Ambrose

VIII. LITTERA ETH.

1. Littera octaua 'Eth', quae interpretatione Latina dicitur 'pauor'. sanctorum pauor esse consueuit. denique pauor cecidit in Abraham, cum sacrificium offerret plenum mysterii spiritalis.¹ ipse quoque Dauid ait: ego dixi in pauore meo: omnis homo mendax.² religionis enim reuerentiam significat magis quam infirmitatem timoris, licet etiam ipse timor secundum deum sanctus sit; initium enim sapientiae timor domini.³ ergo qui timentes deum, sapientes, qui autem sapientes, beati; beatus enim quem tu erudieris, domine, et de lege tua docueris eum.⁴ hi quoque, qui timent deum, beati sunt, sicut exempli extat auctoritas, quia beati omnes qui timent dominum.⁵ ita colligitur, quia timentes deum et sapientes sunt et beati. sanctus igitur timor domini, quia uere sanctorum est pauor.

2. Denique praemissa hac littera statim sequitur persona iusti dicens: portio mea, domine; dixi custodire legem tuam.⁶ plerique codices hunc uersiculum, qui primus est litterae octauae, ultimo loco litterae habent septimae; sed secundum Hebraeos emendatus apud Graecos Psalmorum liber hunc uersum docuit nos octauae litterae copulandum. deinde ordo ipse et numerus uersuum ita conuenit, ut ab eo incipiat octaua littera.

3. Portio, inquit, mea dominus.⁷ quam rarus in terris, qui possit dicere: portio mea dominus, quam alienus a uitiis, quam segregatus ab omni labe peccati, qui nihil habeat commune cum saeculo, nihil mundi huius sibi uindicet, non sit corporalium possessio cupiditatum, quem non inflammet libido, non stimulet auaritia, non lasciuia effeminet, non luxuria decoloret, non sternat ambitio, non maceret inuidia, non aliqua negotiorum saecularium cura sollicitet, uerus minister altaris, deo, non sibi natus!

4. Leui enim, ut habet interpretatio, significat 'ipse mihi adsumptus', significat et 'ipse meus', significat et tantum 'adsumptus', significat et 'adsumptus mihi ipse'. idem et mihi Leui et deo est, quomodo idem et mihi sacerdos et deo est, et mihi aduocatus et domini deprecator, pro me offerens sacrificium et idem se offerens domino. denique et alia Leui interpretatione dicitur, id est 'pro me'. etenim si a me nominetur Leui, pro me est, si pro me offerat, pro me est, si pro me interueniat, pro me est. sin autem uocetur a domino, 'ipse mihi' dicitur, hoc est non alii tributarius, non decimarius, non de possessione munificus. 'ipse mihi', hoc est tamquam abundans pro his omnibus. non ab hoc decimas, non fructus, non dona quaero, non munera. ipse mihi pro munere est, ipse est pro tributo, non in possessione sua munificus mihi, sed ipse mihi possessio, ipse meus fructus, ipse meus census, adsumptus mihi uel adsumptus a me. non potest hoc sine diuina esse gratia. sicut enim possessio non potest mea esse nisi emero eam, sic non potest esse Leui nisi fuerit adsumptus a domino; cum enim adsumptus fuerit, recte dicitur 'ipse meus'. denique cum Moysi dictum esset, ut populo Iudaeorum per tribus singulas diuideret incolatus et distribueret singulis tribubus portionem, tribum Leuiticam excepit deus dicens: filiis Leui non erit portio neque sors in medio fratrum suorum, quia dominus deus pars eorum est,⁸ et alibi: ego dominus portio eorum.⁹

5. Negatur his terrena diuisio, ut ipsi, dum saecularem sibi non uindicant portionem, fiant caelestis possessio; uel hoc solum nouerint possidere, hoc est fidei et deuotionis obsequium, multo ditiores quam qui possessionum suarum spatia ampla diffundunt. quantumlibet fines extendant suos, et terra deficit et mare includit insanas cupiditates et pendunt tributa maiora quam fructus sunt. at uero iste nihil sibi possidens nulli nisi deo militat, supra terram eius est portio, non eum terra deficit, non mari clauditur. cui portio deus est, totius possessor est naturae. pro agris igitur ipse sibi satis est, habens bonum fructum qui numquam possit perire; pro domibus satis est sibi, ut sit habitatio domini et dei templum,¹⁰ quo nihil potest esse pretiosius. quid enim pretiosius deo aut quid deest ei uiro, qui potest dicere: non contingat mihi gloriari nisi in cruce domini nostri Iesu Christi, per quem mihi mundus crucifixus est et ego mundo?¹¹ non potest in hoc princeps mundi huius sibi consortium uindicare, in quo nihil suum inuenit.

6. Ideoque dominus, qui uenit docere, ut fieret nobis deus portio, ait: uenit enim huius mundi princeps et in me inuenit nihil,¹² meritoque imitatores (nos) sui esse uolens ait: nolite possidere aurum neque argentum neque pecuniam.¹³ unde Petrus ostendens in deo portionem sibi esse, non in saeculo, ait: argentum et aurum non habeo, sed quod habeo do tibi: in nomine Iesu Nazareni surge et ambula,¹⁴ hoc est: portio mea Christus est; in nomine igitur Iesu Christi surge et ambula, hoc est: in portione mea diues sum, in portione mea potens sum. merito tales praesumo fructus istius portionis, ut salus et uita donetur, quia hoc est istius patrimonium portionis quam elegi mihi. dixit hoc claudo, et surrexit qui erat claudus ab utero matris suae.¹⁵ quomodo ergo Petrus poterat portionis suae damna sentire qui naturae reparabat?

7. Quare non habeas argentum atque aurum, Petre, dic nobis; dic etiam quid sit istud quod habere te dicis, qui omnia quae habebas te reliquisse dixisti. sic enim locutus es domino: ecce nos omnia dereliquimus et secuti sumus te,¹⁶ hoc est: non quaesiuimus quae saeculi sunt, non quaesiuimus partem de possessionibus, sed te elegimus portionem. reliquisti ergo, Petre ante omnia quae habebas; unde habes quod habere te dicis? surgit claudus et sono tui sermonis erigitur; sanitatem donas aliis qui indigebas ipse tuae salutis auxilio. reliquisti ergo quae habebas et cepisti quae non habebas. Christus tibi portio, Christus tibi possessio est; illius nomen tibi munificum, illius nomen tibi est fructuosum, illius nomen tibi tributa dependit et bona tributa, non pecuniae, sed gratiae. portio tua non ariditate siccatur, non imbre diluitur, non frigore uritur, non tempestate quassatur; per diem sol non uret te neque luna per noctem.¹⁷ serua portionem quam elegisti; ea est enim portio, quam terrenae partes aequare non possunt. quid enim est quod conferri possit his, de quibus deus dicit: et inhabitabo in his?¹⁸ quid magnificentius hospitio caelesti, quid beatius possessione diuina? et deambulabo, inquit, in his.¹⁹ alii queruntur de sui ruris angustiis; in te deo est ampla possessio, in quo deambulare se dicit, hoc est laxae spatia habitationis inueniens qui terram includit manu; sic enim scriptum est: quis mensus est manu aquas et caelum palmo et uniuersam terram clausa manu?²⁰ cui mundus angustus est, tu ei ampla es domus. portio, inquit, mea dominus.²¹ dicit hoc martyr; ipsi ergo uiuamus, cui mori est gloriosum. aliis uerbis quam bene dixit hoc Paulus, ostendens nullam habere se in saeculo portionem! sic enim scriptum est: usque ad hanc horam et esurimus et sitimus et nudi sumus et colaphis uapulamus et instabiles sumus et laboramus operantes manibus nostris; maledicimur et benedicimus, persecutionem patimur et sustinemus, blasphemamur et obsecramus; tamquam lustramenta huius mundi facti sumus, omnium lustramenta usque adhuc.²²

8. Fortasse moueat, quod purgamentum se esse dixit; non enim est. sed hoc saecularibus uidetur, qui putant summam in diuitiis esse gloriam uel decorem. nonne isti uniuersos purgamenta esse putant, quicumque illis obsecuntur propter diuitias et mirantur eos propter opes, timent propter potentiam, laudant propter nobilitatem? sed haec omnia Paulus detrimenta magis putabat esse quam commoda, ideoque ait: quae mihi lucra fuerunt, haec duxi propter Christum detrimenta esse, propter eminentem scientiam Christi Iesus domini mei, propter quem omnium detrimentum passus sum et aestimor stercora, ut Christum lucri faciam.²³ 'aestimor', inquit. non est haec mea, sed aliena sententia; frequenter enim aestimatur pauper ille inridendus et exsecrandus propter inluuiem uestium aut uulnerum cicatrices, eo quod in terra nullam habeat portionem. et tamen portio eius in caelo est, anima eius ibi sibi patrimonium conlocauit, quia audiuit Iesum dicentem: nolite thesaurum uobis condere in terra, sed thesaurum, inquit, uobis condite in caelo.²⁴

9. Sed hoc diuites audire non possunt, clausas aures habent et sono aeris obtusas; nummus magis illis resonat quam uerba diuina. denique accessit quidam diues ad dominum, qui portionem dominum non habebat. habebat enim multas possessiones, sed dominus non inter multa numeratur; non enim dignatur cum saeculo habere consortium. quae enim portio iustitiae cum iniquitate?²⁵ dicit ergo hic diues: quid faciens uitam aeternam possidebo?²⁶ respondet ei dominus: mandata nosti: non homicidium facies, non adulterabis, non falsum testimonium dices,²⁷ ostendens uitam aeternam in his esse mandatis. at ille iustificare se uolens dicit: haec omnia feci; quid mihi restat?²⁸ ad quem dominus, uolens ei dominum fieri portionem, non pecuniam, non possessiones, sed deum uerum, ait: si uis perfectus esse, uade uende omnia quae habes et da pauperibus, et habebis thesaurum in caelo, et ueni sequere me.²⁹ uerum ille, cui portio aurum atque argentum erat, sine quibus esse non poterat et cum quibus dominus illi portio esse non poterat, contristatus est. unde dominus pronuntiauit inpossibile esse, ut diues intret in regnum caelorum, sed quod inpossibile per humanas cupiditates, hoc per diuinam gratiam solam posse esse possibile.³⁰

10. Alibi quoque ait: quicumque remiserit patrem aut matrem, domum aut fratres aut sorores, centuplum accipiet in hoc saeculo et uitam aeternam possidebit.³¹ forsitan dicas: utique qui relinquendo domum — per domum autem totum censum intellege —, qui relinquendo propinquos deum secutus fuerit, portio domini est et illi portio deus est, habet etiam uitam aeternam et, quia accepto centuplo fit in hoc saeculo diues, diues, inquis, intrat in regnum caelorum. deinde si centuplum dat dominus eorum, quae etiam simpla inpedimentum adferre consuerunt ad perceptionem hereditatis aeternae, centum ergo possessiones reddit pro una possessione, centum pondo auri pro uno pondere.

11. Multos quidem in hoc saeculo, qui sua pauperibus donauerunt, uberiore thesauro locupletatos fuisse cognouimus, et pulcherrimus locus, ut etiam ad misericordiam prouocentur. sed non debent a domino saecularem huiusmodi exigere mercedem nec sperare quae mundi sunt, sed magis, quia his qui omnia reliquerint deus portio est. ipse est utique merces perfecta uirtutum, qui non centupli enumeratione, sed perfectae plenitudinis aestimatione censetur. ego, inquit, deus tuus sum.³² non dixit 'ero', sed 'iam sum, iam inhabito, iam possideo'. aufert dilationem, ubi inuenit iusti confessionem. sane alibi ait: hodie mecum eris in paradiso.³³ futurum promittit, sed id quod futurum est unius diei spatio non patitur protelari. denique potuit dicere: mecum eris in paradiso, sed addidit hodie, ne dilatione gratia minueretur.

12. Sed non illi soli dicit dominus Iesus: hodie mecum eris in paradiso, sed et tibi dicit: mecum eris in paradiso, si confitearis dominum Iesum, si eius patrocinium tibi poscas, si et ipse dicas: memento, domine, mei, cum ueneris in regnum tuum.³⁴ sed tibi non dicit: hodie mecum eris; dicit martyri: hodie mecum eris in paradiso. tibi non dicit, quia adhuc in hoc febrienti corpore constitutus, in hoc concupiscenti, in hoc terrena adhuc desideranti. sed cum potueris dicere: disrupisti uincula mea,³⁵ hoc est: soluisti cursum istius uitae, liberasti me ex hoc mortis corpore,³⁶ tunc tibi dicet: hodie mecum eris in paradiso.

13. Habes igitur, homo, inter multa proposita etiam huiusmodi portionem. proposuit tibi dominus in portione possessiones, in portione aurum, in portione argentum, in portione honores, in portione nobilitatem, proposuit etiam in portione se ipsum. habes plurimas portiones, elige quam putas. non te numerus perturbet, sed excitet gratia, non labor auertat, sed fructus inuitet. in portione diuina gemitus et labores sunt. unde et sanctus apostolus, cui portio deus erat, ait: heredes sumus dei, coheredes autem Christi, si tamen conpatimur ut simul glorificemur.³⁷ uides quia, ubi hereditas Christi est, ibi debeat esse conpassio. qui autem conpatitur, non perfunctorie conpatitur, sed ut tribulationes Christi in corpore suo impleat, sicut implebat et Paulus, implebat et Hieremias, qui ait sub hac ipsa littera: misericordiae domini est quod non defecimus, quia non sunt consummatae miserationes eius. renouabit illas sicut lux matutina. multi sunt gemitus mei et cor meum defecit. sors mea dominus, dixi; ideo sustinebo eum.³⁸ qui ergo sustinuit dominum, sors domini est. unde et Dauid, qui ait: sustinui dominum, et respexit me,³⁹ hoc loco portionem sibi deum esse profitetur.

14. Quam rarus qui istud usurpet sibi, non nobilitate, non diuitiis usurpatur! denique rex ille diues ait: sum quidem et ego mortalis homo similis omnibus et ex genere terreno illius qui prior factus est; et in uentre matris figuratus sum caro decem mensum tempore, coagulatus in sanguine ex semine hominis et delectamento somni conueniente; et ego natus hausi communem aerem et similiter in terram decidi et primam uocem similem omnibus emisi plorans; in inuolumentis nutritus sum et curis magnis.⁴⁰ et addidit: nemo enim ex regibus diuersum habuit natiuitatis initium; unus ergo omnibus est introitus [natiuitatis] ad uitam et similis exitus.⁴¹ et quia uidit commune esse natiuitatis exordium, elaborauit esse portio dei et inuocauit et uenit in eum spiritus sapientiae.⁴² sed luxuriosi aliam partem eligunt, qui dicunt: uino pretioso et unguentis nos impleamus, et non praetereat nos flos temporis; coronemus nos rosis antequam marcescant,⁴³ et infra: quoniam haec pars nostra et haec sors.⁴⁴

15. Quam magnum contemnere diuitias, sed quam rarum hoc ipsum est! utique et Moyses potuit regis esse successor, nutritus a regis filia. potuit ergo esse non solum quasi Pharao sed etiam Pharao, et Pharao potuit esse sicut Moyses — uterque enim homo —, sed omnis potentia hominis in affectu. Moyses noluit rex esse, cum posset, sed obprobrium Christi thesauris Aegypti arbitratus est praeferendum.⁴⁵ sed fugiendo potentiam potentior factus est; factus est enim in deum regi Pharao.⁴⁶ rex erat Pharao, sed deus non erat; Moyses factus est illi deus, hoc est regi ipsi terribilis, quem rex metueret et timeret. sed haec erat potentia sanctitatis; in talium congregatione deorum deus stat atque discernit.⁴⁷ et tu, si uis deus peccatoribus esse, terrori regibus, reuerentiae aliis, ut tamquam deo tibi uideantur esse subiecti, quia operaris in dei nomine, contemne quae saeculi sunt et dominicae passionis obprobrium contende omnibus praeferre diuitiis. obprobrium dico quod illis uideatur obprobrium, hoc est: Iudaeis scandalum, gentibus stultitia, nobis autem uirtus dei atque sapientia.⁴⁸ sed hoc Pharao obprobrium putans, hoc est inopiam ignobilitatem contumelias, maluit diaboli esse quam dei portio et ideo, qui deo subiectus esse nolebat, intercessioni hominis se ipse subiecit. ergo quia portio dei erat sanctus propheta Dauid, recte ait: dixi custodire legem tuam;⁴⁹ spiritalem utique legem dicit, sicut et Paulus ostendit.⁵⁰ nam qui corporaliter legem interpretati sunt, non custodiunt legem, sed praeuaricantur.

16. Ueniamus ad secundum uersum, qui ita est: deprecabar uultum tuum, domine, in toto corde meo, miserere mei secundum eloquium tuum.⁵¹ legimus in ueteri testamento, quod deprecatus sit Moyses, ut uultum dei uideret, et responsum sit ei: nemo uidebit faciem meam et uiuet.⁵² mystice hoc primum intellegamus. Moyses legis figuram accepit. lex per occulta mysteria nuntiat Christum, non facie ad faciem demonstrauit, sicut euangelium demonstrauit. in ipso enim facie ad faciem loquebatur,⁵³ licet in euangelio homo natus ex uirgine apparuerit, uerbum autem se per opera demonstrauerit. et fortasse hoc declaratum sit Moysi, quod populus Iudaeorum moriturus esset, eo quod facie ad faciem Christum uidisset et non credidisset. quod si ad legem referas, etiam legis finis Christus secundum illud apostolicum: finis enim Christus est secundum legem omni credenti.⁵⁴ et mortua est legis interpretatio corporalis, ubi dominus Christus Iesus spiritalem eius gratiam demonstrauit. uel certe quia omnes, qui Christum induimus et baptizati in Christo sumus, mortui sumus peccato, quia uiuentes legis uinculis tenebamur.⁵⁵ ubi autem in Christo mortui sumus, mortificati utique sumus legi per corpus Christi, ut simus alterius qui ex mortuis resurrexit. sed hoc mysticum est.

17. Morale autem historiae ueteris facit nos meminisse debere quae est de sancto Moyse, qui rogauit deum, ut se demonstraret ei deus et facie ad faciem eum uideret.⁵⁶ norat utique sanctus uates domini, quod inuisibilem deum facie ad faciem uidere non posset. sed mensuram supergreditur sancta deuotio et putauit deo etiam hoc esse possibile, ut corporeis oculis faceret id quod est incorporeum conprehendi. non reprehensibilis hic error, sed etiam grata cupiditas atque inexplebilis, quod dominum suum uelut manu tenere et obtutu oculorum uidere cupiebat. sciebat ad imaginem et similitudinem dei factum esse hominem.⁵⁷ quando enim electus a domino est ad populum liberandum, impletus est spiritu sapientiae, uiderat angelum illum et faciem eius in gloria. denique fulgente eius lumine pauefactus est et uidit rubum uri et non exuri.⁵⁸ uisum coepit fulgoremque mirari; accessit cupiditate et gratia prouocatus, ut diligentius fulgorem illum in rubo consideraret. itaque si tantum accepit ardorem, tantam subiit cupiditatem, cum angelum uidisset in flamma ignis de rubo, ut, licet pauore adprehensus considerare non auderet, considerare tamen uellet, quanto magis domini uultum corporaliter uidere desiderabat, dicens intra se uultum illum plenum lucis, plenum gloriae, plenum uirtutis, plenum diuinitatis! non possum plus dicere uel sentire de deo; cum enim consummauerit homo, incipit, et cum finierit, tunc aporiabitur,⁵⁹ ut scriptum est, quia inconprehensibilis est dei aeterna maiestas.

18. Inritus quidem erat postulationis effectus, sed affectus probabilis serui, qui ultra naturam suam deuotione progressus de domini angelis aestimabat, quantum in domini uultu plus desideraret, quo cupiditatem suam gestiret explere. nouerat in ipso homine aliam post mortem futuram gloriam, aliam claritatem. sicut enim stella a stella in claritate est, ita et resurrectio mortuorum;⁶⁰ quae etsi seminatur in corruptione, surgit tamen in incorruptione, surgit in gloria, surgit in uirtute, surgit corpus spiritale.⁶¹ qui ergo hoc scire poterat, merito praesumebat, ut uultum dei uidere cuperet, quem esset obita corporis morte uisurus. talem certe etiam formam receperat, talem dominus iam probabat, ut non distaret ab angelis caelestis minister et exsecutor oraculi. et ideo cum sciret, quia angeli pusillorum cotidie uiderent faciem patris qui in caelis est,⁶² putauit quod iam eam uidere deberet, tamquam oblitus corporis et carne deposita, sicut ille, qui in corpore adhuc positus cum raperetur in paradisum, utrum in corpore siue extra corpus raptus esset ad tertium caelum, nescire se dixit.⁶³ sancti enim etiam cum gerunt corpus non sunt tamen in carne, sed in spiritu, quoniam qui in cupiditate et conuersatione carnali sunt deo placere non possunt.⁶⁴ sancti autem conuersatio in carne non erat, sed in caelo, sicut Paulus ostendit.⁶⁵

19. Et quid dicamus de probabili desiderio uultus diuini? homines sume: si quem nobilem, si quem fortem, si quem sapientem esse audiunt, tamquam supra hominem arbitrantes concupiscunt uidere. procedit imperator, cuius regiae potestati commissa pars est orbis terrarum; concurrunt omnes et in tanta multitudine illum solum aspicere gestiunt et de fulgore purpurae plus quiddam esse in uultu imperatoris existimant. miraris, si dei desiderabilis uultus est, cum conformem sui hominem humanus omnis miretur affectus? hinc datur intellegi etiam illud, quod imperatori unusquisque nullius reus criminis gestit occurrere. nam etsi crimen habeat conscientia, tegunt illud tamen cordis occulta, dummodo publico non sit inuolutus reatu nec sit aliquod eius crimen expressum. denique ubi rei aliqui fuerint aduocati, et imperatori se et ipsis iudicibus offerre prohibentur, quemadmodum turpes lenonum meretricumque personae a conspectu uel iudicis uel imperatoris arcentur,⁶⁶ ne turpissimorum uisus offendat uultus regii claritatem. qui autem bene sibi conscius est, nullius criminis reus, quasi innocens prodit in medium.

20. Ex his ergo sancti Moysi conprehendamus affectum. uidere dei uultum quasi innocens uelut quodam uultu conscientiae desiderabat, aperire ei faciem mentis internae. cognosci plenius gestiebat et Moyses et ipse sanctus Dauid, qui alibi ait: proba me, domine, et tempta me;⁶⁷ non enim uellet probari, si in se crimen agnosceret, nec temptari, si passionibus grauibus se sciret obnoxium. liber igitur a peccato deo se cupidus offerebat. sed fortasse, quia adhuc frequentioribus dei uisitationibus mundus a uitio non foret, non fuerit in principio perfectus, utpote cui ante paululum dictum erat: solue calciamentum pedum tuorum,⁶⁸ illud utique calciamentum quod de Aegypto detulerat, hoc est corporeae conuersationis inuoluerum. ideo dicit ei dominus: nemo homo uidebit faciem meam et uiuet.⁶⁹

21. Quando dictum sit, considera. nondum ei dictum erat: faciam te in deum regi Pharao.⁷⁰ adhuc homo erat, ideo istud ei dicitur. processus ei debebatur, ut deus fieret, et ideo dictum est ei: 'de homine dixi. desiste hominis habere peccata et uidebis faciem meam; qui enim faciem meam uidet, debet esse sine peccato'. sed quia homo sine peccato esse non potest, ideo, ut in dei appellationem possit excrescere, commonetur. et quid de dei appellatione dicam? esto angelus, hoc est diuini minister imperii, obsequere mandatis domini. cum fueris angelus, uidebis faciem dei. magnum est uidere dei uultum. lex tibi dicit, ut tertio te offeras in Hierusalem.⁷¹ ipse dominus Iesus ait: beati mundo corde, ipsi enim deum uidebunt.⁷² aduertis quid a te exigatur, ut uideas deum, cui uitae proposita sit praerogatiua uidendi deum? emunda igitur cor tuum, ut quasi nouus creeris renouato spiritu,⁷³ omnes pollutas cogitationes de corde tuo abice, nihil sit quo tuus inquinetur affectus, simplex mens, pura sinceritas sit. talibus se dominus, cum inuolucrum corporis deposuerint, demonstrare dignatur.

22. Nunc de reliqua ipsius uersus parte dicamus. miserere, inquit, mei secundum uerbum tuum.⁷⁴ misericordia quidem iustitiae portio est, ut si uelis donare pauperibus, haec misericordia iustitia est secundum illud: dispersit, dedit pauperibus, iustitia eius manet in aeternum.⁷⁵ deinde quia conformis tuus iniustum est ut non adiuuetur a socio, cum praesertim dominus deus noster terram hanc possessionem omnium hominum uoluerit esse communem et fructus omnium ministrare; sed auaritia possessionum iura distribuit: iustum est igitur ut, si tibi aliquid priuatum uindicas, quod generi humano, immo omnibus animantibus in commune conlatum est, saltem aliquid inde pauperibus aspergas, ut, quibus iuris tui consortium debes, his alimenta non deneges.

23. Est etiam misericordiae donare peccatum: et misericordia est et iustitia est. denique iustitiae adscribit scriptura diuina ueniam peccatorum secundum illud, quod hodie lectum est: benedictum lignum quod fit per iustitiam, maledictum autem lignum quod fit per manum hominum.⁷⁶ superius ad crucem domini retulit, posterius ad errorem gentilium qui ligna uenerantur. iustitia autem quae est crucis, nisi quod ascendens illud patibulum dominus Iesus Christus peccatorum nostrorum chirographum crucifixit⁷⁷ et totius orbis peccatum suo cruore mundauit? in quo ergo iustus deus nisi in eo, quia sciuit quod de limo terrae hominem figurauit, quae terra utique corruptelae obnoxia est ac uitio lubricae passionis? propterea ergo dominus, qui secundum animam te ad imaginem et similitudinem sui fecit,⁷⁸ hoc est rationabilem iustum pudicum — in eo enim ad imaginem dei es, si sis iustus, ut sis imago iustitiae, si sis castus, ut inmaculati in te figura praefulgeat —, sciens ergo secundum corporis fragilitatem corruptelae patere hominem quasi iustus fragili lubricaeque naturae delicta concessit.

24. Ac ne forte dicat aliquis: 'cur ergo Adam maledicto sententiaeque subiacuit? numquid iniustus deus?' non utique. sed quia quasi fragili atque infirmo quid caueret ante praescripsit — infirmus enim non usurpare debet, sed oboedire mandatis —, ideo praeuaricationis reum tenuit quam prolapsionis addixit. in illum igitur iusta seueritatis processit sententia, quia scire uoluit quod scire non profuit. nobis autem, qui hereditario uinculo tenemur adstricti, qui in hac carne sumus, quae priorum praeiudicio detrita iam atque adsuefacta peccatis non poterat emergere, quasi iustus indulsit; iuste enim ignouit heredi qui praeiudicio laborat auctoris.

25. Est ergo iusta misericordia, sed est etiam iniusta misericordia. denique in lege scriptum est de quodam: non misereberis illius,⁷⁹ et in libris Regnorum legis, quia Saul propterea contraxit offensam, quia miseratus est Agag hostium regem,⁸⁰ quem prohibuerat sententia diuina seruari. ut si quis latronem filiis deprecantibus motus et lacrimis coniugis eius inflexus absoluendum putet, cui adhuc latrocinandi adspiret affectus, nonne innocentes tradet exitio qui liberat multorum exitia cogitantem? certe si gladium reprimit, uincla dissoluit, cur laxat exilio? cur latrocinandi qua potest clementiore uia non eripit facultatem, qui uoluntatem extorquere non potuit? deinde inter duos, hoc est accusatorem et reum pari periculo de capite decernentes, alterum si non probasset, alterum si non esset ab accusatore conuictus, non id quod iustitiae est iudex sequatur, sed, dum miseretur rei, damnet probantem aut, dum accusatori fauet qui probare non possit, addicat innoxium? non potest igitur haec dici iusta misericordia.

26. In ipsa ecclesia, ubi maxime misereri decet, teneri quam maxime debet forma iustitiae, ne quis a consortio communionis abstentus breui lacrimula atque ad tempus parata uel etiam uberioribus fletibus communionem, quam plurimis debet postulare temporibus, facilitate sacerdotis extorqueat. nonne, cum uni indulget indigno, plurimos facit ad prolapsionis contagium prouocari? facilitas enim ueniae incentiuum tribuit delinquendi. hoc eo dictum est, ut sciamus secundum uerbum dei, secundum rationem dispensandam esse misericordiam debitoribus. medicus ipse si serpentis interius inueniat uulneris cicatricem, cum debeat resecare ulceris uitium, ne latius serpat, tamen a secandi urendique proposito lacrimis inflexus aegroti medicamentis tegat quod ferro aperiendum fuit, nonne ista inutilis misericordia est, si propter breuem incisionis uel exustionis dolorem corpus omne tabescat, uitae usus intereat? recte igitur et sacerdos uulnus, ne latius serpat, a toto corpore ecclesiae quasi bonus medicus debet abscidere et prodere uirus criminis quod latet, non fouere, ne, dum unum excludendum non putat, plures dignos faciat quos excludat ab ecclesia.

27. Iure ergo apostolus diuino nos hortatur exemplo dicens: uide ergo bonitatem et seueritatem dei; in eos quidem qui ceciderunt seueritatem, in te autem bonitatem, si permanseris in bonitate,⁸¹ ostendens Iudaeorum populum iure esse a corpore ecclesiae separatum, ne perfidiae uirus contaminaret ecclesiam, populum autem gentium bonitate domini receptum et oboedientiae munere gloriari. iure igitur huic diuina bonitas suffragatur, cum in diuina bonitate permaneat; si uero et ipse desciscat, pro criminis sui qualitate damnabitur. qua gratia dominus et lux et ignis⁸² esse describitur, ut in tenebris ambulanti luceat quasi lumen, ne diutius possit errare qui quaerit luminis claritatem. ei autem, qui multa fuerit operatus quae manere non debeant, sed ardere, ignis est dominus, ut operis nostri faenum stipulamque consumat⁸³ atque utili nos saluos faciat detrimento, sicut aurum quod excoquitur plus probatur.⁸⁴

28. Fortasse dicat aliquis, qua ratione scripserit propheta: miserere mei secundum eloquium tuum;⁸⁵ uerbum enim dei iustitia est. si igitur iustitia fretus erat, cur misericordiam ante praemisit, aut si misericordiam requirebat, cur eam ad mensuram iustitiae putauit esse poscendam? qui enim bene agit et bene uiuit, opus non habet misericordia, quia misericordia a peccato liberat. denique non diuitibus, non fortibus et felicitate subnixis misericordia conferri consueuit a nobis, sed egentibus uel debilibus uel his, qui ex diuitiis in paupertatem aut captiuitatem aut necessitatem aliquam deciderunt. ergo qui eget misericordia peccator est, qui autem peccator non est utique iustus est et non eget misericordia dei.

29. Secundum quid igitur unusquisque, hoc est secundum quem statum egeat misericordia aut iustitiam habeat, considerandum est. aliter enim eget iustitia dei angelus, aliter homo, aliter eget misericordia archangelus, aliter homo. angelica enim natura non utique ita corruptelae obnoxia est ut natura generis humani, et ideo illa eget misericordia dei, ne possit errare et auersa a se dei gratia labatur in uitium, homo autem, etsi iam firmiore proposito est, tamen propter contractorum seriem peccatorum misericordiam quaerit. itaque etsi uterque misericordia indiget, aliter tamen angelo misericordia, aliter homini debetur. leue enim uitium in angelo iudicio grauiore censetur, peccatum quoque adulescentiae in homine mitiore sententia quam peccatum senectutis adstringitur et citius relaxatur.

30. Propheta igitur in isto uersiculo diuidit causas, ut et misericordiam quasi homo postulet, quia nemo sine sorde peccati,⁸⁶ et iustitiam quasi propheta deposcat uel certe quoniam, licet peccauerit sicut homo et quasi peccator misericordia egeat, tamen correxit errorem, paenitentiam gessit, abstinuit a temulentia delinquendi sobrietate uirtutis. petit ergo iustitiam secundum uerbum dei, quia uerbi dei sententia est, ut conuersis uenia donetur,⁸⁷ si legitime est facta conuersio.

31. Cogitaui uias meas et auerti pedes meos in testimonia tua.⁸⁸ diuiduus sensus: aut quia uias superiores meas cogitaui plenas lapsus atque peccati, et ideo, ut remissionem peccatorum possim mereri morum conuersione studioque uirtutum, auerti pedes meos in testimonia tua, ut non iam meis gressibus, quibus ante sum lapsus, sed testimoniorum tuorum itineribus ambularem, quo tuorum semitae mandatorum me errare non sinerent nec uestigium in deuia et tortuosa deflecterem. frequenter enim ignorantes iter, si strata uiarum⁸⁹ sequantur, perueniunt quo desiderant peruenire et carent erroris anfractu; sin autem usurpent scire quod nesciunt et putent aliqua sequenda conpendia, a publici tractus itinere recedentes erroris labyrinthos frequenter incurrunt, ut eos de itinere deflexisse paeniteat, et ideo post multa laborum dispendia ad iter quod reliquerant redire contendunt.

32. Hic ergo sensus unus est, alius autem ita: cogitaui uias meas,⁹⁰ non superiores, sed futuras, ut ante meos actus cogitationibus praeuenirem, ne inconsulta operatione progressus aliquid in ipsis conationibus offensionis inciderem, ut, si agere aliquid uelim, ante cogitem, utrum agendum sit illud quod desidero aut quo agendum modo, similiter si adloquendum, utrum adloqui debeam, deinde publice an secreto loqui, praesentibus aliquibus aut nullis; sicut illud est ut, si uelis fratrem corripere, primo solus corripias, secundo praesentibus duobus aut tribus testibus, tertio, si non audierit, coram ecclesia.⁹¹ itaque si praetermisso ordine uelis coram ecclesia fratrem increpare quem ante monere debueras, erratum ipse cognoscis. omnia igitur cum cogitatione facito, ut non te paeniteat operis tui. an uero si uiam ingressus, cum ueneris ad competum aliquod — ita enim appellatur plurimarum uelut quidam concursus uiarum —, si nescias quod iter ingredi debeas, stas tamen et cogitas ipse tecum, utrum primam an secundam an tertiam an quartam uel certe quintam, si ita est, uiam eligas quam sequaris nec putas prius adoriundum iter quam animo definieris et pleniore mentis intentione decideris, stas igitur cogitans quae sit uia, quae in ciuitatem ducat ad quam tibi putas esse pergendum, quanto igitur magis animo debes ac mente consistere, qui ad regnum caeleste contendis, et cogitare tecum, quia non omnis uia illo ducit, non omnis uia illo dirigit ad Hierusalem illam quae in caelo est!⁹²

33. Sunt uiae quae malos exitus habent, quas diaboli temptamenta triuerunt, et ideo exitus earum exitus mortis sunt. hae nempe sunt uiae, de quibus legisti in Prouerbiis, quia sunt uiae quae uidentur uiro rectae esse, ultima autem earum aspiciunt in profundum inferni.⁹³ est autem uia angustior illa quae ducit ad dei regnum.⁹⁴ uolens igitur eam ingredi uiam, quae ad deum ducit, non circumspicies, non tecum ipse tractabis, non considerabis, ne facile capiaris affectu, si uiae latitudine prouocatus ingrediaris iter quod ad inferna deducat? cogita ergo ante atque perpende quid facias.

34. Qui uiderit, inquit, mulierem ad concupiscendum eam, iam adulterauit eam in corde suo.⁹⁵ hic utique cogitauit, ut uideret mulierem, ut uideret ad concupiscendum; sed mala haec cogitatio relinquat uias suas. alius non cogitauit quidem, sed subito aspexit et captus est et uidit et concupiuit et ideo lapsus est. quodsi fragilem suum considerasset affectum et ante timuisset, ne, cum uidisset mulierem, mente caperetur et animo, utique non prospexisset ad mulierem, ne concupisceret eam. uidens ergo mulierem non direxit pedem suum in testimonia domini, qui, si ante lapsum suum cogitare potuisset, forsitan direxisset. unusquisque ergo prius cogitet quomodo uideat mulierem, ut non uideat ad concupiscendum eam, ut non adtendat eam. si autem uidens repente uel bona cogitatione fundatus dirigat pedem suum ad testimonia domini, ne in captiuitate permaneat, utique ei profuit cogitatio. postremo amans mulierem diligens concupiscens Christum consideret, iudicium eius, testimonia eius de praemiis castitatis et relinquat uias concupiscentiae, sequatur uias Christi et habebit laudem in eis, si contemplatus dominum Iesum contemnat carnis ardorem, flammam libidinis⁹⁶ quasi quodam fonte restinguat, adlidat teneras et infirmas cupiditates ad petram Christi.⁹⁷

35. Cogitet ergo primum, ut eadem repetam, quemadmodum uideat, quemadmodum loquatur. bene cogitauit qui dixit: pone, domine, custodiam ori meo,⁹⁸ ne forte, dum mens inflammat ardorem, lingua sermone labatur aut multiloquio incauto etiam, quod mens non cogitauit, incurrat loquendi facilitate. cogitet, quemadmodum pedem suum dirigat, manum adferat, ne impetu indignationis inpulsus, cum repellere debeat iniuriam, ipse alteri iactum notabilis caedis inlidat. cogitandum est igitur quid geramus; ubi enim praecedit cogitatio, maturitas operationis adhibetur. itaque pes iste fidei uestigium est, quem meditatione perpensa a corporalibus motibus ad testimonia diuina deflexit.

36. Quid igitur prosit cogitare ante, quod postea facturus sis, docet uersiculus qui sequitur: paratus sum et non sum turbatus, ut custodiam mandata tua.⁹⁹ ubi cogitatione quis praeuenit quod acturus est, semper paratus ad agendum est, semper fixus et ualidus, ut non queat subita aliqua accidentium offensione turbari. nulla eum flabra scopulosae nimis ambitionis excutiunt, nulla procella atque tempestas iniustae inuasionis exagitat, non petulantis oculus meretricis inlaqueat; oculus enim meretricis laqueus amatoris est. in aliena miser capitur possessione, qui inprouiso igne praeuentus possessionem suae mentis amisit. si persecutio ingruit, inuenit iam paratum, ut, ubi possit esse perturbatio salutis incertae, ibi sperata sacri corona certaminis prouida futuri meditatione demulceat. si a maledicis obtrectatoribus frequenter obroditur, cogitet, quia non est discipulus super magistrum neque seruus supra dominum.¹⁰⁰ si supra dei filium obprobria exprobrantium nefanda ceciderunt,¹⁰¹ quemadmodum seruus exortem eorum sperare se poterit? ideoque mentem suam praeparare debet, ut, cum ista acciderint, turbare se non queant. praeparet animum et meditatione conponat, ut possit dicere, si tamen possit: quis nos separabit a caritate Christi? tribulatio an angustia an fames?¹⁰² et cetera. quare autem non separetur, adiecit: sed in his omnibus superamus, inquit, et uincimus propter eum qui dilexit nos.¹⁰³ meritoque confirmatus ait: confido enim quia neque mors neque uita neque angeli neque potestates neque praesentia neque futura separare nos poterunt a caritate dei quae est in Christo Iesu.¹⁰⁴

37. Multa apostolus dixit contra quae lucta nobis est; sed alia facilia sunt uel certe non huius temporis aut loci, ut discutere omnia debeamus, quae sint quae nos separare possint a caritate dei, nisi diligentius resistamus. illud nunc, quod uidetur obscurius, non praetermittimus, quia ait: neque altitudo neque profundum,¹⁰⁵ quae sunt grauia temptamenta. denique habes in Esaia scriptum ad regem Achaz: pete tibi signum a domino in profundum aut in altum.¹⁰⁶ respondit ille: non petam neque temptabo dominum.¹⁰⁷ mysticum illi propositum est, sed non intellexit et ueritus est, ne temptare dominum uideretur, si signum peteret in altum aut in profundum. dominus autem uolens grauia temptamenta remedio subplantare diuino, ait: ecce uirgo in utero concipiet.¹⁰⁸ hoc est magnum signum, quod altitudinis et profundi temptamenta destruxit. dominus enim Iesus non rapinam arbitratus est esse se aequalem deo¹⁰⁹ neque quae sua sunt requisiuit,¹¹⁰ sed formam serui accepit, humiliauit se usque ad mortem.¹¹¹ itaque neque elatus est potestate neque mortis quadam deiectione turbatus. hoc igitur signum proponitur regi, ut petat sibi remedium, per quod nec regiae potestatis extolleretur supercilio nec certe aerumnae alicuius exceptione perturbaretur, ut erat corde turbatus, cum bellum sibi uideret a Syris inferri. diuini igitur exemplo oraculi uoluimus ostendere quae essent haec grauia temptamenta, quibus remedium solus potuit Christus adferre.

38. Uerumtamen et prophetico sermone facile est docere sarcinam quandam horum temptamentorum. haec enim temptamenta duo maxima sanctus Salomon oratione propria declarauit et rogauit ut posset excludere, dicens: diuitias autem et paupertatem ne des mihi, sed ordina mihi quae opus sunt et quae abundent, ne repletus mendax fiam et dicam: quis me uidet? aut pauper rapiam et peierem nomen dei.¹¹² potes igitur tu ista temptamenta contemnere quae formidauit Salomon, qui sapientiam postulauit et meruit?¹¹³ diues erat, timuit extolli; pauper fieri formidauit, ne paupertatis necessitate abstinentiae gratiam non teneret. quam multi, qui uidebantur sancti esse, ceciderunt ab altitudine cordis sui! quam multi aliqua necessitate deiecti non potuerunt contenti esse iniuria, qui fuerant uirtutum exercitio roborati! rarus Iob inuenitur in terris, qui et diuitias amisit et filios et uibicibus corporis exaratus, cum uermes toto corpore fluerent, a Christi tamen caritate non potuit separari. paremus igitur affectum nostrum, ne inparatum uis repentina perturbet. denique sciens dominus cito nos frangi solere ait etiam apostolis: non turbetur cor uestrum neque formidet.¹¹⁴ si te cupiditas appetentiaque temptauerit, lege euangelium, dicat tibi Iesus: 'non turbetur cor tuum'. si quis terror ingruerit, dicat tibi Christus: 'non turbetur cor tuum neque formidet'. si qua supplicia persecutor inflixerit, lege euangelium, dicat tibi Iesus: 'non turbetur cor tuum neque formidet'. lege apostolum dicentem: indignae enim passiones huius temporis ad superuenturam gloriam.¹¹⁵ si in mari nauiganti grauis fluctus insurgat, tempestas atra¹¹⁶ desaeuiat, dicat tibi Iesus: 'ego sum, noli turbari'.¹¹⁷ ueniens igitur in certamen aliquod magnum et graue dic prius: paratus sum et non sum turbatus, ut custodiam mandata tua.¹¹⁸

39. Et quid de saecularibus dicam? esto paratus non solum aduersus ea quae uides, sed etiam aduersus ea quae non uides. foris, inquit, pugnae, intus timores;¹¹⁹ in te ipso tibi bellum est. bonum est ut in tranquillitate sit animus tuus et in quadam serenitate; sed gubernator ille melior est qui in tempestate nauem gubernat. rege igitur te ipsum, quando turbatur animus, mens fluctuat. laudauerim uirtutem gubernatoris, qui nullas procellas senserit et cursum nauigii direxerit nulla tempestate iactatus? sed illum laudauerim, qui aduersus uentos renititur, insurgit aduersum fluctus, non timet, uel cum eleuatur undis nauigium uel cum ad profundi ima deponitur. ita et ille laudandus est gubernator sui, qui ea quae aduersa sunt uincit patientia, uirtute superat, secundis non extollitur, aduersis non frangitur. bellum tibi est etiam aduersus nequitias spiritales.¹²⁰ aduertis, cum quantis tibi proelium, et ideo meditare et statue animo, ut procedens ad proelia dicas: paratus sum et non sum turbatus, ut custodiam mandata tua.¹²¹

40. Sequitur uersus quintus: funes peccatorum circumplexi sunt mihi et legem tuam non sum oblitus,¹²² hoc est: funibus me circumdederunt peccatores, ut mea inplicarent uestigia, ne possim incursus eorum praeuidendi celeritate euitare. non ergo illi funes sunt de quibus scriptum est: funes ceciderunt mihi in praeclaris.¹²³ sunt enim funes illi, quibus utuntur qui terminos metiuntur agrorum limitesque distingunt et possessionum spatia disterminant. tenduntur ergo illi funes quibus possessio uniuscuiusque diffunditur; sic factus est funiculus hereditatis suae Israel.¹²⁴ boni ergo illi funes; isti autem funes quibus trahuntur peccata ut fune longo et ut loro iugi uitulae iniquitates.¹²⁵ uitula enim indomita plus se iactat et excutit, cum tenetur, nec adquiescit imperio nec adstringitur uinculo, sed magis, cum loro retrahitur, exasperatur. itaque nec coacta se subicit nec tamen libera uinculorum est. sicut ergo trahit uitula lorum iugi, quae, etsi non tenetur e proximo, tenetur tamen nec se explicat et absoluit, ita trahit unusquisque peccator indomitis moribus iniquitates, qui putat se liberum, quia non est iugo subditus subiectusque iudicio, et nescit quod non sit exutus, sed magis ut illa uitula et ipse se implicet suorum nexibus peccatorum. hi sunt igitur funes delictorum nostrorum, quibus inuoluimur et ligamur, quemadmodum sunt et uincula delictorum. et ideo saluator, qui habet in potestate peccatum dimittere, dicit his qui sunt in uinculis: exite.¹²⁶ utinam et mihi dicat: 'exi de uinculis tuis, exi de nexibus peccatorum tuorum, solue funes erroris tui quibus circumdatus et ligatus es'. etsi enim nequissimus sim omnium et detestabilissimus peccatorum, illo tamen iubente liberor, qui sub uno momento latrocinii damnatum reum supplicio eripuit et constituit in regno suo.¹²⁷

41. Sunt ergo uincula quibus constringimur, etsi nobis uideamur liberi. beatus qui haec soluit sibi uincula. et ideo Dauid ait: disrumpamus uincula eorum et abiciamus a nobis iugum ipsorum.¹²⁸ non manu utique uisibilia uincula dicit esse rumpenda, sed inuisibiles criminum nexus morum conuersione et fidei professione soluendos aut manu, hoc est opera manus tuae. eroga pauperibus, debiles eleuato, redime captiuos, et soluisti uincula tua: elemosyna enim a morte liberat.¹²⁹ eripe eum qui ducitur ad mortem,¹³⁰ hoc est: eripe eum intercessione, eripe gratia tu, sacerdos, aut tu, imperator, eripe subscriptione indulgentiae, et soluisti peccata tua, exuisti te e uinculis tuis.

42. Uinculis enim peccatorum suorum unusquisque constringitur,¹³¹ sicut ipse legisti: ligat nos uinculis carnis inlecebra. uinculum nostrum auaritia est, uinculum nostrum ebrietas est, uinculum nostrum concupiscentia est, uinculum nostrum superbia est. sunt et diaboli uincula: denique scriptum est: hanc autem filiam Abrahae, quam ligauit satanas decem et octo annis.¹³² ligat nos etiam diabolus criminum nexu, ligat nos uinculo fornicationis, uinculo adulterii, uinculo perfidiae qua Christus negatur, uinculo inuidiae qua frequenter etiam frater adpetitur, uinculo crudelitatis qua nonnumquam socius et conformis occiditur. haec sunt uincula quibus ligatus unusquisque inclinatur, ut animam suam leuare non possit nec obtutus ad caelum mentis erigere, nisi dicat ei dominus: dimissus es ab infirmitate tua¹³³ et munere eum suae benedictionis erexerit. haec sunt sceleratorum uincula quae dure peccatores ligant, hoc est diabolus et ministri eius uel certe Nebroth, hoc est 'amaritudo',¹³⁴ uel certe Esau, hoc est 'terrenus et callidus'.¹³⁵ isti enim uenatores erant, qui feras laqueis captare consuerunt et muta animantia uinculis inligare. inutiles uenatores, qui capiant bestias quae pompam spectaculo populari praebeant, ministerium crudelitati. denique nullum inuenimus diuinarum in serie scripturarum de uenatoribus iustum.

43. At uero alia uincula sunt, ut dixi, domini Iesu, quem sequuntur, inquit, alligati uinculis,¹³⁶ hoc est uinculis adstricti caritatis et amoris, fidei uinculis alligati, licet sic possit intellegi: alligati uinculis Christum sequuntur, hoc est peccatorum et criminum remissorem, fontem indulgentiarum, redemptionis auctorem. sequamur ergo uincula Christi, fugiamus uincula uenatorum, ne, dum incedimus, dum ignoramus, laqueos eorum¹³⁷ pes nostrae mentis incurrat, ne animae nostrae ceruicem nexibus inseramus. insidiantur enim quasi pessimi uenatores et, quando prosperorum euentu animum relaxamus ac secundis rebus remittimus nec excubias cautionis habemus intentas, tunc plus iactant laqueos suos aut in uia qua ambulamus abscondunt, ut, cum fuerint eorum laqueis innexa uestigia, trahant, quo securum subplantent uiantem uel collo adstrictos strangulent commeantes.¹³⁸

44. Noli ergo alta ambulare ceruice sicut filiae Iudae;¹³⁹ altis enim ceruicibus cito laqueus innodatur. noli ad saecularia mentem animumque defigere, sed circumspice oculis animae diligenter, quia pluit dominus laqueos super peccatores,¹⁴⁰ ne cadentes inligare te possint; quos poteris euitare, si legem domini non obliuiscaris. etenim etiam qui ligatus est, si sibi sit conscius libertatis, obliuisci libertatem suam non desinit et causam nonnumquam dicit e uinculis eamque sibi legum praescripto defendit ac iudicio frequenter absoluitur. ergo et tu, si peccaueris, memor esto legis, si peccaueris, memor esto Christi, qui te liberat dicens: ego sum ego sum, qui deleo iniquitates tuas, et memor non ero.¹⁴¹ ipsum diebus ac noctibus tene, ipsi tua confitere peccata.

45. Docet te propheta, quomodo teneas dominum Iesum: media, inquit, nocte surgebam ad confitendum tibi super iudicia iustitiae tuae.¹⁴² non satis est dies ad deprecandum; surgendum est et nocte et media nocte. ipse dominus pernoctauit in oratione,¹⁴³ ut te proprio ad deprecandum inuitaret exemplo. et utique peccatis tuis ille indulgentiam postulabat; postulabat a patre, operabatur propria uoluntate. non tibi dicit propheta, ut tantummodo media nocte surgas, sed ut nocte surgas et maxime nocte media. nocte enim surgendum ante praemisit dicens: memor fui nocte nominis tui, domine.¹⁴⁴ potest unusquisque memor esse et non surgere, potest unusquisque et surgere et, cum surrexerit, ea quae proprio arbitrio sederint postulare. addidit: media nocte surgebam,¹⁴⁵ docens surgendum esse media nocte. nec otiosum est quod adiunxit: ad confitendum tibi, hoc est, ut illo maxime tempore deprecari deum et propria debeamus peccata deflere nec solum praeteritis ueniam postulare, sed etiam praesentia declinare, futuris cauere; multa enim illo in tempore temptamenta proserpunt.

46. Tunc feruet carnis inlecebra, tunc temptator inludit; coquitur cibus potusque digeritur, stomachus aeger, mens somnolenta, animus occupatus est. itaque aut quiescenti calor soporis augetur aut uigilanti nondum plenior refusus uigor est, qui errorum cauere possit incursus. tunc igitur temptator adsistit, tunc retia iacit, quibus turbare mentem possit inprouidam. tunc spiritales nequitiae¹⁴⁶ tenebras offundunt, tunc omne nefas suadere contendunt, quando nullus culpae arbiter, nullus criminis conscius, nullus potest esse testis erroris. tunc uarias disceptationes pectori dormitantis infundunt, ut primo de statu mentis deiciant reluctantem et aliquorum qui sancti habentur proponatur exemplum, quod illi aliquando deliquerint, sed postea ueniam sint adepti et texerint superiora delicta. nam etsi omnem emendationem nostri inimicus exosus sit, tamen ad tempus, ut sobriae mentis uirum possit elidere, praetendit futuram indulgentiam, ut praesentia peccata persuadeat, et, cum inpulerit aliquem ad erroris adsensum, si uiderit eum iam non amore uirtutis a culpa, sed poenae contemplatione reuocari, inserit uarias disceptationes, ut dicat sibi: 'quis me uidet? tenebrae circumdant me et parietes. quem uereor?'¹⁴⁷ non uidet altissimus, non ad eum nostra peccata perueniunt, non dignatur spectare quae turpia sunt'. haec utique usu exemploque cognoscimus; nemo enim potest esse expers temptationis.

47. Itaque ut tempus hoc habile temptamentis, ita etiam tempus est poenae, quod ex lectione diuina possumus edoceri. non enim otiose dominus deus noster, cum posset quocumque momento primitiua Aegyptiorum extinguere, hoc tamen tempus dolori et luctui peccatoris oportunius iudicauit. sic enim scriptum est, quia media nocte primogeniti Aegyptiorum liberi ab exterminatore sint interempti.¹⁴⁸ ideoque sanctus Moyses propheta, ut hoc praeueniret tempus ac sine Hebraeorum fraude transiret, agnum ante immolauit, hoc est uesperi, ut manducantes eum et domini pascha celebrantes non occuparentur exterminatoris insidiis, ne inermes et uacuos spiritalis alimenti nocturna spicula tenebrosi hostis opprimerent.

48. Haec diligenter intende, prudenter intellege, sollicite require. non perfunctorie ista dicuntur, sed diuina tibi mysteria declarantur. praeueni et tu insidias temptatoris, instaura prius caeleste conuiuium. indictum est ieiunium: caue ne neglegas et, si te fames cotidianum cogit ad prandium aut intemperantia declinat ieiunium, tamen caelesti magis te seruato conuiuio. non epulae paratae extorqueant, ut caelestis sis uacuus sacramenti. differ aliquantulum, non longe est finis diei. immo plerique sunt huiusmodi dies, ut statim meridianis horis adueniendum sit in ecclesiam, canendi hymni, celebranda oblatio. tunc utique paratus adsiste, ut tibi accipias munimentum, ut corpus edas domini Iesu, in quo remissio peccatorum, postulatio diuinae reconciliationis et protectionis aeternae. suscipe ante dominum Iesum tuae mentis hospitio: ubi corpus eius, ibi Christus est. cum hospitium tuum aduersarius uiderit occupatum caelestis fulgore praesentiae, intelleget locum temptamentis suis interclusum esse per Christum, fugiet ac recedet et tu mediam noctem sine ulla offensione transibis. admonet etiam sacrificium uespertinum,¹⁴⁹ ut numquam Christum obliuiscaris. non potes obliuisci, cum lectum ascendis, eius domini, cui in occasu diei precem fuderis, qui esurientem te sui corporis epulis expleuerit. etenim quod uesperi cogitaueris, cito cum euigilaueris recensebis. excitabit te ipse dominus Iesus, admonebit ut surgas et eo tempore arma orationis adsumas, quo solet incursare temptator.

49. Unde non otiose Paulus apostolus et Silas trusi in carcerem, cum in neruo pedes haberent, media tamen nocte surgebant mentis uestigio, exorabant dominum et laudis sacrificium¹⁵⁰ deferebant; ideoque, ubi non defuit deuotionis officium, adfuit etiam absolutionis remedium. subito enim media nocte terrae motus factus est grandis, ita ut mota essent fundamenta carceris: ualuae apertae, omnium uincula soluta sunt.¹⁵¹ audis quemadmodum, si ligatus fueris, quibus manibus, quibus operibus ipse te soluas, quemadmodum custodes timere non possis? surge igitur ad precandum. ea hora est, qua temptator nocere consueuit et nequitia consueuit inruere; ea hora est, qua solet aduersus temptationes graues remedium uenire caeleste. excubandum tibi est, ne qua fraude uincaris, prouidendum, ut eo tempore quo potes uincere nequaquam uincendi tempus amittas.

50. Et quia orationem esse subeundam media nocte diximus, non minus etiam de huiusmodi hora diei dicendum uidetur: contraria enim nox diei est — quid enim luci commune cum tenebris?¹⁵² — et ideo aduersa sibi eadem nocturna est et diurna. sicut enim media nocte primitiua Aegyptiorum¹⁵³ temptator occidit et ex eo cognoscitur, quod ea maxime hora operetur aduersarius, ita e contrario, quod meridiano tempore uirtus diuinae lucis operetur. unde et Abraham circa meridiem sobrias tendebat excubias et boni aliquos expectabat euentus, leuans oculos suos ac finitima perlustrans, quod eo tempore aduenientem gratiam sibi quaereret. illo igitur tempore cum duobus angelis sanctis diuinus ei hospes aduenit,¹⁵⁴ illo tempore Christum suscepit hospitio, illo tempore illa quae legis et intellegis celebrata mysteria sunt. quando enim magis diuina debuit fidelem uirum inluminare praesentia quam cum lux diei plenior refulgeret? meritoque etiam sanctus Ioseph receptis fratribus et adcersito iuniore germano, quem maxime diligebat, meridie instaurat conuiuium.¹⁵⁵ erat enim meridies in sancti Ioseph pectore, quando laetas epulas fratribus splendentis gratiae ministrabat suauissimique cibos alloquii diuidebat, ut, cum illi poenam fratris metuerent adpetiti et uenditi in seruitutem, ille diuino iudicio ipsis diceret esse prouisum, ut in Aegyptum deduceretur qui famem sustinentibus alimoniam non negaret.¹⁵⁶

51. Habemus ergo in nobis meridiem. meridies est ei cui iustitiae sol¹⁵⁷ refulget et cuius opere bono uel cogitationibus innoxiis et pura mente atque sincera pascitur Christus. disce igitur, quemadmodum tibi ipse facias meridiem: reuela, inquit, ad dominum uiam tuam et spera in eum, et ipse faciet: et educet sicut lumen iustitiam tuam et iudicium tuum sicut meridiem.¹⁵⁸ ubi enim uera est fides, ibi ueri luminis gratia est; ubi innocentiae prolixior custodia uirtutumque longa meditatione processus, ubi splendor bonae conscientiae diu permanens, ibi intellegibilis est meridies.¹⁵⁹ ibi et tu Christo mentis tuae epulas exhibebis et in diuitiis eius etiam ipse pasceris, ita ut non praematurus luminis ueri sequatur occasus nec quidam studiis tuis tenebrosus cito uesper incumbat et opera bona interiectus inpediat. quodsi temptationum nox aduenerit, non inmerito media nocte surgendum et orandum diu et protrahenda psalmis tempora, donec ueniat dies et inlucescat tibi Christus.

52. Uide igitur, ne et per diem tibi media nox fiat, quo princeps mundi tenebrosus et squalidus plenitudinem tibi temptationis offundat. surge igitur et excita tuam mentem. non dormitat qui custodit te,¹⁶⁰ si te non repperiat dormientem, sed surget, si et ipse fuerit tuae animae uigiliis excitatus, et imperabit uento et fiet tranquillitas¹⁶¹ in tuo pectore, quod diuersarum procellarum turbine fluctuabat. surgendum igitur nobis. solet sponsus media nocte uenire;¹⁶² caue ne te dormientem inueniat, caue ne facem tuam non queas somnolentus accendere. surgendum, inquam, et domino confitendum est, ut gratias agas, confitenda etiam eius aeterna iudicia, quicquid nobis boni accidit, ut eius iustitiae deputemus ac, siue diuites sumus siue salubriter ualemus, iustitiae domini deferamus, quia iustus est, ut opus suum tueatur ac seruet, ut, quos nudos indotata quadam naturae sorte in hanc proiecit corporis infirmitatem, uigore animi et misericordiae suae dote pauperes uestire dignetur. quod utique omni agendum uirtute manifestum est, ut nec die nec nocte nec ullo tempore a gratiarum actione debeamus uacare.

53. Sequitur uersus septimus: particeps ego sum omnium timentium te et custodientium mandata tua.¹⁶³ habet et Christus participes atque consortes sui. denique Dauid probat dicens: unxit te deus, deus tuus, oleo laetitiae prae consortibus tuis.¹⁶⁴ habet participes carnis, quia carnem suscepit. habet prophetiae, quia prophetam, inquit, uobis suscitabit dominus deus uester de fratribus uestris tamquam me. ipsum audietis per omnia quaecumque loquetur uobis. erit autem, omnis anima quae non audierit prophetam illum, exterminabitur de plebe.¹⁶⁵ ipse est uerus propheta, qui sine alterius munere futura cognoscit, qui ea quae uentura erant locutus est in prophetis. an non est propheta qui facit alios prophetare? ipse est qui auditur sicut lex, quia et lex ipsius. denique si Moysen, inquit, et prophetas non audiunt, nec si quis ex mortuis ad illos abierit credent.¹⁶⁶ ideoque populus Iudaeorum, quia non audiuit hunc prophetam, de plebe exterminatus est, ut populus dei esse desineret qui ante dei populus dicebatur. habet consortes baptismi, quia baptizatus pro nobis est, habet consortes iustitiae,¹⁶⁷ quia ipse iustitia est et nobis de suo dedit sui habere consortium; habet consortes ueritatis,¹⁶⁸ quia ipse ueritas est et nos tenere uoluit ueritatem; habet consortes resurrectionis,¹⁶⁹ quia ipse est resurrectio, habet consortes inmaculatae uitae,¹⁷⁰ quia ipse inmaculatus est, et quicumque in nouitate uitae ambulauerit,¹⁷¹ quicumque iustitiae tramitem tenuerit, particeps Christi est. habet etiam tribulationis suae participes, ideoque, qui particeps eius esse cupiebat, dicit: nunc gaudeo in passionibus pro uobis et adimpleo ea quae desunt tribulationum Christi in carne mea pro corpore eius, quae est ecclesia.¹⁷² sepulturae quoque eius participes sumus;¹⁷³ quisque enim consepultus est cum ipso per baptismum in morte, particeps eius est. ideoque ipse apostolus, adstruens quam nobis gratiam dederit dominus Iesus, ait: participes enim Christi facti sumus.¹⁷⁴

54. Sed et ille particeps Christi est, qui lugentem maesto solatur affectu, qui in carcere constitutum proprio non defraudat officio, qui ad lectum aegrotantis adsidet, non ut capiendae hereditatis tendat aucupium, sed ut morbi uim sollicito mitiget ministerio, ut sedulo fessum sermone demulceat, qui nudos uestiat, esurientes reficiat. in his enim frequenter est Christus, sicut ipse ait: in carcere eram et non uenistis ad me, nudus eram et non operuistis me; quod enim uni eorum non fecistis, nec mihi fecistis.¹⁷⁵ si oderim mendacium, particeps Christi sum, quia ueritas Christus est; si fugiam iniquitatem, particeps Christi sum, quia Christus iustitia est. beatus qui hoc potest dicere. sicut enim membrum particeps esse dicimus totius corporis, sic coniunctum omnibus timentibus deum, qui non dicat alteri: 'non es de corpore meo', hoc est non dicat pauperi diues, non ignobili nobilis, non aegro sanus, non fortis debili, non inperito sapiens dicat: 'non estis mihi necessarii', particeps corporis Christi est quae est ecclesia. sed qui sciat quod hi, qui uidentur in ecclesia debiles pauperes inprudentes, etiam peccatores, abundantiore indigeant honestate et maiore praesidio fulciendi sint, qui hoc nouerit, ipse potest dicere: particeps ego sum omnium timentium te, qui conpatiatur magis huiusmodi hominibus quam fastidiat eos, conpatiatur infirmis, ut sciat quia unum corpus omnes sumus¹⁷⁶ et membris membra conexa, ut alterum sine altero esse non possit et, cum alterum dolet, conpatiatur alteri. iste ergo recte potest usurpare huius uocis auctoritatem.

55. Uide autem, quam uerecunde propheta dixerit: particeps ego sum timentium te.¹⁷⁷ non dixit 'imitantium', sed 'timentium'; initium enim sapientiae est timor domini.¹⁷⁸ inter rudes se constituit humilitate, cum ueteranos deuotione superaret. sed tamen et timere uirtutis est, quia scriptum est: timete dominum, sancti eius.¹⁷⁹

56. Sed quibus timor iste non sanctus uideatur — quia sunt qui ignaua formidine pertimescunt et hebeti trepidant metu —, addidit: et custodientium mandata tua,¹⁸⁰ ut ostenderet se sancti timoris esse consortem. aut sic: potest quidem timere corde deuotus, sed opere piger, ut sit religiosus affectu, otiosus actu; non tamen potest piger esse qui domini mandata custodit. qui ergo timet, custodit; ergo eius est custodire qui timeat. sanctus itaque hoc dicit; ego autem mihi hoc usurpare non possum. quanti enim sunt qui timeant deum, et non illis conpatior, quaerunt opem, et ferre nolo, misericordia indigent, sumptu non adiuuo! quisquis autem haec facit, ipse potest dicere se timentium Christum esse consortem.

57. Misericordiae tuae, domine, plena est terra; iustificationes tuas doce me.¹⁸¹ quomodo plena est terra misericordiae domini nisi per passionem domini nostri Iesu Christi, quam futuram praeuidens quasi praemissam propheta concelebrat? prophetis enim ea quae uentura sunt praeuidentibus moris est, ut quasi iam decursa memorentur quae posterioris aetatis sunt. plena est ergo terra misericordiae domini, quia omnibus data est remissio peccatorum, super omnes sol oriri iubetur.¹⁸² et hic quidem sol cotidie super omnes oritur, mysticus autem sol ille iustitiae¹⁸³ omnibus ortus est: omnibus uenit, omnibus passus est et omnibus resurrexit, ideo autem passus est, ut tolleret peccatum mundi.¹⁸⁴ si quis autem non credit in Christum, generali beneficio ipse se fraudat, ut, si quis clausis fenestris radios solis excludat, non ideo sol non ortus est omnibus, quia calore eius se ipse fraudauit, sed quod solis est, praerogatiuam suam seruat, quod inprudentis est, communis a se gratiam lucis excludit. super omnes pluuia est,¹⁸⁵ et hoc misericordiae diuinae deputatur, quia pluit super iustos et iniustos. aut certe sic interpretandum, quod misericordiae diuinae plena sit terra, quia domini est terra et plenitudo eius. ipse super maria fundauit eam et super flumina praeparauit illam.¹⁸⁶ etenim per ecclesiam in omnes gentes diffusa est misericordia domini, in omnes gentes diffusa est fides.

58. Fortasse dicas: 'qua ratione non dictum est: misericordiae domini plenum est caelum, quia sunt etiam spiritales nequitiae in caelestibus?'¹⁸⁷ sed non illae ad commune ius indulgentiae dei remissionemque pertinent peccatorum, quibus ignis seruatur aeternus, et illa, quae caelestium uel potestatum uel ministeriorum sunt, licet auxilio domini fulciantur, tamen non tanta eius indigent misericordia, quanta ea quae sunt inferiora atque terrena: non enim illa carnis inuolucro uestiuntur, in qua est frequentis erroris inlecebra. ideoque in superioribus ait idem propheta, quia deus dedit caelum caeli domino, terram autem filiis hominum.¹⁸⁸ unde et caelum purius et defaecatius ab omni labe peccati est longeque semotius ab illo de quo scriptum est: sicut uolatilia caeli.¹⁸⁹ hoc enim caelum uelut medius quidam inter caelum et terram aerius locus dicitur, in quo sunt etiam spiritales nequitiae in caelestibus.¹⁹⁰ nam in illo non appellatiuo, sed uero caelo, etiamsi diabolum legerimus in conspectu dei angelorum non defuisse concilio,¹⁹¹ puto tamen nulla operari temptamenta nequitiae. denique scriptum est, quia angeli amauerunt filias hominum,¹⁹² eo quod terrenis capti detineantur inlecebris princeps mundi istius ac ministri eius, in quibus nequitia spiritalis uenenis quibusdam carnis huius inbuta et humanis sit infecta criminibus. ideoque dominus in euangelio suo ait: fiat uoluntas tua sicut in caelo et in terra.¹⁹³ non eadem illic iniquitas uicinum possessionis finitimo rure depellere, uiduam hereditatis fraudare conpendiis, minores consortii iure detrudere, intra lignum denique et quodcumque argenti atque auri uel aeris metallum uelut effigiem quandam caelestis includere potestatis. haec cum sint maximi plena sacrilegii, in caelis uacant, in terris frequentantur: uerbo enim domini caeli firmati sunt,¹⁹⁴ non terra firmata est.

59. Et ideo iustificationes dei ab ipso domino uult doceri, quia difficile est in terra magistrum huiusmodi repperire, qui ea doceat quae ipse non uiderit. ad illum igitur doctorem intimo propheta contendit affectu, qui solus magister est uerus. quomodo enim potest homo quasi uerum docere quod nesciat, cum ipse sit mendax?¹⁹⁵ meritoque ait dominus, ut nemo super terram uocet sibi quemquam magistrum, quia unus est magister omnium.¹⁹⁶ et quomodo posset Dauid alium doctorem quaerere, cum ipse de deo dixerit: qui docet hominem scientiam?¹⁹⁷ docet autem deus et mentes inluminat singulorum et claritatem cognitionis infundit, si tu aperias ostia cordis tui et caelestis gratiae recipias claritatem. quando dubitas, diligenter inquiras; qui enim quaerit inuenit, et qui pulsat aperitur ei.¹⁹⁸ multa obscuritas in scripturis propheticis. sed si manu quadam mentis tuae scripturarum ianuam pulses et ea quae sunt occulta diligenter examines, paulatim incipies rationem colligere dictorum et aperietur tibi non ab alio, sed a dei uerbo, de quo legisti in Apocalypsi, quod agnus librum signatum aperuit, quem nullus ante aperire poterat,¹⁹⁹ quia solus dominus Iesus in euangelio suo prophetarum aenigmata et legis mysteria reuelauit, solus scientiae clauem detulit et dedit aperire nobis.

60. Dicunt se Iudaei habere clauem scientiae, sed non habent; nam si haberent, ipsi ingrederentur, ipsi agnoscerent penetralia scripturarum. nunc autem uae uobis, scribae et Pharisaei, qui abstulistis clauem scientiae et ipsi non introistis et introeuntes prohibuistis!²⁰⁰ quomodo enim clauem potestis habere scientiae qui scientiae negatis auctorem? et ideo ad ipsum conuersus Dauid ait: 'tu me, inquit, doce iustificationes tuas,²⁰¹ quia tu es uera iustitia, tu doce quae sapienter dicta sunt, quia tu es sapientia, tu aperi cor meum, qui aperuisti librum, tu aperi illud ostium quod in caelo est, quia ipse es ianua. per te si quis introierit, regnum illud possidebit aeternum, per te si quis intrauerit, non decipietur, quia falli non potest quicumque domicilium fuerit ueritatis ingressus'.

1. The eighth letter is Heth, which in the Latin interpretation is called fear. Fear has customarily been the property of the saints. Indeed, fear fell upon Abraham when he offered the sacrifice full of spiritual mystery.¹ David himself also says: I said in my fear: every man is a liar.² For it signifies the reverence of religion rather than the weakness of dread, although that very fear too, when it is according to God, is holy; for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.³ Therefore those who fear God are wise, and those who are wise are blessed; for blessed is the man whom thou shalt instruct, O Lord, and shalt teach him out of thy law.⁴ These too, who fear God, are blessed, as the authority of the example stands witness, for blessed are all they who fear the Lord.⁵ So it is gathered that those who fear God are both wise and blessed. The fear of the Lord, then, is holy, because the fear of the saints is true fear.

2. And so, with this letter premised, there at once follows the person of the just man saying: Thou art my portion, O Lord; I have said that I would keep thy law.⁶ Most codices have this verse, which is the first of the eighth letter, in the last position of the seventh letter; but the book of Psalms, corrected among the Greeks according to the Hebrew, has taught us that this verse is to be coupled to the eighth letter. Then the very order and number of verses fits in such a way that the eighth letter begins from it.

3. My portion, he says, is the Lord.⁷ How rare on earth is the man who can say the Lord is my portion — how alien from vices, how separated from every stain of sin, who has nothing in common with the world, claims for himself nothing of this world, is no possession of bodily desires, whom lust does not inflame, avarice does not goad, wantonness does not unman, luxury does not stain, ambition does not lay low, envy does not consume, no care of secular business troubles — a true minister of the altar, born to God, not to himself!

4. For Levi, as the interpretation has it, signifies himself taken to me; it signifies also himself mine; it signifies also simply taken; it signifies also taken to me himself. The same one is Levi both to me and to God, just as the same one is priest both to me and to God, advocate to me and intercessor to the Lord, offering sacrifice for me and at the same time offering himself to the Lord. And again, by another interpretation, Levi is said to mean for me. For if he be named Levi by me, he is for me; if he offer for me, he is for me; if he intercede for me, he is for me. But if he be called by the Lord, he is said himself for me — that is, not tributary to another, not tithing, not bountiful out of his own possession. Himself for me — that is, as one abundant in place of all these things. From him I do not seek tithes, nor fruits, nor gifts, nor offerings. He himself is to me in place of a gift, he himself is in place of tribute — not bountiful to me out of his own possession, but he himself my possession, he himself my fruit, he himself my income, taken to me or taken by me. This cannot be without divine grace. For just as a possession cannot be mine unless I have purchased it, so one cannot be a Levite unless he has been taken by the Lord; for when he has been taken, he is rightly called himself mine. Indeed, when it had been said to Moses that he should divide the dwellings among the people of the Jews tribe by tribe and distribute a portion to each tribe, God excepted the tribe of Levi, saying: To the sons of Levi there shall be no portion nor lot in the midst of their brethren, for the Lord God is their share⁸ — and elsewhere: I am the Lord their portion.⁹

5. Earthly division is denied to them, that they themselves, while they do not claim a worldly portion for themselves, may become a heavenly possession; or that they may know that they possess this alone, namely the homage of faith and devotion — far richer than those who spread out wide the expanses of their possessions. However far they extend their boundaries, both the land fails and the sea contains their insane greeds, and they pay tributes greater than their fruits. But this man, possessing nothing for himself, serves no one but God; his portion is above the earth — earth does not fail him, sea does not enclose him. He whose portion is God is the possessor of the whole of nature. Instead of fields, then, he is sufficient to himself, having a good fruit which can never perish; instead of houses he is sufficient to himself, that he may be the dwelling of the Lord and the temple of God¹⁰ — than which nothing can be more precious. For what is more precious than God, or what is lacking to that man who can say: God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world?¹¹ In this man the prince of this world cannot claim partnership for himself, since in him he finds nothing of his own.

6. And therefore the Lord, who came to teach that God might become our portion, says: For the prince of this world cometh, and in me he findeth nothing¹²; and deservedly, wishing us to be his imitators, he says: Possess not gold nor silver nor money.¹³ Whence Peter, showing that his portion was in God and not in the world, says: Silver and gold I have not, but what I have I give thee: in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise and walk¹⁴ — that is: my portion is Christ; therefore in the name of Jesus Christ rise and walk, that is: in my portion I am rich, in my portion I am powerful. Deservedly do I presume such fruits of this portion, that salvation and life are bestowed, because this is the patrimony of that portion which I have chosen for myself. He said this to the lame man, and he rose up who had been lame from his mother's womb.¹⁵ How then could Peter feel the losses of his portion, who was repairing those of nature?

7. Why you should not have silver and gold, Peter, tell us; tell us also what that is which you say you have, you who said you had left behind everything you had. For you spoke thus to the Lord: Behold, we have left all things, and have followed thee¹⁶ — that is: we have not sought what is of the world, we have not sought a share of possessions, but we have chosen thee as our portion. You have left, then, Peter, before all things what you had; whence have you what you say you have? The lame man rises and is raised by the sound of your speech; you give health to others, who yourself were in need of help for your own salvation. You have left, then, what you had, and have taken what you had not. Christ is your portion, Christ is your possession; his name is bountiful to you, his name is fruitful to you, his name pays you tributes — and good tributes, not of money but of grace. Your portion is not dried up by drought, nor washed away by rain, nor burned by frost, nor shaken by storm; the sun shall not burn thee by day, neither the moon by night.¹⁷ Keep the portion you have chosen; for it is the portion which earthly portions cannot equal. For what can be compared to those things of which God says: And I will dwell in them?¹⁸ What is more magnificent than a heavenly lodging, what more blessed than divine possession? And I will walk in them, he says.¹⁹ Others complain about the narrowness of their estate; in you there is for God an ample possession, in which he says he walks — that is, finding the spaces of a roomy dwelling, he who encloses the earth in his hand; for so it is written: Who hath measured the waters with his hand, and the heaven with his palm, and the whole earth with a closed fist?²⁰ He to whom the world is narrow finds in you an ample house. My portion, he says, is the Lord.²¹ The martyr says this; let us live, then, for him for whom it is glorious to die. With what other words has Paul well said this same thing, showing that he has no portion in the world! For so it is written: Even unto this hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no fixed abode and labor working with our own hands; we are reviled and we bless, we are persecuted and we suffer it, we are blasphemed and we entreat; we are made as the offscourings of this world, the offscourings of all even until now.²²

8. Perhaps it troubles someone that he said he was purgamentum — but he is not. Yet so it seems to worldlings, who suppose that the height of glory or beauty lies in riches. Do not these men suppose all to be offscourings — whoever follows them on account of their riches, admires them on account of their wealth, fears them on account of their power, praises them on account of their nobility? But all these things Paul reckoned to be losses rather than gains, and so he says: The things which were gains to me, the same I have counted losses for Christ; on account of the surpassing knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and am accounted as dung, that I may gain Christ.²³ 'I am accounted,' he says. This is not my judgment but another's; for often the poor man is accounted laughable and execrable on account of the squalor of his garments or the scars of his wounds, because he has no portion on earth. And yet his portion is in heaven; his soul has lodged its patrimony there, because it has heard Jesus saying: Lay not up treasure for yourselves on earth, but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven.²⁴

9. But the rich cannot hear this; they have closed ears, dulled by the sound of bronze; the coin resounds for them more than divine words. Indeed, a certain rich man approached the Lord, who did not have the Lord as his portion. For he had many possessions, but the Lord is not numbered among many things; for he does not deign to have partnership with the world. For what fellowship hath justice with iniquity?²⁵ So this rich man says: What shall I do to possess eternal life?²⁶ The Lord answers him: Thou knowest the commandments: thou shalt not commit murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not bear false witness²⁷ — showing that eternal life lies in these commandments. But he, willing to justify himself, says: All these things I have done; what is yet wanting to me?²⁸ To whom the Lord, willing that the Lord himself, not money, not possessions, but the true God should become his portion, said: If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.²⁹ But he, whose portion was gold and silver, without which he could not exist and with which the Lord could not be his portion, was made sad. Whence the Lord pronounced it impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven; but what is impossible through human desires is possible through divine grace alone.³⁰

10. Elsewhere too he says: Whoever shall leave father or mother, house or brothers or sisters, shall receive a hundredfold in this world and shall possess eternal life.³¹ Perhaps you may say: surely he who, by leaving his house — by house understand the whole estate — who, by leaving his kinsmen has followed God, is the Lord's portion, and to him God is portion, and he has also eternal life; and since, with the hundredfold received, he becomes rich in this world, then, you say, the rich man enters the kingdom of heaven. Then if the Lord gives a hundredfold of those things which, even singly, have been wont to bring obstacles to the receiving of the eternal inheritance, he therefore returns a hundred possessions for one possession, a hundred pounds of gold for one pound.

11. Indeed we have known many in this world who, when they gave their goods to the poor, were enriched with a richer treasure; and a most beautiful place is given that they might be drawn to mercy. But they ought not to demand from the Lord any such worldly reward, nor to hope for those things which are of the world, but rather, because to those who have left all things, God is portion. He himself surely is the perfect reward of the virtues — he who is reckoned not by the count of a hundredfold but by the estimation of perfect plenitude. I, he says, am thy God.³² He did not say I will be, but I am already, I dwell already, I possess already. He removes delay where he finds the just man's confession. To be sure he says elsewhere: This day thou shalt be with me in paradise.³³ He promises a future, but does not allow what is to come to be put off by the space of even one day. He could surely have said: Thou shalt be with me in paradise, but he added this day, lest grace be diminished by delay.

12. But the Lord Jesus does not say to that one alone: This day thou shalt be with me in paradise; he says it also to you: Thou shalt be with me in paradise, if you confess the Lord Jesus, if you ask his patronage for yourself, if you yourself say: Remember me, O Lord, when thou shalt come into thy kingdom.³⁴ But to you he does not say This day thou shalt be with me; he says to the martyr: This day thou shalt be with me in paradise. To you he does not say it, because you are still set in this fevered body, in this lustful body, still desiring earthly things. But when you can say: Thou hast broken my bonds³⁵ — that is: thou hast loosed the course of this life, thou hast freed me from this body of death³⁶ — then he will say to you: This day thou shalt be with me in paradise.

13. You have, then, O man, among many proposals, also a portion of this kind. The Lord has set before you, as a portion, possessions, gold, silver, honors, nobility — and he has set before you, as a portion, even himself. You have very many portions; choose the one you think best. Let not the number disturb you, but let grace stir you; let not labor turn you away, but let fruit invite you. In the divine portion there are groans and labors. Whence the holy Apostle, to whom God was portion, says: We are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ — yet so, if we suffer with him that we may also be glorified together.³⁷ You see that, where Christ's inheritance is, there compassion ought to be. He who suffers with him does not suffer perfunctorily but in such a way as to fulfill the tribulations of Christ in his own body, as Paul fulfilled them, as Jeremiah fulfilled them, who says under this very letter: It is the mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed, because his mercies have not failed. He shall renew them as the morning light. Many are my groans, and my heart hath fainted. The Lord is my portion, I said; therefore will I wait for him.³⁸ He, then, who has waited for the Lord is the Lord's portion. Whence David also, who says: I waited for the Lord, and he had regard to me³⁹, in this place professes that God is his portion.

14. How rare is the man who claims this for himself! He is not claimed by nobility nor by riches! For that rich king says: I myself also am a mortal man, like all others, and of the race of the earthly one who was first formed; and in the womb of my mother I was fashioned flesh in the time of ten months, formed in blood from the seed of man and the suitable pleasure of sleep; and being born I drew in the common air, and like all others I fell upon the earth, and uttered the first voice like all, weeping; in swaddling clothes I was nursed, and with great cares.⁴⁰ And he added: For no one of the kings has had a different beginning of birth; one therefore is the entrance for all to life, and a like exit.⁴¹ And because he saw that the beginning of birth is common, he labored to be God's portion, and he called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom⁴² came into him. But the wantonly-living choose another part, who say: Let us fill ourselves with costly wine and ointments, and let no flower of the season pass us by; let us crown ourselves with rosebuds before they wither⁴³ — and below: because this is our portion and this is our lot.⁴⁴

15. How great is it to despise riches, but how rare it is! Surely Moses also could have been the king's successor, having been raised by the king's daughter. He could therefore have been not only as it were a Pharaoh but Pharaoh himself, and Pharaoh could have been like Moses — for each of them was a man — but all human power lies in disposition. Moses did not wish to be king, though he could be, but he reckoned the reproach of Christ to be preferred to the treasures of Egypt.⁴⁵ But by fleeing power he became more powerful; for he was made a god to king Pharaoh.⁴⁶ Pharaoh was a king, but he was not a god; Moses was made a god to him — that is, terrible to that king himself, whom the king feared and dreaded. But this was the power of holiness; in the assembly of such gods, God stands and judges.⁴⁷ You also, if you wish to be a god to sinners, a terror to kings, an object of reverence to others, that they may seem to be subject to you as to a god, because you work in the name of God, despise the things of the world and strive to prefer the reproach of the Lord's Passion to all riches. I say reproach — what to them seems reproach — that is: to the Jews a stumbling block, to the Gentiles foolishness, but to us the power of God and the wisdom of God.⁴⁸ But Pharaoh, reckoning this a reproach — that is, want, ignobility, insults — preferred to be the devil's portion rather than God's; and so, since he refused to be subject to God, he subjected himself to the intercession of a man. Therefore, since the holy prophet David was God's portion, he rightly says: I have said that I would keep thy law⁴⁹ — meaning surely the spiritual law, as Paul also shows.⁵⁰ For those who have interpreted the law carnally do not keep the law but transgress it.

16. Let us come to the second verse, which is thus: I entreated thy face, O Lord, with all my heart; have mercy on me according to thy word.⁵¹ We read in the Old Testament that Moses entreated to see the face of God, and it was answered him: No man shall see my face and live.⁵² Let us first understand this mystically. Moses received the figure of the Law. The Law announces Christ through hidden mysteries; it did not show him face to face, as the Gospel showed him. For in him he spoke face to face,⁵³ although in the Gospel he appeared as a man born of a virgin, but he showed himself as the Word through his works. And perhaps this was declared to Moses, that the people of the Jews were going to die because they had seen Christ face to face and had not believed. But if you refer it to the Law, the end too of the Law is Christ, according to that apostolic saying: For the end of the Law is Christ unto justice, to every one that believeth.⁵⁴ And the bodily interpretation of the Law died, when the Lord Christ Jesus showed forth the spiritual grace of the Law. Or certainly because all of us, who have put on Christ and have been baptized into Christ, are dead to sin, since while living we were held by the bonds of the Law.⁵⁵ But where we are dead in Christ, we are surely mortified to the Law through the body of Christ, that we may be of another, who has risen from the dead. But this is mystical.

17. Now the moral sense of the old narrative makes us remember what concerns holy Moses, who asked God that God might show himself to him and that he might see him face to face.⁵⁶ The holy seer of the Lord knew indeed that he could not see the invisible God face to face. But holy devotion oversteps measure, and he supposed it possible even for God that he might cause that which is incorporeal to be apprehended by bodily eyes. This error is not blameworthy but is a pleasing and insatiable longing — that he desired, as it were, to hold his Lord with his hand and to see him with the gaze of his eyes. He knew that man was made to the image and likeness of God.⁵⁷ For when he was chosen by the Lord for the freeing of the people, he was filled with the spirit of wisdom; he had seen that angel and his face in glory. Indeed, frightened by his shining light, he saw the bush burning and not being consumed.⁵⁸ He began to wonder at the sight and the brightness; he drew near, drawn by longing and by grace, that he might more diligently consider that brightness in the bush. And so, if he received such ardor and conceived such longing when he had seen an angel in the flame of fire from the bush — that, although seized with fear he dared not gaze, yet desired to gaze — how much more did he desire to see the Lord's countenance bodily, saying within himself that that countenance is full of light, full of glory, full of power, full of divinity! I cannot say or feel more concerning God; for when a man hath finished, then he beginneth, and when he hath ceased, then he shall be in perplexity⁵⁹, as it is written, because the eternal majesty of God is incomprehensible.

18. The result of his petition was indeed in vain, but the desire of that servant was praiseworthy, who, advancing in devotion beyond his nature, was reckoning from the Lord's angels how much more he desired in the Lord's countenance, in which he longed to fulfill his desire. He had known that in man himself there will be one glory after death, another brightness. For as star differs from star in brightness, so also is the resurrection of the dead⁶⁰; which, though it be sown in corruption, yet rises in incorruption, rises in glory, rises in power, rises a spiritual body.⁶¹ He, then, who could know this, deservedly presumed to desire to see the countenance of God, which after the death of the body had been undergone, he was going to see. Such, surely, was the form he had received, and such the Lord was already approving him to be, that as the heavenly minister and executor of the oracle he did not stand far from the angels. And so, since he knew that the angels of the little ones daily see the face of the Father who is in heaven⁶², he supposed that he should now see her too, as if forgetful of the body and with the flesh laid aside — like that man who, while still placed in the body, when he was caught up into paradise, said he did not know whether he had been caught up to the third heaven in the body or out of the body.⁶³ For the saints, even when they bear the body, are nonetheless not in the flesh but in the spirit, because those who are in carnal desire and conduct cannot please God.⁶⁴ But the saint's conversation was not in flesh but in heaven, as Paul shows.⁶⁵

19. And what shall we say of the praiseworthy desire of the divine countenance? Take men: if they hear that some man is noble, that some is brave, that some is wise, judging him to be above the human level, they long to see him. The emperor goes forth, to whose royal authority a portion of the world has been committed; all run together, and in so great a multitude they yearn to gaze upon him alone, and from the gleam of the purple they suppose that there is something more in the emperor's countenance. Do you wonder if the countenance of God is desirable, since every human affection wonders at the man conformed to himself? From this it is given to be understood that no one wishes to come before the emperor as guilty of any crime. For even if the conscience holds a crime, the secrets of the heart hide it, provided he is not enmeshed in a public charge nor any crime of his is public. Indeed, where some have been the accused parties, they are forbidden to present themselves both to the emperor and to the judges themselves — just as the foul persons of pimps and harlots are kept from the sight of either judge or emperor⁶⁶ — lest the gaze of the most foul should offend the brightness of the royal countenance. But he who is well aware of his own innocence, guilty of no charge, comes forth into public as if innocent.

20. From these things, then, let us grasp the desire of holy Moses. He desired to see the face of God as one innocent, with, as it were, a certain countenance of conscience, to open to him the face of his inward mind. He longed to be more fully known — both Moses and the holy David himself, who elsewhere says: Prove me, O Lord, and try me⁶⁷; for he would not wish to be proved if he recognized in himself any crime, nor to be tempted if he knew himself to be subject to grave passions. Free from sin, then, he offered himself eagerly to God. But perhaps, because he was not yet, by more frequent visitations from God, cleansed from vice, he was not perfect in the beginning — as one to whom not long before it had been said: Loose the shoe from thy feet⁶⁸ — that shoe, surely, which he had brought from Egypt, that is, the wrapping of his bodily way of life. Therefore the Lord says to him: No man shall see my face and live.⁶⁹

21. Consider when this was said. Not yet had it been said to him: I will make thee a god to king Pharaoh.⁷⁰ He was still a man, and so this is said to him. A progress was owed him, that he might become a god, and so it was said to him: 'Of a man have I spoken. Cease to have the sins of a man, and thou shalt see my face; for he who sees my face must be without sin.' But because man cannot be without sin, therefore, that he might be able to grow up into the appellation of god, he is admonished. And what shall I say of the appellation of god? Be an angel — that is, the minister of the divine command — obey the commandments of the Lord. When you shall have been an angel, you will see the face of God. It is a great thing to see the face of God. The Law tells you that you must thrice present yourself in Jerusalem.⁷¹ The Lord Jesus himself says: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.⁷² You see what is required of you, that you may see God — to whom is set forth the prerogative of life: to see God? Cleanse therefore your heart, that you may be created as it were anew with a renewed spirit,⁷³ cast every polluted thought from your heart, let there be nothing by which your affection is defiled, let your mind be simple, your sincerity pure. To such people the Lord deigns to show himself, when they have laid aside the wrapping of the body.

22. Now let us speak of the rest of that very verse. Have mercy, he says, on me according to thy word.⁷⁴ Mercy indeed is a portion of justice, so that, if you wish to give to the poor, this mercy is justice, according to that saying: He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his justice remaineth for ever.⁷⁵ Then, since it is unjust that one conformed to you should not be helped by his fellow — especially since the Lord our God has willed this earth to be the common possession of all men and to provide the fruits to all — but greed has divided the laws of possession: it is just, then, that if you claim something private for yourself, which has been conferred in common upon the human race, indeed upon all living things, you should at least sprinkle some of it over the poor — that you may not deny food to those to whom you owe partnership in your own right.

23. It is also a kind of mercy to forgive a sin: it is both mercy and justice. Indeed Divine Scripture ascribes the pardon of sins to justice, according to that which has been read today: Blessed is the wood through which justice is wrought, but accursed is the wood that is made by the hand of men.⁷⁶ The former he referred to the cross of the Lord, the latter to the error of the Gentiles who venerate woods. But what is the justice of the cross, except that, ascending that gibbet, the Lord Jesus Christ crucified the bond⁷⁷ of our sins and cleansed the sin of the whole world by his blood? In what then is God just save in this — that he, knowing that he had fashioned man from the clay of the earth, which earth is surely subject to corruption and to the vice of slippery passion, therefore the Lord, who according to the soul has made you to his image and likeness⁷⁸ — that is, rational, just, chaste; for in this you are after the image of God, if you are just, that you may be the image of justice; if you are chaste, that the figure of the unstained may shine forth in you — knowing therefore that, by the frailty of the body, man is exposed to corruption, granted, as it were a just one, indulgence to a frail and slippery nature for its faults.

24. And lest perhaps someone say: 'Why then was Adam subject to the curse and the sentence? Was God unjust?' Surely not. But because, as to a frail and weak being, he prescribed beforehand what he should beware of — for the weak ought not to usurp but to obey commandments — therefore he held him guilty of transgression rather than condemned him for slipping. Upon him, therefore, a just sentence of severity went forth, because he wished to know what it did not profit him to know. But to us, who are bound by hereditary chain, who are in this flesh, which, worn down by the prejudgment of those before us and now habituated to sins, could not emerge — to us, as the just one, he granted indulgence; for justly he pardoned the heir who labors under the prejudgment of his author.

25. There is, then, a just mercy, but there is also an unjust mercy. For in the Law it is written concerning a certain man: Thou shalt not have pity upon him⁷⁹; and in the books of Kings you read that Saul incurred offense for this reason — that he had pity on Agag the king of the enemies,⁸⁰ whom the divine sentence had forbidden to be saved. So if anyone, moved by the pleadings of the children of a robber and bent by the tears of his wife, should think that he must be released, while still the desire of robbing breathes in him — does he not hand the innocent over to destruction, the man who frees one who is plotting the destruction of many? Surely if he restrains the sword and looses the chains, why does he relax it into exile? Why, by some more clement way, does he not snatch away the means of robbing from the man whose will he could not wrest from him? Then between two — namely, an accuser and an accused, contending at equal peril over a capital case — if one had not made his proof, the other had not been convicted by the accuser — should not the judge follow what justice is, but rather, while pitying the accused, condemn the prover, or while favoring the accuser who is not able to prove, sentence the innocent? This therefore cannot be called just mercy.

26. In the Church itself, where it is most fitting to show mercy, the form of justice ought as much as possible to be maintained, lest someone barred from the partaking of communion should, by a brief tear and a tear contrived for the moment or even by more abundant weepings, extort by the easiness of the priest a communion which he ought to ask for over many and longer times. When the priest indulges one unworthy man, does he not provoke many to the contagion of falling? For easiness of pardon offers an inducement to sinning. This has been said, that we may know that mercy must be dispensed to the indebted according to the word of God, according to reason. Even the physician himself, if he find within the scar of a wound that of a serpent, when he ought to cut away the disease of the ulcer lest it spread further, yet, bent by the tears of the sick man and turning aside from his purpose to cut and burn, covers with medicaments what should have been opened by the knife — is not this useless mercy, if for the sake of a brief pain of incision or burning the whole body wastes away and the use of life perishes? Rightly therefore the priest also, like a good physician, must cut away the wound from the whole body of the Church, lest it spread further, and bring out the hidden poison of the crime, not foster it — lest, while he thinks one man is not to be excluded, he make many worthy whom he must exclude from the Church.

27. Rightly therefore the Apostle exhorts us by a divine example, saying: See therefore the goodness and the severity of God: towards them indeed who fell, severity; but towards thee, goodness, if thou shalt continue in his goodness⁸¹ — showing that the people of the Jews were rightly separated from the body of the Church, lest the poison of perfidy should contaminate the Church, but that the people of the Gentiles were received by the Lord's goodness and glory in the gift of obedience. Rightly, then, divine goodness supports this people, since it remains in the divine goodness; but if it itself also should fall away, it will be condemned according to the quality of its crime. By which grace the Lord is described as both light and fire⁸², that he may shine like a lamp on him who walks in darkness, lest he who seeks the brightness of light might err any longer; but to him who has done many things which ought not to remain but to burn, the Lord is fire, that he may consume the hay and stubble⁸³ of our work, and may save us by a useful loss, just as gold which is smelted is more proven.⁸⁴

28. Perhaps someone may ask, on what reasoning the prophet has written: Have mercy on me according to thy word⁸⁵; for the word of God is justice. If, then, he was relying on justice, why did he first put forth mercy? Or if he was seeking mercy, why did he think it must be sought according to the measure of justice? For he who acts well and lives well has no need of mercy, because mercy frees from sin. Indeed, mercy is not customarily extended by us to the rich, nor to the strong and those upheld by good fortune, but to the needy or weak, or to those who from riches have fallen into poverty or captivity or some other necessity. Therefore he who needs mercy is a sinner; but he who is not a sinner is surely just and does not need the mercy of God.

29. According to what, then — that is, according to what state — each man needs mercy or has justice, must be considered. For an angel needs the justice of God in one way, a man in another; an archangel needs mercy in one way, a man in another. For the angelic nature is surely not so subject to corruption as the nature of the human race, and therefore it needs the mercy of God lest it be able to err and, with God's grace turned away from it, fall into vice. But man, even if he is now of firmer purpose, nevertheless on account of the chain of contracted sins seeks mercy. And so, although both need mercy, mercy is owed in one way to the angel and in another to the man. For a slight vice in an angel is reckoned by graver judgment; the sin too of youth in a man is bound by milder sentence than the sin of old age and is more quickly relaxed.

30. The prophet therefore in this little verse divides the cases, that he may both ask mercy as a man — because no one is without the stain of sin⁸⁶ — and demand justice as a prophet; or certainly because, although he had sinned as a man and as a sinner needs mercy, yet he has corrected his error, has done penance, has abstained from drunkenness in offending by the sobriety of virtue. He asks therefore for justice according to the word of God, because the sentence of the word of God is that pardon should be given to the converted,⁸⁷ if the conversion has been lawfully made.

31. I have thought on my ways, and I have turned my feet unto thy testimonies.⁸⁸ The sense is twofold: either, because I thought on my former ways full of falling and sin, and therefore, that I might be able to merit the remission of sins by a change of conduct and a zeal for virtues, I turned my feet to thy testimonies, that I might walk no longer by my own steps, by which I have already fallen, but by the paths of thy testimonies, that the byways of thy commandments might not allow me to err nor turn aside any footstep into byways and tortuous paths. For often those ignorant of the road, if they follow the highway⁸⁹, arrive where they desire to arrive and are without any wandering of error; but if they presume to know what they do not know and suppose certain shortcuts must be followed, withdrawing from the route of common traffic, they often fall into the labyrinths of error, so that they repent of having turned aside from the way, and therefore after many losses of toil they strive to return to the road they had abandoned.

32. This therefore is one sense; the other is this: I have thought on my ways⁹⁰ — not the former but the future — that I might come before my actions with thoughts, lest by an unconsidered work, advancing, I should fall in the very attempt into some offense; that, if I wish to do something, I should first think whether what I desire ought to be done, or in what manner it ought to be done; likewise if I am to address someone, whether I ought to address him, then to speak in public or in secret, in the presence of some or none — like that one, which says that, if you wish to correct a brother, you should first correct him alone, secondly with two or three witnesses present, thirdly, if he will not hear, before the Church.⁹¹ So, if having neglected the order, you wish to rebuke before the Church a brother whom you should have warned beforehand, you yourself recognize that the error has been made. Do all things, therefore, with thought, that you may not regret your work. But indeed if, having entered upon a road, when you have come to some crossroads — for so it is called: a kind of meeting of many ways — if you should not know which road you ought to enter, yet you stand and ponder with yourself whether you should choose the first or the second or the third or the fourth, or even, if such there be, the fifth, as the way to follow; nor do you suppose that the journey should be undertaken before you have determined in your soul and decided with the fuller intention of the mind; you stand therefore pondering which is the way that leads to the city to which you suppose you must proceed — how much more, therefore, ought you to stand and consider in your soul and mind, you who strive toward the heavenly kingdom, and to ponder with yourself that not every way leads thither, not every way directs to that Jerusalem which is in heaven⁹²!

33. There are ways which have evil endings, which the temptations of the devil have worn down, and so their endings are the endings of death. These surely are the ways of which you have read in Proverbs, that there are ways which seem to a man to be right, but their last things look down into the depth of hell.⁹³ But there is that narrower way which leads to the kingdom of God.⁹⁴ You, then, willing to enter that way which leads to God, will you not look around, will you not deliberate with yourself, will you not consider, lest you be easily caught by the affection, if drawn by the breadth of the way you should enter the road which leads down to hell? Think first, then, and weigh what you do.

34. Whoever shall look, he says, upon a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart.⁹⁵ This man surely thought that he might see the woman, that he might see in order to lust after her; but let this evil thought leave its ways. Another did not think indeed, but suddenly looked and was caught and saw and lusted and so fell. But if he had considered his frail affection and feared beforehand, lest, when he saw the woman, he should be caught in mind and soul, surely he would not have looked at the woman lest he lust after her. Seeing, therefore, the woman, he did not direct his foot to the testimonies of the Lord, who, if he could have thought before his fall, would perhaps have directed it. Each one therefore should first think how he sees a woman, that he may not see her to lust after her, that he may not give heed to her. But if, while seeing her on a sudden, or grounded in a good thought, he should direct his foot to the testimonies of the Lord, that he might not remain in captivity, surely the thought has profited him. Finally, let him who loves a woman, who esteems her, who lusts after her, consider Christ — his judgment, his testimonies concerning the rewards of chastity — and let him leave the ways of concupiscence, follow the ways of Christ, and he will have praise in them, if, having beheld the Lord Jesus, he despise the heat of the flesh, quench the flame of lust⁹⁶ as it were by some fountain, dash his tender and weak desires against the rock of Christ.⁹⁷

35. Let him think first, then — that I may repeat the same — how he should see, how he should speak. He thought well who said: Set, O Lord, a watch before my mouth⁹⁸, lest perhaps, while the mind inflames the heat, the tongue should slip in speech, or by incautious wordiness, in the easiness of speaking, run upon what the mind did not think. Let him think how he should direct his foot, apply his hand, lest, driven by the impulse of indignation, when he ought to repel an injury, he himself bring upon another the blow of a notable beating. Therefore we must consider what we do; for where thought goes before, ripeness of action is brought to bear. And so this foot is the footprint of faith, which by considered meditation he turned aside from bodily motions to divine testimonies.

36. What it profits, therefore, to think beforehand of what afterwards you are going to do, the verse that follows teaches: I am ready and am not troubled, that I may keep thy commandments.⁹⁹ Where one anticipates by thought what he is to do, he is always ready to act, always fixed and strong, so that he cannot be troubled by any sudden offense of mishaps. No blasts of an over-craggy ambition shake him, no storm and tempest of unjust assault disturbs him, the eye of a wanton harlot does not ensnare him; for the eye of a harlot is the snare of the lover. The wretched man is captured in another's possession, who, surprised by an unexpected fire, has lost the possession of his own mind. If persecution comes upon him, it finds him already prepared, that where there can be the disturbance of an uncertain salvation, there the hoped-for crown of the sacred contest, by foresighted meditation upon the future, may soothe him. If he is frequently gnawed by ill-speaking detractors, let him think that the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.¹⁰⁰ If wicked taunts of revilers fell upon the Son of God,¹⁰¹ how shall a servant be able to hope for any exemption from them? Therefore he ought to prepare his mind, that, when these things have come, they may not be able to disturb him. Let him prepare his soul and compose it by meditation, that he may be able to say, if at all he can: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation? or distress? or famine?¹⁰² and the rest. But why he is not separated, he added: But in all these things we are conquerors and overcome, on account of him that hath loved us.¹⁰³ Deservedly therefore, strengthened, he says: For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.¹⁰⁴

37. The Apostle has said many things, against which we have a struggle; but some are easy, or surely not of this time or place, that we should discuss everything that there is which can separate us from the love of God, unless we resist more diligently. That now which seems more obscure we do not pass over, since he says: Neither height nor depth¹⁰⁵ — which are heavy temptations. Indeed you have written in Isaiah to king Ahaz: Ask thee a sign of the Lord in the depth or in the height.¹⁰⁶ He answered: I will not ask, nor will I tempt the Lord.¹⁰⁷ A mystical thing was set before him, but he did not understand and feared lest he should seem to tempt the Lord, if he asked a sign in the height or in the depth. But the Lord, willing to supplant heavy temptations by a divine remedy, said: Behold, a virgin shall conceive in her womb.¹⁰⁸ This is a great sign, which destroyed the temptations of height and depth. For the Lord Jesus thought it not robbery to be equal to God¹⁰⁹ neither sought he the things which are his own¹¹⁰ but took the form of a servant, humbled himself even unto death.¹¹¹ And so neither was he uplifted by power nor disturbed by any abjection of death. This sign therefore is set before the king, that he may seek for himself a remedy by which he might not be lifted up by the haughtiness of royal power, nor surely be disturbed by the exception of any tribulation, as he was disturbed in heart, when he saw war being brought against him by the Syrians. By the example, then, of the divine oracle, we wished to show what these heavy temptations might be, for which Christ alone could bring a remedy.

38. Yet by a prophetic saying it is easy to teach a certain bundle of these temptations. For these two greatest temptations holy Solomon declared in his own prayer, and asked that he might be able to exclude them, saying: Give me neither riches nor poverty, but appoint for me what is needful and what suffices, lest, being filled, I become a liar and say: who seeth me? or, being poor, I steal and forswear the name of God.¹¹² Can you, then, despise these temptations which Solomon feared, who asked for wisdom and obtained it?¹¹³ He was rich; he feared to be lifted up; he feared to become poor, lest by the necessity of poverty he might not keep the grace of abstinence. How many who seemed to be holy fell from the height of their heart! How many, cast down by some necessity, could not be content with injury, who had been strengthened by the exercise of virtues! Rare is Job found upon the earth, who lost both riches and sons, and was furrowed with the welts of the body, while worms flowed from his whole body, and yet could not be separated from the love of Christ. Let us therefore prepare our affection, lest a sudden force should disturb the unprepared. Indeed the Lord, knowing that we are easily broken, says even to the apostles: Let not your heart be troubled nor afraid.¹¹⁴ If lust and longing tempt you, read the gospel, let Jesus say to you: 'Let not your heart be troubled.' If any terror comes upon you, let Christ say to you: 'Let not your heart be troubled nor afraid.' If a persecutor inflicts any punishments, read the gospel, let Jesus say to you: 'Let not your heart be troubled nor afraid.' Read the apostle saying: For the sufferings of this present time are not worthy of the glory to come.¹¹⁵ If, while you sail upon the sea, a heavy wave should rise up, the dark tempest¹¹⁶ should rage, let Jesus say to you: 'It is I, be not troubled.'¹¹⁷ Going, therefore, to any great and grievous contest, say first: I am ready and am not troubled, that I may keep thy commandments.¹¹⁸

39. And what shall I say of secular things? Be ready not only against those things which you see, but also against those which you do not see. Without, he says, fightings; within, fears¹¹⁹; in yourself there is war for you. It is good that your soul be in tranquility and in a certain serenity; but he is the better helmsman who steers a ship in the storm. Steer yourself, then, when the soul is troubled, when the mind wavers. Should I praise the virtue of the helmsman who has felt no storms and has directed the course of his ship without being tossed by any tempest? Rather I would praise him who pushes against the winds, rises up against the waves, fears not, whether the ship is lifted by the surges or sent down to the depths of the deep. So also is that helmsman of himself to be praised, who conquers adversities by patience, overcomes them by virtue, is not lifted up by prosperity, nor broken by adversity. You have war also against spiritual wickednesses.¹²⁰ You see what battle there is for you, and therefore meditate and decide in your soul, that going forth to the battles you may say: I am ready and am not troubled, that I may keep thy commandments.¹²¹

40. The fifth verse follows: The cords of sinners have encompassed me, and I have not forgotten thy law.¹²² That is: sinners have surrounded me with cords, that they might entangle my footsteps, that I might not be able to escape their assaults by the swiftness of foreseeing. These cords, then, are not those of which it is written: The lines have fallen unto me in goodly places.¹²³ For those are the cords which they use who measure the bounds of fields and distinguish their boundaries and mark off the spaces of possessions. Those cords, then, are stretched out by which the possession of each person is laid out; thus Israel was made the cord of his inheritance.¹²⁴ Those cords, then, are good; but these are cords by which sins are dragged as with a long rope and as with the strap of a cart-yoke, the iniquities.¹²⁵ For an unbroken heifer flings itself about more and shakes itself when it is held, neither yields to command nor is bound by a tether, but rather, when it is drawn back by the strap, is exasperated. And so it neither subjects itself when forced, nor yet is free of bonds. As, therefore, the heifer drags the strap of the yoke, who, even if she is not held by close ties, is yet held and does not unfold and free herself, so every sinner with untamed manners drags his iniquities, who supposes himself free because he is not subjected to the yoke or made subject to judgment, and does not know that he is not unburdened, but rather, like that heifer, he too entangles himself with the chains of his own sins. These therefore are the cords of our offenses, with which we are wrapped up and bound, just as also there are the chains of our offenses. And therefore the Savior, who has the power to forgive sin, says to those who are in chains: Come forth.¹²⁶ Would that he might say also to me: 'Come forth from your chains, come forth from the snares of your sins, loose the cords of your error with which you are surrounded and bound'. For even though I be the most worthless of all and the most detestable of sinners, yet at his command I am freed — he who in one moment snatched away from punishment a robber condemned for robbery, and set him in his kingdom.¹²⁷

41. There are, then, chains by which we are bound, even though we may seem to ourselves to be free. Blessed is he who looses these chains for himself. And so David says: Let us break their chains and cast away their yoke from us.¹²⁸ He does not say that visible chains must be broken by the hand, but invisible bonds of crimes must be loosed by a change of conduct and the profession of faith — or by the hand, that is, the work of your hand. Give to the poor, lift up the weak, redeem the captives, and you have loosed your chains: for almsgiving frees from death.¹²⁹ Snatch out him who is led to death¹³⁰ — that is: snatch him out by intercession, snatch him by grace, you, the priest, or you, the emperor, snatch him by the subscription of pardon, and you have loosed your sins, you have stripped yourself out of your bonds.

42. For each one is bound by the chains of his own sins¹³¹, as you yourself have read: the enticement of the flesh binds us with chains. Our chain is greed; our chain is drunkenness; our chain is lust; our chain is pride. There are also chains of the devil: indeed it is written: But this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound for eighteen years.¹³² The devil also binds us with the noose of crimes — he binds us with the chain of fornication, the chain of adultery, the chain of perfidy by which Christ is denied, the chain of envy by which a brother is often even attacked, the chain of cruelty by which not infrequently a companion and one conformed to us is killed. These are the chains by which each man, when bound, is bowed down, so that he cannot lift up his soul nor raise the gaze of his mind to heaven, unless the Lord say to him: Thou art delivered from thine infirmity¹³³ and lift him up by the gift of his blessing. These are the chains of the wicked which bind sinners hard — that is, the devil and his ministers, or surely Nimrod, that is, bitterness¹³⁴, or surely Esau, that is, earthly and crafty.¹³⁵ For these were hunters, who were accustomed to capture wild beasts in snares and to bind dumb animals in chains. Useless hunters, who capture beasts to provide pomp for popular spectacle, ministry for cruelty. Indeed we find in the series of the divine Scriptures no hunter who is just.

43. But truly there are other chains, as I have said, of the Lord Jesus, whom they follow, he says, bound with chains¹³⁶ — that is, bound by the chains of love and affection, bound by the chains of faith — although it can also be understood thus: bound by chains they follow Christ, that is, the remitter of sins and crimes, the fount of pardons, the author of redemption. Let us therefore follow the chains of Christ, let us flee the chains of the hunters, lest, while we walk, while we are unaware, the foot of our mind run into their snares¹³⁷, lest we insert the neck of our soul into knots. For they lie in wait like the worst of hunters, and when, in the success of prosperous outcomes, we relax our soul and slacken in good fortune nor keep an attentive watch of caution, then they cast their snares more widely, or hide them in the way along which we walk, that, when our footsteps shall have been entangled in their snares, they may drag us, that they may trip up the unwary traveler or strangle the passersby¹³⁸ bound by the neck.

44. Walk not therefore with high neck like the daughters of Judah¹³⁹; for upon high necks the noose is quickly tied. Do not fix your mind and soul upon worldly things, but look about with the eyes of your soul diligently, since the Lord rains down snares upon sinners¹⁴⁰, lest, falling, they may be able to bind you; which you will be able to avoid, if you do not forget the law of the Lord. For even one who is bound, if he be conscious to himself of liberty, does not cease to remember his liberty, and sometimes pleads his case from his chains, and defends it for himself by the prescript of the laws and is often by judicial decision absolved. Therefore you also, if you have sinned, be mindful of the law; if you have sinned, be mindful of Christ, who frees you, saying: I am, I am he that blots out thy iniquities, and I will not remember.¹⁴¹ Hold him by day and by night; confess your sins to him.

45. The prophet teaches you how to hold the Lord Jesus: In the middle of the night, he says, I rose to confess to thee over the judgments of thy justice.¹⁴² The day is not enough for prayer; one must rise also at night, and at midnight. The Lord himself spent the night in prayer,¹⁴³ that he might invite you by his own example to prayer. And surely he was asking pardon for your sins; he was asking from the Father, he was working by his own will. The prophet does not tell you to rise only at midnight, but to rise at night and especially at midnight. For he had earlier said that one must rise at night, when he said: I have remembered thy name, O Lord, in the night.¹⁴⁴ Each man can be mindful and not rise; each man can rise also and, when he has risen, ask for those things which his own choice has decided. He added: In the middle of the night I rose¹⁴⁵, teaching that one must rise at midnight. Nor is what he added unimportant: to confess to thee — that is, that we ought above all at that time to entreat God and weep over our own sins, and not only to seek pardon for past sins but also to turn aside present ones, to be on guard against future ones; for many temptations creep in at that time.

46. Then the enticement of the flesh boils up, then the tempter mocks; food is being cooked and drink is being digested, the stomach is sick, the mind drowsy, the soul preoccupied. And so either the heat of sleep is increased in the man at rest, or in the watcher the fuller vigor is not yet poured back, which can guard against the assaults of errors. Then therefore the tempter is at hand, then he casts his nets, by which he can disturb the unforeseeing mind. Then the spiritual wickednesses¹⁴⁶ cast their darkness, then they strive to persuade to every wickedness, when no one can be the witness of fault, no one privy to the crime, no one a witness of the error. Then they pour various disputes into the breast of the dozer, that first they may cast down the resister from the standing of his mind, and that the example of certain ones who are reckoned holy may be set forth — that they once erred, but afterwards obtained pardon and covered their earlier sins. For although the enemy hates every emendation of ours, yet for a time, that he may strike down the man of sober mind, he holds out future pardon, that he may persuade present sins; and when he has driven any man to the assent of error, if he has seen him already recalled from fault not by love of virtue but by contemplation of punishment, he inserts various disputations, so that he may say to himself: 'Who sees me? Darkness surrounds me and walls. Whom do I fear?'¹⁴⁷ The Most High does not see, our sins do not reach to him, he does not deign to look upon what is shameful. These things surely we know by experience and example; for no one can be free from temptation.

47. And so as this time is fitted for temptations, so it is also a time of punishment, which we can be taught from divine reading. For not idly did the Lord our God, when he could destroy the firstborn of the Egyptians at any moment, judge this time more opportune for the grief and mourning of the sinner. For so it is written, that at midnight the firstborn of the Egyptians were free, slain by the destroyer.¹⁴⁸ And so holy Moses the prophet, that he might forestall this time and that it might pass without harm to the Hebrews, slew the lamb beforehand, that is, in the evening, that those who ate it and celebrated the Lord's Passover might not be caught by the snares of the destroyer, lest the dark enemy's nocturnal darts oppress those unarmed and empty of spiritual food.

48. Attend to these things diligently, understand them prudently, inquire into them carefully. These things are not said perfunctorily, but the divine mysteries are declared to you. Forestall, you also, the snares of the tempter; first prepare the heavenly banquet. A fast has been declared: take care lest you neglect it; and if hunger drives you to your daily meal, or intemperance turns you aside from the fast, yet keep yourself the more for the heavenly banquet. Let prepared feasts not extort from you that you should be empty of the heavenly sacrament. Defer it a little; the end of the day is not far off. Indeed many are days of this kind, that one must come to church at the very midday hours, the hymns must be sung, the offering celebrated. Then surely stand prepared, that you may receive for yourself the bulwark, that you may eat the body of the Lord Jesus, in which is the remission of sins, the asking of divine reconciliation and eternal protection. Welcome the Lord Jesus first into the lodging of your mind: where his body is, there is Christ. When the adversary has seen your lodging occupied by the brightness of the heavenly presence, he will understand that the place is closed by Christ to his temptations; he will flee and depart, and you will pass the midnight without any hurt. The evening sacrifice¹⁴⁹ also admonishes us never to forget Christ. You cannot forget, when you climb into bed, the Lord whom in the setting of the day you have prayed to, who has filled you when hungry with the feast of his body. For what you have thought in the evening, you will quickly review when you have wakened. The Lord Jesus himself will rouse you, will admonish you to rise and at that hour to take up the arms of prayer, at which the tempter is wont to attack.

49. Whence not idly the Apostle Paul and Silas, thrust into prison, when they had their feet in the stocks, yet at midnight rose up with the footstep of the mind, entreated the Lord, and brought the sacrifice of praise¹⁵⁰; and so where the duty of devotion was not lacking, there was also at hand the remedy of release. For suddenly at midnight a great earthquake was made, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: the gates were opened, the chains of all were loosed.¹⁵¹ You hear how, if you have been bound, by what hands, by what works you yourself may loose yourself, how you may not have to fear the guards. Rise therefore to pray. That is the hour at which the tempter is wont to do harm and wickedness is wont to rush in; that is the hour at which against grievous temptations the heavenly remedy is wont to come. You must keep watch, lest by some fraud you be conquered; you must take care that at the time when you can conquer, you in no way miss the time of conquering.

50. And since we have said that prayer must be undertaken at midnight, no less must something also be said concerning such an hour of the day; for night is contrary to day — for what fellowship has light with darkness?¹⁵² — and so the same things which are nocturnal and daytime are opposed to one another. For just as at midnight the tempter slew the firstborn of the Egyptians¹⁵³ and from this it is recognized that the adversary works above all at that hour, so on the contrary, the power of the divine light works at noontime. Whence Abraham too about midday kept sober watches and looked for some good outcomes, lifting his eyes and surveying the neighboring places, because at that time he sought for himself the coming grace. At that time, then, the divine guest with two holy angels came to him¹⁵⁴; at that time he received Christ as a guest, at that time those mysteries were celebrated which you read and understand. For when ought the divine presence the more to enlighten a faithful man than when the fuller light of the day shines? And deservedly also holy Joseph, when he had received his brothers and called for the younger one whom he loved most, set forth a banquet at midday.¹⁵⁵ For there was midday in the breast of holy Joseph, when he ministered the joyful feasts of his shining grace to his brothers and divided the foods of his most pleasing address, that, when they feared the punishment of their persecuted brother, sold into slavery, he by divine judgment might say to them that it had been provided that he should be brought down into Egypt who would not deny food to those who suffered famine.¹⁵⁶

51. We have, therefore, midday in ourselves. There is midday for him to whom the sun of justice¹⁵⁷ shines and on whom by good work or by innocent thoughts and by a pure and sincere mind Christ is fed. Learn, then, how you may make midday for yourself: Reveal, he says, thy way to the Lord and trust in him, and he will do it: and he will bring forth thy justice as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.¹⁵⁸ For where there is true faith, there is the grace of the true light; where there is a longer keeping of innocence and an advance by long meditation of virtues, where the splendor of a good conscience long enduring, there is intelligible noonday.¹⁵⁹ There you also will set out feasts of your mind for Christ, and in his riches you yourself also will be fed, so that no premature setting of the true light may follow, nor any darksome evening may quickly fall upon your studies and a thing interposed hinder good works. But if a night of temptations comes, not undeservedly must one rise at midnight and pray long, and the times must be drawn out with psalms, until the day come and Christ shines upon you.

52. See therefore, lest in the day too midnight come for you, when the dark and squalid prince of the world pours out upon you the fullness of temptation. Rise, then, and stir up your mind. He slumbers not who keeps thee¹⁶⁰, if he find you not asleep but rising; if he too has been roused by the watches of your soul, he will command the wind, and there shall be a calm¹⁶¹ in your breast, which had been tossed by the whirlwind of various storms. We must rise, therefore. The bridegroom is wont to come at midnight¹⁶²; take care lest he find you asleep, take care lest, drowsy, you be unable to kindle your torch. We must rise, I say, and we must confess to the Lord, that you may give thanks; we must confess also his eternal judgments; whatever good befalls us, we must reckon to his justice; and whether we are rich or are well in health, we must give it over to the justice of the Lord, since he is just, that he should look after his own work and preserve it; that those whom he sent forth naked, by some uncovered lot of nature, into this infirmity of the body, he may deign by the vigor of soul and the dowry of his mercy to clothe as the poor. And it is plain that this must be done with all virtue, that neither by day nor by night nor at any time should we be free from the giving of thanks.

53. The seventh verse follows: I am a partaker with all that fear thee and that keep thy commandments.¹⁶³ Christ also has partakers and consorts of his own. David proves it, saying: God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.¹⁶⁴ He has fellows of his flesh, because he took up the flesh. He has fellows of prophecy, because the Lord your God, he says, will raise up to you a prophet from among your brethren like unto me. Him you shall hear in all things whatsoever he shall speak to you. And it shall be: every soul that shall not hear that prophet shall be exterminated from the people.¹⁶⁵ He himself is the true prophet, who without the gift of another knows the future, who has spoken in the prophets the things that were to come. Or is he not a prophet who makes others prophesy? He himself it is who is heard like the law, because the law is his. Indeed if they hear not Moses and the prophets, he says, neither will they believe if anyone shall rise from the dead.¹⁶⁶ And so the people of the Jews, because they did not hear this prophet, were exterminated from the people, ceasing to be the people of God who before were called the people of God. He has fellows of baptism, because he was baptized for us; he has fellows of justice,¹⁶⁷ because he himself is justice and gave us of his own to have his fellowship; he has fellows of truth,¹⁶⁸ because he himself is the truth and willed that we hold the truth; he has fellows of the resurrection,¹⁶⁹ because he himself is the resurrection; he has fellows of unstained life,¹⁷⁰ because he himself is unstained, and whoever has walked in newness of life,¹⁷¹ whoever has held the path of justice, is a partaker of Christ. He has also partakers of his own tribulation, and so he who desired to be his partaker says: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you and fill up those things that are wanting of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the Church.¹⁷² We are also fellows of his burial¹⁷³; for everyone who has been buried with him through baptism into death is a partaker of him. And so the Apostle himself, asserting how great a grace the Lord Jesus has given us, says: For we are made partakers of Christ.¹⁷⁴

54. But that man also is a partaker of Christ who consoles a mourner with sorrowing affection, who does not defraud one set in prison of his proper duty, who sits by the bed of the sick man, not that he may stretch out a hunting-net for the catching of an inheritance, but that he may by anxious service mitigate the force of the disease, that he may diligently soothe the weary man with speech, who clothes the naked, refreshes the hungry. For in these Christ often is, as he himself says: I was in prison, and you came not to me; I was naked, and you covered me not; for what you did not to one of these, neither did you to me.¹⁷⁵ If I hate a lie, I am a partaker of Christ, because Christ is truth; if I flee from iniquity, I am a partaker of Christ, because Christ is justice. Blessed is he who can say this. For just as we say that a member is partaker of the whole body, so the man joined to all who fear God, who does not say to another: 'Thou art not of my body' — that is, the rich man does not say to the poor, the noble to the ignoble, the well to the sick, the strong to the weak, the wise to the unlearned does not say: 'You are not necessary to me' — is a partaker of the body of Christ which is the Church. But who knows that those in the Church who seem weak, poor, imprudent, even sinners, need a more abundant honor and must be propped up by greater support — he who has known this can himself say: I am a partaker of all who fear thee, who feels compassion with such men rather than disdains them, who feels compassion with the weak, that he may know that we are all one body¹⁷⁶ and that members are joined to members, so that one cannot be without the other; and when one is in pain, he sympathizes with the other. He, then, can rightly claim the authority of this voice.

55. But see how modestly the prophet has said: I am a partaker of those that fear thee.¹⁷⁷ He did not say of those that imitate, but of those that fear; for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.¹⁷⁸ He set himself among the unskilled out of humility, while in devotion he surpassed the veterans. But yet to fear also is of virtue, because it is written: Fear the Lord, ye his saints.¹⁷⁹

56. But to those to whom this fear may not seem holy — because there are those who tremble with sluggish dread and quake with dull fright — he added: and of those that keep thy commandments¹⁸⁰, that he might show himself to be a partaker of holy fear. Or thus: a man can indeed fear in his devout heart, but be slothful in work, so that he is religious in affection, idle in deed; yet he cannot be slothful who keeps the Lord's commandments. He, therefore, who fears, keeps; therefore it belongs to him who fears to keep. The holy man, then, says this; but I cannot claim it for myself. For how many there are who fear God, and I do not feel compassion for them, they seek help, and I am unwilling to bring it, they need mercy, and I do not aid them with my substance! But whoever does these things can himself say that he is a partaker of those who fear Christ.

57. The earth, O Lord, is full of thy mercy; teach me thy justifications.¹⁸¹ How is the earth full of the Lord's mercy save through the passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, which the prophet, foreseeing, celebrates as already accomplished? For it is the custom of the prophets, foreseeing things to come, that the things which are of the later age be remembered as already past. The earth, then, is full of the Lord's mercy, because to all the remission of sins is given, the sun is bidden to rise upon all.¹⁸² And this sun rises daily upon all, but that mystic sun of justice¹⁸³ has risen for all: he came for all, suffered for all, and rose again for all; and he suffered for this reason, that he might take away the sin of the world.¹⁸⁴ But if anyone does not believe in Christ, he himself defrauds himself of the universal benefit, just as if anyone, by closing his windows, should shut out the rays of the sun, the sun is not for that reason not risen for all, because he has defrauded himself of its heat — but what is of the sun keeps its prerogative, what is of the imprudent man excludes from itself the common grace of light. Upon all is rain¹⁸⁵, and this too is reckoned to the divine mercy, because he rains upon the just and the unjust. Or surely it must be interpreted thus, that the earth is full of the divine mercy, because the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. He hath founded it upon the seas and prepared it upon the rivers.¹⁸⁶ For through the Church the mercy of the Lord has been spread among all nations, and faith has been spread among all nations.

58. Perhaps you may say: 'On what reasoning has it not been said: heaven is full of the Lord's mercy, since there are also spiritual wickednesses in the heavenly places?'¹⁸⁷ But these do not pertain to the common right of God's indulgence and the remission of sins, since for them the eternal fire is reserved; and those things which are of the heavenly powers or ministries, although they are sustained by the help of the Lord, yet do not need so much of his mercy as those things which are lower and earthly: for those are not clothed in the wrapping of the flesh, in which is the enticement of frequent error. And so in the previous verses the same prophet says that God hath given the heaven of heaven to the Lord, but the earth he hath given to the children of men.¹⁸⁸ Whence even the heaven is purer and more cleansed from every stain of sin and far separated from that of which it is written: like the fowls of the air.¹⁸⁹ For this heaven is called as it were a certain airy place midway between heaven and earth, in which are also the spiritual wickednesses in the heavenly places.¹⁹⁰ For in that heaven not so called by name but truly heaven, even if we read that the devil was not absent from the council in the sight of the angels of God¹⁹¹, yet I think there are no temptations of wickedness operating. Indeed it is written that the angels loved the daughters of men¹⁹², for which reason the prince of this world and his ministers are caught and held by earthly enticements, in which spiritual wickedness has been steeped with certain poisons of this flesh and infected with human crimes. And therefore the Lord in his Gospel says: Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.¹⁹³ There it is not the same iniquity to drive a neighbor from the bound of his estate, to defraud a widow of the gains of an inheritance, to thrust out the lesser from the right of partnership; finally, in any wood or any metal of silver or gold or bronze, to enclose, as it were, a certain image of heavenly power. These things, since they are most full of sacrilege, are absent in the heavens, frequent on earth: for by the word of the Lord the heavens were established¹⁹⁴, the earth was not established.

59. And so he wishes the justifications of God to be taught by the Lord himself, because it is difficult on earth to find such a master, who teaches what he himself has not seen. To that teacher, then, the prophet strives with deep affection — he who alone is the true master. For how can man teach as true what he does not know, since he himself is a liar?¹⁹⁵ And rightly the Lord says that no one upon earth should call any man a master for himself, because there is one master of all.¹⁹⁶ And how could David seek another teacher, when he himself said of God: Who teaches man knowledge?¹⁹⁷ God teaches and enlightens the minds of each one and pours in the brightness of cognition, if you open the doors of your heart and receive the brightness of heavenly grace. When you doubt, ask diligently; for he that seeks finds, and to him that knocks it shall be opened.¹⁹⁸ There is much obscurity in the prophetic Scriptures. But if with the hand, as it were, of your mind you knock at the door of the Scriptures and diligently examine those things which are hidden, you will little by little begin to gather the meaning of the sayings, and it will be opened to you not by another, but by the Word of God, of whom you have read in the Apocalypse, that the Lamb opened the sealed book, which no one before could open¹⁹⁹, because the Lord Jesus alone in his Gospel revealed the riddles of the prophets and the mysteries of the Law, alone brought the key of knowledge and gave it for us to open.

60. The Jews say they have the key of knowledge, but they do not have it; for if they had it, they themselves would enter, they themselves would recognize the inner sanctuaries of the Scriptures. But now: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, who have taken away the key of knowledge, and you yourselves have not entered, and them that were entering you have hindered!²⁰⁰ For how can you have the key of knowledge, you who deny the author of knowledge? And therefore David, turning to him, says: 'Teach me, he says, thy justifications²⁰¹, because thou art the true justice; teach what has been said wisely, because thou art Wisdom; open my heart, thou who hast opened the book; open thou that door which is in heaven, because thou thyself art the gate. Through thee, if anyone enter, he shall possess that eternal kingdom; through thee, if anyone enter, he shall not be deceived, because no one who has entered into the dwelling of truth can be deceived.'