Psalms 140–141 (Vulgate 139–140)

Christ the Head, the Church His Body. not yet satisfied, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, for whom a certain fulness in the end hath been promised, and is reserved. Meanwhile, here let it hunger and thirst, groan and knock and seek. Let it not delight in the allurements of its wandering, let it not think the world its country, from whence Christ came to set it free, for Christ willeth to be our Head, the Head that is of a certain Body. For we cannot speam of a head where there is no body for it to be head to. Accordingly if Christ be a Head, He is also Head of some Body. The Body of that Head is the holy Church, among whose members we are, if we love our Head. Let us hear then the words of Christ's Body, our own words, that is, if we be in Christ's Body; for whoever is not there, will be among those for whom that Body groaneth. Accordingly, either thou wilt be in that Body which groaneth among the wicked; or else thou wilt not be in that Body, but wilt be among those wicked ones among whom the Body groaneth, which groaneth amongst the wicked; either thou wilt be a member of Christ, or an enemy of the Body of Christ. Nor is it meant that they are all enemies, and adversaries of the Body of Christ after one manner, neither do they all act after one manner. Chameleon-like is he who reigneth in them, and useth them as his vessels. But many are freed from him, and pass over into the Body of Christ, and who they are, and how many there shall hereafter be, He knoweth, Who hath redeemed them, when they knew it not, with His own Blood. But some there are, destined to persevere in their wickedness, belonging not to the Body of Christ, and they assuredly are known to Him, to Whom nothing is unknown. Meanwhile, they who are already compacted with His members, not having as yet their resurrection which is to come, wherein all groaning endeth, and praise succeedeth, all tribulation shall die, and there shall be endless exultation; not yet having this in possession, yet grasping it in hope, they groan with a sort of longing, and pray to be freed from wicked men, among whom the good too must live. For to separate them now is not safe for every one. Separation will belong to Him, Who knoweth not to err. What is, i Who knoweth not to err?' That He neither transfer the good to the right hand, nor the bad to 220 Christ in His Human Nature called David in the Psalms. the left. But we in this life find it difficult to know ourselves; how much less ought we to pass a hasty sentence on any one. For if to-day we know him to be evil, what he will be to-morrow we know not; and perhaps he whom we violently hate is our brother, and we know it not. Safe then is it for us to hate in the wicked their wickedness, and to love the work of God's Hand, so that, what God made in him, we love, what man has made in himself, we hate. M For God made man himself, man made sin. Love what God made, hate what man hath made: for so shalt thou persecute what man hath made, that what God hath made be set free.

3. To the end, a Psalm to David himself. No other end mayest thou look to, than is laid down for thee by the Apostle himself. For Christ is the end of the law to every one that believeth. Wherefore when thou hearest the Psalm say, To the end, let hearts be turned to Christ. For the title of the Psalm is, as it were, the herald of the Psalm, seeming to say, ' Lo, He is coming, of Him am I about to speak, of Christ am I about to sing.' For the words, to David himself I understand not, save of Him, Who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. Meanwhile on account of the birth the name suiteth. His birth after the flesh was from David, His spiritual parentage above David. And not only before David, but before Abraham; not only before Abraham, but before Adam too; not only before Adam, but before earth and sky, before all the Angels, before all powers and virtues, before all things visible and invisible. Because then He was of the seed of David, not after His Godhead, whereby He is the Creator of David, but after the flesh; therefore He deigned to be called David in prophecy: look to this end, for the Psalm is chanted to David Himself; hear the voice of His Body; be in His Body. Let the voice which thou hast heard be thine, and pray, and say what followeth.

4. Deliver me, O Lord, from the wicked man. Not from one only, but from the class; not from the vessels only, but from their prince himself, that is, the devil. Why from man, if he meaneth from the devil? Because he too is called a man in a figure: An enemy came, and sowed tares Wicked men injure their brethren too, among the wheat; and when the servants said to their master, Didst not thou sow good seed, whence then have the — tares appeared? He replied. An enemy hath done this. From that wicked man they pray with all their might to be delivered. For thou ivrestlest not against flesh and blood, Eph. but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers 12# of the darkness of this world, that is, the rulers of sinners. And mis we too were, for we have just heard the words of the jostle, Ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Now then being made light, not in our-8, selves, but in the Lord, let us pray not only against darkness, that is, against sinners, whom still the devil possesseth, but also against their prince, the devil himself, who worketh in the children of disobedience. Deliver me from the unrighteous man. The same is from the unrighteous man, as from the wicked man. For he called him wicked because unrighteous, lest perchance thou shouldest think that any unrighteous man could be a good man. For many unrighteous men seem to be harmless; they are not fierce, are not savage, do not persecute nor oppress; yet are they unrighteous, because, following some other habit, they are luxurious, drunkards, given to pleasure. How doth he harm no one who spareth not himself? he is innocent who harmeth no one, not who harmeth himself. And can he help harming thee, who harmeth himself? Thou answerest, ' How doth he harm me? He hath not seized on my goods, or attacked my life; he feeds himself on his own sensuality, he delights in his own pleasures: but if his pleasures be polluting, it is himself that is polluted; what hath he to do with me, who annoyeth me not? He harmeth thee at all events by example, forasmuch as he liveth with thee, and inviteth thee to what he doeth! Art not thou, when thou seest him prospering in his defilement, attracted by the delight of such deeds? Even though thou consent not, at all events thou hast found somewhat to fight against. How then hath he not harmed thee, when thou hast hard work to conquer what he hath made in thy heart? Wicked then is every unrighteous man, who must needs be harmful, whether he be gentle or fierce. Whoever falls in his way, whoever is taken by his snares, will find how harmful is that which he thought harmless. For, brethren, even thorns prick not with their roots. Pull up thorns from the ground, handle their roots, and see whether thou feelest pain. Yet that in the upgrowth which causeth thee pain, proceeded from that root. Let not then men please you who seem gentle and kind, yet are lovers of carnal pleasure, followers of polluted lusts, let them not please you. Though as yet they seem gentle, they are roots of thorns. For by such deeds they postly squander in sensuality what was their own; an* how do they seek to replenish what they have squandered? Do they spare plunder and devices of fraud; do they spare to seek out every kind of wickedness? Now thou seest him to be a wretched man, whom erst thou thoughtest gentle. When thou sawest him drunken, he was a good man; now thou seest him a thief, thou fearest him as a robber; thorns have grown out of those roots. When thou sawest the soft roots of thorns, thou shouldest then have burnt them, if thou couldest, and then would not have grown out of them what now punisheth thee. And so, my brethren, body of Christ, members of Christ groaning among such wicked men, whomsoever ye find hurrying headlong into evil lusts and deadly pleasures, at once chide, at once punish, at once burn. Let the root be burnt, and there remaineth not whence the thorn may grow up. If ye cannot, be sure that ye will have them as enemies. They may be silent, they may hide their enmity, but they cannot love you. But since they cannot love you, and since they who hate you must needs seek your harm, let not your tongue and heart be slow to say to God, Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man, free me from the unrighteous man.

5. Who have imagined unrighteousnesses in their heart. How so? because what they dare not utter with their tongue, they keep in their heart. For on account of those he saith it, who for the most part speak good words with their lips. Thou nearest the voice of the righteous, yet is it not the heart of the righteous. Else what profit was it to go on and say, Who have imagined unrighteousnesses in their heart? From them free me, from them let Thy hand be most powerful to deliver me. For easy is it to avoid open enmities, easy is it to turn aside from an enemy declared In their hearts they always hate the good. and manifest, while iniquity is in his lips as well as his heart; he is a troublesome enemy, he is secret, he is with difficulty avoided, who beareth good things in his lips, while in his heart he concealeth evil things. Who have imagined unrighteousnesses in their heart: all the day long did they make war. What is, war? They made for me what I was to fiAt against all the day. For from thence, from such heartt as these, ariseth all that the Christian fighteth against. Be i"sedition, be it schism, be it heresy, be it turbulent opposition, it springeth not save from these imaginings which were concealed, and while they spake good words with their lips, all the day long did they make war. Ye hear words of peace, yet making war departeth not from their thoughts. For the words, all the day long, signify without intermission, throughout the whole time.

6. They have sharpened their tongues like serpents. If still thou seekest to make out the man, behold a comparison. In the serpent above all beasts is there cunning and craft to hurt; for therefore does it creep1. It hath not even feet, so that its footsteps when it cometh may be heard. In its progress it draweth itself, as it were, gently along, yet not straightly. Thus then do they creep and crawl to hurt, having poison hidden even under a gentle touch. And so it followeth, the poison of asps is under their lips. Behold, it is under their lips, that we may perceive one thing under their lips, another in their lips. And these too he openly maketh manifest in another place, where he saith, Who speak peace with their neighbours, but evil is in their hearts.

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

8. The proud have hidden a trap for me. He hath briefly described the whole body of the devil, when he saith, the proud. Hence is it that for the most part they call themselves righteous when they are unrighteous. Hence is it that nothing is so grievous to them as to confess their sins. They are men who, being falsely -righteous, must needs envy the truly righteous. For none envieth another in that which he wisheth not either to be or to seem. One envieth thee because thou art rich; either he wishes to be rich, in that he envieth thee, or else he wishes to be thought rich: another envieth thee because thou art famous or of high birth; either he longeth to be so himself, or else he desires to be thought so. And so for all things which seem or are thought to be good in this world, what each one wishes to have, wherein he wishes to excel, what he desireth to be reported to have, therein doth he envy thee. But they who are falsely righteous, wish to seem righteous when they are not so; and when they see one truly righteous, they must needs envy him, and make it the object of their dealings with him, to make him love that wherein he glorietb. Henc# come all allurings and trippings up of others. This the (jfevil first wished, when falling himself he envied man who Aood; and because he himself had lost the kingdom of heaven, he was and is unwilling that man should attain thither, and this is his object now, to prevent man attaining thither, whence himself was cast down. Since then he is proud himself, and, because proud, therefore also envious, his whole body is a body of those of like character. But let us pray against him, who cannot be amended, and against those who can, so as to say to the unrighteous man, Why enviest thou the righteous, O unrighteous man? Is it because thou wishest to appear righteous? Do better at once, so shalt thou more easily be, what thou wishest to seem. Be righteous: so shalt thou love him whom thou didst envy; for so, what thou now grievest that he is, thou shalt thyself be also, and thou shalt love thyself in him and him in thyself. For if- thou enviedst a rich man, it would not therefore be in thy power to be rich: if thou enviedst some honourable and high-born senator, it would not be in thy power to be high-born and illustrious: if thou enviedst one that was handsome, never wouldest thou thereby make thyself handsome: if thou enviedst one that was brave and strong, thou wouldest not thereby give thyself strength: but if thou enviest the righteous, the matter is in thy will, be what thou art grieved that another is. For thou wilt not have to buy what thou art not thyself, but another is; it is to be had for nothing, it is to be had at once. Peace on earth to men of good will. 14*

9. But those proud ones have hidden a trap for me; they have sought to trip up my steps. And what have they done? And have stretched out Cords as traps. What cords? The word is well known in holy Scripture, and elsewhere we find what cords signify. The Lord made a scourge of John small cords, and with it drove out from the temple those 16* who were ill employed there, and thereby signified to us bow we were to understand cords; fdr each one is holden with the 'cords of his sins, saith another Scripture. And Esaias saith openly, Woe to them that draw sin like a long rope. And why is it called a cord? Because every sinner who persevereth in his sins, addeth sin to sin; and when he ought by accusing his sins to amend, by defending he doubleth what by confession he might have removed, and often seeketh to fortify himself by other sins, on accountjjpf the sins he hath already committed. He hath committedCadultery; and, lest he be slain himself, he prepareth to commit murder; he addeth sin to sin. Again; if he happen to have committed murder, now he who feared one crime, feareth two: and so when he seeth that he feareth now more things than before he feared, he deviseth not how he may lessen what he hath done, but how he may add what he hath not yet done: he seeketh, it may be, some other evil deed. Now he hath three. What will a man devise next? Who will end the cord of sins? Most rightly is it called a cord, for however it be twisted it is increased, and they are not straight threads, but twisted, that are added. Wickedness is intertwined, and groweth in length, and seeketh not to cut off what it has woven amiss, but to add, to protract, to lengthen, so that in the end it may have wherewith it may be bound hand and foot, and be cast into outer darkness. But these their sins they spread for the righteous, when they persuade them to do the evils which they themselves do. Therefore he said, they spread cords and traps; that is, by their sins they desired to overthrow me. And where did they this? Beside the paths have they laid a stumbling-block for me: not in the paths, but, beside the paths. Thy paths are the commandments of God. They have laid stumbling-blocks beside the paths; do not thou withdraw out of the paths, and thou wilt not rush upon stumbling-blocks. Yet will I not that thou shouldest say, 4 God should prevent them from laying stumbling-blocks beside my paths, and then they would not lay them.' Nay, rather, God permitted them to lay stumbling-blocks beside thy paths, that thou shouldest not leave the paths. Beside the paths have they laid stumbling-blocks for me.

10. And what remaineth r what remedy amid such ills, in such temptations, such dangers? I said unto the Lord Thou art my God. Loud is the voice of prayer, it exciteth confidence. Is He not the God of the others? Of Whom is not He God, Who is the true God? Yet is He specially theirs, who enjoy Him, who serve Him, who willingly submit to Him. For the* wicked too, though unwillingly, are subject to Him. The ojle call upon God, to be crowned by Him; the other being »der Him, flee from Him, to be condemned by Him. And wmther shall the wicked, who will not have the Lord for his God, whither shall he flee from the God of all? Good is it then for him that he turn to the God of all, and make Him his God, by turning to Him, and being set among such sinners, seducers, hypocrites, proud, say to God, Whom by turning to Him he hath made his God, / have said unto the Lord, Thou art my God; hear with Thine ears the voice of my prayer. It is a simple sentence indeed, and easy to understand, yet it is pleasant perhaps to consider why he did not say, ' Hear with Thine ears my prayer but, as though expressing more plainly the affection of his heart, the voice of my prayer the life of my prayer, the soul of my prayer, not that which soundeth in my words, but that which giveth life to my words. For all other noises without life may be called sounds, but not words. Words belong to those that have souls, to the living. But how many pray to God, yet have neither perception of God, nor right thoughts concerning God! These may have the sound of prayer, the voice they cannot, for there is no life in them. This was the voice of the prayer of one who was alive, forasmuch as he understood that God was his God, saw by Whom he was freed, perceived from whom he was freed.

11. Commending this to the ears of God, let him say, Lord, Lord. Thou Lord-Lord, that is, most truly Lord, not like unto the lords-men, not like the lords who buy with money-bags, but the Lord Who buyeth with His Blood. Lord, Lord, Thou strength of my health, that is, Who givest strength to my health. What is the meaning of strength of my health? He complained of the stumbling-blocks and snares of sinners, of wicked men, vessels of the devil, that barked around him and laid snares around him, of the proud that envy the righteous, among the like of whom he has to pass his life, while here we live in this our pilgriraage. But that such offences should abound the Lord foretold, and said, 6 Iniquity shall abound; and because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold? But He forthwith added a comfort, He that shall endure and feared, and, distressed at the abundance of iniquities, turned himself to hope; for, he that shall endure ujhto the end, the same shall be saved. He braced himself to (endure, and saw that the way was long; and, because to endure is great and difficult, he prayed Him to perfect his endurance, by Whom the command was given him to endure. Verily I shall be saved, if I endure unto the end: but endurance, so as to win salvation, pertaineth unto strength; Thou art the strength of my salvation; Thou makest me to endure, that I may attain salvation. Lord, Lord, Thou strength of my salvation. And whence cometh my hope that Thou art the strength of my salvation? Thou hast overshadowed my head in the day of battle. Lo, now as yet I fight. I fight without against those who falsely pretend to be good, 1 fight within against mine own lusts; for, / see another law in my memoers^ warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Toiling then in this warfare, he looked back to the grace of God; and because already he had begun to be heated and parched, he found, as it were, a shade, whereunder to live. Thou hast overshadowed my head in the day of battle: that is, in the heat, lest I be heated, lest I be parched,

12. Deliver me not over, O Lord, by my own longing to the sinner. Behold to what end Thy overshadowing shall avail for me, that T suffer not heat from myself. And what could that sinner do to me, rage as he would? For wicked men raged against the martyrs, dragged them away, bound them with chains, shut them up in prisons, slew them with the sword, exposed them to wild beasts, consumed them with fire: all this they did; yet did not God deliver them over to the sinners, because they were not delivered over by their unto the end, the same lest our desires make us yield. own longing. This then pray with all thy might, that God delivered thee not over by thine own longing to the sinner. For thou by thine own longing givest place to the devil. For lo, the devil hath set before thee gain, invited thee to dishonesty; thou canst not have the gain, unless thou commit the dislonesty: the gain is the bait, dishonesty the snare: do thol so look on the bait, that thou see the snare also; for thoM canst not obtain the gain, unless thou commit the dishonesty; and if thou commit the dishonesty, thou wilt be caught. I say not, thou wilt be caught, because thou wilt be found out. Sometimes thou wilt not be found out, at least by man; but canst thou escape God? Thou wilt be caught, and drawn out, and slain. For every one that doeth such things, slayeth himself. There then is the bait, there is also the snare; bridle thy longing, and thou wilt not be caught by the hook; but if thy longing for the bait conquer thee, it putteth thy neck into the snare, and the fowler of souls will take thee. Deliver me not by mine own longing to the sinner. Hence is thine head overshadowed in the day of battle. For longing causeth heat, but the overshadowing of the Lord tempers longing, that we may be able to bridle that whereby we were being hurried away, that we be not so heated as to be drawn to the snare. They have thought against me; leave me not, lest perchance they be exalted. Thou hast in another place, They that oppress me will exult if I be moved. Such are they, because such is the devil also himself. When he has led a man astray, he rejoiceth, he triumpheth over him; he himself is exalted, because the other is humbled. And why is he humbled? Because he was evilly exalted: and he too who triumpheth over him shall hereafter be humbled. Such are all who rejoice in iniquity; they seem to themselves for the while to boast, to be proud, to lift up the neck. Let not their exaltation delight thee: they have the bait in their jaws and the hook too. There is that wherein they delight, there that whereby they are caught. Leave Thou me not, lest perchance they be exalted; that is, let them not triumph over me, let them not rejoice over me.

13. The head of their going about, the toil of their ownver.9. lips shall cover them. Me, he saith, the shadow of Thy 230 Sin ever seeketh, never findeth, its end. wings shall cover: for, Tftou hast covered me in the day of battle. Them what shall cover? The head of their going about; that is, pride. What is, their going about? How they go about and stand not, how they go in the circle of error, where is journeying without end. He who goeth in a straight line, beginneth from some point, eftdeth at some point: he who goeth in a circle, never endethj That is the toil of the wicked, which is set forth yet mor A plainly in another Psalm, TJie wicked walk in a circle. But the head of their going about is pride, for pride is the beginning of every sin. But whence is pride the toil of their own lips? Every proud man is false, and every false man is a liar. Men toil in speaking falsehood; for truth they could speak with entire facility. For he toileth, who maketh what he saith: he who wisheth to speak the truth, toileth not, for truth herself speaketh without toil. Of this man then he said to God, 6 Me Thine overshadowing shall protect; them their own lie shall cover and their own lie is the toil of their own lips. Behold, he hath travailed with unrighteousness, he hath conceived sorrow, and brought forth iniquity. For in every evil work is toil, and every evil work devised hath a lie for its leader. For there is no truth, save in a good work. And forasmuch as all have toil in lying, what crieth the Truth? Come unto Me, all ye that toil and are laden, and / will refresh you. That is the voice that crieth to them that toil in another Psalm, Ye sons of wen, how long will ye be heavy of heart; why love ye vanity, and seek a lie? Hear too in another place the toil of lying plainly set forth, They have taught their tongues to speak lies, they have wearied themselves to commit iniquity.

14. Coals of fire shall fall upon them upon earth, and Thou shalt cast them down. What is, upon earth? Here, even in this life, here coals of fire shall fall upon them, and Thou shalt cast them down. What are, coals of fire? We know these coals. Are they different from those of which we are about to speak? For these I see avail for punishment, those that I am about to speak of, for salvation. For we have spoken of certain coals, when man was seeking aid against a treacherous tongue. What shall be given thee, or what shall be added to thee, against the treacherous The effects of example. tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty One, with devouring coals, that is, the word of God transfixing the heart, de-stroking the old nature, implanting love, and the patterns of men who had died and come to life again, were black, and became shining. For coals are darkness, so their colouJindicateth. But when the flame of love has reached themland they have come to life again from the dead, let them near from the Apostle, Ye were sometime darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. These, brethren, are the coals we look on, when we are pierced by the arrow of God, and wish to change our life, but are hindered by the evil tongues of men, such as he was just now complaining of, which endeavour to lead us astray from the way of truth, and to lead us in preference into their own errors, and say to us that even if we promise, we shall not fulfil. Then we observe these coals: he that was yesterday a drunkard, to-day is sober; he that was yesterday an adulterer, to-day is chaste; he that yesterday seized others' goods, to-day gives freely of his own. All these are coals of fire. The examples of the coals are added to the wound of the arrows, (for I need not fear to say 'the wound,' when the Spouse herself saith, / am wounded with love,) and then the hay is consumed, and so they are called devouring coals. The hay is devoured, but the gold is purified, and the man exchanges death for life, and begins to be himself too a burning coal; such a coal as was the Apostle, who before was a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, a coal black and extinguished; but when he had obtained mercy, he was set on fire from heaven, the voice of Christ set him on fire, all the blackness in him perished, he began to be fervent in spirit, to set others on fire with that wherewith he was set on fire himself. Are we to understand such coals of fire as this here too, who fall upon those evil men, and cast them down? Evidently we are not forbidden to understand it in this way. I see that here shines forth to us a sentiment not improbable and free from blame. I understand those coals to fall upon these men, that they may be cast down. For on some they come, to set them on fire; on others, to cast them down. For that coal himself said, To the one we are the savour of death unto death, and* 232 We should desire, not to teach others. to the other the savour of death unto death. For they see the righteous blazing with the Spirit, bright with light, and envying them, they fall; this is how coah of fire shall fall upon them upon earth, and they shall be cast down. What is, upon earth? While they are as yet in this life, excluding the punishment which is reserved for the wicked, thes&coals cast them down, before the everlasting fire cometh. jVoa/s of fire shall fail upon them upon earth, and shall cos Ahem down. In miseries they shall not stand. Misery cometh to them, and they bear it not; but the righteous standeth, as he stood, who saith, We glory in tribulations also, knotting that tribulation workelh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of Christ is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. But when upon them any pressure, any misery hath fallen, they stand not, they fall. For when such men meet with these kind of pressures, they are unable to bear them, they fall into evil acts of iniquity, because they are delivered over by their own longing to the sinner.

15. A man full of words shall not be guided upon earth. A man full of words loveth lies. For what pleasure hath he, save in speaking? He careth not what he speaketh, so long as he speaks. It cannot be that he will be guided. What then ought the servant of God to do, who is kindled with these coals, and himself made a coal of salvation, what should he do? He should wish rather to hear than to, speak; as it is written, Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak. And if it may be so, let him desire this, not to be obliged to speak and talk and teach. For behold 1 say to you, beloved, we speak now to you, brethren, to teach you somewhat: how much better were it that we all knew, and none taught another? so should there not be one speaking, another hearing, but all hearing Him alone, to Whom is said, To my hearing Thou shalt give exultation and joy. Whence it was that John too rejoiced, not so much because he was a preacher and a speaker, but because he was a hearer. For he saith, The friend of the bridegroom standeth and heareth him, and rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, beloved but to be taught by God. brethren, 1 can quickly tell you wherein each one may prove himself, not by never speaking, but by requiring a case where it is his duty to speak; let him be glad to be silent, in will, let him speak to teach, when he must. For when must thou needs speak and teach? When thou meetejt with one ignorant, when thou meetest with one unleJned. If it delight thee always to teach, thou wishest alwam to have some ignorant one to teach. But if thou wishest well to others, and wishest all to be learned, thou wishest not always to have those whom thou may est teach, and so the practice or proof of thy teaching will not be in will, but in necessity. Let thy joy be in hearing God, thy duty in thine own speaking, so shalt thou not be a man full of words, lest thou be not guided. Why art thou willing to speak, unwilling to hear? Thou ever goest without, thou declinest to return within. For He that teacheth thee is within; when thou teach est, thou, as it were, goest forth to those who are without. For from within we hear the truth, and we speak it to those who are without, outside our heart. For we are said indeed to have in our heart those of whom we are thinking, but we are said so only because we seem to have a sort of image of them stamped upon us. For, were they altogether within, surely they would know what is in our hearts, and so would have no need for us to speak to them. But if this delight thee, that thou art busy without, take heed lest thou be puffed up without, and be unable to return by the narrow way, and so thy God be unable to say to thee, Enter thouM&t. into the joy of thy Lord; but say, because that which thou21, lovedst was without, Bind him hand and foot, and cast him into outer darkness. For in shewing that it is an evil thing to be cast without, he sheweth also that it is a good thing to enter within. For to the good servant what said He? Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord: but to the wicked servant, Cast him into outer darkness. Let us not then love most what is outward, but what is inward. At what is inward let us rejoice; in what is outward let us act of necessity, not of free will. A man full of words shall not be guided upon the earth.

16. Evil shall hunt the unrighteous man to destruction. Evils come, and he standeth not; therefore said he, they shall hunt him to destruction. For many good men, many righteous men evils have befallen, evils have, as it were, found them. For therefore hath he said, shall hunt them, because every one wisheth to hide himself from evil, but when he is found by evil he is, as it were, made into a prey. But is it only the evil who fly from evils when ttijy are sought by evils? Is it not said to the good also, WPhen they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another? Irherefore when the evil pursued the good, that is, our martyrs, when they seized them, they hunted them, but not to destruction. For the flesh was pressed down, the spirit was crowned; the spirit was cast out from the body, yet was nought done to the flesh which might hinder it for the future. Let the flesh be burned, scourged, mangled; is it therefore withdrawn from its Creator, because it is given into the hands of its persecutor? Will not He Who created it from nothing, re-make it better than it was? So then whenever the righteous are taken, the wicked have hunted them, but not to destruction. But they who shall not be guided^ and are full of words, evils shall hunt them to destruction. Wherefore? Because in miseries they shall not stand.

17. I know that the Lord will maintain the right of the needy. This needy one is not full of words; for he that is full of words, wisheth to abound, knoweth not to hunger. But they are needy to whom it is said, Knock, and it shall be opened unto you; seek, and ye shall jind; ask, and it shall be given unto you. He is needy of whom it is said, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. They groan among the stumbling-blocks of the wicked, they pray to their Head, to be delivered from the wicked man, and set free from the unrighteous man. These then are they whose cause the Lord will not neglect; although now they suffer hardships, their glory shall appear, when their Head appeareth. For to while placed here it is said, Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. So then we are poor, our life is hid; let us cry to* Him that is our Bread. For He is the living Bread, Which came down from heaven; and He Who in the way refresheth us, in our wants will fill us. The Bliss of the righteous, in God. For now we are refreshed, that we may endure; because needs must we hunger till we be filled. / know that the Lord will maintain the right of the needy* Sure was he that the Lord would maintain the right of the needy and the cause of the poor. He shall shew the unrighteous how He loveth His rigbieous ones; He shall shew the rich how He loveth His po« ones. By the rich, He meant the proud; by the pocL the humble: by the rich, them who through abundance seek not; by the poor, those who through longing sigh. The Lord will maintain their cause.

18. But the just shall confess to Tliy Name. Both when^er. Thou shalt plead their cause, and when Thou shalt maintain their right, they shall confess to Thy Name; nought shall they attribute to their own merits, all they shall attribute to nought save to Thy mercy: But the just shall confess to Thy Name. And because they shall confess to Thy Name, so that how righteous soever they have been, they claim nothing to themselves as their own, attribute nothing to themselves as their own; what shall be done, that they may direct their heart?* For when they turn to themselves, they twist their heart; when they turn to the Lord, they direct their heart. And where will be pleasure, where rest, where joy, where bliss? Will it be in themselves f No; but in that they are light. Now are ye light in the Lord, said he. Therefore see what followeth, see wherewith he concludeth. The upright shall dwell with Thy Countenance. For ill was it with them in their own countenance; well will it be with them with Thy Countenance. For when they loved their own countenance, in the sweat of their countenance did they eat bread. Let them return: then, their sweat being wiped away, their toils finished, their groaning done, Thy Countenance shall come to them with abundance to satisfy them. Nought more shall they seek, for nought better have they; no more shall they abandon Thee, nor be abandoned by Thee. For after His Resurrection, what was said of the Lord? Thou shalt Jill me with joy with Thy Countenance. Without His Countenance He would not give us joy. For this do we cleanse our countenance, that we may rejoice in His Countenance. For now are we the sons of Gody and it doth not yet appear what we2* shall he; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is; for the upright shall dwell with Thy Countenance. Think we, with the Countenance of the Father, and not with that of the Son? or with the Countenance of the Son, and not of the Father? oris the Countenance of Father and Son fend Holy Ghost in some sense one? Let us see whether rthe Son Himself do not promise us His own Countenance, to gladden us therewith. The Lord God hath just inspired us to have the following passage of the Gospel read, that it might bear witness to this Psalm. The Lord Himself saith, He that heareth these commandments of Mine and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me, shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will shew him Myself What sort of reward is this He hath promised, beloved? Did not they already see Him, to whom He promised to shew Himself? Was He not before them? Was not the Face of His flesh close before their eyes? What is it that He willed to shew to them who already saw Him? Forasmuch as they saw Him in such form as the Jews crucified Him in, yet was He God, hidden under that flesh, because men could see the Man, but the God they could not, although in Man; because too, blessed are the pure in heart^for they shall see God; He gave the Form of Man both to good and evil, the Form of God He preserved for the pure and good, that we may rejoice in Him, and it may be well with us for ever with His Countenance. psalm cxli.

19. Ye have heard, brethren, our instruction and our request from the mouth of the Apostle, when his Epistle was being read just now. For he saith, Continue in prayer, and watch therein; withal praying also for us, that Qod would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak His mystery, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak. Deign to consider these words mine also. For there are in Holy Scripture deep mysteries, which are for this cause hidden, lest they should be held cheap; for this cause sought, that they may employ us; for this cause opened, that they may feed us. The Psalm which we have just sung is in many parts somewhat obscure. When by the help of the Lord what has been said shall begin to be expounded and explained, ye will see that ye are hearing things which ye anew already. But for this cause are they said in manifold ways, that variety of expression may remove all wearniess of the truth.

20. For what will ye hear or learn, brethren, more important or more healthful, than, Thou shall love the Lord thy GWMat.22, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Think not that these two commandments are little; On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. Whatsoever then healthfully is either conceived in the mind, or uttered by the mouth, or is carved from any page of holy Writ, hath no end save love. For even evil-livers are enticed to one auother by the fellowship of an evil conscience, and are said to love one another, to be unwilling to leave one auother, to be won by intercourse among themselves, to long for one another when apart, to rejoice when they meet. This love is of hell. It hath lime, to drag down to the abyss; not wings, to lift aloft to heaven. But what is true love, that it may be separated and distinguished from others which are called love? That which is called the true love of Christians is defined by Paul, and so marked off by its definitions, as to be entirely distinguished from the rest. The end, saith he, of the commandments tsiTim.i, love. He might have ended here; for in other places6, where he was speaking as unto them that knew, he said no more; Love, saith he, is the fulfilling of the Law; and heRom.13, said not what law. Therefore did he not say here, because he had said elsewhere. Here therefore, Love is the fulfilling of the Law. Thou askest, perhaps, what love? what sort of love? Thou art told in another place, The end of the commandment is love, out of a pure heart. Now see whether robbers have among themselves love out of a pure heart. This is a pure heart in regard of love, when thou lovest man according to God's will: for thou oughtest to love thyself too in such wise that the rule be not broken, Thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself. For if thou lovest thyself amiss and unprofitably, by loving thy neighbour also in the same way, what dost thou benefit him? But in what way dost thou love thyself amiss? In the way that Scripture hintelh, which flattereth no man, and g;onvinceth thee that thou lovest not thyself, yea rather Ionvinceth thee that thou hatest thyself. He that Idvelh iniquity, it saith, hateth his own soul. If then thou lfvest iniquity, thinkest thou that thou lovest thyself? Thou art mistaken. And if thou love thy neighbour in this way, thou wilt lead him to iniquity, and thy love will be the snare of him thou lovest. Love then is out of a pure heart, in agreement with God's will, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. This love then thus defined by the Apostle hath two commandments, to love God, and to love our neighbour. In no part of Scripture seek ought else, let i^one enjoin on you ought else; whatever is hidden in Holy Scripture, this is bidden in it; whatever is plain in Holy Scripture, this is plain in it. If it were no where plain, it would not feed thee; if it were no where hidden, it would not exercise thee. This work crieth in these words out of a pure hearty out of the heart of them that are such as He Who here now prayeth. And who this is 1 will soon tell you: it is Christ.

21. But the words ye are about to hear are unworthy to be understood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and one who understood not would think that it is rash in me to have said, that the speaker in this Psalm was Christ. For how can it rightly be said of our Lord Jesus Christ, of that Lamb without spot, of Him in Whom alone no sin was found, Who alone could most truly say, Behold, the prince of this world cometh9 and Jindeth nothing in Me, that is, no blame, no fault, Who alone paid that which He seized not, Who alone could offer innocent blood, the only Son of God, Who took flesh, not to decrease Himself, but to increase us; of such an one, I say, how could this be rightly understood, Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, and a door of restraint around my lips; that Thou turn not aside my heart to wicked words, to making excuses in sins? For plainly this is the meaning. ' Guard Thou, O Lord, my mouth Person; some in the person of His Body. with Thy commandments as with a gate and door, that my heart be not turned aside to wicked words.' What wicked words? Those.which make excuses for sins. Let me not choose to excuse, rather than to accuse, my sins. These wor,ds fit not our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. For what sins did He commit, which He ought to have confessed, rathe^ than defended f These are our words: and yet assuredly it is Christ that speaketh. If they be our words,.how ifit Christ that speaketh? Where is the love whereof I was speaking? Know ye not that it maketh us one in Christ? Love crieth to Christ from us, love crieth from Christ for us. How doth love cry to Christ from us? And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved. How doth love cry from Christ for us? Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? Ye, saith the Apostle, are the Body of Christ, and members. If then He be the Head, we the Body, it is one that speaketh; whether the head speak or the members, it is one Christ that speaketh. And it is the property of the head to speak in the name of the members also. Observe our own habit: first, how none among our members can speak, save the head: then further, how the head in us speaketh in the name of all the members. Some one in some narrow place hath trod on thy foot; thou art treading on me, saith the head: some one hath wounded thy hand; thou bast wounded me, saith the head. The tongue which is in thy head undertaketh to represent all thy members, it speaketh for them all. In the same way then let us hear Christ speaking, but let each hear therein his own voice, adhering as it were in Christ's Body. For sometimes He will speak words wherein none of us can find himself represented, but which belong to the Head alone: yet doth He not sever Himself from our words, and raise Himself aloft to those which are His own specially; nor doth He not return from His own special ones to ours. For of Him and the Church it is said, And they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore He Himself too saith in the Gospel of this very thing, Now therefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. All this is not new: ye have heard6, it continually: but it is needful that it be mentioned as occasion serves, first, because the Scriptures themselves which we handle are so interwoven, that many things are repeated in many places; and further, because it is profitable. For the cares of this world produce thorns and choke the seed: it is fitting that that be often brought to our recollection by the Lord, which the world forceth us to for^t.

22. Lord, I have cried unto Thee, hear Thou me\ This we all can say. This not I alone say: whole Christ siith it. But it is said rather in the name of the Body: for He too, when He was here and bore our flesh, prayed; and when He prayed, drops of blood streamed down from His whole Body. So is it written in the Gospel: Jesus prayed earnestly, and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood. What is this flowing of sweat from His whole Body, but the suffering of martyrs from the whole Church? Lord, I have cried unto Thee, hear Thou me: listen unto the voice of my prayer, while I cry unto Thee. Thou thoughtest the business of crying already finished, when thou saidst, I have cried unto Thee. Thou hast cried; yet think not thyself safe. If tribulation be finished, crying is finished: but if tribulation remain for the Church, for the Body of Christ, even to the end of the world, let it not only say, / have cried unto Thee, but also, Listen unto the voice of my prayer, while I cry unto Thee.

23. Let my prayer be set forth in Thy sight as incense, and the lifting up of my hands an evening sacrifice. That this is wont to be understood of the Head Himself, every Christian acknowledgeth. For when the day was now sinking towards evening, the Lord upon the Cross laid down His life to take it again, did not lose it against His will. Still we too are figured there. For what of Him hung upon the tree, save what He took of us? And how can it be that the Father should leave and abandon His only-begotten Son, especially when He is one God with Him f Yet, fixing our weakness upon the Cross, where, as the Apostle saith, our old man is crucified with Him, He cried out in the voice of that our old man, My Ood, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? That then is the evening sacrifice, the Passion of the Lord, the Cross of the Lord, the offering of a salutary Victim, the whole burnt-offering acceptable to God. That evening Christ confesseth sin in the name of His Body. 241 sacrifice produced, in His Resurrection, a morning offering. Prayer then, purely directed from a faithful heart, riseth like incense from a hallowed altar. Nought is more delightful than the odour of the Lord: such odour let all have who believe.

24. JDur old man, then, saith the Apostle, is crucified with Himtthat the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforthme shoidd not serve sin. Therefore in the Psalm, after the words, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? far from my health, immediately is subjoined, the words of my sins. What sins, if thou regard the Head? And yet that the words in the Psalms were His, He Himself testified on the Cross, He said the very words, He uttered the very verse. There is no room left for man's conjecture; no opportunity for denial to any Christian whatever. What I read in the Psalms, that I hear from the Lord. In the Psalm too I recognise what I read in the Gospel, They pierced My?8t Hands and My Feet, they counted all My Bones: they?-18- considered and gazed upon Me: they parted My garments, and cast lots for My vesture. All these things as they were foretold, so did they come to pass; like as we have heard, so have we also seen. Therefore if our Lord Jesus Christ, figuring us in the love of His Body, though He was Himself without sin, yet said, The words of My sins, and said this in the name of His Body, who among His members dareth to say that he hath no sin, save he who dareth to puff himself up under the name of a false righteousness, and to accuse Christ of falsehood? Confess then, O member, that for thee thy Head uttered it. And that we may confess this, do this, not justify ourselves in the sight of Him Who alone is righteous, Who justifielh the ungodly, He hath Rom. added at once the words of His Body, Set, O Lord, a watch ^ before my mouth, and a door of restraint around my lips. He said not a barrier of restraint, but a door of restraint. A door is opened as well as shut. If then it be a door, let it be both opened and shut; opened, to confession of sin; closed, to excusing sin. So will it be a door of restraint, not of ruin.

25. For what doth this door of restraint profit us? What doth Christ pray in the name of His Body? That Thou ver. turn not aside My heart to wicked words. What is, My heart? The heart of My Church; the heart, that is, of My Body. Observe those words where this rule is laid down for us: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? yet no one touched Him. / was hungry, and ye gave Me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink: and tha rest. Then they ask, When saw we Thee hungry or thirsty \ He answers, Forasmuch as ye did unto one of the least of Mine, ye did it unto Me. These passages ought not to be s\range to Christians, especially since in them are rules established for understanding all other Scriptures too, and either they will not be disturbed, or, if they are, will soon be set right. Just as then in that passage the righteous are to say, Lord, wherefore hast Thou said, I was hungry, and ye gave Me to eat 9 when saw we Thee hungry? and He is to answer, Forasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of Mine, ye have done it unto Me; so in this passage too let us speak

Christ inwardly, in our inner man, for there He deigneth to dwell by faith. For He is not far from us, and so not sucn tnat we can speak to Him; since He Himself hath said, Lo, 1 am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Let us then too speak to Him, since He hath given us His Voice in this Psalm. For that is His Voice, as none denieth, The lifting up of My Hands is an evening sacrifice. So thou go then and say, Set, 0 Lord, a watch upon my mouth, and a door of restraint around my lips, that Thou turn not aside my heart to wicked words, to making excuses in sins. Wherefore prayest Thou thus, Lord r What sins of Thine canst Thou make excuses for? He answereth, When one of My members thus prayeth, 1 pray thus: just as in the other place He answered, Forasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of Mine, ye have done it unto Me.

8. But when thine heart hath not been turned aside, O member of Christ, when thy heart hath not been turned aside to wicked words, to making excuses in sins, with men that work in iniquity, thou shalt also not unite with their elect. For this followeth, And I will not unite with their elect. Who are their elect? Those who justify themselves. Who are their elect? Those who trust in them-The Pattern of the ' Woman that was a sinner.9 243 selves that they are righteous, and despise others, as the Pharisee said in the temple, Lord, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are. Who are their elect? This Man, if He were a prophet, would know what manner of woman this is that touched His feet. Here thou recognisest the words* of that other Pharisee, who invited our Lord to his housfl; when the woman of that city, who was a sinner, came and approached His Feet. She, the unchaste one, who once went raabashed after fornication, but now came yet more unabashed after salvation, forced her way into a strange house. But He Who there sat at meat was not a stranger. She was not a strange woman following any chance guest, but a handmaid her Lord. She drew near to His Feet, because she desired to follow His Footsteps; she washed them with her tears, she wiped them with the hairs of her head. What are the Feet of Christ, save they by whom He hath traversed the whole world? How beautiful are the feet of them thatls.52,1. publish peace, that bring glad tidings of good things! How many then have received the feet of the Lord, so as by receiving a righteous man in the name of a righteous man,41' to receive a righteous marts reward; and received a prophet in the name of a prophet, so as to receive a prophefs reward! And whosoever, saith He, shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward. He then who with such kindness received the Feet of the Lord, what did He expend save the superfluities he had in his house? Rightly, since the hair is as it were a superfluity, did she with it wipe the Lord's Feet. Thy superfluities become necessaries to thee, if thou with them follow the Feet of the Lord. She then desired to be healed, conscious of the greatness of her wound. But surely it was not a great wound, a mean Physician. The Pharisees were loth to be touched by the unclean, they shunned all contact with sinners, and if it happened that they could not avoid their touch, they washed themselves. And almost every hour they washed not only themselves, but also their vessels, their couches, their cups, their platters, as the Lord recordeth in the Gospel. Inasmuch then as the Pharisee knew this woman, and certainly, had she drawn near to his feet, would have repelled her, lest his sanctity should be defiled; for it was m his body, not in his heart; (and because he had it not in his heart, clearly it was but a false sanctity that he had in his body;) forasmuch, I say, as he would himself have repelled her, when the Lord did not so, he thought that He knew not who she was, and said within himself, Thisjman, y jje were a pr0j}hei9 would know what manner of wXman this is which hath approached His Feet. He said not, ' would have repelled her,' but, 6 would have known wm> she was;' as though it followed that, if He knew, He would repel. From the fact then that He did not repel her, he felt sure further that He did not know her. But the Lord so had His eyes fixed on that woman, as to have His ears fixed upon the heart of the Pharisee: and so, when He heard his thought, He set before him the parable, which ye know. A certain creditor had two debtors: the one owed him five hundred pence, and the other fifty: and when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. I ask of thee, saith He, which of them will love him most? Then answered he, now compelled by truth to give sentence against himself, / suppose, saith he, Lord, that he to. whom he forgave most. And He turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest Me no kiss, but she hath not ceased to kiss My Feet: thou gavest Me no water to My Feet, she hath washed My Feet with her tears: thou gavest Me no oil, she hath anointed Me with ointment. Wherefore I say unto \thee, her sins, which ai e many, are forgiven, for she loved much. Wherefore? Because she confessed, because she wept, because her heart was not turned aside to wicked words,1 to offering excuses in sins; because she united not herself with their elect; that is, with those that defend themselves.

9. For even this woman herself, if her heart had turned aside to wicked words, would not have lacked wherewith to defend her sins. Do not women daily, her equals in defilement, but not her equals in confession, harlots, adulteresses, doers of shameful deeds, defend their sins? If they have not been seen, they deny them: if they have been caught and convicted, or have done their deeds openly, they defend them. And how easy is their defence, how The folly of making excuses for sin. 245 ready, yet how headlong; how common, yet how biasphemous! Had God not willed it, I had not done it: God willed it: fortune willed it: fate willed it. She saith not, / said, Lord, have mercy upon me; she saith not, like that sinner coming to the feet of her Physician, Heal my soul, for I pave sinned against Thee. And from whom do they get this defence, my brethren? not only from the unlearned, but fi^m the learned also. They sit and count the stars, their distances, their orbits, their speed, their positions, their movements: they observe all these, describe them, form conjectures. Men think them learned, and great. All this learning and greatness is defence of sin. Thou wilt be an adulterer, because Venus is in a particular quarter for thee: thou wilt be a murderer, because Mars is. Mars then is a murderer, not thou; Venus.is an adulteress, not thou. Beware, lest for both Mars and Venus thou be condemned. For God, Who is to condemn, knoweth that thou art the man, thou that sayest, 'It is not I,' to the Judge that knoweth. Further, the very astrologer himself who selleth to thee the very fables that ensnare thee, that thou shouldest not obtain even thy death for nothing; — (for thou buyest death of the astrologer for a price, who hast spurned life from Christ without price;) — the very astrologer, I say, if he see his wife behave herself somewhat wantonly, or pay more than due regard to any strangers, or often to betake herself to the window, doth he not seize her, beat her, administer discipline to her in his own house? Let his wife reply, i If thou canst, beat Venus, not me:' will not he answer, 6 Fool, that which belongeth to the lord and master is one thing, what is displayed to the purchaser is another thing?' Who then are their elect? The elect of the evil, the elect of the wicked, with whom we must not unite, that is, with whom we must have no dealings. But who are they? They that think themselves righteous, and despise others as sinners, as were the Pharisees; or who, because their sins -are manifest, being either detected, or done publicly, defend and maintain them, that nothing may be laid to their charge, and that men may judge that they have done no evil, but that God has done it all, because He has either, as they say, created man so, or so ordered the stars, or because He neglects the affairs of men. These are the defences of the elect of this world. But let the members of Christ, the Body of Christ, say, let Christ say in the name of His Body, Turn not Thou aside, My Heart, to wicked words, to offering excuses in sins, with men that work iniquity, and I will not unite with their elect.

10. Ye know, my brethren, what 1 must not pass by, thajt among the Manichees* certain seeming righteoi|i ones, more exalted than the rest, who have reached as it were the highest step of righteousness, are called ' elect.' Let those who know this, recall it; those who knew it not, hear it. Elect indeed of God are all the saints, and this we have in the Scriptures: but they have usurped this name to themselves, and applied it to themselves, so to speak, in a more familiar manner, as though they were now called in some special sense, ' elect.' Who are these 6 elect?' Men, to whom if you say, c Thou hast sinned,' immediately bring forward that defence of theirs, an impious one, worse and more blasphemous than all others, 4 It is not I that have sinned, but the race of darkness.' What is this race of darkness? That which waged war with God. And doth it sin, when thou sinnest? It doth, saith he, because I am mixed with it. Well then, what did God, Who mixed thee with it, fear? For they say, that that race of darkness rebelled against God, before the world was made: and He, to guard against His dominions being laid waste by the invasion of an enemy, sent hither His members, His substance, that which He Himself is; gold, if He be gold; light, if He be light; whatever it be, He sent it, and mixed it with the vitals of the race of darkness, and whatever sins we are said to commit, that race committeth. They seem indeed to excuse themselves from sin, but they do not excuse their God from the charge of fear, nor the very substance of their God from the charge of being corruptible. For if God is incorruptible, incommutable, incapable of pollution or stain, impenetrable, what could that race have done to Him? It might have made what onset it would; yet how could it frighten One Who was impenetrable, inviolable, incapable of pollution, or change, or corruption? If God then be such, He is cruel, for sending you hither without cause, seeing that nothing could harm Him. Wherefore sent He you? Behold, the race of darkness could not harm Him; but He hath grievously harmed you, aud He hath been more your enemy than it, though it too could harro^ou. It was possible for you to be oppressed, to be led captive, to be defiled, to be corrupted; so therefore could He. For a fragment, so to speak, and portion ever so small of His Nature, convicteth the whole mass. Such as is that which He hath sent hither, such is also That Which remained there. This they themselves say; themselves confess that they are two substances, one on this side, the other on that. This their books contain; if they deny it, they are read and convicted.

11. What then? To say no more on this one subject, I will not mention worse things, things yet more wicked: in this one argument, wherein they make war, see how they are conquered, and when they say that the race of darkness wages war against God, how they are caught in the battle of their own words. For nought have they to say, nothing to which to betake themselves. But thou wishest, O wicked one, O false elect, to defend thy sin, that when thou hast done any evil, thou be not thought to have done it: thou seekest on whom to cast back thy sin, and thou flingest it back upon the race of darkness. But consider God, whether thou art not flinging it back upon Him. For if that race of darkness, which thou imaginest, could speak, it would say to thee, Why dost thou accuse me? Had I the power to do ought to thy God, or had I not? If I could, I am stronger than He; if not, why did He fear me? if He feared me not, why did He send thee hither to suffer so much, seeing thou art a Member of Him, seeing thou art His own Substance? If He feared not, He envied: if He did it not through fear, He did it through cruelty. How unjust then is He, Who could receive no hurt, yet caused that His members should thus receive hurt here! Or could He be hurt? Then is He not incorruptible. When then thou wishest to defend thyself from thy sin, thou canst not praise God. Thou wouldest not fail in the praise of God, unless thou wert puffed up in thine own. Change, and blame thyself; thou shalt then praise God. Come to the words of the Psalms which ye curse; say, I said, Lord, have mercy upon me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee. I said, I have sinned: not fortune, not fate, not the race of darkness. If then thou hast sinned, see how enlarged is the praise of God, wherein thou wast straitened, while thou wouldest defend thyself. Better for thee *o be straitened in thine own sins, and enlarged in His praise. Now then when thou hast confessed thy sin, see how God is praised thereby; for He is both just, in punishing thee while thou didst persevere; and merciful, in freeing thee now thou dost confess. Do not thou, therefore, he saith, turn aside my heart to wicked words, to making excuses in sins, so as to say that the race of darkuess hath done what I have done.

1 % With men that work wickedness. What wickedness? Letnne mention some sinful wickedness of theirs. Let me tell you one open sinful wickedness, which they acknowledge. They say, it is better for a man to be an usurer than a husbandman. Thou askest the reason, and they assign one. See whether their reason ought not to be called madness: for they say, ' He that employs his money in usury, injureth not the cross of light:' (this many understand not, but I will explain:) ' but he that is an husbandman, much injureth the cross of light.' Thou askest, 6 What cross of light?' Those members, he saith, of God, which were taken captive in that battle, are mixed with the universe, and are in trees, in herbs, in apples, in fruits. He vexeth the members of Christ, who cleanseth the earth with a furrow: he vexeth the members of Christ, who pulleth grass from the earth: he vexeth the members of Christ, who plucketh an apple from a tree. To avoid committing their imaginary murders in the farm, he committeth real murders in usury. He dealeth no bread to the needy. See whether there can be greater unrighteousness than this righteousness1. He dealeth not bread to the nungry- Thou askest, wherefore? Lest the beggar receive the life which is in the bread, which they call a member of God, the substance of God, and bind it in flesh. What Christ convicteth in Mercy. then do ye? why do ye eat? Have ye not flesh? Yes; but we, they say, forasmuch as we are enlightened by faith in Manes, by our prayers and our Psalms, forasmuch as we are elect, we cleanse thereby that bread, and transmit it into the treasure-house of the heavens. Such are the elect, that they are not to be saved by God, but saviours of God. And this is Christ, they say, crucified in the whole universe. I receded in the Gospel Christ a Saviour, but ye are in your oooks the saviours of Christ. Plainly ye are blasphemers of Christ, and therefore not to be saved by Christ. Therefore lest a crumb be given to the hungry, and in the crumb a member of Christ suffer, is the hungry to die of hunger? False mercy to a crumb causeth true murder of a man. But who are their elect? Turn not thou aside, my heart, to wicked words, and I will not unite with their elect.

18. The righteous One shall amend me in mercy, andver.5. convict me. Behold the sinner confessing. He desireth to be amended in mercy, rather than praised deceitfully. The righteous One shall amend me in mercy, and convict me, if He is just, if He is merciful, when He seeth me sinning. This verily certain members of Christ say, of certain members of Christ they say it, in one body they say it. The Lord deigneth to speak in the character of an amender, yet despiseth not the character of him that is amended or to be amended. For all His members are in Him, and He saith, the righteous One shall amend me. What righteous One shall amend thee? The Head amend- «eth all the members. The righteous One shall amend me in mercy, and shall convict me. Shall convict me, but in mercy: shall convict, yet hateth not: yea, shall all the more convict, because He hateth not. And why doth he therefore give thanks? Because, rebuke a wise man, andYrov.9, he will love thee. The righteous One shall amend me.8' Because He persecuteth thee? God forbid. He requireth rather amending himself, who amendeth in hate. Wherefore then doth He ameud? In mercy. And shall convict me. Wherein? In mercy. For the oil of a sinner shall notver*6' enrich my head. My head shall not grow by flattery. Undue praise is flattery: undue praise of a flatterer is the oil of a sinner. Therefore men too, when they have mocked any one with false praise, say, 4 1 have anointed his head.' Love then to be convicted by the righteous One in mercy; love not to be praised by a sinner in mockery. Have oil in yourselves, and ye shall not seek the oil of a sinner. For the wise virgins in the parable carried oil with them: the wise virgins carried oil with them, that is, their conscience bore them witness. Oil is glory, it glittejeth, it shineth on the surface: but the oil should be good and true, that there it may be within, in their vessels. Hear what in their vessel^ meaneth: but let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have glory in himself alone, and not in another. What is, in their vessels? Hear the Apostle himself; For this is our glory 9 the testimony of our conscience.

19. Lastly, since thou art in the Body of Christ, and yet bearest a kind of mortality, be thou just to thyself, be thou just against thyself. Thou art a sinner: inflict punishment upon thyself: return to thy conscience, crucify thyself; for so dost thou offer a sacrifice to God: for Thou desiresl not sacrifice, saith the sinner, else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt-ojferings. What then? doth He accept no sacrifice? The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, 0 God, Thou wilt not despise. Humble thy heart, bruise thy heart, crucify thy heart, so shalt thou amend thyself in mercy. Thou hatest not thyself, when thou art fierce against thyself. Thou wilt be, in that part of thee that amendeth, righteous, though in that which is to be amended, thou art yet a sinner. For so far as thou displeasest thyself, thou art unrighteous; but so far as that in thee displeaseth thee which is unrighteous, thou art righteous. Wilt thou see how righteous thou art? That in thee displeaseth thee, which also displeaseth God now thou hast joined thyself to the will of God, and thou halest in thyself not what He made, but what He hateth.

Insomuch as thou hatest in thyself that which thou hast made, which He too hateth Who made it not, and beginnest to be strict against thyself, He will be merciful: He will spare, because thou hast not spared. In proportion then as thine eyes agree with His, and thou delightest with Him in

His law, and accusest that in thyself which His law accuseth, and because that in thee displeaseth thee, which displeaseth also the Eye of God, see how righteous thou art — In proportion as thou hast fallen, hast done those things which displease God, and by a certain frailty of human weakness art prone to these things, and as yet bearest about the infirmity of the flesh, and groanest in consciousness of a struggle, so far thou art unrighteous, and a sinner.

15. ^EEow, thou wilt say, am I in one way righteous, in another a sinner? What is this thou sayest? We are at fault: we seem to be speaking contraries, unless the authority of an Apostle come to our aid. Hear it from the Apostle, lest, understanding amiss, thou blame me: for / delight, saith he, in the law of God according to the22&c-inner man. Behold a righteous man. Is he not just who delighteth in the law of God? Whence then is he a sinner? But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity unto the law of sin. As yet I wage war against myself; not yet am I entirely renewed after the image of my Maker: I begin1 to be re-hewn, and so far as I am being re-fashioned, that displeaseth me which is misshapen. So long then as I am thus, what hope I? Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. The grace of God, which hath already begun to re-hew thee; the grace of God, which infuseth sweetness, so that now in the inner man thou delightest in the law of God. By the same will all the rest be healed whereby this too has been healed. Groan still, being wounded, scourge thyself, displease thyself.

16. So fight I, saith he, not as one that beateth the air;iCor.9, but I punish my body, and bring it into slavery, lest haply while preaching to others, I myself be found a castaway. Doth he who punisheth his body, hate his body? If a man punish his slave, doth he hate his slave? If a man scourge his son, doth he hate his son? And, to mention somewhat yet more closely connected, thy flesh is in a sort thy wife. This the Apostle himself saith, No man ever hated his own flesh, but loveth and cherisheth it, as the Lord the Church. Verily thy flesh is in a sort thy wife, and no one hateth his 6wn flesh. Yet what saith he in another place? The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, It lusteth against thee, as though thy wife did so: love, and punish it, till by one reformation there be brought about one agreement. When will this be? When now thou criest out, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Will then this body be severed from thee, and thou then be safe? What then meaneth, We ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the ad^tion, to wit, the redemption of our body? It is being renewed then from mortality to immortality, and then it resisteth no longer, for no longer is their mortality to resist. Wherefore punish thy body: tame it now, that then thou mayest receive it back: now let it fail, that then it may suffice. For in this life it cannot be renewed so long as it weareth this mortality. Let it not set thee aside, let it not burst thee from it: bear it, discipline it, punish it; in the end it shall be renewed. And forasmuch as no one ever yet hated his own flesh, the flesh too shall rise again. But how? Am I then too to struggle? This corruptible, saith he, must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

17. When then it is said, He shall amend me and correct me, whether it be a brother, or a connexion, or a neighbour, or thine own self,-m mercy oughtest thou to be convicted and amended. But let not the oil of a sinner fatten my head. Thou sayest to me, What am I doing? I am beset with flatterers; they cease not to besiege me; they praise in me what I would not, that praise in me what I hold in little esteem; what I hold dear they blame in me; flatterers, treacherous, deceivers. For instance, 4 Gaiuseiusb is a "great man, great, learned, wise; but why is he a Christian? For great is his learning, great his reading, great his wisdom.' If great is his wisdom, approve of his being a Christian; if great his learning, learnedly hath he chosen. In fine, what thou revilest, that pleaseth him whom thou praisest. But bearing favourable testimony to any and Lucius wise, because a Christian, Seius, only he is a Christian.' So The victory of the Gospel. what? That praise sweeteneth not: it is the oil of a sinner. Yet ceaseth he not to speak so. Let him not therewith thy head; that is, rejoice not in such things; agree not to such things; consent not to such things; rejoice not in such things; and then, if he have applied to thee the oil of flattery, yet hath thy head remained as it was, it has not been puffed up, it hath not swollen. For if it hath been puffed^ip and swollen, it increaseth in weight, and hurleth thee headlong. But let not the oil of a sinner fatten my head.

18. For still shall My word be wellpleasing to them. Wait awhile: now they revile Me, saith Christ. In the early times of the Christians, the Christians were blamed on all sides. Wait as yet; and My word shall be wellpleasing to them. The time shall come when they shall conquer thousands of men, who shall beat their breasts, and say, Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Even now, how many remain who blush to beat their breasts? Let them then blame us: let us bear it. Let them blame; let them hate, accuse, detract; still shall My word be well-pleasing to them; the time shall come when My word shall please them. For they shall lift themselves up as though righteous in their own strength, they shall be conquered in the strjfe; because they have lifted themselves up proudly, they shall be dashed down, they shall be dragged by their sins, they shall see that they are unrighteous; then shall be fulfilled what was spoken by the Prophets, judgment shall begin to be feared, the eye of the soul shall turn itself to consciousness of sins, and those words that please it, Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. O wordy defence of iniquity! Verily now whole nations say this, and the thunder of nations beating their breasts ceaseth not. Rightly do the clouds thunder, wherein now God dwelleth. Where is now that wordiness, where that boasting, ' I am righteous; nought of ill have I done?' Verily, when thou hast contemplated in Holy Scripture the law of righteousness, how far soever thou hast advanced, thou shalt find thyself a sinner. Thou hast advanced; now thou worshippest one God: it is well: now thou goest not a whoring from Him to idols, to astrologers, fortune-tellers, diviners, augurs, evil doers; for that is committing fornication against the Lord tuy God; now art thou included in some number of the members of Christ Now begin to see also the common sins of human society. Thou murderest none; thou committest not adultery with another's wife; thou wrongest not thy wife by going to another; thou pollutest not thyself by any grievous defilement; thou hast kept thy hands from theft, thy tongue from perjury, thy heart from coveting thy neighbour's goods; now thou art righteous. CSasider what remains: be not yet proud. Dost thou never sin in thy tongue? dost thou not fall into harsh words? But what great matter is this? What great matter? Whosoever shall say to his brother, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Now trembleth all that pride. Supposing now that he committeth no great thing, which may seem by some impiety to blaspheme God; that he hasteth not to injure any; doth not to another what he would not should be done to him; what of the tongue? who tameth that? But supposing thou hast bridled even it; (though who is so good as entirely to achieve this?) supposing thou hast bridled even it, what doest thou with thy thoughts? what doest thou with the tumult and crowd of rebellious desires? dost thou keep from giving thy members to them? I believe and see that thou dost: but still thy thoughts sometimes bend thge and carry thee away, often even when thy knees are fixed in prayer. Thou prostratest thy body, bowest down thy neck, confessest thy sins, worshippest God; I see where thy body is prostrate, I ask whither thy mind flitteth. I see thy members prostrate; let us see whether conscience standeth still; let us see whether it is fixed on Him Whom it worshipped; whether it be not often caught by thoughts, as by some tide of the sea, and borne by the storm to one thing and another. If thou wert now speaking with me, and suddenly wert to turn away to thy servant,* and leave me, I say not when thou wast asking somewhat of me, but even when thou wast conversing with me on equal terms, should I not think that a wrong was done me r That is what thou, doest daily to God. What sort of man am 1 now speaking of, brethren? I speak of him who worshippeth God alone, who confesseth Christ, who knoweth the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost to be one God; who committeth not fornication against Him; who worshippeth not devils; who seeketh him not aid from the devil; who holdeth the Catholic Church; whom no one complaineth of as cheating; under whose oppression no weak neighbour groaneth; who assaileth not another's wife; who is content with his own, or even without his own, in such wise as is lawful, and as Apostolical discipline permitteth, with consent of both, or when me is not yet married. Even he who is such as this,6, is yet overtaken in such things as I have mentioned.

19. So then the time has come which was spoken of. Yet shall My word be wellpleasing to them, whether it be that which He taught, or that whereby He intercedeth for us. For all these daily sins then what is our hope, save to say with humble heart in the Lord's Prayer, while we defend not our sins, but confess them, Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and to have an Advocate with the\2johD2 Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, that He may be the** propitiation for our sins? Now let the proud speak: they are overpowered by numbers, by whole nations, by the whole world, from the rising to the setting of the sun, praising the Name of the Lord. What do a few maintaining the contrary? They are the judges of the wicked. Whatsis that to thee? See what folio weth: their judges have been swallowed up beside the Bock. What is, swallowed up beside the Bock? That Bock was Christ, They ^awiCor.io, been swallowed up beside the Bock. Beside, that is, compared, as judges, as mighty, powerful, learned: they are called their judyes, as judging about morals, and laying down their opinions. This Aristotle said. Set him beside the Rock, and he is swallowed up. Who is Aristotle? let him hear, c Christ hath said,' and he trembleth among the dead. This Pythagoras said, that Plato said. Set them beside the Rock, compare their authority to the authority of the Gospel, compare the proud to the Crucified. Say we to them, * Ye have written your words in the hearts of the proud; He hath planted His Cross in the hearts1 of1 kings. Finally, He died, and rose again; ye are dead, andhJadg, I will not ask how ye rise again. So their Judges have been swallowed up beside that Bock. So long do their words seem somewhat, till they are compared with the Rock. Therefore if any of them be found to have said what Christ too hath said, we congratulate him, but we follow him not. But he came before Christ. If any man speak what is true, is he therefore before the Truth itself? Regard Christ, O man, not when He came to thee, but when He made thee. The sick man too might say, 6 But I took to my bed before the physician came to me.' Why, for that very reayn has He come last, because thou first has sickened.

20. See then the language of the Psalm. Yet shall My Word be well pleasing to them. But there shall be many who speak against it. Their judges have been swallowed up beside the Rock. What then will happen? They shall hear My Words, for they have prevailed. My Words have prevailed over their words. They have spoken clever things, I true things. To praise one who talketh well is one thing, to praise One who speaketh truth is another. They shall hear My Words, for they have prevailed. How have they prevailed? Who of them has been taken offering sacrifice, when such things were forbidden by the law, and has not denied it? Who of them has been taken worshipping an idol, and has not exclaimed, ' I did it not,9 and feared lest he should be convicted? Such servants hath the devil. But how have the Words of the Lord prevailed? Behold, j sen(j yQU forth as sheep jn ihe midst of wolves. Fear not those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; but fear Him, Who can cast both body and soul into hell fire. He gave them fear, He suggested hope, He kindled love. ' Fear not death/ He saith. Do ye fear death? I die first. Fear ye, lest a hair of your head perish? I first rise again in the flesh uninjured. Rightly have ye heard His Words, for they have prevailed. They spake, and were slain; they fell, and yet stood. And what was the rgsult of so many deaths of martyrs, save that those words prevailed, and the earth being, so to speak, watered by the blood of Christ's witnesses, the cross of the Church shot up every where? They shall hear, saith He, My Words, for they have prevailed. How have they prevailed? We have said already, when they were preached by men who feared not. Feared not what? Neither banishment, nor losses, nor death, nor The blood of Martyrs the seed of the Church. 257 crucifixion: for it was not death alone that they did not fear; but even crucifixion, a death than which none was thought more accursed. It the Lord endured, that His disciple* might not only not fear death, but not even that kind of death. When then these things are said by men that fear not, they have prevailed.

21. What then have all those deaths of the martyrs accomplished? Listen: As the fatness of the earth isver. spread over the earthy our bones have been scattered beside the pit. Beside the pit have been scattered the bones of the martyrs, that is, the bodies of the witnesses of Christ. The martyrs were slain, and they who slew them seemed to prevail. They prevailed by persecution, that the words of Christ might prevail by preaching. And what was the result of the deaths of the saints? As the fatness of the earth is spread over the earthy our bones have been scattered beside the pit. What meaneth, the fatness of the earth is spread over the earth? We know that every thing that is refuse is the fatness of the earth. The things which are, as it were, contemptible to men, enrich the earth. For it is said also in a certain Psalm, that the dead bodies of theP&.79, saints were cast out, and there was none to bury them. But all these dead bodies became the fatness of the earth. Just a% the earth receives a sort of fatness from things contemptible and refuse, so from that which this world despised, the earth received fatness, so that from it the crop of the Church should sprout more plentifully. Now ye know, brethren, that the contemptible things of this earth, wherewith the soil is enriched, which I am unwilling to name, nor is it fitting to speak of them, are a kind of nourishment of the earth, and a sort of fatness: they are, as it were, vile, and are thrown away. But what hath He done, to use now His own words? He hatlJL^led up the needy from the earth, and raised the poor from the dunghill, to set him with the princes, the princes of His people. For he was laid upon the earth, as a sort of fatness of the earth, he was scattered over the earth; so lay Lazarus full of sores, yet was he raised by angels into Abraham's bosom. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints. As it is contemptible to the world, so is it precious to the husbandman. For he knoweth the use thereof, and its rich juice; he knoweth what he desireth, what he seeketh, whence the fertile crop ariseth; but this world despiseth it. Know ye not that God hath cjlQSen fjie contemptible things of the world, a#d those which are not, like as (hose which are, that the things which are may he brought to nought? From the dunghill was Peter lifted up, and Paul; when they were put to death, they were despised: now, the earth having been enriched b# them, and the cross of the Church springing up, behold, all that is noble and chief in the world, even the emperor himself, cometh to Rome, and whither does he hasten? to the temple of the emperor, or the memorial of the fisherman? For, as the fatness of the earth is spread over the earth, our bones have been scattered beside the pit.

22. For unto Thee, Lord, are mine eyes; in Thee have T hoped, take not Thou away my life. For they were tortured in persecutions, and many failed. And because it was of the captivity of persecution that he said, As the fatness of the earth is spread over the earth, our bones have been scattered beside the pit, it occurreth to him that many have failed, many have been in hazard, and as it were in the midst of the tribulation of persecution is sent forth the voice of one praying; For unto Thee, Lord, are mine eyes: I care not what they threaten who stand around, unto Thee, Lord, are mine eyes. More do 1 fix mine eye on Thy promises * than on their threats. I know what Thou hast suffered for me, what Thou hast promised me. To Thee, Lord, are mine eyes: in Thee have I hoped, take not away my life.

23. Keep me from the trap which they have laid for me. What was the trap? 6 If thou consentest, I spare thee.' In the trap was set the bait of the present life; if the bird love this bait, it falleth into the trap: but if tjj4 bird be able to say, ' The day of man have I not desired: Thou knowest? his eyes shnM n°l oe withdrawn from God, and He shall pluck his feet out of the net. Keep me from the trap which ihey have laid for me, and from the stumbling-blocks of them which work iniquity. Two things he hath mentioned to be distinguished the one from the other: the trap he said was set by persecutors; the stumbling-blocks came from those Only obstinate sinners fall into the devil9 s nets. 259 who have consented and apostatised: and from both he desires to be guarded. On the one side they threaten and rage, on the other consent and fall: I fear lest the one be such, that I fear him; the other such, that I imitate him. ' This I do to thee, if thou consent not.' Keep me from the trap which they have laid for me. ' Behold, thy brother hath already consented.* And from the stumbling-blocks of them which work iniquity.

24. Sinners shall fall into his nets. What then, brethren, is, sinners shall fall into his nets f Not all sinners: certain sinners, who are so great sinners, as to love this life to such a degree as to prefer it to everlasting life, shall fall into his trap. But what sayest thou? Shall they that are such, thinkest thou, fall into his nets? what of Thy disciples, O Christ? Behold, when persecution was raging, when they all left Thee alone, and went every one to his own: (this Thou didst foretell, because Thou didst foresee: for not32, because Thou didst announce it beforehand, didst Thou therefore do it, or in any way deny Thyself:) but, lo! they who were closest to Thee, in Thy trial and persecution, when Thine enemies demanded Thee to be crucified, abandoned Thee. And that one bold one, who had promised Thee that he would go with Thee even unto death, heard from the Physician what was being done in him, the sick man. For being in a fever, he had said he was whole; but the Lord touched the vein of his heart. Then came the trial; then came the test; then came the accusation; and now, questioned not by some great power, but by a humble slave, and that a woman, questioned by a handmaid, he yielded; he denied thrice When he had once denied and was reminded, he denied a second time. When he had twice denied and was reminded, he denied a third time. This had the Lord foj^told, not fore-ordered, not compelled. Or, if Peter be thought to have done rightly, because the Lord foretold it, Judas also did rightly, who betrayed Him, for this also the Lord had foretold. God forbid, my brethren. These are the words of those elect who defend their own sins also, rather than confess them. Let us rather consider Peter himself. If he sinned not, why wept he? Let us ask none concerning Peter, save the tears of Peter: more faithful witness concerning him we do not find. He wept bitterly, it saith. Not yet was he fitted to suffer. To him was said, TJwu shalt follow Me afterwards. Hereafter he was to be firm, having been strengthened by the Lord's Resurrection.

25. Not yet then was it time that those bones should be scattered beside the pit. For see how many failed, even to those who first hung on His mouth; even they Jailed. Wherefore? / am alone, until I pass over: for this followeth in the Psalm. Above he hath said, Keep me, O Lord, from the trap which they have laid for me, and from the stumbling-blocks of them who work iniquity. From the trap, and from the stumbling-blocks, from those "who frighten, and from those who have fallen. But because, at His passion, even those first ones, who were destined to be leaders of the Church and pillars of the earth, failed; not yet was accomplished what He saith in another Psalm, J have strengthened the pillars thereof. What saith He? / am alone, until I pass over. This is said in the person of the Head, / am alone, until I pass over. What is, alone? In Thy Passion Thou alone sufferest, Thou alone art slain by Thine enemies. x / am alone, until I pass over. What is, until I pass over? The Evangelist saith, When the hour was come that Jesus should pass over from this world unto the Father. What then is, until I pass over, sav e, from this world unto the Father? For then have I strengthened the pillars thereof, that is, the pillars of the world, when in My Resurrection they have clearly learnt that death is not an object of fear. Until then / pass over, I am alone; when I have passed over, I shall be multiplied; many shall imitate Me, many shall suffer for My Name. One am I until I pass over; many shall be one in Me when I have, passed over. / am alone, until I pass over. Hear farther a mystery in this word. According to the Greek method of speech, Pascha seemeth to mean Passion; but, according to the Hebrew tongue, as they explain who know it, Pascha meaneth Pass-over. For if you ask true Greeks, they say that Pascha is no Greek word. It sounds like nacxeiv, that is, ' to suffer;' but it is not wont to be derived in this way. For Passion in Greek is wafiog, not Pascha. until strengthened by the Lord's Resurrection. 261 Pascha then, as they say who know, and who have explained to ns what to read, meaneth c Pass-over.' When then the Lord's Passion was about to come, the Evangelist, as though he would use this very word, saith, When the hour was come that Jesus should pass over to the Father. We hear then of Pascha in this verse, I am alone, until I pass over. After Pascha I shall no longer be alone, after passing-over I shall no loiter be alone. Many shall imitate Me, many shall follow Me. And if afterward they shall follow, what shall be the case now? / am alone, until I pass over. What is it that the Lord saith in this Psalm, / am alone, until I pass over? What is it that we have expounded? If we have understood it, listen to His own words in the Gospel. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into tfie ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit. This He saith in the same place where He also saith, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, trill draw all men unto Me. Except a corn of wheat, He saith, fall intojthe ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. To that Corn of wheat then, a great crop was due; but wait; let It first die, for, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.

26. Therefore He was alone before He was put to death. Therefore too Peter had not yet sufficient strength: he was to receive strength to follow, he had not strength to go before. For for Christ's sake, that is, for confessing the Name of Christ, whereby we are Christians, no one died before Christ, lest perchance such thought should occur to you. For many died and are martyrs, many prophets suffered the same things, yet they were not put to death because they foretold Christ, but because they told men of their sins, and freely resisted their iniquities, and so are accounted among martyrs. Rightly; for, though not for confessing the Name of Christ, yet for the truth's sake were they slain. But so far was any from dying for the Name, that is, for confessing the Name of Christ, before that Corn of wheat fell into the ground, in whose person is said, / am alone, until I pass over, that even John, who was slain just before Him, being given by a wicked king to a dancing woman, was not put to death because he confessed Christ. Of course he might have been put to death for this, and that by many. If for another reason he was put to death by one man, how much more might he have been put to death by those very men, who put Christ to death? For John gave testimony to Christ. They who heard Christ, wished to slay Him; the man who gave testimony to Him they slew not. For had John been attacked for Christ's sake, he would not have ^enied Him; for he had great strength, wherefore he was called, ifa friend of the Bridegroom. Great grace was there in him, great excellence; among them that are born of women hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist. He therefore was attacked, who had not so great strength: Peter was attacked, not John. For Peter received the strength afterwards, but then he was weak. For Christ's Name he is questioned, who had not strength: he who had strength, suffers not persecution for Christ, lest for the Name of Christ he should precede Christ. He is not slain by the Jews who gave free testimony to (Jhrist, Whom the Jews slew; he is slain by Herod, because he said to him, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife. For his brother had not died without issue. For the law of truth, for equity, for righteousness' sake, he did die: therefore is he a saint, therefore a martyr; but yet he died not for that Name whereby we are Christians, wherefore, save that the saying might be fulfilled, J am alone, until I pass over.