Commentarii in Psalmos

It is paradoxical; but the things said from the spiritual and intelligible realm are not paradoxical. The things that exist perceptibly are not something else perceptibly. But the intelligible being can also be understood perceptibly. It is impossible, then, in the realm of sense perception to take the same one as both high priest and lamb. But Jesus is both lamb and high priest. It is impossible in the perceptible realm to take the same thing as both door and house. But Jesus is both, both a door leading into the house and that house into which the door leads. And simply put, all intelligible things are of this sort. And concerning the soul of man, for instance, we say that it cultivates itself, and is itself the plant, and that it is earth receiving seeds and bearing fruit, and that it becomes a bride of the divine Word and bears children of salvation. And it also becomes a sheep. And we take these things in accordance with the various conceptions and names and benefits. When the soul is called earth, the teachings that are able to do something are seeds; but if it is called a bride, the offspring deposited into it, and the ornaments around it, are the practical and ethical virtues and the intellectual and perfect ones. Again, when it is called a sheep, the teachings are called pasture, the instructions are called green grass. All things, then, can be at the same time for different purposes. And this also must be known: what is called a house is also a vine bearing wine; and again it is flesh that nourishes; and it is a farmer caring for plants, so that they will bear fruit. And observe that he is himself both farmer and vine and shepherd and sheep. But these things, taken according to different conceptions, show that there is an intelligible substance about which these things are said. At one time, then, when a Greek demanded that:

From where can you show from your Scripture that, suppose, the soul is intelligible? For all the things announced about it signify things proper to bodies"—they were saying this very thing: that each of the bodies has one form, that by which it is; but when all things are said to be by participation, nothing is said perceptibly. God is said, spirit is said, light is said, as a man shaped and having members; for spirit does not have members; God does not have a sitting and a rising and feet and the rest; from which it stands out that the essences about which these things are said are certain intelligible things. And you will give them to drink from the torrent of your delight. The flowing richness of the house can, in addition to giving drink, also lead to a sober drunkenness. He calls it "a torrent of delight," just as it is said "a river of delight goes forth from Eden and waters the paradise." And the supply of teaching, of the participation of instruction, is called "a torrent of delight." "You will give them to drink." And well also is the phrase "you will give them to drink," since after this torrent they come also to the very fountain. As infants they are given to drink, and—to speak from an apostolic expression—Paul writes to those being initiated: "I gave you milk to drink." And those who cannot drink for themselves are given to drink; those being instructed are given to drink. When they have been given to drink of this river of delight, thereafter they come to life itself, from which this river flows, "for with you is the fountain of life." Since with you is the fountain of life. He did not say, "for with you a fountain of life has come to be," or "a fountain of life will exist," but "with you is the fountain of life." Always this is the fountain of life.

When, however, those who are watered draw near, it flows and a stream comes from the spring, called "the torrent of delight." For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we shall see light. Observe the spring here again; he has spoken in two ways: the light too is called a spring. But in the historical and bodily sense these things are not possible. If, then, the good things flow from him and he does not receive them from anywhere, as a cistern does, he is the head, the fountain of life. And why do I say this? He himself said: "I am the life." And it is the same thing to say "life" and "fountain of life." Life, because he gives life and leads to immortality; a fountain, because he does not receive the life-giving things from elsewhere, but has them himself in himself. "In your light we shall see light." But if this utterance is spoken with reference to the Father, he says: since he who has seen your Son, who is true light, sees you who are light, in your light we shall see you who are light; for "he who has seen the Son has seen the Father." And "he is the image of the invisible God," showing him whose image he is, and "he is the express image of God's substance," making manifest the substance of God. "In your light," then, "we shall see light." But if this too is spoken with reference to the Son, in your luminous instruction and teaching we shall see you who are light. Where he says: "Extend, O God, your mercy to those who know you," he means that knowledge of which it is said: "And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God." These who have knowledge are loved by God. And God "shows mercy to thousands of those who love" him. We understand "to thousands" thus: this number has a kinship with the unit.

Those, then, who draw near to God and, in accordance with the one, become one spirit toward him, correspondingly become thousands and tens of thousands. But this is said in this sense: "The chariot of God is ten thousandfold, thousands of those who prosper"; for we do not thus understand a thousand, the ten times a hundred, but because of the kinship toward the monad. And mercy comes upon them. If, then, God's mercy extends to a thousand, so that it is said, "For his mercy is forever," reasonably he says here: "Extend your mercy to those who know you." In another way he has mercy on those who come forward in the manner of repentance, who ask for forgiveness of sins. He has mercy on those who know him, so that they may be confirmed and ascend at the end to that which is above all. And your righteousness to the upright in heart. And the upright in heart and the pure in heart are the same. It is a good thing, then, for the pure in heart to see God; for "blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Let not the foot of pride come upon me, and let not the hand of sinners shake me. Let not "the foot of pride" set foot upon my mind, that is, let not a walk of pride come to be in me; for members are often spoken of both of the best and of the worst. In Proverbs, at any rate, it is said: "But the feet of folly lead down those who use her with death to Hades." As many as walk in folly, using the feet of folly, are brought down to Hades. Just as, then, there are feet of folly, so also of pride.

Let not the foot of pride come to me," then—let not the walk of pride be in my soul and my mind. "Nor let the hand of sinners shake me." For the hand is often spoken of as action, as when it says: "Thorns grow in the hand of the drunkard"—the shameful desires, the licentious pleasures. There fell those who work lawlessness. Where the foot of pride is and the hand of the sinner, "there fell those who work lawlessness." It was not nature that led them to the fall, but the activity and practice of lawlessness. They were driven out and shall not be able to stand. For since they themselves brought themselves down into the foot of pride, and are handed over to the hand of the sinner, which they chose to have, this handing over is called their driving out. And God, in doing good, drives them out, so that they may not be able to stand in evil. It is not, then, by nature or by some external force casting him down, but his own practice, being lawlessness and wickedness. He drives him out, then, so that he may not remain, so that he may not have an unmoved standing in it. And indeed the Scriptures must be clarified more greatly. The one who is truly wise in God does this. Nevertheless, if they were not clarified in this way, but more inadequately, neither their own greatness is shown nor that of the one who gave them. At any rate, the Jews, taking them in the superficial and human way, are said "not to understand even what they say nor the things about which they make assertions." 245 9 That those who do evil shall be utterly destroyed. ——— destroyed, but they are destroyed insofar as they are evil, so that they may no longer be such. It signifies also the punishment. And the punishment...

Again, it is a hindrance to vice. But those who wait for the Lord, they themselves shall inherit the land. Those who wait for the Lord inherit the land already interpreted—the land on high, set in heaven. And this David also said: "I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living." He was a king. And it belongs to a king to possess the good things of his own land and to have dominion over it. But no one believes that he will receive what he already has, but he believes that he has received it. Yet this one says: "I believe that I shall see," not "that I have seen" those good things which God gives "to those who ask him," when they pray for them genuinely. "Those who wait," then, "for the Lord shall inherit the land." Endurance is the greatest prize of virtue: "tribulation works endurance." You see that endurance comes after tribulation. That one, then, waits for the Lord as he ought who has no other endurance than him. And just as wisdom becomes for some, and righteousness, and sanctification, so also endurance. At any rate, this same David in another psalm says: "And now, what is my endurance? Is it not the Lord?" This endurance those who strive for virtue and piety always earnestly desire to have. Again, the same psalmist somewhere says: "Waiting, I waited for the Lord." Not simply "I waited," but "waiting," as in: "rightly to pursue the right." The servants of God have an inheritance. And hear the paradoxical thing: it belongs to children to inherit, not to servants. The abundance, then, of the goodness of the one who is inherited—as far as it depends on their own condition and nature—leads those who are servants into an inheritance. And they once gave an example for the

By grace you are saved through faith, not from works." And they said that it is altogether impossible to have faith without works; for "it is dead without works." So he says, "through faith, not from works." And they used an image like this: when a man is benevolent, in return for the fact that some labor and serve him, he gives a reward exceeding the worth of the reward. And they took an image like this: let someone be a landowner and let him have entrusted a farm to someone and let him say to him, "If you take care of it as is necessary and work it as is fitting, I give it to you as a gift; have it as an inheritance." We say of that man that he received the inheritance not from works but from the grace of the one who bestowed it. "There is an inheritance for those who serve the Lord." And yet a little while and the sinner shall not exist. This is what he says: "Do not be jealous among those who do evil, nor be envious of those who practice lawlessness." God fashioned you as a creature that loves good. And it belongs to lovers of good not to desire the temporary and present things; for the temporary and present things exist also for sinners. Do not, then, be jealous of him if he is rich, if he is healthy; for it does not remain forever. But if—I do not mean the substance, but the quality. Since—what is "temporary"? —If you wish to take it readily, by no longer sinning one seems not to be a sinner. But then the works of sin are not active. "Sin has a temporary enjoyment," as Paul writes. The enjoyment of sin no longer exists. So we say to the many that by no longer sinning one seems no longer to be a sinner, but according to the true account: sin neither existed from the beginning nor will it exist forever.

For this has been said concerning the most prominent form of idolatry itself: "neither from the beginning nor unto the age." But if the preeminent one of evils did not even have a beginning, in such a way as to be unceasing, neither will it ever obviously come to an end. "Yet a little while and the sinner shall not exist." You have, then, also in the ninth psalm: "Break the arm of the sinner and the wicked man." He did not say "of a sinner," but "of the" sinner. And if the arm of "the sinner" is broken, much more so that of those inferior. "And you shall seek his place and shall not find it." Again, readily; for one must also give the more popular explanations. The place of the sinner seems to be the place around the earth; for here lawlessness occurs, here sins are committed. The earth, then, will pass away with the heaven. "You shall seek," then, "his place and shall not find it." But "place" is properly said of each one's position. At any rate, it is said also concerning Judas that he transgressed the place of his ministry: "from which Judas transgressed." A place of ministry is the position according to the ministry; for when Paul says, "first apostles are appointed, second prophets, third," they are ranks indicated by position. At any rate, also in military orders they say that someone has the place of a beneficiarius, of an adjutant, and similarly in the churches. The position of the sinner will not be found, if he is no longer a sinner. But his place was his sin. But the meek shall inherit the earth. Since the sinner will shortly no longer exist, nor will his place be found even if it be sought, the place of the meek remains unto the age.

For it is eternal, it is immortal. And concerning the virtuous man it is said: "His righteousness endures unto the age of ages." The meek, then—that is, those who possess meekness, those who achieve freedom from anger—will inherit the earth; for the one free from anger is meek. For one must not attend to certain others who say that that man is meek even if he becomes angry with those with whom one ought to be angry. But this meekness is more political and rhetorical. What, then? For the virtuous man is free from anger; for indeed in the preceding verses it has been said: "Cease from anger and forsake wrath." And they will delight in abundance of peace. But when does the abundance of this peace come about? When the prayer of those who say is heard: "Grace to you and peace be multiplied." The one who can say: "I was peaceful with those who hate peace" has an abundance of peace, and delights in the abundance of this peace. But it is possible to say that, having been removed from this place, where wars and tumults occur, they come to be in the land of the meek, where peace governs. I have said this also at another time, that such a topic is handed down among the argumentative topics: "Which virtue needs which?" And it says that, when all are righteous, there is no need of courage. And it calls courage the more political kind, the kind that is constituted in wars. When all are righteous, there is no need of courage. But when courage is present, there is need of righteousness. And here, then, they delight in abundance of peace when they are meek. But the meek man, as has been said by us, is disposed without disturbance toward anger.

And from the one who taught and prepared us for the imitation of himself, consider the greatness of virtue: "Learn," he says, "from me, that I am meek and lowly in heart." He did not say simply "lowly," but "in heart." I am meek in disposition, in heart. The one who possesses freedom from vanity is "lowly in heart." And since the Gospel phrase has come up, we must refute those who say that Jesus had no mind, but an irrational soul. In all the Scriptures, both new and old, the heart is spoken of in place of the mind; for when it says, "Hear me, you who have lost your heart," it means those who have lost their understanding. And a "heart of stone" is foolish understanding. If, then, he has a heart and this too has virtue—for he is meek in heart and lowly—he has taken up a perfect man. The sinner will watch the righteous man and gnash his teeth at him. This means that the sinner always wishes to be an enemy of the righteous man, and not only an enemy, but he wishes to be murderous against him. And observe the word "will watch," how it is used; properly, "to watch" means to watch how one might harm someone. One is armed; the one who wishes to strike him with arrows watches what part of him is exposed, and there he sends the arrow. Since, then, the righteous man is fenced about, he is not exposed, but has put on "the whole armor of God" and has "taken up the breastplate of faith" and is wholly secured. But if "will watch" is taken in place of "will keep"—for often verbs spoken with a preposition mean the same thing, as "walking" and "going down"; the one going down

...goes down. If then "he will keep," it signifies two things: either "to watch closely" is meant, or "to guard." If, then, the Savior says in the Gospel: "Holy Father, keep them," he means "guard them." "When I was with them, I was keeping them," instead of "I was guarding them." And those who say: "You will preserve us from this generation," mean "you will guard us thoroughly." And "to keep," as I said, signifies "to watch closely." For it is said: "He will watch your head, and you his heel." The holy one watches closely the head of the serpent, so that by destroying the chief part of his wickedness he may have him wholly dead. But the serpent cannot watch the man's head, but his heel—he watches his lowest powers, those near the earth. And no timely wound or harm comes upon the heel. For it is said also elsewhere: "The lawlessness of my heel will encircle me; then I was afraid in the evil day." If lawlessness were watching my head, it would touch my head as it did his, concerning whom it is written: "His labor will return upon his head." And again: "I gave their ways upon their heads," instead of "upon their mind." And well is it to say "the righteous man," not simply "righteous," but the perfectly righteous, the one beyond reproach; for the name predicated of the perfect is often used also of those making progress, as: "The wise do not turn aside from the mouth of the Lord." No one of the wise comes outside the word of the Lord, performing all things with reason. And it is said: "Reprove a wise man and he will love you." Behold, a wise man.

The sinner borrows and will not repay, but the righteous man has compassion and gives. He not only repays what he borrowed, but also becomes a benefactor of others. By showing mercy he gains. "But he who has mercy on the poor lends to God." The righteous man, who has borrowed from God and gathered a multitude of works and of rational silver, also benefits another; for the wicked harm those who are with them, but the righteous profit them. And that the wicked man is harmful is evident. It is said, at any rate, in Proverbs that the wise man profits and improves: "Reprove a wise man, and he will love you." When reproved, he receives the reproofs well, so as to love the one who reproved him. And having loved the one who reproved him, he no longer does the things for which the reproof came. Just as "a brother of the man who ruins himself" is the one who does evil. The wicked man, then, harms himself before all others. "The righteous man," then, "has compassion and gives," and is gracious and simply shares in good things with his neighbor. Those who say, when "a brother or sister is naked and lacking daily food," "Go in peace, be filled," but do not give them what is necessary, have profited them nothing, since he does not "have compassion and give." But it is possible to understand it also in this way: the sinner, having borrowed from God the concepts given to him in common and the commandments, "will not repay" either what he has or what he received, neither the profit nor the interest. But "the righteous" God still more "has compassion and gives." That one, receiving, does not repay, but he himself still more "has compassion and gives." And I say:

Then mercy and beneficence are shown when the one who receives is ungrateful. "He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked," he gives. Those who receive are ungrateful—for by not repaying what they ought to repay, they are found ungrateful and wicked—but God is still kind even to these. Therefore the righteous man shows even more mercy and provides. The imitator of God, then, "he who has mercy on the poor and lends to God," even if the borrower does not provide what he owes to provide, is still merciful, still provides. And take for me the parable of the Gospel concerning the talents: "to each according to his own ability" he gave his rational possessions, not to each according to nature, but according to the ability that he prepared for himself from his own free choice. "And to one he gave five, to another two, to another one." "The one who received the five talents worked with them" and doubled them. Having borrowed, he repaid. The one with the two did likewise. The one who received the one and buried it in the ground neither worked with it nor paid interest, but buried it in the ground. When you see a man who has the ability to do good or to show kindness and does not do it, he has buried in the ground what he received, he has buried it in his own material free choice. And when it is demanded back, when at last it is the time to "gather" from those who have received the rational silver, he says: "Behold, you have what is yours." And he even blamed God, wishing to inscribe his own slowness upon another: "I knew you," he says, "I knew that you are a harsh man, taking up what you did not put down, reaping what you did not sow.

And being afraid, I hid your silver in the earth, and I gave it to no one. From what he said, he received the rebuke and the condemnation: "You wicked servant, did you know that I reap where I did not sow?" If I take up what is not mine—the good things—I have exacted beyond what is mine, not from those who received it, if "I reap where I did not sow"? Certainly I was receiving what was mine, if you had given it at the table, so that it might be multiplied. He was deprived, then, even of this. And so the sinner, often borrowing, if he does not repay what he ought to repay, will one day be deprived of those benefactions. No longer will he himself receive, while the righteous man still more pities and provides. For those who bless him will inherit the earth. Those who bless the righteous man. According to both interpretations it must be taken: either the righteous man or God. He blesses God who does those things which he requires of him, so as to say: "I will bless the Lord at all times." And the righteous man also is blessed: for "the blessing of the Lord is upon the head of the righteous." And: "This one will receive a blessing from the Lord." That "earth" about which it is said: "And he will exalt you to inherit the earth." But those who curse him will be utterly destroyed. So he curses the righteous man who speaks impious things about him, concerning which or to whom he says: "Woe to them, for they have leaped away from me; wretched are they, for they have done impiety against me—evils; I redeemed them, but they spoke falsehoods against me." "I," he says, "redeemed them," I led them to the bath of regeneration, granting complete forgiveness of sins, wiping away their lawless deeds.

But they speak falsehoods against me, not doing those things for which they were called. And they received forgiveness of sins; for I did not redeem them for this reason, that they might sin, but that they might be without sin. If, then, after the ransom and the deliverance someone does what is out of place, he speaks against him who in a certain way said, "It profited me nothing," and he speaks falsehoods against him. The steps of a man are directed by the Lord, and he will desire his way. Man passes over by choice from worse things to better things, from temporary things to eternal things. And it is his to desire the good, since "it is not of him who runs, nor of him who wills, but of God who shows mercy" to accomplish the way blamelessly. "The steps of a man are directed by the Lord." The steps are not given; for it is ours to desire to pass over from evil things to good things. At any rate, in his catholic epistle John writes: "We know that we have passed over from death to life." "We have passed over," not "we were led." It is not by force that God, having directed the steps, places us in this, setting a limit to the upright steps that come to be in this way. And you have many such things in the Scripture: "I ran the way of your commandments, when you enlarged my heart." When God enlarges the heart, having given breadth to the understanding, one accomplishes the way of the commandments. It was not because he ran that his heart was enlarged, but because God enlarged it, casting out all constriction that comes from evil thoughts and afflictions; for this reason he ran the way of God. And again, if it is said in Jeremiah, not as a contradiction

You might think; "I know that the way of man is not in himself, neither shall a man walk and direct his own steps." You are the one. But the prophet's saying can have a twofold meaning: Nebuchadnezzar threatens the destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of the whole Hebrew race. The prophet was saying: even if he threatened and we ourselves provided the causes of suffering this, "I know that the way of man is not in himself." You can hinder his way against us; for even if he thinks he is a man and great, his course is not made straight when you hinder it. It is possible also to take it thus, according to the meaning already given to the text: "not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy." You set before yourselves to run the saving way. It is not ours to complete the way, but to will to come to the end of the way, so as to say: "I have finished the course." But from him comes the directing, from him the guiding. "Guide me in your truth." He who is guided by God does not make straight his way by himself. But he longs to make it straight and has given himself to the one who is able to lead him to perfection. Such things, I mean the things according to God and looking to him, are accomplished richly, and it is not possible to divide each from each. Someone has longed for the good, he strives to be an imitator of God, he has set before himself to take up virtue; having set it before himself he does not stand still at the resolve, but he acts, he meditates, he strives, he accustoms himself to do good things. "If it has been announced to you, O man, what the Lord requires of you, but to love mercy and to do judgment and to be ready to walk with the Lord your God?

The one who prepares himself to walk always with the Lord God is in every way unhindered. Let him only prepare himself for this, saying: "My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready." But none of those who are hindered by shameful thoughts or by some impulse can say: "My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready"; for he has bonds, "he is entangled in the cords of his own sins." God wills the way of the one whose steps are directed. And he walks willingly, he runs the way of life—the very one who said: "I am the way." He treads and runs upon him. "And his way he will will." It is also possible to say this: that the one whose steps are directed by God wills the way of God, to which he leads him, on which he guides and conducts him as a stranger. And so, even if it should happen that he falls at some time, he is not shattered. When he falls, he will not be dashed down. Take for me an example of this sort: let there be some excellent runner, who has swiftness of feet by nature and has been perfectly equipped in the runner's art. This one, being quick in running and having the feet of the inner man trained, if ever he stumbles in running, in some way he receives a brief sensation of the stumble; for he is not overturned, nor does he himself, as if struck, falter and cease from the race. And so, even if some slip should happen at some time, he is not shattered. Judas slipped from the way of truth and fell; for it is said: "Having become prone, he burst asunder in the middle." But he would not have become prone if he had not been dashed down. And well also is that: "When he falls, he will not be dashed down.

And even if some stumble occurs, he does not give "place to the devil," so as to be wholly overthrown and dashed down by him. Someone saw a woman with desire up to the point of initial passion; he seemed to fall, but was not dashed down. For whenever he yields to follow the thought and the desire for beauty conquers him, he has been dashed down, he has fallen—such as were the elders who raged against Susanna. For the Lord props up his hand. "Hand" is often said of action, the active power. Propping up his active power, he does not allow him to fall completely. He finds where he may rest his hand. And the Lord becomes his support, according to what was said before this: "And the Lord became my support." He holds fast his creative power, so as to say: "You held my right hand, and in your will you guided me." Behold the holding fast. And the seed of the ungodly shall be utterly destroyed. ––––––––––––– ––––––––––––– ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– is ungodliness. And it is that which arises against God. "Seed" stands for "the offspring of the ungodly." But "seed" can also mean, as it were, the disposition of the ungodly. And it is utterly destroyed for their benefit, so that it may not bring forth anything further that remains—the seed is utterly destroyed. The righteous shall inherit the earth and shall dwell upon it for ever and ever. Upon the earth that was spoken of. The mouth of the righteous shall meditate wisdom, and his tongue shall speak judgment; his law is in his heart, and his steps shall not be tripped up. The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom. Whenever the wise man has been enlightened, he brings forth luminous words; for it has been said:

The wisdom of a man will enlighten his face." He who speaks this wisdom has his face—that is, the face of his mind—enlightened; for "the narration of a pious man is wisdom at all times." And again, he who says, and he who is persuaded by the one who says, "Open your mouth for the word of God," saying, "I opened my mouth and drew in the Spirit," speaks wisdom. "The mouth," then, "of the righteous will meditate on wisdom." He always meditates on wise things—not only the contemplations of piety, but also the wise things of action. "His tongue speaks judgment." He utters all things in a judged manner; he does not bring forth "an idle word"; for he knows that "by his words one is justified, and by his words he is condemned." For this reason he speaks in a judged manner. And just as the thoughts of the righteous are judgments—for "the thoughts of the righteous are judgments"; they do not simply have thoughts that are cast about, but judged and examined and regulated—from such judgments a judged word is also brought forth. And for this reason "the tongue of the righteous speaks judgment." For if he speaks the things he thinks, and he thinks judged and examined thoughts, then his word is of this sort too. And for the rest he gives the reason: "His law" is not in his ears only, but "in his heart." For "God gives his laws into the heart and writes them upon the mind." Whose heart, then, is filled with the law of God—for this reason he both meditates on wisdom and speaks judgment. And when this has been established and set right, "his steps are not tripped up." He walks straight; he does not stumble; so to speak, he has feet with wings.

But he who has winged feet does not slip, does not stumble. At any rate, the wise man has "put on as shoes the preparation of the gospel of peace." "The preparation of the gospel" becomes shoes for the feet of the righteous man; for these shoes are winged, carrying him upward. At any rate, God also says to the soul: "I have shod you with hyacinth." He did not permit another to put this shoe around you, but he himself shod you with it. And the hyacinth is wont to imitate the color of the aether. An ethereal shoe, then, I have shod you with. The sinner observes the righteous man and seeks to put him to death. He observes him, not in order to imitate him. Paul writes to the people in Christ: "observing them as a provocation to love and to good works," and the rest. They observe them in order to imitate them; for "obey your leaders," "who spoke to you the word of God, whose way of life you observe as you consider its outcome, and imitate their faith." Here the observing is praiseworthy. But the sinner observes the righteous man, not in order to imitate him, not in order to approve him, but in order to put him to death. And the sinner puts the righteous man to death in both ways: if he causes him to fall away from righteousness, he puts him to death; or he puts him to death by plotting and bringing death upon him, as the elders intended to do against Susanna. And he will certainly not abandon him into his hands, nor will he condemn him when he is judged by him. Even if he attacks, he will not abandon him into his hands. And we were speaking of the difference in the meaning of the word "abandonment." Even if Naboth was removed

By those who plotted against them, they were not left in their hands; for then they would have been left in their hands, if they had done what those men wished. The martyrs were slain by certain men, but they were not left in their hands. But then they would have been left in their hands, if they had sacrificed. When the sinner is judged by the righteous man, the righteous man is not condemned. The elders were judged together with Susanna, and she was not condemned when those men were judged; for those men were shown to be false accusers. 256 34 Wait for the Lord and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land. For the rest, he exhorts: even if there are many things that trouble you, even if there are many enemies who wish to harm and to destroy, yet "wait for the Lord and keep his way," so as to say: "I have finished the course"; for then he will exalt you and you will inherit the land. He has made clear the prize of endurance, that: he will make you high, he will take you up on high, he will lead you as a guest into heaven itself. When the sinners are destroyed, you will see. This is what he says: you will see the sinners being destroyed and you will know for yourself that you have inherited the land. Because you waited for the Lord and kept his way, you did not fall under them. 35–36 I saw the impious man exalted exceedingly and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed by, and behold, he was not, and I sought him, and his place was not found. Often the impious think themselves great and lift themselves up like the cedar in Lebanon. But it is also possible, since it is said with the article, to understand it of the devil himself, that:

I saw him exalting himself against all the others, saying: "I will take possession of the whole inhabited world with my hand; like forsaken eggs I will take them up, like a nest I will seize them." You know that anyone who comes upon a nest easily takes the eggs. And even if they had just now become nestlings, he has prevailed over them again, since they are unable to have strong and lofty flight. From great boastfulness and boldness he supposed that he held the inhabited world—that is, all men—in subjection to himself like lifeless eggs, like nestlings that have been made but cannot rise, but still remain in the nest. "I saw," then, "this impious man" who says: "By my strength I will do it, and by the understanding of my wisdom I will remove the boundaries of the nations and plunder their strength"—I saw him exalted exceedingly. I passed over in thought to the life that comes after this, to the account of providence, and I no longer saw him, nor was his place any longer found when sought. Impiety will cease; impiety no longer exists. He is not among the immortal things, just as he says concerning righteousness: "Righteousness is immortal." What then of "like the cedars of Lebanon"? Often he signifies the proud by this wood: "And the Lord will shatter the cedars of Lebanon." There are also praiseworthy cedars. But he signifies those who are great in this life by this name: "Open, O Lebanon, your doors; fire will devour your cedars." Then he interprets: "For the great ones have suffered great misery." He called the great ones cedars. There are, then, also praiseworthy cedars, but the discourse is not now about these. "And I passed by, and behold, he was not.

I passed by in thought and saw him, and he was not. I saw him exalting himself because of wealth, because of human rule. I passed by in reasoning and saw that the impious man is not among the things that remain. He is still exalted exceedingly like Lebanon and its cedars; for I sought his place among existing things and did not find it. God has made all things "very good." "Out of the mouth of the Lord shall not come forth good and evil." He does not say this: neither the good nor the evil, but the good indeed shall come forth out of the mouth of the Lord, but the evils not. In the plural, then, the good things. For this reason evils have no place among existing things; for God has made all things "very good." And "he does not delight in the destruction of the living. The generations of the world are saving; there is no drug of destruction in them, nor a kingdom of Hades upon the earth." Guard innocence and see uprightness, for there is a remnant for a peaceful man. Henceforth he says these things: "Turn aside from evil and do good, and dwell for ever and ever." He says: "Guard innocence, see uprightness," having become outside of all evil. But that man is innocent according to the meaning now indicated. He who has virtue sees also uprightness. "For there is a remnant for a peaceful man." He says this: that it is impossible for the peaceful man to be wholly destroyed. Even if he be left behind, yet he has a remnant. But the lawless shall be utterly destroyed together. At the same time the lawless are utterly destroyed; for this is the "together," that they fall into destruction. The remnants of the impious shall be utterly destroyed. But there is a remnant for the peaceful man.

The remnants of the impious will fall to destruction. But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He says this: even if the righteous ever seem, when plotted against, not to have obtained salvation from men—as Abel and as many other righteous men as were plotted against—nevertheless their salvation is from the Lord, the eternal salvation, not the temporary one. And he is their protector in the time of affliction. Even if a time of affliction overtakes them, he is their protector. He thrusts his own shield before them, so that they may remain unwounded—not entirely in the body, but in the soul. And the Lord will help them and will rescue them. By helping them he rescues them. Even if not here, yet they will be rescued at some time; for if they are plotted against because of piety and seem to die, yet not to punishment. And this is truly to be helped by God, to be rescued by God. And he has both: by helping he rescues. He rescues them from the afflictions that surround them, and he will deliver them from sinners and save them, because they hoped in him. Since they hoped for salvation in him, he will deliver them from sinners and will place them outside all [...] And here the one who harms the righteous, as he thinks, harms himself. At any rate God says this: "The one who touches you is like one who touches the apple of his eye"; for the one who plots does not harm that one but himself. And he took the example to show that the one who does not dispose of that one but himself is harmful to himself. Further, how do we take the "bow"? — the tensed ruling principle. A Psalm of David; for remembrance concerning the Sabbath. O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger.

Remembrance differs from reminding. For someone is reminded when another brings back to his mind the things that came first for him; he remembers. Thus, at any rate, some have said that those who wish to be saved come "to the knowledge of the truth." The phrase "to knowledge" is the same as "to remembrance." For someone remembers what he knows. No one is said to remember what he is said [to have forgotten?]. For formerly they recognized Joseph, and he brought them back to mind; for they knew him. If one receives a remembrance concerning the Sabbath, it has the beginning of some good. The Sabbath signifies rest. ... he keeps Sabbath. He does not keep Sabbath during the six days, but when he has passed beyond these and ... this, in which we spend our time, the things seen and temporary, has come to be in a sixfold number of days; but when he has passed beyond these and for the rest lives in a manner beyond the world and beyond the heavens ... in heaven, at that point he keeps Sabbath. This is the Sabbath-keeping in the strict sense. And ... to live on the earth; for the one who walks on the earth and has his citizenship in the heavens, this one has in the world ... in heaven ...

...a mind that keeps the Sabbath. And there will be a time when those who have their heart there and already keep the Sabbath—"the tender, holy Sabbath to God"—through the One who says, "Come to me, all you who are weary, and I am humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls," we keep the Sabbath in a figurative sense; but that they are not truly the original prototypes is clear. For "let no one," he says, "of things to come." But if the feasts and the new moons and the Sabbaths belong to them, these Sabbaths are shadowy. Having become "for the people of God," it has rest. "For a remembrance concerning the Sabbath. O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger." The Sabbath was therefore remembered, on which nothing of service is brought in there; he remembers the most beautiful things there, proclaiming the psalm. The one who repents genuinely—for thus repentance will be shown to be genuine—but he who does this insincerely seems to be acting thus. One must therefore suppose genuine repentance, so that of what greatness and what beauty it is may be seen. O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor chasten me in your wrath. Then he offers for sin. This, then, is what he says: "I will be anxious about my sin." Why am I a sinner? Chasten me. Having received a remembrance concerning his sin, he says these things. He knows sin in one way, but in another way he does not understand it; for insofar as he has experience of it, he knows it, but he does not understand it. But if he had understood that it is harmful and destructive and brings the greatest ruin, he would have understood it. It is possible, then, to know it and in another way not to understand it—the one who gains experience of it, being outside it by the very fact of the experience.

The man according to Jesus is said not to have known sin nor to have committed it. In the other sense of "knowing," no one knows it better than he; for how had he come to know it? "O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath." The expression has it that often some anger and blow that has come upon someone shows that this person has been dragged into great impiety, was handed over to the Assyrians, to the Babylonians under their hand. But that the handing over of Israel did not happen at random, but because of preceding sins: "Jerusalem has sinned a sin," she became a reproach. She sinned a great sin, and not simply sinned, but "a sin": "Jerusalem has sinned a sin." When someone, then, because of preceding sins falls under grievous rebukes. He did not say, then, "Do not rebuke me once for all," nor "Do not discipline me once for all," "all things that are rebuked are made manifest by the light." The rebuke that comes through light comes through teaching. The holy man does not decline such a rebuke. Again, someone is disciplined in anger, ignorant that he acted and thought badly. He wishes to be rebuked in this way, as it is said; but this rebuke is not in wrath, but in perception, when sin makes manifest. And the wrath is less, just as the rebuke is less than painful discipline. From the face of those who have been caught by evil he says: may the Lord discipline us before the judgment comes upon us; show us the punishment that follows, threaten us—do not bring the things of the threat into effect—and in judgment, make manifest to us and in a judged manner what is to be done.

The priests profane the sabbath in the temple and are blameless"? In what way it is profaned, they are said [to profane it] because they work, performing the priestly service; they seem to profane the sabbath, they profane it. Or perhaps according to the supposition of those who say: "On the sabbath your disciples pluck ears of grain and do what it is not lawful to do on the sabbath," he spoke this word showing that the priestly things, and they are not liable to transgression of the law as those who think so suppose, but they are blameless; for not according to [the law]—so that the one who does these things does not transgress the sabbath—[is it reckoned]. [So that] one who is in the world and in activity and desire may find rest; for "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." [Or] according to a higher anagogical sense, which the divine [writers] call [the sabbath rest], and the sabbath-rest that will be spoken of. Just as someone walking on earth has his citizenship in heaven, so someone still being in the world becomes above his works and keeps sabbath. He did not simply decline work on the sabbath, but [work that is] for worship. And the priestly elevation, being supramundane, makes people free. Not as works of worship are the works of God, not the works that God does, but the works that he commands those who obey him to do. And he will receive not another thing in place of the corruptible, but the corruptible itself changed into incorruptibility, and the psychical itself becoming spiritual. Observe, then, what he says: the other [body] than the body is incorporeal. If anyone, then, should say that it is another body than the body that we shall receive, he does not know what he is saying; for in both cases he set down "body.

A body is sown corruptible, a body is raised incorruptible; a body is sown weak and dishonored, a body is raised strong and glorious; a body is sown natural, a body is raised spiritual." In a certain way, then, the very thing that is raised is also different from what has fallen. But if he says that, if there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body, he speaks of the difference by way of conception and says: "The spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual." The "first" and the "then" seem to be two, but I speak of them as two in the way that I say a man is first an infant, then a child—and not first a child but an infant—and surely I do not mean two persons, I do not mean two men but one; but two stages of life. In the same way, then, as the stages of life do not make what is brought to maturity of a different substance, but it comes about by manner and disposition and change or alteration, so also from a child a man comes to be, and the man is not a different man beside the child, but the same man. At that time, then, one truly and bodily comes to be in heaven and keeps sabbath, no longer walking on earth and having his citizenship in the heavens, but already seated in the heavenly places, already dwelling there under "the great high priest who has passed through the heavens." And that the affairs of men did not begin from vice but from virtue, he says "for a remembrance concerning the sabbath." When someone comes to be in virtue, he remembers that he was once in it. For the rest, I wish to hint at a deep meaning. If the beginning of men and of the soul was from this present life, vice is before virtue, and virtue is to be recovered.

We have life with the body, and we have life also without it. And that when we have cast off the body we come to be in a bodiless life is surely clear to everyone. But let it be inquired whether this life existed even before the body. It is not evident, but let it be inquired and examined. If, then, the life of the rational being came from the life that is in matter, vice is prior to virtue; for we see that the rational principle begins when it has been filled up from vice. But if, as truth has it, virtue existed before vice—for "God made man upright, but they sought out evil reasonings"—and observe that the seeking out of evil reasonings is after the uprightness. And virtue prepares uprightness. "Man, being in honor, did not understand; he was compared to the senseless beasts." It was not from a beastly manner

that it came to man, but from the human it came to the beastly. And in general, good things are always prior to those that are blamed. Art must be prior to evil art; to know something erroneously is after knowing it rightly. For how can we say at all that this man is in error, unless we know what is right? For this reason, then, "for a remembrance concerning the sabbath." And since to keep the sabbath is to live in virtue and to live well-pleasing to God and to minister, doing what God wills, the life of men began from virtue. But this does not appear in the more bodily life; for virtue is something to be taken up by those who are with the body, it is teachable. Hence he who comes to be in the good is reminded. Moreover, what is the thirty-seven? —You cannot apply this to everyone.

Now then, someone might say this: that thirty-seven is composed of two holy numbers; for three also is praised in the Scripture. At any rate, then, he brings only one who has been made a hundredfold, bearing one of the fruits of the holy land; for "one a hundred, another sixty, another thirty." And so that we may not always say the same things, one must say in all things and in every respect that the number three is holy, whether it is taken in units, or in tens, or in hundreds. And seven is also holy; for often it has been said about this too that it is incorruptible, that it is virgin, fatherless, motherless. "O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath." He does not beg off being rebuked or disciplined altogether, but in anger and wrath. But there is a rebuking of someone rationally and scientifically, in which sense the saint prays, saying—or rather praises and calls blessed—: "Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, and teach out of your law." He has shown that this discipline comes about through teaching. But often rebuke and discipline also come about through anger and wrath, through painful things, through bitter things. And rebuke often comes about when the fault in which someone is involved is pointed out by word to the one who is liable; for this is what it says: "Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you." The wise man rebukes the less wise, who is himself also wise as one being instructed. And again: "But all things, when rebuked by the light, are made manifest." And many say such things about rebuke, that rebuke is, as it were, a syllogism of contradiction. For instance, someone is in wickedness.

Bringing forward in a reasoned way the principle that divides evil from virtue, and knowing the good, he receives a conception of evil. And this reproof is not one that comes about in wrath, but in discipline; for since the knowledge of contraries is the same, if we know the good, we have obtained knowledge of the evil. And from the Scriptures one can take the examples: the Ninevites had come to be in great evil, so that "the cry of their evil went up" to God, calling forth punishment and requital. But God sent a proclamation of repentance. They accepted the proclamation. They were disciplined, they were reproved not in anger or wrath—as, for instance, the Sodomites were reproved and disciplined in wrath and anger. He does not wish, then, to be reproved by these things, since he would not have declined to be reproved in a scientific manner. Because your arrows have been fixed in me. For this reason I decline the reproof that is in wrath and the discipline that is in anger, since "your arrows have been fixed in me." I received knowledge of the punishments that are brought upon the undisciplined, upon those who are not reproved. And in many places of divine discipline the arrows signify punishments; as when Job, having come into many grievous troubles, says: "The arrows of the Lord are in my body." That fearful wounding he called "arrows of the Lord" being in his body. And what is paradoxical: he also introduces providence through this expression. These painful things, such as arrows wounding me, have come upon me not without the vote of God; "for they are arrows of the Lord, whose wrath drinks up my blood; whenever I begin to speak, they prick me.

And observe that he called that painful thing and that evil wound "arrows of the Lord." And again in the great song of Deuteronomy God says: "I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour the blood of the wounded." Again, in many places the sword signifies punishment: "For if," he says, "you are not willing nor listen, a sword shall devour you." Such is also what is said in Isaiah: "My sword has been made drunk in heaven," instead of: punishment has touched even some heavenly beings. But if God subjected "the angels who did not keep their own principality" "with eternal bonds," the sword of God has been made drunk—that is, the punitive power—even in heaven. Understand the same things here as well: if anyone who seems to have his citizenship in heaven, being a heaven so as "to declare the glory of God," should unexpectedly fall under punishment, then in that heaven the sword has been made drunk—in those who promise to have a heavenly citizenship. Such is this: "The sons of the kingdom shall be cast into the outer darkness"; for they were not [sons]. It is also taken in a laudatory sense: "Your arrows are sharpened, O Mighty One; peoples shall fall beneath you." Your words that wound unto desire and love are sharpened; for you are mighty and mightily you send your words and wound unto love those who are struck. At any rate, the soul—or the church—that has suffered this says: "I am wounded with love." There are, then, also praiseworthy arrows, and there are also blameworthy ones.

But since these things were named with wrath and anger, they are not wounds that come from love and affection, but they produce sensation, of which there is a certain kind among evils. And you have set your hand upon me. Again, in many places the punitive power is signified by the name of the hand of God; as when he says to Pharaoh: "Now, having stretched out my hand, I will strike you." And: "Behold, the hand of the Lord shall be upon your cattle in the fields"; for in this way those cattle were subjected to destruction. And again it is said: "Your hand destroyed nations." But when the active and creative and protective hand of God is named, it is called "right hand." This, then, leads as a stranger to salvation. For he who has received experience of being led by it says: "You have held my right hand," that is, the practical power for good things. And there is no healing for my flesh because of the face of your anger. The name "flesh," being homonymous in Scripture, signifies different things. Sometimes "flesh" is said to signify our sensory faculty of choice; for when it is said: "I will draw out from them their heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh," it calls "heart of stone" the foolish understanding that is deprived of all sensation. In place of this a fleshy one is put in, sensory and easily yielding to the laws of God. So what is easily yielding and sensory is often called "flesh." But "flesh" is also said in distinction from "spirit." And it calls "spirit" the mind, and "flesh" that which is distinguished from the mind. When someone, then, thinks the things of the flesh and does them and lives according to them, he is far from the spirit.

But when one follows the spirit—by right judgment, and especially by the judgment that has partaken of the Holy Spirit—then he does away with the flesh. It is of such flesh, and of the spirit that is set in opposition to it, that he says: "But you are not in the flesh but in the spirit." And yet they were in the flesh; they were still burdened with the body. By disposition they had come to be outside it. And just as one who walks on earth can have his citizenship in heaven, so one who is still in the flesh comes to be outside it when he follows the spirit. And this is what is called the reasonable departure. But some, not knowing how the wise men spoke of a reasonable departure, when often asked, say: either by reasonings or by sufferings of the flesh they departed from this life. But this is not the reasonable departure; rather, it is when one who is holy in body and flesh comes to be outside himself in zeal and disposition, so as to say: "We are not in the flesh but in the spirit." And again: "The mind of the flesh is enmity toward God." "And those who are in the flesh cannot please God." It is evident, then, that he is not speaking about

He says this of this flesh: for all the saints, while still in the flesh, pleased God. There is, then, a flesh, departing from which one pleases God—namely, the material mindset, the pleasure-loving disposition. And perhaps if someone, having come to be in the spirit, leaves the flesh behind, he is not even disturbed when wrath presses upon him. But the one who still clings to this life is disturbed whenever something painful is expected and comes upon him. Often the composite is signified by one of the things in the composite. When the saint says, "Why are you deeply grieved, my soul, and why do you trouble me?" then he makes the signification concerning the more precious part. When he says again, "I buffet my body and bring it into subjection"—for he does not speak of it as separated from the soul, but since the body is subject to rule and the soul is ruling, the body, when it is subject to the soul, being ruled and ruled with reason and with the law of God, is buffeted and brought into subjection. Since, then, I see wrath pressing upon me—for your arrows have already wounded me—and I have perceived this, therefore my flesh also is troubled. Therefore the saints do not fear death as something terrifying. It has come to pass in forgetfulness of wearing flesh. But when he looks to this very thing, that he is bound in flesh and has received flesh capable of being divided from the soul, he is troubled at things contrary to death. "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass." Again he says, "To you all flesh shall come," that is, every human being. "All flesh shall see the salvation of our God." All things that share a name are distinguished by certain additions from those having the same name. If it is said in the Scripture, "He who gives food to all flesh," we understand every living creature. But if he says—

I will pour out from my Spirit upon all flesh," I mean the gift of the Spirit that is natural to receive. There is no peace in my bones because of my sins, since I see my sins present. But not everyone takes thought of their face, except the one who repents and wishes to flee from them. The one who sins and does not even know this very thing, that he is sinning, does not see the face of his own sins, does not see their shame. But the one who stands over what he does and sees that he performs them in transgression of divine commandments—he has the face of his sins appearing before him. And "bones" he does not mean altogether those of the body, except according to the more earthbound understanding, as was also said about the flesh. And it was said in the preceding: "All my bones will say, 'Lord, who is like you?'" If the bones say, "Lord, who is like you?" then they have received the thought of the Lord and, so to speak, of his form, so as to know that no one is like him. Likeness to God and unlikeness reveal the knowledge of God and theology; so that he is not speaking about the bones of the body, but about the strong and vigorous doctrines of the soul and its powers. For then the perceptible bodies are held together by the bones; for they could not have sinews and veins and the other parts, if they did not have bones. Why "there is no peace in my bones"? —When the powers of the soul follow one another in harmony, they are at peace. When the spirited part does not faction against the rational, nor the desiring part against the mind, then there is peace. Again, if someone holds conflicting doctrines—and the many hold such—

They also lay down something else and bring it forward, which overturns what they first laid down. And almost all who have a confused mind suffer this. But the wise man, and especially the God-wise man, must have harmony in the powers of the inner man and in the things to be understood; for thus there is peace in his bones. Because my transgressions have risen above my head. He says this: my transgressions, which ought to be under my feet and trampled down, have become greater than I, they rule over my mind. And in many places "head" signifies the mind; as also in the passage: "the eyes of the wise man are in his head," that is, in his mind. At any rate, the same one who said "the eyes of the wise man" makes it clear when speaking of other things: "the wisdom of a man will illuminate his face," calling "face" certainly the inner man, the mind. They have become a heavy burden, they drag me down, when I ought to bear that burden which Jesus places on and the yoke which he lays upon us; for it is a base burden, as this very saying declares: "my transgressions have become heavy as a heavy burden upon me." "Come" then, he says, "to me, for I will give you rest," I take away the burdens from you and the weights laid upon you; "for my yoke is kind and my burden is light." This burden lifts up the one who carries it, it bears him upward, this burden is winged. But the burden of wickedness weighs down, it casts down. Concerning the wicked, then, he says: "you shall sink like lead in violent water." As a heavy burden they have weighed upon me. And it is not for everyone to know that wickedness is a heavy burden, or that of one who has perceived its oppressive weight.

At that time, then, one of those who bear this burden grows weary, when he perceives the weight of wickedness. And then he comes to Jesus. But the one who takes pleasure in the burden of wickedness rather is also kept far from Jesus. For this reason it is also said in Isaiah: "Egypt has grown weary, the trade of the Ethiopians, and the Sabaites, lofty men, shall pass over to you and shall be your servants and shall worship you, because God strengthens and there is no God besides you." Then "Egypt has grown weary," when it has perceived of what evils it is guilty—practicing idolatry and occupying itself with meddlesome babblings, with augury, with necromancy and the demons that attend them. But when it has no perception of these things, it does not grow weary. "The trade," then, "of the Ethiopians," or "the trades of the Ethiopians," then grows weary. And he calls Ethiopians those who have been blackened in the inner man. Thus, then, the devil too, in the Epistle of Barnabas and in the Shepherd, is called "the black one"—not in body, but darkened in mind, having come to be outside the brightness of the saints. These Ethiopians, then, have a trade or trades, where their trade is. And then they grow weary, when they perceive of what evils they are guilty; for as much as one takes pleasure in sinning, he does not grow weary. My bruises have festered and rotted because of my foolishness. I received bruises from the arrows of punishment, or also from the fiery arrows of the evil one; for it is said that he too has fiery arrows. When, then, someone receives scratches, that is, thoughts and reflections of evils and impieties, he is in bruises.

But when these have grown and have produced a discharge and fester, they then also undergo putrefaction. "My wounds," therefore, "have festered and become putrid." From where did they get their wounds, from where did their putrefaction come? — "From the face of my folly." One ought to reprove my folly and depart from it. And a person undergoes folly when he has not acquired prudence. The prickings of thoughts and desires—these produce wounds. One ought to heal these quickly. Someone saw a woman unto desire; he got a wound. Let him heal it; let him stop the impulse at the point of the pre-passion; for in this way the desire will neither fester nor bring on putrefaction. But if the mind remains in it, it brings on both putrefaction and a foul and unpleasant odor. When one does not have this prudence so as to know what must be done and what must not, the so-called indifferent things, which are of a mixed character, he is in folly. And folly nourishes and strengthens the sins that seemed to be small, so that they are compared to a wound, and it becomes a stench and putrefaction. And in a manner suited to the substance of which the account speaks, understand the festering and the putrefaction; for nothing bodily appears; for many fools are both healthy and have strong bodies. I have suffered misery and have been bowed down to the end. Misery is often brought on by unpleasant and toilsome things. At any rate, the body itself also makes the one who is burdened miserable. This thought the apostolic text suggests, which runs thus: "Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body

Of this death? For since I am in the body of this death, I am wretched, and no ordinary person will set me free from such wretchedness except the Savior; for immediately he added, "I give thanks through Jesus Christ," who set me free from the body. We say, then, that wretchedness comes upon the soul from the body of death. We do not take the body to be a body of death absolutely, but a body of a certain kind. When someone uses this body so as to commit sins that lead to death, he is thereafter clothed with a body of death. But it is possible to make it not a body of death; for when I separate from it the things that make it a body of death, it is no longer a body of death. And just as this perceptible body has both underlying matter and the form of a body, it is also possible to separate this body from the gross body. When it receives only the three dimensions without matter, this body is not substance. In these preliminary examples, then, when it is said, for instance, "color in a body," it means also in some body; by saying "color in a body" he showed that this body signifies the visible body, which we touch. But when he says that the body is one kind of quantity, he does not mean this; for how can substance be a genus of substance? So the word "body" is used homonymously; for the one is taken according to the three dimensions without matter. And this is the quantified body; for the body with matter we do not take as only the dimensions apart from the underlying substance, but together with it. This body is something else. The body, then, is a body of death when the things that operate in it and its movements come to be in a sinful way.

This, then, can be separated from the body. When I take an eye that does not see in a harmful way, that does not look adulterously, I have removed the eye of death from the substance. And if this happens with each member and each sense, the body of death is cast off. We cast off not the body but the body of death. And if we see the worthless man changed into a serious one, we say that the worthless man has been destroyed, not the man. "And I was bowed down." Vice is downward-tending; it bends down the one who has it; for great burdens, always pressing upon him, drag down and bend the one who bears them. For instance, then, he says of that woman who had "a spirit of weakness" for eighteen years: "she was bent over and could not raise herself up at all." She never lifted herself up. The one who sins, then, is bent over and looks downward. For he says: "they set their eyes to turn aside to the earth"; and again in Jeremiah it is said: "let those who have departed be written on the earth." Those who have departed from the divine fountain are written down, are enrolled as citizens of the earth, as having their citizenship below and "bearing the image of the earthy one." But the names of the disciples "have been written in the heavens." He does not mean these names composed of syllables, but the proper qualities that signify their soul and mind; for a definition of a name is given thus: a name is a summary appellation that conveys the quality of the one named. And this is the appellative designation: man, heaven. "They have been written," then, that is, they have been assigned their place. All the day long I went about with a sullen face.

Even if "I was bowed down to the end" from the misery that besets me, I am not insensible to this. At any rate, I walk with a gloomy face, "working the godly sorrow that works repentance unto salvation not to be regretted." And so, walking with a gloomy face, I walk all the day long. Well said too is "I walk." He is not cast down headlong and left lying, but he walks. He did not "sink down into the depths of the earth," he did not lay his back upon the ground, but he walks. "With a gloomy face," then, "I walked." Those things were at work in me that were transferring me out of the misery. And then I am transferred out of the misery, when I put away the causes of the misery. Because my soul was filled with mockeries. My soul was filled with sins. And mockeries are sins. The deceiver mocks the one being deceived, and thus the soul is filled with mockeries. And in some copies there stands "my loins." The seeds are said to be situated around these. Whenever, then, someone is dragged down into licentiousness and hastens to be a lover of pleasure rather than a lover of God, he has his loins filled with mockeries. And there is no healing in my flesh. To the extent that I am filled with these mockeries, not only is my flesh not healthy, but even having become sick and being in such a condition, it does not receive healing. For just as it is impossible for one who is perceptibly sick, while still being in the sickness, to recover health, so the one filled with mockeries cannot make his flesh peaceful, that is, self-controlled, or not in faction against itself. I was afflicted and brought low exceedingly. He can mean a voluntary affliction and humiliation.

Since I have come to perceive the exaltation of evil and the harm and the pride, I brought myself down by choice into humility, in order that I might be exalted; for "everyone who humbles himself will be exalted." By parallel, one must take the affliction and the humiliation together. But then it becomes voluntary when, as I said, what was exalted humbles itself, in order that it may be exalted by God. It is possible also in this way: from the painful circumstances surrounding me and the heavy burdens, "I was humbled, I was afflicted exceedingly." I had an intensified affliction. I cried out from the groaning of my heart, not weeping insincerely over the evils that surrounded me, but "from the groaning of my heart"; understanding in what one must groan, I groaned. 265 10 And before you is all my desire. The righteous man has love and longing always for the virtues and for things done praiseworthily. At any rate it is said concerning the righteous man: "the desire of the righteous is all good." And good things have the boldness to be before God. "Before you," therefore, that is, in front of you, is "all my desire." Here, then, one must take "my desire" as praiseworthy, such as it is also concerning which this same man says: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, who fills your desire with good things." Such desires, then, all of the righteous man, being full of boldness, are before God. But it is possible to understand the word also in the other meaning of desire.

For this reason I was humbled and brought down even exceedingly; for this reason I lament, and my groaning comes from soul and heart, since I knew that every evil desire I had is manifest to you; no desire is outside your presence. But "before" is more fitting. And my groaning was not hidden from you. Having a good desire and longing to be in good things and in virtue, to the extent that I see myself falling short, I groan. And this groaning comes from a desire for beauty, from the expectation of something better. Even if I often escape the notice of the many when I groan, so that I may not seem to be speaking about myself and evidently appearing to repent, nevertheless my groaning is before you; it was not hidden from you. The Egyptians, then, were wearing down the Hebrews. When the sons of Israel took pleasure in the works of the Egyptians, their groaning was hidden from the face of God. But when they began to groan over the works, when they gained perception of the works of Pharaoh, that they were dragging them down and were earthly and rather made them outside of God, then they groaned, and their groaning was not hidden from God; for immediately he set them free. But when they took pleasure, they were held there and did not obtain freedom. This groaning corresponds fittingly to "the grief that produces repentance unto salvation." But this is a different grief from that of the world, which produces death. If, then, you see a man groaning because he does not obtain what he desires, even if they are base things, this groaning is destructive. My heart was troubled; my strength forsook me.

When the heart, that is the mind, is troubled, then strength is far away. And strength is suited to the peace and stability of the heart. The one who has learned from Jesus "that he is gentle and humble in heart" does not have a troubled heart; for he imitates Jesus. And the one who imitates Jesus is outside all turmoil. And as long as he does not have this turmoil, strength remains with him, so as to say: "I can do all things in him who strengthens me," and: "I will love you, Lord, my strength." And the light of my eyes—this too is not with me. The light of my eyes has become far from me. And the light of the true eyes, of those who see keenly, is the knowledge of the truth; for it is said: "Enlighten yourselves with the light of knowledge." That the discourse is not about these eyes nor about sensible light, hear from the one who says: "The commandment of the Lord is radiant, enlightening the eyes." Certainly the keeping of the radiant commandment enlightens the eyes of the inner man; for many are those who see keenly and are transgressors of the commandment of the Lord, and in another way they keep it and, being occupied with it, are dim in sight. So it is not altogether about the eyes that it is said: "And the light of my eyes is not with me." But he left me, since I turned away from it, since I did not keep it abiding with me. "My heart was troubled, my strength left me." Whenever the thinking faculty endures turmoil, strength becomes far away; for when the understanding is strong and the mind is exact, strength is present to the one so disposed, so as to say: "I can do all things in him who strengthens me.

I will love you, O Lord, my strength." But a person is abandoned by this strength if he endures turmoil in his heart, if he holds troubled thoughts. Therefore one must guard against giving "a place to the devil," who suggests the disturbances, so that our strength may remain and we may be able to say: "The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation." "And the light of my eyes is not with me." When the heart is troubled, the strength suited to the heart also departs, and that very light is not with the one who has suffered these things; for one must "sow for righteousness and gather for the fruit of life," so that "we may enlighten ourselves with the light of knowledge." When, then, the heart is troubled, the strength that empowers the inner man is far away, and the very light of the eyes that enlightens the inner man departs from the one who has handed himself over to darkness and ignorance. My friends and my neighbors drew near and stood against me. Such things happen in times of adversity. And Job, at any rate, being in adversity, said such things: "But my friends have become merciless; they have known strangers rather than me." And in the books of wisdom it is written that friends are present only then and show the things of friends and make demands, when the one whom they supposedly love is in prosperity. But when his circumstances, his external affairs, come into some reversal, then those men are far away. For there are three kinds of friendship. There is friendship for its own sake, when nothing else is pursued besides beauty or virtue. But if it is for the sake of something, namely wealth, this friendship will cease when those things are absent, and so will the friendship.

This friendship is said to be a second kind, existing for the sake of usefulness. And a third kind of friendship is the pleasant. Many took pleasure in being friends of monks, not so that they might be monks, but so that they might say, "The monks love me." And others took pleasure in being friends of the rich, expecting nothing from them, but sometimes even giving to them besides. By way of parallel, one can call the neighbor a friend, or the friend a neighbor. And thus those who are near by nearness, and brothers by kinship. Is this to be taken also of bodily things? —But if you would speak of it spiritually—there are also friends and kinsmen according to the spirit—, consider: whenever someone diminishes himself and is no longer such as he was, those whom he previously had as friends become estranged from him, because he is less than himself, not to say that he has become worthless; for what follows is no longer reported as concerning a worthless man or by a worthless man. In general, one who has troubled his heart is not to be cast out; for another is the one who

destroys it. It has been said, then, in Isaiah: "those who have destroyed their heart." And the heart is destroyed when the understanding comes to be outside its proper state. And it is troubled if it has some confusion. And it exists to be troubled from receiving thoughts and deliberations that are not fitting. "From the opposite side they drew near and stood." Not as companions, not as friends, not for the purpose of being united with me, but "from the opposite side," so that being present they might oppose. I had such an observation also in Zechariah and in the one hundred eighth psalm. It is said concerning Judas: "let the devil stand at his right hand." And concerning "Jesus the great priest, the son of Josedech":

The devil stood at his right hand to oppose him." And observe that the devil stood at the right hand both of Judas and of Jesus, the great and most pure and holy priest. But in the case of Jesus it is said, "to oppose him." He stood so that he might be opposed to his right-hand works, so that he might war against it, because he performs what must be done in a right manner and has such a disposition. But in the case of Judas it is not so. He had already occupied Judas's right-hand works beforehand. He gave the devil a standing-place in these things. And here "they stood in opposition." For this reason they drew near, so that they might ravage and trouble. And those nearest to me stood far off. There are two kinds of friends, two dispositions of neighbors. When those who were formerly enemies become pretended friends and speak in riddles, they do this so that they may oppose. And so that I may take from the pastoral and catechetical teaching, I say: there are two angels with a man, and one suggests evil things, the other good things, and the one is of righteousness, the other of unrighteousness. If, then, the angel of unrighteousness, who suggests evil things, comes near, the good angel withdraws, just as, when that one has drawn near, this wicked one opposes him; for opposites cannot coexist, good and evil; for evil is active when the good is far away. But if it was also the person of the Savior that said these things, he can say: those who were once my friends have become far from me, my sons, whom I begot and exalted. Having rejected me, they have become far off. But those from the nations who believed, having become friends, are henceforth near and "in opposition to me," instead of "face to face with me.

For we no longer take "enantion" as "antikeimenon," but as that which is face to face, in front. And those who sought my soul were violent, and those who sought evils for me spoke vanities. No one of those who love my soul violently forces it, but draws near or becomes one with it. But the others are violent, and seeking evils against that one whom they violently force, they speak vanity, nothing profitable, nothing contributing to the knowledge of the truth, but about vain things; for all evil things are vain, and base, and also the things that are temporary, which are seen and are easily despised and most easily circumscribed and destroyed. One must seek the soul profitably. And by the addition of "to those who seek my soul and violently force" "evils," it is clear that they are base. He who receives the sinning soul into repentance and leads the one who has erred from the truth into it, seeks the soul praiseworthily and profitably. The Savior, then, "has come to seek and to save the lost." This one, seeking the soul, seeks it in order to lead it to salvation, in order to bring it back to its former condition. As, therefore, the Savior does this through discipline and through the completion of what is good, so also the disciples of the Savior—both angels and men—do this. But no one of these, seeking the soul, speaks vanity, no one seeks evils for it, but good and profitable things. And they meditated deceits all the day long. All their life they meditated crookedness; for how could they not?

They had "crooked thoughts, which separate from God," and their heart had become crooked and bent, which the saint prays not to have, saying: "A crooked heart has not cleaved to me." So the one who has crooked thoughts meditates on crookedness all the day long—deeds and thoughts in agreement with his crooked thoughts. These crooked thoughts, then, are implanted in the soul by the devil; for it is said: "The serpent, the dragon, is crooked." He acts crookedly. Indeed, it is said elsewhere too: "All crooked things shall become straight." Crooked things receive straightness when they cast off their crookedness. But the one who meditates on it all the day long has both crooked deeds and a crooked disposition and a distorted condition. But I, like a deaf man, did not hear, and like a mute man not opening his mouth. He goes through his own praise. The penitent, if the devil suggests evil or crooked thoughts, let him not hear as one deaf, let him not attend to them, let him not give them the hearing of the inner man, but let him be as a mute man, as a deaf man not opening his mouth. Here he calls "deaf" not the one who has lost his hearing, but the one who does not speak; for often, especially in Scripture, this meaning is applied to the mute: "When the demon had been cast out," he says, "the mute man spoke." He did not say: "The deaf man heard." I do not say this to deny that this word also signifies the one deprived of hearing. It makes both clear. Again, God said to Moses when he said: "I am of feeble voice and slow of tongue": "Who gave a mouth to man to speak, and who made the hard-of-hearing or the deaf, the seeing and the blind?

Here "deaf" can also apply both to the talkative and to the one who has had his hearing taken away. But the phrase "when the demon had gone out, the deaf man spoke" means a deaf man who has no organs of speech, who has no tongue that functions. "I became like a man who does not hear and has no reproofs in his mouth." This is what he says: I did not become a man who does not hear, but "like a man who does not hear." I did not accept the words and the declarations of those who deal deceitfully, although I was able to refute them, knowing that reproofs are not brought forward at the right time to such a person, so that, as one having no one to refute, I kept silent. The account shows that both rebukes and contradictions ought to take place at the right time. And we take what is timely from the one who opposes and converses with us. Just as food given at the right time benefits and accomplishes its purpose, but offered at the wrong time harms rather. "Do not reprove the wicked, lest they hate you." The account does not teach us to decline being hated by the worthless, but this is what it says: you reprove in order to benefit. Approaching the reproof at the wrong time—for "there is a reproof that is not beautiful"—does not benefit that person who is reproved, but rather makes him even more worthless, so as also to hate the one who reproves. "Reprove a wise man, and he will love you." If the wise man, when reproved, loves the one who offers the reproofs, it is clear that the one who hates reproof is worthless. For it has been said also elsewhere: "An undisciplined man will not love those who reprove him, and he will not converse with the wise." The undisciplined man altogether does not love those who reprove, but the wise man desires this.

Nothing of what the wise man says is present in the wicked man who hates those who reprove. For it says: "and having no reproofs in his mouth"? Reproving is spoken of in two ways; often someone is unable to reprove. He does not have such boldness nor such power of speech as to reprove, and he pretends not to hear. For example, some heretic is present. He speaks godless doctrines, heretical opinions. If we are unable to refute what is said by him, we are said to be "like men who do not hear"; for hearing such conversations disturbs rather than benefits. Indeed it has been said: "Bad conversations corrupt good morals." If someone who has a good character knows this very thing, that he cannot stand up against bad conversations, he ought not to offer his hearing, but to become like one deaf. Another, having the ability to reprove the most shameful conversations, does not do this, when he knows that for the time being it is not profitable for that one to be reproved; for they said that just as foods are administered medically at the right time, so also are the aids for the soul.

And in what way are such things aids of the soul, for example: "Reprove, rebuke, exhort." When you have made the sinner manifest through reproof, rebuke him. When you have rebuked again, having made the rebuke sufficiently, exhort. Let aids of the soul succeed aids. And it is not for the ordinary person to know these things, but for one who understands the healing of the soul. For in you, Lord, I hoped; you will hear, Lord my God. Since I hoped in you, you hear me. I am confident that all things that are able to be supplied by me to him will be supplied.

Therefore, trusting in you, the greater one, and in you who know how and whom to reprove, I kept silent; I became like a deaf man, having no reproofs in my mouth. And so it must be punctuated: since I hoped in you, you hear me; for having become deaf and mute toward that one, and having no reproofs in my mouth, I cried out to you in my mind. So it appears to have happened also in the Exodus in the case of Moses, when Pharaoh pursued with all his power and his army, and the Hebrews were in a manner hemmed in so as not to be able to cross further. The army of Pharaoh pursued, and the tyrant himself; the Hebrews were pursued, "the sons of Israel." And they were armed and bearing all their full armor and military force, both cavalry and infantry. But these very men were naked with their hands, holding staffs. They were hemmed in and could no longer advance further; for neither could they run far, the sea preventing them, nor turn back to the right or to the other side. Again they had to fall under their enemies. So then, as if caught in some cage and within nets, the Hebrews were in anguish and blamed Moses, saying: "Was this not the word we spoke to you in Egypt: Leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians?" And behold, we are destroyed in this wilderness. The commander Moses himself spoke encouraging words: "Take courage and stand and see the salvation from the Lord which he will accomplish for you today; for in the manner you have seen the Egyptians, you shall no longer be added to see them for ever.

Such things the general ought not to say out of faintness of heart to the people; for neither ought he to send up his prayer openly. Those men thought that he too had despaired of salvation. But he spoke words of encouragement, while to God he cried out the things of his mind. And so that God might show that help, if it comes, is not by chance, he says: "Why do you cry to me?" To God he cried in what was kept silent, but he spoke words of encouragement. And it is a great evil, when something terrible stands at hand, for the general, as it were, to become frantic. It leads to despair. "For I said: lest at any time my enemies rejoice over me." I said this; therefore I kept silent and became like a deaf man and as one having no reproofs, lest, when I dared these things, they, having become stronger, rejoice over me and mock me. Therefore also the apostle says: do not do this, "lest Satan rejoice over you because of your guilelessness." So then he rejoices over the one who is harmed. "I will exalt you, O Lord, because you have taken me up and have not made my enemies glad over me." For if you had not taken me up rightly nor in the manner in which one ought to exalt you, those men would have rejoiced. And elsewhere he says: "Do not rejoice over me, my enemy, because I have fallen; and I shall rise again." You rejoice over my fall, but know that I shall rise again. When, then, I stand, your joy is changed into mourning and the mocking songs are turned into lamentations. And when my feet were shaken, they spoke great things against me. If even a shaking of my feet should occur, they will speak great things against me. And he is able to say these things:

Since "my heart was troubled within me, and my strength failed me, and the light of my eyes is not with me," my feet were shaken, yet they did not fall. That such things happen to those who repent most earnestly can also be learned from another psalm: "How good is God to Israel, to those upright in heart. But as for me, my feet were almost shaken, my steps were almost slipping, because I was envious of the lawless." This is the person of one who repents. What the repenting person says is not reported from the disposition of one who merely pretended to repent; I knew that "God is good to Israel, to those upright in heart," and he does what he does. But I, who am still unstable—he now introduces the repenting man—was almost shaken and fell. And I say what is in harmony with this from the apostle: "We know that the law is spiritual"—we who are perfect, the disciples of the Spirit, who have received the divine and spiritual law—. "But I am fleshly, sold under sin." The one who knows that the law is spiritual is not fleshly, sold under sin; for he was distinguishing himself from those men. "We know that the law is spiritual," he says universally about the saints. "But I am fleshly, sold under sin." And this very short phrase suggests many doctrines: "I am fleshly"—not by nature, not by constitution am I such, but "sold under sin." For the one who has been sold to some master in order to become so is not fleshly by nature; for his condition became such for him by a sale. And here—

As God is good to Israel, to those upright in heart. But my feet were almost shaken"—of the soul, clearly. And the phrase "almost" shows this: that he was not shaken at all; for the one who says, "I was almost slain," shows that he was not slain. "My steps were almost poured out." I was running well, walking as one ought, treading straight steps. But they were almost poured out. And a thing is poured out when one who runs is checked and turned backward. And indeed, consider from the very wording: take for me someone going up to a high, sandy place. Seeing, then, the tottering of my feet and not yet any fall upon me, they boasted greatly; they spoke words of arrogance. He might say in another passage: "Do not rejoice over me, my enemy, because I have fallen; I shall rise." But the one now speaking did not fall at all, but only his feet were shaken; for if the one who has fallen rises and leaves the enemy's rejoicing, much more the one who did not even fall. It is easier to set and fix the feet when one has been shaken than to rise after falling. If, then, the difficult thing happens, much more is the easy thing quickly accomplished. "For I am ready for scourges." I, even if I have been in motion and my strength has left me and the light of my eyes was not with me and my feet were shaken, am ready for scourges; for I do not beg off being scourged by you, as you discipline a beloved son. "Do not despise the discipline of the Lord; for whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives.

Since, then, I am a son—even if I have heaped up for myself the causes of scourging—yet I decline to be spoken of boastfully by them, that is, by them as overthrowing. But I am ready to be scourged by you. And my pain is before me continually. I grieve that I have altogether come to be among those who bring punishments, among those who bring scourges. The one who is grieved with "godly grief, the repentance that brings salvation," has his pain ever before himself. Just as one who has a dead man and laments him—as long as he sees him, he weeps—so the one who has come to be among those who bring pain, as long as he sees them, laments and weeps and has the pain before himself continually. For instance, suppose someone has come into an incurable disease; from the suffering of this disease he has pain before him. If some physician or the help of God removes the disease that is the cause of the pain, he immediately casts off the pain and says, "You have turned my lamentation into joy for me." And he says that "the Lord heard and had mercy on me." And to speak more clearly: Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, had died, and as long as he was in death, those women were grieving, and to

They lamented to such an extent as to weep with those who had come to console them. But when he said, "Lazarus, come out," and mourning was cast off, they were no longer in pain. Indeed, feasts of thanksgiving were even held when he said this, and "Lazarus was one of those reclining at table." For as long as I have the causes of pain, I keep it always before me. If, then, you listen and apply scourges beneficially as a painful remedy, once healed I no longer grieve. For I will declare my lawlessness. He says this: in declaring my lawlessness I do not hide my pain; for always remembering and recounting it, I have the pain, knowing that I have been in it. And I will not declare it to such an extent as to wish to find the one who heals it. "I will be anxious," then, "about my sin." Not everyone who sins is anxious about his sin. Cain sinned and heard: "You have sinned; be quiet." If he had been quiet, he would have been anxious about his sin, how he might cast it off and no longer work it by no longer being made in its image. And I will be anxious about my sin. By parallel usage, lawlessness and sin can here be spoken of as the same. About this John writes in his own epistle, saying: "Everyone who commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness." "I will be anxious," then, "about my lawlessness," since it is sin. I will report it, then; I do not hide it; I do not wait for what is outside to convict me; I do not wait for another to say to me, "You are in sin and lawlessness." It was said to us: "The righteous man," he says, "is his accuser in the first pleading; when the adversary attacks, he is convicted.

And we have received that word: he says, "Speak your sins first, that you may be justified." Do not wait for the accuser. In the first word, one must accuse oneself; for if this happens, then that one is put to shame, since you have taken care concerning your sin, so as no longer to work it. But my enemies live and are strengthened beyond me. For this reason I call upon you as a helper, for this reason I have made myself ready to be scourged by you. Since, then, from my sinning and having lawlessness, "they live and are strengthened beyond me"—for they are nourished by my wickedness—for this reason do for me what I ask; for "I take care concerning my sin." Scourge me, then; bring painful remedies, that I may be healed; for then at last those men become weaker than I, they are crushed under my feet; for Jesus alone can crush Satan under the feet of the saints. And again: "But the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet quickly." As long, then, as he has not yet been crushed, neither he himself nor those around him, they live. And those who hate me unjustly have been multiplied. Nevertheless it is great praise that one was hated unjustly. For instance, if someone should hate a person as being arrogant when he is not arrogant, but is even entirely free from pride, he hates him unjustly. The elders who rose up against Susanna hated her because they did not win her. This hatred is unjust. The Egyptian woman hated Joseph. This hatred is unjust. They slandered me because I pursued righteousness. They did not harm them—

For no one who "justly pursues the just" and pursues righteousness—here "I pursued" does not mean to persecute hatefully, but to pursue after, which is what it signifies. As if one should say: "Seek peace and pursue it." And they cast me out, the beloved, like a dead man abhorred. I worked good things for them, and they ought to have received good things from them in return for good things. But they provided "evil" for me "in return for good things," being insensible of what evils they are, and with what disposition I am toward them—not rejoicing with them in their evils, but loving them and wishing to make them apart from their evils. Me, the beloved, who ought to have been loved, they rejected as a dead man abhorred; as a stinking corpse they fled from me. And it is well said, "the beloved," not "the one being loved"; for he was hated. Do not

forsake me, Lord; my God, do not depart from me. Even if they themselves forsook me because "I pursued righteousness," yet you, do not forsake me, do not be far from me. But God forsakes someone when he is worthy to suffer hardships. I do not say this, that he thus experiences hardships; he has not been forsaken, but when, having hardships, he is defeated and cast down. Then you do not forsake me, when you do not depart from me. I have been joined to you, I have become one spirit toward you. When I remain thus, I have you present. If one is joined to the Lord, the Lord is also to him. "My soul was joined after you." Attend to my help, Lord of my salvation. You depart from me if I sin, not if I am hated unjustly, nor if some speak boastfully against me. And you are Lord and God of my salvation.

Salvation does not touch the flesh, nor is it found in external things, but in the soul itself. This is what is called eternal salvation; for "he became" — Christ, clearly — "eternal salvation to all who obey him." The salvation of the flesh is not "eternal salvation," the kind that physicians bring about, the kind a pilot saves for those who sail; for after a little while these will die again. But the salvation of God is eternal; he himself is their salvation. 1–2. To the end, for Jeduthun. I said: I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue. He is one of the sacred singers. In Ezra and in the Remnant there is a remembrance of each name of those who contributed. And so this man too is one of them, and either he himself composed the psalm for David, or, having received it as it came from David, he delivered it. And it is the work of the sacred singers to recite the psalms, both those which they themselves have composed and those which others have composed. This, then, is a song of victory. Very often it has the sinner troubling it, but after conquering and trampling him and taking him under hand, it sends up the song; for no one sings a victory song while still warring and being warred against, but when he has conquered. At once, then, both Moses and all the Jewish multitude did not speak the victory song when they were engaged with Pharaoh, but when they saw him become submerged: "Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been gloriously glorified; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.

When the horse and its rider were cast into the sea, and God cast Pharaoh's chariots and his host into the Red Sea, then the song of victory was fittingly sent up. And David in the seventeenth psalm: "In the day when he rescued him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul, then he said: I will love you, Lord, my strength," and the rest that the song contains. Prayer before war and in war, but a hymn of victory and a song after the overthrow of war, after the enemies have been captured. "I said: I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue." Almost every practical sin begins from speech. Against the young man who was caught, the harlot personified in the Proverbs — whether she is a woman, or false opinion, or some deceit — beginning from words was able to capture him. For it has been said: "She led him astray with much conversation," or with smooth talk. "And with the snares of her lips she drove him off course." And observe that speech was the beginning of the sin. And the elders who raged against Susanna stirred up words against her. Whenever one does not sin with his tongue, he rightly accomplishes his ways; for I said that speech is the beginning of these ways. And conversely, again, speech is the beginning of all good works. But for now he does not speak about those ways. And he added: "that I may not sin with my tongue." But sinning with the tongue is not the same as saying: "My tongue will meditate on your righteousness." "The beginning of your words is truth." The cause of my speaking your words is your truth. This I will make manifest if I come to know it. In the case of the virtues

Therefore the truth is also the beginning, the cause, of the good paths. But concerning the forbidden paths, from which one must guard oneself, from which one ought to turn aside, the word is the beginning, as has already been said. I set a guard on my mouth. He remembers how he said, "not to sin with the tongue": "I set a guard on my mouth." For since "by his words one is justified and by his words he is condemned," one must put a guard around the mouth, so that I may say some things and not others, speak what is beneficial and keep silent about what harms. For one cannot at the same time utter the words that justify and those that condemn. Something of this sort is said enigmatically in Proverbs: "Death and life are in the hand of the tongue." And the "hand" of the "tongue" is the word, the activity of the tongue. He who speaks what is beneficial and leads into the kingdom has life in his tongue. But he who speaks the opposite and forbidden things has death in his own word, which is called "tongue." And in another scripture it says: "Make for your words a yoke and a weight." One must speak in a weighed manner; one must have a yoke and place one's words on each balance. And if the upright words balance out, one ought to choose and proclaim those, but turn away from the base ones. Again it is said: "The lips of the wise are bound by perception." When someone speaks perceptively, his lips are bound; he does not open them for every word, but for the beneficial one. "I will open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise." He who has his lips bound by perception, having perceived that what he is about to say is beneficial, opened them.

But when the things brought forward cause harm, he closes and binds the lips by perception, he binds the word. 2–3 "When the sinner stood against me, I was struck dumb and humbled and I kept silence from good things." Often the sinner, appearing, provokes and calls out to what is dear to him. If ever then he stands against, the standing against him comes about through us; for unless we give him a place, he cannot stand against. But to stand against is thus to fight face to face. One must be silent; for he often provokes; for this reason the serpent, standing against Eve, provoked her word and harmed her. But one ought to have been silent and, having taken perception of one's own weakness or of the preceding sin, to say nothing to him, but to keep silence from good things. But "to keep silence from good things" does not mean this, "not to speak the good things," but to have a silence understood from the good things. For instance, having taken up the virtue of chastity, I knew that one ought not to answer from the good, that is, from chastity. I kept silence toward the one who appeared face to face and provoked to sin. If therefore that young man had answered nothing from right understanding to the prostitute, he would not "have been led astray by much conversation" nor "caught in the snares of his own lips." I kept silence, then, when the good things came upon me, persuading me not to answer that one. He does not say, "I kept silence so that I might not speak the good things," but "so that I might not speak the provoking things." And this silence of mine came from an understanding of the good things that hinder such conversation. "There is one who keeps silent and is found wise." The one who keeps silent in this way is found wise.

And it is wise indeed to know to whom one must speak and to whom not, and when to bring forward words and when not. "There is," then, "one found wise in silence, and there is one who is silent, for he has no answer." And this one has a certain gentle prudence; for having known that he has no answer, he keeps quiet. "And there is one who is silent, knowing the time." This one is perfect. And my pain was renewed. Then the pain is renewed when the sinner has stood against him. He has come into a recalling of the things he did, for which one ought to grieve. And just as the pain received a renewal. And a renewal is dwelling in a house for the first time. A renewal, then, is leading what has already withered and fallen quiet into blooming. "My pain," then, "was renewed." Having said, "I kept my ways so as not to sin with my tongue," I knew that I had sinned. "My pain," then, "was renewed." And it is blessed for the one who has sinned to come into a renewal of pain and not of pleasure; for the one who rejoices in the things he did and again brings them into the midst renews them. But the one who grieves, having perceived that one must keep the ways and must not sin with the tongue, renews the pain, weeping and being distressed with "the grief according to God that works repentance." In the very act of repenting he grieves that he came to be in such things at all. My heart was warmed within me. He can say that his heart, as it were, received warmth also from the renewal of the pain. And he can also say this: since I vehemently attacked myself and lament and bewail the pain, "my heart was warmed," it became fiery.

In my meditation, then, fire was kindled," consuming and scorching me; for there were grass and wood and the rest. Not only in being perfected do I have this fire that consumes the grassy things, but also in my meditating on the pain. And "within me" is well said. In some, the heart is heated so that the heat proceeds even to the outside. Those, then, who marry and are inflamed do not have their heart heated within, but having proceeded outward it has the burning. As if it were said: "I was troubled and did not speak." The one who has some trouble in his mind or in his thoughts and has done nothing according to the trouble of his thoughts nor spoken has the being troubled and not having spoken. Such a one has his heart heated within. And in my meditation fire shall be kindled. The "within me." And thus in each of us two men have been constituted, of whom the one is outside, the other inside. Whenever, then, trouble comes upon the soul and he does not transfer the trouble to the outer man, but keeps it within so as to condemn it and weep over it, he has his heart heated within, not so that he may act, but so that he may not act. In my meditation the fire is kindled. In the voice and action and thought of others a fire is kindled that touches them, inflaming them. "Their heart was kindled like a furnace of fire." Here the meditation was kindled like fire, having a combustible material underlying it. And the meditation and the heat of the saint is the fiery-through heat, the one produced by the boiling Spirit. The fire is kindled, then, so that it may accomplish something, not so that it may harm and consume. "Was not our heart burning in the way, when he opened to us the Scriptures?

This burning is praiseworthy. And observe also in the case of crafted things: some are heated so that they may be reshaped and changed into a vessel—gold, silver. But if wood or anything else is set on fire, the heat is harmful. I spoke with my tongue. Even if I did not allow it to go outside, but it remained within me and brought about a burning for me from meditation, yet in my tongue I spoke thereafter: "Make known to me, Lord, my end." I said this from my tongue; for the tongue according to nature belongs to the one who has it. For example, the temperate man, when he speaks the things of temperance, speaks in his own tongue, the tongue of the temperate man, not in the tongue of the human being. And he who hunts to learn his own end and brings his inquiry to God, spoke in my tongue, not in the tongue of a deceitful man, but in the tongue of me who wish to know my end. This word of mine is not counterfeit. When a hypocrite speaks about temperance while not being temperate, he does not speak in his own tongue. But the temperate man, when he sets out words about temperance, speaks in the tongue of the temperate man. No hypocrite, then, speaks in the tongue according to nature, but in the counterfeit one. The wolf, when wearing a sheep's skin he comes to Christ's flock, does not speak in his own tongue, but imitates the voice of the sheep, so that, meeting like with like, he may harm them. Make known to me, Lord, my end and the number of my days, what it is. Observe that the face of one who repents is what says these things. It stood by me to guard my ways, to place upon the

A guard for my mouth. When the sinner stood against me and provoked me, I received good things in my mind that persuaded me not to speak to him. This, then, is what I say: since I have observed myself to be lacking in many things—for I have scarcely begun to make progress—"Make known to me, Lord, my end," so that I may know how much time of life remains to me, whether it is sufficient for me to be perfected and fulfilled. Thus, then, another also said: "Report to me the fewness of my days; do not bring me up in the midst of my days." In a certain way I am in the half of the days that come from the holy light. Do not, then, bring me up in this way. Fulfill, then, my days. But God fulfills the days of some, not granting them increase; for when he says, "With length of days I will satisfy him," concerning the righteous man, we do not say this, that he makes him many years old. There are also impious men who have lived many years. "And the number of my days." It is possible that "the number of my days" also means this: you have enlightened me many times, I have been in days; for each enlightenment is a day. Make clear to me, then, the number of my enlightenments, so that I may know what is lacking to me. As if someone, having conceived a desire for a craft or a science, but not yet having obtained a perfect knowledge of the instruction, should say: "Make plain to me what the luminous things of knowledge are, so that I may know what I have and what I lack." It is blessed to have things, works, and thoughts that are countable, worthy of being counted. At any rate, it is said concerning the harlot: "They are innumerable, whom you have slain." He does not say this altogether, that they are infinite, but that they are not worthy of being counted.

They lie in no word or number. That I may know what I lack. If I learn the number of my days and my end, until when it comes, I know in what respects I fall short, what things are those I have not yet learned. Those, then, who create a longing for knowledge, more roughly at the same time as they begin, state to themselves the insights they have grasped, so that they may both know how much they fall short and receive a longing to set things right and recover them. Behold, you have made my days handbreadths. The former reading, the more popular one, is this: "you have made my days old." I am not young or newly made, not now beginning to live, but "you have made my days old." And this too must be said: what comes always makes old what has gone before. Thus, at any rate, laws grow old. This, then, is what he says: the old days that I had, when I lived according to the old man, have grown old, have departed; I have put on the new. The ready speaker, however, will say: "Behold, I have become old. Make known to me my end, when I die." "Behold, you have made my days handbreadths." Since the word "palaisēs" is homonymous—it signifies both the one who contends in wrestling and also denotes a measure—it is possible to take it in both ways. He says: "you have made my days to be in wrestling and contending"; for we always have those who war against us. And sometimes a human trial takes hold and wars and wrestles with human passions, sometimes evil powers; for "our wrestling is not against blood and flesh"—for us, but for others, yes—"but against principalities, against the powers." So that this may be: "you have made my days contests." But it can also be said with respect to a measure.

As compared with the age of the age, the days I live hold the account of a wrestler. And just as he says all the nations, though they are many, are "a drop from a bucket"—as compared with the bucket of rational beings, all the nations are a drop—and "the turning of a scale"—it tips the balance only as far as to incline the weight, not so as to pull the pan down—, so as compared with the magnitude of the ages and the length of days which the one able to live well endures: "He who loves," he says, "father and mother will be long-lived." And this is not already found according to the literal sense. And my substance is as nothing before you. The name of substance signifies many things. At present, however, there is need of two meanings. Sometimes substance is called substance, as when the Son is called

"the express image of God's substance," of God's essence and existence. But substance is also said to be the perfect endurance by which one endures hardships. He speaks, then, in both senses: "The substance of my soul is as nothing before you," as compared with you, who are some great substance. And though it ought to be perfect as you, the Father, are, I have diminished it. And that this is so, he says concerning certain ones: "The sons of Zion, the precious ones, who were lifted up with gold and silver, how have they become earthen vessels?" Behold, their substance has been diminished. This must be taken intelligibly: they have become earthen vessels. The gold, being insulted, is diminished and falls far short of its own honor. He who does not understand the honor that is present with him from God "is compared with the senseless beasts," and his substance, through cheapness, was reckoned as nothing. But since it also signifies endurance, he says that:

Even if I have endured longing to see my end and I beseech you to make this known to me, nevertheless this endurance of mine, being as it is in relation to you, is something brief. Except that all things are vanity, every living man. This must be understood in two ways: all things that exist for the sake of man are vanity, as the Ecclesiast has just interpreted. Compared with the things that are far superior and perfect and truly eternal, the substance is vain, except "every living man." So then it is possible to say: even if all other things besides man are vanity—for example, mortal animals, things of brief duration, and even if they be soulless—yet man alone is living, living according to that life which they live according to Abraham; for "he is not the God of the dead, but of the living." And the man who lives according to the human life is himself also vain. So it must be distinguished thus: all these things are vanity; for even if they be mortal, once dead they no longer exist. But man is living. And even if he die, he still lives. Or thus: a living man, one who does not go outside human life, is himself also vanity, so that it might be thus: "Except that all things are vanity and every living man." Or thus: "Except that all things are vanity, but man is living." Since—what of the substance?—even if man lives otherwise than as mortals would live, compared with the pre-eminence and greatness of the divine life and of God himself, the fountain of life, he is nothing. Small things and things said to be smaller than nothing are among things relative to something. But the small does not have a defined quantity; for it is said by reference to the greater. So we say that sometimes the palm-sized is greater than the finger-sized.

At any rate, then, you have in the accusations a little mountain and a great millet-seed. Nevertheless, in an image man passes through. I said that he speaks about the other things besides man, that "all things are vanity." Man alone is living. But he has something more than the others: he has an immortal soul. Yet even if he is living, he does not always have this motion; for "nevertheless," he says, "in an image man passes through." He did not say whether in a praiseworthy or a blameworthy one; but however one passes through, however one acts, he is in some image. And taking it more generally, one must say that it is either in the image of the heavenly or in that of the earthly. And it is established from such a phrase that man is possessed of free will; for if he were good by constitution, he would always walk in that of the heavenly; if he were evil by essence, in that of the earthly. And it is possible to divide these general images into species. And I say that one is in the image of a fox, another in the image of a lion, and a certain horse mad after females, bearing another image, and another in the image of a dove, except that "in an image every man passes through." Nevertheless, in an image man passes through, except that they are troubled in vain. But the worthless are troubled in vain. "Except that they are troubled in vain." And he now states the vain trouble, that this is the zeal for human affairs. "He treasures up," then, "and does not know for whom he gathers them." He treasures up and does not know for whom he gathers them. In Ecclesiastes it was plainly said that "he does not know whether he will be wise," the

His successor in what he possesses is "or a fool." And often what someone has stored up, he leaves behind. Sometimes, when a year has passed, those things fall to others. Therefore one must not be eager about storing up in this way; for "treasures will not profit the lawless, but righteousness delivers from death." So righteousness, which delivers from death and every other evil, must be stored up. And this wealth is stored up in heaven: "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, but store up treasures in heaven." For since where the treasure is, there also is the mind, which is called the "heart," we must store up in heaven, so that we may have our mind there, and we must refuse to store up on earth, so that we may not have our thought there. It is said of certain people: "those who store up injustice and misery in their lands." The man, then, who passes through in an image, when he stores up, does not know for whom he gathers them; for it is unclear to him what will follow. Therefore the earnest man hears that he should store up in the heavens. He has his wealth laid up in good works. Indeed Paul also writes this to Timothy: "Command the rich of this age not to be haughty about wealth, but about God, who provides all things." One must also speak about reprehensible wealth, such as the heretical opinion of godless doctrines. And the one who stores these up does not know for whom he gathers them. But he leaves them to another; for until the present life, "falsely named knowledge" has its promise; for when the truth shines forth, it is dissolved and disappears. Yet "in an image"?

Even if every human being is alive, he is not invariably in the praiseworthy life; for if he had remained in the true image, the first one according to which he was created, he would not be disturbed, he would not store up in vain. Yet even if he has become alive, he walks in an image—not altogether in the first one, but simply in an image; for the rational creature can never come to be outside of acting according to reason. And when it acts, it acts altogether either praiseworthily or blameworthily, thinking and doing some things and not others. Then: "Nevertheless they are disturbed in vain"?—It has often already been said by us that the changes that come about in this way have a certain difference. At that time, when they do not keep this image according to which they have come to be, the many are those who are disturbed in vain. But when he signifies the life of man, that "every human being is alive," and "nevertheless a human being walks in an image"—not the same one, but since the images are different, and especially blameworthy and inferior ones, many are those who are disturbed. And now, what is my endurance? Is it not the Lord? Concerning other things, what has been said has been said. But I speak concerning myself: "What is my endurance? Is it not the Lord?" Let me not endure another. And just as "wisdom and righteousness and sanctification" come to be for those who partake, so too endurance comes to be for the one who endures—the Lord himself. And my substance is from you. He speaks concerning the Lord, that he is his endurance. And to the Lord himself, who is his endurance, he says: "And my substance is from you." He can here mean by "substance" the strength by which one is able to stand firm, because, with you working together and being my endurance, I stand firm in all things.

But "my substance is from you" is praiseworthy in my sight. And it is possible to call substance "hypostasis." And the hypostasis of my rational soul, of the rational living being, is from you; for you have given me a soul, I have the soul from you, not beginning from seeds, not constituted according to impression according to the Stratiotic heresy, but "my substance is from you." From all my lawless deeds rescue me. Not from some, but "from all," so that I may be outside every blameworthy image. You have given me as a reproach to fools. From the beginning we said that the whole psalm bears the face of one who repents and progresses. It is a base thing to be reproached by a righteous man, but by a fool it is praiseworthy. At any rate, the fool reproaches for good works and for zeal. For this reason also in Proverbs, as though there were a difference

in reproaches, it is said: "Do not acquire the reproaches of evil men"; for he did not say universally, "Do not acquire reproaches," but "of evil men." Do not reproach for baseness; for there are those who are reproached for noble things. At any rate, Jesus says to his acquaintances: "Rejoice and exult when they reproach you." This reproach is not to be declined; for it is good and conducts as a stranger into the kingdom of heaven. But the reproaches of evil men are to be shunned. I was deaf and did not open my mouth. Who is the fool who reproaches, or that sinner who stood up against him, inasmuch as "he was deaf and did not open his mouth"? And here again it signifies the same thing: "I was deaf and did not open my mouth." I did not answer him regarding the things he reproaches. And I said this often, that the apostle teaches this by another power, saying:

Reject a heretical man after one admonition." Do not open your mouth to him at all. But so that you may have a defense and be able to say a word about yourself, namely: "I have done what was in my power," admonish him. If he does not accept the admonition, or "also a second"—for some of the copies have "and a second"—overturn him, "knowing that he sins." The "self-condemned" man one ought not to admonish. 10–11 "Because you are the one who made me, remove your scourges from me." Do not scourge me; for I am your work. "But he scourges every son whom he receives," clearly one who has [sins] for which he is scourged. These things, then, forgive me; grant me forgiveness; for thus I shall no longer be scourged. But now I am still liable to scourges. At any rate, he who has made the Most High his refuge has no evils drawing near, nor a scourge approaching his tent. Make me, then, such a one that I am no longer liable to scourges; remove what in me is to be punished. Since, therefore, I say: "From all my lawless deeds deliver me," when you deliver me, I am no longer to be punished. In a certain way, then, he was scourging him even through the fool, and he says that the reproaches of the fool are scourges. Unless God hands [him] over, not even the adversary has power over one who has not yet been handed over. From the strength of your hand I have fainted away. The strength of your hand lies upon me—the disciplinary, the striking, the one that subjects to toils. Since, therefore, it has become strong against me, I have fainted away. I have cast off my former life, I have left behind my former state.

For I did not cease so as no longer to exist, so as to become weak, but so as to cease from the condition that prepares me to be punished. "I ceased." I, the one who says these things, the one who confesses, the one who says: "You have given me as a reproach to fools," I ceased, having come to be outside my former condition. There is a ceasing that is praiseworthy, and there is also a ceasing that is blameworthy. "And Esau came from the field, ceasing," when he wanted to eat stew. Here "ceasing" is used in place of "becoming weak" and "desiring food." It is often said also in a praiseworthy sense. "They ceased and departed," or "they turned aside"—for so it is transmitted—. This ceasing is blameworthy. "Faith ceased from their mouth." And this is blameworthy. But if someone ceases from unbelief and wickedness, this ceasing is not blameworthy. At any rate it is said: "My soul longs and ceases for the courts of my God." When it has conceived a longing for the courts of the Lord, those "in the house of the Father," it ceases insofar as it is a soul, it casts off being soulish, it becomes spiritual. In reproofs for lawlessness you disciplined man. You do not reprove unless I have transgressed the law. Reproving for lawlessness, you discipline man. You make him know that he is a man, that he is rational, that he is according to the image of God. And so he is disciplined when reproved. Indeed it is blessed not to be disciplined by wrath, but in reproofs; for we said: "All things that are reproved by the light are made manifest." And this reproof is a demonstration and a making manifest. Reproof is not at all, or rarely, set down in Scripture in a praiseworthy sense—behold, as in the passage: "All things that are reproved by the light are made manifest." But those outside take demonstration to be reproof

They say: "He convicts the opposition." Indeed, they say that a refutation is a syllogism of contradiction. For instance, let someone posit: "Acting is base"; we say that "the temperate person acts. And everything the temperate person does is good." And a refutation of contradiction has occurred. Again, let someone say: "Doing injustice is advantageous"—for there are those who hold such an opinion, that injustice is beneficial, or rather that justice is harmful. "But the just man," he says, "does not increase wealth, while the unjust man multiplies money." We therefore construct a refutation of contradiction as follows: "Injustice is to be forbidden. Everything forbidden is harmful. Therefore injustice is harmful. What is harmful is not advantageous. Therefore injustice is not advantageous." A syllogism of contradiction has occurred, and this syllogism is called a refutation of contradiction. For people do not argue as they do now; those who argued in earlier times did this. Therefore they are sophists rather than dialecticians. They have as their aim to win, and they set down contentious premises, which they maintain and abide by. But the true dialectician, since he attempts both sides—and one is true, the other false—knows from the attempt at each against the other which is true and which is false. And the truth itself becomes apparent from the demonstration of the false, because the knowledge of contraries is the same. And you melted away his soul like a spider. Like a spider you melted away his soul, his soul insofar as he is psychical. It is said of a certain base man or base woman: "in the desires of her soul she was puffed up.

Whenever someone from his own soul fashions, say, prophecies for himself, or as it were doctrines of piety, he is "borne by the spirit in the desires of his soul"—he is not borne by the Holy Spirit. Indeed, in another book I stated the difference: that man is fleshly who wars according to the flesh, who yields to the desires of the flesh, who has been sold under the flesh, who has become fleshly and has been sold under sin. But the spiritual man is the one who has risen above the condition of the soulish man, when all things, both what he makes and what he does, are borne by the Holy Spirit and are borne of God. And the soulish man is the one who is neither fleshly nor spiritual. And perhaps all the wise of this world are of this sort. They think that they are self-determined according to the motions and thoughts of their own soul. And for this reason they do not receive the things of the Spirit; for since they prefer their own things and think that their own understanding is great, they do not receive the things of the Spirit, regarding them as foolishness. For indeed there are certain whole heresies, established both among the Greeks and among the Christians, which say that allegories are foolishness, that they are fabrications. And they say that the contemplations concerning intelligible things are false, inasmuch as they think that all things are bodies and perceptible. These, then, are soulish men, not receiving the things of the Spirit, regarding themselves as self-determined and able by themselves to contemplate all things. That soul of his, then—not the substance, but the condition according to which it is a soul—you have melted away like the spider. And the spider is so very weak that it is said: "They weave the web of a spider.

Their web shall not become a garment." He says that the easily overturned nature of the contrivance of the living creature called the spider is a melting-away of the soul. Whenever the soul is melted away, this melting-away also comes to be for its benefit; for the spider-like element in it is weak, and thereafter it is shown to be outside of evil. This man, then, you have melted away his soul like a spider—the man who is reproved in reproofs for lawlessness. "Nevertheless, every man is troubled in vain." All men who are outside the discipline of God and his reproofs are troubled in vain. But this man, even if he is troubled when reproved, even if his soul is melted away like the spider, does not suffer this in vain; for he receives a change for the better. But if someone were a mere man of this sort, not under discipline, not under reproofs, he is troubled in vain, according to what was said before: "Nevertheless, man walks in an image; surely they are troubled in vain." The one who does not wish to be troubled, but to have freedom from disturbance, becomes a god by receiving the word of God; for "he called them gods to whom the word of God came." And these are not troubled in vain, but even if a slip should happen or a pre-passion should arise, they say: "I was troubled and I did not speak." Their trouble stops at pre-passion. — Are they troubled of themselves? — Sometimes they are troubled of themselves, and sometimes by certain things that befall them. Hear, O Lord, my prayer and my supplication. The supplication seems to be different from the prayer. That one sends up supplication who has recognized himself as needy and lacking, so that he may be filled.

But the one who prays has this form as well, and sometimes he asks also for the existence of goods that are above. The one who asks to receive something from God either asks to receive what he does not have, or what he has, so that it may remain with him. Strictly, this is prayer: it is a petition sent up together with the one who prays theologizing the one to whom he sends up the prayer. When he says, "Lord our God, give us peace, for you have rendered all things to us." "The prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. Lord, I have heard your report and was amazed. In the midst of two living creatures you will be known, when the years draw near you will not be known." Behold, this is prayer. But when someone asks for certain things, being in need of only those things of which he is lacking, it is supplication, sent up as it were a vow. But it is possible to take this also: those who ask for more bodily things are in need, such as health, wealth, and other things. As being in need, they often deem it worthy to receive them. But the one who wishes to have fullness: "The prayer of Habakkuk the prophet: Lord, I have heard your report and was amazed. In the midst of two living creatures you will be known, when the years draw near you will not be known" — behold, this is prayer. "Lord our God, give us peace, for you have rendered all things to us." Since also, as one lacking, I ask that certain things be given to me — for I am still under instruction — hear my supplication. But since I am about to obtain the things of which I am lacking, having become full I ask for greater things, I ask for heavenly things and say: "Our Father who is in the heavens, hallowed be your name" — he does not ask this as one lacking. "Your kingdom come." Make it come. But then it comes, when God reigns through our activity.

Give ear to my tears. Seeing myself in want, I weep, making and producing that "grief according to God which works repentance unto salvation," according to which I say: "I will wash my bed every night; I will wet my couch with my tears." And since even the one who falls short of perfect and complete virtue—again he laments, saying: "We who are in the tent groan," and again: "You have set my tears before you as in your promise." Do you see? "As in your promise you have set my tears." And what tears are these but those of those who weep, so that they may laugh? For "blessed are those who weep now, for they shall laugh." These have set their tears as in the promise, so that they may laugh, so that they may be filled with "joy unspeakable and glorious." Do not keep silent, because I am a sojourner on the earth. Do not keep silent when I pray, when I beseech, when I weep and bring such tears as "those who sow in gladness will reap." "Do not keep silent," then, but nod assent and give what I have asked; for silence sometimes signifies delay and patience, and sometimes also patience, when it occurs in the case of sins: "These things you did, and I kept silent." That is, "I did not repay you." If I were a resident, I would not even dare to ask and pray. And residents are those liable to evil and impiety. It is said, then, in Jeremiah: "From the face of the north evils shall be kindled against those who dwell in the earth"—not "against those who sojourn." And in the Revelation of John it is said three times in succession: "Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth." If I were

If I were a resident, I would not have said, "Do not be silent." And a sojourner, as all my fathers were. The stranger and sojourner is himself. Paul, at any rate, in the epistle to the Hebrews, having made a list of all who pleased God through faith, called them strangers and sojourners. None of those was a resident, none was a native, but a sojourner. He has come from elsewhere to this place; he was not born here. All the fathers according to virtue, then, were strangers and sojourners on the earth, as were the patriarchs and others who begot according to divine instruction—for example, prophets, teachers, lawgivers. Spare me, that I may be refreshed before I depart and am no more. Here he calls "refreshment" praiseworthy—the kind equivalent to "Delight in the Lord." "I found refreshment for myself," says Ephrem. But that refreshment is blameworthy. One is refreshed praiseworthily, then, when he enjoys virtue, when he "delights in the Lord," when he receives the utterance and thought of "the paradise of delight." Since, therefore, I lack many things—for this reason I send up a petition, that I may be filled with what is lacking; for this too he said at the beginning of the psalm: "Make known to me, Lord, my end and the number of my days, what it is, that I may know what I lack." When one knows what is lacking and acquires these things, when he has them as things to be cultivated, he is refreshed. This, then, is what he says: Spare me to remain in this life, that, having been instructed, I may be refreshed before I depart from this life and am no more. He does not say this: "I will not exist," but [that I may be] such as I wish to be; for the soul does not go into non-existence, but hear:

One must understand the words in a way that corresponds to those who speak them. If the righteous man and the wise man according to God says, "I strive for all things, that I may become rich," do not take what is said as concerning perceptible wealth. But if it is someone else, either a merchant or a physician—and this one too, the saint, is wise. At any rate he says, "I have no other hope of endurance except the Lord, and my substance is from him." This wise man, then, even if he says this—"Spare me, that I may live, having hoped in this life alone, so that I may be refreshed by eating and drinking," according to the saying, "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die"—yet both the refreshment and the "spare me" and the "no longer to exist" must be taken in a way corresponding to the person. The one who says this is immortal. If, then, he says, "I shall no longer exist," he does not mean this: "I am going to complete destruction, I am being brought down to non-existence," but rather: "I no longer exist in the way I pray to exist." "Before I depart," then, in this way—before I depart from life—"and I shall no longer exist" as I prayed to become. If a sinner says, "Admonish me, discipline me, that I may no longer exist"—for not so that he may go to complete destruction. 1–2. To the end; a psalm of David. In waiting I waited for the Lord, and he attended to me. The psalm set before us could be spoken both by every saint who has passed his life with endurance and greatness of soul, and by the man who belongs to the Lord; for the apostle, having taken words from it in the epistle to the Hebrews, has cited them as spoken concerning Christ. This very thing throughout: "Sacrifice and offering you did not desire," up to "in the head of the book it is written concerning me." And the psalm is single-personed.

The same person who began speaks and sings until the end of the psalm. He says, then, in thanksgiving to God: "In waiting I waited for the Lord, and he heard my supplication." The phrase "in waiting I waited" has this meaning, as if someone were to say, "I healed medically, I wrote grammatically." There are those who wait, but not in a waiting manner, but either from great insensitivity or sometimes out of love of glory. At any rate the apostle says: "I will not give up my body that I may boast." For the sake of praise he gave up his body and soul, and he did not "in waiting wait"; for he always waited with understanding and as he ought, not so as to receive a catch from men, or glory, or praises. He, then, who waits as one ought, is as if I were to say, "I acted wisely according to wisdom." In the preceding psalm God was said to be the patience of the righteous man: "And now, what is my patience? Is it not the Lord?" He who from this patience bears the afflictions that befall him with endurance will say, "In waiting I waited for the Lord." With a waiting disposition I also bore afflictions; for many, as I said, bear afflictions for some reason. God, then, is the patience of the saint. And in Jeremiah it is said: "A throne of glory, exalted, the sanctification of our God, the patience of Israel, O Lord of Israel." He, therefore, who is formed according to this patience and is named from it will say, "In waiting I waited for the Lord." He speaks as a servant. The one who serves God confesses him as "Lord" through his very deeds and thoughts and words. This one says "Jesus is Lord in the Holy Spirit"; for not everyone who names Jesus as Lord does this in the Spirit.

And hypocrites certainly do this. "Many will say to me in that day: Lord, Lord." And what does he say to them? "I never knew you." I never knew you who served me. And again: "Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?" Therefore the one who thus calls Jesus Lord by doing the will of his Father who is in heaven, that one calls him Lord "in the Holy Spirit." So the voice is that of a servant. And he heard my supplication. Being in need, I was asking for something, and God, attending to my supplication, has fulfilled these things. Since "in waiting I waited for the Lord"; the commandment about which the Savior said: "The one who endures to the end, this one will be saved." And "I waited" is the word of one who has ceased. Moreover: and what kind of face did the Lord have? For we have not spoken of necessity. If, then, you take it from the person of the Savior—for it has come to pass up to the point of pre-passion, it has not come to pass in passions. "Jesus began," then, "to be amazed and to be distressed." Such things came to him up to the beginning. We do not say that pre-passion comes to be in the impassible; for we do not say that anyone other than the Trinity is impassible. Since, therefore, the soul that Jesus took up is other than the Trinity, it is naturally capable of receiving pre-passion and a beginning of being amazed and distressed. And I cite the apostolic word: "Instead of the joy set before him he endured the cross, despising shame." If he had not become a wrestler in pre-passion, there would be no manly deed nor contest. Moreover: what is "he attended to me"?—in place of "he nodded assent." And he brought me up out of the pit of misery and from the miry clay. If each of the saints says this, he calls the place around the earth "a pit of misery.

For it is a pit where the waters falling from above are gathered together. Therefore in many places of the divine Scriptures both the place around the earth and Hades are signified by this name. For when in the twenty-ninth psalm, in the person of the Savior according to the man, it is said: "You saved me from those who go down into the pit"—for I do not go down into a pit; I have been there for the sake of others; no other brought me down. And this appears still more clearly from: "I was reckoned with those who go down into the pit, I became as a helpless man among the dead, free." I am not one of those led into the pit, but "I was reckoned"; I reckoned myself with them. "I became," then, "as a helpless man." He was not helpless, yet he became as one helpless; for when the Jews came to seize him, unless he had given himself over, they could not have taken him. If he is "free among the dead," he is not one of those who by nature come into Hades through choice and action, but he reckoned himself to this. "He brought me up," then, "out of the pit of misery." He who buffeted his own body and enslaved it and, while still walking on the earth, acquired his citizenship in the heavens—that one was brought up from the pit of misery and from the miry clay. And now indeed in power

He was led up out of the world and out of matter and out of the clay from which the clayey body was molded: "And God molded man as dust from the earth." And Job also says: "Remember that you molded me as clay." And Jesus will say these things in accordance with the man: I have come into the pit of misery; I was reckoned with them, in order that I might free them from misery and from the clay of matter; for on their account I have come into the clay of matter. When, therefore, this corruptible body has changed into incorruptible, the one who is clothed with it is no longer held by clay and misery, but has been rescued from these things. And he set my feet upon a rock. And let this be said also concerning the righteous man in general. By "rock" in these passages one must understand the unbreakable and indivisible Word of God, which no squall or surge moves. Therefore in many places of the sacred writings there is mention of a rock, which cannot be taken in a perceptible sense; for when the saint says in thanksgiving to God, "In a rock he exalted me," he does not say this: "He raised me up and set me on a perceptible rock," but on the unbreakable and indivisible Word. And Paul interpreted this rock and said who it is, namely Christ: "For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ." And again this same psalmist says after other things: "Their mighty ones were swallowed up, clinging to the rock." Those of the Egyptians who drew near to the rock were seen to be nothing. And just as "Aaron's rod swallowed up the rods" of the Egyptian sorcerers, that is, conquered them. When, then, he says, "Death was swallowed up," "Israel was swallowed up.

When, therefore, those who seem to be strong draw near to the rock—sophists, contentious persons, or even evil spirits—they are swallowed up and shown to be nothing. Upon this rock, then, which is Christ, when those who draw near—the strong of the Egyptians—are swallowed up, the feet of the one who is benefited stand firm, so as no longer to be shaken, nor to endure tempests, nor to have enemies. Patience comes into being. But he does not always suffer these things when he is in the pit of misery, when he is in the clay of matter—patience comes into being. But he does not always suffer these things. When he is outside these things, patience having reached its end, then the feet of the one who has been benefited stand upon the rock that has been mentioned. And he directed my steps. And observe that the word leads us far from the historical narrative. No one who stands walks, no one who walks stands. When, therefore, someone is established according to Christ, so as to say, "Who shall separate us from the love of God?" he has his crossings directed straight; for he always hastens toward the higher things, toward the heavenly things, while God directs the steps of the one who runs; for it is "not of the one who wills nor of the one who runs, but of God who shows mercy." And he put a new song into my mouth. "Into the mouth" of the inner man, that is, into my reason. "A new song": often we have discussed how the things concerning "new" are spoken of. That which has no successor is always new, but that which has been succeeded is old. And this has often been demonstrated through more examples. A hymn to our God.

The one who has truly been led up from the circumstances just mentioned—from the pit of misery and the clay of the mire—has obtained a victory that has no successor. The victory-song of the one whose victory has no successor is new. And what this new song is, he explains: it is "a hymn to our God." When we hymn God, when we receive a conception of him, so far as it is attainable, coming to the end we sing a new song; for what is at the end has no successor. Therefore the hymn sent up to God in thanksgiving within it is a new song. Many shall see and shall fear and shall hope in the Lord. "Many shall see" me led up from the pit of misery and from the clay of the mire, and having taken a stand for my feet upon the rock, and my steps made straight, and me singing and hymning, "and they shall fear," so that they too may come into such a manner of life, "and they shall hope"

so that they too may obtain these things that have already been granted to me. Blessed is the man whose hope is the name of the Lord. David once had single combat with Goliath, and he did not hope—no, not in a shield. You see that the name of the Lord became his hope. But besides the proper meaning of hope—and hope is nothing other than the expectation of good things—people often also call the things already granted to them their "hopes." At any rate the rich say "my hope," meaning not what is expected but what is already present. And so those who already possess the name of the Lord regard it as a hope already granted. And he did not look upon vanities and false follies. The one who has looked upon the Lord does not look upon vanities and false follies.

He does not look upon full armor, nor upon bodily size, nor upon a military hand, nor upon anything else of the things that can fail. "Madnesses" is said of "false" divinations. But there are also madnesses that are not false—for example, those possessed by God, those possessed by Christ, are borne by God, and these madnesses are not false but true, in place of "the possession." For if there were not also true madnesses, he would not have said, "the one who has not set his hope on false madnesses." Those of the Phrygian party, how these things are said, not having been ignorant, taking both the madness and the ecstasy according to one meaning, say that the Spirit-bearing men spoke in ecstasy and prophesied. And they speak truly that it was in ecstasy, but not the derangement, not the insanity. If, then, Paul says, "Whether we were beside ourselves, it was for God," he does not mean madness, but being beside oneself from human things and having given them up. But this word is also used of wonder: "And after these things the sons of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king; and they shall be amazed at the Lord and at his good things." Here it signifies wonder. Many things you have done, O Lord my God, your wonderful works. Having experienced the good works just mentioned, since he enjoyed not only these good things, but, so to speak, was led into them from his mother's womb—and indeed his anointing itself, when he was a child, came about paradoxically—he says, "Many things you have done, O Lord my God, your wonderful works." Many and great are they, "and in your thoughts," according to which you do the wonderful works, "no one shall be likened.

No one will be able to perform such wonders, no one will be able to lead someone out of the pit of misery and from the mire of clay and set his feet upon the rock and direct his steps, and the rest. The phrase "there is none who shall be likened" — if it is said with reference to the Father, it does not speak about the Son; for none of created things shall be likened. But the Son will not be likened; for he is eternal, an image and express stamp of God's substance. He is not among those who in the future have the being likened; for he is like. Again: "to their reasonings"? — "Reasonings" properly refers to the thoughts concerning individual things. Just as conversing is an activity of the soul, and it is not possible to say many things at once in utterance, so also the thoughts concerning individual things are called reasonings. A dialectical topic is handed down that asks whether knowing is the same as thinking, and it has been said that it is not the same; for there are many things to know without speech, but many things not to think, so that knowing is not the same as thinking. One can grasp the concept of a whole genus and of a whole species. But to fix attention on individual things, to think each one by itself at once, it cannot. Again: so that thinking applies to sense-perception? — but to individual objects of thought. As it is not possible to say many things at once, but to know many things, and discourse of the soul is thought, it is not possible to think many things at once. God, then, has such reasonings that he knows all things at once, yet in a different way than humans do; for indeed in Isaiah he said: "As heaven is far from the earth, so your thoughts are far from

of my mind." He wished to show the superiority of his own mind from a sensory example; for his mind is not spatially distant from the minds of men, but by the greatness of its superiority. And no one will be likened to your reasonings. No one is likened to the reasonings of God. As if you were saying: "No one will be likened to the creation of God." For even if there are craftsmen among men, yet they do not construct the underlying matter of the things that come to be. For example, if a carpenter makes a bed or a throne, he does not also make the wood in his craft. He only imposes the finished form upon the matter that is already present. But God, not finding matter, does not impose the form upon it, but co-establishes it with the form. I announced and I spoke, they were multiplied beyond number. You know that if we do not understand something as we ought and wish to announce it to another, how is it that we say thus and thus, when we know that we have not grasped what we wished to say? And so this one also says: "I announced and I spoke." Since no one of your reasonings is like, "I announced and I spoke." But it can also be taken thus: "I announced" according to disposition, according to understanding, and "I spoke" sensibly according to utterance; for one must first understand, and then thus speak. Why "they were multiplied beyond number"? —The reasonings, to which no one is likened. Sacrifice and offering you did not desire. Henceforth he says: "You brought me up from the pit of misery and from the mire of clay, you set my feet upon the rock, you directed my steps.

To the extent that these oracular words and still greater benefactions demanded sacrifice and whole burnt offerings to God—but you did not want the perceptible whole burnt offerings, the bodily sacrifices from the slaughter of animals and the rest, the shadowy ones. A body you prepared for me—instead of these. The apostle therefore interpreted that this body is the rational and bloodless sacrifice. When, then, a greater sacrifice is found, he no longer wants the former ones; they are not acceptable to him. Let not the opinion of the Dimoirites trouble you; for they say: "Do you see that it says 'body'?" For the one who says "a body you prepared for me" does not say "only"; for the one who has a perfect man has a body, but not only a body. I said from the beginning that the psalm is single-personed; for from the beginning to the end the same person is introduced as speaking. Just as, therefore, here he said "but a body you prepared for me," so also in what follows he will say: "those who seek my soul to remove it." Behold, he also has a soul; behold, also a body. And since the discourse is about perceptible sacrifices having been replaced by the Spirit, he spoke of the sacrifice that replaces them. And it is not the soul that is the sacrifice in this sense, but the body. And well does it say not "you equipped yourself" but "you yourself prepared it," "when the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and the power of the Most High overshadowed her." For this reason you no longer wanted those sacrifices and offerings, since "a body you prepared for me," the one about to be sacrificed for all. And this too can be said: for this reason you did not want sacrifice and offering, since you prepared for us a body, which we are able to consecrate and sacrifice to you.

I appeal to you by the mercies, to present your bodies as a rational sacrifice." It is written elsewhere: "But you have prepared ears for me." Now one interpreter says this: since you did not want a perceptible sacrifice and offering, "you have prepared ears for me," through which I hear the things signified by perceptible things—for example, the noetic sacrifice of praise: "Offer to God a sacrifice of praise." You call me to hearing from now on; you no longer seek perceptible things being sacrificed, so that what is said may be similar to: "The discipline of the Lord opens my ears." The unmusical man has no ear to hear musical words. And another of the interpreters said: "But you have dug ears for me," since you removed their dullness, you removed what obstructed hearing. But—how do we take this in the case of Jesus? —I said that the

allegories are not leveled to the histories. And I have often taken up the matter of Abraham and the two women. I told you that the soul of Jesus is not an immutable substance. It is of the same substance as the others, and whatever good it has, it has from the Word of God. Since, then, it also has the ability to hear well, it has this from the Savior. It has been supplied to the temple that uses it. Whole burnt offerings and offerings for sin you did not seek. Nor did you seek nor approve any longer the things of the shadow. "What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? I am full. I do not want the whole burnt offerings of rams and the fat of lambs." Then I said: Behold, I have come. Then I, to whom you prepared a body, said: "Behold, I have come," instead of:

Since the goal of his coming is this: that the shadow should receive its end, that sacrifices and whole burnt offerings should no longer be brought—I have come, that I might fulfill the sacrifice by becoming a whole burnt offering. In the head of the book it is written concerning me. The head of the book is called "all inspired Scripture"; for the sum of Scripture is the conduct concerning Christ. In a second sense it may also be said concerning others: for if his coming were not going to happen, the ancient writings would not have proclaimed the gospel beforehand. Question: Was this written in the Pentateuch? —He says that every writing is a book, whose head is the end for which the writings were given—salvation, his coming. Question: Was the creation of the world therefore recorded beforehand for this reason? —So that you might welcome the creation of the world among men, and after this the creation of men, so that his coming might have a place. "The lamb" is "of God, who takes away the sin of the world." The statement that Adam transgressed "through disobedience" and the Savior "through obedience" was justified does not make its reference concerning the Savior, who is a type of the one to come, since Adam himself "is a type of the one to come"; "this mystery is great, but I speak with reference to Christ and the church." But that not in every case, if a book is mentioned, one must take it in the perceptible sense—Ezekiel hears from God: "Open your mouth," and he sees a book on the hand of God, and he says: "Take it and eat, and your belly will be filled." "And I ate," he says, "and it became sweetness in my belly." And he says: "This book is written within and without.

According to the spiritual and intelligible things, it is written within; according to the perceptible and manifest things, without. However, the wise man devours both and finds agreement between the symbols and the archetypes. And again in Isaiah he says: "And these words shall be as the words of the sealed book, which if they give it to a man who knows letters, saying, 'Take, read,' he says, 'I cannot, for it is sealed.'" But the illiterate man says, "I do not know letters." In asking, that one differed as to whether it was sealed or not sealed. And again we take the God-inspired Scripture: the one who knows letters but cannot read because of the seals placed upon it is the people from the circumcision, while the one who does not know letters is the one from the Gentiles. "To do your will, O God, I desired." Therefore "I said, behold, I have come," since I desired to do your will after you did not desire sacrifice and offering. Those who hold false opinions about Christ say that there are different wills; for here too he says, "I have come, I wish to do your will," and in the Gospel: "I have come down from heaven not to do a human will, but the will of the one who sent me." Therefore, because of those who say that there are two wills, we shall say that different wills come about either according to more and less, or according to opposition. The one advancing in virtue wills righteousness, and so does the one who has been perfected, and the will of the perfect is not the same as that of the one advancing or the one being introduced.

But the will becomes either a multitude or a duality according to the more and the less, and it also comes about according to opposition, when one person chooses good things and another evil, and one wills to be saved and another to sin. Therefore, to attribute such a will—one that also involves opposition—to the Son is the utmost impiety. Then I also make my argument against the Manichaeans; one must argue against them as follows: the will of the Savior is found to be good, for he says that he has come down from heaven "in order that I may do the will of God." And to do the will of God is good. And again: "He has come to seek and to save what was lost." And again: "If you will, you can cleanse me." If this is the will of the Son, he wills all things that are beneficial. But if the will of the Father is contrary to him, I leave it to you to consider what follows. But if in wills the more and the less is found in disposition, then both the Father and the Son will have a disposition—that is, a quality—and the Father will no longer be incorporeal, he is not a simple substance, he is not incomposite. Nor should this be said according to the more and the less, nor according to opposition; for the will of the Son is shown to be good. But it is not lawful to say this according to God; nevertheless he says that this is his will, namely to fulfill the will of the Father. But it is not lawful to say this according to God; nor is it contrary, nor according to the more and the less. These things, then, must be understood concerning the man. And your law is in the midst of my belly. It is spiritual food that passes into the belly of the inner man. And that the spiritual food is the law is clear everywhere; for it is not perceptible food.

This belly, however, is often praised, and in the passage: "From your fear we conceived in the womb." And just as this belly conceives in the womb from the divine Spirit—and this is the fear of God—so also it receives divine food into itself. Since you no longer will sacrifice or offering or whole burnt offerings, the spiritual law has become food. I proclaimed righteousness in the great assembly. The "great assembly" is the one composed of great individuals, about whom Paul says: "We speak wisdom among the perfect," so that their gathering is therefore a "great assembly." Not the righteousness according to the law, about which the apostle says: "Having become blameless according to the righteousness in the law." This righteousness, then, I proclaimed to the great assembly; for if it was the letter and the shadow, it was not proclaimed to the great but to the immature. —What righteousness? —The one about which the Savior said: "Unless your righteousness abounds more than that of the scribes and Pharisees"—is this not according to the shadow? Your righteousness, then—of the disciples—the Savior says, let it abound more than theirs. And he says that theirs was with ignorance. Therefore let us not be ignorant of the righteousness of God, but let us proclaim it. Behold, I will not restrain my lips. "Lips" here means the word. Often, when the word calls us to say something before small and imperfect people, we restrain our own lips, we do not have them free, but we condescend, we conceal, we speak proverbially, and our lips are restrained.