LIBER I ESDRAE

( Vide tome VIII operum. )

• 691D

(BEDA in Esdram, tom. II.) As Cyrus, when the empire of the Chaldeans was destroyed, set the people of God free, etc., as far as to whom he preaches the faith of his own name and the hope of salvation, to all who belong to his kingdom, that is, to the elect.

VERS. 2.-- And he himself hath charged me that I should build him a house, etc. (BEDA ubi supra. ) The house or temple of God in the holy Scriptures, etc., as far as and that they may alike await in time to come the solemnities of its dedication.

VERS. 3.-- Who is there among you. (ID., ibid.) Great is the faith of the king in 692Dthese words, etc., as far as and that he might direct their minds and their hands to works that bring salvation.

Let him go up to Jerusalem. (ID., ibid.) They who sin, or who are busied about worldly things, are in the depth: let those who desire to please God sigh after heavenly things, let them pass beyond all the pomps and allurements of the world by the love of things eternal, and let them build a house for God in Judea, that is, in the confession of their own iniquity and of the divine compassion, let them prepare their hearts, which God may vouchsafe to inhabit and to enlighten, and let them strive to invite their neighbours to the same thing by words and by examples.

693AVERS. 4.-- And all. (BEDA., ibid.) The distinction of the words is to be noted, etc., as far as whence John: We therefore ought to receive such, that we may be fellow-workers of the truth, etc. (III Joan. VIII.)

Let them help, etc. They who abound in temporal things ought not only to minister the necessaries of life to the poor of Christ, but also to work willingly for themselves such good as they can, that by both gains they may deserve to have a part in the temple of God, which is the Church.

VERS. 5.-- And they rose up. (BEDA, ibid.) Cyrus commanded all things, nay rather permitted them, to go up to Jerusalem and to build the house of the Lord, etc., as far as and therefore he deserved to be a partaker of the mercy bestowed.

The princes. (ID., ibid.) For it belongs to the princes of the fathers, that is, to the masters, to build up by work and by teaching the minds of the erring 693Bin the pursuit of good work. Scribes learned in the kingdom of heaven, who, skilfully examining the merits and the understandings of their hearers, know how to judge whom they are to promote and in what grade of ecclesiastical ministry.

That they might go up. (ID., ibid.) By daily advances, as though by certain steps, a man ascends to the height of the virtues, which lie in the vision of eternal peace. The first steps are to correct one's own life. The second, to labour over the errors of one's neighbours. The highest, after good works and teaching, to await the joys of perpetual reward.

VERS. 6.-- They helped their hands with vessels. The hands of those who build are the associates, who, not being able to build, help with monies given, when men of the world commit their children or their household to the preachers to be 693Cbrought up for the Lord, so that what they cannot do of themselves, they may through those who can offer to the Lord as the gift of their devotion.

And with beasts. (BED., ibid.) That is, with the slower sort, etc., as far as and that they may be assigned to the princes of the fathers as it were manifold furniture for the building of the house of the Lord.

And he brought forth. (ID., ibid.) The diverse kinds of vessels, etc., as far as he keeps written in the book of eternal memory, in figure of whom it is fitly subjoined: And he numbered them, etc.

VERS. 9.-- And this is. (ID., ibid.) Because the Lord knoweth the number of the elect, etc., as far as that before they repent they may be snatched away to everlasting punishment.

693DVERS. 1.-- These are, etc. Of Judea, that is, not of Babylonia. For to her belonged also those brought forth in Babylonia of the stock of the captives. For with their whole soul they sighed after Judea and Jerusalem, whose figure their leader Zorobabel bears, who by his very name shows himself born in Babylon, but by his intention and his work a citizen of Jerusalem. In a higher sense the children of the Church are children of the heavenly country, not only they who are already imbued with the sacraments of the Church, but also they who are without, that is, straying for a time among the ungodly, foreordained to life by divine election before the ages, and to be consecrated by the ministries of divine grace.

And they returned into Jerusalem. (BEDA in Esdram, tom. II.) For when, delivered from the power of Satan, etc., 694Aas far as but the vision of peace and confession is begun in the present and perfected in the time to come.

Every man into his city. (ID., ibid.) Therefore Scripture watchfully distinguished from what generation of the captives they returned, loosed, into their own country, etc., as far as for which he may reward them with a sure recompense.

VERS. 2.-- The number, etc. (ID., ibid.) By the people of Israel he means the tribe of Juda and of Benjamin, etc., as far as is to be understood together with the priests and the Levites who had had their lot among them.

VERS. 58.-- The Nathinaei, the sons, etc. (ID., ibid.) The Nathinaei, who are described in order after the priests, the Levites, the singers and the porters, were then the very men who are now called subdeacons in the Church, obeying the offices of the Levites and receiving the oblations in the temple 694Bfrom the people.

All the Nathinaei. (ID., ibid.) In this place too, according to the letter, the grace of God is shown, by which even in the Old Testament Gentiles were received unto salvation, since, when the catalogue of those who were known truly to belong to the people of God had been set out, there were joined to them men of whom it was not known whether they were of Israel or of the proselytes: and their number too is set out among the children of Israel: for although, by the long separation of their fathers from the temple or from the people of God, they had not been able to show in what way they belonged to him: yet, having gone up out of the captivity when general leave was given, they were received as companions; for the rest of the Israelites rejoiced to have them, for the love of the common faith and religion, as brethren and acquaintances, although in the origin of the flesh they knew them 694Cless.

But allegorically, among the penitents who, delivered from the captivity of the vices, go up to build the house of the Lord either in themselves or in others, there are some who, bound by very many and graver sins, seem estranged from God and from every act of piety and of chastity, so that nothing at all of the goodness and religion which they had received from their teachers seems to have remained in them, nor can they show whether they were begotten of Israel, that is, of holy Church, because by sinning such men have been made as though they had never belonged to the Holy Spirit, yet by repenting they are corrected and converted, so that their number is written in the heavens among the true Israelites in whom there is no guile.

VERS. 61.-- And of the children of the priests. (BED., ibid.) 694DThe children of the transmigration act toward the priests with the same caution as toward the people. For they took care that it should be plainly apparent who truly belonged to the people of Israel or to the priestly race, and who were either suspect or begotten of a certain stock of proselytes, that is, of strangers. The suspected priests therefore they removed from the office of the altar, until their origin should more certainly become clear, but they kept them nonetheless in the fellowship of those passing over, in a peace of one mind with themselves.

But mystically the sons of the priests going up out of the Babylonian captivity seek the writing of their genealogy, and not finding it are cast out of the priesthood, when the ministers of the altar fall into such enormities or abominable doctrines that, even though by repenting they return to the salvation 695Aof the soul, they are yet not worthy to be restored to the sacred grade. For though among the faithful they look for eternal life, yet they do not find, among the perfect priests, the writing of their grade, which they cannot claim again.

All the multitude as one man, etc. (BED., ibid.) [Vulg. Esr 2:64 Omnis multitudo quasi unus, without vir] These signify those who by the advance of an amended life busy themselves to overcome the vices and to climb the summit of the virtues, yet are not yet sufficient of themselves to provide the way of a regular life, but are restrained and directed by the industry of those who have gone before them in Christ.

And among them. (BED., ibid.) Mystically, in the temple or the people of God there are singers, etc., as far as and as it were by the sweetness of their voice they help those who build the temple.

VERS. 66.-- Their mules. (ID., ibid.) A mule is begotten of 695Ban ass and a mare, a mala of a horse and a she-ass. Among the men who had gone up out of the captivity, the beasts also by which they were helped are described. And their number, like that of the men, is set down, because there are many in the Church either slower of understanding or even carnal, who nevertheless obey their spiritual masters devoutly, and bow the back of the mind to bear the burdens of brotherly need, and, snatched with the rest of the elect out of the confusion of the devil's captivity, press toward the walls of the city above, whose number also is kept whole in the memory of God; whence: My imperfect being have thy eyes seen (Psal. CXXXVIII). And elsewhere: Men and beasts thou wilt save for the Lord (Ibid. XXXV).

VERS. 68.-- They offered freely into the house of God for, 695Cetc. (ID., ibid.) It is a token of great devotion, etc., as far as by how much they observe that these use not even lawful things.

VERS. 69.-- According to their strength. For this is the measure of perfection, that each labour for the Lord according to his power, and confirm the state of the Church first in himself, then in his neighbours. They who live in this fashion are rightly called princes of the fathers, because by living more highly they take the lead, in perfection of life and of teaching, over those who in the Church are called fathers through their zeal of solicitude.

Solids of gold. (BED., ibid.) Gold and silver and priestly vestments, etc., as far as For by how much the more grievously they remember that they have erred, by so much the more ardently do they persist in good works.

VERS. 70.-- The priests therefore dwelt, and the 695DLevites. A Levite taken captive by the Chaldeans receives back his city, when a deacon, by the Lord's gift, makes whole again the virtue of perfection which, seduced by the devil, he had lost. But one born in Babylon enters his city by coming into Judea, when, regenerated in Christ and well instructed in the Church, he keeps according to rule the diaconate once received. For as the former was set free by the grace of Christ as it were from the Chaldean servitude, so this latter, by the performance of the good works in which the predecessors of the same grade lived, they ascend as it were to the walls of their own virtue or city.

And all Israel. (BEDA ubi supra. ) By all Israel he means not the ten tribes only, which were once called Israel in distinction from the two which 696Awere called Juda, etc., as far as concerning whom the Jews promise themselves that, when their Christ reigns, they shall return into Judea with the rest of the men of their nation, and shall reign in the whole world.

Allegorically the priests, the Levites, the singers, the porters and the Nathinaei, and all Israel dwell in their own cities, when the ministers of the altar and the teachers and the Christian people serve God faithfully in their own grades, whether they who, that same grade having at some time been defiled or lost by vices, have been recalled through penance, or they who, lately coming out of the kingdom of the devil to the Church, have gained for themselves a good grade. For the Levites or the children of Israel entered their own cities, not only they who had lost them when taken captive, but also they who, born of captives, had learned that they themselves belonged to those cities by paternal succession. 696BBut whosoever were so taken captive that, never returning, they left their lands to others to be possessed, they signify those who so depart from the Church by sinning that they never come to themselves again, and leave to others the rewards promised to themselves; whence: Be mindful whence thou art fallen, and do penance, and do the first works: but if not, I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick, etc. (Apoc. II); and elsewhere: Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown (Ibid. III).

And now the seventh month was come. (BEDA in Esdram, tom. II.) Which among us is October, solemn beyond the rest by the observance of the law, in which also the dedication of the temple was celebrated. Fitly therefore, when they had first entered their own cities 696Cand provided themselves dwellings, they presently flowed together into Jerusalem and built the altar, and that at the time at which the temple with its altar and all its vessels had of old been consecrated, and at which they were wont to come yearly to the day of the consecration.

Mystically. The seventh month signifies the grace of the Holy Spirit. In this month, after the captivity, we come together out of our cities into Jerusalem, when, the filth of the vices taken away, after the beginning of good works we are enlightened by a greater grace of the same Spirit, and are kindled in the love of the peace above, which is in true unity. For Jerusalem is called the vision of peace.

VERS. 2.-- And Josue rose up. Of the priestly tribe, which signifies Christ the true priest, who washed us from our sins in his own blood, and now stands before 696Dthe face of God for us.

And his brethren the priests. Of whom it is said: Go, tell my brethren (Matth. XXVIII). These are the higher ones in the Church, and, cleaving more familiarly to Christ, they build the Church. To the whole Church too it is said: But you are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood (I Petr. II). For the elect are members of the highest priest, offering their bodies a living victim.

And they built. (BED., ubi supra. ) With great foresight they first built the altar, etc., as far as but they had not Christ as advocate with the Father.

VERS. 3.-- Its bases. (ID., ibid.) The hearts, that is, of the elect, prepared for receiving the sacraments of faith by the precepts 697Aof the masters as by the irons of smiths, etc., as far as when the faithful submit their hearts and their bodies with humble intent to practise by working what they believe.

And they offered. (BEDA., ibid.) Morning and evening we offer a holocaust to the Lord upon his altar, etc., as far as according to that: Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight, the lifting up of thy hands an evening sacrifice (Psal. CXL). [Vulg. Ps 140:2 elevatio manuum mearum, "the lifting up of my hands"]

VERS. 4.-- And they made. (ID., ibid.) They who had gone up out of Babylon into Jerusalem, etc., as far as and elsewhere: We have not here a lasting city, but we seek one to come (Hebr. XIII).

The solemnity of tabernacles. Which in Greek is called scenophegia, 697Bthat is, the fixing of tabernacles, which begins on the fifteenth day of the seventh month and lasts seven days: in which the Lord commanded the people to dwell in tabernacles, and daily, searching the law, to offer holocausts to the Lord: because of old they tarried, that is, in tabernacles in the wilderness, while Moses preached the law and God often appeared to them, long awaiting the promised rest, that is, lest the grace of so great a benefit should ever come into forgetfulness.

In order. Because whatever is done out of order loses the merit of perfection: because the honour of the king loveth judgment. For the things which we do in honour of the highest king, being assured, it is needful that we distinguish, by the discernment of judgment, when and how much they are to be done.

697CVERS. 5.-- On the Kalends, as on all, etc. That is, on the beginnings of the months at the rising of the moon, from which the Hebrews always began their months, having no months but lunar ones: whence for Kalends the Greeks better call them neomeniae, that is, new moons. But if the months, because of the thirty days by which they are filled, signify the fulness of the works of light, when in the faith of the holy Trinity we accomplish the precepts of the Decalogue, what do the beginnings of the months designate, in which the moon, that it may shine anew, is said to be lately kindled by the sun, but the beginnings of good working, which by the gift of the Creator's grace we receive as by the presence of the Sun of justice? For the signifying whereof of that divine enlightenment, without which we should be able to begin or to accomplish nothing of good. God commanded all the Kalends, that is, the beginnings of the months, to be kept; whence: Sound ye 697Dat the beginning of the month the trumpet, in the noted day of your solemnity (Psal. LXXX). [Vulg. Ps 80:4 Buccinate in neomenia tuba, "sound the trumpet at the new moon"] And it is well said that, the festivity of tabernacles being finished, the children of the transmigration made a continual holocaust, etc. Because after the mind has once perfectly renounced this world, it behoves that it spend itself wholly in obedience to the divine will.

VERS. 6.-- From the first day. From the beginning, that is, of the divine inspiration, by which the human conscience is changed, and, pleasures being neglected, burns for those things alone which are the Lord's, as the apostles, who, inflamed by the Holy Spirit and made as it were a holocaust, preached the great works of God in all tongues. Hence among the Hebrews the seventh month is called the new year: because it is given by the Holy Spirit to the faithful to fulfil the new 698Acommandment of charity, and to render a new canticle in the building of the house of God.

But it is to be noted that in the seventh month the people was gathered together in Jerusalem, and that, all being gathered, Josue and Zorobabel with their brethren are related to have built the altar and from the first day of the seventh month to have offered a holocaust: whence it is gathered that this altar was put together very swiftly of unpolished stones: not, as of old, wrought of wood and covered with plates of brass. For otherwise, even with a very great crowd of builders pressing on, it could not have been begun and finished in one day, and made ready for the offering of the holocaust. For in the book of the Machabees it is said to have been made of stones: And they took whole stones according to the law, and built a new altar according to that which was before 698B(I Mach. IV).

It is to be noted that the beginning of the fifth age, like that of the four preceding, is consecrated by holocausts offered to the Lord. For in the first, Abel the protomartyr, first of all the elect, offered to God a holocaust of the firstlings of the sheep, and dedicated the entrance of the new-born world first with victims of cattle, at last with his own blood. Noe consecrated the rise of the second age with holocausts offered to God of those things which had been in the ark. Melchisedech and Abraham hallowed the third age, this one in bread and wine, that one by the offering of his own son. David consecrated the fourth age to the Lord, an altar being built in the floor of Horna the Jebusite, and holocausts offered to God, by which he might appease him whom he had offended by numbering the people; where Abraham is reported to have offered his son, and afterwards, 698Cwhen the temple had been built by Solomon, it is agreed that the altar of holocausts was set. The beginning of the fifth age Josue and Zorobabel now offered, an altar being built in that same place and holocausts offered to God, as soon as the yoke of the captivity was shaken off, and afterwards they appeased the Lord toward themselves by a continual holocaust. All these things went before in figure of him who in the sixth age redeemed the whole world by the victim of his own flesh.

VERS. 7.-- And they gave. (BEDA ubi supra. ) They who, delivered from the captivity, had come to Jerusalem, etc., as far as The foundation of the temple signifies those who, lately converted, prepare a place for the Lord in themselves; whence: Your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit, etc. (I Cor. VI.)

To the stone-cutters. (ID., ibid.) The stone-cutters in the construction 698Dof the house of God are those who instruct the hearts of their neighbours by teaching or by rebuking, etc., as far as and the tabernacle composed of curtains and of boards.

To the masons. (ID., ibid.) The masons are the preachers, who, while they bind together to one another in the bond of charity those whom they train in good works, join them, as squared and polished stones, by the pouring in of cement, lest they should loosen the order of the composition, saying: And before all things having a mutual continual charity among yourselves, etc. (I Petr. IV). Thence Paul: But above all things have charity, which is the bond of perfection (Col. III).

To the Sidonians and Tyrians. (ID., ibid.) The Sidonians also and the Tyrians represent the preachers, who cast down from the state of their first manner of life men once lofty and shining 699Ain the glory of the world, by the axe of the word of God, so that, wholesomely laid low and as it were boiled clean of the corrupting moisture of their inborn sense, they may correct them from all the strength of the vices, and press them into the adornment or the fortification of the Church. Whence in the psalm which is inscribed at the finishing of the tabernacle: The voice of the Lord breaking the cedars (Psal. II).

To the Sidonians and Tyrians. (BEDA.,ibid.) The princes of the fathers give, etc., as far as because they have pressure in the world, though confident, because the Lord hath overcome the world.

That they should bring wood. (ID., ibid.) They bring the wood that was cut down to the sea, etc., as far as and through the reconciliation of the priests we are gathered to the Church.

Joppe. Whence, that is, they were to be carried by land to the work of the temple, 699Bas was done in the first building of the temple, but Solomon by his royal power easily obtained from king Hiram what he would: whereas these, returning from the captivity and not having the power of a kingdom, bought everything.

But in the year. (BEDA ubi supra. ) Since it is said above that in the seventh month they came into Jerusalem, etc., as far as or it announces the resurrection of the bodies which we who work well hope for.

VERS. 8.-- In Jerusalem. The place, that is, of the temple where they desired to build the temple. For the Jews are deceived who say that the walls of the temple were never overthrown by the Chaldeans, but only the roof, since it is plain that Esdras the son of the transmigration made the temple from the foundations.

699CAnd every one who. Great was the devotion of the whole people. For they rejoiced that they had returned from the captivity, and by how much they shuddered at the enormities of the proud city, by so much they desired to see the comeliness of Jerusalem: by how much they abominated the shrines, by so much they laboured that the temple of God should be restored. So not only ought bishops and priests to build the people of the faithful, that is, the house of God, but the people also, called from the captivity of the vices to the vision of true peace, ought to choose the ministry of the word from those who have learned to teach, which ministers of the word, that is, Levites, are appointed from twenty years and upward: because such men are appointed for preaching, and are to be preferred, as show the Decalogue to their hearers not only by doing it, but also keep the purity and integrity of the heart undefiled in the sight of God.

699DFrom twenty years. (BEDA ubi supra. ) It is not to be doubted that there the state of the Church takes projection through the spirit, etc., as far as but Zorobabel indeed were sprung of the royal tribe.

VERS. 9.-- And he stood. (ID., ibid.) Not the son of Josedec, etc., as far as They praise also by the hand of David the king, when they diligently attend to and imitate, as far as they can, the works of Christ which he wrought through the flesh.

VERS. 10.-- The priests stood in their ornament. (ID., ibid.) The great devotion of all persons is shown, when, the temple being founded, all according to their grade praise the mercy of the Lord. The priests indeed adorned in holy vestments, as they had been wont while the temple yet stood, 700Asounding with trumpets and kindling the heart of the people to the sweetness of the praise above; the Levites singing hymns together to the Lord on well-sounding cymbals; the people, praising God with a common cry, showing the affection of the heart.

VERS. 11.-- And they sang together in hymns. On instruments, that is, which he himself made, or in psalms which he appointed, or because David, at the placing of the ark, made Asaph and his brethren chief for confessing to the Lord, as the Words of the Days testify, of whom again it is said: that his sons were under his hand prophesying beside the king (I Paral. XV, XVI). Rightly, when the sons of Asaph here praised and confessed to the Lord by the hand of David, they are to be understood to have done this according to his disposition.

VERS. 12.-- They wept (BEDA ubi supra ), namely, 700Bseeing how far the poverty of that time was distant from the magnificent power of Solomon of old, by which the temple was first founded, etc., as far as In the second, Christ and the apostles announce the grace of the New Testament and the entrance of the heavenly kingdom.

(ID., ibid.) They wept at the building of the spiritual temple, etc., as far as nor are the temptings of the depraved lacking amid the increases of the pious, who either by feignedly showing good, or by openly thrusting in evil, strive to hurt the saints.

VERS. 1.-- Now the enemies of Juda and Benjamin heard, etc. (BED. in Esdr. ) By the enemies of Juda and Benjamin he means the Samaritans, etc., as far as who at the right hand of the judge are about 700Cto receive blessing and the eternal kingdom. They say therefore:

VERS. 2.-- Let us build for you. (ID., ibid.) [Vulg. Esr 4:2 Aedificemus vobiscum, "let us build with you"] When heretics aspire that the authority of preaching be granted them among catholics, etc., as far as in the person of an open enemy he assailed them most fiercely.

It is not for us. [Vulg. Esr 4:3 Non est vobis et nobis, "it is not for you and for us"] It is not for heretics to build the Church from which they are strangers, but only for those who, cleaving to Christ the true king and priest, have deserved to be called princes of the fathers, and for the pious care which they have toward those who desire to see Christ.

VERS. 3.-- And it came to pass. (ID., ibid.) As often as heretics, not only in cities but also in provinces, by teaching perversely or even by raging, hindered the doctrine of the true confession, etc., as far as there might be abundance of wise architects for the rebuilding, after the captivity, 700Dof that same house.

VERS. 4.-- Of the people of Juda. By the people of Juda, that is, the trusting and glorifying people, he means him who seeks to build with whole mind for the Lord, that is, to turn the minds and the mouths of all whom he can to the doing of his will and to the seeking of his glory.

VERS. 5.-- They hired. (ID., ibid.) The distinction of the words is to be noted, etc., as far as when they gain the protections of earthly princes against the Church, and how much this harms the faith became known, clearer than the light, in the time of the Arian perfidy.

But in the reign of Assuerus. (ID., ibid.) This Artaxerxes, etc., as far as but he permitted him, as one of lesser power, to handle and to decide these things.

701A(BEDA., ibid.) Artaxerxes, who is persuaded and, being persuaded, commanded that Jerusalem should not be built, etc., as far as the enemies who held the neighbouring places being again overcome, they took possession of them.

VERS. 14.-- The injuries. Because they cannot endure those who strive to assail the kingdom of the devil, they fear that wars be stirred up in the Church, lest their heresies and deceits be warred down together with the doctrine of the Gentiles, under the leadership of him who saith: I came not to send peace, but the sword (Matth. XVI). And again: I came to send fire upon the earth (Luc. XII), etc., the sword, that is, of the word of God with which he may lay his adversaries low, the fire of charity with which, kindling the hearts of his own, he may burn up all the arms and shields of the contrary sect.

Because the city. (BEDA ubi supra. ) The enemies themselves again confess concerning the city of the Lord, etc., as far as that is, 701Bthey refer the beginning and the perfection of honours to God from whom they had received them, by living well and by giving thanks.

VERS. 16-- Beyond the river. The Euphrates, that is, within which Syria lies, which signifies baptism, because it is one of the four rivers of paradise which water the whole world, as the four evangelists, inspired from one fountain of life, that is, from Christ, preach with harmonious voice the laver of salvation to all nations, or because Euphrates is interpreted fruitful: which agrees with the sacrament by which the world, washed and sanctified, brings forth to God the fruit of souls, thirtyfold, sixtyfold and hundredfold.

VERS. 17.-- The king sent word to Reum Beelteem. (BEDA ubi supra. ) The king of the Persians asks, etc., as far as who persecute the Church and forbid it to be built.

701CThe inhabitants of Samaria. The enemies of the men of Jerusalem dwell in Samaria, which is interpreted a keeping, not that they keep the precepts of faith and of truth, who obstinately fight against the vision of true peace, but because they boast that the keeping of the virtues abides with them, while they fight by heresy against the walls of peace.

VERS. 23.-- And so the copy. (BEDA, ibid.) The order of the history is plain, etc., as far as and the king had only forbidden the city to be built.

They prophesied. (BEDA, lib. II in Esdram, tom. II.) In their books it is written more fully, etc., as far as Zorobabel also and Jesus, and the people who was with 701Dthem, are proved to have been of no less faith, who hearkened rather to the prophets commanding than to the command of him who forbade.

VERS. 2.-- Zorobabel. (ID., ibid.) Born in Babylon, etc., as far as Every man too, when in calling upon God he seeks nothing other than him, can call him Salathiel.

And Josue. (ID., ibid.) Josue or Jesus is interpreted Saviour. Josedec, the Lord just. He indeed, like the son of Nun, signifies Christ; for each of them brought the people into the land of promise, the one from the long sojourning of the desert, the other from the longer servitude of the captivity. So the true Jesus, rescuing his elect from all evils, leads them into the promised joys of the kingdom above, 702Ahe who is the son of Josedec, that is, of the Lord just, of whom it is said: The Lord who is just will cut the necks of sinners, etc. (Psal. XII.)

VERS. 3.-- In the same. (ID., ibid.) The letter of the text is plain, that, strengthened by the words of the prophets, the nobles of the Jews could not be hindered from the holy work by the assaults of the enemies, from which, while the prophets were as yet silent, they had ceased through fear of the enemies, as is now done in the Church, when they who, held back by the snares of malignant spirits or of men, were sometimes slower to good work, being suddenly seized by the words of the teachers or of the divine Scriptures, can be overcome by no engines of temptations, nor called back from the purpose of their intention.

VERS. 4.-- To which we answered. (ID., ibid.) It seems 702Bthat he who wrote this was present, since Esdras is said to have written it, who is found not to have been then at Jerusalem, but to have come thither long after, in the reign of Artaxerxes. Either therefore he was truly there then, and, the temple being made, returned to Babylonia, that he might bring back more of the children of Israel into Jerusalem, or he joins himself to the builders, as though what is done toward the brethren, or what they themselves do, were his own, as the Apostle saith: We who live, who are left, at the coming of the Lord, shall not go before, etc. (I Thes. IV).

VERS. 6.-- The copy of the letter. (ID., ibid.) This letter is very unlike that one, etc., as far as and at length, learning that this took its origin from the God of heaven and earth, who alone truly is God, they share in his sacrifices and rejoice to help the building.

702CVERS. 8.-- With unpolished stone. (ID., ibid.) New, that is, which they found unpolished, but by polishing fitted to the building, etc., as far as the other, given over to idolatry, had by no industry of spiritual architects, by no worship of piety, put off the deformity of a wild and earthly mind.

And timber is laid in the walls, and the work, etc. (ID., ibid.) The timbers which are laid for the adornment or the fortification of the temple designate the same life of the saints in the adornment of the Church as the stones do: of which it is said: All the trees of the woods shall rejoice, etc.

VERS. 1.-- Then Darius. (BEDA in Esdram, lib. II, tom. II.) Josephus thus set down the name of the place in which these letters of Cyrus 702Dwere found; and there was found in Egbathanis, a city built in the region of Media, a book. But another translation has it thus: In Egbathana, in a most secure building of the region of the Medes: whence it seems that the name Medena signifies nothing other than Media.

VERS. 3.-- That they lay the foundations. (ID., ibid.) It is not for us to expound, etc., as far as or of the porch of the house of the Lord which was before the face of the temple. Of which Scripture, when the palace of Solomon was being built, thus records: He made a court, etc. (III Reg. VII).

VERS. 5.-- Let them be restored. (ID., ibid.) Darius confirms by his own authority the letters that had been completed, restraining all the adversaries of the Jews, and commands the temple to be built in its own place, etc.

703AVERS. 6.-- Now therefore. Artaxerxes, who forbids the house of God and the city to be built, signifies those who, by stirring up persecutions, gainsay the building of holy Church, amid which persecutions the Church flourished most of all by the victory of the martyrs. But Darius signifies the pious devotion of those kings who, having recognized the godliness of the Christian faith, took care not to resist it but to help it by their own decrees, of whom many, the persecutions of their predecessors being forbidden, willed that they themselves with their subject peoples should be consecrated by the sacraments of the same faith: to whom that agrees well which Darius adds: But by me it is decreed that, etc. For who could set forth how much the Church has been helped and enriched by the liberality of kings?

VERS. 8.-- That out of the king's chest. (BEDA, ibid.) Out of the king's chest the charges are supplied for the work of God, etc., as far as what 703BCyril, what John, what the rest of the saints said: he proved that he had been taught by the elders of the Jews, that is, of those who confess and praise God.

Calves and lambs. (ID., ibid.) These animals, which are clean, etc., as far as whatever wholesome thing he has learned from the men of the Church, he spends it all upon the divine worship.

VERS. 9.-- According to the rite. Because then only will the vows of those who offer be accepted, when they are offered according to the rite of catholic peace; but those which are mingled with heathen superstition or with heresy are not good.

VERS. 10.-- And let them pray. According to that of the Apostle: I beseech therefore first of all that supplications and prayers be made, petitions and givings of thanks for all 703Cmen, for kings, and for all that are in high station (I Tim. II).

VERS. 11.-- By me therefore. With a most grievous penalty he willed to punish him who should change the decree, that is, with the loss of all that he had and of his own soul, which also, fastened to a beam, he should lose by a long torment.

But mystically our works are likened to timbers, the good to fruit-bearing trees, but the depraved to willows and to such as are worthy of the fire, and a beam is taken from the house of him who gainsays the holocausts of the Lord, and is set up, and he himself is fastened upon it, when the works of those who fight against the peace of the Church become manifest to all, how useless and perverse they are: and they themselves are proved to have gained in them not the joy of life but the snare of death. The house also of such men is published, that is, 703Dproscribed to the public treasury: when their bodies, with which they remained in this life, are delivered over in the resurrection into the power of cruel exactors, of unclean spirits, to be punished with everlasting torment.

VERS. 12.-- And God. He desires his own decree to be confirmed by the divine power, and he himself, as a man endowed with a temporal kingdom, does by public law all that he can for the peace of the house of God. Which is now also done in the Church, when earthly powers converted to the faith set forth public edicts for the state of the Church, and take that she should always have quiet peace, the Lord helping and warring down her enemies.

VERS. 14.-- According to the prophecy. For they had foretold that if they persisted in building the temple, presently, by the 704ALord's gift, they would both complete the work itself and abound in all good things.

(BEDA ubi supra. ) Let no one, because Aggeus says that the foundations of the temple were laid under king Darius, etc., as far as sometimes separately under the name of treasuries, or of side-chambers, or of porches, or of courts; whence: You that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God (Psal. CXXXIII).

And Artaxerxes. It is asked how the house is said to have been built at the bidding of Artaxerxes, when it is at once subjoined that it was completed and dedicated while Darius still reigned, unless perhaps it is to be believed that Artaxerxes also, having sent gold and silver, commanded: where, if anything were less than complete in the building or in the adornment of the temple or of the vessels, it should be finished. For when Esdras was hastening thither, 704Bit is written that the same king with his princes or counsellors sent very much gold and silver and vessels to the temple.

VERS. 15.-- The month Adar. (BEDA, ibid.) On the third day of which the house was completed, as far as in which all the more eminent parts were completed.

(ID., ibid.) But the temple, although it signifies the elect soul because of the Spirit of Christ dwelling in it, etc., as far as from the upper we penetrate also into the third, when we heap up the beatitude of souls with the receiving of immortal bodies also.

VERS. 16.-- And they made. Rightly do the children of the transmigration rejoice, etc., as far as because all the orders of the Church rejoice over sinners reconciled through penance.

704CVERS. 17.-- And they offered. They offer victims at the dedication, when they give thanks to God for the conversion of the erring, when many, beholding their devotion, gird themselves to greater works of the virtues, lest they be slower in working than those than whom they were more innocent in sinning less. Many also who went before in the faith emulate the more fervent zeal of the new-comers.

The he-goats of the goats. He-goats are offered in this life for sin, when the elect beseech God that they may be delivered from sins: they are offered in the time to come, when those who have been delivered give thanks, and therefore they shall sing the mercies of the Lord for ever (Psal. LXXXVIII); [Vulg. Ps 88:2 Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo, "I will sing"] because they will always remember that they were wretched and were set free by his gift.

For sin. They offer also for the sin of all Israel, 704Dbecause it behoves that we so favour the good of those who are with us; so make their goods our own by imitating them, that we may also entreat the Lord for the state of the whole Church. Whence in the Lord's prayer no man asks anything specially for himself, but for all who have the same Father in heaven. Again, the temple being built, the dedication follows, when the full sum of the elect, completed at the end of the world, shall come to the grace of the heavenly rewards, in which victims are offered: of which the same house, that is, the Church, rebuilt after the captivity of mortal misery through the glory of immortality, says: Thou hast broken my bonds, O Lord, to thee will I sacrifice the sacrifice of praise (Psal. CXV). And because they are offered not only for the gifts of the virtues, but also for the worldly filth of the vices: 705Arightly after the calves, the rams and the lambs are the he-goats offered for the sin of all Israel: for the grace out of which he confers the benefits of the virtues takes away crimes also. Nor has Pelagius a place in the house of God, who persuaded himself and his own that by the liberty of the will they could either be freed from evils or be confirmed in good things.

VERS. 18.-- And they appointed. Order demanded that, the house of God being built, the priests and the Levites who were to minister in it should presently be ordained. Which is to be observed by those who magnificently build monasteries, that they set in them teachers who may exhort the people to the works of God, and not serve their own pleasures there.

The priests. (BEDA ubi supra. ) That he says the priests in their orders, etc., as far as if we take care to attain to the rewards of the Lord together with them.

705BVERS. 19.-- And the children made. Therefore the celebration of the pasch is specially recorded, the house of the Lord having been built and dedicated, since it was doubtful to none that religious men then celebrated the pasch in its season, so that it might be mystically intimated that this is the summit of perfection, when, all the allurements of the world being past, we meditate with the whole intention of the mind always upon the entrance of the other life. For the pasch is interpreted a passing over, because the children of Israel in it passed through the immolation of the lamb from the Egyptian servitude to liberty, or because the Lamb himself, that is, Christ, immolated for us, passed out of this world to the Father, which we imitate when we pass from the lowest pleasures to the seeking of heavenly things, and we truly accomplish it when, loosed from the prison-house of the flesh, we enter the heavenly kingdom.

705C(BEDA, ibid.) Why the pasch is related after the building of the house, etc., as far as by how much the longer it possessed the ground of the heart empty of virtue.

VERS. 22.-- And they kept the solemnity. (ID., ibid.) The celebration of the pasch can in this place be typically referred to the time of our resurrection, etc., as far as whose sevenfold grace the Prophet commends to us.

Seven days. Because through the whole time of the world life is to be led in sincerity and in truth, nay rather in all the victims and holocausts of good things: because Christ in the paschal season tasted death in passing, but overcame it by the eternal power of the resurrection.

In joy. For this is the greatest joy of the just, now and in the time to come, that the work of justice or of the Church is perfect, the Gentiles also being converted who once resisted 705Dand to the helping of her state, to the confirming of the peace of the Christian religion throughout the world.

VERS. 1.-- But after these things. (Beda in Esdram, tom. II.) Thus far the return of the people from Babylon into Jerusalem, etc., as far as they might have whereby, being themselves admonished, they might learn inwardly to be restored, whence follows:

After these things. (BEDA, ibid.) This Artaxerxes, under whom Esdras went up from Babylonia to Jerusalem, Josephus thinks to be Xerxes the son of Darius, who reigned after him: but the books of the chronicles, the successor of that same Xerxes. Now Darius, under whom the temple was built, reigned six and thirty years, after whom Xerxes twenty years, after whom Archabanus seven months, 706Awhich the chronographers set down for a year: after him Artaxerxes for forty years.

(ID., ibid.) Esdras is called a swift scribe in the law of Moses, etc., as far as but the former letters remained among the Samaritans, in which they were wont to write those five books of Moses which alone they had received out of holy Scripture.

VERS. 7.-- And they went up. (ID., ibid.) It is to be noted that at the head of this book it is written that at the permission of Cyrus Zorobabel and Josue went up from Babylon, etc., as far as a perpetual one I give to those that come to the heavenly country.

VERS. 9.-- Because in the first. (ID., ibid.) On the first day of the month he began to go up from Babylon, etc., as far as as after four months of shining action, through which we journey on the way, 706Bwe pass the fifth month of perpetual reward in the light of the heavenly country.

(ID., ibid.) In the first month Esdras began to go up from Babylon, etc., as far as we may come to the promises above.

According to the hand of God. Strengthened, that is, by grace and by the divine protection, whereby he might prosperously accomplish what he had begun. So also Christ, because God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, the hand of God also was upon his humanity, whereby, exalted in the passion, he both ascended to the walls of the city above and laid open the way to his faithful.

VERS. 10.-- And Esdras prepared. Great is the virtue of a man, to prepare his heart for obedience to the divine will, and to be able to say: My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready (Psal. LVI).

(BEDA, ibid.) Christ also prepared his heart, that 706Che might search out the law of the Lord, because he foresaw divinely that he was to take to himself such a man as should not only be without sin, but should also be full of grace and truth: who, with no law of sin fighting against him, should keep the law of God without any contradiction of mind or of flesh; whence: In the head of the book it is written of me, etc. (Psal. XXXIX.) Again, the Lord searched out the law of God, because, the traditions of the Pharisees being cast away, he taught men to understand holy Scripture mystically, and showed that the decrees of the Gospel which he brought were more perfect and more acceptable to God than those which he had sent before through Moses. Whence: You have heard that it was said to them of old: Thou shalt love thy friend, and thou hast thy enemy in hatred. But I say to you: Love your enemies, etc. [Vulg. Matt. 5:43 Audistis quia dictum est: Diliges proximum tuum, et odio habebis inimicum tuum, "thy neighbour" and "thou shalt hold in hatred"; the Vulgate carries no antiquis]

VERS. 12.-- Artaxerxes the king. Artaxerxes, who with devout 706Dmind reverenced the temple and the priests of the Lord and served him, signifies Christian princes, as Darius does. Nor is it wonderful if the successors of Cyrus, who caused the temple and the city to be built, who loved and helped his servants and his law, figure Christian kings; since the Lord himself said through the prophet that Cyrus signified his Son: and honoured him with his name, saying: Thus saith the Lord to my anointed Cyrus (Isa. XLV).

VERS. 13.-- By me a decree. Because the report of the divine power had come to the king, through which he had renewed the law that had been burnt by the Chaldeans (in the same proper words as before, though in another character of letters).

VERS. 14.-- That to whomsoever. He grants to all leave of going, 707Ahe compels none to go. Christian princes, compelling none, lest the will of faith be uncertain, permit all to whom it shall seem good to worship Christ in their kingdom.

And of the seven counsellors. In the book of Esther it is read that it was the custom of the kings of the Persians to use the counsel of seven in all things to be done or to be decided. The faithful use seven counsellors when in all that they do they follow the precepts of divine Scripture. Of which it is said: The words of the Lord are chaste words, silver tried by the fire, proved of the earth, purified seven times (Psal. XI), that is, perfected by the holy enlightening of the sevenfold Spirit.

Thou art sent. Esdras is sent from the face of the king and of his seven counsellors, that he may visit India [Indiam; read Judaeam, "Judea"] and Jerusalem, 707Band the princes of the world converted to the faith and strengthened by the persuasions of the Scriptures desire that Christ should come to save the Church and to gather it out of the Gentiles by daily help, which is what the name of Esdras signifies, saying: O Lord God of hosts, turn again, look down from heaven, etc. (Psal. LXXIX.)

Which is in thy hand. It is wonderful that a word is found in the letter of Artaxerxes which the prophets are wont to use: when he says that the law of God is in the hand of his servant, for it is written: The word was made in the hand of Aggeus the prophet. And the Lord did what he spoke in the hand of his servant Elias; and the Lord testified in Israel and in Juda by the hands of all the prophets: because, namely, the prophets preached the things that are God's no less by working than by speaking.

707CChrist had the law in his hand: because he once appointed it through Moses as he willed; and now, changing that same law through himself, he transferred it to more perfect things.

VERS. 15.-- And that thou carry. The faith and the wisdom of the king and of his counsellors is to be noted, who understood that their gifts were rather to be offered through him who had the law of God in his hand, that is, fulfilled it in work.

Whose tabernacle is in Jerusalem. (BEDA ubi supra. ) Faithfully and learnedly he says that he has his tabernacle in Jerusalem, etc., as far as and of him John says: He is the propitiation for our sins (I Joan. II).

VERS. 16.-- And all the silver. Of this money the faithful in the Church desire that their good works should shine: that through this they may have a father with the saints: and that others may profit by their 707Dexamples. For as it were out of our silver and gold are sacrifices, libations and victims procured for offering to the Lord: when, the brightness of our works being seen, our neighbours are converted to the duty of piety: whereby they themselves also, by living well, are consecrated to the Lord; but there are certain most illustrious virtues of the saints: which cannot be shown to all as examples of work: but only recounted for the glorifying of the grace of God, such as that which Daniel and Jeremias prophesied as boys: that John, not yet born: that Cornelius, not yet baptized, received the Holy Spirit with his household, and innumerable miracles after the manner of silver in the house of the Lord. Nor out of this silver or gold alone can the oblations which are set upon the altar 708Abe bought, because, when we hear such things, we ought indeed to marvel at them as divine: but we are not able to imitate them as being possible.

VERS. 19.-- The vessels also. The true Esdras delivered into the Jerusalem above, in the sight of the Father, the vessels of mercy which are handed over to him by men. Of which it is said: How shall any one be able to enter into the house of the strong, and rifle his vessels, unless he first bind the strong? (Marc. III.) [Vulg. Marc. 3:27 Nemo potest vasa fortis ingressus in domum diripere, nisi prius fortem alliget, "no man can enter into the house of the strong and rob his goods, unless he first bind the strong"] For the king of Babylon, that is, the devil, was strong: but bound and fettered by the Lord, he lost the vessels which he unjustly possessed, that is, the hearts of the chosen: nor could he gainsay him who took them away and led them back to the city above whose own they were.

VERS. 21.-- And by me. Christian princes command their subjects 708Bthat whatsoever Christ our high priest shall ask, they give it without delay, drawing back in nothing at all: let them give gold in the confession of the true faith, corn in the showing forth of good working; wine in the fervour of love; oil in the cheerfulness of mercy: and all these things are commanded to be given, under the number of a hundred, to the great priest and scribe of the law of the God of heaven, that is, to Christ, who, bringing down to us the heavenly commandments from the Father, promised heavenly rewards in the house of the Father to those who obey. For the number of a hundred, which in the reckoning of the fingers passes from the left hand to the right: designates those joys which are on the right hand of the index (that is, eternal life). But the talent is handed down as of threefold measure. The least, of fifty pounds the middle, of sixty-two pounds the greatest, of a hundred and twenty pounds. 708CThe corus thirty bushels: the batos, which is also the ephi, the tenth part of the corus, that is, three bushels.

VERS. 22.-- But salt. (BEDA ubi supra.) Salt signifies wisdom, etc., as far as while they overcome by means of adversaries.

VERS. 24.-- To you also. By this privilege it is shown that the rest of the people of the children of Israel, coming to their country, paid the tributes of the king, which the king is known to have done with a discerning foresight, that they who were occupied above others in the divine service should be free from his own service, and that of those who possessed nothing of their own in the land but lived of the tithes of the people, no man should exact tribute. By all these things he is proved not only to have loved, but also to have learned excellently, what the worship of the divine service required.

708DVERS. 25.-- But thou. (BED., ibid.) The king repeats what he had said above, etc., as far as to whom kings and princes have often sent letters for the state of the faithful.

VERS. 28.-- And I being strengthened. So each one is made fit by his own teaching for gathering others: drunken through the grace of God, he is strengthened in mind against all the things that hinder the work of the saints.

VERS. 1.-- These then are the princes, etc. (BEDA, in Esdram.) He diligently enumerates the princes who went up with him from Babylon, etc., as far as that is, out of the life of those whom thou hast taught thou shalt be more glorious in the kingdom of God.

709AVERS. 15.-- And I gathered together. (BEDA., ibid.) I do not remember to have read this name of a place elsewhere, etc., as far as he provided himself an abundance of ministers of the house of God, through whom, coming to Jerusalem, he might accomplish what things are necessary for the uses of the temple.

VERS. 17.-- And I sent them to Eddo. (ID., ibid.) The Caspian Sea, according to Orosius, etc., as far as these being joined to him, Esdras is found to have had in his company the sum of nearly a thousand seven hundred men.

VERS. 21.-- And I proclaimed there a fast. (BEDA, homil. 8.) An example of fasting and of praying is given us, etc., as far as and so let him pray, and let him not doubt that what he asks will fall out prosperously.

VERS. 25.-- And I weighed out to them the silver, and the gold, and the consecrated vessels. (ID. in Esdram, tom. II.) By the silver, 709Band the gold, and the vessels which are sent from Babylon to Jerusalem, etc., as far as and through their successors it is to be built even to the end.

(ID., ibid.) There is a difference between these vessels which Esdras with the priests offers at Jerusalem, and those which Zorobabel and Jesus are related to have offered: because those were carried over from the temple of the Lord into Babylon, and were carried over into Jerusalem: these were made in Babylonia, but sent to Jerusalem for devotion's sake by the king or by the princes of the Persians, or even by the people of Israel which was tarrying in those parts. Those vessels therefore signify those who, after the knowledge and the sacraments of faith received, after works of virtue begun, are deceived by the devil and snatched away to their own confusion, but are called back by the grace of Christ to salvation: and these signify those who, 709Cborn with the sin of the first transgression, cleansed through the laver of regeneration by the ministry of the priests, are joined to the children of the Church.

VERS. 28.-- You are holy of the Lord. It behoves the teachers of the Church never to forget their holiness, because they have been consecrated by the Lord through the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption, for the receiving whereof let them instruct their hearers also, that they who have already been offered to the Lord through the rudiments of faith may be the more confirmed also by the examples and the admonitions of those who have gone before them in the faith, and may be made worthy of the entrance of the city above.

VERS. 29.-- Watch ye and keep. Priests must watch, lest any of the souls entrusted to them, that is, of the vessels of the Lord, should perish: but that they be brought with their number whole to the buildings of holy virtue.

709DUntil you weigh. Show forth, that is, by instructing and by teaching, those whom the disposition above has committed to you, such that they may be found irreprehensible and fit for the treasure of the heavenly court, that is, for the seats of eternal peace and light, and this not by the judgment of any persons whatsoever who can be deceived, but of the apostles and of those who shall judge with the Lord. For these deservedly are princes of the priests and of the Levites and leaders of the families of Israel, that is, they are understood as men or souls seeing God, of whom it is said: Thou shalt make them princes over all the earth (Psal. XLIV); and elsewhere: Her husband is honourable in the gates.

We set forward. (BEDA, ibid.) All things are full of mysteries, etc., as far as helped whereby we may the more effectually carry over the souls of the faithful to the 710Afellowship of the elect and to the citadel of the life of perfection, as holy vessels to the temple of the Lord.

VERS. 32.-- And we abode. (ID., ibid.) Three days are spent in Jerusalem, etc., as far as as though after the joy of a three days' abiding in Jerusalem they are the more honoured on account of the gifts and the precious vessels which they offered.

VERS. 34.-- And it was written down. (ID., ibid.) This is done when teachers earnestly examine the life of their subjects, etc., as far as that he may be given a worthy retribution in heaven.

VERS. 35.-- But they also who had come. (ID.) Great devotion and religion is shown, when, coming to the temple, they first of all offer holocausts, not only for themselves, but also for all Israel, that is, 710Bfor those who had already returned home, and for those who were still in exile.

But mystically those have truly and perfectly escaped by repenting the captivity of the devil, by which they were held in sinning, who subject themselves with fixed intention to the divine service, who kindle themselves, wholly drawn away from the lowest things, with the flame of heavenly desire. For this is to offer holocausts, that is, wholly burnt sacrifices, to the Lord, to think or to do nothing in all things but his will.

They offered holocausts to God, etc. Not only for themselves. It is a token of a perfect mind when a man immolates for all Israel, that is, for the general welfare of the faithful, and as one mindful of unity and of brotherhood beseeches the mercy above.

VERS. 36.-- And they lifted up the people. (AUG.) By adorning them 710Cwith the various gifts which the king and his counsellors and his princes had sent, and by delivering also his ministers and priests from all straits.

Mystically. The people and the temple of God hold one and the same figure of the Church, which Esdras and the children of the transmigration lift up when the sacred vessels are taken away from Babylon, when preachers, gathering to her, by the Lord's help, new peoples of believers, show her honourable to all and terrible. Again, when those whom they train by examples in good conversation, or whom by words they promote or advance even to the receiving of the heavenly rewards: they lift up the people into the house of God, because they make great joy both for those abiding in the country above and for the elect still journeying on earth.

(BEDA in Esdram, lib. II, tom. II.) But this 710Dtransgression, plainly described in the prophet Malachy, etc., as far as they refer the cause to the prince, that is, to the archbishop, by whose authority the crime may be expiated.

But mystically foreign wives signify heresies and the superstitious sects of the philosophers, which, when they are incautiously admitted into the Church, defile by error the holy seed of catholic truth and of pure action. All sins also with which the heathen are polluted, while Christians are not ashamed to imitate them, as it were through foreign wives degenerate from the seed of the word of God by which they had been begotten, according to that: Of his own will hath he begotten us by the word, etc. (Jac. I), and as it were beget a profane offspring of the daughters of strangers, while, following the allurements 711Aof the erring, they bring forth their perverse acts to the knowledge of all.

He is not separated. (BEDA., ibid.) It is to be noted that, Israel having been led away into captivity, etc., as far as the princes who ought to have corrected confess that they were the first to err.

VERS. 3.-- I rent my mantle. (ID., ibid.) By garments works are wont to be designated, etc., as far as He sat mourning, that he might teach that pardon is to be earned by the lamentations of penance.

VERS. 4.-- They came together. Note how much the examples of teachers avail. Nothing is written of Esdras having spoken, but only that, the crime being heard, he wept, and drew the crowd of the faithful to himself not by crying out but by weeping.

711BThey came together. A great change of things, by the perfidy of the princes, many having followed luxury, are brought back, the great prince mourning and intimating what sinners ought to do: there come together to him all who fear the word of God, by which he threatens that transgressors are to be punished.

The mantle being rent. (BEDA, ibid.) Typically, that with the garment rent, etc., as far as he vouchsafed mercifully to transfer to himself even those things which truly befitted their frailty.

VERS. 5.-- I bowed my knees, etc. He prepared himself by compunction of heart and by affliction of body, that he might be made worthy of the hearing of the mercy above: and he breaks forth into these words of prayer. And he bows his knees, spreads out his hands, and pours forth prayers at the time of the evening sacrifice, 711Cknowing that what is done in the spirit of humility and in a contrite mind is more acceptable than what is offered with the flesh and blood of cattle.

VERS. 1.-- So Esdras praying, and imploring God and weeping . . . . . . . The people wept. (BEDA in Esdram, tom. II.) [Vulg. Esr 10:1 et implorante eo et flente, "and he imploring and weeping"] They, that is, who had sinned, doing penance, or who had remained in chastity, grieving for the fall of their brethren, etc., as far as But now those also who had sinned came together with their wives and their children, about to do penance.

Of the children of Aelam. Josephus says that this man was the first of the men of Jerusalem, who, as befits a prince, presently with the greatest authority helped the intention of Esdras, 711Dby confessing that the people had sinned together with him, and by persuading to penance, the foreign wives being cast off, with their children.

And now if there be repentance in Israel. Because if the people perfectly repents of this sin, first, being converted to the Lord, let us promise amendment and ask pardon; then, returning to ourselves, let us root out every root and shoot of sin, casting out, that is, the wives with all their offspring: for this is truly 712Ato do penance with the whole heart, and inwardly to be converted to the Lord, and outwardly to have every matter of sinning cut away from its very origin.

Arise. Fittingly he teaches how counsel is to be taken among elders, namely, that each should say what he has understood to be best, or seems to himself to have understood: and yet leave to him who presides the place of discerning, being ready to obey in all things that he shall have decreed to be done according to the will and the law of God.

VERS. 6.-- The children of Eliasib. Who was then high priest, after Jesus the son of Josedec, Joacim his son, and after him Eliasib his son, held the office of high priest.

He ate no bread. (BEDA ubi supra. ) Hence priests have an example, 712Betc., as far as: If indeed, fleeing the defilements of the world, etc. (II Petr. II).

VERS. 9.-- This is. (BEDA ubi supra. ) Which by the Hebrews is called Casleu, by the Romans December, etc., as far as by which art they may either avoid or put away the adversities which rage without because of sins.

And all the people sat. (ID., ibid.) That is, about the court of the priests, with which the house itself was girt about on every side, having round it on every part, foursquare, most spacious buildings of courts, in which the people also, when there was need because of rain, could stand and see the things which were done in the doors of the temple, or about the temple: for they had the inner walls made upon pillars near the ground, the outer solid.

VERS. 10.-- And Esdras rose up. (ID., ibid.) This 712Cplace answers, etc., as far as and the deeds might deservedly be held in memory, and handed down to be known by those who come after.

VERS. 16.-- And they sat down on the day. (ID., ibid.) Note that the number three is mystical, etc., as far as which we too ought to imitate in every year in the Lent of the pasch, the Lord's day of the resurrection being at hand, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and of spirit, that we may be able to be partakers of the resurrection (II Cor. VII).

And there were found. (ID., ibid.) The Hebrews fit to this place, etc., as far as But it is to be observed that Esdras does not write that Jesus married a foreign wife, but certain of his sons and of his brethren, etc.

VERS. 18.-- And his brethren. (ID., ibid.) His kinsmen, 712Dthat is, for his brethren german in the flesh could not thus far be living and giving heed to pleasure, since a hundred years and more had passed since Cyrus, beginning to reign, sent back Jesus and Zorobabel with the transmigration of Juda and Benjamin to Jerusalem, to build the house of the Lord.

VERS. 19.-- And they gave, etc. (ID., ibid.) First they cast off the unlawful wives, etc., as far as may make him worthy of a perpetual reward in heaven.