Commentarii in Psalmos

It was removed far beyond what it was, and a deep depth—who will find it? It was far from me, and when I wished to receive it, it became far from me beyond what it was before. And for the rest he gives the reason: "a deep depth, who will find it?" The "who will find it" can mean "no one." And the "who" means the rare and you did not gladden my enemies over me. Many enemies press upon me, wishing to harm me. But they said that these things are spoken in common both about the man who is the Savior and about those who imitate him. And the saints had enemies, and the Savior had enemies. But no one at all can draw near to him according to the divinity, so as even to attempt to harm him. For it belongs to enemies to draw near for no other reason than to harm. And so it is spoken from the person of Jesus according to the man, and of everyone who imitates him and becomes a member of him: "because you took me up"—for if you had not taken me up, my enemies would have been gladdened, having taken me under their hand, and they would not have exalted you. It can also be from the person of the Savior, when we no longer divide and say "insofar as he is God the Word" or "insofar as he is man," as I was just saying about the knowledgeable one. "I will exalt you, O Lord, because you took me up"—you took me up by giving me those for whom I came. "Behold, I and the children whom God has given me." "I will give you the nations as your inheritance." The Savior considers this as it were his own prize and his own benefit; therefore "you did not gladden my enemies"—for since the captives have been drawn away through me, both for my sake and for the sake of those who held them captive, I exalt you, but they are not gladdened. O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you healed me.

The voice is that of one who has been heard; for if he cried out concerning healing, he already had what he desired. "I said, Lord, have mercy on me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against you." He was not yet healed; for the one who says this is confessing and repenting. But the person of the Savior speaks thus: "I cried to you, and you healed me"; I received a wound, healing and curative "of every disease and infirmity." Why, then, did I receive the wound? So that it might itself become a remedy for the wounded. And then my healing takes place, when the wound heals others who are my body. "Lord" therefore "my God, I cried to you, and you healed me." If each of the righteous says this, he will be heard by the one to whom he cried. "While you are still speaking, I will say, Behold, I am present." The phrase "I will say, Behold, I am present": showing the deed for which you ask, I am found present with you; for your prayer does not outrun my gift, but it happens at once: you have prayed, you have the thing. Let us take examples from the Scriptures: a leper came to the Savior, saying, "If you will, you can cleanse me." He says, "I will; be cleansed"; and the cleansing came about so that there was no interval. In thought alone the request came before the cleansing, not in time. Again: "Do you want to be made well?" Immediately: "Rise, take up your bed and walk." And the deed was not second to Jesus' command. You know that the mirror-like reflection imitates the reflection, and one cannot say which is first, but only in thought. Lord, you brought my soul up from Hades. Having healed me, you brought my soul up from Hades. This might be said concerning Jesus.

Since I had welts and was wounded because of certain people's sins—perhaps those who have their sins in Hades—I went down there, so that my welt, coming near, might heal them. And the healing is my soul's being led up from there. I was there not so that I might remain, nor even so that I might simply depart and come, but so that I might lead up those who were there. "Having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which he also preached to the spirits in prison"—he led up the proclamation. And it was for their sake that he went down there, and for their sake he says he is going up; for he departed to lead them up. If they were not going up, he would not have gone up there; for he did not go down or go up for his own sake. But it is also possible to say this: the soul that is truly rational is ours. As someone is called a man of God, and

so his soul might also be spoken of. "You led my soul up from Hades." You saved me from those who go down into the pit. Those who go down into the pit were also called of the day, because those above have fallen; for pits are not springs; they do not have water supplied from anywhere. And Hades is for this reason continually called a pit in the Scriptures, because the souls that have fallen down fall there. "You saved me from those who go down into the pit." For even if I went down into Hades, yet I was not held in the pit like the waters that fall, but I was saved, and therefore no harm has come to me from what befalls some of those who fall into Hades. Sing to the Lord, you his holy ones. Henceforth, singing and praising because he was taken up, he wishes those whom he led up from Hades to follow the hymn as well, having now been shown to be his holy ones.

For Abraham and the others, the saints, were there. And the other souls were there too, but some were shown to be souls of the holy, and others not; for we do not say that the Savior led up all of them, but those souls that were awaiting him there. They were saying, then, with respect to the words "Are you the one who is coming, or do we await another?": that man knew he was about to die; for being in prison he sent forth this voice, that "you come there yourself, or you send another"; not that he doubted, but he wished to minister there, having learned from him, having been commanded by him. He writes to the saints: the accomplishment is for our sake, or is common to us and to you. Just as, then, I sing a psalm of song, sing also yourselves; strike the instruments together with our song, which I send up on your behalf, saying, "I will exalt you, O Lord." And give thanks to the remembrance of his holiness. Confession here is not spoken of as the declaration of sins; for that too is called confession, as when it says, "Confess your sins to one another." For the most part, then, in Scripture confession is signified by the word as thanksgiving: "Let us give thanks to you, O God, let us give thanks to you." Here the remembrance of doctrines is stirred up; he says "of his holiness." The disciples' remembrances are not now for the first time. If anyone has been sanctified, having partaken of the Holy One, he has obtained holiness. And so it has come about, that he might be holy not by essence but by choice, having received the holy thing, the good, for use. Reflect, then, as you give thanks and sing psalms, that holiness is your own; what you have become, take up.

You have become, so that you might be holy, not so that you might be profane; but you have become in filth and profanity. Recall your holiness, and thus desire to become [holy]. For "anger is in his wrath, and life is in his will." Therefore I exhort you to become holy and to give thanks to the remembrance of his holiness, "for anger is in his wrath," so that you may not fall into anger and wrath; for if I have accomplished such great things and you remain in the same things as before my coming, and in those things for which I have come, anger will succeed, because even after so many helps and after so many benefits and exhortations you remain in the same things. And just as anger is in his wrath, so also "life is in his will." He who follows his will and works it, having asked to know it from him—for one sends up a prayer saying, "Teach me to do your will"—by saying with a causal [clause], "for you are my God," he shows that the will of God alone is life. But our will must also run together [with it], so that he may not say, "How often I willed, and you did not will." "Life," then, "is in your will." He can also here call the divine Word "will." And in him all things have come to be, all things have come into being through him. In the will, then, of him who brought you into existence, life lay. "In the evening weeping shall lodge, and in the morning exultation." The evening is the end of the day and the beginning of the night, just as again the morning is the end of the night and the beginning of the day. But it has often been said that things are incapable of coexisting

Contrary things: the good and the evil. It is possible for the evening to take the end of the shadow, the end of the letter. But when, the letter and the shadow having taken their end, someone wishes to be in them, he weeps rather, no longer seeing the cheerfulness of the letter, no longer beholding the flower of the writing. But when the life-giving Spirit has risen and the new covenant has appeared, the beginning of the day brings exultation. Henceforth also the more popular matters: when the synagogue from the circumcision took evening, the sun of righteousness setting for it—for "she who bore seven was emptied, her sun set while it was still midday." She bore seven; then she had received the sabbath, so that according to it she might accomplish all things spiritually and become a mother of good thoughts and works, but she was emptied; she did not receive the fullness, from which John, who signifies the letter and the old writing, says: "From his fullness we all have received." For this reason her soul grew weary when the sun set "while it was still midday," while this present age was still standing; for it too is often called day. "And toward the morning" therefore "exultation." But I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved. The expression is ambiguous. It can be read thus: "But I said in my prosperity, I shall never be moved." When I was prospering, I said this: I shall never be moved. It can also be read thus: "I said, In my prosperity I shall never be moved." Both punctuations have reason.

When I prospered, sowing unto righteousness and harvesting the fruits of righteousness, I was so disposed, because I shall no longer be shaken forever. For if "he who does the will of God remains forever" and "his righteousness is immortal," having brought forth the fruits of righteousness and prospering, I said—for I said this in disposition, as in the phrase "no one says Lord Jesus," in disposition and in life. Prospering and bearing the fruits of virtue, I confessed this, that I remain unshaken forever, according to the text "he who believes, and everyone who lives and believes, shall certainly not die forever"; and "the righteousness of the Lord remains forever and ever." But it is also possible to punctuate it thus: "I said in my prosperity"—when I was prospering and seemed to be at rest, I said, "I shall not be shaken forever." But if help had not come quickly, he would have been shaken, because he trusted in himself, he placed great confidence in his fruit-bearing. If, then, it is the person of the Savior who speaks, let the former meaning prevail; but if it is the others, let this one also be accepted. O Lord, in your will you gave power to my beauty. He speaks either optatively or by way of thanksgiving. Let us see of what beauty he speaks. He does not speak of bodily beauty, but of the beauty of the soul and of the inner man. This sensible beauty, which is imaged in the face and the form, has its constitution from the proportion of the members, if the members of the man are proportionate to one another and are not such that some exceed and others yield; for beauty is distorted. It is necessary to have the eye well-matched to the nose, and this to the mouth.

For if the members are disproportionate, even if it seems beautiful in itself, it does not produce beauty for the face. This, then, is what he says: in your will the virtues follow one another in order, so that my thoughts correspond to my actions. And in the Song of Songs, the one praising the bride says: "You are altogether beautiful, my neighbor, and there is no blemish in you." For this reason "you are altogether beautiful," because there is no blemish, nor is there anything in you contrary to proportion, nor any shame. To you, Lord, I will cry out, and to my God I will call for help. It is possible, to explain more commonly: to you, O Lord, as high priest, as physician, I will cry out, and to my God I will call for help, not dividing the Father from the Son. But the one who calls to God calls to the Trinity; for the Trinity is one God—not the same in number, if indeed one must speak of numbers there. What profit is there in my blood, in my going down to corruption? I went down to corruption; what profit has there been? Behold, they remain in their own evils. But he does not say this universally. For it has been said: "You were bought with a price" by the blood of Christ, and: "You were redeemed not with perishable things, silver and gold, from your vain manner of life, but with the precious blood of a lamb without blemish and without spot, Christ." And this is possible: the whole assembly of those being saved is called the body of Christ. Since, therefore, when the Savior came and took up all the things we have mentioned—both the wound and the cross and the descent into Hades—not all turned back, not all took up virtue and faith, but some did and some did not, in this respect he says that:

He turned away my face" from certain members of mine, which are my body, "and I became troubled." If, then, he rescued and redeemed and set free by his own blood, how does he say: "What profit is there in my blood, in my going down into corruption?" There has been great profit—but for those who have remained in evils. As far as it depends on you, then, no profit has come from my blood, when I went down into corruption. He says this, rousing them to repentance for the rest. For this reason he has said: Will dust confess you, or declare your truth? Behold, there are some who are dust. But I have come to suffer, so that I may transform them and make them heavenly instead of earthly. Since, then, they remain still bearing the image of the earthly, they do not confess you, nor will they declare your truth. But I have come, so that I may both make the truth manifest, abolishing error and falsehood, and provide confession, so that one may cast off the image of the earthly and take up that of the heavenly. He says, then: "Will dust confess you?" If dust does not confess you, as far as it depends on him, no profit has come from my blood when I went down into corruption. Then—since I said that he says this on account of those entangled in former evils, and we have agreed that he also redeemed many by his own blood—showing them he says: The Lord heard and had mercy on me. Having shown them, he calls the mercy of the Lord their salvation, that they were shown mercy. The Lord became my helper. "Became" signifies a relation, not a substantiation.

The Lord became my helper and protector for salvation." The Lord heard and had mercy on me. I was lamenting, because when I went down into corruption, no benefit from my blood came to anyone; but by building up those who have been shown mercy, and those too who are still as they are, I demonstrate that they will be saved at some point; the remedy will at some point work in them. "You turned my lamentation into joy for me." He was humanely beaten in lamentation for those who had died, in order to awaken them; for immediately someone would take up the thought: if, when I have sinned, that one mourns and laments, how much more ought I to do this? "You turned," then, "my lamentation into joy for me"; their benefit is joy to me, and when I was sinning, the wailing and lamentation were mine. "You tore my sackcloth and girded me with gladness." While mourning I wore sackcloth, a harsh life, rough, but he changed it into gladness. We have spoken in this way also regarding the passage: "For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, long ago they would have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes." We said that the name of sackcloth signifies the harsh and toilsome life that rebukes the one who laments. With this sackcloth one takes ashes and sits, no longer working according to it, but sits, and puts an end to the anger of wickedness. He groaned over this—the weeds and thorns and thistles that it bore; for he could not sit among the thorns and thistles, but having reduced them to ashes and shown them to be powerless, and having destroyed that quality according to which they were worthless, he sat upon them. So that

My glory, and I shall not be pierced with compunction. Some read it with a comma: "I shall not be pierced with compunction"—when my glory sings to you, I am not pierced with compunction. But this reading does not please me. Yet many of those in the church read it this way. Compunction often signifies a kind of repentance. At any rate, when Ahab repented: "You saw how Ahab was pierced with compunction"; and: "You gave them to drink a spirit of compunction," a spirit of repentance. This, then, is what he says: my glory sings to you, I act according to your will, and I do not repent, I am not pierced with compunction. I am not pierced with compunction as over something evil, so as to act no more. Therefore he joins and says: "Lord, my God, I will give thanks to you forever." Lord, my God, I will give thanks to you forever. Since, then, I give thanks to you forever, singing to your glory, I am not pierced with compunction, I do not repent. For the end; a psalm of David; of ecstasy. The name of ecstasy is homonymous; for it signifies many things, one of which is derangement or madness; the one who is deranged is beside himself. But the name of ecstasy also signifies wonder; for the one who wonders is said to be beside himself: "I considered your works and was beside myself," having beheld their greatness, the skill by which they came to be. And there are many passages showing that wonder is made manifest by the name of ecstasy. Thus, at any rate, even Isaac "was beside himself with a great ecstasy," when he received the blessing from Esau. And again, ecstasy signifies that someone has come to be outside his former condition, as if one were to say: "But I said in my ecstasy, Every man is a liar.

When I had gone out of myself and was no longer a man, but had become a god, having received into myself God the Word who came to be, then I said: "Every man is a liar." For if we take this simply, he lies. If every man is a liar and he himself is also one of men, he lies. But if he lies in saying "every man is a liar," then not all are liars. The things of men are unstable, incoherent. Such also is what the apostle says: "What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not ascended upon the heart of man." He is not therefore himself a man, but he adds: "But God has revealed it to us through the Spirit"—to us who are no longer men, who are able with boldness to say: "We have gone out of ourselves with God, we are of sound mind with you." So he who says these things in the psalm has also gone out of himself; he has become another than himself, he has become a god, having partaken of God the Word; he has ceased to be a man. Indeed, then, observe that he does not speak human things, but declares and sings what is fitting for a man made divine. On you, Lord, I have hoped; let me not be put to shame forever. For I am not put to shame when the things of my petition are granted; for then the one who prays undergoes shame, when he does not obtain what he expected. And if we take "forever" more simply, this is what he says: in all the time of my life let me not be put to shame, always obtaining what I ask to receive from you. For it has often been said that the time extending alongside a man's life is called an "age," as in: "I will certainly not eat meat forever." But it is also possible to say it thus:

Since you are eternal and your existence and kingdom extend through all the ages, and I too am immortal in my soul, "let me not be put to shame forever"; for I am always with you. Now I know and prophesy in part, but the partial will be succeeded by the perfect, so that my hope has become greater, having henceforth the expectation of greater things. Therefore he who hopes in the Lord is unashamed. In your righteousness rescue me and deliver me. The beginning of the seventieth psalm and this one have a certain kinship and similarity. And in the seventieth psalm stands the phrase "deliver me"; for he himself is the one about whom it is said: "Righteousness looked down," when he bowed the heavens and came down. He has come to destroy unrighteousness; for the world that came to be upon the earth was full of unrighteousness; for "the earth was filled" with unrighteous deeds, just as also before the flood, when "all turned aside, they became worthless together, there is none doing good." Just as, then, the light rising and coming to be where the darkness is destroys the darkness—for by the presence of light the darkness vanishes, and when virtue shines forth, evil departs and is gone—so when righteousness is revealed and rescues those who call upon it, all unrighteousness is brought down. Bow down your ear to me, hasten to deliver me. Even if I cry out to you, yet in comparison with your majesty I am small-voiced. If, then, you do not bow your ear to me, my cry cannot ascend to you. Unless you condescend to come down, you do not receive my voice. And otherwise:

Since he does not closely observe all the lawless deeds of those who are judged and examined by him, he must incline his ear in order to hear; for if he remains of such knowledge and such power as he is, the prayer does not ascend to him. Unless he nods assent, he does not receive the prayer. And he nods assent by condescending. When you incline your ear to me, you receive me and swiftly rescue me from those who hold me fast, from those who ravage me. And even if they are enemies, "hasten to deliver me." Perhaps he said these things having been beside himself? —I did not say that madness is indicated here, but rather astonishment, being outside oneself. Do you not know that perfection is not one? At any rate the one who has been perfected says: "I have seen the end of every completion"; for he does not say these things who has [something] beyond every end. Be to me a God for a protector and for a house of refuge to save me. Be to me an impregnable fortress, an unassailable bulwark, be to me also a protector with your shield, your weapon. When you become my protector, none of my enemies can harm me. The beast cannot prevail over me, the very one who snatches, concerning whom I sent up a prayer: "lest at any time he snatch my soul like a lion." "And for a house of refuge." Be to me what is called a place of refuge, where one who flees for refuge comes to be inside the walls; for it is a building that serves as a guard for salvation. Because you are my strength and my refuge. You are everything to me, both strength and refuge. I flee for refuge to no one, not to a ruler, not to wealth. And my stronghold: from you I have the power to prevail, partaking of you, as a king prevails. For the sake of your name you will guide me and nourish me. He says this, that:

Since your name is called upon me, for the sake of this name of yours which I bear, grant me both things; and guide me, so that I may finish the course blamelessly and be able to say: "I ran without lawlessness and I directed my way," and: "I ran the way of your commandments." And may I be nourished by you. Your way and your bread is your Son. He is the way, saying: "I am the way." He himself, then, is also bread. "For the sake," then, "of your name," which you have graciously given me, so that I may have salvation; for I prayed and said: "O God, save me in your name. You will bring me out of this snare which they have hidden for me, because you are my protector. Many enemies, certain deceivers, have prepared a snare for me, so that they might hunt me. I entreat, then, not only that you not allow me to go there, but that even if I have entered, you bring me out of it. There must be a pause also thus: 5–6 because you are my protector, into your hands I will commit my spirit. I do not commit my spirit to another, but into your hands. And if the man who says these things is holy, his spirit is that which is joined to the soul, about which it is said: "your spirit and soul and body whole." Some say that the spirit is not other than the soul, others that it is its mind, others its understanding. In both ways, according to all the interpretations, God keeps the spirit. If it is the soul, it is committed into the hands of God, so that being sheltered it may remain unharmed, not be wounded by enemies, not be destroyed. That the soul is sometimes called spirit, Stephen teaches; for when he was about to die and entreated that the sin of those murdering him not stand, he says:

Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," meaning my soul. And James writes: "Just as the body without spirit is dead," calling the soul spirit. It is said, as I said, that a certain rational [spirit] is also yoked alongside, so that it may be an inseparable teacher of the soul, a spirit. And since this is present with the soul when it clings to God, this is what he says: may such things not be done to me, so that my spirit comes to be outside your hands, but may every virtue be set right in me, so that my spirit may be found in your hands. He can also call his own mind a spirit, so that he wishes even this to be guarded in the hands of God. Finally also the interpretive points: the two covenants can be the hands of God. To these, then, I entrust my spirit, wishing to understand both the old covenant—that is, the things commanded there—and the new. Let both your hands encompass my spirit. But it is possible not to speak of only two hands of God; for it was not said in the dual, but in the plural; and there is no difference between plural and dual. Nevertheless, if the two covenants are meant, the hands are spoken of in the dual. But if every power of God is named his hand—for we call the military force the hand of the king—then to your military force, which is a guard, your hand, I entrust my spirit. To Jerusalem God says in Isaiah the prophet: "Behold, I have painted your walls upon my hands, and you are before me continually." Can we not say, even up to the point of re-formation, that perceptible walls are painted in the hands of God, who is incorporeal?

If, then, he says, your walls are painted on my hands, you remain before me continually, since no one is able to take you captive; for the walls painted on my hands are indestructible; no one is able to set foot upon them. Just as, therefore, walls painted on the hands of God are not perceptible to the senses, so too he who places his own spirit in the hands of God shows that the spirit is not something of little worth, but is either the rational substance yoked alongside the soul or its divine mind, which is unmixed with respect both to matter and to evil. The mind, when it preserves the virtue of the mind, is outside all matter, is unentangled with respect to bodily things, and also has no share in any evil. For this reason it can be given and guarded in the hands of God; for God does not guard the one who has evil. But in another way he guards him, wishing to lead him outside of evil. Furthermore, what are the walls? Walls are named in Scripture in many ways. Concerning wisdom it is said that "she is proclaimed upon the tops of the walls"; and surely we do not say that certain men becoming heralds upon the tops of perceptible walls proclaim the things concerning virtue. The walls are the virtues and divine thoughts that guard the mind and the inner man. As long as someone is still among the foundations of the walls or has in the middle the ascent of them, he cannot yet proclaim wisdom; scarcely can he understand it. But when he comes to the very tops of the walls—so to speak, when he has transcended the world and become supramundane—then he can proclaim wisdom. Again, it was said: "On my hands I have painted your walls.

The ideas of perceptible things correspond to one another. And these ideas are thoughts of God, they are willings of God. And grasp what is being considered by means of an example: one who wishes to build a city forms in his own mind a mental image of the whole city and its parts, and in accordance with those thoughts he constructs the perceptible things. Indeed, at any rate, if he does not correctly grasp the conception—suppose—of the marketplace or the temple or the other parts, he does not make the perceptible things well. The ideas, then, can be the walls, written on the hands of God as willings. These walls, therefore, have their being in the will of God. And I say: "In Christ," he says, "all things were created, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether principalities or authorities; all things exist through him; and he is before all things, and all things hold together in him." In him the visible and the invisible were created; as when the parts of the city are built in the mind of the architect, that is, in relation to those things, being held together by them; for they are rational principles of things that hold together. In Christ, then, all things hold together. If by way of conception you wish to remove the rational principle from existing things, these things do not subsist. They depart together with the removal of the rational principle. So then also the walls: all their security is written on the hands of God. But if you also call the virtues walls, gently also the virtues have ideas, the prototypical states. For example, I have righteousness, but not the whole of it, but I have been made quality according to it. And that which is conceived is not apart from the participant as though an idea, not an idea in the way you are accustomed to speak of it.

If, then, you remove knowledge, the states of those who know are removed, and they depart together with it; but when it remains, they partake of it and the particular states exist. And it is other than these, being more original and more secure. At any rate, this one does not admit the more and the less, but the one in those who partake does admit this. The walls, then, signify safety. You redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth. The one who comes to be outside all disturbance is redeemed by God. The God of truth, then, redeems from deceit; inasmuch as he is God of truth, he redeems from deceit and false opinion. Whenever someone has mistaken and false thoughts, he needs God, so that by the truth he may make himself outside all deceit. Again, the God of righteousness rescues from acts of injustice; for it has been said: "Hear me, O God of my righteousness," so that you may make me outside all injustice, so that you may subject those who do unjust things against me to defeat. And so in each case: Joseph would call upon the God of chastity, so that he might not fall under the snares of her who persuaded him to licentiousness; and Susanna, so that she might not fall under the elders for adultery. The God of chastity hears, not because he is one and another. You hated those who guard vanities in vain. Since you are the God of truth, you also hated those who guard vanities in vain. But vanities are not true. And he said "in vain" because in a certain way they do not subsist. Everything false is without subsistence. When I say concerning the one who conceived the temple of Jesus that she has given birth, I speak truly; but if I say, "She has given birth by a man," I lie.

Not that she has given birth—the falsehood arises in relation to the manner. All wickedness comes to be in vain; it has no end. He says, then: You, O God, have hated those who keep vanities in vain. If one of those who keep such things gains perception, who is it that hates such things—will he cease, or will he hate himself? But I have hoped in the Lord. You, then, O Master, "have hated those who keep vanities in vain," but I have hoped in you as my Lord; for he could have said, "But I have hoped in you." But he says, "I have hoped in the Lord." He speaks these things as a servant. From a servant's disposition and a servant's work he says these things. I will exult and be glad in your mercy. In your mercy—for even if I confess you as Lord and have hoped in you, still the end does not come about by my own power, but by your compassion. Because you looked upon my lowliness. You looked upon my lowliness that was to follow. Looking upon it, you did not allow me to fall into it. You saved my soul from necessities. In Scripture, necessities are spoken of quite simply as afflictions; for "six times he will deliver you from necessities," and, "They cried out to the Lord, and he heard them and saved them from their necessities." He has set me outside every affliction, clearly assenting to the petition; for I sent up a prayer that I might be delivered from enemies, from foes pressing upon me. But you can in some way more rationally call wickednesses necessities. By necessity the wicked man does not receive righteousness. I do not say that man is not capable of receiving righteousness, but the unjust man. Not to have come to be outside afflictions, but not to have been defeated; for so we have heard also the

Deliver us from the evil one," and: "Do not lead us into temptation." But if the apostles of Christ and the other righteous prayed for this—not to be tempted—they were never heard, if indeed they speak the truth when they say: "In everything afflicted, but not distressed." And you did not shut me up into the hands of the enemy. I am shut up into the hands of those who plot against me whenever I am defeated by necessities and afflictions. But whenever I am saved from them, I am not shut up into their hands; I do not do what they wish to bring upon me. You set my feet in a spacious place. This too must be understood in two ways. The conduct pertaining to the earthly region, and that pertaining to vice, are said to be broad and spacious. And it is a great thing, having come to be in this broad and spacious place, not to be dragged down but to stand. And standing comes from God. So he says by way of thanksgiving: "You set my feet in a spacious place." My feet do not perceive the affliction that surrounds them. At any rate, those who say: "Who will separate us from the love of God? Affliction, or distress?" will say: "You set our feet in a spacious place." Even if the place in which we have come to be, and the way in which we find ourselves, is narrow, yet we see it as spacious when you widen the affliction. You provide a broader way than the affliction, by helping. Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am afflicted. But you say, "Indeed, he said: 'You set my feet in a spacious place.'" So that the saint prays unceasingly; for there is not one thing that is afflictive, nor is there one circumstance in life, nor one temptation.

If someone, then, having prayed, is delivered from one thing or from certain things, he again sees others lying in wait, and again he prays concerning those; for the things he expects press hard upon him. Perhaps, as a prophet, he foresaw? —Such things, indeed, even one who is not a prophet is able to foresee. I am in a place where there are many wicked men. And they hate the righteous man who is there. And if at some time they attack and bring some wrestling-hold or assault against him, and he comes to be outside it, knowing their subsequent evil to be watchful, he again expects something of the same sort: "For they will not," he says, "sleep unless they have done evil; their sleep has been taken away, and they do not slumber." And having been delivered, he often prays also concerning what follows. My eye was troubled from anger. My mind was troubled, not in my own anger, but in the anger of the enemies or in your anger; for you are angry against those who sin, and having sinned I fall under the anger, and my mind is troubled. My soul and my belly. Not only, he says, was my eye, that is, my mind, troubled by anger. But this also is possible: "In anger my eye was troubled." When I am angry, my mind is troubled; for the passions are troubling to the mind. And my soul also was troubled, of which the eye is the one troubled by the anger. "And my belly": here he does not call the belly of the body, but the one that conceives from the bridegroom and gives birth: "From your fear we conceived in the womb and were in travail," so as no longer to preserve the things conceived, but to cast them away as abortions. But this also is possible, that:

Since I was not fed with the bread of heaven, which makes the belly calm, but received some other harmful food, a poison, my belly also is troubled. He does not, then, despair of salvation. Why is the soul troubled? Some wish to say that the soul is threefold in power; but they call it more crassly also divisible. They call its mind the rational part; for this is receptive of knowledge, this is able to have understanding. The desiring part does not receive knowledge, but is sometimes persuaded by the rational part; it is obedient to persuasion, but does not itself have knowledge. And just as when the winds of the air blow favorably, the ship becomes obedient to the pilot, not having such a motion of its own, but not resisting the skill, since the winds are not contrary—so again the desiring part is persuaded by the rational part, not itself having reasoning. So one would not err in calling the rational part the mind. But all these things taken together at once are the soul. And take an example. It is possible to take a flower. The flower has such-and-such a color, but the color is not itself the flower. It has also such-and-such a scent, but the scent is not the flower. It has also such-and-such a shape. All things, then, taken together at once are the flower. When, therefore, we say, "The flower is fragrant," we signify only something of it—that it sends forth a most pleasant breath. And again, if we say that it is bitter, we signify its taste, not only that alone. But the taste is not the flower, but all things at once are the flower. Having spoken, then, about his rational part or his mind, that it is troubled by anger, he says also "the soul.

You know that when the charioteer is dragged along badly, the whole chariot is damaged, and when the pilot is overturned, the ship is overturned too. This so-called eye, then, being a certain noetic power, steers the whole soul. If, then, this is disturbed, the soul is disturbed along with it. But what of the generative belly? What I have said often, I will say now also: among perceptible things, each kind is something and cannot be anything else. A plant cannot be gold, and gold cannot be a human being. But among intelligible things this is possible according to different relations and conceptions. At any rate, yesterday I was saying that the soul, when it seeks and seeks to know itself, itself has the principle both of the seeker and of the thing sought. And if it cultivates itself as a plant, the plant is not one thing and the cultivator another, but the difference is found only in conception. If, then, he speaks of an eye and a belly, it is possible to speak both of the same power: because it sees, the mind is called an eye; because it generates and brings thoughts into the open, it can be a belly. Because my life has failed in pain, and my years in groanings. Since my life has failed in pain—for I always held it to be painful—I do not groan at one time and not at another; I always groan, longing for virtue, I always labor, I always sweat for the acquisition of the good. Since, then, I suffer this throughout my life, in a certain way my life has failed in pain and my years in groanings; therefore I beseech you, that I may no longer undergo so much toil; for if I labor again in keeping it, still the toil of acquiring something is not the same as that of keeping what already exists. But how are there universal kinds?

If he demands an account of man, do not give him Socrates' account, nor say, "Come now, Dion: a living being is mortal, rational"—the account belongs to the species. And so if I say that the just man is outside injustice, I do not speak of this particular just man, but of the just man universally. Since, then, the beginning of the psalm is also like this—"In you, Lord, I hoped; let me not be put to shame forever"—understand all its words as concerning everyone who has hoped and seeks a shame-free end to his expectation; for the one who speaks praises does not speak of this or that orator. And my strength grew weak in poverty, and my bones were troubled. Here again he does not call poverty the deprivation of money. Strength here is spoken of in contrast to weakness. Strength, then, that is according to the soul consists in wealth, but perceptible and bodily strength does not at all; for there are strong men who possess nothing, and weak men who are masters of much money. As if one were to speak also about virtue or knowledge: since I became poor in virtue and knowledge, my strength, which I ought to have had from the presence of these qualities, has become weak. "My bones were troubled." The bones are parts of the body that hold together the other parts of it. Since there are bones, there can also be sinews and small veins and the rest. When, then, the strong powers of the soul, called bones, grow weak, the whole soul comes into weakness. And that he calls bones not those of the body: "All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like you?" But the bones of the body do not have any thought of God at all, so that they could even say whether there is anyone like him or not.

For it is necessary first to know God, and then to speak thus. If, then, he says, "All my bones shall say," he means the powers of the soul that are well-toned and that hold together the other powers of the soul—the perceptive, the imaginative, the

memorative. And again: "My bones were scattered beside Hades"—those who confess and repent say this. But beside this Hades that is customarily spoken of, the bones of a body cannot be scattered. And even if they were, as some say, beneath the moon, the bones of the dead do not come to be there. But when the powers of the soul that are called bones because of their well-toned strength come under sin, "they were scattered beside Hades," and no longer preserve their own harmony. I became a reproach beyond all my enemies, and exceedingly to my neighbors. They said this psalm, as also those before it, as spoken from the person of the Savior in accordance with the man. "I became a reproach before all my enemies." He hints at the cross; for he says in another psalm, which Paul took to be from the person of the Savior: "The reproaches of those who reproach you fell upon me." I received them. Some reproach you, O Father or O God, and these reproaches fell upon me. And it is no wonder; often even a man of knowledge, when he sees people mocking knowledge, draws the reproaches upon himself. His enemies are those who sin. And this has been said: "For if, being enemies, we were reconciled." The one who sins is an enemy of God, not that God is an enemy of him; for God is an enemy of no one. "And exceedingly to my neighbors.

His neighbors are those who promise to know his Scripture and call themselves his partakers. "Sorely," then—for example, let the Gentiles be enemies; for they sin and are impious. I have become a reproach among all those, as one who endured the cross, as one who descended to death. "And to my neighbors sorely." But when those who ought to draw near to me and who promise to keep their own buildings near me do the same things as the enemies, the reproach has become sorely because of these. And fear to my acquaintances. Those who know me, having seen me suffer these things, had fear equal to reverence, or they had fear of suffering the same things. Those who see me fled outside from me. Those who see me, having seen beforehand the things that happened concerning me, have become outside me—not sent away by me, but they fled outside. Everyone who flees Jesus becomes outside him, outside salvation. I was forgotten as a dead man from the heart. Those who reproached me—enemies, and neighbors who did this sorely—cast me out from their own heart. For dead men are quickly forgotten. At any rate, those who undergo misfortunes say here that "from the time the dead man was laid out, grief is wiped away from the soul." At any rate, men hasten to do this quickly. "I was forgotten," then, "from the heart." They cast me out from their own heart; for they did not have me unmixedly, as the apostle says: "But Christ lives in me." I was no longer living in them. Whenever someone who has the word in himself no longer works according to it, as far as it depends on him, he has put it to death and it becomes forgotten by him.

Hear "forgetfulness" in this way, not as meaning that he never had it at all; for many such things are said both in common usage and in Scripture. Often, for instance, we say to friends, "You have already forgotten me," not meaning that you do not have me in memory at all. And Scripture says: "The affliction of the hour brings forgetfulness of luxury." Just now the one afflicted for an hour forgets his luxury. And again: "And they shall forget," it says, "their former affliction, and it shall not come up into their heart." So you think that the one who has come out of affliction forgets it. Then: "I have become a reproach before all my enemies"? He did not say "before all men," but "my enemies." And the enemies are not the ones who justify themselves—the base men—enemies by disposition; for he himself is no one's enemy, but many are his. "Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word: say, 'Our brothers,' to those who hate you." Those hate and are enemies. But you, he says, call them "brothers"—not with the voice, not with the utterance, but

by disposition, or you show yourself toward brothers by a disposition of brotherly love. For this is hatred: to have an opposing disposition. But if the Savior also says this—let us say that it can also be spoken from the person of the Savior as a man—he calls the Jews who had become his enemies. But not all had become his enemies; for the apostles too were Jews, they were Israelites. He did not say, then, "more than all the Hebrews, more than all the Israelites," but "I became a reproach to my enemies." They reproach the righteous man in the first sense. But the wicked also reproach the Savior. Not every reproach, then, brings blame to the one reproached. Sometimes those who reproach are blamed, and again those who are reproached because of sin. At any rate, in the writing of Proverbs it is said to the wise man: "Do not acquire the reproaches of evil men." By adding "of evil men" he showed that there are also reproaches of excellent men. At any rate, the disciples are commanded to rejoice when they are reproached. These are not the reproaches on account of which the apostles are blamed—reproaches of evil men. Then, since it is in our power to do things worthy of reproach, he commands: "Do not acquire the reproaches of evil men, nor be zealous for their ways"; for he who is zealous for their deeds and their thoughts has become an evil man, having acquired evil reproaches. Concerning this reproach it is said that some rise "for reproach and eternal shame." But not all rise "for reproach and eternal shame," but those who seem here to be good.

When men who are reputed to be earnest and holy rise up and the shame of their soul is exposed, these men rise up for reproach; for those who are openly wicked do not rise up for reproach, but for punishment. And if the Savior says this, he calls the cross a reproach; for the apostle taught this: "The reproaches of those who reproached you fell upon me." Again: "who, for the joy set before him, endured a cross, despising shame." And reproach and shame are the same thing. And see how far it came upon him: joy was set before him, since he had no sin. He therefore despised shame and trampled it underfoot. Reproach does not arise among friends and those who possess the same virtue, but among enemies. Consider, then, the reproaches which they bring against the man of the Lord: "Do we not rightly say that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?" It was not earnest men who brought this cry against him, not the apostles and the others. Again, if they say, "By Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, he casts out the demons," they are not friends, they are not virtuous men. "And to my neighbors, very much so." His neighbors were the Jews, if the Savior was the one speaking; and the neighbors of the earnest man are the hypocrites of virtue. They are my neighbors, but they have their own buildings near my house; for the house of the righteous man is his upright conduct; for the one who hears the words of Jesus and turns them into deeds builds a house upon the rock, while the wicked man builds upon the sand. But since both have become hearers of the words of Jesus, they seem to be neighbors, they seem to be bordering on one another.

The houses of the lawless will be liable to purification, but the houses of the righteous are acceptable." The lawless are not without law, but they have the same law and transgress it. But when it is said, "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven," those men have no experience of law. "Lawless deeds ensnare a man"; for in a certain way the without-law do not rise at all for judgment, so as even to be reproached. To be reproached is a lesser punishment. At any rate, those who received the law and transgressed it—these rise "for reproach and eternal shame." And that this is so, we shall attend to the prophecy of Daniel; for this is set down in it: "And from those who sleep in the dust of the earth"—he did not say "all"—"these rise to life and these to reproach and to shame." But the resurrection is set down in three ways in the first psalm: the impious rise, not to be judged. Those who transgressed the law rise—those who received the law and transgressed it; the sinners rise for judgment. The righteous do not rise to be judged, but to receive the promises. Now, then, he says: "And many of those who sleep"—he does not count in this way the impious who are not raised for judgment, but those who rise "to reproach and eternal shame." And these are the sinners. The righteous rise "to eternal life." Concerning these two orders the Savior also says in the gospel: "Those who have done good will come forth to a resurrection of life, but those who have done evil to a resurrection of judgment." Nor here does he mention the impious.

Since, then, the order of the ungodly is excluded, he did not say that "all" rise, but "many of those who sleep." But if someone considers this rendering forced, as not being such, and says that the ungodly are also ranked among the sinners, we understand "many" in this way in place of "all"; for all are many, but it does not convert. Nevertheless, let "the many" here be said in place of "all." The apostle also writes this: "For just as through the obedience of the one man the many will be established as righteous, so also through the disobedience of the one man the many are established as sinners." And here all are signified through the many: all who disobeyed, all who obeyed. It does not convert. If certain ones are all, the many are not altogether all, for example: "Many will say to my soul." "And fear to those known to me." I have become a fear to those known to me, bearing this condition which many reproach. At any rate, indeed, the apostles also, having been afraid, were scandalized for a time. Here he calls fear the passible kind, which cowardice follows—unless it is cowardice itself. It is possible also to take it as divine fear. Those who observe me, who know the mystery of my coming and for whose sake I was crucified, had fear equal to reverence, concerning which it is said: "The fear of the Lord has surpassed all things"; for see what he says: "those known to me." The earnest are known by God; for the Lord knows those who are his, and they know him. At any rate the apostle also says to the Galatians: "But then indeed, not knowing, but now having known God, or rather having been known by God.

When we know God, he knows us; for "if anyone is ignorant, he is ignored," and evidently if anyone knows, he is known. "Fear," then, "to those known by me." Those worthy of being known and who know me have received fear equal to reverence, about which it is said: "then you will understand the fear of the Lord," after many right actions. "Those who observe me fled outside from me." Our Savior and Lord is God and at the same time man. He is seen and observed insofar as he is man; for he is invisible, being "the image of the invisible God." And the image of the invisible must be invisible. But if it is said, "the one who has seen me," take "has seen" in the same sense as "the one who observes me knowingly, the one who sees me divinely, the one who applies to me as to one invisible, the one who also knows the mystery of his coming and of his passion." Those, then, who observe me from outside have come to be outside—those who know Christ only according to the flesh, and those who are such as those to whom Paul writes: "For I did not judge to know anything among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified." They are among those outside and run outside, such as those who hear in parables; for the parable, spoken obscurely, did not make them outside, but their own external way of thinking led them into this while they were already outside. "I was forgotten as if a dead man from the heart." The one who knows Jesus as being life—for he says, "I am the life," and the living one is the son of the living Father; for "I live," he says, "because of the Father"—they never forget him; for being present to their mind he always enlightens them, so that each says: "Christ lives in me." Such a person is in Christ and has Christ living and working in himself.

But when someone conceives of him as not living and not active, he forgets him as though he were dead; for Christ does not live in all, but in those who act according to him. And as many as think they are Christians but do not act according to Christ do not have him living in themselves. See: the base man lives according to vice, being "a lover of pleasure rather than a lover of God," and does everything in a pleasure-seeking way. He considers the righteous man dead, since he is deprived of his own life, which is base, and does not receive it in his own mind. I have become like a lost vessel. I have not become a lost vessel, but like the lost vessel. And take for me the example: the other men who were crucified besides the Savior seem to have become useless vessels, vessels of destruction. This one who says these things has become like the lost vessel, but not a lost vessel. Just as he became sin, not being the same sin as others, but so that they might become the righteousness of God in him, he was made like sin, he was made like the lost vessel. And that men are called vessels is not unknown, some indeed for honor, but others for dishonor. This vessel according to Jesus is not of destruction; for he knew no sin. But he has become like the lost vessel. He became a curse, in order to bring in a blessing. But no curse brings a blessing, but rather destroys the blessing; for no one who is accursed is blessed. But this one, having become a curse, has become the cause of blessing, and not for one man only, but for all who believe. For I heard the reproach of many dwelling round about. I heard many reproaching me who were not altogether separated off.

The Israelites were dwelling as sojourners around Jesus. They were finding fault with him: "He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons"; "He is a sinner because he does not keep the Sabbath." They were round about him. If those who said these things had been Gentiles, they would not have been his circle. These have become a circle around him. At any rate, he says: "And they surrounded me like bees a honeycomb." They surrounded me in a hostile manner. In that they gathered together at once against me. He remembered enemies, neighbors who reproached him bitterly; he remembered those who forgot him from the heart; he calls them sojourners round about and fault-finders. These gathered together at once "to take" his "life," especially when "the nations raged and the peoples meditated vain things"; for here also the nations, having raged, were not yet altogether separated from him and fenced off. "Why did they rage?" They attacked the Hebrews more arrogantly. And the Hebrews too vainly and emptily meditated on the prophecies concerning me. All the orders that were mentioned "gathered together at once; they planned to take my life." The greatness of the besieged one is shown, because "all at once they gathered together to take" his "life." Not one, not a second, not ten, not a thousand, but all at once. The inviolability and the unoverthrowability, or the not being overthrown, of Jesus' life is signified. Barely at once have they been able to take my life, or they have planned it, but they have not taken it. "No one takes my life from me; I lay it down of myself, that I may take it again." They planned to take my life. They have come as far as planning to kill him. But if he had not given himself, they could not have done this.

Indeed, when they came to seize him, he says: "Whom do you seek?" And they say: "Jesus the Nazarene." "I am he," as he said, and "they went backward and fell to the ground." And a second time again: "Whom do you seek?" And he said the same to them, and they fell to the ground again. The third time he says: "I am he; seize me, then, and let these go their way"; for no one was able to be seized along with him. This was said often, that it was in order not to give the unstable the suspicion that he himself did not take the lead in the contest, but rather the one who suffered with him, that he did not permit this one. And so when Peter says, "I am ready to go with you even to prison" and to lay down "my life for you," he says: Stop; "before the rooster crows three times you will deny me."

But if he had been one who suffered with him, it would have been ambiguous for whose sake this happened. And "he handed himself over for our sins." It is said also that the Father handed him over; for this too happened by the good pleasure of the Father. And if Judas too is said to have handed him over, he handed him over in another way; he became his betrayer. 15–16 But I hoped in you, Lord; I said, You are my God. In your hands are my lots. Even if those men did so and gathered together against me, having resolved to take my life and having done the other things, nevertheless I did not depart from hoping in you. "I said, You are my God. In your hands are my lots." The patristic interpretations say this, that the lots are in the hands of God—for instance, the diaconate, the presbyterate, the episcopate.

Blessed it is to have one's lots in the hands of God, which one has been allotted. Such a person is beyond assault; for "no one snatches" "out of the hand of the Father." "In your hands are my lots," says the Savior. And so that we may concur with the interpretation given, we say: those whom I allotted to serve me, whom I placed in the church as apostles and prophets and teachers, are in your hands. And it is possible—and Israel too, when it was called "my people," was said to be his portion and inheritance—that all the nations have been given as an inheritance to the Son. Many lots are the nations. These lots are in your hands, secured by your active and protective powers, so that no one is able to snatch out of your hand; for "no one is able to snatch out of the hand of the Father." He did not say: unless someone places himself outside the hand, he cannot be snatched by anyone. Since some will say: and yet earnest people later were dragged away into impiety. And so that I may not speak from mere probabilities, for example Judas himself placed himself outside the hand; for since it was night when he was deliberating about the betrayal, it says: "He went out; for it was night." "My lots," then: each of those who believe in me is my lot. In your hands it stands equal to an inheritance; for the lot also follows the inheritance when it is reckoned among many. We say this too in a more ample sense: the hands of God are the two covenants. If anyone's lot is his, it is in his hands. Rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from those who pursue me.

Not all enemies pursue; but all who pursue are enemies. So that the not pursuing here is not for the sake of capturing, but for the sake of lying in ambush: "The enemy said, Pursuing I shall overtake." This pursuit is not made for the sake of imitation. But one must love those who pursue righteousness. Those who pursue righteousness pursue it for the sake of partaking of it and being made conformable to it. As if someone should pursue knowledge in order that he may also contemplate according to knowledge. Thus also this: "Seek peace and pursue it," must be understood. It can also be taken more ethically in this way: since the hand of the enemies and of those who pursue me is wickedness, a forbidden deed, rescue me from their deed, lest I fall under their evils, their deed. Make your face shine upon your servant, save me in your mercy. If you raise me up and place me outside those who pursue, you have made your face shine. And I am your face, the "impress of your substance," your "image" of the "invisible God." But since I took the "form" of a "servant," "upon your servant make your face shine." Show that this servant has your form, that your face has dwelt in this servant, so that "you rescue me" is said according to the notion of the servant, but "face" according to the notion of the truth, of the impress of the divine substance. "In your mercy," then, "save me." Raise me from the dead. And perhaps he also calls his own salvation the salvation for the sake of those for whom he came, so that he may become for them the "cause" of "eternal salvation." Let me not be put to shame, because

I called upon you. Then I am not put to shame, if the things of the consolation are supplied. Is there not a word of the Savior? —Sharp changes of persons occur. Thus he also does in the prophetic writings. And another point concerning the mere man: for example, each of us, when often discoursing about a man, sometimes signifies him by the soul, sometimes by the body. If I say that he is a handsome man, "ruddy," to speak from the Scripture, "with beauty of eyes," very tall — then I say that he is a knowledgeable man, a servant of God, subject to the Lord; for the change of expressions is not entirely outside. When it is spoken about a composite being, the changes of persons are borne from a part to that part. Since, then, the one who says these things is not man alone nor God alone, but God become man, some things are said as from the man, and some as from God the Word or concerning God the Word. "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father." You take it in the same one; for he does not say this: "Show your face upon your servant," the other who is mine; me, your servant. 150 18 Let the impious be put to shame and be brought down into Hades. The phrase "be brought down into Hades" again has a certain force. He did not say "let them go down into Hades." For to go down somewhere belongs to those who descend willingly. But these are brought down into Hades unwillingly. At any rate, it is also said concerning Capernaum, or to Capernaum: "And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, you shall be brought down to Hades." It is brought down by others.

Then they are put to shame when they come to know that they are impious, that they have no impulse of eagerness to descend into Hades. For this reason they are brought down, so that, having received some notion of where they are about to descend, they might be ashamed. Still more will they revile themselves because they have become impious. Let the deceitful lips that speak lawlessness against the righteous be made speechless. He does not curse them; he blesses them. For he did not say, "Let their lips be made speechless," but "the deceitful ones"—when they are deprived of the devilish words, they have become speechless. Their lips—not altogether, but "the deceitful ones." Having cast off the word, they thereafter speak with boldness and truth. At any rate, it is said thus: "The Lord will destroy all deceitful lips and a boastful tongue." When the boastful tongue, that is, the word, is destroyed, that one from whom it is destroyed thereafter speaks the word of God. In pride and contempt. Since "of the righteous" is placed without an article, it can mean both the righteous man and the righteous thing, about which it is said, "rightly the right." But the one who speaks against the righteous, and against the one who possesses it and is disposed according to it, speaks in pride and contempt; for then their lips become speechless, when they come to know of what sort of lowliness they are, when they come to know that the one whom they will despise is not worthy of being despised. How great is the abundance of your goodness, O Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you. Since some have thought that these things are spoken as curses, but looking to the disposition of the speaker, we say that they are not curses but rather blessings. And he wishes good things to be supplied to them.

Since it happened that those who did not ignore your goodness and the end of those who are saved were being worn down, you hid it from those who fear you. Here he calls "those who fear" those who have the punitive fear, not the righteous, not those who have that fear which has no deficiency, not the one that surpasses all. He says: since your goodness is connatural, being the same as your benevolence, and you do all things for the salvation of the whole, even the gloomy things and the falling of someone into gloomy circumstances—but since those who were being worn down were about to be harmed through superficiality, you hid it from those who fear you, not from those who love you; for here we take the fear that is distinguished from love—"perfect love casts out fear." And love is perfect when we love it not for the sake of something else. "Perfect love," then, "casts out fear, because fear has punishment"—not that fear, about which it is said: "There is no deficiency to those who fear him." You wrought this for those who hope in you before the sons of men. You wrought this hiding. There are certain sons of men who are not blamed. But often men and sons are blamed when he says: "Sons of men, how long are you heavy-hearted?" But when he says: "The Lord looked down from heaven, he saw all the sons of men," these sons of men are praiseworthy. And I say something paradoxical: when they are referred to God, the righteous are men and sons of men; but when they are referred to the righteous, sinners are sons of men, since those are base about whom Paul writes: "For where there is strife and jealousy among you, are you not men?

And concerning these things: "But you shall die like men," having fallen from being gods and sons of the Most High. In relation to those who are called holy men or are named gods, the wicked are called sons of men; but in relation to God, who is the cause, they are called zealous sons, upon whom he looks. And again: "You will save men and beasts, O Lord. How you have multiplied your mercy, O God; but the sons of men will hope in the shadow of your wings." "Great is man, and honorable is a merciful man." Here the man who is "according to the image and likeness" of God is praised for greatness. But when someone, having fallen from being a son of the Most High, becomes a son of man, this man is wicked. "You have wrought for those who hope in you before the sons of men"—the zealous ones—and they know the working—the hiding of the wealth of your goodness. You will hide them in the secret place of your face. The sons of men for whom you have wrought your mercy. And someone is hidden in the secret place of God in this way: God has a face that appears through his own created works; for it is said: "From the greatness and beauty of created things, their Creator is seen by analogy." He is seen by analogy from the creation.

For just as if someone sees a hull, he receives an impression of the shipbuilder even if he is not present, and one who beholds a ship being steered from afar immediately comes to the thought that there is one who steers it, and one who sees a chariot from afar being driven in order, even if he does not see the charioteer, receives a conception of him, so too, since the world is carried along in order and has a most beautiful nature, the impression of the beauty and greatness of God is made known; for if the things that have come to be are great, much greater is the one who made them. When, then, someone receives an impression of God from the world and its order and its conception and the judgments of providence, he has not been hidden in the secret of his face. Such also are those who have philosophized among the Greeks; for from the greatness of the created works and their beauty they received an impression of God. But the one who receives an impression of God without the creation, having seen the Son and through the Son the Father—for "the one who has seen me has seen the Father"—this one has been hidden in the secret of the face of God. And the secret is that which pertains to the creative Word. Again, that we may speak also in a more popular way: Jesus had two faces, that of a man and that of God. As many as know him according to the flesh receive him in the manifestation of his face. But as many as, having departed from knowing him according to the flesh, have come to knowing him insofar as he is God the Word, these have been hidden in the secret of the face of God.

And further, since they said that the outward appearance of the world is the face, the reason by which things that have come to be came to be, and are provided for and governed, is the hidden thing of the face of God—hidden, that is, in respect of the creative reason. God often hides his own goodness from the little ones who fear him. And yesterday we set forth those who fear—those who abstain from evil out of fear of punishment, if indeed one must call this an abstaining from evil. "Perfect love," he says, "casts out fear, because fear has punishment." He who has acquired knowledge of good and evil and has desired the good and cleaved to it, abstains from evil by his love for the good; he departs from evil not out of fear of punishment, but turns aside from evil. If, then, some argument should persuade him that there is no punishment, he does the evil he chooses. God, then, often does not bring punishment immediately, in his goodness and kindness. But he hides the abundance of the wealth of his goodness because of those who fear, because of the little ones, because of those who abstain from evil out of fear of punishment. "How great," then, "is the abundance of your goodness, O Lord." He hid it; for the knowledge of it made them grow worse in evils. As when someone, up to the point of striking terror, brings forth words of indignation to a son and hides the goodness by which he does this as though about to punish; for if the son had known that the threat was only a posture, he would have despised his goodness and would have been ruined and would have become liable to wrath. In truth his goodness is great, its abundance is great. The apostle also says to certain ones:

Or do you despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? But the one who does not know this thinks that he is not displeased with evil things, and for this reason does not punish them. And Peter too, the most eminent of the apostles, writing his epistle, has spoken such a word: "The Lord does not delay his promise, as some consider it a delay, but he is longsuffering, not wishing to destroy some but that all should proceed to repentance." Behold, this is of goodness. It was not necessary for it to be known to the many; for they would have despised it even more. You have therefore hidden for those who fear you the abundance of your goodness. "You have wrought it for those who hope in you before the sons of men." Those who hope are those who await the divine recompenses and the promises which God promised to bestow on those who live well. "You have wrought" this, then, "for those who hope in you." You have wrought this—the hiding of the abundance of your goodness—so that not even those who hope in you might see this, that on account of certain ones you do not bring on the wrath. He says, then, that "before men." The abundance of your goodness is not hidden forever, but only as long as those about whom it is said are men: "But you indeed die like men." And: "For where there is strife and jealousy among you, are you not men?" Before these sons of men, then, you have wrought this—the hiding according to the abundance of your goodness; for to them too he opens this.

God is often called "man" in the whole of Scripture, not because he has become a man or is a man, but because, condescending to human beings, he so governs their affairs and becomes their judge as a compassionate man. "He bore your ways as a man bears the ways of his son." He observed your ways, feeding and governing you. In agreement with this is the text: "If you should mark iniquities, Lord, Lord, who will stand?" And: "His eyelids examine the sons of men." With his eyelids alone he sees what is done. Just as, therefore, the one who sent the Son, the one who was well pleased with his coming, governing human beings as a man, brings benefits, so also this one is "a son of man": he is the son of the man who is led in this way. And there is another point: in a certain manner the particular things are offspring of the universal. The universal man came to be "according to the image and likeness" of God; for this was certainly not said only about Adam, but the nature of man, the universal, the form, came to be "according to the image and likeness" of God. The one, therefore, who guards the prototype, the one that is as it were universal—that one is a son of man. Since, then, the soul of Jesus guarded the according-to-the-image—for he knew no sin, nor did he commit it—in this respect he is a son of man

He is said to be of that God who has come to be "according to the image and likeness." It may also be said in another way: even if Jesus did not have a father according to the man, yet he had a mother. And the woman too is a human being. But for the refutation of Docetism he is called "son of man." Even if he does not have his being from a father, yet he is from a mother. Thus at any rate he is said to have been "born of a woman." All are born from men; for Paul also writes this: the human being comes to be "from a man," but "through a woman"; for from the man comes the casting of the seed, but through the woman the formation and the bringing forth. Since, then, this one does not have the "from a man" and the "through a woman," but "from a woman"—for he took the whole material from the woman, not as other human beings do: "But Jacob begot Joseph the husband of Mary, from whom Christ was born." He did not say "through whom"—therefore also according to this he is styled "son of man"; for if he were called simply "man," the Docetists would have supposed that he appeared as a man without having his generation or origin from a human being. In order, then, to show that he is from Mary, he called himself "son of man." But God the Word himself is also sometimes called "son of man"; for when he says, "No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the son of man," he is speaking of God the Word himself. And he is called "son of man" in the way we often say that the soul is from the parents. As if we should say, "Jacob, the holy one of God, is from Isaac," we do not say this in respect of what sort he is, namely holy, but this one, to whom it happened to be holy, is from Isaac.

And in this respect, then, let God the Word be called Son of Man. "If, then, you see the Son of Man ascending where he was before"—we do not understand this of the body either, lest we incline to those who say that he brought a body down from heaven. For nearly all the heretics say this, such as Marcion, Basilides, Valentinus. And so we often say too that "a wise man, holy, a friend of God" is a son of this woman; for it is not insofar as he is such that he is her son. In composite things we often predicate the parts of the whole; as when we say "a man of understanding, prudent, mindful, sound in body, handsome, well-grown," we say some things from the body and some from the soul; for some of the properties belonging to the composite cannot belong to each one of the things in the composition. Yet to be awake or asleep is said neither of the soul alone nor of the body; for neither does the soul do this without the body, nor the body without the soul. It is said, then, of the composite. "You will hide them in the secret of your face." The creation of God is said at one time to be his face; "from the greatness of the beauty of created things the God who created them is seen by analogy." They are not in his hidden face, but in his manifest one. If you see a physician at work, accomplishing his task skillfully, you see his face; for the works of medicine show the physician. But when we are able to see the analogy of the account of the works of skill and the disposition of the one who makes, we no longer see his manifest face, but the hidden one.

Thus also in the case of God we say that, when we contemplate the created works, from the created works and from the greatness of their beauty we have our mind directed toward the God who is a sea of beauty and greatness, in his manifest face. But when we consider why, for instance, he made heaven of such a kind and in such a condition, and why at that particular time, we have entered into the hidden place of his face, into the reason according to which he made it. "The Word became flesh." See the outer face. "And we beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father." To understand is the hidden thing. In agreement with this, then, the Apostle also says: "Even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know him." From the tumult of men you will shelter them in a tent, from the contention of tongues. Those who are just now being rescued and delivered from the tumult of men are sheltered in their progress; for the one who has turned aside from evil in order to do good does not at once, by the very turning aside from evil, have the good perfectly in himself. He becomes a disciple of the single-tongued tongue, the tongue of God. For tongues signify words, and this has often been demonstrated: "They stretched their tongue like a bow"—their word. And: "Death and life are in the hand of the tongue." The perceptible tongue has no hand at all. But it has activity—the word, which is called a tongue. Blessed is the Lord, because he has made his mercy wonderful in a city of refuge. Having attended to what has been said and having come to knowledge of them, he thereafter, in the manner of a blessing, sends up thanksgiving praises and says: "He has made his mercy wonderful in a city of refuge.

They said that he hid the abundance of his goodness for the sake of mercy, in order that he might have mercy. Having recognized the reason why the abundance of goodness was hidden, he blesses the one who did this and says, "In the city of the encompassment" we have done this. We can call "a city of encompassment" the life here, the sojourn in this world; for in a certain way we are enclosed as in a guard-post. But since in the Kingdoms too Zion is called "a city of encompassment"—for "who will lead me into the city of encompassment?"—this encompassment is praiseworthy, it is an invincible guard, an unassailable rampart. "He made wonderful," then, "his mercy in the city of encompassment." If anyone is outside this city, he does not know why God hides the abundance of his goodness. We say that the little ones are those who do not do evil out of fear of punishment. Since "his mercy to me" is not written—it takes away the greatness of God's mercy if you add "to me." It is universal. Sometimes we do something. If we do something because we are earnest or because we are knowledgeable, we have not done it for that one alone, but for every earnest person, for every knowledgeable person. So one ought not to have the "to me." Some lover of self added it. But I said in my ecstasy, I am cast away from the face of your eyes. He speaks about his former circumstance, in which he was seeking and was troubled. Having been beside himself at the greatness of the wonder, and struck with amazement at the economy of the hiding of God's goodness, I thought I had been cast away from the face of God's eyes—from whose face the one who does things unworthy of his face is cast away.

Nevertheless, this man is not as evil as the one who by his own choice comes to be outside the presence of God. Cain, then, was such a one; for "Cain went out from the presence of the Lord God." He deserted to evil, he embraced godlessness, he became an introducer of providence-denial. But concerning Adam it is said that the Lord "cast him out." Yet the one who is cast out is the one who desires to be within; and he was not as evil as Cain. So this man too, who says these things, said: since such things came upon me, and the dispensation of the hiding of the abundance of your goodness from those who fear you—I seemed to have been cast away from the presence of your eyes. But it is also possible to understand it this way: just as all who have come near in faith are "the body of Christ" and "members in part," so also of the divine powers, the complement of rational beings is the body of God. And just as in the case of the members of Christ we say that the clear-sighted are called eyes, the practical are hands, and those "not sluggish in zeal" are feet—this very thing: "the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,'" nor can the hand say, "I am not of the body, because I am not an eye." And observe: the eye is greater than the hand, and this clear-sighted eye cannot, because it contemplates the dispensations, say, "I have no need of you"; for you know that the hand has an action which the eye cannot perform in the first instance. And indeed this too belongs to presumption, that the greater cannot say to the lesser, "I have no need of you." Clear-sighted men are the eyes of God. And he says:

Because I set my mind upon things and did not understand them, I am not an eye.

I said this, then: perhaps I have come to be outside the eyes of God, while the discerning men see with their understanding. For this reason you heard the voice of my supplication. For this reason you heard, because I knew that, as far as it depended on my ignorance, I was cast away from the eyes of God. Love the Lord, all you his holy ones. Holy ones are those who set right what is just toward God, those who keep that which the Savior said: "Render to God the things that are God's." "Love the Lord": consider why this was said. Those from whom the mercy of God was hidden were afraid. And we have taken the saying of John and clarified it thus: "Perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment, and the one who fears has not been made perfect." Perfect love, then, is when someone loves and by love for the good flees evil; he does not remain outside evil because of fear of punishment, but because he has a genuine love for the good. For opposites cannot coexist. Because the Lord seeks out truth. The truth of God is only-begotten; for "I am the truth," says the Savior. But a certain truth comes to be in those who participate. And just as it is with forms of knowledge and virtues—we do not say that each of the knowledgeable has all knowledge, but a certain knowledge, that is, an individual instance. Therefore, as many as are the knowledgeable, so many are the individual instances of knowledge, and as many as participate in the truth, so many are the truths as there are participants. But I say these things before the end.

For there it is not possible to say either many true things or many truths, nor many knowledgeable men, nor many knowledgeable women; for if from this source there comes to be among those who believe "one heart and one soul" and "knit together in the same mind and the same judgment"—if not wholly, yet more in some respect—then above all, at the final end, which is the object of desire, it is not possible to say that one knowledgeable man differs from another knowledgeable man. Just as, if by hypothesis all physicians possessed medicine in all its parts in an unsurpassable manner, they would not be many physicians; many men, but not many physicians. Since, then, the truth is one—for "grace and truth" come "through Jesus Christ"—the truth, then, becomes one through itself, not the truth in its particular instances through itself. They come to be through the one, as the particular virtues come to be through the universal, and the particular sciences through the universal. These, then, the Lord seeks out; therefore strive, as far as you are able, to receive some truth; for these things God seeks out. And even if you take it in the case of the practical virtues, the truth of the practical virtues is judged from the disposition, whether one pursues it for the sake of the just itself. Since "you shall pursue the just justly," pursue the just itself justly, pursue the action of the just with the disposition of justice. "Love the Lord, all you his holy ones." He has given the reason: since "the Lord seeks out truths," "love the Lord," the provider of truths. Thus we also hear of justices spoken of in the plural: "The Lord is just and has loved justices." Whenever, however, he speaks concerning the universal justice, the essential one—

Righteousness looked forth from heaven"—he calls the Savior here righteousness. And he has become for us both wisdom and righteousness. And he repays the excessively proud with pride. Since he showed the smallness of those who fear him—for he has also spoken of men who trouble them, certain sophists and deceivers, these he called proud. And they act with excessive pride. But it is also possible to take it thus: all wickedness becomes superfluous, in the sense of "in vain." This indeed is also said in Proverbs: "Do not strive with a man in vain"; for neither, having striven, can you do anything to him, unless God deliver him up. In vain, then, he does this. But one must not be zealous for vain things. So then these proud men act with pride excessively; for not all against whom they exalt themselves will become subject to them, unless God deliver them up. Be manly, and let your heart be strengthened, all you who hope in the Lord. Having spoken of all the contests, he anoints them for endurance, for courage. And he does not say "those who fear," but "those who hope." And we say that these are those who work the good out of longing for the promises. These, then, are ready to be made manly and strengthened and to draw near to God. And each one, being joined to him, becomes one spirit with him. But if each of those joined to the Lord becomes one with him, when many are those joined to him, by way of participation all become one spirit. Of David: of understanding. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven. The forgiveness of sins is a new birth, birth upon birth. For this reason it is called regeneration.

Just as the palinode shows song upon song, so too the regeneration is another generation coming after the generation that came first. It was necessary, then, that the psalm concerning regeneration be placed in a number that has certain virtues. And it is from the fourth square, five times five, and it receives an addition, the first of the perfect numbers, the six; for the first of the perfect numbers, added to the fourth of the squares, makes up the thirty-one. Five times five is a square. A square is that which is equal on equal sides. These numbers, then, having been added together, have made it fitting for regeneration; for it must have its composition from a perfect number and from a square because of its firmness. The former generation became easily shaken. The deceit of the serpent removed the first-formed from perfect virtue and from the keeping of the divine commandment which they had received from God. It was necessary, then, that the second generation be more firm. It has firmness from the square, and it has perfection from the six, because the number is without deficiency, being composed and completed from its own parts. And this too must be said: even if twenty-five is a square, yet it has its variegation from sensible things; for the sensible things are five—the visible, the audible, the tasteable, the smellable, the touchable. Nevertheless even in sensible things there is perfection and firmness; for what is praiseworthy is given even perceptibly, and it is perfected through the hexad, through perfection. And this too must be known: the psalm before this one—I mean the thirtieth—contains the human generation.

of thirty—for who, having been born, can be a grandfather, and a grandmother who has reached perfection at thirty years of age? The physicians' children say these things too: one who has been born for fourteen years can emit fertile seed. If, then, this is cast down into the workshop of nature, a living being is completed and is born in the fifteenth year. Then this same one, having again been born for fourteen years, can be fertile, and by the thirtieth year is shown to be a grandfather. But the threefold generation, especially in things subject to generation, has this perfection prior to it. This generation, then, being more human, pre-exists the second generation, which lies in the number mentioned, having certainty through twenty-five and perfection through six. For the rest, let us see what mystery the beginning of the psalm itself contains. The psalm is inscribed "of understanding," "the understanding of David," so that the meaning contained in the letters is—as if you were to say concerning medical theories: "the writings are of the understanding of this physician, according to Peter of Galen, but according to others of Menemachus." "Of understanding," then, "of David." But the understanding of David is not more human, but divine, which also has action joined to it; for it is said: "Understanding is good for all who do it." There is an understanding equivalent in power to wisdom, as when it is said: "a spirit of wisdom and understanding." This understanding is contemplative; it concerns the mysteries of piety and the doctrines of truth. But the other is practical, the one that does: for "understanding is good for all who do it.

Practical virtue also has understanding and knowledge. For how do we know whether things are practical or ethical unless we understand them? And Paul, at any rate, when writing practical exhortations, says: "May God give you understanding in all things." He was speaking about offerings, about the necessity that the teacher be fed by those who are taught. And since it seemed to concern him—either the teacher himself, that the teacher ought to be supported by the disciples—he says, having stated this in a hidden way: "May God give you understanding in all things." Understanding is therefore manifold; the word is homonymous, it has many meanings. But since here he speaks about hidden things, what is set down pertains to knowledge, which is akin to wisdom; for the psalm contains mysteries. And this too must be said: it is impossible to understand grammatical discourses unless one has understanding of letters, and it is not possible to understand philosophical discourses unless one has knowledge of the doctrine they introduce. So too it is impossible to understand the things of God without divine understanding. But why is understanding granted to David alone, or why is understanding said to be from David? Consider that characteristics are known sometimes from the giver and sometimes from the receiver. For instance, the Holy Spirit is said in Scripture sometimes to be Elijah's, sometimes John's. Likewise the gospel is said sometimes to be God's, as when God gives and arranges it—"set apart for the gospel of God"—and sometimes from the one who ministers it: "according to my gospel," and sometimes it is said to belong to those who proclaim the good news, those who have received the gospel, and sometimes also without qualification.

Repent and believe in the gospel." Such names, when they signify the same thing both with and without an addition, are [used] with a divine addition and without it, as I was saying—simply "gospel" and "gospel of God." So it is the same thing to say simply "gospel" and "gospel of God." In this way, then, understanding is from God who gives, but from the prophet and sacred psalmist who has received it, understanding is said to be. "Blessed are those whose iniquities were forgiven and whose sins were covered." Sin differs from iniquity. Iniquity is the sinful act of one who does not have the law; for the transgressor of the law is called lawless. "Lawless deeds ensnare a man." And: "The lawless man says in himself to sin." Even if in another way sin and iniquity are the same—for John the divine writes this in his own epistle: "Everyone who commits sin also commits iniquity, and sin is iniquity"—if, then, he has sinned, it is in some way iniquity; but he says these are two things. At any rate, by binding them with a copulative conjunction he showed that they are two. Then: "And sin is iniquity." As though sin is a genus of iniquity; for I was saying that iniquity is a species, when the one acting wickedly does not have the law. But this is also called sin, and the transgression of the law or the disobedience which I called lawlessness. As if I were to say: "Everyone who has a horse also has an animal"—animal is the genus. Not everyone who has an animal has a horse, but the one who has a horse has an animal. The one who has the species has the genus; the one who has the species has the species. In this way, then, he says here also that the same thing is called iniquity and sin.

In conceptual terms, however, it has its difference, because the one is universal, the other partial; the one is a genus, the other a species. For I was saying that the name of sin is applied both to transgression and to lawlessness. Both, then, sin: "for as many as sinned without the law"—behold, these who are without law sin; "and as many as sinned in the law"—these are those who have wisdom, who have transgression of the law. Both "sinned." But forgiveness of lawless deeds comes about when the divine law, the spiritual law, the one "that converts souls," takes hold of those who act lawlessly. Then lawless deeds are forgiven. And I say this: that the forgiveness of sins does not happen immediately. Jesus forgives when he says, "the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins"; and, "Child, your sins are forgiven you." For he does not say this: "Behold, your sins have been forgiven you." He has given a power that makes new. And the energy, when it is added, destroyed the evil. Blessed, then, are those whose sins have been forgiven. For the rest, they apply themselves to the blameless law of God, which converts souls. Forgiveness of sins, then, comes about when the divine law according to the gospel draws near; for this is the "spiritual law" by which souls are converted, as I said. And the sins that arise and advance through transgression of the law have a covering. The sins are covered over. But it is impossible for those once baptized to obtain the bath again. They are covered over through works of repentance. But you say that the sins, having been covered over under the veil, are preserved. Does not "love," it says, "cover a multitude of sins"?

For it does not utterly destroy sins all at once, but in another way. For the one who loves performs works of love. For surely no one who shows love toward his neighbor speaks evil of him, reviles him, or wrongs him. But when someone does this, he does not have love for him. All these things are hidden when they are no longer active—not because they have been cut off at the root and are concealed by it, but love, having come upon them, hid them, that is, it removed them and put them outside. And if one must quibble, love, having come, stops sin according to activity, while the capacity is henceforth preserved. If anything is hidden, it is the activity. For example, the robber who repented had sin according to activity; he had repentance; the Savior gave him forgiveness; the activities by which he robbed were cast away. But the capacities remain, though they are hidden. For one must not attend to those who say that evil is a privation. There are some—indeed a whole heresy—who say this: "It is impossible for one who has cast away virtue to recover it." Just as it is impossible for one who has lost sight to recover it, and for this reason blindness and deafness are a privation, so they think also concerning virtue. But to us, who are rather simple—or rather, unlearned babblers—they say that such a thing is no longer possible. For they say that after these things there is no repentance, that it is not possible to recover virtue, but evil remains forever and ever and brings fitting punishment. Therefore sins are hidden in the way I have said: they come into the realm of capacity. For it is blessed to have capacity for evil. Contraries are not coexistent.

The one who possesses virtue in actuality has the power of vice, and this is indeed a blessed thing. It is necessary, then, not to possess virtue in potentiality but in actuality. For this reason also from the beginning God, having made man "according to image and likeness" of himself and "upright," therefore, just as the good was readily at hand, he immediately also gave a law preventing sin, so that sin might always remain in potentiality. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin, nor is there deceit in his mouth. Paul took this concerning those of the circumcision and concerning the Gentiles: "This blessedness," he says, "is upon the circumcision and upon the uncircumcision." He took it upon the law in that confinement of the saying—upon the good law. Those from the Gentiles are lawless; for "not having a law, they are a law to themselves." But when they were called to the true law, not the law according to the common notion, they are no longer lawless. The blessedness can belong to both groups of the lawless—either the Gentiles, or the Jews who have sins concealed. But they possessed the law earlier, so that a distinction of the circumcision from the uncircumcision arises. This existed before the gospel, when the human race was divided into two kinds of people, into the circumcised and the uncircumcised. But when our Lord was pleased to come, he joined both orders, having created the two into one new man. The new man is not a Gentile, the new man is not of the circumcision, but one new man, just as also in the beginning there was one man; for there was no distinction of circumcision and uncircumcision then. Just as, therefore, the one of the circumcision and the Greek into one new

They are created as a human being through repentance, through recognizing their former way of life—and the former way of life, the one before the law, is the gospel way. If ever, then, Greeks mock us, saying, "Christianity was brought into the open late; we are earlier," we show that before Moses and before the statues came into the open and the making of idols, the way of life of human beings was such as Christians now have, living according to practical and intellectual virtue. Into that one human being, then, he created and made him new—new, not another, but new as distinguished from old. Whenever a succession of commandments takes place, that former one becomes old, as we have often said, that the law that comes upon makes the former one old. So then the Jewish way, the one according to the shadow, is also old, since it was succeeded by the gospel. But since the gospel's way has no successor—even if heaven and earth pass away, the words of Jesus remain—for this reason it is called a new covenant, because it has no successor. So the life of the lawless and the life of sinners was also succeeded; for the lawless had their lawlessness forgiven, and the sinners had their sins covered, and thereafter he became a human being. No longer does he speak about a lawless one or a sinner, and he says: "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin." Pay attention, because they said: sin is a kind of lawlessness. It can also be referred to the "pattern" of those being saved—I mean the Lord's human being. This one is blessed; for sin is not reckoned to him; for he neither knew it nor did it.

And there is no guile in his mouth.” The one “who speaks truth in his heart,” according to the psalm that says this—“walking blamelessly and working righteousness, speaking truth in his heart”—the one who speaks truth in his heart has no guile in his mouth, does not have a guileful word. And well does it say, “And there is no guile in his mouth.” Some do not have guile in their mouth, but they have it in their heart; for “your heart,” it is said to someone, is “full of guile.” And to Elymas the magician the apostle said, “O you full of all guile.” Great, then, is it to have no guile in the mouth, when the heart has no guile; for it is possible for a crafty person to say all such things as to seem to have no guile. And I say: no one has guile in his mouth like the sophists—I do not mean the teachers of rhetoric, but the sophistic ones who falsify with sophisms. A sophism is a falsehood; for even if at some time it comes about from true premises, still the conclusion is a falsehood. Because I kept silent, my bones grew old, from my crying out all the day long. This is placed by hyperbaton: “Because I kept silent from my crying out all the day long, my bones grew old.” But the phrase “my bones grew old” has been set down erroneously thus: “because I kept silent” these things, namely “my bones grew old from my crying out all the day long.” It is not “from my crying out all the day long” that “my bones have grown old,” but “because I kept silent from my crying out all the day long”; for before this they had the day that “the sun of righteousness” makes.

And I was crying out—in part praying, in part glorifying God who grants me the day. Since, then, I kept silent from crying out all the day, my bones have grown old. And it has been said by us even before this that by "bones" he means the vigorous powers of the soul and the doctrines of piety. And as these bones hold together the whole body—for from them both the veins and all things depend. It is said, then: "All my bones will say, Lord, who is like you?" These bones do not have perception or understanding. At any rate, when they are sawn, they do not feel. "My bones," then, "have grown old." They were replaced. When they were united to God, then I was crying out all the day. But since silence succeeded the cry, my bones have grown old. And I have already said that the one who does not admit succession saw all the sons of men. When he was cast "to the senseless beasts." These, then, are the sons of men whom he saw. From his ready dwelling place. His dwelling place is, as it were, his temple—his condition is his throne. This throne is ready and a dwelling place: "Your throne is ready from then, and from eternity you are." The "ready" is said of him as a king. And we receive the notion of his throne; he comes, and thus, hearing of his temple, together with it we take him as ready, as it were, declaring the condition of God, the majesty of God. A soul whose dwelling place is not ready for him. But this too is possible: from the same participation it becomes ready to receive the presence of God; holiness comes to be little by little in the one who has it; for that one begins to receive participation in progress.

The dwelling place of God is ready—not becoming great from small through progress, measured out by its existence; it is ready. And sometimes the good itself is called ready, as when it says: "My heart is ready, O God." For the one who has a heart made ready is a temple of God; his dwelling place is ready. And further: "Has it been announced to you, O man, what is good," and what is pleasant, "but to do judgment and to love mercy and to be ready to walk with the Lord your God"? And further: "Your ear has attended to the preparation of their heart." He has looked upon all those who dwell on the earth. Others are those who dwell on the earth besides the sons of men; for those men dwell who have not kept the image nor happen to be earth. But the sons of men do not dwell—they sojourn—[and] he provides for them; for "he makes the sun rise" both "on the good" and "on the evil"; he watches over all the sons of men, and those who dwell as irrational animals; for he gives "food to all flesh." All those on the earth he causes to fall into a snare; for we do not say "the sons of men" and "those who dwell on the earth" as a parallel pair. The one who formed their hearts individually. In Scripture, "making" is distinguished from "forming"; for God "made" man "according to his image and likeness," but he "formed" the man "from the dust of the earth." And Job at any rate says both of these things: "Your hands formed me and made me." If he speaks this word in its proper sense, the inner man comes into being, while the outer man is formed.

And as it has said, "Remember that you molded me as clay." The word of molding signifies formation; for instance, he who makes is able and will wish to bring to existence as parents—we said in what was read before that "to become" differs from "to be created," as "to mold" is not entirely the same thing. Hear, then, what it says: it does not say that all hearts were molded by God, but "singly." "Singly" were the hearts molded—heart running together with heart. They differ altogether, and many have them, and they have them according to some difference. This, then, it also says in Proverbs: "As faces are not like faces, so neither are the hearts of men" alike. It is difficult, then, to find two faces alike. And even if the tale of Polydeuces and Castor is told as a myth, it stands only as a myth. They say that the two hemispheres are signified by these two names. Therefore they say that they live day by day in turn; for the hemispheres are thus: when the one semicircle is beneath the earth, the other is above the earth, because the semicircles are indistinguishable in their likeness. If, then, you cut a circle in the middle, the semicircles are indistinguishable

They exist. Let that, then, be taken as a myth. But let us grant that such men have also come to be. It is difficult, then, for face to run alongside face in likeness, since they recognize... "For just as faces are not alike to faces, so neither are the hearts of men" alike. Indeed, at any rate, "no one knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man that is in him." If no one knows the things of a man except the spirit that is in him, then the things of men have each been molded individually. And here I called "molding" the so-to-speak blending; for I said that hearts do not fall under the more perceptible molding, as potter's clay does. He knows all their works; for one knows works in the strict sense when... from these things. We were saying also at another time that one who applies his mind to mechanical works can judge whether the parts of the clock are well or not well. And in the case of an image... A heart, then, does not run alongside a heart. Therefore he alone is called "knower of the hearts of all," according to the prayer sent up by the apostles, when the disciples were making a choice... no one else is able to catch the heart of a man. Therefore he cannot separate heart from heart. And Job says: "He who knows the mind of men." Even if another stood by God's... this. He molds hearts individually. Each heart—the name of molding does not signify the creation of the heart; for the elders who accept its excellence, which they have spoken: "Good is the molding of your heart." They do not say that the substance of the heart is good, but the molding, according to which it has been skillfully ordered.

It is possible, he says, to speak in a secondary sense of the good, that the "formation of the heart" is then good when it has loathed evil or ignorance, when it is preserved as it came to be in the beginning. The man who came to be "according to the image and likeness" of God is not said to have been formed, but to have been made. But the man who came to be from clay and matter is said to be a formation of God: "Remember that you formed me as clay." And it is said of both of the active powers of God: "Your hands formed me and made me." The shaping of the heart is a formation of the heart, not its substantiation. But so that you may know: the first making of our hearts had no distinction; hence it was not said then that each heart was formed individually. There was no distinction of the others. Here this is said after the fall. What of the "one heart and one soul" of the disciples? In this respect it is said of "those who believed," in respect of their being of one mind; for let us not take it as "all things from all." What then—so will the formation ever cease?—the individual one, since it too took a beginning from us. And it took a beginning from us and will attain an end, when it comes to be, just as the Father and the Son are one, so all rational beings. I wish them to be in him, "that just as I and you are one, Father, so we may all be one." Does a making differ from a creation? It differs. The word "to make" signifies substantiation from non-being, but not shaping; while the name of "creation" indicates also the ordering of what has come to be. The name of "creation" extends even to inanimate things: "who makes peace and creates evils." And in the ready sense we say this.

Being the provider for all things, he gives them peace and creates the evils. And by another understanding the phrase was made clear to us thus: he creates evils as the unclean creation, so that it may no longer be unclean; he creates, so that it may become clean, and he creates the two into one new man in himself. He creates the evils, so that they may no longer be evils; for example, he creates wicked men, so that they may no longer be wicked. But [one might ask]: their quality? — their so-called quality; "for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works." In the case of the workmanship he did not say "for good works," but for the being. But they are created "for good works," so that they may do good works. But [one might ask]: so that the formation is from quality? — thus as it is a form; for the essence of the heart was formed. And the heart is the mind. But the name of creation extends also to perceptible things: "and having created the world out of formless matter." But [one might ask]: in the case of rational beings, by way of parallel? — yes, in the case of rational beings generally. It is found extending also to irrational souls. He who understands all their works. He understands the works, since he knows the heart, but the principles of the works that come to be are taken from perception. Among us many make men righteous out of their possessions, and those who become imitators of God do so for no other reason than that "it is good to give rather than to receive"; for giving is like God, but receiving is not; for each of those who receive is receptive of something. But he is one who surpasses, and this is what it means to say that "to give rather than to receive" is good. Again: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

There is a lesser kind of progress; for in order to be shown mercy, one shows mercy. Another shows mercy out of compassion, being careful lest he, being a man, fall into such circumstances. In this way, at any rate, Christians also feed those in prisons out of compassion. Others again, having sometimes seen someone cast down by disease, pity him because that man has suffered evil. And again others do this even for the sake of reputation, so that they may be glorified. Each of these, not being perfect, admits of the more and the less; for the perfect alone is that which does not admit of the more and the less, the right and the left. And each of these has an infinite difference. The more and the less are taken not only according to intensification but also according to time. This infinity, then, is comprehended by God alone. He alone knows this. For this reason he knows the heart of each. And it is difficult to find, perhaps, one heart exactly alike to another heart. We, then, perform these things that we have mentioned out of vainglory, out of compassion. But it is another thing to be set at the right hand of saints. Therefore almsgiving is not spoken of in the case of the saints; for "sharing in the needs of the saints." The one who gives to a saint must rather receive substance than give. A king is not saved because of great power. And in the case of the literal sense this is true. Many who had great power and a large army have been captured, and the multitude of soldiers does not by all means save the king. Pharaoh went out with great power to pursue the Hebrews, and he was not saved because of his great power; for "the chariots of Pharaoh and his power he cast into the sea.

We find also in the other histories of the Scriptures that a few have often prevailed over many. And in general it has been said to the Hebrews in the manner of prophecy: "One of you shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight," and "at the sound of five many shall flee." So the historical sense is also preserved. And the allegorical interpretation has a great deal of consistency: many who seem to have a supply of words and concentrated power are tripped up, being convicted by the truth itself, and in this respect we say that even if someone boasts of a kingdom through some other provision, through some other cleverness, through those who preside over him, he is not altogether saved in this great power of his. But it is possible to take it also in this way: since there are certain kings allegorically, as the Corinthians were, about whom he says that they reigned—and Abraham too was "a king before God"—the one who gives himself from his own power to reign in this way and does not await the God who shows mercy is not saved in his own power; just as neither does a city that is guarded remain unharmed without God's cooperation, nor does the house that is being built reach completion unless the chief architect of all things assists. And a giant shall not be saved in the abundance of his strength. This too has a historical account: Goliath was a great giant and had an abundance of strength, and he trusted—not

...for any other reason than by his full armor and his own strength and size. And he was also arrogant; therefore he was not saved; for the one armed "in the name of the Lord" took him and cast him down. And we find many great men in the Scriptures brought down, since they set their greatness upon themselves. Amalek was prepared for war and seemed to be stronger than Israel; for Israel was not at all prepared for warfare, and yet when Moses raised his hands, Amalek was worn down and humbled, and the raising of the hands prevailed over him, and he was not saved by his own strength. We say again: if any god-fighter who has "high things exalted against the knowledge of God" trusts in the strength he has and prances proudly, he is by no means saved. Sometimes the man wise in divine things reckons with him and casts him down from the arrogance he has. A horse is a false hope for salvation. Many again take great pride in a horse, but the divine Word shows that even the prancing of horses is easily brought down; for "these in chariots and these in horses, but we shall be magnified in the name of the Lord our God." See, "a horse is a false hope for salvation." Pharaoh was promised by many horses to capture the Hebrews. But they had not even one horse, and their salvation proved false; it failed, it fell short. And it is also in Proverbs: "A horse is prepared for the day of war, but salvation is from the Lord." You see that it is false for salvation, unless this be supplied from the Lord. Let this be also according to the literal sense. But as for the meaning: the body is often called the horse of the soul, and the rider or mounter of this is the soul.

I will strike," he says, "every horse with ecstasy and its rider with madness." When, then, someone carried along on the body, living in pleasure, fulfilling his desires, receives madness, then salvation comes to be. The horse is struck by God with ecstasy; it comes to be outside itself; for thereafter, being buffeted and enslaved, it no longer proceeds according to its own impulses, but stands out of them. Barteranes lived in former times, in the days of Antoninus the king of the Romans. He was at the beginning of the school of Valentinus, then transferred to the church and became a presbyter. But in the abundance of his power he will not be saved—either the one who uses the horses or the power of the many horses; for in either way it is true: "A horse is false for salvation," even if it be many; for it is not said of one horse only. Often the whole cavalry is a horse. Either, then, the abundance of the power of the rider who uses the riders does not save him, or the abundance and power of the horses. Behold, the eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear him. It is equivalent to: "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous." And again in the twelfth psalm he says this: "Look upon me, hear me, O Lord my God." "The eyes" then "of the Lord are upon those who fear"—not absolutely, but "him"; for there is also a passive fear, which perfect love casts out from those who have the fear of God. It is one thing to fear and another to fear God; for the fear that is toward God is not passive, but signifies the preeminence over all things. Thus at any rate he says: "The fear of the Lord surpasses all things," and:

There is no lack for those who fear him." Those who are righteous are worthy to be watched over by God—those who hope in his mercy. Consider: those who fear God hope in his mercy; for having done all that lies in their power, they await being shown mercy by him, as was said a little earlier: "It is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy." And no one can keep his own city—whether of the body or of the soul—unplundered, unless God guards it. "Those who hope in his mercy": he shows mercy to those who fear him, to rescue their souls from death. For this reason "his eyes are upon those who fear him" and "those who hope in his mercy," that he may rescue "their souls from death." By death here we do not understand the common death which the pious and the impious, the just and the unjust alike die, but the death of the soul is that which drags the soul down from the blessed life. From this death we are told to turn away and keep our distance; concerning this it is said: "The soul that sins, it shall die." And again: "Sin, when it is completed, gives birth to death." And since this death follows upon sins, God, who grants forgiveness of sins, will rescue from the death that follows those who were previously held fast. And to nourish them in famine—those who fear him and hope in his mercy. Just as he rescues their souls from death, so also he nourishes them in famine. Indeed, such a thing has often happened even in the historical record.

He fed the people of the Hebrews for a long journey in the wilderness, stretching out manna and providing it each day. And you will find this in individual cases as well: for example, Elijah was fed by the widow and by the angel shown to him through the bread and the jar of water. And further, when Jezebel was persecuting Elijah and all the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah the chief commander of King Ahab fed fifty men in two caves, God having prepared him for this. Indeed, he said this to Elijah when he met him: "And your servant fears the Lord." And the one who fears the Lord fed them for the Lord's sake. If, then, these things have spiritual meanings—for these other things happened according to the history—again he feeds those who fear his fear and hope in his mercy, providing them the bread of life, which comes down from heaven, his flesh being "true food." Being the Savior of all, he holds them fast. He does this not in one single sense, but according to the circumstances: he saves in wars, setting them outside their enemies and not permitting them to fall into captivity; he saves those who are ill; he saves also as a pilot when we are storm-tossed on the open sea of the life of this world. Does he grant each one to have a spring?—In him who has "a spring unto eternal life," this one, when he comes to be in a waterless place, is fed. And: "Open your eyes and be filled with bread." The one who has opened the eyes of his soul and been filled with divine words, chewed in the manner of bread, does not starve; for "the Lord will not let the soul of the righteous starve.

Whoever is in desire for breads but does not open his eyes to his own breads lives in famine; for the soul has in itself many foods from God. Our soul waits for the Lord. He says this: since we have known that the eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear him—and even if at some time they have been in death, he rescued them, and even if at some time they have been in famine, he fed them, and even if at some time we come to be in some need, we wait, knowing that we too shall enjoy these things; and our soul, if it comes to be in death, shall be rescued. For he is our helper and protector. Do you see that he has now come to the plural number: "From heaven the Lord looked down, he saw all the sons of men"? If at some time certain things are said that are discordant and contrary, consider whether these things are said about one person; for then a contradiction arises. But if they are said about a church or a city or a household, they are not contrary; for some things are said about these, and others about those. And you ought to know this too, that the saints send up their prayers and thanksgivings not only about themselves, but about all those whom they lead. It is not the same thing for something to be said to one person, which must be fitted to one, and to a multitude, such as a people or a nation or a city. It is impossible for the same person to be at once good and evil, and temperate and intemperate. And the apostle writes to the Corinthians as to those who have become rich "in every word and all knowledge." Does he not say again: "Fornication is heard of among you"?

If he were saying these things to one person, it would be inconsistent. But since these things are addressed to the whole church, and in the assemblies there are both this kind and that kind, he says everything so that each one may take the help for himself. In this way, then, he reproaches them both for erring concerning the resurrection and concerning the gifts and for gaping after things sacrificed to idols. How then are these people "rich in every word and knowledge"? There are others about whom he was speaking. So too the saint does not speak about himself alone—for he was a teacher—but about all those under him, both those who have death and those who have fallen into famine because they neglected their own land. He does not say all things about all people, but he says all things about others, applying each thing to each. Since "he is our helper and protector," for this reason "our soul waits" for him. And we know that, even if we set before ourselves something of the good things, even if we wish to run and wish to bring them to completion, unless he himself cooperates and has mercy, we cannot accomplish them. He is a helper, extending the things of which we are in need; he is a protector, throwing forward his own shield so that adversaries cannot wound us. For in him our heart will be glad. Others are glad in strength, in rule, in rank, in praises, but the cause of our gladness is he himself, the helper and protector. And in his holy name we have hoped. We have hoped in the name invoked upon us. And since he seems to be of another order—I do not say that those who fear the Lord are also in death—consider: we have hoped in the present.

But no one hopes in things present, but in things future and awaited; for "hope that is seen is not hope." And if at some time they say in the manner of a prayer, "Hallowed be your name," they do not say this as though it were not holy—"let it be hallowed"—but "let it be shown," "let it appear holy." For then it appears holy when he both helps us and shelters us. And when we were [commenting] on the Gospel, we said many thoughts on this point, on "Hallowed be your name," and this was taken up: since we bear it, cooperate with us that we may not blaspheme it; hallow it, keep it holy in us. For these things are spoken with imperative words. He had spoken with optative words: "May your name be hallowed." And another point: since they now bring down your name both to idols and to demons and to the belly—for "their god is the belly"—when knowledge comes to men concerning your majesty, so that they deify nothing else, when you become "all in all," your name is hallowed, being torn away from demons. May it be, Lord, that your mercy be upon us, just as we hoped in you. "May your mercy be upon us." The prayer is sent up not from those who already have the mercy; for he did not say, "May your mercy be guarded," but "May it be, just as we hoped in you." For this reason we hoped in you. Consider how "according to the proportion of faith" he gives the gifts, and not all things are given to all, nor by the same measure, but by the measure of the faith that receives them, and so also here: "just as we have hoped." There are those who have hoped very perfectly, and there are those who have not so, but according to some progress, and others according to introduction.

According to the proportion" of our faith, let your mercy come upon us, Lord; for thus we have hoped.

1 By David, when he changed his face before Abimelech, and he sent him away, and he departed. To those who have read the royal histories, the narrative now set before us is clear. When David was being pursued by Saul and was about to be captured, he went to Geth, to King Anchous. But here he is named Abimelech. The term has two names; for double names are also found in Scripture, as in the case of Moses' father-in-law: he is called both Jothor and Raguel. And Thomas is called both Thomas and Didymus. And there are indeed many such double names; Matthew

he seems in the Gospel according to Luke to name Levi. But it is not the same person, but the one appointed in place of Judas, Matthias, and Levi are one, having two names. This appears in the Gospel according to the Hebrews. It is possible, then, that the king of Geth is called both Anchous and Abimelech. But it is possible to take it in another way as well: many of the kings are named by a common name and by a proper name, as all those who ruled Egypt are called Pharaoh. Their names are found to be Sumachis, Nechao, so that Pharaoh is the name of the office, and among the Romans, Caesar. It is possible, then, that this man too has Anchous as the name of his office, and Abimelech as his proper name. But however it may be, the meaning does not conflict. Do you wish, then, that one is the name of an office and the other a proper name? This is what the grammarians distinguish in relation to an appellative; for "proper name" is spoken of in two ways: it is distinguished from an appellative and from catachresis.

They call "man" a common noun, since the names of species and genera signify a common essence; but "this particular one" or "that particular one," for instance, is a proper name. And "proper" is also used in another sense, by misuse. I say often: the isometric agrees. The isometric is said to be a quantity in relation to a quantity. I say that it is in accord and agrees. This is a misuse; for "to be in accord" and "to agree" are said of sounds. And again, we say that those who are like-minded and of one mind "agree." Properly, "to be like-minded" and "to be of one mind" apply to those who think and intend the same things, but "to agree" is a misuse. It is possible, then, that a proper name is not what is distinguished in relation to a misuse, but in relation to a common noun—"Abimelech," and of the title, "Anchous." The history, then, is clear: he saw that Saul the king was set against one man, David himself, with a military force, and armed men against an unarmed man. He fled there; then, since it was not safe to go into a foreign city or country—for then especially suspicion of spies arose, because neighboring peoples were always at war with one another—he pretended to be a fool, with his saliva flowing, and went about beating on the doors of the gate, so that he might seem to be possessed by demons. At any rate, the men of Anchous slandered him. He says, "I am diminished," he says, "when they are epileptic, because you bring an epileptic to me"? And he released him, and he departed. Such a condition, then, he called a changing of the face; for the change signifies an alteration of quality. There has come about, then, a voluntary alteration of quality, not an involuntary one.

For it happens that one changes involuntarily, as when someone turns pale from fear, or is afflicted, or from some troubling circumstance seems to be ruddy. This change, then, has been voluntary, up to the point of appearance. And since David is often referred, as has been said in what precedes, to the Savior, you will call the assumption of the form of a slave a change of the Savior's face. And here there has not been a change from one form into another, but a concealment of a form out of another manifest form; for no change of the face of the immutable one can occur. And indeed concerning the Savior himself it is said in one of the psalms: "This is the change of the right hand of the Most High." The right hand of the Father—and especially according to the psalmist's conception—is often said to be the Savior. He was changed by becoming flesh, a curse. He submitted to become sin, so that sinners might become the righteousness of God in him. The change here, then, is an assumption, not a transformation; for concerning the immutable one no one would seek a transformation. Otherwise, as someone said, it is strange. "This," then, "is the change of the right hand of the Most High." The right hand of the Most High is immutable. And he became sin not as it happened, but in order to make righteousness. But sin that makes righteousness is not a change from not being sin into being sin; for sin makes people bad, it works injustice. But this one makes those who have it righteous. When, then, the Word becomes flesh and form

he took the form of a slave, he was changed in his countenance, not by a change, as I have often said already, but by an assumption. And the phrase "We beheld him, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father" signifies his glory according to nature. He had, then, a glory suited to the composite being he became with flesh. "This is the change of the right hand of the Most High." Not that we here call a change the one he himself underwent when we said that by assumption of the form of a slave he was changed, but "this is the change" which he himself brings about; for he himself cancels wrath, he makes compassions active. Having left off for a little to glorify and praise, he says: "For I will remember from the beginning your wonders." "And I said, Now I have begun." I spoke of all the gloomy things, that being troubled I did not speak, that the guards have come to be around me, but henceforth: "Now I have begun." Other things I will now recount, the things after those, the things succeeding the gloomy things. "This is the change of the right hand of the Most High." Henceforth he says: "Who is a great god as our God?" "You made known among your peoples your power." Behold, this is the change. Then, therefore, he changed his countenance. The king of Geth you may take more allegorically as the ruler of this world, the devil. The region, then, of the foreigners is the place that is ours. And just as when Egypt is named, the place upon the earth, Pharaoh is named as the one ruling and tyrannizing, and when Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar is named, and when Assyria, the Assyrian, so from Geth, from the place so called upon the earth, we must again take this king of it as some evil power.

He therefore "changed his own countenance," "having taken the form of a slave"; for that one seemed so to hold him fast, that he even contrived death against him. He "tasted by the grace of God death for every man." And the sign of his change was this: "he released him." He was not able to hold him fast. And I say the paradoxical thing: if he was not able to hold fast his diminishment, what would they say concerning the divinity? Whence you also who say that the Word was crucified—the Lord of glory? He therefore "released him, and he departed." He departed from him; for he did not come there for the sake of dwelling there, but in order that, having accomplished the dispensation, he might withdraw and draw many away from there with him. He was therefore also in Hades and brought up from there many souls of the righteous. But when you hear "bodies," do not by all means look at the tabernacles; for many suppose this. And it is not incongruous to say that, in addition to the other divine signs, this paradox also happened; but see whether it conflicts with the whole sequence of the dispensation. Know this, that if men had recognized their own, it would be difficult for them to have remained in unbelief. And another point: Peter in the Acts of the Apostles says concerning David that "and his tomb is with us until now." One must consider: if anyone at all was raised, David was raised. The souls therefore that were transferred from the earth we call "bodies of saints." And we say it thus, as we call the whole church the body of Christ. And in the resurrection it is said: "each in his own order." But the own orders of those raised from the dead are characterized by nothing other than the progress of souls.

Those who have the same virtue and faith and piety are arranged into one rank. "Christ" therefore is "the firstfruits, then those who are Christ's, each in his own rank." Those who are Christ's are those who have different ranks. And so that we may take it from another example, as in the case of the earth that received the seed, which bear fruit a hundred, sixty, thirty, different ranks come to be; for there is not one heart, or a single heart, bearing a hundred and sixty and thirty. At any rate, our interpreters say this: that those who pursue virginity bear the hundred, those who enter into divine marriage the thirty. They looked to the diminution and inequality of the numbers, not to the nature of the numbers. Some bear fruit as perfect. These are signified by the number a hundred. And indeed in the promise he says: "The new man shall be a hundred years old."

And Abraham, having become a hundred years old, was made a father by promise. And in general the number is most beautiful; for ten multiplied tenfold makes a hundred. And we were saying that the number ten is all-receptive; it contains all numbers. Again, sixty seems to have a kinship with the world; for it came to be in six days. Therefore as many as become citizens of the world and surpass this and inherit what is signified by it—and six was called a perfect number—these are another rank. Perhaps those who have the prophetic gifts, in that they have two, and the Holy Spirit abounding in them, these are the thirty. And the thirty has a kinship with the Trinity that is to be worshiped.

Or perhaps, since the Savior, having become thirty years old, began the best way of life and his evangelical speech, those who have only just come to him bear fruit thirtyfold. Listen: the virtues follow one another in sequence, so that the one who has one has all. We take this to be so in the case of the perfectly mature. But when someone is in the state of progressing, he sometimes has one virtue more dominant—the one he began with, or the one he devoted himself to—as is also the case with the arts. You often see a man who is a grammarian and a musician and a physician, and he has one more dominant, the one toward which he directs his whole inclination. We are taught this from the Beatitudes. For does not the poor in spirit have the other virtues? The poor in spirit is also compassionate; and for this reason he mourns. For if he were without compassion, he would not be poor in spirit. He has meekness; for if he were irascible, he could not be called blessed. He has righteousness. Concerning the one, then, who is most powerful and has the more dominant disposition, those who are so named are admired. Furthermore, "many," he says, "were seen in the holy city"? But Jerusalem was not holy—"the one that killed the prophets"—which the Savior abandoned, saying, "Behold, your house is left to you." To those who walk on earth and have their citizenship in the heavens, he appeared in the holy city, the city of the living God. Furthermore, what does "they were seen" mean? These coarser senses apprehend coarse things. The thirty has three threes: eleven and thirty-three. They become fifteen. And often the number fifteen has been said to be referred to the two covenants; for they give to the seven and the eight.

For it has been said by us in what precedes that it is also threefold and, when handed down, has a five, it has an affinity toward perceptible things; for how would it not be, when a change of the face had occurred? But if we say that he remained there? — not immediately. In another visit that took place there. This is nearly at the beginning of the Kingdoms, but at the end that [saying], when they finally went out to war against Saul. But was he not released first and departed? — Perhaps examine the anagogical senses in relation to the literal text. Since I too tell you the matter concerning Abraham: "he had two sons, one from the slave woman and one from the free woman." And it was not as Abraham that he had them. Ishmael through Hagar Abram had, but as Abraham he had this. And now also the phrase "she corresponds to the present Jerusalem." I do not say "now," so that you may grasp the correspondence also according to symbol. And the correspondence is spoken of in many ways. For instance, in grammar too, the rough breathings are said to correspond to the smooth, and the long [syllables] to the short. But among those who deal with logic, the things divided in opposition are called correspondents. You divide the animal into rational and irrational, and into mortal and immortal, and into footed and footless. The rational and the mortal are not correspondents, but the irrational [is]. And "to correspond" here in the apostle means the symbolic in relation to what is primary. To speak more crudely: there is a perceptible sacrifice and circumcision, and both are spiritual. One must not take circumcision according to the flesh as correspondent to the spiritual sacrifice, nor the more bodily sacrifice as [correspondent] to the spiritual, but sacrifice. But—

The phrase "By the word of the Lord the heavens were established," and again: "For the word of the Lord is upright" — these same realities, when they are not perceptible, seem by conception to be different at different times. The Holy Spirit is one, and we speak of his various gifts. If you look at the gifts, it seems to be a multitude of holy spirits. You have, at any rate: "and the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets." There is also said to be a spirit of Elijah and a spirit of Elisha. These are not different in essence, but by conception and by relation to those who partake are they called spirits in the plural. And so the word of God, when it was still with God — for "the word was with God" — has no relation to another, but to God alone, and secondarily also to those who partake of it; for "he called them gods to whom the word of God came." The word of God was with him. Without relation, then, his word is toward God, but relationally it came to be toward those who partake of it. At times those who partake partake by a single apprehension, as I said concerning the spirit; for one has the word of wisdom, another the word of knowledge; for this word is not one and another according to its subject. There are some who have knowledge of spiritual things, knowledge of the truth, of the doctrines of piety; for they are not able to set them out in detail. And we have known men who understand very intelligently and are not able to speak even to just anyone. These have the word of knowledge. But when, in addition to having the knowledge, one also has the ability to set it out and teach and bring to others the thoughts within him, this is the word of wisdom.

At any rate, Wisdom herself says: "I stretched out words," clearly in a teaching manner. The same Word of God, then, comes to the prophets and is with God and with the gods who come to be from his union. And we do not seek the same relation; for in the case of the Father it is unsurpassable. His union with God is not by condescension, but with the gods who have come to be it happens according to their worth, their power, and the proportion of the progress they have. And with the prophets it happens thus: "The word that came to Jeremiah." He did not say "the one who is," but "the one who came to be." And coming to be, he comes to be according to that man's measure. And here, then, we have variously expounded the upright Word of God, whose works are in faith. We have said that the Word can be the teaching Word. Question: In order that we may receive what spirit? —By some conception it will receive the spirit of the mouth of God, instead of: when through the Word he brings it into knowledge of the things he judges it should receive. "Remove from yourself a crooked mouth." "But his bold mouth calls upon death." When the spirit is toward God and toward the Son, it is not called "spirit of the mouth," but when it is ministered to those able to receive it by reason. Question: Do you not call someone a partaker of righteousness who is practical? —The one who possesses righteousness with knowledge and is able to make it clear to another as he himself possesses it. Question: Do you say he does this by reason? —I do not say by spoken reason. I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

He blesses God at all times who gives thanks in every circumstance that befalls him. And the apostle also writes: "giving thanks in everything." He who gives thanks to God does this not only for pleasant things but also for unpleasant things. At any rate, Job blesses God not only in his prosperity and the safety of his children and the rest of his overflowing wealth, but also when he was deprived of all things at once. When, then, all his children and possessions were taken from him, he gives thanks to God, and "Job sinned not," it says, "before the Lord, nor did he give folly to God." He who says concerning providence, "He ought to have done it this way or that way," attaches folly to God, and as far as lies in him, [says that] God did not understand what ought to have been done. Whenever, then, someone says, "The old ought to die before the young, parents before children, and the healthy ought not to die, but the sick," he gives folly to the one who governs and provides. "He gave not," then, "folly to God." "Blessed is the Lord." Since, therefore, the times are also various, and it is fitting to give thanks in everything, he reasonably says, "I will bless the Lord at all times." There is no time when I do not bless the Lord. Even if the things that come upon me are unpleasant, I accept them as good. And another word said: "Accept everything that is brought upon you by the Lord as good." Would you not say, seeing a sick man and one visited by the best physician, that he gives thanks to the physician, longing for recovery? For when he even cuts him with a knife so that he may be saved, he welcomes it not only when he gives him gentle remedies.

He does not look to what is pleasant nor to what is unpleasant among the things that come upon him, but to what is beneficial and advantageous. Every time, then, is a time for blessing God. And we understand "time" in both senses—both the fitting season and the condition of the one being helped. We say, then, in the case of those who are healthy, that the time for breakfast is midday and for dinner the evening; but in the case of one who is ill, we do not understand the time in this way, looking to the hour, but to how his body is. In both senses the saint blesses God "at every time"; for he knows that he is under providence, and that the one who provides for him knows better what is advantageous to him. "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, giving thanks in everything." If the saint rejoices always, he is never cast down or dejected over gloomy present circumstances; for he rejoices even in these, rejoices as over contests. He sees the victory that follows the struggles, and, expecting the crowns and the prizes, he rejoices, even if the circumstances surrounding him are unpleasant. "I will bless," then. And so that no one might think that blessing comes about by utterance—for instance, that someone says by way of declaration, "His praise is continually in my mouth"—in hymning him I bless him. "His praise is continually in my mouth." But we do not say this in such a way that some impossible conclusion follows—that in vocal utterance he has praise continually. For this is impossible; for when sleeping he does not do this, and sometimes when eating he does not do it. But one must praise in this way: all things that I do—whether I eat or drink or sleep—I undertake them giving thanks to God. At any rate, one must understand "Rejoice always" in this way too.

If you receive grace in actual operation, the one who is asleep does not have it; he has it potentially. "Pray without ceasing." If you take prayer in the demonstrative sense, it cannot be performed without ceasing. Indeed, at any rate, if someone has been recorded historically as praying "three times a day"—at midday or around the ninth hour, let us grant also in the evening—what "pray without ceasing" means is this: prayer is nothing other than a request for good things from God. Whenever, then, someone through everything he does asks God for good things, he prays. And even if he does not perform the specific act, having a longing to obtain what is beneficial, he prays. The longing itself is prayer; for he has the longing. Whatever he does, even if he is hindered from performing the specific act of prayer, still he has the asking of God. Thus, at any rate, it is also said in the Wisdom of Sirach: "The narration of a pious man is wisdom throughout." How can one narrate wisdom throughout? If we understand it thus—and these things are often understood in ordinary usage in this way—as when we often seek someone in general and long to learn where he is to be met with, and they say, "He always sits at this doctor's office and is continually there," not taking the whole day in this way, but whenever he sits, so, rather, he sits there. He did not say simply "praise throughout," but "his"; for the one who seems to praise but not with right thoughts, not with truly theological thoughts, does not praise for himself, does not praise him. In the Lord my soul shall be praised. My soul is not praised primarily on account of anything else than on account of partaking of God.

For just as another person longs to be praised for skill or for knowledge or for rank or honor, so the saint in the Lord wishes his own soul to be praised. He knows no other praise of the soul than this; for even if, as I said, someone is praised for knowledge, yet this praise, when compared with another that is given on account of God, is not praise at all. We say therefore often: "Nothing is sweet except honey." There are indeed other sweet things, but compared with honey they are not sweet. And in another psalm he says: "From you is my praise in the great congregation." The praise which you give me is not given on account of another but on account of you. "In the Lord my soul shall be praised." "In you," he says, "we shall be praised all the day long." He calls the whole time of our life a day. And "in you" can mean either "on account of you" or "by you." Both concur in the case of the saint. He is praised on account of God, and he has his praise from God himself. Let the meek hear and be glad. Just as the base man wishes to hide what he says and does, when he is not desperate, so the earnest man, devoted to God, wishes what he says and what he does to be known to all. He wishes his light to shine before men, so that they, seeing it, may glorify God. He wishes his words to reach others; for it is said: "Speak in your walks." And he who speaks speaks to others, not primarily to himself.

Since, therefore, at every season I have purposed to bless the Lord and to have his praise always in my mouth, so that my soul may be praised in him, "Hear, you meek, and be glad." Imitate me, and become such yourselves. But if he calls the meek greater than himself, he says, "Hear, you meek," because I, who am being instructed by you and am ranked below you, am such a one; for what belongs to the lesser also belongs to the greater. The disciples are praiseworthy and praise the Lord—how much more the teachers who have surpassed them. So take it in either way: either, you who are greater than I, having heard as meek, be glad that you have had such a disciple or companion. Magnify the Lord with me. Having spoken about the meek, he now turns his discourse to them: "And magnify the Lord with me." Now a person magnifies God not by adding magnitude to him from something small, but when he is able to grasp his magnitude. The sun, then, when it rises, is not at once seen at the full extent of its magnitude. But little by little it is seen as greater; for it is not that the sun itself receives increase, but the one who beholds it is improved and sees it better. "Magnify God"—think great things about God—"with me"; for "magnify God" means to think great things about him. And let us exalt his name together. The name of God has been invoked upon the diligent; for they bear his name.

Whenever, then, we have deeds and thoughts worthy of the name, then his name is exalted, not in a scattered way, but "together," as those are being perfected "with the same mind and the same judgment." It is possible, however, to speak of the name of God being exalted "together" in another sense as well. Some drag down the name of God to lifeless matter, so as to call idols gods; in a certain way they debase the name of God. And others derive the name from their own belly, deifying it by their teaching, because they are gluttonous and devourers of all things. Whenever, then, we think that nothing which is not God is God, but only the one who created all things, we have exalted his name "together." We are all commanded in the Gospel to say in prayer: "Hallowed be your name." And even if the phrase is imperative, yet we say it in prayer, and it is a prayer. In accordance with all the senses, then, of the exaltation of the name, let us also understand its being hallowed: do nothing profane, nothing base and lowly, so that the name of God may be exalted, so that it may be hallowed; remove the name of God from everything groveling, from every earthly matter; for then it is hallowed—the

the name of God. And this will especially come to pass when "God becomes all in all," when, having escaped pain and grief and groaning, eternal gladness takes hold. I sought out the Lord, and he heard me. He did not say simply "I sought," but I have done this with intensity. "And he heard me." He shows that the seeking-out now spoken of takes place through prayer; for this has been added: "and he heard me." But if one who wishes to know God seeks him out, as far as it is possible, still it has no end. To be heard is perhaps to find, to be perfected. I sought out the Lord, and he was found by me. For so it is written in Wisdom: "He is found by those who do not disbelieve him, he appears to those who seek him." And further: "Seek out the Lord, whenever he draws near to you." Here, then, "he heard" means this, that the seeking-out has come about through prayers. Praying without ceasing, he seeks out God and has him obedient, having found the thing sought. And out of all my afflictions he delivered me. We have often said about these things that God's delivering from affliction does not mean coming to be outside affliction; for if the apostles speak truly when they say, "In everything we are afflicted," and further, "Through many afflictions we must enter into the kingdom of God," then one must never come to be outside of being afflicted. But if someone should not take "delivering" in this way, then the saints were never heard; always afflicted, always lacking, they continued their life until their last breath. Draw near to him and be enlightened, and your faces shall certainly not be put to shame.

Having stated the disposition he has toward God, and having stated the things that come from God which are beneficial to those who seek and are heard, he exhorts either all or many and says: "Draw near to him and be enlightened." It is not to those already enlightened and able to say, "The light of your face has been marked upon us, Lord," that he says "Draw near"; for those who have already drawn near are light. At once, then, the apostles, having drawn near, heard: "You are the light of the world." And they enlighten others. "Draw near," therefore, you who are far off, "to him and be enlightened," and from your being enlightened comes the freedom from shame. "Your faces" shall "not be put to shame"; for they become enlightened, as those who give thanks have said: "The light of your face has been marked upon us." When that is fulfilled—"the Lord shall be to you an eternal light"—all shame will be done away. If before sin there was no shame, "Adam and Eve were naked, and were not ashamed." They were naked of all wickedness, they had no garment covering the rational faculty, the word was not hidden by irrational passions. But when sin came to be, and thereafter both thought and life were subject to passion, shame too arose. If, then, we draw near to the light which we abandoned by sinning, our faces are not put to shame, we have great boldness; for it says: "If our heart does not condemn us, we have boldness toward God." If a person sees himself free from condemnation in heart and conscience, he has full boldness toward God, so as to say: "As the Lord lives, before whom I have stood in his presence." The voice of one who has spoken boldly is also: "In the morning I will present myself to you and will look upon you.

I saw many things, but I will observe still more, I will contemplate things visible. "And your faces shall not be put to shame." We were saying that when sin exists, the face of the soul is covered by shame, so that its beauty and the proportion of its members are no longer seen. But when illumination comes, thereafter "with unveiled face it beholds as in a mirror the glory of the Lord." No one who has his face covered beholds as in a mirror the glory of God, but only one who has cast off the coverings that came upon him. At any rate, those who have gained perception of the evils that have come upon them of their own doing say: "Shame has covered our face." Shame has become a covering for us, the dishonor of our face. This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him.

He shows a certain poor man who is poor in sin, poor in every evil. If someone, having become without evil and having cast off the wealth of ignorance and evil, cries out to God, he has him listening. Perhaps, as I hinted in passing regarding the place of the hour—that what belongs to the lesser and to the greater—exhorting those already enlightened and blessing "the Lord at all times," who are rich, he says: even the poor man, if he draws near and cries out, is heard. It is also possible that this was said about the people from the Gentiles, namely that the people who were "without hope and atheists in the world," having drawn near, cried out and found him obedient. At any rate he says later in the same psalm: "The rich have become poor and have hungered," meaning those of the circumcision who became poor by casting off the law and the prophets. For this reason he also says pointedly: "This poor man.

He became worthy to be shown by holy men and by the Holy Spirit himself. But this can also be said universally about all: in relation to the wealth-giving God who bestows great gifts, we are all poor. Was it not that "Jesus became poor for our sake"? For observe the precision of the apostle: "that though he was rich, for our sake he became poor." He was not enriched. "Though being rich, for our sake he became poor," so that what might happen? "So that by his poverty we might become rich"; for a poverty that produces wealth is not truly poverty. And just as he becomes "a curse for our sake," so that we might receive a blessing—and a curse that produces a blessing is not simply a curse, but this very thing, a curse productive of blessing—so also the poor one: "who, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant." Behold the poverty that he became poor: being truly rich, always existing in the form of God and being "the express image of God's substance," "taking the form of a servant," he endured everything of poverty. He became "sin for our sake, so that we might become the righteousness of God," a curse, so that we might inherit a blessing; he submitted to death and was put to death, so that we might receive eternal life. "We have become exceedingly poor." Thus we came down, reaching as far as your condition, so that, with God's mercies going before us, we might raise you up. As some have said, there is an example of this sort concerning the saints, that:

Those sailing in the boat of this life saw many who fell out of the boat and, because they were unable to swim, were carried down into the deep, and they leaped into the deep and seemed to suffer the same as those who had sunk, but they did this for the sake of helping those men, so that they might bring up those who were not able to come up by themselves. And out of all his afflictions he delivered him. The meaning of "to deliver out of all afflictions" has already often been given by us: not to be defeated, not to be outside the afflictions. The angel of the Lord will encamp around those who fear him and will deliver them. An angel encamping around those who fear God and delivering them from every enemy, from every affliction, from every wound. Someone will say, then: "Is one angel sufficient to save all those who fear God from the adversary?" Consider: one angel, when God willed it, destroyed a hundred and eighty-five thousand in a single swoop, although perhaps he was not a pure angel, since he was not serving in a ministry of punishment. Much more, then, the perfect man who keeps holiness, who is an "eyewitness and servant" of God, is able to deliver many who fear. But if the interpretation seems forced to anyone, it is thus: just as he says that "God made man" so that he might rule over the irrational animals, and we do not mean the specifically qualified man, we do not mean this particular man, but the whole kind. "I made earth and man upon it"; he named the whole kind in this way. Therefore the angel here too can signify the universal, that those who fear the Lord have angels encamped around and encircling them.

who rescue them out of every affliction. You have this, at any rate, in the Gospel: "See that you do not cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble; for their angels continually behold the face of our Father who is in the heavens." They are attendants of God, they behold his face, they see the invisible one invisibly. See, then, that many angels were spoken of for the many little ones, but for those who fear the Lord one angel is mentioned. It is said in the singular, for not even one—yet it is possible to say this as well: the little ones do not fear God, but have a passive fear; for "perfect love casts out fear," and "fear has to do with punishment." "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul"; but those fear God who have the surpassing fear, about which it is said in Sirach: "The fear of the Lord surpasses all things," which comes to the one who seeks him after much progress. These, then, who fear the Lord are able to have one angel encamped around them and rescuing them—the Savior himself, about whom it is said: "His name is called the angel of great counsel"; for in many scriptures an angel is mentioned as not applying to any created being. Jacob also says of him: "The angel who rescues me from all evils." But no one is able to rescue from all evils except the Savior, who has authority to forgive every sin. And when sin is forgiven, the punishment that follows it, the destructive consequences that follow, depart together with the wickedness.