especially the Greek, have the verses so punctuated, that there is not one verse in these words, " to God the kingdoms of the earth," but, " to God," is at the end of the former verse, and so there is said, " Ethiopia shall come before the hands of her to God," and then there followeth in another verse, " Kingdoms of the earth, sing ye to God, psalm ye to the Lord" (ver. 32). By which punctuation, doubtless to be preferred by the agreement of many copies, and those deserving of credit, there seemeth to me to be implied faith which precedeth works: because without the merits of good works through faith the ungodly is justified, just as the Apostle said, " To one believing in Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness: " 5 in order that afterwards faith itself through love may begin to work. For those alone are to be called good works,6 which are done through love of God. But these faith must needs go before, so that from thence these 3 Or, " prevent " 6 Sola bona opera.
may begin, not from these this...This is faith, whereof to the Church Herself is said in the Song of Songs, " Thou shalt come and shalt pass hence from the beginning of faith." 7 For She hath come 8 like the chariot of God in thousands of men rejoicing, having a prosperous course, and She hath passed over from this world to the Father: in order that there may come to pass in Her that which the Bridegroom Himself saith, who hath passed hence from this world to the Father,9 " I will that where I am, these also may be with Me: " '° but from the beginning of faith. Because then in order that good works may follow, faith doth precede; and there are not any good works, save those which follow faith preceding: nothing else seemeth to have been meant in, " Ethiopia shall come before the hands of her to God," but, Ethiopia shall believe in God. For thus she " shall come before the hands of her," that is, the works of her. Of Whom, except of Ethiopia herself? For this in the Greek is not ambiguous: for the word "of her" " there in the feminine gender most clearly hath been put down. And thus nothing else hath been said than " Ethiopia shall come before her hands to God," that is, by believing in God she shall come before her works. For, " I judge," saith the Apostle, " that a man is justified through faith without the works of the Law. Is He God of the Jews only? Is He not also of the Gentiles?" " So then Ethiopia, which seemeth to be the utmost limit of the Gentiles, is justified through faith, without the works of the Law...For the expression in Greek, x"Pa <*"">)«, which* most copies have, both of " hand of her " and " her own hand " may be understood: but that which is uncommon in the Greek copies, x«p<« avr!j<s, by both " hands of her " and " her own '3 hands," in Latin may be expressed.
38. Henceforward, as if through prophecy all things had been discoursed of which now we see fulfilled, he exhorteth to the praise of Christ, and next He foretelleth His future Advent. " Kingdoms of earth, sing ye to God, psalm ye to the Lord: psalm ye to God, who hath ascended above the Heaven of Heavens to the East" (ver. 33). Or, as some copies have it, "who hath ascended above the Heaven of Heaven to the East." In these words he preceiveth not Christ, who believeth not His Resurrection and Ascension. But hath not " to the East," which he hath added, expressed the very spot; since in the quarters of the East is* where He rose again, and whence He ascended? Therefore above the Heaven of Heaven He ? Cant. iv. 8, LXX. E. V. " the top of Amana."
• Oxf. mss. " shall come," " shall pass." » John xui. I, 10 John xvit. 24. lx Lat. ejus, of him or her.
12 Rom. iii. 28, etc. " Suas.
Psalm LXIX.]
sitteth at the right hand of the Father. This is what the Apostle saith, " the Same is He that hath ascended above all Heavens." ' For what of Heavens doth remain after the Heaven of Heaven? Which also we may call the Heavens of Heavens, just as He hath called the firmanent Heaven: 2 which Heaven, however, even as Heavens we read of, in the place where there is written, " and let the waters which are above the Heavens praise the name of the Lord." 3 And forasmuch as from thence He is to come,4 to judge quick and dead, observe what followeth: " behold, He shall give His voice, the voice of power." s He that like a lamb before the shearer of Him was without voice,6 " behold shall give His voice," and not the voice of weakness, as though to be judged; but " the voice of power," as though going to judge. For God shall not be hidden, as before, and in the judgment of men not opening His mouth; but " God shall come manifest, our God, and He shall not be silent." 7 Why do ye despair, ye unbelieving men? Why do ye mock? What saith the evil servant? "My Lord delayeth to come."8 " Behold, He shall give His voice, the voice of power."
39. " Give ye glory to God, above Israel is the magnificence of Him " (ver. 34). Of whom saith the Apostle, " Upon the Israel of God." » For " not all that are out of Israel, are Israelites: " '° for there is also an Israel after the flesh. Whence he saith, " See ye Israel after the flesh." " " For not they that are sons of the flesh, are sons of God, but sons of promise are counted for a seed." '2 Therefore at that time when without any intermixture of evil men His people shall be, like a heap purged by the fan,'3 like Israel in whom guile is not,'4 then most pre-eminent "^'oove Israel " shall be " the magnificence " of " Him: and the virtue of Him in the clouds." For not alone He shall come to judgment, but with the elders of His people: 's to whom He hath promised that they shall sit upon thrones to judge,'6 who even shall judge angels.'7 These be the clouds.
40. Lastly, lest of anything else the clouds be understood, he hath in continuation added, " Wonderful is God in His saints, the God of Israel" (ver. 35). For at that time even most truly and most fully there shall be fulfilled the name Israel itself, which is one " seeing God: " for we shall see Him as He is.'8 " He Himself shall give virtue "> and strength to His people, blessed be God: " to His people now frail and weak. For " we have this treasure in earthen vessels." 2° 1 Eph. iv. 10. * Acts i. ii. 1 Ps. I. 3. '° Rom. ix. 6. *3 Matt. iii. 12. 16 Matt. xix. 28. xv Or, " power."
Cor. vi. 3.
Cor. iv. 7.
3 Ps. cxlviii. 4.
6 Isa. liii. 7.
9 Gal. vi. 16. 12 Rom. ix. 8. '5 Isa. iii. 14. xa 1 John iii. 2.
But then by a most glorious changing even of our bodies, " He Himself shall give virtue and strength to His people." For this body is sown in weakness, shall rise in virtue.2' He Himself then shall give the virtue which in His own flesh He hath sent before, whereof the Apostle saith, " the power of His Resurrection." 22 But strength whereby shall be destroyed the enemy death.23 Now then of this long and difficultly understood Psalm we have at length by His own aid made an end. " Blessed be God. Amen."
PSALM LXIX.24 1. We have been born into this world, and added to the people of God, at that period wherein already the herb from a grain of mustard seed hath spread out its branches; wherein already the leaven, which at first was contemptible, hath leavened three measures,2* that is, the whole round world repeopled by the three sons of Noe: 26 for from East and West and North and South shall come they that shall sit down with the Patriarchs,2' while those shall have been driven without, that have been born of their flesh and have not imitated their faith. Unto his glory then of Christ's Church our eyes we have opened; and that barren one, for whom joy was proclaimed and foretold, because she was to have more sons than she that had the husband,28 her we have found to be such an one as hath forgotten the reproaches and infamy of her widowhood: and so we may perhaps wonder when we chance to read in any prophecy the words of Christ's humiliation, or our own. And it may be, that we are less affected by them; because we have not come at that time when these things were read with zest, in that tribulation abounded. But again if we think of the abundance of tribulations, and observe the way wherein we are walking (if indeed we do walk in it), how narrow it is, and how through straits and tribulations it leadeth unto rest everlasting,2-1 and how that very thing which in human affairs is called felicity, is more to be feared than misery; since indeed misery ofttimes doth bring out of tribulation a good fruit, but felicity doth corrupt the soul with a perverse security, and giveth place for the Devil the Tempter — when, I say, we shall have judged prudently and rightly, as the salted victim 3° did, that " human life upon earth is trial," 3' and that no one is at all secure, nor ought to be secure, until he be come to that country, whence no one that is a friend goeth forth, into which no one that is an enemy is 1 Cor. xv. 43.
irm.
22 Philip, iii. 10. « Lat. LXVIII. « Matt. xiii. 31, 33 26 Gen. ix. 19. 27 Matt. viii. ex.
28 Isa. tiv. 1; Gal. iv. 27. 29 Matt. vii. 14.
3° Salita victima: most copies have psallit hac viciima. -Ben. [Mark ix. 4.— C.J i' Job vii. 1, LXX.
[PSALM LXIX.
admitted, even now in the very glory of the Church we acknowledge the voices of our tribulation: and being members of Christ, subject to our Head in the bond of love, and mutually supporting one another, we will say from the Psalms, that which here we have found the Martyrs said, who were before us; that tribulation is common to all men from the beginning even unto the end...
2. The Title of the Psalm is: " Unto the end, in behalf of those that shall be changed, to David himself." Now of the change for the better hear thou; for change either is for the worse or for the better...That we have been changed then for the worse, to ourselves let us ascribe: that for the better we are changed, let us praise God. " For those," then, " that shall be changed," this Psalm is. But whence hath this change been made but by the Passion of Christ? The very word Pascha in Latin is interpreted passage. For Pascha ' is not a Greek word but a Hebrew. It soundeth indeed in the Greek language like Passion, because Trd<T\uv signifieth to suffer: but if the Hebrew expression be examined, it pointeth to something else. Pascha doth intimate passage. Of which even John the Evangelist hath admonished us, who (just before the Passion when the Lord was coming to the supper wherein He set forth the Sacrament of His Body and Blood) thus speaketh: " But when there had come the hour, wherein Jesus was to pass from this world to the Father." 2 He hath expressed then the " passage " of the Pascha. But unless He passed Himself hence to the Father, who came for our sake, how should we have been able to pass hence, who have not come down for the sake of taking up anything, but have fallen? But He Himself fell not; He but came down, in order that He might raise up him that had fallen.
The passage therefore both of Him and of us is hence to the Father, from this world to the kingdom of Heaven, from life mortal to life everlasting, from life earthly to life heavenly, from life corruptible to life incorruptible, from intimacy with tribulations to perpetual security. Accordingly, " In behalf of them that shall be changed," the Psalm's title is. The cause therefore of our change, that is, the very Passion of the Lord and our own voice in tribulations in the text of the Psalm let us observe, let us join in knowing, join in groaning, and in hearing, in joint-knowing, jointgroaning, let us be changed, in order that there may be fulfilled in us the Title of the Psalm, " In behalf of them that shall be changed."
3. " Save me, O God, for the waters have entered in even unto my soul" (ver. 1). That grain is despised now, that seemeth to give forth humble words. In the garden it is buried, 1 Noh e-t grtgcum itoinen.
2 John xiii. 1.
though the world will admire the greatness of the herb, of which herb the seed was despised by the Jews. For in very deed observe ye the seed of the mustard, minute, dull coloured, altogether despicable, in order that therein may be fulfilled that which hath been said, We have seen Him, and He had neither form nor comeliness.3 But He saith, that waters have come in even unto His soul; because those multitudes, which under the name of waters He hath pointed out, were able so far to prevail as to kill Christ...Whence then doth He so cry out, as though He were suffering something against His will, except because the Head doth prefigure the Members? For He suffered because He willed: but the Martyrs even though they willed not; for to Peter thus He foretold his passion: " When thou shalt be old," He saith, " another shall gird thee, and lead thee whither thou wilt not."4 For though we desire to cleave to Christ, yet we are unwilling to die: and therefore willingly or rather patiently we suffer, because no other passage is given us, through which we may cleave to Christ. For if we could in any other way arrive at Christ, that is, at life everlasting, who would be willing to die? For while explaining our nature, that is, a sort of association of soul and body, and in these two parts a kind of intimacy of gluing and fastening together, the Apostle saith, that " we have a House not made with hands, everlasting in the Heavens: " 5 that is, immortality prepared for us, wherewith we are to be clothed at the end, when we shall have risen from the dead; and he saith, " Wherein we are not willing to be stripped, but to be cldthed upon, that the mortal may be swallowed up of life." 6 If it might so be, we should so will, he saith, to become immortal, as that now that same immortality might come, and now as we are it should change us, in order that this our mortal body by life should be swallowed up, and the body should not be laid aside through death, so as at the end again to have to be recovered. Although then from evil to good things we pass, nevertheless the very passage is somewhat bitter, and hath the gall which the Jews gave to the Lord in the Passion, hath something sharp to be endured, whereby they are shown that gave Him vinegar to drink.7...For here both sweet are temporal pleasures, and bitter are temporal tribulations: but who would not drink the cup of tribulation temporal, fearing the fire of hell; and who would not contemn the sweetness of the world, longing for the sweetness of life eternal? From hence that we may be delivered let us cry: lest perchance amidst oppressions we consent to iniquity, and truly irreparably we be swallowed up.
* John xxi. 18. 7 Matt, xxvii. 34.
* 3 Cor. v. 1.
Psalm LXIX.]
4. " Fixed I am in the clay of the deep, and there is no substance" (ver. 2). What called He clay? Is it those very persons that have persecuted? For out of clay man hath been made.1 But these men by falling from righteousness have become the clay of the deep, and whosoever shall not have consented to them persecuting and desiring to draw him to iniquity, out of his clay doth make gold. For the clay of the same shall merit to be converted into a heavenly form,2 and to be made associate of those of whom saith the Title of the Psalm, " in behalf of them that shall be changed." But at the time when these were the clay of the deep. I stuck in them: that is, they held Me, prevailed against Me, killed Me. " Fixed " then " I am in the clay of the deep, and there is no substance." What is this, "there is no substance"? Can it be that clay itself is not a substance? What is then, "fixed I am"? Can it be that Christ hath thus stuck? Or hath He stuck, and was not, as hath been said in the book of Job, " the earth delivered into the hands of the ungodly man "? 3 Was He fixed in body, because it could be held, and suffered even crucifixion? For unless with nails He had been fixed, crucified He had not been. Whence then " there is no substance"? Is that clay not a substance?
But we shall understand, if it be possible, what is, " and there is no substance," if first we shall have understood what is a substance. For there is substance spoken of even of riches, as we say, he hath substance, and he hath lost substance...
5. God is a sort of substance: for that which is no substance, is nothing at all. To be a substance then is to be something. Whence also in the Catholic Faith against the poisons of certain heretics thus we are builded up, so that we say, Father and Son and Holy Spirit are of one substance. What is, of one substance? For example, if gold is the Father, gold is also the Son, gold also the Holy Spirit. Whatever the Father is because He is God, the same is the Son, the same the Holy Spirit. But when He is the Father, this is not what He is. For Father He is called not in reference to Himself, but in reference to the Son: but in reference to Himself God He is called. Therefore in that He is God, by the same He is a substance. And because of the same substance the Son is, without doubt the Son also is God. But yet in that He is Father, because it is not the name of the substance, but is referred to the Son; we do not say that the Son is Father in the same manner as we say the Son is God. Thou askest what the Father is; we answer, God. Thou askest what is the Father and the Son: we answer, God.
1 Gen. u. 7.
2 Habitudinem.
3 Job ix. 24.
If questioned of the Father alone, answer thou God: if questioned of both, not Gods, but God, answer thou. We do not reply as in the case of men, when thou inquirest what is father Abraham, we answer a man; the substance of him serveth for answer: thou inquirest what is his son Isaac, we answer, a man; of the same substance are Abraham and Isaac: fhou inquirest what is Abraham and Isaac, we answer not man, but men. Not so in things divine. For so great in this case is the fellowship of substance, that of equality it alloweth, plurality alloweth not. If then it shall have been said to thee, when thou tellest me that the Son is the same as the Father, in fact the Son also is the Father; answer thou, according to the substance I have told thee that the Son is the same as the Father, not according to that term which is used in reference to something else. For in reference to Himself He is called God, in reference to the Father is called Son. And again, the Father in reference to Himself is called God, in reference to the Son He is called Father. The Father as He is called in reference to the Son, is not the Son: the Son as He is called in reference to the Father, is not the Father: what the Father is called in reference to Himself and the Son in reference to Himself, the same is Father and Son, that is, God. What is then, " there is no substance "? After this interpretation of substance, how shall we be able to understand this passage of the Psalm, " Fixed I am in the clay of the deep, and there is no substance "? God made man,4 He made substance; and O that he had continued in that which God made Him! If man had continued in that which God made him, in him would not have been fixed He whom God begot. But moreover because through iniquity man fell from the substance wherein he was made5 (for iniquity itself is no substance; for iniquity is not a nature which God formed, but a perverseness which man made); the Son of God came to the clay of the deep, and was fixed; and that was no substance wherein He was fixed, because in the iniquity of them He was fixed. " All things by Him were made, and without Him there was made nothing."6 All natures by Him were made, iniquity by Him was not made, because iniquity was not made.7 Those substances by Him were made, which praise Him. The whole creation praising God is commemorated by the three children in the furnace,8 and from things earthly to things heavenly, or from things heavenly to things earthly reacheth the hymn of them praising God. Not that all these things have sense to praise; but 7 Oxf. mss. " was no substance."
8 Dan. iii. [In the Benedicite, after Baruch, in the Apocrypha -C] [Psalm LXIX.
because all things being well meditated upon, do beget praise, and the heart by considering creation is fulfilled to overflowing with a hymn to the Creator. All things do praise God, but only the things which God hath made. Do ye observe in that hymn that covetousness praiseth God? There even the serpent praiseth God, covetousness praiseth not. For all creeping things are there named in the praise of God: there are named all creeping things; but there are not there named any vices. For vices out of ourselves and out of our own will we have: and vices are not a substance. In these was fixed the Lord, when He suffered persecution: in the vice of the Jews, not in the substance of men which by Him was made.
6. " I have come into the depth of the sea, and the tempest hath made Me to sink down." Thanks to the mercy of Him who came into the depth of the sea, and vouchsafed to be swallowed by the sea whale, but was vomited forth the third day.' He came into the depth of the sea, in which depth we were thrust down, in which depth we had suffered shipwreck: He came thither Himself, and the tempest made Him to sink down: for there He suffered waves, those very men; tempests, the voices of men saying, " Crucify, Crucify."2 Though Pilate said, I find not any cause in this Man why He should be killed: there prevailed the voices of them, saying, " Crucify, Crucify." The tempest increased, until He was made to sink down that had come into the depth of the sea. And the Lord suffered in the hands of the Jews that which He suffered not when upon the waters He was walking: 3 the which not only He had not suffered Himself, but had not allowed even Peter to suffer it.
7. " I have laboured, crying, hoarse have become my jaws " ( ver. 3 ). Where was this? When was this? Let us question the Gospel. For the Passion of our Lord in this Psalm we perceive. And, indeed, that He suffered we know; that there came in waters even unto His Soul, because peoples prevailed even unto His death, we read, we believe; in the tempest that He was sunk down, because tumult prevailed to His killing, we acknowledge: but that He laboured in crying, and that His jaws were made hoarse, not only we read not, but even on the contrary we read, that He answered not to them a word, in order that there might be fulfilled that which in another Psalm hath been said, " I have become as it were a man not hearing, and having not in his mouth reproofs." * And that which in Isaiah hath been prophesied, " like a sheep to be sacrificed He was led, and like a lamb before one shearing Him, so He opened not His 3 John xix. 6.
3 Matt. xiv. 35.
mouth." s If He became like a man not hearing, and having not in His mouth reproofs, how did He labour crying, and how were His jaws made hoarse? Is it that He was even then silent, because He was hoarse with having cried so much in vain? And this indeed we know to have been His voice on the Cross out of a certain Psalm:* " O God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? "6 But how great was that voice, or of how long duration, that in it His jaws should have become hoarse? Long while He cried, " Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees: "? long while He cried, " Woe unto the world because of offences." 8 And truly hoarse in a manner He cried, and therefore was not understood, when the Jews said, What is this that He saith?
" Hard is this saying, who is able to hear it?"9 We know not what He saith. He said all these words: but hoarse were His jaws to them that understood not His words. " Mine eyes have failed from hoping in My God." Far be it that this should be taken of the person of the Head: far be it that His eyes should have failed from IO hoping in His God: in whom rather there was God reconciling the world to Himself," and Who was the Word made flesh and dwelled in us, so that not only God was in Him, but also He was Himself God. Not so then: the eyes of Himself, our Head, failed not from hoping in His God: but the eyes of Him have failed in His Body, that is, in His members. This voice is of the members, this voice is of the Body, not of the Head. How then do we find it in His Body and members?...
8. Thus " there have been multiplied above the hairs of My head they that hate Me gratis " (ver. 4). How multiplied? So as that they might add to themselves even one out of the twelve.12 " There have been multiplied above the hairs of My head they that hate Me for nought." With the hairs of His head He hath compared His enemies. With reason they were shorn when in the place of Calvary He was crucified.'3 Let the members accept this voice, let them learn to be hated gratis. For now, O Christian, if it must needs be that the world hate thee, why dost thou not make it hate thee gratis, in order that in the Body of thy Lord and in this Psalm sent before concerning Him, thou mayest acknowledge thy own voice? How shall it come to pass that the world hate thee gratis? If thou no wise hurtest any one, and art still hated: for this is gratis, without cause...9. " O God, Thou hast known mine improvidence " (ver. 5). Again out of the mouth of the Body. For what improvidence is there 9 Tsa. liii. 7.
i Matt, xxiii. 13, 15, etc.
6 Ps. xxii. 1.
8 Matt, xviii. 7. <° Ah. 13 Malt, xxvii. 33.
Psalm LXIX.]