Ambrose

X. LITTERA IOTH.

1. Incipit littera apud Hebraeos decima 'Ioth', quae Latina significatione 'confessio' dicitur uel certe 'desolatio'. nec discors ac dissonans uidetur interpretatio, siquidem qui desolati sunt citius confitentur. magis enim secundis rebus animus extolli solet, cum autem urgetur aduersis, tunc diuinum inplorat auxilium. nam et in his quae humana sunt hunc usum esse cognoscimus, ut, cui succedunt prospera, animus elatior sit, cui mundi huius infesta sunt et potentia alicuius aduersa, tunc confugiat, tunc opem quaerat, ut uel rogando superioris mitiget potestatem uel se uiribus armet adiunctis, ne quasi inferior potentioribus uiribus obprimatur.

2. Denique Hieremias sub hac littera sic ait: manus suas extendit qui tribulat in omnia desideria eius; uidit enim gentes introeuntes in sanctificationem suam, quibus mandasti ne introirent in ecclesiam eius.¹ de Hierusalem utique hoc dicit propheta, cuius deplorat aerumnam, cuius praecessit desolatio ac destitutio, ut postea sequeretur confessio; castigat enim dominus omnem filium quem recipit.² recepturus igitur Hierusalem ante captiuitatis flagellauit aerumnis. nimium enim insoluerat et inflato se corde iactauerat, ut caput tenere³ non posset dominum Iesum, id est humilitatem gratiam iustitiam sapientiam, hoc est uerae fidei magisterium non teneret. et ideo dominus castigauit eam, qui moderator omnium nouit quemadmodum unumquemque castiget. ut enim medicus grauiora uulnera asperioribus medicamentis curare consueuit, leuiora leuioribus, ita et deus noster grauiora peccata maiore seueritate castigat, sed ipsa castigatio ad salutem proficit; dixit enim dominus: percutiam, et ego sanabo.⁴

3. Denique de Hierusalem spem coepit Hieremias propheta promittere; nam in posterioribus sub hac littera ait: dabit percutienti maxillam suam et satiabitur in obprobriis. dabit in sepultura os suum, si tamen est spes patientiae.⁵ in euangelio dominus Iesus docens uirtutem atque insigne patientiae ait: qui te percusserit in maxillam praebe ei et alteram;⁶ uult enim discipulos suos et iniuriarum esse patientes nec referire facile, nedum ferire; patientia enim humilitatis indicium est. et ideo, quoniam desolata erat ac destituta Hierusalem: dabit, inquit, percutienti maxillam suam,⁷ ut non se subducat iniuriae nec declinet caedis dolorem, sed percutienti maxillam offerat. utrumque intellegi potest, siue ei qui percutere incipiat siue ei qui iam percusserit, ut illud euangelicum compleatur: qui te percusserit in maxillam praebe ei et alteram.⁸ et prophetice hoc positum est, ut doceret Hierusalem, hoc est plebis Iudaicae ecclesiam non aliter esse saluandam nisi per euangelii disciplinam, ut, cum coeperit euangelii praecepta seruare et operibus implere mandatum domini Iesu, tunc iugum captiuitatis de suae animae ceruice deponat, cum se subdiderit iugo Christi.

4. Et satiabitur, inquit, in obprobriis.⁹ non dixit: 'subibit obprobrium'; facile est enim unam aut alteram contumeliam sustinere. addidit: satiabitur in obprobriis, quo facilius domini moueat misericordiam obprobriorum conplurium deformitate miserabilis. quod utique ex libro Regnorum potes intellegere. quippe cum conuiciaretur Semei filius Gera sancto Dauid, uirum sanguinarium appellans, et malediceret ei, quando fugiebat filium suum Abessalon parricidalia ad tempus bella declinans, tacebat rex et summum patientiae insigne praestabat. etenim cum temptationis suae tempus intellegeret, ut ei parricidale proelium moueretur, magis humilem se uolebat uideri, quo domini mitigaret offensam, quam exasperandum eius arbitrabatur in sua temptatione iudicium, si forte suas iniurias ultum iret. unde et ad populi ducem Abisai uindicare cupientem ait: quid mihi et tibi est, fili Saruiae? ideo maledicit mihi, quoniam dominus dixit illi ut maledicat. ecce filius meus, qui exiuit de uentre meo, quaerit animam meam. si autem modo extraneus maledicit mihi, dimitte illum, ut maledicat, quoniam dominus dixit illi, ut uideat humilitatem meam et retribuat mihi dominus bona pro maledicto hoc.¹⁰ quod et prophetico dixit spiritu et probauit euentu; cum enim repleta fuerit humilitas, peccatum soluitur. denique et in Esaiae libro habes, quia dicit dominus: sacerdotes, loquimini in cor Hierusalem, consolamini eam, quia repleta est humiliatio eius; solutum est peccatum eius, quia accepit de manu domini duplicia peccata sua.¹¹ aduertis igitur quia, ubi desolatio, ibi humilitas; desolationem enim sequitur humilitas iusto ordine, humilitatem patientia, patientiam probatio, consolatio probationem. quod habes et in apostolo scriptum, quia tribulatio patientiam operatur, patientia autem probationem, probatio autem spem; spes autem non confundit, quia caritas dei diffusa est in cordibus nostris per spiritum sanctum,¹² qui utique nostrorum est consolator affectuum.

5. Quod autem ait: dabit in sepultura os suum,¹³ ostendit quandam supra modum patientiae taciturnitatem, ut tamquam sepeliat os proprium, ne loquatur, et uelut quodam aggere uirtutum obstruat, ne uocem doloris emittat, tantum pondus adserens patientiae quam spes foueat, ut uocem ipsam uelut busto quodam ac tumulo sepeliat ac concludat, quam nulla extorquere, nulla nec excitare possit iniuria. huius quoque litterae interpretationem ut potuimus explicauimus; ueniamus ad psalmum.

6. Itaque primus uersiculus est: manus tuae fecerunt me et parauerunt me; da mihi intellectum, ut discam mandata tua.¹⁴ magno commendationis usus exordio est, ut opus dei esse se diceret, quo facilius circa operis sui gratiam fauor inclinaretur auctoris. grandis enim praerogatiua est etiam in rebus humanis, ut aliquis operibus et beneficiis faueat suis nec meritum spectet alienum, sed in suae gratiae munus intendat, ne uideatur abrogare quod ipse donauit. itaque etsi de luto corporis nostri substantia sit, carne induamur et corpus ossibus intexatur et neruis, tamen quod simus pretiosissimum opus dei nemo dubitauerit. nam et fabricam ipsam humani corporis si quis considerare uelit, nihil poterit in terra pretiosius iudicare. est enim homo statu celsus, uultu decorus, caesarie gratus, non in aluum ceterarum more curuatus animantium, sed ipso naturae iure sublimis, qui in caelum libero spectet obtutu nulla captiuae seruitute ceruicis adpressus in terram, sed tamquam propriae conscius libertatis et locuples sui testis auctoris.

7. Uerumtamen in ceteris animantibus membrorum forma laudetur, in quibus praeter gratiam corporis nihil est aliud quod requiratur. homo in eo est pulchrior quod non uidetur, non in corpore quod uidetur, in se habens aeternitatis gratiam et praesentium uenustatem — quae enim uidentur temporalia sunt, nam quae non uidentur aeterna —,¹⁵ in hoc terrestri hospitio indutus habitatione caelesti, cui simul conpetit et in terris uideri et deo iungi. magnum sane munus, si se ipse cognoscat, et quaedam forma iustitiae, mundo magis quam sibi nasci. unde et Salomon ait: grande homo et pretiosum uir misericors, uirum autem fidelem opus est inuenire.¹⁶ et uere magnus est qui et diuini operis interpres est et imitator dei. homo est enim qui potuit dicere: imitatores mei estote, sicut et ego Christi.¹⁷ terram excolit, mari tamquam possessione utitur, caeli ornamenta gratus miratur adsertor. euanuerat rerum natura, nisi qui ea uteretur diuina prouidentia esset adiectus.

8. Denique postquam fecit deus caelum et terram et maria, posteaquam omnia reptilia uolatilia animantia, postea hominem fecit quem animantibus uiuentibus anteferret, de quo non inmerito caelestis sententia resultauit: faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram.¹⁸ cetera dixit et facta sunt, mandauit et creata sunt:¹⁹ ut homo fiat, specialis quidam dei accedit hortatus, ut tamquam laborantis dei in huius munere creaturae significaretur operatio. deus quidem expers laboris est; sed tamen scripturae uerba quid aliud nisi studiosam tui operationem eius ostendunt? ergo si deus maiore quodam studio te creauit, cur ipse tui studium derelinquas? si deus in te laborauit qui laborare non nouit, cur ipse fugitans sis laboris?

9. Manus tuae, inquit, fecerunt me et parauerunt me.²⁰ clamat ad deum propheta: opus tuum, domine, ne deseras, non derelinquas. te auctorem conuenio, te teneo conditorem, praesidia aliena non quaero. in adiumentum accingere qui accinctus es ut creares. dic ipse, Dauid, quid senseris, cur dixeris: manus tuae fecerunt me.²¹ sed dixisti inferius: domine, retribues propter me; domine, misericordia tua in saeculum, opera manuum tuarum non omittas.²² hoc est dicere: bestias non fecerunt manus tuae, sed dixisti: producant aquae reptilia animarum uiuentium,²³ et produxit terra secundum genus quadrupedia et reptilia et bestias terrae, me autem, inquit, fecisti, me tuis manibus figurasti, hoc est: non figurasti bestias manibus tuis, non reptilia, non uolatilia; me autem fecerunt manus tuae et parauerunt me.²⁴

10. Non mediocre opus est quod paratum est, cum sapientia unumquodque disponitur et paratur. denique Sapientia dicit: cum pararet caelos, cum illo eram.²⁵ quod de hominibus idem dicit propheta: uox domini praeparantis ceruos.²⁶ quae uox domini est nisi: faciamus hominem?²⁷ qui sunt isti cerui nisi inimici serpentibus,²⁸ qui super aspides ambulant et uenena non sentiunt? non uile igitur, non corporale arbitror quod parauit deus. nosce te ipsum, homo; tuae animae dicitur in Canticis: nisi cognoueris te formosam in mulieribus.²⁹ cognosce te, anima, quia non de terra, non de luto es, quia insufflauit te deus et fecit in animam uiuentem.³⁰ opus es magnificum, dei generatione inspiratum. adtende tibi,³¹ ut lex dicit; hoc est 'tibi', id est animae tuae. saecularia te et mundana non teneant, terrestria non morentur. ad illum tota intentione festina, ex cuius inspiratione consistis. grande, inquit, homo et pretiosum uir misericors, uirum autem fidelem opus est inuenire.³² disce, homo, ubi grandis atque pretiosus sis. uilem te terra demonstrat, sed gloriosum uirtus facit, fides rarum, imago pretiosum. an quicquam tam pretiosum quam imago est dei, quae tibi primo fidem debet infundere, ut in corde tuo refulgeat quaedam auctoris effigies, ne, qui mentem tuam interrogat, non agnoscat auctorem? an quicquam tam pretiosum quam humilitas, ut naturam corporis et animae perspiciens altero te subicias, altero recognoscas?³³ prona in uitium carnis inlecebra misericordiam suadet, quia quod alteri contuleris tibi soluis; quicquid a te procedit in te recurrit et quicquid feceris tibi soluis et quicquid profueris tibi proficit.

11. Uiuacis animae uigor, sensus rationis et intellectus capax atque iudicii, ut digna domus tanto habitatore uideatur, non amittat suae praerogatiuam naturae, ne hominis nomen amittat. scriptura enim eum hominem dicit, qui est ad imaginem et similitudinem dei,³⁴ peccantem autem non hominem, sed aut serpentem aut equum adhinnientem feminis³⁵ aut uulpiculam aut iumentum uocare consueuit. nolite fieri sicut equus et mulus, quibus non est intellectus; in freno et camo maxillas eorum constringe qui ad te non adpropinquant,³⁶ et: dicite huic uulpi³⁷ de Herode ait, generatio uiperarum³⁸ uocatur ab Iohanne plebs hominum. magnum ergo opus dei es, homo, magnum est quod dedit tibi deus. uide ne quod deus tribuit amittas magnum illud munus, quod es ad imaginem dei, et hoc in te puniatur magis. deus enim non punit similitudinem suam, sed eum punit, qui ad similitudinem dei factus hoc quod accepit seruare non potuit. punitur ergo illud quod ad similitudinem dei esse desistit, hoc est peccatum tuum. nam suam deus non damnat imaginem nec in illud incendium mittit aeternum,³⁹ sed magis uindicat imaginem suam de eo qui imagini illi fecit iniuriam, ut per malitiam quod eras esse desineres et fieres mulus ex homine. uindicatur ergo imago, non condemnatur, uindicatur quasi expulsa, non condemnatur quasi rea. postquam enim peccasti, aliud esse coepisti, illud quod eras esse desisti. quomodo igitur punitur in te quod in te non inuenitur? nam si inueniatur in te imago dei et similitudo, non supplicio incipis dignus esse, sed praemio. ita imago illa, qua ad imaginem et similitudinem dei factus es, non condemnatur, sed coronatur. condemnaris autem in eo quod ipse mutatus es, ut fieres ex homine serpens mulus equus uulpicula. his nos enim nominibus iam scriptura condemnauit, quia exuti caelestis imaginis ornamento etiam nomen hominis amittimus, qui gratiam hominis non tenemus.

12. In aliquibus tamen codicibus inuenimus: manus tuae fecerunt me et plasmauerunt me.⁴⁰ nec istud alienum, quia et Iob dixit: manus tuae plasmauerunt me et fecerunt me.⁴¹ unde et hic dicitur, ut meminerit deus quia puluis sumus⁴² et uberioris gratiae munus infundat nec infirmum opus deserat. gubernator fluctuante nauigio plus laboris inpendit quam cum secundo remigio labitur fluctu et uentorum flatus supparo superante praecurrit.

13. Manus tuae, inquit, plasmauerunt me.⁴³ 'manus' dicit pluraliter, non 'manum'. at uero alibi ait: ego manu mea solidaui caelum,⁴⁴ et: manus mea fecit haec.⁴⁵ in hominis constitutione uidetur non abundasse quod toto mundo ut fieret abundauit. caelum manus una firmauit, ut scriptum est, et utraque dei manus hominem figurauit, ut legimus. caelum non ad similitudinem, homo ad similitudinem; angeli enim ad ministerium, homo ad imaginem.

14. Esto ut et angeli ad imaginem; scriptura tamen de homine locuta est quod sit ad imaginem. habemus enim aliquid quod angeli fortasse non habeant; ubi enim abundauit peccatum, superabundauit gratia.⁴⁶ nobis est natus Christus ex uirgine; legimus enim: puer natus est nobis, filius datus est nobis.⁴⁷ nobis carnem suscepit, immo potius nos in illa carne suscepit, quod filium hominis in dei sede constituit. non lego angelos in dei sede nisi stantes, nisi ministerium deferentes,⁴⁸ non lego angelos, sed homines consepultos Christo et in Christo resuscitatos.⁴⁹ denique ait apostolus, quia conuiuificauit nos in Christo — cuius gratia estis salui facti — et simul suscitauit simulque fecit sedere in caelestibus in Christo Iesu.⁵⁰ filius ergo hominis ad dexteram dei,⁵¹ non angelus, non archangelus nec Cherubim et Seraphim, illa laudant, filius hominis sedet. filius hominis angelorum ore laudatur, quod angelos malos uicerit,⁵² de nequitiis spiritalibus quae sunt in caelestibus triumphauerit, quod fecerit similes angelorum homines, in quibus ante erant contagia mortuorum.

15. Uerbo, inquit, domini caeli firmati sunt et spiritu oris eius omnis uirtus eorum.⁵³ homo quoque spiritu domini perfectionem uitae consummationemque uirtutis accepit. inspirauit in eum deus spiritum uitae et factus est homo in animam uiuentem.⁵⁴ uita ergo nostra coepit ex inspiratione diuina, sed uita haec secessione animae corporisque dissoluitur,⁵⁵ inspiratio autem diuina non soluitur. et ideo intellege aliud esse quod figuratum est, aliud quod factum est uel paratum, meritoque dupliciter habes scriptum de homine. primum enim scriptum est: faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram⁵⁶ et: dominabuntur, inquit, uel principatum habebunt⁵⁷ et: fecit deus hominem ad imaginem dei.⁵⁸ secundo autem loco ita scriptum est, quia accepit deus puluerem de terra et plasmauit hominem.⁵⁹ ubi puluis, ibi plasmatio, ubi autem non puluis, ibi non terra, non materia, sed incorporeum, sed admirabile; ibi non materia, sed inmateriale. quod enim secundum imaginem est, non est in corpore nec in materia, sed in anima rationabili. ibi operatur, ibi ostenditur homo ad similitudinem et imaginem dei, ubi iustitiae, ubi sapientiae, ubi omnis forma uirtutis adsumitur.

16. Si intellegas imaginem, uidebis ad imaginem; homo enim non est imago dei, sed ad similitudinem factus est. alius est imago dei inuisibilis, primogenitus uniuersae creaturae, per quem facta sunt omnia.⁶⁰ ille non ad imaginem, sed imago; tu non imago, sed ad imaginem. habes ergo in tua substantia aliquid de imagine et similitudine dei, quod sit diuinae simile imaginis. propterea imago ad eum, qui est ad imaginem, uenit et quaerit imago eum, qui est ad similitudinem sui, ut iterum signet, ut iterum conformet, quia amisisti quod accepisti. insufflauerat enim tibi deus,⁶¹ ut inspirationis suae dono haberes gratiam, quam tibi tua culpa sustulerat. factus eras in animam uiuentem; audi quid dicat: non in carnem, sed in animam uiuentem. sed quia peccator signaculum tenere non potuit et in crimine positus non habebat quae dei sunt, sed quae hominum,⁶² propterea uenit dominus noster Iesus Christus, ut legisti in euangelio, et a mortuis surgens cum clausos discipulos repperisset, claustris ingressus est manentibus et dixit: pax uobis; sicut misit me pater, et ego mitto uos. cum hoc dixisset, insufflauit eis et dixit: accipite spiritum sanctum.⁶³

17. Uidesne ergo quae manus fecerint hominem aut quem hominem fecerint? illum utique, quem secundum Christum induimus, expoliantes ueterem hominem cum actibus eius, et induimus nouum qui renouatur in agnitionem secundum imaginem eius qui creauit eum, ubi non est seruus et liber, sed omnia et in omnibus Christus.⁶⁴ Christum ergo induimus, sicut et alibi dictum est: Christum induistis.⁶⁵ accepimus spiritum sanctum, qui non solum nostra peccata dimittit, sed etiam nos facit sacerdotes suos aliis peccata dimittere. ideo ait propheta: tu finxisti me et posuisti super me manum tuam.⁶⁶ finxit per lutum, posuit per gratiam spiritalem, licet plerique hunc psalmum ex persona dictum saluatoris accipiant. audi quia manus domini etiam spiritus dicitur. clamat Iob: Spiritus diuinus qui fecit me.⁶⁷ istae sunt ergo manus quae hominem parauerunt, Christus et spiritus. ergo dominus Iesus et corporis auctor est nostri, qui primum fecit hominem ad imaginem et postea de luto finxit et uoluit seruare quod fecerat, saluare quod plasmauerat, ut totum hominem saluum faceret, sicut ipse dixit in euangelio: mihi irascimini, quia totum hominem saluum feci in sabbato?⁶⁸ quod specialiter ecclesia docet, quia non solum anima, sed etiam caro nostra seruatur, anima per cognitionem dei, caro per resurrectionem; quorum alterum docuit diuini auctoritate sermonis, alterum propriae resurrectionis exemplo.

18. Sic est ergo homo geminae substantiae; alia est enim facti substantia, alia figurati; ista de dei spiritu, illa de limo. propterea ait Iob: resuscitabit corium meum,⁶⁹ quia quod de limo est resuscitatur — terra enim in terram redit⁷⁰ —, quod autem factum est, ut principatum haberet super ceteras animantes, id praestantius esse intellegis; luti enim etiam bestiis nobiscum commune consortium est. et ideo homini specialis praerogatiua donata est, id est anima qua ceteris animantibus imperat; sed ut possit imperare, debet deo esse subiectus. docetur igitur seruire, ut ad regnum peruenire mereatur; qui enim seruit Christo, placet deo. qui seruit Christo placet utique ueritati et debet nescire mendacium, qui seruit iustitiae debet repellere iniquitatem, qui seruit inmaculato debet tenere castimoniae disciplinam, qui seruit luci debet odisse tenebras peccatorum. ergo, quia corpus infirmum est, uisitationem domini postulemus, unde propheta ait: quid est homo quod memor es eius, aut filius hominis quia uisitas eum?⁷¹

19. Et nunc in reliqua uersiculi portione ait: da mihi intellectum, ut discam mandata tua.⁷² spiritalem igitur se esse cognoscens propheta petit gratiam Spiritus sancti. etenim intellectum dari a domino et inter munera gratiarum primo constitui loco in apostolica lectione didicisti, quia unicuique datur manifestatio spiritus ad utilitatem,⁷³ et in propheta primo loco sapientiae et intellectus spiritalis gratia⁷⁴ postulatur. petitur ergo ut dei donum. deinde uide ordinem: da mihi, inquit, intellectum, ut discam mandata tua. intellectus praemittitur, ut scientia sequatur; nam nisi quis intellexerit, doctus esse non poterit. doctrinam igitur intellectus facit, non memoria; nihil enim prodest multa legisse, nisi intellegas ipse quae legeris. et in apostolo post manifestationem spiritus sermonem scientiae⁷⁵ legisti postea substitutum, ut scias intellectum memoriae praeferendum et illum posse habere scientiam, cui ante intellectus adfulserit.

20. Simul humilitatem considera. si propheta intellectum dari sibi postulat, quis tam arrogans, qui profiteatur in sua potestate esse intellegentiam? intellectum petit, ut ipse se nouerit et naturae suae possit scire rationem. at illi, qui de rerum natura disputant, caeli scrutantur plagas; qui se ipsos scire non possunt, putant intellegentiam sine dei dono posse concedi. unde et nos humilitatem debemus adsumere, ne extollamur, si forte unam aliquam de scripturis parabolam cognouerimus aut, quia interdum secundum litteram plana legimus, si forte secundum litteram aliquid intellexerimus, doctrinae nobis adsumamus scientiam. propheta ille, qui accepit spiritum sanctum, postquam unctus in regnum est, unctus est in prophetam,⁷⁶ centesimum et octauum decimum psalmum scribens intellectum sibi dari poscit, ut mandata dei intellegat, et scit, nisi a domino acceperit gratiam, intellegere eius se mandata non posse. in euangelio quoque lego, quia proponebat parabolas dominus Iesus et apostoli non intellegebant; denique explanationem propositae parabolae postulabant.⁷⁷

21. Ipse dominus Iesus cum diceret, ut legisti in libro euangelii secundum Matthaeum scriptum: beati pauperes spiritu,⁷⁸ subiecit in posterioribus: omnis qui audierit uerba mea haec et fecerit ea, similis erit homini sapienti.⁷⁹ non ergo qui audit tantummodo similis erit, sed qui facit quae audierit. ergo neque factum sine auditu neque auditio sine facto potest esse sapientis, sed qui audit et facit. audiamus igitur ut intellegamus, faciamus ut intellexisse nos quod audiuimus conprobemus.

22. Sequitur uersus secundus: qui timent te uidebunt me et laetabuntur, quia in uerba tua supersperaui.⁸⁰ fortasse aliquibus uideatur hoc esse contrarium, quia iustus dicit: qui timent te uidebunt me et laetabuntur; multis enim iustus grauis est cum uidetur. denique in euangelio plerique dominum Iesum uidere non poterant, sicut Geraseni rogabant eum, ut abiret de regionibus eorum,⁸¹ et alii ei transitum denegabant, quando tamen per eos transire nolebat.⁸² unde puto quod, sicut illic Iudaicae forma impietatis exprimitur, ita hic ecclesiae gratia reueletur. prophetat enim totum orbem replendum esse timore diuino et ideo quasi timentes deum sanctorum dicit cognitione laetari; qui enim uidet iustum et gaudet, etiam ipse uult esse iustus. pulchrum est enim ut in aliis delectetur, quod uult ipse in se seruare, si possit. est enim insitum bonis, ut castum pudicus, prudentem sapiens affectu pio diligat, misericors liberalem, et uirtutes suas in aliis amet. plerisque enim iusti aspectus admonitio correctionis est, perfectioribus uero laetitia est. quam pulchrum igitur, ut uidearis et prosis! bonum ergo uir iustus.

23. Propterea denique apostolus Paulus ascendit Hierosolymam,⁸³ ut iustos uideret, et cum Petro mansit diebus quindecim,⁸⁴ ut ex eius aliquid cohabitatione proficeret. propterea ipse Paulus et Barnabas, cum Hierosolymam ingrederentur, magnifice excipiebantur ab ecclesia, ab apostolis et maioribus natu,⁸⁵ cum autem abire uellent, ne discederent rogabantur et, ut postea de Paulo legimus, cum lacrimis deducebatur.⁸⁶ nam si est tanta uis in naturalibus, ut animal uisum prosit ictericis, ita ut mortui quoque cornu eius animantis prodesse dicatur, si fuerit demonstratum his qui huiusmodi inciderint passionem,⁸⁷ dubitare possumus, quod iusti sanet aspectus? ergo animal uile inrationabile tantam uirtutem habet, ut sanare hominem possit momento exiguo quo uidetur: homo iustus, si tamen cum fide ab eo aspiciatur qui utilitatem ab eo percipere desiderat, nihil confert? non uel ipsi oculorum radii uirtutem quandam uidentur infundere his qui fideliter eum uidere desiderant?

24. Sed quemadmodum iustus laetificat cor innocentium, cum uidetur, ita inprobi iustorum cognitione torquentur, quia uel tacitis sanctorum moribus arguuntur. torquet castitas incontinentiam, auaritiam liberalitas, impietatem fides. de hoc quoque parile uilis animantis sumamus exemplum. nam sicut prodesse diximus mutum animal cum uidetur, ita obesse percipimus lupum, si aliquem uidendo praeuenerit;⁸⁸ uocem enim feruntur amittere quos prius lupus uiderit. basiliscus quoque, hoc est noxius serpens, si quodcumque uiderit prior animal, fertur occidere, et allegatur statim necari qui potuerit a serpente huiusmodi praeuideri.⁸⁹ ipse quoque serpens mori dicitur, si fuerit hominis praeuentus aspectu. ergo si tanta uirtus uel in oculis serpentis uel in oculis est hominis, ut, si alterum alter prior uiderit, possit occidere, non est uirtus in oculis iusti qui repletus uirtutis est gratia, cum praesertim tantum operetur fides, ut et illa quae fimbriam domini tetigit sanaretur⁹⁰ et ille cui intendit dominus Iesus statim ex eius oculis gratiam sanitatis hauriret?⁹¹

25. Sed qui uidet iustum debet scire quod uideat. non illum uidet in corpore, non in uestimento, non in patrimonio, non in uultu, sed intus uidet. non, inquam, illum uidet nisi eius uiderit mentem, nisi eius sermonem intenderit, nisi sensus illius potuerit conprehendere, sapientiam de tractatu eius adsumere. tunc igitur laetabitur, cum ista perspexerit, cum ista cognouerit. ita ergo et nos, sicubi audimus iustum, festinemus uidere, sicut illa mulier quae audiuit in domo Pharisaei discumbere dominum Iesum et ingressa est et eius pedes perfudit unguento.⁹² illius imitatores simus; namque ecclesiam in illa muliere figuratam esse quis dubitet? sicubi ergo iustus sedeat, sicubi accumbat, festinemus uidere eum. pretiosum est uidere uirum iustum, ut uideas secundum imaginem dei.⁹³ quod foris est nihil prodest, quod intus est sanat. sane et in eo qui foris est illum qui intus est frequenter aspicimus, ut, si uiderimus pauperem, illum ad cuius similitudinem factus est honoremus in paupere, de quo ait: dedistis mihi manducare, quia quod uni eorum dedistis mihi dedistis.⁹⁴ qui enim coronat imaginem imperatoris, utique illum honorat cuius imaginem coronauit, et qui statuam contempserit imperatoris, imperatori utique cuius statuam consputauerit fecisse uidetur iniuriam. gentiles lignum adorant, quia dei imaginem putant; sed inuisibilis dei imago non in eo est quod uidetur, sed in eo utique quod non uidetur.⁹⁵

26. Uides ergo quia inter multas Christi imagines ambulamus. caueamus, ne coronam imagini detrahere uideamur, quam unicuique Christus inposuit. caueamus, ne aliquid detrahamus his quibus debemus adiungere. sed, quod peius est, non solum non honestamus pauperes, sed etiam dehonestamus destruimus persequimur, et ignoramus, quod has in imaginem dei congregamus iniurias, cum factos ad dei imaginem putamus esse laedendos; qui enim inridet pauperem exacerbat eum qui fecit illum.⁹⁶ sed aderit ille, qui dicat: esuriui et non dedistis mihi manducare, sitiui et non dedistis mihi bibere, aeger eram et non uisitastis me.⁹⁷ et quanto ista leuiora sunt, quam si dicat: 'iniurias mihi fecistis, nudastis me, uerberastis me'! quem si quis interrogauerit: 'quando tibi iniurias fecimus, quando spoliauimus, quando etiam uerberauimus?', dicet: quam diu uni horum minimorum fecistis, mihi fecistis.⁹⁸ propterea caueamus diligentius, ne cui uel minimo contumeliam inrogemus, ne ipsi domino in illis minimis contumeliosi fuisse uideamur.

27. Qua ratione autem dixerit: qui timent te uidebunt me et laetabuntur,⁹⁹ ipse exposuit dicens: quia in uerba tua supersperaui.¹⁰⁰ hoc est dicere: intus me uiderunt, intus me tetigerunt, intus me aspexerunt, ubi spem adsumpsi de tuis uerbis, ubi tua uerba percepi. beati ergo et qui uident iustum et laetantur, quia sperant in dei uerba. quam multi autem sunt qui oderunt iustos, quia perscrutantur dei uerba qui iusti sunt, et cum aliquos doctos audiunt impii eos propter doctrinam uitare consuerunt!

28. Sequitur uersus tertius: agnoui, domine, quoniam iustitia iudicia tua, et in ueritate tua humiliasti me.¹⁰¹ qui potest intellegere quae sunt diuinae prouidentiae, utitur eo sermone quo usus propheta est sanctus Dauid, quia omnia iudicio dei fiunt, ut aegrum corpus aliquis habeat, ut salubre, ut diues, ut pauper sit, ut moriatur iuuenis uel senex. si quis intendat scripturis diuinis, intellegit haec fieri iudicio dei; nihil enim est praeter dei scientiam. exemplum quaerimus? non est absconditum, siquidem Iob numquam amisisset proprias facultates, nisi esset traditus aduersariae potestati. dedit enim dominus potestatem diabolo in facultates eius,¹⁰² ut temptaretur, qualem amisso patrimonio haberet affectum; dedit in filios, dedit in corpus eius, ut probaretur, quod non dolore liberorum defunctorum aut cruciatu corporis a constantia mentis anima defetisceret. dominus quidem nouerat fortem, sed in illo docere atque examinare nos uoluit, utrum imitatores eius esse possemus. denique et Abraham temptauit, quando filium senis unicum sibi petiuit immolari.¹⁰³ sciebat utique mentem Abrahae, sed sciens temptat dominus, sicut legisti in euangelio, quia, cum interrogasset dominus Iesus discipulos, quot panes haberent, et illi respondissent quia quinque tantum haberent panes, ipse ait: quid faciemus, inquit, inter tantos homines? hoc autem dicebat temptans eos; sciebat enim quid facturus esset.¹⁰⁴ qui ergo iustus est, examine iustitiae suae credit, quia dei iusta iudicia sunt,¹⁰⁵ uel secundum Graecum, quia iudicia dei sunt ipsa iustitia.

29. Sed hoc ut agnosceret, fecit praemissa precatio, quoniam intellectum dari sibi poposcit, ut mandata dei disceret.¹⁰⁶ accepta est ergo intellectus et cognitionis gratia, agnouit iusta dei esse iudicia. agnoscere autem perfecti est. denique aliud est credere, aliud agnoscere: fides timentis, agnitio sapientis. qui enim timet, rationem non quaerit, sapiens autem et agnitionem eorum inuestigat quaecumque percipere desiderat. credidi, inquit, propter quod locutus sum;¹⁰⁷ cognouit autem intellegens quod locutus est.

30. In quo ergo iusta iudicia dei sunt? quia per labores et tribulationes et adflictiones ad caeleste praemium peruenitur. sicut enim certantibus athletis corona defertur iusto iudicio hominum, ita legitime certantibus christianis¹⁰⁸ diuino iudicio palma decernitur. uincenti, inquit, dabo sedere mecum in sede mea.¹⁰⁹ uita ergo nostra examinatur igne sicut splendor argenti,¹¹⁰ ut uirtus certaminibus adprobetur. transiuimus, inquit, per ignem et aquam, et induxisti nos in refrigerium.¹¹¹ per haec igitur uera iudicia tua esse cognoui.¹¹² humiliatus enim sum, ut haec uiderem, quia hi, qui exaltati sunt corde, oculos ad ueritatem aperire non possunt; cum autem humiliamur, peccata nostra cognoscimus et ipsa humilitate delicta nostra purgamus. humiliatus sum, inquit, et saluum me fecit.¹¹³ in ueritate ergo humiliatus qui humiliatus est ad salutem, nec uane pertulit passionem, qui salutem ueritatis secutus est.

31. Distat igitur inter cognoscere et timere, ut eo reuertamur. denique euangelii lectio docere nos debet; ait enim dominus ad eos, qui credebant ei ex Iudaeis: si manseritis in uerbo meo, cognoscetis ueritatem et ueritas liberabit uos.¹¹⁴ si manseritis, inquit, cognoscetis. uides quia non a principio potuit cognoscere quicumque timens deum uerbum eius audiuit. non solum autem non idem est timor et cognitio, uerum etiam non idem est fides et cognitio, siquidem etiam apostolus docuit diuersa esse munera gratiarum. alii enim, inquit, datur per spiritum sermo sapientiae, alii sermo scientiae secundum eundem spiritum, alii fides in eodem spiritu.¹¹⁵ si ergo alii fides datur, alii cognitio, uides, ubi fides, non statim cognitio, ubi autem cognitio, et fides est et prudentia nec ab eo diligentiam possumus separare.

32. Habuit ergo cognitionem sanctus Dauid utpote propheta perfectus, quandoquidem ita perfecte cognouit, ut humiliaretur in ipsa ueritate. siue ergo in aduersis positus agnouit probationis gratia ea quae laboriosa et aduersa sunt sustinenda, iustum autem dei esse iudicium et ideo bene certantes numquam deseri uel relinqui et coronam his post labores posse deferri; siue in secundis et prosperis positus cognouit etiam diuitias rerum diuersosque successus temptationis causa solere suppetere, ut is qui his utitur rerum prosperitate temptetur. in eo igitur laudandus propheta Dauid, quia, cum ista agnosceret, humiliabatur, ut humilitate sua uel prosperorum excluderet temptamenta uel aduersorum subiret constanti aequanimitate tolerantiam.

33. Non ergo magnopere laudabilis esset propheta, si laudaret iudicia dei usus affluentia secundorum. quid enim magnum facimus, si, quando in secundis sumus, laudamus deum, quando in diuitiis sumus, quando nullis uexamur iniuriis? illud est magnificum, si subiectus contumeliis iudicium dei laudes, si uexatus aegritudine iudicia dei praedices, si te inopia non reuocet, quominus laudes iustitiam dei. ergo semper laudanda sunt iudicia dei, sicut scriptum est: exultauerunt filiae Iudae propter iudicia tua.¹¹⁶ quae sunt filiae Iudae nisi animae religiosae, animae ecclesiae quae Iesum Christum dominum confitentur, quae uidentes rationem iudiciorum tuorum semper exultant? qui enim non ex aliquo secundorum prouentu, sed ex cognitione rationis induit laetitiam, non nisi in exultatione perpetua constitutus est.

34. Sequitur uersus quartus: fiat nunc misericordia tua, ut exhortetur me secundum uerbum tuum seruo tuo.¹¹⁷ aliqui habent in hoc loco: consoletur me. sed etiam in apostolo legimus exhortationem pro consolatione dictam et consolationem pro exhortatione.¹¹⁸ magna est ergo misericordia dei, quae non solum remissionem tribuit peccatorum, sed etiam certantibus adhibet exhortationis calcaria, ne suscepti certaminis passiones inbelli formidine derelinquant. non ergo misericordiam, quasi is qui uictus cedat, aut ut ueniam peccator implorat, sed ut dei miseratione succinctus maiora uiribus tanto munere fultus expediat. egregiam et singularem prophetae spectato uirtutem. alius enim humiliatus aerumnis posceret, ut circa eum temptamenta desinerent et sedare aduersa dominus dignaretur, ne tribulationum procella in eum saeuiret; iste autem tamquam athleta fortis et patiens, qui exerceri et ungi animam suam tribulationibus nosset, non tristia dimouere, non inpugnantia declinare desiderat, non illud omne desinere quod fatigationem et laborem adferret exposcit, sed maioris in tempore laboris sui aduersus temptationum procellas dari sibi uerbum consolationis exposcit, ut possit forti quae ingruunt mente tolerare, ne aliqua maestitiae perturbatione lassetur. in eo igitur obsecrat misericordiam dei, ne auxilio destitutus expediendi coeptam militiam derelinquat.

35. Denique adhortationis diuinae esse misericordiam euidens testimonium docet. Moysi enim dicit deus: miserebor cui misertus ero et misericordiam praestabo cui misericordiam praestitero. igitur non est uolentis neque currentis, sed miserentis dei.¹¹⁹ forte dicas: 'ergo non debemus uelle, currere? atqui neglegentes deus deserere consueuit'. non ergo hoc dicit, sed quid dicat consideremus. non uolentis neque currentis hominis perseuerantia est; non est in hominis potestate, sed miserentis dei est, ut possis complere quae coeperis. denique iterum Moysi dicit: quia in hoc ipsum te suscitaui, ut ostendam in te uirtutem meam.¹²⁰ colligitur ergo adhortationem diuinae misericordiae deputandam. unde sequitur: ergo cuius uult miseretur et quem uult obdurat.¹²¹ hunc miseratus hortatur, illum non reuocat exsecratus. et uere misericordia est dei nostrarum militia passionum, per quam nobis peccata minuuntur. denique Lazarus pauper, quia in hac uita tolerauit mala complurima, in gremio Abrahae requiem consolationis inuenit,¹²² ille autem diues, qui consolationem habuit in saeculo, post curricula uitae huius fructum quietis amisit; quem si miseratus esset deus, castigasset potius in hoc saeculo, ut postea non flagellaretur. denique Iob, licet grauiter flagellatus et quidem flagellis plurimis inopiae, amissionis filiorum, doloribus corporis, obprobriis amicorum, consolatione tamen fruitur aeterna.

36. Ergo quanto maiores tribulationes fuerint, tanto uberior consolatio reseruatur. et tamen, ne cadas atque succumbas, quanto maiores temptationes uideris, tanto magis roga uerbum dei, ut adhortationem tibi adferat, sicut rogauit et Paulus, qui ait: benedictus deus et pater domini nostri Iesu Christi, pater misericordiarum et deus omnis consolationis, qui nos exhortatur in omni angustia, ut possimus et ipsi consolari eos qui sunt in omni tribulatione per exhortationem qua et ipsi aduocamur a deo. quoniam sicut abundant passiones Christi in nobis, ita per Christum abundat etiam consolatio nostra.¹²³ tanta ui apostolicae petitionis rogat, ut consolationem accipiat a domino in omni tribulatione, quo non solum ipse induat tolerantiam, uerum etiam alios consoletur, ut et ipsi possint propriae mentis angustias sustinere. si igitur ipse in omni tribulatione idoneus fueris adprobatus, tunc demum dignus eris qui consolationem accipias in omni tribulatione. et tamen non omnis passio digna consolatione est, sed quae passio per Christum est, haec consolationem Christi meretur.

37. Pulchre autem addidit: secundum uerbum tuum seruo tuo.¹²⁴ ipse enim dominus pro suo nomine proeliantibus auxilium pollicetur dicens: cum ergo tradent uos, nolite cogitare quomodo aut quid loquamini; dabitur uobis in illa die quid loquamini; non enim uos estis qui loquimini, sed pater meus qui loquitur in uobis.¹²⁵ ergo, ne inpares simus certamini, diuinum semper oremus auxilium, ut nobis tribuat adhortationem; si enim habeamus eum qui nos exhortetur, non facile cedimus.

38. Plerique autem habent: qui consoletur nos, nec abhorret a uero. instigantis enim aliquem blanda quaedam est exhortatio, quae certantem studio laudis accendat et uelut quadam consolatione demulceat, ne laborum asperitate reuocetur.

39. Sequitur uersus quintus: ueniant mihi miserationes tuae et uiuam, quoniam lex tua meditatio mea est.¹²⁶ cui lex dei meditatio est, huic praesto sunt misericordiae, ut uiuat in aeternum. quomodo enim beatus quis potest esse sine miseratione diuina? beatus autem qui in lege domini die ac nocte meditatur.¹²⁷ sed qui meditatur in lege eruditur in lege et quem lex erudierit dominus erudiuit, qui locutus est legem, ideoque scriptum est: beatus quem tu erudieris, domine, et de lege tua docueris eum.¹²⁸ discamus ergo et nos in lege meditari, non auocemur saecularibus inlecebris, non occupemur inpedimentis, sed semper ad legem simus adtenti. scriptum est enim: os iusti meditabitur sapientiam et lingua eius loquetur iudicium.¹²⁹ hoc in ueteri testamento; audi dicentem et in nouo: prope est uerbum in ore tuo et in corde tuo.¹³⁰ et maxime hanc meditationem sacerdotibus necessariam ostendit ad Titum scribens, quia debet episcopus amplecti eum qui secundum doctrinam est fidelem sermonem, ut potens sit exhortari in doctrina sana et eos qui contradicunt arguere.¹³¹ quod utique sollicitae atque intentae meditationis est, non perfunctoriae lectionis. et ad Timotheum scribens ait: adtende lectioni, exhortationi, doctrinae.¹³² lectio enim frequens nec intermissione aliqua destituta doctrinae munus operatur.

40. Quod autem poscit ut uiuat, frequenter ostendimus huius corporis uitam uerae uitae gratiam non habere, sed illam ueram uitam fore, cuius bona unusquisque sanctorum credit se uidere in terra uiuentium.¹³³ quod credimus nos uisuros, non praesens utique, sed futurum est.

41. Sequitur uersus sextus: confundantur superbi, quoniam iniuste iniquitatem gesserunt in me; ego autem exercebor in praeceptis tuis.¹³⁴ superius ait idem propheta: si reddidi retribuentibus mihi mala,¹³⁵ numquid ille maledicit his qui in se iniqua gesserunt? non utique; uidebat enim caritatem etiam inimicissimis deferendam, cum uenisset euangelii praedicator. unde arbitror quia quasi medicus uelit eos ipsos sanare qui laeserint, ut iniquitatis suae contemplatione conuenti de propriis flagitiis erubescant, in quo non solum propheticam incipiunt probare patientiam, uerum etiam emendare insolentiam suam. pudor enim plerumque correctio est nostra et, dum incipit nos pudere commissi, ne diutius pudeat, deserere quae erubescenda sunt admonemur. non ergo maledicit propheta, sed quasi bonus medicus uult illos cognoscere quid fecerint, ut, cum in suam conscientiam receperint quanta suorum sit conluuies delictorum, incipiant erubescere, erubescentes autem possint prioribus renuntiare peccatis. considera mihi nunc aliquos fornicantes, inequitantes uiduis ac pupillis, aliena rapientes et in his non solum non erubescere, sed etiam gloriari solere, tamquam uel pulchritudinis uel potentiae suae titulos deferentes, de quibus bene dixit apostolus quod eorum gloria in confusione ipsorum,¹³⁶ eo detestabiliores ipsis criminibus suis, quod, cum tanta committant, non confundantur. uerum eorum si quis postea ueniat in ecclesiam, credat in dominum Iesum, audiat euangelium, conpungatur corde, tunc demum incipiet quam atrocia et grauia deliquerit agnoscere et in his quae agnouerit erubescere.

42. Quid sit autem exerceri in praeceptis domini nostri, quia dixit: ego autem exercebor in praeceptis tuis,¹³⁷ in lege didicisti, hoc est: si bos aduersarii ceciderit uel iumentum, ut non deserendum existimes, sed potius eleuandum.¹³⁸ quod autem ait: iniuste iniquitatem gesserunt,¹³⁹ in quem hoc dicatur considera nisi in eum, qui forte iuste iniquitatem gerat, id est: si laesus per legem se cupiat uindicare iuxta praecepta Moysi, iuste uidetur facere iniquitatem, sed non secundum euangelii praecepta. et ideo ait: non ueni uocare iustos, sed peccatores,¹⁴⁰ quia Iudaei ad uindicandum se auctoritate legis utuntur.

43. Habes hoc et in apostolo: sobrii estote et iuste.¹⁴¹ non solum sobrios nos, sed etiam iuste sobrios esse debere docuit euidenter. potest aliquis et sobrius esse et non iuste sobrius, ut sobrius sit a uino et non sit sobrius aequitate atque iustitia — est enim crapula iniquitatis —, potest et aliquis ebrietati et luxuriae semper indulgens, dum aliena tamen diripere conatur, eo occupatus studio sobrius esse a uino et non sobrius a rapinis; nec iste iuste sobrius. ideo apostolus admonet, ut sit in nobis iusta sobrietas. denique addidit: et nolite peccare.¹⁴² qui enim peccat, etsi sobrius sit, non potest tamen tamquam iuste sobrius praedicari, nolite, inquit, seduci — hoc est: ne alieni erroris ebrietas uos faciat temulentos —; corrumpunt bonos mores conloquia mala,¹⁴³ eo quod ore et labiis infidelium tamquam ebrietas quaedam moribus audientis infunditur. meritoque addidit: sobrii estote iuste et nolite peccare.¹⁴⁴ ignorantiam enim dei quidam habent,¹⁴⁵ ut sobrius ille sit, qui non habet ignorantiam dei nec titubat ebrietate perfidiae; iuste autem sobrius, in quo operum gratia cum fidei sobrietate resplendet.

44. Sequitur uersus septimus: conuertantur ad me qui timent te et qui sciunt testimonia tua.¹⁴⁶ alius habet maxime iuxta Graecum: conuertantur mihi. si 'ad me' legimus, conuertantur qui timent deum, de commissis propriis erubescant uel certe luant supplicia delictorum, conuertantur autem ad dei seruulum propheticamque doctrinam, ut dediscant pudenda committere et tanti emendatione doctoris exuant mores suos delictorumque labe detersa uirtutum induant disciplinam. si autem ita legimus: conuertantur mihi, hoc est: quoniam exercebor in praeceptis tuis, [ut] mihi conuertantur, mihi iam non peccanti, iam non erranti. conuertantur, inquit, qui timentes te propriis renuntiauere peccatis, ut consortio iustorum propheta ad uberius prouehatur et ipse de ea gratia, quae in ipso est, plurimum conferat audientibus. conuertantur igitur iam non peccante me iusti ad iustum. de testimoniis autem puto iam non opus esse repetere, cum ante iam dictum sit.

45. Sequitur uersus octauus: fiat cor meum inmaculatum in iustificationibus tuis, ut non confundar.¹⁴⁷ quanto excelsior est propheta uel munere prophetiae uel regni gratia, tanto magis sequitur humilitatem et docet quid nos debeamus imitari, eo quod propheta tantus inmaculatum cor fieri sibi deposcit. supra postulauit: cor mundum crea in me, deus.¹⁴⁸ non dixit 'fac', sed 'crea', ut de integro cor eius instauret et mundet, maior quidam in hoc sermone ambitus est; grande enim cor est a domino creatum, quod recipiat uerbum de caelestibus uirtutibus ac potestatibus, grande cor, quod recipiat ipsum dominum dicentem: inhabitabo in illis et deambulabo in ipsis.¹⁴⁹ ut haec igitur recipiat, creatorem sibi cordis sui non angelum fieri, sed ipsum dominum deprecatur, qui caelum creauit et terram.

46. Et bene ait 'inmaculatum', quia cor hominis ueluti indecentium cogitationum conluuione maculatur. si cogitatio ipsa polluit, quanto etiam facta ipsa contaminant! noli extraordinariis cogitationibus contaminare penetralia, ne id inquinamento graui polluas quod putas habere te mundum. manus lauas, quasi possis crimen eluere, cum mentem tuam inmundis cogitationibus inquinatam lauare non possis. et Pilatus manus lauit,¹⁵⁰ sed cor suum lauare non potuit; mansit scelere pollutus, quamuis manus suas aquae infusione lauisset. audi, quia et cogitatio inquinat: non quod intrat in os coinquinat hominem, sed quod exit de ore. de corde enim exeunt cogitationes malae, homicidia, adulteria, fornicationes, furta, falsa testimonia, blasphemiae. haec sunt quae coinquinant hominem.¹⁵¹ si ergo intus coinquinaris, munda prius quod intus est. si quod intus est mundaueris, et exteriora mundasti,¹⁵² ut si aqua turbidum fluat frustra lacum putes esse mundandum, si fons profluat caenulentus; receptacula enim tersisse nihil proderit, cum in fonte sit uitium. ipse tibi ante purgandus es, ut fluat omne quod purum est. cor tuum cogitationum tuarum est scaturrigo. in illo fonte uel turbida aqua inpuritatis euomitur uel sincera pietatis unda prorumpit.

47. Didicisti cor esse mundandum; disce quemadmodum mundes. mundat hunc fontem iustificatio legitima, hoc est confessio peccatorum. denique publicanus ille, qui peccata propria fatebatur, iustificatus magis de templo quam Pharisaeus exiuit, quia ieiunia sua et munera Pharisaeus atque innocentiam praeferebat.¹⁵³ munda ergo aquam tuam, illam aquam de qua dictum est: aqua alta consilium in corde uiri.¹⁵⁴ bonam tibi aquam natura dedit, nisi eam caeno tuo polluas; ipsa te diluit, si pura, si simplex, si etiam naturalis sit, si nihil habeat sordidum atque terrenum. quid mali est, si ea polluat aqua quae mundare debeat! sed non est aqua tua quae te polluit, ista aqua aliena est. denique dictum est tibi: ab aqua aliena abstine te.¹⁵⁵ aliena aqua mentitur et fallit et contrarium naturae profluit. ideo ait: filii alieni mentiti sunt mihi;¹⁵⁶ nam si alieni non fuissent, utique non fefellissent. nemo ergo glorietur castum se habere cor, quemadmodum Salomon dixit,¹⁵⁷ sed qui gloriatur in domino glorietur,¹⁵⁸ qui sanctis suis cor mundum creare dignatus est et inmaculatum facere iustificationibus suis. quae sint iustificationes, audisti dicentem: dic iniquitates tuas, ut iustificeris.¹⁵⁹ ergo qui iniquitates dicit iustificatur, qui autem iustificatur non confunditur, quia pudorem peccatorum matura confessione praeuenit.

1. The tenth letter among the Hebrews begins, Ioth, which in Latin signification is called confession, or assuredly desolation. Nor does the interpretation seem discordant or out of tune, since they who have been desolated do the more quickly confess. For the mind tends rather to be lifted up by prosperity; but when it is hard pressed by adversity, then it implores divine help. For we recognize that this is the way also in human affairs: he to whom prosperity falls is the more elevated in spirit; he to whom the powers of this world are hostile and another's might is set against him, then takes refuge, then seeks aid — that he may either by entreaty soften the power of one greater than himself, or arm himself with combined strength, lest as the inferior he be overborne by mightier forces.

2. And so Jeremiah, under this letter, says: He that troubles her hath stretched out his hand to all her desirable things; for she hath seen the Gentiles enter into her sanctuary, of whom thou gavest commandment that they should not enter into thy church.¹ The prophet says this surely of Jerusalem, whose calamity he laments, whose desolation and destitution went before, that confession might afterward follow; for the Lord chastises every son whom he receives.² Therefore, being about to receive Jerusalem back, he scourged her with the calamities of captivity. For she had grown immoderately insolent, and with inflated heart had vaunted herself, so that she could not hold the Head³, the Lord Jesus — that is, she would not hold the magisterium of true faith, namely humility, grace, justice, wisdom. And therefore the Lord chastised her, who, the moderator of all things, knows how to chastise each. For as the physician is wont to cure heavier wounds with sharper medicines, lighter ones with lighter, so also our God chastises heavier sins with greater severity; but that very chastisement profits unto salvation, for the Lord said: I will strike, and I will heal.⁴

3. And so Jeremiah the prophet began to promise hope concerning Jerusalem; for in the verses that follow, under this letter, he says: He shall give his cheek to him that strikes him, and shall be filled with reproaches. He shall give his mouth to the dust, if so be there is hope of patience.⁵ In the Gospel the Lord Jesus, teaching the virtue and emblem of patience, says: To him that strikes thee on the cheek, offer also the other⁶; for he wills his disciples to be patient under injuries, not to strike back easily, much less to strike first; for patience is the token of humility. And therefore, since Jerusalem was desolate and destitute: He shall give, he says, his cheek to him that strikes⁷, that he should not withdraw himself from injury, nor decline the pain of the blow, but offer his cheek to him who strikes. Both senses can be understood: either to him who is just beginning to strike, or to him who has already struck — that the gospel saying may be fulfilled: To him that strikes thee on the cheek, offer also the other.⁸ And this was set down prophetically, that he might teach Jerusalem — that is, the church drawn from the Jewish people — that she could not otherwise be saved than through the discipline of the gospel; so that, when she shall have begun to keep the precepts of the gospel and to fulfil the command of the Lord Jesus by works, then she shall lay aside the yoke of captivity from the neck of her soul, having submitted herself to the yoke of Christ.

4. And he shall be filled, he says, with reproaches.⁹ He did not say, 'He shall undergo a reproach' — for it is easy to bear one or two affronts; he added, He shall be filled with reproaches, that, miserable through the deformity of many reproaches, he may the more easily move the Lord's mercy. This you may indeed understand from the Book of Kings. For when Shimei son of Gera reviled holy David, calling him a man of blood, and cursed him as he was fleeing his son Absalom, avoiding for a time the parricidal war, the king kept silence and gave the highest token of patience. For when he understood that this was the time of his testing — that a parricidal battle was being roused against him — he wished to seem the more humble, that he might mitigate the Lord's offense, rather than judge that the Lord's verdict in his trial should be aggravated, if perchance he should set out to avenge his own wrongs. Whence to Abishai, the leader of the people who desired to take revenge, he says: What have I to do with thee, son of Zeruiah? Therefore he curses me, because the Lord hath bidden him curse me. Behold, my son, who came forth from my womb, seeketh my soul: how much more now this Benjamite? Let him alone, that he may curse, because the Lord hath bidden him; if so be the Lord may look on my humility, and may render to me good for this cursing.¹⁰ This he said both with prophetic spirit and proved by the outcome; for when humility has been filled up, sin is loosed. Indeed in the book of Isaiah also you have, that the Lord says: Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem, comfort her, for her humiliation is filled up; her sin is forgiven, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for her sins.¹¹ You see therefore that where there is desolation, there is humility; for desolation is followed in just order by humility, humility by patience, patience by probation, probation by consolation. This too you have written in the Apostle, that tribulation worketh patience, and patience trial, and trial hope; and hope confoundeth not, because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit¹², who indeed is the consoler of our affections.

5. And as for what he says, He shall give his mouth to the dust¹³, he shows a certain taciturnity beyond the measure of patience: that he should as it were bury his own mouth, lest it speak, and obstruct it as if with a certain mound of virtues, that it should not utter the voice of pain — claiming so great a weight of patience, which hope warms, that he may bury and shut up the very voice of his pain as in a sepulchre and tomb, which no injury can wrench out, none even rouse. The interpretation of this letter we have unfolded as best we could; let us come to the psalm.

6. And so the first verse is: Thy hands have made me and formed me; give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.¹⁴ He used a great commendatory exordium, that he might call himself the work of God, the more easily that the favor of the author might incline toward the grace of his work. For it is a great prerogative even in human affairs that one should favor his own works and benefits, and not look to another's merit, but bend his attention to the office of his own grace, lest he seem to abrogate what he himself has bestowed. And so even though the substance of our body is from clay, and we are clothed with flesh, and the body is woven together with bones and sinews, nevertheless that we are God's most precious work no one will doubt. For if anyone wish to consider the very fabric of the human body, he will be able to judge nothing on earth more precious. For man is lofty in stature, comely of face, gracious in his head of hair, not bent over upon the belly after the manner of other living creatures, but by the very right of nature sublime, who looks toward heaven with free gaze, pressed down to the earth by no servitude of an enslaved neck, but as conscious of his own liberty and a wealthy witness to his Author.

7. Yet in the other living creatures the form of the limbs is praised, in which beyond the gracefulness of the body there is nothing else to be sought. Man is the more beautiful in that which is not seen, not in the body which is seen, having within himself the grace of eternity and the loveliness of present things — for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal¹⁵ — clothed in this earthly lodging with a heavenly habitation, to whom it is at once fitting both to be seen on earth and to be joined to God. A great gift indeed, if he know himself, and a certain form of justice, to be born for the world rather than for himself. Whence Solomon also says: A great thing is man, and a precious thing a merciful man; but a faithful man, who shall find?¹⁶ And truly great is he who is both the interpreter of the divine work and the imitator of God. For man it is who could say: Be ye imitators of me, as I also of Christ.¹⁷ He tills the earth, uses the sea as a possession, gazes in gratitude upon the ornaments of heaven as their adoring beholder. The nature of things would have come to nothing, had not he, who would use them with divine providence, been added.

8. Indeed, after God made heaven and earth and the seas, after all reptiles, flying things, living creatures, afterward he made man, whom he should set above the living creatures — concerning whom not without reason the heavenly utterance rang forth: Let us make man to our image and likeness.¹⁸ The rest he spoke and they were made, he commanded and they were created¹⁹; that man might be made, a certain special exhortation of God comes in, that the working of God, as if laboring in the office of this creature, might be signified. God indeed is without labor; but yet what else do the words of Scripture show, if not his diligent operation upon you? If, then, God created you with a certain greater diligence, why should you abandon diligence in yourself? If God labored over you who knows not how to labor, why should you, fleeing labor, be slothful?

9. Thy hands, he says, have made me and formed me.²⁰ The prophet cries out to God: thy work, O Lord, do not desert, do not abandon. Thee, the author, I approach; thee, the founder, I hold fast; alien defenses I do not seek. Gird thyself for help, who wast girded that thou mightest create. Say thou thyself, David, what thou didst feel, why thou saidst, Thy hands have made me.²¹ Yet thou hast said below: The Lord will recompense for me; thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever; despise not the works of thy hands.²² This is to say: thy hands did not make the beasts, but thou didst say, Let the waters bring forth the creeping creatures of living souls²³, and the earth brought forth quadrupeds and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kinds; but me, he says, didst thou make, me with thine own hands didst thou shape — that is, thou didst not shape the beasts with thy hands, not the creeping things, not the flying creatures; but me thy hands have made and formed.²⁴

10. No mean work is that which has been prepared, when each is disposed and prepared by Wisdom. Wisdom indeed says: When he prepared the heavens, I was with him.²⁵ What the same prophet says of human beings: The voice of the Lord preparing the harts.²⁶ What is the voice of the Lord, except Let us make man?²⁷ Who are these harts, except the enemies of serpents²⁸, who walk over asps and feel not their venom? Not vile, then, not corporeal do I judge that which God has prepared. Know thyself, O man; to thy soul it is said in the Canticles: Unless thou know thyself, fair one among women.²⁹ Know thyself, soul, that thou art not of earth, not of clay, that God breathed thee in and made thee a living soul.³⁰ Thou art a magnificent work, inspired by God's begetting. Take heed to thyself³¹, as the Law says; that is, 'to thyself' — that is, to thy soul. Let not secular and worldly things hold thee, let not earthly things detain thee. With all thy intent hasten to him from whose inbreathing thou subsistest. A great thing, he says, is man, and a precious thing a merciful man; but a faithful man, who shall find?³² Learn, O man, wherein thou art great and precious. The earth shows thee vile, but virtue makes thee glorious, faith rare, the image precious. Or is anything so precious as the image of God, which ought first to infuse faith in thee, that in thy heart there might shine forth a certain effigy of the Author, lest he, who searches thy mind, should not recognize the Author? Or is anything so precious as humility, that, considering the nature of body and soul, thou shouldest be subject in the one and acknowledge thyself in the other?³³ The fleshly enticement, prone to vice, persuades to mercy, because what thou bestowest on another thou loosest unto thyself; whatever proceeds from thee returns to thee, and whatever thou doest thou loosest to thyself, and whatever thou profitest, thou profitest unto thyself.

11. Of the living soul, the vigor, the sense capable of reason and understanding and judgment, that the dwelling may seem worthy of so great an inhabitant — let it not lose the prerogative of its nature, lest it lose the name of man. For Scripture calls him man, who is according to the image and likeness of God³⁴; but the sinner she is wont to call not a man, but either a serpent, or a horse neighing after females³⁵, or a little fox, or a beast of burden. Be ye not as the horse and the mule, who have no understanding; with bit and bridle bind fast their jaws, who come not near to thee³⁶; and Tell that fox³⁷ he says of Herod; generation of vipers³⁸ is the multitude of men called by John. A great work of God therefore art thou, O man; a great thing is what God has given thee. See lest thou lose what God has bestowed — that great gift, that thou art unto the image of God — and lest in thee this be the more punished. For God does not punish his own likeness, but he punishes him, who having been made unto the likeness of God, has not been able to keep what he received. What is punished therefore is that which has ceased to be unto the likeness of God: that is, thy sin. For God does not condemn his own image, nor does he send it into that eternal fire³⁹, but rather he avenges his image upon him who has done that image injury — so that, by malice, what thou wast thou shouldest cease to be, and shouldest become a mule out of a man. The image, then, is avenged, not condemned; avenged as one expelled, not condemned as one guilty. For after thou hast sinned, thou hast begun to be something else; what thou wast, thou hast ceased to be. How then is that punished in thee, which is not found in thee? For if the image and likeness of God be found in thee, thou beginnest to be worthy not of punishment, but of reward. Thus that image, in respect of which thou wast made unto the image and likeness of God, is not condemned, but crowned. But thou art condemned in this, that thou thyself hast been changed, that thou shouldest become out of a man a serpent, mule, horse, fox. By these names indeed Scripture has now condemned us, because, stripped of the ornament of the heavenly image, we lose even the name of man, who do not retain the grace of man.

12. In some codices, however, we find: Thy hands have made me and formed me.⁴⁰ Nor is this foreign, since Job also said: Thy hands have formed me and made me.⁴¹ Whence here also it is said, that God may remember that we are dust⁴², and may pour in the gift of more abundant grace, nor desert his weak work. The pilot expends more labor on the wave-tossed ship than when he glides with favorable oarage on the wave, and the gusts of winds carry him on with the topsail running ahead.

13. Thy hands, he says, have formed me.⁴³ He says 'hands' in the plural, not 'hand'. But elsewhere he says: I with my hand established the heavens⁴⁴; and, My hand made these things.⁴⁵ In the constitution of man, it appears that what was sufficient for the whole world to be made was not lavish enough. The heavens one hand made firm, as it is written; and both hands of God shaped man, as we read. The heavens, not unto a likeness; man, unto a likeness; for angels are unto ministry, man unto an image.

14. Granted that angels too are unto an image; Scripture nevertheless has spoken of man, that he is unto an image. For we have something which the angels perhaps do not have; for where sin abounded, grace did more abound.⁴⁶ For us Christ was born of a virgin; for we read: A child is born to us, a son is given to us.⁴⁷ For us he took on flesh — nay rather, us in that flesh he took up, in that he set the Son of man on the throne of God. I do not read that the angels are on the throne of God except as standing, except as bringing their ministry⁴⁸; I do not read of angels, but of men buried with Christ and in Christ raised again.⁴⁹ Indeed the Apostle says: He hath quickened us together in Christ — by whose grace ye are saved — and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.⁵⁰ The Son of man, then, sits at the right hand of God⁵¹, not an angel, not an archangel, nor Cherubim and Seraphim. They give praise; the Son of man sits. The Son of man is praised by the mouths of angels, because he has overcome the evil angels⁵², because he has triumphed over the spiritual wickednesses which are in the heavenly places, because he has made men like to angels, in whom before were the contagions of the dead.

15. By the word, he says, of the Lord the heavens were established, and all their virtue by the breath of his mouth.⁵³ Man also received from the Spirit of the Lord the perfection of life and the consummation of virtue. God breathed into him the spirit of life, and man was made into a living soul.⁵⁴ Our life therefore began from the divine inbreathing; but this life is dissolved by the parting of soul and body⁵⁵, the divine inbreathing, however, is not dissolved. And therefore understand that what was fashioned is one thing, what was made or prepared another; and you have it deservedly written of man twofold. For first it is written: Let us make man to our image and likeness⁵⁶, and They shall have dominion, he says, or shall hold rule⁵⁷, and God made man unto the image of God.⁵⁸ But in the second place it is so written, that God took dust from the earth and fashioned man.⁵⁹ Where there is dust, there is fashioning; but where there is no dust, there is no earth, no matter, but the incorporeal, the admirable; there is no matter, but the immaterial. For that which is according to the image is not in body, nor in matter, but in the rational soul. There it works, there is shown that man is unto the likeness and image of God, where the form of justice, of wisdom, of every virtue is taken on.

16. If you understand the image, you will see unto the image; for man is not the image of God, but he has been made unto the likeness. Another is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, by whom all things were made.⁶⁰ He is not unto the image, but the image; you are not the image, but unto the image. You have therefore in your substance something of the image and likeness of God, which is similar to the divine image. For this reason the image came to him who is unto the image, and the image seeks him who is unto its likeness, that it may seal him again, that it may conform him again, because thou hast lost what thou didst receive. For God had breathed into thee⁶¹, that by the gift of his inspiration thou mightest have the grace which thy fault had taken from thee. Thou hadst been made into a living soul; hear what he says: not into flesh, but into a living soul. But because the sinner could not keep the seal, and being placed in crime did not have the things that are of God, but the things that are of men⁶², therefore came our Lord Jesus Christ, as you have read in the Gospel, and rising from the dead, when he had found his disciples shut in, with the bolts still in place he entered and said: Peace be to you; as the Father hath sent me, I also send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them and said: Receive ye the Holy Spirit.⁶³

17. Do you see therefore what hands made man, or what kind of man they made? That one, surely, whom we put on according to Christ, putting off the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new, who is renewed unto knowledge, according to the image of him that created him, where there is neither bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all.⁶⁴ We have therefore put on Christ, as also it has been said elsewhere: Ye have put on Christ.⁶⁵ We have received the Holy Spirit, who not only forgives our sins, but also makes us his priests to forgive sins to others. Therefore the prophet says: Thou hast formed me, and laid thy hand upon me.⁶⁶ He formed by the clay, he laid on by the spiritual grace — although many take this psalm as spoken in the person of the Saviour. Hear, that the hand of the Lord is also called the Spirit. Job cries out: The divine Spirit, who made me.⁶⁷ These therefore are the hands which prepared man, Christ and the Spirit. Therefore the Lord Jesus is also the author of our body, who first made man unto the image, and afterwards fashioned him from the clay, and willed to preserve what he had made, to save what he had fashioned, that he might make the whole man saved — as he himself said in the Gospel: Are ye angry with me, because I have made the whole man whole on the sabbath?⁶⁸ Which the church specifically teaches, that not only the soul but also our flesh is preserved — the soul through the knowledge of God, the flesh through the resurrection. Of which he taught the one by the authority of the divine word, the other by the example of his own resurrection.

18. So therefore man is of a twofold substance; for one is the substance of him as made, another of him as fashioned: the latter from the spirit of God, the former from the slime. So Job says: He shall raise up my skin⁶⁹, because what is from the slime is raised up — for earth returns to earth⁷⁰ — but what was made, that he might have rule over the other living creatures, that you understand to be more excellent. For the slime we share even with the beasts in common; and therefore a special prerogative was given to man — that is, the soul by which he commands the other living creatures. But that he may be able to command, he must be subject to God. He is taught therefore to serve, that he may merit to come to the kingdom; for he who serves Christ pleases God. He who serves Christ surely pleases the truth, and ought not to know lying; he who serves justice ought to repel iniquity; he who serves the immaculate ought to keep the discipline of chastity; he who serves the light ought to hate the darkness of sins. Therefore, because the body is weak, let us beg the Lord's visitation; whence the prophet says: What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?⁷¹

19. And now in the remaining portion of the verse he says: Give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments.⁷² Knowing himself therefore to be spiritual, the prophet asks the grace of the Holy Spirit. For that understanding is given by the Lord, and is set in the first place among the gifts of graces, you have learned in the apostolic reading, that to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit unto profit⁷³; and in the prophet, in the first place, the grace of wisdom and spiritual understanding⁷⁴ is asked. It is therefore asked as God's gift. Then notice the order: Give me, he says, understanding, that I may learn thy commandments. Understanding is sent forth first, that knowledge may follow; for unless one has understood, he will not be able to be taught. Understanding therefore makes doctrine, not memory; for it profits nothing to have read many things, unless you yourself understand what you have read. And in the Apostle, after the manifestation of the Spirit, you have read that the word of knowledge⁷⁵ is set after — that you may know that understanding is to be preferred to memory, and that he can have knowledge for whom understanding has first shone forth.

20. Consider also the humility. If the prophet asks that understanding be given him, who is so arrogant as to profess that intelligence is in his own power? He asks for understanding, that he may know himself, and may know the reason of his own nature. But those who dispute about the nature of things, who scrutinize the regions of heaven — they who cannot know themselves — think that intelligence can be granted without God's gift. Whence we also ought to take on humility, lest we be exalted, if perchance we have come to know some one parable of the Scriptures, or, because at times we read things plain according to the letter, if perchance we have understood something according to the letter, we should presume the knowledge of doctrine to ourselves. The prophet who received the Holy Spirit, after he had been anointed king, was anointed prophet⁷⁶; while writing the hundred-and-eighteenth psalm, he begs that understanding be given him, that he may understand God's commandments, and he knows that, unless he receive grace from the Lord, he cannot understand his commandments. In the gospel also I read, that the Lord Jesus put forth parables, and the apostles did not understand; whence they begged the explanation of the parable that had been put forth.⁷⁷

21. When the Lord Jesus himself, as you have read in the book of the Gospel according to Matthew, said: Blessed are the poor in spirit⁷⁸, he subjoined in what follows: Every one that hears these my words and does them shall be likened to a wise man.⁷⁹ Therefore not he who only hears shall be likened, but he who does what he has heard. Therefore neither the deed without hearing nor the hearing without the deed can be that of a wise man, but he who hears and does. Let us hear, then, that we may understand; let us do, that we may prove that we have understood what we have heard.

22. There follows the second verse: They that fear thee shall see me and shall be glad, because I have hoped exceedingly in thy words.⁸⁰ Perhaps to some this may seem contrary, that the just man says: They that fear thee shall see me and shall be glad; for to many a just man is grievous when he is seen. Indeed in the Gospel many could not see the Lord Jesus — as the Gerasenes asked him to depart from their borders⁸¹, and others denied him passage, when at any rate he did not wish to pass through them.⁸² Whence I think that, just as there the form of Jewish impiety is expressed, so here the grace of the church is revealed. For he prophesies that the whole world is to be filled with divine fear, and therefore he says that those, as it were fearing God, are made glad by the knowledge of the saints; for he who sees a just man and rejoices, himself also wishes to be just. For it is beautiful that one delight in others in that which he himself wishes to keep in himself, if he can. For it is implanted in the good, that the chaste love the chaste with pious affection, the wise love the prudent, the merciful the liberal, and that they should love their virtues in others. For to many the sight of a just man is an admonition of correction, but to the more perfect it is gladness. How beautiful, then, that you should be seen and profit! Good therefore is the just man.

23. For this reason the apostle Paul went up to Jerusalem⁸³, to see the just, and remained with Peter for fifteen days⁸⁴, that he might profit something from his cohabitation. For this reason Paul himself and Barnabas, when they came to Jerusalem, were magnificently received by the church, by the apostles and the elders⁸⁵; and when they wished to depart, they were besought not to go, and, as we afterward read of Paul, he was led out with tears.⁸⁶ For if there is so great a power in natural things, that an animal seen profits the jaundiced — so that the horn of even a dead specimen of that creature is said to do good, if it be shown to those who have fallen into such a malady⁸⁷ — can we doubt that the look of a just man heals? Therefore if a vile irrational animal has so great power, that it can heal a man in a brief moment in which it is seen — can a just man, if at least he be looked upon with faith by one who desires to take advantage from him, confer nothing? Do not even the rays of his eyes seem to pour in a certain virtue upon those who faithfully desire to see him?

24. But just as the just man gladdens the heart of the innocent when he is seen, so the wicked are tortured by the recognition of the just, because they are reproved even by the silent characters of the saints. Chastity tortures incontinence, liberality avarice, faith impiety. Of this also let us take a parallel example from a vile creature. For just as we have said the dumb animal profits when it is seen, so we perceive the wolf to harm, if he should anticipate someone by seeing him⁸⁸; for those whom the wolf has seen first are said to lose their voice. The basilisk also — that is, the noxious serpent — if it should see any animal first, is said to kill it; and one is reported to be slain at once who could be seen first by such a serpent.⁸⁹ But that serpent itself is said to die, if it be anticipated by a man's gaze. Therefore if there is so great a virtue either in the eyes of a serpent or in the eyes of a man, that, if either should see the other first, he can kill — is there no virtue in the eyes of a just man, who is filled with the grace of virtue, when especially faith works such things, that even she who touched the hem of the Lord was healed⁹⁰, and he upon whom the Lord Jesus turned drew at once from his eyes the grace of healing?⁹¹

25. But he who sees the just man ought to know what he sees. He does not see him in his body, not in his clothing, not in his patrimony, not in his face, but he sees within. He does not, I say, see him unless he have seen his mind, unless he have attended to his speech, unless he have been able to grasp his sense, to take wisdom from his discourse. Then therefore will he be glad, when he has perceived these things, when he has come to know these things. Thus, then, we also, wherever we hear of a just man, let us hasten to see him — like that woman who heard that the Lord Jesus was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, and entered, and bathed his feet with ointment.⁹² Let us be imitators of her; for who would doubt that in that woman the church is figured? Wherever, then, a just man is seated, wherever he reclines, let us hasten to see him. It is precious to see a just man, that you may see according to the image of God.⁹³ What is outside profits nothing; what is within heals. Yet even in him who is outside, we often look upon him who is within, that, if we have seen a poor man, we may honor in the poor man him to whose likeness he was made — of whom he says: You have given me to eat, because what you have given to one of these you have given to me.⁹⁴ For he who crowns the image of the emperor surely honors him whose image he has crowned, and he who has despised the emperor's statue is plainly seen to have done injury to the emperor whose statue he has spat upon. The pagans worship wood, because they think it the image of God; but the image of the invisible God is not in that which is seen, but surely in that which is not seen.⁹⁵

26. You see therefore that we walk among many images of Christ. Let us beware lest we seem to take away the crown from the image, which Christ has set upon each. Let us beware lest we take anything away from those whom we ought to gather to ourselves. But, what is worse, not only do we not honor the poor, but we even dishonor, destroy, persecute them; and we are unaware that we heap up these injuries against the image of God, when we judge that those made unto God's image are to be hurt; for he that mocks the poor exasperates him who made him.⁹⁶ But he will be present, who shall say: I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me not to drink; I was sick, and you visited me not.⁹⁷ And how much lighter these are than if he should say: 'You have done me injuries, you have stripped me, you have beaten me'! And if anyone shall ask him: 'When did we do thee injuries, when did we strip, when did we even beat thee?', he shall say: Insomuch as you did it to one of these least, you did it to me.⁹⁸ Therefore let us beware all the more diligently, lest we inflict insult upon any one even of the least, lest we ourselves be seen to have been contumelious to the Lord himself in those least ones.

27. Why, however, he said, They that fear thee shall see me and shall be glad⁹⁹, he himself has set forth, saying: Because I have hoped exceedingly in thy words.¹⁰⁰ This is to say: within they have seen me, within they have touched me, within they have looked upon me, where I have taken up hope from thy words, where I have received thy words. Blessed therefore are they who both see the just and rejoice, because they hope in the words of God. But how many are there who hate the just, because the just search out the words of God; and when they hear some learned men, the impious are wont to avoid them on account of their teaching!

28. There follows the third verse: I have known, O Lord, that thy judgments are justice, and in thy truth thou hast humbled me.¹⁰¹ He who can understand what belongs to divine providence uses that speech which holy David the prophet used, that all things come about by God's judgment: that one has a sick body, another a healthy one; that one is rich, another poor; that one die young or old. If anyone attend to the divine Scriptures, he understands these things to be done by God's judgment; for nothing is outside God's knowledge. Do we look for an example? It is not hidden, since Job would never have lost his own resources, had he not been handed over to the adverse power. For the Lord gave the devil power over his goods¹⁰², that he might be tested, what manner of mind he would have when his patrimony was lost. He gave power over his sons, gave power over his body, that he might be tried — that the soul should not, by the pain of his children's death or by the torture of the body, fail from the constancy of mind. The Lord indeed knew the strong man, but in him he willed to teach and to examine us, whether we could be his imitators. So too he tempted Abraham, when he asked of the old man his only son to be sacrificed.¹⁰³ He surely knew Abraham's mind, but the Lord, knowing, tempts — as you have read in the gospel, that, when the Lord Jesus had asked the disciples how many loaves they had, and they had answered that they had only five, he himself says: What shall we do, he says, among so many men? But this he said tempting them; for he himself knew what he was about to do.¹⁰⁴ He, then, who is just, trusts in the testing of his own justice, because the judgments of God are just¹⁰⁵, or according to the Greek, because the judgments of God are themselves justice.

29. But that he might know this, the prayer sent before brought it about, since he asked that understanding be given him, that he might learn the commandments of God.¹⁰⁶ The grace of understanding and knowledge therefore was received; he came to know that the judgments of God are just. But to recognize is the part of the perfect. So one thing is to believe, another to recognize: faith belongs to him that fears, recognition to him that is wise. For he who fears does not seek out the reason; but the wise man investigates the recognition of those things which he desires to perceive. I have believed, he says, therefore have I spoken¹⁰⁷; but, understanding, he came to know what he had spoken.

30. Wherein, then, are the judgments of God just? Because through labors and tribulations and afflictions one comes to the heavenly reward. For just as a crown is conferred on contending athletes by the just judgment of men, so to Christians lawfully contending¹⁰⁸ the palm is decreed by divine judgment. To him that overcomes, he says, I will give to sit with me on my throne.¹⁰⁹ Our life therefore is examined by fire, as the sheen of silver¹¹⁰, that virtue may be approved by contests. We have passed, he says, through fire and water, and thou hast brought us out into a refreshment.¹¹¹ Through these things, then, I have come to know that thy judgments are true.¹¹² For I have been humbled, that I might see these things; because they who are exalted of heart cannot open their eyes to the truth. But when we are humbled, we know our sins, and by that very humility purge our offenses. I have been humbled, he says, and he saved me.¹¹³ In truth, then, was he humbled who has been humbled unto salvation; nor did he bear his passion in vain, who followed the salvation of truth.

31. There is a difference, then, between knowing and fearing — that we may return to that point. The Gospel reading should teach us; for the Lord says to those who believed in him from among the Jews: If you remain in my word, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.¹¹⁴ If you remain, he says, you shall know. You see that one cannot from the start come to know just because he, fearing God, has heard his word. Yet not only is fear not the same as recognition, but neither is faith the same as recognition, since the Apostle also has taught that the gifts of graces are diverse. For to one, he says, is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith in the same Spirit.¹¹⁵ If, then, to one faith is given, to another knowledge — you see that, where there is faith, there is not at once knowledge; but where there is knowledge, there is both faith and prudence, nor can we separate diligence from it.

32. Holy David therefore had knowledge, as a perfect prophet — since he so perfectly knew, that he was humbled in the very truth. Whether, then, placed in adversity, he came to know, by the grace of trial, that laborious and adverse things are to be borne, but the judgment of God is just, and that those who contend well are never deserted or abandoned, and that the crown can be conferred on these after their labors; or whether, placed in second and prosperous things, he came to know that even riches and various successes are wont to attend the cause of testing, that he who uses them is tested in the prosperity of things. In this, then, the prophet David is to be praised, that, while he came to know these things, he was humbled, that by his humility he might either shut out the temptations of prosperity, or undergo with constant equanimity the endurance of adversity.

33. The prophet, therefore, would not be greatly praiseworthy, if, employing an abundance of prosperity, he should praise God's judgments. For what great thing do we do if, when we are in prosperous things, we praise God; when we are in riches, when we are afflicted by no injuries? That is the magnificent thing, if, subjected to insults, you praise God's judgment; if, harassed by sickness, you proclaim God's judgments; if poverty does not call you back from praising God's justice. Therefore God's judgments are always to be praised, as it is written: The daughters of Judah have rejoiced because of thy judgments.¹¹⁶ What are the daughters of Judah, except religious souls, the souls of the church which confess Jesus Christ as Lord, who, seeing the reason of thy judgments, always rejoice? For he who puts on gladness not from any prosperous outcome, but from the recognition of the reason, is established in nothing other than perpetual exultation.

34. There follows the fourth verse: Let now thy mercy be, that it may exhort me according to thy word to thy servant.¹¹⁷ Some have in this place: that it may console me. But also in the Apostle we read 'exhortation' for 'consolation' and 'consolation' for 'exhortation'.¹¹⁸ Great, then, is the mercy of God, which not only grants the remission of sins, but also applies to those contending the spurs of exhortation, lest, with unwarlike fear, they abandon the passions of the contest they have undertaken. Not as one who, conquered, gives way; nor as a sinner imploring pardon; but as one girded by God's compassion, supported by so great a gift, that he may dispatch things greater than his strength. Behold the singular and outstanding virtue of the prophet. For another, humbled by his calamities, would beg that the temptations around him should cease, and that the Lord would deign to still adversities, lest the storm of tribulations rage against him. But this man, like a strong and patient athlete, who knew that his soul was being exercised and anointed by tribulations — he does not desire to remove sad things, not to decline things assailing him; nor does he ask that all that brings on weariness and labor should cease, but he asks that, in the time of his greater labor against the storms of temptations, the word of consolation be given him, that he may bear with strong mind the things that press in, lest he be wearied by any disturbance of sadness. In this, then, he begs God's mercy, that he be not, deprived of help, abandoned to forsake the warfare he has begun.

35. Indeed, that mercy is a clear testimony of divine exhortation, he teaches. For God says to Moses: I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. Therefore it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.¹¹⁹ Perhaps you may say: 'Then ought we not to will, to run? But God is wont to desert the negligent.' He does not therefore say this; but let us consider what he does say. The perseverance is not of him that wills nor of him that runs; it is not in man's power, but is of God showing mercy, that you may be able to fulfil what you have begun. Indeed again to Moses he says: I have raised thee up to this very purpose, that I may show in thee my power.¹²⁰ It is gathered, then, that exhortation is to be ascribed to divine mercy. Whence it follows: Therefore he hath mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens.¹²¹ On him having mercy he exhorts, the other, having execrated, he does not call back. And truly the warfare of our passions is the mercy of God, by which sins are diminished for us. Lazarus the poor man, indeed, because he bore in this life many evils, in the bosom of Abraham found the rest of consolation¹²²; but that rich man, who had consolation in this world, after the courses of this life lost the fruit of rest. Whom, if God had pitied, he would rather have chastised in this world, that he might not afterward be scourged. So Job, though grievously scourged — and indeed by very many scourges of want, of the loss of his children, by the pains of his body, by the reproaches of his friends — nevertheless enjoys eternal consolation.

36. Therefore the greater the tribulations have been, so much the more abundant consolation is reserved. And yet, lest you fall and succumb, the greater the temptations you see, so much the more entreat the word of God, that he may bring you exhortation, as Paul also asked, who says: Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all consolation, who exhorts us in all our distress, that we may be able ourselves to console those who are in any tribulation, by the exhortation by which we ourselves are called by God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so through Christ also our consolation aboundeth.¹²³ With so great force of apostolic petition does he ask that he may receive consolation from the Lord in every tribulation, in order that he himself not only may put on endurance, but also may console others, that they too may be able to bear the straits of their own mind. If, then, you yourself have been proved fit in every tribulation, then at last you will be worthy to receive consolation in every tribulation. And yet not every passion is worthy of consolation, but that passion which is through Christ, this merits Christ's consolation.

37. Beautifully, however, he added: according to thy word to thy servant.¹²⁴ For the Lord himself promises help to those fighting for his name, saying: When, therefore, they shall deliver you up, take no thought how or what to speak; for it shall be given you in that hour what to speak; for it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of my Father that speaks in you.¹²⁵ Therefore, lest we be unequal to the contest, let us always pray for divine help, that he may bestow on us exhortation; for if we have him to exhort us, we are not easily overcome.

38. Many, however, have: who may console us; nor is this far from the truth. For there is a certain coaxing exhortation of one urging another on, which kindles the contender by zeal of praise and as it were soothes him with a certain consolation, lest he be called back by the harshness of labors.

39. There follows the fifth verse: Let thy compassions come unto me, and I shall live, because thy law is my meditation.¹²⁶ He whose meditation is God's law, to him mercies are at hand, that he may live for ever. For how can anyone be blessed without divine mercy? Blessed is he who meditates in the law of the Lord day and night.¹²⁷ But he who meditates in the law is taught in the law; and whom the law has taught, the Lord has taught — he who has spoken the law. Therefore it is written: Blessed is the man whom thou shalt teach, O Lord, and whom thou shalt teach out of thy law.¹²⁸ Let us also, then, learn to meditate in the law; let us not be diverted by secular enticements, let us not be occupied by impediments, but let us always be intent upon the law. For it is written: The mouth of the just shall meditate wisdom, and his tongue shall speak judgment.¹²⁹ So in the Old Testament; hear also one speaking in the New: The word is near, in thy mouth and in thy heart.¹³⁰ And he shows that this meditation is most necessary for priests, writing to Titus, that the bishop must embrace him who according to the doctrine is faithful in word, that he may be able to exhort in sound doctrine and to convince the gainsayers.¹³¹ Which surely is the work of solicitous and intent meditation, not of perfunctory reading. And writing to Timothy he says: Attend to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.¹³² For frequent reading, when not abandoned by any interruption, performs the office of teaching.

40. As to what he asks, that he may live, we have frequently shown that the life of this body does not have the grace of true life, but that there will be that true life, whose goods each of the saints believes he sees in the land of the living.¹³³ What we believe we shall see is surely not present, but future.

41. There follows the sixth verse: Let the proud be confounded, because they have unjustly wrought iniquity against me; but I will be exercised in thy precepts.¹³⁴ Above the same prophet says: If I have rendered evil to those who repaid me with evil¹³⁵ — does he then curse those who have wrought unjust things against him? Surely not; for he saw that charity must be shown even to the bitterest enemies, since the preacher of the gospel had come. Whence I think that, like a physician, he wishes to heal those very ones who have hurt him, that, convicted by the contemplation of their own iniquity, they may blush at their own crimes; in which they begin not only to approve the prophet's patience, but also to amend their own insolence. For shame is often our correction; and while shame at the deed begins, that the shame may not last longer, we are admonished to abandon what should make us blush. The prophet, therefore, does not curse, but, like a good physician, wishes them to recognize what they have done, that, when they have received into their conscience how great is the filth of their offenses, they may begin to blush; and, blushing, they may be able to renounce their former sins. Consider for me now some men fornicating, riding rough-shod over widows and orphans, snatching others' property — and in these things not only not blushing, but even wont to glory, as if displaying titles of beauty or power; of whom the Apostle well said that their glory is in their confusion¹³⁶, the more detestable than their crimes themselves, because, while they commit such things, they are not confounded. But if any of them afterward should come into the church, believe in the Lord Jesus, hear the gospel, be pricked at the heart, then at last he will begin to recognize how atrocious and grave were the things he committed, and to blush in those which he has come to recognize.

42. What it means to be exercised in the precepts of our Lord — because he said, But I will be exercised in thy precepts¹³⁷ — you have learned in the law: that is, if the ox or the beast of burden of an enemy fall, you should reckon that he must not be deserted, but rather lifted up.¹³⁸ As to what he says, They have unjustly wrought iniquity¹³⁹, consider against whom this is said, except against him who perchance justly works iniquity — that is: if a man hurt seek to vindicate himself by the law, according to the precepts of Moses, he is seen to do iniquity justly, but not according to the precepts of the gospel. And therefore he says: I have not come to call the just, but sinners¹⁴⁰, because the Jews use the law's authority to vindicate themselves.

43. This too you have in the Apostle: Be ye sober and just.¹⁴¹ He has clearly taught that we must be not only sober, but also justly sober. Someone can be sober and not justly sober — that is, sober from wine and not sober in equity and justice; for there is a crapula of iniquity — and again someone, always indulging drunkenness and luxury, while he tries to plunder another's goods — occupied with that zeal, sober from wine, not sober from rapine; nor is he justly sober. So the Apostle admonishes that there be in us a just sobriety. Indeed he added: And do not sin.¹⁴² For he who sins, even if he is sober, cannot, however, be styled as if justly sober. Be not, he says, seduced — that is: lest the drunkenness of another's error make you tipsy — evil communications corrupt good manners¹⁴³, because by the mouth and lips of the unfaithful a sort of drunkenness is poured into the manners of the hearer. So deservedly he added: Be ye sober justly, and do not sin.¹⁴⁴ For some have ignorance of God¹⁴⁵ — so that he is sober who has no ignorance of God, nor totters in the drunkenness of perfidy; but justly sober is he in whom the grace of works shines together with the sobriety of faith.

44. There follows the seventh verse: Let those that fear thee turn to me, and they that know thy testimonies.¹⁴⁶ Another, especially according to the Greek, has: Let them turn to me [as 'me-ward']. If we read 'unto me', let those who fear God turn — let them blush at their own commitments, or at least pay the penalty of their sins; but let them turn to God's servant and to the prophetic teaching, that they may unlearn the doing of shameful things, and by amendment of so great a teacher put off their morals, and, with the stain of their sins wiped away, put on the discipline of virtues. But if we read it thus: Let them turn 'to me' — that is: since I will be exercised in thy precepts, let them turn to me, to me now no longer sinning, no longer erring. Let them turn, he says, who fearing thee have renounced their own sins, that, by the consortship of the just, the prophet may be more abundantly carried forward, and may himself, of that grace which is in him, confer very much upon those who hear. Let the just turn, then, to the just one — me no longer sinning. Concerning the testimonies, however, I think there is no need now to repeat, since it has already been said before.

45. There follows the eighth verse: Let my heart become unspotted in thy justifications, that I be not confounded.¹⁴⁷ The more excellent the prophet is in the gift of prophecy or in the grace of kingship, the more he follows humility and teaches what we ought to imitate, in that so great a prophet asks that an unspotted heart be made for himself. Above he asked: Create in me a clean heart, O God.¹⁴⁸ He did not say 'make', but 'create' — that he may from the integral renew and cleanse his heart; in this saying there is a certain greater compass; for great is the heart created by the Lord, which receives the word from the heavenly virtues and powers; great the heart which receives the Lord himself saying: I will dwell in them, and walk among them.¹⁴⁹ That he may receive these things, then, he beseeches that not an angel become for him the creator of his heart, but the Lord himself, who created heaven and earth.

46. And well does he say 'unspotted', because the heart of man is stained as it were by the filth of unbecoming thoughts. If thought itself pollutes, how much more do deeds themselves contaminate! Do not contaminate the inner sanctuary with extraordinary thoughts, lest you defile with serious filth that which you suppose to have clean. You wash your hands, as if you could wash away the crime, when you cannot wash your mind that has been stained with unclean thoughts. Pilate also washed his hands¹⁵⁰, but he could not wash his heart; he remained polluted by the crime, although he had washed his hands by the pouring on of water. Hear that thought also defiles: Not what enters the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth. For from the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies. These are the things that defile a man.¹⁵¹ If, then, you are defiled within, cleanse first what is within. If you have cleansed what is within, you have cleansed the outer things also¹⁵² — so that, if the water flow turbid, in vain you think the lake should be cleansed, if the spring flows fouled. For it will profit nothing to have wiped the receptacles, when the fault is in the spring itself. You yourself must first be cleansed, that all that is pure may flow. Your heart is the wellspring of your thoughts. In that fountain either turbid water of impurity is spewed forth, or the unsullied wave of piety bursts forth.

47. You have learned that the heart is to be cleansed; learn how you may cleanse it. This fountain is cleansed by lawful justification — that is, by the confession of sins. Indeed the publican, who was confessing his own sins, went down from the temple justified rather than the Pharisee, because the Pharisee was preferring his own fasts and offerings and innocence.¹⁵³ Cleanse, therefore, your water — that water of which it is said: Deep water is counsel in the heart of a man.¹⁵⁴ Nature has given you good water, unless you defile it with your own filth. It itself washes you clean, if it is pure, if simple, if also natural, if it has nothing sordid and earthly. What an evil thing it is, if water that ought to cleanse should defile! But it is not your water that defiles you; this is alien water. Indeed it has been said to you: Abstain from alien water.¹⁵⁵ Alien water lies and deceives and flows contrary to nature. Therefore he says: Alien sons have lied to me¹⁵⁶; for, had they not been alien, they surely would not have deceived. Let no one therefore boast that he has a chaste heart, as Solomon said¹⁵⁷; but he that glories, let him glory in the Lord¹⁵⁸, who has deigned to create a clean heart in his saints, and to make it unspotted by his justifications. What the justifications are, you have heard him saying: Tell thy iniquities, that thou mayest be justified.¹⁵⁹ He, then, who tells his iniquities is justified; but he who is justified is not confounded, because he forestalls the shame of his sins by the maturity of confession.