Psalm 119 (Vulgate 118)

Sermon 1

EXPOSITION, custom of the Church is styled the Psalter, partly by preaching among the people, partly by dictations, as well as I, by the Lord's help, was able: but I put off the 118th Psalm, as well on account of its well-known length, as on account of its depth being fathomable by few. And when my brethren deeply regretted that the exposition of this Psalm alone, as far as pertaineth to the Psalms of the same volume, wft wanting to my works, and strongly pressed me to pay this debt, I yielded not to them, though they long entreated and solicited me; because as often as I began to reflect upon it, it always exceeded the utmost stretch of my powers. For in proportion as it seemeth more open, so much the more deep doth it appear to me; so that I cannot shew how deep it is. For in others, which are understood with difficulty, although the sense lie hid in obscurity, yet the obscurity itself appeareth; but in this, not even this is the case; since it is superficially such, that it seemeth not to need an expositor, but only a reader and listener. And now that at length I approach its interpretation, I am utterly ignorant what I can achieve in it: nevertheless, I hope that God will aid me with His Presence, that I may effect something. For thus He hath done in all those which, though at first they seemed to me difficult, and almost impracticable, I have succeeded in adequately expounding. But I decided to do this by means of sermons, which might be delivered among the people, such as the Greeks term 6/xiA/ai. For this is, I think, more equitable, that the assemblies of the Church be not defrauded of the comprehension of this Psalm, by the singing of which, as much as by that of others, they are wont to be charmed. But let the preface end here: we must now speak of the Psalm itself, to which we have thought it right to make this Preface.

Sermon 2

1. Ver. 1, From its commencement, dearly beloved, doth this great Psalm exhort us unto bliss, which there is no one who desireth not. For who either can, or could, or ever will be found, who is unwilling to be blessed? What need therefore is there of exhortation unto that which the human mind of its own accord seeketh? For truly, he who exhorteth aims at this, that the will of him with whom he dealeth may be excited towards that on account of which the exhortation is employed. Why then are we exhorted to will that which we cannot but will; save because, though all desire bliss, yet most men know not by what means to attain to it? And therefore this is the lesson which he teacheth, who saith, Blessed are those that are undejiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. As much as to say, I know what thou wishest, thou art seeking bliss: if then thou wouldest be blessed, be undented. For the former all desire, the latter fear: yet without it, what all wish cannot be attained. But where will any one be undefiled, save in the way? In what way, save in the law of the Lord? And on this account, Blessed are those that are undejiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord, is not said superfluously, but is an exhortation necessary to our minds. For what good that is whereunto many are slothful, (that is, that they should walk undefiled in the way, which is the law of the Lord,) is thus shewn, when it is declared, that they who do this are blessed, so that on account pf that which all wish, that may be done which most do not wish. For to be blessed is so great a good, that both good and bad men wish for it. Nor is it wonderful that good men are good on this account; but this is wonderful that wicked men are wicked, that they may be blessed. For whoever abandons himself to lusts, and is corrupted by luxury and debauchery, seeketh somewhat blissful in his wickedness, and thinketh himself miserable, when he attaineth not to the pleasure and joy of his lust, while he never hesitates to boast of his bliss, when he doth attain it. And whoever burneth with the flames of avarice, collecteth for this reason riches by every means he can, that he may be blessed; whoever desireth to shed the blood of his enemies, whoever seeketh dominion, whoever feedeth his cruelty by the disasters of others, seeketh bliss in all his crimes. These then, wanderers, and seekers of a false bliss by true misery, are recalled to the way by these divine words, if they be listened to: Blessed are those that are undefiled in the way: who walk in the law of the Lord: as if he said, Whither are ye going? ye are perishing, and ye know it not. The road ye are traversing is not the road to where ye wish to go: for ye wish to be blessed; but those roads whereby ye run are miserable, and lead unto still greater misery. Seek not so great a good through evil means: if^e wish to reach that end, come hither, travel by this road. Ye who cannot abandou the wish for blessedness, abandon the wickedness of a perverse road. Ye are wearied with fruitless endeavours to reach what ye are polluted by attaining. But they are not blessed who are polluted with error, who walk in the perverse ways of the world; but, Blessed are those that are undejiled in the way; who walk in the law of the Lord.

2. Ver. 2. Listen now to what he addeth: Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, and seek Him with their whole heart. No other class of the blessed seemeth to me to be mentioned in these words, than that which has been already spoken of. For to examine into the testimonies of the Lord, and to seek Him with all the heart, this is to be undefiled in the way, this is to walk in the law of the Lord. He then goeth on to say, (ver. 3.) For they who do wickedness, shall not walk in His ways. If therefore they who walk in the way, that is, in the law of the Lord, are those who search His testimonies, and seek Him with all their heart; doubtless they who do wickedness, search not His testimonies. And yet we know that the workers of wickedness do search the testimonies of the Lord for this reason, that they prefer being learned to being righteous: we know that others also search the testimonies of the Lord, not because they are already living well, but that they may know how they ought to live. Such then do not as yet walk undefiled in the law of the Lord, and for this reason are not as yet blessed. How then are we to understand, Blessed are they that search His testimonies; since we see men search into His testimonies without being blessed, because they are not undefiled? For the Scribes and Pharisees, sitting in the seat of Moses, of whom the Lord saith, All that they bid you observe, that observe and do; U ^° n° ^ afier their wot^j for they say and do not; 'even they searched into the testimonies of the Lord, that they might have good things to say, though they did evil things. But let us leave these men, for we shall be justly answered, that they do not search into the testimonies of the Lord. For they do not seek them themselves, but they seek somewhat else through them, that is, that thev may be glorified by men, or enriched. This is not to rearch into the testimonies of God, not to love what they shew, and to refuse to go where they lead, that is, unto God. Or if they themselves search the testimonies of God, yet if they do so not that they may seek and find Him, but something else, from these testimonies; surely they do not seek Him with all their heart, which we thus see is added here not without a purpose. For the Spirit Who saith this, aware that many search His testimonies for the sake of some other object, not for that which is set before them, hath not only said, Blessed are they that search His testimonies, but hath added, and seek Him with their whole heart, as if teaching in what manner, or with what object, the testimonies of the Lord should be searched. Lastly, Wisdom itself speaking in the Book of Wisdom, saith, The wicked seek Me, but they find Me not; for they hate knowledge. And what else is this, save, they hate Me? They seek Me, He saith, and they who hate Me find Me not. In what sense then are they said to seek what they hate, save because they seek not this, but somewhat else there? For they desire not to be wise for the glory of God, but they wish to seem wise for the glory of men. For how do they not hate wisdom, which teacheth that what they love ought to be despised? Therefore, Blessed are those that are undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that search His testimonies, and seek Him with their whole heart. For by searching His testimonies thus, that they may seek Him with their whole heart, they walk undefiled in the law of the Lord. Did he then, who said, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life, not search His testimonies, not seek Him? But how did he seek Him with his whole heart, to Whose counsel he preferred his own wealth, on hearing Whose counsel he went away very sorrowful? For the prophet Isaiah also saith, Seek the Lord; and when ye have found Him, let the ungodly man forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

3. Both the ungodly and the unrighteous, then, seek the Lord, that when He is found, they may not be wicked and ungodly. How then are men already blessed, when they are searclung His testimonies, and seeking Him, since even the wicked and ungodly can do this? But that the wicked and ungodly are blessed, what wicked or ungodly mau even can say? Through hope, then, are they blessed, as they are blessed who suffer persecution for righteousness'* sake: not for what is present to them, as long as they suffer evils; but for what will be present, since the kingdom of heaven is theirs; and, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness; not because they hunger and thirst, but for what followeth, for they shall be filled; and, Blessed are they that weep, not because they weep, but because shall laugh. Therefore, Blessed are they that search His testimonies, and seek Him with their whole heart: not because they search and seek, but because they will find what they seek: for they seek with their whole heart, not negligently. If therefore they are blessed in hope, in hope perhaps also they are undefiled. For truly in this life, though we may walk in the law of the Lord, although we search His testimonies, and seek Him with our whole heart, yet, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But this must be more carefully enquired into. For the next words are, For they who do wickedness, walk not in His ways. From which it may seem, that they who walk in the way of the Lord, that is, in the law of the Lord, by searching His testimonies, and seeking Him with their whole heart, may be already undefiled, that is, without sin, on account of the following words: For they who do wickedness, walk not in His ways. But, Whosoever eommitteth sin transgresseth also the law, saith the blessed 3> John; and he addeth,ybr sin is the transgression of the law. But this discourse must now be closed, nor ought so important a question to be contracted within a narrow space. 318 The Psalmist means not that any are without sin.

Sermon 3

1. Ver. 3. It is written, and is read, and is true, in this Psalm, that They who do wickedness, walk not in His ways. But we must endeavour, with the help of God^m Whose hand are both we and our words, that what is rightly said, by not being rightly understood, may not confuse the reader or hearer. For we must beware, lest all the Saints, whose words these are, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; may either not be thought to walk in the ways of the Lord, since sin is wickedness, and they who do wickedness, walk not in His ways; or, because it is not doubtful that they walk in the ways of the Lord, may be thought to have no sin, which is beyond doubt false. For it is not said, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us, merely for the sake of avoiding arrogance and pride. Otherwise it would not be added, And the truth is not in us; but it would be said, Humility is not in us: especially because the following words throw a clearer light on the meaning, and remove all the causes of doubt For when the blessed John had said this, he added, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What doth the damnable pride of ungodliness say here, what doth it say in answer? For if the Saints refuse to say that they have no sin, for the sake of avoiding arrogance, and not of confessing the truth; what is it that they confess, that they may gain remission and cleansing? Is this also done, that arrogance may be avoided? How then can a true cleansing of sins be entreated, when the confession of them is false? Let then this grass-like self-exaltation of the proud, that deceiveth itself, be silenced, and dry up, which in the ears of men with a feigned humility declareth that it hath sin, but in its heart with ungodly pride denieth that it hath sin. For they who say this, deceive themselves, and the truth is not in them. But when they say this in the ears of men, they deceive not only themselves, but others also, with the perversity of their insane doctrine; but when they say this in their heart, there they deceive themselves, there truth is not in them; and thereby they deceive themselves in their own hearts, and in their own heart lose the light of truth. But let the holy family of Christ exclaim, producing fruit and increasing in the whole world, humbly true and truly humble; let them exclaim, 1 say, If we say, that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. As these words are spoken, so let them be felt. For then will humility be sincere, if it be not merely displayed upon the tongue; so that we may be, according to the Apostle, Not minding high things, but consenting with men ofB.om. lowliness: he saith not, taking with them, but, consenting with them; which is not the part of the mouth, but of the heart. Hypocrite, if thou say est that thou hast, though thou believest that thou hast not, sin: without, thou feignest humility; within, thou dost embrace vanity. Therefore both in thy mouth and in thy heart, thou hast not truth. What doth it profit thee that that seemeth to men to be humble, which thou sayest, if God seeth that thy thoughts are high? Surely, if the divine oracle thus sounded in thy ears, Speak not high words; even thus, thou wouldest not be condemned unjustly, if thou shouldest speak proudly with thy tongue before men, and proudly with thy heart before God. But when thou art told, Be not high-minded, but fear; (for heR°mspeaketh not of words, but of the mind;) why art thou not humble within, where thou mindest? Is the mind puffed up with lofty thoughts, that the tongue may feign a false humility? Thou readest, or hearest, Be not high-minded, but fear: and thou art so far high-minded, that thou thinkest thou hast not sin; and for this reason, because thou wilt not fear1, nothing remaineth for thee, save to be puffed with pride9.

2. For why, thou askest, is it written, For they who do wickedness, walk not in His ways? Do not then the Saints of the Lord walk in the paths of the Lord? If they walk, he saith, they do wickedness: if they do no wickedness, they have no sin: for sin is wickedness. Lord Jesus, rise to my ass'stance> an(^ a*^ me> through the Apostle confessing, against the proud heretic. Behold, where is that man of Thine, who maketh himself empty, that he may be filled with Thee? Let us hear himself, ray brethren; let us ask him concerning this question, if it pleaseth, nay, since it doth please you. Tell us, most blessed Paul, whether thou didst walk in the ways of the Lord, while thou wast still living in the flesh? He answereth: Why did I say, Whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule? Why did I say, Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same footsteps? Why did I say, Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: for we walk by faith, not by sight. What is a more certain way of the Lord, than that faith from which the righteous livelh? What other path was I traversing towards the regions above, when I said, This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus? Lastly, in what other path had I run, when I said, / have fought a good fight, I have finished my course f Let these answers suffice, whereby we have learnt that the Apostle Paul walked in the ways of the Lord, but let us ask another question also of him. Tell us, I beseech thee, O Apostle, since whilst thou still wast living in the flesh thou didst walk in the ways of the Lord; hadst thou sin, or wast thou without sin? Let us hear whether he deceiveth himself, or whether he hath the same mind as the blessed John, his brother Apostle; since truth was in them. And here therefore he answereth; Have ye not read where 1 confess, saying, For the good which I would, I do not; but the evil that I would not, that do It This also we have heard; we therefore now ask this, how didst thou walk in the ways of the Lord, if thou didst that evil, which thou didst hate; when the holy Psalm saith, They who do wickedness, walk not in the ways of the Lord? Hear him answering in the next sentence: If then I do that which I would not, is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Behold how they who walk in the ways of the Lord, do PQt commit sin, and nevertheless are not without sin; because they no longer work it themselves, but the sin which dwelleth in them.

3. Here some one will say, How did he do that evil which he wished not to do: how was it not he that did it, but the sin that dwelt in him? Meanwhile this question bath been now answered, and it hath sufficiently appeared by the authority of canonical Scripture, that it may be that men walkiffg in the ways of the Lord, though they be not without sin, may not nevertheless themselves commit it For they who do wickedness, that is, sin, since sin is wicked* ness, walk not in His ways. Yet in what way we may understand, how he did this on account of the body of this death, in which the law of sin dwelleth, and how he did it not himself on account of the ways of the Lord in which he walketh; we must explain in another discourse, since this must be closed.

Sermon 4

1. Ver. 3. In the words of this Psalm, For they who ^Aleph. wickedness, walk not in His ways, since sin is wickedness, as the Apostle John saith, a difficult question arose, viz. How could the saints in this life both be not without sin;3'4, since this is true, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us; and nevertheless walk in the ways of the Lord, which they who do wickedness do not walk in; which was solved in the words of the Apostle Paul, It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For how is he without sin, in whom sin dwelleth? Yet he walketh in the ways of the Lord, which they who do wickedness walk not in; because it is no longer he himself that doeth it, but sin that dwelleth in him. But this question has been solved in such a way, that another more difficult arises. How can a man do what he himself doth not? For he saith both: What I would, that I do not; and, // is noRom. more 1 that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Whence waj£ ought to understand, that when the sin that dwelleth in us, worketh in us, that then we do not act ourselves; when our will by no means consenteth unto it, and even commandeth the members of the body, so that they may not obey its desires. For what doth sin work without our will, save illicit desires only? And if the assent of the will be denied them; some passion indeed is excited, but no effect is yielded to it. This the same Apostle enjoinecl, when he said, Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. There are therefore desires of sin, which he forbad us to obey. These desires therefore work sin; which if we obey, we also work sin: but if we obey the Apostle and do not obey them, it is not we who do the sin, but the sin that dwelleth in us. But if we had no unlawful desires, neither we, nor sin could work any evil in us. Moreover, we are said to be agents in the motion of an unlawful desire, by not obeying which we are not ourselves the authors of it, for this reason, that it is not the power of another's nature, but the weakness of our own; from which weakness we shall be altogether safe, when we shall have become immortal both in mind and body. Wherefore, on the one hand, because we walk in the ways of the Lord, we obey not the desires of sin; and, on the other hand, because we are not without sin, we have the desires of sin. And for this reason we no longer ourselves act in them, by not obeying them; but, the sin dwelleth in us, by stirring them up. For they who do wickedness, that is, obey the desires of sin, walk not in the ways of the Lord.

2, We have now to enquire what we pray to be forgiven us, when we say to God, Forgive us our trespasses: whether the sins we commit, when we obey the desires of sin; or whether we pray that the desires themselves may be forgiven us, which are not our own work, but that of the sin which dwelleth in us. As far indeed as I can understand, the whole guilt of that our sickness and weakness, whence unlawful desires spring, which the Apostle calleth sin, is washeci away by the Sacrament of Baptism, together with all that we have done, said, thought, in obedience to it; nor would that sickness be imputed to us again, though ii were in us, if we never yielded any obedience to any of its unlawful suggestions, whether by deed, word, or silent consent; until even this itself were healed, when that should be fulfilled which we pray for, whether in the words, Thy kingdom come; or in these, Deliver us from evil; but, since the life of man on earth is temptation; although we be far from actual crimes, yet there is no want of occasions when we yield to the desires of sin, either in deed, word, or thought, since when we are watching against greater temptations, certain minute ones creep upon us while we are off our guard, which if they be gathered together against us, though they do not singly crush us with their own weight, yet all together overwhelm us in the heap. And for these reasons, even those who walk in the ways of the Lord, say, Forgive us our debts: since both prayer itself and confession pertain to the ways of the Lord; although sins pertain not to them.

3. In the ways of the Lord then, all of which our faith doth embrace, whereby we believe in Him, Who justifieih the ungodly. Who also said, / am the way; no man doth work sin, but confesseth it He departs from the way then, when he sinneth; and therefore the sin which is committed by a deviation from the way, is not ascribed to the way; but in the way of faith they are held not to be sinners, unto whom sins are not imputed. Concerning whom the Apostle Paul, commending the righteousness of faith, hath shewn that it is written in the Psalms, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered* Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. This the ways of the Lord give; and through this, since the righteous liveth by faith, that iniquity, which is unbelief, doth estrange from the way of the Lord. But in this path, that is, in pious faith, whosoever walketb, either doth no sin, or if any is committed by his deviating from the way, it is not imputed to him on account of the way, and he is accepted as if he had not committed sin. And therefore the words, They who do wickedness, walk not in His ways, are well understood to signify that wickedness, which departeth from faith, or which doth not advance to faith. For as the Lord saith of the Jews, If I had not come, they had not had sin; nor were they without any sin, before Christ came in the flesh, anc*> since He came, then began to have sin; but He would have some particular sin, that is, of unbelief, to be understood, since they did not believe in Him: thus they who do wickedness, not any wickedness in general, but that of unbelief in particular, walk not in His ways; for, All the the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth; but both are in Christ, and besides Christ they exist no where, ftow I say9 that Christ, saith the Apostle, was a minister of circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. And that the Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy. Mercy in that He redeemed us; truth in this, that He fulfilled what He promised, and will fulfil what He promiseth. They then who do wickedness, that is, are unbelievers, walk not in His ways; because they have pot believed in Christ. Let them therefore be converted, and piously believe in Him Who justifieth the ungodly, and let them find in Him mercy when their sins are pardoned, and truth when His promises are completed, that is, all the ways of the Lord, walking in which they will not do wickedness; because they will not hold to unbelief, but to faith which worketh by love, and to which sin is not imputed.

Sermon 5

1. Ver. 4. Who is it, most beloved, who saith to the Lord, Thou hast charged that we shall keep Thy commandments too much f (Ver. 5.) O that my ways were made so direct, that I might keep Thy statutes. (Ver. 6.) So shall I not be confounded, while I have respect unto all Thy commandments. Who is he Who saith this, save every member of Christ, or rather the whole body of Christ? And what meaneth, Thou hast charged that we shall keep Thy commandments too much f is it, Tliou hast charged too much? or, to keep too much f Whichever of these we understaud, the sense seems contrary to that memorable and noble sentiment which the Greeks praise in their wise men, and which the Latins agree in praising. * Do nothing toa much1?' For if1 it be true, that nothing be done too much; how is that true which is here said, Thou hast charged that we shall keep Thy commandments too much? since how could God either charge any thing too much, or wish any thing to be kept too much, if all that was too much was worthy of blame? We should therefore say, that we are not bound by any authority of the Greek writers, considering what is written, Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? and should rather believe that sentiment to be false, whereby it is said, ' Do nothing too much?' than the divine words, where we read and sing, Thou hast charged that we keep Thy commandments too much; unless, not Greek vanity, but true reason recalled us* For that is said to be, too much, which is more than it ought to be. For too little and too much are contrary to one another. For20, too little is, what is less than it ought to be; and too much, more than it ought to be. There is a measure between these, which is called enough. As therefore it is useful in life and morals, that we should do nothing more than we ought; we ought indeed rather to confess the sentiment, * Do nothing too much,' to be true, than to deny it But the Latin language sometimes uses this word " nimis" in such a sense, that we find it in the holy Scripture, and employ it in our discourses, as signifying, very much. In this passage, Thou hast charged that we keep Thy commandments too much, we simply understand very much, if we understand rightly; and if we say to any very dear friend, I love you too much, we do not wish to be understood to mean more than is fitting, but very much. Lastly, this Greek sentiment does not contain a word answering to that which is here read: for there, iyav is used, which is nimis; but here <rfo8ga, which is equivalent to valdd, very much. But sometimes, as we have said, we find nimis used, and use it ourselves, for what means valdi, whence some Latin copies have not, Thou hast charged that we keep Thy corn* mandmenls too much, but very much. Very much thereforo ^at^ c^ar8e^ ^is: an(* Te,7 mucn ought the commaudof God to be kept.

2. Ver. 5. But listen to what pious humility or humble piety, and faith not unmindful of grace, addeth, O thai, he saith, my ways were made so direct, that I might keep Thy statutes. Thou indeed hast charged: O that I could realize what Thou hast charged. When thou hearest, 0 that, recognise the words of one wishing; and having recognised the expression of a wish, lay aside the pride of presumption. For who saith that he desireth what he hath in such a manner in his power, that without need of any help he can do it? Therefore if man desireth what God chargeth, God must be prayed to grant Himself what He enjoineth. For from whom must it be desired, save from Him, from that Father of lights, from Whom every good gift and every perfect gift comeih down, by the testimony of holy Scripture? But on account of those who think that we are helped from heaven by this means alone to works of righteousness, because the commandments of God are brought to our knowledge, that these when known, without any grace of God, may b? fulfilled solely by the strength of our own will; he doth not here wish his ways directed to keep the statutes of God, until he hath received His commandment from His own injunction. For what he said before pertaineth unto this, Thou hast charged that we should diligently keep Thy commandments. As if he should say, 1 have already received Thy law, I know it; for Thou hast charged that we shall diligently keep Thy commandments: and Thy commandments are holy, righteous, and good; but sin worketh death to me by that which is good, unless Thy grace aid me. 0 that my ways were made so direct, that I might keep Tliy statutes!

3. Ver« 6. So shall I not be confounded, while I have respect unto all Thy commandments. We ought to look upon the commandments of God, whether when they are read, or when they are recalled to memory, as a looking glass, as the Apostle James saith, If any be a hearer of fjie wor(i anci not a doer^ ne {8 Ufa uni0 a man beholding his natural face in a glass; for he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway jorgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso lookeih into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein* he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. This man wisheth himself to be such, that he may regard as in a looking glass the commandments of God, and may not be confounded; because he chooses not merely to be a hearer of them, but a doer. On this account he desireth that his wtys may be made direct to keep the statutes of God, How to be made direct, save by the grace of God? Otherwise he will find in the law of God not a source of rejoicing, but of confusion, if he hath chosen to look into commandments, which he doth not.

4. Ver. 7. / will confess unto Thee, he saith, O Lord, in the directing of my heart; in that I shall have learned the judgments of Thy righteousness. This is not the confessiou of sins, but of praise; as He also saith in Whom there was no sin, I will confess unto Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth; and as it is written in the Book of Ecclesiasticus, Thus shalt thou say in confession, of all the works of Ood, that they are very good. I will confess unto Thee, he saith, in the directing of my heart. Indeed, if my wa^s are made straight, I will confess unto Thee> since Thou hast done it, and this is Thy praise, and not mine. Then indeed / will confess, when I shall have learned the judgments of Thy righteousness, if I shall have a heart made straight, when my ways are made straight so that I may keep Thy statutes. For what will it profit me, if I shall have learnt them, if I in my wicked heart go away to evil ways? For I shall not rejoice in them, but I shall be accused by them.

5. Ver. 8. Next he addeth; I will keep Thy ordinances. All which things are connected with those words, O that my ways were made so direct, that I might keep Thy statutes! So shall I not be confounded, while I have respect unto all Thy commandments. And I will confess unto Thee in the directing of my heart, and / will keep Thy ordinances. But what is it that followeth? O forsake me not even exceedingly! or, as some copies have it, even too much, instead of, even exceedingly. For the same Greek word is here too, namely, <rp ilq*: as though he wished himself to be forsaken of God, but not even exceedingly. Far be it! But since God had left the world to the desert of sins, He would have forsaken it even exceedingly, if so powerful a cure had not supported it, that is, the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ; but now, according ta this prayer of the body of Christ, He forsook it not even exceedingly; for, God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto. Himself. It may also be understood, as the words of him, who when he had said in his abundance, / shall neter be removed, as if relying in his own might, that God might shew him that He had given power to his excellency not from merits of his own, but of His will, found the face of God turned from him, and was troubled. Finding therefore what he was, and no longer presuming in himself, he crieth, O forsake me not even exceedingly. For if Thou hast forsaken me, so that I am seen to be weak without Thy help, forsake me not even exceedingly, lest I perish. Thou, then, hast charged, thai we shall diligently keep Thy commandments: I can no longer excuse myself on the ground of ignorance; but since I am weak, O that my ways were made so direct, that I might keep Thy statutes! So shall I not be confounded, while I have respect unto all Thy commandments. Then will I confess unto Thee in the directing of my heart; when I shall have learned the judgments of Thy righteousness; then will I keep Thy ordinances; and if Thou hast forsaken me, lest I should glory in myself, do not forsake me even exceedingly, and when justified by Thee, I will glory in Thee.

6. Ver. 9. Let us, most beloved, consider these verses in this Psalm, and, as the Lord giveth, let us search into His sacred Book: Wherewithal shall a young man correct his way? even by keeping Thy words. He questioned! himself, and auswereth himself. Wherewithal shall a young man correct his way? So far it is a question; next cometh

Sermon 6

the answer, even by keeping Thy words. But in this place the keeping of the words of God, must be understood as the obeying His commandments in deed: for they are kept in memory in vain, if they are not kept in life also. For some men in keeping the words of God are concerned only to avoid forgetting them, and not to correct themselves in life: but this man saith not, wherewithal shall the young man exercfte his memory? but, wherewithal shall a young man correct his ways? and replieth thereto, By keeping Thy words. Nor can the way ever be called straight, as long as the life shall be crooked.

•2. But what is meant by young man here? For be might have said, wherewithal shall any one (homo) correct his way? or, wherewithal shall a man (vir) correct his way? which is usually put by the Scriptures in such a way, that the whole human race, understood by the more honoured sex, by a mode of expression wherein the whole is signified by a part. For we cannot but suppose that a woman is blessed, who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly; where nevertheless the words are, Blessed is the man. But in this passage he saith neither any one, nor a man, but, a young man. Is then an old man to be despaired of? or doth au old man correct his way by any other means than by ruling himself after God's word? Or is it perhaps an admonition at what age we ought chiefly to correct our way; according to what is elsewhere written, My son, gather instruction6*18' from thy youth up: so shall thou find wisdom till thy gray hairs. There is another mode of interpreting it, by recognising in the expression the younger son in the Gospel, who having departed from bis father to a distant region, spent his substance in riotous living with harlots; and after be had fed swine, suffering poverty and hunger, at length returned to himself, and said, / will arise and go to my father. Wherewithal did he correct his way, save by ruling himself after the words of God, which he desired as one longing for his father's bread. For his elder brother, who said to his father, Lo9 these many years do I serve thee9 neither transgressed I at any time Thy commandment, corrected not his way. The younger son then corrected his way, which he confessed that he had so depraved and perverted, that he said to his father, / am no longer worthy to called thy son. A third interpretation occurreth to me, which I indeed, according to the slight measure of my knowledge, prefer to the two former: by which the elder is understood to mean the old man; the young man, to mean the new man; the elder, who beareth the image of the earthly man; the younger, who beareth that of the heavenly: because that is not first which is spiritual, but tltkt which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. However decrepit therefore any man may be from old age of body, he will be young in the sight of God when converted by the newness of grace, which he hath received; and herein he correcteth his way, by keeping God's words, that is, the of faith which we preach, and this is the faith which worketh through love.

3. Ver. 10. But this younger people, the child of grace, the new man, who singeth the new song, the heir of the new covenant, this younger people, not Cain, but Abel; not Ishmael, but Isaac; not Esau, but Israel; not Manasses, but Ephraim; not Heli, but Samuel; not Saul, but David; hear what it addeth, With my whole heart, he saith, have I sought thee; 0 repel me not from Thy commandments. Behold, he prayeth that he may be aided to keep the words of God, wherewith he had said that the young man corrected his way. For this is the meaning of the words, 0 repel me not from Thy commandments: for what is it to be repelled of God, save not to be aided? For human infirmity is not equal to obeying His righteous and exalted commandments, unless His love doth prevent and aid. But those whom He aideth not, these He is justly said to repel, as the unworthy are repelled by a flaming sword from stretching forth their hand to the tree of life. But who is worthy, since sin entered into the world through one man, and through sin death, and thus passed into all men, since all have sinned? But our deserved misery is healed by the undeserved mercy of God. For how could he who saith, With my whole heart have I sought Thee, do this, unless He unto whom it is said, Wilt Thou not turn again and quicken us, turned him unto Himself when he was turned away, and unless He who saith, / will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, sought him when lost, and recalled him when wandering?

4. Ver. 11, 12. Hence it is too that he correcteth his path by keeping the words of God, from Him ruling, Him working; for he could not do it by himself, since the prophet Jeremiah confesseth and saith, O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh /o10,23# direct his steps. For the Psalmist also desired this of the Lord above, where he saith, O that my ways were made so™* direct: and here where he addeth, (ver. 11.) Thy words have I hid within my heart, that I may not sin against Thee; he at once sought the Divine aid, lest the words of God might be hidden without fruit in his heart, unless works of righteousness followed. For after saying this, he added, Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy righteousnesses. Teach me, he saith, as they learn who do them; not as they who merely remember them, that they may have somewhat to speak of. For he had already said, Thy words have I hid within my heart, that 1 may not sin against Thee: why then doth he still seek to learn those things which he already keepeth hidden within his heart? which he surely would not have done, had he not learnt them. Why then doth he add, and say, Teach me Thy righteousnesses, save because he wisheth to learn them by deeds, not by speaking or retaining them in his memory? Since then, as it is read in another Psalm, He shall give blessing. Who gave the law; therefore, Blessed art Thou, O Lord, he saith, O teach me Thy righ-lvin teousness. For because 1 have hidden Thy words in niy^» heart, that I may npt sin against Thee, Thou hast given a law; give also the blessing of Thy grace, that by doing right I may learn what Thou by teaching hast commanded. Let this suffice, so that your minds may be nourished without being wearied. What followeth calls for another dis-

5. Ver. 18. This verse, With my lips have I b%en telling of all the judgments of Thy mouthy is the commencement of our discourse in the Psalm on which we are commenting. What is this, most beloved? What is this? Who can tell all the judgments of God, since he cannot trace them? Do we hesitate to exclaim with the Apostle, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding ou* ' ^e k°r<l saith, / have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. And though He promised them at once all truth through the Holy Ghost; yet flje blessed Paul crieth out, we know in part: so that we 'may understand that we are led unto all truth by the Holy Ghost, whence we have received a pledge: but we shall only know Him, when we have reached another life, after the looking glass and darkness of this life, and when we shall see face to face. How then doth he say, With my lips have I been telling of all the judgments of Thy mouth f And it is he who saith this, who in a former verse a little before had said, Teach me Thy righteousnesses. How then could he, who still wisheth to learn His righteousness, tell of all the judgments of His mouth? Did he already know all His judgments, and did he yet long to know His righteousness? But this is still more wonderful, if he already knew the unsearchable things of God, and yet knew not what He enjoined upon men to do. For by His righteousness is meant not the words, but the deeds, of justice; the works, that is, of the righteous, which God commandeth. They are said to be God's deeds, although they are done by us, because they are not done, save by His gifts. Those also are God's judgments, whereby the world is judged by Him both now and at the end of the world. But since all, that is, both the righteousnesses and the judgments of God

Sermon 7

are comprised in His works; why doth he who saith that he hath hidden the words of God in his heart, still seek to learn His righteousnesses? For he saith, Thy words have Iyer. hid within my heart, that I should not sin against Thee: and then goeth on to say, Blessed art Thou, O Lord: O teach me Thy righteousnesses; and next, With my lips have I been telling of all the judgments of Thy mouth. These two things indeed do not seem opposed to each other, but rather kindred and connected; viz. that since he hath hidden the words of God in his heart, he may tell with his lips of His judgments; for, with the heart man believeth wn/oRom.io, righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation: but how what is read between these two verses, Blessed art Hiou, O Lord: teach me Thy righteousnesses, suiteth a man in whose heart are the words of God, and who told with his lips all the judgments of God: how it agreeth with this, that he still wisheth to learn the righteousnesses of God, save that he may be understood to wish to learn them by acts, not by retaining them in his memory, and speaking of them; and he hath shewn that we ought to seek this of the Lord, without Whom we can do nothing. But this we have already treated of in another discourse: but we have undertaken, as far as the Lord alloweth, to treat the question, in what sense he hath said that he hath told all the judgments of God with his lips, though they have been styled unsearchable, and though it is elsewhere said of their depth, Thy judgments are like the great deep.

2. Consider now, what we ought to understand here. Doth not the Church know the judgments of God? Surely she knoweth them. For she knoweth unto what sort of persons the Judge of the quick and the dead will say, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom: and unto34, what sort of persons He shall say, Depart into everlasting fwe. She knoweth, I say, that neither fornicators, woriCor.6, idolaters, nor such and such whom the Apostle Paul here enumerateth, shall inherit the kingdom of God: she knoweth 9. that wrath and indignation, tribulation and distress, are in store for the soul of every man that doeth evil, of the Jew and also of the Gentile; but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that workelh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. These and the like clearly revealed judgments

God the Church knoweth: but these are not all; since some are unsearchable, and, like the great deep, profound and hidden. And are these also known to some of the more excellent members of this man, who with the Saviour, ihe Head, is the whole Christ? For they are perhaps said to be unsearchable to man, because by his own strength he cannot investigate them. But why can he not by the gift of the Holy Spirit, he, that is, upon whom the Lord deigneth to confer this gift? For thus it is said, God dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto; and yet we hear, Come unto Him, and be enlightened. This question is thus answered, He is unapproachable to our strength, but we may approach Him through His own gifts. Nevertheless, although it is given to none of the Saints, as long as the corruptible body weigheth down the soul, to know all the judgments of God, since it is too much for man, because (to give an illustration whereby the infinitude of God's judgments may be conjectured) no man without the judgment of God is slow in mind, or halt in body: yet the Church, that is the purchased people, hath ground for saying, and truly saying, with my lips have I been telling of all the judgments of Thy mouth; that is, I have kept silent nothing of Thy judgments, which Thou didst will should become known to me through Thy words, but I have been telling of all of them without exception with my lips. This he seemeth to me to signify, since he saith not, all Thy judgments, but, all the judgments of Thy mouth; that is, which Thou hast revealed unto me: that by His mouth we may understand His word, which He hath discovered unto us in many revelations of the Saints, and in the two Testaments; all which judgments the Church ceaseth not to declare at all times with her lips.

3. Ver. 14. He then subjoineth, I have had as great delight in the way of Thy testimonies, as in all manner of riches. We understand that there is no more speedy, no more sure, no shorter, no higher way of the testimonies of God than Christ, in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Thence he saith that he hath had as great delight in this way, as in all riches. Those are the testimonies, by which He deigneth to prove unto us how much He loveth us. But God commendeth His love in us, since while we yet were sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore He Himself saith, I am the way, and the humility of His carnal Birth and Passion are evident testimonies of6, the divine love towards us; beyond doubt Christ is the way of the testimonies of God. For through these testimonies, which we tee fulfilled in Him, we expect and trust that the everlasting promises of the future will be fulfilled. For He Who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for3*' us all, how hath He not with Him also freely given us all things?

4. Ver. 15, 16. / will talk of Thy commandments, and have respect unto Thy ways. The Greek word is, A«r^<rc0, which the Latin translators have rendered sometimes by talking, sometimes by being exercised in: and these seem different from one another: but if the exercise of the understanding be understood, with a certain delight in uttering, they are connected with one another, and one thing, in a manner, is made up of both, so that talking is not foreign to this sort of exercise. And thus the Church doth exercise herself in the commandments of God, by speaking in the copious disputations of the learned against all the enemies of the Christian and Catholic faith; which are fruitful to those who compose them, if nothing but the ways of the Lord is regarded in them; but AH the ways of the Lord are, as it is written, mercy and truth; the fulness ofPs.26,9. which both is found in Christ. Through this sweet exercise is gained also what he subjoineth: My meditation shall be in Thy statutes, and I will not forget Thy word. — My meditation shall be therein, that I may not forget them* Thus the blessed man in the first Psalm shall meditate in the law of the Lord day and night.

5. In all that I have above said, as I could, let us remember, most beloved, that he who hideth in his heart the words of the Lord, and telleth with his lips all the judg* ments of His mouth, and in the way of His testimonies taketh as much delight as in all manner of riches, and talking or exercising himself in His commandments, hath respect unto His ways, and doth meditate on His statutes, that he may not forget His words, through all which things appeareth armed with the law and learning of God; yet prayeth and saith, Blessed art Thou, O Lord: 0 teach me Tliy statutes. Where he is understood to ask nothing else, save the aid of grace, that he may learn in deeds what he already knoweth in words.

Sermon 8

1. Ver, 17. If, most beloved, ye remember the former parts of this Psalm, they ought to help us to understand what followeth. For those which seemingly speak in the person of an individual, are the members of Christ, and pertain to one Head as one body. He had said above, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? Even by keeping Thy words. Behold he now more openly asketh aid that he may do this: Reward, he saith, Thy servant: let me live, and keep Thy word. If he asked that good might be rewarded him for good deeds, he had already kept God's words. But he said not, Reward Thy servant, because I have kept Thy words: as if he were demanding a recompense of good for the good of obedience: but he said, Reward Thy servant: let me live, and keep Thy word. And what is this, but to declare the dead incapable of keeping God'a words? that is, the unbelieving of whom it is said, Suffer the dead to bury their dead. If therefore we understand the unbelieving by the dead, and believers by the living: since the righteous liveth by faith, and the word °^ ^0( cannot De kept without faith, which worketh by love; it is this that he asketh who saith, Reward Thy servant: let me live, and keep Thy word. And since before faith nought save evil for evil is due unto man, and as God, through grace which is not due, rewardeth good for evil; it is this reward that he asketh, who saith, Reward Thy servant: let me live, and keep Thy word. For there are four modes of reward: either evil for evil, as God will reward everlasting fire to the unrighteous: or good for good, as He will reward an everlasting kingdom to the righteous: or good for evil, as Christ by grace justifieth the ungodly; or evil for good, as Judas and the Jews through their wickedness persecuted Christ. Of these four modes of reward, the first two belong to justice, whereby evil is rewarded for evil, good for good; the third to mercy, whereby good is rewarded for evil: the fourth God knoweth not; for to none doth He reward evil for good. But that which I have placed third in order, is in the first instance necessary: for unless God rewarded good for evil, there would be none to whom He could reward good for good.

2. Consider that Saul, afterwards Paul: Not by works o/Titusa, righteousness, he saith, which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration. And again: 1 who was before a blasphemer, and a per* secutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did1'13' it ignorant ly in unbelief. And again: Yet I give my judg-\ ment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be2' faithful: that is, to live; for the righteous liveth by faith. He was therefore dead formerly owing to his own un-17* righteousness, before he lived through the grace of God. Moreover he thus confesseth his own death: When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the9' commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. God therefore rewardeth unto him good for evil, that is, life for death; such a reward, in fact, as is here asked for, where it is said, Reward Thy servant: let me live, and keep Thy word. He both lived, and kept His word, and began to belong to another reward, wherein good is rewarded for good: on account of which he saith, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept4' the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day. Righteous truly, in rewarding good for good: for He was merciful in the former case, in rewarding good for evil. Although justice itself, whereby good things are rewarded for good, is not separate from mercy: for thus it is written, Who crowneih thee with com- 'passion and mercy. For he who said, / have fought a good how could he conquer, save by the gift of Him of Whom he saith, Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. And he who finished his course, how could he run, how could he reach the goal, save by the aid of Him of Whom he saith, It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, tut of God that sheweth mercy. And he who kept the faith, how could he do this, unless, as he himself saith, he had obtained mercy that he might be faithful.

3. No where then let human pride raise itself up: God giveth good rewards unto His own gifts. But this man who now prayeth, saying, Beward Thy servant: let me live; if he were entirely dead, would not pray: but from Him he received £the beginning of a good desire, from Whom he asketh the life of obedience. For they who said, Lord, increase our faith, had some faith. But he who, when he was questioned whether he believed, said, / believe, Lord, help Thou mine unbelief t confessed his own want of faith, and yet did not deny his faith. He then, who when he believeth prayeth for obedience, now beginning to live prayeth for life: not for a reward for having preserved it, but for help that it may be preserved. For he who is renewed day by day, is quickened with increasing life every day.

4. Ver. 1 8. But, knowing that the words of God cannot be kept through obedience, unless they be seen by understanding, this also he addeth to his prayer, and saith, Open Thou mine eyes, and I will consider wondrous things of Thy law. What he addeth, (ver. 1 9.) / am a lodger upon earth: or, as some copies read, / am a sojourner upon earth, O hide not Thy commandments from me, hath the same meaning; for what he said before, in, open Thou mine eyes; the same he said afterwards, in, hide not from me: Also what he said there, in, wonderful things of Thy law, the same he repeats in other words, Thy commandments. But there is nothing more wonderful in the commandments of God, than, Love your enemies; that is, reward good for evil. But my discourse respecting this pilgrimage must not be narrowed: and therefore we must not now treat of the subject, but hope to do so in another discourse, which we shall deliver to you vtfth the Lord's help.

Sermon 9

1. Ver. 19. I must now answer jour expectations, beloved brethren, by discoursing on the sequel of this long Psalm, beginning with the verse, / am a sojourner upon earth; O hide not Thy commandments from me! or, as some copies read, J am a lodger upon earth. For the Greek word ra§oixo$ is variously rendered by our translators, incola, inquilinus, or advena. Lodgers (inquilini) who have no house of their own, dwell in another man's; but sojourners (incolae), or strangers (advenae), are spoken of as foreigners (adventitii). Here an important question ariseth respecting the soul. For the words, 1 am a sojourner, or lodger, or stranger upon earth, cannot seem to have been said in reference to the body, since the body derives its origin from the earth. But in this most profound question I dare not define any thing. For if it might justly have been said in respect of the soul, (which God forbid we should suppose derived from the earth,) J am a lodger, or stranger upon earth; or iu reference to the whole man, since he was at one time an inhabitant of Paradise, where he who spake these words was not; or, what is more free from all controversy, if it be not every man who could say this, but one to whom an everlast* ing country hath been promised in heaven: this I know, that the life of man on earth is a temptation; and that there is a heavy yoke upon the sons of Adam. But it^°le8- pleaseth me more to discuss the question in accordance with this construction, that we say we are tenants or strangers upon earth, because we have found our country above, whence we have received a pledge, and where when we have arrived we shall never depart. For he also who in another ^>sa^m satn' I am a stwnQer with Thee, and a sojourner^ as <M my fathers were; saith not, as all men: but by saying, as all my fathers, beyond doubtjntends the righteous to be understood, who preceded him in time, and in this pilgrimage sighed with pious groans for their country above., Concerning whom it is written to the Hebrews, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of tfflsm, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city. And these words, Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, may be understood here not to refer to all men, but to the believing: for all men have not faith: and we see what the Apostle addeth to these words; for, after As long as we are at home in the body, we are absent from tfie Lord; he saith, for we walk by faith, not by sight: that we might understand that this pilgrimage belongs to those, who walk by faith. But the unbelieving, whom God hath not foreknown, or predestined to be con formed to the image of His Son, cannot truly call themselves strangers upon earth, since they are there where they were born after the flesh: for they have not a city elsewhere; and for this reason they are not aliens on the earth, but natives of the earth. Whence another passage of Scripture saith of some one, He hath made his home with death, and his chariot he hath set in hell with the earth-born. But these very persons are aliens and sojourners, not in respect of this earth, but of the people of God, from which tfiey are estranged. Whence the Apostle saith to them that believe, and are beginning to possess a holy city, which is not of this world: Now therefore ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. These then are citizens of the earth, who are straugers to the people of God; while they who are citizens in the people of God, are strangers upon earth; because the whole of the same people, as long as it is in the body, is sojourning away from the Lord. Let it therefore say, / am a stranger upon earth: Ohide not Thy command ments from me.

2. But who are they from whom God hideth His commandments? Hath not God willed that they be every where preached? Would that they were dear to many, as they are clear to many! For what is clearer than this, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart9 and with all thy37""40' soul, and with all thy mind; and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour even as thyself? On which two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. And who is he from whom these commandments are hid? For they are known to all believers, and to many unbelievers. Why then doth the believer pray, that that may not be hidden from him which he seeth not to be hidden even from the unbeliever? Because it is difficult to know God, doth it follow then that it must be difficult to understand the words, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, lest one thing be loved in place of another? For it seemeth easier to know one's neighbour. For every man is every man's neighbour, nor is any distance of race to be thought of, where there is a common nature. Although he who said to the Lord, And who is wyLakeio, neighbour? knew not even his neighbour. A certain man29, was then set before him, who while going from Jerusalem to Jericho fell among robbers: whose neighbour the very person who had asked judged no man to have been, save him who shewed him pity; and it was clearly shewn, that in doing an act of mercy, none should be held a stranger by him who loveth his neighbour. But many know not even themselves; because to know one's self, as a man ought to know himself, is not all men's lot. How then can he, who knoweth not himself, love his neighbour as himself? It was not, then, without reason that the younger son, who departed into a far country, and there squandered his substance by riotous living, in order that he might say, / will arise and go to my father, first came to himself, but because he had wandered so far, that he had lost even himself. Yet he could not return to himself, if he were utterly ignorant of himself; nor could he say, / will arise, and go to my father, he were utterly ignorant of God. Wherefore to some extent these things are known, and are not undeservedly the subject of petitions that they may be even better known. Wherefore in order that we may know how to love God, God must be known; and that a man may know how to love his neighbour as himself, he first ought through loving God to love himself: and how can he do this, if he knoweth not God, if he knoweth not even himself? Rightly then is it said unto God, / am a stranger upon earth: O hide not Thy commandments from me I For justly they are hidden unto those who are not strangers upon earth: for although they hear these commandments, they savour not of them; in truth strangers. Let them pray therefore that the commandments of God may not be hidden from them, whereby they may be freed from this temporary sojourn, by loving God, with Whom they will be for evermore; and by loving their neighbour, that he may be there where they also themselves will be.

3. Ver. 20. But what is loved by loving, if love itself be not loved? Whence by consequence that stranger upon earth, after praying that the commandments of God might not be hidden from him, wherein love is enjoined either solely or principally; declareth that he desireth to have a love for love itself, saying, My soul hath coveted to have a desire alway after Thy judgments. This coveting is worthy of praise, not of condemnation. It is not of this that it is said, Thou shall not covet; but of that whereby the flesh lusteth against the spirit. But seek where it is written of this good coveting whereby the spirit lusteth against the flesh; and thou wilt find, Therefore the coveting of wisdom bringeth to a kingdom; and many other testimonies are found of a good coveting. But there is this difference, that the object of the coveting is mentioned when a good coveting is spoken of: but wheu the object of the coveting is not subjoined, but the coveting alone mentioned, none but an evil passion is meant. As iu the passage just quoted, if he had not added the word wisdom, he could not say, Coveting bringeth to a kingdom. But the Apostle, in the words, I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not— covet: added not the object of the lust, or what thou art not to covet; for it is certain that by this expression none save an evil coveting is understood. What then did this man's soul covet? to have a desire, he saith, after Thy judgments alway. I conclude he did not desire them as yet, when he coveted A desire them. But by judgments are meant righteous deeds, that is, works of righteousness. Since then he who already desireth them, hath them not as yet, how far from them was he who as yet coveted to desire them? and how much farther are they who do not even covet to desire them?

4. But it is wonderful how a desire can be coveted without that desire being in us, the coveting of which is in us. For it is not some beautiful substance, as gold, or a beautiful person, which a man may long for without having, because it is situate without, not in the man. Who knoweth not that coveting is, and that desire is, in a man? Why then is its possession coveted after, as though it were brought in from without? Or how can the coveting of it be felt without itself, since it is even itself nothing but a coveting? For to desire is beyond doubt to covet. What is this wonderful and inexplicable infirmity? Yet it doth exist. For the sick man who laboureth from loathing of food, and wisheth to escape this evil, coveteth to have a desire for food, while he coveteth not to have loathing; but this loathing is a disease of the body. Whereas that longing whereby he longeth to desire food, that is, to be free from his loathing, is in the mind, not in the body; and it is not the delight of the gullet and the palate that inspires it, for that is impeded by the loss of appetite: but the hope of recovering health, whereby it is foreseen that the loathing will be remedied. And in this case we need not wonder if the mind desire that the body may desire, since the mind desires here, without the body desiring. But when both acts belong to the mind, and when both are acts of coveting, why do I covet a desire of the judgments of God? How is it that in one and the same mind of mine I have the coveting of this desire, and have not the desire itself? or how is it that there are two acts and not one? How is it that I long to desire these judgments, and that I do not rather covet the judgments themselves than the desire of them? or how can I covet a desire of these judgments, and yet not covet the judgments themselves; since I long for the desire of them, for this reason, that I desire to have them themselves? And if this be so, I already long for them. What need then that I should covet the desire of them, since I already havdj and am aware that I have it? For I could not covet the desire of righteousness, save coveting righteousness? Is this what I said above, that the love itself whereby that is loved, which is a right object of love, should be loved? For we detest that coveting of ours whereby the flesh lusteth against the spirit; and what is this covetiug, save an evil love? And we love that coveting of ours, whereby the spirit lusteth against the flesh; and what is that coveting, save a righteous love? And when it is said, it must be loved; what else is said than this, it should be coveted? Wherefore, since the judgments of God are rightly coveted, the coveting of the judgments of God is rightly longed for. For this may be otherwise expressed; if the judgments of God are rightly loved, the love of the judgments of God is rightly loved. Is it one thing to covet, another to desire? Not that coveting is not desire, but because not all coveting is desire1. For both things which are possessed, and things which are not possessed, are coveted; for by coveting them, a man enjoyeth the things that he hath; but by desiring them, he coveteth things absent. What then is desire, save the coveting things absent? But how can the judgments of God be absent, save when they are not known? And when they are known, and are not practised, are they to be regarded as absent? For what are judgments, save righteous deeds, not words? And for this reason they may through the weakness of the soul not be desired; and the desire of them may be coveted by the reason in the mind, when it is apparent how profitable and salutary they are. For we often see what ought to be done, and yet do it not; because it delighteth us not to do it, and we desire it may delight us. The intellect flieth in advance; and the weak affection of men followeth slpwly, and sometimes followeth not at all. For this reason therefore he coveted to desire those things which he saw to be goods, wishing to take delight in those things the reason of which he could discern.

5. But he saith not, covet eth, only; but, My soul hath coveted to desire Tfiy judgments. For perhaps this stranger upon earth was one who had already arrived at what he coveted, aifd was now desiring those judgments, the desire of which, he saith, he had at one time coveted. But if he already desired them, why had he not them? For there is no obstacle to possessing the judgments of God, save that they are not desired, while love hath no warmth toward winning them, though their light is so clear and shining. Did he possess them, and did he practsie them? Forver. a little after he saith; For Thy servant is occupied in Thy statutes. But by what steps, so to speak, they are arrived at, he sheweth. For the first is, that it may appear how useful and honourable they are; next, that the desire of them be coveted; lastly, that with the increase of light and health the practice of those judgments may please, only the notion of which pleased before. But what followeth shall, with the Lord's help, be discussed in another discourse with more convenience, since this is already of considerable length.

Sermon 10

1. Ver. 21. The parts of this Psalm which remain to be treated of, warn us to remember the cause of our misery. For after he had said, My soul hath coveted to desire Thy judgments, in all time; that is, whether in prosperity or adversity, because righteousness ought to delight us both in toil and in sufferings, nor ought to be loved in peaceful times in such a sense as that it may be forsaken in stormy times, but it should be embraced in all time: he instantly added, (ver. 21.) Thou hast rebuked the proud: and cursed are they that do err from Thy commandments. For the proud err from the commandments of God. For it is one thing not to fulfil the commandments of God through infirmity or ignorance; another to err from them through pride; as they have done, who have begotten us in our mortal state unto these evils. For the words, Ye shall be as gods, pleased them; and thus through this pride they erred from the commandment of God, which they knew that He had enjoined upon them, and which they might lftve fulfilled with the greatest ease, without any weakness recalling, impeding, retarding them. And behold, the whole of this hard and unhappy anxiety of mortals, is in some respect an hereditary rebuke of the proud. For when God said, Adam, where art thou? He was not ignorant where he was, but He rebuked his pride. Where he then was, that is, what misery he had come to, He desired not to know, but in the question He admonishes him, and with rebuke. But consider now, after saying, Thou hast rebuked the proud, he saith not; Cursed are they that have erred from Thy commandments; so that only that sin of the first men should come into the mind; but he saith, Cursed are they that do err. For it was needful that all might be terrified by that example, that they might not err from the divine commandments, and by loving righteousness in all time, recover in the toil of this world, what we lost in the pleasure of Paradise.

2. Ver. 22. But since the proud even after such a rebuke lower not their necks, and when they are cast down by the punishment of toil and death, are yet exalted by the puffing up of pride, imitating the exaltation of the falling, mocking the humility of the rising; the body of Christ prayeth for them, saying, O turn from me shame and rebuke; for I have sought out Thy testimonies. Testimonies are called in Greek jxa^Tw^ia, which word we now use for the Latin word: whence those who on account of their testimony to Christ have been brought low by various sufferings, and have con-tended unto death for the truth, are not called * testes,' but by the Greek term Martyrs . Since then ye hear in this term one more familiar and grateful, let us take these words as if it were said, O turn from me shame and rebuke; because j 8QUgnt Qut martyrdoms. When the body of Christ speaketh thus, doth it consider it any punishment to hear rebuke and shame from the ungodly and the proud,— since it rather reacheth the crown by this means? Why then doth it pray that it should be removed from it as something heavy and insupportable, save because, as I said, it prayeth for its very enemies, to whom it seeth it is destructive, to cast the holy name of Christ as a reproach to Christians, #and, through the abiding and increase of the same pride, to despise that Cross which was mocked at by the Jews, and the whole medicine of Christian humility, whereby alone that pride is healed, which puffed us up to our fall, and yet worse puffed us up when fallen? Let therefore the body of Christ say; for it hath already begun to love its enemies; let it say to the Lord its God, O take Thou away from me shame and rebuke because I have44' sought out Thy martyrdoms: that is, the rebuke which I hear, and the shame, whereby I am despised, because I have sought out Thy testimonies — take them away from me. For my enemies, whom Thou enjoinest to be loved by me, who more and more die and are lost, when they despise* Thy martyrdoms and accuse them in me, will indeed be recalled to life and be found, if they reverence Thy martyrdoms in me. Thus it hath happened: this we see. Behold, martyrdom in the name of Christ, both with men and in this world, is not only not a disgrace, but a great ornament: behold, not only in the sight of the Lord, but in the sight of men, precious is the death of His Saints; behold, His martyrs are not only not despised, but honoured with great distinctions. Behold that younger son, who in place of the swine which he fed, that is, of the unclean devils he worshipped, once persecuted the part of him that went before in the few Christians, now most religiously proclaiming among many great Gentile nations those Martyrs, upon whom formerly he heaped rebukes, and exalting with the highest praises those whom he despised, had died' and returned to life, had been lost and was found. In this so great gain of the chastening, the conversion, and redemption of their enemies, the body of Christ said unto God, O turn from me shame and rebuke: and as if it were asked, Shame in what, rebuke from what? he subjoins, Became I have sought out Thy testimonies.

3. Ver. 23, 24. Where is now that rebuke? where now that shame? They have departed and have passed away; and because they who had been lost have been found, they have been lost sight of. But while the Church prayed for such a result, she was suffering that shame and rebuke. For, (ver. 23.) Princes did sit and speak against me, he saith. Thence arose heavy persecution, because princes sitting, that is, raised on their judicial seats, decreed it. Apply this to the Head Himself: thou wilt find that the princes of the Jews sat, taking counsel how they might slay Christ. Apply this to His Body, that is, the Church; thou wilt find that the kings of the earth considered and gave commands by what means the Christians might cease to exist. For princes also did sit and speak against me: but Thy servant is exercised in Thy statutes. Thou who desirest to know what sort of exercise this was, understand what he hath added, For Thy testimonies are my meditation, -and Thy statutes are my counsellors. Remember what I have above instructed you, that testimonies are acts of martyrdom. Remember that among the statutes of the Lord there is none more difficult and more worthy of admiration, than that every man should love his enemies. Thus then the body of Christ was exercised, so that it meditated on the acts of martyrdom that testified of Him, and loved those from whom, while they rebuked and despised the Church for these very martyrdoms, she suffered persecutions. For it was not for herself, as I have already said, but for them rather that she prayed thus, O take Thou from me shame and rebuke. Princes, therefore, did sit and speak against me: but Thy servant was exercised in Thy statutes. In what manner? For Thy testimonies are my meditation, and Thy statutes are my counsellors. Counsel against counsel: the counsel of princes sitting on their judgment-seats was to destroy the Martyrs whom they found: the counsel of the suffering Martyrs was to recover their lost enemies. The former then were returning evil for good: the latter, good for evil. What wonder then if the former failed in slaying them; the latter conquered by dying? What wonder, I ask, is it if the Martyrs, when the heathen raged, most patiently bore a temporal death, and the heathen at the prayer of the Martyrs could arrive at everlasting life; while the body of Christ is exercised in such a way that it doth meditate martyrdoms, and pray for blessings Hipon the wicked persecutors of the Martyrs?

4. Ver. 25. These words follow in this great Psalm, which it is our duty to consider, and to expound throughout, in so far as the Lord shall grant us. My soul cleaveth to the pavement: O quicken Thou me according to Thy word. What meaneth, My soul cleaveth to the pavement? For when he addeth, O quicken Thou me according to Thy word, he hath before stated the reason why he praygth that he may be quickened, in these words, My soul cleaveth to the pavement. Since then he prayeth to be quickened, because his soul cleaveth to the pavement, it is wonderful if be wisheth any thing good to be understood by this. The whole sentence is as if he should say, I am dead: O quicken Thou me. What then meaneth the pavement? If we look upon the whole world as one great house, we see that the heavens represent its vaulting, the earth therefore will be its pavement. He wisheth therefore to be rescued from earthly things, and to say with the Apostle, Oar conversation is in heaven. To cling therefore to earthly things is the sours3'20, death; the contrary of which evil, life is prayed for, when he saith, O quicken Thou me.

5. But we must see whether these words suit that man who had before spoken things which implied that he had clung rather to God than to the dust of the pavement, so that his conversation was held not in earthly things, but in heavenly. For how could he be understood to have clung to earthly things, who saith, But Thy servant is occupied in Thy statutes; for Thy testimonies are my meditation, and Thy statutes are my counsellors? For such are his fore-

Sermon 11

going words of which these are the sequel, My soul cleaveth t0 the pavement. Ought we to understand from this, that however much any man may advance in the statutes of God, he yet hath the affection of mortal flesh towards those earthly things, wherein the life of man upon the earth is a temptation, and if he perseveringly recovereth himself from this death, that he every day returns to life, by the quickening Spirit of Him, by Whose grace our inner mdh is renewed day by day? For when the Apostle was saying these words, Whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord, and desired to depart and to be with Christ; his soul had clung to the pavement. Whence the body itself also, because it is of the earth, is reasonably understood by the word pavement; since, because it is still corruptible and weigheth down the soul, we justly groan while in it, and say unto God, My soul cleaveth to the dust of the pavement: O quicken Thou me according to Thy word. For we shall be without our bodies when we shall be for evermore with the Lord; but then, because they will not be corruptible, nor will they weigh down our souls, if we view it strictly, we shall not cleave unto them, but they rather unto us, and we unto God. Wherefore these are the words of another Psalm, But it is good for me to hold me fast by Qod: so that our bodies will live from us, by cleaving uuto us; but we draw our life from God: because it is good for us to hold fast by God. For the expression, My soul cleaveth to the pavement, doth not seem to me to signify the union of the flesh and the soul, although some have understood this also; but rather the carnal affection of the soul, whereby the flesh Imteth against the spirit. And if this be a right interpretation, he certainly who saith, My soul cleaveth to the dust of the pavement: O quicken Thou me according to Thy word, prayeth not that he may be released from the body of this death, by the intervention of the death of this body; which the last day of this life, which on account of its brevity cannot last long, will at some time bring about; but that the lust whereby we lust against the Spirit, may be more and more diminished, and that the lust whereby we lust against the flesh may more and more increase, until this is brought to an end within us, and that the lust of the spirit against the flesh is perfected through the Holy Spirit which is given us.

3. Ver. 26. He justly saith not, O quicken TJiou me according to my merit, but, according to Thy word: and what else is this, save according to Thy promise? He wisheth to be the son of promise, not the son of pride; so that the promise may be firm to all the seed according to grace. For this is%the word of promise: In Isaac shall thy seed feRom. called; that is, they which are the children of flesh, these are not the children of Qod; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For what he was by himself, he confesseth in the following words: / have acknowledged my ways, and Thou heardest me. Some copies. indeed read, Thy ways: but more, and the best Greek, read my ways, that is, evil ways. For he seemeth to me to say this; I have confessed my sins, and Thou hast heard me; that is, so that Thou wouldest remit them. O teach me Thy statutes. I have acknowledged my ways: Thou hast blotted them out: teach me Thine. So teach me, that I may act; not merely that I may know how I ought to act. For as it is said of the Lord, that He knew not sin, and it is understood, that He did no sin; so also he ought truly to be said to know righteousness, who doeth it. This is the prayer of one who is improving. For if indeed he utterly neglected acts of righteousness, he would not say those words above, But Thy servant was occupied in Thy statutes. He doth not then wish to learn from the Lord those wherein he was occupied; but he desireth to arrive from these at others, by edification, as it were by growth.

4. Ver. 27, 28. Finally he addetb, Intimate to me the way of Thy righteousnesses; or, as some copies have it, instruct me; which is expressed more closely from the Greek, Make me to understand the way qf Thy righteousnesses; so shall I be exercised in Thy wondrous things. These higher commandments, which he desireth to understand by edification, he calleth the wondrous things of God. There are then some righteousnesses of God so wondrous, that human weakness may be believed incapable of fulfilling them by those who have not tried. Whence the Psalmist, struggling and wearied with the difficulty of obeying them, saith, My soul hath slumbered for very heaviness; Ostablish Thou me with Thy tcord! What meaneth, hath slumbered? save that he hath cooled in the hope which he had entertained of being able to reach them. But, he addeth, Stablish Thou me with Thy word: that I may not by slumbering, fall away from those duties which I feel that I have already attained: stablish Thou me therefore in those words of Thine that I already hold, that I may be able to* reach unto others through edification.

5. Ver. 29. And what hindereth to walk in the commandments of God in such a manner, that a man may easily arrive at those wonderful things? What, do we suppose, save that which he prayeth in the next words may be removed from him: Take Thou from me the way of iniquity? And since the law of works hath entered in, that sin might abound; he addeth, And pity me according to Thy law. By what law, save by the law of faith? Hear the Apostle: Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works. Nay: but by the law of faith. This is the law of faith, whereby we believe and pray that it may be granted us through grace; that we may effect that which we cannot fu]fii through ourselves; that we may not, ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish our own, fail to submit ourselves unto the righteousness of God. In the law of works, therefore, is the righteousness of God Who commandeth; but in the law of faith, the mercy of Him Who aideth.

6. Ver. 30 — 32. But after he had said, And pity me according to Thy law; he mentioneth some of those blessings which he hath already obtained, that he may ask others that he hath not yet gained. For he saith, J have chosen the way of truth: and Thy judgments 1 have not forgotten. (Ver. 31.) / have stuck unto Thy testimonies: 0 Lord, confound me not — / have chosen the way of truth, wherein to run: Thy judgments I have not forgotten, that 1 might run. / have stuck unto Thy testimonies, while I was running: O Lord, confound me not: may I persevere in striving toward the point whereunto I am running: may 1 arrive whither I am running! So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. He next saith, / will run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou hast widened my heart. I could not run hadst Thou not widened my heart. The sense of the words, / have chosen the way of truth, and Thy judgments I have not forgotten: I have stuck unto Thy testimonies, is clearly explained in this verse. For this runniii£ is along the way of the commandments of God. And because he doth allege unto the Lord rather His blessings than his own deservings; as if it were said unto him, How hast thou run that way, by choosing, and by not forgetting the judgments of God, and by sticking to His testimonies? Couldest thou do these things by thyself? I could not, he replieth. What then? / will run, he saith, the way qf Thy commandments, when Thou hast widened my heart. It is not therefore through my own will, as though it needed no aid of Thine; but because Thou hast widened my heart. The widening of the heart is the delight we take in righteousness. This is the gift of God, the effect of which is, that we are not straitened in His commandments through the fear of punishment, but widened through love, and the delight we have in righteousness. For He promiseth us His own breadth, when He saith, / will dwell in them, and walk in them. For how large is the place where the Lord walketh! in this breadth is love shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which is given5' us. Whence also it is said, and let rivers qf waters be dispersed in thy streets; for the word signifying streets in16* Latin (platea) is derived from the Greek xAaru, which meaneth, broad. These are the waters of which the Lord saith, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and, He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture saith, out qf his belly37—89- shall flow rivers of living water: and the Evangelist explained what He meant; but this spake He of the Spirit, which they who believe on Him should receive. Many things might be said of this breadth of heart, but ye already complain of the length of this discourse.

Sermon 12

l. Ver. 33. In this great Psalm there cometh next in order that which, with the Lord's help, we must consider and treat of. Set a law for me, 0 Lord, the way of Thy statutes, I shall seek it alway. The Apostle saith, The law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, and the like characters, the mention whereof he concludeth with these words: And if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine; according to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. Was he then who said; Set a law for me, O Lord, like in character to those for whom the blessed Paul declareth that the law was made? God forbid! For if he had been such, he would not have said above, / will run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou hast widened my heart. Why then doth he pray that the law may be taught him by the Lord, if it be not taught the righteous? Is it given to the righteous not in the same sense as it was given to a stiffnecked people, on tables of stone, not in fleshly tables of the heart? according to the old covenant from mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, npt according to the new covenant, concerning which it is written through Jeremiah the Prophet, Behold, the days come^ saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; for they abode not in my covenant, and I forsook them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After these days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts. Behold in what manner this man wisheth a law to be set him by the Lord: not as it is laid down for the unholy and the disobedient, who belong to the old covenant, on tables of stone; but as it is given in the mind to the holy sons of the free, that is, the heavenly Jerusalem, the sons of promise, the sons of an everlasting heritage, by the Holy Spirit, as it were by the finger of God, and written in the heart: not one which they may hold in remembrance, and neglect in life; but which the^ may know by understanding, perform by loving, in the breadth of love, not in the narrowness of fear. For he who doth the work of the law through fear of punishment, not from love of righteousness, truly doth it against his will. But what he doth against his will, if it could be so, he would prefer should not be commanded at all: and thus he is not a friend, but a foe of the law, which he would wish should not exist; nor is he who is unclean in will, cleansed by his act. Such a man cannot say what this man said in the foregoing Verses, / did run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou hadst widened my heart: for that widening signifieth love, which according to the Apostle is the fulfilling of the Law.

2. Why then doth this man still pray for a law to be laid down for him; which, if it had not been laid down for him, he could not have run the way of God's commandments in the breadth of his heart? But since one speaketh who is growing in grace, and who knoweth that it is God's gift that he profiteth in grace; what else doth he pray, when he prayeth that a law may be laid down for him, sare that he may profit more and more? As, if thou holdest a full cup, and givest it to a thirsty man; he both exhausts it by drinking it, and prayeth for it by still longing for it. But those unrighteous and disobedient men for whom the law is laid down on tablets of stone, are thereby made guilty of transgression, not the sons of promise. But he also who remembereth it, and yet loveth it not, is guilty in this way, because his memory is as it were a sort of written stone, not to adorn him, but to weigh him down; an onerous load, not a title of honour. This law he hath termed the way of the judgments of God; nor is the path of His commandments, which he had already stated he had run when his heart was expanded, different. He therefore both hath run and is running, until he reach the palm of the heavenly calling of God. Lastly, after he had said, Set a law for me, 0 Lord, the way of Thy statutes; he addeth, and I shall seek it evermore. For why doth he seek for what he hath, save because he both hath it by acting, and seeketh it by improving?

3. But what meaneth, Evermore? Will there be no end seeking; as it is said, His praise shall be ever in my mouth; because there will be no end of praising Him: for we shall not cease to praise God, when we shall have reached everlasting kingdom, since we read, Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house: they will be alway praising Tfiee? Doth evermore mean as long as we live here, because we progress in grace so long; but after this life, he who was in a good course of improvement here, is made perfect there? Just as it is said of certain women, that they were ever learning: but these learnt ill, for he addeth, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. But he who always profiteth in growth unto edification here, arrives at the goal which he striveth to attain by progress in grace, where he will no longer progress, because he here resteth, made perfect, without end. But the expression, Ever learning is not used of those women to mean that even after death they continue endeavouring to learn vain and fruitless things; since everlasting punishments, not studies, succeed that species of learning. Here therefore the law of God is examined into, as long as we progress in it, both by knowing it and by loving it: but there its fulness abideth for our enjoyment, not for our examination. Thus also is this spoken, Seek His face evermore. Where, evermore, save here? For we shall not there also seek the face of God, when we shall see face to face. Or if that which is loved without a change of affection is rightly said to be sought after, and our only object is, that it be not lost, we shall indeed evermore seek the law of God, that is, the truth o God: for in this very Psalm it is said, And Thy law is the truth. It is now sought, that it may be held fast; it will then be held fast that it may not be lost: even as it is said of the Spirit of God, that It searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God; not indeed, that It may discover what It knoweth not, but because It leaveth nothing that It knoweth not.

4. Ver. 34. The grace of God therefore is particularly commended unto us, when he who already knew the law according to its letter, prayeth that a law may be set for him by the Lord. But since the letter killeth, while the Spirit* giveth life; he prayeth that he may be enabled through the Spirit to Perform that which he knew through the letter; lest, on account of his knowledge of a commandment which he had not obeyed, the charge even of disobedience might come upon him. However no man, unless he hath received the comprehension thereof from the Lord, can comprehend how the law is to be known as it ought to be, that is, how its real meaning may be understood, why it was imposed upon those who were not to keep it, what profit even this hath in it, that the law entered that sin might abound: whence he addelh, (ver. 34.) Give me under-20' standing and I shall search Thy law, yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart. For when each man hath searched the law, and searched its deep things, in which its whole meaning doth consist; he ought indeed to love God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind; and his neighbour as himself. For on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. This he seemeth to have promised, when he said, Yea, I shall keep it with my whole heart.

5. Ver. 35. But since he hath no power to do even this, save he be aided by Him Who commandeth him to do what He commandeth, Make me, he addeth, to go in the path of Thy commandments, for therein is my desire. My desire is powerless, unless Thou Thyself makest me to go where I desire. And this is surely the very path, that is, the path of God's commandments, which he had already said that he had run, when his heart was enlarged by the Lord. And this he calleth a path, because the way is narrow which leadeth unto life; and since it is narrow, we cannot run14, therein save with a heart enlarged.

6. Ver. 36. But since he still profitetb, he still runneth; and he therefore seeketh the Divine help whereby he may be conducted, since it is not of him that willeth, nor of him ^U runne^> Of God that sheweth mercy: for it is Qod that worketh in us even to will, for the will is prepared by the Lord. He next saith, Incline mine heart unto Thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. This then he prayeth, that he may profit in the will itself. But what are the testimonies of God, save those wherein He beareth witness to Himself? For something is proved by testimonies; and on this account the judgments and commandments of God are proved by the testimonies of God: and whatever God willeth to persuade us, He persuadeth us by His own testimonies: towards which the Psalmist prayeth that his own heart may be inclined, and not to covetousness. For God enjoins us by His testimonies to worship Him for nought; which covetousness, the root of all evils, hindereth. He useth here a Greek expression, from which covetousness generally may be understood, whereby every man seeketh more than is enough: for the word irkeov meaneth more, and e%i$ signifieth having, being derived from the verb to have. It is therefore termed tfAeovef/a, from having too much: a word which the Latin translators in this passage have variously rendered by emolument, utility, and avarice, which last is best. But the Apostle saith, Avarice is the root of all evils. But in the Greek, whence these words have been rendered into our tongue, the word used by the Apostle is not ir\sove%ioi, which occurs in this passage of the Psalms; but piAagyug/a, by which is signified love of money. But the Apostle must be understood to have meant genus by species when he used this word, that is, to have meant avarice universally and generally by love of money, which is truly the root of all evils. For the first human beings would not have been deceived and cast down by means of the serpent, unless they had desired to have more than they had received, and to be more than they had been made. For this was the tempter's promise, Ye shall be as gods. By this covetousness then (^heove^lu) they were ruined. For by wishing to have more than they had received, they lost even what they had received. A trace of this truth, which hath been universally diffused, may be found in the civil law, which provides that he who claimeth more than his due shall be nonsuited: that is, that he who hath demanded more than was due to him. should lose even what was due to him. But all covetousness is cut away from about us, if God be worshipped for nought. This is the challenge given by the tempter to Job in his temptation, when he asketh respecting him, Doth Job fear God/or nought? For the devil thought, that in fearing God the righteous man's heart was inclined to covetousness, and served Him, like a hireling, for his wages, fordhe sake of profit, or the advantage of his temporal fortunes wherewith God had enriched him; but when he was tempted, it appeared how that he served God for nought. If therefore our heart be not inclined to covetousness, we fear God only for God's sake, so that He is the only reward of our serving Him. Let us love Him in Himself, let us love Him in ourselves, Him in our neighbours whom we love as ourselves, whether they have Him, or in order that they may have Him. Since this is given to us by His own gift, it is therefore said to Him, Incline mine heart unto Thy testimonies, and not to covetousness. But what followeth, must be treated of in another discourse.

7. Ver. 37. The next words in the Psalm which we have undertaken to expound are, O turn away mine eyes, lest they behold vanity: and quicken Thou me in Thy way. Vanity and truth are directly contrary to one another. The desires of this world are vanity: but Christ, Who freeth us from the world, is truth. He is the way, too, wherein this man wisheth to be quickened, for He is also the life: / am the way, the truth, and the life, are His own words. But6* what meaneth, O turn away mine eyes, lest they belwld vanity? While we are in this world, can we avoid seeing vanity? For every creature was made subject unto vanity, which is understood to be in man; and, All is vanity; what profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under

Sermon 13

^e SMn ? ^oth ne PTa7 tnat n8 may not De un(ler tne sun, where all is vanity; but in Him, in Whom he prayeth that he may be quickened? For He ascended not only above the sun, but far above all heavens, thai He might Jill all things. And they who do not fruitlessly hear what the Apostle saith, live rather in Him than under the sun: Set affection on things above, not on things on the earth; for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Chrfot in God. Therefore if our life be there where Truth is, our life is not under the sun, where is vanity. But this so great blessing we have rather in hope than possess in deed. And the blessed Apostle spake those words according to our hope; for after he had said, The creature is made subject to vanity, he added, not willingly, but by reason of Him Who hath subjected the same in hope. In hope therefore, wherein we hope that we shall cling to the contemplation of the Truth, we are meanwhile made subject unto vanity. For the whole of this spiritual, animal, and bodily creation is in man; yea, it is man. It willingly sinned, and became an enemy to truth; but that it might justly be punished, it was not willingly made subject unto vanity. Lastly, after a few words; not only they, (that is, the whole creation,) but ourselves also who have the Jvrst-fruits of the Spirit; that is, who not in our whole substance, but in that part of it whereby we surpass cattle, are subject unto God, not unto vanity, that is, through the first-fruits of the Spirit: we also ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. As long therefore as we are here according to the flesh, whose adoption and redemption we here wait for in patience of hope: so long, in that respect in which we are under the sun, we are made subject unto vanity. As long therefore as we are in this state, how can we avoid seeing vanity, whereunto we are even subject in hope? What then is the meaning of his words, O turn Thou mine eyes away, lest they behold vanity? Doth he pray this, that what we hold in hope may not indeed in this life be fulfilled, but that its lot may be this, which may be at some time fulfilled in Him, when it shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, both in spirit, soul, and body, into the glorious liberty of the children ofRom. Qod, where it shall no longer see vanity?

2. These words may indeed thus be understood, not beside the rule of faith; but there is here another sense, which I confess pleaseth me more. The Lord saith in the Gospel, If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be22'23' full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, Iww great is that darkness! It is therefore of great consequence, when we do any thing good, what object we have in view in doing it. For our duty should be weighed, not by the act of duty, but by our end; so that we should consider not merely whether what we are doing be good, but especially if the object on account of which we do it be good. He prayeth that those eyes wherewith we consider on what account we do what we do, may be turned away that they behold not vanity; that is, that he may not look to vanity, as his motive, when he doeth any thing good. In this vanity the first place is held by the love of men's praise, on account of which many great deeds have been wrought by those who are styled great in this world, and who have been much praised in heathen states, seeking glory not with God, but among men, and on account of this living in appearance prudently, courageously, temperately, and righteously; and when they have reached this they have reached their reward: vain men, and vain reward. The Lord, anxious to turn away the eyes of His disciples from this vanity, saith, Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them: otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in Heaven. Presently, in detailing certain offices of righteousness, and giving precepts concerning alms, prayer, and fasting, He every where warns us that none of these things be done for the sake of the glory of men, and He every where saith that they who do them for this reason have received their reward; that is, not the everlasting one, which is laid up for the Saints with the Father, but the temporal one, which they who regard vanity in their works seek for: not that the praise of men by itself is to be blamed, (for what is so desirable for men, as that ' those deeds which they ought to imitate should please them?) but to do good for the sake of praise, this is to regard vanity in one's works. Since, however bountifully the praise of men may have been conferred on a righteous man, the end of his good deeds ought not to be placed in that praise, but this very praise should be referred to the praise of God, for Whose sake the truly good do good deeds; sinc% they are not made good by themselves, but by Him. Lastly, in the same discourse our Lord had said to them, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. We ought to look thither, where He hath placed our end, when we do any thing good, if our eyes are turned away from vanity. Let not therefore the end of a good work be in the praises of men, but let us correct these very praises of men, and refer all things to the praises of God, by Whom every thing is given unto us which is praised without error on the part of him Who praiseth. Moreover, if it be a vain thing to do good works for the sake of men's praises, how much more vain for the sake of getting money, or increasing it, or retaining it, and any other temporal advantage, which cometh unto us from without? Since all things are vanity: what is man's abundance, with all his toil, wherein he tabouret h under the sun? For our temporal welfare itself finally we ought not to do our good works, but rather for the sake of that everlasting welfare which we hope for, where we may enjoy an unchangeable good, which we shall have from God, nay, what God Himself is unto us. For if God's Saints were to do good works for the sake of this temporal welfare, never would the martyrs of Christ achieve a good work of confession in the loss of this same welfare. But they received aid in trouble, not beholding vanity, for vain is the help of man; an(* des*re<l n°t ine °f many for ™<*>n is like a thing of nought, and his time passeth away as a shadow.

3 g8 Bufc when Gq(j is praye(j that tnose things which are seemingly in our own power, that is, the turning away of the eyes lest they behold vanity, may be granted us by Him, what else than His grace is praised? For some have not turned away their eyes from that vanity, because tbey have imagined that they become righteous and good of themselves, and have loved the praise of men more than the praise of God; for they are themselves men, who have been too much pleased with themselves, and have presumed on the strength of their own will: but this also is vanity and vexation of spirit After he had said, therefore, O turn away mine eyes, lest they behold vanity: and quicken Tltou me in Thy way: and this way is not vanity, but truth: he addeth, (ver. 38.) O stablish Thy word in Thy servant, that I may fear Thee. And what else is this than, Grant unto me that I may do according to what Thou sayest? For the word of God is not stablished in those who remove it in themselves by acting contrary to it; but it is stablished in those in whom it is immoveable. God therefore stablisheth His word, that they may fear Him, in those unto whom He giveth the spirit of the fear of Him; not that fear of which the Apostle saith, Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; for perfect love casteth out this fear, but that fear which the Prophet calleth the spirit of the fear of the Lord; that fear which is pure, and endureth for ever; that fear which feareth to offend Him Whom it loveth. For the adulteress hath a different fear of her husband from that of the chaste wife: the adulteress feareth him, lest he come: the chaste feareth, lest he forsake her.

4. Ver. 39. Take away my reproach which I have suspected, for Thy judgments are sweet. Who is he who suspected his own reproach, and who doth not know his own reproach better than that of his neighbour? For a man may rather suspect another's than his own; since he knoweth not that which he suspecteth; but in each one's own reproach there is not suspicion for him, but knowledge, wherein conscience speaketh. What then mean the words, the rebuke which I have suspected? The meaning of them must be derived from the former verse; since as long as a man doth not turn away his eyes lest they behold vanity, he suspecteth in others what is going on in himself; so that he believeth another to worship God, or do good works, from the same motive as himself. For men can see what we do, but with a view to what end we act, is hidden; and there is thus room allowed for suspicions, so that one man dareth to judge of the hidden secrets of another, and generally falsely, and to suspect at random things that are unknown to him, even if they be true. On this account the Lord, when He was speaking of the end, on account of which we ought to act righteously, in order that He might turn away our eyes from beholding vanity, warned us not to do good works for the sake of the praise of men, in thSse words: Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men to be seen of them. He warned them against doing them for the sake of money, thus: Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth; and, Ye cannot serve God and mammon. He warned them against doing so for the sake even of their necessary food and raiment: Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, and what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. And after He had given all these warnings, since we may suspect that they whom we see living righteously, though we see not with what object they do so, do good works from some such motive as those mentioned, He added, Judge not, that ye be not judged. For this reason, after the Psalmist had said, Take away my reproach that I have suspected; he added, for Thy judgments are sweet; that is, Thy judgments are true. For a lover of truth declareth that to be sweet which is true. But the judgments of men concerning the hidden secrets of men are not sweet, but rash. And therefore he called that his reproach, which he had suspected of others; for this too the Apostle saith, Comparing themselves with themselves they understand not: for a man the more readily suspecteth in another what he is conscious of in himself. This reproach of his therefore he prayed might be taken away, viz. what he had felt in himself, and had suspected in others; that he might not be like the devil, who had suspected concerning the hidden things of the holy Job, that he did not worship God for nought. Job, whom he demanded to be allowed to tempt, that he might discover some -charge to impute against him.

5. Ver. 40. But since nothing save envy suspecteth another's reproach, while a good work cannot be censured, because that which is open speaketh for itself; and since it is censured on the score of the motive from which it is done; and thus any man who pleaseth may suspect him of evil, because he seeth not what is hidden, and envieth what is above himself; against this fault truly, under the influence of which each man suspecteth of a man evil which he discerneth not, charity must be held fast, which envieth not; which our Lord especially commendeth, where He saith, A new commandment give I unto you, That ye love one another; and, By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another; and, speaking of the love of God and of our neighbour, On these two commandments, he saith, hang all the Law and the Prophets. Whence the Psalmist also, against the reproach of his suspicion which he longeth to be cut off, saith, (ver. 40.) Behold, I have coveted Thy commandments: 0 quicken Tliou me in Thy righteousness. Behold, I have coveted to love Thee with all my heart, and with all my soul, and with all my mind, and my neighbour as myself) but, O quicken Thou me not in my own, but in Thy righteousness, that is, fill me with that love which I have longed for. Aid me that I may do that which Thou chargest me: Thyself give what Thou dost command. O quicken Thou me in Thy righ~ teousness: for in myself I had that which would cause my death: but I find not save in Thee whence I may live. Christ is Thy righteousness, Who of God is made unto twiCor.i, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctijication, and redemp-90' Hon. Thai, according as it is written, He that glorielh, let him glory in the Lord. And in Him I find Thy commandments, which I have coveted, that in Thy righteousness, that is, in Him, Thou may est quicken me. For the Word Himself is God; and the Word was madefesh, that He Himself also might be my neighbour.

Sermon 14

1. Ver. 41. With the foregoing exposition on this Psalm, the longest of all, we must connect this, on the words which follow in it. And let Thy loving mercy come also unto us, 0 Lord. This sentence seems annexed to the foregoing: for he doth not say, Let it come unto me, but, And let it come unto me. Now the foregoing verse is this, Behold, 1 have coveted Thy commandments: O quicken me in TJiy righteousness: next to which come the words, and let Thy loving mercy come upon me, O Lord. What then doth he here pray for, save that through His loving mercy Who commanded, he may perform the commandmeuts which he hath coveted? For he explaineth in some degree what he meant by the words, Quicken me in Thy righteousness; by adding, And let Thy loving mercy come upon me, O Lord: even Tlty salvation, according to Thy word: that is, according to Thy promise. Whence the Apostle desireth us to be understood as the children of promise: that we may not imagine that what we are is our own work, but refer the whole to the grace of God. For Christ is of God made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, he that ylorieth, let him glory in the Lord. In the words then, Quicken me in Thy righteousness; he prayeth to be quickened in Christ, and this is the very loving mercy which he prayeth may come upon him. Christ Himself is the salvation of God; the expression by which he hath explained what loving mercy he was speaking of when he said, And let Thy loving mercy come upon me, O Lord. If therefore we ask, what is that loving mercy, let us hear what folio weth: Thy salvation, according unto Thy word. For this was promised by Him, Who callelh those things which he not as if they were. For those unto whom the promises were made were not as yet in existence, that no man might glory in his deservings. And The Word is the answer to those who reproach the Manhood. 367 those unto whom it was promised, were themselves also promised; so that the whole body of Christ may say, By the grace of Ood I am what I am.

2. Ver. 42. And so shall I make answer, he saith, to them that reproach me with the word. It is doubtful whether it be ' reproach me with a word;' or, 4 1 will answer with a word;' but either signifieth Christ. They to whom Christ crucified is a stumblingblock or foolishness, reproach us with Him; ignorant that the Word was made fleshy awd^ohn dwelt in us; the Word which was in the beginning, and}^ was with God, and was God. But although they may not reproach us with the Word Which is unknown unto them, because His Divinity is not known unto those by whom His weakness on the Cross is despised; let us nevertheless make answer of the Word, and let us not be terrified or confounded by their reproaches. For if they had known the Word, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. But he, unto whom hath come the loving mercy of God, answereth those who blaspheme the Word; that is, His salvation cometh to protect, not to crush. For He will come upon some and crush them, who, while they scorn His humility, are shaken by stumbling against Him. For thus He saith in the Gospel; Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. They therefore who make Him a reproach unto us, stumble and fall over Him. But let us not fear their reproaches, that we may not stumble and fall, but let us answer unto them the Word. This wRom.lo, the word of faith which we preach. That if, he saith,8""10, thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that Ood hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. It is not enough, therefore, to have Christ in the heart, and to have no will to confess Him when reproach is feared; but the Word must be answered to them that blaspheme Him. Now that the martyrs might be able to do this, it was promised them, For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.20' Therefore, when the Psalmist had said, / will make answer unto them that reproach me wit)t the word: he at once addeth, For my trust is in Thy words, which meaneth exactly, in Thy promises.

3. Ver. 43. But since very many, although members of Christ's very Body, Whose words these are, when the heavy weight of persecution pressed upon them, had not courage to endure the reproach, and through fainting denied Christ, he addeth, 0 take not the word of Thy truth away out of my mouth even exceedingly. He saith, out of my mouth, because the unity of the body is speaking, among whose members those also are counted who failed at the hour by denying, but by penitence afterwards came again to life, or even, by renewing their confession, received the palm of martyrdom, which they had lost. The word of truth, therefore, was not even exceedingly, or, as some copies have it, even every way, that is not altogether taken from the mouth of Peter, in whom was the type of the Church; because although he denied for the hour, being disturbed with fear, yet by weeping he was restored, and by confessing was afterwar(]s crowned. The whole body of Christ therefore speaketh, that is, the whole of the holy Church; in which body either because, while very many denied, there remained brave men who contended for the truth even unto death, or because out of those who had denied many were restored, the Word of truth was not taken away from her mouth, even exceedingly. In the words, O take not, we must understand, Suffer not to be taken; on which account we say in praying, Lead us not into temptation. And the j0Y^ Himself saith unto Peter, / have prayed, that thy 9 faith fail not; that is, that the word of truth be not taken out of thy mouth even exceedingly. Next followeth, for I have hoped in Thy judgments. Or, as some have more strictly rendered it from the Greek, / have hoped more; a word which, although compounded in a somewhat unusual way, yet answers the necessary purpose of conveying the truth in a translation. We must more attentively search into the meaning of these words, / have hoped in Thy word, and, / have hoped more in Thy judgments. I will make answer, he saith, of the word to them that reproach me,

• supersperavi. Gr. brfiKwura; literally, as he takes it, ' over-hoped.' for I have hoped in Thy words: that is, since Thou Thyself hast promised me this. O take not the word of Thy truth even utterly out of my mouthy for I have hoped in Thy judgments: that is, since Thy judgments, by which Thou chastenest and scourgest me, do not only not destroy my hope, but even increase it: for the Lord chasteneth whom He loveth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.6' Behold the* saints and the humble in heart when they have trusted in Thee, have not.failed in persecutions: behold also those who from trusting in themselves have failed, and nevertheless have belonged to the Very Body, have wept when they became known unto themselves, and have found Thy grace a more solid support, because they have lost their own pride. Therefore, O take not the word of Thy truth even utterly out of my mouth; for I have hoped in Thy judgments.

4. Ver. 44. So shall I alway keep Thy law: that is, if Thou wilt not take the word of Thy truth out of my mouth, / will alway keep Thy law. Yea, unto age, and age of age: he sheweth what he meant by alway. For sometimes by alway is meant, as long as we live here; but this is not, unto age, and age ofageb. For it is better thus translated than as some copies have, to eternity, and to age of age, since they could not say, and to eternity of eternity. That law therefore should be understood, of which the Apostle saith, Love is the fulfilling of the law. For this will be kept by the saints, from whose mouth the word of truth is10 not taken, that is, by the Church of Christ Herself, not only during this world, that is, until this world is ended; but for another also which is styled, world without end1. For weiiit.<age shall not there receive the commandments of the Law, asofa8e-' here, to keep them, but we shall keep the fulness of the Law itself, as I have said, without any fear of sinning; for we shall love God the more fully when we shall have seen Him; and our neighbour too; for God will be all in all; nor willi there be room for any false suspicion concerning our16'28, neighbour, where no man will be hidden to any. psalm cxix.

5. Ver. 45 — 48. The former verses of this long Psalm contain a prayer; but these following, the subject of our present exposition, a narration. For the man of God in the above lines was praying for the aid of God's grace, when he Quicken me in Thy righteousness: and let Thy loving mercies come also upon me, 0 Lord! and other passages of the same kind both above and after this. But he now saith, And 1 walked at liberty: for 1 sought Thy precepts. (Ver. 46.) And I spoke of Thy testimonies also before kings, and was not ashamed. (Ver. 47.) And I meditated on Thy commandments, which I have loved. (Ver. 48.) My hands also have I lifted up unto Thy commandments, which I have loved; and I was exercised in Thy statutes. Where these are the words of one narrating, not of one praying; as if, after he had received what he had prayed for, he were confessing in the praises of God what the loving mercy of God had made him, which he had prayed might come upon him. For he hath not connected these lines with the preceding, as if he had written thus, " And take not from my mouth the word of truth even utterly, for I have hoped more in Thy judgments, and I will keep Thy law continually for ever and ever, and I will walk at liberty, for I have sought out Thy precepts, and I will talk of Thy statutes in the sight of kings, and will not be ashamed and the rest in this way: for this would seem to have been the mode in which what follows should have been connected with the foregoing verses; but he says, And I walked at liberty. Here the copulative conjunction, and, is not used as a connecting particle; for he doth not say, and I will walk, as he had said, and I will keep Thy commandments for ever and ever: or if this latter verse be in the optative mood, and may I keep Thy law; he doth not add, And may I walk at liberty, as if he had desired and prayed for both of these things; but he saith, And I walked at liberty. If this conjunction were not used here, and if the sentence were introduced free from any such connection with what preceded, / walked at liberty, the reader would never be induced by any thing unusual in the mode of speech to think he should seek for some hidden sense. Doubtless, then, he wished what he hath not said to be understood, that is, that his prayers had been heard; and he then added what he had become: as if he were to say, When I prayed for these things, Thou heardest me, And I walked at liberty; and so with the remaining expressions which he hath added to the same purpose.

6. What then mean the words, And I walked at liberty, save, I walked in love, which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given us. In this liberty he walked who said, O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto%Cor.6, you: our heart is enlarged. Now the whole of this love is11, comprised in those two commandments, the love of God, and the love of our neighbour, on which all the Law and the Prophets hang. Whence after he had said, And I walked at liberty, fye subjoiued the reason, For I sought out Thy commandments. Some copies have not commandments but testimonies: but we find commandments in most, and especially in the Greek; and who would hesitate rather to believe this tongue, as prior to our own, and that from which these Psalms have been rendered into Latin? If then we wish to know how he sought out these commandments, or how they ought to be sought out, let us consider what our good Master, Who both taught and gave them, saith: Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. And a little lower, If ye then, He saith, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask Him? Where He evidently sheweth, that the words He had spoken, seek, ask, knock, belong only to earnestness in asking, that is, in praying. Moreover, another Evangelist saith not, He will give good things to them that ask Him; which may be understood in many ways, either as earthly or spiritual blessings; but has excluded other interpretations, and very carefully expressed what our Lord wished us to pray earnestly and instantly for, in these words: How tfiwcA more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to13' ikem that ask Him* This is lhat Spirit by which love is shed abroad in our hearts, so that by loving God and our neighbour we may execute the divine commandments. That is that Spirit in which ue cry, Abba, Father! And on this account it is He Himself Whom we desire to receive Who causeth us to ask: Himself causeth us to seek, Whom we wish to find: Himself causeth us to knock, unto Whom we strive to come. This the Apostle teacheth; for while in one passage he saith that we cry out in the Holy Spirit, Abba, Father, in another passage again he saith, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. How do we cry, if He Himself crieth in us, save because He caused us to cry, when He began to dwell in us? Also, He so acteth when He is received, that He is desired by asking, by seeking, by knocking, to be more fully received. For whether He leadeth them to seek a good life, or to live well; as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. Therefore he saith, / walked at liberty, for I sought out Thy commandments. He had sought and found, since He had sought and received the good Spirit, whereby having been made good he might do good works well, by faith which worketh by love. • 3. Ver. 46. / spoke of Thy testimonies also, he saith, before ki?igs, and I was not ashamed: as one who had sought aud had received grace to answer those who reproached him with the word, and the promise that the word of truth should not be taken from his mouth. Struggling for this truth even unto death, not even before kings was he ashamed to speak of it. For testimonies, whereof he doth avow that he was speaking, are in Greek styled fiagrugiot, a word which we now employ instead of the Latin. The name of Martyrs, unto whom Jesus foretold, that they should confess Him even before kings, is derived hence.

7. Ver. 47. And I meditated, he saith, on Thy commandments, which I have loved. (Ver. 48.) My hands also have I lifted up unto Thy commandments, which I have loved; or, as some copies read, which I have loved exceedingly, or too much, or vehemently, as they have chosen to render the Greek work <r<pod§a. He then loved the commandments of God because he walked at liberty; that is, through the Holy The hands lifted up to commandments above us. 873 Spirit, through Whom love itself is shed abroad, and enlargeth the hearts of the faithful. But he loved, both in thought and in acts. With a view to thought, he saith,6. And I meditated on Thy commandments: as to action, My hands also have I lifted up unto Thy commandments. But to both sentences he hath annexed the words, which I have loved: for the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart. Wnen the commandment of God is obeyed with this end, then a really good work is done; and then our hands are lifted up, because that towards which they are lifted is above. On this account, when the Apostle was about to speak of charity, he saith, / shew unto you a higher way1; and in another passage, To know the love of Christy which is exceeding high, above knowledge. For if the reward of^w**- earthly happiness be sought for from the performance of God's commandments, the hands are rather lowered than^1^' lifted up; since earthly rewards, which are not above but below, are sought for by that obedience. The following words, And my study was in Thy statutes, relate to both. This expression most of the translators have preferred to this, / rejoiced in, or / talked of a version which some have given from the Greek rfioXtv'xpvv. For he who keepeth the commandmeuts of God, which he loveth, both in thought and in works taking delight in them, is exercised with joy, and with a certain abundance of speech, in the judgments

8. Ver. 49. Let us consider, as far as the Lord alloweth, and let us thoroughly treat of these verses of this great Psalm: O remember Thy icord unto Thy servant, wherein Thou hast given me hope. Is forgetfulness incident to God, as it is to man? Why then is it said unto Him, O remember? Although in other passages of holy Scripture this very word is used, as, Why hast Thou forgotten me? and, of God.

Sermon 15

through His Prophet, says, I will forget all his transgressions: and in other passages this is read again and again frequency- But these things are not understood of God in the same way as they happen among men. For as it is said that God repenteth, when He cbangeth things contrary to men's expectation, without His counsel being changed, for Lord's counsel endureth for ever; He is said to forget, when He seemeth to delay His aid or His promise, or not to recompense sinners as they deserve, or any thing of this sort, as if what is either hoped or feared had slipped from His memory, and so doth not take place. These expressions are borrowed from moral discourses on human affections; although God doth these things according to a fixed dispensation, with no failing memory, nor with an understanding obscured, nor with a will changed. When therefore it is said unto Him, O remember, the desire of him who prayeth is displayed, because he asketh for what was promised; God is not admonished, as if the promise had escaped from His mind. O remember, he saith, Tliy word unto Tliy servant: that is, fulfil Thy promise to Thy servant. Wherein Thou hast given me hope: that is, in Thy Word, since Thou hast promised, Thou hast caused me to hope.

%. Ver. 50. The same is my comfort in my humiliation. Namely, that hope which is given to the humble, as the Scripture saith: God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Whence also our Lord Himself saith with own ^PS> wh°soeoer exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. \ye wen understand here that humiliation also, not whereby each man humbleth himself by confessing his sins, and by not arrogating righteousness to himself; but when each man is humbled by some tribulation or mortification which his pride deserved; or when he is exercised and proved by endurance; whence a little after this Psalm saith, Before I was troubled, I went wrong. And this passage in the Book of Wisdom; In grief, hold up, and have patience in thy humiliation. For gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation. In the expression, acceptable, he hath inspired a hope which may console us in our humiliation. And the Lord Jesus, when He foretold that this humiliation would be brought upon His disciples by their persecutors, did not leave them without a hope; but gave them one, whereby they might find comfort, in these words: In your patience shall ye possess your souls; andLuke2l, declared even of their very bodies, which might be put to17*18" death by their enemies, and seemingly be utterly annihilated, that not a lfair of their heads should perish. This hope was given to Christ's Body, that is, to the Church, that it might be a comfort to Her in her humiliation. On account of which hope saith also the Apostle Paul: But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. But this is the hope of everlasting rewards: there is also another hope, which in the low estate of tribulation comforteth very much, a hope that is given to the Saints in the Word of God, Who promiseth the aid of His grace, that no man may faint. Of this hope the Apostle saith, God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. This hope our Saviour gave also with His own lips, when He said, 7%&Luke22, night Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for tliee, Peter, that thy faith fail not. This hope He gave in the prayer which He taught us, where He enjoined us to say, Lead us not e/tf o temptation: for He in a manner implicitly promised that He would give to His disciples in their danger that which He taught them to ask for in their prayers. And indeed this Psalm is rather to be understood to speak of this hope: (ver. 50.) The same is my comfort in my humiliation, for Thy word hath quickened me. Which they have rendered more closely who have put not word, but utterance. For the Greek has kiyw, which is utterance; not >Jyo$, which is word. *

3. Ver. 51. The next verse is, The proud dealt exceeding wickedly; yet have I not shrinked from Thy law. By the proud he wished to be understood the persecutors of the pious; and he therefore added, yet have I not shrinked from TJiy laws, because the persecution of the proud attempted to force him to do this. He saith that they dealt exceeding wickedly, because they were not only wicked themselves, but even tried to make the godly wicked. In this humiHation, that is, in this tribulation, that hope comforted him which was given in the word of God, Who promised aid, that the faith of the Martyrs might not faint; and Who by the Presence of His Spirit gave strength to them in their toils, that they might escape from the snare of the fowlers, and say, If the Lord Himself had not been on our side, perchance they had swallowed us up quick. 9

4. When he saith, The same is my comfort in my humiliation, doth he mean that humiliation whereby man was thrown down and delivered unto death, in consequence of that sin which was most unhappily committed in the bliss of Paradise? For in this humiliation, wherein man is made like unto vanity, and his days pass away as a shadow, all are sons of wrath, but that they are reconciled unto God through the Mediator, who were predestined to everlasting salvation before the foundation of the world; that Mediator in Whom the righteous of old had hope, when they foresaw His coming by the spirit of prophecy. That word then which came to them concerning Him is well understood as the word here spoken of, if we understand the passage of these men; that word of which it is said, (ver. 49.) O remember Thy word unto Thy servant, wherein Thou hast given me hope. (Ver. 50.) The same is my comfort in my humiliation: that is, in this my mortal state: for Thy word hath quickened me; so that when cast out unto death, I had hopes of life. The proud dealt very wickedly: since indeed not even the low estate of mortality tamed their pride. Yet have I not shrinked from Thy law: which the proud were attempting to make me do.

5. Ver. 52. For I was mindful of Thy judgments from the beginning of the world, 0 Lord, and received comfort; or, as other copies have it, and I was exhorted, that is, I received exhortation. For either might be rendered for the Greek vctgexkylhiv. From the beginning of the world, that is, from the birth of the human race, I was mindful of Thy judgments upon the vessels of wrath, which are fitted unto perdition: and I received comfort, since through these also hast Thou shewn the riches of Thy glory on the vessels of Thy mercy.

6. Ver. 53. Weariness hath held me; for the ungodly that forsake Thy law. (Ver. 54.) 7%y statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. This is the low estate, in the house of mortality, of the man who sojourneth away from Paradise and the Jerusalem above, whence one going down to Jericho fell among robbers; but, in con-Lukeio, sequence of the deed of mercy which was done him by that Samafitan, the statutes of God became his song in the house of his pilgrimage; although he was weary for the ungodly that forsook the law of God, since he was compelled to converse with them for a season in this life, until the floor be threshed. But these two verses may be adapted to the two clauses of the preceding verse, respectively: so that the words, / teas mindful of Thy judgments from the beginning of the world, O Lord, be referred to these, Weariness hath seized me, for the ungodly who forsake Thy law: and the words, / received comfort, may be referred to these, Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.

7. Ver. 55. / have thought upon Thy Name, O Lord, in the night-season, and have kept Thy law. Night is that low estate, wherein is the trouble of mortality: night is in the proud who deal exceeding wickedly; night is the fear for the ungodly who forsake the law of the Lord; night is, lastly, the house of this pilgrimage, until the Lord come, and bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will41 make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then shall every man have praise of Qod. In this night, therefore, man ought to remember the Name of the Lord; So that //£?ib.l,3l. who glorieth, may glory in the Lord; on which account this also is written, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but untopB. Thy Name give the glory. For thus every man keepeth the1, law of God, not in his own glory, but in the glory of the Lord; because he doth it not in his own righteousness, but in that of God, that is, in the righteousness given him of God; even as this man saith, / have thought upon Thy Name, O Lord, in the night season, and have kept Thy law. But he would not have kept it, if trusting in his own strength, he had not thought upon the Name of the Lord: for our help standeth in the Name of the Lord.

8. Ver. 56. Considering this, he addetb, This was made me, because I sought out Thy righteousnesses. Thy righteousnesses, whereby Thou dost justify the uugodly; not mine, which never make me godly, but proud. For this man was not one of those who, ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Others have better interpreted these righteousnesses, as those whereby men are justified for nought through God's grace, though by themselves they cannot be righteous, justifications; siuce the Greek hath not foxctifoww, that is, acts of righteousness; but &xacfytaTa, acts of justification. But what meaneth, This was made unto me? What is This? It is perhaps the law? as he had said, and I have kept Thy law; to which he subjoins, This was made unto me, meaning, This was made my law. But we need not delay by expounding in what manner the law of God was made his law. For the Greek words whence these Latin words have been translated, sufficiently declare that it could not have been said of the law, for the word law is in Greek of the masculine gender, and the feminine pronoun is used in the Greek text as well. We must therefore enquire first what was thus made unto him, next in what manner, whatever it may have been, was made unto him. This, he saith, was made unto me; not, This law, for the Greek, as I have said, refuseth this sense. Perhaps then, This night: since the whole of the preceding sentence stands thus: I have thought upon Thy Name, 0 Lord, in the night-season: and have kept Thy law; and the next words are, This was made unto me: since then it is not the law, it must truly be the night which is thus spoken of. What then meaneth, / had the night-season: for I have sought out Thy righteousnesses f Rather light had come unto him than nighty since he sought out the righteousnesses of God. And it is thus rightly understood, // was made unto me, as if it were said, It became night for my sake, that is, that it might profit me. For if that low estate of mortality is not absurdly understood as night, where the hearts of mortals are hid to one another, so that from such darkness innumerable and heavy temptations arise, so that in the same night wild beasts of the forest pass through, the young of the lions roaring, seeking their meat from God; whence of that lion who roareth and seeketh whom he may devour, our Lord saith what I have mentioned above, This night Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you like wheat; that is, in this night, wherein the beasts of the forest roam about, that great lion sought you from God as his prey: indeed this very low estate in the house of^his pilgrimage, which is rightly understood as night, profiteth those who are healthfully exercised in it, that they may learn not to be proud; since that is the sin on account of which man was banished into this night. For the beginning of pride is when one departeth from God. But let him who hath been justified for nought, aud who hath encountered various temptations of this night that he may profit in this low estate, when he now understandeth, say, what is said some verses below in this Psalm, It is good for me that Thou hast brought me low, that I may learn Thy righteousnesses. For what else meaneth, // is good for me that Thou hast brought me low, save that this low estate which is called night, was made for me, that is, was made that it might profit me? But wherefore this? Because I have sought out Thy righteousnesses, not mine own.

9. We may also so understand what is here said, This was made for me, so that neither the law, nor night be understood, but the pronoun this be taken as it is found in another Psalm, where it is said, One thing have I desired of?.!,*, the Lord, this I will require. He saith not what is this one thing, or what one, of which he said, This I will require; but the feminine gender (hanc requiram) is seemingly put for the neuter. For it is an unusual expression, Unam petii, hanc requiram; where it is not understood what that one is: the more common construction would be, " Unum petii a Domino, hoc requiram, ut inhabitem in domo Domini." For in these neuters we do not usually look for any neuter which is to be understood, as, for instance, one good thing, or one gift, or any thiug of this sort; but whatever it is, though it have its name of the masculine or feminine gender, or without any gender be set forth in any form of expression, according to a well-known rule it is understood in the neuter gender. In this way therefore the words, facta est mM> ma7 have been used, as if it had 'been said, Hoc factum est mihi. But if we enquire what this be, what he had said above occurs, / have thought upon

Thy Name, O Lord, in the night-season, and have kept Thy law. This hath been done for me; that is, my having kept

Thy law, was not done through myself, but was done for me, by Thee: because I sought out, not my but Thy righteousnesseSt vox, it is God, saith the Apostle, that wor kith in you b0t.h t0 WiU and t0 * °fHis 9ood pleasure. For God saith tllis through the Prophet: And I will cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My Judgments, and do them. Wherefore since God saith, / will cause you to keep My judgments and do them; he very rightly saith, This hath been made for me: so that when thou askest what that is, he answereth what he had said above, that I might keep the law of God. But since this exposition hath already reached a great length, what followeth will, with the Lord's help, be better treated with in a fresh beginning.

Sermon 16

L Ver. 57. We will now attempt to treat of these verses of this great Psalm, with the will of God; The Lord is my portion; for which some read, My portion, O Lord. Whether this be said, because each one who clingeth unto Him shareth in Him, as it is written, But it is good for me to hold me fast by God; for it is not by themselves being so that men become gods, but by sharing in that one God Who is the true God: or because men choose themselves parts in this world, or take by lot, one man one thing, another another, whence each may live; in a certain sense God is the portion of the pious whereby they may alway live: either sense is not absurd. But let us hear what followeth: I have promised to keep Thy law. What meaneth, My portion, O Lord: 1 have promised to keep Thy law; save because the Lord will be each man's portion then, when he hath kept His law?

2. Ver. 58. But how doth he keep it, unless the lifegiving Spirit grant this, and aid him unto this; that the letter may not kill, and that sin, taking occasion by the commandment, may not work in man all manner of concupiscence. He^om'^ must therefore be called upon: for thus doth faith gain from Him what the law commandeth: for whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord, shall be saved. Consider therefore tchat he subjoineth: I entreated Thy face with my whole heart: and saying in what manner he prayed: 0 be merciful, he saith, unto me, according to Thy word. And as if he had been heard and aided by Him Whom he prayed unto, / thought, he saith, on mine own ways, and turned away my feet unto Thy testimonies. That is, I turned them away from mine own ways, which displeased me, that they might follow Thy testimonies, and there might find a path. For most of the copies have not, Because 1 thought, as is read in some; but only, i" thought. But what is here written, and I turned away my feet: some read, Because I thought^ Thou also hast turned away my feet: that this may rather be ascribed to the grace of God, according to the Apostle's words, For it is Ood Who worketh in us; unto Whom also it is said, 0 turn away mine eyes, lest they behold vanity. If the eyes, lest they behold vanity, why not the feet also, lest they follow error? On which account this also was written: Mine eyes are ever looking unto the Lord, for He shall pluck my feet out of the net. But whether, Thou hast turned my feet, or, / have turned, be read, we do this by His means, Whose Presence he prayed for with his whole heart, and unto Whom he said, 0 be merciful unto me, according to Thy word, that is, according to the word of Thy promise. For the children of the promise are counted for the seed of Abraham.

3. Ver. 60. Lastly, when he had received this blessing of grace, he saith, / was ready, and was not disturbed, thai 1 may keep Thy commandments. Which some have rendered, to keeping Thy commandments, some that I should keep, others to keep, the Greek being row puAaj;a<r9ai.

4. Ver. 61. But in what manner he was ready to keep the divine commandments, he hath added, in these words: The bands of the ungodly have surrounded me: but I have not forgotten Thy law. The bands of the ungodly are the hindrances of our enemies, whether spiritual, as the devil and his angels, or carnal, the children of disobedience, in whom the devil worketh. For this word peccatorum is not from 4 peccata,' i sins/ but from ' peccatores,' ' sinners.' Therefore when they threaten evils, with which to alarm the righteous, that they may not suffer for the law of God, they, so to speak, entangle them with bands, with a strong and tough cord of their own. For they draw iniquity like a long rope, and thus endeavour to entangle the holy, and sometimes are allowed so to do. But if they entangle the body, they do not entangle the mind, when it hath not forgotten the law of God; because the word of God is not bound.

5. Ver. 62. At midnight, he saith, / rise to give thanks unto Thee: because of Thy righteous judgments. This very fact, that the bands of the ungodly surround the righteous, is one of the righteous judgments of God. On which account the Apostle Peter saith, The time is come wiien judgment must begin at the house of the Lord: and if it first begin at us, he addeth, what shall be the end of them that obey not the Gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? For he saith this of the persecutions which the Church suffered, when the bands of the ungodly surrounded them. I suppose, therefore, that by midnight we should understand the heavier seasons of tribulation. In which he said, / arose: since He did not so afflict him, as to cast him down; but tried him, so that he arose, that is, that through this very tribulation he might advance unto a bolder confession.

6. Ver. 63, 64. But, since these things are brought about by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, the Saviour Himself addeth the voice of His own Person to His Body through the medium of this prophecy. For I imagine that what followeth, I am a companion of all them that fear Thee, and keep Tfiy commandments, doth relate to the Head Himself, as it is in the Epistle which is inscribed to the Hebrews: Both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanetified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren. And a little lower, Forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood. He also Himself likewise look part in the same. And what else meaneth this than, He became their companion? For we should not be made sharers in His Divinity, unless He were made a sharer in our mortal nature. For in the Gospel it is said in these words, that we have been made sharers in His Divine nature: To them gave He power to become the sons of God,S<£*h even to tlfhn that believe on His Name; which were born not of bloody nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of Ood. But that this might be so, since He also hath become a sharer in our mortal nature, it is also said, And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. Through this sharing of His in our flesh, grace is ministered unto us, that we may have a chaste fear of God, and may keep His commandments. Therefore Jesus Himself speaketh in this •prophecy: some things in His Members and in the Unity of His Body, as if in one man diffused over the whole world, and growing up in succession throughout the roll of ages: and some things in Himself our Head. Whence are these words: / am a companion of all them that fear Thee, and keep Thy commandments. And on this account, that since He became the companion of His brethren, God of men, the Immortal of the mortal, for this reason the seed fell upon the earth, that by its death it might produce much fruit; he next addeth concerning this very fruit, The earth, O Lord, is full of Thy mercy. And whence this, save when the ungodly is justified? That we may make progress in the knowledge of this grace, he addeth, O teach me Thy righteousnesses I

Sermon 17

1. Ver. 65. These verses of this Psalm, on which by the will of God we are about to speak, commence thus: O Lord, Thou hast dealt in sweetness with Thy servant: according unto Thy word; or rather, according unto Thine utterance. ^e ^reek wor(* XPWr^S hath been variously rendered by our translators by the words sweetness and goodness. But since sweetness may exist also in evil, since all unlawful and unclean things afford pleasure, and it may also exist in that carnal pleasure which is permitted; we ought to understand the word sweetness, which the Greeks termed x^to'ti^, of spiritual blessings: for on this account our translators have preferred to render it by goodness. I thinl? therefore that nothing else is meant by the words, Thou hast dealt in sweetness with Thy servant, than this, Thou hast made me feel delight in that which is good. For when that which is good delighteth, it is a great gift of God. But when the good work which the law commandeth is done from a fear of punishment, not from a delight in righteousness, when God is dreaded, not loved; it is the act of a slave, not of a freeman. Now the servant abideth not in the house for ever9 but tt*e S°n abideth for ever: for perfect love casteth out fear. Thou hast, therefore, dealt in sweetness with Thy servant, 0 Lord: by making him a son, who was a slave: according unto Thine utterance, that is, according unto Thy promise; that the promise might be sure to all the seed through faith.

2. Ver. 66. O learn me sweetness, and understanding, and knowledge, he saith, for I have believed Thy commandments. He prayeth these things may be increased and perfected; for how could he who had just said, Thou hast dealt in sweetness with Thy servant, say, O learn me sweetness, save in this sense, that the grace of God may become more and more known unto him through the sweetness of goodness? For they who said, Lord, increase our faith, had faith. And as long as we live in this world, these are the words of those who are making progress. But he addeth, understanding, or, as most copies read, discipline. Now the word discipline, for which the Greeks use wouhla, is employed in Scripture, where instruction through tribulation to be understood: according to the words, Whom the Lord loveth He disciplineth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. In the literature of the Church this is usually called discipline, translated from the Greek 7r«<Ss/«. For this word is used in the Greek in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the Latin translator saith, " No discipline for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless, afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that have been exercised thereby He therefore toward whom the Lord dealeth in sweetness, that is, he in whom He mercifully inspires delight in that which is good; to speak more plainly, he unto whom is given by God the love of God? and the love of our neighbour on account of God; he indeed ought to pray instantly, that this gift may be so increased unto him, that he may not only despise all other delights in comparison with it, but also that he may endure any amount of sufferings for its sake. Thus is discipline healthfully added to sweetness. This discipline ought not to be desired, and prayed for, for a small measure of grace and goodness, that is, holy love; but for so great, as may not be extinguished by the weight of the chastening; but, like a great conflagration under the impulse of the wind, in proportion as it is withstood, may rekindle with redoubled ardour. For this reason it was not enough to say, Thou hast dealt in sweetness toward Thy servant: without again praying that He would teach him sweetness, so much in fact as to enable him to endure with the utmost patience the discipline. In the third place is mentioned knowledge; since, if knowledge in its greatness outstrips the increase of love, it doth not edify, but puffeth up. When therefore love in the sweetness of goodness shall be so strong, as that it cannot be extinguished by the tribulations which discipline useth; then will knowledge be useful, whereby a man learneth what he hath himself deserved, and what hath been given him of God, through which he discovereth that he can do what he knew not that he could do, and what he could not do by any means by himself.

3. But in that he saith, not, Give unto me; but, O learn me; how is the sweetness taught, if it be not given? Since many know what doth not delight them, and find no sweetness in things of which they have knowledge. For sweetness cannot be learnt, unless it please. Also discipline, which signifieth the tribulation which chasteneth, is learnt by receiving; that is, not by hearing, or reading, or thinking, but by feeling. But knowledge, which he hath placed third of the things of w*"c^ ne says> Teach me, is given by teaching. For what is to teach, save to give knowledge? and these two things are so mutually connected, that the one cannot exist without the other. For no one is taught except he learn, and no one learneth save he be taught* And therefore if a pupil be not able to understand what is said by the teacher, the teacher cannot say, I taught him, but he did not learn: though he may say, I told him what was to belaid, but he did not learn; because he had no perception, no comprehension, no understanding. For, in truth, he too would have learnt, if the teacher had taught. And therefore God, when He would teach, first giveth understanding, without which a man cannot learn those things which pertain to the divine doctrine: whence also the Psalmist a little below saith, O give me understanding, that I mag learn Thy commandments. • A man may then, when he wisheth to teach any one, say those words which our Lord said to His disciples, after He rose from the dead: but he cannot do what did. For the Gospel saith, Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them. But what He said unto them, is read there: but they understood what He said, because He opened unto them the means of understanding it. God therefore teacheth sweetness by inspiring delight, He teacheth discipline by tempering tribulation, he teacheth knowledge by insinuating perception. Since then there are some things which we learn merely that we may know them, others that we may also do them; when God teacheth them, He so teacheth that we may know what ought to be known, by opening the truth; so teacheth that we may do what we ought to do, by inspiring sweetness. For it is no idle prayer to Him: Teach me that I may do Thy will. He saith, Teach me that I may do, not merely that I may know. For the righteous deeds we work, are the fruits which we render unto our Landlord; but Scripture saith, The Lord shall give sweetness, and our land shall yield her increase. But what is that land, save that concerning which it is said to Him Who giveth sweetness, My soul gaspeth unto Thee as a thirsty land.

4. After saying, O learn me sweetness, discipline, and knowledge, he addeth, for I have believed Thy command* meats: and herein we may justly enquire, why he said not, I obeyed, rather than, I believed. For commandments are one thing, promises another. We undertake to obey commandments, that we may deserve to receive promises. We therefore believe promises, obey commandments. What then meaneth, / have believed Thy commandments, save this, I belief that Thou didst command them; Thou, not some human being, although they have been ministered unto men through men? Since therefore I believed that they were Thy commandments, let that faith of mine whereby I believed this, gain from Thee grace whereby I may do what Thou hast commanded. For if a man were to command me this outwardly, would he assist me inwardly to do what he ordered? Teach me therefore sweetness by inspiring charity, teach me discipline by giving patience, teach me knowledge by enlightening my understanding: for I have believed Thy commandments. I have believed that Thou Who art God, and Who givest unto man whence Thou may est cause him to do what Thou commandest, hast commanded these things.

5. Ver. 67. Before I was humbled, I went wrong; wherefore I have kept Thy word; or, as some have it more closely, Thy utterance, that is, lest I should be humbled again. This is better referred to that humiliation which took place in Adam, in whom the whole human creature, as it were, being corrupted at the root, as it refused to be subject to truth, was made subject to vanity. Which it was profitable to the vessels of mercy to feel, that by throwing down pride, obedience might be loved, and misery perish never again to

6. Ver. 68. Sweet art Thou, 0 Lord; or, as many have it, Sweet art Thou, even Thou, O Lord. Some also, Sweet art Thou, or, Good art Thou: as we have before treated of this word: and in Thy sweetness teach me Thy statutes. He truly desireth to do the righteousnesses of God, since he desireth to learn them in His sweetness from Him unto Whom he hath said, Sweet art Thou, O Lord.

7. Ver. 69. Next he saith, The iniquity of the proud Itath been multiplied upon me: of those, that is, whom it profited not that human nature was humbled after it went wrong. But I will search Thy commandments with my whole heart. Howsoever, he saith, iniquity shall abound, shall not grow cold in me. He, as it were, saith this, who -n sweetness learneth the righteousnesses of God. For in proportion as the commandments of Him Who aideth us are the more sweet, so much the more doth he who loveth Him search after them, that he may perform* them when known, and may learn them by doing them; because they are more perfectly understood when they are performed.

8. Ver. 70. Their heart is curdled as milk. Whose, save the proud, whose iniquity he hath said hath been multiplied upon him? But he wisheth it to be understood by this word, and in this passage, that their heart hath become hard. It is used also in a good sense, as in the 67th Psalm, A hill that is cheesed, a rich hill; and is understood to mean, full of grace: for this word, some have also interpreted curdled. But see what he contrasts on his own part with their hardness of heart: But I, he saith, delight in Thy law. What law? One that is most just, and most merciful; whence it is said unto Him, And have mercy upon me according to Thy law. He resisteth the proud, that they may become hardened; but giveth grace to the humble, that they may love obedience, and receive excellence. For by delight in this law voluntary humiliation is preserved, so that penal humiliation be escaped, of which he presently speaketh.

9. Ver. 71. 2/ is good for me that Thou hast humbled me: that I might learn Thy righteousnesses. He hath said something kindred to this above: Before I was troubled, I ivetit wrong: therefore have I kept Thy word. For by the fruit itself he sheweth that it was a good thing for him to be humbled; but in the former passage he hath stated the cause also, in that he had felt beforehand that humiliation which resulted from his punishment, when he went wrong. But in these words, Wherefore have I kept Thy word: and again in these, That I might learn Thy righteousnesses: he seemeth to me to have signified, that to know these is the same thing as to keep them, to keep them the same thing as to know them. For Christ knew what He reproved; and yet he reproved sin, though it is said of Him that He knew not sin. He knew therefore by a kind of knowledge, and again he knew not by a kind of ignorance. Thus also many learn the righteousnesses of God, and learn them not For they know them in a certain way; and again do not know them from a kind of ignorance, since they do them not In this sense the Psalmist therefore is to be understood to have said, That I might learn Thy righteousnesses, meaning that kind of knowledge whereby they are performed.

10. Ver. 72. But that this is not gained, save through love, wherein he who doeth them hath delight, on which account it is said, In Thy sweetness teach me Thy righteousnesses: the following verse sheweth, wherein he saith, The law of Thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver: so that love loveth the law of God more than avarice loveth thousands of gold and silver.

Sermon 18

1. Ver. 73. When God made man out of dust, and gave him life with His breath, it is not there mentioned that He made him with His hands. Why therefore some should have thought that God created every thing else by His word, but man, as if the chief part of His creation, with His hands, I do not see: save perhaps, because the human body is said to have been formed out of dust, they imagine itGen could not have been created except by hands; nor do they heed that as it is written in the Gospel concerning the word of God, All things were made by Him, this cannot be consistent, unless the human body also was made by the Word. But they adduce testimony from this Psalm, saying, Behold where a man so clearly crieth out, (ver. 73.) Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me. As if it were not also openly said, J will consider the heavens, the work of Thy fingers: nor less openly, And the heavens are the work of Thy hands; and even more openly, and His hands formed the dry land. The hands of God are therefore the power of God. Or ifPs-95>5 the plural number moveth them, since it is not said, Thy hand, but, Thy hands; let them understand by the hands of God the power and wisdom of God, both of which titles are given to one Christ; Who is also understood under the figure, Ann of the Lord, where it is read, And unto whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Or let them understand by the hands of God, the Son and the Holy Spirit; since the Holy Spirit worketh conjointly with the Father and the Son: whence saith the Apostle, But all these worketh that one and the self -same Spirit:%e said, one and the selfsame; lest as many spirits as works might be imagined, not that the Spirit worketh without the Father and the Son. It is easy therefore to see how the hands of God are to be understood: provided, at the same time, that He be not denied to do those things through His Word which he doth by His hands: nor be considered not to do those things with His hands, which He doth through His word; nor on account of the expression, hands, a bodily form, one left and another right hand; nor on account of the term, word, any oral sound, or passing emotion of the mind, be supposed to exist in God Who worketh.

2. And there have been some who thus distinguished these two words, made and fashioned me, as to say that God made the soul, and fashioned the body; because God saith of the soul, / have made every soul; while it is said °f lne DOa ^nd Ood formed man of the dust of the ground; as if every thing that was formed were made, although every thing that is made is not also formed. Thus they assert, that the soul was rather made than formed because it is not body, but spirit; as if it were not written, He who formed the spirit of man within him. Nevertheless, when each of these words is used of man in the same passage, and since each element of man, that is, both soul and body, are not denied to be divinely created: special epithets are with some elegance applied to each, respectively; so that the soul is understood to be made, but the body to be formed, or fashioned, or shaped. (For some translators have not chosen to put jinxerunt me, but plasma verunt; being better pleased to derive an indifferent Latin word from the Greek, than to say jinxerunt, which is sometimes used also for making a counterfeit.)

3. But is this said in respect of Adam? from whom since all men were propagated, what man, since Adam was made, may not say that he himself also was made by reason of procreation and generation from Adam? Or may it rightly be said, in this sense, Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me, namely, that every man is born even of his parents not without the work of God, God creating, they generating? Since, if the creative1 power of God be with-1 drawn front things, they perish: nor is any thing at all, either of the world's elements, or of parents, or of seeds, produced, if God doth not create it. On which account He saith to the prophet Jeremiah, Be/ore I formed thee in the belly, /Jer.1,5. knew thee. But did God make man without understanding, either the first man, or each man born, so that he now saith unto Him, Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me: O give me understanding? Was not understanding given to human nature itself, that it might thus be distinguished from the herd? Hath it been so deformed by sinning, that even this must needs be formed again in it? On which account also the Apostle saith unto all who belong to the regeneration, Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind: and the understanding is, of course, in the mind. Hence again he saith, Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind; and of those who were not partakers of this regeneration, This I say, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. On account therefore of these inward eyes, whose blindness it is not to understand, that they may be opened, and may be made more and more clear, hearts are purified by faith. For although, unless he understand somewhat, no man can believe in God;9' nevertheless, by the very faith whereby he believeth, he is helped, that he may understand greater things. For there are some things which we do uot believe, save we understand them; and there are other things which we do not understand, save we believe them. For since faith cornet h by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ; how can one believe him who preacheth the faith, if he (to say nothing of other points) understandeth not the very tongue which he speaketh? But unless, on the other hand, there were some things which we cannot understand, unless we believe them first, the prophet would not say, if ye will not believe, ye shall not understand. Our understanding therefore profiteth to the understanding of that which it believeth, and faith profiteth to the believing of that which it understandeth; and the mind itself, in proportion as these things are more and more understood, iu the very comprehension of them profiteth. But this doth not take place of its own or natural strength: but by the aid and gift of God; as it happeneth by medicine, not through nature, that the diseased eye recovereth its power of sight. He therefore who saith unto God, O give me understanding, that I may learn Thy commandments, is not altogether devoid of it, as if a beast; nor in such a state, though a man, as to be reputed among the number of those who walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of Ood. For if he were such, he would not even say this. For the understanding which knoweth from whom understanding should be sought, is not of slight value; and we must reflect in how much deeper a sense the Divine commandments should be understood; since he, who already to such a degree understandeth them, and hath already declared that he hath kept the words of God, still prayeth that understanding may be given him to learn them.

4. The Greek version hath a more concise expression for our, Give me understanding, crweiWv jxe, expressing ' give understanding' by the single word cuve-no-ov, which the Latin cannot do; as if one could not say, Heal me; and it were necessary to say, Give me health, as it is here said, Give me understanding; or, make me whole, as here it may be said, make me intelligent. This indeed an Angel could do: for he said to Daniel, I am come to give thee understanding; and this word is in the Greek, as it is here also, cuvm<rctl trs; as if the Latin translator were to render Segotirevo-otl <rg by sanitatem dare tibi. For the Latin interpreter would not make a circumlocution by saying, to give thee understanding, if, as we say from health, "to heal thee," so one could say from intellect, " to intellectuate thee." But if an Angel could do this, what reason is there that this man should pray that this be done for him by God? Is it because God had commanded the Angel to do it? Just so: for Christ is understood to have given this command to the Angel, in the passage where the Prophet saith, And it came to pass, when I Daniel had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me the appearance of a man, and I heard a marts voice between the banks of Ulai, tfliich called, and said, Make this man to understand the vision: and in the Greek the same word cruvrncrov is used as here. God therefore, of Himself, because He is light, enlighteneth pious minds, so that they may understand the divine truths which are declared or exhibited. But if He employeth an Angel for His minister towards this object, an Angel may work something in a man's mind, towards his taking in the light of God, and understanding through it; but he is said to give a man understanding, and as it were, so to tfpeak, to intellectuate him; as any one is said to give light to a house, or to illuminate a house, for which he maketh a window; when he doth not penetrate and light it by a light of his own, but merely open an entrance whereby it may be penetrated and enlightened. But neither the sun who lighteneth a house through a window, hath himself created the same house, or the man who made the window in the house; nor hath he commanded him to make it, nor hath he aided the man in making it, or done any thing to open an entrance for the infusion of his beams: whereas God hath created man's mind rational and intellectual, whereby he may take in His light; and He made an Angel such as might work something whereby the human mind might be assisted to take in the light of God; and He so aideth the mind, as to fit it for the reception of angelic working; and He so enlighteneth it of Himself, that not only those things which are displayed by the truth, but even truth itself may be perceived by the mind's eye. But as we have treated with prolixity of these subjects; necessary however to be treated of, in my opinion; let us, putting off our discourse on the remaining verses of this Psalm, close this discourse here.

Sermon 19

1. Ver. 73. Our Lord Jesus in this Psalm hath through His prophet sought that understanding be given by God to His Body, which is the Church, as if to Himseif, to learn the commandments of God. For with Him the life of His Body, that is, of His people, is hid in God, and He Himself, in this very Body of His, suffereth want, and prayeth for that which is needful for His members. Thy hands, he saith, have made me and fashioned me; O give me understanding, that I may learn Thy commandments. Since Thou, saith he, hast formed me, do Thou new form me; that that may done in Christ's Body, which the Apostle speaks of, Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

2. Ver. 74. They that fear Thee, he saith, will see me, and be glad: or, as other copies have it, will be joyful: because I have hoped in Thy word: that is, in the things which Thou hast promised, that they may be the sons of promise, the seed of Abraham, in whom all nations are blessed. Who are they who fear God, and whom will they see and be glad, because he hath put his trust in the word of God? Whether it be the body of Christ, that is, the Church, whose words these are through Christ, or within it, and concerning it, these are as it were the words of Christ concerning Himself; are not they themselves among those who fear God? Who then is he whom they see, and are glad? Doth the people see itself, and rejoice; and is it thus written, They who fear Thee shall see me, and be glad, because I have hoped in Thy word; or, as others have more carefully rendered it, I have more hoped: as if he should say, They who fear Thee, shall see Thy Church, and be glad, because I have more hoped in Thy words; since the same persons, who see the Church and are glad, are the Church? But why said he not, They who fear Thee see me, and are glad: whereas he hath written, fear Thee, in the present tense; while the verbs shall see, and shall be glad, are futures? Is it because in the present state there is fear, as long as man's life is a temptation upon earth; but the gladness which he desired to be understood, will be then, when the righteous shall shine in the kingdom of their Father like tfie sun. For on this account we read thus in another Psalm also:43* O how plentiful is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee! Now, therefore, as long as they fear, they do not as yet see; but they will see9 and will be glad: because it there also followeth, and that Thou hast perfected for them that hope in lliee; and here, because I have hoped, or have more hoped in Thy words: so that we may understand by the word so compounded1, the full sense of which is thus given by the care of a very diligent translator, this, that Ood is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think; so that, because they are above all that we ask or think, it is not enough to hope these things, but we are bound to hope more.

3. Ver. 75, 76. Since then the Church who is in this life still feareth, and doth not as yet behold herself in that kingdom, where her gladness will be free from care, but still toileth among perilous temptations in this world, where she heareth the words, Let him t/tat thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall; considering the misery of this mortal state, during which a heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam, from the day that they go out of their mothers womb, till40'1' the day that they return in burial to the mother of all things; so that on account of the flesh lusting against the spirit, even the regenerate are compelled to groan beneath its heaviness; considering this then, (ver. 75.) I know, she saith, O Lord, that Thy judgments are righteous, and that in Thy truth Thou hast humbled me. O let Thy merciful kindness be my comfort, according to Thy word unto Thy servant. Mercy and truth are so spoken of in the Divine Word, that, while they are found in many passages, especially in the Psalms, it is also so read in one place, All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth. And here indeed he hath placed truth first, whereby we are humbled unto death, by the judgment of Him Whose judgments are righteousness: next mercy, whereby we are renewed unto life, by the promise of Uim Whose blessing is His grace. For this reason he saith, according to Thy word unto Thy servant; that is, according to that which Thou hast promised unto Thy servant, Whether therefore it be regeneration whereby we are here adopted among the sons of God, or faith and hope and charity, which three are built up in us, although they come from the mercy of God; nevertheless, in this stormy and troublesome life they are the consolations of the miserable, not the joys of the blessed: for this reason is it said, 0 let Thy merciful kindness be my comfort. •

4. Ver. 77. But since those things are destined to happen after and through these, he next saith, O let Thy loving mercies come upon me, and I shall live. For then indeed I shall truly live, when I shall not be able to fear lest I die. This is styled life absolutely and without any addition; nor is any life save that which is everlasting and blessed understood, as though it alone were to be called life, compared with wThich that which we now lead ought rather to be called death than life: according to those wrords in the Gospel, If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. Did He add life eternal, or blessed? Again, when speaking of the resurrection of the flesh, He saith, They that have done good, unto the resurrection of life: nor doth He here add everlasting or blessed. So also here: 0 let Thy loving mercies come upon me, and I shall live: nor doth he here say, I shall live for ever, or, I shall live blissfully, as if it were no other thing to live than to live without any end and without any misery. But what is this a reward for? For Thy law, he saith, is my meditation. Unless this meditation were in faith, which worketh by love, no man could arrive at that life on account of it. This I have thought it necessary to state, that no man when he hath committed to memory the whole law, and hath repeated it over and over again in constant recollection of it, not silent as to what it enjoineth, yet not living as it enjoineth, may imagine that he hath done what he readeth, Thy law is my meditation; and hence imagine that he shall gain, what in the words above the Psalmist hath prayed for on account of this merit, which he here mentioneth in these words; O let Thy loving mercies come upon me, and I shall live. This meditation is the thought of one who loveth, and who loveth so fervently, that the love of this meditation of his groweth not cold, by howsoever great abundance of others' wickedness it be thronged arOUnd-

5. Ver. 78. He then goeth on as follows; Let the proud be confounded, for they have unrighteously practised iniquity against me: but I will be occupied in Thy commandments. Behold, what he saith, the meditation of the law of God, or rather, his meditation the law of God.

6. Ver.#79. Let such as fear Tltee, he saith, and have known Thy testimonies, be turned unto me. In some copies, both Greek and Latin, we have found convertantur. mihi, which I consider to mean just the same as if it were, ad me. But who is he who saith this? For no mortal will venture to say this, or if he say it, should be listened to. Indeed, it is He who above also hath interposed His own words, saying, lama partaker with all them that fear Thee. Because He was made sharer in our mortal state, that we might also become partakers in His Divine Nature, we became sharers in One unto life, He a sharer in many unto death. He it is unto Whom they that fear God turn, and who know the testimonies of God, so long before predicted of Him through the Prophets, a little before displayed in His presence through miracles.

7. Ver. 80. O let my heart, he saith, be unspotted in Thy righteousnesses, that I be not ashamed. He returneth to the words of His body, that is, His holy people, and now prayeth that his heart may be made unspotted, that is, the heart of His members; in the righteousnesses of God, not in their own strength: for He hath prayed for this, not presumed upon it. In the words he hath added, that I be not ashamed, there is a resemblance to some of the earlier verses of this Psalm, where he saith, O that my ways were made so direct, that I might keep Thy righteousnesses! 80 shall I not be confounded, while I have respect unto all Thy commandments. Whereas there, in the words, O that, he signifieth a wish, he hath here expressed himself in the more open words of one praying: O let my heart be sound? so that in neither of these two sentences, each of which is one and the same, there is found the boldness of one who trusteth in his own free will against grace. While he saith there, so shall I not be confounded: he saith here, that I be not ashamed. The heart then of the members and the body of Christ is unspotted, through the grace of God, by means of the very Head of that Body, that is, through Jesus Christ our Lord, by the laver of regeneration, wherein all our past sins hare been blotted out; through the aid of the Spirit, whereby we lust against the flesh, that we be not overcome in our fight; through the efficacy of the Lord's Prayer, wherein we say, Forgive us our trespasses. Thus regeneration having been given to us, our conflict having been aided, prayer having been poured forth, our heart is made unspotted, so that we be not ashamed: since this also relateth to the statutes of God, it being enjoined among the rest of His commandments, Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: give9 and ^ giV€H unf0 y0Ut

8. Ver. 81. With the Lord's help, we have undertaken to consider aud expound this part of this great Psalm, where it is said, My soul hath failed for Thy salvation: and I have hoped because of Thy word. It is not every failing that should be supposed to be blameable or deserving punishment: there is also a failing that is laudable or desirable. For as these two things, to advance (proficere), and to fail (deficere), are contrary to one another; succeeding is generally taken in a good sense, failing in a bad, when it is not added or understood wherein there is advance or failure: but when it is added, it may be at once a bad thing to advance, and a good thing to fail. For the Apostle saith openly, Shun profane and vain babblings: for they will advance unto more ungodliness: he saith also of some: They shall wax worse. So also failing from a good state towards a bad one, is bad, from a bad state towards a good is good. For it is said of a good failing: My soul hath a desire and failing to enter into the courts of the Lord. So also here he saith not, faileth away from Thy salvation, but faileth for Thy salvation, that is, towards Thy salvation. This losing ground is therefore good: for it doth indicate a

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longing after good, not as yet indeed gained, but most eagerly and earnestly desired. But who saith this, save the chosen generation, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, thel peculiar people, longing for Christ from the origin of the9* human race even unto the end of this world, in the persons of those who, each in his own time, have lived, are living, or are to live here? Witness the most holy old man Simeon, who when«he had taken Him up, an infant, in his arms, said, Lord, now let test Thou Thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation. For he had received a^30, divine oracle, that he should not taste qf death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Now we must believe that there was such a longing in all the saints of former times, as there was in this old man. Whence also our Lord Himself saith to His disciples, Many prophets and kings Aat&M&t.is, desired to see those things which ye see, ahd have not seen^' them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them; so that their own words also are recognised in this passage, My soul hath failed for Thy salvation. Neither at that time, then, had this longing of the Saints found rest, nor is it now at rest in the body of Christ, which is the Church, until the end of the world, until the Desire o/Haggai all nations come, as is promised through the Prophet. Where-2' fore the Apostle saith, Henceforth there is laid up for #1*2 a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous4' Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also which love His appearing. This desire then of which we are now speaking, ariseth from the love of His appearing; of which he also saith, When Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. The first seasons of the Church, therefore, had Saints, before the Virgin's delivery, who desired the advent of His Incarnation: but these times, since He hath ascended into heaven, have Saints who desire His manifestation to judge the quick and the dead. Nor hath this desire of the Church had any rest from the beginning unto the end of the world, save during the short season when He was here in the flesh with His disciples, so that the voice of the whole Body of Christ groaning in this life may be conveniently understood, My soul hath failed for thy salvation, and I have25' hoped because of Thy word: that is, of Thy promise; a hope which causeth us to await with patience that which is not seen by those who believe. Here also the Greek hath the word f^XTKra, which some of our translators have preferred rendering by, hoped-more; since beyond doubt it will be greater than can be described.

2. Ver. 82. Mine eyes, he saith, have failed for Thy word, saying, O when wilt Thou comfort me? B#hold that praiseworthy and blessed failing, in the eyes again, but his inner eyes, not arising from infirmity of mind, but from the strength of his longing for the promise of Ood: for this he saith, for Thy word. But in what sense can such eyes say, When wilt Thou comfort me? save when we pray and groan with such earnestness and ardent expectation. For the tongue, not the eyes, is wont to speak: but in some sense the voice of the eyes is the longing of prayer. But in the words, When wilt thou comfort me? he sheweth that he endureth as it were delay. Whence is this also, How long, Lord, wilt Thou punish me? And this is done either that the happiness may be the sweeter when deferred, or this is the sentiment of those who long, since the space of time, which maybe short to Him Who cometh to their aid,is tedious to the loving. But God knoweth what he doth and when, for He hath ordered all things in measure and number and weight.

3. Ver. 83. But when spiritual desires burn, carnal desires without doubt cool: on this account followeth, Since I am become like a bottle in the frost, I do not forget Thy righteousnesses. Truly he desireth this mortal flesh to be understood by the bottle, the heavenly blessing by the frost, whereby the lusts of the flesh as it were by the binding of the frost become sluggish; and hence it ariseth that the righteousnesses of God do not slip from the memory, as long as we do not meditate apart from them; since what the Apostle saith is brought to pass: Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof Therefore when he had said, For I have become like a bottle in the frost, he added, and I do not forget Thy righteousnesses: that is, I forget them not, because I have become such. For the fervour of lust hath cooled, that the memory of love might glow.

4. Ver. 84. How many are the days of Thy servant? when wilt Thou be avenged of them that persecute me? In the Apocalypse, these are the words of the Martyrs, and long-suffering is enjoined them until the number of their brethren be fulfilled. The body of Christ then is asking concerning its days, what they are to be in this world, and that no man might suppose that the Church would cease.to exist here before the Aid of the world came, and that some time would elapse in this world, while the Church was now no more on earth; therefore, when he had enquired concerning the days, he added also respecting the judgment, shewing indeed that the Church would exist on earth until the judgment, when vengeance shall fall upon Her persecutors. But if any one wonder why he should ask that question, to which when asked by the disciples, their Master replied, // is not for you to know the times and the seasons, which the Fa I her hath put in His own power; why should we not believe that in this passage of the Psalm it was prophesied that they should ask this very question, and that the words of the Church, which were so long before uttered here, were fulfilled in their question?

5. Ver. 85. In what folio we th: The wicked have told me pleasant tales: but not like Thy law, 0 Lord: the Latin translators have endeavoured to render the Greek i^oXsa^iag, which cannot be expressed in one Latin word, so that some have rendered it 4 delights,9 and others * fablings,' so that we must understand to be meant some kind of compositions, but in discourse of a nature to give pleasure. Both secular literature, and the Jewish book entitled Deuterosis', containing besides the canon of divine Scripture thousands of tales, comprise these in their different sects aud professions; the vain and wandering loquacity of heretics holds them also. All these he wished to be considered as wicked, by whom be saith that StBoXsa-^lon were related to him, that is, compositions which gave pleasure solely in their style: But not, he addeth, as Thy law, O Lord; because truth, not words, pleases me therein-

6. Ver. 86. Lastly, he addeth, All Thy commandments are truth: they have persecuted me unjustly; O be Thou mV help. And the whole sense dependeth upon the foregoing: How many are the days of Thy servant: when wilt Thou be avenged of them that persecute me? For that they may persecute me, they have related to me these pleasant tales; but I have preferred Thy law to them, which on that account hath pleased me more, because all Thy commandments are true; not as in their discourses, wHere vanity aboundeth. And for this reason they have persecuted me falsely, because in me they have persecuted nothing save the truth. Therefore help Thou me, that I may struggle for the truth even unto death; because this is at once Thy commandment, and therefore it is also the truth.

7. Ver. 87. When the Church acted thus, She suffered what he hath added, They had almost made an end of me upon earth: a great slaughter of martyrs having been made, while they confess and preach the truth. But since it is uot in vain said, 0 help Thou me; he acldeth, But I forsook not Thy commandments.

8. Ver. 88. And that She might persevere unto the end, 0 quicken me, he saith, after Thy loving mercy: and so shall I keep the testimonies of Thy mouth; where the Greek hath Magrvgiot. This was not to be passed over in silence, on account of that sweetest name of Martyrs, who beyond doubt when so great cruelty of the persecutors was raging, that the Church was almost made an end of upon earth, would never have kept the testimonies of God, unless that had been vouchsafed them which is here spoken of, O quicken me after Thy loving-kindness. For they were quickened, lest by loving life, they should deny the life, and by denying it, should lose it: and thus they who for life refused to forsake the truth, lived by dying for the truth.

9. Ver. 89. The man who speaketh in this Psalm, as if he were tired of human mutability, whence this life is. full of temptations, among his tribulations, on account of which he had above said, The wicked have persecuted me; and, They have almost made an end of me upon earth; burning with

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longings for the heavenly Jerusalem; looked up to the realms above, and said, O Lord, Thy word endureth for ever in heaven: that is, among Thy Angels who serve everlastingly in Thine armies, without desertion.

2. Ver. 90. But the next verse, after heaven, pertaineth consequently to earth. For this is one verse of the eight which relate to this letter. For eight verses are appended tc each of these Hebrew letters, (apices,) until this long Psaim be ended. Thy truth also remainetk from one generation to the other: Thou hast laid the foundation of the earth, and it ahideth. Beholding therefore the earth next after heaven with the gaze of a faithful mind, he findeth in it generations which are not in heaven, and saith, Thy truth remaineth from one generation to the other: signifying all generations by this expression, from which the Truth of God was never absent in His saints, at one time fewer, at one time more in number, according as the times happened or shall happen to vary; or wishing two particular gene* rations to be understood, one pertaining to the Law and the Prophets, another to the Gospel. And as if opening the reason why truth is never wanting to these generations even, he addeth, Thou hast laid the foundation of the earth, and it ahideth: meaning by the earth those that are on the earth. But other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus. For no other than Christ was also the foundation of that generation which belonged to the Law and the Prophets, being witnessed by the Law and***^ the Prophets. Or are Moses and the Prophets to be counted as the sons of the bondwoman who bore sons unto slavery, not of the freewoman, who is the mother of us all; to whom a man shall say, Mother Sion; and He was born in her, and the Most High shall stablish her? For He is Himself Most High with His Father, and for our sake was born most humble of His mother; since He Who was God above her, became a man in her. On this foundation then, O Lord9 hast Thou founded the earth, and it ahideth, since, firmly grounded on such a foundation, it shall not move at anyVn. time; abiding most truly among them unto whom Thou6, wilt give eternal life. But those whom the bondwoman brought forth, belonging to the Old Testament, in the figures of which, nevertheless, the New lay hid, because they savoured of nothing save earthly promises, do not abide. For the servant abideth not in the house for ever* but the Sou abideth for ever.

3. Ver. 91. Day continueth according to Thy ordinance. For all these things are day: and this is the day which the hath made: let us rejoice and be glad in it: and let us walk honestly as in the day. For all things %rve Thee. He said all things of some: all which belong to this day, serve Thee. For the ungodly of whom it is said, I have compared thy mother unto the night, do not serve Thee.

4. Ver. 92. He then looketh back towards the source of this earth's deliverance, which caused it to abide when founded; and addeth, If my delight had not been in Tliy law, I should perchance have perished in my humiliation* This is the law of faith, not a vain faith, but that which worketh through love. Through this grace is gained, which niaketh men courageous in temporal tribulation, that they may not perish in the humiliation of mortality.

5. Ver. 93. / will never forget, he saith, Thy righteousnesses, for with them Thou hast quickened me. Behold how it was that he did not perish in his humiliation. For, save God quickeneth, what is man, who can indeed kill, but cannot quicken himself?

6. Ver. 94. He next addeth: I am Thine: O save me, for I have sought Thy righteousnesses. We must not understand lightly the words, / am Thine. For what is not His? Because God is in heaven, are we to suppose that there is any thing on earth which is not His; when another Psalm saith, The earth is the Lord's, and all that therein is: the compass of the world, and they that dwell therein. Why then is it that the Psalmist hath commended himself unto God somewhat in a more familiar sense, in these words, / am Thine: O save me; save because he wished it to be understood that he had desired to be his own only to his harm, which is the first and the greatest evil of disobedience? and as if he should say, I wished to be my own, and I lost myself: I am Thine, he saith, O save me, for I have sought Thy righteousnesses; not my own inclinations, whereby I was my own, but Thy righteousnesses, that I might now be Thine.

7. Ver. 95. The ungodly, he saith, have awaited me that they might destroy me; but I have understood Thy testi monies. What meaneth, have awaited me thai they might destroy me f does it mean that they beset the road with an ambush, waiting that they might slay him when he passed? Did he then fear that he should perish altogether at the death of his body? God forbid! and what meaneth, have awaited me% save that he should consent with them unto iniquity? For then they would destroy him. And he hath said why he hath not perished: I understood Thy testimonies. The Greek word, MetgrvQi*, soundeth more familiarly to the ears of the Church. For though they should slay me not consenting unto them, yet while I confessed Thy testimonies (martyria) I should not perish; but they who, that they might destroy me, were waiting till I should consent unto them, tortured me even when I did confess them. Yet he did not leave that which he had understood, looking on it and seeing an end without end, if only he should persevere unto the end.

8. Ver. 96. Lastly, he next saith, / have seen an end of all consummation: but Thy commandment is exceeding broad. For he had entered into the sanctuary of God, and had understood the end. Now all consummation appearelh to me in this place to signify, the striving even unto death for the truth, and the endurance of every evil for the true and chief good: the end of which consummation is to excel in the kingdom of Christ, which hath no end; and there to have without death, without pain, and with great honour, life, acquired by the death of this life, and by sorrows and reproaches. But in what he hath added, Thy commandment is exceeding broad; I understand only love. For what would it have profited him, whatever death impended over him, in the midst of whatsoever torment, to confess those testimonies, if love were not in the confessor? Let us hear the Apostle: though I give my body to be burned, and have no/iCor.13, charity, it projiteth me nothing. Now the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which is given us. In this shedding abroad there is breadth, in which we walk even in a strait path without straitness, by the gift of5' Him unto Whom it is said, Thou shalt make room enough under me for me to go, and my footsteps shall not slide. Broad therefore is the commandment of charity, that twofold commandment, whereby we are enjoined to love God and our neighbour. But what is broader than that, on which hang all tlte Law and the Prophets,?

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I. Ver. 97. We have frequently admonished you, that love was to be understood by that praiseworthy breadth, by means of which, while we do the commandments of God, we feel no straitness. On this account also after saying above in this great Psalm, Tfiy commandment is exceeding broad: in the following verse he sheweth wherefore it is broad: what love have I unto Thy law, O Lord! Love is therefore the breadth of the commandment. For how can it be that what God commandeth to be loved, be laved, and yet the commandment itself be not loved? For this itself is the law; in all the day, he saith, is my study in it. Behold how I have loved it, that in the whole day my study is in it; or rather, as the Greek hath it, all the day long, which more fully expresses the continuance of meditation. Now that is to be understood through all time; which is, for ever. By such love lust is driven out: lust, which repeatedly opposeth our performing the commandments of the law, when the flesh lusteth against the spirit: against which the spirit lusting, ought so to love the law of God, that it be its study during the whole day. But the Apostle saith, Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of ivorks? Nay: but by the law of faith. This is the faith which worketh by since it prayeth for the good Spirit by seeking, asking, knocking, through Whom love itself is shed abroad in our hearts* *or a^ wno are ^ this Spirit of God, are the 9 sons of God; who are received that they may sit down with ^f}rajiam^ jHaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, the servant being driven out, who doth not remain in the house for ever; that is, Israel according to the flesh, unto whom it said When ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. and all the Prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. And they shall come from the East, and from the West, and from the Northland from the South, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. And behold there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last. But the Qentiles, saitb the Vessel of Election, which followed not after righteousness, hare attained /a righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. Thus they became the enemies of Him who here speaketh in the prophecy.

2. Ver. 98. And he then addeth: Thou hast made me to understand Thy commandment above mine enemies; for it is ever with me. For they hare indeed a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For being ignorant o/2,3, God's righteousness, they go about to establish their own righteousness, not being subject to the righteousness of God. But the Psalmist, who understandeth the commandment of God above these his enemies, wishes to be found with the Apostle, not having his own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Christ, which is of God; not that the Law which his enemies read is not of God, but because they do not understand it, like him who understandeth it above his enemies, by clinging to the Stone upon which they stumbled. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth; that they may be^om justified freely through His grace; not like those who imagine that they obey the law of their own strength, and are therefore, though by God's law, yet still endeavouring to set up their own righteousness; but as the son of promise, who hungering and athirst after it, by seeking, by asking, by knocking, as?j it were begs it of the Father, that being adopted he may receive it through His only-begotten Son. But when would he thus have understood the commandment of God, unless He Himself had caused him to understand it, unto Whom he saitb, Thou hast made me to understand Thy command* ment above mine enemies? For those his enemies, born, as it were, of Agar, unto bondage, sought from the same com-24. mandment temporal rewards; and therefore it was not unto ^em for ever, as it was unto this man. For they who have translated for ever have rendered better than they who have written for an age, sjnce at the end of time there can be no longer a commandment of the law. In this sense indeed there will be none, none written in visible tablets and books; but in the tablets of the heart* the love of God and of our neighbour will abide for ever; on which twofold tcom man d-ment the whole Law and the Prophets hang; and He Who ^ave comman(jmeni will Himself be the reward of the keeping of this commandment, and He Who is loved will be the reward of love, when God shall be all in all.

3. Ver. 99. But what meaneth the following verse, I have more understanding than my teachers? Who is he w ho had more understanding than all his teachers? Who, I ask, is he, who dareth to prefer himself in understanding above all the Prophets, who not only by speaking taught with so excellent authority those who lived with them, but also their posterity by writing? On Solomon indeed such wisdom was conferred, that he seemeth to have been preferred to all those who were before him; but it is not to be believed that he could here have been prophesied of by his father David; chiefly because what is here said, / have refrained my feet from every evil way, could not have been spoken in Solomon's person. Moreover if, and this is more probable, this prophet foretels Christ, at one time in the Head which is the Saviour Himself, at another in the Body which is the Church, uttering the words of prophecy, and making it seem as though one spake, on account of that great mystery, where it is said, And they two shall be one flesh; I recognise plainly Him Who had more understanding than His teachers, since when He was a boy of twelve years of age, Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, and was found by His parents after three days' space, sitting in the temple among factors^ bearing them and asking them questions; when all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers. And justly, since He had already said through this prophecy, / have more understanding than my teachers. For He meaneth all men, not God the Father, to be understood; of Whom the Son Himself hath said, As My Father hath taught Me, I speak these things. It is very difficult to understand this of the Person of the Word; unless we can comprehend that it is the same thing for the Son to be taught as to be begotten of the Father.. For to another it is one thing to be, another to have been taught, but to Him it is the same thing to be, and to have been taught; indeed from Whom He hath His' Being, from the Same hath He therewith Wis teaching. But He is more easily understood to have learnt from the Father what He spoke, in the character of man, when He took upon Himself the form oj a servant; for when He had assumed this form, men of2'7* more advanced age might think Him fit to be taught as a boy; but He Whom the Father taught, had more understanding than all His teachers. For Thy testimonies, He saith, are my study. For this reason He had more understanding than all His teachers, because He studied the testimonies of God, which, as concerning Himself, He knew better than they, when He spoke these words: Ye sent unto John, and he dare witness unto the truth. But I receive33^36' not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved. He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in His light. But I have greater witness than that of John. Such testimonies He studied, when He had more understanding than all His teachers.

4. Ver. 100. But these teachers may be understood very reasonably to be those aged men, of whom he presently saith, / am wiser than mine elders. And this seemeth to me to be repeated here thus, that that age of His which is well known to us in the Gospel might be called to our remembrance; the age of boyhood, during which He was sitting among the aged, understanding more than all His teachers. For the smaller and the greater in age are wont to be termed younger and elder, although neither of them hath arrived at or approached old age; although if we are concerned to seek in the Gospel the express term, elders, more than whom He understood, we find it when the Scribes and Pharisees said unto Him, Why do Thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands2' when they eat bread. Behold the transgression of the tra(^tlou °^ elders is objected to Him. But He who was wiser than His elders, let us hear what answer He made them. Why do ye also. He asked, transgress the commandment of God by your tradition f Then a little after, that not only Himself Who is the Head of the Body, but also the Body itself and its members might be wiser than the elders, whose tradition was held concerning the washing of hands, calling the crowd together He said unto tBem, Hear and understand. As much as to say, Do ye also understand more than those elders, so that it may be clear that the prophecy was declared concerning yourselves also, in these words, 1 am wiser than mine elders: and that it might be adapted not to the Head alone, but to the Body also, and thus to the whole Christ. Not what entereth into the mouth dejileth a man, but those things which proceed out of the mouth defile a man. This those elders who had handed down their commandments as if they were of great consequence, concerning the washing of hands, understood not. The very members also of that Head Who understood more than the elders, understood not as yet what He had said. Lastly, Peter, after a few sentences, answering, said unto Him, Declare unto us this parable. He still imagined that what the Lord had spoken without any figures, was a parable. But He replied: Are ye also yet without undersfrmcnng f j)0 ye noi understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed out of the mouth, eome forth from the heart, and they defile the man. Are ye yet without understanding, and are ye not wiser than those elders? But, certainly, when we have heard such a Master, our Head, each one of us may say, / am wiser than the elders. For what he proceedeth to add, suiteth the Body also: Because I have sought out Thy commandments. Thy commandments, not the commandments of men: Thy commandments, not the commandments of the elders, who wishing to be teachers of the law, understand neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. It is justly replied to those who preferred the authority of their commandments to the Truth, by a reference to those commandments, which must be carefully sought out, in order that they may be understood better than they were by those elders: Why do?/*1(^FR^ also transgress the commandments of God to establish your tradition f

5. Ver. 101. But what cometh next, doth not seem to apply to the Head, but to the Body: / have refrained my from every evil way, that I may keep Thy words. For that Head of ours, the Saviour of the Body Himself, could not be borne by carnal lust into any evil way, so that it should be needful for Him to refrain His feet, as though they would go thither of their own accord; which we do, when we refrain our evil desires, which He had not, that they may not follow evil ways. For thus we are able to keep the word of God, if we go not after our evil lusts, so that they attain unto the evils desired; but rather curb them with the spirit which lusteth against the flesh, that they may not drag us away, seduced and overthrown, through evil ways.

6. Ver. 102. / have not shrunk, he saith, /Wwi Thy judgments: for Thou hast laid down a law for me. He hath stated what made him fear, so that he refraiued his feet from every evil way. For what meaneth, / have not shrunk from*- Thy judgments; save what he saith in another place, I have been afraid of Thy judgments? I have believed them perse veringly: for Thou hast laid down a law for me. Thou, more inward than my inmost self, Thou hast laid down a law within my heart by Thy Spirit, as it were by Thy fingers, that I might not fear it as a slave without love, but might love it with a chaste fear as a son, and fear it with a chaste love.

7. Ver. 103. Consider then what followeth: O how sweet are Thy words unto my throat I or, as it is more literally rendered from the Greek, Thy utterances, above honey and the honeycomb unto my mouth. This is that sweetness which the Lord giveth, So that the earth yield her increase: that we do good truly in a good spirit, that is, not from the dread of carnal evil, but from the gladness of spiritual -good. Some copies indeed do not read honeycomb: but the majority do. Now the open teaching of wisdom is like unto honey; but that is like the comb which is squeezed from the more recondite mysteries, as if from cells of wax, by the mouth of the teacher, as if he were chewing it: but it is sweet to the mouth of the heart, not to the mouth of the flesh.

8. Ver. 104. But what mean the words, Through Thy commandments I get understanding? For the expressions, I have understood Thy commandments: and, / get understanding through Thy commandments, are different. Something else then he signifieth that he hath understood from the commandments of God: that is, as far us I An see, he saith, that by obeying God's commandments he hath arrived at the comprehension of those things which he had longed to know. On which account it is written, If thou desire wisdom, keep the commandments, and the Lord shall give her unto thee: lest any one, inverting the natural order of things, before he hath the humility of obedience, may wish to arrive at the height of wisdom, which he cannot reach, save he hath approached it in regular order. Let him there- ^ore **ear fc^ese wor<^s: ®eek noi out things that are too high for thee, neither search the things that are above thy strength, but what the Lord hath commanded thee, think thereon ever. Thus man reacheth the wisdom of hidden things through obedience to the commandments. But when he had said, What the Lord hath commanded thee, think thereon; he added, ever, because obedience must both be kept, that wisdom may be received, and when wisdom hath been received, obedience must not be given up. These then are the words of the spiritual members of Christ, Through Thy commandments I get understanding. For the body of Christ rightly saith these words in those, to whom, while they keep the commandments, a richer knowledge of wisdom is given on account of this very keeping of the commandments. Therefore, he addeth, / hate all evil ways. For it is needful that the love of righteousness should hate all iniquity: that love, which is so much the stronger, in proportion as the sweetness of a higher wisdom doth inspire it, a wisdom given unto him who obeyeth God, and getteth understanding from His commandments.

Sermon 23

1. Ver. 105. We undertake, according to the strength which the Lord giveth, to examine and treat of these verses of this Psalm, the first of which is, Thy word is a lantern unto my feet, fknd a light unto my paths. The word lantern appears in the word light; my feet are also repeated in my paths. What then meaneth Thy Word? Is it He who was in the beginning God with God, that is, the Word by Whom all things were made? It is not thus. For that Word is a light, but is not a lantern. For a lantern is a creature, not a creator; and it is lighted by participation of an unchangeable light. This was John, of whom God the Word saith, He was a burning and a shining lantern. But he is both light and lantern; nevertheless compared with36' the Word, of Whom it is said, The Word was God, he was not the light; but was sent to give witness of the light. For that was the true light, which was not lighted as a man, but which lighteth every man. But unless a lantern also were a8* light, He would not say to His Apostles, Ye are the light ^Matt.5, the world, when they had heard that they might not imagine themselves to be that, which He was Who had said this; for of Himself also He in a certain passage saith, / am the light of the world; He saith unto them of themselves, A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle1, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men; that they might know that they were, as it were, lanterns lit by that light which shineth without change. For no creature, howsoever rational and intellectual, is lighted by itself, but is lighted by participation of eternal Truth: although sometimes day is spoken of, not meaning the Lord, but that day which the Lord hath made, and on account of which it is said, Come unto Him, and be^}'S4 lightened. On account of which participation, inasmuch as the Mediator Himself became Man, He is styled lantern in the Apocalypse. But this sense is a solitary one; for itRev.2i, cannot be divinely spoken of any of the saints, nor in any WISG aw"ty sa'^ °^ an^r' Word was made flesh, save of the one Mediator between God and men Since therefore the only-begotten Word, coequal with the Father, is styled a light; and man when enlightened by the Word is also called a light, who is styled also a lantern, as John, as the Apostles; and since no man of these is the Word, and that Word by Whom they were enlightened is not a lantern; what is this word, which is thus called a light anft a lantern at the same time, (for he saith, Thy word is a lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my paths,) save we understand the word which was sent unto the Prophets, or which was preached through the Apostles; not Christ the Word, but the word of Christ, of which it is written, Faith comet h by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. For the Apostle Peter also, comparing the prophetical word to a lantern, Saith, We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a lantern, that shineth in a dark place. What, therefore, he here saith, Thy word is a lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my paths, is the word which is contained in all the holy Scriptures.

2. Ver. 106. / have sworn, and am stedfastly purposed to keep Thy righteous judgments: as one who walked aright in the light of that lantern, and kept to straight paths. In the following word the preceding one is explained. For as if we asked what I have sworn, meant, he hath added, I am stedfastly purposed. For he calleth what he hath determined by a sacrament, an oath; because the mind ought to be so fixed in keeping the righteous judgments of God, that its determination should be in the place of an oath.

3. Now the righteous judgments of God are kept by faith; when, under the righteous judgment of God, neither any good work is believed to be fruitless, nor any sin unpunished; but, because the body of Christ hath suffered many most grievous evils for this faith, he saith, / was humbted above measure. He doth not say, I have humbled myself, so that we must needs understand that humiliation which is commanded; but he saith, / was humbled above measure; that is, suffered a very heavy persecution, because he swore and was stedfastly purposed to keep the righteous judgments of God. And, lest in such trouble faith herself might faint, he addeth, Quicken me, O Lord, according to Tliy word: that is, according to Thy promise. For the word of the promises of God is a lantern to the feet, and a light to the paths. Thus also above, in the humiliation of persecution, he prayed that God would quicken him: They had almost made an end of me upon earth: but I forsook8*' not Thy commandments. O quicken me after Thy loving* kindness:• and so shall I keep the testimonies, that is the martyrdoms, of Thy mouth. Where it is meant, that if He quickened not by giving patience, on accouut of which it is written, In your patience shall ye possess your souls; and of which it was said, my patience is from Him; it is not the body which is done to death in persecution, but the soul, because it keepeth not the testimonies aud righteous judgments of God.

4. Ver. 108. Make the freewill offerings of my mouth well pleasing, O Lord: that is, let them please Thee; do not reject, but approve them. By the freewill offerings of the mouth are well understood the sacrifices of praise, offered up in the confession of love, not from the fear of necessity; whence it is said, a freewill offering will I offer Time. But what doth he add? and teach me Thy judgments? Had he not himself said above, From Thy judgments I have not swerved? How could he have done thus, if he knew them not? Moreover, if he knew them, in what sense doth he here say, and teach me Thy judgments? Is it as in a former passage, Thou hast dealt in sweetness with Thy servant: presently after which we find, teach me sweetness f This passage we explained as the words of one who was gaiuing in grace, and praying that he might receive in addition to what he had received.

5. Ver. 109. My soul is alway in Thy hand. Some copies read, in my hand: but most, in Thy hand; and this latter is indeed easy. For the souls of the righteous are in God's hand: in Whose hand are both we and our words.1* And I do not forget Thy law: as if his memory were aided to remember God's law by the hands of Him in Whose hands is his soul. But how the words, My soul is in my hands, can be understood, I know not. For these are the words of the righteous, not of the ungodly; of one who is returning to the Father, not departing from the Father. For that youn£er son may we^ seem to have wished to have had his soul in his own hands, when he said to his father, Give me my substance: but it is on this account that he was dead, that he was lost. Is it perhaps said, My soul is in my hands, in this sense, as if he offered it to God to be quickened? Whence in another passage it is said, Unto Thee, 0 Lord, have I lifted up my soul. Since here too he had said above, Quicken Thou me.

6. Ver. 110. The ungodly, he saith, have laid a snare for me: hut yet I swerved not from Thy commandments. Whence this, unless because his soul is in the hands of God, or in his own hands is offered to God to be quickened?

7. Ver. 111. Thy testimonies have I gained in heritage for ever. Some wishing to express in one word what is put in one word in the Greek, have translated it hereditavi. Which although it might be Latin, yet would rather signify one who gave an inheritance than one who received it, 'hereditavi' being like 'ditavi.' Better, therefore, the whole sense is conveyed in two words, whether we say, / have possessed in heritage, or, I have gotten in heritage: not gotten heritage, but gotten in heritage. If it be asked, what he gained in heritage, he replieth, Thy testimonies. What doth he wish to be understood, save that he might become a witness of God, and confess His testimonies, that is, that he might become a Martyr of God, and might declare His testimonies, as the Martyrs do, was a gift bestowed upon him by the Father, of Whom he is heir? For many have wished, yet have not been able: yet none have been able, save they who have wished; because they would not have been able, if they had wished to deny the testimonies of God. But even their wish was prepared by the Lord. For this reason he saith he hath gained them in heritage, and this for ever; because they have not in them the temporal glory of men who seek vain things, but the eternal glory of those who suffer for a short season, and who reign without end. Whence the next words, Because they are the very joy of my heart: although the affliction of the body, yet the very joy of the heart.

8. Ver. 112. He then addeth: / have applied my heart to fulfil Thy righteousness for ever, for my reward. He who Hatred of ungodliness. Hindrance in searching GocTs La w. 417 saith, I have applied my heart, had before said, Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies: so that we may understand that it is at once a divine gift, and an act of free will. But are we to fulfil the righteousnesses of God/or ever? Those works which we perform in regard to the need of our neighbours, cannot be everlasting, any more than their need; but if we do not do them from love, there is no righteousness; if we do them from love, that love is everlasting, and an everlasting reward is in store for it; for the sake of which reward he saith he hath applied his heart to fulfil the righteousnesses of God, that by loving for ever, he may deserve to have for ever that which he loveth.

9. Ver. 113. The passage of this Psalm, of which by the will of God we are about to treat, thus beginneth; / have hated the unrighteous; and Thy law have I loved. He saith not, I hate the wicked, and love the righteous; or, [ hate iniquity, and love Thy law; but, after saying, I have hated the unrighteous, he explains why, by adding, and Thy law have I loved; to shew, that he did not hate human nature in unrighteous men, but their unrighteousness, whereby they are foes to the law, which he loveth.

10. Ver. 114. He next addeth: Thou art my helper and my taker up: my helper, to do good works: my taker up, to escape evil ones. In the next words, / have hoped more on Thy word, he speaketh as a son of promise.

11. Ver. 115. But what is the meaning of the following verse: Away from me, ye wicked, and I will search the commandments of my God? For he saith not, I will perform; but, / will search. In order, therefore, that he may diligently and perfectly learn that law, he bids the wicked depart from him, and even forcibly driveth them away from his company. For the wicked exercise us in the fulfilment of the commandments, but lead us away from searching into them; not only when they persecute, or wish to litigate with us; but even when they court us, and honour us, and yet expect us to occupy ourselves in aiding their own vicious

Sermon 24

418 Complaint of the distraction of secular causes. and busy desire, and to bestowf our time upon them; or at least harass the weak, and compel them to bring their causes before us: to whom we dare not say, Mart, who made me a judge or a divider over you? For the Apostle instituted ecclesiastical judges of such causes, forbidding Christians to contend in the forum. Not even to those who do not carry off others' property, but avariciously reclaim their own, do we say, beware of all covetousness, placing before their eyes the unto whom it was said, Thou fool! this night shall thy soul be required of thee; then whose shall be those things which thou hast provided? because even when we do say this, they do not leave us; but press upon us with urgency, entreaty, tumult, exigence, rather to occupy ourselves with their interests, than in revealing the commandments of God. O with what weariness of turbulent crowds, and what ardent longing after the divine word, is it said, Away from me, ye wicked! I will search the commandments of my God! I ask the pardon of those obedient faithful ones, who rarely apply to us in behalf of their secular affairs, and most readily acquiesce in our judgments; and do not wear us out with litigation, but rather console us by their obedience. Certainly, on account of those who carry on law suits pertinaciously with one another, and, when they harass the good, scorn our judgments, and cause us to lose the time that should be employed upon things diviue; surely, I say, on account of these men we also may exclaim in these words of the Body of Christ, Away from me, ye wicked! and I will search the commandmen ts of my God,

4. Ver. 1 16. Then, after he had driven away the flies which poured upon him, as it were, from the eyes of his heart, he returneth unto Him unto Whom he was saying, Thou art my helper, and my laker up: I have hoped in Thy word; and, continuing his prayer, saith, O stablish me according to Thy word, and I shall live: and let me not be disappointed of my hope. He who had before said, Thou art my taker up, prayeth that he may be more and more borne up, and be led unto that, for the sake of which he endureth so many troubles; trusting that he may there live in a truer sense, than in these dreams of human affairs. For it is said of the future, and T shall live, as if we did not live in this dead body. For the body is dead because of sin: and, while we await the redemption of our body, we are saved by hope, and hoping for that we see not, we await with patience. Butio.as-1 hope disappointeth not, if the love of God be spread abroad25, in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which is given unto us?^010*** Father, And let me not be disappointed of my hope.

5. Ver. L17. And, as though it were answered him in silence, Thou dost not wish to be disappointed of thy hope? Cease not to meditate upon My righteousnesses: and, feeling that this meditation is usually hindered by the weaknesses of the soul, (ver. 117.) Help me, he saith, and I shall be safe; yea, I will meditate in Thy righteousnesses always. closely translated from the Greek, Thou hast brought to nought all them that depart from Thy righteousnesses: for their thought is unrighteous. For this reason he exclaimed, Help Thou me, and I shall be safe; yea, I will meditate in Thy righteousnesses always: because God bringeth to nought all those who depart from His righteousnesses. But why do they depart? Because their thought is, he saith, unrighteous. They advance in that direction, while they depart from God. All deeds, good or bad, proceed from the thoughts: in his thoughts every man is innocent, in his thoughts every man is guilty. On this account it is written, Holy thoughts shall preserve thee: and elsewhere it is read, Inquisition shall be made into the^d thoughts of the ungodly; and the Apostle saith, Their wise than wretched there, who hath been brought to nought? For iniquity is a mighty desolation. Justly is it said, cow-founded be the unrighteous who do vainly: that is, emptily, as they that are brought to nought. counted, or thought, or esteemed, all the ungodly of the earth as transgressors. In the Latin version many different passage hath a deep meaning, which we must endeavour to penetrate at greater length,- if the Lord will aid us, in another discourse. For the following words, Therefore have / ever loved Thy testimonies: make it far more profound. For the Apostle saitb, The law worketh wrath; and, explaining these words, he addeth, For where no law is, there is no transgression: thereby shewing that not all are transgressors. -For all have not the law. That all have not the law, he declareth more explicitly in another passage, as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law. What then raeaneth, / have held all theungodly of the earth as transgressors? But let it suffice here to have proposed the question, to be discussed in another exposition, if God grant, lest the length of this force it to be expounded in too narrow a space to admit of the explanation being clearly understood.

Sermon 25

1. Ver. 119. We are seeking, if by the bounty of God we may discover, in what sense the words of this great Psalm are to be understood; / have held all the sinners of the earth as transgressors; or rather transgressing, for the Greek saith, wctpaPalvovTcts, not vaga^uTois. We ask therefore how we are to understand, / have held all the sinners of the earth to be transgressing, because the Apostle saith, Where no law is, there is no transgression. This he said, while he was distinguishing the promise from the law. For that the sense may be more fully gathered from what goes before, we will cite the preceding sentence: The promise, that he should tne frejr 0ftfie world, he saith, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith, For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect. Because the law worketh wrath; for where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us ally Why doth the Apostle say this, save to shew that the law without the grace of the promise doth not only fail to remove sin, but actually increaseth iti Whence also he saith, The law entered that sin might abound. But 6ince all sins are remitted through grace, not only those which are committed without the law, but those also which are committed in the law; he addeth, But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. The Apostle therefore doth not hold all sinners as transgressing: but those only who transgress the law. For where law is not, he saith, there is no transgression. •Thus, then, according to the Apostle, every transgressor indeed is a sinner, because he sinneth in the law: but not every sinner is a transgressor, because some sin without the law; and where no law is, there is no transgression. Moreover, if no man could sin without the law, the same Apostle would not say, As many as hare sinned without law, shall also perish without law. But according to this Psalm, if all the sinners of the earth are transgressors, there is no sin without transgression; but there is no transgression without the law; there is therefore no sin, save in the law. He therefore who saith, / have held all the sinners of the earth as transgressing, wishes it to be understood that there are altogether no sinners, save they who have transgressed the law; and herein is opposed to him who hath said, As many as have sinned without law, shall perish without law. For according to the Apostle there are some sinners, although they be not transgressors, that is, men who have sinned without law; for where no law is, there is no transgression; but according to the former, there is no sinner without transgression; because he holdeth all the sinners of the earth as transgressing. No man, therefore, according to him hath sinned without the law; for where no law is, there is no transgression. Shall we say, that it is indeed true that there is no transgression where there is no law, but that it is not true that any have sinned without the law; or, that it is true indeed that some have sinned without the law, but that it is not true that transgression cannot exist, where there is no law? But both of these things the Apostle hath affirmed; both therefore are true; because Truth hath spoken both through the Apostle. How then can it be true that in this Psalm the same Truth hath spoken without doubt, / have held all the sinners of the earth as transgressing? For they answer us: Who then are they who according to the Apostle have sinned without law? F°r each of these is not to be held as transgressing, since, to the same Apostle, transgression cannot exist where there is no law.

2, But, indeed, when the Apostle said, As many as have sinned without law, shall perish without law, he was speak* ing of that law1 which God gave to His people Israel through Moses His servant. The context shews this. For he was speaking of the Jews, and of the Greeks, that is, the Gentiles, who belong not to circumcision, but to uncircumcision; speaking of them as without the law, because they had not received the law which the Jews gloried in having received: whence he saith to them, Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God. We must now consider how he came to pronounce this sentence: As many as have sinned without law, shall perish without law. — > Indignation and wrath, he saith, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Qentile; but glory, honour, and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: for there is no respect of persons with God. To these words he addeth those which are the source of the present question; For as many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law. Wishing by the latter the Jews, by the former the Greeks, to be understood, since he was speaking of these*; proving that both were subject unto sin, that each might confess themselves in need of grace: on which account he saith, For there is no differ- » for aH have sinned, and come short of the glory of Qod; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Who are they then, all of whom he declareth to have sinned, save the Jews and the Greeks, of whom he had said, For there is no difference f For of these he had a little before said, For we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are under sin. And therefore, all who have sinned without law, that law, to wit, in which the Jews gloried, shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law, that is, the Jews themselves, shall be judged by the law. But we are not on this account to conclude that they will not perish, unless they believe in Him Who came to seek that which

3. For some even Catholic expositors, from a want of sufficient heedfulness, have pronounced contrary to the truth, that those who have sinned without the law perish; and that those who have sinned iu the law, are only judged, and do no* perish, as if they should be considered destined to be cleansed by means of transitory punishments, as he of whom it is said, he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. This is well understood to be owing to the merits of the Foundation, of Whom the Apostle was speaking above in these terms: As a wise master-builder J have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than is laid, which is Christ Jesus: and so on to the verse where he stated, that he who had built upon this foundation, not gold, silver, or precious stones, but wood, hay, and stubble, should be saved so as by fire; yet such a man doth not refuse to receive, nor when received, doth he forsake, the foundation; and he preferreth it to all his carnal delights, wherein he is captivated and used to yield, when the alternative is set before him, either to choose these or Christ; in which case if Christ be not preferred, he hath not the foundation. For the foundation is preferred to all the subsequent parts of the building. Nor do i suppose that they who have thought that those of whom it is said, They shall be judged by the law, do not perish, have had any notion of their not having Christ for their foundation. They therefore have not sufficiently attended to what we have proved; and Scripture itself declareth that the Apostle saith this of the Jews, who have not the foundation of Christ. But what Christian would assert that a Jew perishes not, if he believeth not iu Christ, but that he is only judged: when Christ Himself testified} that He was sent to the same nation, for the sake of the sheep which had Mat. been lost therein; and declares that it shall be more tolerable24' for the men of Sodom in the day of judgment which perished without law, than for the Jewish state which did not believe was lost. in Him when He performed miracles with such mighty power?

4. If therefore the Apostle asserted that the other nations were without the law, in the sense of that law which God gave to the people of Israel through Moses, but gave not to the rest of the nations; what are we to understand to be meant in this Psalm, / have held all the sinners of the earth as transgressing, unless we understand some lav* not given by Moses, in respect of which the sinners of other nations were transgressing? For where the law is not, there is no transgression. What law is this, save that of which the same Apostle saith, When the Gentiles, having not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves? According then to these words, having not the law; they have sinned without the law, and will perish without the law; but according to these words, They are tmto themselves a law; all the sinners of the earth are justly esteemed transgressors. For there is no man who doeth another wrong, but who is unwilling the wrong should be done to himself: and herein he transgresseth the law of nature, which he is not allowed to be ignorant of, while he does that which he is unwilling to suffer. But had not the people of Israel this natural law? They had, surely, since they were themselves men: but they would have been without the law of nature, if they could have been beside the nature of the human race. In a much wider sense, then, were they transgressors by the divine law, whereby that natural law was either restored, or enlarged, or confirmed.

5. Now if infants even, on account of the chains of original sin, are not unfitly enumerated among all the sinners of the earth; even they in the similitude of Adam's transgression, are shewn to belong to that transgression, which, when the law had been given in Paradise, was the first ever committed; and on this account all the sinners of the earth, without a single exception, are held as transgressors. For all have sinned, and have come short qf the glory of God. The Saviour's grace, therefore, found all transgressors, some more, some less. For in proportion as the knowledge of the law was greater in each, so much less was the excuse for sin; in proportion as the excuse for 6in was less, so much clearer was the transgression. It remained, therefore, that not their own righteousness, but that of God, by which I mean that given them of God, should be their resource. Whence the Apostle saith, By the law is the knowledge of sin, not the taking away, but the knowledge. But now, fte saith, the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. For this reason the Psalmist also hath subjoined: Therefore I loved Thy testimonies. As if he should say: Since the law, whether given in paradise, or implanted by nature, or promulgated in writing, hath made all the sinners of the earth transgressors; Therefore I loved Thy testimonies, which are in Thy law, of Thy grace; so lhat not my but Thy righteousness is in roe. For the law profiteth unto this end, that it send us forward unto grace. For not only because it testifieth towards the manifestation of the righteousness of God, which is without the law; but also in this very point that it rendereth men transgressors, so that the letter even slayeth, it driveth us to fly unto the quickening Spirit, through Whom the whole of our sins may be blotted out, and the love of righteous deeds be inspired: Therefore, he saith, have I loved Thy testimonies. Some copies read, always, some do not. If it be correct, it must be understood to mean, during our present life on earth. For here testimonies are necessary, from the Law and the Prophets, attesting the righteousness of God, whereby we are freely justified: here even our testimonies are necessary, for which the Martyrs laid down that life which is here spent.

6. Ver. 120. The grace of God, then, being known, which alone freeth from transgression, which is committed through knowledge of the law, he saith, in prayer, Fix with nails my jiesh in thy fear. For thus some Latin interpreters have literally rendered the Greek xa&ijAaxrov, which that language has expressed in one word. Some have preferred to render this by the word confige, without adding clavis; and while they thus desire to construe one Latin by one Greek word, have failed to express the full meaning of the Greek xa^Aaxrov, because in confige nails are not mentioned, but xaJijAawrov cannot be taken but of nails, nor can ' fix with nails' be expressed without using two words in Latin. What is here meant, save what the Apostle saith, God forbid that I should glory, save in the Gross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world? And again: / am crucified, he saith, with Christ; nevertheless I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And what else is this than, My righteousness is not in me, which is from the law? whereby I was made a transgressor; but the righteousness of God, that is, which is of God unto me, not from me? Thus in me liveth, not ' myse^> ^ut Christ, Who of God is made unto us wisdom9 and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption; that, according as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. He also saith, They that are Christ's, have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts. Since it is here said that they have themselves crucified their own flesh, in this Psalm God is entreated to do this, in these words, Fix my flesh with nails in Thy fear; that we may understand that even what we do well should be ascribed to God's grace, Who worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

7. But why, after saying, Fix my flesh with nails in Thy fear, hath he added, For I have feared Thy judgments? What meaneth, Fix me in Thy fear: for I have feared f If he had already feared, or if he was now fearing, why did he still pray God to crucify his flesh in His fear? Did he wish so much additional fear imparted to him as would suffice for crucifying his flesh, that is, his carnal lusts and affections; as though he should say, Perfect in me the fear of Thee; for I have feared Thy judgments? But there is here even a higher sense, which must, as far as God alloweth, be derived from searching the recesses of this Scripture. Fix, he saith, my flesh with nails in the fear of Thee: for I have feared Thy judgments: that is, in the chaste fear of Thee, which abideth from age to age, let my carnal desires be quenched; For I have feared Thy judgments, when the law, which could not give me righteousness, threatened me punishment. But perfect love driveth away this /ear, whereby punishment is dreaded; love, which freeth us not by fear of punishment, but by delight in righteousness. For that fear, whereby righteousness is not loved, but punishment dreaded, is servile, because it is carnal; and for this reason doth not crucify the flesh. For the inclination to sin liveth, and it then appeareth in deed, when impunity may be hoped for. But when punishment is considered sure to follow, it liveth latently: nevertheless it liveth. For it would rather it were lawful to sin, and it grieveth that what the law forbiddeth, is not lawful; because i»is not spiritually delighted with the blessing of the law, but carnally feareth the evil which it threatened). But that love, which casteth out this fear, feareth with a chaste fear to sin, although no punishment follow; because it doth not even judge that impunity will follow, since from love of righteousness it considereth the very sin itself a punishment. With such a fear the flesh is crucified; since carnal delights, which are forbidden rather than avoided by the letter of the law, are overcome by the delight in spiritual blessings, and also when the victory is perfected are destroyed. Fix, therefore, be saith, my flesh with nails in Thy fear, far I have feared Thy judgments: that is, give me a chaste fear, to seek which the fear of the law hath conducted me like a schoolmaster, that fear whereby / have feared Thy judgments.

Sermon 26

1. Ver. 121. We have now undertaken to consider and to treat of these verses of this great Psalm; I have dealt judgment and righteousness; O give me not over unto mine oppressors. It is not wonderful that he should have dealt judgment and righteousness, since be had above prayed for a chaste fear from God, whereby to fix with nails his flesh, that is, his carnal lusts, which are wont to hinder our judgment from being right. But although in our customary speech judgment is either right or wrong, whence it is said unto men in the Gospel, Judge not according to the persons, but judge John righteous judgment; nevertheless in this passage judgment is used as though, if it were not righteous, it ought not to be called judgment; otherwise it would not be enough to say, / have dealt judgment, but it would be said, I have dealt righteous judgment. In this sense our Lord Jesus hath • Ye have omitted the weightier matters of the law, Judgment, mercy, and faith. And here judgment is used in such a sense, as if it were not judgment, if it be perverse. And in many passages of the holy Scriptures it is so put, such as is this: My song shall be of mercy and judgment: unl° Thee, O Lord; and that in Isaiah, / looked that he should deal judgment, but he dealt iniquity. He*saith not, 1 looked that he should deal righteous judgment, but he dealt unrighteous; but as if, because an act was judgment, it must be righteous; and what was unrighteous, could not be judgment. Now righteousness is not wont to be called good righteousness or evil righteousness, as judgment is occasionally called good or evil judgment; but it is already good from the very fact of its being righteousness. The common way of speaking then, which allows of the terms good and bad judgment, is like that which allows the words good and bad to be applied to a judge: but righteousness is not styled good or had in the same sense, even as we do not speak of a good righteous man, or an evil righteous man, because a man must be good, if he be righteous. Righteousness therefore is a virtue of the mind, a great and most praiseworthy virtue, concerning which there is now no need of a more copious discussion. But judgment, since the more definite way of speaking useth it only of the righteous, is the operation of this virtue. For he who hath righteousness, judgeth rightly: yea, according to this way of speech, he who hath ri ghteousu ess, judgeth; because he doth not judge at all, if he do not judge rightly. Under the name of righteousness in this passage, not the virtue itself, but its work, is signified. For who maketh righteousness in man, save He Who justifieth the ungodly, that is, through His grace rendereth him righteous instead of ungodly? Whence the Apostle saith, Justified freely through His grace. He therefore who hath within himself righteousness, that is, the work of grace, dealeth righteousness, that is, the work of righteousness.

2. / have dealt righteousness and judgment, O give me not over to mine oppressors: that is, L have dealt just judgment, O give me not over to them who on that account persecute me. For some copies read, to them that persecute me: the Greek words roi$ amfoxowri, being variously interpreted by the Latin nocentibus, persequentibus, and calum niantibus. I wonder, however, that I have never met with the version adversantibus in any of the copies which I have read, since there is no doubt, that the Greek «vr/8ixo£ is the same as the Latin adversarius. While he prays therefore that he may not be given up to his adversaries by the Lord, what doth* be pray, save what we pray, when we say, LeadM&tt.6y us not into temptation? For he is the adversary of whom the Apostle saith, Lest perchance the tempter tempt you. Unto him God giveth up whom He forsaketh. For the tempter3' deceiveth not him whom God forsaketh not, of His free will " giving strength to man's beauty." But He turned away His countenance from him who had said in his strength, I will not ever be moved; and he became confounded, and was displayed unto himself. Whoso therefore in the chaste fear of God hath his flesh crucified, and corrupted by no carnal allurement, dealeth judgment and the work of righteousness, ought to pray that he may not be given up to his adversaries; that is, that he may not, through his dread of suffering evils, yield unto his adversaries to do evil. For he receiveth power of endurance, which guardeth him from being overcome with pain, from Him from Whom he receiveth the victory over lust, which preventeth his being seduced by pleasure: since of whom it is said, The Lord shall s/iew loving kindness, of Him it is also said, From TJiee is my patience.

3. Ver. 122, 123. He next saith, Take off Thy servant to that which is good, that the proud calumniate me not. They drive me on, that I may fall into evil; do Thou take me off to that which is good. They who rendered these words by the Latin, calumnientur, have followed a Greek expression, not commonly used in Latin. Have the words, Let not the proud calumniate me, the same force, as, Let them not succeed in calumniating me?

4. But many calumnies of the proud, by whom Christian humility is spurned, may be understood; and this is the chief, if men are understood to be called proud in this passage, because they object to us that we worship one who died. For Christian humility is taught by the death of Christ itself, and is thus divinely commended unto us. Now this scandal is common to both classes of infidels, I mean. Jews and Gentiles. Heretics have their scandals also, peculiar to their several heresies: schismatics have also, all of whom pride hath cast asunder from the communion of the members of Christ. But how great is the scandal of the devil himself, whereby he doth calumniate the righteous, saying, Doth Job fear God for nought? The calumnies of all these proud ones are overcome, like the poison of the serjJents, when we ^x our m'n(^8 uPon Christ crucified with a most earnest and watchful piety. To prefigure His Cross, Moses by the merciful command of God raised aloft on a pole the image of a serpent in the desert, that the likeness of sinful flesh which must be crucified in Christ might be prefigured. By gazing upon this healing Cross, we cast out all the poison of the scandals of the proud: the Cross, which the Psalmist intently looking upon, saith, (ver. 123.) My eyes hate failed for Thy salvation, and for the words of Thy righteousness. For God made Christ Himself to be sin for us, on account of the of sinful fleshy that we may be made the righteousWm °f ®oa^™1 Hint* For His utterance1 of the righteousness of God he therefore saith that his eyes have failed, from gazing ardently and eagerly, while, remembering human infirmity, he longeth for divine grace in Christ.

5. Ver. 124. In connexion with this he goes on to say, O deal with Thy servant according to Thy loving mercy; not according to my righteousness. And teach me, he saith, 77iy righteousnesses; those beyond doubt, whereby God rendereth men righteous, not they themselves.

6. Ver. 125. / am Thy servant. For it was not well for me, when I wished to be free as my own, not Thy servant. O grant me understanding, that I may know Thy testimonies. This petition must never be intermitted. For it sufficeth not to have received understanding, and to have learnt the testimonies of God, unless it be evermore received, and evermore in a manner quaffed from the fountain of eternal light. For the testimonies of God are the better and the better known, the more understanding a man attaineth to.

7. Ver. 126. // is time, he saith, for the Lord to lay to His hand. For this is the reading of most copies: not as some have, O Lord, What time then, and for doing what, did he mean to be understood? What be had a little before said: Deal with Thy servant according to Thy lovijig mercy: it is the time for the Lord to do this. Now what is this, save the grace which was revealed in Christ at its own time? Of which season the Apostle saith, But when the fulness o/Gal.4,4. time was come9 Ood sent His Son. In reference to this also, adding a prophetical testimony in auother passage, he saith, In an acceptable time have I heard thee9 and in a day of^ salvation have I helped thee; lo9 now is the accepted time:2Cor.6, lo, now is the day of salvation. But wherefore is it that,2, seemingly anxious to shew the Lord that it was time to lay to His hand, he hath subjoined, They have scattered Thy law; as if it were the season for the Lord to act, because the proud scattered His law, who9 not knowing the ri^-Rom.io, teousness of God9 and wishing to set up their own, are not subject unto the righteousness of Godf For what meaneth, They have scattered Thy law9 save this, In the wickedness of transgression, they have not guarded its integrity. It was needful therefore that the Law should be given to the proud and those presuming in the freedom of their own will, after a transgression of which whosoever were contrite and humbled, might run no longer by the Law, but by faith, to aiding grace. When the Law therefore was scattered, it was time that mercy should be sent through the only-begotten Son of God. For the Law entered that sin might abound; by which sin the Law was destroyed; and Christ came now in an opportune season, that where sin had abounded, grace might much more abound. "

8. Ver. 127. Therefor e9 he saith, / love Thy commandments above gold and topaz. Grace hath this object, that the commandments, which could not be fulfilled by fear, may be fulfilled by love. For9 by the grace of God, love is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit 9 Which is5' given unto us. Thus our Lord Himself saith, / came not /o destroy the Law, but to fulfil it; and the same Apostle, ^^^'m is the fulfilling of the Law. Therefore, they are above gold and topaz stones. For this is read in another Psalm also, Above gold and exceeding precious stones. For topaz is a stone considered very precious. But they not understanding the hidden grace which was in the Old Testament, skreened aS were by t'ie VG^9 (tn*s was signified when they were unable to gaze upon the face of Moses,) endeavoured to obey the commandments of God for the sake of an earthly and carnal reward, but could not obey them; because they not love them, but something else. Whence these were not the works of the willing, but rather the burdens of the unwilling. But when the commandments are loved for their own sake above gold and exceeding precious stones, all earthly reward compared with the commandments themselves is vile; nor are any olher goods of man comparable in any respect with those goods whereby man himself is made good.

9. Ver. 128. There/ore, he saith, was I made straight unto all Thy commandments. I was made straight, doubtless, because I loved them; and I clung by love to them, which were straight, that I might also myself become straight. Then what he addeth, naturally follows; and every unrighteous way I utterly abhor. For how could it be that he who loved the straight could do aught save abhor an unrighteous way? For as, if he loved gold and precious stones, he would abhor all that might bring loss of such property: thus, since he loved the commandments of God, he abhorred the path of iniquity, as one of the most savage rocks in the sailor's track, whereon he must needs suffer shipwreck of things so precious. That this may not be his lot, he who saileth on the wood of the Cross with the divine commandments as his freight, steereth far from thence.

Sermon 27

1. Ver. 129. The following are the words of the Psalm, on which, by the Lord's help, we are about to discourse: Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore hath my soul searched them. Who counteth, even by their kinds, the testimonies of God? Heaven and earth, His visible and invisible works, declare in some manner the testimony of His goodness and greatness; and the very ordinary and accustomed course of nature, whereby the seasons are rapidly revolved, iu all things after their kinds, however temporal and perishable, however held cheap through our constant experience of them, give, if a pious thinker give heed to them, a testimony to the Creator. But which of these is not wonderful, if we measure each not by its habitual presence, but by reasou? But if we venture to bring all nature within the comprehensive view of one act of contemplation, doth not th%t take place in us which the prophet describeth, J considered Thy works, and trembled? Yet the Psalmist was not terrified in his wonder at creation, but rather said that this was the reason that he ought to search it, because it was wonderful. For after saying, Thy testimonies are wonderful; he addeth, therefore hath my soul searched them; as if he had become more curious from the difficulty of thoroughly searching them. For the more abstruse are the causes of any thing, the more wonderful it is.

2. If therefore we were to meet such a man, as would say that he searched the testimonies of God for this reason, because tbey are wonderful, while the whole creation, both visible and invisible, is full of them; should we not restrain him, saying, Seek not out the things that are too hard for thee, neither search the things that are above thy strength; but3'*1'22, that which the Lord hath commanded thee, meditate thereupon always? But if be answer us, and say, These very commandments of the Lord, which ye enjoin me to meditate upon, are His wonderful testimonies; since they attest Him to be the Lord, because He commandeth, and to be good and great, because He commandeth such things; shall we venture to recall the man from searching into such things, and not rather exhort him carefully to continue doing so, and to devote as much attention as possible to so great a subject? Shall we confess that the commandments of God are testimonies of His goodness, and yet deny them to be wonderful? For what wonder is it, if a good Lord giveth good commandments? Yea, it is this which is to be wondered at, and should have its reasons carefully examined, that, while a good God hath commanded good things, yet He hath given a good law unto them, to whom that law could -not give life, so that there was no righteousness to be gained from that good law. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. Why then was one given which could not give life, and out of which there was no righteousness? We may well wonder, well feel astonished at this. These then are the wonderful testimonies of God: on this account this man's soul hath searched them, since concerning them it could not be said unto him, Seek not out the things that are too hard for thee, neither search that which if above thy strength; but that which is commanded thee, meditate thereupon always. These very things are the Lord's commandments; and for this reason they should ever be meditated upon. Let us therefore rather consider what this man's soul searched, what it discovered.

3. Ver. 130. When thy word goeth forth, he saith, it giveth light, and maketh His little ones to understand. What is the little one save the humble and weak? Be not proud therefore, presume not in thine own strength, which is nought; and thou wilt understand why a good law was given by a good God, though it cannot give life. For it was given for this end, that it might make thee a little one instead of great, that it might shew that thou hadst not strength to do the law of thine own power: and that thus, wanting aid and destitute, thou mightest fly unto grace, saying, Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak. By searching, then, this little one understood the same, that Paul, the least, that is, the simplest of the Apostles, sheweth, that the Law, which could not give life, was given because Scripture hath concluded all things under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to all that believe. Do thus, do thus, merciful Lord; command what cannot be fulfilled, yea, command what cannot, save through Thy grace, be fulfilled: that when men have proved incapable of fulfilling Thy commandments through their own strength, every mouth may be stopped, and no man may seem great unto himself. Let all be little ones, and let all the world be guilty before Thee: because by the deeds of the Law there s^a^ nQ jiesfo oe jmtified in Thy sight; for by the Law is the knowledge of sin. But now Thy righteousness without the Law is manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the-Prophets. These are Thy wonderful testimonies, which the soul of this little one hath searched; and hath therefore found, because he became humbled and a little one. For who doth Thy commandments as they ought to be done, that is, by faith which worketh through love, save love itself be shed abroad in his heart through the Holy Spirit?

4. Ver. 131. This is confessed by this little one; I opened my month, he saith, and drew in the spirit: for I longed for Thy commandments. What did he long for, save to obey the divine commandments? But there was no possibility of the weak doing hard things, the little one great things: he opened his mouth, confessing that he could not do them of himself: and drew in power to do them: he opened his mouth, by seeking, asking, knocking: and athirst drank in the good Spirit, which enabled him to do what he could not do by himself, the commandment holy and just and good. For if^m' we, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto our children, how much more shall our heavenly Father give the Holy10^13' Spirit to them that ask Him? For not they that are led by their own spirit, but as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God; not that they themselves do nothing; but that they may not do nothing good, they are moved to act by the good Spirit For so much the more is every man made a good son, in proportion as the good Spirit is given unto Him by the Father in a greater measure.

5. Ver. 132. He still prayeth. He hath opened his mouth, and drawn in the Spirit; but he still knocketh in prayer uuto the Father, and seeketh: he drinketh, but the more sweet he findeth it, the more eagerly doth he thirst. Hear the words of him in his thirst. O look Thou upon me, he saith, and be merciful unto me: according to the judgment of those that love Thy Name: that is, according to the judgment Thou hast dealt unto all who love Thy Name; since Thou hast first loved them, to cause them to love Thee. For thus saith the Apostle John, We love God, because He first loved us.

6. Ver. 133. See what the Psalmist next most openly saith: Order my steps after Thy word: and so shall no wickedness have dominion over me. Where what else doth he say than this, Make me upright and free accordiug to Thy promise. But so much the more as the love of God reigneth in every man, so much the less hath wickedness dominion over him. What else then doth he seek than that by the gift °f God he may love God? For by loving God he loveth himself, so that he may healthily love his neighbour also as jjjjjjggjf. on which commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. What then doth he pray, save that God may cause the fulfilment by His help of those commandments which He imposeth by His bidding?

7. Ver. 134. But what meaneth this that he saitfi, O deliver me from the calumn ies of men: so shall I keep Thy commandmenls? If those men impute true charges against him, they do not calumniate: if false, what reason is there that he should long to be delivered from these calumnies, that is, from false charges, which cannot injure him? For a false charge, that is, a calumny, doth not make a man guilty, save before a human j udge: but when God is Judge, no man is injured by a false accusation; because it is imputed not to him against whom it is preferred, but to him who chargeth it. Is the prayer of the Church here prefigured, — the prayer of the whole Christian people, — which was delivered from the calumnies of men, whereby the Christians were harassed in every part of the world? But doth he on this account keep the commandments of God? Did not the holy people of God much the more gloriously keep the commandments among these very calumnies, when they were at their hottest in the midst of tribulations, when they yielded not to their persecutors to commit impieties? But, in truth, the meauing of these words, O deliver Thau me from the calumnies of men9 so shall I keep Thy commandments, is this: Do Thou, by pouring upon me Thy Spirit, guard me from being overcome by the terrors of human calumny, and from being drawn over to their evil deeds away from Thy commandments. For if Thou hast thus dealt with me, that is, if Thou hast in this manner delivered me by the gift of patience from their calumnies, so that I fear not the false charges they prefer against me; among those very calumnies I will keep Thy commandments.

8. Ver. 135. Shew the light of Thy countenance on Thy servant, and teach me Thy statutes; that is, manifest Thy presence, by succouring and aiding me. And teach me Thy righteousnesses. Teach me to work them: as it is The Psalmist's sorrow for his transgressions. more plainly expressed elsewhere, Teach me to do Thy will. For they who hear, although they retain in their memories what they hear, are by no means to be considered to have learnt, unless they do. For it is the word of Truth: Every man that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto Me. He therefore who obeyeth not in deed, that is, who cometh not, hath not learnt.

9. Ver. l%6. The Psalmist, recalling to mind his sorrowful penitence for his transgression, saith, My eyes have descended streams of waters, because they have not kept Thy law: that is, my eyes. For in some copies there is this reading, Because I ha ve not kept Thy law, streams of waters therefore descended, that is, floods of tears. And in the same form of speech as he might say, ' My feet have descended mountains/ without saying, 6 over mountains,9 or ' on mountains;' so we say, ' he descended ladders,' though one say not 4 by ladders or 4 he went down the well,' without saying, * into the well.' And he rightly said, descended, marking the humility of his penitence. For his eyes ascended, when they were raised aloft and elate with contumacious pride. For they seemed to themselves to be raised on high, when, not knowing the righteousness ofRom.io, God, they wished to set up their own; wherein being wearied and confused by their transgression of the law, they have descended from that elevation in tears, that they might rather gain the righteousness of God by repentance. There are copies which do not read descended, but, overpassed, meaning that he said hyperbolically, that in weeping he had overpast streams of waters, that is, by weeping more than the waters flow in their streams. But why doth he thus weep for not keeping of the law, save to obtain grace, which blotteth out the iniquity of the penitent, and aideth the will of the believer?

Sermon 28

1. Ver. 137, 138. He who singeth this Psalm had said above, My eyes have descended streams of wafers, since they have not kept Thy law: where he testifieth that he hath wept much for his transgression. Thus, then, as if giving a reason why he had cause to weep much, and to mourn d^p^ for njs sm> he 8aith, Righteous art Thou* O Lord, and true is Thy judgment. Thou hast commanded Thy testimonies, righteousness, and Thy truth exceedingly. This righteousness of God and righteous judgment and truth, is to be feared by every sinner: for thereby all who are condemned are condemned of God; nor & there one who can righteously complain against the righteous God of his own damnation. Therefore the tears of the penitent are needful; since if his impenitent heart were condemned, he would be most justly condemned. He indeed calleth the testimonies of God righteousness: for He proveth himself righteous by giving righteous commandments. And this is truth also, that God may become known by such testimonies.

2. Ver. 139. But what is it that followeth: My zeal hath caused me to pine; or, as other copies read, Thy zeal? Others have also, The zeal qf Thy house: and, hath eaten me up, instead of, hath caused me to pine. This, as it seems to me, has been considered as an emendation to be introduced from another Psalm, where it is written, The zeal qf Thy house hath eaten me up: a text quoted also, as we know, in the Gospel. The two words, however, hath caused me to pine, and hath eaten me up, are somewhat like. But the words, my zeal, which most of the copies read, occasion no dispute: for what wonder is it if every man pineth away from his own zeal? The words read in other copies, Thy zeal, signify a man zealous for God, not for himself: but there is no difficulty in using my in the same sense. For what else doth the Apostle say, / am jealous over you qq^ w^ a g0(jiy jeai0USy f in saying, / am jealous over you, doth he not display a jealousy of his own? But as he said for God, that is, not for himself, but for God, he addeth, with a godly jealousy. For God inspireth this among His faithful by His own Spirit: for it is a sign of love, not of envy. For what induced the Apostle to say this? / have betrothed you, he saith, to one husband, to present you a chaste virgin unto Christ. But I feanlest as the serpent beguiled Eve through his cunning, so also your minds be corrupted from the simplicity and purity that is in Christ. The zeal of the house of God devoured him,i4Q yet this jealousy he felt for Christ, not for himself. For the Bridegroom is jealous of the Bride for Himself, but the frieud of the Bridegroom should not be jealous of her for himself, but for the Bridegroom. The Psalmist's jealousy is therefore also to be understood in a good sense: for he addeth th% cause, and saith, Because mine enemies have forgotten Thy words. They then were returning evil for good, because he was jealous of them for God so vehemently and ardeutly, that he said he was wasted with that zeal; but they for this cause carried on hostilities against him: because in fact he wished those, of whom from love he was jealous, to love the Lord. For not being ungrateful to the grace of God, by which he, who was before an enemy, had been reconciled to God, he too loved his own enemies, and was jealous of them for God, grieving and pining away, because they had forgotten His word.

3. Ver. 140. Then considering with himself with what a flame of love he burned for the commandments of God: Fiery, saith he, is Thy word exceedingly, and Thy servant hath loved it. Justly jealous was he of the impenitent heart in His enemies, who had forgotten God's word: for he endeavoured to bring them unto that which he himself most ardently loved.

4. Ver. 141. I am young, and of no reputation: yet do I not forget Thy righteousnesses: not as my enemies, who have forgotten Thy words. The younger seems to grieve for those older than himself who had forgotten the righteousnesses of God, while he himself had not forgotten. For what meaneth, 1 am young, yet do I not forget? save this, Those older than me have forgotten. For the Greek word is vfcertgo;, the same as that used in the words above, Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? This is a comparative, and is therefore well understood in its relation to some one older. Let us therefore here recognise the two nations, who were striving even in Rebecca's womb; when it was said to her, not from works, but of Him that calleth, The elder shall serve the younger. But the younger saith here that he is of no reputation: for this reason he hath become greater: since God hath chosen the base things of the world, and things that are despised, yea, and things that are not as though they were, to bring to nought things that are» And, behold, they that were first are last, and they that were last first.

5. Ver. 142. It is no wonder that they have forgotten the words of God, who have chosen to set up their own righteousness, ignorant of the righteousness of God; Ubt he, the younger, hath not forgotten, for he hath not wished to have a righteousness of his own, but that of God, of which he now also saith, Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and Thy law is the truth. For how is not the law truth, through which came the knowledge of sin, and that which giveth testimony of the righteousness of God? For thus the Apostle saith: The righteousness of God is manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets.

6. Ver. 143. On account of this law the younger suffered persecution from the elder, so that the younger saith what followeth: Trouble and hardship have taken hold upon me: yet is my meditation in Thy commandments. Let them rage, let them persecute; as long as the commandments of God be not abandoned, and, after those commandments, let even those who rage be loved.

7. Ver. 144. Thy testimonies are righteousness unto everlasting: 0 grant me understanding, and I shall live. This younger one prayeth for understanding; which if he had not, he would not be wiser than the aged; but he prayeth for it in trouble and hardships, that he may thereby understand how contemptible is all that his persecuting enemies can take from him, by whom he saith he hath been despised. Therefore he hath said, and I shall live: because if trouble and heaviness reached such a pitch, that his life should be terminated by the hands of his persecuting enemies, he will live for ever, who preferreth righteousness to temporal things, which remaineth for evermore. This righteousness in trouble and hardship are the Martyria Dei, that is, the testimonies of God, for which Martyrs have been crowned.

Sermon 29

1. Ver. 145. Who can doubt, that cries unto the Lord, made in prayer, if uttered only from the mouth of the body, and not with the heart fixed upon God, sound in vain? But if they proc%ed from the heart, though the voice of the body be silent, they may escape any other man whomsoever, but not God. Whether then we cry unto the Lord, when we pray, with our fleshly voices, when there is occasion for them, or in silence, we must cry from the heart. Now the cry of the heart is a solemn earnestness of thought; which when vented in prayer, doth express a deep longing and affection of him that prayeth, so that he despaireth not of success. Then also we cry with the whole heart, when we have no thoughts elsewhere. Such prayers are rare among the many, frequent among the few; whether all are such with any one person, I know not. He who singeth this Psalm, mentioneth such a prayer of his own: / have called with my whole heart; hear me, 0 Lord! For to what end his cry profiteth, he addetb: / will search out Thy righteousnesses. For this purpose then he hath called with his whole heart, and hath longed that this might be given him by the Lord listening unto him, that he may search out His righteousnesses. That therefore which we are commanded to do, we pray that we may search out. How far is he who seeketh from him that doeth? For it doth not follow that he who seeketh should find; or that he who findeth, should do: but he cannot do, unless he bath found; nor find, unless he hath sought. But our Lord Jesus inspired great hope by saying, Seek, and ye shall find. But again, Wisdom (and what is this, save Himself?) saith, The wicked shall seek me, and shall not find me. It is not said, therefore, to the wicked, but to the good, Seek, and ye shall find. Nay, but it is said to those, to whom it is said a little after in the same passage, If then ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children. How then is it said to the wicked, Seek, and ye1- shall find; and again said, The wicked shall seek Me, and shall not find Me f Did the Lord wish tbem to seek any thing save wisdom, when He promised that they should find it if would seek For in it are all things which are to be sought by those who wish to be happy. The righteousnesses of God therefore are there also. It remaineth therefore for us to understand, not that all wicked men do not find wisdom, if they seek it; but those who are so far evil as to hate it. For thus He hath said: The wicked shall seek Me, and shall nQt jin(i ]fie^for they hate wisdom. They fail tond it then, because they hate it. But again, if they hate it, why do they seek it; save because they do not seek it on its own account, but for the sake of something which the wicked love, and think they will more readily arrive at through Wisdom! For there are many who most studiously examine into the words of wisdom, and wish to have it in doctrine, not in life; not so that they may reach the light of God, which is wisdom herself, by means of the conduct which wisdom prescribes, but that by means of the discourses which she yieldeth, they may reach the praise of men, which is vain glory. They do not therefore seek wisdom even when they are seeking her; because they do not seek her for her own sake, otherwise they would live according to her: but they wish to be puffed up with her words; and the more they are puffed up, the further they are placed without her pale. Whereas the Psalmist, seeking this very thing of the Lord, which the Lord commandeth him to do, that He may work in him what He commandeth; for it is God who worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure; saith, I have called with my whole heart: hear me, 0 Lord: I will search out Thy righteousnesses: to do them, not merely to know them: that I may not become like that stiffnecked servant, who, although he understand, will not obey.

2. Ver. 146. / have called, save me; or as some copies, both Greek and Latin, have it, I have called to Thee. But what is, / have called to Thee, save that by calling I have invoked Thee? But when he had said, save me; what did he add? And I will keep Thy testimonies: that is, that I may not, through infirmity, deny Thee. For the health of the soul causeth that to be done which it is known to be our duty to do, and thus in striving even to the death of the body, if the extremity of temptation demand this in defence of the truth of the divine testimonies: but where there is not health of the soul, weakness yieldeth, and truth is deserted.

3. Ver. 147. But what follows contains something obscure, which must be explained at somewhat greater length. I have prevented in the night watches {iniempestd nocte). Many copies have not, intempestd nocte: but, immaturitate (at an unseasonable time): but hardly one is found which has the preposition doubled, in immaturitate. Immaturitas means in this passage a season at night, which is not mature, that is, opportune for any thing being done waking: just what is commonly called, an unseasonable hour. Night is also called intempesta, that is, midnight, when we ought to be at rest, because it is inopportune for the actious of men awake. For by tempestivum the ancients meant opportune: and by intempestivum, inopportune: the word being derived from tempos, time, not from that seuse of tempestas, which, according to the custom of the Latin tongue, signifies a storm in the sky. Although historians willingly use this word, ed tempestate for eo tempore: and in the words of a great master of expression, Tempestas" Tempestas, A sky disturbed with clouds and winds is not meant, but one refulgent with a sudden and splendid serenity. What therefore is called in Greek, h &a>gla, not in one word, but in two, that is, a preposition and a noun; this some of our translators have rendered by intempestd nocte: more by, immaturitate, not two words, but one*, the nominative of which is immaturitas: some again, by two words, like the Greek, in immaturitate: for aoogia is immaturitas, h Suogla is in immaturitate; as though he also who said, intempestd nocte, wished to double the preposition, and say, in intempestd; so that one preposition might signify in such a time, the other might belong to the composition of the word. It matters nothing to the sense, whether any one say he did something galli cantu, or> n cantu: an( so li would matter nothing, whether said that he cried forth intempestd, or in intempestd node, that is, in node intempestd. Yet the Greek said in node intempestd, which would mean the same if it were expressed by in immaturilate, that is, at an unseasonable time of night* So far we have discoursed on an obscure word: now let us see what the sense itself is. #

4. / have prevented in midnight, he saith, and have cried: In Thy words have I trusted. If we refer this to each of the faithful, and to the literal character of the act; it oft bappeneth that the love of God is awake in that hour of the night, and, the love of prayer strongly urging us, the time of prayer, which is wont to be after the crowing of the cock, is not awaited, but prevented. But if we understand night of the whole of this world's duration; we indeed cry unto God at midnight, and prevent the fulness of time in which He will restore us what He hath promised, as is elsewhere read, Let us prevent His presence with confession. Although if we choose to understand the unripe season of night, before the fulness of time had come, that is, the ripe season when Christ should be manifested in the flesh; neither was the Church then silent, but preventing this fulness of time, in prophecy cried out, and trusted in the words of God, Who was able to do what He promised, that in the seed of Abraham all nations should be blessed. Ver. 148. The Church saith also what folio weth, Mine eyes have prevented the morning watch, that I might meditate on Thy words. Let us suppose the morning to mean season when a light arose for them that sat in the shadow of death; did not the eyes of the Church prevent this morning watch, in those Saints who before were on earth, because they foresaw beforehand that this would come to pass, so that they meditated on the words of God, which then were, and announced these things to be destined in the Law and the Prophets?

5. Ver. 149. Hear my voice, O Lord, according to Thy loving-mercy; and quicken Tlwu me according to Thy judgment. For first God according to Hisloving-mercy taketh away punishment from sinners, and will give them life afterwards, when righteous, according to His judgment; for it is not without a meaning that it is said unto Him, My song shall be of mercy and judgment: unto Thee, O Lord; in this order of the terms: although the season of mercy itself be not without judgment, whereof the Apostle saith, If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged of the Lord: but when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should nof be condemned with the world: and his fellow Apostle, Hie time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end^s of them be that obey not the Gospel of God? And the final season of judgment shall not be without mercy, since as the Psalm saith, He crowneth thee with mercy and loving-kindness. But judgment shall be without mercy, but unto those on the left, who have not dealt mercy.

6. Ver. 150. They draw nigh, that of malice persecute me: or, as some copies read, maliciously. Then they that persecute draw nigh, when they go the length of torturing and destroying the flesh: whence the twenty-first Psalm, wherein the Lord's Passion is prophesied, saith, O go not from me, for trouble is hard at hand; where those things11, are spoken of which He suffered when His -Passion was not imminent upon Him, but actually realised. But by trouble being nigh at band, he meant that which took place in the flesh; for there is nothing nearer to the soul than the flesh which it weareth. The persecutors therefore drew near, by afflicting their flesh, whom they persecuted. But heed what followeth: and are far from Thy law. The nearer they drew to the persecuting the righteous, so much the farther were they from righteousness. But what harm did they do unto those, to whom they drew near by persecution; since the approach of their Lord is nearer unto their souls, by Whom they no wise are forsaken?

7. Ver. 151. Lastly, it followeth, Thou art nigh at hand, O Lord, and all Thy ways are truth. Even in their troubles, it hath been a wonted confession of the saints, to ascribe truth unto God, because they suffer them not undeservedly. So did Queen Esther, so did holy Daniel, so did the three men in the furnace, so do other associates in their sanctity confess. But it may be asked, in what sense it is here said, ^ waVS are *ruih; 8Ulce *n another Psalm it is read, All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth. But towards the saints, All the ways of the Lord are at once mercy and truth: since He aideth them even in judgment, and thus mercy is not wanting; and in having mercy upon them, He performeth that which He hath promised, so that truth is not wanting. But towards all, both those whom He freeth, and those whom He condemneth, all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth; because where He doth not shew mercy, the truth of His vengeance is displayed. For He freeth many who have not deserved, but He condemneth none who hath not deserved it.

8. Ver. 152. From the beginning I have known, he saitb, as concerning Thy testimonies, that Thou hast grounded them for ever. The Greek word xotra^ag hath been variously rendered by the Latin translators by ah initio, initio, and in initiis. Those who rendered it in the plural, have followed the Greek phrase. But it is more usual in the Latin tongue to express the idea conveyed by xaTag£<i$, which in Greek is used in the plural or adverbially, by the words ah initio, or initio; just as with us, when we say, Otherwise I do this (alias hoc facio), we seem to be using the plural of the feminine gender, whereas the word is an adverb, and signifies, at another time. What then meanetb, From the beginning have I known as concerning Thy testimonies, that Thou hast grounded them for ever? He saith that the testimonies of the Lord were grounded by Him for ever, and he testifietb that he knew this from the beginning, and knew it from no other source than from those very testimonies. What are these testimonies, save those wherein God hath declared that He will give an everlasting kingdom unto His sons? And since He hath declared that He will give this in His only-begotten Son, of Whom it is Of His kingdom there shall be no end; he said that the testimonies themselves were grounded for ever, since that which God bath promised through them, was everlasting. For the testimonies will not of themselves be needful, when the reality, for the sake of the belief in which, testimonies are now required, shall be displayed. And for this reason the words, TIiou hast grounded them, are rightly thus understood, because they are shewn to be true in Christ. For no man can lay any other foundation than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Whence then did the Psalmist know this in the beginning, save because the Church speaketh, which was not wanting to the earth from the commencement of the human race, the first-fruits whereof was the holy Abel, himself sacrificed in testimony of the future bloJd of the Mediator that should be shed by a8, wicked brother? For this also was at the beginning, They two shall be one Jlesh; which great mystery the Apostle Paul expounding, saith, / speak concerning Christ and *A*EPh«6>

9. Ver. 153. Let no man, set in Christ's body, imagine these words to be alien from himself, (since in truth it is the whole body of Christ placed in this humble state that speaketh,) whence beginneth the reading of this Psalm, concerning which we have now undertaken to treat: O consider my humiliation, and deliver me: for I forget not Thy law. In this place we cannot understand any law of God so suitably, as that whereby it is immutably determined that every one that exalteth himself, shall be abased; and every one that humbleth himself, shall be exalted. The proud therefore is involved in evils, that he may be humbled; the humble is delivered from evils, that he may be exalted.

10. Ver. 154. Avenge Thou, he saith, my cause, and deliver me. The former sentence is here almost repeated. For the words, O consider mine humiliation; answer unto these, Avenge Thou my cause: and the words, deliver me, also occur above. And what is there said, For I do not forget Thy law, agreeth with what we read here, Quicken me, according to Thy word. For these words are the law of God, which he hath not forgot, so that be hath abased himself, and will therefore be exalted. But the words, Quicken me, pertain to this very exaltation; for the exaltation of the saints is everlasting life. Church.

Sermon 30

448 Perseverance and rewards of Martyrs.

3. Ver. 155. Health, he saith, is far from the ungodly: Miey regard not Thy righteousnesses. For who discerneth thee, O thou who hast said, Health is far from the ungodly: who separateth thee from the ungodly, so that health is not far from thee, but with thee? This separateth thee, that what they have not done, thou hast done, that is, hast regarded the righteousnesses of God. But what hast thou that thou hast not received? Art tlfou not he who a little before didst say, I call with my whole heart: Hear me, 0 Lord: I will keep Thy righteousnesses? Thou therefore hast received from Him, unto Whom thou didst call, the power to keep them. He therefore doth Himself separate thee from those from whom health is far, because they have not regarded the righteousnesses of God.

4. Ver. 156. This he saw himself also. For I should not see it, save I saw it in Him, save I were in Him. For these are the words of the Body of Christ, whose members we are. He saw this, I say, and at once added, Great are Thy mercies, O Lord. Even our seeking out Thy righteousnesses, then, cometh of Thy mercies. Quicken me according to Thy judgment. For I know that Thy judgments will not be upon me without Thy mercy.

5. Ver. 157. Many there are that trouble me, and persecute me; yet do I not swerve from Thy testimonies. This hath been realised: we know it, we recollect it, we acknowledge it. The whole earth hath been crimsoned by the blood of Martyrs; heaven is flowery with the crowns of Martyrs, the Churches are adorned with the memorials of Martyrs, seasons distinguished by the birthdays of Martyrs, cures more frequent1 by the merits of Martyrs. Whence tn^s5 save because that hath been fulfilled which was ProPnes^e(^ °f tnat ^an Who hath been spread abroad the whole world, Many there are that trouble me> and persecute me: yet have I not swerved from Thy testimonies? We recognise this, and render thanks to the Lord our God, For thou, man, thou hast thyself said in another Psalm, If the Lord Himself had not been on our side, they would have swallowed us up quick. Behold the reason why thou hast not swerved from His testimonies, and hast won the palm of thy heavenly calling amid the hands of the many who persecuted and troubled thee.

6. Ver. 158. / have seen, he saith, the foolish, and I pined: or, as other copies read, / have seen them that keep not covenant: this is the reading of most. But who are they who have not kept covenant, save they who have swerved from the testimonies of God, not bearing the tribulation of their man/ persecutors? Now this is the covenant, that he who shall have conquered shall be crowned. They who, not bearing persecution, have by denial swerved from the testimonies of God, have not kept the covenant. These then the Psalmist saw, and pined, for he loved them. For that jealousy is good, springing from love, not from envy. He addeth in what respect they had failed to keep the covenant, Because they kept not Thy word. For this they denied in their tribulations.

7. Ver. 159. And he commendetb himself as differing from them, and saith, Behold, how I have loved Hiy commandment*. He saith not, I have not denied Thy words or testimonies, as the Martyrs were urged to do, and, when they refused, suffered intolerable torments: but he said this wherein is the fruit of all sufferings; for, if I give up my body to be burned, and have not charily, it profiteth me nothing. The Psalmist, praising this virtue, saith, Behold, how I have loved Thy commandments. Then he asketh his reward, O Lord, quicken me, according to Thy mercy. These put me to death, do Thou quicken me. But if a reward be asked of mercy, which justice is bound to give; how much greater is that mercy, which enabled him to gain the victory, on account of which the reward was sought for?

8. Ver. 160. The beginning, he saith, of Thy words is truth; all the judgments of Thy righteousness endure for evermore. From truth, he saith, Thy words do proceed, and they are therefore truthful, and deceive no man, for in them life is announced to the righteous, punishment to the ungodly. These are the everlasting judgments of God's righteousness. psalm cxix.

9. Ver. 161. We know what persecutions the body of Christ, that is, the holy Church, suffered from the kings of the earth. Let us therefore here also recognise the words of the Church: Princes have persecuted me uithditt a cause: and my heart hath stood in aire of Thee. For how had the Christians injured the kingdoms of the earth, although their King promised them the kingdom of heaven? How, I ask, had they injured the kingdoms of earth? Did their King forbid His soldiers to pay and to render due service to the kings of the earth? Saith He not to the Jews who striving to calumniate Him, Render unto Casar the things that are Ccesar's, and unto God the things that are Did he not even in His own Person pay tribute from the mouth of a fish? Did not His forerunner, when the soldiers of this kingdom were seeking what they ought to do for their everlasting salvation, instead of replying, Loose your belts, throw away your arms, desert your king, that ye may wage war for the Lord, answer, Do violence to no man: neither accuse any falsely: and be content with your wages? Did not one of His soldiers, His most beloved companion*, say to his fellow soldiers, the provincials1, so to speak, of Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers? and a little lower he addeth, Render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due: custom to whom custom: fear to whom fear: honour to whom honour. Owe no man any thing, but to love one another. Does he not enjoin the Church to pray for even kings themselves? How then have the Christians offended against them? What due have they not rendered? in what have not Christians obeyed the monarchs of earth? The kings of the earth therefore have persecuted the Christians without a cause. But heed what he hath subjoined: And my heart hath stood in awe of Thy word. They too bad their threatening words: I banish, I proscribe, I slay, I torture with claws, 1 burn with fires, I expose to beasts, I tear the limbs piecemeal: but rather of Thy word hath my heart stood in awe. Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and bodyto. in hell. My heart bath stood in awe of these words of Thine; and I have scorned man who persecuteth me, and have overcome the devil that would seduce me.

10. Ver. 162. Then follows, / am as glad qf Thy word as one that Jindeth great spoils. By the same words he conquered, of which he stood in awe. For spoils are stripped from the conquered; as he was overcome and despoiled of whom it is said in the Gospel, No man entereth into the strong man's house to spoil his goods, except he first bind2*' the strong man. But many spoils were found, when, admiring the endurance of the Martyrs, even the persecutors believed; and they who had plotted to injure our King by the injury of His soldiers, were gained over by Him in addition. Whoever therefore standeth in awe of the words of God, fearing lest he be overcome in the contest, rejoiceth as conqueror in the same words.

11. Ver. 163. For lest we should imagine it possible that hatred of God's words might have crept in, in consequence of this fear, although he had already said, / am glad of Thy wordy which he certainly would not say, if he hated it; nevertheless he added, As for iniquity, I hate and abhor it; but Thy law have I loved. That awe, therefore, of His word did not create hatred of those words, but maintained bis love unimpaired. For the words of God are no other than the law of God. Far be it therefore that love perish through fear, where fear is chaste. Thus fathers are at once feared and loved by affectionate sons; thus doth the chaste wife at once fear her husband, lest she be forsaken by him, and loveth him, that she may enjoy his love. If then the human father and the human husband desire at once to be feared and loved; much more doth our Father Who is in heaven, and that Bridegroom, beautiful beyond the sons of men, not in the flesh, but in goodness. For by whom is the law of God loved, save by those by whom God is loved? And what that is severe hath the father's law to good sons? Is it hard that He chasteneth whom He loveth, and scourgelh every son whom He receive th? But he who refuseth these judg-6* ments, receiveth not the promises. Let the Father's 'judgments therefore be praised even in the scourge, if His promises be loved in the reward. 4. Ver. 164. Such was, assuredly, the conduct of the

Psalmist, who saith, Seven times a day do I praise Thee, because of Thy righteous judgments. The words seven times a day, signify evermore. For this number is wont to be a symbol of universality; because after six da^-s of the divine work of creation, a seventh of rest was added; and all times roll on through a revolving cycle of seven days.

For no other reason it was said, a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: that is, the just man perisheth not, though brought low in every way, yet not induced to transgress, otherwise he will not be just. For the words, falleth seven times, are employed to express every kind of tribulation, whereby man is cast down in the sight of men: and the words, riseth up again, signify that he profited) from all these tribulations. The following sentence in this passage sufficiently illustrates the foregoing words: for it follows, but the wicked shall fall into mischief. Not to be deprived of strength in any evils, is therefore the falling seven times, and the rising again of the just man. Justly hath the Church then praised God seven times in a day for His righteous judgments; because, when it was time that judgment should begin at the house of God, she did not faint in all her tribulations, but was glorified with the crowns of Martyrs.

5. Ver, 165. Great is the peace, he saith, that they have who love Thy law: and there is no offence to them. Doth this mean that the law itself is not an offence to them that love it, or that there is no offence from any source unto them that love the law? But both senses are rightly understood. For he who loveth the law of God, honoureth in it even what he doth not understand; and what seemeth to him to sound absurd, he judgeth rather that he doth not understand, and that there is some great meaning hidden: thus the law of God is not an offence to him. But that he may suffer no offence at all, let him not heed men of each holy profession to such a degree as to allow his faith to depend upon their conduct; lest, if some fall, whom he highly esteemed, he perish by an offence: but let him love the law of God itself, and he shall have much peace, and no offence. For he is safe in loving that, which, although many sin in it, doth not itself know sin.

6. Ver. 166. I have waited, he saith,/or Thy saving health, O Lord, and have loved Thy commandments. For what would it have profited the righteous of old to have loved the commandments of God, save Christ, Who is the saving health of God, had freed them; by the gift of whose Spirit also they were able to love the commandments of God? If therefore they who loved God's commandments, waited for His saving health; how much more necessary was Jesus, that is, the saving Health of God, for the salvation of those that did not love His commandments? This prophecy may suit also the Saints of the period since the revelation of grace, and the preaching of the Gospel, for they that love God's commandments look for Christ, that when Christ, our life, shall appear, we may then appear with Him in glory.

7. Ver. 167, 168. My soul hath kept Thy testimonies, and I have loved them exceedingly: or, as some copies read, hath loved them, understanding, my soul. The testimonies of God are kept, while they are not denied. This is the office of Martyrs, for testimonies are called Martyria in Greek. But since it profiteth nothing, even to be burnt with flames without charity, he addetb, and I have loved them exceedingly* He had said above, / have loved Thy commandments; then in the following verse, / have kept and have loved T7iy testimonies: further down, I have kept both Thy commandments and Thy testimonies; for he saith, / have kept Thy commandments and Thy testimonies. For he who loveth, keepeth them in the Spirit of truth and faithfulness. But generally, while the commandments of God are kept, they against whose will they are kept become our foes: then, iudeed, His testimonies also must be kept courageously, lest they be denied when the enemy persecuteth.

8. After the Psalmist, then, had declared that he had done both these things, he ascribeth unto God his having been enabled to do so, by adding, because all my ways are in Thy sight. He saith therefore, / have kept Thy commandments and Thy testimonies; because all my ways are in Thy sight. As much as to say, Hadst Thou turned away Thy face from I should have been confounded, nor could I keep Thy commandments and testimonies. / have kept them, then, because all my ways are in Thy sight. With a look favouring and aiding man, he meant it to be understood that God seeth his ways: according to the prayer, 0 hide not Thou Thy face from me. For, the face of the Lord is also over them that do evil, but so, that He may blot out tKe memory of them from the earth. Not in this sense indeed hath the Psalmist said that his ways are seen of Him, but as the Lord knoweth the ways of the righteous, and as He saith unto Moses, 1 know Thee above all. For if this did not aid him as he walked, that his ways are before God, he would not say that he had kept his commandments and testimonies, because all his ways were before the Lord. For he knew how to hear, Serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice unto Him with reverence. Take hold on discipline, lest the Lord be angry, and so ye perish from the right way: for, save he were in the sight of the Lord, his way would not be the right way. For the Apostle Paul enjoineth this fear and trembling upon those to whom he saith, Work out your own salvation with fear and 'trembling; and, explaining why he speaketh thus, For it is God, he addeth, Who worketh in you both to will and to do Of His good pleasure. For this end, then, the ways of the righteous are before the Lord, that He may direct their steps, since these are the ways of which it is said in Proverbs, The Lord knoweth the paths that are on the right: but they that are on the left are perverse: so that we may understand that the Lord knoweth them not, because He will say to the perverse, / know you not. Moreover, to shew the fruit of the Lord's knowing those paths which are on the right, that is, those of the righteous, he at once addeth^ For He will make Thy pulhs straight, and will lead thy footsteps in peace. Behold then the reason why the Psalmist also saith, I have kept Thy commandments and Thy testimonies. And, as though we asked how he was able to keep them, he answereth, Because all my ways are in Thy sight % O Lord.

Sermon 31

3. Ver. 169. Let us now hear the words of oue praying: since we know who is praying, and we recognise ourselves, if we be not reprobate, among the members of this one praying. Le0my prayer come mar in Thy sight, O Lord: for, The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart. Give me understanding, according to Thy word. He18' claimeth a promise. For he saith, according to Thy word, which is to say, according to Thy promise. For the Lord promised this when He said, / will inform thee.

4. Ver. 170. Let my request come before Thy presence,8' O Lord: deliver me, according to Thy word. He repeateth what he hath asked. For his former words, Let my prayer come near in Thy presence, O Lord: are like unto what he saith, Let my request come before Thy presence, O Lord: and the words, Give me understanding according to Thy word, agree with these, Deliver me according to Thy word. For by receiving understanding he is delivered, who of himself through want of understanding is deceived.

5. Ver. 171. My lips shall burst forth praise: when Thou hast taught me Thy righteousnesses. We know how God teacheth those who are docile unto God. For every one who hath heard from the Father and hath learned, comes unto Him Who juslifieth the ungodly: so that he may keep^m< the righteousnesses of God not only by retaining them in his memory, but also by doing them. Thus doth he who glorieth, glory not in himself, but in the Lord, and burst forth praise.31"

6. Ver. 172. But as he hath now learned, and praised God his Teacher, he next wisheth to teach. Yea, my tongue shall declare Thy word: for all Thy commandments are righteousness. When he saith that he will declare these things, he becometh a minister of the word. For though God teach within, nevertheless faith cometh from hearing: and how do they hear without a preacher? For, because17'14, God giveth Vie increase, is no reason why we need not plant and water.

7. Ver. 173, 174. But he is aware what perils will follow from the adversaries and persecutors, when he shall become a declarer of God's words: wherefore he hath added, Let Tliy hand be stretched forth {fiat, be made) to save me, for I have chosen Thy commandments. That 1 might not fear, and that not only might my heart hold fast, but my tongue also utter Thy words: / have chosen Thy commandments, and have stifled fear with love. Let Thy baud therefore be stretched forth, to save me from another's hand. Thus God saved the Martyrs, when He permitted them not to be slain in their souls: for vain is the safety of man in the flesh. The words, Let Thy hand be made, may also be taken to mean Christ the Hand of God: in the sense of those words of Isaiah, And unto Whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? For the Only-Begotten was not created, since Him were all things created; but He was made of the seed of David, that He might be Jesus, that is the Saviour, Who was already the Creator. But as these are familiar Scriptural phrases, Let Thy hand be stretched forth (lit. j made); and, the Hand of the iaord was made: I know not whether this sense can be found in all these passages. Certainly where we read the following words, (ver. 174.) I have longed for Thy salvation, 0 Lord: even if all our foes be reluctant, let Christ the Salvation of God occur to us: the righteous men of old confess that they longed (or Him, the Church longed for His destined coming from His mother's womb, the Church longeth for His coming at His Father's right hand. Subjoined to this sentence are the words, And Thy law is my meditation: for the Law giveth testimony unto Christ.

8. Ver. 175. But in this faith, while with the heart we believe unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation; though the heathen rage furiously, and the people imagine a vain thing: though the flesh be slain while it preacheth Thee: My soul shall live, and shall praise Thee: and TJiy judgments shall help me. These are those judgments, which, it was time should begin at the house of the Lord. But they will help me, he saith. And who cannot see how much the blood of the Church hath aided the Church? how great a harvest hath risen in the whole world from that sowing?

9. Ver. 176. At length be openeth himself completely, and sheweth what person was speaking throughout the whole Psalm. I have gone astray, he saith, like a sheep that is tost: O seek Thy servant, for I do not forget Thy commandments. Some copies have not seek, but quicken. For there is a difference only of one syllable, between the corresponding Greek words $j<rov and?^nj<rov: whence the Greek copies theth selves derive the variation. But whichever of these be right, let the lost sheep be sought, let the lost sheep be quickened, for whose sake its Shepherd left the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and while seeking it, was torn by Jewish thorns. But it is still being sought, let it still be sought, partly found let it still be sought. For as to that company, among whom the Psalmist saith, / do not forget Thy commandments, it hath been found; but through those who choose the commandments of God, gather them together, love them, it is still sought, and by means of the blood of its Shepherd shed and sprinkled abroad, it is found in all nations.

10. As far as I have been able, as far as I have been aided by the Lord, I have treated throughout, and expounded, this great Psalm. A task which more able and learned expositors have performed or will perform better; nevertheless, my services were not to be withheld from it on that account, when my brethren earnestly required it of me, to whom I owed this office. That 1 have said nothing of the Hebrew alphabet, in which every eight verses are ranged under a particular letter, and the whole Psalm arranged in this manner, let no one wonder, since I found nothing that related especially to this Psalm: for it is not the only one which hath these letters. Let those who cannot find it in the Latin and Greek versions, since it is not adopted there, know that every set of eight verses in the Hebrew copies beginneth with that letter which is prefixed to them; as is indicated to us by those who are acquainted with the Hebrew tongue. This is done with much more care, than our writers have shewn in their Latin or Punic compositions of Psalms which they style abecedarii. For they do not begin all the verses down to the close of a period, but the first only with the same letter which they prefix to it.