COMMENTARIA IN CANTICA

• 1089

1089ATo the most reverend lord, and most vigorous in the cultivation of true religion, King LOUIS, RABANUS, his devoted little servant in Christ, wishes eternal salvation.

Lately, when I came to you, having been summoned to the cell of our monastery which is called Ratestorph, and there was talk between us concerning the sacred Scriptures, you deigned to urge upon me that I should expound for you, in the allegorical sense, the canticles which holy Church sings at the morning lauds. To this I then replied that I had already done this in our little works, which, as far as I was able, I composed in a treatment of the divine books, and that there was no need now to repeat it afresh. But when I had returned to the monastery and had inquired whether I had already made an exposition upon all those canticles, I found that upon those which are from the prophets — namely Isaiah and Habakkuk — 1089BI had not yet set my hand. Whence I thought that I would fit these together with the rest into one volume, and would send them to you to read, especially in these days of Lent. And so I have done this, and have set both editions down together: that one, namely, according to which the Roman Church sings, and this one, translated from the Hebrew verity, which the other Churches of the West for the most part hold; expounding the sense of both editions where they seemed to differ between themselves; and, according to what I found already expounded in the sayings of the holy Fathers, or was able to investigate by myself with divine grace assisting, I have completed the work, asking the reader that, if anything in it displease him, he should not be quick to find fault, but should first consider whether it accords with the sense of our elders and is not contrary to the truth; and that so, weighing the devotion of my mind 1089Crather than the eloquence of my words, he may judge concerning it with an even judgment, knowing what is written: With what measure ye shall have measured, it shall be measured back to you (Matth. VII). But if it moves anyone that these canticles do not keep the order in which they were composed by their own authors, but that those which were published later are set in the earlier place — since the canticle of Exodus and the canticle of Deuteronomy were published by the lawgiver before the other canticles — let him recognize that this was not done to no purpose, but was carried out in a fitting order and according to reason, so that they might agree in all things with the divine mysteries and institutions. For on the Lord's day, which stands forth honorable in all things and worthy of praises, the praises of the three boys are sung in the Church. In them all creatures are called forth to praise and bless their Creator. But on the second feria it has been decreed that the canticle of Isaiah be sung, in which the coming of the Savior and 1090Athe sacrament of baptism are proclaimed, since these are the beginnings of our salvation. On the third feria too the canticle, or prayer, of Hezekiah is sung, in which, recovering from his infirmity, he rendered thanksgivings to God for his own health, admonishing us that we ourselves, after we have received the grace of God and the washing of holy baptism and have been loosed from the bonds of death, should be zealous to give thanks to God through the whole time of our life. But on the fourth feria the canticle of Anna the prophetess is sung, in which the casting out of Jewish perfidy is denoted, and the election of the Church from among the Gentiles is shown. For on the fifth feria the canticle of the Israelites is deservedly sung, which, after the celebration of the Pasch, they sang when they had been led out of Egypt and carried over the Red Sea with dry foot. For on that same feria our Savior also, celebrating the typical Pasch 1090Bwith his disciples, consecrated without interruption the mystical Pasch in the sacrament of his body and blood, and in the immolation of that Lamb who taketh away the sins of the world. Therefore, consequently, on the sixth feria the canticle of Habakkuk the prophet — in which the sacraments of the Lord's passion are contained, and the mysteries of his resurrection and of his ascension into the heavens are declared — is fittingly sung in the Church, so that it may be made known to all how, on the sixth feria, on which the first man was formed anew, the human race was restored to eternal life through Christ. On the Sabbath too it has been well and fittingly appointed that the canticle of Deuteronomy be sung, in which the benefits of God toward the former people are shown, and how ungratefully that same people received them and abused them is most certainly expressed; 1090Cbecause on that day it was anciently appointed that the Deuteronomy of the law be recited in the synagogue, lest forgetfulness of God's precepts should arise among the people, but that they should rather be stirred up to the observance of his precepts. Whence in the Acts of the apostles we read it thus written, as James says: For Moses from ancient times hath in every city them that preach him in the synagogues, where he is read every sabbath (Act. XV); we therefore likewise are instructed spiritually by the same song, that we be not ungrateful for the benefits of God, but rather press on in his praises through the whole time of our life, until that sabbath come in which we may perpetually possess eternal rest with Christ. But the canticles taken from the Gospel have been decreed by the masters of the Church to be sung aptly and suitably every day in the Church — that is, that the canticle of Zachary the prophet, where the rising 1091Aof light in the darkness is recorded, be sung at the morning lauds, and that the canticle of Mary the mother of God, in which the scattering of the proud and the putting down of the mighty and the exaltation of the humble is proclaimed through the arm of the Lord, be rightly sung last in the evening office. Because in the evening of the world — that is, at the end of the age, through the coming of the Savior — the proud will be cast into the fire of hell, and the humble will be exalted into eternal glory. These things, therefore, according to what we have perceived and have received as handed down from the masters, we have set forth with the pen, without prejudging those who know better and know how to set things forth better in words. But do thou, most wise king, well instructed in all things, receive with kindly mind those things which have been gathered for thee by a devoted servant, and use them according as thou shalt see it to profit thee and thine. And I 1091Bwill gladly spend whatever service I can upon thee, and moreover will myself be spent, praying and beseeching God for thy salvation and for the stability of thy kingdom, that here thou mayest long live in safety, and that after the end of the present life thou mayest enjoy eternal life in the heavenly kingdom. May the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, here and everywhere, now and always, deign to preserve thee sound and unharmed.

Isaiah the prophet, after he had disputed in mystical utterances concerning the incarnation of the Lord and concerning the calling together of the Church and the destruction of idolatry — so that first he told of the flower of the rod, ascending from the root of Jesse, upon which 1091Cthe grace of the sevenfold Spirit should rest; and afterward proclaimed the concord and the dwelling together of the beasts with the cattle, that is, of the rich with the poor, and the concord in the Church of the fierce and the proud with the meek and the humble; and testified that the sign of the cross calls the nations together from every side to the unity of the faith — at last made manifest that the desolation of the river of Egypt, that is, the error of the Gentiles who dwelt in the darkness of unbelief, was to be dissolved; and so he calls forth the people of the Church, or the faithful soul, to praise God, so far as she may reckon it to his grace that, freed from her enemies and separated from the children of wrath, she has been made a daughter of reconciliation and of mercy. Whence he says:

« I will confess to thee, O Lord, because thou wast angry 1091Dwith me. Thy fury is turned away, and thou hast comforted me. » Confession, therefore, as we have often said, is an equivocal word, and is taken according to the diversity of places. For both those confess who bewail their sins — that is, who do worthy penance for them — and those who render thanks to the Lord confess; but the one is in tears, the other in joy; the one is known to be set in affliction, the other in the holy eagerness of the mind. Whence here the faithful people exults with abundant gladness, marking out a certain image of the age to come, where these voices are unceasing and celebrate together the praises of the Lord with devoted mind. For great is the gladness of a soul once sinful, when it remembers that it has been snatched from the bonds of sins and the snares of errors through the grace 1092Aof holy baptism, and translated by the renewal of the Holy Spirit into the lot of the elect, having hope of the life to come and of everlasting joy. But whence this grace came to it he shows, saying:

« Behold, God the Saviour, mind: I will deal confidently, and I will not fear. » For the whole cause of our redemption and salvation consists in the incarnation of Jesus Christ our Lord, since there is no other name given to men upon the earth — Peter the apostle bearing witness — in which it behooves us to be saved; of whom Paul also says: « For by grace we are saved (Ephes. II). » And again: « Who, he says, shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom VII). » Of whom again he says: « We give thanks to God, who hath made us worthy in the portion of the lot 1092Bof the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption and the remission of sins; who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, because in him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth (Col. I). » In him also everyone deals confidently who rightly believes in the Lord and hopes in him, knowing that he himself is able to deliver and defend those who truly trust in his protection; and on this account he does not fear the adversary, because he cannot harm him unless permitted. Whence the Psalmist says: « The Lord is a helper to me, and I shall look upon my enemies (Psal. CXVII). » It is to be understood that they are made weak and powerless; for he wishes spiritual wickednesses to be understood, which he says are to be 1092Clooked upon in that judgment, where the devil, with the rest of his ministers, already destroyed and damned, will appear to human sight.

« For the Lord is my strength and my praise, and he is become salvation to me. » He who is struck cannot fall, to whom the help of the Lord is seen to furnish strength; but lest he whom the Lord's gifts preserved should be thought only to escape dangers, he added, « he is become salvation to me, » because through him they receive eternal life, through whom they also merit to escape the ruins of this age. For he himself is both the strength and the eternal praise of the blessed. Let that most wicked heresy hear that the Lord was made so for those who are saved, and whose Lord he was not before — that we may understand that creation and making in the Scriptures is not always the founding of those things which 1092Dwere not, but sometimes grace toward those who have deserved that God become theirs. After these things the Prophet under a figure exhorts those who believe in God, that they should study to learn his doctrine attentively, who have obtained also his faith; and he says:

« You shall draw waters with joy out of the Saviour's fountains. » Whom above he had called Emmanuel, and Hasten to take away the spoils, Make speed to take prey, and by the remaining names, lest he should seem to be another beside him whom Gabriel announced to the Virgin, saying: « Thou shalt call his name Jesus. For he shall save his people (Matth. I), » him he now calls Saviour, and proclaims that waters are to be drawn from his fountains — by no means from the waters of the river of Egypt, which were smitten, nor from the waters of the river 1093Aof Rasni, but from the fountains of Jesus. For in the tongue of the Hebrews this expresses "Saviour." Whence he himself also cried out in the Gospel: « He that thirsteth, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth in me, as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. Now this, » says the Evangelist, « he said of the Holy Spirit, whom they that believed in him should receive (Joan. VII). » And in another Gospel he himself speaks: « He that shall drink of the water that I will give him shall not thirst for ever; but it shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting (Joan. IV). » Let us understand the fountains of the Saviour to be the evangelical doctrine, of which we read in the seventy-seventh psalm: « In the churches bless ye God, God from the fountains of Israel » — that doctrine, namely, which the apostles poured into the Gentiles; for from thence the fountain of religion flowed forth through the remaining 1093Bnations. Whence there also follows:

« You shall say in that day. Confess ye to the Lord and call upon his name. Make his devices known among the peoples; remember that his name is exalted. Sing ye of the Lord, for he hath done magnificently. Declare this in the whole earth. » For the devices of the Lord are the divine precepts, which have been brought forth solely from the counsel of the highest wisdom, and become altogether salutary to those who are zealous to fulfil them in deeds. These things are enjoined by the apostles and the remaining teachers from Israel upon those who have believed from among the Gentiles: that they should confess to the Lord alone and, with idols forsaken, call upon his name, and proclaim all his works to the unbelieving, that they may know that he alone is exalted, and that « in his name every knee is bent, 1093Cof things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth (Phil. II), » to whom it must be sung that he hath done magnificently, and in the whole world his mercy is to be proclaimed. With this place also agrees the beginning of the hundred and fourth psalm, where it is thus written: « Confess ye to the Lord and call upon his nonem, declare his works among the nations. » In this, therefore, the order of the sayings consists of three parts. First he says: « Confess ye to the Lord, » that is, praise him and by good deeds acquire for yourselves the grace of the Godhead; because this very thing is to praise the Lord: both to render him honour with the mouth, and to carry out his commands by works. For that confession is here to be understood which does not cease to celebrate the Lord's praises, since the things that follow also declare such a vow and action. Then he admonishes that the Lord be called upon, 1093Dso that after the ministry of most holy praise we may pay him worthy thanks. For he duly calls upon God who cries to God more by deed than by voice. Whence the Saviour says in the Gospel to the proud and to those disobedient to him: « For why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? » (Luc. VI.) And elsewhere: « Not everyone, he says, that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doth the will of my Father, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matth. VII). » Thirdly he says: « Declare his works among the nations, » which can well suit the glorious evangelists and the most holy apostles, and now the priests, who are known to declare his mighty works throughout all the nations.

1094A« Rejoice and praise, O habitation of Sion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. » First it must be said according to the letter: O habitation of Sion, rejoice and praise thy God, because he who before seemed to be thine own God, and was shut within the narrow bounds of the land of Judea, has now filled the whole earth with his knowledge, and rising from death reigns among the nations, and the peoples entreat and adore him — provided at least that he set thy hand a second time to possess what is left of his people, and gathering the fugitives of Israel and the dispersed of Juda, to be collected from the four quarters of the earth; because the seed-plot of the Gospel proceeded, through the apostles who were of the Jews, from the fountains of Israel. But it is better that we interpret Sion, that is, a watchtower placed on high, as the Church, of which 1094Bthe fiftieth psalm also sings: « Deal kindly, O Sion, in thy good will, that the walls of Jerusalem may be built up. » So that there may be made acceptable in her to the Lord the sacrifice of justice, oblations and holocausts, and the calf which the most merciful father immolated for the penitent son.

The canticle, therefore, which is entitled under the name of Hezekiah, which some of the interpreters call a writing and others a prayer, seems to me better entitled by the word "thanksgiving." For thus it is written 1094Cin the prophet (Isa. XXXVIII): « The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick and had recovered from his infirmity. » But the Seventy set it down thus: « The prayer of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he was sick and rose up from his infirmity. » For it is manifest that he wrote these things after his health had been restored, rising up from his infirmity; from which it is not a prayer, but a thanksgiving for the benefit which he had received. And this canticle can well suit those who, after a long sickness of their souls, come to themselves out of the devil's snares, and are healed of the heaviness of their sins, and are zealous to recover themselves in the holy virtues, and to utter the praises of God not only with the voice, but also with the heart and with deeds.

« I said: In the midst of my days I shall go 1094Dto the gates of hell. » He tells what he had silently thought in the time of the pressing anguish and the impending sickness. « I said, he says, in my heart, In the midst of my days, » — or, as others have translated, in the infirmity and silence of my days, or in the blood of my days, when my own gore and my own destruction were being looked upon. And so in despair I said: « I shall go to the gates of hell. Either by the common law of nature, or those gates concerning which the Psalmist sings that he has been delivered: Thou who liftest me up from the gates of death, that I may declare all thy praises in the gates of the daughter of Sion (Psal. IX). These I take to be the gates of hell which do not prevail against Peter, because he slept in the fulness of his days. The saints fill up their days, such as 1095AAbraham was, who died full of days in a good old age; but sinners and the impious die in the midst of their days, of whom also the psalm speaks: Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days (Psal. LIV), » for they do not fill up the works of the virtues, nor are they zealous to amend their offences by penance. Whence in the mid-course of life and in the darkness of errors they will be led down to Tartarus.

« I sought the residue of my years. » Not thinking that I should live any longer, I said, « I shall not see the Lord God in the land of the living. » For "Lord" and "God" there is here set in the Hebrew Ia, which sounds in the last syllable of alleluia; for which the Seventy translated, « by no means shall I any more see the salvation of God in the land of the living »; concerning which it is also written in another place: 1095B« I will please the Lord in the region of the living (Psal. CXIV); » and again: « I will please the Lord in the light of the living (Psal. LV). » That, therefore, is the region of the saints which is called the light of the living. « For he is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Matth. XXII). » Now this is the whole of what he fears: that, led down to the powers below, he may by no means deserve to behold the salvation of God. There follows:

« I shall not look upon man any more, and upon the inhabitant; my generation is at rest, it is taken away and folded up from me, as a shepherds' tent; my life is cut off as by a weaver, while I was yet beginning, he cut me down. » He fears, therefore, lest he should not dwell in rest with the saints and the men of God, lest he should not see God in the land of the living, lest his generation should be dissolved after the manner 1095Cof a tent, lest in the likeness of a web it should be cut off at the very beginning of the light, and lest Christ should by no means arise from his seed. But that our body is called a tent, the Apostle too teaches, saying: « We who are in this tabernacle groan, being burdened (II Cor. V). » Human life, therefore, is not begun upon the threads of the Fates, according to the fables of the heathen, but is ordered by the disposition of God. Whence Job says to the Lord: « The days of man are short; the number of his months is with thee; thou hast appointed his bounds, which cannot be passed (Job. XIV). » But it is asked how the number of human life can be fixed with the Lord, if Hezekiah said that he would die in the midst of his days. But it must be known that in this — that the prophet foretold to him that death would come near to him — 1095Dhe showed what the man himself deserved; yet the predestination of God did what it willed, because, assenting to his prayer and considering his penance, it added a number of days which before the ages it foreknew and predestined to be. Lest, therefore, the heart of Hezekiah should be lifted up after his incredible triumphs and his victory out of the midst of captivity, he is visited with infirmity of body, and hears that he is to die, and, turning to the Lord, he bends his sentence — which indeed we read also in the prophet Jonah, and in the threatenings against David, which are said to be coming and were not done: God not changing his sentence, but provoking the human race to the knowledge of himself. For the Lord is one who repents uper evils; nor therefore is the prophet false, because the time 1096Aof death was made known at which that man deserved to die; nor were the Lord's decrees overthrown, because that the years of life should grow out of God's bounty — this too was fixed beforehand before the ages; and the span of life, which unexpectedly is outside: it was added without increase of foreknowledge, having been appointed within

« From morning even to evening thou wilt make an end of me; from evening even to morning, like a lion, so hath he broken all my bones. » Which according to the other edition is read thus: « From morning even to evening thou wilt make an end of me. » I hoped until morning — which Job too says he endured in his anguish and in the torments of his body, when in the day he looked for night, and awaited light in the darkness, thinking that by the change of the times his sufferings could be changed. He knows this to be true who 1096Bburns with great fevers, whose inward fire, in the likeness of a lion, consumes all his bones, and who does not think, because of the greatness of his pain, that he will live any longer.

« From morning even to evening thou wilt make an end of me; like a young swallow, so shall I cry; I shall meditate like a dove. » These two birds are wont to utter a groan instead of a song. Whence Hezekiah takes on their likeness in the complaints and groanings of his sorrow, together with prayer poured out to God, so that a mournful deprecation, mingled with weeping, may straightway ascend to the ears of the merciful judge, and so he may feel his aid the more swiftly bestowed upon him. Whence there also follows:

« My eyes are weakened, looking upward. Lord, I suffer violence; answer thou for me. What shall I say, or what shall he answer me, since I myself have done it? » 1096CMy eyes have failed, he says, in looking upon the height of heaven to the Lord, who rescued me and took away the sorrow of my soul, and he himself did it; now too death is at hand, and sicknesses and pressing sorrow, like a lion, so was it breaking the bones of my body; but I, in the likeness of the swallow and the dove, joined days and nights with weepings and groanings, and with eyes lifted on high I awaited help from God alone, who was able to succour, and I said to him: I suffer more than my deserts demand; but even if I have erred in anything, I will turn to what is better; be thou surety for me. « For it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy (Rom. IX); » and again he returns into himself: What shall I say, he says, or what plea shall I make against my maker, or what shall he answer me, since he himself did what he willed? 1096DWhatsoever therefore he shall have decreed must be borne.

« I will recount all my years in the bitterness of my soul. Lord, if so one lives, and the life of my spirit is in such things. Thou wilt rebuke me and wilt quicken me; behold, in peace is my bitterness most bitter; but thou hast delivered my soul, that it should not perish. » No thing of mortals is long, and all the felicity of the world is lost while it is held. For when the time of tribulation has come, all that is past is no help to him who endures. Whence foolish is that opinion of Epicurus who asserts that present evils are mitigated by the recollection of past goods. Therefore Hezekiah says that he reckons up all the years of his reign, and of his past blessedness, as he thought it, in his present bitterness; and because 1097Ahe is now safe, and does not suffer the things which he relates concerning the human condition, he philosophizes and says: « Lord, so one lives, and we are begotten in such a condition, » thou hast rebuked me, but thou hast quickened me and hast granted peace, the Assyrian having been put to flight; but my peace was more bitter to me than all bitterness, because, the tranquillity of the people being restored and the city made secure, I alone entered the thresholds of death; but thou hast delivered my soul, that it should not perish, either to the present life or to the life to come.

« Thou hast cast behind thy back all my sins, because hell shall not confess to thee, neither shall death praise thee. » Thou hast cast, he says, behind thy back all my sins, that I might not look upon them in sadness, but might contemplate thy mercy; for hell and death shall not confess nor praise thee, according to that 1097Bwhich is written: « But in hell who shall confess to thee (Psal. XXX)? » And confession, which in this place is taken not for penance but for glory and praise, as we read also in the Gospel: « I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth (Matth. XI). »

« They that go down into the pit shall not look for thy truth; the living, the living, he shall confess to thee, as I also do this day. » They that go down into the pit, he says, shall not look for thy truth; for this pertains better to the understanding than that which we read in the Seventy, they that go down into the pit shall not look for thy mercy — especially since the Saviour descended to hell, that he might free the bound from the powers below. For "pit" the same translators rendered more plainly "the powers below." « The living, the living, he shall confess, as I also 1097Cthis day. » And here confession is put for praise; for he does not confess his own crimes, but gives thanks to God — and praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner. And since hell and death do not confess nor praise God, on the contrary life and the living glorify the Lord; and as to what follows:

« The father shall make thy truth known to his children. Lord, save me, and we will sing our psalms all the days of our life in the house of the Lord. » The father shall make thy truth known to his children. This signifies what is also said in Deuteronomy: « Ask thy father, and he will declare to thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee (Deut. XXXII), » so that through successions and through the several generations the clemency of God may be proclaimed to those that come after; for which the Seventy set down: For from this day 1097DI will make sons, who shall declare thy justice — a causal [particle], which conjunction couples what follows with what goes before; namely, that the living and he himself living bless God for this reason, because from this day he is to make sons who shall declare his truth: which certainly was not in his own power, for neither were children promised him through the Prophet, but the present life granted — especially since he begot that most impious son Manasseh, who filled Jerusalem with blood from gate to gate, and did not bless but cursed God, persecuting his saints. We can therefore say this, according to the Seventy, that he did not say I will make sons, but PIDIA, by which we understand either little ones, or boys, or infants and those who come after; so that, from the fact that he himself obtained mercy, 1098Aall posterity to come, learning this, may praise his incredible clemency. Save me therefore, O Lord, that all we who believe in thee and have been delivered by thy help may sing to thee in the temple all the days of our life.

The Canticle, therefore, which in the book of Kings Anna, the mother of the blessed Samuel the prophet, uttered in the prophetic spirit, and which is entitled under the title of a prayer, contains many mysteries concerning Christ and his Church; because 1098Bby his gift she was foreshowing these things in prophesying, by whose help the strength of the whole Church subsists, and its multitude is enlarged, and its stability confirmed. But it is asked why Scripture says that Anna uttered this song in praying, since there is found in it rather a proclamation of things to come than a petition for anything. For thus it is written, And Anna prayed and said:

« My heart hath rejoiced in the Lord, and my horn is exalted in my God. » For she is not found to pray in this canticle except by two phrases only, when she says: « I have rejoiced in my salvation, » and the other, « because there is no God beside thee. » But the Apostle says: « Pray without ceasing (I Thess. V). » For as to him who is engaged in the divine office, all his deeds and sayings are reckoned for prayer; because 1098Cwhen the just man does without ceasing the things that are just, by this he will pray without ceasing as a just man. And in the Psalms he says: « The lifting up of my hands, an evening sacrifice (Psal. CXL). » He lifts up his hands who lifts up his acts. Otherwise: when Moses lifted his hands, Israel conquered; but when he let them down, Amalec conquered: because so long as the servant of God lifts up his acts to the Lord, the people of God conquers; but when he has let down his acts, Amalec, the enemy of God, conquers. « My heart, » says Anna, « hath rejoiced, » and she necessarily added, « in the Lord, » as Paul said: « Rejoice in the Lord always (Phil. IV), » because one can rejoice in carnal things. When men praise me, I do not rejoice in the Lord, but I rejoice in vanity: hence let me be pricked to the heart because of the word of God, when it says: « My heart hath rejoiced 1098Din the Lord. » Let Anna, therefore — who is interpreted "grace" — that is, the Church of Christ, the city of the great king, full of grace, fruitful in offspring, let her say that she recognizes what was prophesied of her so long before through the mouth of this holy mother. « My heart hath rejoiced in the Lord, and my horn is exalted in my God. » Truly the heart rejoiced, because in the Lord; and truly the horn is exalted, because not of itself, but in the Lord its God is it exalted. And in another place he says: « The horns of the just shall be exalted (Psal. LXX), » because from the summits of the cross of Christ these horns are conferred upon the just; with them we shall winnow and destroy the adverse powers that lie in wait for our soul.

« My mouth is enlarged over my enemies. » 1099ABecause even in the straits of afflictions the word of God is not bound, nor is it bound in bound heralds.

« Because I have rejoiced in thy salvation. » That salvation is the Lord Christ Jesus, whom Simon, as is read in the Gospel (Luc. II), an old man embracing the little one, recognizing the great one, [said]: « Now thou dost dismiss, he says, thy servant, O Lord, in peace; because my eyes have seen thy salvation. » If I shall have rejoiced in the salvation of the Lord, then is my mouth enlarged; by the meditation of the word of God we shall assuredly come to the lifting up of the heart. Whence the Apostle says: « Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged (II Cor. VI). » For out of the breadth of the heart is wisdom ministered to the mouth.

« There is none holy as the Lord is. » He uses a distinction: 1099Bhe does not say dizit, "unless the Lord," but there is none, as the Lord is holy and sanctifying, just and justifying.

« For neither is there any other beside thee, and there is none strong like our God. » There is none holy, he says, beside thee, O Lord, because no one becomes so save from thee; and although there are those who are called many gods and many lords, yet none of them is by nature that which God is, because he alone is who said to Moses his servant: « I am who am (Exod. III); » for a shadow, in comparison with a body, is not; and smoke, in comparison with fire, is not.

« Do not multiply to speak lofty things, boasting. » And Solomon says: « Seek not the things that are too high for thee (Eccli. III). » And elsewhere: « God is in heaven and thou upon earth; 1099Ctherefore let thy words be few (Eccle. V). »

« Let old things depart from your mouth. » That is, let no great-speaking go forth out of your mouth. « Let no evil speech, » says the Apostle (Ephes. IV), « proceed out of your mouth. »

« For the Lord is a God of knowledges, and thoughts are prepared for him. » He himself knows you even where no one knows: for the Spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God. Whence he that thinketh himself to be something, whereas he is nothing, deceiveth himself. These things are said against the adversaries of the city of God, those belonging to Babylon, who presume upon their own strength, glorying in themselves and not in the Lord; among whom are also the carnal Israelites of the earthly Jerusalem, earth-born citizens, who, as the Apostle says (Rom. X), « being ignorant of the justice of God, » that is, 1099Dthat which God gives to man, who alone is just and justifying, « and willing to establish their own, » that is, as though prepared for themselves by themselves, not imparted by him, « are not subject to the justice of God. » Assuredly, because being proud they think that they can please out of their own, not out of God's. But because he is the God of knowledges, and therefore also the arbiter of consciences, he himself sees the thoughts of men, that they are vain. And whence are they vain, save because they are properly men's own, from whom the men themselves are?

« The bow of the mighty is overcome, and the weak are girded with strength. » The bow is weakened, that is, that purpose of theirs by which they seem to themselves so powerful that without God's gift and help human sufficiency can fulfil the divine commandments; and the weak are girded 1100Awith strength, who trust only in the mercy of God and seek consolations from him, saying with the Prophet: « Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am weak (Psal. XXX). » The Gentile people was weak when it was a stranger to the testament of God. Now therefore it is girded with strength, since it is clothed with the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation, and with the sword of the spirit tramples down the fiery darts of the ancient enemy.

« They that were filled before have hired themselves out rocaverunt for bread, and the hungry are filled. » Who are to be understood as filled with loaves, save these same men, as being the powerful, that is, the Israelites, to whom the oracles of the Lord were entrusted? But in that people the sons of the handmaid were made less, when they withdrew themselves that they might not believe in the Saviour; and in those very loaves — that is, in the divine oracles, which they alone at that time out of all 1100Bthe nations received — they savour only earthly things. But the Gentiles, to whom that law had not been given, after they came through the New Testament to those oracles, passed over the earth by hungering much; because in them they savoured not earthly but heavenly things: and this as though the cause were sought why it was done.

« Until the barren hath borne very many, and she that had many children is made weak. » In the Hebrew and in the translation of the Seventy it is read not "very many," but "seven." The Jews understand this place thus: that when Samuel was born the firstborn son of Phenenna died, and that at the birth of each of Anna's sons one of Phenenna's sons died. But it must be asked how this can stand, since Phenenna had seven sons and Anna not more than five. The Hebrews, 1100Cresolving this question, reckon the two sons of Samuel along with the sons of Anna: For the barren, he says, hath borne seven, and she that had many children is made weak. Here the whole of what was prophesied has shone out to those who recognize the number seven, by which the whole protection of the Church is signified — on account of which John the apostle writes to seven Churches, showing in that manner that he writes to the fulness of one: and prefiguring this beforehand in the Proverbs of Solomon: « Wisdom hath built herself a house, and hath propped up seven pillars (Prov. IX). » For the city of God was barren among all the nations, before that offspring which we behold arose. We also behold her who was many in sons, the earthly Jerusalem, now made weak: because whatever sons of the free woman were in her, they were her strength. But now, since there is the letter there 1100Dand the spirit is not, having lost her strength she is made weak.

« The Lord killeth and maketh alive. » He killeth her that was many in sons, and maketh alive this barren one who hath borne seven; although it can more conveniently be understood that he maketh alive the same whom he hath killed, for this he either repeated by adding.

« He bringeth down to hell and bringeth back. » For those to whom the Apostle says: « If you be dead with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God (Rom. VI), » are assuredly killed wholesomely by the Lord; to whom he adds, « mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth, » so that these may be the very ones who hungering passed over the earth. For you are dead, he says — how does God kill wholesomely? — and then 1101Athere follows: And your life is hid with Christ in God. Behold how God maketh these same men alive: but did he bring down the same to hell and bring them back? Both of these, without controversy among the faithful, we see rather fulfilled in him, namely in our head, with whom the Apostle said our life was hid. For he who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, he assuredly in this manner killeth; and because he raised him from the dead, he again made the same alive. And because in the prophecy his voice is recognized: « Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell (Psal. XV), » he brought down the same to hell and brought him back; by this poverty of his we have been enriched.

« For the Lord maketh poor and maketh rich. » Now that we may know what this is, let us hear what follows.

1101B« He humbleth and he exalteth. » Assuredly he humbleth the proud and exalteth the humble; for that which is read elsewhere: « God resisteth the proud, but to the humble he giveth grace (Jac. IV); » this the whole discourse holds, whose name is interpreted "his grace." But now, as to what is added:

« He raiseth up the needy from the earth, » I understand it of none better than of him who for our sakes was made poor, whereas he was rich, that by his poverty, as was said a little before, we might be enriched; for him he raised up from the earth so quickly that his flesh saw no corruption; nor will I alienate from him that which is said:

« And out of the dunghill he lifteth up the poor. » For the poor man is the same as the needy; but the dunghill, out of which he was lifted up, 1101Care most rightly understood to be the persecuting Jews: among whose number, when the Apostle had said that he had persecuted the Church: « The things, he says, that were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ, and I have esteemed them not only as losses, but even as dung, that I might gain Christ (Phil. III). » From the earth, therefore, he was raised up, that poor man lifted up above all the rich, and out of that dunghill, above all the wealthy, that needy one.

« That he may sit with princes, and hold the throne of glory. » To whom he says: « You shall sit upon twelve seats (Matth. XIX); » and giving them the seat of glory as an inheritance. « For the poles of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them. » Because he himself hath dominion from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the world 1101Dof the earth (Psal. LXXI). « The poles of the earth, he says, are the Lord's: » that is, the four quarters of the world, in which he will enlarge the world of his Church, which from the rising of the sun to its setting praises his name.

« He will keep the feet of his saints. » That is, he directs the works of his elect in the way of justice.

« And the wicked shall be silent in darkness. » Who shall be sent into the exterior darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Where they shall be silent, that is, they shall cease from the arrogance of their pride.

« For no man shall be strengthened by his own strength. » That is, not by his own strength but by the divine power is a man mighty, that is, the people of believers.

« His adversaries shall fear the Lord. » Because 1102Athe Lord shall make his adversary weak. It can also be understood, from the ambiguity of the Greek, as "his own adversary." For when the Lord has begun to possess us, assuredly the adversary who had been ours becomes his, and he will be conquered by us, not by our own powers, because no man is mighty in his own power. The Lord therefore shall make his own adversary weak. The Lord is holy, that he may be conquered by the saints, whom the Lord, the holy of holies, makes holy; and through this let not the mighty man glory in his might, and let not the prudent man glory in his prudence, nor the rich man in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, to understand and to know the Lord, and to do judgment and justice in the midst of the earth. In no small part does he understand and know the Lord who understands and knows also that this is given him by the Lord, that he may understand and 1102Bknow the Lord. But because a just retribution is to come from the Lord upon the sons of Adam in the day of judgment, thence there follows:

« He shall thunder upon them in the heavens. » He himself shall judge the ends of the earth, because he is just. This prophetess held throughout the order of the confession of the faithful; for the Lord Christ ascended into heaven, and thence he is to come to judge the living and the dead. « For who ascended, » as the Apostle says (Ephes. IV), « but he also who descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is the very same who ascended above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. » Through the clouds, therefore, he thundered upon his own, which clouds he filled with the Holy Spirit when he had ascended. Concerning which he threatened the carnal Jerusalem, that is, the ungrateful vineyard, in Isaiah the prophet, that they should not rain 1102Cupon her a shower. And it was said thus:

« The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth. » As if it were said, The Lord shall judge the last things of a man: since those things will not be judged which are changed in the meantime for the better or for the worse, but the last state in which he shall have been found who is to be judged. « And he shall give empire to his king, that is, to the Christian people: he gives them the strength by which they may rule the flesh as kings, and may conquer the world in him who for their sake poured out his blood. There follows:

And he shall exalt the horn of his Christ. » How shall Christ exalt the horn of his Christ? Assuredly all those anointed with his chrism we can rightly call christs, yet the whole body together with its head is one Christ. These things Anna prophesied, the mother of Samuel, 1102Da holy man and much praised, in whom indeed the change of the old priesthood was then figured, and is now fulfilled, when she was made weak who was many in sons, so that she might have a new priesthood in Christ — the barren woman who bore seven.

« Let us sing to the Lord: for he is gloriously magnified. » We read indeed that many canticles were made in the divine Scriptures; yet of all these this is the first canticle which the people of God sang after the victory, when the Egyptians and Pharaoh had been drowned. For it is the custom of the saints, when the adversary is conquered, as men who know 1103Athat the victory has been prepared not by their own strength but by the grace of God, to offer to God a hymn of thanksgiving; and yet those who sing the hymn take timbrels also in their hands, as is related of Mary the sister of Moses and Aaron. And thou too, therefore, if thou shalt have crossed the Red Sea, if thou shalt have seen the Egyptians drowned, and Pharaoh extinguished and hurled headlong into the depth of the abyss, thou canst sing a hymn to God, thou canst utter a voice of thanksgiving and say: « Let us sing to the Lord: for he is gloriously honoured; the horse and the rider he hath cast into the sea. » But thou sayest these things better and more worthily if thou shalt have the timbrel in thy hand, that is, if thou shalt have crucified thy flesh with its vices and concupiscences, and if thou shalt have mortified thy members which are upon the earth. And yet let us see what he says: « Let us sing to the Lord: 1103Bfor he is gloriously honoured, » as though "he is glorified" did not suffice, so he added "he is gloriously glorified." And indeed, so far as we are able to conjecture, it seems to me that it is one thing to be glorified, and another to be gloriously glorified. For my Lord Jesus Christ, when he took flesh from the Virgin for our salvation, was indeed glorified, because he came to seek that which had perished, yet he was not gloriously glorified; for it is said of him, « that we saw him, and he had neither beauty nor comeliness, and his countenance was ignoble above the sons of men, he was glorified (Isa. V); » and when he came to the cross and endured death — but, so to speak, humbly, not gloriously, was he glorified. But because « these things Christ ought to have suffered, and so to enter into his glory (Luc. XXIV). » When he shall have come in the glory 1103Cof the Father and of the holy angels, when he shall have come in his majesty to judge the earth, when also he will slay the true Pharaoh, that is, the devil, with the spirit of his mouth — when, therefore, he shall shine forth in the majesty of his Father, and after the coming of his humanity shows to us the second coming in glory, then he is not only glorified. When all so honour the Son as they honour the Father.

« The horse and the rider he hath cast down into the sea. » The men who pursue us are horses; and, so to speak, all who are born in the flesh are figuratively horses. But those which have their own riders are the horses which the Lord mounts, and they go about the whole earth, of which it is said: « And thy riding is salvation. » But there are horses which have for riders the devil and 1103Dhis angels. Judas was a horse; but so long as he had the Lord for rider, he was of the riding of salvation. For, sent with the rest of the apostles, he bestowed health upon the sick and soundness upon the languishing; but when he laid himself under the devil — for after the morsel Satan entered into him — Satan was made his rider, and, led by his reins, he began to ride against our Lord and Saviour. All, therefore, who persecute the saints are neighing horses, but they have riders by whom they are driven, evil angels, and therefore they are fierce. The Lord, therefore, hath cast the horse and the rider into the sea, and he is become salvation to me.

« The Lord is my strength and my praise, and he is become salvation to me. » But another edition has: 1104A« He is become a helper and a protector to me unto salvation. » The strength, therefore, and the praise of his servants is the Lord, who helps them in tribulations and protects them from all enemies, and becomes the salvation of those who hope in him: because, according to the judgment of Peter the apostle, There is no salvation in any other, but he himself is the Saviour of all, but especially of the faithful.

« This is my God, and I will glorify him. The God of my father, I will exalt him. » He, therefore, is both my God and my Father's. Our Father, who made us and begot us, is Christ. And he himself says: « I go to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God (Joan. XVI). » If, therefore, I recognize that God is my God, I will glorify him; but if I also recognize this, how he is the God of my Father Christ, 1104BI will exalt him.

« The Lord is as a man of war; almighty is his name. » Or according to another edition: « The Lord that crusheth wars, the Lord is his name. » For truly our Lord is almighty, who is strong in battle, and will crush his enemies, nor is there any who can resist him. I would not have thee think that the Lord crushes only visible battles; but he will crush also those which are ours, not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world. For the Lord is his name, and there is no creature of which he is not Lord.

« Pharaoh's chariots and his army he hath cast into the sea; his chosen princes are drowned in the Red 1104CSea. » Together, therefore, prelates and subjects, chariots, horsemen and footmen, and the whole army of Pharaoh were drowned in the Red Sea, of which it is written, « that not even one of them remained; but the children of Israel went on through the midst of the dried-up sea, and the waters were to them as a wall on the right hand and on the left (Exod. XIV). » Because everyone who has stood out against the will of God, and has persevered in malice unto the end, is wrapped in eternal torments; but he who follows the true Moses, that is, the law of God, will escape his enemies in safety and walk through the dry, because he is not mingled with the enticements of the world. The wave, therefore, is forced into a heap, and the surge, pressed back upon itself, is curved; the liquid takes on solidity, and the floor of the sea dries into dust. Understand the goodness of God the creator: if thou obey his will, 1104Dif thou follow his law, he compels the very elements to serve thee even against their own nature. The Apostle, then, shows what the passage of the children of Israel through the Red Sea signifies, saying: « All indeed passed through the sea, and all indeed were baptized in Moses, in the cloud and in the sea (I Cor. X). » This, therefore, designates the mystical baptism prefigured through Moses in the cloud and in the sea; so that thou too, who art baptized in Christ in water and in the Holy Spirit, mayest know that the Egyptian powers indeed pursue thee and wish to call thee back to their own servitude — namely the rulers of this world and the spiritual wickednesses, to which thou wast formerly enslaved, which indeed attempt to pursue; but thou goest down into the water, and thou escapest unharmed, and, the filth of thy sins being washed away, 1105Athou ascendest a new man, ready to sing a new canticle. But the Egyptians pursuing after thee will be sunk into the abyss, even though they seem to beg Jesus not to send them meanwhile into the abyss. But it is to be noted that according to another editiotem it is read: The four-horse chariots of Pharaoh and his army he hath cast into the sea. The chosen riders, the threefold attendants, he hath drowned in the Red Sea. But Pharaoh, as being mightier in malice and holding the kingdom of wickedness, drives four-horse chariots: it is not enough for him to mount one horse, he drives many at once, many at once he compels with strokes and twisted lashes. Whomsoever thou shalt see fouler in luxury, more savage in unbelief, more hideous in avarice, more shameful in impiety, know that these belong to Pharaoh's own four-horse chariots; but he also yokes them to his own chariot, in 1105Bthem he is borne and flies along, and drives them with loosened reins through the open fields of crimes. There are other chosen riders — chosen, without doubt, unto malice. But of riders we have spoken above; now let us also see who the threefold attendants may be. It seems to me that "threefold attendants" is said for this reason, that men have a threefold way of sinning: for sin is committed either in deed, or in word, or in thought; and therefore triple attendants are said to belong to each several man, who beset these three ways of sinning in us, and always keep watch and lie in ambush, so that the one may draw an evil word out of the wretched man, or the other may wring out an iniquitous work, or the other may snatch away a most wicked thought. Finally, where the seed of the word of God falls and perishes, a threefold place is described: one is said to be by the wayside, which is trodden down by men; 1105Canother among thorns, another in stony places. And on the contrary the good earth is said to bring forth a threefold fruit, either a hundredfold, or sixtyfold, or thirtyfold. These threefold attendants, therefore, are wicked angels from the army of Pharaoh, who stand in ways of this kind, watching each one of us to act unto sin through these things; whom the Lord will drown in the Red Sea, and will deliver them over to fiery waves in the day of judgment, and cover them with a sea of punishments.

« The depths have covered them; they went down into the deep like a stone. » Those depths, assuredly, of which it is written in Job, where it is told of Leviathan: « He shall esteem the deep as growing old (Job XLI). » And in the Gospel the demons besought Jesus that he would not command them to go into the abyss; they went down into the deep 1105Dlike a stone: why did they fall into the deep like a stone? Because they were not such stones as those from which the sons of Abraham could be raised up, but such as loved the deep and were fond of the liquid element — that is, such as desired the bitter and fleeting pleasure of present things.

« Thy right hand, O Lord, is magnified in strength; thy right hand, O Lord, hath struck the enemy. » What is that right hand, save that of which it is written in the psalm: « The right hand of the Lord hath wrought strength, the right hand of the Lord hath exalted me (Psal. CXVII)? » This, according to another edition, was glorified in strength, when through the mystery of the cross it shattered and slew the ancient foe and the true enemy, and through death destroyed 1106Ahim who had the empire of death, that is, the devil, « binding the strong man and plundering his vessels (Matth. XII), » and the dragon, namely the ancient serpent, who with his tail drew down the third part of the stars and cast them into the pool of burning fire which is prepared for himself and his angels; whence there follows:

« And in the multitude of thy glory thou hast put down my adversaries. » Assuredly the glory of the Lord's resurrection was the confounding and the crushing of the devil, who with the Jews plotted the death of Christ.

« Thou hast sent forth thy wrath, which hath devoured them like stubble. » The final vengeance which is inflicted upon the devil and his angels seems, to those who suffer it, to be wrath; but nevertheless it is justly imposed upon sinners by him who judges all things with tranquillity, without any disturbance of his own mind, 1106Band it devours them like stubble, because it lays them waste mightily and torments them on every side.

« And in the spirit of thy fury the waters were gathered together. » Assuredly a pool of brimstone, worthy of their deserts, is dealt out to them, sunk beneath which they groan for ever. But because this punishment is to be paid in full at the last examination, and the hour of vengeance is still deferred, it seems to give the enemies occasion for persecuting, who abuse the patience of God, treasuring up to themselves wrath against the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God. Yet he himself will most certainly come to render to his saints the rewards of eternal blessedness, and to give to his adversaries vengeance in a flame of fire; whence there follows:

« The flowing wave stood; the depths were gathered together in the midst of the sea. The enemy said: I will pursue and overtake, 1106CI will divide the spoils, my soul shall be filled, I will draw my sword, my hand shall slay them: thy spirit blew, and the sea covered them; they were drowned as lead in the mighty waters. » « Thou didst send, he says, thy spirit, and the sea covered them. » Behold, now for the fifth time the spirit of God is commemorated, so that in this number we may take also what was said: « This is the finger of God (Exod. VIII). » First, where it is written: « The Spirit of God moved over the waters (Gen. I). » Secondly, where it is said: « My Spirit shall not remain in these men, because they are flesh. » Thirdly, where Pharaoh says to Joseph: « Because the Spirit of God is in thee. » Fourthly, where the enchanters of the Egyptians say: « This is the finger of God. » Fifthly, in this canticle: « Thou didst send thy Spirit, and the sea covered 1106Dthem. » But let us remember that the spirit of God is commemorated not only for benefits, but also for vengeance; for what else did he say above? By the spirit of thy wrath the water was divided. And so this spirit of God was against the Egyptians, for it was the spirit of his wrath, whom the dividing of the waters harmed, so that as they entered they could be overwhelmed by the returning waters; but to the children of Israel, whom it profited that the water was divided — that was not the spirit of God's wrath? Whence it is signified that on account of different operations and effects the spirit of God is differently named, though he is one and the same, that one at least who is also received as the Holy Spirit in the unity of the Trinity. Accordingly I judge that no other than the same is signified where the Apostle says: « For you have not received the spirit of bondage again in 1107Afear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, in which we cry: Abba, Father (Rom. VIII); » because by that same spirit of God, that is, by the finger of God, by which the law was written on tables of stone, fear was struck into those who did not yet understand grace, that they might be convicted by the law of their own infirmity and sins, and that the law might become for them a pedagogue by which they should be led through to the grace which is in the faith of Jesus Christ. But of this spirit of adoption and of grace, that is, of this work of the spirit of God by which grace and regeneration unto eternal life are imparted, it is said: « But the spirit quickeneth (II Cor. III), » whereas above it was said, « the letter killeth, » that is, the written commandment merely, without the help of grace. They were sunk, he says, like lead in the mightiest water; sinners are heavy, and indeed 1107Biniquity too is shown to sit upon a talent of lead, as Zachariah the prophet says: « I saw, he says, a woman sitting upon a talent of lead, and I said, Who is this? and he answered, Iniquity (Zach. V). » Hence it is, therefore, that the wicked were sunk into the deep, like lead in the mightiest water; but the saints are not sunk, but walk upon the waters, because they are light and are not weighed down by the burden of sin. Finally the Lord and Saviour walked upon the waters. For he it is who truly knows no sin. His disciple Peter also walked, though he trembled a little: for he was not so great and such a one as to have nothing at all of the nature of lead mingled in himself. He had it, though little, on account of which the Lord says to him: « O thou of little faith, why didst thou doubt? » 1107C(Matth. XIV.) Therefore he who is saved is saved through fire, so that if he happen to have anything of the nature of lead mingled in him, the fire may melt it down and dissolve it, so that all may be made good gold: because the gold of that land is said to be good which the saints are to inhabit; and as the furnace proves gold, so temptation proves just men. All, therefore, must come to the fire; all must come to the smelting-place. For the Lord sitteth and smelteth, and purgeth the sons of Juda. But when one comes thither, if anyone brings many good works and some little iniquity, that little is melted down like lead by the fire and purged, and the whole remains pure gold; and if anyone brings more lead thither, he is burned more, that he may be melted down further, so that at least some little of purified gold may nevertheless remain; but 1107Dif anyone comes thither wholly leaden, there will befall him what is written: « He is sunk in the deep like lead in the mightiest water. »

« Who is like to thee among the strong, O Lord? who is like to thee, magnificent in holiness, terrible and praiseworthy, and doing wonders? » Another edition: « Who is like to thee among the gods, O Lord? who is like to thee, glorious among the saints, wonderful in majesties, doing prodigies? » As to what he says, « Who is like to thee among the gods, » or among the strong, he does not compare God to the images of the Gentiles, nor to demons, who falsely usurp to themselves the name of gods or of the strong; but he calls those gods who by generation and by participation of God are called gods, of whom Scripture also says elsewhere: « I 1108Ahave said: You are gods (Joan. X). » And again: « God hath stood in the congregation of gods. » But these, although they are capable of God, and seem to be endowed with this name through grace, yet none is found like to God, either in power or in nature; and though John the apostle says: « Little children, we do not yet know what we shall be; » but if he shall have been revealed to us — speaking, that is, of the Lord — we shall be like to him. Yet this likeness is referred not to nature but to grace: for example, as if we should say that a picture is like him whose image is seen expressed in the picture; as far as pertains to appearance it is called like, as far as pertains to substance it is far unlike. For that is the form of flesh and of a living body; this is a dye of colours, and wax laid upon boards that lack sense. None, therefore, among 1108Bthe gods is like to the Lord; for none is invisible, none incorporeal, unchangeable, none without beginning and without end, none the creator of all things, save the Father with the Son and the Holy Spirit, who alone doeth wonders.

« Thou didst stretch forth thy hand, and the earth devoured them. » "Earth" is doubtless put for "water"; for this whole part of the world, the lowest or the weakest, is reckoned by the name of earth, according to that which is often said, God, who made heaven and earth. And in the distribution of that psalm, when the heavenly things have been commemorated, « Praise ye, he says, the Lord from the earth (Psal. CXLVIII), » and he goes on in praise with those things which pertain also to the waters. And indeed even today the earth devours the impious; or does he not seem to thee to be devoured by the earth who always thinks of earth, who always has earthly deeds, who speaks of earth, 1108Clitigates about earth, desires earth, and puts all his hope in earth; who does not look up to heaven, who does not think of things to come, who does not fear the judgment of God, nor desire his blessed promises, but always thinks of present things and sighs after earthly things? When thou seest such a one, say that the earth hath devoured him. But if thou also seest anyone given over to the luxury of the flesh and the pleasures of the body, in whom the mind avails nothing, but the lust of the flesh has taken possession of the whole, say of him also that the earth hath devoured him. Still it moves me that he says: « Thou didst stretch forth thy right hand, and the earth devoured them, » as though this were the cause of their being devoured by the earth, that the Lord stretched forth his right hand: if thou consider how the Lord, lifted up on the cross, all the day stretched forth his hands to a people not believing and contradicting, 1108Dand how death for the crime committed crushed the unbelieving people which cried out, « Crucify, crucify him, » thou wilt evidently find how he stretched forth his right hand and the earth devoured them. Nor yet is one utterly to despair: for it is possible that, if he who has been devoured should perchance come to himself, he may again be vomited up, as Jonah was.

« Thou hast been a leader in thy mercy to the people whom thou hast redeemed, and thou hast carried him in thy strength to thy holy habitation. » For which, according to another edition, it is read: « Thou hast governed by thy justice this thy people, whom thou hast redeemed. Thou hast exhorted in thy strength, and in thy holy refreshment. » The Lord leads in justice the people whom he has freed through the laver of regeneration. 1109AHe also consoles or refreshes him by the consolation of the Holy Spirit, by his own strength, and in his own rest; for the appearance of things to come brings forth rest for those who labour, just as the hope of the crown assuages the pain of wounds in those set in the contest.

« The peoples went up and were angry; sorrows took hold on the inhabitants of Philisthiim: then were the princes of Edom troubled; trembling took hold on the strong men of Moab; all the inhabitants of Chanaan grew stiff. » But another edition has it thus: « The nations heard and were angry; sorrows seized upon them that dwell in Philisthiim: then the leaders of Edom and the princes of the Moabites made haste; fear laid hold upon them; all that dwell in Chanaan melted away. » So far as pertains to the history, it is agreed that none of these nations was present at 1109Bthe wonders which were done. How, then, will they be seen to have been terrified with trembling, or to have made haste, as he says, or to have been angry — the Moabites too and Edom and the remaining nations which he enumerates — to have made haste? But if we return to the spiritual understanding, thou wilt find that Philisthiim, that is, those falling by a people, and Edom, which is interpreted "earthly," are alarmed, and the princes of all these run to and fro and quake, constrained with sorrows, when they see their kingdoms, which are in hell, penetrated by him who descended into the lower parts of the earth, that he might snatch away those who were possessed by death; here fear and trembling laid hold upon them, because they felt the greatness of his arm. Hence also all that dwell in Chanaan melted away, who are interpreted "changeable" and "movable," since they see their kingdoms moved, 1109Cthe strong man bound and his vessels plundered.

« Let strength and dread fall upon them in the greatness of thy arm. » [Vulg. formido, "dread," for fortitudo, "strength"] What do the demons fear, why do they tremble? Without doubt the cross of Christ, in which they were triumphed over, in which their principalities and powers were stripped. Fear, therefore, and trembling shall fall upon them, when they shall see the sign of the cross faithfully fixed in us, and the greatness of that arm which the Lord spread out upon the cross, as he says: « All the day I have spread forth my hands to a people not believing and contradicting me (Rom. X). » They will not, therefore, fear thee otherwise, nor will thy trembling come upon them otherwise, unless they see in thee the cross of Christ, unless thou too shalt be able to say: « But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of my Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I 1109Dto the world (Gal. VI). »

« Let them become immovable as a stone, until thy people pass over, O Lord, until this thy people pass through, whom thou hast possessed. » To become as a stone is not to be a stone by nature; for that would not become which was not. This we say on account of those who say that Pharaoh, or the Egyptians, were of an evil nature, and were not brought into these things by the freedom of the will; and also on account of those who accuse God the creator as cruel, because he turns men into stones. Let these, therefore, before they blaspheme, consider with the utmost weighing the things that are written. For he did not say, Let them become as a stone, and then keep silence, but he appointed a time and decreed a measure of the condemnation; for he says, « until 1110Athy people pass over. » By which, namely, after the passing of the people they are not to be as stones; wherein there seems to me to lie hidden something of prophecy. For I see that the former people, which was before us, was made as a stone, hard and unbelieving. Yet not so far that it should remain in the nature of a stone, but until this people pass over, the people whom he acquired. For blindness in part hath happened in that Israel according to the flesh, until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in; then also all Israel, which through the hardness of unbelief had been made as a stone, shall be saved. And wouldst thou see how it shall be saved? « God is able, he says, of stones to raise up sons of Abraham. » They remain, therefore, stones now, until this thy people pass over, whom thou hast acquired; but the Lord himself is the creator of all. It must be seen 1110Bhow he is here said to have acquired what there is no doubt is his own.

« Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of thy inheritance. » God does not wish to plant us in Egypt, nor in cast-down and lowly places, but he wishes to plant in the mountain of his inheritance those whom he plants. The Prophet says: « Thou hast brought a vineyard out of Egypt, and thou hast cast out the nations and planted it; thou madest a way before it, thou didst plant its roots, and it filled the land. Its shadow covered the mountains, and its branches the cedars of God (Psal. LXXIX). » Thou perceivest now how God plants, and where he plants: he does not plant in the valleys, but on the mountains, in high and lofty places. For those whom he leads out of Egypt, whom he brings from the world to the faith, he does not wish to set again in lowly places, 1110Cbut he wishes their conversation to be lofty; he wishes us to dwell on the mountains; but even on those mountains he no less does not wish us to creep along the ground, nor does he wish his vineyard any longer to have its fruits cast down upon the soil; but he wishes its branches to be led upward, to be set on high, to become layerings — and layerings not upon any lowly trees whatever, but upon the lofty and highest cedars of God. The cedars of God, therefore, I take to be the prophets and the apostles, to whom if we be joined as the vine which God brought over out of Egypt, and if our shoots be spread abroad through their branches, and if, leaning upon them, we be made certain layerings bound to one another with the bonds of charity, we shall without doubt bring forth very much fruit. For « every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire 1110D(Matth. III). »

« In thy most firm habitation, which thou hast wrought, O Lord. » See the goodness of the merciful Lord: he does not wish to lead thee to labour, he does not wish that thou shouldst make a habitation for thyself; already he leads thee to a dwelling prepared. Hear the Lord saying in the Gospel: « Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labours (Joan. IV). »

« The sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. » The tabernacle of God is called a sanctuary or holy place, as it were a temple, from this, that it sanctifies those who approach. This he says was made not by the hand of man, but by the hand of God. He, therefore, who for thy sake both plants and builds, becomes a husbandman, becomes a builder, that nothing 1111Abe lacking to thee. Hear Paul also saying: « You are God's husbandry, God's building (I Cor. III.) » What, then, is that holy place which was made not by the hand of men but prepared by the hands of God? Hear Wisdom saying that « she hath built herself a house (Prov. IX). » But I think this is more rightly to be understood of the incarnation of the Lord; for it was not made by the hand of men — that is, not by human work is the temple of the flesh built in the Virgin — but as it is written above in Daniel: « A stone hewn out without hands grows and is made a great mountain (Dan. II). » This is the holy place of the flesh assumed, and hewn out without hands — that is, without the work of men — from the mountain of human nature and the substance of the flesh.

« The Lord shall reign for ever and beyond. » But another 1111Bedition has it thus: « Thou who reignest for ever, and unto the age, and yet further. » As often as "unto the age" is said, a length of time indeed is signified, but some end is indicated; and even if "unto another age" be said, some end, longer indeed without doubt, nevertheless takes hold; and as often as "ages of ages" are named, perhaps some limit is indicated which, though unknown to us, is nevertheless appointed by God. But as to what he added in this place, « and beyond, » or, and yet further, it left no sense of any limit or end. For whatever thou shalt have conceived in which thou thinkest an end can stand, the prophetic word always says to thee, « and yet further, » as though it should speak to thee and say: Thou thinkest that the Lord will reign unto the age of the age, and yet further; thou thinkest unto the ages of ages, and yet further; and whatever thou shalt have said 1111Cconcerning the spans of his kingdom, the Prophet always says to thee, « and yet further. »

« For Pharaoh went in with his chariots and his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought back upon them the waters of the sea; but the children of Israel walked through the dry in the midst of it. » And thou too, if thou art a son of Israel, canst walk through the dry in the midst of the sea, if thou shalt have been in the midst of a depraved and perverse nation, holding forth the word of life unto glory like the light of the sun. It can come to pass that, as thou walkest in the midst of sinners, the moisture of sin does not soak thee; it can come to pass that, as thou passest through this world, no wave of lust bespatters thee, no heat of covetousness lashes thee. For he who is an Egyptian and follows Pharaoh is sunk in the waves of vices; but he who follows Christ and, as he walked, 1111Dso himself also walks, to him the waters become a wall on the right hand and on the left; and he himself goes forward by the middle way through the dry, and turns aside neither to the right nor to the left, until he goes out into liberty and sings together to the Lord a hymn of victory, saying: « I will sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously honoured (Exod. XV). »

« The prayer of Habakkuk the prophet for ignorances. » LXX: « The prayer of Habakkuk the prophet with a canticle. » We read in the sixteenth psalm: « The prayer of David, » and in the eighty-ninth: « The prayer of Moses the man 1112Aof God, » and in the hundred and first: « The prayer of the poor man, when he was in anguish, and poured out his petition before the Lord; » and if anywhere else the name of prayer is brought in, yet in no place is it read with a canticle, and I do not know whether it be seemly to pray with a canticle — unless perhaps, according to the LXX, we say that the Prophet prays for the coming of Christ, and prophesies this very thing with delight and with psalms and with a canticle, so that in that which is prayer he may beseech the Father, and in that which is canticle the praise may be spoken of the Father who sent the Son, and of the Son who came. But better is the reading according to the Hebrew verity: The prayer of Habakkuk the prophet for ignorances. For the Prophet, having contemplated the state of the present world, had seen the peace of sinners and the afflictions of the upright; he had seen the impious abounding in riches, and the innocent subjected to daily 1112Bscourgings; he had seen impiety in the place of judgment, and iniquity in the place of justice; he had seen the tears of the innocent, and no comforter, and that they could not withstand the violence of slanderers, being destitute of all help; and knowing that these things and things beyond number could by no means have come to pass without divine provision, he was troubled in mind, and sighing heavily from his inmost heart he cried out to the Lord: « How long, O Lord, shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? shall I cry out to thee suffering violence, and thou wilt not save (Habac. I)? » And again: « Thy eyes are clean, that thou shouldst not see evil, and thou canst not look upon iniquity. Why lookest thou not upon them that do unjust things, and holdest thy peace while the impious devoureth one juster than himself? and thou wilt make men as the fishes of the sea, as a creeping thing that hath no prince (Ibid.). » But 1112Cin the midst of these things he straightway called back to memory the dispensation of the Lord's incarnation and passion, which he had known in the spirit of prophecy, and he understood that he had complained far more sharply than he ought concerning the afflictions of the saints in this life, to whom an eternal rest had been promised in the time to come; since not even the Son of God himself, appearing in the flesh, was to go forth from the world without the punishment of the cross — he who was to be born of the Holy Spirit and of a Virgin mother, and was to live in the world without any sin at all. And making his prayer to the Lord for his ignorances he thus begins:

« O Lord, I have heard thy hearing and was afraid; O Lord, thy work, in the midst of the years give it life. LXX: O Lord, I have heard thy report and was afraid. O Lord, I have considered thy works and was astonished; in the midst of two living creatures thou shalt be known. » The Hebrews expound this place thus according to 1112Dthe history. O Lord, I have heard thy hearing and was afraid: I have heard, he says, the punishments which thou hast prepared for Nebuchadnezzar and for the devil, in which thou saidst to him: Woe to him that multiplieth what is not his own; and secondly: Woe to him that gathereth an evil covetousness for his house; and thirdly: Woe to him that buildeth a city in bloods, and prepareth a town in iniquity; and fourthly: Woe to him that giveth drink to his friend, sending his gall and making him drunk; and fifthly: Woe to him that saith to the silent stone, Awake, arise. And, as one utterly terrified with fear because the great dragon is to be pierced through with such wounds, so do I beseech thee, O Lord, that thou fulfil what thou hast promised, and, the time being ended, render thy Christ. For thou hast said: 1113A« that the vision is yet afar off, and it shall appear at the end, and shall not lie. » Give life, therefore, to what thou hast promised — that is, fulfil thy promise; let not thy word die void, but be accomplished in deed. Which indeed, according to us, can also be understood of the resurrection of the Saviour: that he who died for us should rise again from the dead and be made alive. But according to the LXX the sense is far otherwise. « O Lord, he says, I have heard thy report and was afraid; I have considered thy works and was terrified. » Now the report of the Lord Saviour is that which he heard from the Father: that he should come, be born into flesh, dwell in the world, and — almighty among the infirm, just among sinners, God among men — should do heavenly works, teach heavenly precepts, be tempted, be scourged; that our death should be destroyed by his death; that rising 1113Bfrom the dead he should ascend into the heavens, and, the Spirit being sent from above, should enlighten the world with the grace of truth. Of which report he himself makes mention often in the Gospel, saying: « But he that sent me is true, and I speak in the world those things which I have heard from him (Joan. VIII). » And again: « But I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard from my Father I have made known to you (Joan. XV); » of whom John the Baptist also says: « He that cometh from heaven, he says, is above all, and what he hath seen and heard, this he testifieth (Joan. III). » This report of the Lord, therefore, the Prophet heard in the spirit, and was afraid, because he had complained of the oppressions of the just in the world, when the goings forth from the world even of the Lord himself, who maketh for us a prosperous way of salvation and of life, were goings forth of death. He was afraid because he had made complaint concerning the tribulations of the saints, 1113Cwho are not only to be plucked out of tribulations by the Lord, but to be crowned perpetually with the Lord. « I have considered thy works and was terrified » — those works, namely, by which he redeemed the world, « being made obedient to the Father unto death, even the death of the cross, that, » as the Apostle says again, « through death he might destroy him who had the empire of death (Phil. II, Heb. II), » that is, the devil: which works, indeed, the more intently a man considers them, so much the more does he tremble concerning the works of his own frailty. But as to what is read according to the LXX, « In the midst of two living creatures thou shalt be made known, » some interpret this of the two cherubim made in Exodus by Moses, which stood beside the ark and had the oracle in their midst. Others, of the two seraphim in Isaiah veiling the head and the feet of God, 1113Dbecause they fly in the present world only; and the one cries out to the other the mystery of the Trinity. But some think this was said of the first Church, which was gathered of the circumcision and of the uncircumcision: that, two peoples girding him about on this side and on that, the Saviour was understood and believed. There are those who understand the two living creatures to be the two Testaments, the New and the Old, which are truly animate and vital, which breathe, and in the midst of which the Lord is known. Likewise "in the midst of two living creatures" can be understood of the midst of Moses and Elias. For there he was made known to the three disciples on the holy mount as one about to die, while they spoke of the things he was to suffer in Jerusalem; there he was made known as one about to rise again and to be immortal hereafter, his countenance being made bright 1114Aafter the fashion of the sun and his garments shining in the likeness of snow. There he was made known to be the Son of God, when the paternal voice said to him from the heavens: « This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him (Matth. III). » It can also not unfittingly be taken of the midst of the two thieves, crucified between whom he was made known, by dying, to be man. But with the sun darkened, the earth shaken, and the other miracles which the Gospel relates as done about the cross, he was made known to be God; and by himself interceding with the Father for his slayers he was made known how merciful he was — by which example also the Prophet, who foresaw these things in the spirit, was admonished not only to bear patiently the oppressions of the wicked, but even to bestow the grace of his kindness upon those who persecuted them. 1114BLXX: « When the years shall have drawn near, thou shalt be known; when the time shall have come, thou shalt be shown. » When the time shall have come, he says, and thou shalt have fulfilled thy promises in deed, thou wilt show that the things thou hast promised are true; or else, when the consummation shall have drawn near, and in the last hour thy Son shall have come to destroy sins, thou shalt be more manifestly known. Otherwise, according to the history, the years and the time can designate that fulness of time of which the Apostle says: « After the fulness of time was come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that he might redeem them who were under the law (Gal. IV): » which times, that is, and which years the Prophet saw to be as yet far off, and saluted from afar; because while the years were drawing near, and while the time was coming, the Lord would be shown and known. 1114CFor above also he heard, the Lord saying to him: « That the vision is yet afar off, and it shall appear unto the end, and shall not lie; if it make any delay, wait for it, for coming it shall come and shall not tarry. » Hearing indeed the report of him, and considering his works of the passion, he feared and was terrified, because he had been troubled concerning the transitory felicity of the wicked and the temporal affliction of the good. Yet when he had done worthy penance for his ignorances, he was straightway confident that he could obtain pardon for his errors. Whence he consequently adds:

« In that, when my soul shall have been troubled, in wrath thou wilt be mindful of mercy. » When my soul shall have been troubled, he says — stricken with a worthy sorrow of satisfaction and of penance, for fear of thy wrath and animadversion, 1114Dwhich I greatly dread that I have incautiously incurred — I believe that I shall the sooner obtain the mercy of the pardon desired from thee. And here the wondrous swiftness of the divine mercy is to be considered: he said only that he was troubled in mind on account of the wrath of the Lord, and straightway subjoined that the Lord was turned from wrath to mercy. But such may be the indulgence of the least faults; whereas our guilts, the graver they are, so much the more do they need a greater and longer penance, and tears, and alms. But as to what is said according to the Hebrew, When thou shalt be angry, thou wilt remember mercy, we must not think that God forgets and after wrath remembers his own mercy, but that we, set in punishment, think that he forgets, according to that word: « How long, O Lord, wilt thou forget 1115Ame unto the end? » For even when at times we are covered over by temptations as by waves, and the raging storm of the demons rages against us, we speak as to one sleeping: Arise, why sleepest thou, O Lord? And at the same time behold the clemency of God: he did not say, When thou shalt have inflicted punishments, thou wilt remember mercy, but, When thou shalt be angry; and he that is angry sometimes does not strike, but only threatens — which the Apostle also perceiving says: « For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all impiety and iniquity of men (Rom. I). » But where it is revealed it is not inflicted; it does not strike, but is revealed that it may terrify, and that it be not inflicted upon the terrified.

« God shall come from the South, and the Holy One from mount Pharan. » LXX: « God shall come from Theman, and the Holy One from the shady and thick mountain. » Theman therefore is interpreted 1115Bthe South, and signifies Bethlehem, the city of David, in which the Lord was born. This city lies to the south from Jerusalem; for from it the Lord himself was brought up to Jerusalem by his parents on the fortieth day of his nativity, that a victim might be given for him according to the law. But Pharan is a place neighbouring to mount Sinai, on which mountain the Lord gave the law to Moses. The Lord therefore shall come from the south, that is, he shall be born in Bethlehem and shall rise up from thence; and because he himself who was born in Bethlehem once gave the law on mount Sinai, he himself is the Holy One who comes from mount Pharan. And that which is brought in according to the Hebrews, diapsalma, that is, "always," has this sense: he himself who was born in Bethlehem, and who in Sinai — that is, in mount Pharan — gave the law, is always, in all things past and present and to come, the author 1115Cand the bestower. Now Pharan is interpreted "the mouth of one seeing," and signifies that the knowledge of the Son of God comes from the discourse of a learned man. But that which is read in certain copies, « God shall come from Libanus, and the Holy One from the shady and thick mountain, » has this sense: Libanus is a most lofty mountain of Phoenicia, notable for its high and imputrescible and aromatic trees, of which Scripture testifies that even the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem was made. Whence in the Scriptures the temple itself also is sometimes wont to be designated by the name of Libanus. For hence is that word of Zacharias concerning the army of the Chaldeans that was to come against it: « Open thy gates, O Libanus, and let the fire devour thy cedars (Zach. XI). » God therefore comes from Libanus, because the Lord, appearing in the flesh, sprinkled in that very temple the first 1115Dseeds of the Gospel, and thereafter filled the whole world with the germ of his faith and truth. Whence Isaias says: « For the law shall come forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Isa. II). » And he sprinkled there the first seeds of faith not only through the apostles, who after his passion and resurrection, filled with the Holy Spirit, laid there by their preaching the first foundations of the Church — whose sound thereafter went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world — but also through himself he first gave, in that same temple, testimony of the faith which was to be held in him, when at twelve years old, sitting in the midst of the doctors, he questioned them as a man of tender age, but answered those who taught as God of eternal majesty. Where, being sought 1116Aand found by his parents, he also of himself, intimating that he was God and the Son of God, said: « What is it that you sought me? did you not know that I must be about those things which are my Father's (Luc. II)? » The Holy One, he says, from the shady and thick mountain. The Holy One is the same mediator of God and men, who above is manifestly called God, of whom Gabriel, bringing the good tidings to the Virgin mother, says: « And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God (Luc. I). » But the mountain from which the same Holy One is sung as about to come may be understood as the kingdom of the Jews, from which he drew the origin of his flesh; of which Daniel also saw a stone cut out without hands, that is, Christ begotten without the work of man, who, grinding to pieces the kingdoms of the world, should fill the whole earth with the glory of his name — which mountain is rightly called shady 1116Band thick, for it has many fruitful trees, that is, many holy men laden with the apples of the virtues, who both instruct the hunger of our mind with the most sweet taste of their doctrine, and overshadow our frailty with the protection of their intercession, lest by the heat of tribulations it wither away from the inward green of love.

« His glory covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise. » LXX: « His power covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise. » The dispensation of the Lord's incarnation having been described, he straightway subjoined the secret of the ascension, by which the same humanity was to be glorified, according to that word of the Psalmist: « His going out is from the height of heaven, and his meeting even unto the height thereof (Psal. XVIII). » His glory covered the heavens, he says, or his power, or his majesty: because he who through the incarnation 1116Cwas made a little less than the angels, the same, crowned with glory and honour through the resurrection, was through the ascension set over the works of the Father's hands, and all things are made subject under his feet; and, the apostles preaching, all the earth was filled with his praise. But even before the passion and resurrection, when the Word made flesh dwelt among us, his majesty covered the heavens, because the humanity assumed, though as yet mortal, excelled the heavenly powers; and the earth was full of his praise, the same powers of heaven truly knowing that he himself was the creator of the earth, as of every creature, through his divinity, who then through his humanity tarried and was seen upon the earth. Whence also at his birth they sang together: « Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Luc. II).

1116DHis splendour shall be as the light; horns are in his hands. There his strength is hidden. » The splendour of the virtues and of the doctrine of the Lord Saviour shall enlighten those who believe, whence also he is called in the Scriptures the sun of justice; but because that same splendour could not perfectly shine upon the world unless he himself, having tasted death for a time, should overthrow the kingdom of death, and rising from the dead should give to the world the hope and the faith of rising again, his splendour also shone forth with clear light as the sun of justice; and the horns in his hand are the standards and trophies of the cross, and in those very horns his strength is hidden. « For whereas he was in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made obedient unto death, 1117Aeven the death of the cross (Phil. II). » On the cross, therefore, his strength was hidden for a little while, when he said to the Father: « My soul is sorrowful even unto death (Matth. XXVI); » and: « Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass from me (Ibid.); » and on the cross itself: « Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. » But according to another edition it is read in this place: « Horns are in his hands; there is the power of his glory confirmed. » By horns he means the transverse wood of the cross, which he held, fastened by his hands, that by this kind of death, overcoming all death, he might so confirm the power of his glory in the hearts of the elect that by no terrors or blandishments could they be held back from his love — the glory of the incorruption to come being also promised to them, through which the last enemy, 1117Bdeath, should be destroyed. Finally, on the holy mount, in the presence of Peter, James and John, his splendour shone as light, and they indeed were delighted at the sight of this splendour; yet how frail and infirm they still were was proved at the time of his passion. But after he received in his hands the horn of the cross, there was the power of his glory confirmed, so far that neither by terrors nor by death itself could it be driven from the heart of the faithful. In horns, after the manner of the prophets, the kingdoms of this world can be intimated; the loftiness of the human mind, whether good or reprobate, can be designated by the name of horns; and horns are in the hands of Christ, « because he is King of kings and Lord of lords (I Tim. VI). » Horns are in his hands, that, humbling this one and exalting that, he may break in pieces all the horns of sinners, 1117Cby which they are vainly puffed up. And let the horns of the just be exalted — namely, the desires devoted to God, by which they strive to overcome all the contests of the impious and of the vices. But as to what we read according to the LXX, « And he set the strong love of his power, » this also is to be understood of Christ: that God the Father therefore opened the heavens by his power, and filled the earth with praise, and made his splendour to be, in order that he might set light and a kingdom in the hand of his Son, that he might make his beloved to be loved by all, and loved not lightly but vehemently and strongly, so that of those who had strongly loved him and clung to his love no man should take them out of his hand. On the contrary, the devil makes us love the world, and in place of the love of virtue to love vices, and that not lightly but strongly, so that it may be 1117Dsaid of us: And the devil set the strong love of his own vices. But this also, which is read according to certain copies thus, « He set the firm charity of his fortitude, » signifies that the saints indeed loved with inward charity the fortitude of Christ even before the passion, but this same charity was not firm until, his passion and resurrection being accomplished, he should give more fully the grace of his Holy Spirit; but then indeed it was made so firm that it could not be broken even by their horn, namely by the power of insolent kings.

« Before his face shall go death, and the devil shall go forth before his feet. » This verse is so read according to the Hebrew verity, and blessed Jerome thus 1118Aexpounded it, saying: The Hebrews hand down that, as in the Gospel the prince of demons is said to be Beelzebub, so Reseph is the name of a demon who holds the principate among the others, and that on account of his exceeding swiftness and his running to and fro in divers directions he is called a bird and a flying thing; and that it is he who in paradise spoke to the woman under the figure of a serpent, and from the curse by which he was condemned by God received his name — since indeed Reseph is interpreted "creeping on the belly." This, therefore, is what is said: as soon as the Lord shall have come, and shall have been baptized in Jordan, and at the descent of the dove the voice of the Father shall have thundered, « This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matth. III), » the devil shall meet him as he comes out of the waters, and death shall stand before his feet, and as the ancient snake he shall tempt him forty days 1118Bin the wilderness. But if we read according to the LXX, « Before his face shall go the Word, and it shall go forth into the fields, » this signifies that the discourse of God goes before his visitation — which is now allegorically called his face — and prepares the hearts of believers, that it may lay the crooked things straight and the uneven things level, and that the soul of the hearer, like a field made ready, may be able to receive the spiritual seed. Before the Lord came in the flesh, the words of the prophets went before, which should bear testimony to him as about to come; and these same words went out into the fields, when, the apostles preaching, they were published throughout the whole world. And not only in the prophetic writings did the word of preaching go before the Lord, but also in the apostles, when they evangelized to the world the coming of Christ accomplished in the flesh. 1118CThe Word went before his face, because assuredly the doctrine of truth first reaches the ears of those who are to be instructed, and thereafter faith and the understanding of the word enlighten their hearts and make them worthy of God as their indweller.

« He stood and measured the earth; he looked and dissolved the nations, and the mountains of the world were ground to powder; the hills of the world were bowed down by the journeys of his eternity. » The Saviour, standing and looking through all things, and measuring with his eyes the whole compass of the world, scattered the multitude of the nations; and, these being scattered and dissolved, the mountains of this world were ground to powder, and the hills of this world were bowed down. For there are also other mountains and hills, which the bridegroom leaps upon and leaps over in the Canticle of Canticles, of which it is said also in the second psalm of the steps: « I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence help shall come 1118Dto me (Psal. CXX). » But the mountains of the world are those same which are also the dark mountains, concerning which Jeremias gave commandment that our feet be not dashed upon them. « The hills of the world, he says, were bowed down: » for before the coming of the Saviour they walked with neck erect, and no man could humble their pride. But they were ground to powder and bowed down by the journeys of his eternity, that is, of God, because his eternity deigned to come to us; or because always, from the beginning of the world unto his incarnation, he came to the saints, and the word of God was made in the hand of each one of them; and because in all who conquer he himself has prevailed, and his eternal journey has bowed down the hills and ground the mountains to powder. But the mountains can also be understood as the demons who 1119Abusy themselves among heretics and lift themselves up against the knowledge of God, and the hills as other strengths of the demons, which make men admire beauty of body, dignities, riches, nobility of birth, and the other goods of the world. One may see, after the coming of the word of God and the presence of God the Father, how human souls are moved, and everything that is earthly is dissolved, and former thoughts are reduced to nothing: then are the demons destroyed, then shall the heights of the world be brought to nothing, and all the knowledge of the heretics, which at first swelled up, is at the coming of the word of God humbled, ground down and consumed. But according to another edition it is read thus: « His feet stood and the earth was moved; he looked and the nations flowed away; the mountains were vehemently broken in pieces, 1119Bthe everlasting hills flowed away. » For when, at the doctor's preaching, the footprints of truth are fixed in the mind of the hearer, straightway that mind itself, troubled in the consideration of itself, is moved. And the feet of the Lord may not unfittingly be taken to be the doctors themselves, through whom the word is ministered; since he who through himself is everywhere present is through these, as through his own feet, borne into the whole world. But they stand upon feet and the earth is moved, because the more strongly the holy doctors persist in preaching and keeping the truth, the more quickly do the hearts of earthly men strike themselves to do penance for their errors; and since that same act of penance is by no means to be ascribed to the man who preaches, but to the grace which enlightens — which is to say openly: The Lord had mercy and the nations repented 1119C— with which regard, namely, he looked also upon Peter when he had denied him, and he, pricked by the memory of his sin, straightway flowed away into tears. By mountains he means the proud, and those who exalt themselves out of the kingdom or the wisdom or the riches of this world, who, when the Lord looked upon them, were not only broken in pieces but vehemently broken in pieces, when, by his mercy, not a few of such men not only forsook their empty and proud loftiness, but even assailed that same loftiness both by their living and by their preaching. Finally, Saul and Matthew were mountains, this one lifted up out of the wisdom of the carnal letter, that one out of the mammon of iniquity; but when each of them, turned to the teaching of humility, was made a disciple of Christ, mountains assuredly were vehemently broken in pieces. By the name of hills, as also of mountains, proud 1119Dmen are expressed; but perhaps such as are puffed up with a lesser haughtiness of elation, and yet not strangers to the guilt of swelling, and therefore to be bowed down wholesomely, that they may deserve to be raised up by the Lord — who are rightly called everlasting hills, because while, humbled for a time, they flow away from the swelling of pride, they are raised up, glorified unto eternity, by him who says: « And every one that humbleth himself shall be exalted. » There follows in the same edition: « The journeys of his eternity I have seen by reason of the labours. » There are journeys of the Lord's temporality, by which he came into the world, that he might appear to men for a time. But there are journeys of his eternity, by which, the world being bodily left behind, he returned to the Father, with whom he remained eternally even while he tarried temporally in the world: which journeys indeed he himself desired 1120Awhen, drawing near to the passion, he said to the Father: « I have glorified thee upon earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do (Joan. XVII). » These things he said of the journeys of the temporality he had assumed; and straightway he added of the journeys of eternity: « And now glorify thou me, O Father, with thyself, with the glory which I had before the world was, with thee. » But these journeys of eternity the prophet saw by reason of the labours, namely of the incarnation and of the passion; of which it was said above: « God shall come from Libanus, or from the south, and horns are in his hands, » and other things of this kind, of which very many are found in this same Canticle.

« For iniquity I saw the tents of Ethiopia; the skins of the land of Madian shall be troubled. » LXX: « For labours I saw the tabernacles of the Ethiopians; the tabernacles 1120Bof the land of Madian also shall be afraid. » The Ethiopians — foul, and lovers of darkness, and strangers to all light, who feed upon the flesh of the dragon, of whom it is written: « Thou hast given him to be meat for the peoples of the Ethiopians (Psal. LXXIII) » — are understood to be the demons, whose tabernacle whosoever has laboured in this world for honours and riches becomes; which is significantly shown under the one word of iniquity. For every rich man is either unjust or the heir of an unjust man. See men crossing the seas, keeping watch before the doors of the powerful, suffering all the things which the condition of slaves scarcely suffers, that they may heap up riches, that they may receive some dignity; and after they have obtained this, giving themselves over to luxury and pleasures and every iniquity, so that what avarice has gathered, luxury may consume. These men, therefore, for their labours are made a lodging 1120Cof demons; and they who ought to have been the temple of God are made the tabernacles of the Ethiopians. And as to that which follows, the skins of the land of Madian shall be troubled, understand the same men to be the tabernacles of the Ethiopians and the tabernacles of the land of Madian. Now Madian in our tongue sounds "from judgment," that is, "unto condemnation"; and it is shown that from fear of the judgment and of the eternal punishments they are always in strength, and the torments which they know themselves to endure with daily dread. But otherwise: the tabernacles of the Ethiopians shall be terrified, and the tabernacles of the land of Madian, when the nations, the Gospel having been announced to them by the apostles, should begin — that same report and those same works being now accomplished — to serve the Lord in fear and to rejoice unto him with trembling. And well did he set the Ethiopians first, who are at the ends of the world, that he might mystically intimate that the sound of the preachers should go out into 1120Dall the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. Let the Ethiopians therefore be afraid at the name of Christ, and let it be marked that his faith shall come unto the ends of the earth. Let the Madianites also be afraid, that by this the inland peoples too may be intimated to be such as shall be saved. But in that he does not say, The Ethiopians and the Madianites shall be terrified, but, The tabernacles of the Ethiopians shall be terrified, he says, and the tabernacles of the land of Madian, he speaks by that manner of speech by which it is said in the Gospel: « And the whole city went out to meet Jesus, » whereas it was not the city itself, but they who were in the city, that went out.

« Wast thou angry with the rivers, O Lord? or was thy fury upon the rivers, or thy indignation upon the sea? 1121Athou who ridest upon thy horses, and thy chariots are salvation. Raising up thou wilt raise up thy bow: the oaths to the tribes which thou hast spoken. » LXX: « Wast thou angry with the rivers, O Lord? or was thy fury upon the rivers, or thine onset upon the sea? For thou wilt ascend upon thy horses, and thy horsemanship is health; bending thou wilt stretch forth thy bow over the sceptres, saith the Lord. » Which can be understood thus according to the letter: As thou didst dry up the Jordan and the Red Sea, fighting for us — for thou wast not angry with the rivers and the sea, nor could things insensible contract anything of offence — so now, mounting thy chariots and seizing thy bow, thou wilt give salvation to thy people, and the oaths which thou didst swear to our fathers and to the tribes thou wilt fulfil for evermore. But in that he says, « Wast thou 1121Bangry with the rivers, O Lord? or was thy fury upon the rivers, or thine onset upon the sea? » he speaks ambiguously, and in the language as much of one questioning as of one approving; for there are both good rivers and evil ones; there is a worst sea, and there is a best sea. Of good rivers this is the example: « The stream of the river maketh the city of the Lord joyful (Psal. XLV); » and that « he who shall drink of the water of the Lord, out of his belly shall flow rivers of water springing up into life everlasting (Joan. VII): » of evil ones, that which Pharao speaks in Ezechiel: « The rivers are mine, and I made them, » in which the dragon dwells, and many things like to these. Likewise the sea also is taken in a good part, as is that which the Psalmist says of the Church: « He hath founded it upon the seas, and upon the rivers hath he prepared it (Psal. 1121CII). » Likewise in a bad part, as is that: « This great and spacious sea: there are creeping things without number (Psal. CIII), » and the rest. But if the rivers are good and the sea good, upon which Jesus sets and prepares his Church, even though that sea and those rivers are taken in a bad part of which it is written: « The sea saw and fled; Jordan was turned back (Psal. CXIII), » then not unfittingly can we understand both good horses and bad horses, and likewise chariots and four-horse cars set down as good in certain places and as bad in certain others. For we read that the chariots and four-horse cars of Pharao were drowned in the waves of the sea in Exodus; and on the contrary the bridegroom says to the bride in the Canticle of Canticles: « To my company of horsemen among the chariots of Pharao have I likened thee, my nearest one (Cant. 1121DI), » not that Christ likens the Church, or the word of God likens the soul which he calls his bride, to the four-horse cars of Pharao, but that every soul, however holy and perfect it be, compared to God is as it were a chariot of Pharao, and a beast of burden. Whence Moses also speaks to God: « But I am unreasoning; and David: « I am become as a beast of burden before thee (Psal. LXXII), » not that he is a beast of burden absolutely, but that before God he is a beast of burden. « Raising up, therefore, the Lord raises up his bow, and bends his arrows over the sceptres, » that is, over the kingdoms of the devil, which are contrary to the Lord in divers vices and sins — that is, in avarice, luxury, envy, detraction, thefts and perjuries — against which the word of God, sitting upon his horses and 1122Ahis chariots, that is, in the souls of the saints, upon which the divine word mounts, raises up the bow of the holy Scriptures, out of which the darts of the divine testimonies are sent forth, and fulfils the oaths to the tribes of the Lord which he spoke to their fathers: to those tribes, namely, of which the Psalmist, discoursing of the mystical Jerusalem, says: « For thither did the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, the testimony of Israel, to praise his name (Psal. CXXI). » And in this which is read according to the edition of the LXX interpreters, « Was thy anger upon the rivers, O Lord? or thy fury upon the rivers, or thine onset upon the sea? » the hearts of unbelievers can be expressed by the name of rivers and of the sea: rivers, because they are rightly so called, since with the whole onset of their intention they flow down to lower things; a sea, because 1122Bwithin they are darkened by turbid and bitter thoughts, and lift themselves above the rest with the swelling whirlpools of boastfulness. Have these then, he says, sinned so grievously — who sink the mind from heavenly desires into the appetite of infirm things, and who by the haughtiness of an unstable mind raise themselves against their neighbours — that in such men the wrath which they deserve should abide, never to be loosed? or dost thou, appearing in the world, bestow the grace of thy mercy upon all who sin throughout the earth, whether more lightly or more grievously? For I do indeed perceive that thou wilt send apostles to preach thy glory to the nations; but who they are that shall believe belongs to thy thought, not to man's. For this is what follows: « Because ascending thou wilt ascend upon thy horses, and thy horsemen are health, » that is, ascending in the heart of thine elect 1122Cthrough the illumination of grace, by which, under thy governance, they may walk the way of the virtues, and through which, bearing thee through the whole world by their evangelizing, they may preach to the world the life of perpetual salvation. Of which horsemanship a figure was shown in the Lord even according to the letter, when, journeying to Jerusalem, he sat upon an ass, while the crowds that went before and that followed and that came to meet him sang together: « Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord (Matth. XXI). » In which riding health resounded, because assuredly that spiritual journey was signified by which, with the Lord as leader, men are led through the apostles to the kingdoms that are to be beheld of that Jerusalem which is above, which is the mother of us all.

« Drawing thou wilt stretch forth thy bow over the sceptres, saith the Lord. » By the bow he means the unforeseen coming 1122Dof the divine examination, by which he foresaw that the sceptres also, that is, the kingdoms of the world, were to be examined. The Prophet, therefore, intimating what our Lord does in them when he ascends upon his horses — that is, when he fills and rules with his grace the apostles and their successors — says: « bending, he says, thou wilt stretch forth thy bow over the sceptres, » that is, threatening through the doctors thou wilt threaten that thy judgment is suddenly to come, so that whosoever shall have been terrified at the threatening of wrath as at a stretched bow, and shall have taken care to entreat thy mercy, may not feel the sending forth of the arrows, that is, the threatening of everlasting punishments. But in that, having set down first « drawing thou wilt stretch forth thy bow over the sceptres, » he added « saith the Lord, » he signifies God the Father, of whom the 1123ASon himself says: « The Father, he says, judgeth not, but hath given all judgment to the Son (Joan. V). »

« Cleaving the rivers of the earth. » Let us first set down an example, that by this as by a step we may come to higher things. We read in those who have composed volumes concerning marvels, and who have carried down the Olympiads of Greece even unto our own memory, setting forth what new thing befell in the world in each several year, that among other things rivers burst forth by an earthquake which had not been before, and others were swallowed up and went to ruin: namely, that all the veins of the lands have in themselves hidden waters, as the human body has blood, which are burst open by the shaking of the earth and remain as rivers. If we have understood this, let us see that the human soul has in itself naturally waters and rivers, and that through our sloth 1123Bthey are hidden and do not flow; but that when it has been shaken at the preaching of the word of God, and moved from its former state, then that which lay hidden bursts forth and flows for the refreshment of those who drink. But as to what is read according to another edition, « The earth shall be cleft by rivers »: by rivers in this place he does not mean the same ones concerning which above he feared the wrath and the fury of the Lord, but rather those of which he himself says in the Gospel: « He that believeth in me, he says, as the Scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. » And the evangelist expounding it: « Now this, he says, he said of the Spirit which they should receive who believed in him (Joan. VII). » By these rivers, therefore, the earth shall be cleft: when the hearts of carnal men, watered by the words of saving doctrine, grind down the hardness of their unbelief by humbling themselves, and lay open the bosom of inward thought, 1123Cwhich had been ill closed, to receive the words of saving rebuke or of exhortation.

« They saw thee, O God, and the mountains grieved; the whirlpool of waters passed away; the deep gave its voice; the height lifted up its hands; the sun and the moon stood in their habitation; in the light of thine arrows they shall go, in the brightness of thy glittering spear; in thy roaring thou wilt trample down the earth; in thy fury thou wilt astonish the nations; having gone forth for the salvation of thy people, for salvation with thy Christ; thou hast struck the head from the house of the impious; thou hast laid bare the foundation even to the neck for ever. » We have set down our own edition alone, so that, weaving the sequence of the passage according to it — that is, according to the Hebrew — we may afterwards discuss the LXX clause by clause, section 1123Dby section. They saw thee, O God, and the mountains grieved — the lofty kingdoms, namely, and the sublime powers of this world, and the four chariots in Zacharias which go forth from the brazen mountains. These saw thee and trembled; and the whirlpool of waters passed away, that is, all their onset and persecution, wherewith they harassed thy people, passed away after they saw thee. Then the deep, that is, those below, praised thee; then also those above, that is, the angels, clapped their hands together in applause, and showed thee as victor by a kind of gesture and dance of uplifted hands. Thy sun and moon, and all the splendour wherewith thou hadst before given light to thy people, and which afterwards, under the weight of evils, had all been covered over with the horror of darkness, 1124Areceived their light again and had their pristmum brightness. Thine arrows and thy glittering spear, that is, thy strokes and thy instruction, afforded light to thy people. Finally, in the light of thine arrows and in the brightness of thy spear, which chastised them to this end, that it might amend them, thy people walked in thy roaring. When therefore thou shalt avenge the wrong done to thy people, thou wilt tread down the earthly kingdoms and wilt make all the nations wonder, because thou hast gone forth for the salvation of thy people and hast come to them with thy Christ; for Jesus is interpreted "Saviour." And when Jesus Christ thy Son came, thou didst strike Antichrist from the house of the impious, that is, in this world which is set in wickedness; or thou didst strike the devil himself, who is the head of impiety, and thou hast laid bare his foundation even to the neck, that 1124Bis, thou hast made his hidden things open, not for a short time but for perpetuity; for this is what Sela signifies, that is, "always." But as to what is read according to another edition:

« The peoples shall see thee and shall grieve. » Such is the sense: the hearts of sinners, cleft to the acknowledgment and confession of the truth by the frequent address of those who teach, as by the washing of repeated floods, see the Lord meanwhile through faith, and grieve that they have withdrawn from him so long through fault; but when the grief of penance is ended, they see him more fully in the time to come through sight, and rejoice in the blessed vision of him for ever. There follows:

« Sprinkling waters in his journeys, the deep gave its voice from the height of its imagination. » 1124CThe same doctors who above are figured by the name of rivers are figured also by the name of the deep. But they are rivers because of the force of a stronger invective, wherewith they cut through the hardness of the earthly mind to do penance for its errors. But they are rightly called a deep from the height of the knowledge wherewith they themselves are filled within, Solomon bearing witness, who says: « The words of a man's mouth are deep water (Prov. XVIII). » Sprinkling waters, therefore, in the journeys, the deep gives its voice, when holy preachers, filled within in heart with the deep knowledge of truth, set forth the ministry of the word outwardly to their hearers, bringing it out little by little and in parts, according to the capacity of the weak, which they themselves inwardly take in both many and ample at once. And by "in the journeys" he means "in the works," either of the doctors themselves, namely, or of their hearers. For they sprinkle waters 1124Din their own journeys, when wherever they go they always show to those who look on examples of right living together with the voice of preaching. And they sprinkle waters also in the journeys of those who look on, when by teaching and by living alike they show them beforehand by what ways of action they ought to walk. And well, when he had said that the deep gave its voice, did he add "from the height of its imagination"; because that which the holy preachers utter marvellously without proceeds assuredly from that fountain of wisdom wherewith they themselves within are more marvellously enlightened by the contemplation of heavenly joys. Or did not the great deep give its voice from the height of its imagination, when Paul the apostle said: « Our mouth is open to you, O ye Corinthians, our heart is enlarged; you are not straitened in 1125Aus, but you are straitened in your own bowels; I speak as to my children: be you also enlarged. But whence, or in what order, it came to pass that the world should be sprinkled with saving waters, and that the deep of heavenly wisdom should thunder upon the lands, is shown in what follows, when it is said:

« The sun was lifted up, and the moon stood in its order. » For the Lord — the sun of justice, namely — was lifted up into heaven after his passion and resurrection, and, the Spirit having been sent by the Father, he enlightened the Church and spread her abroad through the whole world, that she in her own order — that is, after the secret of the Lord's incarnation had been fulfilled — rising from the long languor of unbelief, might stand in faith, act manfully, and be strengthened in his charity. And because he had compared Christ to the sun and the Church to the moon, 1125Bfitly, turning to that same sun, he straightway subjoined:

« In the light thy darts shall go, in the brightness of the flashing of thy arms. » Now the darts of Christ are his words, wherewith the hearts of men are pricked, so that, a saving wound being inflicted, the faithful soul may say, I am wounded with charity: which darts, namely, go in the light, because through the ministry of the doctors the words of truth became openly known to the world, according to that which the Truth itself commanded them, saying: « The things which I tell you in the dark, speak ye in the light; and that which you hear in the ear, preach ye upon the housetops (Luc. XII); » and since the brightness of miracles also followed the utterances of light, he added, in the brightness of the flashing of thy arms; for with darts men at war strike their adversaries, 1125Cwith arms, by fortifying themselves, they descend from a wound. Whence by darts are fittingly intimated the sayings of preachers, wherewith they overcome the depravity of unbelievers, and by arms the miracles wherewith they confirm the truth of their preaching. The darts of Christ, therefore, go in the light; they go in the brightness of the flashing of his arms: because the mighty works which he did, the secrets which he opened, the commandments which he set forth, the rewards which he promised, have now become known to the whole world through the evangelical writings more clearly than the sun. And the holy doctors also, because they are sons of light, whatsoever by his gift they do or speak shines out bright with light and brightness.

« In thy threatening thou wilt make the earth less, and in thy fury. » Thou wilt drag down the nations by threatening the strictness of the judgment whereby the impious are condemned; thou wilt wholesomely humble 1125Dthose who were wont to set earthly things before heavenly, so that, earthly desires being little by little made less, they may begin to relish and to seek the things that are above; and by bringing in fororem thou wilt condemn for ever those who, for the sake of their eternal exaltation, scorned to be humbled for a time.

« Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, that thou mightest save thy christs. » The mediator of God and men went forth from the Father and came into the world, not that he might judge the world, but that the world might be saved by him. And by christs he means all the elect, because from the unction of spiritual grace they are most rightly named by this word. Whence is that word of the Psalmist concerning those who, wishing to hurt the saints, were restrained 1126Aby a divine prohibition. And he reproved kings for their sakes: « Touch ye not my christs (Psal. CIV). » And he saved his christs — not those whom he found christs, but those whom, by going forth from the Father and appearing in the flesh, he made christs, that is, his anointed ones, through the Spirit of adoption. Of which unction John the apostle, admonishing his hearers, says: « And as for you, let the unction which you have received from him abide in you (I Joan. II). »

« Thou hast sent death upon the heads of thine enemies; thou hast stirred up the bonds even unto the necks. » For the Lord slays sin, sending death upon the heads of his enemies, that he may give life unto justice. I will say something more boldly: Christ came into the world for this, that he might send death upon the heads of his enemies, and that, as he himself died once to sin, so they too might die to iniquity, and that they who 1126Bhad been made partakers of death might be made partakers also of this life. The Lord raised up the bonds of charity, that, the former burden being laid down and the heaviest yoke wherewith they were pressed being cast off, we might take up the light yoke of Christ, so that, set with them in the chariot, we might carry the best of charioteers. Which can also be understood otherwise: for he who offered the joy of salvation to his elect, whom he had called christs through the Prophet, himself sent eternal death upon those who neglected to be anointed with his grace; which is agreed to have been fulfilled even bodily in that very nation of the Jews, which persecuted the Lord appearing in the flesh even unto death: for after it had crucified him, not many years intervening, when the Roman army pressed on — only those excepted who had separated themselves unto the faith of the evangelical grace — 1126Cit was condemned with a monstrous slaughter, and was moreover itself deprived of kingdom and country. And this is what he says: « Thou hast stirred up the bonds even unto the neck » — the neck, namely, of the kingdom, wherewith they had been raised up against the Lord; of which the most blessed protomartyr Stephen says to those same men, raging even against himself: « Stiffnecked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit (Act. V). » But even unto this neck did the Lord stir up the bonds, when he sent a hostile army for the overthrow of that proud nation. Whence it is written: « The just Lord shall cut the necks of sinners (Psal. CXXVIII). »

« Thou hast cursed his sceptres, the heads of his warriors, coming as a whirlwind to scatter me. Their exultation is as of him that devoureth the poor man in secret. Thou hast made a way in the sea for thy horses, in the 1126Dmire of many waters. I have heard, and my belly was troubled; at the voice my lips trembled. Let rottenness enter into my bones, and swarm beneath me, that I may rest in the day of my tribulation, that I may go up to our girded people. » And now I have set down the Hebrew only, that we may discuss the edition of the LXX separately; for the LXX disagrees much with the translation of all the rest. Thou hast cursed the sceptres, that is, his kingdoms — there is no doubt but that they are the impious one's, of whom he had said above, thou hast struck the head from the house of the impious, thou hast laid bare the foundation even to the neck. But we understand the impious one to be either Nebuchadnezzar or every adversary of the people of God; and not only his sceptres, but also the heads of the warriors 1127Awhom he had struck, who came, he says, as a whirlwind, that they might scatter me — that is, that they might overturn Israel and lead it captive into divers places — so that they exulted, devouring the poor man and Israel subjected to them, as though they did this in secret, and devoured us unawares. Thou camest therefore to battle for thy people, and, sending thy four-horse cars into the waters, that is, into many nations, thou madest them a way in the mire of many waters, that is, that thou mightest trample them down and grind them like mire with the hoof and the wheel of thy horses and thy chariot. But as to what follows, « I have heard, and my belly was troubled at the voice, » it is to be understood thus: my lips trembled; let rottenness enter into my bones and let them swarm beneath me, that I may rest in the day of tribulation, that I may go up to our girded 1127Bpeople. This is the sense: now we all willingly suffer straits, and at thy threatening we tremble with all our bowels; now my lips tremble, and the dread of a trembling mind is marked upon my mouth; and not only this, but of my own accord I seek and of my own accord I desire yet another thing: let rottenness enter into my bones and swarm above me — that is, I willingly suffer what Job suffered; I desire that not only my flesh but the marrow of my bones also should waste away, and that my bed should swarm with the rottenness of the body and with worms without number, so that, after I shall have borne these things here for my sins, I may rest in the bitter day, in the day of tribulation, in the day of need and of straitness; and that I may go up to our girded people, that is, to a strong warrior and a fighter. And beautifully, "I shall go up," 1127Cfor one always goes up to a girded people; and elegantly, "our," for he who has been afflicted and has willingly borne oppressions, and has weighed the rewards to come against present evils, boldly says "our", so that, like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, he too may sleep in a good old age, full of days, and be laid unto his fathers. Another edition:

« Thou hast cut off in alienation the heads of the mighty; the nations shall be moved therein. » For "alienation" it is written in the Greek « in ecstasy, » which some have interpreted « in stupor, » others « in an excess of mind »: but whether it be called stupor, or alienation, or excess of mind, it signifies one and the same thing — when a man, troubled and stupefied by a sudden marvel, is rendered a stranger to the sense of his own mind. And that this befell the Jews 1127Dthe frequent history of the Gospel declares, saying that they were stupefied and wondered at the doctrine and the mighty works of Jesus, saying: « Whence hath this man all these things, whose father and mother we know (Joan. VI)? » And in the Acts of the apostles, when the lame man at the gate of the temple had been healed by Peter and John: « They were filled, he says, with stupor and ecstasy (Act. III); » in which ecstasy, that is, in wonder or alienation of mind, many of the people were provoked to believe in the Lord; but the heads of the mighty, that is, the chief priests and the elders, were cut off from the lot of the faithful by not believing. The nations also were moved therein, when, having heard or seen the mighty works of the Lord and of his apostles, they were so stupefied and amazed that, anathematizing 1128Aand casting away those whom they had worshipped as gods, they received with devout mind the new faith of Christ.

« They shall open wide their mouths as a poor man eating in secret. » For as a poor man who has remained fasting for some while, if perchance he finds food anywhere, busies himself to refresh himself with it at once in secret, and will not bring it forth in public, lest perhaps it be snatched away by another and he himself perish of hunger: so assuredly, so did the peoples of the nations, when the bread of the word was offered them through the apostles — from which they had continued fasting a longer while — straightway open the mouth of their heart, and begin to taste it with all avidity. And in what order the poverty of the nations came to receive the banquets of the word is intimated, when it is straightway added:

« Thou hast sent into the sea horses troubling many waters. » 1128BFor by the sea he means the world; by the horses of God, the holy preachers; by the many waters, the peoples of the nations. And when the horses of God were sent into the sea, many waters were troubled, because when the heralds of the word were scattered into the world the hearts of the nations were troubled — some to believe and to receive the sacrament of faith, but others to gainsay, or even to persecute the heralds of that same faith. And well is it said above of these horses, namely of the holy preachers, Because ascending thou wilt ascend upon thy horses; and now of the same it is added, Thou hast sent thy horses into the sea; so that from both sentences it may be gathered that the Lord so sent preachers into the world that he himself is never absent from those same preachers, but, as a charioteer over his horses, so is he always set over their minds to govern them.

1128C« My belly kept watch and was terrified at the voice of the prayer of their lips. » By his belly, after the manner customary to the prophets, he means his own mind; because as by the belly food is received whereby the strength and life of the body is restored, so pious thoughts are received in the holy mind whereby the life of the inner man, lest it should fail, is sustained and held together. I kept watch, he says, over myself the more carefully with trembling mind, lest perchance I should sin in heart, and lest, preaching to others, I myself should be made a reprobate. And it is to be noted that he says he was terrified at the voice of the prayer of his own lips, whereas he seems to have prayed nothing at all in this whole song, but only, fearing and quaking, to describe the sacraments of Christ and of the Church that were to come. Nor yet is he deceived who calls his song a prayer, who also set over it 1128Dsuch a title, The prayer of Habakkuk the prophet for ignorances; because whatsoever a holy man speaks, all this assuredly is a prayer to God: everything that you do, whose sincere intention is to please the Lord, this intercedes for him with the Lord, and commends him to the Lord.

« And trembling entered into my bones. » Just as Sicu by the name of flesh Scripture sometimes designates our carnal actions, so by the word of bones it is wont to designate strong and spiritual deeds. My heart therefore was terrified, he says, at these things which I foresee as coming into the world; and whatsoever I thought there was of spiritual strength in me, all this trembled as a frail thing, while I look upon the greater strengths and passions of Christ and of the blessed apostles — 1129Awhich very thing is more manifestly explained by the following word, when it is said:

« And beneath me my strength was troubled. » And well does he say that his strength was troubled not in himself but beneath himself, because the prophet, caught up to the contemplation of heavenly secrets, saw himself in a manner lifted above himself; and the loftier he is made by the light of contemplation, the more does he behold his own imperfection: for being raised up to gaze upon things above, he is rightly troubled concerning the things which he had done among the lowest. And the strength of the prophet was troubled, his bones trembled, his belly was terrified, not only because he knew himself less perfect in action, but also because he had learned that all who would live godly in Christ should suffer persecutions. And he saw that Christ himself, who should enter into the world without sin, 1129Bshould not go forth from the world without the punishment of sin.

« I shall rest in the day of my tribulation, that I may go up to the people of my transmigration. » For he rests in the day not only of retribution but also of tribulation, because he doubts not that through temporal afflictions he shall increase his eternal joys, according to that word of the Apostle: « For by hope we are saved (Rom. VIII). » And again: « Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation (Rom. X). » And this is the rest of the elect in this life: that, the appetite of the lowest things being left behind, with the whole intention of the mind and with the daily steps of good works they may strive to ascend and to pass over to the fellowship of those who had gone before them in Christ. But even before that last and general judgment the saints rest in the day of tribulation, ascending 1129Cto the people of their transmigration, when after good works, being translated from the world, they are joined in the heavens to the joys of the just who went before, while their persecutors, likewise taken away from this life, undergo the torments of gehenna, to be afflicted perpetually. And the day of tribulation can be understood also in this life, when, the penury of temporal goods growing heavy, they who had loved such things grieve exceedingly, as though surrounded with miseries; but every elect man, though bearing those same discomforts bodily, with the hope of his mind fixed in the Lord, has rest, knowing that the more heavily he is pressed down among the lowest things, the more loftily after his oppressions he ascends to the eternal fellowships of the citizens above. To which sense that which follows fitly agrees:

« For the fig tree shall not blossom, and there shall be no bud in 1129Dthe vines; the work of the olive shall lie, and the fields shall bring no food; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls. » LXX: « Because the fig tree bringeth not forth fruit, and there shall be no generation in the vines; the work of the olive shall lie, and the fields make no meats; the sheep have failed from meat, and there shall be no oxen in the stall. » According to the Hebrew, in which we said above, let rottenness enter into my bones and swarm beneath me, that I may rest in the day of tribulation, that I may go up to my girded people, thus will the things that went before be joined to those that follow: therefore have I willed to bear tribulation for the present, and afterwards to go up to the strong people, because the day of tribulation and of need shall come; and while the rest are set in straitness, I shall rejoice in thy 1130Amajesty: the fig tree shall not blossom, and there shall be no bud in the vines; the work of the olive shall lie, and the fields shall bring no food, and the rest — which, because they differ not much from the LXX, let us discuss together with their interpretation. When the day of tribulation shall have come, and I shall have gone up to the people which once went on pilgrimage with me — or assuredly, when the day of the overthrow of the Jewish nation and of the former people shall have come, and the daughter of Sion shall have been left as a tabernacle in a vineyard, and as a lodge in a cucumber field, and as a city that is stormed — while that one indeed perishes I have been chosen for the people of which it is said: « And unless the Lord had left us seed, we had been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrha (Rom. IX). » I will join myself to the disciples of Christ, whom, because he teaches them on the mountain, the crowds and the feeble 1130Bbeing left below, I too will climb up to the mountains. But these verses, if anyone ask what they figuratively signify, can be expounded thus: the fig tree, the vine and the olive were the synagogue of the Jews, when, devoted to God, it brought forth the sweetness of good working, the blazing of fervent love, the fatness of a merciful mind. Sheep and oxen were typical in that same people: sheep, namely, in those who humbly heard the voice of the chief shepherd; but oxen in those who, diligently bearing the yoke of the law to bring forth the fruits of good works, prepared the hearts of their hearers by sedulously teaching and chastising them, as by ploughing the land of the Lord; and to these, living spiritually, the most broad fields of the divine Scriptures made spiritual meats, in whose pasture he delighted who had been made as a beast of burden before God 1130Cand always clung to him, saying: « The Lord ruleth me, and I shall want nothing: in a place of pasture, there hath he set me (Psal. XXII). » But this fig tree, when the Lord came to it a third time — that is, in the giving of the law through Moses, in sedulous rebuke and exhortation through the prophets, in the offering of grace through himself — neglected to bear the fruit of virtue; for which cause, at his curse, it was condemned with everlasting dryness. The generation failed in the vines that were once the Lord's, that is, the fruit of charity in the multitudes of the Jews; for which cause they offered him vinegar for wine when he thirsted — that is, to him who sought in them the sweetness of the virtues they brought forth the sharpness of vices. The work of the olive lied, when that same people fattened the heads of wretched men with the oil of flattery, and re-echoed with a false mouth the truthful things drawn from the prophet, saying: « But I, 1130Das a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, have hoped in the mercy of God (Psal. LI). For which cause, at the time of the last retribution, being about to bring lamps extinguished, it is to be shut out with its own darkness from the entrance of the heavenly country. The fields make no meats, when that same people, though the pages of the divine letters lie open, is not able, by understanding rightly, to find the pastures of truth. The sheep fail from meat, because for those from whom the refreshment of inward sweetness is absent, there is nothing whence the innocence of a simple life may come forth. And thus it is said, the sheep have failed from meat, that is, because meat was lacking — as also the Prophet in the psalm: « And my flesh, he says, is changed for oil (Psal. CVIII), » that is, because there was no oil wherewith I might be refreshed or anointed. Finally certain codices 1131Ahave it thus, they failed, because the sheep did not eat: there are no oxen in the stall, since indeed among the Jews the stalls of the heavenly letters abound, but because they do not relish in them the fodder of heavenly understanding, those who would bear the sweet yoke of the Gospel are wanting. All which things the Prophet, considering that they should come upon the faithless part of his own nation, straightway shows what he himself would do together with the faithful of that same nation — nay rather, together with the fellowship of the whole Church, which was to be gathered throughout the world in Christ, or had been gathered — saying:

« But I will rejoice in the Lord, and I will exult in God my Jesus. » Another edition: « But I will glory in the Lord, I will rejoice in God my Jesus. » But I, he says, will glory not in my own justice, but in the faith of the divine protection; I will rejoice in God my Jesus, 1131BI who weigh that salvation is not mine in me, but is in him. And, as though we should ask of him why he gloried in the Lord and in God Jesus — whom by the grace of a great love he called his own — and why he rejoiced, straightway, intimating as it were the most just cause of that same joy, he thus ended his song.

« The Lord God is my strength, and he will set my feet as the feet of harts, and upon my high places he will lead me, singing in the Psalms, to the victor. » [Vulg. gives the nominative here, i.e. "he shall lead me, as conqueror, singing in psalms"] The Lord God, he says, is my strength: I shall have no other strength at all, save in Christ, and I shall reckon all the justices of the law as refuse; and he will set my feet as the feet of harts, that I may tread upon the asp and the basilisk, and as a little child may put [my hand] into the hole and draw out the serpent Judas from the snake. For my cousin 1131Cis like to a roe or to a young hart; and because he himself is a hart, he granted to me also that I should be a hart, lofty in horns, dividing the hoof, chewing the cud, and that at my scent the serpents should flee: of which it is said in the psalm: « Who hath made my feet perfect as a hart's, and will set me upon high places (Psal. XXVIII). » And again: « The voice of the Lord perfecting the harts. » He will therefore set my feet among the rest of his harts, and will lead me through to heavenly things, that among the angels I may sing the glory of the Lord and may announce upon earth peace to men of good will. And I shall sing his victory, and his triumph, and the trophy of the cross. But according to another edition this prophetic sentence is read thus.

« O Lord God, my strength, set my feet unto consummation; and he will establish me upon high places, 1131Dthat I may conquer in his brightness. » As though he said openly: beneath me indeed my strength was troubled — that is, while I look upon the condition of human frailty which is below; and while I lift up the eyes of my mind to the grace of divine help, I trust that in him I can do valiantly. He is able to lead the steps of my works through unto the consummation of a firm end; he is able to establish me upon high places: so that, namely, by the contemplation of everlasting goods I may despise as of no worth all the loftiness of worldly power, and may conquer in his brightness all the temptations which meet me whether from the adversities or from the blandishments of the world — that is, while in all that I do I seek not my own glory, but his, from whom I remember that I have received whatsoever good 1132AI do. For deservedly are they helped by the Lord, so that, temptations being conquered, they may come approved to the palm of the heavenly calling, who refer the whole cause of their victory to his praise. Certain codices have, « that I may conquer in his Canticle, » which looks to one and the same sense. For he conquers in the Canticle of the Lord whosoever, in all the tribulations which he suffers, knows how to give him thanks from the heart, knowing that « to them that love God all things work together unto good (Rom. VIII). » Yet in this sentence of the prophet there can be, according to the history, such a sense as if he himself said: I shall conquer in song, and my hands shall compose the cithara and the psaltery and every kind of instrument, and I shall write a panegyric to him that triumphs; and I who at the beginning said, « How long shall I cry, and thou wilt not 1132Bhear? shall I cry out to thee, suffering violence, and thou wilt not save? » and who pleaded concerning justice and judgment, shall afterwards praise equity and shall surpass the other singers by my song. And beautifully does it answer to the beginning of this prophetic song: for he who, having heard and considered the works of the Lord appearing in the flesh, faithfully fears and quakes — it comes to pass that, despising those things which in this life are borne along in changing state after the fashion of a fluctuating sea, he glories and rejoices in him alone.

It is read in Deuteronomy that Moses, after he had written out the words of the law in a volume and had finished it, 1132Cspoke, in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel, the words of this song, and completed it even to the end. Whence it is given us to infer that this song, which Moses sang for a testimony to the children of Israel, does not sound a simple history only, but is most full of spiritual understanding. For in part, according to the history, it reproaches the treachery of the Israelites in return for the benefits most richly conferred upon them by the Lord; in part, through allegory, it instructs the holy Church of God concerning the heavenly mysteries; in part, moreover, it calls forth every one of the faithful to uprightness of morals through tropology. Whence it befits a sober reader that in the history he keep the truth of Scripture; but in the allegory let him consider the reason of the heavenly mysteries, and in the tropology let him learn thoroughly the usefulness of good disciplines, so that, 1132Dtaught by this threefold distinction, he may be carried forward to that heavenly theoria — that is, to the inspection of hidden things and to the sublimity of divine contemplation. And this too must be diligently looked into, that Moses is said to speak the words of the song and to have completed it even to the end — whether perhaps this admonishes us that he who is zealous to praise God with his mouth should not contradict it by his works: for praise is not comely in the mouth of a sinner. Therefore the Lord himself says in the Gospel - « He that shall break one of these least commandments and shall so teach men, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he that shall do and teach, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matth. XIX). » Now the beginning of this song is as follows:

1133A« Hear, O heavens, the things that I shall speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth. » According to the opening of the prophet Isaiah it is thus written: « Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken (Isa. I). Above, therefore, in the same book, it has been shown by the title who the Prophet is, whose son, who [prophesied] against Juda and Jerusalem, or through Juda and Jerusalem, and at what time he saw; now he calls heaven and earth to hear, signifying by heaven the supernal and angelic powers, by earth the race of mortals, showing metonymic ω s from those things which contain the things which are contained. For since through Moses the Lord had called heaven and earth as witnesses when he gave his law to the people of Israel, and had said: Give heed, O heaven, and I will speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth, » after the people's transgression he calls the same again to testimony, 1133Bthat all the elements may know that God was justly stirred to wrath in the avenging of his commandments.

« Let my doctrine gather thick into rain, let my speech flow as the dew, as a shower upon the herb and as drops upon the grasses, for I will call upon the name of the Lord. » Another edition: « Let my speech be looked for as the rain, and let my words come down as the dew, as a shower upon the sprout, and as snow upon the hay, for I have called upon the name of the Lord. » He compares the speech of the law of God to rain and to dew, because it seeks from the hearts of the faithful the sprouts of spiritual fruits; for these are the vineyard of the Lord, from which he seeks a fruit lovely to himself, that is, the fruit of good works. A comparison like to this we find in the prophet Isaiah: « As, he says, the shower and the snow come down from heaven and return no more 1133Cthither, but water the earth and drench it, and make it to spring, and give seed to him that beareth [Vulg. serenti, "to him that soweth"] and bread to him that eateth: so shall my word be, which shall go forth out of my mouth; it shall not return to me void, but shall do whatsoever I have willed, and shall prosper in those things for which I sent it (Isa. LV). » But because Moses said that his doctrine gathers thick into rain, in order that he might plainly show what this rain was, he subjoined, saying, « for I will call upon the name of the Lord. » To call upon the name of the Lord, therefore, is to preach the Gospel of Christ; and he who hears it and does it will without doubt possess in the heavens the fruit of a good work.

« Give magnificence to our God; the works of God are perfect, and all his ways are judgments. » Another edition: « Give greatness to our God. God — true are his works, 1133Dand all his ways are judgments. » To magnify the Lord is to preach the majesty of the Saviour with a believing heart and a devout mouth, together with good deeds. Whence Mary the mother of the Lord says in the canticle of the Gospel: « My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour (Luc. I). » « The works, he says, of God are perfect. » Which then are these? Hear Moses saying in Genesis: « So then the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the furniture of them; and God completed on the seventh day his work which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had accomplished (Gen. II). » The work of God, therefore, is the redemption of the human race; and when he had perfected it, resting in the sepulchre he showed us the spiritual Sabbath. « All, he says, 1134Ahis ways are judgments, » because all his commandments are true. Whence the Psalmist says: « The law of the Lord is blameless, converting souls; the testimony of the Lord is faithful, giving wisdom to little ones (Psal. XVIII). » And likewise: « The judgments, he says, of God are true, justified in themselves; more to be desired than gold and much precious stone, and sweeter than honey and the honeycomb (Ibid.). » And elsewhere: « With my lips, he says, I have pronounced all the judgments of thy mouth (Psal. CXVIII). »

« God is faithful and without any iniquity, just and right. » Another edition: « God is faithful and there is no iniquity in him; just and holy is the Lord. » He is faithful, because what he promised he has beyond doubt fulfilled. Without any iniquity, because the highest equity in no way admits fellowship with iniquity. Just, because to those who sin 1134Band do not repent he will repay punishment for their evils. Right, because to those who work worthily and deserve well he will render everlasting life. Holy, because in all his judgments and acts he is most approved: for sanctus signifies both the merciful and the patient, and the bestower of all good things, since whatever is wrought by him is filled full with the praise of virtues.

« They have sinned against him, not his sons, in filth. » Another edition: « They have sinned not against him, sons defiled. » How are they not sons of God, save because they are not of faith: « But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name (Joan. I). » Whence the Lord says to the Jews, who would not receive faith in him and who spurned his teaching: « You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will 1134Cdo; he was a murderer from the beginning, and a robber. » And Stephen says to the same Jews: « Which of the prophets have your fathers not persecuted? And they killed them who foretold of the coming of the Just One, of whom you have now been the betrayers and murderers — you who received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. » He therefore who sins incorrigibly proves himself not to be a son of God. But that edition which the seventy interpreters published has it thus: « They have sinned not against him, sons deserving of blame. » Which some have rendered out of the Greek as "sons defiled," some as "sons idle." Whence there is no great question here, nay rather none at all. But this rightly moves one to inquiry: if it has been said generally, they have sinned not against him, the sons — since he who sins does not sin against God, that is, does not harm God, but himself — how then is it to be understood 1134Dthat is read in the psalm: « To thee only have I sinned (Psal. L). » And in Jeremiah: « To thee have we sinned, O patience of Israel, O Lord (Jerem. XIV). » And again in the psalm: « Heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee (Psal. XL). » And whether it is the same thing to sin to God as to sin against God — whence also Heli the priest says: « If a man shall sin against God, who shall pray for him (I Reg. II). To sin against God is to sin in those things which pertain to the worship of God; for God is read to have said this to Abimelech concerning Sara: « Therefore I spared thee, that thou shouldst not sin against me (Gen. XX). » But to sin to the Lord, or rather to have sinned to the Lord — unless perhaps somewhere a written text should occur which resists this sense — those men seem to me to be so called not undeservedly who do not perform worthy penance 1135Afor their sin, so that God may be glorified in pardoning; for David, rendering the reason why he had said: « To thee only have I sinned and done evil before thee (Psal. L), » subjoined and says: « That thou mayest be justified in thy words, and mayest overcome when thou art judged, » because to all who think rightly it plainly appears that the Lord is just in all his ways and holy in all his works: « Nor does he will the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live (Psal. XL). » Likewise also as to what was said by David: « Heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee. » This same thing is at work, that God may be glorified in pardoning, because great is his mercy toward those who confess to him and return to him. But in this Canticle the Prophet foresaw that there would be certain men who were so to sin, offending God 1135Bby their great iniquities, that they would not even be willing to do penance and to return to God, that they might be healed; of whom also it is said: « Since they are flesh, and a spirit going and not returning. » Therefore he said that they were not sons of God, because they proved incorrigible.

« A depraved and perverse generation, is it these things thou renderest to the Lord? » Another edition: « For, a depraved and perverse generation, these things hast thou repaid to the Lord. »

With a like description did the Saviour brand their treachery in the Gospel, when he answered those who tempted him and sought a sign from him, saying: « A depraved and perverse generation seeketh a sign, and a sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas (Matth. XII). » So too John the Baptist says to the crowds of the Jews who came to him: « Ye brood of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee 1135Cfrom the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of penance, and do not choose to say, We have Abraham for our father. For God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. » For the generation of the Jews was ever depraved and perverse, which showed itself ungrateful for the benefits of God, and repaid him for this no worthy praises — nay, on the contrary, ever various transgressions, the filth of idols, and provocations.

« O foolish and unwise people, is not he himself thy Father, who possessed thee, and made and created thee? » Another edition: « So, O foolish and not wise people, is not this very one thy Father? He possessed thee, he made thee and created thee. » The Father and founder of all things, according to the power of nature, is one God, since from him and through him and in him are all things. God therefore created 1135Dman when he founded the matter out of which he could be formed; he made him when he formed him to his own image and likeness; he possessed him when, errors being driven out, he claimed him for himself as his own through faith and grace. The foolish and unwise people, therefore, was the nation of the Jews, which neither venerated with worthy worship its Creator and Maker, whom the law given to it showed most plainly; nor was mindful of that benefit whereby, delivering it in Egypt from the hand of its enemies by miracles and prodigies, he specially possessed it, giving it manna from heaven and water from the rock, and furnishing it also guidance in the Red Sea and in the desert by angelic ministry — that is, in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night; 1136Abut this depraved and perverse generation repaid to its Lord no worthy thanks for so many good things: nay rather it fashioned idols for itself, and most foolishly bestowed upon them divine honour and sacrifices, saying: « These are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt (Exod. XII). »

« Remember the days of old, think upon every generation, ask thy father, and he will declare to thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. » Another edition: « Have in mind the days of the age, understand the years, the nations of nations; ask thy father, and he will declare to thee; thy seniors, and they will tell thee. » He recalls to their memory the deeds of old, bidding them ask their fathers and learn from them in what manner in past ages and generations they were delivered by divine help, 1136Band often protected from their enemies, so that at least in this way they may be roused to penance for their sins, and, stripping themselves of every error, may study to draw near the more speedily to the truth. For by "fathers" here are to be mystically understood not any dull and foolish persons whatever, but the doctors of the law and the preachers of the Gospel, by whose teachings and examples a man can advance to divine understanding; whence the Apostle, writing to the Corinthians, says: « For if you should have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, by the Gospel, I have begotten you (I Cor. IV). » And to the Hebrews: « We have had, he says, indeed the fathers of our flesh as instructors, and we reverenced them: we shall not much more obey the Father of spirits, and we shall live; and they indeed for a time of few days 1136Cinstructed us according to their own will; but he unto that which is useful, in the receiving of his sanctification (Hebr. XII). »

« When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he appointed the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. But the portion of the Lord is his people, Jacob the cord of his inheritance. » Another edition: « When the Exalted One shall have divided the nations, even as he dispersed the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God; and the Lord's portion became his people Jacob, the cord of his inheritance Israel. » For the order of the history gives the reason concerning the distribution of the human race: since the multitude of men is so great that their numerousness cannot be comprehended by human reckoning, 1136Dthe Lord chose out of so great a multitude the children of Israel alone into his own inheritance, where he might make known his name and his power, and manifest the secrets of his will through the judgments of the law and the writings of the prophets, as above in the present book Moses testified, saying (Deut. VII): « The Lord thy God hath chosen thee, that thou shouldst be to him a peculiar people of all the peoples that are upon the earth; not because you surpassed all the nations in number was the Lord joined to you and chose you, whereas you are fewer than all peoples; but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which he swore to your fathers; and he brought you out with a strong hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharao king of Egypt; that thou mayest know that the Lord thy 1137AGod, he himself is the strong and faithful God, keeping his covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his precepts, unto a thousand generations; and repaying forthwith them that hate him, so that he destroy them and defer no longer, requiting them at once what they deserve. Keep therefore the precepts and the ceremonies and the judgments which I command thee this day to do. » And these things according to the Hebrew verity can be thus understood. But according to the other edition, where it is read, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God — and in the vision of Daniel, where the Angel related to the Prophet concerning the prince of the Persians who withstood him — it seems to hint something else to us: for the ministries of angels are believed to be ordained over each several nation and over each several man, so that under their 1137Brule and defence human nature may be kept according to the dispensation of almighty God, and be protected from its enemies. Whence the Lord in the Gospel, teaching that little ones are not to be scandalized, straightway subjoined, saying: « Their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father, who is in heaven (Matth. XII). » For since that supernal city consists of angels and men, to which we believe that as many ascend from the race of men as it befell that elect angels remained there — as it is written, « he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God » — we too ought to draw something from those distinctions of the supernal citizens for the use of our own manner of life, and to kindle ourselves by good endeavours to the increase of virtues. For since so great a multitude of men is believed to be about to ascend 1137Cthither as the multitude of angels that remained, it remains that men themselves also, who return to the heavenly country, should in returning thither imitate something from those companies; for the distinct manners of life of men agree with the orders of the several companies, and are assigned to their lot through the likeness of their manner of life. But the portion of the Lord is the people, the spiritual Jacob; and the cord of his inheritance is the true Israel, namely the Catholic Church, of which it is said through the Psalmist: « The lines are fallen unto me in goodly places - for my inheritance is goodly to me (Psal. XV). »

« He found him in a desert land, in a place of horror and of vast wilderness. He led him about and taught him and kept him as the apple of his eye. » Another edition: 1137D« He made him sufficient unto himself in the wilderness, in the thirst of heat, where there was no water. He led him about and instructed him and kept him as the apple of the eye. » The Lord is said to have found Israel in a place of horror and of vast wilderness, because, giving the law on mount Sina, he entered into a covenant with him, distributed to them manna from heaven, and brought forth water from the rock, gave the flesh of quails, furnishing them all sufficiency in food according to that which seemed to him to be fitting for them. And in that same wilderness, leading them about for forty years, he taught them his precepts. But this is rightly asked: how does he say that he protected them as the apple of his eye, when very many of them were laid low in the wilderness — unless perhaps we say that they were protected and 1138Akept for just so long as they observed the commandments of God; but when they transgressed them, they were straightway struck with plagues and laid waste by their enemies. But mystically the Lord found Israel in the desert when he took the Church out of the error of the world, where there was the horror of idolatry and no mention of God. The Lord therefore leads the Church about, when by spreading her abroad in all parts of the world he directs her into the way of his commandments; and, showing her his will through the Holy Spirit, everywhere guards her with a full guardianship — which is signified by the apple of the eye — against heretics and persecutors. There follows another comparison:

« As an eagle enticing her young to fly, and fluttering over them, she spread her wings and took them up and bore them upon her shoulders. » Another edition: 1138B« As an eagle covers her nest, and has settled over her young, she spread her wings and received them and took them up upon her shoulder-blades. » The natural philosophers relate that the eagle — which is named from the keenness of its eyes — is of so sharp a gaze that, when it is borne over the seas on motionless wing and lies not open to human sight, it sees from so great a height the little fishes swimming in the water, and, descending like a hurled engine, drags the seized prey by its wings to the shore. For it is said also not to turn aside its gaze against the ray of the sun; whence also it holds up its young suspended by its talon and sets them against the rays of the sun, and those which it has seen keep an unmoving eye it preserves as worthy of the stock; but any which it sees turn their gaze aside it casts away as degenerate. Eagles are also said, when they see their young grow feathered in the nests, to strike them with their wings and to entice them out of the nest 1138Cto fly. And they build their nests in rocks and in trees, in whose nest the stone echites is built in, which some have called gaietes, useful for many remedies, losing nothing by fire. And these same searchers into nature relate that eagles die not so much of old age or of sickness as of hunger, the upper beak growing to such a length that its hook cannot be opened; but when it has seen that danger threatens it from thence, it blunts its beak upon a very hard rock, until it returns again to its former use. And thence it is written in the psalm in mystic speech, the Prophet saying to the faithful soul: « Thy youth shall be renewed like the eagle's (Psal. CII). » By the likeness of the eagle it is shown, according to the letter, that the Lord, by rousing his people, helped them to possess the land of Chanaan 1138Dby wars, and by helping them protected them from their enemies. But according to the mystical sense this eagle signifies the Lord Saviour, who holds the likeness of the eagle in this, that by his own death he snatched away the prey from the malignant enemy, and after his resurrection carried up to the heights of the heavens the flesh which he took for the redemption of the human race, exhorting us by words and by examples that we should follow thither by faith, and reach out by devotion, whither he himself ascended in body; whence also he says in the Gospel: « Wheresoever the body shall be, there shall the eagles be gathered together (Luc. XVII). » The other examples also which we have told of the eagle can likewise be figuratively transferred to him and to his sons. For as the eagle is of a sharp gaze, so that, lifted above the seas 1139Aon motionless wing and not appearing to human sight, seeing from so great a height the little fishes swimming in the deep, it seizes them by its preying and drags them to the shore: so our Redeemer, exalted above all the heavens and bodily taken up from human sight, nevertheless sees in the deep of this world, by the gaze of his majesty, those whom he may rescue cruat by the saving prey, and may draw to the shore of eternal blessedness by the cord of his love. Whence he himself also says in the Gospel: « And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things to myself (Joan. XII). » His young — that is, the sons reborn to him through the grace of baptism — he sets against the rays of the eternal sun through contemplation; and those whom he has seen to have a steadfast eye of mind in gazing, or worthy of his own stock, he preserves perpetually; but any whom he beholds turning back the gaze of the mind to the lowest things and to 1139Bcarnal desires, these he casts away as degenerate. And this eagle builds her nest in rocks and in trees, because in those whom she beholds firm in faith and bearing fruit in virtues she brings forth the fruitfulness of a spiritual germination; and there is born that gem and most precious pearl which the sacred text of the Gospel relates that the spiritual merchant procures for himself when all his money has been sold. But that the eagle blunts tandit its superfluous beak upon a rock, and thus brings back its former measure, signifies that holy men break in pieces whatever they behold in their manner of life to be superfluous and harmful to themselves, dashing it against the rock which is Christ; and, renewing themselves through grace and through good endeavour, they render themselves fit for their former office.

1139C« The Lord alone was his leader, and there was not with him a alicnus god. » Another edition: « The Lord alone was teaching them, and there was not with them a strange god. » It is manifest that one and only God freed Israel out of Egypt, and not the false idols which the Egyptians worshipped. So also in our own deliverance out of the spiritual Egypt there is no other than that same God who once delivered the Israelites — namely the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one and threefold, the great and almighty God, who through the incarnation of Jesus Christ our Lord effects the mystery of our salvation. Whence let heretics know how miserably they stray, deviating from the true faith, when they sever themselves through schisms from the Catholic Church — men who are liable to as many idols as they have errors

1139D« He set him up over a high land, that he might eat the fruits of the fields. » Another edito: « He brought them into the strength of the land, he fed them with the produce of the fields. » He calls Palestine a high land, because in comparison with the land of Egypt, which is flat and well watered, it seems mountainous and rough; and it has strength, because it is not barren but most fertile in bringing forth the fruits of the earth unto the fullness of them that dwell in it. Otherwise, the high land is the holy Church, which is exceedingly lofty in virtues and in knowledge, and most fruitful in the germination of good works. There all the faithful, being set up, eat the fruits of the spiritual fields, because there the good seed of the word of God springs up, one bearing thirtyfold, another sixtyfold, another a hundredfold 1140Afruit, so that each one may find for himself food sufficient according to his capacity.

« That he might suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the hardest stone. » Another edition: « They sucked honey out of the rock, and oil out of the firm rock. » But nowhere is any such thing read according to the history, if the whole of the Old Testament be reviewed: nowhere did that people suck honey out of a rock, nowhere oil out of a firm rock or out of the hardest stone. But because, according to Paul's word, « the rock was Christ (I Cor. X). » They sucked honey out of the rock who saw the deeds and miracles of that same our Redeemer. But they sucked oil out of the firm rock who after his resurrection deserved to be anointed by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. As it were, therefore, he gave honey in the firm rock, when the Lord, being still mortal, showed to his disciples the sweetness 1140Bof his miracles. But the firm rock poured out oil, because after his Resurrection, being now made impassible, he sent forth the gift of holy unction through the breathing of the Spirit. Of this oil also it is said through the prophet: « The yoke shall rot away at the presence of the oil (Isa. X), » for they were held under the yoke of demoniac domination; but we have been anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit, and because the grace of liberty has anointed us, the yoke of demoniac domination has rotted away.

« Butter of the herd and milk of the sheep, with the fat of lambs and of rams of the sons of Basan, and goats with the marrow of wheat, and the blood of the grape. » Another edition: « Butter of oxen and milk of sheep, with the fat of lambs and of rams of the sons of bulls and of goats, with the fat of the kidneys, of wheat, and the blood of the grape. » Although these things according 1140Cto the history hint at the fertility of the land of Chanaan, yet in a loftier sense they show the abundance of the grace of Christ which the holy Church received by the gift of her bestower. They took butter of the herd who learned the fullness of faith from the examples of the patriarchs; and they received milk of the sheep who took simplicity of mind, or easiness of teaching, from the innocent life of the Fathers unto their own edification; and these things, with the fat of lambs and of rams — that is, with the fatness of the charity of the apostles and of those whom they themselves had steeped in the faith — they received unto the refreshment of their mind. For by the name of rams are signified the apostles and men of apostolic dignity, because they themselves are the leaders of the flock of God. Whence it is said in the psalm: « Bring to the Lord, O ye sons of God, bring to the Lord the sons of rams (Psal. 1140DXXVIII). » But that which is subjoined, « of the sons of Basan, » belongs to the same sense, because Basan is interpreted fatness; for they are sons of fatness who have been instructed in the disciplines of the New Testament, wherein consists a multitude of knowledge and a greatness of virtues. That also which is read in the other edition, « of the sons of bulls, » can likewise be referred to the person of the prophets and of the apostles, and also of the other holy doctors, because they are the leaders of the flock of God and preside over the spiritual herds, from whose teachings, namely, these receive the seed of the word, whence undo they may be able to bring forth the offspring of good works. Nor would these gifts have sufficed, unless the goats too were added. For goats have the figure of penitents, because in the law they were offered for sin: 1141Afor it is not enough for the faithful to have the gifts of virtues, unless they do penance for their transgressions. Whence he who was at once king and prophet, and to whom it was promised concerning the incarnation of Christ that he should be born of his seed, entreats the Lord for his own offences, saying: « Wash me yet more from my injustice, and cleanse me from my offence; for I acknowledge my iniquity, and my offence is always before me (Psal. L). » And that all these benefits which have been named might be heaped up with a more eminent gift, he added the marrow of wheat and the blood of the grape. For what is figured by the marrow of wheat but the body of Christ; what by the blood of the grape but the chalice of the New Testament in the blood of Christ? For among the very many gifts granted out of the mercy of God to the people of the Church, 1141Bthis excels among them all: that he has ministered ministrasit to it, unto eternal salvation, the sacraments of his body and blood in the confecting of bread and wine. There follows:

« He had drunk the most unmixed; the beloved is grown fat and hath kicked. » Another edition: « Jacob drank wine and ate, and was filled, and the beloved kicked. » Assuredly all the gifts of God are conferred, without the dregs of any wickedness or reproach, upon those who believe and think worthily of them. But since, just as the carnal Israelites of old abused the gifts of God and, made worse out of most bountiful benefits, slid down into idolatry, so — alas for the grief! — not a few of the people of the Church, ungrateful for the benefits of God, slip back into vices, and that which was conferred upon them for their salvation 1141Cthey turn into their own perdition. Whence it is subjoined:

« Grown gross, made fat and swollen wide, he forsook God his maker, and departed from God his salvation. They provoked him with strange gods, and with their abominations they stirred him to wrath; they sacrificed to demons and not to God, to gods whom they knew not; new and recent ones came to them, whom their fathers worshipped not. » Another edition: « He was made fat and grew gross; he was swollen wide; he forsook God, who made him, and departed from God his salvation. They embittered me with strange things, with their abominations they stirred me up; they sacrificed to demons and not to God, to gods whom they knew not; new, 1141Drecent ones came to them, whom their fathers knew not. » This the ancient Israelites did after the manner of history, as is sufficiently set forth in their books; but the modern Israelites too, when they turn the gifts of God granted them in knowledge and in virtues for the divine service into heresy or hypocrisy, are proved to serve idols and not God — rendering worship, that is to say, to demons and not to God, which our fathers, that is, the patriarchs, the prophets and the apostles and the evangelists, by no means did. Hence it comes to pass for these idolaters that, provoking by their evils the most clement Lord, whom they might have had propitious had they done well, they must suffer him severe and strict on account of their evil works.

« Thou hast forsaken the God that begot thee, and hast forgotten 1142Athe Lord thy creator. » Another edition: « Thou hast forsaken the God that begot thee, and hast forgotten the God that nourisheth thee. » The Lord in a certain manner begot the Israelites through the law and circumcision; he begot also the people of the Church through the grace of baptism, through the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, and he furnished it sufficiently with the nourishment of heavenly food, that is, of evangelical doctrine. But he who fears not to forget these things will justly feel God angry with him through vengeance. Whence it is subjoined:

« The Lord saw, and was stirred to wrath, because his sons and his daughters provoked him; and he said: I will hide my face from them, and I will consider their last end. » Another edition: « The Lord saw, and was jealous, and was embittered because of the anger of his sons and his daughters; and he said: I will turn away my 1142Bface from them, and I will show what shall be to them at the last. » Nothing is heavier among punishments than to be deprived of the presence and the vision of God. Thence the Psalmist entreats the Lord, saying: « Cast me not away from thy face (Psal. L). « And likewise: » Turn not away, he says, thy face from me. » Hence Job also speaks to the Lord, saying: « Let me not be hidden from thy face (Job XIII). » Since therefore sons and daughters — that is, men of either sex — provoking him for their evils which they do, do not merit his mercy, but, ungrateful, are spurned by him at their last end. This shall be proved when they shall be cast into the eternal punishments of Gehenna; for this is to consider their last end: to make manifest their torments, which he himself bestows upon them justly, not with a troubled mind, but with a tranquil one.

1142C« For it is a perverse generation, and unfaithful sons. They have provoked me in that which was not the Lord, and have stirred me with their vanities; and I will provoke them in that which is not a people, and with a foolish nation will I stir them. » Another edition: « For it is a depraved and perverse generation, sons in whom there is no faith in them; they in jealousy have compelled me, and not in God; in anger they have stirred me up with their idols; and I in jealousy will drive them out, and not into a nation; with an unwise nation will I stir them. » Since therefore the Israelites, casting away the worship of their Lord, worshipped idols, and, forsaking the true and living God, served the vanity of images, they were handed over for plunder to the nations, who at that time had not yet deserved to be called by the name of the people of God. Likewise also churchmen, who, the truth being forsaken, 1142Dturned aside to errors, if they shall not have repented of their evils, will be handed over to the malignant spirits — who by growing proud lost their angelic dignity — to be thrust into the prisons of hell. Well, therefore, can the demons be called a foolish nation, because they hate justice and love iniquity.

« A fire is kindled in my fury, and it shall burn even to the lowest parts of hell. » Another edition: « For a fire hath blazed out of my anger, and it shall burn even to the lower regions beneath. » Of those whom the scourges condemn and do not deliver it is written: « Thou hast struck them, and they have not grieved; thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to receive correction (Jer. V). » For these, the scourges begin from this life and endure in the eternal striking. Whence also 1143Athe Lord says through Moses: « A fire hath blazed out of my anger, and it shall burn even to the lower regions beneath (Deut. XXXII). » For as far as concerns the present striking, it is rightly said: « A fire hath blazed out of my anger. » But as far as concerns eternal damnation, this is aptly subjoined, and it shall burn even to the lower regions beneath — although by some there is wont to be alleged that which is written: « God does not take vengeance twice for the same thing. » These, however, do not attend to that which is said through the Prophet concerning the wicked, and with a double confusion crush them, and that which is written elsewhere. Jesus, saving the people out of the land of Egypt, in the second place destroyed those who did not believe; to whom, nevertheless, if we lend our assent — that any fault whatever cannot be struck twice — this must be reckoned of those struck for their sin and dying in their sin, 1143Bbecause their striking begins here and is finished there, so that in the uncorrected there is one scourge, which begins temporally but is consummated in eternal punishments; so that for those who altogether refuse to be corrected the striking of present scourges is already the beginning of the torments that follow. There follows:

« It hath devoured the earth and its growth, and shall burn up the foundations of the mountains. I will heap evils upon them, and will spend my arrows among them. They shall be consumed with famine, and birds shall devour them with a most bitter bite; I will send in upon them the teeth of beasts, with the fury of them that drag upon the earth and of serpents. Without, the sword shall lay them waste, and within, dread — the young man together with the virgin, the suckling with the old man. » 1143CAnother edition: « The earth hath eaten the produce of the fields, and shall burn up the foundations of the mountains. I will heap evils upon them, and will consume my arrows among them; wasting away with famine, and they shall be food for birds; and a stretching of the back that cannot be healed. I will send in upon them the teeth of beasts, with the fury of them that drag upon the earth. From without, the sword shall deprive them, leaving them without sons, and in their storehouses, fear — young men with the virgin, the suckling with the settled old man. » It hath devoured, he says, the earth and its growth: then does it devour the earth and its growth, when the flame of eternal vengeance shall burn up the sinful flesh on account of the works of lust. For the growths of the flesh are properly the works of carnal concupiscence: « which are fornications, uncleannesses, immodesties, luxuries, the service of idols, sorceries, enmities, contentions, 1143Demulations, angers, quarrels, dissensions, sects, envies, murders, drunkennesses, revellings, and such like — they who do these things, » as Paul testifies, » « shall not obtain the kingdom of God (Gal. V). » And it shall burn up the foundations of the mountains, when it shall consume with eternal torments the wicked counsels of the proud, by which they believed that they could sin unpunished. He will heap evils upon them, when he shall bring into memory not only their evil works, but also their perverse thoughts and the depraved words for which they are to be punished. He will spend his arrows among them, when he shall show the wrath of his indignation through various torments. They shall be consumed with famine, that is, not of food nor of drink, but with the perpetual barrenness of good works. And birds shall devour them with a most bitter bite: 1144Anamely, the malignant spirits, reproaching them with their past sins, tear them with a most savage mouth. But that which is added after the devouring of the birds, a stretching of the back that cannot be healed, signifies the most bitter wounds which sinners suffer in the torturing of the demons, who afflict them without any pity and force them to pay strong penalties in hell. The beasts and the serpents are these same malignant spirits, who are called beasts on account of their ferocity, serpents on account of their craft. Beasts and serpents drag the reprobate with their teeth upon the earth in fury, when that which they first persuaded carnal men to by flattering, that they might seduce them, they afterwards with a raging mind exact of sinners, that they may torment them. Without, the sword shall lay waste the impious, and within, dread; when in the final vengeance the burning 1144Bof eternal fire tortures the body on every side, and within, the greatness of anguish oppresses the mind; whence it is written: « Their worm shall not die, and the fire shall not be extinguished (Marc. IX). » « The young man, he says, together with the virgin, the suckling with the old man. » Having enumerated all the ages, he shows that in the final vengeance no age is to be spared, whom the same worship of idolatry had defiled. But allegorically, in the young man he shows the wanton and the lustful; in the virgin, her that is barren of good works; in the suckling, the dull; in the old man, the slothful and the useless. All these, therefore, whom now admonition and rebuke do not restrain from sins, the just vengeance of God will consume in the final avenging.

« And I said: Where are they? I will make their memory to cease from among men. » Another edition: « And 1144Che said: I will destroy them; and I will take away their memory from among men. » God's questioning is not ignorance, but rebuke. The fulfilment of this sentence can easily be discerned by him who sees the Jews cast out from the land of promise and dispersed through the whole world. But generally this hangs over all sinners and impenitent men as a thing to come: that they be taken away from the land of the saints, and that their memory be not numbered in the assembly of the elect. Whence through the Psalmist a punishment to come is foretold to the head of all the wicked together with the whole body, when, the several kinds of vices having been reckoned up, it is subjoined: « Therefore God shall destroy thee for ever; he shall pluck thee out and remove thee from his tabernacle, and thy root out of the land of the living (Psal. LI). »

1144D« But for the wrath of the enemies I have deferred it, lest perhaps their foes should be lifted up and should say: Our hand is exalted, and not God hath done all these things. » Another edition: « Except for the wrath of the enemies, that they be not upon the earth for a long time, lest the adversaries agree together and say: Our hand is exalted, and not God hath done all these things. » For this reason the Lord often bore with the sinning people, long enduring them, lest the nations bordering on them should blaspheme his name and his power. Whence Moses also says to the Lord, who was indignant for the sin of Israel and willed to destroy them: « Let not the Egyptians, I beseech thee, O Lord, say: He craftily brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains and blot them out from the earth. Let thy anger rest, and be appeasable over the wickedness 1145Aof thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel thy servants, to whom thou didst swear by thine own self, saying: I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and this whole land whereof I have spoken I will give to your seed, and you shall possess it for ever. And the Lord was appeased, that he should not do the evil which he had spoken against all his people. » Likewise us also, when we have sinned, he bears with, by reason of his great patience and long-suffering, willing that no one perish, but that all be made safe and come to the acknowledging of the truth, according to that word of Paul the apostle which, writing to the Romans, he says: « And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them who do such things and dost the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and of his patience and of his long-suffering? 1145BNot knowing that the benignity of God will lead thee to penance; but according to thy hardness and impenitent heart thou treasurest up to thyself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God (Rom. II), » etc. And lest perhaps the malignant spirits should glory in our perdition over their own strength, as though they had gained the victory by their own forces — since in this they always strive, that they may overturn the sentence of the Most High, who decreed that men should possess in the heavens the place of the lost spirits.

« It is a nation without counsel and without prudence. Would that they were wise and understood, and would provide for their last end. » Another edition: « For it is a nation that hath lost counsel, and there is none in them; they have not been wise to understand discipline; they shall perceive in the time to come. » The nation of the Jews, and of all the impious as well, are without the counsel 1145Cof salvation, because they know not how to provide for themselves for the time to come, so as to escape the vengeance that hangs over them for their sins and to flee the eternal torment of the infernal punishments; and since they neglect to live under discipline, they shall endure tribulation and anguish in the time to come, according to that which is written of them (Prov. I): « When sudden calamity shall fall upon them, and destruction shall come on as a tempest; when tribulation and anguish shall come upon them, then shall they call upon me, and I will not hear; they shall rise up in the morning, and shall not find me; because they held discipline in hatred and received not the fear of the Lord. »

« How doth one pursue a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight? Is it not for this, that their God hath sold them, and the Lord hath shut them up? » Another edition: 1145D« How doth one pursue a thousand, and two shall remove ten thousand, unless because the Lord hath subjected them and God hath delivered them up. » Whoever truly acknowledges the greatness of the Lord will plainly prove that the destruction of his own people comes about not from any weakness of his power, but from the permission of his just judgment: because it could in no way come to pass that one should pursue a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight, unless the Lord had delivered them up and, casting them away in hatred, had shut them up in the hands of their enemies.

« For our God is not as their God. And our enemies are judges. » Another edition: « Who is not our God, as their gods are; but our enemies are senseless. » For the Lord our God is truthful 1146Aand just, but the idols of the nations are false and useless: which not only our own people, but even the adversaries of our own, approve. Whence it is often read that the Jews, being delivered to their enemies, were deservedly rebuked by them for their unfaithfulness and injustice, as Jeremiah says in his lamentation: « The enemies saw her, and mocked at her sabbaths (Thren. I). » Hence we must take the utmost heed lest our enemies, who through the error of idolatry are deservedly called senseless, being provoked by our evils, break out into blasphemy against the Lord when they shall have seen us overcome and reduced to nothing on account of our sins, and ascribe to their own strength that which has been accomplished not by their power, but by the judgment of the Lord.

« For their vine is of the vineyard of the Sodomites, and of the 1146Bsuburbs of Gomorrha; their grape is a grape of gall, and a most bitter cluster. » Another edition: « For their vine is out of the vineyard of the Sodomites, and their shoot out of Gomorrha; their grape is a grape of gall, a cluster of bitterness to them. » Often in the sacred Scriptures the synagogue or Jerusalem are compared to Sodom and Gomorrha, because as those abused the gifts of God wickedly, so these too always showed themselves ungrateful for the benefits of God. Whence Isaias says of them: « Unless the Lord of hosts had left us seed, we had been as Sodom, we should have been like to Gomorrha. Hear the word of the Lord, ye princes of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrha, etc. (Isa. I). » For the vineyard of the Lord, as is written in the same prophet, was the house 1146Cof Israel, which was then turned into the bitterness of gall, when it was plotting the death of Christ. Whence they themselves also offered on a reed vinegar mingled with gall to him as he hung upon the cross, that in this it might be shown that they held the knowledge of the law, which they had received upright, corrupted by the gall of their own malice, since they would not receive the giver of the law when he came to them, but moreover provoked him and fastened him to the cross. Otherwise, by this sentence the wickedness of heretics too is struck, who, although they at first received from holy preachers the pure teaching of spiritual grace, yet did not fear to stain it with their own errors; and therefore their whole doctrine was turned into the bitterness of gall and of wormwood.

« Their wine is the gall of dragons, like the incurable venom of asps. » Another edition: « Their wine is the fury 1146Dof dragons, and the incurable fury of asps. » Aptly are the treachery of the Jews and the cunning of heretics compared to the gall of dragons and the venom of asps, because as serpents hide bitterness and venom within themselves, that they may wound the unwary unawares, so also Jews and heretics veil their malice with guile and frauds, that they may the more easily destroy the imprudent. Well therefore is it said: « The incurable venom of asps, » because whomsoever the error of heretics has invaded, unless he free himself therefrom, it without doubt destroys him for ever. But that which is read according to the other edition, « Their wine is the fury of dragons, and the incurable fury of asps, » shows that it belongs not to a sound mind, but rather to a raving one, to spurn eternal life and to choose perpetual death, 1147Ato abandon the truth of the Gospel and to be willing rather to follow the deceit of errors.

« Are not these things stored up with me, and sealed up in my treasures? » Another edition: « Are not all these things gathered together with me, and sealed up in my treasures? » It is the custom of the human race quickly to forget things past, and that things which once seemed great should themselves likewise fail in remembrance as the space of time slips by. But it is not so with God, where there is no past and no future, but the present is ever at hand; for the things which pass away from us are there kept in reserve, and shall not be handed over to oblivion. Hence it is necessary that we study to blot out, by urgent penance, before the eyes of God, the sins which we long since committed, lest perhaps in the time to come, when the time of vengeance shall be, he reckon to us our debts 1147Band say: These things hast thou done, and I was silent; thou hast thought iniquity, that I should be like to thee: I will reprove thee, and set them before thy face.

« Vengeance is mine, and I will repay them in due time, that their foot may slip. » Another edition: « In the day of vengeance I will render to them, in the time in which their foot shall have slipped. » Both the time and the manner of the vengeance by which sinners, if they do not correct themselves from their sins, are to be tormented, are certain with the Lord. But because his mercies are many, « let us come before his face with confession, and make a joyful noise to him with psalms (Psal. XCIV). » Let us humble our souls in fasting, let us watch and pray, since who knows whether God may turn and forgive, and leave a blessing behind him?

« The day of destruction is at hand, and the times 1147Cmake haste to be present. » Another edition: « For the day of their destruction is near, and these things are prepared for you. » The day of vengeance is at hand for every man, because it is certain; nor can that be long-lasting which at some time comes to an end. For whatever is temporal — as is the age of man, the course of the present life — if it be compared to eternity, becomes small in comparison with it. Therefore it is said, « and the times make haste to be present, » because temporal things are quickly ended, and the torments prepared come upon the wicked, according to that which is written: « Judgments are prepared for scorners (Prov. XIX). » But according to the history, the vengeance of the Israelites drew near, because from the time they began to rebel they never wholly desisted, until they lost alike their kingdom, their place, and the prosperity of their life; for after they had slain the Prophets and had crucified the Saviour, 1147Dadding new seditions to the old, they provoked the Romans against themselves by rebelling; and these, the city being destroyed, the temple burned, the people slain by famine and the sword, dispersed their remnants through the whole world, where, wandering with uncertain dwellings, they remain uncertain of the hope of things to come.

« The Lord will judge his people, and will have mercy on his servants. » Another edition: « For the Lord will judge his people, and will be consoled in his servants. » The Lord therefore will judge his people when he separates his elect from the reprobate; for sometimes "to judge" is taken for "to discern," but sometimes for "to condemn." Whence in the psalm the Prophet said to the Lord: « Judge me, O God, and distinguish my cause 1148Afrom the nation that is not holy; from the unjust and deceitful man deliver me (Psal. XLII). » Here "to judge" is set for discernment; but elsewhere the same prophet, crying to the Lord, says: « Judge thou, O Lord, them that wrong me; overthrow them that fight against me (Psal. XXXIV). » But here "judgment" is put for damnation. For the Lord will judge his saints when, separating them in the day of judgment from sinners, he shall place them at his right hand; but their enemies and persecutors he will set on the left, that they may receive certain damnation with the devil and his angels in hell; and these shall go into everlasting punishment, but the just into life everlasting. And then shall that be perfectly fulfilled which follows in the aforesaid verse: « And he will have mercy on thy servants. » Because in the heavenly blessedness he will grant to his faithful ones eternal mercy. 1148BBut that, according to the other edition, the Lord is read to be consoled in his servants, is said metonymically, where by that which is effected is shown that which effects; for the Lord according to his nature is always glad and tranquil, nor is he ever changed into the sorrow of sadness; of whom it is written: « Thou, O Lord, who with tranquillity judgest and disposest all things (Sap. XII). » Well therefore is the Lord said to be consoled in his servants, who consoles his elect, after the end of the present sadness, with eternal peace and joy. This verse also can be referred to the last conversion of the Jews, when, God having mercy upon his people, after the fullness of the Gentiles entering in to the faith, all Israel, converted by divine grace to that same faith, shall be made safe.

1148C« He shall see that the hand is weakened, and that they also who were shut up have failed, and the remnant have been consumed; and he shall say: Where are their gods, in whom they had confidence, of whose victims they ate the fat and drank the wine of libations? Let them rise up and help you, and protect you in your necessity. » Another edition: « For he saw them wearied and failing in the leading away, and dissolved; and he said: Where now are their gods, in whom you trusted, in them; whose fat of sacrifices you ate, and drank the wine of their libation? Let them now rise up and help you, and become protectors to you. » He shall see, he says, that the hand is weakened, when he shall have made it to be seen that the works of the wicked, which they did in idolatry or in their other transgressions, were weak, when, reduced to nothing, they profited nothing to those who had 1148Ddone them. And they also who were shut up have failed — that is, either the Jews, led away into captivity by their enemies, were consumed there; or all the impious, handed over into the power of the demons, shall no longer prevail. And the remnant have been consumed, because, departing out of this life, they shall no longer have the power and the means of doing anything. Therefore it is written in Ecclesiastes: « Whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly, because neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge shall be in the lower regions, whither thou art hastening (Eccle. IX). » But that which is subjoined: « Where are their gods, in whom they had confidence, » and the rest, signifies that idolaters have no help at all in the day of necessity from the idols to which they had before rendered worship; 1149Anor yet the lovers of the world, who through avarice, which is the service of idols, had gathered moneys in the world, who had served delights and luxury, whose God was the belly and whose glory was unto their own confusion, who relished earthly things: they carry nothing with them out of all their labour, when for their sins they are dragged away to Tartarus by the malignant spirits.

« See ye that I alone am, and that there be no other God besides me. » Another edition: « See, see, that I am God, and there is none besides me. » This admonition pertains generally to all men, that, the falsehood of idols and the deception of heretics being left behind, and the filth of all iniquities being spurned, they may be converted to the worship, through the Catholic faith, of the one and only God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; 1149Band may love him with the whole heart, the whole soul and the whole strength, and diligently keep his commandments and his judgments, so that they may deserve to be made heirs of the heavenly kingdom.

« I will kill and I will make to live; I will strike and I will heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. » « Another edition: I will kill, I will make to live; I will strike and I will heal; and there is none that snatcheth away out of my hands. » In two ways does almighty God wound those whom he takes care to lead back to salvation; for sometimes he strikes the flesh, and the hardness of the mind wastes away in its own dread. By wounding, therefore, he calls back to salvation, when he afflicts his elect outwardly and quickens them inwardly. Rightly therefore does he speak through Moses, saying: « I will kill and I will make to live; I will strike and I will heal. » 1149CFor he kills that he may quicken; he strikes that he may heal, because he therefore applies blows without that he may inflict wounds within, since he strikes the hardness of our mind with desire of himself; but by striking he heals, because, having transfixed us with the javelin of his terror, he calls us back to the sense of rectitude. For our hearts are ill and unsound when they are wounded by no love of God, when they do not feel the hardship of their pilgrimage, when toward the infirmity of a neighbour they languish with not even the least affection; but they are wounded, because God strikes insensible minds with the darts of his love, and straightway renders them sensible through the ardour of charity.

« I will lift up my hand to heaven and will say: I live for ever. » Another edition: « For I will lift up my hand to heaven, and will swear by my right hand, 1149Dand will say: I live for ever. » To lift up, or to raise, the hand to heaven is to show the power of his eternity as excelling above all things; to swear by his right hand is, through the Son, who is named the right hand of God, to confirm his promises in the sight of men, and to reveal his eternity through the Gospel to those who believe in him: because his power is an eternal power, and his kingdom, which shall not be corrupted.

« If I shall sharpen my sword as the lightning, and my hand shall lay hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to my enemies, and to them that hate me I will repay. » Another edition: « For I will sharpen my sword like the lightning, and my hand doeth judgment; and I will repay judgment to my enemies, and to them that hate me I will render. » To sharpen the sword of God as the lightning 1150Ais to exercise sudden vengeance upon his enemies; and for the divine hand to lay hold on judgment is to render to each one by just retribution according to his own merits, as it is written: « For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then will he render to every man according to his works (Rom. II). » And the Apostle: « We shall all, he says, stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil (II Cor. V). »

« I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh. » For an arrow strikes a man while he is not attending, and while he does not foresee it, it suddenly slays him. The arrows of the Lord are his swift vengeances, which, although for the present they be hidden before the eyes 1150Bof the wicked, shall nevertheless suddenly be made manifest in the damnation of the lost. And the sword of God devours flesh, because in the last judgment his sentence slays those who relish carnally.

« From the blood of the slain, and from the captivity of the bared head of the enemies. » Another edition: « From the blood of the wounded, from the captivity, from the head of the princes of the enemies. » To this which he says, from the blood of the enemies, there is understood that which went before: « I will make my arrows drunk. » The Lord makes his arrows drunk in the blood of the slain, in that he exercises vengeance upon the throng of his enemies; and then shall the heads of his foes be bared, when the counsels of wicked minds, by which they trusted that they could sin unpunished, shall be proved to be empty. And by the heads of the wicked may also be understood the masters 1150Cof them that err, upon whom the final vengeance overflows, because they who were the cause of sins shall feel the losses in the retribution of punishments. Whence it is written in the Apocalypse: « And blood came out of the lake, even up to the horses' bridles (Apoc. XIV), » that is, the vengeance of torments went forth even to the rulers of the peoples; for the vengeance for the blood of the saints that was shed went forth in the last contest even to the devil and his angels, as it is written: « In blood hast thou sinned, and blood shall pursue thee (Ezech. XXXV). » But it is to be noted that in this place, in the edition of the LXX interpreters, certain sentences are interposed which are not found in the Hebrew verity, in this manner.

« Rejoice, ye heavens, together with him, and let all the angels of God adore him. Rejoice, ye nations, together with his people, 1150Dand let all the sons of God confirm him. » These, however, are proved to have been rightly brought forward out of canonical authority, since Paul the apostle is found to take testimonies from them. For in the Epistle which was written by him to the Hebrews, and also in that which was likewise directed by him to the Romans, he is found to have taken testimonies thence. Accordingly, writing to the Hebrews, he brings it in thus: « And when again he bringeth in the first-begotten into the world, he saith: And let all the angels of God adore him (Hebr. I). » But to the Romans, disputing concerning the calling of the Gentiles and the fullness of the Jewish people, he says thus: « For I say that Christ Jesus was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises of the Fathers (Rom. XV). » But that the Gentiles 1151Aare to honour God for his mercy, as it is written: « Therefore will I confess to thee among the Gentiles, O Lord, and will sing to thy name (II Reg. XXII). » And again he says: « Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people (Rom. XV). » Whence it stands true that the apostles equally approved both that edition which is from the Hebrew verity and that which is from the LXX interpreters, since they took testimonies from both. But that which he speaks to the supernal creature as though exhorting it, saying, « Rejoice, ye heavens, together with him, and let all the angels of God adore him, » shows that after the coming of the Saviour in the flesh and his universal judgment, in which the just are crowned and sinners are damned, the heavenly and the earthly creatures are gathered together alike into the praise of their Founder, and adore and venerate Christ the king, reigning and ruling over 1151Ball things, for ever. But that which follows: « Rejoice, ye nations, together with his people, and let all the sons of God confirm him confirmenteum, » is the same; because the Church of Christ, gathered out of Jews and Gentiles, after it truly receives immortality and incorruption in the resurrection of the flesh, confirms by deed that which before it was testifying by word. There follows.

« Praise, ye nations, his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will repay vengeance upon their enemies. » Another edition: « For the blood of his sons is defended, and he defendeth it; and I will repay judgment to my enemies, and to them that hate him he will render. » All the nations shall praise the people of God, when they have seen the Church of God appear glorious in the sight of her Founder, 1151Cand her persecutors thrust back, through the ministry of the malignant spirits, into the Gehenna of eternal fire, for the blood of the martyrs shed by them and for all the evils which they wrought in this life. For then the good also shall praise the good which they see, because the reward which they shall have is pleasing; and the impious, set in punishments, shall repent, though late, of the evil which they wrought, when they shall have seen the glory of the saints grow bright, which they had not hoped for: « For groaning, set in anguish, they shall say within themselves, doing penance: These are they whom we once had in derision and for a likeness of reproach. We senseless ones esteemed their life a disgrace [Vulg. insaniam, "madness"] and their end without honour. How then are they numbered among the sons of God, and is their lot among the saints? (Sap. V.)

1151D« And the Lord will be merciful to the land of his people. » Another edition: « And he will cleanse the land of his people. » The Lord therefore will cleanse the land of his people, or will be merciful to the land of his people, when he makes his Church — which hitherto he was ruling amid adversities through his ministers — plucked out and purged from all scandals, enjoying perpetual peace, to live amid the prosperities of the heavenly kingdom, where she shall rejoice without end, and shall sing praises to the Lord together with the saints for ever.

The hymn of the three children, which the book of the prophet Daniel 1152Acontains, is not found in the Hebrew, as our blessed translator — Jerome, that is — testifies, but was added out of the edition of the Seventy, or of other translators; and there it is also related beforehand that an angel of the Lord went down with Azarias and his companions into the furnace, and struck the flame of the fire out of the furnace, and made the midst of the furnace like a wind of dew blowing, and that the fire touched them not at all, nor grieved them, nor brought upon them any trouble whatever. And this angel of the Lord, who went down with the three children into the furnace of burning fire and protected them from the burning of the flames, can typically signify the Lord and Saviour, whom the prophet named the angel of great counsel, in that he is the announcer of his own and of his Father's will. He also came down into this world, where the king of confusion — 1152Bthat is, the devil — sets the furnace, that is, the hearts of the wicked, aflame with the fire of covetousness and of wantonness, in order that by the breath of the Holy Spirit, through his own grace, he might keep his elect unharmed from this fire, so that, intent upon his praises, they might render thanks to their deliverer for their rescue. Concerning whom it is added:

« Then these three, as with one mouth, praised and glorified and blessed the Lord in the furnace, saying. » These three men, then, who as with one mouth praised and glorified and blessed the Lord, signify the elect of God, who, made solid in the faith of the holy Trinity, adore, worship and preach one God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit: they praise him indeed by right believing, they glorify him by true confession, and they bless him by good working. Whence also 1152Cthey say with one accord:

« Blessed art thou, O Lord God of our fathers, and praiseworthy and glorious and exalted above all unto the ages. » Therefore the God of our own is Christ the Lord, with the Father and the Holy Spirit one and almighty God, whom the patriarchs worshipped, whom the prophets praised, whom the apostles preached, whom the whole Church of Christ confesses. He always was, is, and will be praiseworthy and glorious, and, exalted above all creatures, he reigns unto the ages of ages.

« Bless ye the Lord, all ye works of the Lord. » A general act of praise having been set first — namely that every creature ought to praise the Lord — in what follows he exhorts, part by part, the angels and the heavens, the waters and, the powers, the sun and the moon, the shower and the dew, 1152Dthe Spirit, fire and summer, cold and heat, and the rest, which it would be long to weave together; so that he calls forth also the fountains and the seas and the rivers, the whales and the birds and the beasts and the cattle to the praise of the Lord, and the sons of men; and after every kind of these, Israel; and out of that same Israel, the priests and the servants of the Lord, the spirits and souls of the just, the holy and humble of heart; and last of all Ananias, Azarias and Misael, who are called forth to the praises of the Lord by the benefit then present. Now every creature praises the Lord not with a voice but by its work, since from the creatures the creator is consequently understood, and in each several work and effect the magnificence of God is displayed. But because David in the Psalter in like manner calls forth all the works of the Lord — that is, all creatures — 1153Ato bless and to praise God, it remains that, just as this order of blessing stands historical and praiseworthy, so also the spiritual sense of its mystery should be fittingly adapted to each several kind. For David says, near the end of the hundred and second Psalm, which he composed for the blessing of God, thus: « Bless ye the Lord, all his works, in every place of his dominion. » He admonishes, therefore, that the works of the Lord themselves ought to praise their author, so as to include things earthly and heavenly; for since the whole is his work, all things ought to bless their Creator, and that in every place of his dominion, because just as no creature is bidden to be excepted from the praises of the Lord, so neither is any place left over that should be set apart from such an office. For when it is said, « in every place of his dominion, » 1153Bnothing is excepted, since he has dominion everywhere — signifying perhaps the catholic Church, which was, by the Lord's granting, to believe throughout the whole world; for she everywhere blesses the Lord, everywhere praises him together, and celebrates him with hymn-singing exultation. And as to what is subjoined to each several verse in the blessing of the three children,

« Praise and exalt him above all unto the ages, » this shows that the proclamation of his praise ought so to be uttered that he himself be preached as reigning, exalted above all things, unto the ages.

« Bless ye the Lord, O heavens, bless ye the Lord, O angels of the Lord. » For the heavens according to the history bless the Lord, because in their own position they show their creator to be praiseworthy and blessed. Although, then, 1153Cwe have read in Genesis that one heaven was fashioned, nevertheless Paul the apostle also called them by a plural number, who relates that he was caught up into the third heaven and there came to know such things as it was not lawful for a man to utter; and here they are named by a plural number, which agrees perhaps by such a reasoning as this: we say that a palace is one, which is compassed about with many chambers and many spaces; so perhaps we also call the parts of heaven "heavens," while its embrace and bosom is shown to be one. But although the substance of heaven is to be thought pure, shining and excellent, and worthy of such and so great inhabitants of its own, yet I have not found it to be a living creature; and it is rash to say, out of the opinion of men, what the authority of the heavenly letters does not hand down. For under the name of the heavens we also find in the Scriptures the Apostles and Prophets 1153Ddenoted, who, discoursing of the Lord's coming, filled the round world with holy admonitions, in whom God dwells as in the heavens — he who embraces all things widely, not in part, but them wholly with the fullness of his majesty. For in God there is no part, but he is everywhere whole and full.

« Bless ye the Lord, O ye waters that are above the heavens. » That there are waters above the heavens Genesis relates; for it says: « And he divided the waters that were above the firmament (Gen. I), » each of which designates a mystery of exceeding praise: that the thinness of the heavens should stand firm, and that the waters set above it, though they are heavier, should not flow down save when they have been commanded. But as for the waters that are above the heavens, it is not doubtful, as I judge, that those which 1154Aflow down are these, the book of Genesis bearing witness that the floodgates of heaven were opened and rain came upon the earth for forty days and forty nights, and so forth — which it is not so necessary to inquire into, when all things are admonished to praise the Lord either of themselves or through rational substances.

« Bless ye the Lord, all ye powers of the Lord. » Of the powers of God it is said in the psalm: « Bless ye the Lord, all ye his powers and his ministers, that do his will (Psal. CII). » For since that lofty and spiritual substance of the blessed Angels, when it beholds the Lord, there recognizes the truth of his will, there is no need of speech for those to whom the divinity, made favourable, lays itself open; for God does not speak by beating the air, but by his own inbreathing turns their wills 1154Bto his own willing.

« Bless ye the Lord, O sun and moon. Bless ye the Lord, O stars of heaven. » Of which the Psalmist also says: « Praise him, O sun and moon; praise him, all ye stars and light (Psal. CXLVIII). » The sun, the moon and the stars, as some say, even if they are governed by some spirit of their own, yet, because they lie open to fleshly eyes, are gathered by no absurd estimation to be inferior to the powers which are not seen — although they seem to adorn the face of heaven with comely light; for those things to which our sight reaches, though they be shining and subtle, are yet manifestly bodies, and it must needs be that they yield to those things which subsist by an invisible power. Wherefore the prophet exhorts the sun, the moon and the stars — whether through a reason of their own or through other substances that have sense and judgment — 1154Cto praise the Lord, because by the creator's benefit they have deserved to exist. For so many lights, when considered, will be able to stir up vast wonderings, since they make mortal eyes to see and themselves stand fast in so splendid a brightness. To these things light has been joined generally, that by such a comprehension he might stir up to the Lord's praises the other things having light in themselves which are not numbered.

« Bless ye the Lord, O shower and dew. » For in the shower and the dew are expressed the heavenly gifts and the precepts and commandments of the Lord, which water the earth — that is, men — and rouse it to bring forth the seed of good works. For it is meet that what is offered to men healthfully by a heavenly gift should go forward to the blessing and praise of the Lord.

1154D« Bless ye the Lord, all ye spirits. » This is what is written last in the Psalter: « Let everyone praise the Lord in spirit (Psal. CL) » [Vulg. omnis spiritus laudet Dominum, "let every spirit praise the Lord"] — not indeed flesh and blood, not ambition, not worldly enticements, but let that which is more sublime in nature praise the Lord, which savours of heavenly things when it desires the eternal rewards. Wherefore to the whole work he gave a brief and perfect sentence, that all things should spiritually praise the Lord and Saviour.

« Bless ye the Lord, O fire and summer. » Fire sometimes signifies charity, sometimes tribulation; so also summer sometimes expresses the ardour of love and the greenness of good work, sometimes the heat of persecution 1155A. [Vulg. aestus, "heat", where Migne prints aestas, "summer"] But these bless the Lord when they make men bless their Creator, because holy men both in prosperity and in adversity always praise the Lord. Whence the Apostle exhorts: « that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. » In like manner the four following verses can be understood, where it is said:

« Bless ye the Lord, O nights and days. Bless ye the Lord, O light and darkness. Bless ye the Lord, O cold and summer. Bless ye the Lord, O dews and hoar-frost. » [Vulg. frigus et aestus, "cold and heat"] For by things contrary to one another he exhorts that praise of the Lord be made, and calls forth to blessing. For day and light and summer and dews signify prosperity; and on the contrary night and darkness, cold and hoar-frost signify tribulation. For not only the elements 1155Bof the world and the seasons are fit for praising God, but even men themselves, who, set beneath the elements of the world, live temporally, become debtors for the blessing of God; because the creator of all things so tempers things present for his elect that they themselves may never be silent of the divine proclamations. Whence Paul says (II Cor. XII): « Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. » And again (II Cor. IV): « That, he says, which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation worketh in us above measure, unto sublimity, an eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, » and so forth.

« Bless ye the Lord, O frost and cold. Bless ye the Lord, O ice and snows. « In frost and cold, 1155Cice and snow is signified the adversity of the present time, or the hardness of the human mind; but often the Lord turns these to his own praise, when men numb with the chill of unbelief are converted to the service of Christ through the warmth of faith and the zeal of good works. Whence it is written in Solomon: As ice in the fair weather, so shall thy sins be dissolved (Eccli. III). » And in the psalm: « Fire, he says, hail, snow, ice, stormy winds which do his verbus (Psal. CXLVIII), » by which things he signifies through allegory the men who in this world have come from turbulent and most wicked ways to the most tranquil pursuits of devotion. How do these do his word, save because from being tempestuous and shameless they have deserved to come to the grace of confessing him?

1155D« Bless ye the Lord, O lightnings and clouds. » What, then, is shown us by the clouds but the preachers of the Gospel, and what by the lightnings but the flashings of miracles? Of which it is said through the Psalmist: « Thou shalt multiply lightnings and shalt trouble them (Psal. XVII). » [Vulg. fulgora multiplicavit et conturbavit eos, "he multiplied lightnings and troubled them"] Through these clouds, then, the Lord lightens from above with his own light, because through his holy preachers he illumines the darkness of our insensibility even with miracles. And when these clouds rain with words, and when by miracles they open the force of flashing light, they turn even the farthest bounds of the world to divine love.

« Let the earth bless the Lord: praise and exalt him above all unto the ages. » [Vulg. laudet et superexaltet, "let it praise and exalt him"] Here, then, the earth signifies the holy Church, of which it is written in the Psalm: « The earth 1156Ais the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, the round world and all they that dwell in it (Psal. XXIII); » and although we have often known "earth" to be set in a good sense as well as in a bad, yet here we ought to perceive the Church, which serves the Lord in a special manner with a pure mind. For though all things have been founded by the abyss, nevertheless we properly say that to be his which venerates him as its author; and therefore the Church is not undeservedly received as the fruitful land of good things, because it nourishes and holds the Christian people. This earth, then, always praises God and exalts him above all unto the ages, because not only in the present world but also in that to come it always praises him, and preaches him as lord over all things.

« Bless ye the Lord, O mountains and hills. Bless ye the Lord, all ye things that spring up in the earth. 1156BPraise and exalt him above all unto the ages. » Hence also the Psalmist, where he calls forth all creatures to praise the Lord, says among the rest: « Mountains and all hills, fruitful trees and all cedars (Psal. CXLVIII). » Here the mountains signify men lifted up by swollen power; the hills, men of middle station dealing with others on equal terms; the fruitful trees, those who, converted from the hardness of their sins, have brought forth the sweetest fruits of good works. The cedars also signify absolutely the proud and the puffed up; but because he commands that all things springing up in the earth should praise the Lord, he shows that out of all men the grace of Christ prepares elect ones for itself, who in that last resurrection may be able to be gathered into the companies of the Angels and to be joined for ever in the praises of their Founder.

1156C« Bless ye the Lord, O fountains. » A fountain too in the Scriptures either mystically signifies the Lord Christ, or the grace of the Holy Spirit, or the laver of baptism, or the origin of the virtues. For it signifies Christ in that which is read in Genesis, that there was a fountain in the midst of paradise. Whence four rivers proceeded — that is, the four Gospels proceeding from the fountain of salvation for the watering of the human race. Again, a fountain designates the grace of the Holy Spirit in that which the Lord says in the Gospel: « He that shall drink the water that I give, there shall be made in him a fountain of living water springing up into life everlasting (Joan. IV). » [Vulg. fons aquae salientis, without vivae, "living"] But the sacrament of baptism is shown by that of Zacharias, where he says: « In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for the washing of the sinner and of the unclean woman (Zach. XII), 1156Dfor this fountain, going forth from the house of God, is borne to the Church and to the knowledge of the Scriptures, that we may all be born again in Christ and that our sins be not forgiven us by the water of baptism. But here we can understand by the fountains the testimonies of the sacred Scriptures brought forth through the mouths of the preachers. Whence it is written in the psalm: « The fountains of waters appeared (Psal. XVII), » that is, the truth of those who preach, who poured out with the mouth of holiness the fountains of eternal life; for when the Lord himself came, that lay open which the obscurity of the divine utterance had covered.

« Bless ye the Lord, O seas and rivers. » When he says "seas," he generally comprehends together all gatherings of waters, whether they be salt or fresh, according to that which is written: « The gatherings 1157Aof the waters he called seas (Gen. I.), » from which the rivers proceed, as is that saying: « All the rivers enter into the sea, and the sea doth not overflow; unto the place whence the rivers come out, thither they return, that they may flow again (Eccle. I), » where metaphorically by the name of water is understood the slime of the earth, and in the rivers, men, who return into the earth from which they were taken; but the earth is not filled with their multitude. Men are bidden, therefore, to bless the Lord — that is, to acknowledge their author, and to worship him by faith and by good works, because they were created by him and all return to his judgment, « so that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether good or evil. » (II Cor. V).

« Bless ye the Lord, O whales and all things that move in the waters: 1157Bpraise and exalt him above all unto the ages. » In the whales, then, which for the greatness of their body are compared to mountains, and stand out above the other living creatures that move in the sea, the mighty of this world can be expressed. These, with the other men who move in this world, are called forth to praise their Creator, by whose bounty all subsist and all are nourished; because it is meet that great and small should praise their almighty Founder and bless him unto the age.

« Bless ye the Lord, O birds of heaven. » In the birds, then, the philosophers can be taken, who by the swiftness of their thoughts have judged it right to examine the natures of things and the courses of the stars; or else, in a higher sense, angels can be understood as designated by the name of birds, who 1157Care sent by God into the world for the keeping of men, that they may have care of them and defend them against the spiritual wickednesses; because it is right that all prelates together with their subjects should bless the ruler of all, « who made heaven and earth, the seas and all things that are in them. »

« Bless ye the Lord, all ye beasts and cattle: praise and exalt him above all unto the ages. » In the beasts are signified cruel and untamed men, and in the cattle all the common sort and the countless throngs. For the Prophet exhorts such men that, being converted from cruelty and pride, they may return to humility and innocence, so that with heart, mouth and work they may bless their maker, by whom were perfected the heavens and the earth and all their furniture.

1157D« Bless ye the Lord, O ye sons of men: let Israel bless the Lord. » In the sons of men indeed are designated those who live rationally, and in Israel those who are free for divine contemplation. These, then, he invites to bless God, because it is exceedingly meet and just that they who above the other creatures of the earth have received this from the bounty of their maker — that, truly acknowledging him, they may be able to worship him with right faith and good works, and with a clean heart and pure intention to contemplate and to love him — should never cease from his praises, but blessing him should preach him for ever.

« Bless ye the Lord, O priests of the Lord: bless ye the Lord, O servants of the Lord. » In the priests he expresses the masters of the Church, but in the servants the 1158Apeople of the subject. He exhorts all of them, therefore, that prelates together with their subjects should always bless the Lord Christ, by whose bounty they have been sanctified and cleansed, reigning together with the Father and the Holy Spirit unto the ages of ages.

« Bless ye the Lord, O spirits and souls of the just. » Under the term of spirit and soul, then, he comprehends the whole condition of the inner man, who savours by the spirit and lives by the soul. The Prophet commands, therefore, that the spirits and souls of the just bless the Lord, because those alone truly bless the Lord who keep the rule of justice and truth; and the divinity gladly receives the blessings of those who, living justly by right faith, true confession and good working, praise him together.

1158B« Bless ye the Lord, O holy and humble of heart. » That we should have humility of heart both this present little verse teaches, and that which is read in the Gospel: « Learn of me, because I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest to your souls (Matth. XI). » Now that is humility of heart which in another place is called poverty of spirit, that we be not lifted up with pride, nor with a feigned humility seek earthly glory, but that we be bowed down with the whole heart

« Bless ye the Lord, O Ananias, Azarias and Misael: sing ye a hymmum, praise and exalt him above all unto the ages. For he hath delivered us from hell, and saved us out of the hand of death, and freed us out of the midst of the burning flame, and out of the midst of the fire hath he delivered us. » But last of all the three children exhort themselves to bless 1158Cthe Lord; and deservedly he changed the order of creation for their deliverance, so that neither could the fire hurt their bodies nor the flame burn their garments — to whom a hymn is due and praise befitting, because he himself is always praiseworthy and, exalted above all things, remains unto the ages of ages. After these blessings also there was added by the holy Fathers that which is now sung in the Church, that is, the praise and confession of the holy Trinity after this manner.

« Let us bless the Father and the Son with the Holy Spirit; let us praise and exalt him above all unto the ages. » For there is one and only God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, threefold in persons and one in substance, who created heaven and earth, the sea and all things that 1158Dare in them; whose praise it is right for all to proclaim, and whose name above all things it is right to confess, for all who believe in him and wish to receive eternal life from him and desire to enjoy his goodness in the heavenly kingdom. But that which follows in this Canticle was set before in the prophetic book, where, before the works of the Lord were called forth to bless the Lord, it is read written thus: « Blessed is he in the firmament of heaven, and praiseworthy and glorious unto the ages. » [Vulg. benedictus es, "Blessed art thou"] For the firmament of heaven signifies either the angelic powers, in which the Lord reigns perpetually, or the knowledge of the holy Scriptures, where is the solid ground of all good and of truth, and where the majesty and goodness of the Creator is continually praised and preached. Hence also 1159Ait is written: Heaven shall be folded together as a book rolled up; and elsewhere: The Lord is a firmament to them that fear him, and his testament, that it may be made manifest to them. For whosoever here truly love God and seek to keep his commandments, and study to be continually free for the praises of God not only with the mouth but also with the heart, receiving fitting consolation from the sacred Scriptures, will advance from day to day; and so, without any doubt, by the grace of God, after the end of this life they will receive without end in the heavenly kingdom that which they long sought here.

• 1159B

Zechariah, therefore, the father of blessed John the Baptist, although on account of the doubting of his mind he had long been without speech, was nevertheless not deprived of the divine gift; but when the child was brought forth, whose name he had written down while keeping silence, being enlightened by the grace of the Holy Spirit he pronounced by prophesying what was to come to pass among the people of God, saying:

« Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, because he hath visited and wrought the redemption of his people. » How great is the bounty of the heavenly gift, if the devotion of our faith be ready to receive it, we are able to weigh. Behold, speech, which alone was taken away from him when he doubted, was restored to him when he believed, and with the spirit of prophecy besides. And the Lord visited his people, as it were wasting away with a long infirmity, and, as it were sold under sin, 1159Che redeemed them by the blood of his only Son; and because blessed Zechariah knew that this was shortly to be done, after the manner of prophets he relates it as though already done. And it is to be noted that he is said to have visited and redeemed his people. Not, that is to say, because coming to it he found it his own, but because by visiting it he made it his own.

« And he hath raised up a horn of salvation to us, in the house of David his servant. » By the horn of salvation he means the firm loftiness of salvation. For all bones are wrapped about with flesh. The horn exceeds the flesh, and therefore the kingdom of Christ the Saviour is called the horn of salvation, by which there is announced to the world a height that is spiritual and that surpasses the joys of the flesh: in figure of which David and Solomon were consecrated with a horn of oil unto the glory of the kingdom.

« As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, who are 1159Dfrom the beginning. » From the beginning, he says, because out of the whole Scripture of the Old Instrument prophecy concerning Christ went forth; and not Jeremias, Daniel and Isaias alone and the rest of that sort, who were both specially called prophets and spoke openly of his coming; but father Adam himself, and Abel and Enoch, and the rest of the Fathers each by his own deeds give testimony to his dispensation. Whence the Lord himself, reproving the hardness of the Jews, says: « If you believed Moses, you would perhaps believe me: for of, he wrote (Joan. V). »

« Salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us. » It is to be joined with the verse above, He hath raised up for us — that is, he hath raised up for us salvation from our enemies; for when he had first briefly premised, 1160A« and he hath raised up a horn of salvation to us, » he immediately explains, as it were more openly, what he raised up: « Salvation, he says, from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us. » And by all that hate us he signifies either perverse men or unclean spirits, from whose hand we have both meanwhile been made safe in hope, and are in time to come to be saved in very deed. And as to what is sung in certain Churches, « and he hath delivered us from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us, » it is the same thing; because we shall then fully receive salvation from our enemies when we have been perfectly freed from their snares and seductions, so that the mercy which, through the grace of God and the merits of the Fathers, we here receive in part, we may possess more fully in the life to come. Whence there also follows:

1160B« To perform mercy with our fathers, and to remember his holy testament, the oath which he swore to Abraham our father, that he would grant to us, that being delivered from the hands of our enemies we may serve him without fear. » He had said that the Lord, according to the utterances of the prophets, was to be born in the house of David; he says that the same Lord was to deliver us for the fulfilling of the testament which he appointed for Abraham, because, namely, to these patriarchs especially there was promised, of their seed, either the gathering of the nations or the incarnation of Christ; which Matthew too wished briefly to intimate, who began the opening of his Gospel in this manner: « The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. » Where it is to be noted that with each evangelist David is set before Abraham, because 1160Ceven if he is later in order of time, he is nevertheless greater in the gift of the promise. For to Abraham, who, being still set in uncircumcision, forsook his own goods, knew God, and deserved the testimony of faith, there was promised only the faith of the nations and the most sacred assembly of the Church, the Lord saying to him, « and in thee shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed; » but David heard by a loftier oracle that Christ was to be born of him according to the flesh: « And when thou shalt have fulfilled thy days, he says, so as to go to thy fathers, I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build me a house, and I will make his throne firm for ever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son (I Par. XVII). »

« In holiness and justice before him all our days 1160D. » Openly and briefly he shows in what way the Lord is to be served: namely both in holiness and justice, and before him, and all our days. For he who either departs from his service before death, and by any uncleanness or injustice stains the sincerity of his faith; or strives to endure holy and just before homnibus only, and not also before the Lord — he serves the Lord not yet perfectly freed from the hand of the spiritual enemies, but after the example of the old Samaritans he attempts to serve the gods of the nations and the Lord alike.

« And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Most High. For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, to prepare his ways. » Beautifully, while he was speaking of the Lord, he suddenly turns his words to the Prophet 1161A, so that this too might be shown to be a benefit of the Lord. But it is asked how he addresses an infant of eight days? Yet by what reasoning should he who, still shut in the womb, heard the salutation of Mary, not have heard the voice of his father? — unless perhaps it is to be thought that Zechariah wished rather, for the sake of instructing those who were present, to preach as soon as he could speak the offices to come of his son, which he had learned long before through the angel. Let the Arians indeed hear and blush; let the meek hear and rejoice, that he calls Christ the Lord, whom John by prophesying went before, the Most High, according to that which the Psalmist, praising God and perfect man in one person, says: « The mother Sion shall say: a man, and a man is made in her, and the Most High himself hath founded her (Psal. LXXXVI), » [Vulg. numquid Sion dicet homo et homo natus est in ea, "Shall not Sion say: A man, and a man is born in her"] showing him to be made 1161Bwho founded her, the same man whom he names the Most High.

« To give knowledge of salvation to his people, unto the remission of their sins. » As though desiring to expound and more diligently to commend the name Jesus, which is the same as Saviour, he repeats mention of salvation, when he recalls that a horn of salvation is to be raised up, that salvation from our enemies is to come, that knowledge of salvation is to be given to the people; but lest thou shouldst think a temporal and fleshly salvation to be promised, « unto the remission, he says, of their sins. » But the Jews on this account prefer not to receive Jesus Christ, but rather to await Antichrist; because they desire to be saved not within but without, and to be freed not from the dominion of sin but from the yoke of human servitude.

« Through the bowels of the mercy of our God, in which 1161Cthe Orient from on high hath visited us. » And the prophet, speaking of the Lord: « Behold a man, he says, the Orient is his name (Zach. VI); » who is rightly called the Orient for this reason, that opening to us the rising of the true light he made the sons of night and of darkness sons of the light, according to what blessed Zechariah consequently sets forth, saying:

« To enlighten them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to direct our feet into the way of peace. » For the Lord to enlighten them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death is to pour into those who have lived in sins and in the blindness of ignorance the rays of his own knowledge and love — to such as these the Apostle says (Ephes. V): « You were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord. » And our feet are directed into the way of peace when the journey of our actions agrees in all things with the grace of our Redeemer 1161Dand enlightener. And in a fitting order indeed he testifies that hearts are first to be enlightened and afterwards works to be directed, because no one can work the peace which he has not first learned. Whence rightly the Psalmist: « Seek, he says, peace and follow after it (Psal. XXXIII), » which is to say: be enlightened, thou who wast sitting in darkness, and enter the way of peace from which thou wast long an exile.

The most blessed virgin Mary, after she knew herself to be great with a heavenly birth, in no way lifted herself up over the heavenly gifts 1162Aas though these were from herself; but that she might be more and more fitted for the divine gifts, she fixed the step of her mind in the keeping of humility, mindful of the Scripture which enjoins: « The greater thou art, humble thyself in all things (Eccli. III), and as soon as the angel who announced to her the divine birth had returned to the heavenly places, she arises, goes up into the hill country, and, bearing God in her womb, she seeks the dwellings of the servants of God and asks for their converse. At her coming Elizabeth, hearing the salutation of the mother of the Lord, at once prophesied concerning her and bore witness that the mother of the Lord had come to her, and pronounced her blessed among women and the fruit of her womb blessed; and moreover she related that at her voice the infant in her own womb had leaped for joy, being filled with the Holy Spirit. Mary too, hearing these things, did not boastfully lift herself up 1162Bwith vain glory, but rather through humility, with the whole intention of her mind, rendered thanks to God, saying:

« My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my saviour. » With so great a gift, she says, and one so unheard of, hath the Lord exalted me, that it cannot be unfolded by any service of the tongue, but can scarcely be grasped by the very inmost affection of the breast; and therefore I offer all the powers of my soul in the praises of thanksgiving; whatever I live, feel, discern, I spend rejoicingly and wholly upon the contemplating of his greatness, of whom there is no end, because my spirit is glad also in the eternal divinity of the same Jesus, that is, of the saviour, whose flesh rejoices me by a temporal conception; to which is like that saying of the Psalmist: « But my soul shall rejoice in the Lord, and shall be delighted over his salvation (Psal. 1162CXXXIV), » for he too venerated the Father and the Son with an equal love.

« Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. » She whose humility is regarded rightly rejoices to be named blessed by all, just as, on the contrary, she whose pride is despised is condemned, and, fined with the name of Eve (Aeva) — that is, of vae, woe, or of calamity — wastes away. For it was fitting that, just as through the pride of our first parent death entered into the world, so through the humility of Mary the entrance of life should be laid open.

« Because he that is mighty hath done great things to me, and holy is his name. » He looks back to the beginning of the song, where it was said, « My soul doth magnify the Lord »: for that soul alone, to which the Lord vouchsafes 1162Dto do great things, can magnify him with worthy proclamations, and can say by way of exhortation to the sharers of the same vow and purpose: « Magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name one with another; » [Vulg. in id ipsum, "together, unto the same"] for whosoever of us shall have despised, so far as in him lies, to magnify him whom he has known and to hallow his name, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. His name is called holy, who by the height of a singular power transcends every creature and is set far apart from all the things he has made — which is better understood by the Greek expression, in which the very word which is said, ἅγιον, signifies as it were to be outside the earth; in imitation of whom we too, according to our measure, are commanded to be set apart from all who are not holy nor dedicated to God, 1163Athe Lord saying: » Be ye holy, because I also am holy (I Pet. I). For whosoever shall have consecrated himself will deservedly be seen to be outside the earth and outside the world. For he too can say: walking upon the earth, we have our conversation in the heavens.

« And his mercy from generation unto generations, to them that fear him. » [Vulg. in progenies et progenies, "unto generations and generations"] Turning himself from the special gifts to the general judgments of God, he describes the state of the whole human race, and sets forth in alternating verses what the proud and what the humble deserve, what the sons of Adam are through free will, what the sons of God are through grace. Not to me alone, then, he says, hath he that is mighty done great things, but in every nation and generation he that feareth him and worketh justice is acceptable to him.

« He hath shewed might in his arm; he hath scattered the proud 1163Bin the conceit of their heart. » By "in his arm" he signifies in the very Son of God — not that God the Father is bounded by the figure of human flesh, and that the Son cleaves to him as a member of the body; but because all things were made through him, therefore he is called the arm of the Lord. For just as thy arm is that through which thou workest, so the Word of God has been called the arm of God, because through the Word he wrought the world. For why does a man stretch out his arm in order to work anything? Because what he has said is not straightway done; but if he prevailed with so great a power that without any motion of his body what he said were done, his arm would be his word. When therefore we have heard that the arm of God the Father is God the Son, let not fleshly custom clamour against us, but, so far as we can by his gift, let us think upon the power and wisdom of God, 1163Cthrough which all things were made.

« He hath put down the mighty from their seat, and hath exalted the humble; he hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away. » In his arm, then, the Lord throughout all the generations of the world puts down the mighty — that is, the proud — from the seat of their boasting, and exalts the humble, who trust not in their own power but in the goodness of God, « because every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted (Matth. XXIII). » In like manner he fills with eternal goods the hungry who hunger and thirst after justice, and suffers the rich, the greedy and the sparing, to perish empty of good works.

« He hath received Israel his servant, being mindful of his mercy. » Beautifully he calls Israel the servant of the Lord, as one taken up by him to be saved — obedient, 1163Dthat is, and humble, according to the saying of Osee: « Because Israel is a child, and I loved him (Ose. XI); » for he who scorns to be humbled cannot at all be saved, nor say with the Prophet: « For behold God helpeth me, and the Lord is the protector of my soul (Psal. LIII). And whosoever shall humble himself as a little child, he is the greater in the kingdom of heaven (Matth. XVIII). »

« As he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed for ever. » He signifies the seed of Abraham not carnal but spiritual — that is, not only those begotten of his flesh, but those who, whether in circumcision or in uncircumcision, have followed the footsteps of his faith; for he himself also, being set in uncircumcision, believed, and it was reputed to him unto justice, and he received circumcision as the seal of that same faith, 1164Athat so he might become the father of both peoples through faith, according to what the Apostle most fully set forth to the Romans. The coming, therefore, of the Saviour, promised to Abraham and to his seed for ever, is promised to the sons of the promise, to whom it is said: « And if you be Christ's, then are you the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise (Galat. III). » Well too do the mothers by prophesying go before the rising either of the Lord or of John, so that, as sin began from women, so also good things should begin from women; and that life, which perished through the deceiving of one, should be given back to the world by two vying with each other in proclaiming it.

1164BThe evangelist Luke relates that, when the parents of Jesus our Lord brought the child himself into Jerusalem to the temple of the Lord, to do for him according to the [custom] of the law, and to offer sacrifices according to what is written in the law of the Lord, the just Simeon received him into his arms and blessed him, prophesying concerning him. Great indeed is the power of the Lord, but no less does his humility shine forth, that he who is not contained by heaven and earth should be borne whole in the arms of an aged man. But Simeon also receives Christ figuratively, an old man an infant, that he may teach us to put off the old man, who is corrupted with his deeds, and, our mind's spirit being renewed, to put on him who according to God is created in justice and holiness 1164Cand truth — that is, putting away lying, to speak the truth, and to fulfil with mouth, heart and work the other things that pertain to the state of the new man. The elder, just according to the law and God-fearing, receives the child Jesus into his arms, that he may signify the justice of the works which were of the law; for who does not know that works are wont to be figured by the hands and the arms. The elder receives the infant Christ, this world being to be changed by the humble grace of the saving faith of the Gospel, that he may intimate that this age, as it were now wearied defussum with old age and length of years, will return to innocence and — if I may so speak — to the infancy of the Christian manner of life, and that its youth is to be renewed like the eagle's.

« And he blessed God and said: Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace. » 1164DThou seest that the just, not only of the New but also of the Old Testament, had in the hope of the life to come a desire to be dissolved from the body — nay rather, that they reckoned it the way of peace to lay down the earthly burden, inasmuch as they doubted not that they would have perpetual rest in the bosom of Abraham Finally Idithun also — that is, the overleaper of worldly cupidita tum — after he had long in silence contemplated the many evils of the world and had grown warm within himself by the inward meditation of his heart, spoke at last in his own tongue and brought forth what he had done within: « Make known to me, he says, O Lord, my end, and the number of my days, which is, that I may know what is wanting to me; behold thou hast made my days old (Psal. XXXVIII). » [Vulg. mensurabiles, "measurable"] By which words he opens without doubt how great a solace of present calamities 1165Ahe hopes to obtain at the end, which meanwhile he desires to come.

« Because my eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples. » Blessed are the eyes that see what Simeon saw. « Blessed are they that have not seen and have believed. » That very thing, he says, which thou hast prepared to be beheld by mind and by faith by all nations, peoples and tongues hereafter, which thou hast foreseen to be sought by hope and by love — that same salvation of thine, now desired, I behold with the eyes both of flesh and of heart.

« A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. » A light indeed to each people is the salvation of God — that is, Christ, prepared by God the Father — 1166Awho nevertheless is rather the glory of Israel, by whom he is long hoped for and out of whom, being foretold, he comes. But he is said to be the revelation of the Gentiles, whose eyes of mind, already sunk in deep blindness and raised up by no hope of the Lord's coming, he himself vouchsafed to visit and likewise to reveal himself to and to enlighten. And rightly is the revelation of the Gentiles set before the glory of Israel, since « when the fullness of the Gentiles shall have come in, then all Israel shall be saved; » just as the Psalmist also, when he had said, « The Lord hath made known his salvation; before the sight of the Gentiles he hath revealed his justice (Psal. XCVII), » subjoined and said, « He hath been mindful of his mercy to Jacob and of his truth toward the house of Israel. » [Vulg. recordatus est misericordiae suae et veritatis suae domui Israel, without Jacob]