And a flower shall ascend from the root, and the Spirit of God shall rest upon him, so that the sweetness of the flower might temper the severity of the rod, when the terror of teaching should bring to each one of us the governance of perfect blessedness. With this rod, therefore, he shall rule the nations given to him: not with a corruptible, not a falling, not a fragile one, but an iron one, that is, most strong and, according to the solidity of its nature, most firm. With this rod of iron, therefore, as he shall rule, so also shall he shatter or crush; for the Greek propriety expresses this rather according to the Seventy translators. For it is thus written: 'Hos skeuos kerameos syntripseis autous'. But whether he crush or shatter, he is not therefore to be thought to ask for an inheritance
in order to shatter and crush it unto perishing and abolishing: seeing that to him a contrite heart is the best sacrifice. That crushing therefore, or shattering, is that which diminishes in us bodily pleasures and the incitements of worldly vices, and will render us worthy of the Lord's regard, according to the saying of the prophet: A contrite and humbled heart God will not despise. But being compared to the shattering of a potter's vessel, how great a release of understanding does it impart? For not without cause does he, ruling with a rod of iron those whom he asked for an inheritance, shatter them like a potter's vessel: except that by the example of the comparison he shows that this kind of loss of a fragment profits toward the restoration of the same vessel.
But of what sort our shattering is at God's hand, after the manner of a potter's vessel, he himself taught through Jeremiah the prophet, saying: Arise and go down into the potter's house, and there you shall hear my words. And I went down into the potter's house, and behold he was doing work upon the stones. And the vessel which he was making fell in his hands; and again he was making another vessel, according as it pleased him in his sight to make it. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: Can I not do to you according to this potter, O house of Israel? Behold, as the clay of the potter, so are you in my hands. On the whole I will speak against a nation or against a kingdom, to strike them and destroy them: and if that nation shall be turned from its evils, I will repent of the evils which I thought to do to them.
And on the whole I will speak concerning a nation and a kingdom, to build up and to plant. And they shall do evil before me, so as not to hear my voice; and I will repent of the good which I said I would do to them. Thus the nations of his inheritance, sought and obtained, God will shatter. And he will crush, that he may reform. For he will shatter in all men all insatiable desires and enticing wantonness and boiling angers and empty superstitions and swelling arrogances and impious opinions. But he reforms us unto a rational use of life by contempt of money, by shame of luxury, by moderation of anger, by knowledge of truth, by community of living, by the duties of religion, when through the governance of teaching and the terror of judgement we come alive again into these virtues after those vices. For he does not say:
'You shall shatter them like a potter's vessel', lest through a fragment of a shard an unreformable vessel might be understood; but he says: a potter's vessel, which would become a vessel in the very fashioning of the craftsman, so that, according to the example set forth, the repair of the same shattered vessel might be ready at the craftsman's will. But the vessel of irrational matter has also been fitted under another understanding to the reasoning of the human will: that men indeed fall through these vices of theirs, but if they should repent of them, that is, if they should desist from them, God too, in these things in which he had appointed the fall of this one unto punishment, repents—not that this movement of mind falls upon God according to human nature, but because to man the repentance of things done is a limit of things to be done:
God also mentions his own repentance in respect of punishment, because they would cease to be punished who had ceased to be impious. As therefore it is ready for the potter to reform a lost vessel unto the same, or whatever shape he wills, so it is easy for God, after the falls of vices, to repair those who are willing to be raised up, through the instruction of his teaching, unto piety out of impiety. But that other shattering, after the manner of a potter's vessel, is also not to be ignored, namely when, these bodies being dissolved and shattered by the chance of death, restoration will be brought about at the will of the craftsman. Both of which the prophetic word seems to have signified by the same saying.
For when he shows repentance to be useful in the things which were done before, he teaches that there ought to be a kind of renewal, as it were, of this present and bodily life from vices unto a new virtue, the wrath of God against them, as it were, ceasing along with the will to sin. And although he brought this forth from the comparison of the potter, yet when concerning the same potter he says: and he himself made another vessel, according as it pleased him in his sight, it is understood to be signified also that restoration of rising bodies which is to be according to God's will. For according as it pleases him and is worthy in his sight, he will repair the shattered things, not out of any other, but out of the old and the very matter of their own origin, imparting to them the appearance of a beauty pleasing to himself:
so that the resurrection of corruptible bodies into the glory of incorruption does not destroy the nature by perishing, but changes it by the condition of quality. For it is not another body, although it shall rise into another, as the Apostle says: It is sown in corruption, it rises in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it rises in glory; it is sown in weakness, it rises in power; a natural body is sown, a spiritual body rises. There comes about therefore a change, but no abolition is brought about. And when that which was rises into that which was not, it has not lost its origin, but has advanced unto honour. Let us therefore rejoice to be shattered like a potter's vessel, whether now or then:
so that both now, after the manner of a potter's vessel, having died together and been buried together with the Lord in baptism, we may walk in newness of life and be reborn into the new man of Christ, the old man being put off; and then, through this advancement of the new nativity, we may be reformed into that blessed and God-pleasing appearance of our repeated repair. Not ignorant of which good, the prophet exhorts after these things and says: And now, O kings, understand; be instructed, you who judge the earth. Serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice with trembling. Lay hold of discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish from the just way. When his wrath shall blaze up in a short time, blessed are all they who trust in him.
This order of teaching is most useful, that it should first make known the blessedness of the things unto which it exhorts us; because it is difficult to stretch the mind and hope toward things unknown. Wishing therefore to exhort us to the understanding of those things which he had commemorated above, the prophet first mentioned the honour of that very understanding, saying: And now, O kings, understand—showing, namely, that those who would understand are kings. But it must be asked, which kings he admonishes to the understanding of this prophetic exhortation, lest perhaps anyone should understand those to be signified whose kingdom is now over human bodies and in the ministries of wars and in the fear of nations.
But these are not the eternal and blessed kings with God, since they themselves already fall away from God's commandments and are reckoned unto the devil for a kingdom, as the same one says, when he tempted the Lord: And the devil led him up into a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time; the devil said to him: To you I will give this power and their glory, for they have been delivered to me. But the Gospels show us other kings, namely those unto whom the kingdom of God has drawn near, and those who have conquered the sin reigning in themselves, who are kings of their own body, subjecting to their own dominion all the incitements of vices: for this is the kingdom of God within us.
Thus again Christ reigns in us, when through him we ourselves reign over ourselves by the right of masters, according to that which was said: The kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor will they say: Behold here, behold there. For behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Of this kingdom the blessed Apostle makes mention, writing to the Corinthians: Already you reign without us; and would that you did reign, that we too might reign together with you. This therefore is the kingdom of God, where sin is conquered, where death is destroyed, where the enemy does not reign: for death reigned from Adam until Moses; and the Apostle says: Let not sin now reign in you.
Through this kingdom of God, the kingdom of sin being dissolved and we ourselves now being kings, the opposing kingdom being overthrown, this is for us the kingdom of God, when, all the stings of our vices being crushed, the blemish of bodily infirmity shall be absorbed. These kings, therefore, the prophet exhorts to understand, that they may know that against the Lord and his Christ kings have raged and peoples meditated vain things; that they may also understand him who laughs from the heavens and speaks in wrath and is established King over Sion his holy mountain, announcing the precepts of God the Father; and may recognize him who is begotten unto Sonship, and also that time in which he who made the times was begotten in time; may understand in whom he asked both the inheritance of the nations and the possession of the bounds of the earth;
let them also not be ignorant of what this iron rod is, with which, ruling them, he shatters them after the manner of a potter's vessel. For understanding these things they will acknowledge the whole mystery of the divine will: and when through obedience to the precepts they shall be heirs of God the Father, but co-heirs of our Lord Jesus Christ, through that whereby they are co-heirs of the eternal King, it necessarily follows that they attain to being kings. Since therefore the Gospels and the Apostle testify concerning kings, the consequence is that we should recognize who are the judges of the earth, whom it is fitting to instruct equally as kings: especially since he names kings by a bare name only, without the designation of any kingdom, so that he might teach them to be his own and kings within themselves, but calls the others judges of the earth.
But that a judge differs from a king, we know by the very usage of earthly custom; because to reign is not the same as to judge, since a kingdom is a dominion, but judgement is a manner of equity. All the saints, therefore, are to be understood to be judges of the earth, whose life and faith is the judgement of the unfaithful and unjust. And this the Lord shows in the Gospels, saying: The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgement and shall judge this generation, because they did penance at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, a greater than Jonah is here. The Queen of the South shall rise in judgement and shall judge this generation, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, a greater than Solomon is here.
Such shall be the judges of the earth, whose comparison of faith and fear condemns the impenitent and impious. For if the penitence of the Ninevites, undertaken at Jonah's preaching, obtained the fruit of repenting, it necessarily follows that their obedient penitence will judge the insolent impenitence of these. Or shall not the Queen of the South, hearing the longed-for wisdom of Solomon from the ends of the earth, by her foreign hearing condemn the unfaithfulness and negligence of those present? Since nevertheless Christ the author heaps up the judgement of disobedience and inattention as differing from Solomon and Jonah. But that these are absolutely the judges of the earth the Apostle demonstrates, saying: Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world, and in you this world is judged?
when the sanctity acquired through the merit of the blessedness attained condemns the life of the guilty. But the work of this understanding and instruction the prophet immediately added, saying: Serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice with trembling. He does not allow the service to be careless or negligent: he wishes fear to be mingled in every duty of servitude. For as servants who are afraid serve their carnal masters more diligently, since the fear mingled with obedience draws forth the will of a more skilful compliance, so also those serving God, if they fear through impending fear, will not be negligent in that servitude which they have undertaken. And lest this fear of the faithful should be believed to be that of tyrannical terror, to that which he had said: Serve in fear, he added: and rejoice:
so that the exultation of joy might temper the fear of servitude, since the very fear would bring the cause of gladness through the conscience of faithful service. Furthermore, lest the freedom of joy should exceed the bounds of fitting moderation, he thus added: Rejoice with trembling, because a joy free from trembling would be perilous unto the forgetting of fear. And thus this reasoning of the prophetic eloquence is preserved, that fear should hold fast servitude, exultation should moderate fear, and a consequent trembling should restrain exultation. But that both the fear of this servitude exults and the exultation trembles, he taught to consist in that which follows, saying: Lay hold of discipline.
By the force of the word he showed the signification of an eager and, as it were, over-hasty will unto that thing, teaching that discipline is not so much to be sought after as rather to be laid hold of: not content with a lukewarmness of faith in the observance of this obedience, but desiring an ardour of spirit in the eagerness of laying hold. Thus in seizing the kingdom of heaven the seizers delight the Lord, when he says: But from the days of John the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent seize it; because, when the possession of the heavenly kingdom was being preached to Israel, the faith of the nations nevertheless snatched this possession for itself while Israel distrusted. So too Paul runs, that he may lay hold, saying: But I follow after, that I may lay hold of that in which also I was laid hold of.
He hastens with no slow step, nor does he follow with idle advance; for he follows in order to lay hold. And indeed it might seem enough to have said this, if he followed merely to overtake; but he himself desires also to exert force, and hastens to lay hold, and after the manner of a bodily example, to seize upon. Yet he knows that by this very thing he is already himself that which he hastens to lay hold of—namely, laid hold of. For if God, born as man, has laid hold of us, who through our bodily nature were at variance with His own nature, becoming Himself what we are, then it is ours now to strive to lay hold of that which He Himself is, so that our haste may mingle itself with that glory into which He has raised the nature of this bodily corruption.
And thus we shall lay hold of that in which we were laid hold of, if we follow after the nature of God, since God first followed after the nature of men. Therefore the discipline must be laid hold of and seized upon with a kind of embrace and in a bodily bond, lest it slip away or fall. And the prophet has added the reason for this careful embrace and bond, saying: Lay hold of discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and ye perish from the just way, when His wrath shall be kindled in a little while. For there is at hand a day of punishment, which is understood to be signified in the kindling of the Lord's wrath: on which, if we do not hold fast the discipline once laid hold of by us, we shall be lost from the just way. For to each thing whatever is taken away perishes; and what is lacking already seems lost to him to whom it is lacking.
For although it abides through its own nature, yet to him from whom it is absent it does not abide. And therefore the wicked perish from the just way, because they will not be in it. But they perish from the just way when His wrath shall be kindled in a little while. This wrath, through which they perish from the just way, is not slow, lest anyone flatter himself meanwhile with the gain of the punishment amid the delays of judgment. For the wrath is kindled in a little while. For the avenging Hell receives us at once: and, falling from the body, if we have so lived, we perish forthwith from the right way. Witnesses to us are the rich man and the poor man of the Gospel: of whom the angels placed the one in the seats of the blessed and in Abraham's bosom, while the other the region of punishment received at once.
And so immediately did punishment receive the dead man, that even his brothers still remained above. There is there no postponement or delay. For the day of judgment is either the eternal recompense of blessedness or of punishment. But the time of death meanwhile holds each one under its own laws, while either Abraham reserves each for judgment, or punishment does. And therefore the prophet thus concluded this psalm so rich in heavenly mysteries: Blessed are all they that trust in Him. The perfection of blessedness demands no timid nor doubtful hope. Confidence is needful for that work—confidence of firm conviction, that is, and of unchangeable will: because to be confident is more than to hope. We must therefore be confident, lest the wrath of God, kindled in a little while, destroy us from the right way.
For faithful is He who says: He that believeth in Me shall not be judged, but shall pass from death unto life—our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen. On the Title of the Ninth Psalm. Unto the end, for the hidden things of the son. A Psalm of David. Of some psalms the understanding is plain, of some the sense is more obscure; either diversity is brought about by the diversity of the prophecy. For through many and varied kinds of speech the Holy Spirit instructs man unto the knowledge of God.
Now embracing the hidden things of the mysteries through the natures and comparisons of men; now commending the simplicity of faith by the plainness of words; now confirming the order of life by the truth of the precepts; now showing, through the person of the prophet who writes the psalm, what is to be foreseen and guarded against: so that through this manifold and rich abundance of doctrine, through certain parts and increments of learning, the edifice of the whole understanding may be built up. And there will be set before us for an example a psalm whose superscription is this: Unto the end, for the hidden things of the son, a Psalm of David. And so, through the nature of those things which are both hidden and set at the end, the understanding of the psalm must be sought.
The psalm is not inscribed 'unto the end for the hidden things of the son' except only for this purpose: that it might be known of what things the psalm itself consists. For all things that are added to the title of a discourse bear witness to those things out of which the discourse is entered upon. For it is not fitting that one thing be in the discourse and another in the title, since the title is as it were an index of the things about which the writing treats. Therefore the meaning of that word which is said 'in the end' must be understood. That is in the end beyond which there is nothing; that is in the end which exceeds the present time; because the end is out of all things, not all things out of the end: for all things cease in it, and there is a certain last point of a thing done or said; and unless in it there be the last point of the whole universe, it will not be an end;
because it is necessary that that not be the last which has something after it. From which it is to be understood that, whenever the title has 'in the end,' not the present things but the last things are contained in them. But the 'hidden things' are those which are concealed and lie hidden, and which are covered by things stored away, inaccessible, and beyond scrutiny, and are known only to Him who created them, or unless He has brought them forth to be known together with certain persons. Therefore the psalm is inscribed 'unto the end for the hidden things.' And since from the nature of things we see what belongs to understanding in the names of 'end' and 'hidden things,' it is fitting that the very things which are in the end and in the hidden things be unfolded. And of these indeed the blessed apostle Paul is a witness to us, thus saying:
as ye reading are able to understand my understanding in the mystery of Christ, which in other times was not known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed. And again: To me, the least of all the saints, is this grace given, to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the dispensation of His mystery, which has been hidden from the ages in God. This, then, is the hidden thing, of which the Lord also says: There is nothing hidden that shall not be known, nor covered that shall not be revealed. But the psalm contains 'hidden things,' not a single 'hidden thing.' Rightly so: for what follows teaches that there were many, not one.
For it is a hidden thing that God, for the sake of human salvation, was present not in the heavenly glory and splendor of His name, but put on the form of a human body. It is also hidden that He assumed in Himself the nature of human flesh not from the common stock of origin, but that He came forth from a virgin and was born of a virgin and was begotten without any beginning of being born. It is hidden that He who died lived again from death, taking up again the glory of immortality from His body. But this indeed is not the end. Now the 'end' does not signify a kind of setting of things, but the measure and consummation of things running their course; nor that they should cease into abolition, but that the things treated of should be placed in a certain limit of abiding.
What then this end may be—that is, what is the absolute perfection of all things and what is hidden—the blessed apostle thus speaks to the Corinthians: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: the firstfruits Christ, then they that are Christ's, who believed at His coming; then the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God the Father, when He shall have made void all rule and power. For He must reign, until He put all enemies under His feet: for God hath subjected all things under His feet. The last enemy that is overcome in Him is death. But when He shall have said:
all things are put in subjection—it is manifest that He is excepted who did put all things under Him; then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all. This, then, is the end of the hidden things: the resurrection of the dead, the glorification of the saints, the abolition of reigning malice, the destruction of death; and through this the kingdom of Christ is also the kingdom of God the Father.
For when these things are accomplished, after all things shall have been made subject to the Son by the Father, it is not so that His eternity be taken away by the subjection of the kingdom, but so that He may bring us—glorified and covered with immortality and conformed to the glory of His body—into the kingdom of the Father, now worthy of co-heirship with Him, now taken up into the household of the Father, now partakers of His good things and His glory; so that the Father may reign together with Him in us, and God may be all in all, when the weakness of the human assumption shall, by the subjection of obedience, be absorbed into the divine nature.
This eternal praise, then, through the Son is due to God the Father, when all shall have been raised who from Adam even to the time of the kingdom have lived by faith, and shall have been transfigured from the body into a heavenly habit, and all the iniquity of malice shall have been taken away, and the devil consigned to the punishment of eternal fire, and his name blotted out from the memory of men: these hidden things are sung in the psalm, these are celebrated when the end is consummated. And because the Son is aware of all things to come, these are praised as though already perfected, for in Him and with Him and through Him are all things: to Him be glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. Psalm 13. The fool hath said in his heart: There is no God, and the rest.
Instructing us in many things, the apostle teaches us also this: that the word of God must be handled with all reverence, saying: He that speaketh, let him speak as the oracles of God. For according to the usage of our common speech there ought not to be in these things a promiscuous ease; but when we speak the things which we have learned and read, honor must be rendered to the Author through carefulness of discourse. And the custom of human duty affords us an example of heavenly teaching. For if, because he who interprets the words of a king and brings his commands to the ears of the people takes care diligently and cautiously, out of reverence of duty, to satisfy the dignity of the king, so that with honor and religious awe all things are both read out and heard:
how much more is it fitting that we, who handle the oracles of God for human knowledge, should show ourselves worthy of this office? For we are a kind of instrument of the Holy Spirit, through which the variety of voice and the diversity of teaching is to be heard. We must therefore be watchful and take care that we say nothing base, fearing the sanction of this sentence: Cursed is everyone who does the works of God negligently; while, on the other hand, a reward is set before the care and diligence of those who with reverence and fear commend to themselves the holy Scriptures as the words of God, and with due dignity instill them into the minds of hearers—the Lord saying: And upon whom shall I look, but upon the humble and meek, and him that trembleth at My words?
It behooves therefore both those who preach to reckon that they speak not to men, and those who hear to know that not the words of men are set forth to them, but that these are the voices of God, the ordinances of God, the laws of God, and that the greatest reverence befits either office. For it is a matter of the greatest peril, concerning the treasures of God, concerning the hidden mysteries, concerning the eternal testament, either to bring forth anything superfluous, or to hear it negligently. All things must be sealed upon our minds, committed to our senses, because there is nothing of the words of God that is not to be fulfilled; and everything that has been said has already a certain necessity of being carried out, for the words of God are decrees. The psalm that has been read is inscribed 'unto the end.' If all were so inscribed, there would be no difficulty;
for the general character would exclude all question. But since one has one inscription and another another, it is necessary that from diverse causes the diversities of inscriptions have arisen. Now there is a twofold understanding in those which are superscribed 'unto the end': for either they will contain those things which shall be at the consummation, or the 'end' will impart the resolution of those things which have been said in the whole psalm. But in this psalm all things are harsh, dreadful, wearisome, full of blasphemies, filled with crimes, heavy with complaints. There is no confession unto God, no gladness in rejoicings, no song in choirs; but accusation against the profane, but complaint against the obstinate, but grief over the afflicted. For it says: The fool hath said in his heart: There is no God.
They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their desires; there is none that doeth good, no not one, and the rest. It follows at the end: Who shall give out of Zion salvation to Israel? When the Lord turneth away the captivity of His people, let Jacob rejoice, and let Israel exult.
For just as one who, having entered a plague-stricken city, has beheld absolutely all the inhabitants dissolved by disease and burning with fevers and worn out by every kind of sickness, and finding there no physician, would groan and grieve that no help, no remedy was at hand for such great evils, and would perceive the pestilence of the members daily raging more fiercely, and would know that a physician set far off could heal, if he were present—so, as the only thing remaining, he would cry out in the grief of despair, saying: Who is there that might make him present and bring his healing?—turning all his anxiety, of course, toward the things he knows: