Ambrose

XVIII. LITTERA SADE.

1. Sequitur psalmi centesimi octaui decimi 'Sade' littera octaua decima, quae Latina interpretatione dicitur 'consolatio'. post more torrentium lacrimas profluentes et graues fletus doloris oportebat consolationem sequi. nam et qui in doloribus sunt, consolatione indigent, et qui grauibus aerumnis poenas commissorum luerunt criminum, sperant indulgentiam, et qui fletibus et lacrimis propria delicta lauerunt, requiem promerentur.

2. Haec omnia in scripturis diuinis qui quaerit, inuenit. nam et primum illud, ut in dolore positos consolemur, docet illa, quae in libro Hieremiae flebiliter clamat ad captiuos et exules Iudaeorum: ite, proficiscimini, filii; ego enim derelicta sum deserta. exui me stolam pacis, indui autem stolam precationis meae et clamabo ad excelsum in diebus meis. animo aequo estote, filii, clamate ad dominum et extrahet uos de manu principum inimicorum. ego enim speraui in illo aeterno salutem uestram.¹ credentibus igitur in dominum est in domini misericordia consolatio. est etiam aliud consolationis genus his qui graues soluerint poenas, ut habes scriptum in Esaiae libro: consolamini consolamini populum meum, dicit dominus, sacerdotes, loquimini in cor Hierusalem, consolamini eam, quoniam repleta est humiliatio eius; solutum est peccatum eius, quoniam accepit de manu domini duplicia peccata sua.² etiamsi

fides deerat, poena satisfecerat; releuantur solutione poenarum qui non absoluuntur commendatione meritorum. tertium est, cum lacrimis crimen abluitur, ut est illud: discedite a me omnes qui operamini iniquitatem, quoniam exaudiuit dominus uocem fletus mei.³ quod etiam hoc loco et plerisque locis in libro Psalmorum facile repperitur.

3. Consolatio igitur prima ordine, quoniam non obliuiscitur deus facere misericordiam neque in aeternum proicit quos putauerit cohercendos.⁴ secunda, quod decursis suppliciis, quae propter peccata nostra tolerauimus, ad ueniam pertinemus. unde nonnulli philosophi disputarunt obesse inprobis absolutionem, prodesse mortem, quod in illa incentiuum sit delinquendi, in morte autem finis peccati.⁵ quod adsumptum esse de nostris cui dubium, cum in Prouerbiis Salomonis sit: qui parcit baculo, odit filium suum, castigat autem dominus quem diligit,⁶ et infra: flagellum equo et stimulus asino imperat, uirga autem nationi inprudenti?⁷ poena enim corrigit et emendat errantem. si talis est qui emendari non queat, aufertur e medio, ne grauiora committat; mortuus enim iam nescit errare. ideoque Ecclesiastes ait: et laudaui ego mortuos magis quam uiuentes, et optimus supra hos qui nondum natus est, qui non uidit hoc opus mali.⁸ mortuus praefertur uiuenti, quia peccare desiuit, mortuo praefertur qui natus non est, quia peccare nesciuit.

4. Nunc dicamus etiam de his qui poenas scelerum suorum soluerunt. nonne isti tulerunt culpae pretium et iam non integra his

poena debetur? clamat per Esaiam dominus: consolamini populum meum, quia recepit de manu domini duplicia peccata.⁹ discite unde Plato haec sumpserit. eruditionis gratia in Aegyptum profectus, ut Moysi legis oracula, prophetarum dicta cognosceret, audiuit consolationem populi, qui supra peccati modum uidebatur fuisse punitus, et hunc locum quadam adopertum dote uerborum in dialogum transtulit quem scripsit de uirtute.¹⁰ quem locum tamen dominus in euangelio plenius conprehendit et apertius declarauit, dicens per Abrahae personam ad illum diuitem saeculi huius: fili, recordare quia recepisti bona in uita tua et Lazarus similiter mala; nunc autem hic consolationem habet, tu uero cruciaris. et in his omnibus inter uos et nos chaos magnum firmatum est, ut hi qui ueniunt hinc transire ad uos non possint neque inde huc transmeare.¹¹ sed iam audiamus quid iustus in consolando se loquatur.

5. Iustus es, domine, et rectum iudicium tuum. [mandasti iustitiam testimonia tua et ueritatem tuam nimis.]¹² uere iustus uir qui lacrimis profluens, inuolutus aerumnis, graui supplicio delicta persoluens non taedio uincitur, non metu frangitur, non labore lassatur, non ingratus aut tristis est. plerumque enim uulgus hominum sua delicta non reputans iniuste se putat tolerare quae patitur. at uero uir iustus, qui se ipsum statim in exordio sermonis accusat, iustitiam domini praedicat, quod meritis suis digna patiatur. dicendo autem iustum deum de sua quidem iniustitia ante pronuntiat, sed de iustitia domini sperat et ueniam. iustus enim non semper

irascitur; sicut ultor culpae, ita moderator est poenae, sicut uindex peccatorum, ita remunerator est uirtutum optimorumque meritorum. qui uult dare praemium, debet spectare certamen, quia nemo sine certamine coronatur.¹³ sinit ergo nos saepe temptari, uolens iuste praemia dare luctanti utique, non dormienti. non decet redimitos floribus corona, sed puluerulentos nec molles deliciis, sed labore exercitatos ornat uictoria.

6. Iustus ergo in aduersis suis iustitiam dei laudat. sed non hoc sentit amissis teneris parens liberis, non inmaturo nuptae uiduatus consortio, non aeger in dolore, non naufragus in periculo, non reus in iudicio, non captiuus in laqueo. clamat tamen Hieremias, cum futurae adnuntians populis captiuitatis aerumnam in luti uoragine turpi necandus inluuie mergeretur:¹⁴ iustus es, domine. clamat iterum, cum uictae plebis miserandis seruitiis angeretur: iustus est dominus, quia os eius inritaui. a foris sine filiis fecit et ab intus mors.¹⁵ clamabant Hebraei, cum propter uirtutem deuotionis et fidei gratiam fornacis ardentis ambirentur incendiis: iustus es in omnibus quae fecisti et ideo merue-runt, ut inlaesi ignibus domini iustitias praedicarent.¹⁶ Danihel quoque propheta secundo in lacum missus leonum et inmanium ferarum saeuitia atque horrore circumdatus recta omnia in conspectu esse domini inperterrito clamore iactabat.¹⁷ Ionas inclusus utero bestiali anhelandi spiritus uix habens commeatum iustus

iniustorum sorte damnatus clamabat de uentre ceti in mari: cum uoce laudis et confessionis supplico tibi.¹⁸

Dauid cum fugeret a facie Abessalon parricidalibus armis et telis pulsus et regno egressus, cum pro totius populi se offerret excidio, dicebat: iustus es, domine, et rectum iudicium tuum.¹⁹ grex innocens iste quid fecit? ego pastor feci malignum.²⁰ apud iustum deum poena de culpae auctore sumatur. ipse pater fidei Abraham, cum ad immolandum unicus a sene filius posceretur, paternae pietatis affectum diuinae confessione iustitiae temperabat dicens: iustus es, domine. non enim poscis alienum, sed tuum reposcis; ipsum tibi restituo quem dedisti. hunc imitatus Iob extinctis liberis patrimonioque nudatus amisso amictum sui corporis scindens ait: nudus natus sum, nudus, inquit, et moriar. dominus dedit, dominus abstulit; sit nomen domini benedictum.²¹

7. Omnes ergo iustum dominum praedicemus. et qui moribunda sepulchro sua membra conponit et qui damno feritur aut funere filiorum, dicat: iustus es, domine. quid enim nostrum amittimus? clamat apostolus: quid habes quod non accepisti?²² quod habemus ergo accepimus, quod igitur amittimus reddimus, non amittimus. iustus dominus in periculis, iustus in damnis, iustus in ultionibus est, non solum quia unusquisque iuste culpae suae pretium luit, uerum etiam quia, dum unus punitur, plurimi corriguntur. Ananias in Actibus apostolorum fraudati pretii, quod de agri uenditione perceperat, crimen admisit, qui potuerat nihil offerre et crimen euadere.²³ uerum ne quis inpune circumscribendos apostolos arbitraretur aut miseri-

cordiae suae munus fraude contaminaret perfidiae, morti addictus aeternae uniuersos ad fidei studium iusto terrore conposuit. Pharao cum populo suo fluctibus mersus mundanae conuersationis exemplum est, ne quis dei populum persequatur. denique potuit deus eum uoluntati suae facere oboedientem, sed eius poena omnes uoluit emendari, ideoque dicit ad eum dominus: quia ad hoc ipsum te suscitaui, ut ostendam in te uirtutem meam et adnuntietur nomen meum in uniuersa terra,²⁴ non utique dominus suae laudis, sed nostrae correctionis incrementa quaerebat.

8. Omnes ergo sapientes dicunt: iustus es, domine, et rectum iudicium tuum.²⁵ neque enim tradimur aduersariis sine iudicio ipsius neque sine ipsius iudicio in tribulationes uenimus. haec iustorum est consolatio, hoc est domini iudicium. denique et supra habes: memor fui iudiciorum tuorum quae a saeculo sunt et me consolatus sum.²⁶ aduertis ergo quia domini iudicia consolationes sunt.

9. Mandasti iustitiam testimonia tua et ueritatem tuam nimis.²⁷ utrum 'nimis mandasti' an 'nimiam ueritatem'? sed et nimia ueritas plena laudis et nimium mandare prouidentiae atque cautelae est. etenim infirmos nouerat; ideo saepius admonebat, ut non obliuiscerentur.

10. Sequitur uersus tertius: exquisiuit me zelus domus tuae, quoniam inimici mei obliti sunt uerborum tuorum.²⁸ est zelus ad uitam et est zelus ad mortem. ad uitam zelus est diuina praecepta seruare et amore domini eius custodire mandata, ut fecit Phinees, de quo legimus in Numeris dicente

domino ad Moysen: Phinees filius Eleazar filii Aaron sacerdotis sedauit furorem meum a filiis Israel in eo quod aemulatus est zelum meum in illis, et non consummaui filios Israel in zelo meo. sic dixi: ecce ego do ei testamentum pacis et erit illi et semini eius post eum testamentum sacerdotii aeternum, propter quod aemulatus est deum suum et non exorauit pro filiis Israel.²⁹ caesa iacebant uiginti quattuor milia populorum; tendebat poena in omnes nec ullus finis exitii. adripuit siromasten Phinees, duos occidit interdicta sibi consuetudine copulatos,³⁰ redemit omnes, indignationem domini mitigauit, dedit uictoriam quibus negabat salutem. quam salutaris igitur est dei zelus!

11. Non unius temporis illud uitium fuit; et nunc Madianitis miscetur Iudaeo. Madianitis est quae nullo est uxoris legitimae copulata coniugio, nullo fidei iuncta consortio. Madianitis est haereticorum perfidia, cum populum dei temptat. quam multis populis meretrix ista feralis inrepsit, quae publico funere totum populum communi morte tumulauit! ueni et nunc, Phinees, arripe gladium uerbi, interfice perfidiam, iugulato haeresim, ne propter eam populus uniuersus intereat. urget ira caelestis: percute ipsam uuluam impietatis generatoriumque perfidiae, ne partus formetur infelix, ne adulterina conceptio diffundat seminarium praeuaricationis et sceleris, ut dominus tecum statuat testamentum pacis et testamentum gratiae, testamentum promissionum caelestium. zelum habere debet sacerdos, qui incorruptam seruare studet ecclesiae castitatem, et ideo princeps sacerdotum dicit: zelus domus tuae conrodit

me.³¹ et Phinees sacerdos erat et nepos sacerdotis et filius sacerdotis. bonus zelus et utilis in sacerdote, praecipue ne neglegens, ne remissus sit. melius est ut unius aut duorum damnatione plurimi liberentur quam duorum absolutione plures periclitentur.

12. Exquisiuit, inquit, me zelus domus tuae.³² uides quia zelus dei gratia est, qui exquirit, qui superuenit, qui se iusti infundit pectori. zelus dei uita est. denique dominus ait: zelus domus tuae deuorauit me.³³ sicut enim ante in Adam deuorauerat hominem mors praeualens, ita zelus deuorauit quem uiuificauit in Christo. zelum habuit Helias et ideo raptus ad caelum est — zelans, inquit, zelaui dominum —,³⁴ zelum Mattathias Butanus, qui aduersus sacrilegia Antiochi excitauit dei plebem.³⁵ zelum qui habent omnes sibi inimicos suos putant qui sunt hostes dei, quamuis patrem fratres sorores; de omnibus dicit: in hostes facti sunt mihi, sicut Dauid ait.³⁶ quid multa? apostolus quoque domini hoc declaratus est nomine, ut Iudas Zelotes diceretur, sicut legimus in euangelio.³⁷

13. Zelo fidei populus gentilium uitam sibi adquisiuit aeternam, quam neglegentia atque desidia Iudaeorum populus amisit. ideoque scriptum est: zelus adprehendet populum ineruditum,³⁸ quoniam populus, qui erat eruditus in lege, nullum fidei habebat ardorem. contulit se zelus ad gentes, cuius tanta est gratia, ut electionis praerogatiuam uicerit, ut eruditionis industriam superarit. denique adprehendens populum ineruditum fecit esse meliorem. itaque ea gratia operatus

est in populo nationum, ut hereditatem domini mereretur, qua operatus est dominus, ut ecclesiam sibi ex nationibus copularet. zelus ergo caritas est. denique ualida est sicut mors caritas, durus sicut inferi zelus.³⁹ durus zelus quem uitae huius nulla uincit inlecebra, durus sicut inferi, per quem peccato morimur, ut uiuamus deo.⁴⁰

14. Angeli quoque sine zelo nihil sunt et substantiae suae amittunt praerogatiuam, nisi eam zeli ardore sustentent. denique in Apocalypsi Iohannis dominus ad angelum Laodiciae dicit: scio opera tua; neque frigidus es neque calidus. utinam frigidus esses uel calidus! sed quia tepidus es, incipiam te euomere ex ore meo. quia dicis quod diues sum et ditatus et nullius egeo, et nescis quod tu es miser et miserabilis et mendicus et nudus et caecus, consulo tibi ut emas a me aurum igne probatum.⁴¹ hic est dei zelus, hoc est fidei uapor deuotionisque feruor, qui nos uelut suauem cibum in Christo remollit et format. quanta domini gratia, ut nos in suo ore constituat et quasdam meritorum nostrorum epuletur dapes ac, si meremur, deuoret, si nostri cibi suauitatibus delectetur!⁴² beatus quem sapientia deuorauerit, quem uirtus hauserit, quem iustitia receperit. culpa in eo habere non potest portionem quem absorbuerit remissio peccatorum. ubi eum error inueniet quem integritas inmaculata susceperit?

15. Et quid miremur, si angeli eum habent? ipse deus pater ait: zelans zelabo Hierusalem zelo magno,⁴³ quia magnus deus, ideo et zelus eius magnus est et pro uniuscui-

usque potentiae qualitate ita zelus aut mediocris aut magnus est. zelo uindicatur Hierusalem, zelo ecclesia congregatur, zelo fides adquiritur, zelo pudicitia possidetur. dominus quoque Iesus ait: zelus domus tuae comedit me, increpans Iudaeos, quod domum orationis fecerint speluncam latronum, fecerint et domum negotiationis.⁴⁴

16. Sed non solum locum ecclesiae zelare debemus, sed hanc quoque interiorem in nobis domum dei, ne sit domus negotiationis aut spelunca latronum. si enim lucra, quaestus pecuniae et emolumenta aucupemur, domum negotiationis fecimus; si inuadamus alienas possessiones, fines uiduae uel minorum, fecimus speluncam latronum. ergo ueniat uerbum dei et de hac domo proiciat fures direptores caupones, ut mundum sit cor tuum, pectus tuum.

17. Sed est zelus ad culpam, est zelus ad gratiam. nam et ipse Dauid ait: zelaui in peccatoribus pacem,⁴⁵ et in Ecclesiastico scriptum est: non zeles mulierem sinus tui, ne ostendat super te malitiam doctrinae nequam,⁴⁶ et mulier zelotypa in mulierem fidelem iure reprehenditur. aduertimus ergo, quod mensura quaedam et disciplina sit zeli, sicut disciplina uirtutis. et ideo beatus qui zeli nouerit disciplinam et oderit eos, qui domini gratiam relinquentes salutem propriam deserant, errorem sibi fraudis adsciscant.

18. Ideoque ait: quoniam obliti sunt uerborum tuorum inimici mei.⁴⁷ qui sunt isti inimici? si populus Iudaeorum, quomodo inimici erant sub eius imperio constituti? Dauid enim Iudaeos omnes regno proprio gubernabat. si gentiles, quomodo obliti uerborum dei qui legem domini nesciebant? nemo enim nisi id quod acceperit obliuisci potest. illi ergo inimici mei

qui inimici tui, qui dominum [proprie] in sua uenientem non erant recepturi.⁴⁸ hos graues hostes, hos inimicos suos propheta testatur, non qui sibi essent, sed qui Christo rebelles. denique alibi dicit: et super inimicos tuos tabescebam, iusto odio oderam illos,⁴⁹ grauiora putans arma perfidiae esse quam pugnae; nemo enim grauior hostis omnium quam qui omnium laedit auctorem. ideo ergo zelo magno adquisitus est populus nationum, quoniam a suo deus populo negabatur; nec enim poterant aut fidei deuotionem aut disciplinam tenere uirtutis, qui memoriam praeceptorum caelestium non tenebant. sic Adam de paradiso eiectus, sic populus Iudaeorum de praerogatiua electionis exclusus est.

19. Sequitur uersus quartus: ignitum eloquium tuum nimis, et seruus tuus dilexit illud.⁵⁰ ignem quidem dominus misit in terram,⁵¹ non ut eam Sodomitano rursus, sicut scriptum est, arderet incendio⁵² nec ut eam donatae munere fecunditatis aut usu uel flore uiriditatis excluderet; opus enim suum dominus probare magis atque augere quam minuere aut damnare consueuit. neque uero dignum erat, ut elementa innoxia nostri luerent sceleris ultionem. quid natura deliquerat, si adulta iam suboles errauit? non erat partus in uitio, si deuio lapsa est errore progenies, sed usus in culpa. quem ergo dominus ignem in nouo sparsit testamento? qui secretos mentium diuinae cognitionis ardore inflammaret affectus, qui uaporem fidei et deuotionis adoleret, qui cupiditatem uirtutis accenderet. hoc igne calefactus Hieremias dicit: et erat ignis flammigerans in

ossibus meis.⁵³ hoc sermonum igne caelestium uaporati Cleopas et ille alius, qui simul cum domino ab Hierusalem usque in castellum confecerant iter, dicebant: nonne cor nostrum ardens erat in nobis, cum aperiret nobis scripturas?⁵⁴

20. Ignis ergo hic sermo Christi est, et bonus ignis qui calefacere nouit, nescit exurere nisi sola peccata. hoc igne super bonum fundamentum positum apostolicum illud aurum probatur, hoc igne illud merum operum examinatur argentum, hoc igne pretiosi illi lapides inluminantur, faenum autem et stipula consumitur.⁵⁵ mundat ergo hic ignis animum, consumit errorem. unde et dominus ait: iam uos mundi estis propter sermonem quem locutus sum uobis.⁵⁶ hic est ignis qui ardet ante dominum;⁵⁷ nisi enim quis flagrantiam deuotionis adsumpserit, praesentiam domini habere non poterit. accende hunc prius ignem in mentibus tuis, ut Christi tibi lumen effulgeat. hoc igne urebatur rubus et non exurebatur;⁵⁸ urit enim sermo diuinus, ut corrigat conscientiam peccatoris, non exurit, ut perdat. hic ignis hebetare, hic ignis extinguere materialium saeua flammarum consueuit incendia; denique Hebraei hoc igne succensi fornacis ardentis uaporem nec timere nec sentire potuerunt.⁵⁹ merito ergo bonus seruus diligit ignitum domini alloquium quo induitur caritas, quae excludit timorem.⁶⁰

21. Pulchre autem addidit 'nimis', quia omnis quidem doctor inflammat audientis affectum, sed supra omnes sermo est dei, diuisiones artuum et intima penetrans medullarum.⁶¹ tripliciter ergo describe tibi ignitum alloquium dei, uel quod mundat uel quod accendit uel quod inluminat audientes. ideo ait dominus:

scrutatus sum Hierusalem ad lucernam,⁶² sed neminem in ea uel qui mundaretur uel qui accenderetur aut inluminaretur inuenit; ideo eam in tenebris dereliquit.

22. Nec mireris, si seruus diligit ignitum domini alloquium, quod et sponsa dilexit, quae ait: sicut resticula coccinea labia tua;⁶³ in cocco enim species ignis et crucis dominicae sanguis inrutilat. coccinea labia domini, quae passionem propriam loquebantur. denique in Exodo coccum pro igne conlocatum est.⁶⁴ non enim ex cocco mundus, sed ex quattuor constat elementis; sed in cocco figura ignis expressa est, cuius uapor nisi caelum atque aerem, maria terrasque penetraret, omnia tamquam effetis uiribus soluerentur. per resticulam igitur uinculum persuasionis agnoscimus, per coccum uel cupiditatis ardorem, qui scintillet in animis audientium, uel indicium passionis. unde et alibi ait sponsa: labia eius lilia distillantia myrram plenam.⁶⁵ per myrram enim passionis unguentum et resurrectionis gratia declaratur, quae rediuiuum uitae odorem suscitatis mortuorum uisceribus infundit. merito igitur alloquii eius accipiens suauitatem exclamans sponsa testatur: fauces eius dulcedines et totus desiderium.⁶⁶

23. Sequitur: iuuenis ego sum et despectus; iustificationes tuas non sum oblitus.⁶⁷ multorum sanctorum, qui a prima adulescentia exerciti sunt, duris laboribus potest hic uersiculus conuenire. nam et Ioseph, cum a fratribus in Aegyptum uenderetur, iunior erat et despectus, qui ad seruitutis iniuriam uendebatur. et postea, cum

productus e carcere praepositus Aegypto populis frumenta diuideret, fratribus uicem iniuriae non referret, sed refuso pretio alimenta donaret, senilem patris a fame atque ieiunio uindicaret aetatem curruque submisso obuius et famulantibus ceteris amplae potestatis insignibus adoraret, iure dicebat: iuuenior ego sum et despectus; iustificationes tuas non sum oblitus.⁶⁸

24. Ipse quoque iunior fratribus cum patris oues pasceret tamquam uili ablegatus obsequio, non oblatus est sacerdoti, quasi indignus qui ungeretur in regnum, sed a sacerdote quaesitus et accersitus a pascuis praerogatiuam regiae unctionis accepit.⁶⁹ postea quoque progressus ad bellum, cum Golias totum populum Iudaeorum corporis sui mole despiciens singulari certamine prouocaret, timentibus ceteris poposcit a rege, ut congrediendi sibi permitteret facultatem. ne tum quidem tanto certamini habilis aestimatus est, rege dicente: non potes ire ad allophylum et pugnare cum eo, quoniam tu puer es et ille uir bellator est a iuuentute sua.⁷⁰ neque esset admissus, nisi fecisset fidem, quod in sua adulescentia leonem suis manibus strangulatum extractis raptae ouis cruribus peremisset.⁷¹ ipse etiam despectus allophylo, quod aduersus armatum proeliatorem cum uirga et lapidibus processisset, rettulit non uiribus se fretum esse, non armis, sed in nomine domini confidentem ad proelium esse progressum, ut lacessitae plebis auferret obprobrium. hic ergo iuuenis atque despectus strauit allophylum potitusque uictoria in decem milibus iuuencularum psallentium testimonio triumphauit.⁷²

25. Gerebat enim typum eius qui quasi despectus uenturus esset in terras et sine legato, sine adiutore, sine nuntio totum populum mundi huius crucis suae proelio liberaret, cui adplauderent animae sanctorum per baptismatis sacramenta renouatae, quod uerum illum Golian reuelatum nobis ac proditum uerbi sui gladio trucidasset. iacet igitur uerus Golias humilitate filii dei stratus, amisit caput, quod in multas artes uertebat et fraudes. psallunt securae iam animae, quae ante peccatorum suorum tormenta deflebant. dicunt tympanis, hoc est corporibus suis peccato mortuis resultantes: Saul triumphauit in milibus, Dauid in decem milibus.⁷³ rex ille durus indignatur et irascitur diabolus, eo quod canerent iuuenculae quia duritiae filius paucos decepit, Christus totum mundum redemit. dicit ergo Christus natus ex uirgine: iuuenis ego sum et despectus; iustificationes tuas non sum oblitus.⁷⁴

26. Dicit etiam populus nationum ille in prima electione despectus, rudis adhuc fide et studio primaeuae deuotionis adulescens uel certe renouatus aquilae iuuentute per baptismatis sacramenta:⁷⁵ iuuenis ego sum et despectus; iustificationes tuas non sum oblitus. ille ego despectus ante iam praeferor, iam anteponor electis, ille ante despectus populus peccatorum habeo caelestium sacramentorum ueneranda consortia. iam mensae caelestis honore suscipior. epulis meis non pluuia undatur, non terrae partus laborat, non arborum fructus; potui meo non flumina quaerenda, non fontes. Christus mihi cibus, Christus est potus, caro dei cibus mihi et dei sanguis est potus. non iam ad satietatem mei annuos expecto prouentus, Christus mihi cotidie ministratur. non uerebor, ne qua mihi eum

caeli intemperies aut sterilitas ruris inminuat, si pii cultus diligentia perseueret. non iam coturnicum pluuias mihi opto descendere quas ante mirabar,⁷⁶ non manna quod ante cibis omnibus praeferebam, quia qui manna manducauerunt patres esurierunt.⁷⁷ meus cibus est, quem si quis manducauerit non esuriet,⁷⁸ meus cibus est qui non corpus inpinguat, sed confirmat cor hominis.⁷⁹

27. Fuerat mihi ante mirandus panis de caelo — scriptum est enim: panem de caelo dedit eis manducare⁸⁰ —, sed non erat uerus ille panis, sed futuri umbra. panem de caelo illum uerum mihi seruauit pater, mihi ille panis dei descendit e caelo, qui uitam dat huic mundo,⁸¹ non Iudaeis descendit, non synagogae descendit, sed ecclesiae descendit, sed populo dei iuueniori descendit. nam quomodo Iudaeis descendit panis qui uitam dedit, cum omnes, qui illum panem manducauerunt, hoc est manna, quem putauerunt Iudaei uerum panem, in deserto mortui sunt? quomodo synagogae descendit, cum synagoga omnis interierit et aeterno ieiunio fidei macerata defecerit? denique si accepissent panem uerum, non dixissent: domine, semper da nobis panem hunc.⁸²

28. Quid petis, Iudaee, ut tribuat tibi panem quem dat omnibus, dat cotidie, dat semper? in te ipso est ut accipias hunc panem; accede ad hunc panem et accipies eum. de hoc pane dictum est: omnes qui elongant se abs te peribunt,⁸³ si elongaueris ab eo, peribis, si adpropinquaueris ad eum, uiues. hic est panis uitae;⁸⁴ qui ergo uitam manducat, mori non potest. quomodo enim morietur cui cibus uita est? quomodo deficiet qui habuerit uitalem substantiam? accedite ad eum et satiamini, quia panis est; accedite ad eum et potate, quia fons est; accedite ad eum et

inluminamini, quia lux est;⁸⁵ accedite ad eum et liberamini, quia ubi spiritus domini, ibi libertas;⁸⁶ accedite ad eum et absoluimini, quia remissio peccatorum est.⁸⁷ quis sit iste quaeritis? audite ipsum dicentem: ego sum panis uitae; qui uenit ad me non esuriet et qui credit in me non sitiet umquam.⁸⁸ audistis eum et uidistis eum et non credidistis ei, ideo mortui estis. uel nunc credite, ut possitis uiuere.

29. Sed miramini Moysen, quia patres uestros per mare siccis duxit uestigiis. Moyses non imperauit, sed impetrauit, non iussit mari, sed seruiuit iubenti fluctibus. Moysen laudatis, quia regem Pharao cum exercitu suo mersit. Moyses orabat et alius imperabat, Moyses precabatur, Christus operabatur, Moyses fugiebat, Christus insequebatur, Moyses columnam sequebatur, ut nocturnas tenebras declinaret, Christus inluminabat. Moysen agnoscitis, qui aquae amaritudinem temperauit,⁸⁹ Moysen agnoscitis, qui aquam produxit de petra:⁹⁰ Christum non agnoscitis, qui ueri illius Aegyptii regis strauit exercitum et abyssi mersit profundo,⁹¹ qui nos liberat cotidie de mundi huius fluctibus, ne nos saeculi procella demergat. quid profuit patribus transire per Mare Rubrum, quibus ad terram resurrectionis non licuit peruenire?⁹² quicumque enim exierunt de Aegypto, perierunt in deserto. mortuus est Aaron, mortua est Maria, mortuus est et ipse Moyses; solum Iesum Naue nominis sacri similitudo seruauit. plaudat Iudaeus, quia sitienti illi undam saxa uomuerunt: mihi de corpore dei fons fluxit aeternus, meas amaritudines bibit Christus, ut mihi suae donaret gratiae suauitatem.

30. Dicit ergo populus christianus: iuuenis ego sum et despectus; iustificationes tuas non sum oblitus.⁹³ bene hoc dicit qui iustificauit deum baptismatis sacramentis. qui enim baptizatur iustificat deum, quia peccata propria confitetur et a domino suorum praestolatur indulgentiam delictorum. iustificauit Dauid, qui ait: tibi soli peccaui et malum coram te feci, ut iustificeris in sermonibus tuis.⁹⁴ non iustificauerunt Pharisaei qui baptizari Iohannis baptismo noluerunt, ut in euangelio legisti.⁹⁵ nec solum iustificare satis est, sed etiam non obliuisci iustificationum dei, id est ut intemerata gratiae spiritalis dona custodiat et sacrae remissionis munera inlibata atque inoffensa conseruet.

31. Haec generalia. sed etiam specialis singulis christianis suppetit praerogatiua dicendi: iuuenis ego sum et despectus,⁹⁶ si humilis corde sit, si mitis atque mansuetus.⁹⁷ dicat ergo: iuuenis ego sum et despectus,⁹⁸ praemittat aetatis generalem iactantiam, quo plus commendet humilitatis suae gratiam. non mirabilis humilitas in senectute, quae effeta uiribus, fracta debilitatibus,⁹⁹ tristis doloribus, anhela suspiriis, cocta curarum aestibus et ipso uiuendi maesta fastidio alacritatem est oblita iactantiae. rara sane in iuuenibus est humilitas ideoque miranda. dum aetas uiget, dum uires solidae, dum sanguis aestuat,¹⁰⁰ dum sollicitudo nescitur, dum ignoratur debilitas, dum laetitia frequentatur, tunc feruet iactantia, tunc se iuuentutis superbus extollit affectus, tunc humilitas quasi uilescit, abiecta contemnitur,

tunc subiectio degeneris conscientiae aestimatur infirmitas. grandis igitur morum adsuefacienda maturitas, quae uincat naturam.

32. Denique sic consideremus: in paradiso defecit humilitas et ideo uenit e caelo; in paradiso orta est inoboedientia et ideo oboedientia cum saluatore descendit. inflabatur caro, unde subiectio mansuetudinis inueniri non poterat in terris; intumuerat omnis praeuaricatoris hereditas. ueniens dominus Iesus primum se exinaniuit, non rapinam arbitratus esse se aequalem deo, formam serui accipiens; et specie inuentus ut homo humiliauit semet ipsum factus oboediens usque ad mortem.¹⁰¹ non te moueat, quia scriptum est 'ut homo'; non enim similitudinem suscepit hominis, sed ueritatem. nam et ipse apostolus ait alibi: mediator dei et hominum, homo Christus Iesus,¹⁰² et ut de euangelio adferamus exemplum: uidimus, inquit Iohannes, gloriam eius, gloriam quasi unigeniti a patre, plenum gratia et ueritate.¹⁰³ numquid, quia dixit 'quasi unigeniti', similitudinem magis unigeniti quam ueritatem uoluit aestimari?

33. Non ergo superuacuo Christus aduenit. iam potest dicere homo: iuuenis ego sum et despectus,¹⁰⁴ qui erat ante in populo priore senex superbus. dicit: iuuenis sum et despectus, quomodo ecclesia: nigra sum et decora.¹⁰⁵ praemisit nigram, ut augeret decorem; sic et hic praemisit iuuenem, ut augeret humilitatem. non dixit: 'nigra sum decora', ne quod nigrum est decorum aestimaretur, nec dixit: 'iuuenis sum despectus',

ne iuuentas despicabilis putaretur, sed ait: 'iuuenis' et, quod mireris, 'humilis', non 'superbus', deiecto propior quam tumenti. sic et ibi: nigra sum superiore peccato, sed decora confessione peccati et correctionis studio atque amore uirtutis. quamuis ergo 'et' syllaba, ut grammatici appellant, coniunctiua sit, habet tamen distinctionem, qua confusio disiungitur ac separatur, ut, si dicas Ambrosium Bassum intus esse, unus putatur, sin autem asseras Ambrosium et Bassum intus esse, duo utique intelleguntur.

34. Dicat ergo: iuuenis sum et despectus,¹⁰⁶ quia Christus in paupere atque despecto mundum redemit, quia Christus humilitate diabolum uicit. dicat: 'despectus sum', quia cor humiliatum deus non spernit,¹⁰⁷ quia despectus ille Lazarus in Abrahae nunc requiescit sinu et diues ille iactantior adfligitur in inferno.¹⁰⁸ despectus erat Moyses nec sibi idoneus uidebatur, cum ad liberandum Hebraeorum populum mitteretur.¹⁰⁹ despectus erat Hieremias, qui dicebat: dominator domine, ecce nescio loqui, quia iuuenis sum ego,¹¹⁰ sed facilius iste despectus eligitur; denique dicitur ei: noli dicere quia iuuenis sum ego, quia ad omnes quoscumque misero te abibis et per omnia quaecumque mandauero tibi loqueris. ne timueris a facie eorum, quia ego tecum sum, dicit dominus, ut te liberem.¹¹¹ despectus erat ille publicanus, qui oculos ad caelum non audebat leuare et ideo facilius quam ille Pharisaeus exaudiebatur;¹¹² omnis enim qui se exaltat humiliabitur et qui se humiliat exaltabitur.¹¹³

35. Sequitur: iustitia tua iustitia in aeternum et lex tua ueritas.¹¹⁴ possunt quidem singuli facere opera iustitiae, sed non in aeternum manentia. diues ille, cui abundarunt in hoc saeculo diuitiae, fortasse fecerit aliqua opera iustitiae quorum remunerationem in praesenti uita acceperit,¹¹⁵ quod non magna fuerint opera illa nec remuneratione digna perpetua. quid quod, etiamsi facimus opera aliqua iustitiae, facimus tamen non continua, sed rara? plerique non rapiunt aliena, sed nesciunt de proprio largiri; alii inuadentes indebitas facultates, quo speciem iustitiae sibi quaerant, solent conferre pauperibus. non est ista in aeternum iustitia. multi iusti plerumque grauiter deliquerunt non habentes aeternae fructum iustitiae. soli deo suppetit in perpetuum per omnia possidere iustitiam, qui pascit iustos et iniustos; non enim beneficiis solis referenda iustitia est, sed illa est uera iustitia, quae ipsis quoque defertur inimicis, meritoque ait Iustitia dei: diligite inimicos uestros.¹¹⁶

36. Ergo sicut in aeternum est iustitia solius dei, ita lex dei ueritas.¹¹⁷ sed quomodo istud accipimus? utrum quia lex dei ueritas, hoc est uera et quod statuit deus omne uerum, sicut infra ait: omnia praecepta tua ueritas,¹¹⁸ an quia ueritas lex dei est, quia non mentitur deus?¹¹⁹ apud eum igitur ueritas lex est, fallacia praeuaricatio est. sed et sic potest: lex dei ueritas est; apud Iudaeos ergo non est lex dei, quia non recipiunt ueritatem. lex dei spiritalis est, sicut apostolus dixit;¹²⁰ non habent ergo ueram legem qui eam non acceperint spiritaliter. quod autem

non uerum, mendax est, quod mentitur, occidit. littera ergo, quae occidit, mentitur, spiritus, qui uiuificat, uerus est.¹²¹

37. Accipiamus et sic: lex dei non typus, non umbra, non exemplar caelestium, sed ipsa caelestia. unde et scriptum est, quia finis legis est Christus,¹²² non defectus utique, sed plenitudo legis in Christo est, quia uenit legem non soluere, sed implere.¹²³ sicut enim testamentum est uetus, sed omnis ueritas in nouo est testamento, ita et lex per Moysen data figura legis est uerae. ergo illa lex ueritatis exemplar est; in exemplari enim agni sanguis effunditur, in ueritate Christus immolatur. meritoque apostolus, cum praemisisset uitulorum immolationem secundum legem, adiecit: necessarium itaque exemplaria caelestium his mundari; nam ipsa caelestia melioribus hostiis. non enim in manufacta sancta intrauit Christus, exemplaria uerorum, sed in ipsum caelum, et nunc apparet uultui dei pro nobis.¹²⁴ ut cognoscamus autem, quia legem nouam dedit dominus Iesus, habes dicentem spiritum: hoc autem testamentum quod testabor ad eos, dicit dominus: dando leges meas in cordibus eorum et in sensibus eorum scribam eas et peccati et iniustitiae eorum non ero memor.¹²⁵ ubi ergo remissio, iam non oblatio pro peccatis. quo euidenter ostendit tibi omnem ueritatem euangelio contineri, quia lex dei in sensibus hominum et in cordibus scribitur, non in tabulis lapideis¹²⁶ — qui ergo praecepta dei non habent in cordibus suis, non habent legem —, siue quia inueteratur in Iudaeis, renouatur in nobis.

38. Umbra est, non ueritas, ut, cum fiat oblatio pro peccatis secundum legem, non fiat remissio peccatorum; inpossibile est enim sanguine taurorum et hircorum peccata mundari.¹²⁷ mendax ergo erat illa remissio, donec remissionis ueritas adueniret. quid deinde manifestius quam Iohannis euangelistae sententia, qui ait: quia lex per Moysen data est, gratia autem et ueritas per Iesum Christum facta est?¹²⁸ πρὸς ἀντιδιαστολὴν legis retulit ueritatem. nam cum sit 'autem' disiunctio, intellegendum est disiunctionem ideo interpositam, quia, si ueritas fuisset in lege, non fuisset facta per Christum.

39. Possumus et sic intellegere: ueritas Christus est; ergo ueritas lex est, et si mandatum domini lex est, multo magis uiuum et operatorium uerbum dei lex est.

40. Sequitur uersus septimus: tribulatio et necessitas inuenerunt me; mandata tua meditatio mea est.¹²⁹ quaerunt tribulationes et necessitates iustum et interdum inueniunt, interdum non inueniunt eum. inuenitur cui corona debetur, non inuenitur qui idoneus certamini non probatur. tribulatio igitur uelut quaedam gratia est; denique sacrificium deo Spiritus contribulatus,¹³⁰ an non est gratia quae operatur patientiam? qui ergo nouerat tribulationis profectum esse, quaesitus a tribulatione inuentus est nec refugit.

41. Dicit sapientia: quaerent me mali et non inuenient,¹³¹ non quia dominus nolebat inueniri ab hominibus, qui se omnibus etiam non quaerentibus offerebat, sed quia his operibus quaerebatur, ut indigni essent qui quaererent inuenire. ceterum Symeon, qui eum expectabat, inuenit,¹³² inuenit Andreas, denique

ait ad Simonem: inuenimus Messiam, quod interpretatur Christus.¹³³ Philippus quoque dicit ad Nathanahel: quem scripsit Moyses in lege et prophetae inuenimus Iesum filium Ioseph qui est a Nazareth,¹³⁴ et ut ostenderet quemadmodum Christus inueniretur, ait: ueni et uide.¹³⁵ qui ergo Christum quaerit, ueniat non corporis gressu, sed mentis uestigio, uideat eum non exterioribus oculis, sed internis. aeternus enim corporalibus non uidetur aspectibus, quoniam quae uidentur temporalia sunt, quae autem non uidentur aeterna.¹³⁶ Christus igitur non temporalis, sed ex patre ante tempora quasi deus uerus dei filius et quasi uirtus sempiterna supra tempora, quem nullus temporum finis includat, quasi uita supra tempora, quem numquam dies mortis inueniat. quod enim mortuus est, peccato mortuus est semel; quod autem uiuit, uiuit deo.¹³⁷

42. Audis quid dixerit hodie apostolus? peccato, inquit, mortuus est semel. semel tibi peccatori mortuus est Christus; noli iterum peccare post baptismum. omnibus in commune semel mortuus est et singulis semel moritur, non frequenter. peccatum es, o homo; ideo peccatum fecit Christum suum omnipotens pater, hominem fecit, qui peccata nostra portaret. mihi ergo peccato mortuus est dominus Iesus, ut nos in illo essemus iustitia dei.¹³⁸ mihi est mortuus, ut mihi resurgeret; semel est mortuus, semel resurrexit. et tu cum illo mortuus, cum illo consepultus,¹³⁹ cum illo in baptismate resuscitatus caue, ne, cum mortuus fueris semel, moriaris iterum. iam non peccato morieris, sed ueniae, ne, cum resurrexeris, moriaris secundo. Christus enim

resurgens ex mortuis iam non moritur, mors in eum iam non dominabitur.¹⁴⁰ ergo mors dominata est in eum? utique, quia dixit: iam non dominabitur, ostendit esse dominatam. noli tantum amittere beneficium, o homo, propter te Christus dominationi mortis se subdidit, ut te iugo dominationis exueret. ille suscepit mortis seruitutem, ut tibi tribueret uitae aeternae libertatem.

43. Qui quaerit ergo Christum, quaerit et tribulationem eius nec refugit passionem. denique Dauid, qui dignus erat ut a tribulatione quaereretur, tribulationem et ipse quaesiuit; nam nisi quaesisset, non inuenisset. quod inuenerit autem, ipse testatur dicens: tribulationem et dolorem inueni et nomen domini inuocaui,¹⁴¹ et alibi: in tribulatione inuocaui dominum et exaudiuit me in latitudine.¹⁴² bona ergo tribulatio, quae dignos facit qui in latitudine exaudiamur a domino; gratia est autem exaudiri a domino deo nostro.

44. Qui quaerit igitur tribulationem, non refugit, qui non refugit, inuenitur; non enim refugit qui mandata dei sensu operibusque meditatur. nam utique illum athletam certamina inueniunt, qui in usu exercitii fuerit constitutus; qui uero exercitium dereliquerit, sine dubio non poterit repperiri, quia indignus est ut quaeratur. Dauid ergo quasi bonus athleta dicit: tribulatio et necessitas inuenerunt me,¹⁴³ quia paratum semper habuerunt, non refugientem necessitatum et tribulationum proelia, sed petentem.

45. Sequitur: iustitia testimonia tua in aeternum; intellectum da mihi eorum et uiuifica me.¹⁴⁴ quis tantus, qui possit intellegere domini testimonia? et ideo in-

tellectus a domino postulandus est, cuius tanta est uis, ut initium eius sit plenitudo uirtutis. denique scriptum est: pietas autem in deo initium intellectus,¹⁴⁵ quae uirtutum omnium fundamentum est humanarum iuxta rerum et caelestium disciplinam. pietas amica deo, parentibus grata, dominum conciliat, necessitudines fouet, dei cultura, merces parentum, filiorum stipendium; pietas, inquam, iustorum tribunal, egenorum portus, miserorum suffugium, indulgentia peccatorum.

46. Qui habet intellectum, ipse uere est pius; intellegit enim humanae lubricum fragilitatis et cito ignoscit erranti. intellegit commune nobis datum naturae ususque consortium et ideo pauperibus tamquam debitum soluit, non infitiatur tamquam indebitum. intellegit uices esse calamitatum et ideo tamquam naufragis mundi istius portu quodam suae humanitatis occurrit. haec perfecta uirtus in hominibus, haec plena in deo laus est.

47. Merito intellectum sibi etiam Salomon paternum secutus magisterium a domino postulauit dicens: ego sum puer humilis et ignoro introitum meum et exitum meum. et seruus tuus in medio populi tui, quem elegisti populum multum sicut harenam maris quae dinumerari non potest prae multitudine. et dabis seruo tuo cor prudens audire et iudicare cum iustitia populum tuum et intellegere inter bonum et malum.¹⁴⁶ unde conplacuit domino,¹⁴⁷ quia non sibi longaeuitatem uitae et regalium diuitiarum copias, sed sapientiam ad intellegenda domini iudicia et iustitias depoposcit et ideo tantum populum regno pacifico gubernauit, quia non usurpauit ut Adam boni et mali scire distantiam,¹⁴⁸ sed intellegendae eius gratiam orauit a

Christo. quod enim scire diuinum est, hoc a domino deo tuo ut possis cognoscere promerendum est. si petisset et Adam, sicut petiuit Dauid, nequaquam illos inextricabiles erroris laqueos incidisset, quibus omnis eius hereditas strangulatur. ideoque mortuus est et, quod grauius est, morte peccati, quia ante usurpauit scire quam intellectum quo uiuificaretur acciperet.

48. Uiuificat ergo intellectus, ut spiritus, quia ipse intellectus gratia spiritalis est,¹⁴⁹ ideoque intellectum munere suo spiritus sanctus operatur. intellectus autem bonus est omnibus qui eum faciunt.¹⁵⁰ quo docemur, quia non solum sensu conplecti, sed etiam factis id quod intellegimus exequi debeamus.

1. There follows the eighteenth letter of psalm one hundred and eighteen, Sade, which in Latin interpretation is called consolation. After the tears flowing in the manner of torrents and the heavy weeping of grief, it was fitting that consolation should follow. For both those who are in griefs need consolation, and those who in heavy hardships have paid the punishment of crimes committed hope for indulgence, and those who have washed their own offenses with weepings and tears earn rest.

2. Whoever seeks all these things in the divine Scriptures finds them. For first of all, that we should console those placed in grief — this she teaches who in the book of Jeremiah cries lamentingly to the captives and exiles of the Jews: Go forth, set out, my children; for I am left desolate. I have put off the robe of peace, and have put on the robe of my supplication, and I will cry to the Most High in my days. Be of good courage, my children, cry out to the Lord, and he will draw you out of the hand of your enemies' princes. For I have hoped in him eternal for your salvation.¹ Therefore, for those who believe in the Lord there is consolation in the Lord's mercy. There is also another kind of consolation for those who have paid heavy penalties, as you have written in the book of Isaiah: Comfort, comfort my people, saith the Lord; you priests, speak to the heart of Jerusalem, comfort her, for her humiliation is fulfilled; her iniquity is forgiven, for she has received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins.² Even though

faith was lacking, the punishment had given satisfaction; those who are not absolved by the commendation of merits are relieved by the discharge of their penalties. The third is when the crime is washed away by tears, as is that: Depart from me, all you who work iniquity, for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping.³ Which is also easily found in this place and in many places in the book of Psalms.

3. Therefore consolation comes first in order, since God does not forget to show mercy, nor does he cast off forever those whom he has determined to chasten.⁴ Second, that when we have run through the punishments which we have endured for our sins, we are admitted to pardon. Whence certain philosophers have argued that absolution harms the wicked, that death profits them, because in the former lies the incentive to sin, but in death is the end of sinning.⁵ Who can doubt that this was taken from our writings, when in the Proverbs of Solomon it stands: He who spares the rod, hates his son, but the Lord chastises him whom he loves,⁶ and below: The whip is for the horse and the goad for the ass, but the rod for the imprudent nation?⁷ For punishment corrects and amends the one who errs. If anyone is such that he cannot be amended, he is removed from our midst, lest he commit graver things; for the dead man no longer knows how to err. Therefore Ecclesiastes says: And I have praised the dead more than the living, and best is he above these, who has not yet been born, who has not seen this evil work.⁸ The dead is preferred to the living, because he has ceased to sin; preferred to the dead is he who has not been born, because he has not known how to sin.

4. Now let us also speak of those who have paid the penalties of their crimes. Have not these paid the price of guilt, and is not the punishment now no longer

owed to them in full? The Lord cries through Isaiah: Comfort my people, for she has received from the hand of the Lord double for her sins.⁹ Learn whence Plato took these things. Going to Egypt for the sake of his learning, that he might come to know the oracles of Moses' law and the sayings of the prophets, he heard the consolation of the people, who seemed to have been punished beyond the measure of their sin, and this passage, veiled with a certain ornament of words, he transferred into the dialogue which he wrote On Virtue.¹⁰ Yet which passage the Lord in the Gospel comprehends more fully and declares more openly, saying through the person of Abraham to that rich man of this age: Son, remember that thou didst receive good things in thy life, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he hath consolation, and thou art tormented. And in all these things, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, that those who would pass hence to you cannot, neither thence pass over to us.¹¹ But let us now hear what the just one speaks in consoling himself.

5. Thou art just, O Lord, and thy judgment is right. [Thou hast commanded justice thy testimonies and thy truth exceedingly.]¹² Truly a just man is he who, flowing with tears, wrapped in hardships, paying out his offenses with heavy punishment, is not overcome by weariness, not broken by fear, not exhausted by labor, not ungrateful or sad. For most often the common run of men, not reckoning their own offenses, think they bear unjustly the things they suffer. But the just man, who from the very beginning of his discourse accuses himself, proclaims the justice of the Lord, that he suffers things worthy of his deserts. By saying that God is just, he indeed proclaims his own injustice beforehand, but from the Lord's justice he hopes also for pardon. For the just one is not always

angry; just as he is the avenger of guilt, so also is he the moderator of punishment; just as he is the punisher of sins, so also is he the rewarder of virtues and of the best deserts. He who would give the prize must look to the contest, for no one is crowned without contending.¹³ Therefore he often allows us to be tempted, willing justly to give rewards to one who wrestles, not to one who sleeps. The crown becomes not those decked with flowers but those covered with dust; nor does victory adorn the soft with delights, but those exercised by labor.

6. The just man, then, in his adversities praises the justice of God. But not so does the parent who has lost tender children feel, not the husband widowed of an untimely bond, not the sick man in his pain, not the shipwrecked in his peril, not the accused in judgment, not the captive in the snare. Yet Jeremiah cries out, when, announcing to the peoples the hardship of the coming captivity, he was about to be drowned in the foul filth of a pit of mire:¹⁴ Thou art just, O Lord. He cries again, when he was tormented by the wretched servitudes of a vanquished people: The Lord is just, for I have provoked his mouth. Without, the sword bereaves; within is death.¹⁵ The Hebrews cried out, when on account of their devout virtue and the grace of faith they were surrounded by the flames of the burning furnace: Thou art just in all that thou hast done, and therefore they were granted, that, unharmed by the fires, they might proclaim the justices of the Lord.¹⁶ Daniel the prophet too, sent a second time into the den of lions and surrounded with the fierceness and horror of monstrous beasts, with undaunted shout was tossing forth that all things were right in the sight of the Lord.¹⁷ Jonah, shut up in the belly of the beast, scarcely having free passage of breath, just

though he was, condemned with the lot of the unjust, was crying from the whale's belly in the sea: With a voice of praise and confession I beseech thee.¹⁸

David, when he was fleeing from the face of Absalom, struck by parricidal arms and weapons and cast forth from his kingdom, when he offered himself for the destruction of the whole people, was saying: Thou art just, O Lord, and thy judgment is right.¹⁹ What has this innocent flock done? I, the shepherd, have done evil.²⁰ Before a just God let the punishment be taken from the author of the guilt. Abraham himself, the father of faith, when from the old man his only son was demanded for sacrifice, was tempering his fatherly love by confession of the divine justice, saying: Thou art just, O Lord. For thou dost not demand what is not thine, but askest back thine own; I restore to thee the very one whom thou gavest. Imitating him, Job, when his children were destroyed and his patrimony stripped away, rending the cloak of his own body said: Naked was I born, naked, said he, and I shall die. The Lord gave, the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.²¹

7. Let us all therefore proclaim the Lord just. Both he who composes his dying limbs in the tomb and he who is struck by loss or by the funeral of his children, let him say: Thou art just, O Lord. For what of our own do we lose? The Apostle cries: What hast thou that thou hast not received?²² What we have, then, we have received; what therefore we lose, we render back, we do not lose. The Lord is just in dangers, just in losses, just in vengeances — not only because each man pays justly the price of his guilt, but also because, while one is punished, many are corrected. Ananias in the Acts of the Apostles committed the crime of the price defrauded which he had received from the sale of his field, who could have offered nothing and escaped the crime.²³ But lest anyone suppose that the apostles could be defrauded with impunity or

defile by the fraud of perfidy the gift of his mercy, struck down with eternal death he disposed all to the zeal of faith with a just terror. Pharaoh, drowned with his people in the waves, is the example of worldly conduct, that no one persecute the people of God. For God could indeed have made him obedient to his will, but by his punishment he willed that all should be amended; and so the Lord says to him: For this very purpose have I raised thee up, that I may show in thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout the whole earth,²⁴ not, surely, that the Lord was seeking the increase of his own praise, but of our correction.

8. Therefore all the wise say: Thou art just, O Lord, and thy judgment is right.²⁵ For neither are we delivered to adversaries without his judgment, nor without his judgment do we come into tribulations. This is the consolation of the just; this is the judgment of the Lord. Indeed also above you have it: I remembered thy judgments which are from the beginning, and I was consoled.²⁶ Note then that the Lord's judgments are consolations.

9. Thou hast commanded justice thy testimonies and thy truth exceedingly.²⁷ Is it 'thou hast commanded exceedingly,' or 'thy exceeding truth'? But both an exceeding truth is full of praise, and to command exceedingly belongs to providence and care. For he knew the weak; therefore he warned them more often, lest they should forget.

10. There follows the third verse: The zeal of thy house hath consumed me, because my enemies have forgotten thy words.²⁸ There is a zeal unto life and a zeal unto death. Zeal unto life is to keep the divine precepts and out of love of the Lord to guard his commandments, as Phinehas did, of whom we read in Numbers with the Lord saying

to Moses: Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned away my fury from the children of Israel, in that he was zealous for me with my zeal among them, and I did not consume the children of Israel in my zeal. So I have said: behold, I give him the testament of peace, and there shall be to him and to his seed after him the testament of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made supplication for the children of Israel.²⁹ Twenty-four thousand of the people lay slain; the punishment was reaching toward all, nor was there any end to the destruction. Phinehas seized the siromastes, slew the two coupled in forbidden intercourse,³⁰ redeemed all, mitigated the indignation of the Lord, gave victory to those to whom he was denying salvation. How salvific, then, is the zeal of God!

11. That vice was not of one age only; even now the Jew is mingled with a Midianitish woman. The Midianitish woman is one not joined by any union of lawful wife, not joined by any fellowship of faith. The Midianitish woman is the perfidy of heretics, when she tempts the people of God. Into how many peoples this deadly harlot has crept, who has buried a whole people in a public funeral by a common death! Come now, Phinehas, seize the sword of the word, slay perfidy, butcher heresy, lest on her account the whole people perish. Heavenly wrath presses on: strike the very womb of impiety and the breeding-place of perfidy, lest an unhappy birth be formed, lest an adulterous conception spread the seed-bed of prevarication and crime, that the Lord may establish with thee the testament of peace and the testament of grace, the testament of heavenly promises. The priest must have zeal, who is eager to keep uncorrupted the chastity of the Church; and therefore the prince of priests says: The zeal of thy house consumes

me.³¹ Phinehas too was a priest, and grandson of a priest, and son of a priest. Good is the zeal and useful in a priest, especially that he be not negligent, not slack. Better that by the condemnation of one or two many be set free than that by the absolution of two more should be endangered.

12. The zeal of thy house, he says, hath consumed me.³² You see that the zeal of God is grace, which seeks out, which comes upon, which pours itself into the breast of the just. The zeal of God is life. Indeed the Lord says: The zeal of thy house hath devoured me.³³ For just as before in Adam prevailing death had devoured man, so zeal devoured him whom it gave life to in Christ. Elijah had zeal, and therefore he was caught up to heaven — with zeal, he says, I have been zealous for the Lord —;³⁴ and Mattathias the Hasmonean had zeal, who against the sacrileges of Antiochus stirred up God's people.³⁵ Those who have zeal think all who are enemies of God their own enemies, even though they be father, brothers, sisters; concerning all of them he says: They have become enemies to me, as David says.³⁶ What more? Even an apostle of the Lord was distinguished by this name, so that he was called Judas Zealotes, as we read in the Gospel.³⁷

13. By zeal of faith the people of the Gentiles acquired for themselves life eternal, which by negligence and sloth the people of the Jews lost. And so it is written: Zeal shall lay hold on the unlearned people,³⁸ since the people who were learned in the law had no ardor of faith. Zeal betook itself to the nations, whose grace is so great that it has overcome the prerogative of election, has surpassed the industry of erudition. Indeed, laying hold of the unlearned people, it made them better. And so this grace worked

in the people of the nations, that they might deserve the inheritance of the Lord — that grace by which the Lord wrought to join to himself the Church out of the nations. Zeal therefore is charity. Indeed charity is strong as death, zeal hard as hell.³⁹ Hard is that zeal which no enticement of this life conquers, hard as hell, by which we die to sin, that we may live to God.⁴⁰

14. The angels too without zeal are nothing and lose the prerogative of their substance, unless they sustain it by the ardor of zeal. Indeed in the Apocalypse of John the Lord says to the angel of Laodicea: I know thy works; thou art neither cold nor hot. Would that thou wert cold or hot! But because thou art lukewarm, I shall begin to spit thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest: I am rich and made wealthy and have need of nothing — and thou knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and a beggar and naked and blind: I counsel thee to buy from me gold tried by fire.⁴¹ This is the zeal of God, this the vapor of faith and the fervor of devotion, which softens us as a sweet food in Christ and shapes us. How great is the Lord's grace, that he places us in his own mouth and feeds upon, as it were, the dishes of our merits, and, if we deserve it, devours us, if he is delighted by the sweetness of our food!⁴² Blessed is he whom wisdom has devoured, whom virtue has drained, whom justice has received. Guilt cannot have a portion in him whom the remission of sins has absorbed. Where shall error find him whom unspotted integrity has received?

15. And what wonder, if the angels have it, when God the Father himself says: With zeal I will be zealous for Jerusalem with great zeal⁴³ — for since God is great, therefore his zeal also is great, and according to

the quality of each one's power, so is his zeal either modest or great. By zeal Jerusalem is vindicated, by zeal the Church is gathered, by zeal faith is acquired, by zeal chastity is possessed. The Lord Jesus also says: The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up, rebuking the Jews because they had made the house of prayer a den of thieves, had made it also a house of merchandise.⁴⁴

16. But we must be zealous not only for the place of the Church, but for this inner house of God within us also, lest it be a house of merchandise or a den of thieves. For if we hunt after gains, profits of money, and emoluments, we have made it a house of merchandise; if we invade others' possessions — the boundaries of the widow or of minors — we have made it a den of thieves. Let, therefore, the word of God come and cast out from this house the thieves, the plunderers, the hucksters, that thy heart, thy breast may be clean.

17. But there is a zeal unto guilt, and a zeal unto grace. For David himself says: I have been zealous against the wicked, seeing the peace of sinners,⁴⁵ and in Ecclesiasticus it is written: Be not jealous over the wife of thy bosom, lest she show against thee the malice of a wicked teaching,⁴⁶ and a jealous woman is rightly reproved against a faithful woman. We see, then, that there is a certain measure and discipline of zeal, just as there is a discipline of virtue. And therefore blessed is he who knows the discipline of zeal and hates those who, abandoning the grace of the Lord, desert their own salvation, and take to themselves the error of fraud.

18. Therefore he says: because my enemies have forgotten thy words.⁴⁷ Who are these enemies? If the people of the Jews, how were they enemies, set as they were under his rule? For David ruled all the Jews under his own kingship. If the Gentiles, how had those forgotten the words of God who had not known the law of the Lord? For no one can forget except what he has received. Those, then, are my enemies

who are thy enemies, who would not receive the Lord coming into his own.⁴⁸ These the prophet bears witness as his grievous foes, his enemies — not those who were against himself, but those who were rebels against Christ. Indeed elsewhere he says: And against thy enemies I pined away; with a perfect hatred I hated them,⁴⁹ thinking the arms of perfidy graver than those of battle; for no one is a graver enemy to all than he who injures the author of all. Therefore by great zeal the people of the nations was acquired, since God was being denied by his own people; for they could not hold either devotion of faith or discipline of virtue, who did not hold the memory of heavenly precepts. So Adam was cast out of paradise, so the people of the Jews was excluded from the prerogative of election.

19. There follows the fourth verse: Thy speech is exceedingly inflamed, and thy servant has loved it.⁵⁰ The Lord indeed sent fire into the earth,⁵¹ not that it might again burn with a Sodomitish blaze, as it is written,⁵² nor that he might shut it out from the gift granted of fruitfulness or from the use or flower of green vigor; for the Lord is wont rather to approve and increase his own work than to diminish or condemn it. Nor was it fitting that the innocent elements should pay the vengeance of our crime. What had nature transgressed, if its grown-up offspring went astray? The birth was not in fault, if the progeny slipped by a deviating error, but the use was in fault. What fire, then, did the Lord scatter in the New Testament? The fire that should inflame the inmost affections of minds with the ardor of divine knowledge, that should kindle the vapor of faith and devotion, that should set ablaze the desire of virtue. Warmed by this fire, Jeremiah says: And there was a flaming fire

in my bones.⁵³ Cleopas and that other one, vaporized by this fire of heavenly speeches, who had with the Lord finished their journey from Jerusalem to the village, were saying: Was not our heart burning within us, when he opened the scriptures to us?⁵⁴

20. This fire, therefore, is the speech of Christ — and good is the fire which knows how to warm, and knows not how to burn up except sins alone. By this fire, set upon a good foundation, that apostolic gold is tested; by this fire that pure silver of works is tried; by this fire those precious stones are illumined, while the hay and stubble are consumed.⁵⁵ This fire, then, cleanses the soul, consumes error. Whence the Lord says: Now you are clean by reason of the word which I have spoken to you.⁵⁶ This is the fire which burns before the Lord;⁵⁷ for unless one has taken on the flagrance of devotion, he cannot have the presence of the Lord. Kindle this fire first in your mind, that the light of Christ may shine forth on thee. With this fire the bush burned and was not burned up;⁵⁸ for the divine word burns, that it may correct the conscience of the sinner; it does not burn up, that it should destroy. This fire is wont to dull, this fire to extinguish the cruel blazes of material flames; indeed the Hebrews, kindled by this fire, could neither fear nor feel the vapor of the burning furnace.⁵⁹ Rightly therefore the good servant loves the inflamed address of the Lord, by which he is clothed with charity, which casts out fear.⁶⁰

21. Beautifully too he added 'exceedingly,' since every teacher inflames the affection of his hearer, but above all is the word of God, piercing to the divisions of joints and the inmost parts of the marrow.⁶¹ Threefold then describe to thyself the inflamed address of God: that which cleanses, or that which kindles, or that which illuminates the hearers. Therefore the Lord says:

I have searched Jerusalem with a lamp,⁶² but found in her no one either to be cleansed or to be kindled or to be illuminated; therefore he abandoned her in her darkness.

22. Nor wonder if the servant loves the inflamed address of the Lord, which the bride too loved, who said: Thy lips are as a scarlet thread;⁶³ for in scarlet there is the appearance of fire, and the blood of the Lord's cross gleams red. Scarlet are the lips of the Lord, which were speaking his own Passion. Indeed in Exodus scarlet is set in place of fire.⁶⁴ For the world is not made of scarlet, but of four elements; yet in scarlet the figure of fire is expressed, whose vapor, unless it penetrated heaven and air, sea and lands, all things would be dissolved as if by exhausted strengths. Through the little cord, therefore, we recognize the bond of persuasion; through the scarlet, either the ardor of desire which sparkles in the souls of hearers, or the sign of the Passion. Whence elsewhere the bride says: His lips are lilies dropping full myrrh.⁶⁵ For through myrrh the unguent of the Passion and the grace of the resurrection are declared, which pours forth a renewed odor of life into the inwards of the dead now risen. Rightly therefore, receiving the sweetness of his address, the bride exclaims, bearing witness: His mouth is sweetnesses, and he is wholly desirable.⁶⁶

23. There follows: I am young and despised; I have not forgotten thy justifications.⁶⁷ To many of the saints, who have been exercised from their first youth in hard labors, this little verse can fit. For Joseph, when he was sold by his brothers into Egypt, was younger and despised, who was being sold to the injury of slavery. And afterwards, when

brought forth from prison and set over Egypt he was distributing grain to the peoples, was not requiting injury to his brothers but, returning the price, was giving them food, was rescuing the aged years of his father from hunger and fasting, and bowing his chariot toward him with the others serving was adoring him with the insignia of ample power, he rightly was saying: I am younger and despised; I have not forgotten thy justifications.⁶⁸

24. He also, younger than his brothers, when he was pasturing his father's sheep as if dispatched on a menial duty, was not presented to the priest, as though unworthy to be anointed unto the kingdom; but sought out by the priest and called from the pastures, he received the prerogative of the royal anointing.⁶⁹ Afterwards too, when he had gone forth to war, when Goliath, despising the whole people of the Jews on account of his bodily mass, was challenging them to single combat, while the others were afraid he asked of the king that he be granted the opportunity of engaging him. Not even then was he reckoned fit for so great a contest, the king saying: Thou canst not go to the foreigner and fight with him, for thou art a boy and he is a man of war from his youth.⁷⁰ Nor would he have been admitted, had he not given proof that in his own youth he had crushed a lion strangled by his own hands by drawing out the legs of the seized sheep.⁷¹ Despised even by the foreigner himself, since against an armed warrior he had advanced with a staff and stones, he reported that he had not relied on his own strengths, not on weapons, but, trusting in the name of the Lord, had advanced into battle, that he might take away the reproach from the people who had been challenged. This youth, then, both young and despised, laid the foreigner low, and gaining the victory triumphed in the testimony of ten thousand maidens making melody.⁷²

25. For he was bearing the type of him who was about to come, as it were despised, into the lands and, without legate, without helper, without messenger, was to free the whole people of this world by the battle of his cross — to whom would applaud the souls of the saints renewed through the sacraments of baptism, in that he had slain that true Goliath, revealed and exposed to us, with the sword of his word. Lies therefore the true Goliath, laid low by the humility of the Son of God, has lost his head, which he was turning to many arts and frauds. The souls now safe, which before were weeping for the torments of their own sins, now make music. Sounding upon the timbrels — that is, upon their own bodies dead to sin — they say: Saul triumphed in thousands, David in ten thousands.⁷³ That harsh king, the devil, is indignant and grows angry, because the maidens were singing that the son of harshness had deceived a few, but Christ has redeemed the whole world. Therefore Christ, born of a virgin, says: I am young and despised; I have not forgotten thy justifications.⁷⁴

26. The people of the nations also says — that people which in the first election was despised, still rough in faith and youthful in the zeal of an early devotion, or surely renewed in the eagle's youth through the sacraments of baptism:⁷⁵ I am young and despised; I have not forgotten thy justifications. I, that despised one before, am now preferred, am now set before the elect; I, the people of sinners formerly despised, have the venerable communions of the heavenly sacraments. Now I am received with the honor of the heavenly table. For my banquets no rain is poured down, no birth-pang of the earth labors, no fruit of trees; for my drink no rivers are to be sought, no fountains. Christ is to me food, Christ is drink, the flesh of God is my food and the blood of God is my drink. No longer do I wait for yearly produce for my satiety; Christ is daily ministered to me. I shall not fear lest any

intemperance of the heavens or barrenness of the country diminish him for me, if the diligence of pious worship perseveres. No longer do I wish for the rains of quails which I once marveled at to come down,⁷⁶ no longer the manna which I once preferred to all foods, for the fathers who ate manna were hungry.⁷⁷ Mine is the food, which whoever shall eat shall not hunger,⁷⁸ mine is the food which does not fatten the body, but strengthens the heart of man.⁷⁹

27. Once the bread from heaven was a wonder to me — for it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat⁸⁰ — but that was not the true bread, but the shadow of what was to come. The true Bread from heaven my Father has reserved for me; for me that Bread of God has come down from heaven, who gives life to this world⁸¹ — not for the Jews has he come down, not for the synagogue has he come down, but for the Church he has come down, but for the younger people of God has he come down. For how came down for the Jews the bread that gave life, since all who ate that bread (that is, manna, which the Jews thought to be the true bread) died in the desert? How for the synagogue, since the whole synagogue has perished and, wasted with the eternal fasting of faith, has fainted? Indeed if they had received the true bread, they would not have said: Lord, give us this bread always.⁸²

28. Why dost thou ask, O Jew, that he give thee a bread which he gives to all, gives daily, gives always? It is in thee thyself to receive this bread; come to this bread and thou shalt receive him. Of this bread it has been said: All that depart from thee shall perish⁸³; if thou shalt depart from him, thou shalt perish; if thou shalt come near him, thou shalt live. This is the bread of life;⁸⁴ he therefore who eats life cannot die. For how shall he die for whom food is life? How shall he fail who has the substance of life itself? Come ye to him and be filled, for he is bread; come ye to him and drink, for he is fountain; come ye to him and

be illuminated, for he is light;⁸⁵ come ye to him and be made free, for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty;⁸⁶ come ye to him and be loosed, for he is the remission of sins.⁸⁷ Who he is, you ask? Hear him saying: I am the bread of life; he that comes to me shall not hunger and he that believes in me shall never thirst.⁸⁸ You have heard him, and you have seen him, and you have not believed in him, therefore you are dead. At least now believe, that you may be able to live.

29. But you wonder at Moses, because he led your fathers through the sea with dry footsteps. Moses did not command but obtained by entreaty; he did not order the sea but served the one who ordered the waves. You praise Moses because he sank Pharaoh the king with his army. Moses prayed and another commanded; Moses besought, Christ wrought; Moses fled, Christ pursued; Moses followed the pillar, that he might avoid the nightly darkness; Christ illumined. You acknowledge Moses, who tempered the bitterness of water,⁸⁹ you acknowledge Moses, who brought forth water from the rock:⁹⁰ you do not acknowledge Christ, who laid low the army of that true Egyptian king and sank it in the depth of the abyss,⁹¹ who frees us daily from the waves of this world, lest the storm of the age drown us. What did it profit the fathers to pass through the Red Sea, who were not allowed to come to the land of resurrection?⁹² For all who came out of Egypt perished in the desert. Aaron is dead, Mary is dead, Moses himself too is dead; only Joshua [Jesu Naue] the likeness of the sacred name preserved. Let the Jew applaud, because the rocks belched forth a wave for him as he thirsted: for me from the body of God an eternal fountain has flowed, my bitternesses Christ drank, that he might give me the sweetness of his own grace.

30. Therefore the Christian people says: I am young and despised; I have not forgotten thy justifications.⁹³ Well does he say this who has justified God by the sacraments of baptism. For he who is baptized justifies God, because he confesses his own sins and awaits from the Lord pardon for his offenses. David justified him, who said: To thee only have I sinned, and have done evil before thee, that thou mayest be justified in thy words.⁹⁴ The Pharisees did not justify God, who would not be baptized with John's baptism, as you have read in the Gospel.⁹⁵ Nor is it enough only to justify, but also not to forget the justifications of God — that is, that one keep the gifts of spiritual grace undefiled and preserve the gifts of sacred remission unimpaired and uninjured.

31. These things are general. But also a special prerogative is open to individual Christians of saying: I am young and despised,⁹⁶ if he be humble of heart, if meek and gentle.⁹⁷ Let him say, then: I am young and despised,⁹⁸ let him put first the boastfulness common to his age, that he may the more commend the grace of his humility. Humility is no marvel in old age, which, sapped in its strengths, broken with infirmities,⁹⁹ sad with pains, panting with sighs, cooked with the heats of cares, and itself wearied with the disgust of living, has forgotten the alacrity of boastfulness. Rare indeed in young men is humility, and therefore to be marveled at. While age flourishes, while strengths are solid, while blood is hot,¹⁰⁰ while solicitude is unknown, while infirmity is not known, while gladness is frequent — then boastfulness boils, then the proud affection of youth lifts itself up, then humility is, as it were, cheapened, despised, cast aside;

then the subjection of a degenerate conscience is reckoned an infirmity. Great then is the maturity of morals to be cultivated, which conquers nature.

32. Indeed let us so consider: in paradise humility failed, and therefore it came from heaven; in paradise disobedience arose, and therefore obedience came down with the Saviour. The flesh was puffed up, whence the subjection of meekness could not be found upon earth; the whole inheritance of the prevaricator had swelled. Coming, the Lord Jesus first emptied himself, not thinking it robbery to be equal to God, taking the form of a servant; and in appearance found as man, he humbled himself, made obedient unto death.¹⁰¹ Let it not move thee that it is written 'as man'; for he did not assume the likeness of man, but the truth. For the Apostle himself elsewhere says: the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus,¹⁰² and to bring an example also from the Gospel: We have seen, says John, his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.¹⁰³ Did he, because he said 'as of the only-begotten,' wish the likeness rather than the truth of the only-begotten to be reckoned?

33. Not in vain therefore did Christ come. Now man can say: I am young and despised,¹⁰⁴ who before, in the older people, was a proud old man. He says: I am young and despised, just as the Church says: I am black and beautiful.¹⁰⁵ She put 'black' first, that she might increase her beauty; so here too he put 'young' first, that he might increase the humility. He did not say: 'I am black, beautiful' — lest what is black be reckoned beautiful — nor did he say: 'I am young, despised,'

lest youth be thought despicable; but he said 'young' and, what you may marvel at, 'humble,' not 'proud,' nearer to the cast-down than to the swollen. So also there: I am black by the former sin, but beautiful by the confession of sin and the zeal of correction and the love of virtue. Although therefore the syllable and, as the grammarians call it, is conjunctive, it nevertheless has a distinction by which confusion is disjoined and separated, so that, if you should say that Ambrosius Bassus is within, one is supposed; but if you should assert that Ambrosius and Bassus are within, surely two are understood.

34. Let him say therefore: I am young and despised,¹⁰⁶ because Christ in a poor and despised one redeemed the world, because Christ overcame the devil by humility. Let him say: 'I am despised,' because a humbled heart God does not despise,¹⁰⁷ because that despised Lazarus now rests in the bosom of Abraham, and that more boastful rich man is afflicted in hell.¹⁰⁸ Despised was Moses, nor did he seem fit to himself, when he was being sent to deliver the Hebrew people.¹⁰⁹ Despised was Jeremiah, who said: Lord God, behold I cannot speak, for I am young,¹¹⁰ but that despised one is more easily chosen; for it is said to him: Say not, I am young, for to all to whom I shall send thee thou shalt go, and whatsoever I shall command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid before their face, for I am with thee, says the Lord, that I may deliver thee.¹¹¹ Despised was that publican, who dared not lift his eyes to heaven, and therefore was heard sooner than that Pharisee;¹¹² for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.¹¹³

35. There follows: Thy justice is justice forever, and thy law is truth.¹¹⁴ Individuals indeed can do works of justice, but not works that abide forever. The rich man, to whom riches abounded in this world, perhaps did some works of justice for which he received the recompense in the present life,¹¹⁵ because those works were not great or worthy of an eternal reward. What of this — that even if we do some works of justice, yet we do them not continually, but seldom? Many do not seize others' goods, yet do not know how to give of their own; others, invading undue resources, that they may seek for themselves a show of justice, are wont to bestow on the poor. That is no justice forever. Many just men have often grievously sinned, not having the fruit of an eternal justice. To God alone does it belong to possess justice forever and through all things, who feeds both the just and the unjust; for justice is not to be referred to benefactions alone, but that is true justice which is rendered also to enemies, and rightly does the Justice of God say: Love your enemies.¹¹⁶

36. Just then as forever is the justice of God alone, so the law of God is truth.¹¹⁷ But how do we take this? Whether because the law of God is truth — that is, true, and what God ordains is wholly true, as below he says: All thy precepts are truth¹¹⁸ — or because truth is the law of God, since God does not lie?¹¹⁹ With him, then, truth is law, falsehood prevarication. But it can also be thus: the law of God is truth; among the Jews therefore there is no law of God, because they do not receive the truth. The law of God is spiritual, as the Apostle said;¹²⁰ therefore those have not the true law who have not received it spiritually. But what

is not true is mendacious, and what lies, kills. The letter, therefore, which kills, lies; the spirit, which gives life, is true.¹²¹

37. Let us also take it thus: the law of God is not a type, not a shadow, not a copy of heavenly things, but the very heavenly things themselves. Whence it is also written that the end of the law is Christ,¹²² not surely a defect, but the fullness of the law is in Christ, because he came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.¹²³ For just as the testament is old, but all truth is in the new testament, so also the law given through Moses is the figure of the true law. Therefore that law is the example of truth; for in the example the blood of the lamb is poured out, in the truth Christ is sacrificed. And rightly the Apostle, when he had set forth the immolation of bullocks according to the law, added: It is necessary therefore that the examples of heavenly things be cleansed with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices. For Christ entered not into the holy places made with hands, the patterns of the true, but into heaven itself, and now appears before the face of God for us.¹²⁴ But that we may know that the Lord Jesus has given a new law, you have the Spirit saying: This is the testament which I will testify to them, says the Lord: I will give my laws in their hearts and in their minds I will write them, and of their sin and unrighteousness I will be no more mindful.¹²⁵ Where therefore is remission, there is no more oblation for sins. Whereby he plainly shows thee that all truth is contained in the Gospel, since the law of God is written in the senses of men and in their hearts, not in tablets of stone¹²⁶ — they therefore who have not God's precepts in their hearts have not the law — or because it grows old in the Jews, it is renewed in us.

38. It is a shadow, not the truth, that, when the offering for sins is made according to the law, the remission of sins should not be made; for it is impossible for sins to be cleansed by the blood of bulls and goats.¹²⁷ False therefore was that remission, until the truth of remission should come. What more is more manifest than the saying of the evangelist John, who says: for the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ?¹²⁸ πρὸς ἀντιδιαστολήν (by way of contrast) of the law he set down truth. For since autem is a disjunction, it must be understood that the disjunction was for that reason interposed, because, if truth had been in the law, it would not have been wrought through Christ.

39. We can also understand it thus: truth is Christ; therefore truth is law, and if the commandment of the Lord is law, much more is the living and operative word of God law.

40. There follows the seventh verse: Tribulation and necessity have found me; thy commandments are my meditation.¹²⁹ Tribulations and necessities seek the just man, and sometimes find him, sometimes do not find him. He is found to whom the crown is due; he is not found who is not approved as fit for the contest. Tribulation, therefore, is as it were a certain grace; indeed a sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit¹³⁰ — or is grace not that which works patience? He, then, who knew that the gain of tribulation was a profit, sought by tribulation was found, nor did he flee.

41. Wisdom says: The wicked shall seek me and shall not find me¹³¹ — not because the Lord did not wish to be found by men (he who offered himself to all even to those not seeking him), but because by such works he was sought that those seeking might be unworthy to find. But Simeon, who was awaiting him, found him,¹³² Andrew found him; indeed

he says to Simon: We have found the Messiah, which is interpreted Christ.¹³³ Philip too says to Nathanael: Him whom Moses wrote of in the law and the prophets we have found, Jesus, son of Joseph, who is from Nazareth,¹³⁴ and to show how Christ is found, he says: Come and see.¹³⁵ He, therefore, who seeks Christ, let him come not by the step of the body but by the foot-tracks of the mind, let him see him not with outward but with inward eyes. For the Eternal is not seen with bodily glances, since the things that are seen are temporal, but the things that are not seen are eternal.¹³⁶ Christ therefore is not temporal, but from the Father before times, as it were the true God, the true Son of God, and as it were eternal Power above times, whom no end of times encloses, as it were Life above times, whom no day of death finds. For in that he died, he died to sin once; in that he lives, he lives to God.¹³⁷

42. Do you hear what the Apostle has said today? To sin, he says, he died once. Once for thee, the sinner, did Christ die; do not sin again after baptism. For all in common he died once, and for individuals once he dies, not often. Thou art sin, O man; therefore the Almighty Father made his Christ sin, made him man, who should bear our sins. To me, then, in sin did the Lord Jesus die, that we might be in him the justice of God.¹³⁸ To me he is dead, that to me he might rise again; once he died, once he rose. And thou, dead with him, buried with him,¹³⁹ raised again with him in baptism, take heed lest, when thou hast once died, thou die a second time. Thou shalt no longer die to sin, but to pardon, lest, when thou hast risen, thou die a second time. For Christ,

rising from the dead, dies now no more, death shall no more have dominion over him.¹⁴⁰ Did death therefore have dominion over him? Surely so, because by saying now no more shall it have dominion, he shows it once had. Lose not so great a benefit, O man: for thy sake Christ subjected himself to the dominion of death, that he might strip thee of the yoke of dominion. He took up the servitude of death, that he might bestow on thee the liberty of life eternal.

43. He, therefore, who seeks Christ, seeks his tribulation also and does not flee his Passion. Indeed David, who was worthy to be sought by tribulation, also himself sought tribulation; for had he not sought, he would not have found. That he found, he himself testifies, saying: I found tribulation and sorrow and called on the name of the Lord,¹⁴¹ and elsewhere: In tribulation I called upon the Lord, and he heard me at large.¹⁴² Good therefore is tribulation which makes us worthy to be heard at large by the Lord; and grace it is to be heard by the Lord our God.

44. He therefore who seeks tribulation, does not flee; he who does not flee, is found; for he does not flee who meditates the commandments of God in mind and in works. For surely the contests find that athlete who has been set in the practice of exercise; but he who has abandoned the exercise, doubtless, will not be able to be found, since he is unworthy to be sought. David therefore, as a good athlete, says: Tribulation and necessity have found me,¹⁴³ because they had him always ready, not fleeing the battles of necessities and tribulations, but seeking them.

45. There follows: Thy testimonies are justice forever; give me understanding of them, and I shall live.¹⁴⁴ Who is so great as to be able to understand the testimonies of the Lord? And therefore

understanding must be sought from the Lord, whose force is so great that its beginning is the fullness of virtue. For it is written: Piety toward God is the beginning of understanding,¹⁴⁵ which is the foundation of all virtues, both with respect to human and to heavenly disciplines. Piety, friend of God, dear to parents, conciliates the Lord, fosters bonds, is the worship of God, the wages of parents, the stipend of children; piety, I say, is the tribunal of the just, the harbor of the needy, the refuge of the wretched, the indulgence of sinners.

46. He who has understanding, he is truly pious; for he understands the slipperiness of human frailty, and quickly forgives the one who errs. He understands the partnership of nature and use given to us in common, and therefore renders to the poor as a debt owed, does not refuse as if it were not owed. He understands that the turns of calamities alternate, and therefore offers himself, as it were, a port of his humanity to those shipwrecked of this world. This is perfected virtue in men, this is the full praise in God.

47. Rightly, then, did Solomon also, following his father's teaching, ask understanding from the Lord, saying: I am a humble boy, and know not my going in or my coming out. And thy servant is in the midst of thy people, whom thou hast chosen, a people great as the sand of the sea which cannot be numbered for multitude. And thou shalt give to thy servant a prudent heart to hear and to judge thy people with justice and to understand between good and evil.¹⁴⁶ Whence it pleased the Lord,¹⁴⁷ because he asked not for himself length of life and stores of royal riches, but wisdom for understanding the judgments and justices of the Lord, and therefore ruled so great a people with peaceful sway, because he did not usurp, as Adam, to know the distinction of good and evil,¹⁴⁸ but prayed from

Christ for the grace of understanding it. For what is divine to know — this from the Lord thy God it must be earned that thou mayest know it. Had Adam too sought, as David sought, he would never have fallen into those inextricable snares of error in which his whole inheritance is strangled. Therefore he died, and what is graver, by the death of sin, since he usurped knowing before he received the understanding by which he might be made alive.

48. Understanding, therefore, gives life as the spirit does, since understanding itself is a spiritual grace,¹⁴⁹ and so the Holy Spirit by his own gift works understanding. And understanding is good for all who do it.¹⁵⁰ By which we are taught that we ought not only to grasp by sense, but also to carry out by deeds what we understand.