While the first age of the human race teaches others what profited itself, and shows to others in what manner it healed its own wound, practice made the art, and sickness the teaching. For this is the first and strong school of medicine, which experience, not conjecture, formed. And therefore from experience the physicians were first called empirics, and from that school the others were derived, and from it they drew a certain juice of their virtue. But what is more potent for the exhortation to penitence than that the holy prophet David taught us to repent of our sins?
For who would disdain to humble himself before God, when a king humbled himself; or who would doubt to afflict his soul, when so great a prophet afflicted his, paying the price of tears for the redemption of sin? And although throughout the whole body of his writings he has diffused the precepts of doing penitence — for what psalm of his is not a medicine for a sinning conscience, when in one place he shows how he was driven, in another how he was disturbed, so that he demonstrated not only how wounds are to be healed, but also how they are to be guarded against, and taught us by his own example? But who would believe himself to stand firm, where even the stronger man fell?
— yet in the thirty-seventh psalm he expressed the greater force of inner grief and of lamentable deploring. Finally, in the very opening the title admonishes us that precepts of this kind are being formed; for thus we read: in remembrance, he says, concerning the sabbath day, a psalm of David. For the definition of penitence is complete: the remembrance of offenses, that each one may chastise his own sins as with a certain whip of daily speech, and condemn the crimes he has committed. For so we are taught, God saying: tell thy iniquities, that thou mayest be justified; and the apostle says: with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. But perhaps it may trouble thee that he said not 'the remembrance of sins,' but 'of the sabbath day,' or, as another has it, 'of the sabbaths.'
What then is the sabbath but the rest of things to come, the relief of things present, in which the law bids the works of men to keep holiday and their burdens to be laid down? And what are the heavier burdens but our sins? Let these be laid down in the days of sabbaths, that is, in this time of this life. For in seven days every week is completed, in six days this world was formed, and on the seventh day the Lord rested from his work — he who rests in our meekness, as he himself said: upon whom shall I rest, but upon the humble and meek? Free thyself therefore every sabbath, lighten the weight of error, that, secure, thou mayest deserve to come to the rest of that future sabbath; for if from hence thou carry grave sins, there thou shalt have no rest.
Unburden therefore thy mind, cast off all things by which the conscience is weighed down and pressed, lest thy flight be in winter or on the sabbath. This life is in labor, that one is in rest. Let the consummation of this world find thee lighter, lest, burdened with sins, thou be unable to flee. Flee beforehand, that thou mayest forestall it. He flees the world who is not held by the world's allurements, who absolves himself from all care of it. Flee also the wrath to come, that is, the day of judgment. He flees it who has done penitence; for so John the Baptist defined it, saying: generation of vipers, who has shown you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of penitence. You heard today read that John was baptizing in Aenon near Salim.
Aenon means 'eye of punishments,' Salim 'he himself ascending'; this is what the interpretation holds. He therefore who chooses to be baptized foresees punishments, and therefore flees to the sacrament of baptism, that he may lay aside every sin, lest he begin to be subject to punishments. And perhaps he foresees punishments who is baptized with the baptism of penitence; but indeed he looks toward grace who is baptized in Christ. The baptism of John, therefore, is the eye of punishments; the baptism of Christ, the eye of graces. Yet, although John baptized in Aenon, he baptized near the one ascending; for this too that interpretation holds, that Salim is called 'he himself ascending.' He therefore was near to Christ, who announced his coming.
For indeed the Son of man, who descended from heaven, is himself also he who ascended into heaven, that he might fill all things. But because, as is the heavenly one, such also are the heavenly, he too ascends into heaven who, laying aside earthly things, is buried together with Christ, that with Christ he may rise from the death of sin to newness of life and the fellowship of inheritance, that he may become, as it is written, an heir of God, a coheir of Christ. True medicine, therefore, is to do penitence, which was then lawfully proclaimed when the physician came from heaven, who would not exasperate the wounds, but heal them. A good physician, who taught how on this earth we might seek the remedies of our body, when the flower of the saving herb arose for us — he who from sin condemned sin in the flesh.
An antidote therefore was made the flesh, which before was the venom of sin, because it was the allurement of sins. Hear how the flesh is an antidote: the Word of God was made flesh, it put its hand into the den of asps, it emptied out the venom, it took away sin — that is: from sin it condemned sin in the flesh. And that this may be more fully considered, let us review the very chapter of the apostle. For thus it is written: God, sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, also of sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the justification of the law might be fulfilled in us, that we should walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. The Son of God, therefore, came in the likeness of sinful flesh;
not, surely, in the likeness of flesh did he come who took on true flesh, but in the likeness of sinful flesh, that is, of sinning flesh; for by the fraud and venom of the serpent, our flesh, infused with it, had been made the flesh of sin. After it had been made subject to sin, it had been made the flesh of death, because it was owed to death. The likeness of this flesh — now guilty, now prejudged — Christ took on in his own flesh, because, although he had taken on the natural substance of this flesh, yet he had taken on no contagions, nor was he conceived in iniquities and born in offenses, who was born not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of the Holy Spirit and of a virgin. What then is: from sin he condemned sin in the flesh?
Is it from the likeness of sinful flesh? Or because Christ took on our sins not by practice but by quality, not by crime but by the sacrament of his own mercy, and was made sin for us, he who himself committed no sin? Or indeed because even from this flesh of sin — that is, from this our subject and prejudged flesh — he condemned sin in the flesh, by teaching how we, placed in the flesh, should walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit? For it is sin to walk according to the flesh, because he who lives according to the wisdom of the flesh lives for luxury, for pleasures, for wantonness, and for the desires of the flesh; for the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God, whence those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
And therefore he condemns sin from sin, who, lightening himself from the vices of the flesh, lives according to the spirit, wholly given over to God and intent upon heavenly oracles — for which Christ came, that he might do not his own will, that is, the will of the flesh, but the will of God. If anyone therefore follow him, so as to do the things that please God and to repress the appetite of his flesh, he is an imitator of Christ. What we have thought, we have expressed; thou who readest, choose what thou wilt follow. There is no error where the affection of piety is simple and every sense is faithful. Christ condemned sin by taking on the likeness of sinful flesh, that he might abolish the offenses of our flesh.
He condemned sin, that he might crucify our sins in his own flesh, himself made sin for us, that we might be in him the justice of God — we who were the captivity of death and the prey of the serpent. Therefore this taking on of sins is of piety, not of crime. Through this sin the eternal God absolved us, who spared not his own Son, but made him to be sin for us. Then Christ condemned sin in the flesh from the very flesh of sin, which, with a certain judging vigor and censorial authority, hates the vices it had been wont to love, and shudders at the impurity it had thought to be pleasure.
It separates itself from wantonness, renounces desires, renounces crimes and outrages, drives off avarice, which effeminates a certain manliness of the flesh. Behold for thee that imitator of Christ, himself condemning sin from sin in the flesh: so I run, he says, not as into uncertainty; so I fight, not as one beating the air; but I chastise my body and bring it into servitude, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. Not superfluously, as I think, have we digressed, because this too pertained to the medicine of man.
Providing for which medicine, God, just as he commanded this earth to bear the wholesome juices of herbs and trees, by which the wounds of the flesh might be cured, so also filled the series of the divine Scriptures with saving precepts, by which the infirmity of the soul might be healed. And so how grave it is that dumb animals know how to heal themselves and seek out wholesome herbs for their wounds, and do not refuse to choose them, while the industry of men does not seek out the things for which even a physician was sent — one who would point out the seeds of saving medicine in the old Scriptures, and himself bring new ones! How many things therefore are wholesome which are perfunctorily judged harmful — let us take our examples from the earth itself.
The serpent nourishes venom, has harmful bites, wounds the flesh; but in its very venom thou wilt find an antidote, if thou seek it. For its flesh is burned, of whose powder theriac is made, by which the force of venom is wont to be blunted, that it may not be able to harm. Not the earth, therefore, is at fault, which generates the serpent, but he who knows not how to beware of the serpent. The serpent itself can profit thee, if thou understand — nay, if thou spurn not the precepts of the physician. Learn to imitate the one whom thou thinkest must be fled: be, he says, wise as serpents and simple as doves. Keep thy head like the serpent; even if thou be torn in thy whole body, thou shalt live again. Thy head is Christ, because he himself is the head of the man;
if thou keep faith, even if thou die like the serpent, thou too shalt rise. Imitate the serpent, who sheds his outer self, that the inner may be renewed; imitate the serpent, who vomits out his venom. Blessed art thou too, if thou vomit out thy evil thoughts and lay aside the venom of thy malice. It is a famous saying, and strengthened by the authority of writers, that the serpent, approaching the waters, betroths to himself with a hiss the embraces of the female snake;
and that she, consulting her own safety, promises on this condition the sought-for couplings of his use — if the serpent vomit out his venom; and that he, being captured, obeys the commands, lays down his arms, and after the manner of their own meeting inserts his head into her mouth; and when the practice begins to grow warm, whether by a certain violence of nature or by the ardor of lust, she clasps the male by the mouth and presses the bites of lust with kisses, and so the head of the serpent is cut off. Dost thou not recognize, in the nature of the serpent, the mystery of faith? That serpent of paradise first provoked the woman to the adultery of fault. But when his venom had been poured out into this world, the offspring of that woman, avenging the circumvention and fraud of the parent, stripped him of his serpent's arms and cut off his head.
But if the poisons prevail and sin, in which is the sting of death, creeps in, use the example of physicians, so that even belatedly the serpent may die for you: crush its poison and break its body small, and know that it must be tempered by being mixed with healing juices, so that it not only loses its force and its venom, but even becomes a remedy out of poison. That spiritual serpent dies for you, if you die to sin and your sins die for you. Thus its poison is crushed, if your own deeds prick you with compunction; thus all its power is abolished, if you cover the committed crime with good works and temper it with faithful confession. Hear how the very power of the dragon is crushed: 'May God,' he says, 'crush Satan under your feet.'
First crush your heart, in which was the dragon's lair, so that he may not find where he can dwell. Crush the flesh of the dragon; his flesh is our sins. Therefore God says to you: 'The nations feast upon him,' and below he says: 'He runs ahead to die.' But the flesh of his body are those who cling to him. For just as the saints are the body and members of Christ, so sinners, who do not abandon sin but cling to sin, are the body and members of the dragon. Therefore we feast upon the body of Christ, but they feast upon the body of the dragon. We, who strive to cling to Christ, feast upon the daily remission and pardon of sins; but they, who daily link sins to sins, feast upon the continuation of their shameful deeds and crimes.
Therefore crush this flesh and sprinkle upon it the contrition of your heart, then pour upon all these things the water of the Jordan. For Jordan means descent and ascent, since he who has descended into the sacred font also ascends, that he may seek the things which are above; for he who is baptized into Christ descends into the death of Christ and ascends into His resurrection. But if, having already been baptized, you have erred, pour out the water of tears, not lying but true, so that out of the depths you may cry to the Lord your God, and it may be said of you: 'A voice was heard in Rama, weeping and much wailing; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be comforted, because they are no more.' Rachel is the Church, in which the people of God is blessed.
Let her weep for you, let her bewail your sins and weep abundantly, so that she does not easily admit consolation, like those who grieve greatly. Therefore she would not be comforted, because you who once were have ceased to be; but by this perseverance of grief and weeping let it be earned that she may say: 'My son was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found.' Or perhaps Rachel would not be comforted concerning the children of the Jews, because they are no more, whom indeed she had borne for this purpose, that they might be. And therefore she did not admit consolation when the infants were slain by Herod, because they did not believe in the coming of Jesus, filling up the measure of their wickedness, so that they killed even the infants, in order that among them the Son of the Virgin too might be slain.
Therefore the Church of the Lord would not be comforted concerning the Jews, because they are no more, but in the Christians, who are gathered from the nations, she feasts and rejoices, because they who were not have begun to be. You have therefore poured the water of Jordan, the water of grace; drink this first. You have poured the water of tears, the water of penitence; this is the second cup, to make good the first. Drink water from your own springs, drink water from your own weeping, that you may say: 'And I mingled my drink with weeping.' Your weeping therefore is your drink and your tears are your food. 'My tears,' he says, 'were bread to me.' If tears are bread, you have from the sin of iniquity the food of conversion, according to that which you read in the Gospel, that he to whom more is forgiven loves more.
Whence we often see some who, having previously been negligent Christians, after committing some sin become more diligent, and from it through penitence are wont to come forth perfect. As therefore conversion comes from sin, so a remedy comes from poison. Hear this remedy: 'The righteous is at the beginning of his speech an accuser of himself.' Sin is poison, iniquity is poison; the confession of one's own crime is the remedy for the fall. And therefore it is truly a remedy from poison, if you declare your iniquities, that you may be justified. But now let us approach the psalm, that it itself may teach us how penitence is to be done. And so it begins thus: 'O Lord, rebuke me not in Your anger, neither chastise me in Your wrath.'
He who does penance ought to be ready to bear reproaches and to undergo injuries, and not to be disturbed if anyone casts in his face the charge of his sin. For since he himself ought to accuse himself, how can he not endure another who reproves him? But if he ought not to fear being reproved by a man, how much more by the Lord his God, against whom we all sin even in things that are hidden, especially since the condemnation of present things is the absolution of things to come; but those who are not condemned in this world will not be scourged with men. Woe is me, if it be said of me: 'He has his reward'! If a good deed is condemned by this sentence, how much more is a crime weighed down!
For if mercy boasted of in light speech is defrauded of its eternal fruit, how much more is the punishment of iniquity deferred by the addition of bitter interest! Therefore he who does penance ought to offer himself to punishment, that he may here be punished by the Lord and not be reserved for eternal torments, and not to await the time but to run to meet the divine indignation. See how David's deeds agree with his prayers. He had offended the Lord, because he had ordered the people to be numbered. By confession he forestalled God's messenger, recalling that he had sinned greatly and acted too foolishly, not as if he were reminding one who had forgotten, but as if urging one who delayed, lest he should longer defer the stirring of the offense. 'I have sinned,' he says; 'go, for I have done this thing; and now, O Lord, take away the iniquity of Your servant.'
How sins are blotted out, hear him say: 'Her sin is loosed, because she received from the Lord's hand double for her sins.' He does not therefore ask that his sin be entirely remitted, but blotted out by a moderate release, that is, that its memory may be blotted out for the future. Then, as if besought by the voice of one interceding, the Lord, lest the punishment of the committed error be drawn out, sent to him Nathan the prophet, and he came to the king and said to him: 'Choose what you would have done: three years' famine upon the land, or three months to flee before the face of your enemies while they pursue you, or three days of pestilence in the land. And now know and see what answer I shall give to Him who sent me.'
See God teaching, by what moderation His indignation is softened, if we do not entirely refuse the lashes, but ask for a manner of lightening, not of avoiding, the punishment. He set forth three things, that he might choose what he thought more moderate. See also how He provokes to penance, that we may offer ourselves to injury, commanding to choose, so that in the very punishment some prerogative of choice may be preserved and He may soothe His guilty one with this word. And David said to Nathan: 'I am in straits on every side among these three; but rather let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for great is His mercy, than into the hands of men.' Did he ask that the punishment of his error be remitted? If he had done so, he would have been marked for shamelessness, as one ungrateful to the divine moderation.
A modest confession greatly avails the guilty, and the punishment which we cannot escape by defense we lighten by shame. He chose not what was free from the lash, but what he judged more moderate, so as to commit himself rather to the gentleness of God, who knew how to pardon, than to the power of men, who frequently exceed the measure of vengeance. Thus He who cannot err shows mercy; he who is a partaker of error does not show mercy. Nor did his faith deceive holy David, but even in the very offense he earned the grace of divine mercy. For He who had purposed to exercise death for three days in the land did not suffer even one day to pass by, but at the hour of the noon meal freely granted indulgence, and, to use the word of Scripture, 'He repented of the evil.'
See how Scripture exhorts you, that you too should not flee from penance, if you follow God whom you ought to follow. Well did it add 'over the evil,' because every punishment seems harsh. Therefore the day of judgment too is called an evil day, from which blessed is he who is delivered by God, as it is written: 'In the evil day the Lord will deliver him.' 'And the Lord,' it says, 'said to the angel, to spare him.' But see that, when the Lord wills to pardon, He gives grace and confidence to entreat. And David saw the angel striking and said: 'Behold, it is I. I have sinned, and I the shepherd have done evil; but these in this flock, what have they done? Let Your hand be against me and against my father's house.'
If the Lord had commanded the angel to spare, how was the angel still striking, except because the Lord, even though He wills to pardon, wills to be asked and works that He may be asked? Nor would the man have seen the striking angel, unless the Lord had revealed the angel to his eyes. Whence Elisha too says: 'Lord, open now the eyes of this young man that he may see'; and the eyes of his servant were opened, and he saw the mountain full of horses and chariots round about the prophet. Nor let it move you that the person of the lowly servant is meaner than that of the prophet or the king, because the appearance of horses and chariots too is meaner than the holiness of angels.
And perhaps to some who read cursorily it may seem harsh that that David, humble of heart and meek, who spared his enemies, chose rather the death of the people than his own flight or famine upon the land. He avoided the people's famine, because it is held heavier than death and all torments, and is followed too by pestilence which contaminates the air and heaps up death. He did not ask for his own flight, on this account: that the prophet could intercede for the people, as indeed was done, but the people could not intervene for the prophet. For it is written: 'If the people sin, the priest shall pray for them. If the priest sin, who shall pray for him?'
And yet, when he saw the people being slain, he offered himself to the striking angel, that he himself might rather be struck for the people. It is more that, not even terrified by the very sight of the dead, he offered himself to the sword, than if he had wished for the remission of the proposed condition. And so in his choice he followed reason, in his sorrow piety. But see the grace of the Lord, that He too turned aside from the proposed condition. Is it any fault of mercy, that He threatens more and exacts less? He who in the bestowal of rewards keeps His promises, in the exaction of punishments retracts what was prescribed. When He is angry, He defers the guilty one; when He shows mercy, He hastens to absolve. He frightens that He may correct, He admonishes that He may amend, He goes before that He may pardon.
Whence elsewhere too the prophet says of the Lord: 'A cup of pure wine in the Lord's hand is full of mixture; yet its dregs are not poured out.' For frightening, the cup is full; for striking, it is not emptied. The cup was full, when death was commanded for three days, but the mercy of God ran to meet it and held the hand of the angel, before he emptied that cup. But that you may know that the cup is punishment or a sword, hear him say: 'Take this cup of pure wine from My hand, and you shall make all the nations drink to whom I send you, and they shall vomit and rave at the face of the sword.' And to Jerusalem it is said: 'You have drunk the cup of wrath from the Lord's hand; for you have drunk and emptied the cup of ruin, and there was none to comfort you.'
Jerusalem drank the measure, she who sinned beyond measure. The Church of the Christians knows not how to empty the cup of wrath, but has emptied the ointment, for the sake of which Christ emptied Himself, that He might be fragrant everywhere. From the Lord's hand she received this gift, but knows not the cup of death. I read of two cups, one of death, the other of life. The cup of death Christ emptied in His own blood and ministered a new cup, that we may say: 'I will take the cup of salvation.' I know the cup of the new testament, which is poured out for the remission of sins. This cup is poured out and its dregs are not found, because it cleanses every offense. We have said how the Lord bends His agitation in taking vengeance;
let us say how in rewarding He anticipates our prayer, and let us teach by example. Hear that one of the two thieves saying to the Lord: 'Remember me, O Lord, when You come into Your kingdom.' The Lord answered: 'Amen I say to you, today you shall be with Me in paradise.' He was still asking that He remember him when He had come into His kingdom, and the Lord was already bestowing the heavenly kingdom. How swift is mercy! The vow of the one praying is slower than the reward of the one rewarding. Therefore David held to moderation, and did not pray for remission, saying: 'O Lord, rebuke me not in Your anger, neither chastise me in Your wrath.' 'Wrath' in Greek is called thymos, the impulse of anger. This therefore the Latin wished to express:
'Neither in anger nor in the very impulse of anger rebuke me or chastise me.' Now chastisement is instruction; it is called in Greek paideia, of which it is said: 'Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O Lord.' For God is not open to passion, so as to be angry, since He is impassible; but because He takes vengeance, He seems to be angry. This seems so to us, because we ourselves are accustomed to take vengeance with agitation. Yet often men too are found who, when they take vengeance, are not moved, but with the utmost patience carry out the vengeance and apply the torments. Why then should you wonder at it in God, if you sometimes recognize this in man? But that vengeance is 'anger' we have said above concerning the day of wrath.
In short, usage holds that we say of anyone punished that he has incurred the anger of the laws — not that the laws have anger, but that he has incurred the severity of the laws. So too elsewhere of the ten plagues of the Egyptians it says: 'He sent upon them anger through evil angels,' that is, vengeance; for the law knows not how to be angry, but the minister of the law knows. He therefore who is the author of the laws knows not how to be angry, He whose will is to frighten, not to punish. Imitate therefore, O emperors, the divine example, that you may be more severe in establishing laws, more merciful in exacting punishments. Let the severity of the laws restrain insolent boldness, let the mercy of princes withdraw the guilty from punishment. The prophet therefore acknowledges his fault, sees his wounds, and asks to be healed.