[5298] Luke xii. 14.
[5299] 1 Cor. vi. 1-6.
[5300] Rom. viii. 23-25.
[5301] Rom. v. 5.
[5302] Rom. iv. 15.
[5303] Rom. ii. 12.
[5304] Rom. v. 20.
[5305] [A fundamental objection to the doctrine of purgatory.--C.]
[5306] [The author adds: "Some copies read always,' some do not. If it be correct, it must be understood to mean, during our present life on earth."--C.]
[5307] 2 Cor. iii. 6.
[5308] Ps. xix. 9.
[5309] [Hence "attrition" is not sufficient to obtain remission.--C.]
Ain.
119. "I have dealt judgment and righteousness; O give me not over unto mine oppressors" [5310] (ver. 121). It is not wonderful that he should have dealt judgment and righteousness, since he had above prayed for a chaste fear from God, whereby to fix with nails his flesh, that is, his carnal lusts, which are wont to hinder our judgment from being right. But although in our customary speech judgment is either right or wrong, whence it is said unto men in the Gospel, "Judge not according to the persons, but judge righteous judgment:" [5311] nevertheless in this passage judgment is used as though, if it were not righteous, it ought not to be called judgment; otherwise it would not be enough to say, "I have dealt judgment," but it would be said, I have dealt righteous judgment....
120. Whoso therefore in the chaste fear of God hath his flesh crucified, and corrupted by no carnal allurement, dealeth judgment and the work of righteousness, ought to pray that he may not be given up to his adversaries; that is, that he may not, through his dread of suffering evils, yield unto his adversaries to do evil. For he receiveth power of endurance, which guardeth him from being overcome with pain, from Him from whom he receiveth the victory over lust, which preventeth his being seduced by pleasure. [5312]
121. He next saith, "Take off Thy servant to that which is good, that the proud calumniate me not" (ver. 122). They drive me on, that I may fall into evil; do Thou take me off to that which is good. They who rendered these words by the Latin, calumnientur, have followed a Greek expression, not commonly used in Latin. Have the words, Let not the proud calumniate me, the same force, as, Let them "not succeed in calumniating me"?
122. ...To prefigure His Cross, Moses by the merciful command of God raised aloft on a pole the image of a serpent in the desert, that the likeness of sinful flesh which must be crucified in Christ might be prefigured. [5313] By gazing upon this healing Cross, we cast out all the poison of the scandals of the proud: the Cross, which the Psalmist intently looking upon, saith, "My eyes have failed for Thy salvation, and for the words of Thy righteousness" (ver. 123). For God made Christ Himself "to be sin for us, on account of the likeness of sinful flesh, that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him." [5314] For His utterance [5315] of the righteousness of God he therefore saith that his eyes have failed, from gazing ardently and eagerly, while, remembering human infirmity, he longeth for divine grace in Christ.
123. In connection with this he goes on to say, "O deal with Thy servant according to Thy loving mercy" (ver. 124); not according to my righteousness. "And teach me," he saith, "Thy righteousnesses;" those beyond doubt, whereby God rendereth men righteous, not they themselves.
124. "I am Thy servant. O grant me understanding, that I may know Thy testimonies" (ver. 125). This petition must never be intermitted. For it sufficeth not to have received understanding, and to have learnt the testimonies of God, unless it be evermore received, and evermore in a manner quaffed from the fountain of eternal light. For the testimonies of God are the better and the better known, the more understanding a man attaineth to.
125. "It is time," he saith, "for the Lord to lay to His hand" (ver. 126). For this is the reading of most copies: not as some have, "O Lord." Now what is this, save the grace which was revealed in Christ at its own time? Of which season the Apostle saith, "But when the fullness of time was come, God sent His Son." [5316] ...But wherefore is it that, seemingly anxious to show the Lord that it was time to lay to His hand, he hath subjoined, "They have scattered Thy law;" as if it were the season for the Lord to act, because the proud scattered His law. For what meaneth this? In the wickedness of transgression, they have not guarded its integrity. It was needful therefore that the Law should be given to the proud and those presuming in the freedom of their own will, after a transgression of which whosoever were contrite and humbled, might run no longer by the Law, but by faith, to aiding grace. When the Law therefore was scattered, it was time that mercy should be sent through the only-begotten Son of God.
126. "Therefore," he saith, "I love Thy commandments above gold and topaz" (ver. 127). Grace hath this object, that the commandments, which could not be fulfilled by fear, may be fulfilled by love...Therefore, they are above gold and topaz stones. For this is read in another Psalm also, "Above gold and exceeding precious stones." [5317] For topaz is a stone considered very precious. But they not understanding the hidden grace which was in the Old Testament, screened as it were by the veil [5318] (this was signified when they were unable to gaze upon the face of Moses), endeavoured to obey the commandments of God for the sake of an earthly and carnal reward, but could not obey them; because they did not love them, but something else. Whence these were not the works of the willing, but rather the burdens of the unwilling. But when the commandments are loved for their own sake "above gold and exceeding precious stones," all earthly reward compared with the commandments themselves is vile; nor are any other goods of man comparable in any respect with those goods whereby man himself is made good.
127. "Therefore," he saith, "was I made straight unto all Thy commandments" (ver. 128). I was made straight, doubtless, because I loved them; and I clung by love to them, which were straight, that I might also myself become straight. Then what he addeth, naturally follows: "and every unrighteous way I utterly abhor." For how could it be that he who loved the straight could do aught save abhor an unrighteous way? For as, if he loved gold and precious stones, he would abhor all that might bring loss of such property: thus, since he loved the commandments of God, he abhorred the path of iniquity, as one of the most savage rocks in the sailor's track, whereon he must needs suffer shipwreck of things so precious. That this may not be his lot, he who saileth on the wood of the Cross with the divine commandments as his freight, steereth far from thence.
[5310] [The author says: "For some copies read, to them that persecute me: the Greek words tois ?ntidikousi being variously interpreted by the Latin nocentibus, persequentibus, and calumniantibus. I wonder, however, that I have never met with the version adversantibus in any of the copies which I have read, since there is no doubt that the Greek ?ntidikos is the same as the Latin adversarius. While he prays therefore that he may not be given up to his adversaries by the Lord, what doth he pray, save what we pray, when we say, Lead us not into temptation'?"--C.]
[5311] John vii. 24.
[5312] Ps. lxxxv. 12, lxii. 5.
[5313] John iii. 14.
[5314] Rom. viii. 3; 2 Cor. v. 21.
[5315] Eloquium.
[5316] Gal. iv. 4.
[5317] Ps. xix. 10.
[5318] Exod. xxxiv. 33-35; 2 Cor. iii. 13-15.
Pe.
128. "Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore hath my soul searched them" (ver. 129). Who counteth, even by their kinds, the testimonies of God? Heaven and earth, His visible and invisible works, declare in some manner the testimony of His goodness and greatness; and the very ordinary and accustomed course of nature, whereby the seasons are rapidly revolved, in all things after their kinds, however temporal and perishable, however held cheap through our constant experience of them, give, if a pious thinker give heed to them, a testimony to the Creator. But which of these is not wonderful, if we measure each not by its habitual presence, but by reason? But if we venture to bring all nature within the comprehensive view of one act of contemplation, doth not that take place in us which the prophet describeth, "I considered Thy works, and trembled"? [5319] Yet the Psalmist was not terrified in his wonder at creation, but rather said that this was the reason that he ought to search it, because it was wonderful. For after saying, "Thy testimonies are wonderful," he addeth, "therefore hath my soul searched them;" as if he had become more curious from the difficulty of thoroughly searching them. For the more abstruse are the causes of anything, the more wonderful it is...
129. "When thy word goeth forth," he saith, "it giveth light, and maketh His little ones to understand" (ver. 130). What is the little one save the humble and weak? Be not proud therefore, presume not in thine own strength, which is nought; and thou wilt understand why a good law was given by a good God, though it cannot give life. For it was given for this end, that it might make thee a little one instead of great, that it might show that thou hadst not strength to do the law of thine own power: and that thus, wanting aid and destitute, thou mightest fly unto grace, saying, "Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak." [5320] ...Let all be little ones, and let all the world be guilty before Thee: because "by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified" in Thy sight; "for by the Law is the knowledge of sin," etc. [5321] These are Thy wonderful testimonies, which the soul of this little one hath searched; and hath therefore found, because he became humbled and a little one. For who doth Thy commandments as they ought to be done, that is, by "faith which worketh through love," [5322] save love itself be shed abroad in his heart through the Holy Spirit? [5323]
130. This is confessed by this little one; "I opened my mouth," he saith, "and drew in the spirit: for I longed for Thy commandments" (ver. 131). What did he long for, save to obey the divine commandments? But there was no possibility of the weak doing hard things, the little one great things: he opened his mouth, confessing that he could not do them of himself: and drew in power to do them: he opened his mouth, by seeking, asking, knocking: [5324] and athirst drank in the good Spirit, which enabled him to do what he could not do by himself, "the commandment holy and just and good." [5325] Not that they themselves who "are led by the Spirit of God," [5326] do nothing; but that they may not do nothing good, they are moved to act by the good Spirit. For so much the more is every man made a good son, in proportion as the good Spirit is given unto Him by the Father in a greater measure.
131. He still prayeth. He hath opened his mouth, and drawn in the Spirit; but he still knocketh in prayer unto the Father, and seeketh: he drinketh, but the more sweet he findeth it, the more eagerly doth he thirst. Hear the words of him in his thirst. "O look Thou upon me," he saith, "and be merciful unto me: according to the judgment of those that love Thy Name" (ver. 132): that is, according to the judgment Thou has dealt unto all who love Thy Name; since Thou hast first loved them, to cause them to love Thee. For thus saith the Apostle John, "We love God, because He first loved us." [5327]
132. See what the Psalmist next most openly saith: "Order my steps after Thy word: and so shall no wickedness have dominion over me" (ver. 133). Where what else doth he say than this, Make me upright and free according to Thy promise. But so much the more as the love of God reigneth in every man, so much the less hath wickedness dominion over him. What else then doth he seek than that by the gift of God he may love God? For by loving God he loveth himself, so that he may healthily love his neighbour also as himself: on which commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. [5328] What then doth he pray, save that God may cause the fulfillment by His help of those commandments which He imposeth by His bidding?
133. But what meaneth this that he saith, "O deliver me from the calumnies of men: so shall I keep Thy commandments"? (ver. 134)...Did not the holy people of God much the more gloriously keep the commandments among these very calumnies, when they were at their hottest in the midst of tribulations, when they yielded not to their persecutors to commit impieties? But, in truth, the meaning of these words is this: Do Thou, by pouring upon me Thy Spirit, guard me from being overcome by the terrors of human calumny, and from being drawn over to their evil deeds away from Thy commandments. For if Thou hast thus dealt with me, that is, if Thou hast in this manner delivered me by the gift of patience from their calumnies, so that I fear not the false charges they prefer against me; among those very calumnies I will keep Thy commandments.