Whence it is said to them by the Apostle; Ye-were
sometimes
darkness, but 1l0W are ye light in the Lord.
St Gregory - Moralia - Job
The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of.
Hence Paul says to the disciples, But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
Ye are all the children of the light and the
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children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. [1 Thess. 5, 4. 5. ] Hence to the rich man, ‘giving loose to pride, it is said by the voice of God, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? [Luke 12, 20] In the night he is described as giving up his soul, who whilst not seeing death beforehand is carried off in darkness of the heart. Thus then he saith, A tempest shall overwhelm him in the night. For because he is not minded to do the good things that he sees, he is caught by the tempest of his destruction which he seeth not. Of whom it is yet further added;
Ver. 2 The scorching wind shall carry him off, and take him away.
32. Who is in this place called the ‘scorching wind’ but the evil spirit, who stirs up the flames of divers lusts in the heart, that he may drag it to an eternity of punishments? And so ‘the scorching wind’ is said to ‘carry off’ any bad men, because the plotter, the evil spirit, who inflames a man whilst living to evil, ‘drags him when dying to torments. For that ‘the scorching wind’ is wont to be meant for the unclean spirit, who by the breath of evil suggesting kindles the hearts of the wicked to earthly desires, the prophet Jeremiah testifies, saying, A pot kindled I see, and the face thereof by the face of the North. [Jer. 1, 13] For ‘the pot kindled’ is the heart of man boiling with the heatings of worldly concerns, and with the restlessness of desires. Which is kindled by ‘the face of the North,’ i. e. set on fire by the suggestions of the devil. For that very being is used to be called by the title of ‘the North,’ who said, I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the North. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. [Is. 14, 13] Thus by the burning effect of this scorching wind the mind of each one of the Elect is cooled down, when the heat of evil inclinations is extinguished therein, and the flame of carnal desires turned to ice. And hence Holy Church in the praises of her spouse cries out with exultation, I sat down tender the shadow of him, whom I had desired. [Cant. 2, 3] Of the abatement of this heat it is said to her by Isaiah, by promise of the Lord, Instead of the ground willow shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the nettle shall come up the myrtle tree. [Is. 55, 13] For ‘instead of the ground willow there comes up in her the fir-tree,’ when in the heart
of the Saints, instead of the sunkenness of earthly thought, the elevation of heavenly contemplation rises up. Now the nettle is altogether of a fiery nature. But the myrtle is said to be of cooling virtue, and therefore’ instead of the nettle there comes up the myrtle tree,’ when the minds of the righteous are brought from the irritation and heat of bad habits to coolness and quietness of the thoughts, while they now no longer seek earthly things, while they extinguish the flames of the flesh by heavenly aspirations.
33. In reference too to this cooling of the soul, which is given from heaven, it is said to Mary, The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee [Luke 1, 35]; though on this point, by the term of’ the overshadowing,’ either Nature of God to be made Incarnate might have been denoted. For a shadow is followed by light and body. Now the Lord is Light in respect of the Divine Nature, Who, by means of a soul intervening, vouchsafed in her womb in respect of human nature to become a body. And so because the Incorporeal Light was in her womb to be made corporeal, to her, who conceived the incorporeal for corporality, it is said, The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; i. e. The Incorporeal Light of the Divine Nature shall in thee take the corporeal substance of Human Nature. But now let us carry to an end what we began relating to any wicked man. Accordingly’ the scorching wind takes him away,’ in this way, viz. that him whom the evil
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spirit now kindles with the fire of evil concupiscence, he afterwards carries off to the flames of hell. It goes on;
And as a whirlwind shall carry him out of his place.
[xxi]
34. ‘The place’ of the wicked is the gratification of the life of time, and the enjoyment of the flesh. Therefore every single individual is in a manner’ carried out of his place by a whirlwind,’ when overwhelmed with affright on the Last Day he is severed from all his gratifications. Of which same Last Day it is directly added with justice,
Ver. 22. For He shall let loose upon him, and not spare. [xxii]
35. God, as often as He chastens the sinner by smiting him, for this reason’ lets loose’ the scourge, that He may ‘spare. ’ But when by smiting He brings his life to an end whilst remaining in sin, He ‘lets loose’ the scourge, but never at all ‘spares. ’ For the Same, Who ‘let loose’ the scourge that He might ‘spare,’ one day ‘lets it loose’ with this view that He may not spare. For in this life the Lord busies Himself so much the more that He may spare, in proportion as He scourges the more in awaiting; as He Himself saith to John by the voice of the Angel, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten [Rev. 3, 19]; and as it is elsewhere spoken, For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. [Hab. 12, 6] But reversely it is written of the scourge of condemnation, The wicked is taken in the work of his own hands [Ps. 9, 16]. Of whom the Lord saith by Jeremiah, when He sees the multitudes transgressing irreclaimably, whom He now no longer regards as sons under discipline, but as enemies under unmitigated scourging, For I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with a cruel chastisement. [Jer. 30, 14] And what is said here, and not spare, is there likewise brought out in other words; Why criest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable. [ver. 15] Whence the Elect always make this provision, that they should return to righteousness before the wrath of the Judge is inextinguishably kindled, lest being caught by the last stroke, they find life ended to them, together with sin, For the rod will then do away with the sin, when it alters the life, since whosesoever ways it does not change, his doings it does not atone for. Therefore all smiting from God is either a purifying of the present life in us, or a commencement of the punishment that follows. For with reference to those who profit by the scourge it is written, Who framest pain in the commandment [Ps. 94, 20]. For in that case when the wicked man is scourged and amended, to the commandment he would not give ear; to the pain he does. And so there is ‘pain framed in the commandment’ to him, who by pain as it were in the stead of the commandment is kept back from evil practices, But touching these persons to whom scourges are a curse, not a clearance, it is said, Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. [Jer. 5, 3] With these, their scourges commence in this life, and last on in everlasting smiting, Whence the Lord saith by Moses, For a fire is kindled in Mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell [Deut. 32, 22]. For so far as regards the present smiting it is rightly said, A fire is kindled in Mine anger. But as regards the eternal damnation, it is immediately added with propriety, And shalt burn unto the lowest hell. Though by some persons that is used to be alleged, which is written, God judgeth not twice upon the same thing [Nah. 1, 9. LXX]. Which persons, howsoever, do not pay regard to this that is spoken by the Prophet of the wicked; And crush them with double confusion [Jer. 17, 18]. And that, which is written elsewhere; Jesus in
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saving the People out of Egypt, a second time destroyed them that believed not [Jude 5]. To which persons, however, if we yield assent, that any sin cannot be twice visited with punishment, this must be ,judged of those persons smitten for sin and dying in their sin, that their smiting begun here is completed there, that so to the unreformed there should be one and the same scourge, which begins here in time, but is consummated in eternal punishments, that to those that wholly refuse to be amended, the dealing of present scourges now should be the beginning of the torments to ensue. And so God shall let loose upon him, and not spare. It goes on;
Fleeing he shall flee out of His hand,
[xxiii]
36. For he ‘flees out of the hand’ of the Smiter, who amends the wickedness of his behaviour; or otherwise, because in Holy Writ the hand is used to be taken for acting, he ‘flees from the hand of the smiter,’ who, whilst he marks the destruction of the wicked man, forsakes the path of wickedness. Whence it is yet further added;
Ver. 23. He shall bind up his hands over him.
[xxiv]
37. For to ‘bind up the hands’ is to establish the practices of his life in uprightness, Whence Paul too saith; Wherefore lift up the loosed hands, and the unstrung knees [Heb. 12, 12]. While, then, they behold the destruction of another, they are made to turn back to the conscience, to remind themselves of their own, and by the very same cause whereby one man is carried to torments, another is freed from torments, And so ‘he binds up his hands over him,’ because he observes in the punishment of another what to be afraid of; and whilst he sees one living in transgression so smitten, he binds fast his own too loose practices with the sinews of righteousness. And so it is brought to pass that he who, being a bad man, whilst living, had drawn numbers into transgression by the delightfulness of sin, in dying recovers some from transgression by the terribleness of torments. Which same the Psalmist bears witness to be of advantage to the good as well, saying, The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash has hands in the blood of sinners. [Ps. 58, 10] For ‘in the blood of sinners,’ when dying, ‘the righteous do wash their hands,’ because, when their punishment is seen, the life of the person seeing it is cleansed. It goes on;
And he shall hiss upon him, beholding his place.
[xxv]
38. What is expressed in the hissing, but the straining of wonderment? But if in the hissing there is some other meaning ought, when the sinner dies, these that witness his death draw tight the mouth in hissing, in that they are converted to those spiritual words, which they had contemned, so that they henceforth begin to believe and to teach, what before, while they perceived the wicked man thriving, they need not to believe. For it very often happens that the mind of the weak is the more unsteadied from the hearing of the truth, as it sees the despisers of the truth flourishing; but when just vengeance takes away the unjust, it keeps others away from wickedness. Whence it is said by Solomon; When the pestilent man is punished, the little one will be wiser. Thus the holy man after
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he had adequately filled up the punishments of the men of power that are lifted up in the world, again directs his words to the pride of heretics, who are lifted up in speech, saying ;
Chap. xxviii. ver. 1. The silver hath the beginning of its veins, and to the gold there is a place, where they fine it.
39. In silver the power of speaking, in gold brightness of life or of wisdom is used to be denoted. And because heretics are so filled with pride for the brilliancy of their speaking, that they are not based firmly by any authority of the sacred books, (which books are for speaking like a kind of veins of silver to us, because from those identical books we derive the spring and source of our speaking,) he recalls them to the pages of sacred authority, that if they have a desire to speak in a true way, they may from that source draw forth what to say. And he saith, The silver hath the beginning of its veins, and to the gold there is a place, where they fine it.
As if he said in plain words; ‘He that is fitting himself for the words of true preaching, the originals of the cases he must of necessity derive from the sacred page, so as to bring round every thing that he speaks to a foundation of divine authority, and in that set firm the edifice of his own speaking. For, as we before said, oftentimes heretics, whilst they are eager to prop up what is bad of their own, broach things which assuredly are not maintained in the page of the sacred books. And hence the great Preacher admonishes his disciple, saying, O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane novelties of speaking [1 Tim. 6, 20], for whereas heretics long to be extolled as if for excellency of wit, they as it were bring out new things which are not maintained in the old books of the ancient Fathers, and thus it follows, that whilst they desire to appear wise, they scatter seeds of foolishness to their wretched hearers.
40. And it is well added; And to the gold there is a place, where they fine it. As if he said in plain terms; ‘The true wisdom of believers, which has the Church Universal for its place, undergoes tribulation by you persecuting her, but from all the dross of sins by the fire of your persecution she is purified. ’ Whence it is written; For gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity. [Ecclus. 2, 5] In which passage this too may be appropriately taken for the meaning, that for their foolish suffering heretics might seem to be rebuked. For oftentimes for the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Redeemer, they suffer much, and by those same sufferings they look for themselves to become His martyrs. To which persons it is now said by the voice of the holy man; and to the gold there is a place, where they fine it. For according to that which has been already said even before us, he that suffers out of the unity of the Church, punishments he may suffer, but a Martyr he cannot be made; for ‘to the gold there is a place, where they fine it. ’ What then, ye heretics, say ye to these things? Ye are minded to be ‘fined’ by the afflicting of the flesh, nay even by martyrdom, but the place where ye must be fined, ye know not. Hear ye what is spoken by the voice of the holy preacher. ‘To the gold there is a place, where they fille it. ’ So then, seek ye this ‘place for the fining,’ this furnace, wherein the gold may be fitly purged, find ye out.
41. There is one Church, . in which he that may have attained to be fined, may likewise be purified from all the dross of sins. If for the sake of God ye undergo aught of bitterness, if aught of tribulation, being without her pale, ye can only be burnt, ye cannot be purified. Let Jeremiah tell, let him tell in what way the fire of your fining is void of all efficacy. The finer melteth in vain; for their wickednesses are not done away [Jer. 6, 29]. See how the fire externally melting at once administers a punishment of hard suffering, and yet does not clear off the sin of misbelief; it both
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furnishes torments of cruel punishments, and does not cause additions of good merits. Moreover the fire of this fining which is undergone out of the Catholic Church, how utterly it is void of all efficacy the Apostle Paul instructs us, when he says, And though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. [1 Cor. 13, 3] For some think wrong things touching God, and others hold what is right about the Creator, but do not maintain unity with their brethren; the one are sundered by erroneousness of faith, and the others by the commission of schism. And hence in the very first part of the Decalogue the sins of both sides are checked, seeing that it is said by the voice of God, And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. [Mark 12, 30. 31. Deut. 6, 5] And it is immediately added, And thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. For whoso imagines what is wrong about God, surely it is evident that he does not ‘love God. ’ But he who while he entertains right notions about God is divided from the unity of the Holy Church, it is plain that he does not love his neighbonr, whom he refuses to have for his fellow.
42. Whosoever, then, is divided from this unity of the Church our Mother, either through heresy in entertaining wrong notions concerning God, or by the erroneousness of schism in not loving his neighbour, is bereft of the grace of that charity, concerning which Paul saith what we have before given; And though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. As if he expressed himself in plain utterance; ‘Without the bounds of its place, the fire of fining being applied to me only afflicts me with torment, and does not purify me by its cleansing. ’ This place all they that are lovers of holy peace seek with heartiest endeavours, this on seeking they find, this finding they keep, knowing the remission of sin, as to where, or when, or to what sort it is vouchsafed. For where is it, save in the bosom of our Catholic Mother? When, but before the day of coming departure? Because, Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. [2 Cor. 6, 2] And, Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near. [Is. 55, 6] To what sort of persons, but to the converted, who after the imitating of little children are fashioned by humility as their mistress? To whom it is said; Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven. [Matt. 19, 14] And, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. [Matt. 18, 3] And therefore, because there are no true martyrs made saving in the Catholic Church, it is rightly said, To the gold there is a place where they fine it. Because the soul would not be made bright in the radiance of everlasting beauty, except, so to say, it were first burnt here in the workshop of charity.
43. Moreover, we are to consider that there are some whom Almighty God by His secret counsel preserving in innocency from their very beginnings promotes to the topmost heights of virtuous attainments, that, as their age increases, both numerousness of years and loftiness of merits should simultaneously advance in them. But others abandoning in their outset He suffers to go with bad habits fermenting by headlong ways. . Yet for the most part even these He has regard to, and for the following after Him He kindles them with the fire of holy love, and the itchings of bad propensities engrained in their hearts He converts into a fervour of virtue, and they are the more set on fire to the desire of beseeching the pitifulness of God, in proportion as they are the more ashamed at the recollection of their own wickedness; as it often happens, that in the conflict of the fight the soldier, who is placed before the eyes of his leader, basely yields to the enemy’s valour, and that whilst he powerlessly turns his back he is struck; yet nevertheless being ashamed of this very thing that he has done [2 Mss. ‘yeilded. ’] disgracefully before his leader’s eyes, from the mere
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sense of shame he gathers greater force; and afterwards executes deeds of Prowess, to so high a degree that he may at once achieve present credit of his valour, and cover past disgrace of weakness. In a like way, these persons are sometimes more actively established in the service of God by consequence of past weakness, and such persons for the keeping of His commandments both the desire of things future draws on, and the remembrance of things past urges forward, that on the one side affection to that which is to come should stimulate, and on the other shame for that which is past spur on. Which same however, while the enemies of the Church see to be endowed with the highest virtues, and in their present life cannot any way find out that whereby they may derogate from their merit, they set themselves to impeach them of the past, as the Manichaean assails our Moses, in whom he endeavours to soil with the sin of a past homicide the grace of subsequent virtuous attainments; in whom he heeds not how patient he was afterwards to endure, but how precipitate he was before to strike. Such adversaries as these blessed Job encountering with the exactest eye of observation, after that he said, Silver hath the beginning of its veins; and to gold there is a place where they fine it; he justly added;
Iron is taken out of the earth.
[xxvii]
44. Heretics are used to pride themselves against us by the self-priding of their righteousness, and to boast high their practices with the swelling of ostentation, and ourselves, as we have said, they impeach either for being or having been bad persons. Accordingly in a most humble confession, and in a truthful defence against those, the holy man speaks, saying, Iron is taken out of the earth. As if he said in plain speech; ‘men of strength, who by the sharpest swords of their tongues are become iron in this pitched battle of the defending of the faith, were one time but’ earth ‘in the lowest sphere of actions. ’ For to man on his sinning it was spoken; Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return. But ‘iron is taken out of the earth,’ when the hardy champion of the Church is separated from an earthly course of conduct, which he before maintained. Accordingly he ought not to be contemned in any thing whatever, that he was, who has already begun to be that which he was not. Was not Matthew found in the earth, who, involved in earthly matters, served the business of the receipt of custom? But having been taken out of the earth, he was strengthened into the forcibleness of iron, in that by his tongue, as by the sharpest sword, the Lord in the enforcing of the Gospel pierced the hearts of unbelievers. And he that before was weak and contemptible by his earthly occupations, was afterwards made strong for heavenly preachings. Hence it is yet further subjoined;
And the stone being melted with heat is turned into brass.
45. Then is ‘the stone dissolved with heat,’ when the heart that is hard and cold to the fire of divine love is touched by that same fire of divine love, and melted in the glowing warmth of the Spirit, that to the life that follow’s it should bum with the heat of its longings, which life on hearing of before, it remained uninfluenced. By the power of which same heat, he is at once softened down to love and invigorated to practice, that as before he was hard in the love of the world, so he should afterwards give himself out strong unto the love of God, and what he declined to give ear to before, he should henceforth begin both to believe and to preach. And so, the stone being dissolved with heat is turned into brass, because the hardened mind, being melted by the fire of love from Above, is changed to true strength. So that the sinner that was before unmoved should afterwards be made at once strong in respect of authority, and sounding in respect of preaching. Which is well spoken
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by Isaiah; They that trust in the Lord shall change their strength. [Is. 40, 31] We ‘change our strength,’ when being converted, we eschew the present scene of things with as much power and might as we before were seeking it. But because the foregoing life is unfairly by adversaries counted to the character of Catholics, it is rightly added;
Ver. 3. He hath set a time to darkness, and Himself vieweth the end of all and everyone.
46. He hath Himself ‘set a time to the darkness,’ i. e. bounds to the wicked, where they should cease to be wicked.
Whence it is said to them by the Apostle; Ye-were sometimes darkness, but 1l0W are ye light in the Lord. Like as to the other disciples as well the same great teacher saith, The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore put off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day. Hence also in the Song of Songs on the coming of the Church it is said, Who is she that cometh forth as the morning in rising?
For fitly is the Church described by being compared with ‘the morning,’ in that, by the knowledge of the faith she is changed from the darkness of sins to be in the bright light of righteousness. By the term of ‘all and every one,’ he would have both the Elect and the damned to be comprehended. For God both in doing and ordering what is good, yet not doing what is bad, but what by the wicked is done Himself so regulating that the things should not come forth irregularly, ‘vieweth the end of all and every one,’ and bears all things patiently, and beholds the goal of the Elect, how that from evil they are changed to good. He sees, too, the end of the damned, how that for bad practice they are dragged to a punishment worthy of them. He saw the end of Saul when persecuting, wherein prostrated on the earth he should say, Lora, what wilt Thou have me to do? He saw the end of the seeming-obedient disciple, that for the guilty deed he had committed he should tie his throat with a noose, and both punish himself when guilty of sin, and by thus punishing, betray himself the worse. He saw the Ninevites transgressing, but beheld the end of the transgressing in the repentance of the reformed. He saw likewise Sodom transgressing, but He beheld the end of the burning of lust in the fire of hell. He saw the end of the Gentile world, how that whilst occupied by the darkness of iniquities, it should be one day brightened with the light of faith. He also saw the end of Judaea, how that from that light of faith, which it held, it should blind itself with the darkness of hardened unbelief. Whence it is yet further added with just applicability, Ver. 4. The stone likewise of darkness, and the shadow of death, the torrent divides from the people on travel.
47. What was that people of the Jews, hard by unbelief, that refused to behold by faith that Author of life, whom it foretold by prophecy, but ‘a stone of darkness? ’ because it proved at once hard by cruelty, and clouded by unbelief. Which same is also called by another term ‘the shadow of death. ’ For a shadow is drawn such and of the same sort as the outlines were of that object, from which it is derived, And who is designated by the name of’ death’ but the devil? Of whom in a kind of mode of representation by his minister’ it is said, And his name was Death. [Rev. 6, 8] Of whom that people was a shadow, because in following his wickedness, it presented in itself a semblance of him. But what is named by the title of the ‘torrent,’ save that fire that issues forth from the sight of the Awful Judge in the final Inquest, and divides the Elect and the damned? Whence too it is said by the Prophet, A fiery and rapid stream came forth from before Him. [Dan. 7, 10]
48. But what People is ‘on travel’ in this world, but that which hastening to the inheritance of the Elect knows well that it has its native country in the heavenly world, and expects that it will there
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find its own the more, in proportion as here it reckons all things that pass away to be unconnected with itself? Thus the ‘pilgrim People’ is the number of all the Elect, who accounting this life a species of exile to themselves, pant with the whole bent of the heart after their native country Above; of which persons Paul saith, And confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things, declare plainly that they seek a country. [Heb. 11, 13. 14. ] This pilgrim state that same Apostle also was undergoing when he said, Knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we go pilgrims [peregrinamur] away from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. [2 Cor. 5, 6. 7. ] The woes of this pilgrim state he was in haste to get quit of when he said, Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ; [Phil. 1, 23] and again, To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. [ver. 21] The burthen of this pilgrimage the Psalmist felt lying heavy upon him, when he said; Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in ,the tents of Kedar!
My soul hath been much a sojourner. [Ps. 120, 5. 6. ] From this he was panting to be extricated as speedily as possible, when inflamed with heavenly aspirations he said, My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God! [Ps. 42, 2] But this desire they are strangers to, who rivet their heart on earthly gratifications. For whilst they love only the things that are visible, surely the invisible things, even if they believe them to exist, they do not love, in that whilst they follow themselves too much with the outward following, even in the interior they become carnal. Thus both people run together in this life, but do not together attain to the life everlasting, because, the stone of darkness and the shadow of death the torrent divides from the people on travel. As if he said in plain speech, ‘Those whom in this present time either infidelity makes blind, or cruelty makes hard, the fiery stream that issues from before the Judge Eternal doth then sever from the People of the Elect, that thus from the company of good men the fire of the strict Inquest should part those, whom the darkness of evil habits makes blind in their lusts.
49. Perhaps by the designation of the ‘torrent,’ the actual whatering of holy preaching may be understood, according to that, that is said by Solomon; The eye that sneereth at his father and despiseth the travail of his mother, lo the ravens from the torrents shall pick it out. [Prov. 30, 17] For bad men, while they find fault with the judgments of God, do ‘sneer at their father,’ and heretics of all sorts whilst in mocking they contemn the preaching of Holy Church, and her fruitfulness, what else is this but that they ‘despise the travail of their mother? ’ whom we not unjustly call the mother of them as well, because from the same they come forth, who speak against the same, as John bears witness, who says, They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. [1 John 2, 19] But ‘the ravens from the torrents come,’ when the true Preachers come forth for the defence of Holy Church from the streams of the Sacred Books. Which same also are rightly termed ‘ravens,’ because they never pride themselves on the light of their righteousness, but by the grace of humility confess in themselves the blackness of sins. Whence too, it is spoken by the Church of Elect souls, I am black, but comely. And John says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Which same ravens, no doubt, ‘pick out the eyes’ of him that ‘sneereth,’ because they overcome the aim of bad and froward men. Thus by this testimony, if here as well ‘the torrent’ is to be taken for preaching; the stone of darkness, and shadow of death, the torrent divides from the people on travel; because the preaching of the Saints gives over the hardened minds of the lost, and betakes itself to the pious hearts of the lowly. Hence it is yet further subjoined,
Those whom the foot of the needy man forgot, a1~d the inaccessible ones.
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50. What other in this place is taken to be the needy man, saving Him concerning Whom it is said by Paul, Though He was rich, yet . for your sakes He became poor. [2 Cor. 8, 9] The ‘feet’ of which ‘needy man’ were the holy Preachers, by the presence of which same compassing the Gentile world, He went round about the whole globe. Of whom it is said by the Prophet, And I will walk in them. [Lev. 26, 12] Was not he His foot, who whilst held fast in fetters, said, For which I am an ambassador in bonds? [2 Cor. 6, 16. Eph 6, 20] But those, who proved themselves ‘a shadow of death and a stone of darkness,’ ‘the foot of the needy Man forgot,’ because in the very outset of the new born Church, whereas the holy Apostles were minded to have preached the kingdom of heaven to Judaea, seeing that they profited for nothing at all, they went off for the preaching to the Gentiles, as they themselves say in their Acts; It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you; but seeing ye put it ,from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. [Acts 13, 23] Concerning whom also it is said by the Psalmist, The mountains shall be carried into the heart of the sea [Ps. 46, 2]; because the Apostles, being thrust off by Judaea, were ‘carried’ into this scene of the Gentile world. Who then are those, that by unbounded hardness and from dimsightedness of heart, like a kind of’ stone of darkness and the shadow of death,’ are divided from the People of the Saints going on travel, saving those whom’ the foot of the needy Man forgot,’ i. e. whom the Preachers of the Lord, poor as He was, that is, in respect of human nature, abandoned on account of the swelling of their pride; and those they wholly forgot, whilst they transferred the seeds of their preaching to the getting fruit of the Gentiles only? Whom moreover he rightly calls’ inaccessible’ also, because while they were hardened in their infidelity, they refused to give the words of life access to their heart. But this Judaea which grows thus hardened, whether what she was for 1ong, or what she underwent afterwards, let us listen to. It goes on;
Ver. 6. The earth from which bread arose, is overturned in its place by fire.
51. Judaea was wont to give bread, in that she used to set before men the words of the Law.
Which same Law because the children of perdition could now no longer understand and interpret, the prophet Jeremiah bewails in the Lamentations, saying, The young children asked bread, and there was no man to break it unto them [Lam 4, 4]; but this ‘earth is overturned in its place with fire,’ because on beholding the miracles of the faithful it consumed itself with the firebrand of envy. For because envy is always used to be engendered from pride, she ‘perished in her place by fire,’ who for this reason burned with envy, because she did not abandon pride. And so ‘the earth, which first had bread, was afterwards overturned by fire,’ because the Synagogue, which set before men the commandments of God in the Law, by persecuting the new-born Church consumed itself with the fire of envy. Was it not in flames with the brands of its jealousy when on seeing the miracles of our Redeemer; it said by certain of its own, What do we? for this Man doeth many miracles? [John 11, 47] Or, surely, Ye see that we gain nothing; yea, the whole world goeth after Him. [ib. 12, 19] They saw that whereby they should have been converted, and they were thereby rendered the more froward. They sought to stifle Him, Whom they beheld give life to the dead. They held the Law in the mouth, but persecuted the Author of the Law. Therefore the earth, from which bread arose, was overturned in its place by fire. Because Judaea had in her own self first the Law that should refresh, and afterwards envy that should consume her. For the describing of whom it is further added,
Ver. 6. The stones of it are the place of sapphire, and her clods gold.
[xxxiii]
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52. The proclaim of the glory going before adds to the guilt of the sin following after. For the fall of every individual is of worse criminality, in proportion as before he fell he had the power to be of greater excellency. Thus let it be told of Judaea, let it be told what she was, and let the greatness of the excellencies going before grow into the heightening of the delinquencies succeeding afterwards, Her stones were the place of sapphires, arid her clods of gold, What do we understand in this place by ‘gold,’ but the minds of the Saints and strong ones? For in Holy Scripture ‘stones’ are wont to be taken sometimes on the side of bad and sometimes on the side of good, For when a’ stone’ is put for insensibility, by ‘stones’ we have hard hearts denoted. Whence also it is said by John; God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham [Matt. 3, 9]; who, surely, by the name of’ stones’ denotes the hearts of the Gentiles, at that time hard and insensible in respect of unbelief, And by the Prophet the Lord promises, saying, And I will take the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you an heart of flesh. [Ez. 11, 19] Again by ‘stones’ the minds of the strong ones are used to be denoted. And hence it is said to the Saints by Peter, Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood. [1 Pet. 2, 5] And by the Prophet the Lord promises to the Church when she comes, saying, Behold, I will lay down thy stones in order, and lay thy foundations with sapphires; and I will make thy bulwarks jasper, and thy gates in cut stones, and all thy borders into pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. [Is. 54, 11-13] For He did ‘lay down in her the stones in order,’ in that He distinguished the holy souls in her by the diverseness of merits, He ‘laid her foundation in sapphires,’ which same stones retain in themselves the likeness of the colour of the air, because the strength of the Church is firmly based in souls seeking after heavenly things. And because a jasper is of a green hue, He ‘made his bulwarks of the jasper,’ because they are advanced against her adversaries in the defence of Holy Church, who growing green and fresh by interior desires, do not die off by any drying up of damnable lukewarmness. But He ‘set her gates in cut stones. ’ For those are the ‘gates’ of the Church, by whose life and teaching the multitude of those that believe enter into her, Who also for this reason, that they are rich in great deeds, and that-what by speaking they declare, by living they exhibit, are described to be not plain but’ cut stones. ’ For in whosesoever life right practice is seen, there is as it were represented in those same persons what they have done. Where also embracing all the number of the Elect in a general roll, he added, and all thy borders in pleasant stones. And as though we, on hearing these things, begged that he would make known those stones that he spoke of, he added, All thy children shall be taught of the Lord. And therefore because from out of Judaea there were never wanting holy souls, to lead a heavenly life, it is said, he? ’ stones are the place of sapphires. And because with an extraordinary brightness of life and of wisdom she shone forth by faith, it is added, and her clods gold. What is denoted by ‘clods,’ but the assemblages and multitudes of the several orders? Now clods are compacted of moisture and dust; and so all they that being watered with the dew of grace confessed with a true-sighted knowledge that by the debt of death they are dust, whilst they were made to shine bright by excellency of life, lay in her like’ clods of gold. ’ ‘Clods’ this earth had in the Prophets,’ clods’ she had in the teachers, ‘clods’ in the Ancient Fathers, who by an extraordinary infusion of grace kept themselves close in unanimity of profession and of practice. Therefore let him say, And the clods of it gold; because therein the multitude of the spiritual souls shone with greater perfection, in proportion as it bound itself up in God and its neighbour with greater unanimity.
53. But this gold was afterwards dimmed by the darkness of unbelief. Whose blackness, surely, the Prophet Jeremiah surveying laments, saying, How is the gold become dim? how is the most fine
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gold changed! For ‘the gold is become dim,’ in that that ancient brilliancy in them of faith and innocency, upon unbelief coming upon them, dulled itself with the night of wickedness. Therefore, what it was since we have heard, even that her stollen are the place of sapphires, now let us bear next wherefore that People so beloved of God lost these great blessings. It goes on;
Ver. 7. The pathway of the bird it knew not, nor beheld the eyes of the vulture.
[xxxiv]
54. Who is denoted in this place by the title of’ the bird,’ saving He, Who in ascending poised sky wards the fleshly body, which He took to Him. Who furthermore is fitly designated by the title of the ‘vulture’ as well. For the ‘vulture’ while it is flies if it sees a carcase lying, drops itself down for the devouring of the carcase, and very often it is in this way taken in death, when it has come from on high after the dead animal. Rightly therefore is the Mediator between God and Man, our Redeemer, denoted by the appellation of a ‘vulture,’ Who whilst remaining in the loftiness of His Divine Nature, marked as it were from a kind of flight on high the carcase of our mortal being down below, and let Himself drop from the regions of heaven to the lowest places. For in our behalf He vouchsafed to become man, and while he sought the dead creature, He found death among us, Who was deathless in Himself. Now ‘the eye’ of this ‘vulture’ was the actual aiming at our Resurrection, because He Himself being dead for three days set us free from everlasting death. And so that faithless people of Judaea saw Him in the state of mortality, but how by His death He should destroy our death, it noted not. It beheld, indeed, the vulture, but’ the eyes of the vulture it did not behold. ’ Which People, whereas it refused to regard the ways of His humility, whereby He lifted us up on high, ‘knew not the pathway of the bird. ’ For neither did it betake itself to consider that His humility would lift us to the heavenly heights, and the aim of His death renew us to life. Therefore the pathway of the bird it knew not, nor beheld the eyes of the vulture. For though it saw Him Whom it held bound in death, it refused to see what wonderful glory by His death followed our life [al. ‘what glory in our life should follow from His death’]. And hence it was kindled to the cruelty of persecution likewise; it refused to receive the words of life; the Preachers of the kingdom of heaven, by forbidding, by evil entreating, by smiting it thrust from it. Which same, being so thrust off, abandoning Judaea whereto they had been sent, were dispersed for the gathering together of the Gentile world. And hence it is further added;
Ver. 8. The children of the dealers have not trodden it, nor hath the lioness passed through it.
55. In all the Latin copies we find the word ‘Instructors’ [Institutores] put down, but in the Greek we find ‘traders,’ [negotiatores] whereby it may be inferred that in this passage the several copyists from being ignorant put ‘instructors’ (‘institutors’) instead of ‘institores’ (‘ dealers’). For we call traders ‘institores’ on this account, that they are ‘instant in plying work. ’ But both the one phrase and the other, though they disagree in utterance, yet are not at variance in meaning, because all those who instruct the practice of the faithful, carryon a spiritual dealing, that while they supply preaching to their hearers, they should receive back from them faith and right works; as where it is written touching Holy Church, She maketh fine linen, and selleth it. Concerning whom it is likewise said a little after in that place, She perceiveth that her trading is good. [Prov. 31, 24] Who in this place are called ‘instructors’ but the holy Prophets, who busied themselves by prophesying to instruct the ways of the Synagogue unto faith? ‘Sons’ of whom, assuredly, the holy Apostles are styled, who that they should believe God Man were begotten to the same faith by the preaching of those. Concerning whom it is said to the Church by the Psalmist; Instead of thy fathers are born to
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thee children, whom thou mayest make princes over all the earth. [Ps. 45, 16] But because the Apostles being thrust off went out from the borders of the Synagogue, it is lightly said now, The children of the dealers have not trodden it. Since the ‘children of the dealers’ would have ‘trodden it,’ if the holy Preachers had borne down the badness of the Synagogue with the heel of goodness. But if those same ‘dealers’ we take for the Preachers of Holy Church, then the ‘children’ of the dealers, nothing hinders us taking for the Shepherds and Teachers who followed the way of the Apostles. Which did not ‘tread’ the Synagogue, because whilst their fathers, i. e. the Apostles, were thrust off by that Synagogue, they themselves too ceased from the calling of her.
56. Which same Synagogue’ the lioness passed not by,’ because Holy Church, being devoted to the assembling together of the Gentiles, never any longer employed itself upon that people of Judaea. Now the Church is lightly called’ a lioness,’ in that persons living amiss in bad habits, it kills with the mouth of holy preaching. Hence to the first Shepherd himself it is said as to the mouth of this lioness; slay and eat. [Acts 10, 13] For what is ‘slain’ is killed out of life, whilst that which is eaten is changed into the body of the person eating. Accordingly it is said, ‘Slay and eat;’ i. e. ‘Kill those to the sin wherein they are living, and convert them from themselves into thine own members. ’ And because this Church is the body of the Lord, the Lord likewise Himself by the voice of Jacob is called’ a lion’ in respect of Himself, a ‘lioness’ by the body, when it is said to him under the likeness of Judah, To the prey, my son, art thou gone up. Thou hast couched as a lion, and as a lioness. Who shall rouse him up? [Gen. 49, 9] Accordingly this lioness it is never said’ passed not’ Judaea, but’ passed not through. ’ For upon the Apostles preaching, in the first instance three thousand out of her, and afterwards five thousand, believed. And so the Church’ passed by’ the way of the Synagogue, but’ passed not through,’ because a few from out of her it carried off to faith, but yet that faithless people it did not utterly make extinct to misbelief. But, what we have already often said, being cast off by the infidelity of the Jews it turned away to the calling of the Gentiles. Hence it is yet further said of that same lioness;
Ver. 9. He stretcheth out his hand to the flint; He overturneth the mountains by the roots. [xxxvi]
57. For ‘he stretched out his hand to the flint,’ because He put forth the arm of His preaching to the hardness of the Gentiles. Hence the same blessed Job, forewarned of the history of his suffering being destined to be made known to the Gentiles, says, Let these things be graven with an iron pen in a plate of lead, or hewn in the flint. [Job 19, 24] But whom in this place do we understand by the’ mountains’ saving the powerful ones of this world, who on account of earthly substance swell themselves high? Concerning whom the Psalmist saith, Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke [Ps. 144, 5]; but the mountains are overturned from the roots, because, on Holy Church preaching the highest powers of this world fell from their inmost thinking into the adoring of Almighty God.
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children of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. [1 Thess. 5, 4. 5. ] Hence to the rich man, ‘giving loose to pride, it is said by the voice of God, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? [Luke 12, 20] In the night he is described as giving up his soul, who whilst not seeing death beforehand is carried off in darkness of the heart. Thus then he saith, A tempest shall overwhelm him in the night. For because he is not minded to do the good things that he sees, he is caught by the tempest of his destruction which he seeth not. Of whom it is yet further added;
Ver. 2 The scorching wind shall carry him off, and take him away.
32. Who is in this place called the ‘scorching wind’ but the evil spirit, who stirs up the flames of divers lusts in the heart, that he may drag it to an eternity of punishments? And so ‘the scorching wind’ is said to ‘carry off’ any bad men, because the plotter, the evil spirit, who inflames a man whilst living to evil, ‘drags him when dying to torments. For that ‘the scorching wind’ is wont to be meant for the unclean spirit, who by the breath of evil suggesting kindles the hearts of the wicked to earthly desires, the prophet Jeremiah testifies, saying, A pot kindled I see, and the face thereof by the face of the North. [Jer. 1, 13] For ‘the pot kindled’ is the heart of man boiling with the heatings of worldly concerns, and with the restlessness of desires. Which is kindled by ‘the face of the North,’ i. e. set on fire by the suggestions of the devil. For that very being is used to be called by the title of ‘the North,’ who said, I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the North. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. [Is. 14, 13] Thus by the burning effect of this scorching wind the mind of each one of the Elect is cooled down, when the heat of evil inclinations is extinguished therein, and the flame of carnal desires turned to ice. And hence Holy Church in the praises of her spouse cries out with exultation, I sat down tender the shadow of him, whom I had desired. [Cant. 2, 3] Of the abatement of this heat it is said to her by Isaiah, by promise of the Lord, Instead of the ground willow shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the nettle shall come up the myrtle tree. [Is. 55, 13] For ‘instead of the ground willow there comes up in her the fir-tree,’ when in the heart
of the Saints, instead of the sunkenness of earthly thought, the elevation of heavenly contemplation rises up. Now the nettle is altogether of a fiery nature. But the myrtle is said to be of cooling virtue, and therefore’ instead of the nettle there comes up the myrtle tree,’ when the minds of the righteous are brought from the irritation and heat of bad habits to coolness and quietness of the thoughts, while they now no longer seek earthly things, while they extinguish the flames of the flesh by heavenly aspirations.
33. In reference too to this cooling of the soul, which is given from heaven, it is said to Mary, The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee [Luke 1, 35]; though on this point, by the term of’ the overshadowing,’ either Nature of God to be made Incarnate might have been denoted. For a shadow is followed by light and body. Now the Lord is Light in respect of the Divine Nature, Who, by means of a soul intervening, vouchsafed in her womb in respect of human nature to become a body. And so because the Incorporeal Light was in her womb to be made corporeal, to her, who conceived the incorporeal for corporality, it is said, The power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; i. e. The Incorporeal Light of the Divine Nature shall in thee take the corporeal substance of Human Nature. But now let us carry to an end what we began relating to any wicked man. Accordingly’ the scorching wind takes him away,’ in this way, viz. that him whom the evil
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spirit now kindles with the fire of evil concupiscence, he afterwards carries off to the flames of hell. It goes on;
And as a whirlwind shall carry him out of his place.
[xxi]
34. ‘The place’ of the wicked is the gratification of the life of time, and the enjoyment of the flesh. Therefore every single individual is in a manner’ carried out of his place by a whirlwind,’ when overwhelmed with affright on the Last Day he is severed from all his gratifications. Of which same Last Day it is directly added with justice,
Ver. 22. For He shall let loose upon him, and not spare. [xxii]
35. God, as often as He chastens the sinner by smiting him, for this reason’ lets loose’ the scourge, that He may ‘spare. ’ But when by smiting He brings his life to an end whilst remaining in sin, He ‘lets loose’ the scourge, but never at all ‘spares. ’ For the Same, Who ‘let loose’ the scourge that He might ‘spare,’ one day ‘lets it loose’ with this view that He may not spare. For in this life the Lord busies Himself so much the more that He may spare, in proportion as He scourges the more in awaiting; as He Himself saith to John by the voice of the Angel, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten [Rev. 3, 19]; and as it is elsewhere spoken, For whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. [Hab. 12, 6] But reversely it is written of the scourge of condemnation, The wicked is taken in the work of his own hands [Ps. 9, 16]. Of whom the Lord saith by Jeremiah, when He sees the multitudes transgressing irreclaimably, whom He now no longer regards as sons under discipline, but as enemies under unmitigated scourging, For I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with a cruel chastisement. [Jer. 30, 14] And what is said here, and not spare, is there likewise brought out in other words; Why criest thou for thine affliction? thy sorrow is incurable. [ver. 15] Whence the Elect always make this provision, that they should return to righteousness before the wrath of the Judge is inextinguishably kindled, lest being caught by the last stroke, they find life ended to them, together with sin, For the rod will then do away with the sin, when it alters the life, since whosesoever ways it does not change, his doings it does not atone for. Therefore all smiting from God is either a purifying of the present life in us, or a commencement of the punishment that follows. For with reference to those who profit by the scourge it is written, Who framest pain in the commandment [Ps. 94, 20]. For in that case when the wicked man is scourged and amended, to the commandment he would not give ear; to the pain he does. And so there is ‘pain framed in the commandment’ to him, who by pain as it were in the stead of the commandment is kept back from evil practices, But touching these persons to whom scourges are a curse, not a clearance, it is said, Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved; Thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. [Jer. 5, 3] With these, their scourges commence in this life, and last on in everlasting smiting, Whence the Lord saith by Moses, For a fire is kindled in Mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell [Deut. 32, 22]. For so far as regards the present smiting it is rightly said, A fire is kindled in Mine anger. But as regards the eternal damnation, it is immediately added with propriety, And shalt burn unto the lowest hell. Though by some persons that is used to be alleged, which is written, God judgeth not twice upon the same thing [Nah. 1, 9. LXX]. Which persons, howsoever, do not pay regard to this that is spoken by the Prophet of the wicked; And crush them with double confusion [Jer. 17, 18]. And that, which is written elsewhere; Jesus in
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saving the People out of Egypt, a second time destroyed them that believed not [Jude 5]. To which persons, however, if we yield assent, that any sin cannot be twice visited with punishment, this must be ,judged of those persons smitten for sin and dying in their sin, that their smiting begun here is completed there, that so to the unreformed there should be one and the same scourge, which begins here in time, but is consummated in eternal punishments, that to those that wholly refuse to be amended, the dealing of present scourges now should be the beginning of the torments to ensue. And so God shall let loose upon him, and not spare. It goes on;
Fleeing he shall flee out of His hand,
[xxiii]
36. For he ‘flees out of the hand’ of the Smiter, who amends the wickedness of his behaviour; or otherwise, because in Holy Writ the hand is used to be taken for acting, he ‘flees from the hand of the smiter,’ who, whilst he marks the destruction of the wicked man, forsakes the path of wickedness. Whence it is yet further added;
Ver. 23. He shall bind up his hands over him.
[xxiv]
37. For to ‘bind up the hands’ is to establish the practices of his life in uprightness, Whence Paul too saith; Wherefore lift up the loosed hands, and the unstrung knees [Heb. 12, 12]. While, then, they behold the destruction of another, they are made to turn back to the conscience, to remind themselves of their own, and by the very same cause whereby one man is carried to torments, another is freed from torments, And so ‘he binds up his hands over him,’ because he observes in the punishment of another what to be afraid of; and whilst he sees one living in transgression so smitten, he binds fast his own too loose practices with the sinews of righteousness. And so it is brought to pass that he who, being a bad man, whilst living, had drawn numbers into transgression by the delightfulness of sin, in dying recovers some from transgression by the terribleness of torments. Which same the Psalmist bears witness to be of advantage to the good as well, saying, The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash has hands in the blood of sinners. [Ps. 58, 10] For ‘in the blood of sinners,’ when dying, ‘the righteous do wash their hands,’ because, when their punishment is seen, the life of the person seeing it is cleansed. It goes on;
And he shall hiss upon him, beholding his place.
[xxv]
38. What is expressed in the hissing, but the straining of wonderment? But if in the hissing there is some other meaning ought, when the sinner dies, these that witness his death draw tight the mouth in hissing, in that they are converted to those spiritual words, which they had contemned, so that they henceforth begin to believe and to teach, what before, while they perceived the wicked man thriving, they need not to believe. For it very often happens that the mind of the weak is the more unsteadied from the hearing of the truth, as it sees the despisers of the truth flourishing; but when just vengeance takes away the unjust, it keeps others away from wickedness. Whence it is said by Solomon; When the pestilent man is punished, the little one will be wiser. Thus the holy man after
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he had adequately filled up the punishments of the men of power that are lifted up in the world, again directs his words to the pride of heretics, who are lifted up in speech, saying ;
Chap. xxviii. ver. 1. The silver hath the beginning of its veins, and to the gold there is a place, where they fine it.
39. In silver the power of speaking, in gold brightness of life or of wisdom is used to be denoted. And because heretics are so filled with pride for the brilliancy of their speaking, that they are not based firmly by any authority of the sacred books, (which books are for speaking like a kind of veins of silver to us, because from those identical books we derive the spring and source of our speaking,) he recalls them to the pages of sacred authority, that if they have a desire to speak in a true way, they may from that source draw forth what to say. And he saith, The silver hath the beginning of its veins, and to the gold there is a place, where they fine it.
As if he said in plain words; ‘He that is fitting himself for the words of true preaching, the originals of the cases he must of necessity derive from the sacred page, so as to bring round every thing that he speaks to a foundation of divine authority, and in that set firm the edifice of his own speaking. For, as we before said, oftentimes heretics, whilst they are eager to prop up what is bad of their own, broach things which assuredly are not maintained in the page of the sacred books. And hence the great Preacher admonishes his disciple, saying, O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane novelties of speaking [1 Tim. 6, 20], for whereas heretics long to be extolled as if for excellency of wit, they as it were bring out new things which are not maintained in the old books of the ancient Fathers, and thus it follows, that whilst they desire to appear wise, they scatter seeds of foolishness to their wretched hearers.
40. And it is well added; And to the gold there is a place, where they fine it. As if he said in plain terms; ‘The true wisdom of believers, which has the Church Universal for its place, undergoes tribulation by you persecuting her, but from all the dross of sins by the fire of your persecution she is purified. ’ Whence it is written; For gold is tried in the fire, and acceptable men in the furnace of adversity. [Ecclus. 2, 5] In which passage this too may be appropriately taken for the meaning, that for their foolish suffering heretics might seem to be rebuked. For oftentimes for the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Redeemer, they suffer much, and by those same sufferings they look for themselves to become His martyrs. To which persons it is now said by the voice of the holy man; and to the gold there is a place, where they fine it. For according to that which has been already said even before us, he that suffers out of the unity of the Church, punishments he may suffer, but a Martyr he cannot be made; for ‘to the gold there is a place, where they fine it. ’ What then, ye heretics, say ye to these things? Ye are minded to be ‘fined’ by the afflicting of the flesh, nay even by martyrdom, but the place where ye must be fined, ye know not. Hear ye what is spoken by the voice of the holy preacher. ‘To the gold there is a place, where they fille it. ’ So then, seek ye this ‘place for the fining,’ this furnace, wherein the gold may be fitly purged, find ye out.
41. There is one Church, . in which he that may have attained to be fined, may likewise be purified from all the dross of sins. If for the sake of God ye undergo aught of bitterness, if aught of tribulation, being without her pale, ye can only be burnt, ye cannot be purified. Let Jeremiah tell, let him tell in what way the fire of your fining is void of all efficacy. The finer melteth in vain; for their wickednesses are not done away [Jer. 6, 29]. See how the fire externally melting at once administers a punishment of hard suffering, and yet does not clear off the sin of misbelief; it both
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furnishes torments of cruel punishments, and does not cause additions of good merits. Moreover the fire of this fining which is undergone out of the Catholic Church, how utterly it is void of all efficacy the Apostle Paul instructs us, when he says, And though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. [1 Cor. 13, 3] For some think wrong things touching God, and others hold what is right about the Creator, but do not maintain unity with their brethren; the one are sundered by erroneousness of faith, and the others by the commission of schism. And hence in the very first part of the Decalogue the sins of both sides are checked, seeing that it is said by the voice of God, And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. [Mark 12, 30. 31. Deut. 6, 5] And it is immediately added, And thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. For whoso imagines what is wrong about God, surely it is evident that he does not ‘love God. ’ But he who while he entertains right notions about God is divided from the unity of the Holy Church, it is plain that he does not love his neighbonr, whom he refuses to have for his fellow.
42. Whosoever, then, is divided from this unity of the Church our Mother, either through heresy in entertaining wrong notions concerning God, or by the erroneousness of schism in not loving his neighbour, is bereft of the grace of that charity, concerning which Paul saith what we have before given; And though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. As if he expressed himself in plain utterance; ‘Without the bounds of its place, the fire of fining being applied to me only afflicts me with torment, and does not purify me by its cleansing. ’ This place all they that are lovers of holy peace seek with heartiest endeavours, this on seeking they find, this finding they keep, knowing the remission of sin, as to where, or when, or to what sort it is vouchsafed. For where is it, save in the bosom of our Catholic Mother? When, but before the day of coming departure? Because, Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. [2 Cor. 6, 2] And, Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near. [Is. 55, 6] To what sort of persons, but to the converted, who after the imitating of little children are fashioned by humility as their mistress? To whom it is said; Suffer little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of heaven. [Matt. 19, 14] And, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. [Matt. 18, 3] And therefore, because there are no true martyrs made saving in the Catholic Church, it is rightly said, To the gold there is a place where they fine it. Because the soul would not be made bright in the radiance of everlasting beauty, except, so to say, it were first burnt here in the workshop of charity.
43. Moreover, we are to consider that there are some whom Almighty God by His secret counsel preserving in innocency from their very beginnings promotes to the topmost heights of virtuous attainments, that, as their age increases, both numerousness of years and loftiness of merits should simultaneously advance in them. But others abandoning in their outset He suffers to go with bad habits fermenting by headlong ways. . Yet for the most part even these He has regard to, and for the following after Him He kindles them with the fire of holy love, and the itchings of bad propensities engrained in their hearts He converts into a fervour of virtue, and they are the more set on fire to the desire of beseeching the pitifulness of God, in proportion as they are the more ashamed at the recollection of their own wickedness; as it often happens, that in the conflict of the fight the soldier, who is placed before the eyes of his leader, basely yields to the enemy’s valour, and that whilst he powerlessly turns his back he is struck; yet nevertheless being ashamed of this very thing that he has done [2 Mss. ‘yeilded. ’] disgracefully before his leader’s eyes, from the mere
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sense of shame he gathers greater force; and afterwards executes deeds of Prowess, to so high a degree that he may at once achieve present credit of his valour, and cover past disgrace of weakness. In a like way, these persons are sometimes more actively established in the service of God by consequence of past weakness, and such persons for the keeping of His commandments both the desire of things future draws on, and the remembrance of things past urges forward, that on the one side affection to that which is to come should stimulate, and on the other shame for that which is past spur on. Which same however, while the enemies of the Church see to be endowed with the highest virtues, and in their present life cannot any way find out that whereby they may derogate from their merit, they set themselves to impeach them of the past, as the Manichaean assails our Moses, in whom he endeavours to soil with the sin of a past homicide the grace of subsequent virtuous attainments; in whom he heeds not how patient he was afterwards to endure, but how precipitate he was before to strike. Such adversaries as these blessed Job encountering with the exactest eye of observation, after that he said, Silver hath the beginning of its veins; and to gold there is a place where they fine it; he justly added;
Iron is taken out of the earth.
[xxvii]
44. Heretics are used to pride themselves against us by the self-priding of their righteousness, and to boast high their practices with the swelling of ostentation, and ourselves, as we have said, they impeach either for being or having been bad persons. Accordingly in a most humble confession, and in a truthful defence against those, the holy man speaks, saying, Iron is taken out of the earth. As if he said in plain speech; ‘men of strength, who by the sharpest swords of their tongues are become iron in this pitched battle of the defending of the faith, were one time but’ earth ‘in the lowest sphere of actions. ’ For to man on his sinning it was spoken; Earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou return. But ‘iron is taken out of the earth,’ when the hardy champion of the Church is separated from an earthly course of conduct, which he before maintained. Accordingly he ought not to be contemned in any thing whatever, that he was, who has already begun to be that which he was not. Was not Matthew found in the earth, who, involved in earthly matters, served the business of the receipt of custom? But having been taken out of the earth, he was strengthened into the forcibleness of iron, in that by his tongue, as by the sharpest sword, the Lord in the enforcing of the Gospel pierced the hearts of unbelievers. And he that before was weak and contemptible by his earthly occupations, was afterwards made strong for heavenly preachings. Hence it is yet further subjoined;
And the stone being melted with heat is turned into brass.
45. Then is ‘the stone dissolved with heat,’ when the heart that is hard and cold to the fire of divine love is touched by that same fire of divine love, and melted in the glowing warmth of the Spirit, that to the life that follow’s it should bum with the heat of its longings, which life on hearing of before, it remained uninfluenced. By the power of which same heat, he is at once softened down to love and invigorated to practice, that as before he was hard in the love of the world, so he should afterwards give himself out strong unto the love of God, and what he declined to give ear to before, he should henceforth begin both to believe and to preach. And so, the stone being dissolved with heat is turned into brass, because the hardened mind, being melted by the fire of love from Above, is changed to true strength. So that the sinner that was before unmoved should afterwards be made at once strong in respect of authority, and sounding in respect of preaching. Which is well spoken
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by Isaiah; They that trust in the Lord shall change their strength. [Is. 40, 31] We ‘change our strength,’ when being converted, we eschew the present scene of things with as much power and might as we before were seeking it. But because the foregoing life is unfairly by adversaries counted to the character of Catholics, it is rightly added;
Ver. 3. He hath set a time to darkness, and Himself vieweth the end of all and everyone.
46. He hath Himself ‘set a time to the darkness,’ i. e. bounds to the wicked, where they should cease to be wicked.
Whence it is said to them by the Apostle; Ye-were sometimes darkness, but 1l0W are ye light in the Lord. Like as to the other disciples as well the same great teacher saith, The night is far spent, the day is at hand; let us therefore put off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day. Hence also in the Song of Songs on the coming of the Church it is said, Who is she that cometh forth as the morning in rising?
For fitly is the Church described by being compared with ‘the morning,’ in that, by the knowledge of the faith she is changed from the darkness of sins to be in the bright light of righteousness. By the term of ‘all and every one,’ he would have both the Elect and the damned to be comprehended. For God both in doing and ordering what is good, yet not doing what is bad, but what by the wicked is done Himself so regulating that the things should not come forth irregularly, ‘vieweth the end of all and every one,’ and bears all things patiently, and beholds the goal of the Elect, how that from evil they are changed to good. He sees, too, the end of the damned, how that for bad practice they are dragged to a punishment worthy of them. He saw the end of Saul when persecuting, wherein prostrated on the earth he should say, Lora, what wilt Thou have me to do? He saw the end of the seeming-obedient disciple, that for the guilty deed he had committed he should tie his throat with a noose, and both punish himself when guilty of sin, and by thus punishing, betray himself the worse. He saw the Ninevites transgressing, but beheld the end of the transgressing in the repentance of the reformed. He saw likewise Sodom transgressing, but He beheld the end of the burning of lust in the fire of hell. He saw the end of the Gentile world, how that whilst occupied by the darkness of iniquities, it should be one day brightened with the light of faith. He also saw the end of Judaea, how that from that light of faith, which it held, it should blind itself with the darkness of hardened unbelief. Whence it is yet further added with just applicability, Ver. 4. The stone likewise of darkness, and the shadow of death, the torrent divides from the people on travel.
47. What was that people of the Jews, hard by unbelief, that refused to behold by faith that Author of life, whom it foretold by prophecy, but ‘a stone of darkness? ’ because it proved at once hard by cruelty, and clouded by unbelief. Which same is also called by another term ‘the shadow of death. ’ For a shadow is drawn such and of the same sort as the outlines were of that object, from which it is derived, And who is designated by the name of’ death’ but the devil? Of whom in a kind of mode of representation by his minister’ it is said, And his name was Death. [Rev. 6, 8] Of whom that people was a shadow, because in following his wickedness, it presented in itself a semblance of him. But what is named by the title of the ‘torrent,’ save that fire that issues forth from the sight of the Awful Judge in the final Inquest, and divides the Elect and the damned? Whence too it is said by the Prophet, A fiery and rapid stream came forth from before Him. [Dan. 7, 10]
48. But what People is ‘on travel’ in this world, but that which hastening to the inheritance of the Elect knows well that it has its native country in the heavenly world, and expects that it will there
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find its own the more, in proportion as here it reckons all things that pass away to be unconnected with itself? Thus the ‘pilgrim People’ is the number of all the Elect, who accounting this life a species of exile to themselves, pant with the whole bent of the heart after their native country Above; of which persons Paul saith, And confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things, declare plainly that they seek a country. [Heb. 11, 13. 14. ] This pilgrim state that same Apostle also was undergoing when he said, Knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we go pilgrims [peregrinamur] away from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. [2 Cor. 5, 6. 7. ] The woes of this pilgrim state he was in haste to get quit of when he said, Having a desire to depart and to be with Christ; [Phil. 1, 23] and again, To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. [ver. 21] The burthen of this pilgrimage the Psalmist felt lying heavy upon him, when he said; Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in ,the tents of Kedar!
My soul hath been much a sojourner. [Ps. 120, 5. 6. ] From this he was panting to be extricated as speedily as possible, when inflamed with heavenly aspirations he said, My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God! [Ps. 42, 2] But this desire they are strangers to, who rivet their heart on earthly gratifications. For whilst they love only the things that are visible, surely the invisible things, even if they believe them to exist, they do not love, in that whilst they follow themselves too much with the outward following, even in the interior they become carnal. Thus both people run together in this life, but do not together attain to the life everlasting, because, the stone of darkness and the shadow of death the torrent divides from the people on travel. As if he said in plain speech, ‘Those whom in this present time either infidelity makes blind, or cruelty makes hard, the fiery stream that issues from before the Judge Eternal doth then sever from the People of the Elect, that thus from the company of good men the fire of the strict Inquest should part those, whom the darkness of evil habits makes blind in their lusts.
49. Perhaps by the designation of the ‘torrent,’ the actual whatering of holy preaching may be understood, according to that, that is said by Solomon; The eye that sneereth at his father and despiseth the travail of his mother, lo the ravens from the torrents shall pick it out. [Prov. 30, 17] For bad men, while they find fault with the judgments of God, do ‘sneer at their father,’ and heretics of all sorts whilst in mocking they contemn the preaching of Holy Church, and her fruitfulness, what else is this but that they ‘despise the travail of their mother? ’ whom we not unjustly call the mother of them as well, because from the same they come forth, who speak against the same, as John bears witness, who says, They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. [1 John 2, 19] But ‘the ravens from the torrents come,’ when the true Preachers come forth for the defence of Holy Church from the streams of the Sacred Books. Which same also are rightly termed ‘ravens,’ because they never pride themselves on the light of their righteousness, but by the grace of humility confess in themselves the blackness of sins. Whence too, it is spoken by the Church of Elect souls, I am black, but comely. And John says, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Which same ravens, no doubt, ‘pick out the eyes’ of him that ‘sneereth,’ because they overcome the aim of bad and froward men. Thus by this testimony, if here as well ‘the torrent’ is to be taken for preaching; the stone of darkness, and shadow of death, the torrent divides from the people on travel; because the preaching of the Saints gives over the hardened minds of the lost, and betakes itself to the pious hearts of the lowly. Hence it is yet further subjoined,
Those whom the foot of the needy man forgot, a1~d the inaccessible ones.
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50. What other in this place is taken to be the needy man, saving Him concerning Whom it is said by Paul, Though He was rich, yet . for your sakes He became poor. [2 Cor. 8, 9] The ‘feet’ of which ‘needy man’ were the holy Preachers, by the presence of which same compassing the Gentile world, He went round about the whole globe. Of whom it is said by the Prophet, And I will walk in them. [Lev. 26, 12] Was not he His foot, who whilst held fast in fetters, said, For which I am an ambassador in bonds? [2 Cor. 6, 16. Eph 6, 20] But those, who proved themselves ‘a shadow of death and a stone of darkness,’ ‘the foot of the needy Man forgot,’ because in the very outset of the new born Church, whereas the holy Apostles were minded to have preached the kingdom of heaven to Judaea, seeing that they profited for nothing at all, they went off for the preaching to the Gentiles, as they themselves say in their Acts; It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you; but seeing ye put it ,from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. [Acts 13, 23] Concerning whom also it is said by the Psalmist, The mountains shall be carried into the heart of the sea [Ps. 46, 2]; because the Apostles, being thrust off by Judaea, were ‘carried’ into this scene of the Gentile world. Who then are those, that by unbounded hardness and from dimsightedness of heart, like a kind of’ stone of darkness and the shadow of death,’ are divided from the People of the Saints going on travel, saving those whom’ the foot of the needy Man forgot,’ i. e. whom the Preachers of the Lord, poor as He was, that is, in respect of human nature, abandoned on account of the swelling of their pride; and those they wholly forgot, whilst they transferred the seeds of their preaching to the getting fruit of the Gentiles only? Whom moreover he rightly calls’ inaccessible’ also, because while they were hardened in their infidelity, they refused to give the words of life access to their heart. But this Judaea which grows thus hardened, whether what she was for 1ong, or what she underwent afterwards, let us listen to. It goes on;
Ver. 6. The earth from which bread arose, is overturned in its place by fire.
51. Judaea was wont to give bread, in that she used to set before men the words of the Law.
Which same Law because the children of perdition could now no longer understand and interpret, the prophet Jeremiah bewails in the Lamentations, saying, The young children asked bread, and there was no man to break it unto them [Lam 4, 4]; but this ‘earth is overturned in its place with fire,’ because on beholding the miracles of the faithful it consumed itself with the firebrand of envy. For because envy is always used to be engendered from pride, she ‘perished in her place by fire,’ who for this reason burned with envy, because she did not abandon pride. And so ‘the earth, which first had bread, was afterwards overturned by fire,’ because the Synagogue, which set before men the commandments of God in the Law, by persecuting the new-born Church consumed itself with the fire of envy. Was it not in flames with the brands of its jealousy when on seeing the miracles of our Redeemer; it said by certain of its own, What do we? for this Man doeth many miracles? [John 11, 47] Or, surely, Ye see that we gain nothing; yea, the whole world goeth after Him. [ib. 12, 19] They saw that whereby they should have been converted, and they were thereby rendered the more froward. They sought to stifle Him, Whom they beheld give life to the dead. They held the Law in the mouth, but persecuted the Author of the Law. Therefore the earth, from which bread arose, was overturned in its place by fire. Because Judaea had in her own self first the Law that should refresh, and afterwards envy that should consume her. For the describing of whom it is further added,
Ver. 6. The stones of it are the place of sapphire, and her clods gold.
[xxxiii]
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52. The proclaim of the glory going before adds to the guilt of the sin following after. For the fall of every individual is of worse criminality, in proportion as before he fell he had the power to be of greater excellency. Thus let it be told of Judaea, let it be told what she was, and let the greatness of the excellencies going before grow into the heightening of the delinquencies succeeding afterwards, Her stones were the place of sapphires, arid her clods of gold, What do we understand in this place by ‘gold,’ but the minds of the Saints and strong ones? For in Holy Scripture ‘stones’ are wont to be taken sometimes on the side of bad and sometimes on the side of good, For when a’ stone’ is put for insensibility, by ‘stones’ we have hard hearts denoted. Whence also it is said by John; God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham [Matt. 3, 9]; who, surely, by the name of’ stones’ denotes the hearts of the Gentiles, at that time hard and insensible in respect of unbelief, And by the Prophet the Lord promises, saying, And I will take the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you an heart of flesh. [Ez. 11, 19] Again by ‘stones’ the minds of the strong ones are used to be denoted. And hence it is said to the Saints by Peter, Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood. [1 Pet. 2, 5] And by the Prophet the Lord promises to the Church when she comes, saying, Behold, I will lay down thy stones in order, and lay thy foundations with sapphires; and I will make thy bulwarks jasper, and thy gates in cut stones, and all thy borders into pleasant stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord. [Is. 54, 11-13] For He did ‘lay down in her the stones in order,’ in that He distinguished the holy souls in her by the diverseness of merits, He ‘laid her foundation in sapphires,’ which same stones retain in themselves the likeness of the colour of the air, because the strength of the Church is firmly based in souls seeking after heavenly things. And because a jasper is of a green hue, He ‘made his bulwarks of the jasper,’ because they are advanced against her adversaries in the defence of Holy Church, who growing green and fresh by interior desires, do not die off by any drying up of damnable lukewarmness. But He ‘set her gates in cut stones. ’ For those are the ‘gates’ of the Church, by whose life and teaching the multitude of those that believe enter into her, Who also for this reason, that they are rich in great deeds, and that-what by speaking they declare, by living they exhibit, are described to be not plain but’ cut stones. ’ For in whosesoever life right practice is seen, there is as it were represented in those same persons what they have done. Where also embracing all the number of the Elect in a general roll, he added, and all thy borders in pleasant stones. And as though we, on hearing these things, begged that he would make known those stones that he spoke of, he added, All thy children shall be taught of the Lord. And therefore because from out of Judaea there were never wanting holy souls, to lead a heavenly life, it is said, he? ’ stones are the place of sapphires. And because with an extraordinary brightness of life and of wisdom she shone forth by faith, it is added, and her clods gold. What is denoted by ‘clods,’ but the assemblages and multitudes of the several orders? Now clods are compacted of moisture and dust; and so all they that being watered with the dew of grace confessed with a true-sighted knowledge that by the debt of death they are dust, whilst they were made to shine bright by excellency of life, lay in her like’ clods of gold. ’ ‘Clods’ this earth had in the Prophets,’ clods’ she had in the teachers, ‘clods’ in the Ancient Fathers, who by an extraordinary infusion of grace kept themselves close in unanimity of profession and of practice. Therefore let him say, And the clods of it gold; because therein the multitude of the spiritual souls shone with greater perfection, in proportion as it bound itself up in God and its neighbour with greater unanimity.
53. But this gold was afterwards dimmed by the darkness of unbelief. Whose blackness, surely, the Prophet Jeremiah surveying laments, saying, How is the gold become dim? how is the most fine
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gold changed! For ‘the gold is become dim,’ in that that ancient brilliancy in them of faith and innocency, upon unbelief coming upon them, dulled itself with the night of wickedness. Therefore, what it was since we have heard, even that her stollen are the place of sapphires, now let us bear next wherefore that People so beloved of God lost these great blessings. It goes on;
Ver. 7. The pathway of the bird it knew not, nor beheld the eyes of the vulture.
[xxxiv]
54. Who is denoted in this place by the title of’ the bird,’ saving He, Who in ascending poised sky wards the fleshly body, which He took to Him. Who furthermore is fitly designated by the title of the ‘vulture’ as well. For the ‘vulture’ while it is flies if it sees a carcase lying, drops itself down for the devouring of the carcase, and very often it is in this way taken in death, when it has come from on high after the dead animal. Rightly therefore is the Mediator between God and Man, our Redeemer, denoted by the appellation of a ‘vulture,’ Who whilst remaining in the loftiness of His Divine Nature, marked as it were from a kind of flight on high the carcase of our mortal being down below, and let Himself drop from the regions of heaven to the lowest places. For in our behalf He vouchsafed to become man, and while he sought the dead creature, He found death among us, Who was deathless in Himself. Now ‘the eye’ of this ‘vulture’ was the actual aiming at our Resurrection, because He Himself being dead for three days set us free from everlasting death. And so that faithless people of Judaea saw Him in the state of mortality, but how by His death He should destroy our death, it noted not. It beheld, indeed, the vulture, but’ the eyes of the vulture it did not behold. ’ Which People, whereas it refused to regard the ways of His humility, whereby He lifted us up on high, ‘knew not the pathway of the bird. ’ For neither did it betake itself to consider that His humility would lift us to the heavenly heights, and the aim of His death renew us to life. Therefore the pathway of the bird it knew not, nor beheld the eyes of the vulture. For though it saw Him Whom it held bound in death, it refused to see what wonderful glory by His death followed our life [al. ‘what glory in our life should follow from His death’]. And hence it was kindled to the cruelty of persecution likewise; it refused to receive the words of life; the Preachers of the kingdom of heaven, by forbidding, by evil entreating, by smiting it thrust from it. Which same, being so thrust off, abandoning Judaea whereto they had been sent, were dispersed for the gathering together of the Gentile world. And hence it is further added;
Ver. 8. The children of the dealers have not trodden it, nor hath the lioness passed through it.
55. In all the Latin copies we find the word ‘Instructors’ [Institutores] put down, but in the Greek we find ‘traders,’ [negotiatores] whereby it may be inferred that in this passage the several copyists from being ignorant put ‘instructors’ (‘institutors’) instead of ‘institores’ (‘ dealers’). For we call traders ‘institores’ on this account, that they are ‘instant in plying work. ’ But both the one phrase and the other, though they disagree in utterance, yet are not at variance in meaning, because all those who instruct the practice of the faithful, carryon a spiritual dealing, that while they supply preaching to their hearers, they should receive back from them faith and right works; as where it is written touching Holy Church, She maketh fine linen, and selleth it. Concerning whom it is likewise said a little after in that place, She perceiveth that her trading is good. [Prov. 31, 24] Who in this place are called ‘instructors’ but the holy Prophets, who busied themselves by prophesying to instruct the ways of the Synagogue unto faith? ‘Sons’ of whom, assuredly, the holy Apostles are styled, who that they should believe God Man were begotten to the same faith by the preaching of those. Concerning whom it is said to the Church by the Psalmist; Instead of thy fathers are born to
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thee children, whom thou mayest make princes over all the earth. [Ps. 45, 16] But because the Apostles being thrust off went out from the borders of the Synagogue, it is lightly said now, The children of the dealers have not trodden it. Since the ‘children of the dealers’ would have ‘trodden it,’ if the holy Preachers had borne down the badness of the Synagogue with the heel of goodness. But if those same ‘dealers’ we take for the Preachers of Holy Church, then the ‘children’ of the dealers, nothing hinders us taking for the Shepherds and Teachers who followed the way of the Apostles. Which did not ‘tread’ the Synagogue, because whilst their fathers, i. e. the Apostles, were thrust off by that Synagogue, they themselves too ceased from the calling of her.
56. Which same Synagogue’ the lioness passed not by,’ because Holy Church, being devoted to the assembling together of the Gentiles, never any longer employed itself upon that people of Judaea. Now the Church is lightly called’ a lioness,’ in that persons living amiss in bad habits, it kills with the mouth of holy preaching. Hence to the first Shepherd himself it is said as to the mouth of this lioness; slay and eat. [Acts 10, 13] For what is ‘slain’ is killed out of life, whilst that which is eaten is changed into the body of the person eating. Accordingly it is said, ‘Slay and eat;’ i. e. ‘Kill those to the sin wherein they are living, and convert them from themselves into thine own members. ’ And because this Church is the body of the Lord, the Lord likewise Himself by the voice of Jacob is called’ a lion’ in respect of Himself, a ‘lioness’ by the body, when it is said to him under the likeness of Judah, To the prey, my son, art thou gone up. Thou hast couched as a lion, and as a lioness. Who shall rouse him up? [Gen. 49, 9] Accordingly this lioness it is never said’ passed not’ Judaea, but’ passed not through. ’ For upon the Apostles preaching, in the first instance three thousand out of her, and afterwards five thousand, believed. And so the Church’ passed by’ the way of the Synagogue, but’ passed not through,’ because a few from out of her it carried off to faith, but yet that faithless people it did not utterly make extinct to misbelief. But, what we have already often said, being cast off by the infidelity of the Jews it turned away to the calling of the Gentiles. Hence it is yet further said of that same lioness;
Ver. 9. He stretcheth out his hand to the flint; He overturneth the mountains by the roots. [xxxvi]
57. For ‘he stretched out his hand to the flint,’ because He put forth the arm of His preaching to the hardness of the Gentiles. Hence the same blessed Job, forewarned of the history of his suffering being destined to be made known to the Gentiles, says, Let these things be graven with an iron pen in a plate of lead, or hewn in the flint. [Job 19, 24] But whom in this place do we understand by the’ mountains’ saving the powerful ones of this world, who on account of earthly substance swell themselves high? Concerning whom the Psalmist saith, Touch the mountains, and they shall smoke [Ps. 144, 5]; but the mountains are overturned from the roots, because, on Holy Church preaching the highest powers of this world fell from their inmost thinking into the adoring of Almighty God.
