Other Writings, Part 22

1. Give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures for ever [Psalm 135:1]. This Psalm contains the praise of God, and all its verses finish in the same way. Wherefore although many things are related here in praise of God, yet His mercy is most commended; for without this plain commendation, he, whom the Holy Spirit used to utter this Psalm, would have no verse be ended. Although after the judgment, by which at the end of the world the quick and the dead must be judged, the just being sent into life eternal, the unjust into everlasting fire, [Matthew 25:46] there will not afterwards be those, whom God will have mercy on, yet rightly may His future mercy be understood to be for ever, which He bestows on His saints and faithful ones, not because they will be miserable for ever, and therefore will need His mercy for ever, but because that very blessedness, which He mercifully bestows on the miserable, that they cease to be miserable, and begin to be happy, will have no end, and therefore His mercy is forever. For that we shall be just from being unjust, whole from being unsound, alive from being dead, immortal from being mortal, happy from being wretched, is of His mercy. But this that we shall be, will be for ever, and therefore His mercy is forever. Wherefore, give thanks to the Lord; that is, praise the Lord by giving thanks, for He is good: nor is it any temporal good you will gain from this confession, for, His mercy endures for ever; that is, the benefit which He bestows mercifully upon you, is forever.

2. Then follows, Give thanks to the God of gods, for His mercy endures for ever [Psalm 135:2]. Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for His mercy endures for ever [Psalm 135:3]. We may well enquire, Who are these gods and lords, of whom He who is the true God is God and Lord? And we find written in another Psalm, that even men are called gods. The Lord even takes note of this testimony in the Gospel, saying, Is it not written in your Law, I have said, You are gods? [John 10:34]...It is not therefore because they are all good, but because the word of God came to them, that they were called gods. For were it because they are all good, He would not thus distinguish between them. He says, He judges between the gods. Then follows, How long do ye judge iniquity! and the rest, which He says certainly not to all, but to some, because He says it in distinguishing, and yet He distinguishes between the gods.

3. But it is asked, If men are called gods to whom the word of the Lord came, are the Angels to be called gods, when the greatest reward which is promised to just and holy men is the being equal to Angels? In the Scriptures I know not whether it can, at least easily, be found, that the Angels are openly called gods; but when it had been said of the Lord God, He is terrible, above all gods, he adds, as by way of exposition why he says this, for the gods of the heathen are devils, that we might understand what had been expressed in the Hebrew, the gods of the Gentiles are idols, meaning rather the devils which dwell in the idols. For as regards images, which in Greek are called idols, a name we now use in Latin, they have eyes and see not, and all the other things which are said of them, because they are utterly without sense; wherefore they cannot be frightened, for nothing which has no sense can be frightened. How then can it be said of the Lord, He is terrible above all gods, because the gods of the Gentiles are idols, if the devils which may be terrified are not understood to be in these images. Whence also the Apostle says, We know that an idol is nothing. [1 Corinthians 8:4] This refers to its earthy senseless material. But that no one may think, that there is no living and sentient nature, which delights in the Gentile sacrifices, he adds, But what the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: I would not have you partaken with devils. [1 Corinthians 10:20] If therefore we never find in the divine words that the holy Angels are called gods, I think the best reason is, that men may not be induced by the name to pay that ministry and service of religion (which in Greek is called λειτουργία or λατρία) to the holy Angels, which neither would they have paid by man at all, save to that God, who is the God of themselves and men. Hence they are much more correctly called Angels, which in Latin is Nuntii, that by the name of their function, not their substance, we may plainly understand that they would have us worship the God, whom they announce. The whole then of that question the Apostle has briefly expounded, when he says, For though there be who are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, as there are gods many and lords many; yet we have one God the Father, from whom are all, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him. [1 Corinthians 8:5-6]

4. Let us therefore give thanks to the God of gods, and the Lord of lords, for His mercy, etc. Who alone did wonderful things [Psalm 135:4]. As at the last part of every verse, it is written, For His mercy endures for ever, so we must understand at the beginning of each, though it be not written, Give thanks. Which indeed in the Greek is very plain. It would be so in Latin, if our translators had been able to make use of that expression. Which indeed they could have done in this verse, if they had said, To Him who does wonderful things. For where we have, who did wonderful things, the Greek has τῷ ποιήσαντι, where we must necessarily understand, give thanks. And I would they had added the pronoun, and said to Him, who did, or to Him who does, or to Him who made sure; because then one might easily understand, let us give thanks. For now it is so obscurely rendered, that he who either knows not or cares not to examine a Greek manuscript may think, who made the heavens, who made sure the earth, who made the luminaries, for His mercy endures for ever, has been so said, because He did these things for this reason, because His mercy endures for ever: whereas they, whom He has freed from misery, belong to His Mercy: but not that we should believe that He makes sky, earth, and luminaries, of His Mercy; since they are marks of His Goodness, who created all things very good. [Genesis 1:31] For He created all things, that they might have their being; [Wisdom 1:14] but it is the work of His Mercy, to cleanse us from our sins, and deliver us from everlasting misery. And so the Psalm thus addresses us, Give thanks unto the God of gods, give thanks unto the Lord of lords. Give thanks to Him, who alone does great wonders; give thanks to Him, who by His wisdom made the heavens; give thanks to Him, who stretched out the earth above the waters; give thanks to Him, who alone made great lights. But why we are to praise, he sets down at the end of all the verses, for His mercy endures forever.

5. But what means, who alone does great wonders? Is it because many wonderful things He has done by means of angels and men? Some wonderful things there are which God does alone, and these he enumerates, saying, who by His wisdom made the heavens [Psalm 135:5], who stretched out the earth above the waters [Psalm 135:6], who alone made great lights [Psalm 135:7]. For this reason did he add alone in this verse also, because the other wonders which he is about to tell of, God did by means of man. For having said, who alone made great lights, he goes on to explain what these are, the sun to rule the day [Psalm 135:8], the moon and stars to govern the night [Psalm 135:9]; then he begins to tell the wonders which He did by means of angels and men: who smote Egypt with their first-born [Psalm 135:10], and the rest. The whole creation then God manifestly made, not by means of any creature, but alone; and of this creation he has mentioned certain more eminent parts, that they might make us think on the whole; the heavens we can understand, and the earth we see. And as there are visible heavens too, by mentioning the lights in them, he has bid us look on the whole body of the heavens as made by Him.

6. However, whether by what he says, who made the heavens in understanding, or, as others have rendered it, in intelligence, he meant to signify, the heavens we can understand, or that He in His understanding or intelligence, that is, in His wisdom made the heavens (as it is elsewhere written, in wisdom have You made them all), implying thereby the only-begotten Word, may be a question. But if it be so, that we are to understand that God by His wisdom made the heavens, why says He this only of the heavens, whereas God made all things by the same wisdom? It is that it needed only to be expressed there, so that in the rest it might be understood without being written. How then could it be alone, if in understanding or in intelligence means by His wisdom, that is, by the only-begotten Word? Is it that, inasmuch as the Trinity is not three Gods, but one God, he states that God made these things alone, because He made not creation by means of any creature?

7. But what is, who laid out the earth above the waters? For it is a difficult question, because the earth seems to be the heavier, so that it should be believed not so much to be borne on the waters, as to bear the waters. And that we may not seem contentiously to maintain our Scriptures against those who think that they have discovered these matters on sure principles, we have a second interpretation to give, that the earth which is inhabited by men, and contains the living creatures of the earth, is laid out above the waters because it stands out above the waters which surround it. For when we speak of a city on the sea being built above the waters, it is not meant that the sea is under it in the same way as the waters are under the chambers of caverns, or under ships sailing over them; but it is said to be above the sea, because it stands up above the sea below it.

8. But if these words further signify something else which more closely concerns us, God by His wisdom made the heavens, that is, His saints, spiritual men, to whom He has given not only to believe, but also to understand things divine; those who cannot yet attain to this, and only hold their faith firmly, as being beneath the heavens, are figured by the name of earth. And because they abide with unshaken belief upon the baptism they have received, therefore it is said, He laid out the earth above the waters. Further, since it is written of our Lord Jesus Christ, that in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, [Colossians 2:3] and that these two, wisdom and knowledge, differ somewhat from one another is testified by other utterances of Scripture, especially in the words of holy Job, where both are in a manner defined; not unsuitably then do we understand wisdom to consist in the knowledge and love of That which ever is and abides unchangeable, which is God. For where he says, piety is wisdom, in Greek is θεοσ·βεια, and to express the whole of this in Latin, we may call it worship of God. But to depart from evil, which he calls knowledge, what else is it but to walk cautiously and heedfully in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, [Philippians 2:15] in the night, as it were, of this world, that each one by keeping himself from iniquity may avoid being confounded with the darkness, distinguished by the light of his proper gift....

9. Who brought out Israel from the midst of them [Psalm 135:11]. He brought out also His saints and faithful ones from the midst of the wicked. With a mighty Hand and stretched-out Arm [Psalm 135:12]. What more powerful, what more out-stretched, than that of which is said To whom is the Arm of the Lord revealed? [Isaiah 53:1] Who divided the Red Sea in two parts [Psalm 135:13]. He divided also in such wise, that the same baptism should be to some unto life, to others unto death. And brought out Israel through the midst of it [Psalm 135:14]. So too He brings out His renewed people through the laver of regeneration. And overthrew Pharaoh and his power in the Red Sea [Psalm 135:15]. He quickly destroys both the sin of His people and the guilt thereof by baptism. Who led His people through the wilderness [Psalm 135:16]. Us too He leads through the drought and barrenness of this world, that we perish not therein. Who smote great kings [Psalm 135:17], and slew famous kings [Psalm 135:18]. From us too He smites and slays the deadly powers of the devil. Sehon king of the Amorites [Psalm 135:19], an useless shoot, or fiery temptation, for so is Sehon interpreted: the king of them who cause bitterness, for such is the meaning of Amorites. And Og, the king of Basan [Psalm 135:20]. The heaper-together, such is the meaning of Og, and, king of confusion, which Basan signifies. For what else does the devil heap together but confusion? And gave away their land for an heritage [Psalm 135:21], even an heritage unto Israel His servant [Psalm 135:22]. For He gives them, whom once the devil owned, for an heritage to the seed of Abraham, that is, Christ. Who remembered us in our low estate [Psalm 135:23], and redeemed us from our enemies [Psalm 135:24] by the Blood of His only-begotten Son. Who gives food to all flesh [Psalm 135:25], that is, to the whole race of mankind, not Israelites only, but Gentiles too; and of this Food is said, My Flesh is meat indeed. Give thanks unto the God of Heaven [Psalm 135:26]. Give thanks unto the Lord of lords [Psalm 135:27]. For what he here says, the God of Heaven, I suppose that he meant to express in other words what He had before said, the God of gods. For what there he subjoined, he has here also repeated. Give thanks unto the Lord of lords. But to us there is but one God, etc., and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him; [1 Corinthians 8:5-6] to whom we confess that His mercy endures forever.

1. ...But today we have sung, By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept, when we remembered Sion [Psalm 136:1]....

2. Observe the waters of Babylon. The waters of Babylon are all things which here are loved, and pass away. One man, for example, loves to practise husbandry, to grow rich thereby, to employ his mind therein, thence to gain pleasure: let him observe the issue, and see that what he has loved is not a foundation of Jerusalem, but a stream of Babylon. Another says, It is a grand thing to be a soldier: all husbandmen fear those who are soldiers....

3. But then other citizens of the holy Jerusalem, understanding their captivity, mark how the natural wishes and the various lusts of men hurry and drag them hither and there, and drive them into the sea; they see this, and they throw not themselves into the waters of Babylon, but sit down and weep, either for those who are being carried away by them, or themselves whose deserts have placed them in Babylon, but sitting, that is, humbling themselves. O holy Sion, where all stands firm and nothing flows! Who has thrown us headlong into this? Why have we left your Founder and your society? Behold, placed where all things are flowing and gliding away, scarce one, if he can grasp the tree, shall be snatched from the stream and escape. Humbling ourselves then in our captivity, let us sit by the waters of Babylon, let us not dare to plunge ourselves in those streams, nor to be proud and lifted up in the evil and sadness of our captivity, but let us sit, and so weep. Let us sit by the waters, not beneath the waters, of Babylon; such be our humility, that it overwhelm us not. Sit by the waters, not in the waters, not under the waters; but yet sit, in humble fashion, talk not as you would in Jerusalem....

4. For many weep with the weeping of Babylon, because they rejoice also with the joy of Babylon. When men rejoice at gains and weep at losses, both are of Babylon. You ought to weep, but in the remembrance of Sion. If you weep in the remembrance of Sion, you ought to weep even when it is well with you in Babylon....

5. On the willows in the midst thereof we hung up our instruments of music [Psalm 136:2]. The citizens of Jerusalem have their instruments of music, God's Scriptures, God's commands, God's promises, meditation on the life to come; but while they are dwelling in Babylon, they hang up their instruments. Willows are unfruitful trees, and here so placed, that no good whatever can be understood of them: elsewhere perhaps there may. Here understand barren trees, growing by the waters of Babylon. These trees are watered by the waters of Babylon, and bring forth no fruit; just as there are men greedy, covetous, barren in good works, citizens of Babylon in such wise, that they are even trees of that region; they are fed there by these pleasures of transitory things, as though watered by the waters of Babylon. You seek fruit of them, and nowhere find it....Therefore by deferring to apply the Scriptures to them, we hang up our instruments of music upon the willows. For we hold them not worthy to carry our instruments. We do not therefore insert our instruments into them and bind them to them, but defer to use them, and so hang them up. For the willows are the unfruitful trees of Babylon, fed by temporal pleasures, as by the waters of Babylon.

6. For there they that led us captive demanded of us words of songs, and they that led us away, an hymn [Psalm 136:3]. They demanded of us words of songs and an hymn, who led us captive....We are tempted by the delights of earthly things, and we struggle daily with the suggestions of unlawful pleasures; scarce do we breathe freely even in prayer: we understand that we are captives. But who led us captive? What men? What race? What king? If we are redeemed, we once were captives. Who has redeemed us? Christ. From whom has He redeemed us? From the devil. The devil then and his angels led us captive: and they would not lead us, unless we consented....

7. Those then who have led us captive, the devil and his angels, when have they spoken unto us: Sing us one of the songs of Sion? What answer we? Babylon bears you, Babylon contains you, Babylon nourishes you, Babylon speaks by your mouth, you know not to take in save what glitters for the present, you know not how to meditate on things of eternity, you take not in what you ask. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? [Psalm 136:4]. Truly, brethren, so it is. Begin to wish to preach the truth in such measure as you know it, and see how needful it is for you to endure such mockers, persecutors of the truth, full of falsehood. Reply to them, when they ask of you what they cannot take in, and say in full confidence of your holy song, How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land!

8. But take heed how you dwell among them, O people of God, O body of Christ, O high-born band of wanderers (for your home is not here, but elsewhere), lest when you love them, strive for their friendship, and fear to displease such men, Babylon begins to delight you and you forget Jerusalem. In fear then of this, see what the Psalmist subjoins, see what follows. If I forget you, O Jerusalem [Psalm 136:5], amid the speeches of those who hold me captive, amid the speeches of treacherous men, amid the speeches of men who ask with ill intent, asking, yet unwilling to learn....What then? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget me.

9. Let my tongue cleave to my jaws, if I remember not you [Psalm 136:6]. That is, let me be dumb, he says, if I remember not you. For what word, what sound does he utter, who utters not songs of Sion? That is our tongue, the song of Jerusalem. The song of the love of this world is a strange tongue, a barbarous tongue, which we have learned in our captivity. Dumb then will he be to God, who forgets Jerusalem. And it is not enough to remember: for her enemies too remember her, desiring to overthrow her. What is that city? say they; who are the Christians? What sort of men are the Christians? Would they were not Christians. Now the captive band has conquered its capturers; still they murmur, and rage, and desire to slay the holy city that dwells as a stranger among them. Not enough then is it to remember: take heed how you remember. For some things we remember in hate, some in love. And so, when he had said, If I forget you, O Jerusalem, etc., he added at once, if I prefer not Jerusalem in the height of my joy. For there is the height of joy where we enjoy God, where we are safe of united brotherhood, and the union of citizenship. There no tempter shall assail us, no one be able so much as to urge us on to any allurement: there nought will delight us but good: there all want will die, there perfect bliss will dawn on us.

10. Then he turns to God in prayer against the enemies of that city. Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom [Psalm 136:7]. Edom is the same who is also called Esau: for you heard just now the words of the Apostle read, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. [Romans 9:13]...Esau then signifies all the carnal, Jacob all the spiritual....All carnal persons are enemies to spiritual persons, for all such, desiring present things, persecute those whom they see to long for things eternal. Against these the Psalmist, looking back to Jerusalem, and beseeching God that he may be delivered from captivity, says — what? Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom. Deliver us from carnal men, from those who imitate Esau, who are elder brethren, yet enemies. They were first-born, but the last-born have won the pre-eminence, for the lust of the flesh has cast down the former, the contempt of lust has lifted up the latter. The other live, and envy, and persecute. In the day of Jerusalem. The day of Jerusalem, wherein it was tried, wherein it was held captive, or the day of Jerusalem's happiness, wherein it is freed, wherein it reaches its goal, wherein it is made partaker of eternity? Remember, says he, O Lord, forget not those who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. Remember then, it means, that day wherein they willed to overthrow Jerusalem. For how great persecutions has the Church suffered! How did the children of Edom, that is, carnal men, servants of the devil and his angels, who worshipped stocks and stones, and followed the lusts of the flesh, how did they say, Extirpate the Christians, destroy the Christians, let not one remain, overthrow them even to the foundation! Have not these things been said? And when they were said, the persecutors were rejected, the martyrs crowned....

11. Then he turns himself to her, O daughter of Babylon, unhappy; unhappy in your very exulting, your presumption, your enmity; unhappy daughter of Babylon! [Psalm 136:8]. The city is called both Babylon, and daughter of Babylon: just as they speak of Jerusalem and the daughter of Jerusalem, Sion and the daughter of Sion, the Church and the daughter of the Church. As it succeeds the other, it is called daughter; as it is preferred before the other, it is called mother. There was a former Babylon; did the people remain in it? Because it succeeds to Babylon, it is called daughter of Babylon. O daughter of Babylon, unhappy thou!...

12. Happy shall he be that repays you, as you have served us. What repayment means he? Herewith the Psalm closes, Happy, that takes and dashes your little ones against the rock [Psalm 136:9]. Her he calls unhappy, but him happy who pays her as she has served us. Do we ask, what reward? This is the repayment. For what has that Babylon done to us? We have already sung in another Psalm, The words of the wicked have prevailed against us. For when we were born, the confusion of this world found us, and choked us while yet infants with the empty notions of various errors. The infant that is born destined to be a citizen of Jerusalem, and in God's predestination already a citizen, but meanwhile a prisoner for a time, when learns he to love ought, save what his parents have whispered into his ears? They teach him and train him in avarice, robbery, daily lying, the worship of various idols and devils, the unlawful remedies of enchantments and amulets. What shall one yet an infant do, a tender soul, observing what its elders do, save follow that which it sees them doing. Babylon then has persecuted us when little, but God has given us when grown up knowledge of ourselves, that we should not follow the errors of our parents....How shall they repay her? As she has served us. Let her little ones be choked in turn: yea let her little ones in turn be dashed, and die. What are the little ones of Babylon? Evil desires at their birth. For there are, who have to fight with inveterate lusts. When lust is born, before evil habit gives it strength against you, when lust is little, by no means let it gain the strength of evil habit; when it is little, dash it. But you fear, lest though dashed it die not; Dash it against the Rock; and that Rock is Christ. [1 Corinthians 10:4]

13. Brethren, let not your instruments of music rest in your work: sing one to another songs of Sion. Readily have ye heard; the more readily do what you have heard, if you wish not to be willows of Babylon fed by its streams, and bringing no fruit. But sigh for the everlasting Jerusalem: whither your hope goes before, let your life follow; there we shall be with Christ. Christ now is our Head; now He rules us from above; in that city He will fold us to Himself; we shall be equal to the Angels of God. We should not dare to imagine this of ourselves, did not the Truth promise it. This then desire, brethren, this day and night think on. Howsoever the world shine happily on you, presume not, parley not willingly with your lusts. Is it a grown-up enemy? Let it be slain upon the Rock. Is it a little enemy? Let it be dashed against the Rock. Slay the grown-up ones on the Rock, and dash the little ones against the Rock. Let the Rock conquer. Be built upon the Rock, if you desire not to be swept away either by the stream, or the winds, or the rain. If you wish to be armed against temptations in this world, let longing for the everlasting Jerusalem grow and be strengthened in your hearts. Your captivity will pass away, your happiness will come; the last enemy shall be destroyed, and we shall triumph with our King, without death.

1. The title of this Psalm is brief and simple, and need not detain us; since we know whose resemblance David wore, and since in him we recognise ourselves also, for we too are members of that Body. The whole title is, To David himself. Let us see then, what is to David himself. The title of the Psalm is wont to tell us what is treated of within it: but in this, since the title informs us not of this, but tells us only to Whom it is chanted, the first verse tells us what is treated of in the whole Psalm, I will confess to You. This confession then let us hear. But first I remind you, that the term confession in Scripture, when we speak of confession to God, is used in two senses, of sin, and of praise. But confession of sin all know, confession of praise few attend to. So well known is confession of sin, that, wherever in Scripture we hear the words, I will confess to You, O Lord, or, we will confess to You, immediately, through habitually understanding in this way, our hands hurry to beating our breast: so entirely are men wont not to understand confession to be of anything, save of sin. But was then our Lord Jesus Christ Himself too a sinner, who says in the Gospel, I confess to You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth? He goes on to say what He confesses, that we might understand His confession to be of praise, not of sin, I confess to You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. He praised the Father, he praised God, because He despises not the humble, but the proud. And such confession are we now going to hear, of praise of God, of thanksgiving. With my whole heart. My whole heart I lay upon the altar of Your praise, an whole burnt-offering of praise I offer to You....I will confess to You, O Lord, with my whole heart: for You have heard the words of my mouth [Psalm 137:1]. What mouth, save my heart? For there have we the voice which God hears, which ear of man knows not at all. We have then a mouth within, there do we ask, thence do we ask, and if we have prepared a lodging or a house for God, there do we speak, there are we heard. For He is not far from every one of us, for in Him we live, and move, and have our being. [Acts 17:27-28] Nought makes you far off from God, save sin only. Cast down the middle wall of sin, and you are with Him whom you ask.

2. And before the Angels will I sing unto You. Not before men will I sing, but before the Angels. My song is my joy; but my joy in things below is before men, my joy in things above before the Angels. For the wicked knows not the joy of the just: There is no joy, says my God, to the wicked. The wicked rejoices in his tavern, the martyr in his chain. In what did that holy Crispina rejoice, whose festival is kept today? She rejoiced when she was being seized, when she was being carried before the judge, when she was being put into prison, when she was being brought forth bound, when she was being lifted up on the scaffold, when she was being heard, when she was being condemned: in all these things she rejoiced; and the wretches thought her wretched, when she was rejoicing before the Angels.

3. I will worship toward Your holy Temple [Psalm 137:2]. What holy Temple? That where we shall dwell, where we shall worship. For we hasten that we may adore. Our heart is pregnant and comes to the birth, and seeks where it may bring forth. What is the place where God is to be worshipped?...The Temple of God is holy, says the Apostle, which Temple you are. [1 Corinthians 3:17] But assuredly, as is manifest, God dwells in the Angels. Therefore when our joy, being in spiritual things, not in earthly, takes up a song to God, to sing before the Angels, that very assembly of Angels is the Temple of God, we worship toward God's Temple. There is a Church below, there is a Church above also; the Church below, in all the faithful; the Church above, in all the Angels. But the God of Angels came down to the Church below, and Angels ministered to Him on earth, [Matthew 4:11] while He ministered to us; for, I came not, says He, to be ministered unto, but to minister. [Matthew 20:28]...The Lord of Angels died for man. Therefore, I will worship toward Your holy Temple; I mean, not the temple made with hands, but that which You have made for Yourself.

4. And I will confess to Your Name in Your mercy and Your truth....These also which You have given to me, do I according to my power give to You in return: mercy, in aiding others; truth, in judging. By these God aids us, by these we win God's favour. Rightly, therefore, All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth. No other ways are there whereby He can come to us, no other whereby we can come to Him. For You have magnified Your holy Name over everything. What sort of thanksgiving is this, brethren? He has magnified His holy Name over Abraham. Of Abraham was born Isaac; over that house God was magnified; then Jacob; God was magnified, who said, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then came his twelve sons. The name of the Lord was magnified over Israel. Then came the Virgin Mary. Then Christ our Lord, dying for our sins, rising again for our justification, [Romans 4:25] filling the faithful with His Holy Spirit, sending forth men to proclaim throughout the Gentiles, Repent ye, etc. [Matthew 3:2] Behold, He has magnified His holy Name above all things.

5. In whatever day I call upon You, do Thou quickly hear me [Psalm 137:3]. Wherefore, quickly? Because You have said, While yet you are speaking I will say, Lo, here I am. [Isaiah 58:9] Wherefore, quickly? Because now I seek not earthly happiness, I have learned holy longings from the New Testament. I seek not earth, nor earthly abundance, nor temporal health, nor the overthrow of my enemies, nor riches, nor rank: nought of these do I seek: therefore quickly hear me. Since You have taught me what to seek, grant what I seek....

6. Let us see then what he seeks, with what right he has said, quickly hear me. For what do you seek, that you should quickly be heard? You shall multiply me. In many ways may multiplication be understood....For men are multiplied in their soul with cares: a man seems to be multiplied in soul, in whom vices even are multiplied. That is the multiplication of want, not of fullness. What then do you desire, thou who hast said, quickly hear me, and hast withdrawn yourself entirely from the body, from every earthly thing, from every earthly desire, so as to say to God, You shall multiply me in my soul? Explain yet further what you desire. You shall multiply me, says he, in my soul with virtue....

7. Let all the kings of the earth confess to You, O Lord [Psalm 137:4]. So shall it be, and so it is, and that daily; and it is shown that it was not said in vain, save that it was future. But neither let them, when they confess to You, when they praise You, desire earthly things of You. For what shall the kings of the earth desire? Have they not already sovereignty? Whatever more a man desire on earth, sovereignty is the highest point of his desire. What more can he desire? It must needs be some loftier eminence. But perhaps the loftier it is, the more dangerous. And therefore the more exalted kings are in earthly eminence, the more ought they to humble themselves before God. What do they do? Because they have heard all the words of Your mouth. In a certain nation were hidden the Law and the Prophets, all the words of Your mouth: in the Jewish nation alone were all the words of Your mouth, the nation which the Apostle praises, saying, What advantage has the Jew? Much every way; chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. These were the words of God. [Romans 3:1-2]...What meant Gideon's fleece? It is like the nation of the Jews in the midst of the world, which had the grace of sacraments, not indeed openly manifested, but hidden in a cloud, or in a veil, like the dew in the fleece. [Judges 6:37, 39] The time came when the dew was to be manifested in the floor; it was manifested, no longer hidden. Christ alone is the sweetness of dew: Him alone you recognise not in Scripture, for whom Scripture was written. But yet, they have heard all the words of your mouth.

8. And let them sing in the paths of the Lord, that great is the glory of the Lord [Psalm 137:5]. Let all the kings of the earth sing in the paths of the Lord. In what paths? Those that are spoken of above, in Your mercy and Your truth. Let not then the kings of the earth be proud, let them be humble. Then let them sing in the ways of the Lord, if they be humble: let them love, and they shall sing. We know travellers that sing; they sing, and hasten to reach the end of their journey. There are evil songs, such as belong to the old man; to the new man belongs a new song. Let then the kings of the earth too walk in Your paths, let them walk and sing in Your paths. Sing what? That great is the glory of the Lord, not of kings.

9. See how he willed that kings should sing on their way, humbly bearing the Lord, not lifting themselves up against the Lord. For if they lift themselves up, what follows? For the Lord is high, and has respect unto the lowly [Psalm 137:6]. Do kings then desire that He have respect unto them? Let them be humble. What then? If they lift themselves up to pride, can they escape His eyes? Lest perchance, because you have heard, He has respect unto the lowly, thou choose to be proud, and say in your soul, God has respect unto the lowly, He has not respect unto me, I will do what I will. O foolish one! Would you say this, if you knew what you ought to love? Behold, even if God wills not to see you, do you not fear this very thing, that He wills not to see you?...The lofty then, it seems, He has not respect unto, for it is the lowly He respects. The lofty — what? He considers from afar. What then gains the proud? To be seen from afar, not to escape being seen. And think not that you must needs be safe on that account, for that He sees less clearly, who sees you from afar. For thou indeed see not clearly, what you see from afar; God, although He see you from afar, sees you perfectly, yet is He not with you. This you gain, not that you are less perfectly seen, but that you are not with Him by whom you are seen. But what does the lowly gain? The Lord is near unto them that are of a contrite heart. Let the proud then lift himself up as much as he will, certainly God dwells on high, God is in heaven: do you wish that He come near to you? Humble yourself. For the higher will He be above you, the more you lift yourself up.

10. If I walk in the midst of tribulation, You shall revive me [Psalm 137:7]. True it is: whatsoever tribulation you are in, confess, call on Him; He frees you, He revives you....Love the other life, and you shall see that this life is tribulation, whatever prosperity it shine with, whatever delights it abound and overflow with; since not yet have we that joy most safe and free from all temptation, which God reserves for us in the end, without doubt it is tribulation. Let us understand then what tribulation he means here too, brethren. Not as though he said, If perchance there shall any tribulation have befallen me, You shall free me therefrom. But how says he? If I walk, etc.; that is, otherwise You will not revive me, unless I walk in the midst of tribulation.

11. You have stretched forth Your hand over the wrath of mine enemies, and Your right hand has made me safe. Let mine enemies rage: what can they do? They can take my money, strip, proscribe, banish me; afflict me with grief and tortures; at last, if they be allowed, even kill me: can they do anything more? But over that which mine enemies can do, You have stretched forth Your hand. For my enemies cannot separate me from You: but You avenge me the more, the more You as yet delay....Yet not to make me despair; for it follows, and Your right hand has made me safe.

12. You, Lord, shall recompense for me [Psalm 137:8]. I recompense not: You shall recompense. Let mine enemies rage their full: You shall recompense what I cannot....Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, says the Apostle, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord. [Romans 12:19] There is here another sense not to be neglected, perhaps even to be preferred. Lord Christ, You shall repay for me. For I, if I repay, have seized; You have paid what You have not seized. Lord, You shall repay for me. Behold Him repaying for us. They came to Him, who exacted tribute: [Matthew 17:24-26] they used to demand as tribute a didrachma, that is, two drachmas for one man; they came to the Lord to pay tribute; or rather, not to Him, but to His disciples, and they said to them, Does not your Master pay tribute? They came and told Him. He says unto Peter, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first comes up: and when you have opened his mouth, you shall find a stater: that take, and give for Me and you. The first that rises from the sea, is the First-begotten from the dead. In His mouth we find two didrachmas, that is, four drachmas: in His mouth we find the four Gospels. By those four drachmas we are free from the claims of this world, by the four Evangelists we remain no longer debtors; for there the debt of all our sins is paid. He then has repaid for us, thanks to His mercy. He owed nothing: He repaid not for Himself: He repaid for us....

13. Lord, Your mercy is for everlasting....Not for a time only do I desire to be freed. Your mercy is for everlasting, wherewith You have freed the martyrs, and so hast quickly taken them from this life. Despise not Thou the works of Your own hands. I say not, Lord, despise not the works of my hands: of my own works I boast not. I sought, indeed, the Lord with my hands in the night season before Him, and have not been deceived; but yet I praise not the works of my own hands; I fear lest, when You shall look into them, Thou find more sins in them than deserts. Behold in me Your Work, not mine: for mine if You see, You condemn; Yours, if You see, You crown. For whatever good works there be of mine, from You are they to me; and so they are more Yours than mine. [Ephesians 2:8-10] Therefore whether in regard that we are men, or in regard that we have been changed and justified from our iniquity, Lord, despise not Thou the works of Your own hands.

1. ...Our Lord Jesus Christ speaks in the Prophets, sometimes in His own Name, sometimes in ours, because He makes Himself one with us; as it is said, they two shall be one flesh. Wherefore also the Lord says in the Gospel, speaking of marriage, therefore they are no more two, but one flesh. One flesh, because of our mortality He took flesh; not one divinity, for He is the Creator, we the creature. Whatsoever then our Lord speaks in the person of the Flesh He took upon Him, belongs both to that Head which has already ascended into heaven, and to those members which still toil in their earthly wandering. Let us hear then our Lord Jesus Christ speaking in prophecy. For the Psalms were sung long before the Lord was born of Mary, yet not before He was Lord: for from everlasting He was the Creator of all things, but in time He was born of His creature. Let us believe that Godhead, and, so far as we can, understand Him to be equal to the Father. But that Godhead equal to the Father was made partaker of our mortal nature, not of His own store, but of ours; that we too might be made partakers of His Divine Nature, not of our store, but of His.

2. Lord, You have tried me, and known me [Psalm 138:1]. Let the Lord Jesus Christ Himself say this; let Him too say, Lord, to the Father. For His Father is not His Lord, save because He has deigned to be born according to the flesh. He is Father of the God, Lord of the Man. Would you know to whom He is Father? To the coequal Son. The Apostle says, Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. [Philippians 2:6-7] To this Form God is Father, the Form equal to Himself, the only-begotten Son, begotten of His Substance. But forasmuch as for our sakes, that we might be re-made, and made partakers of His Divine Nature, being renewed unto life eternal, He was made partaker of our mortal nature, what says the Apostle of Him? He says, yet He emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and was found in fashion as a man. He was in the Form of God, equal to the Father; He took upon Him the form of a servant, so as therein to be less than the Father....

3. You have known My down-sitting and Mine up-rising [Psalm 138:2]. What here is down-sitting, what up-rising? He who sits, humbles himself. The Lord then sat in His Passion, up-rose in His Resurrection. You, he says, hast known this; that is, You have willed, You have approved; according to Your will was it done. But if you choose to take the words of the Head in the person of the Body: man sits when he humbles himself in penitence, he rises up when his sins are forgiven, and he is lifted up to the hope of everlasting life. Lift not up yourselves, unless you have first been humbled. For many wish to rise before they have sat down, they wish to appear righteous, before they have confessed that they are sinners....

4. You have understood my thoughts from afar; You have tracked out my path and my limit [Psalm 138:3]; and all my ways You have seen beforehand [Psalm 138:4]. What is, from afar? While I am yet in my pilgrimage, before I reach that, my true country, You have known my thoughts....The younger son went into a far country. After his toil and suffering and tribulation and want, he thought on his father, and desired to return, and said, I will arise, and go to my father. I will arise, said he, for before he had sat. Here then you may recognise him saying, You have known my down-sitting and up-rising. I sat, in want; I arose, in longing for Your Bread. You have understood my thoughts from afar. For far indeed had I gone; but where is not He whom I had left? Wherefore the Lord says in the Gospel, that his father met him as he was coming. Truly; for he had understood his thoughts from afar. My path, he says; what, but a bad path, the path he had walked to leave his father?...What is, my path? That by which I have gone. What is, my limit? That whereunto I have reached. You have tracked out my path and my limit. That limit of mine, far distant as it was, was not far from Your eyes. Far had I gone, and yet You were there. And all my ways You have seen beforehand. He said not, hast seen, but, hast seen beforehand. Before I went by them, before I walked in them, You saw them beforehand; and You permitted me in toil to go my own ways, that, if I desired not to toil, I might return into Your ways. For there is no deceit in my tongue. What meant he by this? Lo, I confess to You, I have walked in my own way, I have become far from You, I have departed from You, with whom it was well with me, and to my good it was ill with me without You....

5. Behold Thou, Lord, hast known all my last doings, and the ancient ones [Psalm 138:5]. You have known my latest doings, when I fed swine; You have known my ancient doings, when I asked of You my portion of goods. Ancient doings were the beginnings to me of latest ills: ancient sin, when we fell; latest punishment, when we came into this toilsome and dangerous mortality. And would that this may be latest to us; it will be, if now we will to return. For there is another latest for certain wicked ones, to whom it shall be said, Go into everlasting fire. [Matthew 25:41]...You have fashioned me, and hast laid Your hand upon me. Fashioned me, where? In this mortality; now, to the toils whereunto we all are born. For none is born, but God has fashioned him in his mother's womb; nor is there any creature, whereof God is not the Fashioner. But You have fashioned me in this toil, and laid Your hand upon me, Your avenging hand, putting down the proud. For thus healthfully has He cast down the proud, that He may lift him up humble.

6. Your skill has displayed itself wonderfully in me: it has waxed mighty: I shall not be able to attain unto it [Psalm 138:6]. Listen now and hear somewhat, which is obscure indeed, yet brings no small pleasure in the understanding thereon. Moses, the holy servant of God, with whom God spoke by a cloud, for, speaking after human fashion, He must needs speak to His servant through some work of His hands which He assumed,...longed and desired to see the true appearance of God, and said to God, who was conversing with him, If now I have found grace in Your sight, show me Yourself. [Exodus 33:13] When this he desired vehemently, and would extort from God in that sort of friendly familiarity, if we may so speak, wherewith God deigned to treat him, that he might see His Glory and His Face, in such wise as we can speak of God's Face, He said to him, You can not see My Face; for no one has seen My Face, and lived; [Exodus 33:20] but I will place you in a cleft of the rock, and will pass by, and will set My hand upon you; and when I have passed by, you shall see My back parts. And from these words there arises another enigma, that is, an obscure figure of the truth. When I have passed by, says God, you shall see My back parts; as though He has on one side His face, on another His back. Far be it from us to have any such thoughts of that Majesty! For whoever has such thoughts of God, what advantages it him that the temples are closed? He is building an idol in his own heart. In these words then are mighty mysteries....They who raged against the Lord, whom they saw, now seek counsel how they may be saved; and it is said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ, and your sins shall be forgiven you. [Acts 2:38] Behold, they saw the back parts of Him, whose face they could not see. For His Hand was upon their eyes, not for ever, but while He passed by. After He had passed He took away His Hand from their eyes. When the hand was taken from their eyes, they say to the disciples, What shall we do? At first they are fierce, afterwards loving; at first angry, afterwards fearful; at first hard, then pleasant; at first blind, then enlightened....

7. Behold you find that the runaway in a far country cannot escape His eyes, from whom he flees. And whither can he go now, whose limit is tracked out? Behold, what says he? Whither shall I go from Your Spirit? [Psalm 138:7]. Who can in the world flee from that Spirit, with whom the world is filled? [Wisdom 1:7] And whither shall I flee from Your Face? He seeks a place whither to flee from the wrath of God. What place will shelter God's runaway? Men who shelter runaways, ask them from whom they have fled; and when they find any one a slave of some master less powerful than themselves, him they shelter as it were without any fear, saying in their hearts, he has not a master by whom he can be tracked out. But when they are told of a powerful master, they either shelter not, or they shelter with great fear, because even a powerful man can be deceived. Where is God not? Who can deceive God? Whom does not God see? From whom does not God demand His runaway? Whither then shall that runaway go from the Face of God? He turns him hither and there, as though seeking a spot to flee to.

8. If I go up, says he, to heaven, You are there: if I go down to Hades, You are present [Psalm 138:8]. At length, miserable runaway, you have learned, that by no means can you make yourself far from Him, from whom you have wished to remove far away. Behold, He is everywhere; thou, whither will you go? He has found counsel, and that inspired by Him, who now deigns to recall him....If by sinning I go down to the depths of wickednesses, and spurn to confess, saying, Who sees me (for in Hades who shall confess to You?) there also You are present, to punish. Whither then shall I go that I may flee from Your presence, that is, not find You angry? This plan he found: So will I flee, says he, from Your Face, so will I flee from Your Spirit; from Your avenging Spirit, Your avenging Face thus will I flee. How? If I take again my wings right forward, and abide in the utmost parts of the sea [Psalm 138:9]. So can I flee from Your Face. If he will flee to the utmost part of the sea from the Face of God, will not He from whom he flees be there?...For what are the utmost parts of the sea, but the end of the world? Thither let us now flee in hope and longing, with the wings of twofold love; let us have no rest, save in the utmost parts of the sea. For if elsewhere we wish for rest, we shall be hurled headlong into the sea. Let us fly even to the ends of the sea, let us bear ourselves aloft on the wings of twofold love; meanwhile let us flee to God in hope, and in faithful hope let us meditate on that end of the sea.

9. Now listen who may bring us there. The very same One whose face in wrath we wish to flee from. For what follows? Even there shall Your hand conduct me, and Your right hand lead me [Psalm 138:10]. This let us meditate on, beloved brethren, let this be our hope, this our consolation. Let us take again through love the wings we lost through lust. For lust was the lime of our wings, it clashed us down from the freedom of our sky, that is, the free breezes of the Spirit of God. Thence dashed down we lost our wings, and were, so to speak, imprisoned in the power of the fowler; thence He redeemed us with His Blood, whom we fled from to be caught. He makes us wings of His commandments; we raise them aloft now free from lime....Needs then must we have wings, and needs must He conduct us, for He is our Helper. We have free-will; but even with that free-will what can we do, unless He help us who commands us?

10. And considering the length of the way, what said he to himself? And I said, Peradventure the darkness shall overwhelm me11. Lo, now I have believed in Christ, now am I wafted aloft on the wings of twofold love....Regarding the length of the way, I said to myself, And the night was light in my delight. The night was made to me light, because in the night I despaired of being able to cross so great a sea, to surmount so long a journey, to reach the utmost parts by persevering to the end. Thanks to Him who sought me when a runaway, who smote my back with strokes of the scourge, who by calling me recalled me from destruction, who made my night light. For it is night so long as we are passing through this life. How was the night made light? Because Christ came down into the night....

11. For darkness shall not be darkened by You [Psalm 138:12]. Do not thou then darken your darkness; God darkens it not, but enlightens it yet more; for to Him is said in another Psalm, You, Lord, shall light my candle: my God shall enlighten my darkness. But who are they who darken their darkness, which God darkens not? Evil men, perverse men; when they sin, verily they are darkness; when they confess not their sins which they have committed but go on to defend them, they darken their darkness. Wherefore now if you have sinned you are in darkness, but by confessing your darkness you shall obtain to have your darkness lightened; by defending your darkness, you shall darken your darkness. And where will you escape from double darkness, who wast in difficulty in single darkness?...Let us not darken our darkness by defending our sins, and the night shall be light in our delight.

12. And night shall be lightened as the day. Night, as the day. Day to us is worldly prosperity, night adversity in this world: but, if we learn that it is by the desert of our sins that we suffer adversities, and our Father's scourges are sweet to us, that the Judge's sentence may not be bitter to us, so shall we find the darkness of this night to be, as it were, the light of this night....But when Christ our Lord has come, and has dwelt in the soul by faith, and promised other light, and inspired and given patience, and warned a man not to delight in prosperity or to be crushed by adversity, the man, being faithful, begins to treat this world with indifference; not to be lifted up when prosperity befalls him, nor crushed when adversity, but in all things to praise God, not only when he abounds, but also when he loses; not only when he is in health, but also when he is sick.. ..As is His darkness, so is also His light. His darkness overwhelms me not, because His light lifts me not up.

13. For Thou, O Lord, hast possessed my reins [Psalm 138:13]. The Possessor is within; He occupies not only the heart, but also the reins; not only the thoughts, but also the delights: He then possesses that whence I should feel delight at any light in this world: He occupies my reins: I know not delight, save from the inward light of His Wisdom. What then? Do you not delight that your affairs are very prosperous, times fortunate to you? Do you not delight in honour, in riches, in your family? I do not, says he. Wherefore? Because You have possessed my reins, O Lord; You have taken me up from my mother's womb. While I was in my mother's womb, I did not regard with indifference the darkness of that night and the light of that night....Now, having been taken up from the womb of that our mother, we look on them with indifference, and say, As is His darkness, so is also His light. Neither does earthly prosperity make us happy, nor earthly adversity wretched. We must maintain righteousness, love faith, hope in God, love God, love our neighbours also. After these toils we shall have unfailing light, day without setting. Fleeting is all the light and darkness of this night.

14. I will confess to You, O Lord, for terribly have You been made wonderful: wondrous are Your works, and my soul knows it right well [Psalm 138:14]. Aforetime Your knowledge was made wonderful from me, it had waxed great, nor could I attain unto it. From me then it had waxed great. Whence does my soul now know right well, save because the night is light in my delight? save because Your grace has come unto me, and enlightened my darkness? save because You have possessed my reins? save because You have taken me up from my mother's womb?

15. My bone is not hid from You, which You have made in secret [Psalm 138:15]. His bone, he says. What the people call ossum, is in Latin called os. This is the word in the Greek. For we might think the word os is here the one which makes in the plural ora, not os (short), which makes ossa. He says then, I have a certain bone (ossum) in secret. For this word let us prefer to use; better is it that scholars find fault with us, than that the people understand us not. There is then, says he, a certain bone of mine, within, hidden; You have made within a bone for me in secret, yet is it not hidden from You. In secret have You made it, but have You therefore hidden it from Yourself? This my bone made by You in secret men see not, men know not: You know, who hast made. What bone then means he, brethren? Let us seek it, it is in secret. But because as Christians we are speaking in the Name of the Lord to Christians, now we find what bone is of this kind. It is a sort of inward strength; for strength and fortitude are understood to be in the bones. There is then a sort of inward strength of the soul, wherein it is not broken. Whatever tortures, whatever tribulations, whatever adversities rage around, that which God has made strong in secret in us, cannot be broken, yields not. For by God is made a certain strength of patience, of which is said in another Psalm, But my soul shall be subjected to God, for of Him is my patience.. ..Wherein do you glory? In tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience. [Romans 4:5] See how that strength is fashioned within in his heart: because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. So is fashioned and made strong that hidden bone, that it makes us even to glory in tribulations. But to men we seem wretched, because that which we have within is hidden from them. And my substance is in the lower parts of the earth. Behold, in flesh is my substance, yet have I a bone within, which You have fashioned, such as to cause me never to yield to any persecutions of this lower region, where still my substance is. For what great matter is it, if an Angel be brave? This is a great matter, if flesh is brave. And whence is flesh brave, whence is an earthen vessel brave, save because in it is made a bone in secret?

16. ...Your eyes did see Mine imperfect one, and in Your book shall all be written [Psalm 138:16], not only the perfect, but also the imperfect. Let not the imperfect fear, only let them advance. Nor yet, because I have said, let them not fear, let them love their imperfection, and remain there, where they are found. Let them advance, as far as in them lies. Daily let them add, daily let them approach; yet let them not fall back from the Body of the Lord: that, compacted in one Body and among these members, they may be counted worthy to have that said of them. By day shall they wander, and none among them. The Day was yet on earth, even our Lord Jesus Christ. Whence He said, Walk while you have the day. [John 12:35] But by day shall His imperfect ones wander. They too thought that our Lord Jesus Christ was only man, that He had not within Him the hidden Godhead, that He was not secretly God, but that He was that only which was seen: this they too thought....But what is, In the day they shall wander? Shall they perish? Where then is, In Your book shall all be written? When then did they wander in the day? When they understood not the Lord set upon earth. And what follows? But to me Your friends are made very honourable, O God [Psalm 138:17]; those very ones, who wandered in the day, and none was in them, became Your friends, and were made very honourable to me. That bone was made in them in secret after the resurrection of the Lord, and they suffered for His Name, at whose death they had been amazed. Mightily strengthened were their chieftainships. They became Apostles, they became leaders of the Church, they became rams leading their flocks, mightily strengthened.

17. I will number them, and they shall be multiplied above the sand [Psalm 138:18]. By means of them, who wandered in the day, lo! There has been born all this great multitude, which now is like the sand innumerable, save by God. For He said, they shall be multiplied above the sand, and yet He had said, I will number them. The very same who are numbered, shall be multiplied above the sand. For by Him is the sand numbered, by whom the very hairs of our head are numbered. [Matthew 10:30] I have risen, and yet am I with You. Already have I suffered, says He, already have I been buried; lo! I have risen, and not yet do they understand that I am with them. Yet am I with You, that is, not yet with them, for not yet do they recognise Me. For thus do we read in the Gospel, that after the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He appeared to them, they did not at once know Him. There is another meaning also: I have risen, and yet am I with You, as though He would signify this present time, wherein He is as yet hidden at the right hand of the Father, before He is revealed in the brightness, wherein He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

18. And then He tells what meanwhile, during this whole time when He already has risen, and remains still with the Father, He suffers by the intermixture of sinners in His Body, the Church, and by the separation of heretics. If Thou, O God, shall slay the sinners (since You shall say in Your thought, Depart from Me, you men of blood), they shall receive in vanity their cities (ver. 19-20). The words seem to be connected in this order; If Thou, O God, shall slay the sinners, they shall receive in vanity their cities. Thus are sinners slain, because, having their understandings darkened, they are alienated from the life of God. [Ephesians 4:18] For on account of elation they lose confession, and so they are slain, and in them is fulfilled what Scripture says, Confession perishes from the dead, as from one that is not. [Sirach 17:28] And so they receive in vanity their cities, that is, their vain peoples, who follow their vanity; when, puffed up by the name of righteousness, they persuade men to burst the bond of unity, and blindly and ignorantly follow them, as being more righteous....But now the Body of Christ, the Church, says, Why do the proud speak falsely against me, as though I were stained by other men's sins, and so, by separating themselves, receive in vanity their cities? Have not I hated those who hated You, Lord? [Psalm 138:21]. Why do those who are worse themselves require of me to separate myself in body as well as spirit from the wicked, so as to root up the wheat, together with the tares, before the time of harvest, that before the time of winnowing I lose my power of enduring the chaff; that before all the different sorts of fishes are brought to the end of the world, as to the shore, to be separated, I tear the nets of peace and unity? Are the sacraments which I receive, those of evil men? Do I; by consent, communicate in their life and deeds?...But where is, Love your enemies? Is it because He said yours, not God's? Do good to them that hate you. [Matthew 5:44] He says not, who hate God. So he follows the pattern, and says, Have not I hated those who hated You; Lord? He says not, Who have hated me. And at Your enemies did I waste away. Yours, he said, not mine. But those who hate us and are enemies unto us, only because we serve Him, what else do they but hate Him, and are His enemies. Ought we then to love such enemies as these? Or do not they suffer persecution for God's sake, to whom it is said, Pray for them that persecute you? Observe then what follows. With a perfect hatred did I hate them [Psalm 138:22]. What is, with a perfect hatred? I hated in them their iniquities, I loved Your creation. This it is to hate with a perfect hatred, that neither on account of the vices thou hate the men, nor on account of the men love the vices. For see what he adds, They became mine enemies. Not only as God's enemies, but as his own too does he now describe them. How then will he fulfil in them both his own saying, Have not I hated those that hated You, Lord, and the Lord's command, Love your enemies? How will he fulfil this, save with that perfect hatred, that he hate in them that they are wicked, and love that they are men? For in the time even of the Old Testament, when the carnal people was restrained by visible punishments, how did Moses, the servant of God, who by understanding belonged to the New Testament, how did he hate sinners when he prayed for them, or how did he not hate them when he slew them, save that he hated them with a perfect hatred? For with such perfection did he hate the iniquity which he punished, as to love the manhood for which he prayed.

19. Since then the Body of Christ is in the end to be severed in body also from the unholy and wicked, but now meanwhile groans among them, what does the love of Christ among the daughters, as the lily among thorns? [Song of Songs 2:2] What are her words? What her conscience? What is the appearance of the king's daughter within? Lo, hear what she says. Prove me, O God, and know my heart [Psalm 138:23]. Do Thou, O God, Thou prove me, Thou know; not man, not an heretic, who neither knows how to prove, nor can know my heart, whereas You prove, and know that I consent not to the deeds of the wicked, while they think that I can be defiled by the sins of others; so that, while I in my long wandering do what I mourn in another Psalm, that is, while I labour for peace among them that hate peace, until I come to that Vision of peace, which is called Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all, the city eternal in the heavens; they, contending, and falsely accusing and separating themselves, may receive, not, evidently, in eternity, but in vanity, their cities. Why this? Observe what follows.

20. And see, says he, if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting [Psalm 138:24]. Search, he says, my paths, that is, my counsels and thoughts. What else says he, but lead me in Christ? For who is the way everlasting, save He that is the life everlasting? For everlasting is He who said, I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. [John 14:6] If then you find anything in my way which displeases Your eyes, since my way is mortal, do Thou lead me in the way everlasting, wherein is no iniquity; for even if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He is the propitiation for our sins; [1 John 2:1-2] He is the Way everlasting without sin; He is the Life everlasting without punishment.

21. These are great mysteries, brethren. How does the Spirit of God speak with us? How does it make us delights in this night? What is this, we ask you, brethren, whence are they sweeter, the darker they are? He mixes us our potion after His love, in certain wondrous ways. He makes His own sayings wondrous, so that while we were speaking what ye already knew, yet forasmuch as it was dug out of passages which seemed obscure, the knowledge itself seemed to be made new. Did ye not know, brethren, that the wicked are to be tolerated in the Church, and schisms not to be made? Did ye not already know, that within those nets which hold both good and bad fishes, we must abide even to the shore, nor must the nets be burst, because on the shore the good shall be separated into vessels, and the bad thrown away? You know this already; but these verses of this Psalm ye did not understand; that which you did not understand is explained; that which you knew has been renewed.

1. Our Lords have bidden me, brethren, and in them the Lord of all, to bring this Psalm to your understanding, so far as God gives me to. May He help your prayers, that I may say those things which I ought to say, you to hear, that to all of us the Word of God may be profitable. For all it does not profit, for all have not faith. [1 Thessalonians 3:2]...

2. What this Psalm contains, I believe that you perceived when it was being chanted; for therein the Church of Christ, set in the midst of the wicked, complains and groans, and pours out prayer to God. For her voice is in every such prophecy the voice of one in need and want, not yet satisfied, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, [Matthew 5:6] for whom a certain fullness in the end has been promised, and is reserved....

3. To the end, a Psalm to David himself. No other end may thou look to, than is laid down for you by the Apostle himself. For Christ is the end. [Romans 10:4]...He was of the seed of David, not after His Godhead, whereby He is the Creator of David, but after the flesh; therefore He deigned to be called David in prophecy: look to this end, for the Psalm is chanted to David Himself; hear the voice of His Body; be in His Body. Let the voice which you have heard be yours, and pray, and say what follows.

4. Deliver me, O Lord, from the wicked man [Psalm 139:1]. Not from one only, but from the class; not from the vessels only, but from their prince himself, that is, the devil. Why from man, if he means from the devil? Because he too is called a man in a figure. [Matthew 13:24-28]...Now then being made light, not in ourselves, but in the Lord, [Ephesians 5:8] let us pray not only against darkness, that is, against sinners, whom still the devil possesses, but also against their prince, the devil himself, who works in the children of disobedience. Deliver me from the unrighteous man. The same as from the wicked man. For he called him wicked because unrighteous, lest perchance you should think that any unrighteous man could be a good man. For many unrighteous men seem to be harmless; they are not fierce, are not savage, do not persecute nor oppress; yet are they unrighteous, because, following some other habit, they are luxurious, drunkards, given to pleasure....Wicked then is every unrighteous man, who must needs be harmful, whether he be gentle or fierce. Whoever falls in his way, whoever is taken by his snares, will find how harmful is that which he thought harmless. For, brethren, even thorns prick not with their roots. Pull up thorns from the ground, handle their roots, and see whether you feel pain. Yet that in the upgrowth which causes you pain, proceeded from that root. Let not then men please you who seem gentle and kind, yet are lovers of carnal pleasure, followers of polluted lusts, let them not please you. Though as yet they seem gentle, they are roots of thorns....And so, my brethren, body of Christ, members of Christ groaning among such wicked men, whomsoever ye find hurrying headlong into evil lusts and deadly pleasures, at once chide, at once punish, at once burn. Let the root be burnt, and there remains not whence the thorn may grow up. If you cannot, be sure that you will have them as enemies. They may be silent, they may hide their enmity, but they cannot love you. But since they cannot love you, and since they who hate you must needs seek your harm, let not your tongue and heart be slow to say to God, Deliver me, O Lord, from the unrighteous man.

5. Who have imagined unrighteousnesses in their heart [Psalm 139:2]....From them free me, from them let Your hand be most powerful to deliver me. For easy is it to avoid open enmities, easy is it to turn aside from an enemy declared and manifest, while iniquity is in his lips as well as his heart; he is a troublesome enemy, he is secret, he is with difficulty avoided, who bears good things in his lips, while in his heart he conceals evil things. All the day long did they make war. What is, war? They made for me what I was to fight against all the day. For from thence, from such hearts as these, arises all that the Christian fights against. Be it sedition, be it schism, be it heresy, be it turbulent opposition, it springs not save from these imaginings which were concealed, and while they spoke good words with their lips, all the day long did they make war. You hear words of peace, yet making war departs not from their thoughts. For the words, all the day long, signify without intermission, throughout the whole time. They have sharpened their tongues like serpents [Psalm 139:3]. If still you seek to make out the man, behold a comparison. In the serpent above all beasts is there cunning and craft to hurt; for therefore does it creep. It has not even feet, so that its footsteps when it comes may be heard. In its progress it draws itself, as it were, gently along, yet not straightly. Thus then do they creep and crawl to hurt, having poison hidden even under a gentle touch. And so it follows, the poison of asps is under their lips. Behold, it is under their lips, that we may perceive one thing under their lips, another in their lips....

6. Preserve me, O Lord, from the hand of the sinner, from unrighteous men deliver me [Psalm 139:4]. Here they wear their real colors, they are known; here we have no need to understand, but to act: we have need to pray, not to ask who they are. But how you should pray against such men, he explains in what follows. For many pray unskilfully against wicked men. Who have imagined, says he, to trip up my steps. Thus far it may be understood carnally. Every one has enemies, who seek to cheat him in trade, to rob him of money, where they are engaged together in business; every one has some neighbour his enemy, who devises how to bring mischief upon his family, to injure in some way his property and surely he devises this by deceit, by fraud, by devilish devices he endeavours to accomplish this: no one can doubt it. Yet not for these reasons are they to be guarded against, but lest they lay in wait for you and draw you to themselves, that is, separate you from the Body of Christ, and make you of their body. For as Christ is the Head of the good, so is the devil their head. What is, to trip up my steps? Not as though you should be deceived in the business you have with him, or he cheat you in a case which you have with him in the law courts. He has tripped up your steps, if he have hindered you in the way of God; so that what you directed aright may stumble, or fall from the way, or fall in the way, or draw back from the way, or stop on the way, or go back to the place from whence it had come. Whatsoever has done this to you, has tripped you up, has deceived you. Against such snares as these pray thou, lest you lose your heavenly inheritance, lest you lose Christ your Joint-heir, for you are destined to live for ever with Him, who has made you an heir. For you are made an heir, not by one whom you are to succeed after his death, but One together with whom you are to live forever.

7. The proud have hidden a trap for me [Psalm 139:5]. He has briefly described the whole body of the devil, when he says, the proud. Hence is it that for the most part they call themselves righteous when they are unrighteous. Hence is it that nothing is so grievous to them as to confess their sins. They are men who, being falsely righteous, must needs envy the truly righteous. For none envies another in that which he wishes not either to be or to seem....Hence come all allurings and trippings up of others. This the devil first wished, when falling himself he envied man who stood....

8. But those proud ones have hidden a trap for me; they have sought to trip up my steps. And what have they done? And have stretched out cords as traps. What cords? The word is well known in holy Scripture, and elsewhere we find what cords signify. For each one is holden with the cords of his sins, [Proverbs 5:22] says Scripture. And Esaias says openly, Woe to them that draw sin like a long rope. [Isaiah 5:18] And why is it called a cord? Because every sinner who perseveres in his sins, adds sin to sin; and when he ought by accusing his sins to amend, by defending he doubles what by confession he might have removed, and often seeks to fortify himself by other sins, on account of the sins he has already committed....But these their sins they spread for the righteous, when they persuade them to do the evils which they themselves do. Therefore he said, they spread cords and traps; that is, by their sins they desired to overthrow me. And where did they this? Beside the paths have they laid a stumbling-block for me: not in the paths, but, beside the paths. Your paths are the commandments of God. They have laid stumbling-blocks beside the paths; do not thou withdraw out of the paths, and you will not rush upon stumbling-blocks. Yet will I not that you should say, God should prevent them from laying stumbling-blocks beside my paths, and then they would not lay them. Nay, rather, God permitted them to lay stumbling-blocks beside your paths, that you should not leave the paths.

9. And what remains? What remedy amid such ills, in such temptations, such dangers? I said to the Lord, You are my God [Psalm 139:6]. Loud is the voice of prayer, it excites confidence. Is He not the God of the others? Of whom is not He God, who is the true God? Yet is He specially theirs, who enjoy Him, who serve Him, who willingly submit to Him. For the wicked too, though unwillingly, are subject to Him....Hear with Your ears the voice of my prayer. He did not say, Hear with Your ears my prayer; but, as though expressing more plainly the affection of his heart, the voice of my prayer, the life of my prayer, the soul of my prayer, not that which sounds in my words, but that which gives life to my words. For all other noises without life may be called sounds, but not words. Words belong to those that have souls, to the living. But how many pray to God, yet have neither perception of God, nor right thoughts concerning God! These may have the sound of prayer, the voice they cannot, for there is no life in them. This was the voice of the prayer of one who was alive, forasmuch as he understood that God was his God, saw by Whom he was freed, perceived from whom he was freed.

10. Commending this to the ears of God, let him say, Lord, Lord. Thou Lord-Lord, that is, most truly Lord, not like the lords-men, not like the lords who buy with money-bags, but the Lord who buys with His Blood. Lord, Lord, You strength of my health [Psalm 139:7], that is, who gives strength to my health. What is the meaning of strength of my health? He complained of the stumbling-blocks and snares of sinners, of wicked men, vessels of the devil, that barked around him and laid snares around him, of the proud that envy the righteous. But He immediately added a comfort, He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. This he observed and feared, and, distressed at the abundance of iniquities, turned himself to hope. Verily I shall be saved, if I endure unto the end: but endurance, so as to win salvation, pertains unto strength; You are the strength of my salvation; You make me to endure, that I may attain salvation....Toiling then in this warfare, he looked back to the grace of God; and because already he had begun to be heated and parched, he found, as it were, a shade, whereunder to live. You have overshadowed my head in the day of battle: that is, in the heat, lest I be heated, lest I be parched.

11. Deliver me not over, O Lord, by my own longing to the sinner [Psalm 139:8]. Behold to what end Your overshadowing shall avail for me, that I suffer not heat from myself. And what could that sinner do to me, rage as he would? For wicked men raged against the martyrs, dragged them away, bound them with chains, shut them up in prisons, slew them with the sword, exposed them to wild beasts, consumed them with fire: all this they did; yet did not God deliver them over to the sinners, because they were not delivered over by their own longing. This then pray with all your might, that God delivered you not over by your own longing to the sinner. For you by your own longing give place to the devil. For lo, the devil has set before you gain, invited you to dishonesty; you can not have the gain, unless thou commit the dishonesty: the gain is the bait, dishonesty the snare: do thou so look on the bait, that you see the snare also; for you can not obtain the gain, unless thou commit the dishonesty; and if you commit the dishonesty, you will be caught....Hence is your head overshadowed in the day of battle. For longing causes heat, but the overshadowing of the Lord tempers longing, that we may be able to bridle that whereby we were being hurried away, that we be not so heated as to be drawn to the snare. They have thought against me; leave me not, lest perchance they be exalted. You have in another place, They that oppress me will exult if I be moved. Such are they, because such is the devil also himself....

12. The head of their going about, the toil of their own lips shall cover them [Psalm 139:9]. Me, he says, the shadow of Your wings shall cover: for, You have covered me in the day of battle. Them what shall cover? The head of their going about; that is, pride. What is, their going about? How they go about and stand not, how they go in the circle of error, where is journeying without end. He who goes in a straight line, begins from some point, ends at some point: he who goes in a circle, never ends. That is the toil of the wicked, which is set forth yet more plainly in another Psalm, The wicked walk in a circle. But the head of their going about is pride, for pride is the beginning of every sin. But whence is pride the toil of their own lips? Every proud man is false, and every false man is a liar. Men toil in speaking falsehood; for truth they could speak with entire facility. For he toils, who makes what he says: he who wishes to speak the truth, toils not, for truth herself speaks without toil....

13. Coals of fire shall fall upon them upon earth, and You shall cast them down [Psalm 139:10]. What is, upon earth? Here, even in this life, here coals of fire shall fall upon them. What are, coals of fire? We know these coals. Are they different from those of which we are about to speak? For these I see avail for punishment, those that I am about to speak of, for salvation. For we have spoken of certain coals, when man was seeking aid against a treacherous tongue....The examples of the coals are added to the wound of the arrows (for I need not fear to say the wound, when the Spouse herself says, I am wounded with love), and then the hay is consumed, and so they are called devouring coals. The hay is devoured, but the gold is purified, and the man exchanges death for life, and begins to be himself too a burning coal; such a coal as was the Apostle, who before was a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, a coal black and extinguished; but when he had obtained mercy, he was set on fire from heaven, the voice of Christ set him on fire, all the blackness in him perished, he began to be fervent in spirit, to set others on fire with that wherewith he was set on fire himself....

14. A man full of words shall not be guided upon earth [Psalm 139:11]. A man full of words loves lies. For what pleasure has he, save in speaking? He cares not what he speaks, so long as he speaks. It cannot be that he will be guided. What then ought the servant of God to do, who is kindled with these coals, and himself made a coal of salvation, what should he do? He should wish rather to hear than to speak; as it is written, Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak. [James 1:19] And if it may be so, let him desire this, not to be obliged to speak and talk and teach....I can quickly tell you wherein each one may prove himself, not by never speaking, but by requiring a case where it is his duty to speak; let him be glad to be silent, in will, let him speak to teach, when he must. For when must thou needs speak and teach? When you meet with one ignorant, when you meet with one unlearned. If it delight you always to teach, you wish always to have some ignorant one to teach....Evil shall hunt the unrighteous man to destruction. Evils come, and he stands not; therefore said he, they shall hunt him to destruction. For many good men, many righteous men evils have befallen, evils have, as it were, found them. Therefore when the evil pursued the good, that is, our martyrs, when they seized them, they hunted them, but not to destruction. For the flesh was pressed down, the spirit was crowned; the spirit was cast out from the body, yet was nought done to the flesh which might hinder it for the future. Let the flesh be burned, scourged, mangled; is it therefore withdrawn from its Creator, because it is given into the hands of its persecutor? Will not He who created it from nothing, remake it better than it was?

15. I know that the Lord will maintain the right of the needy [Psalm 139:12]. This needy one is not full of words; for he that is full of words, wishes to abound, knows not to hunger. He is needy of whom it is said, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. [Matthew 5:6] They groan among the stumbling-blocks of the wicked, they pray to their Head, to be delivered from the wicked man. And the cause of the poor. These then are they whose cause the Lord will not neglect; although now they suffer hardships, their glory shall appear, when their Head appears. For to such while placed here it is said, You are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. [Colossians 3:3] So then we are poor, our life is hid; let us cry to Him that is our Bread. [John 6:51]...

16. But the just shall confess to Your Name [Psalm 139:13]. Both when You shall plead their cause, and when You shall maintain their right, they shall confess to Your Name; nought shall they attribute to their own merits, all they shall attribute to nought save to Your mercy....Therefore see what follows, see wherewith he concludes. The upright shall dwell with Your Countenance. For ill was it with them in their own countenance; well will it be with them with Your Countenance. For when they loved their own countenance, In the sweat of their countenance did they eat bread. [Genesis 3:19] Your Countenance shall come to them with abundance to satisfy them. Nought more shall they seek, for nought better have they; no more shall they abandon You, nor be abandoned by You. For after His Resurrection, what was said of the Lord? You shall fill me with joy with Your Countenance. Without His Countenance He would not give us joy. For this do we cleanse our countenance, that we may rejoice in His Countenance. [1 John 3:2]...Because too, blessed are the poor in heart, for they shall see God; [Matthew 5:8] He gave the Form of Man both to good and evil, the Form of God He preserved for the pure and good, that we may rejoice in Him, and it may be well with us for ever with His Countenance.

1. ...The Psalm which we have just sung is in many parts somewhat obscure. When by the help of the Lord what has been said shall begin to be expounded and explained, you will see that you are hearing things which you knew already. But for this cause are they said in manifold ways, that variety of expression may remove all weariness of the truth....

2. Lord, I have cried unto You, hear Thou me [Psalm 140:1]. This we all can say. This not I alone say: whole Christ says it. But it is said rather in the name of the Body: for He too, when He was here and bore our flesh, prayed; and when He prayed, drops of blood streamed down from His whole Body. So is it written in the Gospel: Jesus prayed earnestly, and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood. [Luke 22:44] What is this flowing of sweat from His whole Body, but the suffering of martyrs from the whole Church? Listen unto the voice of my prayer, while I cry unto You. You thought the business of crying already finished, when you said, I have cried unto You. You have cried; yet think not yourself safe. If tribulation be finished, crying is finished: but if tribulation remain for the Church, for the Body of Christ, even to the end of the world, let it not only say, I have cried unto You, but also, Listen unto the voice of my prayer.

3. Let my prayer be set forth in Your sight as incense, and the lifting up of my hands an evening sacrifice [Psalm 140:2]. That this is wont to be understood of the Head Himself, every Christian acknowledges. For when the day was now sinking towards evening, the Lord upon the Cross laid down His life to take it again, [John 10:17] did not lose it against His will. Still we too are figured there. For what of Him hung upon the tree, save what He took of us? And how can it be that the Father should leave and abandon His only begotten Son, especially when He is one God with Him? Yet, fixing our weakness upon the Cross, where, as the Apostle says, our old man is crucified with Him, [Romans 6:6] He cried out in the voice of that our old man, Why have You forsaken Me? That then is the evening sacrifice, the Passion of the Lord, the Cross of the Lord, the offering of a salutary Victim, the whole burnt offering acceptable to God. That evening sacrifice produced, in His Resurrection, a morning offering. Prayer then, purely directed from a faithful heart, rises like incense from a hallowed altar. Nought is more delightful than the odour of the Lord: such odour let all have who believe.

4. ...Set, O Lord, a watch before my mouth, and a door of restraint around my lips [Psalm 140:3]. He said not a barrier of restraint, but a door of restraint. A door is opened as well as shut. If then it be a door, let it be both opened and shut; opened, to confession of sin; closed, to excusing sin. So will it be a door of restraint, not of ruin. For what does this door of restraint profit us? What does Christ pray in the name of His Body? That Thou turn not aside My heart to wicked words [Psalm 140:4]. What is, My heart? The heart of My Church; the heart, that is, of My Body....

5. But when your heart has not been turned aside, O member of Christ, when your heart has not been turned aside to wicked words, to making excuses in sins, with men that work in iniquity, you shall also not unite with their elect. For this follows, And I will not unite with their elect. Who are their elect? Those who justify themselves. Who are their elect? Those who trust in themselves that they are righteous, and despise others, as the Pharisee said in the temple, Lord, I thank You that I am not as other men are. [Luke 18:11] Who are their elect? This Man, if He were a prophet, would know what manner of woman this is that touched His feet. [Luke 7:39] Here you recognise the words of that other Pharisee, who invited our Lord to his house; when the woman of that city, who was a sinner, came and approached His Feet....

For even this woman herself, if her heart had turned aside to wicked words, would not have lacked wherewith to defend her sins. Do not women daily, her equals in defilement, but not her equals in confession, harlots, adulteresses, doers of shameful deeds, defend their sins? If they have not been seen, they deny them: if they have been caught and convicted, or have done their deeds openly, they defend them. And how easy is their defense, how ready, yet how headlong; how common, yet how blasphemous! Had God not willed it, I had not done it: God willed it: fortune willed it: fate willed it....These are the defences of the elect of this world. But let the members of Christ, the Body of Christ, say, let Christ say in the name of His Body, Turn not Thou aside, My Heart, to wicked words, etc., and I will not unite with their elect....

6. With men that work wickedness. What wickedness? Let me mention some sinful wickedness of theirs. Let me tell you one open sinful wickedness, which they acknowledge. They say, it is better for a man to be an usurer than a husbandman. Thou ask the reason, and they assign one....He vexes the members of Christ, who cleanses the earth with a furrow: he vexes the members of Christ, who pulls grass from the earth: he vexes the members of Christ, who plucks an apple from a tree. To avoid committing their imaginary murders in the farm, he commits real murders in usury. He deals no bread to the needy. See whether there can be greater unrighteousness than this righteousness. He deals not bread to the hungry. You ask, why? Lest the beggar receive the life which is in the bread, which they call a member of God, the substance of God, and bind it in flesh. What then are you doing? Why do you eat? Have you not flesh? Yes; but we, they say, forasmuch as we are enlightened by faith in Manes, by our prayers and our Psalms, forasmuch as we are elect, we cleanse thereby that bread, and transmit it into the treasure-house of the heavens. Such are the elect, that they are not to be saved by God, but saviours of God. And this is Christ, they say, crucified in the whole universe. I received in the Gospel Christ a Saviour, but you are in your books the saviours of Christ. Plainly you are blasphemers of Christ, and therefore not to be saved by Christ. Therefore lest a crumb be given to the hungry, and in the crumb a member of Christ suffer, is the hungry to die of hunger? False mercy to a crumb causes true murder of a man. But who are their elect? Turn not thou aside, my heart, to wicked words, and I will not unite with their elect.

7. The righteous One shall amend me in mercy, and convict me [Psalm 140:5]. Behold the sinner confessing. He desires to be amended in mercy, rather than praised deceitfully....Shall convict me, but in mercy: shall convict, yet hates not: yea, shall all the more convict, because He hates not. And why does he therefore give thanks? Because, rebuke a wise man, and he will love you. [Proverbs 9:8] The righteous One shall amend me. Because He persecutes you? God forbid. He requires rather amending himself, who amends in hate. Wherefore then does He amend? In mercy. And shall convict me. Wherein? In mercy. For the oil of a sinner shall not enrich my head. My head shall not grow by flattery. Undue praise is flattery: undue praise of a flatterer is the oil of a sinner. Therefore men too, when they have mocked any one with false praise, say, I have anointed his head. Love then to be convicted by the righteous One in mercy; love not to be praised by a sinner in mockery. Have oil in yourselves, and you shall not seek the oil of a sinner.. ..

8. You say to me, What am I doing? I am beset with flatterers; they cease not to besiege me; they praise in me what I would not, that praise in me what I hold in little esteem; what I hold dear they blame in me; flatterers, treacherous, deceivers. For instance, Gaiuseius is a great man, great, learned, wise; but why is he a Christian? For great is his learning, great his reading, great his wisdom. If great is his wisdom, approve of his being a Christian; if great his learning, learnedly has he chosen. In fine, what you revile, that pleases him whom you praise. But what? That praise sweetens not: it is the oil of a sinner. Yet ceases he not to speak so. Let him not therewith fatten your head; that is, rejoice not in such things; agree not to such things; consent not to such things; rejoice not in such things; and then, if he have applied to you the oil of flattery, yet has your head remained as it was, it has not been puffed up, it has not swollen....For still shall My word be well-pleasing to them. Wait awhile: now they revile Me, says Christ. In the early times of the Christians, the Christians were blamed on all sides. Wait as yet; and My word shall be well-pleasing to them. The time shall come when they shall conquer thousands of men, who shall beat their breasts, and say, Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Even now, how many remain who blush to beat their breasts? Let them then blame us: let us bear it. Let them blame; let them hate, accuse, detract; still shall My word be well-pleasing to them; the time shall come when My word shall please them....O wordy defense of iniquity! Verily now whole nations say this, and the thunder of nations beating their breasts ceases not. Rightly do the clouds thunder, wherein now God dwells. Where is now that wordiness, where that boasting, I am righteous; nought of ill have I done? Verily, when you have contemplated in Holy Scripture the law of righteousness, how far soever you have advanced, you shall find yourself a sinner....What sort of man am I now speaking of, brethren? I speak of him who worships God alone, who confesses Christ, who knows the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost to be one God; who commits not fornication against Him; who worships not devils; who seeks him not aid from the devil; who holds the Catholic Church; whom no one complains of as cheating; under whose oppression no weak neighbour groans; who assails not another's wife; who is content with his own, or even without his own, in such wise as is lawful, and as Apostolical discipline permits, with consent of both, [1 Corinthians 7:5] or when she is not yet married. Even he who is such as this, is yet overtaken in such things as I have mentioned. For all these daily sins then what is our hope, save to say with humble heart in the Lord's Prayer, while we defend not our sins, but confess them, Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; [Matthew 6:12] and to have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, that He may be the propitiation for our sins? [1 John 2:1-2] See what follows: their judges have been swallowed up beside the Rock [Psalm 140:6]. What is, swallowed up beside the Rock? That Rock was Christ. [1 Corinthians 10:4] They have been swallowed up beside the Rock. Beside, that is, compared, as judges, as mighty, powerful, learned: they are called their judges, as judging about morals, and laying down their opinions. This Aristotle said. Set him beside the Rock, and he is swallowed up. Who is Aristotle? Let him hear, Christ has said, and he trembles among the dead. This Pythagoras said, that Plato said. Set them beside the Rock, compare their authority to the authority of the Gospel, compare the proud to the Crucified. Say we to them You have written your words in the hearts of the proud; He has planted His Cross in the hearts of kings: finally, He died, and rose again; you are dead, and I will not ask how ye rise again. So their judges have been swallowed up beside that Rock. So long do their words seem somewhat, till they are compared with the Rock. Therefore if any of them be found to have said what Christ too has said, we congratulate him, but we follow him not. But he came before Christ. If any man speak what is true, is he therefore before the Truth itself? Regard Christ, O man, not when He came to you, but when He made you. The sick man too might say, But I took to my bed before the physician came to me. Why, for that very reason has He come last, because you first have sickened.

9. They shall hear My Words, for they have prevailed. My Words have prevailed over their words. They have spoken clever things, I true things. To praise one who talks well is one thing, to praise One who speaks truth is another. They shall hear My Words, for they have prevailed. How have they prevailed? Who of them has been taken offering sacrifice, when such things were forbidden by the law, and has not denied it? Who of them has been taken worshipping an idol, and has not exclaimed, I did it not, and feared lest he should be convicted? Such servants has the devil. But how have the Words of the Lord prevailed? Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Fear not those who kill the body, etc. He gave them fear, He suggested hope, He kindled love. Fear not death, He says. Do ye fear death? I die first. Fear ye, lest a hair of your head perish? I first rise again in the flesh uninjured. Rightly have ye heard His Words, for they have prevailed. They spoke, and were slain; they fell, and yet stood. And what was the result of so many deaths of martyrs, save that those words prevailed, and the earth being, so to speak, watered by the blood of Christ's witnesses, the cross of the Church shot up everywhere? How have they prevailed? We have said already, when they were preached by men who feared not. Feared not what? Neither banishment, nor losses, nor death, nor crucifixion: for it was not death alone that they did not fear; but even crucifixion, a death than which none was thought more accursed. It the Lord endured, that His disciples might not only not fear death, but not even that kind of death. When then these things are said by men that fear not, they have prevailed.

10. What then have all those deaths of the martyrs accomplished? Listen: As the fatness of the earth is spread over the earth, our bones have been scattered beside the pit [Psalm 140:7]. The bones of the martyrs, that is, the bodies of the witnesses of Christ. The martyrs were slain, and they who slew them seemed to prevail. They prevailed by persecution, that the words of Christ might prevail by preaching. And what was the result of the deaths of the saints? What means, the fatness of the earth is spread over the earth? We know that everything that is refuse is the fatness of the earth. The things which are, as it were, contemptible to men, enrich the earth....Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. As it is contemptible to the world, so is it precious to the husbandman. For he knows the use thereof, and its rich juice; he knows what he desires, what he seeks, whence the fertile crop arises; but this world despises it. Do you not know that God has chosen the contemptible things of the world, and those which are not, like as those which are, that the things which are may be brought to nought? [1 Corinthians 1:27-28] From the dunghill was Peter lifted up, and Paul; when they were put to death, they were despised: now, the earth having been enriched by them, and the cross of the Church springing up, behold, all that is noble and chief in the world, even the emperor himself, comes to Rome, and whither does he hasten? To the temple of the emperor, or the memorial of the fisherman?

11. For unto You, Lord, are my eyes; in You have I hoped, take not Thou away my life [Psalm 140:8]. For they were tortured in persecutions, and many failed. It occurs to him that many have failed, many have been in hazard, and as it were in the midst of the tribulation of persecution is sent forth the voice of one praying; For unto You, Lord, are my eyes: I care not what they threaten who stand around, unto You, Lord, are my eyes. More do I fix my eye on Your promises than on their threats. I know what You have suffered for me, what You have promised me.

12. Keep me from the trap which they have laid for me [Psalm 140:9]. What was the trap? If you consent, I spare you. In the trap was set the bait of the present life; if the bird love this bait, it falls into the trap: but if the bird be able to say, The day of man have I not desired: You know: [Jeremiah 17:16] He shall pluck his feet out of the net, etc. Two things he has mentioned to be distinguished the one from the other: the trap he said was set by persecutors; the stumbling-blocks came from those who have consented and apostatised: and from both he desires to be guarded. On the one side they threaten and rage, on the other consent and fall: I fear lest the one be such, that I fear him; the other such, that I imitate him. This I do to you, if you consent not. Keep me from the trap, etc. Behold, your brother has already consented. And from the stumbling-blocks, etc.

13. Sinners shall fall into his nets [Psalm 140:10]. Not all sinners, certain sinners, who are so great sinners, as to love this life to such a degree as to prefer it to everlasting life, shall fall into his trap. But what do you say? Shall they that are such, do you think, fall into his nets? What of Your disciples, O Christ? Behold, when persecution was raging, when they all left You alone, and went every one to his own: [John 16:32] lo! They who were closest to You, in Your trial and persecution, when Your enemies demanded You to be crucified, abandoned You. And that bold one, who had promised You that he would go with You even unto death, heard from the Physician what was being done in him, the sick man. For being in a fever, he had said he was whole; but the Lord touched the vein of his heart. Then came the trial; then came the test; then came the accusation; and now, questioned not by some great power, but by a humble slave, and that a woman, questioned by a handmaid, he yielded; he denied thrice....He wept bitterly, it says. Not yet was he fitted to suffer. To him was said, You shall follow Me afterwards. [John 13:36] Hereafter he was to be firm, having been strengthened by the Lord's Resurrection. Not yet then was it time that those bones should be scattered beside the pit. For see how many failed, even to those who first hung on His mouth; even they failed. Wherefore? I am alone, until I pass over: for this follows in the Psalm....

14. Pascha, as they say who know, and who have explained to us what to read, means Passover. When then the Lord's Passion was about to come, the Evangelist, as though he would use this very word, says, When the hour had come that Jesus should pass over to the Father. [John 13:1] We hear then of Pascha in this verse, I am alone, until I pass over. After Pascha I shall no longer be alone, after passing-over I shall no longer be alone. Many shall imitate Me, many shall follow Me. And if afterward they shall follow, what shall be the case now? I am alone, until I pass over. What is it that the Lord says in this Psalm, I am alone, until I pass over? What is it that we have expounded? If we have understood it, listen to His own words in the Gospel. Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit.. ..Therefore He was alone before He was put to death....So far was any from dying for the Name, that is, for confessing the Name of Christ, before that Grain of wheat fell into the ground, that even John, who was slain just before Him, being given by a wicked king to a dancing woman, was not put to death because he confessed Christ. Of course he might have been put to death for this, and that by many. If for another reason he was put to death by one man, how much more might he have been put to death by those very men, who put Christ to death? For John gave testimony to Christ. They who heard Christ, wished to slay Him; the man who gave testimony to Him they slew not....He is not slain by the Jews who gave free testimony to Christ, whom the Jews slew; he is slain by Herod, because he said to him, It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. [Matthew 14:4] For his brother had not died without issue. For the law of truth, for equity, for righteousness' sake, he did die: therefore is he a saint, therefore a martyr; but yet he died not for that Name whereby we are Christians, wherefore, save that the saying might be fulfilled, I am alone, until I pass over.

1. ...With my voice have I cried unto the Lord [Psalm 141:1]. It were enough to say, with voice: not for nothing perhaps has my been added. For many cry unto the Lord, not with their own voice, but with the voice of their body. Let the inner man then, in whom Christ has begun to dwell by faith, [Ephesians 3:17] cry unto the Lord, not with the din of his lips, but with the affection of his heart. God hears not, where man hears: unless you cry with the voice of lungs and side and tongue, man hears you not: your thought is your cry to the Lord. With my voice have I prayed unto the Lord. What he meant by, I have cried, he explained when he said, I have prayed. For they too who blaspheme, cry unto the Lord. In the former part he set down his crying, in the latter he explained what it was. As though it were demanded, With what cry have you cried unto the Lord? Unto the Lord, says he, I have prayed. My cry is my prayer, not reviling, not murmuring, not blaspheming.

2. I will pour out before Him my prayer [Psalm 141:2]. What is, before Him? In His sight. What is, in His sight? Where He sees. But where does He not see? For so do we say, 'where He sees,' as though somewhere He sees not. But in this assemblage of bodily substances men too see, animals too see: He sees where man sees not. For your thoughts no man sees, but God sees. There then pour out your prayer, where He alone sees, who rewards. For the Lord Jesus Christ bade you pray in secret: but if you know what your closet is, and clean it, there you pray to God. But you, says He, when you pray, enter into your closet, and shut the door, and pray to your Father in secret, and He who sees in secret shall reward you. [Matthew 6:6] If men are to reward you, pour out your prayer before men: if God is to reward you, pour out your prayer before Him; and close the door, lest the tempter enter. Therefore the Apostle, because it is in our power to shut the door, the door of our hearts, not of our walls, for in it is our closet,— because it is in our power to shut this door, says, neither give place to the devil. [Ephesians 4:27] But what is to shut the door? This door has as it were two leaves, desire and fear. Either thou desires something earthly, and he enters by this; or you fear something earthly, and he enters by that. Close then the door of fear and desire against the devil, open it to Christ. How do you open these folding doors to Christ? By desiring the kingdom of heaven, by fearing the fire of hell. By desire of this world the devil enters, by desire of eternal life Christ enters; by fear of temporal punishment the devil enters, by fear of everlasting fire Christ enters....

3. My tribulation I will proclaim in His sight. There is a repetition, both in the two preceding sentences, and in these which follow: the sentiments are two, but both twice expressed....For, in His sight, is the same as before Him; I will proclaim my tribulation, is the same as, I will pour out my prayer. When do you do this? Being set in the midst of persecution, he says, while my spirit failed from me [Psalm 141:3]. Wherefore has your spirit failed, O martyr, set in tribulation? That I may not claim my strength as my own, that I may know that Another works in me the goodness I have. And men perhaps have heard that my spirit has failed within me, and have despaired of me, and have said, we have taken him captive, we have overpowered him; and You have known my paths. They thought me cast down, You saw me standing upright. They who persecuted me and had seized me, thought my feet entangled, but their feet were entangled, and they fell, but we are risen, and stand upright. For my eyes are ever unto the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net. I have persevered in walking, for he that shall persevere unto the end, the same shall be saved. [Matthew 10:22] They thought me overpowered, but I continued walking. Where did I walk? In paths which they saw not, who thought me prisoner, in the paths of Your righteousness, in the paths of Your commandments....For every path is a way, but not every way is a path. Why then are those ways called paths, save because they are narrow? Broad is the way of the wicked, narrow the way of the righteous. That which is the way is also the ways, just as the Church is also the Churches, the heaven also the heavens: they are spoken of in the plural, they are spoken of also in the singular. On account of the unity of the Church it is one Church; My dove is one, she is the only one of her mother. [Song of Songs 6:8] On account of the congregation of brethren in various places there are many Churches. The Churches of Judæa which are in Christ rejoiced, says Paul, [Galatians 1:22-23] and they glorified God in me. Thus he spoke of Churches; and of one Church he thus speaks, Give none offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God....

4. In this way, wherein I was walking, they hid a trap for me. This way wherein I was walking, is Christ; there have they laid a trap for me, who persecute me in Christ, for Christ's Name's sake. There then have they hid for me a trap. What in me do they hate, what in me do they persecute? That I am a Christian....For the heretics too wish to hide a stumbling-block for us in the Name of Christ, and are themselves deceived. What they think that they put in the way, they put outside the way, for they themselves are outside the way. They cannot set a trap where themselves are not....The Pagan thinks to put a stumbling-block in the way, when he says to me, You worship a crucified God. He finds fault with the Cross of Christ, which he understands not. He thinks that he sets in Christ, what he sets near the way. I will not depart from Christ, so shall I not fall from the way into the trap. Let him mock at Christ crucified, let me see the Cross of Christ on the foreheads of kings. What he laughs at, therein am I saved. Nought is prouder than a sick man, who laughs at his own medicine. If he laughed not at it, he would take it, and be healed. The Cross is the sign of humility, but he through excess of pride acknowledges not that whereby may be healed the swelling of his soul. But if I acknowledge, I am walking in the way. So far am I from blushing at the Cross, that in no secret place do I keep the Cross of Christ, but bear it on my forehead. Many sacraments we receive, one in one way another in another: some as you know we receive with the mouth, some we receive over the whole body. But because the forehead is the seat of the blush of shame, He who said, Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me before men, of him will I be ashamed before My Father which is in heaven, [Luke 9:26] set, so to speak, that very ignominy which the Pagans mock at, in the seat of our shame. You hear a man assail a shameless man and say, He has no forehead. What is, He has no forehead? He has no shame. Let me not have a bare forehead, let the Cross of my Lord cover it....

5. I considered upon the right hand, and saw [Psalm 141:4]. He considered upon the right hand, and saw: whoever considers upon the left hand, is blinded. What is to consider on the right hand? Where they will be to whom shall be said, Come, you blessed of My Father, etc., [Matthew 25:34, 41]...He goes on to say, and there was none that knew me. For when you fear all things, who knows what you regard, whether you direct your eyes to the right hand or to the left? If, in bearing, you seek the praise of men, you have regarded the left: if, in bearing, you seek the promises of God, you have regarded the right hand. Have you regarded the right hand, you shall see: have you regarded the left hand, you shall be blinded. But even when you see on the right hand, there will be none to know you. For who comforts you save the Lord? Flight has perished from me. He speaks as though he were hemmed in. Let the persecutors rejoice over him; he is overpowered, he is taken, he is hemmed in, he is conquered. Flight has perished from him who flees not. But he who flees not, suffers whatever he can for Christ: that is, he flees not in soul. For in body it is lawful to flee; it is allowed, it is permitted; for the Lord says, When they persecute you in one city, flee to another. [Matthew 10:23] He then who flees not in soul, from him flight has perished. But it makes a difference why he flees not; whether because he is hemmed in, because he is caught, or because he is brave. For both from him that is caught flight has perished, and from him that is brave flight has perished. What flight then is to be avoided? What flight shall we allow to perish from us? That whereof the Lord speaks in the Gospel, The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, when he sees the wolf coming, flees. When he sees the ravager, why flees he? Because he cares not for the sheep.. ..In two ways a man's life is sought, either by his persecutors or by his lovers. So then there is none to seek my life, he said of them; verily they persecute my life, and they seek not my life. But if they seek my life, they will find it clinging to You: and if they know to seek it, they know also to imitate it.

6. Unto you have I cried, O Lord: I have said, You are my hope [Psalm 141:5]. When I endured, when I was in tribulation, I said, You are my hope. My hope here, therefore I endure. But my portion, not here, but in the land of the living. God gives a portion in the land of the living; but not something from Himself without Himself. What will He give to one that loves Him, save Himself?

7. Give heed unto my prayer, for much have I been humbled [Psalm 141:6]. Humbled by persecutors, humbled in confession. He humbles himself out of the sight of man: he is humbled by enemies in their sight. Therefore is he lifted up by Him both visibly and invisibly. Invisibly are the martyrs already lifted up; visibly shall they be lifted up, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption in the resurrection of the dead; when this very part of him, against which alone her persecutors could rage, shall be renewed. Fear not them that kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. [Matthew 10:28] And what perishes? What kill they?...Why then are you anxious about the rest of your members, when you shall not lose even a hair? Deliver me from them that persecute me. From whom do you think that he prays to be delivered? From men who persecuted him? Is it so? Are merely men our enemies? We have other enemies, invisible, who persecute us in another way. Man persecutes, that he may slay the body; another persecutes, that he ensnare the soul. [Ephesians 2:2]...There are then other enemies of ours too, from whom we ought to pray God to deliver us, lest they lead us astray, either by crushing us with troubles of this world, or alluring us by its enticements. Who are these enemies? Let us see whether they are plainly described by any servant of the Lord, by any soldier, now perfected, who has engaged with them. Hear the Apostle saying, We wrestle not against flesh and blood: [Ephesians 6:12] as though he would say, Turn not your hatred against men; think not them your enemies; think not that it is by their hostility you are being bruised; these men whom you fear are flesh and blood....For they are strengthened over me. Who said, they are strengthened over me? The Body of Christ cries out; it is the voice of the Church; the members of Christ cry out, Much has the number of sinners increased. Because iniquity has abounded, the love of many waxes cold. [Matthew 24:12]

8. Bring forth my soul out of prison, that it may confess to Your Name [Psalm 141:7]. This prison has been variously understood by former writers. And perhaps it is the prison which is called in the title, the cave. For the title of this Psalm runs thus: Of understanding to David himself, a prayer when he was in the cave. That which is the cave, the same is also the prison. Two things have we set before us to understand, but when we have understood one, both will be understood. A man's deserts make a prison. For in one dwelling place one man finds a house, another a prison....To some then it has seemed that the cave and prison are this world; and this the Church prays, that it may be brought out of prison, that is, from this world, from under the sun, where all is vanity. Beyond this world then God promises that we shall be in some sort of rest; therefore perhaps do we cry concerning this place, Bring my soul out of prison. Our soul by faith and hope is in Christ; Your life is hid with Christ in God. But our body is in this prison, in this world....But some have said, that this prison and cave is this body, so that this is the meaning of, Bring my soul out of prison. But this interpretation too is somewhat at fault. For what great thing is it to say, Bring my soul out of prison, bring my soul out of the body? Do not the souls of robbers and wicked men go forth from the body, and go into worse punishment than here they have endured? What great request then is this, Bring my soul out of prison, when, sooner or later, it must needs come forth? Perhaps the righteous says, Let me die now; bring forth my soul from this prison of the body. If he be too hasty, he has not love. He ought indeed to long for and desire, as the Apostle says, having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ, which is far better. But where is love? Therefore it follows, but to abide in the flesh is needful for you. Let God then lead us forth from the body, when He will. Our body too might be said to be a prison, not because that is a prison which God has made, but because it is under punishment and liable to death. For there are two things to be considered in our body, God's workmanship, and the punishment it has deserved....Perhaps then he meant by, Bring my soul out of prison, bring my soul out of corruption. If thus we understand it, it is no blasphemy, the meaning is consistent. Lastly, brethren, as I think, he meant this; Bring my soul out of prison, bring it out of straitness. For to one who rejoices, even a prison is wide; to one in sorrow, a field is strait. Therefore prays he to be brought out of straitness. For though in hope he have enlargement, yet in reality at present he is straitened....It is not the body that weighs down the soul, but the corruptible body. It is not the body then that makes the prison, but the corruption. Bring my soul out of prison, that it may give thanks to Your Name. Now the words which follow seem to come from the Head, our Lord Jesus Christ. And they are the same as yesterday's last words. Yesterday's last words, if you remember, were, I am alone, until I pass over. And here what are the last words? The righteous shall sustain me, until thou recompense me.

1. ...The title of the Psalm is, To David himself, when his son was pursuing him. We know from the Books of Kings [2 Samuel xv] that this happened:...but we must recognise here another David, truly strong in hand, which is the explanation of David, even our Lord Jesus Christ. For all those events of past time were figures of things to come. Let us seek then in this Psalm our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, announcing Himself beforehand in His prophecy, and foretelling what should happen at this time by things which were done long ago. For He Himself foretold Himself in the Prophets: for He is the Word of God. Nor did they say ought of this kind, save when filled with the Word of God. They announced then Christ, being filled with Christ, they went before Him about to come, and He deserted not them going before....

2. Let then our Lord speak; let Christ with us, whole Christ, speak. Lord, hear my prayer, receive with Your ears my entreaty [Psalm 142:1]. Hear and receive with ears are the same thing. It is repetition, it is confirmation. In Your truth hear me, in Your righteousness. Take it not without emphasis when it is said, in Your righteousness. For it is a commendation of grace, that none of us think his righteousness his own. For this is the righteousness of God, which God has given you to possess. For what says the Apostle of them, who would boast of their own righteousness? Speaking of the Jews, he says, they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. [Romans 10:2]...You are perverse, because you impute what you have done ill to God, what well to yourself: you will be right, when you impute what you have done ill to yourself, what well to God....Behold, in Your righteousness hear me. For when I look upon myself, nought else do I find my own, save sin.

3. And enter not into judgment with Your servant [Psalm 142:2]. Who are willing to enter into judgment with Him, save they who, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, go about to establish their own? Wherefore have we fasted, and You have not seen; wherefore have we afflicted our souls, and You take no knowledge? [Isaiah 58:3] As though they would say, We have done what You have commanded, why do You not render to us what You have promised? God answers you: I will give to you to receive what I have promised: I have given you that you should do that whereby you may receive. Finally, to such proud ones the Prophet speaks; Wherefore will you plead with Me? You have all transgressed against Me, says the Lord. [Jeremiah 2:29] Why will you enter into judgment with Me, and recount your own righteousnesses?...For before You every one living shall not be justified. Every one living; living, that is, here, living in the flesh, living in expectation of death; born a man; deriving his life of man; sprung from Adam, a living Adam; every one thus living may perhaps be justified before himself, but not before You. How before himself? By pleasing himself, displeasing You. Enter not then into judgment with me, O Lord my God. How straight soever I seem to myself, You bring forth a standard from Your store-house, You fit me to it, and I am found crooked. Well is it said, with Your servant. It is unworthy of You to enter into judgment with Your servant, or even with Your friend. [Matthew 5:40]...What of the Apostles themselves?...That ye may perceive it at once, they learned to pray what we pray: to them was given the pattern of prayer by the heavenly Counsellor. After this manner, says He, pray ye. [Matthew 6:9] And having set down certain things first, He laid down this too to be said by the leaders of the sheep, the chief members of the Shepherd and Gatherer of the one flock; even they learned to say, Forgive us our debts. [Matthew 6:12] They said not, Thanks be to You, who hast forgiven us our debts, as we too forgive our debtors, but, Forgive, as we forgive. But surely the faithful prayed then, surely the Apostles prayed then, for this Lord's Prayer was given rather to the faithful. If those debts only were meant which are forgiven by Baptism, it would befit catechumens rather to say, Forgive us our debts. Let the Apostles then say, yea let them say, Forgive us our debts. And when it is said to them, Wherefore say ye this? What are your debts? let them answer, for in Your sight every one living shall not be justified.

4. For the enemy has persecuted my soul: he has humbled my life on the earth [Psalm 142:3]. Here we speak, here our Head speaks for us. Manifestly both the devil persecuted the Soul of Christ and Judas the Soul of his Master: and now too the same devil remains to persecute the Body of Christ, and one Judas succeeds another. There lacks not then of whom the Body too may say, For the enemy has persecuted my soul. For what does each one who persecutes us endeavour save to make us abandon our heavenly hope, and savour of the earth, yield to our persecutor, and love earthly things? They have laid me in dark places, as the dead of the world. This ye hear more readily from the Head; this ye perceive more readily in the Head. For He died indeed for us, yet was He not one of the dead of the world. For who are the dead of the world? And how was not He one of the dead of the world? The dead of the world are those who have died of their own desert, receiving the reward of iniquity, deriving death from the sin transmissed to them; according as it is said, For I was conceived in iniquity.. ..In dying, says He, I do the will of My Father, but I am not deserving of death. Nought have I done wherefore I should die, yet is it My own doing that I die, that by the death of an innocent One, they may be freed who had wherefore they should die. They set me in places, as though in Hades, as though in the tomb, as though in His very Passion, as the dead of the world.

5. And My Spirit within me, says He, suffered weariness [Psalm 142:4]. Remember, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. [Matthew 26:38] Here we see one voice. Do we not see plainly the transition from the Head to the members, from the members to the Head?...

6. But we too were there. He goes to the members. I have called to mind the days of old [Psalm 142:5]. Did He call to mind the days of old, by whom every day was made? No, but the body speaks, each one who has been justified by His grace, who dwells in Him in love and devout humility, speaks and says, I have meditated upon all Your works: plainly because You have made all things good, and nothing would have stood fast, which was not established by You. Your creation is made a spectacle unto me: I have sought in the work the Artificer, in all that is made the Maker. Wherefore this, to what purpose this, save that he might understand, that whatever there was of good in himself was made by Him....Look back then upon the Framer of your life, the Author of your substance, of your righteousness, and of your salvation: meditate upon the works of His hands, for the righteousness too which is in you, you will find to pertain to His hand. Hear the Apostle teaching you this, not of works, he says, lest any should boast. Have we no good works? Plainly we have: but see what follows; for we are His workmanship, [Ephesians 2:9-10] says he. We are His workmanship: perhaps in thus speaking of workmanship, he meant to mention the nature whereby we are men? Evidently not: he was speaking of works. But let us not make conjectures; let the text go on, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Think not then that you yourself do anything, save in so far as you are evil....Work out your own salvation, says the Apostle, with fear and trembling. [Philippians 2:12-13] If we do work out our own salvation, wherefore with fear, wherefore with trembling, when what we work is in our own power? Hear wherefore with fear and trembling: for it is God that works in you both to will and to do, of His good pleasure. Therefore with fear and trembling, that it may delight our Maker to work in the lowly valley....

7. I stretched forth, says he, my hands to You: my soul is as a land without water to You [Psalm 142:6]. Rain upon me, says he, to bring forth from me good fruit. For the Lord shall give sweetness, that our land may give her fruit. I have stretched forth my hands to You; my soul is as a land without water, not to me, but to You. I can thirst for You, I cannot water myself.

8. Speedily hear me, Lord [Psalm 142:7]. For what need of delay to inflame my thirst, when already I thirst so eagerly? You delayed the rain, that I might drink and imbibe, not reject, Your inflowing. If then Thou for this cause delayed, now give; for my spirit has failed. Let Your Spirit fill me. This is the reason why You should speedily hear me. I am now become poor in spirit, make Thou me blessed in the kingdom of heaven. [Matthew 5:3] For he in whom his own spirit lives, is proud, is puffed up with his own spirit against God....

9. Turn not Thou away Your Face from me. You turned it away from me when proud. For once I was full, and in my fullness I was puffed up. Once in my fullness I said, I shall never be moved. I said in my fullness, I shall not be moved, knowing not Your Righteousness, and establishing my own; but You, Lord, in Your Will hast afforded strength to my beauty. I said in my fullness, I shall not be moved, but from You came whatever fullness I had. And to prove to me that it was from You, You turned away Your Face from me, and I was troubled. After this trouble, where into I was cast, because You turned away Your Face, after the weariness of my spirit, after my heart was troubled within me, because You turned away Your Face, then became I like a land without water to You: turn not Thou away Your Face. You turned it away from me when proud; give it back to me now I am humble. Because, if Thou turn it away, I shall be like to them that go down into the pit. What is, that go down into the pit? When the sinner has come into the depth of sins, he will show contempt. They go down into the pit, who lose even confession; against which is said, Let not the pit close her mouth over me. This depth Scripture calls mostly a pit, into which depth when a sinner has come, he shows contempt. What is, he shows contempt? He no longer believes in Providence, or if he do believe, he thinks that he has no longer anything to do with it....

10. Make me to hear in the morning Your mercy, for in You have I hoped [Psalm 142:8]. Behold, I am in the night, yet in You have I hoped, until the iniquity of the night pass away. For we have, as Peter says, a more sure word of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that you take heed, as unto a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the daystar arise in your hearts. Morning then he calls the time after the end of the world, when we shall see what in this world we believe. But what here, until the morning come? For it is not enough to hope for the morning; we must do somewhat. Why do somewhat? God is to be sought with the hands in the night. What is, with the hands? By good works. Since then we must thus hope for the morning, and bear this night, and persevere in this patience until the day dawn, what meanwhile must we do here? Lest perchance thou think that you will do anything of yourself, whereby you may earn to be brought to the morning. Make known to me, O Lord, the way wherein I must walk. Therefore did He kindle the lamp of prophecy, therefore did He send the Lord in the vessel, as it were, of the flesh, who should even say, My strength is dried up like a potsherd. Walk by prophecy, walk by the lamp of future things predicted, walk by the word of God....

11. Deliver me from mine enemies, O Lord, for unto You have I fled for refuge [Psalm 142:9]. I who once fled from You, now flee to You. For Adam fled from the Face of God, and hid himself among the trees of Paradise, so that of him was said in the Book of Job, As a servant that flees from his Lord, and finds a shadow. He fled from the Face of his Lord, and found a shadow. Woe to him, if he continue in the shade, lest it be said afterward, All things are passed away like a shadow. [Wisdom 5:9] The rulers of this world, of this darkness, the rulers of the wicked; against these ye wrestle. Great is your conflict, not to see your enemies, and yet to conquer. Against the rulers of this world, of this darkness, the devil, that is, and his angels; not the rulers of that world, whereof is said, the world was made by Him, but that world whereof is said, the world knew Him not. [John 1:10] For unto You have I fled for refuge....Whither should I flee? Whither shall I go from Your Spirit?

12. Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God [Psalm 142:10]. Glorious confession! glorious rule! For Thou, says he, art my God. To another will I hasten to be re-made, if by another I was made. You are my all, for You are my God. Shall I seek a father to get an inheritance? You are my God, not only the Giver of mine inheritance, but mine Inheritance itself. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance. Shall I seek a patron, to obtain redemption? You are my God. Lastly, having been created, do I desire to be re-created? You are my God, my Creator, who hast created me by Your Word, and re-created me by Your Word. Teach Thou me: for it cannot be that You are my God, and yet I am to be my own master. See how grace is commended to us. This hold fast, this drink in, this let none drive out of your hearts, lest you have a zeal, of God, but not according to knowledge. [Romans 10:2] Say then this: Your good Spirit, not my bad one, Your good Spirit shall lead me into the right land. For my bad spirit has led me into a crooked land. And what have I deserved? What can be reckoned as my good works without Your aid, through which I might obtain and be worthy to be led by Your Spirit into the right land?

13. Listen, then, with all your power, to the commendation of Grace, whereby you are saved without price. For Your Name's sake, O Lord, You shall quicken me in Your righteousness [Psalm 142:11]; not in my own: not because I have deserved, but because You have mercy. For were I to show my own desert, nought should I deserve of You, save punishment. You have pruned off from me my own merits; You have grafted in Your own gifts. You shall bring forth my soul out of tribulation. And in your mercy shall bring mine enemies to destruction: and you shall destroy all them that afflict my soul; for I am Your servant [Psalm 142:12].

1. The title of this Psalm is brief in number of words, but heavy in the weight of its mysteries. To David himself against Goliath. This battle was fought in the time of our fathers, and you, beloved, remember it with me from Holy Scripture....David put five stones in his scrip, he hurled but one. The five Books were chosen, but unity conquered. Then, having smitten and overthrown him, he took the enemy's sword, and with it cut off his head. This our David also did, He overthrew the devil with his own weapons: and when his great ones, whom he had in his power, by means of whom he slew other souls, believe, they turn their tongues against the devil, and so Goliath's head is cut off with his own sword.

2. Blessed be the Lord my God, who teaches my hands for battle, my fingers for war [Psalm 143:1]. These are our words, if we be the Body of Christ. It seems a repetition of sentiment; our hands for battle, and our fingers for war, are the same. Or is there some difference between hands and fingers? Certainly both hands and fingers work. Not then without reason do we take fingers as put for hands. But still in the fingers we recognise the division of operation, yet still a sort of unity. Behold that grace! The Apostle says, To one, this; to another, that; there are diversities of operations; all these works one and the self-same Spirit; there is the root of unity. With these fingers then the Body of Christ fights, going forth to war, going forth to battle....By works of Mercy our enemy is conquered, and we could not have works of mercy unless we had charity, and charity we could have none unless we received it by the Holy Ghost; He then teaches our hands for battle, and our fingers for war: to Him rightfully do we say, My Mercy, from whom we have also that we are merciful: for he shall have judgment without mercy, that has showed no mercy. [James 2:13]

3. My Mercy and my Refuge, my Upholder and my Deliverer [Psalm 143:2]. Much toils this combatant, having his flesh lusting against his spirit. Keep what you have. Then shall you have in full what you wish, when death shall have been swallowed up in victory; [1 Corinthians 15:54] when this mortal body has been raised, and is changed into the condition of the angels, and rises aloft to a heavenly quality....There is life, there are good days, where nought lusts against the spirit, where it is not said, Fight, but Rejoice. But who is he that lusts for these days? Every man certainly says, I do. Hear what follows. I see that you are toiling, I see that you are engaged in battle, and in danger; hear what follows:...Depart from evil, and do good: let not the poor first weep under you, that the poor may rejoice through you. For what reward, since now you are fighting? Seek peace, and ensue it. Learn and say, My Mercy and my Refuge, mine Upholder and my Deliverer, my Protector: mine Upholder, lest I fall; my Deliverer, lest I stick; my Protector, lest I be stricken. In all these things, in all my toil, in all my battles, in all my difficulties, in Him have I hoped, who subdues my people under me. Behold, our Head speaks together with us.

4. Lord, what is man, that You have become known unto him? [Psalm 143:3]. All is included in that You have become known unto him. Or the son of man, that You value him? You value him, that is, You make him of such importance, You count him of such price, You know under what You place him, over what You place him. For valuing is considering the price of a thing. How greatly did He value man, who for him shed the blood of His only-begotten Son! For God values not man in the same way as one man values another: he, when he finds a slave for sale, gives a higher price for a horse than for a man. Consider how greatly He valued you, that you may be able to say, If God be for us, who can be against us? And how greatly did He value you, who spared not His own Son? How shall He not also with Him freely give us all things? [Romans 8:31-32] He who gives this food to the combatant, what keeps He in store for the conqueror?...

5. Man is made like vanity: his days pass away like a shadow [Psalm 143:4]. What vanity? Time, which passes on, and flows by. For this vanity is said in comparison of the Truth, which ever abides, and never fails: for it too is a work of His Hand, in its degree. For, as it is written, God filled the earth with His good things. [Sirach 16:29] What is His? That accord with Him. But all these things, being earthly, fleeting, transitory, if they be compared to that Truth, where it is said, I Am That I Am, [Exodus 3:14] all this which passes away is called vanity. For through time it vanishes, like stroke into the air. And why should I say more than that which the Apostle James said, willing to bring down proud men to humility, What is, says he, your life? It is even a vapour, which appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. [James 4:14]...Work then, though it be in the night, with your hands, that is, by good works seek God, before the day come which shall gladden you, lest the day come which shall sadden you. For see how safely you work, who art not left by Him whom you seek, that your Father which sees in secret may reward you openly. [Matthew 6:4]...

6. Lord, bow Your heavens, and come down: touch the mountains, and they shall smoke [Psalm 143:5]. Flash Your lightning, and You shall scatter them; send forth Your arrows, and You shall confound them [Psalm 143:6]. Send forth Your Hand from above, and deliver me, and draw me out of many waters [Psalm 143:7]. The Body of Christ, the humble David, full of grace, relying on God, fighting in this world, calls for the help of God. What are heavens bowed down? Apostles humbled. For those heavens declare the glory of God; and of these heavens declaring the glory of God it is presently said, There is neither speech nor language, but their voices are heard among them, etc. When then these heavens sent forth their voices through all lands, and did wonderful things, while the Lord flashed and thundered from them by miracles and commandments, the gods were thought to have come down from heaven to men. For certain of the Gentiles, thinking this, desired even to sacrifice to them....But they commended to these the Lord Jesus Christ, humbling themselves, that God might be praised; because the heavens were bowed, that God might come down....Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke. So long as they are not touched, they seem to themselves great: they are now about to say, Great are You, O Lord: the mountains also are about to say, Thou only art the Most Highest over all the earth.

7. But there are some that conspire, that gather themselves together against the Lord, and against His Christ. They have come together, they have conspired. Flash forth Your lightnings, and You shall scatter them. Abound with Your miracles, and their conspiracy shall be broken....Send forth Your arrows, and You shall confound them. Let the unsound be wounded, that, being well wounded, they may be made sound; and let them say, being set now in the Church, in the Body of Christ, let them say with the Church, I am wounded with Love. Send forth Your Hand from on high. What afterward? What in the end? How conquers the Body of Christ? By heavenly aid. For the Lord Himself shall come with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God shall He descend from heaven, [1 Thessalonians 4:16] Himself the Saviour of the body, the Hand of God. What is, Out of many waters? From many peoples. What peoples? Aliens, unbelievers, whether assailing us from without, or laying snares within. Take me out of many waters, in which You disciplined me, in which You rolled me, to free me from my filth. This is the water of contradiction. [Numbers 20:13]...From the hand of strange children. Hear, brethren, among whom we are, among whom we live, from whom we long to be delivered. Whose mouth has spoken vanity [Psalm 143:8]. All of you today, if you had not gathered yourselves together to these divine shows of the word of God, and were not at this hour engaged in them, how great vanities would ye be hearing! whose mouth has spoken vanity: when, in short, would they, speaking vanity, hear you speaking vanity? And their right hand is a right hand of iniquity. What doest thou among them with your pastoral scrip with five stones in it? Say it to me in another form: that same law which you have signified by five stones, signify in some other way also. I will sing a new song unto You, O God [Psalm 143:9]. A new song is of grace; a new song is of the new man; a new song is of the New Testament. But lest you should think that grace departs from the law, whereas rather by grace the law is fulfilled, upon a psaltery of ten strings will I sing unto You. Upon the law of ten commandments: therein may I sing to You; therein may I rejoice to You; therein may I sing to You a new song; for, Love is the fulfilling of the law. [Romans 13:10] But they who have not love may carry the psaltery, sing they cannot. Contradiction cannot make my psaltery to be silent.

8. Who gives salvation to kings, who redeems David His servant [Psalm 143:10]. You know who David is; be yourselves David. Whence redeems He David His servant? Whence redeems He Christ? Whence redeems He the Body of Christ? From the sword of ill intent deliver me. From the sword is not sufficient; he adds, of ill intent. Without doubt there is a sword of good intent. What is the sword of good intent? That whereof the Lord says, I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword. [Matthew 10:34] For He was about to separate believers from unbelievers, sons from parents, and to sever all other ties, while the sword cut off what was diseased, but healed the members of Christ. Of good intent then is the sword twice sharpened, powerful with both edges, the Old and New Testaments, with the narration of the past and the promise of the future. That then is the sword of good intent: but the other is of ill intent, wherewith they talk vanity, for that is of good intent, wherewith God speaks verity. For truly the sons of men have teeth which are spears and arrows, and their tongue is a sharp sword. From this sword deliver me [Psalm 143:11]. And take me out of the hand of strange children, whose mouth has spoken vanity: just as before. And that which follows, their right hand is a right hand of iniquity, the same he had set down before also, when he called them many waters. For lest you should think that the many waters were good waters, he explained them by the sword of ill intent.

9. Whose sons are like young vines firmly planted in their youth [Psalm 143:12]. He wishes to recount their happiness. Observe, you sons of light, sons of peace: observe, you sons of the Church, members of Christ; observe whom he calls strangers, whom he calls strange children, whom he calls waters of contradiction, whom he calls a sword of ill intent. Observe, I beseech you, for among them you are in peril, among their tongues ye fight against the desires of your flesh, among their tongues, set in the hand of the devil wherewith he fights. [Ephesians 6:12]...What vanity has their mouth spoken, and how is their right hand a right hand of iniquity? Their daughters are fitted and adorned after the similitude of a temple. Their garners are full, bursting out from one store to another: their sheep are fruitful, multiplying in their streets [Psalm 143:13]: their oxen are fat: their hedge is not broken down, nor their road, nor is their crying in their streets [Psalm 143:14]. Is not this then happiness? I ask the sons of the kingdom of heaven, I ask the offspring of everlasting resurrection, I ask the body of Christ, the members of Christ, the temple of God. Is not this then happiness, to have sons safe, daughters beautiful, garners full, cattle abundant, no downfall, I say not of a wall, but not even of a hedge, no tumult and clamour in the streets, but quiet, peace, abundance, plenty of all things in their houses and in their cities? Is not this then happiness? Or ought the righteous to shun it? Or do you not find the house of the righteous too abounding with all these things, full of this happiness? Did not Abraham's house abound with gold, silver, children, servants, cattle? What say we? Is not this happiness? Be it so, still it is on the left hand. What is, on the left hand? Temporal, mortal, bodily. I desire not that thou shun it, but that thou think it not to be on the right hand....For what ought they to have set on the right hand? God, eternity, the years of God which fail not, whereof is said, and Your years shall not fail. There should be the right hand, there should be our longing. Let us use the left for the time, let us long for the fight for eternity. If riches increase, set not your heart upon them.. ..

10. They have called the people blessed who have these things [Psalm 143:15]. O men that speak vanity! They have lost the true right hand, wicked and perverse, they have put on the benefits of God inversely. O wicked ones, O speakers of vanity, O strange children! What was on the left hand, they have set on the right. What do you, David? What do you, Body of Christ? What do ye, members of Christ? What do ye, not strange children, but children of God?...What do you say? Say ye with us, Blessed is the people whose Lord is their God.

1. ...The title is, Praise, to David himself. Praise to Christ Himself. And since He is called David, who came to us of the seed of David, yet He was our King, ruling us, and bringing us into His kingdom, therefore Praise to David himself is understood to mean, Praise to Christ Himself. Christ according to the flesh is David, because He is the Son of David: but according to His Divine Nature He is the Creator of David, and Lord of David. I will exalt You, my God, my King; and I will bless Your Name for the age, and age upon age [Psalm 144:1]. You see that the praise of God is here begun, and this praise is carried on even to the end of the Psalm....Now then begin to praise, if you intend to praise forever. He who will not praise in this transitory age, will be silent when age upon age has come. But lest any one should in any otherwise also understand what he says, I will praise Your Name for the age, and should seek another age, wherein to praise, he says, Every day will I bless You [Psalm 144:2]. Praise then and bless the Lord your God every day, that when single days have passed, and there has come one day without end, you may go from praise to praise, as from strength to strength. No day shall pass by, wherein I bless You not. And it is no wonder, if in your day of joy thou bless the Lord. What if perchance some day of sorrow has dawned on you, as is natural in the circumstances of our mortal nature, as there is abundance of offenses, as temptations are multiplied; what, if something sad befall you, a man; will you cease to praise God? Will you cease to bless your Creator? If you cease, you have lied in saying, every day, etc. But if you cease not, although it seem to you to be ill with you in the day of your sorrow, yet in your God it shall be well with you....

2. Great is the Lord, and very much to be praised [Psalm 144:3]. How much was he about to say? What terms was he about to seek? How vast a conception has he included in the one word, very much? Imagine what you will, for how can that be imagined, which cannot be contained? He is very much to be praised. And of His Greatness there is no end; therefore said he very much: lest perchance thou begin to wish to praise, and think that you can reach the end of His praises, whose Greatness can have no end. Think not then that He, whose Greatness has no end, can ever be enough praised by you. Is it not then better that as He has no end, so neither should your praise have end? His Greatness is without end; let your praise also be without end....

3. For how great things besides has His boundless Goodness and illimitable Greatness made, which we do not know! When we lift the gaze of our eyes even to the heaven, and then recall it from sun, moon, and stars to the earth, and there is all this space where our sight can wander; beyond the heavens who can extend the eyesight of his mind, not to say of his flesh? So far then as His works are known to us, let us praise Him through His works. [Romans 1:20] Generation and generation shall praise Your works [Psalm 144:4]. Every generation shall praise Your works. For perhaps every generation is meant by generation and generation....Did he perchance mean to imply two generations by that repetition? For we are in this generation sons of God, we shall be in another generation sons of the Resurrection. Scripture has called us sons of the Resurrection; the Resurrection itself it has called Regeneration. In the regeneration, it says, when the Son of Man shall be seated in His Majesty. [Matthew 19:28] So also in another place; For they shall not marry, nor be given in marriage, for they are the sons of the Resurrection. [Luke 20:35-36] Therefore generation and generation shall praise Your works....And they shall tell out Your excellence. For neither shall they praise Your works, save in order to tell out Your excellence. Boys at school are set to praise, and all such things are set before them to be praised, as God has wrought: a mortal is set to praise the sun, the sky, the earth; to come to even lesser things, to praise a rose, or a laurel; all these are works of God: they are set, they are undertaken, they are praised: the works are lauded, of the Worker they are silent. I desire in the works to praise the Creator: I love not a thankless praiser. Do you praise what He has made, and art silent of Him who made? In that which you see, what is it that you praise? The form, the usefulness, some virtue, some power in the things. If beauty delight you, what is more beautiful than the Maker? If usefulness be praised, what more useful than He who made all things? If excellence be praised, what more excellent than He by whom all things were made?...

4. They shall speak of the magnificence of the glory of Your Holiness, and shall record Your wondrous deeds [Psalm 144:5]. And the excellence of Your fearful works shall they speak of: and Your greatness, they shall relate it [Psalm 144:6]. The remembrance of the abundance of Your sweetness they shall pour forth [Psalm 144:7]: none but Yours. See whether this man, meditating on Your works, has turned aside from the Worker to the work: see whether he has sunk from Him who made, to the things which He made. Of the things which He has made, he has made a step up to Him, not a descent from Him to them. For if you love these more than Him, you will not have Him. And what profit is it to you to overflow with the works, if the Worker leave you? Truly you should love them; but love Him more, and love them for His sake. For He does not hold out promises, without holding out threats also: if He held out no promises, there would be no encouragement; if He held out no threats, there would be no correction. They that praise You therefore shall speak also of the excellence of Your terrible deeds; the excellence of that work of Your hands which punishes and administers discipline, they shall speak of, they shall not be silent: for they shall not proclaim Your everlasting kingdom, and be silent about Your everlasting fire. For the praise of God, setting you in the way, ought to show you both what you should love, and what you should fear; what you should seek, and what you should shun; what you should choose, and what you should avoid. The time of choice is now, the time of receiving will be hereafter. Let then the excellence of Your terrible things be told. Unlimited as it is, though of Your greatness there is no end, they shall not be silent about it. How shall they recount it, if there is no end of it? They shall recount it when they praise it; and because there is no end of it, so of His praise also there shall be no end.

5. The remembrance of the abundance of Your sweetness they shall pour forth. O happy feasts! What shall they eat, who thus shall pour forth!...So eat, that you may pour forth again; so receive, that you may give. You eat, when you learn, you pour forth again, when you teach, you eat, when you hear, you pour forth again, when you preach, but that you pour forth, which you have first eaten. Finally, that most eager feaster John, to whom the very table of the Lord sufficed not, unless he leaned on the Lord's breast, and of his inmost heart drank in divine secrets; what did he pour forth? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. [John 1:1] How is it that it suffices not to say, Your remembrance; or, the remembrance of Your abundance? Because, what avails it if it be abundant, yet not sweet? So also it is annoying if it be sweet but too little.

6. ...By pouring forth this, His preachers shall exult in His righteousness not in their own. What then have You done unto us, O Lord, whom we praise, that we should be, that we should praise, that we should exult in Your righteousness, that we should utter forth the remembrance of the abundance of Your sweetness? Let us tell it, and, as we tell, let us praise.

7. Merciful and pitiful is the Lord; long-suffering, and very merciful [Psalm 144:8]. Sweet is the Lord to all, and His compassions reach into all His works [Psalm 144:9]. Were He not such as this, there would be no seeking to recover us. Consider yourself: what did you deserve, O sinner? Despiser of God, what did you deserve? See if anything occur to you but penalty, if anything occur to you but punishment. You see then what was due to you, and what He has given, who gave gratis. There was given pardon to the sinner; there was given the spirit of justification; there was given charity and love, wherein you may do all good works; and beyond this, He will give you also life everlasting, and fellowship with the angels: all of His mercy....Hear the Scripture: I will not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn, and live. [Ezekiel 33:11] By these words of God, he is brought back to hope; but there is another snare to be feared, lest through this very hope he sin the more. What then did you also say, you who through hope sins yet more? Whenever I turn, God will forgive me all; I will do whatsoever I will. Say not then, Tomorrow I will turn, tomorrow I will please God; and all today's and yesterday's deeds shall be forgiven me. You say true: God has promised pardon to your conversion; He has not promised a tomorrow to your delay. [Sirach 5:7]

8. Sweet is the Lord to all, and His compassions are over all His works. Why then does He condemn? Why does He scourge? Are not they whom He condemns, whom He scourges, His works? Plainly they are. And will you know how His compassions are over all His works? Thence is that long-suffering, whereby He makes His sun to rise on the evil and on the good. [Matthew 5:45] Are not His compassions over all His works, who sends rain upon the just and upon the unjust? In His long-suffering He waits for the sinner, saying, Turn ye to Me, and I will turn to you. [Zechariah 1:3] Are not His compassions over all His works? And when He says, Go into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, [Matthew 25:41] this is not His compassion, but His severity. His compassion is given to His works: His severity is not over His works, but over your works. Lastly, if you remove your own evil works, and there remain in you nought but His work, His compassion will not leave you: but if you leave not your works, there will be severity over your works, not over His works.

9. Let all Your works, O Lord, confess to You, and let Your saints bless You [Psalm 144:10]. How so? Is not the earth His work? Are not the trees His work? Cattle, beasts, fish, fowl, are not they His works? Plainly they too are. And how shall these too confess to Him? I see indeed in the angels that His works confess to Him, for the angels are His works: and men are His works; and when men confess to Him, His works confess to Him; but have trees and stones the voice of confession? Yes, verily; let all His works confess to Him. What do you say? Even the earth and the trees?...But there arises the same question in regard of praise, as in regard of confession. For if earth and all things devoid of sensation therefore cannot confess, because they have no voice to confess with; neither will they be able to praise, because they have no voice to proclaim with. But do not those Three Children enumerate all things, as they walked amid the harmless flames, who had leisure not only not to fear, but even to praise God? They say to all things, heavenly and earthly, Bless ye the Lord, praise Him and magnify Him forever. Behold how they praise. Let none think that the dumb stone or dumb animal has reason wherewith to comprehend God. They who have thought this, have erred far from the truth. God has ordered everything, and made everything: to some He has given sense and understanding and immortality, as to the angels; to some He has given sense and understanding with mortality, as to man; to some He has given bodily sense, yet gave them not understanding, or immortality, as to cattle: to some He has given neither sense, nor understanding, nor immortality, as to herbs, trees, stones: yet even these cannot be wanting in their kind, and by certain degrees He has ordered His creation, from earth up to heaven, from visible to invisible, from mortal to immortal. This framework of creation, this most perfectly ordered beauty, ascending from lowest to highest, descending from highest to lowest, never broken, but tempered together of things unlike, all praises God. Wherefore then does all praise God? Because when you consider it, and see its beauty, you praise God in it. The beauty of the earth is a kind of voice of the dumb earth....And this which you have found in it, is the very voice of its confession, that you praise the Creator. When you have thought on the universal beauty of this world, does not its very beauty as it were with one voice answer you, I made not myself, God made me?

10. For when Your saints bless You, what say they? They shall tell the glory of Your kingdom, and talk of Your Power [Psalm 144:11]. How powerful is God, who has made the earth! How powerful is God, who has filled the earth with good things! How powerful is God, who has given to the animals each its own life! How powerful is God, who has given different seeds to the womb of the earth, that they might make to spring up such various shoots, such beautiful trees! How powerful, how great is God! You ask, creation answers, and by its answer, as by the confession of the creature, you, O saint of God, bless God, and talk of His power.

11. That they may make known to the sons of men Your power, and the glory of the greatness of the beauty of Your kingdom [Psalm 144:12]. Your saints then commend the glory of the greatness of the beauty of Your kingdom, the glory of the greatness of its beauty. There is a certain greatness of the beauty of Your kingdom: that is, Your kingdom has beauty, and great beauty. Since whatever has beauty, has beauty from You, how great beauty has Your whole kingdom! Let not the kingdom frighten us: it has beauty also, wherewith to delight us. For what is that beauty, which the saints shall hereafter enjoy, to whom it shall be said, Come, you blessed of My Father, enjoy the kingdom? [Matthew 25:34] Whence shall they come? Whither shall they come? Behold, brethren, and, if you can, as far as you can, think of the beauty of that kingdom which is to come; whence our prayer says, Your kingdom come. For that kingdom we desire may come, that kingdom the saints proclaim to be coming. Observe this world: it is beautiful. How beautiful are earth, sea, air, heavens, stars. Do not all these frighten him who considers them? Is not the beauty of them so conspicuous, that it seems as though nothing more beautiful could be found? And here, in this beauty, in this fairness almost unspeakable, here worm and mice and all creeping things of the earth live with you, they live with you in all this beauty. How great is the beauty of that kingdom where none but angels live with You! There is a greatness of a certain beauty; let it be loved before it is seen, that when it is seen, it may be retained.

12. Your kingdom. What kingdom mean I? a kingdom of all ages. For the kingdom of this age too has its own beauty, but there is not in it that greatness of beauty, such as in the kingdom of all ages. And Your dominion is in every generation and generation [Psalm 144:13]. This is the repetition we noticed, signifying either every generation, or the generation which will be after this generation. Faithful is the Lord in His words, and holy in all His works. Faithful is the Lord in His words: for what has He promised that He has not given? Faithful is the Lord in His words. Hereto there are certain things which He has promised, and has not given; but let Him be believed from the things which He has given. We might well believe Him, if He only spoke: He willed not that we should believe Him speaking, but that we should have His Scriptures in our hands:...as though a kind of bond of God's, which all who pass by might read, and might keep to the path of its promise. And how great things has He already paid in accordance with that bond! Do men hesitate to believe Him concerning the Resurrection of the dead and the Life to come, which alone now remains to be paid, when, if He come to reckon with the unbelievers, the unbelievers must blush? If God say to you, You have My bond: I have promised judgment, the separation of good and bad, everlasting life for the faithful, and will you not believe? There in My bond read all that I have promised, reckon with me: verily even by counting up what I have paid, you can believe that I shall pay what still I owe. In that bond you have My only-begotten Son promised, Whom I spared not, but gave Him up for you all: [Romans 8:32] reckon this then among what is paid. Read the bond: I promised therein that I would give by My Son the earnest of the Holy Spirit: reckon that as paid. I promised therein the blood and the crowns of the glorious Martyrs; let the White Mass remind you that My debt has been paid....He sets before the eyes of all His payment of His debts: some He has paid in the time of our ancestors, which we saw not: some He has paid in our times, which they saw not; throughout all generations He has paid what was written. And what remains? Do men not believe Him, when He has paid all this? What remains? Behold you have reckoned: all this He has paid: is He become unfaithful for the few things which remain? God forbid! Wherefore? Because the Lord is faithful in His words, and holy in all His works.

13. The Lord strengthens all that are falling [Psalm 144:14]. But who are all that are falling? All indeed fall in a general sense, but he means those who fall in a particular way. For many fall from Him, many also fall from their own imaginations. If they had evil imaginations, they fall from them, and God strengthened all that are falling. They who lose anything in this world, yet are holy, are as it were dishonoured in this world, from rich become poor, from honoured of low estate, yet are they God's saints; they are, as it were, falling. But God strengthens. For the just falls seven times, and rises again; but the wicked shall be weakened in evils. [Proverbs 24:16] When evils befall the wicked, they are weakened thereby; when evils befall the righteous, the Lord strengthens all that are falling....And lifts up all those that have been cast down: all, that is, who belong to him; for God resists the proud. [James 4:6]

14. The eyes of all hope upon You, and You give them food in due season [Psalm 144:15]. Just as when you refresh a sick man in due season, when he ought to receive, then You give, and what he ought to receive, that You give. Sometimes then men long, and he gives not: he who tends, knows the time to give. Wherefore say I this, brethren? Lest any one be faint, if perchance he has not been heard, when making some righteous request of God. For when he makes any unrighteous request, he is heard to his punishment: but when making some righteous request of God, if perchance he have not been heard, let him not be down-hearted, let him not faint, let his eyes wait for the food, which He gives in due season. When He gives not, He therefore gives not, lest that which He gives do harm. [2 Corinthians 12:7]...You give them meat in due season.

15. You open Your Hand, and fill every living thing with blessing [Psalm 144:16]. Though sometimes You give not, yet in due season You give: You delay, not deny, and that in due season. Righteous is the Lord in all His ways, and holy in all His works [Psalm 144:17]. Both when He smites and when He heals, He is righteous, and in Him unrighteousness is not. Finally, all His saints, when set in the midst of tribulation, have first praised His righteousness, and so sought His blessings. They first have said, What You do is righteous. So did Daniel ask, and other holy men: Righteous are Your judgments: rightly have we suffered: deservedly have we suffered. They laid not unrighteousness to God, they laid not to Him injustice and folly. First they praised Him scourging, and so they felt Him feeding.

16. The Lord is near unto all that call upon Him [Psalm 144:18]. Where then is that, Then shall they call upon Me, and I will not hear them? [Proverbs 1:28] See then what follows: all who call upon Him in truth. For many call upon Him, but not in truth. They seek something else from Him, but seek not Himself. Why do you love God? Because He has made me whole. That is clear: it was He that made you so. For from none else comes health, save Him. Because He gave me, says another, a rich wife, whereas I before had nothing, and one that obeys me. This too He gave: you say true. He gave me, says another, sons many and good, He gave me a household, He gave me all good things. Do you love Him for this?...Therefore if God is good, who has given you what you have, how much more blessed will you be when He has given you Himself! You have desired all these things of Him: I beseech you desire of Him Himself also. For these things are not truly sweeter than He is, nor in any way are they to be compared to Him. He then who preferrs God Himself to all the things which he has received, whereat he rejoices, to the things he has received, he calls upon God in truth....

17. He will perform the will of them that fear Him [Psalm 144:19]. He will perform it, He will perform it: though He perform it not at once, yet He will perform it. Certainly if therefore you fear God, that you may do His will, behold even He in a manner ministers to you; He does your will. And He shall hear their prayer, and save them. You see that for this purpose the Physician hears, that He may save. When? Hear the Apostle telling you. For we are saved in hope: but hope which is seen is not hope: but if what we see not we hope for, then do we with patience wait for it: [Romans 8:24] the salvation, that is, which Peter calls ready to be revealed in the last time. [1 Peter 1:5]

18. The Lord guards all that love Him, and all sinners He will destroy [Psalm 144:20]. You see that there is severity with Him, with whom is so great sweetness. He will save all that hope in Him, all the faithful, all that fear Him, all that call upon Him in truth: and all sinners He will destroy. What all sinners, save those who persevere in sin; who dare to blame God, not themselves; who daily argue against God; who despair of pardon for their sins, and from this very despair heap up their sins; or who perversely promise themselves pardon, and through this very promise depart not from their sins and impiety? The time will come for all these to be separated, and for the two divisions to be made of them, one on the right hand, the other on the left; and for the righteous to receive the everlasting Kingdom, the wicked to go into everlasting fire. Since this is so, and we have heard the blessing of the Lord, the works of the Lord, the wondrous things of the Lord, the mercies of the Lord, the severity of the Lord, His Providence over all His works, the confession of all His works; observe how He concludes in His praise, My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord, and let all flesh bless His holy Name for ever and ever [Psalm 144:21].

1. ...Behold the Psalm sounds; it is the voice of some one (and that some one are you, if you will), of some one encouraging his soul to praise God, and saying to himself, Praise the Lord, O my soul [Psalm 145:1]. For sometimes in the tribulations and temptations of this present life, whether we will or no, our soul is troubled; of which troubling he speaks in another Psalm. But to remove this troubling, he suggests joy; not as yet in reality, but in hope; and says to it when troubled and anxious, sad and sorrowing, Hope in God, for I will yet confess to Him....

2. But who says it, and to whom says he it? What shall we say, brethren? Is it the flesh that says, Praise thou the Lord, O my soul? And can the flesh suggest good counsel to the soul? However much the flesh be conquered, and subjected as a servant to us through strength which the Lord imparts, that it serve us entirely as a bond slave, enough for us that it hinder us not....For the body, inasmuch as it is the body, is even beneath the soul; and every soul, however vile, is found more excellent than the most excellent body. And let not this seem to you to be wonderful, that even any vile and sinful soul is better than any great and most surpassing body. It is better, not in deserts, but in nature. The soul indeed is sinful, is stained with certain defilements of lusts; yet gold, though rusted, is better than the most polished lead. Let your mind then run over every part of creation, and you will see that what we are saying is not incredible, that a soul, however blameable, is yet more praiseworthy than a praiseworthy body. There are two things, a soul and a body. The soul I chide, the body I praise: the soul I chide, because it is sinful; the body I praise, because it is sound. Yet it is in its own kind that I praise the soul, and in its own kind that I blame the soul: and so in its own kind I praise the body, or blame it. If you ask me which is better, what I have blamed or what I have praised, wondrous is the answer you will receive....So you speak of the best horse and the worst man: yet you prefer the man you find fault with to the horse you praise. The nature of the soul is more excellent than the nature of the body: it surpasses it by far, it is a thing spiritual, incorporeal, akin to the substance of God. It is somewhat invisible, it rules the body, moves the limbs, guides the senses, prepares thoughts, puts forth actions, takes in images of countless things; who is there, in short, beloved brethren, who may suffice for the praises of the soul? And yet such is the grace given to it, that this man says, Praise the Lord, O my soul....It is not the flesh that says it. Let the body be angel-like, still it is inferior to the soul, it cannot give advice to its superior. The flesh when duly obedient is the handmaid of the soul: the soul rules, the body obeys; the soul commands, the body performs; how then can the flesh give this advice to the soul? Is it then perchance the soul herself, who says to herself, and in a manner commands herself, and exhorts and asks herself? For through certain passions in one part of her nature she wavered; but in another part, which they call the reasonable mind, the wisdom whereby she thinks, clinging to God, and now sighing towards Him, she perceives that certain inferior parts of her are troubled by worldly emotions, and by a certain excitement of earthly desires, betake them to outward things, leaving God who is within; so she recalls herself from things outward to inward, from lower to higher, and says, Praise the Lord, O my soul....The soul itself gives itself counsel from the light of God by the reasonable mind, whereby it conceives the wisdom fixed in the everlasting nature of its Author. It reads there of somewhat to be feared, to be praised, to be loved, to be longed for, and sought after: as yet it grasps it not, it comprehends it not; it is, as it were, dazzled with brightness; it has not strength to abide there. Therefore it gathers itself, as it were, into a sound state, and says, Praise the Lord, O my soul....And then the soul, weighed down, as it were, and unable to stand up as is fitting, answers the mind, I will praise the Lord in my life [Psalm 145:2]. What is, in my life? Because now I am in my death. Therefore first encourage yourself, and say, Praise the Lord, O my soul. Your soul answers you, I do praise so far as I can, slightly, poorly, weakly. Wherefore? Because, while we are in the body, we are absent from the Lord. [2 Corinthians 5:6]...

3. In my life. Now what has it? It might answer you, My death. Whence, My death? Because I am absent from the Lord. For if to cling to Him is life, to depart from Him is death. But what comforts you? Hope. Now you live in hope: in hope praise, in hope sing. Your death is from the sadness of this life, you live in hope of a future life. And how will you praise your Lord? I will sing unto my God, as long as I have my being. What sort of praise is this, I will sing unto my God as long as I have being? Behold, my brethren, what sort of being this will be; where there will be everlasting praise, there will be also everlasting being. Behold, now you have being: do you sing unto God as long as you have being? Behold, you were singing, and hast turned yourself away to some business, you sing no longer, yet you have being: you have being, yet you sing not. It may be also your desire turns you to somewhat; not only do you not sing, but you even offend His ears, yet you have being. What praise will that be, when you praise as long as you have being? But what means, as long as I have being? Will there be any time when he will not be? Nay, rather, that long will be everlasting, and therefore it will be truly long. For whatever has end in time, however prolonged it is, is yet not long....

4. Put not your trust in princes [Psalm 145:3]. Brethren, here we receive a mighty task; it is a voice from heaven, from above it sounds to us. For now through some kind of weakness the soul of man, whenever it is in tribulation here, despairs of God, and chooses to rely on man. Let it be said to one when set in some affliction, There is a great man, by whom you may be set free; he smiles, he rejoices, he is lifted up. But if it is said to him, God frees you, he is chilled, so to speak, by despair. The aid of a mortal is promised, and you rejoice, the aid of the Immortal is promised, and are you sad? It is promised you that you shall be freed by one who needs to be freed with you, and you exult, as at some great aid: you are promised that Liberator, who needs none to free Him, and you despair, as though it were but a fable. Woe to such thoughts: they wander far; truly there is sad and great death in them. Approach, begin to long, begin to seek and to know Him by whom you were made. For He will not leave His work, if He be not left by His work.

5. ...His breath shall go forth, and he shall return to his earth: in that day shall all his thoughts perish [Psalm 145:4]. Where is swelling? Where is pride? Where is boasting? But perhaps he will have passed to a good place, if indeed he have passed. For I know not whither he who spoke thus has passed. For he spoke in pride; and I know not whither such men pass, save that I look into another Psalm, and see that their passage is an evil one. I beheld the wicked lifted up above the cedars of Libanus, and I passed by, and, lo, he was not; and I sought him, and his place was not found. The good man, who passed by, and found not the wicked, reached a place where the wicked is not. Wherefore, brethren, let us all listen: brethren, beloved of God, let us all listen; in whatsoever tribulation, in whatsoever longing for the heavenly gift, let us not trust in princes, nor in sons of men, in whom is no salvation. All this is mortal, fleeting, perishable.

What then must we do, if we are not to hope in sons of men, nor in princes? What must we do? Blessed is he whose Helper is the God of Jacob [Psalm 145:5]: not this man or that man; not this angel or that angel; but, blessed is he whose Helper is the God of Jacob: for to Jacob also so great an Helper was He, that of Jacob He made him Israel. O mighty help! now he is Israel, seeing God. While then you are placed here, and a wanderer not yet seeing God, if you have the God of Jacob for your Helper, from Jacob you will become Israel, and will be seeing God, and all toil and all groans shall come to an end, gnawing cares shall cease, happy praises shall succeed. Blessed is he whose Helper is the God of Jacob; of this Jacob. Wherefore is he happy? Meanwhile, while yet groaning in this life, his hope is in the Lord his God....Who is this, Lord his God?...To us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things. [1 Corinthians 8:6] Therefore let Him be your hope, even the Lord your God; in Him let your hope be. His hope too is in the lord his god, who worships Saturn; his hope is in the lord his god, who worships Neptune or Mercury; yea more, I add, who worships his belly, of whom is said, whose god is their belly. [Philippians 3:19] The one is the god of the one, the other of the other. Who is this blessed one? For his hope is in the Lord his God. But who is He? Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them [Psalm 145:6]. My brethren, we have a great God; let us bless His holy Name, that He has deigned to make us His possession. As yet you see not God; you can not fully love what as yet you see not. All that you see, He has made. You admire the world; why not the Maker of the world? You look up to the heavens, and are amazed: you consider the whole earth, and tremble; when can you contain in your thought the vastness of the sea? Look at the countless number of the stars, look at all the many kind of seeds, all the different sorts of animals, all that swims in the water, creeps on the earth, flies in the sky, hovers in the air; how great are all these, how beautiful, how fair, how amazing! Behold, He who made all these, is your God. Put your hope in Him, that you may be happy. His hope is in the Lord his God. Observe, my brethren, the mighty God, the good God, who makes all these things....If he mentioned these things only, perhaps you would answer me, God, who made heaven and earth and sea, is a great God: but does He think of me? It would be said to you, He made you. How so? Am I heaven, or am I earth, or am I sea? Surely it is plain; I am neither heaven, nor earth, nor sea: yet I am on earth. At least you grant me this, that you are on earth. Hear then, that God made not only heaven and earth and sea: for He made heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them. If then He made all that is in them, He made you also. It is too little to say, you; the sparrow, the locust, the worm, none of these did He not make, and He cares for all. His care refers not to His commandment, for this commandment He gave to man alone....As regards then the tenor of the commandment, God does not take care for oxen: [1 Corinthians 9:9] as regards His providential care of the universe, whereby He created all things, and rules the world, You, Lord, shall save both man and beast. Here perhaps some one may say to me, God cares not for oxen, comes from the New Testament: You, Lord, shall save both man and beast, is from the Old Testament. There are some who find fault and say, that these two Testaments agree not with one another....Let us hear the Lord Himself, the Chief and Master of the Apostles: Consider, says He, the fowls of the air; they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them. [Matthew 6:26] Therefore even beside men, these animals are objects of care to God, to be fed, not to receive a law. As far then as regards giving a law, God cares not for oxen: as regards creating, feeding, governing, ruling, all things have to do with God. Are not two sparrows sold for one farthing? says our Lord Jesus Christ, and one of them shall not fall to the ground without the will of your Father: how much better are you than they. [Matthew 10:29] Perhaps you say, God counts me not in this great multitude. There follows here a wondrous passage in the Gospel: the hairs of your head are all numbered. [Matthew 10:30]

6. Who keeps truth forever. What truth for ever? What truth does He keep, and wherein does He keep it for ever? Who executes judgment for them that suffer wrong [Psalm 145:7]. He avenges them that suffer wrong. There comes at once to you the voice of the Apostle: now therefore there is altogether a fault among you, that you go to law one with another: why do ye not rather suffer wrong? [1 Corinthians 6:7] He urged you not to suffer annoyance, but to suffer wrong: for not every annoyance is wrong. For whatever you suffer lawfully is not a wrong; lest perchance you should say, I also am among those who have suffered wrong, for I have suffered such a thing in such a place, and such a thing for such a reason. Consider whether you have suffered a wrong. Robbers suffer many things, but they suffer no wrong. Wicked men, evil doers, house-breakers, adulterers, seducers, all these suffer many evils, yet is there no wrong. It is one thing to suffer wrong; it is another to suffer tribulation, or penalty, or annoyance, or punishment. Consider where you are; see what you have done; see why you are suffering; and then you see what you are suffering. Right and wrong are contraries. Right is what is just. For not all that is called right, is right. What if a man lay down for you unjust right? Nor indeed is it to be called right, if it is unjust. That is true right, which is also just. Consider what you have done, not what you are suffering. If you have done right, you are suffering wrong; if you have done wrong, you are suffering right....

7. Who gives food to the hungry. Behold, from you I look for nothing: God gives food to the hungry. Who are the hungry? All. What is, all? To all things that have life, to all men He gives food: does He not reserve some food for His beloved? If they have another kind of hunger, they have also another kind of food. Let us first enquire what their hunger is, and then we shall find their food. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. [Matthew 5:6] We ought to be God's hungry ones....The Lord looses them that are fettered; the Lord lifts up them that are dashed down; the Lord makes wise them that are blind [Psalm 145:8]. Perfectly has he by this last sentence explained to us all the preceding ones: lest perchance, when he had said, the Lord looses them that are fettered, we should refer it to those fettered ones, who for some crime are bound in irons by their masters: and in that he said, He lifts up them that are dashed down, there should occur to our minds some one stumbling or falling, or thrown from a horse. There is another kind of fall, there are other kinds of fetters, just as there is other darkness and other light. Whereas he said, He makes the blind wise; he would not say, He enlightened the blind, lest you should understand this also in reference to the flesh, as the man was enlightened by the Lord, when He anointed his eyes with clay made with spittle, and so healed him: that you might not look for anything of this sort, when He is speaking of spiritual things, he points to a sort of light of wisdom, wherewith the blind are enlightened. Therefore in the same way as the blind are enlightened with the light of wisdom, so are the fettered set free, and those who are dashed down are lifted up. Whereby then have we been fettered? Whereby dashed down? Our body was once an ornament to us: now, we have sinned, and thereby have had fetters put on us. What are our fetters? Our mortality....The Lord loves the righteous. And who are the righteous? How far are they righteous now? Just as you have; the Lord, guards proselytes [Psalm 145:9]. Proselytes are strangers. Every Church of the Gentiles is a stranger. For it comes in to the Fathers, not sprung of their flesh, but their daughter by imitating them. Yet the Lord, not any man, guards them. The orphan and widow He will take up. Let none think that He takes up the orphan for his inheritance, or the widow for any business of hers. True, God does help them; and in all the duties of the human race, he does a good work, who takes care of an orphan, who abandons not a widow: but in a certain way we are all orphans, not because our Father is dead, but because He is absent.. ..

8. And the way of sinners He shall root out. What is, the way of sinners? To mock at these things which we say. Who is an orphan, who a widow? What kingdom of heaven, what punishment of hell is there? These are fables of the Christians. To what I see, to that will I live: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. [1 Corinthians 15:32] Beware lest such men persuade you of anything: let them not enter through your ears into your heart; let them find thorns in your ears: let him, who seeks to enter thus, go away pierced: for evil communications corrupt good manners. [1 Corinthians 15:33] But here perhaps you will say, Wherefore then are they prosperous? Behold, they worship not God, and commit every kind of evil daily: yet they abound in those things, through want of which I toil. Be not envious against sinners. What they receive, you see, what is in store for them, do you not see?...Will you not believe even the Lord your God, who says, Broad and spacious is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be that walk by it? [Matthew 7:13] This way the Lord will root out. And, when the way of sinners has been rooted out, what remains for us? Come, you blessed of My father, enjoy the Kingdom; [Matthew 25:34] The Lord shall reign for ever [Psalm 145:10]. O Sion, your God shall reign for ever; surely your God will not reign without you. For generation and generation. He has said it twice, because he could not say it forever. And think not that eternity is bounded by finite words. The word eternity consists of four syllables; in itself it is without end. It could not be commended to you, save thus, for generation and generation. Too little has he said: if he spoke it all day long, it were too narrow: if he spoke it all his life, must he not at length hold his peace? Love eternity: without end shall you reign, if Christ be your End, with whom you shall reign for ever and ever. Amen.

1. It is said to us, Praise the Lord [Psalm 146:1]. This is said to all nations, not to us alone. And these words, sounded forth through separate places by the Readers, each Church hears separately; but the one same Voice of God proclaims unto all, that we praise Him. And as though we asked wherefore we ought to praise the Lord, behold what reason he has brought forward: Praise the Lord, he says, for a Psalm is good. Is this all the reward of them that praise?...The Psalm is praise of God. This then he says, Praise the Lord, for it is good to praise the Lord. Let us not thus pass over the praise of the Lord. It is spoken, and has passed: it is done, and we are silent: we have praised, and then rested; we have sung, and then rested. We go forth to some business which awaits us, and when other employments have found us, shall the praise of God cease in us? Not so: your tongue praises but for a while, let your life ever praise. Thus then a Psalm is good.

2. For a Psalm is a song, not any kind of song, but a song to a psaltery. A psaltery is a kind of instrument of music, like the lyre and the harp, and such kinds of instruments, which were invented for music. He therefore who sings Psalms, not only sings with his voice, but with a certain instrument besides, which is called a psaltery, he accompanies his voice with his hands. Will you then sing a Psalm? Let not your voice alone sound the praises of God; but let your works also be in harmony with your voice....To please then the ear, sing with your voice; but with your heart be not silent, with your life be not still. You devise no fraud in your heart: you sing a Psalm to God. When you eat and drinkest, sing a Psalm: not by intermingling sweet sounds suited to the ear, but by eating and drinking moderately, frugally, temperately: for thus says the Apostle, whether you eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God. [1 Corinthians 10:31]...If by immoderate voracity you exceed the due bounds of nature, and gluttest yourself in excess of wine, however great praises of God your tongue sound, yet your life blasphemes Him. After food and drink you lie down to sleep: in your bed neither commit any pollution, nor go beyond the license given by the law of God: let your marriage bed be kept chaste with your wife: and if you desire to beget children, yet let there not be unbridled sensuality of lust: in your bed give honour to your wife, [1 Peter 3:7] for you are both members of Christ, both made by Him, both renewed by His Blood: so doing you praise God, nor will your praise be altogether silent. What, when sleep has come over you? Let not an evil conscience rouse you from rest: so does the innocence of your sleep praise God....

3. Let praises be pleasant to our God. How? If He be praised by our good lives. Hear that then praise will be pleasant to Him. In another place it is said, Praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner. [Sirach 15:9] If then in the mouth of a sinner praise is not seemly, neither is it pleasant, for that only is pleasant which is seemly....For praise may be pleasant to a man, when he hears one praising with neat and clever sentiments, and with a sweet voice; but let praise be pleasant to our God, whose ears are open not to the mouth, but to the heart; not to the tongue, but to the life of him that praises.

4. Who is our God, that praise should be pleasant to Him? He makes Himself sweet to us, He commends Himself to us; thanks to His condescension....But God commends His love to us...in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. [Romans 5:8]...Let us see whether it be the commendation which the Apostle speaks of, that Christ died for the sinners and ungodly: the Lord who builds up Jerusalem, and gathers the dispersions of Israel [Psalm 146:2]. For the people of Jerusalem are the people of Israel. It is Jerusalem eternal in the heavens, whereof the Angels are citizens also....All the citizens then of that city, through seeing God, rejoice in that great and wide and heavenly city; they gaze upon God Himself. But we are wanderers from that city, driven out by sin, that we should not remain there; weighed down by mortality, that we should not return there. God looked back on our wandering, and He who builds up Jerusalem, restored the part that had fallen. How restored He the part that had fallen?...He sent then to our captive estate His Son as a Redeemer. Take with You, said He, a bag, bear therein the price of the captives. For He put on Him our mortal flesh, and therein was the Blood, by the shedding of which we were to be redeemed. With that Blood He gathered the dispersions of Israel. And if He gathered them that before were dispersed, how must we strive that they be gathered who now are dispersed? If the dispersed have been gathered, that in the Hand of the Builder they might be fashioned into the building, how should they be gathered who through disquiet have fallen from the Hand of the Builder? Behold whom we praise; behold to whom we owe praise all our life long.

5. How does He gather? What does He in order to gather? Who heals the bruised in heart [Psalm 146:3]. Behold the way in which the dispersions of Israel are gathered, by the healing of the bruised in heart. They who are not of a bruised heart, are not healed. What is to bruise the heart? Let it be known, brethren, let it be done, that you may be able to be healed. For it is told in many other places of Scripture;...the sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit, a bruised and contrite heart God will not despise. He heals then the bruised in heart, for He draws near unto them to heal them; as is said in another place, the Lord is near unto them who have bruised their heart. Who are they that have bruised their heart? The humble. Who are they that have not bruised their heart? The proud. The bruised heart shall be healed, the puffed up heart shall be dashed down. For for this purpose perhaps is it dashed down, that being bruised it may be healed. Let not our heart then, brethren, desire to be set upright, before it be upright. It is ill for that to be uplifted which is not first corrected....

6. What are the means whereby He binds up their bruises? Just as physicians bind up fractures. For sometimes (observe this, beloved; it is well known to those who have observed it, or have heard it from physicians), sometimes when limbs are sound, but are crooked and distorted, physicians break them in order to set them straight, and make a new wound, because the soundness which was distorted was amiss....

7. What are these means whereby He binds? The sacraments of this present life, whereby in the mean time we obtain our comfort: and all the words we speak to you, words which sound and pass away, all that is done in the Church in this present time, are the means whereby He binds up our bruises. For just as, when the limb has become perfectly sound, the physician takes off the bandage; so in our own city Jerusalem, when we shall have been made equal to the Angels, think ye that we shall receive there, what we have received here? Will it be needful then that the Gospel be read to us, that our faith may abide? Or that hands be laid upon us by any Bishop? All these are means of binding up fractures; when we have attained perfect soundness, they will be taken off; but we should never attain it, if they were not bound up.

8. Who tells the number of the stars, and calls them all by their names [Psalm 146:4]. What great matter is it for God to tell the number of the stars! Men even have endeavoured to do this; whether they have been able to achieve it, is their concern; they would not however attempt it, did they not think that they should achieve it. Let us leave alone what they can do, and how far they have attained; for God I think it no great matter to count all the stars. Or does He perhaps go over the number, lest He should forget it? Is it any great thing for God to number the stars, by whom the very hairs of your head are numbered? [Matthew 10:30] The stars are certain lights in the Church comforting our night; all of whom the Apostle says, In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding the Word of life. [Philippians 2:15] These stars God counts; all who shall reign with Him, all who are to be gathered into the Body of His only-begotten Son, He has counted, and still counts them. Whoever is unworthy, is not even counted. Many too have believed, or rather may, with a kind of shadowy appearance of faith, have attached themselves to His people: yet He knows what He counts, what He winnowes away. For so great is the height of the Gospel, that it has come to pass as was said, I have declared, and have spoken: they are multiplied above number: there are then among the people certain supernumeraries, so to speak. What do I mean by supernumeraries? More than will be there. Within these walls are more than will be in the kingdom of God, in the heavenly Jerusalem; these are above the number. Let each one of you consider whether he shines in darkness, whether he refuses to be led astray by the dark iniquity of the world; if he be not led astray, nor conquered, he will be, as it were, a star, which God already numbers. And calling them all by their names, he says. Herein is our whole reward. We may have certain names with God, that God may know our names, this we ought to wish, for this to act, for this to busy ourselves, as far as we are able; not to rejoice in other things, not even in certain spiritual gifts....When the disciples returned from their mission exulting, and saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us in Your Name [Luke 10:17] — then He (knowing that many would say, have we not in Your Name cast out devils? to whom He should say, I know you not) said, In this rejoice not, that the devils are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. [Luke 10:20]

9. Great is our Lord [Psalm 146:5]. The Psalmist is filled with joy, he has poured out his words wonderfully: yet somewhat he was unable to speak, and how availed he to think on it? And great is His power, and of His understanding is no numbering. He who numbers the stars, Himself cannot be numbered. Who can expound this? Who can worthily even imagine what is meant by, and of His understanding is no number?...Whatsoever then that is infinite this world contains, though it be infinite to man, yet is not to God: too little is it to say, to God: even by the angels it is numbered. His understanding surpasses all calculators; it cannot be counted by us. Numbers themselves who numbers? What than is there with God? Wherewith made He all things, and where made He all things, to whom it is said, You have arrayed all things in measure, number, and weight? [Wisdom 11:20] Or who can number, or measure, or weigh, measure and number and weight themselves, wherein God has ordered all things? Therefore, of His understanding is no number. Let human voices be hushed, human thoughts still: let them not stretch themselves out to incomprehensible things, as though they could comprehend them, but as though they were to partake of them, for partakers we shall be....Partakers then we shall be: let none doubt it: Scripture says it. And of what shall we be partakers, as though these were parts in God, as though God were divided into parts? Who then can explain how many become partakers of one single substance? Require not then that which I think ye see cannot fitly be said: but return to the healing of the Saviour, bruise your heart. He will guide it, He will bind it up where it is broken, He will make it perfectly sound; and then those things will not be impossible with us, which now are impossible. For it is good that he confess weakness, who desires to attain to the divine nature.

10. The Lord takes up the gentle [Psalm 146:6]. For example; you understand not, you fail to understand, cannot attain: honour God's Scripture, honour God's Word, though it be not plain: in reverence wait for understanding. Be not wanton to accuse either the obscurity or seeming contradiction of Scripture. There is nothing in it contradictory: somewhat there is which is obscure, not in order that it may be denied you, but that it may exercise him that shall afterward receive it. When then it is obscure, that is the Physician's doing, that you may knock. He willed that you should be exercised in knocking; He willed it, that He might open to you when you knock. By knocking you shall be exercised; exercised, you shall be enlarged; enlarged, you shall contain what is given. Be not then indignant for that it is shut; be mild, be gentle. Kick not against what is dark, nor say, It were better said, if it were said thus. For how can you thus say, or judge how it is expedient it be said? It is said as it is expedient it be said. Let not the sick man seek to amend his remedies: the Physician knows how to temper them: believe Him who cares for you. Therefore what comes next?...The Lord takes up the gentle, but humbles the sinners even to the ground, he intended a certain sort of sinners to be understood, from the gentleness mentioned first. By sinners then in this place, we understand the fierce, and those who are not gentle. Wherefore does He humble them even to the earth? They carp at objects of understanding, they shall perceive only things earthly.

11. Begin to the Lord in confession [Psalm 146:7]. Begin with this, if you would arrive at a clear understanding of the truth. If you will be brought from the road of faith to the profession of the reality, begin in confession. First accuse yourself: accuse yourself, praise God. What after confession? Let good works follow. Sing unto our God upon the harp. What is, Upon the harp? As I have already explained, just like the Psalm upon the psaltery, so also is the harp: not with voice only, but with works.

12. ...Who covers the heaven with clouds, who prepares rain for the earth [Psalm 146:8]. Now you are alarmed, because you can not see the heaven: when it has rained you shall gather fruit, and shall see clear sky. Perhaps our God has done this. For had we not the obscurity of Scripture as an occasion, we should not say to you those things wherein ye rejoice. This then perhaps is the rain whereat ye rejoice. It would not be possible for it to be expressed to you by our tongue, were it not that God covers with clouds of figures the heaven of the Scriptures. For this purpose willed He that the words of the Prophets should be obscure, that the servants of God might afterwards have that by interpreting which they might flow over the ears and hearts of men, that they might receive from the clouds of God the fatness of spiritual joy. Who makes grass to grow upon the mountains, and herb for the service of men. Behold the fruit of the rain. Who makes, says he, grass to grow upon the mountains. Does it not also grow upon the low ground? Yes, but it is a great thing that it grows on the mountains....For nothing could be more barren than the hard mountains. And herb for the service of men. What service? Listen to Paul himself. And ourselves, says he, your servants for Jesus Christ's sake. [2 Corinthians 4:5] He who said, If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things? yet said, that he was a servant. For we are your servants, brethren. Let none of us speak of himself, as though he were greater than you. We shall be greater if we are more humble. But whosoever will be great among you (it is the Lord's saying), shall be your servant. [Matthew 20:26] Paul the Apostle, indeed, living by his own labour, refused even to receive the grass of the mountains; he chose to want; nevertheless, the mountains gave grass. Because he chose not to receive, ought the mountains therefore not to give, and so to remain barren? Fruit is due to the rain, food is due to the servant, as the Lord says, Eat such things as they give you: and that they should not think that they gave anything of their own, He added, for the labourer is worthy of his hire. [Luke 10:7-8]

13. ...Just now has been read, Give to every one that asks of you; [Luke 6:30] and in another place Scripture says, Let alms sweat in your hand, till you find a righteous man to whom to give it. One there is who seeks you, another you ought to seek. Leave not indeed him who seeks you empty, for, give to every one that asks of you; yet still there is another whom you ought to seek; find a righteous man to whom to give it. You will never do this, unless you have somewhat set aside from your substance, each what pleases him according to the needs of his family, as a sort of debt to be paid to the treasury. If Christ have not a state of His own, neither has He a treasury.. ..Cut off then and prune off some fixed sum either from your yearly profits or your daily gains, else you seem as it were to give of your capital, and your hand must needs hesitate, when you put it forth to that which you have not vowed. Cut off some part of your income; a tenth if you choose, though that is but little. For it is said that the Pharisees gave a tenth; I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. [Luke 18:12] And what says the Lord? Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. [Matthew 5:20] He whose righteousness you ought to exceed, gives a tenth: you give not even a thousandth. How will you surpass him whom you match not? Who prepares rain for the earth.

14. And gives unto the cattle their food [Psalm 146:9]. These are the cattle he means, even God's flocks. God defrauds not His flock of their food through men, for whose service He makes the grass to grow. And to the young of the ravens that call upon Him. Shall we perchance think this, that the ravens call upon God to give them their food? Think not that the unreasoning creature calls upon God: no creature knows how to call upon God, save the reasonable alone. Consider it as spoken in a figure, lest you think, as some evil men say, that the souls of men migrate into cattle, dogs, swine, ravens. Give this no place in your hearts or in your faith. The soul of man is made after the image of God: He will not give His image to dog or swine. Who are the young of the ravens? The Israelites used to say that they alone were righteous, because to them the Law had been given: all other men of every nation they used to call sinners. And in truth all nations were given up to sin, to idolatry, to the worship of stones and stocks: but did they continue so? Although the ravens themselves, our fathers, did not, yet we, the young of the ravens, do call upon God. [1 Peter 1:18]...For the young of the ravens, who seemed to worship the images of their forefathers, have advanced, and turned to God. And now you hear the young of the ravens calling upon the one God. What then? Do you say to the young of the ravens, have you left your father? Plainly I have, says he; for he is a raven who calls not upon God. I, the young of the raven, do call upon God.

15. In the power of an horse He will not take pleasure [Psalm 146:10]. The power of an horse is pride. For the horse seems adapted as it were to bear a man aloft, that he may be more uplifted as he goes. And in truth he has a neck which typifies a sort of pride. Let not men exalt themselves upon their worth, let them not think themselves uplifted by their distinctions; let them beware lest they be thrown by an untamed horse.. ..Nor in the tabernacle of a man will He delight. For the tabernacle of the Lord is the Holy Church spread throughout the whole world. Heretics, separating themselves from the Church's tabernacles, have set up tabernacles for themselves. For if perchance it be the lot of any, who is good and pious, who confesses his own weakness, who is the young of a raven that calls on God, not to enjoy worldly distinction, he goes not out of the Church, he sets not up for himself a tent outside the Church, wherein God will not delight. But what says he? I have chosen to be cast away in the house of God, rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners.

16. But what adds he? The Lord will delight in them that fear Him, and in them that hope in His mercy [Psalm 146:11]. A robber is feared, and a wild beast is feared, and an unjust and powerful man is much feared. The Lord will delight in them that hope in His mercy. Behold, Judas, who betrayed our Lord, feared, but he did not hope in His mercy....It is well indeed that you have feared, but only if you trusted in His mercy, whom you have feared. He in despair went and hanged himself. In such wise then fear the Lord, that you trust in His mercy....

17. Praise in unison, O Jerusalem, your God [Psalm 147:12]. Abiding yet in captivity, they behold those flocks, or rather, the one flock of all its citizens, gathered from all sides into that city; they see the joy of the mass, now after threshings and winnowings placed in the garner, fearing nothing, suffering no toil nor trouble; and, as yet abiding here, in the midst of the threshing they send forward their joy of hope, and pant for it, joining as it were their hearts to the Angels of God, and to that people which shall abide with them in joy forever. For what will you then do, O Jerusalem? Surely toil and groaning will pass away. What will you do? Will you plough, or sow, or plant vines, or make voyages, or trade? What will you do? Will it still be your duty to be engaged in the works thou now doest, good though they are, and spring from mercy? Consider your numbers, consider on all sides your company: see whether any hungers, for you to give bread to; see whether any thirsts, for you to give a cup of cold water to; see whether any is a stranger, for you to take in; see whether any is sick, for you to visit; see whether any is at strife, for you to reconcile him; see whether any is dying, for you to bury him. What then will you do? Praise in unison, O Jerusalem, your God. Behold, this is your business. As is wont to be said in inscriptions, Use it and be happy.

18. Be Jerusalem; remember of whom it is said, Lord, in Your city their image You shall bring to nought. These are they who now rejoice in such pomps; among them are they who have not come hither today because there is a show. To whom is it a gift? to whom is it a loss? Or why is it a gift? Why is it a loss? For not they only who exhibit such shows are smitten with loss, but with much greater loss are they smitten who delight in gazing on them. The former have their chest drained of its gold, the latter have their breast robbed of the riches of righteousness. Most of the exhibiters of shows have to mourn for selling their estates; how ought the sinners to mourn, for losing their souls: Was it then for this that the Lord cried out on the Lord's Day, Watch ye, that today men should watch in this way. I beseech you, you citizens of Jerusalem, I beseech you by the peace of Jerusalem, by the Redeemer, the Builder, the Ruler of Jerusalem, that you address your prayers to God for them. May they see, may they feel, that they are trifling; and, intent as they are on the sights which please them, may at length look on themselves, and be displeased. For in many we rejoice that this has already been done: and once we too sat there and were mad: and how many think we now sit there, who shall yet be, not only Christians, but also Bishops! From what is past, we conjecture what is to be: from what has already been done, we announce beforehand what God will do. Let your prayers be wakeful, you groan not for nothing. Certainly they who have already escaped, praying for those who are still in danger, because they too having been among those in danger, are heard; and God shall drag His people out of the captivity of Babylon; by all means He shall redeem and deliver them, and the number of the saints who bear the image of God shall be perfected....Praise in unison, because you consist of many: praise, because you have been made one. We being many, says the Apostle, are one in Christ. [1 Corinthians 10:17] As then we are many, we praise in unison; as we are one, we praise. The same are many and one, because He in whom they are one is ever One.

19. Wherefore, says this Jerusalem, do I praise in unison the Lord, and, as Sion, praise my God? Jerusalem is the same as Sion. For different reasons has it the two names. Jerusalem means visions of peace; Sion means watching. See whether these words do not sound like sights; that the Gentiles may not think that they have sights and we have none. Sometimes after the theatre or amphitheatre breaks up, when the crowd of lost ones begins to be vomited forth from that den, sometimes, retaining in their minds images of their vain amusements, and feeding their memory with things not only useless but even hurtful, rejoicing in them as if they were sweet, while they are really deadly; they see often, it may be, the servants of God pass by, they recognise them by their garb or headdress, or they know them by sight, and they say to one another, or inwardly, Wretched people, how much they lose! Brethren, let us return their good will (for they do mean it well) with prayers to the Lord. They wish us well; but he that loves iniquity, hates his own soul. If he hates his own soul, how shall he love my soul? Yet with a perverse, and empty, and vain good will, if indeed it may be called good will, they grieve that we lose what they love: let us pray that they lose not what we love. Behold of what character that Jerusalem is to be which he exhorts to praise, or rather foresees will praise. For the praises of that city, when we shall see and love and praise, will not need to be urged on and stirred up by the voice of prophecy; but the Prophets now say this, to drink in as far as while they remain in this flesh they can, the future joys of the blessed, and then giving them forth into our ears, to arouse in us love of that city. Let us burn with longing, let us not be slothful in spirit. Praise your God, O Sion.

20. He says, He has made strong the bars of your gates [Psalm 147:13]. The making bars strong is not for open gates, but shut ones, wherefore most manuscripts read, He has made strong the bolts of your gates. Observe, beloved. He bids Jerusalem when closed in to praise the Lord. We praise in unison now, we praise now; but it is amid offenses. Many where we wish not, enter in: many though we wish it not, go out: therefore offenses are frequent. And because iniquity has abounded, says the Truth, the love of many waxes cold: [Matthew 24:12] because men come in whom we cannot discern, because men go out whom we cannot retain. Wherefore is this? Because not yet is there perfection, not yet is there the bliss that shall be. Wherefore is this? Because as yet it is the threshing-floor, not yet the garner. What therefore will be then, save no fear that anything of this kind will happen? He said not only, He has set, but, He has made strong the bars of your gates. Let none go out, let none come in. Let none go out, we rejoice: let none come in, we fear. Nay, fear not this: when you have entered it will be said: only be thou in the number of virgins, who carried their oil with them....

21. He has blessed your children within you. Who? He who has set peace as your borders. How ye all exult! Love peace, my brethren. Greatly are we delighted, when the love of peace cries from your hearts. How greatly does it delight you! I had said nothing: I had explained nothing: I but read the verse, and you shouted. What was it that shouted in you? The love of peace....children of the kingdom, O citizens of Jerusalem, in Jerusalem is the vision of peace: and all who love peace are blessed in her, and they enter in, when the doors are being shut, and the bars made strong. This, which when but named ye so love and esteem, this follow after, this long for: this love in your home, in your business, in your wives, in your sons, in your slaves, in your friends, in your enemies....

22. What ye cried out a while ago at the very mention of peace, you cried from longing: your cry was from thirst, not from fullness; for there will be perfect righteousness where will be perfect peace. Now we hunger and thirst after righteousness. They shall be filled. [Matthew 5:6] How shall they be filled? When we have arrived at peace. Therefore when he had said, Who has set peace for your borders, because there is fullness and no want, he added at once, and fills you with the fat of wheat [Psalm 147:14]....

23. Who sends forth His Word to the earth [Psalm 147:15]. Behold, on earth we toil, weary, fainting, sluggish, cold: when should we be raised up to the fat of wheat that satisfies, did not He send His Word to the earth, whereby we were weighed down, to the earth, whereby we were hindered from returning? He sent His Word, He deserted us not even in the wilderness, He rained manna from heaven. Who sends forth His Word to the earth; and to earth His Word came. How? Or what is His Word? Even unto swiftness His Word runs. He said not, His Word is swift, but, His Word runs even unto swiftness. Let us understand, my brethren: He could not have chosen a better word. He who is hot grows hot by heat, he who is cold grows cold by cold, he who is swift becomes swift by swiftness....To what degree then does it run? Even to swiftness. Increase as much as you will the swiftness of the Word, and say, It is as swift as this or that, as birds, as the winds, as the Angels; is any of these as great as swiftness itself, even unto swiftness? What is swiftness itself, brethren? It is everywhere; it is not in part. This belongs to the Word of God, not to be in part, to be everywhere by Himself the Word, whereby He is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God, [1 Corinthians 1:24] before He had taken flesh upon Him. If we think of God in the Form of God, the Word equal to the Father, this is the Wisdom of God, of which is said, It reaches from one end to the other mightily. [Wisdom 8:1] What mighty speed! It reaches from one end to the other mightily....

24. We then are burdened by the sluggishness of this cold body, and the bonds of this earthly and corruptible life; have we no hope of receiving the Word, which runs even unto swiftness? Or has abandoned us, though by the body we are depressed to the lowest depths? Did not He predestinate us, before we were born in this mortal and sluggish body? He then, who predestinated us, gave snow to the earth, even ourselves. For now let us come to those somewhat obscure verses of the Psalm, let those entanglements begin to be unrolled. Behold, we are sluggish on this earth, and are as it were frozen here. And just as happens to the flakes of snow, for they freeze above, then fall down; so as love grows cold, human nature falls down to this earth, and involved in a sluggish body becomes like snow. But in that snow are predestined sons of God. For, He gives snow like wool [Psalm 147:16]. What is like wool? It means, of the snow which He has given, of these, who are as yet slow in spirit and cold, whom He has predestinated, He is about to make somewhat. For wool is the material of a garment: when we see wool, we look on it as a sort of preparation for a garment. Therefore since He has predestinated these, who at present are cold and creep on earth, and as yet glow not with the spirit of love (for as yet He speaks of predestination), God has given these as a sort of wool: He is about to make of them a garment. Rightly did the raiment of Christ shine on the mountain, like snow. [Matthew 17:2] The raiment of Christ did shine like snow, as though of that snow a garment had already been made: of which wool, that is, of the snow which He gave like wool, they being as yet predestined, were sluggish: but wait, see what follows. Since He gave them as wool, a garment is made of them. For as the Church is called the Body of Christ, so is the Church also called the garment of Christ: hence comes that which is said by the Apostle, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle. [Ephesians 5:27] Let Him then present unto Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle; let Him make Himself a garment of that wool, which He had predestinated in the snow. While men are yet unbelieving, and cold, and sluggish, let Him make a garment of this wool. That it may be washed from spots, let it be cleansed by faith: that it may have no wrinkle, let it be stretched out upon the cross....

25. He scatters mist like ashes. He scatters, says the Psalmist, mist like ashes. Who? He who gives snow like wool. For whom He predestined, He calls to repentance; for whom He predestined, them He also called. But ashes are connected with repentance. Hear Him calling to repentance, when He upbraided certain cities, saying, Woe unto you, Chorazin! Woe unto you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which have been done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they had long ago repented in dust and ashes. [Matthew 11:21] Therefore, He scatters mist like ashes. What is, He scatters mist like ashes? When a man is called to learn about God, and it is said to him, Receive the truth; he begins to wish to receive the Truth, but is not able; he sees that He is under a sort of darkness, which before he saw not....Wander not in the mist, follow in faith. But forasmuch as you endeavour to see and art not able, repent of your sins, for mist is scattered like ashes. Repent you now of having been obstinate against God, repent of having followed your own evil ways. You have come into this state where it is difficult for you to see the vision of bliss, and the mist will be healthful to you, which God scatters like ashes. Thou yourself art as yet a mist, but like ashes. For they that are penitent, as yet roll themselves in ashes, my brethren, testifying, as it were, that they are like it, saying unto God, I am ashes. For a certain Scripture says, I have despised myself, and wasted away, I have reckoned myself earth and ashes. This is the humility of the penitent. When Abraham speaks to his God, and wishes the burning of Sodom to be disclosed to him, he says, I am but earth and ashes. [Genesis 18:27] How has this humility ever been found in great and holy men!

26. Who sends His crystal like morsels of bread [Psalm 147:17]. We need not spend our toil again in saying what crystal is. We have already said it, and I do not think that you, beloved, have forgotten it. What is then, He sends His crystal like morsels of bread? What is crystal? It is very hard, it is very tightly congealed; it can not, like snow, be easily melted. Snow, hardened by many years' duration, and by the succession of ages, is called crystal, and this He sends like morsels of bread. What means this? They were too hard, no longer fit to be compared to snow, but to crystal; but they too are predestinated and called, and some of them even so as to feed others, to be useful to others also. And what need is there to enumerate many, whom we happen to know, this one and that one? Every one when he thinks can recall to mind how hardened and obstinate some of those whom he knows have been, how they have struggled against the truth; yet now they preach the truth, they have been made morsels of bread. Who is that one Bread? We being many, says the Apostle, are one Body in Christ; [Romans 12:5] he says also, we being many are one Bread and one Body. [1 Corinthians 10:17] If then the whole Body of Christ is one Bread, the members of Christ are morsels of Bread. Of some that are hard He makes members of Himself, and useful for feeding others....Behold, the Apostle Paul was a crystal, hard, resisting the truth, crying out against the Gospel, hardening himself, as it were, against the sun....Since then he was crystal, he appeared clear and white, but he was hard and very cold. How was he bright and white? An Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee. Behold the brightness of crystal. Now hear the hardness of crystal. As touching zeal, persecuting the Church [Philippians 3:5-6] of Christ. Among the stoners of the holy martyr Stephen, was he, hard, perhaps harder than all. For he kept the raiment of all who were stoning, [Acts 22:20] so that he stoned by the hands of all.

27. Thus then we see the snow, the mist, the crystal: it is good that He blow and thaw them. For if He blow not, if He Himself thaw not the hardness of this ice, in the face of His cold who shall stand? He abandons a sinner, behold, He calls him not; behold, He opens not his perception; behold, He pours not in grace; let the man thaw himself, if he can, from the ice of folly. He cannot. Wherefore can he not? In the face of His cold who shall stand? Behold him then growing harder, and saying, O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Behold, I am growing cold, behold, I am growing hard, what heat shall thaw me that I may run? Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?....In the face of His cold who shall stand? And who shall free himself, if God abandon him? Who is it that frees? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. [Romans 7:24-25] Are we then to despair? God forbid. For it goes on, He shall send out His Word, and melt them [Psalm 147:18]. Let not then the snow despair, nor the mist, nor the crystal. For of the snow, as of wool, a garment is being made. That mist finds safety in repentance: for, whom He predestinated, them He also called. But even though they be the very hardest among the predestinated, though they have been for a long time hardening, and have become crystal, they will not be hard to the mercy of God. He shall send out His Word, and melt them. What is melt? Understand not melt in an ill sense: it means, He shall liquefy, He shall thaw them. For they are hard through pride. Rightly is pride called also dulness: for whatever is dull, is also cold....Despair not even of the crystal. Hear a saying of the crystal. Who before was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious. [1 Timothy 1:13] But wherefore does God melt the crystal? That the snow despair not of itself. For he says, For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them that hereafter should believe in Him unto eternal life. [1 Timothy 1:16] God then calls unto the Gentiles, Be melted, O crystal; come, you snows. His Spirit shall blow, and the waters shall flow. Lo, the crystal and the snows are melted, they turn into water, let them that thirst, come and drink. [John 7:37] Saul, hard as crystal, persecuted Stephen unto death; Paul, now in the living water, [John 4:14] calls the Gentiles to the Fount....

28. Announcing His Word unto Jacob, His Righteousnesses and Judgments unto Israel [Psalm 147:19]. What Righteousnesses, what Judgments? Because whatever mankind had suffered here before, when it was snow and mist and crystal, it suffered for the deserts of its pride and uplifting against God. Let us go back to the origin of our fall, and see that most truly is it sung in the Psalm, Before I was troubled I went wrong. But he who says, Before I was troubled I went wrong, says also, It is good for me that You have humbled me, that I may learn Your Righteousnesses. These righteousnesses Jacob learned from God, who made him to wrestle with an Angel; under the guise of which Angel, God Himself wrestled with him. He held Him, he exerted violence to hold Him, he prevailed to hold Him: He caused Himself to be held, in mercy, not in weakness. Jacob therefore wrestled, and prevailed: he held Him and when he seemed to have conquered Him asked to be blessed of Him. How did he understand with Whom he had wrestled, Whom he had held? Wherefore did he wrestle violently, and hold Him? Because the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. [Matthew 11:12] Wherefore then did he wrestle? Because it is with toil. Wherefore do we with difficulty hold, what we so easily lose? Lest, easily getting back what we have lost, we learn to lose that which we hold. Let man have toil to hold: he will hold firmly, what he has only held after toil. These His judgments therefore God manifested to Jacob and Israel....

29. He has not done so to the whole race [Psalm 147:20]. Let none deceive you: it is not announced to any nation, this judgment of God; namely, how the righteous and the unrighteous suffer, how all suffer for their deserts, how the righteous themselves are freed by the grace of God, not in their own merits. This is not announced to the whole race, but only to Jacob, only to Israel. What then do we, if He has not announced it to the whole race, but only to Jacob, only to Israel? Where will we be? In Jacob. He has not manifested His judgments to them. To whom? To all nations. How then are the snows called, when the crystal is melted? How are the nations called, now Paul is justified? How, save to be in Jacob? The wild olive is cut off from its stock, to be grafted into the olive: now they belong to the olive, no longer ought they to be called nations, but one nation in Christ, the nation of Jacob, the nation of Israel...What is Israel? Seeing God. Where shall he see God? In peace. What peace? The peace of Jerusalem; for, says he, He has set peace for your borders. There shall we praise: there shall we all be one, in One, unto One: for then, though many, we shall not be scattered.

1. The subject of our meditation in this present life should be the praises of God; for the everlasting exaltation of our life hereafter will be the praise of God, and none can become fit for the life hereafter, who has not practised himself for it now. So then now we praise God, but we pray to Him too. Our praise is marked by joy, our prayer by groans....On account of these two seasons, one, that which now is in the temptations and tribulations of this life, the other, that which is to be hereafter in everlasting rest and exultation; we have established also the celebration of two seasons, that before Easter and that after Easter. That which is before Easter signifies tribulation, in which we now are; that which we are now keeping after Easter, signifies the bliss in which we shall hereafter be. The celebration then which we keep before Easter is what we do now: by that which we keep after Easter we signify what as yet we have not. Therefore we employ that time in fastings and prayer, this present time we spend in praises, and relax our fast. This is the Halleluia which we sing, which, as you know, means (in Latin), Praise ye the Lord. Therefore that period is before the Lord's Resurrection, this, after His Resurrection: by which time is signified the future hope which as yet we have not: for what we represent after the Lord's Resurrection, we shall have after our own. For in our Head both are figured, both are set forth. The Baptism of the Lord sets forth to us this present life of trial, for in it we must toil, be harassed, and, at last, die; but the Resurrection and Glorification of the Lord sets forth to us the life which we are to have hereafter, when He shall come to recompense due rewards, evil to the evil, good to the good. And now indeed all the evil men sing with us, Halleluia; but, if they persevere in their wickedness, they may utter with their lips the song of our life hereafter; but the life itself, which will then be in the reality which now is typified, they cannot obtain, because they would not practise it before it came, and lay hold on what was to come.

2. Halleluia. Praise the Lord, you say to your neighbour, he to you: when all are exhorting each other, all are doing what they exhort others to do. But praise with your whole selves: that is, let not your tongue and voice alone praise God, but your conscience also, your life, your deeds. For now, when we are gathered together in the Church, we praise: when we go forth each to his own business, we seem to cease to praise God. Let a man not cease to live well, and then he ever praises God....It is impossible for a man's acts to be evil, whose thoughts are good. For acts issue from thought: nor can a man do anything or move his limbs to do anything, unless the bidding of his thought precede: just as in all things which you see done throughout the provinces, whatsoever the Emperor bids goes forth from the inner part of his palace throughout the whole Roman Empire. How great commotion is caused at one bidding by the Emperor as he sits in his palace! He but moves his lips, when he speaks: the whole province is moved, when what he speaks is being executed. So in each single man too, the Emperor is within, his seat is in the heart. If he be good and bids good things, good things are done: if he be bad and bids evil things, evil things are done. When Christ sits there, what can He bid, but what is good? When the devil is the occupant, what can he bid, but evil? But God has willed that it should be in your choice for whom you will prepare room, for God, or for the devil: when you have prepared it, he who is occupant will also rule. Therefore, brethren, attend not only to the sound; when you praise God, praise with your whole selves: let your voice, your life, your deeds, all sing.

3. Praise ye the Lord from heaven [Psalm 148:1]. As though he had found things in heaven holding their peace in the praise of the Lord, he exhorts them to arise and praise. Never have things in heaven held their peace in the praises of their Creator, never have things on earth ceased to praise God. But it is manifest that there are certain things which have breath to praise God in that disposition wherein God pleases them. For no one praises anything, save what pleases him. And there are other things which have not breath of life and understanding to praise God, but yet, because they also are good, and duly arranged in their proper order, and form part of the beauty of the universe, which God created, though they themselves with voice and heart praise not God, yet when they are considered by those who have understanding, God is praised in them; and, as God is praised in them, they themselves too in a manner praise God.. ..

4. Praise ye the Lord from heaven: praise Him in the high places. First he says, from heaven, then from earth; for it is God that is praised, who made heaven and earth. All in heaven is calm and peaceful; there is ever joy, no death, no sickness, no vexation; there the blessed ever praise God; but we are still below: yet, when we think how God is praised there, let us have our heart there, and let us not hear to no purpose, Lift up your hearts. Let us lift up our heart above, that it become not corrupted on earth: for we take pleasure in what the Angels do there. We do it now in hope: hereafter we shall in reality, when we have come there. Praise Him then in the high places.

5. Praise Him, all you angels of His, praise Him, all His powers [Psalm 148:2]. Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all you stars and light [Psalm 148:3]. Praise Him, you heaven of heavens, and waters that are above the heavens [Psalm 148:4]. Let them praise the Name of the Lord [Psalm 148:5]. When can he unfold all in his enumeration? Yet he has in a manner touched upon them all summarily, and included all things in heaven praising their Creator. And as though it were said to him, Why do they praise Him? What has He conferred on them, that they should praise Him? he goes on, for He spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created. No wonder if the works praise the Worker, no wonder if the things that are made praise the Maker, no wonder if creation praise its Creator. In this Christ also is mentioned, though we seem not to have heard His Name....By what were they made? By the Word? [John 1:1-2] How does he show in this Psalm, that all things were made by the Word? He spoke, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created. No one speaks, no one commands, save by word.

6. He has established them for the age, and for age upon age [Psalm 148:6]. All things in heaven, all things above, all powers and angels, a certain city on high, good, holy, blessed; from whence because we are wanderers, we are wretched; whither because we are to return, we are blessed in hope; whither when we shall have returned, we shall be blessed indeed; He has given them a law which shall not pass away. What sort of command, think ye, have things in heaven and the holy angels received? What sort of command has God given them? What, but that they praise Him? Blessed are they whose business is to praise God! They plough not, they sow not, they grind not, they cook not; for these are works of necessity, and there is no necessity there. They steal not, they plunder not, they commit no adultery; for these are works of iniquity, and there is no iniquity there. They break not bread for the hungry, they clothe not the naked, they take not in the stranger, they visit not the sick, they set not at one the contentious, they bury not the dead; for these are works of mercy, and there there is no misery, for mercy to be shown to. O blessed they! Think we that we too shall be like this? Ah! let us sigh, let us groan in sighing. And what are we, that we should be there? Mortal, outcast, abject, earth and ashes! But He, who has promised, is almighty....

7. Let him then turn himself to things on earth too, since he has already spoken the praises of things in heaven. Praise ye the Lord from the earth [Psalm 148:7]. For wherewith began he before? Praise ye the Lord from heaven: and he went through things in heaven: now hear of things on earth. Dragons and all abysses. Abysses are depths of water: all the seas, and this atmosphere of clouds, pertain to the abyss. Where there are clouds, where there are storms, where there is rain, lightning, thunder, hail, snow, and all that God wills should be done above the earth, by this moist and misty atmosphere, all this he has mentioned under the name of earth, because it is very changeable and mortal; unless ye think that it rains from above the stars. All these things happen here, close to the earth. Sometimes even men are on the tops of mountains, and see the clouds beneath them, and often it rains: and all commotions which arise from the disturbance of the atmosphere, those who watch carefully see that they happen here, in this lower part of the universe....You see then what kind all these things are, changeable, troublous, fearful, corruptible: yet they have their place, they have their rank, they too in their degree fill up the beauty of the universe, and so they praise the Lord. He turns then to them, as though He would exhort them too, or us, that by considering them we may praise the Lord. Dragons live about the water, come out from caverns, fly through the air; the air is set in motion by them: dragons are a huge kind of living creatures, greater there are not upon the earth. Therefore with them he begins, Dragons and all abysses. There are caves of hidden waters, whence springs and streams come forth: some come forth to flow over the earth, some flow secretly beneath; and all this kind, all this damp nature of waters, together with the sea and this lower air, are called abyss, or abysses, where dragons live and praise God. What? Think we that the dragons form choirs, and praise God? Far from it. But do ye, when you consider the dragons, regard the Maker of the dragon, the Creator of the dragon: then, when you admire the dragons, and say, Great is the Lord who made these, then the dragons praise God by your voices.

8. Fire, hail, snow, ice, wind of storms, which do His word [Psalm 148:8]. Wherefore added he here, which do His word? Many foolish men, unable to contemplate and discern creation, in its several places and rank, performing its movements at the nod and commandment of God think that God does indeed rule all things above, but things below He despises, casts aside, abandons, so that He neither cares for them, nor guides, nor rules them; but that they are ruled by chance, how they can, as they can: and they are influenced by what they say sometimes to one another: e.g. If it were God that gave rain, would He rain into the sea? What sort of providence, they say, is this? Getulia is thirsty, and it rains into the sea. They think that they handle the matter cleverly. One should say to them, Getulia does at all events thirst, thou dost not even thirst. For good were it for you to say to God, My soul has thirsted for You. For he that thus argues is already satisfied; he thinks himself learned, he is not willing to learn, therefore he thirsts not. For if he thirsted, he would be willing to learn, and he would find that everything happens upon earth by God's Providence, and he would wonder at the arrangement of even the limbs of a flea. Attend, beloved. Who has arranged the limbs of a flea and a gnat, that they should have their proper order, life, motion? Consider one little creature, even the very smallest, whatever you will. If you consider the order of its limbs, and the animation of life whereby it moves; how does it shun death, love life, seek pleasures, avoid pain, exert various senses, vigorously use movements suitable to itself! Who gave its sting to the gnat, for it to suck blood with? How narrow is the pipe whereby it sucks! Who arranged all this? Who made all this? You are amazed at the smallest things; praise Him that is great. Hold then this, my brethren, let none shake you from your faith or from sound doctrine. He who made the Angel in heaven, the Same also made the worm upon earth: the Angel in heaven to dwell in heaven, the worm upon earth to abide on earth. He made not the Angel to creep in the mud, nor the worm to move in heaven. He has assigned dwellers to their different abodes; incorruption He assigned to incorruptible abodes, corruptible things to corruptible abodes. Observe the whole, praise the whole. He then who ordered the limbs of the worm, does He not govern the clouds? And wherefore rains He into the sea? As though there are not in the sea things which are nourished by rain; as though He made not fishes therein, as though He made not living creatures therein. Observe how the fishes run to sweet water. And wherefore, says he, does He give rain to the fishes, and sometimes gives not rain to me? That you may consider that you are in a desert region, and in a pilgrimage of life; that so this present life may grow bitter to you, that you may long for the life to come: or else that you may be scourged, punished, amended. And how well does He assign their properties to regions. Behold, since we have spoken of Getulia, He rains here nearly every year, and gives grain every year; here the grain cannot be kept, it soon rots, because it is given every year; there, because it is given seldom, both much is given, and it can be kept for long. But do you perchance think that God there deserts man, or that they do not there after their own manner of rejoicing both praise and glorify God? Take a Getulian from his country, and set him amid our pleasant trees; he will wish to flee away, and return to his bare Getulia. To all places then, regions, seasons, God has assigned and arranged what fits them. Who could unfold it? Yet they who have eyes see many things therein: when seen, they please; pleasing, they are praised; not they really, but He who made them; thus shall all things praise God.

9. It was in thought of this that the spirit of the Prophet added the words, which do His word. Think not then that these things are moved by chance, which in every motion of theirs obey God. Whither God wills, there the fire spreads, there the cloud hurries, whether it carry in it rain, or snow, or hail. And wherefore does the lightning sometimes strike the mountain, yet strikes not the robber?...Perhaps He yet seeks the robber's conversion, and therefore is the mountain which fears not smitten, that the man who fears may be changed. Thou also sometimes, when maintaining discipline, smitest the ground to terrify a child. Sometimes too He smites a man, whom He will. But you say to me, Behold, He smites the more innocent, and passes over the more guilty. Wonder not; death, whencesoever it come, is good to the good man. And whence do you know what punishment is reserved in secret for that more guilty man, if he be unwilling to be converted? Would not they rather be scorched by lightning, to whom it shall be said in the end, Depart into everlasting fire? [Matthew 25:41] The needful thing is, that you be guileless. Why so? Is it an evil thing to die by shipwreck, and a good thing to die by fever? Whether he die in this way or in that, ask what sort of man he is who dies; ask whither he will go after death, not how he is to depart from life....Whatever then happens here contrary to our wish, you will know that it happens not, save by the will of God, by His providence, by His ordering, by His nod, by His laws: and if we understand not why anything is done, let us grant to His providence that it is not done without reason: so shall we not be blasphemers. For when we begin to argue concerning the works of God, why is this? why is that? and, He ought not to have done this, He did this ill; where is the praise of God? You have lost your Halleluia. Regard all things in such wise as to please God and praise the Creator. For if you were to happen to enter the workshop of a smith, you would not dare to find fault with his bellows, his anvils, his hammers. But take an ignorant man, who knows not for what purpose each thing is, and he finds fault with all. But if he have not the skill of the workman, and have but the reasoning power of a man, what says he to himself? Not without reason are the bellows placed here: the workman knows wherefore, though I know not. In the shop he dares not to find fault with the smith, yet in the universe he dares to find fault with God. Therefore just as fire, hail, snow, ice, wind of storms, which do His word, so all things in nature, which seem to foolish persons to be made at random, simply do His word, because they are not made save by His command.

10. Then he mentions, that they may praise the Lord, mountains and hills, fruitful trees and all cedars [Psalm 148:9]: beasts and all cattle, creeping things, and winged fowls [Psalm 148:10]. Then he goes to men; kings of the earth and all people, princes and all judges of the earth [Psalm 148:11]: young men and maidens, old men and young, let them praise the Name of the Lord [Psalm 148:12]. Ended is the praise from heaven, ended is the praise from earth. For His Name only is exalted [Psalm 148:13]. Let no man seek to exalt his own name. Will you be exalted? Subject yourself to Him who cannot be humbled. His confession is in earth and heaven [Psalm 148:14]. What is His confession? Is it the confession wherewith He confesses? No, but that whereby all things confess Him, all things cry aloud: the beauty of all things is in a manner their voice, whereby they praise God. The heaven cries out to God, You made me, not I myself. Earth cries out, You created me, not I myself. How do they cry out? When you regard them, and findest this out, they cry out by your voice, they cry out by your regard. Regard the heavens, it is beautiful: observe the earth, it is beautiful: both together are very beautiful. He made them, He rules them, by His nod they are swayed, He orders their seasons, He renews their movements, by Himself He renews them. All these things then praise Him, whether in stillness or in motion, whether from earth below or from heaven above, whether in their old state or in their renewal. When you see all these things, and rejoicest, and art lifted up to the Maker, and gazest on His invisible things understood by the things which are made, [Romans 1:20] His confession is in earth and heaven: that is, thou confesses to Him from things on earth, thou confesses to Him from things in heaven. And since He made all things, and nought is better than He, whatsoever He made is less than He, and whatsoever in these things pleases you, is less than He. Let not then what He has made so please you, as to withdraw you from Him who made: if you love what He made, love much more Him who made. If the things which He has made are beautiful, how much more beautiful is He who made them. And He shall exalt the horn of His people. Behold what Haggai and Zachariah prophesied. Now the horn of His people is humble in afflictions, in tribulations, in temptations, in beating of the breast; when will He exalt the horn of His people? When the Lord has come, and our Sun is risen, not the sun which is seen with the eye, and rises upon the good and the evil, [Matthew 5:45] but That whereof is said, To you that hear God, the Sun of Righteousness shall rise, and healing in His wings; [Malachi 4:2] and of whom the proud and wicked shall hereafter say, The light of righteousness has not shined unto us, and the sun of righteousness rose not upon us. [Wisdom 5:6] This shall be our summer. Now during the winter weather the fruits appear not on the stock; you observe, so to say, dead trees during the winter. He who cannot see truly, thinks the vine dead; perhaps there is one near it which is really dead; both are alike during winter; the one is alive, the other is dead, but both the life and death are hidden: summer advances; then the life of the one shines brightly, the death of the other is manifested: the splendour of leaves, the abundance of fruit, comes forth, the vine is clothed in outward appearance from what it has in its stock. Therefore, brethren, now we are the same as other men: just as they are born, eat, drink, are clothed, pass their life, so also do the saints. Sometimes the very truth deceives men, and they say, Lo, he has begun to be a Christian: has he lost his headache? or, because he is a Christian, what gains he from me? O dead vine, you observe near you a vine that is bare indeed in winter, yet not dead. Summer will come, the Lord will come, our Splendour, that was hidden in the stock, and then He shall exalt the horn of His people, after the captivity wherein we live in this mortal life....

11. An hymn to all His Saints. Know ye what an hymn is? It is a song with praise of God. If you praise God and singest not, you utter no hymn: if you sing and praisest not God, you utter no hymn: if you praise anything else, which pertains not to the praise of God, although you sing and praisest, you utter no hymn. An hymn then contains these three things, song, and praise, and that of God. Praise then of God in song is called an hymn. What then means, An hymn to all His Saints? Let His Saints receive an hymn: let His Saints utter an hymn: for this is what they are to receive in the end, an everlasting hymn....

1. Let us praise the Lord both in voice, and in understanding, and in good works; and, as this Psalm exhorts, let us sing unto Him a new song. It begins: Sing ye to the Lord a new song. His praise is in the Church of the Saints [Psalm 149:1]. The old man has an old song, the new man a new song. The Old Testament is an old song, the New Testament a new song. In the Old Testament are temporal and earthly promises. Whoever loves earthly things sings an old song: let him that desires to sing a new song, love the things of eternity. Love itself is new and eternal; therefore is it ever new, because it never grows old....And this song is of peace, this song is of charity. Whoever severs himself from the union of the saints, sings not a new song; for he has followed old strife, not new charity. In new charity what is there? Peace, the bond of an holy society, a spiritual union, a building of living stones. Where is this? Not in one place, but throughout the whole world. This is said in another Psalm, Sing unto the Lord, all the earth. From this is understood, that he who sings not with the whole earth, sings an old song, whatever words proceed out of his mouth....We have already said, brethren, that all the earth sings a new song. He who sings not with the whole earth a new song, let him sing what he will, let his tongue sound forth Halleluia, let him utter it all day and all night, my ears are not so much bent to hear the voice of the singer, but I seek the deeds of the doer. For I ask, and say, What is it that you sing? He answers, Halleluia. What is Halleluia? Praise ye the Lord. Come, let us praise the Lord together. If you praise the Lord, and I praise the Lord, why are we at variance? Charity praises the Lord, discord blasphemes the Lord....

2. The field of the Lord is the world, not Africa. It is not with the Lord's field, as it is without these fields of ours, where Getulia bears sixty or an hundred fold, Numidia only ten fold: everywhere fruit is borne to Him, both an hundred fold, and sixty fold, and thirty fold: only do thou choose what you will be, if you think to belong to the Lord's Cross. The Church then of the saints is the Catholic Church. The Church of the saints is not the Church of heretics. The Church of the saints is that which God first prefigured before it was seen, and then set forth that it might be seen. The Church of the saints was heretofore in writings, now it is in nations: the Church of the saints was heretofore only read of, now it is both read of and seen. When it was only read of, it was believed; now it is seen, and is spoken against. His praise is in the children of the kingdom, that is, the Church of the saints.

3. Let Israel rejoice in Him who made Him [Psalm 149:2]. What is, Israel? Seeing God. He who sees God, rejoices in Him by whom he was made. What is it then, brethren? We have said that we belong to the Church of the saints: do we already see God? And how are we Israel, if we see not? There is one kind of sight belonging to this present time; there will be another belonging to the time hereafter: the sight which now is, is by faith; the sight which is to be will be in reality. If we believe, we see; if we love, we see: see what? God. Ask John: God is love; [1 John 4:16] let us bless His holy Name, and rejoice in God by rejoicing in love. Whoever has love, why send we him afar to see God? Let him regard his own conscience, and there he sees God....And let the sons of Sion exult in their King. The sons of the Church are Israel. For Sion indeed was one city, which fell: amid its ruins certain saints dwelt after the flesh: but the true Sion, the true Jerusalem (for Sion and Jerusalem are one), is eternal in the heavens, [2 Corinthians 5:1] and is our mother. [Galatians 4:26] She it is that has given us birth, she is the Church of the saints, she has nourished us, she, who is in part a pilgrim, in part abiding in the heavens. In the part which abides in heaven is the bliss of angels, in the part which wanders in this world is the hope of the righteous. Of the former is said, Glory to God in the highest; of the latter, and on earth peace to men of good will. [Luke 2:14] Let those then who, being in this life, groan, and long for their country, run by love, not by bodily feet; let them seek not ships but wings, let them lay hold on the two wings of love. What are the two wings of love? The love of God, and of our neighbour. For now we are pilgrims, we sigh, we groan. There has come to us a letter from our country: we read it to you. And the sons of Sion shall exult in their King. The Son of God, who made us, was made one of us: and He rules us as our King, because He is our Creator, who made us. But He by whom we were made is the same as He by whom we are ruled, and we are Christians because He is Christ. He is called Christ from Chrism, that is, Anointing....Give to the Priest somewhat to offer. What could man find which he could give as a clean victim? What victim? What clean thing can a sinner offer? O unrighteous, O sinful man, whatever you offer is unclean, and somewhat that is clean must be offered for you....Let then the Priest that is clean offer Himself, and cleanse you. This is what Christ did. He found in man nothing clean for Him to offer for man: He offered Himself as a clean Victim. Happy Victim, true Victim, spotless Offering. He offered not then what we gave Him; yea rather, He offered what He took of us, and offered it clean. For of us He took flesh, and this He offered. But where took He it? In the womb of the Virgin Mary, that He might offer it clean for us unclean. He is our King, He is our Priest, in Him let us rejoice.

4. Let them praise His Name in chorus [Psalm 149:3]. What means chorus? Many know what a chorus is: nay, as we are speaking in a town, almost all know. A chorus is the union of singers. If we sing in chorus, let us sing in concord. If any one's voice is out of harmony in a chorus of singers, it offends the ear, and throwes the chorus into confusion. If the voice of one echoing discordantly troubles the harmony of them who sing, how does the discord of heresy throw into confusion the harmony of them who praise. The whole world is now the chorus of Christ. The chorus of Christ sounds harmoniously from east to west. Let them sing a psalm unto Him with timbrel and psaltery. Wherefore takes he to him the timbrel and psaltery? That not the voice alone may praise, but the works too. When timbrel and psaltery are taken, the hands harmonize with the voice. So too do thou, whenever you sing, Halleluia, deal forth your bread to the hungry, clothe the naked, take in the stranger: then does not only your voice sound, but your hand sounds in harmony with it, for your deeds agree with your words. You have taken to you an instrument, and your fingers agree with your tongue. Nor must we keep back the mystical meaning of the timbrel and psaltery. On the timbrel leather is stretched, on the psaltery gut is stretched; on either instrument the flesh is crucified. How well did he sing a psalm on timbrel and psaltery, who said, the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world? [Galatians 6:14] This psaltery or timbrel He wishes you to take up, who loves a new song, who teaches you, saying to you, Whosoever wills to be My disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. [Matthew 16:24] Let him not set down his psaltery, let him not set down his timbrel, let him stretch himself out on the wood, and be dried from the lust of the flesh. The more the strings are stretched, the more sharply do they sound. The Apostle Paul then, in order that his psaltery might sound sharply, what said he? Stretching forth unto those things which are before, etc. [Philippians 3:13] He stretched himself: Christ touched him; and the sweetness of truth sounded.

5. For the Lord has dealt kindly among His people [Psalm 149:4]. What dealing so kindly, as to die for the ungodly? What dealing so kindly, as with righteous Blood to blot out the handwriting against the sinner? What dealing so kindly, as to say, I regard not what you were, be ye now what you were not? He deals kindly in converting him that was turned away, in aiding him that is fighting, in crowning the conqueror. And the meek He shall lift up in salvation. For the proud too are lifted up, but not in salvation: the meek are lifted in salvation, the proud in death: that is, the proud lift up themselves, and God humbles them: the meek humble themselves, and God lifts them up.

6. The saints shall exult in glory [Psalm 149:5]. I would say somewhat important about the glory of the saints. For there is no one who loves not glory. But the glory of fools, popular glory as it is called, has snares to deceive, so that a man, influenced by the praises of vain men, shall be willing to live in such fashion as to be spoken of by men, whosoever they be, in whatsoever way. Hence it is that men, rendered mad, and puffed up with pride, empty within, without swollen, are willing ever to ruin their fortunes by bestowing them on stage-players, actors, men who fight with wild beasts, charioteers. What sums they give, what sums they spend! They lavish the powers not only of their patrimony, but of their minds too. They scorn the poor, because the people shouts not that the poor should be given to, but the people do shout that the fighter with wild beasts be given to. When then no shout is raised to them, they refuse to spend; when madmen shout to them, they are mad too: nay, all are mad, both performer, and spectator, and the giver. This mad glory is blamed by the Lord, is offensive in the eyes of the Almighty....You choose to clothe the fighter with wild beasts, who may be beaten, and make you blush: Christ is never conquered; He has conquered the devil, He has conquered for you, and to you, and in you; such a conqueror as this you choose not to clothe. Wherefore? Because there is less shouting, less madness about it. They then who delight in such glory, have an empty conscience. Just as they drain their chests, to send garments as presents, so do they empty their conscience, so as to have nothing precious therein.

7. But the saints who exult in glory, no need is there for us to say how they exult: just hear the verse of the Psalm which follows: The saints shall exult in glory, they shall rejoice in their beds: not in theatres, or amphitheatres, or circuses, or follies, or market places, but in their chambers. What is, in their chambers? In their hearts. Hear the Apostle Paul exulting in his closet: For this is our glory, the testimony of our conscience. [2 Corinthians 1:12] On the other hand, there is reason to fear lest any be pleasing to himself, and so seem to be proud, and boast of his conscience. For every one ought to exult with fear, for that wherein he exults is God's gift, not his own desert. For there be many that please themselves, and think themselves righteous; and there is another passage which goes against them, which says, Who shall boast that he has a clean heart, and that he is pure from sin? [Proverbs 20:9] There is then, so to speak, a limit to glorying in our conscience, namely, to know that your faith is sincere, your hope sure, your love without dissimulation. The exultations of God are in their mouths [Psalm 149:6]. In such wise shall they rejoice in their closets, as not to attribute to themselves that they are good, but praise Him from whom they have what they are, by whom they are called to attain to what they are not, and from whom they hope for perfection, to whom they give thanks, because He has begun.

8. And swords sharpened on both sides in their hands. This sort of weapon contains a great mystical meaning, in that it is sharp on both sides. By swords sharpened on both sides, we understand the Word of the Lord: [Hebrews 4:12] it is one sword, but therefore are they called many, because there are many mouths and many tongues of the saints. How is it two edged? It speaks of things temporal, it speaks also of things eternal. In both cases it proves what it says, and him whom it strikes, it severs from the world. Is not this the sword whereof the Lord said, I am not come to send peace upon earth, but a sword? [Matthew 10:34] Observe how He came to divide, how He came to sever. He divides the saints, He divides the ungodly, He severs from you that which hinders you. The son wills to serve God, the father wills not: the sword comes, the Word of God comes, and severs the son from the father....Wherefore then is it in their hands, not in their tongues? And swords, it says, sharpened on both sides in their hands. By in their hands, he means in power. They received then the word of God in power, to speak where they would, to whom they would, neither to fear power, nor to despise poverty. For they had in their hands a sword; where they would they brandished it, handled it, smote with it: and all this was in the power of the preachers. For if the Word be not in their hands, why is it written, The Word of the Lord was put in the hand of the Prophet Haggai? Surely, brethren, God set not His Word in His fingers. What is meant by, was put in his hand? It was put into his power to preach the Word of the Lord. Lastly, we can understand these hands in another way also. For they who spoke had the word of God in their tongues, they who wrote, in their hands.

9. Now, brethren, you see the saints armed: observe the slaughter, observe their glorious battles. For if there be a commander, there must be soldiers; if soldiers, an enemy; if a warfare, a victory. What have these done who had in their hands swords sharpened on both sides? To do vengeance on the nations. See whether vengeance have not been done on the nations. Daily is it done: we do it ourselves by speaking. Observe how the nations of Babylon are slain. She is repaid twofold: for so is it written of her, repay her double for what she has done. [Revelation 18:6] How is she repaid double? The saints wage war, they draw their swords twice sharpened; thence come defeats, slaughters, severances: how is she repaid double? When she had power to persecute the Christians, she slew the flesh indeed, but she crushed not God: now she is repaid double, for the Pagans are extinguished and the idols are broken....And lest you should think that men are really smitten with the sword, blood really shed, wounds made in the flesh, he goes on and explains, upbraidings among the peoples. What is upbraidings? Reproof. Let the sword twice sharpened go forth from you, delay not. Say to your friend, if yet you have one left to whom to say it, What kind of man are you, who has abandoned Him by whom you were made, and worship what He made? Better is the Workman, than that which He works. When he begins to blush, when he begins to feel compunction, you have made a wound with your sword, it has reached the heart, he is about to die, that he may live.

10. That they may bind their kings in fetters, and their nobles in bonds of iron [Psalm 149:8]. To execute upon them the judgment written [Psalm 149:9]. The kings of the Gentiles are to be bound in fetters, and their nobles in fetters, and that of iron....For these verses which we are beginning to explain are obscure. For for this purpose God willed to set down some of His verses obscurely, not that anything new should be dug out of them, but that what was already well known, might be made new by being obscurely set forth. We know that kings have been made Christians; we know that the nobles of the Gentiles have been made Christians. They are being made so at this day; they have been, they shall be; the swords twice sharpened are not idle in the hands of the saints. How then do we understand their being bound in fetters and chains of iron? You know, beloved and learned brethren (learned I call you, for you have been nourished in the Church, and are accustomed to hear God's Word read), that God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the strong, and the foolish things of the world has God chosen to confound the wise, and things which are not, just as things which are, that the things which are may be brought to nought.. ..It is said by the Lord, If you will be perfect, go sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and come, follow Me, and you shall have treasure in heaven. [Matthew 19:21] Many of the nobles did this, but they ceased to be nobles of the Gentiles, they chose rather to be poor in this world, noble in Christ. But many retain their former nobility, retain their royal powers, and yet are Christians. These are, as it were, in fetters and in bonds of iron. How so? They received fetters, to keep them from going to things unlawful, the fetters of wisdom, [Sirach 6:25] the fetters of the Word of God. Wherefore then are they bonds of iron and not bonds of gold? They are iron so long as they fear: let them love, and they shall be golden. Observe, beloved, what I say. You have heard just now the Apostle John, There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment. [1 John 4:18] This is the bond of iron. And yet unless a man begin through fear to worship God, he will not attain to love. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The beginning then is bonds of iron, the end a collar of gold. For it is said of wisdom, a collar of gold around your neck. [Sirach 6:24]...There comes to us a man powerful in this world, his wife offends him, and perhaps he has desired another man's wife who is more beautiful, or another woman who is richer, he wishes to put away the one he has, yet he does it not. He hears the words of the servant of God, he hears the Prophet, he hears the Apostle, and he does it not; he is told by one in whose hands is a sword twice sharpened, You shall not do it: it is not lawful for you: God allows you not to put away your wife, save for the cause of fornication. [Matthew 5:32] He hears this, he fears, and does it not....Listen, young men; the bonds are of iron, seek not to set your feet within them; if you do, you shall be bound more tightly with fetters. Such fetters the hands of the Bishop make strong for you. Do not men who are thus fettered fly to the Church, and are here loosed? Men do fly hither, desiring to be rid of their wives: here they are more tightly bound: no man looses these fetters. What God joined together, let not man put asunder. [Matthew 19:6] But these bonds are hard. Who but knows it? This hardness the Apostles grieved at, and said, If this be the case with a wife, it is not good to marry. [Matthew 19:10] If the bonds be of iron, it is not good to set our feet within them. And the Lord said, All men cannot receive this saying, but let him that can receive it, receive it. [Matthew 19:11-12] Are you bound unto a wife? Seek not to be freed, for you are bound with bonds of iron. Are you free from a wife, seek not a wife; bind not yourself with bonds of iron.

11. To do in them the judgment that is written. This is the judgment which the saints do throughout all nations. Wherefore written? Because these things were before written, and now are fulfilled. Behold now they are being done: erst they were read, and were not done. And he has concluded thus, this glory have all His saints. Throughout the whole world, throughout entire nations, this the saints do, thus are they glorified, thus do they exalt God with their mouths, thus do they rejoice in their beds, thus do they exult in their glory, thus are they lifted up in salvation, thus do they sing a new song, thus in heart and voice and life they say Halleluia. Amen.

1. Although the arrangement of the Psalms, which seems to me to contain the secret of a mighty mystery, has not yet been revealed unto me, yet, by the fact that they in all amount to one hundred and fifty, they suggest somewhat even to us, who have not as yet pierced with the eye of our mind the depth of their entire arrangement, whereon we may without being over-bold, so far as God gives, be able to speak. Firstly, the number fifteen, whereof it is a multiple this number fifteen, I say, signifies the agreement of the two Testaments. For in the former is observed the Sabbath, which signifies rest; in the latter the Lord's Day, which signifies resurrection. The Sabbath is the seventh day, but the Lord's Day, coming after the seventh, must needs be the eighth, and is also to be reckoned the first. For it is called the first day of the week, and so from it are reckoned the second, third, fourth, and so on to the seventh day of the week, which is the Sabbath. But from Lord's Day to Lord's Day is eight days, wherein is declared the revelation of the New Testament, which in the Old was as it were veiled under earthly promises. Further, seven and eight make fifteen. Of the same number too are the Psalms which are called of the steps, because that was the number of the steps of the Temple. Further too, the number fifty in itself also contains a great mystery. For it consists of a week of weeks, with the addition of one as an eighth to complete the number of fifty. For seven times seven make forty-nine, whereto one is added to make fifty. And this number fifty is of so great meaning, that it was after the completion of that number of days from the Lord's Resurrection, that, on the fiftieth day exactly, the Holy Spirit came upon those who were gathered together in Christ. And this Holy Spirit is in Scripture especially spoken of by the number seven, whether in Isaiah or in the Apocalypse, where the seven Spirits of God are most directly mentioned, on account of the sevenfold operation of one and the self-same Spirit. [Revelation 1:20] And this sevenfold operation is mentioned in Isaiah. [Isaiah 11:2]...Hence also the Holy Spirit is spoken of under the number seven. But this period of fifty the Lord divided into forty and ten: for on the fortieth day after His Resurrection He ascended into heaven, and then after ten days were completed He sent the Holy Spirit: under the number forty setting forth to us the period of temporal sojourn in this world. For the number four prevails in forty; and the world and the year have each four parts; and by the addition of the number ten, as a sort of reward added for the fulfilment of the law in good works, eternity itself is figured. This fifty the number one hundred and fifty contains three times, as though it were multiplied by the Trinity. Wherefore for this reason too we make out that this number of the Psalm is not unsuitable.

2. Now in that some have believed that the Psalms are divided into five books, they have been led by the fact, that so often at the end of Psalms are the words, so be it, so be it. But when I endeavoured to make out the principle of this division, I was not able; for neither are the five parts equal one to another, neither in quantity of contents, nor yet even in number of Psalms, so as for each to contain thirty. And if each book end with, so be it, so be it, we may reasonably ask, why the fifth and last book has not the same conclusion. We however, following the authority of canonical Scripture, where it is said, For it is written in the book of Psalms, [Acts 1:20] know that there is but one book of Psalms. And I see indeed how this can be true, and yet the other be true also, without contravening it. For it may be that there was some custom in Hebrew literature, whereby that is called one book which yet consists of more than one, just as of many churches one church consists, and of many heavens one heaven,. ..and one land of many lands. For it is our everyday habit to say, the globe of the earth, and the globe of the lands. And when it is said, It is written in the book of Psalms, though the customary way of speaking is such that he seem to have wished to suggest that there is but one book, yet to this it may be answered, that the words mean in a book of the Psalms, that is, in any one of those five books. And this is in common language so unprecedented, or at least so rare, that we are only convinced that the twelve Prophets made one book, because we read in like manner, As it is written in the book of the Prophets. [Acts 7:42] There are some too who call all the canonical Scriptures together one book, because they agree in a very wondrous and divine unity....

3. Whichever then of these is understood, this book, in its parts of fifty Psalms each, gives an answer important and very worthy of consideration. For it seems to me not without significance, that the fiftieth is of penitence, the hundredth of mercy and judgment, the hundred and fiftieth of the praise of God in His saints. For thus do we advance to an everlasting life of happiness, first by condemning our own sins, then by living aright, that, having condemned our ill life, and lived a good life, we may attain to everlasting life. Our predestination is not wrought in ourselves, but in secret with Him, in His foreknowledge. But we are called by the preaching of repentance. We are justified in the calling of mercy and fear of judgment. He fears not judgment, who has previously attained salvation. Being called, we renounce the devil by repentance, that we may not continue under his yoke: being justified, we are healed by mercy, that we may not fear judgment: being glorified, we pass into everlasting life, where we praise God without end....The verse wherewith this Psalm concludes is the voice of life everlasting.

4. Praise the Lord in His saints, that is, in those whom He has glorified: praise Him in the firmament of His power [Psalm 150:1]. Praise Him in His deeds of strength; or, as others have explained it, in His deeds of power: praise Him according to the multitude of His greatness [Psalm 150:2]. All these His saints are; as the Apostle says, But we may be the righteousness of God in Him. [2 Corinthians 5:21] If then they be the righteousness of God, which He has wrought in them, why are they not also the strength of Christ which He has wrought in them, that they should rise again from the dead? For in Christ's resurrection, strength is especially set forth to us, for in His Passion was weakness, as the Apostle says. And well does it say, the firmament of His power. For it is the firmament of His power that He dies no more, death has no more dominion over Him. [Romans 6:9] Why should not they also be called the works of God's strength, which He has done in them: yea rather, they themselves are the works of His strength; just as it is said, We are the righteousness of God in Him. For what more powerful than that He should reign for ever, with all His enemies put under His feet? Why should not they also be the multitude of His greatness? Not that whereby He is great, but whereby He has made them great, many as they are, that is, thousands of thousands. Just as righteousness too is understood in two ways, that whereby He is righteous, and that which He works in us, so as to make us His righteousness. These same saints are signified by all the musical instruments in succession, to praise God in. For what the Psalmist began with, saying, Praise the Lord in His saints, that he carries out, signifying in various ways these same saints of His.

5. Praise Him in the sound of the trumpet [Psalm 150:3]: on account of the surpassing clearness of note of their praise. Praise Him in the psaltery and harp. The psaltery praises God from things above, the harp praises God from things below; I mean, from things in heaven, and things in earth, as He who made heaven and earth. We have already in another Psalm, explained that the psaltery has that board, whereon the series of strings rests that it may give a better sound, above, whereas the harp has it below. Praise Him in the timbrel and choir [Psalm 150:4]. The timbrel praises God when the flesh is now changed, so that there is in it no weakness of earthly corruption. For the timbrel is made of leather dried and strengthened. The choir praises God when society made peaceful praises Him. Praise Him on the strings and organ. Both psaltery and harp, which have been mentioned above, have strings. But organ is a general name for all instruments of music, although usage has now obtained that those are specially called organ which are inflated with bellows: but I do not think that this kind is meant here. For since organ is a Greek word, applied generally, as I have said, to all musical instruments, this instrument, to which bellows are applied, is called by the Greeks by another name: but it being called organ is rather a Latin and conversational usage. When then he says, on the strings and organ, he seems to me to have intended to signify some instrument which has strings. For it is not psalteries and harps only that have strings: but, because in the psaltery, and harp, on account of the sound from things below and things above, somewhat has been found which can be understood after this distinction, he has suggested to us to seek some other meaning in the strings themselves: for they too are flesh, but flesh now set free from corruption. And to those, it may be, he added the organ, to signify that they sound not each separately, but sound together in most harmonious diversity, just as they are arranged in a musical instrument. For even then the saints of God will have their differences, accordant, not discordant, that is, agreeing, not disagreeing, just as sweetest harmony arises from sounds differing indeed, but not opposed to one another.

6. Praise Him on the well-sounding cymbals, praise Him on cymbals of jubilation [Psalm 150:5]. Cymbals touch one another in order to sound, and therefore are by some compared to our lips. But I think it better to understand that God is in a manner praised on the cymbal, when each is honoured by his neighbour, not by himself, and then honouring one another, they give praise to God. But lest any should understand such cymbals as sound without life, therefore I think he added, on cymbals of jubilation. For jubilation that is, unspeakable praise, proceeds not, save from life. Nor do I think that I should pass over what musicians say, that there are three kinds of sounds, by voice, by breath, by striking: by voice, uttered by throat and windpipe, when man sings without any instrument; by breath, as by pipe, or anything of that sort: by striking, as by harp, or anything of that kind. None then of these kinds is omitted here: for there is voice in the choir, breath in the trumpet, striking in the harp, representing mind, spirit, body, but by similitudes, not in the proper sense of the words. When then he proposed, Praise God in His saints, to whom said he this, save to themselves? And in whom are they to praise God, save in themselves? For you, says he, are His saints; you are His strength, but that which He wrought in you; you are His mighty works, and the multitude of His greatness, which He has wrought and set forth in you. You are trumpet, psaltery, harp, timbrel, choir, strings, and organ, cymbals of jubilation sounding well, because sounding in harmony. All these are you: let nought that is vile, nought that is transitory, nought that is ludicrous, be here thought of. And since to savour of the flesh is death, let every spirit praise the Lord [Psalm 150:6].

Prayer of St. Augustine

Which he was wont to use after his Sermons and Lectures.

Turn we to the Lord God, the Father Almighty, and with pure hearts offer to Him, so far as our meanness can, great and true thanks, with all our hearts praying His exceeding kindness, that of His good pleasure He would deign to hear our prayers, that by His Power He would drive out the enemy from our deeds and thoughts, that He would increase our faith, guide our understandings, give us spiritual thoughts, and lead us to His bliss, through Jesus Christ His Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with Him, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.