is the spotless way? Hear what followeth: " I walked in innocence, in the midst of my house." This spotless way beginneth from innocence, and it endeth also in innocence. Why seek many words? Be innocent: and thou hast perfected righteousness...But who is innocent? He who while he hurteth not another, injureth not himself. For he who hurteth himself, is not innocent. Some one saith: Lo, I have not robbed any one, I have not oppressed any one: I will live happily on my own substance, the fruits of my virtuous toil; I wish to have fine banquets, I wish to spend as much as pleaseth 1 Rom. ii. 5, 6.
1 Tim. i. 13, 16.
J 2 Tim. iv. 8.
me, to drink with those whom I like as much as I please; whom have I robbed, whom have I oppressed, who hath complained of me? He seemeth innocent. But if he corrupt himself, if he overthrow the temple of God within himself, why hope that he will act with mercy toward others, and spare the wretched? Can that man be merciful to others, who unto himself is cruel? The whole of righteousness, therefore, is reduced to the one word, innocence. But the lover of iniquity, hateth his own soul. When he loved iniquity, he fancied he was injuring others. But consider whether he was injuring others: " He who loveth iniquity," he saith, " hateth his own soul." 4 He therefore who wishes to injure another, first injureth himself; nor doth he walk, since there is no room. For all wickedness suffereth from narrowness: innocence alone is broad enough to walk in. " I walked in the innocence of my heart, in the midst of my house." By the middle of his house, he either signifieth the Church herself; for Christ walketh in her: or his own heart; for our inner house is our heart: as he hath explained in the above words, " in the innocence of my heart." What is the innocence of the heart? The middle of his house? Whoever hath a bad house in this, is driven out of doors. For whoever is oppressed within his heart by a bad conscience, just as any man in consequence of the overflow of a waterspout or of smoke goeth out of his house, suffereth not himself to dwell therein; so he who hath not a quiet heart, cannot happily dwell in his heart. Such men go out of themselves in the bent of their mind, and delight themselves with things without, that affect the body; they seek repose in trifles, in spectacles, in luxuries, in all evils. Wherefore do they wish themselves well without? Because it is not well with them within, so that they may rejoice in a, good conscience...
4. " I set no wicked thing before my eyes " (ver. 3)...I did love no wicked thing. And he explaineth this same wicked thing: " I hated them that do unfaithfulness." Attend, my brethren. If ye walk with Christ in the midst of His house, that is, if either in your heart ye have a good repose, or in the Church herself proceed on a good journey in the way of godliness; ye ought not to hate those unfaithful only who are without, but whomsoever also ye may have found within. Who are the unfaithful? They who hate the law of God; who hear, and do it not, are called unfaithful. Hate the doers of unfaithfulness, repel them from thee. But thou shouldest hate the unfaithful, not men: one man who is unfaithful, hath, ye see, two names, man, and unfaithful: God made him < Ps.
Psalm CI.]
man, he made himself unfaithful; love in him what God made, persecute in him what he made himself. For when thou shalt have persecuted his unfaithfulness, thou killest the work of man, and freest the work of God. "I hated the doers of unfaithfulness."
5. " The wicked heart hath not cleaved unto me."...The heart of a man, who wisheth not anything contrary to any that God wisheth, is called straight...If therefore the righteous heart followeth God, the crooked heart resisteth God. Suppose something untoward happeneth to him, he crieth out, " God, what have I done unto Thee? What sin have I committed?" He wisheth himself to appear just, God unjust. What is so crooked as this? It is not enough that thou art crooked thyself: thou must think thy rule crooked also. Reform thyself, and thou findest Him straight, in departing from whom thou hast made thyself crooked. He doth justly, thou unjustly; and for this reason thou art perverse, since thou callest man just, and God unjust. What man dost thou call just? Thyself. For when thou sayest, " What have I done unto Thee?" thou thinkest thyself just. But let God answer thee: " Thou speakest truth: thou hast done nothing to Me: thou hast done all things unto thyself; for if thou hadst done anything for Me, thou wouldest have done good. For whatever is done well, is done unto Me; because it is done according to My commandment; but whatever of evil is done, is done unto thee, not unto Me; for the wicked man doth nothing except for his own sake, since it is not what I command." When ye see such men, brethren, reprove them, convince and correct them: and if ye cannot reprove or correct them, consent not to them.
6. " When the wicked man departed from me, I knew him not" (ver. 4). I approved him not, I praised him not, he pleased me not. For we find the word " to know " occasionally used in Scripture, in the sense of " to be pleased." For what is hidden from God, brethren? Doth He know the just, and doth He not know the unjust? What dost thou think of, that He doth not know? I say not, what thinkest thou; but what wilt thou ever think, that He will not have seen beforehand? God knoweth all things, then; and yet in the end, that is in judgment after mercy, He saith of some persons: " I will profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity." ' Was there any one He did not know? But what meaneth, " I never knew you "? I acknowledge you not in My rule. For I know the rule of My righteousness: ye agree not with it, ye have turned aside from it, ye are crooked. Therefore He 1 Matt. vii. 23.
j said here also: " When the wicked man departed from Me, I knew him not."...Therefore, " when the wicked man departed from me," that is, when the wicked man was unlike me, and was unwilling to imitate my paths, was unwilling in his wickedness to live as I had proposed myself for his imitation; " I knew him not." What meaneth, "I knew him not"? Not that I was ignorant of him, but that I did not approve him.
7. " Whoso privily slandered his neighbour, him I persecuted" (ver. 5). Behold the righteous persecutor, not of the man, but of the sin. " With the proud eye, and the insatiable heart, I did not feed." What meaneth, " I did not feed with "? I did not eat in common with such. Attend, beloved; since ye are about to hear something wonderful. If he did not feed with this man, he did not eat with him; for to feed is to eat; how is it then that we find our Lord Himself eating with the proud? It was not only with those publicans and sinners, for they were humble: for they acknowledged their weakness, and asked for the physician. We find that He ate with the proud Pharisees themselves. A certain proud man had invited Him: it was the same who was displeased because a sinning woman, one of ill repute in the city, approached the feet of our Lord...That Pharisee was proud: the Lord ate with him; what is it therefore that he saith? "With such an one I did not eat." How doth He enjoin unto us what He hath not done Himself? He exhorteth us to imitate Himself: we see that He ate with the proud; how doth He forbid us to eat with the proud? We indeed, brethren, for the sake of reproof, abstain from communion with our brethren, and do not eat with them, that they may be reformed? We rather eat with strangers, with Pagans, than with those who hold with us, if we have seen that they live wickedly, that they may be ashamed, and amend; as the Apostle saith, " And if any man obey not our word by this Epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother."2 For the sake of healing others we usually do this; but nevertheless we often eat with many strangers and ungodly men.
8. The pious heart hath its banquets, the proud heart hath its banquets: for it was on account of the food of the proud heart, that he said, " with an insatiable heart." How is the proud heart fed? If a man is proud, he is envious: otherwise it cannot be. Pride is the mother of enviousness: it cannot but generate it, and ever coexist with it. Every proud man is, therefore, envious: if envious, he feedeth on 2 2 Thess. iii. 14.
[Psalm CIL the misfortunes of others. Whence the Apostle saith, " But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed of one another." ' Ye see them, then, eating: eat not with these: fly such banquets: for they cannot satisfy themselves with rejoicing in others' evils, because their hearts are insatiable. Beware thou art not caught in their feasts by the devil's noose...Just as birds feed at the trap, or fishes at the hook, they were taken, when they fed. The ungodly therefore have their own feasts, the godly also have theirs. Hear the feasts of the godly: " Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." * If therefore the godly eateth the meat of righteousness, and the ungodly of pride; it is no wonder if he is insatiable in heart. He eateth the meat of iniquity: do not eat the meat of iniquity, and the proud in eye, and the insatiable in heart, eateth not with thee.
9. And whence wast thou fed? And what pleased thee, when he did not eat with thee? " Mine eyes," he saith, " were upon such as are faithful in the land, that they might sit with me" (ver. 6). That is, that with Me they might be seated.' In what sense are they " to sit "? " Ye shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."4 The faithful of the earth judge, for to them it is said, " Know ye not, that we shall judge angels? " 5 " Whoso walketh in a spotless way, he ministered unto me." To " Me," he saith, not to himself. For many minister the Gospel, but unto themselves; because they seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ. 6...10. "The proud man hath not dwelt in the midst of my house" (ver. 7). Understand this of the heart. The proud did not dwell in my heart: no such dwelt in my heart: for he hurried away from me. None but the meek and peaceful dwelt in my heart; the proud dwelt not there, for the unrighteous one dwelleth not in the heart of the righteous. Let the righteous be distant from thee, I know not how many miles and stations: 7 ye dwell together, if ye have one heart. "The proud doer hath not dwelt in the midst of my house: he that speaketh unjust things hath not directed in the sight of my eyes." This is the spotless way, where we understand when the Lord cometh unto us.
11. "In the morning I destroyed all the ungodly that were in the land. That I may root out all wicked doers from the city of the Lord" (ver. 8). This is obscure. There are then wicked doers in the city of the Lord, and they at present, seemingly, spared. Why so?
' Mfcum sederent There was an ambiguity in contiderent, as written 6 Philip, li. 31. I Mansionibus.
Because it is the season of mercy: but that of judgment will come; for the Psalm thus began, " Of mercy and judgment will I sing unto Thee, O Lord."...
12. He at present spareth, He will then judge. But when will He judge? When night shall have passed away. For this reason He hath said: " In the morning." When the day shall at last have arrived, night having passed by. Why doth He spare them until the dawn? Because it was night. What meaneth, it was night? Because it was the season for mercy: He was merciful, while the hearts of men were hidden. Thou seest some one living ill; thou endurest him: for thou knowest not of what sort he will prove to be; since it is night; whether he who to-day liveth ill, to-morrow may live well; and whether he who to-day liveth well, to-morrow may be wicked. For it is night, and God endureth all men, since He is of longsuffering: He endureth them, that sinners may be converted unto Him. But they who shall not have reformed themselves in that season of mercy, shall be slain. And wherefore? That they may be scattered abroad 8 from the city of the Lord, from the fellowship of Jerusalem, from the fellowship of the Saints, from the fellowship of the Church. But when shall they be slain? "At dawn." What meaneth, "at dawn "? When night shall have passed away. Wherefore now doth he spare? Because it is the season of mercy. Why doth He not always spare? Because, " Mercy and judgment will I sing unto Thee, O Lord." Brethren, let no man flatter himself: all the doers of iniquity shall be slain; Christ shall slay them at the dawn, and shall destroy them from His city.
But now while it is the time of mercy, let them hear Him. Everywhere He crieth out by the Law, by the Prophets, by the Psalms, by the Epistles, by the Gospels: see that He is not silent; that He spareth; that He granteth mercy; but beware, for the judgment will come.
PSALM CIL' 1. Behold, one poor man prayeth, and prayeth not in silence. We may therefore hear him, and see who he is: whether it be not perchance He, of whom the Apostle saith, "Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich." '° If it is He, then, how is He poor? For in what sense He is rich, who seeth not? What then is richer than He, by whom riches were made, even those which are not true riches? For through Him we have even these riches, ability, memory, character, health of body, the senses, • Oxf. MSS. disperdantur, " destroyed," as below. » Lat. CI. *> 3 Cor. viii. 9.
Psalm CII.)
and the conformation of our limbs: for when these are safe, even the poor are rich. Through Him also are those greater riches, faith, piety, justice, charity, chastity, good conduct: for no man hath these, except through Him who justifieth the ungodly...Behold, how rich! In one so rich, how are we to recognise these words? "I have eaten ashes as it were bread: and mingled my drink with weeping." ' Have these so great riches come to this? The former state is a very high one, this is a very lowly one...Yet still examine whether this poor man be He; since, " The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." 2 Reflect also upon these words: " I am Thy servant, and the Son of Thine handmaid."3 Observe, this handmaid, chaste, a virgin, and a mother: for there He received our poverty, when He was clothed in the form of a servant, emptying Himself; lest thou shouldest dread His riches, and in thy beggarly state shouldest not dare approach Him. There, I say, He put on the form of a servant, there He was clothed with our poverty; there He made Himself poor, and us rich. We are now drawing near to understand these things of Him: nevertheless we may not as yet rashly pronounce...
2. Let him add poverty then to poverty: let Him transfigure unto Himself our humble body: let Him be our Head, we His limbs, let there be two in one flesh.4...For He hath deigned to hold even us as His limbs. The penitent also are among His limbs. For they are not shut out, nor separated from His Church: nor would He make the Church His spouse, unless by words like these: " Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." ' Let us then hear what the head and the body prayeth, the bridegroom and bride, Christ and the Church,6 both one Person; but the Word and the flesh are not both one thing; the Father and the Word are both one thing; Christ and the Church are both one Person, one perfect man in the form of His own fulness...Let us hear therefore Christ, poor within us and with us, and for our sakes. For the title itself indicates the poor one. Lastly, remember that I conjectured who that poor one was: let us hear His prayer, and recognise His Person; and mistake not, when thou shalt have heard anything that cannot apply to His Head; it was for this reason that I have prefaced as I have, that whatever thou shalt hear of this description, thou mayest understand as sounding from the weakness of the body, and recognise the voice of the members in the head. The title is, "A Prayer of the afflicted, when he was tormented, and poured out his prayer before the Lord."
« Ps. cii. 9 4 Philip, iii. 3i.
3 Ps. cxvi. 16.
& Eph. iv. 15; John iii. 29.
It is the same poor one who elsewhere saith: " From the ends of the earth will I call upon Thee, when my heart is in heaviness." 7 He is afflicted because He is also Christ; who in the Prophet's words calleth Himself both Bridegroom and Bride: " He hath bound on me the diadem as on a bridegroom, and as a bride hath adorned me with an ornament." 8 He called Himself Bridegroom, He called Himself Bride; wherefore this, unless Bridegroom applieth to the Head, Bride to the body? They are one voice then, because they are one flesh. Let us hear, and recognise ourselves in these words; and if we see that we are without, let us labour to be there.
3. " Hear my prayer, O Ix)rd: and let my crying come unto Thee " (ver. 1 ). " Hear my prayer, O Lord," is the same as, " Ixt my crying come unto Thee: " the feeling of the suppliant is shown by the repetition. " Turn not Thy face away from me." When did God turn away His Face from His Son? when did the Father turn away His Face from Christ? But for the sake of the poverty of my members, " Turn not away Thy face from me: whatsoever day I am troubled, incline Thine ear unto me " (ver. 2)...Thou art in trouble this day, I am in trouble; another is in trouble to-morrow, I am in trouble; after this generation other descendants, who succeed your descendants, are in trouble, I am in trouble; down to the end of the world, whoever are in trouble in My body, I am in trouble...Peter prayed, Paul prayed, the rest of the Apostles prayed; the faithful prayed in those times, the faithful prayed in the following times, the faithful prayed in the times of the Martyrs, the faithful pray in our times, the faithful will pray in the times of our descendants. " Right soon: " for I now ask that which Thou art willing to grant. I ask not earthly things, as an earthly man; but redeemed at last from my former captivity, I long for the kingdom of heaven; " Hear rr.e right soon: " for it is only to such a longing that Thou hast said, " Even while Thou art speaking, I will say, Here I am." 9 Wherefore dost thou call? in what tribulation? in what want? O poor one, before the gate of God all-rich, in what longing dost thou beg? from what destitution dost thou ask relief? from what want dost thou knock, that it may be opened unto thee?
4. " For my days are consumed away like smoke " (ver. 3). O days! if days: for where day is heard of, light is understood. " My days," my times; wherefore, " like smoke," unless from the puffing up of pride?...See smoke, like pride, ascending, swelling, vanishing: deservedly therefore failing, and not stedfast. " And my » Ps. Ui. 3.
6 Isa. Ui. 10.
9 Isa. Iviii 9.
[Psalm CII.
bones are scorched up as it were in an oven." Both my bones, and my strength, not without tribulation, not without burning. The bones of the body of Christ, the strength of His body, is it anywhere greater than in the Holy Apostles? And yet see that the bones are scorched. " Who is offended, and I burn not? " ' They are brave, faithful, able interpreters and preachers of the word, living as they speak, speaking as they hear; they are clearly brave, yet all who suffer offences, are an oven to them. For there is love there, and more so in the bones. The bones are within all the flesh, and support all the flesh. But if any man suffer any offence, and endanger his soul; the bone is scorched in proportion as it loveth...
5. Look back to Adam, whence the human race sprung. For how but from him was misery propagated? whence but from him is this hereditary poverty? Let him then, who in his own body was at one time in despair, now that he is set in Christ's body, say with hope, " My heart is smitten down, and withered like grass " (ver. 4). Deservedly, since all flesh is grass.2 But how did this happen unto thee? " Since I have forgotten to eat my bread." For God had given His commandment for bread. For what is the bread of the soul? The serpent suggesting, and the woman transgressing, he touched the forbidden fruit,' he forgot the commandment: his heart was smitten as it deserved, and withered like grass, since he forgot to eat his bread. Having forgotten to eat bread, he drinketh poison: his heart is smitten, and withered like grass...Now eat that bread which thou hadst forgotten. But this very Bread hath come, in whose body thou mayest remember the voice of thy forgetfulness, and cry out in thy poverty, so that thou mayest receive riches.
Now eat: for thou art in His body, who saith, " I am the living bread which came down from heaven." « Thou hadst forgotten to eat thy bread; but after His crucifixion, " all the ends of the earth shall be reminded, and be converted unto the Lord." 5 After forgetfulness, let remembrance come, let bread be eaten from heaven, that we may live; not manna, as they did eat, and died; 6 that bread, of which it is said, " Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness." 7 6. " For the voice of my groaning, the bones cleave unto my flesh " (ver. 5 ). For many groan, and I also groan; even for this I groan, because they groan for a wrong cause. That man hath lost a piece of money, he groaneth: he hath lost faith, he groaneth not: I weigh the money and the faith, and I find more cause for groaning for * Isa. xl. 6.
* Ps. xxii. 37.
3 Gen iii. 6. * John vi. 49.
him who groaneth not as he ought, or doth not groan at all. He committeth fraud, and rejoiceth. With what gain, with what loss? He hath gained money, he hath lost righteousness. For the latter reason, he who knoweth how to groan, groaneth; he who is near the head, who righteously clingeth to Christ's body, groaneth for this reason. But the carnal do not groan for this reason, and they cause themselves to be groaned for, because they do not groan for this reason; nor can we despise them, whether they groan not at all, or groan for the wrong cause. For we wish to correct them, we wish to amend them, we wish to reform them: and when we cannot, we groan; and when we groan, we are not separated from them...
7. " I am become like a pelican in the wilderness, and like an owl among ruined walls " (ver. 6). Behold three birds and three places: the pelican, the owl, and the sparrow; 8 and the three places are severally, the wilderness, the ruined walls, and the house-top. The pelican in the wilderness, the owl in the ruined walls, and the sparrow in the house-top. In the first place we must explain, what the pelican signifieth: since it is born in a region which maketh it unknown to us. It is born in lonely spots, especially those of the river Nile in Egypt. Whatever kind of bird it is, let us consider what the Psalm intended to say of it. "It dwelleth," it saith, " in the wilderness." Why enquire of its form, its limbs, its voice, its habits? As far as the Psalm telleth thee, it is a bird that dwelleth in solitude. The owl is a bird that loveth night. Parietince, or ruins, as we call them, are walls standing without roof, without inhabitants, these are the habitation of the owl. And then as to the house-top and the sparrows, ye are familiar with them. I find, therefore, some one of Christ's body, a preacher of the word, sympathizing with the weak, seeking the gains of Christ, mindful of his Lord to come.9 Let us see these three things from the office of His steward. Hath such a man come among those who are not Christians? He is a pelican in the wilderness. Hath he come among those who were Christians, and have relapsed? He is an owl in the ruined walls; for he forsaketh not even the darkness of those who dwell in night, he wisheth to gain even these. Hath he come among such as are Christians dwelling in a house, not as if they believed not, or as if they had let go what they had believed, but walking lukewarmly in what they believe? The sparrow crieth unto them, not in the wilderness, because they are Christians; nor in the ruined walls, because they have not relapsed; but because they are within the roof; under the roof rather, • [In the next verse. — C] 9 Matt. xxv. 26.
Psalm CII.]
because they are under the flesh. The sparrow above the flesh crieth out, husheth not up the commandments of God, nor becometh carnal, so that he be subject to the roof. " What ye hear in the ear, that preach ye on the housetops." ■ There are three birds and three places; and one man may represent the three birds, and three men may represent severally the three birds; and the three sorts of places, are three classes of men: yet the wilderness, the ruined walls, and the house-top, are but three classes of men.
8...Let us not pass over what is said, or even read, of this bird, that is, the pelican; not rashly asserting anything, but yet not passing over what has been left to be read and uttered by those who have written it. Do ye so hear, that if it be true, it may agree; if false, it may not hold. These birds are said to slay their young with blows of their beaks, and for three days to mourn them when slain by themselves in the nest: after which they say the mother wounds herself deeply, and pours forth her blood over her young,- bathed in which they recover life. This may be true, it may be false: yet if it be true, see how it agreeth with Him, who gave us life by His blood.2 It agreeth with Him in that the mother's flesh recalleth to life her young with her blood; it agreeth well. For He calleth Himself a hen brooding over her young.3...If, then, it be so truly, this bird doth closely resemble the flesh of Christ, by whose blood we have been called to life. But how may it agree with Christ, that the bird herself slays her own young? Doth not this agree with it? "I will slay, and I will make alive: I will wound, and I will heal." < Would the persecutor Saul 5 have died, unless he were wounded from heaven; or would the preacher be raised up, unless by life given him from His blood?
But let those who have written on the subject see to this; we ought not to allow our understanding of it to rest upon doubtful ground.6 Let us rather recognise this bird in the wilderness; as the Psalm expresseth it, " A pelican in the solitude." I suppose that Christ born of a Virgin is here meant. He was born in loneliness, because He alone was thus born. After the nativity, we come to His Passion...Born in the wilderness, because alone so born; suffering in the darkness of the Jews as it were in night, in their sin, as it were in ruins: what next? "I have watched:" and "am become even as it were a sparrow, that sitteth alone upon the house-top " (ver. 7). Thou hadst then slept amid the ruins, and hadst said, "I laid me 3 Malt, xxiii. 37. * Deut. xxxii. 39. 5 Acts ix. 4.
down, and slept." » What meaneth, " I slept "? Because I chose, I slept: I slept for love of night: but, " I rose again," followeth. Therefore " I watched," is here said. But after He watched, what did He? He ascended into heaven, He became as a sparrow by flying; that is, by ascending; " alone on the house-top; " that is, in heaven. He is therefore as the pelican by birth, as the owl by dying, as the sparrow by ascending again: there in the wilderness, as one alone; here in the ruined walls, as one slain by those who could not stand in the building; and here again watching and flying for our sakes alone on the house-top, He there intercedeth in our behalf.8 For our Head is as the sparrow, His body as the turtle-dove. " For the sparrow hath found her an house." What house? In heaven, where He doth mediate for us. " And the turtle-dove a nest," the Church of God hath found a nest from the wood of His Cross, where "she may lay her young," her children.