5… His breath shall go forth, and he shall return to his earth: in that day shall all his thoughts perish. Where is swelling? Where is pride? Where is boasting? But perhaps he will have passed to a good place, if indeed he have passed. For I know not whither he who spoke thus has passed. For he spoke in pride; and I know not whither such men pass, save that I look into another Psalm, and see that their passage is an evil one. I beheld the wicked lifted up above the cedars of Libanus, and I passed by, and, lo, he was not; and I sought him, and his place was not found. The good man, who passed by, and found not the wicked, reached a place where the wicked is not. Wherefore, brethren, let us all listen: brethren, beloved of God, let us all listen; in whatsoever tribulation, in whatsoever longing for the heavenly gift, let us not trust in princes, nor in sons of men, in whom is no salvation. All this is mortal, fleeting, perishable.

What then must we do, if we are not to hope in sons of men, nor in princes? What must we do? Blessed is he whose Helper is the God of Jacob: not this man or that man; not this angel or that angel; but, blessed is he whose Helper is the God of Jacob: for to Jacob also so great an Helper was He, that of Jacob He made him Israel. O mighty help! now he is Israel, seeing God. While then you are placed here, and a wanderer not yet seeing God, if you have the God of Jacob for your Helper, from Jacob you will become Israel, and will be seeing God, and all toil and all groans shall come to an end, gnawing cares shall cease, happy praises shall succeed. Blessed is he whose Helper is the God of Jacob; of this Jacob. Wherefore is he happy? Meanwhile, while yet groaning in this life, his hope is in the Lord his God…Who is this, Lord his God?… To us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things. Therefore let Him be your hope, even the Lord your God; in Him let your hope be. His hope too is in the lord his god, who worships Saturn; his hope is in the lord his god, who worships Neptune or Mercury; yea more, I add, who worships his belly, of whom is said, whose god is their belly. The one is the god of the one, the other of the other. Who is this blessed one? For his hope is in the Lord his God. But who is He? Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them. My brethren, we have a great God; let us bless His holy Name, that He has deigned to make us His possession. As yet you see not God; you can not fully love what as yet you see not. All that you see, He has made. You admire the world; why not the Maker of the world? You look up to the heavens, and are amazed: you consider the whole earth, and tremble; when can you contain in your thought the vastness of the sea? Look at the countless number of the stars, look at all the many kind of seeds, all the different sorts of animals, all that swims in the water, creeps on the earth, flies in the sky, hovers in the air; how great are all these, how beautiful, how fair, how amazing! Behold, He who made all these, is your God. Put your hope in Him, that you may be happy. His hope is in the Lord his God. Observe, my brethren, the mighty God, the good God, who makes all these things…If he mentioned these things only, perhaps you would answer me, God, who made heaven and earth and sea, is a great God: but does He think of me? It would be said to you, He made you. How so? Am I heaven, or am I earth, or am I sea? Surely it is plain; I am neither heaven, nor earth, nor sea: yet I am on earth. At least you grant me this, that you are on earth. Hear then, that God made not only heaven and earth and sea: for He made heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them. If then He made all that is in them, He made you also. It is too little to say, you; the sparrow, the locust, the worm, none of these did He not make, and He cares for all. His care refers not to His commandment, for this commandment He gave to man alone…As regards then the tenor of the commandment, God does not take care for oxen: as regards His providential care of the universe, whereby He created all things, and rules the world, You, Lord, shall save both man and beast. Here perhaps some one may say to me, God cares not for oxen, comes from the New Testament: You, Lord, shall save both man and beast, is from the Old Testament. There are some who find fault and say, that these two Testaments agree not with one another…Let us hear the Lord Himself, the Chief and Master of the Apostles: Consider, says He, the fowls of the air; they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feeds them. Therefore even beside men, these animals are objects of care to God, to be fed, not to receive a law. As far then as regards giving a law, God cares not for oxen: as regards creating, feeding, governing, ruling, all things have to do with God. Are not two sparrows sold for one farthing? says our Lord Jesus Christ, and one of them shall not fall to the ground without the will of your Father: how much better are you than they. Perhaps you say, God counts me not in this great multitude. There follows here a wondrous passage in the Gospel: the hairs of your head are all numbered.

6. Who keeps truth forever. What truth for ever? What truth does He keep, and wherein does He keep it for ever? Who executes judgment for them that suffer wrong. He avenges them that suffer wrong. There comes at once to you the voice of the Apostle: now therefore there is altogether a fault among you, that you go to law one with another: why do ye not rather suffer wrong? He urged you not to suffer annoyance, but to suffer wrong: for not every annoyance is wrong. For whatever you suffer lawfully is not a wrong; lest perchance you should say, I also am among those who have suffered wrong, for I have suffered such a thing in such a place, and such a thing for such a reason. Consider whether you have suffered a wrong. Robbers suffer many things, but they suffer no wrong. Wicked men, evil doers, house-breakers, adulterers, seducers, all these suffer many evils, yet is there no wrong. It is one thing to suffer wrong; it is another to suffer tribulation, or penalty, or annoyance, or punishment. Consider where you are; see what you have done; see why you are suffering; and then you see what you are suffering. Right and wrong are contraries. Right is what is just. For not all that is called right, is right. What if a man lay down for you unjust right? Nor indeed is it to be called right, if it is unjust. That is true right, which is also just. Consider what you have done, not what you are suffering. If you have done right, you are suffering wrong; if you have done wrong, you are suffering right…

7. Who gives food to the hungry. Behold, from you I look for nothing: God gives food to the hungry. Who are the hungry? All. What is, all? To all things that have life, to all men He gives food: does He not reserve some food for His beloved? If they have another kind of hunger, they have also another kind of food. Let us first enquire what their hunger is, and then we shall find their food. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. We ought to be God’s hungry ones… The Lord looses them that are fettered; the Lord lifts up them that are dashed down; the Lord makes wise them that are blind. Perfectly has he by this last sentence explained to us all the preceding ones: lest perchance, when he had said, the Lord looses them that are fettered, we should refer it to those fettered ones, who for some crime are bound in irons by their masters: and in that he said, He lifts up them that are dashed down, there should occur to our minds some one stumbling or falling, or thrown from a horse. There is another kind of fall, there are other kinds of fetters, just as there is other darkness and other light. Whereas he said, He makes the blind wise; he would not say, He enlightened the blind, lest you should understand this also in reference to the flesh, as the man was enlightened by the Lord, when He anointed his eyes with clay made with spittle, and so healed him: that you might not look for anything of this sort, when He is speaking of spiritual things, he points to a sort of light of wisdom, wherewith the blind are enlightened. Therefore in the same way as the blind are enlightened with the light of wisdom, so are the fettered set free, and those who are dashed down are lifted up. Whereby then have we been fettered? Whereby dashed down? Our body was once an ornament to us: now, we have sinned, and thereby have had fetters put on us. What are our fetters? Our mortality… The Lord loves the righteous. And who are the righteous? How far are they righteous now? Just as you have; the Lord, guards proselytes. Proselytes are strangers. Every Church of the Gentiles is a stranger. For it comes in to the Fathers, not sprung of their flesh, but their daughter by imitating them. Yet the Lord, not any man, guards them. The orphan and widow He will take up. Let none think that He takes up the orphan for his inheritance, or the widow for any business of hers. True, God does help them; and in all the duties of the human race, he does a good work, who takes care of an orphan, who abandons not a widow: but in a certain way we are all orphans, not because our Father is dead, but because He is absent…

8. And the way of sinners He shall root out. What is, the way of sinners? To mock at these things which we say. Who is an orphan, who a widow? What kingdom of heaven, what punishment of hell is there? These are fables of the Christians. To what I see, to that will I live: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. Beware lest such men persuade you of anything: let them not enter through your ears into your heart; let them find thorns in your ears: let him, who seeks to enter thus, go away pierced: for evil communications corrupt good manners. But here perhaps you will say, Wherefore then are they prosperous? Behold, they worship not God, and commit every kind of evil daily: yet they abound in those things, through want of which I toil. Be not envious against sinners. What they receive, you see, what is in store for them, do you not see?…Will you not believe even the Lord your God, who says, Broad and spacious is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be that walk by it? This way the Lord will root out. And, when the way of sinners has been rooted out, what remains for us? Come, you blessed of My father, enjoy the Kingdom; The Lord shall reign for ever. O Sion, your God shall reign for ever; surely your God will not reign without you. For generation and generation. He has said it twice, because he could not say it forever. And think not that eternity is bounded by finite words. The word eternity consists of four syllables; in itself it is without end. It could not be commended to you, save thus, for generation and generation. Too little has he said: if he spoke it all day long, it were too narrow: if he spoke it all his life, must he not at length hold his peace? Love eternity: without end shall you reign, if Christ be your End, with whom you shall reign for ever and ever. Amen.