We learn three kinds of divine laws from blessed Paul. One unwritten kind he said was given to human beings in creation and nature: From the creation of the world, he says, his invisible attributes have been understood and seen in created things;^[1] and again, For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, practice the obligations of the law instinctively, despite having no law they are a law to themselves.^[2] . . . Another law was provided in writing through the mighty Moses: The Law was added because of transgressions, he says, ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator.^[3] He knew also a third one imposed after these, the law of grace: For the law of the Spirit of life, he says, has set me free from the law of sin and death.^[4] Blessed David in this psalm teaches human beings the harmony between these, following the same order: first, the one the Creator preaches in creation; then the one given through Moses, instilling a greater knowledge of the Creator to those willing to attend; after that, the law of grace, perfectly purifying souls and freeing them from the present destruction. This in fact is the reason the psalm also refers us to the end, naming the New Testament in the end.

This nineteenth psalm is doctrinal: just as the fourth, also being doctrinal, censures those claiming that existing things do not benefit from providence, so too the present psalm levels an accusation against those who claim . . . that existing things were made by no one, instead coming to be by themselves. Necessarily following on this is the view that these things also do not merit providence: with no admission of the Creator, the provider is also not acknowledged by them, either.

If you observe a most mighty and magnificent building, you admire the builder; and if you see a skillfully and beautifully designed ship, you think of the shipwright; and at the sight of a painting the painter comes to mind. Much more, to be sure, does the sight of creation lead the viewers to the Creator.

This verse serves as a lesson on how the great work of God is declared. People who have been blinded in the eyes of their minds have expelled from the natural order the hidden and invisible divine essence, which is incorporeal and uncreated, and cannot be touched in any way or recognized with carnal eyes. With a godless and wicked mouth they say that there is no God, that nothing excellent of a corporeal nature exists beyond its temporary appearance, and that the whole universe came together in a certain momentary and accidental coalescence and gathering of parts that previously existed by chance and without purpose. Thus, it was necessary in the present work by means of a psalm that the writer should prove through plain demonstration God’s omniscience and creative power. The nature of mortals is insignificant and fragile, the thoughts of people, foolish, and our reasoning uncertain. Therefore, we are no match for declaring the divine glory. For these worthy words and reflections about God cannot be proclaimed with human voices or with tongues or lips of flesh. If one who has the facility of a strong mind could hear that powerful and most worthy teaching that comes from the heavens, he would direct his mind and mount up to attend to those things, embracing them completely in himself, celebrating his Creator and the Maker of the universe with hymns and songs. For those heavens above us and those elements present in the firmament attest to a nature capable of being understood by and realized through the senses. They ascribe glory to God, not through any human language but through their adornment, by their very creation, through their ordered movement they teach his immeasurable majesty. . . . Whoever, therefore, thinks that such beauty and magnitude adorned itself or that the heavens created themselves, and then ascribes their harmonious and ordered motions to some process devoid of any divine power, is foolish and wicked. Therefore, those of sound mind confess that the part is a unified whole, and not only do they hear the cry of the heavens but also the proclamation from that very work together announcing glory to God, their Maker and Creator.

All nature serves the Word of God for our instruction. Through all the turning points of the year, as if through the four Gospels, we learn from the unceasing trumpet both what we should preach and what we should do. . . . What is there through which the truth does not speak to us? Its voice is heard in the day, it is heard in the night, and the beauty of all things, established by the work of one God, does not cease to put into the ears of our hearts a ruling order, to let us see the invisible things of God through those which have been made intelligible to us,^[1] and it is subject not to the creatures but to the Creator of all things.

How . . . do they declare it? Voice they have none; mouth they possess not; no tongue is theirs! How then do they declare? By means of the spectacle itself. For when you see the beauty, the breadth, the height, the position, the form, the stability thereof during so long a period; hearing as it were a voice, and being instructed by the spectacle, you adore him who created a body so fair and strange! The heavens may be silent, but the sight of them emits a voice that is louder than a trumpet’s sound, instructing us not by the ear but through the medium of the eyes, for the latter is a sense which is more sure and more distinct than the former.

The heavens show forth the glory of God not by speaking in a voice audible to sensible ears but by manifesting to us through their own greatness the power of the Creator, and when we remark their beauty, we give glory to their Maker as the best of all artificers.

Nevertheless, many have stumbled at it and in contrary directions to one another. And some have admired it so much above its worth as to think it God, while others have been so insensible of its beauty as to assert it to be unworthy of God’s creating hand and to ascribe the greater share in it to a certain evil matter. And yet God provided for both points by making it beautiful and great that it might not be deemed alien from his wisdom, yet defective and not sufficient to itself that it might not be suspected to be God.

Creation . . . points to God as its Maker and Artificer, who reigns over creation and over all things, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; whom would-be philosophers turn from to worship and deify the creation that proceeded from him, which yet itself worships and confesses the Lord whom they deny on its account. For if people are awestruck at the parts of creation and think that they are gods, they might well be rebuked by the mutual dependence of those parts; which moreover makes known and witnesses to the Father of the Word, who is the Lord and Maker of these parts also, by the unbroken law of their obedience to him, as the divine law also says [in this verse of the psalm]. . . . The proof of all this is not obscure but is clear enough in all conscience to those the eyes of whose understanding are not wholly disabled.

If someone, hypothetically, should seem to believe in Jesus but should not believe that the God of the law and of the gospel is one, whose glory the heavens declare, since they were made by him, and the work of whose hands the firmament proclaims, since it is their work, this person would be deficient in the greatest article of faith.

Any who are perfect, who have been made heavenly or have become [part] of heaven, declare the glory of God, as it says in the psalm. For this reason in brief also the apostles who were of heaven were sent to declare the glory of God and received the name of Boanerges, which is the sons of thunder,^[1] that by the power of thunder we might believe them truly to be heavens.

As heaven is lighted with the splendor of the stars, so do people shine with the light of their good works, and their deeds shine before their Father in heaven. The one is the firmament of heaven on high; the other is a similar firmament of which it is said, On this rock I will build my church.^[1] The one is a firmament of the elements, the other of virtues, and this last is more excellent.

The ordained succession of night and day illustrates the boundaries set by the Creator . . . the visible things are inanimate, being a kind of mask that teaches everyone to be led from visible things to the invisible God and to offer singing to him . . . by putting forth neither words nor verbal expressions but the norm, and demonstrating their own order, they summon all land and sea to the divine singing.

Now, where there is order there is also proof of the one determining order, and there too denial of being self-made, since what is not done by anyone cannot show order. All these visible things surely illustrate order. So he is saying, They announce some pattern and cry aloud the order of the orderer and the folly of the notion of being self-made.

The days and the nights teach those people who desire to be taught what ineffable wisdom, what incomprehensible power God has, who has measured out the intervals of time for them. If there were no one who would determine the space and the intervals for the seasons, but they existed in a thoughtless and unconsidered way by chance, it would happen that the days would not be ordered in equal spaces through the ages and there would be a confusion of things, and likewise the times of the nights would pass by chance or happenstance. Even the state of related matters would be disordered because of thoughtless chance, and confusion would follow the confused matter; but . . . reason rules the right order, and wisdom administers harmony and order. There are mutual changes and alterations; for the days, as the nights yield, are longer, and then the nights claim their space, rightfully due and given mutually, having been increased by winter and season. These things, I say, are not only voiced, but as they announce the knowledge of God to people they declare that most wise order of all things constituted by God. So the voices of the days and nights, by their very work being done, call out to them who are able to hear as their teaching reaches all ears. And the universe that is inhabited by people is replete with songs of this type and like choruses.

The accord and affinity of all things with one another that is controlled in an orderly and sequential manner is the primal, archetypal, true music. It is this music that the conductor of the universe skillfully strikes up in the unspoken speech of wisdom through these ever-occurring movements.

Yet, how can such declaring and showing forth be other than words, and how is it that no voice addresses itself to the ear? Is the prophet contradicting himself, or is he stating an impossibility, when he speaks of words without sound, and declaration without language and announcement without voice? Or, is there not rather the very perfection of truth in his teaching, which tells us, in the words that I have quoted, that the declaration of the heavens and the word shouted forth by the day, is no articulate voice or language of the lips but is a revelation of the power of God to those who are capable of hearing it, even though no voice is heard? . . . The very heavens, he says in displaying the wisdom of him who made them, all but shout aloud with a voice, and, though without voice, proclaim the wisdom of their Creator. For we can hear as it were words teaching us: O mortals, when you gaze on us and behold our beauty and magnitude and this ceaseless revolution, with its well-ordered and harmonious motion, working in the same direction and in the same manner, turn your thoughts to him who presides over our system, and, by aid of the beauty that you see, imagine to yourselves the beauty of the invisible Archetype. For in us there is nothing without its Lord, nothing that moves of its own proper motion, but all that appears or that is conceivable in respect to us depends on a Power who is inscrutable and sublime. This is not given in articulate speech but by the things which are seen, and it instills into our minds the knowledge of divine power more than if speech proclaimed it with a voice.

Behold the Lord’s greatness. The sound of his teaching has gone out into every land. Our Lord Jesus has been spread out to the whole world, because he is God’s power. . . . The power of the Lord and Savior is with those who are in Britain, separated from our world, and with those who are in Mauretania and with everyone under the sun who has believed in his name. Behold the Savior’s greatness. It extends to all the world.

The providence of God is clearer than the sun and its rays. On every occasion and in every place you will see clear and abundant evidence of this providence—in the desert, on cultivated and uncultivated land, on land and sea, wherever you go. This evidence is old and new. Voices are raised from every side that sound more clearly than the voices of our reason, and they tell of God’s care to one who wishes to hear. . . . Our tongue is known only to those who share our language, not to those of other tongues; but the voice of creation is audible to all peoples who dwell in the inhabited world. Those of good judgment regard as sufficient God’s proclamation, without the demonstration of deeds. It reveals not only his providence but also his abundant love for us; for he does not merely take thought for us but is also our lover, and he loves us boundlessly with an inconceivable love. It is a love that knows no emotion, but it is most warm and intense, noble, insoluble, unquenchable.

The Scythian, barbarian, Indian, Egyptian and everyone who walks on the earth shall hear this voice; for not by means of the ears but through the sight, it reaches our understanding. And of the things that are seen, there is one uniform perception; and there is no difference, as is the case with respect to languages. On this volume the unlearned, as well as the wise, shall be alike able to look; the poor person as well as the rich person; and wherever anyone may chance to come, there looking upward toward the heavens, he will receive a sufficient lesson from the view of them.

The voices of visible creation . . . are equally clear to everyone, both Greeks and barbarians, giving everyone the one message, that they were made by someone and do not exist of themselves.

The sun’s maker could only be seen by the sun’s light, because he set his tabernacle in the sun. He who was before the sun that he made, before the day star and all stars, before all angels, the true Creator (for all things were made by him, and without him was nothing made^[1]), that he might be seen by the eyes of flesh that see the sun, set his own tabernacle in the sun—showed his flesh in manifestation by this light.

The Lord placed his own tabernacle in the sun. Not in that sun that, by arranging the days, directs the measure of the hours according to the seasons, but the sun of righteousness,^[1] which, having been brought forth from the virginal womb in the splendor of eternal life has shone the true light to minds, and he has stepped forth from the Virgin just like the bridegroom from the bridal chamber. He rejoiced as a strong man running his course, and in every way he walked blameless on the way in the law of the Lord, having stepped forth from the highest heaven. Not from the seed of people, but from the word of the Father, who is in the highest of the heavens, his course is also the highest, not from the rising in the east, or as from the highest to the lowest points, but from highest to the highest and from excellence to excellence, and from the highest to the highest there will not be one who may hide himself from his heat.

Consider the apt disposition of the sun, or rather of him whose ordering determined its course; how in summer it is higher in the heavens and makes the days longer, thereby giving people good time for their works, while in winter it contracts its course that the cold season might not be too long and that the nights, becoming longer, might serve as the repose of people and for the fruitfulness of the earth’s products. See too how the days give way to each other in due order, lengthening in summer, growing shorter in winter, but in spring and autumn affording mutually equal intervals; and the nights likewise, so that the psalmist says, Day pours out word to day, and night to night imparts knowledge. For to the heretics, who have no ears, they all but shout, and by their good order they say that there is no other God save their Creator, who fixed their bounds and laid out the universe.

The sun renders the day brighter, shedding its rays like flashing lights and day by day revealing its own beauty in full bloom: as soon as it appears at dawn, it awakes the whole human race to the discharge of their respective duties. . . . Do you see how [in the psalm] he revealed to us both the sun’s beauty and its speed of movement? That is, in saying, Its span extends from one corner of heaven right to the other corner of heaven, it indicated to us how in one moment of time it traverses the whole world and scatters its rays from end to end, making its great resources available. It not only supplies heat to the earth but also dries it up, and not only dries it up but enkindles it and supplies us with many different resources, so marvelous a body is it, quite beyond one’s power to describe adequately. I mention this to you and sing the praises of this heavenly body so that you may not stop short there, dearly beloved, but proceed further and transfer your admiration to the Creator of the heavenly body. After all, the greater the sun is shown to be, so much the more marvelous is the revelation of the Creator.

He it is who comes forth as a bridegroom from his bridal chamber. For he [returns] even to the height; since no one has ascended into heaven except him who has descended from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven.^[1] He repeats this very same fact when he says, Father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.^[2] If this Word descended from heaven as a bridegroom to take on our flesh, so that in taking flesh he might ascend again as Son of man to that place where, as Son of God, the Word had descended, then assuredly, because of a mutual bond, the flesh bears the Word of God, and the Son of God assumes the weakness of the flesh. He ascends with his spouse, the flesh, to the same place from which he had descended without the flesh and receives now that glory that he is shown to have had before the creation of the world. This proves, without the least doubt, that he is God. Nevertheless, since the world itself is said to have been created after him, it is evident that it was created through him. This fact itself gives proof of the glory and the authority of the divinity that is in him, through whom the world was made.

But our very life came down to earth and bore our death, and killed death with the very abundance of his own life. And thundering, he called us to return to him into that secret place from which he came forth to us—coming first into the virginal womb, where the human creature, our mortal flesh, was joined to him that it might not be forever mortal—and came as a bridegroom coming out his chamber, rejoicing as a strong man to run a race. For he did not delay but ran through the world, crying out by words, deeds, death, life, descent, ascension—crying aloud to us to return to him. And he departed from our sight that we might return to our hearts and find him there. For he left us, and behold, he is here. He could not be with us long, yet he did not leave us. He went back to the place that he had never left, for the world was made by him.^[1] In this world he was, and into this world he came, to save sinners. To him my soul confesses, and he heals it, because it had sinned against him. O mortals, how long will you be so slow of heart? Even now after life itself has come down to you, will you not ascend and live?

The only-begotten God . . . has joined and united the divine and human nature in the unity of his person in such a way that they cannot in any way be separated from him. For in the one person of the only-begotten God, who like a bridegroom comes out from his wedding canopy, the union of each nature remains inseparable.

He came in the flesh intending to cleanse the vices of the flesh. He came, clothed in healing human clay, to cure our interior eyes that our outer earthy vesture had blinded, so that, with soundness of vision restored, we who had before been darkness might become a shining light in the Lord and so that the Light might no longer shine in darkness but might be clearly envisaged by those perceiving it. For this purpose, he came forth as a bridegroom from his chamber and has rejoiced as an athlete to run the course. Comely as a bridegroom, strong as a giant; amiable and terrible, severe and serene; beautiful to the good, stern to the evil—remaining in the bosom of his Father, he took possession of the womb of his mother. In this bridal chamber, that is, in the womb of the Virgin, he united human to divine nature. The Word was made flesh for us so that coming forth from his mother, he might dwell among us, and so that, going forth to his Father, he might prepare a dwelling place for us.

By heavenly power and co-operation, like a sun ray, the saving Word quickly illumined the whole earth. Straightway, in accordance with the divine Scripture, the voice of its inspired Evangelists and apostles went forth to the whole earth and their words to the end of the world. And then in all the cities and villages, churches were quickly established, filled with multitudes of people, like a teeming threshing floor, and all those souls, bound through hereditary succession and original error by the ancient disease of idolatrous superstition, on being set free as it were from terrible masters and finding release from most difficult bondage by the power of Christ through both the teaching of his disciples and their wonderful works, rejected all demoniacal polytheism and confessed that there was one God alone, the Creator of all things, and this One they honored with the rites of true piety through inspired and rational worship that was implanted by our Savior in the life of people.

Christ fills his world with copious lights, since his going out is from the end of heaven, and his circuit even to the end of it, and there is no one who can hide himself from his heat. Benignly he gives light to all, wishing not to repel the foolish but to correct them and desiring not to exclude the hard of heart from the church but to soften them. Hence . . . Christ in the Gospel invites them, saying, Come to me, all you who labor, and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you, and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.^[1]

And there is not one who may hide himself from his heat. Really there is none who does not have the seeds of the knowledge of God.

As often as water is contracted by excessive cold, if the heat of the sun comes on it, it becomes melted; when the same sun departs, the water again becomes hard. Similarly the charity of many people freezes because of the excessive coldness of their sins, and they become as hard as ice; however, when the warmth of divine mercy comes on them again, they are melted. Surely that is the heat of which it is written, Nothing escapes its heat.

Someone lights a lamp. . . . That lamp, as far as regards the little flame that shines there, that fire has light in itself. . . . When the lamp was not there, your eyes were inactive and saw nothing. Now they, too, have light, but not in themselves. Accordingly, if your eyes turn away from the lamp, they are darkened. If they turn toward it, they are enlightened. But that fire, as long as it exists, emits light; if you wish to take the light away from the fire, you extinguish it also at the same time; for without light it cannot remain in existence. But the light, Christ, is inextinguishable and co-eternal to the Father, always glowing, always shining, always burning; for if he did not burn, would it be said in the psalm, There is no one who can hide from his heat?

He calls the Mosaic law Law, testimony, judgments, command, decrees. . . . It is called Law in that it regulates and prescribes the best way of life; testimony in testifying against sinners and highlighting the punishment for transgression; judgments in teaching what is right, forbidding what is wrong and declaring virtuous people righteous; command in commanding what is to be done and giving orders authoritatively; decrees in revealing the divine verdicts and teaching what goods the observant will enjoy and to what punishments the transgressor will be consigned . . . the law of God, being free of every fault, corrects people’s souls and makes them faultless; the testimony gives wisdom to the immature and simple by frightening them; the judgments gladden the heart by revealing the basis of judgment; the command gives light to the mind’s eye, teaching what constitutes service to the God of all. While piety and the fear of God, in suggesting observance of these, procure enjoyment of the eternal good, it was right for him to speak of the fear of God as pure—that is, free from blame—for the reason that human fear is blameworthy, being synonymous with dread. Now, he called the decrees true and justified on account of their conferring on people both honors and warranted punishments. In conclusion, he said these are worth more than gold and precious stones and sweeter than honey—not to all human beings, however, but to those truly human, whose life is not comparable with the brute beasts.

What the written law does by teaching its intentions to those with a knowledge of writing the law in nature does by teaching those with an understanding eye that there is a Creator of visible realities.

The law cannot be fulfilled except by spiritual persons, and there cannot be such save by grace. The more one is assimilated to the spiritual law, the more one attains to a spiritual disposition, and the more one fulfills the law. The more one delights in it, the less one is afflicted by its burdensomeness and the more one is quickened by its light. . . . When grace forgives sins and infuses a spirit of charity, righteousness ceases to be hard and becomes even pleasant.

They are truly right, because he is known to have acted in the same say as he taught. In contrast, those whose words are not consistent with their works show that their version of justice is not right.

The fear of God is not an anxious confusion but an undaunted perseverance, a state that is not altered by any change in this life, but remains focused on the same thing with a sincere conscience. For human fear changes with time and is not holy, because it cannot be productive. But the fear of God does not have anything to do with the passions. For although one appropriately fears his Maker, he knows without a doubt that the one who judges him is merciful to those who seek him in prayer. Therefore whoever is known both to fear and to love his Judge lives in complete holiness. When love is combined with awe, it is the fear of the Lord, what is called reverence in secular terms.

Accordingly [this] is said [in the psalm] . . . For those who from fear turn to faith and righteousness remain forever.

As for that fear that is holy, enduring forever, if it can exist in the world to come—and how else can we interpret enduring forever?—it will not be a fear deterring us from an evil that might befall us but a fear preserving us in a good that can never be lost. For in a state where love of possessed good is utterly unchangeable, there, if I may put it thus, fear of all evil will be perfectly at peace. What holy fear really means is a will so fixed that we shall necessarily refuse to sin and guard against it, not out of worry or weakness lest we fall, because our love is perfectly at peace.

Sweet is the Word that gives us light, precious above gold and gems; it is to be desired above honey and the honeycomb. For how can it be other than desirable, since it has filled with light the mind that had been buried in darkness and given keenness to the light-bringing eyes of the soul? For just as, had the sun not been in existence, night would have brooded over the universe notwithstanding the other luminaries of heaven, so, had we not known the Word and been illuminated by him, we should have been nowise different from fowls that are being fed, fattened in darkness and nourished for death. Let us then admit the light that we may admit God; let us admit the light and become disciples to the Lord.

Sweet to the Mind. Cassiodorus: While honey and comb only taste good in the mouth, the judgments of the Lord offer a perfect sweetness for the mind.

[The words of God, the prophet says,] are desirable above gold and a very precious stone, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, but they are so only to those in sound health. Therefore he added, For your servant keeps them. And elsewhere again, after saying that they are sweet, he added, to my palate. How sweet to my palate, he says, are your promises. And he goes on to insist on their excellence by the words sweeter than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth,^[1] because he was in very sound health. Well, then, let us not on our part approach these words in ill health, but let us receive nourishment from them, after having restored our souls to health.

Renunciation [is] . . . the severance of the bonds of this material and transient life and freedom from human concerns, whereby we render ourselves more fit to set out on the road leading to God. It is the unhindered impulse toward the possession and enjoyment of inestimable goods, more to be desired than gold and many precious stones. In short, it is the transference of the human heart to a heavenly mode of life, so that we can say, But our conversation is in heaven.^[1] Also—and this is the chief point—it is the first step toward the likeness to Christ, who, being rich, became poor for our sake.^[2] Unless we attain to this likeness, it is impossible for us to achieve a way of life in accord with the gospel of Christ.

In the guarding of the precepts of God there is so much reward, that the sufferings of this time are not worth (comparing) to the future glory that will be revealed to us.^[1]

Having given instruction in regard to devotion, at this point he proceeds to speak of the sins in respect of human beings and puts people on the alert so as to realize what is an involuntary sin and what voluntary, and how they differ from each other, and further into how many types involuntary sin is divided. He employs an admirable division, first dividing sin into two, voluntary and involuntary. After this he divides the involuntary sin into three, since for example we fall when compelled, or through weakness or when mislead; or we do something when an incident occurs that is more influential than good intentions, or we prove too weak to overcome the power of lust and fall into sin, or in many cases we make a judgment with the best of intentions but by some deception we are inveigled into doing the opposite.

Although there are three ways to transgress through human errors—by thought, word and deed, by condensing that boundless sea of transgressions into an abbreviated form—he testifies that transgression flows from two sources. Hidden sin is what is termed original, in which we are conceived, born and sin with a secret desire. This happens when we covet the property of our neighbor, or desire to carry out vengeance on our enemies, or want to become more prominent than others, or seek more palatable food or similar desires which swell and steal on us in such a way that they escape the notice of many people before they take effect. If these sins do not become known to anyone , . . . we must still realize that there are many sins of which we are completely unaware, whose origins and deceptions we are not able to perceive. Therefore the text ought to be understood to refer to all sins when it says Who can understand his sins?

It is not my will to conceive sin; I do not want to entertain bad thoughts, and yet I do; I do not want to entertain evil, and, like a captive against my will, I am drawn into evil reflections. Because it is not in my power either to think or not to think evil, that is why I declare, Surely they are wanton sins that come into my heart, but since I cannot seem to avoid them, I plead, Cleanse me from my unknown faults. Unprovoked they come, but because I harbor them, I beg the Lord, From wanton sin especially restrain your servant. Why am I saying all this? Because the prophet said, I shall please the Lord; not I please but I shall please, for no matter how much I strive here, I cannot be a perfect man, a just man. Consequently, the apostle also says, We know in part, and we prophesy in part, and We see now through a mirror in an obscure manner.^[1]

Very often sins creep up on us through thoughts or desires or speech or action, as the result of necessity, through weakness or out of forgetfulness. If a person thinks only of serious sins and strives to resist only these but has little or no care about small sins, he incurs no less danger than if he committed more serious offenses. Therefore let us not think little of our sins because they are slight, but let us fear them because they are many. Drops of rain are small, but because they are very many, they fill rivers and submerge houses, and sometimes by their force they even carry off mountains. Concerning these it is written: He who scorns little things will fall little by little;^[1] and again: Who can detect failings? Who is there who guards his heart with such great vigilance that no idle word ever proceeds from his lips? However, an account must be rendered for this on the day of judgment. Who is there who does not lie? . . . Who is there from whose mouth an evil word does not sometimes issue? . . . Who could even count the sins that we consider small or almost nonexistent, even though sacred Scripture testifies that we are going to be severely punished for them? For this reason, with God’s help and in accord with the text of Solomon, [The just person falls seven times in a day and rises again,^[2]] let us keep our hearts with all watchfulness.

However great a person’s righteousness may be, he ought to reflect and think, lest there should be found something blameworthy that has escaped indeed his own notice, when that righteous King shall sit on his throne, whose cognizance no sins can possibly escape, not even those of which it is said, Who understands his transgressions? When, therefore, the righteous King shall sit on his throne, who will boast that he has a pure heart? Or who will boldly say that he is pure from sin?^[1] Except perhaps those who wish to boast of their own righteousness and not glory in the mercy of the Judge.

Although in any time there are many who lead an innocent life, and very many commend themselves to God by their habitual performance of good deeds, we should not however trust in the integrity of our conscience to such a point that we think that human weakness, living among scandals and temptations, can meet nothing that will harm it. The chief of prophets says, Who will boast that they have pure hearts or that they are cleansed from sin?^[1] [Here in this psalm] he says, From my hidden faults cleanse me, O Lord, and from dangerous ones spare your servant.

You must know then, dearly beloved, that God’s testing is not aimed at his getting to know something he was ignorant of before but at bringing to light what was hidden in a person, by means of a test, which is a kind of interrogation. People are not as well known to themselves as they are to their Creator, nor do the sick know themselves as well as the doctor does. A person is sick; he is suffering, the doctor is not suffering, and the patient is waiting to hear what he is suffering from from the one who is not suffering. That is why a man cries out in a psalm, From my hidden ones cleanse me, O Lord. There are things in a person that are hidden from the person in whom they are. And they will not come out, or be opened up or discovered, except through tests and trials and temptations. If God stops testing, it means the master has stopped teaching.

So wicked and hard to cure and strong are those things possessed in the depths of our souls that it is not possible to rub them out and to remove them through human efforts and virtue alone unless through prayer we take the power of the Spirit as an ally and, in this way, conquer the evil that is playing the tyrant within us, as the Spirit teaches us through the voice of David: Cleanse me from my unknown faults.

[The psalm] instructs us first on creation and providence; in the middle, on the Law; and finally, on grace.

He calls God his helper in good things and his redeemer from evil ones so that no one may attribute to his own merits what he has received through the generosity of heaven.

The third division is one of praise that teaches the impossibility of the Law, and since through transgressing it more sin had appeared in the world, the grace of the gospel has been made complete; nor is anyone able to be freed from the filthiness of his thinking except through the advent of the Holy Spirit.