Psalm 90 [MT 91]

He then who so imitates Christ as to endure all the troubles of this world, with his hopes set upon God, that he falls into no snare, is broken down by no panic fears, he it is "who dwells under the defence of the Most High, who shall abide under the protection of God" [Psalm 91:1], in the words with which the Psalm, which you have heard and sung, begins. You will recognise the words, so well known, in which the devil tempted our Lord, when we come to them. "He shall say unto the Lord, You are my taker up, and my refuge: my God" [Psalm 91:2]. Who speaks thus to the Lord? "He who dwells under the defence of the Most High:" not under his own defence. Who is this? He dwells under the defence of the Most High, who is not proud, like those who ate, that they might become as Gods, and lost the immortality in which they were made. For they chose to dwell under a defence of their own, not under that of the Most High: thus they listened to the suggestions of the serpent, [Genesis 3:5] and despised the precept of God: and discovered at last that what God threatened, not what the devil promised, had come to pass in them.

"When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, made from a woman, made under the law." People are upset by "made from a woman," because we confess that he was born of a virgin. It is only of man that we confess he was made; God is always the one who makes, he cannot be made in order to be. God cannot be made; but he is made into, or becomes, something for someone, in the way in which it is said of him, "Lord, you have become (or have been made into) a refuge for us"; and, "The Lord has become (has been made) my helper." How many things he has been made into, though he never was made at all! Now the Lord Christ was made man, … in order for him who was always the creator to be a creature. While remaining God, you see, he became man in order to become what he was not, not in order to stop being what he was.

When the great David heard and understood this, he [David] said to him "who dwells in the shelter of the most High; He will overshadow you with his shoulders," which is the same as being behind God (for the shoulder is on the back of the body). Concerning himself David says, "My soul clings close to you, your right hand supports me." You see how Psalms agree with the history. For as the one says that the right hand is a help to the person who has joined himself close behind God, so the other says that the hand touches the person who waits in the rock on the divine voice and prays that he might follow behind.

Who dwells in the help of the Most High. "Help" is what Ezra means. Indeed, the prophet Ezra is called βοηθός (boēthos), "helper." This is the one who led the people back from the captivity of Babylon and brought them into the land of promise. Whoever, therefore, dwells in Ezra, whoever dwells in Jesus (for the moment according to the tropological sense), who built for himself a house without hands, as the apostle says — that house which the Lord had built even for the midwives in Egypt: he shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven.

The praise of a song, by David himself. First we ought to know this: that from the eighty-eighth psalm up to the hundredth—that is, eleven psalms—have no title in the Hebrew; and that they belong, as we treated most recently in the previous psalm, to the same person to whom that one belongs as well which is headed with this title: "A prayer of Moses, the man of God."

He who dwells in the help of the Most High. Ours it is to begin, God's it is to help; for He does not crown those who sleep, but those who labor. He shall abide in the protection of the God of heaven. In place of what we read, "of the God of heaven," the Hebrew has saddai. Hence that which is said in Ezekiel, "And I heard the voice of the Lord Saddai speaking," can be understood thus: that he heard the voice of the Lord, the God of heaven, speaking; for Saddai is interpreted "God of heaven."

He shall say to the Lord: You are my upholder and my refuge, my God. For many enemies pursue me: therefore you are my refuge. I will hope in him. He did not say, "I hope"; but, "I will hope." For as long as we sin, we do not hope: if we cease to sin, we hope.

My refuge is my God. Beautifully he said, "refuge," for there are many persecutors, and you alone are a refuge. Many are the wounds, but you alone are the physician.

Thus then do thou say also, "In Him will I trust. For He Himself shall deliver me" [Psalm 91:3], not I myself. Observe whether he teaches anything but this, that all our trust be in God, none in man. Whence shall he deliver you? "From the snare of the hunter, and from a harsh word." Deliverance from the hunter's net is indeed a great blessing: but how is deliverance from a harsh word so? Many have fallen into the hunter's net through a harsh word. What is it that I say? The devil and his angels spread their snares, as hunters do: and those who walk in Christ tread afar from those snares: for he dares not spread his net in Christ: he sets it on the verge of the way, not in the way. Let then your way be Christ, and you shall not fall into the snares of the devil....

But what is, "from a harsh word"? The devil has entrapped many by a harsh word: for instance, those who profess Christianity among Pagans suffer insult from the heathen: they blush when they hear reproach, and shrinking out of their path in consequence, fall into the hunter's snares. And yet what will a harsh word do to you? Nothing. Can the snares with which the enemy entraps you by means of reproaches, do nothing to you? Nets are usually spread for birds at the end of a hedge, and stones are thrown into the hedge: those stones will not harm the birds. When did any one ever hit a bird by throwing a stone into a hedge? But the bird, frightened at the harmless noise, falls into the nets; and thus men who fear the vain reproaches of their calumniators, and who blush at unprovoked insults, fall into the snares of the hunters, and are taken captive by the devil...Just as among the heathen, the Christian who fears their reproaches falls into the snare of the hunter: so among the Christians, those who endeavour to be more diligent and better than the rest, are doomed to bear insults from Christians themselves. What then does it profit, my brother, if you occasionally find a city in which there is no heathen? No one there insults a man because he is a Christian, for this reason, that there is no Pagan therein: but there are many Christians who lead a bad life, among whom those who are resolved to live righteously, and to be sober among the drunken, and chaste among the unchaste, and amid the consulters of astrologers sincerely to worship God, and to ask after no such things, and among spectators of frivolous shows will go only to church, suffer from those very Christians reproaches, and harsh words, when they address such a one, "You are the mighty, the righteous, you are Elias, you are Peter: you have come from heaven." They insult him: whichever way he turns, he hears harsh sayings on each side: and if he fears, and abandons the way of Christ, he falls into the snares of the hunters. But what is it, when he hears such words, not to swerve from the way? On hearing them, what comfort has he, which prevents his heeding them, and enables him to enter by the door? Let him say; What words am I called, who am a servant and a sinner? To my Lord Jesus they said, "You have a devil." [John 8:48] You have just heard the harsh words spoken against our Lord: it was not necessary for our Lord to suffer this, but in doing so He has warned you against harsh words, lest you fall into the snares of the hunters.

For he himself will free me from the snare of the hunters. There are many hunters in this world, who try to hunt down our soul. Indeed even that giant Nimrod was a great hunter in the sight of the Lord: and Esau was a hunter, because he was a sinner; and nowhere in the holy Scriptures do we find any holy hunter. Fishermen we find to be holy. For he himself will free me from the snare of the hunters. "Our soul, like a sparrow, has been snatched from the snare of the hunters: the snare has been broken, and we have been set free." What is this snare that has been broken? "The Lord," he says, "will crush Satan under our feet speedily." And the apostle says: "That you may be freed from the snare of the devil." You see, therefore, that this is a hunter, who desires to hunt our souls to their destruction. The devil has many snares, and he has diverse snares. Greed is a snare of the devil, slander is a snare of the devil, fornication is a snare of the devil. And from the harsh word. As long as we are in holiness, our soul is tranquil; but when we begin to think about sins, our soul is troubled, and is shaken as though by certain waves.

I will hope in Him, for He Himself shall deliver me from the snare of the hunters. In this world there are many hunters who long to capture our souls, just as is said by the prophet: "Our soul has been snatched away like a sparrow from the snare of the hunters." Now that hunters are taken in a sinister sense in the holy Scriptures, we have already said often. For that Nimrod, the giant, always a rebel against God, was a hunter. Esau too was a hunter. For He Himself shall deliver me from the snare of the hunters. We read in Proverbs: "The eye of the harlot is the snare of the sinner." "For whoever shall look upon a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." As many as are the sins, so many are the snares; as many as the snares, so many the hunters. The doctrines of the heretics are the snares of death. Finally there follows: and from the harsh word. You see that it is spoken concerning the heretics. In place of what we have, "harsh," the Hebrew has "hidden." For heretics always promise certain secret and great things, so that they may snatch away those things which are true and manifest.

"He shall defend you between His shoulders, and you shall hope under His wings" [Psalm 91:4]. He says this, that your protection may not be to you from yourself, that you may not imagine that you can defend yourself; He will defend you, to deliver you from the hunter's snare, and from an harsh word. The expression, "between His shoulders," may be understood both in front and behind: for the shoulders are about the head; but in the words, "you shall hope under His wings," it is clear that the protection of the wings of God expanded places you between His shoulders, so that God's wings on this side and that have you in the midst, where you shall not fear lest any one hurt you: only be thou careful never to leave that spot, where no foe dares approach. If the hen defends her chickens beneath her wings; how much more shall you be safe beneath the wings of God, even against the devil and his angels, the powers who fly about in mid air like hawks, to carry off the weak young one? For the comparison of the hen to the very Wisdom of God is not without ground; for Christ Himself, our Lord and Saviour, speaks of Himself as likened to a hen; "how often would I have gathered your children," etc. [Matthew 23:37] That Jerusalem would not: let us be willing....If you consider other birds, brethren, you will find many that hatch their eggs, and keep their young warm: but none that weakens herself in sympathy with her chickens, as the hen does. We see swallows, sparrows, and storks outside their nests, without being able to decide whether they have young or no: but we know the hen to be a mother by the weakness of her voice, and the loosening of her feathers: she changes altogether from love for her chickens: she weakens herself because they are weak. Thus since we were weak, the Wisdom of God made Itself weak, when the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us, [John 1:14] that we might hope under His wings.

Since Scripture conceals a manifold understanding beneath a single letter, the expositor ought to bring hidden things forth into the light and make manifest what has been drawn forth through another, more open passage of Scripture, as if I were to expound that verse of the Psalm: Take hold of arms and shield, and rise up to help me, and wished to explain what the divine arms are; I would say that they are his truth and good will: and that this is so must be proved through open Scripture. For it is also written elsewhere: With the shield of your good will you have crowned us; and again: His truth shall compass you about with a shield.

The soul is disposed to the gift of fortitude through the unconquerable shield of faith. The devil draws man to the concupiscence of the flesh, to the concupiscence of the eyes, and to the pride of life. What is the means of resisting these? Through truth. "His truth shall encompass you with a shield," namely through faith dwelling within, "you shall not fear the terror of the night." And blessed Peter said: "Your adversary as a roaring lion goes about seeking whom he may devour: whom resist, strong in faith." If we loved truth, we would not fear the devil, because it is written: "The eyes of the Lord behold the whole earth and give fortitude to those who believe in him with a perfect heart."

The third part of the perfection of the fear of the Lord consists in the perfect firmness of confidence: because the fear of the Lord is a tower of firmness and confidence, because it renders a person secure from every other fear. "His truth shall encompass you with a shield; you shall not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor the assault and the noonday devil." He who does not fear God must fear everywhere; and he who truly fears God has what no one can take from him. But he who fears something other than God has what ought to be taken from him.

In this garden, there is much walking about, for if one is not happy to remain in the first, he goes to the second, and likewise with the others. And so man is compassed about with apples. Hence, in the Canticle: "Stay me up with flowers, compass me about with apples." And in the Psalm: "His truth shall compass thee with a shield." And so, as the intellect is ordained toward the affective dispositions, and faith is the way to charity, so also these enlightenments must pass over into the affective dispositions, in order that the intellect pass from the speculative to the practical.

When the great David heard and understood this, he [David] said to him "who dwells in the shelter of the most High; He will overshadow you with his shoulders," which is the same as being behind God (for the shoulder is on the back of the body). Concerning himself David says, "My soul clings close to you, your right hand supports me." You see how Psalms agree with the history. For as the one says that the right hand is a help to the person who has joined himself close behind God, so the other says that the hand touches the person who waits in the rock on the divine voice and prays that he might follow behind.

With his shoulders he will overshadow you. But this is according to that passage of Deuteronomy: The Lord protects us with his wings like his own chicks, as an eagle does. For it is said there that he protects his chicks like an eagle. Although, therefore, we can say this, that God protects us like a father, and protects us like a hen protecting her chicks, lest they be seized by the hawk: nevertheless we can also say something else. With his shoulders he will overshadow you: he will be lifted up on the cross, he will stretch out his hands, and will protect us. And under his wings you shall hope. You shall look, he says, upon his crucified hands, and if the serpent bites you, you shall be healed. Although you walk in the desert of this world: if a scorpion strikes you, if a basilisk, if an asp, if the other venomous creatures, be secure concerning your healing: the serpent has been lifted up in the wilderness.

His truth shall surround you with a shield. Our shield is round, that is, it hedges us in on every side. Not only is it a shield, but it is also a wall. "Lord, as with a shield of your good will you have crowned us." Does someone crown with a shield? See what he says: Lord, as with a shield of your good will you have crowned us. What does he say? You will protect us, and make us conquer, and after the victory you will crown us. His truth shall surround you with a shield. Since he had said "from the harsh word," and by the harsh word we can understand also that of the heretics, and of the philosophers, and of the Jews, and this, as it were, harsh word is not true, but is false. For it is turbid precisely because it is false; it is turbid precisely because it disturbs our souls through its lie. The Lord therefore, who is truth, and says "I am the truth," his truth surrounds us with a shield, lest we be struck by the burning arrows of the devil. Therefore Christ, who is the truth, sets his shield against them, so that by the shield of truth he may overcome the lie.

With His shoulders He shall overshadow you. Who shall overshadow? Surely the God of heaven, as a hen her chicks, and as an eagle its nest. Hence also in the song of Deuteronomy it is said that He carried the people of Israel upon His shoulders, and protected them as an eagle. It can also be understood of the Savior, that upon His cross He protected us with His wings. And under His feathers you shall hope. "All the day long I have stretched forth my hands to a people that did not believe and that contradicted me." The hands of the Lord raised to heaven did not ask for help, but were protecting us wretches.

His truth shall surround you with a shield: that is, you shall be encircled round about with truth.

"His truth shall surround thee with a shield." What are "the wings," the same is "the shield:" since there are neither wings nor shield. If either were literally, how could the one be the same as the other? can wings be a shield or a shield wings? But all these expressions, indeed, are figuratively used through likenesses. If Christ were really a Stone, He could not be a Lion; if a Lion, He could not be a Lamb: but He is called both Lion, and Lamb, and Stone, and Calf, and anything else of the sort, metaphorically, because He is neither Stone, nor Lion, nor Lamb, nor Calf, but Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all of us, for these are likenesses, not literal names. "His truth shall be thy shield," it is said: a shield to assure us that He will not confound those whose trust is in themselves with those who hope in God. One is a sinner, and the other a sinner: but suppose one that presumes upon himself is a despiser, confesses not his sins, and he will say, if my sins displeased God, He would not suffer me to live. But another dared not even raise his eyes, but beat upon his breast, saying, "God be merciful to me a sinner." Both this was a sinner, and that: but the one mocked, the other mourned: the one was a despiser, the other a confessor, of his sins. But the truth of God, which respects not persons, discerns the penitent from him who denies his sin, the humble from the proud, him who presumes upon himself from him who presumes on God. "Thou shall not be afraid for any terror by night."

The third part of the perfection of the fear of the Lord consists in the perfect firmness of confidence: because the fear of the Lord is a tower of firmness and confidence, because it renders a person secure from every other fear. "His truth shall encompass you with a shield; you shall not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor the assault and the noonday devil." He who does not fear God must fear everywhere; and he who truly fears God has what no one can take from him.

The soul is disposed to the gift of fortitude through the unconquerable shield of faith. The devil draws man to the concupiscence of the flesh, to the concupiscence of the eyes, and to the pride of life. What is the means of resisting these? Through truth. "His truth shall encompass you with a shield," namely through faith dwelling within, "you shall not fear the terror of the night." If we loved truth, we would not fear the devil.

You shall not fear the terror of the night. The devil is always in darkness: "that he may strike," he says, "the innocent in secret." You see, therefore, that whoever is simple and innocent is always struck in secret. You shall not fear the terror of the night. What he says is this: Although you may be in terror, which is night, nevertheless you shall not fear, because you have the shield of truth.

Of the arrow that flies by day. To this sense there seems to be, as it were, a contradiction: Of the arrow that flies by day. The flying arrow of the devil seems to me to be the discourse of the heretics and philosophers. For these too promise the light of knowledge, and say that they have day; and they cannot deceive unless they promise light. But that light which they promise is from burning arrows. And therefore it is said, Of the arrow that flies by day.

You shall not fear from the terror of the night. The just man has no terror of the night, but of the day. "Come, children, hear me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord." Those who are the children of the prophets have no terror of the night, nor of the darkness, but of the light and of the day. "That they may shoot in secret at the upright of heart." The devil does not send his arrows in the day, lest he be seen. For everything that is done in the light is made manifest by the light.

But someone may say: If the devil does not shoot in the day, how then in the following little verse does the psalmist say, From the arrow that flies by day? What is this arrow that flies by day? It is the teaching of the heretics: which, as it were through the day—that is, the law of God—flies here and there, while they anxiously gather up testimonies searched out against us, which by their own interpretations they corrupt away from the truth.

"And you shall sleep and there shall be none to terrify you". Solomon too in the Proverbs said: "for if you sit, you shall be without fear; and if you sleep, you shall gladly take sleep; and you shall not fear the terror coming upon you, nor the assaults of the impious coming upon you". These things he said concerning the just and wise man, and these things are said in the blessing: "you shall sleep, and there shall be none to terrify you". For if I become just, no one can terrify me; I fear nothing else, if I fear God; for "the just man", he says, "is confident as a lion", and therefore he does not fear the lion, the devil, nor "the dragon", Satan, nor "his angels", but says according to David: "I will not fear the nocturnal terror, the arrow flying by day, and the business walking in the darkness, the ruin and the noonday demon". He adds also this: "The Lord is my illumination and my Savior, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defender of my life, of whom shall I tremble?". And again: "if camps stand against me, my heart shall not fear". You see the constancy and virtue of the soul that keeps the commandments of God and has the confidence of an inborn liberty.

"Nor for the arrow that flies by day, for the matter that walks in darkness, nor for the ruin and the devil that is in the noonday" [Psalm 91:6]. These two clauses above correspond to the two below; "You shall not fear" for "the terror by night, from the arrow that flies by day:" both because of "the terror by night," from "the matter that walks in darkness:" and because of "the arrow that flies by day," from "the ruin of the devil of the noon-day." What ought to be feared by night, and what by day? When any man sins in ignorance, he sins, as it were, by night: when he sins in full knowledge, by day. The two former sins then are the lighter: the second are much heavier; but this is obscure, and will repay your attention, if, by God's blessing, I can explain it so that you may understand it. He calls the light temptation, which the ignorant yield to, "terror by night:" the light temptation, which assails men who well know, "the arrow that flies by day." What are light temptations? Those which do not press upon us so urgently, as to overcome us, but may pass by quickly if declined. Suppose these, again, heavy ones. If the persecutor threatens, and frightens the ignorant grievously, I mean those whose faith is as yet unstable, and know not that they are Christians that they may hope for a life to come; as soon as they are alarmed with temporal ills, they imagine that Christ has forsaken them, and that they are Christians to no purpose; they are not aware that they are Christians for this reason, that they may conquer the present, and hope for the future: the matter that walks in darkness has found and seized them. But some there are who know that they are called to a future hope; that what God has promised is not of this life, or this earth; that all these temptations must be endured, that we may receive what God has promised us for evermore; all this they know: when however the persecutor urges them more strenuously, and plies them with threats, penalties, tortures, at length they yield, and although they are well aware of their sin, yet they fall as it were by day.

The third part of the perfection of the fear of the Lord consists in the perfect firmness of confidence: because the fear of the Lord is a tower of firmness and confidence, because it renders a person secure from every other fear. "His truth shall encompass you with a shield; you shall not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor the assault and the noonday devil." He who does not fear God must fear everywhere; and he who truly fears God has what no one can take from him.

Of the business that walks about in the darkness. The arrow indeed flies as though by day, but the business is one that walks about in darkness.

Of the assault and the noonday demon. It is better said in Greek, ἀπὸ συμπτώματος (apo symptōmatos). Symptosis means either an occurrence, that is, when we do not expect it, and something new happens. Or it is called symptoma, when many fall at the same time. See therefore what he says. Although many have been led astray, nevertheless you, who are holy, are not to be led astray. I give an example, so that the simpler ones may be able to understand what is said. If you go into a city as a monk alone, and begin to walk about, and hear a shout in the circus, and someone says to you: Come and watch, it is the circus; and you begin to say to him, It is not permitted, I cannot go: if he shows you countless thousands of men, and says to you, Two hundred thousand men are there: are all those then going to perish, and you alone will be saved? — you ought to understand that it is a symptoma of the devil; that is, you ought to know that many are falling. And the noonday demon. Many indeed say that there are also noonday demons, and this is said among the common folk. But for my part I say plainly that a demon has power over us at the time when we sin. Whether we sin in the morning, the demon enters into us: whether at evening, whether at night, at whatever hour we sin, the demon enters into us. But if we do not sin at noon, he does not enter into us. You see, therefore, how frivolous is what is said among the common folk. What then does he say, Of the noonday demon? Because Abraham received the angels at noon, and Joseph invited his brothers to a meal at noon. For both Abraham and Joseph were holy, and therefore their banquet was in clear light and full sun, therefore they feed at noon. And I too, if I have full knowledge of the Scriptures, although it be the third hour, nevertheless I feed you at noon. Indeed even the bride in the Song of Songs says: "Where do you feed, she says, where do you lie down at noon?" You see that the bridegroom does not feed, does not recline at the third hour, but at noon. Where do you feed, where do you lie down, where do I find you, where do you take your delight, where can I find you, O my bridegroom? Do you wish to find me? At noon, in perfect knowledge, in good works, in clear light. Since therefore we have our noon, therefore the devil too transforms himself into an angel of light, and he himself pretends that he has light, that he has noon. When the heretics promise, as it were, certain mysteries, when they promise the kingdom of heaven, when continence, when fasts, when holiness, when renunciation of the world, they promise noon. But since it is not the light of Christ, it is not noon, but the noonday demon.

And from the business that walks about in the darkness. He did not say, "standing," but "walking about"; because heretics are never stable in their opinions, but are always changing and walking about. From the onslaught and the noonday demon. We read in Genesis that Joseph fed his brothers at noon; and in the Song of Songs it is written: "Where do you lie down, where do you feed? At noon." Therefore, just as the saints have a noon and a light where they may feed and lie down, so too the devil, transfigured into an angel of light, has his ministers transfigured, as it were ministers of righteousness. Therefore when you see a heretic preaching, and saying, "This says Moses, this is written in the prophets, this in the Gospels," does it not seem to you—if you are ignorant of the treachery of his mind—that you are hearing an angel of the Savior speaking? But the simple think there is a certain noonday demon who at noon can more readily assail men. We, however, shall interpret the chiefs of the heretics as the noonday demons, who, feigning themselves angels of light, preach the doctrines of darkness. Do you wish us to say something elegantly? Arius, or the rest of the heretics who came forth from Alexandria, are called noonday demons.

Many then fell before the demon of the noon-day. Would ye know how many? He goes on, and says, "A thousand shall fall beside you, and ten thousand at your right hand; but it shall not come near you" [Psalm 91:7]. To whom, brethren, but to Christ Jesus, is this said?...For the members, the body, and the head, are not separate from one another: the body and the head are the Church and her Saviour. How then is it said, "A thousand shall fall beside you, and ten thousand by your right hand"? Because they shall fall before the devil, that destroys at noon. It is a terrible thing, my brethren, to fall from beside Christ, from His right hand but how shall they fall from beside Him? Why the one beside Him, the other at His right hand? Why a thousand beside Him, ten thousand at His right hand? Why a thousand beside Him? Because a thousand are fewer than the ten thousand who shall fall at His right hand. Who these are will soon be clear in Christ's name; for to some He promised that they should judge with Him, namely, to the Apostles, who left all things, and followed Him....Those judges then are the heads of the Church, the perfect. To such He said, "If you will be perfect, go and sell that you have, and give to the poor." [Matthew 19:21] What means the expression, "if you will be perfect"? It means, if you will judge with Me, and not be judged....Many such at that period, who had distributed their all to the poor, and already promised themselves a seat beside Christ in judgment of the nations, failed amid their torments under the blazing fire of persecution, as before the demon of the noon-day, and denied Christ. These are they who have fallen "beside" Him: when about to sit with Christ for the judgment of the world, they fell.

Scripture enlightens from the right by means of dangerous satisfactions. Nor is it without reason that satisfactions are called dangerous and punishments benign, for satisfactions entail serious risk. Behold Adam, Saul, Solomon, the idolater Jeroboam, and the Prince of Angels, to all of whom temporal satisfactions and a state of high eminence were occasions of ruin. For they are occasions of ruin when they please. When they do not please, man is not taken up by them. Wherefore Christ did not want to have any temporal satisfaction, because a thousand fall at your side, ten thousand at your right. And one should always prefer to be on that side on which less are falling.

A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand. The individual words of the Scriptures are individual mysteries. Those rustic words which are thought so by the men of the world are full of mysteries. "For we have this treasure in earthen vessels": we have the treasure of the divine meaning in the most worthless words. A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand. At whose side? At the side of him to whom it had been said, His truth shall surround you with a shield, you shall not fear the terror of the night. Who is this? He of whom it was said above, Who dwells in the help of the Most High, he shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven. From him, therefore, who dwells in the help of the Lord, a thousand shall fall at his side, and ten thousand at his right hand. The right hand of the holy man is spoken of: the left is not spoken of, but the side. For see what is said: And ten thousand at your right hand. And how had you said it? A thousand shall fall at your side. For when the right hand is spoken of and the left is not named, in place of the left the side is named. For it could not be just that the just man should have a left hand. "Whoever," he says, "strikes you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well." He did not say, "and the left": for it is not a left cheek that is offered, but another right one. Therefore I say plainly that the just man has two right hands. Indeed even that Ehud, who is written of in the book of Judges, is said to have two right hands for this reason, because he was just, and he killed that very fat king. A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand. There are more who lie in wait for our right hand, there are not more who lie in wait for the left: therefore at the side a thousand shall fall, and at the right hand ten thousand. For where the greater battle is, the greater victory. Few lie in wait for the side, more lie in wait for the right hand.

A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand. "At your side" and "at your right hand." He did not say, "at your left," because the just man has no left, just as it is written in the Gospel: "Whoever shall strike you on the right cheek, offer him the other also." He did not say, "offer the left"; since indeed the lambs shall stand at the right, and the kids at the left. A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand. By the "side" of the just man we can understand the weaknesses of the body; but by the "right hand," the integrity of the soul. By the labors of the body—that is, by fastings and chastity—a thousand shall fall; but at the right hand, where through the freedom of the soul there is pure and holy doctrine, there shall fall the very great multitude of the enemy. But to you they shall not draw near. Imagine the fortified wedges of the enemy coming against the just man, concerning whom it is said, But to you they shall not draw near: that is, they shall collapse before they can reach as far as you.

"Nevertheless, with your eyes shall you behold, and see the reward of the ungodly" [Psalm 91:8]. What is this? Why "nevertheless"? Because the wicked were allowed to tyrannize over Your servants, and to persecute them. Will they then have been allowed to persecute Your servants with impunity? Not with impunity, for although You have permitted them, and Your own have thence received a brighter crown, "nevertheless," etc. For the evil which they willed, not the good they unconsciously were the agents of, will be recompensed them. All that is wanting is the eye of faith, by which we may see that they are raised for a time only, while they shall mourn for evermore; and to those into whose hands is given temporal power over the servants of God, it shall be said, "Depart into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." [Matthew 25:41] But if every man have but eyes in the sense in which it is said, "With your eyes shall you behold," it is no unimportant thing to look upon the wicked flourishing in this life, and to have an eye to him, to consider what will become of him in the end, if he fail to reform his ways: for those who now would thunder upon others, will afterwards feel the thunderbolt themselves.

Nevertheless with your eyes you shall consider, and you shall see the retribution of sinners. You shall see the corpses of the dead, and you shall marvel at the majesty of the Lord and Savior. And you shall see the retribution of sinners. The ruin of sinners is their destruction. What he says is this: You who have made the Lord your refuge look with your eyes, secure, upon the retribution of the heretics, since you have guarded yourself from their traditions.

"For Thou, Lord, art my hope" [Psalm 91:9]. He has now come to the power Which rescues him from falling by the "downfall and the devil of the noon-day." "For Thou, Lord, art my hope: You have set Your house of defence very high." What do the words "very high" mean? For many make their house of defence in God a mere refuge from temporal persecution; but the defence of God is on high, and very secret, whither you may fly from the wrath to come. Within "You have set your house of defence very high. There shall no evil happen unto You: neither shall any plague come near Your dwelling" [Psalm 91:10].

These things have been said in the person of the Lord to the just man; but now the person is changed, and out of the contemplation of the just man an answer is made to the Lord: For you, O Lord, are my hope. For he who says these things is the just man. You have made the Most High your refuge. Again the person is changed: and for this reason the psalms are obscure, because very often the persons are changed. For while the just man calls upon the Lord and says, For you, O Lord, are my hope, he hears from the Lord, You have made the Most High your refuge. And therefore the following verse is fitting for you:

And now that I am writing to you I beseech you. Do not regard the bodily affliction that has befallen you as due to sin. When the apostles speculated concerning the man that was born blind from the womb and asked our Lord and Savior: "Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" they were told "Neither has this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." Do we not see numbers of pagans, Jews, heretics and people of various opinions rolling in the mire of lust, bathed in blood, surpassing wolves in ferocity and hawks in rapacity, and "for all this the plague does not come near their dwellings"? They are not struck as other people, and accordingly they grow insolent against God and lift up their faces even to heaven. We know on the other hand that holy people are afflicted with sicknesses, miseries and want, and perhaps they are tempted to say, "Truly I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocence." Yet immediately they go on to reprove themselves, "If I say, I will speak thus; behold, I should offend against the generation of your children." If you suppose that your blindness is caused by sin and that a disease [such as blindness] that physicians are often able to cure is an evidence of God's anger, you will think Isaac a sinner because he was so wholly sightless that he was deceived into blessing one whom he did not mean to bless. You will charge Jacob with sin, whose vision became so dim that he could not see Ephraim and Manasseh, although with the inner eye and the prophetic spirit he could foresee the distant future and the Christ that was to come of his royal line. Were any of the kings holier than Josiah? Yet he was slain by the sword of the Egyptians. Were there ever loftier saints than Peter and Paul? Yet their blood stained the blade of Nero. And to say no more of people, did not the Son of God endure the shame of the cross? And yet you fancy those blessed who enjoy in this world happiness and pleasure? God's hottest anger against sinners is when he shows no anger. Therefore in Ezekiel he says to Jerusalem, "My jealousy will depart from you, and I will be quiet and will be no more angry." For "whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives." The father does not instruct his son unless he loves him. The master does not correct his disciple unless he sees in him signs of promise. When once the doctor gives up caring for the patient, it is a sign that he despairs. You should answer thus: "as Lazarus in his lifetime received evil things so will I now gladly suffer torments that future glory may be laid up for me." For "affliction shall not rise up the second time." If Job, a man holy and spotless and righteous in his generation, suffered terrible afflictions, his own book explains the reason why.

Evils shall not come to you, and the scourge shall not draw near to your tabernacle. He did not say, "shall not sound," but, "shall not draw near to your tabernacle": for it cannot come to pass that the scourge of the devil should not sound for the just man. For if the Lord Himself was scourged, and was vexed with tribulations and temptations, which of the just shall not be scourged? But let us see what this is, "shall not draw near to your tabernacle." This is it: it sounded indeed from without, and by fleshly passions it tried to disturb; but the tabernacle of the soul, or the mind, which is the tabernacle of faith, it did not overthrow.

What then, my brethren, what is said of our Head? "For Thou, Lord, art my hope," etc. Of this we have spoken, "for He has given His angels charge over You, to keep You in all Your ways" [Psalm 91:11]. You heard these words but now, when the Gospel was being read; attend therefore. Our Lord, after He was baptized, fasted. Why was He baptized? That we might not scorn to be baptized. For when John said to our Lord, "Comest Thou to me to be baptized? I ought to be baptized by You;" and our Lord replied, "Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness;" [Matthew 3:14-15] He wished to fulfil all humility, so that He should be washed, who had no defilement....Our Lord, then, was baptized, and after baptism He was tempted; He fasted forty days, a number which has, as I have often mentioned, a deep meaning. All things cannot be explained at once, lest needful time be too much taken up. After forty days He was an hungred. He could have fasted without ever feeling hunger; but then how could He be tempted? Or had He not overcome the tempter, how couldest thou learn to struggle with him? He was hungry; and then the tempter said, "If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." Was it a great thing for our Lord Jesus Christ to make bread out of stones, when He satisfied so many thousands with five loaves? He made bread out of nothing. For whence came that quantity of food, which could satisfy so many thousands? The sources of that bread are in the Lord's hands. This is nothing wonderful; for He Himself made out of five loaves bread enough for so many thousands, who also every day out of a few seeds raises up on earth immense harvests. These are the miracles of our Lord: but from their constant operation they are disregarded. What then, my brethren, was it impossible for the Lord to create bread out of stones? He made men even out of stones, in the words of John the Baptist himself, "God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." [Matthew 3:9] Why then did He not so? That he might teach you how to answer the tempter, so that if you were reduced to any straits and the tempter suggested, if you were a Christian and belonged to Christ, would He desert you now?...Listen to our Lord: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." Do you think the word of God bread? If the Word of God, through which all things were made, was not bread, He would not say, "I am the bread which came down from heaven." [John 6:41] You have therefore learned to answer the tempter, when pressed with hunger.

Well, the Donatists are not false Christians. They are quite simply not Christians at all, since they listen to what the devil suggested and do not listen to the answer Christ gave him. How, after all, did the Lord, our teacher and savior, answer the devil's suggestion of such things? "Get back, Satan, for it is written: You shall not tempt the Lord your God." The devil, as a matter of fact, had taken his suggestion from Scripture, and the Lord replied from Scripture. The devil had said to the Lord, you see, "Since it is written, He will instruct his angels about you; they will lift you up in their hands, lest you should hurt your foot on a stone." "Hurl yourself down," he said, "and if you are the Son of God, the angels are there to catch you; what are you afraid of?" The Lord could indeed both have cast down his body and not allowed it to die; but what the devil was suggesting to Christ at that time is the sort of thing Christ was not teaching future Christians. This, you see, is exactly what the devil is also suggesting to the Donatists, saying, "Hurl yourselves down, the angels are there to catch you. With such a death you do not go to punishment, but you win through to a crown." They would be Christians if they give an ear to Christ and did not trust the devil, who first separated them from the peace of the church and later on gave them cliff-jumpers.

For he has given his angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. This passage the devil interpreted concerning the Lord. For at the time when he tempted the Lord, "If," he says, "you are the Son of God, cast yourself down. For it is written concerning you, that he has given his angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone." The devil said nothing more than this: For he has given his angels charge concerning you, that in their hands they may bear you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone. He left out the middle part. For here it is said, For he has given his angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. This he did not say, To guard you in all your ways: for he knew it was against himself. For the Lord could have answered him: If the Lord guards me in all my ways, then I am guarded from you too. He was silent, therefore, about what he knew was against himself, and set down what was in his favor.

For He has given His angels charge concerning you, that they may keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall carry you, lest ever you dash your foot against a stone. If ever the heretics interpret certain things from the Scriptures against us, we ought not to be disturbed: because the devil too used this testimony against the Lord and Savior, saying, "If you are the Son of God, cast yourself down; for it is written that He has given His angels charge concerning you," and the rest. The devil interprets the Scriptures like a devil: for he was applying this psalm to the person of the Lord, which is spoken not of the Lord, but of any just man. But I grant you, O devil, that it be written concerning the Lord Himself, "in their hands the angels shall carry you": why did you not say what follows, "Upon the asp and the basilisk you shall tread"? O the cunning of the crafty, shape-shifting enemy! What seemed to pertain to the frailty of the Savior and to the temptation of the man, he spoke; but what he understood to be against himself, with his ancient craftiness he kept silent. You err, O devil, and by your deceit you ensnare your very self. In this place your lie profits the Church: although you did this in order to tempt, you have shown that the children of God, all the just, are carried by the hands of the angels—that is, by their help—at the command and bidding of the Lord.

And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. [Psalms 91:11-12] And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. [Psalms 91:11-12] Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

And note: do you think it was as though inferior to the angels, or needing the help of angels, that the Savior said: or do you think that I cannot ask my Father, and he will furnish me more than twelve legions of angels? — or was it perhaps according to the estimation of Peter, who wished to bring him help and brought forth the sword and cut off the servant's ear, that he spoke such things? For rather do the angels have need of the help of the only-begotten Son of God than he of theirs. For this reason, that which is written, "for he shall give his angels charge concerning you, to keep you in all your ways", is understood to be said not of the only-begotten Son of God, but either in the person of Christ concerning every just man, whom Christ was bearing in his body, or concerning Christ according to his human nature. And finally, that which he says, he will deliver you "from ruin and the noonday demon", in no way befits the Son of God; but also what he says, "you shall not fear the terror of the night, the arrow that flies by day, the trouble that walks about in the darkness", befits a just man rather than the Son of God. Since therefore he could receive the legions, he was unwilling to receive them, so that through his patience the Scriptures prophesying about him might be fulfilled, since it befitted him thus to suffer.

He takes up a testimony and interprets of Christ that which was written not of Christ, but of the saints generally. For freely and with all confidence I contradict the devil, that this cannot be understood of the person of Christ. For he does not need the help of the angels, who is greater than the angels and has obtained by inheritance a name better than they. To none of the angels did God ever say: "You are my Son, this day have I begotten you." To none of them did he speak as to a son, "he who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a burning fire," but to his own proper Son, of whom he speaks innumerable things in the prophets. He does not need, I say, the help of the angels, the Son of God. But that you may know that you have interpreted wrongly, and that what follows is to be understood not of Christ but of the saints, listen. "From ruin and the noonday demon" God delivers not Jesus Christ, but the saints. Read the ninetieth Psalm, whose beginning is: "He who dwells in the help of the Most High shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven," and you will find that these things befit rather a just man than the Son of God: "a thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you; nevertheless with your eyes you shall behold, and you shall look upon the requital of sinners," and the rest, interpreting it of the person of the just. But even thus, perversely taking up the testimonies so as to assert that the things which were said of the just are to be understood of the Savior, the devil is silent and passes over the little verses which are written against himself. For when he had said: "he has commanded his angels concerning you, and in their hands they will lift you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone," he was silent about that which follows: "you shall walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample down the lion and the dragon." Why are you silent about these things, O devil, unless because you are the "basilisk," you are the little king of all serpents, having more harmful poisons than the rest, who slay someone the moment you see him? You know too that there is another opposing power, an associate of yours, which is called the "asp" and is made subject to the just man, and for that reason you keep silent about all these things. You are the "dragon," you are the "lion," of whom it is written: "you shall tread upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample down the lion and the dragon." But though you be silent, we who read the Scriptures more rightly know that we have the power of trampling upon you and that this dominion has been given to us.

In various ways has the devil rivalled and resisted the truth. Sometimes his aim has been to destroy the truth by defending it. He maintains that there is one only Lord, the Almighty Creator of the world, in order that out of this doctrine of the unity he may fabricate a heresy. He says that the Father Himself came down into the Virgin, was Himself born of her, Himself suffered, indeed was Himself Jesus Christ. Here the old serpent has fallen out with himself, since, when he tempted Christ after John's baptism, he approached Him as "the Son of God;" surely intimating that God had a Son, even on the testimony of the very Scriptures, out of which he was at the moment forging his temptation: "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." Again: "If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence; for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning thee"—referring no doubt, to the Father—"and in their hands they shall bear thee up, that thou hurt not thy foot against a stone." Or perhaps, after all, he was only reproaching the Gospels with a lie, saying in fact: "Away with Matthew; away with Luke! Why heed their words? In spite of them, I declare that it was God Himself that I approached; it was the Almighty Himself that I tempted face to face; and it was for no other purpose than to tempt Him that I approached Him. If, on the contrary, it had been only the Son of God, most likely I should never have condescended to deal with Him."

Let us return to the words of the Psalm. "They shall bear You in their hands, lest at any time Thou hurt Your foot against a stone" [Psalm 91:12]. Christ was raised up in the hands of Angels, when He was taken up into heaven: not that, if Angels had not sustained Him, He would have fallen: but because they were attending on their King. Say not, Those who sustained Him are better than He who was sustained. Are then cattle better than men, because they sustain the weakness of men? And we ought not to speak thus either; for if the cattle withdraw their support, their riders fall. But how ought we to speak of it? For it is said even of God, "Heaven is My throne." Because then heaven supports Him, and God sits thereon, is therefore heaven the better? Thus also in this Psalm we may understand it of the service of the Angels: it does not pertain to any infirmity in our Lord, but to the honour they pay, and to their service....What the finger of God is, the Gospel explains to us; for the finger of God is the Holy Ghost. How do we prove this? Our Lord, when answering those who accused Him of casting out devils in the name of Beelzebub, says, "If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God;" [Matthew 12:28] and another Evangelist, in relating the same saying, says, "If I with the finger of God cast out devils." [Luke 11:20] What therefore is in one stated clearly, is darkly expressed in another. You did not know what was the finger of God, but another Evangelist explains it by terming it the Spirit of God. The Law then written by the finger of God was given on the fiftieth day after the slaughter of the lamb, and the Holy Ghost descended on the fiftieth day after the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lamb was slain, the Passover was celebrated, the fifty days were completed, and the Law was given. But that Law was to cause fear, not love: but that fear might be changed into love, He who was truly righteous was slain: of whom that lamb whom the Jews were slaying was the type. He arose from the dead: and from the day of our Lord's Passover, as from that of the slaying of the Paschal lamb, fifty days are counted; and the Holy Ghost descended, now in the fullness of love, not in the punishment of fear. [Acts 2:1-4] Why have I said this? For this then our Lord arose, and was glorified, that He might send His Holy Spirit. And I said long ago that this was so, because His head is in heaven, His feet on earth. If His head is in heaven, His feet on earth; what means our Lord's feet on earth? Our Lord's saints on earth. Who are our Lord's feet? The Apostles sent throughout the whole world. Who are our Lord's feet? All the Evangelists, in whom our Lord travels over all nations....We need not therefore wonder that our Lord was raised up to heaven by the hands of Angels, that His foot might not dash against a stone: lest those who on earth toiled in His body, while they were travelling over the whole world might become guilty of the Law, He took from them fear, and filled them with love. Through fear Peter thrice denied Him, [Matthew 26:69-75] for he had not yet received the Holy Ghost: afterwards, when he had received the Holy Spirit, he began to preach with confidence....Our Lord so dealt with him, as if He said, thrice you have denied Me through fear: thrice confess Me through love. With that love and that charity He filled His disciples. Why? Because He has set His house of defence very high: because when glorified He sent the Holy Ghost, He released the faithful from the guilt of the Law, that His feet might not dash against a stone.

Well, the Donatists are not false Christians. They are quite simply not Christians at all, since they listen to what the devil suggested and do not listen to the answer Christ gave him. How, after all, did the Lord, our teacher and savior, answer the devil's suggestion of such things? "Get back, Satan, for it is written: You shall not tempt the Lord your God." The devil, as a matter of fact, had taken his suggestion from Scripture, and the Lord replied from Scripture. The devil had said to the Lord, you see, "Since it is written, He will instruct his angels about you; they will lift you up in their hands, lest you should hurt your foot on a stone." "Hurl yourself down," he said, "and if you are the Son of God, the angels are there to catch you; what are you afraid of?" The Lord could indeed both have cast down his body and not allowed it to die; but what the devil was suggesting to Christ at that time is the sort of thing Christ was not teaching future Christians. This, you see, is exactly what the devil is also suggesting to the Donatists, saying, "Hurl yourselves down, the angels are there to catch you. With such a death you do not go to punishment, but you win through to a crown." They would be Christians if they give an ear to Christ and did not trust the devil, who first separated them from the peace of the church and later on gave them cliff-jumpers.

"Thou shall go upon the asp and the basilisk; the lion and the dragon shall you tread under your feet" [Psalm 91:13]. You know who the serpent is, and how the Church treads upon him, as she is not conquered, because she is on her guard against his cunning. And after what manner he is a lion and a dragon, I believe you know also, beloved. The lion openly rages, the dragon lies secretly in covert: the devil has each of these forces and powers. When the Martyrs were being slain, it was the raging lion: when heretics are plotting, it is the dragon creeping beneath us. You have conquered the lion; conquer also the dragon: the lion has not crushed you, let not the dragon deceive you....A few women in the Church have bodily virginity: but the virginity of the heart all the faithful have. In the very matter of faith he feared that the heart's virginity would be corrupted by the devil: and those who have lost it, are uselessly virgins in their bodies. What does a woman who is corrupt in heart preserve in her body? Thus a Catholic married woman is before a virgin heretic. For the first is not indeed a virgin in her body, but the second has become married in her heart; and married not unto God as her husband, but unto the dragon. But what shall the Church do? The basilisk is the king of serpents, as the devil is the king of wicked spirits.

But what is said to Christ? "And you shall trample down the lion and the serpent." The lion because of his open danger, the serpent because of his concealed deception. The serpent drove Adam out of paradise; the very same one, as a lion, persecuted the church, as Peter says: "Your adversary the devil goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour." Let the devil not appear to you to have lost his rage; when he flatters, he must be feared the more.

Beasts bear witness to the faith. Hast thou confidence in the Lord? "Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk and thou shalt trample under feet the lion and the dragon." With faith thou hast the power to walk upon serpents and scorpions. Do you not see that the viper which attached itself to the hand of Paul, whilst he gathered sticks, did not injure him, because it found the saint full of faith? If you have not faith, do not fear beasts so much as your faithlessness, which renders you susceptible of all corruption.

However, we should not be without anxiety, dearly beloved, because we know that [God] is keeping his patience for such a long time. The fact that such great things happen in the world and he still does not avenge them indicates patience, not carelessness. God has not lost his power but is preserving us for repentance. Yet, the longer he awaits your amendment, the harsher will be your punishment if you refuse to amend. God indeed holds the sword, and he wishes to strike sin; we, on the contrary, defend our sins because we love them. Thus, we who should be the accusers of our sins become their defenders. Truly, dearly beloved, God does not want to kill the sinner, but his sin. Like a good doctor he wants to strike the disease, not the person who is ill. But, what is worse, we often despise the doctor and love our sickness: we love our sin and despise God. Sin, indeed, is like this, a dragon, a viper; but concerning the Lord it is written, "You shall walk on the lion and the cobra; and you shall trample under foot the young lion and the serpent." We, on the other hand, embrace our sins like lions and dragons. But our God, who wants to punish sin and save the sinner, daily exclaims to humanity: Cast off your sin from you, and without you it will die. If you refuse to throw aside your sin, you will perish with it, for sin cannot go unpunished. God wants to kill sin, not to strike the sinner.

The rest of what follows pertains to the same exposition. But that the just and those dear to God have the power to trample upon the ancient and twisted serpent, and to press down his whole army with the heel of the foot, we find most evidently in the Gospel. For thus the Lord says to the apostles: "Behold, I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions." Which power we too shall be able to understand as given to us, when we know ourselves to be girded against them by an apostolic way of life. Let us therefore ask the Lord that He who gave power to the just may give also to us, still little ones, the help of righteousness: that we may be imitators of the apostles, and may be aided by their merits, in Christ Jesus our Lord. To whom is glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Truly the devil, like a devil, interprets concerning the Savior what is not concerning the Savior. For if the whole psalm is about the Savior, as you interpret it, O devil, then it is about him too what is said: I will protect him, because he has known my name. That is, I the Father will protect my Son. Let me interpret it, devil, as you understand it. Let us see whether the sense holds. I will protect him, because he has known my name: that is, I the Father my Son. He shall cry to me, and I will hear him: that is, on the day of the cross. I am with him in tribulation, I will rescue him and glorify him: that is, I will make him rise again. With length of days I will fill him. That is, he shall live forever. And let us understand this concerning the Son of God, With length of days I will fill him. But this that follows, how does it hold with respect to the Savior, And I will show him my salvation? The salvation of God is the Son of God. If therefore it is said about the Son, how can it hold? For the salvation of God is the Son of God. You see, therefore, that you have interpreted badly, O devil. But grant that it be interpreted as you say. You said, For he has given his angels charge concerning you, that in their hands they may bear you up, lest perhaps you dash your foot against a stone. Say also what follows. Why are you silent? Upon the asp and the basilisk you shall walk, and you shall trample under foot the lion and the dragon: Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.

His next remark was, "Have not these inferior powers had assigned to them by God different departments, according as each was deemed worthy?" But this is a question which requires a very profound knowledge. For we must determine whether the Word of God, who governs all things, has appointed wicked demons for certain employments, in the same way as in states executioners are appointed, and other officers with cruel but needful duties to discharge; or whether as among robbers, who infest desert places, it is customary for them to choose out of their number one who may be their leader,—so the demons, who are scattered as it were in troops in different parts of the earth, have chosen for themselves a chief under whose command they may plunder and pillage the souls of men. To explain this fully, and to justify the conduct of the Christians in refusing homage to any object except the Most High God, and the First-born of all creation, who is His Word and God, we must quote this from Scripture, "All that ever came before Me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them;" and again, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy;" and other similar passages, as, "Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you;" and again, "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet." But of these things Celsus knew nothing, or he would not have made use of language like this: "Is not everything which happens in the universe, whether it be the work of God, of angels, of other demons, or of heroes, regulated by the law of the Most High God? Have these not had assigned to them various departments of which they were severally deemed worthy? Is it not just, therefore, that he who serves God should serve those also to whom God has assigned such power?" To which he adds, "It is impossible, they say, for a man to serve many masters."

This power the Creator conferred on his Christ first of all, even as the ninetieth psalm [LXX] says of him: "You shall tread on the lion and the cobra; the young lion and the serpent you shall trample under foot." Isaiah also says, "In that day the Lord God shall draw his sacred, great and strong sword" (even his Christ) "against that dragon, that great and tortuous serpent; and he shall slay him in that day." But when the same prophet says, "The way shall be called a clean and holy way; over it the unclean thing shall not pass, nor shall there be any unclean way; but the dispersed shall pass over it, and they shall not err therein; no lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon; it shall not be found there," he points out the way of faith, by which we shall reach God; and then to this way of faith he promises this utter crippling and subjugation of all harmful animals.

These are the words of God to the Church. "Because he hath set his love in me, therefore will I deliver him." Not only therefore the Head, which now sits in heaven, because He hath set His house of defence very high, to which no evil shall happen, neither shall any plague come nigh His dwelling; but we also who are toiling on earth, and are still living in temptations, whose steps are feared for, lest they fall into snares, may hear the voice of the Lord our God consoling us, and saying to us, "Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him up, because he hath known my name."

"He shall call upon me, and I will hear him: yea, I am with him in trouble." Fear not when thou art in trouble, as if the Lord were not with thee. Let faith be with thee, and God is with thee in thy trouble. There are waves on the sea, and thou art tossed in thy bark, because Christ sleepeth. Christ slept in the ship, while the men were perishing. If thy faith sleep in thy heart, Christ is as it were sleeping in thy ship: because Christ dwelleth in thee through faith, when thou beginnest to be tossed, awake Christ sleeping: rouse up thy faith, and thou shalt be assured that He deserts thee not. But thou thinkest thou art forsaken, because He rescueth thee not when thou thyself dost wish. He delivered the Three Children from the fire? Did He, who did this, desert the Maccabees? God forbid! He delivered both of these: the first bodily, that the faithless might be confounded; the last spiritually, that the faithful might imitate them. "I will deliver him, and bring him to honour."

"With length of days will I satisfy him." What is length of days? Eternal life. Brethren, imagine not that length of days is spoken of in the same sense as days are said to be long in summer, short in winter. Hath he such days to give us? That length is one that hath no end, eternal life, that is promised us in long days. And truly, since this sufficeth, with reason he saith, "will I satisfy him." What is long in time, if it hath an end, satisfieth us not: for that reason it should not be even called long. And if we are covetous, we ought to be covetous of eternal life: long for such a life, as hath no end. Lo, a line in which our covetousness may be extended. Dost thou wish money without limit? Long for eternal life without limit. Dost thou wish that thy possession may have no end? Seek for eternal life. "I will show him my salvation." Nor is this, my brethren, to be briefly passed over. "I will show him my salvation:" He means, I will show him Christ Himself. Why? Was He not seen on earth? What great thing hath He to show us? But He did not appear such as we shall see Him. He appeared in that shape in which those who saw Him crucified Him: behold, those who saw Him, crucified Him: we have not seen Him, yet we have believed. They had eyes, have not we? yea, we too have the eyes of the heart: but, as yet we see through faith, not by sight. When will it be sight? When shall we, as the Apostle saith, see Him "face to face"? which God promiseth us as the high reward of all our toils. Whatever thou toilest in, thou toilest for this purpose, that thou mayest see Him. Some great thing it is we are to see, since all our reward is seeing; and our Lord Jesus Christ is that very great sight. He who appeared humble, will Himself appear great, and will rejoice us, as He is even now seen of His Angels. ...Let us love and imitate Him: let us run after his ointments, as is said in the Song of Solomon: "Because of the savour of thy good ointments, we will run after thee." For He came, and gave forth a savour that filled the world. Whence was that fragrance? From heaven. Follow then towards heaven, if thou do not answer falsely when it is said, "Lift up your hearts," lift up your thoughts, your love, your hope: that it may not rot upon the earth. ..."For wherever thy treasure is, there will be thy heart also."