"Shall I eat the flesh of bulls, or shall I drink (continued)
PsaiM LI.] ON THE PSALMS. 189 for praise, it is used also for showing evil. The devil hath been called lion: " Your adversary," He saith, "like a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom He may devour."! May it not be that whereas he hath been called lion because of savage fierceness, Christ hath been called Lion for wondrous mightiness? And where is that, "The Lion hath prevailed of the tribe of Juda gre 8.
thought that reward was owing.? He therefore that knoweth himself to belong to grace, doth know what is Christ and what is Christ's, because he needeth grace. If grace it is called, gras it is given; if grads it is given, not any merits of thine have preceded that it should be given. . . .
PSALM. LI.7°
30. "Sacrifice of praise shall glorify Me" (ver. 23). How shall " sacrifice of praise glorify Me"? Assuredly sacrifice of praise doth no wise profit evil men, because they take Thy Covenant in their mouth, and do damnable things that displease Thine eyes. Straightway, he saith, even to them this I say, " Sacrifice of praise shall glorify Me." For if thou livest ill and speakest good words, not yet dost thou praise : but again, if, when thou beginnest to live well, to thy merits thou dost ascribe thy living well, not yet dost thou praise. . . . Therefore the Publican went down justified, rather than that Pharisee. Therefore hear ye that live well, hear ye that live ill: ''Sacrifice of praise shall glorify Me." No one offereth Me this sacrifice, and is evil. I say not, Let there not offer Me this any one that is evil; but no one doth offer Me this, that is evil. For he that praiseth, is good: because if he praiseth, he doth also live well, because if he praiseth, not only with tongue he praiseth, but life also with tongue doth agree.
1. Neither must this multitude's throng be defrauded, nor their infirmity burthened. Silence we ask, and quiet, in order that our voice, after yesterday's labour, be able with some little vigour to last out. It must be believed, that your love hath met together in greater numbers to-day for nothing else, but that ye may pray for those whom an alien and perverse inclination doth keep away.
For we are speaking neither of heathens nor of Jews, but of Christians: nor of those that are yet Catechumens, but of many that are even baptized, from the Laver of whom ye do no wise differ, and yet to their heart ye are unlike. For to-day how many brethren of ours we think of, and deplore their going unto vanities and lying. insanities, to the neglect of that to which they have been called. Who, if in the very circus from any cause they chance to be startled, do immediately cross themselves,'! and stand bearing It on the forehead, in the very place, from whence they had withdrawn, if they had borne It in heart. God's mercy must be implored, that He may give understanding for condemning these things, inclination to flee them, and mercy to forgive. Opportunely, then, of Penitence a Psalm to-day has been chanted. Speak we even with the absent: there will be to them for our voice your memory. Neglect not the wounded and feeble, but that ye may more easily make whole, whole ye ought to abide. Correct by reproving, comfort by addressing, set an example by living well, He will be with them that hath been with you. For now that ye have overpassed these dangers, the fountain of God's mercy is not closed. Where ye have come they will come; where ye have passed they will pass. A grievous thing it is indeed, and exceeding perilous, nay ruinous, and for certain a deadly thing, that witting they sin. For in one way to these vanities doth he run that despiseth the voice of Christ; in another way, he that knoweth from what he is fleeing. But that not even of such men we ought to despair, this Psalm doth show.
31. "And there is the way whereby I will show him the salvation of God." In sacrifice of praise "is the way." What is "the salvation of God"? Christ Jesus. And how in sacrifice of praise to us is shown Christ? Because Christ with grace came to us. These words saith the Apostle : " But I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me: but that in flesh I live, in faith I live of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.''3 Acknowledge then sinners, that there would not need physician, if they were whole.t For Christ died for the ungodly.5 When then they acknowledge their ungodlinesses, and first copy that Publican, saying, " Lord, be merciful to me asinner : "' © show wounds, beseech Physician: and because they praise not themselves, but blame themselves, —''So that he that glorieth, not in himself but in the Lord may glory,' 7—they acknowledge the cause of the coming of Christ, because for this end He came, that He might save sinners: for " Jesus Christ came," he saith, "into this world to save sinners ; of whom I am chief."® Further, those Jews, boasting of their work, thus the same Apostle doth rebuke, in saying, that they to grace belonged not, who to their merits and their works
2. For there is written over it the title thereof, "A Psalm of David himself, when there came to him Nathan the prophet, when he went in unto Bersabee." | Bersabee was a woman, wife of
9 Gal. v. 4. 10 From a sermon to the people of Carthage. See below, § rr. 11 [On the sign of the Cross, see (Tertullian) A. N. F, vol. iii. p. 104; also vol. vii. (Lactant.) p. 130, note 3. —C.]
3 Gal. ii. 20. 6 Luke xviii. 13.
2 Rev. v. 5. 5 Rom. v. 6, 8 x Tim. i. 15.
tot Pet.v.8. 4 Matt. ix. 12. 259. Corie 3k.