Psalms 56:7

"For nothing Thou shalt save them" [Psalm 56:7]. He hath taught us even for these very men to pray. However "they shall sojourn and hide," however deceitful they be, however dissemblers and liers in wait they be; do thou pray for them, and do not say, Shall God amend even such a man, so evil, so perverse? Do not despair: give heed to Him whom thou askest, not him for whom thou askest. The greatness of the disease seest thou, the might of the Physician seest thou not? "They shall sojourn and hide: as my soul hath undergone." Undergo, pray: and there is done what? "For nothing Thou shalt save them." Thou shalt make them safe so as that nothing to Thee it may be, that is, so that no labour to Thee it may be. With men they are despaired of, but Thou with a word dost heal; Thou wilt not toil in healing, though we are astounded in looking on. There is another sense in this verse, "For nothing Thou shalt save them:" with not any merits of their going before Thou shall save them. ...They shall not bring to Thee he-goats, rams, bulls, not gifts and spices shall they bring Thee in Thy temple, not anything of the drink-offering of a good conscience do they pour thereon; all in them is rough, all foul, all to be detested: and though they to Thee bring nothing whereby they may be saved; "For nothing Thou shall save them," that is, with the free gift of Thy Grace. ...

For he was delivered up for our sins, and raised for our justification. Your justification, your circumcision, is not from you. By grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not from you, but it is the gift of God; not from works. Lest perhaps you should say: I have deserved, and therefore I have received. Do not think you have received by deserving, who would not have deserved, unless you had received. Grace preceded your merit; not grace from merit, but merit from grace. For if grace is from merit; you have bought, not received it freely. For nothing, he says, you will save them. What does it mean: For nothing, you will save them? You find nothing in them from which you save, and yet you save. You give freely, you save freely. You precede all merits, so that your gifts may achieve my merits. You give completely freely, you save freely, who find nothing from which you might save, and find much from which you might condemn.

For God has made our days short, and our substance is as nothing in his sight. "All things are vanity, everyone living," whether living in the body or living in virtues, and yet all things are vanity. His condition is one of fluctuation and uncertainty, and, while he does not fear, he suffers a storm in fair weather. For when he was in honor, he did not understand; he has been compared with senseless beasts and is created similar to them.

They hope to escape God's judgments, as they escape men's, by violence and fraud, and the arts of injustice and treachery; but shall they escape? No, certainly they shall not. The sin of sinners will never be their security, nor will either their impudence or their hypocrisy bring them off at God's bar;

Shall they escape by iniquity? Will such wickedness as this stand them in good stead? Can it be that this conduct shall enable them to avoid the sentence of earthly punishment? They slander the good man to screen themselves—will this avail them? They have cunningly managed hitherto, but will there not be an end to their games? In thine anger cast down the people, O God. Trip them up in their tricks. Hurl them from the Tarpeian rock. A persecuted man finds a friend even in an angry God, how much more in the God of love!