Works (CSEL) 16 part 25/34

This, then, the prophet puts forward for the commendation of his own merit, saying: I have done judgment and justice; deliver me not over to those that wrong me. Where there is justice, there is mercy; mercy frees from sin: how, then, am I handed over to sinners? Like is that saying in the Canticles: I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them? I have put off the coat of the sinner and the covering of the earthly man; why am I judged as a sinner and earthly? I have washed my feet, lest any lot of fault could cling to my footstep. Why dost thou give power over me to those who transgress? There follows the second verse: Receive thy servant unto good; let not the proud calumniate me. As one conscious of judgment and justice, he advances with prophetic authority.

That he should not be afraid to call himself the servant of the Lord; for the servant of the Lord owes nothing to strangers. Precious is this servitude, which consists in the expenditure of virtues. But why he fears to be handed over to those who wrong, he plainly opens: because they are calumniators who hate the truth, who assail innocence; because they are proud. For what proud man can there be against the little servants of God, who exalts himself against God and says: I will ascend into heaven, I will set my throne above the stars of heaven, I will sit on the lofty mountain above the high mountains that are on the north, I will ascend above the clouds, and I will be like the Most High? What wonder, then, if he can oppress men, who with stubborn spirit yields not even to God? How will he preserve the measure of truth and good faith toward a man,

who with sacrilegious and shameless lying promises that he is to be made equal to the almighty Lord? How does he calumniate individuals, who has provoked the whole earth, shaken kings, made the whole world a desert and destroyed cities, who loosed not those that were in captivity? Let us beware, then, lest he destroy the walls of our soul, lest he tear down the ramparts of our mind, lest he set his throne above the stars. He sets it above the stars when he deceives the elect, when he circumvents the just, whose works shine like stars in heaven. Did not Judas the traitor too, among the rest, hear: You are the light of this world? Did not the devil extinguish his light? Nay more, whom he could not circumvent he calumniates, envying the glory of the heavenly kingdom.

So that those whom he could not separate from Christ by his allurements, he may strive to defraud by his calumnies of the fruit of their due honour. Let us flee, then, the evil calumniators, who work sin in us and themselves frame calumnies against us with most hostile accusation, charging us with what they themselves have done. Behold, the hand of the Lord is ready, which may guard and protect thee as thou fleest from thy adversaries. Pharaoh, proud and cruel, held thee in thy fatherland. Thou hast fled from him, the hand of the Lord received thee and freed thee from perils. Pharaoh would not have let thee go, hadst thou not fled to the Lord. Pharaoh said: I know not the Lord, and I will not let Israel go. Thou seest how proud he is. Rightly, then, is he received unto good who flees the evil. God therefore suffers not us to be in evil.

He receives us unto good and suffers not his own to be subject to calumnies. Mine eyes have failed for thy salvation and for the word of thy justice. Consider who these eyes are that fail for Christ while they await his coming: namely the eyes of the soul, not of the body, fixed with the whole intent of faith; for in him whom we love we are wholly occupied with our eyes, nor does it delight to see anything else. This none can say except he who has turned away the whole intent of his mind from worldly cares and secular pleasures. For how does he say this who is occupied with the mockeries of the theatre? But he says it who said above: Turn away mine eyes, that they behold not vanity.

But what are the eyes that fail for the word of God, but the eyes of the inner man and the gaze of the soul, which are strained that they may see the word of God, and by too great intent and expectation fail for the salvation of God, suffering a failing of themselves that they may take up what is of the word? And because 'the word of God' can move very many, therefore he added: the word of justice, that it ought not to move. For it could move, because it is written: The elder shall serve the younger — for unless thou take it according to mystery, it is an injury to nature — and: I gave you precepts not good — does God, then, give evil precepts? — and: I am the Lord that create evil. But concerning the precepts it is thus resolved, that he ought not to give to the weak perfect precepts which they could not bear.

When would a Jew hear: Forsake all thou hast and follow me? When would a Jew hear: He that taketh not his cross and followeth me is not worthy of me? But these more perfect precepts have been reserved for the Gospel. And God created not evils, but these things which seem to us harsh — stripes, death, and other such things, which have been prescribed for the amendment of the innocent; for the law is not laid down for the just, but for the unjust. For if the guilty feared nothing, the innocent would always be in fear. Who, then, are these eyes that fail for the salvation of God? We have said there is the eye of punishments, which, foreseeing the future punishments of sinners, may announce that repentance is to be undertaken. John the Baptist showed this eye, saying:

O generation of vipers, who hath shown you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance. To John's baptism came he who had the eye of punishments, but to Christ's baptism comes he who sees grace; for this is the eye which the shadow of the Lord's passion guards and protects. Aenon, then, is one thing, Ain another: in Aenon is baptized one conscious of grave transgressions, but he who receives the pure eye and spiritual grace. And perhaps of an imperfect soul the eye is of punishments, but of a perfect soul the eye of graces is purer and more sincere. This is signified by this letter, toward which the form of the just is directed.

Because the imperfect soul desires only to escape the judgment of sin, but the perfect to acquire the merit of the heavenly kingdom. Yet we presume that, since one soul has both eyes, both the eye of punishments and the eye of grace, the left is the eye of punishments, the right the eye of grace, because men cannot be perfect from the first, but ascend by the progress of virtue. Before, therefore, each soul comes as it were to John's baptism, that it may send ahead repentance of its transgressions, and in its progress gradually, when it has wept over its sins, washed by spiritual baptism, it receives the sacrament of Christ. Whence the Church too seems to be proclaimed in the Song of Songs, to whom it is said:

Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, so that this is the eye of grace, which has acquired for itself the fuller love of Christ. Yet very many in this place understand two eyes of the Church, one that may see mystical things, the other that may see moral things, because the holy Church holds not only the discipline of moral things but also teaches the secrets of the heavenly mystery. Whence it is said of her: Thine eyes are as doves' beyond thy silence. Because she both sees spiritually and knows that there is a time to keep silence and a time to speak, that in due time she may bring forth her discourse, lest by the unseasonableness of speaking she could incur sin. Have, therefore, the eyes of a dove, after the likeness of Christ, because of him it is read:

Thine eyes are as doves' upon the abundance of waters, washed in milk, sitting upon fullness. The Lord baptizes in milk, that is, in sincerity, and these are they who are truly baptized in milk, who believe without guile and bring a pure faith, who put on an unstained grace. Therefore the white bride ascends to Christ, because she has been baptized in milk. Therefore the virtues marvel at her, saying: Who is this that ascends made white? A little before she said: I am black. Now she is seen made white and ascends to heaven, and leaning on the word of God she now penetrates the heights. Nor undeservedly is there an abundance of waters there, where Christ is, that the human mind may desire to be filled. These waters the hart thirsts for, which when it has drunk it cannot thirst.

For these waters the prophet thirsts, when he says: My soul hath thirsted for thee. Christ, then, sits upon the abundance of waters and upon fullness. And therefore he who is baptized in milk says: And of his fullness have we all received. Whence too the eye of punishments is not alien from the Church, because, although John baptized in Aenon, he baptized near to Salim, where there was an abundance of waters and twelve fountains and seventy palm trees. These fountains the Church has, that is, in the Old Testament the twelve patriarchs, in the New the twelve apostles. And therefore it is said: In the Church bless the Lord God from the fountains of Israel. With these fountains is first bathed whosoever obtains the most sacred mysteries;

for these fountains, flowing from the eternal fountain, have flowed throughout the whole world. Where these fountains are, there is the ascension of souls. In short, Salim they have interpreted as the very one ascending; for he truly ascends who lays aside his own sins. By this word, therefore, the use of purifying sanctification is expressed, whence well also in the Canticles Christ says to the Church: Thy teeth are as a flock of shorn ewes which came up from the washing, which all bear twins, and there is none barren among them. This is said in appearance of she-goats, but mystically of the flock of the Church. Nor let these animals seem to thee mean. In short, hear what the Holy Spirit speaks concerning them: Thy hair is as a flock of shorn ewes that have been revealed from Mount Gilead.

Thy teeth as a flock of shorn ewes which came up from the washing. Thou seest that this flock is pastured in the heights. Thou hearest, on the mountain. And so where for others there are precipices, there for the goats there is no peril; where for others there is peril, there is the nourishment of this flock. There the food is sweeter, there the fruit more choice. They are seen by their shepherds hanging from the bushy crag, where the inroads of wolves cannot be, where fruitful trees supply whole fruit. One may see them, distended with rich milk, anxious with maternal tenderness over their tender offspring. Therefore the Holy Spirit chose those with which he might compare the assembly of the venerable Church.

And that thou mayest hear it mystically, the hair of the word is the height and a certain eminence of just souls, since the senses of the wise man are in his head; for in the height of human thought it is certain that wisdom resides. And just as the she-goats are shorn, that they may lay aside what is superfluous, so also the holy Church has the flock of shorn souls, that is, the virtues of many souls. In which flock thou couldst find nothing insensible, nothing superfluous, since faith has made them wise, and spiritual grace has cleansed them from every stain of superfluous things. Rightly, therefore, the souls of the just have been revealed, and revealed from Mount Gilead, that is, from the transmigration of testimony, in that the heavenly testimony has migrated from the synagogue to the Church.

And so on this mountain are born frankincense, resin, and the other perfumes which those Ishmaelite traders, as thou hast in the first book of the Old Testament, used to carry. These perfumes the Church has, which the merchants gathered from the nations have conveyed by faith and devotion. And so, just as the goats, refreshed with good food and flourishing in the warmth of the sun, are washed in the river and, exulting, rise up clean from the river, so the souls of the just ascend from the spiritual washing. These are truly they who bear twins, in whom there is no barrenness of virtues, no sterility of merits. Well do they bear twins, because they double their senses. Whence thou hast it written in Proverbs: And do thou write these things for thyself threefold in counsel and knowledge.

He set forth a threefold writing and subjoined two things, counsel and knowledge; but knowledge is twofold, one of incorporeal things, the other of corporeal. We have spoken of fruitfulness; let us speak of the teeth. For many who sail and many who hasten upon an earthly journey, when they have seen some beautiful place, tarry for the sake of delight, they feed their eyes and lighten their mind, nor is any delay in journeying reckoned, but a grace; so for us too it is dear to heart to consider the most beautiful teeth of just souls. For Scripture taught that the teeth of the just are most beautiful, saying indeed according to the letter concerning the patriarch Judah, but spiritually concerning Christ: His eyes are gladsome from wine, and his teeth as milk.

In this he proclaimed not the duties of human flesh, but the gifts of divine grace. The example therefore teaches that the teeth are not to be passed over, once we have spoken of the eyes. What then are the teeth of righteous souls, except those which, on receiving food that is shapeless and hard, often either cold or hot beyond measure, now grind it small, now warm it, now temper it, according to the quality of the nourishment? They grind hard things small, lest the harshness of the letter in the Old Testament and the rigidity of a worldly understanding, unless it be loosened by a spiritual tooth, should choke the very vital organs by blocking the passages of wholesome foods, and stifle, as it were, the soul's gullet by careless gluttony.

It is fitting therefore that you first divide, if the food you take seems to you solid, and distinguish it, and when it is softened pour it without any harm to the soul into all its members by a natural division, so that the whole body may feast upon the life-giving juice. Take nothing corpse-like, nothing dead, into your mouth, lest it be said: 'Their throat is an open sepulchre' (Ps 5:10); but drink in the living word, that it may be able to work in the inward parts of your mind. These teeth are whiter than milk, because they are the teeth of the righteous.

Finally, since all our fathers were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, yet it is not written in vain that all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink, so that a certain greater splendour might be added to these teeth of the saints, whom we know to have been cleansed after the crossing of the Red Sea, when the bitterness of the fountain of Marah was tempered by the grace of the wood, then by the drink of the twelve fountains, and lastly by the irrigating stream of the rock that poured forth a spiritual flood; for the rock was Christ (1 Cor 10:4). For this reason too they ate the manna, that, so often washed, they might eat, as it is written, the bread of angels (Ps 77:25).

Now also in the mysteries of the Gospel you recognize that, although you have been baptized in your whole body, you are afterwards nevertheless cleansed by spiritual food and drink. Rightly therefore David, purified both in his inward eyes and in his teeth, utters words as it were illumined by the brightness of spiritual teeth, saying: 'I have done judgment and justice' (Ps 118:121). For that is the true splendour of teeth, where the tuneful confession of a clear conscience resounds; that is the pure eye, which no beam of grievous sins has weighed down, which no mote of light defilements has disturbed. That eye of justice never failed; for he who cleaves to Christ is one spirit (1 Cor 6:17).

And Balaam prayed that his soul might die in the souls of the righteous (Num 23:10), that is, that he might forget his own error, lay aside what was his own, and take on what belongs to justice and equity. But let us proceed to the rest. There follows: 'Deal with thy servant according to thy mercy, and teach me thy justifications' (Ps 118:124). He has built up the way beforehand and has presumed upon the growth of his own commendation. Above he asked not to be delivered over to the harmful; again he begged to be received in the good, that the proud might not slander him; that is: 'I do not refuse judgment, but the calumny of the faithless; for they know not how to judge, but they know how to calumniate. To thee I flee for refuge, who knowest how to render judgment.' And rightly he does not wish to be handed over to slanderers;

for the righteous Job suffered many things after he was handed over to the harmful one. But that was a hard and great contest, which scarcely anyone could have overcome except Job by his exceeding patience; and yet even he was not handed over entirely, but was reserved as to the better portion. He who says, 'Do not hand me over,' grasps at greater things. Now we are more in soul than in flesh; for it is said to the righteous: 'But you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit' (Rom 8:9). He therefore refuses to have his soul handed over, who was wasting away in body like a spider (Ps 38:12). In this place therefore, presuming on the better things by a certain greater intimacy of familiarity, he says: 'Deal with thy servant according to thy mercy, and teach me thy justifications.' He asks that mercy be granted to him, that the justifications be taught.

Elsewhere too (that is, in what follows) you have this sense: 'And enter not into judgment with thy servant' (Ps 142:2). For we, conscious of our sins, ought rather to seek the mercy of our God than to implore his justice; the one bestows pardon, the other deals out scrutiny. What hope have men of contending before him from whom hidden things do not escape, from whom sins cannot be concealed? And therefore, knowing his power—he who would not fear man—he says: 'Against thee only have I sinned' (Ps 50:6). The righteous man cannot deny this, since no one is without sin; the king cannot deny it, for although he has the laws in his power, so as to transgress with impunity, yet he is subject to God—nay, he himself owes the more, to whom the more has been committed. This therefore he says:

'Deal with thy servant according to thy mercy, for although I have done some good, I owe more, as a servant.' A servant is not acquitted by a single deed, since no one who has a servant ploughing or feeding sheep says to him, 'Pass on, recline at table,' but says to him, 'Prepare what I may dine on, and gird thyself, and serve me' (Luke 17:7-8). Does the servant have thanks if he has done what was commanded him? Therefore even when we have done what was commanded us, we ought not at once to exalt ourselves, but rather to humble ourselves, since we have not, the moment we have done something, fulfilled all the duties of our servitude. Who could match with worthy service such gifts of nature, such divine benefits of life and of salvation preserved? Who is able to repay what he has received?

And therefore, knowing all this, he asks for mercy rather than a hearing, for 'no one,' he says, 'shall be justified in thy sight, every living man' (Ps 142:2; 118:120). The fifth little verse follows: 'I am thy servant; give me understanding, and I shall know thy testimonies' (Ps 118:125). Understanding is a spiritual gift, and therefore what is God's is asked from the Lord. Nor does he ask as a stranger who confesses himself a servant; well he says, 'I am thy servant.' For a servant does the will of his lord, a servant seeks the wages of servitude, hopes for recompense. The servant of the Lord cannot be at the same time the servant of sin, and therefore he asks that understanding be given him, that he may be able to guard against sin. He had understanding indeed, but not such that he should believe it overflowed in him; he seeks a more abundant one.

Now there is an understanding of nature, and there is an understanding that is not good. Therefore Solomon says: 'But a good understanding gives grace' (Prov 13:15). For if every understanding were good, there would have been no need of the addition. Rightly therefore he seeks the grace of his Lord; for otherwise he cannot know the secrets of the Lord, unless he has received the gift of spiritual understanding. You have this in Jeremiah: 'Make it known to me, O Lord, and I shall know' (Jer 11:18); for unless God makes his mystery known to men, we cannot know it. There follows the sixth verse: 'It is time to act, O Lord; the wicked have scattered thy law' (Ps 118:126). Well he says that it is time to act; for there is a time to be silent and a time to speak (Eccl 3:7).

But the time of speaking has come, and through this he calls to mind that the time of the Lord's advent is now at hand, so that, because the transgression of the law has been committed, there might come the end of the law and its fulfilment and fullness, the Lord Jesus, who grants men remission of all their offences and, with the bond of debt abolished, absolves all and frees sinners (Col 2:14). It is time to act: just as, if some grievous ailment grows worse, you run to the physician that he may come the quicker, lest afterwards he be unable to bring help. For the physician is desired all the more when a grave sickness has fallen upon the languishing.

Therefore when the holy prophet sees in the Spirit the transgressions of the people—their wantonness, their luxuries, their deceits, frauds, avarice, drunkenness—he, as it were interceding on our behalf, runs to Christ, whom alone he knew able to bring help for such great sins, and urges him to come and does not suffer delay to be made. 'It is time to act, O Lord,' he says; that is, 'that thou mayest mount the cross for us and undergo death.' The whole world is being driven to the utmost peril: 'Come, that thou mayest take away the sin of the world' (John 1:29). Let life come to the dying, let resurrection come to those already buried. Let thy deed bring help, since not even thy precepts have been able to profit. In the law is precept, in the Gospel is ministry.

The whole people was blind and did not see its own author; the world was lame and wavered with the tottering step of faith. There was none to apply a poultice, nor oil, nor a bandage (Isa 1:6). That woman of the Gospel had spent her whole patrimony on physicians (Mark 5:26)—bearing the figure of the human congregation that was being gathered from the nations—nor could the physicians of this age stem the flowing blood and the deadly flux of an inveterate ailment. The prosperity of the prince of the people had perished, and all his inheritance had fallen. Seeing these things, the prophet says to Christ: 'It is time to act, O Lord'; he says not 'to command,' but 'to act,' because it was no legate nor messenger, but the Lord, who was to save his people.

And he indeed knew the time and did not delay, but we did not know at what better time he should bring help. Or perhaps he wishes to be admonished by us, wishes to be asked—nay, if he is asked, he comes even before the time. He came to the fig tree and came before the hour, as he says to his mother. She was praying for us, she was hastening, saying: 'They have no wine, son.' Jesus answered: 'What is it to me and to thee, woman? My hour is not yet come' (John 2:3-4). And the mother, who knew his disposition, says to the servants: 'Whatsoever he shall say to you, do it' (John 2:5). Jesus too, who had denied that his hour had come, did what he had been putting off; for God did all things in due time. Whatever he does is not out of season, but all that he does is opportune. And to me he came in his own time;

for every time is opportune for salvation, nothing premature where the salvation of those in peril is concerned. But he wished still to await the correction of the synagogue. Therefore he came before the time to the fig tree, that is, he came quickly to the Jews, opportunely to the Gentiles; he came quickly for those who were to perish, conveniently for those who were to believe. The seventh verse follows: 'Therefore I have loved thy commandments above gold and topaz' (Ps 118:127). The law is the herald of Christ. The precepts of the law therefore convey the hope of good things to come; for it is the Lord's command: 'Attend to thyself, lest thou forsake the Levite all the time that thou shalt live upon the earth' (Deut 12:19). Who is this Levite? You understand, if you consider, who is he that came to minister, who is priest for ever (Heb 7:17, 24). Another command says:

'Keep the month of new fruits, and thou shalt make the Pasch to the Lord thy God' (Deut 16:1), and below: 'In the place which the Lord thy God shall choose for his name to be invoked there, thou shalt slay the Pasch in the evening at the going down of the sun, at the time when thou camest out of Egypt' (Deut 16:6). The commands of God therefore hold the tokens of future redemption, the marks of resurrection; therefore he relates that they are loved by him above gold and topaz. For what is more welcome than salvation, more precious than resurrection? Or because Christ chose the foolish things of the world, so that, since by wisdom the world did not know God, he might through the foolishness of preaching bring salvation to believers (1 Cor 1:21, 27)—therefore he says:

'Above the wisdom of the heavenly working and of the constitution of the world, and above the precious adornments of the sun and moon and stars, I have loved the obedience of the Lord's passion. For he conferred more upon me in redeeming than in creating; for then I was born without sense, but now I am preserved with will.' But not everyone may say, 'I have loved thy commandments above gold and topaz.' The miser who broods over his gold and gapes after riches does not say it; he longs for adornments. But he says it who can say: 'Silver and gold I have not' (Acts 3:6), since I do not seek them, since gold profits me nothing; but the heavenly precept and command has redeemed me. We have spoken of the restraint of the senses; now let us set forth the history concerning the topaz stone.

Concerning which we find it written in the history of Xenocrates, who wrote a sort of 'Lithognomon' (treatise on the knowledge of stones), that it is born or found near the city of the Thebaid called Alabastrum, or 'Topazion,' as some think. Whence it was named from the place in which it was produced. There are, however, those who have thought that an island is called Topazion. Some Troglodytes, having put in there, when a sudden disturbance arose at sea, were unable to return because they had no use of ships. Then, lingering a very long time on the island, they found the stone, and delighted by its colour, made for home and sold it to Arabian merchants who came. From them Philo bought it, and it was brought by him to the mother of Ptolemy the Second, whose name was Berenice.

But she, although she abounded in royal adornments, was nevertheless astonished beyond measure at its colour and took pains, so that the appearance of so precious a stone might no longer remain hidden; and therefore by her zeal the sought-for stone came into more frequent use. We have told how the topaz stone became known; now let us speak more expressly of its quality. There is in this stone a krasis of two colours, that is, a certain tempered mixture, prasoeides and chrysopos, like the chrysoprase, according to each as it were extending certain figures of colours, and indeed it is said by experts to extend more fully. It is somewhat pale and quite pure and golden-hued and rich, like something resplendent, especially when struck by the splendour of the sun.

It is also most beautiful and wonderful above all chrysoprases in size and, as I have said, richer to look upon. Its nature is of such a kind that, if you wish to polish and smooth it, it becomes rougher rather, and it is worn down by use. It is, moreover, by a certain inborn working of nature 'euglyphus,' that is, well marked and wonderful, and—that it might be held worthy of the highest esteem—it is come by with difficulty, and once found is yet rarely in human use, like that one which the rich queen admired. But now, just as those Troglodytes, having found as it were the price of their delay, made for home, so let us too, having received the profit of this delay, return there whence we turned aside. Nor is it fitting for us to apply certain arms of our discourse any longer to royal adornments.