- LXXVI.

7.

6 Inward peace God's dwelling. Beginning of confession.

PSALM thou dost praise drunkenness. Thou art disputing with God, Ithou hast not made for Him a place in thy heart: because in peace is His place. And how dost thou begin to have peace with God? Thou beginnest with Him in confession. Ps. 147, There is a voice of a Psalm, saying, Begin ye to the Lord in confession. What is, Begin ye to the Lord in confession? Begin ye to be joined to the Lord. In what manner? So that the same thing may displease you as displeaseth Him. There displeaseth Him thy evil life; if it please thyself, thou art disunited from Him; if it displease thee, through confession to Him thou art united. See in how great measure thou art unlike Him, since indeed on account of that very unlikeness thou art displeasing to Him. Thou hast been made, O man, after the image of God: but through thy life being perverse and evil thou hast disturbed in thee and hast banished in thee the image of thy Creator. Having become unlike, thou lookest unto thyself and thou displeasest thyself: now from this time thou beginnest to become like, because the same thing is displeasing to thee as is displeasing to God also.

7.

4. But how am I like, sayest thou, when I am still displeasing to myself? Therefore there hath been said, begin. Ps. 147, Begin thou to the Lord in confession: thou wilt be made perfect in peace. For as yet thou hast war against thee. There is enjoined then a war, not only against the sugEphes. gestions of the devil, against the prince of the power of this 6, 12. air, who worketh in the sons of unbelief, against the devil and his angels, the spiritual things of naughtiness; not only therefore against them war is enjoined thee, but against thyself. How against thyself? Against thy evil habit, against the oldness of thy evil life, which draweth thee to thy wonted life, and withholdeth thee from the new. For there is enjoined upon thee a kind of new life, and thou art old. By the joy of that newness thou art held aloft, by the burden of the oldness thou art weighed down: there beginneth to be war for thee against thyself. But by the part wherein thou art displeased with thyself thou art being united to God; and by that part whereby thou art now being joined to God, thou wilt be meet to conquer thyself; because He is with thee Who overcometh all things. Observe what the Apostle

In what sense the flesh still serves sin.

2.

Rom. 7,

7 saith: With the mind I serve the law of God, but with the VER. flesh the law of sin. How with mind? Because thy evil life is displeasing to thee. How with flesh? Because there 25. are not wanting evil suggestions and affections of pleasure; but in that with mind thou art united with God, thou art conquering in thyself that which in thyself is not willing to follow. For thou hast gone before in part, and in part thou art held back. Draw thyself to Him, Who is raising thee upward. With a sort of weight of oldness thou art being weighed down: cry out and say, Unhappy man that I am, Rom. 7, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Who 24. shall deliver me from that wherewith I am being weighed down? For the body which is corrupted doth weigh down Wisd. 9, the soul. Who, I say, shall deliver me? The grace of 15. Rom. 7, God through Jesus Christ our Lord. But why doth He 25. suffer thee long time to contend with thyself, until there be swallowed up all evil desires? In order that thou mayest perceive in thyself thy penance. In thee from thyself is thy rod: let thy strife be with thyself. Thus vengeance is taken upon a rebel against God, in such sort that he is himself a war unto himself, who would not have peace with God. But keep thy members against thy evil desires. There hath sprung up wrath, refrain thy hand, taking part with God. It might have arisen, but it hath found no weapons. In thy wrath is the onset, in thyself are the weapons: be the onset without weapons, and it learneth no longer to rise, which hath risen in vain.

5. But this I say, dearly beloved, lest perchance because we have said, But with flesh to the law of sin, ye may Rom. 7, think that ye ought to consent to your carnal desires. 25. Though there cannot now but be carnal desires, we must not consent to them. Therefore the Apostle hath not said, Be there not sin in your mortal body. For he knoweth that so long as it is mortal, there is there sin. But he saith what? Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body. Rom. 6, What is, Let it not reign? He hath himself explained: 12. to obey, he saith, the desires thereof. There are desires, there arise desires, thou dost not obey thy desires, dost not follow the same desires, dost not consent to them: there is in thee sin, but it hath lost its reign, now that in thee there

8 After Resurrection the flesh will tempt no more.

PSALM reigneth not sin, hereafter the last enemy shall be destroyed, LXXVI. death. But what is promised to us? For it hath been said,

1 Cor.

25.

15, 26. With mind 1 serve the law of God, but with flesh the law of sin. Hear the promise, that there will not always be in the flesh unlawful desires. For it will rise again, and it will be changed: and when this mortal flesh shall have been changed into a spiritual body, then no more with any earthly delights shall it allure the soul, nor shall divert it from the contemplation of God. There is then done in her that whereof the Rom. 8, Apostle speaketh, The body indeed is dead because of sin;

10. 11.

but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if He that hath raised up Jesus from the dead doth dwell in you; He that hath raised up Jesus Christ from the dead shall bring to life also your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit Which dwelleth in you. When our bodies then have been brought to life, there will be true peace, where there is a place for God: but let confession go before. Known in Judæa is God: confess thou therefore first. In Israel great is His Name: not yet thou seest in form, see thou by faith; and there shall be made in thee that which followeth: and there hath been made in peace a place for Him, and His dwelling is in Sion. Sion is interpreted contemplation'. What is 1 Cor. contemplation? For we shall contemplate God face to face. 12. He is promised to us, in Whom now not seeing we believe.

13,

How shall we rejoice when we shall have seen Him! Brethren, if now so great joy the promise doth work in us, how great joy will the performance work? For there will be rendered to us that which He hath promised? And what hath He promised? Himself, so that in His face and in the contemplation of Him we may rejoice: and not any other object will delight us, because nothing is better than He that hath made all things which delight. There hath been made in peace a place for Him, and His dwelling is in Sion: that is, in a kind of contemplation and speculation, there hath been made a dwelling for Him, in Sion.

6. Ver. 3. There He hath broken the strength of bows, and the shield, and the sword, and the battle. Where hath He broken? In that eternal peace, in that perfect peace. And Oxf. Mss. and some others, C brethren whom we see present also tosaid it already yesterday, and some day heard, what is contemplation.'

we

The spiritual mountains made eternal by grace.

9

4.

now, my brethren, they that have rightly believed see that VEr. they ought not to rely on themselves and all the might of their own menaces, and whatsoever is in them whetted for mischief, this they break in pieces; and whatsoever they deem of great virtue wherewith to protect themselves temporally, and the war which they were waging against God by defending their sins, all these things He hath broken there.

Since 26.

7. Ver. 4. Thou enlightening marvellously from the eternal mountains. What are the eternal mountains? Those which He hath Himself made eternal; which are the great mountains, the preachers of truth. Thou dost enlighten, but from the eternal mountains: the great mountains are first to receive Thy light, and from Thy light which the mountains. receive, the earth also is clothed. But those great mountains the Apostles have received, the Apostles have received as it were the first streaks of the rising light. Did they by any means keep to themselves that which they received? No. Lest there should be said to them, Servant naughty and slothful, Mat. 25, thou shouldest have given my money to the usurers. then that which they received they kept not to themselves, but they preached it to all the round world; Thou enlightening marvellously from the eternal mountains. By those which Thou hast made eternal, by the same Thou hast promised life eternal to the rest also. Thou enlightening marvellously from the eternal mountains. Admirably with force hath been said Thou: that no one may suppose that the mountains enlighten him. For many thinking that they were enlightened by the mere mountains, made to themselves parties from the mountains; and the very mountains have fallen down", and they have been themselves broken in pieces. Some have made for themselves a Donatus, some have Against made for themselves a Maximianus, some have made for themselves this or that teacher. Why do they count their salvation to be in men, not in God? O man, there hath come to thee light through the mountains: but God doth enlighten thee, not the mountains. Thou, not the mountains.

Thou enlightening, he saith:
Thou enlightening: from the

have cut away, or cut in pieces,'
which is not so good sense.

the Do

natists.

1.

10 None, however great, to be followed by himself.

PSALM eternal mountains indeed; but, Thou enlightening. WhereLXXVI: fore also, in another place, a Psalm saith what? I have lifted Ps. 121, up mine eyes unto the mountains, whence there shall come help to me. What then, in the mountains is thy hope, and from thence to thee shall there come help? Hast thou stayed at the mountains? Take heed what thou doest. There is something above the mountains: above the mountains is He at Whom the mountains tremble. I have lifted up, he saith, mine eyes unto the mountains, whence there shall come help to me. But what followeth? My help, he saith, is from the Lord, who hath made Heaven and earth. Unto the mountains indeed I have lifted up eyes, because through the mountains to me the Scriptures were displayed: but I have my heart in Him that doth enlighten all mountains.

v. 2.

8. Therefore, brethren, for this purpose it hath been said, that no one of you should will to set his hope on man. Man is something, so long as he adhereth to Him by Whom man was made. For departing from Him, man is nothing, even when he adhereth to those (mountains). Do thou so take counsel through man, as that thou mayest consider Him that doth enlighten man. For even thou art able to draw near to Him, that doth speak to thee through man: for it is not so, that He hath made him to draw near unto Himself, and rejecteth thee. And he that hath truly so drawn near unto God, that God dwelleth in him, is displeased with all those that do not set their hope on Him. Therefore there hath been given a sort of example. When men divided among themselves the very Apostles, and they fell unto schisms who 1 Cor. 1, were saying, I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas, that is, of Peter-over these the Apostle doth mourn, and he saith Ibid. 13. to them, Is Christ divided? and he singled out himself to make light of among them; Hath Paul been crucified for you, or in the name of Paul have ye been baptized? Behold a good mountain, seeking glory, not for himself, but for Him by Whom the mountains are enlightened. He was not willing to rely on himself; but upon Him on Whom he had over himself relied. Whosoever therefore shall have willed so to recommend himself to the people, as that if there shall have chanced for him any tumult, he breaketh up the people to

12.