As smoke vanishes, so may they vanish! As wax flows from the face of the fire, so may sinners perish from the face of God! In those two verses, through a double simile, the punishment of sinners is foretold. The smoke is a dark gathering of mass that arises under that destructive flame. The higher the smoke rises up, the thinner it becomes throughout the void. Sinners are deservedly likened to smoke inasmuch as they produce smoke-bearing deeds from the flame of their wickedness. Although these deeds arise to heights, as their arrogance ensures, they must needs vanish like smoke by their own conceit. The other comparison to sinners follows. Wax is a soft and pliable substance gathered from honeycombs. It is dissolved by the heat of the fire so that its bodily nature is taken away from within. The image of wax is aptly applied to sinners because at the judgment sinners will be undone in this way before the face of God himself, just as the delicacy of wax is consumed by a nearby fire. And see that here he does not say that sinners, who must be tortured with everlasting fire, can be consumed here in their own substance (just as some of those in error^[1] attempt to say), but he says that they will perish before the face of God because they will never come to his grace and kindness. And note that the figure of speech in these verses is a parable,^[2] that is, a comparison of items dissimilar in kind, for smoke and wax are recognized to have been compared to sinners.

Concerning you,^[1] the defenders of idolatry, were these words spoken by the prophet. For a very, very little while and your place shall not be found, but just as the smoke vanishes, and just as wax melts near a fire, so you will fail. But, as touching the divine wisdom of the gospel, the Lord says, Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.^[2] And again the psalmist says, You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of your hands. They shall perish, but you endure; and they all will wax old as does a garment, and you will fold them up as a vestment, and they shall be changed, but you are the same, and your years will not fail!^[3] And those divine preachers of the coming of Christ, those wise fishers of the world, whose nets drew all people from the depths of deceit, whom you, in your wickedness and bondage to sin, do vilify, did by signs and wonders and manifold powers shine as the sun in the world, giving sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, motion to the lame and life to the dead. Their shadows alone healed all the ailments of humankind. The devils, whom you dread as gods, they not only cast forth from people’s bodies but even drove out of the world itself by the sign of the cross, whereby they destroyed all sorcery and rendered witchcraft powerless. And these men, by curing every human disease by the power of Christ, and renewing all creation, are rightly admired as preachers of truth by all persons of sound mind.

What do I mean? If you ever wish to associate with someone, make sure that you do not give your attention to those who enjoy health and wealth and fame as the world sees it, but take care of those in affliction, those in critical circumstances, those in prison, those who are utterly deserted and enjoy no consolation. Put a high value on associating with these; for from them you shall receive much profit, you will be a better lover of the true wisdom, and you will do all for the glory of God. And if you must visit someone, prefer to pay this honor to orphans, widows and those in want rather than to those who enjoy reputation and fame. God has said, I am the father of orphans and the protector of widows.^[1] And again, Judge for the fatherless, defend the widow. Then come and let us talk, says the Lord.^[2]

Who then is so profane and lacking in faith, who so insane by the fury of discord as either to believe that the unity of God, the garment of the Lord, the church of Christ can be torn asunder or to dare to do so? He warns us in the Gospel, and teaches, saying, And there shall be one flock and one shepherd.^[1] And does anyone think that there can be either many shepherds or many flocks in one place? Likewise the apostle Paul introducing this same unity to us beseeches and urges us in these words: I beseech you, brothers, he says, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing, and that there be no dissensions among you but that you be perfectly united in the same mind and in the same judgment.^[2] And again he says, Bearing with one another in love, careful to preserve the unity of the Spirit, in the bond of peace.^[3] Do you think that you can stand and live, withdrawing from the church and building for yourself other abodes and different dwellings, when it was said to Rahab, in whom the church was prefigured: You shall gather your father and your mother and your brethren and the entire house of your father to your own self in your house, and it will be that everyone who goes out of the door of your house shall be his own accuser;^[4] likewise, when the sacrament of the Passover contains nothing else in the law of the exodus than that the lamb that is slain in the figure of Christ be eaten in one house? God speaks, saying, In one house it shall be eaten; you shall not carry the flesh outside of the house.^[5] The flesh of Christ and what is holy to the Lord cannot be carried outside, and there is no other house for believers except the one church. This house, this hospice of unanimity, the Holy Spirit designates and proclaims, when he says, God who makes those of one mind to dwell in his house. In the house of God, in the church of Christ, those of one mind dwell; they persevere in concord and simplicity.

Such characters the Lord calls ravenous wolves that show themselves in sheep’s clothing.^[1] Avoid inconstancy and fickleness, pursue truth, sincerity, simplicity. The serpent is subtle and for that reason has been condemned to crawl. The just person is without pretense, such as was Jacob.^[2] Therefore, the Lord makes the solitary to dwell in a house.^[3] So in this great sea,^[4] which stretches wide its arms, there are creeping things without number, creatures little and great.^[5] Nevertheless, there is a certain wisdom among them and an orderly arrangement. Not only are we able to find fault with the fish, but there is also something worthy of imitation in them. How is it that all of the different species of fishes, having been allotted a place suitable for them, do not intrude on one another but stay within their own bounds? No surveyor apportioned the dwellings among them; they were not surrounded with walls or divided by boundaries; but what was useful for each was definitely and spontaneously settled. This bay gives sustenance to certain kinds of fish, and that one, to other kinds; and those that teem here are scarce elsewhere. No mountain extending upward with sharp peaks separates them; no river cuts off the means of crossing; but there is a certain law of nature that allots the habitat to each kind equally and justly according to its need.

Obviously, the time to pray is when we are all praying. Of course, you may pray privately whenever and as often as you choose. But do not, under the pretext of prayer, miss the lesson. You can always pray whenever you will, but you cannot always have a lesson at hand. Do not imagine that there is little to be gained by listening to the sacred lesson. The fact is that prayer is improved if our mind has been recently fed on reading and is able to roam among the thoughts of divine things that it has recently heard. The word of the Lord assures us that Mary, the sister of Martha, chose the better part when she sat at the feet of Jesus, listening intently to the word of God without a thought of her sister.^[1] We need not wonder, then, if the deacon in a clear voice like a herald warns all that, whether they are praying or bowing the knees, singing hymns or listening to the lessons, they should all act together. God loves people of one manner^[2] and, as was said before, makes them to dwell in his house. And those who dwell in this house are proclaimed by the psalm to be blessed, because they will praise God forever and ever. Amen.

When you ventured forth in the midst of your people, O God, when you passed through the wilderness, earth shook and the heavens sent down drops. Symmachus^[1] rendered it thus, O God, when you went before your people, moving through the uninhabited land, earth shook and heaven sent down drops. On the point of passing through that barren and uninhabited land, which had not yet felt the light’s ray, you disturbed the earth and shook it, and from heaven you sent down the shower of grace. Now, in the one case, this happened at the crucifixion. At that time the earth shook and the rocks broke open,^[2] and all the earth was disturbed on gaining the impression that the Creator of all was hung up on the cross; in the other case, after the return to heaven. At that time the grace of the Spirit came on the apostles, like drops of dew. Then, to teach Jews more clearly who was doing all this, he added, at the presence of the God of Sinai, at the presence of the God of Israel. The one who appeared to our forebears on Mount Sinai, he is saying, is the one who also shook the earth at the time of the passion to refute our folly and who made the gift of the Spirit.

Again, Aeschylus^[1] the tragedian, setting forth the power of God, does not shrink from calling him the Highest, in these words: Place God apart from mortals; and think not That he is, like yourself, corporeal You know him not. Now he appears as fire, Dread force; as water now; and now as gloom; And in the beasts is dimly shadowed forth, In wind, and cloud, in lightning, thunder, rain; And minister to him the seas and rocks, The mountains tremble, and the earth, the vast Abyss of sea, and towering height of hills, When on them looks the Sovereign’s awful eye: Does he not seem to you to paraphrase that text, At the presence of the Lord the earth trembles? ^[1]

Damasus cleansed not, Peter cleansed not, Ambrose cleansed not, Gregory cleansed not; for ours is the ministry, but the sacraments are yours. For human power cannot confer what is divine, but it is, O Lord, your gift and that of the Father, as you have spoken by the prophets, saying, I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh, and their sons and their daughters shall prophesy.^[1] This is that typical dew from heaven, this is that gracious rain, as we read: A gracious rain, dividing for his inheritance. For the Holy Spirit is not subject to any foreign power or law but is the arbiter of his own freedom, dividing all things according to the decision of his own will, to each, as we read, individually as he wills.

O God, when you went forth at the head of your people. This accords with history, when God preceded his people as they marched out of Egypt.^[1] When you marched through the wilderness. God did not delay in the desert but passed through it. The earth quaked; it rained from heaven at the presence of the God of Sinai. It rained from heaven: that is, it rained manna. Sinai signifies temptation. God dwells, therefore, in those who are tempted and overcome temptation; in those who seek sensual gratification, however, he does not dwell. A bountiful rain you showered down, O God, on your inheritance. This refers to the law that was given through Moses. You restored the land when it languished. The law languished because no one was able to fulfill it except the Lord, who said, I have not come to destroy the law but to fulfill.^[2]

First we had to be persuaded how much God loved us, in case out of sheer despair we lacked the courage to reach up to him. Also we had to be shown what sort of people we are that he loves, in case we should take pride in our own worth and so bounce even further away from him and sink ever more under our own strength. So he dealt with us in such a way that we could progress rather in his strength; he arranged it so that the power of love should be brought to perfection in the weakness of humility. This is the meaning of the psalm where it says, O God, you are setting apart a voluntary rain for your inheritance, and it has been weakened; but you have perfected it. What he means by voluntary rain is nothing other than grace, which is not paid out as earned but given gratis; that is why it is called grace. He was not obliged to give it because we deserved it; he gave it voluntarily because he wished to. Knowing this, we will put no trust in ourselves, and that is what to be weakened means. He however perfects us—as he said to the apostle Paul, my grace is enough for you; strength is made perfect in weakness.^[1] So we needed to be persuaded how much God loves us, and what sort of people he loves; how much case we despaired, what sort in case we grew proud.

And the divine Scriptures bear witness both to the preaching of the gospel by the apostles and to that by our Savior. David, on the one hand, says of the apostles, and perhaps also of the Evangelists, The Lord shall give the word to them that preach good tidings with great power; the king of powers^[1] is of the beloved. At the same time he also teaches that it is not the composition of a speech and the utterance of sounds and the practiced beauty of speech that produce persuasion, but the provision of divine power. . . . Simon and Cleopas testify to this power and say, Was not our heart burning on the road as he opened the Scripture to us?^[2] And since the quantity of power God supplies to those who speak also differs, the apostles had great power in accordance with David’s statement: The Lord shall give the word to them that preach good tidings with great power.

For the word of God declares that the preaching (although in itself true and most worthy of belief) is not enough to touch the human heart, unless God gives to the speaker a certain power and his words have a certain grace. It is only by divine agency that this takes place in those who speak effectively. The prophet says in Psalm 67 [LXX] that the Lord will give a word with great power to them who preach. Then, if it should be granted with respect to certain points, that the same doctrines are found among the Greeks as in our own Scriptures, yet they do not possess the same power of attracting and influencing the souls of people to follow them. Therefore the disciples of Jesus, men ignorant so far as Greek philosophy is concerned, traveled through many countries of the world and impressed, agreeably to the desire of the Logos, each one of their hearers according to his desires, so that they received a moral improvement in proportion to their willingness to accept of that which is good.

This,^[1] according to David, is God’s chariot. The chariot of God, he says, is multiplied ten times a thousand times; that is, it is incalculable, infinite, immeasurable. Under the yoke of the natural law that was given to all, some things are checked, as though they were drawn back by reins; whereas others are driven forward, as though they were urged on by slackened reins. The world, this chariot of God and all that is therein, is guided by the angels^[2] and the stars. Although their movements are varied—bound, nevertheless, by fixed laws—we see them guided to their goals according to the time measured out to them. So may we deservedly cry out with the apostle as we admire the Maker and his works: Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God; how inscrutable are his judgments and how unsearchable his ways,^[3] and the rest of the passage.

It does not escape our notice that some copies^[1] have likewise, according to Luke: How much more shall your heavenly Father give a good gift to them that ask him. This good gift is the grace of the Spirit, which the Lord Jesus shed forth from heaven, after having been fixed to the gibbet of the cross, returning with the triumphal spoils of death deprived of its power, as you find it written: Ascending up on high he led captivity captive, and gave good gifts to people. And well does he say gifts, for as the Son was given, of whom it is written: Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given,^[2] so, too, is the grace of the Spirit given. But why should I hesitate to say that the Holy Spirit also is given to us, since it is written: The love of God is shed forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us.^[3] And since captive hearts certainly could not receive him, the Lord Jesus first led captivity captive, that our affections being set free, he might pour forth the gift of divine grace.

Then there is the apostle Paul: To each one of us, he says, is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ, and to show that the gift of Christ is the Holy Spirit he went on to add, That is why it says, he ascended on high, he took captivity captive, he gave gifts to people. But it is public knowledge that when the Lord Jesus had ascended to heaven after his resurrection from the dead he gave the Holy Spirit; and being filled with it those who believed began to speak with the tongues of all people.^[1] And do not let it worry you that he says gifts, not gift. He was quoting the text from a psalm, and what we read in the psalm is, you have ascended on high, you have taken captivity captive, you have received gifts among people. This is the reading of most codices, especially the Greek ones, and we have it translated like this from the Hebrew. So the apostle said gifts just as the prophet did, not gift; but while the prophet said you have received them among people, the apostle preferred to say he has given them to people, in order that we might get the fullest meaning from both statements, the one prophetic, the other apostolic, since each has the authority of the divine utterance behind it.

[David] had expectations from God in line with the old covenant, not realizing that it contains signs of things to come—so he was expecting to receive good fortune in this life from God, and he was looking on this earth for what God is keeping for his people in heaven. He wanted to be happy here, though happiness is not to be found here. Happiness, you see, is of course something great and good, but it has its own proper region. It was from the region of happiness that Christ came, and not even he found it here. He was jeered at, he was reviled, he was arrested, he was scourged, he was bound, he was knocked about, insulted with spittle, he was crowned with thorns, hanged on a tree. And finally—even for the Lord is the departure of death. It is written in a psalm (those who caught the allusion applauded): Even for the Lord is the departure of death. So why, slave, do you seek happiness here, where even for the Lord is the departure of death?

But what are we to make of the fact that an eagle often snatches away its prey and often takes the prey belonging to another? But not even in this respect is the Savior unlike the eagle. In a manner of speaking, he indeed took away the prey when he carried mankind to heaven, whom he bore after snatching them away from the jaws of hell; he brought to the heights the captive slave out of his captivity, whom he rescued from the lordship of another, that is, from the devil’s power, as it is written in the prophet, When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to mankind. At any rate, this sentence is understood in this way, namely, that the Lord by rescuing mankind took captive for himself the captivity of mankind, whom the devil had taken captive for his benefit, and thus, just as he says, he took captivity itself captive and brought it to the heights of the heavens. Therefore, both captivities are designated by the one word, but they are not equal. For the captivity of the devil subjects one to slavery, but the captivity of Christ restores one to freedom.

Nonetheless, God shattered the heads of his enemies and of those who walk in their sins through a head of hair.^[1] Lest the evils of the obstinate be thought to be unpunished, he says, Nonetheless God shattered the heads of his enemies, so that you would recognizes that punishment also comes upon the treacherous and obstinate. The heads of the enemies are indeed the authors of the Jewish rebellion, but also without doubt the teachers of the heretics. For the former persecuted Christ in the flesh, but the latter rage furiously against the very deity (if one can even mention such a blasphemous thing!). Next follows the phrase of those who walk through a head of hair, that is, who seek such minutia of pretenses so that they seem to be able to walk through the very heads of hair and scrutinize them thoroughly. This refers to the cunning of empty questions, which abandon matters that would be useful and seek after unnecessary matters in their abominable arguing. And in order to attest to their studies as idle, he adds in their sins, because their thinking was foolish, which led them to their faults. Examples are the Mani-cheans, the Priscilians, the Donatists, the Montanists^[2] and others who mix themselves with the stenches of their filthy teaching.

You ask what is meant by these words in Psalm 67 [LXX]: But God shall break the heads of his enemies: the hairy crown of them that walk on in their sins. It seems to me it means simply that God will break the heads of his enemies who are too overwhelming, who rise too high in their sins. By a certain hyperbole he describes pride as rising so high and rushing along with such eagerness that it is like striding and running over the hair of the head.

Likewise, in the same psalm, where it says, the tongue of your dogs from the enemies by the same,^[1] dogs should not always be taken in an evil sense, otherwise the prophet would not blame dogs not able to bark and loving to dream:^[2] doubtless they would be praiseworthy dogs if they both knew how to bark and loved to watch. And certainly those three hundred men^[3]—a most sacred number according to the letter of the cross^[4]—would not have been chosen to win the victory because they lapped water as dogs do, unless some great mystery were signified. Good dogs watch and bark to protect their house and their master, their flock and their shepherd. Finally, even here in the praises offered by the church, when a selection is made from this prophecy, it is the tongue of dogs that is mentioned, not their teeth. The tongue of your dogs, it says, from the enemies, that is, that those who used to be your enemies and raged against you may become your dogs and may bark for you. It added from the same to make them understand that this is not effected by themselves, but by the same, that is, by his mercy and grace.

I think that here none but the apostles can be meant by the rulers of Naphtali. For thence our Lord and Savior called them according to the quotation from Matthew. The Scripture is prophesying the coming of the Word of God to human beings and his incarnate sojourn here, when it says, Your goings [solemn processions], O God, have been seen, and that which follows. And the prophets of old were like heralds of his epiphany and arrived before him with proclamation and chant, with music of psaltery and choir and all kinds of spiritual instruments, in the midst of maidens playing on timbrels. For the inspired prophets going in every way into the midst of the Jewish synagogues heralded the coming of the Christ, and by the Holy Spirit they addressed the apostles of our Savior, saying, Praise the Lord God in the congregations from the fountains of Israel. And the fountains of Israel must be the words delivered to Israel. For they [the inspired prophets] first trusted the oracles of God, whence it will be necessary for us to draw and water the churches of Christ. By maidens playing on timbrels he suggested the souls that lived in the past by the more external law of Moses, calling them maidens because of their youth and imperfectly developed minds and timbrel players because of their devotion to external worship.

Then the people of Israel came to the twelve springs after Marah.^[1] We read in the prophet, Bless the Lord from the springs of Israel. It is the Christ, who is blessed in no other way than the mouths of the apostles and the teaching of the disciples. The apostles ought to be called springs, since they abound in the grace of preaching like purest springs and sprinkle the sweet cup of the sacrament from the abundant wisdom of their veins after the bitterness of the law. Nor is it astonishing if the drink of the springs is sweet, in whose midst the food of the palms is also sweeter. But as for the seventy palm trees planted next to the apostolic springs, I would say that they are those seventy disciples who for the sake of mankind’s salvation are directed by the Lord in a degree second only to the apostles. The evangelist Luke in his description of them asserts that they were appointed two by two.^[2] Like palm trees, they returned with exultation after healing people and boasted before the Lord that even the demons were subjected to them.^[3] Therefore, they are rightly compared to palms since they emerge as victors over the devil, adorned with the prize of the palms.

Therefore we know both the will to do good and the ability to do good come from God. David agrees completely with this, showing that by the command of divine generosity the grace of a good will is granted: Our steps are made firm by the Lord when he delights in our way.^[1] We have no good works in us unless they come from God, and we bear witness that it is done in God, saying, Show your strength, O God, as you have done for us before. And in another place: With God we shall do valiantly,^[2] that is, the work of virtue. So here in the place of the work of virtue, he said virtue just as John, for the work of justice, spoke of doing justice. For he says, The person who acts in righteousness is righteous.^[3] Paul also wants us to do the will of God, saying, May the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep by the blood of the eternal covenant, Jesus our Lord, furnish you with all that is good, that you may do his will.^[4]

Arise and go to the south.^[1] It is well that it was in the south that this man^[2] was sought, found and washed clean. Burning with devotion in his breast, he deserved to be consecrated to God as, so to speak, the firstfruits of the Gentiles. In him especially was fulfilled that saying of the psalmist, Ethiopia will stretch out its hands to God.

And so, since God is spiritual light^[1] and Christ in sacred Scripture is called Sun of Justice and orient,^[2] the east should be dedicated to his worship. For everything beautiful should be dedicated to God from whom everything that is good receives its goodness. Also, the divine David says, Sing to God, all you kingdoms of the earth: sing to the Lord; who mounts above the heaven of heavens, to the east. And still again, Scripture says, And the Lord had planted a paradise in Eden to the east; wherein he placed man whom he had formed, and whom he cast out, when he had transgressed, and made him to live over against the paradise of pleasure,^[3] or in the west. Thus it is that, when we worship God, we long for our ancient fatherland and gaze toward it. The tabernacle of Moses had the veil and the propitiatory^[4] to the east; and the tribe of Judah, as being the more honorable, pitched their tents on the east;^[5] and in the celebrated temple of Solomon the gate of the Lord was set to the east. As a matter of fact, when the Lord was crucified, he looked toward the west, and so we worship gazing toward him. And when he was taken up, he ascended to the east, and thus the apostles worshiped him, and thus he shall come in the same way as they had seen him going into heaven,^[6] as the Lord said: As lightning comes out of the east and appears even into the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.^[7] And so, while we are awaiting him, we worship toward the east. This is, moreover, the unwritten tradition of the apostles, for they have handed many things down to us unwritten.