But to him who shall have wrought many things which ought not to remain but to be burned, the Lord is fire, that he may consume the hay and stubble of our work and make us safe by a profitable loss, just as gold which is refined is the more approved. Perhaps someone may say, on what principle the prophet wrote: Have mercy on me according to thy word; for the word of God is justice. If therefore he relied on justice, why did he set mercy before it? Or if he was seeking mercy, why did he think it ought to be asked according to the measure of justice? For he who acts well and lives well has no need of mercy, because mercy frees from sin.
In short, mercy is not wont to be conferred by us upon the rich, nor upon the strong and those propped up by good fortune, but upon the needy or the weak, or upon those who from riches have fallen into poverty or captivity or some necessity. Therefore he who has need of mercy is a sinner, but he who is not a sinner is surely just and has no need of God's mercy. According to what state, then, each one stands—that is, according to which condition he has need of mercy or possesses justice—must be considered. For in one way the angel has need of God's justice, in another way man; in one way the archangel has need of mercy, in another way man.
For the angelic nature is surely not so subject to corruption as the nature of the human race, and therefore it needs God's mercy lest it be able to err and, turned away from the grace of God, slip into vice; but man, even though he is now of a firmer purpose, nevertheless on account of the series of contracted sins seeks mercy. And so, although each needs mercy, yet mercy is owed in one way to the angel, in another to man. For a slight fault in an angel is reckoned by a graver judgment, and a sin of youth in a man is bound by a milder sentence than a sin of old age, and is more quickly relaxed.
The prophet therefore in this little verse divides the causes, that he may both ask for mercy as a man, because no one is without the filth of sin, and demand justice as a prophet; or assuredly because, although he sinned as a man and as a sinner needs mercy, yet he corrected his error, performed penance, abstained from the intoxication of sinning by the sobriety of virtue. He asks therefore for justice according to the word of God, because it is the verdict of the word of God that pardon be granted to the converted, if the conversion has been lawfully made. I have considered my ways and turned my feet to thy testimonies. The sense is twofold:
either because I considered my former ways, full of falling and sin, and therefore, that I might be able to merit the remission of sins by amendment of conduct and zeal for virtues, I turned my feet to thy testimonies, that I might walk no longer by my own steps, by which I formerly fell, but by the paths of thy testimonies, so that the tracks of thy commandments would not let me err, nor should I turn my footstep aside into byways and crooked places. For frequently men ignorant of the road, if they follow the paved highways, arrive where they desire to arrive and are free of the winding of error;
but if on the other hand they presume to know what they do not know and think that certain shortcuts are to be followed, withdrawing from the route of the public highway they frequently run into labyrinths of error, so that they repent of having turned aside from the road, and therefore after many wasted labors they strive to return to the road they had left. This then is one sense; but another is thus: I considered my ways, not the former but the future, that I might anticipate my acts beforehand by my thoughts, lest, having advanced by ill-considered action, I should fall into some offense in the very attempts—so that, if I wish to do anything, I may first think it over.
whether that which I desire ought to be done, or in what manner it ought to be done; likewise if something is to be said, whether I ought to say it, then whether to speak publicly or in secret, with some present or with none; as is that case that, if you wish to correct a brother, you should first correct him alone, secondly in the presence of two or three witnesses, thirdly, if he will not hear, before the Church. And so if, passing over this order, you wish to rebuke before the Church a brother whom you ought first to have admonished, you yourself recognize the error. Do everything therefore with deliberation, that you may not repent of your work.
Or indeed, if having entered upon a journey, when you have come to some crossroads—for so is named as it were a certain meeting of very many roads—if you do not know which way you ought to enter, you nevertheless stand still and ponder within yourself which road you should choose to follow, whether the first or the second or the third or the fourth, or assuredly the fifth, if it be so, and you do not think the journey is to be undertaken before you have determined it in your mind and decided with fuller intention of mind; you stand therefore pondering which is the way that leads into the city to which you think you must proceed—how much more, then, ought you to take your stand in mind and intent, you who strive toward the heavenly kingdom, and to consider within yourself that not every road leads thither, not every road directs thither, to that Jerusalem which is in heaven!
There are ways which have evil ends, which the temptations of the devil have worn smooth, and therefore their ends are the ends of death. These surely are the ways of which you have read in Proverbs, that there are ways which seem to a man to be right, but their last ends look down into the depth of hell. But there is that narrower way which leads to the kingdom of God. Wishing therefore to enter upon that way which leads to God, will you not look about you, will you not deliberate within yourself, will you not consider, lest you be easily captured by desire, if, provoked by the breadth of the way, you should enter upon a road that leads down to hell? Think therefore beforehand and weigh what you do. Whosoever, he says, shall have looked upon a woman to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
This man surely deliberated, that he might look upon the woman, that he might look to lust after her; but let this evil thought forsake its ways. Another did not indeed deliberate, but suddenly looked and was captured and saw and lusted and therefore fell. But if he had considered his own frailty of affection and had feared beforehand, lest, when he had seen the woman, he should be captured in mind and soul, he surely would not have looked upon the woman, lest he should lust after her. Seeing the woman, therefore, he did not direct his foot to the testimonies of the Lord; whereas, if he had been able to think before his fall, perhaps he would have directed it. Let each one therefore first think how he may look upon a woman, that he may not look to lust after her, that he may not fix his attention upon her.
But if, while seeing suddenly, he is grounded in a good thought and directs his foot to the testimonies of the Lord, that he may not remain in captivity, then surely the thought has profited him. Finally, let the man who loves a woman, who cherishes and lusts, consider Christ, his judgment, his testimonies concerning the rewards of chastity, and let him forsake the ways of concupiscence, follow the ways of Christ, and he shall have praise in them, if, having contemplated the Lord Jesus, he despises the ardor of the flesh, quenches the flame of lust as if by a certain fountain, and dashes his tender and feeble desires against the rock of Christ. Let him therefore first think, that I may repeat the same, in what manner he may look, in what manner he may speak. Well did he think who said:
Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, lest perchance, while the mind inflames its ardor, the tongue slip in speech, or by incautious much-talking incur even that which the mind did not contemplate, through the easiness of speaking. Let him think how he may direct his foot, how he may bring his hand, lest, driven by an impulse of indignation, when he ought to repel an injury, he himself deal to another the blow of a notable wounding. We must therefore deliberate what we do; for where deliberation goes before, maturity of action is applied. And so this foot is the footprint of faith, which by deliberation duly weighed he turned aside from bodily motions to the divine testimonies. What profit therefore there is in thinking beforehand what you are afterward to do, the little verse which follows teaches:
I am prepared, and I am not troubled, that I may keep thy commandments. Where one anticipates by deliberation what he is about to do, he is always prepared to act, always fixed and strong, so that he cannot be troubled by any sudden onset of mishaps. No blasts of too rugged ambition shake him out, no storm and tempest of unjust invasion drives him about, the eye of the wanton harlot does not ensnare him; for the eye of a harlot is the snare of a lover. In another's possession the wretch is captured, who, forestalled by an unforeseen fire, has lost the possession of his own mind. If persecution presses on, it finds him already prepared, so that, where there might be a disturbance of uncertain safety, there the hoped-for crown of the sacred contest may soothe him by provident meditation of the future.
If he is frequently gnawed at by slandering detractors, let him consider that the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord. If unspeakable reproaches of those who reviled fell upon the Son of God, how shall the servant hope to be exempt from them? And therefore he ought to prepare his mind, so that, when these things befall, they cannot trouble him. Let him prepare his soul and compose it by meditation, that he may be able to say, if indeed he can: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or famine? and the rest. And why he is not separated, he added: But in all these things we are more than conquerors and overcome, he says, through him who loved us. And deservedly, being confirmed, he says:
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. The apostle named many things against which we have a struggle; but some are easy, or assuredly not of this time or place, such that we should have to discuss them all—what those things are which can separate us from the love of God, unless we resist more diligently. That now which seems more obscure we do not pass over, because he says: nor height, nor depth, which are grave temptations. In short, you have it written in Isaiah to king Ahaz: Ask thee a sign of the Lord, in the depth or in the height. He answered: I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord.
A mystical thing was proposed to him, but he did not understand and feared, lest he should seem to tempt the Lord, if he should ask a sign in the height or in the depth. But the Lord, wishing to supplant the grave temptations by a divine remedy, says: Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb. This is the great sign, which destroyed the temptations of height and of depth. For the Lord Jesus thought it not robbery to be equal with God, nor did he seek the things that were his own, but took the form of a servant, humbled himself even unto death. And so he was neither lifted up by power nor troubled by any abasement of death.
This sign therefore is set before the king, that he might ask for himself a remedy by which he should neither be exalted by the haughtiness of royal power nor assuredly be disturbed by the seizure of any hardship—he who was troubled in heart when he saw war being brought against him by the Syrians. By the example therefore of the divine oracle we have wished to show what those grave temptations were, to which Christ alone could bring a remedy. But indeed it is easy also by a prophetic word to teach a certain burden of these temptations. For holy Solomon declared these two greatest temptations in a prayer of his own and asked that he might be able to shut them out, saying: Give me neither riches nor poverty, but appoint for me the things that are needful and that suffice, lest, being filled, I become a liar and say:
Who sees me? Or lest, being poor, I steal and forswear the name of God. Can you then despise those temptations which Solomon dreaded, who asked for wisdom and obtained it? He was rich; he feared to be exalted. He dreaded to become poor, lest by the necessity of poverty he should not keep the grace of abstinence. How many who seemed to be holy fell from the loftiness of their heart! How many, cast down by some necessity, could not be content amid wrong, who had been strengthened by the exercise of virtues! Rare is a Job found upon the earth, who both lost his riches and his sons and, scored with the weals of his body, when worms streamed over his whole body, could nevertheless not be separated from the love of Christ.
Let us therefore prepare our affection, lest a sudden force disturb us unprepared. In short, the Lord, knowing that we are wont to be quickly broken, says even to the apostles: Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it fear. If desire and craving tempt you, read the Gospel; let Jesus say to you: 'Let not your heart be troubled.' If any terror presses on, let Christ say to you: 'Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it fear.' If a persecutor inflicts any torments, read the Gospel; let Jesus say to you: 'Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it fear.' Read the apostle saying: The unworthy sufferings of this present time are not comparable to the glory that shall come. If, as you sail upon the sea, a grievous wave rises up and a black tempest rages, let Jesus say to you:
'It is I, be not afraid.' Coming therefore into some great and grievous contest, say first: I am prepared and I am not troubled, that I may keep thy commandments. And what shall I say about worldly things? Be prepared not only against the things you see, but also against the things you do not see. Without, he says, are fightings, within are fears; in your very self there is war for you. It is good that your soul be in tranquillity and in a certain serenity; but that helmsman is the better who steers the ship in a tempest. Govern therefore your own self, when the soul is troubled, when the mind tosses. Should I praise the virtue of a helmsman who has felt no storms and has directed the course of his vessel tossed by no tempest?
But I would praise the man who struggles against the winds, rises up against the waves, fears not, whether the vessel be lifted up by the waters or be set down to the lowest depths. So also is that man to be praised who is the helmsman of himself, who conquers by patience the things that are adverse, overcomes them by virtue, is not exalted by prosperity, is not broken by adversity. You have war also against spiritual wickednesses. You perceive with how great foes you have battle, and therefore meditate and resolve in your mind, that going forth to the battles you may say: I am prepared and I am not troubled, that I may keep thy commandments. There follows the fifth verse: The cords of sinners have entangled me, and I have not forgotten thy law; that is:
sinners have encompassed me with cords, that they might entangle my steps, so that I cannot escape their onsets by the swiftness of foreseeing them. These therefore are not those cords of which it is written: The lines have fallen unto me in goodly places. For those are the lines which they use who measure the bounds of fields and mark out their limits and distribute the spaces of possessions. There are stretched out therefore those lines by which each one's possession is laid out: thus Israel was made the cord of his inheritance. Good therefore are those cords; but these are the cords by which men are dragged—iniquities, as it were, with a long cord and as with the thong of a yoked heifer.
For the untamed heifer flings herself about all the more and shakes herself free when she is held; she neither submits to command nor is bound by a tether, but rather, when she is drawn back by the rein, she grows more frenzied. And so she neither yields when forced nor is yet free of her bonds. Therefore, just as the heifer drags the rein of her yoke, which, though it does not hold her closely, nevertheless holds her so that she cannot free and loose herself, so too every sinner of untamed habits drags along his iniquities, supposing himself free because he is not put under the yoke nor subjected to judgment, and he does not know that he has not been stripped of his bonds, but rather, like that heifer, he too entangles himself in the snares of his own sins. These, then, are the cords of our transgressions, by which we are wrapped and bound, just as there are also the chains of our transgressions.
And therefore the Saviour, who has it in His power to forgive sin, says to those who are in bonds: Come forth. Would that He might say to me also: 'Come forth from your bonds, come forth from the snares of your sins, loose the cords of your error by which you are encircled and bound.' For even if I were the most worthless of all and the most detestable of sinners, yet at His command I am set free—He who in a single moment snatched from punishment the robber condemned and guilty, and established him in His kingdom. There are, then, bonds by which we are constrained, even though we may seem to ourselves to be free. Blessed is he who looses these bonds from himself. And therefore David says: Let us break their bonds asunder and cast their yoke from us.
He certainly does not say that visible bonds are to be broken by the hand, but that the invisible knots of our crimes are to be loosed by amendment of life and by the profession of faith—or by the hand, that is, by the work of your hand: give to the poor, lift up the feeble, redeem the captives, and you have loosed your bonds; for almsgiving delivers from death. Rescue him who is led away to death—that is: rescue him by intercession; rescue him by grace, you who are a priest, or you who are an emperor; rescue him by the signing of a pardon, and you have loosed your sins, you have stripped yourself of your bonds. For each one is constrained by the bonds of his own sins, as you yourself have read; the enticement of the flesh binds us with bonds.
Our bond is avarice, our bond is drunkenness, our bond is concupiscence, our bond is pride. There are also the devil's bonds; indeed it is written: But this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound, lo, eighteen years. The devil too binds us with the knot of our crimes, binds us with the bond of fornication, the bond of adultery, the bond of faithlessness by which Christ is denied, the bond of envy by which even a brother is often attacked, the bond of cruelty by which sometimes a companion and an equal is slain. These are the bonds by which each one who is bound is bowed down, so that he cannot lift up his soul nor raise the gaze of his mind to heaven, unless the Lord says to him:
You are released from your infirmity, and by the gift of His blessing He has raised him up. These are the bonds of the wicked that bind sinners harshly—that is, the devil and his ministers, or surely Nimrod, that is 'bitterness,' or surely Esau, that is 'earthly and crafty.' For these were hunters, who were accustomed to catch wild beasts with snares and to bind dumb animals with bonds—useless hunters, who capture beasts to furnish a spectacle for the people's display, a service to cruelty. In fact, in the whole course of the divine Scriptures we find no hunter who is righteous. But there are other bonds, as I have said, the bonds of the Lord Jesus, whom they follow, he says.
Bound with bonds—that is, fastened with the bonds of charity and love, bound with the bonds of faith—though it may also be understood thus: bound with bonds they follow Christ, that is, the remitter of sins and crimes, the fountain of pardons, the author of redemption. Let us therefore follow the bonds of Christ; let us flee the bonds of the hunters, lest, while we walk, while we are unaware, the foot of our mind run into their snares, lest we thrust the neck of our soul into their knots.
For they lie in wait like the worst of hunters, and when, at the coming of prosperity, we relax our spirit and in favorable circumstances grow slack and do not keep the watches of caution alert, then they cast their snares the more, or hide them in the way along which we walk, so that, when our steps have been caught in their snares, they may drag us off—that they may trip up the unwary traveler or strangle by the neck those who pass by, bound fast. Therefore do not walk with neck held high like the daughters of Judah; for the snare is quickly knotted upon high-held necks. Do not fix your mind and spirit upon worldly things, but look about diligently with the eyes of your soul, because the Lord rains down snares upon sinners, lest, falling, they be able to entangle you; and you will be able to avoid them, if you do not forget the law of the Lord.
For indeed even he who is bound, if he is conscious of his own freedom, does not cease to claim it, and sometimes pleads his cause from his very bonds and defends it for himself by the prescription of the laws, and is frequently acquitted at the judgment. Therefore you too, if you have sinned, be mindful of the law; if you have sinned, be mindful of Christ, who sets you free, saying: I am, I am He who blots out your iniquities, and I will remember them no more. Hold Him fast day and night, confess to Him your sins. The prophet teaches you how to hold the Lord Jesus: At midnight, he says, I rose to give thanks to You over the judgments of Your righteousness. It is not enough to pray by day; one must rise also by night, and at midnight.
The Lord Himself spent the night in prayer, that He might by His own example invite you to prayer. And surely it was pardon for your sins that He sought; He sought it from the Father, He worked it by His own will. The prophet does not tell you to rise only at midnight, but to rise by night and especially at midnight. For he had first sent ahead, saying that one must rise by night: I have remembered Your name in the night, O Lord. Anyone can remember and not rise; anyone can both rise and, when he has risen, ask for the things that have settled by his own choosing. He added: At midnight I rose, teaching that one must rise at midnight. Nor is it idle, what he added:
to give thanks to You—that is, that at that time especially we ought to beseech God and bewail our own sins, and not only to ask pardon for things past, but also to turn aside things present and to guard against things to come; for many temptations creep forth at that time. Then the enticement of the flesh grows hot, then the tempter mocks; the food is being cooked and the drink digested, the stomach is sick, the mind drowsy, the spirit preoccupied. And so either, in one at rest, the warmth of slumber increases, or, in one awake, the fuller vigor has not yet been restored that might be able to guard against the assaults of error. Then, therefore, the tempter stands by, then he casts his nets, by which he may be able to disturb the unguarded mind.
Then the spiritual wickednesses pour out their darkness, then they strive to persuade to every impiety, when there is no judge of the fault, no witness of the crime, no one who can be a witness of the error. Then they pour various disputations into the breast of the sleeper, that first they may cast down from his state of mind the one who resists, and that the example of some who are reckoned holy may be set before him—how they too once transgressed, but afterward obtained pardon and covered over their former offenses.
For although our enemy hates all our amendment, yet for the moment, that he may strike down a man of sober mind, he holds out a future pardon in order to persuade him to present sins; and when he has driven someone to consent to error, if he sees that he is now being called back from his fault not by love of virtue but by the contemplation of punishment, he inserts various disputations, so that the man may say to himself: 'Who sees me? Darkness and walls surround me. Whom do I fear? The Most High does not see, our sins do not reach Him, He does not deign to regard what is shameful.' These things indeed we know by experience and example, for no one can be free of temptation.
And so, just as this time is suited to temptations, so also it is a time of punishment, as we can be taught from the divine reading. For not idly did the Lord our God—when He could have destroyed the firstborn of the Egyptians at any moment whatever—nevertheless judge this time more fitting for the sorrow and grief of the sinner. For thus it is written, that at midnight the firstborn of the Egyptians, born free, were slain by the destroyer. And therefore holy Moses, prophesying, that he might forestall this time and that it might pass without harm to the Hebrews, slew the lamb beforehand—that is, in the evening—so that those eating it and celebrating the Lord's Passover might not be overtaken by the snares of the destroyer, lest the nocturnal darts of the shadowy foe overwhelm them, defenseless and empty of spiritual nourishment.
Attend to these things diligently, understand them prudently, seek them out anxiously. These things are not said carelessly, but divine mysteries are being revealed to you. You too forestall the snares of the tempter; first prepare the heavenly banquet. A fast has been proclaimed: take care that you do not neglect it, and if hunger drives you to your daily meal or intemperance turns you aside from the fast, yet keep yourself rather for the heavenly banquet. Let not the prepared dishes wrest from you, so that you be empty of the heavenly sacrament. Wait a little while; the end of the day is not far off. Indeed, many days are of such a kind that one must come to church at once at the noon hours, hymns must be sung, the oblation celebrated.
Then indeed stand prepared, that you may receive for yourself a fortification, that you may eat the body of the Lord Jesus, in which is the remission of sins, the petition for divine reconciliation and eternal protection. Receive the Lord Jesus before you in the lodging of your mind: where His body is, there is Christ. When the adversary sees your lodging occupied by the splendor of the heavenly presence, he will understand that the place has been closed off to his temptations through Christ; he will flee and withdraw, and you will pass through midnight without any offense. The evening sacrifice also admonishes you never to forget Christ. You cannot forget, when you go up to your bed, that Lord to whom you have offered prayer at the setting of the day, who has filled you, hungering, with the feast of His body.
For indeed what you have pondered in the evening you will quickly call to mind when you have awakened. The Lord Jesus Himself will rouse you, will admonish you to rise and at that time take up the weapons of prayer, the very time at which the tempter is wont to attack. Whence not idly did Paul the apostle and Silas, thrust into prison, when they had their feet in the stocks, nevertheless at midnight rise up by the standing-posture of the mind, beseech the Lord, and offer a sacrifice of praise; and therefore, where the office of devotion was not lacking, there too was present the remedy of release. For suddenly at midnight there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; the doors were opened, the bonds of all were loosed.