Augustine on the Psalms 46 – 49

PSALM 46

1. It is called, “A Psalm, to the end, for the sons of Korah, for things secret.” Secret is it then; but He Himself, who in the place of Calvary was crucified, ye know, hath rent the veil,[9] that the secrets of the temple might he discovered. Furthermore since the Cross of our Lord was a key, whereby things closed might be opened; let us trust that He will be with us, that these secrets may be revealed. What is said, “To the end,” always ought to be understood of Christ. For “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”[10] But The End He is called, not because He consumeth, but because He perfecteth. For ended call we the food which is eaten, and ended the coat which is woven, the former to consumption, the latter to perfection. Because then we have not where to go farther when we have come to Christ, Himself is called the end of our course. Nor ought we to think, that when we have come to Him, we ought to strive any further to come also to the Father. For this thought Philip also, when he said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” When he said, “It sufficeth us,” he sought the end of satisfaction and perfection. Then said He, “Have I been so long time with you, and hast thou not known Me, Philip: be that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father.”[1] In Him then have we the Father, because He is in the Father, and the Father in Him, and He and His Father are One.[1]

2. “Our God is a refuge and strength” (ver. 1). There are some refuges wherein is no strength, whereto when any fleeth, he is more weakened than strengthened. Thou fleest, for example, to some one greater in the world, that thou mayest make’ thyself a powerful friend; this seemeth to thee a refuge. Yet so great are this world’s uncertainties, and so frequent grow the ruins of the powerful day by day, that when to such refuge thou art come, thou beginnest to fear more than ever therein. … Our refuge is not such, but our refuge is strength. When thither we have fled, we shall be firm.

3. “A helper in tribulations, which find us out too much.” Tribulations are many, and in every tribulation unto God must we flee; whether it be a tribulation in our estate, or in our body’s health, or about the peril of those dearest to us, or any other thing necessary to the sustaining of this life, refuge ought there to be none at all to a Christian man, other than his Saviour, other than his God, to whom when he has fled, he is strong. For he will not in himself be strong, nor will he to himself be strength, but He will be his strength, who has become his refuge. But, dearly beloved, among all tribulations of the human soul is no greater tribulation than the consciousness of sin. For if there be no wound herein, and that be sound within man which is called conscience, wherever else he may suffer tribulation, thither will he flee, and there find God. … Ye see, dearly beloved, when trees are cut down and proved by the carpenters, sometimes in the surface they seem as though injured and rotten; but the carpenter looks into the inner marrow as it were of the tree, and if within he find the wood sound, he promises that it will last in a building; nor will he be very anxious about the injured surface, when that which is within he declares sound. Furthermore, to man anything more inward than conscience is not found; what then profits it, if what is without is sound, and the marrow of conscience has become rotton? These are close and vehement overmuch, and as this Psalm saith, too great tribulations; yet even in these the Lord hath become a helper by forgiving sin. For the consciences of the ungodly hateth nothing save indulgence; for if one saith he hath great tribulations, being a confessed debtor to the treasury, when he beholdeth the narrowness of his estate, and seeth that he cannot be solvent; if on account of the distrainers every year hanging over him, he saith that he suffereth great tribulations, and doth not breathe freely except in hope of indulgence, and that in things earthly;[2] how much more the debtor of penalties out of the abundance of sins: when shall he pay what he owes out of his evil conscience, when if he pay, he perisheth? For to pay this debt, is to undergo the penalties. Remaineth then that of His indulgence, we may be secure, get so that, indulgence received, we return not again to contract debts. …

4. Now then, such security received, what say they? “Therefore will not we fear, when the earth shall be confounded” (ver. 2). Just before anxious, suddenly secure; out of too great tribulations set in great tranquillity. For in them Christ was sleeping, therefore were they tossed: Christ awoke (as but now we heard out of the Gospel), He commanded the winds, and they were still.[3] Since Christ is in each man’s heart by faith, it is signified to us, that his heart as a ship in this world’s tempest is tossed, who forgetteth his faith: as though Christ sleeping it is tossed, but Christ awaking cometh tranquillity. Nay, the Lord Himself, what said He? “Where is your faith?”[4] Christ aroused, aroused up faith, that what had been done in the ship, might be done in their hearts. “A helper in tribulations, which found us s out too much.” He caused that therein should be great tranquillity.

5. See what tranquillity: “Therefore will not we fear when the earth shall be confounded, and the mountains shall be carried into the heart of the sea.” Then we shall find not fear. Let us seek mountains carried, and if we can find, it is manifest that this is our security. The Lord truly said to His disciples, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say to this mountain, Be Thou removed, and be Thou cast into the sea, and it shall be done.”[6] Haply “to this mountain,” He said of Himself; for He is called a Mountain: “It shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord shall be manifest.”[7] But this Mountain is placed above other mountains; because the Apostles also are mountains, supporting this Mountain. Therefore followeth, “In the last days the Mountain of the Lord shall be manifest, established in the top of the mountains.” Therefore passeth It the tops of all mountains, and on the top of all mountains is It placed; because the mountains are preaching The Mountain. But the sea signifieth this world, in comparison of which sea, like earth seemed the nation of the Jews. For it was not covered over with the bitterness of idolatry, but, like dry land, was surrounded with the bitterness of the Gentiles as with sea. It was to be, that the earth be confounded, that is, that nation of the Jews; and that the mountains be carried into the heart of the sea, that is, first that great Mountain established in the top of the mountains. For He deserted the nation of the Jews, and came among the Gentiles. He was carried from the earth into the sea. Who carrying Him? The Apostles, to whom He had said, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say to this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea, and it shall be done:” that is, through your most faithful preaching it shall come to pass, that this mountain, that is, I Myself, be preached among the Gentiles, be glorified among the Gentiles, be acknowledged among the Gentiles, and that be fulfilled which was predicted of Me, “A people whom I have not known shall serve Me.”[1] …

6. “The waters thereof roared, and were troubled” (ver. 3): when the Gospel was preached, “What is this? He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods:”[2] this the Athenians; but the Ephesians, with what tumult would they have slain the Apostles, when in the theatre, for their goddess Diana, they made such an uproar, as to be shouting, “Great is Diana of the Ephesians! “[3] Amidst which waves and roaring of the sea, feared not they who to that refuge had fled. Nay, the Apostle Paul would enter in to the theatre, and was kept back by the disciples, because it was necessary that he should still abide in the flesh for their sakes. But yet, “the waters thereof roared, and were troubled: the mountains shook at the mightiness thereof.” Whose might? The sea’s? or rather God’s, of whom was said, “refuge and strength, a helper in tribulations, which have found us out too much?” For shaken were the mountains, that is, the powers of this world. For one thing are the mountains of God, another the mountains of the world: the mountains of the world, they whose head is the devil, the mountains of God, they whose Head is Christ. But by these mountains were shaken those mountains. Then gave they their voices against Christians, when the mountains were shaken, the waters roaring; for the mountains were shaken, and there was made a great earthquake, with quaking of the sea. But against whom this? Against the City founded upon a rock. The waters roar, the mountains shake, the Gospel being preached. What then, the City of God? Hear what followeth.

7. “The streams of the river make glad the City of God” (ver. 4). When the mountains shake, when the sea rages, God deserteth not His City, by the streams of the river. What are these streams of the river? That overflowing of the Holy Spirit, of which the Lord said, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, out of his bosom[4] shall flow rivers of living water.”[5] These rivers then flowed out of the bosom[4] of Paul, Peter, John, the other Apostles, the other faithful Evangelists. Since these rivers flowed from one river, many “streams of the river make glad the City of God.” For that ye might know this to be said of the Holy Spirit, in the same Gospel next said the Evangelist, “But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that were to believe on Him should receive. For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.”[6] Jesus being glorified after His Resurrection, glorified after His Ascension, on the day of Pentecost came the Holy Spirit, and filled the believers,[7] who spake with tongues, and began to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. Hence was the City of God made glad, while the sea was troubled by the roaring of its waters, while the mountains were confounded, asking what they should do, how drive out the new doctrine, how root out the race of Christians from the earth. Against whom? Against the streams of the river making glad the City of God. For thereby showed He of what river He spake; that He signified the Holy Spirit, by “the streams of the river make glad the City of God.” And what follows? “The Most High hath sanctified His tabernacle:” since then there followeth the mention of Sanctification, it is manifest that these streams of the river are to be understood of the Holy Spirit, by whom is sanctified every godly soul believing in Christ, that it may be made a citizen of the City of God.

8. “God is in the midst of her: she shall not be moved “(ver. 5). Let the sea rage, the mountains shake; “God is in the midst of her: she shall not be moved.” What is, “in the midst of her”? That God stands in any one place, and they surround Him who believe in Him? Then is God circumscribed by place; and broad that which surroundeth, narrow that which is surrounded? God forbid. No such thing imagine of God, who is contained in no place, whose seat is the conscience of the godly: and so is God’s seat in the hearts of men, that if man fall from God, God in Himself abideth, not falleth like one not finding where to be. For rather doth He lift up thee, that thou mayest be in Him, than so lean upon thee, as if thou withdraw thyself, to fall. Himself if He withdraw, fall wilt thou: thyself if thou withdraw, fall will not He. What then is, “God is in the midst of her”? It signifieth that God is equal to all, and accepteth not persons. For as that which is in the middle has equal distances to all the boundaries, so God is said to be in the middle, because He consulteth equally for all. “God is in the midst of her: she shall not be moved.” Wherefore shall she not be moved? Because God is in the midst of her. He is “the Helper in tribulations that have found us out too much. God shall help her with His Countenance.” What is, “with His Countenance”? With manifestation of Himself. How manifests God Himself, so as that we see His Countenance? I have already told you; ye have learned God’s Presence; we have learned it through His works. When from Him we receive any help so that we cannot at all doubt that it was granted to us by the Lord, then God’s Countenance is with us.

9. “The heathen are troubled” (ver. 6). And how troubled? why troubled? To cast down the City of God, in the midst whereof is God? To overthrow the tabernacle sanctified, which God helpeth with His Countenance? No: with a wholesome trouble are the heathen now troubled. For what followeth? “And the kingdoms are bowed.” Bowed, saith He, are the kingdoms; not now erected that they may rage, but bowed that they may adore. When were the kingdoms bowed? When that came to pass which was predicted in another Psalm, “All kings shall fall down before Him, all nations shall serve Him.”[1] What cause made the kingdoms to bow? Hear the cause. “The Most High gave His Voice, and the earth was moved.” The fanatics[2] of idolatry, like frogs in the marshes, clamoured, the more tumultuously, the more sordidly, in filth and mire. And what is the brawling of frogs to the thunder of the clouds? For out of them “the Most High gave His Voice, and the earth was moved:” He thundered out of His clouds. And what are His clouds? His Apostles, His preachers, by whom He thundered in precepts, lightened in miracles. The same are clouds who are also mountains: mountains for their height and firmness, clouds for their rain and fruitfulness. For these clouds watered the earth, of which it was said, “The Most High gave His Voice, and the earth was moved.” For it is of those clouds that He threateneth a certain barren vineyard, whence the mountains were carried into the heart of the sea; “I will command,” saith He, “the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.”[3] This was fulfilled in that which I have mentioned, when the mountains were carried into the heart of the sea; when it was said, “It was necessary that the word of God should have been spoken first to you; but seeing ye put it from you, we turn to the Gentiles;”[4] then was fulfilled, “I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.” The nation of the Jews hath just so remained as a fleece dry upon the ground. For this, ye know, happened in a certain miracle, the ground was dry, the fleece only was wet, yet rain in the fleece appeared not.[5] So also the mystery of the New TeStament appeared not in the nation of the Jews. What there was the fleece, is here the veil. For in the fleece was veiled the mystery. But on the ground, in all the nations open lieth Christ’s Gospel; the rain is manifest, the Grace of Christ is bare, for it is not covered with a veil. But that the rain might come out of it, the fleece was pressed. For by pressure they from themselves excluded Christ, and the Lord now from His clouds raineth on the ground, the fleece hath remained dry. But of them then “the Most High gave His Voice,” out of those clouds; by which Voice the kingdoms were bowed and worshipped.

10. “The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our taker up” (ver. 7). Not any man, not any power, not, in short, Angel, or any creature either earthly or heavenly, but “the Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our taker up.” He who sent Angels, came after Angels, came that Angels might serve Him, came that men He might make equal to Angels. Mighty Grace! If God be for us, who can be against us? “The Lord of Hosts is with us.” What Lord of Hosts is with us? “If” (I say) “God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all; how hath He not with Him also freely given[6] us all things.”[7] Therefore be we secure, in tranquillity of heart nourish we a good conscience with the Bread of the Lord. “The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our taker up.” However great be thy infirmity, see who taketh thee up. One is sick, a physician is called to him. His own taken-up, the Physician calleth the sick man. Who hath taken him up? Even He. A great hope of salvation; a great Physician hath taken him up. What Physician?[8] Every Physician save He is man: every Physician who cometh to a sick man, another day can be made sick, beside Him. “The God of Jacob is our taker up.” Make thyself altogether as a little child, such as are taken up by their parents. For those not taken up, are exposed; those taken up are nursed. Thinkest thou God hath so taken thee up, as when an infant thy mother took thee up? Not so, but to eternity. For thy voice is in that Psalm, “My father and my mother forsake me, but the Lord hath taken me up.”[9]

11. “Come and see the works of the Lord” (ver. 8). Now of this taking up, what hath the Lord done? Consider the whole world, come and see. For if thou comest not, thou seest not; if thou seest not, thou believest not; if thou believest not, thou standest afar off: if thou believest thou comest, if thou believest thou seest. For how came we to that mountain? Not on foot? Is it by ship? Is it on the wing? Is it on horses? For all that pertain to space and place, be not concerned, trouble not thyself, He cometh to thee. For out of a small stone He hath grown, and become a great mountain, so that He hath filled all the face of the earth. Why then wouldest thou by land come to Him, who filleth all lands? Lo, He hath already come: watch thou. By growing He waketh even sleepers; if yet there is not in them so deep sleep, as that they be hardened even against the mountain coming; but they hear, “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”[1] For it was a great thing for the Jews to see the stone. For the stone was yet small: and small they deservedly despised it, and despising they stumbled, and stumbling they were broken; remains that they be ground to powder. For so was it said of the stone, “Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.”[2] It is one thing to be broken, another to be ground to powder. To be broken is less than to be ground to powder: but none grindeth He coming exalted, save whom He brake lying low. For now before His coming He lay low before the Jews, and they stumbled at Him, and were broken; hereafter shall He come in His Judgment, glorious and exalted, great and powerful, not weak to be judged, but strong to judge, and grind to powder those who were broken stumbling at Him. For” A stone of stumbling and a rock of offence,”[3] is He to them that believe not. Therefore, brethren, no wonder if the Jews acknowledged not Him, whom as a small stone lying before their feet they despised. They are to be wondered at, who even now so great a mountain will not acknowledge. The Jews at a small stone by not seeing stumbled; the heretics stumble at a mountain. For now that stone hath grown, now say we unto them, Lo, now is fulfilled the prophecy of Daniel, “The stone that was small became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.”[4] Wherefore stumble ye at Him, and go not rather up to Him? Who is so blind as to stumble at a mountain? Came He to thee that thou shouldest have whereat to stumble, and not have whereto to go up? “Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord.”[5] Isaiah saith this: “Come ye, and let us go up.” What is, “Come ye, and let us go up”? “Come ye,” is, Believe ye. “Let us go up,” is, Let us profit.[6] But they will neither come, nor go up, nor believe, nor profit. They bark against the mountain. Even now by so often stumbling on Him they are broken, and will not go up, choosing always to stumble. Say we to them, “Come ye, and see the works of the Lord:” what “prodigies He hath set forth through the earth.” Prodigies are called, because they portend something, those signs of miracles which were done when the world believed. And what thereafter came to pass, and what did they portend?

12. “He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth” (ver. 9). This not yet see we fulfilled: yet are there wars, wars among nations for sovereignty; among sects, among Jews, Pagans, Christians, heretics, are wars, frequent wars, some for the truth, some for falsehood contending. Not yet then is this fulfilled, “He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth;” but haply it shall be fulfilled. Or is it now also fulfilled? In some it is fulfilled; in the wheat it is fulfilled, in the tares it is not yet fulfilled. What is this then, “He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth”? Wars He calleth whereby it is warred against God. But who warreth against God? Ungodliness. And what to God can ungodliness do? Nothing. What doth an earthen vessel dashed against the rock, however vehemently dashed? With so much greater harm to itself it cometh, with how much the greater force it cometh. These wars were great, frequent were they. Against God fought ungodliness, and earthen vessels were dashed in pieces, even men by presuming on themselves, by too much prevailing by their own strength. This is that, the shield whereof Job also named concerning one ungodly. “He runneth against God, upon the stiff neck of his shield.”[7] What is, “upon the stiff neck of his shield”? Presuming too much upon his own protection. Were they such who said, “God is our refuge and strength, a Helper in tribulations which have found us out too much”? or in another Psalm, “For I will not trust in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.”[8] When one learneth that in himself he is nothing, and help in himself has none, arms in him are broken in pieces, wars are made to cease. Such wars then destroyed that Voice of the Most High out of His holy clouds, whereby the earth was moved, and the kingdoms were bowed. These wars hath He made to cease unto the end of the earth. “He shall break the bow, and dash in pieces the arms, and burn the shield with fire.” Bow, arms, shield, fire.[1] The bow is plots; arms, public warfare; shields, vain presuming of self-protection: the fire wherewith they are burned, is that whereof the Lord said, “I am come to send fire on the earth; “[2] of which fire saith the Psalm, “There is nothing hid from the heat thereof.”[3] This fire burning, no arms of ungodliness shall remain in us, needs must all be broken, dashed in pieces, burned. Remain thou unharmed, not having any help of thine own; and the more weak thou art, having no arms thine own, the more He taketh thee up, of whom it is said, “The God of Jacob is our taker up.” … But when God taketh us up, doth He send us away unarmed? He armeth us, but with other arms, arms Evangelical, arms of truth, continence, salvation, faith, hope, charity. These arms shall we have, but not of ourselves: but the arms which of ourselves we had, are burnt up: yet if by that fire of the Holy Spirit we are kindled, whereof it is said, “He shall burn the shields with fire;” thee, who didst wish to be powerful in thyself, hath God made weak, that He may make thee strong in Him, because in thyself thou wast made weak.

13. What then followeth? “Be still.” To what purpose? “And see that I am God” (ver. 10). That is, Not ye, but I am God. I created, I create anew; I formed, I form anew; I made, I make anew. If thou couldest not make thyself, how canst thou make thyself anew? This seeth not the contentious tumult of man’s soul; to which contentious tumult is it said, “Be still.” That is, restrain your souls from contradiction. Do not argue, and, as it were, arm against God. Else yet live thy arms, not yet burned up with fire. But if they are burned, “Be still;” because ye have not wherewith to fight. But if ye be still in yourselves, and from Me seek all, who before presumed on yourselves, then shall ye “see that I am God.” “I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” Just before I said, by the name of earth is signified the nation of the Jews, by the name of sea the other nations. The mountains were carried into the heart of the sea; the nations are troubled, the kingdoms are bowed; the Most High gave His Voice, and the earth was moved. “The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our taker up” (ver. 11). Miracles are done among the heathen, full filled is the faith of the heathen; burned are the arms of human presumption. Still are they, in tranquillity of heart, to acknowledge God the Author of all their gifts. And after this glorifying, doth He yet desert the people of the Jews? of which saith the Apostle, “I say unto you, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened unto Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”[4] That is, until the mountains be carried hither, the clouds rain here, the Lord here bows the kingdoms with His thunder, “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” And what thereafter? “And so all Israel shall be saved.” Therefore, here too observing the same order, “I will be exalted” (saith He) “among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth;” that is, both in the sea, and in the earth, that now might all say what followeth: “the God of Jacob is our taker up.”

PSALM 47

1. The title of the Psalm goeth thus. “To the end: for the sons of Korah: a Psalm of David himself.” These sons of Korah have the title also of some other Psalms, and indicate a sweet mystery, insinuate a great Sacrament: wherein let us willingly understand ourselves, and let us acknowledge in the title us who hear, and read, and as in a glass set before us behold who we are. The sons of Korah, who are they?[6] … Haply the sons of the Bridegroom. For the Bridegroom was crucified in the place of Calvary. Recollect the Gospel,[7] where they crucified the Lord, and ye will find Him crucified in the place of Calvary. Furthermore, they who deride His Cross, by devils, as by beasts, are devoured. For this also a certain Scripture signified. When God’s Prophet Elisha was going up, children called after him mocking, “Go up thou bald head, Go up thou bald head:” but he, not so much in cruelty as in mystery, made those children to be devoured by bears out of the wood.[8] If those children had not been devoured, would they have lived even till now? Or could they not, being born mortal, have been taken off by a fever? But so in them had no mystery been shown, whereby posterity might be put in fear. Let none then mock the Cross of Christ. The Jews were possessed by devils, and devoured; for in the place of Calvary, crucifying Christ, and lifting on the Cross, they said as it were with childish sense, not understanding what they said, “Go up, thou bald head.” For what is, “Go up”? “Crucify Him, Crucify Him.”[9] For childhood is set before us to imitate humility, and childhood is set before us to beware of foolishness. To imitate humility, childhood was set before us by the Lord, when He called children to Him,[10] and because they were kept from Him, He said, “Suffer them to come unto Me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.”[11] The example of childhood is set before us to beware of foolishness by the Apostle, “Brethren, be not children in understanding:” and again he proposeth it to imitate, “Howbeit in malice be ye children, that in understanding ye may be men.”[1] “For the sons of Korah” the Psalm is sung; for Christians then is it sung. Let us hear it as sons of the Bridegroom, whom senseless children crucified in the place of Calvary. For they earned to be devoured by beasts; we to be crowned by Angels. For we acknowledge the humility of our Lord, and of it are not ashamed. We are not ashamed of Him called in mystery “the bald” (Calvus), from the place of Calvary. For on the very Cross whereon He was insulted, He permitted not our forehead to be bald; for with His own Cross He marked it. Finally, that ye may know that these things are said to us, see what is said.

2. “O clap your hands, all ye nations” (ver. 1 ). Were the people of the Jews all the nations? No, but blindness in part is happened to Israel, that senseless children might cry, “Calve,””Calve;” and so the Lord might be crucified in the place of Calvary, that by His Blood shed He might redeem the Gentiles, and that might be fulfilled which saith the Apostle, “Blindness in part is happened unto Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.”[2] Let them insult, then, the vain, and foolish, and senseless, and say, “Calve,” “Calve;” but ye redeemed by His Blood which was shed in the place of Calvary, say, “O clap your hands, all ye nations;” because to you hath come down the Grace of God. “O clap your hands.” What is “O clap”? Rejoice. But wherefore with the hands? Because with good works. Do not rejoice with the mouth while idle with the hands. If ye rejoice, “clap your hands.” The hands of the nations let Him see, who joys hath deigned to give them. What is, the hands of the nations? The acts of them doing good works. “O clap your hands, all ye nations shout unto God with the voice of triumph.” Both with voice and with hands. If with the voice only it is not well, because the hands are slow; if only with the hands it is not well, because the tongue is mute. Agree together must the hands and tongue. Let this confess, these work. “Shout unto God with the voice of triumph.”

3. “For the Lord Most High is terrible” (ver. 2). The Most High in descending made like one ludicrous, by ascending into Heaven is made terrible. “A great King over all the earth.” Not only over the Jews; for over them also He is King. For of them also the Apostles believed and of them many thousands of men sold their goods, and laid the price at the Apostles’ feet,[3] and in them was fulfilled what in the title of the Cross was written, “The King of the Jews.”[4] For He is King also of the Jews. But “of the Jews” is little.[5] “O clap your hands, all ye nations: for God is the King of all the earth.” For it sufficeth not Him to have under Him one nation: therefore such great price gave He out of His side, as to buy the whole world.

4. “He hath subdued the people under us, and the nations under our feet” (ver. 3). Which subdued, and to whom? Who are they that speak? Haply Jews? Surely, if Apostles; surely, if Saints. For under these God hath subdued the people and the nations, that to-day are they honoured among the nations, who by their own citizens earned to be slain: as their Lord was slain by His citizens, arid is honoured among the nations; was crucified by His own, is adored by aliens, but those by a price made His own. For therefore bought He us, that aliens from Him we might not be. Thinkest thou then these are the words of Apostles, “He hath subdued the people under us, and the nations under our feet”? I know not. Strange that Apostles should speak so proudly, as to rejoice that the nations were put under their feet, that is, Christians under the feet of Apostles. For they rejoice that we are with them under the feet of Him who died for us. For under Paul’s feet ran they, who would be of Paul, to whom He said, “Was Paul crucified for you?”[6] What then here, what are we to understand? “He hath subdued the people under us, and the nations under our feet.” All pertaining to Christ’s inheritance are among “all the nations,” and all not pertaining to Christ’s inheritance are among “all the nations:” and ye see so exalted in Christ’s Name is Christ’s Church, that all not yet believing in Christ lie under the feet of Christians. For what numbers now run to the Church; not yet being Christians, they ask aid of the Church;[7] to be succoured by us temporally they are willing, though eternally to reign with us as yet they are unwilling. When all seek aid of the Church, even they who are not yet in the Church, hath He not “subdued the people under us, and the nations under our feet”?

5. “He hath chosen an inheritance for us, the excellency[8] of Jacob, whom He loved” (ver. 4). A certain beauty of Jacob He hath chosen for our inheritance. Esau and Jacob were two brothers; in their mother’s womb both struggled, and by this struggle their mother’s bowels were shaken; and while they two were yet therein, the younger was elected and preferred to the elder, and it was said, “Two peoples are in thy womb, and the eider shall serve the younger.”[1] Among all nations is the elder, among all nations the younger; but the younger is in good Christians, elect, godly, faithful; the elder in the proud, unworthy, sinful, stubborn, defending rather than confessing their sins: as was also the very people of the Jews, “being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness.”[2] But for that it is said, “The elder shall serve the younger;” it is manifest that under the godly are subdued the ungodly, under the humble are subdued the proud. Esau was born first, and Jacob was born last; but he who was last born, was preferred to the first-born, who through gluttony lost his birthright. So thou hast it written,[3] He longed for the pottage, and his brother said to him, If thou wilt that I give it thee, give me thy birthright. He loved more that which carnally he desired, than that which spiritually by being born first he had earned:[4] and he laid aside his birthright, that he might eat lentils. But lentils we find to be the food of the Egyptians, for there it abounds in Egypt. Whence is so magnified the lentil of Alexandria, that it comes even to our country, as if here grew no lentil. Therefore by desiring Egyptian food he lost his birthright. So also the people of the Jews, of whom it is said, “in their hearts they turned back again into Egypt.”[5] They desired in a manner the lentil, and lost their birthright.

6. “God is gone up with jubilation” (ver. 5). Even He our God, the Lord Christ, is gone up with jubilation; “the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.” “Is gone up:” whither, save where we know? Whither the Jews followed Him not, even with their eyes. For exalted on the Cross they mocked Him, ascending into Heaven they did not ,see Him. “God hath gone up with jubilation. What is jubilation, but admiration of joy which cannot be expressed in words? As the disciples in joy admired, seeing Him go into Heaven, whom they had mourned dead; truly for the joy, words sufficed not: remained to jubilate what none could express. There was also the voice of the trumpet, the voice of Angels. For it is said, “Lift up thy voice like a trumpet.” Angels preached the ascension of the Lord: they saw the Disciples, their Lord ascending, tarrying admiring, confounded, nothing speaking, but in heart jubilant: and now was the sound of the trumpet in the clear voice of the Angels, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into Heaven? this is Jesus.”[6] As if they knew not that it was the same Jesus. Had they not just before seen Him before them? Had they not heard Him speaking with them? Nay, they not only saw the figure of Him present, but handled also His limbs. Of themselves then knew they not, that it was the same Jesus? But they being by very admiration, from joy of jubilation, as it were transported in mind, the Angels said, “that same is Jesus.” As though they said, If ye believe Him, this is that same Jesus, whom crucified, your feet stumbled, whom dead and buried, ye thought your hope lost. Lo, this is the same Jesus. He hath gone up before you, “He shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven.” His Body is removed indeed from your eyes, but God is not separated from your hearts: see Him going up, believe on Him absent, hope for Him coming; but yet through His secret Mercy, feel Him present. For He who ascended into Heaven that He might be removed from your eyes, promised unto you, saying, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”[7] Justly then the Apostle so addressed us, “The Lord is at hand; be careful for nothing.”[8] Christ sitteth above the Heavens; the Heavens are far off, He who there sitteth is near. …

7. “Sing praises to our God, sing praises” (ver. 6). Whom as Man mocked they, who from God were alienated. “Sing praises to our God.” For He is not Man only, but God. Man of the seed of David,[9] God the Lord of David, of the Jews having flesh. “Whose” (saith the Apostle) “are the fathers, of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came.”[10] Of the Jews then is Christ, but according to the flesh. But who is this Christ who is of the Jews according to the flesh? “Who is over all, God blessed for ever.” God before the flesh, God in the flesh, God with the flesh. Nor only God before the flesh, but God before the earth whence flesh was made; nor only God before the earth whereof flesh was made, but even God before the Heaven which was first made; God before the day which was first made; God before Angels; the same Christ is God: for “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”[11]

8. “For God is the King of all the earth” (ver. 7). What? And before was He not God of all the earth? Is He not God of both heaven and earth, since by Him surely were all things made? Who can say that He is not his God? But not all men acknowledged Him their God; and where He was acknowledged, there only, so to say, He was God. “In Judah is God known.”[12] Not yet was it said to the sons of Korah, “O clap your hands, all ye nations.” For that God known in Judah, is King of all the earth: now by all He is acknowledged, for that is fulfilled which Isaiah saith, “He is thy God who hath delivered thee, the God of the whole earth shall He be called.”[1] “Sing ye praises with understanding.” He teacheth us and warneth us to sing praises with understanding, not to seek the sound of the ear, but the light of the heart. The Gentiles, whence ye were called that ye might be Christians, adored gods made with hands, and sang praises to them, but not with understanding. If they had sung with understanding, they had not adored stones. When a man sensible sang to a stone insensible, did he sing with understanding? But now, brethren, we see not with our eyes Whom we adore, and yet correctly[2] we adore.[3] Much more is God commended to us, that with our eyes we see Him not. If with our eyes we saw Him, haply we might despise. For even Christ seen, the Jews despised; unseen, the Gentiles adored.

9. “God shall reign over all nations” (ver. 8). Who reigned over one nation, “shall reign” (saith He) “over all nations.” When this was said, God reigned over one nation. It was a prophecy, the thing was not yet shown. Thanks be to God, we now see fulfilled what before was prophesied. A written promise God sent unto us before the time, the time fulfilled He hath repaid us. “God shall reign over all nations,” is a promise. “God sitteth upon His Holy Seat.” What then was promised to come, now being fulfilled, is acknowledged and held. “God sitteth upon His Holy Seat.” What is His Holy Seat? Haply saith one, The Heavens, and he understandeth well. For Christ hath gone up,[4] as we know, with the Body, wherein He was crucified, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father; thence we expect Him to come to judge the quick and the dead.[5] “God sitteth upon His Holy Seat.” The Heavens are His Holy Seat. Wilt thou also be His Seat? think not that thou canst not be; prepare for Him a place in thy heart. He cometh, and willingly sitteth. The same Christ is surely “the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God:”[6] and what saith the Scripture of Wisdom Herself? The soul of the righteous is the seat of Wisdom.[7] If then the soul of the righteous is the seat of Wisdom, be thy soul righteous, and thou shalt be a royal seat of Wisdom. And truly, brethren, all men who live well, who act well, converse in godly charity, doth not God sit in them, and Himself command? Thy soul obeyeth God sitting in it, and itself commandeth the members. For thy soul commandeth thy members, that so may move the foot, the hand, the eye, the ear, and itself commandeth the members as its servants, but yet itself serveth its Lord sitting within. It cannot well rule its inferior, unless its superior it have not disdained to serve.

10. “The princes of the peoples are gathered together unto the God of Abraham” (ver. 9). The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.[8] True it is, God said this, and thereupon the Jews prided themselves, and said, “We are Abraham’s children; “[9] priding themselves in their father’s name, carrying his flesh, not holding his faith; by seed cleaving to Him, in manners degenerating. But the Lord, what said He to them so priding themselves? “If ye are Abraham’s children, do the works of Abraham.”[10] Again … “The princes of the peoples:” the princes of the nations: not the princes of one people, but the princes of all people have “gathered together unto the God of Abraham.” Of these princes was that Centurion too, of whom but now when the Gospel was read ye heard. For he was a Centurion having honour and power among men, he was a prince among the princes of the peoples. Christ coming to him, he sent his friends to meet Him, nay unto Christ truly passing over to him he sent his friends, and asked that He would heal his servant who was dangerously sick. And when the Lord would come, he sent to Him this message: “I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof, but say in a word only, and my servant shall be healed.” “For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers.”[11] See how he kept his rank! first he mentioned that he was under another, and afterwards that another was under him. I am under authority, and I am in authority; both under some I am, and over some I am. … As though he said, If I being set under authority command those who are under me, Thou who art set under no man’s authority, canst not Thou command Thy creature, since all things were made by Thee, and without Thee was nothing made. “Say,” then, said he, “in a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof.” … Admiring at his faith, Jesus reprobates the Jews’ misbelief. For sound to themselves they seemed, whereas they were dangerously sick, when their Physician not knowing they slew. Therefore when He reprobated, and repudiated their pride what said he? “I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west,” not belonging to the kindred of Israel: many shall come to whom He said, “0 clap your hands, all ye nations;” “and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven.” Abraham begat them not of his own flesh; yet shall they come and sit down with him in the kingdom of heaven, and be his sons. Whereby his sons? Not as born of his flesh, but by following his faith. “But the children of the kingdom,” that is, the Jews, “shall be cast into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”[1] They shall be condemned to outer darkness who are born of the flesh of Abraham, and they shall sit down with him in the kingdom of heaven, who have imitated Abraham’s faith.

11. And what they who belonged to the God of Abraham? “For the mighty gods of the earth are greatly lifted up.” They who were gods, the people of God, the vineyard of God, whereof it is said, “Judge betwixt Me and My vineyard,”[2] shall go into outer darkness, shall not sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, are not gathered unto the God of Abraham. Wherefore? “For the mighty gods of the earth;” they who were mighty gods of the earth, presuming upon earth. What earth? Themselves; for every man is earth. For to man was it said, “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”[3] But man ought to presume upon God, and thence to hope for help, not from himself. For the earth raineth not upon itself, nor shineth for itself; but as the earth from heaven expecteth rain and light, so man from God ought to expect mercy and truth. They then, “the mighty gods of the earth, were greatly lifted up,” that is, greatly prided themselves: they thought no physician necessary for themselves, and therefore remained in their sickness, and by their sickness were brought down even to death. The natural branches were broken off that the humble wild olive tree might be grafted in.[4] Hold we fast then, brethren, humility, charity, godliness: since we are called, on their proving reprobate, even by their example let us fear to pride ourselves.

PSALM 48

1. The title of this Psalm is, “A song of praise, to the sons of Korah, on the second day of the week.” Concerning this what the Lord deigneth to grant receive ye like sons of the firmament. For on the second day of the week, that is, the day after the first which we call the Lord’s day, which also is called the second week-day, was made the firmament of Heaven.[6] … The second day of the week then we ought not to understand but of the Church of Christ: but the Church of Christ in the Saints, the Church of Christ in those who are written in Heaven, the Church of Christ in those who to this world’s temptations yield not. For they are worthy of the name of “firmament.” The Church of Christ, then, in those who are strong, of whom saith the Apostle, “We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak,”[7] is called the firmament. Of this it is sung in this Psalm. Let us hear, acknowledge, associate, glory, reign. For Her called firmament, hear also in the Apostolic Epistles, “the pillar and firmament[8] of the truth.”[9] …

2. “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised” (ver. 1). … That is, “in the city of our God, in His holy mountain.” This is the city set upon an hill, which cannot be hid: this is the candle which is not hidden under a bushel,[10] to all known, to all proclaimed. Yet are not all men citizens thereof, but they in whom “great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.” What then is that city: let us see whether perhaps, since it is said, “In the city of our God, in His holy mountain,” we ought not to enquire for this mountain where also we may be heard. … What then is that mountain, brethren? One is it with great care to be enquired for, with great solicitude investigated, with labour also to be occupied and ascended. But if in any part of the earth it is, what shall we do? Shall we go abroad out of our own country, that to that mountain we may arrive? Nay, then we are abroad, when in it we are not. For that is our city, if we are members of the King, who is the head of the same city. … For there was a certain corner-stone contemptible, whereat the Jews stumbled,'[1] cut out of a certain mountain without hands, that is, coming of the kingdom of the Jews without hands, because human operation went not with Mary of whom was born Christ.[12] But if that stone, when the Jews stumbled thereat, had remained there, thou hadst not had whither to ascend. But what was done? What saith the prophecy of Daniel? What but that the stone grew, and became a great mountain? How great? So that it filled the whole face of the earth.[13] By growing, then, and by filling the whole face of the earth, that mountain came to us. Why then seek we the mountain as though absent, and not as being present ascend to it; that in us the Lord may be “great, and greatly to be praised”?

3. Further, … when he had said, “in the city of our God, in His holy mountain,” what added he? “Spreading abroad the joys of the whole earth, the mountains of Sion” (ver. 2). Sion is one mountain, why then “mountains”? Is it that to Sion belonged also those which came from the other side, so as to meet together on the Corner Stone, and become two walls, as it were two mountains, one of the circumcision, the other of the uncircumcision; one of the Jews, the other of the Gentiles: no longer adverse, although diverse, because from different sides, now in the corner not even diverse. “For He is our peace, who hath made both one.”[1] The same Corner Stone “which the builders rejected, is become the Head Stone of the corner.”[2] The mountain hath joined in itself two mountains; one house there is, and two houses; two, because coming from different sides; one, because of the Corner Stone, wherein both are joined together. Hear also this, “the mountains of Sion: the sides of the North are the city of the great King.” … See the Gentiles; “the sides of the North:” the sides of the North are joined to the city of the great King. The North is wont to be contrary to Sion: Sion forsooth is in the South, the North over against the South. Who is the North, but He who said, “I will sit in the sides of the North, I will be like the Most High”?[3] The devil had held dominion over the ungodly, and possessed the nations serving images, adoring demons; and all whatsoever them was of human kind anywhere throughout the world, by cleaving to Him, had become North. But since He who binds the strong man, taketh away his goods? and maketh them His own goods; men delivered from infidelity and superstition of devils, believing in Christ, are fitted on to that city, have met in the corner that wall that cometh from the circumcision, and that was made the city of the great King, which had been the sides of the North. Therefore also in another Scripture is it said, “Out of the North come clouds of golden colour: great is the glory and honour of the Almighty.”[5] For great is the glory of the physician, when from being despaired of the sick recovers. “Out of the North come clouds,” and not black clouds, not dark clouds, not lowering, but “of golden colour.” Whence but by grace illumined through Christ? See, “the sides of the North are the city of the great King.” …

4. Let the Psalm then follow, and say, “God shall be known in her houses.” Now in her “houses,” because of the mountains, because of the two walls, because of the two sons. “God shall be known in her houses,” but he commendeth grace, therefore he added, “when He shall take her up.” For what would that city have been, unless He had taken her up? Would it not immediately have fallen, unless it had such foundation? For “other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”[6] Let none then glory in his own merits; but “he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”[7] … The Lord then hath taken up this city, and is known therein, that is, His grace is known in that city: for whatever that city hath, which glorieth in the Lord, it hath not of itself. For because of this it is said, “What hast thou that thou didst not receive?”[8]

5. “For, lo, the kings of the earth are gathered together” (ver. 3). Behold now those sides of the North, see how they come, see how they say, “Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord: and He will teach us His way, and we will walk in it.”[9] “And have come together in one.” In what one, but :hat “corner-stone”?[10] “They saw it, and so they marvelled” (ver. 4). After their marvelling at the miracles and glory of Christ, what followed? “They were troubled, they were moved” (ver. 5), “trembling took hold upon them.” Whence took trembling hold upon them, but from the consciousness of sins? Let them run then, king after a king; kings, let them acknowledge the King. Therefore saith He elsewhere, “Yet have I been set by Him a King upon His holy hill of Sion.”[11] … A King then was heard of, set up in Sion, to Him were delivered possessions even to the uttermost parts of the earth. Kings behoved to fear lest they should lose the kingdom, lest the kingdom be taken from them. As wretched Herod feared, and for the Child slew the children.[12] But fearing to lose his kingdom, he deserved not to know the King. Would that he too had adored the King with the Magi: not by ill-seeking the kingdom, slain the Innocents, and perished guilty. For as concerning him, he destroyed the Innocents: but as for Christ, even a Child, the children dying for Him did He crown. Therefore behoved kings to fear when it was said, “Yet have I been set a King by Him upon His holy sill of Sion,” and inheritance. to the uttermost parts of the earth shall He give Him, who set Him up King. … Thence also this is said to them, “Understand now therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling.”[13] And what did they? “There pains as of a woman in travail.” What are the pains “as of a woman in travail,” but the pangs of a penitent? See the same conception of pain and travail: “Of Thy fear” (saith Isaiah) “we have conceived, we have travailed of the Spirit of salvation.”[14] So then the kings conceived from the fear of Christ, that by travailing they brought forth salvation by believing on Him whom they had feared. “There pains as of a woman in travail:” when of travail thou hearest, expect a birth. The old man travaileth, but the new man is born.

6. “With a strong wind Thou shalt break the ships of Tarshish” (ver. 6). Briefly understood, this is, Thou shalt overthrow the pride of the nations. But where in this history is mentioned the overthrowing of the pride of the nations? Because of “the ships of Tarshish.” Learned men have enquired for Tarshish a city, that is, what city was signified by this name: and to some it has seemed that Cilicia is called Tarshish, because its metropolis is called Tarsus. Of which city was the Apostle Paul, being born in Tarsus of Cilicia.[1] But some have understood by it Carthage, being haply sometimes so named, or in some language so signified. For in the Prophet Isaiah it is thus found: “Howl, ye ships of Carthage.”[2] But in Ezekiel[3] by some interpreters the word is translated Carthage, by some Tarshish: and from this diversity it can be understood that the same which was called Carthage, is called Tharsus. But it is manifest, that in the beginning of its reign Carthage flourished with ships, and so flourished, that among other nations they excelled in trafficking and navigation. For when Dido, flying from her brother, escaped to the parts of Africa, where she built Carthage, the ships which had been prepared for commerce in his country she had taken with her for her flight, the princes of the country consenting to it; and the same ships also when Carthage was built failed not in traffic. And hence that city became too proud, so that justly by its ships may be understood the pride of the nations, presuming on things uncertain, as on the breath of the winds. Now let none presume on full sails, and on the seeming fair state of this life, as of the sea. Be our foundation in Sion: there ought we to be stablished, not to be “carried about with every wind of doctrine.”[4] Whoso then by the uncertain things of this life had been puffed up, let them be overthrown, and be all the pride of the nations subjected to Christ. who shall “with a strong wind break all the ships of Tarshish:” not of any city, but of “Tarshish.” How “with a strong wind”? With very strong fear. For so all pride feared Him that shall judge, as on Him humble to believe, lest Him exalted it should fear.

7. “As we have heard, so have we seen” (ver. 7). Blessed Church! at one time thou hast heard, at another time thou hast seen. She heard in promises, seeth in performance: heard in Prophecy, seeth in the Gospel. For all things which are now fulfilled were before prophesied. Lift up thine eyes then, and stretch them over the world; see now His “inheritance even to the uttermost parts of the earth: “[5] see now is fulfilled what was said, “All kings shall fall down before Him: all nations shall serve Him :”[6] see fulfilled what was said, “Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens, and Thy glory above all the earth.”[7] See Him whose feet and hands were pierced with nails, whose bones hanging on the tree were counted, upon whose vesture lots were cast:[8] see reigning whom they saw hanging; see sitting in Heaven[9] whom they despised walking on earth: see thus ful-filled, “All the ends of the earth shall remember, and turn to the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Him.” Seeing all this, exclaim with joy, “As we have heard, so have we seen.” Justly the Church herself is so called out of the Gentiles. … They to whom the Prophets were not sent, first heard and understood the Prophets: they who first heard not, afterwards hearing marvelled. They remained behind to whom they were sent, carrying the books, understanding not the truth: having the tables of the Testament, and not holding the inheritance. But we, … “As we have heard, so have we seen.” And where hearest thou? where seest thou? “In the city of the Lord of Hosts, in the city of our God. God hath founded it for ever.” Let not heretics insult, divided into parties, let them not exalt themselves who say, “Lo, here is Christ, or lo, there.”[10] Whoso saith, “Lo, here is Christ, or lo, there,” inviteth to parties. Unity God promised. The kings are gathered together in one, not dissipated through schisms. But haply that city which hath held the world, shall sometime be overthrown? Far be the thought! “God hath founded it for ever.” If then God hath founded it for ever, why fearest thou lest the firmament should fall?

8. “We have received Thy mercy, O God, in the midst of Thy people” (ver. 8). Who have received, and where received? Hath not the same Thy people received Thy mercy. If Thy people hath received Thy mercy, how then, “in the midst of Thy people”? As if they who received were one party, they in the midst of whom they received another. A great mystery, but yet welt known. When hence also, that is, out of these verses, hath been extracted and brought forth what ye know; it will be not ruder, but sweeter. Now forsooth all are reckoned the people of God, who carry His Sacraments, but not all belong to His Mercy. All forsooth receiving the Sacrament of the Baptism of Christ, are called Christians, but not all live worthily of that Sacrament. There are some of whom saith the Apostle, “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.”[11] Yet on account of this form of godliness they are named among God’s people. As to the floor, until the corn is threshed, belongs not the wheat only, but the chaff. But will it also belong to the garner? In the midst then of an evil people is a good people, which hath received the Mercy of God. He liveth worthily of the Mercy of God who heareth, and holdeth, and doeth what the Apostle saith, “We beseech you that ye receive not the Grace of God in vain.”[1] Whoso then receiveth not the Grace of God in vain, the same receiveth not only the Sacrament, but also the Mercy of God as well. … So those who have the Sacraments, and have not good manners, are both said to be of God, and not of God; are both said to be His, and to be strangers: His because of His own Sacraments, strangers because of their own vice. So also strange daughters:[2] daughters, because of the form of godliness; strange, because of their loss of virtue. Be the lily there; let it receive the Mercy of God: hold fast the root of a good flower, be not ungrateful for soft rain coming from heaven. Be thorns ungrateful, let them grow by the showers: for the fire they grow, not for the garner. In the midst of Thy people not receiving Thy mercy, we have received Thy mercy. For” He came unto His own, and His own received Him not,” yet, in the midst of them, “as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.”[3] ….

9. For when he had said, “We have received Thy mercy in the midst of Thy people,” he signified that there is a people not receiving the mercy of God, in the midst of whom some do receive the mercy of God: and then lest it should occur to men that there are so few, as to be nearly none, how did He console them in the words following? “According to Thy Name, O God, so is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth” (ver. 9). What is this? … That is, as Thou art known through all the earth, so Thou art also praised through all the earth, nor are there wanting who now praise Thee through all the earth. But they praise Thee who live well. For, “According to Thy Name, O God, so is Thy praise,” not in a part, but “unto the ends of the earth.” “Thy right hand is full of righteousness.” That is, many are they also who shall stand at Thy right hand. Not only shall they be many who shall stand at Thy left hand, but there also shall be a full heap set at Thy right hand.

10. “Let mount Zion rejoice, and the daughters of Judah be glad, because of Thy judgments, O Lord” (ver. 10). O mount Zion, O daughters of Judah, ye labour now among tares, among chaff, among thorns ye labour: yet be glad because of God’s judgments. God erreth not in judgment. Live ye separate, though separate ye were not born; not vainly hath a voice gone forth from your mouth and heart, “Destroy not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men.”[4] He shall winnow with such art, carrying in His hand a fan, that not one grain of wheat shall fall into the heap of chaff prepared to be burned, nor one beard of chaff pass to the heap to be laid up in the garner.[5] Be glad, O ye daughters of Judaea, because of the judgments of God that erreth not, and do not yet judge rashly. To you let it belong to collect, to Him let it belong to separate. But think not that the “daughters of Judah” are Jews. Judah is confession; all the sons of confession are all the sons of Judah. For “salvation is of the Jews,”[6] is nothing else than that Christ is of the Jews. This saith also the Apostle, “He is not a Jew which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.”[7] Be such a Jew; glory in the circumcision of the heart, though thou hast not the circumcision of the flesh. Let the daughters of Judah be glad, because of Thy judgments, O Lord.

11. “Walk about Zion, and embrace her” (ver. 11). Be it said to them who live ill, in the midst of whom is the people, which hath received the mercy of God. In the midst of you is a people living well, “Walk about Zion.” But how? “embrace her.” Not with scandals, but with love go round about her: that so those who live well in the midst of you ye may imitate, and by imitation of them, be incorporate with Christ, whose members they are. “Walk about Zion, go round about her: speak in the towers thereof.” In the height of her bulwarks, set forth the praises thereof.

12. “Set your hearts upon her might” (ver. 12). Not that ye may have the form of godliness. deny the power thereof,[8] but, “upon her might set your hearts. Speak ye in her towers.” What is the might of this city? Whoso would understand the might of this city, let him understand the force of love. That is a virtue which none conquereth. Love’s flame no waves of the world, no streams of temptation, extinguish. Of this it is said, “Love is strong as death.”[9] For as when death cometh, it cannot be resisted; by whatever arts, whatever medicines, you meet it; the violence of death can none avoid who is born mortal; so against the violence of love can the world do nothing. For from the contrary the similitude is made of death; for as death is most violent to take away, so love is most violent to save. Through love many have died to the world, to live to God; by this love inflamed, the martyrs, not pretenders, not puffed up by vain-glory, not such as they of whom it is written, “Though I give. my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing,”[1] but men whom truly a love of Christ and of the truth led on to this passion; what to them were the temptations of the tormentors? Greater violence had the eyes of their weeping friends, than the persecutions of enemies. For how many were held by their children, that they might not suffer? to how many did their wives fall upon their knees, that they might not be left widows? How many have their parents forbidden to die; as we know and read in the Passion of the Blessed Perpetua![2] All this was done; but tears, however great, and with whatever force flowing, when did they extinguish the ardour of love? This is the might of Sion, to whom elsewhere it is said, “Peace. be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.”[3]

13. What here understand we, “Set your hearts upon her might, and distribute her houses”? That is, distinguish house from house. Do not confound. For there is a house having the form of godliness, and not having godliness; but there is a house having both form and godliness. Distribute, confound not. But then ye distribute and confound not, when ye “set your hearts upon her might;” that is, when through love ye are made spiritual. Then ye will not judge rashly, then ye will see that the evil harms not the good as long as we are in this floor. “Distribute her houses.” There can be also another understanding. The two houses, one coming of the circumcision, one of the uncircumcision, it is commanded the Apostles to distribute. For when Saul was called, and made the Apostle Paul, agreeing in unity with his fellow Apostles, he so with thorn determined, that they should go to the circumcision, he to the uncircumcision. By that dispensation of their Apostleship, they distributed the houses of the city of the great King; and meeting in the corner, divided the Gospel in dispensation, in love united it. And truly this is rather to be understood; for it followeth and showeth that it is here said to the preachers, “distribute her houses: that ye may tell it to the generation following:” that is, that even to us, who were to come after them, their dispensation of the Gospel should reach: For not for those only they laboured, with whom they lived in the earth; nor the Lord for those Apostles only to whom He deigned to show Himself alive after His Resurrection, but for us also. For to them He spake, and signified us when He spake, “Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world.”[4] Were they then to be here alway, even to the end of the world? Also He said, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word.”[5] Therefore He considereth us, because He suffered on account of us. Justly then it is said, “That ye may tell it to the generation following.”

14. Tell what? “For this is God, even our God” (ver. 13). The earth was seen, the earth’s Creator was not seen; the flesh was held, God in the flesh was not acknowledged. For the flesh was held by those from whom had been taken the same flesh, for of the seed of Abraham was the Virgin Mary. At the flesh they stayed, the Divinity they did not understand. O Apostles, O mighty city, preach thou on the towers, and say, “This is God, even our God.” So, even so as He was despised, as He lay a stone before the feet of the stumbling, that He might humble the hearts of the confessing; even so, “This is God, even our God.” Certainly He was seen, as was said, “Afterward did He show Himself upon earth, and conversed with men.”[6] “This is God, even our God.” He is also Man, and who is there will know Him? “This is God, even our God.” But haply for a time as the false gods. For because they can be called gods, but cannot be so, for a time they are even called so. For what saith the Prophet, or what warneth He to be said to them? This shall ye say to them, “The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from those that are under the heavens.”[7] He is not such a god: for our God is above all gods. Above all what gods? “For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.”[8] The same then is our God. “This is God, even our God.” For how long? “For ever and ever: He shall role us for ever.” If He is our God, He is also our King. He protecteth us, being our God, lest we die; He ruleth us, being our King, lest we fall. But by ruling us He doth not break us; for whom He ruleth not, He breaketh. “Thou shalt rule them,” saith He, “with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”[9] But there are whom He ruleth not; these He spareth not, as a potter’s vessel dashing them in pieces. By Him then let us wish to be ruled and delivered, “for He is our God for ever and ever, and He shall rule us for ever.”

PSALM 49

The First Part.

1. …”Hear ye these things, all ye nations” (ver. 1). Not then you only who are here. For of what power is our voice so to cry out, as that all nations may hear? For Our Lord Jesus Christ hath proclaimed it through the Apostles, hath proclaimed it in so many tongues that He. sent; and we see this Psalm, which before was only repeated in one nation, in the Synagogue of the Jews, now repeated throughout the whole world, throughout all Churches; and that fulfilled which is here spoken of, “Hear ye these words, all ye nations.” … Of whom ye are: “With ears ponder, all ye that dwell in the world.” This He seemeth to have repeated a second time, lest to have said “hear,” before, were too little. What I say, he saith, “hear, with ears ponder,” that is, hear not cursorily. What is, “with ears ponder”? It is what the Lord said, “he that hath ears to hear, let him hear:”[2] for as all who were in His presence must have had ears, what ears did He require save those of the heart, when He said, “he that hath ears to hear, let him hear”? The same ears also this Psalm doth smite. “With ears ponder, all ye that dwell in the world.” Perhaps there is here some distinction. We ought not indeed to narrow our view, but there is no harm in explaining even this view of the sense. Perhaps there is some difference between the saying, “all nations,” and the saying, “all ye that dwell in the world.” For perchance he would have us understand the expression, “dwell in,” with a further meaning, so as to take all nations for all the wicked, but the dwellers of the world all the just. For he doth inhabit who is not held fast: but he that is occupied is inhabited, and doth not inhabit. Just as he doth possess whatever he hath, who is master of his property: but a master is one who is not held in the meshes of covetousness: while he that is held fast by covetousness is the possessed, and not the possessor. …

2. Therefore let even the ungodly hear: “Hear ye this, all ye nations.” Let the just also hear, who have not heard to no purpose, and who rather rule the world than are ruled by the world: “with ears ponder, all ye that dwell in the world.”

3. And again he saith, “both all ye earthborn, and sons of men” (ver. 2). The expression “earthborn” he cloth refer to sinners; the expression “sons of men” to the faithful and righteous. Ye see then that this distinction is observed. Who are the “earthborn”? The children of the earth. Who are the children of the earth? They who desire earthly inheritances. Who are the “sons of men”? They who appertain to the Son of Man. We have already before explained this distinction to your Sanctity,[3] and have concluded that Adam was a man, but not the son of man; that Christ was the Son of Man, but was God also. For whosoever pertain to Adam, are “earthborn:” whosoever pertain to Christ, are “sons of men.” Nevertheless, let all hear, I withhold my discourse from no one. If one is “earthborn,” let him hear, because of the judgment: another is a “son of man,” let him hear for the kingdom’s sake. “The rich and poor together.” Again, the same words are repeated. The expression “rich” refers to the “earthborn;” but the word “poor” to the “sons of men.” By the “rich” understand the proud, by the “poor” the humble. … He saith in another Psalm, “The poor shall eat and be satisfied.”[4] How hath he commended the poor? “The poor shall eat and be satisfied.” What eat they? That Food which the faithful know. How shall they be satisfied? By imitating the Passion of their Lord, and not without cause receiving their recompense. “The poor shall eat and be satisfied, and they shall praise the Lord who seek Him.” What of the rich? Even they eat. But how eat they? “All the rich upon the earth have eaten and worshipped.”[5] He said not, “Have eaten and are satisfied;” but, “have eaten and worshipped.” They worship God indeed, but they will not display brotherly humaneness. These eat and worship; those eat and are filled: yet both eat. Of the eater what he eateth is required: let him not be forbidden by the distributor to eat, but let him be admonished to fear him who doth require his account. Let these words then be heard by sinners and righteous, nations, and those who inhabit the world, “earthborn and sons of men, the rich and the poor together:” not divided, not separated. That is for the time of the harvest to do, the hand of the winnower will effect that[6] Now together let rich and poor hear, let-goats and sheep feed in the same pasture, until He come who shah separate the one on His right hand, the other on His left.[7] Let them all hear together the teacher, lest separated from one another they hear the voice of the Judge.

4. And what is it they are now to hear? “My mouth shall speak of wisdom, and the meditation of my hear understanding” (ver. 3). And this repetition is perhaps made, lest perchance if he had said only “my mouth,” thou shouldest suppose that one spake to thee who had understanding but in his lips. For many have understanding in their lips, but have not in their heart, of whom the Scripture saith, “This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.”[1] What saith he then who speaketh to thee? when he hath said, “My mouth shall speak of wisdom,” in order that thou mayest know that what is poured forth from the mouth floweth from the bottom of the heart, he hath added, “And the meditation of my heart of understanding.”

5. “I will incline mine ear to the parable, I will show my proposition upon the harp” (ver. 4). … And why “to a parable”? Because “now we see through a glass darkly,”[2] as saith the Apostle; “whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.”[3] For our vision is not yet that face to face, where there are no longer parables, where there no longer are riddles and comparisons. Whatever now we understand we behold through riddles. A riddle is a dark parable which it is hard to understand. Howsoever a man may cultivate his heart and apply himself to apprehend mysteries, so long as we see through the corruption of this flesh, we see but in part. … But as He was seen by those who believed, and by those who crucified Him, when He was judged; so will He be seen, when He shall have begun to be judge, both by those whom He shall condemn, and by those whom He shall crown. But that vision of divinity, which He hath promised to them that love Him, when He saith, “He that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and he that loveth Me keepeth My commandments, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him:”[4] this the ungodly shall not see. This manifestation is in a certain way familiar: He keepeth it for His own, He will not show it to the ungodly. Of what sort is the vision itself? Of what sort is Christ? Equal to the Father. Of what sort is Christ? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”[5] For this vision we sigh now, and groan so long as we sojourn here; to this vision we shall be brought home at the last, this vision now we see but darkly. If then we see now darkly, let us “incline our ear to the parable,” and then let us “show our proposition upon the harp:”[6] let us hear what we say, do what we enjoin.

6. And what hath he said? “And wherefore shall I fear in the evil day? The iniquity of my heel shall compass me” (ver. 5). He beginneth something obscurely. Therefore he ought the rather to fear if the iniquity of his heel shall compass him. Nay, for let not man fear, he saith, who hath not power to escape. For example, he who feareth death, what shall he do to escape death? Let him tell me how he is to escape what Adam oweth, he who is born of Adam. But let him consider that he is born of Adam, and hath followed Christ, and ought to pay what Adam oweth, and obtain what Christ hath promised. Therefore, he who feareth death can no wise escape: but he who feareth the damnation which the ungodly shall hear, “Go ye into everlasting fire,”[7] hath an escape. Let him not fear then. For why should he fear? Will the iniquity of his heel compass him? If then he avoid “the iniquity of his heel,” and walk in the ways of God, he shall not come to the evil day: the evil day, the last day, shall not be evil to him. … Now while they live, let them take heed to themselves, let them put away iniquity from their heel: let them walk in that way, let them walk in the way of which He saith Himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: “[8] and let them not fear in the evil day, for He giveth them safety who became “The Way.” Therefore let them avoid the iniquity of their heel. With the heel a man slippeth. Let your Love observe. What was said by God to the Serpent? “She shall mark thy head, and thou shalt mark her heel.”[9] The devil marketh thy heel, in order that when thou slippest he may overthrow thee. He marketh thy heel, do thou mark his head. What is his head? The beginning of an evil suggestion. When he beginneth to suggest evil thoughts, then do thou thrust him away before pleasure ariseth, and consent followeth; and so shalt thou avoid his head, and he shall not grasp thy heel. But wherefore said He this to Eve? Because through the flesh man doth slip. Our flesh is an Eve within us. “He that loveth his wife,” he saith, “loveth himself.” What meaneth “himself”? He continueth, and saith, “For no man ever yet hath hated his own flesh.”[10] Because then the devil would make us slip through the flesh, just as he made that man Adam to slip, through Eve; Eve is bidden to mark the head of the devil, because the devil marketh her heel.[11] “If then the iniquity of our heel shall compass us, why fear we in the evil day,” since being converted to Christ we are able not to do iniquity; and there will be nothing to compass us, and we shall joy and not sorrow in the last day?

7. But who are they whom the “iniquity of their heel shall compass”? “They who trust in their virtue,[12] and in the abundance of their riches do glory” (ver. 6). Therefore such sins will I avoid, and the “iniquity of my heel” shall never compass me. What is avoiding such sins? Let us not trust in our own virtue, let us not glory in the abundance of our own riches, but let us glory in Him who hath promised to us, being humble, exaltation, and hath threatened condemnation to men exalted; and then iniquity of our heel shall never compass us.

8. There are some who rely on their friends, others rely on their virtue, others on their riches. This is the presumption of mankind which relieth not on God. He hath spoken of virtue, he hath spoken of riches, he speaketh of friends. “Brother redeemeth not,[1] shall man redeem?” (ver. 7). Dost thou expect that man shall redeem thee from the wrath to come? If brother redeem thee not, shall man redeem thee? Who is the brother, who if He hath not redeemed thee, no man will redeem? It is He who said after His resurrection, “Go, tell My brethren.”[2] Our Brother He hath willed to be: and when we say to God, “Our Father,” this is manifested in us. For he that saith to God, “Our Father;” saith to Christ, “Brother.”[3] Therefore let him that hath God for his Father and Christ for his Brother, not fear in the evil day. “For the iniquity of his heel shall not compass him;” for he relieth not on his virtue, nor glorieth in the abundance of his riches, nor vaunteth himself of his powerful friends. Let him rely on Him who died for him, that he might not die eternally: who for his sake was humbled, in order that he might be exalted; who sought him ungodly, in order that He might be sought by him faithful. Therefore if He redeem not, shall man redeem? Shall any man redeem, if the Son of man redeem not? If Christ redeem not, shall Adam redeem? “Brother redeemeth not, shall man redeem?”[4]

9. “He shall not give to God his propitiation, and the price of the redemption of his soul” (ver. 8). He trusteth in his virtue, and in the abundance of his riches doth glory, who “shall not give to God his propitiation :” that is, satisfaction whereby he may prevail with God for his sins: “nor the price of the redemption of his soul,” who relieth on his virtue, and on his friends, and on his riches. But who are they that give the price of the redemption of their souls? They to whom the Lord saith, “Make to yourselves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness, that they may receive you into everlasting habitations.”[5] They give the price of the redemption of their soul who cease not to do almsdeeds. So those whom the Apostle chargeth by Timothy he would not have to be proud, lest they should glory in the abundance of their riches. Lastly, what they possessed he would not have to grow old in their hands: but that something should be made of it to be for the price of the redemption of their souls. For he saith, “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded: nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy.”[6] And as if they had said, “What shall we then make of our riches?” he continueth, “Let them be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate,”[7] and they will not lose that. How know we? Hear what followeth. “Let them lay up for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on the true life.”[8] So shall they give the price of the redemption of their soul. And our Lord counselleth this: “Make for yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not. where thief approacheth not, neither moth corrupteth.”[9] God would not have thee lose thy wealth, but He hath given thee counsel to change the place thereof. Let your love understand. Suppose thy friend were just now to enter thy house, and find thou hadst placed thy store of grain in a damp place, and he knew the natural proneness of grain to decay, which thou perchance knewest not, he would give thee counsel of this sort, saying, “Brother, thou art losing what with great toil thou hast gathered, thou hast placed it in a damp place, in a few days this grain will decay.” “And what am I to do, brother? “Raise it into a higher place.” Thou wouldest hearken to thy friend suggesting that thou shouldest raise grain from a lower to a higher chamber, and dost thou not hearken to Christ charging thee to lift thy treasure from earth to heaven, where not what thou keepest in store may be paid to thee, but that thou mayest keep in store earth, mayest receive heaven, mayest keep in store things mortal, mayest receive things everlasting, that while thou lendest Christ to receive at thy hands but a small loan upon earth, He may repay thee a great recompense in Heaven? Nevertheless, they whom “the iniquity of their heel shall compass,” because they trust in their virtue, and in the abundance of their riches do glory, and rely on human friends who are able to help them in nothing, “shall not give to God their propitiation, and the price of the redemption of their souls.”

10. And what hath he said of such a man? “Yea, he hath laboured for ever, and shall live till the end” (ver. 9). His labour shall be without end, his life shall have an end. Wherefore saith he, “He shall live till the end”? Because such men think life to be nought but daily enjoyments. So when many poor and needy men of our times, unstable, and not looking to what God doth promise them for their labours, see rich men in daily feastings, in the splendour and glitter of gold and of silver, they say what? “These are the only people;[1] they really live!” This is a saying, be it said no longer: we both warn you, and it remains to warn you, that it be said by fewer persons than it would be said, if we had not warned you. For we do not presume to say that we so say these words, as that it be not said, but that it be said by fewer persons: for it will be said even unto the end of the world. It is too little that he saith, “he liveth;” he addeth and saith, he thundereth thinkest thou that he alone liveth? Let him live! his life will be ended: because he giveth not the price of the redemption of his soul, his life will end, his labour will not end. “He laboured for ever, and shall live till the end.” How shall he live till the end? As he lived that was “clothed with purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day,”[2] who, being proud and puffed up, spurned the man full of sores lying before his gate, whose sores the dogs licked, and who longed for the crumbs which fell from his table. What did those riches profit him? Both changed places: the one was borne from the rich man’s gate into Abraham’s bosom, the other from his rich feasts was cast into the fire; the one was in peace, the other burned; the one was sated, the other thirsted; the one had laboured till the end, but he lived for ever; the other had lived till the end, but he laboured for ever. And what did it profit the rich man, who asked, while lying in torments in hell, that a drop of water should be poured upon his tongue from the finger of Lazarus, saying, “For I am burning here in this flame,”[3] and it was not granted to him? One longed for the drop from the finger, as the other had for the crumbs from the rich man’s table; but the labour of the one is ended, and the life of the other is ended: the labour of this is for ever, the life of that is for ever. We who labour perchance here on the earth, have not our life here: and shall not be so placed hereafter, for our life shall be Christ for ever: while they who “will” have their life here, shall labour for ever and live till the end.

11. “For he shall not see death, though he shall have seen wise men dying” (ver. 10). The man who laboured for ever and shall live till the end, “shall not see death, though he shall have seen wise men dying.” What is this? He shall not comprehend what death is, whenever he shall have seen wise men dying. For he saith to himself, “this fellow, for all he was wise and dwelled with wisdom and worshipped God with piety, is he not dead? Therefore I will enjoy myself while I live; for if they that are wise in other respects, could do anything, they would not have died.” Just as the Jews saw Christ hanging on the Cross and despised Him, saying, “If this Man were the Son of God, He would come down from the Cross:”[4] not seeing what death is. If they had seen what death is; if they had seen, I say,[5] He died for a time, that He might live again for ever: they lived for a time, that they might die for ever. But because they saw Him dying, they saw not death, that is to say, they understood not what was very death. What say they even in Wisdom? “Let us condemn Him with a most shameful death, for by His own sayings He shall be respected;”[6] for if he is indeed the Son of God, He will deliver Him from the hands of His adversaries: He will not suffer His Son to die, if He is truly His Son. But when they saw themselves insulting Him upon the Cross, and Him not descending from the Cross, they said, He was indeed but a Man. Thus was it spoken: and surely He could have come down froth the Cross, He that could rise again from the tomb: but He taught us to bear with those who insult us; He taught us to be patient of the tongues of men, to drink now the cup of bitterness, and afterwards to receive everlasting salvation. …

12. “The imprudent and unwise shall perish together.” Who is “the imprudent”? He that looketh not out for himself for the future. Who is “the unwise”? He that perceiveth not in what evil case he is. But do thou perceive in what evil case thou art now, and look out that thou be in a good case for the future. By perceiving in what evil case thou art, thou wilt not be unwise: by looking out for thyself for the future, thou wilt not be imprudent. Who is he that looketh out for himself? That servant to whom his master gave what he should expend, and afterwards said to him, “Thou canst not be my steward, give an account of thy stewardship;” and who answered, “What shall I do? I cannot dig, to beg I am ashamed;”[7] had, nevertheless, by even his master’s goods made to himself friends, who might receive him when he was put out of his stewardship. Now he cheated his master in order that he might get to himself friends to receive him: fear not thou lest thou be cheating, the Lord Himself exhorteth thee to do so: He saith Himself to thee, “Make to thyself friends of the mammon of unrighteousness.”[8] Perhaps what thou hast got, thou hast gotten of unrighteousness: or perhaps this very thing is unrighteousness, that thou hast and another hath not, thou aboundest and another needeth. Of this mammon of unrighteousness, of these riches which the unrighteous call riches, make to thyself friends, and thou shalt be prudent: thou art gaining for thyself, and art not cheating. For now thou seemest to lose it. Wilt thou lose it if thou place it in a treasury? For boys, my brethren, no sooner find some money, wherewith to buy something, than they put it in a money-box,[1] which they open not until afterwards: do they, because they see not what they have got, on that account lose it? Fear not: boys put in a money-box, and are secure: dost thou place it in the hand of Christ, and fear? Be prudent, and provide for thyself against the future in Heaven. Be therefore prudent, copy the ant, as saith the Scripture:[2] “Store in summer, lest thou hunger in winter;” the winter is the last day, the day of tribulation; the winter is the day of offences and of bitterness: gather what may be there for thee for the future: but if thou doest not so, thou wilt perish both imprudent and unwise.

13. But that rich man[3] too died, and a like funeral was made for him. See to what men have brought themselves: they regard not what a wicked life he led while he lived, but what pomp followed him when he died! O happy he, whom so many lament! But the other lived in such sort, that few lament. For all ought to lament a man living so sadly. But there is the funeral train; he is received in a costly tomb, he is wound in costly robes, he is buried in perfumes and spices. Secondly, what a monument he hath! How marbled! Doth he live in that same monument? He is therein dead. Men deeming these to be good things, have strayed from God, and have not sought the true good things, and have been deceived with the false. To this end see what followeth. He who gave not the price of the redemption of his soul, who understood not death, because he saw wise men dying, he became imprudent and unwise, in order that he might die with them. And how shall they perish, who “shall leave their riches to aliens”? …

14. But do those same aliens indeed serve them who are called their own? Hear in what they serve them, observe how they are ridiculed why hath he said, “to strangers”? Because they can do them no good. Nevertheless, wherein do they seem to themselves to do good? “And their tombs shall be their house for ever” (ver. 11). Now because these tombs are erected the tombs are a house. For often thou hearest a rich man saying, I have a house of marble which I must quit, and I think not for myself of an eternal house, where I shall alway be. When he thinketh to make for himself a monument of marble or of sculpture, he is deeming as it were of an eternal house: as if therein this rich man would abide! If he would abide there, he would not burn in hell. We must consider that the place where the spirit of an evil doer abideth, is not where the mortal body is laid: but “their tombs shall be their house for ever. Their dwelling places are from generation to generation.” “Dwelling places” are wherein they abode for a season: “house” is wherein they will abide as it were for ever, that is to say, their tombs. Thus they leave their dwelling places, where they abode while they lived, to their families, and they pass as it were to everlasting houses, to their tombs. What profit to them are “their dwelling places, from generation to generation”? Now suppose a generation and generation are sons, grandsons there will be, and great grandsons; what do their dwelling places, what do they profit them? What? Hear: “they shall invoke their names in their lands.” What is this? They shall take bread and wine to their tombs, and there they shall invoke the names of the dead. Dost thou consider how loudly was invoked the name of the rich man after his death, when men drank them drunk at his monument, and there came down not one drop upon his own burning tongue? Men minister to their own belly, not to the ghosts of their friends. The souls of the dead nothing doth reach, but what they have done of themselves while alive: but if they have done nought of themselves while alive, nothing doth reach them dead. But what do the survivors? They will but “invoke their names in their lands.”

15. “And man though he was in honour perceived not, he was compared to the beasts without sense, and was made like to them” (ver. 12). … They ought, on the contrary, to have made ready for themselves an eternal house in good works, to have made ready for themselves everlasting life, to have sent before them expenditure, to have followed their works, to have ministered to a needy companion, to have given to him with whom they were walking, not to have despised Christ covered with sores before their gate, who hath said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.”[4] However, “man being in honour hath not understood.” What is, “being in honour”? Being made after the image and likeness of God, man is preferred to beasts. For God hath not so made man as He made a beast: but God hath made man for beasts to minister to: is it to his strength then, and not to his understanding? Nay. But he “understood not;” and he who was made after the image of God, “is compared to the beasts without sense, and is made like unto them.” Whence it is said elsewhere, “Be ye not like to horse and mule, in which there is no understanding.”[1]

16. “This their own way is an offence to them” (ver. 13). Be it an offence to them, not to thee. But when will it be so to thee too? If thou thinkest such men to be blessed. If thou perceivest that they be not blessed, their own way will be an offence to themselves; not to Christ, not to His Body, not to His members. “And afterwards they shall bless with their mouth.” What meaneth, “Afterwards they shall bless with their mouth”? Though they have become such, that they seek nothing but temporal goods, yet they become hypocrites: and when they bless God, with lips they bless, and not with heart. Christians like these, when to them eternal life is commended, and they are told, that in the name of Christ they ought to be despisers[2] of riches, do make grimaces in their hearts: and if they dare not do it with open face, lest they blush, or lest they should be rebuked by men, yet they do it in heart, and scorn; and there remaineth in their mouth blessing, and in their heart cursing.

The Second Part.

1. “Like sheep laid in hell, death is their shepherd” (ver. 14). Whose? Of those whose way is a stumbling-block to themselves. Whose? Of those who mind only things present, while they think not of things future: of those who think not of any life, but of that which must be called death. Not without cause, then, like sheep in hell, have they death to their shepherd. What meaneth, “they have death to their shepherd”? For is death either some thing or some power? Yea, death is either the separation of the soul from the body, or a separation of the soul from God,[3] and that indeed which men fear is the separation of the soul from the body: but the real death, which men do not fear, is the separation of the soul from God. And ofttimes when men fear that which doth separate the soul from the body, they fall into that wherein the soul is separated from God. This then is death. But how is “death their shepherd”? If Christ is life, the devil is death. But we read in many places in Scripture, how that Christ is life. But the devil is death, not because he is himself death, but because through him is death. For whether that (death) wherein Adam fell was given man to drink by the persuasion of him: or whether that wherein the soul is separated from the body, still they have him for the author thereof, who first falling through pride envied him who stood, and overthrew him who stood with an invisible death, in order that he might have to pay[4] the visible death. They who belong to him have death to their shepherd: but we who think of future immortality, and not without reason do wear the sign of the Cross of Christ on the forehead, have no shepherd but life. Of unbelievers death is the shepherd, of believers life is the shepherd. If then in hell are the sheep, whose shepherd is death, in heaven are the sheep, whose shepherd is life. What then? Are we now in heaven? In heaven we are by faith. For if not in heaven, where is the “Lift up your heart”? If not in heaven, whence with the Apostle Paul, “For our conversation is in heaven”?[5] In body we walk on earth, in heart we dwell in heaven. We dwell there, if thither we send anything which holdeth us there. For no one dwelleth in heart, save where thought is: but there his thought is, where his treasure is. He hath treasured on earth, his heart doth not withdraw from earth: he hath treasured in heaven, his heart from heaven doth not come down: for the Lord saith plainly, “Where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also.”[6]

2. They, then, whose shepherd is death, seem to flourish for a time, and the righteous to labour: but why? Because it is yet night. What meaneth, it is night? The merits of the righteous appear not, and the felicity of the unrighteous hath, as it were, a name. So long as it is winter, grass appeareth more verdant than a tree. For grass flourisheth through the winter, a tree is as it were dry through the winter: when in summer time the sun hath come forth with greater heat, the tree, which seemed dry through the winter, is bursting with leaves, and putteth forth fruits, but the grass withereth: thou wilt see the honour of the tree, the grass is dried. So also now the righteous labour, before that summer cometh. There is life in the root, it doth not yet appear in the branches. But our root is love. And what saith the Apostle? That we ought to have our root above, in order that life may be our shepherd, because our dwelling ought not to quit heaven, because in this earth we ought to walk as if dead; so that living above, below we may be dead; not so as that being dead above, we may live below. … Our labour shall appear in the morning, and there shall be fruit in the morning: so that they that now labour shall hereafter reign, and they that now boast them and are proud, shall hereafter be brought under. For what followeth? “Like sheep laid in hell, death is their shepherd; and the righteous shall reign over them in the morning.”

3. Endure thou the night, yearn for the morning. Think not because the night hath life, the morning too hath not life. Doth then he that sleepeth live, and he that riseth live not? Is not he that sleepeth more like death?[1] And who are they that sleep? They whom the Apostle Paul rouseth, if they choose but to awake. For to certain he saith, “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”[2] They then that are lightened by Christ watch now, but the fruit of their watchings appeareth not yet: in the morning it shall appear, that is, when doubtful things of this world shall have passed away. For these are very night: for do they not appear to thee like darkness? … But they on whom men have trampled, and who were ridiculed for believing, shall hear from Life Itself, whom they have for shepherd, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Therefore the righteous” shall reign over them,” not now, but “in the morning.” Let no one say, Wherefore am I a Christian? I rule no one,[3] I would rule the wicked. Be not in haste, thou shalt reign, but “in the morning.” “And the help of them shall grow old in hell from their glory.” Now they have glory, in hell they shall grow old. What is “the help of them”? Help from money, help from friends, help from their own might. But when a man shall be dead, “in that day shall perish all his thoughts.”[4] How great glory he seemed to have among men, while he lived, so great oldness and decay of punishments shall he have, when he shall be dead in hell.

4. “Nevertheless, God shall redeem my soul” (ver. 15). Behold the voice of one hoping in the future: “Nevertheless, God shall redeem my soul.”[5] Perhaps it is the voice of one still wishing to be relieved from oppression. Some one is in prison, he saith, “God shall redeem my soul:” some one is in bond, “God shall redeem my soul:” some one is suffering peril by sea, is being tossed by waves and raging tempests, what saith he? “God shall redeem my soul.” They would be delivered for the sake of this life. Not such is the voice of this man. Hear what followeth: “God shall redeem my soul from the hand of hell, when He shall have received me.” He is speaking of this redemption, which Christ now showeth in Himself. For He hath descended into hell, and hath ascended into heaven. What we have seen in the Head we have found in the Body. For what we have believed in the Head, they that have seen, have themselves told us, and by themselves we have seen: “For we are” all “one body.”[6] But are they better that hear, we worse to whom it hath been told? Not so saith The Life Itself, Our Shepherd Himself. For He rebuketh a certain disciple of His, doubting and desiring to handle His scars, and when he had handled the scars and had cried out, saying, “My Lord and my God,”[7] seeing His disciple doubting, and looking to the whole world about to believe, “Because thou hast seen Me,” He saith, “thou hast believed: blessed are they that see not, and believe.” “But God shall redeem my soul from the land of hell, when He hath received me.” Here then what? Labour, oppression, tribulation, temptation: expect nothing else. Where joy? In future hope. …

5. … Perchance thy heart saith, Wretch that I am, I suppose to no purpose I have believed, God doth not regard things human. God therefore doth awaken us: and He saith what? “Fear not, though a man have become rich” (ver. 16). For why didst thou fear, because a man hath become rich? Thou didst fear that thou hadst believed to no purpose, that perchance thou shouldest have lost the labour for thy faith, and the hope of thy conversion: because perchance there hath come in thy way gain with guilt, and thou couldest have been rich, if thou hadst seized upon that same gain with the guilt, and neededst not have laboured; and thou, remembering what God hath threatened, hast refrained from guilt, and hast contemned the gain: thou seest another man that hath made gain by guilt, and hath suffered no harm; and thou fearest to be good. “Fear not,” saith the Spirit of God to thee, “though a man shall have become rich.” Wouldest thou not have eyes but for things present? Things future He hath promised, who hath risen again; peace in this world, and repose in this life, He hath not promised. Every man doth seek repose; a good thing he is seeking, but not in the proper region thereof he is seeking it. There is no peace in this life; in Heaven hath been promised that which on earth we are seeking: in the world to come hath been promised that which in this world we are seeking.

6. “Fear not, though a man be made rich, and though the glory of his house he multiplied.” Wherefore “fear not”? “For when he shall die, he shall not receive anything” (ver. 17). Thou seest him living, consider him dying. Thou markest what he hath here, mark what he taketh with him. What cloth he take with him? He hath store of gold, he hath store of silver, numerous estates, slaves: he dieth, these remain, he knoweth not for whom. For though he leaveth them for whom he will, he keepeth them not for whom he will. For many have gained even what was not left them, and many have lost what was left them. All these things then remain, and he taketh with him what? Perhaps some one saith, He taketh that with him in which he is wound, and that which is expended upon him for a costly and marble tomb. to erect a monument, this he taketh with him. I say, not even this. For these things are presented to him without his feeling them. If thou deckest a man sleeping and not awake, he hath the decorations with him on the couch perhaps the decorations are resting upon the body of him as he lieth, and perhaps he seeth himself in tatters during sleep. What he feeleth is more to him than what he feeleth not Though even this when he shall have awaked will not be: yet to him sleeping, that which he saw in sleep was more than that which he felt not. Why then, brethren, should[1] men say to themselves, Let money be spent at my death: why do I leave my heirs rich? Many things will they have of mine, let me too have something of my own for my body. What shall a dead body have? what shall rotting flesh have? what shall flesh not feeling have? If that rich man had anything, whose tongue was dry, then man hath something of his own. My brethren, do we read in the Gospel, that this rich man appeared in the fire with all-silken and fine-linen coverings? Was he of such sort in hell as he was in feastings at table? When he thirsted and desired a drop, all those things were not there. Therefore man carrieth not with him anything, nor doth the dead take with him that which the burial taketh. For where feeling is, there is the man; where is no feeling, the man is not. There lieth fallen the vessel which contained the man, the house which held the man. The body let us call the house, the spirit let us call the inhabitant of the house. The spirit is tormented in hell: what doth it profit him, that the body lieth in spices and perfumes, wound in costly linens? just as if the master of the house should be sent into banishment, and thou shouldest garnish the walls of his house. He in banishment is in need, and doth faint with hunger, he scarce findeth to himself one hovel where he may snatch a sleep, and thou sayest, “Happy is he, for his house hath been garnished.” Who would not judge that thou wast either jesting or wast mad? Thou dost garnish the body, the spirit is tormented. Give something to the spirit, and ye have given something to the dead man. But what wilt thou give him, when he desired one drop, and received not? For the man scorned to send before him anything. Wherefore scorned? “because this their way is a stumbling-block to them.”[2] He minded not any but the present life, he thought not but how he might be buried, wound in costly vestments. His soul was taken from him, as the Lord saith: “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be taken from thee, and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?”[3] And that is fulfilled which this Psalm saith: “Fear not, though a man be made rich, and though the glory of his house be multiplied: for when he shall die he shall not receive anything, nor shall his glory descend together with him.”

7. Let your love observe: “For his soul shall be blessed in his life” (ver. 18). As long as he lived he did well for himself. This all men say, but say falsely. It is a blessing from the mind of the blesser, not from the truth itself. For what sayest thou? Because he ate and drank, because he did what he chose, because he feasted sumptuously, therefore he did well with himself. I say, he did ill for himself. Not I say, but Christ. He did ill for himself. For that rich man, when he feasted sumptuously every day, was supposed to do well with himself: but when he began to burn in hell, then that which was supposed to be well was found to be ill. For what he had eaten with men above,[4] he digested in hell beneath. Unright-eousness I mean, brethren, on which he used to feast. He used to eat costly banquets with the mouth of flesh, with his heart’s mouth he used to eat unrighteousness. What he ate with his heart’s mouth with men above, this he digested amid those punishments in the places beneath. And verily he had eaten for a time, he digested ill for everlasting. Is then unrighteousness eaten? perhaps some one saith: what is it that he saith? Unrighteousness eaten? It is not I that say: hear the Scripture: “As a sour grape is vexation to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes, so is unrighteousness to them that use it.”[5] For he that shall have eaten unrighteousness, that is, he that shall have had unrighteousness wilfully, shall not be able to eat righteousness. For righteousness is bread. Who is bread? “I am the living bread which came down from heaven.”[6] Himself is the bread of our heart. … Is then even righteousness eaten? If it were not eaten, the Lord would not have said, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.”[7] Therefore “since his soul shall be blessed in life,” in life it “shall” be blessed, in death it shall be tormented. …

8. “He shall confess to Thee, when Thou shalt have done him good.” Be not of such sort, brethren: see ye how that to this end we say these words, to this end we sing, to this end we treat, to this end toil–do not these things. Your business doth prove you: sometimes in your business ye hear the truth, and ye blaspheme. The Church ye blaspheme. Wherefore? Because ye are Christians. “If so it be, I betake myself to Donatus’s party: I will be a heathen.”[1] Wherefore? Because thou hast eaten bread, and the teeth are in pain. When thou sawest the bread itself, thou didst praise; thou beginnest to eat, and the teeth are in pain; that is, when thou wast hearing the Word of God thou didst praise: when it is said to thee, “Do this,” thou blasphemest: do not so ill: say this, “The bread is good, but I cannot eat it.” But now if thou seest with the eyes, thou praisest: when thou beginnest to close the teeth thou sayest, “Bad is this bread, and like him that made it.” So it cometh to pass that thou confessest to God, when God doeth thee good and thou liest when thou singest, “I will alway bless God, His praise is ever in my mouth.”[2] How alway? If alway gain, alway He is blessed if sometime there is loss, He is not blessed, but blasphemed. Forsooth thou blessest alway, forsooth His praise is ever in thy mouth! Thou wilt be such as just now he describeth: “He will confess to Thee, when Thou shalt have done him good.”

9. “He shall enter even unto the generations of his fathers” (ver. 19): that is, he shall imitate his fathers. For the unrighteous, that now are, have brothers, have fathers. Unrighteous men of old, are the fathers of the present; and they that are now unrighteous, are the fathers of unrighteous posterity: just as the fathers of the righteous, the righteous of old, are the fathers of the righteous that now are; and they that now are, are the fathers of them that are to be. The Holy Spirit hath willed to show that righteousness is not evil when men murmur against her: but these men have their father from the beginning, even to the generation of their fathers. Two men Adam begat, and in one was unrighteousness, in one was righteousness: unrighteousness in Cain, righteousness in Abed Unrighteousness seemed to prevail over righteousness, because Cain unrighteous slew Abel righteous[4] in the night. Is it so in the morning? Nay, “but the righteous shall reign over them in the morning.”[5] The morning shall come, and it shall be seen where Abel is, and where Cain. So all men who are after Cain, and so all who are after Abel, even unto the end of the world. “He shall enter even unto the generations of his fathers: even to eternity he shall not see light.” Because even when he was here, he was in darkness, taking pleasure in false goods, and not loving real goods: even so he shall go hence into hell: from the darkness of his dreams the darkness of torments shall receive him. Therefore, “even to eternity he shall not see light.”

But wherefore this? What he hath written in the middle of the Psalm,[6] the same also he hath writ at the end: “Man, though he was in honour, understood not, was compared to the beasts without sense, and was made like to them” (ver. 20). But ye, brethren, consider that ye be men made after the image and likeness of God. The image[7] of God is within, is not in the body; is not in these ears which ye see, and eyes, and nostrils, and palate, and hands, and feet; but is made nevertheless:[8] wherein is the intellect, wherein is the mind, wherein the power of discovering truth, wherein is faith, wherein is your hope, wherein your charity, there God hath His Image: there at least ye perceive and see that these things pass away; for so he hath said in another Psalm, “Though man walketh in an image, yet he is disquieted in vain: he heapeth up treasures, and knoweth not for whom he shall gather them.”[9] Be not disquieted, for of whatsoever kind these things be, they are transitory, if ye are men who being in honour understand. For if being men in honour ye understand not, ye are compared to the beasts without sense, and are made like to them.