A Commentary on the Psalms from Primitive and Mediaeval Writers, volume 1 (Psalms 1–38) (part 2 of 2)

TITLE. A Psalm and Song at the dedication of the House of David. [Or, A Musical Psalm at the opening of David's house.]

Argument.ARG. THOMAS. That CHRIST planted the Church by His Resurrection in eternal glory. The Prophet speaketh to the FATHER, and to the SON, and concerning the praise of the same. Concerning the Pasch of CHRIST, and the prayers of the future Church, and with praise in man. The voice of CHRIST to the FATHER. The Church prays and praises. VEN. BEDE. A Psalm and Song is this: when it thus commences the hymn, and the art of the organ follows up that which the human voice has begun: and wherever it occurs, it teaches that by the knowledge of Divine cognition, good works are to be taken in hand. For the acquired knowledge of GOD must precede the efficiency of holy deeds. By the House of David we understand the Temple of the LORD's Body: by the dedication of that house, His Resurrection, by which it was raised to eternal power and glory. At the beginning of the Psalm, the LORD, after the glory of His Resurrection, returns thanks to the FATHER because He had delivered Him from the adversity of the world, commanding also His saints to sing praises to GOD, since all things are put in His power: I will magnify Thee, O Lord, for Thou hast set me up. Secondly, He affirms that He shall never be moved, and tells us that thanks must be paid to the LORD by the living, and not by the dead. Thirdly, He returns to His Resurrection, and exults in the deposition of the frail flesh, and the eternity of His majesty and glory: Thou hast put off My sackcloth, and girded Me with gladness.

SYRIAC PSALTER. A prophecy and returning of thanks.

Various Uses.Gregorian. Monday: Matins. [Easter Eve: II. Nocturn. Ascension: I. Nocturn.] Ambrosian. Tuesday of the First Week: III. Nocturn. Eastern Church. Mesorion of Terce.

Antiphons.Gregorian and Monastic. As to Psalm xxviii. [Easter Eve: Thou, LORD, hast brought my soul out of hell. Ascension: I will magnify Thee * for Thou hast set me up. Alleluia.] Parisian. Sing praises * unto the LORD, O ye saints of His, and give thanks for a remembrance of His holiness. Lyons. O LORD, my GOD, I will give thanks unto Thee for ever. Mozarabic. O LORD, my GOD, I cried unto Thee, and Thou didst hear me. 1 I will magnify thee, O LORD, for thou hast set me up: and not made my foes to triumph over me. This is one of the musical Psalms: the others being 48, 67, 68, 75, 92. What the dedication or opening of the house of David was, is a point much disputed by commentators. Some will have it to mean the completion of his own house in the City of David: some the setting up the tabernacle there, as if that were more truly David's house than his own. Others again will have it of the anticipative dedication of the Temple in the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. Again others Stichera idiomela, at the lite on Great Thursday of the Ascension.

will have the Psalm to apply to the return of the Jews from Babylon, and the complaints of sickness and the like to refer metaphorically to the misery which GOD's people endured in captivity. But perhaps, as the literal expression is the opening of David's house, and as the allusions to sickness are so very strong, it is easier to understand it of the re-opening of the palace after some dangerous illness of David, of which we have no account in the books of Samuel. But whatever difficulty there may be as to the literal, there can be none whatever in the spiritual, meaning. And this is one among many instances in which the mystical interpretation which is stigmatised as so doubtful and unreal, gives us a firmer hold than any literal explanation can do. Thus it refers to the Ascension of the True David into the Kingdom which His own Right Hand has purchased for Himself and for His people; to the dedication of the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, effected, so to speak, by His own entrance therein. It is in this sense that the Western Church employs this Psalm among others for Ascension Day. I will magnify Thee, O Lord. "The saint," says S. Ambrose, "exalts the LORD, the sinner humbles Him; and by how much the more a man seeks to the LORD, by so much the more he both exalts Him and is exalted himself. Set Me up indeed:

for "GOD is gone up with a merry noise, and the LORD with the sound of the trump. Set Me up in glory above those who lately set Me up on the Cross, as a mark of derision: Set Me up as the Monarch to Whom the eyes of all the world must be turned. Well may the Eastern Church exclaim, "Because Adam by the fall of his nature had descended into the lower parts of the earth, therefore that very same nature, renewed by GOD, was to-day set up far above all principality and might and dominion: for GOD so loved it that He made it sit down with Himself: so sympathised with it that He united it to Himself: so united it to Himself, that He glorified it with Himself. And so indeed we may take the verse of human nature exalted in the Person of our LORD, and exulting in its deliverance from Satan, the world and itself. And not made my foes to triumph over me. Not, says one, as if it were GOD's act that our enemies do prevail against us: but that he may show how entirely all victory, on our part, comes not from ourselves, but from the Giver of all good things. But, they ask, Did not CHRIST's enemies triumph over Him, when they that passed by railed on Him, wagging their heads; when they said, Ah, Thou that destroyest the Temple: or again, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while He was yet alive? Answer.

They rejoiced indeed over His death as man, but not over His dedication as the evening sacrifice of the world: and it is of the dedication of David's house, whether in humility on the Cross, or in glory on the Throne, that the Psalm tells. Dionysius the Carthusian, who gives three distinct explanations of this Psalm, the literal, the tropologic, and the anagogic, says very touchingly, in the second of them: We, who have been raised up from the pollution of sin, are bound to consider what and how great a benefit of God this is, that we have been separated from the multitude of our acquaintances, friends, co-evals and co-equals, who perhaps were in themselves much better than we are, but whom yet hell has been permitted to swallow up. What thanks and praise then are we bound to pay to Him Who so justly condemned them, but so mercifully spared us! Whence that holy man, feeling quite insufficient of himself to return the thanks that were due, calls on all saints, whether in heaven or on earth, to join him: "Sing praises unto the LORD, O ye saints of His, and give thanks unto Him for a remembrance of His holiness."

2 O LORD my GOD, I cried unto thee: and thou hast healed me. I cried unto Thee. But when? When, as the Apostle says, "He made prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to Him That was able to save." He cried when He said, "My GOD, My GOD, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" He cried when He said, FATHER, into Thy hands I commend My spirit. But never at any other time did He so cry, as by the sweet voices of His Five Wounds: the voice of our Brother's Blood cried unto GOD from the ground, while it spake better things than that of Abel. But how can it be said that our LORD was healed, seeing we never hear that His most precious Body was subject to disease? For this reason; that till the Resurrection it was mortal and passible; after the Resurrection it became impassible as well as immortal; and thus the effects which were wrought on it as on every other earthly body by Adam's sin, were, strictly speaking, healed. O Lord my God. S. Albertus very well observes that the Lord refers to power, the God to wisdom, the my to love. He is GOD, therefore He knows how; He is LORD, therefore He can; He is mine, therefore He will. The thanksgiving itself, Thou hast healed Me, agrees well with the petition, "Glorify Thy SON:" for this glorification and this healing are the same.

3 Thou, LORD, hast brought my soul out of hell: thou hast kept my life from them that go down to the pit. Impossible in its literal sense that this verse could be written of David, who had not yet even fallen on sleep and seen corruption. But it looks past all those long centuries, and sees the Son of David returning from preaching to the spirits that were in prison, accomplishing the Great Forty Days that still remained upon earth, and with body and soul A.

reunited once and for ever, ascending into glory. The words have always been used in defence of that Article in the Creed, the descent into hell, as well against the heretics who have denied it, like Calvin and Bucer, as against the Catholics who have taught that our LORD went there by effect, and not by actual presence. It is true that this Article occurs in no Creed that is used by the Eastern Church; and that, till the Council of Aquileia, it made no part of any Western symbol. But still, it has been held by both East and West from the very beginning; and from the beginning also the present verse has, by its commentators, been shown to affirm it. But how are we to understand the expression, from them that go down into the pit? That although in our LORD that sentence was emphatically fulfilled, "How dieth the wise man? as the fool: yet that that Life, that blessed soul, was kept from the companionship of the malefactor and such as he with whom it had been so lately associated on Mount Calvary. Or we may take the words on our own lips: Thou hast kept my Life, that which is dearer and better to us than life itself, nay; that which is our very true and hidden life, Him Who is all our salvation and all our desire, from them that go down into the pit, the Jews, whose paths, and designs, and aims, were leading them there. Or yet once more:

the pit may be the pit of wilful sin, and of final despair; and then, all those who take the Psalm on their own lips, are thereby reminded that it is no virtue or strength of their own which keeps them from descending into that abyss, but GOD'S goodness—Thou, Lord, hast kept—even as he, who whenever he saw a malefactor go by to punishment, was in the habit of saying, "But for the grace of GOD there goes John Bradford. And ascetic writers remind us that it is no more possible for a soul, dead in trespasses and sins, to work out its own resurrection from this pit, than for a body to raise itself from the grave. The pit, says S. Augustine, is the profundity of this world. What mean I by the profundity of this world? The abundance of luxury and wickedness. They therefore who immerse themselves in lusts and in carnal desires, they go down into the pit.

[Thou hast kept my life. The literal Hebrew text is even more precise in its reference to the Resurrection. It is: Thou hast brought me back to life from (among) them that are sunk in the grave.] 4 Sing praises unto the LORD, O ye saints of his: and give thanks unto him for a remembrance of his holiness. Sing unto the Lord: but how? Not with the mouth only, but with a pure heart and spirit. Because "praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner, for it was not sent him of Following the Kethib reading. the LORD." And therefore not all, but His Saints only, are called on thus to sing to Him. And observe that the word Saints may as well be translated merciful ones; thereby agreeing with what S. James says that pure and undefiled religion is. As to the latter clause, Give thanks for a remembrance of His holiness, they take it in different ways. Either give thanks, because He, in His holiness, has been pleased to remember us, the word remembrance being received objectively: or in order that His holiness may be kept in remembrance, when the same word is taken subjectively. Apollinarius seems to understand it in the latter sense:

Or we may put the words still into our LORD's mouth on the Cross. Give thanks because that which has been effected by the Head may be hoped for by the members: Quod præit in Capite Viet. The

Give thanks, O ye saints, in taking up your own crosses, because the Saint of saints first took up His: and above all Give thanks for a remembrance of His holiness in that blessed Sacrament, which by its very name is the Eucharist, and which was instituted for the continual remembrance of His death until His coming again. S. Augustine says: It is a true and ancient proverb, Where the Head is, there are the other members. CHRIST hath ascended into heaven, whither we are about to follow. He hath not remained in hell, He hath risen again, He dieth no more. And when we shall arise again, we shall die no more also. "Give thanks," says Gerhohus, "ye who are in very deed, not in pretence, His saints: not like the five foolish virgins who were accounted saints because of their virginity, and because of their lamps, but who, because they had no oil in their lamps, are not to be counted real saints. Wilt thou know, O faithful soul, betrothed to CHRIST, what are the arms by which He embraceth thee when adorned with true sanctity, not only in the bridal chamber of future beatitude, but as thou art now, commended to His angels and good prelates, as His paronymphs?

Not to dwell on that saying now, that 'His left hand is under my head, and His right hand doth embrace me,'—when His left hand in the present life helps thee by loading thee with all manner of good merit, and His right hand in the life to come shall beatify thee for the sake of those very merits, bestowing on thee good things, not only condign with, but far exceeding, the gifts of His grace; to omit this now: He, CHRIST, thy Bridegroom, is the truth, and would fain, as it were, embrace thee with both His arms in manifesting to thee both Himself and thyself. So that first thou mayest know what thou wast, mayest know what thou hadst made thyself, when thou didst go aside after lies from the truth: and thus, having become acquainted with thy own wretchedness, mayest begin to understand what is His loving-kindness. Look at thyself and fear: look at Him and hope. If thy misery terrify thee, let His mercy console thee. But that thou mayest be capable of mercy, love the truth, which shows thy wretchedness. Such honour have all His saints, of whom it is now said, Sing praises unto the Lord, O ye saints of His."

5 For his wrath endureth but the twinkling of an eye, and in his pleasure is life: heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. A. Ay. works out this thought at even greater length.

Or as the former part of the verse is in the Vulgate, For in His indignation there is anger, and life in His will. This again is one of those verses which have consoled many and many a saint, in the prison, before the unjust tribunal, or on the rack. And so strikingly does it apply to our LORD, that even Rabbi Moses Hadassan understands it of the Messiah. The FATHER's wrath then endured during the time that He hid His face from the Only-begotten SON; long, fearful hours to endure then, but the twinkling of an eye compared with the eternity of the glory which was won by that suffering. The Chaldaic version well expresses it: One hour is His anger: His good will is eternal life. S. Gregory Nazianzen, paraphrasing Isaiah, says well: "I gave thee up to punishment and I will help thee; in a little wrath I struck thee, and in everlasting pity will I glorify thee. Far greater than the measure of My correction, is the measure of My loving-kindness. Gerhohus takes occasion from a consideration of GOD's anger to enter into the various excuses and apologies that are made for man's. And as it is written of Him, "Surely He scorneth the scorners," so it is equally true He is angry with them that are an-angered. Heaviness may endure for a night: or as it is in the Vulgate, In the evening weeping will tarry. "It is evening," says S. Augustine, "when the sun sets.

The sun had set on man, that is, that light of righteousness, the Presence of GOD. Hence when Adam was expelled, what is said in the book of Genesis? When GOD walked in paradise, He walked in the evening. The sinner had now hid himself in the wood. He was unwilling to see the face of GOD at which he had been wont to rejoice. The sun of righteousness had set on him. He did not rejoice in the presence of GOD. Thence began all this mortal life. In the evening weeping will tarry. Ye will long be in weeping, race of man, for ye will be born of Adam. And so it is come to pass, In the evening weeping will tarry, and exaltation in the morning. When that light shall have begun to arise on the faithful which shall have set on sinners. For therefore, too, did JESUS CHRIST rise from the tomb in the morning, that what He had dedicated in the foundation, the same He might promise to the house. In our LORD it was evening when He was buried, and morning when He rose again on the third day. Thou, too, wast buried in the evening in paradise, and hast risen again on the third day. How on the third day? If thou wilt consider the course of the world, there is one day before the law, another under the law, a third under grace.

What on that third day thy Head showed, the same is on the third day of the world shown in thee."

Mane novum mane lætum Vespertinum tergat fletum ; Quia Vita vicit letum Tempus est lætitiae. Adam. Victorin. The Sequence, Zyma vetus expurgetur. "And the same thing," says the great Carmelite expositor, "is clearly set forth in that passage of Kings where it is said: 'The king of Israel was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and died at even.' The King of Israel, that is, the King of them that see GOD, is CHRIST. The Syrians are devils." Heaviness may endure for a night. And so it did for that dark night which was spread over Mount Sinai, when there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the Mount; and when GOD gave that law which, far from wiping away the tears of man, added to them, because it showed him his misery, without showing his remedy. The Church was in the habit of singing on the procession in the Paschal night the Triumphal Song, taken word for word from a Sermon of S. Augustine, and uttered when the morning of gladness was first about to dawn. And thus it ran:

When CHRIST, the King of Glory, entered hell, to bring to pass its overthrow, And the choir of Angels before His face commanded that the gates of the princes should be lifted up, The people of the saints which were held captive in death, exclaimed with joyful voice: Thou hast come, O desired One, Whom we expected in our darkness that Thou mightest bring forth, in the light, them that were bound, from their prison-houses. Thee, our lamentation called: Thee, our long torments required: Thou art made the hope of the desperate, the great consolation of the suffering. 6 And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be removed: thou, LORD, of thy goodness hast made my hill so strong.

Notice, firstly, the different division (and it is the more correct one) of the Vulgate, which gives the latter clause of this verse to the next. Plenty of examples there are of the Ezek. xxviii. 17. S. Mark xiv. 29. S. Joan. Chrysostom. Hom. 16 in Act. Cd. Z. S. Ambros. in S. Luc. Lib. iii. S. Pet. Damiani, Lib. vi. Epist. 9. D. C. S. Albert. M. Col. ii. 9. Isa. xi. 1. Cd. Prov. xxii. 2. D. C. pride which David here laments in himself. So it was said to the King of Tyre, "Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty; thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground. So even S. Peter could declare, "Though all men should be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended. One of S. Chrysostom's homilies is occupied in dwelling, from these and the like examples, on the warning, that a haughty spirit goeth before a fall. But to none does this particular Psalm apply more exactly than to Hezekiah. Raised up, as he had been, from illness,—boasting of his treasures to the ambassadors of Babylon,—and then not rendering again according to the benefit done to him. "But," says S. Ambrose, "if David is to be blamed,—if, in the midst of his holiness, he was sometimes puffed up,—what is to be said of us miserable sinners, who go so far beyond him in our presumption, and fall so far short of him in our merits? S.

Peter Damiani, referring to this passage, says: "Pride makes the human mind like glass, so that, by reason of impatience, it cannot bear a blow without shattering. And he very well knew the working of the soul who could thus explain the passage: "I, when converted from my sins, said in my prosperity,—that is, in the excessive confidence of my eagerness,—I shall never be removed: that is, I shall never return to my former sins: I shall never again experience that desolation and sorrow of soul which follows upon the parting from God's ways. This is a very common feeling with new converts, that as soon as ever they receive the unaccustomed comfort and grace of the HOLY GHOST, they at once incautiously presume; and in their joy, as if they never could lose that sweetness, propose great things to themselves,—things beyond the power of human nature to accomplish. But rather let us apply the text to our LORD. He might truly speak of His prosperity,—that is, of the abundance of gifts and graces bestowed on Him, in Whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; of Whom it was said, "The SPIRIT of the LORD shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD: the abundance and prosperity of Him, Who yet for our sakes became poor, even as it is written, "The rich and the poor meet together. And well might He say, I shall never be removed;

even according to the vision of that king of old, whereby it was foretold that in the latter times the GOD of heaven should set up a kingdom which shall never be moved. Dionysius the Carthusian gives a very singular explanation, reading the phrase, I said, I shall not be removed for ever. That is, that our LORD, knowing, as the Evangelist says, all things that should come upon Him, knowing that it was necessary that He should be moved,—that is, should endure tribulation for a season, yet here comforts Himself by the thought that He should not be removed for ever; that these afflictions would pass, but the exceeding and eternal weight of glory would remain. Thou, Lord, of Thy goodness, hast made my hill so strong. Or rather, as it is in the Vulgate, Lord, in Thy good will Thou hast added strength to my beauty. According to our translation the sense is clear. David is speaking of the hill of Sion, God's hill, in which it pleased Him to dwell,—the fair place and the joy of the whole earth,—the hill which he himself had wrested from the Jebusites, and had made the head of his kingdom. Or, if it be the Son of David Who speaks, then the hill that is made so strong is that hill which is exalted above the mountains, and to which all nations shall one day go up,—namely, the Church of the Living God. But if we take it in the Vulgate translation, then it is still our LORD that speaks:

and He prophesies that His beauty,—the beauty of which He is the source, and which He is ready to bestow on His people,—shall endure for ever: not like the beauty of this world, the fashion whereof perisheth: but shall be as eternal as heaven itself. Thou hast added strength to My beauty cannot but remind us of the verse, "Upon all the glory there shall be a defence: that is, that the magnificence of the outward decorations and the external ritual of the Church is actually adding to her strength, by attracting those to her who as yet know her not, and by exciting those in her who are already her children.

7 Thou didst turn thy face from me : and I was troubled. No verse can more plainly teach us that glorious and comforting truth on which the mediæval writers especially love to dwell, that it is the looking, or not looking, of God upon His creature, that forms the happiness or the misery of that creature; that those secret springs of joy which sometimes seem to rise up of themselves, and with which a stranger intermeddleth not, are nothing but God's direct and immediate looking on us; while the sorrow for which we cannot assign any especial cause,—call it melancholy, or low spirits, or by whatever other name,—is nothing but His turning away His Face from us. I was troubled. As indeed He well might say, of Whom it is written, that "He began to be sorrowful and very heavy;" and of Whom also it might be said, in the words of the Prophets, "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God;" the sins, that is, which He bore, but which He did not. But never was He so troubled, never did the FATHER so hide His Face from Him, as when this verse was so emphatically fulfilled in His "Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani!"

8 Then cried I unto thee, O LORD : and gat me to my LORD right humbly. S. Albert, M. And how did He cry? Even at that very time that He was Himself forsaken, He prayed for His murderers. Or, as others take it, He prayed that His soul, so soon about to be separated from His Body, might not be left in hell, nor His flesh see corruption: that the dedication of David's house, commenced in the anguish of the Cross, might be accomplished in the glory of the Resurrection. Then cried I. No occasion for crying or tears in Paradise, where there was nothing but praise. But crying only, and that strong crying and tears, can recover the second and better Paradise. I cried, not only to the LORD, but even to them that stood about. "Oh how," exclaims the Greek Church, "could ye condemn the King of creation to an unjust death? neither calling to mind His mercies, nor listening to His words: 'O My people, what have I done unto you? Did I not fill Judæa with wonders? Did I not raise the dead by a word alone? Did I not heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease? What is it that ye render Me in return? How long will ye be regardless of Me? Laying strokes upon Me in return for My healing; slaying Me for My life-giving; hanging Me, the Benefactor, on the Cross as a malefactor; the Lawgiver as the lawless; the King of all as the culprit.' Long-suffering LORD, glory be to Thee!" Right humbly. "For though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered." And how could the Spotless Lamb pray more humbly than from the place of malefactors, amidst the derision of the crowd, in the midst of two thieves!

9 What profit is there in my blood: when I go down to the pit? 10 Shall the dust give thanks unto thee: or shall it declare thy truth? A sad verse as any that is in the Psalms. If we take it in the usual sense, according to S. Jerome, it is the lamentation of CHRIST that His Passion, so to speak, had been endured in vain; that so few, bitten by the fiery serpent of temptation, would look to this the brazen serpent, and live; that so few would flee to that Cross for refuge, to lay hold on the hope then set before them. S. Gaudentius tells his people from this complaint how their sins frustrated the effects of CHRIST's Cross; how the price of the world was paid in vain; how that Blood— S. Hieron. in Isa. xlix. S. Thomas Aquin. The Rhythm, Adoro te devote.

would in its fulness have been poured forth to scarcely any purpose. What profit is there in My Blood? And they answer, none, or next to none; and they most decidedly so reply, whose own holiness of life caused them more bitterly to lament the evils of sin, as S. Dositheus and S. Isidore of Pelusium. When I go down into the pit: or, as it is in the Vulgate, When I descend into corruption. They understand this of our LORD's descending amidst the corruption of human nature at the Incarnation, and still the question is the same, What profit is there in it? "This profit there ought to be," says S. Ambrose, "that for the Blood thus shed for us, for the labour thus undertaken for us, we are bound to return all our labour,—if need be, to lay down our very lives; to offer ourselves, and all that we have, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice to the Sacrifice on the Cross. Or in another sense they understand the question concerning the Body of our LORD, as a prayer that it may not be suffered to return to corruption. S. Thomas dwells at great length on this subject, and points out the various benefits we have received by the preservation of that Spotless Body from the effects of the grave:

that Body which was to be raised up from the tomb, now no more liable to return to corruption, in order that it might be the food of all the followers of CHRIST till His Coming again. Shall the dust give thanks unto Thee? And here they introduce another meaning: that praise, to be acceptable to GOD, must come from a heart devoted to Him; from those who have set their affections on things above, not on things of the earth; from those who are not of that dust which is the serpent's meat, but whose heart and affections are altogether on high. Shall the dust give thanks unto Thee? Or, as it is in the Vulgate, Shall the dust confess unto Thee? Whence S. Augustine takes occasion to say, "When it is ill with us, let us confess our sins; when it is well with us, let us confess praise to GOD; but without confession let us never be,"—a sentence which is made his own by the Master of the Sentences. It is a singular sense which is attached to these words by S. Basil, the ascetic Doctor: "What profit is there in my blood? That is, in all the force and vigour of human existence, if by that very health and strength of body I am led to corruption of the soul. Whence he proceeds to dilate on the benefits of fasting, and to praise the philosopher Plato for having chosen an unhealthy spot as the place of his abode, because sickness is the mother of philosophy.

[Shall the dust give thanks unto Thee? It is, teaches a Saint, the question of CHRIST to His FATHER. If I be not raised up again from the pit, then My bloodshedding has been useless. If I come not back victorious, to open the Scriptures to My disciples, to send them the HOLY GHOST, can My dust confess unto Thee, by bringing forth Confessors for Thee and preachers of Thy truth, as I, if raised up, will do? Or, shall man, himself mere dust, ever give thanks to Thee aright, if I return not to show him the way, to be Myself his Oblation of Thanksgiving in the Eucharist? And then we may compare the words of S. Paul, "If CHRIST A. T be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain, ye are yet in your sins."] 11 Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me: LORD, be thou my helper.

Or as it is in the Vulgate, The Lord heard and had mercy upon me: the Lord is become my helper. But it matters little as to the mystical sense, whether it is still the prayer of our LORD that He might rise again, or His thanksgiving after His Resurrection. And notice the force of the word helper. For equally is it said by the HOLY GHOST, that CHRIST raised Himself, or was raised by the FATHER; raised Himself as GOD, was raised as Man; the FATHER co-operating with, and so verily becoming the Helper of, the SON. Have mercy. And so the FATHER had mercy on that Frame on which the Jews had no mercy; crowning those limbs with glory which they had lacerated with the scourge; setting a diadem of pure gold on that Head, which they had outraged with thorns; putting all power into those Hands, into which they had thrust the reed of derision. He so had mercy on the SON, as in Him to have mercy upon us; He so became the Helper of the SON, that henceforth every feeble and wounded soul may derive from Him unbounded help, and strength. Or, to look at the verse in another sense, we have here no indistinct reference to the Blessed Trinity. The FATHER is called on to hear; the SON, by the recollection of Calvary, to have mercy; the HOLY GHOST to be the Helper of those in whom He dwells, and whom He sanctifies.

12 Thou hast turned my heaviness into joy: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness. Well and beautifully says Adam of S. Victor: Adam. Vict. The Sequence, Ecce dies celebris. Saccus scissus et pertusus In regales transit usus; Saccus fit soccus gratiæ, Caro victrix miseriae.

And first we must apply these words to the Resurrection, when the heaviness of the tomb was turned into the joy of "The LORD is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Simon; when the saying of the Prophet was fulfilled, and to them that mourned in Sion beauty was given for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; when the promise of the LORD was fulfilled, "Ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy; when the saying of old time was brought to pass, "For Almighty GOD hath turned to joy unto them the day wherein the chosen people should have perished; ye shall therefore among your solemn feasts keep it an high day, with all feasting. Thou hast put off my sackcloth: or, as it is in the Vulgate, Thou hast cut or slit my sackcloth (saccum meum consolidisti,) where the word saccus, with its twofold meaning of sackcloth and bag, gives a great scope to metaphorical interpretations. So they tell us that the bag in which the price of our redemption was contained, being cut open, that price itself was poured forth. Or again, that this sack was full of the precious wheat, hereafter to flourish into the harvests of the Church, when first it had lain in the ground and died. S. Albertus is fullest on the various meanings of the sack;

"a word," says he, and he says it truly, "common to all languages, as the redemption prefigured by it extended to all nations. And, as it has been well remarked, while the sackcloth in which the Sun of Righteousness was enveloped was rent on the Cross, the material sun became black as sackcloth of hair, when there was darkness over all the earth from the sixth hour until the ninth hour. And girded me with gladness: with the state of immortality, thenceforth to be the reward of the conqueror,—

When they beneath their Leader Who conquered in the fight, For ever and for ever Are clad in robes of white. A. Serm. ult. de Temp. et S. Bernard. Serm. ii. de Ascens. G. 13 Therefore shall every good man sing of thy praise without ceasing: O my GOD, I will give thanks unto thee for ever. I know not whence this translation is derived: the Vulgate gives it: That my glory may sing to thee, and I may not be pricked, with the first clause of which the Bible version closely agrees, and which is sufficiently literal. True, that because of the triumph of the Cross, every good man shall sing of His praise Who obtained it, without ceasing: but let us rather take the verse as the voice of the Church. All these things were done, all the afflictions endured, all the promises made good, to the end that her glory might not be silent; that in a thousand ways, by her hymns, by her canticles, by her ritual, all which things are her true glory, she may set forth the praises of the Victor. Or we may take it as still spoken by our LORD, and the glory, that glory which He had with the FATHER before the world was, and which, having been for a while clouded and eclipsed by the humiliation of His earthly life and Pas-

[The Hebrew is undoubtedly, will not be silent, and so it is turned by the Sy- riac, Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, as well as by the A. V.]

sion, was now to be restored to Him, not only in all its former brightness, but with the addition of splendour which, according to S. Paul's teaching, His obedience and His labours had merited for His manhood. And thus we see the force of the next clause, and that I may not be pricked. For the Hands which had been pierced with the nails now serve to remind Him, by that engraving, of His love, and of the victory won by that love. My God. "O ye all," says Gerhohus, "who, being the sons of Leah, or of the handmaidens, love not this son of Rachel, ye who envy His dominion,—ye who, so far as in you lies, hinder His reigning in this world,—now, now, while it is the time of penitence that may be of effect, return to Him the First-born, reigning over all the land of Egypt, that is to say, heaven and earth, according to His own most true saying, 'All power is given to Me in heaven and in earth.' Lament before Him that ye have sinned against Him, and He will have mercy upon you, and will fill your sacks with corn, that ye perish not with hunger before ye can arrive at His own home.

And according to the measure of your sins He may suffer you for awhile to lament until ye say from your hearts, 'We are verily guilty concerning our Brother.' But at length He will rend your sackcloth, and will so enrich you, that none of you will any longer stand in need of those sacks of yours; and He will bestow on each of you a beautiful stole, with which adorned, and now free from the weight of your sacks, ye may be able to exult, so that each of you will say to your elder Brother, 'Thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness.' And do Thou, O good Joseph, say to them, 'As for you, ye thought evil against Me, but GOD meant it unto good, to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive.' O my God, I will give thanks unto Thee for ever. This let us say, one and all: 'Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto Thy Name give the praise, that we perish not of hunger, we who bring our sacks to Thee empty, and receive them again full; when, under a mystery, we feed on Thee, the true Corn of life. And so it must be until the sackcloth of our mortality shall be cut in twain, and Thou shalt no longer be received as concealed under a covering, but face to face shalt satisfy us with the finest wheat flour for ever and ever.'"

And therefore: Glory be to the FATHER, to Whom the SON cried and was heard, in that He feared; and to the SON, Whose life was kept from them that go down into the pit; and to the HOLY GHOST, to Whom we cry, LORD, be Thou my helper; As it was in the beginning of the dedication of the LORD's Temple on the Cross, is now, that the true Son of David is set down on the throne, and ever shall be, when His people shall behold the glory which He had before the world was: world without end. Amen. O most mighty GOD, Who liftest us up, suffer not our endemies to triumph over us; but do Thou so strengthen us by Thy might, that, our heaviness being turned into joy, we may ever give thanks for the remembrance of Thy holiness. Through (1.) Bring our soul, O LORD, out of prison, and keep our life from them that go down into the pit; and as, when about to redeem the world, by Thine ineffable virtue, Thou didst descend from on high and burst the bars of hell, vouchsafe of Thy mercy that we may never be brought down by our sins; and grant that, with them who are predestinated to eternal life, we may, after our power, sing to Thee, and may merit the possession of beatitude and Thy everlasting delights. Amen. Through Thy mercy (11.)

Thee, O LORD, we humbly beseech that Thou wouldest turn our heaviness into joy; that Thou wouldest relieve us of the weight of our sins; and that, as Thou dost gladden us by the mystery of Thy Resurrection, Thou wouldest vouchsafe to raise them to heaven, for whose sake Thou didst not abhor to descend into hell. Through (1.) [Hear our prayers, O LORD, and have mercy upon us; turn our heaviness into joy, and gird us about with gladness and salvation, that we may sing and give thanks to Thee for all Thy benefits in the blessed dwelling of eternity. Through (1.)]

The Mystical and Literal Interpretation of the Psalms.The principle of this Commentary the same as that of the Fathers. the principle of early, 1. HAVING now, through GOD's goodness, accomplished the fifth part of our task, it seems time to dwell at greater length than hitherto we have done on the system itself on which this commentary is based. Utterly different as it is from the modern style of interpretation,—liable to the charges of fancifulness, unreality, and of making anything out of anything,—I wish now to show that, whatever be the faults of its execution, its principle, at least, is that on which the great commentators of primitive and mediæval ages wrote, and which they would have recognised as their own. What that principle is, the reader has now had sufficient opportunity of judging; and while none can be more sensible than myself of the innumerable faults in detail for which the foregoing pages may be blamed, for the theory on which they have been composed I need—and I hope to show that I need—no excuse.

2. The mystical interpretation of Scripture, as every one will allow, is the distinguishing mark of difference between ancient and modern commentators. To the former, it was the very life, marrow, essence of GOD's Word,—the kernel, of which the literal exposition was the shell,—the jewel, to which the outside and verbal signification formed the shrine: by the latter it has almost universally been held in equal contempt and abhorrence; it has been affirmed to be the art of involving everything in uncertainty; to take away all fixedness of meaning; to turn Scripture into a repository of human fancies; to be subversive of all exactitude, and fatal to all truth. Scott, the "commentator," in writing on that passage in Ecclesiastes, of the poor man that delivered the city, and yet was not remembered,—a parable, if any ever were, full of beauty when applied to our LORD,—thus expresses himself:

"I would gladly know by what authority any man, overlooking these useful instructions, sets himself, by the help of a warm imagination, to discover Gospel mysteries in this passage? It would puzzle the most ingenious of these fanciful expositors to accommodate fairly the circumstances of the story to the work of redemption. Two purposes, indeed, such as they are, may be answered by such interpretation: (1.) Loose professors are encouraged in their vain confidence, by hearing that none of the redeemed are more mindful of, or thankful to, the SAVIOUR than themselves. (2.) It is a powerful engine in the hands of vainglorious men, by which to catch the attention and excite the admiration of injudicious multitudes, who ignorantly admire the sagacity of the man that finds deep mysteries, where their more sober pastors perceived nothing but noiseless practical instruction. I have heard many sensible and pious persons lament this sort of explication of Scripture as an evil of the first magnitude, and I am more and more convinced that it is so. At this rate, you may prove any doctrine from any text: everything is reduced to uncertainty, as if the Scripture had no determinate meaning, till one was arbitrarily imposed by the imagination of men."

3. Proceeding in the same strain, the writer goes on to condemn the application of the parable of the Good Samaritan to our LORD: because, forsooth, its moral is contained in the words, "Go and do thou likewise;" as if this were not one cause of the Incarnation of the WORD, that we might follow the blessed steps of His most holy life! The rule laid down by the strictest interpreters of this sort appears to be this: that in those histories of the Old Testament which are applied to our Blessed LORD in the New, we may see a type of Him, but in those only. Thus, the abhorrence of late, commentators. The rule laid down by literalists. Aspect of mysticism to those who do not believe in it. The fourfold meaning of Scripture. of the brazen serpent, the Paschal Lamb, Jonah in the whale's belly, He was undoubtedly the antitype; but Joseph, taken from prison and from judgment,—but Elijah, fasting forty days and forty nights, and translated into heaven,—but David, in his victory over Goliath,—but Samson, destroying the Philistines by his own death,—these are historical characters only, and cannot, without presumption, be invested with a typical signification.

4. Now it is clear that, to those who entertain similar sentiments, the present work will present nothing but an aggregation of the wildest conceits, and the most worthless fancies. If Scripture has not an under-current of meaning, double, triple, quadruple, or even yet more manifold, I confess, not only that my work is a mere waste of labour, time, and paper, which would comparatively matter little, but it also follows that all primitive and mediæval commentators, from the first century till the Reformation, have more or less been deceiving the Church of God,—have been substituting their changing fancies for His immutable verities,—have adopted a system which is alike the offspring and the parent of error,—that their folios have been a hindrance to the cause of truth, and the labours of their lives an insult to the principles of genuine interpretation. If any one can believe this, it will matter little what he thinks of the preceding and following pages. I only wish to prove that the mystical principles on which this commentary on the Psalms is written are the principles of the great commentators from the beginning; and if I can show that, I have shown enough.

5. It is well known that, from very early times, a fourfold meaning was attached to the plain text of Scripture. It is expressed in the lines: And on this principle S. Gregory the Great composed his Morals on Job, keeping his skeins of meaning separate, and with marvellous skill pursuing each to the end. Durandus explains the various terms with great neatness: "In like manner, JERUSALEM is understood, historically, of that earthly city whither pilgrims journey; allegorically, of the Church Militant; tropologically, of every faithful soul; anagogically, of the Celestial Jerusalem, which is our Country." 6. Let us, in the first place, inquire from Scripture itself, what probability there is that the HOLY GHOST intended such a system of interpretation to be applied to His own Word: then let us see how the early Church felt on the subject: and then what are the advantages, and what are asserted to be the dangers, of the mystical sense.

7. Now it cannot be denied, that to those who eschew the mystical or spiritual interpretation,—and whom we will in this dissertation call literalists,—a very large portion of Scripture can have nothing but an historical interest. The journeyings of the Israelites to their various encampments,—the genealogies of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah,—the numbers of the tribes in the Pentateuch,—the prophecies against the nations whom it pleased GOD to destroy before Nebuchadnezzar, and many such like passages, are to them all but a dead letter. Nay, the same Scott whom I lately quoted ventures, without any apology, to call one such collection of passages by a term which, when we remember Whose is the lightest word of Holy Scripture, can scarcely be called less than profane. He names the genealogies of the first book of Chronicles by the appellation of Thorns! He is but consistent with himself; but what kind of theory must that be which leads to such a conclusion?

8. In the first place, a diligent student of the Old Testament, supposing him absolutely unacquainted with the present controversy, would hardly fail to be struck with the frequent specification of minute and lengthened details, never of any great importance to the subject in hand, and to us absolutely without interest. Such, for instance, as the fact that, in the miraculous draught of fishes which occurred after our LORD'S Resurrection, one hundred and fifty-three great fish were taken; that the young man by whose Arguments: how to be stated. Want of interest in mere literalism. Minute details of Old Testament encourage the idea of mysticism. Authority of New Testament. General teaching of the Jews.

means David and his troops were led to the surprisal of the Amalekites, laden with the spoil of Ziklag, was relieved from his faintness by eating a piece of a cake of figs and two clusters of raisins; that the exact number of children destroyed for profanity to Elisha was two and forty; that Elijah slept under a juniper-tree in the wilderness; the number of cattle which Jacob sent as a present, to soothe the anger of Esau, his brother; the particular fruit which the spies, sent out to see the land, brought with them, and the manner in which they carried it; and a hundred other examples of a similar kind. I say that, let a reader for the first time peruse the Bible, aware that it is the revelation of the will of God to man,— aware that that revelation is contained in a very narrow space, where the room of every sentence, so to speak, is of inestimable value; then let him observe how large a portion of that priceless space is taken up in the narrative of details,—I say it with all reverence, in themselves trifling,—and would he not exclaim, "There must be something more in this than meets the eye: under these details must lurk a deeper sense than that which appears on the surface. As the schools of antiquity had an exoteric and an esoteric doctrine, so there must be a primary and secondary manner of explanation here?" I think he would.

9. But that which is only matter of probability, were our supposed reader left to himself, becomes surely matter of certainty when he finds how the authors of the New Testament were in the habit of applying their quotations from the Old. Let us examine some of these: for inspired must be the basis and theory of uninspired interpretations of Scripture. I propose going through all the quotations from the Psalms before I conclude this dissertation, and will not therefore dwell on them here: at present I will refer to some more striking examples from other books.

10. First let it be remembered that the Apostles were of course used to the general style of scriptural interpretation prevalent among the Jews at the time when our LORD was on earth. That interpretation was in the highest degree mystical; as the works of one celebrated author are sufficient to prove. Let any one read the treatises of Philo Judæus, more especially those on the Six days' creation of the world, on Clean Animals, on Circumcision, and on Those who brought sacrifices: and he will see that the whole system of interpretation is thoroughly mystical, while he is perpetually reminded of the style of argument employed by S. Paul. Now does our LORD, while rebuking so perpetually the traditions of the Pharisees, ever hint, in the slightest degree, that their system of interpretation of Scripture was faulty? On the contrary, does He not sanction it in the most express terms? "The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: all, therefore, that they bid you observe, that observe and do." And, in arguing with the Sadducees concerning the resurrection of the dead, does He not employ an argument of a highly mystical character? Well, then; we know in what school of interpretation the Apostles were brought up: we know that it was recommended to them by our LORD, both by precept and practice: let us now see whether they followed it themselves.

11. In Deuteronomy xxv. 4, among a number of laws which apparently refer to the Jewish polity only,—the entail of estates,—the rule for gleaning, the prohibition of taking a necessary of life as a pledge,—nay, even a minute direction with regard to bird's-nesting,—we find the following: "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn." Surely, if ever there were a law which seemed confined to the literal interpretation, it is this. The GOD, we should have said, Who has taught that without Him not a sparrow falleth to the ground,—Who was pleased to forbid the custom, not really cruel, be it remembered, but only bearing a certain impression of cruelty and hard-heartedness, of boiling a kid in his mother's milk,—Who not only commanded that when the eggs were taken, the parent bird should go free, but actually annexed the promise of long life to the observation of this command,—the GOD Who, among other reasons for sparing Nineveh, conde-

Philo Judæus. Example of the Labouring Ox: scended to mention the "much cattle" that was in it,—that GOD, we should have said, was here pleased to express His care, which is over all His works, for oxen. But we turn to the Epistles of S. Paul, and there we find: "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour; specially they who labour in the word and doctrine. For the Scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn." This, it would be replied, is merely an ingenious application of a sense not originally intended. Such a signification was not the primary intention of the HOLY GHOST; and the Apostle's example is not to be followed by any uninspired writer. Turn, then, to another passage, in which the Apostle is enforcing the same doctrine; and how does he write? "Saith not the law the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses . . . Doth GOD take care for oxen? or saith He it not ALTOGETHER for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this was written." Can anything be stronger than this passage? In a law where the literal meaning seemed unusually plain and worthy of the mercy of GOD, we are told by the HOLY GHOST that He did not intend to teach us that meaning at all: that His design was 'ALTOGETHER' to enforce the mystical signification. I can conceive no more decisive proof than this. Had there been a mere allusion on the part of the Apostle, we might not, perhaps, have been justified in laying very much stress on his example. But when he says, in so many words, There is not an allusion; the mystical meaning was intended by the HOLY GHOST, and the literal meaning was NOT—what further can literalists reply?

12. When, then, we find the precept concerning the labouring ox so treated, why may we not—or rather, how can we be justified unless we do—see in the commandment which forbids the ox and the [This is rather more than the passage will bear. The word πάντων, altogether, is not absolutely exclusive, and it is enough to say that the mystical sense is here primary, and the literal only secondary.] how applied by S. Paul.

ass to plough together, an injunction not to be unequally yoked together with unbelievers; and that injunction, if not only, at least principally? in the rule for the distinction of clean and unclean beasts, the mystical characteristic of the righteous and unrighteous? in the precept against wearing a garment of mingled linen and wool, an injunction against trusting in anything but our LORD, the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world? And, in short, in every ceremonial precept, not the dead letter of the statute, but the new and better life of the mystical explanation? Nor is it as if the instance on which I have just been dwelling was the only example of a similar application of Scripture. More remarkable still is S. Paul's allusion to Agar and Ishmael: "For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children." Now what I would especially point out in this passage is, that S. Paul does not refer to the old patriarchal history as an illustration, or instructive comparison, but simply and absolutely as a proof. "Do ye not hear the Law?" "Nevertheless, what saith the Scripture?" He alleges this history in its mystical sense exactly as he elsewhere quotes the plainest and most literal passages in support of his arguments. No proof can be stronger than this. In putting forward an argument, you of course challenge your opponent to test its strength. Is it possible that the Apostle would thus have brought forward the history of Agar, had it been open to his adversaries to rejoin, "But that is only a mystical interpretation, and was not so intended by the HOLY GHOST?"

13. Nor is it S. Paul alone who thus quotes the Old Testament. Hosea, referring to the deliverance of the Jews from the tyranny of Pharaoh, says, in the person of GOD, "When Israel was a child then I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt." Nothing can more distinctly refer to the children of Israel in the plain literal sense. How does S. Matthew understand it? Relating the flight of the Infant LORD into Egypt, he says that He, with His Agar and Mount Sinai. "I called My Son out of Egypt." Blessed Mother and S. Joseph, "was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the Prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called My Son." Now let none dare to say that S. Matthew refers, as a mere allusion, to this prophecy. Nothing can be more distinct: the reason our LORD went into Egypt was the completion of a prophecy which can only apply to Him mystically, ἵνα πληρωθῇ τὸ ῥηθέν. And this further is to be noticed. Had any modern writer, without Scriptural authority, ventured even to allude to the passage in Hosea with reference to our LORD's flight into Egypt, it would have been called an unwarrantable straining of Scripture. 'Look,' it would have been argued, 'how the prophet continues: Then I loved him, and called My son out of Egypt; as they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim.' And whoever had thus quoted the passage would have been twitted, not only with a perversion of Scripture, but with irreverence to the Son of God.

14. Yet another instance from the same chapter. "He came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene." Where is this written? "The child shall be a Nazarite to God even from his mother's womb." A marvellous example of mystical interpretation! The words are said of Samson; they are applied to CHRIST, and applied with a "that it might be fulfilled." Further, they are said of Samson in one sense, namely, as of one who had the vow of a Nazarite or separatist upon him: and applied to CHRIST in another;—namely, as of a dweller in the city of Nazareth. Now had a mediæval writer thus applied the text, simply as an allusion, and without any pretence at finding in the Evangelical History the actual fulfilment of the prophecy in Judges, would he not have been condemned as guilty of an intolerably far-fetched suggestion?

15. Most certainly, then, the mystical system of interpretation is thoroughly Scriptural: and the only attempt at reply to this argument that can be made "He shall be called a Nazarene." is as follows: "Inspired writers," it may be alleged, "may find allusions and discover types; or prophecies may have been revealed to them under Old Testament language: but for uninspired authors to discover such allusions or types is both presumptuous and dangerous." But how unphilosophical is this! In one or two out of many hundreds of laws and many hundreds of instances, we are positively told that—not an allusion, but—a prophecy existed of better things to come. Can we suppose that these instances or prophecies were picked out from the rest because they differed from the rest? shall we say that they are held forth as contrasts to, rather than held up as types of, the general run of the Old Testament Scriptures? Surely, surely, they are specimens to encourage us in, not exceptions to deter us from, the search for such mysteries. If certain appearances of nature, certain metalliferous veins, certain crystals of quartz tell the Californian miner that gold is beneath the soil, is his Australian brother to believe that God created the same appearance in that colony to deter him from investigation, or to lure him on to researches which would be in vain? In two or three spots of the crust of Scripture, the Apostle has disclosed to us "much fine gold" beneath. In the thousand spots that closely resemble those two or three are we not to search for ourselves? and, searching, shall we not find?

16. Besides, the greater part of the literalists would not for a moment endure the restraint which they would put upon us. They say indeed, "The labouring ox is a prophecy—S. Paul tells us so; but nevertheless you shall not tell us that the ox and ass ploughing together yield a prophecy. We will believe that on nothing short of inspiration." But how would they like to be told, as Grotius would have told them; "Jonah is a type of our LORD: He said it, and it is so; but Isaac on Mount Moriah is none, the Scapegoat is none, David in the battle with Goliath is none: for He never said that they were." Would not this be the height of folly? Yet wherein does it differ from the usual arguments of The quotations of New Testament writers not exceptions to, but patterns of, the usual system of interpretation.

Epistle of S. Barnabas. literalists, such, for instance, as Scott the Commentator? 17. How the Apostles interpreted Scripture we have seen. How did their followers, the Isapostolic writers of the first century, whose works we have, expound it? Did they dig the mine deeper, or desert it as now exhausted? I need hardly answer that question. Let S. Barnabas reply, that dear companion of S. Paul, who must have been so thoroughly endued with his spirit and theory of the interpretation of Scripture.

18. Take, for example, such explanations as the following. I will not stop to discuss the question whether the Epistle attributed to S. Barnabas be really his. For my own part I have no doubt of its authenticity; and with such authorities on my side as Dupin, Nourry, Gallandi, and in our own time Franke, I need not hesitate to express that opinion. Anyhow, those who place it latest allow it to have been composed previously to A.D. 120; and therefore certainly by an Isapostolic writer. "What kind of figure," says the author, "do you consider that to be when Israel is commanded that men of consummate wickedness should bring a heifer, and should sacrifice and burn it; and then that boys should take the ashes and cast them into vessels, and afterwards should bind scarlet wool with hyssop on a staff, and should thus sprinkle the people one by one, and purify them from their sins? See how the LORD speaks to us in a parable. This heifer is JESUS; the wicked men who bring it are they who carried the LORD to slaughter. But now they are no longer wicked men, nor to be considered as sinners. But the boys are they who announce to us the remission of sins and purification of the heart, to whom the LORD hath given the power of preaching the Gospel, and who are twelve in number, in testimony of the twelve tribes of Israel. But why do three boys sprinkle?

Namely, to set forth Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, because they were great before GOD. And why is wool bound on the wood? Because the LORD JESUS has His dominion on the wood, for which cause they that hope in Him shall live for ever. And why wool and hyssop together? Because in His Kingdom there will be evil and polluted days in which we shall be saved; in the same way as he who hath bodily sickness is cured from pollution by hyssop. Now observe how freely the writer accepts this as an axiom, that every, the least, particular in the sacrifice of the Red Heifer must of necessity bear its own mystical interpretation. The further fetched it seems to be, the more it corroborates our argument. And the fact that several rites alluded to by S. Barnabas are not found in Holy Scripture, at least as we have it—whether he so found it written in the copies he used, or received them from Jewish tradition, affords still ampler testimony in our behalf. We will quote one or two more passages: since it is of importance to have the links which connect the mystical interpretation of the Apostles themselves with that of the Church in the third and fourth centuries.

19. One of the most remarkable is the following: "But why did Moses say, Ye shall not eat the swine, nor the eagle, nor the hawk, nor the crow, nor any fish that hath not scales? He comprehends three dogmas in his sagacity. Now the LORD saith to them in Deuteronomy, Hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and the judgments which I teach you. Is it then the commandment of GOD that they should not eat? Yes; but Moses spoke spiritually. He mentions the swine for this reason: Thou shalt not be joined together to men of the same disposition as swine. For when they live in delights, they forget their LORD, but when they are in want they acknowledge their LORD. And thus the hog, when he eats, pays no attention to his lord: but when he is hungry he grunts; and when he gets something he becomes quiet again. 'Thou shalt not eat,' saith he, 'the eagle, nor the hawk, nor the kite, nor the crow.' That is, He commands us; Thou shalt not be like the men who know not how to procure for themselves food by their labour and their sweat, but snatch in their lawlessness that which pertains to another; and they lie in wait for those who walk in innocency. And these birds sit idle and seek how they may eat the flesh of other creatures, being pestiferous in their wickedness. . . . . And thou shalt not eat the hyæna.

Thou shalt not be, saith he, an adulterer nor a man of immoral life, nor shall be like such. Wherefore? Because this animal changes its sex yearly, and is sometimes male, sometimes female. . . . Moses, therefore, when he was speaking of clean and unclean beasts, spake these laws pertaining to spiritual matters: but the Jews, according to their carnal lusts, received them as if he was simply referring to bodily food. And now notice how remarkably he brings in the Psalms. "David comprehended the spiritual sense of these three commands, and said in like manner: 'Blessed is the man that hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly,' as those fishes walk in darkness in the depth of the sea: 'nor stood in the way of sinners,' like those who appear to fear the LORD and sin like the hog; 'and hath not sat in the seat of the scornful;' like those birds which sit and wait for rapine. There is the full explanation of the laws concerning meats."

20. In like manner S. Barnabas finds the Cross and Baptism set forth in the Old Testament; as in Isaiah xxxiii. 16, 17, 18: when "His waters shall be sure," is beautifully applied to the Sacrament of regeneration. He sees in the first Psalm a similar sense: "Blessed are they who, when they have believed in the Cross, descend to the water. He shall be like a tree planted by the water side; as that tree strikes its roots downward into the river bed, so the catechumen goes down to the pool of Baptism." The stretching forth of Moses' hands on the Mount in the battle with Amalek is a figure of the Cross; to which also he applies that text: "All the day long have I stretched forth My hands to an unbelieving people." In the three hundred and eighteen servants of Abraham he sees JESUS and the Cross: the Cross is the T which stands for 300; JESUS in the letter I

I follow the conjecture of Davis, as yielding the better sense. for 10, and H for 8. In fact we have here not only symbolism, but symbolism of a very advanced character.

21. The case is the same with the other Apostolic fathers. The Similitudes of Hermas are in their very nature, full of mysticism. The Epistles of S. Clement to the Corinthians, though not so mystical as that of S. Barnabas, nevertheless contain many examples of that style of interpretation. The same thing may be said of those of S. Ignatius; see especially his Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter xix. And that which is perhaps the very oldest uninspired Christian work, the Epistle to Diognetus, which some have attributed to Apollos, but which was certainly written while the Jewish Temple was standing, is of the same description. And so advancing a little further to the time of Minutius Felix and Commodianus, still we find the mystical principle growing and increasing; till in the fourth century it has acquired all the characteristics of a science. By that time the principal tropologies were fixed in that sense which they retained till the sixteenth century. The explanations, to which we shall presently allude more at length, of Sion, Jerusalem, the heavens, the clouds, the rivers, &c., had each its well-defined meaning. So had numbers: one, the unity of the Godhead; two, the two natures of our LORD; three, the ever-blessed Trinity; four, the four Evangelists, hence the preaching of the Gospel; five, on the one hand a full knowledge of Christian mysteries, (the doctrine of the Trinity + that of our LORD's two natures; on the other, the state of ordinary sinners who break half and observe half the law:

(compare the five brethren of Dives: six, the Passion, from our LORD's being crucified on the sixth hour of the sixth day: also temptation, from the peculiar reference to that contained in the sixth day of the Creation; seven of the sevenfold graces of the HOLY GHOST, and later, of the seven sacraments; eight, of regeneration, as being the first number that oversteps seven, the symbol of the Old Creation; ten, the law; eleven, iniquity as transgressing the law.

And not only were simple numbers thus explained —compound numbers yielded a composite sense. Twelve, was the faith preached throughout the world —the doctrine of the Three dispersed into four quarters. Forty, or eighty-eight, the struggle of the regenerate with the old nature, five into eight, or eleven into eight. Sixty-six, the extreme of wickedness; six in the sense of temptation, into eleven; (and compare this with the number of the beast in the Revelation, the quintessence of all temptation.) And even still more remarkably were numbers compounded: as in the 153 fishes which, in so many sermons, S. Augustine always explains in the same way, of the whole congregation of the elect. Seven stands for the Spirit, ten for the law: 17 is therefore the fulfilment of the law by the works of the Spirit: sum the progression, 1+2+3+4 . . . . . . . +16+17, and you get 153.

22. Starting then from Apostolic symbolism, and carrying on the system by an unbroken chain of writers, we arrive at the beginning of the fifth century, and in the person of the greatest doctor of the Church, to its very height—a height which would appear the extreme of extravagance to those who have not turned their thoughts to the subject. We must remember, however, that although mystical interpretation developed itself all over the Church, its development was not in all her branches equal. The genius of the West seemed to seize on it more eagerly than that of the East. Again, in the latter —the school of Antioch, and its offshoot, the great College of Edessa, appear to have been most averse from it. And this is to be noticed, that a tendency to mysticism seems to have been most alive where the opposition to Arianism was the most vigorous. The Arianising and Nestorianising tendencies of Antioch are notorious: Alexandria was bitterly opposed to both, and the mystical tendency of Alexandria scarcely less than that of Roman writers.

23. And this leads to another argument, and that of considerable force. Mysticism must have gained a firm hold indeed on the mind of the Church before Schools of Alexandria and Antioch. it could be employed in controversy. An opponent, pressed with a mystical argument, would, if he dared, scout mysticism itself. Yet when the Catholics of the East brought forward their ἐξηρεύξατο ἡ καρδία μου ΑΟΓΟΝ ἀγαθόν, or those of the West their Eruc-tavit cor meum VERBUM bonum, in defence of the Consubstantiality of the WORD of GOD, did the Arians ever speak of a misapplication, or call the allusion strained or far-fetched? Again, when S. Proclus, in his magnificent Lady-day sermon in the Great Church of Constantinople, vindicated the perpetual Virginity of S. Mary by the verse, "This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it, because the LORD, the GOD of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut"—did Nestorius, then his auditor, and eager to detect the slightest error in his terrible opponent, object to such an explanation?

24. It is worth while to notice how our Blessed LORD Himself seems to invite us to discover mystical interpretations by the very structure of His parables—I mean by the addition of little circumstances in no way having any necessary connection with the main doctrine to be enforced. Thus, for example, in the parable on prayer, why should the importunate neighbour request three loaves rather than any other number? And why should the excuse be, "My children are with me in bed?" Why did the good Samaritan take out two pence for the payment of the host? Why did the unjust steward diminish the account of oil from 100 to 50, that of wheat from 100 to 80? Why did the man invited to the Great Supper allege his purchase of five yoke of oxen in excuse? Why did the woman hide the leaven in three measures of meal? And in the events of our LORD's life, which may be called His active parables, why are the details so remarkably given? Can we imagine it by accident that on the same day, and on the same occasion, our LORD referred to the eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell, and healed the woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years?

Mysticism used in controversy. Argument from the details of parables. Examples from Old Testament 25. Let us now take some of the references to CHRIST which to mediæval expositors were easy and trite—I had almost said commonplace, and see how much interest they add to the usual interpretation of the Psalms. What wonderful beauty there is in, "Let the lifting up of my hands be an evening sacrifice," when applied to that One Great Sacrifice which was offered up in the evening of the world—in the evening, too, of the Paschal day—by the stretching forth of His hands on the Cross! in, "I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD," when we refer it to the morning of the first Easter-day, and the commission to the Apostles to make disciples of all nations: in, "I am a stranger upon earth," when it alludes to Him Who came unto His own, and His own received Him not: in the double answer to the question "Who is the King of Glory?" the first, "The LORD mighty in battle," because our LORD's first ascension was so soon after His triumph over death and hell; the second, "The LORD of Hosts," because His other ascension will be with the multitude of His redeemed when their warfare is accomplished!

26. Again, in such a text as, "O think upon Thy servant as concerning Thy word, wherein Thou hast caused me to put my trust," when we take it of that co-eternal Word, Who is, indeed, all the salvation and all the trust of His people! Or, when we so understand, "Now for the comfortless troubles' sake of the needy, and because of the deep sighing of the poor," as to refer to Him Who was so needy as to have no place where to lay His head, and of Whom it is written, "Neither found I any to comfort Me." Indeed, it is remarkable how much emphasis we may almost always give by taking THE POOR as applying to our LORD. "For when He maketh inquisition for blood, He remembereth them," to be compared, in this sense, with that saying of S. Paul's, "The blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that of Abel:" "and forgetteth not the complaint of the Poor:" "FATHER, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Or again: "The Poor shall not always be forgotten." Or again: "The Poor committeth himself unto Thee;" "FATHER, into Thy hands I commend My spirit." Or, once more: "As for you, ye have made a mock at the counsel of the Poor;" that counsel ordained before the foundation of the world,

Again: "He hath not despised nor abhorred the low estate of the Poor." Or, again, very remarkably, "All my bones shall say, LORD, Who is like unto Thee, Who deliverest the Poor from him that is too strong for him?" if we take it with reference to the prophecy, "A bone of Him shall not be broken;" to which, indeed, all mediæval writers refer that other text, "Great are the troubles of the Righteous, but the LORD delivereth Him out of all; He keepeth all His bones, so that not one of them is broken." 27. In the same way the so constantly occurring phrase, "The righteous," may be applied with admirable beauty. To our LORD also we may refer such a text as, "While mine enemies are driven back: they shall fall and perish at Thy Presence:" understanding it of that speech of His, which when His enemies had heard, "they went backwards and fell to the ground." Or that whole passage, "The sorrows of death compassed me . . . . the earth trembled and quaked:" to those sorrows which did indeed compass our LORD on the Cross, when "The earth did quake, and the rocks rent;" and when "He made darkness His secret place," at the time when "there was darkness over all the earth, from the sixth hour till the ninth hour." So also, "When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell;" of Judas's fall into final perdition, after the first sacrilegious communion. Or, if we carry on the allusion in, "False witnesses did rise up; they laid to my charge things which I knew not," to the next verses, "Nevertheless, when they were sick,"—the Salvasti mundum languidum of the Advent hymn,—

"The Righteous." "I put on sackcloth," that is, the miseries and infirmities of human nature, "and humbled my soul with fasting," as in the forty days in the wilderness. Or, to take a curious example of a double sense: "Blessed is the man that considereth the poor and needy: the LORD shall deliver him in the time of trouble," which we may either understand of the blessedness of him who fixes his faith and hope on the King Who became poor and needy for our sakes, —or, of the blessing due to His name, Who, "considering" us, poor and needy as we were, was Himself delivered in the time of His greatest trouble,—was "preserved" and "kept alive," that He might be "blessed," not only, as before, in heaven, but also "upon earth." 28. Passages like these show the folly of some attempts which have been lately made to print those words in the Psalms which are supposed to bear reference to any person of the blessed Trinity, with capital initials. For it must entirely depend on the sense in which we take the Psalm for the time being, as to how those capitals are to be disposed; and, as in the example just quoted, we could not print both, "Blessed is the Man that considereth the poor and needy, the LORD shall deliver Him in the time of trouble;" and also, "Blessed is the man that considereth the Poor and Needy: the LORD shall deliver him in the time of trouble."

Hence the reader will find that, in the text which accompanies my commentary, there are no such capitals whatever, not even where the sense would seem most fully to admit it. Thus, for example: if we were to print, "My GOD, My GOD, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" we should, as it were, cut off that text from applying to the people of CHRIST, as well as to CHRIST Himself. So, again, were we either to print, "O think upon Thy Servant as concerning Thy word," or "O think upon Thy servant as concerning Thy Word," we should, so to speak, obliterate the alternative sense. Hence the great wisdom of the ordinary typography both of the Bible and Prayer Book version. Question of capital letters.

29. But to resume our subject. So a glorious prophecy of the Resurrection was seen in that verse, "As for me, I will sing of Thy power, and will praise Thy mercy betimes in the morning;"—that morning on which the stone was rolled away so early from the sepulchre. Again, of the Passion; in that, "Their device is only how to put Him out,"—out of the synagogue, out of the city, out of the world,—"Whom God will exalt"—"to be a Prince and a SAVIOUR, to give repentance and remission of sins: and in that again, "But, LORD, I make my prayer unto Thee in an acceptable time,"—the time of that Sacrifice accepted, once and for all, for the sins of the whole world. So again of the Resurrection: "Yet didst Thou turn and refresh Me; yea, and broughtest Me from the deep of the earth again: and yet once more of the Passion, "He shall refrain the spirit of princes, and is wonderful among the kings of the earth,"—as when He stood in His majesty before Pilate and Herod, and answered not a word, "insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly. So there is a remarkable coincidence between that verse, "Thy way is in the sea, and Thy paths in the great waters, and Thy footsteps are not known; and the passage in S. John's Gospel, where, after our LORD had crossed the sea of Tiberias, "they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for JESUS.

And when they had found Him on the other side of the sea, they said unto Him, Rabbi, when camest Thou hither? So again in, "Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt," those mediæval writers saw a type of the "True Vine," the Son "called out of Egypt," and applied the prophecy that followed to Him. Especially, according to their interpretation, is that verse noticeable, "She stretched out her branches unto the sea, and her boughs unto the river; which, in common with that other passage, "His dominion shall be also from the one sea to the other, and from the flood unto the world's end: they referred to the Sea of Baptism at the one end of Christian Life, and to the Sea of Glass before the Throne, at the other. And not less

Types of our LORD's ife. U strikingly did they see a prophecy of the prayer, "FATHER, glorify Thy Name," in that, "O turn Thee then unto me, and have mercy upon me: give Thy strength unto Thy servant, and help the son of Thine handmaid. Show some token upon me for good, that they who hate me may see it, and be ashamed: because Thou, LORD, hast holpen me, and comforted me."

30. Again, consider the following, as taken in reference to the Resurrection: "Up, LORD, why sleepest Thou? awake, and be not absent from us for ever:" or, "In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart, Thy comforts have refreshed my soul;" compared with the Agony in the garden, when there appeared unto Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him: or, "Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour until the evening;" in reference to the thirty-three years of our LORD's work, and the evening in which He said, "I have glorified Thee upon earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do." Consider, once more, the allusion to the Atonement in those passages, "So He said, He would have destroyed them, had not Moses His chosen stood before Him in the gap: to turn away His wrathful indignation, lest He should destroy them;" and, "They angered Him also at the waters of strife: so that He punished Moses for their sakes:" or, "At midnight will I rise to give thanks unto Thee," with reference to that glorious midnight, when our LORD burst the bars of death, because it was not possible that He should be holden of them: or, "The plowers plowed upon My back, and made long furrows," to His scourging: or, "My soul fleeth unto the LORD, before the morning watch, I say, before the morning watch," to His rising up a great while before day, on that night before He left the Apostles.

31. Another conventionalism, which, from the time of S. Augustine downwards, directed and influenced the whole mediæval course of Scriptural interpretation, was the appropriation of the name Jerusalem—the Vision of Peace—to the Church triumphant; that of Sion—Expectation—to the Church militant. It will be found that this rule, with scarcely a single exception, holds good in the Psalms; and even in those instances which at first sight appear to deviate from the canon, a peculiar beauty is often afforded by following up the clue. Take, for example, some of the passages in which the rule clearly and unmistakably holds good:—

"Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Sion." "Regiam suam potestatem," says Ayguan, "primo ostendit in ecclesia tam ex Judæa quam ex Gentibus quæ per montem Sion intelligitur, secundum glossam." "O praise the LORD, Which dwelleth in Sion." "That I may show all Thy praises within the ports of the daughter of Sion." "Who shall give salvation unto Israel out of Sion?" "Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Sion," a manifest antithesis of the glorified and the militant Church. "The hill of Sion is a fair place, and the joy of the whole earth." "Walk about Sion, and go round about her." "Out of Sion hath GOD appeared in perfect beauty." "O that the salvation were given unto Israel out of Sion." "For GOD will save Sion and build the cities of Judah,"—the latter clearly a prophecy of the many mansions built up in the true "Judah," the everlasting habitation of "praise." "To speak of all Thy works in the gates of the daughter of Sion." "Think upon the tribe of Thine inheritance, and Mount Sion, wherein Thou hast dwelt." "But chose the tribe of Judah, even the hill of Sion which He loved." "Of Sion it shall be reported that He was born in her." "Sion heard of it and rejoiced, and the daughters of Judah were glad, because of Thy judgments, O LORD." "Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion." "That they may declare the Name of the LORD in Sion, and His worship at Jerusalem, when the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms also, to serve the LORD:" His Name in the earthly Sion now; His worship in the heavenly Jerusalem, when the ransomed and elect "people" of the saints shall be gathered together after the "kingdoms" of this

Jerusalem and Sion. world shall have become the "kingdoms" of our LORD and of His CHRIST. "The LORD shall send the rod of thy power out of Sion; be thou ruler, even in the midst among thine enemies," where the last clause distinctly shows the militant character of the Church. "When the LORD turned again the captivity of Sion." "As many as have evil will at Sion." "The LORD hath chosen Sion to be an habitation for Himself." "Praised be the LORD out of Sion, Who dwelleth at Jerusalem." "The LORD thy GOD, O Sion, shall be King for evermore." "Let the children of Sion be joyful in their King."

32. In all these passages it is very plain that the mediæval interpretation may hold, and in many of them it must hold. To turn now to a second class of texts, where at first sight the meaning seems less clear. "O be favourable and gracious unto Sion;" and then, by a very beautiful sequence, "Build Thou the walls of Jerusalem;" because through GOD's love and mercy to the Church here, those spiritual stones are prepared by which the walls of the eternal temple are to be built on high. And to the same purpose, and in the same sense, is that other text, "Stablish the thing, O GOD, that Thou hast wrought in us, for Thy temple's sake at Jerusalem." Again, what an emphasis there is in "Thou, O GOD, art praised in Sion, and unto Thee shall the vow be performed in Jerusalem!" "The saints," says Ayguan, "praise GOD indeed in the Way, but shall perfectly praise Him in their Country, when they behold Him face to face. The first vow which we make to GOD in Baptism is to renounce the devil and all his works, and to keep GOD's holy will and commandments. But this vow, through the infirmity of the flesh, we cannot fully observe in the present life, but we shall perfectly perform it in the heavenly Jerusalem." In like manner of the completed vow: "I will pay my vows unto the LORD, in the sight of all His people," of the great multitude that no man can number, "in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem." "There is the seat of judgment, even the seat of the house of David: O pray for the peace of Jerusalem;" that is, seeing there is joy in the presence of the angels of GOD over one sinner that repenteth, this joy, this "peace," is to be earnestly sought for. So Ayguan, after S.

Augustine. "They that put their trust in the LORD shall be even as the Mount Sion, which may not be removed, but standeth fast for ever. The hills stand about Jerusalem. The names in our version would more naturally be reversed; but then we find in the Vulgate, "They that trust in the LORD shall be even as the Mount Sion; He shall never be moved that dwelleth in Jerusalem; which is a plain example of the rule. "The LORD from out of Sion shall so bless thee, that thou shalt see Jerusalem in prosperity all thy life long. Here, at first sight, it would seem that the names should be changed. But we may rather elicit this meaning: the LORD shall so give thee His grace while thou art still in the Church militant, that thou thyself, with thine own eyes, shalt see the prosperity of His heavenly kingdom all thy life long; and what is the "life long" of the soul, but eternity? "Videas," says Ayguan, "bona cœlestis Hierusalem quæ sunt perpetua. Et quia resuscitatus semper vives, semper illa bona videbis. The 137th Psalm occasions a difficulty. The earlier clauses, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, yea, if I prefer not Jerusalem in my mirth," plainly point to heaven. But then, how are we to explain what follows,—"Remember the children of Edom, O LORD, in the day of Jerusalem: how they said, Down with it? And mediæval writers answer, that by the children of Edom the heathen and the unbelievers are set forth;

and that these will indeed be remembered and brought into the fold, in the day of Jerusalem—the day when the Vision of Peace shall shine forth perfectly—and there shall be one fold and one shepherd: although, in attacking the earthly Church, they did, in point of fact, so far as in them lay, direct their malice against that heavenly communion—(Down with it)—with which the other forms but one family. Once more: "Praise the LORD, O Jerusalem; praise thy GOD, O Sion: in the one, "He hath made fast the bars of thy gates," namely, those gates through which

Jerusalem and Sion. nothing shall pass that defileth; in the other, a promise of a lower character, "He hath blessed thy children within thee." 33. There remain only two passages, which cannot be, by any reasonable stretch of fancy, brought within the canon. They occur in one Psalm: "Thy holy temple have they defiled, and made Jerusalem an heap of stones: their blood have they shed like water on every side of Jerusalem." Now it is known that, though this is called a Psalm of Asaph, yet there is a general tradition of the Church that it was composed in the time of the Maccabees. "It is said in the person of the Maccabees," writes S. Athanasius. "Asaph relates," says Bede, "the sufferings of the people of the Jews, during the time of Antiochus." "A prophecy," exclaims Eusebius, "of that which befell the Jews through Antiochus." Is there any connection between the date of the Psalm and this fact?

34. Let us now turn to the prophecy of Isaiah, and examine the question, with the help of mediæval writers, there. The word Sion occurs in that book thirty-six times; Jerusalem, thirty-four. Now Sion is not once used where it is not, to say the least, patient of the meaning we attach to it; and, when thus understood, it frequently brings out the sense with considerable sharpness and beauty. Take a few examples: Isa. i. 27. Sion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. Isa. x. 24. O My people, that dwellest in Sion, be not afraid of the Assyrian. Isa. xii. 6. Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Sion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. Isa. xiv. 32. What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD hath founded Sion, and the poor of His people shall trust in it.

Isa. xxviii. 16. Behold, I lay in Sion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation:—(manifestly spoken of the Incarnation.) Isa. xlix. 14. But Sion said, The LORD hath forsaken me, and my LORD hath forgotten me. [But see in Vol. II. p. 526, that even this passage can be brought within the rule.] The same in Isaiah. Isa. li. 3. For the LORD shall comfort Sion: He will comfort all her waste places, and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD. Isa. lix. 20. And the Redeemer shall come to Sion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob. 35. But when we come to the meaning of Jerusalem, we shall find that the rule by no means holds good. Take, for example, such passages as these: Isa. iii. 8. For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen.

Isa. x. 10. Whose graven images did excel them of Jerusalem and of Samaria. Isa. x. 11. Shall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols? Isa. xxviii. 14. Ye scornful men which rule this people which is in Jerusalem. There are some other passages of the same kind. At the same time, by understanding Jerusalem of the heavenly city when the primâ facie sense of the text would seem against it, we shall sometimes elicit a very beautiful meaning. So, for example: Isa. v. 3. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and My vineyard; where GOD calls, as it were, His heavenly as well as His earthly Church to be arbiters between Him and His people. Again: Isa. lii. 9. Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the LORD hath comforted His people, He hath redeemed Jerusalem;

where we may well take the waste places to be the poor, distressed, and persecuted Church on earth, which, nevertheless, may be called "of Jerusalem," indeed belonging to it. Isa. lxiv. 10. Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Sion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation; where the latter clause may be taken in the sense of that passage, "The angels of peace shall weep bitterly;" and as expressing the deep sympathy of those, who cannot sorrow for themselves, in the sorrows of their earthly brethren. 36. The passages in which Sion and Jerusalem stand together, in addition to that last quoted, are the following: Isa. ii. 3. Out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the Word of the LORD from Jerusalem; a noble example in our favour. The law, that is the Mosaic law, went forth from Sion, the Jewish or earthly Church; the Word of the LORD, the Incarnate WORD, from Jerusalem, according to that saying, "I came forth from the FATHER, and am come into the world."

Isa. iv. 3. And it shall come to pass that he that is left in Sion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem. Here also they take the passage in its typical sense: Remaineth in Jerusalem, according to this interpretation, being equivalent to the promise, "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of GOD, and he shall go no more out." But by no stretch of ingenuity can the next verse be so applied: "When the LORD shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Sion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof." Isa. x. 12. When the LORD hath performed His whole work upon Mount Sion, and on Jerusalem. Isa. xxx. 19. The people shall dwell in Sion at Jerusalem. A very lovely text when interpreted by the usual law: even while members of the Church on earth, they shall see so much of the glory of GOD, and be so near to Him, as to be already almost inhabitants of the celestial city.

Isa. xxxi. 4. Like as the lion and the young lion roaring, . . . so shall the LORD of Hosts come down to fight for Mount Sion . . . as birds flying, so will the LORD of Hosts defend Jerusalem: where the different kind of protection vouchsafed to the Church militant and the Church triumphant is admirably described. 37. This may suffice for one of the most remarkable rules laid down by mystical writers. In the same way, the distinction between Jacob and Israel will be found carefully observed. Jacob, the supplanter, he that has a hard struggle to obtain his inheritance; Israel, "He that sees God," the Church that enjoys the Beatific Vision. Jacob and Israel.

says Bernard of Cluny, when writing of the heavenly country. And if we examine the Book of Psalms, we shall again find how much light is thrown on many passages by this distinction. And even when at first sight the meaning would appear impossible, a little further attention will induce us to accept it. For example: "O that the salvation were given unto Israel out of Sion. . . . Then should Jacob rejoice, and Israel should be right glad. The words would usually be explained, "O that God would send down His salvation,—that is, His blessing, which leads to salvation—on Israel, His Church on earth, from Sion, His own dwelling-place. But it is not so. O that the salvation, that is, the number of those that shall be saved, were given to Israel, that is, were brought in to the Church above, as the tribute from Sion, the Church below! In other words, O that the number of the elect were complete,—and it may well follow, THEN shall Jacob rejoice, and Israel shall be right glad. So again: "The LORD hath chosen Jacob unto Himself, and Israel for His own possession; where notice the force of the word own, as implying such a possession as can never be lost. Again: "He showeth His Word unto Jacob," as indeed He did at the Incarnation; "His statutes and ordinances unto Israel; that is, the full knowledge of His mysteries, the understanding of the depth of His dispensations, is reserved for the Church triumphant.

Remarkably also it is written, "This is the generation of them that seek Him, even of them that seek Thy face, O Jacob; where our LORD is addressed in His character as man, subject to the same temptations with ourselves. Compare that passage in Isaiah, "Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; the poor grovelling servant of God in this world, fitly likened to a crawling worm: they that have attained the measure of the stature of the fulness of CHRIST, no less fitly called men of Israel. Notice, again: "He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep: "He shall redeem Israel from all his sins. "The LORD doth build up Jerusalem, and gather together the outcasts of Israel," that is, His servants on earth Who, though exiles from their home, and as yet outcasts, are nevertheless outcasts of Israel. But then we must carefully observe one point connected with this symbolism. When Israel stands in apposition with Jacob, the case is as I have said; but it may also stand in contrast with Judah, and then the meaning will often be found altered. And here we may notice a very remarkable truth. David and his contemporaries had no conception of the falling away of the ten tribes. To them, therefore, the word Israel could not by any possibility have presented the idea of backsliding. But with the later Psalm writers the case was different; and accordingly with them Israel will be more frequently found the type of a Church wherein sin yet exists. For example:

"If the LORD Himself had not been on our side, now may Israel say. So, again, in the 114th Psalm, which has almost always been considered the composition of a later period than that of David: "Judah was His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion. The reader would find it an inquiry equally profitable and interesting, to work out this investigation for himself: my own limits will not allow me to dwell longer on the subject.

The Word. 38. Again: marvellous it is to discover what additional depth of meaning is given to almost every Psalm by taking "the Word" to mean the Incarnate WORD. "The LORD gave the Word; great was the company of the preachers;" for was it not when the Only-begotten SON was given to man that preaching commenced? Does not every pulpit depend on that first pulpit of Calvary? "The Word of the LORD also is tried in the fire:" how more truly can His sufferings be described? "Thy Word hath quickened Me:" "Whoso eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood, hath eternal life." "He sent His Word, and healed them." Compare it with that saying, "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." "His Word runneth very swiftly." For, as S. Ambrose says, From GOD the FATHER He proceeds— To GOD the FATHER back He speeds; Proceeds as far as very hell, Speeds back—to light ineffable.

"I am as glad of Thy Word as one that findeth great spoils;" take it of the Church, when, after four thousand years she could then say, "Unto us a Child is born." The 119th Psalm, taken in this sense, is transfigured into a beauty which cannot exist for those who reject mysticism. There is a treatise by the "Gallican Eagle," Pierre d'Ailly, under the title of Verbum abbreviatum, in which he goes through the passages in which THE WORD is mentioned in the Psalms, and works out in each its highest meaning. 39. It will now be proper to enumerate those passages in the Psalter which have been quoted in the New Testament: and no stronger argument can be adduced in favour of mysticism than that which is to be derived from many of these quotations. And we will first take those which are immediately and directly quoted by our LORD Himself.

Quotations from the Psalter. Away from me, all ye that work vanity. S. Matt. vii. 23. And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity. The words in the LXX. are precisely the same. Out of the mouth of very babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength. S. Matt. xxi. 16. JESUS saith unto them, Yea: have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise? A literal quotation from the LXX. My GOD, my GOD, why hast Thou forsaken me? See my commentary on this verse, and the tradition there mentioned, that our LORD beginning at Psalm xxii., recited all the intermediate verses down to Into Thy hands I commend my Spirit: when He resigned His most blessed soul into His FATHER'S hands. Neither let them wink with their eyes that hate me without a cause.

S. John xv. 25. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause. Notice that this quotation not only authorises, but obliges, us to understand the whole of Psalm xxxv., "Plead Thou my cause," &c., of our LORD Himself. But if we are so to take that Psalm, who can dare to blame us for a similar interpretation of the many Psalms which resemble it so closely? Yea, even mine own familiar friend, whom I trusted: who did also eat of my bread, hath laid great wait for me. S. John xiii. 18. But that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me, hath lifted up his heel against me. I have said, Ye are gods, and ye are all the children of the Most Highest. S. John x. 34. Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?

The LORD said unto my LORD, Sit Thou on My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. The basis of our LORD's question to the multitudes: S. Matt. xxii. 43; S. Mark xii. 36; S. Luke xx. 42: How say they that CHRIST is David's Son? And David himself saith in the book of Psalms, The LORD said unto my LORD, Sit Thou on My right hand, till I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. David therefore calleth Him LORD, how is He then his Son? The same stone which the builders refused is become the head stone in the corner. This is the LORD's doing; and it is marvellous in our eyes. S. Matt. xxi. 42; S. Mark xii. 10. JESUS saith unto them, Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the LORD's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?

Besides these, there are two other passages, where it would seem as if our LORD were distinctly referring to, though not actually quoting from the Psalms. "The hill of Sion is a fair place and the joy of the whole earth: upon the north side lieth the city of the great King." One can hardly doubt from the similarity of the phrase, that this verse was in our LORD's mind when He taught on the mount, "Swear not at all: . . . . . neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King." So again: if we first read, "Who giveth fodder unto the cattle, and feedeth the young ravens that call upon Him," shall we not think it probable that in the discourse on the plain, S. Luke xii. 24, our LORD took His illustration, "Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have store-house nor barn; and GOD feedeth them;" as if He were arguing, And yet ye know from your own Scriptures that GOD does indeed take care of them.

We will now proceed to the other quotations made in the New Testament from the Psalms: and it will be more convenient to take them in the order of the Psalter. Why do the heathen so furiously rage together: and why Ps. ii. 1. do the people imagine a vain thing? &c. Acts iv. 25. Who by the mouth of Thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things? &c. Here we have the second Psalm ascribed, which it is not in the Psalter, to David. The quotation is word for word from the LXX. I will preach the law, whereof the LORD hath said unto ii. 7. Me, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee. Acts xiii. 33. As it is also written in the second Psalm; Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee. But the better reading is, "the first Psalm," which thus gives additional likelihood to the other division, which makes the first and second Psalm into one.

Heb. i. 5. For unto which of the Angels said He at any time, Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee? Heb. v. 5. So also CHRIST glorified not Himself to be made an High Priest, but He that said unto Him, Thou art My Son, to-day have I begotten Thee. The quotation in all these passages is perfectly literal, as it will be understood in all cases henceforward to be, where I do not notice a difference. Thou shalt bruise them with a rod of iron. Rev. ii. 27; xix. 15. And He shall rule them with a rod of iron. Although not formally quoted, the words are precisely the same, except the necessary change of person. Ποιμανεῖς, shalt guide them as a shepherd, the rod of iron clearly referring to the shepherd's staff. I know not why our own version is so vague. Stand in awe, and sin not.

Eph. iv. 26. Be ye angry, and sin not. ὀργίζεσθε is the translation of the LXX. Their throat is an open sepulchre. Rom. iii. 13. Their throat is an open sepulchre. What is man, that Thou art mindful of him: and the son of man, that Thou visitest him? Thou madest him lower than the Angels: to crown him with glory and worship. Thou makest him to have dominion of the works of Thy hands: and Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. Heb. ii. 6—8. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that Thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the Angels; Thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.

1 Cor. xv. 27. For He hath put all things under His feet. But when He saith, All things are put under Him, it is manifest that He is excepted, Which did put all things under Him. A slight variation of phrase; πάντα ὑπέταξας ὑποκάτω τῶν ποδῶν αὐτοῦ, and πάντα γὰρ ὑπέταξεν ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ. Here, and in the preceding, is a remarkable example of what we may call a mystical interpretation. Had a mediæval writer applied the Son of Man in Psalm viii. to our LORD, the literalists would have accused him of destroying the meaning, which was only to teach man a lesson of humility, by comparing him, in his littleness, with the glory of the nightly stars. Yet S. Paul quotes the text, not allusively, but argumentatively: "for He hath put," &c. His mouth is full of cursing, deceit and fraud. Rom. iii. 14. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness;

I have observed, in its proper place, that that which appears a quotation in Rom. iii. 10, 11, &c., is, in reality, a corrupt borrowing back by the Psalm of a passage not originally there (and not given in our Bible version,) and made up of fragments from other Psalms. I therefore pass it over here. I have set GOD always before me: for He is on my right hand, therefore I shall not fall. Wherefore my heart was glad, and my glory rejoiced: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For why? Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell: neither shalt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption. Thou shalt show me the path of life; in Thy presence is the fulness of joy. Acts ii. 25—28. For David speaketh concerning Him, I foresaw the LORD always before my face, for He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: because Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; Thou shalt make me full of joy with Thy countenance.

And xiii. 35. Wherefore he saith also in another Psalm, Thou shalt not suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. For David, after, &c. What is this but a distinct protest against literalism? My SAVIOUR, my GOD, and my might, in Whom I will trust. Heb. ii. 13. And again, I will put my trust in Him. The particular applicability of the text to S. Paul's thesis, that, by the Incarnation we have become one with our LORD, it is not easy to develope: but this is clear, that no literalist would ever have dreamt of applying Psalm xviii. 1 to our SAVIOUR; and that, from this verse, we may, nay, we must, apply the whole Psalm also to Him. For this cause will I give thanks unto Thee, O LORD, among the Gentiles : and sing praises unto Thy Name. Rom. xv. 9. And that the Gentiles might glorify GOD for His mercy; as it is written : For this cause I will confess to Thee among the Gentiles, and sing unto Thy Name.

The word Κύριε is omitted in S. Paul's quotation. Their sound is gone out into all lands : and their words into the ends of the world. Rom. x. 18. But I say, Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. A most striking example of a mystical quotation. Who, that did not beforehand know, would imagine that David was speaking of aught else save the natural heavens? No wonder that the Fathers have, with one consentient voice, interpreted this Psalm throughout of the Apostles. They part my garments among them : and cast lots upon my vesture. S. Matt. xxvii. 35. And they crucified Him, and parted His garments, casting lots : that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.

S. John xix. 23, 24. And also His coat : now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be : that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did. Here even the literalist sees a prophecy of our LORD; but, it would appear, of Him only. No doubt this fact also was true of David in some of his afflictions : probably when he left Jerusalem in that hasty flight from Absalom, and the rabble might easily have broken into his palace. I will declare Thy Name unto my brethren : in the midst of the congregation will I praise Thee. [The quotation in Hebrews ii. 13, is not from the Psalm, but from the LXX. of Isaiah

xii. 2, with which it agrees word for word.] Heb. ii. 11. For which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare Thy Name unto My brethren: in the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto Thee. The earth is the LORD's, and all that therein is. 1 Cor. x. 25. Whatsoever is sold in the shambles, that eat, asking no question for conscience' sake: for the earth is the LORD's and the fulness thereof. And so, if the reading be genuine, at ver. 28. Blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven, and whose xxxii. 1. sin is covered: blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth no sin. Rom. iv. 6. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom GOD imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered: Blessed is the man to whom the LORD will not impute sin.

What man is he that lusteth to live: and would fain see xxxiv. 12. good days? Keep thy tongue from evil: and thy lips, that they speak no guile. Eschew evil, and do good: seek peace, and ensue it. The eyes of the LORD are over the righteous: and His ears are open unto their prayers. The countenance of the LORD is against them that do evil. 1 S. Pet. iii. 10—12. For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile; let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the LORD are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the LORD is against them that do evil. The quotation is verbally exact if we exclude the necessary change of persons, excepting at the commencement.

He keepeth all his bones, so that not one of them is xxxiv. 20. broken. S. John xix. 36. For these things were done, that the Scripture should be fulfilled: A bone of him shall not be broken. This is generally applied to the Paschal Lamb only, to which there is, no doubt, a reference also. But the words are too express to permit any doubt that S. John was quoting, not from the Pentateuch, but from the Psalter. Sacrifice and meat-offering Thou wouldest not: but mine ears hast Thou opened. Burnt-offerings and sacrifice for sin hast Thou not required: then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume of the book it is written of me, that I should fulfil Thy will, O my God. Heb. x. 5—7. Wherefore, when He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me: in burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast had no pleasure: then said I, Lo, I come, (in the volume of the book it is written of Me,) to do Thy will, O God.

The quotation is almost verbally exact. The but a body hast Thou prepared Me is the reading of the LXX. (see my note on the passage.) But S. Paul gives (1) ὁλοκαυτώματα for ὁλοκαύτωμα, (2) οὐκ εὐδόκησας for οὐκ ἤτησας; and (3) τοῦ ποιῆσαι, ὁ Θεός, τὸ θέλημά σου, for τοῦ ποιῆσαι τὸ θέλημά σου, ὁ Θεός μου, ἠβουλήθην. Where he again quotes the passage in the following verse, he still differs verbally in (2) οὐκ ἠθέλησας οὐδὲ εὐδόκησας. For Thy sake also are we killed all the day long: and are counted as sheep appointed to be slain. Rom. viii. 36. As it is written: For Thy sake we are killed all the day long: we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Thy seat, O God, endureth for ever: the sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity: wherefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

Heb. i. 8, 9. But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. That Thou mightest be justified in Thy saying, and clear when Thou art judged. Rom. iii. 4. Let God be true, but every man a liar, as it is written, That Thou mightest be justified in Thy sayings, and mightest overcome when Thou art judged. O cast thy burden upon the LORD, and He shall nourish thee. 1 S. Pet. v. 7. Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you. An allusion, rather than a direct quotation. And that Thou, LORD, art merciful, for Thou rewardest lxii. 12. every man according to his work. 1 Cor. iii. 8. Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

The quotation is not literal; but all the commentators agree that it is a virtual reference. Thou art gone up on high, thou hast led captivity captive, lxviii. 18. and received gifts for men : yea, even for thine enemies, that the LORD GOD might dwell among them. Eph. iv. 8. Wherefore He saith, When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. The quotation is literal, except for the change of the second into the third person, and the substitution of gave (the Syriac reading) for received. The zeal of Thine house hath even eaten me. lxix. 9. S. John ii. 17. And His disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up. And the rebukes of them that rebuked Thee are fallen upon me. Rom. xv. 3. For even CHRIST pleased not Himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached Thee fell on me.

Let their table be made a snare to take themselves withal: lxix. 23, 24. and let the things that should have been for their wealth be unto them an occasion of falling. Let their eyes be blinded, that they see not: and ever bow Thou down their backs. Rom. xi. 9, 10. And David saith, Let their table be made a snare and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them: let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. The first verse has considerable verbal variations. Let their habitation be void: and no man to dwell in their lxix. 26. tents. Acts i. 20. For it is written in the book of Psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein. Here also there is a considerable variation. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will declare hard sentences of old.

S. Matt. xiii. 35. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world. He rained down manna also upon them for to eat : and gave them food from Heaven. S. John vi. 31. Our fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, as it is written: He gave them bread from Heaven to eat. The Jews do not quote correctly. Bread of Heaven is surely much stronger than bread out of Heaven: and the amplification of to eat by no means strengthens the force. The Psalmist's original language is far better fitted to the highest mystical sense. I have found David My servant : with My holy oil have I anointed him. Acts xiii. 22. To whom also He gave testimony and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after Mine own heart, which shall fulfil all My will.

This can hardly be called a quotation, mixed up as it also is with 1 Sam. xiii. 14. He shall give His Angels charge over thee : to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee in their hands : that thou hurt not thy foot against a stone. S. Matt. iv. 6. 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. S. Luke iv. 9—11. 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.

All the Fathers have the observation that Satan omits a clause, so as to make God's Word false—"in all thy ways:" that is, in all places where thy duty calls thee. Observe, further, that S. Luke gives the τοῦ διαφύλαξαί σε, which S. Matthew omits. The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man : that they are xciv. 11. but vain. 1 Cor. iii. 20. And again, The LORD knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. The Apostle reads, τῶν σοφῶν, for τῶν ἀνθρώπων. The Vulgate agrees with the LXX., in the original passage. To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts : xcv. 8—11. as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness; when your fathers tempted Me : proved Me, and saw My works. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said : It is a people that do err in their hearts, for they have not known My ways; unto whom I sware in My wrath : that they should not enter into My rest.

Heb. iii. 7—11. Wherefore (as the HOLY GHOST saith, To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known My ways. So I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest.) And further, Heb. iv. 7. Again, He limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To-day, after so long a time; as it is said, To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts. For if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day. There are a few verbal differences. The LXX. has πικρασμοῦ: the New Testament πειρασμοῦ. But here, probably, the genuine reading is that which the Apostle gives; as both Vulgate and Italic have tentationis.

But far more noteworthy is the Apostolic argument, founded so completely as it is on the symbolical understanding of the passage. Consider that the Epistle to the Hebrews is—perhaps with the exception of that to the Romans—the most deeply reasoned of all the Apostolic writings: it was, and was intended to be, a challenge to Jewish learning and Rabbinical cavils; and yet a mystical argument appears to the writer of so much force, that he recurs to it twice. It is easy for commentators to admire the depth and richness of this argument of S. Paul, who would yet be the first to sneer at the Nicene ratiocination from My heart hath produced a good Word: but is there really any difference between the force of the two? And had S. Paul happened to use the latter, and the Fathers of Nicæa the former, would not the praise and the blame have been exactly reversed?

Worship Him, all ye gods. Heb. i. 6. And again, when He bringeth in the First-begotten into the world, He saith, And let all the Angels of GOD worship Him. This is one of the passages that most remarkably prove our system. Let any ordinary reader take up Psalm xcvii.: let him be told that in the "clouds and darkness are round about Him" the mystery of the Incarnation is foreshown; in the clause, "The heavens have declared His righteousness," the Guiding Star is set forth; would they not call all this fanciful and unreal? And yet here the Apostle clearly declares this to be David's meaning; for where else in that Psalm does the FATHER bring in the First-begotten? Certainly in no way that is not more typical, more removed from the ordinary system of explanation. No: the value of such a quotation, as a proof of, and clue to, mystical interpretation, is positively incalculable.

Thou, LORD, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy hands. They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure: they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail. [These words are an exact quotation, not from the Psalm, but from the LXX. of Deut. xxxii. 43, which varies much from A. V. The sense is then this: When GOD brought Israel, His typical first-born, into the Land of Promise, He said to him by the mouth of Moses, Let all the Angels of GOD worship GOD Who hath done so great things. And then the words are transferred to the entrance of GOD the Only-begotten SON into the world, to conquer it. This is even more deeply mystical than the interpretation of the Psalm, as given above.]

Heb. i. 10. And, Thou, LORD, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the works of Thine hands: they shall perish; but Thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but Thou art the same, and Thy years shall not fail. Now S. Paul teaches us that this is addressed to the Son. How? and why? Simply because the whole Psalm, in his eyes, possessed a deeply symbolical meaning. Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion refers to the Incarnation: it is time that Thou have mercy upon her is the counterpart to When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son. When the Lord doth build up Sion tells of the construction of the Church on the ruins of the Synagogue: when He turneth Him unto the prayer of the poor destitute alludes to the "mundus languidus." If it be not by such reasoning as this, how could the Apostle know that the Son, rather than the FATHER, was intended by the prophet? And if it be replied, "It was a matter of direct inspiration," the answer is easy. Granted, it might have been so to himself: but here he is arguing with those who denied his inspiration,—with those whom he desired not to take the statement on his own authority, but to search the Scriptures, whether these things were so: with those, therefore, who acknowledged a mystical sense as well as himself. Once allow his inspiration, and why argue from the Old Testament at all? I think that, the more this argument is considered—and it is one which I do not remember to have seen adduced—the more irrefragable it will appear.

He maketh His Angels spirits: and His ministers a flaming fire. clv. 4. Heb. i. 7. And of the Angels He saith, Who maketh His Angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire. Let another take his office. clx. 7. Acts i. 20. And his bishopric let another take. The LORD said unto my LORD: Sit Thou on My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. cx. 1. Acts ii. 34. For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The LORD said unto my LORD, Sit Thou on My right hand, until I make Thy foes Thy foot-stool. 1 Cor. xv. 25. For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under His feet. Heb. i. 13. But to which of the Angels said He at any time, Sit on My right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? The LORD sware, and will not repent : Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek.

Heb. vii. 21. For those priests were made without an oath ; but this with an oath by Him that said unto Him, The LORD sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek. Heb. v. 6. As He saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek. He hath dispersed abroad, and given to the poor : and his righteousness remaineth for ever ; his horn shall be exalted with honour. 2 Cor. ix. 9. As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor ; his righteousness remaineth for ever. The Apostle quotes with less emphasis, (but in agreement with the Hebrew,) εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ; in the LXX. it is εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος. I believed, and therefore will I speak. 2 Cor. iv. 13. We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken ; we also believe, and therefore speak.

I said in my haste, All men are liars. Rom. iii. 4. Let God be true, but every man a liar. I give this as a quotation, because almost all the Fathers who have written on the passage affirm it to be so : though, in itself, it would hardly appear to me to be one. O praise the LORD, all ye heathen : praise Him, all ye nations. Rom. xv. 11. And again : Praise the LORD, all ye Gentiles, and laud Him, all ye people. The LORD is on my side : I will not fear what man doeth unto me. Heb. xiii. 6. So that we may boldly say, The LORD is my helper : and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. The same stone which the builders refused, is become the head stone in the corner. Acts iv. 11. This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.

1 S. Pet. ii. 7. Unto you therefore which believe, He is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner. Observe here how S. Peter, both in his sermon and in his Epistle, dwells on this text without the least doubt of its symbolical meaning; and that, in the former case, in the midst of enemies, who, had they not been used to such a system of interpretation, would only have been offended or disgusted by the allusion. The LORD hath made a faithful oath unto David, and He cxxxli. 11. shall not shrink from it: Of the fruit of thy body: will I set upon thy seat. Acts ii. 30. Therefore being a Prophet, and knowing that GOD had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, He would raise up CHRIST to sit on his throne; he, seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of CHRIST.

The poison of asps is under their lips. Rom. iii. 13. The poison of asps is under their lips. 40. In conclusion, do we ordinarily attach sufficient importance to such expressions as that with reference to our LORD in the last days of His earthly life? "Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures." Does not this infer a regular tuition in some system of interpretation of which hitherto they knew nothing? He expounded unto them all the things concerning Himself. Some of those things, we have already seen, involved what would now be called the deepest mysticism, and forthwith we see its fruits. History is no longer a bare relation of facts—it is a parable. Agar is no longer the concubine of Abraham, but "Mount Sinai in Arabia." The Mosaic law is a Christian Parable; "saith He it not altogether for our sakes?" CHRIST is everywhere, in Prophet, Psalm, History: every Old Testament Saint is the type of the Saint of Saints; every persecutor is the forerunner of the Destroyer of souls. And what follows? Observe the depth of study, the profound search, the intensity of investigation of the mystics,

The understanding of the Disciples, how opened. contrasted with the jejunity, the commonplace superficiality of the literalists! To the latter, Scripture is no mine: its treasures are at the surface; a first reading may exhibit as much of the meaning as a twentieth; and hence the stupid dictum of a marvellous genius, likening the first interpretation of the Bible to the first crush of the grape, which first crush is not wine, but a sickly and unwholesome must.

41. In unison with the system which it has been the object of this Essay to unfold, the present Commentary is written. I know that it will be called, by many, fanciful, unreal, destructive of Scripture, will be said to put imagination in the place of reason, and to substitute the words of men for the word of GOD. But let this only be borne in mind. Our system is the system, as all must allow, of every saintly Commentator from S. Barnabas to S. Francis de Sales—the system, as I have endeavoured to show, not only of Isapostolic but of Apostolic writers. The interpretations are none of them my own; their authors are given; they come with greater or less authority; but those that have least will be found to possess some considerable weight. I claim nothing but the poor thread on which the pearls are strung. To collect them has been the happy work of many years—work which has consoled me in trial, added happiness to prosperity, afforded a theme of profitable conversation with dear friends, furnished the subject-matter for numerous sermons. I pray GOD to accept it as an offering to the Treasury of His Church; and to give that system, if it be His will, favour in the eyes of Scriptural students, which I know to be the only method whereby His own, be it declaration or command, can be fully acted out, ἐρευνᾶτε τὰς γραφὰς . . . καὶ ΕΚΕΙΝΑΙ ΕΙΣΙΝ 'ΑΙ ΜΑΡΤΥΡΟΤΣΑΙ ΠΕΡΙ ΕΜΟΤ.

TITLE. Bible Version: To the Chief Musician, a Psalm of David. Vulgate: In finem, Psalmus David, pro extasi.

Argument.ARG. THOMAS. That CHRIST, when crucified, commended His Spirit into His FATHER'S hands, speedily to receive it again. The Voice of CHRIST, hanging on the Cross, and praying for Himself and for His faithful people. Here is the Confession of Faith of them that believe in GOD. The Voice of CHRIST in His Passion concerning the Jews. VEN. BEDE. This title is a well-known one, pertaining to the LORD CHRIST, concerning Whose Passion and Resurrection this whole Psalm is sung. Through the whole Psalm they are the words of the LORD the SAVIOUR. At the beginning He prayeth to the FATHER, that He may be freed from imminent ills, and then exults, without doubting that He hath been heard. Next, He returns to His Passion, and by diverse allusions, marvellously describeth how it was ordered. Have mercy upon Me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. Thirdly, He returneth thanks for Himself and His faithful people, since He hath given His gifts of mercy to the universal Church: admonishing also the Saints that they persevere in the love of the LORD, since they have heard of the rewards of the good, and the retribution of the evil. This Psalm may, historically, be understood of David himself.

SYRIAC PSALTER. A thanksgiving, and a perpetual supplication to GOD. S. JEROME. The Psalm, at the opening, contains the voice of the Mediator Himself; then of the people redeemed by His Blood, in the person of the Prophet. The Redeemer therefore saith to the FATHER, In Thee, O Lord, &c.

Various Uses.Gregorian. Ferial: Compline, every night, to ver. 6, inclusive. Monday: Matins. Monastic. Sunday: II. Nocturn; and Compline on the last three days of Holy Week, ver. 1—6. Ambrosian. Tuesday of the First Week: III. Nocturn. Quignon. Sunday: Compline, ver. 1—6: and Monday, Nocturns.

Antiphons.Gregorian. Monday: Matins as before. Compline: Have mercy upon me * and hearken unto my prayers. Lyons. Deliver me * in Thy righteousness. Mozarabic. In Thee, O LORD, have I put my trust: let me never be confounded; but rid me and deliver me in Thy righteousness.

I have before mentioned the tradition that our LORD, beginning the 22nd Psalm on the Cross, went through that and those which follow, till He concluded His prayer and His mortal life together with the sixth verse of the present Psalm. The first six verses, therefore, have always been considered as forming a separate Psalm; and from the very earliest ages have been appropriated in the West to Compline. For, night being the type of death, it was felt that the words with which our LORD closed the day of His earthly life were the fittest with which the LORD's followers could close each day of their earthly pilgrimage. What is the precise meaning of the words pro extasi, which end the title, it seems difficult to say: it seems probable that it had its rise from the verse, I said in My haste, this same expression occurring in the LXX. It is not mentioned by S. Jerome, nor Cassiodorus; though it is recognised by S. Augustine. The poet Apollinarius evidently takes it of the especial influx of the HOLY GHOST under which David composed this Psalm. The Psalm itself is recommended by S. Athanasius to Marcellinus as most appropriate to the Christian who, for the Name of his Master, is enduring the attacks of enemies, or suffering from the coldness of friends. S. Augustine dwells at great length on the ecstasy or transport under which it was composed.

"An ecstasy," says he, "is either a panic on account of some dreadful apprehension, or a straining after heavenly things in such sort, that the sense of earthly things is in some sense lost. And having shown how, in either sense, the Psalm is applicable, he proceeds: "Here, then, CHRIST speaketh in the Prophet; I venture to say CHRIST speaketh. The Psalmist will say some things in this Psalm which may seem as if they could not apply to CHRIST, to that excellency of our Head, and especially to that Word Which was in the beginning GOD with GOD: nor perhaps will some things here seem to apply to Him in the form of a servant, which form of a servant He took from the Virgin: and yet CHRIST speaketh, because CHRIST in CHRIST's members."

1 In thee, O LORD, have I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion, deliver me in thy righteousness.

Let Me never be put to confusion. If they are the words of our LORD on the Cross, then it is better to take them in the Vulgate sense, Let me not be put to confusion eternally. "Though I bear all the sins of the world for a while, in order that they may be done away for ever, let them be confounded that persecute Me, but let not Me be confounded; let them be afraid, but let not Me be afraid. And observe that the verse which is the commencement of this Psalm of David's is the end of the most glorious hymn that the Church uses: O Lord, in Thee have I trusted: let me never be confounded. As if to show us that the beginning and end of Christian life must send up this prayer,—must acknowledge that from our own acts, if we are left to ourselves, nothing but confusion can follow. In Thy righteousness. They take it of the SON of GOD, Who is made wisdom and righteousness to us. And here, as they observe, and all through the Psalm, David sometimes speaks in the person of the Head, sometimes in that of the members, without giving any notice of the change. "Which he doth," says Ayguan, "on account of the exceeding unity which there is between the Head and the members. Just as the tongue undertakes to speak in the person of all the limbs; as, if the foot be hurt, the tongue says, You hurt me.

For He Who vouchsafed for us to be Man, and to be endued with the form of a servant, disdains not to transfigure us into Himself. Which He doth in many ways; as when He speaketh in the person of His members as if it were His own, 'Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?' And again, 'I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat.' Or when He manifests, in or from Himself, something which He hath not of Himself, but of us, because He has mercifully received it from us: as when He speaks of being sorrowful, or of fearing. He, then, Who thus transfigures us into Himself, disdains not to use our words, that we may with a good courage employ His. Wherefore, although CHRIST saith some things in this Psalm which cannot apply to Him as Head of the Church, yet it is CHRIST Who speaks them for all that, because CHRIST is in His members, and the Person of the Bridegroom and Bride are, as it were, one. And S. Augustine still more strikingly: "The wonderful and excellent unity of this Person the prophet Isaiah also sets forth: for speaking in him too, CHRIST saith in prophecy: 'He hath bound a mitre on Me as on a bridegroom the chaplet, and hath adorned Me with ornaments as a bride.' He calls Himself the Bride as well as the Bridegroom: why calls He Himself the Bridegroom and the Bride, unless they should be two in one flesh?

If two in one flesh, why not two in one voice? CHRIST may therefore speak, because the Church speaks in CHRIST, and CHRIST in the Church, and the Body in the Head, and the Head in the Body. Notice that the words which are in the LXX., καὶ ἐξελοῦ με, are not to be found either in the Hebrew or in the Vulgate, and are very probably only a different version of the same phrase. Let me never be put to confusion. It may be in the future—I shall never be confounded; or better still, I shall not be confounded for ever: that is, though I may be confounded for a while, though for a while it may seem that GOD's face was withdrawn from me, that promise shall be fulfilled, "For shame ye shall have double, and for confusion they shall delight in their portion: therefore in their land shall they possess the double, everlasting joy shall be upon them."

2 Bow down thine ear to me: make haste to deliver me. Bow down, in two senses: the one by which the LORD bowed His ear to the commandments of His FATHER; the other by which, since our prayers have no power to ascend A. A. Ps. xviii. 9. A. to heaven, the Son of God stoops, as it were, to meet them half way. Or mystically, Bow down Thyself, as in the Incarnation: for so it is written, "He bowed the heavens, and came down." In like manner, when the woman taken in adultery was brought before our LORD, He stooped down: just as when the whole human race was arraigned before the tribunal of His justice, He had stooped down, by taking upon Himself our form, and became subject to the Cross for our sakes. Make haste to deliver me. It is the natural prayer of man, and as we see, not forbidden by grace. But think how long the time seems to us in passing, which is to our LORD but as one moment; for a thousand years to Him are but as one day, and one day as a thousand years. The Master of the Sentences understands the text in a different way. Others must wait until the time of the general Resurrection: Make haste to deliver Me. Them Thou shalt raise again at the end of the world; Me, on the third day: them, as the general harvest; Me, as the first-fruits. Or, if we take it in another sense: Make haste to deliver Me, and why? Because man makes such haste to destroy himself.

3 And be thou my strong rock, and house of defence: that thou mayest save me. 4 For thou art my strong rock, and my castle: be thou also my guide, and lead me for thy name's sake. S. Greg. M. Homil. in Ezek.

The foolishness of God is wiser than man. So it may be said of these two verses: Be Thou My strong rock: for Thou art My strong rock: the prayer to God that He may be that which we know He is. That He may be in reality and in our feeling that which we know Him to be by faith. It is the same prayer that might be made with respect to one of the cities of refuge. We know that He is our hiding-place, as the city of refuge was the hiding-place of those who had committed manslaughter. But as the city of refuge was no refuge except to those that used their utmost endeavours to fly thither, so this our strong rock, however much it be so by nature, will not be so to us, unless with all our heart and soul we seek that He should be such. Be Thou My strong rock. "Notice," says S. Gregory, "that the place is of little avail, unless the Spirit of God be present. Satan sinned in heaven; Adam sinned in Paradise; Lot, who had been a saint in Sodom, sinned in the mountain. For Thou art My strong rock—there we have the past; the various helps for the sake of which we trust God: and my castle—there we have the future; the erection of hope which we dare to build because we have been so assisted in times past. Be Thou also my Guide. In one sense we thank the LORD that He has been our Guide;

in the other we pray that we may follow His steps, because He is our Guide. That He marked out the path for us, we know: that we cannot walk in the path which He has marked out for us, except by His own grace, we know also. And lead me. And there we see the necessary progression of a Christian life. Thou art my strong rock: Be Thou also my guide. A guide is not wanted in a fortress; but a guide is needed in such an aggressive warfare as ours always must be. And notice why we are to be led: Lead me, for Thy Name's sake. Thy Name, the Name set over the Cross, JESUS of Nazareth; Thy Name, the Name so given by the Angel, before He was conceived in the womb. Lead me: because this our true Moses is our leader in the wilderness: because this our true Joshua is our leader over the Jordan to the promised land.

5 Draw me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength.

Many, says a mediæval writer, were the nets which Satan laid for our LORD: the triple net of concupiscence in the wilderness; the net of perplexity in the questionings of the Scribes and Pharisees; the net of fear in the garden; the net of divided duty upon the Cross. And yet it is written, that they have laid; for Satan acts not by himself, but employs his instruments, whether the natural impulses of the human frame, as hunger and thirst, or the mistakes of good men, as the Apostles, "LORD, wilt Thou at this time? or the temptations of the wicked, as the "Let CHRIST the King of Israel descend now from the Cross" of the Chief Priests. Cardinal Hugo dwells at great length on the way in which GOD extricates His elect from these nets. "De Deo," as he says, "educente, deducente, circumducente, adducente, introducente. In the Vulgate and the LXX. the prayer is made still more emphatic and immediate, Draw me out of this net: as if to adopt the supplication with the greater force to every one of GOD's servants who may take it in their lips. Art thou in trouble, O Christian, from the concupiscence of an evil heart? Draw me out of this net, that they—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—have laid for me.

Art thou beset by the machinations of evil spirits, with thoughts injected into the soul which thou abhorrest, whether they spring from the Mammon of covetousness, the Moloch of anger, or the Belial of impurity? Draw me out of this net that they have laid for me. Art thou afflicted with earthly enemies, eager to slander away thy good name, to deprive thee of thy rightful influence, to cut short thy means of serving GOD? Draw me out of this net that they have laid for me. Or, if you choose to take it rather as the future,—Thou shalt draw Me out,—marvellously was that promise fulfilled. The net spread was, "Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar or not? The rent in the net was, "Render therefore unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and unto GOD the things that are GOD's. The net was, "Moses in the Law commanded that such should be stoned, but what sayest Thou? The rent was, "He that is without sin amongst you, let him first cast a stone at her. The net, "Let CHRIST the King of Israel descend: the rent, "It is finished. But above and beyond all, at that first Easter, this prayer or promise was most emphatically fulfilled. The net then, the cavern of the new tomb, the great stone, the quaternion of soldiers, the seal. And how He was drawn out of that net, let the Alleluias of Easter-tide year by year repeat.

And yet notice that word privily, although it is given with more force in our version than in the LXX. or Vulgate. For never is any net so dangerous,—never is any machination of Satan so formidable,—as when it is secret. The prayer of the hero of old might be the prayer of every Christian now, "Only give us light, and destroy us. This then is what he prays to be delivered out of: now see what He prays to be delivered into.

6 Into thy hands I commend my spirit: for thou hast redeemed me, O LORD, thou GOD of truth.

G. O blessed verse, whereby the world's redemption was sealed! wherewith the most pure Spirit of the SAVIOUR departed from His most sacred Body! This is the verse which, as it hallowed the dying bed of the Master, so it has formed the last utterance of many of His servants. Happy verse, which has merited to form the last accents of so many of those from death to life, from sorrow to joy, from a vale of misery to a paradise of immortality! The Proto-martyr ended his struggle with these words: the same words are recorded to have been uttered by the dying S. Nicolas; by S. Basil the Great; and above all by S. Louis of France, who with this prayer breathed forth his spirit on the coast of Tunis, just as the Christian fleet was reported in sight. Thence arises the question, a question much discussed by mediæval authors, how far the Soul of CHRIST may be said to have been redeemed. And they answer that it was, by His own perfect obedience: nevertheless, in a far different sense from that in which the souls of His servants are redeemed. Just as our LORD commended His Spirit to GOD in a different way from that in which we also commend our spirits to Him: He, as a SON to His FATHER; we, as a pardoned culprit to a merciful Judge.

There is a tradition among the later Fathers that Satan took his station on the left arm of the Cross during the whole time of our LORD's Passion, anxiously waiting for something that he might have to accuse Him, and that with these words he found his endeavour in vain, and departed. Cassiodorus well says, He commends to the FATHER that inestimable treasure, His soul. If that soul were an inestimable treasure, it was of greater value than the whole world: therefore, in giving it, He paid the ransom of the whole world. It was a good and safe hand to which He trusted that treasure. It is a happy thought of one of the oldest Christian writers, that, ever since our LORD pronounced this commendation of His own Spirit, the spirits of the righteous have had secure access to the same FATHER: and so says S. Athanasius, that the souls of all good men were by these same words entrusted into the same loving care, CHRIST desiring that His people should have no less secure place of refuge at the hour of their death, than He had at His. It was an ancient custom, though not commanded, that I know, by any rubric, that the Priest, at the moment of consecration, should repeat these words to himself; testifying the completion of the bloody Sacrifice on Calvary at the moment of the consummation of the unbloody Sacrifice on the Altar.

7 I have hated them that hold of superstitious vanities: and my trust hath been in the LORD.

It well follows, Because into Thy hands, therefore I hate all other hands. And so in the opposite sense: Because the LORD answered not Saul, therefore he consulted the woman that had a familiar spirit. Vanities, in their primary sense, no doubt are the idols that having eyes, see not, having ears, hear not; but also all those helps in which man is wont to put his trust, and of which it is written, "Thus saith the LORD: Let not the rich man glory in his riches, neither let the mighty man glory in his might." Notice that the Vulgate translates, not, I have hated, but Thou hast hated; still the speech of our LORD, and still with reference to His own oblation. S. Augustine says very well, "Who holds to vanity? He that by fear of death dieth. For by fear of death he lieth, and dieth before he dies, who therefore lied that he might live. Whereas Thou shunnest one death, which Thou canst put off, but canst not put away, Thou fallest into two, so as that Thou diest first in soul, and then in body." And Hugh of S. Victor says very well, "It is the voice of the righteous man who despises present felicity. He had just before commended his spirit to GOD; and as if he were now asked what he desired to be done with his body, he answers that he cares not, because all flesh is vanity. For they who superfluously and unlawfully attend to it, and minister to it, cannot keep it back one hour from corruption." Again: it is, they say, mercifully spoken by GOD; Thou hatest them that observe vanities, not that are surrounded with them, not that sometimes give way to them, not even that are subject to them; (for it is written, "The creature was made subject to vanity not willingly;") but only those that observe, that is give themselves up to, them.

A. 8 I will be glad, and rejoice in thy mercy : for thou hast considered my trouble, and hast known my soul in adversities.

It is to this verse that the Blessed Virgin seems to refer when she says, "For He hath regarded the lowliness of His handmaiden: words almost the same with the LXX. rendering of Thou hast considered my trouble. And see how beautifully the two clauses depend on each other: I will be glad and rejoice—and why?—because Thou hast considered my trouble. How did He consider it but by taking it upon Himself? It is written of old time that "the LORD looked upon the affliction of the children of Israel, and had respect unto them; but He not only looked on the affliction of His true Israel, but He Himself took it upon Himself. The inference is perhaps more ingenious than true which Gerhohus draws: Thou hast looked back upon, respexisti, not simply looked upon, aspexisti, my trouble. And why? Because Thy face was formerly turned away from me on account of my sins. Thou hast known my soul in adversities. And oh, how well does He, Who for our sakes was so afflicted, rejected by those whom He came to save, slain by those to whom He came to give life, how well does He know our soul in the time of its sufferings! Thou hast known. Yes, always with the knowledge of omniscience; but with the knowledge of sympathy only from the time that Thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb. So, as always, GOD suffers that man may rejoice; GOD is troubled that man may exult. Cassiodorus well draws a lesson from this verse against Pelagianism;

telling us, as it does, how the I will of the first clause depends on the Thou hast of the second. In adversities. Or as it is in the LXX. and the Vulgate, From necessities. Necessities, so made by sin: as labour is now a necessity because of GOD's award, "In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread: as death is a necessity, because of the declaration, "Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. And by these necessities we may understand that which the schoolmen call the penalties—

9 Thou hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy : but hast set my feet in a large room. The original reference was no doubt to the city of Keilah, where David was so nearly shut up to his destruction. So was Jonah shut up in the whale's belly; so Joseph in Pharaoh's prison. But above all, so was our LORD shut up in the narrow sepulchre; of which, nevertheless, it may be said, that He was not shut up there, seeing that early on the third morning He was set free thence. And it is worth while to notice how often the width or breadth of the place of deliverance forms a part of Scriptural thanksgiving; "Thou shalt make room enough under me for to go, that my foot-steps shall not slide." As if with reference to that Jerusalem in which there are many mansions:

Our homes are here too narrow; Our friends are far apart, We scarce share joy or sorrow With the desert of our heart; There will be room above In our great FATHER'S hall, To live with those we love Through the best time of all. And the large room may also mean the Church Catholic on earth, extended as it is from sea to sea, and from the flood unto the world's end. My feet. They understand it also of the Apostles, who went forth through the world, being, as it were, the LORD's feet, in order to proclaim His message, and destroying the power of Satan; as it is written, "The foot shall tread it down, even the feet of the poor and the steps of the needy." 10 Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: and mine eye is consumed for very heaviness; yea, my soul, and my body.

The command is, "Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep." Therefore the Church, though rejoicing with her triumphant LORD, she has just said, "Thou hast set my feet in a large room," yet, sorrowing with her militant members, continues, almost in the same breath, Have mercy upon me, for I am in trouble. Or, if we like to go back again, and see here the afflictions of which we have in the preceding verse seen the termination, then they take the eye of the understanding, the soul of the will, the body—or as it is in the Vulgate, the belly—of the memory; because, as food is digested by the one, so are facts by the other. And in all these our blessed LORD suffered, so as to be consumed or worn out by them. Hence the question of the Jews, "Thou art not yet fifty years old." Some of the schoolmen have gathered from this verse that our LORD, while still in the flesh, actually suffered the pains of damnation: an opinion which, if not heretical, is at all events as false as it is painful. But if we put these words in the mouth of the Church, then the eye is to be understood of her prelates, by whom, as it were, she sees; the soul, of her more intellectual children; the body, of the poor and ignorant. Instead of Mine eye is consumed for very heaviness, the Vulgate has it, is troubled with anger. "And how should we not be

S. Thom. Aquin. Serm. in Dom. vi. post Pent. A. angry, says S. Augustine, "to see those filling the theatres who a little before filled the churches; to hear those blaspheming who but a little before said Amen in the service; those who have taken the words of David on their lips, performing the works of Satan in their lives." And this also we may learn,—how hard is that war which the saints have to carry on against the world, the flesh, and the devil; that war which made S. Paul cry out, "O wretched man that I am!" and David say, Mine eye is consumed for very heaviness. 11 For my life is waxen old with heaviness : and my years with mourning. 12 My strength faileth me, because of mine iniquity : and my bones are consumed.

Still our LORD speaks; and He speaks of what He suffered, to the end that thou, O Christian, shouldst become, instead of a Benoni, a child of sorrow, a Benjamin, a son of His right hand. And notice, He not only tells us how, during His whole life, He was a man of sorrows for our sake, but how long that life was; for length of time is not to be measured by the number of years, but by the number of doings or sufferings in those years. Instead of heaviness, the Vulgate translates, My strength has become weak in poverty, or beggary, as the LXX. has it. Ayguan complains bitterly how true that was in his time; how the Church was weakened, not by means of poverty, but in poverty by means of riches. It is the old story of "golden chalices and wooden priests." Singularly enough, Parez understands it in exactly the opposite sense. S. Albertus draws the best corollary from the text. "CHRIST speaks, and speaks concerning His members. Hence we can test ourselves whether we are of the members of CHRIST and the Church: if so, we are in very heaviness: and because of this moaning it is that the Church is called a dove. Hence the Apostles also are called doves: 'Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?'"

13 I became a reproof among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours: and they of mine acquaintance were afraid of me; and they that did see me without conveyed themselves from me. This commentator, living in a most worldly age, and at a time when the Church had attained a degree of wealth which it never knew before or since, applies this text to her sufferings on account of her poverty. Truly, the complaint is worthy of one who dedicated his commentary to Cardinal Roderick de Borgia, afterwards Alexander VI.

Mine enemies: and they understand it of the heathen: My neighbours; it is said of the Jews: Mine acquaintances; that applies to bad Christians. And these, as causing more pain to our LORD than either heathens or Jews, are put in the third and highest place. These are the vine-branches of which Ezekiel speaks; branches of the True Vine, but to be cut off and thrown into the fire. And as of other trees, however wild, however knotty, some use may still be made, but vine-branches are absolutely worthless save to heat the oven, so of the comparative demerits of heathens and bad Christians. They of Mine acquaintance were afraid of Me. Of whom is it written but of Peter, who was indeed afraid of that acquaintance? who said, "I know not the man. So that our LORD might say with Job in old time, "Mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me: my kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. They that did see Me without; only as He was in His external appearance; only as He was when there was no form nor comeliness, and when He was seen, no beauty that He should be desired. They saw His humanity, and could not behold His Divinity; they saw how He was punished in the sight of men, they saw not His hope full of immortality. And as with the Master, so with the servants, says S. Bernard. Multi vident nostras cruces qui non vident nostras unctiones. I became also a reproof;

and as the Head did, so do His members. "If any one," says S. Chrysostom, "strives after patience and humility, he is a hypocrite. If he allows himself in the pleasures of this world, he is a glutton. If he seeks justice, he is impatient; if he seeks it not, he is a fool. If he would be prudent, he is stingy; if he would make others happy, he is dissolute. If he gives himself up to prayer, he is vainglorious. And this is the great loss of the Church, that by means like these many are held back from goodness; which the Psalmist lamenting says, I became a reproof among all mine enemies."

14 I am clean forgotten, as a dead man out of mind: I am become like a broken vessel. Clean forgotten. Not absolutely, but so far as hope is concerned. We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel. We trusted. O miserable imperfect! And observe again, that the LORD is not forgotten by our lips, but by our heart. And so it is written in Isaiah: "This people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour Me, but have removed their heart far from Me." And in Jeremiah: "Thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins." I am become like a broken vessel. Even like those pitchers which, in the midnight attack on the army of the Midianites, being dashed together and broken, emitted the glare of the concealed lamp to the confusion of the assembled A. host. For so the LORD's Body being broken on the Cross, gave to light the till then concealed splendour of His Divinity.

With pitcher and with burning lamp He marched to storm th' invader's camp, Our own, our Royal Gideon. The mortal pitcher shattered sore, The Godhead's lamp to ruin bore The vanquish'd host of Midian. Diez.: Serm. i. Dom. i. post Epiph. I can hardly admire the observation of Diez, who from this expression gathers that the Passion of our LORD is profitable for every purpose we can need. A vessel which is not broken usually serves but to one or two uses: "Let it," says he, "once be shattered, and we care not to what end, however vile, we employ it." S. Paulinus says: "Our LORD JESUS, the Word of GOD, was made flesh and dwelt among us; and took upon Himself the fragile vessel of our body, which by the voluntary sin of Adam had, as it were, slipped from his hand and been broken, that He might form it in a better mould, becoming, as the Psalmist says, a broken vessel, in the likeness of a body of sin, that He might condemn sin in the body."

15 For I have heard the blasphemy of the multitude: and fear is on every side, while they conspire together against me, and take their counsel to take away my life. Blasphemy. Take it literally, and you have the evil sayings of Nabal and Shimei: take it mystically, and you are led to the Pavement and to the Cross: you hear the "Prophesy, who is it that smote Thee?" and the many other things blasphemously spoken against Him. Fear was on every side. In the contests of the servants of GOD it was now on this side, now on that; never on every side at once. In the contest of the SON of GOD, all that they bore separately, He bore conjointly, and by means of all He "was heard in that He feared." They conspire: for like Samson's foxes, with different aims and going in different ways,—for neither so did their witness agree together,—they were yet joined together by the firebrand of malice. And they conspire principally against three things: against the wisdom of CHRIST, to catch Him in His words; against the goodness of

Lorinus says, "I ought sometimes to mention and to refute such explanations as this, lest my readers should acquire a taste for expositions which ought to be rejected: as if Holy Scripture were so jejune as explained by the Fathers, that we must greedily have recourse to such trash as the above." There is some truth in this remark; yet Diez, in his way, is sometimes a beautiful commentator too. CHRIST, in ascribing His works to the devil; against the power of CHRIST, in putting Him to death. And thus the prophecy was fulfilled: "The LORD said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem." 16 But my hope hath been in thee, O LORD : I have said, Thou art my GOD. For the first clause see the first verse of this Psalm : for the second, read what is said on Psalm xvi. 2.

17 My time is in thy hand; deliver me from the hand of mine enemies : and from them that persecute me.

My time is in Thy hand: or as it is in the LXX. and the Vulgate, My lots are in Thy hand. It has been thought that the LXX. altered the passage in order to protest against the idea of human affairs being ordered by fate, and to teach that that which seemed as uncertain and accidental, as a lot, was really in GOD's hand. Others think that it is an error of transcription: κλῆροι for καιροί. The old Italic, and therefore, of course, Cassiodorus and the Mozarabic, have tempora. What does the lot mean? The Doctor of grace, of course, explains it of grace. "Since GOD had found no deserts of ours, He hath saved us by the lot of His own will, because He willed, not because we were worthy. This is a lot. With much significance upon that vesture of the LORD woven from the top, which signifies the eternity of love, when it could not be divided by the persecutors, was the lot cast. Others understand it of the various lots or portions of life. And hence because the lot of life is in GOD's hands and not in ours, therefore S. Athanasius argues in his apology for his flight, that we have no right to throw it away by exposing it to the fury of persecutors. "Thou givest," says Theodoret, "to whom Thou wilt, and as Thou wilt, the lot of sorrow or joy, riches or poverty, servitude or domination, peace or war;

and again Thou changest these lots according to the purpose of Thine own counsel. Eusebius, who takes the other reading, understands the clause as an exhortation to patience. My time is in Thy hand: the time when Thy promise shall be fulfilled; "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted" the time when Thine own sweet words shall be made good; "Your sorrow shall be turned into joy; the time of which it is written, "The patient abiding of the meek shall not perish for ever. My time, because it will work for my good; because its procrastination is to try my faith, because its arrival is to awaken my thankfulness. "Give us, O LORD," cries the most scriptural of commentators, "the lot of predestination according to the good pleasure of Thy will,—the lot of grace, that with Thine Apostle, I may receive the re-

A. S. Cyril. Alex. de Adorat. in Spir. 4. S. Gregor. Naz. Orat. in S. Bas. S. Albert. M. Eph. i. 5. mission of sin by faith in Thee; and the lot of glory, as Thou didst promise to Thy holy Prophet, that he should stand in his lot at the end of the days. Notice; they distinguish between mine enemies, and them that persecute me. By the former, they understand Satan; by the latter, his earthly agents. At the end of this verse there is in the Mozarabic Psalter a diapsalma; and the Antiphon for the second part is: "LORD, let me not be confounded: for I have called upon Thee." 18 Show thy servant the light of thy countenance: and save me for thy mercies' sake.

S. Ambrose, in one of his epistles, explains at length how the name and duties of a servant are applied to Him "Who took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. Thy countenance. For GOD shows His countenance to us in two ways; to faith in types and enigmas; to sight in the Beatific Vision. Richard of S. Victor says, "There can be nothing sweeter, nothing more desirable to lovers, than mutually to see one another, and without this everything that to others is pleasant seems distasteful, everything that to others is desirable seems loathsome. Each desires to love and to be loved, each desires to see and to be seen. After the fashion, therefore, of a lover, the soul that is inflamed with the desire of Divine love, that is in an ecstasy with the longing for the Celestial Bridegroom, crieth out, Show the light of Thy countenance upon Thy servant. Again, they take Thy countenance to signify the SON, Thy mercy to set forth the HOLY GHOST. Gerhohus, here comparing the shining forth of GOD's face to the light which the pillar of fire shed upon the camp of the Israelites, works out the whole type with reference to that analogy. And again, taking GOD's countenance of our LORD, we may see in it the fourfold character of this Angel of the Great Counsel, and may pray to be transformed into the image of each.

That by the mystery of the Divine Incarnation, the face of a man, we may have brotherly love; by the mystery of the LORD's Passion, the face of an ox, we may crucify the flesh with its affections and lusts; by the mystery of the LORD's Resurrection the face of a lion, we may gain the courage of resistance, so that sin may no longer have dominion over us; by the mystery of the LORD's Ascension, the face of an eagle, that we may also in heart and mind ascend to Him and with Him continually dwell. In this way the light of our LORD's Countenance is to be displayed on us, changing while it shines upon us, into His own image.

19 Let me not be confounded, O LORD, for I have called upon thee: let the ungodly be put to confusion, and be put to silence in the grave. 20 Let the lying lips be put to silence : which cruelly, disdainfully, and despitefully speak against the righteous.

Here again we have the optative of cursing, which we may explain as a future, or as a prophecy. They take the lying lips, not only to mean the lips that utter falsehood, but those which by speaking anything unworthy of a Christian, break the conditions under which they were given to man, namely, of being employed in the praises of God. Let me not be confounded. It is the same petition with which Bathsheba came to Solomon, and that we must present to the true Solomon. Again : there is no occasion to take the prayer, Let them be put to confusion, as a petition for their destruction ; rather, let them be put to salutary shame here, in order that they may not find the day of grace past, and when the season for prayer is over, be put to silence in the grave. Those who have written on penitence, have employed this text to show that there may be great sorrow for sin without a spark of true repentance. Those that are lost, grieve, as Dives did, not for the guilt of their sin, but for the bitterness of their punishment : for there can be no true repentance without confession, and here there is no confession because there is silence. And notice again the triplicity of evil as so constantly through Holy Scriptures : cruelly, disdainfully, and despitefully. Cruelly : when they have both the power and the will to do harm :

" We beseech thee, let this man be put to death," of Jeremiah : " Let Him be crucified," of our LORD. Despitefully : when they have the will but not the power ; " All this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew, sitting at the king's gate. Disdainfully : when they think it not worth while to show their power ; " Even that which they build, if a fox go up, he shall even break down their stone wall. Against the righteous. " This is the Name whereby He shall be called, The LORD our Righteous One."

21 O how plentiful is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee : and that thou hast prepared for them that put their trust in thee, even before the sons of men ! This verse is employed more than once by Origen to prove the termination of the torments of hell, following as it does on the clause which threatens them to the wicked. Pseudo-Jerome endeavours to refute this application at great length. Which Thou hast laid up : or as it is in the Vulgate, Which Thou hast hidden. With one consent they take it of the Beatific Vision ; the great ocean of all blessedness, the hidden sea which sends forth every stream of happiness that comes into this world. Hence the LORD speaks of the king- Hom. 9 in S. Matt.

dom of heaven as a hidden treasure: hence "our life is hid with CHRIST in GOD." Theodoret well observes that the laying up of this goodness, or rather sweetness, as it is in the Vulgate, take it in whatever sense you will, is typified by the law forbidding the employment of honey in sacrifices. This life, which is a life of sacrifice and self-denial, is not to enjoy the honey of GOD's perfect vision. But in inferior senses they make very beautiful application. How plentiful is Thy goodness in the deep and hidden meanings of Holy Scripture; those loving allegories and parables for which the Church in all ages has been wont to dig; the kernel hid in the shell, the gold concealed in the ore, the gem tabernacled in the shrine. Again, in another sense, this sweetness is hidden in the Blessed Eucharist; concealed from those whose soul, like that of the Israelites, loathed this light bread; who ask with the Jews, How can this Man give us His Flesh to eat? concealed for those who can say with that saint of old:

JESU, quem velatum nunc aspicio, Quando fiet illud quod tam sitio Ut, te revelatâ cernens facie, Visu sim beatus tuæ gloriæ?

How plentiful. Gerhohus well says: "It was sweetness that the penitent thief heard the words, 'Thou shalt be in paradise,' even had that been to take place after thousands and thousands of years; but the plentiful sweetness was in the word that the LORD added, 'to-day.' There we have the plenty and the sweetness; but the great plenty (for so it is in the Vulgate) consisted in that, 'With Me.' Consider then the verse: 'Amen, I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.' Amen; that is, I, the faithful and true Amen, say faithfully and truly to thee, that, not after a long lapse of time, but to-day, not with an Angel of lower or higher rank, but with Me, shalt thou be in paradise: that is, in the true garden of delights, where is the great plentifulness of sweetness. And see what is the fruit of standing by the Cross. We are taken thither at the beginning of the Psalm by the words, 'Into Thy hands I commend My Spirit,' and after waiting there, we have now come to the plentiful goodness laid up in that kingdom to which this ladder set upon the earth verily leads. Laid up for them that fear Thee. Prepared for them that put their trust in Thee. See how the fear of GOD leads us to hope in GOD. Dionysius the Carthusian has a passage which I should spoil not to give in his own words. "There is a double kind of fear, filial and servile;

whence this passage may be interpreted in a double sense. Thou hast hidden, that is, Thou hast concealed, these Thy good things from them that fear Thee with a servile fear. For such are neither worthy nor capable of the least degustation of that Divine sweetness, because they do good only, not from the love of good, but from the horror of punishment. In the other sense thus: which Thou hast laid up; that is, sweetly shown, and only declared in the hidden chambers of the heart, to them that fear Thee with a filial fear. But in the mean while, some that love GOD with only initial fear, as those that are newly converted, are for one short hour admitted to the table of the sons, so that they may taste a little of the sweetness of GOD, and may cry out to Him, O how plentiful is Thy goodness. But this is done by the wisdom of JESUS CHRIST, that He may allure them to Himself, and may cause them, as it is written in Ecclesiasticus, 'in the day of evil to remember the day of good.' Wherefore, they who have thus been privileged, have need to take great care, lest when they are deprived of the aforesaid consolation, they become pusillanimous, or else too importunately demand it of GOD, in Whose hand it is to give, or not to give, as 'He will.'" But in one sense more we must apply the words to the sweetness of the Passion.

The mystery indeed hid, and laid up from ages and from generations, and at last revealed on Calvary. Even before the sons of men. Not primarily nor principally for their sakes; but, says one, if a king's palace is lighted up at night, however closely it be barred up and concealed from view, yet flashes of the light and bursts of the music will find their way forth, and be seen and heard by the wanderer on the wild common in the dark night.

22 Thou shalt hide them privily by thine own presence from the provoking of all men: thou shalt keep them secretly in thy tabernacle from the strife of tongues. Observe, in the first place, who it is that hides: "In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem." Then, when He hides; "Jacob shall return to his home, and shall be in rest and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid." And, thirdly, from what? From the provoking of all men, which He while on earth bore Himself from the cradle to the grave. And again notice: as S. Augustine says, of how little value is place, however strong, or however well defended, in itself for our protection. "It were of little avail to be hidden," says he, "in heaven, in paradise, in Abraham's bosom, if GOD be not with thee. Let GOD Himself be our place, and our house of refuge, and be thou the house of GOD, and then thy house will dwell in thee and thou in it. If thou shalt receive Him in this world in thy heart, then He shall receive thee after this world to His presence." In Thy tabernacle. It is CHRIST Himself; a tabernacle rather than a temple in this sense; that He goes along with us and abides with us in all our journeyings through the world. Bellarmine says well: "In Thy tabernacle; that is, in Thyself, in which Thou also dwellest, for GOD hath no other tabernacle wherein He can be found but Himself. And they that by

A. Jer. i. 18. A. love and contemplation dwell in GOD, fulfil the Psalm, 'Whoso dwelleth under the defence of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.'" From the strife of tongues. Take it if you will, with S. Augustine, of heretics; our comfort must be to consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, "lest we be weary and faint in our minds." It was prophesied in His very infancy, that our LORD should be "for a sign that should be spoken against:" and of our LORD's people long after it was said, "As concerning this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against."

23 Thanks be to the LORD : for he hath showed me marvellous great kindness in a strong city.Literally, the greater number of commentators understand the strong city of Keilah, and the marvellous great kindness of the warning given to David by GOD that he would be delivered up by its inhabitants. According to others it refers to the time when he was received by the Jews at Hebron, whither GOD had commanded him to go up, and crowned there. And first notice how faith loves to descend from the general promise to the particular instance: "Thou shalt hide them," "Thou shalt keep them," and then, "He hath showed me marvellous great kindness. Thanks be to the Lord. And why? Let Gerhohus tell us. "Thanks, because He has not weighed my merits according to my righteousness, but has given His HOLY SPIRIT, and showed me marvellous great kindness. For what am I, and what is my father's house, that to me, precondemned in original sin, and not justified by actual righteousness,—to me, who am dust and ashes, He should vouchsafe to show such kindness, and that without any preceding good merits, but with a multitude of evil merits? In a strong city. They take it of the Church militant, strong in the infallibility of her doctrine, strong in the virtue of her Sacraments, strong in the various gifts of the HOLY GHOST. They take it also, and that more blessedly, of the Church triumphant; strong in that no enemy can draw nigh to attack her, as it is written, "The people that are therein dwelt careless, quiet and secure. And again, they take it of conscience;

as it is written, "Behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and brazen walls against the whole land, and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee. It is in the LXX. A city of encompassment, and therefore the Italic gives it, In civitate circumstantiae: in the LXX. περιοχῆς. This of course means a city compassed round with walls and bulwarks. Yet Augustine chooses to understand it of Jerusalem, which old belief held to stand in the middle of the earth, and thus to be compassed round by every other people. The strong city is also well applied to our LORD; for, says one, His humanity, by the mercy of GOD alone, has been assumed into a personal union with the WORD, preserved from every sin, and filled with every grace, which created nature is capable of containing.

[A soul free from passions is a walled city, but the enemies, breaching this wall, made their way in together with Bathsheba to David. Wherefore he prays in the fiftieth (51st) Psalm that the walls of Jerusalem may be built.] 24 And when I made haste, I said : I am cast out of the sight of thine eyes.

When I made haste, as we are all so continually tempted to do : " My time is not yet come, but your time is alway ready. So the Apostles, only a few weeks after the resurrection, " LORD, wilt Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? But, according to the Vulgate, it is, I said in my ecstasy : and as S. Augustine reminds us, we must remember that the very title of the Psalm is, " A Psalm of David in his ecstasy. They take this mystically to mean the rapture of those who have been admitted to see something of the glory of the next world ; as Moses, to whom the LORD showed " His back parts," as Paul when he heard things " which it was not possible for a man to utter. And seeing this glory, he would do as so many of the saints have done, judge himself unworthy to stand in the presence of GOD. Thus the Seraphim with twain of their wings covered their faces ; thus Elijah, when he heard the still small voice, wrapped his face in his mantle : thus Moses, when he stood by the burning bush, hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon GOD : thus David was afraid to take the ark of the LORD into his own city : thus Simon Peter, after the miraculous draught of fishes, fell down and said, " Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O LORD.

The whole again is very beautifully applied to our LORD's Passion. Where notice three things : 1. That though He kept silence at the judgment-seat, yet not in His ecstasy of love on the Cross : I said. 2. Where it was, on Calvary, in the greatest display of the greatest love : I said in My ecstasy. 3. What it was : I am cast out of the sight of Thine eyes : and what is that but, " My GOD, My GOD, why hast Thou forsaken Me ? And again : I am cast out. Compare with this that saying of S. Paul, regarding Him that died on this same Cross : " The bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the High Priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore JESUS also . . . suffered without the gate. And yet again this : It is written in Isaiah, according to the reading of the Vulgate : " Yet did we esteem Him a leper. Now of the leper the command was, " All the days wherein the plague shall be in him, he shall dwell alone : without the camp shall his habitation be. Even in this sense then, it is

Acts i. 6. Pseudo-Dionys. Eccl. Hierarch. iv. 3. Isa. vi. 2. 1 Kings xix. 13. 2 Sam. vi. 10. S. Luke v. 8. S. Albertus Magnus. well written: I said in My ecstasy, I am cast out of the sight of Thine eyes. 25 Nevertheless, thou heardest the voice of my prayer: when I cried unto thee. A.

Nevertheless, or as it is in the Vulgate, Therefore; which, Lorinus says, affords no true sense: but Venerable Bede and Ayguan with a deeper insight into the Psalmist's meaning, support that signification. For notice that God's therefore are not as man's therefore. "Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus; when He had heard therefore that he was sick, He abode two days still in the same place where He was." Or again: Israel "believed not in God, and put not their trust in His help: so—He commanded the clouds above, and opened the doors of heaven." Which compare with man's therefore in the same Psalm: "He cast out the heathen also before them . . . and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents: so—they tempted and displeased the Most High God." This verse, with the preceding ones, are ingeniously applied by S. Augustine to S. Peter. And Gerhohus works out the analogy at greater length. To him, marvellous great kindness had been showed by having the keys of a strong city entrusted to him; but by his own free will he was cast out of the sight of his Lord's eyes, when those all-seeing eyes clearly beheld his future fall, and he nevertheless said, "Though I should die with Thee, I will not deny Thee." And still further was he cast out when he said, "I know not this Man of whom ye speak." And because he was so cast out, therefore it is written, "The Lord turned and looked upon Peter." Therefore Thou heardest the voice of my prayer. What prayer? Because in the ecstasy of My love I said, "FATHER, forgive them, for they know not what they do;" therefore is the promise, "I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession."

26 O love the Lord, all ye his saints: for the Lord preserveth them that are faithful, and plenteously rewardeth the proud doer. Amor pœnitens, lib. i. cap. i.

Notice first, that even saints have to be exhorted to the first and chief of all duties, the love of God. It is with bitter shame that in his admirable treatise, called Amor pœnitens, the great and good Van Neercassel proves at length that this is the first duty of a Christian, against the corrupt maxims of modern casuists. It is remarkable how S. John, though emphatically the theologian of the Apostolic college, is, nevertheless, given to dwell on plain declarations which one might have been disposed to think needless. "Let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous: Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. Or, we may take it in this sense; that only those who are saints in deed and in wish, can truly love God; since to profess to love Him, while leading an unholy life, is the worst of falsehoods. And we must love God in a threefold way; which way the LORD set forth by His threefold question to Peter, "Lovest thou Me? With all the heart, with all the soul, and with all the strength. Preserveth them that are faithful. Where He shows that perseverance is the gift of God, no less than the commencement of grace. Instead of preserveth them that are faithful, it is in the Vulgate, He shall require the truth. As He did in those most terrible words, "Adam, where art thou? And again, "What hast thou now done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground.

And because He requires the truth, therefore the truth is pleaded with Him by His servants; "Remember now, O LORD, I beseech Thee, how I have walked before Thee in truth, and with a perfect heart: and is rewarded by Him; "And in their mouth was found no guile, for they are without fault before the throne of God. And plenteously rewardeth the proud doer. They dispute where the adverb plentifully ought to be joined; and most of the commentators take it as the LXX. does, in the sense of Rewardeth him that plentifully doeth proud things. For, they say, It is not true to affirm that the sinner is plentifully rewarded, that is to say, up to, or beyond his demerits, no, not even in the case of those that are finally lost: for it is written, "He hath not dealt with us after our sins."

A. 27 Be strong, and he shall establish your heart: all ye that put your trust in the LORD. Be strong. Nothing is more common in the Psalms than this exhortation; see what is said on it at the end of Psalm xxii. Above all things notice, how over and over again this exhortation occurs at the beginning of the conquest of Canaan in the first chapter of Joshua. And remark how completely this verse accords with S. Paul's: "Work out your own salvation, for it is God that worketh in you." Be strong, and He shall stablish. And this the LORD Himself teaches us, when He said, "Stretch forth," to him who of himself had no power to stretch out at all. All the commentators refer back to the many times that they have already explained this verse. But observe that there is one caution: He shall stablish your heart, all ye that put their trust in the Lord. Trust in thyself, and the wise man's saying will be good, "He that trusteth in himself is a fool:" trust in another, and the prophet threatens, "Cursed is the man that putteth his trust in man." But put thy trust in the Lord, not discouraged as the Apostles were, "We trusted that it had been He," but going on and still trusting, and then the same Prophet foretells the reward: "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is."

And therefore: Glory be to the FATHER, to Whom the SON saith, "Into Thy hands, O LORD, I commend My Spirit;" and to the SON, of Whom it is written, "Thou art my strong rock and my castle:" and to the HOLY GHOST, through Whom they that are His saints love the LORD; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Collects.We beseech Thee, O LORD, to bestow upon us the ineffable bounty of Thy sweetness; to the end that, while we seek for Thy truth, we may overcome all the temptations of pride. Through (1.) Turn us, O GOD our Protector, from our crooked ways, and grant that we may, without fear, dwell in the land of our inheritance; and having set us free from sin, govern us by faith, so that we may neither be extolled by worldly prosperity, nor disturbed by the tribulation of our envious enemy, nor clouded by the darkness of our sins; but that, ever hoping in Thee, we may rejoice in that Thou showest the light of Thy countenance upon us. Amen. Through Thy mercy (11.) Deliver, O LORD, the souls of Thy servants from their distresses; and since they do put their trust in Thy righteousness, shut them not up in the hands of their adversaries; but look upon our humility, and give us refuge in Thy strong city, Who didst die to this end, that Thou mightest overcome hell, and that we might attain heavenly glory in Thy most holy city. Amen. Through Thy mercy (11.)

[O LORD JESU CHRIST, let not the strength of Thy Church fail, we pray Thee, in her pilgrimage through the poverty of this world; and should the bones of our virtues be consumed for a time, grant that we, uplifted by the example of Thy Passion, may never fall into the snares of the enemy. (11.) O GOD, the Hope and Salvation of the faithful, let not us, who put our trust in Thee, be put to confusion eternally, but graciously bow down Thy merciful ears to us fallen sinners who cry unto Thee; and of Thy goodness, justify us through remission of our debts and pardon of our sins, and save us through Thine unspeakable confession. Through (1.)]

TITLE. A Psalm of David; Maschil. LXX. and Vulgate: Of understanding, for David.

Argument.The second of the penitential Psalms. ARG. THOMAS. That CHRIST speedily grants remission of sins, if we make a pure confession of our offences. The voice of penitents. The voice of the sinners. The voice of penitents after Baptism; and the answer of the LORD surrounding with mercy them that call upon Him. VEN. BEDE. This being a Psalm of penitence, in the first place it mentions David in the title, because of the LORD CHRIST, since to Him whatever this penitent is about to say hath respect. Then followeth an instruction, because none can truly lament his sins save he that understands them. And the Psalm is rightly marked with such a title, when the sinner understands too late that he has fallen into wickedness, because sins which he ought at once to have confessed to the LORD he finds that he has concealed too long, and therefore the LORD saith to him, "I will inform thee and teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt go." In the first part of the Psalm the penitent speaketh manifestly confessing his sin, acknowledging the punishment that he hath deserved for believing that his iniquities could be concealed. In the second part, since he hath condemned himself by his own confession, he pleads for forgiveness from the LORD. In the third, after commending the advantages of penitence, he shows that the saints in this world make their supplications to GOD, and that in them is His trust. In the fourth, the LORD, answering his words, promises to surround with His mercy them that put their trust in Him.

EUSEBIUS OF CESAREA. A prophecy of those who are to be saved by CHRIST. SYRIAC PSALTER. Of the fault of Adam, who dared to commit sin; and a prophecy of CHRIST, that by Him we are to be delivered from Genenna.

Various Uses.As a penitential Psalm with the Litanies. According to Sarum use, at Prime every day in Lent. Gregorian. Monday: Matins. [All Saints: II. Nocturn.] Lyons. Tuesday: I. Nocturn. Ambrosian. Wednesday of the First Week: I. Nocturn. Eastern Church. Mesorion of Terce.

Antiphons.Gregorian. Deliver me * in Thy righteousness. [All Saints: Be glad, O ye righteous, and rejoice in the LORD, and be joyful, all ye that are true of heart.] Y Monastic. As Gregorian. Parisian. Thou forgavest * the iniquity of my sins. For this shall every one that is godly make his prayer unto Thee. Lyons. Blessed are the people * whose GOD is the LORD JEHOVAH. Ambrosian. Them that put their trust in the LORD mercy embraceth. Kyr. Kyr. Kyr. Quignon. We will sing and praise Thy power. Mozarabic. GOD, my exultation, redeem me from those that surround me. 1 Blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven : and whose sin is covered. Note. Psalms xxxii. to xxxviii. inclusive form the third part of the commentary of Gerhohus. It is headed all the way through Pez's edition, Honorius Augustodunensis; as if he were its author. I have said in the second Dissertation that two gaps were filled up by Pez from the commentary of that writer, namely, from Psalm xlv. to li., and from lxxix. to cxix. But he does not mention that this is the case in the present Psalms. At the same time, the character of the commentary is very unlike Gerhohus, and it does not symbolise the Gloria Patri at the end of each verse: I shall therefore quote it as Honorius, though not certain that it is indeed his.

This Psalm was treated by Alphonsus à Castro in twenty-four Homilies; by Toletus in fifteen. We also have the advantage of the exposition of S. Gregory the Great, Innocent III., and the other authors who have treated the penitential Psalms only. Notice, this is the first Psalm, except the first of all, which begins with Blessedness. In the first Psalm we have the blessing of innocence, or rather, of Him Who only was innocent: here we have the blessing of repentance, as the next happiest state to that of sinlessness. S. Cyril of Jerusalem sees in this sudden commencement the congratulation of the sinless angels to those who, after having once fallen, are now again made worthy to join their society: when the voice of the FATHER is heard, Bring forth the first robe, and put it on him. They take unrighteousness of original sin; sin of actual transgression. Others apply the two clauses to sin before and sin after Baptism. Justin Martyr takes opportunity from this verse to confute those heretics of early times who, as Solifidians now, distort S. Paul's teaching to mean, that man is justified from sin by faith only. "For," says he, "David, who is the Apostle's example of imputed righteousness, how earnestly did he repent, and do works meet for repentance, after his sin in the matter of Bathsheba!" Origen will have it that, in the first clause, the Psalmist expresses the ceasing to do evil; in the second, by the word covered, learning to do well; as it is written, "Charity shall

S. Cyril. Hierosol. Præfat. in Cat. S. Greg. Mag. Innocent. S. Hieron. ad Tryphon.

cover the multitude of sins. But above all things, as Augustine teaches, we must be careful not to understand the word covered as if the sin really remained there, though GOD, so to speak, flung a robe round it, and hid it from His eyesight. Rather it signifies the utter obliteration of sin, so that not a vestige of it remains. Toletus has treated the subject very well, and with great depth of scriptural knowledge, and shows that "covering" is the same thing which, in other parts of Scripture, is called "purging," "blotting out," "pardoning," "taking away," "loosing," "cleansing," "making white," "justification," "reconciliation," "washing," "casting into the depths of the sea," and other the like terms. It is covering, as the African Bishop Victor tells us, in the same sense in which Joshua, the son of Josedech, the type of sinful humanity, was covered: in the first place the angel said, "Take away the filthy garments from him; and then, and not till then, "they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed him with garments. In this sense we must be unclothed, as well as clothed upon, if we would present ourselves with the wedding garment at the marriage feast. The commentators seem to vie with each other in their richness of mystical allusions: according to S. Ambrose, it is the sons of Noah covering their father in his shame; according to S. Augustine, it is the red rams' skins which covered the ark—red, because of the Blood of CHRIST; according to S.

Isidore, it is Rachel covering the idols with the camel's furniture. And if we ask why these sins are spoken of as covered, the answer is, because GOD resolves, the guilt being blotted out, not to behold even the temporal punishment. The innumerable questions which arise on this subject of confession and satisfaction, have given no small labour on this verse to the schoolmen. S. Augustine, at very great length, dwells on the apparent contradiction of S. James and S. Paul; and as befits the Doctor of Grace, seizes the opportunity of extolling the free grace of GOD, without any preceding merits of our own. I know not, however, that any one sums up the meaning of the verse more shortly and neatly than does Bede, speaking of our sins, and of GOD's mercy: Non vult ea cognoscere quia mavult ignoscere.

2 Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth no sin : and in whose spirit there is no guile. Unto whom the Lord imputeth no sin. It is certain that, let the transgression be pardoned completely, still the state of mind in the offender is not the same as if it had never been committed. And herein is the malice of sin, that in one sense even the death of CHRIST, while it completely pardons, does not restore the sinner to his first righteousness. The Angelic Doctor dilates at great length on the nature of im- A. 1 S. John i. 9. Isa. i. 18. Rom. v. 1. 2 Cor. v. 18. 1 Cor. vi. 11. Micah vii. 19. S. Ambros. in Gen. ix. 23. A. Isidor. in Gen. xxxi. 34. Theodoret. in loc.

putation: and hardly any of the schoolmen but laboriously comments on this verse. The doctrine of S. Gregory Nazianzen, if carried out to the full, would end in the most dangerous heresy: that by not imputing sin is meant God's looking at the general state and wishes of the sinner rather than the actual offence. Vieyra, in commenting on the beginning of this Psalm, speaks admirably well. "The understanding of this text was, even in the time of S. Augustine, much controverted between Catholics and heretics, on account of the distinction which the Apostle makes between sins pardoned and sins covered. If the two things are distinct, wherein consists the difference? Passing over the many questions involved, I would observe that the Apostle spoke as a divine theologian; for to the pardon and absolution of sins two things must concur: the one, the remission of the fault, which by some theologians is called condonation; and the other the infusion of grace: by remission of guilt, sins are pardoned; by infusion of grace they are covered. And hence the Portuguese divine exalts the glory of S. Augustine, who, knowing that his sins were covered in the sight of God, chose to uncover them again before men. Again: it has been well observed that three heretical conclusions have been drawn from this:—1. That justification does not consist in the infusion of righteousness, but in the remission of sins alone. 2. That this remission is not a true deletion of sin, but only a covering of it;

so that there it is, but though there, God will not impute it. 3. That, after the remission of sins, there is no further use in satisfaction. The doctrine of S. Paul is sufficient to overthrow the first error, when he speaks of "the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Where observe that the Apostle not only speaks of iniquity blotted out, but of righteousness infused. Into the other two points it would require a treatise to enter fully; but again I would recommend to any one who is interested in the subject that most admirable work, the Amor pœnitens; the learning of which on the one hand, and the unction on the other, seem to render it worthy of S. Augustine and S. Thomas united. Theodoret says, "Such liberality God uses to sinners, that He not only forgives, but obliterates their sins, so that not the smallest vestige of them remains."

Having had occasion more than once to speak of this book, I will here mention its editions. The first is called Amor pœnitens, sive de recto clavium usu, autore Joanne de Neercassel, Episcopo Castoriensi, Vicario Apostolico: Trajecti, 1683. The second edition, Emmerich, 1685. There is also a French translation: L'amour pénitent. Livre premier: De la nécessité et des conditions de l'amour de Dieu pour obtenir le pardon des péchés. Livre second: De l'usage légitime des clefs, ou Conduit des Confesseurs et des pénitents par rapport au Sacrement de Pénitence. 3 For while I held my tongue : my bones consumed away through my daily complaining.

It is as though David said, "The blessedness of those pardoned ones who have confessed their sins may be theirs : as to me, so far from confessing them, I kept silence ; and hence the grief, and weakness, and sickness of my present state. There is a silence, indeed, which reaches the ears of God sooner than any words ; a silence which cries out, as Cassiodorus says ; but it is not that of which David here speaks. "There is a time," as Solomon says, "to keep silence, and a time to speak. There is no subject which has more elicited the eloquence of mediæval writers than the shame which keeps men back from confession. None has treated on this matter better than Hugh of S. Victor, the commencement of whose treatise on the subject bears closely on this verse, "Great is the malice of men. When a man wishes to act ill, he never seeks for authority ; when we tell him to act well, he clamours for it. So it is with confession. When we tell a man to confess his sins, he says, Give your authority : what text of Scripture orders us to confess? Well : granting that Scripture does not order us to confess our sins, what text is there that orders us to keep them to ourselves? If you will not confess because you have no command, how can you dare to be silent, when you certainly have no command for that?

But this is to answer a fool according to his folly. Passages there are innumerable which set this duty before us : 'Whoso hideth his sins shall not prosper.' And again : While I held my tongue," &c. But they say, How can these two things exist together? If David held his tongue, how is it that we hear of his daily complaining? And the answer is, Because it was such complaining as that he might as well or better have been silent : complaining, when complaint was of no benefit ; keeping silence, when only he could so be heard as to be healed. None can express this better than S. Augustine, but it would do his words injury to translate them. "Tacuit unde proficeret ; non tacuit unde deficeret. Tacuit peccata sua ; clamavit merita sua. Si clamaret peccata sua, et taceret merita sua, innovarentur."

4 For thy hand is heavy upon me day and night : and my moisture is like the drought in summer. Or as the Vulgate gives it, Because day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me, I was converted in my misery, while a thorn is fixed through me. There is no doubt that this Psalm It is worth noticing that there are two readings of various editions of the Vulgate : one, Dum configitur spina, which most of the commentators follow ; the other, which is taken by Cassiodorus and Ayguan, Dum confringitur spina. In the D. C. A.

had to do with David's sin in the matter of Uriah; therefore it is well to notice that all the grief of which he here speaks was simply known to himself: for externally during that miserable year the state of his kingdom was prosperous, and his arms against the Ammonites seemed to be successful. And it is worth observing, that here, day precedes night; whereas generally, from the very first chapter of Genesis, night takes precedence of day. "And the evening and the morning were the first day." But it is so here, because this sorrow of David's was no true repentance; only that sorrow of the world which, but for God's mercy, will in the end work death. So in this case, the light—that is, the pleasures of sin—first, then the darkness, according to Satan's rule; God's path being the light affliction first, and then the eternal weight of glory; the evening and the morning, which lead on to the eternal day. And the thorn is no unmeet type of that miserable pain of sin in him who has not the courage to get rid of it by confession. It is truly the child's fear of having a thorn taken out. And yet it was God's hand all this time which was leading David, though by a way that he knew not; and this very pain was the means of leading him to the happier condition of the next verse. The mediæval writers give reasons enough why sin is compared to a thorn; a thorn springs up through the negligence of the tiller of the field; it is useless, bears no good fruit, chokes the crops, and is good for nothing but fire.

5 I will acknowledge my sin unto thee: and mine unrighteousness have I not hid. 6 I said, I will confess my sins unto the LORD: and so thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin. My sin: mine unrighteousness. Most of the commentators understand the former of sins of commission, the latter of omission. But Cassiodorus, who, as we have seen, is fond of dwelling on the distinction between mortal and venial sin, understands the former clause of the lesser, the latter of the greater. Innocent from these verses draws seven points of good confession. 1. That it be perfect,—that is, that it omits nothing. 2. That it be cautious, well weighing the difference between different sins. 3. That it be made with full intention of purpose: I said, I will confess. 4. That it be humble. 5. That it pertain to our own sins, and not to those of others. 6. That it have the sense of God's Presence at the moment. 7. That it be efficacious; So Thou forgavest. One or two of the expressions in the Vulgate are stronger and more emphatic than they are in our version. I made my

various Greek versions, the difference of sense is remarkable. Symmachus: It is turned to me to corruption, as a summer burning. Aquila: It is turned to my spoiling in summer desolation.

sin known unto Thee. "This," says S. Gregory, "is more than I acknowledge. For he makes his sin known who not only tells what he hath done, but also relates all the cause and origin of the sin; who does not speak of the iniquity superficially, but of the when, and where, and how, and whether by accident, or ignorance, or design. Again: the Vulgate has it, I said, I will confess against myself my unrighteousness to the Lord; and so it is in the LXX.; and in the Italic more emphatically, I will pronounce against myself. S. Augustine says very well: "Many confess their transgressions, but against the LORD GOD Himself; when they are found in sin, they say, GOD willed it. For if a man say either, I did it not; or, This deed which you blame is no sin; he confesseth neither against himself nor against GOD. If he say, I surely did it, and it is sin, but GOD willed it, and so what harm have I done?—this is to confess against GOD. Haply you will say, No one saith this: who is there that saith GOD willed it? Many say even this; but what else is it when a man says, My fate did it, or my stars caused it? And observe, that in the first confession that was ever made, the sinner, instead of confessing against himself, confessed both against his neighbour, and also against GOD: "The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree.

This verse has, from the very beginning, been applied to sacramental confession. S. Jerome, writing to Algasia, dwells much on this point; though, singularly enough, and by an error in which he has found no followers, he denies that David was speaking of himself. It is needless to observe that these clauses have been distorted to argue the needlessness of confession to a Priest, because David did so to the LORD. The idea is noticed with disapprobation as early as the time of Cassian: though he is speaking of the public confession used in primitive times, and first abolished in the Church of Constantinople. They take occasion to observe, what is not generally known, that auricular confession was, and is, practised among the Jews to an Aaronic Priest, but especially of three crimes,—blasphemy, murder, and adultery, of two of which David had been guilty. I said, I will confess; and so Thou forgavest. Hence notice how ready GOD is to forgive: and this is one of the formal passages which prove that, even in Sacramental Confession, when made with true contrition, the sin is blotted out before the penitent begins to speak. Thus the father, while the prodigal son was yet a great way off, had compassion, and ran to meet him, and fell on his neck and kissed him. With which blessed result the first part of the Psalm ends. I said, I will confess. Let us see how the Eastern Church begins her Lent confessions, and that by the mouth of two of her greatest divines.

Thus Joseph begins the Triodion:

"How shall I now bewail my fall? What beginning can I make, I who have lived like the Prodigal Son, of turning A. S. Tarasius. Epist. Synod. S. Chrysost. Hom. 9, in Ep. Heb. S. Cyril. Hierosol. Cat. ii. to salvation? O merciful One! save me by the judgments that Thou knowest. Behold the time, behold the day of salvation, behold the entrance of the fast. Keep vigil, O my soul; and maintaining diligent watch, keep locked the gates of passion for the LORD. The billows of sin swelling up against me would draw me down to the abyss of despair; but I flee to the Ocean of Thy mercy: save me, O LORD." So Joseph: now let us hear Kyr Theodorus. "Come, O ye people, let us welcome to-day the grace of the fast, the GOD-given time of repentance, wherein we may propitiate the SAVIOUR. The season of the contest has come upon us: it has commenced, the stadium of the fast: let us all begin it with eagerness, offering virtues to the LORD as our gifts." This is the way in which the Eastern Church begins her, I said, I will confess.

7 For this shall every one that is godly make his prayer unto thee, in a time when thou mayest be found: but in the great water-floods they shall not come nigh him.

L. Few verses in the Psalms are harder to be understood than this: and none has given rise to more varied expositions among the commentators. For this. Some will have it: encouraged by this example, that after so foul a fall, GOD so readily forgave. Others: for this, that is, for the like sin, if ever they should be guilty of it. Others, again: for this, namely, warned by this example, they who are holy shall make their prayers that they may not be permitted to fall as David did. Whichever be the sense, they well argue from this passage against Anabaptists and Pelagians; as S. Augustine, and as the Council of Milevi, have long ago laid down, that the state of absolute and enduring perfection is impossible to a Christian in this life. In a time when Thou mayest be found. Some take it of the time of the Gospel, in contradistinction to that of the Law. Others, again, of those more especial seasons of grace, when GOD seems to open the windows of heaven and pour out a more abundant blessing; such as the times of Lent and Easter, or the epochs of any remarkable providence or deliverance in any particular life. Others, again, take it of the whole season of life, as a warning that the time will come when it will be too late to pray; when once the Master of the house is risen up; when the harvest is past and the summer ended;

when GOD has pronounced that terrible sentence, "Because I have called, and ye refused, I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded; I also will laugh at your calamity. But in the great water-floods they shall not come nigh him. And here the extremely difficult question is, Who it is that will not draw nigh, and who it is that cannot be drawn nigh to? In the first place: some would explain it; But, notwithstanding all their prayers to GOD, such is the weakness of their nature, and such the strength of their adversary, that in the great storms of temptation, they must expect for a while to be unable to draw nigh Him. S. Jerome, by a manifold twist of the sense, would tell us that, except it were for earthly tribulations, the people of GOD never would choose Him for their hiding-place. Others, again, understand it: In the great water-floods of temptations and troubles, they, that is the water-floods themselves, shall not draw nigh—that is, shall not hurt—the saints of GOD. The difficulty of this interpretation is, that it seems to make the word but, to say the least, useless; since to carry out that signification it ought rather to be and therefore. Perhaps, on the whole, the explanation of Lorinus is the best, who would contrast the great water-floods with the time wherein GOD may be found:

somewhat in this sense, For this shall those that fear GOD, but who have yet fallen into sin, pray their prayer for forgiveness, while it may yet be said, "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation: but, if they procrastinate their repentance till in the time of the great water-floods of extreme tribulation and death, they shall not—that is, they shall not in any human probability; they shall not, save as the exception; they shall not, but by the especial goodness of GOD—be enabled to draw nigh Him at last. The more mystical interpretations are almost endless: the most ingenious is that which would interpret the great water-floods of riches; and would thus make the verse analogous to our LORD's declaration, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of GOD. Others have endeavoured to see in the great water-floods the innumerable purifications by water of the Jews, which had no power to remove sin, however much they might increase superstition. But, after all, however much has been written on this verse, it must be confessed that its true meaning is extremely doubtful; and that none of the commentators have so interpreted it as to give us an explanation without some grave difficulty.

[The great water-floods may be well taken of the tide of worldly pleasures in which the luxurious are found, of the disputes of Gentile philosophy, which carry away the proud of intellect, and of the turbulent quarrellings of the sects; all alike numerous, restless, bitter, and far from the one, still, sweet fountain of living water, the LORD JESUS Himself.] 8 Thou art a place to hide me in, thou shalt preserve me from trouble: thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. The sense which I have attached to the latter clause of this verse is that given to it by Vieyra in his Sermon on Monday in the Second Week of Lent, Tom. viii. p. 453. Gen. vii. 16. S. Hieron. 1 Sam. iv. 5. Ps. civ. 18. Cant. ii. 14. S. Matt. xxiii. 37. S. Chrysost. Hom. 4. in Heb.

The Vulgate is somewhat different: Thou art my refuge from the tribulation which hath surrounded me: O my exultation, deliver me from them that compass me about. They love to show how the various refuges of which we read in Holy Scripture are but the faint types of that hiding-place which the LORD is to His people. Noah, shut into the Ark by the hand of GOD Himself; the Ark of the Tabernacle when it went into the camp of the Israelites; the high hills a refuge for the wild goats, and the stony rocks for the conies; the dove in the clefts of the rock; the chickens hurrying under their mother's wings. S. Chrysostom tells us that in his time this verse was sung at every funeral, as it is in the Eastern Church to this day; and very beautifully, when taken in connection with the 91st Psalm, also then recited, "Whoso dwelleth under the defence of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." Cassiodorus, whose earlier life had been spent in the courts, compares very ingeniously the efforts made by an advocate to deny or to palliate the guilt of his client, with the confession of the penitent here in the preceding verses, wherein he denies nothing, uses no subterfuge, and palliates nothing, but which yet at last compasses him about with songs of deliverance.

9 I will inform thee, and teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt go: and I will guide thee with mine eye.

Or, as it is with greater emphasis in the Vulgate, In this way wherein thou shalt go. And consider how beautifully the words are spoken by our LORD; He, hanging on the Cross, the innocent for the guilty, the Guide and the Captain of His people, promises to teach them in this way in which they shall go,—this way, the way of the Cross, because there is no other path to the crown; this way, the Via Dolorosa, along which He Himself went, and by which His people must go. I will inform thee by My words, "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; and teach thee by My example, "He, bearing His Cross, went forth to a place called the place of a skull. Guide thee with Mine eye. But why? seeing we generally use the hand in beckoning to those whom we would direct in their way? But herein is our LORD's love set forth: the hands that He so often had used for us men, and for our benefit, He can no longer employ, nailed as they are to the Cross; nothing remains to Him but His eye with which to direct the wanderer, and by that eye He guided Peter to the haven of safety. The Fathers dwell in various ways on the exceeding great and precious promises contained in this verse. Theodoret speaks of self-knowledge as the way in which we ought to go. S. Augustine shows how the end of all affliction is the obtaining the wisdom promised here. S.

Remigius looks on the verse as a kind of challenge to the evil spirits who would beset us to touch him if they dare, to mislead him if they can, to whom GOD has given the promise of His own wisdom. I will inform thee and teach thee in this way. What way, save our LORD JESUS CHRIST, Who is Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life? Eusebius of Emesa refers it rather to the leading of the HOLY GHOST. Very tame and poor in comparison with this is the interpretation of the Jews, followed by some of the literalists: that David, speaking in his own person, promises to counsel others how to avoid the sins of murder and adultery into which he himself had fallen.

As Janse-nius, Toletus, Sa. 10 Be ye not like to horse and mule, which have no understanding: whose mouths must be held with bit and bridle, lest they fall upon thee.

Horse and mule. The one they take as the warning against luxury, the other against obstinacy. Therefore it is to be observed that the woman in the trial by the water of jealousy had offered for her the tenth part of an ephah of barley meal, the food of horses. Again, the mule is taken as the type of ingratitude; being produced, as it is, by other animals, but producing none itself. And they observe that the nobler animals, the horse and the mule, are here examples of sinners; whereas the ox and the ass set forth GOD's people: as it is written, "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib. Here it would seem that David was speaking to those around him; but as the latter part of the verse is given by the Vulgate in the imperative, some commentators take that portion to be addressed as a prayer to GOD by David: or as others have it, by CHRIST to the FATHER. And so He does turn about the enemies of the people by an invisible bridle; as it is written, "Because thy rage against Me and thy tumult is come up into Mine ears, therefore I will put My hook in thy nose, and My bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way that thou camest. And hence in the Secret of the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, the Latin Church prays, "We beseech Thee, O LORD, have respect to the oblations Thou hast received;

and of Thy goodness compel, if it needs be, our rebellious wills to Thyself. But that we may not be thus compelled by force, hear our LORD's words in time: "Take"—not be forced to take—"My yoke upon you, and learn of Me. And those are the warnings for us: Nebuchadnezzar, who, because he would not hear GOD as a man, had a beast's heart given him; and Samson, who, because he threw away his gifts of manly strength, was forced to grind in the mill like a brute. And observe the difference between the bit and the bridle,—the one suggesting a harsher, the other a milder treatment; as if to show us that sinners are to be dealt with according to

A. Isa. i. 3. A. the circumstances and details of their crime. And one day these very instruments of correction shall turn to the glory of GOD, as it is written that "In that day there shall be upon the bridles of the horses, Holiness unto the LORD." But if not, 11 Great plagues remain for the ungodly: but whoso putteth his trust in the LORD, mercy embraceth him on every side. And if we wish the catalogue of those plagues, we can read it in Deuteronomy xxviii. Yet we must remember, that these plagues in and by themselves, are no proof of GOD's anger; because "whom the LORD loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." S. Barnabas teaches us that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of GOD, son of consolation though he was. And even of the well-beloved SON it is written, that "He learned obedience by the things which He suffered." S. Gaudentius of Brescia tells us that the use of affliction is threefold; either, for the probation of the righteous, as it is written, "Great are the troubles of the righteous;" or, for the emendation of the sinner, as here: or, for the final destruction of the impenitent according to that saying, "Misfortune shall slay the ungodly." S. Chrysostom says; "Wherefore David, knowing these difficulties, saith concerning them, 'Many are the afflictions of the righteous:' yet see what he addeth, 'but the LORD delivereth them out of all.' He has scarcely spoken of the disease before he mentions the cure. But of GOD's enemies he saith, Great plagues remain for the ungodly, and he adds no such thing by way of comfort." For the latter clause, see what is said on the first verse of the preceding Psalm.

12 Be glad, O ye righteous, and rejoice in the LORD: and be joyful, all ye that are true of heart.

First hear Vieyra; for the observation is well worth remembering: "In the thirty-second Psalm, GOD promises the final pardon of sins and glory and blessedness, which follow it. 'Blessed is he whose unrighteousness is forgiven, and whose sin is covered.' Where much must you notice that word covered. Because the blessedness and remission of sins which here are promised, GOD wills to be attributed not only to His mercy, but to the protection of His providence. Therefore it seems by no means at variance with Divine justice, that that blessedness which is due to the keeping of the ten commandments, should here be granted to the ten short petitions of this Psalm. And so Cassiodorus observes, that in this same Psalm, which is composed of eleven verses, (so it is in the Vulgate) has in the first ten the words addressed by man to GOD, and contains in fact, ten prayers; and within the last and eleventh, GOD answers man, and gives him the forgiveness of his sins, which he had besought; and together with the name of righteous, He confers on them His grace, of which the reward is glory. And what does the same Cassiodorus infer from this reckoning? He infers that the ten prayers, however short, of this decade, have, in the sight of GOD, the same virtue as the keeping the commandments of the decalogue, if only they are offered from the heart. The end of the Psalm then, answers to the beginning;

it began with a declaration of blessedness, and since then every one is full of sorrow, till the exultation of this last verse. Among the works of S. Augustine there is a treatise on the Magnificat, written by one of his imitators, which distinguishes the gladness felt by man into three kinds; neither from GOD nor in GOD, as they who rejoice in sin: from GOD but not in GOD, as they who abuse the gifts of GOD: and both from GOD and in GOD, as those who turn His gifts to His love and to His honour. Observe that this epithet, true of heart, is applied by the Church in one of her Versicles to Martyrs: and most fitly: for how can the truth and reality of love to GOD be better shown than by martyrdom? as it is written, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ayguan, commenting on the expression, Glory, all ye that are true of heart, and comparing it with the verse in Hosea, "His glory shall be as the olive tree," draws an ingenious mystical instruction. The olive, he says, and says truly, is first green, then red, then livid, and then black. And so in the penitent: there is the greenness of hope; there is the crimson of brotherly love, ready to lay down life from affection: there is the lividness of penitence, and the dark shade of humility:

and penitence, such as is to lead us to GOD, must have all these things.

And therefore: Glory be to the FATHER, the LORD to Whom we confess our sins; and to the SON, "the Way wherein we shall go:" and to the HOLY GHOST, Who informs us and teaches us; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

Collects.O Holy LORD, Who forgiving sins, dost give blessedness to them that confess Thee, hear the prayer of Thy present family, and having destroyed the sting of sin, bedew us with spiritual exultation. Through (1.) We have sinned, O LORD, we confess, like prodigal sons; we dare not look up to heaven: for it was thence we fell and became wretched. We have sinned against heaven and before Thee, and we are not worthy to be called Thy sons, we denounce ourselves, we need neither accusers nor witnesses, we have iniquity triumphing over us, we have evil con- Incert. in Magnificat. Idiomelon after the Photagogicon of the tone: Monday in the second week of the Fast. versation condemning us. Merciful FATHER, Only-begotten SON, HOLY GHOST, receive us penitent, and have mercy on us. Forgive, O LORD, the impiety of our hearts, for which every one that is godly shall make his prayer unto Thee in a time when Thou mayest be found; and give us understanding according as we pray, and guide us in the way in which we go. Amen. Through Thy mercy (11.)

[O GOD, from Whom the privy things of the heart are not hid, from Whom the secrets of the conscience are not concealed, forgive, we beseech Thee, our unrighteousness, and blot out all our sins, that Thou mayest win our souls by pardoning our offences, and possess them by covering our misdeeds. And since Thou art our Joy, redeem us by Thy pity, and in redeeming, deliver us from the plagues which remain for the ungodly. (11.) We humbly beseech Thee, O LORD, to cover our sins by pardon, and to impute our misdeeds no more, that we may become sharers in the everlasting gladness of the saints. (1.) O LORD JESU CHRIST, Wisdom of GOD the FATHER, give us understanding, and inform us with Thy precepts, guide us with Thine eye in the way we go, that under Thy leading we may surely come to Thee, Who art the Way, the Truth, and the Life. (5.)]

TITLE. LXX.: A Psalm of David. Without any title in the Hebrew.

Argument.ARG. THOMAS. That by CHRIST, the Word of the FATHER, the heavens and their powers were established. The Prophet exhorts GOD'S people with praise. The voice of the Church consoling the martyr. The Prophet admonishes to rejoice in the LORD. VEN. BEDE. In this Psalm the Prophet exhorts the Church of the faithful to psalmody, enumerating the power and mighty deeds of the Creator, that man may more eagerly hasten to praise Him, when he knows His virtue and power. Through the whole Psalm S. Gregory Nyssen accuses the Jews of having destroyed this title out of hatred to the Messiah; as also those of Psalms 43, 71, 74, 91, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 99, 104. Honorius observes that this Psalm is well placed the 32nd in order (according to the LXX. and Vulgate,) the blessedness of the righteous being set forth by eight, the number of the beatitudes, all the quarters of the world by four. Hence the mystical meaning of its position is perfect blessedness over the whole world.

the Prophet speaketh: but in the first section he admonisheth the just to rejoice in the LORD, Who supports His creatures with admirable power. In the second he exclaims that the man is blessed who has merited to take His worship in hand, signifying the Christian times in which a multitude of the Gentiles would believe. EUSEBIUS OF CÆSAREA. An exhortation to celebrate GOD'S praises, together with Divine knowledge.

Various Uses.Gregorian. Tuesday: Matins. [Office of Many Martyrs: II. Nocturn.] Monastic. Monday: I. Nocturn. Lyons. Tuesday: I. Nocturn. Ambrosian. First Week: Wednesday: I. Nocturn.

Antiphons.Gregorian. It becometh well the just to be thankful. [Many Martyrs. But the righteous live for evermore, and the reward of them is with the Most High.] Monastic. It becometh well * the just to be thankful. Parisian. The Word of the LORD is true. Ambrosian. Same as Psalm xxxii. Mozarabic. Praise the LORD upon the harp, sing praises unto Him upon a psaltery of ten chords. 1 Rejoice in the LORD, O ye righteous: for it becometh well the just to be thankful. This Psalm has from the beginning been applied to the martyrs, as it is said now on the Festival of Many Martyrs. And so it was in the time of S. Augustine. Thus he speaks on such a festival: "You know that which we have just been singing, Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O ye righteous. If the righteous rejoice in the LORD, the unrighteous only rejoice in the world. This is the first rank that has to be overthrown. First we must conquer delectation and then trouble. How can we conquer the world when it rages, if we cannot vanquish it when it flatters?" Thus then, in this verse we invite those blessed ones with GOD to join in our gladness: for it indeed becometh well those to be thankful of whom the hymn says:

Me incessanter A. Serm. 335 in Nat. Mart. The Hymn, In urbe med. The saint is alluding to the Roman manner of warfare, according to which the newer levies were placed in the first rank, better troops in the second, and the old veteran triarii in the third: whence ventum est ad triarios, for all having been done that can be done. Hine hi beati Perpetim firmati, Hine gloriosi Semper luminosi, Similes mihi. Sunt hi viventes Me vitâ fruentes, Pulchre lucentes Me lumen videntes, Sunt et divini Di quoque igniti Mihi uniti. And if it becometh well the just to be thankful, so also, the wise man says, "Praise is not seemly in the mouth of a sinner." And therefore notice that neither our LORD nor S. Paul would allow Satan to confess the power of GOD. "He rebuking them, suffered them not to speak, for they knew that He was CHRIST." And thus, when the Pythoness proclaimed, "These men are the servants of the Most High GOD," Paul commanded the evil spirit to come out of her. Notice also how the last verse of the preceding Psalm and the first verse of this seem to run into each other: the penitential sorrow of the one having been gradually raised into the exultation of the other. Ayguan has a singular idea of the body's upbraiding the soul with reference to It becometh well the upright, as it is in the Vulgate: both were created by GOD upright, and intended to look up towards the sky. Man does not imitate the beast by bowing his head to the ground, as even the heathen poet tells us,

Ovid. Metam. i. 85. but in his soul man does stoop and bend down, curved instead of upright, to the pleasures and business of this world. Rejoice. S. Ambrose observes that there is no greater defence against Satan than spiritual joy, which indeed comes second in the catalogue of the graces of the Spirit; as the evil spirit that vexed Saul was driven away by David's harp. 2 Praise the LORD with harp : sing praises unto him with the lute, and instrument of ten strings. Here we have the first mention of musical instruments in the Psalms. It is to be observed that the early Fathers almost with one accord protest against their use in churches; as they are forbidden in the Eastern Church to this day, where yet, by the consent of all, the singing is infinitely superior to anything that can be heard in the West. It is not easy to determine when they were first introduced into the West. S. Gregory the Great speaks of organs; but Amalarius in the eighth century, describing the use of the Church of France, says that no instruments were employed. S. Thomas Aquinas seems to disapprove them, or at least barely tolerates them; and the Church of Lyons, which held more faithfully to primitive practice than any other in France, admitted them only in the sixteenth century. To what perfection they were brought among the Jews the whole routine of the Temple service abundantly shows. The instrument of ten strings they take to mean the music of the Church Triumphant, ten being the symbol of perfection: and as the Vulgate, herein following the Hebrew, mentions only the harp and the ten-stringed Psaltery, instead of the three instruments which both our Bible and our Prayer Book version have, they see in this the union of the Church on earth with that in heaven. So Bernard of Cluny,—

Thou city of the Angels! thou city of the LORD! Whose everlasting music is the glorious decachord. Tropologically, all mediæval writers dwell on the similarity between the strings of musical instruments and Christian souls. Firstly, they are made of dead animals,—so must we be dead to sins. Next, they require an equal tension, as our passions must be subdued and moderated. Thirdly, as all their sound depends on the air; so all that we can do is to be attributed to the HOLY SPIRIT. Adam of S. Victor sees a parallel between the martyrs and their sufferings and the strings of the lyre, which are drawn tight and stricken, so that they may yield their sweetest sound. "Sicut chorda musicorum Tandem sonum dat sonorum, Plectri ministerio; Sic in chely tormentorum Melos CHRISTI confessorum Martyris dat tensio." Adam. Vict. The Sequence, Prunis datum, for S. Laurence. So, again, Hildebert of Le Mans:

"Sicut chorda solet dare tensa sonum meliorem, Sic pœnis tensus dat plenum laudis honorem." 3 Sing unto the LORD a new song: sing praises lustily unto Him with a good courage. This is the first time that we have had that expression, A new song: on which S. Augustine has left us a whole treatise, and on which all mediæval writers love to dwell at length. Zigabenus sees in this expression the four great hymns of the New Testament: he also sees in the decachord the ten songs of the Old Testament, those of Miriam, Moses, Deborah, Hannah, David, Solomon, Judith, Hezekiah, Habakkuk, the Three Children,—an adaptation rather than an explanation. A.

S. Augustine would have the decachord to mean the three commandments which pertain to GOD, the seven which pertain to man. The remarks of Ayguan may so well apply to choirs of the present day, that I will transcribe them here. "For when we go to sing the Office of GOD in church, reverence and humility ought to be more strictly observed, lest, when we come into the presence of GOD Himself, we should be worse than at other times. For there are some who, wandering in their thoughts, staring about with their eyes, slovenly in their dress, look about and gaze upon the flat walls, sing one thing and think of another, are bodily in the choir, and mentally in the market. And there are some singers of effeminate voices, who glory in their delicate modulation, and put in other notes than those that are written in the ecclesiastical books, that they may rather, forsooth, please the people than GOD. They who sing after this fashion do not sing in the choir with Miriam, the sister of Moses: but in the palace with the daughter of Herodias, that they may please those that sit at meat, and Herod. They glory in reaching such and such a high note; but no one reaches such a high note as he whom GOD is accustomed to hear from His lofty mountain. You, therefore, sing in the valley of humility, that you may merit to be heard on the hill of glory.

If you so sing as to be careful about the praise of others, you sell your voice, and make it not yours, but theirs. You have your voice while you sing in your own power; have your mind in your own power too. Lustily unto Him with a good courage. Notice how GOD cares rather for the will than for the deed: how we must throw ourselves heart and soul into our work, if we would do that work so as to please Him. Our English translation, lustily, gives the force more emphatically than any other version. If we wish to show the inferiority of the Bible translation, we could not choose many more glaring examples than this. Compare, on the one side, the noble, Sing praises lustily unto Him with a good courage; on the other, Play skilfully with a loud noise.

[A new song, because CHRIST has made all things new, and we having put on the new man, must have a new kind of praise in our mouths. That, remarks another saint, is love, for the LORD hath said, "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another." And not only one another, It is needless to observe that S. Augustine divides the Decalogue as it is divided by the Western Church at this day: amalgamating our first and second into one, dividing the tenth into two. This subject deserves more attention than it has received. Our method is strongly supported even as late as the twelfth century by Rupert of Deutz. It is impossible to preserve the alliteration of the original: Sunt in choro corpore, sed in foro mente. [But, after all, the Hebrew denotes instrumental, and not vocal music. It may be paraphrased, as by De Wette, thus: Smite the harp fitly for Him, amidst the blare of the trumpets.]

but "Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you." And it may be further taken of the counsels of perfection, of chastity, "He that is able to receive it, let him receive it;" and of poverty, "Sell that ye have, and give alms."] 4 For the word of the LORD is true : and all his works are faithful. "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life," said the Word of the LORD Himself; and it well follows, All His works are faithful, since it is written, "All things were made by Him." Yet the greater part of the early commentators do not take it in this sense. Theodoret, with the literal interpretation which his school dearly loved, takes it of Holy Scripture. So does S. Gaudentius of Brescia. S. Basil and Cassiodorus take it of the Catholic faith; S. Bruno, by a miserably narrow interpretation, understands it of the precept of singing. The word, says Ayguan, is the half-way spot between the intention and the action; and therefore is the Word of the Lord true, or straight, because of the faithfulness of all His promises. As it is written, "All His commandments are true : they stand fast for ever and ever."

5 He loveth righteousness and judgment : the earth is full of the goodness of the LORD. Righteousness and judgment : or as it is in the Vulgate, Mercy and judgment. For these are the two pillars on which God's house is reared up,—the Jachin and Boaz which stand before the celestial temple. And mercy is well put before judgment : for the promise of the Deliverer who should bruise the serpent's head was given before the sentence of punishment was pronounced on Adam and Eve : as also at the last day the King will first speak the blessedness of those on the Right Hand, before He shall bid those on the left to depart into everlasting fire. And since He loves mercy, so He commands us to love it also. "What doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justice and to love mercy?" The earth is full. And why does he rather say the earth than mankind? Because God's mercies are over all His works, as well as over man : He that gave warning in the plague of hail that the cattle of the Egyptians should not perish,—He that forbad the taking the dam and the eggs together,—He that had pity on the much cattle of Nineveh,—certainly shows His goodness to His other creation as well as to man. Again; the earth is mentioned as if to tell that this world, and not the next, is the season for repentance and mercy.

6 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made : and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth. Here we have one of the most remarkable testimonies in the Old Testament to the doctrine of the Trinity. Almost A.

all the Fathers have so applied it,—Tertullian, S. Cyprian, S. Ambrose, S. Augustine, S. Isidore, S. Fulgentius, S. Athanasius, and many others. Some of these have gone further, and have attributed the creation of the heavens more especially to the WORD, that of the stars and angels more especially to the HOLY GHOST. S. Augustine, referring the heavens, as he always does, to the Apostles, shows how it was the teaching of the Word of GOD which made them what they were, and formed them for their work. "And how dared," says he, "those same heavens to go with confidence, of weak men to be made heavens, except that by the Word of the Lord were the heavens made firm? Whence could sheep among wolves have such strength, except that by the breath of His mouth were all the strength of them? 'Behold,' saith He, 'I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.' O LORD, most merciful, surely Thou dost this that the earth may be full of Thy mercy! If, then, Thou art so merciful as to fill the earth with Thy mercy, see whom Thou sendest, see whither Thou sendest. Sheep into the midst of wolves. 'I send them,' saith He, 'because they are become heavens to water the earth.' Whence weak men can be heavens. But all the strength of them by the Spirit of His mouth. Behold, the wolves shall take you, and deliver and give you up to the powers, for My Name's sake. Now arm ye yourselves. With your own strength?

Far from it. 'Take no thought how or what ye shall speak, for it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your FATHER which speaketh in you.' This is of a truth, All the host of them by the breath of His mouth. Many have thought that S. John, at the commencement of his Gospel, and especially in that saying, "All things were made by Him," was simply referring to this passage, and re-stating it in its own highest Christian meaning. If this be so, it is a curious instance of the way in which the Apostles understood the symbolical teaching of the Psalms. S. Basil understands the heavens, not of Apostles, but of Angels, which, however, is less in accordance with the general principle of symbolism. Grounding themselves on this verse, the Jewish rabbis declare that the basis of all the bases of the Mosaic law is this: that the creation of the world was the immediate work of GOD, and not His mediate work by the hand of Angels.

7 He gathereth the waters of the sea together, as it were upon an heap: and layeth up the deep as in a treasure-house. Taking the heavens to signify the Apostles, and the hosts In Symbolum, cap. 6.

of them the exceeding great army of converts which by their preaching was spread throughout the world, then here we see an analogy with that prophecy in Isaiah, "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. These waters He gathered together in that book of remembrance which is written for them that fear Him: and layeth up the deep as in a treasure-house: for what are His treasures but the innumerable souls which either directly or indirectly the preaching of the Apostles has brought in? The Vulgate has it, gathering as in a bottle the waters of the sea: and they refer to the new wine and the new bottles which the LORD's Incarnation was to prepare. Others again take the deep thus laid up in a treasure-house, of the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of GOD: others, of afflictions, bitter in themselves like the waters of the sea, but the exceeding great treasures of grace. Or again: Theodoret takes the waters in the bottle of the clouds, sucked up and raised from the sea and there reserved till the time comes to pour them forth upon the earth. As it is written in Job: "Who can number the clouds in wisdom, or who can stay the bottles of heaven? On an heap. As it was when the Red Sea was passed, and when the nether waters of the Jordan were cut off.

And if we take the Latin, Placing the abysses in His treasures, then we may see how the greatest sinners have sometimes become His greatest saints; abysses of wickedness turned into treasures of mercy. S. Basil says, "Laying up the abysses in His treasures. It would have been more after the common manner of speech, Laying up His treasures in abysses: that is, containing His treasures in mysteries and hidden secrets. But now He speaks of the abysses themselves as of something precious and worthy of Divine treasures. Nor do I know whether the reasons themselves of Divine judgments hidden in themselves, and comprehensible by no minds, are hence called abysses, because they are reserved to the Divine understanding alone. We, when we shall be held worthy of that knowledge by which GOD is seen face to face, shall then contemplate those abysses in the treasures of GOD. But if you collect what is written concerning bottles in the sacred volume, you will approach nearer to the understanding of those prophecies. Those are called new bottles in the Gospel who day by day renew their spiritual life, and receive new wine from the True Vine. But they who have not yet put off the old man with his deeds, are old bottles, into which new wine cannot conveniently or safely be poured. Thus Adam of S. Victor:

Utres novi, non vetusti, Sunt capaces novi musti; Vasa parat vidua; Dat liquorem Helisæus; Nobis sacrum rorem Deus, Si corda sint congrua. Adam. Vict. The Sequence, Lux jucunda, lux insignis. [The waters, being the nations of the world, according to that saying, "the waters are peoples and multitudes, and nations and tongues," are gathered together into the unity of the Church, which is compared to a bottle, because, as a leathern bottle is made of the skin of a dead animal, so the Church is made up of those who have mortified sin in the flesh.] 8 Let all the earth fear the LORD : stand in awe of him, all ye that dwell in the world. A.

In like manner, the Prophet: "Fear ye not Me? saith the LORD: will ye not tremble at My presence, Which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it?" They seem to see, in the two clauses, a double division of those who are addressed: Let all the earth: those who are of the earth, earthy:—all ye that dwell in the world: those who are true children of that Church which is scattered throughout the whole globe. Stand in awe of Him. And was it not so, when after the stilled storm, Peter fell down at His knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O LORD?" Was it not so when the Gadarenes besought Him that He would depart out of their coasts? Well says S. Augustine: "Let them not fear another instead of Him. Doth a wild beast rage? Fear GOD. Doth a serpent lie in wait? Fear GOD. Doth man beat thee? Fear GOD. Doth the devil fight against thee? Fear GOD. For the whole creation is under Him Whom thou art commanded to fear." Stand in awe of Him. Or as it is in the Vulgate, Let all the inhabitants of the earth be moved because of Him. And that answers precisely to the saying of Ezekiel: "So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at My presence."

9 For he spake, and it was done : he commanded, and it stood fast. Prudentius, in that noble hymn of his, has versified this passage: The Hymn, Da puer plectrum. Ipse jussit, et creata: dixit ipse, et facta sunt: Terra, coelum, fossa ponti, trina rerum machina, Quæque in his vigent sub alto Solis et Lunæ globo. The Greek Fathers seem to take the two clauses as referring, the former to GOD's material, the latter to His spiritual, works. But notice then: He spake, and it was done: a most clear reference to the WORD, by Whom it was done. S. Isidore most truly teaches that He spake is often said of GOD instead of "He did:" because by His Word His creative power was exercised. And S. Ambrose well says: "God did not give the command that the effect might be: but that it might be seen to be His effect." They dispute with reference to this verse, why, in the Apostles' Creed, in the Latin, God is called Creator of heaven and earth, and in the Nicene, the Maker. And they reply that it was with reference to the heresy of Marcion and his followers, that God did indeed create all the great and chief parts of nature, but that as to the little every-day occurrences of this life, they are brought to pass, made, so to speak, by Satan.

10 The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: and maketh the devices of the people to be of none effect, and casteth out the counsels of princes. 11 The counsel of the LORD shall endure for ever: and the thoughts of his heart from generation to generation.

So of Ahithophel; so it was with Holofernes; so with Sennacherib. And therefore well might Gamaliel say, "If this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought; but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it. And the Scriptural S. Albert heaps together innumerable passages which testify to the same thing. So says Eliphaz: "He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong. So S. Paul: "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. So, again, Isaiah: "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure: and once more: "The LORD of Hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass: and as I have purposed, so shall it stand. And thus writes S. Cyprian: "Hast thou the protection of God? stand safe and without fear against everything that the devil or the world can perform. For what fear can he have from the world, to whom God is a protector in the world? Casteth out the counsels of princes. It is not in the Hebrew; but being in the LXX., and both in the Italic and Vulgate, it has probably fallen out of the original by accident. And who are these princes, save the devil and his legions? as our LORD Himself says, "Now is the judgment of this world; now shall the prince of this world be cast out.

"So," says one of the greatest of the Fathers, "so, O Christian, his devices against thee are every day brought to nought. He sends such and such a temptation, intending it to be thy ruin; but the LORD, by His overruling providence, turns it into thy victory. He pours forth against thee all the fiery darts of evil thoughts: thy LORD not only intercepts them, but infuses in their stead His HOLY SPIRIT into thy soul. The counsel of the Lord. Yet we must remember that, as S. John Damascene says, "Counsel, properly speaking, is only taken by the ignorant. Hear, therefore, the Carthusian: "But Holy Scripture frequently attributes counsel to GOD: but it is then ascribed to Him, not in so far as it includes the inquisition of doubtful matters, but in so far as it excludes a hasty determination. And they remind us that there are three kinds of counsels which GOD overthrows: 1, the vain philosophy of heathen sects, long before the Advent; 2, the counsel of Scribes and Pharisees, Annas and Caiaphas, Herod and Pontius Pilate, against our LORD, while He was on earth; and 3, the counsels of great persecutors, of Decius and Diocletian, of Huneric and Mahomet, against His Church since His Ascension. And notice once more how GOD turns the counsels of the wicked into good. "Often," says S. Gregory, "while some, puffed up by human wisdom, devise the most subtle counsels against the dispensation of GOD, they only carry out the LORD's will;

and while they seek to overthrow it, they indeed confirm it. So Joseph, sold into Egypt that he might not be lord over his brethren, by that very means was made a king and prince to them."

12 Blessed are the people, whose GOD is the LORD JEHOVAH: and blessed are the folk, that he hath chosen to him to be his inheritance. How does He choose them? And Cardinal Hugo answers the question at length. If we take GOD's own simile of a husbandman, He removes the briars of sin, He ploughs with the plough of the Word, He sows the seeds of grace; He surrounds with the hedge of fear; He walks in His garden in the cool of the evening. S. Basil will have the people to mean the Jews; and then, when they counted themselves, as the Apostle speaks, unworthy of eternal life, the folk to mean the Gentiles. Or, if you like, we may take the people to mean the chosen band of the Apostles: as the LORD Himself saith, "Have not I chosen you twelve?" Others, again, see, in the distinction between the two clauses, the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant; or rather,—and it is to be noticed how completely a mediæval writer here eschews the notion of a purgatory of suffering,—of the Church awaiting her future reward before the Resurrection, and the Church as having entered into possession at the consummation of all things. To use his own words, "The blessedness

The same thing appears from another passage, (105 C,) where, instead of the usual modern Roman division of the Church into Militant, Suffering, and Triumphant, Ayguan knows of no division but Militant and Triumphant.

which is possessed in our country, so far as respects the first robe before the Resurrection, but which will be complete as to both robes after the Resurrection." What this blessedness consists in let S. Bernard tell us: "In that eternal and blessed life those blessed ones triply have fruition of GOD: to wit, seeing Him in all things, having Him in themselves, and, which is ineffably more glorious and blessed, beholding Him in His very essential Trinity, and contemplating that glory without any enigma, by the pure eye of the heart. And it is this condition of blessedness, which noting, the SAVIOUR saith, 'This is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true GOD.'" And if we take the two clauses together, we thence find that GOD is the possessor as well as the possessed: as is set forth by S. Anselm with admirable force in his Prosologion. "Therefore GOD Himself says, Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by thy Name; thou art Mine." Corderius is rapt beyond his usual elevation in considering this passage: "O words," says he, "most sweet, and that fill the mind with wonderful happiness! We are the possession of GOD, we belong to Him, we pertain to Him; no one can hurt us, without challenging the power of GOD. 'Thou art Mine,' He says, and that by a peculiar reason; not in that way only in which the heaven and earth are GOD's, as being the demiurge and architect of all, but because, saith He, 'I have redeemed thee, fear thou not.' The purple blood itself of the Immaculate Lamb, that immortal and incomparable price, which, save GOD, nothing can equal, cries out loudly, 'Fear not;' and, as S. Cyprian speaks in his exhortation to martyrdom, promises to us security and protection. To the same effect is that which follows:"

13 The LORD looked down from heaven, and beheld all the children of men: from the habitation of his dwelling he considereth all them that dwell on the earth. So the ancient hymn tells us: Speculator adstat desuper Qui nos diebus omnibus, Actusque nostros prospicit A luce primâ in vesperum. The Hymn, Læs ecce surgit aurea. Instead of from the habitation of His dwelling, the Vulgate has it, from His prepared dwelling, an expression which they interpret variously. The meaning attached to it by S. Gregory Nyssen is something harsh: The Lord—that is, CHRIST—from His prepared dwelling—that is, from the bosom of the FATHER, Whose He always is, looked down upon the children of men at the Incarnation. S. Thomas takes it as reminding us that there is a certain abode prepared, as for Tract. 2. in Psalm. c. 8. Z A. The Hymn, Pange lingua.

God now, so for those that are God's hereafter; a place where He is, and where we shall be also. And so in Ecclesiasticus: "The eyes of the LORD are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, beholding all the ways of men, and considering the most secret parts." Prepared habitation. We may take it, if so we will, of those whom God has used as His instruments and temples by which to work, and in which to dwell: according to that saying, "What, know ye not that your bodies are the temples of the HOLY GHOST, Which is in you?" Thus, from His habitation in each of the Apostles, the HOLY GHOST considered the various nations to whom, by their means, He preached: China and India by S. Thomas, Scythia by S. Andrew, Spain by S. Paul. So it is that He exercises that which Tertullian calls His censorium lumen over those to whom His word is spoken by His messengers at this day. And there is no doubt a contrast in the first and second clauses, between The Lord looked down from heaven and from His prepared habitation. Under the old dispensation He looked down from heaven as a God afar off; under the New Covenant from His prepared habitation: as it is written, "A body hast Thou prepared Me."

Man with man in converse blending, Scattered He the Gospel seed. 14 He fashioneth all the hearts of them: and understandeth all their works. Or, as it is in the Vulgate, He fashioneth the hearts of them singly. Hence they are accustomed to refute the fancy of Origen, that the souls of men were created long before their bodies, and that they are simply put into each body as it is formed. It is not here the place to open, as so many modern commentators do, a door to the whole Jansenian controversy, from the last clause, and understandeth all their works. Others have gathered that the singly or separately refers to the spirit of man as contrasted with the souls of beasts; and others, as S. Isidore of Pelusium, take it to mean that God by Himself, and without any intermediate ministry, has fashioned each several soul. "But do thou, O Christian," says Hugh of S. Victor, "knowing that He understandeth all thy works, Whose works even from the cradle to the grave were what they were, that He understandeth all thy works, Whose highest work was performed on the Cross of Calvary, take heed lest He behold in thee works of worldly pleasure, works of self-indulgence, works of sin; works the very opposite of, and contrary to, those which His own right hand and which His holy arm effected; works that will be thy shame and confusion in that day when thou, and all the sons of men, must be judged according to thy works."

15 There is no king that can be saved by the multitude of an host: neither is any mighty man delivered by much strength. 16 A horse is counted but a vain thing to save a man: neither shall he deliver any man by his great strength.

This is the lesson which God at sundry times and in divers manners taught His people. Thus He said to Gideon, when about to fight with the Midianites, "The people are yet too many; bring them down to the water, and I will try them for thee there. So, again, the man of God said to King Amaziah, "O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee; for the LORD is not with Israel. But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle; God shall make thee fall before the enemy. And so, once more, where it is written that Judas Maccabeus "stretched out his hands towards heaven, and called upon the LORD That worketh wonders, knowing that victory cometh not by arms, but even as it seemed good to Him, He giveth it to such as are worthy. Neither is any mighty man delivered by much strength. For consider that He Who was indeed the mightiest of all mighty,—the God Who, to them that had no might, increaseth strength,—the God Who is strength Himself, delivered not the race of man by strength, but by weakness; as when He fell beneath the Cross, as when He bowed His head and gave up the ghost, as when in the weakness of death He was taken down and laid in the grave. Mighty man: or giant, as it is in the Vulgate.

They compare, therefore, Sihon, King of the Amorites, and Og, the King of Bashan,—the latter "of the remnant of the giants,"—with the two clauses of the present verse: as they do the horse, counted but a vain thing to save a man, with that of Pharaoh, which went down into the Red Sea. And so it is written in another place, "Thus saith the LORD: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might: let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the LORD. And notice why a horse is so often spoken of as a worldly method of defence or attack: because the children of Israel never used horses in battle. We read of the vast number of war-horses brought into the field by the Ammonites and Syrians; also the chariots of iron, which proved an insuperable difficulty to the Ephraimites, in driving out the ancient possessors of their land. But, excepting for show, the kings of Judah had none; and even for show, the Law forbade any great number, "He shall not multiply horses unto himself. Neither is any mighty man delivered: or, as it is in the Vulgate, And a giant shall not be saved in the multitude of his strength. There we have a clear referA.

ence to those giants whom the Philistines sent forth against God's people, Goliath at their head: all of them manifest types of Antichrist. Let S. Augustine, then, teach us what is to be our strength. "To the LORD all, in the LORD all. God be your hope, God be your fortitude, God be your firmness; He be your prayer, He be your praise: He be the help by which you labour, He be the end in which you rest." 17 Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him: and upon them that put their trust in his mercy.

They take it of that eye which, while the LORD was before the judgment-seat, looked Peter into repentance,—while He was hanging on the Cross, inspired the penitent thief with love and hope. And that word behold, as S. Cyril says, is not idly to be passed by. It seems to bring the mercy of God home to us; as if, not only in those old histories, but in these present days, that Eye was still watching us through our wanderings, and beaming upon us the strength which is to bring us to our home. And notice once more the gradual ascent from fear to love: upon them that fear Him, first; then upon them that put their trust in His mercy. This was the verse on which the poor old anthropomorphite monk in Egypt based his religion. "It has been all my life," he said, to the Bishop who showed him the impossibility of his creed, "my comfort to believe, that the LORD was watching me with eyes like those of a man: now you have taken away my God, and what shall I do for another? S. Albert well observes that here we have a promise of God's protection in this life in the first clause; of His salvation in the world to come in the next. And he goes on to make an ingenious application of the Mosaic law. "Hope and fear," he says, "are the two millstones between which a man's soul is ground so as to become contrite;

and therefore the Law forbids that either the upper or the nether millstone should be taken to pledge, neither being of use without the other. And therefore they are well joined in Ecclesiasticus: "Ye that fear the LORD, hope for good. S. Augustine says well: "Whereby shall we be saved? Not by might, not by strength, not by power, not by glory, not by a horse. Whereby, then? Whither shall I go? Where shall I find whence I may be saved? Seek not long, seek not far. Behold, the eyes of the Lord are upon them that fear Him. Ye see that these are the same whom He beholds in His habitation, those who hope in His mercy; not in their own merits, not in strength, not in fortitude, not in a horse; but in His mercy."

A. 18 To deliver their soul from death: and to feed them in the time of dearth. They take it with one consent of the blessed Eucharist. Its two principal virtues—deliverance from temptation and eternal death, and food and refreshment in the wilderness of this world—are marvellously brought out. Gerson, in his beautiful treatise on the Magnificat, dwelling on this subject, contrasts with the seven deadly sins seven physical properties of the Altar Bread, which he sums up in a line: Gerson, in Magnific. And in three others he sums up the twelve blessings which it bestows: To deliver their soul from death: thus speaks David. "He that eateth Me, shall even live by Me," says the Son of David. "The time of death is now," says S. Augustine; "the time of saturity will be by-and-by. He That deserteth us not in the famine of this corruption, how will He desert us when we shall have become immortal? But while it is the time of famine, we must tolerate, we must endure, we must persevere to the end; and because we bravely bear this famine of our pilgrimage, we must expect to be refreshed in the wilderness, that we faint not." And, as this, so those many other dear promises in the Old Testament of food to them that are needy: "The poor shall eat, and be satisfied;" "The LORD giveth meat unto them that fear Him;" "Behold, My servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry."

A. 19 Our soul hath patiently tarried for the LORD: for he is our help, and our shield. 20 For our heart shall rejoice in him: because we have hoped in his holy Name. And here we have the answer of the righteous, who have up to this time been addressed or been spoken of. The Psalm is, as it were, antiphonal: the one choir tells of God's past mercies, the other resolves to trust in Him for the present. It is worth noticing that the second verse is rendered differently in the LXX. and the Vulgate from the original. Instead of the hope in God's Name being the cause of joy, these versions would imply that the joy was the cause of the hope. Because our heart rejoiceth in Him, we have hoped in His holy Name. S. Bernard dwells at great length on the duty of spiritual joy. Observe, that in the list of the graces of the HOLY GHOST, if love stands the first, joy occupies the second place; and of what value must that be in the sight of God, which precedes our dear LORD's last legacy, namely, peace! And notice the difference between our help and our The Sequence, Jesus dulcis Nazarenus.

shield: the former the positive, the latter the negative assistance; the former leading on to good works, the latter defending from evil temptations. It is the same thing which we shall hereafter find in the 46th Psalm, "God is our hope and strength;" hope in the good things which we intend to perform,—strength against the temptations which we desire to conquer. In His holy Name. Another instance of that reference to the Name which is above every name, of which we have had so many, and shall have so many more. "It is enough," says S. Basil, "that we are called by the name of Christians, to render us superior to every assault of every enemy." That Name, lauded in so many hymns; that Name, no less the worship of the saints in heaven than of those who are yet militant on earth. They propose ten names of God, and ask which is that to which reference is here made. God forbid that I, or that any one who may read these pages, should doubt for one moment:

JESU Nomen omne bonum Tenet, dulcem facit sonum, Promeretur regni thronum, Auditum lætificat: In hoc lucet splendor Patris; In hoc patet decor Matris; In hoc fulget honor fratris; Hoc fratres magnificat. 21 Let Thy merciful kindness, O LORD, be upon us: like as we do put our trust in thee. "O valiant prayer," cries Theodoret, "measure Thy mercy by my confidence." So it is indeed; and let us take that prayer in virtual effect on our own lips, whenever we join in the noblest hymn in the Church, ending as it does with the same supplication. O high aim, marvellous petition of the Christian! that he may be forgiven only as he forgives; that he may be helped only as he trusts! Hugh of S. Victor, with that deep mind of his, sees here, in that word fiat, "fiat misericordia tua super nos," the mixture of free will and of grace, which is the only true and safe teaching. Cassiodorus here sees a petition for the Incarnation: that being the merciful kindness hid from ages and generations, but now revealed in the cottage of Nazareth by the message of Gabriel. Let the same writer give us what he calls the conclusion of the Psalm. "What honeyed words have we heard! how gloriously has the celestial Psaltery sounded! Such are the chords of its mandates, that if we will receive them in the ears of our minds, we shall both purify ourselves by the means of David's lyre, and it will be to us as it was to Saul:

Rutilius Benzonus dwells on this subject at great length in his treatise on the Magnificat. evil spirits will be chased away, so that with pure heart we shall serve the LORD. Yes, the blessed have also their music, which enters the hearing of the faithful soul; the sound whereof never fails, the meaning whereof never grows old." And therefore: Glory be to the FATHER, Whose Counsel shall endure for ever; and to the SON, the WORD of the LORD, by Whom the heavens were made: and to the HOLY GHOST, the Breath of His Mouth; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

Collects.Feed, O LORD, Thy people, in the time of famine, with Thy Word, and deliver our souls from the death of sin; that, being filled with Thy mercy, we may, through Thy gift, merit to be admitted to the joys of the righteous. Through (1.) Let Thy mercy, O LORD, be upon us; and as Thou didst separately fashion the hearts of men, so be Thou pleased to sanctify them specially; and because Thine eyes are ever open to them that fear Thee, bestow on us the fulness of Thy fear, and confer on us the completeness of Thy knowledge. Amen. Through Thy mercy (11.) O GOD, Whose command it is that the righteous should be full of joy; whose praise both obeys Thee by loving, and loves by praising; who, by the Harp of the Law, sing the New Song, and in the Psaltery give the glad music of pious words; grant, O LORD, that we may follow in their footsteps, and praise Thee together with them: and because Thy Word is true, and all Thy works faithful, grant that we may believe Thee with a faithful heart, and may diligently obtain Thy loving-kindness. Amen. Through Thy mercy (11.)

[O CHRIST, WORD of the Eternal FATHER, by Whom the heavens were made, enlighten us with the gift of Thy SPIRIT, and stablish us in good works, that we may be justified through faith in the Trinity, and through working that which is pleasing to Thee, and may, together with the people Thou hast chosen for Thine inheritance, be glorified for ever. Who livest (5.)]

TITLE. A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed. In his exposition of this title, S. Augustine, perhaps, displays a greater depth of Scriptural study than in any other part of his commentary on the Psalms. David changed his behaviour before Abimelech : the True David changed His behaviour, that is, came in a way which they expected not, before "the kingdom of His FATHER,"—(for so Abimelech is interpreted,)—that is, before the Jews. David "affected:" the Son of David took our affections and sicknesses on Him. David drummed (so is the Vulgate) on the doors : in the drum, S. Augustine sees its tension, and applies it to the tension of our LORD on the Cross. His spittle ran down on his beard : that is, CHRIST affected the speech and behaviour of children. The whole exposition, which takes up an entire sermon,—it was preached on a Saturday,—is most remarkable, and to literalists must appear the wildest effort of an unrestrained fancy.

Argument.ARG. THOMAS. That CHRIST guards the just in their various temptations by the intervention of Angels. The voice of some righteous man. The voice of the Church assembling her congregation for a fast. A prayer also at the Altar. A prayer of faith. For a fast. VEN. BEDE. (After explaining the title from S. Augustine.) The whole Psalm is alphabetic, with the exception of the sixth letter. In the first part, the Prophet resolves to bless GOD, admonishing the gentle that, in company with himself, they persevere in His praise. In the second, in order to bring to pass the conversion of the faithful, he dwelleth on the rewards that follow after this life. In the third he warns them, as if they were his children, from what sins they ought to abstain. The fourth teaches that the righteous shall be delivered out of all his troubles, while the wicked shall suffer the punishment they have deserved.

SYRIAC PSALTER. A Psalm of David, when he went to the house of the LORD, and gave the first-fruits to the Priests.

Various Uses.Gregorian. Monday : Nocturn. [S. John Baptist : III. Nocturn. All Saints : III. Nocturn.] Monastic. Monday : I. Nocturn. Parisian. Thursday : Sexts. Lyons. Tuesday : I. Nocturn. Ambrosian. First Week. Wednesday : I. Nocturn. Quignon. Tuesday : Vespers. Michaelmas Day. Common of Apostles. Common of Many Martyrs.

Antiphons.Gregorian. Ferial. It becometh well the just to be thankful. [Michaelmas Day : Glorious hast thou appeared in the presence of GOD : therefore the LORD hath clothed thee with beauty. All Saints : O fear the LORD, ye that are His Saints, for they that fear Him lack nothing ; the eyes of the LORD are over the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayers. Common of Apostles : The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth them. Common of Many Martyrs : They delivered up their bodies unto death, that they should not serve idols : therefore they are crowned, and possess the palm.] I read cujusdam with Ferrandus, not quædam. Monastic. Ferial. It becometh well * the just to be thankful. Parisian. Come, ye children, * hearken unto me : I will teach you the fear of the LORD. Ambrosian. As the preceding Psalm. Mozarabic. (First Diapsalma.) O praise the LORD with me, and let us exalt His Name together.

1 I will alway give thanks unto the LORD : his praise shall ever be in my mouth.

Taking the clue which S. Augustine has given us, we shall find that our True David "changed His countenance" before "the Kingdom of His FATHER" twice : at His Incarnation, once for ever ; in the Holy Eucharist, again. Therefore in the Apostolic Constitutions this Psalm is ordered to be recited during the whole of the Communion. Cassiodorus tells us that it has so many mysteries, that we can hardly believe that it was not written during the Christian dispensation. Hence also it is recited at a time which—at first sight—would seem less applicable, namely, Good Friday. S. Theodore the Martyr, when so scourged that the flesh hung down from his sides in strips, sang this verse. I will give thanks : but how ? In many ways. By the earnest keeping His commandments. Hence, when the Psalmist says, "O praise the LORD, all ye His hosts," he forthwith continues, "that do His pleasure. By patience under adversity : hence Job, "The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away : blessed be the Name of the LORD. Then, by believing Him : as it is written, "Then believed they His words, and sang praise unto Him. Then, by doing good to our neighbours : "Blessed be GOD, even the FATHER of our LORD JESUS CHRIST . . . that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble. Alway give thanks. What ? when we are asleep, or in recreation, or taking our food ? Verily, yes ;

for it is written, "Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of GOD. S. Basil tells us that the praise of GOD, once rightly impressed as a seal on the mind, though it may not always be carried out into action, yet in real truth causes us perpetually to praise GOD. There cannot be a more beautiful practical commentary on the subject than the letter in which S. Jerome comforts S. Paula for the loss of her Blæssilla. Or, again, if we take the Psalm to refer to the Holy Eucharist, this verse answers to the initial hymn, anthem, introit, ingressa, missa, or whatever else it may be called :—certainly, in every known ancient Liturgy, praise is the commencement. Then the fifth verse tells us of our LORD's Presence, invisible in one sense, visible in another, on the holy Altar. In the

Arnold. Abb. de Verb. Domin. in Sitio. Menæa. Job i. 21. 2 Cor. i. 4. I know not why Parez should say of this Psalm, "Sed quando exponitur materia aut auctor Psalmi, non est creden- dum quod David fecit illum, sed Esdras aut aliquis sanctus homo, prout fuit sibi revelatum." seventh we are told of the mystical communion there is, at the time of celebration more than in any other, between the holy Angels and ourselves: "the Angel of the LORD tarrieth round about them that fear Him." Then the Communion itself, "O taste and see how gracious the LORD is!" And so I shall have occasion to point out the similarity between the structure of the Psalm and that of the Office, as I continue its exposition. 2 My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. A. Eplat. 77. S. Bernard. Serm. xxiv. in Cantic.

There is a most excellent sermon on this verse by Philip Greve, Chancellor of the University of Paris, deserving of special mention. In the Vulgate it is, My soul shall be praised in the Lord, which, though only a rude way of representing the Hithpahel conjugation, is yet worked out into a very beautiful sense: I am then praised, when my LORD is praised: as every good thing I do by His grace redounds to Him, so, since He has vouchsafed to be incorporated with me, and to incorporate me with Himself, I have a right to partake in His glory; not the less a right, because given, S. Augustine is marvellously struck with the beauty of these two words, to be said in every time and place, Deo gratias, as a true making our boast in the LORD. The humble, or as it were better, the afflicted. Here the Man of Sorrows speaks: He Who said, "I knew that Thou hearest Me always,"—how better could He make His boast in the LORD? And, as they see His confidence in the midst of such sufferings, all the train of His afflicted servants may well be glad. And thus it was that our LORD said, "I seek not Mine own glory; and again, "If I honour Myself, My honour is nothing. S. Gregory, therefore, teaches very well how we are herein to follow the example of our LORD:

not to do any work for the sake of our own praise, as a final end, though we may for the fruit or effect of our own praise, as the glory of GOD, or the salvation of souls. The humble you may, if you will, take of the Apostles,—exulting, as they must have done, when they saw their dear LORD making His boast in the FATHER, in His ineffable union with Him, the Oneness of their wills, in the intercommunication of their power. S. Bernard says, "It is good consolation, when, trying to do well, we are blasphemed by sinners, if the righteous love us. Against the mouth of them that speak lies, the good opinion of the good, and the testimony of our conscience is amply sufficient. "My soul shall be praised in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.

. Quoting S. James i. 21, S. Albertus proceeds: "Et est argumentum quod Parochiani de- bent audire verbum divinum in mansuetudine, et divinum officium, et tunc possunt eorum corda lætificari: aliter non." Let me please the humble, and I can bear with equanimity whatever the envy of the evil may object against me." My soul shall be praised in the Lord: as it is written, "The glory of a man is from the honour of his father:" much more, then, from the honour of our FATHER Which is in heaven. 3 O praise the LORD with me: and let us magnify his Name together.

Here with one accord, and most naturally, they dwell on the public worship of GOD. This verse, indeed, is the parent of all ritual. Hear S. Augustine: "If ye love GOD, hurry away to the service of GOD all who are united to you, or are in your house. If ye love the Body of CHRIST, that is, the Unity of the Church, hurry them away to that delight. Excite in yourselves love, my brethren, and cry to each one of those that belong to you, and say, O praise the Lord with me." We must bear in mind, however, that this verse is not rightfully to be separated from the next: and then we have the ever-blessed Trinity clearly enough set forth to us. O praise the Lord—the FATHER—with me: and let us magnify His Name together. And what Name, as I have so often said, save the Name that is above every name? "I sought the LORD, and He heard me:" that LORD, Who has promised to give the clean heart, and to renew the right spirit, whenever invoked in Holy Baptism. O magnify with me: as it is written in the Apocalypse, "Let him that heareth say, Come." And so, in the framing of the earthly tabernacle, "the curtains shall be coupled one to another:" "and they shall make fifty taches,"—namely for the couplings—"of gold:" for what joins one Christian to another—save the gold of charity? V. Bede will have us lay great emphasis on that together: as showing the unity that ought to subsist between all our LORD's members. And hence it was, says he, that His own bones were not broken on the Cross: to show that neither are His people, who are His Flesh and His Bones, to be severed from each other by any assault or violence of the enemy. And hence we learn this great truth, that without union there can be no true praise.

A. 4 I sought the LORD, and he heard me: yea, he delivered me out of all my fear. 1 The wonderful coarseness of S. Augustine's illustration of this verse may show two things:— 1. The long period of years which is necessary before the softening influence of the Church can do itself justice. 2. How impossible it is that any, even the most excellent, of the Commentators of past ages should altogether satisfy the need of the present generation.

We may take it in two ways. In the first place, of our Blessed LORD Himself in His Sacramental Presence: I Arnold Abb. sought Him, and He heard. Most indubitably, most perpetually. The words are pronounced which He pronounced; the actions are performed which He performed; and the gracious promise is fulfilled—"Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. And how delivered me out of all my fear? Thus. He encourages us to draw nigh, yes, and to feed upon Him, by manifesting Himself, not, as in the glory of His corruptible Body, He did to the three Apostles on Mount Tabor—not, as in the glory of His incorruptible Body, He did to the four soldiers in the garden of S. Joseph; but under the form of Bread and Wine, without terror, without fear, without devouring and overwhelming Majesty. Or we may take the LORD here, as I said just now, of the Ever-Blessed Spirit, so as to see the Consubstantial Trinity set forth to us, in these two verses. And then again, in the other great sacrament, He heard me: let Priest, parent, bystander, every one be servants of Satan, still the promise of GOD stands sure—still GOD is true, though every man be a liar: the HOLY GHOST heard and came down into the heart. I sought the Lord. But how? "I sought Him," says the Carthusian, "faithfully contemplating, ardently loving, well living, and affectionately praying. And notice: he saith not, "I sought from the LORD," but I sought the Lord:

to teach us, that GOD Himself, in and by Himself, is to be the end of all our desires. Remember the beautiful legend about S. Thomas, when he had finished that part of the Summa Theologiae which regards the Person of our SAVIOUR: the miraculous voice, "Bene scripsisti de Me, Thoma; quid ergo habebis? "Domine, nil postulo præter teipsum. Some of the heathen philosophers knew as much as this by theory: O marvellous "feeling after Him," and almost "finding Him! And, if the words are by us put into our dear LORD's mouth, then, He delivered Me out of all My fear, is a parallel clause with the Apostle's "was heard in that He feared."

5 They had an eye unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed. The Vulgate has, as the more natural sense of the Hebrew It is not easy to say why instead of the usual reading of the LXX., ἐκ πασῶν τῶν θλίψεών μου, the Vatican MS. should have it, ἐκ πασῶν τῶν παροικιῶν μου. There is no trace of this in any other version. [παροικιῶν is the usual reading, θλίψεων that of the Cod. Alex. The source of the common reading is easily traced, because the root "he turned out of the way," is applied to turning aside from a journey to dwell in a place, or to shrinking aside in fear. And further, Symmachus reads περιστάσεων.] is, "Draw ye nigh unto Him, and be ye illuminated." And in the first place, we naturally think of Baptism: the "illumination" of the early Church. And here let me deviate from the immediate literal force of the text, to make a remark which will augment its spirit. Every one must see that the verse, "Wherefore he saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and CHRIST shall give thee light," may be referred to Baptism. But few comparatively may have noticed, that the quotation is part of a Baptismal Hymn:

This would be nearly certain in itself, but when we observe the Anacreontic march of these lines (o - o - o -), and then find that the Baptismal Hymn of the Gregorian Antiphonary was actually, in the Antiphonary of S. Gregory, in that metre, the truth is clenched. No commentary on our text can be better than this beautiful little hymn: Audite voces hymni, Et vos, qui estis digni, In hac beatâ nocte Descendite ad fontes. Donatur vobis signum Ad Salvatorem dignum; Qui pependit in ligno Tradidit nos baptismum. Gaudete baptizati, A CHRISTO coronati: Albam habetis vestem, Chrismâ peruncti estis. Mundate corda vestra, Ut crescat fides vestra: In ipsum permanete Semper; Deum timete. In this sense also are the words of Isaiah to be understood: "O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD." S. Augustine beautifully takes these words in another sense: that illumination which is conferred by the Holy Eucharist, and which he compares to the illumination of Jonathan's eyes, by the honey which he took with his stick from the wilderness: the honey, the Holy Mysteries; the rod, the Cross. Draw nigh unto Him. Well says the Doctor of Grace, in another passage, "If then by drawing nigh ye are illuminated, and by departing ye are darkened, the light was not in you, but in your GOD. Draw ye nigh, that ye may rise: if ye shall depart, ye shall die.

If, then, by drawing near, ye live, and by going away, ye die, your life was not in you; for He is your life, Who is given by CHRIST: "for with Thee is the Well of Life, and in Thy Light shall we see Light. Again: they observe on three effects of the Blessed Eucharist: Faith; (here,) Draw nigh: Hope, (v. 8,) Taste; Love, (v. 9,) Fear. And take care, Hugh of S. Victor says, how ye draw nigh. Peter drew nigh: true:—but so did Judas; so did the Chief Priests: so did Pilate; so did the Jews to crucify Him. Thou, therefore, O Priest, beware how thou approachest the Altar, that thou drawest not near to that Body and that Blood to thine own damnation, but to thy blessed and everlasting enlightenment. And your faces shall not be ashamed: not like him who drew to the wedding feast, not having on the wedding garment: and who inherited the shame and everlasting contempt of, "Friend, how camest thou in hither, not having a wedding garment? Draw nigh. Up to this time, says Cassiodorus, he has been constituting his choir, forming his procession;—now comes the actual approach—now comes the reality of that to which all before has been but preparation. Draw nigh. But how can we draw nigh that we may be enlightened by that light which no man can approach unto? Even, while in this life, as Moses, to whom it was promised, "Thou shalt see My back parts, but My face shall not be seen. S.

Laurence Justiniani has a beautiful reference to the Epiphany, when the Wise Men did indeed draw nigh, and were of a truth enlightened by that star which when, after a temporary loss, they saw again, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy: he says:—"The Grace which makes us gracious is that glorious morning star, which preceding every one of the elect, leads his heart to GOD. For without any manner of doubt, the human heart has been overthrown: is no longer in possession of its own rights; never loveth wisdom, is never faithful to GOD. But by the light the rational mind is made wise, is taught concerning heavenly things, is imbued with faith: things without which the pilgrim can never reach JESUS."

22 The LORD delivereth the souls of his servants: and all they that put their trust in him shall not be destitute. Some of Hugh's remarks are very singular and are also quoted by Ayguan: "Tarde ad investigandam culpam peccatoris, sed prompte ad inquirenda vestigia leporis; velociores ad convocandum canes, quam ad pauperes congregandos. Libentius panem cani porrigent, quam pauperi. Hi sunt, quorum thalamus ornatior est Ecclesiâ, mensa paratior Altari, scyphus calice pretiosior, equus carior missali, cappa (the use of this word in the sense of a secular cloak is worth notice) casulâ pulchrior, camisia delicatior albâ." (I have here taken the liberty of inserting the Vau verse: which, from whatever cause, is now read at the end of the Psalm.)

Delivereth. Or, as it is in the Vulgate, shall redeem. It is most marvellous to see, through the whole of the Psalter, how, when any phrase seems more immediately to refer to the Passion, the commentators pour out their heart's love in exalting the glory of that Passion. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. They cannot pass it by. They lose sight of context, analogy, sequence; they forget everything but Calvary. O happy writers, who now have entered into the fruit of that Cross to which, in the time of your pilgrimage, you clung so closely! God grant—and you, dear reader, must pray for it too—that he who is now endeavouring, feebly and afar off, to follow in their steps, to see the impress of the Passion, to set up the standard of the Cross everywhere, may one day be counted worthy to enter into the Land where the LORD of the Passion is the King of the Redeemed! And here they proceed to discuss the old question, whether CHRIST died for all; and are ready with their answer,—Yes; so far as sufficiency: No; so far as efficiency. Shall not be destitute. They look on to the hour of death and see in it a prediction of a blessed euthanasy. A grace that God seems more especially to give where He will and how He will; but yet, as a general rule, rather bestowed on those who have surrendered their will habitually and perfectly to their LORD.

6 Lo, the poor crieth, and the LORD heareth him: yea, and saveth him out of all his troubles. The poor,—made poor for us—crieth. But how? He cries by the sweet words of His midnight prayers, He cries by the Almighty supplication of His Blood on Calvary, "FATHER, forgive them!" "LORD, lay not this sin to their charge!" And He is heard for this very reason, namely, because He is poor; because He emptied Himself of all that He had. And in this sense also that prophecy is fulfilled, and because He was poor in His life, therefore He made His grave with the rich in His death: for how is he not rich, who has all the desires of his heart granted him? Poor! yes, indeed. His mother was so poor, that she was compelled to bring Him to the temple with the alternative offering of a pair of turtle doves, or two young pigeons: He had not where to lay His head; forsaken by His Apostles He hung naked on the Cross: He chose poor disciples, and as He came into the world in a dwelling,—so when He went out of it, He was laid in a sepulchre,—that was not His own. S. Jerome, citing this very place, calls Him the Prince of the Poor. The Poor. "For ye know the grace of our LORD JESUS CHRIST that, though He were rich, yet for our sakes He be-

S. Hieron. Comm. in Esai. cap. xxix. came poor, that we through His poverty might be rich." Well says S. Ambrose: O happy poverty, which, if it hath no treasure of money, yet hath treasures of wisdom and knowledge! Despise not, my sons, poverty as ignominious; The poor cried, and the Lord heard him. Envy not riches, as something of great value: "The rich have tasted and suffered hunger." This poor. That is, not any poor: many a Lazarus in this world, has never entered into Abraham's bosom in the next; but he that has the true poverty of self-denial, he that really and verily follows, as a poor subject, the poor King. And hence they naturally take occasion to dwell on the advantages and privileges of religious poverty. This poor. And remember what He further was, and what He did. There was found in the little city" of the world "a Poor Wise Man, and He by His wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remembered that same poor man."

7 The angel of the LORD tarrieth round about them that fear him : and delivereth them. Custodes hominum psallimus Angelos; Humano generi quos Pater addidit Celestis comites, insidiantibus Ne succumberet hostibus. S. Hieron. in Zech. This is the first time that, in the Psalter, we read of the ministrations of Angels. But many Fathers rather take this passage of the "Angel of the Great Counsel:" and gloriously to Him it applies. In that case, the promise applies to the same Angel: He tarrieth round about them that fear Him. We shall have occasion hereafter, when we shall have S. Bernard's assistance, in Psalm xci., to speak at length of these blessed spirits, and the work they perform for us. If one especial and created Angel is here to be understood, then Michael is named by all; and Pantaleon, the martyr, quotes this verse in particular of him. It is with difficulty that I can restrain myself from entering on so lovely a subject at length now; but I will defer till it shall please GOD to bring us all that distance,—which at present looks so formidable,—on in our course. Here therefore I will only observe, that S. Jerome beautifully refers to the present verse in explaining that prophecy of Zechariah: "I will encamp about Mine house because of the enemy, because of him that passeth by, and of him that returneth."

One of the instances in which the Bible is truer and more imphatic than the Prayer Book version. Both Italic and Vulgate, as well as LXX.—"Iste pauper clamavit," — Οὗτος ὁ πτωχὸς ἐκέκραξε—give the full force of the original . See Thomasius on this verse. The Vulgate reads Immittet Angelus Domini. But many ancient MSS. have Immittet An8 O taste, and see, how gracious the LORD is : ☩ blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

We cannot but take it, in the first place, of the blessed Eucharist: and the Vulgate, that the Lord is sweet, will help us better to understand that signification. Let me quote the words of Vieyra: "Taste, and see how sweet is the Lord. He saith not, Taste, and see how sweet is the Bread,—but—the LORD: for the LORD is the Bread, that is there eaten. And forthwith he exclaims, Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him. In this exclamation, and in its consequence, we may observe, If David invites us to eat the LORD's Flesh in the Sacrament, and in it to taste the sweetness of that Flesh, it would seem that he ought to continue,—Blessed is the man that eateth Him; not, trusteth in Him. Why doth he not then? Because the Prophet desired not only to reveal the mystery, but to declare the motive. In the first clause, O taste, he revealed the mystery, which is the Sacrament: in the second, he declared the motive, which is Hope. And with reason did he so exclaim, as if he were even more astonished at the motive than at the mystery. For what can be more admirable than this; that GOD, making Himself an universal blessedness for the reward and satisfaction of all other virtues, should, as regards Hope, make Himself an especial and particular blessedness. For all other virtues, a blessedness in heaven; for Hope, a blessedness on earth; for all other, a blessedness which consists in GOD seen;

for Hope, a blessedness which consists in GOD received. Pseudo-Dionysius speaks with equal verity of "that ravishing feast, full of all delights. S. Basil says: "Since our LORD then is the True Bread, and His Flesh is Meat indeed, it is needful that the joy of receiving that bread should be conceived in us by spiritual taste. For as the nature of many may be spoken and written about for ever, while yet the sweetness is not so understood as it would be by our tastes, so neither can the sweetness of the celestial Word be made manifest by words of human learning, unless, by our own experience, we understand what is the delight of that banquet. Well says the Gloss: "Attend to the LORD's words; 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.' Draw nigh therefore to the Way, see the Truth, taste the Life."

[It is no marvel that this verse, so plainly foretelling the Holy Eucharist, should have caused the whole Psalm in gelum Dominus: and S. Augustine mentions that reading, but as a spurious one. The translator misunderstood the military term παρεμβαλεῖ, shall camp around. S. Jerome very well gives it, Circumdat Angelus Domini in gyro. Suidas explains παρεμβαλόντων which it occurs to be used in the Altar Service of the early Church. The Clementine Liturgy directs it to be sung during the communion of the people, and the use was known at Jerusalem in the days of S. Cyril.] 9 O fear the LORD, ye that are his saints : for they that fear him lack nothing. 10 The lions do lack and suffer hunger : but they who seek the LORD shall want no manner of thing that is good.

We heard of the sweetness : we must not forget the fear. The lions do lack is, in the Vulgate, the rich have stood in need : but ours is manifestly the correct translation. And now we may conceive that dear LORD, the chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely, making proclamation from the pulpit of His Cross, There is no lack. "Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with Mine own hand. "Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. No lack of love, when Calvary was the very throne of love : no lack of wisdom, when the Cross was the spot where the mystery, hid from ages and generations, was now at length explained : no lack of might, when here the strong man was bound and spoiled by the stronger. Shall want no manner of thing that is good. Not like that which was said to Dives : "Thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things ; but such good as comes from the source of all goodness and beauty ; such good as is derived from Him Who is the Chief Good. And no manner. Whether it come in a fair or in an unpleasing shape ; whether as prosperity or adversity ; whether as the gentle dews from heaven or the pruning of the careful gardener ; neither the one nor the other shall be kept back from him.

"He That spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? But they who seek the Lord. How principally but in the blessed Sacrament of the Altar? And what good things can they look for there, which they shall not abundantly receive? "For when we seek the LORD, what is there which we do not find? One is He that is sought : but in that One all things are contained. O marvellous grace! O singular compendium of blessedness! Why should we fatigue ourselves in divers inquiries? Let us rather with one accord hasten to Him, Whom when we have gained, we seek not further for any, because we now already possess all good things."

11 Come, ye children, and hearken unto me : I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

S. Hilary remarks that, whenever the fear of GOD is mentioned in Scripture, it is not spoken of barely, and there an end; but much either precedes, or follows, its mention, of the steps by which it is to be gained, of its excellence, or of its cause. So it is here. David only proposes his subject in this verse: he proceeds to dilate on it in those which follow. Here we must, say the commentators, rather understand by the fear of the LORD, that initial fear which is the stepping-stone to filial love, than that especial grace called by the same name, one of the seven gifts of the HOLY GHOST, and which Isaiah foretold as about to rest on our LORD. Come, ye children, and hearken unto me, says David here: "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not," said the Son of David at another time. The Master of Sentences dwells, from this verse, on the four kinds of fear: mundane, servile, initial, filial. Mundane, when we fear to commit sin, simply lest we should lose some worldly advantage, or incur some worldly inconvenience. Servile, when we fear to commit sin, simply because of hell torments due to it. Initial, when we fear to commit it, lest we should lose the happiness of heaven. Filial, when we fear, only and entirely because we dread to offend that GOD Whom we love with all our hearts. I will teach. Whence notice; that this fear is not a thing to be learnt all at once;

it needs careful study and a good master. S. Chrysostom compares the Psalmist's school here with the resort of heathen students to the academy: and S. Ephraem, referring to this passage, calls the fear of GOD itself the school of the mind. "As if He proclaimed," says S. Laurence Justiniani, "I will teach you not the courses of the stars, not the nature of things, not the secrets of the heavens; but the fear of the Lord. The knowledge of such matters, without fear, puffs up: but the fear of the Lord, without any such knowledge, can save. "Here," says Cassiodorus, "is not fear to be feared, but to be loved. Human fear is full of bitterness: Divine fear, of sweetness: the one drives to slavery; the other allures to liberty; the one dreads the prison of Gehenna, the other opens the kingdom of heaven. They notice that, up to this verse, we have been, as it were, led through the different steps of the Blessed Eucharist; now the Catechumens are, as it were, addressed. S. Augustine, preaching no doubt to a congregation which contained many such, fails not to dwell on this. We read of old time that "Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac. Even so do Thou, Whose Name is love, be the Fear of Thy people; that which they fear with all their heart; that, beside which they fear nothing.

S. Hieron. in Esai. cap. xi. S. Justin. in Tryph. S. Laurent. Justin. Lign. Vit. cap. i. A. 12 What man is he that lusteth to live: and would fain see good days? Hugh of S. Victor here adduces one of his singular arguments from the barbarous etymology of that age: that fear is to be coupled with love, because the very word filius is derived from φίλοι, which, says he, means love.

A sermon on this text is extant among those of S. Chrysostom, though apparently written by a Latin writer, an imitator of S. Augustine. He represents mankind as interrogated, and unanimously replying in the affirmative to the question contained in this verse; but immediately, as soon as the way in which these good days are to be obtained is made known to them, drawing back from it. To live: and there is but one kind of life that is worthy of that name. The life which we live, says S. Bernard, is rather death than life,—a deadly life; and from the very moment in which we begin to lead it, we do nothing but approach death, and begin to die: there only is true life, where life is lifelike and vital. Good days. Shall we hear a description of these good days, from one who, by the rough road of martyrdom has long since entered into them? "The saints shall exult in glory; they shall see GOD and shall be glad: they shall rejoice, shall be satiate with glory, shall be replenished with eternal felicity. There they shall not taste by broken fragments how sweet is GOD, but shall be imbued, and fulfilled, and satiate, with that wondrous deliciousness: nothing lacking, nothing attacking: all their desire, CHRIST, present among them, shall fulfil. They shall never grow old, they shall never pine away, they shall never grow sick: perpetual satiety, happy eternity, shall confirm the sufficiency of their beatitude. No concupiscence shall then be in their members;

no carnal rebellion shall ever, ever more arise: but the whole condition of redeemed man shall be chaste and pacific: nature shall be made whole in its very essence, and thenceforth shall remain so, without any spot or wrinkle. Lastly, GOD shall be all in all; and His presence shall satisfy all the appetites of soul and body: and for the future, the ministrating operations of angelic virtues towards us shall die: and the city of GOD, filled with inhabitants, governed by its perfect statutes, shall never again be changed from the fixed state of consummate blessedness. Good days. Moses never saw them; Paul never saw them; our LORD Himself, according to the flesh, never saw them; never, in the land of the dying: it was necessary that they should wait, till they could enter on the Land of the Living. Or, as Augustine neatly expresses it, "It is folly and madness for us to seek good days here, when the LORD and Creator of days had none such."

S. Bernard, in Ps. xc. ☐ 13 Keep thy tongue from evil: and thy lips, that they speak no guile. ☐ 14 Eschew evil, and do good: seek peace, and ensue it.

Oh how they all dwell—those masters of the spiritual life, on the well keeping of the tongue as the first step to Paradise! From Pambo in the desert, who, asking advice of the aged monk what were the chief duties of an ascetic, and the old man beginning, "I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I offend not with my tongue," replied, "That is enough, let me go home and practise it"—to the teachers of this day, all dwell on S. James's exhortation, "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. But none has written more strikingly, more eloquently, more attractively, than Drexelius in his little book with that quaint title, Orbis Phaeton. Read that work, study its deep engravings—and, so far as knowledge goes, O Priest, thou wilt be well qualified to preach on one of the most important subjects which can ever occupy thy pulpit. "Man," exclaims S. Augustine, "can tame the wild beast: can he not tame the wild tongue? subdues the lion, but subdues not the course of talk; himself tames, but tames not himself; tames that which he fears, and not that which he ought to fear, so as to tame himself. Where shall we look then for the remedy against this evil,—where for a lesson in this hard kind of wisdom, save to the pulpit of the Cross, compared with the silence at the Pavement?

The spotless Lamb in the one taught us that there is a time to keep silence: in the other, He made it no less manifest that there is a time to speak. That tongue indeed was not only kept, in its last earthly accents on the Cross, from the very mention of evil, but how did it scatter blessings everywhere around it! Eschew evil and do good. The old command, so constantly repeated in different words; "Cease to do evil, learn to do well. "Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. The child's lesson "to renounce the devil and all his works," first: then "to keep God's holy will and commandments and walk in the same all the days of my life. Seek peace and ensue it: or, as the Syriac version has it, run after it. Well says an ancient writer, "He saith not, If peace follow thee, receive it: but, even if it flies from thee, follow it. For example: if (which is possible, for thou art a man) thou shouldst have quarrelled with any, if he first invites thee to peace, then peace follows thee: with joy receive it. But if he, being evil, persevere in evil, then peace is hidden from thine eyes; but do thou, as a son of peace, knock at the door of peace—and this is to seek peace. Say not, He was the first to do the wrong, and ought to be the first to make the apology;

thou art more glorious, if, though injured, thou ensuest peace, than if thou endeavourest after vengeance. Seek therefore peace, that thou mayest find the reward of peace. Those

Auct. Op. Imperf. in S. Matt. Hom. 9. This treatise is longer than most of those of Drexelius. The edition I use (Munich, 1629,) consists of two 12mo volumes, each containing 700 pages. Any one who would reproduce it in English—perhaps with a little abbreviation—and would re-engrave the curious plates of Sadeler, would deserve the gratitude of the English Church. In the mean time I would very earnestly recommend the original to my brethren. who have been tracing, in the former part of the Psalm, the details of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, see here the frequent mention of peace, whether in the Episcopal Pax vobis, the giving the kiss of peace, or the Dona nobis pacem. And they quote very well two passages from Propertius, which might have been written by a Christian poet :— And again : He is our Peace. And in that sense, too, seek peace, and ensue it. So He is typified by Solomon, the Pacific King, but more especially in the Canticles. S. Jerome sums up the whole of these verses very well : " Unless we hate evil, we cannot love good ; nay, rather, we must do good, that we may decline from evil : we must seek peace, that we may flee war ; nor is it sufficient to seek it, unless when we have found it and it flies from us, we follow that up with all care, which passeth all understanding : that in which the habitation of God is set, as the Prophet writes : ' His place is made in peace.' And it is well said, ensue peace, according to that of the Apostle, ' ensuing hospitality ;' that not with any commonplace and every-day language, with any lip-words, we invite guests ; but retain them with all the ardour of our minds, as offering themselves for our gain and profit."

15 The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous: and his ears are open unto their prayers. 16 The countenance of the Lord is against them that do evil: to root out the remembrance of them from the earth. These two verses exactly respond to the preceding couplet. The present verses tell why we should do that which the former command. The eyes of the Lord. For it is better, says S. Ambrose, to have an approving glance than a laudatory word. But in the highest sense, those blessed eyes, so heavily then pressed by the Crown of Thorns, and dimmed with the blood thence pouring down over the mystical vestments of the true Aaron, were over all the generations from the Day of Pentecost till the Day of Judgment : watching all their struggles, sympathising with all their defeats, rejoicing in all their victories : marking and acknowledging each little work done for Him ; and looking past the light afflictions for the moment, to that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Here, as so often, when the wicked are spoken of, the great Commentators of the Church are almost silent.

17 The righteous cry, and the LORD heareth them : Y and delivereth them out of all their troubles. And this verse, no doubt, is one reason why the Psalm in which it occurs is appropriated to the Commemoration of Martyrs. Delivered out of all their troubles they are, not in the earthly sense of liberation; but, as the ancient poem says, By one short hour of death and pain, Life everlasting they obtain. And this is, oh how far! the truer deliverance: as Peter, crucified on the Janiculan Hill, obtained a more glorious liberty than he found when, having passed through the streets, the Angel left him. And it is truly said, Out of all their troubles: when not from bodily pain only—not from sin and its temptations only—not from fatigue of body or soul only, but from all of these together, all at once, the intended cruelty of the persecutors frees them for ever. The righteous cry and the Lord heareth: but why? Because once the Righteous cried and the LORD did not hear: when the time of our Captain was come, that He should be delivered into the hands of wicked men: when the threefold prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, though heard indeed in the spirit, was refused according to the letter. And therefore hence, O true servant of GOD! thy prayers must be heard, thy supplications must be accepted. He was forsaken and disregarded from Calvary, that to them the ears of GOD might ever be open, the answer of GOD might always be ready. From all His troubles!

A. For Thee all pangs they bare: Fury and mortal hate; The cruel scourge to tear; The hook to lacerate. But vain their foes' intent; For, every torment spent, Their valiant spirit stood unbent. The Hymn, Sanctorum meritis. "They cry to Him," says the Eastern Church, "for strength—and from Him that was wounded to the Death, and weak with mortal weakness, on the Cross, they obtain might. They cry to Him for Wisdom—and from Him that condescended to the ignorance of childhood they receive counsel that cannot fail. They cry unto Him for riches—and from Him that had not where to lay His Head, that was born in the poor Inn-Manger, and buried in a given grave, they receive the pearl of great price. They cry to Him for Cathisma on Wednesday in the Week of the Ointment-bearers. joy—and from the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief they receive the pleasures that are on His Right Hand for evermore."

18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a contrite heart : and will save such as be of an humble spirit. A. Oh glorious promise of the Incarnation, to them that sat in darkness and in the shades of death! After all the miseries and clouds of the four thousand years, the LORD drew nigh—nigh, to heal a world sick to death—nigh, to give hope to the hopeless—nigh, to rise, the Sun of Righteousness, on the night of error! And not then only, but now, now to every repenting sinner, He is nigh, Who came, not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance: He Who, while He tabernacled in the flesh, was so ready with His "Neither do I condemn thee." And notice the repetition of these words, heart, and spirit: as if on them the whole virtue of the promise depended. Not a contrite exterior: "they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast"—not troubled lips: "Many shall say in that day, LORD, LORD, have we not prophesied in Thy Name, and in Thy Name cast out devils?" But sorrow of the heart, not of the mouth; humility of the spirit, not of the expressions. As it is written, "The soul which is greatly vexed, which goeth stooping and feeble, and the eyes that fail, and the hungry soul will give Thee praise and righteousness, O LORD." Cassiodorus says, "The custom of men and GOD's work are different in this matter. For he who desires to get nearer to those who are higher than himself stands on tiptoe: he stretcheth himself out if he would reach a lofty building. But the LORD Most High cannot be reached save by those who are bowed down by humility, nor can we attain to His sweet joys, save by bitter tears."

19 Great are the troubles of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of all. Even the Jews see in this a prophecy of the Messiah; and how shall we not, then, O blessed JESUS, apply the verse altogether to Thee? to Thee, so prefigured in it, as that Thy Saints may only follow afar off, filling up that which is behindhand of Thy affliction in the Flesh for Thy Body's sake, which is the Church? The Sequence, Jesus dulcis Nazarenus. Caput JESU, cor, mens, manus, Vulnus, livor, sanguis planus, Pedes, corpus, vigor sanus Parantur hominibus: Hæc torquentem passa dura His læsura et natura Reparantur piâ curâ Purgatis criminibus. Many are the troubles. "Each Limb of Thy Holy Flesh," exclaims the Eastern Church, "endured ignominy for our sakes, Thy Head, the Thorns; Thy Face, the Spittings; Thy Cheek, the Buffets; Thy Mouth, the Gall mingled with Vinegar for Thy Taste; Thine Ears, the blasphemies of the Wicked; Thy Back, the Scourges; Thy Hand, the Reed: Thy whole Body was stretched on the Cross; Thy Hands and Feet endured the Nails, and Thy Side the Spear; Thou That didst suffer for us, and by Thy Sufferings didst set us free." Many are the troubles. And in that He bare them as Man, worship His longsuffering as God.

Idiomela on Friday of the Holy Sufferings. Admirabilior quia mundum morte redemit, (Sic placuit) quam quod condidit a nihilo. Aspice luctantem cum Morte Hominemque Deumque: At vincit moriens: et tibi Victor ovat. And, if we turn from the Head to the Members, the proper commentary on this verse would be such a work as that of Gallonius, De Martyrum Cruciatibus: where are set forth the racks, the scorpions, the plumbatæ, the crosses, the furnaces, the wild horses, the stocks, the bent trees, the furious beasts, the wasps, the precipices, the scaphæ, whereby CHRIST's constant Martyrs were tried. But the Lord delivereth him out of all. No better explanation of these words than those with which that writer concludes his task: "These, then, O unconquered soldiers of GOD, O gallant Chieftains of CHRIST, these are the glorious trophies of your victory, the most manifest proof of your faith and your gratitude. Death, O ye noble warriors of GOD, which ye so ardently desired, hath ever for you the eternal and happy life. Blessed are ye indeed: delivered of a verity out of all your troubles! And do all not say so, when, as your earthly sufferings were increased, so ye, beholding with your mortal eyes the heavenly reward, spake thus to the LORD in your hearts without any motion of your lips: Here, O most merciful GOD, let our bodily sufferings be increased, if only hereafter our peace and our rest may be augmented!" Or, if you prefer the ancient hymn:

Dum sic torti cedunt morti Carnis per interitum, Ut electi sunt adepti Beatorum præmium. Per contemptum mundanorum Et per bella fortia, Meruerunt Angelorum Victores consortia. The Sequence, O beata beatorum. A A But if so with them, what of their Head? How was He delivered out of all His troubles when the cloud received Him out of the sight of the Apostles, when the everlasting gates were commanded to lift up their Heads, that the King of Glory might come in? How was He delivered from all His miseries when this Royal Pilgrim, having returned from the far country that He had redeemed, sat down at the Right Hand of the FATHER, "from henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool?" 20 He keepeth all his bones: so that not one of them is broken. Marvellous prophecy of this true Paschal Lamb! As it is written under the old law: "neither shall ye break a bone thereof."

Quapropter grex carnificum Os tibi non confregit: Longinus sed deificum Tuum latus impegit. S. Eulog. cont. Novat. in Bibl. Phot. S. Basil. Hom. in Ps. xlvi. It is remarkable, however, how slight is the allusion made to this, the literal sense, in the commentators. They rather dwell on the marvellous care with which God watches the bones of His Saints: so that, though their framework be taken to pieces for a while, they are not really broken—not really injured, but guarded safely till the voice of the Archangel shall reunite them. So, again, they understood the words of those valiant men, those heroes of the Church, whom God raises up from age to age to do His mighty works, and who may well be called its bones. Or, better still, S. Gregory understands it of those valiant acts themselves: that let Satan oppose them as he will, let all the powers of hell draw out their array against a single deed of God's chosen warriors, they shall not be able to gainsay or to prevent it: whence S. Bernard may well encourage every Christian man to fight his battles with courage, to run his race with ardour, since not one of the bones, or the noble actions which he contemplates, shall fail of its purpose. Again, the same S. Gregory, in another place, takes the bones of the Church to be its ecclesiastics, and thus the promise comes to the same thing as those most glorious words uttered to the Disciples: "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." S. Albert well connects this promise with the afflictions of the righteous which have just been spoken of; because thus they suffer, therefore their bones, that is their faith and hope, and the actions springing from these, shall not be broken or decay. And so it is written: "Thy visitation hath preserved my spirit."

21 But misfortune shall slay the ungodly: and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate. Or, as it is in the Vulgate—The death of sinners is most evil. Hear S. Peter Damiani: All come round him! Cogitation, Habit, thought, and word are there: All, though much and long he struggle, Hover round him in the air. Turn he this way, turn he that way, On his inmost soul they glare. Conscience' self the culprit tortures, Gnawing him with pangs unknown: For that now amendment's season Is for ever past and gone, And that late repentance findeth Pardon none for all her moan. The Hymn, Gravi me terrore pulsas. Hear Dionysius the Carthusian: To her own prevarication, Can in final condemnation Nought but even justice find. Then such forms of wrath address her, And with pains so sore distress her, That the soul—such griefs oppress her— The By the blessed reprobated,

And to hopeless sorrow fated, Down she sinks for ever lost. Fire and frosty tempest roaring, Dark and sulphury vapour soaring, Damned souls their fate deploring, And the gulf that is not crossed. They that hate the Righteous. Take it in its highest sense, and then think of the deaths of Spinosa, of Robespierre, of Voltaire, whose motto of Ecrasz l'i * my pen shrinks from writing, of Julian, casting his blood into the air, and exclaiming with his dying voice, THOU HAST CONQUERED, O GALILEAN! and then say, with all the heart and soul, A pœnis inferi Libera nos, Domine! And now: Glory be to the FATHER, the LORD in Whom we make our boast; and to the SON, the Angel That tarrieth round about them that fear Him: and to the HOLY GHOST, Who is near unto them that are of a contrite heart; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

Collects.O GOD, Disposer of the Angels and of all creatures, send Ludolph. forth Thine Angel to tarry round about us, that we, being guarded by his protection, may be delivered from the most evil death of sin. Through (2.) A A 2 Let our soul bless Thee, O LORD, at all times, because that in Thy corrections Thy love is always present, while Thou both chastenest us with Thy discipline, and cherishest us with Thine indulgence; while by strengthening Thou healest us, and by healing Thou strengthenest us. Grant therefore that we, who have tasted Thy sweetness in faith, may receive Thy most full retribution in Thy pleasures. Amen. Through Thy mercy (11.) Redeem, O LORD, the souls of Thy servants, who do put their trust in Thee: grant of Thy clemency that we may find Thy blessing in adversity as well as in prosperity: and, because Thou art nigh to them that are of a contrite heart, open Thine ears to the spirit of our contrition, and let Thy peace, which passeth all understanding, keep our souls and bodies. Amen. Through (11.)

[O GOD, Who art gracious unto all, cause us to eschew evil and to do good. Grant that we may ever seek peace and ensue it, whereby, tasting and seeing Thy sweetness, we who trust in Thee, may, through Thy preventing mercy, obtain everlasting blessedness. Through (1.)]

TITLE: A Psalm of David. Vulgate: Ipsi David.

Argument.ARG. THOMAS. That CHRIST guards and defends us with spiritual arms. The voice of CHRIST to His FATHER in His Passion against the Jews. The voice also of the Church in Fasts and against the rage of devils. All the Psalm is spoken in the Person of CHRIST; and by CHRIST may be referred to all Psalms. Through the Fast. VEN. BEDE. The whole Psalm is said in the Person of CHRIST, Who seeketh to be freed from the persecution of His enemies: and since Ipsi is prefixed to His Name, none else of His members, but the Mediator Himself is set forth. Through all this Psalm it is the LORD CHRIST that speaks with respect to the dispensation by which He suffered. In the first part, He demandeth retribution against His adversaries; which words, nevertheless, will avail to their conversion. Plead Thou My cause. Next, He rejoiceth concerning His Resurrection; and upbraiding the Jews with their iniquities, expoundeth that which was done in His own Passion. And, my soul, be joyful in the Lord. Thirdly, He promiseth that, throughout the whole orb of the world, praise shall be rendered, by His own members, to the power of the FATHER, Who, by the benefit of His Resurrection hath delivered Him from His enemies; praying that the persecutors may be confounded, and the faithful may exult in great glory. So will I give Thee thanks in the great congregation.

EUSEBIUS. A supplication of the Righteous One, and a prophecy of CHRIST. ARABIC PSALTER. A prophecy concerning the Incarnation, and concerning those things which the people perpetrated against Jeremiah. S. JEROME. This Psalm contains the Sacrament of the LORD'S Passover, in which it is to be noted that the things which are spoken with humility, weeping, and lamentation, are not to be referred to the Divinity, but to the Flesh, which it assumed. He prayeth therefore to the LORD the FATHER, and saith.

Various Uses.Monastic. Monday: I. Nocturn.

Antiphons.Gregorian. Monastic. } Fight Thou * against them that fight against me. Parisian. When they were in trouble * I behaved myself as though it had been my friend or my brother. Ambrosian. Say unto my soul, * O LORD, I am thy salvation. Kyr. Kyr. Kyr. Mozarabic. Say unto my soul, O LORD, * I am thy salvation. 1 Plead thou my cause, O LORD, with them that strive with me : and fight thou against them that fight against me. This is the second of the Passion Psalms: the first being Psalm xxii. They notice that, as He was thirty-four years old according to the flesh when He entered on His Passion, so this Psalm comes rightly in order as xxxiv. (according to Western reckoning.) So highly did the African Church esteem it, that it was given to S. Augustine by his fellow Bishops to write a treatise on. Plead Thou my cause. It is a great spectacle, S. Augustine very nobly says, to see GOD armed on thy behalf. But armed He is for us, whenever in His strength we take the battle in hand with our inbred corruptions: whenever, for His truth's sake, we go forth to battle with the world. And then, "If GOD be for us, who can be against us?" Or, as it is in the Vulgate, Judge, O Lord, them that hurt me. As a patient sufferer said of old, when asked what was his greatest comfort in an overwhelming storm of calumny, "The LORD is Judge." As much as to imply that, let whatever judgment be passed upon him by men, a tribunal of perfect equity existed in the LORD's mountain. If we see in this verse, as the Master of Sentences does, the general cry of the saints to GOD, then it is a parallel text

A. with that prayer in the Apocalypse, "How long, O LORD, holy and true, dost Thou not avenge our blood?" But take it rather of the LORD Himself, in the last stage of mortal weakness, the ashy paleness of death stealing over His face, the drops of most precious Blood almost ceasing to fall from the wounded hands and feet,—that hour when, according to the belief of the Church, Satan made his last and fiercest assault on this spotless Lamb, as he will on us,—that hour when His own prophecy was fulfilled, "The Prince of this world cometh:" and then hear Him, knowing that the salvation of the world hung on His victory alone, that the misery or beatitude of all generations depended on His mighty arm, then stretched in weakness on the Cross, and fastened to it with dreadful nails,—hear Him cry to His FATHER and our FATHER, to His GOD and our GOD, Plead Thou My cause, O Lord, with them that strive with Me! It is well observed by Hugh of S. Victor, that the punishment of those

who secretly oppose the righteous is frequently reserved to the next life: Plead Thou: whereas open adversaries are openly crushed in this: Fight Thou. Here, once for all, it is well to quote S. Asterius's six reasons for imprecations like these in the Psalms. 1. The emendation of those against whom they are uttered. 2. That their punishment may be in this world, not the next. 3. That others may learn wisdom by their sufferings. 4. That our own existence may be freed from their plague and danger. 5. That others may be terrified, and fear to do the like. 6. That the triumph may not be given to unbelievers, of asking, Where is now their GOD? Venerable Bede understands the first clause of the Head, the second of the members: that strive with Me, namely, while our LORD still tabernacled on earth; that fight against Me, to the end of time, and after His Ascent to the FATHER.

Against them. And who are they? S. Albert well observes, that David had three principal enemies: Goliath, Saul, Absalom. Goliath, by the assent of all, is a type of Satan. Saul, which by interpretation is craving, signifies the flesh, which in very deed is ever craving. Absalom, which means The Father's Peace, is the world, which comes with a show of feigned peace in the hope of luring the soul. It is the same thing which Adam of S. Victor tells us: Caro, mundus, demonia, Diversa movent prælia: Incursu tot phantasmatum Turbatur cordis Sabbatum. The Sequence, Supernæ Matris gaudia.

2 Lay hand upon the shield and buckler : and stand up to help me.He has before asked for assistance: he now specifies the kind of assistance that he needs. Hugh of S. Victor says very well (with reference to the Vulgate, which has it, Apprehende arma et scutum); "We fight with arms, we are protected by a shield. For the world fights against the elect in a twofold manner: by word and by sword. The word of falsehood we overthrow by wisdom: the sword of adversity we resist by patience. Wisdom therefore forms the arms, patience the shield which we take. But why do we say to God, Lay hand upon the shield and buckler, unless because He, fighting in us, arms us against our adversaries? because, as we receive His gifts from Him, so without Him, we cannot use those gifts to our salvation?" Or we may take it mystically, of the Incarnation of our Blessed LORD. The arms, or sword, His blessed soul, which could not fulfil its entire purpose till drawn forth, so to speak, from the sheath of its body. The shield, that Body itself, exposed to so many blows, made of metal molten from the earth, glittering in the sun. And it was only by means of that Incarnation that the God, Who willeth not the death of a sinner, did really stand up to help us. And see again the likeness between the Head and the members. "Take unto you the whole armour of God," says S. Paul to the latter: Lay hand upon the shield and buckler, says David to the former. Because He, therefore you: no use in our girding ourselves with spiritual armour, unless He, in the first place, had girded it on Himself.

[As it is written in another place: "He shall take to Him His jealousy for complete armour, and make the creature His weapon for the revenge of His enemies. He shall put on righteousness as a breastplate, and true judgment instead of an helmet. He shall take holiness for an invincible shield, His severe wrath shall He sharpen for a sword." These are the weapons of which the Psalmist has need. But as the just, when made perfect, "shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks," so God too, when punishment is over, will change His complete armour of jealousy for the vestments of peace, the breastplate for the alb and rational, the helmet for a priestly mitre, the shield into the holiness of peace, wrath into lovingkindness.] S. Cyril. in loc. [The rational was a jewelled golden plate, engraved with Christian emblems, anciently worn by Bishops in imitation of

the breast-plate of the Jewish High Priest. It disappeared in the West about the fourteenth century.] 3 Bring forth the spear, and stop the way against them that persecute me : say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.

First, there is a difficulty in the meaning. Stop "the way," say both of our versions. Both the Italic and Vulgate, without finishing the sense, conclude adversus eos. But we will rather take it, Bring forth the spear and the bowstring: a translation which, I think, has some peculiar beauties of its own. If he spoke principally of defensive armour before, now he seems to turn to that which is offensive. For it is not enough to the Christian warrior only not to be conquered; he must in his turn assail. "Ye shall take them captives, whose captives ye were. "We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. And thus here, not only the spear, to attack in hand-to-hand conflict, but when the invading hosts of evil spirits have been put to flight, then the bowstring, still further to confuse and to overwhelm their rout. A most true signification; but, if you prefer the other interpretation, the commentators will tell you how shutting up the way is utter destruction; the victorious host behind, the hand of the LORD, an insurmountable barrier, stretched out before. Just as the men of Ai: "they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they smote them so that they let none of them remain, or escape. Just again as it was when the Angel stood before Baalam and his ass:

when "he went further and stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn, either to the right hand or to the left. Say unto my soul. "To say," with GOD, is the same thing as to do; and I have already explained why "He spoke," or "He said," is so often employed for "He did. Some would take My soul in the sense of "My earthly life: and then it becomes a figure for the LORD's Resurrection. That precious Body must indeed for a while be deprived of its proper life; but GOD the FATHER would still be with it, would still preserve it from corruption, would still be its salvation. Or, if we will, we may take the figure into our mouth, and address it to Him Who, "in that He hath suffered, is able also to succour. I am thy salvation. It is said in another place, "There is no help for him

The word or has generally been taken to mean, and stop, i.e. the way or the progress. But, as in the former verse we had "shield and buckler," so here we seem to want "spear and . . . ." some offensive kind of arms. Here the Arabic which means a nerve or string, comes in very well: and so we may translate it bowstring. I do not see that there is much force in the objection of Lorinus: "Cur Hebræorum Deum Hebræus Persicis armis David armaret?" [Modern critics translate the word as "battle-axe," comparing the Eastern term ἀἀγαρύς, found in Herodotus and Xenophon.] in his God." But he, whose hosts said so, is a liar, and the father of it; convicted of being so here. And there is an intimacy, and closeness, and dearness in that phrase, say unto my soul, which nothing else can express. "Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem," is the Prophet's command. "Speak to the heart of thy servants," says Joab to David. It is written of Hezekiah, before the great invasion of Sennacherib, that he "spoke to the heart" of the people. "I will allure her, and speak to her heart," says the LORD Himself of His Church. O Thou true David, thus speak Thou to us, when we are wearied out with the burden and heat of the day! O Thou true Hezekiah, thus encourage us, when the spiritual Assyrian draws nigh to besiege the citadel of our hearts, with all his hosts: and, save in Thee, we have no trust nor hope!

4 Let them be confounded, and put to shame, that seek after my soul: let them be turned back, and brought to confusion, that imagine mischief for me.

Notice this: how over and over again shame is spoken of as the portion of God's enemies. "Some to shame and everlasting contempt"—their final doom. And so in the Prophet: "Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded." And therefore it was that He endured such shame on the Cross. For we are sadly too apt to forget, in reading of the sufferings of martyrs, and of Him That is the Martyr of Martyrs, how great a part of that bitter cup was filled by shame. And well was it said by the Martyr-Archbishop on the scaffold: "JESTS despised the shame for me; and GOD forbid that I should not despise the shame for Him!" But there is no occasion to confine this passage of the Psalmist to an evil sense; it may be taken as a prayer that they may experience such salutary shame in this world, as not to be put to everlasting confusion in the next. That seek after my soul. But how is this, when in another place he complains with bitter grief, "No man sought after my soul?" Compare the two passages, and learn how slack are the efforts of those that seek after our souls for good, compared with the eagerness and perseverance of those that seek after it to destroy it. Put to shame. Well says S. Bernard, "What will be the confusion, what the shame, what the grief, when, in the sight of all, the turpitude of evil men shall be stripped bare, their ignominy revealed, their filth made manifest! When the sinner, then made immortal, shall be gnawed by the worm of internal conscience with all its malignity: shall be gnawed?—ay, consumed by it: and there shall be no place for dissimulation, nor hope of salvation."

S. Gregor. Naz. Apolog. i. A. S. Bernard. in Psalm. I. (xlix.) 21. A A 3 Ah! quem podéra crêr quando vivia Na sancta obediencia e justa vida, Que taes contas, e tal desconto havia Para a minima culpa commettida! Quão mal tamanho excesso tentavia Como arrisca a Graça ja perdida! Que preceito difficil e scabroso Não fôra facil, brando, e deleitoso! Seek after my soul. They ingeniously give the speech of the ancient monarch to the true King of Sodom: "Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself." 5 Let them be as the dust before the wind : and the angel of the LORD scattering them. 6 Let their way be dark and slippery : and let the angel of the LORD persecute them. L. The literal reference, no doubt, is to the Egyptians. Dust before the wind, when they said, but too late, Let us flee! their way, dark and slippery, is the plague of darkness. And notice the horror and magnificence of the vengeance, the Angel still further dispersing that which is already scattered by the wind: hurrying forward and pressing on (as the Vulgate well has it, coarctans) those who, had they time to be cautious, were yet in the extreme of danger. "A horrible way," says S. Augustine. "Darkness alone who feareth not? A slippery way alone who avoideth not? In a dark and slippery way how shall men go? where set foot?—These two ills are the great punishments of men—darkness, ignorance; a slippery way, luxury." They take slippery of the sin of impurity, because it is, so to speak, a sliding slope to every other crime: as David began with adultery and ended in murder. Solomon began with unbridled lust, and ended in idolatry. Whence notice how often, in her ferial hymns, the Western Church prays to be defended from every thing that is lubricum.

Ne fæda sit vel lubrica Compago nostri corporis; Per quam Averni ignibus Ipsi crememur acrius. And again— And again— And yet once more— But take these verses in their highest and noblest sense, as spoken by our Blessed LORD on the Cross. The darkness, the miraculous darkness of the Three Hours is passing off; and with it, their last effort being now all but over, their last battle being now all but lost, the host of evil spirits that have had their station all the weary time by that tree where the world's Salvation hung, are hastening off together into the abyss. There, as they hurry along, retreating with the retreating darkness, and pursued by those Heavenly Spirits who have kept watch by the Cross, "Let their way," exclaims the Man of Sorrows, now almost the LORD of Glory, "Let their way be dark and slippery, and the Angel of the Lord persecuting them."

[The loving and merciful temper of the great Western divines is well shown in Haymo of Halberstadt's explanation of this verse. He takes it of the conversion of sinners. Let them, says he, be lifted up from earthly things and raised towards heaven as easily as dust, by the rushing mighty wind of the Spirit of GOD, and let His Angel, whether a good one persuading, or an evil one terrifying, aid the work, compelling them (Vulg.), should they resist the Spirit, so that they may be converted, whether voluntarily or by compulsion, and that the way of sin, once bright and pleasant to them, may appear dark and perilous to them thenceforward.] S. Thomas à Villanová in loc. 7 For they have privily laid their net to destroy me without a cause: yea, even without a cause have they made a pit for my soul. And first notice the net and the pit: as if to show us that Satan has various kinds of temptations, answering to the characters whom he endeavours to destroy; just as some animals are taken by the snare, some by the pitfall. Cardinal Hugo notes the multitude of sins heaped up together in this one verse—malice in privily, or, as it is in the Vulgate, without reason; deceit in the net; cruelty in to destroy me: folly in without a cause; presumption in that it is done against my soul, which is committed to GOD, and is no longer under my own care. Net. That was a marvellous vision of S. Antony, in which he saw the whole world full of the snares of Satan: marvellous, and oh! how true!

This is one of the many instances of the marvellous depth of these ferial hymns—hymns which at first sight are considered dull, and which it requires some amount of study to appre- ciate. But, when appreciated, they claim a place infinitely above the best among the pretty (and they are extremely pretty) ferial hymns of the Parisian Church. Scilicet illa fuit spectri feralis imago Antoni celso vertice visa jugi : .Cum paruere oculi collecta sub unius ictum Omnia, quæ mundo dedita regna jacent. Omniaque hæc ingens obsepserat undique rete, Multaque furtivis stamina sparsa viis : Quisque suas fraudes—sensit sua vincula quisque ; Hic caput, ille pedes vinctus, et ille manus. Nets. And so they were in our dear LORD's pilgrimage. The Herodians had their net—the lawfulness of giving tribute to Cæsar—the lawyer his, Who is my neighbour? the Sadducees theirs, In the Resurrection, whose wife shall she be? But the deadliest net of all was the stone and the seal, and the quaternion of soldiers to keep guard. "Pilate saith unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure AS YE CAN." Oh bitter irony, more biting and poignant than ever was irony yet! Without a cause. "For what more without a cause," says Cassiodorus, "than this, to turn those very words to a crime and a reproach which were spoken for salvation?"

8 Let a sudden destruction come upon him unawares, and his net, that he hath laid privily, catch himself: that he may fall into his own mischief. Origen. in Cant. ii. 9. Here is another instance of that which I shall have occasion to mention hereafter, the mixture of singular and plural in reference to the enemies of David. "They have privily laid their net—without a cause have they made a pit;" and now, Let a sudden destruction come upon him unawares. S. Paulinus tells us, "All the figure of this world which passeth away, and by the eyes allureth the heart, is spread with diabolical nets. Let us believe the Prophet, that we walk in the midst of gins and amongst swords." Origen long before had understood a verse of the Canticles in a similar way. Where we and the Vulgate read it, "Showing himself through the lattice," that commentator interpreted it, "having broken through and peering out from the nets which Satan has flung all round the world." And truly at length Satan was caught in his own mischief; when, endeavouring to destroy the preacher of truth, he made manifest the Divinity of JESUS CHRIST.

[And so Adam of S. Victor: The Sequence, Salve dies dierum gloria. Prædo vorax, monstrum tartareum, Carnem videns, nec cavens laqueum, In latentem ruens aculeum, Aduncatur.] 9 And, my soul, be joyful in the LORD: it shall rejoice in his salvation. 10 All my bones shall say, LORD, who is like unto thee, who deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him : yea, the poor, and him that is in misery, from him that spoileth him ? They observe on the likeness there is between this verse and the commencement of the Magnificat. And rightly. When the net of Satan has come on himself, then is the time that the exceeding and eternal weight of glory begins for our LORD ; that when that net has been broken on Mount Calvary, then follows the glorious Ascension from Mount Olivet. And the expression is not without its own force, All my bones shall say. For the prophecy went long before that " a bone of Him shall not be broken :" and thus, remaining unbroken when those of the thieves were broken, they may well here be represented as praising the love and faithfulness of GOD. Lord, who is like unto Thee ? We may well say with Augustine, " It is better to use these words than to endeavour to explain them." It is the question whence the archangel Michael derives his name : so the old hymn :

A. Ut Deus quis ? sonat Michael ; Ut fortis ! tonat Gabriel ; Salutis dona Raphael ; Laudatur his Emmanuel.

And they go through the titles which our LORD claims to Himself, " The LORD is our Judge, the LORD is our Lawgiver, the LORD is our King," and ask the question as S. Gregory does, looking at the different judges, and lawgivers, and kings raised up for GOD's people. Lord, who is like unto Thee, Who deliverest the poor ? They take it with one accord of this poor human nature of ours ; so weak in itself, so subject in the best to be led astray, so destitute of all good gifts which may make it acceptable to GOD. From him that is too strong for him. And so the great poet of the Eastern Church, Joseph of the Studium, exclaims very well in one of his Lent hymns : " O my soul, how canst thou go forth to battle with thy spiritual enemy ? with what armour canst thou gird thyself ? what troops hast thou to fight 'on thy behalf ? where are even thy ten thousand to oppose him that cometh against thee with twenty thousand ? If thou hast to struggle against principalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, in whom canst thou place thy dependence save in Him only Who is King of Kings and LORD of Lords ?" And notice this : in the first clause the poor only is mentioned ; in the second, both the poor and him that is in misery. Why is this ? Because in the first he refers to our LORD's life upon earth ; in the second, to the time when He Himself has been received up into heaven, and the Church is left to carry on her warfare alone. But still it is, the poor and him that

Idiomelon, Thursday in the third week of the Fast. is in misery: the poor, for He is the poor King even yet, coming among us so humbly as He does under the form of bread and wine. And yet He suffers in the sufferings of the Church that is in misery: "In all their afflictions He was afflicted;" "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" Or others, taking the three words as they stand in the Vulgate, inops, egens, pauper, see in the first a poverty of grace; in the second, a poverty of means to serve GOD; in the third, a poverty of happiness. And all these needs, as they truly say, are supplied by GOD; Who says to the first, "My grace is sufficient for thee;" Who in the second rewarded him that had the two talents equally in proportion with him that had the five; and Who comforts the third by declaring that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed.

11 False witnesses did rise up: they laid to my charge things that I knew not. 12 They rewarded me evil for good: to the great discomfort of my soul. The type speaks of the Antitype, David of the Son of David. We know how false witnesses rose up against David while he was in the courts of Saul, while he was in the wilderness, while he was in the land of the Philistines: "It is told me that he dealth very subtilly." But more truly still this verse sets before us the judgment-seat of Caiaphas, when the witnesses, quoting the LORD's words, perverted His meaning, and yet even so did not agree together. They take the opportunity of entering at length with S. Jerome into the reason why these witnesses, who in one sense said what was true, are yet called false witnesses; and how they fell short in their credibility of the conditions required to make testimony valid, as given in the old verses:

Et fortuna, fides; in testibus ista requires. To the great discomfort: or as it is even still more strongly in the Vulgate, the sterility of my soul. As much as to say, speaking after the manner of men, it was impossible that a heart so ungratefully outraged should bring forth any fruit of kindness towards them that had thus dealt towards it. "Many good works have I showed you from My FATHER; for which of these works do ye stone Me?" Evil for good. It is on this that that most touching hymn of the Church, the Improperia on Good Friday, entirely turns. They are too well known to need quotation here: but take a few stanzas from the cognate hymn, which will make the best commentary on our verse: O popule mi, quid merui? In quo te contristavi? Nonne quibus debui Bonis te amavi? Tu pauculis argenteis Me hosti vendidisti; Et ut scurram, olleis Regem providisti.

Tu sommatis et colaphis Hanc curam rependisti, Probris tu me pluribus Captum affecisti. 13 Nevertheless, when they were sick, I put on sackcloth, and humbled my soul with fasting: and my prayer shall turn into mine own bosom. When they were sick, even as the world was sick to death all those four thousand years before the LORD'S Advent. Eusebius in loc. I put on sackcloth. Namely, the sackcloth, the poor, rough, unsightly habiliments of human nature. Or they take it in another sense: as sackcloth is made of skins of goats, and a goat is the symbol of wickedness, so our LORD clad Himself with the appearance of our sins, just as Jacob put on the skin of the goat before he went in to his father Isaac. With fasting. How with fasting, the forty days in the wilderness may tell. But observe this, that after the Son of Man had entered on His ministry, thenceforth He came eating and drinking. And herein is their mistake who, comparing the ascetic life of S. John Baptist with the secular life—to use the word in its secular sense—of our LORD, thence argue, that, as what He did must needs be most perfect, the worldly

A Anon. in Catena Barbari.

life is higher in GOD's account than that which would avoid the world. But they forget that our Blessed LORD came to be a pattern of both lives; and that for thirty years of the one He was pleased to undergo but three years of the other; whence their own argument is turned the other way. It is not altogether without its beauty, the explanation which would refer to the closing act of the sickness of the world; when the LORD humbled His soul with fasting at the time that they gave Him vinegar mingled with myrrh, and when He had tasted thereof He would not drink; and in those very hours it was that He may be said to have put on sackcloth, when there was darkness over all the world, as it is written, "I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. When they were sick: it is in the Vulgate, Cum mihi molesti essent,—When they were troublesome unto me. And hence they take occasion to dwell on the meekness and patience of Him that could so speak; that so characterised all the cruelty and malice of the Jews. And they observe, again, how, by the times when the LORD, during His public ministry, vouchsafed for the moment to fast, He taught some marvellous truths. When He was athirst and sat by the well, He said for the first time plainly, "I that speak unto thee am He.

When He came and sought figs on the barren fig-tree and found none, He gave His disciples, and through them the Church, the unbounded gift of miracles. My prayer shall turn into mine own bosom. They take it of the elect, who may be said, like the disciple whom JESUS loved, to lie in His bosom. "I pray for them; I pray not for the world, but for them whom Thou hast given Me. And this is a better interpretation than that of Eusebius, who will have it to mean, that, had our LORD's Prayer ascended to the FATHER, it must infallibly have been heard for the Jews; but their iniquities weighed it down, so to speak, prevented its rising, forced it to return to the place from whence it came. Or if we look away from the Master to the servants, we may take it in the sense of our LORD's saying, "If the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it; but if not, it shall turn to you again. The Cardinal John Vitalis, who wrote a very useful compendium of this Psalm, rightly gathers from these verses that there are four things necessary in order that a fast should be acceptable to GOD. 1. True contrition: I wept and chastened myself with fasting. 2. Earnest devotion: My prayer shall turn, &c.,—that is, My prayer having ascended to the throne of GOD, shall come back to me, fraught with all the good things for which it was sent. 3. Kindness to others:

in the next verse. 4. Severity to oneself: I put on sackcloth.

14 I behaved myself as though it had been my friend, or my brother: I went heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother. And they compare our LORD's own, "How often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings!" They refer, too, to the kiss with which, according to tradition, it was the custom of the SAVIOUR to greet His disciples at their going out and at their return: whence Judas' sign. I behaved Myself as though it had been My friend. "JESUS saith unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come?" The Vulgate gives the latter clause of the verse differently: as one that grieveth and goeth in sorrow, so was I humbled. And S. Jerome translates it, As one for whom his mother mourneth. I went heavily. When else, but in the journey in the Via Dolorosa, when the fire of GOD'S wrath was kindled already, when the wood of the Cross was prepared, and the patient Lamb bare the one on His shoulder, and endured the other in His very heart? I behaved Myself as though it had been My brother. For this our True Joseph did indeed, when He beheld His brethren, lost in sin, led away captive by Satan, weep over them; so that all the house of the true Pharaoh, the blessed Angels heard.

15 But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together: yea, the very abjects came together against me unawares, making mouths at me, and ceased not. Marvellous prophecy of the Cross! second only—if indeed second—to that in the 22nd Psalm. Still closer to the history, if we take the Vulgate: The scourges were gathered together upon Me. Even so, O LORD JESU, the ploughers ploughed upon Thy back, and made long furrows: precious furrows for us, where are sown patience for the present life, and glory in the next; where are sown hope that maketh not ashamed, and love that many waters cannot quench. The very abjects. Even those worst of abjects, who said, "GOD, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are;" who had set the poor sinner before the LORD with their "Moses in the Law commanded that such should be stoned." Making mouths at Me. And is it not wonderful that, well knowing this prophecy, yet the Chief Priests and Scribes should have so fulfilled it, as that it should be written concerning them, "They that passed by mocked Him, wagging their heads?" The Vulgate gives the latter part: they were scattered, and turned not to repentance. And so indeed their devices were scattered: their devices of mockery, the reed, the purple robe, the title, turned into the proclamation of the True King; their seal and quaternion of soldiers made the means of more gloriously attesting the verity of His Resurrection. And yet, most surely, they were not turned to repentance: for as soon as the soldiers brought tidings of that greatest of miracles, they were ready with their bribe and their precon-

Caten. Aur. in loc. certed lie. Or, take it of the Church, and then most truly is it written, gathered themselves together. For what kind of torture, what species of ignominy was not put in force against those valiant soldiers of JESUS CHRIST? The very abjects. Such as those Roman Emperors who wallowed in the deepest abysses of unspeakable impurity,—who spent their lives in inventing new sins, of whose doings even that awful first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans is but the faint shadow: and it needs to penetrate the horrors of the great Sixth Satire to comprehend somewhat of the real state of the heathen world when the LORD came. 16 With the flatterers were busy mockers: who gnashed upon me with their teeth.

The flatterers. "Master, we know that Thou art true, and teachest the way of GOD in truth." Who gnashed. As when they led Him to the Mount of Precipitation to cast Him down therefrom; as when they cried out, "Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him!" For thus this "Morning Hind" was given over to the cruel dogs, who first gnashed and ground those teeth with which they were afterwards to tear the innocent Victim in pieces. Gnash now your teeth against Him, O remorseless Jews! The time shall come when ye shall gnash them for yourselves; when, not before the judgment-seat, not in the Pavement, not around the Cross, but in the outer darkness, but in the truer Tophet, but in the abode of Satan, there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth! And so it is written in the Prophets, "All Thine enemies have opened their mouth against Thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth." And still the LORD says to them, as to the hosts of another Sennacherib, "Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel."

Vid. in Ps. xxii. titul. 17 LORD, how long wilt thou look upon this: O deliver my soul from the calamities which they bring on me, and my darling from the lions.

How long? "He asks," says one, "out of sympathy with human weakness, and to manifest Himself True Man; for long and short are not the terms of Him, with Whom one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. Deliver. Or, as the Vulgate has it much more strikingly, Restore. And then, as it was the prayer of the LORD, so it may well be the supplication of all His members, now going down into the valley of the shadow of death. The calamities. All those, when fearfulness and trembling come upon us, and an horrible dread hath overwhelmed us. Which they bring on Me: they, that terrible THEY, of whom we read in the Parable, "This night shall THEY require thy soul of thee. My darling. O bitter irony, if applied to the larger number of those who profess and call themselves Christians! The soul their darling! when they might have addressed it over and over again in those fearful words of the great Portuguese preacher, "My soul, I know well that I am slaying thee and damning thee now; but if at this present moment I murder thee by my sin, by my repentance I intend, at some future time, to raise thee up again. This their darling! which they neglect, endanger, mislead all their life, and then only, when they draw near to the gates of death, begin to cry out, "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

Some, putting these words in the LORD's mouth, will understand them of His Body: dear indeed, precious indeed, raged at indeed by many lions, so mangled on the Cross, so marred more than any man, so torn with the scourge, so defiled with the spitting. Or, again, in another sense we may take the words to ourselves, and pray that our darling, while there is yet time, may be restored from the spiritual lion, who goeth about, seeking whom he may devour, and into whose power we have so often fallen.

A. 18 So will I give thee thanks in the great congregation: I will praise thee among much people. What congregation, save the great multitude that no man can number, out of every nation, and kindred, and people, and tongue? Then were the LORD's thanks rendered to His FATHER and our FATHER, to His GOD and our GOD, when, returning victorious,—when, leading captivity captive,—when, having smitten the gates of brass, and broken the bars of iron in sunder,—when, having left that most dear promise to the Church, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,"—He sat down at the Right Hand of the FATHER, from thenceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool. And see how clearly He distinguishes between the Church Triumphant and the Church Militant. O great congregation indeed, verily great, verily glorious, whither "the tribes go up, even the tribes of the LORD, to testify unto Israel, to give thanks unto the Name of the LORD!" And the much people are the earthly followers of the Lamb, not yet before the throne, but already washing their robes, and making them white in His Blood. It is, both in the LXX. and the Vulgate, I will praise Thee among the heavy people. The people, that is, as yet weighed down by the

A sermon on the text, Jam amplius noli peccare. The writer knows not, in the whole history of sermons, any such magnificent specimen of denunciatory elo- quence as this: no, nor anything worthy of being called second to it. It was preached at Bahia, in the Lent of 1640. A. burden of their sins: oppressed with many sorrows; not as yet able to lay aside every weight, though endeavouring to run with patience the race that is set before them. Others, however, take heavy in the sense of earnest, staid, sober; the reverse of the waverer, unstable in all his ways. So S. Augustine: "In a weighty people, which the wind of temptation carries not away, in such is GOD praised; for in the chaff He is ever blasphemed." S. Thomas gives both explanations. 19 O let not them that are mine enemies triumph over me ungodly: neither let them wink with their eyes that hate me without a cause.

As for a while they did with regard to the Head,—the whole of that "next day that followed, the Day of Preparation;" when it was continually, "That Deceiver, while He was yet alive." So, once more, was it, when Diocletian and his fellows reared up the pillar which proclaimed the absolute destruction of the Nazarite worship: so those coins, which carry down the supposed triumph to this very day. And it shall be so yet once more, a triumph for the time most perfect of all, when, the Two Witnesses having been now slain, "they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts to one another." That hate Me without a cause. We have our LORD's own authority to apply the words to Himself; the HOLY GHOST here, as in so many other places, teaching us that the mystical system of interpretation is His own. "But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated Me without a cause."

20 And why? their communing is not for peace: but they imagine deceitful words against them that are quiet in the land. Through the very common confusion between the negative and the pronoun, the LXX. and the Vulgate have it, They spake peace to Me, which seems better in accordance with the guile mentioned in the other verses. And even thus, O LORD JESUS, Judas spake peace to Thee, when, in the darkness of that night, he drew nigh to Thee with his Hail, Master! Even thus also do they now speak peace, who give Thee that most unrighteous kiss, when they receive that most precious Body and drink Thy Blood unworthily! The latter part of Gravitas quandoque sumitur in bono, quandoque in malo. And hence Dionysius the Carthusian well takes occasion to say, "Quidam vero nimis literaliter exponit hunc librum Psalmorum. Nam non solum Psalmum præsentem, sed et alios plurimos Psalmos, qui manifeste loquuntur de Christo et ejus Passione atque mysteriis, exponit ad literam de David."

the clause is very obscure in the Vulgate. And while they spake in the wrath of the earth they imagined deceit. Some take this to mean, "while they spake in wrath about earthly things;" as when the Jews said, "The Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation." Other some, "While they spake in concealed wrath." But He—if we follow our own version—was indeed quiet in the land, Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not: He was quiet Who, when the two Apostles would have called down fire from heaven, rebuked them with, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of." 21 They gaped upon me with their mouths, and said: Fie on thee, fie on thee, we saw it with our eyes.

And how better might the verse be quoted than here: "Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel. When they stood round Him on the pavement, when they gathered about Him on the Cross, this, Whom they smote with the palms of their hands,—as the Eastern Church says,—"was He Who, when He laid His hands on the sick, cured them in a moment; this, Whom they defiled with their filthy spittings, was He Who, when He had made clay of the spittle, gave sight to the blind; this, Whom they tormented with a crown of thorns, was He Who hath crowned the heavens with a diadem of stars; this, Whom they clad in a purple robe, He Who yearly spreads over the earth the green beauty of spring. Fie on Thee! Fie on Thee! It is the same interjection of malicious joy that they used when the LORD of all hung on the Cross: "Ah, Thou that destroyest the temple! And here, in the mystical sense, they take the saying of the Prophet, "Thou shouldst not have looked on the day of thy Brother in the day when He became a Stranger: a Stranger, that is, from His FATHER, because of the weight of our sins: shouldst not so have looked: shouldst have looked as the Israelites to the Brazen Serpent, as it is written, "Look unto Me, and be ye saved. We have seen it with our eyes:

the day for which they longed: the day when the Son of Man was delivered into the hands of sinners: the day when the Scriptures should be fulfilled, that thus it must be. Or they take it, even more strikingly, of the just man, falling seven times a day, and when rising, assaulted by the legion of evil spirits that keep watch over him with their "Fie on thee! fie on thee! we saw it! Yet be of good courage, O follower of the Crucified! that which they say of thee, with more or less reason, they said of Him without any cause; and He allowed them to say it to the very end, that He might take on Himself the burden

Friday of the Holy Alex. in loc. of thy sins. And this is that which is written by the prophet, "All Thine enemies have opened their mouth against Thee; they hiss and gnash their teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it." And now as they thus stood by the Cross was that accomplished which was written by the Prophet, "Mine heritage is unto Me as a lion in the forest: it crieth out against Me: therefore have I hated it." 22 This thou hast seen, O LORD: hold not thy tongue then, go not far from me, O LORD. 23 Awake, and stand up to judge my quarrel: avenge thou my cause, my GOD, and my LORD. 24 Judge me, O LORD my GOD, according to thy righteousness: and let them not triumph over me.

"We saw it with our eyes,"—Thou hast seen: and oh, how differently! They saw the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief in the last agonies of earthly existence; He saw the mighty GOD, the Everlasting FATHER, the Prince of Peace, opening the kingdom of heaven to all believers. They saw their desires accomplished, their Victim in the toils, their hate satisfied: He saw them speaking great swelling words against the Most High. And so still those evil spirits see our falls, that they may have wherewithal to accuse us: that, when we stand before the Judgment-seat of GOD, Satan may stand at our right hand to resist us. He sees them that He may pity them; sees us, that He may lift us up from them; sees us, that He may encourage us against them. And notice here how the promise of CHRIST, and the work of CHRIST in us and by us, have given us now a claim on GOD's mercy, as well as on His justice; how, in the strictest sense, we have "right to the Tree of Life."

We hence he fears not to say, Judge me, O Lord, according to Thy righteousness. Yet not barely so: he puts in one expression, by which he shows under what aspect he desires them to be tried: Judge me, O Lord my God, because His SON is my ransom; and since His SON is my ransom, therefore my cause goes no longer by mercy alone, but by justice also. There is another reading, Judge Me according to My righteousness, which indeed applies admirably to the SON of GOD. "For," says the great Carmelite expositor, "it is with merit and reward as it is with ascending and descending water. The law of water is that it will ascend as high as it has descended. Thus the LORD for our sakes was abject below all other men; made a contempt to them; trampled under their feet: wherefore now, according to His humanity, He is exalted far above all things, both that are in heaven and in earth,—exalted according to the righteousness of the FATHER'S promise, exalted according to the merit of His own humiliation."

25 Let them not say in their hearts, There, there, so would we have it : neither let them say, We have devoured him. 26 Let them be put to confusion and shame together, that rejoice at my trouble : let them be clothed with rebuke and dishonour, that boast themselves against me. We have devoured him. It is a bold saying of Augustine, but a very true one : "The world seeks to swallow thee up : do thou then boldly slay it, and devour it instead. Cut it in pieces, grind it down : as it was said to Peter, 'Kill, and eat :' do thou kill in them what they are ; make them that which thou art. Therefore, perhaps, that calf, being ground to powder, was cast into the water and given to the children of Israel to drink, that so the body of ungodliness might be swallowed up by Israel." Let them be put to confusion. See what is said on verse 4 of this same Psalm.

[Clothed with rebuke and dishonour. This, remarks Origen, is the vesture which Satan gives to them who are baptized into him, whereas those who have put on CHRIST in Baptism are clothed with righteousness and wisdom.] 27 Let them be glad and rejoice, that favour my righteous dealing : yea, let them say alway, Blessed be the LORD, who hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. 28 And as for my tongue, it shall be talking of thy righteousness : and of thy praise all the day long.

That favour My righteous dealing. It is the LORD That speaks ; but how are His words to be taken ? That desire My righteousness, it is in the Vulgate : whence they understand it of such as attribute all they have done of good, or endured of ill, to no merit or power of their own, but to His merit and power, Who of GOD is made unto us Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification, and Redemption. Others take it, That so desire My righteousness, as to imitate it, to tread in My footsteps, to keep Me always before them. Or, again : that so favour My righteous dealing, as to stand on My side in the great battle with Satan. It is as if the LORD, returning from the slaughter of His adversaries, looks up to us as that conqueror of old time with His,—"Who is on My side ? who ? Of His servant. Even as it is written, "Behold, My servant shall deal prudently ; He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. His Servant, and ours too; for what is there that this good and faithful Servant doth not for us? He ministers to our infirmities; He spreads His own banquet for us; He bears our sicknesses and weaknesses for us: because man will not serve GOD, therefore GOD shall serve man,—shall be obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. In the prosperity.

Or as it is in the Vulgate, Let them say alway, Let the Lord be magnified, who desire (not desireth) the peace of His Servant. That is, who long for the full acquisition of that most precious of all legacies, "Peace I leave you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth give I unto you; who desire this peace,—this, and none other; no peace with the world, no peace with Satan; war to the end with them: but still peace, the earnest and foretaste of that perfect peace which is only to be found in Jerusalem, the Vision of Peace. And thus notice the two clauses: the one of this world, As for my tongue, it shall be talking of Thy righteousness; the other of the next world, and of Thy praise all the day long. All the day, the eternal day; the

the the day of the happy ones; the day that hath no need of the sun to give it light, or to mark out its hours; for the LORD GOD doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the Light thereof; neither has it any hours, any lapse of time, any beginning nor ending, any morn, nor any eve. Or we may take it of the earthly day, if we will; and then Augustine will tell us, in a noble passage, how to keep up this continual praise. "And whose tongue endureth to speak the praise of GOD all the day long? See, now, I have made a discourse something longer than my wont, and ye are wearied. I will suggest a remedy, whereby thou mayest praise GOD all the day long, if thou wilt. Whatever thou doest, do well, and thou hast praised GOD. When thou singest a hymn, thou praisest GOD; but to what advantage thy tongue, unless thy heart also praise Him? Hast thou ceased from singing hymns, and departed, that thou mayest refresh thyself? Be not intemperate, and thou hast praised GOD. Dost thou go away to sleep? Rise to do no evil, and thou hast praised GOD. Dost thou transact business? Do no wrong, and thou hast praised GOD. Dost thou till thy field? Raise not strife, and thou hast praised GOD. In the innocency of thy works prepare thyself to praise GOD all the day long."

And therefore: Glory be to the FATHER, Who hath pleasure in the prosperity of His Servant; and to the SON, against Whom false witnesses did rise up, laying to His charge things that He A. knew not; and to the HOLY GHOST, Who pleadeth our cause; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

Collects.O GOD, our Salvation and Protection, arm us with the helmet of hope, and with the shield of Thy glorious defence, that we, being helped by Thee in all time of our necessity, may merit to enter into the joy of them that love Thee. Through (2.) CHRIST, the SON of GOD, Who wast not terrified when Thine adversaries, like roaring lions, gnashed their teeth at Thee, but with singular patience didst endure all their ragings; we beseech Thee to restore our souls by penitence to Thyself, that we, constantly following Thine example, may not by yielding to anger fall into Thy condemnation, but, by the pattern of Thy long-suffering, may be rendered gentle to all. Amen. Through (11.) O LORD, Who didst of old time suffer in our body, when wilt Thou look upon us? when wilt Thou turn the eyes of Thy clemency to our groans and distress? Delay not, tarry not; now draw nigh; now be Thou turned; now regard us, that our prayer, which now, by reason of our secret sins, returns back again into our own bosom, may, by the abundance of Thy mercy, enter into Thy Presence, and be accepted by Thee. Amen. Through (11.)

Lay hold, O LORD JESU CHRIST, of Thy victorious arms, and stand up to avenge the quarrel of Thine heritage, redeemed by Thine own precious Blood: guard us with the shield of faith, that the fiery darts of the enemy may not be able to hurt us; and with the weapons of Thy might beat down, O King of Glory, the Enemy himself: and, because Thou art the Salvation of our souls, grant that we, laying aside all the load of sin, may attain to the blessings of Thy promises. Amen. Through (11.) [Judge, O LORD, them that hurt us, and fight Thou against them that fight against us, that as Thou wast Thyself attacked in our body, so Thou mayest make us invincible, abiding in Thy body. Through (11.) O GOD, strong and mighty, lay hold of the shield and buckler, and stand up to help us against them that fight with us, and defend in all places our weakness from their malice, that being glad and rejoicing in Thee, we may alway securely magnify Thee, and sing praises unto Thee all the day long of eternity. Through (1.)]

TITLE: To the Chief Musician: A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD. (To the Supreme. By the LORD's servant, David.)

Argument.ARG. THOMAS. That CHRIST is the Fountain of Light, and Eternal Life. The prophet, together with the praise of GOD, speaks of the works of Judah, and it is an accusation of his concerning the Jewish people.—Of lamentations. VEN. BEDE. (In the Title.) Take, then, The servant of the Lord, in no other sense than of Him, Who, being in the form of GOD, took upon Him the form of a Servant, and became obedient even unto death. The whole Psalm is said in the person of the Prophet. In its beginning he vehemently accuseth the despisers of the Law, and saith that they have no portion with GOD, commemorating also their wicked designs. Next, still praising GOD, he describeth the gifts that are bestowed as the reward of His servants, and saith that they are filled with the plenteousness of the House of the LORD; and this Psalm is briefly concluded with the destruction of the wicked.

SYRIAC PSALTER. Of David, when Saul was pursuing him. But to us a rebuke of our enemies, and a discourse concerning the Godhead. S. JEROME. This Psalm points out the person of the ungodly, rebukes his pride, shows the Fountain of Eternal Light.

Various Uses.Ambrosian. Wednesday of the First Week: II. Nocturn.

Antiphons.Gregorian. As Psalm xxxv. Parisian. Under the covering * of Thy wings shall they put their trust, O LORD; and with the torrent of Thy pleasure shalt Thou give them to drink. Ambrosian. As the last. Mozarabic. In Thy Light, O GOD, we shall see light. Quignon. With Thee * is the Well of Life; and in Thy light shall we see light. 1 My heart showeth me the wickedness of the ungodly: that there is no fear of GOD before his eyes. The last Psalm ends, "that have pleasure in the prosperity of His servants." Therefore, as if with reference to that, rightly does the title of this say, A Psalm of the servant of the Lord, David. This is the only Psalm which is said to be written by a servant of the Lord. That which comes nearest is the title given to Moses, as the composer of the 90th, namely, the Man of God. Some will have the reason this: that, as the Psalm especially describes the character, so it should be written in the person, of a servant of God.

The Vulgate reads differently: The unrighteous hath said, to the end he may commit sin in himself, There is no fear, &c. And others desire to read, instead of my heart, his heart—a most needless correction. For so it is. My heart—let it be the true servant of God that speaks—does indeed show me the wickedness of the ungodly. That is, the motions of sin within me—the thoughts injected into my mind by Satan, my numberless falls—all these things show me that, were it not for the redeeming and upholding grace of God, any wickedness that the ungodly now does, I might be doing myself. "Who maketh thee to differ from another? or what hast thou that thou hast not received? From studying myself, I know him. From my own wickedness, however in me chained and kept under, I can judge and feel for his. It is a bold but true figure of S. Gregory Nyssen, that, where there is no fear of God to restrain, the devil holds a festal dance with sin. But, on the other hand, Tertullian writes: Where is God, there is the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom; there is the fear of God, there is honest gravity, and anxious diligence, and solicitous care, and deliberate communication, and religious subjection, and an united Church, and all things God's. The unrighteous said. The great Carmelite expositor here dwells, after S. Gregory, at some length, on the four exhaustive divisions of all human words. What is ill said ill: what is well said well;

what is well said ill: what is ill said well. Ill said ill: as, "Let us crown ourselves with roses before they be withered; let no flower of the summer pass us by. Well said well: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Well said ill: as the Pharisees to the man born blind, Be thou His disciple. Ill said well: as when the Apostle exhorts: Let him that stole steal no more. Honorius of Autun says very well, that the Psalm is divided between the two nations—the people of sinners—here, My heart showeth me the ungodly; the people of the righteous, further on: O LORD, Thy mercy is in heaven, and Thy truth reacheth unto the clouds.

A. I know not whence Ayguan has the title which he tells us that some prefix to this Psalm: "For victory: the word of the Lord: of David, or to David." 2 For he flattereth himself in his own sight : until his abominable sin be found out. Eusebius in loc.

And we are carried in thought to that place and that day, when "He stooped down, and with His finger wrote on the ground, as though He heard them not." To the end that his iniquity may be found out to hatred, it is in the Vulgate. And they well warn us here what is that danger: he flattereth himself in his own sight. O most miserable state of that man who is given over to sin, and yet thinks himself righteous! who has internal peace, only because he has no world, Satan, self, to strive withal! Be found out. It may be, not in this world, but in that Day of Days when the secret of all hearts shall be made manifest. He flattereth himself. It was the very first attitude of men. "The woman, whom Thou gavest to be with me." "The serpent beguiled me." Where note: these two, because mercy was in store for them, were questioned as to their sins: "Hast thou eaten?" "What is this that thou hast done?" Only to the serpent, for the reason that no place was left to him for repentance, it is said at once, "Because thou hast done this." Here once more I have occasion to repeat, how the Saints who commented in early and middle ages on the Psalms, seem, as if by instinct, to have avoided dwelling on such a verse as this. Was it that they realized too deeply what that finding out of sin really was? that they could image to themselves in more terrible strength than words can express what is the second death?

3 The words of his mouth are unrighteous, and full of deceit : he hath left off to behave himself wisely, and to do good. 4 He imagineth mischief upon his bed, and hath set himself in no good way : neither doth he abhor anything that is evil. S. Thomas deVillanovâ, i. 327.

And there notice another prophecy of Baptismal Grace. He hath left off. Left off? Then he had once begun. And so he had. If not in fact, yet in possibility; if not actually, yet potentially. He had the glorious and whole "first robe: he hath flung it aside, preferring the fig-leaves of flattery and false excuses to the garment by and in which he put on JESUS CHRIST at the first. On his bed. For observe, Satan's servants find not the whole day long enough for his work. They give up the night to it also. They that call themselves followers of the LORD, how do they weary even in the twelve hours of the day, wherein a man may work, and will not encroach on their own rest to do His labour. He hath set himself, which implies a certain amount of resolution and will. GOD'S SPIRIT will not always strive with man, but it will for a while; and he that will not fight the good fight of faith, he that will not resist Satan, he must sometimes battle against the Paraclete; even as said S. Stephen, "Ye do alway resist the HOLY GHOST, as your fathers did, so do ye. Neither doth he abhor. And, if he doth not abhor, he cannot fight: and if he doth not fight, how can he be crowned? Anything that is evil. And so is one of those of whom S. Paulinus speaks, to whom "that is sweet, which is bitter; that is polluted which is chaste;

that is hostile which is holy. Further notice this; how thought, word, and deed are here expressed. Thought—he imagineth mischief; word—the words of his mouth are unrighteous; deed—hath set himself in no good way. Upon his bed. Beautifully S. Augustine: "Our bed is our heart: there we suffer the stings of our evil conscience, and there we rest when our conscience is good. There is our bed, where the LORD JESUS CHRIST commands us to pray. 'Enter into thy chamber, and shut thy door.' What is, Shut thy door? Expect not from GOD such as are without; but such things as are within. Most diligently does Ayguan follow up the Scriptural expressions concerning a bed, and tell us that there are six different beds of wickedness—that of luxury; that of avarice; of ambition; of greediness; of torpor; and of cruelty; and he illustrates them all by examples from Scripture.

5 Thy mercy, O Lord, reacheth unto the heavens: and thy faithfulness unto the clouds. 6 Thy righteousness standeth like the strong mountains: thy judgments are like the great deep. 7 Thou, Lord, shalt save both man and beast;... The Eastern commentators see in the former part of these verses a description of those various gifts which the HOLY GHOST bestows on the Church. The heavens: the Apostles (see what I have said on this almost universal symbolism at the beginning of the 19th Psalm.) The clouds: the prophets, who darkly and enigmatically transmit the truth, even as those earthly vapours the rays of the Sun. The strong mountains: the most ancient of GOD'S Saints. The great deep: the abyss of Wisdom and Love contained in the Holy Scripture. Man and beast: the Jew and Gentile. And the epithets or phrases attached to each will tally with these interpretations. Thy mercy. For where can it be better set forth than in the great words of one of those Heavens? "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that CHRIST JESUS came into the world to save sinners." Thy faithfulness. For, of all those prophecies, which has not been fulfilled? And so of the rest. S. Bernard will rather see in the first verse a prophecy of the Incarnation; the mercy which devised the plan in heaven; the faithfulness with which it was devised and promised, and fulfilled, that

A. A. S. Athanas. Hesych. Euseb. in loc. S. Bernard. Serm. i. de Annunciat. salvation which GOD had spoken by the mouth of all His holy Prophets since the world began. Thy faithfulness unto the clouds. And, as we know, the clouds are continually expounded of preachers. The mystical resemblance between them is given in two lines of Hugo:— Pulsa Notis: procul a terris: mare linquit: in imbres Solvitur, et tonitrus: volat: et tenuata dat Irim. S. Joann. Chrysost. in Ps. civ.

That is, they, above all others, are tossed about by the winds of tribulation; they rise far above the earth by contemplation; they leave the bitterness and barrenness of the world; they are the occasions of the tears of repentance, and they thunder forth their warnings against sinners: their word, like their Master's, "runneth very swiftly," and they divide Scripture into its various component keys of meaning, and set forth the reconciliation of man to GOD. Like the strong mountains. The Vulgate follows the Hebrew more closely. Like the mountains of God. S. Augustine well says that the precepts of the Gospel are greater than those of the old Law, because the former have respect to heavenly, the other only to earthly things; that the LORD hence ascended the mountain before He delivered His discourse; and he refers to this passage also. Others will have Thy righteousness to mean Thy righteous ones, and thus the Saints of GOD to be compared to the strong mountains, because of their firmness in resisting the storms and billows of this world; because of their being the first to catch the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, which they reflect to others. Thy judgments are like the great deep. Even as it is written in Ecclesiasticus, where our Blessed LORD is spoken of under the character of Wisdom: "Her thoughts are more than the sea, and her counsels profounder than the great deep. These, according to S. Chrysostom, are the deep with which the LORD "covereth Himself as with a garment.

Both man and beast. Witness the merciful law about the dam and the eggs: witness the "much cattle," alleged as a reason for showing mercy to Nineveh; witness the ass preserved when the disobedient prophet was slain by the lion. But we may take it mystically of the ruder, and the more educated servants of GOD; and the manner in which mediæval commentators heap together parallel passages in the same sense, is very striking. "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of beast. So again: "Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and of cattle therein. Compare also that: "So foolish was I, and ignorant: even as it were a beast before Thee; and the LORD's being born in the manger, where were the ox and the ass. In a more mystical way, they see in that, Thy Truth reacheth unto the clouds, a parallel passage to the "Thou hast made Him a little lower than the Angels," of the 8th Psalm. Thy Truth they take of the LORD CHRIST ("I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life,") the clouds are the Angels (as that passage is explained by Pseudo-Dionysius,) in his Angelic Hierarchy, "Who are these that fly as a cloud? and, humbled as the Truth was by the Incarnation and the Nativity, yet He reacheth to the Angels, in that He is made only a little lower than they.

Thy judgments are like the great deep. S. Augustine takes it in a sadder sense: as the mountains the righteous, so the abyss the sinner; and as the sin, so the judgment prepared for it; bottomless sin, measureless vengeance. The Angelic Doctor ingeniously compares the three heights—the mountains, the clouds, the heavens. God's "righteousness is very high; hence compared to the first, because He rewards more than we deserve. His Truth is higher; hence compared to the second, because by "the truth of His promises, He gives what we do not deserve at all. His mercy is highest of all; hence compared to the Heavens; for that is infinite in prevailing over infinite sin. Mountains of God. For there are mountains of the Devil, the heresiarchs of former times: Arius, Montanus, Noetus; and even now many a Diotrephes, who loveth to have the pre-eminence, and receiveth not the Apostles.

A. A. . . . . How excellent is thy mercy, O God: and the children of men shall put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. But excellent does not come up to the force of the Hebrew; rather, How precious, τί τίμων, as Symmachus has it. The Vulgate rendering is, How hast Thou multiplied Thy mercy! The second clause of the verse makes us especially remember the mercy of all mercies, namely, Calvary; and for that, "let them give thanks whom the LORD hath redeemed." Multiplied them; but they are all from that one most precious root. Augustine says well: "Not without reason is it here put, 'O LORD, Thou savest man and beast: but the children of men;' as though, setting aside the first, He keepeth separate the children of men. Separate from whom? Not only from beasts, but also from men, who seek from God the saving of beasts, and desire this as a great thing. Who, then, are the children of men? Those who put their trust under the shadow of His wings. For those men, together with beasts, rejoice in possession; the children of men rejoice in hope; those follow after present good with beasts; these hope for future good with the Angels." And what is the shadow of Thy wings? "I sat down under His Shadow with great delight." Those wings which were stretched out on the arms of the Cross, as if thence overshadowing the whole world, gathering the young and feeble ones together, and guarding them: so to be a refuge from

A. S. Cyril. Alex. in Cantic. ii. 3. Arnobius in Jerem. ii. 34. the storm, a hiding-place from the world. There is a tradition that the shadow of our LORD on the Cross fell on and covered the penitent thief; and so, "that the very shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow" some of them, was sufficient for those who sought healing from his hands. Others, however, take these wings, whereby the Christian is, as it were, taught to fly, of the two great precepts of the Law: love of GOD, love of ourselves: but not, to my mind, with half their beauty who see the Cross in them. 8 They shall be satisfied with the plenteousness of thy house: and thou shalt give them drink of thy pleasures, as out of the river. Z. They shall be satisfied. Or as it is in the Vulgate, They shall be inebriated. Hence in the first place they look to the time when the pleasures of GOD's House were thrown open to the world at the day of Pentecost; when Parthians and Medes, and the countless nations that came up to Jerusalem, first of all had a way opened to a better House of GOD than that in which they were then seeking to offer their supplications. Satisfied. "But, O LORD JESU," cries S. Bernard, "what is this, that man, created after GOD's image,—that man, with a capacity of immortality, that man whose likeness Thou Thyself didst assume,—should be satisfied! How much love, how much gladness, does that immortal soul take, to fill up the measure of its contentment!" To this verse, perhaps, S. Gregory refers in that hymn where he says:

The Hymn, Splendor Paternæ gloriæ.

Cd. The plenteousness of Thy house, in its highest sense, what is it but that gift, a greater than which GOD cannot bestow, a more precious than which man cannot receive,—the Bread of Angels, the Cake which is to support us during all the course of our journey through the wilderness? Drink of Thy pleasures. And how can it be that the Blood so poured forth, when there was no sorrow like His sorrow,—when He was despised and rejected of men,—when His physical and mental sufferings strove together, as it were, which should be the greatest,—that this Blood should be spoken of under the title of Thy pleasures? Whence also not here for the first time, for the holy interpreters of the Psalms have set that truth before us again and again, we are reminded of the day of the gladness of His heart, of which the Bride speaks in the Canticles. Think, then, of this, O Christian, whosoever thou art, that art tempted to despise the chastening of the LORD, or to faint when thou art rebuked of Him, that the Blood which He thus shed, from its earliest drops in His Circumcision to that hour when He poured it forth in Gethsemane; and again, when "the ploughers ploughed upon His back and made long furrows; and further, when the Crown of Thorns was forced on to His Head;

and yet again, when the purple garment was torn from His re-opened wounds, down to the time that they pierced His Hands and His Feet, and opened His Side with a spear; that the shedding of this Blood was not only our redemption, but His pleasure. And further, As out of a river. Not out of a pool or lake, that may dry up and be exhausted,—not out of some Cherith of a stream, of which it is written, that "in process of time the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land,"—but from a never-ending supply. For He that fed the five thousand with the five loaves, and multiplied the widow's oil, how has He daily, from His Resurrection till now, satisfied untold myriads of His people with that Living Bread and that Blood, which is drink indeed! Whence it well follows:

9 For with thee is the well of life: and in thy light shall we see light.

And first they notice the marvellous reference to the Blessed Trinity which this verse contains: For with Thee, the FATHER, of Whom are all things, is the well of life: with Thee, as it is written, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with GOD. And forgive the Fathers of the Eastern Church if, in the latter clause, they saw the procession of the HOLY GHOST from the FATHER alone. In Thy light: which they compare with "The Spirit of Truth which proceedeth from the FATHER. And then notice, taking the Fountain of life in another sense, how the blessing of the pure of spirit is here also pronounced. The well of life, the waters of Baptism; and the light, the illumination which has, even from Apostolic times, been synonymous with that Sacrament,—even as the Epiphany, the commemoration of our LORD's Baptism, is to this day in the Eastern Church called The Lights. And all the commentators delight to show how many lights there are which profess to guide us through the darkness of this world; many a Barcochebas, a Son of the Star, who fall under that condemnation of the Apostle, "Wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever. In Thy light. For even of each of the saints it is said, "He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of the Light, that was the true Light.

"Scarcely anywhere else in the whole Psalter," says one of the greatest preachers of the conclusion of mediæval times, "do we so find the SON and the HOLY GHOST, and the Sacraments, preached as here. It is as if David spoke with John's voice, when he tells of the Light; with Paul's voice, when he sets forth the Well of life. Again: In Thy Light shall we see light, is of course the basis of that clause in the Nicene Creed, "Light of Light. S. Ambrose dwells at great length on the subject in connection with this verse, and shows where and how the symbol falls short of that which it typifies. Once more, notice this, for so marvellously does Scripture hang together: compare the junction here of the Well of Life and the Light, with God's opening Hagar's eyes, so that she beheld the well of water. "And do thou beware, O Christian," so says a mediæval doctor, "lest that wicked Holofernes come and cut off the fountains of thy salvation, so that thou canst find no water: take good heed lest the herdmen of the Philistines stop up the wells, as of old time, in the desert,—the wells which the true Abraham, the father of the faithful, opened,—and thou perish of thirst."

And now we come to the consideration of that which has made this verse one of the most famous passages in Scripture, the nature of the Beatific Vision. Mediæval writers here find that on which to argue in support of both views,—that which ascribes the power of beholding it to the innate essence of the Deity; the other which considers it an intrinsic endowment of every beatified spirit. No one can describe it more beautifully, and at the same time more according to mediæval teaching, than Giles Fletcher: "It is no flaming lustre made of light; No sweet concent or well-timed harmony; Ambrosia for to feast the appetite, Or flowery odour mixed with spicery; No sweet embrace, nor pleasure bodily; And yet it is a kind of inward feast, A harmony that sounds within the breast; An odour, light, embrace, in which the soul doth rest. "A heavenly feast no hunger can consume; A light unseen that shines in every place; A sound no time can steal; a sweet perfume No winds can scatter; an entire embrace, That no satiety can e'er unlace; Engraced into so high a favour there, The saints with their beau-peers whole worlds outwear, And things unseen do see, and things unheard do hear.

"Ye blessed souls, grown richer by your spoil, Whose loss, though great, is cause of greater gains, Here may your weary spirits rest from toil Spending your endless evening that remains Amongst those white flocks and celestial trains That feed upon their Shepherd's Eyes, and frame That heavenly music of so wondrous fame, Psalming aloud to all the honours of His Name." S. Thomas nowhere seems to penetrate so deeply into those mysteries which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, as where, rapt as it were beyond himself, he shows that, in order to see the Essence of GOD, some kind of similitude to that Essence on the part of the visual power is requisite; in opposition to those who taught, as later and poorer theologians have endeavoured to prove, that the Vision itself is habitual to beatified spirits. The two texts on which he builds those magnificent passages are the verse which has led us into this inquiry, and that in the Revelation, "Having the glory of GOD."

1 Par. g. 12. Art. 2, s. 5; and Secunda secundæ, quæst. 175, 1, sect. 3. 10 O continue forth thy loving-kindness unto them that know thee: and thy righteousness unto them that are true of heart. Having thus spoken of the Beatific Vision, David tells of the way by which only it can be reached. And as if carried away by the dear hope of the glory which shall be revealed, he speaks of faith as if it were knowledge: Thy loving-kindness unto them that know Thee. Where, by a verse which we had long ago, we can enter into the fuller meaning of this, "They that know Thy Name will put their trust in Thee." For it is that beloved and glorious Name of JESUS which opens the way to GOD's knowledge by faith in this world. And notice, again, how the loving-kindness precedes the righteousness. The loving-kindness which gives us the power to act; the righteousness which rewards us for acting when we have the power. The loving-kindness which bestows on us the grace; the righteousness that crowns us with the reward of grace, which is glory. Thy righteousness unto such as are true of heart: that is, themselves righteous. For unto him that hath shall more be given. And so it is almost in the last verse of the Bible: "He that is righteous, let him be righteous,"—or rather, continue and act out the being righteous—"still." And observe this: the two parts of each clause answer to each other,—the righteousness is to be continued to them that are righteous; therefore the loving-kindness ought to be promised to them that love. Instead of which it is, to them that know Thee. For of a truth it is one and the same thing really to know and really to love.

11 O let not the foot of pride come against me: and let not the hand of the ungodly cast me down. 12 There are they fallen, all that work wickedness: they are cast down, and shall not be able to stand. The foot of pride. It is singular what a depth of meaning they find in this expression. First we are reminded of the struggle between Jacob and Esau, symbols of the unregenerate and the regenerate man. Then, again, of the wise man's advice, "Keep thy foot when thou goest into the house of GOD." And then of our LORD's lesson in humility, by washing His disciples' feet. And, furthermore, observe the gradual increase of evil: the foot of pride in the first clause, and that only to attack, come against me: the hand of the ungodly in the second, and that not simply to attack, but to prevail, cast me down. There. "And who shall tell us," says a mediæval writer, "what that there is? Little word, but oh, what a depth of meaning! Few letters, but what untold lapse of time!" Are they fallen, all that work wickedness. Rejoice, therefore, O Christian, when at last thy reward shall come, and thou shalt be delivered from them that work wickedness within thee, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; and around thee, the world and all its fascinations; and against thee, Satan and all his powers. Let this be thy comfort: He saith not, "They shall be cast down," but "They are cast down:" they are already destroyed by Him That died on the Cross. He that believeth not—and who is the great unbeliever, but Satan?—is condemned already. Shall not be able to stand. See what is said on the last verse of the first Psalm.

And therefore: Glory be to the FATHER, with Whom is the Well of Life; and to the SON, in Whose light we shall see light: and to the HOLY GHOST, Whose righteousness standeth like the strong mountains; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Collects.GOD, Which art the Fountain and Source of everlasting life, glorify us with Thy heavenly mercy; that we, being filled with the plenteousness of Thy house, may evermore eschew all guile and superfluity of naughtiness. Through (1.) O LORD GOD, with Whom is the Fountain of Life, and in Whose light we shall see light, increase in us the brightness of Thy knowledge; that, when we are thirsty, we may receive from Thee the fountain of living waters; and when we are dark, we may be lightened with the brightness of Thy understanding. Amen. Through Thy mercy (11.) Let not, O LORD, the foot of pride come against us, and let not the hand of the ungodly cast us down; but give us grace so to put our trust under the shadow of Thy wings, that we may be preserved from the assaults of all things that come about us to destroy us; and being filled with the plenteousness of Thy house, and given to drink of the river of Thy pleasures, we may be preserved by Thy HOLY SPIRIT in this world, and in the world to come adorned with the brightness of Thy grace. Amen. Through Thy mercy (11.)

[O LORD, never leave unsheltered the children of men who mozarable. put their trust under the protection of Thy wings, but cherish and nourish us like the young of a bird, that we may be fitted for our flight on high. Suffer us not to be harmed by the rending of the deceitful, nor to fly from the nest of Thy Church, but guiding us under Thy Fatherly shadow, grant us to come, by Thine aid, to the plenteousness of Thy house (11.)]

TITLE. A Psalm of David.

Argument.ARG. THOMAS. That CHRIST is the salvation of all the righteous that hope in Him. Hence He exhorteth all to faith, showing the salvation of the Church, and admonishing all them that believe to remain firm in the faith. Read with this Psalm the Wisdom of Solomon. VEN. BEDE. Since most men feel so deeply the affliction of the good and the prosperity of the wicked, that they care not for virtue which is unremunerated in this life, this Psalm is composed to refute such an error, by teaching that we are to look to the end of both. It is alphabetical, and the voice of the Church is heard throughout; but the sixteenth letter is wanting. At the beginning she admonishes men not to imitate the wicked, but to ask from the LORD everything that is good, since He knoweth how to give that which will profit, and to preserve those good things which He hath given. Next, she teaches how the wicked after all envy the just, as knowing his portion to be so far the superior. Thirdly, she bears witness that she has never seen the righteous man forsaken, mingling the punishment of the wicked and the reward of the just in a profitable interchange. The first head containeth six letters; the second, seven; the third, eight.

SYRIAC PSALTER. Concerning them who say that GOD avengeth not Himself on the transgressors. S. JEROME. This Psalm glorifieth the person of the righteous, blameth that of the unrighteous, teacheth the goodness of GOD, plucketh up depravity.

Various Uses.- Ambrosian. Wednesday of the First Week: II. Nocturn. Gregorian and Monastic. Commit * thy way unto the LORD. Parisian. The righteous * is ever merciful and liberal, and his seed is blessed. Ambrosian. As before. Mozarabic. Delight thou in the LORD, and He shall give thee thy heart's desire. 1 Fret not thyself because of the ungodly : neither be thou envious against the evil doers. 2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass : and be withered even as the green herb. Origen seems to have valued this Psalm above all others, calling it the most precious medicine of the human soul. S. Ambrose, on the other hand, compares it with the 34th, as both admirable specimens of that which he calls the ethic Psalm, but gives the preference to that. S. Augustine's commentary is chiefly remarkable on this account: that from its perusal S. Fulgentius is said to have been converted. Fret not thyself. Æmulari is the Latin word; and that which is involved in this expression is recited in a line of Cardinal Hugo's:

Philippus Grevæus, Serm. 71. All the Fathers tell us how this has been the sin which from the beginning of the world has principally beset GOD's servants,—the envying the temporal and external prosperity of the wicked. "This," says one, "is a brave confession, yet not altogether so open, so unpalliated, as that of Asaph in the 73rd Psalm. Had I been the Priest," he continues, "who had had to hear these two confessions, Asaph should have gone down to his house justified rather than the other." But on the other hand they observe, that here, no sooner is the difficulty propounded, than the remedy is pointed out. Like the grass; and why? "Because it springs up," says the same Philip, "under the parching sun of concupiscence; is cut down in a moment by the sickle of death; is heaped up together with others that have fallen like itself, in bundles, to be burnt; is carried away by the wagon that creaks and groans, as the judgments of GOD make themselves heard in their execution." They see in the two comparisons, cut down like the grass, withered as the green herb,—or as it is in the Vulgate, the pot-herb which is good for meat,—two kinds of temptation to sin: those from show, and those from profit. Ayguan dwells on the different likenesses which Holy Scripture finds for the temptation arising from earthly prosperity: the withering grass, as here; the flying arrow, the departing shadow. And into the latter similitude he enters at great length; showing that all shadows must be in their shape, either equal throughout, or pyramidal, or reversed pyramidal, which he calls conoidal. In the first of these he sees original, in the second venial, in the third mortal, sin. It would take us too far from our subject to follow him in his ingenious exposition.

3 Put thou thy trust in the Lord, and be doing good: dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. 4 Delight thou in the Lord : and he shall give thee thy heart's desire.

The first clause was taken as the motto of one of the most powerful monarchs the world ever knew, D. Manoel of Portugal; Spera in Domino, or as he chose to spell it, Sphera: therefore all the churches of his epoch are surmounted by the Sphere instead of the Cross,—not, as the casual visitor is so apt to take it, in the sense of the world, but as the expression of hope. Here, they say, is the first time that we are commanded to make an ark of hope; and it is well connected with that which follows, Dwell in the land. What land, save that which is our true country? the land of the saints, the land where there are many mansions for us. And the second precept, Be doing good, in like manner hangs on to the succeeding promise, Thou shalt be fed: fed here with the bread of angels; fed hereafter by that Beatific Vision which is at once continual hunger and continual satiety. They take it, however, in another sense; so that dwell in the land shall mean, so dwell, as to cultivate and rule over the territory of their own soul. Or again, S. Augustine will have it to apply to the Church, and then the translation of the Vulgate comes in very well: Dwell in the land, and thou shalt be satisfied in its riches.

"But what will that be," cries a mediæval writer, "when we are called to dwell in the true land of gold, uniting in itself the excellencies of the various regions in this world, where we have at once the gold of Havilah, of Ophir, and of Parvaim; and the gold of that land is indeed good? This is the only gold that can satisfy and not increase the desire which it seems to allay. Or, if you will, take the exhortation as if addressed to our dear LORD. Be doing good: even as when He went about doing good, and healing all manner of sicknesses; Himself taking our infirmities and bearing our diseases. Dwell in the land: that land to which it pleased Him to limit His own work, and at first to confine the ministrations of His Apostles; as He said Himself, "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not. And thou shalt be satisfied in its riches; those riches as yet unseen; those many pearls of great price, which He lived to seek, and having found them, which He died to buy. And with equal force it goes on: Delight thou in the Lord,—even as it is written, "I knew that Thou hearest Me always; and again, "This is My Beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased,"—and He shall give thee thy heart's desire;

that desire, led by which He said, in the same night in which He was betrayed, "I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me where I am. And on the Cross itself, "FATHER, forgive them; and again, "I thirst," namely, for the salvation of the human race. Thy heart's desire: the desire of that heart which, having all His life long desired the hour of His Passion, was at length pierced with the spear, both that it might shed forth its life-blood for our redemption, and might open a cleft wherein we might take refuge from danger.

5 Commit thy way unto the LORD, and put thy trust in him : and he shall bring it to pass.

Alcuin. "Commit thy way," says a medieval writer, "to the Lord, and then thy Way shall guard thee in all peace; namely, He Who is the Way, without Whom no man cometh unto the D. C. FATHER. They take it not only of the way that lies before us, with all its difficulties and dangers, but of that way or disposition of our natural heart, which must be kept under, Haymo. if ever we would enter into life. Or, again, you may take it in the sense of that way in which, however it be opposed, each Christian has to walk for himself; the way that leads up the golden steps, in spite of the lions that stand on this side and on that. Commit this way to Him, and He shall Ezra viii. 21. bring it to pass; shall bring Ezra in safety, without any earthly guard, from the river of Ahava to the Temple of Jerusalem; shall lead Elijah without fear from the juniper-tree C. in the wilderness to Sinai, which is the mount of GOD. They dwell on the force of the Vulgate reveal, where we read commit, and hence speak of confession. "A way it is," says one, "covered with clouds and thick darkness, wrapt up and enfolded in manifold vain excuses, palliated and covered from human eyes. Reveal it, therefore, to Him Whose vision, as the wise man says, is ten thousand times brighter than the sun; and whatever be the depth of its iniquity, put thy trust in Him still for pardon.

Thou canst only offend His mercy by doubting His readiness to forgive. Bring it to Hugo Card. pass. "O blessed word," cries another, "that it! If he had mentioned this for the other good thing, nay, even if he had drawn out a catalogue of ten thousand good things, yet it, the thing on which thou, O Christian, hast set thine heart, the thing that thou must have, or perish. But now, let it be what it may, this promise abundantly covers it: be it never so difficult, never so strange, never so impossible to human Alcuin. energy, He shall bring it to pass. And in its highest sense the LORD Himself committed His way, the last thorny way that those blessed Feet ever trod, into His FATHER's hands; and having said this, He gave up the ghost. And how was it brought to pass, as the LORD of glory hung on the Cross?

How, but by that last sentence, by which He summed up both the actions and sufferings of His life? Set the two one over against the other: He shall bring it to pass: "It is finished." 6 He shall make thy righteousness as clear as the light : and thy just dealing as the noon-day. Are we to take it of the light by which the LORD our Highteousness was heralded to the Gentiles, was made clear to the wise men who came up from the east to Jerusalem? Or again, of the marvellous brightness which glittered forth from Him on the Mount of Transfiguration? And notice: He was no less LORD of the darkness than LORD of the light, for never was He more manifestly proclaimed Almighty GOD than when there was darkness over all the earth from the sixth hour until the ninth hour. Thy just dealing as the noon-day. Hugh of S. Victor understands it of the Last Judgment. "The righteousness of good men," says he, "is now concealed, because the justification which they seek for is not visible by human eyes. And although the example of good works shines forth from them even in this world, yet the brilliancy of the intention from which those good works proceed must now be concealed. But in the world to come that glory shall also be made manifest; because He for Whom, and by Whose grace they directed all their works, will proclaim it before men and angels."

7 Hold thee still in the LORD, and abide patiently upon him : but grieve not thyself at him, whose way doth prosper, against the man that doeth after evil counsels. 8 Leave off from wrath, and let go displeasure : fret not thyself, else shalt thou be moved to do evil. 9 Wicked doers shall be rooted out : and they that patiently abide the LORD, those shall inherit the land. Hold thee still. "And this," says S. Jerome, "is the hardest precept that is given to man; insomuch that the most difficult precept of action sinks into nothing when compared with this command to inaction." And they show how our LORD Himself fulfilled this command perfectly; how, during the time that He wrought at Nazareth, in obedience to His supposed father, He held Him still, notwithstanding all the miseries of His people, notwithstanding all the many sicknesses which He might have healed by a word, notwithstanding the many sinners whom He might have called to A.

repentance, and did not. And again: when the zeal of His relations pressed upon Him that advice, "If Thou do these things, show Thyself to the world," He held Himself still by the reply, "My time is not yet come. And again before Pilate, and yet once more before Herod, as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. Him whose way doth prosper. Whose way, that is, as distinct from God's way; the way that seemeth right to a man, but the end thereof is the place of death; the way that begins in ease and ends in bitterness. And who is it whose way prospers above all others? Who but he, the great enemy of God and man, the lord of the broad gate and the wide way leading to destruction. And notice the distinction between the two; Him whose way doth prosper,—the man that doeth after evil counsels; the former, the chief and suggester of all wickedness, not him that doeth after, but that deviseth evil; the latter, those who have entered on his service, and must expect his wages, which is death. Then in the next verse observe the three steps of evil: 1, wrath; 2, displeasure; 3, fret thyself. He begins with the highest, wrath, that is, its expression by action; displeasure, that is, its expression by word; fretting, that is, when it is confined to the mind, but exists there. And why not fret thyself? Because they say, God has a most beloved Son, namely, our LORD JESUS;

and a most evil servant, namely, the fallen nature of man. If thou wilt have thy portion with the Son, what is it but to cast in thy lot with Him Who was the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief? If thou desirest the companionship of the servant, thus it is written, "The way of the wicked doth prosper. Shall inherit the land. What land, save the region of the blessed,—the land of the Tree of Life,—the land where the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick. Shall inherit. Blessed inheritance, which shall be denied to none that is worthy, given to none that is unworthy; nay, rather, which none that is unworthy ever desires to have, if he might. Glorious inheritance, where there is adversity neither from oneself nor from others; where the reward of goodness will be He Who is the Author of goodness, nay rather, Who is goodness itself; the reward, than which He hath nothing higher to give, nor we to receive. What else is this inheritance but that of which it is written by the prophet, "I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people. I will be all things that they desire,—life, salvation, food, glory, honour, and peace. So rightly do we understand that which is written by the Apostle, "that God may be all in all: may be seen without end, may be loved without weariness, may be praised without fatigue.

10 Yet a little while, and the ungodly shall be clean gone: thou shalt look after his place, and he shall be away. 11 But the meek-spirited shall possess the earth : and shall be refreshed in the multitude of peace.

They all admire the faith of the Psalmist, in that he calls this season of trial and temptation a little while. It were much to call it so were it only his own sufferings of which he spoke; but now that he looks forward to the time when the warfare of all God's saints shall be accomplished, the iniquity of all God's people shall be pardoned, much more is this an act of faith to regard that time as short. Thou shalt look after his place. And what is the place, the place assigned in God's Providence that the wicked has? What but the trying and proving of the just? The place of Pontius Pilate and Herod before our LORD; the place of the accusers in regard to S. Stephen. But then in the next world the gold shall have been purified, and shall shine forth without any further trial. Notice how David here and Job tell of the same thing: "Thou shalt look after his place," says one; "Surely there is a place for gold where they fine it," says the other. And further observe this: the entireness of that victory, the ungodly shall be clean gone; not beaten down for a moment, and then rising again, as here; but abolished, annihilated for ever. And further observe how David and the Son of David teach the same thing. The meek-spirited shall possess the earth. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. And they yet further note this:

that that which David mentions merely as a fact,—they shall possess,—our LORD elevates to a beatitude, Blessed, for they shall inherit. It is the triumph of the New Testament over the Old: just as we saw the sermon on the Mount commence with eight Beatitudes the Psalter with only one. And shall be refreshed—or, as it is in the Vulgate, And shall be delighted—in the multitude of peace. And observe the parallel passage in another Psalm, "Abundance of peace so long as the moon endureth. And what is the moon? The Church: the giver of partial peace in this world; the enjoyer of eternal and unbroken peace in the next. For consider, says one, what will be that multitude of peace, when all are loving, and all loved; when all enjoy the happiness and the grace of each; when there is none to envy, and none occasion to be envied; when, as the hymn says,

Hrabanus Maurus in S. Matt. xiii. Though each one's respective merit Hath its varying palm assigned, Love takes all as his possession Where his power has all combined: So that all that each possesses All partake in unconfined. The Hymn, Ad perennis. 12 The ungodly seeketh counsel against the just : and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. 13 The LORD shall laugh him to scorn : for he hath seen that his day is coming. And first we think of Satan presenting himself before the LORD to accuse Job ; then of the same adversary standing at the right hand of Joshua the son of Josedech, to resist him ; and then, lastly, watching every action and saying of our blessed LORD on the Cross, when, as He Himself testified, "the Prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me."

And gnasheth upon him with his teeth. As it was when the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning ; as it was when Zechariah heard the words, "The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan, even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee : is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? And as it was in the Antitype of both these, when that Consummatum est crushed all the open attacks and secret wiles of Satan for ever. Neither is it possible to pass over the resemblance between this verse and that which relates to the martyrdom of S. Stephen. And indeed this is the Psalmellus in the Ambrosian office for that saint. The Lord shall laugh him to scorn. Well says Vieyra : "What is that laughter of GOD, of Him Whose smile is life ? What is that saying, 'I also will laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your fear cometh?' I read of the wrath of the Lamb against which they that are lost shall in that day call upon the hills to hide them, and the mountains to protect them ; and I used to think it the most terrible passage in Scripture. But truly, when I remember for how many days, years, decades of years, GOD's long-suffering with the sinner lasts ; what enormous sins He overlooks and pratermits ; how, as the Apostle saith, He winks at the crimes of ignorance, and turns away from wilful offences ;

then, at last, to see all this mercy turned, not into calm, austere judgment,—not into silent condemnation of those things for which mercy ventures no longer to plead,—but into exultation, as it were, at the overthrow of the sinner,—but into that laughter, which, save GOD, none dares attribute to GOD ;—this, I say, thrills me through with such horror, that I know not what can be imagined more terrible ; that all other dread in comparison with this seems easily borne."

14 The ungodly have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow : to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as are of a right conversation. 15 Their sword shall go through their own heart : and their bow shall be broken.

The Angelic Doctor reads us a moral lesson, taking the sword here for anger. We are not to have a sword at all, if we can help it; but if we cannot, at all events let us keep it in the sheath: and if we keep it there it will become rusty, and we shall not be able to draw it at any future time. By the sword and the bow some would distinguish between immediate and mediate temptations; between those which lead us at once to sin, and those which only conduce to a proximate occasion of sin. Others, again, take the sword of open, the bow of secret, attacks. The ungodly drew out the sword against our LORD when He said, "All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me. He bent the bow when they tempted Him with "Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar or not? Again: S. Ambrose understands the sword of an evil tongue; and it was well said by the heathen Diogenes, when he heard some young man distinguished for his beauty indulging in impure language, "How foul a sword to come out of that ivory sheath! Origen, in his own inimitable way, contrasts the bow of Satan with that of GOD: the former the instrument by which the world is set on fire, when otherwise it would be at rest; the latter the sign and promise of grace even in the midst of the tempest.

"Beware, above all things," says a mediæval writer, "of the spiritual Tubal-cain; still forging, as he forged at first, weapons of quarrel and slaughter. And notice the difference between the poor and needy. A man may be poor, though he be not needy; for his poverty may content him: a man may be needy though he be not poor, for his riches may discontent him. The LORD of all things vouchsafed to be both poor and needy. Poor, as it is written, "The Son of Man hath not where to lay His head; needy, in that He seeketh, O Christian, for thy love. Of a right conversation. For remember always that it is the cause, and not the suffering, that makes the martyr; even as our LORD pronounces not them to be blessed who have all manner of evil spoken against them, unless it be both falsely and for His Name's sake. Their sword shall go through their own heart. And first they naturally remind us of the great battle between Theodosius and Eugenius, the last struggle that Paganism made for the empire of the world; when such was the force of the storm that burst in the faces of the heathen, when the Emperor, advancing to rally his shattered forces, had exclaimed with a loud voice, "Where is the GOD of Theodosius? that their darts and arrows were turned back upon themselves. But here we have the whole mystery of redemption:

First we think of the prophecy, "All they that take the sword shall perish by the sword;" then of Goliath, whose head was smitten off by his own weapon; of Saul, who drew the sword against David, and fell upon it himself; of Doeg; Ven. Fort. The Hymn, Pange lingua. Idiomelon of the Great Parasceue. who did the like; of the Egyptian whom Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, slew by his own spear; of Haman, hanged upon the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai; of Holofernes, whose head was struck off by his own faulchion; of the mighty rulers of Persia, slain by the fire by which they had intended that the three children should be consumed; and finally, of the courtiers of Darius, over whom the lions by which they had proposed that Daniel should be devoured had the mastery. And therefore well may the Eastern Church exclaim, "Thou hast gone forth, O Son of God, to destroy the enemy with his own weapon; by that in which he trusted hast Thou overthrown him, beheading him with his own sword, piercing him with his own spear. Wherefore we cry, Glory, O LORD, to Thy Passion, and honour to Thy Resurrection."

16 A small thing that the righteous hath : is better than great riches of the ungodly. A small thing. And they think first of the grain of mustard seed, that small thing that is the least of all seeds, and at length branches into the large tree, where the fowls of the air shelter. Others, again, take it of the Blessed Eucharist, small and mean to outward appearance, but in reality a treasure greater than any that Satan has to offer. Or, pursuing the idea of the mustard seed, they show how the righteous founded that small thing the Church in the large upper room at Jerusalem, and how it was better—that is, stronger than—and prevalent over all that the ungodly, namely Satan, gathered together to oppose it. 17 For the arms of the ungodly shall be broken : and the LORD upholdeth the righteous. 18 The LORD knoweth the days of the godly : and their inheritance shall endure for ever.

19 They shall not be confounded in the perilous time : and in the days of dearth they shall have enough.

Origen, taking the ungodly for Satan, understands by his arms those chief ministers of his, the Pharaohs, the Sennacheribs, the Herods, that are types of Antichrist. And the Lord upholdeth the righteous : as He did when, by stretching out His own arms on the Cross, and having thereby broken the arms of the ungodly, our LORD was raised again the third day from the dead. Of which Cross it is well said, that the Lord knoweth the days of the godly; for there hanging He beheld, as from a watchtower, the advance and the victories of His evangelists and other saints, as they went forth conquering and to conquer : and how, confiding in His promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of the world," they should so increase and multiply that their inheritance should endure for ever. We may take the perilous times of those persecutions which, one after another, have beset the Church; in some of which it would seem, that if those days had not been shortened, the very elect must have fallen. And the days of dearth are those epochs of spiritual declension when, in the Church itself, it has appeared as if there were scarcely any life; such as the eleventh century, when, as the great Latin historian says, "The LORD seemed asleep in the barque of Peter; and again, the eighty years which elapsed between the Council of Florence and the outburst of the Reformation, when worldliness was eating out the very essence of religion;

and again, the miserable eighteenth century, the dreariest time of all ecclesiastical history. They shall have enough: for even in the worst of these years God raised up His own saints; and they were all followed by seasons when a more than usual blessing seemed to have been poured down by the HOLY GHOST. Origen, mystically expounding the manna's ceasing to fall on the seventh day, and being gathered in a double portion on the sixth, exhorts us in this sixth age of the world to lay up in store for ourselves against the season of Antichrist, when spiritual manna will cease; when the elect must live, so to speak, on what they have already provided; when there will be a famine of God's Word throughout the earth; and when, so far from signs and miracles being testimonies to the true faith, infidels and persecutors will perform great and mighty wonders, and they that are persecuted for CHRIST's sake will be able to perform none; when that fearful verse will be accomplished in a sense of which at present we can have no idea, "He doth ravish the poor, when he getteth him into his net. Yet even then, in the days of dearth, they shall have enough: for the LORD Himself speaks of the elect who shall stand firm notwithstanding all; and S. John tells of those who will be beheaded because they will not receive the mark of the beast.

They shall have enough till the time comes when the last spark of goodness will be crushed out of the earth by the slaughter of the two witnesses, and then immediately shall the end be.

Origen. in Exod. xvi. 20 As for the ungodly, they shall perish: and the enemies of the LORD shall consume as the fat of lambs: yea, even as the smoke shall they consume away. Notice this: that there is a distinction made here between the ungodly—that is, between those who only follow their own lusts; who are wicked, not for the sake of wickedness, but because they will not exercise self-denial—and the enemies of the Lord: that is, those hardened sinners who match themselves, as it were, against GOD, setting their strength against His, and defying Him, as it were, to do His worst. Of the former it is only said, They shall perish; of the latter, they shall consume as the fat of lambs. That is, as a sacrifice is offered to the honour of GOD, in like manner their destruction shall conduce to His glory also: as it was with Korah and his company; with Pharaoh in the Red Sea; with the host of Sennacherib; with Antiochus and Galerius; and other the like bold enemies of GOD. As the smoke. Cardinal Hugo gives these verses as illustrative of the similarity between smoke and the destruction of the wicked:

Ascendit: niger est: tenuis: lacrymosus ab igne: Deficit: ostendit ventum: fingit: tenebrosus. Rupert, in Isa. cap. ix. S. James iv. 14. That is, sudden ascent in prosperity; blackness of sin; unreality of supposed prosperity; the tears occasioned by it; its rapid failure; showing which way the wind of worldly popularity sets; the fantastic nature of its schemes; and its having to do with the shades of everlasting darkness. These are favourite reflections of mediæval writers. Compare what S. James says concerning the vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 21 The ungodly borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous is merciful, and liberal. 22 Such as are blessed of GOD shall possess the land: and they that are cursed of him shall be rooted out. C. A. Ruffinus. S. Cyril. Hugo Card. Alex. ab Alex.

It is a marvellous parable of the whole life of man; being in general what the parable of the talents is in particular. The ungodly borroweth. First take it of Satan, whose glorious position above the rest of the heavenly host was only lent to him, that by it he might add to the glory of GOD. And next of mankind, remembering that we must all borrow time, health, strength, influence, everything that is symbolised by the talents of one parable and the pounds of another. And payeth not again: either payeth as the unprofitable servant, the principal alone without increase, or utterly wastes it in the service of sin. Borroweth: not only from GOD, but also from the ministers of GOD. From them the sinner borrows our LORD's Body and Blood, and ought to repay it in all those good works which are prepared for him to walk in: he borrows absolution, and ought to return it by obeying the precept, "Go and sin no more: he borrows consolations, and rebuke, and advice, according to his need, and he ought to repay it by doing the good work recommended, or eschewing the evil against which warning has been given, and then he payeth not again. But the righteous is merciful. Take it, in the first place, of His mercy, Who only is righteous; and then, imitating His kindness to them, the kindness of His followers towards each other. And liberal.

And they take this clause of the saints whose delight it is to follow not only the direct precepts, but also the evangelical counsels which He has left behind Him. Unprofitable servants in one sense they are, and must be, in that they can never do that which, but for the fall of Adam, they might have done—that which He, according to His humanity, did for them. But yet, in another sense, they do more than they need to secure their own salvation, when they observe not only that which He has made necessary to the entrance into eternal life, but also the counsels which He recommends to those who would most closely tread in His footsteps, but which He leaves free to do or not to do to the great majority of His servants in this world. Observe that, in the Vulgate, the latter verse is translated, They that bless God, and they that curse Him. And how, says a mediæval writer, can we bless God so effectually, as by suffering or dying for Him? "Bless God and die" in this sense is to turn the advice of Job's wife into the holiest of all exhortations. And they observe how completely the verse takes for granted that we are already citizens enrolled and inscribed in the heavenly country. They that are blessed shall inherit, they that are cursed shall—not fall short of, nor be counted unworthy of, but shall be rooted out of: as if it were already theirs, and rent away from them.

23 The LORD ordereth a good man's going: and maketh his way acceptable to himself. 24 Though he fall, he shall not be cast away: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand. Or as it is much more strikingly in the Hebrew, The Lord ordereth the going of the man, and He will have delight in his way. So that at once we are led to Him Whose goings forth have been of old, even from everlasting, S. Fulgentius, Lib. i. ad Monim. Egressus ejus a Patre, Regressus ejus ad Patrem, Excursus usque ad inferos; Recursus ad sedem Dei: The Hymn, Veni Redemptor gentium. as S. Ambrose magnificently says. Going. And how does He go save with that Cross in His hand which we are to imitate Him in taking up, and in following Him? Be thou therefore sure of this, O Christian, that if thy going be not ordered in the same way, thou art no true servant of His: as it is written not only that when He putteth forth His own sheep He goeth before them, but that the sheep follow Him also. Though he fall: for he shall fall into the hands of his enemies, into the net laid for him, into the pit opened for him: the Morning Hind shall be taken in the toils: the innocent Lamb shall become a prey to the raging lions. He shall not be cast away. Not though His enemies say, "There is no help for Him in His God;" not though they seal the stone and set the watch. And so of His followers: they also have fallen by all kinds of terrible deaths; nevertheless "their souls," as the wise woman speaks, "were bound up in the bundle of life with the LORD."

The Hymn, *O beata beatorum.* The Lord upholdeth him with His hand. So, even in the very depth of His earthly sufferings, the Only-begotten Son was not forsaken. But a hundredfold more has that Son, now exalted to the right hand of Power, Himself upholden those that were suffering in His Name and for His cause. Whether miraculously, as when He sent the Angel who, assuming the form of a comely young man, wiped with a napkin the limbs of the Cappadocian confessor, so that he felt no manner of pain, but grieved when he was taken down from the rack; or whether, as more frequently, instead of annihilating pain, He caused the courage of His servants to triumph over it. Or, if you will, now looking away from the Head, and to the members only, you may take though he fall of sin: and then how often has the promise been made true, "Satan hath desired to have thee, that he might sift thee as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." And notice the reason why: not from any power that the fallen man has to turn himself,—no, but for this reason only; for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand. It was to be expected that the great Doctor of Grace should from this passage dwell at great length on the triumphs of grace; but, wresting his words, as they do those of Scripture also, those who falsely profess to be his followers have abused this verse in support of their doctrine of final perseverance; namely, that he that has once been elect may indeed, to use their own expression, fall, but neither fatally nor finally. Hence such fearful self-delusion as that which renders the death-bed of a Cromwell so terrible.

25 I have been young, and now am old: and yet saw I never the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread. 26 The righteous is ever merciful, and lendeth: and his seed is blessed.

The greater number of the Fathers assert that the first of these verses cannot be taken in a literal sense; because, to omit other instances, Elijah begged bread of a woman of Sarepta. The Patriarchs went down into Egypt for food, and Lazarus desired to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. But, in its literal sense, we must no doubt confine the promise, as S. Ambrose tells us, to the theocracy of the Jews. Vieyra well says (he is preaching on God's promise, "All these things shall be added unto you:") "It would seem that I have experience against me: you will tell me that we often see many good persons who are left in great distress: therefore it is not true that the way to obtain bread is to serve God. But allow me to say, I had rather believe David's assertion than yours. See what he affirms, Junior fui, et enim senior, &c. If you had eyes as enlightened as David's, you would probably say the same thing. Sometimes we think that those are righteous who are not righteous; that those serve God truly who do not serve Him truly; and therefore it seems that God's promise fails, when the failure is in them. That men may be one thing and seem another is easy; that God should fail in His word is impossible. In conclusion: with respect to those who appear to serve God and who suffer necessity, one of two things is certain:

either they are not good, or God is proving that they are. Christians and Christianesses of my soul! if ye are serving God, and yet are in want, my word for it, that God is proving you: 'Tarry thou the LORD's leisure,' says David. Look at former examples: Abraham was rich for serving God, but he was first proved by exile; Joseph was rich for serving God, but he was first proved by captivity; David was rich for serving God, but he was first proved by persecutions; Jacob was rich for serving God, but he was first proved by labour. And to those in Gospel times the same thing happened. CHRIST gave them not to eat the first day, nor the second day, but the third day: quia jam triduo sustinent Me. After He had proved the constancy and patience with which they followed Him, then He gave them of the miraculous bread; first He proved, then He provided. When He proves, then He provides. And this, perhaps, is the best literal explanation which can be given of the text. But now take it in the truer and mystical sense. Yet saw I never the righteous forsaken: not even on the Cross; not even when He uttered that lamentable cry, in which He complained of being for the moment deserted. Nor his seed begging their bread.

For when did a Priest ever seek the Bread that cometh down from heaven in the words and according to the rites which the LORD Himself taught, without receiving that Angels' Food, that Manna of all souls? This is the true meaning of the passage: that however much, for wise and good reasons, God may sometimes appear not to hear the petition, literally taken, "Give us this day our daily bread," yet, spiritually understood, never did He shut His ear against it, nay, never, for one moment did He keep the petitioner waiting. And observe that this must have been one of David's latest Psalms:

S. Ambros. in S. Luc. cap. 5. S. Hieron. in Amos. cap. viii. Serm. tom. xii. 214. I have been young, and now am old. And notice how beautifully it applies to the testimony borne by the Church as she draws near the end of her militant existence; that for all those centuries,—from the time that the LORD, changing the old into the new Sacrifice, said, "This is My Body, this is My Blood," to that which has been offered in ten thousand different churches this very morning—still the saying is true, Yet saw I never the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their bread. Is ever merciful and lendeth. This, as it were, depends on what went before; when we were told that "the ungodly borroweth, and payeth not again." Not, however, that this appears the full meaning of the Hebrew, which is rather, All the day long he GIVETH and lendeth. The word righteous is not in the Hebrew, nor in the Italic nor Vulgate: it is supplied by a variant of the LXX. and by the Ambrosian. And his seed. Namely, that countless seed from all people, and languages, and nations, and tongues, which the Blood of Him Who is the Martyr of martyrs raised up for the Church. So that what was true in the highest sense of Abraham is also true of our dear LORD, "In Thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed."

D 27 Flee from evil, and do the thing that is good: and dwell for evermore. 28 For the LORD loveth the thing that is right: he forsaketh not his that be godly, but they are preserved for ever. The first clause of the 27th verse has occurred before (Psalm xxxiv. 14.) It is singular that the duration only, not the place, of dwelling is here mentioned. Hence some take it not as a promise, but as a command: Dwell in the precepts of GOD to thy life's end. Others receive it as the reward of those who have departed from evil. Behold, says Ludolph, their reward: they shall dwell in the land of the living, in eternal beatitude, in the companionship of Angels. S. Thomas remarks on Flee from evil, that there are two kinds of evil: the one that makes man wicked, and which alone is truly evil, namely, sin; the other that which does not make man wicked, namely, punishment. And this no man either can or ought to desire to flee entirely in this world. "For whom the LORD loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." Tertullian, writing to his wife, dwells at some length on this sense: He is said to flee from evil who doth not that which may injure the cause of GOD: He is said to do the thing that is good, who worketh that which may profit it. And S. Jerome and S. Thomas dwell at great length on the distinction between these two. And then follows that great basis of

[Not so very singular, as the place, without the duration, is mentioned in the third verse.] all Christian morality, The Lord loveth the thing that is right. It is not right because He loves it; but because there is an intrinsic good and evil, the nature of which, to speak with all reverence, it is not in the power of Omnipotence itself to alter, therefore He abhors this and chooses that. And observe how all the great lights of the Middle Ages lay down this truth as the very foundation of morality. Dominus amat judicium: it is the very text of Alan of Lisle, of Ockham, of Bradwardine, of S. Thomas, of Ruysbroek. He forsaketh not His that be godly. Because the Son was for a moment forsaken, therefore not even for a moment shall the followers of the Son be left. But they are preserved for ever. In a little wrath, the face of the FATHER was hidden from the Son for a moment, but with everlasting mercies has He gathered and will He gather the elect through the sufferings of the Son.

29 The unrighteous shall be punished: as for the seed of the ungodly, it shall be rooted out. 30 The righteous shall inherit the land : and dwell therein for ever. Here notice the distinction between the Father of Evil and his posterity. The unrighteous shall be punished, as it is written: "And then shall that Wicked be revealed whom the LORD shall consume with the Spirit of His Mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming." And then follows what we have already had four times, namely, at verses 9, 11, 18, and 22; that the righteous shall inherit the land; to which look back for what is said upon it. 31 The mouth of the righteous is exercised in wisdom: and his tongue will be talking of judgment. 32 The law of his God is in his heart: and his goings shall not slide. A strange thing, says Vieyra, we have here; meditation is attributed to the mouth, and judgment to the tongue (is exercised, or, as it is in the Vulgate, meditabitur,) whereas it is the judgment that meditates and the tongue that speaks. But the righteous man in such a manner joins meditation to prayer, and the mental exercise of judgment with the vocal exercise of words, that he may even be said to meditate with his tongue; and he is righteous, not because he speaks much, but because he meditates much. He is not righteous because he speaks much, as it is written, "A man full of words shall not be counted righteous," but because he meditates much: The mouth of the righteous shall meditate wisdom. The law of his God is in his heart. And see how that was

Vieyra is here only popularising S. Thomas, as he so often does: see note x of the Angelic Doctor on this Psalm. fulfilled, when with three quotations only from God's word, and those all from one book, Satan was put to flight. Is exercised. And how can that be save by temptation? It is that which brings out the strength and virtue of Holy Scripture; just as it is only the storm that can prove the strength of the oak's roots. Therefore it well follows, His goings shall not slide. For by means of those words of God, His goings, Whose footsteps we are to imitate, were kept straight in the direct road to eternal life. Or, if we take it in a higher sense, let the righteous now be, not the One Sinless Man, but every Christian, and then, when it is said, he is exercised in wisdom, it means that he is exercised in the Eternal Wisdom, the Consubstantial and Co-eternal Son of God. It is this verse which one of those who have entered most lovingly and most boldly into the sanctuary of the LORD's Passion, Luis of Granada, prefixes to his "Meditations on the Life and Passion of CHRIST." And then observe how the two clauses of the verse are thus connected: exercised in wisdom; that is, in the LORD's first Coming in great humility: talking of judgment, that is, of His Second Advent in great glory.

33 The ungodly seeth the righteous: and seeketh occasion to slay him. 34 The LORD will not leave him in his hand: nor condemn him when he is judged. Seeth. But it means more than this: watches or observes, or pries into. The Hebrew word tzaphah is curiously enough preserved in the name of the Venetian officers, called the tzaffi, a kind of police whose business it was in the darkest days of the Doges to pry into the occupation and wealth of such citizens as were considered dangerous to the republic. And observe how true the verse was of Joseph, of Susanna, of David, of Daniel: and in like manner it is written in the book of Wisdom, "Therefore let us lie in wait for the righteous, because he is not for our turn, and he is clean contrary to our doings:" a verse which S. Cyril, writing on this Psalm, curiously enough quotes from Isaiah. And as the sinner considers or narrowly observes the righteous, so, as mediæval writers tell us, the righteous ought to keep watch on the machinations of the sinner; as it is written in the book of Joshua, "Go view the land and Jericho." What is the land, save the human body, made of clay? And Jericho, which by interpretation is the moon, signifies the changes and chances of this mortal life, with respect to which it is the Christian's duty to be perpetually on the watch. Shall not leave him in his hand. Witness Job: how of him the LORD

[The true meaning of Jericho is more probably "fragrant," from , "to breathe," than "moon," , though either etymon is possible.] said in the first place, "Only upon himself put not forth thine hand;" and then, "He is in thine hand, but save his life." Nor condemn him when he is judged. So of Joshua the son of Josedech, when Satan appeared as his adversary to resist him, it follows: "The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan, even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee; is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?" When he is judged. They interpret this clause in five different ways. Either: When the righteous is judged by the sinner: and so Symmachus takes it. In this sense S. Augustine finely says of S. Cyprian: "The Proconsul pronounced Cyprian's condemnation, from the inferior Judge that Martyr received his sentence; from the Superior, his Crown." And in the same way S. Gregory says of the Saints, They can be slain and cannot be bent: therefore they are mightier than the Judge, and more powerful than the slaughterer. The second would interpret it, When the righteous is judged by GOD. The third is, When GOD is judged by the world; and this is the meaning which S. Ambrose supports, basing it on that verse, "That Thou mightest be justified in Thy saying, and clear when Thou art judged." The fourth would interpret it, The LORD shall not condemn him, the righteous, when he, the sinner, is judged; the final separation of the sheep from the goats. And, lastly, some see in the Latin, Cum judicabitur illi, the favourable termination of the Judgment itself.

S. Albert. M. Job i. 12; if. 6. A. 35 Hope thou in the LORD, and keep his way, and he shall promote thee, that thou shalt possess the land: when the ungodly shall perish, thou shalt see it. Hitherto we have been speaking of hope; now we come to perseverance in hope. Keep His way. So our translation rightly gives, following the Hebrew, though others read, His ways. But keep His way: the one way, Him That is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. O marvellous force that there is in the word to keep! So keep that neither by pain nor by death itself canst thou be separated from Him; so keep that He may lie all the night of this world in thy bosom; so keep that He in His turn may, in the evil hour, keep thee. That thou shalt inherit the land. The heavenly land; else never would it have been said: He shall promote thee. A poor promotion that would be which would give us this earth as our possession. But I do not understand why the same S. Thomas says of the first clause, Expecta Dominum, that it refers to those who are in tribulation, while the second, Keep

A. Occidi possunt et flecti nequeunt, are S. Gregory's words. They are well paraphrased in a beautiful sequence that I have seen in the church of Le Puy: Potest Martyr trucidari; Et non potest cedere. His way, has to do with prosperity. Certainly in our translation it is not so, the former being Hope thou in the Lord. From this verse in the latter part, they take occasion to inquire what will be the order of the justification of the righteous and condemnation of the wicked, at the Last Day. If, in this account of their appearance before the judgment seat, our LORD speaks of the righteous as first judged, yet in the parable of the tares He appears to teach the contrary order, "Gather ye first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them;" with which also the last verse of that account in S. Matthew seems to agree, where we read first, "These shall go away into everlasting punishment;" and then, "the righteous into life eternal." All the conclusion that we can arrive at must be shut up in this: "The secret things belong to the LORD our GOD." Thou shalt see it. And so says the Hymn:

The Hymn, Quisquis valet numerare. Suum cernunt Temptatorem In pœnis perpetuo: Suum pium Salvatorem Collaudant in jubilo; Quem et remuneratorem Sentiunt in præmio. 36 I myself have seen the ungodly in great power: and flourishing like a green bay-tree. 37 I went by, and, lo, he was gone: I sought him, but his place could no where be found. S. Hieronym. in Esa. 30. It is as if David said: "I have taught you that these things will happen; now furthermore I tell you that I have seen them myself." The ungodly. Some take it of Judas Iscariot, who, for a time, certainly was in great power, when he received, like the other Apostles, the gifts of healing the sick, cleansing the lepers, and casting out devils. And there is something very striking in beholding, as we do in the early Christian pictures, the nimbus of Apostolic power attributed not less to the Apostate than to any other of the twelve. Others, again, understand the expression of Satan. He, too, was in great power when, as it is written, "Darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people;" and again, when "Death reigned from Adam to Moses." Flourishing like a green bay-tree. It is difficult to say why in the Vulgate we

[The margin of A.V. agreeing with Aquila, Symmachus, and the chief modern critics, reads instead of bay-tree, thus, A green tree growing in its own soil, that is, not artificially planted, but indigenous. Such trees are, of course, those most likely to be cut down for timber or firewood, whereas those "planted in the house of the LORD" are left for beauty and shade. And the contrast will thus be between the life of the natural man and that of the Saint of GOD.]

have elevated like the cedars of Libanus; and so in the LXX. and in the Italic. I went by. A great many read, He passed away; but the other lection is received by the greater number of the Fathers. I went by, but how! By passing, they say, from earthly to heavenly things: by looking, not at the things which are seen, but to the things which are not seen. And in this same sense they take that expression, "So that they who go by say not so much as, The LORD prosper you;" that is, those who look away from the present prosperity to the future condemnation of the wicked. And lo, he was gone. And as it is written, "The beast whom thou sawest was, and is not." S. Peter Damiani warns us lest we should ever think, from this passage, that of Satan in this world it can ever so be said, He is gone, as that we may feel secure against his assaults. He was gone. As it is written in the book of Wisdom: "The hope of the ungodly is like dust," or, as it should be, thistledown, "that is blown away with the wind; like a thin froth that is driven away with the storm, like as the smoke which is dispersed now and then with a tempest, and passeth away as the remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but a day." His place. For he had a place once, above the highest of the Archangels: which losing by his pride, and falling like lightning from heaven to earth, he could indeed nowhere be found, in the rank and glory which he once possessed. I went by. And they well tell us how it is our duty always to do so by passing away from man's thoughts and desires, and fixing our eyes on that which GOD commands, and on that which He thinks.

S. Chrysos. in Hom. ix. in Colos. S. Ambros. Serm. 15 in Ps. cxix. S. Hilar. in Ps. cxxviii. S. Greg. M. Mor. xv. 35. Ps. cxxix. s. Rev. xvii. s. S. Pet. Damian. Epist. ii. 27. And see Vieyra, Serm. tom. vii. 196. 38 Keep innocency, and take heed unto the thing that is right: for that shall bring a man peace at the last. Or, as it is in the Ambrosian Psalter, and in the reading of Cassiodorus, Keep trust. Keep it, says S. Augustine, as the miser keeps his money, defending it with bolts and bars, always imagining it in danger, guarding it the most securely, when others are taking their rest. They work out the idea at great length and by way of allegory; showing how the soul of man is, as it were, a castle, which cannot be taken by assault, but must be surrendered, if it ever fall into the power of the enemy, by treachery. Again, others understand—whether you choose to read innocency or truth—Him Who is the Immaculate Lamb, Him Who is the Truth, as well as the Way and the Life. Keep Him, that is, in such a way as never to permit Him to be separated from thee; clinging fast to the Hand which is able to raise thee up above the billows of this world, and to assist thee through and over all difficulties, in the ascent to the Heavenly Hill. And it is not ill put by some of the later Schoolmen, that the reason why we are to keep innocency is because it was the request, so to speak,

A. The Irrefragable Doctor and Cardinal Hugo. Isa. i. 19. S. Hrabanus Maurus in S. Matt. cap. vii. which our LORD left us on the Cross, when He fulfilled in its completest sense His own promise, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." At the last. But, in all probability, not till the last. "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword." For thou canst not, says one, have peace at the first and at the last also; thou canst not have the peace which is from GOD above, save at the price of contest with Satan below. For this is the fruit of that; as much as the flowers of the summer and productions of the autumn have, as a foregoing necessity, the tempests of the winter. It is in the Vulgate, For there are remains to the pacific man; that is, there is an hereafter for him, in which the peace that he has desired all through this life shall at length be possessed. Our Bible translation, however, comes nearest to the Hebrew, Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace.

39 As for the transgressors, they shall perish together: and the end of the ungodly is, they shall be rooted out at the last. This clause comes over and over again as an Antiphon in the Psalm. And in fact it is this which is the key-note to the whole. See what is said of it in previous verses. 40 But the salvation of the righteous cometh of the LORD: who is also their strength in the time of trouble. 41 And the LORD shall stand by them and save them: he shall deliver them from the ungodly, and shall save them, because they put their trust in him. Rupert. in loc.

The salvation of the righteous. And who or what is this, save the Only-begotten SON of GOD? Their strength, the strength of all that trust in Him, at all times, but more especially in the time of trouble. For He had so well learned the lesson of tribulation Himself, that none as He can sympathise, as well as help in time of trouble. Their strength. They ask whether Calvary is the source rather of strength or of love, whether the Cross is to be regarded chiefly as the Fountain whence flowed all that might which enabled the Martyrs to overcome the world, or of that love which could not be quenched by the many abysses of the deepest tribulation. And therefore notice that the Rock, the type of the Cross, was smitten twice, in order that these two things might flow forth abundantly: the strength that gives victory, the love that brings felicity. Shall stand by them. Never more truly fulfilled than when the Proto-Martyr saw JESUS standing at the Right Hand of GOD; and the Church, gathering confidence from this insight into celestial things, claims the same sympathy for the same sufferings, to the end of the world: "Who standest at the Right Hand of GOD, to succour all those that suffer for Thee. And notice the four steps of that help which is here promised. He shall stand by them, save them, deliver them from the ungodly, save them. And it is not without a deep meaning that that which seems tautology is here set down.

Because He stands by them, as by Stephen, He saves them in this world. In that He finally delivers them from the ungodly, He saves them in the world to come. Here, says S. Thomas, from the act and consequences of sinning; there, from the very possibility of sinning. And the reason is set down why they can sin no more: as it is written, "He that is dead hath ceased from sin. Because they are delivered from the ungodly, namely, Satan; and from that which the ungodly can alone lay hold of, the corrupted and tainted part of their own nature. And all for the reason which forms, as it were, the subject-matter of the Psalm, because they put their trust in Him. It begins by exhorting the Christian to do that which it concludes by taking for granted that he has done; and his struggle in turning the commandment into the act is the subject which fills so long a Psalm.

And therefore: Glory be to the FATHER, Who ordereth a good man's going, and to the SON, Who forsaketh not His that be godly; and to the HOLY GHOST, Who is also their Strength in the time of trouble; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

Collects.O GOD, the Blessedness of all who put their trust in Thee, Ludoiph. Who art both the Witness and the Judge of them that contend in the race of righteousness; we pray Thee that Thou wouldest so keep them from falling in this life, that Thou mayest crown them in the life to come. Through (2.) O LORD GOD, forasmuch as the ungodly lieth in wait for Mozarabic. the righteous, do Thou be pleased to frustrate all his counsels; and suffer not them to perish through their own infirmity, whom Thou didst vouchsafe to save by the salutary wood of the Cross. Amen. Through Thy mercy (11.) O LORD GOD of righteousness, Who art ever merciful Ludolph. and lendest, so bestow on Thy servants the talents which Thou seest to be expedient for them, that they may return them with a good increase to Thy honour and glory, Who livest.

TITLE. A Psalm of David, to bring to remembrance.

Argument.ARG. THOMAS. That CHRIST, in the time of His Passion, was forsaken by His friends and neighbours. The doctrine of Confession. The Confession of the penitent with the whole soul. The Confession of patience, and virtue to salvation. Read in Job. At the end of the prayers the Confession of the penitent who supplicateth for the mercy of the Judge. VENERABLE BEDE. When he saith to bring to remembrance, the title teaches us this, that since we cannot always and altogether avoid sin, we may at least abstain from giving way to it. And in that he adds concerning the Sabbath [this is the additional title in the Vulgate,] he signifieth that the penitent ought always, while he feels the wounds of present sins, to call to remembrance the rest of the eternal Sabbath. Some apply this Psalm to the history of blessed Job: but Jerome thinks it said in the person of any penitent, or mystically in that of the SAVIOUR at the time of His Passion. This penitential Psalm is divided in a fourfold way. In the first part he seeks by the sorrows of the present life to move the pity of the merciful Judge; in the second he speaks of his body as deformed by wounds, and his soul grieved by the hard sayings of his friends. In the third, the medicine of the SAVIOUR is set forth, of that SAVIOUR who was prepared to endure the depths of His unmerited Passion, while the sinner merits more than he suffers. In the fourth, he speaks of GOD, as his only Preserver in all difficulties and dangers.

SYRIAC PSALTER. Of David, when the Philistines said to King Achish, This is David who slew Goliath: we will not that he go forth with us against Saul. Besides, there is in it for us the Institution of Confession. S. JEROME. This Psalm shows that if any sickness happens to the body, we are thereby taught to seek for the medicine of the soul.

Various Uses.Monastic. Monday: I. Nocturn. Ambrosian. Wednesday, in the First Week: III. Nocturn. This Psalm, as the third Penitential, against Gluttony, was said at all times when the Litanies were recited; and, according to the Primitive use, retained in the Sarum, but dropped in the Roman, Breviary, was recited after the 51st Psalm at Tierce, daily during Lent. Gregorian. O LORD, rebuke me not in Thine indignation. [Good Friday: They also that sought after my life did violence.] Monastic. In Thine anger, rebuke me not, O LORD. Parisian. O LORD my GOD, be not Thou far from me. Ambrosian. Haste Thee to help me, O LORD GOD of my salvation. Mozarabic. LORD, Thou knowest all my desire, and my groaning is not hid from Thee. 1 Put me not to rebuke, O LORD, in thine anger: neither chasten me in thy heavy displeasure. Besides the usual commentators by whom we are assisted, we have, of course, for this Psalm, the little constellation of theologians who have treated the Penitential Psalms only. And in addition we have one admirable treatise by Andrew Rivet, better known by his Latinized name of Rivetus.

First, they desire to know in what sense this Psalm can be spoken of as a commemoration, seeing that it in no way commemorates either the events of David's own life, or, as so many do, the History of the Children of Israel. S. Gregory Nyssen affirms that it is simply intended as a breviate or short summary of prayer for a penitent—what such a one ought to remember when he presents himself before GOD. And then what it has to do with the Sabbath is not very clear. S. Chrysostom holds it to apply to the Great Sabbath "that followed the day of preparation; and thus to be occupied in our LORD's Passion and Burial. They well observe that the bodily disease from which the Psalmist was suffering when he composed it is mercifully left uncertain, to the end that whatever be the diseases of our own soul, we may use it with a good courage. In most of the editions of the Vulgate it has twenty-one verses; and Innocent III. sees in this a triple Sabbath. Triple either in honour of the Blessed Trinity, or with reference to the three Sabbaths which the true servant of GOD must of necessity have: that of rest amidst the warfare of this world, that of peace when that warfare is accomplished, but before the final consummation of blessedness; and the eternal Sabbath of heaven. S.

Basil compares this opening verse with the complaint of the sick man, who, knowing that he cannot recover without medicine, yet begs of the physician to temper its bitterness to his weakness. There is nothing more curious than to remark the worldwide difference between earlier and later commentators on this verse; the former, S. Augustine, for example, S. Gregory, S. Cæsarius of Arles, S. Felicianus of Orleans, and others, applying it to the sufferings of good men in this life, and absolutely asserting that with this life they will end, and the latter, such as Dominic Soto and Lorinus, applying it to purgatory and its penal fires. As to the verse

S. Greg. Nyas. Tract. ii. in Tit. S. Chrysost. Homil. in S. Matt. xxvii. itself, I have already spoken of it at the beginning of the sixth Psalm. 2 For thine arrows stick fast in me : and thy hand presseth me sore. S. Aug. Confess. x. 6. 2 Kings xiii. 17. Luis of Granada. Medit. p. 176. D. C. S. Bruno Carth. Ric. Hamp. Cicero de Harusp. Resp. 18. Bakius. Luis of Granada. Medit. p. 176. [Thy hand presseth me sore, forcing the very arrows deeper into the wounds, instead of drawing them out and healing the sufferer. Presseth, or as LXX. and Vulgate read, Thou hast strengthened Thine hand upon me, making my pain continuous instead of a momentary pang. And as God's arrows for man's sin are passibility and mortality, so He does not use them slightly, but punishes with grievous sorrow, disease, and death. And we may aptly compare that saying of the Roman orator, "Deorum tela in impiorum mentibus figuntur." But we may also well contrast the penitent submission of David with the despairing cry of Julian the Apostate, when vainly striving to pluck the Persian javelin from his deadly wound, "O Galilean, Thou hast conquered."]

3 There is no health in my flesh, because of thy displeasure : neither is there any rest in my bones, by reason of my sin. It is said by our Blessed LORD of sin not His own, but borne by Him, as the scapegoat carried the transgressions of the children of Israel. And He might well, when hanging on the Cross, say, There is no health in my Flesh; for this very cause, that of His people it had been said long before, "From the sole of the foot even unto the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds, and bruises, and putrefying sores." Any rest in my bones; or, as it is in the Vulgate, Peace to my bones. And Innocent III. here takes occasion A. Isa. i. 6.

to distinguish four kinds of men. The first, those who have peace with sin, because they consent to and obey it; but not from sin, because their conscience upbraids them with its present guilt and future punishment. The second have peace both with sin and from sin, because they have so entirely and so long given themselves up to it, that their conscience is seared, as it were, with a hot iron. The third, those who neither have peace with it nor from it, because they constantly and valiantly resist it. The fourth, those who have no peace with it, because they must ever hate it, yet have peace from it, because they have now passed into that blessed world, where there is no more temptation. It is, no doubt, the fear of seeming to speak irreverently of our Blessed LORD, by putting texts like the present into His mouth, which has caused so great a departure from the mystical interpretation, that S. Augustine and his followers have attached to the Psalms. He here dwells at great length on the applicability of those texts which speak of sin to Him Who did no sin, but bare all.

4 For my wickednesses are gone over my head: and are like a sore burden, too heavy for me to bear.

There is one place where these words might so have been said, as never else, and that is, the Garden of Gethsemane; for there indeed, for a time, that Head which was once the joy of the Angels, and fairer than the children of men, was overwhelmed by the billows and waves of iniquity that went over it: as it is written, "Save me, O GOD, for the waters are come in even unto my soul." S. Paulinus has a singular allegory in connection with this verse, concerning the hair of Samson,—how, when it was severed from his head, his iniquities did indeed go over it: and this, taken in contrast with S. Mary Magdalene wiping our LORD's feet with her hair, and thus transferring, as it were, to them, and by them so soon after to the Cross, the weight of her own guilt. And, if we take the words of sinners themselves, then they teach us the very same lesson that we learn from the history of the fall. As man, from desiring to be like GOD, lost his primitive glory and debased his condition; so here sin, which begins by inducing him that commits it to lift up his head in pride against GOD, ends by going over it, and being a sore burden, too heavy for him to bear. "Choose, therefore," says the most eloquent of the Greek Fathers, "between the light yoke and easy burden of the LORD, and the sore weight and heavy burden of sin; that talent of lead which Zechariah saw bound in the Ephah; that ponderous burden which made Jonah too heavy for the ship in the storm." And compare with this GOD's denunciations of His anger against the various nations of old time, under the title of the "Burden of Nineveh," "The Burden of Egypt," and the like.

A. S. Chrysost. in Homil. de Jona.

5 My wounds stink and are corrupt : through my foolishness.The Jews will have it that David, in the course of the year that followed his sin with Bathsheba, and before he was convinced of it by the message of Nathan, was thus smitten with boils from head to foot: and to this, they say, the Psalm refers. S. Gregory takes the putrefaction here mentioned in the Vulgate, of sins which, having been given up, are again fallen into; such as the Apostle means when he speaks of the sow that was washed returning to her wallowing in the mire; such as our LORD Himself tells us of, when the evil spirit cast out of a man takes to him seven spirits more wicked than himself, that they may enter into him again and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Mediaeval writers dwell at length on the various resemblances between the wounds of the body and the sins of the soul; how complete penitence not only heals the wound, but effaces the scar; how true penitence, but less complete, heals the wound indeed, so as to prevent all further danger or pain from it, but still leaves the scar, which shows what once has been; while unreal penitence brings to pass, as it were, a false cure, and leaves the unprobed wound to break out hereafter more dangerously than ever. But the noblest commentary on these words that was ever written by the pen of man is undoubtedly that marvellous book, the Confessions of S. Augustine.

[My wounds stink. These words, observes Origen, prove the sincerity of repentance, for so long as the sinner wallows like a hog in the filth of sin, even its odour is pleasant to him, but when he begins to hate his sin, then all its surroundings become odious too, and he calls on the Heavenly Physician to heal him. It is fitting then that sweet and perfumed ointment should be applied to the fetid sores. What shall it be? Let the Bride answer. "Thy Name is as ointment poured forth."]

6 I am brought into so great trouble and misery : that I go mourning all the day long.Here notice five evils arising from sin: 1, the privation of grace, which leads to misery; 2, the difficulty of doing well, and its consequent trouble; 3, the impossibility of rising by any strength that nature has in itself, in that all the day long; 4, the wretchedness of an evil conscience in mourning; and 5, the pains of hell, which they say are expressed in the word I go. And to such as these, when the means of salvation is taught them, that text applies: "The soul that is greatly vexed, which goeth stooping and feeble, and the eyes that fail, and the hungry soul, will give Thee praise and righteousness, O LORD." And observe the depth of this misery: Cant. i. 3. I go mourning all the day long : day, the type and symbol of gladness and joy, now turned into sorrow. There are others who, taking the Vulgate translation, I am bowed down continually, understand by it the beginning of the sinner's return to God : bowed down, that is, by taking the LORD'S Cross, and bearing it after Him.

7 For my loins are filled with a sore disease : and there is no whole part in my body. Or, as it is in the Vulgate, For my loins are filled with illusions : that is, with temptations ; against which S. Paul arms the Christian with the fitting remedy, Let your loins be girt about with truth. And referring to this it is that, where Behemoth, the type of Satan, is described, it is said, "Lo, now, his strength is in his loins :" on which S. Gregory dwells at very great length. Innocent III., referring to the word illusions, calls the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, the three chief sophists that, by their delusive arguments, endeavour to seduce man into the way of destruction. And this, he says, is the syllogism that they propound : the world sets forth earthly pleasures as the major ; the flesh proposes the carnal receptivity of those pleasures as the minor ; and then Satan brings forward eternal death as the conclusion.

Job xl. 16. S. Greg. Moral. Innocent. III. in loc. 8 I am feeble and sore smitten : I have roared for the very disquietness of my heart. 9 LORD, thou knowest all my desire : and my groaning is not hid from thee. 10 My heart panteth, my strength hath failed me : and the sight of mine eyes is gone from me.

Of whom, they ask, can this be said, but of the Man of Sorrows ? Feeble, when so taken in the ship ; feeble, when sitting by the well ; feeble, when falling beneath the Cross. And sore smitten. So, indeed, by the servant that smote JESUS, the Servant of servants, with the palm of his hand ; when He was scourged by the soldiers ; when His most blessed Head was smitten with the reed. But what was this to that infinitely more grievous stroke wherewith He was smitten by the FATHER, when that prophecy was fulfilled, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My fellow, saith the LORD of Hosts ? And though it may seem at first sight that those words, I have roared, cannot apply to Him of Whom it is written that He held His peace, insomuch that the governor marvelled greatly, yet they may well be spoken of that strong crying and tears, of which the Apostle also tells us. Thou knowest all my desire. How not ? when the Only-begotten said, "I and My FATHER are one. And even here we may take comfort in that saying of S. Paul, "Then shall I know, even as also I am known. Lord, Thou knowest all my desire. It may seem madness to the world; it may seem folly even to the wise; it may be so surrounded with difficulties as to appear impossible; but if Thou knowest it, it is enough.

If Thou knowest it with the knowledge of approval, Thou wilt either fulfil it, or reward me without fulfilling it. If Thou knowest it, Thou also knowest the means by which it is to be brought to pass. Into Thy hands I commit it, and Thou wilt not disappoint it. Panteth: or, as it well is in S. Jerome's translation, fluctuates: no unmeet metaphor for palpitation. All mediæval commentators speak of that suffering of our LORD on the Cross, which emphatically fulfils that which David here tells. But even still more strikingly does this verse describe His passion, if that be true which modern physical science asserts, that, really and literally, the immediate cause of His death was a broken heart; that having happened to Him which, in some few other cases of great mental agony, has been known to occur, that one of the great valves of the heart burst. The sight of mine eyes. "Because," says the Master of the Sentences, "He was so surrounded by the darkness and cloud of sin. It was this that shut out from Him the light of GOD's favour, the brilliancy of heaven, even the common light of this world. And S. Albert enters at great length into this part of our LORD's sufferings: the darkening of His eyes while He hung on the Cross; the darkness of nature, which spoke of and symbolised the deep blackness of man's sins.

[They apply these words also to the sinner, yearning to be reconciled to GOD, and they take the strength that fails as the incapacity for doing good, and the vanished light to be the illumination of grace which has been darkened by sin. But a deeper expositor sees in the strength and light CHRIST Himself, the desire of the mournful soul, which cries here, as in the Canticles, "My beloved had withdrawn Himself, and was gone, my soul failed."] 11 My lovers and my neighbours did stand looking upon my trouble: and my kinsmen stood afar off. 12 They also that sought after my life laid snares for me: and they that went about to do me evil talked of wickedness, and imagined deceit all the day long.

They see in this not only the flight of the Apostles, when even our LORD Himself said, "Let these go their way," and it is added, with that which is indeed, however unintentionally, the bitterest irony, "that the saying might be fulfilled which He spake, Of those whom Thou gavest me, I have lost none,"—as if this were the only way to preserve the disciples firm in their allegiance to Him, that they should not have to bear outward witness to that allegiance,—but they also see those twelve legions of Angels, who were so ready to help, and whose help was refused, who therefore verily stood afar off. Though S. Bernard speaks much more truly when he says that the Angels are represented by the lovers and friends, but man by the kinsmen. "For verily," as S. Paul says, "He took not upon Him the nature of Angels, but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. Those who so dearly loved Him,—those who had sung Gloria in Excelsis at His birth,—those who were afterwards to appear, the one at the head and the other at the feet where His Body had lain, and who were still later to prophesy of His Second and more glorious Advent,—they now, if not allowed to assist in His trouble, yet stood looking upon it, as one of those mysteries which these blessed spirits desire to look into:

even as was typified long before by the Seraphim who bent over the Ark of the Covenant, as if desirous to penetrate into that which it contained. But His kinsmen,—that is, the race of man, with regard to whom He was made bone of their bone, and flesh of their flesh,—they stood afar off, except, indeed, such as gathered round the Cross to mock and to revile. Have laid snares for me. And so it was, indeed, when the tempters were sent out that should feign themselves just men; when, from the Roman penny, from the woman taken in adultery, from the story of the seven brethren, a snare was laid, if it might be so, to take our LORD. S. Bernard applies it to those who now lay snares for every faithful priest of the Great Priest; who endeavour to entangle him in his works, to perplex him in his actions, to make the straight crooked, and the plain places rough. Imagined deceit all the day long. They take it as a warning of the dangers of prosperity. They that went about to do me evil are Satan and his hosts; and the day in which they principally imagine deceit is the season of prosperity. It is the same thing which we read in the 91st Psalm: "A thousand shall fall beside thee, and ten thousand at thy right hand. When a thousand fall in the ordinary circumstances of life, then ten thousand fall in the time of prosperity.

As it is written in another place, "The wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured."

13 As for me, I was like a deaf man, and heard not: and as one that is dumb, who doth not open his mouth. 14 I became even as a man that heareth not: and in whose mouth are no reproofs. And so it is written, "Who is blind, but My servant, or deaf, as the messenger that I sent?" Blind, in not being able to behold the difficulties which stand in his way; deaf, in paying no attention to the objections and opposition raised by weak friends and strong enemies. And notice how S. Bernard. Serm. 77 in Cantic. A. S. Bernard. in Ps. xc. the prophet repeats the question again, as if to emphasise it in its full depth of meaning, "Who is blind as he that is perfect, or blind as the LORD's servant?" "And it is just this blindness and deafness," exclaims the great Carmelite expositor, "of which thou, O Christian, standest in need. Though the mountain that opposeth thee be as lofty as Zorobabel's, thou must not be able to behold it: though there be the thunder of the captains and the shouting amidst those hosts that come forth to bar thy passage towards the heavenly land, to thee they must be inaudible. In this manner it is that thou wilt best follow thy LORD; hearing indeed, and understanding not,—seeing indeed, but perceiving not." And here also we have a reference to our LORD's silence at the judgment-seat, when, "as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth."

15 For in thee, O LORD, have I put my trust: thou shalt answer for me, O LORD my GOD.

Oh! cries a mediæval writer, how many dear fors there are in the Bible! Notwithstanding all that has gone before, the false accusation, and the silent bearing up against them, here it comes—Thou shalt answer for me. It is as if the LORD said, I cannot answer for Myself. It was prophesied of Me, centuries ago, that, as a sheep before his shearers, so should I be dumb before them that should deprive Me of all things, yea, even of life itself. But Thou shalt answer for me: when there is darkness over the earth, from the sixth hour till the ninth hour; when the vail of the Temple is rent; when the earth quakes, and the graves are open. Thou hast answered for me already on the banks of the Jordan, when Thou didst say, This is My Beloved Son: on the mountain of Transfiguration, when there came the voice from the cloud: in the hill country of Judæa, when that sound descended from heaven, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. And Thou shalt answer for Me again when at the Last Day Thou shalt commit all judgment into My hand, so that I, unrighteously judged before the tribunal of Pilate, shall righteously judge all nations; Thou still answering for Me, by the glory with which Thou shalt invest Me, as Thou didst of old time by the humility in which Thou didst support Me. I have. Thou shalt. And they well observe, that in those words the whole Christian life is contained.

I have committed my all to Thee; Thou shalt return it to me with interest: "I have said, Thou art my GOD: Thou hast said, I will keep thee as the apple of Mine eye. The Carmelite commentator, a little pleased to show his classical learning, reminds us how Cicero tells us that in certain of the Greek republics he who slew a tyrant was at liberty to ask from the magistrates any reward that he chose. It is thus, says he, with GOD. Of all tyrants, the greatest is Satan: and he that shall so far slay him, as to destroy the power of the devil in his own soul, may indeed demand from God whatever he chooses, with the certainty of being heard. In that sense also, Thou shalt answer for me, O Lord my God.

16 I have required that they, even mine enemies, should not triumph over me: for when my foot slipped they rejoiced greatly against me.

I have required. And notice with what a holy boldness it is said; as if it was more than asking or petitioning; as if he supplicated for something to which he had a right. And observe this: he says not, that I should triumph over them, but, that they should not triumph over me. It is the same thing that is written by another of the most famous adversaries of Satan, "Having done all, to stand. For he well knew that the final victory over the devil and all his powers must be reserved for the next world. Not to be conquered is the greatest victory that we may expect in this world. When my foot slipped. He saith not, When I yielded; or, When I fell; but, When my foot slipped. For those enemies of ours know well to how fatal a result the least slip may lead; how far from the right way the slightest deviation from the King's high road may conduct us. And notice, therefore, that it is not merely, they rejoiced, but, they rejoiced greatly against me. And none had greater occasion to know this than had David himself. He gave way to the idleness of advancing age and a hot season, when Joab went forth to make war against the enemies of the LORD, in besieging Rabbah of the children of Ammon. One slip—so slight that, in itself, it would have remained unnoticed.

Then, instead of doing the business of the day in its day, he must needs give way to idleness by resting in the middle of the day: the result we know. And so again the foot of another Saint slipped when he, in a dark and cold night, must needs warm himself at the fire in the company of his LORD's enemies. Well might the fiends rejoice greatly over him, when from that one slip they knew that the Prince of Apostles would continue to fall till he began to curse and swear, saying, I know not this Man of whom ye speak.

17 And I, truly, am set in the plague: and my heaviness is ever in my sight. We have already referred to the vision of S. Antony, in which he saw the whole earth covered with nets and It is almost certain that the word plague here is used in its Latinized signification of net; though neither this, nor the more usual sense of the word, comes very near to the original, [which is, as A. V., ready to halt or fall,] nor to the flagella of the Latin, nor the μάστιγας of the Greek. traps: and here, David is not only exposed to them, but is taken in them. If we take it in the sense of the Latin, I am ready for correction, the verse marvellously applies to the Son of David. For of Him it is written, "JESUS, therefore, knowing all things which should come upon Him, went forth." He was ready for all and each of those sufferings from the very time when the salvation of man being devised by the counsel of the ever-blessed Trinity, the Author of our salvation said, "Here am I, send Me."

18 For I will confess my wickedness: and be sorry for my sin. They here take occasion to dwell on some of the signs of a true Confession. I will be sorry—not for the shame, not for the punishment, but for the sin. They observe that the confession of sins has three great drawbacks which hinder its utility: either that contrition does not precede, or satisfaction accompany, or emendation follow. Confession without contrition is to profess to have a wound, says S. Bernard, of which the pain is not felt. Without satisfaction, says S. Augustine, it is rather the profession than confession of sin. And without emendation, it is rather a charm than a cure: it is to omit half the divine law regarding sin. Whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall find mercy. Whoso confesseth them and forsaketh them not shall find the shame in this world of acknowledged guilt, and shall but be judged more strictly in the next with that terrible sentence: "Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant."

S. Bernard. ad Eugen. lib. i. 19 But mine enemies live, and are mighty: and they that hate me wrongfully are many in number. Mine enemies live. And here they dwell at great length on the different ways in which those spiritual enemies are to be met. Some to be openly opposed; Resist the devil and he shall flee from you: some to be escaped from: "Flee fornication." Mine enemies live: that always, whether I resist them or not; and are mighty; that, unless I keep them under by constant self-examination and watchfulness. And then put these words into our LORD's mouth: Mine enemies both temporal and spiritual, both the devil and they that are of their father the devil, and who do his works; Satan, when he would have cast Me down from the pinnacle of the temple; the Jews, when they would have hurled Me down from the mount of precipitation: Satan, when he would have had Me out of these stones make bread; the Jews, when they called Me a man gluttonous. Mine enemies live and are mighty, and they that hate me wrongfully. And then we are brought back again to those tender reproaches addressed by the LORD to His people, to which so lately we had occasion to refer.

How from Him all good, how from them all evil: how the greatness of the patience and mercy which shone forth from the LORD's Passion was counterbalanced, as it were, by the greatness of their malevolence who were the instruments of that Passion. Are many in number. From the soldiers who were sent forth to destroy the infants of Bethlehem and the coasts thereof, down to the multitudes that mocked and reviled on Mount Calvary, many in number indeed! Or, if we apply it to those ancient enemies who were cast out of heaven with their leader, then we know that the number of those who followed Lucifer in his revolt were the third part of the heavenly host. Many: and therefore the many mansions in our LORD's kingdom; therefore the loss of the Angels made up by the redemption of man. [But. It is not a complaint, but a thanksgiving. Here is GOD's medicine, salutary, but painful. Because I have shown my wounds to the Physician, He is ready to heal me, in His own way, by causing me to suffer persecution, and that at the hands of those who are mighty, bitterly hostile, and many. And it has always been true, not only of single penitents, but of Churches turning back to GOD after long dalliance with the world. The moment they show tokens of renewed spiritual life, the world, till then ready to pamper and flatter them, turns on them in bitter and unmerited hatred, that persecution may kindle love yet more.]

20 They also that reward evil for good are against me: because I follow the thing that good is. Here we have the True Daniel—"We shall not find any fault against him, except we find it concerning the law of his GOD." And notice the cruelty with which the Jews found this cause of blame. With the accusers of Daniel the complaint was straightforward; it was that the Prophet kept those commandments of GOD which contravened the laws of Darius. But with regard to our LORD, it was that He, the Brightness of His FATHER's glory, and the express image of His Person, transgressed His FATHER's laws; as, for example, in the commandments respecting the Sabbath. In the Vulgate, instead of, I follow the thing that good is, we have, Because I spake that which is good. And if so, even more remarkably does it tell us of Him of Whom His very enemies wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His Mouth, and the officers that were sent to apprehend Him were compelled to confess "that never man spake like this Man."

21 Forsake me not, O Lord my God: be not thou far from me. 22 Haste thee to help me: O Lord God of my salvation.

I do not know that the whole latter part of this Psalm can be explained better than in the words of Denis à Ryckel:—My lovers and my neighbours, that is, the Jews who seem to be My friends, in that they profess to love God, and to expect His Son from heaven, did stand looking upon my trouble, when they gathered a council against Me to put Me to death, and when they cried out before Pilate, Crucify Him, crucify Him. And my kinsmen stood afar off; that is, they who were My disciples, but departed from Me, crying out, "This is a hard saying: who can hear it? As for me, I was like a deaf man and heard not; as Luke testifieth when he saith, "Herod questioned with Jesus in many words, but He answered him nothing; and Pilate, when he exclaimed, "Hearest Thou not how many things they witness against Thee? For in Thee, O Lord, have I put my trust; as being perfect Man and in a certain sense like other men, a traveller to the celestial country: Thou shalt hear me, O Lord my God: that is, Thou shalt grant whatever I absolutely and deliberately desire. Mine enemies live and are mighty; that is the Jews, who said, "Come, let us kill Him, and the inheritance shall be ours; and they that hate me wrongfully are many in number: that the word might be fulfilled which was written in their law, "They hated Me without a cause.

Forsake me not, O Lord my God, that is, Leave not My Body in the sepulchre, but quicken it on the third day. Be not Thou far from me, that is, Fulfil Thine own promise that Thou shalt not leave My soul in hell, neither shalt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. Haste Thee to help me, so that I may bring all My saints, as yet detained in the land of darkness and the shadow of death, at My own resurrection into the light of life. O Lord God of my salvation—of Mine, in so far as I am very man; of Mine, in so far, also, as I am one with them whom I have redeemed, and who put their trust in Me. "See," he continues, "how full of affection is this Psalm, how gloriously it teaches what the true penitent ought to be, how he should lament to the uttermost all his sins, and be prepared to suffer their penalty. And since this Psalm is one of the Penitential Psalms, we ought especially to labour that we may enter into its full meaning, for it is in some sense obscured. As to those who expound it of David, of very little profit is their interpretation, seeing it ought rather to be applied to Him Who is the King of all penitents, and the Receiver of those who return to Him."

And therefore: Glory be to the FATHER, the LORD GOD of our salvation and to the SON, Who shall answer for us: and to the HOLGHOST, Who will not be far from us; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen. O Thou that art the Healer both of the soul and the body, Ludolph. end forth Thy salvation and make us whole: that while we deplore all our sickness and all our infirmity, we may by Thy strength overcome the temptations of the enemy. Through (2.) O GOD, by Whose ears the secret desires of the heart are Mozarabic. heard, make haste to help us; and so turn away from us the Merceness of Thine anger, that we who do put our whole trust in Thee, may never fall into the nets of the enemy. Amen. Through Thy mercy (11.) O CHRIST our GOD, Who didst vouchsafe to endure such Mozarabic, manifold sufferings in Thine own most sacred Body, have Passiontide. mercy upon us; and grant that while the true health of Thy grace dwells in our mortal frame, we may from strength to strength go on to the Crown which Thou hast prepared for us. Amen. Through Thy mercy (11.)