Commentarii in Psalmos

Becoming like a kind of enclosure and wall around them, it keeps them unharmed. And indeed in Zechariah, the eleventh of the twelve prophets, he says: "Jerusalem shall be inhabited in full fruitfulness," and he says: "And I will be around them as a pillar of fire and a wall encircling them." Fire, moreover, for the purpose that those who draw near be harmed rather; for immediately in that very passage of the prophet he says: "For he who touches you is as he who touches the apple of his eye." To touch here means to harm, as in: "Do not touch my anointed ones." Taste and see that the Lord is good. It has often been said to us that perceptible and bodily things are thus: each one is only what it is; for example, the pomegranate is nothing other than a pomegranate, the bread. But the food that nourishes the inner man is spoken of according to various conceptions. It is called, at any rate, both light, and a spring, and bread and flesh, true food. He says, then: "Taste" with the invisible taste of the inner man, "and see that the Lord is good," that he is good. Only taste, know that he is nourishing, see the spring of goodness, the spring of kindness. Blessed is the man who hopes in him. He who hopes in the good Lord himself—for he tastes him—will also experience his sweetness and will have all things from this food, and being nourished in an athletic manner he will be strong, so as no longer to have his wrestling "against blood and flesh, but against principalities and powers." "Taste and see that he is good." If anyone is weary and sick in soul, let him taste of him as nourishing, as preparing health, as warding off harm.

But this food not only satisfies, but also wards off and casts out what is harmful. "Blessed," then, is not simply the human being, but the "man," the one who has done away with "the things of the infant," who has not walked "in the counsel of the ungodly" nor stood "in the way of sinners" nor sat "on the seat of the pestilent," but has "his will in the law of the Lord." This one has his will in the law of the Lord; for many keep the law so that they may not be punished or so that they may seem to be praised. But the holy one, the perfect man, has his will in the law of the Lord, so that his will is not other than the will of the law. And the will of the law is this: to forbid vice and to enjoin virtue. Whenever, then, someone becomes a law to himself—

for "these, not having a law, are a law to themselves"—so as to have his own law interwoven with the law of the Lord. Fear the Lord, all you his saints, because there is no lack to those who fear him. I exhort all the saints to fear the Lord himself. And it has been said in Isaiah: "He himself shall be your fear." Let him himself become your fear. And just as he becomes food for some, and for others wisdom, making them wise, and for others righteousness, and those for whom he has become righteousness become righteous, so also they partake of sanctification; for he himself is also the sanctification, "who became for us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption." "Fear" therefore "God, all you his saints." His saints—for there are those who are called saints in a simple sense, but are not his.

All who counterfeit holiness seem to be holy, but they are not God's. And he states the reason why he says "all": for "there is no want to those who fear him." The fear of God makes people without want and without lack. "Fear the Lord, all you his holy ones." Since "there is no want to those who fear him," in order that you may become without lack, fear God himself. And, as I said, the fear of God is not a passion, but is equal to reverence, equal to piety. When we receive an impression of God, fear at once increases and piety comes; for we do not fear as though terrifying him, not as some scarecrow, but as something exceedingly venerable. And since the church is holy and glorious, standing at the right hand of the Savior, all who fill it up are holy. So it can be said concerning the calling of the Gentiles: "Fear the Lord, all you his holy ones," because there is no want to those who fear him. The rich have become poor and have hungered, but those who seek the Lord will not lack any good thing. The former ones, who filled up the synagogue before the coming, being rich, fell into poverty. The rich have become poor and have hungered, but those who seek the Lord will not lack any good thing. When the kingdom of God was taken away from them, when the understanding of the divine Scriptures departed from them, when the old Scripture was turned away from them and they from it, they have become poor from being rich.

For this wealth benefits its possessor in every way—for it becomes his food, it becomes his shelter and his clothing—he says that these rich men, having become poor, hungered. They cast away spiritual food, they turned away from the "bread of life." They became poor, then; but even if they themselves became poor, those who seek the Lord are not lacking in good things, but are filled with them, and will partake of them perfectly. For just as the kingdom of heaven has been taken away from them—this is what the mother of Jesus also says: "He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty." Those who were rich long ago were sent away empty; for even if they possess the books of Moses and the prophets, they are empty of their divine fulfillment. The fulfillment, then, of the divine Scripture is not the shadow, but the truth and the spirit. Those, then, who "seek the Lord"—the word "seek out" indicates intensity—are filled with all good things. About this the psalmist also says somewhere, speaking to his own soul: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, who fills your desire with good things." And: "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the requests of your heart." In it all who pass over from the shadow of the law and from the partial knowledge and prophecy find all things beautiful. But properly, the spiritual things of the law are good and without diminution and most complete; for these lead by the hand also to the truth face to face, which brings perfection, in which no one will be imperfect. Come, children, listen to me.

Having said, "I will teach you the fear of the Lord," after speaking about the necessity of taking up fear toward God, and how certain people, having fallen away from it, have become from rich men poor and destitute, and that those who seek the Lord whom they fear are filled with all good things—he now extends his teaching to all who have become his children, saying: "Come, children, listen to me"—not to any according to the flesh. The children of the wise are those who hasten toward wisdom; the children of the holy are those who wish to be made holy; those who set righteousness aright are children of the first righteous one himself. For it was said by us at the beginning of the psalm that it can also be spoken from the person of the Savior according to the man. And the children of the Savior are those who take care for virtue, those who hasten to take up the knowledge of the truth. He calls them, then, though they are far off—not so that, having been moved transitionally from place to place, they might come, but from disposition to disposition, from a lesser state to the greater and more perfect one. "I will teach you the fear of the Lord." And these children to whom he makes his address can be "infants in Christ," having fear—not the perfect fear, not the one that makes people without deficiency, but the fear that produces abstinence from practical evil, the fear of punishment. For such people are children, being incomplete. For since the one who fears the Lord is without deficiency, these too are not without deficiency, not having the perfect love which casts out the aforementioned fear—which is nothing other than participation in God. And "God is love.

And just as the one who partakes of righteousness is righteous, so the one who has drawn near to this love and has become one with it is a child of wisdom, a son of love. Who is the man who desires life? When they were in the lesser fear—the fear that brings punishment and terrifies with punishment so that no one sins—they were a multitude. But when they now hasten to draw near to the one who calls, so that they may be taught the fear of God, what is proclaimed is now proclaimed to one. For having been perfected "in the same mind and the same judgment," and each one having been joined to the Lord and having become one spirit with him, they cast off multitude. For multitude—especially that which pertains to the soul and the inner man—arises either from opposition or from difference in degree, in the more and the less. If all who are called possess virtue, but do not possess it in the same way, it is a multitude. And this is not the multitude that comes by opposition. But when they also have contrary perceptions, they are many because of the wickedness present in them; for wickedness is not unifying but rather divisive. At any rate, we speak of the mutual entailment of virtues, but not of vices. It is impossible for vices to entail one another; for they are excesses and deficiencies. And excesses and deficiencies are oppositions. All, then, who perfectly take up virtue are one and become one toward God. Indeed, all who believe according to right faith have one heart and one soul, while the wicked do not have this. He calls some, then, double-souled. Therefore he directs his word to a single man.

But man is one in essence; for even if men become diverse and many, they have their plurality from the qualities that accrue to them. Yet with respect to the first underlying subject, that which is receptive of the qualities, they are one; for all are of the same essence. It belongs, then, to man to long for life—to the man who preserves the image. A horse mad after mares does not long for life. Since the question is "Who is the man?"—it is not the rare or the impossible thing; it is the specifically qualified individual whom we call the atom, so that it may mean: if any man is such a one, let him come and learn the fear of God. 13–14 Who is the man who loves to see good days? Stop your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking guile. Immediately following the longing for life and the learning of the divine fear comes being in good days; for we are not so foolish as some, as to think that bodily well-being and overflowing wealth make good days. For you have many such things in Scripture: "Honor your father and your mother, that it may go well with you and you may be long-lived upon the good land which the Lord God gives you." If you take this in reference to this land and to these parents in the superficial sense, it is falsified. Concerning the present life it is not said, "which he gives you." "Stop your tongue from evil." I call you to learn the fear of the Lord, so that having learned you may become holy, undefiled, lacking in no virtue. Come, therefore, that you may stop your tongue from evil. Let the tongue of the inner man no longer have evil. Then it is outside of everything, when it has the good and brings it forth.

And it follows upon the tongue's ceasing from evil that the lips no longer speak guile, and that dissembling anything is also at rest; for there is one who deals treacherously for the purpose of doing evil. "Their tongue is a wounding arrow; the words of their mouth are deceitful." These are the men from the heresies, the leaders of godlessness. One may therefore say with respect to the literal sense that, since at that time especially, when we were saying this, all had run to evil, so that thereafter lamentations were sung over them, he spoke to such men; for he did not say "each of my brothers" or "each of our brothers," that is, of the saints, but of those who wished to have one father, of those born of the devil through their willing to do his desires; for "you are from your father the devil, and you wish to do the desires of the devil." Concerning such brothers, then, who were born of a father who is also wicked, he says: "Every brother will supplant with the heel"; for their father is such a one: by guile he brought all things under himself and brings under those who follow his wickedness. "And every friend" such as this "will stumble." He does not speak of the true friends. Jesus says to the disciples: "You are my friends." And he has given the reason: "because I have made known to you all things of the Father." None of these friends will stumble. Therefore they are free. To those, then, who are such as this, the word is addressed: "They will not speak the truth." Concerning those who do not speak the truth, the word is that "he has not stood in the truth." He who has not stood in the truth was once in it.

But we never say of anyone that he does not stand in a craft, unless he has been tested in a craft or in many crafts and passes from one to another. If he had not been in the truth, the fact that he does not stand in it would bring him no reproach. And observe the doctrine: how does he "will that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth"? If no one resists his will, how is it that when he wills all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, some—not to say most—fall short? When he wills, if we also will and a concurrence of the two wills takes place, salvation happens; for no one is good unwillingly, no one is saved without willing it, no one who does not hasten to draw near to God and keep his law is able to know the truth. For this reason the Savior also says in the Gospel: "If anyone wills to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." "If anyone wills": as far as the Savior is concerned, he wishes him to do this, but he does not compel; he moves the choice, he awakens the will. "If anyone," then, "wills to come after me," "if anyone wills to follow me"—for this is what "to come after me" means—"let him take up his own cross": let him be crucified to the world, let him put to death "his members that are upon the earth," let him become inactive toward the world. The one who has been crucified has his feet hindered from walking wherever he wishes, and his hands from doing what he wishes.

When, therefore, someone has been crucified to the world, he no longer walks according to it nor does he do its works, and to this man who has been crucified to it the world also is crucified, so that the world also may be inactive against him, neither walking against him nor working the things that harm him. "If anyone," then, "wishes to come after me"—not at one time yes and at another time no; for virtue, when it is continually called virtue, is virtue and is perfection, not as in the case of other actions. Thus, indeed, the apostle also writes: "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, giving thanks in everything." The one who rejoices always always has virtue; for he rejoices in nothing other than in being approved in pleasing God. "Loving to see good days." Here "to see" means to experience, and "to experience good days" means to enjoy them. "Restrain your tongue from evil." Set your speech aright, test it, desire to have speech that is beyond reproach; as the apostle writes to Titus, to have "sound speech" that is "beyond reproach." The one who has speech beyond reproach also fulfills many other commandments of Jesus. It is impossible for one who does not have speech beyond reproach to keep the command: "Let your yes be yes and your no be no"; for one who is not trusted is sometimes required to swear an oath. But if he has never had speech that is condemned, and no one ever doubts whether he speaks the truth beforehand, or whether he does as he says, when he is required to swear an oath and his yes is yes and his no is no, then such a man has speech beyond reproach. And again, the one who expounds the doctrines of the truth and demonstrates them scientifically has speech that is also beyond reproach in these matters.

No one can convict him of having lied, of thinking basely, or of being outside the truth. Turn away from evil and do good. This means: if you happen to be in evil, if you have been formed according to it and are working according to it, since I call you to the doing of good, turn away from evil. It is impossible to be outside both. But let infants be exempted for now. The one who is not in good is in evil, and the one who is outside evil partakes of good. "Turn away," therefore, "from evil." Turning away is a matter of free choice, for he commands and counsels. But no one commands or counsels one who does not have free choice. I call you to do good. You cannot do it otherwise and work according to it unless you depart from evil. Thus indeed it is also said in Isaiah: "Cease from your wickednesses, learn to do good"; for as long as someone is working in his wickednesses, that is, in his vices, he can learn nothing good to do. And again the inspired apostle writes: "Test all things, hold fast to what is good, abstain from every form of evil." "Turn away," therefore, "from evil and do good." It is not enough to turn away from evil unless one also does good; for it is possible to turn away from evil while being restrained by fear of punishment that leads to this, but such a person does not do good by free choice; for if you take away the voluntary element of good, it is no longer good at all. Seek peace and pursue it. Evil is confounding and produces disturbance in the soul, for the kind of vice has great variety.

Some vices arise by deficiency and others by excess, as cowardice and rashness, as superstition and impiety. Pursue peace itself; for to pursue it in this way does not mean to drive it away. You also have it in Proverbs: "Those who pursue," it says, "righteousness he loves"—God, clearly—that is, those who pursue it. And the righteousness that is pursued is the whole of virtue. Indeed, Wisdom says: "The wicked will seek me and will not find me." The wicked seek wisdom, as far as it depends on them, wishing to hide it and make it disappear. But those who hasten to become wise do not seek wisdom in this way; rather, they pursue it. And I say this, since you love exegetical matters: Herod was seeking Jesus in order to kill him. Often the Jews sought him in order to put him to death. But the disciples were seeking him in order to be benefited, in order to share in him. Indeed, someone said to him: "The crowds are seeking you, wishing to see you"; for they wanted to believe and to see wondrous deeds and to hear words and to obtain healings. So "to pursue" is homonymous. Because those

The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous. Great is the exhortation again, great the instruction. This says that the eyes of God are ready to see and to save, and he has ears ready to listen. "Turn away," therefore, "from evil and do good, and seek peace and pursue it"; for immediately you will have God as your overseer. Only will to be righteous, to pursue righteousness, and you have the eyes of God fixed upon you and his ears ready to receive your prayers which you make to him. And his ears are for their supplication. It has often been said that the things spoken in human terms about God must not be taken literally, as those who think of God in human form suppose; for they wish that there is also a human face about God, and they say that the man according to image and likeness of God has come to be according to the constitution of the body. But this sort of thing has been refuted by wise men; for they say: if in this respect man is according to the image of God, because he imitates God bodily and his body has a likeness to God, how is God said to have wings: "In the shelter of your wings you will cover me"? Man, then, is a wingless creature, so that he is not "according to image and likeness" of God in respect of the body. But if you understand what the wings of God are, you will see that man too has such wings, intelligible ones, which lift him up. Again the eyes:

Since they take everything according to the historical sense, the man who has two eyes is not "according to the image and likeness" of the one who has seven, so that those things, when applied to the sensible realm, lead away from it, while the things concerning man, when led away from the sensible realm, preserve the likeness to God. But the face of the Lord is upon those who do evil. This says that those who do evil are not righteous. And not being righteous, they are not looked upon by God nor heard. Nevertheless they do not remain without a perception of him. But when they fall into certain grievous troubles and become conscious that it is because of the evil things they do and think that they have come into these troubles, they receive a perception of him. At any rate, Moses too, when Pharaoh and all his army were pursuing, said that he heard God: "I will be glorified in Pharaoh and in all his army, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord." For how did they know? Was it not that, having been submerged and no longer able to escape, they received a perception of God? And it stands also in the Psalms: "Let them be ashamed and confounded and perish and know that your name is, O Lord." After perishing, after being ashamed, they knew God, and this is what it means for him to be manifest and to have a face upon those who do evil. But someone objects: How does he say elsewhere, "You turned away your face, and I became troubled"? —There it is said in another sense: it is the voice of the Savior. Hear then: the turning away of the face he does not say is from those who do evil, but from those who have it appearing to them. And having been troubled a little, they thought they were outside the face; therefore they were also troubled.

they received the perception that something unpleasant existed for them. And the turning away of the face has happened in this way, in order to stir up those who previously saw it and did not have it turned away, so that they might attain it. But against those who do evil, not even this is the reason, but rather so that they might perceive that by the providence of God they have been condemned, that by the providence of God they are among things grievous. And indeed this too happens with a good end: to destroy from the earth their memory. Not simply "their memory," but "from the earth," so that they no longer reckon themselves as earth, no longer set their minds on earthly things. As we say that such a man has been driven out of the country where there are many fornications; for he is not accursed who removed him from there, having placed him among things contrary. The righteous cried out, and the Lord heard them. And reasonably so, since he has ears for them; having cried out, they obtained him as one who hears. Pay attention: two things have been said, one praiseworthy and one blameworthy.

Praiseworthy is that the eyes of the Lord and his ears are toward the righteous; punitive is that the face of the Lord is "to destroy from the earth their memory." For even if the end is better, yet it comes about through evil, as health comes through cauteries and surgeries and the most pungent preliminary potions. So he speaks with reference to the other, the primary point. Since the ears of God are toward the supplication of the righteous and his eyes watch over them, having cried out they did not fail; for "he heard them." And with reference to the other passage, "The face of the Lord is against those who do evil," he says in what follows: "But the death of sinners is evil." Not every death is evil, but that of sinners.

The discussion now is not about the common [death]. For that belongs to a living being, not to a doer, not to a sinner, not to a righteous man. Even if you take the common [death], when someone dies as a sinner, his death is evil—for punishment will succeed it—and if you take the other, the one truly suited to the sinner, "sin," he says, "when it is completed, gives birth to death." But sin is completed not outside those who act, but in the human beings who act. The death, then, that follows them is evil. And in the case of the former meaning we say that the death is evil which produces evil, which does harm. But here we call it evil according to the second application, because it is outside of goodness. The grammarians, then, read "evil" as that which does harm: "and all the evil diseases of Egypt I will not bring upon you," the painful plagues which the Egyptians endured according to the history. But when he says, "Abstain from every form of evil," we do not mean this evil which is painful; for it is not ours to abstain from these. They are sent from God; they come upon us against our will because of preceding wickedness. With reference to "but the face of the Lord is upon those who do evil," there is then added: "the death of sinners is evil"—either evil or evil; it has both meanings: for they have both the punishment and the wickedness that drags them down from the blessed life, which is equal to wickedness. "Remove the wickednesses from your souls from before my eyes." Observe the precision: since he named the wickednesses of souls, and these are seen by no other than God, he says that

Do not pretend to remove the evils from your souls before my eyes, as though I were seeing, even if not from the opposite side. This is equivalent to what is said by the Savior, that almsgiving must be done in secret, so that "your Father who sees in secret may reward you." And out of all their afflictions he delivered them. And in other verses of the psalm it was said that being delivered from all afflictions does not mean acting so as to be outside of being afflicted, since the saints were never heard to say, as Paul says, "afflicted in every way." The Lord is near to those who are crushed in heart, and he will save the humble in spirit. As the dialecticians and demonstrators say, that one must establish and prove the non-evident from the evident; for this is true. It is impossible for unknown things to be known from things equally unknown, and much more so from things more unknown. From things evident, then, things non-evident are made known, and from things known, things not known. For the rest, let us understand another, clearer scripture, so that we may also receive the correct sense and knowledge of the present passage. It is said, then, in Proverbs: "Before crushing a man's heart is lifted up, or before glory it is humbled." This is what it says: the proud man is not humbled unless crushed. But when crushed by labors undertaken for the sake of freedom from vanity, he is lifted up. "Before crushing a man's heart is lifted up." The proud man hears words against pride, and sometimes also experiences afflictions, because he is puffed up. If you submit to this crushing, which is better introduced through labors for the sake of humility, the heart is not lifted up. Before the rebuke, so to speak

I say, and before the scourges it has its heart lifted up. Whenever, then, it falls under grievous things, it knows that because of its own pride it fell under unwanted things. So also must be understood the saying: "Capernaum, which was exalted to heaven, shall be brought down to Hades." And being brought down to Hades is a crushing. Before this crushing it was proud. "Before glory, one is humbled." One must first be humbled willingly, in order that one may obtain glory; for glory comes second, after freedom from vanity. For this reason the Savior also said: "He who humbles himself will be exalted." And observe: "Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled," will be crushed here. Before this crushing it has its heart lifted up, boasting, proud. Again, glory is brought to the one who humbles himself, so that he may be free from vanity. Before this glory one must be humbled, one must labor, in order that one may receive a reward. He receives glory, then, for freedom from vanity from God. So indeed Peter also exhorts, saying: "Be humbled under the mighty hand of God, that you may be exalted in time." And Job too says: "God is the one who makes the humble to be on high." And "those crushed" here "in heart" he means not those who have been harmed in heart. But sometimes the name of crushing signifies something of this sort: to have thoughts that are not healthy, to have notions that are not perverted. This crushing of the heart needs a physician, a physician who heals what is hidden; for it has been said: "The Lord builds up Jerusalem and will gather the dispersions of Israel, he who heals the crushed in heart." These have been crushed like wounded men.

Thus indeed also the one who went down from Jerusalem—that is, to Jericho, that is, to the place around the earth and to his own way of life called Jericho because of the interpretation of the name; for Jericho is interpreted as "moon." And it is said, "The fool is changed like the moon," like the moon which does not have its light increasing but diminishing. But the bride praised in the Song of Songs "looks forth like the dawn, beautiful," and becomes "as the moon, elect." This change is for the better, for being perfected; for the moon is changed in both ways: passing from the crescent shape it comes to the full. And there are four transitions of the progressions of its increase: crescent, half-moon, gibbous, full. And conversely from the full it comes to the gibbous, and from the gibbous to the half-moon, from the half-moon to the crescent. Thus indeed the bride of the Word looks forth like the dawn—the perfect soul, the church espoused to him. And she is changed so as to become beautiful, elect as the full moon. And after this he says, "as the sun, a wonder." And from the lunar light she comes to the solar, when that prophecy is fulfilled which says, "The moon shall be as the sun." Someone, then, will be crushed in heart when he is filled with crushed thoughts, with minds alien to sound truth. Of these crushings the Savior becomes the healer; for "he who heals the broken in heart and binds up their fractures," binding up their wounds. And I take this by way of example:

Often one who struggles in a contest is crushed by his opponent and yet obtains the crown. Let not these crushings bring reproach upon him. But when someone is crushed by wild beasts or robbers, we blame him—I do not mean according to the historical sense; for it is possible to suffer this through ignorance—saying: Why were you where the wild beasts were, or why did you draw near to the spiritual robbers of wickedness? "And he will save the humble in spirit." Here "spirit" means the mind. This is equivalent to what was said in the Gospel's beatitudes: "Blessed are the poor in spirit," the poor in mind. These are those who, through right reason, achieve freedom from arrogance, who have heard the Savior saying: "Learn from me, that I am gentle and humble in heart." And mind and heart are the same.

Just as, therefore, the Savior is humble in heart, so too those who learn this from him become humble in mind. And these are the poor in spirit, who do not wish to be rich in boastfulness. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, and out of all their afflictions he will deliver them. It has often already been said by us that he delivers them out of all of them. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous"; I said that this is throughout life and until the last breath. The Lord keeps all their bones. If they are delivered from all afflictions so as not to fall under them and be crushed, all their well-strung powers, called bones, are kept by God. And it was said also before this that the powers of the soul are called its bones; for they are what hold together the whole soul, as the perceptible bones hold together the whole body.

It was impossible for the flesh to stand, or the other things—the bones that hold together the members of the body. And the well-toned powers of the soul, such as the memorative or the contemplative or the perceptive power of noble things, when they are inflexible and kept perfect, have this from God, not by their own power. So they come to this willing by free choice, but they are perfected in this when God cooperates. Not one of them will be crushed. If they are righteous and have cried out to God and have been rescued from all their afflictions, "not one" of their bones "will be crushed," that is, "not one power." And that I may begin from the more perceptive powers: there is a certain power of sight. When it does not look so as to desire the beauty of women, nor is conquered by the beauty of desire, this bone has not been crushed by the Lord, but is kept by him unharmed. When one looks up to heaven and sees the sun and the moon and does not worship and serve them, but from the visible creation understands the one who appointed all things, and from the greatness of his creatures and their beauty contemplates proportionally, this bone which pertains to sight is strong. So that I take it more perceptively: when someone does not accept vain hearing, but judges which words he is persuaded by and which not, and which he agrees with and which he refuses—"Apply your ear to the words of the wise," and "Do not accept vain hearing"—this man has also the bone, the hearing, the perception of hearing, uncrushed and healthy. The death of sinners is evil, and those who hate the righteous will be held guilty.

The bones of the righteous are guarded by the Lord, and not one of them is broken, but for sinners death is evil. It has already been said to us that "evil" is spoken of in two ways. And if the death that drags one down from the blessed life follows upon sin, according to the saying, "Sin, when it is completed, gives birth to death," this death is evil. Again, since after departing from this life they are handed over to punishment, they have died again in order that they might be punished. At any rate it is said, "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his holy ones"; for how could this be evil, or how could death be evil when it is planted together with the death of Christ? "For if," he says, "we have become united with the likeness of his death, we shall also be united with his resurrection." And, "If we died with him, we shall also live with him." "And those who hate the righteous will be held guilty." The sinner, if he takes on an intensification of sin, hates the righteous. And in hating the righteous he hates virtue. At any rate, sinners hate the righteous not insofar as he is a man—for they do not hate sinners—but insofar as he is righteous. And he who hates a physician insofar as he is a physician hates medicine. For this reason they will be held guilty, they will be punished. The Lord will redeem the souls of his servants. For the rest he says: even if evil death touches sinners and guilt befalls those who hate the righteous, nevertheless he redeems the good souls of his servants. He redeems the souls from the troubles that have previously taken hold of them. In both ways again you may understand it: he redeems from punishment and he redeems from sin; for if he redeems from sin, it follows that from

to be redeemed from punishment. And all who hope in him will certainly not go wrong. All who hope in God will not go wrong, as those who hate the righteous man go wrong; for if in the case of those who hate the righteous man "going wrong" means punishment and chastisement, then in the case of those who hope in the Lord "not going wrong" means not being chastised, not being punished, not falling under those who inflict pain. A Psalm of David. Judge, O Lord, those who wrong me; fight against those who fight against me. No one asks God to become his judge while he has thoughts as though he were the one doing wrong. It is the voice not of one who does wrong but of one who is wronged, who has chosen rather to be wronged than to do wrong. And no one prefers being wronged absolutely; but when doing wrong and being wronged are set before him, if both cannot be brought about—for indeed it is not possible—he chooses rather to be wronged than to do wrong. For the one who does wrong undergoes punishment, and the unrighteous cannot inherit the kingdom of God. But it is not in the power of the one who is wronged to experience these things; for he is wronged willingly. Let us grant that even if he is unable to help himself, he nevertheless does not wear himself out because he cannot avenge himself, but neither does he consider what has befallen him, that the one who is wronged is more deserving of forgiveness and has many who show him mercy. But the unrighteous man, even if no one punishes him, is to be punished. And this very thing altogether—to cover over injustice and to wish to defend oneself as though not doing wrong—is his punishment. His own conscience condemns him. But there is great boldness in the one who says the psalm: "Judge, O Lord, those who wrong me; fight against those who fight against me.

I do not make war on them. And "with those who hate peace, I am peaceable." I am persuaded by the Holy Spirit who says: "Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word: say to those who hate you, 'You are our brothers,' so that the name of the Lord may be glorified, and they themselves shall be put to shame." "Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word: say to those who hate you, 'You are our brothers,'" so that we may say it in deed and not with the voice alone; for those who say "Lord Jesus" with the voice alone hear: "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do what I say?" But the one who says "Lord Jesus" "in the Holy Spirit," by participation in the Holy Spirit, through what he does and thinks, cries out "Lord Jesus" according to the Spirit. "Say," then, "to those who hate you, 'Brothers.'" Let them hate, but you call them brothers in deed, not with utterance alone, but you work into them the things that ought to be done for brothers; for in this way the name of the Lord is glorified. For it is known that one does these things for God's sake; for as far as it depended on their being hated, he has not called those who hate the brothers. "And they themselves shall be put to shame"; for when put to shame they are not utterly worn down. The saint, then, makes war on no one. But when warred against, he strives not to set himself in opposition, but to suffer nothing—and, so to speak, since it is violent and because of its clarity—that he uses only a shield, and does not also use a sword for protection, nor a defensive weapon able to wound in return and set itself in opposition. "Fight against those who fight against me." They were still in the act of wronging him and of warring against him.

So that they may no longer do injustice or make war, he asks God as an ally—not that he might do injustice to them, not that he might make war, but that he might remain unharmed while being wronged and warred against. And the nature of the rational being, if it does not suffer distortion, has this as its own. "Make war," then: prevent them from surrounding me with destruction. Take hold of weapon and shield and rise up for my help. The shield of God extinguishes the fiery arrows of the enemy, of the evil one. Take hold, then, of this shield, put it around me. I do not say this: "You, fence yourself with the shield"; rather, take hold of it so as to grant it to me, so as to secure me. By way of parallelism, the weapon and the shield can be the same thing. And perhaps they also signify kinds of weapons. He can be praying that the incarnation take place; for when he takes hold of a man who is able to secure us and fight as our champion, he took hold of weapon and shield and rose up for our help. He rose up from the bosom of the Father, so that, having bowed the heavens, he might come down, so that he might be seen as our champion; for he has come not to make war himself, but to make war on our behalf, and he has come not to suffer simply, but to suffer on our behalf. And observe: "by the grace of God he tasted death for every man" —he has come. We were all under death; our whole race was mortal. And the mortal is subject to death. The one who suffered for so many, then, he said, "tasted death." And that he did not drain the whole filth of death—for it seems fitting—thus what is in Isaiah was also made clear to me: "by his wound we were all healed." And he calls his wound the cross.

Insofar as it concerns the nature of the cross and the greatness of the injury, there is no bruise. But for him it is a bruise—as regards himself it is a bruise that does not harm the one who bears it, but benefits those on whose behalf he bore the bruise. So too "by the grace of God he tastes death." Indeed, having come into death, he destroyed death. And the Savior's suffering is again the dissolution of sufferings; for having come into sufferings he dissolved them, and was not mastered by them. And just as, becoming a curse, he dissolves the curse so as to provide a blessing in its place, and we say that he came to be under a curse, not that he might suffer anything, but that he might dissolve the curse and extend a blessing in its place. Did he not "make him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him"? Sin becomes that which makes those who possess it righteousness itself. It is not called sin absolutely, but sin for the purpose of making those formerly held by sin righteousness—not simply, but the righteousness of God. And the calling of those who have participated in a quality by the same name as the quality they possess indicates an intensification of participation. They possess the righteousness of God as a quality. He conquered and prevailed to such an extent that they were called not merely righteous, but righteousness itself. And in many places of the Scripture you will find such things. It says: "God is love." See the greatness of love: "God is love." By the two names the same essence is made clear—God and love. Then it says that the one who draws near to God and loves him with all his heart and all his soul and all his strength becomes love; for what is said about love follows.

Love is not puffed up, is not boastful, does not behave unseemly, does not reckon evil, bears all things, believes all things, endures all things"—are these things said about virtue not foreign to it? For I do not say that virtue endures or bears or believes. He named the one who has love by the same name, love. So too those who have obtained righteousness from the sin that came upon us for our sake become the righteousness of God, no longer simply righteous of God but the righteousness of God. And it signifies an intensification of perfection, of progress. —Many of the optative forms in Scripture are pronounced with the character of the imperative; perhaps also among others. And so that we may not go far afield: "Let your name be sanctified," which is: "May your name be sanctified." "Let your kingdom come; let your will be done": "May your will be done." "Let the deceitful lips be made dumb"—instead of "may they be made dumb"—"those who speak lawlessness against the righteous." —Does he pray to himself? —To himself, yes. I say: if I wish to receive something from another, and I mean another besides God, he would not pray to himself, but to God, that he may give us such a helper, that he may bring such a commander into our midst. But whenever someone prays to God himself, wishing to receive something from him, he brings both the petition and the expectation of receiving to him

He has it for himself. If I say to God, "Give assent to my request," I am sending up a prayer concerning prayer. "Hear me, O Lord, for I have cried to you"—and I send up a prayer concerning prayer. For since even the hearing of a prayer needs God's cooperation, I again call upon him as co-worker through the prayer, that he may fulfill my prayer and hear it. This very thing I ask: that you rise to my help not unarmed, but taking up a weapon. Receive my body and my soul; for through these you will be able to help me. Often a physician of great stature cannot heal small things or small men. Sometimes, then, he prepares one of his disciples, one of those inferior and far below himself, so that he may be able to approach this man and heal him. To take up a weapon, then, and a shield is to take up man, to receive the form of a slave. And such things commonly happen often. This, then, is what he says: if as God you set out to help me, the help is beyond measure. Having become man, help me. And so he says to him: "Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and your beauty." You have splendor and beauty; for you did not commit sin, nor did you know it. "Gird," then, "your sword upon your thigh." The name "thigh" often signifies the things of generation, as when it says, "Every thigh shall be defiled with discharge," euphemistically and decorously signifying through the thigh the organs that serve generation. For this reason also Abraham, when sending his servant to seek a bride for Rebecca, said: "Put your hand under my thigh, and I will make you swear"—

For since he was about to take a virgin and lead her from a distant place to a distant place, he necessarily secured his chastity. But it is also possible to understand it this way: since the one who comes for the salvation of all things was about to come forth from my thighs, there "place your hand, and I will adjure you." And the Scripture names many such things with reverence. Concerning the dragon, that is, the devil, it says: "Behold, his strength is on his loins, and his power is on the navel of the belly." In the case of the man it named the loins, but in the case of the woman it reverently called that organ the "navel of the belly." By the adjacent parts it indicated that whose use it had forbidden. Draw your sword and shut it up against those who pursue me. Multiply the sword, give us the sword against the enemies. And the living word of God is the sword. And again the word of the Spirit: "and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." And to pour out always signifies abundance, as when it says: "I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh," it signifies the abundant gift and rich provision through the expression. "The love of God has been poured out in our hearts." And further: "Your name is ointment poured out." The ointment poured out comes outside the vessel that contains it and sends its breath to the greatest distance. When, then, the Savior was in Israel alone—for "in Israel" "his name is great"—his name was as in a vessel. But when "how wonderful his name" has become "in all the earth," and that has been fulfilled which

As your name, O God, so also is your praise to the ends of the earth” — he has become an ointment poured out. This phrase, then, signifies abundant provision. So this is what he says: make each one of us a sword-bearer, pour out the blade; for then you shut them up over against those who persecute us. For from now on we become armed soldiers, we come to them sword in hand, not so that I may kill, but so that I may suffer nothing. But why “shut up”? — “Shut up” signifies many things, and especially the gathering, as it were, of the enclosure that hinders the impulse of the one who wishes to outwit — this has become a shutting up. At any rate, those who converse are accustomed to say, “I shut him up.” It signifies something else as well, as it stands in the philosophy of Paul: “God shut up all in disobedience, so that he might have mercy on all.” And observe the sequence of the phrase: those who had believed from among the Greeks were coming down upon the Jews who had believed in the Savior. And earlier, in turn, the Jews were hindering the nations from being called to salvation; for they said, “Do you receive into salvation those from accursed fathers, from idolaters, from polytheists?” He has therefore made a shutting up; he has convicted both sides. And one may use an image of this sort: let someone have a son who remains with him, and another who has been cast out because of prior wickedness. If, when the cast-out son repents, the father wishes to receive him, the son who remained opposes, saying, “Does this one become my co-heir? He has done such and such things.” He convicts that one too of other sins: “It is not for this reason that this one is excluded from the inheritance — and you will be cast out; you have done such and such things.

And for the rest he no longer contradicts; for this one too has been shut up, that is, by the reproofs he has been shut up, and that one as well. "That he might have mercy on all," then, this is what he has done; for it was not in order to prove them to be such that he opened the reproofs, but in order to restrain each of the two from what remained; for neither does the Greek any longer trample upon the Jews because of the cross brought against the Savior by them, nor do those trample upon these; for all were found under sin. This, then, is what he says: "For just as you once disobeyed God" — you, the Greeks — even if now you have received the gospel and set yourselves to worship God, yet once you even stoned — "but now you have been set free by their disobedience" — had Israel not disobeyed, you would not have had salvation; for they opposed and hindered — "so," he says, "also these," the Jews, "disobeyed your mercy, that they too might be set free." For the rest, as a conclusion he added: "For God shut up all in disobedience, that he might have mercy on all." The depth of the judgment: "O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become his counselor?" — of him who shut up all in disobedience? Among enemies, then, "shut up" is understood thus, when every way is taken away from them of advancing and doing terrible harm; for in this way someone is shut up. As it were, by way of reasoning he reasoned with the Jew: do not find fault with the calling of the Gentiles; for you too have done the same things.

Again, the Greeks who trample upon the Jews and say, "The Lord-killers and such like" — he says: "Once you were disobedient," you were idolaters. Say to my soul, "Your salvation I am." Say, O God, truly to the soul: "I am your salvation." And when do you say, "I am the salvation," except when you save, or when you bring all things upon my soul for its salvation, leading it as a stranger? Let them be ashamed and confounded who seek my soul. These are the ones who do wrong, these are the ones who wage war, concerning whom he said: "Judge those who wrong me, fight against those who fight against me." "Let them be ashamed," he says, "and confounded." Wrath cannot be brought upon them, but shame for what they do; for thus they will cease. Indeed, at any rate, those who have come to know this — that they have been brought into shame — say: "We have slept in our shame, and our dishonor has covered us." It belongs to those who have known, that they have been brought under shame and that they have been hidden from dishonor. And this shame and dishonor came from sin. Something of this sort is also said in Ezekiel to one who is bold and shameless: "Be ashamed and take your dishonor." As if, for instance, by way of supposition, someone were condemned to serve at public works, such as in a bathhouse or in a mine, and he prided himself on this, we say to him: "Be ashamed, know that you are in dishonor." Concerning Adam, then, what is his shame? — for not every shame is of the same kind. Indeed, the Scripture itself says: "There is a shame that brings on sin, and there is a shame

Glory and joy." And observe: many are glorified for the very things for which one ought to sink down and hide and seem shameful. At any rate the apostle says: "whose god is their belly and their glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things." In the things in which one ought to be ashamed, in these they are bold, and we see such things by nature also among men. But he who awaits a Savior, the Word of God, knowing that by him they are transformed into what is more glorious and become conformed to the body which he himself had, no longer prides himself on works of shame. Let those who devise evils against me be turned back and put to shame. The word "back" is used in various ways in various places of Scripture. "To be turned back" carries reproach. At any rate Lot's wife, departing from that destructive region round about, heard: "Do not look back," do not set your attention on what you have left behind. Again, elsewhere it is said: "Let my enemies be turned back." Let them be turned back to their own rear, so that they no longer drive along the same road, the road of enemies. "No one who has put his hand to the plow and turned back." It was not said "of someone," but simply "back"; for when the plowman turns, he breaks the straight line. And the breaking of the straight line hinders the work. And someone is said to turn back to his own rear, in one sense praiseworthily, in another blameworthily. If one is hastening to accomplish the divine road and turns, this turning is blameworthy — namely, to have gone backward.

But if anyone is pressed toward vice and is checked by words of repentance and turns back, this turning that comes from repentance is praiseworthy. At any rate, he says: since they rush upon vice and are eager to do me harm, may they be turned back behind this purpose of theirs. In both ways, then, they reckon evils against me: when they wish to encompass me in sin, they reckon evils against me; when, wishing to plot, they wish to bring some harmful thing upon me, again they reckon evil against me. The two elders who raged against Susanna did both things: they reckoned evil when they wished to lead her into adultery. Having failed in this, they reckoned the other kind of evils—to destroy her, to have her stoned. Understand the same things also concerning Joseph and the Egyptian woman: she too reckoned the evil of fornication, into which she wished to drag him down. Nevertheless, having failed in this, she attempted the other manner of evils by speaking a slander against him, through which his supposed master rushed on as against one to be punished. Let them become like chaff before the wind. Let them become worthless. This is also said in the first psalm: "Not so the impious, not so, but like the chaff which the wind scatters from the face of the earth." He shows their worthlessness to be not so much of substance as of disposition; for "those who mind earthly things" and have become wholly of the flesh and of the members are chaff, having no track, no firm seat. A slight wind, then, moves them. And this wind can be either tribulation or a deceitful word.

Thus, at any rate, certain people are carried about by "every wind of teaching" that is deceitful, "in the dice-game" of those who promote that cunning teaching, the teaching of those who practice it. And the angel of the Lord shall press them hard. They have an angel of the Lord pressing them hard. In the preceding psalm it says: "The angel of the Lord encamps round about those who fear him, and delivered them." But here the angel of the Lord presses them hard, being a certain punisher and sent down to take vengeance on them. It is possible also to take the angel in a praiseworthy sense—the one who "encamps round about those who fear him"; for he presses the sinner hard by using reproofs, by persuading him to depart from the things he considers pleasant. Let their way be darkness and a slipping. Their own way, not God's way, not the way of virtue, not the way of the commandments of God, as it is said: "I ran in the way of your commandments," but their own way, in which they exult, in which they think they run brightly. Let them know what their way is like; let them slip; for this fall is auspicious. Just as the one who has departed from running the straight way falls into a great evil, so the one who hastens to run toward evil, when he has slipped and fallen, receives the beginning of repentance. And the angel of the Lord shall pursue them. As I said, in both ways—either reproving and rebuking them or punishing them. For without cause they hid destruction for me, their trap. Wickedness is often called destruction; for it destroys the truth, making the inner man evil instead of good, unjust instead of just, impious instead of God-fearing. And that wickedness is called destruction: "Evil company," he says, "corrupts good morals.

This corruption—for it is not bodily, of the members—corrupts the character. And the corruption of moral character is moral vice. "Evil company" means deceitful company. And that I may use the image of the prostitute introduced in Proverbs—whether she represents false opinion or licentiousness—the prostitute woman corrupted the good character of that young man; for she brought certain sophistical arguments to bear on him: "I have a peace-offering; today I pay my vows"—place the comma wherever you wish, at "today"—"for this reason I came out to meet you." But she lies. She did not come out to pay her vows, but "desiring." "Because for nothing they hid for me the corruption of their snare." Many stumbling-blocks and false notions arise for those unable to distinguish things that share the same name. The word "corruption" and "decay" has many meanings in Scripture: "If anyone," it says, "corrupts the temple of God, God will corrupt him." In this same word two meanings of corruption are set forth: "If anyone corrupts the temple of God" through sin—he means the body; for "your bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God." All vice, then, is corruption. And the specific form of vice is more properly called corruption—the loss of virginity. Thus, at any rate, we say that the virgin has been corrupted, and that the boy has been corrupted who has just tasted of sexual pleasures. Nevertheless, whether the genus of vice is called corruption, or the species, they fall under one meaning; for such corruption corrupts and drags down both the soul and the body. In the prophet it is said: "Because of uncleanness you were corrupted with corruption." And uncleanness of soul is vice. It is said, then, in Proverbs concerning a certain worthless man that:

It is crushed because of the uncleanness of the soul." And in the Lamentations of Jeremiah it is said: "Her uncleanness is before her feet," meaning: her course is uncleanness; for she treads upon the forbidden way of death, the evil way. "Therefore because of uncleanness you were corrupted with corruption." And the uncleanness of the soul is vice, as has been said, according to the twofold manner of the corruption mentioned, both according to the genus and according to the species of vice, that is, both according to licentiousness and according to the other species of vice. "Because of uncleanness you were corrupted with corruption." But it is possible to take this also, "because of uncleanness you were corrupted with corruption," in the other meaning of corruption: "If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him." And God destroys by testing. And just as the name of destruction, when taken in reference to the soul, is spoken of in two ways—for we say that the one who sins is called destruction, and the one who is punished is called destruction—"Fear," therefore, "the one who is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna." Here destruction is punishment, which is also called corruption. Therefore the phrase "because of uncleanness you were corrupted with corruption" can mean: for this reason you have fallen under punishment, because you loved to be unclean, because you hastened to have the uncleanness of the soul. And this uncleanness is contrary to purity, which, when it comes upon the heart, brings the presence and manifestation of God; for "blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Concerning this it is said: "Cleanse your hands, sinners"—and then they become clean when you "pursue the just thing justly"—but also "purify your hearts," and the right understanding with the contemplations of the

of truth. "For nothing," then, "they hid for me," wishing to destroy me, to bring me down into wickedness, or also to plot against me and lead me into affliction. But they do both in vain—for "for nothing" here means "in vain"—either because I have provided no cause; for the one who has resolved to be wronged and to suffer evil rather than to do the opposite will say: "Those who surround me with destruction do this in vain, since God becomes my helper," or: "They do this for nothing, since I have provided no cause." For example, if Susanna had been put to death after being slandered by the elders, she would have said: "They plotted against me for nothing, since I gave them no cause." Joseph too would have said this, and the disciples of Christ would say it as well when persecuted, put to death, and reviled for the sake of the name of Christ; for if any Christian is plotted against for no other reason than that he is a Christian, those who plot against him plot against him for nothing; for sometimes certain people set themselves against Christians and, wishing to harm them, find a cause from them. "In vain they reviled my soul." For I too have made nothing that is a cause of reviling. But "for nothing, since I provided no cause" was also spoken in another sense: to suffer for the name of Christ and not for anything else. And again: "Do not acquire the reproaches of evil men." "Do not acquire," since it is in our power to acquire. But if, when we have not acquired them, certain people surround us with reproaches, "in vain they revile our soul." Will you not say that Jezebel and those who conspired with her reviled Naboth in vain, and for nothing hid destruction for him by their snares?

their trap"? He calls "their traps" not those in which they are trapped, but those in which they wish to trap. The dramatic scheme devised against Susanna by the elders was their trap—not one in which they themselves are trapped, but one in which they wished to trap her and subject her to punishment and shame. Let the trap come upon them, which they do not know. This is what he says: those who are strong at composing machinations against certain people and plotting against them are never in vain set before their eyes, because they can be caught by the very things they themselves devised; for example, "he who digs a pit" for his neighbor "will fall into it." They do not at all consider that they themselves fall into the pit, since they were not digging it. They did not know, then, that the trap was coming upon them, which they were preparing for another in order to surround him and hunt him down. "Which they do not know," then—which they did not have before their eyes, since they were not even devising it. And the hunt which they hid, let it seize them—so that they might escape the notice of others and hunt those others down unforeseeably. "Let it seize them." "They dug a pit before my face and fell into it." And in the trap they will fall, in it. In this one which they prepared for others, they will fall. By the fall of others they themselves have fallen into such devices as certain people make, and they come against them. It happens in a certain weaving of providence. The account concerning providence has a great weaving, even if it is unknown by many—not to say, by all. But my soul will exult in the Lord. Moses says: "Do to him as he wickedly devised to do to his neighbor." When these things have happened, she will exult, knowing that she has suffered nothing.

rejoicing over them? No, but marveling at providence and exulting that he was not ensnared. How the soul of Susanna exulted, not because the elders were condemned, but because she herself was released from the charge. That happened incidentally. And indeed, when the saints pray while they are in affliction, they pray for this very thing alone: "let us not be caught by the affliction," not against those who surround them with affliction; for they receive it as a contest, not as punishment. But the one who receives it as a contest is not so disposed against his opponents that they should no longer exist. "Do not lead us into temptation"; for he did not say, "Strike down those who tempt us." I was once asked how the marriage of the saints took place without pleasure—was it not that "marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled"?—and I said that the saints came together with their wives only when it was the time for conception. After conception they did not touch. I said, then, that their purpose was not pleasure, which they wished to hunt down, but to serve the begetting of children. Pleasure is necessarily joined along with it, yet they do not come together for its sake. The same happens also with food: one is nourished for no other reason than to fulfill the appetite, for the sake of being satisfied. But if it also follows that the things eaten are pleasant, he does not choose them for this reason, that they are pleasant. And this happens especially with medical remedies; often the remedy is pleasant, but he did not apply them for the sake of pleasure. Indeed, at any rate, even if it is unpleasant, he applies it, since he does it for the sake of health and benefit.

And so, whenever those who set upon a righteous man suffer the same things, he rejoices that he has not been caught by them. What follows, then, is the phrase "and if they have suffered anything." But I wonder whether this is the mark of a perfect saint. It belongs to one who is advancing, not to the perfect, to be glad that those who eagerly sought to dispose him badly have suffered something. Next: how does "in the Lord" differ from "upon the Lord"? One who takes up intentions without over-elaboration will say there is no difference. But it can be understood thus: for instance, someone rejoices, say, over his child if he is healthy; he rejoices in the drinking of wine. Each has a different cause. Let us take the proof from another passage: "Everyone," it says, "whoever confesses in me before men"—it did not say "upon me"—"I also will confess him." But if the preposition had been used simply, "in" would also have been placed in the case of denial: "and everyone who denies in me, I also will deny in him." But it was impossible for one who denies him to be in Christ, or for Christ to deny one who is in him. The one who denies is therefore separated from him whom he denies. The denier of God is separated from God, and his God is fenced off from him. But the one who confesses him is in him, so that you may not take the confession as mere sound; for those who honor with their lips confess, but they are not in him. Since, then, our connection with God is of different kinds—sometimes we are said to rejoice upon him as upon a savior, as upon a benefactor, as upon a commander who has secured the victory for us, and sometimes in him as in wisdom, as in sanctification, as in righteousness—the one who confesses Christ is in him. And take it from another example:

The one who confesses knowledge cannot confess it otherwise than by knowing it. Perhaps—whether it is in substance or also in quality? For the present, let these matters be set aside; for now the inquiry concerns the difference of relations. Whether one participates by substance or by quality, let it be a matter for another occasion. And the same point: for God is not one thing when he becomes Father of the righteous, another when he is their Creator, and another when he is their King, but by conception. From the things we know we receive the conceptions, since there it is not possible to separate conception from conception. God is light, he is also sanctification and righteousness and wisdom, and it is not possible to separate existence from existence. But we do separate relation from relation. Let a man be father and master and teacher and ruler; for he does not differ from himself. But if you hear that he is a ruler in relation to those who are ruled and a king in relation to those who are governed and a father in relation to the one begotten and a master in relation to the slave and a physician in relation to the one being treated and a teacher in relation to the one learning, he does not differ from himself, but the relation, referred to different persons, makes the difference. Just as, then, it happens that the same man is both father and teacher and the rest, so it happens that the same disciple is both the one ruled and the one learning. And again, since it is not always said one to one—for it happens to find a son of one man and this same person a disciple of another and of another

...beloved. He will be delighted in his salvation. Here he calls the Savior "salvation"; for in many places "salvation" (soterion) means "deliverance." But sometimes that which produces salvation is also so called, as when he says, "The ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God," instead of "the Savior." So the soul "is delighted in salvation." It does not seek salvation from elsewhere than from God himself, from him who saves with eternal salvation; for "Israel is saved by the Lord with eternal salvation." All my bones shall say, Lord, Lord, who is like you? The first theology is to know who the holiness of God is, and who can be likened to him or who cannot. So he attaches this theology and knowledge of God to his own bones, from which it is evident that he does not speak of these bones of his that hold together the other members of the body and the flesh and the sinews, but of the well-toned powers, of which we have often said that they are the bones of the inner man. "All my bones," then, "shall say": the well-toned doctrines, my well-toned movements, insofar as I know and understand, confess that God is such that none of created things is like him. The "who" — how? — is used of the impossible, as in: "O God, who shall be likened to you?" We do not take this of the Son; for not even in the future does he have likeness, but being "the express image of his substance," he is eternally like. So both can be taken: if it concerns essential likeness, no one is like him; but if it concerns likeness in virtue and holiness, rare is the one who is like him.

He rescues the poor man from the hand of those stronger than he. If the likeness is taken in reference to this action, it signifies what is rare. God rescues the poor man and the needy from the hand of those stronger than he—and among men, for instance rulers, men rich in powers, and even the devil himself. Therefore God alone rescues from these. But if, as I said, one is rescued from practical matters, even the rare man can do this; for to rescue from lesser things is no great matter. Those who raged against Susanna seemed to be stronger than she; for they were rulers and judges, while she was a woman kept in a bridal chamber and a private person. And God rescued her from those stronger. And this too must be known: everyone who is weaker than someone is, in that respect, poor—the one unable to help himself, the one not able to assist himself and to place himself outside the circumstance that surrounds him—both poor and needy, from those who plunder him. And it happens especially in the same subject that he is both poor and needy: if he is outside of wealth, he is poor; but if he supports himself by toil, he is needy; for "the rich have become poor." If, then, you refer these things upward, you take the man from the Jews who believed as the poor man, and as needy the one who has no hope but is even godless. Unjust witnesses rose up and questioned me about things they did not know. The unjust witnesses question him about things which the one they wish to testify against does not know. But here, "things they did not know," things "I had not experienced." The word "not knowing" sometimes signifies ignorance: "but then, not knowing God," it makes clear ignorance. But it also signifies not having experienced, as when I say:

The one who did not know sin,” the one who did not experience sin. In one sense, then, he knows it: he understands its nature. But he does not know it, since he did not engage with it. In this way, at any rate, it is said also of married men and simply of women: “he did not know her,” “he knew her.” Here it signifies experience. “And Adam knew Eve his wife.” That was said when he had come together with her; for he added, “and she conceived and bore.” Unjust, then, are the witnesses who say against someone things that are not present in him. Of this sort is also the saying: “When the wicked man turned away from me, I did not know.” They repaid me evil for good, and childlessness to my soul. They ought to have known that I was not persuaded to their good nor knew what they ask; for they were going to be punished, and for this reason—

so far as it depended on me, they will not be punished. Thus we have also interpreted the Gospel saying: “Be well-disposed toward your adversary as long as you are with him on the way.” And since the definition of good will is this—good will is the wish of good things for one’s neighbor for his sake—for often I wish good things to be provided to him so that I may have something from him. They wish, then, to punish me, who have done them no wrong, but have even provided them an occasion of salvation. Of this sort, then, is also what is said by Jacob to Laban: “Recognize if there is anything of yours with me, and take it.” I want nothing of yours; I am well-disposed toward you; I give back to you what is yours. In return for the good things I did for them—and I did good things for them—that they not be brought into punishment on my account, since I did not yield to them. Susanna too would not have said concerning the elders that—

They wanted to drag me down into adultery; I did not obey them; I did them a good turn; as far as it depended on me, they did not fall into sin to make me childless. The phrase “they repaid me” applies in common: just as they repaid me evil for good, so they also repaid my soul with childlessness. What are the offspring of the soul? Right reasonings, the best actions. “From your fear we conceived in the womb and were in travail and gave birth.” But I, when they were harassing me, clothed myself in sackcloth. Observe: he named their wicked deeds and the cause of their wanting to make him childless as harassment, like the one who spoke of sophistical harassments. They harass me rather than harm me. Nevertheless I clothed myself in sackcloth, both so that I might not be caught and captured by them, and on their account, so that they might cease from their audacity against me; I clothed myself in a kind of austere life, I bore a sign of repentance, partly so that I might not be harmed by the harassment, and partly so that those men might not be worn down further. And it is far more to the good if they also cease. And I humbled my soul with fasting. Not only did I clothe myself in sackcloth, that is, in austerity of life, but I also “humbled my soul with fasting,” both in the literal sense and in the archetypal sense, no longer feeding on any of those painful things. And the historical account often becomes a help: for we have seen many things set right by fasting—that the city of the Ninevites did not fall into destruction, that the nation of the Jews was saved from Haman. And my prayer shall return into my bosom. By the name “bosom” in many scriptures the ruling faculty and the mind are signified, as when it says:

Into the bosom shall all things return to the unjust." This is equivalent to: "I gave their ways upon their heads"; for again the heads signify the ruling faculty: "his labor shall return upon his head." The saint prays that good things be granted to him. And prayer is nothing other than a request for good things from God. When someone obtains the good things for which he prayed, his prayer has returned into his bosom. It was not spoken and left outside, nor was its voice sent up and scattered into the air, but it brought what he asked for. And this is what it means that his prayer was not sent up in vain, but had brought into the heart of the one who prayed what he asked for: "who fills your desire with good things." He who desires them is filled with them. "This is the contempt in the land of Egypt in their bosom." And: "the wife who is in your bosom," whom you love, she who is of one mind with you, she who is in concord with you. "And my prayer shall return into my bosom." He who asks good things from God prays. When he obtains what he asks for, his prayer has returned into his bosom, into his ruling faculty. And I have adduced from more passages that the ruling faculty is often signified by the name of the bosom: "this is their contempt in the land of Egypt into their bosom." And again: "into the bosom all things come upon the unjust." The bosom signifies intimacy. Thus indeed also they were resting in the bosoms of Abraham, having the same courage and endurance as he, and the phrase "the wife who is in your bosom," your own, your

Dwelling together with you. As a neighbor, as our brother, so I was well-pleasing. This means: no one has a pretext for being angry with me, no one takes from me an occasion for being hostile to me; for toward each one I was as a neighbor, as a brother, and so I was well-pleasing through mutual love, love of companions, love of brothers. As one mourning and gloomy of countenance, so I humbled myself. "So I humbled myself" on account of those whom I supposed to be neighbors and brothers; they gathered against me, they warred against me, as at the beginning of the psalm: "Judge, O Lord, those who wrong me; war against those who war against me." Next he says: "They spoke peaceful things to me, but in anger they devised deceits." Therefore as mourning them and as gloomy of countenance on their account, so I humbled myself; for if they had provided me with things that gladden, I would have been exalted, I would have rejoiced, I would have been elated from cheerfulness. But why "so I humbled myself"? If a man has a son who is loved and longed for and sees him feverish, he is humbled, since he sees him afflicted otherwise than he wished him to live. Since, then, I provided occasions of virtue as one who held them as neighbors and brothers, but they showed themselves enemies and adversaries, I humbled myself on their account, when I ought to have rejoiced on their account. What do you think of Paul concerning Hymenaeus and Alexander—was he not humbled seeing them shipwrecked concerning the faith? Was he not previously so disposed toward them, did he not love them, did he not give occasions for blessedness? But if the words are spoken in the person of the Savior, he can say these things concerning Judas and concerning the whole people of the Hebrews. And they rejoiced against me and gathered together.

Do you want to know that being downcast over sinners is humility? Paul writes to the Corinthians, rousing them to repentance, and says: "Lest, when I come, I find you and my God humbles me." The saint is exalted when he sees those benefited by him becoming better. And a father rejoicing and gladdened over his children is exalted. If I had preserved the love that I preserved toward them, toward me, I would not have been humbled, but I would even have been exalted, having those like me, having those who shared with me. "And they rejoiced against me and gathered together." But I was so disposed toward them from my inmost affections, most simple; but they, on the contrary, gathered against me rejoiced, or having rejoiced against me, gathered together, so that they might bring upon me something more evil and grievous. "Whips gathered against me, and I did not know." The zeal of those who rejoice at evil. I said in the preceding readings from one of the psalms that the same afflictions are whips for some, but contests for others, when that text was set forth: "Many are the whips of the sinner." Whips here can also be called evil powers. "They gathered together, and I did not know"; and this saying is of the same kind as: "When the evil one turned away from me, I did not know." The evil one was drawing near; I did not give him a place, having been persuaded by the apostolic judgment that says: "Do not give a place to the devil." I have not experienced him. One of the ancient philosophers is said to have been whipped so that he might denounce his own city, so that he might accuse his fellow citizens. Fearing lest even unwillingly he blurt out something, he bit his own tongue and cut it off and threw it at the one forcing him. That man could not say "I did not know.

For he knew, so to speak, that he had not obtained safety from elsewhere. But the saint did not. Isaiah was sawn with a wooden saw. And observe the malice of Manasseh the apostate, who practiced idolatry. And when the idol that he himself had set up fell, while Isaiah looked at it and at certain other things, he appointed accusers and brought two charges against him. One was this: that whereas Moses says, "No one has seen my face and lived," this man says, "He saw the Lord Sabaoth seated on a throne." But if they had understood accurately, they would have recognized his slander. He did not say at all that he saw his face. He saw it covered, so that with respect to the wording we may show them to be slanderers. This charge, then, they brought against him, and a second: that the rulers of the discerning race, of the holy priesthood, of the royal people, he called "rulers of Sodom," and the people whom God loved, whom God honored, he called "people of Gomorrah." For these two charges they slandered him, although they had known beforehand that they were not called so by him, but when the idol fell, so that they might not appear to be avenging the god that did not appear, they attached a charge to him. Isaiah would also say: "Whips were gathered against me, and I did not know." And consider the malice of Manasseh: so that he might remain being tortured for a long time, he sawed him with a wooden saw, so that the flesh, scraped by those teeth, might produce greater and longer-lasting pain. For what? Because they bring punishments upon him as upon a criminal, and in this respect are they whips?

But I did not know those scourges; for I struggled and was crowned through them. But then I was being tested by them, to see whether I was such as those men seemed to be punishing. By way of hypothesis; and yet the men who contrived the slander against Susanna scourged her, so to speak, gently; for she had fallen into such fear as to say, "I am hemmed in on every side." If they were bringing their wicked devices against her as against an adulteress, they were scourges. But she did not know them; for she was not licentious. Let virtue, then, be to the saints as fish-glue. Let fire be applied, such as the burnings of shameful passion. She did not know that the present thing is a burning, that is, she was not tested, but the fish-glue, being bodily, is consumed by the fire, and then the fire lays hold of that which was anointed and not harmed before. But for one whose virtue is a fireproof substance, the so-called fish-glue always remains, and the fire never prevails against the one who possesses virtue. Again: "He set the Most High as his refuge, and no scourge shall come near his dwelling"? We have found many who were scourged and died while being scourged. If, then, we say that the one scourged with perceptible scourges does not feel their pains, this is no contest. This is not great, and anyone could endure it. But they did not know, and this when the scourges were forcing them to be tested by them and to do something against their will. Behold, the examples of Susanna have become clear; let that of Joseph also be taken; they were brought as scourges against a licentious person, and neither of the two knew anything.

Naboth was plotted against and scourged as one who blessed God, as the devil said, instead of blaspheming, and he did not know it; for he did not renounce piety. Moreover—is it not said in a loose sense, "From the scourges of the tongue he will hide you"? What is the scourge of the tongue? Do not take it in a sensory way. It is a false word, slander. In this way also the evil powers, since they fasten more upon the scourges of the ruling faculty that has kept itself unguarded against them, are called scourges. And that these scourges are of such a kind, they were gathered together. But being gathered together is against something rational. They were torn apart and not pricked to compunction. Agreement in evils is a great evil, it is harmful. So once those who came from the east and those who came to the plain of Sennaar agreed together, where also Nebuchadnezzar set up his image. And observe that this is evil. And it is interpreted as a gnashing of teeth. Often teeth are taken for words; at any rate, "he has broken the teeth of sinners," and surely we do not say these sensory molars—for that was never recorded. And, "the Lord has crushed the molars of the lions." He does not say these things about the sensory molars of four-footed and wild beasts, but of such men. Agreement in evils, then, is most evil. But the scattering and division of these is something good. If those men perceive that through their own wickedness they have gone out

Those of one mind, and spared by God, were scattered—for instance, the Sadducees and Pharisees once agreed together against Paul, when they also brought him into the camp, and the tribune gave him over to them so that, ostensibly, they might determine something about him. But they were eager, having seized him, to kill him. They had requested that he be brought and stand on the steps. "Knowing that one part was Sadducees and the other Pharisees," he said something that dissolved and split their agreement; for he said, "I am judged today concerning the resurrection of the dead," and they were divided, so that some said, "He says nothing wrong," while the others pressed the charge. If they had been pricked to the heart by this division, they would no longer have plotted against Paul. They were not pricked to the heart, then; they did not know the cause of the division. And David too prays somewhere and says, "And divide their tongues"; for then their tongues are divided, when they begin to say things that conflict. This at any rate happened also to the elders against Susanna: their tongues were divided, for the first said one thing and the second another. If they had been pricked to the heart, they would have ceased from the accusation and would not have endured what they did endure. They were "divided," then, "and were not pricked to the heart." He who divided them did this so that they might be pricked to the heart and repent. But they did not know the cause of their division and separation. What of the phrase "they were not pricked to the heart"?—they did not repent. To be pricked to the heart is to set aside one's former thought and first disposition. At any rate, when Ahab came to a sense of his past deeds, God says to Elijah:

Did you see how Achaam was pricked to the heart? For he returned weeping. And he called this change of his a pricking of the heart. But the saint, if he says, "that my glory may sing to you and I shall not be pricked to the heart," "I shall not repent." But in the case of others, it happens that they are pricked to the heart over things not done rightly. They tested me, they mocked me with mockery. It was fitting that they, being pricked to the heart, should cast off their anger against me, but they even set upon me, they attacked me, they tested me, they mocked me. Yet even if they tested me, they did not find me such as they wished; I did not enter into temptation, I was not caught in the snares of their temptation—for this is also the meaning of "do not lead us into temptation." "They mocked me," that is, they treated me with contempt. And again, I stood courageously and showed their mockery to be nothing. They gnashed their teeth at me. One gnashes his teeth sometimes against another, sometimes against himself, when he repents after falling into distresses because of what he has done: "there will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth." For since they know that they are punished for their own impieties and sins, coming to repentance they weep and gnash their teeth. But another gnashes—therefore "he gnashed his teeth at me" is said of the devil, and of the wicked here: "they gnashed their teeth at me." Having failed in what they eagerly pursued, they gnashed their teeth, as having done evil in vain or having fallen into the experience of those things which they wished to do, suffering what they wished to inflict on another. Therefore must one take the teeth to mean the words?

–If it signifies repentance and anger on the part of those who did not accomplish what they purposed to do, we take this, that "they gnashed their teeth," so that the gnashing of teeth signifies their repentance, either repentance or pain that came upon them because they failed. But if you wish to take the teeth in another way, not from this saying; because it is often possible to grasp a true insight, yet not from this saying. And because it is true, those who are unable to make their thoughts level with the words accept it. The teeth are often said to be the soul's powers of chewing. And with these powers of chewing that refine foods, if one uses them rightly, one eats the "bread of life," the fruit of the "tree of life," the flesh of Jesus. But if one uses them badly, one eats the flesh of the dragon. And the flesh of the dragon is godless doctrines, great sins; for just as the body of Jesus is completed from the doctrines, as he says: "puffed up without cause," earnestly "by the mind of the flesh and not holding fast the head, from whom the whole body, joined together, increases with the increase of God." This is what he means: the one who has a fleshly mind, that is, the one who approaches in a fleshly and sensory way, has his mind puffed up without cause, being flesh, and does not hold fast the head of the doctrines, does not hold fast the Savior himself, who is the head of the doctrines. And the great things of the theology are the head of such a body, "from whom the body, joined together through every joint and ligament, increases with the increase of God.

Thus then we too, when many words and many chapters have their reference into one, say that the word has been embodied. If we take it that the chewing powers of the soul are meant, we say something true, but not to the point at hand. But if you also take this, that some use these chewing powers treacherously, according to the text "But if you bite and devour one another," and "those who devour Israel with the whole mouth," these too bring punishment, and it can also be understood in this way: "They gnashed their teeth at me"—they gnashed these teeth, and for this reason they will undergo their crushing; for "you crushed the teeth of sinners." Lord, when will you look upon them? When will you visit, so as to restrain them and to place me outside of harms? For we have often said that "you will look upon" and "you will see" signify the long-suffering of passing over in silence. "Lord, when will you look upon them?" For if you look upon them, you will both benefit me by looking upon me and having mercy on me, and you will place them outside their zeal for evil, so that neither am I harmed by them nor are they still involved in the bestial wickedness which they still practice. Restore my soul from their villainy. He spoke of many enemies pressing upon him and treating him in many ways with malice. And from the beginning of the psalm this is set forth: "Judge, Lord, those who wrong me, fight against those who fight against me," and what follows: "and until you saw, Lord"? "They gnashed their teeth at me." "Whips were gathered against me, and I did not know." He says, then: place my soul outside of them.

For it was outside them; for this is the meaning of the name of restoration. No one who enters a place where he has never been is said to be restored, but one who has come from some homeland to another homeland, or from one place to another place. He says, then: my soul, being holy, they wished to ensnare, to subject it to corruption. But then it is restored from the wickedness of the evil, when it suffers nothing at their hands, when it is not made like them. Susanna was brought up in chastity and was exceedingly chaste, having been educated according to the law of Moses. As far as concerned the elders who set upon her, she was caught in adultery. She too pleaded, saying: restore my soul, lead it to the same chastity, away from their wickedness. Anyone who is plotted against will say these things. And the soul of the martyrs too was restored, having been tried in nothing. And that "to be restored" means this, he says in one of the psalms: you are the one who restores my inheritance to me. According to this meaning we say that man was restored to paradise, because an entrance there was made for him, when the one who repented heard: today you will be with me in paradise. Restore, then, my soul. To such a degree have they wrought wickedness as to have become like wild beasts against me. From lions, my only-begotten. Restore from lions my only-begotten. He calls his own soul only-begotten. He had it as only-begotten, he had it alone. It is not possible for more

to be tempted in their souls. Since, then, it is my only-begotten. And in another way: "God made man upright"; "in his own image and likeness" he created her. When she remains in this state in which she was created, she does not come to be outside herself, she does not come to be outside herself. Since, then, it is the person of the Savior who says this, the soul that Jesus had has belonged to no other. But our souls come to belong to those who master them; for by whatever one is defeated, by that he is also enslaved. And it is possible to fall away from the true Lord to other masters, and from one set to another, whenever sins of a conflicting kind occur; for the one who has repented is restored from the wickedness of those things that surrounded her unto evil. Since, then, the soul of Jesus "has been tempted in all things in like manner, apart from sin," it has never belonged to any other than the one who took it up. For this reason he calls it his own only-begotten. And one must also say it thus: "my only-begotten"; all souls come to belong to the Savior: "receiving the end of faith, the salvation of souls. Concerning salvation, then, there is a seeking and searching out of the prophet." Those, then, who "receive salvation as the end of faith" belong to the Savior. At any rate they are his members; all of them together are his body. But this one alone is his in another way besides those; for he chose to have this one as an instrument and a temple, so that through it he might dispense his energies, through it salvation. Thus, then, even when it was in Hades it was not mastered there; for it was his only-begotten. And often "only-begotten" signifies "the only one." Aetius, then, the Arian, the father of Eunomius, who cast him into the pit, was saying:

How great," he says, "are those who show favor to Christ, because he is the only-begotten of God." He says: "And there are other only-begottens: the world is only-begotten, the sun, the earth." I say to him: "It is not the same thing to be called only-begotten and to be an only-begotten offspring and an only-begotten child. Therefore Jesus alone is called the only-begotten Son; for it is written: 'We beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father.' But the only-begotten child from the Father is an only-begotten child. And always so: 'For God so loved his world as to give his only-begotten Son.' He never called him simply only-begotten, but only-begotten Son. And again: 'because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.' If, then, there is any creature that is only-begotten, as you say—but neither is there an only-begotten work (for there are also other works of God)—nor an only-begotten creature. When, then, the saint says: 'Look upon me and have mercy on me, for I am only-begotten and poor,' he says this: 'I am alone.' And Elijah, saying: 'And I alone am left, and they seek to take my life from me,' might be called only-begotten, but not a son or a child. And here, then, he says: 'Deliver my only-begotten one from the lions,' from the savage-hearted, from those who have been enraged against me. Rescue and redeem my soul, which is only-begotten to me; for this alone has not known sin, this alone 'has been tempted in all things apart from sin.' But how was it restored?—It did not come to be in sins, but as far as the savagery of those who assailed it was concerned, it was on guard lest it suffer this. Now we speak in the person of the holy man. And the examples are clear: both that of Susanna and that of Joseph.

And the devil himself has devices, sophistical thoughts, which only he and every earnest man can know. Paul, at any rate, says: "We are not ignorant of his thoughts." His thoughts are his methods, his very cunning schemes, the sophistical thoughts through which he wishes to outmaneuver us. "Restore" us, then; for the very fact of being frightened was a pre-passion. But he wishes also to be outside of pre-passion; for he did not say "from my wickedness." — Question: to the state of fearlessness? — He did not say this now as one intimidating: "Restore me to the state of fearlessness," to the state of no longer having even a pre-passion. I have the perception that I am troubled. "Restore" then "my soul." "Why are you deeply grieved, my soul, and why do you trouble me? Hope in God, for I will confess to him." For he did not say it to another; he conversed with his own mind: "Why are you deeply grieved and why do you trouble me?" You have near you the one who stops the trouble. It is as if someone were to say to a feverish and relaxed man: "Why do you lament thus? A physician is present who is able to free you from the fever." "Hope" then "in God, for I will confess to him." When she persuaded herself to hope in God, she was restored from the fear and the trouble, which fear and trouble came from the wickedness of evil powers and of the devil himself. "From lions my only-begotten." He named these very wicked men and lions, those who wish to war, those who attack and come upon him like scourges. — Question: — Since "he has been tempted in all things without sin, according to likeness," we grant her pre-passion. But pre-passion is not sin.

For if you do not grant this, you introduce another substance of the soul, and it has neither glory nor is it worthy of praises and crowns if it has not been shaken. You have, at any rate, in the Gospel: "He began to be amazed and distressed"; for the beginning of propatheia is nothing other than this "he began." This beginning is this very thing, a beginning only; it has nothing after it. This alone, before the choice of evils, chose the good. Objection: this was often said. The substance of the rational [soul] is receptive of the things it is naturally disposed to receive. It is receptive of anger, desire, grief, disturbance, fear. Whenever something that moves fear is present, the rational substance is altogether disturbed. But sometimes it immediately halts the disturbance so that nothing comes after it. This they call propatheia. Objection: do you say that man and the qualified man are the same? —If I say that a man has died, I do not mean the qualified man, for instance the just man. The death of the just man is not altogether the dissolution of the soul from the body, but the ceasing to be just. This is the corruption of the just man. Often, being ignorant of the false opinions of the impious, we fall into them. And having fallen into them, we destroy the right opinion. Objection: how do you say that I have not understood? I do not grant him to be just. —But if another understands as has been said and grants him to be just, the same man is both just and unjust. Hear now why I said that [they fall] into another opinion, those of Protagoras—and Protagoras was a sophist—he says that the being of existing things is in appearing. He says: "I appear to you who are present to be seated; but to one who is absent I do not appear to be seated; it is unclear whether I am seated or not seated." And they say that all existing things are in appearing.

For example, I see the moon, but another does not see it; it is unclear whether it exists or does not exist. To me, being healthy, there is a perception of honey that it is sweet, but to another that it is bitter, if he is feverish; it is unclear, then, whether it is bitter or sweet. And in this way they wish to establish the doctrine of incomprehensibility. If, then, we too say: "Since it does not appear to me, by what reasoning he has spoken, I consider him unjust and impious"—if it appears to another, by what reasoning he has spoken, he appears to that person just and pious. And another again does not even attend to the things said by him; he is neither pious nor impious, and we fall into the opinion of Protagoras. Let us see, then: one must first understand the matters and so either be judged or not be judged. He who has said that he does not speak correctly nor is sound—what meaning of the words does he state? Yet how, then, does Job say: "Let the day perish in which I was born"—let the birth perish; for I have come from better things to worse; for it is beneficial to someone that the evil perish. As when Jeremiah says concerning the people of the Hebrews—and each of the Hebrews who were taken captive will say—: "Let the day of captivity perish," he does not say this: "Let there be no more captivity"; "let there be no more," he says, "that day, let it depart"; for it still subsists. He was a hundred and forty-eight years old when he was saying these things. How did that day, in which he was born, remain? For it passes by and it is not possible to recover it. And he says:

Let it not be desired”; for someone prays that that day which came to be in so many years might return again. He curses, then, the generation of the flesh, the generation of the life that is perishable. Objection: Does he not, then, sin? — He does not sin who insults Satan. Does not the impious man, “when he curses” the impious man, “Satan, curse his own soul”? He curses Satan not because he is a work of God, but because he is evil and impious. And he himself is also impious. He curses himself, then, and this curse is not blameworthy. If someone curses him because he is impious, he hates the cause of his being conceived as Satanic. And impiety is the cause. And perhaps he will cease, or if he does not cease, he will be punished. If the captives now curse the day of their captivity, they do not say this so that they may no longer be subject to captivity—lest perhaps they hold their captivity as some cause—and they curse it. Objection: Does he himself, then, curse “that day”? And why did he also add “that”? For does one day differ from another? Then he says: “Let him who is about to subdue the great sea-monster curse it.” Why did he not say, “He who made the sun, he who fashioned the world,” but “he who is about to subdue the great sea-monster”? For the Savior, having come and “subdued the great sea-monster,” brought the generation of human beings to an end, so as to give them another generation, the one “from water and Spirit,” which is properly called regeneration. And regeneration is a generation upon a generation, as “palinodia” is a song upon a song. And he called the resurrection of the dead regeneration; for he says to the disciples that:

You will also sit on twelve thrones in the regeneration," meaning in the resurrection, in the age to come. If I say, "May I not see this day," while I am in affliction or illness, I do not mean, "May I not see time," since it has passed; for time does not turn back. Objection: Has he called that cause of his birth sin? — I do not say this again, but that one who curses a day or blesses a day does not bless or curse with reference to time, but with reference to the things that have come to be in time. I say: does he not say, "It is better to depart and be with Christ"? He does not say that to be released from this life is better. Objection: Will he say that being entangled with it is better or worse? — Neither worse nor better. Objection: But indifferent? — If this is indifferent, then its opposite is also indifferent. Objection: Not as an evil, but in relation to something better? — Opposites cannot coexist. If one of these were good, the other is evil, and when the other is evil, the one must be considered good, as is the case with virtue and vice, with injustice and justice, with piety and impiety. When the one is base, the remaining one is also good. But when neither of the opposites is base, neither is the remaining one. White and black are opposites; and since white is indifferent, being neither good nor evil, so too is black, in comparison with white. Objection: Do you not say that to be outside the body is good, according to the one who says, "It is better to depart"? — Consider from the end: the one who departs comes to be in Christ. Objection: Is this comparative? — Pay attention to what you are saying.

Things said by way of comparison are spoken as belonging to the same kind, not as opposites; as when I say, "Sodom has been justified by you," not that Sodom has been justified—"by your own sins, O Jerusalem," because she killed the prophets and became a betrayer of the Savior. That Sodom laid waste one man, Lot. "She was justified by you." Not simply justified—for she has not been justified—but "by you." And if he says again, "He loved wickedness more than goodness, and deceitful lips more than speaking righteousness," these things are said comparatively, not as opposites; for this is said in the sense that, when one thing is rejected, the other is immediately set in place. So then, "to depart and be with Christ"—if you say that "to remain in the flesh" is a matter of indifference, then this too is a matter of indifference; for it has been shown to us that

things compared and set side by side are like this: if one of the two is base, the remaining one is not excellent; if "to be with Christ after departing" is excellent, then to withdraw from the world, to be outside the flesh—while to be in the flesh, even if it is inferior, as you would reckon it, is good. He wishes the inferior to be destroyed, so that he may gain mastery of the greater. And by destruction I mean the hindrance, its cessation. Just now John wished to remain such as he was on the day of his departure. Does he not say?—No, then, desiring something better, he knows that this is neither better nor good. He does not pray that such a condition pass away from him. But to pass away is to be destroyed, to no longer subsist. He is disturbed by the name of destruction and of disturbance. But one ought not to be disturbed. Paul, then, was not disturbed at such things;

in part," he says, "we know and in part we prophesy; when the perfect comes, that which is in part will be abolished." But to be abolished provides a worse sense than to be destroyed. Thus we have often said that what is in part is abolished, not once for all, but the being in part, and we took such an image concerning the pledge. Moreover: how do we give, as righteous or as sinful? —So you do not wish to learn this alone; for many things are connected with it. If you remembered what you heard, you would not always be disturbed about these things. I said: let there be a king ruling the world, concerning whom all are fully assured that he is righteous and that whatever he does, he does as a righteous man. "Bless the Lord, O my soul." If I keep it thus working toward the things for which it was placed by the Creator, it is only-begotten. But if at one time it works one way and at another another way, and I am enslaved to certain things, this is not the only-begotten of the one who possesses it, but sometimes it is his, and sometimes it comes to be outside him. And that I may take an example from the Gospel: the younger son who departed from his father's house had come to be outside himself; his soul was no longer his own. At any rate, when he repented, it says, "having come to himself." He had now become his own; his soul had now become his own. This is similar to "know yourself." The one who knows himself is within himself. I will give thanks to you in a great assembly; in a heavy people I will praise you. Then it is called a great and numerous assembly, when it has been filled up from the individual great ones; for if it is from small and common men, this is not called a great and numerous assembly. "He speaks wisdom among the perfect," says the apostle.

These, coming together into the same thing and "being perfected by the same mind and the same judgment," are a great and large church. And just as I call a church wise when those who individually fill it up are wise, and I call a city stable and knowledgeable when the individual citizens are stable and knowledgeable, so I call a great and large church when those who fill it up possess greatness—greatness of soul, of mind, not of body. Again, he calls the honored people "a heavy people"; for they are accustomed to call honored and most precious things "heavy." Scripture also bears witness to this; for when the queen of Sheba came to Solomon, it says that she came "with a heavy force." And he calls that very possession which she had brought a "heavy force." She had brought many precious stones, many spices, gold, silver, and other things that fill up wealth. And that force of wealth was called "heavy" in place of "precious," "very valuable." He says, then, that when each of those who fill up the people—as I said in the case of the church—is most precious, is honored—for "glory and honor and peace to everyone who works what is good"—if the one who works what is good has glory and honor, the people is honored. At any rate, it has been said of it that it was "a royal priesthood, a holy nation." The "holy nation" is filled up from the individual saints; the "royal priesthood" is composed of many servants of God. "In a heavy people," then, "I will praise you." He prepares even himself, so that he too may be able

to send up a hymn. And it is then able to do this, when it becomes upright in soul and mind; for "praise is fitting for the upright." Let not those who hate me unjustly rejoice over me. Great is the boldness of speech of the one who says these things. They hate me unjustly. Since I provide no pretext nor cause for them to press upon me in a hostile manner, they do this. Since, then, being enemies they rejoice whenever I fall into evils, may I not fall into evils, so that they may rejoice over me, so that they may set themselves against me; for the one who wishes to lead someone into licentiousness rejoices over him then, being wicked he rejoices, when he falls into the things which he was eager to bring upon him. Let this not, then, happen to me, so that those who hate me unjustly may rejoice. Those who hate me without cause and wink with their eyes. "Unjustly" and "without cause" are the same thing, that is, "without a reason," "and winking" against me "with their eyes"; they do not only speak against me with words, but they also wink with their eyes. And since often, when the heterodox, on behalf of those who afflict us, to whom they wink with their eyes, agree with their own minds for evil, they are of one mind for impiety, because they spoke peaceful things to me and devised deceits for anger. This is one form of impiety: speaking peaceful things they did not do peaceful things. And this is to do injustice. He speaks peaceful things among friends, among companions as one who loves fellowship, but he devises deceits for anger. Everyone who has deceit against his neighbor, being angry with him, does this. And I say: anger is a desire for vengeance.

But certainly one who approaches with any kind of deceit wishes to harm that person, so that the deceitful person is also prone to anger. But in appearance he is often not prone to anger, seeming to speak peaceful words. This at any rate is also said in Jeremiah concerning someone: "He speaks peaceably to his neighbor, and in himself he has enmity." "I," then, he says, "was speaking peaceable things." Not simply "peaceable things" did I speak, but "to me"—wishing to deceive me, they spoke peaceable things; for the truly peaceable man does not speak peaceable things to someone while having another thought against him. For instance, the Savior says elsewhere that "the peacemakers are blessed, because they are sons of God." It belongs to sons of God to be peaceable. And he called peacemakers those who make peace. When they lead those who are at variance in purpose to concord and friendship, they are peacemakers. And they are peacemakers also in their own case. But first, having made peace within themselves, so as to have no thoughts fighting against themselves, nor deeds, then they made peace within themselves. And this peace they also transfer to others; for such as they are themselves, they wish those who are taught to be as well. They teach the soul to be at peace with the body and the body with the soul; for when the soul "buffets the body and brings it into subjection," and the soul rules and the body is ruled, there is peace of body and soul. Just as, then, they established peace within themselves, so also they do this among others who are loved and who love, or even who are at war. For this reason it is also said in the Didache, the book of catechesis: "You shall make peace between those who are at war.

But the one who brings others who are fighting into peace and reconciliation has first made peace himself; he has no conflict within himself, he has no warring thoughts. And they opened wide their mouth against me. They opened wide their own speech against me, speaking peaceful things. But their mind was narrowed by deceit, drawn together into the same thing not in a praiseworthy way, but so as not to possess its own virtues. This too is possible: "They opened wide against me," as speaking peaceful things and devising deceits in anger, they seemed to deceive me. Then at last they began to gape broadly and to open wide their speech against me. You have such symbols in the histories: Delilah, the harlot introduced in the book of Judges, plotted by deceit to bring in Samson, so that she might hand him over to the foreigners who wished to kill him. And she said, "By what means will your strength be weakened, or by what means will you become weak as one of the

men?" He did not speak the truth to her. Then she, thinking that he had spoken truthfully, bound him and did the other things, and as if mocking him said, "The foreigners are upon you, Samson." See, she opened wide her mouth against him. Formerly she kept pleading, she was prattling. But when she seemed to have caught him within her nets, mocking him she said, "The foreigners are upon you, Samson." And observe that she who formerly spoke peaceful things and devised deceits in anger, when she seemed to have gained the mastery, opened wide her mouth, now speaking great boasts. They said, "Well done, well done; our eyes have seen." Those who think they have gotten under their control the one they wished are accustomed to speak thus: "Well done, well done, what we wished, our eyes have seen.

We no longer see you as such as you supposed yourself to be, but as we wished. We have found you easy to catch. You saw, Lord, do not keep silent. "Do not keep silent" means "no longer be long-suffering"; for we have shown this from many expressions: "I have been silent from eternity, will I also be silent forever?" I was long-suffering, I did not proceed against the evils being done—will this also be forever? Again the goodness of the one who threatens the one already to be punished is made known, so that through the threat he may rouse him and lead him to repentance. And in another psalm he says: "But to the sinner God said: Why do you recount my statutes and take up my words with your lips? But you hated discipline." Then at the end: "You did these things, and I was silent"—I did not proceed against them—"you supposed iniquity, that I would be like you"; but long-suffering does not remain forever; for "I will convict you and set your sins before your face." And so the threats of God come about according to great goodness. With the name of the righteous is also introduced that of judge. Lord, do not depart from me. May such things not be done to me as that you should depart from me—you, the helper, the protector. But God departs from the wicked, just as he draws near to those who come near. The great apostle James therefore writes: "Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you." As if you should say also to a wicked man: Draw near to virtue, and it draws near to you. We receive God's presence, then, not by place, but by relation and disposition. Awake, Lord, and attend to my judgment. The voice is that of one who has taken courage. No one accused of adultery or murder or anything else says to God: "Awake and attend to my judgment.

You know, then, that the attention of the judgment will condemn him. It belongs, therefore, to one who speaks with boldness on the ground of purity and of being blameless, the voice "Give heed to my judgment": examine what concerns me and what concerns them, and that before you they speak against me in vain, that they hate me without cause. Often "awake" signifies an awakening. Often, at any rate, we say, "Awaken this man to attend to himself," and surely it does not signify a bodily posture. But if you wish it also as from sleep, it has been said: "Awake; why do you sleep, Lord?" God sleeps when he does not wish to proceed against them at once. He does not say this out of weariness, but wishing to learn the reason, since your wisdom does nothing at random. Even if you are long-suffering, even if you defer the punishment, even if you do not cast down those who unjustly attack me, tell me the reason; for in this way one who has learned the reason, being wise, will be long-suffering still more, will endure still more. My God and my Lord, for my judgment. You are both my God and my Lord; awake for my judgment, judge me. He does not pray that his enemies suffer evils; for the prayer of the saint who loves his enemies is that they no longer be enemies, that they no longer be such as they are. But it seems in some way to signify punishment. And punishment is, for the pleasure-lover, to be outside pleasures; for the licentious man, to be far from licentiousness. He wishes them to perish insofar as they are such. And this is not for everyone to say: "God," then, "and my Lord"; for that man truly calls the Savior Lord who does what he says to him; for he says: "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?" And again:

They profess to know God, but by their works they deny him." The saints say "God" of God not with a bare voice, but having been made his own and being his servants, just as priests are his attendants. But they also serve him by doing his will; for "not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven." He is called "God" in that he is the Maker; for "in the beginning God made the heaven and the earth." Thus he is also called "God of spirits and of all flesh," with respect to creation. But in another way he is called "God" of the saints, with respect to worship. Thus, at any rate, he has been called God of the patriarchs themselves. And with respect to creation, which meaning they were indicating, he was God of all, of all things that he has made. And again he is Lord of all, he who provided being to them and administers them under his own providence. But in another way he is Lord of those who do his will, of those who practice what he commanded, and as a master over slaves. Judge me, O Lord, according to your righteousness. According to your righteousness judge me. What is said again seems exceedingly arrogant and contrary in opinion to other expressions. But the difference is not in the meaning, but in the wording. "No one living," he says, "will be justified before you," in place of "no one living." And he calls "living" the one who is alive in soul, most rightly then; but not before you. But as toward you they are nothing. As if you were to say also concerning lamps, that they do not give light before the sun. But this does not show that they do not give light, but rather over against the sun. Thus also what is said in Job:

Even the stars are not clean before him." So this phrase "according to your righteousness" he does not say absolutely—not according to your unsurpassable righteousness, but according to your righteousness by which you judge human affairs. Do not judge me according to their enmity, but according to your righteousness; for your righteousness hates the unjust. Let them not say in their hearts, "Well done, well done, to our soul." Even if they do not say it with the tongue, let them not say it in their hearts to our soul; let them not say, "Well done, well done." Nor let them say, "We have swallowed him up." Let them not say that we have prevailed and conquered him; for this too has often been made clear, that in Scripture swallowing signifies victory. Let those be ashamed and confounded together who rejoice at my evils. He brings salvation to those who are ashamed and confounded at the evil things they do; for since they wish to surround me with evils and to rejoice, having seen what they eagerly pursue being accomplished, let them be ashamed; for once ashamed they will no longer press upon me, and once confounded they will no longer do these things that bring reproach and accusation. Question: Does he mean the evils that inflict harm, not the vices? —For altogether the one who says, "Judge me, O Lord, according to your righteousness," the one who says, "those who rejoice at me unjustly," did not have vices. Let those who speak great things against me clothe themselves in shame and confusion. Those who speak great things against me arrogantly and rejoice—let them be ashamed and confounded, let them condemn themselves. And this becomes for their good, and I no longer have them pressing upon me in that way. Primarily he prays on their behalf, and secondarily also concerning himself. Question: The "to clothe themselves"?

–As we say that someone has put on a virtue, someone has put on a vice, someone a "garment of salvation": "Let my soul rejoice in the Lord, for he has clothed me with a garment of salvation and a tunic of gladness." The quality, as it were, becomes a garment of the qualified person. Let those who will my righteousness rejoice and be glad. When those who speak great things are told, "They shall be clothed in shame and confusion," those who will my righteousness and my peace rejoice and are glad. When the enemies are put to shame and confounded, the friends rejoice and are glad. And these are those who will my salvation, my virtue, my righteousness. And let them say continually, "Let the Lord be magnified." Then they magnify the Lord continually, when I am continually in righteousness, when I do not remain subject to evils. Those who will the peace of his servant—of me, his servant. "Let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified," seeing me at peace, seeing me not fallen into turmoil or confusion or faction or strife. We said many times that sometimes the universal is shown through particular instances, and we used this testimony then, saying: "Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place? He who is innocent in hands." Then it says: "This one shall receive a blessing from the Lord." It does not name a specific person, but if anyone is such, if anyone has ascended the mountain and stood on the mountain of the Lord and is innocent in hands—everyone, if anyone is such, "shall receive a blessing from the Lord." Likewise in the eighteenth psalm it is said: "The law of the Lord is blameless, converting souls.

The testimony of the Lord is faithful." And having said many things, he says: "For indeed your servant keeps them." He does not speak of himself alone, but of anyone who is such a servant of God. Being self-deprecating, then, when he speaks of successes, he speaks of them as belonging to the servants of God, but when he speaks of transgressions, as belonging to himself. Some of those who draw near to God are called sons of God, and those who rank below these are the servants; for from servants they become friends and sons. The greater ones, then, are "those who will," those who are as it were sons, those who are "perfect as their Father in heaven is perfect"; they will the peace also of those who are inferior. Or it is thus, that all will the peace of each servant. And my tongue shall meditate on your righteousness, all the day long on your praise. It shall meditate in thanksgiving. When what I asked for has been granted, my tongue meditates on your righteousness. This I always declare, I bring it forth in hymns, I name it in narrative discourses. He here calls "day" the whole time of human life, as he also says elsewhere: "For your sake we are put to death all the day long," that is, throughout life. And he does not speak of the praise of God in the strict sense; for rather "hymn" and "praise" are said of God, but "commendation" of men. The praise of God that is rightly rendered, and his commendation, might be spoken of. But the praise of God can also be that which he himself gives; for he himself praises those worthy of it. He says: "And then commendation shall come to each one from God." To the end; to the servant of the Lord, David. The lawless man says within himself that he is to sin.

Concerning the end it has often been said that that is an end for the sake of which all other things come to be, but which itself is for the sake of nothing, which is called the final object of desire. We desire some things for the sake of another. None of those is an end, but they are productive of the end. An end is that which comes to be not for the sake of another, but for its own sake, and all other things for it. Someone wishes to learn grammar; he learns it thoroughly, he practices, he listens to a teacher, and none of these is an end. But the actual acquisition of perfect knowledge is the end. Therefore the final object of desire is perfect virtue, after which it is not possible to seek anything else that brings perfection. We use laws for the sake of virtue; the giving of laws is not an end. We obey exhortations, teachings of one who brings moral instruction; and all these things come to be for the sake of another. But perfect virtue itself, the unsurpassable, the one established after all progress, is the end. This end every servant of God pursues. For this reason: "to the servant of the Lord, to David." If he says "to the servant," this end is not of this David alone, the son of Jesse, but of every one who has served God. If, then, we praise someone for grammar and say that he is competent both to write as one ought and to read as is fitting and to explain how it has harmony, we do not speak about that one alone, but about every grammarian. Nevertheless let us behold his servitude, so that in this way we may also see the others, his fellow servants.

I have found," he says, "David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will." The wills of God are the virtues in their specific forms. But the generic virtue is called one will; for he says, "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter in, but the one who does the will of my Father." Here he has named the generic virtue in the singular as "will." And he does the virtues in their specific forms when he does all the wills of God—if anyone is a doer of God's wills, if anyone converts his commandments into works, if anyone casts off the things that ought to be cast off, if the truth of God has been demonstrated. This is a servant of God. And observe that the one saying these things was a king, and he preferred servitude to God over kingship; for it is great nobility to be a servant of God. Indeed, at once and often it has been said that the saints place themselves in their superscriptions thus: "James, servant of the Lord God Jesus Christ," and "Paul, servant of Christ," and Jonah, when asked, "From what country and from what people?" then says, "I am a servant of God." And just as those who are placed first by rank in their own documents [set forth] their worth and rank, so these saints confess servitude to God as the greatest nobility and surpassing renown and great rank. The servant of God, knowing the will of God, also knows the things opposed to the will of God. And opposed to the will of God are impiety, lawlessness, every form of evil. Having therefore known, as a servant of the Lord, the end—the virtue that is over all things—he has also known lawlessness; for the knowledge of contraries is the same.

The one who has the art of medicine knows not only the healthful remedies but also the harmful ones, so that he may use the former and turn away from the latter. So the servant of the Lord, who is referred to the end in the song, says: "The lawless one says in himself to sin." The expression is ambiguous. It means one thing thus: "The lawless one says in himself to sin." "In himself he says to sin." But first he consents to lawlessness and to sin, and so comes to the doing of it. It is impossible for one not previously disposed toward sin to sin. So "the lawless one says in himself to sin." "In himself he says." For it must be read thus, as "the lawless one says in himself to sin." But it is possible to take the other side of the ambiguity thus: "The lawless one says in himself to sin"; for he knows that he has no boldness in sinning. Everyone who sins, when he is aware of it, hides the evil; at any rate, no one makes himself known for what he is. Even if he is a fornicator and wishes to be commended to certain people, he does not want the one commending him to call him a fornicator. Therefore they are all the more condemned, because what they do they wish to hide. But no one who does what is good wishes to be unknown—even if he sometimes does this for the sake of freedom from vanity—but he strives to have such works illuminated before men, so that the Father in the heavens may be glorified; for "let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in the heavens." There is no fear of God before his eyes. No one who has the divine fear before his eyes sins.

For divine fear is destructive of sin. Sinning is characteristic of those who despise, who have gone outside of divine fear. Thus, indeed, the divine Scripture of Proverbs also introduces Wisdom saying: "The fear of the Lord hates injustice, both insolence and arrogance and the ways of the wicked." If the fear of God hates these things, no one who has it does injustice; for "the fear of the Lord hates injustice." He is not insolent, he is not abusive, he is not self-willed. Now the word "insolence" sometimes signifies abuse, and sometimes haughtiness and boastfulness. "And the fear of God hates the ways of the wicked." And "the ways of the wicked" are impious thoughts, lawless deeds. Since, then, he does not have the fear of God before his eyes, for this reason he says within himself

to sin. "But by the fear of the Lord everyone turns aside from evil." Because he dealt deceitfully before him, so as to find his lawlessness and hate it. He dealt deceitfully before himself. He hides evil by deceit, knowing that, if he does not conceal the lawlessness by deceit, once found it produces hatred in the one who finds and knows it. In order, therefore, that he not be hated because of the lawlessness, he hides it by deceit; for the one who finds it hates it. You know that they often also overshadow evil deeds with plausibilities, so that they escape notice. For example, the false prophets, being "ravenous wolves" in their disposition, put on a sheep's skin, so that they may be thought to be sheep. But from the fact that they wish to be known as sheep, it is evident that they hate the wolfish manner; but they hide it; for if it were found, it produces hatred. And no one is so foolish as to say

I love lawlessness and hate piety" — for he who clings to it and takes pleasure in practicing it does not wish to hate it — for if it is made manifest, it is shown that it also brings punishment. The words of his mouth are lawlessness and deceit. The words he utters are lawless and deceitful. But if he sins ethically, being intemperate, angry, doing injustice, his words have lawlessness. But if he holds false opinions, they have deceit; for he acts deceitfully, so that the impiety of his words may not appear and they may not be trampled down and someone turn away from them. Moreover — did he not say "transgression of the law"? — transgression of the law is also lawlessness, but lawlessness is not altogether transgression of the law. If it happens apart from the law, the one who practices it is outside it, and it is lawlessness. But if, having received the law, he transgresses the law, he acts contrary to the law, and it is transgression of the law. Transgression of the law, then, is also lawlessness, but lawlessness is not altogether transgression of the law. By his disposition is judged the one who acts contrary to the law and does things that fight against the law, as far as his actions are concerned. If, however, we look at the disposition of the one who acts, even the one who has received the law but does not act according to it transgresses the law. But if again he has had no experience of the law — I mean the written law — he is only lawless. "As many," he says, "as sinned in the law" — those who sin in the law are transgressors of the law. "They sin lawlessly" — those who have not had the law. Nevertheless the deed done is one and the same. From the choice and disposition of the one who acts I take the difference, so that sometimes it is called lawlessness, and sometimes transgression of the law. He did not wish to understand so as to do good.

So that no one might think that it is nature that separates a servant of God from a lawless man, and the earnest man from the base, he has referred both to free choice and says that it is by his own will that a man is either wicked or earnest: "he did not wish." But another wishes to understand so as to do good. The earnest man wishes this very thing, to do good. Again, the man who is not among these has, by his own will, come to be outside them. The word therefore establishes the self-determination and the autonomy and freedom of choice, since no one is lawless by constitution, no one is good by essence; for we human beings are all of the same essence. But it is by our own choice or avoidance that we are either base or earnest. He reckoned lawlessness upon his bed. This means that not only when he goes out and acts does he work lawless deeds, but even when he has been cast upon his bed he reckons lawlessness, when he ought to imitate that man who is called blessed, who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night: "But his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he will meditate day and night." He who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night does not reckon lawlessness upon his bed but the law. It was spoken by the hierophant Moses in the person of God: "And all these words, as many as I command you today, shall be in your heart and in your soul." Then: "walking in the way, lying down, rising up." If he speaks the words of God even when lying down, he does not reckon lawlessness upon his bed. It is possible also to call the body the bed of the

of the soul. Even if the soul is in the body, it already practices being outside it, buffeting the body and bringing it into subjection. Thus, at any rate, it is said of those who have such a disposition: "You are not in the flesh." And yet they had flesh, but they were not in the mindset of the flesh. And further: "The mindset of the flesh is enmity toward God." And again: "Those who are in the flesh cannot please God." If he were speaking about this flesh, all the saints who are in it pleased God. But in the mindset—to think according to the flesh, to be wholly dependent on the flesh—is henceforth to become fleshly. And who is the one who becomes fleshly but the one who sells himself to sin? "But I am fleshly, sold under sin." "He devised lawlessness upon his bed." According to the higher sense: just as upon his bed, that is his body, he devised lawlessness. But one who remains upon this bed ought to lament himself and pity himself, because in the very devising there is transgression, so as to say: "I will drench my bed with my tears." It is the voice of one repenting; and the one who repents does not devise lawlessness. And it is said concerning others in the prophet Micah: "He became one devising evil upon his bed, and at daybreak he accomplished it." They often deliberate at night about acts of lawlessness and at daybreak they accomplish them. But it was necessary, even if transgression ever happened upon the bed, to be pricked with compunction; for the word commands this: "Be angry and do not sin; what you say in your hearts, be pricked with compunction upon your beds." For if you are pricked with compunction, the devil finds no place. He stood in every way that is not good, but he was not provoked to anger by wickedness.

He turned aside from every good way. And the ways are the virtues. At any rate, the apostle says to Elymas the magician: "Will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?" They are straight and good. And the virtues are called straight because they are means; for in a straight line there is no deviation. "The Lord knows the ways that are on the right, but those on the left are perverted." And well is it to say "not with a good" way; for he did not say "with an evil" one. What is not good is not in every case evil. It is impossible for anyone to stand in every evil way, since they are opposites and concern vice. The coward cannot also be bold, nor can the impious be superstitious. These things, then, are not good. By denial they are the same, but by affirmation they are not the same. "He was not angry with wickedness." Lord, your mercy is in heaven, and your truth reaches to the clouds. We speak of those who dwell on the earth in their mindset, "of those who set their minds on earthly things," whom the divine Word accuses through the prophet Jeremiah, saying: "You have gone deep down into the earth to sit"; if it is possible, you even wish to be lower than the earth, thinking nothing that is raised up, not having "your citizenship in the heavens," not having your heart there, in contrast to those who say: "Let us lift up our heart to the high place in heaven." So this too is said again concerning certain people: "But they sought my soul in vain; they shall enter into the lowest parts of the earth." And Moses too, in the victory song against Pharaoh and those with him, said: "You stretched out your right hand, and the earth swallowed them." And yet, according to the narrative, it was not earth that swallowed them but water. At any rate, it is said:

They sank straightway like lead in the mighty water." If, then, God stretches out his right hand against the wicked, they are swallowed up from the earth, they become wholly earthy, they are handed over "to dishonorable passions," they are handed over "to the desires of their hearts, to uncleanness," to serve "the creature rather than the Creator." "In heaven," then, is "his mercy"; for "you show mercy to thousands of those who love you." As by a kind of ladder of mercy one ascends to heaven; for the nature of God's mercy is not of things below but is above. And so whenever the goodness of God comes to be on earth—that is, among men (for it is said, "The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord")—those who are shown mercy are led up by that mercy itself into heaven.

"And," he says, "your truth reaches to the clouds." One must not attend to those who remove providence from the earth and say that it is bounded as far as the regions of the moon, because of the words "your truth reaches to the clouds." The clouds are the prophets, who minister to us a spiritual rain, from which spiritual rain the paradise of God is watered, the seed that fell on good ground, which Jesus cast so that it might become a hundredfold and sixty and thirty. Until, then, these clouds that minister the spiritual rain, of which it is said, "Let the clouds rain down righteousness," the truth of God exists. If anyone is a cloud able to flow with spiritual rain and righteousness, that one has the truth of God. Your righteousness is as the mountains of God. The mountains of God are interpreted in many ways according to the Scripture. When it says:

You shine wondrously from the everlasting mountains." He calls the saints "everlasting mountains"—those who no longer look at the things that are seen, which are temporary, but at the things that are not seen, which are eternal. "Draw near to the everlasting mountains." These mountains that are perceptible are not everlasting. But if the earth and the heaven pass away, the mountains, being outpourings and parts of the earth, depart with it and pass away with it, so that those are not everlasting. But for you who look at the eternal things, the things not seen, the things above, the things on high—those are mountains, having the elevation of a manner of life, having the height of a devout mind. "Draw near," then, "to the everlasting mountains"—draw near in disposition; take up for yourselves that same lofty mind as they have. "Your righteousness," then, "is like the mountains of God." Righteousness among humans, whenever it increases those who possess it, makes them like the mountains of God. But one can, in another sense, call the mountains of God all the things above, to which the ninety-nine sheep remained, when Jesus came to save the one that had perished from the mountains—the one that fell from there and came to be in wandering and pursuit and death. "Draw near," then, "to the everlasting mountains"—draw near in disposition; take up for yourselves that same lofty mind as they have. "Your righteousness," then, "is like the mountains of God." Righteousness among humans, whenever it increases those who possess it, makes them like the mountains of God. And it is possible, by another account, to call the righteousness of the Savior who came among us those whom he saved. For "the one who knew no sin he made to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

Those who have become the righteousness of God in him who became sin for our sake are like the mountains of God, like the angels, like the archangels; for they have been united to the creation above. "Lord, your mercy is in heaven, and your truth reaches to the clouds." God shows mercy in one way and human beings in another. The mercy, then, that comes from human beings, and the beneficence toward one's neighbor, is human; for they know how to help, to feed, and to do the other things in a human way, and this mercy is one that draws near to the earth, that is, to human affairs. But God, in showing mercy, lifts up those who are lifted up, so as to bring them up to heaven. "In heaven," then, "is your mercy." This too is possible: that in showing mercy you do not show mercy in a human way; for even if "you give food to all flesh," even if you grant health to the sick, yet this righteousness is not one that touches heaven. And to speak more clearly: the things that are received by the gift of God, not only by the righteous but also by the wicked, both rational and irrational, are not heavenly. But those things alone are of heaven and lead as strangers into heaven, which are truly good, heavenly-minded. And in another psalm you have: "The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord." He shows mercy to the earth by sending down that mercy which is fitting for those on the earth. But the mercy which he "shows to thousands of those who love" him is heavenly and leads up to heaven. It is possible here to call "heaven" the rational substance, the intelligent existence; for some have thus interpreted also the text "In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth," where the earth signifies the

a more bodily existence and substance, but heaven's is the rational. Indeed, it is said elsewhere too: "The heaven of heaven belongs to the Lord." And heaven can be not only this visible one, not only the one in our sight, but every one. But the heaven of heaven, divided sevenfold, is the divine condition; for God is said to be in heaven, not because he is in a place. Indeed, it is said in the Gospel: "No one has ascended into heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man." But Jesus alone came down from the true heaven, that is, from the condition befitting God, from what is, as it were, God's vantage point. Indeed, at any rate, the devil was in heaven; for it was from there that he fell together with those who blasphemed and were lifted up. Indeed, it is said to him: "You said: I will ascend into heaven." While he was in heaven, how does he ascend into heaven? He was in the heaven in which other divine and blessed substances also are. But he received a fantasy and a desire to be God. Supposing that he would become "like the Most High," he named as "heaven" the likeness to the Most High. Therefore God alone is in that very thing called heaven, not because it is a place or some body or a creature, but a condition, as it were a condition of God, a vantage point of God. So the one who received a vain desire to be God seemed [to think] that he was able "to ascend above the clouds and set his throne above the stars and become like the Most High." By saying at all, "I will be like the Most High," he ought to have taken the thought that likeness to the Most High is not for one who is yet to come.

He brings an infinite existence, the same from infinity and to infinity; he is without beginning and without end. But the one who says "I shall be" showed that for a time he is not. And the one who is not God in this way will never become so. So the matter stood for him only as far as desire, and he fell even from what he had; for he was otherwise in heaven, and when he said "I shall ascend into heaven," he fell from the heaven he had. For "how did the morning star, which rises at dawn, fall from heaven?" By saying "how did he fall?" he showed that he was in heaven, but by saying "I shall ascend into heaven and I shall be," he showed that he longed to be in another heaven. In correspondence with the heaven, it is fitting to understand the clouds as well. We were saying yesterday that the name of clouds often signifies divine natures; for when God says concerning Israel as being a vineyard, and that instead of grapes it brought forth thorns—instead of the fitting fruit it brought forth shameful desires; these the Savior called thorns—he says: "I shall command the clouds not to rain rain upon it." But this rain is not perceptible, whence neither are the clouds that flow into it. Indeed it has been said: "Let the clouds drop down righteousness." But righteousness flows and descends not from perceptible clouds. And I shall say something paradoxical: there is a truth which does not primarily dwell with God. Paul says: "There is a truth of Jesus in me," as though there were another truth which is not properly called Jesus's; for all things are his, he is the creator of all things.

His creations, being knowable, contain within them knowledge and truth, which one can receive from the things that are knowable. There is, then, truth, let us say, in grammar and in geometry and in the other sciences. He does not for the present mean that truth which belongs to Jesus—not that this truth is not also his; for the things that are knowable, in which knowledge and truth reside, are his creations. And I say: let some engineer construct a clock. There is certainly knowledge in the thing constructed, by which it came to be; for having acquired engineering knowledge, he constructed it. And there is truth in the construction, when it has the proportions in accordance with which a clock is made faultless. If, then, someone receives that knowledge from the clock that appears before him, he has received the knowledge from the one who constructed it. And the clock is indeed between these two states—that of the one who made it and that of the one who has come to know it from it. Let us give an example: those who are knowledgeable—what they know, they know not insofar as they are such, but insofar as they strive to be such, and as they know the same things when they ascend to the very goal and end of knowledge. That progress, then, in all things may be called the knowledge and truth of the knowledgeable man—not that it is not also God's and introductory; for it is adopted for its sake. The archetype and every form of truth is the Savior. And it is possible to partake of this truth. The one who partakes has received a state called truth, about which the saint said: "There is truth in me," and: "I have not hidden your truth in my heart.

This truth has come to be through the seal of truth coming to be—through the archetypal seal becoming a seal in wax or in something else. Indeed, at any rate, concerning another quality—the more human one, so to speak—a certain difference is still found. Quality itself, considered in itself, does not admit the more and the less, but the quality in the qualified thing does admit it. The thing that admits it and the thing that does not admit it are not the same; it is in one way other and in another way not other. But if it has come to be in a state and disposition, it admits the more and the less. Yet it can be contemplated in itself; for one who wishes to see quality accurately does not take this very quality from the qualified thing, but from it knows the qualified thing to be qualified in this way. Your judgments are a great deep. Among human beings a great difference is found, both in the things that befall from outside and in those that come from their own disposition. One can find difference from external things: some are rich, others poor; some rulers, others subjects; healthy, sickly. Then also concerning pursuits, the same: as it were in soul, some are sharp and some slow by nature, and some are disposed toward virtue and others toward vice. And of these there is a great difference; for no human being is in perfect virtue, even if one hastens toward it and makes progress in it. But where there is the more and the less, there is great infinity. Likewise also vice. And it is fair to say that virtue, which admits the more and the less, will one day come to its end, when the earnest man is not more earnest than another earnest man, nor the wise more wise than another wise man. But vice is always in infinity; it has no end at all.

For how can there be a single end of evil itself, when it is discordant and divided? In excess and in deficiency there is indefiniteness, but in the mean a certain determinate end is grasped. Since, then, we humans cannot say—even though they do not seem to have knowledge—why this man is poor and another is rich; for if you were to say, for instance, "It has some incomprehensibility." We often say that God, seeing that this man, having obtained wealth or office, becomes overbearing and tramples on everyone, does not give it to them, and we find such people trampling, rising up against all, possessing wealth in every respect. Likewise also concerning health and the movements of the soul we say that the difference among these things comes about by the judgment of God. And that it comes about by the judgment of God, let us take the saying from the Gospel and make it clear, if it is possible, being led by the hand to this account. In the Gospel the Savior says: "Woe to you, Chorazin; woe to you, Bethsaida; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes." If the miraculous mighty works had been done for the Sidonians and Tyrians, they would have been called to repentance. But the cities mentioned, Bethsaida and Chorazin, having experienced these things—why were the miraculous mighty works done there, where they did not repent? It is a saying like an abyss. "Unsearchable," said the apostle, are the judgments of God. No one searches them out, no one is able to grasp their depth. But scarcely, by attending to what is done and, as it were, being judged, do we receive the impression that it is God who judges and ordains each thing.

But we cannot say the "one by one," for why, take it, is this man strong and another weak.

We do not have the particulars to state. And as I once said, there is a cyclical mode of treatment, and if someone takes each remedy by itself, he seems to grasp it, but sometimes he errs and blames the physician. But then he understood it well, if he knew why these things happened before it and these things will be after it, and until when it exists so that health may be produced. But an unskilled physician cannot grasp this. We therefore receive an impression concerning them, in whatever way we also know that these judgments come about by God's judgment. "Your judgments," then, are not simply "a deep," but "a great deep." And the simply "deep" has very great depth and has its bottom boundless, but much more the "great" one. He signifies the intensification through "great," as also the "unsearchable" of the judgments. In other psalms it was said concerning this; the psalmist, theologizing, said: "The deep is like a garment, his covering." And in another: "He made darkness his hiding place." He speaks of the obscurity and the incomprehensibility. This darkness of obscurity, of incomprehensibility, being hidden, is also a garment resembling a deep. You will save humans and cattle, Lord. He saves humans and cattle. And if we take the cattle in the ready sense, we also take the humans in perception. He governs all things, both rational and irrational living creatures—the rational according to themselves, but the irrational as having come to be on account of the rational; for the irrational fulfill the needs of the rational. Some carry burdens for them, some draw the plow, and others provide service in other ways.

Then, since these too can fall subject to harm and death, he saves these too. He saves man as well. "Men and cattle you will save, Lord." The same unsearchability of his judgments is found again in these matters, that he saves all men, but in different ways—some after much affliction, others with some rest and pleasure. But if he means that men are saved with the true salvation, and prays concerning that of which it has been said, that "the Savior became the cause of eternal salvation for all who obey," with reference to which meaning the saint said, "Our God, the God of saving," then the cattle here must be allegorized; for of those who have come to piety and to the teaching of the gospel itself, some are called disciples, others sheep: "My sheep hear my voice." They hear only his voice. And the voice is the ready exposition of the Scriptures, which reaches and knocks at the soul and its hearing, but not at its mind. So his sheep hear the voice of Jesus as of the best and true shepherd. But when he says to certain ones, "You call me: the Lord and the Teacher, and you speak rightly; for I am"—I am truly a teacher. And I am your Lord; for you serve me by keeping my laws—these are not sheep, but disciples, disciples of wisdom, disciples of the truth. But the sheep are the sheep of a shepherd. And another condescending conception of the Savior is his being a shepherd.

Since he wishes to save and improve all, and salvation and improvement are then accomplished when each is brought, according to his capacity to be benefited, to the things of which he is capable, he calls some to be hearers of his voice only, and others of his word, of his teaching. Those who are called in this way, both men and cattle, he saves. And he saves the sheep too, so that they are no longer sheep, but become men instead of sheep. This, then, is what the twenty-second psalm hints at: "The Lord," it says, "shepherds me, and nothing will be lacking to me. In a place of green pasture, there he settled me; by water of rest he nourished me." He speaks as a sheep; he recounts thankfully what he has received from the shepherd. Then he says: "He turned back my soul. He guided me." And a little later he adds: "You prepared a table before me." It is no longer a place of green pasture, no longer a pasture, no longer grazing, but a table, on which is set "the bread of life," "the bread that came down from heaven," the flesh of Jesus, the true

food. After the advancement of the table he also partakes of a cup, which wisdom drinks first, "having mixed her own wine." It is your cup, if you drink first to me; and it is my cup, if you have measured out to me what I am able to drink. How you have multiplied your mercy, O God. By the mercy of God, humans too are saved. But then the mercy of God is multiplied and his abundance is shown, when he saves even cattle. As if you were speaking also about a perfect teacher, that his goodness is recognized when he educates wise and perfect hearers; but then his goodness is multiplied, when he condescends even to the foolish, and attempts to lead them into a greater state. For instance, the teacher of Christianity "is a debtor to the wise and the foolish, to Greeks and barbarians." He is a debtor not only to the wise but also to the foolish. And to the wise he "speaks wisdom among the perfect," but to the foolish he does not speak wisdom, but offers those lessons that remove them from foolishness, so that no longer being foolish they may then receive wisdom. Again, to Greeks, to those who have a refined Greek mind and are able to follow, he speaks as to Greeks. But to those who are barbarians in soul he says those things that remove them from the barbarian nation, from such a rather savage disposition. But the sons of men will hope in the shadow of your wings. The sons of these men. If, then, according to the former interpretation, humans are said to be the mortal rational living beings and cattle the things that serve them, the sons of these humans have their hope in the shadow of God's wings.

These wings are intelligible, lifting the mind on high. At any rate, the saint says thus: "Who will give me wings like a dove's?" We do not say that he prays for the wings of a perceptible creature to be given to him; for that is impossible. But of impossible things there is neither desire nor prayer. "As an eagle over his nestlings he desired." Then they were given wings, they were able to be taken "upon the back" of God. But what is it that lies in our power, to be thus given wings? Hear what the prophet Isaiah says: "Those who wait for God shall exchange strength, they shall grow wings as eagles, they shall run and not grow weary." And another prays, saying: "Your youth shall be renewed as an eagle's." Whenever, then, the saint says he has been given wings, his wings must be understood as virtue and understanding and wisdom; for these lift a man on high. They shall be covered from the fatness of your house—they are covered under the wings of God. The wings of God become their covering. But then they are covered, so that they may grow wings, so that they may become nestlings, so that they may become eggs under the wings of God. The wings of God become their covering. But then they are covered, so that they may grow wings. And the eggs are the unformed souls, those that have not yet received the form of Christ. When, then, they have come under his wings, then they are formed and become living creatures, by allegory, according to the inner man. He does not say this: "sons of mortal living creatures," but of those that truly guard the man "according to the image and likeness" of God. And "sons of men" can also be said paraphrastically in place of "men." They shall be made drunk with the fatness of your house.

Not every drunkenness is blamed. "Do not be drunk," he says, "with wine, in which is debauchery." And in the straightforward sense, the wine of debauchery can be said to mean much wine; for it harms the mind and sometimes causes it to fall into error. This drunkenness, then, is blamed. And it is said concerning those who think differently and introduce godless doctrines, offering them like food and wine: "But these feed on the bread of impiety." And those who eat the bread of impiety and seek that are the ones about whom it is said: "You gave him as food to the peoples of the Ethiopians." For just as those who have accepted the doctrines of piety are nourished by the body of Christ, so those who feed on godless doctrines and drink the wine suited to them, the wine of debauchery, eat the flesh of the dragon, the devil himself. "Do not be drunk," then, "with wine, in which is debauchery." And it belongs to the impious to drink this wine; for "they will be drunk with unlawful wine." But there is also a praiseworthy drunkenness and, to speak as some have said, a sober drunkenness that makes those who have drunk sober. At any rate, in the Song of Songs Jesus said to his companions: "Eat, drink, be drunk, brothers." God the Word says these things to his brothers; for having become man he had brothers—those who live according to him, who receive his teachings and are made sons. "Eat," then, "drink, be drunk." Eat of the spiritual food that Wisdom has prepared for you; for "she prepared her own table." And drink that wine which leads to sober drunkenness. And here, then, he did not say it absolutely, but "they will be drunk from the richness of your house.

In one sense the church is called the "house of God"; for it was said to Timothy by Paul: "If I am delayed, I have written to you how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God." The richness of this house is the perfect teaching, the wisdom spoken among the perfect, "solid food," of which those partake who have "their senses" of the inner man "exercised to discern good and evil." And these drink the wine trodden from "the true vine." These, then, are made drunk from the richness of the house of God. The richness of this house of God is the perfect teaching, the unceasing knowledge of the truth. But if you also call the man of the Savior a house, since he says: "Destroy this temple," and "he was speaking about the temple of his body," not because only his body had a temple, but because this part of the temple could be destroyed by men. At any rate, he applied the destruction of the temple to the body alone. But when he says: "I lay down my soul, that I may take it again," he does not say: "Destroy my soul." They once used to raise such a paradox as this: if he lays down his soul, that he may take it again, "and no one takes it from him, but he himself has authority to lay it down and to take it again." Consider why: his life was not taken away by a common death. At any rate, those who were crucified with him had their legs cut off, so that they might die. But the Savior, not having suffered this, was found dead. "Having bowed" his "head," then, "he gave up the spirit.

But if no one took his soul, but he himself laid it down of himself, that he might take it again, in this way, as he says in one of the psalms: "I became as a man without help among the free dead," he became. And according to the surface meaning we shall say that those who depart with sins and are "held fast by the cords of their own sins" are not free dead. Since, then, Jesus did not commit sin nor know it, he was free among the dead. This soul alone was seen free there. At any rate, the gatekeepers of Hades shuddered at it. According to a second account, he became "free among the dead" in this way: all who depart from life and leave the body, if they are earnest, are led by hand by angels who bring light, but others by certain punishers. It has been said, then: "But the poor man died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." He did not become there by himself, but angels led him away. But to another lover of life it is said: "Fool, this night they demand your soul from you." If his soul is demanded and is itself carried away by certain punishers into Hades, the soul of Jesus alone went out free; it did not need angels to guide it as a guest, nor was it dragged, since it did not have the causes of being dragged. This, then, is the laying down and taking of the soul, and "no one," he says, "took it from me; I have authority to lay it down, that I may take it again." The divine instruction by the incarnate Savior is the fatness of the house. And the