The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

⁸ You say to me, What am I doing? I am beset with flatterers; they cease not to besiege me; they praise in me what I would not, that praise in me what I hold in little esteem; what I hold dear they blame in me; flatterers, treacherous, deceivers. For instance, “Gaiuseius is a great man, great, learned, wise; but why is he a Christian? For great is his learning, great his reading, great his wisdom.” If great is his wisdom, approve of his being a Christian; if great his learning, learnedly has he chosen. In fine, what you revile, that pleases him whom you praise. But what? That praise sweetens not: it is “the oil of a sinner.” Yet ceases he not to speak so. Let him not therewith “fatten your head;” that is, rejoice not in such things; agree not to such things; consent not to such things; rejoice not in such things; and then, if he have applied to you the oil of flattery, yet has your head remained as it was, it has not been puffed up, it has not swollen....“For still shall My word be well-pleasing to them.” Wait awhile: now they revile Me, says Christ. In the early times of the Christians, the Christians were blamed on all sides. Wait as yet; and “My word shall be well-pleasing to them.” The time shall come when they shall conquer thousands of men, who shall beat their breasts, and say, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Even now, how many remain who blush to beat their breasts? Let them then blame us: let us bear it. Let them blame; let them hate, accuse, detract; “still shall My word be well-pleasing to them;” the time shall come when My word shall please them....O wordy defence of iniquity! Verily now whole nations say this, and the thunder of nations beating their breasts ceases not. Rightly do the clouds thunder, wherein now God dwells. Where is now that wordiness, where that boasting, “I am righteous; nought of ill have I done”? Verily, when you have contemplated in Holy Scripture the law of righteousness, how far soever you have advanced, you shall find yourself a sinner....What sort of man am I now speaking of, brethren? I speak of him who worships God alone, who confesses Christ, who knows the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost to be one God; who commits not fornication against Him; who worships not devils; who seeks him not aid from the devil; who holds the Catholic Church; whom no one complains of as cheating; under whose oppression no weak neighbour groans; who assails not another's wife; who is content with his own, or even without his own, in such wise as is lawful, and as Apostolical discipline permits, with consent of both, or when she is not yet married. Even he who is such as this, is yet overtaken in such things as I have mentioned. For all these daily sins then what is our hope, save to say with humble heart in the Lord's Prayer, while we defend not our sins, but confess them, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;” and to “have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,” that He may be “the propitiation for our sins”? See what follows: “their judges have been swallowed up beside the Rock”. What is, “swallowed up beside the Rock? That Rock was Christ. They have been swallowed up beside the Rock.” “Beside,” that is, compared, as judges, as mighty, powerful, learned: they are called “their judges,” as judging about morals, and laying down their opinions. This Aristotle said. Set him beside the Rock, and he is swallowed up. Who is Aristotle? Let him hear, “Christ has said,” and he trembles among the dead. This Pythagoras said, that Plato said. Set them beside the Rock, compare their authority to the authority of the Gospel, compare the proud to the Crucified. Say we to them “You have written your words in the hearts of the proud; He has planted His Cross in the hearts of kings: finally, He died, and rose again; you are dead, and I will not ask how ye rise again.” So “their judges have been swallowed up beside” that “Rock.” So long do their words seem somewhat, till they are compared with the Rock. Therefore if any of them be found to have said what Christ too has said, we congratulate him, but we follow him not. But he came before Christ. If any man speak what is true, is he therefore before the Truth itself? Regard Christ, O man, not when He came to you, but when He made you. The sick man too might say, “But I took to my bed before the physician came to me.” Why, for that very reason has He come last, because you first have sickened.

9. “They shall hear My Words, for they have prevailed.” My Words have prevailed over their words. They have spoken clever things, I true things. To praise one who talks well is one thing, to praise One who speaks truth is another. “They shall hear My Words, for they have prevailed.” How have they prevailed? Who of them has been taken offering sacrifice, when such things were forbidden by the law, and has not denied it? Who of them has been taken worshipping an idol, and has not exclaimed, “I did it not,” and feared lest he should be convicted? Such servants has the devil. But how have the Words of the Lord prevailed? “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Fear not those who kill the body,” etc. He gave them fear, He suggested hope, He kindled love. “Fear not death,” He says. Do ye fear death? I die first. Fear ye, lest a hair of your head perish? I first rise again in the flesh uninjured. Rightly have ye heard His Words, for they have prevailed. They spoke, and were slain; they fell, and yet stood. And what was the result of so many deaths of martyrs, save that those words prevailed, and the earth being, so to speak, watered by the blood of Christ's witnesses, the cross of the Church shot up everywhere? How have they “prevailed”? We have said already, when they were preached by men who feared not. Feared not what? Neither banishment, nor losses, nor death, nor crucifixion: for it was not death alone that they did not fear; but even crucifixion, a death than which none was thought more accursed. It the Lord endured, that His disciples might not only not fear death, but not even that kind of death. When then these things are said by men that fear not, they have prevailed.