(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 95-106: THE END OF THE 4TH BOOK OF THE PSALMS


PSALM XCV.(5)

    1. I could wish, brethren, that we were rather listening to our father: 
but even this is a good thing, to obey our father. Since therefore he who 
deigneth to pray for us, hath ordered us, I will speak unto you, beloved, 
what from the present Psalm Jesus Christ our common Lord shall deign to 
give us. Now the title of the Psalm is "David's Song of praise." The "Song 
of praise" signifieth both cheerfulness, in that it is a song; and 
devotion, for it is praise. For what ought a man to praise more than that 
which pleaseth him so, that it is impossible that it can displease him? In 
the praising of God therefore we praise with security. There he who 
praiseth is safe, where he feareth not lest he be ashamed for the object of 
his praise. Let us therefore troth praise and sing; that is, let us praise 
with cheerfulness and joy. But what we are about to praise, this Psalm in 
the following verses showeth us.

    2. "O come, let us sing unto the Lord" (ver. 1 ). He calleth us to a 
great banquet of joy, not one of this world, but in the Lord. For if there 
were not in this life a wicked joy which is to be distinguished from a 
righteous joy, it would be enough to say, "Come, let us rejoice;" but he 
has briefly distinguished it. What is it to rejoice aright? To rejoice in 
the Lord. Thou shouldest piously joy in the Lord, if thou dost wish safely 
to trample upon the world. But what is the word, "Come "? Whence doth He 
call them to come, with whom he wisheth to rejoice in the Lord; except 
that, while they are afar, they may by coming draw nearer, by drawing 
nearer they may approach, and by approaching rejoice? But whence are they 
afar? Can a man be locally distant from Him who is everywhere? ... It is 
not by place, but by being unlike Him, that a man is afar from God. What is 
to be unlike Him? it meaneth, a bad life, bad habits; for if by good habits 
we approach God, by bad habits we recede from God. ... If therefore by 
unlikeness we recede from God, by likeness we approach unto God. What 
likeness? That after which we were created, which by sinning we had 
corrupted in ourselves, which we have received again through the remission 
of sins, which is renewed in us in the mind within, that it may be engraved 
a second time as if on coin, that is, the image of our God upon our soul, 
and that we may return to His treasures. ...

    3. "Let us make a joyful(6) noise unto God, our salvation." ... 
Consider, beloved, those who make a joyful noise in any ordinary songs, as 
in a sort of competition of worldly joy; and ye see them while reciting the 
written lines bursting forth with a joy, that the tongue sufficeth not to 
express the measure of; how they shout, indicating by that utterance the 
feeling of the mind, which cannot in words express what is conceived in the 
heart. If they then in earthly joy make a joyful noise; might we not do so 
from heavenly joy, which truly we cannot express in words?

    4. "Let us prevent His face by confession (ver. 2). Confession hath a 
double meaning in Scripture. There is a confession of him who praiseth, 
there is that of him who groaneth. The confession of praise pertaineth to 
the honour of Him who is praised: the confession of groaning to the 
repentance of him who confesseth. For men confess when they praise God: 
they confess when they accuse themselves; and the tongue hath no more 
worthy use. Truly, I believe these to be the very vows, of which he 
speaketh in another Psalm: "I will pay Thee my vows, which I distinguished 
with my lips."(1) Nothing is more elevated than that distinguishing, 
nothing is so necessary both to understand and to do. How then dost thou 
distinguish the vows which thou payest unto God? By praising Him, by 
accusing thyself; because it is His mercy, to forgive us our sins. For if 
He chose to deal with us after our deserts, He would find cause only to 
condemn. "O come," he said therefore, that we may at last go back from our 
sins, and that He may not cast up with us our accounts for the past; but 
that as it were a new account may be commenced, all the bonds of our debts 
having been burnt. ... The more therefore thou despairedst of thyself on 
account of thy iniquities, do thou confess thy sins; for so much greater is 
the praise of Him who forgiveth, as is the fulness of the penitent's 
confession more abundant. Let us not therefore imagine that we have receded 
from the song of praise, in understanding here that confession by which we 
acknowledge our transgressions: this is even a part of the song of praise; 
for when we confess our sins, we praise the glory of God.

    5. "And make a joyful(2) noise unto Him with Psalms." We have already 
said what it is "to make a joyful noise:" the word is repeated, that it may 
be confirmed by the act: the very repetition is an exhortation. For we have 
not forgotten, so as to wish to be again admonished what was said above, 
that we should make a joyful noise: but usually in passages of strong 
feeling a well-known word is repeated, not to make it more familiar, but 
that the very repetition may strengthen the impression made: for it is 
repeated that we may understand the feeling of the speaker. ... Hear now: 
"For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods" (ver. 3) 
"For the Lord will not cast off His people."(3) Praise be unto Him, and 
shouts of joy be unto Him! What people shall He not cast off? we have no 
right to make our own explanation here: for the Apostle hath prescribed 
this unto us, he hath explained whereof it is said. For this was the Jewish 
people, the people where were the prophets, the people where were the 
patriarchs, the people begotten according to the flesh from the seed of 
Abraham; the people in which all the mysteries which promised our Saviour 
preceded us; the people among whom was instituted the temple, the 
anointing, the Priest for a figure, that when all these shadows were past, 
the Light itself might come; this therefore was the people of God; to it 
were the prophets sent, in it those who were sent were born; to it were 
delivered and entrusted the revelations of God. What then? is the whole of 
that people condemned? far be it. It is called. the good olive-tree by the 
Apostle, for it commenced with the patriarchs. ... This then is the tree 
itself: though some of its boughs have been broken, yet all have not. For 
if all the boughs were broken, whence is Peter? whence John? whence Thomas? 
whence Matthew? whence Andrew? whence are all those Apostles? whence that 
very Apostle Paul who was speaking to us but now, and by his own fruit 
bearing witness to the good olive? Were not all these of that people? 
Whence also those five hundred brethren to whom our Lord appeared after His 
resurrection?(4) Whence were so many thousands at the words of Peter (when 
the Apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke with the tongues of all 
nations(5)) converted with such zeal for the honour of God and their own 
accusation, that they who first shed the Lord's blood in their rage, learnt 
how to drink it now that they believed? And all these five thousand were so 
converted that they sold their own property, and laid the price of it  at 
the Apostles' feet.(6) That which one rich man did not do, when he heard 
from the Lord's mouth, and sorrowfully departed from Him,(7) this so many 
thousands of those men by whose hands Christ had been crucified, did on a 
sudden. In proportion as the wound was deeper in their own hearts, with the 
greater eagerness did they seek for a physician. Since therefore all these 
were from thence, the Psalm saith of them, "For the Lord will not cast off 
His people." ...

    6. What doth the Psalm add? In His hand are all the corners of the 
earth" (ver. 4): we recognise the corner stone: the corner stone is Christ. 
There cannot be a corner, unless it hath united in itself two walls: they 
come from different sides to one corner, but they are not opposed to each 
other in the corner. The circumcision cometh from one side. the 
uncircumcision from the other; in Christ both peoples have met together: 
because He hath become the stone, of which it is written, "The stone which 
the builders rejected, hath become the head of the corner." (1)

    7. "For the sea is His and He made it" (ver. 5). For the sea is this 
world, but God made also the sea: nor can the waves rage save only so far 
as to the shore, where He hath marked their bounds. There is therefore no 
temptation, that hath not received its measure. ... "And His hands prepared 
the dry land." Be thou the dry land: thirst for the grace of God: that as a 
sweet shower it may come upon thee, may find m thee fruit. He alloweth not 
the waves to cover what He hath sown. "And His hands prepared the dry 
land." Hence also therefore let us shout unto the Lord.

    8. "O come, let us worship, and fall down to Him; and mourn before the 
Lord our Maker" (ver. 6). ... Perhaps thou art burning with the 
consciousness of a fault; blot out with tears the flame of thy sin: mourn 
before the Lord: fearlessly mourn before the Lord, who made thee; for He 
despiseth not the work of His own hands in thee. Think not thou canst be 
restored by thyself. By thyself thou mayest fall off, thou canst not 
restore thyself: He who made thee restoreth thee. "Let us mourn before the 
Lord our Maker:" weep before Him, confess unto Him, prevent His face in 
confession. For who art thou who mournest before Him, and confessest unto 
Him, but one whom He created? The tiring created hath no slight confidence 
in Him who created it, and that in no indifferent fashion, but according to 
His own image and likeness.

    9. "For He is the Lord our God" (ver. 7). But that we may without fear 
fall down and kneel before Him, what are we? "We are the people of His 
pasture, and the sheep of His hand." See how elegantly he hath transposed 
the order of the words, and as it were not given its own attribute to each 
word; that we may understand these very same to be the sheep, who are also 
the people. He said not, the sheep of His pasture, and the people of His 
hand; which might be thought more congruous, since the sheep belong to the 
pasture; but He said, "the people of His pasture." The people are therefore 
sheep, since he saith, "the people of His pasture:" the people themselves 
are sheep... He praiseth these sheep also in the Song of Solomon, speaking 
of some perfect ones as the teeth of His Spouse the Holy Church: "Thy teeth 
are like a flock of sheep that are even shorn, which come up from the 
washing; whereof every one beareth twins, and there is none barren."(2) 
What meaneth, "Thy teeth "? These by whom thou speakest: for the teeth of 
the Church are those through whom she speaketh. Of what sort are thy teeth? 
"Like a flock of sheep that are shorn." Why, "that are shorn"? Because they 
have laid aside the burdens of the world. Were not those sheep, of which I 
was a little before speaking, shorn, whom the bidding of God had shorn, 
when He saith," Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor; and thou 
shalt find treasure in heaven: and come and follow Me "?(3) They performed 
this bidding: shorn they came. And because those who believe in Christ are 
baptized, what is there said? "which come up from the washing;" that is, 
come up from the cleansing. "Whereof every one beareth twins." What twins? 
Those two commandments, wherefrom hang all the Law and the Prophets.(4)

    10. Therefore, "To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your 
hearts" (ver. 8). O my people, the people of God! God addresses His people: 
not only the people of His which He shall not cast off, but also all His 
people. For He speaketh in the corner stone s to each wall: that is, 
prophecy speaketh in Christ, both to the people of the Jews, and the people 
of the Gentiles. For some time ye heard His voice through Moses, and 
hardened your hearts. He then, when you hardened your hearts, spoke through 
a herald; He now speaketh by Himself, let your hearts soften. He who used 
to send heralds before Him, hath now deigned to come Himself; He here 
speaketh by His own mouth, He who used to speak by the mouths of the 
Prophets.

    11. "As in the provocation, and in the day of temptation in the 
wilderness, where your fathers proved Me" (ver. 9). Let such be no more 
your fathers: imitate them not. They were your fathers, but if ye do not 
imitate them, they shall not be your fathers: yet as ye were born of them, 
they were your fathers. And if the heathen who came from the ends of the 
earth, in the words of Jeremias, "The Gentiles shall come unto Thee from 
the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our forefathers have inherited 
lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit: "(6) if the heathen 
forsook their idols, to come to the God of Israel; ought Israel whom their 
own God led from Egypt through the Red Sea,(7) wherein He overwhelmed their 
pursuing foes; whom He led out into the wilderness, fed with manna,(8) 
never took His rod from correcting them, never deprived them of the 
blessings of His mercy; ought they to desert their own God, when the 
heathen have come unto Him? "When your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and 
saw My works. ...

    12. "Forty years long was I very near unto this generation, and said, 
It is a people that do always err in their hearts; for they have not known 
My ways" (ver. 10). The forty years have the same meaning as the word 
"always." For that number forty indicates the fulness of ages, as if the 
ages were perfected in this number. Hence our Lord fasted forty days, forty 
days He was tempted in the desert,(1) and forty days He was with His 
disciples after His resurrection.(2) On the first forty days He showed us 
temptation, on the latter forty days consolation: since beyond doubt when 
we are tempted we are consoled. For His body, that is, the Church, must 
needs suffer temptations in this world: but that Comforter, who said, "Lo, 
I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,"(3) is not wanting. 
For this was I with them forty years, to show such a race of men, which 
alway provoketh Me, even unto the end of the world: because by those forty 
years He meant to signify the whole of this world's duration.

    13. ... We began with exulting joy: but this Psalm hath ended with 
great fear: "Unto whom I sware in My wrath, that they should not enter into 
My rest" (ver. 11 ). It is a great thing for God to speak: how much greater 
for Him to swear? Thou shouldest fear a man when he sweareth, lest he do 
somewhat on account of his oath against his will: how much more shouldest 
thou fear God, when He sweareth, seeing He can swear nought rashly? He 
chose the act of swearing for a confirmation. And by whom doth God swear? 
By Himself: for He hath no greater by whom to swear.(4) By Himself He 
confirmeth His promises: by Himself He confirmeth His threats. Let no man 
say in his heart, His promise is true; His threat is false: as His promise 
is true, so is His threat sure. Thou oughtest to be equally assured of 
rest, of happiness, of eternity, of immortality, if thou hast executed His 
commandments; as of destruction, of the burning of eternal fire, of 
damnation with the devil, if thou hast despised His commandments. ...

PSALM XCVI.(5)

    1. My lord and brother Severus(6) still defers the pleasure we shall 
feel in his discourse, which he oweth us; for he acknowledgeth, that he is 
held a debtor. For all the Churches through which he hath passed, by his 
tongue the lord hath gladdened: much more therefore ought that Church to be 
rejoiced, out of which the Lord hath propagated his preaching among the 
rest. But what shall we do, but obey his will? I said, however, brethren, 
that he deferred, not that he defrauded us. Therefore let us keep him as a 
debtor bound, and release him not until he hath paid. Attend therefore, 
beloved: as far as the Lord alloweth, let us say somewhat of this Psalm, 
which indeed you already know; for the fresh mention of truth is sweet. 
Possibly when its title was pronounced, some heard it with wonder. For the 
Psalm is inscribed: "When the house was being built after the Captivity." 
This title having been prefixed, ye were perhaps expecting in the text of 
the Psalm to hear what stones were hewn from the mountains, what masses 
were drawn to the spot, what foundations were laid, what beams were placed 
on high, what columns raised. Its song is of nothing of this kind. ... It 
is no such house that is in building; for behold where it is built, not in 
one spot, not in any particular region. For thus he beginneth: --

    2. "O sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord, all the 
earth"(7) (ver. 1 ). If all the earth singeth a new song, it is thus 
building while it singeth: the very act of singing is building: but only, 
if it singeth not the old song. The lust of the flesh singeth the old song: 
the love of God singeth the new. ... Hear why it is a new song: the Lord 
saith, "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another."(8) 
The whole earth then singeth a new song: there the house of God is built. 
All the earth is the house of God. If all the earth is the house of God,(9) 
he who clingeth not to all the earth, is a ruin, not a house; that old ruin 
whose shadow that ancient temple represented. For there what was old was 
destroyed, that what was new might be built up. ... The Apostle bindeth us 
together into this very structure, and fasteneth us when bound together in 
that unity, saying, "Forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep 
the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."(10) Where there is this 
unity of Spirit, there is one stone; but one stone formed out of many. How 
one formed out of many? By forbearing one another in love. Therefore the 
house of the Lord our God is in building; it is this that is being wrought, 
for this are these words, for this these readings, for this the preaching 
of the Gospel over the whole world; as yet it is in building. This house 
hath increased greatly, and filled many nations: nevertheless, it hath not 
yet prevailed through all nations: by its increase it hath held many, and 
will prevail over all: and it is gainsaid by those who boast of their being 
of its household, and who say, it hath already lost ground. It still 
increaseth, still all those nations which have not yet believed are 
destined to believe; that no man may say, will that tongue believe? will 
the barbarians believe? what is the meaning of the Holy Spirit having 
appeared in the fiery tongues,(1) except that there is no tongue so hard 
that it cannot be softened by that fire? For we know that many barbarous 
nations have already believed in Christ: Christ already possesseth regions 
where the Roman empire hath never yet reached; what is as yet closed to 
those who fight with the sword, is not closed to Him who fighteth with 
wood. For "the Lord hath reigned from the wood."(2) Who is it who fighteth 
with wood? Christ. With His cross He hath vanquished kings, and fixed upon 
their forehead, when vanquished, that very cross; and they glory in it, for 
in it is their salvation. This is the work which is being wrought, thus the 
house increaseth, thus it is building: and that ye may know, hear the 
following verses of the Psalm: see them labouring upon, and constructing 
the house. "O sing unto the Lord all the earth."

    3. "Sing unto the Lord, bless His Name: be telling good tidings of His 
salvation from day to day" (ver. 2). How doth the building increase? "Be 
telling," he saith, "good tidings of His salvation from day to day." Let it 
be preached from day to day; from day to day, he saith, let it be built; 
let My house, saith God, increase. And as if it were said by the workmen, 
Where dost Thou command it to be built? Where dost Thou will Thy house to 
increase? Choose for us some level, spacious spot, if Thou wish an ample 
house built Thee. Where dost Thou bid us be telling good tidings from day 
to day? He showeth the place: "Declare His honour unto the heathen:" His 
honour, not yours. O ye builders, "Declare His honour unto the heathen." 
Should ye choose to declare your own honour, ye shall fall: if His, ye 
shall be built up, while ye are building. Therefore they who choose to 
declare their own honour, have refused to dwell in that house; and 
therefore they sing not a new song with all the earth.(3) For they do not 
share it with the whole round world; and hence they are not building in the 
house, but have erected a whited wall. How sternly doth God threaten the 
whited wall?(4) There are innumerable testimonies of the Prophets, whence 
He curseth the whited wall. What is the whited wall, save hypocrisy, that 
is,  pretence? Without it is bright, within it is dirt. ... A certain 
person,(5) speaking of this whited wall, said thus: "as, if in a wall which 
standeth alone, and is not connected with any other walls, you make a door, 
whoever enters, is out of doors; so in that part which hath refused to sing 
the new song together with the house, but hath chosen to build a wall, and 
that a whited one, and not solid, what availeth it that it hath a door?" If 
thou enterest, thou art found to be without. For because they themselves 
did not enter by the door, their door also doth not admit them within. For 
the Lord saith, "I am the door: by Me they enter in."(6) ... "Declare His 
honour unto the heathen." What is, unto the heathen? Perhaps by nations but 
a few are meant: and that part which hath raised the whited wall hath still 
somewhat to say: why are not Getulia, Numidia, Mauritania, Byzacium, 
nations? Provinces are nations. Let the word of God take the word from 
hypocrisy, from the whited wall, building up the house over the whole 
world. It is not enough to say, "Declare His honour unto the heathen;" that 
thou mayest not think any nations excepted, he addeth, "and His wonders 
unto all people."

     4. "For the Lord is great, and cannot worthily be praised" (ver. 4). 
What Lord, except Jesus Christ, "is great, and cannot worthily be praised"? 
Ye know surely that He appeared as a Man: ye know surely that He was 
conceived in a woman's womb, ye know that He was born from the womb, that 
He was suckled, that He was carried in arms, circumcised, that a victim was 
offered for Him, that He grew; lastly, ye know that He was buffeted, spit 
upon, crowned with thorns, was crucified, died, was pierced with a spear; 
ye know that He suffered all these things: "He is great, and cannot 
worthily be praised." Despise not what is little, understand what is great. 
He became little, because ye were such: let Him be acknowledged great, and 
in Him ye shall be great. ... For what can a small tongue say towards the 
praise of the Great One? By saying, Beyond praise,(7) he hath spoken, and 
hath given to imagination what it may conceive: as if saying, What I cannot 
utter, do thou reflect on; and when thou shalt have reflected, it will not 
be enough. What no man's thought uttereth, doth any man's tongue utter? 
"The Lord is great, and cannot worthily be praised." Let Him be praised, 
and preached: His honour declared, and His house built.

    5. ... For the spot where he wished to build the house, is itself 
woody, where it was said yesterday, "we found it in the wood."(8) For he 
was seeking that very house, when he said, "in the wood." And why is that 
spot woody? Men used to worship images: it is not wonderful that they fed 
hogs. For that son who left his father, and spent his all on harlots, 
living as a prodigal, used to feed hogs,(1) that is, to worship devils; and 
by this very superstition of the heathen, all the earth became a wood. But 
he who buildeth a house, rooteth up the wood; and for this reason it was 
said, "While the house was being built, after the captivity."(2) For men 
were held captive under the devil, and served devils; but they were 
redeemed from captivity. They could sell, but they could not redeem 
themselves. The Redeemer came, and gave a price; He poured forth His Blood, 
and bought the whole world. Ye ask what He bought? Ye see what He hath 
given; find out then what He bought. The Blood of Christ was the price. 
What is equal to this? What, but the whole world? What, but all nations? 
They are very ungrateful for their price, or very proud, who say that the 
price is so small that it bought the Africans only; or that they are so 
great, as that it was given for them alone. Let them not then exult, let 
them not be proud: He gave what He gave for the whole world. He knew what 
He bought, because He knew at what price He bought it. Thus because we are 
redeemed, the house is built after the captivity. And who are they who held 
us in captivity? Because they to whom it is said, "Declare His honour," are 
the clearers of the wood: that they may root out the wood, free the earth 
from captivity, and build, and raise up, by declaring the greatness of the 
Lord's house. How is the wood of devils cleared away, unless He who is 
above them all be preached? All nations then had devils for their gods: 
those whom they called gods, were devils, as the Apostle more openly saith, 
"The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice unto devils, and 
not to God."(3) Since therefore they were in captivity, because they 
sacrificed to devils, and on that account the whole earth had remained 
woody; He is declared to be great, and above all worldly praise.

    6. ... For when he had said, "He is more to be feared than all gods:" 
he added, "As for all the gods of the heathen, they are devils." ... 
Because "all the gods of the heathen are devils." And is this all the 
praise of Him who cannot worthily be praised, that He is above all the gods 
of the heathen, which are devils? Wait, and hear what followeth: "It is the 
Lord that made the heavens." Not above all gods only therefore, but above 
all the heavens which He made, is the Lord. If he were to say, "above all 
gods, for the gods of the heathen are devils," and if the praise of our 
Lord stopped here, he had said less than we are accustomed to think of 
Christ; but when he said, "But it is the Lord that made the heavens;" see 
what difference there is between the heavens and devils: and what between 
the heavens and Him who made the heavens; behold how exalted is the Lord. 
He said not, But the Lord sitteth above the heavens; for perhaps some one 
else might be imagined to have made them, upon which He was enthroned: but, 
"It is the Lord that made the heavens." If He made the heavens, He made the 
Angels also: Himself made the Angels, Himself made the Apostles. The devils 
yielded to the Apostles: but the Apostles themselves were heavens, who bore 
the Lord. ... O heavens, which He made, declare His honour unto the 
heathen! Let His house be built throughout the earth, let all the earth 
sing a new song.

    7. "Confession and beauty are before Him" (ver. 6). Dost thou love 
beauty? Wishest thou to be beautiful? Confess! He said not, beauty and 
confession, but confession and beauty. Thou wast foul; confess, that thou 
mayest be fair: thou wast a sinner; confess, that thou mayest be righteous. 
Thou couldest deform thyself: thou canst not make thyself beautiful. But of 
what sort is our Betrothed, who hath loved one deformed, that he might make 
her fair? How, saith some one, loved He one deformed? "I came not," said 
He, "to call the righteous, but sinners."(4) Whom callest Thou? sinners, 
that they may remain sinners? No, saith He. And by what means will they 
cease to be sinners? "Confession and beauty are before Him." They honour 
Him by confession of their sins, they vomit the evils which they had 
greedily devoured; they return not to their vomit, like the unclean dog;(5) 
and there will then be confession and beauty: we love beauty; let us first 
choose confession, that beauty may follow. Again, there is one who loveth 
power and greatness: he wisheth to be great as the Angels are. There is a 
certain greatness in the Angels; and such power, that if the Angels exert 
it to the full, it cannot be withstood. And every man desireth the power of 
the Angels, but their righteousness every man loveth not. First love 
righteousness, and power shall follow thee. For what followeth here? 
"Holiness and greatness are in His sanctification." Thou wast before 
seeking for greatness: first love righteousness: when thou art righteous, 
thou shall also be great. For if thou preposterously dost wish first to be 
great, thou fallest before thou canst rise: for thou dost not rise, thou 
art raised up. Thou risest better, if He raise thee who falleth not. For He 
who falleth not descendeth unto thee: thou hadst fallen: He descendeth, He 
hath stretched forth His hand unto thee; thou canst not rise by thy own 
strength, embrace the hand of Him who descendeth, that thou mayest be 
raised up by the Strong One.

    8. What then? If "confession and beauty are before Him: holiness and 
greatness in His sanctification" (ver. 7). This we declare, when we are 
building the house; behold, it is already declared unto the heathen; what 
ought the heathen to do, to whom those who have cleared away the wood have 
declared the Lord's honour? He now saith to the heathen themselves, 
"Ascribe unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people: ascribe unto the Lord 
worship and honour." Ascribe them not unto yourselves: because they also 
who have declared it unto you, have not declared their own, but His honour. 
Do ye then "ascribe unto the Lord worship and honour;" and say, "Not unto 
us, O Lord, not unto us: but unto Thy Name give the praise."(1) Put not 
your trust in man. If each of you is baptized, let him say: He baptizeth 
me, of whom the friend of the Bridegroom said, "He baptizeth with the Holy 
Ghost."(2) For when ye say this, ye ascribe unto the Lord worship and 
honour: "Ascribe unto the Lord worship and honour."

    9. Ascribe unto the Lord glory unto His Name" (ver. 8). Not unto the 
name of man, not unto your own name, but unto His ascribe worship. ... 
Confession is a present unto God. O heathen, if ye will enter into His 
courts, enter not empty. "Bring presents." What presents shall we bring 
with us? The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit: a broken and a contrite 
heart, O God, shalt not Thou despise."(3) Enter with an humble heart into 
the house of God, and thou hast entered with a present. But if thou art 
proud, thou enterest empty. For whence wouldest thou be proud, if thou wert 
not empty? For if thou wast full, thou wouldest not be puffed up. How 
couldest thou be full? If thou weft to bring a present, which thou 
shouldest carry to the courts of the Lord. Let us not retain you much 
longer: let us run over what remaineth. Behold the house increasing: behold 
the edifice pervade the whole world. Rejoice, because ye have entered into 
the courts; rejoice, because ye are being built into the temple of God. For 
those who enter are themselves built up, they themselves are the house of 
God: He is the inhabitor, for whom the house is built over the whole world, 
and this "after the captivity." "Bring presents, and come into His courts."

    10. "O worship the Lord in His holy court" (ver. 9): in the Catholic 
Church; this is His holy court. Let no man say, "Lo, here is Christ, or 
there. For there shall arise false prophets."(4) Say this unto them,(5) 
"There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be 
thrown down." Ye are calling me to the whited wall; I adore my God in His 
holy court. "Let the whole earth be moved before His face."

    11. "Tell it out among the nations, that the Lord reigneth from the 
wood:(6) and that it is He who hath made the round world so fast that it  
cannot be moved" (ver. 10). What testimonies of the building of the house 
of God!  The clouds  of heaven thunder out throughout the world that God's 
house is being built; and the frogs cry from the marsh,(7) We alone are 
Christians. What testimonies do I bring forward? That of the Psalter. I 
bring forward what thou singest as one deaf: open thine ears; thou singest 
this; thou singest with me, and thou agreest not with me; thy tongue 
soundeth what mine doth, and yet thine heart disagreeth with mine. Dost 
thou not sing this? Behold the testimonies of the whole world: "Let the 
whole earth be moved before His face:" and dost thou say, that thou art not 
moved? "Tell it out among the heathen, that the Lord hath reigned from the 
wood." Shall men perchance prevail here, and say they reign by wood, 
because they reign by means of the clubs of their bandits?(8) Reign by the 
Cross of Christ, if thou art to reign by wood. For this wood of thine 
maketh thee wooden: the wood of Christ passeth thee across the sea. Thou 
hearest the Psalm saying, "He hath set aright the round world, that it 
cannot be moved;" and thou sayest it hath not only been moved since it was 
made fast, but hath also decreased. Dost thou speak the truth, and the 
Psalmist falsehood? Do the false prophets, when they cry out, "Lo, here is 
Christ, and there,"(9) speak truth; and doth this Prophet lie? Brethren, 
against these most open words ye hear in the corners rumours like these; 
"such an one was a traditor," and, "such an one was a traditor."(10) What 
dost thou say? Are thy words, or the words of God, to be heard? For, "it is 
He who hath set aright the round world, that it cannot be moved." I show 
unto thee the round world built: bring thy present, and come into the 
courts of the Lord. Thou hast no presents: and on that account thou art not 
willing to enter. What is this? If God were to appoint unto thee a bull, 
goat, or ram, for a present, thou wouldest find one to bring: He hath 
appointed a humble heart, and thou wilt not enter; for thou findest not 
this in thyself, because thou art swollen with pride. "He hath set aright 
the round world, that it cannot be moved: and He shall judge the people 
righteously." Then shall they mourn, who now refuse to love righteousness.

    12. "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad" (ver. 11). Let 
the heavens, which declare the glory of God, rejoice; let the heavens 
rejoice, which the Lord made; let the earth be glad, which the heavens rain 
upon. For the heavens are the preachers, the earth the listeners. "Let the 
sea be stirred up, and the fulness thereof." What sea? The world. The sea 
hath been stirred up, and the fulness thereof: the whole world was roused 
up against the Church, while it was being extended and built over all the 
earth. Concerning this stirring up, ye have heard in the Gospel, "They 
shall deliver you up to councils."(1) "The sea was stirred up: but how 
should the sea ever conquer Him who made it?

    13. "The plains shall be joyful, and all things that are in them" (ver. 
12). All the meek, all the gentle, all the righteous, are the "plains" of 
God. "Then shall all the trees of the woods rejoice." The trees of the 
woods are the heathen. Why do they rejoice? Because they were cut off from 
the wild olive, and engraffed into the good olive.(2) "Then shall all the 
trees of the woods rejoice: "because huge cedars and cypresses have been 
cut down, and undecaying timbers have been bought for the building of the 
house. They were trees of the woods; but before they were sent to the 
building: they were trees of the woods, but before they produced the olive.

    14. "Before the face of the Lord. For He cometh, for He cometh to judge 
the world" (ver. 13). He came at first, and will come again. He first came 
in His Church in clouds. What are the clouds which bore Him? The Apostles 
who preached, respecting whom ye have heard, when the Epistle was being 
read: "We are ambassadors," he saith, "for Christ: we pray you in Christ's 
stead, be ye reconciled to God."(3) These are the clouds in whom He cometh, 
excepting His last Advent, when He will come to judge the quick and the 
dead. He came first in the clouds. This was His first voice which sounded 
forth in the Gospel: "From this time shall they see the Son of Man coming 
in the clouds."(4) What is, "from this time"? Will not the Lord come in 
later times, when all the tribes of the earth shall mourn? He first came in 
His own preachers, and filled the whole round world. Let us not resist His 
first coming, that we may not tremble at His second. "But woe to them that 
are with child, and that give suck in those days!"(5) Ye have heard but now 
in the Gospel: "Take ye heed, for ye know not at what hour He cometh."(6) 
This is said figuratively. Who are those with child, and who give suck? 
Those who are with child, are the souls whose hope is in the world: but 
those who have gained what they hoped for, are meant by "they who give 
suck." For example: one wisheth to buy a country seat; he is with child, 
for his object is not gained as yet, the womb swelleth in hope: he buyeth 
it; he hath brought forth, he now giveth suck to what he hath bought. "Woe 
to them that are with child, and that give suck in those days!" Woe to 
those who put their hope in the world; woe to them that cling to those 
things which they brought forth through hope in the world. What then should 
the Christian do? He should use, not serve, the world.(7) What is this? 
Those that have as those that have not.... He who is without carefulness, 
waiteth without fear for his Lord's coming. For what sort of love is it of 
Christ, to fear lest He come? Brethren, are we not ashamed? We love Him, 
and yet we fear lest He come. Are we sure that we love Him? or do we love 
our sins more? Therefore let us hate our sins for their own sake, and love 
Him who will come to punish our sins. He will come, whether we like or not: 
for because He cometh not just now, it is no reason that He will not come 
at all. He will come, and when thou knowest not; and if He shall find thee 
ready, thy ignorance is no hurt to thee. "Then shall all the trees of the 
wood rejoice before the Lord; for He cometh:" at His first coming. And what 
afterwards? "For He cometh to judge the earth. And all the trees of the 
woods shall rejoice." He came first: and later to judge the earth: He shall 
find those rejoicing who believed in His first coming, "for He cometh."

    15. "For with righteousness shall He judge the world:" not a part of 
it, for He bought not a part: He will judge the whole, for it was the whole 
of which He paid the price. Ye have heard the Gospel, where it saith, that 
when He cometh, "He shall gather together His elect from the four 
winds."(8) He gathereth all His elect from the four winds: therefore from 
the whole world. For Adam(9) himself (this I had said before) signifieth in 
Greek the whole world; for there are four letters, A, D, A, and M. But as 
the Greeks speak, the four quarters of the world have these initial 
letters, Anatolh`, they call the East; Du'sis, the West; A'rktos, the 
North; Meshmbri'a, the South: thou hast the word Adam. Adam therefore hath 
been scattered over the whole world. He was in one place, and fell, and as 
in a manner broken small,(10) he filled the whole world: but the mercy of 
God gathered together the fragments from every side, and forged(1) them by 
the fire of love, and made one what was broken. That Artist knew how to do 
this; let no one despair: it is indeed a great thing, but reflect who that 
Artist was. He who made, restored: He who formed, reformed. What are 
righteousness and truth? He will gather together His elect with Him to the 
judgment, but the rest He will separate one from another; for He will place 
some on the right, others on the left hand. But what is more just, what 
more true, than that they shall not expect mercy from their Judge, who have 
refused to act mercifully, before their Judge come? But those who chose to 
act with mercy, with mercy shall be judged. ...

PSALM XCVII.(2)

    1. ... This Psalm is entitled, "A Psalm of David's, when his land was 
restored." Let us refer the whole to Christ, if we wish to keep the road of 
a right understanding: let us not depart from the corner stone,(3) lest our 
understanding suffer a fall: in Him let that become fixed, which wavered 
with unstable motion; let that rest upon Him, which before was waving to 
and fro in uncertainty. Whatever doubt a man hath in his mind when he 
heareth the Scriptures of God, let him not depart from Christ; when Christ 
hath been revealed to him in the words, let him then be assured that he 
hath understood; but before he arriveth at the understanding of Christ, let 
him not presume that he hath understood. "For Christ is the end of the law 
for righteousness to every one that believeth."(4) What doth this mean, and 
how are these words understood in Christ, "When his land was restored"? ...

    2. The earth restored is the resurrection of the flesh; for after His 
resurrection, all those things which are sung of in the Psalm were done. 
Let us then hear a Psalm full of joy on the restoration of the Earth. Let 
the Lord our God excite in us a hope and a pleasure worthy of so great a 
thing; may He rule our discourse, that it be fit for your hearts, that 
whatever joy our heart doth feel in such sights, He may bring on to our 
tongue, and thence conduct it into your ears, then to your heart, thence to 
your actions.

    3. ... "The Lord is King, let the earth be glad: yea, let the multitude 
of the isles be joyous" (ver. 1). It is so indeed, because the word of God 
hath been preached not in the continent alone, but also in those isles 
which lie in mid sea: even these are full of Christians, full of the 
servants of God. For the sea doth not retard Him who made it. Where ships 
can approach, cannot the words of God? The isles are filled. But 
figuratively the isles may be taken for all the Churches. Why isles? 
Because the waves of all temptations roar around them. But as an isle may 
be beaten by the waves which on every side dash around it, yet cannot be 
broken, and rather itself doth break the advancing waves, than by them is 
broken: so also the Churches of God, springing up throughout the world, 
have suffered the persecutions of the ungodly, who roar around them on 
every side; and behold the isles stand fixed, and at last the sea is 
calmed.

    4. "Clouds and darkness are round about Him: righteousness and judgment 
are the direction of His seat" (ver. 2). ... The Lord Himself saith: "For 
judgment I am come into this world; that they which see not might see, and 
that they which see might be made blind."(5) They who seem unto themselves 
to see, who think themselves wise, who think healing not needful for them, 
that they may be made blind, may not understand. And that "they which see 
not may see;" that they who confess their blindness may obtain to be 
enlightened. Let there be therefore "clouds and darkness round about Him," 
for those who have not understood Him: for those who confess and humble 
themselves, "righteousness and judgment are the direction of His seat." He 
called those who believe in Him His seat: for from them hath He made 
Himself a seat, since in them Wisdom sitteth; for the Son of God is the 
Wisdom of God. But we have heard from another passage of Scripture a strong 
confirmation of this interpretation. "The soul of the righteous is the seat 
of Wisdom."(6) Because then they who have believed in Him have been made 
righteous: justitled by faith, they have become His own seat: He sitteth in 
them, judging from them, and guiding them. ...

    5. "There shall go a fire before Him, and burn up His enemies on every 
side" (ver. 3). We remember having read in the Gospel, He shall say, 
"Depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."(7) I 
do not think it is said of that fire. Why do I not? Because he speaketh of 
some fire, which shall go before Him, before He cometh to judgment. For it 
is said, that the fire goeth before Him, and burneth up His enemies on 
every side, that is, throughout the whole world. That fire will burn after 
His advent: this, on the contrary, will go before Him. What fire then is 
this?... Behold, we have understood the fire that goeth before Him, that is 
to be understood of a kind of temporal punishment of the unbelieving and 
ungodly: let us understand the fire, if possible, of the salvation of the 
redeemed also; for thus we had proposed. The Lord Himself saith: "I am come 
to send fire on the earth:(1) "fire" in the same way as a "sword;" as in 
another passage He saith, that He was not come to send peace, but a sword, 
upon earth.(2) The sword to divide, the fire to burn: but each salutary: 
for the sword of His own word hath in salutary wise separated us from evil 
habits. For He brought a sword, and separated every believer either from 
his father who believed not in Christ, or from his mother in like manner 
unbelieving: or at least, if we were born of Christian parents, from his 
ancestors. For no man among us had not either a grandsire, or great 
grandsire, or some ancestry among the heathen, and in that unbelief which 
is accursed before God. We are separated from that which we were before; 
but the sword which separateth, but slayeth not, hath cut between us. In 
the same way the fire also: "I am come to send fire upon the earth." 
Believers in Him were set on fire, they received the flame of love: and for 
this reason when the Holy Spirit itself had been sent to the Apostles, It 
thus appeared: "cloven tongues, like as of fire."(3) Burning with this fire 
they set out on their march through the world, to burn and set on fire His 
enemies on every side. What enemies of His? They who forsaking the God who 
made them, adored the idols they had made. ...

    6. "His lightnings gave shine unto the world" (ver. 4). This is great 
joy. Do we not see? is it not clear? His lightnings have shined unto the 
whole world: His enemies have been set on fire, and burnt. All that 
gainsaid hath been burnt, and "His lightnings have given shine unto the 
world." How have they shone? That the world might at length believe. Whence 
were the lightnings? From the clouds. What are the clouds of God? The 
preachers of the truth. But thou seest a cloud, misty and dark in the sky, 
and it hath I know not what hidden within it. If there be' lightning from 
the cloud, a brightness shineth forth: from that which thou didst despise, 
hath burst forth that which thou mayest dread. Our Lord Jesus Christ 
therefore sent His Apostles, as His preachers, like clouds: they were seen 
as men, and were despised; as clouds appear, and are despised, until what 
thou wonderest at gleameth from them. For they were in the first place men 
encumbered with flesh, weak; then, men of low station, unlearned, ignoble: 
but there was within what could lighten forth; there was in them what could 
flash abroad. Peter a fisherman approached, prayed, and the dead arose.(4) 
His human form was a cloud, the splendour of the  miracle was the 
lightning. So in their words,  so in their deeds, when they do things to be 
wondered at, and utter words to be wondered at, "His lightnings gave shine 
unto the world; the earth saw it, and was afraid." Is it not true? Doth not 
the whole Christian world at length exclaim, Amen, afraid at the lightnings 
which burst forth from those clouds?

     7. "The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord" (ver. 5). 
Who are the hills? The proud. Every high thing raising itself against God, 
at the deeds of Christ and of the Christians, trembled, yielded, and when I 
say, what hath been already said, "melted," a better word cannot be found. 
"The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord." Where is the 
elevation of powers? where the hardness of the unbelieving? The Lord was a 
fire unto them, they melted at His presence like wax; so long hard, until 
that fire was applied. Every height hath been levelled; it dareth not now 
blaspheme Christ: and though the Pagan believeth not in Him, he blasphemeth 
Him not; though not as yet become a living stone, yet the hard hill hath 
been subdued. "At the presence of the Lord of the whole earth:" not of the 
Jews only, but of the Gentiles also, as the Apostle saith; for He is not 
the God of the Jews alone, but of the Gentiles also.(5) He is therefore the 
Lord of the whole earth, the Lord Jesus Christ born in Judaea, but not born 
for Judaea alone, because before He was born He created all men; and He who 
created, also new created, all men.

     8. "The heavens have declared His righteousness: and all the people 
have seen His glory" (ver. 6). What heavens have declared? "The heavens 
declare the glory of God."(6) Who are the heavens? Those who have become 
His seat; for as God sitteth in the heavens, so doth He sit in the 
Apostles, so doth He sit in the preachers of the Gospel. Even thou, if thou 
wilt, shalt be a heaven. Dost thou wish to be so? Purge from thy heart the 
earth. If thou hast not earthly lusts, and hast not in vain uttered the 
response, that thou hast "lifted up thy heart," thou shalt be a heaven.(7) 
"If ye be risen with Christ," saith the Apostle to believers, "set your 
affection on things above, not on things of the earth."(8) Thou hast begun 
to set thine affection upon things above, not on things upon earth; hast 
thou not become a heaven? Thou carriest flesh, and in thy heart thou art 
already a heaven; for thy conversation will be in heaven.(9) Being such, 
thou also declarest I Christ; for who of the faithful declareth not Christ? 
... Therefore the whole Church preacheth Christ, and the heavens declare 
His righteousness; for all the faithful, whose care it is to gain unto God 
those who have not yet  believed, and who do this from love, are heavens. 
From them God thundereth forth the terror of His judgment; and he who was 
unbelieving trembleth, and is alarmed, and believeth. He shows unto men 
what power Christ had throughout the world, by pleading with them, and 
leading them to love Christ. For how many this day have led their friends 
either to some pantomimist, or flute-player? Why, except from their liking 
him? And do ye love Christ. For He who conquered the world hath exhibited 
such spectacles, as that no man can say that he findeth in them cause for 
blame. For each person's favourite in the theatre is often vanquished 
there. But no man is vanquished in Christ: there is no reason for shame. 
Seize, lead, draw, whom ye may: be without fear, ye are leading unto Him, 
who displeaseth not those who see Him; and ask ye Him to enlighten them, 
that they may behold to good account.

    9. "Confounded be all they that worship carved images" (ver. 7). Hath 
not this come to pass? Have they not been confounded? Are they not daily 
confounded? For carved images are images wrought by the hand. Why are all 
who worship carved images confounded? Because all people have seen His 
glory. All nations now confess the glory of Christ: let those who worship 
stones be ashamed. Because those stones were dead, we have found a living 
Stone; indeed those stones never lived, so that they cannot be called even 
dead; but our Stone is living, and hath ever lived with the Father, and 
though He died for us, He revived, and liveth now, and death shall no more 
have dominion over Him.(1) This glory of His the nations have acknowledged; 
they leave the temples, they run to the Churches. Do they still seek to 
worship carved images? Have they not chosen to forsake their idols? They 
have been forsaken by their idols. "Who glory in their idols." But there is 
a certain disputer who seemeth unto himself learned, and saith, I do not 
worship that stone, nor that image which is without sense; ... I worship 
not this image but I adore(2) what I see, and serve him whom see not. Who 
is that? Some invisible deity, he replieth, who presideth over that image. 
By giving this account of their images, they seem to themselves able 
disputants, because they do not worship idols, and yet do worship devils. 
"The things," brethren, saith the Apostle, "which the Gentiles sacrifice, 
they sacrifice unto devils, and not to God; we know that an idol is 
nothing: and that what the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, 
and not to God; and I would not that ye should have fellowship with 
devils."(3) Let them not therefore excuse themselves on this ground, that 
they are not devoted to insensate idols; they are rather devoted to devils, 
which is more dangerous. For if they were only worshipping idols, as they 
would not help them, so they would not hurt them; but if thou worship and 
serve devils, they themselves will be thy masters. ...

    10. But observe holy men, who are like the Angels. When thou hast found 
some holy man who serveth God, if thou wish to worship him instead of God, 
he forbiddeth thee: he will not arrogate to himself the honour due to God, 
he will not be unto thee as God, but be with thee under God. Thus did the 
holy Apostles Paul and Barnabas. They preached the word of God in Lycaonia. 
When they had performed wonderful works in Lycaonia, the people of that 
country brought victims, and wished to sacrifice to them, calling Barnabas 
Jupiter, and Paul Mercury: they were not pleased. Did they perchance refuse 
to be sacrificed to, because they abhorred to be compared to devils? No, 
but because they shuddered at divine honour being paid to men. Their own 
words show this: it is no guess of ours; for the text of the book goeth on 
to say how they were moved.(4) ... Just then, as good men forbade those who 
had wished to worship them as gods, and wish rather that God alone be 
worshipped, God alone be adored, to God alone sacrifice be offered, not to 
themselves; so also all the holy Angels seek His glory whom they love; 
endeavour to impel and to excite to the contemplation of Him all whom they 
love: Him they declare to them, not themselves, since they are angels; and 
because they are soldiers, they study only how to seek the glory of their 
Captain; but if they have sought their own glory, they are condemned as 
usurpers.(5) Such were the devil and his angels; he claimed for himself 
divine honour, and for all his demons; he filled the Pagan temples, and 
persuaded them to offer images and sacrifices to himself. Was it not better 
to worship holy Angels than devils? They answer: we do not worship devils; 
we worship angels, as ye call them, the powers and the ministers of the 
great God. I wish ye would worship them: ye would easily learn from 
themselves not to worship them.(6) Hear an Angel teaching. He was teaching 
a disciple of Christ, and showing him many wonders in the Revelation of 
John: and when some wonderful vision had been shown him, he trembled, and 
fell down at the Angel's feet; but that Angel, who sought not but the glory 
of God, said, "See thou do it not; for I am a fellow-servant of thee, and 
of thy brethren the prophets."(7) What then, my brethren? Let no man say, I 
fear lest the Angel may be angry with me, if I worship him not as my God. 
He is then angry with thee, when thou hast chosen to worship him: for he is 
righteous, and loveth God. As devils are angry if they are not worshipped, 
so are Angels angry if they are worshipped instead of God. But lest the 
weak and trembling heart perchance say unto itself: If then the demons are 
incensed because they are not worshipped, I fear to offend them; what can 
even their chief the devil do unto thee? If he had any power over us no one 
of us would remain. Are not daily so many things said against him by the 
mouth of Christians, and yet the harvest of Christians increaseth. When 
thou art angry with the most depraved of thy slaves, thou givest him the 
name, "Satan," Devil. Perhaps in this thou dost err, since thou sayest it 
to a man, and thy immoderate anger hurrieth thee to revile the image of 
God: and yet thou choosest a term thou deeply hatest, to apply to him. If 
he could, would he not revenge himself? But it is not allowed: and he doth 
so much only as is allowed him. For when he wished to tempt Job, he had to 
ask power to do so:(1) and he could do nothing had he not received power. 
Why then dost thou not fearlessly worship God, without whose will no one 
hurteth thee, and by whose permission thou art: chastened, not overcome? 
For if it shall have pleased the Lord thy God to permit some man to hurt 
thee, or some spirit: He will chasten thee, that thou mayest cry unto 
Him:(2) "Confounded," therefore, "be all they that delight in vain gods: 
worship Him, all ye His angels." Let Pagans learn to worship God: they wish 
to worship Angels: let them imitate Angels, and worship Him who is 
worshipped by Angels. "Worship Him, all ye His angels." Let that Angel 
worship who was sent to Cornelius (for worshipping Him he sent Cornelius to 
Peter), himself Peter's fellow-servant; let him worship Christ, Peter's 
Lord. "Worship Him, all ye gods!"

    11. "Sion heard of it, and rejoiced" (ver. 8). What did Sion hear? That 
all His Angels worship Him. ... For the Church was not as yet among the 
Gentiles; in Judaea the Jews had some of them believed, and the very Jews 
who believed thought that they only belonged to Christ: the Apostles were 
sent to the Gentiles, Cornelius was preached to; Cornelius believed, was 
baptized, and they who were with Cornelius were also baptized.(3) But ye 
know what happened, that they might be baptized: the reader indeed hath not 
reached this point, but, nevertheless, some recollect; and let those who do 
not recollect, hear briefly from me. The Angel was sent to Cornelius: the 
Angel sent Cornelius to Peter; Peter came to Cornelius. And because 
Cornelius and his household were Gentiles, and uncircumcised: lest they 
might hesitate to give the Gospel to the uncircumcised: before Cornelius 
and his household were baptized, the Holy Spirit came, and filled them, and 
they began to speak with tongues. Now the Holy Spirit had not fallen upon 
any one who had not been baptized: but upon these It fell before baptism. 
For Peter might hesitate whether he might baptize the uncircumcised: the 
Holy Spirit came, they began to speak with tongues; the invisible gift was 
given, and took away all doubt about the visible Sacrament; they were all 
baptized. ... What did Sion hear, and rejoice at? That the Gentiles also 
had received the word of God. One wall had come, but the corner existed not 
as yet. The name Sion is here peculiarly given to the Church which was in 
Judaea. "Sion heard of it, and rejoiced: and the daughters of Judah were 
glad." Thus it is written, "The apostles and brethren that were in Judaea 
heard." See if the daughters of Judaea rejoiced not. What did they hear? 
"That the Gentiles had also received the word of God." ... Therefore, "The 
daughters of Judah rejoiced because of Thy judgments, O Lord." What is, 
because of Thy judgments? Because in any nation, and in any people, he that 
serveth Him is accepted of Him:(4) for He is not the God of the Jews only, 
but also of the Gentiles.(5)

    12. See if this be not the reason for the joy of the daughters of 
Judah. "For Thou, Lord, art most high over all the earth" (ver. 9). Not in 
Judaea alone, but over Jerusalem; not over Sion only, but over all the 
earth. To this whole earth the judgments of God prevailed, so that it 
assembled its nations from every quarter: judgments with which they who 
have cut themselves off have no communion: they neither hear the  prophecy, 
nor see its completion; "For Thou, Lord, art most high over all the earth: 
Thou art exalted far above all gods." What is "far"?(6) For it is said of 
Christ. What then meaneth "far," except that Thou mayest be acknowledged 
coequal with the Father? What meaneth, "above all gods"? Who are they? 
Idols have not life, have not sense: devils have life and sense; but they 
are evil. What great thing is it that Christ is exalted above devils? He is 
exalted above devils: but neither is this very great; the heathen gods 
indeed are devils,(7) but "He is far above all gods." Even men are styled 
gods: "I have said, Ye are gods: and ye are all the children of the Most 
Highest:" again it is written, "God standeth in the congregation of 
princes: He is a Judge among gods."(8) Jesus Christ our Lord is exalted 
above all: not only above idols, not only above devils; but above all 
righteous men. Even this is not enough; above all Angels also: for whence 
otherwise is this, "Worship Him, all ye gods"? "Thou art far exalted above 
all gods."

    13. What then do we all, who have assembled before Him, before Him who 
is exalted far above all gods? He hath given us a brief commandment, "O ye 
that love the Lord, see that ye hate the thing which is evil!" (ver. 10). 
Christ doth not deserve that with Him thou shouldest love avarice. Thou 
lovest Him: thou shouldest hate what He hateth. There is a man who is thine 
enemy, he is what thou art; ye are the work of one Creator, with the same 
nature: and yet if thy son were to speak unto thine enemy, and come to his 
house, and constantly converse with him, thou wouldest be inclined to 
disinherit him; because he speaketh with thine enemy. And how so? Because 
thou seemest to say Justly, Thou art my enemy's friend, and seekest thou 
aught of my property? Attend then. Thou lovest Christ: avarice is Christ's 
foe; why speak with her? I say not, speak with her; why dost thou serve 
her? For Christ commandeth thee to do many things, and thou dost them not; 
she commandeth thee, and thou dost them. Christ commandeth thee to clothe 
the poor man: and thou dost it not; avarice biddeth thee defraud, and this 
thou dost in preference. If such be the case, if such thou art, do not very 
confidently promise thyself Christ's heritage. But thou  sayest, I love 
Christ. Hence it appeareth that thou lovest what is good, if thou  shalt be 
found to hate what is evil. ...

    14. Because then he had said above, "see that ye hate the thing which 
is evil," lest ye should fear to hate evil, lest he should kill thee, he 
addeth instantly, "The Lord preserveth the souls of His servants." Hear Him 
preserving the souls of His servants, and saying, "Fear not them which kill 
the body, but are not able to kill the soul."(1) He who hath most power 
against thee, slayeth the body. What hath he done unto thee? What he also 
did to the Lord thy God. Why lovest thou to have what Christ hath, if thou 
fearest to suffer what Christ did? He came to bear thy life, temporal, 
weak, subject unto death. Surely fear to die, if thou canst avoid dying. 
What thou canst not avoid through thy nature, why dost thou not undergo by 
faith? Let the adversary who threateneth take away from thee that life, God 
giveth thee another life: for He gave thee this life also, and without His 
will even this shall not be taken from thee; but if it be His will that it 
be taken from thee, He hath a life to give thee in exchange; fear not to be 
robbed for His sake. Art thou unwilling to put off a patched garment? He 
will give thee a robe of glory. What robe dost thou tell me of? "This 
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on 
immortality."(2) This very flesh of thine shall not perish. Thine enemy can 
rage as far as to thy death: he hath not power beyond, either over thy 
soul, or even over thy flesh; for although he scatter thy flesh about, he 
hindereth not the resurrection. Men were fearful for their life: and what 
said the Lord unto them? "The very hairs of your head are all numbered."(3) 
Dost thou, who losest not a single hair, fear the loss of thy life? All 
things are numbered with God. He who created all things, will restore all 
things. They were not, and they were created: they were, and shall they not 
be restored? ... "He shall deliver them from the hand of the ungodly."

    15. But perhaps thou wilt say, I lose this light. "There is sprung up a 
light for the righteous" (ver. 11). What light fearest thou thou mayest 
lose? fearest thou thou mayest be in darkness? Fear not thou mayest lose 
light; nay, fear lest while thou art guarding against the loss of this 
light, thou mayest lose that true light. For we see to whom that light is 
given which thou fearest losing, and with whom it is shared. Do the 
righteous only see this sun, when He maketh it rise over the just and 
unjust, and raineth upon the just and unjust?(4) Wicked men, robbers, the 
unchaste, beasts, flies, worms, see that light together with thee. What 
sort of light doth He keep for the righteous, who giveth this even to such 
as these? Deservedly the Martyrs beheld this light in faith; for they who 
despised this light of the sun, had some light in their eyes, which they 
longed for, who rejected this. Do you imagine that they were really in 
misery, when they walked in chains? Spacious was the prison to the 
faithful, light were the chains to the confessors. They who preached Christ 
amid their torments, had joy in the iron-chair. What light hath sprung up 
for the righteous? Not that which springeth up for the unrighteous; not 
that which He causeth to rise over the good and bad. There is a different 
light which springeth up to the righteous; of which light, that never rose 
upon themselves, the unrighteous shall in the end say, "Therefore have we 
erred from the way of truth, and the light of righteousness hath not shined 
upon us, and the sun of righteousness rose not upon us."(5) Behold, by 
loving this sun they have lain in the darkness of the heart. What did it 
profit them to have seen with their eyes this sun, and not in mind to have 
seen that light? Tobit was blind, but he used to teach his son the way of 
God. Ye know this, that Tobit warned his son, and said to him, "Son, give 
alms of thy substance; because that alms suffer not to come into 
darkness."(1) Even he who was in darkness spoke thus. ... Dost thou wish to 
know that light? Be true-hearted. What is, be true-hearted? Be not of a 
crooked heart before God, withstanding His will, and wishing to bend Him 
unto thee, and not to rule thyself to please Him; and thou wilt feel the 
joyful gladness which all the true-hearted know.

    16. "Be glad, ye righteous" (ver. 12). Perhaps already the faithful 
hearing the word, "Be glad," are thinking of banquets, preparing cups, 
waiting for the season of roses; because it is said, "Be glad, ye 
righteous!" See what followeth, "Be glad in the Lord." Thou art waiting for 
the season of spring, that thou mayest be glad: thou hast the Lord for 
joyful gladness, the Lord is always with thee, He hath no special season; 
thou hast Him by night, thou hast Him by day. Be true-hearted; and thou 
hast ever joy from Him. For that joy which is after the fashion of the 
world, is not true joy. Hear the prophet Isaiah: "There is no joy, saith my 
God, to the wicked."(2) What the wicked call joy is not joy, such as he 
knew who made no account of their joy: let us believe him, brethren. He was 
a man, but he knew both kinds of joy. He certainly knew the joys of the 
cup, for he was a man, he knew the joy of the table, he knew the joys of 
marriage, he knew those joys worldly and luxurious. He who knew them saith 
with confidence, "There is no joy to the wicked, saith the Lord." But it is 
not man who speaks, it is the Lord. ... But thou sayest, I see not that 
light which Isaiah saw. Believe, and thou shalt see it. For perhaps thou 
hast not the eye to see it; for it is an eye by which that beauty is 
discerned. For as there is an eye of the flesh, by means of which this 
light is seen: so there is an eye of the heart, by which that joy is 
perceived: perhaps that eye is wounded, dimmed, disturbed by passion, by 
avarice, by indulgence, by senseless lust; thine eye is disturbed: thou 
canst not see that light. Believe, before thou seest: thou shalt be healed, 
and shalt see.

    17. "And confess to the remembrance of His holiness." Now made glad, 
now rejoicing in the Lord, confess unto Him; for unless it were His will, 
ye would not rejoice in Him. For the Lord Himself saith: "These things I 
have spoken to you: that in Me ye might have peace. But in the world ye 
shall have tribulation."(3) If ye are Christians, look for tribulations in 
this world; look not for more peaceful and better times. Brethren, ye 
deceive yourselves; what the Gospel doth not promise you, promise not to 
yourselves. Ye know what the Gospel saith; we are speaking to Christians; 
we ought not to disobey the faith. The Gospel saith this, that in the last 
times many evils, many stumbling-blocks, many tribulations, much iniquity, 
shall abound; but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be 
saved.(4) "The love," it saith, "of many shall wax cold." Whosoever then 
hath been stedfastly fervent in spirit, as the Apostle saith," fervent in 
spirit,"(5) his love shall not wax cold: because "the love of God is shed 
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us."(6) Let no 
man therefore promise himself what the Gospel doth not promise. Behold, 
happier times will come, and I am doing this, and purchasing this. It is 
good for thee to listen to Him who is not deceived, nor hath deceived any 
man, who promised thee joy not here, but in Himself; and when all here hath 
passed away, to hope that with Him thou wilt for ever reign; lest when thou 
dost wish to reign here, thou mayest neither enjoy gladness here, nor find 
it there.

PSALM XCVIII.(7)

    1. "O sing unto the Lord a new song" (ver. 1). The new man knoweth 
this, the old man knoweth it not. The old man is the old life, and the new 
man the new life: the old life is derived from Adam, the new life is formed 
in Christ. But in this Psalm, the whole world is enjoined to sing a new 
song. More openly elsewhere the words are these: "O sing unto the Lord a 
new song; sing unto the Lord, all the whole earth;"(8) that they who cut 
themselves off from the communion of the whole earth,(9)  may understand 
that they cannot sing the new song, because it is sung in the whole, and 
not in a part of it. Attend here also, and see that this is said. And when 
the whole earth is enjoined to sing a new song, it is meant, that peace 
singeth a new song. "For He hath done marvelous things." What marvellous 
things? Behold, the Gospel was just now being read, and we heard the 
marvellous things of the Lord. The only son of his mother, who was a widow, 
was being carried out dead: the Lord, in compassion, made them stand still; 
they laid him down, and the Lord said, "Young man, I say unto thee, 
Arise."(10)... "The Lord hath done marvellous things." What marvellous 
things? Hear: "His own right hand, and His holy arm, hath healed for Him." 
What is the Lord's holy Arm? Our Lord Jesus Christ. Hear Isaiah: "Who hath 
believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?"(11) His 
holy arm then, and His own right hand, is Himself. Our Lord Jesus Christ is 
therefore the arm of God, and the right hand of God for this reason is it 
said, "hath He healed for Him." It is not said only, "His right hand hath 
healed the world," but "hath healed for Him." For many are healed for 
themselves, not for Him. Behold how many long for that bodily health, and 
receive it from Him: they are healed by Him, but not for Him. How are they 
healed by Him, and not for Him? When they have received health, they become 
wanton: they who when sick were chaste, when cured become adulterers: they 
who when in illness injured no man, on the recovery of their strength 
attack and crush the innocent: they are healed, but not unto Him. Who is he 
who is healed unto Him? He who is healed inwardly. Who is he that is healed 
inwardly? He who trusteth in Him, that when he shall have been healed 
inwardly, reformed into a new man, afterwards this mortal flesh too, which 
doth languish for a time, may in the end itself even recover its most 
perfect health. Let us therefore be healed for Him. But that we may be 
healed for Him, let us believe in His right hand.

    2. "The Lord hath made known His salvation" (ver. 2). This very right 
hand, this very arm, this very salvation, is our Lord Jesus Christ of whom 
it is said, "And all flesh shall see the salvation of God;"(1) of whom also 
that Simeon who embraced the Infant in his arms, spoke, "Lord, now lettest 
Thou Thy servant depart in peace; for mine eyes have seen Thy 
salvation."(2) "The Lord hath made known His salvation." To whom did He 
make it known? To a part, or to the whole? Not to any part specially. Let 
no man betray, no man deceive, no man: say, "Lo, here is Christ, or 
there:"(3) the man who saith, Lo, He is here, or there, pointeth to some 
particular spots. To whom "hath the Lord declared His salvation"? Hear what 
followeth: "His righteousness hath He openly showed in the sight of the 
heathen." Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is the right hand of God, the 
arm of God, the salvation of God, and the righteousness of God.

    3. "He hath remembered His mercy to Jacob, and His truth unto the house 
of Israel" (ver. 3). What meaneth this, "He hath remembered His mercy and 
truth"? He hath pitied, so that He promised; because He promised and showed 
His mercy, truth hath followed: mercy hath gone before promise, promise 
hath been fulfilled in truth. ...

    "And His truth unto the house of Israel." Who is this Israel? That ye 
may not perchance think of one nation of the Jews, hear what followeth: 
"All the ends of the world have seen the salvation of our God." It is not 
said, all the earth: but, "all the ends of the world:" as it is said, from 
one end to the other. Let no man cut this down, let no man scatter it 
abroad; strong is the unity of Christ. He who gave so great a price, hath 
bought the whole: "All the ends of the world."

    4. Because they have seen, then, "Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, 
all ye lands" (ver. 4). Ye already know what it is to make a joyful noise. 
Rejoice, and speak. If ye cannot express your joy, shout ye; let the shout 
manifest your joy, if your speech cannot: yet let not joy be mute; let not 
your heart be silent respecting its God, let it not be mute concerning His 
gifts. If thou speakest to thyself, unto thyself art thou healed; if His 
right hand hath healed thee for Him, speak thou unto Him for whom thou hast 
been healed. "Sing, rejoice, and make melody."

    5. "Make melody unto the Lord upon the harp: on the harp and with the 
voice of a Psalm" (ver. 5 ). Praise Him not with the voice only; take up 
works, that ye may not only sing, but work also. He who singeth and 
worketh, maketh melody with psaltery and upon the harp. Now see what sort 
of instruments are next spoken of, in figure: "With ductile trumpets also, 
and the sound of the pipe of horn" (ver. 6). What are ductile trumpets, and 
pipes of horn? Ductile trumpets are of brass: they are drawn out by 
hammering; if by hammering, by being beaten, ye shall be ductile trumpets, 
drawn out unto the praise of God, if ye improve when in tribulation: 
tribulation is hammering, improvement is the being drawn out. Job was a 
ductile trumpet, when suddenly assailed by the heaviest losses, and the 
death of his sons, become like a ductile trumpet by the beating of so heavy 
tribulation, he sounded thus: "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; 
blessed be the name of the Lord."(4) How did he sound? How pleasantly doth 
his voice sound? This ductile trumpet is still under the hammer. ... We 
have heard how he was hammered; let us hear how he soundeth: let us, if it 
please you, hear the sweet sound of this ductile trumpet: "What! shall we 
receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" O 
courageous, O sweet sound! whom will not that sound awake from sleep? whom 
will not confidence in God awake, to march to battle fearlessly against the 
devil; not to struggle with his own strength, but His who proveth him. For 
He it is who hammereth: for the hammer could not do so of itself. ... See 
how (I dare so speak, my brethren) even the Apostle was beaten with this 
very hammer: he saith, "there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the 
messenger of Satan, to buffet me."(1) Behold he is under the hammer: let us 
hear how he speaketh of it: "For this thing," be saith, "I besought the 
Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And He said unto me, My grace is 
sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness." I, saith 
His Maker, wish to make this trumpet perfect; I cannot do so unless I 
hammer it; in weakness is strength made perfect. Hear now the ductile 
trumpet itself sounding as it should: "When I am weak, then am I strong." 
...

    6. The voice of the pipe of horn, what is it? The horn riseth above the 
flesh: in rising above the flesh it needs must be solid so as to last, and 
able to speak. And whence this? Because it hath surpassed the flesh. He who 
wisheth to be a horn trumpet, let him overcome the flesh. What meaneth 
this, let him overcome the flesh? Let him surpass the desires, let him 
conquer the lusts of the flesh Hear the horn trumpets. ... What meaneth 
this, "Set your affection on things above"? It meaneth, Rise above the 
flesh, think not of carnal things. They were not yet horn trumpets, to whom 
he now spoke thus: "I could not speak unto you, brethren, as unto 
spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you 
with milk, and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it: 
neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal."(2) They were not 
therefore horn trumpets, because they had not risen above the flesh. Horn 
both adhereth to the flesh, and riseth above the flesh; and although it 
springeth from the flesh, yet it surpasseth it. If therefore thou art 
spiritual, when before thou wast carnal; as yet thou art treading the earth 
in the flesh, but in spirit thou art rising into heaven; for though we walk 
in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. ... Brethren, do not reproach 
brethren whom the mercy of God hath not yet converted; know that as long as 
ye do this, ye savour of the flesh. That is not a trumpet which pleaseth 
the ears of God: the trumpet of boastfulness maketh the war fruitless. Let 
the horn trumpet raise thy courage against the devil; let not the fleshly 
trumpet raise thy pride against thy brother. "Make a joyful noise in the 
sight of the Lord the King."

    7. While ye are rejoicing, and delighted with the ductile trumpets, and 
the voice of the horn, what followeth? "Let the sea be stirred up, and the 
fulness thereof" (ver. 7). Brethren, when the Apostles, like ductile 
trumpets and horns, were preaching the truth, the sea was stirred up, its 
waves arose, tempests increased, persecutions of the Church took place. 
Whence hath the sea been stirred up? When a joyful noise was made, when 
Psalms of thanksgiving were being sung before God: the ears of God were 
pleased, the waves of the sea were raised. "Let the sea be stirred up, and 
the fulness thereof: the round world, and all that dwell therein." Let the 
sea be stirred up in its persecutions. "Let the floods clap their hands 
together" (ver. 8). Let the sea be aroused, and the floods clap their hands 
together; persecutions arise, and the saints rejoice in God. Whence shall 
the floods clap their hands? What is to clap their hands? To rejoice in 
works. To clap hands, is to rejoice; hands, mean works. What floods? Those 
whom God hath made floods, by giving them that Water, the Holy Spirit. "If 
any man thirst," saith He, "let him come unto Me, and drink. He that 
believeth on Me, out of his bosom shall flow rivers of living water."(3) 
These rivers clapped their hands, these rivers rejoiced in works, and 
blessed God. "The bills shall be joyful together."

    8. "Before the Lord, for He is come; for He is come to judge the earth" 
(ver. 9). "The hills" signify the great. The Lord cometh to judge the 
earth, and they rejoice. But there are hills, who, when the Lord is coming 
to judge the earth, shall tremble. There are therefore good and evil hills; 
the good hills, are spiritual greatness; the bad hills, are the swelling of 
pride. "Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord, for He is come; 
for He is come to judge the earth." Wherefore shall He come,  and how shall 
He come? "With righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with 
equity" (ver. 10). Let the hills therefore rejoice; for He shall not judge 
unrighteously. When some man is coming as a judge, to whom the conscience 
cannot lie open, even innocent men may tremble, if from him they expect a 
reward for virtue, or fear the penalty of condemnation; when He shall come 
who cannot be deceived, let the hills rejoice, let them rejoice fearlessly; 
they shall be enlightened by Him, not condemned; let them rejoice, because 
the Lord will come to judge the world with equity; and if the righteous 
hills rejoice, let the unrighteous tremble. But behold, He hath not yet 
come: what need is there they should tremble? Let them mend their ways, and 
rejoice. It is in thy power in what way thou wiliest to await the coming of 
Christ. For this reason He delayeth to come, that when He cometh He may not 
condemn thee. Lo, He bath not yet come: He is in heaven, thou on earth: He 
delayeth His coming, do not thou delay wisdom. His coming is hard to the 
hard of heart, soft to the pious. See therefore even now what thou art: if 
hard of heart, thou canst soften; if thou art soft, even now rejoice that 
He will come. For thou art a Christian. Yea, thou sayest. I believe that 
thou prayest, and sayest, "Thy kingdom come."(1) Thou desirest Him to come, 
whose coming thou fearest. Reform thyself, that thou mayest not pray 
against thyself.

PSALM XCIX.(2)

    1. Beloved brethren, it ought already to be known to you, as sons of 
the Church, and well. instructed in the school of Christ through all the 
books of our ancient fathers, who wrote the words of God and the great 
things of God, that their wish was to consult for our good, who were to 
live at this period, believers in Christ; who, at a seasonable time came 
unto us, the first time, in humility; at the second, destined to come in 
exaltation. ...For thus it is said in the Psalms: "Truth shall flourish out 
of the earth: and righteousness hath looked down from heaven."(3) Now, 
therefore, our whole design is, when we hear a Psalm, a Prophet, or the 
Law, all of which was written before our Lord Jesus Christ came in the 
flesh, to see Christ there, to understand Christ there. Attend therefore, 
beloved, to this Psalm, with me, and let us herein seek Christ; certainly 
He will appear to those who seek Him, who at first appeared to those who 
sought Him not; and He will not desert those who long for Him, who redeemed 
those who neglected Him. Behold, the Psalm beginneth concerning Him: of Him 
it is said:--

    2. "The Lord is King, be the people angry" (ver. 1). For our Lord Jesus 
Christ began to reign, began to be preached, after He arose from the dead 
and ascended into heaven, after He had filled His disciples with the 
confidence of the Holy Spirit, that they should not fear death, which He 
had already killed in Himself. Our Lord Christ began then to be preached, 
that they who wished for salvation might believe in Him; and the peoples 
who worshipped idols were angry. They who worshipped what they had made 
were angry, because He by whom they were made was declared. He announced, 
in fact, through His disciples, Himself, who wished them to be converted 
unto Him by whom they were made, and to be turned away froth those things 
which they had made themselves. They were angry with their Lord in behalf 
of their idols, they who even if they were angry with their slave on their 
idol's account, were to be condemned. For their slave was better than their 
idol: for God made their slave, the carpenter made their idol. They were so 
angry in their idol's behalf, that they feared not to be angry with their 
Lord. But the words, "be they angry," are a prediction, not a command; for 
in a prophecy it is that this is said, "The Lord is King, be the people 
angry." Some good resulteth even from the enraged people: let them be 
angry, and in their anger let the Martyrs be crowned. ... Ye heard when 
Jeremiah was being read before the reading of the Apostle,(4)  if ye 
listened; ye saw therein the times in which we now live. He said, "The gods 
that have not made the heavens and the earth, let them perish from the 
earth, and from under the heaven."(5) He said not, The gods that have not 
made the heavens and earth, let them perish from the heaven and from the 
earth; because they never were in heaven: but what did he say? "Let them 
perish from the earth, and from under the heaven." As if, while the word 
earth was repeated, the repetition of the word heaven were wanting (because 
they never were in heaven): he repeateth the earth twice, since it is under 
heaven. "Let them perish from the earth, and from under the heaven," from 
their temples. Consider if this be not now taking place; if in a great 
measure it hath not already happened: for what, or how much, hath remained? 
The idols remained rather in the hearts of the pagans, than in the niches 
of the temples.

    3. "He who sitteth between the cherubims:" thou dost understand, "He is 
King: let the earth be stirred up." ... The Cherubim is the seat of God, as 
the Scripture showeth us, a certain exalted heavenly throne, which we see 
not; but the Word of God knoweth it, knoweth it as His own seat: and the 
Word of God and the Spirit of God hath Itself revealed to the servants of 
God where God sitteth. Not that God doth sit, as doth man; but thou, if 
thou dost wish that God sit in thee, if thou wilt be good, shalt be the 
seat of God; for thus is it written, "The soul of the righteous is the seat 
of wisdom."(6) For a throne is in our language called a seat. For some, 
conversant with the Hebrew tongue, have interpreted cherubim in the Latin 
language (for it is a Hebrew term) by the words, fulness of knowledge. 
Therefore, because God surpasseth all knowledge, He is said to sit above 
the fulness of knowledge. Let there be therefore in thee fulness of 
knowledge, and even thou shalt be the throne of God. ... He knoweth all 
things: for our hairs are numbered before God.(7) But the fulness of 
knowledge which He willed man to know is different from this; the knowledge 
which He willed thee to have, pertaineth to the law of God. And who can, 
thou mayest perhaps say unto me, perfectly know the Law, so that he may 
have within himself the fulness of the knowledge of the Law, and be able to 
be the seat of God? Be not disturbed; it is briefly told thee what thou 
hast, if thou dost wish to have the fulness of knowledge, and to become the 
throne of God: for the Apostle saith, "Love is the fulfilling of the Law.", 
What followeth then? Thou hast lost the whole of thine excuse. Ask thine 
heart; see whether it hath love. If there be love there, there is the 
fulfilment of the Law there also; already God dwelleth in thee, thou hast 
become the throne of God. "Be the people angry;" what can the angry people 
do against him who hath become the throne of God? Thou givest heed unto 
them who rage against thee: Who is it that sitteth within thee, thou givest 
not heed. Thou art become a heaven, and learest thou the earth? For the 
Scripture saith in another passage, that the Lord our God doth declare, 
"The heaven is My throne."(2) If therefore even thou by having the fulness 
of knowledge, and by having love, hast been made the throne of God, thou 
hast become a heaven. For this heaven which we look up to with these eyes 
of ours, is not very precious before God. Holy souls are the heaven of God; 
the minds of the Angels, and all the minds of His servants, are the heaven 
of God.

    4. "The Lord is great in Sion, and high above all people" (ver. 2). 
...He whom I spoke to thee of as above the Cherubims, is great in Sion. Ask 
thou now, what is Sion? We know Sion to be the city of God. The city of 
Jerusalem is called Sion; and is so called according to a certain 
interpretation, for that Sion signifieth watching, that is, sight and 
contemplation; for to watch is to look forward to, or gaze upon, or strain 
the eyes to see. Now every soul is a Sion, if it trieth to see that light 
which is to be seen. For if it shall have gazed upon a light of its own, it 
is darkened; if upon His, it is enlightened. But, now that it is clear that 
Sion is the city of God; what is the city of God, but the Holy Church? For 
men who love one another, and who love their God who dwelleth in them, 
constitute a city unto God. Because a city is held together by some law; 
their very law is Love; and that very Love is God: for openly it is 
written, "God is Love."(3) He therefore who is full of Love, is full of 
God; and many, full of love, constitute a city full of God. That city of 
God is called Sion; the Church therefore is Sion. In it God is great. ...

    5. Do ye imagine, brethren, that they whose instruments re-echoed 
yesterday, are not angry with our fastings? But let us not be angry with 
them, but let us fast for them. For the Lord our God who sitteth in us hath 
said, He hath Himself commanded us to pray for our enemies, to pray for 
them that persecute us:(4) and as the Church doth this, the persecutors are 
almost extinct. ... The drunken man doth not offend himself, but he 
offendeth the sober man. Show me a man who is at last happy in God, liveth 
gravely, sigheth for that everlasting peace which God hath promised him; 
and see that when he hath seen a man dancing to an instrument, he is more 
grieved for his madness, than for a man who is in a frenzy from a fever. If 
then we know their evils, considering that we also have been freed from 
those very evils, let us grieve for them; and if we grieve for them, let us 
pray for them; and that we may be heard, let us fast for them. For we do 
not keep our own fasts in their holidays. Different are the fasts which we 
celebrate through the days of the approaching Passover, through different 
seasons which are fixed for us in Christ: but through their holidays we 
fast for this reason, that when they are rejoicing, we may groan for them. 
For by their joy they excite our grief, and cause us to remember how 
wretched they are as yet. But since we see many freed thence, where we also 
have been, we ought not to despair even of them. And if they are still 
enraged, let us pray; and if still a particle of earth that hath remained 
behind be stirred up against us, let us continue in lamentation for them, 
that to them also God may grant understanding, and that with us they may 
hear those words, in which we are at this moment rejoicing.

    6. All these very people, over whom Thou art great in Sion, "Let them 
confess unto Thy Name, which is great" (ver. 3). Thy Name was little when 
they were enraged: it hath become great; let them now confess. In what 
sense do we say, that the Name of Christ was little, before it was spread 
abroad to so great an extent? Because His report is meant by His Name. His 
Name was small; already it hath become great. What nation is there that 
hath not heard of the Name of Christ? Therefore let now the people confess 
unto Thy Name, which is great, who before were enraged with Thy little 
Name. Wherefore shall they confess? Because it is "wonderful and holy." Thy 
very Name is wonderful and holy. He is so preached as crucified, so 
preached as humbled, so preached as judged, that He may come exalted, that 
He may come living, that He may come to judge in power. He spareth at 
present the people who blaspheme Him, because "the long-suffering of God 
leadeth to repentance."(5) For He who now spareth, will not always spare: 
nor will He, who is now being preached that He may be feared, fail to come 
to judge. He will come, my brethren, He will come let us fear Him, and let 
us live so that we may be found on His right hand. For He will come, and 
will judge, so as to place some on the left hand, some on the right.(1) And 
He doth not act in an uncertain manner, so as to err perchance betwixt men, 
so that he who should be set on the right hand, be set on the left; or that 
he who ought to stand on the left, by a mistake of God should stand on the 
right: He cannot err, so as to place the evil where He  ought to set the 
good; nor to place the good, where He should have set the evil. If He 
cannot err, we err, if we fear not; but if we have feared in this life, we 
shall not then have what to fear for. "For the King's honour loveth 
judgment." ...

    7. "Thou hast prepared equity; Thou hast wrought judgment and 
righteousness in Jacob." For we too ought to have judgment, we ought to 
have righteousness; but He worketh in us judgment and righteousness, who 
created us in whom He might work them. How ought we too to have judgment 
and righteousness? Thou hast judgment, when thou dost distinguish evil from 
good: and righteousness when thou followest the good, and turnest aside 
from the evil. By distinguishing them, thou hast judgment; by doing, thou 
hast righteousness. "Eschew evil,'  he saith, "and do good; seek peace, and 
ensue it."(2) Thou shouldest first have judgment, then righteousness. What 
judgment? That thou mayest first judge what is evil, and what is good. And 
what righteousness? That thou mayest shun evil, and do good. But this thou 
wilt not gain from thyself; see what he hath said, "Thou hast wrought 
judgment and righteousness in Jacob."

    8. "O magnify the Lord our God" (ver. 5). Magnify Him truly, magnify 
Him well. Let us praise Him, let us magnify Him who hath wrought the very 
righteousness which we have; who wrought it in us, Himself. For who but He 
who justified us, wrought righteousness in us? For of Christ it is said, 
"who justifieth the ungodly."(3) ... "And fall down before(4) His 
footstool: for He is holy." What are we to fall down before? His footstool. 
What is under the feet is called a footstool, in Greek hupopo'dion, in 
Latin Scabellum or Suppedaneum. But consider, brethren, what he commandeth 
us to fall down before. In another passage of the Scriptures it is said, 
"The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool."(5) Doth he then 
bid us worship the earth, since in another passage it is said, that it is 
God's footstool? How then shall we worship the earth, when the Scripture 
saith openly, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God"?(6) Yet here it saith, 
"fall down before His footstool:" and, explaining to us what His footstool 
is, it saith, "The earth is My footstool." I am in doubt; I fear to worship 
the earth, lest He who made the heaven and the earth condemn me; again, I 
fear not to worship the footstool of my Lord, because the Psalm biddeth me, 
"fall down before His footstool." I ask, what is His footstool? and the 
Scripture telleth me, "the earth is My footstool." In hesitation I turn 
unto Christ, since I am herein seeking Himself: and I discover how the 
earth may be worshipped without impiety,(7) how His footstool may be 
worshipped without impiety. For He took upon Him earth from earth; because 
flesh is from earth, and He received flesh from the flesh of Mary. And 
because He walked here in very flesh, and gave that very flesh to us to eat 
for our salvation; and no one eateth that flesh, unless he hath first 
worshipped: we have found out in what sense such a footstool of our Lord's 
may be worshipped, and not only that we sin not in worshipping it, but that 
we sin in not worshipping. But doth the flesh give life? Our Lord Himself, 
when He was speaking in praise of this same earth, said, "It is the Spirit 
that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing." ... But when our Lord 
praised it, He was speaking of His own flesh, and He had said, "Except a 
man eat My flesh, he shall have no life in him."(8) Some disciples of His, 
about seventy? were offended, and said, "This is an hard saying, who can 
hear it?" And they went back, and walked no more with Him. It seemed unto 
them hard that He said, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, ye have 
no life in you:" they received it foolishly, they thought of it carnally, 
and imagined that the Lord would cut off parts from His body, and give unto 
them; and they said, "This is a hard saying." It was they who were hard, 
not the saying; for unless they had been hard, and not meek, they would 
have said unto themselves, He saith not this without reason, but there must 
be some latent mystery herein. They would have remained with Him, softened, 
not hard: and would have learnt that from Him which they who remained, when 
the others departed, learnt. For when twelve disciples had remained with 
Him, on their departure, these remaining followers suggested to Him, as if 
in grief for the death of the former, that they were offended by His words, 
and turned back. But He instructed them, and saith unto them, "It is the 
Spirit that quickeneth, but the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I 
have spoken unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."(10) Understand 
spiritually what I have said; ye are not to eat this body which ye see; nor 
to drink that blood which they who will crucify Me shall pour forth. I have 
commended unto you a certain mystery; spiritually understood, it will 
quicken. Although it is needful that this be visibly celebrated, yet it 
must be spiritually understood.(1) 9. "Moses and Aaron among His priests, 
and Samuel among such as call upon His Name: these called upon the Lord, 
and He heard them" (ver. 6). "He spake unto them out of the cloudy pillar" 
(ver. 7). ... Of Moses it is not there stated that he was a priest, But if 
he was not this, what was he? Could he be anything greater than a priest? 
This Psalm declareth that he also was himself a priest: "Moses and Aaron 
among His priests." They therefore were the Lord's priests. Samuel is read 
of later in the Book of Kings: this Samuel is in David's times; for he 
anointed the holy David. Samuel from his infancy grew up in the temple. ... 
He mentioneth these: and by these desireth us to understand all the saints. 
Yet why hath he here named those? Because we said that we ought here to 
understand Christ. Attend, holy brethren. He said above, "O magnify the 
Lord our God: and fall down before His footstool, for He is holy:" praising 
some one, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ; whose footstool is to be 
worshipped, because He assumed flesh, in which He was to appear before the 
human race; and wishing to show unto us that the ancient fathers also had 
preached of Him, because our Lord Jesus Christ is Himself the True Priest, 
he mentioned these, because God spake unto them out of the cloudy pillar. 
What meaneth, "out of the cloudy pillar"? He was speaking figuratively. For 
if He spoke in some cloud, those obscure words predicted some one unknown, 
yet to be manifest. This unknown one is no longer unknown; for He is known 
by us, our Lord Jesus Christ. ... He who first spoke out of the cloudy 
pillar, hath in Person spoken unto us m His footstool; that is, on earth, 
when He had assumed the flesh, for which reason we worship His footstool, 
for He is holy. He Himself used to speak out of the cloud, which was not 
then understood: He hath spoken in His own footstool, and the words of His 
cloud have been understood. "They kept His testimonies, and the law that He 
gave them." ... "Thou heardest them," he saith, "O Lord our God: Thou wast 
forgiving to them, O God" (ver. 8). God is not said to be forgiving toward 
anything but sins: when He pardoneth sins, then He forgiveth. And what had 
He in them to punish, so that He was forgiving in pardoning them? He was 
forgiving in pardoning their sins, He was also forgiving in punishing them. 
For what followeth? "And punishedst all their own affections." Even in 
punishing them Thou wast forgiving toward them: for not in remitting, but 
also in punishing their sins, hast Thou been forgiving. Consider, my 
brethren, what be hath taught us here: attend. God is angry with him whom, 
when he sinneth, He scourgeth not: for unto him to whom He is truly 
forgiving, He not only remitteth sins, that they may not injure him in a 
future life; but also chasteneth him, that he delight not in continual sin.

    10. Come, my brethren; if we ask how these were punished, the Lord will 
aid me to tell you. Let us consider these three persons, Moses, Aaron, and 
Samuel: and how they were punished, since he said, "Thou hast punished all 
their own affections:" meaning those affections of theirs, which the Lord 
knew in their hearts, which men knew not. For they were living in the midst 
of the people of God, without complaint from man. But what do we say? That 
perhaps the early life of Moses was sinful; for he fled from Egypt, after 
slaying a man.(2) The early life of Aaron also was such as would displease 
God; for he allowed a maddened and infatuated people to make an idol to 
worship;(3) and an idol was made for God's people to worship. What sin did 
Samuel, who was given up when an infant to the temple? He passed all his 
life amid the holy sacraments of God: from childhood the servant of God. 
Nothing was ever said of Samuel, nothing by men. Perhaps God knew of 
somewhat there to chasten; since even what seemeth perfect unto men, unto 
that Perfection is still imperfect. Artists show many of their works to the 
unskilful; and when the unskilful have pronounced them perfect, the artists 
polish them still further, as they know what is still wanting to them, so 
that men wonder at things they had imagined already perfect having received 
so much additional polish. This happeneth in buildings, and in paintings, 
and in embroidery, and almost in every species of art. At first they judge 
it to be already in a manner perfect, so that their eyes desire nothing 
further: but the judgment of the inexperienced eye is one, and that of the 
rule of art another. Thus also these Saints were living before the eyes of 
God, as if faultless, as if perfect, as if Angels: but He who punished all 
their own affections, knew what was wanting in them. But He punished them 
not in anger, but in mercy: He punished them that He might perfect what He 
had begun, not to condemn what He had cast away. God therefore punished all 
their affections. How did He punish Samuel? where is this punishment? ... 
What was said unto Moses was a type, not a punishment. What punishment is 
death to an old man? What punishment was it, not to enter into that land, 
into which unworthy men entered? But what is said of Aaron? He also died an 
old man: his sons succeeded him in the priesthood: his son afterwards ruled 
in the priesthood: how did He punish Aaron also ?(1) Samuel also died a 
holy old man, leaving his sons as his successors.(2) I seek for the 
punishment inflicted upon them, and according to men I find it not: but 
according to what I know the servants of God suffer every day, they were 
day by day punished. Read ye, and see the punishments, and ye also who are 
advanced bear the punishments. Every day they suffered from the obstinate 
people, every day they suffered from the ungodly livers; and were compelled 
to live among those whose lives they daily censured. This was their 
punishment. He unto whom it is small hath not advanced far; for the 
ungodliness of others tormenteth thee in proportion as thou hast departed 
far from thine own. ...

     11. "O magnify the Lord our God!" (ver. 9). Again we magnify Him. He 
who is merciful even when He striketh, how is He to be praised, how is He 
to be magnified? Canst thou show this unto thy son, and cannot God? For 
thou art not good when thou dost caress thy son, and evil when thou 
strikest him. Both when thou dost caress him thou art a father, and when 
thou strikest him, thou art his father: thou dost caress him, that he may 
not faint; thou: strikest him, that he may not perish. "O magnify the Lord 
our God, and worship Him upon, His holy hill: for the Lord our God is 
holy." As he said above, "O magnify the Lord our God and fall down before 
His footstool: "(3) now we have understood what it is to worship His 
footstool: thus also but now after he had magnified the Lord our God, that 
no man might magnify Him apart from His hill, he hath also praised His 
hill. What is His hill? We read elsewhere concerning this hill, that a 
stone was cut from the hill without hands, and shattered all the kingdoms 
of the earth, and the stone itself increased. This is the vision of Daniel 
which I am relating. This stone which was cut from the hill without hands 
increased, and "became," he saith, "a great mountain, and filled the whole 
face of the earth."(4) Let us worship on that great mountain, if we desire 
to be heard. Heretics s do not worship on that mountain, because it hath 
filled the whole earth; they have stuck fist on part of it, and have lost 
the whole. If they acknowledge the Catholic Church, they will worship on 
this hill with us. For we already see how that stone that was cut from the 
mountain without hands hath increased, and how great tracts of earth it 
hath prevailed over, and unto what nations it hath extended. What is the 
mountain whence the stone was hewn without hands? The Jewish kingdom, in 
the first place; since they worshipped one God. Thence was hewn the stone, 
our Lord Jesus Christ. ...That stone then was born of the mountain without 
hands: it increased, and by its increase broke all the kingdoms of the 
earth. It hath become a great mountain, and hath filled the whole face of 
the earth. This is the Catholic Church, in whose communion rejoice that ye 
are. But they who are not in her communion, since they worship and praise 
God apart from this same mountain, are not heard unto eternal life; 
although they may be heard unto certain temporal things. Let them not 
flatter themselves, because God heareth them in some things: for He heareth 
Pagans also in some things. Do not the Pagans cry unto God, and it raineth? 
Wherefore? Because He maketh His sun to rise over the good and the bad, and 
sendeth rain upon the just and the unjust.(6) Boast not therefore, Pagan, 
that when thou criest unto God, God sendeth rain, for He sendeth rain upon 
the just and the unjust. He hath heard thee in temporal things: He heareth 
thee not in things eternal, unless thou hast worshipped in His holy hill. 
"Worship Him upon His holy hill: for the Lord our God is holy." ...

PSALM C.(7)

    1. Ye heard the Psalm, brethren, while it was being chanted: it is 
short, and not obscure: as if I had given you an assurance, that ye should 
not fear fatigue. ...

    2. The title of this Psalm is, "A Psalm of confession." The verses are 
few, but big with great subjects; may the seed bring forth within your 
hearts, the barn be prepared for the Lord's harvest.

    3. "Jubilate," therefore, "unto the Lord, all ye lands" (ver. 1). This 
Psalm giveth this exhortation to us, that we jubilate unto the Lord. Nor 
doth it, as it were, exhort one particular corner of the earth, or one 
habitation or congregation of men; but since it is aware that it hath sown 
blessings on every side, on every side it doth exact jubilance. Doth all 
the earth at this moment hear my voice? And yet the whole earth hath heard 
this voice. All the earth is already jubilant in the Lord; and what is not 
as yet jubilant, will be so. For blessing, extending on every side, when 
the Church was commencing to spread from Jerusalem throughout all 
nations,(1) everywhere overturneth ungodliness, and everywhere buildeth up 
piety: the good are mingled with the wicked throughout all lands. Every 
land is full of the discontented murmurs of the wicked, and of the 
jubilance of the good. What then is it, "to jubilate"? For the title of the 
present Psalm especially maketh us give good heed to this word, for it is 
entitled, "A Psalm of confession." What meaneth, to jubilate with 
confession? It is the sentiment thus expressed in another Psalm: "Blessed 
is the people that understandeth jubilance." Surely that which being 
understood maketh blessed is something great. May therefore the Lord our 
God, who maketh men blessed, grant me to understand what to say, and grant 
you to understand what ye hear: "Blessed is the people that understandeth 
jubilance."(2) Let us therefore run unto this blessing, let us understand 
jubilance, let us not pour it forth without understanding. Of what use is 
it to be jubilant and obey(3) this Psalm, when it saith, "Jubilate unto the 
Lord, all ye lands," and not to understand what jubilance is, so that our 
voice only may be jubilant, our heart not so? For the understanding is the 
utterance of the heart.(4)

    4. I am about to say what ye know. One who jubilates, uttereth not 
words, but it is a certain sound of joy without words: for it is the 
expression of a mind poured forth in joy, expressing, as far as it is able, 
the affection, but not compassing the feeling. A man rejoicing in his own 
exultation, after certain words which cannot s be uttered or understood, 
bursteth forth into sounds of exultation without words, so that it seemeth 
that he indeed doth rejoice with his voice itself, but as if filled with 
excessive joy cannot express in words the subject of that joy. ... Those 
who are engaged at work in the fields are most given to jubilate; reapers, 
or vintagers, or those who gather any of the fruits of the earth, delighted 
with the abundant produce, and rejoicing in the very richness and 
exuberance of the soil, sing in exultation; and among the songs which they 
utter in words, they put in certain cries without words in the exultation 
of a rejoicing mind; and this is what is meant by jubilating.(6)...

    5. When then are we jubilant? When we praise that which cannot be 
uttered. For we observe the whole creation, the earth and the sea, and all 
things that therein are: we observe that each have their sources and 
causes, the power of production, the order of birth, the limit of duration, 
the end in decease, that successive ages run on without any confusion, that 
the stars roll, as it seemeth, from the East to the West, and complete the 
courses of the years: we see how the months are measured, how the hours 
extend; and in all these things a certain invisible element, I know not 
what, but some principle? of unity, which is termed spirit or soul, present 
in all living things, urging them to the pursuit of pleasure and the 
avoidance of pain, and the preservation of their own safety; that man also 
hath somewhat in common with the Angels of God; not with cattle, such as 
life, hearing, sight, and so forth; but somewhat which can understand God, 
which peculiarly doth belong to the mind, which can distinguish justice and 
injustice, as the eye discerneth white from black. In all this 
consideration of creation, which I have run over as I could, let the soul 
ask itself: Who created all these things? Who made them? Who made among 
them thyself? ... I have observed the whole creation, as far as I could. I 
have observed the bodily creation in heaven and on earth, and the spiritual 
in myself who am speaking, who animate my limbs, who exert voice, who move 
the tongue, who pronounce words, and distinguish sensations. And when can I 
comprehend myself in myself? How then can I comprehend what is above 
myself? Yet the sight of God is promised to the human heart, and a certain 
operation of purifying the heart is enjoined; this is the counsel of 
Scripture. Provide the means of seeing what thou lovest, before thou try to 
see it. For unto whom is it not sweet to hear of God and His Name, except 
to the ungodly, who is far removed, separated from Him? ...

    6. Be therefore like Him in piety, and earnest in meditation: for "the 
invisible things of Him are clearly seen, being understood by the things 
that are made;"(8) look upon the things that are made, admire them, seek 
their author. If thou art unlike, thou wilt turn back; if like, thou wilt 
rejoice. And when; being like Him, thou shalt have begun to approach Him, 
and to feel God, the more love increaseth in thee, since God is love, thou 
wilt perceive somewhat which thou wast trying to say, and yet couldest not 
say. Before thou didst feel God, thou didst think that thou couldest 
express God; thou beginnest to feel Him, and then feelest that what thou 
dost feel thou canst not express. But when thou hast herein found that what 
thou dost feel cannot be expressed, wilt thou be mute, wilt thou not praise 
God? Wilt thou then be silent in the praises of God, and wilt thou not 
offer up thanksgivings unto Him who hath willed to make Himself known unto 
thee? Thou didst praise Him when thou wast seeking, wilt thou be silent 
when thou hast found Him? By no means; thou wilt not be ungrateful. Honour 
is due to Him, reverence is due to Him, great praise is due to Him. 
Consider thyself, see what thou art: earth and ashes; look who it is hath 
deserved to see, and What; consider who thou art, What to see, a man to see 
GOD! I recognise not the man's deserving, but the mercy of God. Praise 
therefore Him who hath mercy. ...

    7. "Serve the Lord with gladness." All servitude is full of bitterness: 
all who are bound to a lot of servitude both are slaves, and discontented. 
Fear not the servitude of that Lord: there will be no groaning there, no 
discontent, no indignation; no one seeketh to be sold to another master, 
since it is a sweet service, because we are all redeemed. Great happiness, 
brethren, it is, to be a slave in that great house, although in bonds. Fear 
not, bound slave, confess unto the Lord: ascribe thy bonds to thine own 
deservings; confess in thy chains, if thou art desirous they be changed 
into ornaments. ... At the same time thou art slave, and free; slave, 
because thou art created such; free, because thou art loved by God, by whom 
thou wast created: yea, free indeed, because thou lovest Him by whom thou 
wast made. Serve not with discontent; for thy murmurs do not tend to 
release thee from serving, but to make thee a wicked servant. Thou art a 
slave of the Lord, thou art a freedman of the Lord: seek not so to be 
emancipated as to depart from the house of Him who frees thee. ...

    8. I will, therefore, saith he, live separate with a few good men: why 
should I live in common with crowds? Well: those very few good men, from 
what crowds have they been strained out? If however these few are all good: 
it is, nevertheless, a good and praiseworthy design in man, to be with such 
as have chosen a quiet life; distant from the bustle of the people, from 
noisy crowds, from the great waves of life, they are as if in harbour. Is 
there therefore here that joy? that jubilant gladness which is promised? 
Not as yet; but still groans, still the anxiety of temptations. For even 
the harbour hath an entrance somewhere or other; if it had not, no ship 
could enter it; it must therefore be open on some side: but at times on 
this open side the wind rusheth in; and where there are no rocks, ships 
dashed together shatter one another. Where then is security, if not even in 
harbour? And yet it must be confessed, it is true, that persons in harbour 
are in their degree much better off than when afloat on the main. Let them 
love one another, as ships in harbour, let them be bound together happily; 
let them not dash against one another: let absolute equality be preserved 
there constancy in love; and when perchance the wind rusheth in from the 
open side, let there be careful piloting there. Now what will one who 
perchance presideth over such places, nay, who serveth his brethren, in 
what are called monasteries, tell me? I will be cautious: I will admit no 
wicked man. How wilt thou admit no evil one? ... Those who are about to 
enter, do not know themselves; how much less dost thou know them? For many 
have promised themselves that they were about to fulfil that holy life, 
which has all things in common, where no man calleth anything his own, who 
have one soul and one heart in God:(1) they have been put into the furnace, 
and have cracked. How then knowest thou him who is unknown even to himself? 
... Where then is security? Here nowhere; in this life nowhere, except 
solely in the hope of the promise of God. But there, when we shall reach 
thereunto, is complete security, when the gates are shut, and the bars of 
the gates of Jerusalem made fast;(2) there is truly full jubilance, and 
great delight. Only do not thou feel secure m praising any sort of life: 
"judge no man blessed before his death."(3)

    9. By this means men are deceived, so that they either do not 
undertake, or rashly attempt, a better life; because, when they choose to 
praise, they praise without mention of the evil that is mixed with the 
good: and those who choose to blame, do so with so envious and perverse a 
mind, as to shut their eyes to the good, and exaggerate only the evils 
which either actually exist there, or are imagined. Thus it happeneth, that 
when any profession hath been ill. that is, incautiously, praised, if it 
hath invited men by its own reputation, they who betake themselves thither 
discover some such as they did not believe to be there; and offended by the 
wicked recoil from the good. Brethren, apply this teaching to your life, 
and hear in such a manner that ye may live. The Church Of God, to speak 
generally, is magnified: Christians, and Christians alone, are called 
great, the Catholic (Church) is magnified; all love each other; each and 
all do all they can for one another; they give themselves up to prayers, 
fastings, hymns; throughout the whole world, with peaceful unanimity God is 
praised. Some one perhaps heareth this, who is ignorant that nothing is 
said of the wicked who are mingled with them; he cometh, invited by these 
praises, findeth bad men mixed with them, who were not mentioned to him 
before he came; he is offended by false Christians, he flieth from true 
Christians. Again, men who hate and slander them, precipitately blame them: 
asking, what sort of men are Christians? Who are Christians? Covetous men, 
usurers. Are not the very persons who fill the Churches on holidays the 
same who during the games and other spectacles fill the theatres and 
amphitheatres? They are drunken, gluttonous, envious, slanderers of each 
other. There are such, but not such only. And this slanderer in his 
blindness saith nothing of the good: and. that praiser in his want of 
caution is silent about the bad. ... Thus also in that common life of 
brethren, which exists in a monastery: great and holy men live therein, 
with daily hymns, prayers, praises of God; their occupation is reading; 
they labour with their own hands, and by this means support themselves;(1) 
they seek nothing covetously; whatever is brought in for them by pious 
brethren, they use with contentedness and charity; no one claimeth as his 
own what another hath not; all love, all forbear one another mutually. Thou 
hast praised them; thou hast praised; he who knoweth not what is going on 
within, who knoweth not how, when the wind entereth, ships even in harbour 
dash against one another, entereth as if in hope of security, expecting to 
find no man to forbear; he findeth there evil brethren, who could not have 
been found evil, if they had not been admitted (and they must be at first 
tolerated, lest they should perchance reform; nor can they easily be 
excluded, unless they have first been endured): and becometh himself 
impatient beyond endurance. Who asked me here? I thought that love was 
here. And irritated by the perversity of some few men, since he hath not 
persevered in fulfilling his vow, he becometh a deserter of so holy a 
design, and guilty of a vow he hath never discharged. And then, when he 
hath gone forth himself too, he also becometh a reproacher, and a 
slanderer; and records those things only (sometimes real), which he asserts 
that he could not have endured. But the real troubles of the wicked ought 
to be endured for the society of the good. The Scripture saith unto him: 
"Woe unto those that have lost patience."(2) And what is more, he belcheth 
abroad the evil savour of his indignation, as a means to deter them who are 
about to enter; because, when he had entered himself, he could not 
persevere. Of what sort are they? Envious, quarrelsome, men who forbear no 
man, covetous; saying, He did this there, and he did that there. Wicked 
one, why art thou silent about the good! Thou sayest enough of those whom 
thou couldest not endure: thou sayest nothing of those who endured thy 
wickedness. ...

    10. "O serve the Lord with gladness" (ver. 2): he addresseth you, 
whoever ye are who endure all things in love, and rejoice in hope. "Serve 
the Lord," not in the bitterness of murmuring, but in the "gladness of 
love." "Come before His presence with rejoicing." It is easy to rejoice 
outwardly: rejoice before the presence of God. Let not the tongue be too 
joyful: let the conscience be joyful. "Come before His presence with a 
song."

    11. "Be ye sure that the Lord He is God" (ver. 3). Who knoweth not that 
the Lord, He is God? But He speaketh of the Lord, whom men thought not God: 
"Be ye sure that the Lord He is God." Let not that Lord become vile in your 
sight: ye have crucified Him, scourged Him, spit upon Him, crowned Him with 
thorns, clothed Him in a dress of infamy, hung Him upon the Cross, pierced 
Him with nails, wounded Him with a spear, placed guards at His tomb; He is 
God. "It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves." It is He that hath 
made us: "and without Him was not anything made that was made."(3) What 
reason have ye for exultation, what reason have ye for pride? Another made 
you; the Same who made you, suffereth from you. But ye extol yourselves, 
and glory in yourselves, as if ye were created by yourselves. It is good 
for you that He who made you, make you perfect. ... "We are His people, and 
the sheep of His pasture." Sheep and one sheep. These sheep are one sheep: 
and how loving a Shepherd we have! He left the ninety and nine, and 
descended to seek the one, He bringeth it back on His own shoulders(4) 
ransomed by His own blood. That Shepherd dieth without fear for the sheep, 
who on His resurrection regaineth His sheep.

    12. "Enter into His gates with confession" (ver. 3). At the gates is 
the beginning: begin with confession. Thence is the Psalm entitled, "A 
Psalm of Confession:" there be joyful. Confess that ye were not made by 
yourselves, praise Him by whom ye were made. Let thy good come from Him, in 
departing from whom thou hast caused thine evil. "Enter into His gates with 
confession." Let the flock enter into the gates: let it not remain outside, 
a prey for wolves. And how is it to enter? "With confession." Let the gate, 
that is, the commencement for thee, be confession. Whence it is said in 
another Psalm, "Begin unto the Lord with confession."(5) What he there 
calleth "Begin," here he calleth "Gates." "Enter into His gates in 
confession." What? And when we have entered, shall we not still confess? 
Always confess Him: thou hast always what to confess for. It is hard in 
this life for a man to be so far changed, that no cause for censure be 
discoverable in him: thou must needs blame thyself, lest He who shall 
condemn blame thee. Therefore even when thou hast entered His courts, then 
also confess. When will there be no longer confession of sins? In that 
rest, in that likeness to the Angels. But consider what I have said: there 
will there be no confession of sins. I said not, there will be no 
confession: for there will be confession of praise. Thou wilt ever confess, 
that He is God, thou a creature; that He is thy Protector, thyself 
protected. In Him thou shalt be as it were hid.' "Go into His courts with 
hymns; and confess unto Him." Confess in the gates; and when ye have 
entered the courts, confess with hymns. Hymn are praises. Blame thyself, 
when thou art entering; when thou hast entered, praise Him. "Open me the 
gates of righteousness," he saith in another Psalm, "that I may go into 
them, and confess unto the Lord."(2) Did he say, when I have entered, I 
will no longer confess? Even after his entrance, he will confess. For what 
sins did our Lord Jesus Christ confess, when He said, "I confess unto Thee, 
O Father"?(3) He confessed in praising Him, not in accusing Himself. "Speak 
good of His Name."

    13. "For the Lord is pleasant" (ver. 4). Think not that ye faint in 
praising Him. Your praise of Him is like food: the more ye praise Him, the 
more ye acquire strength, and He whom ye praise becometh the more sweet. 
"His mercy is everlasting." For He will not cease to be merciful, after He 
hath freed thee: it belongeth to His mercy to protect thee even unto 
eternal life. "His mercy," therefore, "is to everlasting: and His truth 
from generation to generation" (ver. 5). Understand by" from generation to 
generation," either every generation, or in two generations, the one 
earthly, the other heavenly. Here there is one generation which produceth 
mortals; another which maketh such as are everlasting. His Truth is both 
here, and there. Imagine not that His truth is not here, if His truth were 
not here, he would not say in another Psalm: "Truth is risen out of the 
earth;"(4) nor would Truth Itself say, Lo, I am with you alway, even unto 
the end of the world."(5)

PSALM CI.(6)

    1. In this Psalm, we ought to seek in the whole body of it what we find 
in the first verse: "Mercy and judgment will I sing unto Thee, O Lord" 
(ver. 1). Let no man flatter himself that he will never be punished through 
God's mercy; for there is judgment also; and let no man who hath been 
changed for the better dread the Lord's judgment, seeing that mercy goeth 
before it. For when men judge, sometimes overcome by mercy, they act 
against justice; and mercy, but not justice, seemeth to be in them: while 
sometimes, when they wish to enforce a rigid judgment, they lose mercy. But 
God neither loseth the severity of judgment in the bounty of mercy, nor in 
judging with severity loseth the bounty of mercy. Suppose we distinguish 
these two, mercy and judgment, by time; for possibly, they are not placed 
in this order without a meaning, so that he said not "judgment and mercy," 
but "mercy and judgment:" so that if we distinguish them by succession in 
time, perhaps we find that the present is the season for mercy, the future 
for judgment. How is it that the season of mercy cometh first? Consider 
first how it is with God, that thou also mayest imitate the Father, in so 
far as He shall permit thee. ... "He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and 
on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Behold mercy. 
When thou seest the just and the unjust behold the same sun, enjoy the same 
light, drink from the same founts, satisfied with the same rain, blessed 
with the same fruits of the earth, inhale this air in the same way, possess 
equally the world's goods; think not that God is unjust, who giveth these 
things equally to the just and the unjust. It