together: and for that reason we compelled the cattle, the oxen, and the sheep to adore and pray to God. O the power of repentance! O the virtue of confession! Repentance strengthened the city when it rescinded the sentence of God. B Yet, in response to these things, the prophet distrusted the salvation of the Ninevites; and he went out and sat opposite the city, observing what might befall the city—whether the sentence would prevail, or indeed repentance. And both the sentence and the repentance were placed as if on a scale and in the moment of a balance; and repentance, having vanquished death, raised up the city. Then, to condense the discourse, Jonah was distressed, as one who was to appear a liar. Then what does the all-wise God do to him? He commands the sun to cast rays blazing with fire onto his head, so that he could not withstand the heat of the sun. But when Jonah was burning, and bore it very impatiently, God commanded a gourd in the night, that it should rise in the morning and shade the head of Jonah. Here I would gladly pose a question to a Jew, saying: “I pray you, O Jew, you who say, ‘How did the Virgin bear a child without a man, and how, having borne, did she remain a virgin?’ Tell me first: how did the earth send forth a gourd from itself in one hour of the morning, and how did it become leafy in one moment, and shade the prophet? And I will tell you how the Virgin bore a child, and after the birth remained a virgin.” But let us not throw holy things to the dogs. Let the unbelieving Jews be cast out of our catalogue. Afterwards, while the gourd was shading him, God commanded a worm in the morning; and it struck the gourd, and it withered immediately (Jon. 4.7). Behold, O Jew, and do not be incredulous when God does some great thing. The gourd was produced over night, and it perished over night. Then, the gourd having dried up, Jonah was angry and wept, and his spirit succumbed while he was distressed over the gourd; and he said, “It is better for me to die than to live” (Jon. 4.8). To whom the all-wise God drew near, comforting him and saying: “Are you very distressed over the gourd?” And Jonah replied, “I am very distressed even unto death” (Ibid. v. 9). Again, however, God says to him: “You are distressed over the gourd, for which you did not labor, which you did not nourish, which was born in the night and perished in the night; shall I not be distressed for the city of Nineveh, the great city, in which dwell more than a hundred and twenty thousand men, who do not know their right hand from their left, and many cattle?” (Ibid. v. 10–11). Now, what he says is this: “I am,” he says, “benign, and one who does not wish to destroy the works of my hands, which I created, led by pity; therefore I threatened destruction and death, not because I wished to kill, but that I might exhort them to repentance. I, who for the course of so many years had awaited their conversion, should I have neglected them when they were converted? That is not my way, Jonah. For you, as a man, wish to condemn; but I, in so far as I am God, have it to be merciful and human.” Glory to you, O Lord; glory to you. How great are the riches of your benignity and mercy! Those who were recently subject to the fatal decree are now constituted as teachers of the world. For all, while they look upon them, are led by the hand; and while we assume their repentance, we perish void of shipwreck. Do you see, beloved, how much repentance can accomplish? Therefore, let us not defer day after day. For you do not know what the next day may bring forth (Prov. 27.1). For the Day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night (1 Thess. 5.2). C Come, therefore, let us exult in the Lord, let us jubilate to God our Savior. Let us approach his face in confession (Ps. 94.1–2). For the end of our life is uncertain; it does not await an occasion, nor is it defined by time among us: but whenever he who gave spirit to all commands it, then the soul, flying away from the body, leaves it empty. Since, therefore, we each know that death is uncertain, let us await the bridegroom; and when he knocks at the door, let us kindle our lamps for him, always prepared, having oil with us, so that when the sound of those saying, “The bridegroom is coming” (Matt. 25.6), occurs, we may enter with him, lest by chance we also, with the five foolish virgins, be found outside the bridal chamber. Dearest ones, let us not slumber, but always have oil in our lamps. For he will not grant us in that hour to go away to buy oil from those who sell: for it is bought here, and consumed there. But who are those who sell, if not the poor? Give bread, and you receive *”What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and into the heart of man has not ascended, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2.9). Come, therefore, let us exult in the Lord, let us jubilate to God our Savior. Let us approach his face in confession (Ps. 94.1–2), because the night has passed, but the day of uncertain life has drawn near (Rom. 13.12). But would that all of us, being light from light, might walk in the light of the glory of Christ our Savior, in the Lord himself, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
MONITUM
Concerning this homily, Savile speaks thus in his notes, Tom. 8, p. 124: “I have relegated to the class of spurious works the homily on Psalm 95, or rather on the first two verses of the same Psalm, an obviously insipid work, and one teeming with inept allegories and anagoges, even though it is copied throughout the libraries and was translated by Erasmus.”SING TO THE LORD A NEW SONG, SING TO THE LORD ALL THE EARTH: AND CONCERNING ALMSGIVING, A HOMILY
The hymnographer David sounded the lyre for us, while he wove the apostolic discourse with his prophetic tongue, and signified new things in ancient discourses. For what did he sound? That which we have just heard: *Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth.* Consider, and piously contemplate, how by adapting the prophecy to the evangelical words, he renders the same harmony of sentiments and dogmas. “Sing,” he says, “to the Lord a new song.” We know, brothers, that a new song is distinguished from the old. It must be sought, therefore, what is the subject of the old song, and what of the new: in this way, from the difference of things, we shall be able to attain an understanding of the truth. The first and most ancient song was sung at the Red Sea: at which time, with wonderful D power, he struck the sea;
he turned the deep into dry land, and began to sing a song, saying: *Let us sing to the Lord; for he has been gloriously glorified: the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea (Exod. 15:1).* There was also another ancient song chanted by the blessed Deborah, when, after the enemies had been laid low in the war, she raised a grand trophy, a song of victory (Judg. 5). You will find yet another ancient song that came to be in the desert, when the sons of Israel found the well and partook of the strange favor (Num. 21:17–20). And one may find much discourse on the ancient song among those who truly and sincerely engage with the Holy Scriptures. A Since it is necessary, then, to inquire what power this new and fresh song possesses, and what contemplation it proposes to us. Attend to me carefully here. The ancient song was restricted to one people and was confined within one climate, that of Palestine, and it was not permitted to the people to offer the ancient song outside that climate; but because it was one people and one nation, the song and the worship were anciently restricted to one place and climate. The B blessed David bears witness to this account, saying as follows from the perspective of the Jews taken into Babylon: *How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land? (Ps. 136:4).* Do you see how it was not permitted for the ancient song to travel throughout every land under heaven, but the hymn was inscribed along with the nation? But let us return again to the words spoken by those in Babylon. *Then our captors asked us for the words of songs, and those who led us away for a hymn: Sing us one of the songs of Sion (Ibid. 3).* C Being then inscribed by the Law and forbidden to sing divine things in a foreign land, they answer: *How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?* Thus, the ancient song was explicitly restricted, as I have just said, to that people and that climate; but the new song travels throughout all that is under heaven, and is sung by all the inhabited world: for this reason, when the prophet said, *Sing to the Lord a new song,* he immediately added, *Sing to the Lord, all the earth (Ps. 95).* See how he makes the gift simple, see how he broadens the theology, see how he shows the new song contrasted with that old and restricted one. D And so that no one might dull the contemplation with human conjectures, he did not remain silent about the operation of the evangelical grace, but having said, *Sing to the Lord, all the earth,* he added again, *Proclaim the good news from day to day of his salvation (v. 2).* What salvation? It is clear that he speaks of the much-sung dispensation of the Savior, that God became man out of love for mankind, that the physician arrived for the sick, that light shone upon those in darkness, that the way appeared to those who were wandering—that way which has shouted today through the Gospels: *I am the way, and the truth, and the life (John 14:6).*
Commentary on the homily on Psalm XCV
It is necessary, brothers, to learn for what reason God restricted that people to a place and climate, and why he did not permit that people to sing divine things throughout the whole earth. For it must first be known well that God does not turn, nor does he change, nor transfer his opinion from one thing to another; he does not approve this at one time and something else at another; but while he is himself unchanging and unalterable, he adapts himself to human weakness. God speaks, brothers, and gives laws often, not as he is able, but as we are able to hear. He could have ignited the lamp for the Gentiles even through the ancient song, but those who were handling the lamp were not intent toward the preaching of piety. For if those who had received it did not hold fast to the word of piety, how could they have been able to distribute the law of piety to others? But because the people were weak and faithless, and quickly yielding to pagan defilements, they were restricted to one place, so that they might be able to practice the law of piety that pertained to them. A man among us often does the same: whenever he has a suspicious wife, he restricts her to a place, locks her in chambers, stations eunuchs around her, applies every guard, and does and arranges everything that preserves modesty, since he does not have true love, nor the guard that comes from a modest mind. But he who has a modest and orderly wife does not prevent her from any going out; for he has a secure pledge: her disposition. She goes out to the marketplace and the zeal is extinguished; she meets with many men, and there is no disease of jealousy anywhere; for the modest woman has within herself a guard and a pedagogue: her character. What therefore occurs among us men, God does.
2. And let no one think that the proposed analogy is unfitting; for God conducts himself toward the people just as a husband toward a wife, not according to the union of bodies, but according to the disposition and good will. Thus, the same one, when speaking to the ancient synagogue through the prophet, said: *I betrothed you to me in judgment, and in mercy, and in righteousness, and in knowledge (Osce 2:19).* He interpreted the union of God. And what is the union of God? Knowledge. For in the case of human union, bodies are joined, but in the case of the union according to God, the soul is glued to God. And just as it was said: *And he shall be glued to his wife, and they shall be two into one flesh (Mark 10:7);* so the soul being unified with God the Word cries out: *My soul has been glued after you, and your right hand has laid hold of me (Ps. 62:9).* The ancient synagogue therefore had the Law as its husband, as Isaiah bears witness today, speaking through the Apostle; for Paul made use of the prophetic voice, saying: *As it is written, that many are the children of the desolate one, rather than of her who has the husband (Gal. 4:27).* Since then she had the Law as a husband (for I shall repeat the discourse), but was suspicious, as everywhere betrayed her good will toward God by her conscience toward idols; for God rebukes them, saying: *And you committed adultery with stone and wood, and you forgot me, says the Lord (Jer. 3:9).* Because the synagogue had a suspicious mind, he deservedly restricts her to a place, and encloses her as in a chamber, and a temple, not permitting her to set up an altar in every place; but all of Judea and Palestine was of the people, yet there was one place that held the altar. For this reason Moses also, seeing the suspicious nature of the wife (for the discourse calls the synagogue the wife for now), knowing the suspicious nature of the synagogue, warned them in advance, saying: *Take heed to thyself, Israel, that you do not offer your whole burnt offerings, and your sacrifices in every place that you see, but only to the place which the Lord your God shall choose (Deut. 12:13, 14).* See how it is restricted; and deservedly, brothers. For if, having received an altar in one place, they filled every place with idolatry, as Jeremiah cries out and bears witness: *According to the number of the cities were your gods, Judah, and according to the streets of Jerusalem you sacrificed to Baal (Jer. 11:13);* if having taken one place, she filled all the earth with her adultery, if she had received permission for every place, imagine what unmeasured licentiousness she would have received. For this reason, brothers, both the song was restricted to a place, and the altar to a place, and that people to a place. But the Church, modest and orderly, and everywhere carrying Christ within her, and putting forward countless martyrs for the sake of her good will toward her husband, is not hindered by places; but in every place there are altars, in every place there are teachings. God forewarns of these things through the prophet; for signifying the ecclesiastical prosperity and branding the ingratitude of the people, he says to them: *There is no will of mine in you, says the Lord Almighty, and I will not receive sacrifices from your hands; for from the rising of the sun even to the setting, my name has been glorified among the Gentiles, and in every place a sacrifice is offered to my name, even a pure sacrifice (Mal. 1:10, 11).* See how brightly and clearly he interpreted the mystical table, the bloodless sacrifice. By pure incense, he refers to the holy prayer that is offered up together with the sacrifice; those things are the incense that gives rest to God—not that which is taken from earthly roots, but the incense sent up from a pure heart. *Let my prayer be directed as incense before you.* Do you see how it is permitted for the angelic liturgy to shine everywhere? Do you see how neither the altar nor the song is restricted? *In every place incense is offered to my name.* There is indeed a pure sacrifice: first, the mystical table, the heavenly, the super-cosmic victim; but there is also in us a...
A different variety of sacrifices. For after the law in the Old Testament had many sacrifices—one for sins, one called a whole burnt offering, another called a sacrifice of praise, another a saving sacrifice, another for the cleansing of lepers, and many other different ones for those who were examined by ten thousand purifications—and the number of sacrifices under the law was great and measureless; the new grace appearing through one sacrifice encompasses them all, and has established one true sacrifice.
B We too have within ourselves various sacrifices, not those which follow the law, but those which befit the angelic grace. And do you wish to know these sacrifices, which the Church has, and how, without blood, without smoke, and without an altar or other ceremonies, it sends up the evangelical gift to God, and what is the pure and undefiled sacrifice? Hear the holy Scripture clearly setting forth to you this difference and variety. There is then the first sacrifice, of which I spoke before, that intelligent and mystical gift, of which C Paul says: *Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.* The second sacrifice is that of the martyrs. And what does the Scripture testify to this? Hear Paul: *I beseech you, brethren, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God.* You have the first sacrifice of salvation, the second of the martyrs, the third of prayer: *Let my prayer be set forth as incense before Thee, the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice.* The fourth is that which is offered by praise, that is, through hymns: *Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise.* The fifth is through righteousness: *Then you shall accept the sacrifice of righteousness.* The sixth is offered through almsgiving: *A sacrifice,* he says, *pure and undefiled, is to visit orphans and widows in their affliction.* The seventh takes place in jubilation. D Jubilation is the triumphal shout in war. For another thing is a clamor, that is, a shout; another is jubilation, that is, an exultation. When, after a victory in war, the soldiers shout, that is jubilation—a sign of victory—and that is why the prophet calls those who were to see the victory of Christ, shouting a hymn against the enemies, blessed, saying: *Blessed is the people who know jubilation.* Jubilation, therefore, is the triumphal shout in war. Since, therefore, the Savior gained the victory over all enemies, saying: *Be confident, I have overcome the world,* we offer up this hymn to Him who wrought the victory, fulfilling the jubilation; and the prophet calls them blessed, saying: *I went around and offered in His tabernacle a sacrifice of praise and jubilation.* The eighth sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit: *A broken and humbled heart God will not despise.* Do you see what kind of hosts are being offered by us? There is also another new sacrifice, which is performed through the preaching of the Gospel: that is, the word of instruction, of which the Apostle Paul says: *Administering the Gospel of God, that the offering of God may be acceptable, and sanctified in the Holy Spirit.* Do you see how he declared the preaching of the Gospel to be offered as a host to God? You have, then, the first sacrifice, that of salvation; the second, of the martyrs; the third, of prayer; the fourth, of jubilation; the fifth, of righteousness; the sixth, of almsgiving; the seventh, of praise; the eighth, of compunction, or humility; the ninth, of the proclamation—though I passed over one, when I had enumerated nine, I thought I had handed down ten. Which, then, is the kind of sacrifice passed over? The tenth sacrifice is that of fruitfulness, of which Paul speaks: *I have received the things sent by you through Epaphroditus, an acceptable sacrifice in the odor of fragrance.* Do you see that benevolence is called a sacrifice by Paul? You have, then, various forms of sacrifices. *Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise.* I have praised you all, brethren, or rather, we all have praised, and above all, God, the sacrifice you exhibited to the Lord—I speak of the benevolence toward the poor: how you had mercy on those who were being trampled in the market, crying out to God, and through you they were heard. You imitated the kindness of God; you pushed away the disgrace of beggary from the market; almsgiving went forth and extinguished the shame—for the disgrace of the rich was the clamor of the poor. You have stored up a treasure, the riches of righteousness. For this is the treasure one ought to have before one's eyes—a treasure of truth, a treasure of righteousness, a treasure of kindness toward the poor. Since there are two treasures, brothers, one which is stored up for evils, and another which is laid up for goods. The treasure of evils is disobedience, and unreasonableness, and iniquity, about which Paul says: *Do you not know that the goodness of God invites you to repentance? But according to your hardness and impenitent heart, you are storing up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the just judgment of God.* Do you see the treasure of sins being stored up by those who work iniquity? Look at the treasure that is stored up by those who work righteousness out of humanity toward the poor. Hear Paul writing to Timothy: *Command those who are rich in this present age not to be high-minded, nor to place their hope in the uncertainty of riches, but to do good; let them be rich in good works, that they may be ready to impart and share, storing up for themselves a good treasure for the future, that they may lay hold of eternal life.* Do you see the treasure of good things? Do you see the treasure of evil things? And with whom is this treasure deposited? It is clear that it is with God; for He stores up both the treasure of evils for retribution, and punishes some, while rewarding others.
Does he want to see Him who has an exact memory and guardianship of these treasures? He speaks through Moses about those who perform evils: *Their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and their shoot from Gomorrah; their grape is a grape of gall, their cluster is a cluster of bitterness. Their wine is the fury of dragons, and the incurable venom of asps.* And after he mentioned the works of iniquity, he immediately added: *Are these all not stored up with me, and sealed in my treasures? In the day of vengeance I will repay, in the time when their foot shall stumble.* In this way does he dispense the treasure of iniquity to those who work injustice. He also distributes the treasures of the kingdom to those who work righteousness, of which Isaiah also speaks: *There shall come wisdom and knowledge and piety from God.* These are the treasures of righteousness, of which even the Savior spoke to his holy disciples: *Store up for yourselves an indefectible treasure, eternal in the heavens.* And speaking to the same rich man, he says: *Come, follow me, and you will have a treasure in heaven.* Let us therefore flee the treasure of iniquity, and store up the treasure of almsgiving, a good work, which is capable of extinguishing every sin, which is sufficient to loosen every iniquity. And that you might accurately know how much power almsgiving has, consider more attentively what is being said.
Sins: some look toward God, some toward man. Sins indeed look some toward God, some toward man: such as committing impiety, vomiting out blasphemies, and violating the temple of God, or persecuting the Church of God, or treating the priests with contempt; these all refer to God. But to commit adultery, to steal, to do injustice, these consist within the company which we have with fellow servants. And the difference between those things committed is manifold
in God, and those in men. Nothing, therefore, is worse than impiety, nor anything more unhappy than iniquity against God, nor anything more blasphemous than against God. And yet, even such great impiety is washed away by almsgiving, if one does not persist in blasphemy, but calls back the sin through repentance. A For let no one run against my words by hearing them amiss; the discourse is not addressed to the folly of the foolish, but to you, the faithful, to you, the companions of the truth. Nothing is more terrible than impiety, nothing more base than blasphemy. And yet, such a great evil is dissolved by almsgiving, if one truly approaches the truth. And take for my proof the ancient history of Daniel. Nabuchodonosor’s son, Baltasar, after once reveling in divine things and insulting the holy places, dared in a common banquet of drunken and impious men, while they were blaspheming, to bring into the midst the sacred vessels which he had taken from Jerusalem, and to use them as instruments of drunkenness. And he brought forth, he says, the vessels of God from Jerusalem, the holy ones, and he drank from them B himself, and his wives, and his concubines, and his paramours (Dan. 5:2). He insulted divine things not only by a common table, but also by sexual depravity. And yet, God is patient even toward such a great wrong—the long-suffering power, the rich grace, the abundant loving-kindness that awaits our repentance and defers the punishment. God bears with him who revels against the holy things, and brings forth a judgment against him. For He brought forth, he says, as these things were happening, upon the plaster of the wall—that is, upon the layering—there came out as it were a finger of a hand from the wrist to the fingers, the figure of a hand, and it wrote upon the wall, Mane, Thecel, Phares; and the words were Hebrew, and the strangeness of the miracle struck the tyrant and the revelers. And the solution of the things that were difficult was sought, and it was not found. He called many interpreters, and they were at a loss before the phenomenon. Daniel is called into the midst. For it is necessary that C falsehood first be at a loss, and so the truth shine forth. And just as in Egypt the magicians and the wise men were at a loss, and only then did Joseph emerge, interpreting the truth; so also in Babylon, when all human wisdom was refuted, then the wisdom of God shone forth through the faithful servant. Daniel was called; the prophet of holy words entered, the intellectual book of the Scriptures, the interpreter of the great king. And that you may learn the difference between a plain man and a man of God, one plain in nature but immortal in his judgment, having entered into that banquet of impiety, he is entreated by the master of the feast—I mean the king; for he says to him: I know that the holy Spirit of God is in thee (Dan. 5:14); explain to us this writing, what it intendeth. Dost thou honor the servant, and insult the Master? Dost thou revere a man, and dishonor God? Thou confessest the holy Spirit, and thou defilest the holy things? I know that the holy Spirit of God is in thee. For even in the time of my father the Spirit was more abundantly in thee. D If, therefore, thou explainest, he says, this thing that is sought, thou shalt be clothed in purple, and a golden chain about thy neck (Ibid. v. 16). And that blessed and wondrous man, setting at nought the gifts from men, but honoring the truth before all things, says: O king, thy gifts thou mayest give to another man, and thy presents give to others; but I will announce the writing (Ibid. v. 17). And what is thy reward for the interpretation? The reward from God; or rather, this is to me the reward of truth: to interpret the truth itself, and to vindicate the piety that is being blasphemed.
5. And behold the wonder of the righteous man. He does not first interpret the writing, but first he refutes the intention. And what does he say? O king, the God of heaven gave the kingdom and power to thy father Nabuchodonosor, and added honor and glory to him; likewise also to thee (that I may be brief) (Ibid. v. 18). And God gave thee the kingdom, and the power, and thou didst forget God, and thou broughtest forth His silver and gold vessels; and thou didst drink, thou and thy wives, thy concubines, and thy paramours, and Him who hath in His hand thy breath thou hast not blessed. For this a finger of a hand was sent from His presence, and wrote upon the plaster its own judgment. And these are the words: Mane: God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it (this the Syrian language and the Hebrew interpret alike); Thecel: God hath weighed thy kingdom, and it was found wanting; Phares: thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians (for then reigned only the kingdom of the Babylonians). And behold the wonder, how it was declared that God doeth all things by number and weight. Weighing, he says, and He measured. For nothing from Him is without measure, nothing without weight, nothing without order, but even with exact measure He brings on justice, and when punishing, He gives a weight of punishment commensurate with the sin, not exceeding the sin, but commensurate. For this reason God, at one time threatening Judea, after Samaria had been destroyed beforehand and consumed, says: And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring-line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ephraim; that is, meting out the same justice to these, which I meted out to those. For divine justice is not without measure, but is regulated by measure, and by a rule, and by a weight; as the Savior said in the Gospels: With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again (Matt. 7:2). God, therefore, measured, and weighed, and divided, and the number of the kingdom was filled, he says to that one. And what after such a great judgment? Straightway he brought in the remedy for the decision. And now, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to thee, and redeem thy sins with alms, and thy impiety with the mercies of the poor, so that God may perhaps be propitious to thy transgressions (Dan. 4:24). Seest thou how much almsgiving avails, how much loving-kindness can do, how much the mercy concerning the poor works the work of justice? The prophet exhorted, as if, had the lawless one obeyed, grace would have followed instead of the promise; but grace was spread out, but the judgment accepted the amendment. So strong is loving-kindness toward the poor. Almsgiving took away the captive figure from the market-place; the figure of captivity will be taken away from the whole earth. Thou sawest the market-place full of captives, and thou didst restrain the vision of loathsomeness; God will restrain the justice of punishment, the one brought against sins. For God is not unjust, so as to forget the souls of those unjustly slain, nor of the blood unjustly poured out. The saints were slain, but they died for piety. For do not attend to the appearance of the captivity and the war, but that, because they accepted the struggle for self-restraint, many endured death, how virgins in the fitting time, as in the time of persecution, were seized, and many souls were warred upon through them, and do not think them to be unworthy of God, whose blood was poured out; this is an ancient form of history. God always gives up the saints to dangers, that through them the power of piety may be shown. Let no one say, "Why then, if they were holy, were they slain? If they were cared for by God, did they endure such ruin?" Hear David, singing the new through the old: O God, the nations are come into thine inheritance, they have defiled thy holy temple; and not, "them," but, "Thy holy one"; they have made Jerusalem a garden-watchers' hut; they have put the dead bodies of thy servants as food for the birds of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints to the beasts of the earth (Psalm 78:1-2). If they were delivered as unworthy of piety, how were those delivered, if these now suffer such things as unworthy, how did the saints of old suffer the same things? But if the same One [God] disposes, all things are ordered for the advantage, and so that the saints may restrain the rushing of sin; there is nothing unjust anywhere in the things permitted by the divine power. These things God permits for the disciplining of our intentions, and the righteous often undergo death for the sake of the unrighteous. Thou hast an ancient sequence through the histories of the ancients. God declares against Adam, saying: Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return (Gen. 3:19). And the one who received the decision was examined among the living, the other...
being such that he was immovable and unchangeable in his punishment. A But death entered on account of injustice, so that it might be cast out by justice. The just were killed, and yet they were not extinguished, for In everlasting remembrance shall the just be (Ps. 111:6). The blood of the just was poured out, but God calls those who were delivered up as vile and abject his children, and he avenges them as children. Furthermore, that those who were simply killed by the enemy are called children of God, and are avenged as children, the blessed Moses confirms my discourse. For what says he in the Song? Rejoice, ye B nations, with his people, and let all the angels of God worship him, for he will avenge the blood of his children (Deut. 32:43). If they are children of God, how were they killed by the enemy? You see how God allows the just to be killed, for the proving of piety; that the word might not be violated, that the sense might be confirmed. Rejoice, ye heavens, for he will avenge the blood of his children (Ibid.). They were delivered up as strangers, and they are avenged as children. Martyrdom is an C exercise of piety, that is, a manifest and professed testimony. And how? Hear and consider, I implore you, let your thought delve into the profundity of the discourse. In every tribunal, what else is proposed to a martyr than to deny God? And while he struggles against this proposal, he receives a manifest and irreproachable crown of martyrdom. But regarding those saints who have now been killed, there was not a judge passing sentence, but conscience. For many sometimes (for I do not condemn, but I examine human thoughts) have slipped in their thinking—as if someone D at some time in affliction said: Where is the God whom I served? Where is the God whom I confessed? There is the surge and the tempest, there is the ship in peril. But if someone, tried by these tempests, has come to his senses again and said: "Is my life restricted here? Have I expected earthly goods? Did I not expect a kingdom? Did I not expect the resurrection of the dead? Did I not expect that life with the angels? Did I not expect that life which knows no age? Why then does death frighten me, when I possess eternal goods? I am not disturbed by temporal things, since I await the eternal." Whoever weighs these things in his mind has had God as the judge of his thought; he has had a pious soul as his advocate; he has had a clear tribunal; he has had conscience as his witness, which weaves a crown for justice itself, and before conscience, God distributing the eternal rewards to the workers of piety. For he who sees things hidden, rewards in the open. "Pray thou," he says, "in hiddenness to thy Father, and thy Father, who is in hiddenness, shall reward thee" (Matt. 6:6). If then he who prays in the hidden place is rewarded, and he who in the hidden place turns his mind to confession, is he not rewarded? There is also the martyrdom of purpose.
Virginitas of purpose and virginitas of necessity. Martyrdom, brothers, is not estimated by the event alone, but also by the purpose. For when a martyr is beheaded, then he becomes a martyr, but from the moment he shows the purpose of confessing, he is a martyr, even if he does not suffer what martyrs are accustomed to suffer. And who is it who proves these things by his own testimony? That blessed Paul, who, although he died once, yet shows himself dying daily. For what does he say? "I die daily for your glory, which I have in Christ" (1 Cor. 15:31). I die daily. How do you die, when you live? I was dying by purpose, but I have been saved by the grace of God. As far as it depended on powerful men, and on me, insofar as I exposed myself, I die daily; but as far as divine grace is concerned, I have been reserved as a doctor for the Churches. For God dispenses matters for the utility of men, and some indeed he delivers up, so that the proven mind of the faithful may be shown, while others again he reserves, so that he may guard the leaven for the Churches. Virgins have not been polluted, because their purpose is immaculate and their mind is incorruptible. And consider this for me, brother: virginity, apart from controversy, receives crowns. Which virginity? That which is of purpose, or that which is of necessity? Do you not know that countless virgins and those with unpolluted bodies have departed from this life? Have not many daughters of abominable and impious nations, waiting for the time of marriage, been snatched away? Have not many young men with uncontaminated bodies died after wedlock and marriage? Young men, I say, children of the ethnics, children of the Jews, children of impious heretics; and they have departed having the virginity of the body? Or before the tribunal of Christ, are crowns given to such virginity, just as that crowd receives the crown of virginity? They do not receive them. For surely, if they were to receive a crown, necessity would have some value; but if there is no value in necessity, but the whole reward is of purpose, that innumerable number remains uncrowned, having indeed virginity, but not having the purpose of virginity.
—necessity. For neither does God accept what is done out of necessity, but what is rightly done out of purpose. If therefore to those countless multitudes virginity is not imputed as virginity, neither is that of those who, beyond their purpose, have been stained by corruption. The body is polluted, but the temple of the soul is not polluted: the body is violated, but the mind is not corrupted. Let no one therefore reject the multitude of the saints who were delivered up to calumny and captivity. Oftentimes it is the lot of the saints to suffer for the impious. The Savior, who had committed no sin, is delivered up for sinners: and Isaiah cries out: "Man has gone astray in his way, and the Lord delivered him up for our sins" (Isa. 53:6). And the same again: "Who did no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth, and the Lord delivered him up for our sins, and he came to death for the sins of the people" (Ibid. v. 9). Do you see? They are imitators of Christ, those who suffer for the unjust. It happens, however, brothers, and in another way, if I may stretch the history a little: it happens that even among those who are killed, some are subject to sins. But the Lord, through a temporary affliction, washes away sin, and through the scourging of bodies extinguishes the wounds of the soul. To these, death is imputed as a punishment. Moreover, sickness is imputed to the pious who have sinned as a punishment. And who is it who promises these things? Paul: for it is not fitting to say anything without witnesses, and by the mind's thought alone. For if anything is said without Scripture, the auditor's thought falters, now nodding, now hesitating, and sometimes turning away from the discourse as if it were cold, sometimes receiving it as probable: but when a testimony from the divine voice has come forth from Scripture, it confirms both the discourse of the speaker and the mind of the hearer. Who then is the discourse that will attest that afflictions and flagellations brought upon men are imputed for the remission of sins? Hear the blessed Paul speaking about those who approach the mystical table unworthily: "Do you not know that whoever eats unworthily, eats and drinks to himself judgment" (1 Cor. 11:29)? And what did he add thereafter? "Therefore among you are many infirm, and many weak" (Ibid. v. 30), because you approach the table unworthily: "And many sleep," instead of which it was to have been said: they die, as if death even arrives on account of sin. To these he immediately annexes: "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged by the Lord" (Ibid. v. 31). Therefore, both sickness and death are a judgment of the Lord. And what does it profit me after death? What fruit is there after the passing? If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged? But when we are judged, we are chastised by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world (Ibid. v. 32). For God judges justly, so as not to destroy the just together with the impious, nor to condemn the saints together with the profane, and that by merit indeed. For it is not fair that he who adores Christ should be punished at the same time as he who affects him with blasphemies: and that he who piously serves and glorifies [God] should be punished in the same way as those who blaspheme and hold the truth in contempt. Therefore God, in hidden and invisible ways, variously scourges the pious who commit faults; that, clearly, he may present us purged to that great tribunal: so that when here we are chastised