Psalm 44 (Vulgate 43)

1. This Psalm is addressed " to the sons of Korah," as its title shews. Now Korah is equivalent to the word " cal-vitium," or " baldness;" and we find in the Gospel that our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified in the place of a skull It is clear then that this Psalin is sung to the " sons of His? Passion" Now we have on this point a most certain and most evident testimony from the Apostle Paul; because that at the time when the Church was suffering under the persecutions of the Gentiles, he quoted from hence a verse, to insert by way of consolation, and encouragement to patience. For it is here that is said, which he inserted in his Epistle, For Thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Let us then hear in this Psalm the voice of the Martyrs; and see how good is the cause which the voice of the Martyrs pleads, saying, For Thy sake, $c. For on this account the Lord also added the words for righteousness sake9 while saying, Blessed are they that suffer for righteousness; viz. lest any one suffering10, persecution should expect glory from the punishment itself, without having a good cause. And hence exhorting His disciples, He says, Blessed are ye9 when men shall say, or do such and such things unto you for my sake. Hence then the words, For Thy sake are we killed all the day long.

2. But it is a counsel of God of great depth, and one requiring great consideration*, what was the reason that after He had led our fathers, the Patriarchs, and the whole of that people Israel, out of Egypt with a mighty hand; and after He had drowned iu the sea their enemies when15- pursuing them, had led them through opposing nations, and having completely subdued their enemies, planted themselves in the land of promise, and, with very small numbers on their side, won great victories over a vast multitude of the enemy; why ft should afterwards have seemed good to Him to " turn His face," as it were, from His people, so that His saints must be exposed to the sweeping overthrow of * magnai considerationis et magna profanditatis. slaughter and of death, and no man resisted, no man defended them, no man rescued them; as if God had " turned His face'5 from their groanings; as if He had forgotten them; if He was not Himself their God, Who with a mighty hand, and a stretched out arm, and power made manifest, forced (as I said) from Egypt our fathers, (i. e. that people,) and having conquered and expelled the Heathen from their own land, settled them in the sovereignty; all persons marvelling that a great multitude had been repeatedly conquered by a few. This then it is that begins to be sung in this Psalm, in the groaning of confession. For it was not without reason that those thipgs actually took place; but in order that it might be understood why they took place. Now that they did actually take place, we know: why they took place, is a deeper question for us. The title then is not simply To the sons of Korah, but, For understanding to the sons qf Korah. This is the case also with that Psalm, the first verse of which the Lord Himself uttered on the Cross: My God, My God, look upon Me;, why hast Thou forsaken Me? For ' transferring us in a figure' to what He was saying, and to His own Body, (for we are also His Body, and He is our Head,) He uttered from the Cross not His own cry, but ours. For God never forsook Him: nor did He Himself ever depart from the Father; but it was in behalf of us that He spake this: My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? For there follows, Far from My health are the words of My offences: and it shews, in whose person He said this; for sin could not be found in Him. / will cry unto Thee in the day-time, and Thou wilt not hear; and in the night-season, (assuredly we must understand, Thou wilt not hear;) but he added, and not for foolishness unto me, that is, this very thing that ' Thou wilt not hearken unto me/ is not for foolishness unto me, but for understanding. What means, wilt not hear me for understanding? This means, " Thou wilt not hear me" unto temporal things, that I may understand that it is things eternal that should be desired of Thee! God then does not forsake, and when He seems to forsake, He is taking from thee what thou didst wrongly long for, and teaching thee what thou oughtest rightly to long for. For if God were always to shew favour unto us in these present prosperities, that every thing should abound unto us, and that in this time of our mortality we should suffer no distress, or difficulties, we could not but say that these are the highest blessings that God bestows on His servants, and we should not desire any greater ones of Him. Now it is for this reason that He mingles the bitterness of tribulations with this life's hurtful sweetness, that another, which is wholesorncr, might be sought after. This is the meaning of A Psalm for understanding for the sons of Korah. Let us at least hear the Psalm, and there rather see this truth.

3. Ver. 1. O God, we have heard with our ears; our fathers have told us the work that Thou didst in their days, and in the days of old. Wondering wherefore, in these days, He has seemingly forsaken those, whom it was His will to exercise in sufferings, they recall the past events which they have heard of from their fathers; as if they said, It is not of these things that we suffer, that our fathers told us! For in that other Psalm also, He said this, Our fathers trusted in Thee; they trusted, and Tliou didst deliver them. But4""6' I am a worm and no man; a reproach of men, and the outcast of the people. They trusted, and Thou didst deliver them; have I then hoped, and hast Thou " forsaken" me? And have I believed upon Thee in vain? And is it in vain that my name has been written in Thy Book, and Thy name has been inscribed On me? What our fathers told us was this:

Ver. 2. Thy hand destroyed the nations; and Tfiou plantedst them: Thou didst weaken the peoples, and cast them out. That is to say; ' Thou didst drive out " the peoples" from their own land, that Thou mightest bring them in, and plant them; and mightest by Thy mercy stablisb their kingdom." These are the things that we heard from our fathers.

4. But perhaps it was because they were brave, were men of battle, were invincible, were well- disciplined, and warlike, that they could do these things. Far from it. This is not what our fathers told us; this is not what is contained in Scripture. But what does it say, but what follows?

Ver. 3. For they gat not the land in possession by their oten sword, neither did their man arm save them; but Thy hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance. Thy right hand is Thy Power: Thine arm is Thy Son Himself. And the light of Thy countenance. What means this, but that Thou wert present with them, in miracles of such a sort that Thy presence was perceived. For when God's presence with us appears by any miracle, do we see His face with our own eyes? No. It is by the effect of the miracle He intimates to man His presence. In fact, what do all persons say, who express wonder at facts of this description? " I saw God present." But Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Tit y countenance; because Thou pleasedst in them1: i.e. didst so deal with them, tnat Thou wert well-pleasing in them: that whoso considered how they were being dealt with, might say, that Ood is with them of a truth; and it is God that moves* them.

5. 1 What? Was He then other than now He is?* Away with the supposition. For what follows?

Ver. 4. Thou art Tfiyself3 my King and my Ood. Thou art Thyself; for Thou art not changed. I see that the times are changed; but the Creator of times is unchanged. Thou art Thyself my King and my God. Thou art wont to guide me: to govern me, to save me.

Thou Who commandest salvation unto Jacob. What is, 77/01* WJio commandest? Even though in Thine own proper Substance and Nature, in which Thou art whatsoever Thou art, Thou wast hid from them; and though Thou didst not converse with the fathers in that which Thou art in Thyself, so that they could see Thee face to face, yet by any created being whatsoever Thou commandest salvation unto Israel. For that sight of Thee face to face is reserved for those set free in the Resurrection. And the very " fathers" of the New Testament too, although they saw Thy mysteries revealed, although they preached the secret things so revealed to them, nevertheless said that they themselves saw but tit a glass, darkly, but that seeing face to face is reserved to a future time, when what the Apostle himself speaks of shall have come. For ye are dead, and your life is hid trith Christ in God. Wfien Christ our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. It is against that time then that vision face to face is reserved for you, of which John also speaks: Beloved, we are now the sons of1 God: and it doth not yet appear tchat we shall be. We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. Although then at that time our fathers saw Thee not as Thou art, face to face, although that vision is reserved against the resurrection, yet, even though they were Angels who presented themselves, it is Thou, Who commandest salvation unto Jacob. Thou art not only present by Thine own Self; but by whatsoever created being Thou didst appear, it is Thou that dost command by them, that which Thou doest by Thine own Self in order to the salvation of Thy servants: but that which they do whom Thou commandest it, is done to procure the salvation of Thy servants. Since then Thou art Thyself my King and my God, and Thou commandest salvation unto Jacob, wherefore are we suffering these things?

6. But perhaps it is only what is past that has been described to us: but nothing of the kind is to be hoped for by us for the future. Nay indeed, it is still to be hoped for.

Ver. 5, Through Thee will we winnow away1 our enemies, Our fathers then have declared to us a work that Thou didst " in their days, and in the days of old," that Thy hand destroyed the Gentiles: that Thou " didst cast out the peoples; and didst plant them." Such was the past; but what is to be hereafter? Through Thee we shall winnow away our enemies. A time will come, when all the enemies of Christians will be winnowed away like chaff, be blown like dust, and be cast off from the earth. If then both the past has been described to us to have been such, and the future foretold to be of the same description, why do we suffer in the midst of the present state of things; except it be in order to the understanding of the sons of Korah? Through Thee will we winnow away our enemies: and through Thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us. Thus much of the future.

7. Ver. 6. / will not trust in my bow, even as our fathers did not in their sword. Neither shall my sword help me.

8. Ver. 7. For Thou hast saved us from our enemies. This too is spoken of the future under the figure of the past this is the reason that it is spoken of as if it were past, that it is as certain as if it were past. Give heed, wherefore many things are expressed by the Prophets as if they were past; whereas it is things future, not past facts that are the subject of prophecy. For the future Passion of our Lord Himself was foretold: and yet it says, They pierced My hands and My feet. They told all My bones; not, ' They shall pierce,' and ' shall tell.' They looked and stared upon Me; not ' They shall look and stare upon Me.' They parted My garments among them. It does not say, 1 They shall part' them. All these things are expressed as if they were past, although they were yet to come: because to God things to come also are as certain as if they were past. For to us what is past is certain; what is to come uncertain. For we know a certain thing to have happened, and it is impossible that what has once happened should not have happened. Suppose a Prophet, to whom the future is as certain as the past is to you: and as certain as it is to you that what you remember to have happened cannot possibly not have happened) so certain is it to him, that what he knows to be about to come to pass, cannot possibly fail to come to pass. It is for this reason, in consequence of their certainty,' that those things which are yet future, are spoken of as if past. This it is then that we hope. For it is, Thou hast sated us from our enemies, and hast put them to shame that hated us.

9. Ver. 8. In God will we boast1 all the day long, observe how he intermingles words expressive of a future time, that you may perceive that what was spoken of before as in past time was foretold of future times. In God will we boast all day long; and in Thy name will we confess for ever. What is, We shall boast? What, We shall confess? That Thou hast saved us from our enemies; that Thou art.to give us an everlasting kingdom: that, in us are to be fulfilled the words, Blessed are they that dwell in Thine house: they will be always praising Thee.

10. Since then we have the certainty that these things are to be hereafter, and since we have heard from our fathers that those we spoke of were in time past, what is our state at present f

Ver. 9. Bui now Thou hast cast us off, and put us to shame* Thou hast "put us to sharae" not before our own consciences, but in the sight of men. For there was a time when Christians were persecuted; when in every place they were outcasts, when in every place it used to be said, " He is a Christian!" as if it conveyed an insult and reproach. Where then is He, " our God, our King," Who commands salvation unto Jacob? Where is He, Who did all those works, which our fathers have told us? Where is He, Who is hereafter to do all those things, which He revealed unto us by His Spirit? Is He changed? No. These things are done in order to understanding, for the sons of Korah. For we ought to understand something of the reason, why He has willed we should suffer all these things in the mean time. What " all things?" But now Thou hast cast us off and put us to shame: and goest not forth, O God, in our powers1. We go forth to meet our enemies, and Thou goest not forth with us. We see them: they are very strong, and we are without strength. Where is that might of^M*' Thine? Where Thy right hand, and Thy power8? Where2 the sea dried up, and the Egyptian pursuers overwhelmed with the waves? Where Amalek's resistance subdued by the sign of the Cross? And Thou, O God, goest not forth in our powers.

11. Ver. 10. Thou hast turned us away backward in presence of our enemies, so that they are, as it were, before; we, behind; they are counted as conquerors, we as conquered. And they which hate us spoiled for themselves.

What did they " spoil" but ourselves? 12. Ver. 11. Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat, and hast scattered us among the nations. We have been devoured by the nations. Those persons are meant, who, through their sufferings, have by process of assimilation, become part of the body of the Gentile world. For the

Church mourns over them, as over members of her body, that have been devoured b. 13. Ver. 12. Thou hast sold Thy people for no price.

For we see whom Thou hast made over; what Thou hast received, we have not seen. And there was no multitude in their jubilees1. For when the Christians were flying before the pursuit of enemies, who were idolaters, were there then held any congregations and jubilees to the honour of God? Were those Hymns chanted in concert from the Churches of God, that are wont to be sung in concert in time of peace, and to be sounded in a sweet accord of the brotherhood in the ears of God? And there was no multitude in their jubilees.

14. Ver. 18, 14. Thou madest us a reproach to our neighbours; a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us. Thou madest us a similitude* among the Heathen. What ^ meant by a similitude? It is when men in imprecating a curse make a " similitude" of his name whom they detest. "So mayest thou die;" " So mayest thou be punished?" What a number of such reproaches were then uttered! " So mayest thou be crucified!" Even in the present day there are not wanting enemies of Christ, (those very Jews themselves,) against whom whensoever we defend Christ, they say unto us, " So mayest thou die as He did." For they would not have inflicted that kind of death had they not an intense horror of dying by such a death: or had they been able to comprehend what mystery was contained in it When the ointment is applied to the eyes of the blind man, he does not see the eye-salve in the physician's hand. For the very Cross was made for the benefit even of the persecutors themselves. Hereby they were healed afterwards; and they believed in Him whom they themselves had slain. Thou madest us a similitude among the heathen; a shaking of the head among the peoples, a shaking of the head by way of insult. They spake with their lips, they shook the Jiead- This they did to the Lord: this to all His Saints also, whom they were able to pursue, to lay hold of, to moc^> t0 betray, to afflict, and to slay.

15. Ver. 15, 36. My shame is continually before me; and the confusion of my face has covered me. For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth: that is to say, from the voice of them that insult over me, and who make it a charge against me that I worship Thee, that I confess Thee! and who make it a charge against me that I bear that name, by which all charges against me shall be blotted out. For the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth, that is, of him that speaketh against me. By reason of the enemy and the persecutor. And what is the understanding conveyed here? Those things which are told us of the time past, will not be done in our case1: those which are hoped for, as to be hereafter, are not as yet manifest. Those which are past, as the leading out of Thy people with great glory from Egypt; its 'deliverance from its persecutors; the guiding of it through the nations, the placing of it in the kingdom, whence the nations had been expelled. What are those to be hereafter? The leading of the people out of this Egypt of the world, when Christ, our " leader" shall appear in His glory: the placing of the Saints at His right hand; of the wicked at His left; the condemnation of the wicked with the devil to eternal punishment; the receiving of a kingdom from Christ with the Saints to last for ever. These are the things that are yet to be: the former are what are past. In the interval, what is to be our lot? Tribulations! " Why so?" That it may be seen with respect to the soul that worships God, to what extent it worships God; that it may be seen whether it worships Him freely, from Whom it received salvation freely. For should God say unto thee, What didst thou give Me, that I might create thee? Assuredly if thou deservedst aught of Me after thou wast made, thou hadst not deserved aught of Me s before I made thee.«DonMe What are we to say to Him, Who first created us freely^^- because He Himself is good, not because we have deserved any thing whatsoever. In the next place, what are we to say of our restoration, our second birth itself? That our deserts obtained for us the sending to us of that eternal salvation from the Lord? God forbid! If our deserts were at all accounted of, His coming would be but to our condemnation! He came not to examine into our deserts, but for the remission of our sins. Thou wert not in being, and thou wert created! What hast thou given unto God? Thou wert wicked, and thou wert redeemed! What hast Thou given unto God? What is there that thou hast not received from Him freely? With reason is it named "grace," because it is bestowed (" gratis," i. e.) freely. What is required of thee then is this, that thou too shouldest worship Him freely; not because He gives thee things temporal, but because He holds out to thee things eternal.

16. But beware, lest thou think of those eternal things themselves otherwise (than as they are:) and lest, understanding those things eternal in a carnal sense, thou shouldest nevertheless not be serving G od " freely." For, if thou worshippest God because He gives thee an estate, dost thou mean to forego His service because He takes thine estate from thee? But perhaps thou sayest, " I will serve God because He will give me an estate, though not a temporal one! Nevertheless, thou still bearest a corrupt mind; for thou dost not yet serve Him with a pure love; thou art still seeking a reward. For thou wouldest fain possess, in the world to come, the things which thou must of necessity leave behind thee here, thou wouldest fain change thy carnal pleasure, not cut it off entirely. We do not commend the fasting of the man, who reserves his appetite for a luxurious dinner. For sometimes men are invited to a great feast, and as they wish to come to it with an appetite, they fast. But is not such fasting as this to be attributed rather to luxury than to self-denial? Do not therefore hope to have such things given to thee by God, as He calls upon thee to despise even here. For such were the things hoped for by the Jews: therefore tbey were confounded by that question. For they too hope for a Resurrection; but they hope to arise to such bodily pleasures as they love here. When therefore the question was put to tbem by the Sadducees, who do not believe in a Resurrection, as to that woman who married the seven brothers in succession, whose wife of them she should be in the Resurrection? they were at a loss1, and could not answer- wnen it vvas proposed to our Lord, because the Resurrection promised to us is not one in which pleasures of this sort are to be renewed, but one in which we are to find everlasting delight from the fruition of God Himself, the Lord answered and said, Ye do err, not know- *n9 *ne Scriptures, and the power of God: for in the Besurrection they shall neither marry nor be given in marriage; for neither can they die any more, i. e. there is no looking for a successor, where there is none to make a decease. And what then will there be there? but they shall be equal (saith He) unto the Angels of God. Unless perhaps you suppose that the Angels delight in the daily banquet, and the wine with which you intoxicate yourself, or perhaps believe that the Angels have wives. Nothing of all this is to be found among the Angels. Whence do the Angels derive their joy, save from that source, of Which the Lord saith, " Know ye not that their Angels do alway behold the Father's face?" If then the Angels' joy is derived from the " face of the Father," prepare thou thyself for such pleasure, or for any pleasure thou canst find superior to that of seeing God's face. Woe to that love of thine, if thou canst conceive any thing more beautiful than Him, from Whom is all Beauty, to keep thee back from deserving to think of Him. The Lord was incarnate, and appeared unto men as a Man. ' In what fashion did He appear?' I have said already; He appeared " unto men, and as a Man." What great thing did He appear? Flesh unto flesh! What great thing did He appear, of Whom it was said, We beheld Him, and He had no form nor comeliness? Who was it that had no form nor comeliness? He of Whom it was also said, Thou art fair before the children of men. As Man, He had no form nor comeliness; but He was fair, in that wherein He was before the sons qf men. Thence it is that shewing that form of the flesh, out of His own form l, to the eyes of the beholders, what saith He? He that loveth Me^£~ keepeth My Commandments; and he that loveth Me shall beloved of My Father: and I will love him, and manifest Myself unto him. Himself, Whom they saw already, He promised that He would manifest unto them. But what means this? It is even as if He said, "Ye see the form of a servant; the form of Ood is concealed. I employ the former to wins^per you 2 the latter I reserve for you: with the former I nourish you while yet * babes;' with the latter I feed you when full grown." In order then that this faith of ours, whereby we are made clean, may be prepared for things invisible, is the cause that all these things have been done for understanding unto the sons of^Korah, so that the saints should be stripped of their property, should be stripped even of temporal life itself, in order that they might not worship the Everlasting Himself with a view to these self-same temporal things; but out of a pure love of Him should endure patiently all these things that they are suffering for a time.

17. Because then " the sons of Korah" have understood this, what do they say? Ver. 17. All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten Thee. What is meant by, have not forgotten Thee? Neither have we behaved ourselves frowardly in Thy covenant.

Ver. 18. Our heart has not turned back; and Thou hast turned aside our goings out of Thy way. See here is understanding, in that " our heart has not gone back;" that we have not " forgotten Thee, have not behaved frowardly in Thy covenant;" placed as we are in great tribulations, and persecutions of the Gentiles. Thou hast turned aside our goings out qf Thy way. Our goings were in the pleasures of the world; our goings were in the midst of temporal prosperities. Thou hast taken our goings out of Thy way; and hast shewn us c how strait and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life. And Thou hast turned aside our goings out qf Thy way. What is meant by, " hast turned aside our goings out of Thy way f " It is as if He said, " Ye are placed in the midst of tribulation; ye are suffering many things; ye have already lost many things that ye loved in this life: but I have not abandoned you on the way, the narrow way that I am teaching you. Ye were seeking broad ways. What do I tell you? This is the way we go to everlasting life: by the way ye wish to walk, ye are going to death. How broad and wide is the road that leads to destruction: and how many there be that find it! Hoto strait and narrow the way that leadeth unto life, and how few there be that walk therein. Who are the few? They who patiently endure tribulations, patiently endure temptations; who in all these troubles do not fall away: who do not rejoice in the word f0* a *eason only; and in the time of tribulation fade away, as on the sun's arising; but who have the root of " love," according to what we have lately heard read in the Gospel. Have thou then, I say, the root of charity, that when the sun has arisen, it may not scorch thee, but may nourish thee. All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten 7hee, and behaved frowardly in Thy covenant. Our heart is not turned back. But because we do all this in the midst of tribulations, now walking in the " strait road," Thou hast turned aside our goings out of Thy way.

18. Ver. 18, 19. For Thou hast brought us low in the place of infirmity6: therefore Thou wilt exalt us in the place of strength. And the shadow of death has covered us. For this mortality of ours is but the shadow of death. The true death is condemnation with the devil.

19. Ver. 19, 20, 21. If we have forgotten the Name of our God. Here is the understanding of the sons of Korah. And stretched out our hands to a strange God. Shall not God search this out f For He knoweth the secrets of the heart. He " knows," and yet He " searches them out?" If He knows the secrets of the heart, what do the words, Shall not God search it out, do there? He " knows" it in Himself; He " searches it out" for our sakes. For it is for this reason God sometimes searches a thing out; and speaks of that becoming known to Himself, which He is Himself making known to thee. He is speaking of His own work, not of His knowledge. We commonly say, " A gladsome day," when it is fine. Yet is it the day itself that experiences delight? No: we speak of the day as gladsome, because it fills us with delight. And we speak of a sullen sky. Not that there is any such feeling in the clouds, but because men are affected with sullenness at the sight of such an appearance of the skies, it is called sullen for this reason, that it makes us sullen. So also God is said to know when He causes us to know. God says to Abraham, Now I know that thou fearest God. Did He theu not know it before then? But Abraham did not know himself12* till then: for it was in that very trial he came to know himself. For in general a man thinks that he can do what he cannot; or that he cannot do what he can do. The questioning comes upon him through a divine dispensation; and by that examination he is made acquainted with himself: and God is said to know that which He had caused him to know. Did Peter know himself, when he said to the Physician, / will be with Thee even unto death? The Physician had felt his pulse1, and knew what was going on within His patient's soul: the patient knew it not. The crisis* of trial came; and the Physician approved the correctness of His opinion: the sick man gave up his presumption. Thus God at once " knows" it and " searches it out." ' He knows it already. Why does He " search it out?" ' For thy sake: that thou mayest come to know thine own self, and mayest return thanks to Him that made thee. Shall not God search it out?

20. Ver. 21. For He knoweth the secrets of the heart. What secrets f

Ver. 22. For,fyr Thy sake we are killed all the day long: tee are counted as sheep for the slaughter. For you may see a man being put to death; you do not know why he is being put to death. God knoweth this. The thing in itself is hid. But some one will say to me, " See, he is detained in prison for the name of Christ, he is a confessor for the name of Christ." Why do not3 heretics also confess the name of Christ, and yet they do not die for His sake? Nay more; let me say it, in the Catholic Church itself, do you think there either are, or have been wanting persons such as would suffer for the sake of glory among men? Were there no such persons, the Apostle would not say, Though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profit eth me nothing. He knew therefore that these might be some persons, who did this not from "charity," but out of vainglory. It is therefore hid from us; God alone sees this; we cannot see it. He alone can judge of this, who knoweth the secrets of the heart. For, for Thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. I have already mentioned that from hence the Apostle Paul had borrowed a text4 for the encouragement of the Martyrs: that they might not " faint in the tribulations" undergone by them for tue name 0f Christ.

22. Ver. 23. Awake; why sleepest Thou, O Lord? Who is addressed, and who is the speaker? Would not he be more correctly said to " sleep" and slumber5, who speaks such words as these? Awake; why sleepest Thou, O Lord? He replies to you, I know what I am saying: I know that He that keepeth Israel doth not sleep: but yet the Martyrs cry, Awake; why steepest Thou, 0 Lord? O Lord Jesus, Thou wast slain; Thou didst "sleep" in Thy Passion; to us Thou hast now " awaked" from sleep. For we know that Thou hast now " awaked" again. To what purpose hast Thou awaked and risen again? The Gentiles that persecute us, think Thee to be dead; do not believe Thee to have risen again. Arise Thou then to them also! Why steepest Thou, though not to us, yet to them? For if they already believed Thee to have risen again, could they persecute us who believe in Thee? But why do they persecute? " Destroy, slay so and so, whoever have believed in Thee, such an one, who died an ill death!" As yet to them " Thou sleepest;" arise to them, that they may perceive that Thou hast " awaked1' again; and may be at rest. Lastly, it has come to pass, while the Martyrs die, and say these things; while they sleep, and " awaken" Christ, truly dead in their sleepings, Christ has, in a certain sense, risen again in the Gentiles; i. e. it becomes believed, that He has risen again; so by degrees they themselves, becoming converted to Christ by believing, collected a numerous body: such as the persecutors dreaded; and the persecutions have come to an end. Why? Because Christ hath risen again in the Gentiles, Who before was " asleep" to them, as not believing. Arise, and cast us not off for ever!

23. Ver. 24. Wherefore hidest Thou Thy face: as if Thou wert not present; as if Thou hadst forgotten us?

And forge ttest our misery and trouble?

24. Ver. 25. For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Where is it bowed down? To the dust: i.e. "dust" persecutes us. They persecute us, of whom Thou hast said, The ungodly are not so; but are like the dust, which lhe?«.i,5. wind driveth away from the face of the earth. Our soul is bowed down to the dust: our belly hath cleaved to the earth. He seems to me to have expressed the punishment of the extreme of humiliation, in which, when any one prostrates himself, " his belly cleaveth to the earth." For whosoever is humbled so as to be on his knees, has yet a lower degree of humiliation to which he can come: but he who is so humbled, that his belly cleaveth to the ground, there is no farther humiliation for him. Should one wish to do still farther, it will, after that point, be not bowing him down, but crushing him. Perhaps then he may have meant this; We are bowed down very low in this dust; there is no farther point to which humiliation can go. Humiliation has now reached its highest point: let mercy then come also.

25. Or does the Church, brethren, in these words, perchance, lament over those, whom their persecutors persuaded to impiety; so that they who endured unto the end, say, Our soul is bowed down to the dust; i. e. in the hands of this "dust;" in the hands of the ungodly and the persecutors? Our soul is bowed down to the dust; to such a degree, that we called on Thee, that Thou wouldest give us help out of our tribulation. But our belly has cleaved unto the ground; means to say, " our belly" hath consented to the ungodliness of this dust: for this is the meaning of hath cleaved. For i£ when you are inflamed with love and charity, you rightly say unto God, My soul cleaveth to Thee; and, It is good for me to cleave unto God: and it is when your will coincides with God's will, that you cleave unto God; it is said, not without reason, of the ' belly" spoken of above, that it hath cleaved unto the earth; but that those are signified, who, not being able to endure persecution, have consented unto the ungodly; for in so doing they have cleaved unto the earth. But why were they called " the belly," except because they are carnal; so that the face of the Church is in the Saints, in them that are spiritual; the belly of the Church in the carnal ones. Therefore the face of the Church is displayed to view: the belly is hid, as being more weak and feeble. This is intimated by the Scripture in a certain passage, where some one says, that

<« received a book; and that book (he says) was sweet in my mouth; but in my belly it was bitter''1 What is meant by this, but that the highest precepts, which those who are spiritual can bear9, those who are carnal cannot bear? And that by the very things, in which those who are spiritual take delight, those who are carnal are made sorrowful? What is it, my brethren, that this book contains? Sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor. How sweet is this in the mouth of the Church! It is done by all them that are spiritual. But say this to any carnal person whatsoever, " Do this," he is more likely to depart from thee sorrowful, (as did that rich man from our Lord,) than to practise what has been commanded him. But why did he go away22, sorrowful, except that that book is sweet in the mouth, and in the belly bitter? Thou hast given some sum of gold and silver; thou comest to such a point, that unless thou lose it, thou art perhaps under the necessity of committing some sin; perhaps must do some wrong to the Church; art constrained to blaspheme. Placed then as thou art in a strait, between the loss of money, or the loss of righteousness, thou art warned. Prefer to lose thy money, that thou lose not righteousness; thou, however, to whom righteousness is not sweet in the mouth; but who art still weak among those members, which are such as the Church reckons to be the belly; being rilled with sorrow, sometimes choosest rather to forfeit somewhat of thy righteousness, than to forfeit one sesterce of thy money, and layest thyself under a heavier loss, while, to fill thy purse, thou makest thy heart empty. Perhaps then it was of these persons it was said, Our belly cleaveth to the earth.

26. Ver. 26. Arisey O Lord, help us. And indeed, dearly beloved, He has " arisen and helped" us. For when He awaked (i. e. when He arose again, and became known to the Gentiles) on the cessation of persecutions, even those who had cleaved to the earth were raised up from the earth, and on performing penance, have been restored to Christ's body, feeble and imperfect though they were: so that in them was fulfilled the text, * Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect; and in Thy book shall they all be written' Arise, 0 Lord, help us, and redeem us for Thy Name's sake; that is to say, freely; for Thy Name's sake, not for the sake of my merits: because Thou hast vouchsafed to do it, not because I am worthy that Thou shouldest do it unto me. For this very thing, that we have not forgotten Thee; that our heart hath not gone back; that we have not stretched out our hands to any strange god; how should we have been able to achieve, except with Thy help? How should we have strength for it, except through Thy appealing to us within, exhorting us, and not forsaking us? Whether then we suffer in tribulations, or rejoice in prosperities, redeem us, not for our merits, but for Thy Name's sake.

This Psalm, even as we ourselves have been singing with gladness together with you, we would beg you in like manner to consider with attention together with us. For it is sung of the sacred Marriage-feast; of the Bridegroom and the Bride; of the King and His people; of the Saviour and those who are to be saved. He who comes to the marriage-feast with the wedding -garment, seeking not his own glory, but that of the Bridegroom, does not merely listen with pleasure, (as men are wont to do, who are seeking after a spectacle, not exhibiting a reality,) but also calls upon his own heart not to be idle there; but to shoot forth, and to break out; to grow, to go on to maturity, to be accepted. For it is our duty to be such to whom this Psalm is sung, the " sons of Korah;" as the title of the Psalm hath it. For these were certain real persons; nevertheless, every title in the sacred writings conveys some hidden meaning; and requires not only a hearer, but one to understand it also. For we enquire as to the force of the Hebrew word, what is meant by " Korah and (as the explanations of all the words used in Scripture have it) the answer reported to us is, that the sons of Korah is equivalent to the sons of the bald-head. This name let us not take in a ludicrous sense, lest haply we should prove ourselves to have but the " understanding of children" — such children as we read of in the Book of Kings, as insulting the holy Prophet Elisha, and crying after him, Go up, thou baldhead; go up, thou bald-head. For those children so foolishly loquacious, and cursing to their own ruin, were devoured by-wild beasts that came out of the wood. This is written; and we have reminded you where it is written; let those who remember it recal it to their minds; those who remember it not, read it; those who have not read it, take it on faith. That thing then which that past event signified of limes to come, ought not to overtake us. For in those children are typified foolish men, having the " understanding"