LIBER III REGUM

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VERS. 1.-- And king David had grown old. (HIERON., epist. ad Nepotianum, tom. I.) Does it not seem to thee, if thou follow the killing letter, to be a fiction, or the sports of the Atellan farces? A cold old man is wrapped about with garments, and save by the embrace of a young girl he grows not warm. Bethsabee was yet living, etc., as far as and Rahab the harlot, in a figure of the Church, hung out the little net containing the mystery of blood, that when Jericho perished her house might be saved, whence it is said of the saints: These are they that came of the heat of the house of Rechab (I Par. II). And elsewhere: I am come to send fire upon the earth (Luc. XII), etc., which fire, kindled in the heart of the disciples, constrained them to say: Was not our heart burning (Ibid., XXIV)?

And when he was covered, etc. David suffered cold exceedingly, 581Beither because he was born of aged parents, or because he had poured out much blood in battle, or rather because, from the time when he saw the angel striking the people, he wasted away with vehement dread, whence he remained in the discomfort of cold even unto death.

VERS. 5.-- But Adonias. He signifies the Jewish people, who seems to be the elder son, because he received the law first, and who, despising the Gentile people, which was called later through the grace of God, thought to reign alone with the Lord. For Adonias is interpreted ruler lord. But the people of the Church is set in the kingdom in his stead, together with the true Solomon, that is, with our peaceable one, whose body it is, by divine ordinance, and from that kingdom the elder son, that is, the former people, is cast headlong by the desert of his perfidy.

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VERS. 5.-- Thou also. David gave charge to Solomon concerning the just requital of those who had been a solace to him, or had unjustly harmed him, whom he himself had patiently borne. And the prophecy indicates what evil or what good must come to pass in time to come, which the true Solomon will fulfil. Yet meanwhile the patience of God often grants that the good be afflicted and the reprobate enjoy delights.

VERS. 19.-- Bethsabee therefore came to the king. (RAB.) Adonias, by the intervention of Bethsabee, etc., as far as nor the law which the Jews suppose to be their helper with God.

VERS. 36.-- And thou shalt not go out, etc. The true Solomon commands us who dwell in Jerusalem never to 581Dgo out. But if they who were before subject to us have fled from us, let us not on that account go out to follow the footsteps of the fugitives, lest, while we wish to save them that flee, we ourselves perish, but rather let the dead bury their dead, and let us, while it is lawful, pluck out and cut off from us the eye, the hand, the foot that scandalizeth.

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VERS. 4.-- Solomon therefore went. In Gabaon was the greatest high place, where was the tabernacle which Moses made, and the brazen altar, upon which Solomon, offering a thousand victims, deserved a divine oracle.

VERS. 14.-- But if thou wilt walk in my ways, etc. Without the keeping of God's commandments no man can attain long days, that is, blessedness.

(GREG., lib. VIII Moral., cap. 17.) After the Lord lights up the darkness of our error with the light of his own knowledge, etc., as far as that we may be reformed unto the substance of the incorruption that is promised.

(HIER., epist. 131, tom. I.) Some think that this is to be understood of the Synagogue and the Church, etc., as far as it is also to be noted what the Church saith 582Bagainst the Synagogue.

VERS. 17.-- I and the woman. Because after the resurrection of the Saviour one Church was gathered out of both peoples. And elegantly he added: I brought forth beside her in the chamber. For the Church of the Gentiles, which had not the law and the prophets, brought forth in the house of the synagogue, and went not out of the chamber, but entered in. Whence: The king brought me into his chamber (Cant. II) [Vulg. in cellaria sua, "into his storerooms" (Cant. 1:3)]. And: I will bring thee into the house of my mother, and into the chamber of her that conceived me (Ibid., III).

(RAB.) If thou considerest Pilate washing his hands and saying: I am clean from the blood of this just man (Matth. XXVII) [Vulg. Innocens, "innocent" (Matt. 27:24)]: and the centurion confessing: Truly this was the Son of God (Marc. XV), and those who before the passion desired through Philip to see the Lord, 582Cthou doubtest not that the Church brought forth first; and afterward that the people of the Jews was born, for whom the Lord prayed: Father, forgive them, etc., and in one day three thousand believed, and another five thousand.

(GREG.) By the nursing mothers the order of teachers, etc., as far as they themselves receive their sons whole and living, when in the last judgment they obtain a perfect recompense out of their life.

VERS. 19.-- Dead. (RAB.) For while she follows the observance of the law and couples the grace of the Gospel to the law, she is covered over with the error of darkness.

VERS. 20.-- She took the son. The living one, that is: not that she might possess him, but that she might kill him. For she did this not out of love of the son, but out of hatred of her rival.

VERS. 21.-- Whom beholding more diligently, etc. (RAB.) 582DIt were long to show how through Paul and other churchmen the Church understood that he was not her son who was feared in the law, and in the light knew him whom in the darkness she did not see. The two women, of whom the one burned with love, while in the other dissimulation crept in, figure the Church, and the Synagogue or heretical 583Adepravity, of whom each both slays her own by nourishing them wickedly, and by alluring persuades those of another until she destroy them. Between the two women the Lord, while by the spirit of his mouth he decides what is just, restores to each what is owed.

VERS. 24.-- He said therefore. (RAB.) Feigning ignorance, he measures human affections according to the dispensation of the flesh, as also there: Where have you laid him (Joan. XX)? And elsewhere: Who hath touched me (Luc. VIII)?

VERS. 25.-- Divide. (ID.) The Lord tries nature by nature, and wills, according to the will of them both, to divide the living son into law and grace: not that he approves it, but he says that he wills this in order to convict the calumny of the Synagogue.

VERS. 26.-- But she said. (ID.) The Church, who 583Bknows him to be her own, willingly yields him to her rival, that he may live at least with her, lest, divided between law and grace, he be smitten with the sword of Christ, whence: Behold, I Paul say to you, that if you observe the law, Christ shall profit you nothing (Galat. V) [Vulg. si circumcidamini, "if you be circumcised" (Gal. 5:2)].

VERS. 22.-- The food of Solomon. (RAB.) The refreshment of Christ, who is fed with right faith and with good works, which are daily offered to him by the Catholic Church.

VERS. 23.-- Twenty oxen. (ID.) The preachers of the New Testament, who have as it were a doubled Decalogue in themselves, when they preach the New and the Old Testament equally, being full of the love of God and of their neighbour.

Besides the venison. By the hunting of divers animals 583Care meant those who out of divers nations are daily taken by the nets of the Gospel through spiritual hunters, and are brought in for the food of the Saviour.

VERS. 26.-- Forty, etc. By forty are designated the seasons of the ancient law, which Moses fasted forty days that he might receive, and the people that was instructed in it was forty years in the desert.

And twelve. This number signifies the present time, in which the apostolic doctrine of the New Testament nourishes the people.

VERS. 28.-- Barley, etc. That nothing be wanting in the house of the king, the order of preachers labours by writing and by speaking, that there may be abundance upon the table of the Lord, whence the faithful shall be nourished.

583DVERS. 32.-- And his canticles were. It is agreed that neither the canticles nor the disputations of Solomon are extant today.

Five thousand. [Vulg. quinque et mille, "a thousand and five" (III Reg. 4:32)] Because of the five senses, whereof he who governs them well in divers virtues is blessed, and through them sings as it were five thousand canticles to the Lord.

VERS. 33.-- Hyssop. (RAB.) Hyssop, a lowly herb and cleaving to the rock, etc., as far as for then he bowed down the cedar, that is, the arrogance of the world, even to the humility of hyssop, that is, even to the foolishness of the cross.

And he treated. (ID.) For all things are naked and open to Christ (Hebr. IV) [Vulg. oculis ejus, "to his eyes" (Heb. 4:13)]. And he disputes when he sets before us the reason of each several thing in his Scriptures, 584Aand makes manifest the sacraments which were hidden from ages and generations, that we may consider the blessedness of the angels, the usefulness of men, the cunning of the demons, and, reproving what is evil, may follow after what is good.

VERS. 3.-- And because he could not build a house, etc. (BEDA, quaest. in lib. Reg.) The house which Solomon built was a figure of the Church, etc., as far as it may show in certain men the contests of men rewarded together with the angels.

(ID., lib. de templo Salom., cap. 1.) This spiritual house the tabernacle also that was made in the desert signifies, etc., as far as and may in many ways show forth and figure the salvation of all nations in Christ.

584BVERS. 6.-- Give order therefore that they cut down for me, etc. (RAB.) The servants of Hiram cutting down cedars of Libanus for Solomon, etc., as far as they knew the errors of the Gentiles better, and therefore assailed them more skilfully.

For thou knowest how there is not among my people a man that knoweth timber, etc. (BEDA, ut supra. ) First must be spoken of the workmen of the temple, who or whence they were, and of the material itself, etc., as far as wheat, that is, of the word of God, the oil of charity, of unction and of the illumination of the Holy Spirit.

VERS. 10.-- And so Hiram gave Solomon cedar trees and fir trees, according to all, etc. Tyre, whence came king Hiram, is an island given over to trading, where were the best workers in timber, who gave precious timber and received victuals. For they live not by 584Ctilling the field, but by trading. There is mount Libanus, of whose timber the house of the Lord was made. Whence also Libanus is spoken of there: Open thy gates, O Libanus (Zach. XI).

VERS. 13.-- And king Solomon chose. (BEDA, ut supra, cap. 3.) Not in vain did he choose workmen out of all Israel, etc., as far as in which the mind of the faithful is looked upon by the Lord with a daily enlightening, as the moon by the sun.

Workmen out of all Israel, and the levy was thirty thousand men. These workmen were proselytes. Their masters were of the Jews, because he made not any man of Israel to serve.

VERS. 14.-- Adoniram was over this kind of levy. (BEDA, ibid.) My lord is exalted. This is Christ, who is set over the workmen of the temple, etc., as far as that by prayers and fastings it may be worthy of the beholder 584Dand visitor from on high.

VERS. 15.-- And so Solomon had seventy thousand of them that carried burdens, and eighty thousand stone-hewers in the mountain. (BEDA, ibid.) Nor is it to be passed over that the seventy and the eighty thousand of them that bore burdens and of the stone-hewers with their overseers were not Israelites, etc., as far as Certain men endowed with both virtues come together to the work of the house of the Lord; whence: Rebuke the unquiet, comfort the feeble-minded, etc. (I Thes. V).

Of the stone-hewers. (BEDA, ibid.). Stone-hewers are cutters of stones, etc., as far as because, plucked out from the power of darkness, we come to the citadel of the virtues which is in the unity of the Church.

585AVERS. 16.-- Besides the overseers. Now the overseers are the founders of holy Scripture, by whose teaching we are trained to teach the ignorant, to rebuke the despisers, and to bear one another's burdens.

Of three thousand. Because of the faith of the Trinity, which the holy oracles preach. That in Paralipomenon three thousand six hundred are written, has regard to their perfection. For the senary number, in which the adornment of the world was completed, signifies the perfect works of the good: and because holy Scripture teaches that the works of justice are to be had together with the faith of the truth, rightly were the overseers of the works of the temple three thousand and six hundred.

VERS. 17.-- And the king commanded that they should take. (BEDA, ibid.) For the building of the house of the Lord, timber and stones are first cut down from the mountain, etc., as far as whence: 585BBuilt upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (Ephes. II).

Great stones. (BEDA, ibid., cap. 4.) Or precious stones, great and squared, are the first masters, who heard the word of salvation from the Lord himself. But the courses of stones or of timbers set above are the priests or teachers that follow, by whose preaching the Church grows and is adorned with virtues.

(RAB. ex Bed.) But of what colour the stones were, etc., as far as the white marble, of which the house of the elect is constructed, signifies action that is clean and a conscience chastened from every blemish of corruption; whence: Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement, etc. (II Cor. VII).

Into the foundation of the temple. (BEDA, ibid.) The foundation 585Cis Christ, etc., as far as that, casting away superfluous words, deeds and thoughts, they may be made worthy to bear the burden of the Church.

VERS. 18.-- And the Giblites prepared timber and stones. (RAB. ex Bed., ibid.) Giblos is a city of Phoenicia. etc., as far as nor does he build a sanctuary to the Lord, but a ruin for himself, who presumes to teach what he has not himself learned.

For the building of the house. (ID., ibid.) After a foundation composed of such stones, the house is to be built with timber and stones prepared and set in order, which have even been drawn away from their own place, because after the first rudiments of faith, after the foundations of humility laid in us according to the example of lofty men, a wall of good works must be added on high, 585Dand, as by courses of stones set one upon another, we must go forward from virtue to virtue.

VERS. 1.-- It came to pass therefore. (RAB. ex Bed., lib. de Templo Salom., cap. 5.) Mention is made of the going forth out of Egypt, etc., as far as nor a Scripture which should intimate in the Old Testament the grace of the New.

In the fourth year. In the fourth year of king Solomon the house began to be built: because after the dispensation of Christ's incarnation, written in the four Gospels, was fulfilled, the Holy Spirit being sent, the building of the Church began.

In the month Zio (that is the month). (BEDA, ibidem.) That in the second month, etc., as far as whence it is plain that soon 586Aafter the pasch was over he began to build the house of the Lord, and the people, consecrated by the mystic solemnity, put their hands to the mystic work.

He began to build. (ID., ibid.) Where the temple was built is made manifest in Paralipomenon, etc., as far as but she was made possessed of that inward peace which she should have with her Creator.

Which David had prepared, etc. For David had prepared by his psalmody, and the other prophets prepared by their prophesying, a place for the Lord: that is, for the true Solomon, wherein he might build a house, because they instructed the hearts of their hearers in faith, admonishing them to receive the incarnate Son of God with faithful devotion. Whence: Lift up your eyes and see the countries, for they are white already to harvest: and he that reapeth receiveth wages: and gathereth fruit unto life 586Beverlasting, that both he that soweth may rejoice together, and he that reapeth (Joan. IV). Which is to say: Lift up your eyes and see the place that is prepared for the building of the house, and he that buildeth by teaching receiveth wages, and gathereth precious stones unto life everlasting: that both he that prepareth the place for the building may rejoice together, and he that buildeth, that is, that the prophet foretelling him that should come: and the apostle preaching the Lord already come, may obtain one and the same reward together.

In length, etc. The length of the house signifies the longsuffering of the Church, whereby she patiently bears adversities until she come to her country. This is of sixty cubits, because the senary number signifies the perfection of good works; because we ought so to bear adversities by longsuffering, that by good works we may deserve to enter the promised 586Ccountry.

Twenty cubits. Because of the twofold distance of charity, whereby we love God and our neighbour.

In breadth. The breadth signifies charity, which with the bosom of the mind enlarged loves friends in God, and enemies for God's sake, until, when they are converted to peace or utterly destroyed, she may rejoice in the Lord with friends alone.

(BEDA, ibid.) It is to be noted that the thirty cubits of height reached not as far as the roof of the temple, but as far as the lower upper chamber. For it is plainly written in Paralipomenon that the height was of a hundred and twenty cubits, of the mysteries of which matter it shall be more fitly treated in what follows, when the order of the reading shall have come to the middle upper chamber and the third.

586DThirty cubits. Because of the faith of the Trinity, in the vision of which all the desires of our hope are suspended. The several numbers are multiplied by ten, because through faith and the keeping of the law patience is wholesomely exercised: charity burns manfully, and hope is caught up on high to things eternal.

In height. The height signifies the hope of the recompense to come, for which she despises things prosperous or adverse, until she see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.

VERS. 3.-- There was a porch, etc. Of this it is thus written in Paralipomenon: And the porch before the front, which was extended in length according to the measure of the breadth, of twenty cubits (II Paral. III). It is plain therefore that this porch was made toward the eastern part of the temple. 587AFor the temple was turned to the east, as was the tabernacle also: and it had a door on the east over against the door of the temple, according to Josephus, so that the sun rising at the equinox might, by the straight lines of its rays, pour through three doors, namely of the porch, of the temple and of the oracle, upon the ark of the testament. The temple figures the Church, the porch, which before the temple first received the light of the sun, that part of the Church which went before the incarnation of the Lord: in which the patriarchs and prophets first received the rising sun of justice, and by living, preaching, being born and dying gave testimony to the Lord being born in the flesh.

Of twenty cubits in length, according to the measure of the breadth of the temple. (BEDA, lib. de temp. Salom., c. 6.) Because the just men of old in patience and longsuffering 587Bwaited, etc., as far as yet they could not hear his doctrine nor receive his sacraments.

VERS. 4.-- Slanting windows. (ID., ibid., cap. 7.) The holy teachers, to whom, going out of their mind unto God, it is granted to see the secret things of heaven more especially. Who, while they publicly disclose what they see in secret, fill all the inner places of the temple as windows that have taken in the light of the sun. Whence they are reported to have been slanting, that is, wider within: because he who receives the brightness of the contemplation above, if but for a moment, straightway by chastening enlarges the bosom of his heart the more, and prepares it by diligent exercise for the taking in of greater things.

VERS. 5.-- And he built, etc. (ID., ibid.) These boardings are called in the Gospel, where the Lord is tempted by the devil, the pinnacles of the temple, etc., as far as the greatest 587Cpart of whom the history of St. Stephen testifies more fully to have left their wives, where it calls the women that flourished in the same religion not their spouses, but their widows.

Sides. (ID., ibid.) That is, little parapets, lest any should easily fall thence to the lower parts, etc., as far as Sides, that is, walls or lattices, or little parapets, the teachers sitting upon the boardings, who harangued the people standing about below.

VERS. 6.-- And he put beams in the house round about on the outside. (BEDA, ibid.) The houses which bear the boardings, etc., as far as and yet out of those things which they show forth without by speaking, doing or suffering, we find the help of salvation.

Beams, etc., on the outside. It was of such length that their heads projected on the outside. In the lowest 587Dcourse of seven cubits, in the middle of six, in the highest of five, so that upon their heads the boardings might be set together, not fastened into the walls of the temple, but laid beside the walls upon the beams which had come forth out of the walls.

VERS. 7.-- And the house, etc. These things pertain properly to that part of the Church which after the labours and contests of this world has deserved to be brought in to the eternal rewards. For nothing defiled shall enter into that city.

And the hammer and the axe. Because here we are beaten with adversities and are exercised with the discipline of truth, that there we may be disposed according to our merit in fitting places, and, chastisement ceasing, may be filled with one spirit and steeped in the sole glue of love whereby we are coupled to one another. But although 588Ait be said: Noe a perfect man in his generations, and: Blessed are the undefiled in the way, and the like, no man can truly walk the way of this life perfect and without stain. For there is none that doth good and sinneth not. But according to the measure of this present time they are called perfect and undefiled, who are then truly made perfect, when, loosed from the bonds of the body, they shall have come to the immortal comeliness of the house of the Lord.

VERS. 8.-- The door of the side. (BEDA, ibid, cap. 8.) Certain men, ill understanding this place, etc., as far as and well one door, because of the faith and the love of truth that is harmonious in all the saints.

They went up into the middle upper chamber, and from the middle into the third. And he built. (BEDA ibid.) It is to be noted that the thirty cubits of height, of which we read above, etc., 588Bas far as because with harmonious mind and voice all shall praise together the glory of the divine majesty.

VERS. 9.-- With panelled ceilings. (BEDA, ibid., cap. 9.) Panelled ceilings are boardings which, composed and adorned with great beauty, are fastened to the beams from the under part, and because the house of the Lord had been made of a threefold height, it had threefold panelled ceilings. That is, the more sublime saints, whose work and doctrine, set before all in the temple, stand out as it were farther on high; whosoever by interceding and exhorting protect the souls of the weak, that they fail not.

Of cedar. (ID., ibid.) The cedar, a tree that cannot rot, etc., as far as save to love God with the whole heart, the whole soul, the whole strength, and our neighbour as ourselves.

588CVERS. 10.-- A boarding over the whole house of five cubits in height. (BEDA, ibid.) Here the topmost roof of the house itself is spoken of, etc., as far as in the spirit and power of Elias.

VERS. 15.-- And he built the walls. (BED., ibid.) Within indeed the house was clothed with cedar, etc., as far as but they have not any whom they may carry.

The walls of the house. They are covered when the hearts of the faithful overflow with the love of the virtues. For as the cedar signifies the perfect, so, in fitting places, the loftiness of the virtues, whereby that same perfection is attained.

From the pavement. All things are covered with timber, from the pavement of the house even to the top of the walls and even to the panelled ceilings, when the elect from the first rudiments of faith even 588Dto the perfection of good action, and even to the entering in of the heavenly country, sweat at good works, when from the first just men even to the last at the consummation of the world all are zealous for the virtues, by whose merit they may dare to say: We are the good odour of Christ unto God (II Cor. II).

And he covered the pavement. (BED. ibid.) This is more fully written in Paralipomenon, etc., as far as he subjoined: But above all things having charity, etc. (I Tim. I; Col. III).

VERS. 16.-- He built twenty. (BED., ibid., cap. 10.) That the boardings, etc., as far as and this throughout the whole breadth of the Church spread abroad through the world.

VERS. 17.-- Moreover. (ID., ibid.) Ten multiplied four times 589Amake forty, etc., as far as but the four-square world, in which we strive to obtain the same. Whence: He hath gathered them out of the countries. From the rising and the setting of the sun, from the north and from the sea (Psal. CVI).

VERS. 18.-- And all with cedar. The cedar marks the unconquerable comeliness of the virtues, with which timber the whole house is clothed within, when the hearts of the just shine with the love of good works alone.

Having turned work. (BEDA, ibid., cap. 11.) The house has in its cedar boards its turned work and its joinings skilfully wrought, when the elect are knit to one another by the most beautiful bond of charity, so that they have one heart and one soul. For the turned work which is set against the joinings of the boards, that one boarding may be made of them all, is the offices of charity by which the holy brotherhood is 589Bcoupled, and is composed into one house of Christ throughout the whole world.

Carvings. The works of the saints set forth by open expression what manner of men they are, for an example to others. Whence Paul both by deeds and by words sets himself forth for an example.

All things with cedar, etc. (ID. ibid.) The stones of the wall or the pavement, and the boards, and the gold, etc., as far as and to those who have perfectly received the grace of the Gospel alike enjoy eternal life.

VERS. 19.-- The oracle. (BED., ibid.) The oracle, where the ark was, etc., as far as who after the resurrection, ascending into heaven, placed at the Father's right hand the flesh he had taken of the Virgin.

VERS. 20.-- Moreover the oracle. And well is the inner 589Chouse twenty cubits long, for the mystery of the twofold love, of which it has already been spoken, which in this life for the greatest part enlightens the minds of the elect, but in the country above, the works of the other virtues ceasing, reigns alone.

Yea and the altar. (ID., ibid., cap. 12.) Of incense, that is, etc., as far as but what the stone, the cedar and the gold signify has been said above.

VERS. 21.-- The house also before the oracle. (BED., ibid.) The house before the oracle is covered with gold, etc., as far as whence: I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. And again: The hour cometh when now I will no longer speak to you in proverbs, etc. (Joan. XIV; XVI).

With golden nails. (ID., ibid.) Now the nails are the precepts of charity, etc., as far as who again, to perfection 589Dcoming, says of the nails of love: But for me to adhere to God, etc. (Psal. CXVIII, 72).

VERS. 22.-- And there was nothing in the temple. (ID., ibid.) These things are more fully explained in Paralipomenon (II Par. III), etc., as far as: and mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth (Col. III).

VERS. 23.-- Cherubim of timber. (ID., ibid., cap. 13.) It is a word of angelic dignity, and in the singular it is said cherub, in the plural cherubim. By the cherubim therefore may be understood the angelic ministries which always stand by the Creator in heaven.-- Of olive. Because the angels are anointed with spiritual grace, that they may never wither from the love of God, whom he who created them straightway filled with the light of heavenly wisdom, 590Awhence also they are called cherubim, that is, multiplied knowledge, or a multitude of knowledge. They are made of the timbers of olive trees, because they bestow on us the light of knowledge, with the help of the flame of the love of God, which is poured forth through the Spirit in our hearts.

Of ten cubits. (BEDA ibid.) They are ten cubits in height, because they enjoy the denary of eternal life, having the image of their Creator inviolate, keeping the holiness and justice and truth in which they were created. For the denarius consists of ten obols, and is wont to contain in itself the name and the image of the king. Therefore it agrees with the figure of the heavenly kingdom, where the angels always abide in the image of their Creator according to which they were made, and the elect among men receive the image which they lost by sinning, whence: When he shall appear, we shall be like to him, and 590Bwe shall see him as he is (Joan. III).

VERS. 24.-- Of five cubits. (ID., ibid.) When the wings are set for a figure of holy men, etc., as far as they come to the denary which is promised to the tillers of life.

The other wing of the cherub. They have twin wings, because the testaments declare that alike through prosperity and adversity, with unwearied purpose, they have always stretched toward heavenly things and attained them, because they show that this same thing is to be done by their hearers.

VERS. 25.-- Ten cubits also. (BEDA, ibid.) They are ten cubits high, because they preach that God is to be served through the observance of the Decalogue, because they show that they who faithfully serve God are to be rewarded with the denary of the eternal kingdom.

590C(ID., ibid.) And the work. Two cherubim had been made for the signifying of the fellowship of charity, etc., as far as to whom, after the colds and the darkness of idolatry, it was given to know the light of truth.

(ID., ibid.) By the two cherubim the two Testaments may be figured, etc., as far as but because the festivity of inward blessedness is the greater from the fellowship of a brotherhood made one.

In the midst of the inner temple. (ID., ibid.) It is manifest from what has been said, etc., as far as it expresses that grace of love wherewith they embrace one another.

VERS. 27.-- And they stretched forth their wings, etc. (ID., ibid.) And the cherubim stretch forth their wings to either wall of the oracle, etc., as far as their writers, now reigning with the Lord and praising him, take 590Dcare for our salvation, making intercession for us.

VERS. 28.-- He covered the cherubim also. They are surrounded with gold, because by the illustrious works of their writers the authority of the testaments has been confirmed, and the knowledge of the divine Scriptures has been made manifest throughout the world, or the inward glory of the heavenly hosts. For the cherubim signify both, namely both the angels and the testaments.

VERS. 29.-- He carved with divers carvings. (BEDA, ibid., cap. 14.) The walls are carved with the turning-tool, etc., as far as she has learned, being exercised by long practice of the virtues. And palms. (ID., ibid.) He makes palms when he fixes the memory of the eternal recompense in the minds of the saints, that 591Athey may fall the less from the citadel of justice, the more they have the reward of justice always before their eyes.

And divers paintings. He makes divers paintings as it were standing out from the wall and going forth, when he bestows on the faithful all the manifold workings of the virtues, namely the bowels of mercy, kindness, humility, patience, modesty, etc., but above all things charity, which is the bond of perfection (Col. III). These virtues, when they have come into so great a habit in the elect that they seem naturally implanted, what else is it than that, like the paintings of the house of the Lord, they go forth standing out from the wall? Because they do not still learn the words and works of truth from others outwardly, but, fixed in themselves and rooted and ever ready, they bring forth from the inmost parts of the heart the things that are to be done or taught. And we have said 591Bthat the evenness of the pavement signifies the humble concord of the brotherhood: where, although there be Jews or Gentiles, barbarians and Scythians, free men and slaves, noble and ignoble: all glory that they are brethren in Christ and have the same Father in heaven. For the most concordant humility of the citizens above is doubtful to none. Solomon therefore covered the pavement of the house with gold, within in the oracle and without in the temple: because Christ filled the angels and the souls of the just in heaven with the full gift of perfection, and set apart the citizens of the heavenly country who are pilgrims in this world, by the eternal seal of love, from the vileness of mortal men. Whence: By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another (Joan. XIII).

VERS. 31.-- And in the entrance of the oracle, etc. (BEDA, 591Cibid., cap. 15.) There was one entrance, but it was closed with two doors, etc., as far as nay rather all the elect open for themselves the approach to the heavenly country by the arms of light and of piety.

Two little doors of olive wood. (ID., ibid.) There are two little doors, because the angels and holy men love God and their neighbour, nor can they enter the gate of life save through the twofold love. Or because to the faithful of both peoples, namely to Jews and to Gentiles, the same gate of life is unbarred.

And the posts of the corners. They have posts of five corners, because the heavenly hall receives not only the souls of the elect, but also opens its doors in the judgment to bodies endowed with immortal glory, for the senses of the body are five. Or each post of the oracle is 591Dfive cubits high, because the entrance of the country above is opened to those alone who serve the Lord with all the senses of body and of heart: of the body, that is, when through them they do somewhat for that country; but of the heart, when they think soberly, and justly, and piously, they determine to act upon those things through the senses of the body themselves.

VERS. 32.-- Anaglypha. It might be called a carving made in the joining of the boards, but it is taken broadly. (BEDA, ibid.) Ἀνάγλυφα, anaglypha in Greek, are in Latin called caelaturae, etc., as far as by the beholding of these we continually govern our steps.

VERS. 33.-- And he made in the entry. As the entrance of the oracle, by which one comes to the ark of the Lord and to the cherubim, signifies the entry of heaven, by which we desire to be brought in to the vision of God 592Aand of the citizens above: so the entry into the temple signifies the first beginnings of our conversion to God, when we enter into the present Church. This designates our entrance unto faith, that unto hope. Whence the posts of this entry are four-cornered because of the four books of the Gospel, by whose doctrine we are instructed in the faith of the truth. Posts of timber. (BEDA, ibid.) Four-cornered, that is, because of the four principal virtues, etc., as far as fourth, after prudence, fortitude and temperance, justice follows.

VERS. 34.-- On either side. Because they look to one another, so that the one cannot be had without the other. The outer door is brotherly love, the inner divine: because that is the former in time, this the more sublime in dignity: and through 592Bthat one this is entered: because in the love of one's neighbour it is learned how the Creator ought to be loved.

And both the doors. (BEDA, ibid.) Because in each love there are two things principally to be observed, etc., as far as that, all sins being extinguished, we may pass over to the shore and the solid ground of the virtues.

(BEDA ubi supra.) It is to be noted that in the going out of the oracle two doors are said to have been, etc., as far as the other prefiguring the dispensation of the mystery.

And one another. Or the door which held one another is opened, when through the ministry of the preacher it is discerned what properly pertains to the knowledge of faith, and what to chastity of living, which two cannot be separated, and that it is a little thing to bear the evils of one's neighbours and not to bestow good things upon them, since these things most certainly 592Care wont to abide indissolubly in the heart of the perfect.

VERS. 35.-- And he carved cherubim. These things have been expounded above, because in the walls of the house and in the inner doors the same paintings or carvings were made; because the same secrets of faith, hope and charity, which the sublime and the perfect take in sublimely, and which all the elect fully receive in the eternal vision, are delivered also to the untaught who are to be catechized, to be learned and confessed according to each one's capacity, that, being initiated into the sacred mysteries, they may one day come to take in the things which they have piously believed.

VERS. 36.-- He built the court. (BEDA ubi supra, cap. 16.) He speaks briefly of the inner court, etc., as far as whence there follows: He built the inner court 592Dwith three rows (I Cor. II).

And with one row. The one row of cedar timbers is good work shown forth without the corruption of dissimulation, without the adding of which faith, hope and charity cannot be true. For the timbers of cedar, because of the grace of their odour and the power of their nature that cannot rot, designate perseverance and the good report of pious action. Even to this court all the elect climb up, who by faith, hope, charity and work desire to please God, this the perfect pass beyond by the lofty grace of their merits, when they advance to so great a summit of the virtues that they can say to their hearers: Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ (I Cor. IV); and: Know you not that we shall judge angels, how much more things of this world (Ibid. VI).

593AVERS. 38.-- That is the month. (BEDA ubi supra.) It is asked how the house of the Lord is said to have been perfected in the eighth month in all its work, etc., as far as whence David entitled a Psalm for the octave, which he sang for fear of the judgment, saying: Lord, rebuke me not in thy indignation, nor chastise me in thy wrath Psal. VI).

And he built it. Because the Church throughout the whole time of this world, which is run through in the circuit of seven days, is built up of the souls of the elect: and at the end of the world brings her increase to its end. Or because of the signifying of spiritual grace, through which the Church receives only that she may be the Church: because without the gifts of the Spirit no one can be made faithful, or keep the faith, or come by the merit of faith to the crown of justice.

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But the house of the woman vi. (BED., lib. de templo Salom., cap. 17.) Of the Church, that is, of the present Church, for which Christ her husband rose again when he had tasted death, etc., as far as For brass is very lasting and full of sound.

VERS. 14.-- He made all the work. Because the holy teachers, while they faithfully persevere in the ministry of the word, work the work of God, because by speaking outwardly they open the way of truth to those whom he himself, by enlightening them within, has foreordained unto eternal life. Whence: I have planted, Apollo watered, but the Lord gave the increase (II Cor. III).

VERS. 15.-- And he fashioned. (BED. ubi supra, cap. 18.) The pillar before the doors of the temple is eighteen cubits high, etc., as far as that in any part [ulla; read ne ulla, "that we may not in any part turn aside"] we may turn aside from the straight way by which we walk toward the promised 593Ccountry.

Ten and eight, etc. For three times six make eighteen: the three, that is, pertain to faith because of the Trinity; the six to work, because in six days the world was made, the three are multiplied by six, when the just man lives by faith and heaps up the knowledge of pious faith by the performance of good action.

And a line. (BEDA, ibid.) The rule of the apostolic institution encompasses both pillars, when the teacher sent to preach to Jews or to Gentiles takes care to do and to teach those things only which the Church received and learned through the apostles. For he who shall have willed to teach, to live or to preach otherwise, and to despise the apostolic decrees or to establish new ones at his own pleasure, is not a pillar in the temple of God: because while he scorns to follow 593Dthe apostolic institutions, he agrees not with the line of twelve cubits, either by the thinness of sloth or by the thickness of pride.

VERS. 16.-- Two, etc. (ID., ibid.) The heads of the pillars, etc., as far as the grace of evangelical perfection is implanted.

VERS. 17.-- Seven apiece, etc. (ID., ibid.) This is thus written in Paralipomenon, etc., as far as because the fathers of both testaments received through the grace of the one sevenfold Spirit that they should be elect.

VERS. 18.-- And two. (ID.) The pomegranates seem to have been made round about the capitals from the lower part, and the nettings to rise out of the pomegranates themselves: whereby the capitals were covered in some part, it is signified that virtues 594Aare born of virtues, and that the saints walk from virtue unto virtue (Psal. LXXXIII).

(ID., ibid.) There were two rows of nettings round about the capital, etc., as far as and in those things which we understand it lies widely open.

That they might cover. (ID., ibid.) Since it has been said of the nettings, etc., as far as it is fitly subjoined: And the capitals that were upon the tops of the pillars, etc.

Of pomegranates. Which with one rind without enclose many grains within, etc., as far as but the grace of faith, of hope and of love, and of the other goods of the mind, which is within, is not discerned.

VERS. 19.-- As it were, etc. (ID., ibid.) By the lilies is designated the brightness of the country above, and the pleasantness of paradise fragrant with the flowers of immortality, etc., as far 594Bas because not except through the Gospel did that longed-for voice sound to the world, Do penance, etc. (Matth. III). In the porch. And it is to be noted in this sentence of Paralipomenon that the same porch of the temple is also called the vestibule of the temple. Whence: Between the vestibule and the altar they wept; that is, between the porch and the altar.

VERS. 20.-- And again (BED. ubi supra.) Whose making, that is, designates the loftiness of the everlasting kingdom, etc., as far as but because that fellowship is granted to the faithful of both peoples, it is rightly subjoined: Of pomegranates. (ID., ibid.) In the pomegranate he signifies the whole Church, etc., as far as and they gather the elect of both peoples into the one citadel of blessedness.

594CThe pillar. (ID., ibid.) The right pillar signifies the teachers of the primitive Church, etc., as far as nothing of diligence at least for the understanding of the errors of those over whom they are set.

He made also. (ID., ibid.) This sea was made for a figure of baptism, etc., as far as when he foretold that this was to be given to them that labour in the vineyard.

VERS. 23.-- From brim to brim. Because from the first baptized in the name of Jesus Christ even to the last who at the end of the world shall believe and be baptized, the whole choir of the faithful ought to enter upon the same way of truth, and to hope for a common crown of justice from the Lord.

Of five cubits. Because whatsoever we offend in by sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, the grace of God releases to us 594Dthrough the washing of the life-giving font. But the remission of past sins does not suffice, unless a man thereafter be zealous for good works; otherwise the devil who had gone out of the man, if he shall see him to be empty of good works, returns the more manifoldly, and makes the last things of that man worse than the first; whence it is subjoined:

And a little cord of thirty cubits encompassed it. The discipline of the heavenly precepts, by which we are bound back from pleasures; whence: A threefold cord is hardly broken (Eccl. IV), because the observance of the commandments, which is made firm in the hearts of the elect by faith, by love, and by hope of the recompense above, can be loosed by no obstacle. The little cord goes about the sea, when we are zealous to fortify with pious works the sacrament of baptism which we have received. This 595Ais of thirty cubits, for five times six make thirty. And by the senary number, in which the Lord made man when he was not, and remade him when he had perished, our good working is figured. And six are multiplied by five, that they may come to thirty, when all the senses of the body are subjected to the divine commands.

Otherwise: three times ten make thirty, and the human race after the flood, from the offspring of the three sons of Noe, filled the breadth of the whole world. For Sem obtained Asia, Cham Africa, and the offspring of Japheth Europe and the islands of the sea. And because the mystery of baptism, together with the performance of works and the hope of heavenly things, was to be ministered to all nations, a little cord of thirty cubits encompassed the sea in which baptism was figured. But here too it must be said that the Lord, when he was thirty 595Byears old, came to baptism, and because by his own baptism, which he received in his thirtieth year, he consecrated our baptism, rightly did a cord of thirty cubits go about the sea which figured our baptism, that it might be signified that by the gift of him who underwent baptism without sin, baptism is dedicated to us who believe in him unto the remission of sins.

And a carving. Since it has been said before that a little cord of thirty cubits went round the sea, and it is now added that this carving, set beneath the brim, went about by ten cubits, it is plain that the vessel was spread out and widened after the manner of a phial, which from the thirty cubits of circuit that it had at the brim was drawn in to ten. Now a storied carving is one which imitates 595Ccertain histories of things. Whence by the storied carvings with which the sea is surrounded are marked the examples of former times, which are to be beheld by us, that we may see by what works the saints from the beginning pleased God, with what obstinacy the wicked persisted in their crimes, with how great unhappiness the reprobate perished. How at the beginning of the world's birth Cain was condemned for the malice of envy, Abel crowned by the merit of justice, Lamech cursed for adultery and murder, Enoch brought back to paradise for the grace of piety, Cham after the flood detested for impiety, Sem and Japheth endowed with perpetual blessing for the obedience of reverence, Abraham made heir of the divine promise by the merit of faith, and the rest of the multitude of the nations left behind for unbelief. At the coming also in the flesh of 595Dthe Lord, Judaea was cast off for her perfidy, the Gentile world brought back by grace unto salvation, and things of this kind, which, diligently considered in both testaments, profit the studious. Therefore perhaps there are two rows of storied carvings in the brazen sea, that they who have been steeped in the font of baptism may hearken to the histories of both testaments: therefore they were of ten cubits round about, that whomsoever in those same histories they shall have looked upon as given up to obeying the heavenly commands, and held suspended with their whole intent toward the rewards above, they may strive to imitate.

VERS. 25.-- Twelve. (BED. ubi supra). The Apostle, the evangelists, nay rather all the ministers of the word; whence: Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn, etc. (I Cor. IX). These bear the sea set upon them, when the apostles 596Aand their successors fulfil with prompt devotion the office of the Gospel enjoined upon them.

Of which three. Because in all the parts of the four-square world they preach the faith of the Trinity. Hence also twelve apostles, that is, four times three, were chosen, that, evangelizing the faith and confession of the Trinity through the four quarters of the world, they might baptize all nations in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Whose words, deeds and sufferings, and those of their successors, we can easily see and know in the present by reading. But what glory of recompense awaits them in time to come we cannot yet see.

VERS. 26.-- The thickness. (BED. ubi supra.) He who receives the laver of baptism unto salvation and life ought to have faith and hope and charity, without which no man 596Bcan work rightly; whence it is subjoined, The thickness. Because the receiving of baptism is fortified by the strength of faith, of hope and of charity, nor is it shown to be profitable to them that receive it otherwise, unless the firm certainty of these virtues confirm the mind and the bodies of the receivers.

Of a lily. (ID., ibid.) The lily, with the grace of its odour accompanying it, a white colour without, etc., as far as whence it is subjoined:

It held two thousand baths, and three thousand, etc. (ID., ibid.) The bath is a measure of the Hebrews, etc., as far as he makes them partakers of the same kingdom.

VERS. 27.-- (ID., ibid.) A thousand signifies perfection, because it makes the denary squared into a solid. For ten times ten make a hundred, which figure is already four-square, but as yet flat. But that it may 596Crise into height and be made solid, multiply a hundred by ten, and there are made a thousand. By which number the stable and as it were four-square conscience of the just is marked. For whithersoever you set down a square, it will stand, so the mind of the elect is bent by no temptation from the state of rectitude.

And he made. (ID., ibid., cap. 20.) In many ways and in many manners the same sacraments of our salvation are figured, etc., as far as he made them glow with divine love.

(ID., ibid.) That ten bases were made for the carrying of the lavers, etc., as far as but calling upon God the Father by one and the same name, because of the gift of the one Spirit.

Of four cubits in length. (ID., ibid.) The length and breadth of the bases was of four cubits each, because the preachers, whether they bear outwardly the adversities of the world and 596Dthe length of exile and of present labours, or enlarge the heart in the love of God and of their neighbour with inward exultation, are always zealous for the virtues, prudently, that is, discerning between good and evil, bravely enduring adversities, temperately restraining the heart from the appetite of pleasures, and holding justice in their working.

VERS. 28.-- And the work itself of the bases. The boards of which the bases were made were four-square, and in them were round shapes, which are called little crowns or plaited work, in the midst of which were carvings of lions, etc.

VERS. 29.-- Between the little crowns also and the plaited work, lions and oxen and cherubim. (ID., ibid.) The surface of the bases was not plain on any 597Apart, etc., as far as whence here also, after the carvings of the cherubim, it is well subjoined:

And beneath, lions. Because the teachers, both in the severity of strictness whereby they judge sinners, and in the meekness of gentleness whereby they remit to the penitent, fear the judgment of God, lest by binding and loosing unjustly they be justly bound by him whose judgment cannot err.

VERS. 30.-- And four wheels. (BEDA, ibid.) The four books of the Gospels, etc., as far as they lift them up from the lowest things and, as when wheels are put on, the axles raise the base higher from the ground.

Little shoulder-pieces. (ID., ibid.) Which withstood the wheels set before them, lest they might slip away from the axle, are the heraldings of the prophets, by which the evangelical and apostolic Scripture is confirmed, lest it come into doubt for any of them that read; whence: 597BWe have the more firm prophetical word, whereunto you do well to attend, etc. (II Pet. I). Whence Mark also saith: The beginning of the Gospel of the Son of God, as it is written in Isaias the prophet; and Matthew: Now all this was done, that the Scripture of the prophets might be fulfilled (Mar. I; Matth. XXVI).

Over against. (ID., ibid.) Because all prophetic Scripture is in agreement with itself, as being composed by one Spirit. And there were four little shoulder-pieces to each base, that is, according to the number of the wheels, not that the books of the prophets are only four, but because all the things which the prophets spoke gave testimony to the four Gospels, so that out of the consent of both Testaments one faith and love of Christ might make firm the hearts of us all.

597CVERS. 31.-- One cubit. (ID., ibid.) Because of perfection, etc., as far as whence: For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, etc. (I Cor. XIII).

The middle. He means the upper board, which like the others was four-square and likewise carved, and had at its top a roundness of one cubit and a half, in which the laver was set.

VERS. 37.-- In this manner he made ten bases, of one casting, and measure, and carving, etc. (BED., ibid.) Why ten bases were made and as many lavers set beneath has been said above; but that there was one measure and a like carving of all the bases and of the lavers was not done with this signification, that the merits of all teachers can be equal; but 597Dbecause they have one faith of the Gospel, by which they are instructed, one sacrament of baptism, by which they are washed, one and the same Spirit, by whom all are consecrated, although they have divers gifts in that same Spirit, who divides to every one according as he will.

VERS. 38.-- One laver held forty baths, etc. (ID., ibid) Forty signifies great perfection, because four times ten make forty, and ten are the precepts by which our whole working is prescribed in the law of God. And there are four books of the Gospels, in which through the dispensation of the Lord's incarnation the entry of the heavenly country has been laid open to us, and because all who belong to the mystery of baptism ought, together with the faith and the sacraments of the Gospel, 598Ato show the fruit of right working, the several lavers in which the holocausts were washed held forty baths.

And it was. (ID., ibid). As to what was said above: and it had likewise one cubit and a half, he did not add whether it there signified breadth or height: it seems that he willed the bottom of the laver itself to be understood to be of this breadth, which is most easily gathered from the measure of the base on which each laver was set, which is thus described: And on the top of the base there was a certain roundness of one cubit and a half, so wrought that the laver might be set upon it. [Vulg. rotunditas dimidii cubiti, "a roundness of half a cubit" (III Reg. 7:35)] The breadth therefore of the bottom in the lavers was of one cubit and a half. But the capacity itself of the lavers had four cubits, yet whether in height, or in breadth, 598Bor in both, let him say who knows.

(ID., ibid.) Because of the four Gospels, in which the form of baptism, or the cardinal virtues wherein the baptized ought to be instructed, or because of the four quarters of the world in which baptism is ministered.

VERS. 39.-- And he set ten bases, five on the right side of the temple, and five on the left. (ID., ibid.) But the right side of the temple and the left, not within in the temple itself, etc., as far as and I consider that they are alien from the flame of divine charity.

And he put the sea on the right side of the temple, etc. (ID., ibid.) And in this same court, etc., as far as through which the same love is poured forth in our hearts.

VERS. 46.-- Of Jordan the king cast them in. (ID., ibid.) 598CIn which our Lord was baptized, etc., as far as he filled throughout the whole breadth of the world.

Clayey ground. (ID., ibid., cap. 21.) Of which were made the moulds for the casting of the vessels of Scripture, etc., as far as that by running well we may come to their rewards.

VERS. 48.-- And Solomon made all the vessels in the house, etc. (ID., ibid.) Above he said that Hiram had made all the vessels for Solomon, now the Scripture subjoins that Solomon made the same. For Solomon made them by dictating, Hiram by working.

The altar of gold. (ID., ibid.) The hearts of the perfect flash with the light of inward charity and chastity, etc., as far as but they offer him only the vows of tears and of prayer for the desire of the heavenly kingdom.

598D(ID., ibid. cap. 22.) Moses made the altar of incense, etc., as far as whence they who labour in the vineyard of the great householder are reckoned with a denary.

The table. (ID., ibid.) The Scripture made clear by spiritual understanding, etc., as far as which was once thought to be understood according to the letter.

(ID., ibid.) As the tables are set for a figure of Scripture, etc., as far as so the elect are contained in Scripture, and with their mind lifted up to the things above they seek and receive heavenly goods from the Lord.

VERS. 49.-- As it were of a lily. (ID., ibid.) This he seems to say, because the topmost part of the candlesticks was formed after the manner of a lily bent back

Golden lamps above. By that which is contained is designated that 599Awhich contains, that is, the golden little vessels in which the oil shone.

Tongs. (BEDA., ibid.) That is, snuffers with which the lamps were snuffed, that being trimmed they might shine the better.

VERS. 50.-- Waterpots. The waterpots mark the inward parts of the saints, filled with the water of wisdom and the wine of compunction.

Fleshhooks. The fleshhooks with which the meats are prepared are the preachers, who administer to their hearers the food of understanding: whose office it is to distribute the body and blood of Christ to believers, and to deny them to unbelievers.

Of the inner house. (ID., ibid., cap. 22.) The doors of the inner house, angelic, etc., as far as or of the charity which they have toward God.

599BVERS. 51.-- He finished all the work. (ID., ibid.) While the state of this world runs its course, he does indeed the work of the house of the Lord, but does not yet finish it, because the Lord inspires and helps the hearts of the elect that they may work good things; yet he grants that none abiding in this life is without sin. For this he reserves to the blessedness to come. But he finishes all the work of the temple of Solomon and renders it fit for dedication, when our peaceable one on the last day glorifies the elect with the immortality of the resurrection, and leads them through to the eternal kingdom. Whence the temple was built in seven years, but in the eighth it was finished and dedicated. To which in time agrees that which follows:

And he brought in the things which he had sanctified. (ID., ibid.) David the father of Solomon had sanctified the silver, when God 599Cthe Father strengthens the eloquent by the grace of his Spirit to speak the word of God. He sanctifies the gold, when he enlightens those endowed with natural talent for the understanding of the law. He sanctifies the vessels also, when he bestows the grace of the Holy Spirit upon all the sons of the Church. These sanctified things Solomon brings into the temple, when the Lord, the judgment being ended, brings the company of the teachers and of the rest of the faithful into the joy of the heavenly kingdom.

And he laid them up in the treasures of the house of the Lord. (ID., ibid.) Because he hides his gods in the hidden place of his countenance from the disturbance of men. Many are the treasures in the one house of the Lord, because in the one Church the saints differ in merits. And the heavenly country is one, although in it star differs from star in glory (II Cor. XV). Which both things the distributor of rewards showed, when he said: 599DIn my Father's house there are many mansions (Joan. XV).

VERS. 6.-- Into the holy place. (BED., lib. de Templo Salom.) The outer house of the temple designates the pilgrim Church, the holy of holies the felicity of the heavenly country above. The ark brought into the holy of holies, the assumed humanity of Christ led within the veil of the heavenly court.

Under the wings of the cherubim. (ID.) Moses made two golden cherubim, which he set upon the propitiatory that was over the ark. Solomon added two greater ones, under whose wings he is now said to have placed the ark, with the propitiatory and the two former cherubim.

600AVERS. 8.-- And when the staves stood out. (ID.) This more manifestly, etc., as far as if the staves, projecting beyond the door, did not give place to the doors that were to be drawn forward for shutting.

Who also were there. In Paralipomenon it is said: The ark hath therefore been there until this present day: which was added by the historian, signifying that it remained there down to the times of his own age, which cannot be understood of Esdras, because the temple had already been burnt, but of Nathan or some one of the prophets, by whom all the deeds of their own times are believed to have been written.

VERS. 9.-- In the ark. (RAB.) There was in the ark a golden urn having manna, etc., as far as because the citizens of the country above alone there fully contemplate the glory of the Redeemer.

600BVERS. 10.-- A cloud filled the house of the Lord, and they could not. (ID.) That is, it filled the synagogue, because the darkness of unbelief filled their minds, and the priests could not minister because of the cloud, because, while they despise to search out the mystical senses covered with the veil of the letter, and the sacraments of Christ's nativity, they lost the ministry due to their faith through the cloud of error, so that, their deserts exacting it, they do not acknowledge the worship of belief, they to whom the Lord in the cloud of his own teaching narrated even open things concerning himself. But because the darkness of unbelief had filled the minds of the hearers, an intervening cloud hid, as it were, the ray of the sun that was sent forth.

VERS. 55.-- He stood. In Paralipomenon there is related 600Cwhat is not said here: Solomon had made a brazen base, and set it in the midst of the basilica, standing upon which he blessed all the Church of Israel. [Vulg. 2 Par. 6:13 stetitque super eam, et deinceps flexis genibus contra universam multitudinem Israel, "and he stood upon it, and then, kneeling down before the whole multitude of Israel"]

And he blessed. (RAB.) The temple of the Lord, etc., as far as and by works of virtue they profit their neighbours.

VERS. 64.-- In that day. (RAB. in lib. Reg., tom. III.) What is it that Solomon built the middle of the court, offering there, etc., as far as acceptable sacrifices are daily offered spiritually to God.

The altar. That which Moses made was set before the temple over against its doors, and because it was narrow, and was not able to contain, he sanctified the middle of the court under the open sky, where he set that greatest altar which he had made of twenty cubits.

VERS. 65.-- A festival. (RAB. ubi supra.) In 600Dthe Words of the Days, etc., as far as which Josephus also attests.

(ID., ibid.) The solemnity which Solomon and all Israel made, etc., as far as which the Father hath conferred upon Christians in Christ.

From the entrance of Emath. (RAB., ibid.) By the entrance of Emath he designates the northern region of Judaea, by the river or torrent of Egypt the southern. But this river is not the Nile, but another stream which flows into the sea beside Rivocorula. And Emath is a city of Syria. It is now called Epiphania, from Antiochus Epiphanes.

VERS. 66.-- Rejoicing. Chanting hymns with delight, so that in that gladness they returned to their own homes without labour.

• 601A

VERS. 11.-- Furnishing to the king. (RAB. ubi supra.) Much gold and silver, etc., as far as because they would not bring forth the bud with fulness of fruits.

VERS. 17.-- He built. (RAB.) The cities which he is said to have built, etc., as far as that they may stand forth unconquerable to spiritual enemies.

(RAB.) The cities which Solomon built were of the remnants of the Amorrhites, which the children of Israel could not destroy, as is read in Jesus son of Nave (Jos. IX): these the king of Egypt afterwards overthrew and gave as a dowry to his daughter, the wife of Solomon, and therefore Solomon rebuilt them.

VERS. 18.-- And Palmira. An uninhabitable region, for 601Bthat nowhere was water found; but in that place where the city was built, springs abound, and the palm, which in Greek are called Palmira. It is itself Emath, or Epiphania or Antioch.

VERS. 20.-- The whole people. (RAB. ubi supra.) He who had not been of the children of Israel, our peaceable one made tributaries, together with those who are not in the number of the sons; but he uses them in a servile condition for his own service. Such men, although in many things they are opposed, yet often serve the uses of the Church, when in the present time they furnish comforts out of their own goods.

Of the children. (ID., ibid.) Those who are sons not of the bondwoman but of the free, etc., as far as and may lead them into the paths of justice.

VERS. 23.-- Fifty. (ID.) On the fiftieth 601Cday after the Pasch both the law was given on Mount Sina, and the Paraclete Spirit came upon the disciples. What therefore does this number of overseers signify, unless that they who by the grace of the Holy Ghost deserve to have knowledge of the law of the Lord, they themselves are able to rule well both themselves and others?

VERS. 25.-- He offered also. (ID.) Our peaceable one offers, etc., as far as and asks those things which are pleasing to God.

VERS. 26.-- A fleet. (ID.) The fleet is the Church, etc., as far as history, allegory, tropology, anagoge in the two Testaments.

VERS. 28--. In Ophir. (ID.) Ophir is the name of a province in India. It is named from Ophir, one of the posterity of Heber, and it is also called the golden land, because it has 601Dgolden mountains, which are inhabited by lions and most savage beasts. To which none dares to approach otherwise, save such as, standing in a ship near the shore, take into their own ship the earth which they have found dug out by the claws of the lions, so that if the beasts perceive them, they may easily be received back into the sea.

Allegorically. (ISID. in lib. Reg., tom. V.) This queen, the Church that was to come from the Gentiles, etc., as far as desiring to become a fellow-citizen in the secret place of the saints.

VERS. 4.-- And seeing. (RAB. ubi supra.) The queen, having seen Solomon and his glory, astonished at his prudence, said: True is the word, etc. So holy Church, having heard the miracles of Christ, was provoked 602Ato seek him: and when he was found by faith, the testimonies of Holy Scripture being considered, acknowledging the power of his divinity, she counts all that was told her of him beforehand to be little.

VERS. 8.-- Blessed are the men. (RAB.) The queen in her wonder broke forth into the praise of Solomon, saying: Blessed are the men. Truly blessed are they whose king is Christ, and who deserve to enjoy the eternal vision of him, and who rejoice to behold the glory which he hath with the Father and the Holy Ghost, and to perceive perpetually the wisdom which shows itself to the clean of heart.

VERS. 11.-- Wood. (ID.) Our Creator, precious woods, that is, etc., as far as and all the instruments of musicians.

VERS. 12.-- For the singers. (ID.) Whatsoever these do 602Bin word or in work, they do all unto the praise of God: they cease not to utter praise amid adversity and prosperity, in heart, in mouth and in work, whence: Upon thy walls, Hierusalem, I have set watchmen, all the day and the night they shall not cease to praise the name of the Lord (Isa. LXII). [Vulg. Isa. 62:6 tota die et tota nocte in perpetuum non tacebunt, "all the day and all the night for ever they shall not hold their peace"]

VERS. 13.-- And the king. (ID.) And our peaceable one will give to his Church all things that she asks, whence: Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. Not only what we ask, but even those things which human frailty either knows not, or presumes not to ask, he bestows by a free gift.

VERS. 16.-- Two hundred shields. (Id.) In Paralipomenon golden spears are added to the shields, because the captains keeping watch before the door of the king's house used lances and shields. Whence: seventy valiant ones surround the bed of Solomon. [Vulg. Cant. 3:7 En lectulum Salomonis sexaginta fortes ambiunt, "Behold, sixty valiant ones surround the bed of Solomon"]

602C(ID.) Keeping watch at the doors of the royal house, etc., as far as and repelling with the shield of faith the fiery darts of the most wicked one, they quench them.

VERS. 17.-- The forest of Libanus. The wood of Libanus signifies the Church of the Gentiles, which, cut off from the haughtiness of pride, is fitted into the fabric of the house of God. Whence: We have found it in the fields of the wood.

VERS. 18.-- A throne of ivory. (RAB.) A throne or seat is an imperial chair, which in the Canticles is called a carriage, for that it carries those that sit thereon, or carries them about from place to place. To which men ascended by six steps of ascent. Under the seat was a golden footstool, and the top of the throne was round, held by two 602Dhands or arms on the outside, and beside it stood two lions helping to sustain the seat.

VERS. 20.-- And twelve little lions. Because six steps of ascent were placed on either side for a support of the step of him that ascended.

(ID.) The seat of Solomon is understood to be the Church, etc., as far as they strive to fortify.

There was not made, etc. This aptly agrees with the Church, to which it is said: Many daughters have gathered together riches, thou hast surpassed them all (Prov. XXXI).

VERS. 21.-- But also all the vessels, etc. All the vessels which discharge the ministry of our peaceable one are golden, because all the souls of the saints, which are the vessels of God, that they may serve the divine will, shining with the splendour of wisdom and of love, contain the draught of life, and there is made in 603Athem a fountain of water springing up into life everlasting (Joan. IV).

Nor of any, etc. (RAB.) Because, according to the Apostle, The word of God is not in speech, but in power and in the preaching of the Gospel (I Cor. I). [Vulg. 1 Cor. 4:20 Non enim in sermone est regnum Dei, sed in virtute, "For the kingdom of God is not in speech, but in power"] It consists not in the persuasible words of human wisdom, but in the showing of the spirit and of power, that our faith may be not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

VERS. 22.-- Carrying from thence gold, etc. (ID.) What gold or silver signifies, etc., as far as he pursues warlike arms.

VERS. 26.-- And Solomon gathered together, etc. (ID.) Of these Josephus discourses. Their riders were adorned, first flourishing in comely youth, having great stature, spreading out their hair as they sat upon the horses, clad about with purple, who, being armed 603Babout the king and bearing bows, rode before him whenever he had to go forth to any place.

VERS. 1.-- And king Solomon. (RAB.) The Scripture vehemently reproves Solomon, etc., as far as his evils signify the evils of the Church.

VERS. 27.-- The gulf. The wall of the city fell, for that on one side it hung over a precipice. And when the king wished to make this gulf level with the walls, he appointed it to the captains that they should fulfil this work; but Jeroboam, who was prince of the tribe of Joseph, would not obey the king, who had before appointed him over the buildings of the bulwarks which he was making in Jerusalem, where he laboured so that the king 603Cconferred upon him the command of the soldiery over the tribe of Joseph. But being made a rebel he goes forth out of Jerusalem: whom the prophet met, turning him aside into a field, that no man might hear what he said to him. And being lifted up by the words of the prophet, he persuaded the people to make him king: Which Solomon hearing, sought to kill him.

Now Jeroboam was a valiant man. He refused this command of the restoring of the walls. But whence so great boldness? Because the king had appointed him governor.

Take thee ten pieces. (RAB.) Ten tribes were separated from the house of David, etc., as far as because there is one God, one faith, one baptism. [Vulg. Eph. 4:5 Unus Dominus, una fides, unum baptisma, "One Lord, one faith, one baptism"]

VERS. 42.-- Now the days. Josephus said that he reigned eighty years, and lived ninety-four. But divine Scripture expresses only those years in which 603Dhe reigned before he transgressed.

VERS. 1-4.-- And Roboam came. A most hard yoke. How is this true, since it was said above that Solomon appointed none of the children of Israel to serve? Assuredly he did not make them serve in husbandry or in any other servile work. But he appointed princes out of them over the several tribes, who rendered to the king by vides the provision month by month, etc., which things are related above concerning the king's expense, which they now call a most hard yoke.

VERS. 8.-- The young men. Of whom Aduram was one, who was afterwards stoned. Scripture does not always name young men according to age, but according to the instability 604Aof mind. For Roboam began to reign in the fortieth year of his age.

VERS. 11.-- With scorpions. It is a kind of scourge, even as knotted rods are wont to be made of thorns or of orchard trees. Or also the scourge of the Saracens with two or three rods, which has at the top leaden balls, otherwise hailstones.

VERS. 23.-- To Roboam. (RAB.) Roboam was of the house of David, etc., as far as and whose princes eat in due season.

VERS. 28.-- He made two calves of gold. Why Jeroboam made a calf, or how, Josephus sufficiently sets forth.

VERS. 1.-- Behold a man of God. Whose name is here kept silent, in 604BParalipomenon he is called or named Gaddo. He is that Gad who admonished David to go into the land of Juda. (RAB.) A prophet sent by God, etc., as far as pardon might be granted to the penitent.

VERS. 11.-- A prophet. This false prophet was chief of the priests, and was greatly honoured by the king as one divine; but fearing lest through the word of the man of God the king should withdraw from the worship of idols, and should kill him as a malefactor, he devised how he might deceive the man of God, acting cunningly enough, that while he transgressed the precept of God he might incur his anger, as afterwards he did, when he believed a man rather than God. And through this the things which he had foretold might be shown to be false, and so they might be able to persuade the king, as he did. But the king, hearing the event, thought void the things which the man of God had said, and 604Cdid not turn aside from his evil way.

All the works, etc. (GREG.) In the deeds of the prophet marvellous things go before, wretched things follow after: in which matter what do we gather? unless that, having gloried within himself because of the great works, he was straightway shaken from his inward solidity, and thence a fault crept upon him in his work, whence glory had crept upon him in his heart, so that, deceived, he might learn from a false prophet that what had happened before was in no wise of his own strength.

VERS. 21.-- Thus saith the Lord. (ID.) And rightly did he receive the sentence of death by the mouth of him by whose leading back he strayed from the precepts of life, that from thence he might truly take his punishment, whence he had negligently admitted his fault.

VERS. 24.-- And the lion stood, etc. (RAB.) Here it is shown, 604Dthat the sin of disobedience was loosed in death itself, because this same lion, which presumed to kill him living, dared not touch him slain. For he that had the power of killing received not licence to eat of the corpse of the slain, because he whose fault had been punished in life was now just by death.

VERS. 31.-- Bury me, etc. The evil prophet, knowing that the things which the man of God had foretold would come to pass, commanded that he should be buried beside the man of God, lest at any time his bones should be dug up to be burnt, but should be preserved, through the holy prophet, as the same book testifies below to have been fulfilled.

• 605A

VERS. 25.-- Sesac came up, etc. There followed the king of Egypt a thousand and two hundred chariots, sixty thousand horsemen, and forty thousand footmen, of whom Libya and the Ethiopians had very many. And so, invading the region of the Hebrews, he held the strongest cities without a battle, etc.

VERS. 6.-- Yet there was war between Abia and Jeroboam all, etc. [Vulg. III Reg. 15:6 has inter Roboam et Jeroboam omni tempore vitae ejus, "between Roboam and Jeroboam all the time of his life"] Jeroboam, having gathered a great army, pitched his camp against Abia the son of Roboam, who succeeded his father in two tribes. Which when Abia had heard, he was astonished; but being strengthened, with a chosen army he met Jeroboam in the place which is called 605Bthe Mount of the Amorrhites. And when he had made a speech to the army of Jeroboam, at last he said: Wherein are you confident of victory? Is it in golden calves and altars, which are the tokens of your impiety and not of religion? Or hath the multitude afforded you hope? But there is no strength there, where (though with many thousands) though one fights unjustly. For only in justice and piety does the hope of victory consist, which is assuredly with us, keeping the laws from the beginning and worshipping the true God, etc. But God dissolved the boldness of Jeroboam's army; and made the army of Abia the higher. For, so great a slaughter as is related to have been committed in no war, neither of the Greeks nor of the Barbarians, they obtained a marvellous victory, God conferring it. For five hundred thousand of the enemy were laid low 605Cin the battle, etc.

VERS. 1.-- And the word was made, etc. Mention of this prophet is made in no other place, but he is brought in suddenly like the others, whence Abdias is said to have fed a hundred prophets in caves. And Elias saith: They have slain thy prophets. And the sons of the prophets are read to have met Eliseus, of whom no other mention is made, no special naming.

VERS. 3.-- Behold. (RAB. in lib. Reg., tom. III.) The Lord cuts down the posterity of this man or of any wicked man whatsoever, when he avenges his sins after the end of his life. He cuts down also the posterity of his house, when he condemns the imitator to eternal torments. Whosoever therefore perseveres in depraved works even to the end of his life, his posterity 605Dshall be cut down.

VERS. 4.-- He that shall die. (ID.) Of Baasa, that is, of the body of the devil most full of confusion, etc., as far as they hurry away with them to eternal destruction.

VERS. 6.-- In Thersa reign. (RAB.) Six years he spent in Thersa, but the rest in the city which is called Semeron, but by the Greeks Samaria. He named it Semeron from Semer its former lord, and it is the metropolis of the kingdom, and afterwards the whole region is called Samaria from him, which is now called Sebaste, where the bones of blessed John the Baptist rest.

VERS. 34.-- Hiel built. (RAB.) Hiel, living to God; Bethel, the house of God is interpreted, he restored the walls of Jericho, destroyed by 606AJosue and laid under anathema. When any one of those who in the Church had taken up the habit of religion returns to the doing of the crimes which the Lord Jesus had forgiven him on the day of his baptism, and by living luxuriously seeks again the pomps of the devil which he himself had anathematized, and when he prefers the doctrines of errors or the fables of the Gentiles to the ecclesiastical truth wherewith he was imbued, going forth as it were from Bethel, he raises up again the ruins of Jericho. He loses both the foundations of faith from which he had begun good buildings, and the enclosures of good action by which he ought to have been perfected.

In Abiram. (ID.) When the founder of Jericho was laying the foundations, his firstborn, Abiram by name, died. When he was fortifying the gates, he lost Segub his youngest son, according to the imprecation 606Bof Josue.

VERS. 1.-- And he said. (RAB.) Elias is interpreted My God the Lord, or My God, or Strong God, and signifies Christ. Thesbites is interpreted taking captive or converting: and of the Lord it is written: Turn, O Lord, our captivity. As with Melchisedech, so let the origin of Elias be kept silent, since his name is brought in suddenly, and this in prefiguration of the Saviour.

In whose sight. (ID.) The just man stands in the sight of the Lord now, and shall stand also in time to come, now, that he may bring back the power of his Creator to his mind, and so live faithfully, in time to come, that he may truly receive the crown of life.

606CVERS. 3.-- Hide thyself. (RAB.) Our Elias was hidden etc., as far as and the obedience which was shown to the Lord by the faithful of the Jews.

By the torrent of Carith. The torrent Cyson, which is also called Carith, is interpreted knowledge or cutting off or division, agrees with the Jewish people.

VERS. 10.-- A woman. (ISID.) The widow whom the Lord feeds not with the bread of wheat but of the word is she who, her husband being dead, may marry whom she will, that is, having shaken off the yoke of servitude, takes upon her the sweet yoke of Christ, and the light burden.

(RAB.) This widow signifies the Church of the Gentiles, etc., as far as it is said not to have failed.

(ID.) The widow with whom Elias lodged, and whose meal and oil he blessed, is the synagogue of the Jews, 606Dwhich, widowed by the death of Moses, was nourishing a little son, that is, the carnal people of the Jews. He, at the coming in of Elias, that is, of our Saviour, was sick of the fever of unbelief, because he believed not in him, but despised him. Whence the mother Synagogue complains of the coming of the Saviour, as though he himself were the cause of the slaying of the people, saying: What have I to do with thee, etc. Hence it is that Caiphas saith: It is expedient for you that one die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not (Joan. XI).

(ID.) As the prophet was not exasperated by the words of the widow, but rather had compassion, so our Redeemer is not exasperated by the malice of the Jews, but having compassion on his people took him from his mother's bosom, when he took him 607Afrom the carnal observance of the law, and laid him upon his own bed, that is, showed him that he had life in his death, and stretched himself three times, while he instilled the faith of the Trinity.

VERS. 19.-- And Elias took the child. (RAB.) Elias took the boy and restored him to his mother, when our Lord, saving the believing people, showed signs and miracles to the unbelieving, that they might know that he truly lives who believes in his name, and so it shall come to pass that the Jewish people, overcome by the truth, shall cry out to Christ - Now in this I know that thou art a man of God.

VERS. 3.-- And Abdias. Abdias, prince of the army of Israel, whose name is interpreted the servant of the Lord, 607Bprefigured those who of the princes of the Jews believed, and were secret disciples, as Nicodemus and Joseph.

VERS. 30.-- He repaired the altar. (RAB.) And our Redeemer, contending against the prince of the world and his satellites and overcoming them, purging the altar of the Lord which had been destroyed, that is, the hearts of the faithful, from the stain of iniquity, dedicates an altar to God, which is recorded to have been built of twelve stones, because out of those who follow the prophetic and apostolic faith or doctrine a most acceptable altar is built to God, in which the sacrifice of praise is offered for an odour of sweetness.

VERS. 32.-- And he made a trench. (ID.) Namely, out of a contrite and humbled heart, etc., as far as we may sing rejoicing for ever: The Lord he is God.

607CVERS. 40.-- Take the prophets of Baal. (RAB.) So our Redeemer, when the day of judgment comes, will send his angels and they shall gather all scandals out of his kingdom and shall cast them into the pool of fire, where they shall be tormented according to their hardness and impenitent heart.

VERS. 41.-- Of a great rain. (ISID.) When Christ the Son of God was born among men and took the tenderness of our flesh, after he had tasted death, and as conqueror ascended from the world to the heavens, he sent from on high to the earth the shower of divine grace through the sevenfold Spirit, which should cleanse us from sin, and make us bring forth spiritual fruits.

(RAB.) In the virtues of Elias, who was strong by the power of God, in his infirmities he acknowledged what he was able of himself. 607DThere he showed what he had received, here he guarded what he had received. In miracles he was displayed, in infirmities he was preserved.

VERS. 3.-- Elias therefore was afraid, and rising up he went away, etc. (RAB.) Holy men, the spirit lifting them up, are caught away to the highest things: but so long as they are in this life, lest they be proud, they are held down by temptations. Hence it is that Elias, when he had gone forward with so many virtues, afterwards fled from Jezabel, a queen indeed, yet a mere woman: and he who raised the dead, foresaw things to come, did other glorious things also, struck with fear, flees death from the hand of a woman, seeks death from the hand of God, and receives it not.

608AVERS. 5.-- And behold an angel of the Lord touched him. (RAB.) The angel who fed Elias signifies the angel of great counsel; by whose work we subsist both in bodily and in spiritual nature.

VERS. 6.-- And behold at his head, etc. (ID.) Elias twice fed expresses the infirmity of our nature, for whom a single feeding does not suffice, but a double, that we may be able to ascend to things above. For as the body cannot subsist without bodily food, so neither can the soul live without the word of God.

(ID.) So we also, when we shake off from us the sleep of sloth, must needs, being strengthened by divine comfort, hasten with all our might, by the step of good works, through all the time of the present life, to ascend into the mountain of God and into his holy place, that there we may find 608Beternal rest.

VERS. 11.-- And a wind. (ID.) A wind before the Lord overthrows mountains and breaks rocks in pieces, etc., as far as to begin to go forth to the knowledge of the truth.

Not in the wind. That is, think not that the Lord comes with the wind, but after the wind of commotion, that is, the whirlwind and the rush of the wind, fire shall pass by, then a whistling of a thin air, after this the Lord shall pass by, that he may speak with thee.

VERS. 14.-- I only, etc. (RAB.) What was hard for so great a prophet to know, that servants had remained to God in this world? But he who, being humble, had known even the hidden things of God, being lifted up knew not even the open things. Whence it is certain that he enlightens himself with a ray of humility who subtly weighs the good things of others: because while 608Che beholds outwardly, and in others, the things which he himself has done, he presses down that swelling of pride which strives to break forth within out of singularity. Hence it is that by the voice of God it is said to Elias, who reckoned himself alone. I have left me seven thousand men, [Vulg. III Reg. 19:18 Et derelinquam mihi in Israel septem millia virorum, "And I will leave me seven thousand men in Israel"] that while he knew that not he alone had remained, he might bow down the glory of elation which was rising in him out of singularity.

(RAB.) Not otherwise, save that he foretold that he should be king. Eliseus not otherwise than by casting his mantle upon him. Those two kings neither he himself in person, nor Eliseus his disciple, anointed, but a certain one of the prophets was sent to anoint Jehu.

VERS. 17.-- Whosoever. (ID.) The guilty, divine justice makes some to be punished by kings with the sword, others it pierces through by prophets and priests with the sword of the tongue.

608DVERS. 19.-- He departed. When our Redeemer, coming down from heaven, by the divine judgment acquired a people still gaping after earthly works, in whom he wrought salvation, when he converted him to the faith. For Elias is interpreted the Lord God, Saphat judging, Eliseus the salvation of my God. Upon whom the prophet cast his mantle, when the Lord clothed the people with the catholic faith. Whence the Apostle: You who are baptized in Christ, have put on Christ (Gal. III). Leaving the oxen he ran after Elias: because the choir of the elect, having heard, unless a man renounce all things, he cannot be my disciple (Luc. XIV), straightway ceased to gape after earthly gains, to serve secular desires, and so preached the word of life 609Ato others, for this is to kiss father and mother, to will to correct by speech whomsoever one can, whether of the Jews or of the Gentiles.

(RAB.) The Christian people also, slaying carnal desires, turns its whole army into the work of evangelizing, whence it may be able to furnish sufficient food to its helpers.

VERS. 21.-- He followed. (ID.) He follows our Elias and ministers to him who, following his footsteps, that is, keeping his commandments, busies himself to render worthily ministry and honour.

(RAB.) Benadad signifies the devil, who draws together divers armies of malignant spirits for the overthrowing 609Bof the people of God, but is overcome by the servants of the princes of Israel, that is, by the good hearers of teachers, because what they hear with their ears they fulfil in deeds. The ancient enemy is turned to flight, and all his army is thrown into confusion by the soldiers of Christ, who are well said to be two hundred thousand and thirty-two, because they who perfectly hold the knowledge of both Testaments, and keep the faith of the Trinity with a twofold charity, these are approved to be fit for the warfare of the highest king.

VERS. 10.-- These things may the gods do to me. Samaria, by the death [morte; read more, "after the manner"] of cities, had ground within almost level with the walls themselves, by which support it might withstand outside the strokes of the ram, and the height of the walls had far overtopped the surface of the ground. The proud king therefore said, terrifying the besieged, that he had so great a multitude that, if each 609Cone of the soldiers had brought one stone or stake or turf to build a mound against the city, a mound would rise up which would seem to be level with the surface that was within the walls, so that fighting on equal ground they might cast darts and firebrands against the city.

Let not the girded man glory. (RAB.) He is girded who is encompassed with a girdle, ungirded who has laid the girdle aside. The king of Israel therefore said to the king of Syria, glorying as though he had already taken Samaria which he had begun to besiege: Let not the girded man glory equally as the ungirded. As if he should say: Glory not as a conqueror, thou who, still set in the line of battle, knowest not whom victory will follow: since he who believed that he should conquer, was conquered.

VERS. 20.-- And he fled. (RAB.) That is, the devil, the prince of the wicked, whose eyes are lofty. 609DFor Syria the lofty, trusting in the horse of its pride, with horsemen, namely, all proud ones, because he himself is the head over all the children of pride, being overcome by the army of Christ is turned to flight, and the king of Israel strikes the horses and chariots, etc., because the King of kings overwhelms the spiritual wickednesses by blotting out the sins of the human race.

(ID.) The devil, although he is often overcome by the saints, yet 610Aagain renews the battle against them, and while he is overcome in one way, straightway he strives to conquer in another

(ID.) The malignant spirits, if they are overcome in spiritual things, prepare war in bodily things, busying themselves to cast souls headlong from the things above to the lowest, that they may the more easily conquer. If they see them desire heavenly things, they thrust earthly things upon them to be loved. If, prosperity being granted, thanks shall be rendered to God, they strive that they may be broken by adversities. But as the Syrians, so the demons, where they trusted to overcome, there were overcome.

VERS. 38.-- He went therefore. Micheas used a parable because of the words which he was about to say to the king, that he might show that this pertained rather to him than to himself.

VERS. 39.-- Thy life shall be for his life. It must be provided for by the servants of God that they flatter not themselves after the example of Achab with a pernicious 610Bsecurity, so long as the enemy lives, lest, while they reckon themselves as it were conquerors, they be the more quickly dashed down through the fraud of the devil promising peace: because as then the prophet declared to the king that vengeance would be at hand for his inconsiderate pity, so now the prophetic word declares that, if we make a covenant with the devil, eternal punishment hangs over us thereby.

VERS. 43.-- And in a rage. Achab, being angry, commanded the prophet to be kept shut up, and confounded by the words of Micheas returned home.

After the words, etc. (RAB.) Naboth. He is interpreted conspicuous, etc., as far as but flowed away through vain desires.

• 610C

VERS. 17.-- I saw all Israel dispersed, etc. And by these things he shows that his depravity was the cause of the slaughter. For if it had had a good and pious shepherd, it would have overcome the enemies by force. Then he shows also the manner of obtaining salvation. If the Lord is, saith he to them, for God, let every one return to his own place in peace. If you believe in God, and wish to know from him what is to be done, dismiss the army.

VERS. 19.-- I saw the Lord, etc. (RAB.) The throne of the Lord, the angelic powers, over whose minds God presiding disposes all things below. The army of heaven, the multitude of ministering angels: the right hand part of the angels the elect, the left hand part the reprobate. For God is shut in neither by the right hand nor by the left: who 610Dis so within all things that he is also without. But how are the evil of the army of heaven? Because although driven from the ethereal heaven, they yet still tarry in the airy heaven; whence Paul: Against the spirits of wickedness in the high places (Ephes. VI). The whole army stands by God, because both the will of the elect spirits serves [deseruit; read deservit, "serves"] the divine power, and the sense of the reprobate, serving its own malice, obeys the judgment of the Almighty.