it 
for this thou wast born, for this thou tallest thyself a Christian, that 
thou mayest grudge Christ His glory, whose sign thou sayest that thou 
bearest on thy forehead, and hast lost out of thy heart? In a wide nation 
is the king's honour: acknowledge thy King: give Him glory, give Him a wide 
nation. What wide nation shall I give Him, dost thou say? Choose not to 
give Him from thy own heart, and thou wilt give aright. Whence am I to 
give? thou wilt say. Lo, give from hence: "All nations that Thou hast made 
shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord." Say this, confess this, and 
thou hast given a wide nation: for all nations in One are one: this is very 
oneness. For as there is a Church and Churches, and those are Churches 
which also are a Church, so that is a nation which was nations: formerly 
nations, many nations, now one nation. Why one nation? Because one faith, 
one hope, one charity, one expectation. Lastly, why not one nation, if one 
country? Our country is heavenly, our country is Jerusalem: whoever is not 
a citizen of it, belongs not to that nation: but whoever is a citizen of it 
is in that one nation of God. And this nation, from the east to the west, 
from the north and the sea, is extended through the four quarters of the 
whole world. This God saith: From the east and west, from the north and the 
sea, give glory to God. This He foretold, this He fulfilled, who alone is 
great. Let him therefore who would not be little cease from saying this 
against Him who alone is great: for there cannot be two great, God and 
Donatus.(1)

    14. "Lead me, O Lord, in Thy way, and I will walk in Thy truth" (ver. 
11). Thy way, Thy truth, Thy life, is Christ. Therefore belongeth the Body 
to Him, and the Body is of Him. I am the Way, and the Truth, and the 
Life.(2) "Lead me, O Lord, in Thy way." In what way? "And I will walk in 
Thy truth." It is one thing to lead to the way, another to guide in the 
way. Behold man everywhere poor, everywhere in need of help. Those who are 
beside the way are not Christians, or not yet Catholics: let them be guided 
to the way: but when they have been brought to the way and made Catholics 
in Christ, they must be guided by Him in the way itself, lest they fall.(3) 
Now assuredly they walk in the way. "Lead me, O Lord, in Thy way:" surely I 
am now in Thy way, lead me there. "And I will walk in Thy truth:" while 
Thou leadest I shall not err: if Thou let me go, I shall err. Pray then 
that He let thee not go, but lead thee even to the end. How doth He lead 
thee? By always admonishing, always giving thee His hand. And the arm of 
the Lord, to whom is it revealed?(4) For in giving His Christ He giveth His 
hand: in giving His hand, He giveth His Christ. He leadeth to the way, in 
leading to His Christ: He leadeth in the way, by leading in His Christ, and 
Christ is truth. "Lead me," therefore, "O Lord, in Thy way, and I will walk 
in Thy truth:" in Him verily who said, "I am the Way, and the Truth, and 
the Life."(2) For Thou who leadest in the way and the truth, whither 
leadest Thou, but unto life? In Him then, unto Him Thou leadest.

    15. "Let my heart be made glad, so that it may fear Thy name." There is 
then fear in gladness. How can there be gladness, if fear? Is not fear wont 
to be painful? There will hereafter be gladness without fear, now gladness 
with fear; for not yet is there perfect security, nor perfect gladness. If 
there is no gladness, we faint: if full security, we rejoice wrongly. 
Therefore may He both sprinkle on us gladness, and strike fear into us, 
that by the sweetness of gladness He may lead us to the abode of security; 
by giving us fear, may cause us not to rejoice wrongly, and to withdraw 
from the way. Therefore saith the Psalm: "Serve the Lord in fear, and 
rejoice unto Him with trembling:"(5) so also saith the Apostle Paul; "Work 
out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God that worketh 
in you."(6) Whatever prosperity comes then, my brethren, is rather to be 
feared: those things which ye think to be prosperous, are rather 
temptations. An inheritance cometh, there cometh wealth, there is an 
abundant overflow of some happiness: these are temptations: take care that 
they corrupt you not. Whatever prosperity also there is according to 
Christ, and the true love of Christ: if perhaps thou hast gained thy wife, 
who was of the party of Donatus: if thy sons have been made believers who 
were Pagans: if perhaps thou hast gained thy friend who wished to draw thee 
away to the theatres, and thou hast drawn him to the church: if some 
hostile opponent of thine who was furiously mad against thee, laying aside 
his fury, has become gentle, and owned God, and now barks at thee no more, 
but cries with thee against wickedness: these things are pleasant. For what 
do we rejoice for, if we do not rejoice for these things? Or what other are 
our joys, but these? But because tribulations also abound, and temptations, 
and dissensions, and schisms, and other evils,(7) without which this world 
cannot be, until iniquity pass away: let not that rejoicing make us secure, 
but let our heart be so made glad, as to fear the name of the Lord, lest it 
be made glad on one side, be stricken on another. Expect not security in 
journeying: if ever we wish for it here, it will be the birdlime of the 
body,(8) not the safety of the man. "Let my heart be made glad, so that it 
may fear Thy name."

    16. "I will confess unto Thee, O Lord my God, in my whole heart, and I 
will glorify Thy name for ever" (ver. 12): "for great is Thy mercy toward 
me, and Thou hast delivered my soul from the nethermost hell" (ver. 13). Do 
not be angry, brethren, if I do not explain what I have said as though I 
were certain. For I am a man, and as much as is granted to me concerning 
the sacred Scriptures, so much I venture to speak: nothing of myself. 
Hades(9) I have not yet seen, nor have you: and there will be perhaps 
another way for us, and not through Hades. These things are uncertain. But 
because Scripture, which cannot be gainsaid, says, "Thou hast delivered my 
soul from the nether-most hell," we understand that there are as it were 
two hells, an upper one and a lower one: for how can there be a lower hell, 
unless because there is also an upper? The one would not be called lower, 
except by comparison with that upper part. It appears then, my brethren, 
that there is some heavenly abode of Angels: there is there a life of 
ineffable joys, there immortality and incorruption, there all things 
abiding according to the gift and grace of God. That part of the creation 
is above. If then that is above, but this earthly part, where is flesh and 
blood, where is corruptibleness, where is nativity and mortality, departure 
and succession, changeableness and inconstancy, where are fears, desires, 
horrors, uncertain joys, frail hope, perishable existence; I suppose that 
all this part cannot be compared with that heaven of which I was just now 
speaking; if then this part cannot be compared with that, the one is above, 
the other below. And whither do we go after death, unless there is a depth 
deeper than this depth(1) in which we are in the flesh and in this mortal 
state? For "the body is dead," saith the Apostle, "because of sin."(2) 
Therefore even here are the dead; that thou mayest not wonder because it is 
called infernum, if it abounds with the dead. For he saith not, the body is 
about to die: but, "the body is dead." Even now surely our body hath life: 
and yet compared with that body which is to be like the bodies of Angels, 
the body of man is found to be dead, although still having life. But again, 
from this infernum, that is from this part of Hades, there is another 
lower, whither the dead go: from whence God would rescue our souls, even 
sending thither His own Son. For it was on account of these two hells, my 
brethren, that the Son of God was sent, on all, sides setting free. To this 
hell he was sent by being born, to that by dying. Therefore it is His voice 
in that Psalm, not according to any man's conjecture, but an Apostle 
explaining, when he saith, "For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell."(3) 
Therefore it is here also either His voice, "Thou hast delivered my soul 
from the nethermost hell:" or our voice by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself: 
for on this account He came even unto hell, that we might not remain in 
hell.

    17. I will mention another opinion also. For perhaps even in hell 
itself there is some lower part where are thrust the ungodly who have 
sinned most.(4) For whether in hell there were not some places where 
Abraham was, we cannot define sufficiently. For not yet had the Lord come 
to hell that He might rescue from thence the souls of all the saints who 
had gone before,(5) and yet Abraham was there in repose.(6) And a certain 
rich man when he was in torments in hell, when he saw Abraham, lifted up 
his eyes. He could not have seen him by lifting up his eyes, unless the one 
was above, the other below. And what did Abraham answer unto him, when he 
said, "send Lazarus." "My son," he said, "remember that thou in thy 
lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but 
now he is at rest, but thou art tormented. And besides this," he said, 
"between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that neither can we go 
to you, nor can any, one come from thence to us."(7) Therefore between 
these two hells, perhaps, in one of which the souls of the just have gotten 
rest, in the other the souls of the ungodly are tormented, one waiting and 
praying here, placed here in the body of Christ, and praying in the voice 
of Christ, said that God had delivered his soul from the nethermost hell, 
because He delivered him from such sins as might have been the means of 
drawing him down to the torments of the nethermost hell. ... Some one 
having a troublesome cause was to be sent to prison: another comes and 
defends him; what does he say when he thanks him? Thou hast delivered my 
soul out of prison. A debtor was to be hanged up:(8) his debt is paid; he 
is said to be delivered from being hanged up. They were not in all these 
evils: but because they were in such due course towards them,(9) that 
unless aid had been brought, they would have been in them, they rightly say 
that they are delivered from thence, whither they were not suffered by 
their deliverers to be taken. Therefore, brethren, whether it be this or 
that, consider me to be herein an inquirer into the word of God, not a rash 
assertor.(10)

    18. "O God, the transgressors of the law have arisen up against me" 
(ver. 14). Whom calleth he transgressors of the law? Not the Pagans, who 
have not received the law: for no one transgresseth that which he hath not 
received; the Apostle saith clearly, "For where there is no law, there is 
no prevarication."(11) Transgressors of the law he calls "prevaricators."  
Whom then do we understand, brethren? If we take this word from our Lord 
Himself, the transgressors of the law were the Jews. ... They did not keep 
the law, and accused Christ as if He transgressed the law. And we know what 
the Lord suffered. Thinkest thou His Body suffers no such thing now? How 
can this be? "If they called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much 
more those of his household? The disciple is not above his master, nor the 
servant above his lord."(12) The body also suffereth transgressors of the 
law, and they rise up against the Body of Christ. Who are the transgressors 
of the law? Do the Jews perchance dare to rise up against Christ? No: for 
it is not they that cause us much trouble. For they have not yet believed: 
they have not yet owned their salvation. Against the Body of Christ bad 
Christians rise up, from whom the Body of Christ daily suffereth trouble. 
All schisms, all heresies, all within who live wickedly and engraft their 
own character on those who live well, and draw them over to their own side, 
and with evil communications corrupt good manners these persons 
"transgressing the law rose up against Me."(1) Let every pious soul speak, 
let every Christian soul speak. That one which suffers not this, let it not 
speak. But if it is a Christian soul, it knows that it suffers evils: if it 
owns in itself its own sufferings, let it own herein its own voice; but if 
it is without suffering, let it(2) also be without the voice; but that it 
may not be without suffering, let it walk along the narrow way,(3) and 
begin to live godly in Christ: it must of necessity suffer this 
persecution. For "all," saith the Apostle, "who will live godly in Christ, 
suffer persecution."(4)

    "And the synagogue of the powerful have sought after My soul." The 
synagogue of the powerful is the congregation of the proud. The synagogue 
of the powerful rose up against the Head, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ, 
crying and saying with one mouth, Crucify Him, crucify Him:(5) of whom it 
is said, "The sons of men, their teeth are spears and arrows, and their 
tongue a sharp sword."(6) They did not strike, but cried: by crying they 
struck, by crying they Crucified Him. The will of those who cried was 
fulfilled, when the Lord was crucified: 'And they did not place Thee before 
their eyes." How did they not place Him before them? They did not know Him 
God. They should have spared him as Man: what they saw, according to this 
they should have walked. Suppose that He was not God, He was man: was He 
therefore to be slain? Spare Him a man, and own Him God.

    19. "And Thou, Lord God, art One who hast compassion and merciful, 
longsuffering, and very pitiful, and true" (ver. 15). Wherefore 
longsuffering and very pitiful, and One who hast compassion? Because 
hanging on the Cross He said: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what 
they do."(7) Whom prayeth He to? for whom doth He pray? Who prayeth? Where 
prayeth He? The Son prays to the Father, crucified for the ungodly, in the 
midst of very insults, not of words but of death inflicted, hanging on the 
Cross; as if for this He had His hands stretched out, that thus He might 
pray for them, that His "prayer might be directed like incense in the sight 
of the Father, and the lifting up of His hands like an evening 
sacrifice."(8)

    20. If therefore Thou art" true," "Look upon me, and have mercy upon 
me: give power unto Thy servant." Because Thou art "true," "give power unto 
Thy servant" (ver. 16). Let the time of patience pass away, the time of 
judgment come. How, "give power"? The Father judgeth no man, but hath 
committed all judgment unto the Son.(9) He rising again will come even to 
earth Himself to judge: He will appear terrible who appeared despicable. He 
will show His power, who showed His patience; on the Cross was patience; in 
the judgment will be power. For He will appear as Man judging, but in 
glory: because "as ye saw Him go," said the Angels, "so He will come."(10) 
His very form shall come to judgment; therefore the ungodly also shall see 
Him: for they shall not see the form of God. For blessed are the pure in 
heart, for they shall see God.(11) ... In the vision of the Father there is 
also the vision of the Son: and in the vision of the Son there is also the 
vision of the Father. Therefore He adds a consequence, and says: "Know ye 
not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?"(12) that is, both in Me 
seen the Father is seen, and in the Father seen the Son too is seen. The 
vision of the Father and the Son cannot be separated: where nature and 
substance is not separated, there vision cannot be separated. For that ye 
may know that the heart ought to be made ready for that place, to see the 
Divinity of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit, in which though not seen we 
believe, and by believing cleanse the heart that there may be able to be 
sight: the Lord Himself saith in another place, "He that hath My commands 
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be 
loved by My Father: and I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto 
him."(13) Did they not see Him, with whom He was talking? They both saw 
Him, and did not see Him? they saw something, they believed something: they 
saw Man, they believed in God. But in the Judgment they shall see the same 
Lord Jesus Christ as Man, together with the wicked: after the Judgment, 
they shall see God, apart from the wicked.

    21. "And save the Son of Thine handmaid." The Lord is the Son of the 
handmaid. Of what handmaid? Her who when He was announced as about to be 
born of her, answered and said, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord: be it 
unto me according to Thy word."(14) He saved the Son of His handmaid, and 
His own Son: His own Son, in the Form of God;(15) the Son of His handmaid 
in the form of a servant. Of the handmaid of God, therefore, the Lord was 
born in the form of a servant; and He said, "Save the Son of Thine 
handmaid." And He was saved from death, as ye know, His flesh, which was 
dead, being raised again. ... And each several Christian placed in the Body 
of Christ may say, "Save the Son of Thine handmaid." Perhaps he cannot say, 
"Give power unto Thy servant:" because it was He, the Son, who received 
power. Yet wherefore saith He not this also? Was it not said to servants, 
"Ye shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel"?(1) 
and the servants say, "Know ye not that we shall judge Angels?"(2) Each one 
therefore of the saints receiveth also power, and each several saint is the 
son of His handmaid. What if he is born of a pagan mother, and has become a 
Christian? How can the son of a pagan be the son of His handmaid: He is 
indeed the son of a pagan mother after the flesh, but the son of the Church 
after the Spirit.

    22. "Show me a sign for good" (ver. 17). What sign, but that of the 
Resurrection? The Lord says: "This wicked and provoking generation seeketh 
after a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of the 
Prophet Jonah."(3) Therefore in our Head a sign has been shown already for 
good; each one of us also may say, "Show me a sign for good:" because at 
the last trumpet, at the coming of the Lord, both "the dead shall be raised 
incorruptible, and we shall be changed."(4) This will be a sign for good. 
"That they who hate me may see it, and be ashamed." In the judgment they 
shall be ashamed unto their destruction, who will not now be ashamed unto 
their healing. Now therefore let them be ashamed: let them accuse their own 
ways, let them keep the good way: because none of us liveth without being 
ashamed, unless he first be ashamed and live anew. Now God grants them the 
approach of a healthy shame, if they despise not the medicine of 
confession: but if they will not now be ashamed, then they shall be 
ashamed, when "their iniquities shall convince them to their face."(5) How 
shall they be ashamed? When they shall say, "These are they whom we had 
sometimes in derision, and a parable of reproach. We fools counted their 
life madness: how are they numbered among the children of God! What hath 
pride profited us?"(6) Then shall they say this: let them say it now, and 
they say it to their health. For let each one turn humbly to God, and now 
say, What hath my pride profited me? and hear from the Apostle, "For what 
glory had ye in those things of which ye are now ashamed?"(7) Ye see that 
there is even now a wholesome shame while there is a place of penitence: 
but then one which will be late, useless, fruitless. ...

    23. "For Thou, Lord, hast holpen me, and comforted me." "Hast holpen 
me," in struggle; "and comforted me," in sorrow. For no one seeketh 
comfort, but he who is in misery. Would ye not be consoled? Say that ye are 
happy, and ye hear, "My people" (now ye answer, and I hear a murmur, as of 
persons who remember the Scriptures.(8) May God, who hath written this in 
your hearts, confirm it in your deeds. Ye see, brethren, that those who say 
unto you, Ye are happy, seduce you), "O My people, they that call you happy 
cause you to err, and disturb the way of your feet."(9) So also from the 
Epistle of the Apostle James: "Be afflicted, and mourn: let your laughter 
be turned to mourning."(10) Ye see what ye have heard read: when would such 
things be said unto us in the land of security? This surely is the land of 
offences, and temptations, and of all evils, that we may groan here, and 
deserve to rejoice there; here to be troubled, and there to be comforted, 
and to say, "For Thou hast delivered mine eyes from tears, my feet from 
falling: I will please the Lord in the land of the living."(11) This is the 
land of the dead. The land of the dead passeth, the land of the living 
cometh. In the land of the dead is labour, grief, fear, tribulation, 
temptation, groaning, sighing: here are false happy ones, true unhappy, 
because happiness is false, misery is true. But he that owneth himself to 
be in true misery, will also be in true happiness: and yet now because thou 
art miserable, hear the Lord saying, "Blessed are they that mourn."(12) O 
blessed they that mourn! Nothing is so akin to misery as mourning: nothing 
so remote and contrary to misery as blessedness: Thou speakest of those who 
mourn, and Thou callest them blessed! Understand, He saith, what I say: I 
call those who mourn blessed. Wherefore blessed? In hope. Wherefore 
mourning? In act. For they mourn in this death, in these tribulations, in 
their wandering: and because they own themselves to be in this misery, and 
mourn, they are blessed. Wherefore do they mourn? The blessed Cyprian was 
put to sorrow in his passion: now he is comforted with his crown; now 
though comforted, he was sad. For our Lord Jesus Christ still intercedeth 
for us: all the Martyrs who are with Him intercede for us. Their 
intercessions pass not away, except when our mourning is passed away: but 
when our mourning shall have passed away, we all with one voice, in one 
people, in one country, shall receive comfort, thousands of thousands 
joined with Angels playing upon harps, with choirs of heavenly powers 
living in one city. Who mourneth there? Who there sigheth? Who there 
toileth? Who there needeth? Who dieth there? Who there showeth mercy? Who 
breaketh bread to the hungry there, where all are satisfied with the bread 
of righteousness? No one saith unto thee, Receive a stranger; there no one 
will be a stranger to thee: all live in their own country. No one saith 
unto thee, Set at one thy friends disputing; in everlasting peace they 
enjoy the Face of God. No one sixth unto thee, Visit the sick; health and 
immortality abide for ever. No one saith unto thee, Bury the dead; all 
shall be in everlasting life. Works of mercy stop, because misery is found 
not. And what shall we do there? Shall we perhaps sleep? If now we fight 
against ourselves, although we carry about a house of sleep, this flesh of 
ours, and keep watch with these lights, and this solemn feast gives us a 
mind to watch; what wakefulness shall that day give unto. Therefore we 
shall be awake, we shall not sleep. What shall we do?(1) There will be no 
works of mercy, because there will be no misery. Perhaps there will be 
these necessary works which there are here now, of sowing, ploughing, 
cooking, grinding, weaving? None of these, for there will be no want. Thus 
there will be no works of mercy, because misery is past away: where there 
is no want nor misery, there will be neither works of necessity nor of 
mercy. What will be there? What business shall we have? What action? Will 
there be no action, because there is rest? Shall we sit there, and be 
torpid, and do nothing? If our love grow cold, our action will grow cold. 
How then will that love resting in the face of God, for whom we now long, 
for whom we sigh, how will it inflame us, when we shall have come to Him? 
He for whom while as yet we see Him not, we so sigh, how will He enlighten 
us, when we shall have come to Him? How will He change us? What will He 
make of us? What then shall we do, brethren? Let the Psalm tell us: 
"Blessed are they who dwell in Thy house." Why? "They shall praise Thee for 
ever and ever."(2) This will be our employment, praise of God. Thou lovest 
and praisest. Thou wilt cease to praise, if thou cease to love. But thou 
wilt not cease to love, because He whom thou seest is such an One as 
offends thee not by any weariness: He both satisfies thee, and satisfies 
thee not. What I say is wonderful. If I say that He satisfies thee, I am 
afraid lest as though satisfied thou shouldest wish to depart, as from a 
dinner or from a supper. What then do I say? doth He not satisfy thee? I am 
afraid again, that if I say, He doth not satisfy thee, thou shouldest seem 
to be in want: and shouldest be as it were empty, and there should be in 
thee some void which ought to be filled. What then shall I say, except what 
can be said, but can hardly be thought? He both satisfies thee, and 
satisfies thee not: for I find both in Scripture. For while He said, 
"Blessed are the hungry, for they shall be filled;"(3) it is again said of 
Wisdom, "Those who eat Thee shall hunger again, and those who drink shall 
thirst again."(4) Nay, but He did not say "again," but he said, "still:" 
for "shall thirst again" is as if once having been filled he departed and 
digested, and returned to drink. So it is, "Those who eat Thee shall still 
hunger:' thus when they eat they hunger: and those who drink Thee, even 
thus when drinking, thirst. What is it, to thirst in drinking? Never to 
grow weary. If then there shall be that ineffable and eternal sweetness, 
what doth He now seek of us, brethren, but faith unfeigned, firm hope, pure 
charity? and man may walk in the way which the Lord hath given, may bear 
troubles, and receive consolations.

PSALM LXXXVII.(5)

    1. The Psalm which has just been sung is short, if we look to the 
number of its words, but of deep interest in its thoughts.(6) ... The 
subject of song and praise in that Psalm is a city, whose citizens are we, 
as far as we are Christians: whence we are absent, as long as we are 
mortal: whither we are tending: through whose approaches, undiscoverable 
among the brakes and thorns that entangle them, the Sovereign of the city 
made Himself a path(7) for us to reach it. Walking thus in Christ, and 
pilgrims till we arrive, and sighing as we long for a certain ineffable 
repose that dwells within that city, a repose of which it is promised, that 
"the eye of man hath never seen" such, "nor ear heard, nor hath it entered 
into his heart to conceive;" let us chant the song of a longing heart: for 
he who truly longs, thus sings within his soul, though his tongue be 
silent: he who does not, however he may resound in human ears, is voiceless 
to God. See what ardent lovers of that city were they by whom these words 
were composed, by whom they have been handed down to us; with how deep a 
feeling were they sung by those! A feeling that the love of that city 
created in them: that love the Spirit of God inspired; "the love of God," 
he saith, "shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto 
us." Fervent with this Spirit then, let us listen to what is said of that 
city.

    2. "Her foundations are upon the holy hills" (ver. 1). The Psalm had as 
yet said nothing of the city: it begins thus, and says, "Her foundations 
are upon the holy hills." Whose? There can be no doubt that foundations, 
especially among the hills, belong to some city. Thus filled with the Holy 
Spirit, and with many thoughts of love and longing for that city, as if 
after long internal meditation, that citizen bursts out, "Her foundations 
are upon the holy hills;" as if he had already said something concerning 
it. And how could he have said nothing on a subject, respecting which in 
his heart he had never been silent? For how could "her foundations" have 
been written, of which nothing had been said before? But, as I said, after 
long and silent travailing in contemplation of that city in his mind, 
crying to God, he bursts out into the ears of men thus: "Her foundations 
are upon the holy hills." And, supposing persons who heard to enquire of 
what city he spoke he adds, "the Lord loveth the gates of Sion." Behold, 
then, a city whose foundations are upon the holy hills, a city called Sion, 
whose gates the Lord loveth, as he adds, "above all the dwellings of 
Jacob." But what doth this mean, "her foundations on the holy hills"? What 
are the holy hills upon which this city is built? Another citizen tells us 
this more explicitly, the Apostle Paul: of this was the Prophet a citizen, 
of this the Apostle citizen: and they spoke to exhort the other citizens. 
But how are these, I mean the Prophets and Apostles, citizens? Perhaps in 
this sense; that they are themselves the hills, upon which are the 
foundations of this city, whose gates the Lord loveth Let then another 
citizen state this clearly, that I may not seem to guess. Speaking to the 
Gentiles, and telling them how they were returning, and being, as it were, 
framed together into the holy structure, "built," he says, "upon the 
foundations of the Apostles and Prophets:" and because neither the Apostles 
nor Prophets, upon whom the foundations of that city rest, could stand by 
their own power, he adds, "Jesus Christ Himself being the head comer 
stone."(1) That the Gentiles, therefore, might not think they had no 
relation to Sion: for Sion was a certain city of this world, which bore a 
typical resemblance as a shadow to that Sion of which he presently 
speaketh, that Heavenly Jerusalem, of which the Apostle saith, "which is 
the mother of us all;"(2) they might not be said to bear no relation to 
Sion, on the ground that they did not belong to the Jewish people, he 
addresses them thus: "Now therefore ye are no more strangers and 
foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of 
God, and are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets."(3) 
Thou seest the structure of so great a city: yet whereon does all that 
edifice repose, where does it rest, that it may never fall? "Jesus Christ 
Himself," he saith, "being the head corner stone."

    3. ... But that ye may know that Christ is at once the earliest and the 
highest foundation, the Apostle saith, "Other foundation can no man lay 
than is laid, which is Christ Jesus."(4) How, then, are the Prophets and 
Apostles foundations, and yet Christ so, than whom nothing can be higher? 
How, think you, save that as He is openly styled, Saint of saints, so 
figuratively Foundation of foundations? Thus if thou art thinking of 
mysteries, Christ is the Saint of saints: if of a subject flock, the 
Shepherd of shepherds: if of a structure, the Pillar of pillars. In 
material edifices, the same stone cannot be above and below: if at the 
bottom, it cannot be at the top: and vice versa: for almost all bodies are 
liable to limitations in space: nor can they be everywhere or for ever; but 
as the Godhead is in every place, from every place symbols may be taken for 
It; and not being any of these things in external properties, It can be 
everything in figure. Is Christ a door, in the same sense as the doors we 
see made by carpenters? Surely not; and yet He said, "I am the door." Or a 
shepherd, in the same capacity as those who guard sheep? though He said, "I 
am the Shepherd." Both these names occur in the same passage: in the 
Gospel, He said, that the shepherd enters by the door: the words are, "I am 
the good Shepherd;" and in the same passage, "I am the door:"(5) and who is 
the shepherd who enters by the door? "I am the good Shepherd:" and what is 
the door by which Thou, Good Shepherd, enterest? How then art Thou all 
things? In the sense in which everything is through Me. To explain: when 
Paul enters by the door, does not Christ? Wherefore? Not because Paul is 
Christ: but since Christ is in Paul: and Paul acts through Christ. The 
Apostle says, "Do ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me?"(6) When His 
saints and faithful disciples enter by the door, does not Christ enter by 
the door? How are we to prove this? Since Saul, not yet called Paul, was 
persecuting those very saints, when He called to him from Heaven, "Saul, 
Saul, why persecutest thou Me?"(7) Himself then is the foundation, and 
corner stone: rising from the bottom: if indeed from the bottom: for the 
base of this foundation is the highest exaltation of the building: and as 
the support of bodily fabrics rests upon the ground, that of spiritual 
structures reposes on high. Were we building up ourselves upon the earth, 
we should lay our foundation on the lowest level: but since our edifice is 
a heavenly one, to Heaven our Foundation has gone before us: so that our 
Saviour, the corner stone, the Apostles, and mighty Prophets, the hills 
that bear the fabric of the city, constitute a sort of living structure. 
This building now cries from your hearts; that you may be built up into its 
fabric, the hand of God, as of an artificer, worketh even through my 
tongue. Nor was it without a meaning that Noah's ark was made of "square 
beams,"(1) which were typical of the form of the Church. For what is it to 
be made square? Listen to the resemblance of the squared stone: like 
qualities should the Christian have: for in all his trials he never falls: 
though pushed, and, as it were, turned over, he falls not: and thus too, 
whichever way a square stone is turned, it stands erect. ...  In earthly 
cities, one thing is the structure of buildings: another thing are the 
citizens that dwell therein: that city is builded of its own inmates, who 
are themselves the blocks that form the city, for the very stones are 
living "Ye also," says the Apostle, "as living stones, are built up a 
spiritual house,(2) words that are addressed to ourselves. Let us then 
pursue the contemplation of that city.

    4. "The Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of 
Jacob" (ver. 2). I have made the foregoing remarks, that ye may not imagine 
the gates are one thing, the foundations another. Why are the Apostles and 
Prophets foundations? Because their authority is the support of our 
weakness. Why are they gates? because through them we enter the kingdom of 
God: for they proclaim it to us: and while we enter by their means, we 
enter also through Christ, Himself being the Gate. And twelve gates of 
Jerusalem are spoken of,(3) and the one gate is Christ, and the twelve 
gates are Christ for Christ dwells in the twelve gates, hence was twelve 
the number of the Apostles. There is a deep mystery in this number of 
twelve "Ye shall sit," says our Saviour, "on twelve thrones, judging the 
twelve tribes of Israel."(4) If there are twelve thrones there, there will 
be no room for the judgment-seat of Paul, the thirteenth Apostle, though he 
says that he shall judge not men only, but even Angels; which, but the 
fallen Angels? "Know ye not, that we shall judge Angels,"(5) he writes. The 
world would answer, Why dost thou boast that thou shalt be a judge? Where 
will be thy throne? Our Lord spoke of twelve thrones for the twelve 
Apostles: one, Judas, fell, and his place being supplied by Matthias, the 
number of twelve thrones was made up:(6) first, then, discover room for thy 
judgment-seat; then threaten that thou wilt judge. Let us, therefore, 
reflect upon the meaning of the twelve thrones. The expression is typical 
of a sort of universality, as the Church was destined to prevail throughout 
the whole world: whence this edifice is styled a building together into 
Christ: and because judges come from all quarters, the twelve thrones are 
spoken of, just as the twelve gates, from the entering in from all sides 
into that city. Not only therefore have those twelve, and the Apostle Paul, 
a claim to the twelve thrones, but, from the universal signification, all 
who are to sit in judgment: in the same manner as all who enter the city, 
enter by one or the other of the twelve gates. There are four quarters of 
the globe: East, West, North, and South: and they are constantly alluded to 
in the Scriptures. From all those four winds; our Lord declares in the 
Gospel that He will call his sheep "from the four winds;"(7) therefore from 
all those four winds is the Church called. And how called? On every side it 
is called in the Trinity: no otherwise is it called than by Baptism in the 
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: four then being thrice 
taken, twelve are found. Knock, therefore, with all your hearts at these 
gates: and let Christ cry within you: "Open me the gates of 
righteousness."(8) For He went before us the Head: He follows Himself in 
His Body. ...

    5. "Very excellent things are said of thee, thou city of God" (ver. 3). 
He was, as it were, contemplating that city of Jerusalem on earth: for 
consider what city he alludes to, of which certain very excellent things 
are spoken. Now the earthly city has been destroyed: after suffering the 
enemy's rage, it fell to the earth; it is no longer what it was: it 
exhibited the emblem, and the shadow hath passed away. Whence then are 
"very excellent things spoken of thee, thou city of God"? Listen whence: "I 
will think upon Rahab and Babylon, with them that know Me" (ver. 4). In 
that city, the Prophet, in the person of God, says, "I will think upon 
Rahab and Babylon." Rahab belongs not to the Jewish people;(9) Babylon 
belongs not to the Jewish people; as is clear from the next verse: "For the 
Philistines(10) also, and Tyre, with the Ethiopians, were there." 
Deservedly then, "very excellent things are spoken of thee, thou city of 
God:" for not only is the Jewish nation, born of the flesh of Abraham, 
included therein, but all nations also, some of which are named that all 
may be understood. "I will think," he says, "upon Rahab:" who is that 
harlot? That harlot in Jericho, who received the spies and conducted them 
out of the city by a different road: who trusted beforehand in the promise, 
who feared God, who was told to hang out of the window a line of scarlet 
thread, that is, to bear upon her forehead the sign of the blood of Christ. 
She was saved there, and thus represented the Church of the Gentiles: 
whence our Lord said to the haughty Pharisees, "Verily I say unto you, that 
the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you."(1) 
They go before, because they do violence: they push their way by faith, and 
to faith a way is made, nor can any resist, since they who are violent take 
it by force. For it is written, "The kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, 
and the violent take it by force."(2) Such was the conduct of the robber, 
more courageous on the cross than in the place of ambush.(3) "I will think 
upon Rahab and Babylon." By Babylon is meant the city of this world: as 
there is one holy city, Jerusalem; one unholy, Babylon: all the unholy 
belong to Babylon, even as all the holy to Jerusalem. But he slideth(4) 
from Babylon to Jerusalem. How, but by Him who justifieth the ungodly: 
Jerusalem is the city of the saints; Babylon of the wicked: but He cometh 
who justifieth the ungodly: since it is said, "I will think" not only "upon 
Rahab," but "upon Babylon," but with whom? "with them that know Me." ...

    6. Listen now to a deep mystery. Rahab is there through Him, through 
whom also is Babylon, now no longer Babylon, but beginning to be Jerusalem. 
The daughter is divided against her mother, and will be among the members 
of that queen to whom is said, "Forget thine own people, and thy father's 
house, so shall the king have pleasure in thy beauty."(5) For how could 
Babylon aspire to Jerusalem? How could Rahab reach those foundations? How 
could the Philistines, or Tyre, or the people of the Ethiopians? Listen to 
this verse, "Sion, my mother, a man shall say."(6) There is then a man who 
saith this: through whom all those I have mentioned make their approach. 
Who is this man? It tells if we hear, if we understand. It follows, as if a 
question had been raised, through whose aid Rahab, Babylon, the 
Philistines, Tyre, and the Morians, gained an entrance. Behold, through 
whom they come; "Sion, my mother, a man shall say; and a man was born in 
her, and Himself the Most High hath founded her" (ver. 5). What, my 
brethren, can be clearer? Truly, because "very excellent things are spoken 
of thee, thou city of God." Lo, "Sion, O mother, a man shall say." What 
man? "He who was born in her."(7) It is then the man who was born in her, 
and He Himself hath rounded her. Yet how can He be born in the city which 
He Himself founded? It had already been founded, that therein He might be 
born. Understand it thus, if thou canst: "Mother Sion, he shall say;" but 
it is "a man" that "shall say, Mother Sion; yea, a man was born in her:" 
and yet "he hath founded her" (not a man, but), "the Most High." As He 
created a mother of whom He would be born, so He founded a city in which He 
would be born. What hope is ours, brethren! On our behalf the Most High, 
who founded the city, addresses that city as a mother: and "He was born in 
her, and the Most High hath founded her."

    7. As though it were said, How do ye know this? All of us have sung 
these Psalms: and Christ, Man for our sake, God before us, sings within us 
all. But is this much to say, "before us," of Him who was before heaven and 
earth and time? He then, born for our sakes a man, in that city, also 
founded her when He was the Most High. Yet how are we assured of this? "The 
Lord shall rehearse it when He writeth up the people" (ver. 6), as the 
following verse has it. "The Lord shall declare, when He writeth up the 
people, and their princes." What princes?(8) "Those who were born in her;" 
those princes who, born within her walls, became therein princes: for 
before they could become princes in her, God chose the despised things of 
the world to confound the strong. Was the fisherman, the publican, a 
prince? They were indeed princes: but because they became such in her. 
Princes of what kind were they? Princes come from Babylon, believing 
monarchs of this world, came to the city of Rome, as to the head of 
Babylon: they went not to the temple of the Emperor, but to the tomb of the 
Fisherman. Whence indeed did they rank as princes? "God chose the weak 
things of the world to confound the strong, and the foolish things He hath 
chosen, and things which are not as though they were, that things which are 
may be brought to nought."(9) This He doth who "from the ground raises the 
helpless, and from the dunghill exalts the poor."(10) For what purpose? 
"That He may set him with the princes, even with the princes of His 
people."(11) This is a mighty deed, a deep source of pleasure and 
exultation. Orators came later into that city, but they could never have 
done so, had not fishermen preceded them. These things are glorious indeed, 
but where could they take place, but in that city of God, of whom very 
excellent things are spoken?

    8. So thus, after drawing together and mingling every source of joyous 
exultation, how doth he conclude? "The dwelling as of all that shall be 
made joyous is in Thee" (ver. 7). As if all made joyous, all rejoicing, 
shall dwell in that city. Amid our journeyings here we suffer bruises: our 
last home shall be the home of joy alone. Toil and groans shall perish: 
prayers pass away, hymns of praise succeed. There shall be the dwelling of 
the happy; no longer shall there be the groans of those that long, but the 
gladness of those who enjoy. For He will be present for whom we sigh: we 
shall be like Him, as we shall see Him as He is:(1) there it will be our 
whole task to praise and enjoy the presence of God: and what beyond shall 
we ask for, when He alone satisfies us, by whom all things were made? We 
shall dwell and be dwelt in; and shall be subject to Him, that God may be 
all in all.(2) "Blessed," then, "are they that dwell in Thy house." How 
blessed? Blessed in their gold, and silver, their numerous slaves, and 
multiplied offspring? "Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house: for ever 
and ever they will be praising Thee."(3) Blessed in that sole labour(4) 
which is rest! Let this then be the one and only object of our desire, my 
brethren, when we shall have reached this pass. Let, us prepare ourselves 
to rejoice in God: to praise Him. The good works which conduct us thither, 
will not be needed there. I described, as far as I could, only 
yesterday,(5) our condition there: works of charity there will be none, 
where there will be no misery: thou shalt not find one in want, one naked, 
no one will meet you tormented with thirst, there will be no stranger, no 
sick to visit, no dead to bury, no disputants to set at peace. What then 
wilt thou find to do? Shall we plant new vines, plough, traffic, make 
voyages, to support the necessities of the body? Deep quiet shall be there; 
all toilsome work, that necessity demands, will cease: the necessity being 
dead, its works will perish too. What then will be our state? As far as 
possible, the tongue of a man thus told us. "As it were, the dwelling of 
all who shall be made perfect is in Thee."(6) Why does he say, "as it 
were'? Because there shall be such joy there as we know not here. Many 
pleasures do I behold here, and many rejoice in this world, some in one 
thing, others in another; but there is nothing to compare with that 
delight, but it shall be "as it were" being made joyful. For if I say 
joyfulness, men at once think of such joyfulness as men use to have in. 
wine, in feasting, in avarice, and in the world's distinctions. For men are 
elated by these things, and mad with a kind of joy: but "there is no joy, 
saith the Lord, unto the wicked."(7) There is a sort of joyfulness which 
the ear of man hath not heard, nor his eye seen, nor hath it entered into 
his heart to conceive.(8) "As it were, the dwelling of all who shall be 
made joyful is in Thee." Let us prepare for other delights: for a kind of 
shadow is what we find here, not the reality: that we may not expect to 
enjoy such things there as here we delight in: otherwise our self-denial 
will be avarice. Some persons, when invited to a rich banquet, where there 
are many and costly dishes yet to come on, abstain from breaking their 
fast: if you ask the reason, they tell you that they are fasting: which is 
indeed a great work, a Christian work. Yet be not hasty in praising them: 
examine their motives: it is their belly, not religion, that they are 
consulting. That their appetite may not be palled by ordinary dishes, they 
abstain till more delicate food is set before them. This fast then is for 
the gullet's sake. Fasting is undoubtedly important: it fights against the 
belly and the palate; but sometimes it fights for them. Thus, my brethren, 
if ye imagine that we shall find any such pleasures in that country to 
which the heavenly trumpet urges us on, and on that account abstain from 
present enjoyments, that ye may receive the like more plentifully there, ye 
imitate those I have described, who fast only for greater feasting, and 
abstain only for greater indulgence. Do not ye like this: prepare 
yourselves for a certain ineffable delight: cleanse your hearts from all 
earthly and secular affections. We shall see something, the sight of which 
will make us blessed: and that alone will suffice for us. What then? Shall 
we not eat? Yes: we shall eat: but that shall be our food, which will ever 
refresh, and never fail. "In Thee is the dwelling of all who shall be, as 
it were, made joyful." He has already told us how we shall be made joyful. 
"Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: for ever and ever they will be 
praising Thee."(3) Let us praise the Lord as far as we are able, but with 
mingled lamentations: for while we praise we long for Him, and as yet have 
Him not. When we have, all our sorrows will be taken from us, and nothing 
will remain but praise, unmixed and everlasting. Now let us pray.(9)

PSALM LXXXVIII.(10)

    1. The Title of this eighty-seventh Psalm contains a fresh subject for 
enquiry: the words occurring here, "for Melech to respond," being nowhere 
else found. We have already given our opinion on the meaning of the titles 
Psalmus Cantici and Canticum Psalmi:(1) and the words, "sons of Core," are 
constantly repeated, and have often been explained: so also "to the end;" 
but what comes next in this title is peculiar. For "Melech" we may 
translate into Latin "for the chorus," for chorus is the sense of the 
Hebrew word Melech.(2) ... The Passion of our Lord is here prophesied. Now 
the Apostle Peter saith, "Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an 
example, that we should follow His steps;"(3) this is the meaning of "to 
respond." The Apostle John also saith, "As Christ laid down His life for 
us, so ought we also to lay down our lives for the brethren;"(4) this also 
is to respond. But the choir signifies concord, which consists in charity: 
whoever therefore in imitation of our Lord's Passion gives up his body to 
be burnt, if he have not charity, does not answer in the choir, and 
therefore it profiteth him nothing.(5) Further, as in Latin the terms 
Precentor and Succentor are used to denote in music the performer who sings 
the first part, and him who takes it up; just so in this song of the 
Passion, Christ going before is followed by the choir of martyrs Unto the 
end of gaining crowns in Heaven. This is sung by" the sons of Core," that 
is, the imitators of Christ's Passion: as Christ was crucified in Calvary, 
which is the interpretation of the Hebrew word Core.(6) This also is "the 
understanding of Aeman the Israelite:"(7) words occurring at the end of 
this title. Aeman is said to mean, "his brother:" for Christ deigns to make 
those His brethren, who understand the mystery of His Cross, and not only 
are not ashamed of it, but faithfully glory in it, not praising themselves 
for their own merits, but grateful for His grace: so that it may be said to 
each of them, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile,"(8) 
just as holy Scripture says of Israel himself, that he was without 
guile.(9)

    2. "O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before Thee" 
(ver. 1). Let us therefore now hear the voice of Christ singing before us 
in prophecy, to whom His own choir should respond either in imitation, or 
in thanksgiving.

    "O let my prayer enter into Thy presence, incline Thine ear unto my 
calling" (ver. 2). For even our Lord prayed, not in the form of God, but in 
the form of a servant; for in this He also suffered. He prayed both in 
prosperous times, that is, by "day," and in calamity, which I imagine is 
meant by "night." The entrance of prayer into God's presence is its 
acceptance: the inclination of His ear is His compassionate listening to 
it: for God has not such bodily members as we have. The passage is however, 
as usual, a repetition.(10)

    3. "For my soul is filled with evils, and my life draweth nigh unto 
hell" (ver. 3). Dare we speak of the Soul of Christ as" filled with evils," 
when the passion had strength as far as it had any, only over the body? ... 
The soul therefore may feel pain without the body: but without the soul the 
body cannot. Why therefore should we not say that the Soul of Christ was 
full of the evils of humanity, though not of human sins? Another Prophet 
says of Him, that He grieved for us:(11) and the Evangelist says, "And He 
took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful 
and very heavy:" and our Lord Himself saith unto them of Himself, "My soul 
is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death."(12) The Prophet who composed this 
Psalm, foreseeing that this would happen, introduces Him saying, "My soul 
is full of evils, and My life draweth nigh unto hell." For the very same 
sense is here expressed in other words, as when He said, "My soul is 
sorrowful, even unto death." The words, "My soul is sorrowful," are like 
these, "My soul is full of evils:" and what follows, "even unto death," 
like, "my life draweth nigh unto hell." These feelings of human infirmity 
our Lord took upon Him, as He did the flesh of human infirmity, and the 
death of human flesh, not by the necessity of His condition, but by the 
free will of His mercy, that He might transfigure into Himself His own 
body, which is the Church (the head of which He deigned to be), that is, 
His members in His holy and faithful disciples: that if amid human 
temptations any one among them happened to be in sorrow and pain, he might 
not therefore think that he was separated from His favour: that the body, 
like the chorus following its leader, might learn from its Head, that these 
sorrows were not sin, but proofs of human weakness. We read of the Apostle 
Paul, a chief member in this body, and we hear him confessing that his soul 
was full of such evils, when he says, that he feels "great heaviness and 
continual sorrow in heart for his brethren according to the flesh, who are 
Israelites."(1) And if we say that our Lord was sorrowful for them also at 
the approach of His Passion, in which they would incur the most atrocious 
guilt, I think we shall not speak amiss. Lastly, the very thing said by our 
Saviour on the Cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they 
do,"(2) is expressed in this Psalm below, "I am counted as one of them that 
go down into the pit" (ver. 4): by them who knew not what they were doing, 
when they imagined that He died like other men, subjected to necessity, and 
overcome by it. The word "pit" is used for the depth of woe or of Hell. "I 
have been as a man that hath no help."

    4. "Free among the dead" (ver. 5). In these words our Lord's Person is 
most clearly shown: for who else is free among the dead but He who though 
in the likeness of sinful flesh is alone among sinners without sin?(3) ... 
He therefore, "free among the dead," who had it in His power to lay down 
His life, and again to take it; from whom no one could take it, but He laid 
it down of His own free will; who could revive His own flesh, as a temple 
destroyed by them, at His will; who, when all had forsaken Him on the eve 
of His Passion, remained not alone, because, as He testifies, His Father 
forsook Him not;(4) was nevertheless by His enemies, for whom He prayed, 
who knew not what they did, ... counted "as one who hath no help; like unto 
them that are wounded, and lie in the grave." But he adds, "Whom thou dost 
not yet remember:" and in these words there is to be remarked a distinction 
between Christ and the rest of the dead. For though He was wounded, and 
when dead laid in the tomb,(5) yet they who knew not what they were doing, 
or who He was, regarded Him as like others who had perished from their 
wounds, and who slept in the tomb, who are as yet out of remembrance of 
God, that is, whose hour of resurrection has not yet arrived. For thus the 
Scripture speaks of the dead as sleeping, because it wishes them to be 
regarded as destined to awake, that is, to rise again. But He, wounded and 
asleep in the tomb, awoke on the third day, and became "like a sparrow that 
sitteth alone on the housetop,"(6) that is, on the right hand of His Father 
in Heaven: and now "dieth no more, death shall no more have dominion over 
Him."(7) Hence He differs widely from those whom God hath not yet 
remembered to cause their resurrection after this manner: for what was to 
go before in the Head, was kept for the Body in the end. God is then said 
to remember, when He does an act: then to forget, when He does it not: for 
neither can God forget, as He never changes, nor remember, as He can never 
forget. "I am counted" then, by those who know not what they do, "as a man 
that hath no help:" while I am "free among the dead," I am held by these 
men "like unto them that are wounded, and lie in the grave." Yet those very 
men, who account thus of Me, are further said to be "cut away from Thy 
hand," that is, when I was made so by them, "they were cut away from Thy 
hand;" they who believed Me destitute of help, are deprived of the help of 
Thy hand: for they, as he saith in another Psalm,(8) have digged a pit 
before me, and are fallen into the midst of it themselves. I prefer this 
interpretation to that which refers the words, "they are cut away from Thy 
hand," to those who sleep in the tomb, whom God hath not yet remembered: 
since the righteous are among the latter, of whom, even though God hath not 
yet called them to the resurrection, it is said, that their "souls are in 
the hands of God,"(9) that is, that "they dwell under the defence of the 
Most High; and shall abide under the shadow of the God of Heaven."(10) But 
it is those who are cut away from the hand of God, who believed that Christ 
was cut off from His hand, and thus accounting Him among the wicked, dared 
to slay Him.

    5. "They laid Me in the lowest pit" (ver. 6), that is, the deepest pit. 
For so it is in the Greek. But what is the lowest pit, but the deepest woe, 
than which there is none more deep? Whence in another Psalm it is said, 
"Thou broughtest me out also of the pit of misery."(11) "In a place of 
darkness, and in the shadow of death," whiles they knew not what they did, 
they laid Him there, thus deeming of Him; they knew not Him "whom none of 
the princes of this world knew."(12) By the "shadow of death," I know not 
whether the death of the body is to be understood, or that of which it is 
written, "That they walked in darkness and in the land of the shadow of 
death, a light is risen on them,"(13) because by belief they were brought 
from out of the darkness and death of sin into light and life. Such an one 
those who knew not what they did thought our Lord, and in their ignorance 
accounted Him among those whom He came to help, that they might not be such 
themselves.

    6. "Thy indignation lieth hard upon Me" (ver. 7), or, as other copies 
have it, "Thy anger;" or, as others, "Thy fury:" the Greek word thumo`s 
having undergone different interpretations. For where the Greek copies have 
orgh`, no translator hesitated to express it by the Latin ira; but where 
the word is thumo`s, most object to rendering it by ira, although many of 
the authors of the best Latin style, in their translations from Greek 
philosophy, have thus rendered the word in Latin. But I shall not discuss 
this matter further: only if I also were to suggest another term, I should 
think "indignation" more tolerable than "fury," this word in Latin not 
being applied to persons in their senses. What then does this mean, "Thy 
indignation lieth hard upon Me," except the belief of those, who knew not 
the Lord of Glory?(1) who imagined that the anger of God was not merely 
roused, but lay hard upon Him, whom they dared to bring to death, and not 
only death, but that kind, which they regarded as the most execrable of 
all, namely, the death of the Cross: whence saith the Apostle, "Christ hath 
redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us: for it is 
written, Cursed is every one that hangeth upon a tree."(2) On this account, 
wishing to praise His obedience which He carried to the extreme of 
humility, he says, "He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death;" 
and as this seemed little, he added, "even the death of the Cross;"(3) and 
with the same view as far as I can see, he says in this Psalm, "And all thy 
suspensions," or, as some translate "waves," others "tossings," "Thou hast 
brought over Me." We also find in another Psalm, "All thy suspensions and 
waves are come in upon Me,"(4) or, as some have translated better, "have 
passed over Me:" for it is dih^lthon in Greek, not eish^lthon: and where 
both expressions are employed, "waves" and "suspensions," one cannot be 
used as equivalent to the other. In that passage we explained "suspensions" 
as threatenings, "waves" as the actual sufferings: both inflicted by God's 
judgment: but in that place it is said, "All have passed over Me,"  here, 
"Thou hast brought all upon Me." In the other case, that is, although some 
evils took place, yet, he said, all those which are here mentioned passed 
over; but in this case, "Thou hast brought them upon Me." Evils pass over 
when they do not touch a man, as things which hang over him, or when they 
do touch him, as waves. But when he uses the word "suspensions," he does 
not say they passed over, but, "Thou hast brought them upon Me," meaning 
that all which impended had come to pass. All things which were predicted 
of His Passion impended, as long as they remained in the prophecies for 
future fulfilment.

    7." Thou hast put Mine acquaintance far from Me (ver. 8). If we 
understand by acquaintance those whom He knew, it will be all men; for whom 
knew He not? But He calls those acquaintance, to whom He was Himself known, 
as far as they could know Him at that season: at least so far forth as they 
knew Him to be innocent, although they considered Him only as a man, not as 
likewise God. Although He might call the righteous whom He approved, 
acquaintance, as He calls the wicked unknown, to whom He was to say at the 
end, "I know you not."(5) In what follows, "and they have set Me for an 
abhorrence to themselves;" those whom He called before "acquaintance," may 
be meant, as even they felt horror at the mode of that death: but it is 
better referred to those of whom He was speaking above as His persecutors. 
"I was delivered up, and did not get forth." Is this because His disciples 
were without, while He was being tried within?(6) Or are we to give a 
deeper meaning to the words, "I cannot get forth" as signifying, "I  
remained hidden in My secret counsels, I showed not who I was, I did not 
reveal Myself, was not made manifest"? And so it follows,--

    "My eyes became weak from want" (ver. 9). For what eyes are we to 
understand? If the eyes of the flesh in which He suffered, we do not read 
that His eyes became weak from want, that is, from hunger, in His Passion, 
as is often the case; as He was betrayed after His Supper, and crucified on 
the same day: if the inner eyes, how were they weakened from want, in which 
there was a light that could never fail? But He meant by His eyes those 
members in the body, of which He was Himself the head, which, as brighter 
and more eminent and chief above the rest, He loved. It was of this body 
that the Apostle was speaking, when he wrote, taking his metaphor from our 
own body, "If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing?" etc.(7) 
What he wished understood by these words, he has expressed more clearly, by 
adding, "Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular."(8) 
Wherefore as those eyes, that is, the holy Apostles, to whom not flesh and 
blood, but the Father which is in Heaven had revealed Him, so that Peter 
said, "Thou art Christ, the Son of the Living God,"(9) when they saw Him 
betrayed, and suffering such evils, saw Him not such as they wished, as He 
did not come forth, did not manifest Himself in His virtue and power, but 
still hidden in His secrecy,(10) endured everything as a man overcome and 
enfeebled, they became weak for want, as if their food, their Light, had 
been withdrawn from them.

    8. He continues, "And I have called upon Thee." This indeed He did most 
clearly, when upon the Cross. But what follows? "All the day I have 
stretched forth My hands unto Thee," must be examined how it must be taken. 
For if in this expression we understand the tree of the Cross, how can we 
reconcile it with the "whole day"? Can He be said to have hung upon the 
Cross during the whole day, as the night is considered a part of the day? 
But if day, as opposed to night, was meant by this expression, even of this 
day, the first and no small portion had passed by at the time of His 
crucifixion. But if we take "day" in the same sense of time (especially as 
the word is used in the feminine, a gender which is restricted to that 
sense in Latin, although not so in Greek, as it is always used in the 
feminine, which I suppose to be the reason for its translation in the same 
gender in our own version), the knot of the question will be drawn tighter: 
for how can it mean for the whole space of time, if He did not even for one 
day stretch forth His hands on the Cross? Further, should we take the whole 
for a part, as Scripture sometimes uses this expression, I do not remember 
an instance in which the whole is taken for a part, when the word "whole" 
is expressly added. For in the passage of the Gospel where the Lord saith, 
"The Son of Man shall be three days and three nights in the heart of the 
earth,"(1) it is no extraordinary licence to take the whole for the part, 
the expression not being for three "whole" days and three whole nights: 
since the one intermediate day was a whole one, the other two were parts, 
the last being part of the first day, the first part of the last. But if 
the Cross is not meant here, but the prayer, which we find in the Gospel 
that He poured forth in the form of a servant to God the Father, where He 
is said to have prayed long before His Passion, and on the eve of His 
Passion, and also when on the Cross, we do not read anywhere that He did so 
throughout the whole day. Therefore by the stretched-out hands throughout 
the whole day, we may understand the continuation of good works in which He 
never ceased from exertion.

    9. But as His good works profited only the predestined to eternal 
salvation, and not all men, nor even all those among whom they were done, 
he adds, "Dost thou show wonders among the dead?" (ver. 10). If we suppose 
this relates to those whose flesh life has left, great wonders have been 
wrought among the dead, inasmuch as some of them have revived:(2) and in 
our Lord's descent into Hell, and His ascent as the conqueror of death, a 
great wonder was wrought among the dead. He refers then in these words, 
"Dost Thou show wonders among the dead?" to men so dead in heart, that such 
great works of Christ could not rouse them to the life of faith: for he 
does not say that wonders are not shown to them because they see them not, 
but because they do not profit them. For, as he says in this passage, "the 
whole day have I stretched forth My hands to Thee:" because He ever refers 
all His works to the will of His Father, constantly declaring that He came 
to fulfil His Father's will:(3) so also, as an unbelieving people saw the 
same works, another Prophet saith, "I have spread out my hands all day unto 
a rebellious people, that believes not, but contradicts."(4) Those then are 
dead, to whom wonders have not been shown, not because they saw them not, 
but since they lived not again through them. The following verse, "Shall 
physicians revive them, and shall they praise Thee?" means, that the dead 
shall not be revived by such means, that they may praise Thee. In the 
Hebrew there is said to be a different expression: giants being used where 
physicians are here: but the Septuagint translators, whose authority is 
such that they may deservedly be said to have interpreted by the 
inspiration of the Spirit of God owing to their wonderful agreement, 
conclude, not by mistake, but taking occasion from the resemblance in sound 
between the Hebrew words expressing these two senses, that the use of the 
word is an indication of the sense in which the word giants is meant to be 
taken. For if you suppose the proud meant by giants, of whom the Apostle 
saith, "Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of 
this world?"(5) there is no incongruity in calling them physicians, as if 
by their own unaided skill they promised the salvation of souls: against 
whom it is said, "Of the Lord is safety."(6) But if we take the word giant 
in a good sense, as it is said of our Lord, "He rejoiceth as a giant to run 
his course;"(7) that is Giant of giants, chief among the greatest and 
strongest, who in His Church excel in spiritual strength. Just as He is the 
Mountain of mountains; as it is written, "And it shall come to pass in the 
last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be manifested in the 
top of the mountains:"(8) and the Saint of saints: there is no absurdity in 
styling these same great and mighty men physicians. Whence saith the 
Apostle, "if by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my 
flesh, and might save some of them."(9) But even such physicians, even 
though they cure not by their own power (as not even of their own do those 
of the body), yet so far forth as by faithful ministry they assist towards 
salvation, can cure the living, but not raise the dead: of whom it is said, 
"Dost Thou show wonders among the dead?" For the grace of God, by which 
men's minds in a certain manner are brought to live a fresh life, so as to 
be able to hear the lessons of salvation from any of its ministers 
whatever, is most hidden and mysterious. This grace is thus spoken of in 
the Gospel. "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me 
draw him;"(1) ... in order to show, that the very faith by which the soul 
believes, and springs into fresh life from the death of its former 
affections, is given us by God. Whatever exertions, then, the best 
preachers of the word,(2) and persuaders of the truth through miracles, may 
make with men, just like great physicians: yet if they are dead, and 
through Thy grace have not a second life, "Dost Thou show wonders among the 
dead, or shall physicians raise them? and shall they" whom they raise 
"praise Thee"? For this confession declares that they live: not, as it is 
written elsewhere, "Thanksgiving perisheth from the dead, as from one that 
is not."(3)

    10. "Shall one show Thy loving-kindness in the grave, or Thy 
faithfulness in destruction?" (ver. 11). The word "show" is of course 
understood as if repeated, Shall any show Thy faithfulness in destruction? 
Scripture loves to connect loving-kindness and faithfulness, especially in 
the Psalms. "Destruction" also is a repetition of "the grave," and 
signifies them who are in the grave, styled above "the dead," in the verse, 
"Dost thou show wonders among the dead?" for the body is the grave of the 
dead soul; whence our Lord's words in the Gospel, "Ye are like unto whited 
sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but within are full of 
dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye outwardly appear 
righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."(4)

    11. "Shall thy wondrous works be known in the dark, and thy 
righteousness in the land where all things are forgotten?" (ver. 12), the 
dark answers to the land of forgetfulness: for the unbelieving are meant by 
the dark, as the Apostle saith, "For ye were sometimes darkness;"(5) and 
the land where all things are forgotten, is the man who has forgotten God; 
for the unbelieving soul can arrive at darkness so intense, "that the fool 
saith in his heart, There is no God."(6) Thus the meaning of the whole 
passage may thus be drawn out in its connection: "Lord, I have called upon 
Thee," amid My sufferings; "all day I have stretched forth my hands unto 
Thee" (ver. 13). I have never ceased to stretch forth My works to glorify, 
Thee. Why then do the wicked rage against Me, unless because "Thou showest 
not wonders among the dead"? because those wonders move them not to faith, 
nor can physicians restore them to life that they may praise Thee, because 
Thy hidden grace works not in them to draw them unto believing: because no 
man cometh unto Me, but whom Thou hast drawn. Shall then "Thy loving-
kindness be showed in the grave"? that is, the grave of the dead soul, 
which lies dead beneath the body's weight: "or Thy faithfulness in 
destruction"? that is, in such a death as cannot believe or feel any of 
these things. "For how then in the darkness" of this death, that is, in the 
man who in forgetting Thee has lost the light of his life, "shall Thy 
wondrous works and Thy righteousness be known." ...

    12. But that those prayers, the blessings of which surpass all words, 
may be more fervent and more constant, the gift that shall last unto 
eternity is deferred, while transitory evils are allowed to thicken. And so 
it follows: "Lord, why hast Thou cast off my prayer?" (ver. 14), which may 
be compared with another Psalm:(7) "My God, My God, look upon me; why hast 
Thou forsaken me?" The reason is made matter of question, not as if the 
wisdom of God were blamed as doing so without a cause; and so here. "Lord, 
why hast Thou cast off my prayer?" But if this cause be attended to 
carefully, it will be found indicated above; for it is with the view that 
the prayers of the Saints are, as it were, repelled by the delay of so 
great a blessing, and by the adversity they encounter in the troubles of 
life, that the flame, thus fanned, may burst into a brighter blaze.

    13. For this purpose he briefly sketches in what follows the troubles 
of Christ's body. For it is not in the Head alone that they took place, 
since it is said to Saul too, "Why persecutest thou Me?"(8) and Paul 
himself, as if placed as an elect member in the same body, saith, "That I 
may fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my 
flesh."(9) "Why then, Lord, hast Thou cast off my soul? why hidest Thou Thy 
face from me?"

    "I am poor, and in toils from my youth up: and when lifted up, I was 
thrown down, and troubled" (ver. 15).

    "Thy wraths went over me: Thy terrors disturbed me" (ver. 16).

    "They came round about me all day like water: they compassed me about 
together" (ver. 17).

    "A friend Thou hast put far from me: and mine acquaintance from my 
misery" (ver. 18). All these evils have taken place, and are happening in 
the limbs of Christ's body, and God turns away His face from their prayers, 
by not hearing as to what they wish for, since they know not that the 
fulfilment of their wishes would not be good for them. The Church is 
"poor," as she hungers and thirsts in her wanderings for that food with 
which she shall be filled in her own country: she is "in toils from her 
youth up," as the very Body of Christ saith in another Psalm, "Many a time 
have they overcome me from my youth."(1) And for this reason some of her 
members are lifted up even in this world, that in them may be the greater 
lowliness. Over that Body, which constitutes the unity of the Saints and 
the faithful, whose Head is Christ, go the wraths of God: yet abide not: 
since it is of the unbelieving only that it is written, that "the wrath of 
God abideth upon him."(2) The terrors of God disturb the weakness of the 
faithful, because all that can happen, even though it actually happen not, 
it is prudent to fear; and sometimes these terrors so agitate the 
reflecting soul with the evils impending around, that they seem to flow 
around us on every side like water, and to encircle us in our fears. And as 
the Church while on pilgrimage is never free from these evils, happening as 
they do at one moment in one of her limbs, at another in another, he adds, 
"all day," signifying the continuation in time, to the end of this world. 
Often too, friends and acquaintances, their worldly interests at stake, in 
their terror forsake the Saints; of which saith the Apostle, "all men 
forsook me: may it not be laid to their charge."(3) But to what purpose is 
all this, but that early in the morning, that is, after the night of 
unbelief, the prayers of this holy Body may in the light of faith prevent 
God, until the coming of that salvation, which we are at present saved by 
hoping for, not by having, while we await it with patience and 
faithfulness. Then the Lord will not repel our prayers, as there will no 
longer be anything to be sought for, but everything that has been rightly 
asked, will be obtained: nor will He turn His face away from us, since we 
shall see Him as He is:(4) nor shall we be poor, because God will be our 
abundance, all in all:(5) nor shall we suffer, as there will be no more 
weakness: nor after exaltation shall we meet with humiliation and 
confusion, as there will be no adversity there: nor bear even the transient 
wrath of God, as we shall abide in His abiding love: nor will His terrors 
agitate us, because His promises realized will bless us: nor will our 
friend and acquaintance, being terrified, be far from us, where there will 
be no foe to dread.

PSALM LXXXIX.(6)

    1. Understand, beloved, this Psalm, which I am about to explain, by the 
grace of God, of our hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, and be of good cheer, 
because He who promised, will fulfil all, as He has fulfilled much: for it 
is not our own merit, but His mercy, that gives us confidence in Him. He 
Himself is meant, in my belief, by "the understanding of AEthan the 
Israelite:"(7) which has given this Psalm its title. You see then, who is 
meant by AEthan: but the meaning of the word is "strong." No man in this 
world is strong, except in the hope of God's promises: for as to our own 
deservings, we weak, in His mercy we are strong. Weak then in himself, 
strong in God's mercy, the Psalmist thus begins: "I will sing of Thy 
mercies, O Lord, for ever: with my mouth will I make known Thy truth unto 
all generations" (ver. 1).

    2. Let my limbs, he saith, serve the Lord: I speak, but it is of Thine 
I speak. "With my mouth will I make known Thy truth:" if I obey not Thee, I 
am not Thy servant: if I speak on my own part, I am a liar. To speak then 
from Thee,(8) and in my own person, are two things: one mine, one Thine: 
Truth Thine, language mine. Let us hear then what faithfulness he maketh 
known, what mercies he singeth.

    3. "For Thou hast said, Mercy shall be built up for ever" (ver. 2). It 
is this that I sing: this is Thy truth, for the making known of which my 
mouth serveth. In such wise Thou sayest, I build, as not to destroy: for 
some Thou destroyest and buildest not; and some whom Thou destroyest Thou 
dost rebuild. For unless there were some who were destroyed to be rebuilt, 
Jeremiah would not have written, "See, I have this day set thee to throw 
down and to build."(9) And indeed all who formerly worshipped images and 
stones could not be built up in Christ, without being destroyed as to their 
old error. While, unless some were destroyed not to be built up, it would 
not be written, "He shall destroy them, and not build them up."(10)... In 
what follows, he joins these two words, mercy and faithfulness; "For Thou 
hast said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: Thy truth shall be established 
in the Heavens:" in which mercy and truth are repeated, "for all the ways 
of the Lord are mercy and truth,"(11) for truth in the fulfilment of 
promises could not be shown, unless mercy in the remission of sins 
preceded. Next, as many things were promised in prophecy even to the people 
of Israel that came according to the flesh from the seed of Abraham, and 
that people was increased that the promises of God might be fulfilled in 
it; while yet God did not close the fountain of His goodness even to the 
Gentiles, whom He had placed under the rule of the Angels, while He 
reserved the people of Israel as His own portion: the Apostle expressly 
mentions the Lord's mercy and truth as referring to these two parties. For 
he calls Christ "a minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God, to 
confirm the promises made unto the fathers."(1) See how God deceived not; 
see how He cast not off His people, whom He foreknew. For while the Apostle 
is treating of the fall of the Jews, to prevent any from believing them so 
far disowned(2) of God, that no wheat from that floor's fanning could reach 
the granary, he saith, "God hath not cast away His people, whom He 
foreknew; for I also am an Israelite."(3) If all that nation are thorns, 
how am I who speak unto you wheat? So that the truth of God was fulfilled 
in those Israelites who believed, and one wall from the circumcision is 
thus brought to meet the corner stone. But this stone would not form a 
corner, unless it received another wall from the Gentiles: so that the 
former wall relates in a special manner to the truth, the latter to the 
mercy of God. "Now I say," says the Apostle, "that Jesus Christ was a 
minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promise 
made unto the fathers: and that the Gentiles might glorify God for His 
mercy."(4) Justly then is it added, "Thy truth shall Thou stablish in the 
Heavens:" for all those Israelites who were called to be Apostles became as 
Heavens which declare the glory of God: as it is written by them, "The 
Heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His 
handywork."(5) . . . Since, although they were taken up from hence before 
the Church tilled the I whole world, yet as "their words reached to the 
ends of the world," we are right in supposing this which we have just read, 
"Thy truth shalt Thou stablish in the Heavens," fulfilled in them.

    4. "Thou hast said, I have made a covenant with My chosen" (ver. 3). 
What covenant, but the new, by which we are renewed to a fresh inheritance, 
in our longing desire and love of which we sing a new song. "I have made a 
covenant with My chosen," saith the Psalmist: "I have sworn unto David My 
servant." How confidently does he speak, who understands, whose mouth 
serves truth! I speak without fear; since "Thou hast said." If Thou makest 
me fearless, because Thou hast said, how much more so dost Thou make me, 
when Thou hast sworn! For the oath of God is the assurance of a promise. 
Man is justly forbidden to swear:(6) lest by the habit of swearing, since a 
man may be deceived, he fall into perjury. God alone swears securely, 
because He alone is infallible.

    5. Let us see then what God hath sworn. "I have sworn," He saith, "to 
David My servant; thy seed will I establish for ever" (ver. 4). But what is 
the seed of David, but that of Abraham. And what is the seed of Abraham? 
"And to thy seed," He saith, "which is Christ."(7) But perhaps that Christ, 
the Head of the Church, the Saviour of the body,(8) is the seed of Abraham, 
and therefore of David; but we are not Abraham's seed? We are assuredly; as 
the Apostle saith, "And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and 
heirs according to the promise."(9) In this sense, then, let us take the 
words, brethren, "Thy seed will I stablish for ever," not only of that 
Flesh of Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, but also of all of us who believe 
in Christ, for we are limbs of that Head. This body cannot be deprived of 
its Head: if the Head is in glory for ever, so are the limbs, so that 
Christ remains entire for ever. "Thy seed will I stablish for ever: and set 
up thy throne to generation and generation." We suppose he saith, "for 
ever," because it is "to generation and generation:" since he has said 
above, with "my mouth will I ever be showing Thy truth to generation and 
generation." What is "to generation and generation"? To every generation: 
for the word needed not as many repetitions, as the coming and passing away 
of the several generations. The multiplication of generations is signified 
and set forth to notice by the repetition. Are possibly two generations to 
be understood, as ye are aware, my beloved brethren, and as I have before 
explained? for there is now a generation of flesh and blood: there will be 
a future generation in the resurrection of the dead. Christ is proclaimed 
here: He will be proclaimed(10) there: here He is proclaimed, that He may 
be believed in: there, He will be welcomed, that He may be seen. "I will 
set up Thy throne from one generation to another." Christ hath now a throne 
in us, His throne is set up in us: for unless he sate enthroned within us, 
He would not rule us: but if we were not ruled by Him, we should be thrown 
down by ourselves. He therefore sits within us, reigning over us: He sits 
also in another generation, which will come from the resurrection of the 
dead. Christ will reign for ever over His Saints. God has promised this; He 
hath said it: if this is not enough, God hath sworn it. As then the promise 
is certain, not on account of our deservings, but of His pity, no one ought 
to be afraid in proclaiming that which he cannot doubt of. Let that 
strength then inspire our hearts, whence Aethan received his name, "strong 
in heart:" let us preach the truth of God, the utterance of God, His 
promises, His oath; and let us, strengthened on every side by these means, 
glorify God, and by bearing Him along with us, become Heavens.

    6. "O Lord, the very Heavens shall praise Thy wondrous works" (ver. 5). 
The Heavens will not praise their own merits, but Thy wondrous works, O 
Lord. For in every act of mercy on the lost, of justification of the 
unrighteous, what do we praise but the wondrous works of God? Thou praisest 
Him, because the dead have risen: praise Him yet more, because the lost are 
redeemed. What grace, what mercy of God! Thou seest a man yesterday a 
whirlpool of drunkenness, to-day an ornament of sobriety: a man yesterday 
the sink of luxury, to-day the beauty of temperance: yesterday a blasphemer 
of God, to-day His praiser: yesterday the slave of the creature, to-day the 
worshipper of the Creator. From all these desperate states men are thus 
converted: let them not look at their own merits: let them become Heavens, 
and praise the wondrous works of Him by whom they were made Heavens. ...

    7. "For who is he among the clouds, who shall be compared unto Thee, 
Lord!" (ver. 6). Is this to be the praise of the Heavens, is this to be 
their rain? What? are the preachers confident, because "none among the 
clouds shall be compared unto the Lord"? Does it appear to you, brethren, a 
high ground of praise, that the clouds cannot be compared with their 
Creator? If it is taken in its literal, not in its mystical meaning, it is 
not so: what? are the stars that are above the clouds to be compared with 
the Lord? what? can the Sun, Moon, Angels, Heavens, be even compared with 
the Lord? Why is it then that he says, as if he meant some high praise, 
"For who is he among the clouds?" etc. We understand, my brethren, those 
clouds, as the Heavens, to be the preachers of truth; Prophets, Apostles, 
the announcers of the word of God. ... If therefore the clouds are the 
preachers of the truth, let us first enquire why they are clouds. For the 
same men are Heavens and clouds: Heavens from the brightness of the truth, 
clouds from the hidden things of the flesh: for all clouds are obscure, 
owing to their mortality: and they come and go. It is on account of these 
very obscurities of the flesh, that is, of the clouds, that the Apostle 
saith, "Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who 
will bring to light the hidden things of darkness."(1) You see at this 
moment what a man is saying: but what he has in his heart, you cannot see: 
what is forced from the cloud, you see, what is kept within the cloud, you 
see not. For whose eyes pierce the cloud? The clouds therefore are the 
preachers of the truth in the flesh. The Creator of all things Himself came 
in the flesh. ... We are called clouds on account of the flesh, and we are 
preachers of the truth on account of the showers of the clouds: but our 
flesh comes in one way, His by another. We too are called sons of God, but 
He is the Son of God in another sense. His cloud comes from a Virgin, He is 
the Son from eternity, co-eternal(2) with the Father. "Who is he then among 
the clouds, that shall be compared unto the Lord? and what is he among the 
sons of God, that shall be like unto the Lord?" Let the Lord Himself say 
whether He can find one like unto Himself. "Whom do men say that I the Son 
of Man am?" Because I appear, because I am seen, because I walk among you, 
and perhaps at present I am become common; say, whom do men say that I the 
Son of Man am? Surely when they see a son of man, they see a cloud; but 
say, "Whom do men say that I am?" In answer they gave Him the reports of 
men; "Some say that Thou art John the Baptist: some Elias, and others 
Jeremias, or one of the prophets." Many clouds and sons of God are here 
mentioned: for because they were righteous and holy, as the sons of God, 
Jeremias, Elias, and John are called also sons of God: in their character 
of preachers of God, they are styled clouds. Ye have said what clouds men 
imagine Me to be: do ye too say, "Whom say ye that I am?" Peter replying in 
behalf of all, one for those who were one,(3) answered, "Thou art the 
Christ, the Son of the living God;"(4) not like those sons of God who are 
not made equal to Thee: Thou hast come in the flesh: but not as the clouds, 
who are not to be compared unto Thee.

    8. ... "God is very greatly to be feared in the counsel of the 
righteous, and to be had in dread of all them that are round about Him" 
(ver. 7). God is everywhere; who therefore are round about Him, who is 
everywhere? For if He has some round about Him, He is represented as finite 
on every side. Moreover, if it is truly said to God s and of God, "of His 
greatness there is no end;"(6) who remain, who are round about Him, except 
because He who is everywhere, chose to be born of the flesh on one spot, to 
dwell among one nation, in one place to be crucified, from one spot to rise 
again and ascend into Heaven. Where He did this, the Gentiles are round 
about Him. If He remained where He did these things, He would not be 
"great, and be had in dread of all them that are round about Him;" but 
since He preached when there in such a manner as to send preachers of His 
own name through all nations over the whole world; by working miracles 
among His servants, He is become "great, and to be had in dread of all them 
that are round about Him."

    9. "O Lord God of Hosts, who is like unto Thee? Thy truth, most mighty 
Lord, is on every side" (ver. 8). Great is Thy power Thou hast made Heaven 
and earth, and all things that in them are: but greater still is thy 
loving-kindness, which has shown forth Thy truth to all around Thee. For if 
Thou hadst been preached only on the spot where Thou didst deign to be 
born, to suffer, to rise again, to ascend; the truth of that promise of God 
would have been fulfilled, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers: 
but the promise, "that the Gentiles may glorify God for His mercy,"(1) 
would not have been fulfilled, had not that truth been explained, and 
diffused to those around Thee from the spot where Thou didst deign to 
appear. On that spot Thou didst thunder out of Thy own cloud: but to 
scatter rain upon the Gentiles round about, Thou hast sent other clouds. 
Truly in Thy power hast Thou fulfilled what Thou hast said, "Hereafter 
shall ye see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming 
in the clouds of Heaven."(2)

    10. ... For ye have heard, like men accustomed to the watering of the 
clouds of God, "Thy truth" then "is in the circuit of Thee." But when 
without persecutions, when without opposition, since it is said, that "He 
was born for a sign which shall be spoken against"?(3) Since then that 
nation, where Thou didst deign to be born, and to dwell, was as a land 
separated from the waves of the heathen, so that it appeared dry and ready 
for watering with rain, while the rest of the nations were as a sea in the 
bitterness of their sterility; what do Thy preachers who scatter Thy truth 
in circuit of Thee, when the waves of that sea rage furiously? "Thou rulest 
the power of the sea" (ver. 9). For what was the result of the sea raging 
thus, but the day which we are now keeping holy? It slew Martyrs, scattered 
seeds of blood, the harvest of the Church sprang up. Safely then let the 
clouds go forth: let them diffuse Thy truth in circuit of Thee, let them 
not fear the savage waves. "Thou rulest the power of the sea." The sea 
swells, buffets, and roars: but "God is faithful, who will not suffer you 
to be tempted beyond what ye are able:"(4) and so, "Thou stillest the waves 
thereof when they rise."

    11. Lastly, what hast Thou done in the sea itself, to pacify its rage, 
and to weaken it? "Thou hast humbled the proud(5) as one that is wounded" 
(ver. 10). There is a certain proud serpent in the sea, of which another 
passage of Scripture speaks, "I will command the serpent, and he shall bite 
him;"(6) and again, "There is that Leviathan, whom Thou hast made to mock 
him,"(7) whose head He bruises above the water. "Thou," he says," hast 
humbled the proud, as one that is wounded." Thou hast humbled Thyself, and 
the proud was humbled: for the proud held the proud ones through pride: but 
the great One is humbled, and by believing in Him become small. While the 
little one is nourished by the example of One who from greatness descended 
to humility, the devil has lost what he held: because the proud held only 
the proud. When such an example of humility was displayed before them, men 
learned to condemn their own pride, and to imitate the humility of God. 
Thus also the devil, by losing those whom he had in his power, has even 
himself been humbled; not chastened, but thrown prostrate. "Thou hast 
humbled the proud like one that is wounded." Thou hast been humbled, and 
hast humbled others: Thou hast been wounded, and hast wounded others: for 
Thy blood, as it was shed to blot the handwriting of sins,(8) could not but 
wound him. For what was the ground of his pride, except the bond which he 
held against us. This bond, this handwriting, Thou hast blotted out with 
Thy blood: him therefore hast Thou wounded, from whom Thou hast rescued so 
many victims. You must understand the devil wounded, not by the piercing of 
the flesh, which he has not, but by the bruising of his proud heart. "Thou 
hast scattered Thine enemies abroad with Thy mighty arm."

    12. "The heavens are thine, the earth also is Thine" (ver. 11). From 
Thee, over Thy earth they rain. Thine are the heavens, by whom is preached 
Thy truth in circuit of Thee; "Thine is the earth," which has received Thy 
truth in circuit of Thee; and what has resulted from that rain? "Thou hast 
laid the foundation of the round world, and all that therein is." "Thou 
hast created the north and the seas" (ver. 12). For nothing has any power 
against Thee, against its Creator. The world indeed may rage through its 
own malice, and the perversity of its will; does it nevertheless pass over 
the bound laid down by the Creator, who made all things? Why then do I fear 
the north wind? Why do I fear the seas? In the north indeed is the devil, 
who said, "I will sit in the sides of the north; I will be like the Most 
High;"(1) but Thou hast humbled, as one wounded, the proud one. Thus what 
Thou hast done in them has more force for Thy dominion, than their own will 
has for their wickedness. "Thou hast created the north and the seas."

    13. "Thabor and Hermon shall rejoice in Thy name." Those mountains are 
here understood, but they have a meaning. "Thabor and Hermon shall rejoice 
in Thy name." Thabor, when interpreted, signifies an approaching light. But 
whence comes the light of which it is said, "Ye are the light of the 
world,"(2) unless from Him concerning whom it is written, "That was the 
true light, which lighteth every man coming into the world"?(3) The light 
then which is the light of the world comes from that light which is not 
kindled from any other source, so that there is no fear lest it be 
extinguished. The light then comes from Him, who is that candle which is 
not set beneath the bushel, but on a candlestick, Thabor the coming light. 
Hermon means his curse. Justly the light comes and is made the curse of 
him. Of whom but the devil, the wounded one, the proud one? Our 
illumination then is given from Thee; that he is held accursed of us, who 
kept us in his own error and pride, is from Thee. "Thabor and Hermon, 
therefore, shall rejoice," not in their own merits, "but in Thy name." For 
they shall say, "Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but to Thy name give the 
praise," on account of the raging sea: lest "the heathen say, Where is now 
their God?"(4)

    14. "Thou hast a mighty arm" (ver. 13). Let no man arrogate anything to 
himself. "Thou hast a mighty arm:" by Thee we were created, by Thee we have 
been defended. "Thou hast a mighty arm: strong be Thy hand, and high be Thy 
right hand."

    15. "Righteousness and judgment are the preparation of Thy seat" (ver. 
14). Thy righteousness and judgment will appear in the end: they are now 
hidden. Of Thy righteousness it is treated in another Psalm,(5) "on the 
hidden things of the Son." There will then be a manifestation of Thy 
righteousness and judgment: some will be set on the right, others on the 
left hand:(6) and the unbelieving will tremble, when they see what now they 
mock at, and believe not: the righteous will rejoice, when they shall see 
what they now see not, yet believe. "Righteousness and judgment are the 
preparation of Thy seat:" especially in the Day of Judgment. What then now? 
"mercy and truth go before Thy face." I should fear the preparation of Thy 
seat, Thy justice, and Thy coming judgment, did not mercy and truth go 
before Thee: why should I at the end fear Thy righteousness, when with Thy 
mercy going before Thee Thou blottest out my sins, and by showing forth Thy 
truth fulfillest Thy promises? "Mercy and truth go before Thy face." For 
"all the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth."(7)

    16. In all these things shall we not rejoice? or shall we contain our 
joy? or shall words suffice for our gladness? or shall the tongue be able 
to express our rejoicing? If therefore no words suffice, "Blessed is the 
people, O Lord, that knoweth glad shouting" (ver. 15). O blessed people! 
dost thou conceive aright, dost thou understand, glad shouting? For except 
thou understand glad shouting, thou canst not be blessed. What do I mean by 
understanding glad shouting? Whether thou knowest the source of that 
rejoicing which is beyond words to express. For this joy is not of thyself, 
since "he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."(8) Rejoice not then in 
thy own pride, but in God's grace. See that that grace is such, that the 
tongue fails to express its greatness, and then thou understandest glad 
shouting. ... O Lord, "they shall walk in the light of Thy countenance." 
"They shall rejoice in Thy name all the day "(ver. 16). That Thabor and 
Hermon shall rejoice in Thy name: all day shall they rejoice, if they will, 
in Thy name; but if they will rejoice in their own name, they hall not 
rejoice all day: for they shall not continue in their joy, when they shall 
delight in themselves, and fall through pride. That they may rejoice all 
day, therefore, "they shall rejoice in Thy name, and in Thy righteousness 
shall they be exalted." Not in their own, but in Thine: lest they have a 
zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For some are noted by the 
Apostle, that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, 
"being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their 
own," and not rejoicing in Thy light, and thus "not submitting themselves 
unto the righteousness of God."(9) And why? because "they have a zeal of 
God, but not according to knowledge." But the people who knoweth glad 
shouting (for the former err from want of knowledge, but blessed is the 
people not that knoweth not, but that knoweth glad shouting), whence ought 
it to shout, whence to rejoice, but in Thy name, walking in the light of 
Thy countenance? And it shall deserve to be exalted, but in Thy 
righteousness: let every man take away altogether his own righteousness, 
and be trembled: the righteousness of God shall come, and he shall be 
exalted, "and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted."

    17. "For Thou art the glory of their strength: and in Thy good pleasure 
Thou shall lift up our horns" (ver. 17): because it has seemed good to 
Thee, not because we are worthy.

    18. "For of the Lord is our taking up" (ver. 18). For I was moved like 
a heap of sand, that I might fall; and I should have fallen, had not the 
Lord taken me up. "For of the Lord is (our(1)) taking up: and of the Holy 
One of Israel our King." Himself is thy taking up, Himself thy 
illumination: in His light thou art safe, in His light thou walkest, in His 
righteousness thou art exalted. He took thee up, He, guards thy weakness: 
He gives thee strength of Himself, not of thyself.

    19. "Thou spakest sometime in vision unto Thy sons, and saidst" (ver. 
19). Thou spakest in thy vision. Thou didst reveal this to Thy Prophets. 
For this reason Thou spakest in vision, that is, in revelation: whence 
Prophets were called seers. They saw something within, which they were to 
speak without: and secretly they heard what they preached openly.(2) Then 
"Thou spakest in vision unto Thy sons, and saidst, I have laid help upon 
One that is mighty." Ye understand Who is meant by mighty? "I have exalted 
One chosen out of the people." And Who is meant by chosen? One who, ye 
rejoice, is already exalted.

    20. "I have found David My servant:" that David from David's seed: 
"with My holy oil have I anointed Him" (ver. 20): for it is said of Him, 
"God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy 
fellows."(3)

    21. "My