khazarzar-clement-of-alexandria-eclogae-propheticae

From the Prophetic Eclogues. Those around Sedrach, Misach, and Abdenago in the furnace of fire, hymning God, say: “Bless, O heavens, the Lord; hymn and exalt him unto the ages.” Then: “Bless, O angels, the Lord.” Then: “Bless, O waters and all things above the heaven, the Lord.” Thus the scriptures rank the heavens and the waters among pure powers, as is also made clear in the account of creation. Naturally, then, with the power being named in various ways, Daniel adds: “Let every power bless the Lord.” Then in sequence: “Bless, O sun and moon, the Lord.” And: “Bless, O stars of heaven, the Lord; bless, all who worship the Lord, the God of gods; hymn and confess, for unto all the ages is his mercy.” (In Daniel it is written of the three children hymning in the furnace.) “Blessed are you who see the abysses, seated upon the Cherubim,” says Daniel, being of one opinion with Enoch, who said: “And I saw all the materials.” For an abyss is that which is impassable according to its own substance, but is traversed by the power of God. Therefore the material substances, from which the particular genera and their species come to be, are called abysses; since he would not have called only water an abyss. Yet water is allegorized as an abyss or matter.

In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth," the earthly and the heavenly. And that this is true, the Lord said to Hosea: "Go, take for yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, because the earth, playing the harlot, will play the harlot away from behind the Lord." For he does not speak of the element, but of those upon the element, those having an earthborn mind. That the Son is the beginning, Hosea clearly teaches: "And it shall be in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they also shall be called sons of the living God. And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall set for themselves one beginning and shall ascend from the earth, because the great day of Israel." For to whom one entrusts himself, that one he chooses. And one entrusts himself to the Son, who is the beginning. Therefore he also added: "But the sons of Judah I will pity and save in the Lord their God," and the Savior is the saving Son of God. This one, then, is the beginning. Through Hosea the Spirit says: "I am your instructor; sound the trumpet on the hills of the Lord, make a noise on the heights." And is not baptism itself, being a sign of regeneration, an escape from matter through the teaching of the Savior, a great and violent stream always bearing and carrying us away? Therefore the Lord, leading us out of disorder, enlightens us, leading us into the shadowless light that is no longer material.

This river of matter and the sea were cut through and divided by the power of the Lord, two prophets, as the matter was being bounded on each side by the expanse of water by the will of God. Both were pure commanders who served, through whom the signs were entrusted, so that the righteous man might come out of matter, having traversed through it first. Indeed, upon one of the commanders the name of our Savior was also imposed. Immediately, regeneration is through "water and spirit," just as all generation is. "For the spirit of God was borne over the abyss." And for this reason the Savior was baptized, not needing it himself, but to sanctify all water for those being regenerated. Thus we cleanse not only the body but also the soul. A sign that even our invisible parts are sanctified is that unclean spirits entangled with the soul are strained out from the new and spiritual generation. "Water above the heaven": since baptism takes place through "water and spirit," being a defense against the twofold fire—that which touches the invisible and that which touches the visible—it is necessary that some water be intelligible and some sensible, as a defense against the duplicity of fire. And the earthly water washes the body, while the heavenly water, because it is intelligible and invisible, is allegorized as holy spirit, a purifier of invisible things, like water of the spirit just as that is of the body.

God mixed fear with goodness for the sake of goodness. For he provides what is beneficial to each one, as a physician to a sick person, as a father to a disobedient child. "For he who spares the rod hates his son." And the Lord himself and his apostles lived in fear and toils. Therefore, when the body of a believer is ill, it is either because of some previously committed sin, the Lord chastising, or because of a future sin, the Lord taking precaution, or even by way of activity * * an external assault not prevented for some reason useful both to him and to his neighbors for the sake of example. Now those dwelling in a rotten body, as if sailing in an old ship, are not supine, but always pray, stretched upward toward God. The elders were greatly distressed if they did not suffer something in the body each time; for they feared that, not receiving here the penalties for their sins—which many, in the flesh, follow through ignorance—they might receive the punishment all at once there, and so they deemed it right to be healed here. Therefore, one must fear not external disease, but the sins through which disease comes, and disease of the soul, not of the body, because "all flesh is grass," and bodily and external goods are "temporary, while the unseen things are eternal." Of the things of knowledge, we already partake of some, and others we firmly hope for through what we have; for we have neither received everything nor are we lacking everything, but we have received, as it were, "a pledge" of the eternal goods and of the paternal wealth; and the provisions for the Lord's road are the beatitudes of the Lord. "Seek," he said, "and be concerned for the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added to you.

For the father knows what you need. Thus he circumscribes not only your distractions but also your cares. "For you cannot," he says, "by taking thought add anything to your age." For God clearly knows what it benefits us to have and what to lack. Therefore, having emptied ourselves of worldly cares, he deems us worthy to be filled with the things of God. "For we sigh, longing to put on" the imperishable, before we have put off corruption. For as faith is poured in, unbelief flows out. The same holds for knowledge and righteousness. So it is necessary not only to empty the soul but also to fill it with God. For neither is the evil still present, since it has ceased, nor is the good yet present, since it has not yet been received; and that which is neither good nor evil is nothing. "For it returns to the purified and empty house," if none of the saving things are introduced, the unclean spirit that previously dwelt there, taking along with it seven other unclean spirits. Therefore, having emptied ourselves of evils, we must fill the soul with the good God, which is a chosen dwelling place. For when the empty spaces are filled, then the seal follows, so that the holy may be guarded for God. "Every word stands upon two or three witnesses," upon Father and Son and Holy Spirit, upon which witnesses and helpers the commandments, when spoken, ought to be preserved.

Fasting is abstinence from food according to its literal meaning, but food does not make us either more just or more unjust. According to the mystical sense, however, it indicates that just as for individuals life comes from food, and lack of food is a symbol of death, so also we must fast from worldly things, so that we may die to the world and thereafter, partaking of divine food, live for God. Moreover, fasting empties the soul of matter and presents it pure and light, together with the body, to the divine words. Worldly food, then, is the former life and the sins, while divine food is faith, hope, love, patience, knowledge, peace, temperance. "For blessed are those who hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God; for they shall be filled." And it is the soul, not the body, that receives this desire. The Savior declared prayer stronger than faith to the faithful apostles, in the case of a certain demoniac whom they were unable to cleanse, saying, "Such things are accomplished by prayer." The one who believed received remission of sins from the Lord, while the one who has attained knowledge, since he no longer sins, obtains remission of the remaining sins from himself.

Just as healings, prophecies, and signs, so also gnostic teaching is accomplished through human beings, with God working through them; for God displays his power through human beings. And the prophecy rightly says: "And I will send upon them a man who will save them." He himself therefore sends forth at one time prophets, at another time apostles, saviors of human beings. Thus God benefits humanity through human beings; for God is not capable of some things and incapable of others, nor is he ever weak in anything, nor do some things happen willingly and others unwillingly on his part, nor some things by him and others by another, but he also begot us through human beings and educated us through human beings. God made us, we not pre-existing. For we would have had to know where we were, if we pre-existed, and how and why we came here; but if we did not pre-exist, God alone is the cause of our generation. Therefore, just as he made us from non-existence, so also, once we have come into being, he saves us by his own grace, if we prove worthy and suitable; but if not, he will let us go to our proper end: "For he is lord of both the living and the dead." Observe the power of God, not only bringing non-existent human beings into existence and increasing those who have come into being in the progress of age, but also saving those who believe according to what is proper for each; and he already changes seasons, times, fruits, and elements. For this is the one God who has measured both the beginning and the end of created things appropriately for each.

Having advanced from faith and fear to knowledge, a man knows to say "Lord, Lord," but not as a slave does; he has learned to say "Our Father," having freed "the spirit of slavery that leads to fear" and having advanced through love to "adoption," now revering through love the one he formerly feared; for he no longer refrains from what must be avoided out of fear, but through love he holds to the commandments. "The spirit itself bears witness," he says, when we say "Abba, Father." And the Lord purchases us "with precious blood," releasing us from the former bitter masters, the sins, because of which "the spiritual forces of evil" ruled over us. He therefore leads us into the freedom of the Father, making us co-heirs, sons and friends. "For my brothers," says the Lord, "and co-heirs are those who do the will of my Father." "Do not therefore call anyone father to yourselves on earth;" for there are masters on earth, but in heaven the Father, "from whom comes every lineage both in heaven and on earth." For love rules over the willing, while fear rules over the unwilling, and this is base; but the one who educates toward the good leads to Christ and is salvific.

If, then, one conceives of God (not worthily—for what thought is worthy of God?—but as far as possible), let him conceive of him as great, incomprehensible, and most beautiful, "an inaccessible light," endowed with every good power, every excellent virtue, caring for all, compassionate, impassible, good, knowing all things, foreknowing all things, pure, sweet, radiant, undefiled. Since the soul moves of itself, the grace of God, which the soul possesses, demands from it its own willingness, as a contribution toward salvation; for he wishes the good to be the soul's own, which the Lord gives to it, for it is not insensible, to be borne along like a body. Now, to have belongs to the receiver, to receive to the one who wills and desires, and to retain what one has received to the one who practices and is able to retain. For this reason God has given choice to the soul, so that he himself may indicate what is necessary, while she, by choosing, may accept and retain it. Just as the Savior spoke and healed through the body, so also formerly through the prophets, and now through the apostles and teachers; for the church serves the Lord's activity, whence also he then took up a man, so that through him he might serve the Father's will. And always the philanthropic God puts on a man for the salvation of men, formerly the prophets, now the church. For like serving like is fitting for like salvation.

When we were of the earth, we belonged to Caesar. Caesar is the temporal ruler, whose earthly image is the old man, into which he has reverted. Therefore, the earthly things must be given back to him, which "we have borne in the image of the earthly," and "the things of God to God." For each of the passions is like a letter, a brand, and a sign to us. Now the Lord imprints upon us another brand and other names and letters, faith instead of unbelief, and so forth. Thus we are transferred from the material to the spiritual, "having borne the image of the heavenly." John says, "I baptize you with water, but there comes after me the one who baptizes you with spirit and fire." But he baptized no one with fire. "Some," as Heracleon says, "marked the ears of those being sealed with fire," having thus heard the apostolic saying. "For the winnowing fan is in his hand to cleanse the threshing floor, and he will gather the wheat into the storehouse, but will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire." Therefore, "through spirit" is added to "through fire," because just as the wheat is separated from the chaff (that is, from the material garment) through spirit, and the chaff is separated by being winnowed through spirit, so the spirit

It has a separating power over material energies. Since some things have come from the unbegotten and imperishable, the seminal things of life, they are gathered like wheat and stored away, while the material thing, as long as it remains with the superior, endures; but when it is separated from that, it perishes, for it had its being in another. This, then, is separable in power, the spirit, while the consuming power is fire, and fire is to be understood as the material. But since the thing that is saved resembles wheat, and the thing that has grown around the soul resembles chaff, and the one is incorporeal, while the other, when separated, is material, he has set against the incorporeal the spirit, fine and pure, almost beyond mind, and against the material the fire, which is not evil or bad, but strong and purifying of evil; for fire is conceived as a good and strong power, destructive of the worse and preservative of the better, and therefore this fire is called wise by the prophets. Thus, then, when God is called "consuming fire," it must be understood not as a name and symbol of evil, but of power; for as fire is the strongest of the elements and rules over all, so God is all-powerful and all-ruling, who is able to rule, create, make, nourish, increase, save, having authority over body and soul. As fire surpasses the elements, so the all-ruler surpasses gods and powers and principalities. And the power of fire is twofold: one suited for creation and ripening of fruits and generation of animals and nourishment, of which the sun is an image, and the other for consumption and destruction, like earthly fire.

Fire," then, when God is said to be "consuming," is a strong and irresistible power, to which nothing is impossible, but even destruction is possible. Concerning such a power the Savior also says: "I came to cast fire upon the earth," clearly a power purifying the holy ones, and of material things, as they say, destructive, but as we would say, disciplinary. Fire also has fear, and light has diffusion. The elders did not write, neither wishing to divert the teaching care of tradition to the other care of writing, nor spending the time for considering what would be said on writing. Perhaps they were also not persuaded that the syntactical and teaching form are of the same nature, and they allowed those naturally suited for this to do it. For the one is carried along without hindrance and with force, the stream of the speaker, and perhaps can even sweep away, while the other, being examined each time by those who encounter it, receiving precise scrutiny, is deemed worthy of extreme care, and is, so to speak, a written confirmation of teaching, and thus the voice is transmitted to posterity through the composition. For the deposit of the elders, speaking through writing, uses the writer as a servant for the transmission to the salvation of those who will encounter it. Just as the magnet stone, passing by other matter, only attracts iron through suitability, so also books, among many who encounter them, draw only those who are able to understand.

The word of truth is "folly" to some, "stumbling block" to others, and "wisdom" to few; thus also is it found to be "power of God." May envy be absent from the gnostic. For this reason he also inquires which is worse, to give to the unworthy or not to hand over to the worthy, and he runs the risk, from his great love, of sharing not only with every suitable person, but sometimes even with an unworthy person who earnestly entreats him, not because of the entreaty (for he does not love glory), but because of the persistence of the one entreating, who is training for faith through much supplication. There are some who claim to be gnostics but envy their own household more than outsiders. As the sea is open to all, but one swims, another trades, another fishes; and as the land is common, but one travels, another plows, another hunts, and someone else mines, and another builds; so also when Scripture is read, one is benefited toward faith, another toward character, while another removes superstition through the knowledge of things; and the athlete, having recognized the Olympic stadium, strips for teaching, contends, and becomes victorious, having outwitted and overcome the opponents who run down the gnostic path. For knowledge is necessary both for the training of the soul and for the dignity of character, making the faithful more worthy of approach and accurate observers of things. For just as it is impossible to believe without catechesis, so it is impossible to comprehend without knowledge.

For since things such as father, son, and holy spirit, as well as our own soul, are useful and necessary for salvation, the account concerning them, which is gnostic, must necessarily be both useful and necessary. For those who have taken upon themselves the protection of benefiting others, wide experience is useful so that nothing of what appears to have been necessarily and learnedly recognized by others may escape them. The exposition of heterodox teaching also provides, in another way, a joint training for the inquiring soul, and keeps the disciple undeceived concerning the truth, since he has already practiced being surrounded on all sides by the instruments of war. Only the gnostic's life, just as they say Crete is barren of destructive beasts, is pure from every evil deed, thought, and word, having no enemy at all, but being also beyond envy, hatred, all blasphemy, and slander. In the long life, he is blessed not because of living long, but because he has lived well, having become worthy of living forever. He has grieved no one, except by instructing with reason those whose hearts are ulcerated, as with saving honey, which is both sweet and biting. So more than anyone, the gnostic would preserve what is fitting together with what is according to reason. For when every passion has been cut away and removed from the whole soul, with its strongest part having become pure and freed for adoption, he thereafter lives with it and dwells in it. Pythagoras deemed that not only the most rational but also the most ancient should be considered the wisest, the one who assigned names to things.

Therefore, since the scriptures have been acknowledged to be spoken in parables, we must investigate them accurately, hunting out from the names the opinions which the Holy Spirit holds concerning the matters, having, as it were, stamped its own thought into the words, so that, when examined precisely by us, the names spoken in multiple senses may be unfolded, and that which is hidden, felt out and learned amid the many things that conceal it, may be revealed and shine forth. For just as lead, when rubbed, blooms white from black, producing white lead, so also knowledge, pouring light and radiance over things, would be the truly divine wisdom, the pure light that illuminates the pure among men as the pupil of the eye for a sure vision and comprehension of the truth. Having kindled ourselves from the source of that light, from the desire for it, trying as much as possible to become like it, we become full of light, truly Israelites of light. For he called friends and brothers those who hold to the assimilation to the divine according to desire and pursuit.

... pure places and meadows received them, possessing voices and certain visions of holy apparitions, while a man who has been precisely purified will be deemed worthy of all divine teaching and power. I know that the mysteries of knowledge bring mockery to the many, especially when not fitted with sophistic tropology, but to the few they are like a light suddenly brought into a darkened banquet, causing astonishment at first; then, having become accustomed, nurtured, and trained in reasoning, they rejoice and exult as if from pleasure... the Lord. For just as pleasure has as its essence the removal of pain, so knowledge has the removal of ignorance. For just as those who are most asleep think they are most awake, falling under more vivid and uninterrupted dream visions, so those who are most ignorant think they know most. Blessed are those who awaken from this sleep and this madness, and who look upon the light and the truth.

Therefore, the one who wishes to have the disciple obedient and to mingle faith with desire must equally train and practice, each time examining for himself the truth of the contemplations. And when it seems to him to be well, then indeed he should descend into the inquiries of his neighbors, just as young birds first try out their wings by exercising them in the nest. For gnostic virtue is everywhere beautiful, gentle, harmless, painless, blessed, and prepared to converse excellently with all that is divine, and excellently with men, being both contemplative and practical, fashioning man as a divine image and perfecting him as a lover of beauty through love. For the beautiful, as there, is contemplated by wisdom and is intelligible; here, it is made practicable by temperance and justice through faith, when one has practiced angelic service in the flesh, consecrating the mind in the body as in a transparent and pure place. Against Tatian, who says that "Let there be light" is a prayer, it must be said: If, then, he who prayed knew the supreme God, how does he say, "I am God, and besides me there is no other"? He spoke as if there are punishments for blasphemies, nonsense, and licentious words, punished and disciplined by reason. And he also said that women are punished for their hair and for adornment by a power appointed over these things, which also gave Samson strength in his hair, which punishes those who, through the adornment of hair, are impelled toward fornication. Just as by the emanation of the good they are made good, so also by that of evil they are made evil.

The judgment of God is good, both the separation of the faithful from the unbelievers and the preference to avoid falling into a greater judgment, and the judgment which is education. Scripture says that exposed infants are entrusted to a guardian angel, by whom they are educated and grow, "and they will be," it says, "like those of a hundred years here who are faithful." Therefore Peter also says in the Apocalypse: "and a flash of fire leaping from those infants and striking the eyes of the women"; since the righteous man "shines like a spark through a reed and judges nations." "With a holy one you will be made holy." According to the praise of the holy, your name has been glorified; according to our knowledge, God is glorified [both according to knowledge and according to inheritance]. So also "the Lord lives" and "the Lord has risen." "A people whom I did not know served me"; according to a covenant I did not know. "Foreign sons"; those who have emulated what belongs to another. "Magnifying the salvations of his king." All the faithful are called kings, summoned to a kingdom both according to knowledge and according to inheritance. "Long-suffering is sweetness beyond honey," not because it is long-suffering, but according to the fruit of long-suffering, since neither is the self-controlled man passionless, controlling the passions not without effort; but when a state becomes habitual, he is no longer self-controlled, the man having come to be in one state with the Holy Spirit. "Spirits" are said to be the passions in the soul, not spirits from substance, since then a passionate man would be a legion of demons, but according to the incitement. For the same soul, undergoing changes and receiving different qualities of vice, is said to have taken up spirits.

The word does not command to abstain from possession, but to manage possession without attachment, and when something happens not to be vexed nor grieved nor to desire to acquire; for it commands to abstain from possession in passion and from every attachment. Divine providence does not extend only to those in the flesh. Thus Peter in the Apocalypse says: "The aborted infants, who would be of a better portion, are entrusted to a guardian angel, so that having partaken of knowledge they may obtain a better abode, having suffered what they would have suffered even if they had come into a body." The others will obtain only salvation, as having been wronged they are pitied, and will remain without punishment, having received this as a reward. "And the milk of women, flowing from the breasts and curdling," says Peter in the Apocalypse, "will generate small flesh-eating beasts which run up into them and devour them," teaching that punishments come about because of sins. He says that they are generated from sins, just as because of sins the people were sold, and "because of unbelief in Christ," as the apostle says, "they were bitten by serpents.

An elder said that the fetus is a living being. For the soul, entering the womb after the purification prepared for conception and being introduced by one of the angels presiding over birth who foreknows the time of conception, moves the woman toward intercourse; when the seed is deposited, the spirit in the seed, so to speak, appropriates it, and thus is conceived together with the formation. He called this a testimony for all. And whenever the angels announce the barren women, they, as it were, pre-introduce the souls before conception; and in the Gospel "the infant leaped" as ensouled. And barren women are barren for this reason, because the soul is not introduced, the deposit of the seed not gathering into retention for conception and birth. "The heavens declare the glory of God." The heavens are spoken of in many ways: both those according to interval and revolution, and the proximate activity of the first-created angels according to covenant; for by a more principal presence of angels the covenants were enacted: that of Adam, that of Noah, that of Abraham, that of Moses. For the first-created angels, set in motion by the Lord, acted upon the angels proximate to the prophets, declaring "the glory of God," the covenants. But also the works that took place on earth by angels were done through the first-created angels for "the glory of God." And the heavens are called, properly, the Lord, and then also the

First-created, after whom also the holy men before the law, such as the patriarchs, and Moses and the prophets, then also the apostles. "The firmament proclaims the work of his hands." He calls the firmament the impassible and immutable God, as also elsewhere the same David says: "I will love you, Lord, my strength; the Lord is my firmament and my refuge." Therefore the firmament itself proclaims the work of his hands, that is, it shows and reveals the work of his angels; for it proclaims and shows those whom he made. "Day by day utters a word." As the heavens are spoken of in many ways, so also is the day. The word is the Lord, and the same is also called day in many ways. "And night by night announces knowledge." The devil knew that the Lord was coming, but whether Jesus himself was he, he did not know; therefore he also tempted him, in order to know; if he is powerful, he says, "and he departed from him for a time," that is, he postponed the discovery until the resurrection. For he knew that this was the Lord who would rise. Similarly also the demons, since they even suspected Solomon to be the Lord, but knew he was not, when he sinned. "Night by night:" all the demons knew that it was the Lord who rose after the passion. And already Enoch says that the transgressing angels taught men astronomy and divination and the other arts. "There are no utterances nor words whose voices are not heard," neither of the days nor of the nights. "Their sound went forth into all the earth." He transferred the saying to the saints alone, whom he has called both heavens and days.

The stars are spiritual bodies, having communion with angels, set in order and governed, not causes of generation, but indicative of things that are happening, will happen, and have happened, both concerning changes of the air, and concerning fertility and barrenness, and concerning plagues and conflagrations, and concerning human beings. The stars do not produce their effects even in a dream, but signify "things that are, things that will be, and things that have been." "And in the sun he placed his tent." Here there is a hyperbaton; for the discourse is about the second coming. Thus, then, one must read the hyperbaton according to sequence: "And he himself, like a bridegroom coming forth from his bridal chamber, will rejoice, like a giant to run his course. From the edge of the heaven is his exit; there is no one who will hide from his heat." And then: "In the sun he placed his tent." Some, then, say that the body of the Lord is deposited by him in the sun, as Hermogenes does; and some call his body his tabernacle, others the church of the faithful. Our Pantaenus said, "The prophecy for the most part utters the words indefinitely and uses the present tense instead of the future, and again the present instead of the past," which also now appears. For "he placed" is used both of the past and of the future: of the future, because when this cycle according to the present state is completed, the Lord will come to the righteous faithful, in whom he rests as in a tent; for all are one body, having chosen the same faith and righteousness from the same race, being restored to the same unity.

But some as head, some as eyes, some as ears, some as hands, some as breasts, some as feet will be placed in the sun, luminous, "having shone as the sun," or in the sun, since a ruling angel is in the sun; for it is set over the beginning of days, just as the moon is set to rule the night; and days were called angels. With the angels that are with the sun, he says, they will be ranked (the sun being like a head of a body, which is one), being destined at some period to become themselves rulers of days, as that one over the sun will advance to the greater, to which his predecessor in the same passed. And again, ascending by progression, they will arrive at the first station. But according to the past, he "placed" the first-created angels so as no longer to serve the determined order according to providence, but to be at rest and solely in contemplation of God; and those nearer to these will advance into the rank which those have left, and so the lower ones analogously. There are, then, according to the apostle, those in the final restoration, the first-created; they would be "thrones," although they are powers, the first-created because God rests in them, as also in those who believe. For each according to his own progression has his own knowledge of God, in which knowledge God rests, those who have known becoming eternal through knowledge. And perhaps the phrase "he placed his tabernacle in the sun" is understood thus: he placed it in the sun, that is, in [God,] the Sun, that is God, as in the Gospel "Eli, Eli" instead of "my God, my God.

And the phrase "above every beginning and authority and power and every name that is named" refers to those who have been perfected from among humans, angels, and archangels into the first-created nature of angels. For those who have passed from humans to angels are instructed for a thousand years by the angels, being restored to perfection; then those who taught are transferred to archangelic authority, while those who learned in turn instruct those who are passing from humans to angels, and then in this way, through fixed cycles, they are restored to their proper angelic station. "The law of God is blameless, turning souls back." "Law and word" is the savior himself called, as Peter says in the Kerygma and as the prophet says: "For from Zion will come forth law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." "The testimony of the Lord is faithful, making infants wise," the covenant of the Lord is true, making infants wise—the innocent ones and the apostles, and then us as well. But also the testimony of the Lord himself, according to which he suffered and rose, having become true in accordance with the deed itself, led the church to the confirmation of faith. "The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring for an eternity of eternity." It says that those who have turned from fear to faith and righteousness will remain for eternity. "The judgments of the Lord are true," firm and immovable, apportioning according to merit and "restoring the righteous to the unity of the faith." For this is what "having been justified to the same thing" means. Such things are "desirable beyond gold and precious stone.

And "your servant guards them" does not mean a servant such as David, but every people who are being saved is called a servant of God through obedience to the commandment. "Cleanse me from my hidden things" — from the thoughts contrary to right reason, from the residues. For these the righteous man calls "alien." "If they do not gain mastery over me, then I shall be blameless" is equivalent to: if those who persecute me do not gain mastery over me as they did over the Lord, I shall not be blameless; for one does not become a martyr unless he is persecuted, nor does a righteous man appear unless, when wronged, he does not wrong in return, nor indeed a forbearing man. "Lord, save the king" — that is, the people anointed for kingship; for it is not only David. Hence it adds: "and hear us on whatever day we call upon you." To ascend into the heart — the good — is called by Scripture the victory of the good counsel.