The free person is the wise one who was bought with the price of heavenly speech, the gold and silver of God’s word, bought with the price of blood (not least important is it to know the buyer), bought with the price of grace, for he heard and understood the one who said, All you who thirst, come to the waters, and you that have no money, make haste, buy and eat and drink.

It is very marvelous how they can buy water without money and do not drink it but eat it. For he who came down from heaven is himself both bread and water. . . . We read that he mixed wine and wisdom in his bowl, telling all the fools of this age and the world who do not have wisdom to drink, that we buy not only wine but also milk, which signifies the innocence of little ones. The manner and type of this remains today in the Eastern churches, where wine and milk are given to the newborn in baptism.

Aquila translates like wine and milk so as to say not only water but also wine and milk are promised to the thirsty. Water is clearly the gospel message that flows from the spring of the Savior, but wine and milk hymn the mystery of the rebirth in Christ. . . . One should be mindful of the fact that according to the old covenant mystical milk is given to those reborn in Christ along with the body and blood of the new covenant. It is said to be kept even now as a custom in some churches, if not in a bodily at least in a spiritual way, in that the mystical blood is provided for those deemed worthy of the new life in Christ in the form of wine and milk. If with the Septuagint we read and suet—the fat and richness and nourishment of the spiritual food that is in Christ is here praised, just as our Savior revealed, saying, Unless you eat my flesh and drink of my blood, you shall not have life in you.^[1] So just as in Isaiah his body is called suet and as the blood is called wine, we understand the suet to mean his incarnate economy and the wine to mean the mystery of his passion.

How can they purchase, yet receive gifts without paying? Well, because we accept the payment in faith from Christ, and we pay for none of these things with short-term or perishable goods. For it says, I said to my Lord, ‘You are my Lord since you have no need of goods from me.’^[1] By way of gifts and honor to Christ we offer to Christ the confession of faith in him. So without money and payment comes this drink and bountiful gift of spiritual charisms. For what could we offer and what price could we pay for such a drink? For those drinking the living water are those enriched with grace through the Holy Spirit through participation in him and purchasing this through faith, since they are sharers of the wine and suet, that is, of the holy body and the blood of Christ.

What is good. . . . Abraham did not have good things because he was rich but because he used his riches well. And Lazarus,^[1] who later rested on Abraham’s bosom, did not suffer the pains of sickness and bear evils on the grounds of natural necessity; rather, he was pursued by evil people who thought truly good things were to be found in the world. Hence, the rich man of noble standing received good things in his life—which were food to him who thought they were good. Conversely, about Lazarus it is not said, He received his own bad things in his life, but rather he received evil things in his life, since they were not evils to him who suffered but seemed that way to others. Blessed Job has offered us an example of each, since he neither in good things nor in bad was overcome but endured all things with firm equanimity.

Behold what [Isaiah] has shown here, before indicating the road of righteousness. For it is thanks to all-holy baptism that we are justified freely, according to the divine apostle: by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.^[1] It is this the prophetic text likewise allows [us] to understand: And all that have no money, go and buy, and eat and drink wine and fat without money or price. The divine Scripture often calls righteousness money. The oracles of the Lord are pure oracles; as silver tried in the fire, proved in a furnace of earth.^[2] As for those who live with iniquity, call them rejected silver, for the Lord has rejected them.^[3] . . .

Here he rejected the sacrifices of the law. . . . The prophetic text teaches that these sacrifices gave no nourishment to the soul.

The Lord God, ever compassionate, is ready to bring people to good things, and he promises to give not only good things in the present but also the enjoyment of eternally good things in the hereafter. For he demands nothing other than a ready listener, one who takes in his words and is quick to respond willingly to his voice. To attend with the ears in the sense of physical hearing is only what seems to be meant here. For attending with the eyes, we are not able to hear with these, and we cannot see as we listen with our ears. The same is true in the case of the other senses. From this we can assume that we pay attention with the eyes of the mind and are able to listen with the ears. For the soul is single and with one form by nature, and with one power [it] is able to listen and to see. But the mass of your sins and ungodliness constricts you and hinders you from fleeing to him. But there would be no such great obstacle if you desire that mercy beyond words; for then such evils of yours would not defeat and overcome his compassion. For God is great in pity, and he will provide forgiveness for your sins and so will show you to be pure, so that no trace of your former sins will remain.

This covenant that the Lord promises will not be short-lived and for one age only, as it was of the Jewish people, but it will remain in eternity, in that the true David will come and the things promised in the gospel from the person of God will be fulfilled: I have found my servant David, and in holy mercy I have anointed him.

I will fulfill these covenants that had been made to David for them, clothing the human nature from the line of David according to the promise and bringing forth the New Testament.

For the law was not a perpetual and immoveable law, but it remained in force only as long as the time of its imposition. As the most wise Paul said, For the former and ancient command has a gap whose filling is to be sought in the second, that is, the new has many things quite different from the old.^[1] . . .

That second one is the eternal covenant, and that he fulfilled it for those approaching him by faith is confirmed when it immediately adds, the holy trustworthy things of David. This concerns the announcements about the Savior of us all, Christ, which are declared to be given to those who are attentive among the nations, or it means the divine and sacred prophecies of Christ, who was born from the seed of David according to his humanity. These are called holy, for they make perfect those in whom they dwell, just as the fear of God is called pure because it is purifying and the gospel word is called life because it gives life. . . . This is the power through Christ of these prophecies. . . .

For those who had never seen Christ on account of residing in gloom and darkness called on him, that is, they acknowledged Jesus as God and fled to him calling him their hope and shelter and means of salvation and called on him as God . . . for although according to the measure of humanity Christ was thought to be ignoble, he went back to that which was appropriate to him and divine and the highest glory—but not without his flesh.

How then am I to seek for you, Lord? When I seek for you, my God, my quest is for the happy life. I will seek you that my soul may live,^[1] for my body derives life from my soul, and my soul derives life from you. . . . Is not the happy life that which all desire, which indeed no one fails to desire?

Seek him while he can be found, while you are in the body and as long as an opportunity for penitence is provided, and seek him not in any particular place but in faith. Just how God is to be sought we learn elsewhere. . . . Taste of the Lord in goodness, and in simplicity of heart seek him.^[1] . . . For it is not enough to seek the Lord and while there is a time of penitence to find him and to call on him while he is near—unless the ungodly also leave their former ways and leave the old ways of thinking for those of the Lord.

He says, When you who seek have found, when you have called and have found pardon, flee the former road of ungodliness and immorality and show God your face, not your back. For he will grant you mercy and give you forgiveness of sins.

If, therefore, he who is sought can be found, why was it said, seek his face evermore? Or is he perhaps still to be sought even when he is found? For so ought we to seek incomprehensible things, lest we should think that we have found nothing, who could find only how incomprehensible is the thing that we are seeking. Why, then, does he so seek if he comprehends that what he seeks is incomprehensible, unless because he knows that he must not cease as long as he is making progress in the search itself of incomprehensible things and is becoming better and better by seeking so great a good, which is sought in order to be found and is found in order to be sought? For it is sought that it may be found sweeter and is found in order that it may be sought more eagerly.

Let the wicked forsake his own way, in which he sins; let the unrighteous abandon his thoughts with which he despairs of the forgiveness of sins and according to the prophet’s statement, return to the Lord, for he will abundantly pardon. In this abundantly, nothing is lacking. Here mercy is omnipotent and omnipotence is merciful. For so great is the kindness in God that there is nothing that he is unable to loose for the converted person.

God brings salvation to the human race in diverse and innumerable methods and inscrutable ways. He stirs up some, who already want it and thirst for it, to greater zeal, while other even in their resistance, he forces against their will. Sometimes he gives his assistance in the fulfillment of those things which he sees that we desire for our good, while at other times he instills in us the beginnings of holy desire and grants both the beginning of a good work and perseverance in it. . . . The blessed apostle, reflecting on the manifold bounty of God’s providence as he sees that he has fallen into some vast and boundless ocean of God’s goodness, exclaims: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are the judgments of God and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord?^[1] Whoever then imagines that he can by human reason fathom the depths of that inconceivable abyss, will be trying to explain away the astonishment at that knowledge, at which that great and mighty teacher of the gentiles was awed. For if a person thinks that he can either conceive in his mind or discuss exhaustively the designs of God through which he brings salvation to human beings, he certainly impugns the truth of the apostle’s words and asserts with profane audacity that his judgments can be scrutinized and his ways searched out. The Lord also witnesses to this when he says, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways.^[2]

He speaks these words clearly to the believers in the gospel that he delivered to the godless and lawless ones who were turning to him from the nations, presenting the word that was there in the beginning and is now coming down from the Father above like rain and snow in its descent to human beings, inasmuch as he makes their souls watered and fruit-bearing. . . . It is as though these words come out of Christ’s own mouth, so that there is no need to think of the spoken word reexpressed among us, since here is a physical mouthpiece for God.

For my counsels are not as your counsels. . . . Now if we admit to our favor household slaves when they have offended against us, on their promising to become better, and place them again in their former position and sometimes even grant them greater freedom of speech than before, much more does God act thus. For if God had made us in order to punish us, we might well have despaired and questioned the possibility of our own salvation. But if he created us for no other reason than his own good will, and with a view to our enjoying everlasting blessings, and if he does and contrives everything for this end, from the first day until the present time, what is there which can ever cause us to doubt? Have we provoked him severely, in a way no other person did? This is just the reason why we ought specially to abstain from our present deeds and to repent for the past and exhibit a great change. For the evils we have once perpetrated cannot provoke him so much as our being unwilling to make any change in the future. For to sin may be a merely human failing, but to continue in the same sin ceases to be human and becomes altogether devilish.

If you would, he says,

Ascend to heaven, banish cares of earth.

For far as earth is distant from the sky

And heaven from the world below, so far

Are your vain thoughts from my eternal thoughts,

Ill from good, sin from virtue, dark from light.

I counsel you to shun all passing things

And deem as nought all to corruption prone,

For it is destined to return to nought.

All earth brings forth and holds, at dawn of time

I made; I decked with splendid ornaments

The shining world and formed the elements,

But willed that the enjoyment be confined

Within due bounds, as far as mortal frame

And fleeting human life may have the need,

Not that humanity, by unbridled passion ruled,

Should reckon good alone things sweet and vain,

Which I have preordained to pass with time. AGAINST

For the rain and the snow do not return to heaven but accomplish in the earth the will of him that sends them. So the word that he shall send through his Christ, who is himself the Word and the Message, shall return to him with great power. For when he shall come and bring it, he shall come down like rain and snow, and through him all that is sown shall spring up and bear righteous fruit, and the word shall return to his sender; but not in vain shall his going have been, but thus shall he say in the presence of his sender, Behold, I and the children that the Lord has given me.^[1] And this is the voice through which the dead shall live. And this is the voice of God that shall sound from on high and raise up all the dead.

For my thoughts are not like the thoughts of human beings, and as far as the heaven is from the earth, so much are my thoughts separated from the thoughts of human beings. For I am extremely gracious and very much for forgiving . . . so that once I have promised and it has come out of my mouth, it will not be void, but everything will be completed through its efficacy. According to the anagogical sense, there is a double meaning here, because the Word of the Lord or he about whom it is written, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word.^[1] God’s word does not return to him void, only through his doing the will of his Father as he filled all things on account of which he had become embodied and reconciled the world to God. He is the One who is said to proceed out of his mouth and out of the womb and vulva, not that God has bodily parts like that but so that we learn the nature of the Lord through our words. Or it indeed could be said that the word of gospel teaching may be called rainstorms and the rain that the spiritual clouds pour over the good earth, where the truth of God has reached.

We stand far apart from each other, as far as the heaven is from the earth. For you hate me, while I love you. You avoid me, while I call you. You fight me, while I work for your benefit.

The mountains are the heavenly powers that are instituted in heaven by God for the sake of those who are on the earth. For they are ministering spirits sent for the service of those inheriting the future salvation.^[1] And they also offer thanks for even one repentant sinner.^[2] . . . Or they could be understood to be those who have a teaching practice in the church and care not for earthly things but those that are above. . . . And the trees of the field can be understood as those who are perfected among the people. For the Savior has a flowering garden. And since, indeed, it flourishes there and produces good fruit, it is written in the Song of Songs of the bride, May my beloved come into his garden.^[3]

Thus when it is said in the Gospel, A good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit,^[1] in no way does this refer to the property of nature, as the heretics maintain, but to the will of the mind. . . . From this it is clear that each by his own will can make his soul a good or bad tree, which produced different fruit.

For in the hearts of the saints, instead of the baseness of earthly thoughts, the loftiness of heavenly contemplation rises up. Now the thorn is of a very fiery nature, while the cypress is of a moderate strength. Instead of the brier the myrtle comes up, when the minds of the righteous turn from the lasciviousness and heat of vices to the coolness and temperance of thoughts that do not desire the earthly things but with heavenly desires extinguish the flames of the flesh.

Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle. The spiritual meaning of these words refers to the change of customs, which sprouted and rose up in the advent of Christ among those nations who embraced his faith. Instead of thorns, which represent the sins, and instead of the brier, which is devoid of fruits, the sweet-smelling cypress and the myrtle have risen, which are figures of the actions of virtue, purity and holiness and . . . are pleasing to God and delight him.

He has shown by this the change undergone by the foreign nations. For people who formerly resembled useless and rampant weeds, behold, after having had knowledge of the Savior, they have imitated the height of the cypress and the sweet aroma of the myrtle. They proclaim by their deeds the power of our God and Savior, in offering their own change as a sign [to others] and as a miracle, great, astonishing and lasting. Thus, this sign will be eternal and shall not fail. . . . Let us therefore offer ourselves [to others] as a sign worthy of our God and Savior, not only in adhering to the holy precepts but also in embracing the mode of life corresponding thereto, to the end that seeing our good works people may glorify your Father in heaven.^[1] To him are due all glory, honor and magnificence, together with his only-begotten Son and the All-Holy Spirit, now and forever and to ages of ages. Amen.