site: migne

title: Expositio in XX primos Psalmos

languages: en la

source_edition: Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 114, coll. 751C–794D

source_text:
## PEZII MONITUM PRAEVIUM.

[0751C]

« Apud Augienses nostros occurrit Walafridi abbatis Expositio in psalmos septuaginta sex, incipiens a primo in hunc modum: *Omnis Scriptura divinitus inspirata Veteris ac Novi Testamenti ad imitationem Mediatoris Dei et hominum, hominis Jesu Christi,* etc., tomus alter amissus videtur. » Huc usque Joannes Mabillonius tom. IV Analectorum, pag. 633. Cujus auctoritatem secutus nullam non operam apud clarissimos Augienses nostros dedi, ut hanc Walafridi sui viri saeculo IX doctrina et virtute longe celeberrimi Expositionem, e tenebris erutam, benevole mecum communicarent. Qua in re viros doctos et diligentes eo indulgentiores ac promptiores habui, quo certiorem spem conceperunt futurum ut eo labore suo non nihil catholicae Ecclesiae commodaretur. Itaque integram omnium septuaginta sex psalmorum Expositionem, scite ac emendate descriptam, curante rem omnem cl. ac eruditissimo D. P. Aproniano Hueber. priore Mereraugiensi, ad me miserunt, qui celerem ejus in meo Thesauro editionem [0751D] amicis addixeram. Nec sententiam unquam mutassem, nisi opere probe discusso deprehendissem nucleum et medullam Walafridianae commentationis jam pridem in Glossa ordinaria, quae itidem Walafridum Strabum auctorem habet, eruditis exhibitam fuisse. Ne igitur viris doctis, qui me aliunde in propinandis theologicis non nihil partiorem esse cupiunt, gravior essem, decrevi non nisi primorum viginti psalmorum expositionem, velut in reliqui operis specimen meo Thesauro inserere. Quod si qui viri eruditi majus ex hoc specimine discrimen inter Walafridianam psalmorum expositionem et ordinariam in eosdem Glossam animadverterint quam ego adverti, censerintque operae fore pretium, si eadem ratione reliquorum [0752C] etiam psalmorum explanatio promulgetur: iis tanto promptius morem in sequentibus voluminibus geram, quanto aequius est, ne tantus Augiensium amicorum labor, communi commodo et usui destinatus, omnino depereat.

## IN PSALMUM PRIMUM.

VERS. 1, 2.-- *Beatus vir qui non abiit in consilio impiorum, et in via peccatorum non stetit: et in cathedra pestilentiae non sedit. Sed in lege Domini,* etc.

Omnis Scriptura divinitus inspirata Veteris ac Novi Testamenti ad imitationem Mediatoris Dei et hominum, hominis Christi Jesu fideles invitat, ut per imitationem ad similitudinem ejus pervenire mereamur. Sicut ipse ait: *Si quis mihi ministrat, me sequatur; et ubi sum ego, illic et minister meus [0752D] erit.* Ita apostolus atque evangelista Joannes: *Charissimi,* ait, *nunc filii Dei sumus, et nondum apparuit quid erimus: scimus quia, cum apparuerit, similes ei erimus, quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est.* Sic ergo et hic primus psalmus docet credentes, ut auctorem et largitorem verae beatitudinis sequantur, declinando a malo, et faciendo bona, ut perveniant ad similitudinem ejus, et fiant *tanquam lignum plantatum secus decursus aquarum.*

Perfecte autem declinat a malo, qui nec delectatur in corde, nec agit in opere, nec alios docet, ut [0753A] faciant. Hoc est enim *non abire in consilio impiorum, nec stare in via peccatorum, nec sedere in cathedra pestilentiae;* sed potius *meditari in lege Domini,* non necessitate, sed voluntate, sine cessatione, quod significat *die ac nocte.* Vel, sicut solet Scriptura, *diem* pro prosperis, et *noctem* pro adversis ponere: ut neque laetitia rerum temporalium, neque adversitas transitoriarum mentem sequentis Dominum avertat a meditatione divinae legis. Quae quantum sit necessaria, etiam ibi ostenditur, ubi Josue ministro et conscio legislatoris, qui legem primus et prime didicerat, Dominus praecepit, ut *volumen legis* non deserat, sed meditetur in illo *diebus ac noctibus, ut dirigat viam suam, et intelligat cuncta quae ait.*

[0753B]Si autem apertius quis requirit quod si *consilium impiorum,* multipliciter Scriptura loquitur, et maxime liber qui dicitur Sapientiae, ubi ait: *Dixerunt impii apud se non recte cogitantes.* Et post pauca: *Venite, et fruamur bonis quae sunt, et utamur creatura tanquam in juventute celeriter.* Et iterum: *Opprimamus pauperem justum, nec veterani revereamur canos multi temporis,* etc.

*Via vero peccatorum* est, de qua Psalmista alibi post talia subjungit: *Haec via illorum scandalum ipsis.* Et Dominus ait: *Spatiosa via est quae ducit ad mortem. Cathera autem pestilentiae* perversam significat doctrinam, quae dupliciter fit: aut aperte ad scelera operum invitando, sicut Salomon in Parabolis ostendit dicens: *Fili mi, si te lactaverint [0753C] peccatores, ne acquiescas eis: si dixerint: Veni nobiscum, insidiemur sanguini, abscondamus tendiculas contra insontem frustra,* etc. Aut in errorem inducendo, sicut ibi post aliqua sequitur, ubi et hanc cathedram *sellam* nominat dicens: *Mulier stulta, et clamosa, plenaque illecebris, et nihil omnino sciens, sedit in foribus domus suae super sellam.* Et post pauca: *Aquae furtivae dulciores sunt, et panis absconditus suavior:* quae absque dubio perversam significant doctrinam: haec namque omnia in tantum reprobi sectantur, et sectando divinae legis meditationem respuunt, et exsecrantur, ut, juxta Prophetam, odio habeant corripientem in porta, et loquentem perfecte abominentur, dicantque Deo: *Recede a nobis, et scientiam viarum tuarum nolumus.*

[0753D]Hunc ordinem, quem hic primus psalmus ostendit, plenissime in brevi comprehendens, quae mala sint declinanda, et quae bona facienda, in multis locis sacra Scriptura servat: sicut illud est huic simile beati Jacobi apostoli dicentis: *Abjicientes omnem immunditiam, et abundantiam malitiae, in mansuetudine suscipite insitum verbum, quod potest salvare animas vestras.* Et iterum: *Resistite diabolo, et fugiet a vobis: appropiate Domino, et appropiabit vobis.* Quem etiam ordinem celeberrime tenet Ecclesia in sacramentis renascentium ex aqua et Spiritu sancto, ut prius abrenuntient diabolo, et omnibus pompis vel operibus ejus, et postea profiteantur credere se in Deum Patrem omnipotentem, et in Jesum [0754A] Christum Filium ejus, et in Spiritum sanctum, et Ecclesiam catholicam, ac remissionem peccatorum; et sic tingantur aqua salutari, incorporenturque Ecclesiae (extra quam etiamsi quispiam supra dicta fecerit, salvus esse non poterit) ac membra ligni vitae effecti incipiant ad ejus similitudinem tendere. Quod beatus Paulus verbis subsequentibus consonans ostendit dicens: *Quicunque baptizati sumus in Christo Jesu, in morte ipsius baptizati sumus: consepulti enim sumus cum illo per baptismum in mortem, ut quomodo resurrexit Christus a mortuis per gloriam Patris: ita et nos in novitate ambulemus. Si enim complantati facti sumus similitudini mortis ejus, simul et resurrectionis erimus.*

VERS. 3.-- *Et erit tanquam,* etc. Hoc lignum [0754B] tempore passionis suae de semetipso ait: *Si in viridi ligno haec faciunt, in arido quid fiet?* Ad hoc lignum si praevaricator extenderit manum suam, et sumpserit de fructu ejus, vivet in aeternum. Quod et in Apocalypsi victori promittit dicens: *Vincenti dabo edere de ligno vitae, quod est in paradiso Dei mei.*

*Decursum autem aquarum,* aut Spiritum sanctum intellige, sicut Evangelista Dominum dixisse scribit: *Qui credit in me, sicut dicit Scriptura, flumina de ventre ejus fluent aquae vivae.* Quod exponens subjungit dicens: *Hoc autem dixit de Spiritu, quem accepturi erant credentes in eum.* Cujus opere facta est ipsa incarnatio Salvatoris, secundum quod Gabriel angelus de beata Dei genitrice Maria loquitur ad Joseph [0754C] dicens: *Noli timere accipere Mariam conjugem tuam, quod enim in ea natum est, de Spiritu sancto est.* Aut eloquia Scripturarum, quae praenuntiaverunt de adventu justi, futurasque in Christo passiones, et posteriores glorias, sicut ipse justus et justificans Dominus apostolis post resurrectionem suam loquitur dicens: *Haec sunt verba quae locutus sum ad vos, cum adhuc essem vobiscum: quoniam necesse est impleri omnia quae scripta sunt in lege Moysi, et prophetis et psalmis de me.* Et: *Tunc aperuit illis sensum, ut intelligerent Scripturas,* ut ex eis sumerent humorem vitalem, quem credentibus ministrarent, secundum quod Propheta illis promittit dicens: *Haurietis aquas in gaudio de fontibus Salvatoris.* Nam quod *divina eloquia* aquarum nomine [0754D] significentur, multis in locis eadem Scriptura testatur: de quibus unum est: *Aqua profunda verba ex ore viri, et torrens redundans fons sapientiae.*

*Fructus* autem et *folia hujus ligni* sunt, quae coepit Jesus facere et docere: de quo quidam discipulorum loquebantur: *Qui fuit vir propheta potens in opere et sermone coram Deo et omni populo.*

Quod vero ait *in tempore suo,* Apostolus exposuit dicens: *Ubi venit plenitudo temporis, misit Deus Filium suum, factum ex muliere, factum sub lege, ut eos, qui sub lege erant, redimeret, ut adoptionem filiorum reciperemus:* quae sunt fructus ligni.

Quodque subjungit: *et folium ejus non defluet,* verborum ejus immobilem significat firmitatem. Sic [0755A] ipse ait: *Coelum et terra transibunt, verba autem mea non transibunt.*

De *prosperitate autem factorum ejus* et Pater per Isaiam promittit: *Verbum meum, quod egredietur de ore meo, non revertetur ad me vacuum: sed faciet quaecunque volui, et prosperabitur in his ad quae misi illud.*

VERS. 4.-- *Non sic impii,* etc. *Impii non sic,* quemadmodum illi qui per imitationem in tantum ad similitudinem ligni vitae proficiunt, ut videndo beatitudinem et aeternitatem ejus, ipsi beati et aeterni sint, juxta quod Deus per Isaiam prophetam promittit dicens: *Secundum dies enim ligni erunt dies populi mei.*

*Sed tanquam pulvis* aridus et infecundus, ut pote [0755B] alieni ab humore supra dictarum aquarum, projiciuntur a soliditate et stabilitate terrae in ventum praesentis, scilicet Ecclesiae et futurae, projectique existunt cibus serpentis, de quo scriptum est: *Et serpenti pulvis panis ejus. Ventus* autem ipse diabolus intelligitur, sicut scriptum est: *Aquilo ventus durus.* Nomine autem *dexter* vocatur, qui et spiritus dicitur fornicationis in propheta: et ab Apostolo nominatur *spiritus, qui nunc operatur in filiis diffidentiae.*

VERS. 5.-- *Ideo non resurgent,* etc. Si aliqua hic differentia accipienda est inter *impios et peccatores, impii* intelligendi sunt, de quibus Dominus dicit: *Qui non credit in Filium, jam judicatus est. Peccatores vero,* quibus Judex dicturus est: *Discedite a [0755C] me, maledicti, in ignem aeternum.* Qui *resurgent* quidem *in judicio,* sed non *in concilio justorum,* sicut Dominus per Ezechielem prophetam quibusdam comminatur dicens: *In concilio populi mei non erunt, ut in scriptura domus Israel non scribentur, nec in terram Israel ingredientur.*

VERS. 6.-- *Quoniam novit Dominus,* etc. *Novit,* id est approbat, et laudans remunerat facta justorum: sicut per Salomonem dicturum se in judicio universali Ecclesiae promittit dicens: *Date ei de fructu manuum suarum, et laudent eam in portis opera ejus.* In portis videlicet, in ingressu regni coelestis: quae portae sive januae clauduntur fatuis virginibus, quae inter istos remanebunt, quorum *iter peribit.* Nam et quod perit, Dominus ignorare se [0755D] dicit, et quod Dominus nescit, perit: sicut et praedictis virginibus fatuis, et illis, qui dicturi sunt: *Domine, Domine, nonne in nomine tuo prophetavimus?* etc., ipse Judex responsurum se esse dicit. *Amen dico vobis, nescio vos;* vel: *nunquam novi vos.*

## IN PSALMUM II.

VERS. 1.-- *Quare fremueruut gentes, et populii meditati sunt inania,* etc. Interrogatio est arguendi. Corripit enim populos propheta. *Cur fremuerunt* contra Dominum Salvatorem, cum causas iracundiae non haberent? *Inania* autem dicit meditatos, quia non impleverunt quod voluerunt ut Christus exstingueretur.

[0756A]VERS. 2.-- *Astiterunt reges,* etc. Hoc de persecutoribus Domini dicitur, qui et in Actibus apostolorum commemorantur. *Astiterunt* autem non praesentiam significat, sed voluntatem.

VERS. 3.-- *Dirumpamus vincula,* etc. Quanquam possit et aliter, tamen aptius ex eorum persona accipitur, quos dixit inania meditatos, ut hoc sit *dirumpamus vincula eorum,* demus operam ut nos non alligent, neque imponatur nobis Christiana religio. *Eorum autem,* vel Dei Patris et Christi ejus, vel Christi et apostolorum.

VERS. 4.-- *Qui habitat in coelis,* etc. Repetita sententia est. Nam pro eo quod est, *Qui habitat in coelis,* subsequenter positum est: *Dominus.* Pro eo quod est, *irridebit,* subsequenter positum est, *subsannabit.* [0756B] Nihil horum sapere oportet carnaliter, quasi aut buccis Deus irrideat, aut naso subsannet; sed ea vis accipienda est, quam dat sanctis suis, ut futura cernentes, id est nomen Christi, et dominationem pervagaturam in posteros, et universas gentes obtenturam, illos inania meditatos esse intelligant. Haec enim vis, qua ista praescita sunt, irrisio Dei est, et subsannatio. *Coelos* autem animas sanctas accipimus, per quas utique praescientes quid futurum sit, deridebit Deus et subsannabit.

VERS. 5.-- *Tunc loquetur,* etc. *Iram et furorem* Dei non perturbationem ejus oportet intelligi; sed vim, qua justissime vindicat subjecta sibi ad ministerium universa creatura. Quanquam possit *ira Dei* recte intelligi etiam ipsa mentis obscuratio, quae [0756C] consequitur eos qui legem Dei transgrediuntur.

VERS. 6.-- *Ego autem constitutus,* etc. Sion *speculationem* quidam interpretantur, quam Ecclesiam debemus accipere, ubi quotidie intentio erigitur speculandae charitatis Dei. Quae *mons* etiam dicitur propter eminentiam et firmitatem.

VERS. 7.-- *Dominus dixit ad me,* etc. Potest ille dies in prophetia dictus videri, quo Jesus Christus secundum hominem natus est. Tamen quia *hodie* praesentiam significat, atque in aeternitate nec praeteritum quidquam quasi esse desierit, nec futurum, quasi nondum sit, potest etiam *hodie* sempiternam generationem virtutis et sapientiae Dei, qui est unigenitus Filius, fide sincerissima et catholica intelligi.

[0756D]VERS. 8.-- *Postula a me,* etc. Ut scilicet gentes nomine Christiano copulentur, et ita a morte redimantur, ut possideantur a Deo.

VERS. 9.-- *Reges eos in virga,* etc. *In virga ferrea,* in inflexibili justitia, conterens in eis cupiditates terrenas, et veteris hominis lutulenta negotia.

VERS. 10.-- *Et nunc, reges,* etc. *Et nunc,* id est jam innovati: spiritales enim significantur, qui *judicant terram:* inferius enim nobis est quidquid judicamus: quidquid vero infra spiritalem hominem est, merito *terra* nominatur.

VERS. 11.-- *Servite Domino,* etc. Optime subjectum est, *exsultate,* ne ad miseriam valere videretur, quod dictum est, *servite.* Sed rursus ne idipsum vergeret [0757A] in effusionem temeritatis, additum est, *cum tremore,* ut ad cautionem circumspectam valeret.

VERS.12.-- *Apprehendite disciplinam,* etc. Intelligere, et erudiri, hoc est *apprehendere disciplinam.* In eo autem, quod dicitur, *apprehendite,* satis significatur praesidium quoddam atque munimentum esse adversus omnia quae obesse possent, nisi tanta cura apprehenderetur. *Perire* vero *de via justa* magna poena est, quae ab his formidatur qui aliquid dulcedinis justitiae perceperunt.

VERS.13.-- *Cum exarserit in brevi,* etc. Id est cum vindicta venerit, quae impiis et peccatoribus praeparatur, non solum eos non attinget qui *confidunt in Domino,* sed etiam ad beatitudinem illis proficiet, ubi est bonorum omnium summa et cumulus. Quod [0757B] autem positum est: *in brevi,* hoc significare arbitror, quia repentinum aliquid erit, cum hoc remotum et longe futurum peccatores existiment.

## IN PSALMUM III.

VERS. 1.-- *Psalmus David, cum fugeret a facie filii sui Absalom.*

*David,* qui interpretatur *manu fortis* sive *desiderabilis,* significat Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, cujus vox in hoc psalmo introducitur loquentis de passione et resurrectione sua. *Absalom* autem significat Judam proditorem, sive populum persecutorem. Nam et Judas adhuc inter apostolos erat, quando Dominus dixit: *Non possunt filii sponsi jejunare, quandiu cum illis est sponsus.* Et de populo per Moysen [0757C] dicit: *Filius primogenitus inter Israel.* Veritas ergo fugit mentem Judae, vel persecutoris populi, cum eos illustrare non destitit. Vel sicut Evangelium narrat: *Haec locutus est Jesus, et abiit, et abscondit se ab eis.* Quod autem Absalom *Patris pax* interpretatur, bene intelligitur pacem Christum exhibuisse traditori suo, quamvis ille tam sceleratae cogitationis interno bello vastaretur: et populo persecutori tam placatus exstitit, ut pro illis Patrem exoraret dicens: *Pater, ignosce illis, non enim sciunt quid faciunt.*

VERS. 2.-- *Domine, quid multiplicati sunt,* etc. Tam scilicet *multiplicati sunt,* ut etiam de numero discipulorum non defuerit, qui numero accesserit persequentium.

VERS. 3.-- *Multi dicunt,* etc. Manifestum est [0757D] quod nisi desperarent resurrecturum, non utique occiderent. Ergo nec Judas eum tradidisset, nisi ex eorum esset numero qui Christum contemnerent dicentes: *Non est salus ipsi in Deo ejus.*

VERS. 4.-- *Tu autem, Domine, susceptor,* etc. *Gloriam* suam Dominum dicit etiam ille, quem sic suscepit Dei verbum, ut simul cum eo Deus fieret. *Caput* autem mentem ipsam humanam hic accipiendam puto, quae ita adhaesit, et quodammodo coaluit excellenti supereminentiae Verbi hominem suscipientis, ut in tanta passionis humilitate non deponeretur.

Possunt haec et ex persona Ecclesiae accipi. Nam in illo homine et Ecclesia suscepta est a Verbo, quod caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis. Loquatur ergo [0758A] simul Ecclesia, et caput ejus inter procellas persecutionum constituta per universum orbem terrarum: *Domine, quid multiplicati sunt,* etc., exaltato capite suo, qui primogenitus a mortuis ascendit in coelum.

VERS. 5.-- *Voce mea ad Dominum,* etc. Non corporis voce, quae cum strepitu verberati aeris promitur, sed voce cordis, quae hominibus silet, Deo autem sicut clamor sonat, cum sola anima, nihil carnis nihilque carnalium intentionum in oratione attrahens, loquitur Domino, ubi solus audit. Clamor autem etiam iste dicitur propter vim ipsius intentionis.

*De monte* vero Patrem exaudisse dicit, id est, de justitia sua. Justum enim erat ut innocentem occisum, et cui retributa sunt mala pro bonis, resuscitaret [0758B] a mortuis, et digna persequentibus retribueret: Legimus enim: *Justitia tua sicut montes Dei.* Sed et Ecclesia exauditur de ipso monte, quod etiam caput ejus est, de quo Propheta dicit: *Erit mons domus Domini praeparatus in vertice montium.*

VERS. 6.-- *Ego dormivi,* etc. Non inconvenienter animadverti potest *ego,* ad significandum quod sua voluntate mortem sustinuit secundum illud: *Propterea me Pater diligit, quoniam ego pono animam meam, et iterum sumam eam: nemo tollet eam a meipso.* Bene autem accipitur: *Ego dormivi et soporatus sum:* ego me passioni permisi, et mors consecuta est. Ecclesiae quoque populo dicitur: *Surge qui dormis, et exsurge a mortuis, et continget te Christus,* quoniam de peccatoribus assumptus est. *Non timebo [0758C] millia,* etc. Non dormienti, non jacenti Deo dicitur, *exsurge:* sed moris divinarum Scripturarum est personae Dei tribuere, quod in nobis facit, non quidem ubique, sed ubi congruenter dici potest: vel ut ipse loqui dicatur, quando ejus dono loquuntur quique nuntii veritatis.

VERS. 7.-- *Quoniam tu percussisti omnes,* etc. Contrita sunt, id est in irritum perducta, verba peccatorum dilacerantium et maledicentium Filium Dei. Possunt et *dentes peccatorum* accipi principes peccatorum, quorum auctoritate quisque de societate recte viventium jam praeciditur, et quasi incorporalitur male viventibus.

VERS. 8.-- *Domine est salus,* etc. Nemo ergo de se praesumat, quoniam Domini est salvos facere de [0758D] morte peccati. Tu autem, Domine, benedic populum tuum de te salutem sperantem.

## IN PSALMUM IV.

VERS. 2.-- *Cum invocarem exaudivit me,* etc. *Deus justitiae meae,* a quo est justitia mea, ab angustiis tristitiae in latitudinem gaudiorum me duxisti: *Tribulatio enim et angustia in omnem animam hominis operantis malum.* Qui autem dicit: *Gaudemus in tribulationibus, scientes quoniam tribulatio patientiam operatur, patientia autem probationem, probatio vero spem, spes autem non confundit; quia charitas Dei diffusa est in cordibus nostris per Spiritum sanctum, qui datus est nobis,* non habet cordis angustias, [0759A] quamvis extrinsecus a persequentibus ingerantur. Vox autem ista aut Domini Jesu Christi est post resurrectionem suam: aut Ecclesiae credentis, et sperantis in eo: *Miserere mei et exaudi,* etc. Pia mater sibi miserandum esse dicit, si pro filiis ejus audiatur oratio, quoniam quidquid membris tribuitur, toti corpori sine dubitatione praestatur.

VERS. 3.-- *Filii hominum,* etc. Saltem *usque* in adventum Filii Dei vester error duraverit: quid ergo ultra *gravi corde* estis? quando habituri finem fallaciarum, si praesentiam veritatis non habetis? Cum enim sola veritas faciat beatos, ex qua vera sunt omnia, ut quid temporalium rerum amore detinemini, ut quid tanquam prima extrema sectamini, quod est vanitas et mendacium? Cupitis enim permanere [0759B] vobiscum, quae omnia transeunt tanquam umbra.

VERS. 4.-- *Et scitote quoniam,* etc. Quem, nisi eum quem suscitavit ab inferis, et in coelo ad dexteram collocavit? Increpatur ergo genus humanum, ut ad eum se tandem ab hujus mundi amore convertant; et sicut gratulantur de illuminatione in hac vita, ita orandum sibi noverint pro requie post hanc vitam.

VERS. 5.-- *Irascimini et nolite,* etc. Duobus modis intelligi potest. Aut: Etiamsi *irascimini, nolite peccare,* id est etiamsi surgit motus animi, qui jam propter poenam peccati non est in potestate, saltem non ei consentiat ratio et mens, quae intus regenerata [0759C] est secundum Deum, ut mente serviamus legi Dei, si adhuc carne servimus legi peccati. Aut: Agite poenitentiam, id est, *irascimini* vobis ipsis de praeteritis peccatis, et ulterius peccare desinite.

Quodque sequitur: *quae dicitis in cordibus vestris,* plena sententia est: quae dicitis in cordibus vestris, dicite, id est nolite esse populus, de quo dictum est: *Labiis me honorant, cor autem eorum longe est a me. Cubicula* autem ipsa sunt corda, de quibus et Dominus monet, ut intus oremus clausis ostiis.

VERS. 6.-- *Sacrificate sacrificium,* etc. Idem dicit in alio psalmo: *Sacrificium Deo spiritus contribulatus.* Quare non absurde hic accipitur ipsum esse *sacrificium justitiae,* quod fit per poenitentiam. Quid enim justius, quam ut suis quisque peccatis potius [0759D] quam alienis irascatur, seque ipsum puniens mactet Deo? Vel certe *sacrificium justitiae* est opera justa post poenitentiam.

*Multi* autem sunt stulti, qui de ipsa futura vita, quae nobis promittitur, dubitant, vel desperant, qui saepe dicunt: *Quis novit si vera sunt, aut quis venit ab inferis, ut ista nuntiaret?*

VERS. 7.-- *Signatum est super nos,* etc. Hoc lumen est totum hominis et verum bonum, quod non oculis sed mente conspicitur. *Signatum* autem dixit in nobis, tanquam denarius signatur regis imagine. Homo enim factus est ad similitudinem et imaginem Dei, quam peccando corrupit. Bonum ergo ejus est verum atque aeternum, si renascendo signetur. Non ergo [0760A] foris quaerenda est *laetitia,* sed intus, ubi signatum est lumen vultus Dei.

VERS. 8.-- *A fructu frumenti,* etc. Non vacat, quod additum est *sui;* est enim et *frumentum et vinum et oleum* Dei. Isti autem dediti temporalibus voluptatibus semper exardescunt cupiditatibus, nec satiari possunt: et multiplici atque aerumnosa cogitatione distenti, simplex bonum videre non sinuntur. Vir ergo fidelis exsultat et dicit:

VERS. 9.-- *In pace in idipsum,* etc. Recte enim speratur a talibus omnimoda mentis abalienatio a mortalibus rebus, et miseriarum saeculi hujus oblivio, quae nomine obdormitionis et somni decenter et prophetice significatur, ubi summa pax nullo tumultu interpolari potest. Sed hoc post hanc vitam sperandum [0760B] est. Quapropter congruenter ultimum adnectit, et dicit:

VERS. 10.-- *Quoniam tu, Domine, singulariter,* etc. Bene ait, *singulariter:* potest enim referri adversus illos multos, qui multiplicati a fructu frumenti, vini, et olei sui, dicunt: *Quis ostendit nobis bona?* Perit enim haec multiplicitas, et *singulariter* tenetur in sanctis, de quibus dicitur: *Multitudinis autem credentium erat anima et cor unum.*

## IN PSALMUM V.

VERS. 1.-- *In finem pro ea quae veritatem consequitur, Psalmus David.* Intelligitur Ecclesia, quae accipit haereditatem in vitam aeternam per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, ut possideat ipsum Deum, [0760C] cui adhaerens beata sit, secundum illud: *Dominus pars haereditatis meae.* Quapropter vox Ecclesiae est vocatae ad haereditatem, et ut ipsa fiat haereditas Dei.

VERS. 2.-- *Verba mea oribus percipe,* etc. Bene ostendit quis iste sit *clamor:* quando quidem vox corporis auditur, spiritalis autem intelligitur.

VERS. 3.-- *Intende voci,* etc. Regem Filium solent appellare Scripturae. Secundum illud ergo quod dictum est: *Per me itur ad Patrem,* certe primo *rex meus,* et deinde *Deus meus.*

VERS. 4, 5.-- *Quoniam ad te orabo, Domine,* etc. *Mane astabo,* etc. Non ille es, inquit, qui possit videri ab eis, quorum ab oculis nox peccatorum nondum recessit. Peracta erroris mei nocte, et discedentibus [0760D] tenebris, quas mihi peccatis meis feci, *exaudies vocem meam.*

*Astabo* autem, quid est nisi: non jacebo? Jacere vero est in terra quiescere, quod est a terrenis voluptatibus beatitudinem quaerere. Non est ergo inhaerendum terrenis, si volumus Deum videre, qui mundo conspicitur.

VERS. 6.-- *Neque habitabit,* etc. Id est non sic videbunt, ut haereant, quia mens eorum reverberatur luce veritatis propter tenebras peccatorum, quarum consuetudine fulgorem rectae intelligentiae sustinere non possunt.

VERS. 7.-- *Odisti omnes qui operantur,* etc. Illos odit, quos in se manere non sinit: non autem manent, [0761A] qui eum sustinere non valent. *Mendacium* vero est veritati contrarium. Sed ne quis putet aliquam substantiam vel naturam veritati esse contrariam, intelligat, ad id quod non est, pertinere mendacium, non ad id quod est. Si enim hoc dicitur, quod est, verum dicitur: si autem hoc dicitur, quod non est, mendacium. Ideo incipit: *Perdes eos, qui loquuntur mendacium,* quia recedentes ab eo quod est, ad id quod non est declinant.

*Virum sanguinum et dolosum,* etc. *Virum sanguinum* operantur iniquitatem, *dolosum* autem diligentem mendacium intellige. Solent vero *abominati* dici exhaeredati. Hic autem psalmus pro ea est *quae haereditatem consequitur,* quae subjicit exsultationem spei suae dicens:

[0761B]VERS. 8.-- *Introibo in domum,* etc. *Introibo in domum tuam:* tanquam lapis, credo, in aedificium dictum est. Quid enim aliud domus Dei, quam templum Dei est, de quo dictum est: *Templum enim Dei sanctum est, quod estis vos.* Cujus aedificii lapis angularis est ille quem suscepit coaeterna Patri virtus, et sapientia Dei.

Considerandum vero est quod non dixit: *in templo,* sed: *ad templum:* templum enim sanctum corpus Domini est Salvatoris, quod jure adorat Ecclesia: de quo ipse dixit: *Solvite templum hoc.* Addit vero: *in timore tuo,* quod magnum est praesidium procedentibus ad salutem.

VERS. 9.-- *Domine, deduc me,* etc. Nihil manifestius, quam id tempus eum commendare, quo proficit: [0761C] hoc est enim iter, quod non terrarum locis peragitur, sed affectibus animorum. *In conspectu tuo,* inquit, *viam meam,* secundum quod et in oratione Dominica dicitur: *Sanctificetur nomen tuum;* non quo nobis orantibus sanctificetur, quod per se sanctum est; sed quo petamus, ut quod per naturam sui sanctum est, sanctificetur et in nobis. Ergo et nunc Propheta postulat ut via Dei, quae per se recta est, etiam sibi recta fiat.

VERS. 10.-- *Quoniam non est in ore,* etc. Quomodo potest esse in ore eorum veritas, quorum cor fallitur de peccato, et poena peccati?

VERS. 11.-- *Sepulcrum,* etc. Adulatores et haeretici *sepulcra patentia* dicuntur, quia cum ipsi sint mortui vitam non habendo veritatis, mortuos in se [0761D] recipiunt, quos verbis mendacibus necant. Quod autem ait: *Judica illos, Deus,* non optat ut eveniat, sed cernit quid venturum sit.

*Decidant,* etc. *Decidant* accusantibus se cogitationibus suis, conscientia sua: et quia multum sunt impii, multum longe eos expelle ab illa haereditate, quae intelligendo et videndo Deo possidetur.

VERS. 12.-- *Et laetentur,* etc. Ipse ergo erit aeterna exsultatio, ceu templum Dei fiunt justi.

*Et gloriabuntur,* etc. Haec est benedictio: gloriari in Deo et habitari a Deo.

VERS. 13.-- *Domine, ut scuto bonae voluntatis,* etc. Bona voluntas Dei praecedit nostram voluntatem, ut peccatores vocet in poenitentiam. Et ipsa sunt arma, [0762A] quibus expugnatur inimicus, contra quem dicitur: *Quis accusabit adversus electos Dei?* Et iterum: *Si enim cum adhuc inimici essemus, Christus pro nobis mortuus est, multo magis reconciliati salvi erimus ab ira per ipsum.* Hoc invictissimum scutum, quo pellitur inimicus, desperationem salutis suggerens multitudine tribulationum et tentationum.

## IN PSALMUM VI.

VERS. 1.-- *In finem in carminibus pro octava psalmus David.* Potest dies judicii octavus intelligi, quod jam post finem hujus saeculi accepta aeterna vita. Tunc non erunt animae justorum obnoxiae temporibus. Et quoniam omnia tempora septem dierum justorum repetitione volvuntur, octavus forte ille dictus [0762B] est, qui varietatem istam non habebit, qui meritis tribuens quod debetur, ad vitam aeternam sanctos transfert, impios vero damnat in aeternum. Quam damnationem metuens orat Ecclesia, dicens:

VERS. 2.-- *Domine, ne in furore tuo,* etc. In die judicii *arguuntur,* id est accusantur omnes, qui non habent fundamentum, quod est Christus. *Corripiuntur* autem, id est purgantur, qui huic fundamento superaedificant ligna, fenum, stipulam, et tamen salvi erunt quasi per ignem. Iste autem orat, ut in ira Domini nec damnetur, nec emendetur, sed ita hic perfecte sanetur, ut non solum mortem non timeat, sed nec urentis, aut secantis medici manus sustineat. Sequitur itaque et dicit:

VERS. 3.-- *Miserere mei, Deus,* etc. Id est firmamentum [0762C] animae vel fortitudo: hoc enim *ossa* significant. Quapropter ad expositionem pertinet quod subditur:

VERS. 4.-- *Et anima mea,* etc. Quis non intelligat animam luctantem cum morbis suis, diu autem dilatam a medico, ut ei persuaderetur in quae mala peccando se praecipitaverit? Quod enim facile sanatur, non multum cavetur. Ex difficultate autem sanationis erit diligentior custodia receptae sanitatis.

VERS. 5.-- *Convertere, Domine,* etc. Convertens se orat, ut ad eum convertatur et Deus, sicut dictum est: *Convertimini ad me, et convertar ad vos, dicit Dominus.*

VERS. 6.-- *Quoniam non est,* etc. Intelligit nunc esse tempus conversionis, quia, cum ista vita transierit, [0762D] non restat nisi retributio meritorum. Potest etiam illud intelligi, ut *mortem* vocet peccatum, quod contempta lege Dei committitur. In qua morte, hoc est, esse immemorem Dei, legem et praecepta contemnere, ut *infernum* dixerit caecitatem animi, quae peccantem, id est morientem excipit, et involvit. Ab ista morte et ab isto inferno tutam se praeberi anima deprecatur, dum molitur conversionem ad Dominum, et sentit difficultates. Quapropter contexit dicens:

VERS. 7.-- *Laboravi,* etc. *Lectus* est hoc in loco appellatus, ubi requiescit animus aeger et infirmus, id est in voluptate corporis et omni delectatione saeculari, quem *lacrymis lavat,* qui se ab illo conatur [0763A] extrahere, et tanquam dies et noctes alterno affectu cogitur pati: ut, cum dicit: *mente servio legi Dei,* tanquam diem sentiat: rursus cum dicit: *carne autem legi peccati,* inclinetur in noctem, donec omnis nox transeat, et veniat unus dies, de quo dicitur: *mane adstabo tibi.* Hoc autem accipimus *stratum,* quod et lectum: quanquam *rigabo* amplius sit aliquid quam *lavabo:* quoniam potest aliquid in superficie lavari, rigatio vero ad interiora pertinet, quod significat flectum usque ad cordis intima.

VERS. 8.-- *Turbatus est,* etc. Propter iram Domini *oculum* cordis sui profitetur esse *turbatum.* Quid enim formidolosius quam illum irasci, qui, si non miseretur, exstinguit? Quodque subjungit, *inveteravi inter omnes inimicos meos,* invenit se omnibus [0763B] vitiis esse vallatum, quae quoniam veteris vitae sunt, et veteris hominis, quo exuendi sumus ut induamur novo, recte dictum est: *inveteravi. In omnibus* autem *inimicis meis,* vel inter ipsa vitia dicit, vel inter homines, qui nolunt ad Deum converti. Nam et hi etiamsi nesciunt, etiamsi parcunt, tamen intentione contraria inimici sunt eis qui se ad Deum convertunt. Verum quia inane non potest esse, quod tam vehementer rogatur, qui fons est omnium misericordiarum, verissimeque dictum est: *prope est Dominus obtritis corde,* post tantas difficultates exauditam se anima pia significans (quam licet etiam Ecclesiam intelligere), vide quid adjungit:

VERS. 9.-- *Discedite a me,* etc. Vel in prophetia dictum est: *Discessuri enim sunt,* id est separabuntur [0763C] a justis impii, cum judicii dies venerit: vel nunc, quia etiamsi pariter atque iisdem conventiculis continentur; tamen in area nuda jam grana separantur a paleis, quanquam inter paleas lateant.

*Exaudivit Dominus,* etc. Cebra ejusdem sententiae repetitio non quasi narrantis necessitatem, sed affectum exsultantis ostendit.

VERS. 10.-- *Erubescant,* etc. Hoc illo die implebitur, cum manifestata fuerint justorum praemia, et supplicia peccatorum. Nam usque adeo non erubescunt impii, ut nobis insultare non desinant.

Quanquam et illud hic accipi potest, ut jam, quia gementem et tam saepe diuque flentem Deus exaudivit, intelligatur liberata a peccatis orare etiam pro inimicis, ut de peccatis suis agant poenitentiam [0763D] (quod sine confusione et conturbatione fieri non potest) et convertantur ad Dominum, erubescantque se in prioribus tenebris peccatorum gloriatos. Quod autem addit: *valde velociter,* aut ad optantis affectum, aut ad Christi potentiam referendum est, qui gentes, quae pro idolis suis persequebantur Ecclesiam, ad Evangelii fidem tanta temporum celeritate convertit.

## IN PSALMUM VII.

*Chusi* interpretatur Aethiops, significat diabolum, vel Judam proditorem, seu populum Judaeorum, qui post acceptam beatitudinem ad peccatorum nigredinem sunt conversi. Qui etiam *filius Jemini,* hoc est: filius dexterae scribitur; qui licet vitio suo ceciderint [0764A] tamen in natura sua boni a Deo creati sunt: hi enim adversus Christum et Ecclesiam in persecutione pari consensu conspiraverunt.

VERS. 1, 2.-- *Domine Deus meus, in te speravi,* etc. *Ne quando rapiat,* etc. Dicit Apostolus: *Adversarius vester diabolus tanquam leo rugiens circuit, quaerens quem devoret.* Itaque cum diceret per pluralem numerum: *salvum me fac ex omnibus persequentibus me,* singularem postea intulit dicens: *ne quando rapiat at leo animam meam.* Non enim ait: *ne quando rapiant;* tanquam cui non resistat jam perfecto nisi invidus diabolus, superato omni bello atque adversitate vitiorum. Quod autem subjungit: *dum non est qui redimat,* ita intelligendum, ne ille rapiat, dum tu non redimis neque salvum facis.

[0764B]VERS. 4.-- *Domine Deus meus,* etc. Quod dicit: *si fecit istud,* inferius quid sit exponit, cum ait: *si est iniquitas in manibus meis.*

VERS. 5.-- *Si reddidi,* etc. Non ait: *si reddidi facientibus,* sed *retribuentibus mihi mala.* Qui enim retribuit, jam aliquid acceperat. Majoris autem patientiae est nec ei mala rependere, qui acceptis beneficiis reddidit mala pro nobis, quam si nullo accepto beneficio nocere voluisset. Et bene addidit: *decidam merito ab inimicis meis inanis.* Inaniter enim se jactat, qui cum ipse homo sit, cupit se de homine vindicare: et cum superare hominem palam quaerit, occulte a diabolo superatur, *inanis* effectus vana et superba laetitia, quod quasi vinci non potuit. Intelligens ergo ista, ubi major fiat victoria, [0764C] iram potius quam hominem vincit.

VERS. 6.-- *Persequatur inimicus,* etc. *Inimicum* nominat, quem superius *leonem* appellavit: ipse enim animam persequitur, et si deceperit, comprehendit, vitamque ejus conculcando *terram* facit, cibum videlicet suum. Non enim tantum leo, sed etiam serpens appellatus est, cui dictum est: *terram manducabis.* Gloriam quoque ejus *in pulverem deducit,* quem projicit ventus a facie terrae, quod est vana et inepta jactantia tanquam vento elatus pulveris globus.

VERS. 7.-- *Exsurge, Domine,* etc. Non adversus homines haec precatur, sed adversus diabolum et angelos ejus, quorum possessio peccatores atque impii homines sunt, quibus poena est, cum aufertur [0764D] ab eis ista possessio, in qua dominari desiderant. Hanc poenam dicit *iram* Dei adversus diabolum, ut desinat possidere quod possidet. Quam possessionem dixit *fines,* ubi vult Deum *exaltari* potius, id est honorari et glorificari, quam diabolum, dum impii justificantur et migrant in templum Dei.

*Exsurge, Domine Deus meus,* etc. Quia humilitatem praecepisti, humilis appare, et tu prior imple quod praecepisti, ut exemplo tuo vincentes superbiam non possideantur a diabolo.

*Synagoga* autem *populorum,* id est credentium per ejus humilitatem multitudo, ita eum *circumdedit,* ut verissime diceretur: *Caecitas ex parte contigit in Israel, donec plenitudo gentium intraret.*

[0765A]VERS. 8.-- *Et propter hanc,* etc. Id est propter hanc congregationem regredere in altum, quod resurgendo et in coelum ascendendo fecisse intelligitur. Et bene prosequitur:

VERS. 9.-- *Dominus judicat populos,* etc. Quia inde venturus est judicare vivos et mortuos. Quapropter haec anima, quae perfecte orat, vide quemadmodum non timeat judicii diem, et vere desiderio dicat in oratione:

*Judica me, Domine,* etc. Illa est vera innocentia, quae nec inimico nocet. Itaque bene judicari se postulat *secundum innocentiam* suam, qui vere dicere potuit: *si reddidi retribuentibus mihi mala.* Quod autem addidit: *super me,* demonstrat idipsum, quod anima justa est: Et inquam, si lucerna ardens et lucens diceret: [0765B] Judica me secundum flammam, quae super me est: id est non quae sum ego, sed qua fulgeo accensa de te.

VERS. 10.-- *Consummetur nequitia,* etc. *Consummetur,* inquit, perficiatur, id est perveniat ad summam nequitiam, ut possit istud jam venire judicium. Sed quoniam non solum dictum est sordibus: *sordescat* adhuc; sed etiam: *justus justior fiat,* adnectit et dicit: *diriges justum, scrutans corda et renes Deus.* Quomodo ergo *dirigitur* juste in tanta confusione simulationis, nisi dum scrutatur corda et renes Deus, videns omnium cogitationes, quae nomine *cordis* significatae sunt, et delectationes, quae nomine *renium* intelliguntur? *Scrutans* ergo *cor* nostrum, et proscipiens, non nos acquiescere carni et sanguini, [0765C] sed delectari in Domino, *dirigit justum* in ipsa conscientia coram se, ubi nullus hominum videt, sed solus ille, qui prospicit, quid quisque cogitet, et quid quemque delectet.

VERS. 11.-- *Justum adjutorium,* etc. *Justum auxilium* est, quod jam justo tribuitur. Si enim medicinam exhibet, qua sanamur infirmi, quanto magis eam, qua custodiamur sani: *quoniam, si cum adhuc peccatores essemus, Christus pro nobis mortuus est, quanto magis nunc justificati salvi erimus ab ira per ipsum.* Ita fit, ut scrutans corda et renes Deus, et prospiciens in corde rectas cogitationes, in renibus nullas inferiores delectationes, *justum auxilium* praebeat rectis corde, ubi mundis cogitationibus supernae delectationes sociantur.

[0765D]VERS. 12.-- *Deus judex justus,* etc. *Justus,* qui reddit unicuique secundum opera sua: *fortis,* qui etiam persecutores impios, cum sit potentissimus, pro nostra salute toleravit: *patiens,* qui ipsos, qui persecuti sunt, non statim post resurrectionem ad supplicium rapuit, sed sustinuit, ut se aliquando ad salutem ab illa impietate converterent. Non *irascitur per singulos dies,* quia adhuc sustinet servans ultimo judicio ultimam poenam.

VERS. 13, 14.-- *Nisi conversi,* etc. *Et in eo paravit,* etc. Secundo adventu veniens judicare vivos et mortuos *Judex justus* in manifesto splendore claritatis suae justis suis lumen et terrores impiis coruscabit. *Arcum* autem Scripturas sanctas appellat, ubi [0766A] fortitudine Novi Testamenti, quasi nervo quodam duritia Veteris flexa et edomita est. Hinc tanquam *sagittae* emittuntur apostoli, vel divina praeconia jaculantur. Quas sagittas *ardentibus effecit,* quibus percussi, divino amore flagrarent. *Vasa* vero *mortis vel* haeretici intelliguntur, qui ex eodem arcu, id est ex eisdem scripturis in animas non charitate inflammandas, sed venenis perimendas insiliunt: quod non contigit, nisi pro meritis: et ob hoc divinae Providentia etiam ista disposito tribuenda est. *Vel* iidem apostoli, quia *aliis* sunt *odor vitae in vitam, aliis odor mortis in mortem.*

VERS. 15.-- *Ecce parturiit,* etc. Unusquisque iniquus *concepit dolorem,* dum quid concupiscit illicitum: *parturit injustitiam,* cum desiderando meditatur: [0766B] *parit iniquitatem;* quia *peccatum, cum consummatum fuerit, generat mortem.*

VERS. 16.-- *Lacum aperuit,* etc. Hoc est, quod in alio Psalmo dicitur: *in operibus manuum suarum comprehensus est peccator.*

VERS. 17.-- *Convertetur dolor,* etc. Recte erit iniquitas ejus super ipsum, cum se iniquitati suae sponte subdiderit: sicut et in alio Psalmo dicitur: *iniquitates meae supergressae sunt caput meum; sicut onus grave, gravatae sunt super me.*

VERS. 18.-- *Confitebor Domino,* etc. Non est ista confessio peccatorum, sed justitiae Dei, ita loquimur: Verus justus es, Domine, quando et justos sic protegis, ut per teipsum eos illumines: et peccatores sic ordinas, ut non tua, sed sua malitia puniantur.

[0766C]Potest etiam iste psalmus in persona Dominici hominis intelligi, si modo ea quae ibi humiliter dicta sunt, ad nostram infirmitatem referantur, quam ille gestabat.

## IN PSALMUM VIII.

*Torcularia* possumus accipere Ecclesias, eadem ratione qua et aream intelligimus Ecclesiam: ouia sive in area sive in torculari nihil aliud agitur, nisi ut fructus ab inquinamentis purgentur, quae necessaria erant, et ut nascerentur, et ut crescerent, atque ad maturitatem vel messis, vel vindemiae pervenirent, sicut nunc agitur, ut non loco, sed affectu interim separentur boni a malis: quamvis simul in Ecclesiis, quantum attinet ad corporalem praesentiam, conversentur. Aliud autem erit tempus, [0766D] quo vel frumenta in horrea, vel vina in cellas segregentur.

Solent accipi *torcularia* etiam martyria, tanquam afflictione persecutionum calcatis eis qui Christi nomen confessi sunt, ut mortalia eorum tanquam vinacea in terra remanserint: animae autem in requiem coelestis habitationis emanaverint. Verbum quoque divinum potest uva intelligi, cum enuntiationis necessitate usurpat vocis sonum, quo in aures perveniatur audientium. Eodem sono vocis tanquam vinacea intellectus tanquam vinum includitur: et sic uva ista in aures venit, quasi in calcatorio torcularium. Ibi autem discernitur, ut sonus usque ad aures valeat, intellectus autem memoria eorum, [0767A] qui audiunt, velut quodam loco accipiatur, inde transeat in morum disciplinam et habitum mentis, tanquam de lacu in cellas, in quibus, si negligentia non acuerit, vetustate firmabitur. Acuit namque in Judaeis et hoc aceto Dominum potaverunt.

VERS. 2.-- *Domine, Dominus noster,* etc. Ac si aperte dicat: *Domine,* qui es *Dominus noster,* quam te admirantur omnes qui incolunt terram, quoniam tua magnificentia de terrena humilitate super coelos elevata est! Hinc enim apparuit quia descenderis, cum a quibusdam visus es, et a caeteris creditum, quod ascenderis.

VERS. 3.-- *Ex ore infantium,* etc. Possunt accipi *infantes* atque *lactentes* hi quibus dicit Apostolus: *Tanquam parvulis in Christo, lac vobis potum dedi, [0767B] non escam.* Quod significabant illi, qui Dominum praecedebant laudantes, in quo ipse Dominus hoc testimonio usus est. *Inimicos* autem huic dispensationi, quae facta est per Christum Jesum, et hunc crucifixum, generaliter accipere debemus omnes, qui vetant cedere incognita, et certam scientiam pollicentur, sicut faciunt haeretici universi et illi qui in superstitione gentilium philosophi nominantur. Diabolus vero acerrimus inimicus potest et *ultor* intelligi; ipsi enim peccantes traduntur in interitum carnis, ut spiritus salvus sit in die Domini. Sed et omnes qui divina gratia de ejus faucibus erepti non fuerint, in aeternum possidet.

VERS. 4.-- *Quoniam videbo coelos,* etc. *Videbo,* [0767C] inquit, *coelos opera digitorum tuorum:* id est cernam et intelligam Scripturas, quas operante sancto Spiritu, qui digitus Dei dicitur, per ministros tuos conscripsisti.

Sic ergo destruitur inimicus, cum intelliguntur Scripturae praedicatae usque ad infantium tarditatem. *Luna* vero et *stellae* in coelis sunt fundatae: quia et universalis Ecclesia, in cujus saepe significatione luna ponitur, et particulatim per loca singulae Ecclesiae, quas nomine *stellarum* insinuatas arbitror, in eisdem scripturis collocatae sunt, quas coelorum vocabulo positas credimus.

VERS. 5.-- *Quid est homo,* etc. Quid inter *homines et filium hominis* distet quaeri potest. Si enim nihil distaret, non ita poneretur: *aut filius hominis,* per [0767D] disjunctionem. Omnis namque filius hominis homo, quamvis non omnis homo Filius hominis possit intelligi. Adam quippe homo, sed non filius hominis. Christus autem et homo et Filius hominis. *Homo* itaque dicitur, qui portat imaginem terreni hominis. Hujus *memor* est Deus tanquam absentis. *Filium* autem *hominis,* qui portat imaginem coelestis, *visitat* tanquam praesentem: et hoc in susceptione humanitatis Deus verbum. Unde sequitur:

VERS. 6.-- *Minuisti eum,* etc. Minoratum enim eum paulo minus ab angelis per humilitatem carnalis generationis atque passionis audivimus et credimus. Quod magnificentius in Hebraico legitur: *Minues eum paulo minus a Deo:* ubi et aequalis Patri secundum [0768A] divinitatem evidenter ostenditur, et minor Patre futurus secundum humanitatem declaratur.

VERS. 7.-- *Omnia subjecisti,* etc. Nihil excipit, cum dicit *omnia.* Et ne aliter liceret intelligi, sic Apostolus credi jubet, cum dicit: *Excepto eo qui ei subjecit omnia.* Nec tamen quasi aliquid magnum videtur adjungere, cum dicit: *Oves et boves,* etc., nisi *oves et boves* intelligamus animas sanctas, vel innocentiae fructum dantes, vel etiam operantes, ut terra fructificet, id est, ut terreni homines ad spiritalem ubertatem regenerentur. Has ergo animas sanctas non hominum tantum, sed etiam angelorum oportet accipi ex eo quod Dominus dicit reliquisse se *nonaginta novem oves in montibus,* id est in sublimioribus locis, et descendisse propter unam. Nam de *bubus* [0768B] facilis expeditio est, quoniam ipsi homines non ob aliud *boves* dicti sunt, nisi quod evangelizando verbum Dei angelos imitarentur. *Pecora* autem *campi* congruentissime accipiuntur homines in carnis voluptatibus gaudentes, ubi nihil arduum, nihil laboriosum ascendunt. *Campus* est enim lata via, quae ducit ad interitum.

VERS. 8.-- *Volucres coeli,* etc. Vide nunc etiam *volucres coeli* superbos, de quibus dicitur: *posuerunt in coelum os suum:* vide quam in altum vento portentur, qui dicunt: *Linguam nostram magnificabimus, labia nostra a nobis sunt, quis noster Dominus est?* Intuere etiam *pisces maris* curiosos, *qui perambulant semitas maris,* id est, inquirunt in profundo hujus saeculi temporalia, quae tanquam semitae in mari vilescunt [0768C] et intereunt. *Perambulant* autem dixit, ostendens pertinacissimum studium inania et praeterfluentia requirentium.

VERS. 10.-- *Domine, Dominus noster,* etc. Decenter post textum sermonis ad caput reditur, quo tritus idem sermo referendus est.

## IN PSALMUM IX.

*De occultis filii* quaeri potest. Sed quia non addidit cujus, ipsum unigenitum Dei Filium oportet intelligi. Nam et ipse Dominus, cum sine additamento ponit Filium, se ipsum Unigenitum vult intelligi, sicut illud ubi ait: *Si vos Filius liberaverit, vere liberi eritis.* Quae sunt autem *occulta filii,* ex Hebraeo translata editio manifeste ostendit, quae dicit: *Victori super morte [0768D] filii.* Quocirca in hoc psalmo observanda sunt *occulta filii,* id est humilis ejus adventus, quo profuit gentibus cum caecitate Judaeorum, et poena, quae nunc *occulte* agitur, nondum damnatione peccantium, sed aut exercitatione conversorum, aut admonitione ut convertantur, aut caecitate, ut damnationi praeparentur, qui converti noluerint. Nam et illud, quod titulo inscribitur: *in finem pro occultis filii,* et supra dicta ex Hebraeo translatio ponit, *victori pro morte filii,* decentissime his congruit procul dubio, quibus quippe auctor est Christus, qui dixit: *Confidite, ego vici mundum,* cum de morte pariter et inferno triumphavit. Ipse et *finis,* hoc est complementum legis, sicut ait: *Non veni solvere legem, sed adimptere.* [0769A] Siquidem et victoriam feret de mundo, finis est futurorum bonorum.

VERS. 2.-- *Confitebor tibi, Domine,* etc. *Non in toto corde confitetur* Deo, qui de providentia ejus in aliquo dubitat. *Narrat* autem *omnia mirabilia* Dei, quia non solum in corporibus palam, sed et in animis invisibiliter quidem, sed longe sublimius et excellentius fieri videt.

VERS. 3.-- *Laetabor et exsultabo,* etc. Non in hoc saeculo, ubi lethifera laetitia est, non in ambitionibus mundi, ubi peccata amara suavia sunt, sed *in te,* ubi securum gaudium semper sumit augmentum.

*Narrabo* autem *omnia mirabilia tua,* potest praecipue intelligi ex persona Christi, qui discipulis ait: *Omnia quaecunque audivi a Patre meo nota feci vobis:* [0769B] siquidem jam incipit apparere persona Domini in hoc psalmo loquentis. Nam sequitur:

VERS. 4.-- *In convertendo,* etc. Hujus enim inimicus retrorsum conversus est, quando ei dictum est: *Redi retro, Satanas.* Tunc enim, qui tentando se praeponere cupiebat, retro factus est, in eum nihil valendo. Hominum quoque nullus eum praecedit, et retro esse facit, nisi qui deponens imaginem terreni hominis portaverit imaginem coelestis, ea scilicet, *quae retro sunt obliviscens, et se ad ea quae ante sunt extendens.* Nam quod dictum est: *Inimicum meum,* generaliter accipere non erit absurdum, sicut Hebraica docet editio, quae postquam dixit: *Canam nomini tuo, Altissime,* statim infert: *Cum ceciderint inimici mei retrorsum, et corruerint, et perierint a [0769C] facie tua.* Quare?

VERS. 5.-- *Quoniam fecisti judicium,* etc. Id est judicium illud, in quo judicari visus sum, *meum* fecisti, et *causam* illam, in qua me justum et innocentem homines damnaverunt, *meam* fecisti. Haec enim ei militaverunt ad nostram liberationem: sicut nautae dicunt ventum suum, quo utuntur ad bene navigandum.

VERS. 6.-- *Increpasti gentes,* etc. Convenientius hoc Domino Jesu Christo dici, quam ipsum dicere accipimus. Quis enim alius *increpavit gentes, et periit impius,* nisi qui posteaquam ascendit in coelum, misit Spiritum sanctum, quo completi apostoli cum fiducia praedicarent verbum Dei, et peccata hominum libere arguerent? Qua increpatione *periit impius,* quia justificatus [0769D] est. *Deletumque* est *nomen* impiorum. Non enim appellantur impii, qui Domino vero credunt.

VERS. 7.-- *Inimici defecerunt,* etc. Cujus inimici, nisi diaboli *frameae defecerunt,* quae intelliguntur diversae opiniones erroris, quibus ille tanquam gladiis animas perimit? *In finem* vero, hoc est in Christo, qui *civitates ejus destruxit,* cum exclusit inde principem, de quo dictum est: *Princeps hujus saeculi missus est foras.*

*Periit memoria,* etc. Sive, quia fit strepitus, cum impietas evertitur, sive etiam ipso strepitu pereunte, in quo tumultuatur impietas.

VERS. 8.-- *Paravit in judicio thronum,* etc. Quia etiam palam manifesteque venturus est ad vivos et [0770A] mortuos judicandos, paravit in occulto *judicio sedem suam.*

VERS. 9.-- *Et ipse* item palam *judicabit orbem terrae in aequitate.* Id est meritis digna restituens.

VERS. 10.-- *Et factus est Dominus refugium pauperi,* etc. Quid sit *adjutor in opportunitatibus,* exposuit cum addidit: *in tribulatione.* Non enim convertitur anima ad Dominum, nisi cum ab hoc saeculo avertitur. Nec opportunus ab hoc saeculo avertitur, nisi nugatoriis ejus, et noxiis, et perniciosis voluptatibus labores doloresque misceantur.

VERS. 11.-- *Et sperent in te,* etc. Quaerentem quippe animam, ubi figat spem, cum ab hoc mundo evellitur, opportune excipit *cognitio nominis* Dei: nam nomen ipsum Dei usquequaque divulgatum est, [0770B] sed *cognitio nominis* est, cum ille cognoscitur, cujus momen est.

VERS. 12.-- *Psallite Domino,* etc. His dicitur, quos non derelinquit quaerentes se Dominus. Ipse *habitat in Sion,* quae interpretatur *speculatio,* et gestat imaginem Ecclesiae, quae nunc est, et cui dictum est: *Templum Domini sanctum est, quod estis vos.*

VERS. 13.-- *Quoniam requirens,* etc. Quasi responderetur ab his qui missi sunt evangelizare inter gentes studia Dei, et diceretur: *Domine, quis credidit auditui nostro?* Et: *Propter te mortificamur tota die.* Aut, quasi aliquis imperitior et minoris fidei quaereret dicens: quomodo annuntiabitur, cum infidelitas gentium saevitura sit? convenienter sequitur dicens: non sine magno fructu aeternitatis morituros [0770C] in persecutione Christianos, *quoniam requirens sanguinem eorum recordatus est.*

VERS. 14.-- *Miserere mei, Domine,* etc. Unus interpellat pro sanctis, qui primus pro nobis pauper factus est cum esset dives, cum supra plurali numero diceret: *Non est oblitus clamorem pauperum.* Et ipse dicit:

VERS. 15.-- *Qui exaltas me,* etc. *Exaltatur* enim in illo quisque nostrum in membris ejus ab omnibus pravis cupiditatibus, quae sunt *portae mortis,* quia per illas itur in mortem. Sunt autem *porte filiae Sion* omnia optima studia, per quas venitur ad visionem pacis. In sancta Ecclesia *portae* sunt etiam *filiae Sion* sacramenta et initia fidei.

VERS. 16.-- *Exsultabo in salutari tuo,* etc. *Exsultabo,* [0770D] id est cum beatitudine continebor a *salutari tuo,* quod est Dominus noster Jesus Christus, virtus et sapientia Dei. Deinde animadvertendum quemadmodum servetur poena peccatori de operibus suis.

*In laqueo isto,* etc. *Laqueus* absconditus est dolosa cogitatio: *pes* animae recte intelligitur amor, qui cum pravus est, vocatur cupiditas, aut libido: cum autem rectus, dilectio vel charitas. In fraudulento ergo consilio *comprehensus est pes eorum,* cum amore pervenit per fraudem ad vanam laetitiam.

VERS. 17.-- *Cognoscetur Dominus,* etc. Haec sunt *judicia* Dei, cum reddit unicuique secundum opus suum.

VERS. 18.-- *Convertantur peccatores,* etc. Id est [0771A] dentur in manus suas, cum eis parcitur, et illaqueentur delectatione mortifera.

VERS. 19.-- *Quoniam non in finem oblivio,* etc. *Pauperes* dicuntur, qui nunc videntur, quasi in oblivione esse: cum mali florent, et illi tribulantur. Sed *patientia* eorum, qua nunc portant malos, *non peribit,* sed remunerabitur in finem.

VERS. 20.-- *Exsurge, Domine, non confortetur,* etc. Inploratur futurum judicium: quodque dicit: *in conspectu tuo,* significat, in occulto coram Deo, paucis sanctis et justis intelligentibus.

VERS. 21.-- *Constitue, Domine,* etc. Videtur Antichristum significare, de quo Apostolus dicit: *Cum revelabitur homo peccati,* ut qui nolunt liberari a Filio Dei, et pertinere ad Filium homines, et esse filii hominum, [0771B] id est novi homines, serviant homini, id est veteri homini peccatori, *quoniam homines sunt.* Et quia ille ad tantum culmen inanis gloriae venturus creditur, et tanta ei licebit facere in omnes homines et in sanctos Dei, ut tunc vere nonnulli infirmi arbitrentur Deum res humanas negligere: subjicit tanquam voce gementium et querentium cur judicium differatur.

VERS. 22.-- *Utquid, Domine, recessisti,* etc. Id est opportuna despicis, et facis tribulationes ad inflammandos animos desiderio adventus tui. His enim jucundior est fons ille vitae, qui multum sitiunt. Itaque insinuat consilium dilationis dicens:

VERS. 23.-- *Dum superbit impius,* etc. Mirum est et verum, quanto studio bonae spei parvuli incendantur [0771C] ad recte vivendum, comparatione peccantium: quo mysterio agitur, ut etiam haereses esse permittantur, ut probati manifesti fiant inter homines, qui Deo noti sunt. *Comprehendantur* autem impii *in consiliis,* quia cogitationes eorum vincula illis fiunt. Sed quare?

VERS. 24.-- *Quoniam laudatur peccator,* etc. Adulantium linguae alligant animas in peccatis: delectat enim ea facere, in quibus non solum non metuitur reprehensor, sed etiam laudator auditur.

VERS. 25.-- *Exacerbavit Dominum,* etc. Multum irascitur, dum non exquirit, dum quasi obliviscitur, dum non attendit peccata, et impius per fraudes et scelera ad divitias honoresque pervenit: quod maxime in illo Antichristo eventurum est, qui usque adeo [0771D] beatus videbitur hominibus, ut etiam Deus putetur. Sed quanta ista ira Dei sit docent sequentia.

VERS. 26.-- *Non est Deus in conspectu ejus,* etc. Quantam ergo poenam patitur, qui secundis rebus peccatorum suorum eo perducitur, ut non sit Deus in conspectu ejus: id est deseratur luce veritatis, et contaminentur viae ejus *in omni tempore,* id est cogitationes et consilia ejus immunda sint?

*Auferuntur judicia tua,* etc. Animus enim male sibi conscius, dum sibi videtur nullam poenam pati, credit quod non judicet Deus: et sic auferuntur judicia tua, Deus, a facie ejus; cum haec ipsa sit magna damnatio. *Omnium inimicorum suorum dominabitur,* quia reges omnes superaturus traditur, et solus regnum [0772A] obtenturus, quando etiam secundum Apostolum *in templo Dei sedebit; extollens se super omne quod colitur et quod dicitur Deus.*

VERS. 27.-- *Dixit enim in corde suo,* etc. Id est, fama mea et nomen meum de hac generatione in generationem posterorum non transiet, nisi artibus malis adipiscar tam excelsum principatum, de quo posteri tacere non possint. Vel certe de humana generatione in divinam generationem rebus magicis transiturum se arbitrabitur.

Sciendum autem quod Hebraica translatio significat illum damnatum hominem ita a diabolo suadendum, ut se putet in aeternum sine ulla adversitate regnaturum; quae ita dicit: *Loquitur in corde suo: Non movebor: in generatione et generatione ero sine [0772B] malo.*

## IN PSALMUM IX. (cont.)

VERS. 28.-- *Cujus maledictione os plenum est,* etc. Magnum enim maledictum est tam nefandis artibus coelum appetere, et ad capiendam aeternam sedem talia merita comparare. Sed hac ejus *maledictione os* ejus *plenum est.* Non enim habebit effectum ista cupiditas, sed infra omnes ejus tantum valebit ad eum perdendum, quia hoc sibi ausus est polliceri. *Cum amaritudine et dolo,* id est ira insidiisque, quibus in suas partes conversurus est multitudinem. Quod vero sequitur: *Sub lingua ejus labor et dolor,* ad illud refertur quod dixit in corde suo: *Non novebor,* et propterea *sub lingua ejus,* non in lingua ejus, quoniam tacite ista cogitaturus est, hominibus autem talia locuturus, ut bonus et justus et Dei Filius [0772C] videatur.

VERS. 29.-- *Sedet in insidiis,* etc. Quibus divitibus, nisi eis, quos hujus saeculi muneribus cumulabit? Et ideo *in insidiis* cum his *sedere* dictus est, quoniam falsam ipsorum felicitatem ad dejiciendos homines ostentabit. *In occultis* autem puto dictum esse, ubi non facile intelligitur quid appetendum, quidve fugiendum sit. *Innocentem* vero *interficere* est ex innocente facere nocentem.

VERS. 30.-- *Oculi ejus in pauperem respiciunt,* etc. Justos enim maxime persecuturus est, de quibus dictum est: *Beati pauperes spiritu. Leonem* autem *in spelunca* dicit eum, in quo et vis et dolus operabitur. Prima enim persecutio Ecclesiae violenta fuit, [0772D] cum proscriptionibus, tormentis, caedibus Christiani ad sacrificandum cogerentur. Altera persecutio fraudulenta est, quae nunc per hujuscemodi haereticos et falsos fratres agitur. Tertia superest per Antichristum ventura, qua nihil est periculosius, quoniam et violenta et fraudulenta erit. Vim habebit in imperio, dolum in miraculis. Ad vim relatum est, quod dictum est *Leo:* ad dolos, quod dictum est: *in spelunca sua.* Et rursum ipsa repetita sunt converso ordine: *Insidiatur ut rapiat,* etc. Nam *insidiae* ad dolum pertinent, *rapere* violentiae deputatur. Item quae sequuntur ipsa sunt:

VERS. 31.-- *In laqueo suo humiliavit,* etc. *Laqueus* enim bene significat insidias: dominatio vero [0773A] terrorem aptissime insinuat: unde ait: *inclinabit et cadet,* etc.

VERS. 32.-- *Dixit enim in corde suo,* etc. Haec est inclinatio et casus miserrimus, dum animus humanus in suis iniquitatibus quasi prosperatur, et parci sibi putat, cum excaecatur, ut servetur ad ultimam opportunamque vindictam, de qua nunc jam loquitur dicens:

VERS. 33.-- *Exsurge, Domine Deus, exaltetur,* etc. Id est manifesta sit potentia tua. Laborans enim Ecclesia illis temporibus tanquam navis in magnis fluctibus et procellis quasi dormientem excitat Dominum, ut imperet ventis, et tranquillitas redeat. Jam itaque manifesto judicio intelligentes et exsultantes dicunt:

[0773B]VERS. 34.-- *Propter quid irritavit impius Deum,* etc. Id est quid profuit tanta mala facere? Deinde sequitur:

VERS. 35.-- *Vides quoniam tu laborem,* etc. Sensus iste pronuntiationem quaerit, in qua si erratum fuerit obscuratur. Sic enim dixit in corde suo impius *non requiret Deus,* quasi Deus laborem et dolorem consideret, *ut tradat eos in manus suas,* id est quasi laborare et dolere timeat, et propterea illis parcat, ne onerosa sit illi poena eorum, aut ne iracundiae tempestate turbetur: quomodo plerumque homines faciunt dissimulata vindicta ne laborent, aut doleant.

*Tibi derelictus est,* etc. Ideo enim pauper est, id est omnia hujus mundi temporalia bona contempsit, [0773C] ut tu sis tantum spes ejus. *Orphanum* autem dixit, cui moritur pater hic mundus, per quem carnaliter genitus est, sed potest jam dicere: *Mihi mundus crucifixus est, et ego mundo.* Talibus enim orphanis pater fit Deus, quibus dicit: *Ne dicatis vobis patrem in terris.*

VERS. 36.-- *Contere brachium peccatoris,* etc. Illius scilicet, de quo supra dicebatur: *omnium inimicorum suorum dominabitur. Brachium* ergo ejus dixit potentiam ejus. *Quaeretur* autem *peccatum ejus,* id est judicabitur de peccato suo: *nec invenietur,* quia periet ipse pro peccato suo.

VERS. 37.-- *Dominus regnabit in aeternum,* etc. *Gentes* posuit peccatores et impios.

VERS. 38.-- *Desiderium pauperum,* etc. Desiderium [0773D] illud, quo aestuabant, cum in angustiis et tribulationibus hujus saeculi Domini diem concupiscerent.

*Praeparatio* autem *cordis* illa est, de qua in alio psalmo canitur: *Paratum cor meum, Deus, paratum cor meum:* de qua et Apostolus: *si autem, quod non videmus, speramus, per patientiam exspectamus.* Jam vero *aurem Dei* non membrum corporeum, sed potentiam esse, qua exaudit, regulariter debemus accipere. Non enim corporeum fas est putare, quod Dominus Deus non sonantem vocem, sed praeparationem cordis audivit.

VERS. 39.-- *Judicare pupillo et humili,* etc. Aliud *judicare pupillum,* aliud *judicare pupillo. Judicat [0774A] pupillum* etiam, qui condemnat: *judicat* autem *pupillo,* qui pro pupillo profert sententiam. *Homines* autem sunt non solum de quibus dictum est: *Constitue, Domine, legislatorem super eos, ut sciant gentes, quoniam homines sunt;* sed etiam ille, qui eodem loco intelligitur poni super eos, *homo* erit, de quo nunc dicitur: *ut non apponat ultra magnificare se homo super terram,* cum venerit scilicet Filius hominis judicare pupillo, qui exuit veterem hominem, atque hoc modo tanquam extulit patrem.

## IN PSALMUM X.

Psalmus iste canitur adversus haereticos, qui nos ab uberibus matris Ecclesiae avertere moliuntur, affirmantes quod apud ipso sit Christus, et quasi [0774B] pie admonentes, ut ad eos transeundo transmigremus in Christum, quem se habere mentiuntur. Nam cum multis nominibus Christus in prophetia allegorice insinuaretur, etiam *mons* appellatus est: Istis itaque respondendum est ita:

VERS. 2.-- *In Domino confido, quomodo dicitis,* etc. Unum enim *mentem* teneo, in quo *confido, quomodo dicitis,* ut ad vos transeam, tanquam multi sint Christi?

VERS. 3.-- *Quoniam ecce peccatores,* etc. *Tetenderunt arcum,* Scripturas videlicet, quas carnaliter interpretando, venenatas sententias inde emittunt. *Paraverunt sagittas in pharetra,* eadem verba scilicet, quae scripturarum auctoritate jaculantur, ut cum senserint Ecclesiae lumine propter multitudinem [0774C] imperitorum et carnalium obscurato, non se posse convinci, corrumpunt mores bonos colloquiis malis.

VERS. 4.-- *Quoniam quae perfecisti dextruxerunt,* etc. Omnes haeretici, quantum in ipsis est, *dextruxerunt* laudem, quam ex ore infantium et lactentium perfecit Deus, dum quaestionibus vanis et scrupulosis exagitant parvulos, et nutriri fidei lacte non sinunt. Quod si haeretici, aut Judaei laudem vel legem Dei destruxerunt, Christus *quid fecit,* qui dixit: *Pacem meam do vobis:* quam illi nefanda dissensione violarunt?

VERS. 5.-- *Dominus in templo sancto suo,* etc. Ita vero, sicut Apostolus dicit: *Templum enim Dei sanctum est, quod estis vos. In* hoc *templo sancto suo [0774D] Dominus* est, quod constat ex multis membris sua quaeque officia gerentibus, in unam aedificationem charitate constructis. Ipsum intelligitur et *coelum,* in quo regnat, et unde judicat Deus.

*Oculi ejus in pauperem,* etc. Quippe cui derelictus est pauper, et qui factus est refugium pauperi. *Filios* autem *hominum* de veteribus per fidem regeneratos accipe. Hi enim quibusdam Scripturarum locis obscuris tanquam clausis oculis Dei exercentur, ut quaerant: et rursus quibusdam locis manifestis tanquam apertis oculis Dei illuminantur, ut gaudeant, et ista in sanctis libris crebra apertio atque operatio tanquam *palpebrae* sunt Dei, quae *interrogant,* id est probant filios hominum, qui [0775A] neque fatigantur rerum obscuritate, sed exercentur, neque inflantur cognitione, sed confirmantur.

VERS. 6.-- *Dominus interrogat justum et impium,* etc. Quid ergo metuimus, ne aliquid nobis obsint impii, si forte nobiscum sacramenta non sincero corde communicant, quando ille interrogat justum et impium, et animae tantum suae nocet dilector iniquitatis?

VERS. 7.-- *Pluet super peccatores,* etc. *Pluet,* ad verba praedicantium retulit coelo manantia, quae piis imbres sunt: male autem intelligentibus aut non credentibus *laquei.* Illi enim bene intelligendo in fide fructificant: isti male tractando animas suas modo perversitatis strangulant. Poena vero eorum est [0775B] atque exitus, per quos blasphematur nomen Dei, ut primum cupiditatum suarum *igne* vastentur, deinde malorum operum pudore a coetu beatorum abjiciantur, postremo arrepti atque submersi ineffabiles poenas luant: haec enim *pars* est *calicis eorum. Calicem* autem proptera puto appellatum, ne quid praeter modum atque mensuram vel in ipsis peccatorum suppliciis per divinam providentiam fieri arbitremur.

VERS. 8.-- *Quoniam justus Dominus,* etc. Pro justis *justitiae* intelliguntur positae. In multis enim justis tanquam multae justitiae videntur esse, cum sit una Dei, cujus omnes participant: tanquam si una facies intueatur plura specula, quod in illa singulare est, de illis pluribus pluraliter redditur. Facies autem [0775C] Dei est potentia, qua dignis innotescit. Aut certe *aequitatem vidit vultus ejus,* quia non se praebet cognoscendum malis, sed bonis. Et ipsa est *aequitas.*

## IN PSALMUM XI.

*Octava* potest intelligi dies judicii, aut certe Evangelicam praedicationem figurat, in qua Judaei vel haeretici decalogum legis transgrediendo velut in undenario numero lapsi sunt. Unde corpus Ecclesiae, quod unius et vocis et cordis, Dominum orat, ut ab eorum damnatione eripiatur:

VERS. 2.-- *Salvum me fac, Domine, quoniam,* etc. *Defecit sanctus,* id est non invenitur, sicut loquimur, cum dicimus: defecit frumentum, aut defecit pecunia. Veritas autem una est, qua illustrantur [0775D] animae sanctae. Sed quoniam multae sunt animae, in ipsis multae *veritates* dici possunt; sicut ab una facie multae in speculis imagines apparent.

VERS. 3.-- *Vana locuti sunt unusquisque,* etc. *Proximum* omnem hominem oportet intelligi, quia nemo est cum quo sit operandum malum, et *dilectio proximi malum non operatur.* Quod autem bis ait: *in corde et corde,* duplex cor significat: qui enim in corde suo scit verum esse, quod verum est, quodammodo alio corde suppressa veritate dolo instigante mentitur.

VERS. 4.-- *Disperdat Dominus universa labia,* etc. *Universa* dixit, ne quis se exceptum putet. *Linguam* autem *magniloquam* superbiam intellige.

[0776A]VERS. 5.-- *Qui dixerunt linguam nostram,* etc. Superbi hypocritae significantur, in sermone suo spem ponentes ad homines decipiendos, et Deo non sunt subditi.

VERS. 6.-- *Propter miseriam inopum,* etc. Hoc de persona Dei Patris accipiendum, qui propter *inopes et pauperes,* id est, inopia et paupertate bonorum spiritualium egentes, Filium suum misit.

*Ponam in salutari,* etc. *In salutari,* in Christo accipiendum est secundum illud: *quia viderunt oculi mei salutare tuum;* in quo intelligitur posuisse quod ad miseriam inopum auferendam et consolandum gemitum pauperum pertinet. *Fiducialiter* vero *egit in eo,* secundum illud in Evangelio: *Erat enim docens eos tanquam potestatem habens.*

[0776B]VERS. 7.-- *Eloquia Domini, eloquia casta,* etc. *Casta,* id est nullo adulterata mendacio, sed ad vicem argenti, quod examinatur, septemplici Spiritus sancti igne probata. Quod autem ait: *probatum terrae,* manifestius Hebraica editio posuit, *separatum a terra.*

VERS. 8.-- *Tu, Domine, servabis nos,* etc. Hic tanquam inopes et pauperes, ibi tanquam opulentos et divites.

VERS. 9.-- *In circuitu impii ambulant,* etc. *In circuitu ambulant.* Id est, in temporalium rerum cupiditate, quae septem dierum repetito circuitu tanquam rota volvitur, et ideo non perveniunt in *octavam,* id est in aeternum, pro qua iste psalmus titulatus est. *Multiplicantur* autem *filii hominum,* [0776C] hoc est, justi *secundum altitudinem* Dei, quando eunt de virtute in virtutem.

## IN PSALMUM XII.

VERS. 1.-- *Usquequo, Domine, oblivisceris me in finem?* etc. Id est differs me ad intelligendum Christum spiritualiter, qui est sapientia Dei, et rectus finis omnis intentionis animae. *Avertere* enim *faciem* Deus dicitur, dum non dat animae notitiam sui, quae adhuc purum mentis oculum non habet.

VERS. 2.-- *Quandiu ponam consilium in anima,* etc. Consilio non opus est nisi in adversis, Ergo, *quandiu ponam consilium in anima mea,* ita dicitur: quandiu ero in adversis? Aut certe responsio est, ut iste sit sensus: Tandiu, Domine, oblivisceris [0776D] me in finem, et tandiu avertis faciem tuam a me, quandiu ponam consilium in anima mea, ut perfecte operetur misericordiam. Non eum dirigit Deus in finem, neque notitiam sui plenam, quod est facie ad faciem, praebet illi. In eo etiam, quod subjungit: *dolorem in corde meo per diem,* subauditur, quandiu ponam? Per diem vero aut continuationem significat, aut dies pro tempore intelligitur, a quo se quis desiderans exui dolorem ponit in corde, deprecans ad aeterna conscendere et humanam diem non pati.

VERS. 3.-- *Usquequo exaltabitur inimicus,* etc. *Inimicus* iste diabolus est, sive populus impius, vel consuetudo carnalis.

[0777A]VERS. 4.-- *Respice* autem refertur ad id quod dictum est: *Usquequo oblivisceris me in finem?*

VERS. 5.-- *Illumina oculos meos, ne unquam,* etc. Orat *oculos* sui cordis *illuminari,* ne delectabili defectu peccati claudantur. Diaboli quippe insultatio metuenda est, qui detestabili consuetudine tunc efficitur laetus, quando eos quos deceperit, se cognoverit possidere.

*Qui tribulant me exsultabunt,* etc. Tribulantes sunt diaboli et angeli ejus, qui non exsultaverunt de justo viro Job, cum eum tribularent, quia non est *motus,* id est, de stabilitate fidei non recessit. Idipsum autem quod non movetur homo, et fixus in Domino permanet, non sibi debet tribuere, ne cum se gloriatur non esse *motum,* ipsa superbia moveatur.

[0777B]VERS. 6.-- *Exsultabit cor meum in salutari,* etc. *In salutari tuo,* hoc est in Christo Jesu, *exsultabit cor meum,* qui *tribuit mihi bona* spiritalia, non ad humanum diem pertinentia. Propter quod *psallam nomini Altissimi,* id est, cum gaudio gratias ago, et ordinatissime utor corpore, quod est cantus animae spiritualis. Si autem aliqua hic differentia consideranda est, *cantabo* corde, *psallam* operibus Domino, qui solus videt: nomini autem Domini, quod apud homines innotescit, quod non illi sed nobis est utile.

## IN PSALMUM XIII.

*Finis legis Christus.* Ad illum redimus, quando incipimus viam bonam ingredi: ipsum videbimus, [0777C] cum pervenerimus. Et ideo ipse finis, quem Judaei videntes humilem in assumpta carne venisse, non intellexerunt ipsum esse qui praedictus fuerat a prophetis. Ideo sic incipit psalmus:

VERS. 1.-- *Dixit insipiens in corde suo,* etc. Quod ideo gravius, quia non tantum labiis dixerunt, sed *in corde,* ut malo voto pejor incredulitas jungeretur. Potest hoc et de gentibus intelligi, qui providentiam divinam negantes casibus mundum aestimant gubernari.

*Corrupti sunt et abominabiles,* etc. Id est, dum amant hoc saeculum, et non amant Deum, ipsa sunt studia, quae corrumpunt animam, et sic excaecant, ut possit etiam dicere insipiens in corde suo: *Non est Deus: sicut enim non probaverunt Deum habere [0777D] in notitia, dedit illos Deus in reprobum sensum,* ut nefandissima incredulitate maculati, *abominabiles* Domino suis erroribus redderentur. Quod vero ait, *usque ad unum,* vel cum ipso uno potest intelligi, ut nullus hominum intelligatur; vel *praeter unum,* ut intelligatur Dominus Christus, sicut dicimus: iste ager usque ad mare est, non utique simul computamus et mare. Et iste est melior intellectus, ut nemo intelligatur fecisse bonitatem usque ad Christum, quia non potest quisque hominum, nisi ipse donaverit, facere bonitatem. Et illud unum est: quia usquequo quisque cognoscat unum Deum, non potest facere bonum.

VERS. 2.-- *Dominus de coelo prospexit super filios [0778A] hominum,* etc. Super Judaeis potest intelligi, ut honoratius eos appellaverit *filios hominum* propter unius Dei cultum in comparatione gentilium. *Prospicit* autem *Dominus,* ut videat per animas sanctas suas, quod significat id quod dictum est, *de coelo.* Nam per seipsum nihil eum latet: nisi forte eo modo intelligatur dictum, *ut videat,* id est, videre faciat: sicut Abraham dictum est: *Nunc cognovi, quod timeas Deum,* id est, nunc cognoscere feci.

VERS. 3.-- *Omnes declinaverunt,* etc. Id est, Judaei tales facti sunt, quales et gentes.

*Sepulcrum patens est,* etc. In sepulcro patente aut voracitas significatur inhiantis gulae, aut in allegoria, qui occidunt, et quasi devorant interfectos eos, quibus morum suorum perversitatem suadent. Cui [0778B] simile est, e contrario, quod Petro dictum est, *Macta, et manduca,* ut in suam fidem et bonos mores gentes converteret. Patet vero quod sequitur: *Linguis suis dolose agebant.* Comes quippe est voracibus adulatio et omnibus malis. *Venenum* autem dolum dicit; *aspidum* vero, quia nolunt audire verba incantantis. Aspidi enim Judaei aptissime comparantur, qui adversum verba salutaria induxerunt miseri lethiferam surditatem.

*Quorum os maledictione,* etc. *Pedes* appellat consilii progressus, quibus de incoepto movemur ad exitus rerum. Nam quod dixit *veloces,* ostendit, moderationis illis consilia defuisse. *Ad effundendum sanguinem,* divinum videlicet Salvatoris, ut sceleratae rei crescat immanitas actionis.

[0778C] *Contritio et infelicitas in viis eorum,* etc. Omnes malorum hominum viae plenae sunt laboribus et miseria. Unde *non cognoverunt viam pacis,* quae dicit: *Venite ad me, omnes qui laboratis et onerati estis, et ego reficiam vos, et discite a me quia mitis sum et humilis corde, et invenietis requiem animabus vestris: jugum enim meum lene est, et sarcina mea levis est.*

VERS. 4.-- *Nonne cognoscent omnes,* etc. *Omnibus* impiis Dominus judicium comminatur, dicens, in retributione generali *cognoscere* vindictam, qui nunc operantur sub libertate malitiam. *Qui devorant,* inquit, *plebem meam sicut escam panis:* id est, quotidie. Cibus enim panis quotidianus est, devorant etiam populum, quia sua commoda ex illo capiunt, non ferentes ministerium suum ad gloriam Dei, et [0778D] ad eorum, quibus praesunt, salutem.

VERS. 5.-- *Dominum non invocaverunt,* etc. Non enim vere *invocat* Dominum, qui desiderat quae illi displicent. Judaei quoque timuerunt regnum terrenum amittere, *ubi non erat timor.* Dixerunt enim: *Si dimitimus eum sic, omnes credent in eum, et venient Romani, et tollent nobis et gentem et locum;* et amiserunt regnum coelorum, quod timere debuerunt. Et hoc de omnibus temporalibus commodis intelligendum est, quorum amissionem cum timent homines, ad aeterna non veniunt.

VERS. 6.-- *Quoniam Dominus in generatione* etc. Ad superiora refertur, quod dicitur *quoniam Deus in generatione justa est,* ut sit sensus: Nonne [0779A] cognoscent omnes, qui operantur iniquitatem, quoniam Deus in generatione justa est, id est, non in eis qui diligunt saeculum. Injustum est enim relinquere saeculorum conditorem et diligere saeculum, et servire creaturae quam Creatori. *Consilium inopis confudistis,* etc., id est, contempsistis humilem adventum Dei, quia non in eo vidistis pompam saeculi, ut hi, quos vocabat, in Deo solo spem ponerent, non in rebus transeuntibus.

VERS. 7.-- *Quis dabit ex Sion,* etc. *Quis dabit?* subauditur: nisi ipse, cujus humilitatem contempsistis. Ipse enim in claritate venturus est ad judicium vivorum et mortuorum, regnumque justorum, ut quoniam isto humili adventu *facta est coecitas ex parte in Israel, ut plenitudo gentium intraret,* illo [0779B] alio fiat quod sequitur: *et sic omnis Israel salvus fieret.* Pro Judaeis Apostolus etiam illud Isaiae testimonium accepit, quod dictum est: *Veniat ex Sion, qui eripiat, et avertat impietatem ex Jacob,* sicut hic positum est: *Quis dabit ex Sion salutare Israel?* Si autem, ut plerumque solet, *ex Jacob* Judaeorum populus, per *Israel* intelligitur gentium, considerandum est diversis causis, quam propria verba tributa sunt. Ait enim: *Exsultabit Jacob,* id est inenarrabili gaudio cumulabitur, quando viderit quod ardentissima desiderabat spe; *laetabitur Israel,* qui non speratam suscepit medicinam.

## IN PSALMUM XIV.

VERS. 1.-- *Domine, quis habitabit in,* etc. Quanquam [0779C] aliquando ponatur *tabernaculum,* etiam pro habitatione sempiterna, tamen cum proprio accipitur, *tabernaculum* belli res est. Ad tempus enim cum diabolo dimicamus, et tunc opus est tabernaculo, quo nos reficiamus, quod significat maxime fidem temporalis dispensationis, quae pro nobis acta est temporaliter per incarnationem Domini. *Mons* vero sanctus ipsam aeternam habitationem significat. Sed intuere quam pulchre per varios sensus apta verba distinguantur: *In tabernaculo,* dicitur, *quis habitabit?* de illo qui adhuc in hujus saeculi agone contendit; *in monte, quis requiescet?* quando jam unusquisque fidelium per labores hujus saeculi aeternae pacis securitate reficitur.

VERS. 2, 3.-- *Qui ingreditur sine macula et operatur [0779D] justitiam. Qui loquitur,* etc. Nonnulli enim in labiis habent *veritatem,* in *corde* non habent; tanquam si aliquis dolose ostendit viam, sciens in ea esse latrones, et dicat: Si hac ieris, tutus a latronibus eris, et contingat ut vere ibi non inveniantur. Verum ille *locutus est in corde* suo, aliud enim putabat, et nesciens verum dixit. Ergo parum est verum loqui, nisi etiam *in corde* ita sit. *In lingua* vero agitur *dolus,* cum aliud ore profertur, aliud pectore legitur.

*Nec fecit proximo suo malum,* etc. *Proximum* omnem hominem accipi oportere notum est: adversus quem *opprobrium non accipit,* qui non libenter ac temere credit criminatori.

[0780A]VERS. 4.-- *Ad nihilum deductus est,* etc. Ista perfectio est, ut nihil in homine valeat malignus. Et ut nihil sit in *conspectu ejus,* certissime noverit malignum non esse, nisi cum animus a suo Creatore aeterno et incommutabili ad creaturae speciem avertitur, quae de nihilo facta est. *Timentes autem Dominum glorificat,* qui potest dicere cum Propheta: *Mihi autem nimis honorificati sunt amici tui, Deus.*

*Qui jurat proximo suo et non decipit,* etc. Ista non sunt magna: sed qui nec ista potest, multo minus potest *loqui veritatem in corde suo,* et non agere *dolum in lingua sua,* sed ut est in corde, verum ita proferre, et habere in ore Est, est, Non, non, *et non facere proximo suo malum,* id est nulli homini; et [0780B] *opprobrium non accipere adversus proximum suum,* quae sunt perfectorum, in conspectu quorum ad nihilum deductus est malignus. Tamen etiam ista minora ita concludit

VERS. 5.-- *Qui facit haec, non movebitur in aeternum.*

## IN PSALMUM XV.

Rex noster in hoc psalmo loquitur ex persona susceptionis humanae, de quo titulus regalis tempore passionis inscriptus emicuit: *Jesus Nazarenus rex Judaeorum.* Sed ipsi in hoc loco veraciter Judaei intelliguntur, qui fidem Christi corde retinent ad justitiam, et ore confitentur in salutem.

VERS. 1, 2.-- *Conserva me, Domine, quoniam speravi in te. Dixi Domino: Deus meus es tu, quoniam [0780C] bonorum meorum non eges.* Quoniam *bonis meis* non exspectas tu fieri beatus. Quae verba, si ex persona Domini accipienda sunt, notandum valde quam aptissime congruant titulo, qui in Hebraico ita legitur: *humilis et simplicis Dei,* illius videlicet qui dixit: *Discite a me, quia mitis sum, et humilis corde.* Animadvertendum quoque, quod solus ille veraciter *Dominus* sit, qui, secundum quod hic excellentissime definitur, bono servi non eget. Non enim Deo, sed nobis praestamus, si bene agimus.

VERS. 3.-- *Sanctis qui sunt in terra ejus,* etc. Sanctis qui in terra viventium spem suam posuerunt, civibus Hierusalem coelestis, quorum conversatio spiritualis per anchoram spei in illa patria figitur, [0780D] quae recte *Dei terra* nominatur, quamvis adhuc in his terris carne versentur, *miras fecit* Pater *voluntates meas* in profectu illorum, quo senserunt quid eis profuerit et humanitas meae divinitatis ut morerer, et divinitas humanitatis ut resurgerem.

VERS. 4.-- *Multiplicatae sunt infirmitates eorum,* etc. Hae *infirmitates* errores sunt, quas per Evangelicam doctrinam multas in se esse cernentes *acceleverunt* salutem expetere a Christo.

*Non congregabo conventicula eorum de sanguinibus,* etc. Erunt ergo conventicula eorum non carnalia, nec *de sanguinibus* pecorum propitiatus congregabo eos, sed spirituali mutatione obliviscentur [0781A] quid fuerint; nec a me jam et peccatores, et amici, et homines, sed justi et fratres mei, et filii Dei vocabuntur.

VERS. 5.-- *Dominus pars haereditatis meae et calicis mei,* etc. Possidebunt enim mecum *haereditatem* ipsum Dominum. Eligant sibi alii partes, quibus fruantur, terrenas et temporales: portio sanctorum Dominus aeternus est. Bibant alii mortiferas voluptates: portio *calicis mei* Dominus est. Quod dico, *mei,* adjungo Ecclesiam, quia ubi caput ibi et corpus. Nam in haereditate *congregabo conventicula eorum,* et per calicis ebrietatem obliviscar nomina vetera eorum, ut nota sit et his, quos libero, claritas, qua eram apud te, o Pater, priusquam mundus fieret. Non enim *restitues* mihi quod non amisi, sed *restitues* his, qui [0781B] amiserunt, ejus claritatis notitiam, in quibus, quia ego sum, restitues.

VERS. 6.-- *Funes ceciderunt mihi in praeclaris,* etc. Limites passionis meae in tua claritate tanquam sorte *ceciderunt,* velut possessio sacerdotum et Levitarum Deus est. Quae autem sit ejus praeclara haereditas, manifestius in Hebraico, conversione ad Dominum facta, sic exponit: *Et tu haereditas speciosa mea es.*

VERS. 7.-- *Benedicam Dominum qui tribuit mihi intellectum,* etc. Eo quippe *intellectu* ista haereditas videri et possideri potest. Super intellectum autem usque ad mortem me erudivit inferior pars, mea carnis assumptio, ut experirer tenebras mortalitatis, quas ille intellectus non habet.

[0781C]VERS. 8.-- *Providebam Dominum in conspectu meo semper,* etc. Veniens enim in ea quae transeunt, non abstuli oculum ab eo qui semper manet, hoc *providens,* ut in eum per temporalia peracta recurrerem, qui mihi semper *a dextris est,* ut stabiliter in eo permaneam.

VERS. 9.-- *Propter hoc laetatum est cor meum,* etc. Ac si aperte dicat: Propter hoc et in cogitationibus meis jucunditas, et in verbis exsultatio. *Insuper et caro* non deficiet in interitum, sed in spe resurrectionis obdormiet.

VERS. 10.-- *Quoniam non derelinques animam meam in inferno,* etc. Nam neque animam meam inferis possidendam dabis, neque sanctificatum corpus, per quod et alii sanctificandi sunt, corrumpi [0781D] patieris.

*Notas mihi fecisti vias vitae,* etc. *Notas fecisti* per me humilitatis *vias,* ut ad *vitam* redirent homines, unde per superbiam ceciderunt. In qua *adimplebis* eos *laetitia,* ut non ultra quaerant aliquid, cum facie ad faciem viderint te, in quibus, quia ego sum, *me adimplebis. Delectatio* est in favore et propitiatione tua, in hujus vitae itinere perducens usque ad finem gloriae conspectus tui.

## IN PSALMUM XVI.

Hoc est personae Domini tribuendum, adjuncta Ecclesia, quae corpus, ejus est.

VERS. 1.-- *Exaudi, Domine, justitiam meam,* etc. [0782A] Apud Dominum certum est habere *justitiam* vocem suam, quae res tacitas intelligentiae suae virtute cognoscit. Ipsius enim est oratio perfecta, cujus et causa clamat et lingua. *Non in labiis dolosis,* hoc est, non ad te *in labiis dolosis* procedentem. Bene enim orat, in cujus labiis dolus non est.

VERS. 2.-- *De vultu tuo judicium meum prodeat,* etc. Ex illuminatione notitiae tuae verum judicem. Aut certe *de vultu tuo* ait secundum illa quae in me respicis atque cognoscis. Hoc autem ille recte petebat, qui se noverat pollutionem non habere peccati.

VERS. 3.-- *Probasti cor meum et visitasti nocte,* etc. Probatum est cor meum visitatione tribulationis. Non autem *nox* tantum, quia perturbare assolet, [0782B] sed etiam *ignis,* quia urit, vocanda est ipsa tribulatio, qua examinatus justus inventus sum.

VERS. 4.-- *Ut non loquatur os meum opera hominum,* etc. Ut aliud non procedat ex ore meo, quam id quod pertineat ad gloriam tuam. Non ad *opera hominum,* qui faciunt praeter voluntatem tuam. *Propter verba* pacis tuae et prophetarum tuorum *ego custodivi vias laboriosas* mortalitatis humanae atque passionis.

VERS. 5.-- *Perfice gressus meos in semitis tuis,* etc. *Perficiatur* charitas Ecclesiae in itineribus angustis, quibus venitur ad requiem tuam. *Ut non moveantur signa itineris mei,* quae tanquam *vestigia* sacramentis et Scripturis apostolicis impressa sunt, quae intueantur et observent, qui me sequi volunt. [0782C] Aut certe ut jam stabiliter in aeternitate permaneam, posteaquam peregi vias duras, et in angustis semitarum tuarum gressus perfeci.

VERS. 6.-- *Ego clamavi, quoniam exaudisti me,* etc. Qui clamat, quoniam exauditur, utique purus, innocens, et immaculatus agnoscitur: nam confidenter oravit, quoniam se audiri posse de conscientiae puritate praesumpsit. Aut certe ita intelligendum: Ego liberam et validam intentionem precis ad te direxi, quoniam ut hanc habere possem, exaudisti me infirmius orantem. Non ergo deserat exauditio tua humilitatem meam.

VERS. 7.-- *Mirifica misericordias tuas, qui salvos facis sperantes in te,* etc. Non vilescant misericordiae tuae, ne minus amentur.

[0782D]VERS. 8.-- *A resistentibus dexterae tuae,* etc. *A resistentibus* favori, quo mihi faves, *custodi me ut pupillam oculi,* quae apparet parva et exigua, per eam tamen dirigitur acies luminis, quo lux et tenebrae dijudicantur: sic per Christi humanitatem divinitas judicii, discernens inter justos et peccatores.

*Sub umbra alarum tuarum protege me,* etc. Id est, sub munimento charitatis et misericordiae tuae protege me.

VERS. 9.-- *Inimici mei animam meam circumdederunt,* etc. *Inimici* ejus Judaei, *animam* ipsius, id est, vitam temporalem, *circumdantes* eum eripere quaesierunt.

[0783A]VERS. 10.-- *Qui adipem suum concluserunt.* Id est, laetitia sua pingui cooperti sunt, posteaquam cupiditas eorum de scelere satiata est. Et propterea *os eorum locutum est superbiam: Non habemus regem nisi Caesarem;* et, *qui destruis templum,* et caetera talia.

VERS. 11.-- *Projicientes me nunc circumdederunt me,* etc. *Projicientes* me extra civitatem, nunc *circumdederunt me* in cruce, et intentionem cordis sui *statuerunt declinare* in ista terrena, putantes magnum malum perpeti eum qui occidebatur.

VERS. 12.-- *Susceperunt me sicut leo paratus ad praedam,* etc. *Susceperunt* me, sicut ille adversarius circuiens quaerens quem devoret, *et sicut catulus ejus,* populus scilicet, cui dictum est: *Vos ex patre [0783B] diabolo estis,* cogitans de insidiis, quibus justum circumveniret et perderet.

VERS. 13.-- *Exsurge, Domine, praeveni eum et supplanta eum,* etc. *Exsurge,* Deus, quem dormire infidelis populus arbitratur, et iniquitates hominum non curare, antequam exerceatur malitia sua, ut factum ejus vindicta praeveniat, et ita *supplanta eum. Erue* autem *animam meam,* resuscitando me a morte, quae mihi ab impiis irrogata est. Anima autem mea *framea* tua est, quam assumpsit manus tua, id est aeterna virtus tua, ut per ipsam regna debellet iniquitatis, et dividat justos ab impiis. Hanc ergo erue ab inimicis meis.

VERS. 14.-- *Domine, a paucis de terra divide eos,* etc. *Pauci* sunt boni ad comparationem malorum; [0783C] sed *divisi* Judaei per orbem sunt *a paucis,* qui ex eis crediderunt, de Ecclesia, quae *terra* viventium, separati *in vita* ipsorum, id est, in ista, quam solam suam vitam putant, quia aeternam desperant. Non solum autem ista poena eos consecuta est visibilis, sed etiam de peccatis, quae tanquam tenebrae *absconduntur* a lumine veritatis Dei, *adimpleta* est memoria eorum, ut obliviscerentur Deum.

*Saturati sunt filiis, et dimiserunt reliquias suas parvulis suis;* hoc est, malorum operum fructibus sunt repleti, et peccata infidelitatis suae etiam suis posteris reliquerunt.

VERS. 15.-- *Ego autem in justitia tua apparebo,* etc. Ego autem qui non apparui eis qui corde sordido et tenebroso lucem sapientiae videre non possunt, [0783D] *in jnstitia tua* videbo faciem tuam, et *satiabor, cum apparuerit gloria tua,* ut hi qui me intelligunt. Diligenter vero notandum, et solerter est memoriae inculcandum, quam perspicue gloria resurrectionis fidelium juxta editionem Hebraicam his novissimis versiculis declaretur, quibus dicitur: *Ego in justitia videbo faciem tuam; implebor, cum evigilavero, similitudine tua.* Nam cum constet quod, nisi justificatum corpus Christi gratia ejus faciem Dei, qui justitiae est fons, videre non possit, non solum de tam excellenti dono gratulatur, sed insuper impleri se similitudine ipsius, cum evigilaverit, id est resurrexerit, tota certitudine confidit. Quid enim est aliud, *implebor, cum evigilavero, similitudine tua,* [0784A] nisi quod beatus Joannes Apostolus ait: *Scimus quia, cum apparuerit, similes ei erimus: quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est.*

## IN PSALMUM XVII.

Quae est ista *dies,* in qua corpus Christi *de manu omnium inimicorum* suorum eripiendum se novit, nisi illa cujus gloriam in fine praecedentis psalmi evidenter expressit dicens: *Implebor, cum evigilavero, similitudine tua.* Cum enim Ecclesia Christi in evigilatione, id est resurrectione, impleta fuerit similitudine Dei, tunc non solum de manu caeterorum inimicorum ereptam se gratulabitur, sed et de manu Saul, per quem significatur mors, cui in resurrectione insultabunt sancti dicentes: *Ubi est, mors, victoria tua, [0784B] ubi est, mors, aculeus tuus?* Saul quippe, qui interpretatur *petitus,* mortis similitudinem gerit, de qua Scriptura dicit: *Deus mortem non fecit, nec laetatur in perditione viventium.* Et post pauca: *Impii autem manibus et verbis accersierunt illam.*

VERS. 2.-- *Diligam te, Domine, fortitudo mea, Dominus firmamentum meum,* etc. Loquitur haec Christus et Ecclesia, id est totus Christus, caput et corpus. *Diligam te, Domine,* per quem fortis sum, qui me firmasti, qui refugi ad te: refugi autem, quia liberasti me.

VERS. 3.-- *Deus meus adjutor meus, et sperabo in eum.* Qui mihi prius adjutorium vocationis tuae praestitisti, ut sperare in te possim. *Protector meus, et cornu salutis meae, et susceptor meus.* Protector [0784C] meus, quia non de me praesumpsi, quasi erigens adversum te cornu superbiae, sed teipsum cornu, hoc est, firmam celsitudinem salutis inveni: quod ut invenirem, suscepisti me.

VERS. 4.-- *Laudans invocabo Dominum,* etc. Non meam gloriam, sed Domini quaerens *invocabo Dominum,* et non erit unde mihi noceant impietatis errores.

VERS. 5.-- *Circumdederunt me dolores mortis,* etc. *Dolores* mortalitatis, hoc est carnis, *circumdederunt me,* et turbae iniquae ad tempus commotae velut flumina pluvialia cito desitura egerunt, ut conturbarent me.

VERS. 6.-- *Dolores inferni circumdederunt me,* etc. In his qui me circumdederunt, ut perderent, erant [0784D] *dolores* invidentiae, qui mortem operantur, perducuntque ad infernum peccati. Praevenerunt autem me, ut priores nocere vellent, quod eis postea redderetur. Tales autem homines capiunt in perditionem, quibus mala persuaserint jactatione justitiae, cujus non re sed nomine adversus gentes gloriantur.

VERS. 7.-- *In tribulatione mea invocavi Dominum,* etc. *De templo,* hoc est de corde meo, in quo habitat, *exaudivit vocem meam; et clamor meus,* quem non in auribus hominum, sed coram ipso intus habeo, *introivit in aures ejus.*

VERS. 8.-- *Commota est et contremuit terra, fundamenta montium conturbata sunt.* Clarificato Filio [0785A] hominis *commoti sunt et contremuerunt* peccatores, et spes superborum, quae in hoc saeculo fuerunt, conturbatae sunt, ut scilicet jam firmamentum non haberet in cordibus hominum spes temporalium bonorum.

VERS. 9.-- *Ascendit fumus in ira ejus,* etc. *Ascendit* lacrymosa deprecatio poenitentium, cum cognovissent quid minaret Deus impiis; et flagrantia charitatis de notitia ejus post poenitentiam *exarsit;* et illi, qui jam mortui erant, deserti ab igne boni desiderii ac luce justitiae, et frigidi tenebrosique remanserant, rursus *accensi* et illuminati revixerunt.

VERS. 10.-- *Inclinavit coelos et descendit,* etc. Apostolos humilitate informavit, et impii, qui terrena [0785B] sapiunt, *caliginem* malitiae suae non cognoverunt.

VERS. 11.-- *Et ascendit super cherubim et volavit,* etc. Exaltatus est super plenitudinem scientiae, ut nemo ad Dominum veniret nisi per charitatem. *Plenitudo enim legis est charitas;* et cito se incomprehensibilem esse monstravit dilectoribus suis, ne illum corporeis imaginationibus prehendere se posse arbitrarentur. Illa autem celeritas, qua se incomprehensibilem esse monstravit, super virtutes animarum est, quibus se velut pennis a terris in auras libertatis extollunt.

VERS. 12.-- *Et posuit tenebras latibulum suum. Posuit* obscuritatem sacramentorum, et occultam spem in corde credentium, ubi lateret ipse non eos [0785C] deserens. In his etiam *tenebris,* ubi per fidem adhuc ambulamus, non per speciem, quandiu quod non videmus speramus, et per patientiam exspectamus. Conversi tamen ad ipsum ambiunt eum, qui credunt ei, quia in medio eorum est, cum omnibus aequaliter favet, in quibus, tanquam in tabernaculo habitat hoc tempore. Nec propterea quisquam in illa luce, quae futura est, cum ex fide ad speciem venerimus, jam se esse arbitretur, si Scripturas recte intelligit: quia in prophetis, atque omnibus divini verbi praedicatoribus obscura doctrina est in comparatione fulgoris, qui est *in conspectu* manifestationis ejus. Unde et sequitur:

VERS. 13.-- *Prae fulgore in conspectu ejus nubes,* etc. *Nubes ejus,* id est praedicatores verbi ejus, [0785D] non jam in Judaeae finibus continentur, sed *transierunt* ad gentes. Objurgationes autem, quibus velut *grandine* corda dura tunduntur, si animus mitis et pius exceperit, in doctrinam satiantem resolvuntur; igne vero charitatis accenso corda reviviscunt. Haec omnia in nubibus ipsius ad gentes *transierunt.*

VERS. 14.-- *Et intonuit de coelo Dominus,* etc. Ut n profundo rerum humanarum audirentur coelestia.

VERS. 15.-- *Et misit sagittas suas, et dissipavit eos, fulgura,* etc. *Et misit* evangelistas pennis virtutum recta itinera transvolantes, non suis, sed ejus a quo missi sunt, ut aliis essent odor vitae in vitam, aliis odor mortis in mortem. *Multiplicavit* quoque miracula, *et conturbavit eos.*

[0786A]VERS. 16.-- *Et apparuerunt fontes aquarum,* etc. Revelati sunt prophetae, qui non intelligebantur, super quos aedificaretur orbis terrarum credens Domino. *Ab increpatione tua, Domine, ab inspiratione spiritus irae tuae;* clamantis scilicet: *Appropinquavit super vos regnum Dei;* et: *Nisi poenitentiam egeritis, omnes simul moriemini.*

VERS. 17.-- *Misit de summo et accepit me,* etc. Vocando ex gentibus in haereditatem gloriosam Ecclesiam non habentem maculam aut rugam, assumpsit me de multitudine populorum.

VERS. 18.-- *Eripuit me de inimicis meis fortissimis,* etc. *Eripuit me de inimicis meis,* qui praevaluerunt ad affligendam et pervertendam istam temporalem vitam meam.

[0786B]VERS. 19.-- *Praevenerunt me in die afflictionis meae,* etc. Priores mihi nocuerunt in tempore, quo mortale et laboriosum corpus gero; et quoniam amaritudine miseriarum firmamentum terrenae voluptatis contribulatum atque convulsum est, *factus est Dominus protector meus.*

VERS. 20.-- *Et eduxit me in latitudinem, salvum me fecit, quoniam voluit me.* Quia carnales patiebar angustias, *eduxit me* in spiritalem *latitudinem* fidei, *quoniam voluit me,* antequam ego illum vellem.

VERS. 21.-- *Et retribuet mihi Dominus secundum justitiam meam,* etc. *Retribuet mihi Dominus secundum justitiam* bonae voluntatis, qui prior praebuit misericordiam, antequam haberem bonam voluntatem; *et secundum puritatem factorum meorum,* qui [0786C] tribuit mihi, ut bene facerem, educendo me in latitudinem fidei.

VERS. 22.-- *Quia custodivi vias Domini, nec impie gessi a Deo meo.* Ut latitudinem bonorum operum, quae per fidem sunt, longanimitas perseverandi consequatur.

VERS. 23.-- *Quoniam omnia judicia ejus in conspectu meo,* etc. Id est, et praemia justorum, et poehas impiorum, et flagella corrigendorum, et tentationes probandorum perseveranti considero contemplatione. *Et justitias ejus non repuli a me,* quod faciunt deficientes sub sarcina earum, et revertentes ad vomitum suum.

VERS. 24, 25.-- *Et ero immaculatus cum eo, et observabo me ab iniquitate mea. Et retribuet mihi Dominus [0786D] secundum justitiam meam,* etc. Non solum propter latitudinem fidei, quae per dilectionem operatur, sed etiam propter longitudinem perseverantiae, *retribuit mihi Dominus,* non quod homines vident, *sed in conspectu oculorum ejus,* quoniam quae videntur, temporalia sunt; quae autem non videntur, aeterna sunt, quod pertinet ad altitudinem spei.

VERS. 26, 27.-- *Cum sancto sanctus eris, et cum viro innocente innocens eris; et cum electo electus eris, et cum perverso perverteris.* Est etiam occulta profunditas, qua intelligeris *cum sancto sanctus,* quia tu sanctificas, *et cum viro innocente innocens,* quia nulli noces, sed criniculis peccatorum suorum unusquisque constringit ur: et ab eo, quem eligis, [0787A] eligeris, et *cum perverso* videris *perversus,* quoniam dicunt: *Non est recta via Domini,* et ipsorum via non est recta.

VERS. 28.-- *Quoniam tu populum humilem salvum facies,* etc. Hoc perversum videtur perversis, quod confitentes peccata sua salvos facis, ignorantes autem Dei justitiam, et suam volentes constituere, *humilias.*

VERS. 29.-- *Quoniam tu illuminas lucernam meam,* etc. Non est nostrum lumen ex nobis, sed *tu illuminas lucernam meam, Domine:* nos enim peccatis nostris tenebrae sumus, sed Deus meus illuminabit tenebras meas.

VERS. 30.-- *Quoniam in te eripiar a tentatione, et in Deo meo transgrediar murum.* Non in me, sed *in [0787B] te eripiar a tentatione,* et non in me, sed *in Deo meo transgrediar murum,* quem inter homines et coelestem Hierusalem peccata erexerunt.

VERS. 31.-- *Deus meus impolluta via ejus, eloquia Domini igne examinata,* etc. *Deus meus* non venit in homines, nisi manducaverint viam fidei, qua veniat ad eos, quia *impolluta est via ejus. Eloquia* quoque *Domini igne* examinationis probantur, et omnes, qui non in se ipsis, sed in illo sperant, eadem tribulatione non consumuntur; spes enim sequitur fidem.

VERS. 32.-- *Quoniam quis Deus praeter Dominum aut quis Deus praeter Deum nostrum? Quis Deus praeter Dominum,* cui servimus? *et quis Deus praeter Deum nostrum,* quem post bonam servitutem tanquam haereditatem sperantes filii possidebimus?

[0787C]VERS. 33.-- *Deus, qui praecinxit me virtute, et posuit immaculatam viam meam. Praecinxit me,* ut fortis sim, ne defluentes sinus cupiditatis impediant opera et gressus meos. *Et posuit immaeulatam viam* charitatis, qua ad illum veniam, sicut impolluta est fides, qua venit ad me.

VERS. 34.-- *Qui perfecit pedes meos tanquam cervorum, et super excelsa statuens me. Qui perfecit* amorem meum ad transcendenda spinosa et umbrosa implicamenta hujus saeculi, et super coelestem habitationem figit intentionem meam, ut implear in omnem plenitudinem Dei.

VERS. 35.-- *Qui docet manus meas ad praelium,* etc. *Qui docet* me operari ad superandos inimicos, qui nobis intercludere coelestia regna conantur. [0787D] *Et posuisti* infatigabilem intentionem bonorum operum meorum.

VERS. 36.-- *Et dedisti mihi protectionem salutis tuae, et dextera tua suscepit me. Dedisti mihi protectionem salutis tuae,* et favor gratiae tuae suscepit me.

*Et disciplina tua correxit me in finem, et disciplina tua ipsa me doeebit.* Disciplina tua me deviare non sinens correxit, ut quidquid ago, in eum finem referam, quo haeretur tibi, et eadem disciplina tua me docebit pervenire, quo direxit.

VERS. 37.-- *Dilatasti gressus meos subtus me, et non sunt infirmata vestigia mea.* Nec impediunt carnales angustiae, quoniam latam fecisti charitatem meam operantem hilariter, etiam de ipsis quae subter [0788A] me sunt, mortalibus rebus et membris: *et non sunt infirmata* sive itinera mea, sive signa, quae impressi ad imitandum sequentibus.

## IN PSALMUM XVII. (cont.)

VERS. 38.-- *Persequar inimicos meos, et comprehendam illos, et non convertar donec deficiant. Persequar* affectus meos carnales, ne ab eis comprehendar, sed comprehendam illos, ut absumantur, et ab ista intentione *non convertar* ad quietem, *donec deficiant* qui obstrepunt mihi.

VERS. 39.-- *Confringam illos, nec poterunt stare, cadent subtus pedes meos. Confringam illos,* nec durabunt adversum me: directos illis proponam timores, quibus ambulo in aeternum.

VERS. 40.-- *Et praecinxisti me virtute ad bellum, supplantasti insurgentes in me subtus me.* Constrinxisti [0788B] fluentia desideria carnis meae virtute, ne in tali pugna praepedirer, et decipi fecisti eos qui me insequebantur, ut subter me fierent, qui super me esse cupiebant.

VERS. 41.-- *Et inimicos meos dedisti mihi dorsum,* etc. Inimicos meos convertisti, et dorsum mihi eos fecisti esse, id est ut sequerentur me, alios autem eorum, qui in odio perdurarunt, disperdidisti.

VERS. 42.-- *Clamaverunt, nec erat qui salvos faceret ad Dominum, nec exaudivit eos.* Quis enim salvos faceret, quos tu non faceres? Nec ad quemlibet, sed ad Dominum clamaverunt, nec exauditione dignos judicavit non recedentes a malitia sua, quod de Judaeis specialiter intelligendum est, qui in synagogis clamant, nec exaudiuntur, quia terrenam Hierusalem [0788C] desiderant, non coelestem.

VERS. 43.-- *Et comminuam eos ut pulverem ante faciem venti,* etc. Et aridi sunt non recipientes imbrem misericordiae Dei, ut elati superbia ab spe firma et inconcussa tanquam a terrae soliditate ac stabilitate rapiantur; *ut lutum platearum,* quia per latas, quas multi ambulant, perditionis vias luxuriantur et lubrici sunt.

VERS. 44.-- *Eripies me de contradictionibus populi,* etc. *Eripies me de contradictionibus* eorum qui dixerunt: *Si dimiserimus eum vivum, saeculum post illum abit.*

VERS. 45.-- *Populus quem non cognovi,* etc. *Populus* gentium, quem corporali praesentia non visitavi, servivit mihi: neque oculis me vidit, sed recipiens [0788D] praedicatores meos *in auditu auris obedivit mihi.*

VERS. 46.-- *Filii alieni mentiti sunt mihi,* etc. *Filii* non mei dicendi, sed potius *alieni,* quibus recte dicebatur: *Vos ex patre diabolo estis, mentiti sunt mihi: filii alieni,* quibus ut renovarentur, Novum Testamentum attuli, in vetere homine remanserunt, et tanquam uno pede debiles (quia Vetus tenentes Novum respuerunt) claudi effecti sunt, etiam in ipsa veteri lege potius suas traditiones sequentes quam Dei.

Calumniabantur enim de manibus non lotis, quia tales erant *semitae,* quas ipsi fecerant, et consuetudine triverant, aberrando ab itinere praeceptorum Dei.

[0789A]VERS. 47.-- *Vivit Dominus, et benedictus Deus meus,* etc. Non terrena consuetudine de Deo salutis meae sentio; nec terrenam ipsam salutem sed in excelso de illo sperem.

VERS. 48.-- *Deus, qui das vindictas mihi,* etc. Deus, qui vindicas me subdendo sub me populos, *liberator meus de inimicis meis.* Judaeis, clamantibus. Crucifige, crucifige!

VERS. 49.-- *Et ab insurgentibus in me exaltabis me,* etc. Ab eisdem insurgentibus in me patientem, exaltabis me resurgentem, atque a regno eorum iniquo eripies me.

VERS. 50.-- *Propterea confitebor tibi in nationibus, Domine,* etc. Propterea tibi pro me confitebuntur gentes, Domine, et latius innotesces bonis operibus [0789B] meis.

VERS. 51.-- *Magnificans salutes regis ejus,* etc. Deus magnificat, ut amabiles faciat salutes, quas ejus Filius dat credentibus, et *facit misericordiam Christo suo,* ipsi liberatori manu forti, qui vicit hunc mundum, et eis, quos credentes in Evangelio genuit in aeternum.

Quaecunque in hoc psalmo dicta sunt, quae ipsi proprie Domino, id est capiti Ecclesiae congruere non possunt, ad Ecclesiam referenda sunt. Totus enim hic Jesus loquitur, in quo sunt omnia membra ejus.

## IN PSALMUM XVIII.

Titulus notus est, nec Dominus Jesus Christus haec [0789C] dicit, sed de illo haec dicuntur.

VERS. 2.-- *Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei, et opera manuum ejus annuntiat firmamentum.* Justi evangelistae, in quibus Deus tanquam in coelis habitat, exponunt gloriam Domini nostri Jesu Christi, sive gloriam, qua glorificavit Patrem Filius super terram. Et facta virtutum Domini *annuntiat firmamentum:* fiducia quippe Spiritus sancti firmamentum et coelum factum est, quod antea timore terra erat.

VERS. 3.-- *Dies diei eructat verbum, et nox nocti indicat scientiam.* Spiritus spiritalibus profert plenitudinem incommutabilis sapientiae Dei, quod Verbum in principio Deus apud Deum est, et mortalitas carnis, tanquam longe positis carnalibus fidem insinuando annuntiat futuram scientiam.

[0789D]VERS. 4.-- *Non sunt loquelae neque sermones.* Per quas non auditae sunt voces evangelistarum, eum omnibus linguis Evangelium praedicaretur.

VERS. 5, 6.-- *In omnem terram exivit sonus eorum, et in fines orbis terrae verba eorum. In sole posuit tabernaculum suum,* etc. Dominus, ut adversus regna temporalium errorum belligeraret, non pacem sed gladium missurus in terram, in tempore vel in manifestatione posuit tanquam militare habitaculum suum, hoc est, dispensationem incarnationis suae, procedens de utero virginali, ubi Dominus naturae humanae tanquam sponsus sponsae copulatus est. *Exsultavit ut gigas ac currendam viam suam,* etc. Exultavit ut fortissimus, et caeteros homines incomparabili [0790A] virtute praecedens, non ad habitandum, sed ad currendam viam. Et:

VERS. 7.-- *A summo coeli egressio ejus.* Id est, a Patre, non temporalis aequiparatio, sed aeterna, quae de Patre natus est. *Et occursus ejus usque ad summum ejus,* etc. Occurrit plenitudine divinitatis usque ad aequalitatem Patris. Cum autem Verbum etiam caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis, mortalitatem nostram suscipiens, non permisit ullum mortalium excusare se de umbra mortis, et ipsam penetravit verbi calor.

VERS. 8.-- *Lex Domini immaculata convertens animas,* etc. *Lex Domini,* id est, qui venit legem implere non solvere. Et *immaculata* lex, quia peccatum non fecit, nec inventus est dolus in ore ejus, [0790B] non premens animas servitutis jugo, sed ad se imitandum libertate convertens. Cujus *testimonium fidele* est, quia nemo novit Patrem nisi Filius, et cui voluerit revelare, quae abscondita sunt a sapientibus, et revelata parvulis, quoniam Deus superbis resistit, humilibus autem dat gratiam.

VERS. 9.-- *Justitiae Domini rectae, laetificantes corda,* etc. Omnes *justitiae Domini* in illo *rectae,* qui non docuit quod ipse non fecit, ut qui imitarentur, corde gauderent in eis, quia libere cum charitate facerent, non serviliter cum timore. Cujus praeceptum *lucidum* est, sine velamento scilicet carnalium observationum, *illuminans* hominis inferioris aspectum.

VERS. 10.-- *Timor Domini sanctus, permanens in [0790C] saeculum saeculi,* etc. *Timor Domini* non ille sub lege poenalis, temporalia bona sibi subtrahi perhorrescens, quorum dilectione anima inquinatur, sed *sanctus,* quo Ecclesia sponsum suum quanto ardentius diligit, tanto diligentius cavet offendere. Et ideo non foras mittit consummata dilectio timorem hunc, sed *permanet in saeculum saeculi. Judicia* quoque ejus, qui non judicat quemquam, sed omne judicium dedit Filio, vere *justificata* incommutabiliter. Neque enim et minatus, et pollicitus Deus quemquem fallit, aut quisquam et impios supplicio ejus, et pios praemio ejus potest eripere.

VERS. 11.-- *Desiderabilia super aurum et lapidem pretiosum multum,* etc. Sive *multum* ipsum aurum et lapidem, sive *multum* pretiosum, sive *multum* [0790D] desiderabilia, tamen *desiderabilia judicia* Dei super pompas hujus saeculi, quarum desiderio fit, ut non desiderentur, sed timeantur, aut contemnantur, aut non credantur judicia Dei. Quod si quisque ipse sit aurum, lapisque pertiosus, ut igne non consumatur, sed assumatur in thesaurum Dei, plus quam seipsum desideret judicia ejus, cujus voluntatem praeponit suae; et sive quisque jam sit mel, quia solutus vitae hujus vinculis exspectat diem, quo veniat in epulas Dei; sive adhuc favus sit, ut quasi cera circumplicetur hac vita, non huic concretus, sed implens eam, cui opus sit aliqua pressura, non opprimentis, sed exprimentis manus Dei, qua de temporali vita in aeternum relinquetur: *dulciora* illi sunt [0791A] judicia Dei, quam sibi ipsi est, quia *super mel et favum* illa dulciora sunt.

VERS. 12.-- *Etenim servus tuus custodit ea,* etc. Ideo inquit, tam dulcia mihi sunt, quia custodio ea: nam non custodienti amara dies Domini. Itaque non in aliquo extra posito commodo, sed in eo ipso, quod judicia Dei custodiuntur, *multa retributio* est, quia gaudetur in eis.

VERS. 13.-- *Delicta quis intelligit? Ab occultis meis munda me,* etc. In *delictis* autem, qualis suavitas potest esse, ubi non est intellectus, quoniam *delicta quis intelligit?* Quae ipsum occultum claudunt, cui suavitas est veritas, cui desiderabiliora et dulciora sunt judicia Dei, et sicut tenebrae oculos, ita delicta mentem nec lucem sinunt videre, nec se. Ab [0791B] *occultis* ergo *meis,* inquit, *munda me,* Domine, nec seducas *ab alienis.* Neque enim ab alienis capitur, qui est mundus a suis. *Parce* itaque *ab alienis* cupiditatibus, non superbo, et in sua potestate esse cupienti, sed *servo tuo.*

VERS. 14.-- *Si mei non fuerint dominati,* etc. Hujus versiculi sensum manifestiorem facit ex Hebraeo translata editio, ubi legitur: *A superbis quoque libera servum tuum; si mei non fuerint dominati, tunc immaculatus ero:* superbi enim et alieni maligni spiritus intelliguntur ob immanitatem superbiae suae a Deo irremeabiliter alienati, quorum dominatio per peccatum humanum genus opressit. Cum ergo orasset superius dicens: *Ab occultis meis munda me,* congrue mox subdidit: *Si mei non fuerint [0791C] dominati, tunc immaculatus ero:* quia si superbi et alieni illi a Deo spiritus nullam in nobis peccati merito obtinuerint potestatem, tunc vere celeri remissione percepta immaculati erimus. Et quia radix ac fomes totius peccati superbia est, per quam et diabolus corruit, et primus homo mundo mortem induxit, etiam ab hoc *delicto maximo emundabimur* de potestate daemonum liberati, quorum princeps est dominator superborum, sicut de illo legitur: *ipse est rex super omnes filios superbiae.* Si autem legamus, ut in quibusdam codicibus habetur, *si mei non fuerint dominata, tunc immaculatus ero,* hic sensus est: si mei non fuerint dominata occulta mea et aliena, tunc immaculatus ero. Non enim est tertia origo peccati praeter *occultum* suum, quo cecidit [0791D] diabolus, et *alienum,* quo seductus est homo, ut consentiendo suum faceret. *Et emundabor,* inquit, *a delicto maximo,* superbiae scilicet: non enim est majus delictum, quam apostatare a Deo, quod est initium superbiae hominis. Et vere ille immaculatus est, qui etiam hoc delicto caret, quia hoc est ultimum redeuntibus ad Dominum, quod recedentibus primum fuit.

VERS. 15.-- *Et erunt ut complaceant eloquia oris mei.* etc. Meditatio cordis mei, non ad jactantiam placendi hominibus, quia jam nulla snperbia est, sed *in conspectu tuo semper,* qui conscientiam puram inspicis.

*Domine adjutor meus et Redemptor meus. Domine [0792A] adjutor meus* tendentis ad te, quoniam *Redemptor meus* es, ut tenderem ad te, ne quisquam et sapientiae suae tribuens, quod ad te convertitur, et viribus, quod ad te pervenit, magis repellatur abs te, qui superbis resistis, quia non est mundatus a delicto maximo, nec complacuit in conspectu tuo, qui redimis ut convertamur, et adjuvas, ut perveniamus ad te.

## IN PSALMUM XIX.

Notus est titulus, nec Christus dicit, sed Christo dicit Propheta, figura optandi, quae ventura sunt, canens:

VERS. 2.-- *Exaudiat te Dominus in die tribulationis, protegat te nomen Dei Jacob,* etc. *Exaudiat te* [0792B] Dominus *in die* qua dixisti: *Pater, salavifica me ex hac hora:* ad te enim pertinet populus, posterius natus, quia major serviet minori.

VERS. 3.-- *Mittat tibi auxilium de sancto,* etc. Faciens tibi sanctificatum corpus Ecclesiam, quae te tanquam de speculatione exspectat, quando venias a nuptiis.

VERS. 4.-- *Memor sit omnis sacrificii tui,* etc. Memores nos faciat omnium injuriarum tuarum, et contumeliarum, quas pro nobis pertulisti, et crucem, qua totus anima et corpore oblatus es Deo, in laetitiam resurrectionis convertat.

VERS. 5.-- *Tribuat tibi secundum cor tuum,* etc. *Tribuat tibi* non secundum cor eorum, qui putaverunt persequendo te posse deleri, sed *secundum cor [0792C] tuum,* qui scisti quid utilitatis haberet passio tua. *Et confirmet omne consilium tuum,* non solum quo animam posuisti pro amicis tuis, ut mortificatum granum copiosius surgeret, sed etiam, quo caecitas ex parte in Israel facta est, ut plenitudo gentium intraret, et sic omnis Israel salvus fieret.

VERS. 6.-- *Laetabimur in salutari tuo,* etc. *Laetabimur,* quod tibi mors nihil nocebit, ita enim eam nec nobis nocere posse monstrabis. Et confessio nominis tui non solum non perdet, sed etiam magnifibabit nos.

VERS. 7.-- *Impleat Dominus omnes petitiones tuas,* etc. *Impleat Dominus* non solum *petitiones* quas habuisti in terra, sed etiam quibus in coelo interpellas pro nobis. Nunc enim mihi per prophetiam [0792D] demonstratum est, quoniam resuscitabit Dominus Christum suum.

*Exaudiat illum de coelo sancto suo,* etc. *Exaudiat* illum non de terra tantum, ubi se petit clarificari, verum etiam *de coelo,* ubi jam ad dexteram Patris interpellans pro nobis diffudit inde Spiritum sanctum super credentes in se. *Potentatus* vero nostri sunt *salus* favoris ejus, cum etiam de tribulatione dat auxilium, ut quando infirmamur, tunc potentes simus. Nam vana salus hominum, quae non *dextera* sed sinistra ejus est: ecce enim extolluntur in magna superbia, quicunque peccantes temporaliter salvi facti sunt.

VERS. 8.-- *Hi in curribus et hi in equis, nos autem [0793A] in nomine Domini Dei nostri invocabimus.* Hi volubili successione temporalium bonorum trahuntur, et hi superbi efferuntur, honoribus, atque in his exsultant. Nos autem spem figentes in aeternis, neque gloriam nostram quaerentes, *In nomine Domini Dei nostri exsultabimus.*

VERS. 9.-- *Ipsi obligati sunt et ceciderunt,* etc. *Ipsi* rerum temporalium cupiditate *obligati sunt:* timentes parcere Domino, ne a Romanis perderent locum, et irruentes in lapidem offensionis et petram scandali, de spe coelesti ceciderunt, quibus caecitas ex parte Israel facta est, ignorantibus Dei justitiam, et suam volentibus constituere: nos vero, ut plenitudo gentium intraret, de lapidibus excitati filii Abraham, qui non sectabamur justitiam, apprehendimus [0793B] eam, et *surreximus,* nec viribus nostris, sed per fidem justificati *erecti sumus.*

VERS. 10.-- *Domine, salvum fac regem,* etc. *Domine, salvum fac regem,* et ipse, qui nobis exemplum praeliandi passione sua monstravit, offerat etiam sacrificia nostra sacerdos excitatus a mortuis, quo jam pro nobis offerente, *exaudi nos in die qua invocaverimus te.*

## IN PSALMUM XX.

Titulus notus est: de Christo canitur.

VERS. 2.-- *Domine, in virtute tua laetabitur rex,* etc. *Domine, in virtute tua,* quod Verbum caro factum, laetabitur homo Christus Jesus, *et super hoc,* quod vivificas omnia, *exsultavit vehementer.*

VERS. 3.-- *Desiderium cordis ejus tribuisti ei,* etc. [0793C] Desideravit manducare Pascha, et ponere cum vellet, atque iterum sumere animam suam, et dedisti ei; *pacem meam,* inquit, *relinquo vobis,* et factum est.

VERS. 4.-- *Quoniam praevenisti eum in benedictionibus dulcedinis,* etc. Quoniam prius hauserat *benedictionem dulcedinis* tuae, fel peccatorum nostrorum non nocuit ei, quem in principio sermonis ejus accedentes ambierunt lapides pretiosi, discipuli sui, a quibus exordium annuntiationis ejus fieret.

VERS. 5.-- *Vitam petiit a te, et tribuisti ei longitudinem dierum,* etc. Resurrectionem petiit dicens: *Pater, clarifica Filium tuum:* et dedisti ei longa tempora saeculi hujus, quae haberet Ecclesia, et deinceps aeternitatem *in saeculum saeculi.*

VERS. 6.-- *Magna est gloria ejus in salutari tuo,* [0793D] etc. *Magna est* quidem *gloria ejus* in salute, qua eum resuscitasti; sed adhuc *gloria et magnum decorem* [0794A] addes ei, cum in coelo collocabis ad dexteram tuam.

VERS. 7.-- *Quoniam dabis eum in benedictionem,* etc. Haec est *benedictio* quam *dabis* ei *in saeculum saeculi: laetificabis eum in gaudio cum vultu tuo* secundum hominem, quem levavit ad te.

VERS. 8.-- *Quoniam rex sperat in Domino,* etc. *Quoniam rex* non superbit, sed humilis corde *sperat in Domino, et in misericordia Altissimi non conturbabitur,* humilians se, et obediens usque ad mortem crucis.

VERS. 9.-- *Inveniatur manus tua omnibus inimicis tuis,* etc. *Inveniatur,* o rex, potestas tua, cum ad judicandum veneris, *omnibus inimicis tuis,* qui eam in humilitate tua non intellexerunt, claritasque, qua [0794B] regnas ad dexteram Patris, *inveniat* in die judicii puniendos, *qui te oderunt,* quia nunc ipsi non invenerunt eam.

VERS. 10.-- *Pones eos ut clibanum ignis,* etc. Constitues eos ardentes intrinsecus conscientia impietatis suae in tempore manifestationis tuae: deinde conturbati vindicta Domini post accusationem conscientiae dabuntur aeterno devorandi incendio.

VERS. 11.-- *Fructum eorum de terra perdes,* etc. *Fructum eorum,* quia terrenus est, *perdes de terra,* et opera illorum, et quoscunque seduxerunt, non deputabis inter filios hominum, quos in haereditatem sempiternam vocasti.

VERS. 12.-- *Quoniam declinaverunt in te mala,* etc. [0794C] Haec poena retribuetur eis, quoniam mala, quae sibi imminere te regnante arbitrabantur, in te occidendum retorserunt, cogitaveruntque consilia dicentes: *Expedit unum pro omnibus mori.* Et: *Venite, occidamus eum, et habemus haereditatem ejus.* Quae idcirco *non potuerunt stabilire,* nescientes quid dixerint, nec adepti, quod cupierunt.

VERS. 13.-- *Quoniam pones eos dorsum,* etc. Quoniam ordinabis eos in his, a quibus postpositis et contemptis averteris, et in his, quae relinquis, id est cupiditatibus regni terreni, praeparabis tibi ad passionem impudentiam eorum.

VERS. 14.-- *Exaltare, Domine, in virtute tua,* etc. O *Domine,* quem humilem non cognoverunt, *exaltare in virtute tua,* quam infirmitatem putaverunt. [0794D] Nos autem corde et opere celebrabimus, et nota faciemus mirabilia tua.

english:
## PEZ'S PRELIMINARY NOTICE.

[0751C]

« Among our men of Reichenau there occurs an Exposition on seventy-six psalms by Walafrid the abbot, beginning from the first in this manner: *All Scripture divinely inspired, of the Old and of the New Testament, unto the imitation of the Mediator of God and men, the man Jesus Christ,* etc., the other volume seems to have been lost. » Thus far John Mabillon, volume IV of the Analecta, page 633. Following his authority, I left no effort unspent among our most distinguished men of Reichenau, that they might kindly communicate to me this Exposition of their own Walafrid, a man by far the most celebrated in the ninth century for learning and for virtue, drawn out of the darkness. In which matter I found those learned and diligent men the more indulgent and the readier, the surer the hope they conceived that by that labour of theirs something not inconsiderable would be of service to the Catholic Church. And so they sent to me the entire Exposition of all seventy-six psalms, skilfully and correctly transcribed, the whole business being seen to by the distinguished and most erudite Dom P. Apronian Hueber, prior of Mehrerau, and I had promised [0751D] my friends a speedy edition of it in my Thesaurus. Nor would I ever have changed my mind, had I not, upon a thorough examination of the work, discovered that the kernel and the marrow of Walafrid's commentary had long since been set before the learned in the Glossa ordinaria, which likewise has Walafrid Strabo for its author. Therefore, lest I should be too burdensome to those learned men who, on other grounds, desire me to be not inconsiderably more sparing [sic: *partiorem*] in the serving up of theological matters, I determined to insert into my Thesaurus nothing but the exposition of the first twenty psalms, as it were by way of a specimen of the remaining work. But if any erudite men shall observe, from this specimen, a greater difference between Walafrid's exposition of the psalms and the ordinary Gloss upon the same than I have observed, and shall judge that it will be worth the labour if by the same method the explanation of the remaining [0752C] psalms also be published: I shall comply with them in the volumes that follow the more readily, inasmuch as it is the more equitable that so great a labour of the friends of Reichenau, destined for the common advantage and use, should not utterly perish.

## ON PSALM THE FIRST.

VERS. 1, 2.-- *Blessed is the man who hath not gone away in the counsel of the ungodly, and hath not stood in the way of sinners: and hath not sat in the chair of pestilence. But in the law of the Lord,* etc.

All Scripture of the Old and of the New Testament, divinely inspired, invites the faithful to the imitation of the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, that through imitation we may deserve to come to his likeness. As he himself saith: *If any man minister to me, let him follow me; and where I am, there also shall my minister [0752D] be.* So the apostle and evangelist John: *Dearly beloved,* he saith, *now we are the sons of God, and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be: we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like to him, because we shall see him as he is.* Thus therefore this first psalm also teaches believers to follow the author and the bestower of true blessedness, by turning aside from evil and doing good, that they may come to his likeness and may become *as a tree planted beside the running waters.*

But he turns aside from evil perfectly who neither delights in his heart, nor acts in deed, nor teaches others, that they should [0753A] do so. For this is *not to go away in the counsel of the ungodly, nor to stand in the way of sinners, nor to sit in the chair of pestilence;* but rather *to meditate in the law of the Lord,* not of necessity but of will, without ceasing, which is what *day and night* signifies. Or, as Scripture is wont, it sets *day* for prosperity and *night* for adversity: so that neither the gladness of temporal things nor the adversity of transitory things may turn the mind of him who follows the Lord away from the meditation of the divine law. And how necessary that is, is shown there also, where the Lord commanded Josue, the minister and confidant of the lawgiver, who had learned the law first and foremost, that he should not forsake the *volume of the law,* but should meditate in it *day and night, that he may direct his way and may understand all the things which it saith.*

[0753B]But if any man asks more openly what the *counsel of the ungodly* is, [cj: *quod si*; read *quod sit*, "what the counsel is"] Scripture speaks of it in manifold ways, and most of all the book which is called of Wisdom, where it saith: *The ungodly said within themselves, not thinking aright.* [var: Vulg. Sap 2:1 *Dixerunt enim cogitantes apud se non recte*, without the word for "the ungodly"] And a little after: *Come, and let us enjoy the good things that are, and let us use the creature as in youth, speedily.* And again: *Let us oppress the poor just man, nor let us reverence the grey hairs of the aged, of long time,* etc.

But the *way of sinners* is that of which the Psalmist elsewhere, after such things, subjoins: *This their way is a stumbling-block to them.* And the Lord saith: *Broad is the way which leadeth to death. But the chair of pestilence* [var: Vulg. Mt 7:13 has *perditionem*, "perdition", where Migne has "death"] signifies perverse doctrine, which comes about in two ways: either by inviting openly to the wickedness of works, as Solomon shows in the Proverbs, saying: *My son, if [0753C] sinners shall entice thee, consent not to them: if they shall say: Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us hide snares against the innocent without cause,* etc. Or by leading into error, as follows there after some things, where he also names this chair a *seat,* saying: *A foolish woman, and clamorous, and full of allurements, and knowing nothing at all, sat at the doors of her house upon a seat.* And a little after: *Stolen waters are sweeter, and hidden bread more pleasant:* which without doubt signify perverse doctrine: for the reprobate follow after all these things so far, and by following them so spurn and execrate the meditation of the divine law, that, according to the Prophet, they hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and abhor him that speaketh perfectly, and say to God: *Depart from us, and we desire not the knowledge of thy ways.*

[0753D]This order, which this first psalm shows, comprehending most fully in brief what evils are to be turned aside from and what goods are to be done, Holy Scripture keeps in many places: as that saying of the blessed apostle James is like to this: *Casting away all uncleanness and abundance of malice, with meekness receive the ingrafted word, which is able to save your souls.* And again: *Resist the devil, and he will fly from you: draw nigh to the Lord, and he will draw nigh to you.* Which order also the Church most solemnly keeps in the sacraments of those who are born again of water and the Holy Spirit, that first they renounce the devil and all his pomps or works, and afterwards profess that they believe in God the Father almighty, and in Jesus [0754A] Christ his Son, and in the Holy Spirit, and the Catholic Church, and the remission of sins; and so are dipped in the saving water and are incorporated into the Church (outside of which, even if a man should have done the things said above, he shall not be able to be saved), and, made members of the tree of life, begin to tend toward its likeness. Which the blessed Paul shows, in agreement with the words that follow, saying: *As many of us as are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized in his death: for we are buried together with him by baptism into death, that as Christ rose again from the dead by the glory of the Father: so we also may walk in newness. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also of his resurrection.*

VERS. 3.-- *And he shall be as,* etc. Of this tree [0754B] he spoke concerning himself in the time of his passion: *If in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry?* If the transgressor shall stretch out his hand to this tree and take of its fruit, he shall live for ever. Which also in the Apocalypse he promises to him that overcometh, saying: *To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God.*

*But by the running of the waters,* understand either the Holy Spirit, as the Evangelist writes that the Lord said: *He that believeth in me, as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.* Which, expounding it, he subjoins, saying: *Now this he said of the Spirit which they should receive who believed in him.* By whose working was wrought the very incarnation of the Saviour, according to that which the angel Gabriel speaks to Joseph [0754C] concerning the blessed Mother of God, Mary, saying: *Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is born in her is of the Holy Spirit.* Or the utterances of the Scriptures, which foretold the coming of the just one, and the sufferings to be in Christ, and the glories that should follow after, as the same just and justifying Lord speaks to the apostles after his resurrection, saying: *These are the words which I spoke to you when I was yet with you: for it is necessary that all things be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.* And: *Then he opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures,* that out of them they might take the vital moisture which they should minister to believers, according to that which the Prophet promises them, saying: *You shall draw waters with joy out of the fountains of the Saviour.* For that the *divine utterances* [0754D] are signified by the name of waters, the same Scripture testifies in many places: of which one is: *Words out of the mouth of a man are deep water, and the fountain of wisdom an overflowing torrent.*

But the *fruit* and the *leaves of this tree* are the things which Jesus began to do and to teach: of whom certain of the disciples were speaking: *Who was a man, a prophet, mighty in work and in word before God and all the people.*

But that which he says *in his time,* the Apostle expounded, saying: *When the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem them who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons:* which are the fruits of the tree.

And that which he subjoins: *and his leaf shall not fall off,* signifies the unmoved firmness of his words. So [0755A] he himself saith: *Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.*

But concerning the *prosperity of his doings* the Father also promises through Isaias: *My word, which shall go forth out of my mouth, shall not return to me void: but it shall do whatsoever I willed, and shall prosper in those things for which I sent it.*

VERS. 4.-- *Not so the ungodly,* etc. *The ungodly are not so,* in the manner of those who by imitation so far advance unto the likeness of the tree of life that, by seeing its blessedness and its eternity, they are themselves blessed and eternal, according to that which God promises through Isaias the prophet, saying: *For according to the days of the tree shall be the days of my people.*

*But as dust* dry and unfruitful, inasmuch as [0755B] they are strangers to the moisture of the waters spoken of above, they are cast forth from the solidity and the stability of the earth of the present, that is, of the Church, and of that which is to come, into the wind, and being cast forth they stand as food for the serpent, of which it is written: *And dust is the serpent's bread. But the wind* itself is understood to be the devil, as it is written: *The north is a hard wind.* And by the name *right hand* is he called, who in the prophet is also called the spirit of fornication: and by the Apostle he is named *the spirit that now worketh in the children of unbelief.*

VERS. 5.-- *Therefore the ungodly shall not rise,* etc. If any difference is here to be taken between the *ungodly and sinners,* by the *ungodly* are to be understood those of whom the Lord says: *He that believeth not in the Son is already judged. But sinners,* to whom the Judge is to say: *Depart from [0755C] me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.* Who indeed *shall rise in judgment,* but not *in the council of the just,* as the Lord threatens certain men through Ezechiel the prophet, saying: *They shall not be in the council of my people, that in the writing of the house of Israel they shall not be written, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel.* [var: Vulg. Ezech 13:9 *et in scriptura domus Israel non scribentur*, "and they shall not be written"; Migne's *ut* does not construe with the future indicative]

VERS. 6.-- *For the Lord hath known,* etc. *He hath known,* that is, he approves, and praising it rewards the doings of the just: as through Solomon he promises that he will say to the Church in the universal judgment: *Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.* In the gates, namely, in the entrance of the heavenly kingdom: which gates or doors are shut to the foolish virgins, who shall remain among those whose *way shall perish.* For both what perishes the Lord [0755D] says that he knows not, and what the Lord knows not, perishes: as also to the foolish virgins aforesaid, and to those who shall say: *Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name?* etc., the Judge himself says that he will answer. *Amen I say to you, I know you not;* or: *I never knew you.*

## ON PSALM II.

VERS. 1.-- *Why have the gentiles raged, and the peoples meditated vain things,* etc. It is a question of rebuking. For the prophet chides the peoples. *Why have they raged* against the Lord the Saviour, when they had no causes of anger? But he says that they meditated *vain things,* because they did not accomplish what they wished, namely that Christ should be extinguished.

[0756A]VERS. 2.-- *The kings stood up,* etc. This is said of the persecutors of the Lord, who are also commemorated in the Acts of the Apostles. But *they stood up* signifies not presence, but will.

VERS. 3.-- *Let us break asunder their bonds,* etc. Although it can be taken otherwise also, yet it is more fitly taken from the person of those whom he said had meditated vain things, so that this is *let us break asunder their bonds,* let us take pains that they bind us not, nor that the Christian religion be laid upon us. But *theirs,* either of God the Father and of his Christ, or of Christ and of the apostles.

VERS. 4.-- *He that dwelleth in the heavens,* etc. The sentence is repeated. For in place of that which is, *He that dwelleth in the heavens,* there is set afterwards: *the Lord.* In place of that which is, *shall laugh at them,* there is set afterwards, *shall deride them.* [0756B] None of these things ought to be understood carnally, as though God laughed with cheeks or derided with the nose; but that force is to be taken which he gives to his saints, that, discerning things to come, that is, the name of Christ and his dominion about to spread abroad among those who come after and to lay hold of all nations, they may understand that those men meditated vain things. For this force, by which those things were foreknown, is the laughter of God and the derision. But by the *heavens* we take holy souls, through whom, since they indeed foreknow what shall come to pass, God will deride and mock.

VERS. 5.-- *Then shall he speak,* etc. The *anger and fury* of God must be understood not as a perturbation of his; but as the force by which he most justly takes vengeance, all creation being subject to him for his ministry. Although the *anger of God* may rightly be understood also as that very darkening of the mind which [0756C] follows upon those who transgress the law of God.

VERS. 6.-- *But I am appointed,* etc. Some interpret Sion as *watching,* which we ought to take as the Church, where daily the intention of watching upon the charity of God is raised up. Which is also called a *mountain* because of its eminence and its firmness.

VERS. 7.-- *The Lord said to me,* etc. That day may seem to be spoken of in the prophecy on which Jesus Christ was born according to the man. Yet because *to-day* signifies a present, and in eternity there is neither anything past, as though it had ceased to be, nor future, as though it were not yet, *to-day* may also be understood, by a most sincere and Catholic faith, of the everlasting generation of the power and the wisdom of God, who is the only-begotten Son.

[0756D]VERS. 8.-- *Ask of me,* etc. Namely, that the nations may be joined to the Christian name, and so be redeemed from death, that they may be possessed by God.

VERS. 9.-- *Thou shalt rule them with a rod,* etc. *With a rod of iron,* in inflexible justice, crushing in them earthly desires and the miry businesses of the old man.

VERS. 10.-- *And now, ye kings,* etc. *And now,* that is, now made new: for they are signified as spiritual who *judge the earth:* for whatever we judge is beneath us: but whatever is beneath the spiritual man is deservedly named *earth.*

VERS. 11.-- *Serve ye the Lord,* etc. Most excellently is *rejoice* subjoined, lest that which was said, *serve,* should seem to avail unto misery. But again, lest that same thing should incline [0757A] into an outpouring of rashness, there is added, *with trembling,* that it might avail unto a circumspect wariness.

VERS.12.-- *Embrace ye discipline,* etc. To understand and to be instructed, this is *to embrace discipline.* But in that which is said, *embrace ye,* there is signified sufficiently that there is a certain defence and fortification against all the things which could hurt, unless it were embraced with so great care. But *to perish* from *the just way* is a great punishment, which is dreaded by those who have perceived something of the sweetness of justice.

VERS.13.-- *When his wrath shall be kindled in a short time,* etc. That is, when the vengeance shall come which is prepared for the ungodly and for sinners, it shall not only not touch those who *trust in the Lord,* but shall even profit them unto that blessedness where is the sum and the heaping up of all good things. But that [0757B] which is set down: *in a short time,* I judge to signify this, that it will be something sudden, when sinners reckon it remote and far off in time to come.

## ON PSALM III.

VERS. 1.-- *A psalm of David, when he fled from the face of his son Absalom.*

*David,* who is interpreted *strong of hand* or *desirable,* signifies our Lord Jesus Christ, whose voice is brought in in this psalm speaking of his passion and his resurrection. But *Absalom* signifies Judas the betrayer, or the persecuting people. For Judas also was still among the apostles when the Lord said: *The children of the bridegroom cannot fast, so long as the bridegroom is with them.* [var: Vulg. Mt 9:15 *lugere*, "to mourn"; "fast" is Mark's word at Mc 2:19] And of the people he says through Moses [0757C]: *A firstborn son among Israel.* [var: Vulg. Ex 4:22 *Filius meus primogenitus Israel*, "Israel is my firstborn son"] The Truth therefore fled the mind of Judas, or of the persecuting people, while it did not cease to enlighten them. Or, as the Gospel narrates: *These things Jesus spoke, and he went away and hid himself from them.* But whereas Absalom is interpreted *the Father's peace,* it is well understood that Christ showed peace to his betrayer, although that man was laid waste by the inward war of so wicked a thought: and toward the persecuting people he stood so appeased that he besought the Father for them, saying: *Father, pardon them, for they know not what they do.* [var: Vulg. Lc 23:34 *dimitte*, "forgive"]

VERS. 2.-- *Lord, why are they multiplied,* etc. So greatly, namely, *are they multiplied,* that even out of the number of the disciples there was not wanting one who joined the number of the persecutors.

VERS. 3.-- *Many say,* etc. It is manifest [0757D] that unless they had despaired of his rising again, they would certainly not have killed him. Therefore neither would Judas have betrayed him, unless he had been of the number of those who despised Christ, saying: *There is no salvation for him in his God.*

VERS. 4.-- *But thou, O Lord, art my protector,* etc. He too calls the Lord his *glory,* whom the Word of God so took up that together with him he became God. But *head* I think is here to be taken as the human mind itself, which so cleaved to, and in a manner grew together with, the excellent supereminence of the Word taking up the man, that in so great a lowliness of the passion it was not laid down.

These things can also be taken from the person of the Church. For in that man the Church also was taken up by the Word, which was made flesh and dwelt among us. Let therefore [0758A] the Church speak together with her head, set amid the storms of persecutions throughout the whole round of the earth: *Lord, why are they multiplied,* etc., her head being exalted, who as the firstborn from the dead ascended into heaven.

VERS. 5.-- *With my voice I have cried to the Lord,* etc. Not with the voice of the body, which is put forth with the noise of beaten air, but with the voice of the heart, which is silent to men, but sounds to God as a cry, when the soul alone, drawing nothing of the flesh and nothing of fleshly intentions into the prayer, speaks to the Lord where he alone hears. And this too is called a cry because of the force of the intention itself.

But he says that the Father heard him *from the mountain,* that is, from his own justice. For it was just that he should raise up [0758B] from the dead one slain though innocent, and to whom evils were repaid for good things, and should repay worthy things to his persecutors: For we read: *Thy justice is as the mountains of God.* But the Church also is heard from that same mountain, which is likewise her head, of which the Prophet says: *The mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of mountains.*

VERS. 6.-- *I have slept,* etc. Not unfittingly may *I* be noted, to signify that of his own will he underwent death, according to that: *Therefore doth the Father love me, because I lay down my life, and I shall take it again: no man shall take it away from myself.* And it is well taken: *I have slept and have taken my rest:* I gave myself over to the passion, and death followed. To the people of the Church also it is said: *Rise, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall touch thee,* [var: Vulg. Eph 5:14 *illuminabit te Christus*, "Christ shall enlighten thee"] because he was taken up from among sinners. *I will not fear [0758C] thousands,* etc. It is not to a God sleeping, not to a God lying down, that it is said, *arise:* but it is the manner of the divine Scriptures to attribute to the person of God what he works in us, not indeed everywhere, but where it can fittingly be said: or that he himself be said to speak, when by his gift the several messengers of truth speak.

VERS. 7.-- *For thou hast struck all them,* etc. They are broken, that is, brought to nothing, the words of sinners tearing and cursing the Son of God. The *teeth of sinners* can also be taken as the princes of sinners, by whose authority a man is now cut off from the fellowship of those living rightly, and as it were incorporated with those living ill.

VERS. 8.-- *O Lord, there is salvation,* etc. [var: Vulg. Ps 3:9 *Domini est salus*, "salvation is the Lord's"] Let no man therefore presume of himself, since it is the Lord's to save from [0758D] the death of sin. But do thou, O Lord, bless thy people, that hopeth in thee for salvation.

## ON PSALM IV.

VERS. 2.-- *When I called upon him he heard me,* etc. *O God of my justice,* from whom is my justice, thou hast led me from the straits of sadness into the breadth of joys: *For tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that worketh evil.* But he who says: *We rejoice in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience trial, and trial hope; and hope confoundeth not, because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us,* [var: Vulg. Rom 5:3 *gloriamur*, "we glory"] has no straits of the heart, [0759A] although from without they are heaped upon him by persecutors. But this voice is either of the Lord Jesus Christ after his resurrection: or of the Church believing and hoping in him: *Have mercy on me and hear,* etc. The devoted mother says that mercy is to be had upon herself, if for her sons the prayer be heard, since whatever is granted to the members is without doubt bestowed upon the whole body.

VERS. 3.-- *Ye sons of men,* etc. At the least *until* the coming of the Son of God will your error have lasted: why then are you further *heavy of heart?* When will you have an end of deceits, if you have not the presence of the truth? For since the truth alone, out of which all things are true, makes men blessed, why are you detained by the love of temporal things, why do you follow after the last things as though they were the first, which is vanity and a lie? For you desire that to abide [0759B] with you which all passes away as a shadow.

VERS. 4.-- *And know ye that,* etc. Whom, save him whom he raised up from the dead below and set in heaven at his right hand? The human race therefore is rebuked, that they may at length turn themselves to him from the love of this world; and that, as they rejoice over the illumination in this life, so they may know that they must pray for rest after this life.

VERS. 5.-- *Be ye angry and do not,* etc. It can be understood in two ways. Either: Even if *ye are angry, sin not,* that is, even if there arises a motion of the soul which now, because of the punishment of sin, is not in one's power, at least let not reason and the mind consent to it, which within has been regenerated [0759C] according to God, so that with the mind we may serve the law of God, if with the flesh we still serve the law of sin. Or: Do penance, that is, *be angry* with your own selves for past sins, and cease to sin further.

And that which follows: *which you say in your hearts,* is a full sentence: what you say in your hearts, say ye, that is, be not the people of which it was said: *With the lips they honour me, but their heart is far from me. Chambers*, moreover, are the hearts themselves, of which the Lord also warns us that we pray within, the doors being shut. [var: Vulg. Ps 4:5 *in cubilibus vestris*, "in your couches"]

VERS. 6.-- *Sacrifice ye the sacrifice,* etc. He says the same in another psalm: *A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit.* Wherefore it is not absurdly taken here that this is the *sacrifice of justice* which is made through penance. For what is more just than that each man should be angry rather at his own sins [0759D] than at another's, and, punishing himself, should slay himself to God? Or else the *sacrifice of justice* is just works after penance.

But *many* are foolish, who doubt or despair of that very life to come which is promised to us, who often say: *Who knoweth whether these things be true, or who hath come back from the dead below to bring word of them?*

VERS. 7.-- *It is signed upon us,* etc. This light is the whole and true good of man, which is beheld not with the eyes but with the mind. But he said it was *signed* in us, as a penny is signed with the image of the king. For man was made to the likeness and image of God, which by sinning he corrupted. His good therefore is true and eternal, if by being born again he be signed. Therefore it is not [0760A] without that *gladness* is to be sought, but within, where the light of the countenance of God is signed.

VERS. 8.-- *By the fruit of their corn,* etc. It is not idle that *their own* is added; for there is a *corn and wine and oil* of God also. But these men, given over to temporal pleasures, ever burn with desires and cannot be satisfied: and, stretched out with manifold and toilsome thinking, they are not suffered to see the simple good. The faithful man therefore rejoices and says:

VERS. 9.-- *In peace in the selfsame,* etc. For rightly is there hoped for by such men an utter estrangement of the mind from mortal things, and a forgetting of the miseries of this world, which is fittingly and prophetically signified by the name of falling asleep and of sleep, where the highest peace can be broken in upon by no tumult. But this [0760B] is to be hoped for after this life. Wherefore he fitly adds the last thing, and says:

VERS. 10.-- *For thou, O Lord, singularly,* etc. Well does he say, *singularly:* for it can be referred against those many who, multiplied by the fruit of their corn, of their wine and of their oil, say: *Who sheweth us good things?* For this manifoldness perishes, and *singularly* is it held in the saints, of whom it is said: *And of the multitude of believers there was one soul and heart.* [var: Vulg. Act 4:32 *cor unum et anima una*, "one heart and one soul"]

## ON PSALM V.

VERS. 1.-- *Unto the end, for her that obtaineth the truth, a psalm of David.* [var: Vulg. Ps 5:1 *pro ea quae haereditatem consequitur*, "for her that obtaineth the inheritance"] The Church is understood, which receives the inheritance unto life everlasting through our Lord Jesus Christ, that she may possess God himself, [0760C] cleaving to whom she may be blessed, according to that: *The Lord is the portion of my inheritance.* Wherefore it is the voice of the Church called unto the inheritance, and that she herself may become the inheritance of God.

VERS. 2.-- *Give ear to my words,* etc. Well does he show what that *cry* is: since indeed the voice of the body is heard, but the spiritual voice is understood.

VERS. 3.-- *Hearken to the voice,* etc. The Scriptures are wont to call the Son a king. According to that therefore which was said: *Through me is the going to the Father,* assuredly first *my king,* and then *my God.*

VERS. 4, 5.-- *For to thee will I pray, O Lord,* etc. *In the morning I will stand before thee,* etc. Thou art not, he says, such a one as could be seen by those from whose eyes the night of sins has not yet departed. My night of error being ended, and the [0760D] darkness departing which by my sins I made for myself, *thou wilt hear my voice.*

But *I will stand,* what is it but: I will not lie down? And to lie down is to rest upon the earth, which is to seek blessedness from earthly pleasures. We must not therefore cleave to earthly things, if we wish to see God, who is beheld by the pure.

VERS. 6.-- *Neither shall he dwell,* etc. That is, they shall not so see him as to cleave to him, because their mind is beaten back by the light of truth on account of the darkness of sins, by the habit of which they cannot bear the brightness of right understanding.

VERS. 7.-- *Thou hatest all them that work,* etc. He hates those whom he does not suffer to abide in himself: and they do not abide [0761A] who have not strength to bear him. But *a lie* is contrary to truth. Yet lest any man think that some substance or nature is contrary to truth, let him understand that a lie pertains to that which is not, not to that which is. For if that is said which is, the truth is said: but if that is said which is not, it is a lie. Therefore he begins: *Thou wilt destroy them that speak a lie,* because, departing from that which is, they turn aside to that which is not.

*The bloody and deceitful man,* etc. Understand *the bloody man* as him that worketh iniquity, [cj: *operantur*; read *operantem*, "him that worketh"] and *the deceitful* as him that loveth a lie. But the *abominated* are wont to be called the disinherited. And this psalm is *for her that obtaineth the inheritance,* who subjoins the exultation of her hope, saying:

[0761B]VERS. 8.-- *I will go into the house,* etc. *I will go into thy house:* it is said, I believe, as a stone into a building. For what else is the house of God than the temple of God, of which it is said: *For the temple of God is holy, which you are.* Of which building the corner-stone is he whom the power co-eternal with the Father, and the wisdom of God, took up.

But it must be considered that he did not say: *in the temple,* but: *to the temple:* for the holy temple is the body of the Lord and Saviour, which the Church rightly adores: of which he himself said: *Destroy this temple.* And he adds: *in thy fear,* which is a great safeguard to those going forward unto salvation.

VERS. 9.-- *O Lord, lead me,* etc. Nothing is more manifest than that he commends that time in which he advances: [0761C] for this is the journey which is accomplished not by places of the earth, but by the affections of the mind. *In thy sight,* he says, *my way,* according to that which is said also in the Lord's prayer: *Hallowed be thy name;* not that it should be hallowed for us who pray, which is holy of itself; but that we may ask that what is holy by its own nature be hallowed in us also. Therefore now also the Prophet asks that the way of God, which is right of itself, may be made right for himself too.

VERS. 10.-- *For there is no truth in their mouth,* etc. How can truth be in the mouth of those whose heart is deceived concerning sin and the punishment of sin?

VERS. 11.-- *A sepulchre,* etc. Flatterers and heretics are called *open sepulchres,* because, since they themselves are dead by not having the life of truth, into themselves [0761D] they receive the dead, whom they slay with lying words. But in that he says: *Judge them, O God,* he does not wish that it may come to pass, but discerns what is to come.

*Let them fall away,* etc. *Let them fall away,* their own thoughts accusing them, their own conscience: and because they are greatly ungodly, drive them far away from that inheritance which is possessed by understanding and seeing God.

VERS. 12.-- *And let them be glad,* etc. He himself therefore will be the everlasting exultation, as the just become the temple of God.

*And they shall glory,* etc. This is the blessing: to glory in God and to be inhabited by God.

VERS. 13.-- *O Lord, as with a shield of thy good will,* etc. The good will of God goes before our will, that he may call sinners to repentance. And these are the arms [0762A] by which the enemy is stormed, against whom it is said: *Who shall accuse against the elect of God?* And again: *For if, when as yet we were enemies, Christ died for us, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved from wrath through him.* This most unconquerable shield, by which the enemy is driven away, suggesting despair of salvation by the multitude of tribulations and of temptations.

## ON PSALM VI.

VERS. 1.-- *Unto the end, in songs, for the octave, a psalm of David.* The day of judgment can be understood as the eighth, in that eternal life is now received after the end of this world. Then the souls of the just will not be subject to times. And since all times are rolled round by the repetition of the seven days of the just, that day is perhaps said [0762B] to be the eighth which will not have this variety, which, rendering to merits what is owed, carries the saints over into eternal life, but condemns the ungodly everlastingly. Fearing which condemnation, the Church prays, saying:

VERS. 2.-- *Lord, not in thy fury,* etc. In the day of judgment *they are rebuked,* that is, accused, all who have not the foundation, which is Christ. But *they are chastised,* that is, purged, who build upon this foundation wood, hay, stubble, and yet shall be saved, so as by fire. But this man prays that in the Lord's anger he may neither be condemned nor amended, but be so perfectly healed here that he may not only not fear death, but may not even have to bear the hand of the physician that burns or cuts. And so he goes on and says:

VERS. 3.-- *Have mercy on me, O God,* etc. [var: Vulg. Ps 6:3 *Miserere mei, Domine*, "Have mercy on me, O Lord"] That is the firmness [0762C] of the soul, or its strength: for this is what *bones* signify. Wherefore what is subjoined belongs to the exposition:

VERS. 4.-- *And my soul,* etc. Who would not understand a soul struggling with her own diseases, but long put off by the physician, so that she might be convinced into what evils she had flung herself by sinning? For what is easily healed is not much guarded against. But out of the difficulty of the healing there will be a more diligent keeping of the health recovered.

VERS. 5.-- *Turn, O Lord,* etc. Turning himself, he prays that God also may turn to him, as it is said: *Turn ye to me, and I will turn to you, saith the Lord.*

VERS. 6.-- *For there is not,* etc. He understands that now is the time of conversion, because, when this life has passed, [0762D] nothing remains but the recompense of merits. That too can be understood in this way, that by *death* he means the sin which is committed when the law of God is despised. In which death, that is, to be unmindful of God, to despise the law and the commandments, so that by *hell* he has meant the blindness of mind which receives the sinner, that is, the dying man, and wraps him about. From that death and from that hell the soul beseeches that she be kept safe, while she labours at conversion to the Lord and feels the difficulties. Wherefore she weaves on, saying:

VERS. 7.-- *I have laboured,* etc. *A bed* is in this place the name given to that in which a sick and feeble mind takes its rest, that is, in the pleasure of the body and in every worldly delight, and he *washes it with tears* who strives to drag himself [0763A] out of it, and is forced to suffer, as it were, days and nights by an alternating affection: so that, when he says: *with the mind I serve the law of God,* he feels as it were day: again when he says: *but with the flesh the law of sin,* he is bent down into night, until all night pass and one day come, of which it is said: *in the morning I will stand before thee.* And this *couch* we take to be the same as the bed: although *I will water* is something more than *I will wash:* since a thing can be washed on the surface, whereas watering reaches to the inward parts, which signifies weeping that goes to the innermost places of the heart.

VERS. 8.-- *It is troubled,* etc. Because of the Lord's anger he professes that the *eye* of his heart is *troubled.* For what is more to be dreaded than that he should be angry who, if he does not have mercy, destroys? And as to what he subjoins, *I have grown old among all my enemies,* he has found himself hedged about with all [0763B] the vices, which, since they are of the old life and of the old man, of whom we are to be stripped that we may be clothed with the new, it is rightly said: *I have grown old.* But by *in all my enemies* he means either among the vices themselves, or among men who will not be converted to God. For these too, even if they know it not, even if they spare, are nevertheless by their contrary purpose enemies to those who turn themselves to God. But because that cannot be void which is so vehemently asked of him who is the fountain of all mercies, and since it is most truly said: *the Lord is nigh to them that are of a bruised heart,* the devout soul, signifying that after such great difficulties she has been heard (and it is allowed to understand the Church also by her), see what she adds:

VERS. 9.-- *Depart from me,* etc. Either it is said in prophecy: *For they shall depart,* that is, the ungodly shall be separated [0763C] from the just when the day of judgment shall have come: or now, because, even though they are held together alike and in the same little assemblies; yet on the bare threshing-floor the grains are already separated from the chaff, although they lie hidden among the chaff.

*The Lord hath heard,* etc. The frequent repetition of the same sentence shows not the necessity of one narrating, but the affection of one exulting.

VERS. 10.-- *Let them be ashamed,* etc. This shall be fulfilled in that day, when the rewards of the just and the punishments of sinners shall have been made manifest. For the ungodly are so far from being ashamed that they do not cease to insult us.

Although this too can be taken here, that now, because God has heard her groaning and so often and so long weeping, she is understood, being set free from her sins, to pray even for her enemies, that they may do penance for their sins [0763D] (which cannot be done without confusion and disturbance) and be converted to the Lord, and be ashamed that they gloried in the former darkness of their sins. But what he adds: *very speedily,* is to be referred either to the affection of one desiring, or to the power of Christ, who converted the nations that were persecuting the Church for their idols to the faith of the Gospel with so great a swiftness of times.

## ON PSALM VII.

*Chusi* is interpreted Ethiopian, it signifies the devil, or Judas the traitor, or the people of the Jews, who after receiving blessedness were turned to the blackness of sins. Who is also written *son of Jemini,* that is: son of the right hand; who, although they fell by their own fault, [0764A] were nevertheless created good by God in their nature: for these conspired with one consent against Christ and the Church in persecution.

VERS. 1, 2.-- *O Lord my God, in thee have I hoped,* etc. *Lest at any time he seize,* etc. The Apostle says: *Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour.* And so, when he had spoken in the plural number: *save me from all them that persecute me,* he afterwards brought in the singular, saying: *lest at any time he seize my soul as a lion.* For he does not say: *lest at any time they seize;* as though to one already perfect none resists but the envious devil, every war and hostility of the vices being overcome. But what he subjoins: *while there is none to redeem,* is to be understood thus, lest he seize, while thou dost not redeem nor save.

[0764B]VERS. 4.-- *O Lord my God,* etc. What he says: *if he hath done this,* [var: Vulg. Ps 7:4 *si feci*, "if I have done"] he sets out below what it is, when he says: *if there be iniquity in my hands.*

VERS. 5.-- *If I have rendered,* etc. He does not say: *if I have rendered to them that do,* but *to them that repaid me evils.* For he who repays had already received something. But it is of greater patience not even to pay back evils to him who, having received benefits, rendered evils for us, than if, no benefit having been received, he had wished to do harm. And he well added: *let me deservedly fall away empty before my enemies.* For he boasts himself emptily who, being himself a man, desires to avenge himself upon a man: and while he openly seeks to overcome a man, he is secretly overcome by the devil, made *empty* by a vain and proud gladness, in that he could not, as it were, be conquered. Understanding these things therefore, where the greater victory comes to be, [0764C] he conquers anger rather than a man.

VERS. 6.-- *Let the enemy pursue,* etc. He names *enemy* him whom above he called *a lion:* for he it is that pursues the soul, and if he has deceived it, he lays hold of it, and by trampling makes its life *earth,* namely his own food. For he was called not only a lion, but also a serpent, to whom it was said: *thou shalt eat earth.* [var: Vulg. Gn 3:14 *terram comedes*, "thou shalt eat earth"] His glory also he *brings down into the dust,* which the wind casts forth from the face of the earth, which is vain and foolish boasting, like a ball of dust lifted by the wind.

VERS. 7.-- *Arise, O Lord,* etc. He prays these things not against men, but against the devil and his angels, whose possession sinners and ungodly men are, to whom it is a punishment when this possession is taken away [0764D] from them, in which they desire to have dominion. This punishment he calls the *anger* of God against the devil, that he may cease to possess what he possesses. Which possession he called *the borders,* where he wills God rather to be *exalted,* that is, honoured and glorified, than the devil, while the ungodly are justified and pass over into the temple of God.

*Arise, O Lord my God,* etc. Because thou hast commanded humility, appear humble, and do thou first fulfil what thou hast commanded, that they who by thy example overcome pride may not be possessed by the devil.

But the *congregation* of *peoples,* that is, the multitude of them that believe through his humility, so *surrounded* him that it was most truly said: *Blindness in part has happened in Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in.*

[0765A]VERS. 8.-- *And for this,* etc. That is, for the sake of this congregation return on high, which he is understood to have done by rising again and by ascending into heaven. And he well continues:

VERS. 9.-- *The Lord judgeth the peoples,* etc. Because from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. Wherefore this soul, which prays perfectly, see how she does not fear the day of judgment, and truly says with desire in her prayer:

*Judge me, O Lord,* etc. That is true innocence which hurts not even an enemy. And so he rightly asks to be judged *according to the innocence* that is his own, who could truly say: *if I have rendered to them that repaid me evils.* But what he added: *upon me,* shows this very thing, that the soul is just: And I say, if a burning and shining lamp should say: [0765B] Judge me according to the flame which is upon me: that is, not according to what I myself am, but according to that whereby I shine, kindled from thee.

VERS. 10.-- *Let wickedness be consummated,* etc. [var: Vulg. Ps 7:10 *Consumetur nequitia peccatorum*, "the wickedness of sinners shall be consumed"] *Let it be consummated,* he says, let it be brought to completion, that is, let it come through to the height of wickedness, that this judgment may now be able to come. But since it was said not only to the filthy: *let him be filthy* still; but also: *let the just become more just,* [var: Vulg. Apc 22:11 *qui justus est, justificetur adhuc*, "he that is just, let him be justified still"] he links on and says: *thou shalt direct the just, searching the hearts and reins, O God.* How then is the just man *directed* amid so great a confusion of dissembling, unless while God searches the hearts and reins, seeing the thoughts of all, which are signified by the name of *the heart,* and the delights, which are understood by the name of *the reins*? *Searching* therefore our *heart,* and looking forward, that we do not acquiesce in flesh and blood, [0765C] but are delighted in the Lord, he *directs the just* in the conscience itself before himself, where no man sees, but he alone who looks upon what each one thinks and what delights each one.

VERS. 11.-- *Just help,* etc. *Just aid* is that which is bestowed on one already just. For if he furnishes the medicine by which we are healed when sick, how much more that by which we may be guarded when whole: *for if, when we were as yet sinners, Christ died for us, how much more, being now justified, shall we be saved from wrath through him.* So it comes to pass that God, searching the hearts and reins, and seeing in the heart right thoughts, in the reins no lower delights, affords *just aid* to the right of heart, where to clean thoughts the delights of heaven are joined.

[0765D]VERS. 12.-- *God is a just judge,* etc. *Just,* who renders to every one according to his works: *strong,* who, being most mighty, yet bore with ungodly persecutors for our salvation: *patient,* who did not snatch away to punishment those very men who persecuted him immediately after the resurrection, but bore with them, that they might at some time turn themselves from that ungodliness to salvation. He is not *angry every day,* because he still bears with them, keeping the last punishment for the last judgment.

VERS. 13, 14.-- *Except ye be converted,* etc. *And in it he hath prepared,* etc. Coming at his second advent to judge the living and the dead, the *just Judge* in the manifest splendour of his brightness shall flash out light for his just ones and terrors for the ungodly. But by *the bow* he means the holy Scriptures, where [0766A] by the strength of the New Testament, as by a kind of string, the hardness of the Old has been bent and tamed. Hence the apostles are sent forth as *arrows,* or the divine proclamations are hurled. Which arrows *he hath made ready for them that burn,* that they who were struck by them might blaze with divine love. But by *vessels* *of death, either* heretics are understood, who out of the same bow, that is, out of the same scriptures, leap upon souls not to be inflamed with charity but to be destroyed with poisons: which does not happen save according to merits: and for this reason this disposition too must be ascribed to the divine Providence. [cj: *Providentia*; read *Providentiae*, "to the Providence"] *Or* the same apostles, because *to some* they are *an odour of life unto life, to others an odour of death unto death.*

VERS. 15.-- *Behold he hath been in labour,* etc. Every wicked man *hath conceived sorrow* while he lusts after something unlawful: *he travails with injustice* when by desiring he broods upon it: [0766B] *he bringeth forth iniquity;* because *sin, when it is completed, begetteth death.*

VERS. 16.-- *He hath opened a pit,* etc. This is what is said in another Psalm: *the sinner hath been caught in the works of his own hands.*

VERS. 17.-- *His sorrow shall be turned,* etc. Rightly shall his iniquity be upon himself, since he has of his own accord put himself under his own iniquity: as is also said in another Psalm: *my iniquities are gone over my head; as a heavy burden, they are become heavy upon me.*

VERS. 18.-- *I will confess to the Lord,* etc. This is not a confession of sins, but of the justice of God, thus we speak: Thou art the true just one, O Lord, when thou both so protectest the just that thou enlightenest them by thyself: and so orderest sinners that they are punished not by thy malice, but by their own.

[0766C]This psalm too can be understood in the person of the Lord's manhood, if only those things which are there humbly said be referred to our infirmity, which he bore.

## ON PSALM VIII.

*Winepresses* we may take to be the Churches, by the same reasoning by which we also understand the threshing-floor to be the Church: because whether on the threshing-floor or in the winepress nothing else is done but that the fruits be purged of those defilements which were needful both that they might come to birth, and that they might grow, and might reach the ripeness either of the harvest or of the vintage, as is now done, that the good be for the time separated from the bad not by place, but by affection: although they dwell together in the Churches, so far as bodily presence is concerned. But there will be another time, [0766D] in which either the grains are set apart into the barns, or the wines into the cellars.

*Winepresses* are wont to be taken also as martyrdoms, since those who confessed the name of Christ were trodden by the affliction of persecutions, so that their mortal parts remained on the earth like grape-skins: but their souls flowed forth into the rest of the heavenly habitation. The divine Word too can be understood as a grape, when by the necessity of utterance it takes to itself the sound of the voice, whereby it may come through to the ears of the hearers. By the same sound of the voice, as by grape-skins, the understanding is enclosed as wine: and so that grape comes into the ears, as it were into the treading-place of the winepresses. But there a distinction is made, so that the sound avails as far as the ears, while the understanding is received by the memory of those [0767A] who hear, as in a kind of place, and passes thence into the discipline of manners and the habit of the mind, as from the vat into the cellars, in which, if negligence has not soured it, it will be made firm by age. For it soured in the Jews, and with this vinegar they gave the Lord to drink.

VERS. 2.-- *O Lord, our Lord,* etc. As if he were saying openly: *O Lord,* who art *our Lord,* how do all that dwell in the earth admire thee, because thy magnificence has been lifted above the heavens out of earthly lowliness! For hence it appeared that thou hadst come down, when thou wast seen by some, and by the rest it was believed that thou hadst ascended.

VERS. 3.-- *Out of the mouth of infants,* etc. *Infants* and *sucklings* can be taken to be those to whom the Apostle says: *As unto little ones in Christ, I gave you milk to drink, [0767B] not meat.* Which those men signified who went before the Lord praising him, in whom the Lord himself used this testimony. But by *enemies* of this dispensation, which was wrought through Christ Jesus, and him crucified, we ought generally to understand all who forbid yielding to things unknown [cj: *cedere*; read *credere*, "to believe"], and promise a certain knowledge, as all heretics do, and those who in the superstition of the Gentiles are named philosophers. But the devil, the fiercest enemy, can also be understood as *the avenger;* for to him sinners are delivered unto the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. But he also possesses for ever all who have not been snatched by divine grace out of his jaws.

VERS. 4.-- *For I shall see the heavens,* etc. *I shall see,* [0767C] he says, *the heavens, the works of thy fingers:* that is, I shall discern and understand the Scriptures, which thou hast written down through thy ministers, the Holy Spirit working, who is called the finger of God.

Thus therefore the enemy is destroyed, when the Scriptures preached are understood even down to the slowness of infants. But *the moon* and *the stars* are founded in the heavens: because both the universal Church, in the signifying of which the moon is often set down, and, place by place, the several Churches, which I judge to be intimated by the name of *the stars,* have been set in those same scriptures, which we believe to be set down under the name of the heavens.

VERS. 5.-- *What is man,* etc. It can be asked what difference there is between *men and the son of man.* For if there were no difference, it would not be set down thus: *or the son of man,* by [0767D] disjunction. For every son of man is a man, although not every man can be understood as the Son of man. Adam indeed was a man, but not a son of man. But Christ is both man and Son of man. He therefore is called *man* who bears the image of the earthly man. Of him God is *mindful* as of one absent. But *the Son* of *man,* who bears the image of the heavenly, he *visits* as one present: and this in the assumption of humanity, God the Word. Whence follows:

VERS. 6.-- *Thou hast lessened him,* etc. For we have heard and we believe that he was made a little less than the angels through the lowliness of fleshly generation and of the passion. Which is read more magnificently in the Hebrew: *Thou shalt lessen him a little less than God:* where he is both plainly shown equal to the Father according to [0768A] the divinity, and is declared to be about to be less than the Father according to the humanity.

VERS. 7.-- *Thou hast subjected all things,* etc. He excepts nothing when he says *all things.* And that it might not be permitted to understand it otherwise, the Apostle thus bids it be believed, when he says: *Except him who subjected all things to him.* Nor yet does he seem to be adding anything great when he says: *Sheep and oxen,* etc., unless we understand by *sheep and oxen* holy souls, either giving the fruit of innocence, or also labouring that the earth may bear fruit, that is, that earthly men may be born again to spiritual richness. These holy souls therefore must be taken to be not of men only, but of angels also, from this, that the Lord says that he left *ninety-nine sheep in the mountains,* that is, in the higher places, and came down for the sake of one. For concerning *the oxen* [0768B] the way out is easy, since men themselves are called *oxen* for no other reason than that by preaching the word of God they imitate the angels. But by *the beasts* of *the field* are most fittingly understood men rejoicing in the pleasures of the flesh, where they climb nothing steep, nothing laborious. For *the field* is the broad way which leads to destruction.

VERS. 8.-- *The birds of the air,* etc. See now also as *the birds of the air* the proud, of whom it is said: *they have set their mouth against heaven:* see how high they are borne by the wind, who say: *We will magnify our tongue, our lips are our own, who is our Lord?* Behold also as *the fishes of the sea* the curious, *who walk through the paths of the sea,* that is, they search out in the deep of this world the things of time, which, like paths in the sea, grow worthless [0768C] and perish. But he said *they walk through,* showing the most obstinate zeal of those who seek after empty and fleeting things.

VERS. 10.-- *O Lord, our Lord,* etc. Fittingly, after the texture of the discourse, there is a return to the head, to which the same discourse, now threshed out, is to be referred.

## ON PSALM IX.

*Concerning the hidden things of the son* it can be asked. But since he did not add whose, we must understand the only-begotten Son of God himself. For the Lord himself also, when he sets down the Son without any addition, wills himself, the Only-begotten, to be understood, as in that place where he says: *If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.* But what the *hidden things of the son* are, the edition translated from the Hebrew plainly shows, which says: *To the conqueror upon the death [0768D] of the son.* Wherefore in this psalm the *hidden things of the son* are to be observed, that is, his lowly coming, whereby he profited the Gentiles together with the blindness of the Jews, and the punishment which is now carried on *hiddenly,* not yet by the condemnation of sinners, but either by the exercising of the converted, or by admonition that they may be converted, or by blindness, that they who have refused to be converted may be made ready for condemnation. For that too which is written in the title: *unto the end, for the hidden things of the son,* and what the translation from the Hebrew mentioned above sets down, *to the conqueror for the death of the son,* agrees most fittingly beyond doubt with those things of which Christ is the author, who said: *Be of good heart, I have overcome the world,* when he triumphed alike over death and over hell. He is also *the end,* that is, the fulfilment of the law, as he says: *I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil.* [0769A] Since indeed he shall bear away the victory over the world, he is the end of the good things to come.

VERS. 2.-- *I will confess to thee, O Lord,* etc. *He confesseth not with his whole heart* to God who doubts in anything concerning his providence. But *he telleth* moreover *all the wonders* of God, because he sees them wrought not only openly in bodies, but also in souls, invisibly indeed, yet far more sublimely and excellently.

VERS. 3.-- *I will be glad and rejoice,* etc. Not in this world, where gladness is death-bearing, not in the ambitions of the world, where bitter sins are sweet, but *in thee,* where secure joy always takes increase.

But *I will tell* moreover *all thy wonders* can be understood chiefly in the person of Christ, who says to his disciples: *All things whatsoever I have heard of my Father I have made known to you:* [0769B] since indeed the person of the Lord speaking in this psalm now begins to appear. For there follows:

VERS. 4.-- *In the turning,* etc. For his enemy was turned backward when it was said to him: *Go back behind, Satan.* For then he who by tempting desired to set himself before him was made to be behind, availing nothing against him. And no one of men goes before him and makes him to be behind, save he who, laying aside the image of the earthly man, shall have borne the image of the heavenly, that is, *forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching himself forth to those things that are before.* For it will not be absurd to take what is said: *My enemy,* generally, as the Hebrew edition teaches, which, after it has said: *I will sing to thy name, O Most High,* immediately brings in: *When my enemies shall have fallen backward, and have been overthrown, and have perished before [0769C] thy face.* Why?

VERS. 5.-- *For thou hast made judgment,* etc. That is, that judgment in which I was seen to be judged thou hast made *mine,* and that *cause,* in which men condemned me being just and innocent, thou hast made *mine.* For these things served him for our deliverance: as sailors call the wind their own which they use for sailing well.

VERS. 6.-- *Thou hast rebuked the nations,* etc. We take this to be more fittingly said to the Lord Jesus Christ than said by him. For who else *rebuked the nations, and the ungodly one perished,* but he who, after he ascended into heaven, sent the Holy Spirit, filled with whom the apostles preached the word of God with confidence, and freely reproved the sins of men? By which rebuke *the ungodly one perished,* because he was [0769D] justified. *And the name* of the ungodly *was blotted out.* For they are not called ungodly who believe in the true Lord.

VERS. 7.-- *The enemy's swords have failed,* etc. Whose enemy's, but the devil's, *swords have failed,* which are understood to be the divers opinions of error, wherewith he as with swords destroys souls? But *unto the end,* that is, in Christ, who *destroyed his cities,* when he shut out thence the prince, of whom it is said: *The prince of this world was sent forth.* [var: Vulg. Jo 12:31 *princeps hujus mundi ejicietur foras*, "the prince of this world shall be cast out"]

*Their memory hath perished,* etc. Either because a noise is made when ungodliness is overthrown, or also because the very noise perishes in which ungodliness makes its tumult.

VERS. 8.-- *He hath prepared his throne in judgment,* etc. Because he shall come also openly and manifestly to judge the living and [0770A] the dead, he has prepared in secret *his seat in judgment.*

VERS. 9.-- *And he* likewise openly *shall judge the world in equity.* That is, restoring things worthy to merits.

VERS. 10.-- *And the Lord is become a refuge for the poor,* etc. What *a helper in due times* is, he set forth when he added: *in tribulation.* For the soul is not converted to the Lord, save when it is turned away from this world. Nor is one seasonably turned away from this world, unless labours and sorrows be mingled with its trifling and hurtful and destructive pleasures.

VERS. 11.-- *And let them hope in thee,* etc. For the soul that seeks where to fix her hope, when she is torn away from this world, is seasonably received by the *knowledge of the name* of God: for the very name of God has been published abroad everywhere, [0770B] but there is *knowledge of the name* when he is known whose the name is.

VERS. 12.-- *Play ye to the Lord,* etc. It is said to those whom, seeking him, the Lord does not forsake. He himself *dwelleth in Sion,* which is interpreted *watching,* and bears the image of the Church which now is, and to which it was said: *The temple of the Lord is holy, which you are.* [var: Vulg. 1Cor 3:17 *Templum enim Dei sanctum est*, "for the temple of God is holy"]

VERS. 13.-- *For requiring,* etc. As though answer were made by those who were sent to preach among the nations the zeal of God, and it were said: *Lord, who hath believed our report?* And: *For thy sake we are put to death all the day long.* Or, as though someone more unskilled and of lesser faith should ask, saying: how shall it be announced, when the unbelief of the nations is about to rage? there fittingly follows, saying: that Christians will die not without a great fruit of eternity [0770C] in persecution, *for requiring their blood he hath remembered.*

VERS. 14.-- *Have mercy on me, O Lord,* etc. One intercedes for the saints, who first was made poor for us when he was rich, though above he had spoken in the plural number: *He hath not forgotten the cry of the poor.* And he himself says:

VERS. 15.-- *Thou that liftest me up,* etc. For in him each one of us among his members *is lifted up* from all depraved desires, which are *the gates of death,* because through them men go into death. But *the gates of the daughter of Sion* are all the best pursuits, through which men come to the vision of peace. In the holy Church *the gates* also *of the daughter of Sion* are the sacraments and the beginnings of faith.

VERS. 16.-- *I will rejoice in thy salvation,* etc. *I will rejoice,* [0770D] that is, I shall be held in blessedness by *thy salvation,* which is our Lord Jesus Christ, the power and the wisdom of God. Then it must be observed how punishment is kept for the sinner out of his own works.

*In that snare,* etc. The hidden *snare* is a deceitful thought: *the foot* of the soul is rightly understood to be love, which, when it is depraved, is called desire or lust: but when it is right, love or charity. In a fraudulent counsel therefore *their foot was caught,* when with love it came through fraud to a vain gladness.

VERS. 17.-- *The Lord shall be known,* etc. These are the *judgments* of God, when he renders to every one according to his own work.

VERS. 18.-- *Let sinners be turned,* etc. That is, [0771A] let them be given into their own hands, when they are spared, and let them be ensnared by a death-bearing delight.

VERS. 19.-- *For the forgetting shall not be unto the end,* etc. They are called *the poor* who now seem to be as it were in forgetfulness: when the wicked flourish, and those men are troubled. But their *patience,* wherewith they now bear with the wicked, *shall not perish,* but shall be rewarded unto the end.

VERS. 20.-- *Arise, O Lord, let not man be strengthened,* etc. The judgment to come is implored: and what he says: *in thy sight,* signifies, in secret before God, few holy and just men understanding it.

VERS. 21.-- *Appoint, O Lord,* etc. He seems to signify Antichrist, of whom the Apostle says: *When the man of sin shall be revealed,* so that they who will not be set free by the Son of God, and belong to the Son of man, [cj: *Filium homines*; read *Filium hominis*, "the Son of man"] and be sons of men, [0771B] that is, new men, may serve a man, that is, the old sinful man, *for they are men.* And because he is believed to be about to come to so great a height of empty glory, and so much will be permitted him to do against all men and against the saints of God, that then in truth not a few of the weak will judge that God neglects human affairs: he subjoins as it were with the voice of those groaning and complaining why the judgment is deferred.

VERS. 22.-- *Why, O Lord, hast thou retired,* etc. That is, thou despisest things seasonable, and makest tribulations to inflame minds with desire of thy coming. For that fountain of life is the more delightful to those who thirst much. And so he intimates the reason of the delay, saying:

VERS. 23.-- *Whilst the ungodly man is proud,* etc. It is wonderful and true with how great zeal the little ones of good hope are kindled [0771C] to live rightly, by comparison with sinners: by which mystery it comes about that heresies too are permitted to be, that the approved, who are known to God, may be made manifest among men. *Let them be caught,* however, the ungodly, *in the counsels,* [var: Vulg. Ps 9:23 *comprehenduntur*, "they are caught"] because their thoughts become bonds to them. But why?

VERS. 24.-- *For the sinner is praised,* etc. The tongues of flatterers bind souls fast in sins: for it is a delight to do those things in which not only is no reprover feared, but even a praiser is heard.

VERS. 25.-- *The sinner hath provoked the Lord,* etc. He is greatly angry while he does not search out, while he as it were forgets, while he does not attend to sins, and the ungodly man comes through frauds and crimes to riches and honours: which shall come to pass chiefly in that Antichrist, who will seem to men so far [0771D] blessed that he is even thought to be God. But how great this anger of God is, the words that follow teach.

VERS. 26.-- *God is not before his eyes,* etc. How great a punishment then does he suffer who by the prosperity of his sins is brought to this, that God is not before his eyes: that is, that he is forsaken by the light of truth, and his ways are defiled *at all times,* that is, that his thoughts and his counsels are unclean?

*Thy judgments are taken away,* etc. For a mind evilly conscious to itself, while it seems to itself to suffer no punishment, believes that God does not judge: and so thy judgments, O God, are taken away from before his face; whereas this very thing is a great condemnation. *He shall have dominion over all his enemies,* because he is handed down as about to overcome all kings, and alone about to obtain the kingdom, [0772A] when also, according to the Apostle, *he shall sit in the temple of God; lifting himself up above all that is worshipped and that is called God.*

VERS. 27.-- *For he said in his heart,* etc. That is, my fame and my name shall not pass from this generation into the generation of those that come after, unless by evil arts I obtain so lofty a princedom, of which those that come after cannot be silent. Or certainly he will judge that he will pass over by magical practices from human generation into divine generation.

But it must be known that the Hebrew translation signifies that that condemned man is so to be persuaded by the devil that he thinks that he shall reign for ever without any adversity; which says thus: *He speaketh in his heart: I shall not be moved: from generation to generation I shall be without [0772B] evil.*

## ON PSALM IX. (cont.)

VERS. 28.-- *Whose mouth is full of cursing,* etc. For it is a great cursing to seek after heaven by arts so wicked, and to procure such merits for the seizing of an everlasting seat. But with this his *cursing* his *mouth is full.* For this covetousness shall not have its effect, but beneath all his own it will avail only to his own undoing, because he dared to promise this to himself. *With bitterness and deceit,* that is, with anger and with treacheries, whereby he will turn the multitude to his own part. But what follows: *Under his tongue are labour and sorrow,* is referred to that which he said in his heart: *I shall not be moved,* and therefore *under his tongue,* not upon his tongue, since he will think these things silently, but will speak such things to men that he may [0772C] seem good and just and the Son of God.

VERS. 29.-- *He sitteth in ambush,* etc. With what rich men, save with those whom he will heap up with the gifts of this world? And therefore *in ambush* with these he is said *to sit,* since he will make a show of their false happiness for the casting down of men. But *in secret* I think it was said, where it is not easily understood what is to be sought after and what to be shunned. But *the innocent* indeed *to kill* is to make a guilty man out of an innocent one.

VERS. 30.-- *His eyes look upon the poor man,* etc. For he will chiefly persecute the just, of whom it is said: *Blessed are the poor in spirit. A lion* moreover *in his den* he calls him, in whom both violence and guile will be at work. For the first persecution of the Church was violent, [0772D] when by proscriptions, torments and slaughters Christians were compelled to sacrifice. The second persecution is fraudulent, which is now carried on through heretics of this kind and false brethren. A third remains, to come through Antichrist, than which nothing is more perilous, since it will be both violent and fraudulent. It will have violence in its rule, guile in its miracles. To violence is referred what is said, *A lion:* to guiles, what is said: *in his den.* And again these same things are repeated in reversed order: *He lieth in wait that he may seize,* etc. For *ambushes* belong to guile, *to seize* is reckoned to violence. Likewise the things that follow are the same:

VERS. 31.-- *In his net he hath humbled,* etc. [var: Vulg. Ps 9:31 *In laqueo suo humiliabit eum*, "in his net he shall humble him"] For *a net* well signifies ambushes: but dominion [0773A] most fitly intimates terror: whence he says: *he will bow down and fall,* etc.

VERS. 32.-- *For he hath said in his heart,* etc. This is the bowing down and the most wretched fall, while the human mind as it were prospers in its own iniquities, and thinks itself spared, when it is blinded, that it may be kept for the last and seasonable vengeance, of which he now already speaks, saying:

VERS. 33.-- *Arise, O Lord God, let it be exalted,* etc. That is, let thy power be made manifest. For the Church labouring in those times, like a ship among great waves and storms, rouses the Lord as though he slept, that he may command the winds, and calm return. And so now, the judgment being manifest, they that understand and exult say:

[0773B]VERS. 34.-- *Wherefore hath the ungodly provoked God,* etc. That is, what did it profit to do so great evils? Then follows:

VERS. 35.-- *Thou seest, for thou considerest labour,* etc. This sense demands a right delivery, in which, if there be an error, it is darkened. For thus the ungodly man said in his heart, *God will not require it,* as though God considered labour and sorrow, *that he may deliver them into his own hands,* [var: Vulg. Ps 9:35 *ut tradas eos in manus tuas*, "that thou mayest deliver them into thy hands"] that is, as though he feared to labour and to grieve, and therefore spared them, lest their punishment be burdensome to him, or lest he be troubled by the storm of anger: as men for the most part do, dissembling their vengeance lest they labour or grieve.

*To thee is he left,* etc. For therefore is he poor, that is, he has despised all the temporal goods of this world, [0773C] that thou alone mayest be his hope. But he called him *an orphan* whose father, this world, dies to him, by which he was carnally begotten, but who can now say: *The world is crucified to me, and I to the world.* For to such orphans God becomes a father, to whom he says: *Call not to yourselves a father upon earth.* [var: Vulg. Mt 23:9 *Et patrem nolite vocare vobis super terram*, "and call none your father upon earth"]

VERS. 36.-- *Break thou the arm of the sinner,* etc. Of him, namely, of whom it was said above: *he shall have dominion over all his enemies. The arm* therefore he called his power. *It shall be sought* moreover, *his sin,* that is, he shall be judged concerning his own sin: *and it shall not be found,* because he himself shall perish for his own sin.

VERS. 37.-- *The Lord shall reign for ever,* etc. By *the nations* he set down sinners and the ungodly.

VERS. 38.-- *The desire of the poor,* etc. That desire [0773D] wherewith they burned, when in the straits and tribulations of this world they longed for the day of the Lord.

But *the preparation* of *the heart* is that of which it is sung in another psalm: *My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready:* and of which the Apostle also speaks: *but if we hope for that which we see not, we wait for it with patience.* But now we ought by rule to take *the ear of God* to be not a bodily member, but the power whereby he hears. For it is not lawful to think it bodily, since the Lord God heard not a sounding voice, but the preparation of the heart.

VERS. 39.-- *To judge for the fatherless and the humble,* etc. It is one thing *to judge the fatherless,* another *to judge for the fatherless. He judgeth [0774A] the fatherless* even who condemns him: but *he judgeth* moreover *for the fatherless* who brings forth sentence on behalf of the fatherless. But *men* are not only those of whom it was said: *Appoint, O Lord, a lawgiver over them, that the nations may know that they are men;* but he also who in the same place is understood to be set over them will be *a man,* of whom it is now said: *that man may no more presume to magnify himself upon the earth,* when, namely, the Son of man shall have come to judge for the fatherless, who put off the old man, and in this way as it were carried his father out to burial.

## ON PSALM X.

This psalm is sung against the heretics, who labour to turn us away from the breasts of our mother the Church, affirming that Christ is with them, [cj: *apud ipso*; read *apud ipsos*, "with them"] and as it were [0774B] piously admonishing us that by passing over to them we may migrate into Christ, whom they lie in saying they have. For since Christ was allegorically intimated in prophecy under many names, he was called even *a mountain*: To these, therefore, answer is to be made thus:

VERS. 2.-- *In the Lord I put my trust, how say ye,* etc. For one *mind* do I hold, in which *I put my trust, how say ye,* that I should pass over to you, as though there were many Christs?

VERS. 3.-- *For behold, the sinners,* etc. *They have stretched the bow,* [var: Vulg. Ps 10:3 *intenderunt arcum*, "have bent the bow"] the Scriptures, to wit, which, by interpreting them carnally, they use to send forth poisoned sentences. *They have prepared arrows in the quiver,* the same words, namely, which they hurl by the authority of the Scriptures, so that, when they have perceived, the light of the Church being darkened because of the multitude [0774C] of the unskilled and the carnal, that they cannot be convicted, they corrupt good manners by evil communications.

VERS. 4.-- *For the things which thou hast perfected they have destroyed,* etc. All heretics, so far as in them lies, *have destroyed* the praise which God has perfected out of the mouth of infants and sucklings, while they harass little ones with vain and scrupulous questions, and do not suffer them to be nourished with the milk of faith. But if heretics or Jews have destroyed the praise or the law of God, Christ, *what hath he done,* who said: *My peace I give unto you:* which they have violated by an unspeakable dissension?

VERS. 5.-- *The Lord is in his holy temple,* etc. So indeed, as the Apostle says: *For the temple of God is holy, which you are. In* this *holy temple of his [0774D] the Lord* is, which consists of many members bearing each their own offices, built together in charity into one edifice. The same is understood also as *the heaven,* in which God reigns, and whence he judges.

*His eyes are upon the poor man,* etc. For to him the poor man is left, and he it is who is made a refuge for the poor. But by *the sons* of *men* understand those regenerated by faith out of the men of old. For these are exercised by certain obscure places of the Scriptures, as by the closed eyes of God, that they may seek: and again by certain manifest places they are enlightened, as by the open eyes of God, that they may rejoice, and this frequent opening and working [cj: *operatio*; read *opertio*, "covering"] in the holy books is as it were the *eyelids* of God, which *question,* that is, prove the sons of men, who [0775A] are neither wearied by the obscurity of things, but exercised, nor puffed up by knowledge, but confirmed.

VERS. 6.-- *The Lord questioneth the just and the ungodly,* etc. Why then do we fear that the ungodly may in anything hurt us, if perchance they communicate the sacraments with us with a heart that is not sincere, seeing that he questions the just and the ungodly, and the lover of iniquity harms only his own soul?

VERS. 7.-- *He shall rain upon sinners,* etc. *He shall rain,* he referred to the words of the preachers flowing down from heaven, which to the pious are showers: but to those who understand ill or do not believe, *snares.* For those, by understanding well, bring forth fruit in the faith: these, by handling ill, strangle their own souls by the manner of perversity. But this is the punishment [0775B] and the end of those through whom the name of God is blasphemed, that first they be laid waste by the *fire* of their own lusts, then be cast out from the assembly of the blessed by the shame of their evil works, and last, seized and drowned, pay unspeakable penalties: for this is the *portion* of *their cup. A cup*, however, I think is for this reason [sic: *proptera*] so named, that we may not judge anything to be done beyond mode and measure, even in the very punishments of sinners, by the divine providence.

VERS. 8.-- *For the Lord is just,* etc. *Justices* are understood to be set down in place of the just. For in many just men there seem to be as it were many justices, though the justice of God is one, of which all partake: just as if one face should look into many mirrors, what is single in it is rendered plurally from those many. But the face [0775C] of God is his power, by which he becomes known to the worthy. Or certainly, *his countenance hath beheld equity,* because he offers himself to be known not to the evil, but to the good. And this is *equity.*

## ON PSALM XI.

*The octave* can be understood as the day of judgment, or certainly it figures the preaching of the Gospel, in which the Jews or the heretics, by transgressing the decalogue of the law, have fallen as it were into the number eleven. Whence the body of the Church, which is of one voice and one heart, prays the Lord that it may be snatched from their condemnation:

VERS. 2.-- *Save me, O Lord, for,* etc. *The holy one hath failed,* that is, he is not found, as we speak when we say: the corn hath failed, or the money hath failed. But truth is one, by which [0775D] holy souls are illumined. But since souls are many, in them many *truths* can be spoken of; just as from one face many images appear in mirrors.

VERS. 3.-- *They have spoken vain things, every one,* etc. By *neighbour* every man must be understood, because there is no one with whom evil is to be wrought, and *the love of one's neighbour worketh no evil.* But that he says twice: *in heart and heart,* signifies a double heart: for he who in his own heart knows that to be true which is true, in a manner lies with another heart, the truth being suppressed, at the instigation of guile.

VERS. 4.-- *May the Lord destroy all lips,* etc. *All,* he said, that no one may think himself excepted. But by *the tongue* that speaketh *proud things* understand pride.

[0776A]VERS. 5.-- *Who have said, Our tongue,* etc. Proud hypocrites are signified, placing their hope in their own speech for the deceiving of men, and they are not subject to God.

VERS. 6.-- *Because of the misery of the needy,* etc. This is to be taken of the person of God the Father, who for *the needy and the poor,* that is, for those lacking through want and poverty of spiritual goods, sent his Son.

*I will set in salvation,* etc. *In salvation* is to be taken as in Christ, according to that word: *for mine eyes have seen thy salvation;* in whom he is understood to have set that which belongs to the taking away of the misery of the needy and to the consoling of the groaning of the poor. But *confidently* he *dealt in him,* according to that saying in the Gospel: *For he was teaching them as one having power.*

[0776B]VERS. 7.-- *The words of the Lord, chaste words,* etc. *Chaste,* that is, adulterated by no lie, but, after the manner of silver which is tried, proved by the sevenfold fire of the Holy Spirit. But as to what he says: *tried of the earth,* the Hebrew edition has put it more plainly, *separated from the earth.*

VERS. 8.-- *Thou, O Lord, wilt preserve us,* etc. Here as needy and poor, there as wealthy and rich.

VERS. 9.-- *The ungodly walk round about,* etc. *They walk round about.* That is, in the desire of temporal things, which is rolled like a wheel by the repeated circuit of the seven days, and therefore they come not unto *the octave,* that is, unto eternity, for which this psalm is entitled. But *they are multiplied,* moreover, *the sons of men,* [var: Vulg. Ps 11:9 *secundum altitudinem tuam multiplicasti filios hominum*, "according to thy height thou hast multiplied the sons of men"] [0776C] that is, the just, *according to the height* of God, when they go from virtue to virtue.

## ON PSALM XII.

VERS. 1.-- *How long, O Lord, wilt thou forget me unto the end?* etc. That is, thou deferrest me from understanding Christ spiritually, who is the wisdom of God and the right end of every intention of the soul. For God is said *to turn away* his *face* while he gives not the knowledge of himself to a soul which has not yet a pure eye of the mind.

VERS. 2.-- *How long shall I set counsel in my soul,* etc. [var: Vulg. Ps 12:2 *quamdiu ponam consilia in anima mea*, "counsels," plural] There is no need of counsel save in adversity, Therefore, *how long shall I set counsel in my soul,* is so said: how long shall I be in adversity? Or certainly it is an answer, so that this is the sense: So long, O Lord, dost thou forget [0776D] me unto the end, and so long dost thou turn away thy face from me, as long as I shall set counsel in my soul, that it may perfectly work mercy. God directs him not unto the end, nor does he afford him the full knowledge of himself, which is face to face. In that also which he subjoins: *sorrow in my heart all the day,* it is understood: how long shall I set it? But by the day he either signifies continuance, or day is understood for time, from which one desiring to be stripped sets sorrow in his heart, praying to ascend to things eternal and not to suffer the human day.

VERS. 3.-- *How long shall the enemy be exalted,* etc. This *enemy* is the devil, or the ungodly people, or carnal habit.

[0777A]VERS. 4.-- But *Look thou* is referred to that which was said: *How long wilt thou forget me unto the end?*

VERS. 5.-- *Enlighten mine eyes, that I never,* etc. He prays that the *eyes* of his heart be *enlightened,* lest they be closed by the delightful failing of sin. For the insulting of the devil is to be feared, who by a detestable custom is then made glad, when he shall have known that he possesses those whom he has deceived.

*They that trouble me will rejoice,* etc. Those that trouble are the devils and his angels, who did not rejoice over the just man Job when they troubled him, because he was not *moved,* that is, he departed not from the stability of faith. But this very thing, that a man is not moved and remains fixed in the Lord, he ought not to attribute to himself, lest, when he glories that he has not been *moved,* he be moved by that very pride.

[0777B]VERS. 6.-- *My heart shall rejoice in salvation,* etc. *In thy salvation,* that is, in Christ Jesus, who *hath bestowed good things upon me* that are spiritual, not pertaining to the human day, *shall my heart rejoice.* Wherefore *I will play to the name of the Most High,* [var: Vulg. Ps 12:6 *psallam nomini Domini altissimi*, "I will play to the name of the Lord most high"] that is, with joy I give thanks and use my body in the most ordered way, which is the song of a spiritual soul. But if some difference is to be considered here, *I will sing* with the heart, *I will play* with works, to the Lord, who alone sees: but to the name of the Lord, which is made known among men, which is useful not to him but to us.

## ON PSALM XIII.

*Christ is the end of the law.* To him we return when we begin to enter the good way: him we shall see, [0777C] when we have arrived. And therefore he himself is the end, whom the Jews, seeing him come lowly in the flesh he had taken, understood not to be the very one who had been foretold by the prophets. Therefore the psalm thus begins:

VERS. 1.-- *The fool hath said in his heart,* etc. Which is therefore the graver, because they said it not only with the lips, but *in the heart,* that a worse unbelief might be joined to an evil wish. This can also be understood of the Gentiles, who, denying divine providence, reckon the world to be governed by chances.

*They are corrupt and are become abominable,* etc. That is, while they love this world and love not God, these very pursuits are what corrupt the soul, and so blind it that the fool can even say in his heart: *There is no God: for as they did not approve to have God [0777D] in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate sense,* [var: Vulg. Rom 1:28 *tradidit illos Deus in reprobum sensum*, "God delivered them up to a reprobate sense"] that, stained with a most unspeakable unbelief, they might be rendered *abominable* to the Lord by their own errors. But as to what he says, *even to one,* it can be understood either as including that one, so that no man is meant; or as *except one,* so that the Lord Christ is meant, just as we say: that field is even to the sea, and we do not reckon the sea along with it. And this is the better understanding, that no one is understood to have done goodness even to Christ, because no man can do goodness unless he himself shall have granted it. And that one thing is this: that until a man knows the one God, he cannot do good.

VERS. 2.-- *The Lord hath looked down from heaven upon the sons [0778A] of men,* etc. It can be understood of the Jews, so that he has called them more honourably *the sons of men* because of the worship of the one God, in comparison with the Gentiles. But *he looketh down,* moreover, doth the *Lord,* that he may see through his holy souls, which is what is signified by that which was said, *from heaven.* For through himself nothing is hidden from him: unless perhaps it be understood to have been said in this way, *that he may see,* that is, may make to see: as it was said to Abraham: *Now I know that thou fearest God,* that is, now I have caused it to be known.

VERS. 3.-- *All have gone aside,* etc. That is, the Jews became such as the Gentiles also are.

*It is an open sepulchre,* etc. By an open sepulchre is signified either the voracity of a gaping gullet, or, in allegory, those who slay and, as it were, devour when slain those men to whom they urge the perversity of their own manners. To which [0778B] there is a like thing, on the contrary side, in what was said to Peter, *Slay, and eat,* [var: Vulg. Act 10:13 *occide, et manduca*, "kill, and eat"] that he might convert the Gentiles to his own faith and good manners. But what follows is plain: *With their tongues they acted deceitfully.* For flattery is the companion of the voracious and of all evil men. But by *venom* he means guile; and *of asps,* because they will not hear the words of the charmer. For the Jews are most fitly compared to the asp, who, wretched men, have brought in a death-bearing deafness against the words of salvation.

*Whose mouth with cursing,* etc. By *feet* he calls the advances of counsel, by which we are moved from what is begun to the outcomes of things. For in that he said *swift,* he showed that counsels of moderation were wanting to them. *To shed blood,* the divine blood, namely, of the Saviour, that for the wicked deed the monstrousness of the action may increase.

[0778C] *Destruction and unhappiness in their ways,* etc. All the ways of evil men are full of labours and misery. Whence *they have not known the way of peace,* which says: *Come to me, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you, and learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls: for my yoke is gentle, and my burden is light.* [var: Vulg. Mt 11:29-30 *Tollite jugum meum super vos, et discite a me… Jugum enim meum suave est, et onus meum leve*, "Take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me… For my yoke is sweet, and my burden light"]

VERS. 4.-- *Shall not all know,* etc. To *all* the ungodly the Lord threatens judgment, saying that in the general retribution they *shall know* vengeance, who now work malice under liberty. *Who devour,* he says, *my people as the food of bread:* that is, daily. For the food of bread is daily, and they devour the people also, because they take their own advantages from it, not directing their ministry to the glory of God and [0778D] to the salvation of those over whom they are set.

VERS. 5.-- *They have not called upon the Lord,* etc. For he does not truly *call upon* the Lord who desires the things that displease him. The Jews too feared to lose their earthly kingdom, *where there was no fear.* For they said: *If we let him alone so, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come, and take away from us both our nation and our place;* [var: Vulg. Jo 11:48 *et tollent nostrum locum, et gentem*, "and take away our place, and our nation"] and they lost the kingdom of heaven, for which they ought to have feared. And this is to be understood of all temporal advantages, the loss of which when men fear, they come not to things eternal.

VERS. 6.-- *For the Lord is in the generation* etc. That which is said, *for God is in the just generation,* [var: Vulg. Ps 13:6 *Quoniam Dominus in generatione justa est*, "For the Lord is in the just generation" — as Migne's own lemma above also reads] is referred to what goes before, so that the sense is: Shall not [0779A] all know, they who work iniquity, that God is in the just generation, that is, not in those who love the world. For it is unjust to forsake the founder of the ages and to love the world, and to serve the creature rather than the Creator. *You have confounded the counsel of the poor man,* etc., that is, you have despised the lowly coming of God, because you saw not in it the pomp of the world, so that those whom he called might place their hope in God alone, not in things that pass away.

VERS. 7.-- *Who shall give out of Sion,* etc. *Who shall give?* It is understood: none but he himself, whose lowliness you have despised. For he himself shall come in brightness to the judgment of the living and the dead, and to the kingdom of the just, so that, since by that lowly coming *blindness in part is made in Israel, that the fulness of the Gentiles might come in,* [var: Vulg. Rom 11:25 *caecitas ex parte contigit in Israel, donec plenitudo gentium intraret*, "blindness in part hath happened in Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in"] by that [0779B] other there may be done what follows: *and so all Israel should be saved.* For the Jews the Apostle also took that testimony of Isaias, where it is said: *Let him come out of Sion who shall deliver, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob,* [var: Vulg. Rom 11:26 *Veniet ex Sion, qui eripiat, et avertat impietatem a Jacob*, "There shall come out of Sion he who shall deliver, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob"] as it is here set down: *Who shall give out of Sion the salvation of Israel?* But if, as is commonly the case, by *out of Jacob* the people of the Jews is understood, and by *Israel* the people of the Gentiles, it must be considered, upon the several grounds, how proper are the words that have been assigned. For he says: *Jacob shall rejoice,* that is, shall be heaped with unspeakable joy, when he shall have seen what he desired with most ardent hope; *Israel shall be glad,* who received a medicine he had not hoped for.

## ON PSALM XIV.

VERS. 1.-- *Lord, who shall dwell in,* etc. Although [0779C] *a tabernacle* is sometimes put even for an everlasting habitation, yet when it is taken in its proper sense, *a tabernacle* is a thing of war. For it is for a time that we fight with the devil, and then a tabernacle is needed in which we may refresh ourselves, which chiefly signifies the faith of the temporal dispensation, which was wrought for us temporally through the incarnation of the Lord. But the holy *mountain* signifies that eternal habitation itself. But behold how beautifully the fitting words are distinguished according to the various senses: *In the tabernacle,* it is said, *who shall dwell?* of him who still strives in the contest of this world; *in the mountain, who shall rest?* when now each of the faithful is refreshed, through the labours of this world, by the security of eternal peace.

VERS. 2, 3.-- *He that walketh without blemish and worketh [0779D] justice. He that speaketh,* etc. For some have *truth* upon the lips, and have it not in the *heart*; as if someone should deceitfully show a way, knowing there are robbers in it, and should say: If thou goest this way, thou shalt be safe from robbers, and it should happen that in truth they are not found there. Truth that man *hath spoken in his heart,* [cj: *in corde*; read *sed non in corde*, "but not in the heart"] for he thought otherwise, and not knowing it he spoke truth. Therefore it is a small thing to speak truth, unless it be so also *in the heart.* But *guile* is wrought *in the tongue* when one thing is uttered with the mouth and another is read in the breast.

*Nor hath he done evil to his neighbour,* etc. It is known that by *neighbour* every man must be understood: against whom *he taketh not up a reproach* who does not willingly and rashly believe an accuser.

[0780A]VERS. 4.-- *He is brought to nothing,* etc. This is perfection, that the malignant one avail nothing in a man. And that he may be nothing in *his sight,* let him know most certainly that the malignant one is not, save when the mind is turned away from its eternal and unchangeable Creator to the appearance of a creature, which was made out of nothing. *But he glorifieth them that fear the Lord,* he who can say with the Prophet: *But to me thy friends, O God, are exceedingly honoured.*

*He that sweareth to his neighbour and deceiveth not,* etc. These things are not great: but he who cannot do even these can much less *speak truth in his heart,* and not work *guile in his tongue,* but, as it is in the heart, so utter the truth, and have in his mouth Yea, yea, Nay, nay, *and not do evil to his neighbour,* that is, to no man; and [0780B] *not take up a reproach against his neighbour,* which things belong to the perfect, in whose sight the malignant one is brought to nothing. Yet even these lesser things he thus concludes

VERS. 5.-- *He that doth these things shall not be moved for ever.*

## ON PSALM XV.

Our King in this psalm speaks in the person of the humanity he assumed, of whom the royal title, inscribed at the time of the passion, shone forth: *Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.* But in this place those are truly understood to be Jews who hold the faith of Christ in the heart unto justice, and confess with the mouth unto salvation.

VERS. 1, 2.-- *Preserve me, O Lord, for I have hoped in thee. I said to the Lord: Thou art my God, for [0780C] thou hast no need of my goods.* For thou dost not look to become blessed by *my goods.* Which words, if they are to be taken in the person of the Lord, it must be very much noted how most fitly they agree with the title, which in the Hebrew is read thus: *of the lowly and simple God,* of him namely who said: *Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart.* It must also be observed that he alone is truly *Lord* who, according to what is here most excellently defined, has no need of the good of his servant. For it is not to God, but to ourselves, that we render service, if we act well.

VERS. 3.-- *To the saints who are in his land,* etc. To the saints who have placed their hope in the land of the living, citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, whose spiritual conversation is fixed by the anchor of hope in that fatherland [0780D] which is rightly named *the land of God,* although they still dwell in these lands in the flesh, the Father *hath made wonderful* my *wills* [var: Vulg. Ps 15:3 *mirificavit omnes voluntates meas in eis*, "he hath made wonderful all my wills in them"] in their advancement, whereby they perceived what profited them, both the humanity of my divinity, that I should die, and the divinity of my humanity, that I should rise again.

VERS. 4.-- *Their infirmities were multiplied,* etc. These *infirmities* are errors, which, perceiving through the doctrine of the Gospel that they were many within them, they *made haste* to seek salvation from Christ.

*I will not gather their assemblies of blood,* etc. Their assemblies therefore shall not be carnal, nor, appeased *with the blood* of cattle, will I gather them, but by a spiritual change they shall forget [0781A] what they were; nor shall they any more be called by me both sinners and friends [cj: *amici*; read *inimici*, "enemies"] and men, but just, and my brethren, and sons of God.

VERS. 5.-- *The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup,* etc. For they shall possess with me as their *inheritance* the Lord himself. Let others choose for themselves portions to enjoy, earthly and temporal: the portion of the saints is the eternal Lord. Let others drink deadly pleasures: the portion of *my cup* is the Lord. In that I say, *my,* I join to myself the Church, because where the head is, there also is the body. For in the inheritance *I will gather their assemblies,* and through the inebriation of the cup I will forget their old names, that the brightness which I had with thee, O Father, before the world was made may be known also to these whom I set free. For thou wilt *restore* not to me what I have not lost, but thou wilt *restore* to those who [0781B] have lost it the knowledge of that brightness, in whom, because I am, thou wilt restore it.

VERS. 6.-- *The lines are fallen unto me in goodly places,* etc. The bounds of my passion *have fallen* in thy brightness as by lot, even as God is the possession of the priests and the Levites. But what his goodly inheritance is, he sets forth more plainly in the Hebrew, the turning to the Lord being made, thus: *And thou art my beautiful inheritance.*

VERS. 7.-- *I will bless the Lord who hath given me understanding,* etc. For by that *understanding* this inheritance can be seen and possessed. But beyond understanding, even unto death, the lower part instructed me, my assumption of flesh, that I might experience the darknesses of mortality which that understanding has not.

[0781C]VERS. 8.-- *I set the Lord always in my sight,* etc. For coming into the things that pass away, I took not my eye from him who ever abides, *foreseeing* this, that through temporal things accomplished I might run back to him who is always *at my right hand,* that I may abide steadfastly in him.

VERS. 9.-- *Therefore my heart hath been glad,* etc. As if he said openly: Therefore both gladness in my thoughts, and exultation in my words. *Moreover my flesh also* shall not fail unto destruction, but shall sleep in the hope of the resurrection.

VERS. 10.-- *For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,* etc. For neither wilt thou give my soul to the powers below to be possessed, nor wilt thou suffer the sanctified body, through which others also are to be sanctified, to be corrupted [0781D].

*Thou hast made known to me the ways of life,* etc. *Thou hast made known* through me the *ways* of humility, that men might return to *life,* whence through pride they fell. In which *thou wilt fill* them *with gladness,* that they may seek nothing further, when they shall have seen thee face to face, in whom, because I am, *thou wilt fill me. Delight* is in thy favour and thy propitiation, leading on in the journey of this life even unto the end, the beholding of thy glory.

## ON PSALM XVI.

This is to be assigned to the person of the Lord, the Church being joined to him, which is his body.

VERS. 1.-- *Hear, O Lord, my justice,* etc. [0782A] With the Lord it is certain that *justice* has its own voice, which knows silent things by the power of its own understanding. For his prayer is perfect whose cause cries out as well as his tongue. *Not in deceitful lips,* that is, not proceeding to thee *in deceitful lips.* For he prays well in whose lips there is no guile.

VERS. 2.-- *Let my judgment come forth from thy countenance,* etc. From the enlightening of thy knowledge may I judge what is true. Or certainly he says *from thy countenance* according to those things which thou beholdest and knowest in me. But he rightly asked this who knew that he had not the pollution of sin.

VERS. 3.-- *Thou hast proved my heart and visited it by night,* etc. My heart has been proved by the visitation of tribulation. But that very tribulation, by which I was tried and found just, is to be called not *night* only, because it is wont to disturb, [0782B] but also *fire,* because it burns.

VERS. 4.-- *That my mouth may not speak the works of men,* etc. That nothing else may proceed out of my mouth than that which pertains to thy glory. Not to *the works of men,* who do beside thy will. *Because of the words* of thy peace and of thy prophets *I have kept the laborious ways* of human mortality and of the passion. [var: Vulg. Ps 16:4 *propter verba labiorum tuorum, ego custodivi vias duras*, "because of the words of thy lips, I have kept hard ways"]

VERS. 5.-- *Perfect thou my goings in thy paths,* etc. *Let there be perfected* the charity of the Church in the narrow journeys by which one comes to thy rest. *That the signs of my journey be not moved,* [var: Vulg. Ps 16:5 *ut non moveantur vestigia mea*, "that my footsteps be not moved"] which as *footprints* have been impressed upon the sacraments and the apostolic Scriptures, which they may behold and observe who wish to follow me. [0782C] Or certainly, that I may now abide steadfastly in eternity, after that I have accomplished the hard ways and have perfected my goings in the straits of thy paths.

VERS. 6.-- *I have cried, for thou hast heard me,* etc. He who cries because he is heard is surely acknowledged pure, innocent, and unspotted: for he prayed confidently, because he presumed out of the purity of his conscience that he could be heard. Or certainly it is thus to be understood: I directed to thee a free and strong intention of prayer, because, that I might be able to have this, thou didst hear me praying more weakly. Let not therefore thy hearing forsake my lowliness.

VERS. 7.-- *Show forth thy mercies wonderfully, thou who savest them that hope in thee,* etc. Let not thy mercies grow cheap, lest they be less loved.

[0782D]VERS. 8.-- *From them that resist thy right hand,* etc. *From them that resist* the favour wherewith thou favourest me, *keep me as the apple of the eye,* which appears small and slight, yet through it is directed the keenness of the light by which light and darkness are distinguished: so through the humanity of Christ the divinity of judgment, discerning between the just and sinners.

*Under the shadow of thy wings protect me,* etc. That is, under the defence of thy charity and thy mercy protect me.

VERS. 9.-- *My enemies have surrounded my soul,* etc. His *enemies* are the Jews, who, *surrounding* him, sought to snatch away his *soul,* that is, his temporal life.

[0783A]VERS. 10.-- *Who have shut up their own fat.* That is, they were covered with their own fat gladness, after that their desire was sated with wickedness. And therefore *their mouth hath spoken pride: We have no king but Caesar;* and, *thou that destroyest the temple,* and other such things.

VERS. 11.-- *Casting me forth they have now surrounded me,* etc. *Casting* me forth outside the city, they have now *surrounded me* on the cross, and the intention of their heart they *have set to decline* to these earthly things, thinking that he who was being slain suffered a great evil.

VERS. 12.-- *They have taken me as a lion prepared for the prey,* etc. *They have taken* me, as that adversary going about seeking whom he may devour, *and as his whelp,* that is, the people to whom it was said: *You are of your father [0783B] the devil,* devising of the snares whereby he might encompass and destroy the just man.

VERS. 13.-- *Arise, O Lord, prevent him and supplant him,* etc. *Arise,* O God, whom the unbelieving people thinks to sleep and not to care for the iniquities of men, before his malice is put in practice, that vengeance may prevent his deed, and so *supplant him.* But *deliver my soul,* [var: Vulg. Ps 16:13 *eripe animam meam ab impio*, "snatch my soul from the ungodly one"] by raising me from the death which was inflicted upon me by the ungodly. But my soul is thy *sword,* which thy hand hath taken up, that is, thy eternal power, that through it it may war down the kingdoms of iniquity and divide the just from the ungodly. This therefore deliver from mine enemies.

VERS. 14.-- *O Lord, from the few of the earth divide them,* etc. *Few* are the good in comparison with the evil; [0783C] but the Jews have been *divided* throughout the world *from the few* who out of them believed, from the Church, which is the *land* of the living, separated *in their life,* that is, in this life which alone they think their own, because they despair of the eternal. But not only did this visible punishment follow them, but also out of the sins which as darkness *are hidden* from the light of the truth of God their memory *was filled full,* so that they forgot God.

*They are filled with children, and they have left their remnants to their little ones;* that is, they are filled with the fruits of evil works, and they have left the sins of their unbelief even to their posterity.

VERS. 15.-- *But I shall appear in thy justice,* etc. [var: Vulg. Ps 16:15 *Ego autem in justitia apparebo conspectui tuo*, "But I shall appear in justice to thy sight"] But I, who appeared not to those who with a foul and darkened heart cannot see the light of wisdom, [0783D] *in thy justice* shall see thy face, and *shall be satisfied when thy glory shall appear,* as do they who understand me. But it must be diligently noted, and skilfully impressed upon the memory, how clearly the glory of the resurrection of the faithful is declared, according to the Hebrew edition, in these last little verses, in which it is said: *I shall see thy face in justice; I shall be filled with thy likeness when I shall have awaked.* For since it is agreed that, unless the body of Christ be justified by his grace, it cannot see the face of God, who is the fount of justice, he not only rejoices over so excellent a gift, but moreover trusts with entire certainty that he shall be filled with his likeness when he shall have awaked, that is, risen again. For what else is, *I shall be filled with thy likeness when I shall have awaked,* [0784A] but what the blessed Apostle John says: *We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like to him: because we shall see him as he is.*

## ON PSALM XVII.

What is that *day,* on which the body of Christ knew that it was to be rescued *out of the hand of all the enemies* of his own, if not that day whose glory he plainly set forth at the end of the preceding psalm, saying: *I shall be filled, when I shall have awaked, with thy likeness.* For when the Church of Christ, in her awaking, that is, in the resurrection, shall have been filled with the likeness of God, then she will rejoice that she has been rescued not only out of the hand of the rest of her enemies, but out of the hand of Saul also, by whom death is signified, over whom in the resurrection the saints shall exult, saying: *Where, O death, is thy victory, [0784B] where, O death, is thy sting?* For Saul, who is interpreted *asked for,* bears the likeness of death, of which Scripture says: *God made not death, neither hath he joy in the destruction of the living.* And a little after: *But the ungodly with their hands and their words called it unto them.*

VERS. 2.-- *I will love thee, O Lord, my strength, the Lord my firmament,* etc. These things Christ and the Church speak, that is, the whole Christ, head and body. *I will love thee, O Lord,* through whom I am strong, who hast made me firm, I who have fled for refuge to thee: and I fled for refuge because thou hast delivered me.

VERS. 3.-- *My God is my helper, and I will hope in him.* Thou who first didst furnish me with the help of thy calling, that I might be able to hope in thee. *My protector, and the horn of my salvation, and my upholder.* My protector, [0784C] because I presumed not upon myself, as though lifting up against thee the horn of pride, but found thee thyself for a horn, that is, the firm height of salvation: and that I might find it, thou didst uphold me.

VERS. 4.-- *Praising I will call upon the Lord,* etc. Seeking not my own glory but the Lord's, *I will call upon the Lord,* and there will be nothing whereby the errors of ungodliness may hurt me.

VERS. 5.-- *The sorrows of death compassed me,* etc. *The sorrows* of mortality, that is, of the flesh, *compassed me,* and unrighteous crowds, stirred up for a time like rain-swollen rivers that would soon fail, wrought to trouble me.

VERS. 6.-- *The sorrows of hell compassed me,* etc. In those who compassed me about, that they might destroy me, there were [0784D] *the sorrows* of envy, which work death and lead down to the hell of sin. And they came before me, in that they wished to hurt first, which was afterwards repaid them. And such men take into perdition those to whom they have persuaded evils by their boasting of a justice of which they glory against the Gentiles not in fact but in name.

VERS. 7.-- *In my tribulation I called upon the Lord,* etc. *Out of the temple,* that is, out of my heart, in which he dwells, *he heard my voice; and my cry,* which I have not in the ears of men but within, before himself, *entered into his ears.*

VERS. 8.-- *The earth was moved and trembled, the foundations of the mountains were troubled.* When the Son [0785A] of man had been glorified, sinners *were moved and trembled,* and the hopes of the proud, which were in this world, were troubled, so that now the hope of temporal goods might not have firmness in the hearts of men.

VERS. 9.-- *There went up a smoke in his wrath,* etc. *There went up* the tearful prayer of the penitent, when they had learned what God was threatening against the ungodly; and the burning of charity, from the knowledge of him, after penitence *blazed up;* and they who were already dead, forsaken by the fire of good desire and by the light of justice, and had remained cold and dark, being again *kindled* and enlightened, came to life again.

VERS. 10.-- *He bowed the heavens and came down,* etc. He formed the apostles by humility, and the ungodly, who savour of things earthly, [0785B] knew not *the darkness* of their own malice.

VERS. 11.-- *And he ascended upon the cherubim and flew,* etc. He was exalted above the fullness of knowledge, so that no one might come to the Lord save through charity. *For charity is the fullness of the law;* [var: Vulg. Rom 13:10 *plenitudo ergo legis est dilectio*, "love therefore is the fullness of the law"] and swiftly he showed himself to be incomprehensible to those that love him, lest they should think that they could lay hold of him by bodily imaginings. But that swiftness, by which he showed himself to be incomprehensible, is above the powers of souls, by which, as by wings, they lift themselves up from the earth into the airs of liberty.

VERS. 12.-- *And he made darkness his covert. He made* the obscurity of the sacraments, and the hidden hope in the heart of believers, where he himself might lie hid, not [0785C] forsaking them. In these *darknesses* also, where we still walk by faith, not by sight, so long as we hope for that which we see not, and wait for it with patience. Yet they who believe him, being turned to him, go about him, because he is in the midst of them, when he favours all alike, in whom, as in a tabernacle, he dwells at this time. Nor therefore let anyone think that he is already in that light which is to come, when from faith we shall have come to sight, if he understands the Scriptures aright: because in the prophets, and in all the preachers of the divine word, the teaching is obscure in comparison with the brightness which is *in the sight* of his manifestation. Whence there also follows:

VERS. 13.-- *At the brightness in his sight the clouds,* etc. *His clouds,* that is, the preachers of his word, [0785D] are no longer contained within the bounds of Judaea, but *have passed over* to the Gentiles. But the rebukes, by which as by *hail* hard hearts are beaten, if a mild and pious mind receive them, are dissolved into a satisfying teaching; and when the fire of charity is kindled, hearts revive. All these things *have passed over* to the Gentiles in his own clouds.

VERS. 14.-- *And the Lord thundered from heaven,* etc. That in the depth of human affairs heavenly things might be heard.

VERS. 15.-- *And he sent forth his arrows, and scattered them, lightnings,* etc. *And he sent* the evangelists, flying over straight paths on the wings of the virtues, not their own but his by whom they were sent, that to some they might be the odour of life unto life, to others the odour of death unto death. He *multiplied* miracles also, *and troubled them.*

[0786A]VERS. 16.-- *And the fountains of waters appeared,* etc. The prophets were revealed, who were not understood, upon whom the round world believing in the Lord might be built. *At thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the spirit of thy wrath;* of him, namely, crying out: *The kingdom of God is come nigh upon you;* and: *Unless you shall have done penance, you shall all die together.* [var: Vulg. Lc 13:5 *si poenitentiam non egeritis, omnes similiter peribitis*, "you shall all likewise perish"]

VERS. 17.-- *He sent from on high and took me,* etc. By calling out of the Gentiles into a glorious inheritance a Church not having spot or wrinkle, he took me up out of the multitude of the peoples.

VERS. 18.-- *He delivered me from my strongest enemies,* etc. *He delivered me from my enemies,* who prevailed to afflict and to overthrow this temporal life of mine.

[0786B]VERS. 19.-- *They prevented me in the day of my affliction,* etc. They hurt me first in the time in which I bear a mortal and toilsome body; and because by the bitterness of miseries the firm ground of earthly pleasure has been broken and torn away, *the Lord is become my protector.*

VERS. 20.-- *And he brought me forth into breadth, he saved me, because he willed me.* Because I was suffering fleshly straits, *he brought me forth* into the spiritual *breadth* of faith, *because he willed me,* before I willed him.

VERS. 21.-- *And the Lord will reward me according to my justice,* etc. *The Lord will reward me according to the justice* of a good will, he who first offered mercy before I had a good will; *and according to the cleanness of my deeds,* [var: Vulg. Ps 17:21 *secundum puritatem manuum mearum*, "according to the cleanness of my hands"] he who [0786C] granted me to do well, by bringing me forth into the breadth of faith.

VERS. 22.-- *Because I have kept the ways of the Lord, nor have I done wickedly away from my God.* That the long-suffering of perseverance may follow upon the breadth of good works, which are through faith.

VERS. 23.-- *For all his judgments are in my sight,* etc. That is, both the rewards of the just, and the punishments of the ungodly, and the scourges of those to be corrected, and the temptations of those to be proved, I consider with persevering contemplation. *And his justices I have not put away from me,* which they do who faint under the burden of them and return to their own vomit.

VERS. 24, 25.-- *And I shall be unspotted with him, and I shall keep myself from my iniquity. And the Lord will reward me [0786D] according to my justice,* etc. Not only for the breadth of faith, which works through love, but also for the length of perseverance, *the Lord rewards me,* not what men see, *but in the sight of his eyes,* since the things that are seen are temporal; but the things that are not seen are eternal, which belongs to the height of hope.

VERS. 26, 27.-- *With the holy thou wilt be holy, and with the innocent man thou wilt be innocent; and with the elect thou wilt be elect, and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted.* There is also a hidden depth, by which thou art understood to be *holy with the holy,* because thou sanctifiest, *and innocent with the innocent man,* because thou hurtest no one, but each man is bound fast with the cords of his own sins: and by him whom thou choosest [0787A] thou art chosen, and *with the perverse* thou art seen *perverse,* since they say: *The way of the Lord is not right,* and their own way is not right.

VERS. 28.-- *For thou wilt save the humble people,* etc. This seems perverse to the perverse, that thou savest those who confess their sins, but those who are ignorant of the justice of God, and wish to establish their own, thou *humblest.*

VERS. 29.-- *For thou lightest my lamp,* etc. Our light is not from ourselves, but *thou lightest my lamp, O Lord:* for we by our sins are darkness, but my God will lighten my darkness.

VERS. 30.-- *For in thee I shall be delivered from temptation, and in my God I shall go over a wall.* Not in myself, but *in [0787B] thee I shall be delivered from temptation,* and not in myself, but *in my God I shall go over a wall,* which sins have raised up between men and the heavenly Jerusalem.

VERS. 31.-- *My God, his way is undefiled, the words of the Lord are tried by fire,* etc. *My God* comes not into men unless they have eaten [cj: *manducaverint*; read *mundaverint*, "have cleansed"] the way of faith by which he may come to them, because *his way is undefiled. The words* also *of the Lord by the fire* of examination are proved, and all who hope not in themselves but in him are not consumed by that same tribulation; for hope follows faith.

VERS. 32.-- *For who is God but the Lord, or who is God but our God? Who is God but the Lord,* whom we serve? *and who is God but our God,* whom, after a good service, hoping as sons we shall possess as an inheritance?

[0787C]VERS. 33.-- *God, who hath girded me with strength, and hath made my way unspotted. He hath girded me,* that I may be strong, lest the flowing folds of covetousness hinder my works and my steps. *And he hath made unspotted the way* of charity, by which I may come to him, even as the faith is undefiled by which he came to me.

VERS. 34.-- *Who hath perfected my feet as the feet of harts, and setting me upon high places. Who hath perfected* my love for the crossing over of the thorny and shadowy entanglements of this world, and fixes my purpose upon the heavenly habitation, that I may be filled unto all the fullness of God.

VERS. 35.-- *Who teacheth my hands to battle,* etc. *Who teacheth* me to work for the overcoming of the enemies who strive to shut off from us the heavenly kingdoms. [0787D] *And thou hast set* the unwearied purpose of my good works.

VERS. 36.-- *And thou hast given me the protection of thy salvation, and thy right hand hath upheld me. Thou hast given me the protection of thy salvation,* and the favour of thy grace hath upheld me.

*And thy discipline hath corrected me unto the end, and thy discipline itself shall teach me.* Thy discipline, not suffering me to stray, hath corrected me, that whatsoever I do I may refer it to that end in which one cleaves to thee, and that same discipline of thine will teach me to arrive where it has directed me.

VERS. 37.-- *Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, and my footsteps are not weakened.* Nor do fleshly straits hinder, since thou hast made broad my charity, which works cheerfully even out of those things which are beneath [0788A] me, mortal things and members: *and they are not weakened,* whether my journeys or the marks which I impressed for those who follow to imitate.

## ON PSALM XVII. (cont.)

VERS. 38.-- *I will pursue my enemies, and I will overtake them, and I will not turn back till they fail. I will pursue* my fleshly affections, lest I be overtaken by them, but I will overtake them, that they may be consumed, and from that purpose *I will not turn back* to rest, *till they fail* who make a clamour against me.

VERS. 39.-- *I will break them, nor shall they be able to stand, they shall fall under my feet. I will break them,* nor shall they last against me: I will set before them the upright fears in which I walk unto eternity.

VERS. 40.-- *And thou hast girded me with strength unto battle, thou hast supplanted under me them that rose up against me.* Thou hast bound tight [0788B] the flowing desires of my flesh with strength, lest in such a fight I should be hindered, and thou hast made those who pursued me to be deceived, so that they became beneath me who desired to be above me.

VERS. 41.-- *And thou hast given me the back of my enemies,* etc. Thou hast turned my enemies about, and hast made them to be a back to me, that is, that they should follow me, but others of them, who persisted in hatred, thou hast destroyed.

VERS. 42.-- *They cried out, nor was there any that should save them unto the Lord, nor did he hear them.* For who should save those whom thou wouldst not save? Not to anyone at all, but to the Lord did they cry out, nor did he judge worthy of a hearing those who departed not from their own malice, which is to be understood specially of the Jews, who cry out in their synagogues and are not heard, because they desire an earthly Jerusalem, [0788C] not a heavenly.

VERS. 43.-- *And I will break them small as the dust before the face of the wind,* etc. And they are dry, not receiving the shower of God's mercy, so that, lifted up with pride, they may be snatched away from a firm and unshaken hope as from the solidity and stability of the earth; *as the mire of the streets,* because through the broad ways of perdition, which many walk, they run riot and are slippery.

VERS. 44.-- *Thou wilt deliver me from the contradictions of the people,* etc. *Thou wilt deliver me from the contradictions* of those who said: *If we let him go alive, the world goeth after him.* [var: Vulg. Jo 11:48 *si dimittimus eum sic, omnes credent in eum*, "if we let him alone thus, all will believe in him"; the second clause answers to Joan. XII, 19 *ecce mundus totus post eum abiit*, "behold, the whole world is gone after him"]

VERS. 45.-- *A people which I knew not,* etc. *The people* of the Gentiles, whom I visited not with bodily presence, hath served me: neither did it see me with its eyes, but receiving [0788D] my preachers *in the hearing of the ear it hath obeyed me.*

VERS. 46.-- *The children that are strangers have lied to me,* etc. *Children* not to be called mine, but rather *strangers,* to whom it was rightly said: *You are of your father the devil, they have lied to me: children that are strangers,* to whom, that they might be renewed, I brought the New Testament, they remained in the old man, and, as though feeble in one foot (because holding the Old they spat out the New), they were made lame, following even in the old law itself their own traditions rather than God's.

For they brought false charges about unwashed hands, because such were the *paths* which they themselves had made and had worn smooth by custom, wandering away from the road of the commandments of God.

[0789A]VERS. 47.-- *The Lord liveth, and blessed be my God,* etc. Not after an earthly custom do I judge of the God of my salvation; nor that salvation itself as earthly, but on high concerning him may I hope.

VERS. 48.-- *O God, who givest me revenges,* etc. O God, who avengest me by subduing peoples under me, *my deliverer from my enemies.* The Jews, crying out. Crucify him, crucify him!

VERS. 49.-- *And thou wilt exalt me from them that rise up against me,* etc. From those same who rise up against me suffering, thou wilt exalt me rising again, and from their wicked reign thou wilt deliver me.

VERS. 50.-- *Therefore will I confess to thee among the nations, O Lord,* etc. Therefore the Gentiles will confess to thee for me, O Lord, and thou wilt become more widely known by my good [0789B] works.

VERS. 51.-- *Magnifying the salvations of his king,* etc. God magnifies, that he may make lovely the salvations which his Son gives to believers, and *he doeth mercy to his Christ,* to that same deliverer with a strong hand, who overcame this world, and to those whom, believing, he begot in the Gospel unto eternity.

Whatsoever things have been said in this psalm which cannot properly fit the Lord himself, that is, the head of the Church, are to be referred to the Church. For here the whole Jesus speaks, in whom are all his members.

## ON PSALM XVIII.

The title is known, nor does the Lord Jesus Christ [0789C] say these things, but these things are said concerning him.

VERS. 2.-- *The heavens show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the works of his hands.* The just evangelists, in whom God dwells as in the heavens, set forth the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, or that glory by which the Son glorified the Father upon earth. And *the firmament declareth* the deeds of the Lord's powers: for the confidence of the Holy Spirit has been made a firmament and a heaven, which before, through fear, was earth.

VERS. 3.-- *Day to day uttereth speech, and night to night showeth knowledge.* Spirit brings forth to spiritual men the fullness of the unchangeable wisdom of God, which Word in the beginning is God with God, and the mortality of the flesh, by insinuating faith as it were to carnal men set far off, announces the knowledge that is to come.

[0789D]VERS. 4.-- *There are no speeches nor languages.* Through which the voices of the evangelists were not heard, when the Gospel was preached in all tongues.

VERS. 5, 6.-- *Their sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. He hath set his tabernacle in the sun,* etc. The Lord, that he might make war against the kingdoms of temporal errors, being about to send not peace but a sword upon the earth, set in time, or in manifestation, as it were his soldier's dwelling, that is, the dispensation of his incarnation, coming forth from the virginal womb, where the Lord was joined to human nature as a bridegroom to a bride. *He hath rejoiced as a giant to run his way,* etc. He rejoiced as one most mighty, and going before all other men in incomparable [0790A] strength, not to dwell, but to run the way. And:

VERS. 7.-- *His going out is from the height of heaven.* That is, from the Father, not a temporal equalling, but an eternal, in that he was born of the Father. *And his meeting even unto the height thereof,* etc. He runs to meet it with the fullness of divinity, even unto equality with the Father. But when the Word was also made flesh, and dwelt among us, taking upon him our mortality, he suffered not any of mortal men to excuse himself out of the shadow of death, and the warmth of the Word penetrated that shadow itself.

VERS. 8.-- *The law of the Lord is unspotted, converting souls,* etc. *The law of the Lord,* that is, he who came to fulfil the law, not to destroy it. And the law is *unspotted,* because he did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, [0790B] not pressing souls with the yoke of servitude, but converting them by liberty to the imitation of himself. Whose *testimony is faithful,* because no one knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom he shall have willed to reveal him, the things that are hidden from the wise and revealed to little ones, since God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.

VERS. 9.-- *The justices of the Lord are right, rejoicing hearts,* etc. All *the justices of the Lord* in him are *right,* who taught not what he himself did not do, so that they who should imitate him might rejoice in heart over them, because they would do them freely with charity, not slavishly with fear. Whose commandment is *lightsome,* that is, without the veil of carnal observances, *enlightening* the sight of the lower man.

VERS. 10.-- *The fear of the Lord is holy, enduring for [0790C] ever and ever,* etc. *The fear of the Lord* is not that penal fear under the law, which shudders at having temporal goods taken away from it, by the love of which the soul is defiled, but the *holy* fear, by which the Church, the more ardently she loves her bridegroom, the more diligently takes heed not to offend him. And therefore perfected love does not cast this fear out of doors, but *it endureth for ever and ever. The judgments* also of him who judgeth no man, but hath given all judgment to the Son, are truly *justified* unchangeably. For neither does God, who both threatens and promises, deceive anyone, nor can anyone snatch away either the ungodly from his punishment or the godly from his reward.

VERS. 11.-- *Desirable above gold and much precious stone,* etc. Whether *much* be taken of the gold and the stone themselves, or *much* precious, or *much* [0790D] desirable, yet *the desirable judgments* of God are above the pomps of this world, by the desire of which it comes about that the judgments of God are not desired, but feared, or despised, or not believed. But if anyone be himself gold, and a precious stone, so that he is not consumed by fire but taken up into the treasure of God, let him desire the judgments of him whose will he sets before his own more than he desires his own self; and whether anyone be already honey, because, loosed from the bonds of this life, he awaits the day on which he may come to the banquet of God; or be still the honeycomb, so that as it were as wax he is wrapped about by this life, not grown solid with it but filling it, so that he has need of some pressure, not of a hand that crushes but of a hand of God that presses out, by which he shall be left [cj: *relinquetur*; read *eliquetur*, "shall be pressed out"] from a temporal life unto eternity: *sweeter* to him are [0791A] the judgments of God than he is to his own self, because *above honey and the honeycomb* they are sweeter.

VERS. 12.-- *For thy servant keepeth them,* etc. Therefore, he says, they are so sweet to me, because I keep them: for to him who keeps them not the day of the Lord is bitter. And so not in any advantage placed outside, but in this very thing, that the judgments of God are kept, is there *much reward,* because there is rejoicing in them.

VERS. 13.-- *Who can understand sins? From my hidden things cleanse me,* etc. But in *sins,* what sweetness can there be, where there is no understanding, since *who can understand sins?* which shut in that very hidden man to whom truth is sweetness, to whom the judgments of God are more desirable and sweeter, and as darkness suffers not the eyes, so sins suffer not the mind either to see the light or to see itself. From [0791B] *the hidden things,* therefore, *my own,* he says, *cleanse me,* O Lord, and lead me not away *by alien things.* For he is not taken by alien things who is clean from his own. *Spare* me therefore *from alien* covetous desires, not the proud man, and one desiring to be in his own power, but *thy servant.*

VERS. 14.-- *If they shall not have had dominion over me,* etc. The edition translated from the Hebrew makes the sense of this little verse plainer, where it is read: *From the proud also deliver thy servant; if they shall not have had dominion over me, then shall I be unspotted:* for by the proud and the alien are understood the malignant spirits, who for the monstrousness of their pride are irrecoverably estranged from God, whose dominion has oppressed the human race through sin. When therefore he had prayed above, saying: *From my hidden things cleanse me,* he fittingly added straightway: *If they shall not have had [0791C] dominion over me, then shall I be unspotted:* because if those proud and alien spirits shall have obtained no power over us by the desert of sin, then indeed, a swift remission being received, we shall be unspotted. And because pride is the root and kindling of all sin, through which both the devil fell and the first man brought death into the world, also from this *greatest sin shall we be cleansed,* being delivered from the power of the demons, whose prince is the ruler of the proud, as is read of him: *he is king over all the children of pride.* But if we read, as it is found in certain codices, *if those things shall not have had dominion over me, then shall I be unspotted,* this is the sense: if my own hidden things and alien things shall not have had dominion over me, then shall I be unspotted. For there is no third origin of sin besides one's own *hidden thing,* by which [0791D] the devil fell, and the *alien thing,* by which man was seduced, so that by consenting he made it his own. *And I shall be cleansed,* he says, *from the greatest sin,* that is, from pride: for there is no greater sin than to apostatize from God, which is the beginning of man's pride. And he truly is unspotted who lacks this sin also, because this is the last thing for those returning to the Lord which was the first for those departing.

VERS. 15.-- *And the words of my mouth shall be such as may please.* etc. The meditation of my heart, not unto the boasting of pleasing men, since now there is no pride, but *always in thy sight,* who lookest upon a pure conscience.

*O Lord, my helper and my Redeemer. O Lord, [0792A] my helper* of me who strive toward thee, since thou art *my Redeemer,* that I might strive toward thee, lest anyone, ascribing both to his own wisdom that he is turned to thee, and to his own strength that he comes through to thee, be the rather driven back from thee, who resistest the proud, because he has not been cleansed from the greatest sin, nor has he pleased in thy sight, thou who redeemest that we may be turned, and helpest that we may come through to thee.

## ON PSALM XIX.

The title is known, nor does Christ speak, but the Prophet speaks to Christ, singing, under the figure of wishing, the things that are to come:

VERS. 2.-- *May the Lord hear thee in the day of tribulation, may the name of the God of Jacob protect thee,* etc. *May he hear thee,* [0792B] the Lord, *in the day* in which thou saidst: *Father, save me [sic: *salavifica*] out of this hour:* for to thee belongs the people, born later, because the elder shall serve the younger.

VERS. 3.-- *May he send thee help from the Sanctuary,* etc. Making for thee a sanctified body, the Church, which awaits thee as from a watchtower, for the time when thou shalt come from the wedding.

VERS. 4.-- *May he be mindful of all thy sacrifice,* etc. May he make us mindful of all thy injuries and of the reproaches which thou didst bear for us, and may he turn the cross, on which thou wast wholly offered to God in soul and body, into the gladness of the resurrection.

VERS. 5.-- *May he give thee according to thy heart,* etc. *May he give thee* not according to the heart of those who thought that by persecuting thee thou couldst be blotted out, but *according to thy own [0792C] heart,* who knewest what profit thy passion held. *And may he confirm all thy counsel,* not only that by which thou didst lay down thy life for thy friends, that the grain, being mortified, might rise the more plentifully, but also that by which blindness in part is come in Israel, that the fullness of the Gentiles might enter in, and so all Israel might be saved.

VERS. 6.-- *We will rejoice in thy salvation,* etc. *We will rejoice,* because death will do thee no harm, for so wilt thou show that it can do no harm to us either. And the confession of thy name will not only not destroy us, but will even magnify [sic: *magnifibabit*] us.

VERS. 7.-- *May the Lord fulfil all thy petitions,* etc. *May the Lord fulfil* not only the *petitions* which thou hadst on earth, but also those by which in heaven thou intercedest for us. For now it has been shown to me by prophecy [0792D] that the Lord will raise up his Christ.

*May he hear him from his holy heaven,* etc. [var: Vulg. Ps 19:7 *Exaudiet illum*, "he will hear him"] *May he hear* him not from earth only, where he asks to be glorified, but also *from heaven,* where already, interceding at the Father's right hand for us, he has poured out thence the Holy Spirit upon those who believe in him. But our *powers* are the *salvation* of his favour, since even out of tribulation he gives help, so that when we are weak, then we are strong. For vain is the salvation of men, which is not his *right hand* but his left: for behold, they are lifted up in great pride, whosoever, sinning, have been made safe in temporal things.

VERS. 8.-- *These in chariots and these in horses, but we [0793A] will call upon the name of the Lord our God.* These are drawn along by the rolling succession of temporal goods, and these proud ones are carried away by honours, and exult in them. But we, fixing our hope in things eternal, and not seeking our own glory, *In the name of the Lord our God we will exult.* [var: Vulg. Ps 19:8 *invocabimus*, "we will call upon"]

VERS. 9.-- *They are bound and have fallen,* etc. *They* by the covetousness of temporal things *are bound:* fearing to spare the Lord, lest they should lose their place at the hands of the Romans, and rushing upon the stone of stumbling and the rock of scandal, they fell away from the heavenly hope, they to whom blindness in part of Israel is come, being ignorant of the justice of God and willing to establish their own: but we, that the fullness of the Gentiles might enter in, sons of Abraham raised up out of the stones, we who did not follow after justice, have laid hold of [0793B] it, and *have risen up,* and, justified not by our own strength but through faith, *we are set upright.*

VERS. 10.-- *O Lord, save the king,* etc. *O Lord, save the king,* and let him himself, who by his passion showed us the example of doing battle, offer also our sacrifices as a priest raised up from the dead, and, he now offering for us, *hear us in the day in which we shall call upon thee.*

## ON PSALM XX.

The title is known: it is sung of Christ.

VERS. 2.-- *O Lord, in thy strength the king shall rejoice,* etc. *O Lord, in thy strength,* in that the Word was made flesh, the man Christ Jesus shall rejoice, *and over this,* that thou quickenest all things, *he hath exulted exceedingly.*

VERS. 3.-- *Thou hast given him the desire of his heart,* etc. [0793C] He desired to eat the Pasch, and to lay down his life when he would, and to take it again, and thou hast given it to him; *my peace,* he says, *I leave to you,* and it was done. [var: Vulg. Jo 14:27 *pacem relinquo vobis, pacem meam do vobis*, "peace I leave to you, my peace I give to you"]

VERS. 4.-- *For thou hast prevented him with blessings of sweetness,* etc. Because he had first drunk *the blessing of the sweetness* that is thine, the gall of our sins did not hurt him, whom, at the beginning of his discourse, precious stones drawing near encompassed, his own disciples, from whom the beginning of his proclamation should be made.

VERS. 5.-- *He asked life of thee, and thou hast given him length of days,* etc. He asked the resurrection, saying: *Father, glorify thy Son:* and thou hast given him the long times of this world, which the Church should have, and thereafter eternity *for ever and ever.*

VERS. 6.-- *His glory is great in thy salvation,* [0793D] etc. *Great is* indeed *his glory* in the salvation by which thou hast raised him up; but thou wilt yet add to him *glory and great beauty* [cj: *gloria*; read *gloriam*, "glory"] [0794A] when thou shalt set him in heaven at thy right hand.

VERS. 7.-- *For thou wilt give him for a blessing,* etc. This is the *blessing* which thou *wilt give* him *for ever and ever: thou wilt make him joyful in gladness with thy countenance,* according to the man whom he lifted up to thee.

VERS. 8.-- *For the king hopeth in the Lord,* etc. *For the king* is not proud, but, humble in heart, *hopeth in the Lord, and in the mercy of the Most High he shall not be troubled,* [var: Vulg. Ps 20:8 *non commovebitur*, "shall not be moved"] humbling himself and obedient unto the death of the cross.

VERS. 9.-- *Let thy hand be found by all thy enemies,* etc. *May there be found,* O king, thy power, when thou shalt come to judge, *by all thy enemies,* who did not understand it in thy lowliness, and may the brightness by which [0794B] thou reignest at the Father's right hand *find,* on the day of judgment, as men to be punished, *those that hate thee,* because now they themselves have not found it.

VERS. 10.-- *Thou shalt make them as an oven of fire,* etc. Thou shalt set them burning within by the conscience of their own ungodliness in the time of thy manifestation: then, troubled by the vengeance of the Lord, after the accusation of conscience they shall be given over to the eternal burning to be devoured.

VERS. 11.-- *Thou shalt destroy their fruit from the earth,* etc. *Their fruit,* because it is earthly, *thou shalt destroy from the earth,* and their works, and whomsoever they have seduced, thou wilt not reckon among the sons of men whom thou hast called unto an everlasting inheritance.

VERS. 12.-- *For they have intended evils against thee,* etc. [0794C] This punishment shall be repaid them, because the evils which they thought hung over them while thou wast reigning they turned back upon thee, to be slain, and they devised counsels, saying: *It is expedient that one die for all.* [var: Vulg. Jo 18:14 *expedit unum hominem mori pro populo*, "it is expedient that one man die for the people"] And: *Come, let us kill him, and we have his inheritance.* Which therefore *they could not establish,* not knowing what they had said, nor obtaining what they desired.

VERS. 13.-- *For thou wilt place them as a back,* etc. Because thou wilt set them in order among those things from which, being set behind and despised, thou wilt turn away, and among those things which thou leavest, that is, the covetous desires of an earthly kingdom, thou wilt prepare for thyself their shamelessness unto the passion.

VERS. 14.-- *Be thou exalted, O Lord, in thy strength,* etc. O *Lord,* whom, being lowly, they did not know, *be thou exalted in thy strength,* which they thought to be weakness. [0794D] But we with heart and with work will celebrate, and will make known thy wondrous works.

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