For who, untroubled and favored by an unbroken run of prosperous success, would become ungrateful? Who, overflowing with riches and strong in continual health, would not ascribe to the grace of God the fact that these things have been granted him? In short, when the Lord was proclaiming holy Job, the adversary said: 'Does Job worship the Lord for nothing? Have you not given him all things? Put forth your hand upon all that he has, and see whether he will not bless you to your face.' Then, therefore, he was proved the more, when, having lost his possessions and his children, he did not withdraw from the worship and grace of the Lord. But there is not one persecutor only; he has many servants. Yet let this not frighten you. For through many tribulations it behooves us to enter into the kingdom of God. If there are many persecutions, there are many provings; where there are many, there are many crowns.
There are many contests. Therefore it works to your advantage that there are many persecutors, so that amid many persecutions you may the more easily find how you may be crowned. Let us use the example of the martyr Sebastian, whose heavenly birthday is today. He was a native of Milan. Perhaps either the persecutor had already departed, or had not yet come into these parts, or was milder here. He perceived that here there was either no contest or only a lukewarm one. He set out for Rome, where, because of zeal for the faith, fierce persecutions were raging; there he suffered, that is, there he was crowned. And so there, where he came as a stranger, he established a dwelling-place of perpetual immortality. Had there been but one persecutor, this martyr would surely not have been crowned.
But what is worse, not only are those persecutors who are seen, but also those who are not seen, and these unseen persecutors are far more numerous. For just as one persecuting king used to send out commands of persecution to many, and throughout the several cities or provinces there were various persecutors, so also the devil dispatches his many ministers, who carry out persecutions not only outwardly but also inwardly in the souls of individuals. Of these persecutions it has been said: 'All who wish to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.' He said 'all'; he excepted no one. For who can be excepted, since the Lord himself endured the trials of persecutions?
Avarice persecutes, ambition persecutes, luxury persecutes, pride persecutes, fornication persecutes. Hence the Apostle also says: 'Flee fornication'; for why would you flee, unless it were pursuing you? For there is an evil spirit of fornication, there is an evil spirit of avarice, an evil spirit of pride. These are grievous persecutors, who without the terror of the sword frequently strike down the mind of man, who storm the souls of the faithful with allurements rather than with terrors. These are the enemies you must beware of, these the more grievous tyrants, by whom Adam was captured. Many who were crowned in public persecution have fallen by this hidden persecution. 'Without were fightings,' he says, 'within were fears.' You perceive how grievous is the contest that is within a man,
that a man should struggle with himself, should do battle with his own desires. The Apostle himself wavers, hesitates, is hard pressed. He declares himself taken captive in the law of sin, and overcome by the body of death, and that he could not have escaped, unless he had been set free by the grace of the Lord Jesus. But just as there are many persecutions, so there are many martyrdoms. Daily you are a witness of Christ. You were tempted by the spirit of fornication, but fearing the future judgment of Christ you did not think to violate the chastity of mind and body: you are a martyr of Christ. You were tempted by the spirit of avarice, to seize the possession of a lesser man, to violate the rights of an undefended widow, and yet through regard for the heavenly precepts you judged that help should rather be given than wrong inflicted: you are a witness of Christ.
In short, Christ wills such witnesses to stand by him, according to that which is written: 'Judge for the fatherless and justify the widow; and come, let us reason together, says the Lord.' You were tempted by the spirit of pride, but seeing one poor and needy you had compassion with a devout mind, and loved humility rather than arrogance: you are a witness of Christ; and what is more, you have offered the testimony not only of word but also of deed. For who is a richer witness than he who confesses that the Lord Jesus has come in the flesh, when he keeps the precepts of the Gospel? For he who hears and does not do, denies Christ; even if he confesses with word, he denies by works. To how many who say:
'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons, and do many mighty works?' In that day he will answer: 'Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity!' He, then, is a witness who attests the precepts of the Lord Jesus by deeds that confirm them. How many, therefore, are daily in secret martyrs of Christ and confess the Lord Jesus! The Apostle knew this martyrdom and faithful testimony of Christ, who said: 'For this is our glorying, the testimony of our conscience.' How many have confessed without and denied within! For indeed, for the sake of taking a wife who was refused by Christian parents to a heathen man, very many, feigning the faith for a time, are convicted of having inwardly denied what they outwardly confessed.
Or do we suppose that it was for the sake of fornication only that the Lord our God was so severely moved against the people of the Jews, that twenty-three thousand of the people were slain, because they mingled in intercourse with the women of the Midianite nation, and not rather because through that intercourse they were compelled to depart from the faith of those foreign women and to deny the Lord? 'Do not,' he says, 'believe every spirit, but from their fruits know whom you ought to believe.' Someone comes into the church, while he courts honor under Christian emperors, pretending in mind he feigns that he offers prayer; he who has not bent the knee of his mind is bowed down and stretched upon the ground. A man sees him and thinks him a Christian; a man sees him praying as a suppliant and believes him, but God hears one who denies.
He departs approved by man, but condemned by the Judge. How much more bearable it would have been for him to have denied before man and to have confessed before God! Although even this is reprehensible; for a perfect confession requires both the devotion of the soul and the profession of the voice; for with the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Therefore, in the inner persecutions be faithful and brave, that in these outward persecutions also you may be approved. And in the innermost persecutions there are kings and governors, judges terrible in power. You have an example in the temptation of the Lord which he endured. All the kingdoms were shown to him, and it was said to him: 'I will give you all these, if falling down you will worship me.' It is read also elsewhere:
'Let not sin reign in your mortal body.' You see before what kings you have been set, O man, before what governors of sins, if guilt reigns. As many sins, as many vices, so many kings; and before these we are brought, and before these we stand. These kings too have their tribunal in the minds of very many. But if anyone confesses Christ, at once he makes that king a captive, casts him down from the throne of his mind. For how can the tribunal of the devil remain in him, in whom the tribunal of Christ rises up? 'Many therefore persecuting and afflicting me.' And perhaps it is Christ who says this, and says it in the voices of individuals; for the adversary persecutes Christ himself in us. If you decline from those who persecute, you cast away Christ, who suffers himself to be tempted, that he may conquer.
Where the devil sees him, there he sets his ambushes, there he brings up his engines of temptations, there he weaves his snares, that he may shut him out, if he can. But where the devil does battle, there Christ stands by; where the devil besieges, there Christ is enclosed within, there he defends the enclosure of spiritual walls. Therefore he who flees the persecutor also rejects the defender. But when you hear: 'Many that persecute and afflict me,' do not be afraid. For you can say: 'If God be for us, who can be against us?' Yet he says this who declines from the testimonies of the Lord by no winding turn of vices. There follows the sixth verse: 'I beheld those that kept not the covenant, and I pined away, because they did not keep your words.'
Blessed is he who pines away in the love of God, who beholds those who keep not the covenant. Another pines away because of vicious loves, one who wastes away, while he is deferred from the love of his beloved, and while the fulfillment of his burning desire is put off, his spirit fails, the strength of his body is diminished by a certain disfigurement of pallor and by the wasting of his wearied limbs. Another, who covets money, until he gains it, the wretch pines away with miserly affection. Another, impatient of grasping at honor beyond measure, if he sighs after long-deferred desires, is consumed by no slight wasting of mind. Not such is he who says: 'How my flesh has pined away in a desert and trackless and waterless land!'
For this man chastised his flesh and made it pine away, while, intent with unwearied desire upon the knowledge of divine things and anticipating the daylight with anxious expectation, he longed to render his service of duty to the Lord before dawn with canticles and hymns. The peaceable man, therefore, pines away when he sees others breaking covenants, abolishing the concord of agreements, renewing quarrels out of peace, returning from grace into tumults. This indeed he does not do who keeps the precepts of the Lord, he does not do who hears him saying: 'My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you.' Therefore he who keeps the covenant obeys the commands of Christ, but he who keeps it not despises the precepts of Christ and, what is worse, having learned them, scorns and neglects them. There follows the seventh verse:
'Behold that I have loved your precepts, O Lord; quicken me in your mercy.' Here too he invites the Lord to look upon the full affection of his love. No one says 'behold' except one who judges that, if he be seen, he will be pleasing. And beautifully he says 'behold,' and he says it according to the law, because the law commands that each one present himself three times a year in the sight of the Lord. Daily the holy man presents himself, daily he appears and does not appear empty; for he is not empty who has received of his fullness. David was not empty, who says: 'Our mouth is filled with joy,' because joy is the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
And just as we have all received of the fullness of the Word, as John said, so also the Holy Spirit has filled the whole world out of his fullness. Zacharias was not empty, who was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied the coming of the Lord Jesus. Paul was not empty, who evangelized in abundance and was filled, receiving from the Ephesians the odor of a good fragrance, a sacrifice pleasing to God. The Corinthians were not empty, in whom the grace of God abounded, according to the testimony of the same Apostle. David, then, offered himself daily to God, and did not offer himself empty; he who could say: 'I opened my mouth and drew in the Spirit.' Therefore for this reason he said: 'Behold that I have loved your precepts.'
Hear in what way you ought to offer yourself to Christ: not in those things that are seen, but in things hidden, in what is concealed, that your Father who sees in secret may reward you and recompense your faithful affection. 'Your precepts,' he says, 'I have loved.' He did not say 'I have kept,' he did not say 'I have guarded'; for the imprudent did not guard the precepts of the Lord. For some manuscripts have 'asynetous,' that is, the foolish, those who do not understand. Therefore those who do not understand are not wise, and these do not guard. But he who is perfect in understanding, perfect in wisdom, loves—which is more than to guard; for to guard is for the most part of necessity and fear, but to love is of charity. He guards who evangelizes, but he who evangelizes willingly receives a reward;
how much more is he who loves rewarded! For we can not love what we will, but we cannot help loving what we love. But although he expects the reward of perfect charity, he also asks the support of the divine compassion, that in it he may be quickened by the Lord. He is therefore not an arrogant exactor of the reward due, but a modest petitioner of the divine mercy. There follows the last verse of this letter: 'The beginning of your words is truth, and all the judgments of your righteousness endure for ever.' Since the beginning of the words of God is truth, truth is assuredly the foundation of faith. For first it behooves that we believe the oracles which we read in the divine Scriptures to be true words of the most high God; the second is, that by a fuller knowledge we may learn their power.
For just as the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, but the fullness of wisdom is love—for the law is wisdom, but the fullness of the law is love—so the fullness of the words of God is wisdom and the knowledge of righteousness. For just as from the fear of the Lord there is a certain progress to the grace of charity, so from truth to the judgment of divine righteousness there seems to be a certain progress. You have come to the church, you have heard that one God is spoken of, with which the law begins, as you have it written: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord.' Believe that there is one God, not many gods.
But when you begin to read that the Lord Jesus the Son of God came in the flesh for the redemption of the whole world, distinguish wisely that there is one God the Father, from whom are all things and we unto him, and one Lord Jesus, through whom are all things and we through him. Know that he came for this reason, that our affection might be shaped by the paths of virtue, that we might learn the gentleness of conduct by the example of his way of life, that guilt might be abolished through grace; and then from the confession of truth you have advanced to the knowledge of righteousness. Faith is the beginning of the Christian, but the fullness of the Christian is righteousness; faith in the confession of the peoples, righteousness in the suffering of martyrdom.
Knowing therefore that all the judgments of God's righteousness shall abide for ever, let us beware lest our works displease and we begin to undergo eternal judgment; nor, if we have done some good, let us be relaxed in self-satisfied affection. We must all stand before the tribunal of Christ, that each one may receive what he has done, whether good or evil. You see that Paul too will stand, as he himself recalls. Take care lest you carry wood, take care lest you carry stubble with you to the judgment of God, which the fire may burn up. Take care lest, while in one or two things you have what may be approved, in your more numerous works you carry what may give offense. If anyone's work shall burn, he shall suffer loss, yet he himself may be saved, but so as by fire.
From this it is gathered that the same man is both saved in part and condemned in part. Knowing therefore that there are many judgments, let us examine all our works. In the righteous man a grievous burning of some work is a grievous loss; in the impious man, a wretched punishment. Let all the judgments rather be full of grace, full of flowering crowns, lest perchance, when our deeds are weighed, guilt should weigh the heavier. XXI. THE LETTER SIN. Here begins the letter 'Sin,' which in Latin is called 'upon a wound.' What is 'upon a wound' but the medicine by which the sharpness of the wound is soothed? Upon the wound oil is poured, that all the roughness of the wound may be softened; upon the wound a poultice, upon the wound a bandage, by which every wound is tended.
Where, then, there is hope of restoring health, there medicines are applied to the wounds. But where the whole head is in pain and the whole heart in sorrow, where there is no wound nor scar, no swelling sore with inflammation—that is, where not a part but the whole is in peril and is consumed by a certain wasting of the whole corrupted body—there it is of no use to apply a poultice nor oil nor a bandage. It is therefore far more advantageous that there should be a wound, which you may tend and bind up, than that without a wound an inner death should creep on. But there is not only a wound of the body, but also of the mind, which is soothed by a certain oil of gentler address and by the sweetness of peaceful speech. There are fomentations of words, there are medicines of the heavenly precepts, by which all the poison of wickedness is abolished.
There are bonds of the law which do not burn, but rather set free those who are bound, and a spiritual poultice by which certain bruised members of the soul are made whole. Let us therefore consider what is a wound, and what is 'upon a wound': 'Princes have persecuted me without cause'—this is a wound; 'and I rejoiced over your words, like one who finds great spoil'—this is 'upon a wound,' because the harsh things of the wound are healed by the Lord's words. In the Lamentations of Jeremiah too you have written under this letter: 'You have heard their reproach, O Lord, all their counsels against me, the lips of those that rise up against me, and their meditations against me all the day, their sitting down and their rising up'—this is a wound. But he added:
'Look upon their eyes; render to them a recompense, O Lord, according to the works of their hands'—this is 'upon a wound,' because vengeance is for the most part wont to soothe the pain of a wound. And further on the same Jeremiah says: 'Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, you that dwell in Gath; even to you also shall the cup pass over, you shall drink and be drunken yet more'—this is 'upon a wound.' For the cup of the Lord is the remission of sins, in which the blood is poured out that redeemed the sins of the whole world. This cup has made the nations drunk, that they should not remember their own sorrow, but should forget their old error. Good therefore is spiritual drunkenness, which knows not how to disturb the gait of the body, but knows how to lift up the footstep of the mind. Good is the drunkenness of the saving cup,
which abolishes the sorrow of a sinful conscience and pours in the gladness of eternal life. Therefore the Scripture says: 'And your cup, how excellent is it, making me drunk!' The medicine, then, is upon the wound, because the physician himself is the Lord Jesus, who healed our wounds, pouring in wine and oil and binding up the wounds of that Adam, who, going down from Jerusalem, was wounded by robbers. Let each one therefore beware lest he go down from Jerusalem; for by his sins each one goes down, and by his merits he ascends.
Or, since we are frail, let him who goes down run to that Samaritan, the keeper of his work, the keeper of the law and of grace, that he may be able to find healing for his wound—he who lays the bandage of the heavenly words upon the wound, saying: 'Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' A good bandage, which knits together the broken bones of your soul and, restoring them to firmness, reforms them into their former strength, and restores the torn limbs without any offense of scar to itself. Concerning the interpretation of the letter we think enough has been said according to our capacity. Let us set ourselves to consider the verses of the holy prophet, which he subjoined by the revelation of the Holy Spirit: 'Princes have persecuted me without cause, and my heart has trembled at your words.'
If we recall the ancient history, both Saul and Absalom and many foreign-born princes persecuted holy David, but no one was able to triumph over him. There are also princes of the world and rulers of darkness, who try to crush you in your own breast and inwardly work the cruelties of persecutions, promising the kingdoms of the earth, honors and riches, if with frail mind you should yield and judge that their commands must be obeyed. These princes sometimes persecute without cause, sometimes not without cause. They persecute without cause one in whom they find nothing of their own and yet strive to subdue him; they do not persecute without cause one who has given himself over to their power and has entered wholly into the possession of the world.
For over their own they justly claim dominion for themselves and demand from these the wages of iniquity. Well does the martyr say this, that he unjustly endures the torments of persecutions, who has snatched nothing, has violently oppressed no one, has shed no one's blood, has thought no one's marriage-bed to be violated, who owes nothing to the laws and yet is compelled to endure punishments more grievous than those of robbers; who speaks just things and is not heard, who speaks things full of salvation and is assailed, so that he may say: 'When I spoke to them, they assailed me without cause.'
Without cause, therefore, he suffers persecution who is assailed without crime, is assailed as though guilty, when in such a confession he is praiseworthy, is assailed as though a poisoner, because he glories in the name of the Lord, when piety is the foundation of all virtues. Truly in vain is he assailed who among the impious and faithless is accused of impiety, when he is a master of faith. But he who is assailed without cause ought to be brave and steadfast. How then did he weave in: 'and my heart has trembled at your words'? To tremble belongs to weakness, to fear and dread; but there is also a weakness unto salvation, there is also a fear of the saints. 'Fear the Lord, you his saints,' and: 'Blessed is the man who fears the Lord.' For what reason 'blessed'? Because 'he shall greatly delight in his commandments.'
Set, then, the martyr placed amid perils, when from one side the savagery of beasts roars to strike terror, from another the hiss of white-hot plates and the flame of the burning furnace seethes, from another part the trailing of heavy chains resounds, here the bloody executioner stands by: set him, I say, looking around upon all things full of torments; then pondering the divine commands, that perpetual fire, that endless burning of the faithless, that misery of ever-renewed punishment; trembling in heart, lest, while he yields to present things, he should give himself over to everlasting destruction; troubled in soul, while with a kind of vision he beholds that terrible sword of the future judgment. Will you not equate this trembling with the confidence of a steadfast man?
The confidence of one desiring eternal things and the trembling of one in dread of divine things run together into the same effect. Yet let him be the stronger who hopes, let him be the stronger who presumes upon them. Would that I might be counted worthy to be such, that, if perchance the persecutor should come upon me, I would not consider the bitterness of my own torments, would not measure the torments, nor the punishments, nor think upon the atrocity of any pain, but would count all these things light, yet would tremble lest Christ deny me, lest Christ shut me out, lest he repel me from the council of the priests, if he should judge me unworthy of that fellowship; but rather let him see me, though moved by the terror of bodily punishments, nevertheless trembling the more at the judgments to come! And even if he should say to me:
'O you of little faith, why did you doubt?'—yet he will stretch out his right hand and will steady me, troubled by the mass of the surging wave of this present age, in the faithful station of the mind. There follows the second verse: 'I will exult in your words, like one who finds great spoil.' Good, therefore, is the trembling at the words of God, if it begets exultation; for he who trembles at the words of God afterward exults in the words of God. Therefore he who has in his hall—in his heart, that is—the words of God, shuts out the speeches of princes from his heart; fear shuts out fear. For if one who has entered the baths lays aside the summer heat, and heat shuts out heat, how much more does the terror of the divine judgment shut out this human terror, and the fervor of eternal grace shut out the fervor of secular grace!
He exults, then, who has the word of God; for he has much spoil which he took from the Jews, he has the spoils of a prostrate foe. Just as David took away the sword and with that man's own sword cut off his head, so the true David, the humble and meek Lord Jesus, with his own weapons cut off the head of the intelligible Goliath. For the weapons of the devil were the nations, but by the faith of the nations, being wounded, he lost the head he had. The spoils were stripped from him as he lay prostrate, his vessels were plundered, because the strong man was bound. The vessel of the devil was the flesh of sinful man; but after we believed in Christ, our flesh began to be a vessel of election, as you have it concerning the Apostle Paul, who was sent to the nations, said to Ananias by the Lord Jesus:
'Go, for he is a vessel of election to me.' Rightly, therefore, the name of Christ being called upon, 'swiftly strip the spoils, quickly divide,' because, before the child knows how to call father or mother, 'he shall receive the power of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria against the king of the Assyrians.' Therefore the king of the Assyrians—that is, of those whom perfidy had made vain—lost the spoils which he held. And that you may again recognize that Christ vindicated from the devil the spoils which that one had usurped in Adam: the men of Saba, lofty men, passed over to the Lord Jesus bound with chains and began to worship him, because 'he led captivity captive.' Therefore he took away its head, that he himself might be the head of the body that had been slain.
Rightly now the nations throughout the whole world bear about the royal head, because they are the members of Christ. You have learned concerning the nations; learn also concerning the Jews, from whom the Lord Jesus took away the spoils, that is, he took away the kingdom of heaven and gave it to a nation bringing forth its fruit. He took away the strength of bread and the strength of water, the prophet and the wonderful counselor and the prudent architect and the wise hearer—from them he took these away, to us he gave them; rightly do I exult, like one who finds great spoil.
Without my labor I have found spoils which I did not have: I found the Heptateuch, I found the books of Kingdoms, I found the writing of the prophets, I found Ezra, I found the Psalms, I found Proverbs, I found Ecclesiastes, I found the Song of Songs, I found the wonderful counselor Christ, I found Paul the prudent architect, I found the wise hearer the Christian people—who knows how to hear the things that are read; for he truly hears who understands the things he hears. The law is spiritual; the Jew who hears bodily does not hear it, but he hears it who hears in the spirit. They have the books, but have not the meaning of the books; they have the prophets, but have not him whom they prophesied. For how do they have him whom they did not receive?
Therefore he appeared to me with Moses and Elijah, because he withdrew from them. He who has the word of God has many spoils; he has resurrection, he has righteousness, virtue and wisdom, he has all things, because all things consist in him. The Hebrews despoiled the Egyptians and took away their vessels; the Christian people has the spoils of the Jews, and we have the whole of what they did not know they had. They took away material gold and silver; we have received the gold of the mind. We have acquired the silver of the heavenly word. There follows the third verse: 'I have hated and abhorred iniquity, but your law I have loved.' Rightly does he hate iniquity who has the weapons of righteousness. The Hebrew, when he had these weapons,