The Enarrations, or Expositions, on the Psalms

^16. “If the Lord,” he says, “had not helped me: within a little my soul had dwelt in hell”. I had almost plunged into that pit which is preparing for sinners: that is, my soul had dwelt in hell. Because he already began to waver, and nearly to consent, he looked back unto the Lord. Suppose, for example's sake, he was insulted to tempt him to iniquity. For sometimes the wicked flock together, and insult the good; especially if they are more in number, and if they have taken him alone, as there is often much chaff about one grain of wheat (though there will not be when the heap has been fanned); he is then taken among many wicked ones, is insulted, and surrounded; they wish to place themselves over him, they torment him and insult him for his very righteousness. A great Apostle! say they; You have flown into heaven, as Elias did! Men do these things, so that sometime, when he listens to the tongue of men, he is ashamed to be good among the wicked. Let him therefore resist the evil; but not of his own strength, lest he become proud, and when he wishes to escape the proud, himself increase their number....

17. “If I said, My foot has slipt; Your mercy, O Lord, held me up”. See how God loves confession. Your foot has slipt, and you say not, my foot has slipt; but you say you are firm, when you are slipping. The moment you begin to slip or waver, confess thou that slip, that you may not bewail your total fall; that He may help, so that your soul be not in hell. God loves confession, loves humility. You have slipped, as a man; God helps you, nevertheless: yet say, “My foot has slipt.” Why do you slip, and yet sayest, I am firm? “When I said, My foot has slipt, Your mercy, O Lord, has held me up.” Just as Peter presumed, but not in strength of his own. The Lord was seen to walk upon the sea, trampling on the heads of all the proud in this life. In walking upon the foaming waves, He figured His own course when He tramples on the heads of the proud. The Church too does trample upon them: for Peter is the Church Herself. Nevertheless, Peter dared not by himself walk upon the waters; but what said he? “Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto You on the water.” He in His own power, Peter by His order; “bid me,” he says, “come unto You.” He answered, “Come.” For the Church also tramples on the heads of the proud; but since it is the Church, and has human weakness, that these words might be fulfilled, “If I said, My foot has slipt,” Peter tottered on the sea, and cried out, “Lord, save me!” and so what is here put, “If I said, My foot has slipt,” is put there, “Lord, I perish.” And what is here, “Your mercy, O Lord, has held me up,” is there put, “And immediately Jesus stretched forth His hand, saying, O thou of little faith, wherefore did you doubt?” It is wonderful how God proves men: our very dangers render Him who rescues us sweeter unto us. For see what follows: because he said, “If I said, My foot has slipt, Your mercy, O Lord, has held me up.” The Lord has become especially sweet unto him, in rescuing him from danger; and thus speaking of this very sweetness of the Lord, he exclaims and says, “O Lord, in the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart, Your comforts have refreshed my soul”. Many sorrows, but many consolations: bitter wounds, and sweet remedies.

18. “Will You have anything to do with the stool of iniquity, who makest sorrow in learning?”. He has said this, No wicked man sits with You, nor shall Thou have anything to do with the stool of iniquity. And he gives an account whereof he understands this, “For You make sorrow in learning.” For from this, because You have not spared us, do I understand that You have nothing to do with the stool of iniquity. You have this in the Epistle of the Apostle Peter, and for this reason he has adduced a testimony from the Scripture: “for the time has come,” he says, “that judgment must begin at the house of God;” that is, the time has come for the judgment of those who belong to the house of God. If sons are scourged, what must the most wicked slaves expect? For which reason he added: “And if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of God?” To which he added this testimony: “For if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?” How then shall the wicked be with You, if Thou dost not even spare Your faithful, in order that You may exercise and teach them? But as He spares them not, for this reason, that He may teach them: he says, “For You make sorrow in learning.” “Makest,” that is, formest: from whence comes the word figulus (from fingo), and a potter's vessel is called fictile: not in the meaning of fiction, a falsehood, but of forming so as to give anything being and some sort of form; as before he said, “He that fabricated (finxit) the eye, shall He not see?” Is that, “fabricated the eye” a falsehood? Nay, it is understood He fashioned the eye, made the eye. And is He not a potter when He makes men frail, weak, earthly? Hear the Apostle: “We have this treasure in earthen vessels.”...Behold our Lord Himself, how He shows Himself a potter. Because He had made man of clay, He anointed him with clay, for whom He had not made eyes in the womb. And so when he says, “Have You anything to do,” etc., he says, out of grief makest learning for us, so that grief itself becomes our instruction. How is sorrow our learning? When He scourges you who died for you, and who does not promise bliss in this life, and who cannot deceive, and when He gives not here what you seek. What will He give? When will He give? How much will He give, who gives not here, who here teaches, who makes sorrow in learning? Your labour is here, and rest is promised you. You take thought that you have toil here: but take thought what sort of rest He promises. Can you conceive it? If you could, you would see that your toil here is nothing toward an equivalent....