Psalm 147 (Vulgate 146–147)

Sermon to the People of Carthage. eth unto all, that we praise Him. And as though we asked wherefore we ought to praise the Lord, behold what reason he hath brought forward: Praise the Lord, he saith, for a Psalm is good. Is this all the reward of them that praise? Let us praise the Lord. Wherefore? Became a Psalm is good. I would wish, saith one, to praise the Lord, if only He give me somewhat for my praise. For who praiseth for nothing even a man? Those who praise a man then look for some reward: ought he who praises G%d, to look for or seek or hope for no reward? The weak is praised, and somewhat is hoped for from him: the Almighty is praised, and is there no reward? Or do I perhaps desire that which He cannot give? What doth man desire, wlych is not in the hand of God? When thou hast praised a man, thou mayest perhaps desire that which he cannot supply; God thou mayest praise in safety; for none can say that He cannot supply ought that thou canst long for. Having then set before us the hope of some reward, we ought to praise God, not however as though He would give whatsoever we desire. For He is our Father; and whatever evil His sons desire, He giveth not. Let us praise and hope and long, not for this or that, but for what He, Whom we praise, judge th meet to be given. For He knoweth what it is expedient should be given us; let us observe what it is good for us to receive. The Apostle saith, We know not what to pray for as we ought. And this very same Apostle Paul hoped that it would be good for him that the thorn in the fleshy the messenger of Satan to buffet him9 should be taken from him, as he himself confesseth, and saith, for this cause I besought the Lord thrice that it might be taken from me: and He said unto me. My grace is sufficient for thee; for My strength is made perfect in weakness. He desired a certain thing; it was not granted him as was his wish, but it might be granted as was for his health. Here then what is set before us? Praise, saith he, the Lord. Wherefore should we praise the Lord? Because a Psalm is good. The Psalm is praise of God. This then he saith, Praise the Lord, for it is good to praise, the Lord. Let us not thus pass over the praise of the Lord. It is spoken, and hath passed: it is done, and we are silent: we have praised, and then rested; we have sung, and then rested. We go forth to some business which awaits us, and when other employments have found us, shall the praise of God cease in us? Not so: thy tongue praiseth but for a while, let thy life ever praise. Thus then a Psalm is good.

2. For a Psalm is a song, not any kind of song, but a song to a psaltery. A psaltery is a kind of instrument of music, like the lyre and the harp, and such kinds of instruments, Vhich were invented for music. He therefore who siugeth Psalms, not only singeth with his voice, but with a certain instrument besides, which is called a psaltery, he accompanieth his voice with his hands. Wilt thou then sing a Psalm? Let not thy voice alone sound the praises of God; but let thy works also be in harmony with thy voice. When then thou singest with thy voice, sometimes thou wilt be silent; sing with thy life in such wise, that thou be never silent. Thou art engaged in business, and meditatest some fraud: thou hast become silent from the praises of God; and, what is worse, not only hast become silent from His praise, but hast also gone on to blasphemy. For when by thy good work God is praised, thou art praising God by thy work: when by thy evil work God is blasphemed, thou art blaspheming God by thy work. To please then the ear, sing with thy voice; but with thy heart be not silent, with thy life be not still. Thou devisest no fraud in thy heart: thou singest a Psalm to God. When thou eatest and drinkest, sing a Psalm: not by intermingling sweet sounds suited to the ear, but by eating and drinking moderately, frugally, temperately: for thus saith the Apostle, whether ye eat or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to /AtfiCor.io, glory of Ood. If then thou doest right in eating and31' drinking, if thou takest food to refresh thy body and reinvigorate thy limbs, giving thanks to Him Who gave to thee, mortal and frail as thou art, these comforting supplies, then both thy meat and thy drink praise God: but if by immoderate voracity thou exceedest the due bounds of nature, and gluttest thyself in excess of wine, however great praises of God thy tongue sound, yet tby life blasphemeth Him. After food and drink thou liest down to sleep: in thy bed neither commit any pollution, nor go beyond the licence given by the law of God: let thy marriage bed be kept chaste with thy wife: and if thou desire to beget children, yet let there not be unbridled sensuality of lust: in thy bed give honour to thy wife, for ye are both members of Christ, both made by Him, both renewed by His Blood: so doing thou praisest God, nor will thy praise be altogether silent. What, when Bleep has come over thee? Let not an evil conscience rouse thee from rest: so doth the innocence of thy sleep praise God. If then thou praisest, sing not onfy with thy voice, but take to thee also the psaltery of good works, for a Psalm is good. Thou praisest iu thy employment, thou praisest in thy eating and drinking, thou praisest while resting in thy bed, thou praisest in thy sleep: when dost thou not praise? We shall be perfect in praising God, when we come to that city, when we are made equal to the Angels of God, when no bodily craving in any part assails us, when no hqnger or thirst interrupts us, no heat wearies, no cold freezes, no fever pulls down, no death endeth. For that most perfect praise let us practise ourselves, by praising here in good works.

3. Wherefore, when he had said, Praise the Lord, for a Psalm is good, he says, let praises be pleasant to our God. How will praise be pleasant to our God? If He be praised by our good lives. Hear that then praise will be pleasant to Him. In another place it is said, Praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner. If then in the mouth of a sinner praise is not seemly, neither is it pleasant, for that only is pleasant which is seemly. Wilt thou then that thy praise be pleasant to thy God? Be not out of tune with thy good song by ill behaviour. Let praise be pleasant to our God. What did he mean? Ye who praise, live aright: He regardeth more how ye live, than how ye speak. Surely thou desirest to have peace with Him Whom thou praisest: how dost thou seek peace with Him, when thou art at discord with thyself? How, thou wilt say, am I at discord with myself? One thing thy tongue soundeth, another thy life discloseth. Let praise be pleasant to our God. For praise may be pleasant to a man, when he heareth one praising with neat and clever sentiments, and with a sweet voice; but let praise be pleasant to our God, Whose ears are open not to the mouth, but to the heart; not to the tongue, but to the life of him that praiseth.

4. Who is our Qod, that praise should be pleasant to Him? He maketh. Himself sweet to us, He commendeth Himself to us; thanks to His condescension. For He deigneth to commend Himself to us, not as though we could supply ought to Him, but rather may receive much from Him. How then doth God commend Himself to us? Bui Qod commendeth His love Ictus. How doth He commend it? Hearken: let the8. Apostle himself speak, that we may compare him with the Psalm: Qod commendeth, saith he, His love to us. How doth He commend it? In that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. What then hath He in store for them that praise, Who thus commendeth Himself to them that are sinners? Since then the Apostle hath said, that God so commended His love to us, as that Christ died for the ungodly, not that they should remain ungodly, but that by the death of the Righteous they should be healed of their unrighteousness; what hearest thou here after he had said, iet praise be pleasant to our Qod? Let us see whether it be the commendation which the Apostle speaketh of, that Ghrist died for the sinners and ungodly: the Lord Whovtr. buildeth up Jerusalem, and gather eth the dispersions qf Israel. Behold the Lord Who buildeth up Jerusalem, and gathereth the dispersions of her people. For the people of Jerusalem are the people of Israel. It is Jerusalem eternal in the heavens, whereof the Angels are citizens also. What then is Israel there? If thou considerest the man, the grandson of Abraham, who was called also Jacob, how understand we th$ Angels to be Israel? If we examine the meaning of the name, since Jacob too had his name changed, and was called Israel, greater then is the name Israel: and would that we too may follow, and be Israel. For what is the meaning of Israel? ' Seeing God.' All the citizens then of that city, through seeing God, rejoice in that great and wide and heavenly city; they gaze upon God Himself. But we are wanderers from that city, driven out by sin, that we should not remain there; weighed down by mortality, that we should not return thither. God looked back on our wandering, and He Who buildeth up Jerusalem, restored the part that had fallen. How restored He the part that had fallen? Gathering the dispersions of Israel. A certain part fell, and became wanderers; this wandering part God in His mercy saw, and sought them that sought Him not. How sought He them? Whom sent He to our captive estate? He sent a Redeemer, according to what the Apostle saith, God commendeth His love to us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He sent then to our captive estate His Son as a Redeemer. Take witlt Thee, said He, a bag, bear therein the price of the captives. For He put on Him our mortal flesh, and therein was the Blood, by the shedding of Which we were to be redeemed. With that Blood He gathered the dispersions of Israel. And if He gathered them that before were dispersed, how must we strive that they be gathered who now are dispersed? If the dispersed have been gathered, that in the Hand of the Builder they might be fashioned into the building, how should they be gathered who through disquiet have fallen from the Hand of the Builder? The Lord Who buildeth up Jerusalem. Behold Whom we praise; behold to Whom we owe praise all our life long. The Lord Who buildeth up Jerusalem, and gathereth the dispersions of Israel.

5. How doth He gather? What doeth He in order to gather? Who healeth the bruised in heart. Behold the way in which the dispersions of Israel are gathered, by the healing of the bruised in heart. They who are not of a bruised heart, are not healed. What is to bruise the heart? Let it be known, brethren, let it be done, that ye may be able to be healed. For it is told in many other places of Scripture; especially in the famous place, the Psalmist, singing as it were with our voice, said, for if Thou hadst desired a sacrifice, verily I would have given it. He said to God, if Thou hadst desired a sacrifice, verily I would have given it, but Thou wilt not be delighted with burnt-offerings. What then? shall we remain without offering any sacrifice? Hear what He desireth that thou shouldest offer. He goeth on and saith, the sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit, a bruised and contrite heart God will not despise. He healeth then the bruised in heart, for He draweth nigh unto them to heal them; as is said in another place, the Lord is nigh unto them who have bruised their heart. Who are thev that have bruised their heart? The— humble. Who are they that have not bruised their heart? The proud. The bruised heart shall be healed, the puffed up heart shall be dashed down. For for this purpose perhaps is it dashed down, that being bruised it may be healed. Let not our heart then, brethren, desire to be set upright, before it be upright. It is ill for that to be uplifted which it not first corrected.

6. Who healeth the bruised in heart, and bindeth up their bruises. He healeth, saith he, the bruised in heart: He healeth then the humbled in heart, He healeth them who confess, He healeth them that punish themselves, who exercise a strict judgment upon themselves, that they may be able to feel His mercy. Such He healeth; but their perfect healing will take place when this mortal life is passed, when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality: when there shall be nothing to tempt us through the sinfulness of the flesh: not only nothing for us to consent to, but not even any thing to be suggested by the flesh. For now, my brethren, how many unlawful delights assail the mind? And although we consent to them not, so that our members be pleased by such things, even though thou consent not, is as yet short of perfect soundness. Thou shalt then be healed, thou, man of a bruised heart, shalt be healed. Blush not, bruise thy heart; such are they whom God healeth. But thou wilt say, What must I do now? For 1 delight in the law of Ood according to the inner man; but I see another22"25* law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and leading me captive under the law of sin. What must thou do now? Bruise thy heart, confess; go on, say what followeth, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? For to say this, O wretched man that I am, is at once to bruise the heart. Let him hope for happiness, who confesseth unhappiness. Say then, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? that it may be said to thee in answer, The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. But how shall the grace of God, whereof we have now received the earnest, set us free? Hear the Apostle again; the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. If then the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead dwell in you, He Who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit, Which dwelleth in you. This then is the earnest which our spirit hath received, that we begin through faith to serve God, and through failh to be called righteous. For the just liveth by faith. But whatever in you still fighteth and resisteth, is of the mortality of the flesh, and this shall be healed. For He shall quicken, saith the Apostle, your mortal bodies by His Spirit, Which dwelleth in you. For this He gave the earnest, that He will fulfil what He hath promised. What then now in this life, when as yet we are confessors, not yet possessors, what in this life is to be done? How shall it be healed? He healeth the bruised in heart: but perfect soundness will not be till the time we mentioned. What then now? He bindeth up their bruises. He, Who healeth the bruised in heart, whose perfect soundness will be in the resurrection of the just, now bindeth up their bruises.

7. What are the means whereby He bindeth up their bruises? Just as physicians bind up fractures. For sometimes, (observe this, beloved; it is well known to those who have observed it, or have heard it from physicians,) sometimes when limbs are sound, but are crooked and distoited, physicians break them in order to set them straight, and make a new wound, because the soundness which was distorted was amiss. Just so then Scripture saith, The ways of the Lord are straight, but the crooked-hearted shall stumble in them. Who is the crooked- hearted? The twisted-hearted: he that hath a twisted heart.. He thinketh that all things which God hath said are twisted; he thinketh that all which God hath done is crooked; and all the judgments of God displease him, especially those whereby he himself is chastised; and he sitteth, and argueth how evilly God doeth, because He doeth not according to his will. It is not enough for the distorted heart not to set itself straight after God's pattern: it wisheth also to Sacraments means of healing our ' bruises.' 865 distort God after its own pattern. What then saith God from above? Thou art twisted, I am straight. If thou wast straight, thou wouldest see that I am straight. Just as if thou wast to lay on an even floor a crooked piece of timber, it would not rest in its place, it would totter in every direction, it would be -swayed iu every direction, which yet is not caused by the unevenness of the ground, but by the crookedness of the timber; so Scripture saith, How good is Ood lo Israel, to the right of heart. Well then, how is the crooked heart straightened? It is both crooked and hard; being theu both crooked and hard, let it be broken, let it be bruised, that it may be set straight. Thou canst not set thine own heart straight: do thou break it, let Him set it straight. How dost thou break it? how dost thou bruise it? By confessing and punishing thy sins. What else doth beating the breast mean? Unless perhaps we think that our bones have sinned, when we beat our breasts. Nay, we mean that we bruise our heart, that it may be set straight by God.

8. He healeth then them that are bruised in heart, that have a bruised heart: and soundness of heart will then be perfected, when the restoration of the body also which is promised shall be fulfilled. Now in the mean while, what doeth the physician? He bindeth up thy bruises, that thou roayesl arrive at most complete soundness, until that which has been broken and bound up may be firmly knit. What are these means whereby He bindeth? The sacraments of this present life. The means whereby He bindeth up our bruises to heal them, are the sacrameuts of this present life, whereby in the mean time we obtain our comfort: and all the words wo speak to you, words which sound and pass away, all that is done in the Church in this present time, are the means whereby He bindeth up our bruises. For just as, when the limb has become perfectly sound, the physician taketh off the bandage; so in our own city Jerusalem, when we shall have been made equal to the Angels, think ye that we shall receive there, what we have received here? Will it be needful then that the Gospel be read to us, that our faith may abide? or that hands be laid upon us by any Bishop? All these are means of binding up fractures; when we have attained perfect soundness, they will be taken but we should never attain it, if they were not bound up. He healeth then the bruised in heart, and bindeth up their bruises.

9# Who telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names. What great matter is it for God to tell the number of the stars! Men even have endeavoured to do this; whether they have been able to achieve it,^s their concern; they would not however attempt it, did they not think that they should achieve it. Let us leave alone what they can do, and how far they have attained; for God I think it no great matter to count all the stars. Or doth He perhaps go over the number, lest He should forget it? Is it any great thing for God to number the stars, by Whom the very hairs of your head are numbered? It is plain, my brethren, that God willeth that we should understand somewhat by what He saith, Who telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names. The stars are certain lights in the Church comforting our night, all of whom the Apostle saith, among whom ye shine as lights in the world. In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, saith he, among whom ye shine as lights in the world, holding the Word of life. These stars God counteth; all who shall reign with Him, all who are to be gathered into the Body of His only-begotten Son, He hath counted, and still counteth them. Whoso is unworthy, is not even counted. Many too have believed, or rather may, with a kind of shadowy appearance of faith, have attached themselves to His people: yet He knoweth what He counteth, what He winnoweth away. For so great is the height of the Gospel, that it hath to pass as was said, I have declared, and have spoken: they are multiplied above number: there are then among the people certain supernumeraries, so to speak. What do I mean by supernumeraries? More than will be there. Within these walls are more than will be in the kingdom of God, in the heavenly Jerusalem; these are above the number. Let each one of you consider whether he shineth in darkness, whether he refuseth to be led astray by the dark iniquity of the world; if he be not led astray, nor conquered, he will be, as it were, a star, which God already numbereth.

10. And calling them all by their names, he saith. Herein is our whole reward. We have certain names with God; that God may know our names, this we ought to wish, for this to act, for this to busy ourselves, as far as we are able; not to rejoice in other things, nqt even in certain spiritual gifts. Consider, beloved; there are many gifts in the Church, as the Apostle saith; to one is given by the Spirit the wofd of wisdom; to another faith, by the same Spirit;8, to another working of cures; to another discerning of spirits,,that is, to discover between good and bad spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another prophecy. How great, how many gifts hath he mentioned! Many who have used such gifts amiss, shall hear in the end, / know you not. And what will they say in the end who are to hear, / know you not f Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name, and in Thy Name cast out devils, and in Thy Name done many wondrous works f All this in Thy Name. And what will He say to them? I never knew you; depart from Me, ye who work iniquity. What is it then to be already a light in the sky, comforting the night and not overshadowing the night? Yet9 saith he, / shew unto you a more excellent way. If 1 speak with the tongues of men and qf angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a1' tinkling cymbal. What a gift is it to speak with the tongues of men and of angels! Yet, if I have not charity \ saith he, / am as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I know all mysteries, and all knowledge, saith he, although I have all prophecy, and all failh9 so that I could remove mountains, (how great gifts are these!) and have not charity, I am nothing. How glorious a gift is it to be a martyr, and to give away all one's goods! Yet, though I give all my goods, saith he, to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it prqfiteth me nothing. Whoso then hath not charity, though for a time he have these gifts, yet they shall be taken from him. What he hath shall be taken from him, because a certain other thing he hath not. This certain thing he hath not, whereby the other may be preserved, and himself not perish. What is that which the Lord saith, he that hath, to him shall &?Mat.i3, given; but whoso hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath? He then who hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath. He hath grace to possess, but he hath not love to use; • since then he hath not this, even that which he hath shall be taken from him. Therefore, that the disciples, whom He, willed to make stars in heaven, walking by the more excellent way, might have charity, He, Who telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names, when the disciples returned from their mission exulting, and saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us in Thy Name — then He, I say, Who telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names, knowing that many would say, have we not in Thy Name cast out devils? to whom He should say, / know you not, because He counted them not among the number of the stars, nor called them by their names — said, In this rejoice not, that the devils are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven. Who telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names.

11. Great is our Lord. The Psalmist is filled with joy, he hath poured out his words wonderfully: yet somewhat he was unable to speak, and how availed he to think on it? Great is the Lord, and great is His power, and of His understanding is no numbering. He Who number eth the multitude of the stars, Himself cannot be numbered. Great is our Lord, and great is His power, and of His understanding is no numbering. Who can expound this? who can worthily even imagine what is meant by, and of His understanding is no number? And would that He may infuse Himself into you, and where we fail, in that He is mighty, He may Himself enlighten your minds, that ye may know what is the meaning of, of His understanding is no number. For ye see, brethren, of the sand is there any number? To us there is not, to God there is; by Whom the hairs of our head are numbered, by Him the sand also is numbered. Whatsoever then that is infinite this world containeth, though it be infinite to man, yet is not to God: too little is it to say, to God: even by the angels it is numbered. Of His understanding there is no number. His understanding surpasses all calculators; it cannot be counted by us. Numbers God not to be comprehended by human intellect. 369 themselves who numbereth? Whatever is numbered, is numbered by numbers. If whatever is numbered, is numbered by numbers, of numbers there can be no number; numbers cannot by any meaus be numbered. What then is there with God? wherewith made He all things, and where made He all things, to Whom it is said, Thou haslVfiri. arrayed all things in measure, number, and weight? Or11'20* who can number, or measure, or weigh, measure and number and weight themselves, wherein God hath ordered all things? Therefore, of His understanding is no number. Let human voices be hushed, human thoughts still: let thr,m not stretch themselves out to incomprehensible things, as though they could comprehend them, but as though they were to partake of them, for partakers we shall be. We shall not be this which we do contain, nor shall we contain the whole; but we shall be partakers: for of Jerusalem, whose dispersions He gathereth, somewhat great is said: Jerusalem is built as a city, whose partaking is in the same. What meaneth he by the same, save that which cannot be changed? All other created things may be this way or that, but He Who created cannot be this way or that. He then is the same, for to Him is said, Thou shall change them, and they shall be changed; but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not2*'27' Jail. If then He is the same, and can in no degree be changed, by partaking of His divine uature, we too shall be immortal for ever. And this earnest is given us of the Son of God, as I have already said to you, holy brethren, that before we became partakers of His immortal nature, He should first become partaker of our mortal nature. But as He became mortal, not of His own substance, but of ours, so do we become immortal, not of our own substance, but of His. Partakers then we shall be: let none doubt it: Scripture saith it. And of what shall we be partakers, as though these were parts in God, as though God were divided into parts? Who then can explain how many become partakers of one single substance? Require not then that which I think ye see cannot filly be said: but return to the healing of the Saviour, bruise your heart; let the darkness of your heart be crushed, obstinacy of soul bruised; let it be accused in evil, be born again in good. He will guide it, He will bind it up where it is broken, He will make it perfectly sound; and then those things will not be impossible with us, which now are impossible. For it is good that he confess weakness, who desireth to attain to the divine nature. Of His understanding is no number.

1*2. What therefore thou shouldest do in this difficulty of understanding, he sheweth thee, when he goeth on to say, The Lord taketh up the gentle. For example; thou understandest not, thou failest to understand, canst not attain: honour God's Scripture, honour God's Word, though it be not plain: in reverence wait for understanding. Be not wanton to accuse either the obscurity or seeming contradiction of Scripture. There is nothing in it contradictory: somewhat there is which is obscure, not in order that it may be denied thee, but that it may exercise him that shall afterward receive it. When then it is obscure, that is the Physician's doing, that thou mayest knock. He willed that thou shouldest be exercised in knocking; He willed it, that He might open to thee when thou knockest. By knocking thou shalt be exercised; exercised, thou shalt be enlarged; enlarged, thou shalt contain what is given. Be not then indignant for that it is shut; be mild, be gentle. Kick not against what is dark, nor say, It were better said, if it were said thus. For how canst thou thus say, or judge how it is expedient it be said? It is said as it is expedient it be said. Let not the sick man seek to amend his remedies: the Physician knoweth how to temper them: believe Him Who careth for thee. ' Therefore what cometh next? The Lord taketh up the gentle. Resist not then against what God shutteth up: be gentle, that He may take thee up. But if thou resistest, hear what followeth; but humbleth the sinners even to the ground. Many kinds of sinners are there. He humbleth the sinners even to the ground. What sinners, save the opposite to the gentle? In fact, by what he hath said, The Lord taketh up the gentle, but humbleth the sinners even to the ground, he intended a certain sort of sinners to be understood, from the gentleness mentioned first. By sinners then in this place, we understand the fierce, and those who are not gentle. Wherefore doth He humble them even to the earth f. They carp at The Manichees blinded for their intellectual pride. 371 objects of understanding, they shall perceive only things

13. This did He to men, who chose to ridicule the Law before they knew it, because they were not gentle. Understand me, beloved. There arose a certain most accursed sect, the Manichees, who ridiculed the Scriptures when they had received and read them; they chose to find fault with what they understood not, and by attacking and finding fault with what they understood not, they ensnared many. But they who chose to do this have been humbled even to the earth. They were not permitted to understand heavenly things: they savoured earthly things. All that thou hearest in their fables is nought but blasphemy and certain devices of bodily forms: for when they would understand God, they attained to the thought of this visible light, but could not advance beyond it, and they made such fields of light in the kingdom of God, as they saw our sun to be, looking on it as a sort of product of that light For all this which is reached by means of the earth of the flesh, is earth in God's eyes. For we have that whereby we see, hear, smell, taste, touch: our flesh by means of those messengers, so to speak, which we call senses, perceives only corporeal things: but things of the intellect and spirit, are taken in by the mind. Because then they ridiculed the obscurity of the Scriptures, which for this reason were shut, that they might be exercised in knocking, not that the Scriptures should be refused to babes, they were humbled even to the earth, so that they could not any longer 'takq in any thing save what is perceived by earth. And what mean I by earth? I mean the flesh. For the flesh is earth, and is made of earth. Whatsoever thou takest in by the eyes belongeth to earth: whatever by the ear, whatever by the smell, whatever by the taste, whatever by the touch, pertaineth to the earth, for by earth it is taken in. They therefore were not able to understand His understanding of which there is no end, for Of His understanding is no end. Because they found fault with the Scriptures, which healthfully conceal understanding under certain mysteries, that the little ones may be exercised; and by this very finding fault being made ungentle, which is the opposite to gentle, they were humbled even to earthly. the earth, that they should not be able to perceive God Who is incorporeal, and that whatever thoughts they had of God, should be only corporeal thoughts.

14. God then humbleth sinners, even to the earth. What then ought we to do, if we would not be humbled even to the earth? For it is a great thing to advance to things of the understanding, it is a great thing to advance to things spiritual, it is a great thing for the heart to advance^) far as to know that there is somewhat which is neither extended through space, nor varied in time. For what is the appearance of wisdom? who imagineth it? Is it long? is it square? is it round? is it now here, and now there? One man thinketh of wisdom in the east, another thinketh of it in the west; if they think of it aright, set as they are in such utterly different places, to both it is entirely present. What is this? who can take it in? Who can take in this substance, this divine and unchangeable nature? Be not in haste; thou wilt be able to take it in. Begin to the Lord in confession. Begin with this, if thou wouldest arrive at a clear understanding of the truth. If thou wilt be brought from the road of faith to the profession of the reality, begin in confession. First accuse thyself: accuse thyself, praise God. Call on Him, Whom as yet thou knowest not, to come and be known; not to come to thee Himself, but to lead thee to Him. For how can He come thither, whence He never departeth? For this is the very perfection of wisdom; it is every where, yet it is far from the wicked. It is, I say, every where; yet is it far from the evil who are every where. From whom, I ask you, is that far off which is every where? How think ye, save because they lie in their1 unlikeness, driving out in themselves the likeness of God? Having become unlike, they have withdrawn: when refashioned, let them return. Whence, saith he, shall we be refashioned? when shall we be refashioned? Begin to the Lord in confession. What after confession? Let good works follow. Sing unto our God upon the harp. What is, Upon the harp? As I have already explained, just like the Psalm upon the psaltery, so also is the harp: not with voice only, but with works. Sing unto our God upon the harpl

15. Behold, ye confess, ye work works of mercy; sing Gocftnade Scripture obscure, that we may study it the more. 373 unto our God. What God? Who covereth the heaven with clouds. What is, Who covereth the heaven with clouds? Who hideth Scripture under figures and sacraments. He Who humbleth sinners even to the earth9 He Who taketh up the gentle, covereth the heaven with clouds. Who then can see the heaven, which is covered with clouds? Fear not: hear what folio weth. Who covereth* the heaven with mclouds, Who prepareth rain for the earth. Who covereth the heaven with clouds: now thou art alarmed, because thou canst uot see the heaven: when it hath rained thou shalt gather fruit, and shalt see clear sky. He covereth the heaven with clouds, Who prepareth rain for the earth: perhaps our God hath done this. For had we not the obscurity of Scripture as an occasion, we should not say to you those things wherein ye rejoice. This then perhaps is the rain whereat ye rejoice. It would not be possible for it to be expressed to you by our tongue, were it not that God covereth with clouds of figures the heaven of the Scriptures. For this purpose then doth He cover the heaven with clouds, that He may prepare rain for the earth. For this purpose willed He that the words of the Prophets should be obscure, that the servants of God might afterwards have that by interpreting which they might flow over the ears and hearts of men, that they might receive from the clouds of God the fatness of spiritual joy. Who covereth the heaven with clouds, Who prepareth rain for the earth.

16. Who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains, and* herb for the service qf men. Behold the fruit of the rain. Who maketh, saith he, grass to grow upon the mountains. Doth it not also grow upon the low ground? Yes, but it is a great thing that it groweth on the mountains. By mountains he meaneth the high ones of the world: by mountains understand in this place, those who are endowed with some great dignity. And it is not wonderful that a certain widowWirtov, cast two mites into the treasury; that the earth brought forth grass over the low ground: the mountain also brought forth eve~n Zaccheus the chief of the publicans. This wasLafcei9, more wonderful, that the mountains brought forth grass. For the more men are exalted, the more grasping are they; and the greater they are in this world, the more do they love their riches. And so the man went away sorrowful, who as^e^ °f tne Lord counsel about eternal life, and called Good Master, saying, What shall I do that I may have eternal life? And the Lord said to Him, Keep the commandments. Which? The commandments of the Law, said He. All these have I kept from my youth. One thing, said JJe, thou lackest. Wilt thou be perfect? Go and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow Me. \vhat said the Lord? Behold, thou art a mountain; receive rain, give forth grass. For what is it that thou wilt give? Is it not grass? For all that is given to the Church for the needs of God's servants by the rich, what is it but grass? For they are carnal things, which appear but for a time: but it is not any thing carnal which is gained by them. Hear what thou buyest with these worthless things. For thus the Apostle, shewing that these things are grass: if we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things? Hear also that carnal things are grass. All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof is as the flower of grass. He then went away sorrowful: and the Lord said, How hard is it for a rich man to enter into the kingdom qf heaven! This then is great, that He maketh grass to grow upon the mountains. And how maketh He grass to grow upon the mountains, if that rich man, when he had heard that he ought to give to the poor, went away sorrowful? How did He afterwards answer the Apostles when they were saddened? The things which are difficult with men ', are easy with God. He then maketh the grass to grow upon the mountains, to Whom all things are easy. For nothing could be more barren than the hard mountains. He raiueth, Who maketh the grass to grow upon the mountains, and herb for the service of men. What service? Listen to Paul himself. And ourselves, saith he, your servants for Jesus Christ's sake. He who said, If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things? yet said, that he was a servant. For we are your servants, brethren. Let none of us speak of himself, as though he were greater than you. We shall be greater if we are more humble. But whosoever will be great among you, (it is the Lord's saying,) shall be your servant. Therefore, He maketh the grass to grow upon the mountains, and herb for the service of men. Paul the Apostle, indeed, living by his own labour, refused eveu to receive the grass of the mountains; he chose to want; nevertheless, the mountains gave grass. Because he chose not to receive, ought the mountains therefore not to give, and so to remain barren? Fruit is due to the rain, food is due to the servant, as the Lord saith, Eat such things awLukeio, they give you: and that they should not think that they7,8, gave ought of their own, He added, for the labourer is worthy of his hire.

17. Therefore, brethren, since it has been given to me to say somewhat to you upon this opportunity, specially since we who speak to you seek no such things from you, and therefore speak the more freely: (though even if we did seek, we should be seeking your profit, and not your riches, but your righteousness;) yetl warn you in few words, since we have already said much, and our discourse must at length come to an end; if ye would not be barren, repay the rain by fruitfulness, lest hereafter your barrenness be condemned; for the Lord threateneth the barren and thorn-bearing land with fire, even as He prepared His granary8, for the fruitful: take heed to exact of yourselves; be your own exactors. Christ silently exacteth; and louder is His Voice though He be silent, in that He is not silent in the Gospel. For He is not truly silent, since He saith, Make to yourselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness,^' that they too may receive you into everlasting habitations. He is not silent; hear His Voice. For none can exact of you: unless perhaps there is need of exacting, that they who serve you in the Gospel, ask of vqu. If it come to this, that they have to ask, take heed lest what ye ask of God, ye ask in vain. Be then your own exactors, lest they who serve you in the Gospel, I do not say be compelled to ask of you, for perhaps they ask not even when compelled, but by their silence accuse you. Wherefore it is written, Blessed is he who under standeth concerning the poor andpBA,i. needy. When he saith, who under standeth concerning the poor and needy, he waiteth not for him to ask. Understand concerning him. One needy man seeketh thee, another needy man thou oughtest to seek. Both are said, my brethren: just now has been read, Give to every one that asketh of thee; and in another place Scripture* saith, Let alms sweat in thy hand, till thou findest a righteous man to whom to give it. One there is who seeketh thee, another thou oughtest to seek. Leave not indeed him who seeketh thee empty, for, give to every one that asketh of thee; yet still there is another whom thou oughtest to seek; let alms sweat in thine hand, till thou findest a righteous man to whom to give it Ye will never do this, unless ye have somewhat set aside from your substance, each what pleaseth him according to the needs of his family, as a sort of debt to be paid to the treasury. If Christ have not a state1 of His own, neither hath He a treasury8. For know ye what 'Asciis' means? cFiscus<) is a bag, and from the same source come also the yords 'fiscella,' and 'fiscina.' Think not that fiscus is a kind of dragon, because men are alarmed when they hear of the collector of the fiscus: the 4 fiscus' is the public purse. The Lord had one here on earth when He had the bag: and the bag was entrusted to Judas. The Lord endured Judas, who was both a traitor and a thief, in him shewing to all the world His long-suffering; yet they who contributed, contributed to the Lord's treasury. Unless perchance ye think that the Lord went and sought, or was in need when Angels served Him, and He fed so many thousands with five loaves. Wherefore then willed He to want, save to shew an example to the mountains to bring forth grass, that they should not repay the rain with barrenness. Cut off then and prune off some fixed b sum either from thy yearly profits or thy daily gains, else thou seemest«as it were to give of thy capital, and thy hand must needs hesitate, when thou puttest it forth to that which thou hast not vowed. Cut off some part of thy income; a tenth if thou choosest, though that is but little. For it is said that the Pharisees gave a tenth; / fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And what b Ahquid fixum; other Mss. fisco, Christ's treasury, spoken of above. The ' young of the ravens' are Christians. 877 saith the Lord? Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall ^Ma^* enter into the kingdom of heaven. He whose righteousness thou oughtest to exceed, gjveth a tenth: thou givest not even a thousandth. How wilt thou surpass him whom thou matchest not? Who covereth the heaven with clouds, Who prejmreth rain for the earth; Who maketh the grass to grow u^on the mountains, and herb for the service of men.

18. And giveth unto the cattle their food. These are the cattle he meaneth, even God's flocks. God defraudeth not His flock of their food through men, for whose service He maketh the grass to grow. Whence the Apostle saith, Who feedelh a flock, and eatelh not of the milk of the flock? Who giveth unto the cattle their food, and to the young of the ravens that call upon Him. Shall we perchance think this, that the ravens call upon God to give them their food? Think not that the unreasoning creature calls upon God: no creature knows how to call upon God, save the reasonable alone. Consider it as spoken in a figure, lest thou think, as some evil men say, that the souls of men migrate into cattle, dogs, swine, ravens. Give this no place in your hearts or in your faith. The soul of man is made after the image of God: He will not give His image to dog or swine. What is then, And to the young of the ravens that call upon Him? Who are the young of the ravens? The Israelites used to say that they alone were righteous, because to them the Law had been given: all other men of every nation they used to call sinners. And in truth all nations were given up to sin, to idolatry, to the worship of stones and stocks: but did they continue so?. Although the ravens themselves, our fathers, did not, yet we, the young of the ravens, do call upon God. He giveth to the cattle their food, and to the young of the ravens who call upon Him. They are the young of the ravens, to whom Peter saith, Forasmuch as ye were not redeemed with corruptible silver and gold,18' from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers. For the young of the ravens, who seemed to worship the images of their forefathers, have advanced, and turned to God. And now thou hearest the young of the ravens calling upon the one God. What then? Sayest thou to the young of the ravens, 4 hast thou left thy father?* pjainty | have, saith he; for he is a raven who calls not upon God, I, the young of the raven, do call upon,. God. And to the young of the ravens who call upon Him.

19. In the power of an horse He will not take pleasure. The power of an horse is pride. For the horse seemeth adapted as it were to bear a man aloft, that he may be more uplifted as he goes. And in truth he has a neck which typifieth a sort of pride. Let not men exalt themselves upon their worth, let them not think themselves uplifted by their distinctions; let them beware lest they be thrown by an untamed horse. For see what is said in another Psalm, Some in chariots and some in horses, but we will exult in the Name of the Lord our God. What therefore happeneth to them? See what followeth, They have been bound and fallen, but we are risen and stand upright. In the power of an horse He will not take pleasure: nor in the tabernacle of a man will He delight. In the tabernacle, saith he, of a man. For the tabernacle of the Lord is the Holy Church spread throughout the whole world. Heretics, separating themselves from the Church's tabernacles, have setup tabernacles for themselves; in the tabernacle of a man God will not delight. But observe the young of the raven, saying, I have chosen to be cast away in the house of the Lord, rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners. For if perchance it be the lot of any, who is good and pious, who confesseth his own weakness, who is the young of a raven that calleth on God, not to enjoy worldly distinction, he goeth not out of the Church, he setteth not up for himself a tent outside the Church, wherein God will not delight. But what saith he? / have chosen to be cast away in the house of God, rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners. For in the tabernacle of a man will He not delight.

20. But what addeth he? The Lord will delight in them that fear Him, and in them that hope in His mercy. The Lord delighteth in them that fear Him. But is the Lord feared in the same way as a robber? For a robber is feared, and a wild beast is feared, and an unjust and powerful man is much feared. The Lord will delight in them that fear Him. Fear Him, how? And in them that hope in His mercy. Behold, Judas, who betrayed our Lord, feared, but he did not hope in His mercy. For afterward he repented of having betrayed the Lord, and he said, / have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. It is well indeed that thou hast feared, but only if thou4, trustedst in His mercy, Whom thou hast feared. He in despair went and hanged himself. In such wise then fear the Lofd, that thou trust in His mercy. If thou fearest a robber, thou hopest for help from another, not from him whom thou fearest: thou askest aid from him whom thou fearest not, against him whom thou fearest If thou fearest God in this wise, and fearest Him because thou art a sinner, from whom wilt thou get aid against God? Whither wilt thou go? What wilt thou do? Wilt thou flee from Him? flee to Him. Wilt thou flee from His wrath? flee to His nith. And thou wilt make Him ruthful, if thou hope in His mercy, and so avoid sin for the future, as to pray to Him. for past sins, that they may be forgiven thee by the Lord, to Whom belongeth honour, and the kingdom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit- for ever. Amen. PSALM CXLVII. Pakt II.

21. Ye remember, beloved, that we put off till to-day the discussion of the Psalm which we have just sung. For it is the very Psalm which was read on the Lord's Day, and which we had undertaken to handle. But at that time we were moved by the Gospel which was read, and, through the greatness of our fear, and for your greater profit, we dwelt upon the Lord's commending to us the last day, and how He willed that we should with care and watching look out for His coming, frightening us by an example, that He may not condemn us in the judgment, saying, that the coming of the Son of Man should be as it was in the days ofi,uke\7, Noe: they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they26'27' 380 The importance of preparing for the Day of Judgment. married wives, they were given in marriage, until Noe entered into the Ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. In our anxiety then, and through great fear which shook us, (for who, if he believes, would not fear?) we dwelt, so far as we could, on this, speaking at length in our discourse, how you and all of us should act "and live, so that we may be able not only to await that day without dread, but even to long for it. For, if we love Chris^ surely we ought to long for His coming. For it is a contradiction, and cannot, I think, be true, to fear the coming of Him thou lovest; to pray, Thy kingdom come, and to fear lest thou be heard. And whence is this fear of the Judge's coming? Is He unjust? is He spiteful? is He envious? lastly, doth He wait to hear thy cause from another, so that perhaps he whom thou hast instructed, either may cheat thee by making but a sham defence, or, through deficiency of eloquence and ability, may be unable to prove in words thy goodness and innocence? It is none of these. Who is it then that is to come? wherefore dost thou not rejoice? Who is coming to judge thee, save He, Who came to be judged for thee? Thou needest not fear the accuser, of whonj He Himself said, Now is the prince of this world cast out. Thou needest not fear the weakness of thy advocate, for He is now thy Advocate, Who then will be thy Judge. He will be there, and thou, and thy case: the statement of thy case will be the testimony of thy conscience. Who-soever then thou art that fearest thy Judge that is to be, amend at once thy conscience that is now. Is it too little for thee, that He will not require what is past? No space of time will then be left, when He shall judge: now how great a space is left while He enjoineth! Then it will no longer be possible to amend: now, who hindereth thee? While we were earnestly commending this to you on the Lord's Day, because this, I might almost say this alone, is really needful to be spoken, a considerable space of time passed, and we were compelled to defer to this day the Psalm which we had undertaken to handle. Now it is before us: let us give heed to it, or rather to God, Who in His mercy has deigned to dispense to us these discourses in His Spirit, as He Himself knows to be expedient for our infirmities. For doth ever a sick man dare to give counsel to his Physician?

22. While it was being read, ye all of you, I imagine, or many at all events, observed that it containeth several verses, for the opening of which we must needs knock: specially where it'saith, Who giveth snow like wool, Who scatter eth mist like ashes: Who sendeth forth His crystal bike morsels of brecg: Who can stand before His cold? For if any, when he has heard this, taketh it literally, he has indeed thoughj of works of God: for who giveth snow, save God? who scattereth mist, save God? who hardeneth crystal, save He? and each of these has a fitting similitude set over against it: for wool is not unlike snow, nor ashes unlike mist, nor morsels of bread to the cleanness and whiteness of white crystal. For crystal is in appearance like glass, but it is white. Now, with regard to this crystal, it is told by those who know, (and therefore we ought not to doubt it, for Scripture, which is most worthy of belief, giveth testimony thereto,) it is told, I say, that crystal, being made of snow, which has hardened through many years and never melted, becomes so solid, that it cannot easily be melted. Summer at its coming easily melteth the snow of the preceding wiuter, for it hath not yet antiquity besides to increase its hardness. But when many snows for many years have fallen upon.one another, and their abundance has become too great for the power of the summer to master, (I mean not one summer, but many, and especially in these parts, that is, in the north, where even in summer the sun is not found extremely hot,) then this abiding and lasting hardness creates this which is called crystal. Observe, beloved. What then is crystal? It is snow hardened by frost for many years, so that it cannot easily be melted either by sun or fire. I have explained this at somewhat greater length, because many are ignorant of it, and they who happen to know it ought not to consider a statement of what they know burdensome, seeing it is brought forward not for their sake, but for the sake of those who know it not. When then ye heard the Reader sounding out these words, I doubt not that different thoughts presented themselves to you; that some said, aud said truly, Great are the works of the Lord, whereof but a small portion, and that an earthly one, and known to almost all, has been here mentioned, how God snows, how He scattereth mist, how He maketh the crystal solid: others said to themselves, Thinkest thou that all this is set down without reason in Scripture, or that this means nothing more than it sounds?' Is not somewhat suggested to us by the snow and the wool, by the mist and ashes, by the crystal and bread? But why hath Scripture willed to speak thus, by certain darknesses, so to speak, of similitudes? how much better for it to speak more openly? why have I so much as to seek or hesitate what these words mean? why am I at fault when I hear them? why when I have heard a Psalm do I generally go away never the wiser? This is it, which I said a little above, * Suffer thyself to be cured: thus art thou to be healed.1 Very proud and presumptuous is that sick man, who dares to advise his physician, even though he be but a man. Shall the sick man dare to give advice to the physician? When man is sick, and God is curing him, it is a great beginning of reverence and soundness, before thou knowest wherefore a thing has been said, to believe that it was right for it to be said in the way in which it has been said. For this reverence will make thee capable of seeking what is said, of finding when thou hast sought, of rejoicing when thou hast found. Let us have then this sympathy of your prayers with our Lord God; may He deign, if not for our sakes yet for yours, to give unto us what here lieth hidden. Look on it then now as though we had promised you a. day of some heavenly show and exhibition, and, having read these verses and not yet expounded them, have brought before you some of our Exhibitor's dresses wrapped up. Verily it is for this cause that they are brought forth folded up, that ye may await their being unfolded0: but ye are preparing not only to gaze on them, but to be clothed with them.

23. We said on the Lord's Day, if ye, beloved, who were present remember, that the Gospel which detained us so long that we had to defer the exposition of the Psalm, yet harmonized well with the Psalm. This we then said, but were not able to prove, because we deferred discussing the Psalm. To-day then we ought also to set forth this harmony. In that Gospel we were alarmed concerning the last day. That alarm produces safety: for through being alarmed we take precautious, by taking precautions we shall be safe. For just as unseasonable security driveth into alarms, so well-regulated anxiety produceth security. And for this cause doth God alarm us, that we do not so love thfe present life, so frail, so fleeting, so transitory, as though there were no other: for if there be no other, let us lore this present one. If there is no other life, they are more happy than we, who to-day have watched in the amphitheatre. For what saith the Apostle? If in this /i/eiCor.is, only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most mise-table. There is then another life. Let each ask Christ, that is, his own faith. But faith is asleep. Rightly art thou tossed, for Christ is asleep in the ship. For Jesus slept in the ship, and the ship was tossed by many waves and storms. The heart then is tossed, when Christ sleepeth. Christ ever waketh; what then is meant by Christ is asleep? Thy faith is asleep. Why art thou still tossed with the stojm of doubt? Awaken Christ, awaken thy faith, behold with the eye of faith the future life, for the sake of which thou hast believed, for the sake of which thou art signed with His mark, Who for this cause lived here on earth, that He might shew thee how despicable is this life which thou didst love, and how much to be hoped for that wherein thou didst not believe. If then thou awake faith, and turn its eyes upon the last things, and upon the future life wherein we shall rejoice, after the Lord's second coming, after the conclusion of the Judgment, after the kingdom of heaven has been delivered to the saints; if thou think upon this life, and the restful business of this life, of which we have often spoken, beloved, there our business will not be tossed about, our vestfiul business, full of nought but sweetness, interrupted by no annoyances, worn by no weariness, troubled by no cloud. What will then be. our business? To praise God: to love and praise, to praise in love, to love in praises. Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house, for ever and ever they will be praising Thee. Wherefore, save because for ever and ever they will love Thee? And wherefore this, save because for ever and ever they will love Thee? What a show1 will that be, when they see God! Men see one9 who fights with wild beasts, and are gladdened: woe to them if they amend not themselves. For they who see him that fights with wild beasts, and are gladdened, shall see the Saviour, and be saddened. What more wretched than they to whom the Saviour shall not be for salvation! No wonder then that they who delight in a man righting, are not saved by a God freeing. But we, brethren, if we remember that we are among His members, if we long and persevere, shall see and be glad. That will be a city, all whose citizens shall be cleansed, wherein no seditious or turbulent one shall be mingled; the enemy who now grudges our reaching our country, there cannot lay snare for any, for he is not even permitted to be there. For if he is now excluded from the hearts of believers, how shall he then be excluded from the city of the living? What will it be, brethren, what will it be, to be in that city, of which even to speak is so great a joy! For this future life we ought to prepare our hearts; whoever prepares his heart for it, despises this life entirely; his despising it makes him to await w^hout anxiety that day, by the awaiting whicB the Lord frightened him.

24. Since then this Psalm speaks and sings to us about that future life, while the Gospel alarmed us about the present, the Psalm maketh us to love the future less, the Gospel to fear the present. Not that the language of the New Testament is silent about ftiture delight; nay, much more is it set forth in it, wherein what is to be understood is not brought forth, as it were, under a veil, but there it is - seen open, that here it may ]pe understood though obscure. Seeing then that the Gospel said to us, Watch for the coming of the last day, the day Of the coming of the Son of Man, for to their ruin will it find those, who now are secure, because they are perversely secure; for they are secure in the pleasures of the world, whereas they ought to be secure in having tamed the desires of the world; already surely the Apostle hath prepared us for that life, in words which I quoted then also: for the rest, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth that i fey thal jiave wives oe a8 though they had none; and they for things of this life: and so prepares us for the last day. 885 that buy, as though they bought not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that use this world, as though they used it not; for the fashion of this world passeth away. I would have you without carefulness. He that setteth all his happiness in eating and drinking, in marrying, buying, selling, in using this world, such an one too is without carefulness; but, since he is outside the ark, woe to him from the deluge. But he who, whether he eateth or drinketh, or whatsoever he doeth, doeth all to the glory of God; who, if he have any sorrow about matters of this world, so weepeth as within in hope to rejoice; if he have any joy in matters of this world, so rejoiceth as within in spirit to fear; who giveth himself neither to prosperity to corrupt, nor to adversity to crush, (and this is to weep as though he wept not, and to rejoice as though he rejoiced not;) he who, if he have a wife, sympathiseth with her weakness, and payeth to her her due, rather than exacteth his own;* or, if he marrieth on account of his own weakness, doeth it rather in sorrow that he could not remain without a wife, than in joy because he bps one; he who selleth because be knoweth, that, even if it remained, it could not make him happy; he who knoweth that what he buyeth is but fleeting, and on all that he hath, though it be abundant and overflowing, presumeth not, and of what he hath sheweth mercy to him that hath not, that he too may receive what he hath not from Him Who hath all things; — he who is such as this awaiteth in safety the last day, because he is not outside the ark; already is he reckoned among the undecaying timbers whereof the ark is built. Let him not then fear the Lord's coming, but hope and long for it. For to him He will come, not to inflict punishment, but to end his troubles. And this is accomplished by longing for that city. What the Gospel then warned us to do, is fulfilled by longing for that city, whereof the Psalm singeth: so doth the Gospel accord with this Psalm.

25. Now let us hear what city it is that the Psalm singeth of. Let us hear, and let us sing: our joy, when we hear, is a song to our God. For we sing not only when with voice and lips we sound forth a song; there is an inward song too, for there is One Whose Ears are within. We sing with the voice, to arouse ourselves; we sing with the heart, to please Him. The Psajm is called ( a Psalm of Haggai and Zacharias.' Haggai and Zacharias were prophets, and they were prophets during the captivity of that Jerusalem, which bore on earth the shadow of a certain city in heaven. Being then in the captivity of that city in Babylon, these prophets prophesied the restoration of Jerusalem; they prophesied that the people should be freed from captiv&y, and that a new city should arise by the restoration of the old. We know what this captivity is, if we truly know our own state as wanderers. For in this world, in these present tribulations of the world, in the manifold crowd of offences, we, in a manner, are groaning in captivity; but we shall be lifted up: our new city is foretold to us, destined to be equal to the old. For after their prophesying too, the event happened visibly, so that the whole was unfolded, which was needed to fulfil the foreshadowing. Jerusalem was restored after seventy years of captivity. Thus, by these seventy years, does Jeremiah mark out by the number seven the whole course of time: for these days of ours, as ye know, advance in sevens, they go and return. After seventy years then, when Jeremiah promised that the city Jerusalem should be restored, it came to pass that therein too was set forth an image of things to come: it was set forth to us, that after this whole course of time, which is signified by the number seven, that city of ours will be in eternity, in one day. For in that dwelling time rolls not on, for the dweller passeth not away. The prophets, seeing this in spirit, saw the heavenly, spake of the earthly. But they said of the latter, what might guide to the former: and all the things which were done in time, in bodily movements, in acts of men, were signs and fore-announcements of things to come.

26. Let us now hear that city sung of, and lift up ourselves to it. For the Spirit of God commendeth it much to us, shedding into us the love of it, that we sigh unto it, and groan in our wanderings, and long to reach it. Let us love it: the very love is walking. Behold, let us love it from the hallowed mouth, from the mouth prophetic speaking by the Spirit of God: Praise in unison, O Jerusalem, thy God. Abiding yet in captivity, they behold those flocks, or rather, Praise of God the one employment of that life. 387 the one flock of all its citizens, gathered from all sides into that city; they see the joy of the mass, now after threshings and winnowings placed in the garner, fearing nothing, suffering no toil nor trouble; and, as yet abiding here, in the midst of the threshing they send forward their joy of hope, and pant for it, joining as it were their hearts to the Angels of God, and to that people which shall abide with them in joy for ever. Praise in unison, O Jerusalem, thy God. For what wilt thou then do, O Jerusalem? Surely toil and groaning will pass away. What wilt thou do? wilt thou plough, or sow, or plant vines, or make voyages, or trade? What wilt thou do? Will it still be thy duty to be engaged in the works thou now doest, good though they are, and spring from mercy? Consider thy numbers, consider on all sides thy company: see whether any hungers, for thee to give bread to; see whether any thirsts, for thee to give a cup of cold water to; see whether any is a stranger, for thee to take in; see whether any is sick, for thee to visit; see whether any is at strife, for thee to reconcile him; see whether any is dying, for thee to bury him. What then wilt thou do? Praise in unison, O Jerusalem, thy God. Behold, this is thy business. As is wont to be said in inscriptions, 'Use it and be happyV Praise in unison, O Jerusalem, thy God.

27. Be ye Jerusalem; remember of whom it is said, Lord, in. Thy city their image Thou shall briny to nought. These are they who now rejoice in such pomps; among them are they who have not come hither to-day because there is a show. To whom is it a gift5? to whom is it a loss? or why is it a gift? why is it a loss? For not they only who exhibit such shows are smitten with loss, but with much greater loss are they smitten who delight in gazing on them. The former have their chest drained of its gold, the latter have their breast robbed of the riches of righteousness. Most of the exhibitors of shows have to mourn for selling their estates; how ought the sinners to mourn, for losing their souls! Was it then for this that the Lord cried out expressions seem from Morcelli, Opera k A play on the double meaning of 0n the Lord's Day, ' Watch ye,' that to-day men should watch in this way. I beseech you, ye citizens of Jerusalem, I beseech you by the peace of Jerusalem, by the Redeemer, the Builder, the Ruler of Jerusalem, that ye address your prayers to God for them. May they see, may they feel, that they are trifling; and, intent as they are on the sights which please them, may at length look on themselves, and be displeased. For in many we rejoice that tins has already been done: and once we too sat there and were mad: and how many think we now sit there, who shall yet be, not only Christians, but also Bishops! From what is past, we conjecture what is to be: from what has already been done, we announce beforehand what God will do. Let your prayers be wakeful, ye groan not for nothing. Certainly they who have already escaped, praying for those who are still in danger, because they too having been among those in danger, are. heard; and God shall drag His people out of the captivity of Babylon; by all means He shall redeem and deliver them, and the number of the saints who bear the image of God shall be perfected. They shall not be there, whose image in His city God shall spurn and bring to nought, because they too in their city, that is in Babylon, have brought His image to nought. There shall be the people praising the Lord, whom now the Spirit of prophecy foreseeth, and bids us exult in hope, and long for the reality. Praise in unison thy God, O Jerusalem: praise thy God, O Sion. Praise in unison, because thou consistest of many: praise, because thou hast been made one1. We being many, saith the Apostle, are one in Christ. As then we are many, we praise in unison; as we are one, we praise. The same are many and one, because He in Whom they are one2 is ever One3. g Wherefore, saith this Jerusalem, do I praise in unison the Lord, and, as Sion, praise my God? Jerusalem is the same as Sion. For different reasons has it the two names. Jerusalem meaneth ' visions of peace;' Sion meaneth ' watching4.' See whether these words do not sound like sights6; that the Gentiles may not think that they have sights and we have none. Sometimes after the theatre or amphitheatre breaks up, when the crowd of lost ones begins to be vomited forth from that den, sometimes, retaining in their minds images of their vain amusements, and feeding their memory with things not only useless but even hurtful, rejoicing in them as if they were sweet, while they are really deadly; they see often, it may be, the servants of God pass by, they recognise them by their garb or head-dress, or they know them by sight0, and they say to one another, or inwardly, ' Wretched people, how much they lose V Brethren, let us#return their good will (for they do mean it well) with prayers to the Lord. They wish us well; but he that loveth iniquity, hateth his own soul. If he hateth his own soul, how shall he love my soul? Yet with a perverse, and empty, and vain good will, if indeed it may be called good will, they grieve that we lose what they love: let us pray that they lose not what we love. Behold of what character that Jerusalem is to be which he exhorteth to praise, or rather foreseeth will praise. For the praises of that city, when we shall see and love and praise, will not need to be urged on and stirred up by the voice of prophecy; but the Prophets now say this, to drink in as far as while they remain in this flesh they can, the future joys of the blessed, and then giving them forth into our ears, to arouse in us love of that city. Let us burn with longing, let us not be slothful in spirit.

28. But see of what character that Jerusalem is to be, which is to praise God, and how it is to praise; in a sort of perfection of bliss. Praise in unison, saith he, O Jerusalem, the Lord; praise thy God, O Sion. And, as though it said, how shall I be safe to praise? he saith, for He hath made strong the bars of thy gates. Observe, brethren. He saith, He hath made strong the bars of thy gates. The making bars strong is not for open gates, but shut ones, wherefore most manuscripts read, He hath made strong the 1 bolts of thy gates. Observe, beloved. He biddeth Jerusalem when closed in to praise the Lord. We praise in unison now, we praise now; but it is amid offences. Many where we wish not, enter in: many though we wish it not, go out: therefore offences are frequent. And because iniquity hath abounded, saith the Truth, the love of many waxeth cold: because men come in w hom we cannot discern, men go out whom we cannot retain. Wherefore is

? Because not yet is there perfection, not yet is there bliss that shall be. Wherefore is this? Because as yet is the threshing-floor, not yet the garner. What there- fore will be then, save no fear that aught of this kind will? For praise in unison, O Jerusalem, the Lord; thy God, O Sion: for He hath made strong the bars of thy gates. He hath made strong. He said no^only, He hath set, but, He hath made strong the bars of thy gates. Let none go out, let none come in. Let none go out, we rejoice: let none come in, we fear. Nay, fear not this: when thou hast entered it will be said: only be thou in the number of virgins, who carried their oil. with them.

10. For those virgins signify souls. For there were not really five, but among those five are thousands. For in the number five are understood thousands, not only of women but of men: for either sex is called woman, because they are the Church: and either sex, that is, the Church, is called a virgin. / have espoused you to one husband, that 1 may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. Few have virginity in the flesh: all ought to have in heart. Virginity of the flesh is a body unsullied; virginity in heart is a faith uncorrupted. The whole Church therefore is called <a Virgin,' and, in the masculine gender, 'the people of God,' and, 'one people,' and 'a single people,' and 'one Church,' and ' one dove:' and in this virginity are thousands of saints. The five virgins therefore signify all souls that are to enter into the kingdom of God, not without reason expressed by the number five, for the senses of the body known to all are five. For by five doors entereth every thing through the body into the soul: either by the eye entereth what thou lookest after amiss, or by the ears, or by the smell, or by the taste, or by the touch. Whosoever hath admitted nothing that corrupteth by these five gates, is reckoned among the five virgins. Corruption is admitted through unlawful desires: but what is lawful and what not, the books of Scripture fully tell. Thou must then be among these five virgins: so shalt thou not fear that which is said, ( Let none enter:' for this is said, and shall be fulfilled; but it will be when thou hast entered; none shall shut the door against thee, but when thou hast entered, the gates of Jerusalem shall be shut, and the bars of its gates be made strong. For if thou choosest either not to be a virgin in heart, or, though a virgin, among the foolish virgins, thou shalt remain outside, and knock in vain.

11. Who are the foolish virgins? They also are live: who, but they who have indeed continence of the flesh, so as to avoid the corruptions which come from all the senses, which I just enumerated? They avoid, so to speak, the corruptions which come from all sides; yet they bear not their good in their consciences before the eyes of God, but desire to please men therewith, and follow the judgment of others. They hunt after the good opinions of the multitude; they are of little value to themselves, while they desire to be dear to those who see them: their own conscience sufficeth them not. Rightly do they v carry no oil with them. For oil is the state of glory itself, on account of its brightness and splendour. But what saith the Apostle? Behold the wise virgins carrying oil with them: but let every man prove his own work, and then shalt he have glory in himself alone, and not in another. These then are the wise virgins. But the foolish light indeed their lamps, that is, their works seem indeed to shine; but they shall fail and be extinguished, because they are not fed with oil from within. And while the Bridegroom tarrieth, they all sleep: for both sorts of men fall asleep in death, both the foolish and the wise; while the Lord delayeth His coming, they sink into this bodily, visible death, which all Christians know that Scripture describes by sleep: as the Apostle said of them that were sick, For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. By11'30, sleep, he meaneth, die. But, lo, the Bridegroom shall come, and all shall rise, but not all shall enter. The works of the foolish virgins shall fail, because they have not the oil of conscience: nor shall they find from whom to buy, what their flatterers used to sell to* them. For they are mocking, not grudging, who say to them, Go and buy for yourselves. For the foolish had begged of the wise, and had said to them, Give us oil, for our lamps are gone out. What said the wise? Lest perhaps there be not enough for us and you, go rather to Ihem that sell, and buy for yourselves. was in fact reminding them, ' What do they now profit you, from whom ye were wont to buy flattery?' And while they were going, Scripture saith, the others went in, and the door was shut. While they are going in heart, while they are thinking on these things, while they, putting off from them their former purpose, are recalling back their past deeds, they, as it were, are going to them that sell: and they find not others to aid them, they find not tffen to praise them those by whom they were wont to be praised, and to be roused, as they thought, to good works, not by the strength of a good conscience, but by the incitement of another's tongue.

12. Those words too, lest perchance there be not enough for us, are said with great humbleness of thought. For the oil which we bear in our consciences is our judgment of our own character, and it is difficult for a man to judge perfectly concerning himself. My brethren, however much a man advance, however much he reach forth unto those things which are before, and forget those things which are behind, if he once say to himself, ' It is well,' there cometh forth a rule from the storehouse of God; it examineth him accurately, and who shall boast that he hath a pure heart, who shall boast that he is clean from sin? But what saith Scripture, Judgment without mercy to him who hath shewed no mercy. Howrever much progress thou makest, thou must hope in mercy. For if justice without mercy be brought forth, in any one it will find what it may condemn. And what Scripture comforteth us? That which exhorteth us to shew mercy, that we be altogether frequent in giving what we have beyond our needs. For we have many superfluities, if we keep nothing but what is necessary; for if we seek empty vanities, nothing is enough. My brethren, seek what is enough for God^ work, not what is sufficient for your greediness. Your greediness is no work of God. Your self, your body, your soul, this is all God's work. Enquire what is enough for them, and thou shalt see how little it is. Two pieces of money were enough for the widow to shew mercy with: two pieces of money were enough to buy the Kingdom of God. What is enough for the giver of shows to clothe them that fight with wild beasts so often f See that not only is it little which is enough for yourselves, but neither doth God Himself require much from thee. Find out how much He hath given thee, and take of that what is enough: all other things which remain as superfluities are the necessaries of others. The superfluities of the rich are the necessaries of the poor. Thou possessest what belongs to others, when thou possessest more than thou needest.

13. If then thou doest deeds of mercy of this kind, and specially that which costeth thee nothing, namely, forgive as we forgive, (wherein thou spendest nought but charity,12, which groweth in the spending,) if thou doest, I say, and art fervent in these good works of mercy, (which good works themselves will be needless then, because then there will be no one miserable, to whom mercy may be shewn,) thou wilt await in safety the judgment, in safety not so much on account of thy righteousness, as on account of the mercy of God, because thou too hast first shewed mercy. For judgment without mercy to him that hath shewed no mercy: and mercy rejoiceth against judgment. Think13- not, brethren, that then He is not just when He sheweth us no mercy, or that He departeth from the standard of His justice. Both when He condemneth, He is just, and when He sheweth mercy, He is just. For what so just as to repay mercy to one who sheweth it first? What so just, as that in what measure ye mete, it be measured to you again? Give to thy brother in need. What brother? To Christ.2' If then because in giving to thy brother, thou givest to Christ, and in Christ to God, Wlio is over all, blessed for ever; God hath willed to need at thy hand, and dost thou5, hold thy hand back? Certainly thou stretchest out thine hand, and askest of God: hear then the Scripture; let not thine hand be stretched out to receive, and shut when thou4'31' shouldest give. God willeth that somewhat be spent upon Him, of that which He hath given. For what givest thou, which He gave not? For what hast thou, which thou hast not received? or rather, not to say to God, dost thou give aught to any one of what is thine own? Of His thou givest Who biddeth thee give. Prefer to spend rather than to seize. If then thou doest this, and in true humility sayest of that lest haply there be not enough for us, then thou enterest in, and the door is shut. Hear the Apostle saying so: to me it is a very small thing to be judged of you. For how can ye judge my conscience? How can ye examine with what mind I do what I do? How far can men judge of their neighbour? Surely a man can judge better about himself: but better can God judge about a man, than the man about himself. If then thou shalt have been such as this, thou shalt enter, thou shalt be among the five virgins; the other foolish ones shall be shut out. For this thou hast in the Gospel. The door shall be shut, and they shall stand and cry, Open unto us, and it shall not be opened: for He hath made strong the bars of thy gates: He hath made strong, saith he, the bars of thy gates: now thou art safe: in safety praise: praise without end. Firmly are thy gates shut: no friend goeth out: no enemy cometh in. He hath made strong the bars of thy gates.

14. He hath blessed thy children within thee. They roam not without, they wander not; within they rejoice, within they praise, within they are blest: within they no longer are in travail, for now they give not birth to any. They are sons, they are holy. These holy sons, now praising and rejoicing, their mother, love, has already travailed with and given birth to; they are shut within, because love has gathered them. Hear love travailing with them: for the Apostle Paul, filled with love, having not only a father's but a mother's heart toward his sons, saith, My children, of whom I travail in birth again. When Paul travailed in birth with them, it was love that travailed in birth; when love travailed in birth with them, it was the Spirit of God that travailed: for the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, Which is given unto us. Let Him then gather whom He has travailed in birth with, and brought forth. Now the sons are within, they are safe. They have flown from the nest of fear, they have flown to the heavenly places, they have flown to everlasting abodes: they fear no longer any thing temporal.

15. He hath blessed thy children within thee. Who? He Who hath set peace as thy borders. How ye all exult! The loveliness of the peace of God. Love peace, my brethren. Greatly are we delighted, when the love of peace crieth from your hearts. How greatly doth it delight you! I had said nothing: V had explained nothing: I but read the verse, and ye shouted. What was it that shouted in you? The love of peace. What have I shewn to your eyes? Wherefore shout ye, if ye love not? Wherefore love ye, if ye see not? But peace is invisible. What eye is there that hath seen her, so as to love her? Yet would ye not shout, if ye loved not. These are the shows which God exhibiteth of things invisible. With how great beauty hath the perception of peace smitten your hearts! Why should I go on to speak of peace, or of the praises of peace? Your feelings have anticipated all my words: I cannot attain to it: I am unable: I am too weak. Let us all defer the praises of peace, till we come to the country of peace. There we shall praise it more fully, for we shall enjoy it more fully. If thus we love it when it is but begun in us, how shall we praise it when it is perfected? Behold, this I say, O beloved sons, O children of the kingdom, O citizens of Jerusalem, in Jerusalem is the vision of peace: and all who love peace are blest in her, and they enter in, when the doors are being shut, and the bars made strong. This, which when but named ye so love and esteem, this follow after, this long for: this love in your home, in your business, in your wives, in your sons, in your slaves, in your friends, in your enemies.

16. This is the peace which heretics have not. What doeth peace, while still in the uncertainties of this present region, in this pilgrimage of our mortal nature? wherein none is manifest to another, none can see the heart of another? What doeth peace? It judgeth not about things uncertain; it establisheth not things unknown: it is more ready to believe well of a man than to suspect ill. It grieveth not, as having made a grievous error, when it thinketh well even of a bad man; it doth grieve, as having made a deadly error, when it hath happened to think evil of a good man. ' I know not what he is; what loss is it, if I believe that he is good. If it be uncertain, thou mayest be cautious, lest perchance it be true; yet thou mayest not condemn, as though it were true.' Thus doth peace bid thee. Seek peace, she saith, and ensue it. What doth heresy bid? It condemned) those whom it kuoweth not; it condemneth the whole world: the whole world, it saith, hath perished; there is no Christian left, Africa alone remaineth. Thou hast judged well. From what tribunal dost thou pass sentence on the whole world? In what court hath the world stood before thee? I do not desire men to believe me, but that they believe not thee ^ither: let Christ be believed, let the Spirit of God in the prophets be believed, let the law of Moses be believed. What said Moses of these times which were to come? To Abraham was said, in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed. Dost thou doubt what is meant by ' the seed of Abraham?' When the Apostle hath spoken, I think thou wilt not doubt; or if thou doubtest about the Apostle too, wherefore peace, peace, when there is no peace f What saith the Apostle? To Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. Lo, hundreds of years before it was said to Abraham, In thy seed shall all nations be blessed. What was said hundreds of years before, and believed by one man, that we now see fulfilled. Here we read it, here we see it, and dost thou come athwart it and refuse it? What wilt thou say? Believe not. Believe not whom? The Spirit of God? God speaking to Abraham? And whom am 1 to believe? Thee? I say not this, thou wilt say. What then dost thou say to me? This man and that have handed it down. Dost thou quote this from the Gospel, from the Apostle, from the Prophets? Examine all the Scriptures: read me this from what I believe; for thee I believe not. From whence wilt thou read? This, my father, saith he, told me; this, my grandfather; this, my brother; this, my bishop. Yes; but this God said to Abraham, In thy seed shall all nations be blessed. One man heareth this, and believeth, and it happeneth iu many cases after many ages. When it is said, it is believed; when it is fulfilled, is it doubted? This then Moses said; let the Prophets speak also. Behold the barter of our purchasing. Christ hangeth on the wood: behold the Price at which He bought, and so shalt thou who narrow the pale of Salvation. see what He bought. He is about to buy somewhat: what that somewhat is as yet thou knowest not. Behold, behold the Price, and thou shalt see the thing. His own Blood He shed; with His own Blood He bought; with the Blood of the immaculate Lamb He bought; with the Blood of the only-begotten Son of God He bought. What was bought with the Blood of the only-begotten Son of God? Look still wj>at the Price was. The Prophet said long before it took place, They pierced My Hands and My Feet, they counted all My Bones. I behold, O Christ, a mighty Price; let me see what Thou hast purchased. All the borders o/Ps. the earth shall remember themselves, and be turned unto2^' the Lord. In one and the same Psalm I see the Purchaser, and the Price, and the Purchase. The Purchaser, is Christ; the Price, His Blood; the Purchase, the world. Let us hear the very words of prophecy contradicting heretical questioners. Behold the Purchase of my Lord. Wilt thou that I read it in the Psalm? All the borders of the earth shall remember themselves, and be turned unto the Lord, and all the countries of the Gentiles shall worship before Him. Behold Him too contending, behold Him defending the right: for the Kingdom is His, and He shall rule over the Gentiles. Yes, He Who bought, even Christ, not he28, who apostatised, Donatus. They shall worship. Rightly shall all the countries of the Gentiles worship before Him. Wherefore rightly? Because the Kingdom is the Lord's, and He shall rule over the Gentiles. So spake Moses, so spake the Prophets, and thousands of other things have they said too. Who can count the testimonies to the Church scattered throughout the whole world? Who can count them? there are not as many heresies against the Church, as there are testimonies of the Law for the Church. What page soundeth not thus? what verse speaketh not this? All cry out for the Lord's unity, because He hath made the borders of Jerusalem peace. Dost thou, O heretic, bark against this? Therefore is it rightly said in reference to that city, as it is written in the Apocalypse, without are dogs. Thou barkest against this. Where hast thou passed judgment on the whole world, as I said at the beginning? on what tribunal? Why, on the arrogance of thine own heart. A lofty tribunal, but one that shall fall. Thus spake Moses, gpake tne pr0phets, and yet they believe not, who would be thought Christians.

17. A certain rich man was tormented in hell, and longed for a drop of water from the finger of the poor man who had lain despised before his gate, because he was burned in the flames. And when this was not granted to him, because there shall be judgment without mercy to hirq that hath shewed no mercy; when, I say, this was not granted to him, he said to Abraham, Father Abraham, I have five brethren; send Lazarus to tell them what 1 am suffering that they come not also into this place of torment. And what said Abraham to him? They have there Moses and the Prophets. And he said, My father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent Then said Abraham, If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they believe though one went unto them from the dead. Of whom said he, they have there Moses and the Prophets? Surely of those who were yet alive, who had yet abundant time of amendment, who had not yet come into those regions of torments. They have there, he saith, those whom they may hear, Moses and the Prophets. They believe not these, but if one went unto them from the dead they will believe. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they believe though one went unto them from the dead. This is Abraham's statement. Abraham's statement where and whence? From some place on high, and full of rest and happiness, which he who was being tormented in the flame lifted up his eyes and saw; when in his bosom, that is in his secret place, he saw the poor man in happiness and exaltation, thence was that statement made. There God dwelleth, for God dwelleth in His saints. Wherefore the Apostle wisheth and saith, To be dissolved and to be with Christ is far better. So to the thief it is said, To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise. rj,^ Lord* then, dwelling with Abraham and in Abraham, uttered that statement, They have there Moses and the Prophets; if they hear not them, neither, though one rose from the dead, will they believe him. Ye have here, O ye heretics, Moses and the Prophets; as yet ye are alive, as but toe have also One risen from the dead. jet ye can hear, as yet ye can amend, as yet it is allowed you to bridle your violence, to hold the truth: consider with yourselves whether it be right to listen to Moses and the Prophets, who have given so great proofs of their credibility, when we see the affairs of men running in the course which they foretold. Why do ye still hesitate to believe Moses and the Prophets? Why do ye hesitate to listen? Do ye perchance seek one rising from the dead, whether He too can tell you about His Church? This is what the rich man in hell sought; he was blamed because he sought this; Moses and the Prophets ought to have been enough for his brethren. For this cause did he ask in vain, that ye now, being warned by his example, might not ask in vain and too late, and be tormented like him. Hear Moses and the Prophets. What said Moses? In thy seed shall all nations be blessed. What said the Prophets? All the borders of the earth shall remember themselves, and be turned unto the Lord. Wilt thou still say to me, ' Let one rise from the dead; I believe not, unless one come from thence and tell me?9 O Lord, thanks to Thy mercy: Thou didst will to die, that one might rise from the dead; and that one, not any body, but the Truth, Who rose from the dead. He Who could have spoken the truth concerning the place of the dead1, though He went not thither, yet on account of what foolish and wicked men say, lo, He died, lo, He rose from the dead*. What sayest thou, O heretic, what sayest thou? Now let me hear thee; all thy excuses are at an end; though thou wast to speak the words of the rich man in hell, Christ hath risen from the dead: deignest thou to listen even to Him? Behold, what thou alive longedst for, like the rich man when dead: He is risen from the grave: it is not thy father nor thy grandfather that have risen: it is not they, who have discredited some with the name of traditoresd.' But suppose they have not discredited them, but have spoken the truth: wilt thou know how little it is to me? Let us hear at the same time. what He said, Who hath risen from the grave. Why should I delay longer? Let us hear, let the Gospel now be opened, let what was done be read as if it were being done: let things which have been done be set before our eyes, that we may avoid wfrat are t0 come# Behold, Christ rising from the dead, shewed Himself to His disciples. This was His bridal: He is the Bridegroom; the Church, His Spouse. Behold the Bridegroom, Who was said to be dead, destroyed, at an end; behold, He hath risen whole as before; behold, He is shewn to the eyes of His disciples; behold, He is offered to the handling of their hands; behold, they touched th% scars, which were despaired of as wounds. He manifested Himself for their eyes to see, for their hands to handle; they think Him a spirit, for they despaired of His safety. He encourageth them, He strengtheneth them in the faith; Handle Me and see, for a spirit 'hath not Jlesh and bones, as ye see Me have. They touch, they rejoice, they tremble: and while they yet trembled for joy: thus thou hast it written. Things which are exceedingly joyful, though they are sure, yet are they not believed. A certain doubt, as though a man were slow to believe, hides the feelings of him who has what he sought. A man must needs rejoice the more, when what he despaired of has come to him. So to season and increase their joy, He willed not to be at once known. He held the sight of His disciples, specially of those two whom He found conversing by the way, already in despair, and saying, But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel. This they had thought, but now thought no longer. Hope was no longer with them, yet Christ was with them: biit He Who gave them back Himself, gave them back hope too. Afterwards then, after that they had recognised Him in the breaking of bread, wheu He shewed Himself to the other disciples, and they thought that He was a spirit, He said, Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not Jlesh and bones, as ye see Me have. And while they yet trembled for joy, He saith unto them, Have ye here any meat? He took, He blessed, He ate, He gave to them. The truth of His Body was set forth, all suspicion of deceit was removed. What then? Knew ye not that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning Me? And because they believed Moses and the Prophets, (for that was true which Abraham said, If they hear not Moses and the All evidence against the Donatists.. 401 Prophets, neither will they believe though one rose from the dead:) because, I say, they believed Moses and the Prophets, and were not of the number of those whom Abraham found fault with, they heard what the Lord said, Knew ye not that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning Me? Behold them who believed Moses and the Propl^ts, see how on their testimony they believe Him Who rose from the dead. Then opened He their understanding that they should understand the Scriptures; and said unto46' them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead the third day.

18. Here thou hast the Bridegroom of the Church. And about Him Moses was not silent, the Prophets were not silent, that Christ should rise from the dead on the third day; that He should suffer, and then rise. The Bridegroom is described to us, that we may make no mistake. But certain persons come forward, and, because we are not wrong in the Bridegroom, they themselves too seem to believe the same as we do about the Bridegroom, that they may draw us away from the members of the Bridegroom; they say to us, 'Yes, He is the Bridegroom, Whom ye believe, and we believe Him too, but the Bride is not the Church, whom ye hold to be.' What then is? 'The party of Donatus.' And this what thou sayest: dost thou say this, or the Bridegroom? Dost thou say it, or God by Moses? Behold, through Moses I hold the Church: it is said by Moses, In thy seed shall all nations be blessed. Dost thou say it, or the Spirit of God by the Prophets? Behold, through the Prophets I hold the Church: it is said by the Prophet, All the borders of the earth shall remember themselves, and be turned to the Lord. Behold, already I hold the testimony of the Law and the testimony of the Prophets: let us hear moreover Him Who rose from the dead. He sheweth Himself as the Bridegroom: we hold Him. He confirmed this by proof, by exhibiting testimonies. For this Moses and the Prophets said, that it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again the third day. Now then since we both hold the Bridegroom from these words, and I think that thou now art beginning with me to believe both 402 Christ Himself bears witness to the Catholic Church. these words of Moses and the Prophets, let us believe Him ajgo ^jyio rose from the dead. Let Him go on, and say, ' O Lord, I see now Christ the Bridegroom: it is done; let none separate me from the members of Thy Bride, and so Thou be not to me the Head, if I be not among her members. Tell me somewhat about the Church too, for I no longer doubt about her Bridegroom.' Hear about the Church too: He goeth on and saith, that in Him Name should be preached repentance and remission of sins. Nothing could be truer: that in His Name should be preached repentance and remission of sins. But where? For some say, lo here, others say, lo there. And what saith He Himself? Believe them not, for there shall arise fake Christs and false Prophets, and shall say, lo here, and, lo there. For they say not of the Head Himself, lo -here, and, lo there; for it is well known that Christ is in heaven; but of the Church, where Christ is, Who saith, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. But the Lord saith, Believe them not. He who saith, lo here, and lo there, poiuteth to parts: I have bought the whole. Let the Gospel tell me this: let Him Himself tell this from the Gospel; for Thou hast risen from the dead, that they may believe Thee, who believe Moses and the Prophets: do Thou tell me this. 1 hear; It behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name throughout all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. What is it, O heretic? Certainly, when I was quoting Moses and the Prophets, thou didst wait for Him Who should rise from the dead: lo, He hath risen; lo, He hath spoken; as truly is there no doubt of the Church of Christ, and the Spouse of Christ, as there was none of the Body of Christ, when shewn to the eyes and handled by the hands of the disciples. Lo, He Who rose from the dead sheweth both: He sheweth the Head, He sheweth the members: He sheweth the Bridegroom, He sheweth the Bride: either believe both with me, or else thou believcst what thou dost to thy condemnation. For why believest thou that He rose from the dead, that He rose in the same Body? 'On good grounds: because He shewed the scars of His wounds: because, as He was The Catholicity of the Church prefiguredin the gift of tongues. 4 03 crucified and buried, so was He restored and proved.9 Thou believest quite right. Now hear Him in Whom thou believest, speaking: That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name. Where? Throughout the broad earth. If I chose to say this, now struggling against heretics, now fighting, now having a contest with them on so important a question, I should not say it against present heretics as strongly as He said what He did say against future ones. What wouldest thou have more? Remission of sins is preached in Christ's Name. Where? Throughout all nations. Whence? Beginning at Jerusalem. Communicate with this Church. Wherefore do we contend? For this Church began from the earthly Jerusalem, that from thence it may rejoice unto God in the other, the heavenly Jerusalem. From this it beginneth, in that it endeth. In that the Church will be entire, from this it took the beginning of its faith.

19. Read the Acts of the Apostles, and see whether I lie, how there the disciples were gathered together, when the Holy Ghost came; that that which the Lord said may be proved to thee, beginning from Jerusalem; how they on whom the Spirit came, spake in the tongues of all men. Wherefore wilt thou not speak in the tongues of all men? Lo, there were heard the sounds of all tongues. Wherefore doth not he, to whom the Holy Ghost is given, now speak in the tongues of all men? For this was then the token of the Holy Ghost coming upon men, that they spake in the tongues of all men. What wilt thou say now, O heretic? that the Holy Ghost is not given? 1 say not where it is given; but is it not given? If it is not given, what is it that ye do, preaching, baptizing, blessing? What is it that ye do? These are empty celebrations. He is then given. If He is given, wherefore do not they to whom He is given speak in the tongues of all men r Hath the gift of God failed, or is the fruit thereof less? The tares grew, but the wheat grew also. Let both grow together till the Mat.i3, time of the harvest. He said not, * Let the tares grow, let the wheat decrease both grew. Wherefore doth not the Holy Ghost now manifest Himself in the tongues of all men? Yea rather, He doth manifest Himself in all tongues: We must be in Jerusalem now, if we for then the Church was not spread throughout the world, so that the members of Christ should speak in all tongues. Then was fulfilled in one what was foretold in all. Now the whole Body of Christ speaketh in the tongues of all, and in whatsoever it speaketh not, it will speak. For the Church shall increase till it filleth every tongue. That which ye have abandoned, how great hath it grown! Advance with us whithersoever it hath approached, thtt with us ye may reach places whither it hath not yet approached. I dare to say to thee, I speak in the tongues of all men: 1 am in the Body of Christ, in the Church of Christ: if the Body of Christ now speaketh in the tongues of all men, I also am in all tongues: mine is the Greek, mine the Syrian, mine the Hebrew, mine the tongues of all nations, because I am in the unity of all nations.

20. So then, brethren, the Church began from Jerusalem, and spread through all nations. What is more clear than this testimony of the Law, the Prophets, and of the Lord Himself? The voices of the Apostles sound every where, giving testimony of our hope in the unity of the Body of Christ. Rejoice over the wheat, tolerate the tares, groan in the threshing, sigh for the garner. The time will come when we shall rejoice, when the bars of the gates of Jerusalem are made strong. Let him enter, who is to enter. He who shall enter there manifested, here entereth not disguised. But he who entereth here disguised, is really without. He is without, and knows it not: the fan will prove it, the bars will prove it. He who now is truly and truthfully within, there will be finally within: he who now is within by enduring, there will be within in rejoicing. For the borders of Jerusalem are peace; for he saith, He hath set peace for thy borders. Now we long for peace, which here we have but in hope. For as yet in ourselves what sort of peace is there? The flesh lusleth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. Where is full peace even in one man? When there shall be full peace in one man, then shall there be full peace in all the citizens of Jerusalem. When will there be full peace? When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality; then will be full peace, would enjoy the peace and bliss of it hereafter. 405 then will be firm peace: then nothing contendeth against the soul in man, not itself against itself, being wounded in one part; not frailty of flesh, not want of body, not hunger, not thirst, not cold, not weariness, not any need, no provocation of strife, certainly not the anxious care at once to avoid and to love one's enemy. All these things, brethren, contend against us, not yet is there full and perfect peace. What $re cried out awhile ago at the very mention of peace, ye cried from longing: your cry was from thirst, not from fulness; for there will J>e perfect righteousness where will be perfect peace. Now we hunger and thirst after righteousness. Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst <*/ter righteousness, for they shall be filled. How shall they be filled? When we have arrived at peace. Therefore when he had said, Who hath set peace for thy borders, because there is fulness and no want, he added at once, and Jilleth thee with the fat of wheat.

21. Brethren, since this peace whereof we speak is not yet entirely in us, that is, entire in each one of us, it delighteth perhaps your spirits to go on yet to listen: but if there be nothing in the body which resists and rebels, let us finish the Psalm. I never find you weary, yet I fear, God knoweth, lest 1 be a burden to you, or to some of the brethren: and I see how zealously many of you demand of me this toil and effort, which 1 believe will not be unfruitful in the Lord. I rejoice that ye find such pleasure in the truth of the Word of God, that your good zeal in what is good and concerning what is good, surpasses the zeal of the madmen who are in the amphitheatre. Would they still be at their show, if they had to stand so long? Therefore, brethren, let us hear the rest, since so ye will. May the Lord be with us, may He be with our strength and our understandings. Who hath set peace for thy borders, he saith to the Jerusalem that is to be, and satisjieth thee with the fat of wheat. Hunger and thirst after righteousness pass away, plenty succeeded}. What will then be the fat of wheat, save that Bread which came down from heaven John to us! In our true country how will He satisfy us, Who in41, our pilgrimage hath thus fed us!

22. Now he is about to speak of this our pilgrimage, The wondrous swiftness whereby we come to that Jerusalem, where we shall praise -n unison Lord- where we shall praise the Lord our God, ourselves Jerusalem, ourselves Sion; when the bars of our gates shall be made strong. For He Who then will satisfy us with the fat of wheats what doeth He in this our pilgrimage? Who sendeth forth His Word to the earth. Behold, on earth we toil, weary, fainting, sluggish, cold: when should we be raised up to the fat of whe%t that satisfieth, did not He send His Word to the earth, whereby we were weighed down, to the earth, whereby we were hindered from returning? He sent His Word, He deserted us not even in the wilderness, He rained manna from heaven. Who sendeth forth His Word to the earth; and to earth His Word came. How? or what is His Word? Even unto swiftness His Word runneth. He said not, 'His Word is swift,' but, His Word runneth even unto swiftness. Let us understand, my brethren: He could not have chosen a better word. He who is hot grows hot by heat, he who is cold grows cold by cold, he who is swift becometh swift by swiftness. What is hotter than heat itself, whereby whatever is hot groweth hot? what is colder than cold itself, whereby whatever is cold groweth cold? What then is swifter than swiftness itself, whereby whatever runneth swiftly is made swift? Many things may be called swift, some more, some less; and in that degree is each thing swift, in which it is partaker of swiftness. This thing is in a greater degree partaker of swiftness, therefore it is swifter: this thing is in a less degree partaker of swiftness, therefore it is less swift. Than swiftness itself then, what is swifter? To what degree then doth it run? Even to swiftness. Increase as much as you will the swiftness of the Word, and say, It is as swift as this or that, as birds, as the winds, as the Angels; is any of these as great as swiftness itself, even unto swiftness? What is swiftness itself, brethren? It is every where; it is not in part. This belongeth to the Word of God, not to be in part, to be every where by Himself the Word, whereby He is the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. before He had taken flesh upon Him. If we think of God in the Form of God, the Word equal to the Father, this is the Wisdom of God, of Which is said, // reacheth from one end to the other mightily. What mighty speed! / / reacheth from one end to the other mightily. But perhaps it reacheth without being moveable. If without being moveable it filleth any space like some mass of stone, it is said to reach from one end to the other of the same space, yet not by motion. What say we then? Hath then that Word no motion, and is tha^ Wisdom senseless? Where is then that which is said of the Spirit of Wisdom? After much else, it is called quicks full of motion, plain 9 tmdejiled. Thus theu theWisd.7, Wisdom of God is evidently endowed with motion. If22, then it be endowed with motion, when it toucheth this, doth it not also touch that? Where then is swiftness? Swiftness maketh it to be every where always, yet no where to be imprisoned and detained. But these things are beyond our thoughts: we are too sluggish for them. Who can think on these things? And in truth, brethren, I have spoken as I could, (if indeed I could, if indeed I understood,) and ye have understood as ye were able. But what saith the Apostle? Note unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. What meaneth he here? That however often we have understood, we have not understood Him as He is. Wherefore is this? Because the corruptible body presseth down the soul. Therefore on earth are we cold, for swiftness is hot; and all that is hot is swift, all that is cold, slow. We are slow, therefore we are cold. But Wisdom runneth even unto swif tness. Therefore it is exceeding hot, and there is nothing that can hide itself from the heat thereof.

23. We then are burdened by the sluggishness of this cold body, and the bonds of this earthly aud corruptible life; have we no hope of receiving the Wordy Which runneth even unto swiftness? or hath He abandoned us, though by the body we are depressed to the lowest depths? Did not He predestinate us, before we were born in this mortal and sluggish body? He then, Who predestinated us, gave snow to the earth, even ourselves. For now let us come to those somewhat obscure verses of the Psalm, let those entanglements begin to be unrolled: since the Word of God findeth you the more eager, the more it is uttered to you by us. Behold, we are sluggish on this earth, and are as it were 408 The i wool? Christians, who are the robe of Christ. frozen here. And just as happens to the flakes of snow, for they freeze above, then fall down; so as love groweth cold, human nature falleth down to this earth, and involved in a sluggish body becometh like snow. But in that snow are predestined sons of God. For, He giveth snow like wool. What is, like wool? It meaneth, of the snow which He hath given, of these, who are as yet slow in spirit and cold, whom He hath predestinated, He is about to make» somewhat. For wool is the ^material of a garment: when we see wool, we look on it as a sort of preparation for a garment. Therefore since He hath predestinated these, who at present are cold and creep on earth, and as yet glow not with the spirit of love, (for as yet He speaketh of predestination,) God hath given these as a sort of wool: He is about to make of them a garment. Rightly did the raiment of Christ shine on the mountain, like snow. The raiment of Christ did shine like snow, as though of that snow a garment had already been made: of which wool, that is, of the snow which He gave like wool, they being as yet predestined, were sluggish: but wait, see what folio weth. Since He gave them as wool, a garment is made of them. For as the Church is called the Body of Christ, so is the Church also called the garment of Christ: hence cometh that which is said by the Apostle, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle. Let Him then present unto Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle; let Him make Himself a garment of that wool, which He had predestinated in the snow. While men are yet unbelieving, and cold, and sluggish, let Him make a garment of this wool. That it may be washed from spots, let it be cleansed by faith: that it may have no wrinkle, let it be stretched out upon the cross. Who giveth snow like wool.

24. Now if they are predestined, they are to be called. For whom He predestined, them He also called. Now how are they called from the sickness of the body, to become sound? How are they called? Hear the Gospel: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. That snow then beginneth at once iu predestination to acknowledge its sluggishness, to accuse its sins; it beginneth, being called, to come to repentance. Rightly then is it The 'mist' of ignorance scattered by ' ashes' of repentance. 409 said, Who giveth snow like wool, on account of the completion of the garment that is to be; aud also on account of the calling to repentance, He scattereth mist like ashes. He scattereth, saith the Psalmist, mist like ashes. Who? He Who giveth snow like wool. For whom He predestined, He calleth to repentance; for whom He predestined, them He also called. But ashes are connected with repentance. Heardrlim calling to repentance, when He upbraided certain cities, saying, Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! /or if the mighty works which have been done21' in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they had long ago repented in dust and ashes. Therefore, He scattereth mist like ashes. What is, He scattereth mist like ashes? When a man is called to learn about God, and it is said to him, ' Receive the Truth he beginneth to wish to receive the Truth, but is not able; he seeth that He is under a sort of darkness, which before he saw not. For this purpose then is that mist, that thou mayest know that thou knowest nothing, and that thou mayest know what thou oughtest to know, and mayest see that thou art too weak to know what ought to be known. For if while in this mist thou presumest that thou knowest, thou shalt hear from the Apostle, He who thinketh he knoweth anything, knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. Therefore as yet thou hast not2* comprehended, as yet thou art under a mist. But He hath not abandoned thee, Who lit up for thee the lamp of His Flesh. Wander not in the mist, follow in faith. But forasmuch as thou endeavourest to see and art not able, repent of thy sins, for mist is scattered like ashes. Repent thee now of having been obstinate against God, repent of having followed thine own evil ways. Thou hast come into this state where it is difficult for thee to see the vision of bliss, and the mist will be healthful to thee, which God scattereth like ashes. Thou thyself art as yet a mist, but like ashes. For they that are penitent, as yet roll themselves in ashes, my brethren, testifying, as it were, that they are like it, saying unto God, 6 1 am ashes.' For a certain Scripture saith, / have despised myself, and wasted away, I have reckoned myself earth and ashes. This is the humility of the penitent. When Abraham speaketh to his God, and wisheth the burning of Sodom to be disclosed to him, he sa^h, I am oul earth and ashes. How hath this humility ever been found in great and holy men! He scattereth their mist like ashes. Wherefore? Because whom He predestinated, them He also called, Who came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,

25. Who sendeth His crystal like morsels of bread. We need not spend our toil again in saying what crystal is. We have already said it, and I do not think that ye, beloved, have forgotten it. What is then, He sendeth His crystal like morsels of bread? Just as that snow is His, because it is of the predestinated; just as that mist is His, because they are called to repentance, who are predestinated to salvation, so the crystal is in a manner His. What is crystal? It is very hard, it is very tightly congealed; it cannot, like snow, be easily melted. Snow, hardened by many years' duration, and by the succession of ages, is called crystal, and this He sendeth like morsels of bread. What meaneth this? They were too hard, no longer fit to be compared to snow, but to crystal; but they too are predestinated and called, and some of them even so as to feed others, to be useful to others also. And what need is there to enumerate many, whom we happen to know, this one and that one? Every one when he thinks can recall to mind how hardened and obstinate some of those whom he knows have been, how they have struggled against the truth; yet now they preach the truth, they have been made morsels of bread. Who is that one Bread? We being many, saith the Apostle, are one Body in Christ; he saith we being many are one Bread and one Body. If then the whole Body of Christ is one Bread, the members of Christ are morsels of Bread. Of some that are hard He maketh members of Himself, and useful for feeding others. Why go we through many instances? Let us look on the well-known Apostle Paul. Nothing is better known to us than he, nothing sweeter, nothing in all Scripture more familiar. And if there have been, who from being as hard as he was have been made Bread, let his example set before us recall all, that the meaning may be unfolded of, He sendeth His crystal like morsels of bread. Behold, the Apostle Paul was a crystal, hard, resisting the truth, crying out against the Gospel, hardening himself, as it were, against the sun. How hard was he, profiting in the law, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, a teacher of the law. He heard not Moses and the Prophets preaching Christ.3, Great hardness this. True, the Gentiles had not heard the Prophets, had not heard Moses; they were cold, but they were tiot crystal. He who believed words that preached Christ, but believed not Christ when He came, he was exceeding hardened. Since then he was crystal, he appeared clear and white, but he was hard and very cold. How was he bright and white? An Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee. Behold the brightness of crystal. Now hear the hardness of crystal. As touching zeal, persecuting the Church of Christ. Among the stoners of the holy martyr Stephen, was he, hard, perhaps harder than all. For he kept the raiment of all who were stoning, so that he stoned by the hands of all.

26. Thus then we see the snow, the mist, the crystal: it is good that He blow and thaw them. For if He blow not, if He Himsejf thaw not the hardness of this ice, in the face of His cold who shall stand? In the face of His cold: whose? God's. Whence is His cold? Behold, He abandoneth a sinner, behold, He calleth him not; behold, He openeth not his perception; behold, He poureth not in grace; let the man thaw himself, if he can, from the ice of folly. He cannot. Wherefore can he not? In the face of His cold who shall stand? Behold him then growing harder, and saying, / see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and enslaving23' me 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? Behold, I am growing cold, behold, I am growing hard, what heat shall thaw me that I may run? Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? -In the face of His cold who shall stand? And who shall free himself, if God abandon him? Who is it that freeth? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Hear here also the grace of God: Who sendeth forth His crystal like morsels of bread; who shall stand in the face of His cold f Are we then to despair? God forbid. For it goeth on, jje shaii senci out fife Word, and meit them. Let not then the snow despair, nor the mist, nor the crystal. For of the snow, as of wool, a garment is being made. That mist findeth safety in repentance: for, whom He predestinated, them He also called. But even though they be the very hardest among the predestinated, though they have been for a long time hardening, and are become trystal, they will not be hard to the mercy of God. He shall send out His Word;and melt them. What is melt? Understand not melt in an ill sense: it meaneth, He shall liquify He shall thaw them. For they are hard through pride. Rightly is pride called also dulness: for whatever is dull, is also cold. It is an every day saying of men when they are chilled, * I was dulled.' Pride then is dulness. He shall send out His Word, and melt them. And, in truth, heaps of snow, when they are heated, melt in humility. Just then as cold heapeth up snow into mountains, as it were, so doth pride lift up fools. He shall send out His Word, and melt them. Behold that crystal Saul, after the slaughter and stoning of Stephen, came dull with a kind of hardness against Christ, and asked letters of the high priest that he might every where inform against the Christians, breathing out slaughters. Hard he is and cold against the fire of God. But hard and cold though he was, behold, He Who shall send out His Word, and melt them, called from heaven with heat, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? By that one word, all that great hardness of crystal was melted. He shall send out then His Word, and melt them. Despair not of the crystal, much less of the ^now, or of the mist. Despair not even of the crystal. Hear a saying of the crystal. Who before was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious. But wherefore doth God melt the crystal f That the snow despair not of itself. For he saith, For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them that hereafter should believe on Him unto eternal life. God then calleth unto the Gentiles, c Be melted, O crystal; come, ye snows.' He shall send forth His Word, and melt them. His Spirit shall blow, and the waters shall flow. Lo, the crystal and the snows are melted, they turn into water, let them that thirst, come and drink. Saul, hard as crystal, persecuted Stephen unto death; Paul, now in the living water, calleth the Gentiles to the Fount. His Spirit shall blow, and the waters shall flow: the fervent spirit; whence it is said in another Psalm, Turn our captivity, O Lord, as a torrent in the south wind. For captive Jerusalem4, had, m it were, frozen in Babylon: the south wind blows, the chill of captivity is dissolved, the warmth of love runneth to God. His Spirit shall blow, and the waters shall flow. He shall become in them a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.

27. Announcing His Word unto Jacob, His Righteousnesses™. and Judgments unto Israel. What Righteousnesses, what Judgments? Because whatever mankind had suffered here before, when it was snow and mist and crystal, it suffered for the deserts of its pride and uplifting against God. Let us go back to the origin of our fall, and see that most truly is it sung in the Psalm, Before I was troubled I wentP*. wrong. But he who says, Before I was troubled I went67' wrong, saith. also, It is good for me that Tlwu hast humbled me, that I may learn Hiy Righteousnesses. These righteousnesses Jacob learnt from God, Who made him to wrestle with an Angel, under the guise of which Angel God Himself wrestled with him. He held 'Him, he exerted violence to hold Him, he prevailed to hold Him: He caused Himself to be held, in mercy, not in weakness. Jacob therefore wrestled) and prevailed: he held Him, and when he seemed to have conquered Him, asked to be blessed of Him. How did he understand with Whom he had wrestled, Whom he had held? Wherefore did he wrestle violently, and hold Him? Because the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. Wherefore then did he wrestle? Because it is with toil. Wherefore do we with difficulty hold, what we so easily lose? Lest, easily getting back what we have lost, we learn to lose that which we hold. Let man have toil to hold: he will hold firmly, what he has only held after toil. These His judgments therefore God manifested to Jacob and Israel. I will speak yet more openly: I mean, that even the righteous, while here, endure toils, dangers, annoyances, sufferings, for their jeserts> \yy tne righteous judgment of God. For He alone can say that He suffered here without cause: (though in this way He did not suffer without cause, in that He suffered for us:) Who alone can say, -/ paid them then the things which / took not: Who alone could say, Behold, the prince of this world cometh, and shall find nothing in Me. And as though it were said to Him, ' Why then dost Thou puffer?' He goeth on and saith, But that all men may know that I do the will of My Father, arise, let us go hence. All others, who suffer for their own deserts by the judgment of God, and according to righteousness, let them not lay* claim to suffering innocently as Christ did. Hear the Apostle Peter. is time that judgment begin at the house of God. Exhorting the martyrs and witnesses of God to endure with perfect patience all the threats of the raging world, he saith to them, It is time that judgment begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God? and if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? Announcing His word unto Jacob, His righteousnesses and judgment to Israel.

28. He hath not done so to the whole race. Let none deceive you: it is not announced to any nation, this judgment of God; namely, how the righteous and the unrighteous suffer, how all suffer for their deserts, how the righteous themselves are freed by the grace of God, not in their own merits. This is not announced to the whole race, but only to Jacob, only to Israel. What then do we, if He hath not announced it to the whole race, but only to Jacob, only to Israel? Where will we be? In Jacob. He hath not manifested His judgments to.lhem. To whom? To all nations. How then are the snows called, when the crystal is melted? How are the nations called, now Paul is justified? How, save to be in Jacob? The wild olive is cut off from its stock, to be grafted into the olive: now they belong to the olive, no longer ought they to be called nations1, but one nation in Christ, the nation of Jacob, the nation of Israel. Wherefore the nation of Jacob, and the nation of Israel? Because Jacob is the son of Isaac, to all, but to the true Israel. Isaac of Abraham. But to Abraham what was said? In thy seed shall all nations be blessed. This was also said to Isaac and to Jacob. Wherefore we belong to Jacob, because we belong to Isaac, and to Abraham. For the seed of Abraham, as not I or any common man, but the Apostle himself, explaineth it, is Christ: he himself saith, He saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of ane, And to thy seed, whicfmis Christ. If we be one seed, we are one Jacob, one Israel, yea all nations are one man in Christ That then belongeth to all nations, which He hath revealed to Jacob, to Israel: and they only are to be reckoned among the other nations, who, refusing to believe in Christ, refuse to leave the wild olive, and be grafted into the olive. They will remain among the wild trees, barren branches and bitter. Let Jacob rejoice. What is Jacob? The supplanter: because Jacob supplanted his brother. For blindness in part is happened unto Israel, that the fulness of the Grentiles might come in. Of Jacob is made Israel. What is Israel? Now let us all listen, all who are Israel, whether ye who are here among the members of Christ, or those who are without yet not without, and throughout all nations every where without, every where within; let Israel himself hear, who of Jacob was made Israel. What is Israel? * Seeing God.' Where shall he see God? In peace. What peace? The peace of Jerusalem; for, saith he, He hath set peace for thy borders. There shall we praise: there shall we all be one, in One, uuto One: for then, though many, we shall not be scattered.